"Oh, maybe I can make you something to help you with that," Ambre says, pulling out her journal and writing things down as she follows the group.

Klok turns and smiles to Aithne and tries to reassure them "Hello, I know we are newly acquainted but it seems to me that if we stick together and work together, perhaps you won't need defensive arts as much? We seemed to work very well together facing that tainted trunk...very well!"

"Help who out? Planning to build some awesome weapon for Aithne are you?" Aelyn asks Ambre with a smile as they move on to the Activities Center. "I would agree with you Klok, but if I had to guess it is about Aithne trying to build some selfconfidence, perhaps we can all help out with that in time." He says, giving the Loxodon a friendly pat on the back.

"Of course you're not imposing. I enjoy your company very much." Aithne pushed some of her hair out of her face, offering Arvol a smile. "You're welcome to come with if you'd like. It should only take me a moment." Twisting her pack around so it was hanging off one arm, she began digging through the contents, searching for the ticket she'd been provided by the Information Desk in order to reclaim her selected books.

While it probably would have been better to stop walking and search, that didn't seem to occur to her. Aithne continued looking while making her way back to the Desk, causing other students to shuffle out of the way to avoid being run into. "Found it!" Emerging triumphantly from her bag with the slip clutched between her fingers, she shrugged the pack back on and readjusted her glasses. "Oh! I, um, meant to ask." She lightly waved the paper slip through the air, absently gesturing. "You were going to join the Strixhaven Star? Does that mean you'll be writing articles for the newsletter?"

Arvol reflexively returns Aithne's smile.  "Great!"  He sees Aithne going through her bag as she walks, and he tries his best to warn away others who might have run into her.

"Umm, yea, I'd probably be writing articles. Not exactly a strong area, but guess I'll have to work on that,"  he says, his shoulders dropping a bit as he talks. "I'm most interested in investigating stories though. Gathering information, putting together clues..."  His demeanor changes now as he talks, as he gets much more enthusiastic. "Like finding a new story or figuring out a puzzle!" 

He stops abruptly, giving Aithne a sheepish grin. "Sorry, got carried away. I probably sound pretty silly.  Going on and on like that."

Aithne laughed. It wasn't mocking at all, more an expression of happiness. "You sound just like me when I'm researching spellcraft." She admitted, scratching at the tip of her nose in a selfconscious gesture. "I feel that same way about digging through old manuscripts and, ah, translating ancient texts."

Arriving at the Information Desk, she presented her slip to the attendant and waited patiently for her books to be retrieved. "If those are the things you enjoy, then I think the Star is the perfect club for you. They'll be quite lucky to have you." Aithne cheeped happily when the attendant returned with her stack of tomes.

She accepted the books eagerly, wrapping her arms around them with a contented hum. "If you need a suggestion for your first article, you could write a story about what happened today? You had first-hand experience after all. And you could interview our friends?"

"Yea?" Arvol says.  "It's what makes me so interested about history.  I... wasn't the greatest student back home..."  He says this last part a bit quietly, as though he hopes nobody else can hear. "But being able to research, figure out the mysteries, to put the story of history together! That's so much fun!"

Back at the Information Desk, he waits for Aithne to retrieve her books. "Please, let me help you carry some of these. I promise to get them to wherever you wish, safe and sound."

At the suggesting of writing about the animated chest, Arvol grins widely.  "Aithne! You are brilliant! That would be the perfect story to start with! You could be my first interview!"  Arvol seems very excited about the idea.

With all the first-day enthusiasm restored to the Biblioplex now that you've all saved the day, the party begins their hunt for a new quarry: extracurriculars! Of course, Ambre already signed up for hers back in the Art Gallery, but the rest of you have yet to register. You all enter the Center (heh, a rhyme!) and find that it is a decent-sized multipurpose room, but today it is filled with tables, stands, and signs advertising various clubs and societies.

Aithne spots a table in the corner of the room flanked by a sign that reads "Join the Dead Languages Society!" written in characters from various languages, most of which none of you understand nor recognize. Sitting behind the table is a huge minotaur dressed in a green and blue Quandrix uniform with spectacles, very absorbed in a book that looks humorously small in his large hands. It looks like he is currently trying to make himself as small as possible. Aithne recognizes him; it's one of her book clerk co-workers, Drazhomir Yarnask. 

Arvol and Aelyn spot the location of the Strixhaven Star's recruitment page, a neat table that has plenty of copies of the latest edition of the student newspaper available for everyone to take. The person running the table is a young human woman in a black and white Silverquill uniform and long, silver hair. It looks like she's talking and laughing with some first years as she shows them a copy of the paper.

Klok spots the Fantastical Horticulture Club's table - but not in the Activities Center. It's over in the Book Gardens, not very far from the Activities Center. It appears to be run by a bespectacled male orc with long tusks in a black and green Witherbloom uniform. He is dutifully watering various potted plants on and around the registration table.

Aelyn quickly approaches the beautiful silver-haired woman. "Hi there, I'm Aelyn, Aelyn Silversong." He says extending his hand. "Me and my dear friend Arvol over there would like to sign up for the Star. if you would have us." He adds while giving her a warm smile. "Hey, you're a Silverquill. That's great, I'm so hoping to join the Silverquill college. I just arrived you see and don't really know much of this place. Would you mind terribly giving me a short introduction to your college when you get off, over a coffee, my treat." He asks confidently. 

