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.

Tala nodded, not especially bothered by the idea of people hurting people for talking in their heads. Pain wasn't that scary to her, and entering someone's mind uninvited was rude. "Unless your kind are very different from minotaurs, that likely means you can learn to block the voices," she told Ivor. "It is too bad none of the great telepaths of my kind are on this ship, they have many useful teachings to protect their minds from the telepathic noise."

~~
"Wanna tell me the latest gossip?" James asked hopefully. "I miss out on so many stories, just cause I'm too big and loud to go unnoticed." He grinned up at Swarm, then started walking down a hall at random.

~~
Ethan snorted. "I'll try to keep him out of trouble. Knowing him, it won't be easy." Hewitt sure did love picking arguments and having loud opinions. "Good luck with your people."

Do you think they may have recorded such teachings anywhere? Kay asked

---

Swarm chittered among themselves, trying to decide what was interesting. --Esk-- --is-- --avoiding-- --Dawn-- --hasn't-- --visited-- --her-- --in-- --days-- It was true, Esk hadn't checked up on Dawn since she'd started getting up and about again, and even before then, his visits had become less frequent as James took over her medical care.

--Tala-- --did-- --not-- --come-- --home-- --last-- --night--

That was probably the juiciest gossip they had. They still weren't totally sure why Ethan was being weird or what was going on with Ellie and Shane, so they didn't mention those.

Tala shoveled some potatoes into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. The nice thing about telepathy was that you could talk and chew at the same time, without it being crude and disgusting. Which she did, chewing and broadcasting simultaneously.
Mayhap so. There are many minotaurs who can write, and some share their knowledge with the universe. They may have published books or created video series.

~~
James snickered. "Captain Tala does like her shore leave. Hope she had fun." He frowned at the news about Esk and Dawn though, "That's weird, normally those two are pretty much inseparable. Hope they're okay. I guess you don't know what's up with them?"

Kay nodded, he'd look into this. I'll get your a tablet. He told Ivor.

---

--we-- --have-- --observed-- --no-- --argument-- --or-- --negativity-- Swarm mused. --we-- --do-- --not-- --know.--

Tala nodded. "Shane, do you know aught about controlling telepathy?" she asked. He was telepathic too, to some extent. Maybe he had some words of advice to add.

~~
"Weird. I mean of course it's weird, cause they're both weird people." James frowned, "But still, that's extra odd. Man, now I want to ask them about it. But Dawn would say it was none of my business, and Esk would just shoot me for asking."

"Thank you" Starr said and smiled at him before turning to go her own way

Shane shrugged a little "To me, it's like making an invisible shield around yourself so that other's thoughts don't come through."

--would-- --shooting-- --you-- --do-- --harm?-- Swarm asked. Maybe it depended on where he was hit, but they were under the impression androids were pretty hard to drop with a single bullet.

---

Ivor frowned, looking a bit uncomfortable with all this attention. He nodded to Shane, he'd try, but he didn't have much hope that it would work. Silence was his shield, and he knew he was a bit too over reliant on her.

Ethan smiled oddly at Starr, then went in search of the professor. The guy might not even be up yet, he thought to himself as he walked, hmm.

~~
"Well he couldn't kill me probably, but if he shot me in the face, he might shatter my eye or I might need to spend a couple thousand dollars on new face skin," James said. "Sooo not worth it, man. I'll let you spy on them for me, it's safer."

~~
Tala cow-smiled at Shane. "That is most pleasing. We shall find a solution, Ivor, do not fear."

Swarm chittered. --we-- --always-- --watch.-- They had no shame in their voyerism.

James smiled at the insects. "Just what I want to hear. Between you and Vestia, nobody will have secrets here for long." He looked curious, "Except you. Sometimes i think you might have a few secrets you keep to yourself."

Shane smiled back at Tala then shrugged a little again as he looked back over to Silence and Ivor. "I was late to learning about my abilities too, and my species."

"True enough." Tala looked thoughtful, "Starr hears all her people all the time, and she taught you much, perhaps she could be helpful." That had to be a lot of telepathic noise, after all.

Swarm chittered again, bobbing up and down. --You'll-- --never-- --know-- they teased.

---

Kay nodded. I fear she's a little distracted right now With all those dragons to settle in place and her birthright to claim, he doubted Starr had much spare time for anything.

"I.. do.. don't want to be a bother..." Ivor mumbled.

Kay rose from his seat, taking his mug with him. I'll see what I can dig up online After Armin's checkup of course.

Ivor nodded slowly. "t.. thank you..."

"Guess not. Ah well, I guess I'll have to live my life wondering what your secrets are." James smiled, he didn't mind much, people could have secrets if they wanted. "So are you planning to stay on board and listen in on Esk today? Cause I soo want more of that gossip."

~~
Tala nodded. "Starr is quite busy, but perhaps she will help later after her people are settled in here. You are not a bother, Ivor, have no fear."

"She knows how to 'tune out' everyone when she wants or needs to." Shane said then smiled and got up to put his empty plate in the washer.

Swarm chittered in amusement. --We-- --can-- be-- --many-- --places-- they pointed out. --there-- --is-- --much-- --to-- --watch--. The dragons settling, Starr taking on her role as queen more, the inter crew drama, Armin's condition, all of it was very interesting.

