Space Bot Education (Mercury Arseneault)

On top of a mountain. Who puts a guild hall on the very top of a damn mountain?! It should have been a crime to even think of the very idea. It was discrimination against those who were too... well whatever was a much better description than lazy because the latest visitor to make the trip was most certainly not lazy. Not in her mind anyway and she was not about to waste too much time thinking of how to defend herself against herself. That was the worst thing. As she walked her way up the mountain path that led to Silver Wolf there was the quick realization that she had no one to complain to but herself. Unless weird wolves that acted as guides counted as listeners. Not that she could do much talking to them while in the middle of a snowstorm! An eternal snowstorm from what she had been told. Again. Who actually wanted to make the trip to Silver Wolf's guild hall?

If not for the fear and warnings of possible consequences of bypassing the long official route she most certainly would have found a shortcut. If only she were much more suicidal. It was an unfortunate circumstance but she needed to be a good girl. The blonde couldn't go around accidentally being hostile or pissing people off, and she wasn't about to risk being a frozen carcass lost somewhere in that hellscape of snow, rock, and weird magic. Playing by the rules was the safest bet. It wasn't all bad at least. The spirit wolves had some kind of aura that provided a bit of warmth from the hazardous cold and they also didn't attack or let her get lost. She was labeled as a non-threat! So, yay, and all of that. How many people were less fortunate than herself was a bit of a disturbing thought that crossed her mind but one she quickly pushed away. Aliarey was perfectly content with being the selfish woman that she was by hoping that things kept going in her favor.

There was one main hope though that possibly wouldn't make the whole journey a complete waste of time. Silver Wolf was supposedly known for its knowledge of magic and artifacts and whatever other stuff was listed in the guild brochures. She wasn't clued in on all the details, having barely paid attention over the years, and was only half listening to given information before heading out. How far did that knowledge go? Did anyone in the guild know anything about magical technology from space? Not some gimmicky doodad but something a bit more advanced? Like high-powered droids? That was a bit unclear. That was why she was there. To find out if there was anyone within that guild that had any sort of expertise in that area. Not by choice, of course. She was graciously volunteered for that task by her adoptive brother and father. What a couple of sweethearts they were for knowing exactly how to cure her overwhelming habit of doing nothing until she ran out of jewels. A cure she didn't even have to ask for!

Regardless of why she was there in the first place, she had made it. The final step past a storm-preventing barrier made it possible for her to finally clearly see the destination. An eyebrow raised as the result of a mixed fusion of mild surprise and confusion. Truthfully, she wasn't exactly sure what she expected the guild hall to look like. Something big and... castley? Was that even a word? Well, whatever. The place was smaller than she expected either way.

After taking a moment to stare at the scenery, the blonde that was so not properly dressed for the weather outside the barrier made her way to the building and right through the doors. A quick look around made her admit to herself that the place wasn't so bad. It seemed cozy and was lively enough from what she could see. She half expected the guild to be quiet and boring. Cold even. Like a dull and dark library full of scholars who'd use shushing as the ultimate weapon. Very surprising that it was the opposite in a way. The hostile librarians were probably elsewhere. That was her new theory.

"Hey!" Aliarey said loudly to get the attention of pretty much anyone and everyone who could help her. It went against her plan to respectfully and patiently deal with whoever was supposed to be handling random guests and job listings, but, with her, plans didn't generally have a long life before being changed on a whim. "Does anyone around here know anything about things like this?"

As she spoke she pointed to her side where a bright white light appeared and grew beside her. It was magic for sure, but nothing malicious or hostile. Very little power seemed to come from it at all and for good reason. The light quickly faded, leaving behind a huge hunk of metal in the shape of a humanoid-like thing. Droid, robot, lacbot, off-brand cartoon character model, whatever anyone wanted to call it. That's what it was. One that was very much quite still and inactive. At least until it fell over backward and through the very door that led back outside.

Aliarey facepalmed in annoyed embarrassment. "Oh freaking hell, Trey. Seriously?" That was it. The next time she saw her brother she was shooting him. There was no excuse for the droid not being able to stand on its own! There wasn't even the slightest bit of power coming from it. She knew they needed help figuring out how to get them at full running power but good god was zero power bad. After years of experimenting with them! It wouldn't even surprise her if he had removed what was working just so she could look like an idiot who brought a huge piece of non-working junk to the guild professionals.

"Someone that can make it work and not do that would be great."

