The Guild Capitol: Chapter One

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The entrance to the portal that led to Asteroid Manifest was grand -- a great stone arch depicting sculptures of feathers and scrolls scribbled with Archean text guarded it, along with two Peacekeeper sentries who looked that the newcomers, nodding once in hello, before returning to their alert stations. The whole scene looked almost from a storybook, instead of smoothly paved asphalt, instead pretty marbled cobblestone (which was oddly flat to walk on) and a wide road headed towards many buildings that seemed almost out of place with how advanced they were compared to the stone roads. A large fountain rested in the center of a circled town square, four figures sculpted into it; one was a woman with a dryad looking face, her body wrapped in tight clothes as she was forever suspended in a graceful bound. A second creature looked to be almost spiderkin, but was quite large in comparison to vavare and had a much taller and leaner torso, with insect eyes and mouth that was locked tightly with vertical razor teeth. A third man was also sculpted, vaguely familiar to any who had met with Arya on the first mission; a simple silhouette with an almost cartoonish skull for a face. Finally, the sculpted man most heightened was none other than a depiction of Ragnarok himself, his swirling flames across the bottom of his robe forever suspended in stony projection.

Cafe store fronts littered with different aliens of all kinds and likeness, many walked around and avoided the new tourists though did smile and wave a few times as they passed. The large fountain was occupied by a woman, with fox ears and tail, wearing a top half of a kabuki mask while playing a shamisen, three orbs of water of different shades being played around with by the three draconic serpents that seemed delighted with her presence. On the other side of the fountain was a group of Terrans -- or would have been, if many of them didn't look malformed or changed, one man with spindly arachnid legs sticking out of his side as he wore a mask, a few of them having differing features of cross species from the Galaxy. One old geezer was covered head to toe in runic tattooos and was tiredly carrying heavy and thick gossamer dragonfly wings on his back as they sang merrily.

Across the way were a group of three normal looking Terran, all women, who were handling equines of massive size, two of them easily twelve feet in height, the third dwarfed by about four less feet. While the first two were powerful and the color of the sky; one a blue roan and the other a stormy gray, the smaller was spindly, quicker, and of a dark black, looking almost skeletal. The final oddity about these horses were the fact that they each had a pair of alarmingly huge wings. The bigger two gracious and feathery, and the tinier one with large, leathery bat-like ones.

Kay was attracting attention again. This timeby a group of three almost elvish looking people, all wearing that same wolf-embroidered tabard. They then quickly lost interest when they spotted Flora, who was waving them off, chuckling and returning to speak among themselves.

"Welcome to Capitol Square!" Flora said happily, "This is basically everyone's entertainment center for the more city-minded folk."

Flora looked absolutely delighted at their interest in the universities. "We can go to the water rooms and the Univerisity of Nature Magic." She walked up to Rigel and produced another pamphlet out of thin air, this one an earthy brown. "Come back whenever you like."

"awesome!" Matt looked delighted.

"Yay!" Ellie said. "I wanna see those plants!"

Flora turned to Armin and grinned. "Oh, many. We have the Affliction Magic, Healing Arts, Nature, Elemental, Physical Enhancement, Psychological Ability, Arcana -- which branches into conjuration and illusions and what else you see the storybook wizards do -- Transmutation, Divinity, Hands on works such as potions and nonmagic trades, Caretaker Trades, Combative Specializations, Survival skills..." She kept naming more and more, just about any Learning you could think of, they had it. "Calligraphy and literature!" Her voice squeaked almost excitedly. "Engineering..."

Armin chuckled. "I think we get the idea, thank you my friend." He bowed his head again.

"I'm totally gonna check out the water hall." Matt decided, opening that door.

Matt opened the door... and was greeted with a large bubble in his face. Flora came over and gently pressed onto the bubble, her hand slipping through. Her body slipped in completely and she ended up floating -- no, not floating, swimming. In mid air. She smiled at all of them, speaking clearly. "It is perfectly safe."

Matt laughed and dove in.

Mourn prodded the bubble, shrugged and slid through it.

Luka shook her head, she preferred to stay here, with supposedly solid ground under her feet.
She watched them though, it was a bit like watching people in anti gravity to her perspective... only wetter and more bubbly.

Swarm seemed reluctant, like with the fire room a few bolder insects tentatively flew at the bubble and were absorbed into it where they flailed and couldn't quite right themselves. They weren't designed for swimming.

