Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Nine

First topic message reminder :

Ivor was pretty thankful for Tala's quiet thoughts, if her unshielded thoughts were anything like her speaking voice, he'd have had a headache already.
He nodded slowly.

Kay was in the other medical room, carefully stocking shelves with some of the new supplies that had arrived and checking them off on a checklist.

Tori was settling things up in the new med bay too, she liked her new job and she wanted to do it well. She was pretty much staying out of Kay's way though, he seemed nice, but she still wasn't quite comfortable enough to strike up conversations with him.

Asher wheeled into the room, looking around at the work that had already been done. "Hey guys. Looks like you've been busy." He smiled a bit.

Kooshie wrote:"See you soon. And thank you again for your help." Asher said, then headed off to pack.

James smiled at Nova. "All right, tour it is then. I'm not sure how many crew members Rigel is bringing along, but since I won't be coming along, you can borrow my room." He led her up out of the cargo hold.

Nova smiled and followed him "I picked what looked like an unused room." She said with a little frown.

"Oh, well then you're probably okay. Some people move out of here pretty fast once the ship gets back to Vestia. If there wasn't anything personal in the room, I'm sure you're fine." James smiled brightly. "Anyway, I guess I'll show you like, the bathrooms and the med bay and stuff. It's good to know where those things are, or so I've been told."

Kay turned at Asher's voice. Of course he was busy, he was fretting. He forced a smile. [Do you have everything arranged?]

"I think I have everything ready. I packed, and talked to Nova," Asher said. "Nova says she can create a teleporting link that can take us back to the Silver Devil if the situation requires, which is reassuring. Means we'll be that much safer."

Kay raised an eyebrow [Teleporting link?]

"She says she can magically connect two stones so that if one of us says a word while we have one of them, the stone will instantly pull us to where the other stone is, which will be on the ship," Asher said. "I'm not sure I fully understand it, but it sounds like a good way to evacuate a place quickly."

Tori was trying not to look like she was listening in. She was shelving things a little ways away, but not out of hearing range.

Kay nodded slowly. That sounded extremely useful. If only they'd had those when the kids had been sent away, then they could just teleport them back.. eugh, no sense going down that road.
He frowned a little. [You're leaving in the morning then?]

"Unless something comes up, leaving tomorrow morning is the plan," Asher said. He almost started apologizing right then and there, but then glanced at Tori and thought the better of it.

Kooshie wrote:"Oh, well then you're probably okay. Some people move out of here pretty fast once the ship gets back to Vestia. If there wasn't anything personal in the room, I'm sure you're fine." James smiled brightly. "Anyway, I guess I'll show you like, the bathrooms and the med bay and stuff. It's good to know where those things are, or so I've been told."

Nova smiled at that and nodded. "If needed, I can move, but I didn't see anything personal." She said, moving to walk with him to see the rest of the ship.

"Makes sense to me. Everyone on this ship is pretty nice, regardless, so they won't get mad if you do something wrong anyway. Well, except for Esk, the guy with the scales, he's kind of a dick. And Tala, the minotaur lady, says some insensitive stuff sometimes and yells if you annoy her. But they're both basically harmless if you don't attack them or something." James started showing Nova the different rooms that the Silver Devil had to offer.

Nova smiled, happy to hear that confirmed. She hadn't really met the others, but Starr had told them about them. "I won't attack them, are they coming too?"

"I'm not sure if they're going or not. It's not a long trip, so Rigel, he's the captain, might decide to bring a pretty minimal crew. Or he might bring them all, I'm not sure," James said. "I wonder if he's around here somewhere, we could totally ask him."

Kay nodded and chewed his lip, glancing back at the work there was still to do. It would be okay, he tried to convince himself, nothing terrible would happen. He was having trouble believing that though.

Rigel was talking to Dawn about the trip before he would head back to the ship and let her pack.

Nova shrugged a little "I haven't seen anyone until you two came."

Asher watched Kay, he didn't like how worried the guy was. And sadly, Kay's worry was completely justifiable and not at all possible to set aside. "Do you want to take a break for a bit?" he asked. "I have some things I want to tell you about work." Totally about work, and not just that he wanted to spend time with his boyfriend, really. Now there were androids everywhere and they didn't fully approve of his relationship, he'd started to develop a bit of Kay's desire for secrecy.

Tori was still pretending she wasn't listening in. She was pretty good at that.

~~
James thought he heard someone coming in. "Yo, who is it?" he called. Probably one of the Silver Devil crew, but other than that, who knew?

Kay smiled wryly and glanced to Tori. [Will you leave some work for me?] Yeha he knew androids, they'd do all the work and leave him with nothing to distract himself grrr.

Tori looked over at Kay's tablet screen and blinked. She didn't know Kay well enough to know if that was a joke or not. "Wait, really?"

"He likes work," Asher said. "Really."

Tori looked a little puzzled. She had never known many workaholics, most people she'd worked with were perfectly fine with leaving their work for someone else to do. "All right then. I'll leave some of it for you I guess."

Kay smiled softly to Tori, nodding. [It gives me something to do.] He explained.

"All right then. I'll be sure to leave you things to do." Tori still looked a little puzzled, but she smiled at Kay. He seemed nice enough, if a bit odd. "See you later."

Kay nodded. Maybe he'd explain later, if he felt up to it.
He left with Asher.

Asher wheeled out of the med bay with Kay, waiting until they were a decent distance away before saying, "I'm sorry about the short notice for this trip. I know you're worried, I am too. We're doing our best to make sure we're safe though, and I promise I'll write to you about anything that happens."

Kay nodded. [I know you will. And I know those with you will do everything they can to keep you safe. ] He just always worried, even if it wasn't always rational. He looked grim. [I don't mean to make you feel guilty about going, it will, after all, be good to have you back to normal.] He tried to focus on the positive, but damn it was hard. How the hell did people do this optimism thing? eugh.
He didn't want Asher taking unnecessary risks, but at the same time, he couldn't help but be proud of Asher's altruistic tendencies. Sometimes, risks were necessary. He just hoped nothing would come up on this trip that would mean Asher felt the need to endanger himself to help someone else. No android uprisings, not yet... he wasn't ready to lose Asher to that very essential risk just yet.

[Just.. be careful. And remind anyone else who goes with you to watch what they say.] What? he didn't fully trust all the idiots around here okay?

"I'll brief them all on proper etiquette before letting them loose on the city," Asher said. He didn't fully trust Mourn or someone not to say something ill-advised, either. These guys were good people, but they weren't always especially good at self control. "They're impulsive, but they know what's at stake here. I don't think any of them would do anything to undermine the safety of my species, as long as they're reminded."
He smiled a bit, although he still looked worried. "It's going to be worth it to be out of this wheelchair finally. I've gotten used to dealing with my disability, but being able to help around the med bay more and help repair Vestia again will be wonderful." Although he would feel guilty about being all back to normal while Matt was still struggling through rehab, ugh, poor Matt.

[The advantage of not being organic, parts can be replaced far easier.] Kay mused, smiling softly. [Who is going along?]

"Mourn's going, and Dawn. Rigel, of course, and Starr is sending Nova." Asher looked thoughtful, "I'm not sure who else will be going, Rigel is arranging that. I'm assuming Luka will be the pilot, since she's especially good at it." He smiled a bit, "Mourn and Luka can be a bit impulsive, but I'm sure we can convince them to be careful."