Upon Vestia: Chapter Fourteen

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(Cause the old thread won't split.)

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:"aww poor little green mouse." Luka laughed. "That trap is ridiculous."

"We totally gotta rope Esk into this at some point" Matt laughed. "He needs to be made pretty, well.. prettier... " He snickered. "But how do you convince him? Think Ellie batting her eyelids at him might work?" He followed after them.

Shane shrugged and looked to Ellie "I don't know if Ellie's cuteness works on Esk. He doesn't seem affected by things like that. Definitely not as much as we would be."

Ellie glanced back at Shane suspiciously for a moment, then waved to the others to follow her into the city. Great, they thought she was cute.
Too bad they didn't think she was smart.
Not that she thought she was smart, but still.
Normally this wouldn't bother her, and she wasn't going to let it bother her now. "Come on, let's go find nice clothes," she said.

(To the capitol?)

--to capitol!--

James was angry.
Earlier that morning, Asher had found him, and told him in no uncertain terms that he was forbidden to go to the debate. Asher had remained polite and kind as always, but there was a bit of steely determination in his eyes that normally wasn't there, and he had concluded their little chat with an ominous, "We can't afford to alienate the Guild, they could be the only chance the androids have if my plan doesn't work. There's too much at stake here, James. I know you're angry, and you have every right to be. But you have to keep it to yourself."
That was weird. Asher barely ever gave orders, and he was usually a blind optimist. But here he was acknowledging that his plan might not be enough, and that everyone might die. So James had nodded silently, and then raced off to the holodeck to vent his rage about the Guild, his stupidly polite pushover brother, all the death and cruelty and unfairness, and everything else, by galloping his favorite holographic horse over difficult terrain in a thick forest and snarling obscenities to himself. The horse didn’t care. It was a hologram, and about as sentient as a pet rock.
He had just jumped a ditch and was preparing to plow his way through some safe holodeck brambles that had no thorns, when he realized he wasn’t alone any more. He slowed his horse and turned it to see who was there.
One of his brothers was leaning against a tree, watching him boredly. James concluded it was Ethan, because Asher didn’t wear a black leather jacket and have a chronic case of resting bitch face.

“What are you doing here?” James asked sharply.

“I wanted to check out the holodeck a bit more, since supposedly it's open to the public.” Ethan raised an eyebrow. “You ride holographic horses, huh? Weird hobby.”

James glared. “I don’t care what you think. I’m having a shit day, and I’ll vent my mood however I want.”

“Fine, whatever makes you happy,” Ethan shrugged, unimpressed. “What’s wrong with you? Normally you’re not this bitchy.”

“Asher’s off trying to lick the boots of the Guild so maybe they’ll stoop so low as to help us androids,” growled James, “He forbade me from going because heaven forbid someone tell them off for being too lazy to stop a genocide. Of course Asher wants me out of the way, he’s always been good at saying what people want to hear, putting the truth in a nice, presentable package so it won’t be uncomfortable or inconvenient for the people in power. He won’t tell them they should have tried harder, helped sooner, he’ll be polite and nice and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and he’ll quite possibly mean it because he’s so good at detaching and putting the past in the past!” He looked furious.

Ethan watched James calmly as he raged. “What do you want him to do, spit in their faces?” He asked finally. “That doesn’t really seem like his style.”

James rode his horse closer to Ethan to glare down at him more effectively. “My brother is a pushover, these people are self righteous asses who will never realize what’s wrong with them if no one tells them, and none of that will change if I don’t do anything.”

Ethan looked at him steadily, unfazed. He’d been towered over by people far more intimidating than James before. “That’s stupid.”

“No it’s not,” James retorted.

“Yes it is. We’re not talking about your feelings here, we’re talking about the stupid situation with android rights in this universe, and how all of you guys think of each other as ‘family’. Your brother isn’t trying to get closure for his own personal angst, he’s trying to free as many androids as he can so they won’t die like your sister did. That means not doing stupid things like telling off potential allies for things that happened a long time ago.”

