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.

Hewitt snickered at Ethan. "Not keen hmm?"

---

Jess looked around. "i ... suppose so."

Kay looked around. Huh, looked like Esk had already snuck out. He couldn't say he was surprised.

----

Web smiled softly. "Certainly my brothers have found a good place to call home. " he looked thoughtful. Maybe he should try harder to get to know the people his siblings had made their new family, but he found it all a bit intimidating.

Nova laughed at that statement, nodding. "Oh, yes, raising kids was quite the adjustment." She agreed."By the time we moved here, it was practically like they were my kids anyway."

~~~
"Cool" Danika replied and looked around the room, though she couldn't see nearly as much as the others. "Want to find Uncle Web or Uncle Matt?" She asked curiously

~~~
Dawn moved out of the room, glad Ethan was reluctant and Hewitt found that amusing instead of pushing to go. She would wait a minute just in case, but felt those two at least would stay put.

Esk straightened up from his position slouched against the wall of the hall. "They'll be fine." He shrugged. Hewitt seemed pretty damn tough, Aketi were apparently not easy to kill.

----

Jess looked uncertain but Kay caught Matt's eye and gestured he should come over.

Matt looked to Ellie and Shane. "Looks like I gotta go be social." He laughed. "talk later yeah?"
He headed over to his sister.

"Hey sis." He smiled, even if he looked a little drained. "Glad you came" that might not have been entirely true.

"I already went and it wasn't very good," Ethan told Hewitt. Which wasn't strictly true, it had probably been a perfectly nice party, he just wasn't in the mood for parties today. "If you've been to a party before, it's nothing new."

~~
"They do seem to have," Zara agreed. "It's kind of a lot to take in, isn't it?" She had a feeling that he felt rather like a fish out of water here, too.

~~
"That is charming and does soften the heart," Tala declared. "I do not think I could raise children well myself, but it is lovely to see people who do."

~~
"Good luck!" Ellie told Matt. She looked to Shane again when Matt headed off. "I'm sure it'll go fine. Wanna go say hi to Web and Zara... and get drinks?" Drinks, whoo.

~~
Asher smiled at Matt as he came over. He wondered if he should duck out to give the siblings space, but Danika was still holding his hand. Hmm.

Hewitt laughed. "Aketi parties are quite different to those farces animal races encourage. There isn't even any debate!"
He was resting rather heavily on his cane, still not fully able to move freely. Bah.

---

Web nodded. "It is." He agreed.

----

Matt smiled to Asher and Danika too. "Hey guys." He looked to Danika particularly. "Having fun?"

Danika smiled at Matt when he joined them and nodded "It's good to have the family all together." She said, even if some she didn't really know

~~
Shane chuckled and nodded "Yeah, let's go say hi and get drinks."

~~~
"You never know, one of the most important parts is keeping them safe, and you do that well." Nova replied.

~~~
"Most likely" Dawn agreed then looked to Esk and tilted her head a little "You drawn any new pictures?" She asked conversationally even as she turned to walk down the hall. Vestia would call her if she was needed, she was certain of that.

"What do Aketi do at their parties?" Ethan asked, curious in spite of himself. He was still watching Hewitt, expecting the guy to get hurt at any moment, and really not wanting that to happen.

~~
Ellie and Shane headed over.

"Oh, hello," Zara said with a smile. "It's good to see you guys again."

"You too! And hey Web, long time, no see!" Ellie grinned.

~~
"Hello, Matt," Asher said. He looked down at Danika, wanting to be sure she wasn't getting overwhelmed by all the people. He knew it was probably a lot.

~~
"I suppose," Tala said, wiggling her ears. "One must have other traits too though, such as the desire to understand and sympathize with irrational behaviors. Children are not known for their great common sense."

The tiniest trace of a flinch crossed Esk's face at Dawn's question but was replaced by his mask almost immediately. "No." He replied flatly, not elaborating. He didn't want to talk about how his shaking hands were messing with his ability to do the things he usually did, it made him feel vulnerable and useless.

