1.12 – Syber

No content warning needed, probably.

"Next! One at a time, please."

The furry guardsman waved Maple into the guardhouse. Emma gave her a reassuring pat on the back as her Human went on ahead.

"I'll wait for you on the other side."

A few other guards were in the room with them, clearly bored. One was yawning, and none of them even bothered to look up at her.

The one who had waved her in was holding a clipboard and had a head that looked almost like a mix between a dog and a hyena's. From their voice, Maple thought they were female but it was hard to tell otherwise. She towered over Maple, and the body under her fur looked to be entirely lean muscle.

She and the other guards had on leather armor and chain mail. Hanging from their belts were clubs and other gear.

"Um, I'm not really from around here. I'm really far from home actually—is it okay if I ask what um, your species is called?"

"Hrr, is that so? It is not impolite to ask. I am a Gnoll. I take it this is your first time here? This interview will establish your entry permit. What is your business in Syber?"

Maple nodded as the Gnoll guardswoman checked a box and tapped her pen on a paper.

"Um, visiting maybe? I'm staying with a friend and I'm going to try to find a job..."

The Gnoll exhaled out her nose.

"Residency, then. Not visiting. You'd also need a work permit if you wish to find employment here. Name and classes?"

"Maple Caraway. Um...Do I really need to say what class I am?"

The Gnoll looked up and grinned at Maple with an annoyed look before pulling out another piece of paper from a drawer. It had a circular insignia on it, and the name of the city.

"Oh not at all, Miss Human. Just place your thumb here for me."

She indicated a small square on the page she'd pulled out. It was full of empty fields and boxes. Maple wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or not, but pressed her thumb—

"Ow!"

Something cut her, and a single drop of blood was absorbed into the paper. The other guards looked up as the one attending her snatched the page back.

"Suspicious person, Captain?"

"At ease. She was just being difficult. Humans. Hrr, let's see. She's just a..."

The Gnoll guardswoman stared at the page and crinkled her nose. She glanced up at Maple briefly, and back down. The other guards walked over. One of them read over the shoulder of the Gnoll and whistled.

"Those are some classes you have, girly."

A scaly, liazard-humanoid, guardsman flexed an arm at her. Maple buried her face in her hands and tried to shrink away.

"I didn't want them, okay—"

"I bet she's fun at parties."

The other guardsmen were snickering and making jokes to themselves until the Gnoll guardswoman snapped the paper, silencing them.

"Back to your posts. Well, everything checks out. Just sign here verifying this information as accurate."

The page had somehow filled in her species, age, weight, gender, eye color, hair color, and classes from that single drop of blood. It omitted her levels and Skills—with a blank area for her to fill them in herself if she wanted—but just the classes were damning enough: [Interspecies Seductress] and, in case anyone was too lazy to read those long words, [Slut].

Maple signed, and the guardswoman tore off a perforation before handing it back.

"This will serve as both your entry and work permit. Do not lose it. Sorry for the, hrr...unprofessionalism of my subordinates. You may go. Behave yourself, Maple Caraway."

Maple continued into the city and then across the street without looking up at any of them. That had been humiliating. She wanted to scream. Emma still had to go through, so she sat against a wall and banged her head against it a few times, trying to forget the experience.

And this was her ID here now? How many times was she going to have to go through that? She hoped Emma wasn't having a hard time, not being able to speak. She could write though, and maybe the blood thing would work on her too?

A shadow cast itself over her closed eyes and she looked up.

"That was fast—oh. You're not Emma."

One of the Gnoll guardsmen stood above her. His ears were lowered, and he had a slight grin. Maple couldn't read Gnoll body language, but she just knew he was here to make fun of her some more.

"Hrr. My name's Bailey. Captain Rrizza wanted me to apologize for my fellow guards' conduct in there. I wanted to too, I mean. One's class is a very personal thing, no?"

