Spider appears in front of Supernova Arcade once more. Aside from the usual pop/punk/emo music playing and the animated spaceylogo, nothing is different than its usual operation. Looking to her right, she can see The Cubes that she and Elara sparred in before with a crowd of people witnessing a battle happening. Cheers are easily heard from where Spider's at, no sensitive hearing required. Two bouncers, one much shorter, and the other a bit taller, guard the entrance wearing simple business suits with a earpiece in their ears. They're not really guarding the place per se, as Spider notices people just idly entering and exiting the building at their leisure.
Spider remembers that the next goal is to deliver one of these Dream Seeds to ADMIN Andromeda, and with that in mind, she enters the complex. Upon walking in, the usual hallmarks of an Adventurer's Guild are seen. On the left, the usual screen with Quests is found but it's currently malfunctioning and has yellow OUT OF ORDER tape over it. Next to the screen is a receptionist wearing a cropped red t-shirt, a leather jacket, and short black denim shorts with lots of rivets and chains on them. This person also has facial piercings, tattoos all over their torso and arms, and long fiery red dyed hair. Her eyes are a piercing yellow, though considering the shade of yellow, they’re probably cosplay contacts. Leading out of the main room is the main arcade with tons of video games. Oddly, the music and sounds coming from it seem to be filtered. It's nowhere near as loud in here as you'd think. Restrooms, a map of the facility, and some basic black cushioned seating complete the ensemble.
After idly glancing around the lobby. Spider makes her way over to the receptionist, "Hi I'm looking for ADMIN Andromeda?"
The receptionist looks up with a grin, "Andromeda? I can contact her faster than a flame rips through paper. Is this about that Quest?”
Spider gives a small smile back, "how did you guess?"
The receptionist sighs and explains, "Cuz she's been up my ass about it, even asking me to head out there. Like, do I look magical? Nah, just hot." Speaking of hot, while she struts her stuff, her lanyard hung nametag containing their name and pronouns becomes more visible. It was flipped around previously:
Pyra 🔥
She/They/Flame
"And I doubt Ashe wants me turning The Outskirts into the Blazeskirts-- that sounds kinda awesome though." Pyra chuckles and presses a button on flame's console. A few minutes later, a portal opens up for her to enter. Blue and black swirls surround a pitch dark oval big enough for Spider to enter. "She'll see you now, go ahead and step inside." Pyra smiles gently. "And please tell her to take a break for a hot minute? She's been at this project for literal months now!"
Spider's smile grows wider at Pyra's antics, "do that and you'll have some very pissed off guardians coming after you." They shake their head upon seeing the portal, and after confirming to Pyra that they will, she steps through the portal.
With a tilt of her head, Pyra say out loud, "Guardian??? Ugh whatever, see you."
[LOCATION TAG - ADMIN ANDROMEDA’S OFFICE - CAPITAL CITY]
The portal’s exist brings her to Ashley Andromeda’s Office in Capital City. It’s a rather basic office somewhere near the ground floor in Nova Tower. Lots of tall plants surround the medium sized room and makes it feel less like an office and more of a greenhouse. A brunette haired woman wearing a checkered vest, green polo, and simple beige slacks sits at her desk. Behind her desk is a bookshelf filled with books and binders, many of which don't have any noticeable book ends or names on them.
Over to the side of the office is another glass door leading to what Spider can somewhat tell is a greenhouse of some kind. A large window on the other side of the office shows a sunny sky and the clocktower that Nova District is so fond of, one she'll remember fighting Chandra over a year ago on a night when the moon was less than a witness and more of a dangerous foe. Judging by how far up they are, they're probably on the second or third floor of Nova's massive tower in the heart of the District. Ashley is in the neighboring room working on something when she hears the sound of a portal opening. Upon walking out, she smiles gently and waves, "Oh hey, it's been a bit hasn't it? Not since... seeing my partner get taken away."
Spider returns the smile taking the opportunity to talk while she figures out the best way to approach what happened in the outskirts, "it has, I hope you've been holding up ok since that."
Ashley shrugs, "Actually yeah, I'm hanging in there. He was released pretty shortly after getting arrested. Apparently someone at Nova wanted him free for something? It's confusing, especially considering I haven't seen him since. I don't even understand how he's alive, much less free. Anyway, you have a gift for me Pyra told me?"
Spider notices three things rather apparent while speaking to Ashley:
1. She has an odd earring on her left earlobe. It looks like a very small lilypad, one that looks similar to the one Cass had on its head despite it being knocked out.
Error seems to vibrate while in Ashley's presence, almost like a phone just got a text message while in silent mode.
2. On another wall, a small shelf of what looks like stuffed animals is noticeable. One of them looks like the purple cat resting on top of Luna and Hinata while they were knocked out. Another one looks somewhat like Celeste from the Outskirts. And the other one looks like that one rabbit stuffie that Elara has, Mr. Bunnykins.
3. The plushies seem to catch Spider's eye and she takes a few steps closer to study them, "I do, didn't appreciate it being made easy though."
