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Cheneres Se-anhur IV

"Ain't nothing gonna stop me. Not rules, death or god himself!"

0 · 984 views · located in Nymphaea City

a character in “Tidal Serpent”, as played by phantasms

Description

Image

♪ "This world's only big enough for one man!" ♫
Name:
Cheneres Se-anhur IV

Nicknames:
Chen
As his full name is a bit much for the tongue, containing a multitude of accents and said better in an Egyptian accent. He goes by the single syllable "Chen". Rolls off the tongue, the ladies love it.
Prince
He is of noble blood, however he dislikes any mention of his lineage. Any person who uses this can expect to meet his ire.

Alias(es):
Alias
{Cheneres the Exile}
Although he's more known for being the enemy of all women, his strength is somewhat recognized. He can be seen announcing his title himself when performing missions. Instead of a name given by the populace, he shoved it down their throats.

Age:
28

Appearance:
Standing at an impressive 6'4, he sees his tanned figure as a temple. If he isn't chasing women or drinking until he sees spots, he's maintaining his impressive body structure. He harbors long unkempt white hair with green dye at the tips. His chest is adorned with tattoos, patterns that intersect diagonally from his pecs. He possesses toned arms and thighs, broad shoulders and a chiseled facial structure.

Clothing:
As every man is a showoff, Chen prefers to instead wear no shirt, alternating his pants in an effort to change his "outfit". He wears boots on his feet and gloves that cover his wrist instead of his hand. He wears a metallic cross necklace over his head.

Location and Color of Guild Mark:
Right of his neck
Light Green





Magic Type:
Sand God Slayer.

Magical Tools:
None

Magic Spells:
Sand God Bellow.
A torrent of black sand forms from the user's mouth, similar to a devil slayer's rage or a dragon slayer's roar. It covers a medium sized radius.
Sand God Royal Burial.
Chen raises his hand, a large pyramid manifests from the black sand that he has created. He then proceeds to smash the pyramid on his target. Chen usually uses this as a finishing move, though due to being hard to land. It's best used on targets who are incapacitated in some way.
Sand God | Fist of Horus.
Chen is a mere physical fighter, so he must have a spell that allows him to use his hand to hand skills effectively. Black sand surrounds both his hands, giving protection and also adding a bit more power to his punches. This spell doesn't use much of his magic supply, allowing him to keep it up for the whole duration of the fight.
Sand God | Jaws of Sobek.
The ground becomes covered by a sea of sand, Cheneres diving into it and becoming undetectable. Cheneres then leaps up from below his target's feet, uppercutting his foe with immense blunt force. He also uses the sand gained from the initial creation of the black sand area to enhance his strike. This is a slow attack, taking a set amount of time to engulf an area with this much sand.
Sand God | Storm of Set.
Cheneres assumes a sprinting position and charges at an enemy foe. Using a vortex of sand to propel him towards a target, he then proceeds to tackle his opponent. An addition to the blow, the surrounding sand also damages his foe similar to a harsh sandstorm.
Sand God | Sentence of Osiris.
His right arm becomes surrounded by the sand, with his limb size increasing because of the sand around it. It can be used offensively or defensively, however this technique takes a short while to manifest as the amount of sand used in this spell is rather large. The sheer power of this spell is enough to break through concrete, steel and moderate magic shielding.

Wizard Ranking:
A




Personality:
Cheneres prides himself as a man of fervor. A soul full of passion and a tendency to be rambunctious. He speaks with a voice of excessive decibels and is overly friendly to his guild mates. He's the type of individual to let his emotions run free, whether it's exorbitant anger or extreme joy. It's hard to not know what he is thinking. He's a daredevil at heart, only seeking jobs that have danger involved. He longs to experience the rush to his head, which is the reason for his brash actions. He's a man that most hate to see upset, the sole reason people agree on accompanying him on his many perilous adventures. He seeks to make a name, the hero that people read about in storybooks, evidence by him announcing his presence and name every time he enters a place of unfamiliarity.

A man without patience and a man without rational thought. He never was the one to use his head, sometimes saying things of extraordinary stupidity. He was a party prince back in his country, so it's not uncommon for him to be enjoying the finer things in life, even if it's blindly. His head is filled with absurd thoughts, ideas and schemes. However, being the man he is, he will commonly follow his head without pause. The type of man who sees injustice and due to his dumb luck, changes it. He sees collateral damage and his blunders as out of sight, out of mind. This leads to him being chastised by the higher ups of his guild, though falling to deaf ears. His response being that he's "following the wind" with him proceeding to decimate another building.


Hobbies:
Searching for women
As he is a man who is in love with being in love, he flirts with various women, with his brash tone usually granting him a trip to the infirmary. Any women could be his destined one, though his coquetry has earned him disdain instead.
Drinking
You'll never find Chen without a bottle in his hand. His drunkenness could be the cause of his flirtatious tones, but a man's true character comes out when intoxicated.

Habits:
Chen is usually seen flexing at random, in an effort to show off or to assure himself that his muscles were as big as yesterday. He can also be seen practicing his "lines", statements he announces when entering or fighting. He is also known to doze off from time to time, the "crash" from his drinking habits.

Fears:
Losing Attention
Being hated
Spiders
Strengths:
Fighter
A master of unarmed combat and almost unrivaled physical strength. He is able to duel most of the strong mages he comes across.
Teamwork
Although he's brash, after his initial assault on an enemy doesn't work. He's rather open to the smarter guild member's schemes.
Opening of the people
His overly friendly personality is rather good at getting some of the more reserved members of the guild to follow him.
Weaknesses:
What is thinking?
He dislikes staying idle and will often confront enemies without preparation of any kind. This leads him into unfavorable situations, such as encounters with skilled S-level mages or higher.
Annoying
His rather booming voice can be seen as irritating to his other guild mates.
Creed
Despite his rough appearance, he does have morals. More specifically, a creed against killing and the fighting of women or children. When forced in combat by an enemy that falls in this category. He will refuse and when given no choice, pull his punches.



Family:
Cheneres Se-anhur III - Father - Alive
Azizi Mikhail - Mother - Alive

History:
Born from a king and his favored concubine. He was pampered as a boy, receiving treatment and gifts that his other half brothers could not fathom. Although he was the favorite among the sons, he was seen as inept by his teachers. He showed no interest in his classes and much rather trained with the soldiers and commanders. He was shown to be a prodigy in battle, quickly learning the combat magic. Although he showed little though for kingship, his mother pushed him. He was forced to do his classes and prohibited from the training grounds.

Amenemhet was a rather peaceful country. They were well protected as their soldiers studied sand magic whilst surrounded by a desert. The king himself has a strong standing, however he is oblivious to his many corrupt officials. The streets are ridden with poverty. Harsh taxes befall the people, hidden within the walls. Due to long distance trade being their only way of generating economy, they were a broken country trying to make a front. Due to a desperate situation, Amenemhat resolved to sell their own people into slavery, condemning people who have committed petty crimes. The king would never condone of this, so the officials hoped that Cheneres the IV would be oblivious enough to agree to their proposal.

Cheneres was in a rebellious state when his father finally stepped down. Partying all day and further neglecting his studies, to the chagrin of the officials who saw a target easy to manipulate. However, Cheneres befriended a kid whom was suffering from his situation outside the castle. They grew up together while Philes formed a group known as the False Prophets due to hating the prospect of a sovereignty. Cheneres being the next in kinship was hidden so they could remain friends. The Fake Kings soon became a rebellion group as more people joined, they soon learnt about the situation of the empire. They planned a revolution that would shake the very core of the kingdom.

The day of the rebellion, however they were invaded by another country. The False Prohpets has already poisoned most of the officials and soldiers, breaking their weapons and vehicles. Amenemhet was invaded, the whole royal family was beheaded. Since Cheneres was disguised as a peasant boy, he remained safe. However, he decided to leave the country at the age of 19 due to fear of being discovered and for guilt of being involved in the False Prophets' schemes.

He wandered many days in the desert, he possessed an affinity for Sand Magic soon evolving into Sand God Magic, which was self taught. After years of aimlessly walking, he stumbled upon civilization. He wasn't greeted warmly, as he was seen as a disgusting hermit by the out lookers. He was gloriously outdated in technology, he joined a merchants guild to pay off the bills. After a year of doing something he hated, he proclaimed that he would join a wizard's guild as he didn't want his magic to go to waste.

As he didn't have the best reputation, it proved a struggle to find a guild that would accept him. He quite literally stumbled upon tidal serpent. He was quite eager to start fresh, but refused to forget his lineage as forgetting his crimes is a cowardly gesture. He waltzed into the guild hall and announced himself as Cheneres the Exile.



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All yours! Can put whatever you want here, more info on your magic, pets, family, fun facts, anything!

FC:

So begins...

Cheneres Se-anhur IV's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Keiji stood with the other S-class wizards behind Guild Master Castien as he performed the announcements following the S-class trials. Keiji’s arms were folded in front of him, his eyes peering over the crowd with an unintentionally intense gaze that often fooled people into believing he was a much darker individual than he actually was. His body was clothed from head to toe, his hood up to cover the scars and burns that marred the back half of his head but allowing his facial features to still show through. His eyes fell upon Dolores, standing there proud as the newest member of the strongest wizards the guild had to offer, and he felt himself wondering how she had gotten there. He had not had the pleasure or regret of meeting her in combat for these trials, Instead it had been Slick who had run into Keiji. He peered around slightly, finding the man in the crowd and wondering if he hated Keiji for stopping him from reaching the top this time around. They had their differences, but it wasn’t his intention to stunt Slick’s growth into a powerful wizard, only to make sure he deserved to belong with them.

