Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Eight

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Shane nodded agreement. "Let them sort themselves out, when they are ready, if they ever are, they can admit it publicly as Starr and Armin have done with their dating.

~~~
Danika chuckled softly and shrugged "It's just part of the game, most of the situations are made up things to give a reason for adding money to your bank." She waited for him to put the amount in then picked up the dice to roll them, using the chance to show him how they were normally rolled without saying so. She landed on the starship (train) and immediately bought it

Starr looked to the kids again then to Ellie. "Do you want to go look together?" She asked curiously

Amity paused. "more guests?" He considered that. There was nothing that stated he could only have a set number, it was just standard procedure for the cruise ship to assign six to a host so the host could meet all of their needs. "If management believes that is beneficial." he nodded. Mourn had tinkered with his coding enough to allow him to recognise Vestia as a cruise ship, which had appeared to ease his transition on board.

----

Matt nodded and laughed at Asher's remark. "So uh.. i'll stay here then, keep an eye on the kids okay? Make sure they don't get into any trouble." He wasn't sure they needed supervision but it didn't quite feel right to leave them all alone just yet.

Kay looked around. It was getting late. [I'm going to eat. You seem to have this all in hand.] He glanced to Asher awkwardly. Well, it had been a wierd day hadn't it? With a gentle shake of his head he took his leave of the rest of them.

"Sure, we can shop around the station together," Ellie said to Starr. "We also might have some nice plants in Hydroponics we could use, I don't have many that fit the requirements but there are a few."
Thoughtfully she added, "Has Luna gotten to see the station?"

"I'll stay here a while too I think, if you don't mind, Matt," Asher said. Hey, he'd abandoned the kids for ten years by accident. He couldn't make up for that, but he could at least try to make sure they were safe.
He tried to smile at Kay, it came out slightly awkward. "See you tomorrow."

~~
"I'm sure everyone in management thinks this is a good idea," James said, although he wasn't entirely sure who Amity considered to be management.
He frowned in thought. They needed several people who would be nice to Amity, and who would be sympathetic of his programming. There were some people who were obvious nos, and some who were maybes. Although he might be biased, there were a few people he thought were quite promising for this job. "How many guests do you usually have?"

Kay nodded curtly, perhaps a little too curtly and left.

Matt watched him go, glancing sidelong at Asher. He didn't have to have telepathy or be an empath to know Kay was upset, the guy wasn't exactly good at hiding his emotions.

"so... uh..."
---

"Six is typical." Amity replied, his tone crisp and cheerful. "though some guests prefer to be left alone for the most part and others request more one to one attention." He smiled.

"She has not" Starr answered with a small smile. She knew Ellie would be happy to have the young dragon along. "Let's go get her and see what they have"

Asher winced at Matt's look. "It's been an interesting day?" he tried. He felt like he should be able to guess what was going through Kay's mind, but mostly he just felt out of his depth right now.

~~
"Yes, let's do that," Ellie told Starr. She waved to the others, content to leave them to their discomfort. "I hope Luna doesn't think plants are boring. I guess we should probably explore the station a little too. Maybe exploring would be good in any case though, it's not like she's really gotten to see any place other than Vestia before."

It occurred to her suddenly that Luna had hatched after Terra. She tried to remember if they'd ever landed on a planet since then, or if the little dragon had lived her entire life in space.

~~
"Six, huh? Okay, we can work with that," James said to Amity. "You've met the Androids before a few times, I think? They might be good guests for you."

It wasn't that they needed the help, of course. It was just that they'd all started with programming similar to Amity's. James figured they might understand the drone's situation.

Matt nodded, sighing softly "that it has." He agreed, settling himself against the wall. "A lot of changes for everyone." he shook his head. "How are you holding up?"

---

Amity paused, processing who the androids on this ship actually were. He nodded slowly. "I believe so..."

