Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

First topic message reminder :

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."

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."

Luka laughed, flushing a little and waving her hand dismissively. "no no no, just very experienced."

Matt chuckled. "I don't doubt she could drink me under the table."

"Let's not test that theory," James said, "I don't wanna have to haul you guys home. You sure you don't wanna tell any stories, Luka?" he added.

Luka frowned. "I'm not sure I have any really funny stories." She admitted. "My travels since leaving the Empire have been... fairly difficult instead."

James nodded. "Fair enough, you don't have to tell any stories then. I guess I can think of some more if we need more stories."

"you really haven't had anything good happen since being out here?" Matt asked.

Luka blushed a little and looked away. "I didn't say that. Just.. nothing funny... no shapeshifting bears or mobsters at least."

James smiled slightly. "You don't need to have ridiculous adventures to tell stories. More normal stories are good too." He didn't want to pressure her too much, since she seemed sort of shy about the idea of telling stories though.

"Don't worry about it." Matt agreed with James. "you don't have to share."

Luka smiled softly. "thank you."

"So James, don't suppose you have any more tales of daring adventure, or just embarrassing stories about other people?" Matt laughed.

James nodded when Matt reassured Luka, then considered the question."Hmm," he said, putting on a thoughtful expression. "I might have one or two more stories I could tell you."
And by that he meant he could keep this up all evening. And probably would, given half the chance. Yep.

Matt grinned. "Well then, go right ahead!" He went back to his drink.

James grinned back, and launched into another of his ridiculous and not entirely true stories. Putting on a show was how he coped, and we welcomed the chance to do it.

(We could do some timeskippage, if that sounds good to you guys?)

(yesss~)

(sure)

(All right. How long sounds good? :) )

(i'm cool with whatever)

(Unity's about four days away. Sound okay?)

(yeup)

(yay, reunion)

(All right, let's do this!)

AUGUST 23, 2800

Vestia was relieved as Unity Station came into view. It had been over two weeks since the battle and the jump through time, but even with the repairs and Starr's magic, she was still nowhere near 100% healed yet. So she was secretly a little surprised that she'd actually made it here without getting shot by pirates or something on the way.

She kinda wished she didn't look so battered. Seeing her in this condition wasn't going to be much good for the kids' morale, was it? But that would have to be someone else's concern, not hers. She was just glad to have reached their destination.

(Will Vestia be able to dock somewhere, or is she going to have to send out one of her few remaining shuttles? Haha)

~~
James spent a lot of time recently avoiding everyone. He made efforts to visit Esk and talk to people, but he needed time to himself to try to cope with the fact that he'd, well, basically murdered someone. Yeah, it had been necessary. He knew that, and reminded himself of it a lot. But it was still sickening.

He was in better spirits than usual today though. He was really excited to see Asher again.

~~
Tala had finally pretty much recovered from her coma, her battle injuries, and all the gas she'd inhaled. She'd gone back to her usual fitness regimen, wanting to ensure that she would be in the best condition possible should Vestia end up in another battle.

~~
Ethan resolved to go with the others to visit Unity, to see if they happened to have a bookstore, or at least a store that sold books. Even though everyone out there would probably think he was Asher. Ugh.

~~
Ellie had been growing more and more excited over the past few days, so glad that soon she was going to be able to see her adopted nieces and nephew. She knew she was going to have to stand back and let them catch up with their parents first, but still, it was exciting nonetheless.

(yeah let her dock, she deserves to dock lol. It's a research station, let's just fudge it and say they have a huge hanger for researchy shit lol)

---

Kay worked fretfully, more and more the closer they got to Unity. Until Matt forced him to actually SLEEP.

Matt was of course extremely nervous too, the prospect of meeting his daughter, HIS child was pretty daunting.

Both of them were together, staring out at Unity from one of the obsevation decks.

"This is kinda surreal..." Matt mused. "It's like.. in a way, going home..."