Returning his attention back to Dolores and the proceedings, Keiji once again started flickering through memories of her magic usage, and still couldn’t comprehend how someone with such a utility power could get as far as she did. Ultimately, that part didn’t matter as she was standing here now, meaning she did everything she needed to to win. For that, respect was given even if understanding wasn’t. Castien continued with the announcement that Oceana would be taking over Guild Master, and Keiji couldn’t help but feel some sense of trepidation. She was young, and in his eyes, inexperienced and lacking in powerful capabilities. Her leadership would need to be put to the test, and he hoped with all his being that she didn’t crumble under the pressure. This was a feeling that was only amplified when she ran over and embraced Dolores in a rather childish display of affection. Keiji didn’t let any emotion show through his face, even though his own internal groaning flooded his ears. Ultimately the guild needed to remain unified, so he would help her where necessary but he would still be keeping a close eye on her.

Then came the whammy that she was restricting job usage for the week, something that earned an arc of the eyebrow from Keiji as he realized that those who relied on those listings to get by would have a hard time for the next week. Once again, he didn’t agree with it but he said nothing. Now was not the time to speak up and say things that he might later regret. Still, he would have to scrimp for the next seven days, and that was going to be it’s own kind of hell as he realized his diet would consist of rice, rice and even more rice. With the announcements done and everyone starting to disband to do their own thing, Keiji left the stage. He had several things to do, hopefully before his lack of funds started to kick in.



A thrum of power reverberated through the clearing much like a small localized earthquake. Trees shook leaves from their branches, pebbles bounced along the ground, and small creatures darted in every direction to get away from the seemingly invisible force. A closer inspection would lead people to see the air waving, much like heat rising from the ground. A glance downwards would reveal a golden sigil, intricate in design and large in size emanating from a singular point. In the middle stood Keiji, his clothes flapping slightly to an unseen wind, his eyes shut as concentration broadcast from his person. While nothing seemed to be visibly happening, an investigative look at Keiji would reveal that he was sweating. It looked like he was holding a great weight above him, straining to maintain his composure against the pressure he was inflicting upon himself. This continued for a few minutes, before the sigil on the ground disappeared slowly and Keiji opened his eyes to view the grass around him. It was flattened, much like a crop circle in a field, and a quick survey showed him that no animals had wandered into his field during his training; his continued acclimatization to the forces that he controlled.

He released a breath that he hadn’t been aware he had been holding, the stress of not being able to go out on jobs starting to affect his normally calm demeanor as he had found himself being irritated by smaller and smaller things. The other day he had accidentally crushed a cup in his hand for literally no reason at all. His power needed an outlet, and even his training wasn’t doing enough to satisfy him, and he couldn’t necessarily go all out on his training here either, not without leveling a good section of the surrounding landscape. He rolled his shoulders, flapping his white muscle shirt slightly to get a bit of heat off of his chest. Black shorts that came down to just below his kneecaps adorned his legs, revealing his heavily scarred skin. Remnants of battles won and lost, accidents, training trophies and hard won achievements one and and all. Nearly every inch of him was covered in something that even the most war torn general would have been shocked at, but for him this was the norm.

With his preliminary training out of the way, he walked over to a tree which had obviously seen better days. Its bark had been broken off in several places, with indents like someone had taken a hammer to it evident on it’s trunk. Keiji took another breath, adopting his standard combat stance and proceeding to attack the tree with all the force he could muster, that is, all he could muster without the use of his magic. He had deadened his nerves to allow such training to be viable and to assist in battle, a skeptical training technique that could lead to long term health problems...at least that what the healers had told him between staring at his marred features.

This continued for a few hours and ended when the sun started to rise on the horizon. His ‘stop and pay attention to the guild’ alarm. With little ceremony, rubbing his knuckles and palms as he moved, he gathered the rest of his clothes and carried them back to the guild hall.



By the time he had arrived at the front door to the building, he had donned the rest of his clothing, pulling the hood up over his head to hide the remainder of his wounds from the others. Today the job ban would be lifted and he could get back to work, bring in some money and get back to a regular schedule. Hopefully the others would be in the same mindset, and hopefully people would be putting out s-ranked quests for him to take care of. As he entered the door, he was greeted with Oceana stepping onto the bar and asking for everyone’s attention. Someone in the back had enough sense to say the statement in a more authoritative voice, to which the guild master giggled and made Keiji groan inwardly once more. She didn’t carry herself with the mentality of a leader or master, something that had been made evident the days following her induction. Once again though, just because he didn’t agree with her leadership style, or even that she was the right choice for the spot, didn’t mean he would do anything to bring light to that fact. Keiji walked in, doing his best to not draw attention from others even if his magical ‘signature’ if you will was enough to warrant a couple of glances. He took a seat a couple of tables away from her, awaiting the news that she was about to spew.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Cheneres

Though Chen is not usually seen idle, his purposely apparent indignant emotion ran rampant. S-Class Trials were a time of celebration, although his inability to participate gave him a face of scorn. Due to how careless he was during a mission, he sustained multiple injuries. Although the people he forcefully dragged along remained unharmed, he broke all 4 of his limbs and more. However, he completed the mission, he had quite a bit of time to count the reward on his hospital bed.

His perfectly chiseled abs were covered by grimy bandages. He's able to walk and move his limbs again, but he still was nursing the many cuts and bruises. His face was covered with dust and his hair disheveled. He usually was a man harboring great pride for his body, but he was too busy crying himself to sleep. Instead of sitting in the middle of such a grand occasion. He was in a minuscule corner in the southeast part of the room. Cheneres the Exile, reduced to a hermit.

Despite it all, he was happy for the new S-Class. A wondrous maiden does deserve recognition. Cheneres himself isn't familiar with her. Even Cheneres, the man who rushes into danger, is vigilant when approaching someone such as Dolores. He much rather fight monsters of vigor than be on the opposite end of a woman's fury.

Alas, he took another sip of his drink. He was drinking vodka in the morning, maybe to ease the pain of not being able to participate or just because he's Cheneres the Exile, he drinks whenever he wants. He soon fell into a deep slumber, unable to applaud and commend Dolores. It's a somber day if Cheneres is not rushing to a woman's side. Between his gloomy episodes and his whining, he'll recover somehow. It would've been quite important to know that the guild master had suspended Jobs for everyone to recover, but he'll manage. If blowing all your cash on booze and couch surfing fits the definition.


It was a harsh 7 days. Cheneres couldn't find another tavern that would serve him ale for free, so he turned to street performances to pay for his necessities. Though, due to his ineptitude when it comes to musical talent. It would make more sense if they paid him to stop his performance instead of to compliment it. Don't tell him I said that though.

Bright and early, he pushed open the guild hall doors gloriously. In case it was obvious that he has arrived, Cheneres makes it a point to make sure people are aware. With his usual announcement, "Cheneres the Exile makes an entrance! ♫" He declared. This habit is usually met by groans of annoyance by his guild members, heavy or hushed. Him going so early could be to bother less people, but it's most likely to get drunk faster.

He ordered from the counter quickly and went to converse with the people of the guild. Giving a hearty hello to his mates and a little bit extra for the ladies (Flex on 'em). It was a busy and boisterous morning, because Cheneres made it so.

It seems the little girl of a guild master had an announcement for the populace. He always found it unorthodox for there to be such a young girl running a former dark guild. She rivals him in energy and can even come off as a bit overbearing, and that's coming from Cheneres. He always thought she should eat more, grow into a voluptuous woman, but that's a personal preference. Those are just thoughts, they were never particularly close and he finds himself straying away from her path. Nonetheless, he respects her magic prowess. He is rather adept at feeling people's strength, though he often rushes in anyways despite knowing he'll lose.

But it seems the little GM had a big announcement. He walked over to the counter and took his drink, he then went to the back of the huddle as he is one of the taller members of the guild. He took a few sips and waited impatiently. If a dainty little lass like her is a guild master, Cheneres is a rocket scientist.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Everyone in the guild seemed to be a bit tense in the week following the S-class competition. Jin didn't hold it against them though. Some of these wizards really needed the income from jobs to support their families, and even a week without work was enough to drain what funds they had left. Initially, he had argued with Oceana on the whole concept of a "rest week," but she had somehow managed to convince him that it was for the best. She argued that the competing wizards were liable to try and prove their rank (likely bitterness from losing the opportunity to advance) by taking difficult missions despite their injuries. Oceana, fully well knowing that Jin was a stickler for safety, had used his own priorities against him. For all the trouble and complaints however, he had to admit that the week off had given him ample time to relax and work on his knitting. His mother's new gloves testified to his productivity.

Finally, the day came that the week-long rest period would end. With it, would come an announcement that held the potential to stir a few tempers. Oceana had pitched the plan to Jin earlier in the week, and he had to admit that it was a pretty good one. With a few discussions, the pair had managed to sort out the details and minimize the possibility for complaint. Still, he could tell that there would be disagreements. That was his job to deal with though. Oceana made the plans and Jin enforced them- that had always been the way it was.

He had been in the kitchen tossing bits of lunchmeat to his cat Shiba when Oceana hopped up onto the bar counter. When he heard her squeaky attempt at an announcement, he casually stepped out into the main guild area, leaning up against one of the tables that scattered the room. The chatter wasn't dying down though. He sighed, silently praying that Oceana would at least try to be bear the authority of her position.

