Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

First topic message reminder :

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."

Ivor nodded. "y.. yes..." He brightened slightly, realising who she was talking about. "yes, like him." He and Kay had rather more in common than just being from the Imperium after all. Silence even said they smelled similar, which was.. wierd. More from his perspective because it was freaking bizarre to smell people but eh.

He looked at Zara warily, he got the impression she didn't entirely believe him.

"You and him are friends?" Zara guessed, watching Ivor's expression. "You must have a lot in common, I know the Imperium has a... really strong culture." That was one way to put it, anyway.
She noticed his rather suspicious wariness, but decided against prying about his lineage. Hey, if Ivor had secrets he was keeping, he wasn't the only one.

Ivor shook his head. "no.. no .. not friends. " He frowned, Kay always seemed a bit hostile to him, especially lately. "I don't... I don't know him very well... just.. just that we share ancestry... " He half shrugged. "Where are you from?" He asked at last.

"You share ancestry?" Zara said. The family resemblance wasn't immediately obvious to her, although come to think of it she recalled him having odd eyes too. It hadn't seemed important at the time. "That must be interesting for you guys," she said cautiously.
"I'm from one of those planets that refused to join any empire," she said. She tried to keep its name out of her thoughts. "It was kind of... tiny and run by an incompetent government. Which is why I left. Lots of better places to go."

Ivor shrugged "His mother was Hexenfolke as well..." Was all he'd divulge on the subject. He nodded at her response. "That sounds dangerous.. to have no empire to protect you."

Zara looked skeptical, she really doubted the whole strange red eyes thing was Hexenfolke genetics, but resisted the urge to question further. If there was something odd in those two's family trees, then that was their business, not hers.
She nodded. "The planet wasn't really a target for raiders, thankfully. But the economy was pretty bad, which leads to plenty of problems too." She smiled a little, "Still, there were a lot of species there, so meeting new species out here was less of a culture shock."

Ivor tilted his head. "It was some sort of colony world?" He had no real frame of reference for whole planets that were multicultural, it bewildered him honestly. "is there a native species?"

"Yeah, it was a colony world. Word went out that it was a good place for lawless people of any species to settle, so that's what they did." Zara shook her head, "If there had been a native species, an empire might have tried to protect them. But there wasn't, so the planet was fair game for settlers."
She smiled, "I'd love to hear more about this crew if there's anything you're willing to tell me. The captain told me a bit, but I didn't want to keep her from her family."

~~
James had probably decided to come back to Vestia, he'd bought himself some new clothes, and was now wearing a t-shirt with an angry robot on it. He liked this new decade, it was much more friendly to his species than the last one had been.

~~
Tala had noticed a new scent earlier. Terran, she thought, maybe. It wasn't Ellie, she was pretty sure of that. She'd asked Vestia about it, and Vestia had said there was a new passenger on board, but please don't interrogate her right away, because Starr already checked and thinks she's okay.

Tala snorted softly, but she respected Starr's judgement, so instead she headed down to the ramp to keep an eye out for anyone else who might decide to trespass. And you know, maybe watch people as they came and went. For the entertainment.

"lawless... so.. it was not a very safe place?" Ivor asked, he nodded obligingly. "What do you want to know?"

"Not very safe, no," Zara said. Her mind darted to a bad memory for a moment, then she shoved it away hastily. She shook her head and looked to Ivor again, "Hmm, the captain mentioned there were other telepaths here. I'd like to know a little about them, maybe."

Ivor flinched a little at the glimmer of a memory and watched Zara uncertainly, nodding. He saw no reason not to trust her, the captain had allowed her on board after all, she was one of them now.
"there are... a lot of telepaths... i think... The medic... though he prefers to write... the dragons... my sister... " he looked thoughtful. "oh, the minotaur too, but.. only a little?" He wasn't entirely sure. He shrugged. "I don't.. spend much time with them.. Except sister.. they think too loud, it hurts. Even when they're trying not to. "

"There are that many? Wow." Zara shifted slightly on her feet, nervous at how many people might be overhearing her thoughts. "Are their abilities as... strong as yours?"
She added thoughtfully, "Do you suppose it's possible to learn to think more quietly, like your sister does?" As a kid she'd been taught how to control the volume of her voice, so she hoped maybe something similar was possible here. She didn't want to be broadcasting her thoughts if she could help it.

Ivor frowned, then shook his head. "I... I don't.. think so..." He lowered his head. "they can block it..." He mumbled, oblivious to Zara's difficulty hearing him. "tried... I... can't do it.." He hugged himself, looking miserable.

