Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Seven

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"You mentioned the possibility of using a spell to look into someone's mind. Is that part of your plan to try to communicate with Fate?" Vestia asked Jarral. She wanted to learn as much as she could here. After all, it was her job to protect her crew as well as she could.

~~
"You can paint the light switches in your room if you want," Vestia told Vela. "I trust you not to break anything."

Ellie giggled.

"I suppose she can't have ended up so cruise ship-like by accident," Zara said, grinning at how ridiculously well-equipped Vestia was. "It must make deep space travel a lot more interesting for you guys, having so many things available right here."
"I mostly paint things I see while traveling," she said, "It helps me to fix all the memories in my mind, so I don't forget where I've been. And I just like an excuse to study how light works." She laughed, she was aware that some people found her fascination with light a little odd.

Matt grinned back. "Yeah she certainly is more comfortable than any other ship i've been on." He looked up at the nearest camera. "We love you Vestia." He grinned at her too.
"My youngest brother's an artist, pencil sketches I think. he never lets me look." He made a face. "So for all I know he's drawing something rude." He laughed at the idea.

"Awww, I love you too," Vestia said. She blushed her lights pink. She knew Matt might not be able to see it, but Zara could.

Zara glanced up at the lights, amused. She liked the way this ship was able to express herself.
"Which brother is that?" she asked Matt. "Not that I'm going to ask them about their secret art, but I'm curious who it is." She wondered if it was Kay, who everyone mysteriously seemed to dislike, or Esk, who had struck her as being unnervingly perceptive. Hmm.

Matt laughed "Oh right, yeah. Esk. You met him right?" He couldn't quite remember. Or he hadn't really been listening that much.
He blew Vestia a kiss with his free hand.

"Has scales and wears armor?" Zara said, to make sure. "Yeah, I met him. That's neat that he draws, I know I wouldn't have guessed it."
She didn't think she'd be asking Esk about it though; there was something about him that made her think he could figure out her secret.

Matt nodded. "yeah, surly, tends to make people uncomfortable." He chuckled. "your description was way more flattering." He shrugged "It's funny isn't it? The hobbys people have that you don't really expect. Kay collects propoganda leaflets. " He snorted. "And Web? He can play the trumpet." He nodded and grinned "which is.. sorta my fault actually..."

Zara laughed. "You have an interesting family. Your uh... religious leader-king brother plays trumpet because of you?"
They reached the ranch and Zara stared in before looking at Matt again. "Oh wow. You really weren't kidding about this place."

Matt laughed. "Well kinda. I gave it to him and then kinda wouldn't shut up till he learned how to play it." He nodded. "It is cool right? The idea was to make us more self sufficient or something but it's a nice place to come to just enjoy some grass under your feet or whatever." He moved toward one of the goats to pet it.

Zara went along, trying to look at all the animals while also trying to keep lipreading Matt. "Do you regret making him learn?" she asked. She hesitantly let one of the goats sniff her hand, before petting it. "Yes, this place is wonderful. I've never seen anything like it."

Matt snickered. "nah, I don't have to hear it." He smirked. "I bet it really pisses the Elders off too. Which is even better, those guys are assholes." He settled on the grass, petting a particularly friendly goat. "There's some brilliant people on this ship for sure. All sorts of crazy ideas that somehow actually work."

Zara sat down in the grass too, running her fingers through it appreciatively, then gently nudging a goat back when it started to get a little too interested in her hair. "Bothering elders. Sounds like a safe and fun pastime," she said humorously. "At least you get to enjoy the drama from afar."

Matt snickered. "yeah, waaaay waaaay away." He patted the goat on the head as it tried to nibble on his shirt. Stupid goat. "I suppose they can't really do much though. Aside from be bigger assholes, but like.. what they really gonna do? assassinate him and risk having someone like ME in charge?" He made a face, the idea of being in any sort of position of responsibility like that was awful. No thanks.

