PART 2 - THE CRATER THAT SOLAIRE ONCE WAS
Patrice breathes a sigh of relief and heads to the Crater. The crater, what’s called Solaire Ruins, is a massive hole in the ground in the place where Solaire Enterprises’ massive highrise once stood. Seven months have passed since the building collapsed to the ground. The area around it, despite the yellow tape, is peaceful. One person stands looking into the abyss, a somewhat tall and chubby white bearded man with a black eyepatch covering his left eye. He sighs while looking in, talks to himself, and does not notice Patrice's presence, "This was my legacy, and it was ripped from my hands by him. I cannot believe it. Seven months, and I still think I'm dreaming. It's real. Perhaps Hinata was right, maybe I had lost sight of what was best for our citizens."
Patrice comes closer to the man, and taps him on the shoulder, "Sir?"
The man turns startled from the sudden tapping, "Ah.. ah... h-hello. How can I help you?" He tries to hide his tears from Patrice.
"May I buy you a coffee, sir?" The words tumble out of her mouth.
The man looks at Patrice in confusion, but upon realizing that this random woman might have heard everything he just said, he smiles softly, "If you insist. I know of a nice little place the next block over. it's cheap, but the owners are real nice. I used to go there all the time when--" He pauses, figuring this woman might not want to hear his life story, "l-let's head over." He leads the way to Earthbound Roasters a block or so away from Solaire's former location.
The man and Patrice enter a charming coffee shop called Earthbound Roasters. An older couple wave and smile towards the man and his guest. The older woman says, "Ah, Janny! Long time no see! I'll get you your usual. Miss? Would you like something? A friend of Janny's is a friend of ours." The older gentleman seems to be reading a newspaper and simply smiles at the pair. The decor in here is very reminiscent of an antiques store minus the musty smell. All of the furniture is mismatched and awkward, and many artifacts of Nova City's past can be found here as well. The coffee the older woman serves Janny is in a very cutesy-looking coffee mug, as if she pulled it off of her own china shelf. The menu is very basic consisting of plain black coffee, some very simple lattes, a couple iced coffee options, and hot tea.
"May I have a latte?" she smiles at the woman.
The woman nods, "Of course! Coming right up." She works on creating her latte while making small talk to Jan, "So what's going on with you Janny? It's been months since we've last seen you. We thought you passed when it happened."
Jan responds with a sigh, "No, I'm fine, I'm safe. Living with Phoebe currently. Just needed to come back and pay my respects."
The woman, whose nametag reads Rhoda, serves Patrice her latte. It tastes like a latte, nothing too special but it was clearly made with love.
"Thanks, ma'am," Patrice smiles. She takes a sip of the coffee and sets it down on the table. "If I may be so bold, sir, why did you come back here?" she asks. "Isn't it dangerous for you to do so?"
Jan exhales and takes a moment to think it over. Rhoda and the other older man, probably the other owner of Earthbound, seem to wait for his response as well. "In most cases, my presence here would have been taken care of already. I probably would not be here sipping coffee, and that is due to my previous job of co-leading Solaire Enterprises and my soul and body being wanted by Nova Heart. The reason I am here, however, is due to the ADMIN running Solar Guild. Admin Pegasus is the woman I used to co-lead Solaire with. She asked me to come by. I was just about to head over there."
Rhoda has a look of genuine fear in her eyes after hearing January's story, tears welling up from sheer empathy, "Oh- Oh my Gods January, I didn't know. I've not been paying much attention to Nova news honestly. If you need a place to stay while here in Solar, we'll happily give you one."
January smiles after taking another swig of his coffee finishing it off, "Appreciated, but I best be on my way."
"I'm also making my way to the Solar Guild. Would it be ideal if I were to accompany you the rest of the way there?" Patrice asks.
January nods with a welcoming smile, "Oh I don't see why not. Let's head over there together. I don't think I ever caught your name by the way?"
She smiles back, "My name's Patrice. Patrice Kolt."
"Nice to meet you. I'm January Solaire, but you can call me Jan if you wish. Come on, let's head over and see what this Guild has turned into." After giving the older couple a tip that they push back onto him, he leads the way towards the Solar Adventurers’ Guild. Patrice says goodbye to the couple, before chasing after Jan.
Walking inside the Guild’s glass doors, the pair finds a very botanical setting within the greater naturally-friendly DIstrict. Nova's plans of conservationism, animal rights, and research are on full display. Heard above and throughout all of the guild, the soothing sounds of lo-fi and gentle soft rock permeate the structure. January sighs in disbelief, though also glad that his original goals were finally met, even if it wasn’t by his own design.