(Word Count: 1004)

Haha! Her entrance had worked! The droid falling over was an embarrassing detail but one that was easily forgotten. No one was bothered by it at all. There were looks, yes, but some of the members that were present came on over to inspect and move the inactive heavy junk out of the way from the door. Okay, maybe she wouldn't shoot her brother after all. The incident might have just worked out in her favor.

Hand on hip, Aliarey stood there silently as she watched the curious group poke around the droid's exterior. They weren't taking it apart like a mad scientist harvesting parts so she didn't see any reason to fuss or interrupt them. The blonde could be patient for a couple of minutes, and it turned out that that short period was all that was needed for them all to conclude they were just as braindead about the droid as Trey and the old man were. She'd give them credit though. Two minutes to figure that out instead of years just made the member base of Silver Wolf leagues ahead in that sciency research smart stuff in comparison.

One of the group ran off to fetch someone who possibly knew more than they did. Sweet. There was still a shot to get the whole task over and done with at the first stop. A good thing too because Aliarey had zero clue on where the second stop for help was supposed to be. Aside from the technologically advanced planet of Mirai there wasn't any other place she could think of, and she was not about to go back there even if the Wakusei portal hadn't been shut down a while ago for mysterious reasons she didn't care to look into. "Yay for progress. I'll just stand around here then," she thought aloud to herself, dreading the possibility of waiting for hours.

Shockingly, the wait wasn't overly long even for someone as impatient as herself. It gave her just enough time to take out her iLac and send text message updates to her brother. Well, updates, name-calling, and threats for his great crime of ensuring she humiliated herself within the first ten seconds of entering the guild hall. Before she could even think of something else to pass the time she was greeted by a woman that didn't quite fit her cliched view of treasure hunter or researcher. For more reasons than one. That is until she had introduced herself as an Ace of Silver Wolf. Aliarey felt all sense of comfort drain away from her body instantly. 'Aw, crap,' she thought nervously. Even with a pregnancy an Ace of any guild was sure to be one tough cookie. Dealing with a normal member was one thing, but an Ace? Holy damn was she going to have to try even harder to not be a disrespectful ass if she wanted to avoid a hospital visit or worse. The creepy crow wasn't helping change her mind either.

"Yeeaahh, completely unintentional. I thought that thing worked a little bit more than not at all." Aliarey took the offered handshake and figured she might as well introduce herself as well. "I'm Aliarey. No fancy titles. Just an average guildless mage extraordinaire." And there it was. Already she had blurted out what could have been taken as a smart-ass introduction, and she knew it the moment the words left her lips. She died a little inside and had to resist all alarms in her body that told her to flee the encounter.

Aliarey decided to remain quiet and just watch as Mercury looked over the droid. It would not have been surprising if she knew nothing just like the others that looked at it moments before. Something was mentioned though that made it clear the Silver Wolf Ace was far from being as clueless as everyone else in the room. "Draovis? ... Uh.... One second." The confused expression would be hard not to notice if her reply was not enough on its own to confirm that she had absolutely no clue what the woman was talking about. Aliarey was many things but a talented actress was not one of them. There was little she could do to pretend her way through the conversation when some random description was tossed in there.

It only took a few moments for Aliarey to swipe her way around the screen of her iLac, scrolling through some basic information that had been saved to it earlier. Most of it was nonsense but at the bottom were some tidbits about the droids. Her face lit up upon finding the term "Draovis", and that dumb frown of stupidity transformed into a triumphant smile within that same dimwitted category. "There it is! Draovis! The world where this thing was built. Got it."  How was such crucial information so alien to her? That was easy enough to answer as anyone unfortunate enough to know her in everyday life was very aware of. Aliarey didn't pay attention to details at all. She only cared about how to use something and not about the basic foundations of what made something what it was. The actual homeworld of the droids wasn't the sort of information that was typically needed when using them to cause a bit of destruction and chaos on a job. That was where the fun was at.

The handheld device was lowered so she could once again give the Ace her full attention and answer the second question. Sort of. Not really. "So, it's kind of a long story, but you sound like you know something about it. I'll skip over how weird and surprising that is and go straight to asking if you know how to fix it." After a second Aliarey quickly corrected herself. "Them. I have more than one. Eight. Maybe ten." She shrugged with zero shame over her lack of even that amount of simple information. "I forgot how many over the years."