Maple just stared at him, waiting for the punchline. It didn't come, and he shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"Perhaps something to eat would help make amends. Wait here, please."

Maple watched him leave and then put her head on her knees and sighed. How annoying. If Emma got back before him, she might just book it.

Food would be nice, though. She could smell—a lot of things mixed together. Not all of them pleasant. She looked up and saw a number of stalls lining the street and selling food or trinkets. A lot of them were closing up as it was nearly dark. Others, which planned to stay open a while longer, had torches or lanterns providing light.

The main street itself was lined with lights; streetlights with lanterns affixed to the top. While most of the smaller streets and alleys lacked any kind of lighting except whatever leaked out from the windows of houses and businesses.

Emma finally came out of the guardhouse, a bounce to her step. Maple quickly stood, and the Slime showed off her new ID. A lot of the fields like hair color and gender were just 'N/A', and her class was a cute [Soapy Helper].

"Did it go well? I didn't know I'd have to tell them my classes. It was so embarrassing."

Emma pat her back and then wrapped her arm around her shoulder and pulled herself into a half-hug. She gave Maple a quick peck on the cheek. I like your classes.

"Haha, alright. Quick, let's get out of here before—"

She turned around and realized she was too late. That guardsman from earlier was already walking their way. He had two skewers in his hands, each one loaded with some kind of seared meat and glistening with sauce.

"Hrr. Sorry for the wait. Here, a Gnoll specialty. Lamb glazed in yumok sauce. I managed to get two right before the stall closed. Is this...Slime your friend? Not many are in even Syber."

Maple took the skewer and sniffed it—then gulped as she started salivating. Emma kept her arm around Maple's shoulder and glared at the Gnoll, and at his other skewer.

"Yep. This is Emma. Emma, this is—Bailey? He wanted to apologize or something, I guess."

"Yes, it was unbecoming of my fellow guards. I did not laugh, for what that is worth, but I should have spoken up. Or else I am no better than the rest of them. Hrr. I hope this makes some amends."

He glanced to the skewer in Maple's hand. Emma narrowed her eyes and glared even harder at the one he was still holding. Bailey seemed to purposely avoid the Slime's gaze. His arm clutching the skewer twitched back an inch, as he clearly knew where she was looking. In the end he finally met her gaze and sighed.

"Here, take it. I should have bought three, it seems."

Emma snatched it out of his hand and raised an arm in victory. Her scheme worked. Solids were so impressionable. Especially ones who felt guilty and were trying to make a good impression.

"Heh, sorry about that. She does love food. Here, take a piece from mine."

Emma looked at Maple as if she were a traitor while Bailey grabbed a piece of meat, being careful not to get any of the sticky yumok sauce on his fur.

"Thanks. I see now you were just waiting for your friend, but I had also come over to see if you needed any help finding somewhere to stay?"

"Yeah, we're meeting another friend at an inn. The Copper Butterfly. We should get going, actually. Thanks for the skewer!"

Success. The conversation finally led to its natural end and an excuse to leave. She was already taking a step when the Gnoll replied.

"Oh, that's pretty far. I could walk you there, if you wanted? Not that it's hard to find, it's just that you're new here and all, and it is getting dark..."

Maple wanted to decline, but he had just bought them both food. And it stood to reason that he wasn't entirely shady, given his occupation. When Maple shot Emma a questioning glance, she just shrugged and continued nibbling on her skewered meat.

"Hm, sure I guess."

"Great, let me just go let the captain know real quick."

The Gnoll jogged back to the guardhouse. Emma gave Maple a smirk.

"What?"

The Slime nudged her, and wiggled her hairless eyebrows. When she still didn't get it, she held the meat skewer by poking it into her arm, and pulled out her notebook.

He likes you.

"Eh? We just met. He just feels guilty because they were all jerks in there. Or if he does 'like' me—it's because he saw my classes. He probably thinks I'm easy or something because of it. Maybe I shouldn't have let him walk us to the inn, actually..."

