Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Eight

Shane nodded agreement. "Let them sort themselves out, when they are ready, if they ever are, they can admit it publicly as Starr and Armin have done with their dating.

~~~
Danika chuckled softly and shrugged "It's just part of the game, most of the situations are made up things to give a reason for adding money to your bank." She waited for him to put the amount in then picked up the dice to roll them, using the chance to show him how they were normally rolled without saying so. She landed on the starship (train) and immediately bought it

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, those are good plans. We want them to do whatever makes them happy, even if Esk is mean sometimes."

~~
"It's all very different now, and the suites on this floor are so big," Asher said. "James let me put my things in his spare room, which is nice because I'd feel guilty having a whole suite to myself..." he realized suddenly that Kay might not be super happy at the reminder that they weren't currently sharing a living space, and looked uncertain.

Kay nodded slowly. He hadn't really given much thought to living space yet, he didn't want to think about it. it was too awkward.
[I'm not sure i'll ever get used to such large living spaces.] He was rather more accustomed to being cramped into a small space. He preferred it cozy.
[The others seem fairly happy about it though.] He looked thoughtful. [Have you seen the new medical facility?]

----

Jarral tried to follow along but honestly this game confused him. Capitalism wasn't a concept he really understood, even the years he'd spent out in the universe had been in a place where money wasn't really a consideration unless it was poker, and Jarral had never been invited the crew poker games anyway.

Spending imaginary money on imaginary properties and charging something called 'rent' was just baffling to him. But he tried to play along.

---

Web chuckled. "I think i've been fortunate to manage to avoid the majority of his disdain."

"I looked into the new med bay briefly, but I haven't had the full tour yet," Asher said, smiling slightly. "I'd like to see more if you want to show me around." He should probably mention to Kay that he wasn't keen on the idea of being a medic again, but one step at a time.

Danika would try to teach him what she understood from living on the station and learning there, though it was a confusing topic to begin with.

~~
Shane was quiet at this point, he didn't have anything else to add to that topic and was trying to think of something else to say or a new topic to talk about.

Kay nodded, the medical area was his realm after all, where he really felt most at home.
He led the way.

---

The silence stretched. Zara focused on the game for a bit, then asked, "We're really going to be sneaking through Satare space after we leave this station?"
Hey, it wasn't something many people dared to do. The Imperium was notoriously unfriendly to outsiders.

~~
Asher quietly followed Kay to the med bay.

"wait... you're doing what?" Web stared at the three of them, looking a little alarmed. This lot appear after ten years and immediately decide they want to sneak through dangerous territory?

---

Kay led Asher to the med bay and extended one hand in a sweeping gesture to illustrate the much larger, much brighter first class medical facility. This was meant to be for passengers, not crew, so of course it was much nicer and less utilitarian.
Someone had even put a plant in the corner.
It was however, as Kay had mentioned, sorely lacking in passive aggressive signage.

[I'm thinking of renaming this conferance room one.] He wrote, smiling the first genuine smile he'd managed in a while.

Ellie nodded. "We gotta go to Haakon, the Minotaur homeworld, to save Tala's family if they're still alive," she said. "As you might know, going around the Imperium will take forever, so it's faster to just go through."


~~
Asher looked around at the spacious, comfortable, decidedly nice medical facility with interest.
"It's much more spacious, much less worry about all the medics getting under each others' feet," he said with a smile, "You could name it 'Conference Hall, because it's so large."

Web looked dubious. "How do you intend to do that? I doubt they'll let a cruise ship just wander through their space."

---

Kay nodded. [It'll take a while to get used to. As it stands, we haven't actually had many meetings assembling here. Maybe the crew have finally gotten that out of their systems?] Hey, he could hope.

"Or maybe there haven't been any good opportunities for them to meet in here yet," Asher said. "It has to be the right sort of situation after all - weird enough to draw attention, but not an emergency. Like Merith's ghostly hand."

Shane shrugged a little "We are supposed to be trying a new device to make us invisible to scanners, or were, that kind of got put back with everything. Rigel's leading that and I help when I can."

Ellie nodded. "If we can, we're planning to sneak through undetected. If we can't, I think the plan is to masquerade as Hexenfolke and cross our fingers?"

"I have trouble believing that they'd buy that," Zara mused. "A bunch of people claiming to be Hexenfolke sneaking into their space on a giant cruise ship? Seems suspicious."

"Yeah, that's why it's our backup plan," Ellie said with a grin.

Kay winced. He tried not to think about Merith, that man had been responsible for a great deal of stress and trauma.
Maybe ten years softened that, though Asher had always been far more tolerant anyway.
