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.

"Uhh, not a whole lot. I know they have two brains, and that they lose their exoskeleton every few years. And that bleeding is really dangerous for them," James frowned at that, right, that could be a problem during a molt, couldn't it? "I don't know the procedure for assisting a molt, and I don't know how to read a vavare's vitals very well."

Kay shook his head. [Neither do I, least, not with any confidence. I just hope this doctor knows more and is willing to guide us.]

"Yeah, we seriously need a pro here, so we don't screw this up." James frowned. "If he can't help, then what? Do we fly to another city and keep looking?"

Kay looked troubled. [I don't think time is on our side here. This has to work.]

At that point the Vavare doctor arrived at Vestia's ramp. She was not an overly large female, perhaps 7 foot tall, brown skinned with short scarlet hair.
She was dressed in fairly standard clothing for her race, a sort of tunic top over which she wore a doctor's coat.

Kay blinked. He had sort of forgotten how huge Vavare females were, and to be perfectly honest, hadn't really thought about the gender of this doctor at all. Good thing Armin had a large room.

James nodded unhappily in agreement with Kay, then looked at the very tall doctor in surprise. He'd just assumed the doctor would be a guy, because the guys were so much more normal-sized, so this was unexpected. "Hello, you're the doctor coming to help us with Armin's molt?" he asked. As if she could be anyone else.

Shane just shook his head a little and sighed. He still needed to talk to his aunt or someone about this before continuing this conversation with anyone else.

"Silence may be right. The body of a female does not change to produce eggs easy if it cannot by default," Tala mused. "Then again, the miracles of magic are many and great."

Silence shrugged.

Ivor said nothing, this wasn't a topic he had any real experience in.

---

Kay nodded to the Vavare.

"Yes." She spoke to James, bowing her head and extending a hand to shake. "I am Leija Den Lakare" She told them both. "Yes, I am here to see your companion"

Shane shook his head a little "I'll see you all later."

Tala nodded. "Have a satisfactory day, Shane." She headed for the door too, she had some exercise to do now that her head hurt less.

~~
James shook Leija's hand, smiling up at her. Man, she was tall this close. Whoa. "Thanks for coming over on short notice. I'm James, this is Kay. He's mute, but he can talk to you telepathically if you're cool with that."

The doctor tilted her head. "A mute telepath?" She bowed her head to Kay. "A pleasure to meet you. "

Kay nodded back, looking a bit uncomfortable. [Thank you for coming.] He wrote, looking up to Vestia's camera. [Is Armin ready?] he asked

"Yes I think meeting Mr Skadare would be a good idea." The doctor nodded. "I understand this is your crew's first time handling a Vavare molt?"

Kay nodded stiffly.

---

Silence raised a hand in an attempt at a wave, but she didn't really fully understand the gesture.

Ivor bid them both a polite "g... goodbye..." and awkwardly took his plate to be washed.

"He's about ready. I'll tell him you guys are on your way over," Vestia said.

James smiled at Vestia, then nodded to the doctor. "We've researched some about vavare molts, but vavare are so biologically different from the humanoids we're used to, that we knew we'd better find a professional for something like this. Come on, we'll take you over to his room. It's atmosphere controlled, so you'll have no problem breathing when we get there."

~~
"The doctor just arrived, she'll be heading over to your room now," Vestia told Armin.

~~
Tala waved back, amused by Silence's odd wave. She headed off to work out.

Shane waved and headed out. He needed to find his aunt and try to talk to her before he would go to find Ellie.

Armin nodded and tidied up a little. His room was pretty spotless to be fair, but still.

--

The doctor bowed her head and would follow James and Kay. "Yes, I should imagine it's quite different to anything you may be accustomed to." She mused. "It took me many years to figure out humanoid biology." She chuckled. "You have far too few hearts for a start." She told Kay jokingly.

Kay wasn't totally sure how to take that. He just nodded.

Ellie finally woke up, and started lazily dragging herself through the process of showering and getting dressed. She was still kinda tired, but feeling much better after sleeping in.

~~
James laughed. "Yeah, that's gotta be weird. And humanoids have only two eyes? What's up with that?" He looked curious, "So you don't just take vavare patients? I guess that makes sense, there can't be that many of them in this city."

The doctor shook her head. "There are a few, traders and merchants mostly, but not enough to pay my bills I am afraid. "

James nodded. "Gotta pay the bills somehow." He led them down the hall to the area where Armin's room was. "Guess you should put on that rebreather now, Kay," he said, pausing.

Kay nodded and pulled the thing over his head, adjusting it carefully.

The doctor waited patiently.

James waited. He wasn't currently wearing his badge, so it wasn't obvious he was an android, but it was probably a fair guess that he wasn't a human because he wasn't worrying about breathing.

He led the way to knock on Armin's door when Kay was ready. "Armin? We're here."

Armin looked up. "Come in my friends." He managed. He sounded weak and tired.

Kay looked concerned, least, what little of his face anyone could see.

James opened the door, and held it for Kay, although he'd probably have to move aside for the doctor to get in since she was so big. The doorframe was reasonably high, but she'd probably still have to duck a bit to get into the room.

"Hey man, how are you feeling this morning?" James asked, looking at Armin worriedly. Poor guy sure looked miserable.

The doctor was very used to ducking, terrans were small, so she ducked under the door frame and waited for James to close the door and reseal the atmosphere before removing her breathing mask.

Armin smiled weakly and bowed his head to them all. "Good morning."

"Good morning." The doctor replied.

Kay moved aside to give them space.

James closed the door firmly and stayed near it, watching the vavare. He wasn't entirely sure whether he was supposed to introduce the doctor, or let her introduce herself. He decided to go for it.
"Good morning, Armin. I guess you already know this is the doctor who's here to see you. Her name's Leija Den Lakare. I hope I said that right."

Ellie finally left her room and went looking for Shane. She felt like finding him, they'd had a nice day yesterday, after all.

Shane was in a rec room, talking with his aunt telepathically so they wouldn't be overheard. Thankfully some of that talk was about other powers and not just mates.

Ellie peered into the room. "Hey Shane! Hey Helen! Man, that eye contact is creeeeepy."

They both blinked and looked to Ellie before greeting her. "Helen was teaching me some more about my heritage." Shane said as he stood and stretched then came over to Ellie. "How are you feeling today?"