UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

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Kay looked amused at that remark. [You're probably right. And bottom bunk, because I wasn't willing to argue the point. There were about 12 of us in one room, it was fairly cramped.] Not that he'd spent many evenings IN his bunk considering. Nope, his evenings had been spent locked in an old bunker hoping like heck he wouldn't get out and nobody would find him.

---

Ivor shrugged. "I do.. don't know..." He came out into the hall and closed the door carefully behind himself. "You have animals on a ship?"

----

"If they have no choice, then they are still slaves." Armin bowed his head.

Armin nodded. He himself had terrible trouble determining the gender of those he was speaking to, most of his race did. Other species and their pesky wierd gender dimorphism, or lack thereof. "Such are the perils of interacting with other species."

"You can't tell people's sex?" Ivor asked, he couldn't differentiate between thoughts and words. oops?

Silence stopped in her eating to stare back at Jewel, Juice dribbling off her tusks.

---

Esk frowned a little. "Good news is that you don't have a raging infection. But you're probably sick with something else." Damn. "Vestia, can you get a medic?" He wasn't about to let Dawn get a say in this. She was sick, she needed medical help. He wasn't really qualified to do so.

James snickered at Ivor's question, then looked to Armin, "Wait, you can't?" He wasn't sure if it was rude to comment on things someone else heard in someone's mind, oops.

~~
"Sleep well Amari, it's going to be okay," Vestia said. She dimmed the lights a little for him.

Jewel realized she was staring and looked back to her food.

Skye chuckled and nodded at their words "Sometimes it's hard to tell,, luckily for us, most females are duller colors than the males, though there are some types that's the opposite."

~~~
Dawn sighed, but didn't raise any objection. She just closed her eyes to wait for whoever was on duty right now.

"Okay, I'll get a medic," Vestia told Dawn and Esk. She'd notify the med bay about Dawn having a fever.

Asher was in the med bay. He frowned. Hmm, looked like this was up to him.

Armin ducked his head, clearly a bit embarrassed. "Forgive me, but... yes? I have mostly learned now, though entities like Thalia do not help matters with their ability to change sex. " He looked awkward.

Ivor cringed, realising what he'd done. "I'm sorry... so sorry.."

Silence looked over at him. "It's alright." She told him abruptly.

James looked amused. "It's okay man, it doesn't matter that much anyway. I don't mind being mistaken for a woman, and neither do they." They'd better not, anyway. Ha. "It's okay Ivor, you're not in trouble," he added hastily.

"We are females, so we don't mind being called females" Jewel said with a chuckle. She finished her donut and flew to toss the napkin and wash her hands.

~~~
Dawn waited quietly, looking to the door when it opened again. "hi"

Esk looked over to Asher, slightly relieved it wasn't Kay to be honest.
Kay just irritated the shit outta him. The feeling was pretty mutual.

"She's got a fever." He told Asher, showing him what the scanner had brought up.

---

Armin nodded, still looking a bit awkward. "Unfortunately, I am too accustomed to the morphological differences in my own race. " He explained.

Ivor still looked a little like he expected to be hit. He carefully started to eat again.

"Good morning," Asher said, smiling at the two. Henodded and took Esk's scanner to look at the readings. Hmm, no obvious symptoms other than the fever? Interesting. "Pandorans aren't susceptible to many illnesses, are they? Mainly just the ones unique to your species?" He asked Dawn for confirmation. He remembered the days after the war when they'd been monitoring Dawn's condition for that illness.

~~
James laughed. "Just focus on the chest area on the humanoids, the females are usually bumpier." He nodded sagely.

Esk put the scanner away and moved aside so Asher could do whatever he had to do. He remembered oh too well Dawn's description of pandorian specific illnesses, they didn't sound good.

---

Armin looked baffled. "Bumpier? I am not certain that is the technical term my friend." Nor did he think staring at people's chests was really polite.

Silence made a weird snorting noise that might have been laughter.

James snickered. "Well they do stick out more on women. And the ladies love it when you look at them there, it means you appreciate their natural shape." He'd totally done that back on the space station just to get people annoyed, right up until he'd been ordered to not do that any more because it got people annoyed. Good times.

"Many females wear a great number of layers though." Armin protested. he didn't believe James, he was fairly certain staring at someone, anyone, too long was rude.