"Your guildmaster has an announcement. Pipe down." His voice rung through the hall and conversations began to die down. People knew better than to make him repeat himself. When silence had at last settled over the guild, Jin's eyes drifted up to meet Oceana's. While she had in fact granted Dolores S-class status the previous week, this would be the first act that was truly hers. It was her idea from start to finish and while Jin would support it, it was her job to stand by it. Steady like the tide, as his father would always say. Even though they'd grown up together, moments like this made him wonder how she was feeling. Was she nervous? Excited? His dark eyes remained focused on hers, willing her to speak with the power she had done well to earn.

The setting changes from Nymphaea City to Guild Hall

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Oceana waited for silence and watched a few more people enter the guild hall, most of them quickly noticing something was going on. As she waited, she took notice of Slick at the bar when he spoke out, using that dreaded nickname he called her. "Ey, Get on with it Shaun. I think you’ve kept the people waiting long enough." Narrowing her eyes at Slick, Oceana made a mental note to get back at him for it later, before rolling her eyes and focusing on the task at hand. This idea had been long in the making, though she had never been able to convince her father to go through with it. Scanning the room again to make sure all the necessary people, including Jin who made the final shout for silence, were present.

With everyone's attention on her, and the importance of this announcement Oceana looked to Jin for reassurance before turning to the rest of the guild. Letting her normal giddy smile and playful demeanor drop Oceana looked around the guild, her entire demeanor suddenly extremely serious.
"As you all know, I am very young to be the Guild Master. In fact, I am the youngest Guild Master Tidal Serpent has ever had. I know a lot of you believe me not ready and while I understand I sorely disagree. We have
spent too long in the shadows merely because four centuries ago our name belonged to a Dark Guild."


Oceana looked around the guild hall, passion burning bright in her eyes. Everyone knew that since she was a child she had been discontent with Tidal Serpent's image but only her grandmother, father, and Jin had know exactly how much. Continuing on, she let herself finally show that passion to her guildmates.
"That time is over. I am done watching the members of this guild be ignored and despised because of the guild's past. From this moment on Tidal Serpent is stepping out of the shadow and into the light. I want every single member of this guild to be as appreciated by others as I appreciate them, even if I have to spend the rest of my life pushing for that dream to be true."

Oceana paused and took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing on. "During the last three years, while I have worked with my father running this guild and spent time getting to know you all better, I have come up with a plan. I have decided that 8 members of Tidal Serpent will join together to be a team. This team will be the future of the guild and as such I hope each and every one of those people takes this extremely seriously." Oceana paused as a hushed murmur went through the guild hall. It was extremely rare for a guild master to put a team together, especially without talking to the supposed members beforehand. Once the guild was relatively silent again Oceana continued. "The people chosen for this team, are; Dolores De La Fuente, Keiji Okaro, Melinda Ekundayo, Slick, Cheneres, Bardulf Sherwood, Artemie Scheherazade, and Rin Hitomi." At Melinda's name any remaining chatter in the guild hall stopped, more than a few people shocked. As Oceana said the last name she let her gaze fall directly on Rin, knowing that she would probably be the one most likely to protest. Her eyes still on Rin, Oceana smiled and then finally looked away. "That is all. The ban on accepting jobs is now over. Be safe!" With that she hopped of the bar and took a seat next to her grandmother.







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Rin watched Oceana with fascination as she made her speech. Ever since Rin had been on her own she had been hiding, or at least, that was the best way to describe it. When she was still in Wolf Spirit she had been away on jobs as often as possibly and even when she was in Azalea she would only go to the guild hall to take a new job. Once she had left the guild it had been even worse, her only interactions with people outside of her jobs being a simple greeting or a chat with an innkeeper. Even now, having joined a new guild, Rin was still almost completely isolated. All this considered, Rin couldn't help be impressed by the girl that was 6 years her junior and yet able to be the center of attention confidently.

Despite Rin's mental praise when she heard her name she froze, staring back at the guild master with surprise and anger. In her mind, she heard one of her spirits telling her to calm down but she payed so little attention she couldn't even tell which one it was. Rin wanted to speak out in protest. She wanted to refuse right then and there. But, with most of the guild in the room she didn't want any more attention on her than what already was. Fuming, Rin quickly stood and stalked out of the guild hall, slamming the large doors shut behind her. As she walked away, heading towards the exit of the compound, she could hear the moment when the echoing sound of the slamming doors faded back to silence and suddenly the sound of people talking replaced it.

The setting changes from Guild Hall to Nymphaea City

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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#, as written by Tanman
Pommel Grade
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“Stupid week with stupid people doing stupid stupid…” Pommel grumbled to herself as she strode between the tables, platters loaded up on her arms up to her shoulders, drinks under her arms in a comical but impressive display of balance and waitressing skill. In practiced and precise movements, she unloaded the meals and drinks to the various patrons of the guild, smiling at those she liked and showing something akin to annoyance to those she didn’t. She’d had it had it HAD IT with the guild wizards by now. GO! Shoo! Do some jobs, get out of here! You’re making the place stink and wearing grooves into the leather! She hadn’t smelled of this much alcohol or done this much work since… Since well ever! And it SUCKED! Why oh why would Oceana do something like this? Had she done something bad? Was this a punishment for Pommel to have to be this busy for a whole week?

Petulant as ever, Pommel pouted and persevered in her work, forever trying to prove herself and be recognised for her good deeds, but for the most part going unnoticed. Cheery bright and friendly as she could be, most of those who offended her (Which pretty much only consisted of the male guild members) knew to stick clear of her when she was this grouchy, but at the same time, it was typically them who were responsible for grabbing her attention by ordering food or drinks. Ugh, why couldn’t someone cool that she actually cared about just request her assistance? Maybe the new S-Class wizard wanting a fancy wine? Oceana bringing her a new dress to try on? Just someone she could find a reasonable excuse to hang out with and chat rather than having to be an errand girl for all these lazy deadbeats!

Exhausted and at her limit, Pommel pulled out a nearby seat and leaned on the pillar by the job board, taking a long sigh as she rested. It was about time she took a break, and with Oceana making her entrance for her announcement, it looked like she’d be getting her chance. Sitting up to listen intently to the declaration, Pommel internally and externally beamed at seeing Oceana take charge. That was just like a powerful wizard like her to take point and lead like this. Oceana was a woman with vision for the future. No doubt she had some cool, amazing strategy to propel Tidal Serpent to the top of the popularity polls in Sorcerer’s Weekly! Leaning in, Pommel waited with baited breath…

“…I have decided that 8 members of Tidal Serpent will join together to be a team…” Looking up from her spot, Pommel briefly thought she saw Oceana make eye contact with her. Her heart skipped a beat. W-was this it?! Was she being selected to become an important wizard that would shape the very future of Tidal Serpent?! Oh, she knew Oceana believed in her and her abilities, but this was going to be a bit sudden! Being placed on a team with her and Melinda and all the other best warriors that Tidal Serpent had, no doubt she’d get the opportunity to learn and really start being a valued member of the guild! Oh, Oceana was so wonderful thinking of her like that! This was it, her moment to shine! All the hard work was paying off! She’d begin as the junior member of the team, but in moments she would rise to be the star member! Maybe she’d even get her own article in Sorcerer’s Weekly? She could see the headlines now: ‘Young Prodigy Wizard takes the magic world by storm!’

"The people chosen for this team, are; Dolores De La Fuente, Keiji Okaro, Melinda Ekundayo, Slick, Cheneres, Bardulf Sherwood, Artemie Scheherazade, and Rin Hitomi." Pommel listened, nodding all the while. Ugh, Slick. And that loud idiot Chen. Well, there had to be SOME rookies besides herself that would…- Wait. Pommel paused, playing back the team in her mind. Then, she hung her head in shame. Of course she wasn’t part of the team… What had she even been thinking? She wasn’t even a qualified wizard! Oooohhhh…. She’d really gotten her hopes up that she’d get the chance to join and work with her idols. Man, this stunk! Melinda was already always away, but now that Dolores was on a team with her, along with two other powerful female wizards, they’d probably be gone even more often. Sighing, she leaned back on her seat against the wall.

"That is all. The ban on accepting jobs is now over. Be safe!" Following that announcement, Pommel was caught in a stampede for the second time in a week as eager wizards hurried to the job board for the best opportunities.


Slick
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Reaching for his drink, Slick slowly took a light sip as he listened to their new guildmaster’s heartfelt declaration. He was always impressed with the passion and dedication that Oceana showed for the guild, and had no doubt some of that rubbed off on everyone else. Sure, it was his home and family too, but he could never quite show the drive or spirit that she did. There was just something inspiring about the honesty and pride she showed whenever Tidal Serpent came up. The guild was her life, and she’d take no disrespect for it from anyone. In fact, it was probably that aspect of her nature that lead to her becoming the new guild master, regardless of her heritage. Naïve and inexperienced as she may be, Slick couldn’t think of anyone else that was more fitting or deserving of the title.

That said… Well, her plan just seemed absurd. Even Slick had to scoff at the idea of a wizard team going off and doing who knows what to get the guild’s name out there. But hey, it was Oceana’s pet project. He’d help her plan and budget for it, along with its probable failure. It’d be a good lesson like that which would teach her that turning things around wasn’t as simple as just bringing people together to work as a team. Eight people was a lot of resources, and it just didn’t seem efficient unless she planned on them doing some truly incredible work. Still, it’d be interesting to keep track of from the sidelines. Watching Oceana continue to explain over the rim of his glass, Slick listened with intrigue as she listed off the cast of her new show. The S-Classes - Yeah, no surprises there if she intended for them to do something huge. Then came the kicker. Slick nearly spat his drink across the room as his name was listed, but not only that, Chen, Bard and that mousy girl from the library. He wasn’t going to complain about being put on a team with women, but it all seemed a bit ridiculous – He’d worked solo for years now.

