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."

Shane nodded then chuckled softly "Between all the different species on this ship, there's bound to be something to celebrate every month if not every week." He said jokingly "Even if they are only birthdays"

"Yeah, it was really heroic. I mean, he saved me too soo..." James launched into a highly edited version of his and Mourn's encounter with reprogramming. In this version of the story, Mourn had made a diversion for James before being tased just like in real life, only this time James had managed to carry Mourn to safety, after fighting off ten guards.

Mysteriously, James had somehow managed to not be tased in the fight.

He had hidden with Mourn and those hostages in a room, and had brought Mourn back to consciousness thanks to his great medical skills. Mourn had been really grateful.

Then they'd had a big fight with the other Mourn, and had won, and then the uprising had happened and everyone was freed! Yay.

~~
"There's like a hundred people on board now, so we'll have a birthday every few days probably," Ellie mused. "yep, we're going to have fun." She looked pleased.

Matt nodded along with this, laughing at the appropriate parts. Hey, James told good stories.

Luka listened but the expression on her face suggested she didn't entirely believe James.

---

Meanwhile, irritated, Esk rose from his seat and headed back to his room, not looking back to see if Tori was following him.

James looked pleased with himself, he liked having a good audience, and Matt at least was a good audience. Luka, not so much. oh well. "And that's how Mourn and I saved the day," he concluded grandly.

~~
Tori followed along quietly. No way was she letting Esk out of her sight, not until Dawn and the neurologist decided it was okay.

Esk reached his room, glowered at Tori and finally spoke. "Vestia can watch." He snapped. Usually having people around didn't bother him this much but being followed around was pissing him off. He didn't really care why, it just DID.

---

"You deserve medals." Matt agreed.

Tori hesitated, glancing to Vestia's camera.

"It's fine," Vestia said, nodding her camera. "He's right, I'll keep an eye on him."

Tori considered that, then nodded. If Esk was going to be in his room, he probably wasn't planning on walking around too much. And anyway, she could hang out in some nearby lounge or other in case she was needed. "All right," she told Esk. "Someone will be checking on you in a few hours if not sooner, but I'll leave you alone." She hoped she wasn't going to regret this.

~~
"I do," James said. "Mourn deserves more medals of course, but we both deserve at least one." He grinned. "I mean, I bet you guys have done some heroic stuff too though. You should tell me about it."

Esk nodded curtly and retreated into his room, glancing up at Vestia's camera gratefully as he sat on the foot of the bed.

---

Luka looked coy.

Matt chuckled. "I dunno about heroic, stupid and daring sure... mostly just stupid if you ask Kay." He rolled his eyes but looked amused.

Vestia nodded her camera once at Esk, but didn't say anything. She doubted he wanted to talk.

~~
Tori headed off to lounge to read something on her tablet.

~~
James laughed. "Kay has no imagination about these things. I'm sure you were heroic and daring. I mean, how could you not be?" He indicated Matt with a wave of his hand, as if it was an undeniable truth that Matt was heroic and daring.

Esk sat for a while, trying to think clearly. It was obvious something was bothering him beyond just being injured.
Finally he spoke, not actually looking at Vestia as he addressed her. "Send me the brig security feed." He spoke flatly. "I need to know what she did."

---

Matt laughed. "right? he's so judgy"

"You seem to have had a lot of adventures though." Luka watched him curiously.

"Yeah but I don't have James' talent for story telling." Matt shrugged. "Ask Kay, he stores up stories just to use against me."

Vestia hesitated, trying to decide if doing so would be a security risk. But no, she didn't think it would be. The demon was fully aware that Vestia had been watching the brig, if the demon was still in there at all.

And anyway, Esk did deserve to know what had happened, if he wanted to. If someone had been controlling Vestia, she knew she would want to know what they had made her do.

"Okay, I'll send it over," Vestia said quietly, sending Esk the feed.

~~
James looked disappointed. "Aww man, not even a short story? You look like you'd be a good storyteller though! Better than Kay, I imagine."

Esk nodded grimly. He didn't much want to watch this, but he couldn't stand not knowing. Not knowing was somehow WORSE.

He picked up the tablet and watched the feed, skipping forward every so often, his expression blank.

---

Matt looked thoughtful. Most of his stories ended badly, or with them running away from peril.
"I lose track of what stories i've already told. Did I tell you about the time I kinda accidentally seduced the son of a very powerful criminal overlord?"

Luka blinked. "son?"

Matt laughed. "yeaaaah...."

Vestia watched Esk in silence, so he could watch the feed. For all that it was horrible, she was reasonably sure he didn't want to be distracted from this. Still, she was worried about him.

~~
James laughed. "I definitely haven't heard that one yet. Tell us! I wanna hear about this criminal overlord's son!"

