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."

"You were frankly easier to catch than I had originally anticipated, if I'm bluntly honest with you." A voice, strong and masculine, joined in on the conversation. It was Ares, who seemed to watch the group, with both a wary and almost contemptuous expression across his stormy eyes. He had his arms crossed.

"Speak of the Devil and he shall appear, as they say." Spinner looked over to Ares, who merely cocked an eyebrow. "What brings you here, Sir Ares?"

"What doesn't bring someone to investigate when there's an Inquisitor about because of a Family incident?" Ares replied back coolly, watching Asher and Kay with a note of old familiarity, as if he'd known their faces for quite some time. He continued.

"Merith is weaker than he's ever been. Before his Fall, he was a strong and cunning fighter. After his Fall, when his mind was still determined, he was a barbaric if demonic axe-weilder that scorched anyone in his path. Now he is caught between virtue and insanity, and his best potential is lost in his uncertainty. You were not at all hard to catch once we've properly set up a plan."

"You are very open, Sir Ares, about your previous alignment." Spinner commented, looking over at the Keeper with a hint of wariness in his voice. The Keeper only shrugged.

"Should you prefer me to grovel for forgiveness? No. I shall help you with understanding their tactics, and tell you their secrets from what I know, but if you expect me to beg into submission, you're sorely mistaken. I have defected, and am now on the same wanted level as Inari, and slowly creeping towards Merith and Heny's," his eyes suddenly darkened as he glowered, nearly spitting out the latter name in venomous contempt, "notoriety with each little secret I tell you. As far as I'm aware, they know where you are -- How to get in without losing a good portion of their conquest or army? That is a different story."

"So we've expected." Spinner sighed, sounding almost tired. "You have been much help in preparing us, Ares, but unfortunately we aren't willing to trust you enough to take head of the organization just yet."

Another shrug from the Keeper was all that ensued. Vanessa stared at him. "Where's Cal?" She asked him.

Before he could answer, Are's shadow morphed, wriggled and shifted as it twisted and stood up beside him, holding a peace sign in silence before returned to looking like a normal, everyday shadow.

"He doesn't talk much." Ares nodded.

Kay's eyes narrowed at Ares and it took a great deal of self control to restrain himself from the urge to throttle him. So, he'd been part of the team who'd captured them and tortured them? He was lucky Matt wasn't here, he'd probably try to launch himself at him.
Kay just glowered furiously. [How do you even know he's not a spy for them?] He wrote, then turned on his heel and walked away. No, he couldn't stand to look at that smug face or hear any more about their time with the family. He'd locked those memories tightly away and wasn't about to relive any of it thank you. He went to see if anyone needed any medical help instead, before he gave in to the rage that had been bottled up since their journey to the mirror realm.

Asher winced. He wasn't crazy about talking to one of their former captors either, but his temper was much more tightly controlled than Kay's was. "Kay does raise a good point," he said quietly, "If you conspired in our imprisonment, then that was only a few months ago. Have you truly changed sides?"

Spinner blinked in surprise as Kay stormed off. Ares shook his head and said nothing, his expression was inexplicably blank. Spinner looked at Asher, "Oh... We apologize if we have offended him. Ares has been on watch for quite some time, if you are worried. He's been given procedures to stem his magicka, so he can't use it or even go anywhere without protocol. Still, we understand your friend's anger, but such impatience and irritability is not very efficient in these times... Perhaps..." He looked at Ares, who shook his head and waved them off before walking off again. Spinner looked grateful before returning his gaze to Asher kindly. "You wanted to speak to us, yes?"

Ares looked back at Asher, hesitating for a moment. "When you finally see someone you honestly care about over many others scream in agony for hours on end, it tends to sway a mind. Perhaps you should ask Inari's Guardian why you didn't have the problem of meeting up with armed guards during your escapade." Was all he said as he walked away.

Asher watched Ares uncertainly, but nodded respectfully. "I know people can change. Forgive me for my skepticism, it only stems from desire to defend the people I care about."
He looked at Spinner again, "The Family... were very cruel to him when we were captured," Asher said, "And the past few weeks have been extremely stressful. Kay's temper is a bit short at the moment, especially when concerning the people who imprisoned us."
He sighed, looking up at Spinner, "I doubt we know much more about the Family than you do, if you have Ares to provide you with information. Does he help you?"

James lead the others into the capitol, not really sure where to head yet, just looking around. "Hmm, let's head..." he looked around, "That way!" he headed in the direction of a cluster of buildings, probably sort of east-ish, opening his parasol.

Bianca sat on Dawn's shoulder, peering at everything nearsightedly.

Dawn and Rigel followed James, looking around with interest. This place was so big and had so much in it.