---

"Debate, play games of wit and logic, some even bring their latest project along to show off." Hewitt laughed heartily. "Artificial intelligances were quite popular projects when I was younger. " he shook his head. "But nevermind that, tell me, how long was I asleep for?"

---

Web bowed his head gracefully to Ellie and Shane. "It's a pleasure to see you again. I hope you're keeping my brother out of trouble." He smiled.

----

"So you met Danika huh?" Matt grinned at his sister. "And you already met Lana, have you met Jarral?"

Jess frowned a little. "Why is he here?" She asked.

Matt shrugged and looked to Kay who also shrugged.
"We're not totally sure. Eva kinda... told him to come along and then he said his god wanted him to stay for a bit and... I dunno, he's not that talkative." Matt waved a hand dismissively.

"Ahh, you met the Star Marshall then?" Jess asked.

[Oh he 'met' her alright.] Kay wrote, keeping the tablet so Danika couldn't see.

Jess rolled her eyes.

"How do you know her?" Matt asked, curious.

"Well she claimed to be trying to contact all the families of those who had disappeared. I don't know how much success she had in that, but she said I was almost family. You know she's Stellan's half sister don't you?"

Matt nodded. So did Kay.

"She has a brother too." Jess continued, shaking her head.

"Really?" Matt asked.

Jess shot him a warning look. "don't even think about it."

Matt raised both hands defensively. "I wasn't thinking anything!"

[I can believe that.] Kay wrote. It was wierd having his sister her, the whole family in fact, the way Jess interacted with Matt felt almost... normal and he'd been craving normal.

"Anyway, Miss Doran has been messaging me for the past few years on and off. keeping me up to date with the rift, telling me news. I admit I don't often know how to reply. She talks a lot." Jess continued.

"You gotta meet Jarral." Matt decided, looking to Danika. "you wanna come? Lana said you guys were friends at one point?" Truthfully, he had an alterior motive here. Kay seemed to be cheering up and that meant he might actually TALK to Asher. Matt was certain they needed to talk and damnit, he wasn't going to sit and watch another relationship fall apart because of this stupid time jump. Not on his watch.
And he really did want to introduce Jess to her nephew, Jarral's existance still gave him a degree of smug amusement. Web screwed up first! It was vindicating.

"Hi again" Shane said to both of them, smiling happily. Nothing was going horrible, even if he had noticed a few people had left. Oh well, at least they had shown up. "Thankfully no one's been in trouble since our return."

~~~
Dawn frowned then sighed. "I wish you could. I like your pictures, or what I have seen of them." She said softly. She knew it was a sore spot with him, but it was an answer that let her know how bad things still were with him.

~~~
Danika at least knew Matt, so he wasn't a full unknown to her, plus he was happy and the talking made Kay happy. That was good, even if she missed some parts of the conversation. "Jerral was my friend when he lived with us as kids. He's changed a lot but I still want him to be my friend." She answered with a small shrug. "Can you see him here?" She couldn't when she looked around. She didn't let go of Asher's hand, it helped even without the psychic link others had.

"I suppose that does sound more fun than the drinking-and-eating sort of party, other than the part where people parade around AIs," Ethan decided.
"You were in a coma for over two weeks. Do you remember any of it?"

~~
"I mean, some people have had a hard time since we arrived," Ellie added, "But yeah, we've done a good job looking out for Matt." She looked slightly worried, despite her best efforts. Losing Thalia had been hard on Matt, he'd believed in her so completely.
Trying to keep her thoughts from going in that grim direction, she added, "Hey, you don't happen to share Matt's gift for bartending, do you? Like, a genetic predisposition to good bartending?"

Zara laughed, although she noticed Ellie's worry. Another mystery she'd like to know more about at some point.

~~
Asher smiled at the siblings' banter. He'd been wondering how Jess being here would work out, and it was nice to see things going well. Although he might have preferred to know a little less about Matt's private life, oh dear.
He looked around, trying to spot if Jarral was here. He hadn't actually met Jarral yet, but he knew him by sight at least. The living shadow thing was hard to miss.

Esk averted his gaze. He didn't often share his art, it was personal. "yeah..." He mumbled, clasping his hands together.

