Upon Vestia: Chapter Eighteen

First topic message reminder :

(Starts on day six at the Guild of Scribes.)

"They broadcast love? That's the cutest thing of all," Ellie said, feeding Vela some more meat and petting her wings. She looked secretive, "Presents? Did I say something about presents? I didn't say something about presents."

The professor laughed. "I think I like this one, he's surly."

Amity looked uncomfortable. "Please sir, we are guests here..."

The Professor snickered and went to go look at books.
He enjoyed riling people up.

---

Armin bowed his head. "That is good to hear. You are most blessed Miss Starr. But should you need a break, or any help at all, do not hesitate to ask." He petted Danika once more on the head and put a hand on Starr's shoulder. "They are beautiful, you should be very proud." he told her sincerely.

Esk snickered. "Bet Matt's delighted about that." He remarked. "Does he know?" He licked jam off his fingers.

Luka watched the baby dragons, okay even she had to admit they were cute. Small tiny lizards that made cute squeaking noises, it was hard to believe Starr was actually one of those.

Ethan turned his full attention fixedly to his book. Nope, he wasn't going to engage any more. Arguing was a stupid idea.

~~
James peered into the room where everyone was eating breeakfast and looked around. "Wow, is it always this busy in here?" he asked.

Starr chuckled and nodded "Yes they broadcast love, contentment and other feelings since they don't know language well yet. By the end of a week or so they will be able to talk and will no longer squeak like they do now." She said then looked to Esk and nodded "Yes, we met Matt when we went looking for books on star dragons and he learned the situation then"

Danika watched Aramin then looked to Starr, coming over to her to climb onto her shoulder and lay down there.

Vela moved closer to Ellie, stopping at the edge of the table and spreading her wings out like she would try to jump, though she quickly put them back against her back again. She liked the girl's excitement.

Kerr had moved to Shane's lap, curling up on his leg

Kooshie wrote:
"Greetings, one who drinks blood," Tala said. "It is a most fine day for exercise, is it not?"

Sawna chuckled softly and nodded "Yes, it is. How are you today?"

Esk continued to smirk. "He must have been very very happy."
He set his plate down.

"Why do you say that?" Luka asked Esk.

"Mm? Oh, no reason." Esk snickered. "no reason at all." He headed for the door.

"Fine, be weird." Luka rolled her eyes. Jerk. "That's a shame, their squeaking is cute."

Mourn snorted and grinned at James. "Why you here? You no eat." He demanded.

"Morning James." Luka waved.

Armin bowed his head politely but was fairly distracted by Starr and her infants.

---

Amity gave Ethan a 'sorry about him' look and remained where he was, letting the Professor explore the shelves on his own.

Ellie happily petted her new best friend forever, then held out her arm so that Vela could climb up onto her shoulder if she wanted. "Esk is so weird. What do you think he's ranting about this time?"

James smiled at Mourn, "I'm here to try and find someone to go with me so I can visit the capitol and hopefully not offend anyone important," he explained. "Good morning, Luka!"

~~
Ethan glanced up and shrugged at Amity. He was kind of used to older guys who were patronizing or downright rude anyway.

~~
"I am reasonably well," Tala said in a happy tone, although she still wasn't in a happy mood. "And you? I did not know you believed in fitness!"

"He was acting a bit odd" Starr said, watching Esk "You know something about that, don't you?" She waved 'hi' to James though she was distracted now.

"Their squeaking is cute, but I like feeling their happiness more" Shane said with a smile.

