Upon Vestia: Chapter TWENTY

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Heny stood there and listened as the two spoke, her heart beat rising. She had visited him a couple of times but found it too painful with eveything going on.

Luka laughed. "It does seem to have become a little complicated." She let him clean the grazes and scrapes, trying not to flinch.

"You're okay with being an aunt to a baby dragon and two baby robots, right?" James teased, trying to distract Luka from the discomfort.

"Baby robots? " Luka asked. "You guys are never babies right?"

"Maybe 'kids' is more the right concept than 'babies' was," James said. "We don't like, grow and stuff, but they're not even a year old yet so they're kinda... not mentally developed yet." He smiled softly, "A bit like Starr's androids in the other universe."

Luka tried not to shudder, those blank androids were spooky. "How long does it take before you guys are like... till you're not kids anymore?"

James shrugged. "It depends. If you grow up around other androids and people who regularly talk to you as a person, you can start having opinions and stuff pretty early. I started having opinions when I was about four I think. Of course if you don't get to talk to people much, it takes a lot longer." He finished bandaging the last cut, "There, done. You're going to be all healed up in no time!"

Luka nodded. "So you have like... sort of ... android nephews.. nieces? Why isn't there a gender neutral term for that?" She made a face.

"Yeah! They're great. Or I assume they're great, I haven't actually met them yet," James said. He nodded, "There must be a term for it, but if there is, I've never heard it. This language is so dumb."

Luka nodded. "It is.... odd. there's no words for certain things and then like all these words for the same thing." She shook her head. "In my native tongue we have Geschwisterkind, literally sibling's children... It's a bit of a long word though."

"Geschwisterkind," James repeated the word a bit clumsily, he wasn't very dedicated to his learning of the Satare language, and it showed in his pronunciation. "I'm totally calling them that from now on." He could imagine how confused his nieces and nephew would be. It would be funny. "Man, you guys have some crazy long words."

Luka nodded. "Yes, seems to be that if we can jam three or four words into one we will." She laughed.

"Maybe it's a trick to make it seem like you have more words and better words than we do," James mused. "You turn a lot of words into one word so it seems more efficient, but secretly it has just as many syllables as it would take to describe the same thing in Common."

Luka considered that. "Maybe... Or it's just how languages are. " She stood up. "So what's your plan for the day?"

James considered that. "I'm not entirely sure yet. Other than the Acus thing, anyway. You have any plans?"

Luka shook her head. "I can't really go into town. Maybe i'll just go for an explore. I mean, this ship is huge, I keep stumbling on facilities I didn't even know existed." She frowned a little. "If you want, I could go check on Acus?"

"Exploring is good," James agreed with a smile, "And Vestia is great for that. Yeah, maybe it'd be good for you to check on him. I probably shouldn't."

Luka nodded. "Alright, maybe i'll see if he's eaten yet, take him some coffee. He can drink coffee right?" She hadn't a clue. He could drink booze though, so... coffee was probably okay? Eugh aliens.

"Thanks Luka, you're the best," James said gratefully. "Yeah, he can drink coffee. I think he likes it." Obviously he wasn't great at guessing what Acus looked though, hmm.

Luka smiled awkwardly. "It's fine, he's my captain too..."

James smiled. "I'm still grateful."

~~
Ellie would wake up eventually, horribly hung over, and go running off to the bathroom to be sick. Then she'd stagger back to her room to groan for a while before finally pulling herself together enough to head for the cafe in search of coffee. "Vestia, dim the lights," she muttered.

Vestia obliged, dimming the lights in the hall she was in.

Ellie muttered gratefully and continued her long trek to the cafe.

~~
Asher would probably take the hatchlings out of Starr's room once they started waking up. He wanted Starr to be able to sleep when she got back, and she wouldn't be able too with bored baby dragons climbing on her.
He'd feed them breakfast and let them use the new, bigger litterbox in the med bay.

Starr wandered back after the festivities were over, coming to her room to catch up on her sleep.

~~
Shane had come back with Ellie then gone to his room to sleep once he was sure she was settled.

~~
Sawna had come back before dawn, avoiding the light and going to the cafe, though she didn't expect any business this morning.

Ellie stumbled, zombielike, into the cafe. The lights dimmed as she entered; Vestia was still trying to help Ellie's hangover. "Coffeeee..." she moaned, leaning heavily on the counter, "Pleeeeeease...."

Amity cheerfully kept Sawna company and bustled about neatening things and wiping down surfaces that didn't need wiping down, because he didn't quite understand.
He smiled to Ellie.

"Good morning Ellie, You sound more monosyllabic than usual."

---

Matt was probably curled up with Thalia, sleeping in.

---

Web rose, showered because hot running water was an amazing thing and he was going to make the most of access to it omg, and then he headed out, trying to remember his way and probably getting horribly lost.

---

Luka smiled back, "What are friends for?" She patted him on the shoulder. "I should grab a shower. I'll see you soon okay?"

---

Esk eventually willed himself to move, managing to get into sitting position and biting back a cry of pain. Damnit, why did cracked ribs have hurt so damn much?
He took a few slow, shaky breaths and tried to remember what he'd done with the painkillers.

---

Kay stirred and looked blearily around, finding his tablet to check the time. Morning, he should get out of here. He rubbed his shoulder and neck, craving an actual bed and tapped on the bars to try to wake Tala.

"Hangoverrrrr...." Ellie muttered, "Shhhh." She found some bills in her pocket and shoved them on the counter without checking to see if she had handed over the right amount. It was probably at least five dollars more than a cup of coffee cost here. Oops.

~~
James smiled at Luka. "Okay, see you later. Good luck with the Captain!"

~~
Tala awoke at the sound with a snort, sitting up abruptly. She said something in a deep and bovid sounding language, which sounded like it might have been a question.

Luka nodded. "Try not to fret." She waved and headed off.

---

Kay tilted his head. Good morning.

---

"Hangover?" Amity asked, not lowering his voice. His system helpfully scanned for information.

Tala shook her head a few times, earring swinging with the movement. She rubbed her eyes, scratched behind one ear, stood up, swishing her tail, and apparently finally got her mind working fully. Greetings, Kay! Is it at last the light of day that greets us?

~~
"Shhhhh," Ellie said again, "Noises hurt."

Kay nodded. Can you let me out?

---

"Oh dear, perhaps isolation would be preferable?" Amity suggested, STILL not keeping his voice down. He didn't really seem to get it. But he made the coffee.
Sawna could deal with the money, she seemed to have a better grasp of how the till worked