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.

"Good morning, Amity," Tobias said, looking up from the recipe to smile robotically at the drone. "How are you this morning?"

The other android, Carlos, had his head in a cabinet and was looking for some specific type of flour. He ducked out of the cabinet and smiled at Amity, albeit much more naturally than Tobias had. "Hey there, Amity."

"I am well, thank you." Amity smiled his cheerful smile. "Do you require any assistance?" He tilted his head, not really sure what the heck they were actually doing.

"Good to hear." Tobias repeated his mechanical smile. "You want to help us make pancakes? We could use the extra hand if you aren't busy."

Carlos had stuck his head back in the cabinet and had returned to searching for that flour.

Kooshie wrote:Ethan was kind of enjoying having the new passengers around. He wandered up to the star dragons' level to see if they'd let him put up posters to advertise the benefits of getting a library card.

None of the star dragons seemed to mind either Ethan there or that he wanted to put up posters. A few even asked about the library here and what was available.

Ethan wandered around the floor, putting up posters here and there. He'd stolen them off the internet, and there were a few with catchy slogans about how great libraries were, which he wasn't imaginative enough to have thought up himself.

He'd answer any questions, and hopefully not look grumpy enough to scare anyone off. "Has Starr been up here this morning?" he asked curiously.

"It is my understanding that androids do not consume food, who are the pancakes for?" Amity asked.

"We were comparing notes and we both had some experience with cooking," Carlos said, shifting back in his heels to look at the others. "So we figured we should cook something, for old times sake."

Tobias nodded. "It's not for anyone in particular. We figure someone will eat them. Can you look for the baking powder, Amity? I'll find the blueberries. If there are any blueberries around here."

"What is baking powder?" Amity asked. Ingredients weren't something he usually handled. Baked goods once they were made, yes, coffee, yes, not ingredients.

"It's  uh... white powder, probably in a cylindrical container. Should be labeled as baking powder," Carlos said. "It helps make baked goods fluffy, there's some chemical reaction I think." He stuck his head back in the cabinet, then reappeared, grinning and hefting a large sack. "Aha! Flour! It was just hidden behind everything."

"You'll probably find the baking powder in the cabinet where Carlos just was." Tobias looked at questioning, "Are you supposed to be looking after the Professor? We wouldn't want to keep you from helping him."

"The professor sleeps most of the day, he should be awake by now but he will be enjoying some solitude before he begins to crave companionship and seeks out someone to complain at." Amity smiled, yes, he knew the professor's schedule well. "He doesn't seem to mind me spending the majority of my time elsewhere, I have many guests to assist now." This seemed to make him happy, or at least, something like happiness, closest an AI really could manage, a sense of purpose.

Amity's holographic image knelt down so the drone floating above it's head could get a better view of the inside of the cupboard and scan the contents.

"i don't believe cooking was one of your assigned tasks either was it?" Amity asked cheerfully.

Tobias laughed. It sounded a little off, but he couldn't help that. "True enough, Vestia never assigned us to cook anything. This is more... recreation though, and you don't really have an urge to have fun, do you?"

"But I suppose you do have an urge to help guests, and that means you can help us have fun by finding baking powder." Carlos laughed at the thought, it struck him as rather funny for two AIs to be assisted in goofing off by another, very different, AI.

Tobias smiled and started rooting around in a freezer. "The Professor is lucky to have someone so familiar with his schedule."

Kooshie wrote:Ethan wandered around the floor, putting up posters here and there. He'd stolen them off the internet, and there were a few with catchy slogans about how great libraries were, which he wasn't imaginative enough to have thought up himself.

He'd answer any questions, and hopefully not look grumpy enough to scare anyone off. "Has Starr been up here this morning?" he asked curiously.

"Starr is up here, with the babies and eggs." One of them answered with a smile. "Seeing a new generation that's free is a good sight."

Ethan smiled oddly. "That must be nice for you, having hatchlings and queens and even an heir all at once. Makes things seem... almost stable."

"I do not have desires or wants." Amity pointed out. "I am designed to serve." He kept searching for the baking powder, eventually finding it and picking it up. It was light so he could, horah.

"It is part of my job to know the schedules and preferences of all my guests."

He nodded and smiled at Ethan again. "Yes, it does, now we just need a world to call our own and the rest of our people freed."

Tobias laughed. "It's so weird hearing you say that, because they said the same thing about us. Only we do have desires, and you don't." He found the blueberries and took them to the counter.

"Takes some getting used to," Carlos said. "We're so accustomed to assuming every AI is sentient, and then there's... you." He looked curious, "Do you have trouble prioritizing who to look after, now there are so many people on board?"

~~
"Big goals," Ethan said. "I'm sure you'll manage though, you certainly have the powers to do it. Does Starr mind if I stop by to see her?"

Amity smiled placidly and straightened up, putting the baking powder on the counter with the other ingredients. "I was assigned this region of the ship to serve, so I do so. If anyone wants of me, they can summon me." But they didn't seem to, which was fine too. He was a pretty easy to please little machine.

"Ah, I see." Tobias looked amused. "Everyone is kind of self sufficient on this ship, I guess, they must not call on you that much. Here, sift these ingredients together, I need to find a skillet."

Carlos got to work combining wet ingredients.

Amity looked bewildered. "sift?" He wasn't programmed for any of this sort of thing.

"Of course not." He said with a smile. He knew Starr wouldn't mind seeing Ethan.

"Sifting, you know, mixing ingredients together through a screen," Carlos said. He found a sifter and some measuring spoons and cups. "Here, add the ingredients into the sifter, in the amounts the recipe specifies. The cups and spoons have the amounts they hold written on them."

Tobias tried to find a suitable skillet.

~~
"Where is she?" Ethan asked. He wasn't very familiar with this floor or how it was arranged.

"The nursery is this way." One of the dragons said, motioning him to follow as she headed for the right room. Starr was with the newly hatched babies, helping to feed them with their parents. They had a couple new little ones.

Ethan followed the dragon. "Thanks," he told her. He looked around the nursery, at the babies and at Starr, looking hesitant. He hadn't really spent much time around kids, much less dragon kids, he didn't quite know what to make of them. "Hey Starr," he said with an odd smile.

"Hi" Starr said, looking over and smiled at him. She got up to come over to him. "Is everything alright?" She asked, turning to wash her hands.

"As far as I know, everything is fine," Ethan said. "I was just putting up posters and I figured I'd stop by and see you since I was here." He looked around the room. "I didn't remember hearing about this many hatchlings. Some more hatched I take it?"

Amity took the sieve and studied the measuring cups and spoons carefully, then turned his attention to the recipe. He was painfully slow at all this, rereading everything as he tried very hard to do as he was told. This was very much way outside his coding parameters.

Tobias returned with a skillet which he started heating up, and Carlos finished combining the wet ingredients. Both androids knew what they were doing basically, so they finished and watched Amity with interest. Watching an aketi host drone attempt to sift flour was pretty amusing, okay?

"Want some help?" Tobias asked, relenting.