---

Hewitt laughed. "Now I wouldn't call it a parade. The good ones took part in the debates." He shook his head. "two weeks? not too bad then." He seemed fairly nonplussed about the whole coma thing. He looked down at his chest which was a mess of regrowing tissue. "What a mess, I hope those bastards suffered."

----

Web nodded to Shane and Ellie. "I hope that remains so." He told Shane and he smiled softly at Ellie's question about bartending. "I don't think I have quite my brother's... passion for the subject but I think I muddle through." He moved to get a better look at what there was behind the bar. "What would you like?"

---

Jarral had remained lurking in a corner, he was trying out Lana's suggestion of people watching but honestly these people were bewildering and confusing and he was having hard time making any sense of their behaviour.

Matt noticed him and pointed. "Hey, excellent, he hasn't snuck off yet!" He smiled to Danika. "Let's go make him talk to us then."

Dawn wasn't sure what else to say, so just walked to a lounge area, thankfully they were all empty at the moment.

~~~~
Danika returned his smile, looking up to Asher then to Kay to be sure they would come too. "Let's go."

"The ones we didn't kill are probably in the rift with the demons, I think we can assume they suffered," Ethan said. He just hoped Sawna wasn't in the demons' grasp, wherever she was.
"You don't seem very freaked out by this," he remarked, "Still skeptical?"

~~
"I'll have whatever drink you know how to mix." Ellie grinned. "Assuming they have the ingredients for it here. Otherwise beer would be fine."
She looked to Shane, "How about you? The whole... collective anger thing is mostly over, right?"

"Collective anger?" Zara asked dubiously.

~~
"Jarral's not going to mind being suddenly swarmed by people, is he?" Asher asked Danika, although he followed her anyway, glancing to Kay uncertainly as he went. From what little he knew of Jarral, the guy didn't sound very sociable.

"Just beer for me, even with the anger thing defused there's no sense taking chances." Shane replied then looked to Zara uncertainty. "It's part of my abilities, when connected with my people, we share emotions. Alcohol lowers inhibitions and connects to the primal and hidden emotions which was mostly anger, now there's not so much anger."

~~~
Danika slowed and looked to Asher, frowning in thought. "He's not social" She replied then sighed. "He won't like a lot of people around. He didn't even when he lived with us as a kid."

Hewitt shrugged. "I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes." Yep, still skeptical. He was a scientist, scientsts didn't go around believing in extra dimensional demons and time travel.

---

Web nodded and examined several bottles carefully, holding them a little close to his face as he studied them. He still struggled a little with galactic common in written form and his eyesight was crap even with glasses.

"I empathise." He told Shane. "Sensing the emotions of others can be useful but it can also be a great burden."

---

Matt shrugged. "Maybe we should only subject him to a couple of people at a time. But i'm sure he'll want to see you Danika, you guys were friends and if he doesn't like people much, that's extra special" yep, he was certain of it.

Kay nodded. What little he'd interacted with Jarral, the kid really didn't seem to much care for people.
He paused and looked at Matt warily, realising he might have some ulterior motive here.

Matt just grinned back at him.

---

Esk slumped onto a comfortable looking sofa, honestly grateful to get the weight off his feet for a bit. He was hiding it well but his stamina wasn't great anymore and that was yet another thing that pissed him off. He hated feeling fragile and limited.

"so..." He began, trying to think of a topic that wasn't personal. "Rigel and Luka finally decided to go public with their... thing huh?"
yeah, that'd do. Gossip about other people.

"That sounds... intense," Zara said to Shane.

"His species were enslaved for centuries, so they had a lot of anger built up," Ellie told her. "It was pretty bad for a long time, but they're doing better now. Mostly!"
Looking over to Web she asked, "Hey, want any help over there?"

"I have so many questions," Zara said, still looking at Shane with some uncertainty, but also sympathy now. She sipped her soda. It was room temperature by now, but she didn't really notice.

~~
"Should I stay here, then?" Asher asked, not totally sure what decision had been reached. He noticed Matt and Kay's silent exchange, but didn't know what to make of it. For all he knew there might be telepathy involved, or there might not.

