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."

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!

Luna easily climbed up to be held by Armin. She had taken her human form, but was still a young child in this form. "Mom's excited" She said quietly, watching everyone heading out from her perch.

Armin nodded. "She is." He agreed. "Would you like to meet your siblings?"

Luna nodded after a moment then looked to Armin again. "As long as you stay with me."

"Of course I will." Armin assured her. "And when you have had enough you need only ask and I will make excuses to return to the ship." He bowed his head.

Luna smiled and hugged him then looked to the groups again before getting down to head over to Ellie and the kids.

Starr came back in with Kerr and Vela at her sides. Ellie and Shane and Armin and Luna came in with her.

"Hi Vestia" Kerr said with a wave to one of her cameras.

"Oh hey!" Vestia's lights glowed softly pink in greeting for a few moments. "Kerr, Vela, welcome back! It's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you again too." Vela said quietly and smiled at the camera. Kerr nodded his agreement.

"We're taking them on a refresher tour," Ellie told Vestia cheerfully. "So they remember all the cool things here."

"Sounds good. Have fun," Vestia said.

"What do you think," Ellie asked the kids, "Library, playground, or First Class? Ethan probably isn't here right now, so the library will be less scary." She nodded wisely.

"I believe Ethan went to explore the station..." Armin mentioned, he'd seen him leave.

---

Matt meanwhile was giving Lana and Nova a tour. Dramatically because he was Matt.

Vestia had probably said hi to Nova and introduced herself to Lana when they boarded. Hopefully the talking spaceship thing wasn't too weird for Lana.

Given the shit Lana had grown up with, a talking spaceship seemed about typical really.

She found the ship facinating though and seemed to want to see everything.

Which wasn't exactly practical. Matt tried to stick to the highlights and most high traffic regions.

Kerr giggled and shrugged "First class" He decided for them. He was excited to be back home, his birthplace.

Vestia helpfully provided information as necessary on Matt, Lana, and Nova's tour. She made sure to steer them away from any areas that had been destroyed in the battle, Lana didn't need to see that yet.

~~
Ellie grinned. "First Class it is then. Let's go!" She led the way, excitedly.

Kerr and Vela followed Ellie and Shane while Starr stayed back with Armin and Luna. It was good to have the family back together again.

Ellie started showing the kids around First Class, telling them they could probably take as many rooms as they wanted. ("Maximum of one per person," Vestia amended. Ellie feigned a heartbroken sigh.)
She showed them the dining hall, and the lounges, and the various places where they could look out at the stars. This floor was just so pretty.

The kids picked a suite they could share together near their mom. They didn't want to be far from her after all. Not now. Not that they were together again.

"Well, there should be plenty of room for your stuff I think," Ellie mused, looking into the room. "Unless you guys own, like, a lot of stuff. I won't judge if you do."

"We don't have a lot of stuff, yet." Kerr said, picking one of the bedrooms as his while the girls picked from the others.

"Asher and Nova don't buy you tons of stuff?" Ellie said. "No, I guess they don't seem like the type." She shook her head.

Armin remained quiet, letting Ellie do the tour thing.

"There's not a lot to buy on a research station, and the pay wasn't great." Kerr replied

"We got what we needed and some extras" Vela added, not wanting them to think bad of Asher or Nova.

"They had to repair some things we broke" Kerr said, looking away a bit.

Ellie frowned, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess a little research station isn't the best place to get tons of money," she agreed. And she supposed having to provide for five kids, well four now Moone had grown up, wasn't easy.
"Well better late than never, right? We can totally give you guys a life of wealth and luxury now," she joked.

Matt eventually lead Lana and Nova back to the first class part of the ship to show them the living area or "home" as he called it.
They might run into the others having their tour.

"Cool, and we won't have to hide our forms anymore." Kerr said with a grin. He waved to Matt and Lana when they came in the room too. "Hey, we picked a place to live here. Lana, do you want the fourth room?"