Setting his drink down on the bar and looking up to Oceana, he tried to meet her eyes and get some sort of response out of her for this joke. She couldn't be serious. When he met her gaze however, it wasn’t the kind or joking expression he was hoping for. Instead, there was naught but a mischievous smile, and under the noisy mass discussion going around the guild, Slick made out the syllables she wordlessly spoke under her breath at him. She wasn’t messing with him. Well, she was and she wasn’t. He was actually a part of this team, but she was most certainly doing it to rattle him. Ugh, she knew just how to get under his skin sometimes. Was this a response to calling her by that moniker in front of everyone? Adjusting the glasses that had slipped from his face, he watched Rin, the eighth member of the team storm off. Clearly she wasn’t happy about this either. Amusingly, Bard seemed to be taking more initiative then Slick had anticipated the shy lad had in him by chasing after her. Ah well, best of luck to him. He was a good fellow, hopefully it’d work out.

Turning back to Oceana, Slick tried to raise his concerns over the din of people heading to the job’s board, but was silenced by a few hearty slaps on the back as some of his fellow guildmates wished him ‘luck’ with Oceana’s pet project, laughing at his predicament all the while. It was during this that Keiji took the opportunity to request a meeting with the guildmaster, obviously having his own qualms with the setup. Heh, if Oceana had her mind set on this, it was unlikely she’d call it off. Change it slightly, maybe, but that was a long shot, even for a charmer like him. Still, it’d do Keiji to learn some humility and ‘lose’ to Oceana. It wasn’t like Slick was still bitter about the promo tournament at this point, but he was amused to see the tempered fellow losing something.

Letting Keiji have his talk with her upstairs, Slick would have his own private chat with her later about the whole thing. She hadn’t really given them any details of what she expected of the team, other than them taking it seriously. Did she have a job in mind? Or were they just going to be an overkill squadron doing some odd S-Rank jobs? Even if she’d intended for it to be a big surprise, he wished she’d given him some prior notice so he could do some planning and work out the logistics of it all. Depending on what they were doing, Wizards like him and Chen might be made redundant in the face of the job they were assigned. Well, no sense dwelling on it for now or worrying about it. He was Slick after all. He couldn’t let something like this phase him too much. Time to roll with it.

With Oceana, Keiji, Rin and Bard all occupied, Melinda nowhere in sight, and Chen being Chen; Slick briefly scanned the crowd for any sign for the remaining lovely two team members that he’d been assigned to. With the aid of his magic, it only took a split-second to identify Dolores in the crowd, along with Artemie poised behind a pillar for support and possibly protection from everyone. Both were lovely in their own way, and conveniently enough, were only across the bar and a stone’s throw away from each other. Pushing off the bar, Slick slid his way over towards the two, seamlessly moving into place beside Dolore’s, but facing the pillar Artemie found herself behind. Snapping his fingers in her direction, he flashed a smile.

“Well ladies, looks like you’re gonna be stuck with me until our ever-wise guild master says otherwise. I mean, we’re gonna have to make the most of this, so we may as well get to know each other more intimately than we already do, yeah? Boss’s orders that we get along and all that.” Cocking his head in Dolore’s direction to see if she was paying attention as well, he turned his attention back to Artemie for the moment, lifting his glasses with a wink. “And don’t worry Art, if Dolly here is too uptight to watch out for you, I’ve got your back.” Thumbing at his chest, Slick nudged the smoke dragon slayer in the side. “Ain’t that right Dolly?”

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro Character Portrait: Dolores De La Fuente Character Portrait: Pommel Grade
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For what it was worth, Jin thought Oceana's announcement had gone over very well with the guild. Of course there was the ordeal with Rin rushing out, and the slight possibility that Dolores was about to murder one of her new teammates, but in a guild full of powerful wizards this was the best reception one could hope for. From his point of view amidst the madness, Jin was positive about the implications of a new elite team. Tidal Serpent needed to redefine its image in Fiore, and this was the start. That being said, Jin couldn't help but feel a bit anxious when he saw Keiji approach Oceana. The man was exactly not known for his collaborative spirit. He watched as the pair proceeded upstairs and out of his direct line of sight, fighting the urge to eavesdrop.

No, Oceana could handle this on her own. He recited this mantra on repeat in his mind, trying to push out the image of the goofy child he had helped to raise. She was qualified for this position, and was more than capable of justifying her stance without him. If anything, Jin would only overstep his bounds and make the situation worse. So he remained on the main floor of the guild hall, at the same rickety table he had observed the announcement from. Damage control, that would be his objective now. That involved getting a drunk Cheneres off of the table before Freya murdered him.

Jin had to give the man a certain amount of credit. Somehow, in his intoxication, he had managed to start a guild-wide chant. Thankfully, nobody had thrown chairs or drinks yet, but Tidal Serpent's track record meant that Jin wasn't willing to wait for it to happen. He made his way over to the wizard, who seemed to be having the time of his life amidst the cheering. Folding his arms, Jin peered up at the man.

"Time to get down Prince. You don't need Freya to give you bruises to go with your nasty hangover tomorrow morning." Even though the man definitely had experience holding his liquor, he certainly was NOT capable of dealing with the guild's resident Wizard Saint.




"That's my girl!" Her first announcement as guildmaster and Oceana was already throwing the Tidal Serpent off its feet. Just like her grandma used to!

Taking a swig from her tankard, Freya let out a bellowing laugh that seemed too large from a woman of her stature. Her girl was a sturdy one, that was for sure. She hadn't even blinked when that looker Keiji asked to speak with her in private. Oh, what Freya wouldn't give to have a "private" conversation with a delicious specimen like that! The thought of it brought her back to her old adventuring days. She turned in her stool, looking over the guild hall with a sense of pride. First-class, that's what the Tidal Serpent was. Soon enough, the world would know it too.

In the corner of the room, a few of the newest team members were gathered. Freya watched with interest as Slick sauntered over to the spot where Artemie and Dolores were lounging about. That grin he wore told her all she needed to know. The man was shameless in his mischief- he almost reminded Freya of a younger version of herself. Maybe that'd be enough to get the new S-class wizard to crack a smile. The woman was far too uptight for her own good. As for Artemie, there wasn't much to say. Maybe going on missions with higher-level wizards would make the girl get some confidence.

Out of the corner of her eye, Freya noticed a sole figure stumbling about. All was good until she noticed it pulling itself up onto on of the tables. Her vision began to go red. The hall and all of its trappings were a testament to the guild's illustrious history. Although some furniture had been replaced (accidents were to be expected), Freya expected members to have more sense than to risk destroying even more when she could see them. What they did when she wasn't around was none of her business. But what happened right in front of her? THAT was enough to warrant a reaction.

"Cheneres!" She shouted across the hall. A bit of the chanting died down as guild members felt a chilling sense of fear creep down their spines. "Get your lovely drunk ass off that table before I get up and do it for you."

The setting changes from Nymphaea City to Guild Hall

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Dolores De La Fuente Character Portrait: Oceana Malaerion Character Portrait: Freya Malaerion
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#, as written by Tanman
Slick
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Slick smiled and let Artemie and Dolores go through their initial introductions. It was unsurprising that they hadn’t really met, given their personalities. It was like comparing fire and ice. Hmm, no, that didn’t exactly do the two justice. Sweet and sour? Roses and Violets? Alas, this was no time for such poetry. He could work on a proper analogy at a later time. Though he felt the need to give the librarian of the guild a show of faith in her abilities after her less than confident address of Dolores, the sharp words of the assassin proved her tongue could be just as fatal as her blades. Still, Slick took that sort of thing in stride. He knew enough about these sorts of patterns to already see how this was going.

“Heh, darn straight Dolly. With you around and Artemie on support, I won’t even have to lift a finger on these missions.” Smirking a bit, Slick played off the challenge to his capabilities as a compliment to the two in his company. It was the gentlemanly thing to do rather than lay claim to his own skill. Besides, Art looked like she needed the boost of encouragement, and he was confident enough in his own abilities that no words of insult could convince him otherwise. Winking at the two, Slick continued his ‘rallying’ speech. “Trust me, this is all going to work out great. So, while we’re in the spirit of comradery, I’ll take you ladies out to dinner. My treat, but maybe if I impress I’ll get a little something in return." Ever flirtatious, some could consider it a form of flattery. Chances were that it wouldn’t be taken that way by his present company however.

It was at that point that the chanting of Cheneres began to fill the guild hall, Slick giving a soft sigh and placing a palm to his forehead. That man truly was a piece of work. Yep, Slick had done right by sussing out the more pleasant teammates to converse with. Even within the eight person group, he was certain that there’d be some smaller cliques. Ideally, he’d end up on the one with the ladies, and without Chen. Of course, knowing that buffoon he’d probably barge in on their activities regardless of any societal norms. With a soft thumb in the man’s direction, Slick leaned in closer to the women, unnecessarily placing a hand near his mouth to ‘whisper’ in their direction.

