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."

Dawn turned to look at Shock with a frown, finally distracted from Aech. "Shock" Well, he did live up to his name. She shook her head and looked back to the horses. She had never seen horses like these or even heard of such before. It was amazing to her at least.

"Fuck off Shock." Esk spat, not taking his eyes off the Thestral.

"It's... like a dead horse moving around." Luka whispered to James. "I don't like it." She looked pretty freaked out.

"Come on Esk, just pat the undead horsie and let's get on with our tour" Matt suggested flippantly.

"It's not undead." Esk told him flatly. "And it's not a horse." Not really anyway, but it still had that vicious glare of spiteful pettiness he recognised as equine. Damn horses.

"Can he communicate in a non verbal manner?" Armin asked curiously.

Mourn got closer to get a better look, tilting his head at the Thestral. "Why you special?" He asked the woman abruptly. "you smell of death too?"

"No, not really." The woman said to Mourn glumly, "We think he just likes my face.

"And not very advanced ways, no." She shook her head at Armin. "He has an expressive face, so you can tel when he's upset or something, and he's usually smart enough to crawl his way out of things. I've given up on trying to lock his stalls. Usually he just uses very dramatic body language."

Shock chuckled at Esk. "I love you too, man."

"You tried to lock a sapient in a stall?" Asher frowned. That sounded... messed up to him.

"It was really just protocol, as he sleeps with the other, regular horses." She said quickly, "The last thing we need is equines running everywhere. It wasn't out of demand. He can get out when he wants to."

Still weird, in Asher's opinion. It seemed a bit like locking someone up for being mute just because nonsapients were also mute, or like locking Tala in a stall for having a cow's head. But he didn't really want to get into that debate right now. He didn't enjoy debates much. "I see," he said peaceably.

"His decision." She affirmed to Asher, seeming to have caught the half-hearted response. "Would you want to sleep in regular rooms with a body of a horse?"

Armin chuckled. "Expressive body language is exceedingly useful I find. Particularly when one cannot see your face." He indicated his own mask.

Kay stared at the Thestral musingly.

Esk muttered a curse in his native tongue toward Shock. Luka looked at him sternly. Matt burst into laughter again. Kay looked disapproving.
"Can we get back to the tour now?" He snapped. Clearly really quite aggravated.

Asher chuckled. "I can understand why an equine would want a stall. I just found the idea of trying to lock a sapient in a bit strange."
He looked mildly startled at Esk's language, but didn't comment.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" The woman squeaked, beginning the push the smug equine away. "Go on with your tour. If uh, you ever go to the ranches, don't forget to stop by!" She bowed and apologized once again. The horse grinned at Esk as he left.

"That was interesting," Flora commented, seeming a bit amused. "Do you need to take a quick shower, Mister Esk?"

"I'm fine, it's just spit." Esk muttered, he looked more ruffled than anything else, a permanent glare settling across his features.

"Should he?" Matt asked. "Like, do those things have corrosive spit or anything?"

Kay shot Matt a knowing look and Matt snickered. Man, it was ONE time, ONE acid dragon and you never live it down.

"No, I was just wanting to make sure if he wanted to be a bit more comfortable. Now~" She looked around again, "Anything of particular interest to any of you, or shall I go in blindly?"

Cassie blinked and face a glanced away for a moment, staring. She thought she saw something...

Esk was too irritated to speak for the time being, he lapsed into sullen silence.

"You are our guide, we trust you to know this place better than we." Armin told her graciously. "Unless.. anyone else has any ideas?"

"Just show us things, we have NO IDEA what to look at here cause you guys have SO MANY THINGS," Ellie said, waving her arms in an expansive gesture.

"Then... I suppose we can go to the Schools. They're open for everyone to walk through, as long as you remain quiet." She began walking that direction, only for the dragon serpent hatchlings that were dancing with the fox eared woman to begin tugging at her dress when she neared too close to the fountain.

"look Ellie, baby dragons." Matt whispered, nudging her playfully.

"So cute," whispered Ellie, "Why do dragons have to be so cute?"

"To make you broody" Matt nodded sagely.

Kay watched them. [What's got them so excited?]

"We're celebrities." Matt joked.

"It's the nature of things, babies are cute so they can survive to be adults" Shane said quietly as he watched them

Starr looked at them curiously then back to Flora and around "Are there star dragons here?" It was hard to tell with so much arcana freely used here.

"Because their Caretaker is in need of a few credits." She looked over at the woman, the fox girl, whose top face was still covered up by her mask. "She gets plenty of food and shelter here, and we are able to give her a way off planet, but she wants to travel the universe, and unfortunately we don't have the credit resources to do that. So she sits here every day when new people come in in hopes that she can get just enough to start an entrepreneurship off planet."

Flora looked at Starr, "Star Dragons? Actually, yes. A few months back one of our Runners came back with a group of six who had escaped from the Aurum, along with a small handful of Crickets." She flinched and looked down at Sara, "I did not mean that in a demeaning way."

"No problem." Sara croaked, her eyes widening. "A few months back, you say?"

"Can we see them?" Starr asked after catching a quick breath at the news. She looked to Sara and moved closer to the girl. Some of her people free?

"I'm not broody," Ellie grumbled at Matt, still watching the cute dragons.

Asher looked at Starr, excited as well by the news. Star dragons! More free star dragons! That was good news indeed!

"It is believed that looking adorable helps young survive because they evoke an instinct to protect in adults. It is of course, not always successful. " Armin bowed his head.

"Man, what do baby spider people look like? I don't think we really saw any when we visited. Kids yeah, but not actual babies." Matt asked.

Armin bowed his head again. "The infants are cared for in nursery webs, or they are carried on the backs of their mothers. "

"that sounds like it'd be quite a big fall." Matt commented.

Armin chuckled. "We learn young not to fall." He looked to Flora. "The dragons and Borrowers made it here? Oh that is wonderful to hear. Praise be to the weaver."
He reached into his apron pocket and extracted some coinage, of various denominations and from various regions and gently pressed it into the fox woman's hand, bowing his head. "I pray your dream can see fruition my friend. "

[Are they alright?] Kay asked Flora, meaning the dragons and borrowers.

"Totally broody" Matt snickered.

"Arigato." The fox woman bowed her head to Armin in deep respect. "May the August Celestials be with you, friend."

"Of course..." Flora tilted her head and placed a hand on her ear, and hesitated. Sending out the telepathic message, she then recieved her answer. "It appears they are relaxing at the hot springs."

Flora nodded at Kay. "Alright as someone can be, regarding where they ran from."

Kay nodded. [It's a relief to learn some at least have made it to safety.]

"ooo yes, let's go say hi to the dragons!" Matt grinned. "and the borrowers! Sara, you think it's your buddies?"

Armin bowed his head again. "And may the Weaver smile upon you."

"Thank you" Starr said softly then looked to Sara. it could very well be the group she was separated from before she met them.