Upon Silver Devil: Chapter Four

First topic message reminder :

Dawn would be alright, she just got bored laying there alone and without a project to do.

"Broken bones?" Moriah asked.

"He punched James in the face once. James has a very solid face," Asher said blandly.

"Oh, all right," Moriah said. She considered what Esk said, it still struck her as wrong, but she had to admit she wouldn't fault an organic for reacting in self defense. Hmm. "See you later," she said awkwardly, backing away.

Asher looked away from her to hide his wry smile. Android nonviolence logic had a tendency to be incredibly xenophobic. Androids in general were surprisingly xenophobic, in a variety of ways. Sigh.

Esk snorted again, bemused by Moriah's attitude. "how the hell are you gonna get these guys to rebel?" He asked Asher. If they were all so fearful and servile they stood no hope.

Moriah hurried off.

"Well, a violent uprising was always out of the question," Asher said. "I think they can probably be convinced to peacefully protest though. They do realize they're being mistreated, even the ones who have trouble seeing themselves as equal to organics." He smiled a little, "I'm not looking forward to when this thing has to happen, though."

"It's kinda like ripping off a bandaid right? You don't wanna do it, you know it's gonna suck, but it's gotta happen." Esk mused. "You're scared aren't you? I mean not that you shouldn't be, this could all go horribly horribly wrong."

"I can't say I've ever ripped off a bandaid, but that sounds like a good analogy," Asher agreed. "Yes, I'm concerned about how it'll go. Even with the best of planning, there are a lot of possible outcomes, and a lot of them involve a lot of innocent casualties." Maybe concerned wasn't strong enough a word, actually. "One of the reasons I've decided to put the robot rights campaign off until after the trip to the Imperium."

"Sure you're not just putting it off because you're scared to even start?" Esk asked. Oh he was ONTO Asher here.

Asher frowned. Esk was right of course, Esk was right most of the time, even when you didn't want him to be. "There are parts of this plan that I'm not looking forward to for personal reasons," he said carefully, "But the good of millions depends on someone doing what needs to be done. If that someone is me, then so be it." Even if it meant facing crowds of angry Terrans who wanted to turn him into scrap metal. He could handle that. Maybe.

Esk nodded, looking actually genuinely serious for a moment. "It'll be risky, especially for those who don't have a big ship full of magic users and soldiers to protect them. Realistically, Vestia is probably the safest place to stage a revolution from." He looked at Asher. "Kay's a selfish idiot, but even he understands how important all this is. All of us do. You aren't doing this all by yourself." He shrugged and put his feet up on the table. "but it's gonna be way harder to justify once you have Danika back."

Asher nodded, startled that Esk's words weren't obviously scornful, and not entirely sure what to make of that.
"As far as safety goes, androids on Vestia will be better off than those anywhere else," he agreed. His fear for his own safety was very much a phobia, realistically he knew that with the protection of the star dragons, he was safe from most physical harm. "Everyone else will be in much greater danger, and there won't be a lot that can be done to help that. Maybe Guild scouts will be willing to assist, I'm not sure. But they certainly can't be everywhere."
He shook his head at the mention of Danika, "I think it would be difficult either way. The children need their parents, and delaying that longer would be wrong." And he didn't want to put Kay under the stress of the robot rights movement and being separated from his daughter at the same time, that just seemed cruel. But he didn't think Esk cared that much about Kay's emotional well being.

"Still, if anyone wants to come after you, it's easy targets like her they'll pick." Esk shrugged. "but she's got a whole ship full of dragons to protect her I suppose. Useful." He smirked a little at Asher's startled look. "You'll figure it out. Things worth doing are seldom easy, that's something my old sergeant used to say, the one who wasn't a raging asshole." He shook his head. "Maybe he had a point. People will die no matter what you do, might as well make their deaths mean something."

That was a good point, Danika could potentially end up in danger, which would be bad. Asher considered that. "As long as the rest of the world doesn't know Danika's family to me, she won't be at any greater risk than she would already be because of her species," he said, although he didn't look entirely convinced. There were ways that information could leak out, not to mention everyone on Vestia was a target anyway. Plenty of ways a young dragon could be hurt. "Terrans aren't much of a threat to anyone on Vestia, star dragons have such strong powers, after all. Other species, I don't know."
He sighed. "There will be deaths. Just maybe not on Vestia."

Esk nodded "People die all the time, usually stupidly and pointlessly. Nothing you can really do to change that."