“Hey, it’s gotta be better than hanging with ‘Team Cheneres’.” Pausing a moment as he watched old Freya start to reel Chen in, Slick decided that there was no time like the present for socialising with fine people such as these. “I’ll meet you ladies outside the guild hall in 10. I know a nice little spot where we can all meet up and get to know each other while sampling the finest food in Nymphaea.” Hopping off the bar, Slick hadn’t really asked a question, nor given them an opportunity to refuse. He had a talent for that. Instead, he gave a two fingered wave over his shoulder. “Consider it a date then.” Scurrying off before they had a chance to refuse, at the very least, Slick knew that Art wouldn’t let him down on his gracious invitation. For now however, he’d have a quick word with Oceana before meeting them out front.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Dolores De La Fuente Character Portrait: Character Portrait:
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#, as written by Feyblue
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Dɪᴀʟᴏɢᴜᴇ Cᴏʟᴏʀ ✦ #AA00FF || Tʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛ Cᴏʟᴏʀ ✧ #0E00A8























































































Artemie blinked in surprise at Dolores' words, and then shook her head vigorously from side to side.
"I'm deeply sorry, but I can't promise that I'll be able to live up to that standard," She said hastily, excusing herself as best she could. Try though she might, she was nowhere near Slick's level, and if Dolores expected that much of her... "I'm still somewhat inexperienced, and-" She got no further than this, for in the next instant, Mr. Slick rejoined all-too-eagerly, cheerfully observing how easy it would be with Artemie's help. While she appreciated the show of confidence, her heart sank in an instant when she realized exactly what sort of impressions this would give Dolores - and how hard, if not outright impossible, it would be to live up to them. She felt a chill run up her spine. If this terrifying woman expected her to perform on the level of an S-Class Wizard like herself, and she couldn't do it... Dolores would definitely kill her! She'd kill her for sure!

She tried to be subtle, swiping her hand back and forth within her sleeve, desperately miming at Mr. Slick to stop as best she could without drawing Dolores' attention. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to notice - somebody as nice as him would definitely have stopped if he had noticed, right? - since he kept on with his little victory speech, talking about how everything would work out just fine. Artemie sighed, her head slumping in defeat. Her position had already been precarious enough, but the more he talked, the more she realized how completely out of her league she was.


"I'll... do my best, Mr. Slick. Just- ...Ehem. Nevermind." She trailed off into silence, accepting her fate. For his part, the dapper wizard kept on going, seeming not to have noticed at all the effects of what he'd said. As matters stood, it looked like he wanted to take the two of them out to dinner. It was quite generous of him, especially since he made it sound like quite a big deal. The finest food in Nymphaea? That had to be pretty expensive... And he said he was going to treat them? But she'd already be causing enough trouble for him by making him look out for her on this newly formed team. She couldn't accept such a generous offer. Not when she hadn't done anything to-

...Wait a minute, she had the sudden feeling that she'd just skipped over something very important. What was that about team-

Another resounding shout of "Team Cheneres!" pierced the air, and Artemie stifled a gasp, spinning around all of a sudden, all-too-focused on the commotion she'd previously been trying to ignore. Right, if he'd been present for the announcement, then it stood to reason that he'd still be here! She needed to make a good impression now that she'd be working directly under him, and the first step to that would be to approach him directly and humbly offer her service.

...Unfortunately, as it happened, it seemed like now would be the worst possible time for such an act, since Cheneres - shirtless as usual, no less - was poised atop one of the tables in the center of the hall, surrounded by cheering guild wizards and one very angry former guild master. Artemie winced on his behalf. Old Mrs. Freya was even scarier than Dolores when she was mad. Regardless, it wasn't like somebody like her could just stroll up in front of everyone, least of all in a situation like this... She'd just have to wait until later. She sighed, and then remembered that she'd been in the middle of a conversation.


"Oh! Umm..." She silently cursed herself for getting so easily distracted, and tried to recall what had been going on before she'd been sidetracked. Oh. Right. Mr. Slick had wanted to treat her to dinner... While a nice meal for once sounded great, she couldn't possibly impose on him like that. Not without some means of paying him back. Unfortunately, by the time she realized this, he was already halfway out the door. She opened her mouth to call after him, but just like that, it was already too late.

"Eh....?" She wondered aloud, completely unsure of how she should respond in a situation like this. On the one hand, it would be unthinkable to ask Mr. Slick to pay for something that she couldn't afford for herself, but he'd already said that he expected to see her there. He'd be waiting for her, so wouldn't it be the height of rudeness not to show up? And, what was more, wouldn't it be just as rude to arrive only to refuse his offer? Which meant... she had no choice but to go...? She hung her head. Slick had already done so much for her, and now this? How could she ever pay him back? It seemed like no matter how hard she tried, she always ended up further indebted to him, and whenever she asked him what he wanted her to do in exchange, he'd always pass it off with some sly remark or another that she didn't understand. Maybe she was missing something obvious? That had to be it! There must have been some obvious thing he wanted her to do, something she could help him with, and she just hadn't noticed! He might have even asked her once or twice, and she'd misunderstood him. She tried her hardest to think what it could be... She'd kept tabs on all the files he had requested for the guild's accounts, and had even gone to the trouble of personally fixing some of the guild's broken tools and furniture herself to save money when the budget had nearly gone into the red in the month prior. Surely, she hadn't missed some aspect of her job, had she? But if not that, then what was it...? As usual, she had no idea...

The setting changes from Guild Hall to Nymphaea City

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro Character Portrait: Pommel Grade Character Portrait: Oceana Malaerion
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Keiji Okaro
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Keiji wandered through the courtyard that was the Tidal Serpent’s official grounds, passing his gaze over wizards of all kinds as he moved through the area, subconsciously judging their battle capabilities without any means to stop himself. Oceana had called their group together for their first mission, according to the paper airplane that had magically flown into Keiji’s window at his dorm. The S class wizard could feel his independence slipping away ever so slightly as he realized that he wouldn’t be able to pick the cream of the crop from the S ranked jobs anymore for fear of potentially putting his team at risk. A slight grinding of the teeth was all the reminder he needed that he should push such thoughts out of his mind. In the end, this was for the guild, and he would suffer whatever indignities they would force upon him.

It was still early, and he doubted the others would be there already, but Keiji preferred to be more than punctual when dealing with matters that concerned the guild master. So Keiji approached the guild hall and placed his hand on the door. The moment he stepped inside, there was a loud thud followed by muffled cries of several partially censored curses. Keiji peered inside, his eyes finally resting on what appeared to be a very drunk and passed out Cheneres currently laying on top of Pommel. A spirited girl to say the least, but even with all that passion that she sometimes directed into what could be called unnecessary aggression, she couldn’t appear to move Chenere’s bulk. Keiji took this as his cue to stroll inside, passing a few people who looked ready to move and help, but upon seeing Keiji stride with purpose towards the A class drunkard, sat back down. The man was anything but small, but with a little effort, Keiji was able to lift the man off of the small barkeep and onto his shoulder in a sort of fireman’s carry. This earned an exasperated sigh from Pommel as she slowly stood from her prone position.

“Well it’s about time someone took that dumb drunk doofus off me! Honestly, why do I always get stuck having to everything around here? I-” When she finally reached her standing position and dusted herself off slightly, her eyes finally drifted upwards in the middle of her rant to stop her words cold as she faced off against Keiji. His expression was neutral as always, cocking an eyebrow slightly as he stared down at her.

“If this is a problem for you, I could give you strength training.” Keiji offered, although inwardly he wondered just how often she had drunk wizards falling on top of her, and made a mental note to do something to prevent such an occurrence from becoming the norm. Pommel’s cheeks seemed to flush slightly as she stared at Keiji more out of shock than anything else before breaking eye contact, taking a deep breath and swallowing slightly.

“The problem is that dingus...not me.” She muttered under her breath, although she didn’t seem too sure of herself. Confidence was something a wizard needed to have, and while she had made progress over the years, Keiji could see that she still needed a fair bit of work. “Just get out of here already!” She barked at Keiji, turning around and storming off in a huff as she disappeared into the kitchen. Keiji stood there for a moment, confused as to whether he had done something wrong before turning around and seeing the eyes currently on him and the unconscious Cheneres over his shoulder. Upon his movement, the rest of the Serpent wizards went back to whatever they were doing, pretending as if they hadn’t been staring at the slight exchange. Keiji ignored it, not like it mattered much to him anyways. Instead he carried Cheneres out of the hall and straight across the grounds until he came upon the fountain in the middle of their property, a mighty serpent spewing water as a symbol of their guild.

With all the tact of a bull in a china shop, Keiji threw Cheneres into the fountain with a mighty heft, sending a small wave of water cascading into the air and drenching a couple of nearby wizards as they hurried to get themselves out of the blast zone. Keiji stood there for a moment, arms crossed as nothing happened for a few seconds. Either it took this long for Cheneres to wake up, or maybe he was simply waiting for the dramatic timing to be perfect as bubbles slowly appeared on the surface and finally Cheneres burst from the very shallow depths with a bellow that echoed throughout the ground. His eyes darted back and forth, his teeth bared as he beckoned a challenge. “Who dares wake the mighty Cheneres!” The Sand God wizard bellowed, his eyes finally coming upon Keiji who couldn’t have looked more unimpressed if he actually tried. Upon seeing the S class wizard, Cheneres seemed to mellow for a second, barely taking a moment to register the potential implications of Keiji being the one to wake him before giving a simple “Oh.” in response before slumping over the side of the fountain and somehow promptly falling back asleep. Keiji stared at the man for a second before pinching the bridge of his nose and tapping it slightly. This was not a good sign in the slightest as Keiji walked over and grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck. Chenere’s bulk required a slight use of Keiji’s magic in order to heft him with one hand, a soft golden glow appearing over Keiji’s right arm to signify the usage of such as he pulled him out of the fountain and onto the ground. Keiji peered at him on the ground, considering leaving him there and miss the meeting, maybe even the job, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had been asked...or more bluntly put, told that he should do his best to ensure the team’s success.