Ashley chuckles hearing Spider, "Really? Fun fact, you're the first person to actually make progress. Cass only shows itself to people it deems worthy. Otherwise, you'll walk the infinite forest forever and probably die a painful death due to the other Creatures out there. Gods know we’ve lost a fair share of Adventurers trying this mission." There is a sense of apathy in her voice, especially when talking about the other Adventurers. She then notices Spider inspecting the Shards she’s made, "Ah yeah, those are my babies. I made these things ages ago at Solaire, and am still making them. It’s a hobby of mine.”
Error vibrates again. Even though it's out of sight, Spider can tell that perhaps Error is nervous somehow. The cat plushie meows at Spider. And the one that looks like Bunnykins almost seems to tilt its unmoving head at Spider. The claws on the Celeste look familiar somehow, like she's seen claws... or the potential claw marks like this before. Its feathers are possibly familiar to Spider as well. Spider feels almost paranoid while looking at them. With an eyebrow raised, Spider offhandedly comments "considering they were all conked out I find that hard to believe." After catching the familiarity she turns away from the plushies and shrugs her bag off, "you did a good job with those though."
Ashley goes to sit down at her desk and smiles wider than before, "Well considering Stardust is being spread out there, that's to be expected. One whiff of the dust will instantly, or nearly instantly, conk out any Creature of Legend and send their minds to the Dream Realm. Anyway, you have a seed for me yeah?"
"Depends." Spider pulls a seed out of their bag narrowing her eyes at Ashley's soul shard.
When she does, Spider notices her Shard glowing an intense, but not enough to be blinding, gold, and Ashley's smile widens even further upon seeing the Dream Seed. "Depends on what?" She then pauses as if hearing something and tacks on, "Hm. That's interesting."
Spider shrugs hiding her curiosity behind the casual façade, "what you're gonna use it for. I'm sure you know my friends and the last thing I need is them knowing I helped Nova's latest machination." It's only mostly a lie.
[BGM - The Mad Scientist's Passion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tCZkGa_1WY]
Ashley's usual prim and proper behavior takes a break as her passionate and wild side takes over with a wide smile and her head bobbing as if hearing music somewhere and being unable to stop, "It's just mere research, don't worry about it Spider. Speaking of research, I see you're just like me. Is that an Error soul shard in your possession?"
Spider isn't too fazed by Ashley's statement figuring that the somehow was the same way they knew. Instead she smiles and responds, "and yours is Cass correct? I'm curious, how happy are they that you polluted the outskirts?"
Ashley simply shrugs it off, that smile not relenting, "Not like it matters. The Guardians are asleep, guaranteed. They cannot harm me! And yes, mine is Cass, the River's Guardian. Its ability lets me sense who or what are soul shards. If you notice on my shelf, I have three of them that I've collected from different Creatures. In fact, I create these for Nova Heart. Can't say I've ever seen a Malfunction shard before though! It's so interesting, I've always wondered how it works! Error was.. one of my first encounters, not counting Cass." She grips the Dream Seed. Error is still vibrating.
Narrowing her eyes Spider attempts to mentally reassure Error while responding with an edge to her voice, "and the quest was for the seed, so that's the only thing I've brought you."
With that reasurrance, Spider hears in her mind, "I don't like this. : ( Flora was never this. Insane. Let's get out of here. Open Null Void." in a voice that resembles a cacophony of hundreds of inkjet printers going off at once. It doesn't hurt to listen to, but it's amazing that speech can even be recognized and easily at that. Only Spider hears Error's voice.
Ashley doesn't even seem to be responding, almost like the world was frozen all of a sudden. The walls turn red and the sky outside turns pitch dark with something white speckled in the ether, a farcry from the warmth-providing daylight. Being a new thing, the voice makes Spider jump and sight the abyss really doesn't help. Wordlessly she disappears leaving the Dream Seed behind. As soon as Spider disappears, the world unfreezes.
They appear nearly instantly in the living room. Spider quickly pulls Error out of her bag sounding disbelieved when she asks, "and since when could you talk?"
It's not exactly talking : ) You reassured me mentally and I wanted to repay the favor : ) In a way, think of it like telepathy. I'm basically glitching the world to do this. : )
"same bloody difference." Spider grumbles at the knife in her hand before her voice softens, "are you alright? She mentioned that she encountered you before."
Yeah, Flora was a very kind scientist back at Solaire, and one of their experiments was on me. She was amazing, just wanting to learn more about my existence and how i work. :)
After she was murdered a little over a year ago, however, almost all of my soul shards were destroyed and i was released. :(
And now she's back and uh. She's not the same. Similar body, similar soul construction, but her personality.. let me put it this way, the flora i knew back then would NEVER have condoned pollution of my friends in the Outskirts. We just want to live and exist but of course. We can't. >:(
What I can tell you is that two Soul Shards remain. You're holding one of them! The other uh. I cannot say. ;-;
"how come?" Spider questions tilting her head.
It's a promise I made to them. They know who they are. It's all in the Soul.