Zara wasn't sure what Ivor had said after the first part, only that he looked miserable about it. She hesitated, Ivor seemed to get nervous so easily, and she had a feeling asking anything of him was going to make him even more anxious. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I'm deaf, and I can understand you better if I can read your lips," she said.

Ivor's gaze shot back to her, eyes widening. "oh..." A flush rose to his cheeks. "i'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He still wasn't doing a very good job of making sure she could see his face though, he just wasn't used to looking straight at people when talking to them. He'd gotten into a terrible habit of looking down.

Zara winced. Yeah, it looked like Ivor was pretty unnerved by this development. Which was kind of what she'd expected, but still, it wasn't fun for either of them. "It's okay," she said hastily. "I'm not mad at you. I didn't tell you earlier, so I didn't expect you to know."
She thought a moment, then found another pretty cloud image to hold in her thoughts. That had seemed to help Ivor earlier, she hoped maybe it would again.

Ivor looked grateful as she held a peaceful image but now he was fretting. "w... what helps... ?" He asked. "I.. I don't think I can project into your mind... I.. i'm not very good at it. I don't want to hurt you." He really had no idea, just looking directly at her wasn't something that came naturally at all. He was trying, but it was clearly very difficult for him to keep his head raised when speaking.

Zara watched Ivor carefully as he spoke. It helped that he was making an effort to face her, but it was clear it wasn't easy for him, and his speech was still a little tricky for her to follow. She considered their options. "I mean, we can try to keep talking," she said, "We did pretty well so far, right? I might need to ask you to repeat something sometimes, but that's okay. Or you could write maybe?"
She wasn't keen on the idea of telepathy either, and she was guessing that coming from the Imperium, Ivor might not know how to write in Common. Maybe they could convince someone to interpret for them, but she was kind of reluctant to ask that of someone she'd only just met.

Ivor frowned, shaking his head. "i'm.. not... can't write..." He admitted, averting his gaze.

Zara nodded, looking apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't know." She frowned a little, trying to think of some way to communicate that didn't involve forcing Ivor to try to face her.

At that point, Vestia decided to join the conversation. "I could interpret if you guys wanted, or I could ask Silence to come over and she could use her telepathy," she said. She sent a message to Zara's tablet, saying the same thing.

Zara checked her tablet, then looked to Ivor. "Something like that might work. What do you think?" She didn't know who this Silence was, but she figured she should let Ivor decide who to pick, if he was okay with this idea at all.

Ivor looked up at the camera when Vestia spoke and nodded slowly. "Wh.. what would you prefer?" He asked. He didn't want to make a decision! that was too much pressure.

Vestia considered that, camera tilting to consider each of the two. On one hand, Silence might be better at helping Ivor to not freak out. On the other hand, Silence might freak our Zara with her unusual appearance, and the telepathy thing. Decisions, decisions.

Zara shrugged when the camera looked her way. Hey, she didn't know who Silence was or what telepathy was like, she couldn't really weigh in here. "Looks like it's up to you."

"I'll interpret for now, if it doesn't work, I'll ask Silence," Vestia decided. She sent the message to Zara's tablet as well.

Zara nodded and looked to Ivor with a small smile. "Okay, let's give this a try."

Ivor nodded, looking awkward and uncertain. "I... don't know what to say.." He admitted quietly.

Vestia helpfully transcribed Ivor's words onto Zara's tablet, although for the moment she wasn't having trouble understanding him.

Zara hesitated. "Can we go back to the telepathy subject for a bit? I know I said something that upset you, but I couldn't understand what you said to me afterward. If it's okay, I'd like to know what you said."
Potentially risky territory, but she felt like she should know, so that she could apologize if she'd said something awful without realizing it.

Ivor frowned, looking awkward and trying to remember. "you.. you didn't upset me" He tried to reassure her, though he was probably lying. "i.. " Ahh, yes, that was it. "I'm not... I can't block people's thoughts. I try but... but I can't... " He looked flustered and miserable.

Zara considered that, then let out a deep breath as she put together what she'd intended to say, what she'd actually said, and how Ivor had understood what she'd said. Yeah... no wonder he'd been upset. Crap.
"I'm so sorry. I totally screwed up the question I was trying to ask, and I didn't realize it at the time," she said. "What I meant to ask earlier was if there was any way I could learn to make my own mind quieter, but I guess I phrased it wrong. Really wrong."
She added carefully, "You probably get a lot of people trying to give you advice about your telepathy, like they think you haven't heard it all before. I'm really sorry about doing that to you, I really didn't mean to."

Ivor shook his head. "no... you did nothing wrong." He tried to insist but cut off, ducking his head, too anxious to assert even that. "I... I don't know if people can think quieter... Some.. some people here have... quieter thoughts.. some have.. have shields. I can't hear them so well."