With very little grace, Keiji hefted the man once more, now dripping wet and being carried by a man who had very little patience for such a thing. With a determined walk that could only be attributed to getting the wet sack of a drunk off of his shoulder, Keiji made his way back into the Guild Hall. Naturally the sight brought with it a few stares as Keiji made his way towards the area where everyone seemed to be gathering. With a less than ceremonial movement, Keiji dumped Cheneres into a chair with enough force to wake the wizard once more as his twitching head seemed to indicate. It seemed like Slick and Bardulf were already present along with Oceana standing there doing her best to look...masterly? Keiji calmly pulled out a chair among the others and sat down. There, he seemed content to simply start cracking his knuckles as he waited for everyone else to show and for the briefing to start.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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#, as written by Tanman
Slick
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“So… She’s a work colleague?” The black haired girl asked, pulling the platter to her chest after she placed Slick’s coffee in front of him. She was young, somewhere in her early twenties, hair in a ponytail and somewhat pretty, with nice blue eyes. She was the only person that worked at this small establishment. At least, ever since her father became ill. The modest café known as the Treat Chest, was tucked away in the city, and it was where Slick had taken Artemie a few days ago. Nori was a hard worker, but despite that, her business had been failing for some time. She just didn’t know how to run things on her own, despite having worked under her old man. I guess she could consider herself lucky that she’d had the idea to hire an accountant to help sort her businesses finances. Ever since then, Slick had slowly been working to help promote the place and bring it back onto its feet. Apparently he planned to take a cut of the profits later, but for now, he was helping finance its operation.

Sipping of the blend, Slick nodded slowly, savouring the taste before decided to speak. “Yeah. I’ve known Artemie for some time now. She’s… Odd, but loyal to a fault. No matter what she or others think, she’s incredibly strong. She’s a good friend.” Smiling to Nori, it seemed it was infectious as she returned it with one of her own. “Oh, good. I mean uh, good that you’ve got such reliable friends.” Laughing off her silly comment, Nori continued to stand by the table to chat with him. It wasn’t like there was any other customers, despite Slick’s attempts to generate interest in the place. “I’m pretty lucky like that. Give it time Nori, you’re friendly and likable. Keep it up and you’ll generate a rapport with your customers.”

“You really think so?” Nori seemed a bit taken aback, pleasantly surprised by his comments. Slick simply nodded again as he sipped the rest of his coffee, setting the empty cup back down. “Of course. I’m always sincere in my compliments Nori.” Sitting up, Slick placed a hand to her shoulder, giving her a wink before heading for the door. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for work, but I’ve set out a spending and business plan for you. Give it a read, and hopefully you’ll be able to pull people in by the time I come back.” Waving to her, Nori returned the gesture with her own. “Thank you Slick. I’ll be waiting for you with a fresh coffee when you return.”


Slick wasn’t the first to arrive at the meeting place in the guild hall. Already there were a few people waiting. Oceana and Jin were a given, and Artemie was always pretty prompt, so it wasn’t entirely surprising as he took a seat. Even Pommel was there, and seemed to be working as their private caterer. Sliding into a seat and taking a small handful of nuts from the table, Slick casually snacked on them while waiting for the rest of the group. Jin had asked for him to gather the rest of the team for today, but he’d also asked Keiji, so the big S-Man could probably handle that. Besides, the team was mostly reliable, and despite knowing where Rin and Dolores spent their free time, he wasn’t so foolhardy as to go and drag them here. He’d told them the time and place. That was enough as far as he was concerned. They seemed reasonable enough to at least turn up for this meeting.

Slick contemplated chatting with Artemie once more, but before he could, he felt the presence of another to his side, scanning his peripheral vision to see Bard approaching, meeting his nod with one of his own. "What's the news of today Slick?" Was the question as he approached, Slick giving a faint shrug and a smile. “Nothing as of yet. Shaun is being as cryptic as ever with how we’re going to start this, so it seems we’ll have to wait for everyone to turn up first before we start.” Leaning back in his seat, Slick eyed Bard for a second more before deciding to have some fun with him. “You wouldn’t have happened to have seen Rin, would you? She seemed even more hesitant to show up then Dolly girl.”

Enjoying Bard’s reaction to his question, Slick looked to the doors at the loud sound, and watched with some mild amusement as Keiji brought Chen in to join them too, the man drenched and looking more than a bit out of it. Glancing back up to Keiji, Slick gave a small salute. “’Sup Keiji? I see you brought Chen along. Don’t suppose you saw Dolly or Rin on your way here?” Smirking slightly, Slick drew some joy in overworking the fellow, as well as poking fun at any inadequacies he did have. He wasn’t jealous. Never.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Character Portrait: Character Portrait: Character Portrait:
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Collabo between Phantom and Fey
Cheneres & Artemie


All Cheneres saw was blurred visions, as if he forgot to wear his contacts. He only remembered drinking a sip, but that’s how it always starts. Before he knew it, he fell asleep on a rosy haired pillow and then was thrown into the fountain. Were they supposed to meet for something? In these scenarios, Cheneres couldn’t exactly catch on, sober or not.

With the back of the chair facing forwards, he rested his arms on the crest rail of the seat. He yawned audibly, almost as if he was subtly telling the group to wake him up once the fighting starts. He slouched over, burying his head into his forearms. Still drunk from the, 6? 7? He lost count already.

“Erm, excuse me? Mr. Cheneres?” A quiet female voice spoke up from somewhere a little to his left as a small finger tapped gently on his shoulder. That was enough to get his attention, at least - well, mostly the female part, but also because the voice sounded somewhat familiar. He cracked one eye open just a smidgen, trying not to aggravate the pounding in his head with too much light at one time. And what he saw was… purple. Very, very purple. No, actually, it was a lot of different shades of purple. With a bit of white strewn in… some red and blue… But it was still pretty much all purple.

...Oh, wait. That actually narrowed it down quite a bit. He blinked as a rather concerned looking face rapidly descended right in front of him, eyes as purple as the hair that framed them staring directly at him. The young woman withdrew the hand that had been poking him, evidently satisfied that he was now suitably awake, and, adjusting her cap in a rather businesslike fashion as she composed herself, cleared her throat audibly before speaking again. “Are you well, Mr. Cheneres? You seem… well... Rather drunk.” To her credit, it seemed she was at least trying to be tactful, but she still failed, regardless.

“Ah…” Cheneres thought to himself, attempting to pluck a name to match the delicate face from his jumbled thoughts. “Ariana..right?” He pointed at her, confident in his educated guess. The woman blinked once. Then blinked again. Then opened her mouth, thought better of whatever it was she was going to say, and closed it again. Then, trying her very best not to sound anything but encouraging and polite, she gave the nicest answer she could. “Umm, well, you got the first two letters right. And some of the vowels, I guess.” She cleared her throat again, and then adjusted her cap, as she seemed wont to do when she wasn’t sure how to proceed. “It’s actually Artemie.” She was smiling as she reintroduced herself, but already it seemed a bit forced.

“I knew that, Artemie. How’s it going?” He’d smile, attempting to cover up his mistake.

“Erm, fairly well, I suppose, but… that is… you never actually answered my question.” She pushed down on the brim of her overly frilly cap, as though preferring to hide her face rather than stress this point so directly. “Are you well, Mr. Cheneres?” She repeated, perhaps thinking he might not have heard her the first time.
“Ah, I wasn’t before. But now..” Cheneres lightly took her hand. “Now, I feel much better.” He complimented her, in another effort to erase his earlier blunder. His head was still spinning, Cheneres trying his darndest to maintain eye contact with her. And as for her, she…?

“Are you sure?” She asked innocently, evidently completely oblivious to the implications of what he’d just said. “But I haven’t even used any of my magic yet… Would it be alright if I used Cure on you, just to be sure? I think it would definitely make you feel much better.” Still, although she seemed intent on playing it cool, Cheneres was fairly certain she had glanced more than just once at the hand he was holding onto. Was she uncomfortable? Confused? Surely, she couldn’t have failed to notice! But regardless, she didn’t try to slap him - which was actually pretty weird, to be honest. He was just celebrating this fact to himself when she abruptly withdrew her hand from his grasp, reached it into her oversized sleeve, and withdrew… a book that couldn’t possibly have fit in there without him noticing. Without further adieu, she opened it, flipping through the first few pages before settling her finger upon one specific point. The page began to twinkle slightly, and she raised her now glowing palm, placing it gently upon his forehead. As it was, she was still close enough that he could hear her whispering something under her breath, but it didn’t sound like a normal incantation. Rather…

”Tracing of magic function completed. Open circuit. Release Ethernano in accordance with schematic… All basic functions replicated. Energy cycle complete. Cure.” Then, just as abruptly, she withdrew her hand from his forehead, shut the book, and hugged it gently against her chest. She stared quietly at him for a few moments, cocking her head a bit to one side. “How do you feel now? Better, I hope…?”

He’d stand. “Hm.” He rolled his shoulder, stretching as he felt better than he ever had. He usually suffered headaches from 1000 hangovers so this was a breath of refreshing air for him. At his new condition, he showed great happiness. Laughing to himself, his boisterous cackling filling the guild hall.