“Right. You’re basically Asher. You wouldn’t understand,” James snapped. He turned to ride off.

Oh, now that was not okay. Ethan grabbed James’ horse by the bridle, bringing it to a complete stop as the First Law took its mind over.

“Let go,” James said.

Ethan didn’t. “I am NOT Asher, no matter how much like him I look,” he said coldly. “I may understand some of his ideas, but I’m not him, and I do not appreciate the comparison.”

The younger android hesitated, then looked a bit guilty. “Yeah. Sorry, man.”

“Don’t do it again,” Ethan said.

James nodded.

Ethan glared up at him. “I get that you’re angry. Androids here get treated like shit. But when you adopted me, you told me that all androids are family. And from what I’ve read, I’m pretty sure family doesn’t put their personal feelings above the good of everyone else. Emma’s dead, the Sixes are dead. They don’t care what happens now. But the Sevens, the Eights? I hear you guys even have Fives still in this universe. Asher may be a pushover most of the time, but this time he’s grovelling and licking the Guild’s boots for them. So figure it out, you moron.”

James stared at him in silence.

Ethan shrugged. “You’re in a snit, and I’m sick of your whining. I'll check the holodeck out some other time.” He released James’ horse and headed for the exit.

James sat on his horse, thoroughly confused. Had Ethan just lectured him about the meaning of family and in a really backhanded way defended Asher? That guy was strange.
After a bit he went back to riding through the forest, but more slowly, thinking things over this time.

Esk had found a quiet floor to hide from Matt and any other moron who wanted to take him shopping. It wasn't happening. He didn't like parties and he wasn't about to dress up like some idiot to fawn over a full moon. He was used to locking the doors, barring the windows and settling in for a long night with a gun in hand when there was a full moon, not basking in the light and gushing over how damn pretty it was.
Maybe if he wasn't from a world where full moons meant death he'd be a little more inclined to celebrate, but he doubted it. He still hated parties.

He flicked through his sketchbook idly, shaking his head at a rough pencil sketch of Vicky sprawled seductively across a bed. Was that a pang of guilt he felt there? Or just annoyance? He wasn't overly sure any longer.

He'd been trying not to think about her and why she'd left, and what idiocy she might be getting into.
He preferred to think she'd been truthful when she told him he wasn't worth that much, it made him feel better to think she just didn't want to look at him because she was mad rather than because he'd really really hurt her.
He hadn't meant to after all. It was, he reasoned, not his fault anyway. Why should he care?

Frustratingly that seemed to happen a lot these days. When he actually wasn't trying to upset people he made them cry.

He wondered if he should have lied.

But it was easier to assume she was fine, venting her frustration in some mindless violence, taking some time out to get her head together. Crazy crazy Vicky, how desperate and nuts did you have to be to want a relationship from HIM?

He tutted and went back to flicking through pages till he found a blank one and started to draw.

Eventually James left his horse and shut down the holodeck, and wandered off in a random direction, still thinking. Stupid Ethan, siding with Asher. Stupid Ethan, making sense! No, he couldn't give up his anger, Emma was dead! He would always be angry about that and the Guild's pompous stupidity. Argh.
As he furiously wandered, he ended up in the room where Esk was.
"Oh, you're here," he said, annoyed.

Esk glanced up from his paper. "What the hell are you so pissed off about? One of the mops go missing? "

James glared at Esk. Him and his stupid janitor jokes that hadn't been funny the first time, ugh. "My brother didn't let me go with him to tell off these egotistical asses at the Guild. They could have helped! They could have saved the Sixes, or at least tried! But they didn't. And now Asher's off flattering them and groveling, and Ethan is siding with him! ETHAN."

Esk stared at him with that blank disinterested expression of his, shook his head and turned to a new page of his sketchbook. "But they didn't, what's yelling at them gonna achieve? won't bring the dead back to life. " Oh yeah, he paid attention when people talked about this android rights thing okay, he paid attention most of the time, even when he looked like he was half asleep from boredom. "Let him humiliate himself, it's his problem not yours. " He glanced over and started scribbling away with his pencil. "Yelling at powerful arrogant assholes doesn't seem to end well anyway. Look what happened last time you told one of these wannabe gods off. " He shrugged.

