Shameless Self-Promotion

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Two figures wandered down the halls of the guild together, happily(ish?) chatting amongst themselves. One was a smaller, leafier figure; carefully preened and maintained and looking rather impressive. She definitely seemed like she belonged here. The other... not so much. Though somebody had apparently tried to clean him up, it was clear that the scaley body was still disheveled, not to mention covered in scars and dirt. Astir, the snakey boy in question, wasn't all that concerned with his appearance as much as he was with scouring the eerily empty guild halls. Rosemary, his recently acquired partner (or maybe it was more accurate to say she acquired him) was begrudgingly accepting of this, though she had wished her introduction to the guild would have been a little more professional.

"...This is the place you wanted to see- the Guild. You wanted to know where all the pokemon wearing the ribbons came from, right?" Mary explained, responding to a question Astir had asked earlier.

Astir looked incredulous to this answer. "It is? I guess... but will they be able to help me find danger??" he insisted.

"I- I still think you're missing the actual meaning of that word," Rosemary sighed, pinching her face with one of her scythes. "Danger is a concept. It's not a real thing you can touch, noris it a-!" In the end, Mary felt it more prudent just to get up. This was just going to be one of those things that she had to explain with time. "-let's not worry anout it right now. Let's just look for a team that can help us, or the place where we're supposed to make our own..."

Aeliana's expression shifted, although it looked as if it moved from a professional gaze to...another slightly different one. Mary seemed enthusiastic, but there was something she didn't quite seem to understand of the situation at hand. The dratini even less so.

"It is not just that you cannot physically fly, but the fact that you can't. Here in Aileron, the flightless are treated very differently from those who can-negatively. Your status as a guild member may not be respected, even if your rank is above that of a rookie. The fact that your are a grass type may even make that worse for you. The key difference between Aileron and Grassveil, besides location and expectations, is that Grassveil's community is far more welcoming and tolerant of the different. While Aileron struggles to rid itself of this ugly prejudice." The guildmaster held her head high, but the disapproving look on her expression made it clear that she was not happy to have to announce this.

"Not only are you going to need to be able to stand up for yourself in battle, but around town and maybe even within this guild without invoking the wrath of the community. I do what I can to help, but I can't always do anything to put a stop to the ones that misbehave." Her gaze focused on Rosemary, but something seemed to finally register in her mind.

"...And no, you are not going to turn into a balloon," she spoke with a much softer tone to the dratini.

Rosemary's expression didn't change upon thinking about this. "I understand now, I think... but I'm not afraid of what other people say about me!" she declared. ...She was a little less confident about this on second thought, but it was true in theory. "...I admit, I want to impress everybody... but the most important thing to me is that I do m job and impress myself." Ish. Probably. ...No, she wasn't going to let this take away her chance at a new life! She was scared of people having bad opinions of her... but she could endure it if it meant those opinions would change later! Even just a few of them! "...No matter what people think of me, I can be successful! If I do my job well, I do my job well!"

Astir was still confused, but the lady's statement put him at ease, at least. He had no idea how he was going to fly without being a balloon... but Rosemary seemed worked up right now, so he'd have to ask about that later. He wasn't exactly sure if he felt relieved or disappointed that he wasn't going to turn into a large, intimidating floaty thing. "Oh, okay..." he responded, his torn sentiments apparent in his voice.

The archeops studied the little fomantis and the dratini for a good long moment. She hopped down from her perch and pulled out a book from one of the many shelves off to the side. She flipped it open before she picked out an inked quill. "Rosemary and Astir was it?" Aeliana requested of them. If anyone were to look into the book, it would have a list of all of the guild teams in it. She didn't really wait for their answer to start writing them down, just beneath several names crossed from existence alongside the name "Dusk."

"If you two are so certain, then you are welcome within my guild. Maps and badges will be delivered to your room tonight once I complete the paperwork. Acro will guide you through how to use them. Be wary on your missions, it's always a sad day when an explorer fails to return home."

Acro couldn't help but look down at that comment. He couldn't help but feel as if it were a warning. While Aeliana certainly didn't mean it, it felt as if she were saying, "Don't kill these two." to him. He swallowed the growing lump in his throat as Aeliana completed the signatures.

"We are just about done here, are there any questions you have for me specifically?" the guildmaster looked back at the two with a questionable eye.

Pleasestoplookingatmepleasestoplookingatmestoplookingstoplooking- Rosemary's mind was in full turbo mode as Aeliana glowered down at her and Astir. What else could she be expected to say?! She had already made so many promises, she had told all there was to tell- so what now? What did the lady guildmaster need to know now in order to trust her?! Rosemary wished she would just get on with it if they were going to deny her anyways, she was going to die from her anxiety at this rate.

Astir, on the other hand, met Aeliana's stare blankly. Waiting for something to happen. It was pretty boring. How could he pass the time? He tried to remember how many clouds they had passed on the way up to this place; there had been at least one they went directly through. He remembered the big orange man sneezing as they went through it.

Finally, finally. Aeliana hopped off her perch and grabbed a book, one Rosemary assumed to be a log book. She asked for confirmation in their names, at which point Mary finally let her breath out.

"Yes!! That's correct!" she exclaimed.

"...Yeah? What?" Astir chimed, his thoughts about clouds broken as he heard his name called. Mary looked to him with glee, tuning out the fact that he had clearly been caught off guard.

"We did it!" she told him, "We're really going to be on the team!!" the feeling of relief washing over her pretty much drowned out all the other feelings that Aeliana's words could have possibly given her. Astir, on the other had, got them completely wrong- unsurprisingly.