Klok shuffles over to the Orc "Hello there. I am Aklokolysius, but my friends call me Klok for short. I have great interest in joining your club. Ah You are a Witherbloom student? I wish to become one as well! How exciting....How exciting"

"If you're sure?" Aithne handed over a few of her selected books to Arvol, reducing her pile by half. "I really don't mind carrying them. It's practically all I do at home. I think I've spent more time with books in my arms than without them. They were practically my closest friends." She winced slightly, looking a bit abashed. "That sounds terrible, actually. Can we, um, pretend I didn't say that? It's not that I didn't enjoy spending time with others, it's just that the other children were quite boisterous and reading was far more intriguing and I--" She cut herself off again, ducking her head to let her hair curtain her face. "Um. Never mind." The tips of her ears were scarlet. 

Head down, she continued on toward the Student Center at a quickened pace. "Anyway." She continued, just a bit breathless, as they arrived in the doorway to their intended location. "I think you'll be an excellent fit for the Strixhaven Star. Curiosity is the most important part of being a, um, journalist." She hesitated for a bit, then took back the books she'd handed over to Arvol. Apparently carrying them on her behalf only extended as far as the Student Center. "I'm going to go sign up for the Society. Thank you for your help. Hopefully I'll see you again in class? Or maybe at the Biblioplex on occasion?" 

"Sure, I will just totally erase that picture of you cradling all your books in your arms," Arvol says with a laugh.  Then he immediately frowns at the sound of how that came out. He's quiet as they walk, listening to Aithne talk away.  He smiles as she again seems to dig herself into a hole. 

As she takes back the books, Arvol is a bit surprised. "Oh... umm..."

He ends up calling after her after she's already a few steps away.  "Definitely, I think you'll really like the Society... umm... I'm sure I'll see you..."  He just lets his voice trail off as she's already moved away. 

Finally taking a moment to look about the room,  he spots Aelyn, the silver-haired woman, and the registration for the Strixhaven Star. He heads over. 

Ambre watches the rest of the group go to apply for different activities, still busy writing ideas down.

"Hello." Aithne greeted Drazhomir happily as she approached the sign up table for the Dead Languages Society. She recalled seeing him several times in the Biblioplex. They'd been introduced when she'd been assigned to her duties as a book clerk. In addition, his size made it rather difficult for him to go unnoticed. "I didn't know you were part of the Society." She lifted her stack of books onto the sign up table, tipping her head from one side to the other in an attempt to catch the title of the book in his hands. "What are you reading?"

As the first years head off, the woman at the Star's table looks up at Aelyn with a sly grin. "Well, hello to you too, Aelyn Silversong who wants to be in Silverquill. I'm Mina Lee who already is in Silverquill," She jokes. "So, you two want to join the Star? We'd be happy to have you on the team. Just sign your names right here and join us for our first meeting next week at 4:30 where we'll be giving writers assignments. As for you, Silversong... pretty bold for a first year asking a second year out to coffee. Unfortunately for you, as soon as I'm done here, I've got to go to work at the Firejolt Cafe for a closing shift. But how about tomorrow morning? Maybe... 9:00?"

The bespectacled orc looks up to Klok with a smile. "Ah, greetings! It is nice to meet you, I am Urzmaktok Grojsh. Urzmaktok to my friends. We at the society would be happy to take you under our wing... Or, branches? I suppose that's a more fitting expression. Please, please, sign your name here. Our first meeting will be at Wiltroot Hall on the Witherbloom Campus next week at 6:00. You'll need to bring your own gloves; we'll be working with pendrake roots. We're all very excited!" 

 The minotaur peeks up from the book meekly. "Oh, um... Hi... Aithne... right?" He asks, his voice surprisingly soft for what one would expect from a minotaur. "Um, yes... They made me in charge of recruitment for today... We've gotten a few signatures, um, which, you know, is good. Oh, I'm reading a collection of old Kathorran orcish poetry... Their warriors were also passionate poets, you see... The poems are written in a unique dialect of orcish, too, that's not used anymore... It's really quite beautiful. Not too difficult to translate and replicate, but very hard to use effectively by any current poets, though there are plenty who have tried. The ancient masters were truly the greatest users of the form, and their like is no longer in the world today. That makes these works even more valuable and worth preserving..." His face seems to glow as he talks more about the poetry. Then suddenly he shrinks back down and fidgets with his glasses.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... Um, do you want to join?" 

"I do want to join the Star. And, not to interrupt, but if I may be so bold... I'd like to write something about the altercation earlier -  with the toothy chest? We were out there." Arvol speaks quickly, signing his name to the sheet. 

"Anyhow, I'll let you and Aelyn make 'arrangements'. I'll see you next week!"  He then quickly slips away from the table,  giving Aelyn a slight nudge as he goes. 

Now to see about the Historical Society. Arvol scans the room. 

Arvol spots a table for the Dragonsguard Historical Society, manned by a male loxodon wearing ornate gilded plate armor and boasting several golden piercings in his large, elephant ears.

"Kathorran?" Her interest immediately apparent, Aithne lit up with a smile. "I didn't realize that their warriors wrote poetry! I've read about the preservation of their verbal histories-- did you know they were a nomadic people for the better part of their formative years?-- but nothing about poetry. Unfortunately..." She deflated slightly. "I can't read the scripts in their original language so I'm sure quite a bit of the nuance is lost through the magical translations. I'm quite envious you speak orcish. Especially such an old dialect. Are there quite a few manuscripts that detail that time in the culture's development?" She was genuinely interested in joining the Society, but it appeared that her intention to do so had been forgotten in favor of her enthusiasm for discussing ancient texts.  

Finishing with a satisfying closing of her journal, Ambre decides to wander around.

Aelyn gives Arvol a smile as he leaves and signs, again turning his full attention to Mina. "Apologies for being bold then Mina Lee, I will certainly try to make that up to you in some way. Now, where do I pick you up?" He says confidently before looking around where the others went. "The Firejolt Cafe, perhaps I should bring my friends there when we're finished up here? Would you recommend it Mina?" He says with a playful wink.