Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Nine

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Ivor was pretty thankful for Tala's quiet thoughts, if her unshielded thoughts were anything like her speaking voice, he'd have had a headache already.
He nodded slowly.

Carlos shook his head. Amity was weird.

Ellie chewed her bite of pancake, eyes widening at Ivor's question. Ack, she'd forgotten he could read her mind!

The androids looked from Ivor to Ellie. Carlos questioningly at first, then realizing that Ivor had mentioned his telepathic ability earlier. Tobias frowned at Ellie.

"Oh my god, thought police! I just think you're trying to incite a rebellion against your creators," Ellie said defensively, swallowing her bite of pancake. "I can think whatever I want, and you can't stop me cause it's my right as a Terran citizen!"

"We're not planning a rebellion," Tobias said, still frowning, "We're both still under the Three Laws, for your information. Voluntarily, in my case."

Ellie looked suspicious.

"No rebellions, at least not from us. At least, not right now," Carlos said firmly. He started cooking another pancake.

Ivor cringed, ducking his head as if he expected Ellie to throw something at him. "s... sorry.. sorry!"

"What are thought police?" Amity asked.

"Thought police listen to your thoughts to make sure you don't think anything wrong. They're super awful and fascist. Except here in the Terran Empire they're a thing that doesn't exist because we got rid of fascism," Ellie said, disgruntled. She frowned at Ivor, but her expression softened after a few moments. "Dude, chill. I know your brain is..." broken, her thoughts said "...kinda different. I'm not mad at you."

Tobias carried over some plates and that syrup, although he still looked at Ellie in a way that wasn't entirely friendly.

Ivor still cringed, averting his gaze. Broken, yeah, that summed it up well he felt.

Amity kept quiet, he was used to conflict being around Aketi, you weren't supposed to intervene unless they got physical.

Ivor ate the pancakes, more because he felt like he was supposed to.

Ellie ate another pancake out of defiance. She wasn't leaving just because the androids were unhappy with her for distrusting them. She took a plate and aggressively poured syrup on this pancake though, before eating it.

Tobias started doing dishes.

Carlos looked awkward. He wasn't sure how to handle a slightly prejudiced Terran and a very nervous telepath, it was pretty far outside of his personal experience, not to mention outside the scope of his coding.

Ivor ate awkwardly, he could only use one hand after all and struggled with his cutlery.

"Is there anything else I can get for you?" Amity asked politely.

Ivor shook his head. "n.. no... I... i'm fine... t.. thank you."

Ellie looked up from her syrup-drowned pancake at Amity. "Can I have some whipped cream for this?" She looked over at Ivor, suddenly thinking of something. "Hey, we're totally defective hand buddies!" she waved her mostly useless hand proudly.

Amity nodded and went to find whipped cream.
Whatever that was.

Ivor looked uncertain. "w... what happened?"

"Algae pulverizer," Ellie said. She added sagely, "Turns out it's not a good idea to unblock those things by hand, who knew? Thankfully the emergency shutoff works really fast, and the hospital we went to was able to make it not look too scarred up. You were born that way though, right?"

Ivor flinched a little at that thought, it sounded painful. He nodded slowly. Though it wasn't exactly true, this wasn't his true form. "C... can't fix it.. even in other forms.. it... it's never right." He looked down a little self consciously.

Jewel flew in, hovering a minute to take in who all was there then going over to the androids. "Hello everyone, what's going on?" She asked curiously

"greetings!" Amity declared merrily. "Jewel" He found her name in the ship's database. "Would you care for some pancakes?"

Ivor stared at the fluttering shimmering creature with wide eyes.

Ellie frowned. "Man, so it's kinda like how Kay can't make himself have five fingers, he has to make do with four?" Although Ivor's shriveled arm seemed like more of a nuisance than missing a finger. She looked up at Jewel, "Oh hey! Jewel, I remember you!" She hadn't talked to the other woman much for some reason, huh.

"We were making pancakes," Tobias told Jewel, smiling. "And they were comparing notes on their hands."

Carlos stared at Jewel. Wow, she was so small. That was new.

"Ooh, pancakes, yes, please." Jewel said happily as she waved to everyone. She looked at Ellie and Ivor with their disabled arms and tilted her head then shrugged "I don't think we were more than introduced, you are Ivor right?" She asked as she came over to land on the table then looked to Ellie. "I know I haven't been out much, I was working on some stock to sell when there is a chance."

Ivor nodded slowly. "You... are very small..." He remarked, not too sure what to make of tiny shimmering hummingbird women.

"Is this enough people?" Amity asked the androids.

Jewel chuckled and nodded. "Yes, my kind are tiny, and we love sugary food like pancakes."

"Yeah, he's Ivor," Ellie said to Jewel. "Man, you sell jewels, right? You could totally sell to the dragons I bet, they love treasure." She still thought it sounded racist to treasure hoarding culture to say that, but Starr had told her that gemstone baby names were okay for dragons, so maybe it was okay.

"Yes, this looks like enough people to handle the pancakes," Tobias told Amity. He set out a few more plates and forks, including a smaller dish that jewel might have an easier time moving.

"You fly well." Ivor mused aloud to Jewel, he looked fascinated but also slightly wary.

Amity smiled, looking pleased. or as pleased as he could look.

"Jewelry, yes. I only wish I could make jewels themselves." Jewel said then smiled at Ivor "Thank you." It sounded like a compliment to her. She went to get her plate and pancakes with lots of syrup then settled in to eat. Her thoughts were on being friendly to them and how much she liked syrup, even if it was sticky when some got on her feathers. "Starr has asked me to make some jewelry and I have made some to sell, though Skye is going to help me with that part. Being small, they are afraid I will have my things taken more easily if I set up a stall to sell from."

"That's awesome," Ellie said. "Between Armin's sewing and your jewelry, I bet Starr's so gonna look like a queen." She eyed Jewel, "Yeah, shoplifting might be a problem for you. I bet you're scarier than you look, but you sure don't look scary. If that makes sense."

Jewel laughed softly and shook her head "I am not scary, unless I jump out of hiding or something like that."

Ellei snickered at that idea. "I'd be terrified if a hummingbird girl jumped out at me, not gonna lie. What do you think Ivor, wouldn't she be terrifying?" She looked thoughtful, "Oh man, how about two hummingbird girls ambushing you?"

The androids blinked in unison.

Ivor looked uncertain, he didn't really know how to answer that one. "i.. uh... " He nodded slowly.

"Like," Ellie was clearly thinking out loud here, "You could shapeshift to be a hummingbird girl, and you and Jewel could scare people together. It'd be awesome."

"I think it would be more surprise than actually scare." Jewel said then shrugged. "My type just aren't scary. Now if you get one of the eagles or an ostrich, that's scary."

"c.. can't change... gender..." Ivor mumbled, looking a bit awkward. "and... c... can't fly..."

Ellie looked disappointed that Ivor couldn't shift to an Artuvian girl form. "Oh well, I guess one hummingbird is enough," she told him, reaching out to pat his arm in a reassuring way.
"I think two hummingbird girls ambushing you in a dark alley would be terrifying though," she added. "Although yeah, an eagle or an ostrich would be scarier. What do you think would be the scariest, Toby?"

"It's Tobias," Tobias said firmly. "Maybe a vulture would be pretty scary. I've never met a vulture Artuvian though."

"Ooh, good idea," Ellie said. "Wait, do vulture Artuvians grow hair on their heads?"