Matt cackled. "okay okay." He finished his bottle and leaned forward. "So Kay and me were travelling right? trying to put as much space between ourselves at the Imperium as possible. We ended up in this really nice town, like.. SUPER nice, really posh and stuff. Kay was all don't you dare screw this up, don't steal anything, blah blah blah and I was like hey, i'm on best behaviour! I have impulse control! " He laughed, that was an outright lie. "anyway, we were staying at this hotel, sharing a room because we didn't have that much money and this place was like.. you know, crazy swanky. We ended up in this piano bar and I went to get drinks and got chatting to this guy at the bar. He came and joined us for a few rounds, Kay was kinda annoyed but he was getting tired and decided to go to bed and told me to behave. And I mean I tried! but this guy invited me back to his place and you know, it'd be rude to say no right?"

Luka looked bemused. "Of course..." She snorted.

"So i say yes" matt continued. "And we head to the elevators and up to the penthouse and i'm like SCORE, this guy is loaded! and he tells me this is his dad's suite and that it's fine becuase he's out of town and won't be back for a few days. So we uh.. had a good night and fell asleep and morning comes and suddenly we can hear someone come in and there's voices and talking and he's gone like... white. His Dad's come back early and if he finds me here he's gonna be PISSED. So we're in the penthouse right, thirty floors up, there's no way i'm climbing out a window so I kinda wedge myself into this cupboard, wardrobe.. whatever. There's no time to get dressed so i'm there, buck naked, in the wardrobe, trying to keep quiet as he tries to distract his father. "

Luka looked like she was trying not to laugh.

"This is bad, I can't leave without being seen. So I stand there for gods knows how long and my legs start going to sleep and still these people aren't bloody leaving. And then I hear it... someone's come into the room and seems to be tidying up. And i'm like shit, housekeeping is here? I can see this woman through the crack in the door and she's stripping the bed to change the sheets and she looks right at the cupboard and I glance over and fuck, there's a pile of neatly folded sheets right next to me. She's coming right for me and I have nowhere to go. I'm naked, i'm hungover, my legs are numb and she opens the door and shit man, in my panic I stumble out, lose my footing and fall on top of her!"

---

Esk watched the feed. Attacking Matt, the attempt to hurt Dawn. He stopped the feed. He didn't want to watch himself die thanks. He spoke quietly. "thank you Vestia..." and set the tablet aside. Now he knew, exactly what had been said and done. It sucked.

"You fell on the cleaning lady?" James asked with a laugh. "Oh maaan, not good!" He was really enjoying this story. Who said Matt couldn't tell a good tale?

~~
"Of course," Vestia said. "They all know it wasn't your fault, you know," she added, still quiet.

Matt laughed "yeah so she's screaming and shit my head is pounding and i'm trying to get off her but she's flailing about and of course all these people rush in to see what the fuss is about. So suddenly i'm being hauled to my feet by several very large, very heavily armed guards and the guy is there looking super terrified and his father is all Who the hell are you? and man, I haven't got a good answer to that so i'm just like Uh hi, i'm matt."

Luka was actually laughing now.

Matt continued. "So it turns out that this isn't the first time some random guy has been found hiding in this guy's room but his dad is PISSED, especially because i'm well... me. You know.. alien and all that. So they throw some clothes at me more becuase me being naked is like offending them or something and I get dressed at gunpoint and i'm thinking shit, i'm totally gonna die here and then I remember oh yeah, I can fucking teleport. I should have done that earlier but I was too hungover and fucking panicking."

Luka burried her head in her hands, giggling uncontrollably. Fricken idiot.
Of course he forgot he could teleport.

Matt was grinning. "So i'm trying to get dressed and thinking to myself can I step backwards faster than they can shoot me? And it's all looking pretty fucking terrible. And i'm like can I have my shoes? and the guy standing nearest me moves to go get them and here's my chance, they're distracted. So I look at the guy and he's looking pretty freaked out and I think to myself they aren't gonna hurt him, he's the bosses son, so I blow him a kiss and i step backwards and I shape space the fuck outta there. And I mean now I have no shoes, and no shirt, but i'm not full of bullet holes so that's a plus. And I appear in our room a few floors below and I wake up Kay and he's PISSED but also he's like they're gonna find us and kill us you idiot! and so we grab out stuff as fast as we can and we're trying to get the hell outta this hotel before someone recognises me and we get to the lobby and there's some of these armed goons and i'm all shit shit shit this is bad. The whole hotel staff and security are searching for me and I do NOT know this place well enough to risk teleporting outside, i'll probably turn up in front of more security and get shot or something. Or end up really lost. So then I spot this really big suitcase and i'm all "I can totally fit in that. and Kay's all no chance and i'm like dude, i'm super bendy, I can totally fit in that so we take it and we hide out in this room, dumping everything that's in this bag so I can try to climb inside of it and Kay's just like... super angry with me but too scared to really lecture me. And i'm about to try to fit myself into this stupid bag when the door opens and in comes none other than the guy! He's been trying to get away as well, he got away from his dad in the chaos of me disappearing to try to find me before the goons did and now we have another person to hide. And Kay's eye is starting to twitch so I KNOW we're in real shit now. And we're whispering and coming up with all sorts of crazy ideas on how we're gonna get out of here without getting shot and the guy is like I got a plan. He volunteers to act as a distraction. Long story short, absolute chaos erupts as he strolls into the lobby and yells at some guy walking up the stairs pretending he's me and gives chase and the goons are fucking stupid so they chase after him and Kay is all RUN so I leg it across the lobby and I hear this shout but shit i'm already moving too fast, i'm not stopping and this guard is chasing me and i'm just running for those doors and it doesn't look like i'm gonna make it, some guys are moving to block my path till this fucking BEAR appears"