"Sadly true," Asher said tiredly. "I certainly am looking forward to the day when we won't have to try to decide what the greater good is any more." He smiled, although it didn't reach his eyes, "Not that that day is likely to ever arrive."

"That's what happens if you decide to give a shit about other people. You end up spending your entire life trying to make sure they're okay, wearing yourself out." Esk shook his head. That was exactly what Matt did wasn't it? "That's why being in charge sucks. I always preferred taking orders, less responsibility and less difficult choices to make. Someone else's problem." He shrugged. "maybe after you free everyone, if you survive, you can just retire and leave em to it. Tell em you did your bit, now it's up to them to build something out of what's left." He glanced back at Asher. "Just a thought anyway."

Asher nodded. "Having to make difficult choices, and then deal with the consequences of them afterward, is incredibly difficult. It's a lot easier to let someone else decide things, then they take the blame if they made the wrong choice. I know I'd rather have someone else make all the hard decisions most of the time." He'd always been good at obeying orders, even if he didn't like them much. Leadership wasn't something he'd had much experience with, so it usually felt pretty uncomfortable and frightening now.
"I'm all for retirement. Somehow I don't think it'd be easy to stay retired though, not in a crew like Vestia's."

Esk snickered. "Good point, always some stupid peril to deal with. Still, beats politics."

"True, politics are such a minefield," Asher said. "With Starr being the queen of her people, I'm not sure we can avoid that entirely either. Not without running off to a distant planet, cutting off all communication, and living life as hermit anyway. And that would be the other extreme, too boring."

Esk snorted. "Yeah.."

Asher smiled softly. "So are you planning to stay with Vestia's crew for the foreseeable future? It seems like the Silver Devil crew in general prefers to stay with her." Who could blame them? Living in a small traveling city was awesome.

Esk shrugged. "I go wherever the captain says we go." He shook his head. "Right now he hasn't decided on anything, until that changes, you're stuck with us." He smirked a little. Truthfully he wouldn't mind staying with Vestia. She was a pretty nice ship, and he'd gotten rather used to needing for nothing. She was large enough to get space when you needed it, but also had enough facilities to keep you amused for life. It wasn't a bad place to end up stuck. He wasn't about to tell Asher all that though.

Asher looked amused. "I'll try to contain my dismay at your continued presence," he joked. He didn't mind having Esk around, the guy might be abrasive, but he was capable and pragmatic, good to have around in a dangerous situation. "Dawn does seem to be serious about staying on Vestia, I guess Rigel probably isn't interested on leaving permanently while she wants to stay there."

Esk nodded. "He seems to be pretty unwilling to leave her " he wasn't sure if that was just because they were the only family the other had or if Rigel just didn't fully trust Dawn not to do something dumb. Hmm. "And she's made herself at home. I guess everyone got a bit comfortable there huh?" He glanced to Tala, yep, they were all more comfortable on vestia.

"It's easy to get comfortable on a nice, cushy cruise ship," Asher agreed. "I definitely understand why he probably wants to stay, when your family is in potential danger most of the time, it's hard to imagine leaving them." He knew he wouldn't want to leave James, the guy might be somewhat capable in a fight, but still. He always wanted to protect his siblings.

Esk shrugged. "I dunno, if they're gonna be morons, maybe they should learn to get themselves out of trouble for a change." Sure, he took care of his brothers but that was more out of a sense of obligation than any real love for them. Or so he told himself. It had felt... weird seeing Kay in such a terrible state in the mirror universe, and realizing quite what the guy was willing to do to save everyone else. Esk preferred not to think about it all, it made him uncomfortable having his view of his brother shaken so thoroughly, it was easier to just ignore it and dismiss the need to protect people as a duty rather than compassion.

Asher shook his head. "I can't speak for you or Rigel of course, but I know I wouldn't want to leave James alone. He's made some questionable choices, there's no doubt about that, but he's my brother and I'll always want to protect him and be there for him." So what that James had angered a god and sent them all into a universe of torture and terror? James was still his baby brother, and that meant Asher was willing to forgive basically anything. He smiled, "All I'm saying is that I get why Rigel might want to stay as a passenger on Vestia. Family is a pretty powerful motivator for a lot of people."

Esk nodded. "Sentiment is a powerful motivator." He shook his head. "Whatever the Captain decides, so long as I have a job I don't really care."

Asher smiled. "Gotta love a good employer, and Rigel sounds like a good one, from what I've heard."