"It won't bring them back to life, but maybe a nice dose of reality will make them stop being stupid and start showing some regret for what they've done!" James raged. He knew what Ethan had said, he knew it sort of made sense, he just didn't care right now. With someone to yell at, he was all too willing to just return to the seething fury from earlier. "My brother's always let people push him around and I'm sick of it! And this has NOTHING to do with TODD!"

Esk smirked at the name, yes, it amused him. He shrugged again. "Somehow I get the feeling no amount of screaming at these people will make them say sorry. " He stopped drawing and looked over at James, tilting his head a little. "Would it really make you feel better if they did?" And he want back to sketching. "Asher's not really that much of a pushover, he just has a lot of self control. Least that's my take on it. I get the feeling he's someone you never want to see actually angry. But he gets shit done, you gotta hand it to him, he does get shit done. I figured out a long time ago that politics and diplomacy were better left in the hands of people who could put their own feelings aside and didn't mind being trampled on. It's a shit job and you and me? we care too much about ourselves to lick boots and grovel for the greater good. "

James growled. He didn't think the Guild would ever apologize either, honestly, but he wanted to make them apologize and grovel and regret so badly. "If they apologized it'd be better than them just sitting about smugly preening themselves!" He shouted, "That'd be SOMETHING at least!" He glared, "He's ALWAYS been a pushover. ALWAYS. I'm SICK OF IT. AND WHY DOESN'T ETHAN UNDERSTAND? HE WAS ANGRY AT PEOPLE LIKE I AM."

Esk shrugged. "Maybe because androids over in the other universe haven't had such a shit time, which is weird when you think about how fucked up that place was. He's mad at how HE was treated, I don't think he gives a shit about anyone else, especially not people he's never met. Why should he?" He waved a hand dismissively. He didn't really give a shit about android liberation or the sixes either, i mean come on, if you were gonna bitch about every single genocide you'd never have a moment's peace. "You care about your family, or.. whatever. You're mad because it directly affected you. It's personal, you know? But it's not personal for him, these people are strangers, just names." He shook his head. "Sit down, keep ranting. If it looks like i've tuned out I probably have but hey, don't let that stop you. You look like you need to just yell at someone and honestly, i'm pretty damn used to being yelled at." He gestured to a chair.

"But he should at least take my side! He knows what it's like to be angry about things, HE should understand why I would be really mad about this, HE shouldn't be thinking Asher's being sensible and I'm being stupid! I'M NOT BEING STUPID." James yanked the chair out and threw himself into it. "I DON'T EXPECT HIM TO CARE ABOUT IT, I JUST EXPECT HIM TO UNDERSTAND WHY I CARE."

Esk continued to draw. "Why should he understand? He never had family or had to give a shit about anyone but himself. " he paused. "Nobody ever said you were being stupid did they?" He sounded bored.

"He said I was stupid!" James glared at Esk's paper, he couldn't see what the guy was drawing, but the sound of drawing was annoying. Argh! "He said my feelings didn't matter here, all that mattered was the current situation!" Which was actually completely true, and James knew it even now, but HE WAS SO FRUSTRATED. "EVERYONE THINKS WE SHOULD BOW AND SCRAPE TO THE GUILD AND NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING THEY DON'T WANT TO HEAR."

"not everyone." Esk correctly him calmly. He shook his head, James really could yell yeesh. "nobody's forcing you to bow and scrape to anyone. Asher isn't you and you aren't Asher, let him go kiss up to them, that's his problem. He wants to swallow his pride, let him. Doesn't mean you have to."

James growled. "It's just not right. It's stupid and awful and I hate this place and I hate the people I care about trying to butter up these self righteous assholes!" He glared, "And what are you drawing? That sound is so annoying!"

Esk snorted. "yeah, I noticed." He stopped drawing. "annoying is it?" A sly sort of smirk crossed his face but he didn't answer the question.