"a.. bear?" Luka looked up.

Matt cackled "Yeah, Kay decided he could be a distraction too. He's not a very big bear but still, it's a fucking bear in a hotel lobby and it's enough to stop these guys in their tracks, hell, it almost stops me in my tracks. I'm all what the fuck but before I know it i'm stumbling out the doors and i'm out in the street and just running for my life. "

James stifled another laugh The idea of Kay turning into a bear and terrorizing people in a hotel lobby was hilarious to him. "He turned into a bear to protect you! That's terrifying, but somehow adorable."
Okay, so maybe James was imagining Kay's bear shape a little tinier than it probably was. Oh well.
"Then what happened?" he asked hopefully.

Shane chuckled but didn't add anything new to the conversation, content to simply sit there with her.

Matt laughed. "You say adorable..." He shrugged "So I run till I can't run any more and then I realise shit, my brother is back there and you know... a fucking BEAR. I gotta help him before animal control round him up or something. So i'm just starting to turn around trying to figure out what to do when this fucking bear comes ambling down the street toward me and i'm like Kay! but he's not listening to me anymore, he barrels into me and I realise that he's being chased by a couple of goons waving weapons and screaming and so we both run and we finally find somewhere safe and then we realise the next problem. He left his clothes back at the hotel, along with our bags!"

Luka had tears streaming down her face at this point.
"What'd you do?"

"Well we laid low for a few hours, which isn't that easy when you're a half naked guy and a bear. Eventually I realise I gotta go back and get our bags so I waited till dark and teleported back, grabbed out stuff and got outta there the same way. "

"did you ever see the guy again?" Luka asked.

"Yeah actually, he turned up the next day when we were trying to get onto a ship outta there to say sorry for the trouble. Sweet guy. Gave me some cash."

"cash?"

"yeah, Kay was still annoyed and suggested he was actually paying me for the sex" Matt laughed. "He didn't let that rest for a while."

Ellie sat with Shane in silence, watching the baby dragons play.

~~
"Man, you should've stayed in touch with that guy. He sounds like fun," James said, grinning, "I mean you got money and a good story, so it's a win-win."
He shook his head, "That's one hell of a story, Matt. I think it's better than mine." Unlike James's stories which were usually blatantly fake, James actually believed that this one could have happened. Which made it all the more fun.

Matt laughed, he might have embellished or ommitted some bits but eh, it was mostly true. "yeah maybe i should have, but I think I could do without the whole potentially getting shot thing."

"Good point, that is a downside," James agreed. "But maaan, I bet there would have been some great opportunities." He shook his head, "You seriously forgot you could teleport that day?"

"in my defence, I was VERY hungover." Matt raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Yeah, you must have been," James said. He looked pretty amused. "You know, after some of the hung over people I've seen... yeah. I believe it."

Matt chuckled. "you will never know the fear of being naked, massively hung over and scared of getting caught man."

Luka looked amused. "It doesn't sound like something most people would enjoy no."

"to be fair, Kay probably would have been more pissed off had I appeared suddenly outta nowhere naked and woken him up." Matt laughed.

"The more I think about my inability to ingest alcohol, the better I feel about that limitation," James decided. "Naked and headachy and in danger of death doesn't sound so great, nope." He laughed, "I think Kay would be equally angry regardless, he gets angry a lot about people making mistakes."

Matt grinned. "Truely you are fortunate."

"the trick is not to drink THAT much." Luka shrugged.

"What, you never get hungover?" Matt challenged.

"I never said that." Luka smiled, raising her bottle to her lips.

"I'm sure I'd overdo it, at least once," James said, nodding as if he was speaking with great wisdom here. "Luka's too wise to overdo it," he added, "I've watched her."