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."

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.

"Maybe." Sara said softly. "It was a few months back..."

Flora nodded, and turned a direction down a path towards more more minor portals.

Starr smiled gently at Sara before the group followed Flora towards the other portals.

Skye hung back a little from the group as they headed the new way. Ugh, portals made her not feel right. She shivered a little but followed quietly. Moone and she kept the chicks close with them as they walked through the city.

Esk noticed Skye shivering and dropped into step with her. "You not feeling well again?" He asked in that flat, bored, not really seeming like he actually cared about the answer way of his.

Armin bid the fox woman a polite farewell, and all three of her dragon wards before hastening after the rest of the party. Star dragons, more free star dragons? How wonderful!

Skye looked to him then shrugged before nodding "I'm not sick at least, but the portals still make me all woozy" She explained

"The magic resistance thing?" Esk still sounded bored. "Maybe there's a long way around."

Skye glanced to him then shrugged "If not, I might stay behind, or go back to Vestia" She admitted quietly.

"That's an option?" Esk brightened slightly. A chance to get away from this irritatingly cheerful flower woman? heck yeah. He raised a hand to catch her attention.

"Heh..." The woman seemed to know exactly what was being asked when she turned to face Esk. "If you want, we can provide rooms, or you may go back to your ship, and if that's the case, I'll need to give you a pass so that you won't get stuck in those dreadful paperwork lines again."

Skye bit her lower lip then nodded and looked to the woman again "I would like a pass so I can take the chicks back to the ship, it is their nap time after all." She said softly

Esk nodded. "Magic makes her feel sick. " He spoke flatly.

"Would you like assistance with the hatchlings?" Armin asked pleasantly.

Esk glanced at the chicks, babies... eugh, almost as bad as horses.

Ethan looked tempted by the idea of going back to the ship. Running around and looking at statues and schools wasn't his idea of fun. This place was weirdly utopian, and it made him nervous.

James noticed Ethan's look. "Hey man, don't leave us! We can see all the sights, and then later we can go look at robot mods together. We can learn telekinesis! Think of it!"

Ethan rolled his eyes, but looked like he was thinking it over.

"Telekinetic janitor, wow... you can slack off even more on the job." Esk remarked. "I can walk her back."

Matt looked a bit worried about the idea of Esk going anywhere with the chicks.

Esk noticed and rolled his eyes.

Skye shrugged a little and looked to Armin "You should keep looking around, if you want. I am sure there is a lot to see here." She said gently

Armin bowed his head graciously to Skye. "As you wish my friend."

Skye smiled and dipped her head to Armin then looked to Esk, she didn't mind him walking her back, he would make a good bodyguard after all. She gathered the chicks then looked to the woman to get whatever pass was needed

"Man, I'll telekinetically clean everything," James said jokingly, "And I'll do musical numbers from Fantasia with the brooms." He wasn't sure if that was possible, and he wasn't sure he wanted to get himself modified anyway, but the idea was amusing at least.

Asher flipped through his pamphlet, looking to see if telepathy was an option. Now that might come in handy.

Esk groaned at the idea of James doing musical numbers.

Matt laughed. "That sounds amazing. Though you can kinda already do that with bots, the cleaning bots are awesome at synchronized dancing. " He grinned.

"and we all see what YOU do when you're meant to be working." Esk snorted.

"Hey at least I HAVE a job." Matt smirked back.

Esk narrowed his eyes.

Kay shook his head and glanced at Asher's pamphlet warily. He wasn't sure about any of this place, so many miraculous cures and solutions, it all felt a bit too good to be true, like there had to be a catch.

"Well, feel free to head back." She suddenly produced a small yellow paper slip, handing it to Esk. "Give this to PeaceKeeper Arya. She'll help you out. I hope your annoyed glare falls from your face, it might get stuck like that, if it hasn't already. Don't forget to come back later, or you'll miss the experience."

She returned to the remaining group, "Now, we are all ready, yes?"

Esk grumbled but took the paper with a very vauge thank you. He looked back to Skye, they should leave... fast... before anything else annoying happened.

The others all nodded.

Ethan hesitated, but didn't join the group returning to Vestia. He didn't like their tour guide and her judgemental attitude, but he was kind of curious about this place.

Taka did join Skye and Esk to head back to the ship though.

Skye nodded and looked to Esk then Tala then watched the chicks as they turned to go back to Vestia.

~~
Starr, Shane and the others were all willing to go on, Starr was even eager to see some of her people.

Armin bowed his head in farewell to those returning to Vestia, he was actually pretty relieved he got to stay, this place was facinating and he was eager to meet these star dragons.

Matt waved to those going back. "we'll tell you all about it when we get back!"

With that, the flower-dressed woman led them through a sandy brown portal. On the other side was a small hut with towels, manned by... something. It looked like a pocket of steam shaped into a vaguely humanoid figure that seemed to wave at the group as they approached.

James looked around curiously and smiled at the ...being, then accidentally looked up, and hastily fixed his eyes on the ground.

Ethan stayed right near James. Nice to have a living shield, right?

Ellie waved at the steam. "Hey there!"

"W-W-W-What can I do you for?" The steam's voice was gurgle and smoky, like bubbling hot water quickly evaporating. Flora bowed slightly and let the crew talk for themselves. They were adults, after all.