"Sh.. shouldn't look... look at women's... chests..." Ivor stammered. "They... they'll punch you." Was that some sort of past experience talking?

James still looked amused. He did find it amusing to pretend to be creepy and slightly perverted. Which was probably not a good thing, come to think of it. "I'm just kidding Ivor, you don't need to listen to me."

Ivor looked confused. "I... d.. don't?"

James paused. "Uh... what I mean is I was just joking about what I said there, about staring at women's chests. Sorry." He was so bad with Ivor omg.

Kooshie wrote:"Good morning," Asher said, smiling at the two. Henodded and took Esk's scanner to look at the readings. Hmm, no obvious symptoms other than the fever? Interesting. "Pandorans aren't susceptible to many illnesses, are they? Mainly just the ones unique to your species?" He asked Dawn for confirmation. He remembered the days after the war when they'd been monitoring Dawn's condition for that illness.

~~
James laughed. "Just focus on the chest area on the humanoids, the females are usually bumpier." He nodded sagely.

Dawn nodded and frowned "We don't usually get any other kind but those specific to our people."

"Aside from blight, what else is specific to Pandorians?" Esk asked.

"Do you know much about the diseases of your people? I can do some research, but it might be quicker if you can tell me," Asher said. "I assume it's not Sage Blight, right? From James's notes, it looked like Sage Blight only affects you if you're asleep, and manifests more cold-like symptoms."

Starr had facepalmed and was shaking her head like that, though also trying not to laugh.

Skye was simply shaking her head. "That wouldn't work on Artuvians anyway, the females in our species are almost as flat chested as the males." Yeah for being birds-humans and not terrans.

~~~
Dawn frowned and looked to her desk "I wrote out a journal of our illnesses, it should be in the top drawer on this side." Yeah, it kind of hurt to try to think too much right now.

Esk went to get the journal, he was after all, the only able bodied person in the room right now. "That was organised." He observed, opening the drawer she'd indicated.

----

Armin nodded. "far too much variation, how anyone can keep track of it all is beyond me." He complained.

"Thank you, Dawn," Asher said, smiling softly. "And thank you, Esk." It was a good thing one person in this room could stand up and reach high shelves.

~~
"I guess we all just kinda gotta guess," James said.

Armin nodded. "In my experience, guessing is a very bad idea. I have become accustomed to listening for verbal cues instead. The use of gender pronouns for instance."

"Smell different." Silence said.

"w... what?" Ivor stared at her, he still couldn't get used to this talking thing.

"Males smell different." Silence told him.

Dawn shook her head at the question "Sage blight is from exhaustion from using your powers." She knew it was't that, thankfully. That and the other, where you got sick from never using your powers were deadly. "I think this is like your colds" She wasn't sure

~~~
"Males and females have their own pheromones" Jewel piped up as she landed on the table again. "In pretty much every species."

Armin nodded "Though there are a fair few species who are not quite so adept at picking such subtle scents up any longer. Terrans for example." He bowed his head.

---

"Is it contagious?" Esk asked warily. Last thing they needed was ship wide outbreaks of random illness.

James laughed. "Tala, the cow lady with the horns, says males smell gross. I guess there are ways to tell. And guessing isn't so bad, worst that happens, you tell them you were blinded by their good looks momentarily."

~~
"All right, I'll read the journal. You should rest, Dawn." Asher nodded at Esk's question, yeah, that was important to know.

Armin chuckled. "If you attempt such a thing, I would very much like to be far away, just in case she takes offense."

Silence tilted her head at James. "You're strange." She told him.

"Shh." Ivor hissed, looking a bit panicked. "you.. you can't say that!"

----

Esk looked to Dawn, yeah he was worried, but he didn't show it. She should be pretty used to his inability to show normal emotions by now. "Try to drink." He went to get her a glass of water and set it beside her bed. "Get better."

"If it is our version, then no, not unless you are Pandorian." Dawn said, closing her eyes again and glad she didn't have to read. She blinked and looked at the glass then smiled at Esk, sitting up a little to drink from it. "Thanks" She didn't drink much before she laid down again.

~~~
"Don't be so worried, we've all been called weird or strange at least once." Skye said with a chuckle. "Most of us are ok with that, because we know we are and it isn't said with malice."