[I hope not, it's pleasant not to be constantly distracted by people bickering]

---

Web wasn't sure if Ellie was being entirely serious or not. "Just.. be careful. I don't know what the situation is like within the Imperium these days but I can only imagine they've become worse rather than better. " Clearly he held no love for his mother's people.

"We will be careful, the last thing we want is to get in another fight, especially with the kids on board." Shane said. It was true, no one wanted the kids to be hurt.

Asher noticed Kay's wince with some guilt. Minimizing people's worst actions had helped him cope in his old life, but it wasn't useful when talking to people who processed their trauma differently. He had already remembered Merith's actions with tired acceptance even ten years ago; for Kay the pain was clearly still fresh.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought him up," he said.

~~
Ellie nodded. "We have our best inventors on the job, we'll find some way to sneak through undetected. If the Satare haven't improved their scanning technologies in some unpredictable way over the past ten years, anyway. AND if Jess doesn't find out our plan and sell us out. I don't think she'd do that, but like, I don't know her."

Zara leaned forward with interest, watching the conversation intently. The magic aspect of this crew might freak her out, but the idea of sneaking through one of the most dangerous empires to visit a blockaded planet appealed to her sense of adventure.

Kay shook his head slowly. [things have been.. subtantially more peaceful with him gone but... ] He shrugged. [Much as i'm glad not to have any of the Keepers anywhere near us, I still feel like I should hope they're well.] It was conflicting.

---

Web glanced sidelong at his sister who was sitting to one side of the room, watching everyone with a look of trepidation on her face. He looked thoughtful. Was Jess loyal enough to the Imperium to sell out her own family? He liked to believe not, but even he didn't really know his sister very well.

He shook his head. "I get the feeling I can't talk you out of this so all I can do is wish you good fortune and hope that Fate smiles upon your endevour."

"We aren't going to fight unless we have to, we just want to find Tala's family, her tribe if they remain there." Shane said gently, he knew Web worried for them all even if only for his brother's sake. "If it comes down to it, we do have Nova's stones to at least get the kids to safety, if not all of us."

A fleeting smile crossed Asher's face. "You've already done plenty for the Keepers we used to know, I don't think you owe them any kind thoughts you don't want to give." Tentatively he added, "Maybe that sounds odd coming from me. But a lot of the time I'm not trying to forgive or ignore the awful things people do, it just happens whether I want it to or not."

~~
Ellie nodded. "Yeah, I'd forgotten Nova's stones, but those would be good in an emergency. And we have to go to Tala's planet, her wife hasn't seen her in twenty years or something! Even if it's gonna be tough to get there, it's worth it. For the love story, you know."


~~
(Should we have that doctor show up to see Hewitt?)

Kay exhaled deeply. [You always were far too forgiving.] He smiled weakly, nodding. It wasn't a criticism, Asher's kindness was one of the reasons he adored the man.

---

Web nodded. "then all I can do is wish you good fortune."

----

(Erm, yeah sure? anyone wanna play a doctor? lol. I'm lazy.)

"That's like double the good luck for us then, coming from you." Shane said teasingly.

"I'm not sure it's so much forgiveness, as a way to handle being around people who do bad things," Asher said. He felt like he needed to explain his thoughts, even though he couldn't imagine it was a good idea. "The crimes the Keepers did aren't my call to forgive. But I end up just accepting it all and remembering the perpetrators fondly, and I'm pretty sure that isn't a good thing."

~~
Ellie laughed. "Well, maybe we'll need double good luck."

~~
(Heh, sure.)

Eventually the doctor would arrive, and Vestia would tell Hewitt and Ethan where to go to meet them - probably Hewitt's room. She might also ask Dawn to go along if Dawn didn't seem too busy, because Dawn was a doctor and her perspective might be useful.

Dawn would leave the movie to go back to Hewitt's room when she got news the dr was there. She wanted to be there if only to learn more.

Esk paused the movie, it wasn't worth watching alone. But he didn't go with Dawn. This was her whole thing, not his.

---

Kay nodded slowly, though he wasn't sure he totally understood all of it. [Sometimes I wonder if it's easier to forgive for things that didn't directly involve you. Which is... an unpleasant thought.] He shook his head. They should talk about more pleasant things but he wasn't sure what.

---

Web chuckled softly.

The doctor would come to see Hewitt, greeting him and Dawn. They were humanoid, probably human, and very curious about this guy who had been comatose up until today.

Ethan would probably nod awkwardly in greeting and stay out of the way.

~~
"That was just one example, I do the same thing when people personally harm me or my family too. I don't want you to think that I like being apathetic about so many bad people, because objectively I do know that they were very bad."
Asher smiled briefly again. "Frankly, I'm glad it's harder for you to forgive people. It means you're more likely to do it for the right reasons." He kind of wished Kay hadn't forgiven him so easily shooting him, for that matter. Ugh.