Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Five

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"perhaps this is something we should discuss with the telepaths on board, if any wish to volunteer or... have any suggestions for ways to reduce the risk?" Armin suggested, he cuddled Luna just a bit closer.

Luka was about, she'd finished the work she had to do on the Devil now and was feeling a bit uneasy about the whole demon situation.
So she went for a jog to clear her head.

---

Ivor was about, with Silence at his side. He didn't want to be alone after the demon scare, whatever he'd seen or heard in Esk's head had spooked him quite thoroughly.

---

Swarm coalesced near James. ---are--- ---you--- ---alright?--- they asked.
They'd been laying low, just watching things unfold for a while now.

---

Matt woke up, sent a letter to Lana, showered, got a letter back from Lana and burst into a huge grin. AHAH! that's why Unity station was familiar!

He found a replacement crutch, he only really needed one these days, hauled himself up and went looking for people, food, drink.. whatever while he waited for further news on Esk.
He was distracting himself.

But at least all this had made him stop moping about himself so.. progress?

----

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:[You're right. I'll talk to Mourn.] He was after all the one who knew the most about tech stuff wasn't he? him or Shane, maybe Rigel... Actually Shane was less difficult to deal with than Mourn so maybe he'd ask Shane first.

---

Armin bowed his head. "You flatter me Miss Starr. I am most humbled." He looked at her, understanding exactly what it was she was asking. He nodded. "I can show you, though it may be a little... unusual from your perspective." He laughed lightly. Discussion about Vavare mating habits was something he wasn't so awkward talking about. But perhaps it was better to take things slow, for her sake. Interspecies relationships were always a little strange for everyone involved, even if Starr could take Vavare form.
"Whatever you desire Miss Starr." He bowed his head again. She was the female, she dictated this.