Kay clutched his tablet to his chest looking extremely anxious.

---

Esk was keeping to himself a lot, mostly because whenever he left his room someone decided he needed to be nannied and it was pissing him off.
He was still struggling with his ability to write and draw, though the seisures seemed to have mostly resolved which was something.

He'd sought out Jarral who also kept to himself a lot, reading and researching, to ask him how he'd recovered. The kid had gone through something similar hadn't he? He'd mentioned it.

Unfortunately Jarral wasn't overly helpful. His biology was pretty different and he hadn't been held underwater quite as long. Esk learned one interesting fact from this, Jarral had almost killed Eva in his attempt to save himself.
Only her own innate elemental abilities had stopped him.

Esk had returned to his room. He didn't think he was much needed right now and honestly didn't much want to deal with people.

---

Even Jarral had to admit he was actually sort of curious. Eva had told him to escort all these people here and soon enough that obligation would be over and he could return to his usual duties, researching demons and translating and transcribing ancient knowledge.

Even so, as they approached Unity he found himself fiddling with an old stone in his pocket, turning it over in his fingers thoughtfully.

The old waypoint inn felt like a lifetime ago, in a way it was. He wasn't the person he had been 10 years ago. Too much had changed.

---

Mourn continued his work on the united code and wasn't really paying much attention to their arrival, he had more important things to do.

----

Swarm was excited, more excited perhaps than they should be. Unity was a research station sure, but they buzzed and flitted about eagerly as they approached the station in a manner that suggested they were extremely keen to get out there and explore.

----

Silence and Ivor were anxious. Silence because she had no idea what to expect of this place and Ivor because they were so close to Imperium space, somewhere he had absolutely no desire to ever return to.

He was also somewhat anxious about being around a lot of emotional loud thinking people.

---

Armin spent a lot of time with Luna and Starr and now that Unity was in sight he went to the observation deck to get a look at the station itself, curious about this place where their friends and family had made their homes.

---

Hewitt remained comatose, twitching every so often but otherwise as well... vegetative as ever.

---

Amity was barely functional but Mourn had him booted up to chat to, his words popping up on Mourn's screen as he coded like some sort of instant messanger app. Mourn liked having someone to ramble ideas at, even if the drone couldn't really understand what the heck Mourn was going on about or add any useful imput. Mourn didn't need or want imput, he just wanted to ramble. It helped him think.

---

Luka kept up her usual routine, spending a lot of time with Rigel if he'd have her and taking morning runs. She also adopted a further afternoon run to distract her mind. It wasn't Unity she was thinking about, it was her family and the anxious wait for any contact from them.

Starr stayed with Luna and Armin more often than not, just getting used to being together and sort of dating. Dating wasn't easy when you only had limited places to go. She had kept up her healing of Vestia each 'night' before she went to sleep so she could give the most energy she could to the ship. Hewitt got a couple of more visits as well, though he wasn't as responsive as she would like. She had taken Luna with her to the observation deck with Armin to watch the docking, though she would likely go to the ramp before it finished. She wanted to see her babies so much.

~~~
Shane was calm during this time. Getting to see the kids again would be nice, but he wasn't as overly excited as Ellie and some of the others were.

~~~
Skye was anxiously waiting with Jewel on her shoulder once more for them to be able to dock and go to see her sister in person. The screen could only do so much to dampen that excitement.