(Word Count: 996
Aliarey Total: 2000
Thread Total: 2895)

Was there a limit to how much luck someone was granted in a lifetime? Aliarey always joked about using her year's allowance up whenever something went her way but currently, she felt about ten years worth of luck was being used up in those short few moments. The mild flirtation went over her head as most things that required a little bit of observation generally did. In her mind, Mercury just really thought she was so amazingly awesome enough that she was now above the average mark. Maybe it was because she had an alien droid or maybe it was because she recognized her from that Rising Star section of the world's most popular magazine a couple of times. She wasn't going to disagree no matter what the reason was. She was still alive, had not seemed to anger the Ace of a powerful guild, found someone who knew a little something about her defective droids and didn't poke her too hard for information, and there was the little ego boost for the day. On top of that, she was being allowed into the Silver Wolf labs as a non-member. Maybe all of that was twenty years worth of luck instead of ten.

"Yeah, I guess that's fair." The blonde was a bit disappointed that there was no instant fix-the-thing button that Mercury could push to get the job done right then and there, but she supposed she was a reasonable person to a degree. No one would know what was wrong with a random weird giant robot just by staring at it for a few seconds unless it came with an unplugged power cord, which was very much not the case as far as she was aware. It still sucked though.

Aliarey made no objections to the plan and followed along silently without much concern about anything other than the paranoid thoughts of seeing something she shouldn't in the secret member-exclusive lab. The result of a mixture of past experiences and knowing too many stories with the same setup perhaps, but she so far liked and trusted Mercury enough that it was assumed nothing drastic would happen to either the droid or herself. Then again she could just be a gullible idiot. Either way, it was a bit too late to nope out of there if she wanted some results and working droids that she could actually use for once.

Once they had reached the lab Aliarey's blue eyes widened curiously. Labs weren't normally the thing that made her feel like a kid in a candy store unless there were weapons all lined up. That didn't mean the urge to poke and touch the various tools and items at all the stations wasn't there, however. She was the type of girl who would go down a toy aisle pressing all of the buttons even if she was disinterested in the product. Those pretty little stations filled with things quite unknown to her? Well, those were a part of the toy factory. Ignoring her childish instinct proved difficult. Impossible actually. As they passed by an unguarded station she quickly got closer and poked one of the unused tools. Nothing happened and she still had no idea what it was and what it was used for but it satisfied her. For now. Maybe she could find a button to push later. Back to innocently following.

Once it was clear they would be stopping, Aliarey hopped backward to take a seat on an empty space of the station. There was no telling how long it would take so she figured she might as well get comfortable, and a real chair was over somewhere that would take effort to retrieve. She watched as Mercury began to run a diagnostic with a scan gun that had been conjured from nothing. That combined with the conjuration of the metal gurney got her wondering if the Ace was some sort of requip mage as well or some kind of metal manipulator. That or Silver Wolf just had some really useful gadgets that could be called on very easily. Those thoughts would be interrupted by another question sent her way. She didn't mind it. The inquiry was valid and was not a push into answering the one she had so cleverly avoided earlier.

"Yep!" Aliarey answered, quite proudly. "I know zilch about these things except for, well, what you just said. I'm just the user. Summoner. Conjurer. Pretend master. Guinea Pig. Whatever you want to call it. My brother and old man know way more about the scientific details. Except for the obvious, I guess." The obvious fact being that the droid was still lying on a gurney and not being used to cause a little bit of mild mayhem during mage work.

The small amount of information Mercury chose to give next made Aliarey a teensy bit nervous. Although short and very basic it was still way too much information for someone on Earthland to know. At least in that short span and without a complete diagnostic. Even if it was Silver Wolf. Shit. Was Mercury someone who had connections with Mirai before the Wakusei Portal there closed?

"Heh, uh, yeah, for the most part," she answered with a short laugh in an attempt to hide the growing anxiety but failing completely. Her hands tightly gripped the edge of the station. Jeez, was she going to have to flee the place? Was that even logically possible? With the Ace right there, the other members, being so deep in the building's insides, and that goddamn mountain with its storms and spirit wolves and vast spaces to get lost in. That's a no. A hard no. She was one trapped mage and that realization was all it took for her to again question how much luck remained in her lifetime.

"Back to what you just said about the droids. How do you know all that? Even I know that's not something anyone on this planet should know right away."

(Word Count: 1001
Aliarey Total: 3001
Thread Total: 4722)