UPON VESTIA: CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

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.

Asher shook his head. "That's a lot of people. I guess not much would seem very crowded after that." So many teenagers. From what he'd seen of teenagers, it was probably chaos. His thoughts flicked to Amari, poor kid with all his issues and teenage hormones that were sure to cause problems down the road, before trying to remind himself that he wasn't supposed to worry about Amari for now.
"We had pretty big rooms back on the space station, they were down on the maintenance level where nobody else lived, so we each got our own and decorated them how we liked," he said. "And of course in the mail service, I had the entire ship to myself, if you didn't count the ship himself. I guess our lives have been pretty different that way."

~~
"I guess we'll find out then," James said, privately hoping Ivor wasn't going to panic. "Yeah, in our quest for self-sufficiency--well, Dawn's quest-- we picked up a ton of animals. They come in handy, supposedly? I dunno, I don't eat." He nodded sagely.

Kay nodded. [The colony we had a little more space, there were only a half dozen of us by the end so we got our own dorms. And I had my own room on the Space station, but that was more because nobody wanted to bunk with me.] He shrugged, clearly that had suited him just fine. He liked his privacy after all. [We weren't really supposed to decorate much though. A few photographs or mementos was about it.] And clearly this was a habit he'd maintained as his room was pretty spartan.

---

Ivor nodded slowly, as if that made sense. "Dawn is.. the woman who got hurt yes?"

"Well, that'd be an improvement, at least having some space to yourself," Asher said sagely. He wheeled out into the hall, wondering what other sights there were on this floor. "It's a shame they didn't want anyone decorating much though. Decorating can be a lot of fun." Asher smiled softly. He'd had a bit of a decorating things phase in his younger years, although he didn't do that much any more.

Starr frowned at that and thought about it a moment before nodding "That is not a way I thought about it, but that is true in a way."

~~~
"We have people that eat meat, people that drink blood and one guy that can take life to heal, so the animals fill all those needs." Skye said softly. "Yes, Dawn is the medic for the Silver Devil but she has been thinking of staying here."

Ivor cringed at that. These people sounded a bit terrifying.

--

Kay smiled softly. [Is it?] He'd never really indulged in decorating anything.

---

Armin nodded. "Would you like to go for a walk? to take your mind off of such distressing thoughts?"

Starr smiled at him and nodded "I would like that" She said softly.

Armin bowed his head and moved away a little. "Vestia, where is a good place to go for a pleasant stroll?" He asked.

"It's okay man, the people with special abilities never hurt us," James said, trying to reassure Ivor. "And the animals are safe and happy here. It's all good."

~~
Asher nodded. "There can be something very relaxing about making a space your own. You can go there and change things, and make them look how you want. That Hawaiian shirt I told you about was only part of my phase where I liked bright colors, my room was really something too," he said, looking kind of amused.

~~
Vestia recommended a couple of places. Most of her parks were still empty sadly, so there weren't really any places to walk in nature, but the unfinished parks or Hydroponics might be nice.

Starr nodded and stood, taking the carrier and settling it against herself "That sounds good."

~~~
Skye frowned a little again then shrugged "We all try to be good, even if not everyone is nice. We don't kill people without reason or attack without reason, but we will protect ourselves and our friends as well as we can. You are part of this crew, and I hope can become friends as you get used to us."

Ivor looked a bit uncomfortable. He'd never really had friends. "t... thank you?" He was pretty overwhelmed by all this.

---

Kay smirked. [I can't imagine you in a brightly coloured shirt.]

---

Armin led the way, hopefully with Vestia's help, to a park.

James smiled. "It's a lot to take in. Come see the animals, maybe you'll like them."

~~
"It wasn't really my look, but I liked the colors," Asher said sagely. "I printed out pictures of colorful animals and flowers to put on my walls, space station administration were cheapskates and made me pay to use the printer, but it was worth it."

Skye nodded again, leading the way to the ranch for them.