Asher nodded agreement, but hesitated at the question. "It's... complicated," he said. "Coming to terms with how much everything is changing, and trying to help others do the same. It doesn't help that I've never been particularly good at guessing what's on anyone's mind."

Oh, he was pretty good at being supportive once he understood what the other person was unhappy about, but unless the other person was willing to explain pretty clearly, he wasn't much good at figuring out what that was. And being fully aware of that fact, he was left with the lingering suspicion that his and Kay's relationship in particular was an emotional minefield, and sooner or later he was going to step in the wrong place and set the whole thing off.

~~
"Let's go see them, and talk things over," James said. He waved for Amity to follow him. "We'll see if they'll be a good group of guests for you. Also I heard Hewitt's awake, have you visited him yet?"

Starr smiled and walked with Ellie to her room to get Luna. When they arrived, they would see that the other three of Starr's kids were there as well, playing with Luna and her sitter. All four rushed to Starr to hug her, all of them in dragon form at the moment.

Ellie grinned, watching the adorable scene. She did love these kids, they were all so nice. She stayed a little back, they deserved as much time with their formerly-disappeared mother as they wanted.

Starr returned the hugs, taking each one in turn to hold close, ending with Luna. Danika, Kerr and Vela each went to Ellie to hug her, calling out 'Aunt Ellie' happily.

Ellie hugged the kids, smiling at all of them. "Hey there! What have you all been doing?" she asked.

Amity paused. (I can't remember hahahaah). "The Professor doesn't like to be disturbed during his dozing hours."
But he nodded and followed James obediently.

---

Matt nodded. "I get it. I mean it's huge for all of us. Ten years is a really damn long time. You guys had your life, we... blinked and missed a huge chunk." He looked away, watching the aketi exploring. "It's not one of those wave your hands and everything goes back to normal things." Even if he really wished it could be. "I mean the silver lining is that at least we're all back together. Well.. most of us." His voice cracked but he composed himself. "That's gotta count for something."

James blinked. Did Amity consider Hewitt's coma to be dozing hours? Knowing the drone, that was a definite possibility, hmm.
"We'll go see the Androids first, and visit Hewitt later," he decided.

Some of the Androids would be hanging about in a lounge, using some laptops they'd acquired from Vestia's substantial supply of miscellaneous items.

~~
"Yeah, it's difficult for everyone, in any number of ways," Asher agreed, shaking his head. In a way, he supposed he was lucky to have stayed behind. At least he'd had years to recover with the other traumatic events they'd dealt with, even if this particular one was a shock. Poor Matt, on the other hand, had had absolutely no way to prepare for Thalia's departure, and that had to be absolutely awful for him.

"How about you, how are you holding up?" Asher asked carefully. He knew Matt didn't usually want to talk about his emotions, but on the chance that Matt might want to, he wanted to ask. He just hoped he wouldn't misread the situation and do more harm than good by asking.

Kooshie wrote:Ellie hugged the kids, smiling at all of them. "Hey there! What have you all been doing?" she asked.

"Playing with Luna" Danika was the one to speak up, jumping down to shift to her other form. Kerr joined her though Vela was content at being held and hugged by Ellie.

Ellie smiled. "I'm glad you're spending time together. It must be nice to get to meet each other finally," she said, holding little dragon Vela in her arms.

"I'd rather have a brother." Kerr said quietly then shook his head a little "But it's good to have another sister too." He just wanted someone to roughhouse with.

Ellie blinked, not entirely sure what to make of that comment. "I mean technically you do have a brother, since you and Asher are both adopted by Starr," she pointed out. "Although I guess maybe that's not exactly what you mean."

Matt shrugged. "I dunno." He didn't look at Asher. Honestly he didn't know how he was. Sometimes he felt okay, other times he felt white hot rage and others he was just sad or guilty. It was exhausting and confusing and he didn't really know how he was SUPPOSED to feel which only made it harder.
He shook his head. "I dunno what to make of any of it." He folded his arms almost defensively.

