Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Three

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"Hey man," James said to Kay, after waiting for a few seconds for the guy to pause his work, and realizing he wasn't going to. "How you holding up?"

~~
"It's my job to care about the books," Ethan said. He tried to look like he had no emotional investment in the state of the library, with moderate success. "Vestia pays me to keep them nice and safe and organized, which they aren't." He watched Esk curiously, "Who put you on janitor duty?"

Esk shrugged. "Friendship is wierd too. Caring about someone other than yourself. It's inconvenient." He looked away. Yeah, he gave a shit about other people, but it annoyed him because he didn't really understand WHY he cared. Bah. "things are easier when it's just you."

James blinked. "I mean yeah, maybe you're right about it being more efficient to be alone. But it's fun to have other people around sometimes. And it's nice to know someone's got your back when you need help." He shrugged, "You have friends, right? I mean I assume not me, but like, Dawn or someone?"

Esk looked away, his expression unreadable. "Dawn is.. weird." Yep, very weird.

James laughed. "I can't argue with that." He decided not to push the subject, Esk got defensive to easily when the subject of his feelings came up.
He focused on the game for a bit, clearing a few more levels before it started getting harder.
"Anyway, regardless, we can agree that romantic stuff is a little crazy and we should probably advise our brothers to try friendship instead." He snorted at the thought, yeah, that would go over well, wouldn't it?

Esk snorted "like they'd ever listen." He shook his head. "Matt can't keep it in his pants and Kay? I dunno, he just needs someone to put up with his crap and validate him I guess. Gross as it is, he's way less annoying when he's getting some." Ew, ew ew ew.

James wrinkled his nose. "Man, it's weird how obsessed with sex some people are. Like, I get that it's nice and all that, but letting it effect your mood?" He shook his head. He really couldn't fully understand, biological urges of all types were just so alien to his species. "People are weird."

Esk nodded. "makes some people crazy for sure." He folded his arms. "maybe it makes more sense if you can feel it, I dunno. " then again, he could feel it and still had remarkably little desire so go figure. "that or they just have really poor impulse control." matt definitely had shit impulse control.

James tried the next level of that game, and this time died promptly. The levels were definitely getting more difficult now, darn.
"Yeah, must be an impulse control thing," James decided. "It's not like the Three Laws after all, it's not a hard-coded order that you have to obey. At least, that's not how people talk about it."

Esk shook his head. "No, nothing like that." How did you explain sexual desire to someone who'd never felt it? Huh.. "I suppose for some people it's addictive, or maybe they get something other than pleasure out of it. " He had no idea. "I mean sure it feels good but not enough to put up with all the shit that comes with relationships." He made a face. "not worth it." Hey, a hand was WAY less trouble right? "you're shit at this suddenly." He teased, nodding to the game.

Kooshie wrote:"He probably just didn't want to pay for pet food," Ellie said, petting one of the goats. "Another reason why I'm glad you left them!"

"Perhaps, I will never know for certain at this point." Shane said with a shrug.

"I guess anything's addictive if your life is bad enough?" James said. He shook his head, "Maybe I'm missing out or something, but I think I'm glad I don't have a sex drive. And that I'm not dating anyone with one either." Who had time for that?
"In my defense, I didn't expect the mooks to suddenly have better weapons!" he told Esk, restarting the level.

~~
"Yeah." Ellie smiled at Shane. "Well, now you're free from the pet hating jerks."

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Armin squeezed Starr's hand. "Forgive me, I did not mean to trouble you"

Starr smiled softly at Armin. "I'm sorry, it's a simple fact of life." She said softly.

"For the most part, yes." Shane said and smiled "We can have nearly any pet we want now."

Armin nodded "it is. My race are, comparatively speaking, short lived. It is something we grow accustomed to. A short life is not an unhappy one." He bowed his head. "and I am fortunate to be a part of yours, even if it is only for a blink of an eye."

---

"A sex drive is, generally speaking, more of an annoyance." Esk agreed. though perhaps he had a somewhat skewed view on it. Having any sort of sex drive when you couldn't touch another living being was a pretty awful existance. he'd learned to just sort of tune that desire out, which was probably why he didn't miss it. Hard to miss something you'd spent your life convincing yourself you didn't have.
"that's a difficulty curve." He kept watching.