Rigel smiled at Flora then looked at the pamphlet with Dawn coming over to see it over his shoulder.

Shane chuckled and looked to Ellie "Well, guess I will lose you to a teacher after all." He joked gently

James stayed back with Luka. Yep, Asher would have hated this. He didn't like it much either. "Are the parts of you in there onay, Swarm?" He called.

Ellie poked Shane gently. "Nah cutie, I'm sightseeing, not signing up for classes!"

Flora went over and gently helped the insect back out, who would find themselves completely dry once they escaped the bubble. "It's hard, but if you want to try again, beat your wings. It'll be tougher since you have water resistance but you'll get somewhere."

Swarm nodded, sort of. --they-- --may-- --need-- --help-- --getting-- --out-- --again-- --but -- --are-- --in-- --no-- --danger--
Ah but Flora was on it, good good.
One of them tried again, the other rejoined the rest of the swarm.

Armin went into the bubble cautiously, if only because he'd promised Kay to keep an eye on Matt.
Now where was he?

Swimming wasn't something Vavare were really shaped for, it was extremely awkward for him even if there was no weight aspect to worry about. He flattened himself as much as possible and scramble paddled his way into the room.

Moone stayed out, nope feathers were not good in water either. She was reminded of the lake that Asher had fallen in again.

Dawn looked at the water room and ventured just inside. She didn't really like swimming, though she could when she had to. At least it wasn't the Earth room.

Sawna was quite willing to go in these rooms, none hurt her.

Shane would go in after shifting, just because he wanted to. It was a lot like being in space to him.

Matt swam quite happily, though remarked it was weird not being actually that wet.

Mourn looked unsure, it was just damp enough that his optic was fogging up with condensation. He decided he should probably back out. So he burst back into the hall and shook himself, unhooking the optic from his eye with a hard wrench to examine it and get any dampness out of it. Oops?

Flora easily came over to Armin, propelling herself by bending the water past her. "How well can you wriggle your body?" She asked, before shifting -- she formed a body similar to Armin's and curled the legs in. While her arms pushed forward, she swayed the abdomen side to side, and while not making much speed, it was steady and more fluid in motion. She titled her shoulders slightly to turn.

"Not so easily with all my tanks in place." He admitted, the rigid spine of his upper body limited his movement a little but he tried. "We do not swim often at home, we try to stay above the water." And above water was relatively easy with those legs, but being submerged wasn't so good.

Ethan looked at Mourn, Second Law prompting him to worry about his master. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Ellie dove into the water and flailed around happily.

Mourn looked up "what?" He hadn't caught that, he tapped the optic. "damp. fogs up. " He rammed the optic back into the socket, twisting it so it clicked and locked in place. It whirred as the focus readjusted.
"Better now." He declared merrily.

"You're okay then," Ethan said, watching him. Stupid Second Law! Mourn didn't matter that much!

Flora made sure all of them inside the bubble were well, and asked, "Do you wish to see the lessons here as well?"

Mourn cackled and grinned. "Silly robot, I fine. " he patted Ethan on the arm because he couldn't quite reach his head and went back to smoothing his ruffled fur.

Luka was curious, weirder out by curious and tentatively put her hand through the bubble and drew it out again. "that just... isn't right." She remarked, and returned to James' side.

"I do I do!" Matt laughed and spun in slow somersaults.

Armin looked bemused, yes it would be difficult to get him out of here again wouldn't it?
"I can stay with him if the others would like to continue to the school of nature, I am certain we can ask directions and find you again."

Ethan held very still as Mourn patted his arm, but relaxed as Mourn resumed grooming himself. "Good. I don't want to rescue you."

"Yeah, let's see water magic class!" Ellie cheered.

Mourn snickered. "No need rescuing, self rescuing." He nodded. "you still scared of me?" He tilted his head, curious and bewildered. "I no hurt you robot, like robots. Not unless NEED to. But you smart, you be fine."

Ethan shrugged. "I'm not scared of you, I'm scared of people who can order me to do anything they like."

Sawna, Shane and Dawn didn't really care either way especially since they would still be as a group here.

Moone was curious about the Air room though

Mourn shrugged. "I no give orders, you do what want. "

"You could though. You could change your mind in an instant, for any reason," Ethan told Mourn.

James was half listening in. Ethan's fears sounded way too familiar to him. Poor guy.

Mourn considered that and looked to James. "Could make it so never have to listen to owner again..." He seemed to be asking James' permission. "Then no more worry."