Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

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Ellie frowned a little at the question. "Yeah, I've talked to them. They're glad to know I'm okay. It's so strange how much older they are now, though." In the photos she'd seen, they both had a lot of gray hairs she didn't remember from before.

~~
Ethan looked amused. "The library's always open. You can stop by any time you want, as long as you don't get sugar on the books."

Vela nodded "Animals don't have actual words, they talk in feelings mostly."

Ivor cringed, curling and trying to cover his ears which wasn't exactly easy with his shrivelled arm.
"Try.. trying not to.. i'm sorry, i'm sorry... can't help it." He looked like he expected to be yelled at, or worse.

---

Esk paused, shaking his head. "no wheelchair.." He couldn't stand them, they made him feel completely helpless. "I can walk." He added stubbornly as he tried to locate his boots.

"Kinda like plants," Ellie mused. "Although probably a little more complicated than plants. Are there any animals on Unity? I know some space stations have like, little farms where chickens lay eggs and stuff."

~~
Zara winced, she wasn't used to meeting people who were this terrified of her. It was pretty unsettling honestly. "I'm not angry," she told him hastily, "It's fine. I'm just wondering what my mind is leaking."
She tried to fill her mind with pictures of pretty fluffy clouds at sunset, hoping that would be relaxing to this guy... and also that it might block out any thoughts she didn't want to share.

~~
Ethan nodded. "Fair enough. I want to come with you though." He watced Esk look for his boots.

"They have some pets and such, but not many." Vela replied, moving to sniff at a flower.

"That makes sense," Ellie said, pausing to snip a wilting leaf off of a flower plant, and looking at the leaf carefully. "I still maintain that we should get pets on Vestia, although they can't be dogs since Mourn and the people from the Imperium hate dogs. Maybe we should get cats or something."

Ivor still looked anxious and worried. "p.. people don't... don't like.. when you hear their thoughts... " he frowned a little at the thoughts Zara was now projecting, she was trying to be soothing? It reminded him of Silence's attempts to calm him down.
He relaxed slightly, but he still looked very wary and like he expected to be hit. "y.. you... think of the sky now... " He shook his head. "Just surface thoughts, just... just surface.." That wasn't entirely true, he could hear more than just surface thoughts but he couldn't really understand a lot of the noise, it was too muddled to make sense of without actively focusing and he was too scared of the 'voices' to focus on them.

Esk sighed and located his boots, sitting down to pull them on. "Fine, if it makes you feel better." Even he had to admit it was pragmatic though, if he collapsed or something he'd need someone around to catch him. Still, he wasn't happy about it.

Zara held the fluffy clouds in her thoughts, since they seemed to be helping this guy a little. She was good at picturing things in her mind, apparently, the image was pretty clear and steady.
"Yeah, I can imagine some people might not like you hearing their thoughts," she agreed, "Do they hurt you because of it?" she asked, concerned, "You seem, well, really nervous."

~~
"It does," Ethan said. Although he had a feeling that Kay would be at the hospital, which was absolutely not going to make him feel better. "Besides, I know where the hospital is, and you probably don't, unless you've been looking at blueprints of this station or something."

"Was't that part of why Dawn made the ranch?" Kerr asked, looking to Ellie and the leaf she was holding. "There's a lot of pets that aren't dogs."

"I guess so," Ellie said with a nod. "I mean, you can't house train a goat though... can you?" she wasn't actually sure, come to think of it. "I mean, I guess getting a cat might be like, offensive to Mourn or something too, so there's that."

Kerr shrugged, it wasn't something that had come up before. "I didn't mean just those animals, but the habitat thing."

"Oh," Ellie said. "Like keeping cats in the ranch! I see." She looked at the leaf a moment longer, discarded it, and made a note on her tablet before looking to the kids again. "I guess we can't get cats here probably, can we?"

Kerr shrugged again. "I think there's one set of kittens that are old enough to leave the mom."

"Really? Oh my gosh, kittens!" Ellie looked excited. "We could try to get kittens! I wonder if the others would be okay with that." She looked thoughtful, "I wonder if anyone has cat allergies, that would kinda make this idea not work if they did."

Kerr tilted his head then looked around to see where Vestia's cameras were. "Do you know Vestia?"

Vestia's camera tilted to look at Kerr. "I don't think anyone has a cat allergy," she said thoughtfully. "I mean, I don't think anyone got sniffles around Crazy back when he was on board, and I don't think there's anything in anyone's medical files now."

Ellie looked thoughtful. "Nobody sneezes around Mourn either, I'm pretty sure."

"He's a felid, not a cat though," Vestia pointed out.

"I dunno, I think he'd probably cause cat allergies if someone had them," Ellie said.

Vestia shook her camera. Oh Ellie.

Esk looked at Ethan oddly. "you HAVE?" He questioned, lacing his boots with trembling hands. It took a few attempts.
He finally got up and moved toward the door, trailing his hand along the wall for support.

---

Ivor frowned. "n.. not here..." He shook his head vigerously. "Just.. think.. think angry thoughts..." He slowly uncoiled and got to his feet, keeping his distance. "t.. the captain tried to help but... " He lowered his head. "It's not so easy."

Ethan snorted. "No, I didn't look at the blueprints, I'm not that bizarre yet." He headed after Esk, watching the guy carefully just in case. "I was exploring Unity earlier, looking for stores that sold books. I noticed the hospital while I was looking around."

~~
Zara paused a moment when Ivor lowered his head, not being able to lipread meant she had to focus on deciphering the sound of his voice for the last few words. She didn't really want to ask him to try to face her when he spoke, not when he was clearly so nervous, so she didn't mention it.
"That must be awful, hearing so much of what people think. I'm glad the people here aren't violent, but just knowing whatever they're thinking has to be pretty bad on its own." Although of course, the fact that he had specified 'here' suggested that at other times, he'd met people far less kind. The thought made her wince with sympathy, people could be horrible, and she didn't get the impression Ivor had ever been taught to defend himself.
"I hope my thoughts aren't bothering you," she added apologetically, "I'm really not used to this."

"Well, the only way to know is to ask the people if they would mind kittens here." Kerr said and shrugged.

"Oh, but asking seems too simple somehow," Ellie joked. "Yeah, we should probably do that actually. But please say we can skip doing a meeting, I don't want to have a meeting."

"Good." Esk snorted. "I was starting to worry you really had lost it completely." He continued to walk but it was pretty clear he wasn't overly confident in moving.
Still, he remained stubbornly on his feet as they made their way to the ramp and off onto Unity.

"Why would we do a meeting?" Kerr asked curiously

"To ask everyone if they minded," Ellie explained sagely. "I mean the alternative is asking everyone individually, or making Vestia ask, so a meeting might be quicker." She looked amused. "But everyone's so sick of meetings, so we probably shouldn't do that."

"You only have to ask the non-dragons, none of us are allergic to cats." Kerr said then shrugged. Telepathy did help with such things.

"Wait, did you just ask the other dragons, or is it just a fact that no dragon is allergic to cats?" Ellie asked. There was so much she didn't know about dragon biology. "I vote we just get cats and keep them away from anyone who's allergic, if anyone is," she added.

Kerr paused then sheepishly looked down to his feet. "Neither" He said quietly. Oops, he had just been talking about the three he had known the last 10 years and himself.

"Oh," Ellie said. "You meant in your family, then?" She smiled softly at Kerr.