Much like many of the other Guilds, the same similar functions exist: On the left wall is the Receptionist. Next to that is a screen of quests that can be done. Over on the right, a few offices with closed doors and walls can be seen. Over in the back, instead of a restaurant or a club like many others have, it's the "Solar Sanctuary" where most of the animals, plant-life, insects, and other such natural scenery can be found. It's like a large indoor zoo in a way, except the animals seem to roam freely like a life-sized terrarium. Patrice also notices that there are multiple different climates within this terrarium. Because they're at the very tip of Solar District, the Sanctuary seems to bleed into The Outskirts, the massive lush forest that completely surrounds Capital City much like ocean surrounds an island.
A receptionist, a rather cheerful guy wearing a light pink dress shirt with a white tie, red hair, green eyes and a strawberry charm earring on one ear, welcomes them into Solar Guild, "oh hai, welcome to Solar Guild, are you n-- wait Sol? I thought you died?? Erm. Hello madam." He has a bit of a lisp in his voice.
Meet Barry Sweet, receptionist of the Solar Sanctuary and resident cutie pie of Solar District. He's very sweet as his name suggests and a little bit fruity too :3 (I am also gay. I'm allowed to say this) -Luna
Patrice smiles, "Yes, hello. Lovely outfit you have going on there. I am looking for a... Pegasus, I think they're called?" She pulls out the envelope and checks again. "Yep, Pegasus."
January sighs and shakes his head, "No I'm not dead Terran. I'm pretty sure I told you this a few days ago when I called."
Terran scratches the back of this neck, "Oh right, my bad Jan. And my name is Barry; there's no need for the old admin names, not like I even got one here." Then Barry looks at the envelope and sends a text message to Pegasus. "You're also here for her right? She'll be out momentarily."
January nods, "Correct. I have an appointment with her. Her idea, not mine."
After sending the message the pair waits for Pegasus to arrive. It takes a concerning amount of time for Pegasus to arrive. It's been nearly 20-30 minutes, and with the lack of visitors to the Guild, it's weird. January walks over to Barry and asks, "is this going to take much longer? I thought she was free today."
Barry looks over at his computer station to see if Pegasus had updated them, "She should've been here 15 minutes ago. Uh here, one moment, let me call her." He picks up his cellphone and dials her number and puts it on speakerphone. Upon it ringing and picking up, a woman's voice speaks, "erm Barry? What's up?"
Barry, "You have an appointment and a letter here waiting for you."
Pegasus, "Right uh we've run into some issues making our way over." Through the speaker, they can hear roaring sounds; and through the glass into the Solar Sanctuary, the aforementioned terrarium, they can see birds fleeing from something near the middle. "I might need some time, unless January and his guest wants to come see what we're dealing with. We have it under contr--" Another loud and wet snarl is heard. "Yeah! Control, I got this."
Barry covers the microphone part, "Again? For frick's sake." Then speaking again to Pegasus they groan, "Are you sure you don't need help?"
"Totally! I got this." And the phone hangs up. Barry shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose.
January sighs, "So, shall we see what's up Patrice?"
"Hopefully it's not too out of control," Patrice crosses her fingers.
January leads the way into Solar Sanctuary where they what looks like 10 foot tall sunflower with spiked roots staring down ADMIN Pegasus. She appears to be trying to calm down as much as she can, taking many deep breaths while also dodging the vine whip strikes the plant is attacking her with.
Pegasus mutters, "Just need to calm down, calm down. How did I get myself into this mess anyway?"
A white lab coated scientist seems to be spraying it with some kind of fluid, and while it works somewhat, it still towers over the pair.
Pegasus continues, "Just need to think calm thoughts. Relax... re--lax.."
January stays back, unsure if he should help or not. The wildlife near the chaos are all backed up and away from it, seemingly fearing for their lives. "What do we do?"
At its core, it is definitely a flower, so perhaps something that can destroy flowers might work here. Patrice finds some weed killer that a labcoat must’ve dropped in their haste and an exposed part of the flower’s stem that oozes green chloroplasts. Spraying the bottle at the exposure causes the enemy sunflower monster to roar in pain and causes another hole to be exposed. January attempts to cast some kind of fire magic to assist, but his magic isn’t anywhere as powerful so it takes some time to build up a threatening enough strike. Another spray into the new hole causes the enemy sunflower to collapse just as the fire spell January prepared was finished.
