UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

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Asher considered his words for a few seconds, glancing around the room as he thought, then looked to Kay again. "I've been thinking over everything that's happened today, and I feel like it would be wrong for me to leave Terra before the androids have been granted their freedom," he said. "I think it might be in the best interests of the children and the androids if I stay on Terra while Vestia goes on to the Imperium." He wished he could have phrased it better, but he just didn't know how. Ugh.

Luka continued to stare at her shoes. "We aren't DOING anything..." She mumbled, which technically was true, they really hadn't done much beyond confess feelings for one another and cuddle. Certainly no sex.

"'cept for you guys watching movies together," James said. "Although to be fair, you've watched movies with me too." He thought a moment and then added, "Hey, I'll stop bothering you about this since you don't want to talk about it. Sorry for prying." He and Luka didn't seem to cross paths much any more, the last thing he wanted to do was drive her the rest of the way away.

Luka nodded stiffly. "t.. thank you..." She glanced around, yeah, here was most definitely too public for this sort of conversation. "We'll talk about it later alright?" He was her friend, she did trust him, besides, maybe actually talking to someone else about all this would be a good thing. Eugh, she didn't know.

"No pressure," James said. He did look kinda guilty know, he realized he'd probably been a jerk trying to make her talk about this. "Wanna like... go annoy everyone by singing karaoke or something?"

Luka looked unsure. "i.. don't think i'm drunk enough for that yet." She smiled. "Maybe Matt will?" She looked toward Matt who was still lecturing the Swarm on cocktails as if he actually knew what he was doing.

James smiled. "Fair enough. You can cheer us on from the sidelines." James liked having an audience, and he didn't need alcohol to give him courage. HA. "Unless you wanna do something else?" He wanted to make sure she didn't mind being suddenly abandoned by him.

Luka shook her head. "it's fine. Have fun."

"Okay," James smiled at Luka, then headed over to Matt and Swarm. "Hey guys. You training Swarm up to be bartenders?" he asked Matt.

Matt grinned at James. "Only if we get really tiny glasses." he joked.

Swarm spelled out. ---we--- ---have--- ---learned--- ---a--- ---great--- ---deal--- ---about--- ---vodka---

Matt laughed, then looked beyond James toward Luka "she okay?" he asked, his tone serious and low.

James snickered. "Use your new knowledge of vodka wisely, that stuff is strong." He hesitated at Matt's question, "Yeah, she's fine." Luka didn't know Matt well, she'd said as much herself, so that was really the only answer he could give, wasn't it?

Matt nodded. "okay." He seemed satisfied by that answer, maybe Swarm was just being annoying. These guys didn't seem to have a filter and asked a lot of questions.

"So, you don't need a drink so what's up?" He asked brightly. "you wanna learn how to dangerously juggle heavy glass bottles of flammable liquid?" He laughed.

"Who says I don't need a drink?" James joked. "Nah, I was wondering if you wanted to sing with me, we can impress the others together. I'd rather not juggle bottles, too much risk of hurting someone and then me needing to go on doctor duty," he nodded sensibly.

Matt snorted. "Killjoy." He grinned. "singing? I'm game." Hey, he kinda liked performing for an audience.

James laughed. "I just don't like treating injuries, man! Come on, let's impress this audience."

Matt cackled, put the bottles down on the counter and wheeled around to meet James. "let's do this!"

(is there anything else we need to do for this day before we skip em to synch with the other thread?)

James grinned. "Heck yeah!" They'd head for the stage, to probably argue over what song to sing first. Hey, this stuff was Very Important if you were a fan of music. Which of course they were.

(I can't think of anything else that needs to happen first, so I'm good to skip if you guys are ready. :) )

Matt wasn't really the arguing sort, but he'd play along for a bit. Then they'd serenade everyone because hey, why not?

(yeah I think we're good to go?)

JULY 2, 2790

Early in the morning, Starr, James, and Kay had probably received brief messages from Asher about what had been going on so far. The messages didn’t say much, just that he and Nova had been busy helping some androids get their courage up to talk to some reporters, and that everyone seemed fairly nice so far. Apparently he didn’t have much to say yet.