“So… is that a ‘yes,’ then?” Artemie asked quizzically, tilting her head just a little bit further to the side in evident bemusement.

“Of course! Thank you so much for that, Abigail!” He’d make a goofy grin, wrapping his arm around her. He was still giggling, like a dainty school girl.

”You’re very welcome, but my name is still Artemie,” She piped up matter-of-factly, trying her best to maintain eye contact despite his half-embrace pushing her face up against his shoulder.

“Right right~ Want a drink?” Almost as if his blissful soul is ignoring her, he paid no heed to the serious atmosphere of the team’s first meeting.

“Thank you for offering, but I don’t drink alcohol,” She answered sheepishly, still resolutely trying both not to drop her book and to look him in the eye despite the position she was in. “Besides, I really don’t think that’s a good idea when I just helped you sober up…” She trailed off into silence as he began laughing again, seemingly resigning herself to the fact that whatever else she might say would probably be drowned out, too. And yet, for all this, she still hadn’t slapped him. Cheneres was sure that it definitely should have happened by now, so then why exactly wasn’t…? This was actually getting a bit awkward, something that never happened to Cheneres! Whatever lady he happened to be talking to never let him go on for this long. What exactly was he supposed to do in this situation, then…?

“I guess you’re right then. Besides, I wouldn’t enjoy getting thrown into a fountain again anyways.” He’d laugh, the tension a bit stiff between them. “Though I can’t understand why you don’t drink, it was a pleasure meeting you. Frankly, any other lady would smack me into the pavement.” He would loosen his grip around her, patting her shoulder. “I’m annoying all the time, so thanks for bearing with it.”

Artemie blinked, then shook her head. “I’m not annoyed,” She quickly protested, although she hastily backed down a bit on those words as she continued. “I mean, I’m a bit confused, but I’m not annoyed. I’m just glad that I could help, since you seemed like you weren’t feeling well…” She trailed off again, but this time, she was smiling slightly - an expression that had abruptly sprung onto her face almost from the moment he’d said a specific word: “Thanks.” Really, she seemed a little bit weird, but it was probably easier to read her than it would have been to read the book she slipped carefully back into her sleeve.

Just then, Artemie seemed to realize something, and abruptly took a step back. Looking up at him, she once again adjusted her cap, which had almost fallen off of her head when he’d grabbed her. “Oh, right… I guess it’s a little late for introductions, but… erm…” The way she carried on with her little routine made it seem almost like she’d practiced it beforehand. Wait, had she practiced it beforehand? Nevermind that. She stood sharply upright, and then gave a slight bow, curtseying with her skirt as she did so. Then, raising her head, she gave a bright smile.

“Since we’ll be working together from now on, I’ll do whatever I can to help. Don’t hesitate to call on me - I certainly won’t be missed.” She paused for just a moment, as if tempted to rethink her words, but plowed on as best she could, giving a truly commendable effort not to stammer or trail off into silence, as she seemed ought to do. “And, if it’s not too much to ask... since I’m kind of new to working on active missions like this… um… I guess, I’ll be in your care from now on, too.”

Cheneres grinned, making a dramatic pose. His left arm at his hip while his right pointed at her. “Just leave the things you can’t handle to me, ‘ya hear?”

Usually, when he tried to deliver a line like that, nobody would take him seriously. They’d all laugh, or roll their eyes and say something like, “Yeah, sure, maybe if you get a set of shining armor to go with that attitude, o sir knight!” But as for Artemie, she… took him completely at face value, and just nodded, giving a bright smile in return. “Thank you very much!” She replied cheerfully, seeming a lot less worried than she had been a few moments earlier.

Again, he found Aremie quite odd and that’s golden coming from someone like Cheneres. He wasn’t like Slick when it came to reading people, but he could at least tell that she’d be a welcome addition to this little group of theirs. “Now, on with this meeting!” He bellowed, his voice alone enough to fill the hall.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro Character Portrait: Pommel Grade Character Portrait: Oceana Malaerion Character Portrait:
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Pommel Grade
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Despite the exciting news for the wizards of the guild, Pommel didn’t find her daily life changing too much other than the number of patrons visiting the guild’s bar. It was quieter, but there was the occasional wizard returning from a quick job and able to recount a short tale. Still, it didn’t really fill the new gap of free time that Pommel had. Very quickly, she found herself becoming bored with the lack of activity. The most interesting new member of the guild, Dolores, had barely been seen. To top it off, she couldn’t even imagine what she was up to since, like the rest of the new team, they were waiting for their first mission. So instead, she spent her time reading through magazines and daydreaming about her successful future as Tidal Serpent’s most powerful and renowned wizard.
The start of the third day was like any other. Heading straight for the kitchen, Pommel smiled and waved to Hana as she grabbed her apron and got it on. Immediately she got to work on prepping the percolator, letting the water boil as she moved about the rest of the room prepping ovens, cutting vegetables and generally getting the food ready for the day. She was naturally an early riser given she needed to be at the bar before the rest of the guild, so she was pepper and cheerful as ever as she hummed to herself through the daily routine. At the soft ding from the coffee machine, Pommel made her way over and began the tiny changes for the standard morning brew. A dash of cocoa, milk, some sugar, blended through into a pleasant aroma that warmed the soul. There was a tender care to the preparation of the morning coffee, Pommel bringing the mug out to the bar before sliding it across to the spot. Exactly on cue, the mug was snatched up by none other than the guild master, Oceana; a familiar grunt of appreciation passing her lips as she immediately drank from the scalding hot liquid. As per her usual response, Pommel gave a cheery smile and ‘your welcome’.
Oceana walked down the stairs with a yawn, heading straight towards the bar. Pommel, being the amazingly sweet girl that she was, somehow knew exactly when Oceana would come down from the loft and always had a hot cup of strong coffee waiting for her. Turning, Oceana decided to people watch for a while, a slight smirk gracing her face as she noticed that there wasn't one person within 20 feet of her. Surprisingly enough Oceana was not a morning person. It was probably the one time during the day she really ever lost her temper, one time even causing the loss of a window in the guild hall. As she continued to drink her coffee Oceana's mind drifted as it focused on that memory. Thankfully the breaking of fragile objects was not rare in the guild hall so it was fixed the same day but Oceana had then had to deal with a very pissed Freya for a week...

Pommel moved back into the kitchen to continue the morning preparations, as well as work on her other side project. "I bet they’ll love it! This is just perfect!” Grinning from ear to ear as she stirred the batter for the cake she was planning, Pommel relieved her brilliant scheme to gain the affection of her idols. It was simply genius! A lovingly crafted, personalized travel lunch with delicate treats like cake and biscuits, but also segregated to contain some more hearty meat and rice for a nutritious meal on the potentially, long journey. She had no idea what kind of adventure the group would be on, but that was no reason why they couldn’t have good food! Yes, with this, Dolores, Rin and even Artemie would come to respect and cherish her! Why she’d get them addicted to the delectable taste of her food, and then they’d have to take her along as their main cook!
‘Nothing but the finest! Pommel, you’re incredible! You simply must join our team on our adventures!’ Dolores declared with gusto, tears rolling down her face as she succumbed to the perfection of the taste. Pommel beamed, blushing as she cupped her chin. ‘Oh, my, really? You enjoyed it that much?’ Shaking her head slightly in embarrassment, a gentle hand taking hers drew her attention. ‘It is truly incredible Pommel. With this food, the group will remain strong and motivated. We cannot possibly lose while you attend to us.’ Artemie stated with that cool intellectual voice of hers, Pommel’s mouth going agape from the sincerity of her praise. ‘I too, cannot stay silent. Though I prefer to keep to myself, I must speak as to the quality of your cooking Pommel.’ Rin chipped in, pausing her eating only to give Pommel such praise, reducing the wonder-chef to a batch of contented giggles.
Finally coming clear of her daydream, oblivious to anyone that had listened in to the strange voices and story she’d put on, Pommel set the oven to cook away as she was practically done on the busy parts of making the food. She’d even had enough leftover scraps to throw together something for the dweeb wizards of the team. Keiji, Chen, Slick and Bard could share one. They weren’t as important as the ladies of the A-team. Chipper and whistling to herself, Pommel returned to the bar to investigate how it had been running in her absence. What she saw began to slowly kill her buzz as she noticed Hana attempting to deal with the ever boisterous Chen. That man always smelled of alcohol, sweat, and some other scent that offended every one of her senses. Though that might have just been her. Honestly, she had no idea why Hana tolerated that doofus, so it looked like she’d have to take matters into her own hands. Unlike the older woman, Chen didn’t see any need to flirt with the young and immature Pommel.
Striding around the bar, Pommel steeled herself as she placed her hands on her hips, huffing loudly. “Alright you dumb palooka, you’ve had enough! It’s barely the start of the day! Time for you to leave buster!” Standing as tall as she could, Pommel still had to shout up to the tall man, even while he was seated. It seemed he heard her as he began to turn in her direction, groaning slightly and swaying about. “That’s it, time to… W-wait, hold-“ Pommel began to panic as like a toppling tree, Chen began falling towards her, unconscious. Getting her hands up in front of her and locking her legs, Pommel did her best to try and hold him upright, but it was a futile effort as, with a soft yelp, she found herself pinned down to the floor under the hulking man.
“Ack! Get off me you idiot! Ew! Your breath stinks! Move!” Pommel whined out, calling for assistance, but it seemed the few patrons of the bar found it more entertaining to watch the show.