"Leadership isn't your thing, I take it," Zara said, amused. "And anyway, maybe it's good for these elders to be annoyed by trumpet sometimes."

Matt shook his head. "Hell no, especially not there. I like freedom too much to shackle myself to that sort of responsibility." He sighed. "Sucks for my brother though. "

"Yeah, that does make sense. I am sorry about your brother though," Zara said with a nod. "Should we talk about a happier topic?"
She would totally help Matt pass the time with more boring conversation topics like goats, if that was what he wanted. The guy seemed like he had a lot on his mind.

Matt smiled gratefully. "Yeah, good idea. Thanks." He patted the goat on the head and it wandered off to go eat grass.

Zara smiled at Matt, she understood what it was like to be scared about family and the future. She would talk with Matt about less stressful things, to help keep his mind off of worrying, petting goats sometimes when they stopped by.

(Should we skip to the next day?)

(Sure)

(yesss)

(Timeskip whoooo, also I'm gonna toss in a megapost here because reasons)

TIMESKIP - THE NEXT DAY - AUGUST 24, 2800

Ellie had planned party ideas with Skye and Moone for a long time, because she LOVED parties. Finally she let them go, but she kept thinking about parties. Glitter and decorations were way better than the horrible gory battle scenes that still haunted her mind.

She eventually did sleep though. And had dreams of parties and death, which weren't especially nice.

~~
Tala kept suspiciously asking Vestia about Jess all night, wanting to ensure that the Satare woman wasn't planning something. She pretty much trusted Nova to keep an eye on Jess, but her suspicion ran deep.

Vestia, ever patient, reassured Tala that Jess wasn't, in fact, in the process of sabotaging everything.

~~
Zara chatted with Matt a while, then explored the ship alone some more, before calling it a night. She found a spot as far in her room as possible, hoping to avoid her magic leaking through the walls and being seen while she slept. Which meant she ended up taking some blankets off the bed and sleeping on the floor, which wasn't hugely comfortable, but was okay at least.

Thanks to her precautions, her magic didn't leak into Vestia's sight, and so the ship didn't learn her secret.

~~
Ethan just sort of drifted around the ship all night, feeling gloomy about things. This happened to him a lot, he'd concluded months ago that the best thing to do was to stay away from everyone until the worst of it passed.

~~
Some time late in the night or early in the morning, after having spent time with family and having run out of work to do in the med bay respectively, Asher and James arranged to meet up, in a little lounge not far from the med bay. James didn't want to stray too far while there were injured people there, but he did want to see his brother and catch up. So this was the best option available.

Asher arrived first, and was already seated on one of the couches when James arrived. So James went and sat down next to him with a loud, theatrical sigh. "What a day."

"I'll say," Asher agreed. He frowned a little, "Are Web and Jarral going to be all right?"

James nodded. "As far as we can tell, they should be okay. This clearly wasn't good for them, but they should recover. Thanks in part to Jarral's shadows, which ah, led me to his medicine. I know that sounds a little weird, but it totally happened."

Asher nodded. "I believe you. Around here, the more far-fetched things seem, the more likely they are to be true." He hesitated, then asked, "How have you been?"

James winced. "You mean with the whole Esk thing."

"Yes," Asher said softly. "That."

James closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again, sighing. "I mean, I'm doing as well as you can expect. Can we not talk about it right now? This is the first time we've gotten to talk in months--years--whatever. I'd like to not think about that day right now."

"Of course." Asher looked apologetic.

"Thanks," James managed a small smile. "How'd your day go? I imagine you've been pretty busy too."

"Pretty busy, yeah. I spent some time with Starr. We caught up on the news a bit, I gave her her shuttle back, and she introduced me to Luna." Asher smiled softly.

"Your new baby sister," James said, smiling back, a little more genuinely now.

"I'm glad I finally got to meet her in person," Asher said. "I love this family we've acquired."