Maple scoffed and Emma shrugged again.

Seems nice.

He had, so far. He jogged back from the guardhouse, and the lizard-y guard from before poked his head out the door after him.

"Woo, Bailey's finally gonna get some!"

The Gnoll in question growled and raised a finger behind him. Maple gave Emma a look. Any points he'd gained prior were now forfeit.

"See?"

"Idiots. Sorry about that. I hope you didn't get the wrong impression or anything from that—I really did just want to make amends, but I'd understand if you—"

Maple sighed loudly, cutting him off.

"It's fine. Let's just go."

"Right. Sorry. It's this way."

Silence immediately dominated their walk through the city, and Maple was content to leave it that way. Bailey valiantly tried to break through it.

"Hrr. Where did you say you two were from again?"

Of all the things to bring up, it was the one thing she couldn't talk about. Maple winced. If Emma had an answer for herself—she was busy finishing off her meat skewer.

"I don't really want to talk about home...What about you, though? How long have you lived here?"

"I've lived here my whole life. I don't think you can find a city as accepting or diverse as Syber is. A lot of Humans dislike it for that. Not to generalize, of course. It is a good home though, and I know it like the back of my paw so feel free to ask if you need to know where anything is."

Humans did seem to be in the minority here. All of the ones Maple had spotted so far ended up being something else on a second glance. A Half-Elf, for example.

As if to prove his familiarity with the city, or perhaps just to fill the silence, he began pointing things out and Maple got a tour of the main street. It was a wide cobblestone road and mostly held stalls that sold goods to people passing through.

It was the side streets that held the smithies, alchemists' shops, bathhouses, and other permanent buildings. He also pointed out the Adventurer's Guild, Mage's Guild and where guards actively patrolled.

At one of the main intersections they came to a large building with a domed roof. It took up almost an entire block.

"And that, is the Sybrarium. It is Syber's largest archive of books, and a museum of sorts. You may have heard of it before."

"It's like a library?"

Maple and Emma's faces were blank while Bailey's looked a little disappointed at his city's monument not being as famous as he'd thought.

"Hrr. Yes. You can read and utilize several other amenities. It is larger than most libraries on Kantra. They even map the stars in the highest rooms, and have a magnification enchantment you can look at the sky through."

Maple had to think for a moment to remember Kantra was the continent they were on. It was good Charlotte or Rachel had mentioned it at some point, or she might have asked now.

"Hmm, neat. Oh! Is that the inn?"

A building made of thick wooden beams stood before them. A gentle stream of smoke rose from the chimney, and dim light escaped through the windows. Front and center above the doorway was a large butterfly made of polished copper.

The Gnoll leading them paused. He looked to be uncomfortably working himself up to something.

"Hrr. Yes, the Copper Butterfly. I will leave you to meet with your friend, but..."

Maple took a step toward the inn. Emma was holding her hand, her entire skewer gone now. Maple wondered if she ate even the wood.

"...Tomorrow is my day off. And I'd like to get to know you better. Would you want to, maybe, get lunch together? I totally understand if not though, um—"

"Oh. I don't know. I'll probably be busy, so—"

Emma nudged her and gestured to the Gnoll with her eyes. His tail and ears drooped sadly, and he was already mumbling an apology while turning away to leave. It reminded Maple of a sad puppy. She rolled her eyes. Even if he didn't seem all that bad, why should Emma care so much?

But still, she wasn't merciless. Just tired and a little—justifiably—grumpy.

"Wait. Fine, I guess. I really do need to find a job and stuff though, so—just lunch. And nothing else."

"Really? Great! I could uh—I could meet you here, or—"

"You don't need to come all this way. How about I just meet up with you?"

Emma shot him a thumbs up. He'd better remember who just got him a hot date, the next time he's buying food. Bailey's tail wagged behind him as he gave Maple directions for where to meet.