~~
Moone tried to visit Esk from time to time, but left him to heal as he wanted. She wasn't about to give up on being his friend now, not after everything they had gone through already. She hated the words she had said to the demon, she did love him, even though they couldn't be anything more than platonic friends. Not unless he learned to control his powers.

~~~
Rigel was there for Luka when she let him be, or wanted him to be. When he wasn't with her, he was working on the Devil. He wasn't concerned for the reunion, though he wanted to search the station for a seller of parts.

(Yay, haha. Shopping list: need new shuttles!)

Vestia got permission to dock, and pulled in carefully, not wanting to do anything embarrassing like upset the station's orbit. With lots of discussion with flight control, she managed to come in to park neatly, sealing airlocks and preparing to bring out the ramp.

~~
James headed down to the room near the ramp, and waited impatiently for the ramp to open. He was so excited to see his brother again. And the others. But mostly his brother.

Ethan arrived soon after James. He stayed back, not wanting to get in the way of any greetings. He was looking forward to a change of scenery, but not if it meant pushing through lots of excited people. He was a little curious about Unity though, and his extended family here.
If Kay came into the room, Ethan stayed well out of his way, and did his best to avoid eye contact. He was trying not to think about the other version of himself who was no doubt planning to have a happy reunion with Kay. Gross.

Ellie also headed to the room near the ramp, bouncing from foot to foot in impatience. She'd been using her magic to help speed Hewitt's healing every day, but apparently she still had energy to be excited. To be fair, this was really exciting.
She'd probably dragged Shane along, as she so often did.

~~
Tala decided to stay on Vestia for now. She knew this was all going to be emotional and silly, and she wasn't terribly interested in it.

Luka opted to remain on Vestia, let the people with family have their reunion and not get in the way. Maybe she'd go with Rigel to find parts or something later, get a change of scenery.

---

Esk tolerated Dawn's presence far more than anyone else, he was used to her presence and having her in the room didn't feel quite so uncomfortable and like being monitored. Their silent just sitting near one another was just how they worked, but he wasn't about to mention the difficulties he was having with his manual dexterity, he didn't want to acknowledge it right now.

He remained in his room for now. he had no reason to go see the extended family and besides, he didn't really want to go answering questions about how he was feeling and so on.

At some point he'd no doubt be dragged off to see the doctor here on the station but till then, he was going to lay low.

---

Kay and Matt headed for the ramp. Kay was chewing his lip and fidgeting anxiously while Matt was shifting his weight carefully from one foot to the other while leaning on his one crutch. He couldn't bounce like Ellie right now, this was the best he could get to expend some of that nervous energy.

---

Armin went with Starr but decided he would hang back and let everyone have their reunion. He wanted to see people of course, but more importantly, he wanted to be there for his friends who were mostly pretty nervous.

---

Mourn wanted to see the "small hawk girl" who wasn't so small anymore of course, but he'd gotten distracted by a breakthrough in his coding and elected to stay doing that. Besides, the sisters would want to do all that catching up stuff. He could see Moone later, it wasn't like she was going anywhere.

---

Swarm was eager to get out there and congregated at the ramp, buzzing and chittering excitedly.

----

Ivor and Silence remained with the ship. Ivor was playing solitaire while Silence watched him.

---

Jarral turned up at the ramp but kept back, lurking, wrapped in his shadows like a security blanket.

Luna wriggled free of Starr's hold, jumping down and going to Armin to wait with him. He wasn't as excited as her mom was.

Shane stayed with Ellie, watching her and smiling a little. She was cute when she got this excited.

Skye waited for the ramp to open for them. She wanted to see her sister, despite being the younger of the two now.

James smiled at Swarm, and gave them a wave in greeting. They looked pretty excited too, he'd have to ask them what they found on Unity later.

Ethan eyed Jarral and those shadows suspiciously. He didn't trust the guy.

Ellie grinned up at Shane. She knew he wasn't quite as excited as she was, but hey, maybe her enthusiasm would be contagious.

Vestia opened her ramp after making sure it was safe. After all the damage she'd taken in that battle, she didn't want to take anything for granted. But everything seemed to be fine, so she let her passengers out.

(To Unity?)

Armin bowed his head to Luna and reached out a hand for her if she wanted it.

Swarm flitted around James affectionately.

Jarral flatly ignored Ethan.

"Well... suppose this is it huh?" Matt remarked, gulping a little.

Kay patted his arm and Matt nodded back to his brother. Time to go meet the family.

- to unity!