Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

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Ellie frowned a little at the question. "Yeah, I've talked to them. They're glad to know I'm okay. It's so strange how much older they are now, though." In the photos she'd seen, they both had a lot of gray hairs she didn't remember from before.

~~
Ethan looked amused. "The library's always open. You can stop by any time you want, as long as you don't get sugar on the books."

Moriah smiled slightly at Ivor. After a few moments she asked, "When Jarral mentioned shifters, did you know what he was talking about?"

Ivor frowned. "Sister is a shifter... i'm half shifter... But.. I don't know... " He shook his head. Jarral's mind was weird, even when he got glimpses it was so alien.

Moriah nodded. "All right," she said. "Let's go drop off these cards I guess." No need to push the subject, she thought.

Ivor nodded, looking down at the cards. Still safe, still accounted for. Good.
He looked around, getting his bearings again and continued to lead the way to the games room, which wasn't far.

Moriah walked beside Ivor. "I wish there was a way to help Swarm," she mused. "It just seems so wrong for them to fade away."

Kooshie wrote:Ellie smiled at Armin and Luna. "I gotta finish my breakfast, I'll come visit when I'm done." She added to Luna, "You were totally winning, I could barely hold onto the napkin."

Tala's ears wiggled.

~~
"Yeah, he had some breakfast earlier," James said, remembering the tray of food he'd seen Esk picking at, "I don't think he ate a lot though, so you could probably bother him about it some more."

Luna chirped happily at Luna then settled into Armin's hands for the ride to the park. She loved being carried by him, he was sooo tall.
~~~
"You are good with the kids too." Starr said to Ellie with a smile.
~~~
Dawn nodded "Thanks, I will." She said and headed to get food for them.

Ellie smiled at Starr. "Thanks!" she continued to eat her toast. She looked up, "Oh yeah! Tala! Rigel! Starr and Armin are dating! Isn't that cute?!"

Tala blinked. "You are?" she asked Starr.

~~
James waved to Dawn as she headed off, then sighed softly.
Esk had mentioned wondering how Matt was doing. Maybe he'd better go check in on Matt next.

Rigel smiled as Starr dipped her head again at the reveal before nodding. "That's nice." He said simply.

~~~
Dawn went to grab some food quickly, hoping not to get drawn into any group discussions along the way. She wanted to come bearing his favorite foods and some drawing paper.

Armin headed to the park with Luna to play.

---

Ivor frowned a little. "But h.. how?" He asked.


----

Matt was chatting with the cleaning bots, because he was weird like that.

---

Tala wiggled her ears, she found the sheer unusualness of the relationship sort of amusing, okay? "Congratulations, I hope it works well for both of you." Encouragingly she added, "He smells better than most males I have met. You are most fortunate in that regard."

Ellie didn't notice Dawn come in, she was kind of distracted. So Dawn could probably get food without being dragged into the conversation.

~~
"I don't know," Moriah told Ivor with a sad smile. "If I knew how to help Swarm, I wouldn't be wishing for an answer, I'd be trying to help them."

~~
James found Matt and his cleaning bots.
He smiled a little at the sight of the man talking to the robots, it was kinda cute.
"Hey man, mind if I join you?" he asked after a few moments of amused watching.

Ivor nodded slowly. "Maybe it's for the best.." He mused quietly. "Nothing should live forever..." Immortality struck him as a terrible idea frankly. Mortality was scary sure, but it was how it should be.

---

Matt glanced up from his seat. "Oh.. hey James." He seemed a little subdued, not depressed, just subdued. "Everything okay?" He straightened a hat on one of the bots and sent it on its way.

"You might be right," Moriah said. She sighed. "I just keep thinking of them as a species I guess, and when it's a species that's disappearing, well, that seems different." It was going to be so lonely for the last few, she thought.

~~
James wandered over, the moment of amusement fading back to seriousness. "Yeah, things are okay. I mean, there's no new bad news anyway," he told Matt. He hesitated and then asked, "How about you?"

Ivor frowned. "Aren't there more of them out there somewhere?" He wasn't sure, Swarm made his head hurt so he sort of avoided them.

---

Matt nodded. "no bad news is good." He shook his head. "but I suppose that means no good news either huh?" He shrugged "I'm okay. Lana sent me some photos of the space station which was cool. " No pictures of herself though, huh, go figure. "You okay?"

Moriah nodded. "True. But our Swarm is different. The others are unified, I've heard. They don't all think for themselves the way ours does."

~~
"Yeah, not really any good news either," James said, "Well, there is actually a bit of good news. Esk insisted on going for a walk this morning, so clearly he's still his stubborn self."
He shrugged, "I'm doing okay. I mean, not great obviously, but... okay."

Dawn grabbed what she knew Esk liked and a plate of stuff for her, nodding to any greetings from the group before heading out to find paper then go to where Esk was.

~~~
Starr chuckled softly and nodded "The heart can choose strangely sometimes, but it is good." Strange wasn't always bad She was happy with the way it was anyway.