~~
Starr walked with Armin calmly, looking at the room when they reached the park. This was not finished, but it was nice. "Does Ellie know of this room?"

Kay looked amused. [That's adorable.] He told Asher with a smile.

---

Ivor nodded more by habit than anything. "Very well..." He followed along obediently.

----

"Do you think she would enjoy finishing it off?" Armin asked, looking around.

"And now look at me, dressed in serious colors and barely decorating anything. It's terrible." Asher smiled. "Thanks for suggesting a break, by the way. I think my brain needed a rest."

~~
James sighed. "Ivor, it's okay to have opinions, you know that, right?"

~~
"Yeah, she knows about it. I think she's waiting to take on a new project, but she's probably going to start developing it eventually," Vestia remarked from somewhere about Armin and Starr's heads. "For now it's a spooky and abandoned place to stroll."

[There's always our signs.] Kay reminded him. He nodded. [I often forget to take breaks myself, I don't think either of us are very good at switching off.]

---
Ivor cringed. "I.. i'm sorry... "

----

"I do not believe it's particularly spooky, just a little sad." Armin glanced up to Vestia's camera and bowed his head.

"Yes, I suppose the signs are a form of decorating. A bit more intellectual than printouts of tropical birds, but still the same idea," Asher agreed, chuckling. "We're both bad at snapping out of our work. Fortunately we're somewhat better at noticing when the other needs to snap out of it, or we'd never stop working."
He went to look into a doorway that didn't look like the others. Inside was a library, much smaller than the one Ethan had claimed, with a few reference books on a shelf and not much else.

"It's alright, nothing to be sorry for" Skye said, looking back to him "Were they that controlling on your former ship?"

~~
"It has the bones to become something beautiful" Starr said softly, looking around herself.

Kay nodded. It was true, they did rather rely on one another.
He followed Asher into the small library, looking around. Huh, interesting. He idly picked up a reference book and skimmed through it.

---

Armin nodded. "It does, I am certain Ellie will make it wonderful."

----

Ivor shook his head vigorously. "no.. n.. no... the... we had rules. But... they made sense. " He looked at the floor. He hadn't been with Hytar and his crew that long, and they'd all rather regarded him as a lunatic so avoided he and Silence wherever they could. "they... they were kinder than... " He trailed off, cuddling his shriveled arm to his chest.

The reference books weren't overly interesting. A couple of first aid books, one on plumbing, and a few about using a 3-D printer. The one Kay picked up was about using and troubleshooting a dishwasher.

"I guess the people on this floor were supposed to do odd jobs," Asher said. He went to look at the self checkout desk, there wasn't even a librarian's desk in here.

~~
James frowned. Man, this was probably about that asylum Ivor had grown up in. Must have been awful there. "We're not like that here," he said gently. "We don't like giving people stupid rules to follow."

Kay set the book down, bewildered. [This ship never fails to come up with surprises.]

---

Ivor nodded. "alright..." He didn't look up.

"If we ever sat down and figured out specific rules, they would be the kind that makes sense, I think." Skye said then chuckled softly.

~~~
Starr looked around and touched a plant then another. What was here was nice, even if unfinished.

"Maybe her hobby is adding onto herself," Asher mused. "She certainly seems to do it a lot, and not because of anything we say to her." He looked at the book Kay had set down, "I wonder if Ethan would appreciate the gift of a dishwasher maintenance book," he mused. The idea was funny to him.

~~
"Yeah, nothing dumb or pointless or fascist," James said. "We're big on freedom here." They headed into the ranch.

Ivor followed along in silence.

---

Kay smirked at the thought. [Perhaps you could take him all of these, give him some more filing to do.]

---

Armin walked with Starr, not saying much. If she wanted to talk she would talk.

Skye smiled and went over to the goats to check on their food and water.

~~~
Starr sighed and looked over to Armin then around again. She wasn't sure what to say now that they were here.