It was the worst thing ever!

They had to stop Brushies less than halfway!

It was the best thing ever!

She had a mission from her crew!

Tunie would feel conflicted if she was as tiny and small as crew.

But she was big and wonderful and could fit many different feelings behind her many bright eyes.

So right now she could feel plenty of it being bost the worst and best thing ever.

She also had room to gossip with the other ships about how incredibly terrible rude the port was being!

On the one f’teropod they were really generous and Tunie was looking forward to being incredibly fully.

On another f’teropod they were being so incredibly and horribly rude asking things. This is what her crew said! So she shared that.

She also shared how nice and wonderful her passengers were and some of the jokes she heard with them.

Orgah a bigger Ship of a kind sort of cousinish to Tunie and her family lines was so taken with the joke that the passengers shared with her that she almost did a tumble into traffic in laughter!

Which meant that of course Orgah promised to let her crew know about how rude the port here was being to Tunie and her crew.

The others also hummed and twisted and squirmed metaphorically and literally over the news. Some of their crews mollified them with complaints. Others soothed them with comforting words.

But on the whole many many ships were stirring in various ways at dock and in the many many streams of interstellar traffic around them.

There was Toner, Thrum, Lutish, Strum, Folkin, Azure, Wiggle, Boojun and Calip who all voiced their concerns over the dealings with the port and its terrible rudeness.

Although Folkin and Azure were already well on outpound paths and unlikely to come back this way given their acceleration unless things turned really dire. Tunie understood, it would be very hard on them to waste a trip worth of good food over a lack of port cordiality.

They would probably not be back this way until long after all of this was settled. But even so they promised to carry word out and check in how this all settled out next time someone at dock crossed their path.

Also Boojun and Calip were kinda weird, they were not really proper Ships. They thought and sang much more like crew then like ships. But Tunie was pretty sure they were making positive morale and supportive messages.

Also Toner was lighter on their food stores and a lot younger and smaller than Tunie was. So probably could not afford to take any action beyond support and whatever crew things could be done by their crew.

Still it was practically the beginnings of a nascent tribunal!

This could be so big!

Everyone involved could end up getting serious clout logged on their actions here!

Tunie felt kind of excited, she had not been involved in any concerted action between Trade ships and a port before.

Sure there was the business with her crew disappearing and then at her best crew’s insistence how they had dealt with that port. But that had just been Tunie on her lonesome throwing a few rocks.

She had emptied a good half her food reserves on the sweeping passes made then. Ugh she’d been so hungry when they lilted into meeting up with their tribunal over that.

Honestly she had felt confused and exhausted and her crew had been very low on morale during all of that.

But this?

This was exciting and bustling and there were many Ships here both the living and the cold empty kind all listening and watching with their crews.

And Her wonderful crew was not particularly low in morale at all beyond the completely understandable noise about having to stop brushies!

Tunie totally agreed about how awful stopping brushies. But otherwise they were very high morale and very nice to Tunie and she loved she could help them with this!

What was happening here could turn out to have dozens or even hundreds of crews involved!

It was such a big deal and Tunie got to be in the middle of it talking and gossiping and preening under the attention.

It involved so much singing and dancing and course sharing and gossip with the other ships! It was a near thing that this was not quite as good as getting a good and proper brushing.

But Tunie could enjoy it all the same.

She hoped her crew did not do anything silly and crew like to overly mess with the port morale. They seemed to be having weird little shuddering things about the whole affair. Tunie was not overly concerned, they had already promised to feed her to bursting, and she was already drinking up her due of delicious delicious tasty treats.

She might even add some of these new blends to her list of favorites!

So really it would be best if their morale stayed nice and high, Although...

Okay she sort of felt a naughty little vicious rumble in her core that hoped the stupid rude port did something stupid that deserved her punishing them.

She could vent some of her frustration over the stupid traffic!

But then she would have to break some holes in the port and that would be bad for everyone’s morale crew and port alike.

And it would waste so much of her hard earned plumpness.

Bah

Tunie decided to also wishlife was simple and she was still getting Brushies. She shared this new facet to the story with the growing cloud of interest amongst the various ships in dock and transit.

The other ships lamented with her on the unfairness of the life of traders and their ships and the endless underappreciation of the ports.

Although quite a number of them did not seem to follow what Tunie meant by brushies and she had to elaborate on the wonderful experience and the instruments and care provided by her crew.

So tunie with a thrill of delight to be able to boast explained how her crew gave her wonderful luxuriating brushies after almost every trip.

The jealousy for a significant number of them made her feathers fluff up and shine with potencies in her smugness.

She could feel the light brush of the aether answer her and had to carefully relax so that she did not shove herself during mid feeding like that one time she would never acknowledge to her crew happened because she was distracted by a clever poem.

Still Tunie considered this further balm on her interrupted grooming session.

If she could not enjoy wonderful feather restoring Brushies then she would share the longing with as many ships as possible.

And she could taste the echo of that yearning from the many other ships.

Most of them didn't even GET proper brushies.

Some had their own little pleasures with their crew, refits, especially decadent treats and mixes that made their grip in the aether extra strong. But to get their entire plumage restored like new?

Orgah actually insisted on hearing where exactly Tunie’s crew had bought the thing and what trade goods had been involved so she could fit it into her own itinerary with her crew.

Which of course Tunie provided, no point in hoarding the wonder that is Brushies all to herself.

That would just be unduly spiteful.

She hoped her crew did not take long to sort this out.

She felt little itches of want to have the rest of her plumage rewoven.