Upon Vestia: Chapter Nine

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Thaila winced, "I...uhm dont remember much but that maaay of been me." He said sheepishly, "Sorry.."

"Fine fine, decaf for you mister." He snickered softly.

"Well what's the point in that?" Matt huffed. "It's alchohol free beer, it's an abomination I tell you!"

"And your kidneys and livers would thank me." Thaila shot back.

Asher sighed. "I missed you so much, too."
He added softly, "Truly, I'm going to try to be honest with you from now on. It may be difficult, because I have a bad habit of telling half-truths, but I'll try."

Kay smiled. [You aren't the only one. It becomes a bad habit after a while. It's easier to lie. ] He looked reassuring. [We'll get through this Asher. ] least he really hoped they would.

"Kidneys are totally overrated." Matt joked.

"Mm." Thaila said simply, once in the galley his nose lead him to the coffee.

Matt found mugs for the coffee and poured two because damnit, Thalia wasn't gonna tell him what to do with his kidneys grrr.
He watered his down though, mostly because he actually didn't much care for the taste of really strong coffee, especially when you had to drink it black and unsweetened.

Thaila drowned his in sugar and french cream before enjoying it.

TIMESKIP - A DAY OR SOMETHING, BUT NOT ON THE PLANET YET

Ellie had found some tinsel somewhere, and was wearing a green dress with the tinsel draped over her shoulders. She was singing something that to a trained ear, might have vaguely resembled the old Terran song "Silent Night", as she danced down the hall.

~~
Asher was fixing one of Vestia's bots in the cargo bay, it was malfunctioning badly.

Skye and Moone had stopped to watch Ellie curiously as she danced and sang down the hallway. Neither girl could figure out what the other girl was doing.

Shane saw Ellie as well, smiling at the sight of her there and happy like that.

~~~
Starr was at her shuttle, going over the spells for the amulet as she had them. She would have to see this transformation to add it to the other spells and prepare the thing for Kay.

True to his word, Kay had taken over Heny medical duty and left Asher to deal with the slavers and his brother. It theoretically saved a lot of stress, but in practice? not so much. He was anxious about this experiment of Starr's as well, he wasn't much looking forward to it.

He was currently looking for Ellie, because discussing gardening right now was something that sounded like a good distraction.

---

Mourn had also found some tinsel, probably off Ellie's outfit and was batting at it quite happily in one of the rec rooms. He lay sprawled gracelessly on the floor chewing on it, tail swishing.

---

Matt may or may not have totally made coffee just to spite Thalia.

"It's the holiday season!" Ellie told the world at large, "I can't celebrate mine, so I guess we have to improvise!" She looked at the girls and Shane, "Wanna help me decorate, guys?"

"What holiday?" Moone asked, coming over to the other girl and looking up at her curiously.

"I will help" Shane said and smiled a little. "We could use more joy on here."

Kay watched Ellie, bemused. Holidays? Off planet it was kinda hard to keep track of the seasons. The tinsel was a little bewildering, what even WAS that stuff?

"Most of the holidays that involve tinsel and presents and sugar food are at this time of year," Ellie said happily. "So we're gonna celebrate all of them. We're a bit lacking in decorations, so we'll need to improvise a bit." She looked at Kay, "You're totally invited, wanna join us?"

Kay shrugged and came over. [What time of year IS it?] He checked his calendar but honestly the Terran calendar was confusing. Only 12 months? and what even WERE leap years? what was this madness?

"Mid winter," Ellie said, guessing that Terran months meant little to Kay. "The best time of year for friends and family to come together to celebrate life and consumerism!"

Thaila would be reading as his listened, "Why am I scared..?"

Ah, it was winter already? Didn't time fly when you were in mortal peril.

Kay nodded. [Then it'll soon be longest night.] He frowned a little. [How do Terrans celebrate the winter solstice?]

"Why are you scared?" Ellie asked Thalia. To Kay she said, "I dunno. On my planet, we mostly celebrated Human Day, which would be stupid here."

"Because some of human ways of celebration are rather scary and dangerous."

Kay tilted his head, curious. [What do they do?]

Matt wandered around the corner with a mug of something hot and smirked at Thalia, waving to the others. "Hey guys. What's with the getup Ellie?"

"Fireworks indoors are perfectly safe," Ellie said.

"Don't you DARE," Vestia called from overhead.

"Fine. No fireworks indoors then." She snorted. "Human Day is the day when Humanists tell stories about how evil aliens are, and how great humans are, and how we need to ditch the aliens and live on desolate planets until they show up and we move away. Not really relevant here."
She waved at Matt, "We're talking winter holidays!"

"Oh man, winter holidays? It's winter already? Kay! that means it's nearly new year!" Matt declared.

Kay nodded.

"Oh man, longest night... " Matt sighed. "Huddled around the fire, waiting for sunrise. Man... I remember we always tried so hard to stay awake the whole night but usually we'd all fall asleep about 3am. Your mother would always wake us up so we could see the sun come up though. And the birds would start singing and it was the greatest sound ever." Matt looked wistful.

Kay smiled at him. [We have depressing holidays.]

Matt laughed. "we really do! " He looked to Ellie. "Man, I kinda wanna hear the stories about human greatness now. They sound fun. "

"The stories are just the worst. There's always an alien invasion, except when it's a robot invasion instead. And we make fun of the Humanists who think aliens can be redeemed, because to be fair, their beliefs are so weird." She laughed softly, "And the brave humans never really prevail, but they're valiant and noble and stuff, so they keep running away. Yeah, I dunno."

Thaila narrowed his eyes at Matt mug ans causa stood walking over with this arch eyebrow.