Asteroid Manifest

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The docking point for all incoming refugees and reports bound for the Guild, always packed and staffed.

James laughed. "You're so pragmatic. No sense of romance at all," he said, amused. "Okay, I'll buy a pretty ship and a nice dress then when I'm rich, and I'll look lovely. No princes required."

"Who says i have no sense of romance?" Luka countered with a smirk. "I just don't hold with this expecting some rich man to come do everything for me. Or magic." She snorted in amusement. "I'll find a rugged soldier and we'll fight off hoardes of monsters side by side. And then i'll whisk him away in my heavily armored ship!" She grinned. Yes, she liked this idea.

"Okay, that's kinda romantic too," James agreed. "Fighting off bad guys together is good." He smiled, "I started reading one of the books you gave me last night. It's amazing," he said, "I wish I had a series for you to read too, but the one I've been reading has a shapeshifter protagonist."

"A shapeshifting protagonist? that must be weird to keep track of." Luka smiled softly. "Glad you're enjoying the book, they're fun." Stupid, but fun.

"She's a call girl. She turns into different types of hot species and has affairs with half her clients," James said. "Ethan judges me so hard." He smiled, "Gotta love a ridiculous story."

Luka burst into laughter. "Shapeshifting hooker adventures? Wow." She shook her head. "There's a love story? How can there be a love story if she's screwing all her clients?"

"They all think she's amazing and she keeps getting lost looking into their eyes," James said. "Talking about how buff they are and stuff. And she thinks 'I shouldn't do this', but then she does anyway."

Luka snorted with laughter. "If they're so hot why do they need an escort?"

"Because she's amazing," James said, nodding sensibly. "And they're lonely and brokenhearted and not ready for love... or so they think."

Luka just kept laughing. "Your books are weird James." She smiled. "Ethan judges everyone, i'm sure of it."

"He does. He raises his eyebrow just a bit, and makes a small noise of distaste," James said with a snicker. "Or maybe he just does that to me, I dunno."

Luka laughed. "Does Asher do that? It's wierd how different they are in some things but then how alike in others you know? "

"Asher doesn't usually judge, he just finds things like my book preference kind of funny," James said. "He's much more okay with people liking odd stuff, while Ethan seems to object to it. Although neither will actually try to stop you from reading those books," he added. "They're sorta nice that way."

"Well that's something at least." Luka agreed. She sighed. "so what should we do now?"

"Head back to Vestia and research ships?" James said. He looked amused. "I dunno, I don't really feel like going into the city."

Luka nodded. "yeah, let's go find out what that logo meant!" She decided that was kinda productive, well not really, but they could CLAIM it was hah.

They headed back toward Vestia. The airlock was closed.

"Umm," said James. "Now that's weird, she usually leaves that thing open."

Luka frowned and looked up at Vestia. "Vestia?" Could the ship hear them from out here?

"Oh hey guys," Vestia said. "There's been some sort of mirrored butterfly on the loose, apparently looking at it can make you experience your deepest regretted memory, and that's pretty bad for you. We don't think it's on board, so we're trying to keep it out if we can. I think I can let you in though."

"Mirrored... butterfly?" Luka frowned and glanced to James. Eugh, more magical bullshit right?

James rolled his eyes. Whoo, three cheers for the Guild and their competence.

"Yeah, someone let it get out. I don't know a lot of details, just not to look at it if you can help it," said Vestia. She opened the airlock for them, "Come on in, guys."

Luka hurried up the ramp. "and you're sure it's not on board?"

"I'm not sure. It's kind of hard to check hundreds of rooms," Vestia said. "It's statistically unlikely that it's on board, but when have statistics ever applied to us?"

James snorted and headed into the ship, and the airlock closed behind them.

(To Vestia!)

(From Vestia)
Skye looked to Orel and smiled a little before taking off to fly

Orel followed Skye, lifting off with a few flaps of his wings. "The nice thing about staying here is not having to go through the portals!" he called.

Skye glanced back to him again and smiled, nodding "Yeah, not going through the portals is a good thing." She agreed

Orel flapped a bit higher. "Are we going to do what Asher said and stay near the ground?" He asked, smiling at Skye.