Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty

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Skye nodded and smiled a little "It's a little scary though, when you only see your own kind then see a city with the others."

Asher hesitated. "I don't know if it would be right to leave that soon," he said cautiously. "The protest is tomorrow, and after that, well, we don't know what's going to happen. Maybe everything will be fine and we can go, but maybe it won't. I miss Danika, I know you do at least as much as I do, maybe even more. And Matt needs Thalia, Starr needs Vela and Kerr, Skye needs Moone. But at the same time, my people need help too." He looked glum, he wanted to go to the Imperium as soon as possible too, but he kept thinking of all the androids who were likely to die over the next few days, and he felt like he should help them. Even though he really didn't know how. He was torn, and it wasn't a good feeling.

Kay hesitated, damn, he hadn't thought of that. He chewed his lip. He didn't want them to split up again, it seemed to invite disaster. Or so he was convinced. [We.. should wait to make any decisions until after the protest.] He nodded. [I assume you and James will take part?] Now there was something else to fret about, if the protest turned violent.

"Yes, we'll see how things go tomorrow, and decide from there," Asher said. "There's no use in deciding before then, but it's something to keep in mind." He smiled weakly, "I'm not sure I want James to protest, he's such an impulsive guy. But I'll be there, and I don't think I can in good conscience stop him from being there if he wants to be. I'll ask Starr to see if she can find any dragons willing to protect us. We won't go out there completely unprotected."

Kay nodded slowly. [I'm sure a great many people here will want to stand beside you in this. Do you want us there or is it better not to?] He wasn't sure. On the one hand, having organics standing beside the androids might lend more credence to their arguments but on the other, it might be seen as a publicity stunt by the organics. Eugh. Complicated.

Asher frowned in thought. "I think that if any of this crew want to be there, the show of support from organic beings might be a big help," he said. "If there was only one protest happening tomorrow, they might accuse us androids of just following orders. But there are going to be androids protesting not just on Terra, but on a few other planets, and individually as well. I don't think they'll be able to accuse us of being puppets when there are so many groups participating." He sighed. "None of you have to take part if you'd rather not though. I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't want to make anyone feel obligated to be there."

[I want to be there.] Kay wrote, reaching out to take Asher's hand.

"In that case, I'll be glad to have you there." Asher took Kay's hand, smiling softly.

Kay smiled back, though it looked a little forced. After a while he took his hand back so he could write. [How likely do you think it is to remain peaceful?]

"I really don't know," Asher said quietly, his frown returning. "That depends on a lot of factors. How quickly the anti-robot gangs find out what's happening and how quickly they decide to mobilize, whether the reporters are biased against us, whether any android says anything that could be construed as showing violent intent. The sapient rights activists I've been in contact with are working to make sure that more sympathetic reporters will get the story first, I hope that will help." He shook his head, he just didn't know, and he remembered so well just how cruel people could be to beings they didn't understand.

Kay nodded slowly, thinking. [I think, having a quick way out is going to be essential, just in case. We don't want a riot.]

Asher nodded. "I'll talk to Starr about it, I'm sure some of the dragons would be able and willing to help. Keeping as many people safe as we can is extremely important."

Kay looked thoughtful. [What time is the protest scheduled?]

"Tomorrow," Asher said, "At five in the evening, local time." There had been a lot of debate over how to time this thing, since there were a lot of major cities in different time zones on Terra, not to mention plenty of other planets with their own daylight cycles to take into account. Some people were going to have to protest at ridiculous hours, and there wasn't a lot that could be done about that.

(Trying to figure out timezones is haaard omg)

Kay nodded, that gave them time to organise things like protection. [Whoever ends up coming, it's probably wise to be perceived as unarmed. ] So no openly carried weaponry. [How does this all work? Is it a march? do we need placards?] He'd never been to a protest before.

"There aren't that many androids in this city, so we'll just be assembling outside city hall," Asher said. "Some androids are printing pamphlets to hand out, and they've decided on some songs that should get our message across well. If the police don't stop us, which they shouldn't because the law allows peaceful protesting outside city hall, a few of us will probably be speaking as well. We'll certainly be talking to as many reporters as we find, too."
"Yes, some people will definitely be bringing signs. Some of them will bring spares, for those who weren't able to bring their own. A few of them pledged to spend all their savings on buying supplies." He managed to smile a little at that, the courage and generosity some of his people were showing was something he found very heartwarming.

Kay frowned a little. [We have a lot of supplies here, if there's anything needed,i'm sure Vestia won't mind.]

Asher nodded. "We'll bring what we can too. Anything we can do will be a help."

Kay looked at Asher. [So what do you want to do now?] He asked. Prepare? or distract?

Asher looked thoughtfully at the door, thinking over the question. "Starr's probably still at the party, so I won't be able to discuss security with her right now. I suppose we could gather materials, it might be good to delegate that to James and the others though, I'm sure they'll want to help prepare." He returned his gaze to Kay, "I should probably check my messages though at least, make sure the situation hasn't suddenly changed."

Kay nodded. [Alright. ]

Asher got out his tablet to check the messages. Yay for portable technology. "Well, nothing terrible has happened so far," he said after a bit. "MegaBrainTech is still hyping up their upcoming update, and some robot rights activists are starting to publish responses and opinion pieces, so hopefully people at least have robot rights at the back of their minds. Nobody's leaking any information about the protest either, so that's good." They so didn't want anyone hostile to the movement catching wind of it ahead of time, that would be bad.

Kay chewed his lip. So far so good, but there was still time for it all to go horribly wrong.

Asher tried to smile. "Just one more day, and then we'll start having answers to all our questions about this." Not answers they really wanted, though. He suspected things were gong to get worse before they got better. IF they got better. "Want to do something distracting, and try not to think about tomorrow for a while?"

Kay nodded, looking grateful. [Unless this is something you'd rather devote your full attention to.] He respected that, even if he wasn't overly happy about it.

Asher shook his head, smiling sadly. "I've been working on this project ever since we left Mars, not to mention all the months of planning before that, and who knows what the next few days are going to bring. I'd rather spend time with you right now, if you don't have anything you need to be doing either."

"I'm sure you would be a beautiful dragon." Starr said with a smile.
~~~
Rigel smiled at Lula then glanced around the room. "Want to try sneaking out of here?"

Ellie giggled. She loved the idea of secretly being a dragon, it was cooler than being a plant mage. "Maybe someday when I'm older," she joked.