Danika grinned and nodded [Moone missed Mourn while you were all gone. She wanted to get a pet cat for a while.]

~~~
Starr smiled and dipped her head then looked back to him again. "I have never been on a real date before." She admitted softly.

James slowed his pace toward the medical room, smiling at Swarm. "Oh hey guys. I'm uh, relatively okay," he waved his hand in a 'so-so' gesture. There wasn't much use lying to Swarm, for all he knew, they might have been listening in on him and Ethan.

~~
Matt might go by where Ellie was reading. She'd look up at him curiously. "Oh hey, what's up?" He looked like he had something on his mind. And like he might not be miserable right now! Whoo.

~~
Tala got the story about what had happened to Esk from Vestia as she walked, and would go looking for Dawn. She wanted to talk to her about this, it couldn't be easy on her to have killed Esk twice.

Swarm bobbed up and down and kept pace with James. ---did--- ---what--- --had--- ---to--- ---be--- ---done---

-----

(is ellie still wearing tinfoil hats? lol)

Matt waved to Ellie with his free hand. "So.. I finally worked out why I know Unity Station."

---

Armin nodded. "neither have I." He admitted.

James nodded. "Yeah... it was necessary. It's still awful to drown someone though. I seriously don't recommend it." He was trying to keep a light tone in his voice though.

~~
(Yessss! She's totally rocking her new favorite tinfoil tricorn hat, haha)

Ellie tucked her tablet away and got up. "Ooh, why do you know it?" she asked. "Did you visit there once after all?"

---worse--- ---to--- ---be--- ---puppet--- ---slave--- they pointed out. And surely the androids understood that.

----

"That is a damn cool hat." Matt observed, coming over to sit down and take the weight off his feet. "Well... yeah.. kinda? It's where I was born!" He grinned at her.

James flinched. "I know. That's why I did it." He sighed. "Did you watch?"

~~
Ellie smiled. "Thanks. I'm bringing back pirate fashion." She went to sit down again as well. "Wait, you were BORN at Unity? That's so cool!" She grinned. "Maybe you'll meet people who knew you when you were a baby!"

Starr smiled, they could learn together.

~~
Dawn was studying in her 'office' space.

Tala knocked on the door. "Dawn? It is I," she declared.

"Come in" Dawn called, glad to hear her voice

Tala went in, sniffing the air curiously. She still wasn't over the relief of having her sense of smell back. "For what do you study?" she asked, Dawn had already passed her test to be a doctor, she was pretty sure.

Matt nodded. "Lana mentioned two of them at least. Doctor Webster who apparently is scary." He laughed. "and Professor Cobin. I can't remember either of them though..." Which was a shame. He had been so young when they'd left Unity, he only had very dim memories of the station.

---

Swarm bobbed up and down in a nod. ---we--- ---are--- ---always--- ---watching---

Ominous.

----

Armin bowed his head, Starr couldn't see his smile after all. "Do your people have particular customs when it comes to such things?" He asked curiously.

"You can ask them to tell you stories, maybe you'll learn cool stuff about your family!" Ellie said. She thought this was thrilling. "But wait, you talked to Lana? What's she like?"

~~
"Hello, Big Brother," James said, trying for humor. He was trying not to be hopelessly depressed right now, okay? "Man, so do you guys split up and follow all the crew members around?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah, sent her a letter and she sent one back. I dunno, it's hard to tell from messages.. she seems cool. " he shrugged. He had no idea. "It's still kinda wierd to think I have like.. a ten year old daughter you know? It's messing with my head a bit."

---

Swarm chittered. ---we--- ---do--- ---not--- they replied. They didn't understand his reference though. ---we--- ---settle--- ---and--- ---explore--- ---and--- ---if--- ---something--- ---happens--- ---we--- ---tell--- ---others--- ---and--- ---watch--- they tried to explain. They weren't shadowing people as such, just scattered across the ship in high traffic areas, which meant inevitably one of them would notice something interesting to watch.
---don't--- ---catch--- ---everything--- ---but--- ---brig--- ---hard--- ---to--- ---ignore---

"Did she tell you about herself? I'm so curious about her, oh my gosh," Ellie said. She shook her head, "Yeah, that's gotta be crazy for you. But... hopefully kind of awesome?" Ellie thought skipping the diaper changing part had to be a plus at least.

~~
"Yeah, I guess when everyone's been hanging around there and worrying for the past couple days, you know that's a good place to keep an eye on," James said. "There sure are a lot of people around this ship these days, I can see why you might decide not to follow them all."
They reached the android med bay, and James headed in, holding the door for Swarm.

Swarm explored the android med bay. ---also--- ---can't--- ---open--- ---doors--- they told James, which rather limited their ability to spy. They could only easily get into rooms without closed doors or go through the vents.

---

"uh..." Matt frowned. "Not... a lot?" Damn.. whoops? "but but.. I've gotta write her back so I can ask more questions right?" He was bad at this, it was just super awkward to commuicate via letter.

The med bay was much smaller than the ones for organics, and the shelves were stocked with user manuals, metal parts, synthetic skin, and glues.
There were posters of famous robotic characters on the walls.
Someone had even brought in some reading material for visitors, some of which looked to be printouts. Possibly magazines and books from the new decade, downloaded off the internet.

One of the androids, Ivan, was behind the desk, looking at something on a computer. He looked up, frowning at the sight of james and then waving to him and Swarm.

"I guess squeezing under doors would be not fun and also potentially dangerous," James told Swarm with a nod of agreement. "Hey man!" he said to Ivan, "I could use some help fixing myself up."

"Sure thing," Ivan said. He got up and ambled over. "Nice to see you Swarm, I haven't seen you, well, a large number of you anyway, in a while." He smiled.

~~
"Yeah! You can ask her lots of questions," Ellie agreed. "Wait, did you tell her about us?" She was curious what the kid knew about her extended family on Vestia, too.

Swarm bobbed up and down. ---hello---

----

Matt nodded. "of course, and your hats!" Matt tapped Ellie's hat. "I'll have to tell her about this one too."

Ivan smiled at Swarm again, then started asking James questions about how he'd been damaged. James didn't think it was likely to be too bad, at least, just some sensors to be replaced that had been crushed. No problem.

The two androids would get to work on that.

It'd take a while, but probably they'd manage to get James fixed up and all his skin glued back on before too long. Having an extra pair of hands helped.

~~
Ellie smiled. "Oh good, I'm glad she knows about the hats. Does she know about how cool Vestia is? I mean she probably hasn't seen a ranch before, much less an indoor one!"

Swarm watched all this in facination. Androids could get weirdly secretive about getting repaired and they were curious about the damage. They knew humanoids could be remarkably strong when they wanted to be but still, to take on an android like that?

---

"oh man, I totally didn't tell her about the ranch! Hey! I got an idea! Let's go take photos of stuff and send her a bunch of pictures yeah?" Matt suggested. He was doing a pretty good job of pretending to be fine.

James didn't mind Swarm watching, he wasn't anywhere near as secretive as some androids were. Especially not around Swarm, who had seen him naked before on at least one occasion... Yeah.

So he let Swarm watch, and probably offered helpful explanations to any questions Swarm asked.

Finally he was fully repaired and the glue was dried, and he could put back on whatever clothes he'd had to take off. Yay.

"Have fun?" he asked Swarm, in a good imitation of his normal cheerfulness.

~~
"Oh yeah! That'd be fun. Man, we can send her pictures of ALL the cool places, and then she'll be so hyped to move to Vestia," Ellie said. She didn't notice that Matt was faking his fine-ness, she was pretty convinced by it. "Five more days til we get there. Man, it seems like ages."

---fun?--- they chittered in what might be an appoximation of a laugh. ---always---- ---facinating.----

---

"yeah.." Shit, five days, that didn't feel like nearly enough time. He looked momentarily alarmed, then nodded. "yeah, let's go take photos." He paused. "Where's Shane?"

"I'm a fascinating, fun guy," James agreed. "Handsome and talented, fighter of minotaurs and the unsung hero of the med bay." Okay, maybe he was exaggerating on some of those. Oh well. "Thanks Ivan," he added.

Ivan nodded. "No problem, see you around."

James headed out of the medical facility, holding the door for Swarm again.

~~
"You okay Matt?" Ellie asked, noticing his expression this time. "I'm not sure where Shane is, I haven't seen him in a while," she added.

"A while?" Matt asked, he didn't answer her first question. "Damn, we should find him. Maybe we'll find him while we wander around taking pictures?"

---

Swarm followed James happily.

"Yeah, let's go look for Shane," Ellie said. She frowned at how Matt didn't answer the question though. She knew he hated ever talking about his problems, so she could guess that he wasn't okay. "And take pictures along the way," she added.

~~
James headed off with Swarm, not really sure where he was headed actually. "I wonder if Kay actually told Asher what happened yet," he mused out loud. He could imagine Kay just procrastinating on that, hmm. The guy had been justifiably stressed lately.

"Good plan." Matt hoisted himself up awkwardly onto his single crutch, grunting a bit with the effort. His back still twinged every so often when he twisted wrong. It was annoying.

"We'll need a tablet or something."

---

Swarm followed along. ---maybe--- ---ask?--- they suggested ---in--- ---his--- ---room--- ---last--- ---we--- ---saw---

Ellie frowned. "Do you need a wheelchair?" Damn, he looked awful actually, she hadn't really noticed earlier. "You look really tired." Nope, she hadn't heard the news about what had happened with Esk yet, somehow.

~~
"Yeah, I guess I should do that," James decided. "I don't want my poor bro to be freaking out thinking Kay's still in a coma or something." He'd change directions and head for Kay's room.