----

Amity followed along, quite content to be guided by someone else.

Kerr dipped his head a little, embarrassed at the reminder. "Asher doesn't play though." He muttered "Plus he's a grownup." He added.

Danika was looking at Kerr curiously as Starr and Luna also watched the young male quietly. Starr had a thoughtful expression on her face though the girls each just though Kerr was being weird.

Asher nodded. "It's a lot," he agreed. "I hope that things will become clearer in time." He sighed and added, "It's all right to not know what to think of any of this. Although that probably doesn't make the not-knowing any easier."

~~

James led them into the lounge where some of the Androids were. "Hey there!" he said. He tried to inject cheer into his tone, although that hadn't been easy lately.

The Androids looked up from their various computers.

"Hello," said Mei, "Both of you. What brings you out here?"

~~
Ellie looked amused. "That's fair," she agreed. Yeah, Asher tended to be very serious. Not really like having a sibling one's own age. "What's made you so gloomy all of a sudden?" she added curiously, she didn't recall Kerr saying anything like this last time they'd met.

...Which had admittedly been ten years ago, to be fair.

Kerr frowned as he looked down at his feet, not wanting to see anyone's eyes. "It's just...I just want a brother I can play with, you know roughhousing." He said, turning shy

Matt shrugged. "I suppose." He seemed to be in a rather somber mood. "I guess it's hard for everyone, but in different ways. We lost time, you had to live ten years without any contact. " He shook his head. "I don't know which is worse."

----

Amity smiled. "James here believes you may be interested in my services." He told them.

Ellie still looked slightly puzzled, she and her friends had all been very energetic as kids, regardless of gender. "Maybe? Yeah, I totally get it," she said, to be understanding, even though she didn't really get it.

~~
Asher looked sympathetic. Matt was definitely having a hard time, and had every reason to be. For a moment he considered reassuring Matt that he was glad he'd been left behind, that he had enjoyed having a family and a peaceful ten years... but maybe that wouldn't be reassuring at all. Hmm.

He hesitated, he and Matt were similar in a lot of ways. Maybe if he let Matt help him, Matt would feel a bit less hopeless. And honestly, Asher really did need advice "Matt, can I ask you something?"

~~
The Androids looked at James, confused, and maybe a little suspicious.

"He's programmed to have guests," James explained. "And the guests he was assigned don't really need his help right now. So I figured maybe he could spend time with you guys since you can sympathize with the whole being programmed thing."

After a moment, Mei nodded, understanding. "Yes, of course. We'd love to be your guests, Amity," she said.

Starr hid a smile as she understood what he was saying. "That is what your friends can do, even if not related, they can still play with you." She said comfortingly.

Matt frowned a little but nodded. "Sure... Go ahead." He looked a little uncertain, not sure what Asher was about to ask. He could guess of course, but there were a few options unfortunately.

----

Amity smiled and bowed his head. "I will do everything within my power to ensure you are comfortable and well taken care of."

Ellie nodded. "Starr's right. And there are like... so many kids here now. You'll have plenty of friends to play with." She nodded again, sagely. "Not sure what Unity was like, but Vestia has a lot of people on board these days."

She recalled the first few months on board, when things had been so much quieter. A lot had changed since then.

~~
Asher looked hesitant. But he did really feel like he needed advice if he could find it.. and if it helped Matt to help people, then that would be good too.

But how much to say? Ugh, this was complicated. "I feel like there's a lot Kay isn't saying to me, possibly because he's worried about driving me away," he said doubtfully. "And I can't really guess what's on his mind, because I've never been good at that. So I'm concerned that I'm going to make an absolute mess of things without realizing it. If you have any advice... I'd really appreciate it."

~~
Carlos paused his game on his laptop at this point, to smile at Amity. "Thank you, we appreciate that." He looked to Mei.

"You could help us play video games," Mei suggested. "That would be very useful."

James looked amused.