The sunflower that was once 20 feet tall transforms into its original state, rather small and normal. Everyone takes a moment to recover as Rebecca goes on an apologetic rampage, telling everyone in the area, including the plants that she's sorry for what happened. Eventually she reaches Jan and Patrice. Jan sighs and mutters, "I see they still haven't solved Magical Deweeding."
Pegasus nods, "yeah. It's probably our biggest hurdle to clear still. Nice seeing you again Jan." Then she turns to Patrice tilting her head, "Oh hi, I'm Pega-- Rebecca. Are you by chance Patrice? Hinata told me about you."
Patrice smiles, "Yes, hello!" She gestures at the place the plant was earlier, "Is that, like, a normal thing to happen?"
Rebecca exhales in defeat and scratches the back of her neck, "not usually as monster flowers, those are rare, but yes. Due to how volatile my magical ability can be, deweeding usually requires some kind of combat situation. Usually I handle those rather well, but then you get specimens that are uniquely bred and grown through Nova’s efforts. Those can often be difficult to wrangle due to how their emotions work."
Patrice nods in understanding, "I see. So there was something in you trying to calm down earlier. I thought it was just emotional management, you know, keep calm and carry on and all that."
Rebecca nods, "Correct. Due to my Flora Emona magic, I can sense the emotional wavelengths of flowers and plants, and they can sense mine. If either of our emotional states go out of whack, then what you just witnessed happens. There's also the fact that Nova is doing some experiments with the flowers here and that's making some things annoying. But enough of all that, Barry said you had something to give me?"
"Ah, yes. An envelope from one Mr. Pyre." Patrice pulls out the envelope and hands it to Rebecca.
Rebecca raises an eyebrow, "Mister... Pyre? I can't say I know of him, I wonder what he needs." She then takes it and opens it up. She goes to read the letter and blinks, "The hell is this? I-- I mean, if you want me to, I suppose I could go there??? I don't trust it." She hands the letter to Jan who reads it himself, "I will not lie, this sounds like a trap. You may be part of Nova, but I care about you like family. I would suggest you don't go. The name Thomas Pyre sounds vaguely familiar though. He's from Borealis District correct?"
January hands the letter to Patrice, and the message simply states: "Come to Borealis Adventurers' Guild. I have a proposition for you" in very fancy handwritten text. It seems to have been written using quill and ink judging by some of the smudges, and the envelope was sealed by a wax seal. Whoever this Thomas Pyre is, they seem very old-fashioned. She looks at the back of the letter, wholely unconvinced that this is all there is to the letter.
Upon flipping the letter around, Patrice sees something strange. Something that Rebecca had noticed herself while January was reading the letter but hadn't commented.
It appears the letter was written on the back of an advertisement. Whether this advertisement is connected to this Thomas Pyre or not is beyond anyone's guess. A museum of Creatures of Legend?
Patrice raises her eyebrows. "Open for exhibition?"
Rebecca shrugs, "Look, I know I'm an ADMIN and I should know what's going on the city, but I've literally never heard of this museum before. Then again, there are five districts and each of them are bigger than Fairview each so... have you heard of it Jan?"
January shakes his head, "I have not. I do question what this Thomas Pyre has to do with all of this, if he has anything to do with it. Should we. Head over to Borealis? It is getting rather late." He seems tired.
Patrice nods, "I reckon we should? It's been a long day." "Okay, let's get this over and done with. Mind if I handle teleportation?" Rebecca asks. January yawns and seems weakened, "Please. I don't think I can handle one tonight." Patrice asks if they’re headed to Borealis but out of earshot from Jan, Rebecca responds, "Technically. I was actually going to take him back home before he passes out and gets captured by Sirius and/or Antares. Then I was going to head to the Adventurer's Guild. You're welcome to come along if you wish. If you don't, I will make sure to report what happens. It is getting rather late though, so just be aware of that."
Due to the enclosure being made nearly fully out of glass, Patrice can tell it's currently night time in Capital City. The full beaver supermoon is out and is watching over the Guild and the city. It appears to be around 10pm according to a nearby clock. Patrice also remembers seeing that Little Dipper Toys closes at 11pm.
Patrice looks at Jan, then back at Rebecca. "I'll tag along to the Guild, 'cause I have something to pick up nearby, but I agree he should probably come home first before slumber takes him." Rebecca smiles gently, "Meet you there when you get there then. Come on Jan." Then the two disappear. Patrice makes it back to the Guild without any incidents on the way.