"Oh, yes. He blushes horribly whenever he catches sight of Minghwē."

Not being able to maintain an erection while half-dead from exhaustion is the definition of skill issue.

"Sounds like someone I might want to meet."

"He's the local wizard instructor's assistant. When I got here I used to wear something substantially more revealing than this and he had similar reactions."

"Sounds very much like someone I want to meet. Do I have any excuse, or would I only be there to harass him?"

"I could say I'm visiting. I'm sure Wizard Mara would love to see me again."

"Would she now."

"Not in that way! ...not that I'd say no but."

"You really do seem to leave a wake of sexual frustration behind you," Arik notes. "Like the slime trail from some kind of horny poring."

"...what a very specific mental image! What would a horny poring even be like?"

"Aren't all porings a little bit horny?"

"How, pray tell, are all porings a little bit horny?"

"...you've never wondered what it'd feel like? They're little bouncing balls of slippery jelly, just solid enough that if you stuck something into them they'd squeeze on it."

"You know, I actually hadn't until this moment."

"If all porings are a little bit horny then what would a horny poring be like?"

"White, for one thing."

Receptionist? Secretary? Registrar? Arik seeks a person of desk.

They take a side entrance into the building which leads them into a wide but short hallway with numerous doors on both sides. The main entrance is to the right, as is the reception, which is substantially more utilitarian and less fancy than the Kafra reception was; definitely not a temple to money. There is one stairway up to either side of that room, and Minghwē and Tae-hee excuse themselves to go up one of them to their rooms to wash up.

A professional-looking woman is at the reception reading a book, and a short pointy-eared woman is standing in a corner meditating. The receptionist looks up when Arik and Vallynn walk around the desk from behind her, puts her book down, and smiles at them. "Good morning! How may I help you?"

Whoa, déjà vu.

"Ah, well – currently we're looking for Bjorn, Wizard Mara's assistant. Also I'd like to enroll, possibly on some sort of accelerated program, I've got all my Skills and combat experience worked out but I could do with an injection of context about what Eden and adventuring parties and all that stuff, uh, is."

"Yes, of course! Just one moment." She shuffles through some papers to get a registration form which she slides over to him along with a pen. "Please fill this out. If your name is originally written in a different alphabet please include a transliteration next to it to the best of your ability; surname is optional, guild is optional especially if you're already in one but if you're not this can help any prospective ones to get your information. Please let me know if you have any questions."

Scribble scribble. Arik's handwriting is unsurprisingly atrocious.

"I'm not in a guild and I strongly suspect the paladins will reject me, my being Deic, but I have their Skills. Should I put them down anyway?"

"Sure! I'll add a note to your profile about that, too."

Scribble!

"There. I did have to leave a few fields blank due to things like having no permanent residence, or not knowing anything about my birth parents. And my surname is a regional generic for bastards. But other than that, done."

"That's just fine. Will you be staying in our accommodations, and if so, do you have a preference for your roommate being the same gender? We have empty one- and two-person rooms as well as two-person rooms that already have one tenant in them. And you can of course acquire lodgings in the city but the Academy doesn't cover the cost for those."

Okay Vallynn is pretty sure now that most of the stuff she's saying is a standard script.

"I'm probably not staying for more than a few days, but during that time I could room with somebody... No gender preference. Stick me with somebody who's already there, seems somehow more efficient."