James laughed. "Me too. It's nice to have a large extended family. I still find it kinda nuts that you're a prince though," he added.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," Asher said. "Thankfully I'm outside the line of succession, but Starr says I may have to attend royal functions sometimes. Which sounds slightly terrifying."

"You were one of the leaders of the Robot Rights Movement. I'm sure you'll do fine," James said soothingly, "Besides, you look good in a suit, and that's like, probably the most important thing at a royal function. According to animated children's movies."

"They're dragons, so they might be in dragon form. In which case, I'm not sure they'd care too much about humanoid fashion," Asher pointed out. The image of blue dragons in nicely tailored suits crossed his mind, and he found it amusingly adorable. He tried to keep the smile off his face. "Then again, maybe they do dress up while in dragon form. I really don't know."

"If you get introduced to an important dragon lord, and he's wearing a nice suit while in dragon form, do not laugh, and do not imply that you find it cute," James said. "That would be bad etiquette." But he was trying to keep a straight face too.

"If this goes horribly wrong and I laugh at a dragon in a suit, I'm going to blame you," Asher said, somewhere between amused and embarrassed.

James patted Asher's shoulder reassuringly. "You'll be fine. You'll be too terrified to laugh."

"That's a definite possibility," Asher agreed.

"Anyway," James said, "Your day. You talked to Kay, yeah?"

"Yeah, we caught up a little. It was nice." Asher looked uncertain though.

James frowned. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Asher said. At James's skeptical look he added, "No really, it was uneventful. He was nice. I showed him our apartment at Unity, he showed me around First Class. We talked about how long it's been, he understands that I need time to get used to this. It was fine."

James nodded. "I guess this would take time to figure out," he said.

"Yeah." Asher sighed. "Ten years is a long time. I've changed quite a bit, he hasn't changed at all. And that's more confusing than you might think."

"I think I get it," James said thoughtfully. "I mean, you've grown up and changed, you have a life of your own now. Obviously you know how to live without him. But you guys were always really codependent when you were together, so he's probably still... really codependent. But now it's one-sided." Which would explain how godawful being around Kay was these days, James figured. Ugh.

Asher flinched, but didn't deny it. James knew him well, and had heard or figured out a lot about his and Kay's relationship.

James shook his head. "Man, you don't have to stay just because he feels like he needs you."

"It's not that simple," Asher said reluctantly. "I still love him, I think I still want a life with him. But at the same time, you're right, it does feel strange that he needs this relationship in a way I don't." He frowned. There was more to it than that, there was also the fact that Danika would feel all of Kay's grief and pain if Asher broke up with him, but he didn't mention that. "I'm not sure whether it'll work, but I want to try."

"All right." James smiled wryly. "I'll probably never understand why you romantics do this relationship drama thing, but if you want to try then I support you."

Asher smiled softly. "I guess... hmm." He tried to figure out an analogy James would understand. "It's a little like how people try to reconnect with the friends they lost touch with, after years apart, when they aren't sure whether they share any interests any more.
"Only romance comes with more declarations of love, the desire to have that person become a very important friend again even though you don't actually know if that can still work, and a higher risk of a shattered heart at the end of it."

James contemplated that. "You know, that actually makes sense, sort of. I mean, it's a terrible idea to raise the stakes that high right off the bat... but I guess I can kinda see where you're coming from. Weird, overkill drama friendship, yeah."

"I'm glad my explanation was helpful," Asher said with a laugh.

"Anyway, I know this means a lot to you, and I hope it'll work out well," James said. He still thought Kay was a jerk, but he was going to keep that to himself for now, for Asher.

"Thank you. I hope so too," Asher said.

"Now," James said hopefully, "Can you tell me about what's happened while I was away? There's so much I want to know about."

So Asher told him. About raising the kids, and getting a job, and blogging, and learning to be free. And about the people and politics of their new homeworld, which they had yet to visit, where Androids had safety and friendship, but the Terran Uniteds still lacked freedom, and no new children had been created in over a decade.
Despite all its flaws and tragedies, this was a world beyond anything James could have imagined. And now he wanted to know it all.