Ellie smiled at the thought, then frowned. "Although maybe it's not a good idea to get pets when we keep getting attacked."

~~
James nodded. "I'll assume that anyone who tries to tell me a sex drive isn't an annoyance is just trying to sell me something. Or they just think I'm hot and want to get in bed with me." He looked amused.
"This level me by surprise, but I'm a pro gamer and I'm going to win this game." He tried the level again, and this time would actually manage to complete it. But he definitely wasn't going to win the game, no matter what he said.

Esk snorted "yeah sure, keep telling yourself that. Pro gamer." He ignored the idea of James having sex, just.. no. Only wierdos wanted to screw androids, he was certain of that.
yes, Kay included. Kay definitely.

"I am glad you are a part of my life, you have helped me so much." Starr replied and smiled up at him again.

~~~
Shane frowned then shrugged "They seemed to have left the ranch alone, which is good." Odd, but good that this floor hadn't been attacked.

James snickered. "I'd like to see you do better. I'm pretty good at this game, if I do say so myself." He really wasn't, the levels had just been pretty easy up to this point.

~~
"Yeah, that's true." Ellie looked around at the ranch, imagining the slaughter the slavers could have caused if they'd wanted to. "Maybe they left the animals alone because they could tell us people didn't live here. Maybe they wanted to focus on killing us first."

Armin bowed his head, if he could blush he would. "it is an honour Miss Starr." He meant it. He let himself gaze into her eyes for a moment before remininding himself he shouldn't be so forward and looking away. "I owe you my very life."


----

Esk snorted. "you're an android, aren't you meant to have like, perfect reflexes or some shit?"

"Nahhh, the Terrans didn't want to make us too good, I mean, what if we started besting them in everything they were good at?" James laughed. "The only reason we even have super strength is cause the Terrans realized it'd be hard to engineer out of us, and occasionally it comes in handy. Other than that, they tried hard to make us just like them. Darned insecure Terrans, making us weak so we don't crush their egos."

Esk shook his head. "maybe they were scared you'd all find a way around the laws and crush their stupid heads." Now there was a thought. "as it stands, sounds like the revolution was relatively bloodless."

"Good point. Some of us totally tried to find a loophole," James said. He cursed under his breath as his game character died again. "Yeah, it wasn't too brutal as far as I know. I mean androids got killed, but it wasn't like what happened to the Sixes. So yay?"

"and the freed androids didn't, generally, go and murder a bunch of humans. A few isolated incidents is hardly the robot appocolypse some of the media was suggesting. " Yeah Esk had paid far more attention to the android thing than he probably should have, it had been distracting and he liked knowing things. He mused that James' "loophole" had been a pretty shit idea. The flirting thing had been his way of coping right? gaining some control when he had none. Esk could kinda understand that, sort of, in a twisted way.

Shane nodded then shrugged "Yeah, yay for them wanting to kill us first I guess?"

~~~
"You owe me nothing. We are friends and you have saved me too." Starr replied without looking away. He had helped save her sanity which could be counted as much as a life to her.

"Yeah, funnily enough, androids seem to actually be pretty peaceful people even without the Laws reining them in," James said. "With a few notable exceptions of course. I mean my sister, and some others like her, and a terrorist group that apparently sprung up while we were gone. But most of them just want to live their lives and not cause trouble, go figure."
He focused hard for a bit, trying to clear the next level, but it was pretty clear this was about as far as he'd get.

~~
"Yay." Ellie said, with equal lack of enthusiasm. "We did win though, and we still have animals, so that's cool."

Armin nodded. "And I shall continue to do all I can for you Miss Starr, for as long as I am able and you will tolerate it."

---


"that's how most people are." Esk reminded James. "Just wanting to live their lives."

James nodded. "Turns out we aren't so different after all. Too bad it took so long for them to realize it." He stood back from the game with a sigh. "I give up. Wanna give this level a try? It's super hard."