~~
"Fair enough," Ethan said after a moment, "I guess it does sound a little far-fetched." He supposed he wouldn't have believed it himself, if someone had had to tell him. He would likely have assumed they were trying to make a fool of him.
"We can't show you the Rift in person, but there are pictures of it," he said. "It looks creepy as all hell."

Shane shrugged and looked at Zara "I'm just a half breed, but ask away. If it's something I can't answer, I'll say so."

~~~
"If he doesn't want us there, he can ask us to leave him alone." Danika said, not letting go of Asher's hand and forging on ahead. She didn't want to be left out of talking to Jerral and didn't want Asher left out of the family meeting.

~~~
Dawn tilted her head thinking about the two then shrugged "I hadn't really noticed, but I guess so. Not the oddest couple on this ship, but an interesting pairing anyway."

Hewitt settled back on the edge of his bed, folding his hands over the top of his cane. "and how am I to be sure they aren't doctored?" He smirked, rather enjoying himself actually. "Sit, tell me what i've missed."

----

Web shook his head, forcing a smile. "I'm fine, just want to be sure i've got the right things." He set a few bottles on the counter along with a couple of beers because they were easy to figure out.

---

Matt gave up, Danika clearly wanted to stay with Asher and he couldn't really blame her. poor kid, she didn't really know the rest of them that well after all. "Sure, good point."

He led the way with Jess hesitantly following and Kay bringing up the rear, looking awkard and anxious.
His default expression these days it seemed.

Jess looked to Kay questioningly. Matt was being wierd.
Kay just shook his head. He didn't want to go into it.

---

Esk frowned a little. "Don't your species do some sort of pair bonding for life thing?" He'd talked to Luka about this before, he knew he had, but he couldn't quite grasp the exact details of that conversation now. This troubled him immensely. He was losing memory, gaps were forming. Was this how normal people's minds worked? he didn't like it. He was too accustomed to having perfect recall, even if it was at times awful.

He tilted his head at Dawn, smirking a little. "And who would you class the wierdest pairing then?" Hey, he was curious and bemused. He didn't much care about who was screwing who as long as it didn't interfere with their work, only reason he gave a shit about Luka and Rigel was the fact Rigel was their captain and crew drama was awkward and unpleasant.

Zara hesitated. Some of the things she was wondering were unhappy topics, probably not suitable for a party. But she could try the less obviously unhappy ones, at least.
"So your species are all in some sort of constant communication with each other? Even over really long distances?" If Shane had been here drinking but had been sensing his species anger about being enslaved, that suggested a pretty long range, probably.

Ellie smiled at Web. "All right, I won't get in the way. I don't want to keep an artist from doing their art."

~~
Asher smiled softly at Danika and let her lead him. He was going to be a supportive father, and poor Jarral was just going to have to cope with meeting everyone at once, at least for a bit. They really were a rather large group.
Anyway, he supposed it would be a good idea to actually meet Jarral, since Danika had been friends with him for so long.

~~
Ethan grabbed one of the chairs and sat down with a huff. "Well with Androids, there's a reason they accept our memories as evidence in court. Fake footage would have to be extremely cleverly done, and installing it in a way that isn't detectable would be even harder."
Something he was very grateful for; if his memories had been easy to edit, he knew Kaylr would have used that in his mind games.
He considered, "I guess the main thing you missed, other than jumping forward in time, was Esk being possessed by a demon. That was memorable."

Shane shook his head, that was a tough one to answer, but he would try. "No, there's only one that can communicate with everyone at once, everyone else either has to be family, as close as family or nearby. The collective emotions thing, from what I understand of it, was created after we started being enslaved as a place to hide our emotions and keep those enslaved from destroying themselves and the places they were being held. A 'you can't save a dead species' kind of deal."

Zara took a few seconds to consider that. It looked like she hadn't managed to avoid depressing topics after all. "I'm sorry, that must be awful," she said. "Your species is mostly free now, I hope?"

"Oh, yes, for many years now." Shane said and smiled.

Hewitt tilted his head. "Had a psychotic break at last did he? Not surprised, mammals have such weak minds." He snorted derisively.