The MegaBrainTech android updates were released a couple hours later, amid much online discussion and debate. As the updates were installed, and the chat sites began flooding with posts from dismayed users, it quickly became clear that the update wasn’t the one MegaBrainTech had promised.

It seemed that Celia had somehow gotten Mourn’s code past the watchful eyes of the Terrans, without detection.

~~
James had left the party at some point the night before and gone to visit and chat with Ethan, who had tolerated his presence with the sort of mildly scornful resignation he was so good at. Then James had left to read books and worry about Asher.

The new day brought very little change from that, James kept worrying about his brother and his species. And his sister, who still hadn’t written since the protest.

~~
Ellie had probably left the party with Shane the night before, and had probably talked him into changing into his felid form so she could pet his soft, floofy fur all evening. Normal? Definitely.
This morning, she was doing her best to avoid hearing about androids. And also thinking about Shane, who was cute in so many different forms omg.

Mourn watched the news with a huge grin on his face, more than pleased with himself. Oh yes. He'd set the terran united code to one side to focus on this today, and was reading forums and giggling to himself as more stories came in of androids downing tools and walking out of work. To his mind, it was glorious and beautiful.

---

Kay barely slept, not just because he'd become so accustomed to having Asher by his side but because he couldn't stop fretting. He read Asher's message with a frown, at least it was an update but this had only just begun.
He watched the news nervously while trying to work.

---

Matt was due a physio appointment by Kay was in no state to run one, so he instead got to work herding his little buddies, the cleaning bots around the ship.

----

Armin had his hair cut and styled by a Starr Dragon and come morning was quite happily back to work sewing little personal projects. He was a bit out of the loop and though concerned for the androids, so utterly convinced it would all be okay that he didn't check the news.

----

Luka spent the night worrying about how James would take the news about Rigel, and whether she should talk to rigel first. Eugh. Eventually she decided she'd talk with Rigel, then explain things as best she could to James and swear him to secrecy. She wasn't sure she was ready for everyone to know yet, especially not as she was certain several of them wouldn't approve.

----

Esk rose early, dipped into the news periodically while eating breakfast just to keep an eye on things and went about his daily routine. He wasn't stressing over all this, his attitude was more one of casual curiosity. If shit hit the fan Asher and Nova could get outta there so why worry?
He did all he could to avoid Kay though, because the guy was mopey and it pissed Esk off.

---

Rigel was watching the news as he ate breakfast on his ship. HE wasn't too concerned but it was good to stay 'in the loop' even if they couldn't do anything from here.

~~~
Starr had talked to the two dragons about opening a shop for cutting hair on Vestia, sending them off to talk to Vestia about the best place to do so before she went to bed that night. The next morning she carried her egg to breakfast with her. She wanted her friends to get used to seeing it so they could get past the how/why before she hatched. She paused in her eating and tilted her head a little when Nova reached out to her. After that she went to find Mourn

James went to the original med bay, because it was his job to be a medic after all. He'd smile weakly and wave at Kay if Kay was there.

~~
Ethan got sick of the library eventually, and wandered off to see if Sawna was at the cafe, since it was nearby. He liked visiting Sawna sometimes, she was from the other universe too after all.

Sawna was in her cafe, alone for once and cleaning cups with a dry cloth just for something to do.

Ethan went into the cafe, and wandered over to the counter. "Hey Sawna. Quiet in here today." He looked around at the empty tables.

"Yes, it is." Sawna said as she looked up then smiled at him. "How are you today?"

"Do the star dragons come by much? Some of them like to stop by the library, but I don't know what else they do," Ethan said. He smiled oddly at the question. "I'm pretty good. Not sure if you've been keeping track, but it's been almost six months now since we left the other universe."
Ethan really had hated that universe, and every day away from it was an improvement in his book.

"I have kept track. Six months since I saw my brother." Sawna said with a shrug. "Yes, they come by quite often, it's just quiet right now."

Starr asked Vestia for help in finding Mourn and giving him the warning and message.