---

Ivor didn't look convinced, he ducked his head and mumbled a very quiet thank you.

Kay grabbed some toast on the go and nodded goodbye to everyone, heading to the medlab.

"Yeah, I keep forgetting just how many places you can be at once," James said with a laugh. "People talk about wishing they could be a fly on the wall for important events, and you actually can be." He shook his head. "Wait, so have you picked up anything about the Luka and Rigel thing?"

~~
"Farewell Kay," Tala said cheerfully. She finished her own meal and put her dishes away too. "Shane, shifters, what will you be doing today?"

~~
Asher was in the med bay. He kept checking the clock to see when the doctor would be here, even though his brain had a built-in clock too.

He smiled when Kay came in.

--what-- --about-- --them?-- Swarm asked, unsure what 'thing' he was referencing.

---

Silence shrugged. "Not sure."

"i d.. don't think it's wise to go out there..." Ivor mentioned, shaking his head.

"Explore more ship?" Silence suggested.

---

Kay had finished his toast on route and licked butter off his fingers, setting his mug down on his desk so he could wash his hands in the sink. He nodded to Asher and glanced up at the clock, checking the time as well.

Shane shrugged to that question too. "I guess find Ellie and see what she's up to." He didn't have anything planned.

"The uh... 'Luka and Rigel going off flying together and missing Starr's very important meeting' thing," James said. "You didn't know what they were up to at the meeting, and guess you haven't seen anything suspicious since then?" He'd resolved not to ask Luka yet, but he was still nosy.

~~
"There is much ship to explore," Tala agreed, cow-smiling at the shifters. "Do you fight? There are sparring rooms." She looked to Shane, "Ah yes, your charming not-mate who does not lay eggs. I am sure you will have a nice visit with her." Her ears wiggled.

~~
The doctor should arrive pretty soon, yay.

"How was the cafeteria?" Asher asked. "Not too exciting, I hope?" Usually when he went to the cafeteria, something unpleasantly exciting was happening.

~~
Ellie was still sorta snoozing, although she was pretty close to waking up now. She really was tired after last night.

--we-- --did-- --not-- --think-- --to-- --follow-- --on-- --ship-- Swarm admitted. Drat, what did they miss? --She-- --is-- --nervous-- --around-- --him-- --he-- --doesn't-- --want-- --to-- --hurt-- --her--. --We-- --know-- --not-- --if-- --they-- --have-- --resolved-- --this.-- They talked amongst themselves, arguing over whether they should spy on them and find out. Curiosity won out. --we-- --shall-- --watch-- the resolved.

----

Kay smiled softly, shaking his head. [Ivor and Silence were there, we were trying to come up with ideas for how to teach him to control his telepathy. He seems to not really know how to project, but at the same time he can't block out other's thoughts. Starr is too distracted to ask for help, so i'm going to see if there's any information online that could be helpful. Tala suggested that some minotaurs were quite good at such things, and they aren't all illiterate so perhaps some of them have written guidance?] He shrugged. He wasn't really sure. he sort of wished he could be more help but teaching was NOT his strong point and even he didn't really understand his own abilities, let alone be able to explain them to another person. [First though, we make sure Armin is safe and well] Yes, priorities.

---

Silence stared at Shane. "Why not mate?" She asked bluntly.

Ivor buried his face in his hands.

"Ah well, we'll just have to spy harder to find out what happened," James said brightly. "Well, you can spy and tell me what's up, anyway." He lowered his voice, "I have this weird feeling that Luka and Rigel finally talked about their feelings for each other."

~~
Asher smiled at that. "That sounds like a good thing to help with. Ivor seems like a nice guy, maybe if you can give him a bit of help, he'll start to adjust better." He nodded, "Yes, for now we should focus on Armin. Do you think we should have Dawn come along to the checkup?"

--is-- --that-- --a-- --bad-- --thing?-- Swarm asked. They didn't really understand this monomind relationship stuff.

---

Kay looked thoughtful. [It may be wise to keep things limited to only a few of us, Armin seems to already feel awkward about all this, keeping the whole matter to as few people as possible may set him more at ease.]

"It's an interesting thing, anyway," James said. Although he was kinda worried to have his suspicions confirmed too, because he didn't want Luka to abandon him in favor of a boyfriend. "Relationship gossip is fun, haven't you learned to like hearing about who's sharing a room or getting in a fight?"

~~
Asher nodded. "That's a good point, this is obviously pretty hard for him." He frowned in thought, "It might be wisest for you and Dawn to go with the doctor, since you two are the most qualified. Or Tori or James, because they're the best physically suited to doing checkups for Armin." There really wasn't a whole lot of reason for Asher to go along for Armin's checkup, he wasn't qualified, and he couldn't help much in an emergency because he couldn't walk.

Shane looked over to the two again then shrugged "Right now we are boyfriend and girlfriend, that's basically hanging out together to see if you would make good mates." Very simplified definition

Tala nodded. "It is wise to test a relationship before committing to one. Especially when reproduction is possible. Boyfriend and girlfriend are silly terms though, you are not friends, you are trial run mates!" Her ears wiggled.