Jess returned to her own ship to rest. She really couldn't stand to be around all those aliens for long, it was immensely stressful.
she also declined Matt's offer to join him in meeting up with the chief of security later that evening, she'd left this place a long time ago and had absolutely no desire to reminice about the past.
It was too painful to remember her childhood on this station and everything she'd lost.

So Matt went to meet the security chief alone, though he didn't stay for long. Much as he wanted to hear more about his parents he was tired and preoccupied with concern for Web and Jarral. Well, mostly Web if he was honest.

--

Kay stayed up as late as he could, watching over the injured till he was forced to retire to bed out of shere exhaustion.

---

Luka had tried to help Rigel find someone who could help with cloaking tech but she really had no idea where to start. They'd been directed to the engineering department, maybe someone there had some ideas?

----

Armin remained with Starr and tried to get to know the children.

---

Swarm didn't return to the ship that night and was probably exploring Unity.

----

Ivor and Silence curled up together to sleep.

---

Mourn fell asleep at his desk.

---

Esk absorbed himself in current events so he didn't have to think about his sister, or his injured brother, or his own problems. He just didn't want to deal with anything right now damnit.

---

Ellie woke up after a not especially restful night's sleep, and after getting ready, headed off to find breakfast. Maybe bringing Shane along, if he was still sharing her room at night and hadn't already gotten up.

~~
Asher would probably show up at the dining hall if Vestia told him that the kids had gone there, looking slightly shy about being there. Being around people who were eating usually didn't bother him any more, but it was much more stressful around people who weren't family.

Still, he wanted to be there to make sure the kids didn't get overwhelmed, so he was going to brave the dining hall.

He was carrying a bag in one hand, it had what looked to be knitting needles sticking out the top.

~~
Tala had had an early breakfast already, she was most likely working out somewhere.

Shane was still there, sleeping as a dragon in her room as long as she wanted him near. He blinked and got up when she did, stretching before shifting to his human form to walk with her.

~~~
The three kids were together as they came to the dining room, smiling and going to Asher when they saw him "Good morning" They choresed, glad to see him there.

~~~
Rigel had been disappointed to not find the tech he wanted that day but would try again today, he was already up and getting ready to head out and talk to other people.

~~~
Dawn had stayed with the injured longer than she probably should have and was still asleep though she would soon enough get up and go to check on the pair again.

Ellie headed toward the dining hall with Shane, smiling up at him affectionately. "Excited for the party today, Cutie? I think it's gonna be a huge success, the hawk girls are sooo good at planning," she told him as they walked.
She was going to pretend she hadn't had any nightmares about gory, terrifying parties last night, yep.

Shane chuckled and nodded "It'll be good to have something fun to do together again." He replied, glad there was something good to talk about today. He just hoped for no new drama, though knowing this crew that might be hard.

Luka had gotten up early to do her morning run and workout and was currently showering after all that. She'd have breakfast later.

---

Kay was groggy from lack of sleep but awake. he headed for the dining hall to grab his usual strong black coffee and toast on the go.

---

Esk hadn't slept well and come morning had elected to go for a walk. He was annoyed and didn't much want to interact with people right now. His usual methods of getting uncomfortable thoughts out of his head he couldn't DO right now. His hands were still shaking just enough to make drawing impossible and firing a gun ridiculously dangerous. This only served to sour his mood even more, he had no outlet.

----

Armin joined everyone else in the dining hall for breakfast.

----

Matt was still sleeping.

---

Lana was also enjoying a lie in. she wasn't actually asleep, she was just being lazy HAH.

---

Web was awake and relatively alert when Dawn arrived, he bowed his head to her politely, looking a little sheepish.

Dawn smiled at seeing Web awake and aware. She walked over to him to check the readings of his vitals. "I hope whatever you two did worked." She said honestly. "How are you feeling?"