"Well- we're not going to just go out and quit!" he protested. Maybe people got lost a lot? He wouldn't get lost; he had a great sense of direction. Rosemary rolled her eyes and gave him yet another "I'll tell you later" look. She then contemplated if she had any other questions for the guildmaster... but honestly- there wasn't anything that came to mind immediately. She shook her head.

"I don't have any right now- I'm just happy to be accepted, honestly," she told the guildmaster. "We'll be sure to come back if either of us think of something we forgot!"

"Yes, though please do so at reasonable hours. I don't want another Nervous Nancy knocking on my door in the midst of the night." She didn't look up from where she wrote a single time, "If that's all, then please excuse me. I have plenty of work to get back to and the Mission Approval listing only ever grows longer."

Aeliana was done. Acro was still just as nervous as when he started, but he turned and stepped outside. The dratini said that they weren't just going to up and leave, but plenty of people have said that in the past. It was up to these two whether they held up to it. The archeops would wait for the two's departure to close the door behind them.

He looked to the two, wondering what exactly they were going to demand of him next. He considered himself fortunate that the dorms in Aileron were either two or three, and his room in particular was a two-pokemon dorm. He already had Dusk with him, which meant he wasn't going to have to put up with staring at Astrid's doppelganger each might...

"Uhh...Welcome to Team Roark..." he finally said, though he lacked the enthusiasm they held for getting onto the team.

"Okay... we'll keep that in mind!! Thank you!!" Rosemary answered before promptly turning and showing herself and Astir out. Astir looked at the large bird lady one more time before leaving. Something about her.... he still couldn't put his finger on it, but something about her made his brain itch inside his skull. Or... maybe it wasn't her. Maybe it was this. Maybe it was all of this happening right now, in this current moment. He was still contemplating this as he exited with Rosemary and the other big bird called Acro.

".....Huuaaaaaaa......" Rosemary sighed heavily as soon as the room had been exited and the door had been shut. This broke Astir from his thoughts once again and he looked to see what was happening with the plant girl. Mary looked to Acro sheepishly as he addressed herself and Astir. "Oh... thank you again! It was very kind of you to take us on!"

Astir was a bit more direct with his approach. "When do we start doing stuff?" was his immediate first question for the bird, now feeling motivated by his earlier scrap of recollection. Something about all of this... just fit. It felt right, though he couldn't explain why. It was the epiphany he had been looking for, essentially! He didn't want to stop. He wanted to begin pursuing it right away.

"...Uh... yeah, I guess that's true. Do you need us to meet you anywhere for training? Or like... an orientation with the other members?"

"I uh...I can just show you around if you like...as for when we start doing stuff...uh...not today...or tomorrow probably," he admitted. It was probably disappointing for them to hear, but he needed to get himself sorted before he went on any missions with these two. "Technically we can start as soon as y-you get your badges, b-but you should probably be with me or Dusk for any h-higher missions..."

"I-I have some things I need to take care of before we d-do any missions, so if you want to take any request F ranked missions to familiarize yourself with how it works, then feel free to..." He basically just restricted them from ninety percent of the mission board, but it felt necessary to him. It was just plain wrong to throw them out into a high-ranked mission and expect them to do well. They needed to start small...real small. So the two can go approve a D ranked mission anyways all the way out in snowcloak ruins that he'd have to chase them down and help them finish and survive in.

"Oh, okay. A tour sounds really nice actually- I've never been here before, after all..." Mary responded sheepishly. In truth, deep down she was relieved that they wouldn't be starting immediately. The encounter with the guildmaster had left her completely drained emotionally... Obviously, she would have done whatever she had to do in order to be a good part of the team, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Astir, on the other hand, was a bit poutier. He didn't look visibly upset until Acro mentioned that they wouldn't even be starting tomorrow, which meant the earliest they would start would be the day after. That was forever!! "Awww, not even tomorrow??" he protested, "When will we even start then??!"

Mary put a leaf on Astir, hoping to becalm him some. She was very tired, and she really didn't want him to start guilting Arco- on the off chance that he succeeded. "Astir... Acro's a busy pokemon, and we just kind of... dropped in on him. He was already nice to take us on his team. I'm sure he's busy. We'll find something to do in the meantime."

"Like what? What would we do?" Astir frowned, though his question was genuine. Mary rubbed her head.

"I'm not sure yet, but... for now that's why we should get a tour from Acro, right? So we can figure that out!"

Astir reluctantly relented, since once again- Rosemary tended to be right.

Mary sighed in relief once more, feigning off a headache from all these repeated waves of stress. "I'm sorry, about that Acro... he's pretty excitable. I any case, the floor is yours."

The dratini even acted like Astrid in a way. It was...uncanny and horrifying. He wanted out of this situation, but he was trapped. He did his best to appear fine, but he was very not-fine. The dratini wanted to start as soon as possible, apparently, but the fomantis was a bit more reasonable. To his misfortune, they wanted a tour. He offered, yes, but he was hoping they would want to spend the day looking around themselves for whatever reason.

"Y-Yeah, we can do that..." his meek voice spoke before he'd turn around and start walking. He didn't check to see if they followed, even though he was quick and sudden with the beginning of the tour. Perhaps if he just focused on that, then this wouldn't be so bad? He just...needed to stop thinking about Astir and Astrid. Astrid is dead. There was no way the innocent little dratini could have lived. It was a long drop and the water...his heart sank thinking about it.

He went on to give the duo a guided tour, however, the whole time he was distracted. All he could think about was how scared Astrid must have been.