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."

Moriah ducked her head for a few moments as Ivor sat down, she was a little unsettled by his obedient attitude. She wanted to tell him that she hadn't been giving him an order, but she had a feeling trying to explain that was just going to confuse him.
Oh well.
She looked up at him again, smiling at him, then turned her attention to the tablet to see if she could find any pictures of Imperium playing cards.

Imperium information was pretty spotty outside Imperium space but there were a few dealers in 'exotic' goods and similar. Apparently these decks were very rare to see outside Imperium space, but given how insular the Satare were, was that really such a surprise?

the one they did find had, as Ivor had described, military ranks instead of royals, 4 of them instead of 3 and 4 suits, swords, torches, axes and what looked like a bell?

They were quite pretty with full body images for the court cards but they had a common efficient iconographic design to them that made them recognisably playing cards. Funny how much similarity there was really.

Moriah scrolled through the pictures, fascinated by the differences and similarities to the cards she'd seen before. "The Imperium must be so different from the Terran Empire," she mused. "You guys really never had any royalty?"

Ivor shook his head. "No.. least not that i've heard of." To be fair, history wasn't exactly an important topic in a mental hospital.

Moriah nodded. "To be fair, my people don't have royalty either," she added thoughtfully. "In the old days, the Terrans did though, so my people learned about the idea from them."
She smiled, "Now Terrans vote for their leaders though. I'm looking forward to trying that, it sounds wonderful."

Ivor tilted his head. "I don't... think I can vote..." He didn't fully understand what it really entailed anyway. His life had been so sheltered, but being as he was technically a fugitive from a mental hospital yeah, he probably couldn't vote.
or do much of anything official.
Being certified insane rather screwed up your freedoms.

"How do you know who to pick?"

Moriah frowned a little. Right, she hadn't thought of that. Ivor really had had been put in such an unfair situation, having all his rights taken from him just because his family hadn't understood his powers.
"You do research, to decide who the best candidate is, and that's the one you vote for," she told Ivor. "I imagine it must be hard to choose, sometimes. "
She smiled slightly, "Maybe if you become a citizen somewhere outside the Imperium someday, you'll get to vote too. Then we can vote together, maybe."

Starr flushed lightly and glanced to Armin before looking back to Ellie. "We just decided to try dating last evening." Why shouldn't the others know? Her people knew just from the questions she had had to ask to make sure they would still follow her.
~~~
Rigel tilted his head a little then shrugged "We can see what kind of cloaking devices have been made lately and see if any are compatible with her." That would be an interesting thing to try to find anyway. "See if she can get some better outer armor and weapons to protect herself. Have to talk to her about such changes though."

Ivor frowned. "is... is that... possible?" He asked, curious but nervous.

---

Armin bowed his head. "I am most honoured to be considered." He told Ellie sincerely.

"Ohhh my god, I totally guessed it!" Ellie looked delighted. "That's so cute!" She looked at Starr, Armin, and Luna, clasping her hands together.
"Wait, but the other dragons are cool with it?" She'd gotten the impression that star dragons preferred to stick to their own species when looking for mates.

~~
Tala nodded thoughtfully. "You know much about ships, if anyone can find a way to cloak Vestia, it is likely you. It might be wise to leave the children with the Silver Devil or even on Unity though, we do not wish them to be slaughtered."
She added, "Clearly Vestia and her crew would need to discuss all this, but I think you are the best to talk to first."

~~


"I think some empires let people apply to join them," Moriah said. She wasn't totally sure though, she wasn't exactly an expert on international affairs. "And if you became a citizen, I think that means they let you vote. So yeah, you could probably become a voter someday." She smiled at the thought.

Armin nodded. He'd had this conversation.

---

Ivor frowned. "even... even if... i'm not.. not well?"

Starr nodded and glanced to Luna "Yes, I have my heir and if needed I can have other full blood children later on." Good thing her heart had chosen a Vavare in that regard.
~~~
Rigel smiled then nodded "Yeah, another full crew meeting." He said, honored that she had wanted to talk to him first like this.