"Indeed," Tala said. "One can choose the mate who is most convenient and expected of them, or one can choose the mate who is right for them. It seems you have chosen the latter, and that is as it should be." She had made a similar decision herself many years ago, she approved.

"Being a shapeshifter is gonna be super useful," Ellie mused.

Esk was still with Tori, though he'd lapsed into silence, just staring out the window at space as it passed.

---

Ivor nodded as they reached the games room and he carefully returned the cards to their space. "I'm not sure I really understand." He admitted.

----

Matt managed a weak smile. "Well at least he's still being difficult, that's something right?" His smile faltered though, he was worried about his brother and still pretty spooked by what had happened. "I'm sorry man."

"I don't know much about it either, just what I've heard the crew say," Moriah said. "Apparently our Swarm is pretty unique."

~~
James nodded. Any sign Esk was still himself was a good thing.
"I'm sorry too. This has to suck so much for you, on so many levels." He sighed. He should tell Matt what Esk had said, but he was still figuring out how to say it.

"They are loud." Ivor said, making sure nothing else was out of place on the shelf. "so many thoughts... "

---

Matt shrugged. "This is pretty much what life in my family is like though. Always someone to worry about right? " He sighed, it still sucked.

"They must be confusing to hear," Moriah said. "I admit, I think I'm glad I can't hear telepathy sometimes." She smiled.

~~
"Doesn't make it any easier," James replied, watching Matt. He shook his head, "Esk wanted me to tell you... the demon attacked you on purpose. She did it to punish him."

Ivor nodded "It must be... nice."

---

Matt flinched. "Yeah.." He looked away. "I figured as such. He'd... he'd never do that himself. He's only ever killed people who deserved it." Or so he told himself anyway.

"Yeah. Well, I can't know for sure." Moriah said. "I mean, I could be missing out on a lot. It's weird when the telepaths do that thing where they're looking at each other, and you know they're probably saying something but you can't hear." It could be an isolating feeling sometimes.

~~
James nodded. "Using his power on you guys... that's something he wanted to prevent at all costs." He didn't think it was violating Esk's privacy to say that much, at least. "I mean the demon did a lot of shitty things while she was in control, but that was pretty low even by her standards."

Ivor frowned. Okay, he had to admit, she had a point. Without telepathy he wouldn't be able to easily communicate with his half sister for instance, but without telepathy he also wouldn't hear constant voices and be so clueless about how to react around people who's thoughts he couldn't read.

"m.. maybe.." He conceeded nervously.

---

Matt rubbed his wrist, it was healing and the wound wasn't that deep anyway, but he still didn't like thinking about it. He nodded slowly. "Esk is... not really a bad person. He always tries to keep everyone safe." He couldn't imagine how awful he must feel right now. "What did it want anyway? Why torture him like that?"

Moriah shrugged. "It's just a thought. I know your telepathy is a lot more overwhelming than most people's though, so it's certainly not always a good thing." She didn't want to imply that Ivor was somehow lucky, not when he clearly struggled a lot with his overly sensitive telepathic hearing.

~~
James nodded in agreement, Esk was a lot better of a person than he liked to let on, that was for sure.
"The demon was using Esk to try to find Hytar. Apparently Hytar is her son or something." He folded his arms across his chest, frowning, "I would guess the demon was punishing Esk for trying to help the rescue mission when they went into his brain. I mean from what they said when they came back, they couldn't have made it out without Esk's guidance."

Ivor looked troubled. "The captain said it was... louder than she expected.. It isn't this loud for everyone?" Wrong person to ask really. He'd assumed everyone else was just better at ignoring it, or blocking it.

---

Matt nodded. "Kay doesn't want to talk about what happened in there but I think it freaked him out.. majorly." He sighed. "Sometimes about bad memories and given the shit we've all seen? That's gotta have sucked. " He frowned a little. "So.. his grandmother? Wow.. I mean Olin always referred to Hytar as 'the demon' but I mean we always assumed she was just using it descriptively, not actually literally. " He shook his head. "Did he say what she wanted with the guy? Eva said he'd gone into hiding didn't she?"

"I guess it must not be," Moriah said. "They never comment on it, so that suggests they don't hear it as loudly." She looked thoughtful, "The captain, you mean Starr? Did she try listening to your thoughts or something?"
She really had no idea how this worked, but it was a fascinating topic.

~~
James didn't really know the extent of the horrible memories Kay and Esk shared, so unlike Asher, he couldn't easily guess what Kay had seen in there. "Yeah, that has to have been awful," he said. "I'm sure she wasn't fighting fairly."
"No, I don't think Esk knows what she wants Hytar for. Esk wants us to keep Hytar out of her grasp though, she clearly really wants him for something, and it's safe to assume her plans aren't plans we'd like." He looked grim.

Ivor nodded. "she was trying to help... I.. I think..."

---

Matt's frown deepened. "I dunno, the guy's a monster, maybe he deserves to be in the clutches of a demon." He didn't hold Hytar in high regard clearly. He found it odd Esk was willing to sacrifice himself to keep his father safe, it just didn't add up to him. Esk hated his father.
Matt wasn't so good at looking at the big picture.