Upon Silver Devil: Chapter Three

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[I can't say i've ever seen him drunk actually. I haven't seen him in nearly ten years.] Hmm that'd be interesting. [He got tall.] He smiled oddly, trying to make light of what was clearly pretty awkward and difficult.

Esk rolled his eyes. "Let's get this over with."

"So.. how do we do this? Show of hands? " Luka asked.

"I guess we should, like, discuss it. Talk about the merits of the two options, so we have a better idea of the candidates?" James said. "I want to be an informed voter, since I've never voted in an election before."

Rigel had left with Tala, chuckling softly at the election.

Dawn found a seat and looked to the others, shrugging at the suggestion from James "I guess, so who wants to start? Pros and cons for Tala?"

James looked thoughtful. "Well Tala's very pragmatic and pretty much fearless, and she's decisive as heck," he said. "But she also supports slavery and can't read, so that's not so great."

"Good point, though appointing someone to read anything to her could offset the reading thing." Dawn said softly then smiled a little "What do you think of Rigel?" Changing the slavery view would be harder though.

"I think Rigel has a lot of experience, I'm guessing more than Tala has. He's fair and sensible, and he's not cool with slavery like Tala is. And he can read. I'm not sure he'd be as decisive as Tala though, and he'd be more likely to make overly emotional decisions which could harm the crew," James said. Dawn was so totally a weakness for Rigel, omg.

Dawn looked to the others to see if they wanted to add anything to what had been said already.

"Tala is to the point, she gets things done, but she's also lacking any tact or understanding of other people's views. She's generally sensible and will listen to reason. She's very good at tactics and can rapidly assess a situation for threats, but I don't believe she's so good at the more subtle aspects of leadership." Esk pointed out.

Luka nodded. "What about Rigel then?"

Esk shrugged. "He's sensible, he doesn't do anything without thinking first.. He doesn't strike me as one who'd let his emotions rule him. Pandorians are very good at controlling their feelings." He glanced to Dawn, then looked away. "He has a lot of life experience with ships and diplomacy and speaking to potentially hostile people. He's stubborn, but he can be talked around, he's willing to compromise." He shook his head. "His commitment to keep Dawn safe could be a problem, then again, it could also be an asset. I don't believe either of them would allow sentiment to cloud their judgement, least not for long."

Luka frowned. "Who would you vote for?"

"I'd follow either of them." Esk sounded a bit bored.

Swarm buzzed amongst themselves, debating.

Luka chewed on a fingernail as she thought. "I think... Tala's a very good warrior, but I fear she'd just bark orders and I think she could potentially really offend the wrong person with her bluntness. "

"Yeah, she might easily cause problems by being too blunt," James agreed, nodding at Luka. He looked to Dawn and Swarm, "What do you guys think about the options?"

"We cannot decide." Swarm admitted.

Esk groaned. "Can we just do this vote thing and get this over with?"

Dawn shrugged a little "I would say Rigel, but have Tala be a security officer" She said softly. "But then, I am biased, so"

James tried not to look amused at Dawn's admission of bias. "All right, let's vote on this, then. Do we do a show of hands, or do we use paper?"

"Show of hands should work with so few of us and two basically abstaining." Dawn said, glancing to Esk then to Swarm. "You know my vote, so it's down to you and Luka"

James eyed Swarm and Esk, "You guys gotta vote, man! Otherwise we won't listen when you act smug and tell us we voted wrong in two months' time."
He tried to decide who he wanted. Hmm.

Esk snickered.

Swarm buzzed and chittered.

Luka frowned. "Rigel." She nodded.

"I vote Rigel too," James said after a moment. Either choice could be good, but he was pretty sure if he ever got impounded by the Terran Empire, he'd rather have RIgel bail him out than Tala.

Dawn dipped her head to hide a smile. Well, even if both Swarm and Esk voted for Tala, it would still be the majority for Rigel.

"Exactly." Esk shrugged. "Who wants to tell him he's just got promoted?"

James went over to the door and opened it to peer out into the hall. "Yo Captain Rigel! We have an announcement to make!"

Rigel raised his eyebrow at that greeting then shrugged and came over to James "So, the vote was for me then?"

Tala followed Rigel, looking interested.

"The vote has been cast, you're the new captain of the Silver Devil, Rigel," James said.

Tala's ears twitched forward. "Congratulations, Captain Rigel!" She proclaimed, slapping him heartily on the shoulder. "You shall lead us well in battle and business!"

"Congratulations!" Luka beamed.

"Yeah, you're now in charge of this flying death trap." Esk snorted.

"Be nice!" Luka snapped.

Rigel tried not to be knocked over from that slap, chuckling and looking around at them all. "Well, thank you for hiring me, I guess the first thing would be to make sure we know what position we want everyone to have and make sure everyone is staying?"

James looked suddenly uncertain. He really wasn't much good at anything, and he also had reasons to stay with Vestia and his brothers.

Tala snorted cheerfully. "I shall do what I am assigned, with great satisfaction!"

Rigel looked to Tala then nodded a little "Well, since the others thought so highly of you to nominate us both, you can be the first mate as well as tactical and help Esk with security." Hey, at least if anything happened to him, they would know who to follow next this way. He was assuming Esk would still be security for them among his other jobs

Esk nodded. "I don't want to have to find another job. As long as you don't set me mopping floors, i'm good."

"I'll follow you sir." Luka saluted.

"We remain. " Swarm was at least united on that front.

Tala nodded, pleased with her assignment.

James coughed quietly. "Well the Capt-Acus bought me because I was male, and also to be a medic. Now there are other men here, and also there's a better medic, not to mention there are reasons for me to stay with Vestia..."