"Ooh lookie," James said, "Clothing store. Who wants to see what's in style at the Guild?" He lead the way in, not really waiting for any dissent. "Maybe they'll even have something a rat can wear," he told Bianca.

Dawn giggled and followed him in. Why not? She looked to the merchant then to the racks of clothing, looking for anything she might like here

Rigel followed them in and settled near the door to wait for them to look through clothes or pick some out to try on.

James found a fancy green and gold brocade jacket that happened to fit an average Terran, and tried it on. It was... really rather gaudy and probably looked terrible. At least it matched his eyes? He twirled in front of a mirror like a princess. "What do you think?" He asked. He looked over at Rigel, "Come on, look at the clothes with us!"

Rigel chuckled and shook his head "That jacket is gaudy" He said, finally moving to look at the other clothes available, finding a nice suit jacket with silk interior and trying it on.

Dawn looked at the clothes, finding a pretty dress in white. http://picture-cdn.wheretoget.it/kmjefh-l-610x610-dress-shorts-white-lace-maxi-maxi+dress-white-white+dress-white+long+dress-cute+dress-white+maxi+dress-maxi+tank+dress-summer+dress-long+dress.jpg

James looked at himself again, snorted with amusement, and put back the jacket. "Darn it Rigel, you're too good at this," he said. "Mmm, that looks good on you."
He looked at Dawn's dress, "Wow! If you get married ever, wear that."
He tried on a black velvet top hat.

Dawn flushed and chuckled softly. "Would have to have a boyfriend first" She said softly, putting that one back and looking some more.

Rigel nodded and ran his hands over the jacket "Yeah, it feels good" He said and looked over to Dawn then that dress and raised an eyebrow. He looked back to James and smiled "Now, that would work on you"

James grinned at Dawn. "Well there's no rush, but if you do ever, then keep that in mind." He tipped his hat at Rigel. "It's okay, she can wear white dresses if she wants!"

Bianca was poking around at a tiny rack of fancy clothes at floor level. Some were tailored for rats, who would have guessed?

Rigel nodded and looked back to the clothes, taking off the jacket but holding onto it. Yeah, he wanted to buy it. "Yeah, she can." He agreed

Dawn flushed and checked on Bianca before looking at the dresses again.

Bianca found a red cape in her size and somehow managed to put it on. It looked better than you might expect, but still... undeniably silly. She was a chubby little rat, and clothes didn't exactly suit her.

James tried on some knee-high black boots and went to look at himself in a mirror, ignoring how the boots and the hat clashed with his jeans and t-shirt.

Rigel looked to James and chuckled then looked to find some pants and a tunic then handing them to James "Go put these on with the boots and hat" He suggested.

Dawn chuckled as she saw what Bianca had found. "Looks good" She said then picked another to look at, this one a suit set https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b1/5b/0d/b15b0dc962c0880029770be154a02a09.jpg

"Thanks man!" James went off to put on the pants and tunic, and came back looking significantly less silly. "How do I look?"

"Thank you," Bianca said. She tried on a tiny blue dress-like thing next.

James looked admiringly at Dawn."You look very important now."

"Nice" Rigel said and chuckled "Kind of like a bandit from an ancient story" He said then looked to Dawn and nodded "Yeah, that looks good on you."

"Oh, nice Bianca." Dawn said gently and smiled at the rat then looked to James "And you too"

"Arr mateys, I'm a pirrrate now," James said in an atrocious Terran accent. It sounded a lot like his James Bond voice except for the R's, because he couldn't really differentiate between the different Terran accents well. He looked around at the clothes, and pulled out a yellow dress for Dawn, "Try that, you'll look like Belle from Beauty and the Beast!"

Dawn chuckled and shrugged, going to try that dress on, though she was keeping the suit. She came out and twirled for them, showing it off cheerfully

James tried on a long coat next, while Bianca put on a pink tutu. "Man, we look gooood. And I can even afford something this time!" James grinned.

Rigel found a dress shirt and pants to go with his jacket and tried them on happily

Dawn put the yellow dress back and continued looking "Yeah, it's nice to have some pay saved up for things."

"Looks awesome, Rigel," James said. He nodded at Dawn, "Oh yes, being paid something more than an allowance is so nice. It's kinda nice to get to have days where we get to rule Vestia's med bay, isn't it?"

Dawn chuckled and nodded "Yeah, it is nice" She agreed and looked to Bianka again "Nice tutu"

Rigel smiled and went to pay for it and to have his and Dawn's sent to Vestia.

James picked an emerald green hoodie, because he didn't actually want something super fancy. He just put it on once he bought it.

Bianca got the tutu off, and climbed up James' leg to sit on his shoulder. She was aware that her claws could be uncomfortable sometimes.

"Okay, any ideas where we should go next?" James asked.