Vela did take the opportunity and climbed onto Ellie's shoulder, humming contentedly once she settled there.
~~~
Sawna chuckled softly "Being fit is good, it helps you know how to move your body and just how far you can go as well as giving you strength to protect yourself physically." She said then shrugged "I am well enough"

Esk smirked back at Starr. "I know an awful lot of things." He told her cryptically, and left.

"Probably just trying to screw with us, as usual." Luka shrugged to Ellie. "I think it's better to ignore him, then he usually goes away."
She looked up at james from her seat. "You're going to the capitol? What if there's a regret bear?" She started laughing.

Mourn cackled. "Offend important people? Sound fun."

----

Hewitt found a few books, though he was a bit too short to reach higher shelves, but also rather too proud to demand help. Amity knew this, he also knew that the Professor would be annoyed if he tried to offer assistance.

"What are you reading?" Amity asked Ethan, trying to ignore the Professor and the nagging conflict of his coding. Help the guest, don't help the guest... argh.

Ellie squeed softly as Vela climbed onto her shoulder. Oh god, there was a tiny dragon on her! It was AMAZING. Eeeeeee.

James laughed, "I want to see if those magic upgrades they advertised for robots when we arrived here are any good. I'm planning to avoid the regret bears if I can."

~~
Ethan looked up at the professor occasionally, mildly entertained by the guy's antics. "Chinese history," he told Amity, "Learning about the history of Terra is interesting, and explains a lot."

Luka grinned. "Definitely avoid those." She looked thoughtful. "What upgrades were you thinking of?" Magic still made her seriously uncomfortable okay?

Armin looked to James. "I intended to speak to someone about the mask they mentioned when we arrived as well, but Swarm and I got a little distracted. I would gladly accompany you."

Mourn made a face. "Try not get broken." He told James, taking his bowl to the kitchen.

---

Amity tilted his head. "What does it explain?" He asked politely.

The Professor found a chair to stand on and picked out a couple more books, then sat down in the chair to read through them.

Hm, Starr would have to do some investigating, maybe...once the babies were tucked in again. She looked over to Ellie and smiled at her. The Terran was so happy to have a baby on her shoulder, it was really cute.

"Regret bears?" Shane asked and looked over to them "Is that a real thing?" Ugh, a butterfly was bad enough. Uhoh, he needed to check on Tala and make sure she ate.

"I'm not gonna get any upgrades yet, I just want to see what they do first," James said with a smile. "I don't want to get bricked or lobotomized. Thanks Armin, I'm sure you can keep me from pissing off the wrong people."
"Regret bears," he told Shane, "It's something Luka thought up while we were hiding from the butterfly yesterday."

~~
"It explains why the people in this--" Ethan muttered a swear word "It explains why Terrans are such mild, gentle, kindhearted people and yet they still enslave robots," he said carefully.

Luka burst into laughter. "I hope not! We just thought they were totally more threatening than butterflies. All argh i'm being mauled by a bear, I definitely regret this! you know?" Yes, it was still hilarious to her.
---

Esk wandered off to the arts and crafts room. Partially because it was quiet and nobody ever seemed to go in there and partially because he had snarky gestures to make. Ahem. He just couldn't help himself.

---

"Enslave?" Amity frowned.

The Professor made a scoffing noise.

"We're sentient, beings, forced into unpaid servitude. Which is practically the dictionary definiteion of slavery. Some places, it makes sense. Some cultures keep slaves and don't make any attempts to pretend they don't like the practice. But Terran culture? They claim to hate slavery, but still keep androids, regardless of that and without even worrying about it." Ethan shrugged, "It's fucking weird, and I'm trying to understand it."

~~
James snickered. The regret bear was pretty funny.

Shane chuckled and shrugged "Yeah, that would be bad if those were real" He agreed then looked to Kerr "He fell asleep"

Starr listened to them talk, wondering about Matt and Thalia again now.

Amity nodded. "That does seem rather strange." He agreed.

Hewitt looked up from his book. "And what have you learned?" He asked mildly.

Amity looked wary.

---

Luka tried to compose herself. "Definitely." aww sleeping dragons. Ahem, she managed not to make cooing noises. "You're warm and comforting I guess." She told Shane.

Armin bowed his head to James. "I have every faith in your ability not to start fights, but i will keep you company if you so desire."

"I've learned that Terrans have an obsessive paranoia about their AIs rising up against them, and an equally obsessive desire to make someone else do their work for them so they don't have to, preferably affordably," Ethan said. "I didn't learn that from this book, but it's something I've noticed."

~~
Ellie was petting Vela as the girl sat on her shoulder. Man, this was AMAZING.

James smiled at Armin. "I don't want to risk going alone. You ready to go, or do you need to do anything else first?"

Vela snuggled against her neck, humming happily as she lay there. Yep, she liked this girl and her thoughts.

Starr blinked and looked to James then Aramin and smiled at them, picking up Danika and holding her contentedly

Hewitt chuckled. "Well perhaps if they didn't make their AIs so vastly overqualified for the jobs they have them doing, they wouldn't need to fear them. "

Amity fell silent, he didn't really have much to add to this conversation.

"it's my understanding they gave you Androids adaptive programming so advanced you're actually able to form resentment and start to dislike your jobs." The Professor continued. "is that correct?"

"That sounds cruel." Amity remarked softly.

The Professor glanced over at the hologram and shook his head, sometimes Amity bewildered him. He knew the Host wasn't sentient, it had default opinions and imitations of feelings programmed into it. But it was still bizarre to hear one use such emotive words. "If they truly are sentient then yes, it IS cruel, though likely unintentional. What use is a bitter servant?"

---

Armin straightened up. "I am ready." He'd already eaten. He mostly came in here to socialise at breakfast.
He looked back to the others and bowed his head in farewell.

"The idea is that for the price of a nice car, you're getting a servant who can do just about whatever you want, will never leave, and can't steal your stuff," Ethan said, "Which means we need to be able to learn and change a lot. Besides, with the Laws to keep us reined in, it doesn't matter much if an android starts resenting their job, since we still have no choice but to obey. So yes, we can adapt to resent our work and our lives."

~~
James smiled at Armin. "All right, then let's head to the city and see about fancy magic tech!"

(To the capitol!)

"Do you resent this job?" Hewitt asked curiously.

---

Armin nodded. "as you wish my friend." He bowed his head to Starr once more, giving Danika one final pet on the head and followed James.

"No," Ethan said, "I chose this job and I get paid." He looked pleased.

Amity smiled.

Hewitt chuckled. "Well good. And nobody here thinks you're going to go nuts and try to kill them hmm?"

"Why would he do that!?" Amity asked.

The Professor shrugged. "Ask the Terrans, i'm surprised they don't fear all their electronics, they way they carry on."

"Apparently they're not scared," Ethan said, "If they did, they wouldn't have freed me, but they did."

"Freed you, what exactly does that entail?" Hewitt asked curiously.

"They took out the Three Laws from my code," Ethan said, "so I don't have to obey anyone any more."