---

Web focused on pouring a drink, something simple he knew went together. "Artist?" He chuckled softly. "I don't believe i've ever heard anyone describe drinking as art." He offered the resulting drink to Ellie to taste. It was sweet and syrupy.

---

Jarral stared at the group approaching, pale eyes narrowed slightly in apprehension while his face remained stony. The shadows were writhing around him gently, as if they were being softly buffeted by an unfelt breeze.

"Am I to assume you have questions?" He asked as they got closer. He didnt' sound enthused.

Matt laughed. "Well I mean.. not really but... " He looked to Jess, then back to Jarral "I guess kinda actually."

Jarral stared at his uncle and said nothing.

"have you met your auntie Jess?" Matt finished, indicating Jess.

Jess was herself staring at Jarral.

"Yes." Jarral replied flatly.

"You're him aren't you?" Jess asked, still staring.

Jarral turned his attention to his aunt. He didn't seem to blink nearly as often as he should.

"wait... who?" Matt was confused. "What?"

Kay came to stand by Danika, looking bewildered.

"you're the boy who begged me to help your Lord, pleaded with me to return with him to the underground city." Jess continued.

Jarral bowed his head. "yes."

Jess shook her head, letting out a bitter laugh. "So YOU'RE Jarral. You never told me your name. "

"It was not relivant." Jarral replied.

"It all makes so much more sense now." Jess mused.

"Am I the only one totally lost right now?" Matt asked.

Ethan made a face. "It wasn't a psychotic break, it was demonic possession. The telepaths had to go rooting through his mind to find out if the demon was still in there, then they had to drown him to get it out."
He frowned, though, thinking about how he didn't actually have any first hand evidence it was true. Just because other events on this ship had been pretty clearly magical didn't mean this one had been.

~~
"Drinking isn't an art, but drink-making is," Ellie said, in a tone that suggested she was imparting upon Web one of the fundamental truths of the universe. To her, maybe it was. Or maybe she was just making a joke.
She sampled her drink. "Pretty good! This is a talent you should hone by visiting us regularly." Hey, she liked sweet things. A syrupy sweet drink was a bonus for her.

"Well I'm glad to hear that," Zara told Shane. "The slavers who attacked this ship, where they with the slavers who came after your species before?"

~~
(Would Web have mentioned Jess saving him to Asher, or would he have kept quiet about it?)

"Yes, they didn't expect the fight they got from us." Shane replied "We had something worth fighting for here, this is home."

"Drown him?" Hewitt sounded vuagely interested now. "Isn't that usually fatal for mammals?"

---

(honestly I doubt it came up. Web's shit at talking about himself much.)

Web chuckled softly, but he looked a little sad. "If only it were that simple." He'd like to visit more but his duty gave him little in the way of time he could justify away. Juggling it all was not easy, he'd struggled with it over the past ten years trying to split his time between his birthright, searching for Vestia and keeping contact with Danika and Lana.

---

Esk settled into an uncomfortable silence for a while before he finally asked. "Dawn? Are you actually alright?"

Asher frowned; this was news to him. "He got you to help Web?" he asked Jess. "What happened? When was this?" It must have been a while ago, if Jarral had still been a child, but he couldn't help worrying about what Web must have gotten himself into that time to need an outsider's help.

~~
Zara nodded. "Having a cause counts for a lot. And I suppose maybe your powers help too, although I imagine they must attract enemies as well." She'd seen Kerr's shapeshift earlier and she knew Shane was half the same species, so she assumed he and the other dragons had that ability as well.

Ellie sighed, looking more serious at Web's words. "Yeah. I know your work keeps you really busy. And from what Matt says, you can't just.. talk sense to the Kevali and make them leave, can you?"
To her it seemed like it should be a simple task, but by now she had heard enough to realize that it was more complex than that. Ugh, politics.

~~
"Yes drowning is usually deadly for mammals. And for people with blood in general," Ethan said with a nod. "They had to start resuscitating him as soon as his heart stopped, and it still fucked him up. Nobody's sure if he'll ever recover fully."