Armin blinked, nodding. It was surprising but at the same time reassuring to know Starr was willing to embrace that element of his culture.
It was sort of sweet.

"Oh." Ellie wasn't totally sure what to make of that. This whole royal bloodline thing didn't make a lot of sense to her, honestly. Focusing on the omgsocute aspect of this whole thing again, Ellie said, "Wait, so Armin could be like, Luna's dad? If all this works out, I mean."

~~
Moriah hesitated. "People used to tell you a lot of things about yourself, but I think a lot of what they said was wrong. They didn't know what they were talking about. So yes, I think that any halfway decent empire would be happy to let you vote."

~~
Tala snorted softly. "They will be enthused." She gave him a cow's odd smile. "You will look into cloaking devices and weaponry, then? It would be excellent to show the crew some of the defenses we could use."

Starr nodded and glanced up to him again "Yes, he would be her father figure." She confirmed.
~~~
Rigel nodded and smiled again. "Yeah, I'll look into the new tech and mods available."

"You have my thanks," Tala declared. She was glad Rigel was so knowledgeable about ships. "We must arm ourselves well, I think. In case the Satare give us any more reason to make them suffer." They already deserved her wrath, she thought, but she was willing to withhold it unless she had an excuse to attack them. She was pragmatic. Mostly.

"No problem." Rigel said, he had been looking into such for the SD anyway, expanding the search wouldn't be hard.

Tala nodded. She considered a few moments and then asked out of curiosity, "You and Luka, are you still together?" Last time Tala and Luka had spoken of it had been many months ago, and Tala hadn't thought about it much since then.
But they all worked on the Silver Devil, so she figured she should ask.

"Yes, as long as she wants to be." Rigel replied then shrugged.

Tala nodded. "I hope the two of you will continue to be mature about it. So often humanoids become emotional and make foolish decisions." She really didn't have a high opinion of humanoid relationships, nope.

"Sometimes it's that emotional state that makes them stay together." Rigel countered then chuckled "I promise to do my best to stay mature with this."

Tala's ears wiggled with amusement. "That is true. I was thinking more of the angry and secretive emotions that humanoids love so much, though." She shook her head, "You are a sensible captain, Rigel, and Luka is an admirable soldier. You have that to be glad for."

Armin bowed his head again, gazing fondly at Luna. "I will do all I can to be deserving of such a role in both of your lives." He promised quietly. He really did love Luna already, as if she were his own. His fondness for her mother coupled with his natural paternal instinct made it easy.

Ivor looked uncertain, it was difficult to shift a lifetime a conditioning. "a.. all right..." He replied obligingly

Rigel chuckled and nodded "Yes, I am glad of that with us." He agreed happily.

~~~
Starr smiled and looked back to Ellie again.

Luna chirped to Armin then wandered over the table to Ellie, chirping at her too. Ellie was fun to play with.

"Oh my gosh this is so cute. Would that make Armin a king then?" Ellie said, almost whispering. There was a pretty good chance she was going to gossip about this to everyone she saw, yep.
She smiled at Luna when Luna came over. "Hey kiddo! Your parents have twelve legs when you count them all! Isn't it great?"

~~
Moriah smiled at Ivor. "Someday maybe we can go vote together," she decided. She refused to believe that anyone would try to prevent Ivor from voting.
Of course, she might be wrong. Androids did tend toward a blindlly optimistic attitude, that was for sure.

~~
"We could all be much worse," Tala agreed. "Have you had breakfast yet?" she asked, going to a different topic.

~~
James would probably hang out with Esk for a while, but eventually he was going to start trying to make excuses for why he needed to take a break. Being around Esk was difficult for him, he kept remembering drowning the guy and it was awful.

"That is up to him, if he wants to be a king or just consort." Starr replied and looked to Armin. It was his choice, though not one that had to be made yet.

Luna tilted her head and chirped. Math wasn't her favorite.

~~~
Rigel shook his head "Not yet, I was going to go soon." He replied then shrugged