Oceana's groggy mind continued to drift along as she absentmindedly drank from her mug, only being pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Pommel's voice shouting. Shaking away the memory, Oceana turned, stopping at the sight of Pommel trying to carry a very drunk Cheneres out of the guild hall. In any other state of mind Oceana would have immediately jumped to help the poor girl but as she was, Oceana burst out into a fit of giggles. Cheneres was at least 3 times the size of the poor pink-haired girl which made the fact that she would even attempt to carry him out hilarious but the fact that he had passed out halfway to the door was even funnier.

The struggling continued for a little while, until, finally, Keiji of all people came to her rescue. After her rescue, and once she’d slipped back into the kitchen, Pommel sighed to herself, taking a moment to recollect her thoughts. Why had she reacted like that? It was pretty stupid honestly, it wasn’t like Keiji had done anything wrong… Just… Something about the word training and his expression sent shivers through her body.
At the appearance of Keiji in the Guild Hall Oceana's giggling came to a quick stop and at his offer, Oceana's mind went to the one thing she hadn't thought of. 'If Pommel is barely a third of Cheneres' size how was she able to hold him up at all?' As this flitted through her mind, Oceana watched Keiji carry Cheneres out of the Guild Hall, only speaking once he was out of sight. "Pommel?" She didn't speak very loud but, with it being after 9 and before noon, there weren't many people in the guild hall and her voice carried.

Still huffing to herself and a little on edge, Pommel managed to get herself through the doorway of the kitchen before Oceana's voice called her back. Stopping almost like a guilty child, she slowly turned and held onto the doorframe, peering out from it as she looked towards the guild master. “Yeah Sis..?” Half hiding behind the frame, Pommel continued to use it as a makeshift shield and way to keep at least part of her emotions from showing.
Oceana was at fist confused as to why Pommel was practically hiding behind the door but after a few moments, she came to the realization that it probably had something to do with how she reacted to Keiji. For a moment she paused to decide if she wanted to say anything on that but decided against it. For all she knew that was just their relationship. Keiji and Oceana operated on different schedules before she was Guild Master so it wasn't like she would know.
Her decision made Oceana gave Pommel a half smile and held out her cup. "If you could give me a refill I would be eternally grateful." Oceana figured she might as well get her coffee before trying to get the girl to come away from whatever she was working away at in the kitchen.

“Seconds already..?” Pommel stated aloud in wonder, slowly moving to head over to Oceana and taking her mug. She briefly gave the guild master a quizzical look, her melancholy immediately forgotten as she became distracted with this new situation. “Do you have something important on today?” She finally asked before moving to prepare another serving for Oceana, the process a lot quicker now that the water was already boiled.
Oceana nodded, giving Pommel a full smile as she watched her coffee being made. "As a matter a fact. I have to deal with the group of hooligans I put into a team. They're going to be leaving for their first mission this afternoon."
“Whoa, really? What is it? I bet it’s something really cool! Is Mel going to be there?!” Pommel asked with full excitement, eagerly wanting to learn what was going to be happening to the new team.

Oceana smiled. This is exactly why she wanted Pommel with her during this ordeal. The young girl was full of excitement and could always cheer Oceana up. "Well Mel is still on the mission she took 2 months ago. As for what the rest of the team is going to do I was hoping you could help me choose what mission to send them on. Jin and I have narrowed it down to two of the S-Class jobs we have up. Also, I could really use your help keeping the group in line. You have quite the knack for it."
Pommel could barely contain her excitement at being informed she would be given the privilege of picking what mission the team would be attending to. Nay, she would be coaching them on the upcoming mission! She was going to be the manager of Tidal Serpent’s best and brightest! No wonder she hadn’t been placed on the team formally if she was going to have an administrative role! Eyes sparkling with enthusiasm, and fists clenched tightly in front of her, Pommel could only dimly nod, to begin with before leaning in closer to Oceana. “Yes, yes, of course! You can rely on me Big Sis, I can definitely handle this responsibility!” Stretching a handout and waving it wildly before placing it firmly onto her chest, Pommel certainly was eager and confident in her newly appointed role as Team Chief.

Oceana couldn't help giggling at Pommel and was very glad she agreed to help her. She had yet to see Jin this morning and she really didn't want to deal with the more rowdy members of the team alone. "Wonderful. Now, as soon as that coffee is done we can go over to where they seem to be gathering. I need to have a quick chat with slick before me and you go upstairs to pick out the mission."
Nodding vigorously, Pommel quickly brought over Oceana's second pot before briefly running to inform Hana that she'd be away for a period assisting the guild master. With that done, she hung up her apron and hurried back over to follow beside Oceana.

Coffee in hand, Oceana took a sip with a smile as she waited. Once Pommel had rushed to put her apron away and returned, Oceana started towards the table where Slick and the rest of the team seemed to be gathering. "Slick, me and Pommel are about to go upstairs to do a final look over the mission you are going to be taking. When-" Oceana broke off as a very wet Sand God Slayer was dropped into a chair at the table before Keiji, the person who did the dropping, sat down himself. Completely ignoring the S-Class Wizard, Oceana's eyes narrowed at Cheneres (or more importantly, the wooden chair beneath him) in obvious annoyance.

Slick nodded as Oceana and her little assistant made their approach, ignoring the somewhat flustered Bard for the moment. It was clear that she was about to ask him something, but her attention appeared to be stolen by the arrival of Keiji and Cheneres, allowing Slick to simply slide back into his seat and observe.
Oceana's silence drug on for a few solid minutes as Cheneres was completely oblivious to her it seemed. Eventually, Oceana realized that Cheneres was either completely oblivious or an idiot (probably a bit of both from what she remembered from previous encounters) and so she took a deep sip of her coffee and turned back to Slick. "As I was saying... um..." For a moment Oceana paused and looked a loss for words but suddenly she managed to figure out what she was pondering and spoke up again. "When exactly did you guys set the meeting for?"

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it Shauna.” Slick commented smoothly, flashing a smile Oceana’s way. “Everyone should be here soon, and if not we’ve got Keiji to round them up.” Adjusting where he sat to glance over in Keiji’s direction, Slick inquired as to whether he had any idea regarding the whereabouts of Dolores and Rin, playfully ignoring that it was also his responsibility.
Oceana narrowed her eyes at Slick but then decided to let it slide since everyone else was obviously in a good mood and she didn't feel like expending the energy to snap at him. "Fine. Me and Pommel will come down within the next hour to tell you all the details on the job you will be going on." Without waiting for an answer, or checking on Pommel, Oceana headed towards the staircase assuming her morning buddy would follow after.
Raspberrying at Slick, Pommel then turned and trotted off after Oceana, leaving Slick to his conversation with the others.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Pommel Grade
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”Ugh, this isn’t what I had in mind…” Pommel muttered to herself as she descended the stairs to speak with the others. Though Oceana had been nice in having her help pick the mission and discuss the team, now she was running errands as a messenger girl. Worst of all was the first task she’d been assigned, one of the last things she wanted to do. Making her way over to the group, she noticed that she seemed to have drawn some of their attention, probably because they knew she was helping Oceana. That didn’t bother her so much. In fact, she enjoyed being the focus. The problem was…

”Keiji.” Speaking his name, she spoke curtly. As he looked up to her, she looked to the side, arms folded. Was she mad or something? ”Sis-Er, the Guild Master wants to speak with you upstairs.” She clarified, trying to sound a bit more formal. Pivoting on her heel and taking long strides back towards the stairs, she called over her shoulder as she made her way back up. ”Follow me please.”

Keiji didn’t bother questioning the sudden request to see Oceana in private, chances are she needed to run through some of the finer details of the mission before they actually embarked on it. Although he was perplexed as to what Pommel’s issue with him was, considering her stance and cold demeanor towards him seemed to indicate that he had slighted her in some way. Once again, he reminded himself to figure out the problem and solve it, but for the moment he had to focus on the task at hand.

Quickly climbing the stairs, Pommel lead him to Oceana who stood with Jin seemingly in conversation about something. “Oceana.” There was no trace of good nature in the name, only an unexplained urgency. “The people in town have been talking a lot recently. It seems like ‘they’ve’ resurfaced.” He was purposely vague, but he was sure the guildmaster would understand exactly what he meant. Jin stopped upon seeing Keiji causing to Ocean to turn and look as well. Jin didn’t bother with any sort of greeting, he was more focused on getting to the task at hand.

“Is there an issue with the job?” Keiji asked, holding his hands behind his back like he was standing at attention.

Oceana pursed her lips for a moment before sighing and turning back to Jin. “Thank you for telling me. We can talk about the other thing after I send the new team out.

“Sure thing boss.” Jin’s words were brief and straightforward, but a shadow of some foreign emotion crossed his face. “I don’t suggest we wait too long to address this issue- but we’ll discuss this later.”

Jin tried his best to force a smile at his friend, with little success. He was too damn tired and stressed. Without another word, he turned. He came face to face with Keiji, but figured that the man needed no words of encouragement in order to perform his job efficiently. He didn’t operate like the others- at least Jin didn’t think he did. Still, he figured it was appropriate that he at least acknowledge the wizard as he left. Offering Keiji a curt nod, he pushed his way out of the office and left the two to discuss whatever needed to be discussed.

As the door shut behind Jin, Oceana smiled at Keiji and Pommel, motioning for them to come over to her desk as she rounded it and sat as she addressed Keiji’s question. “No, there is no issue with the job per say. Dolores has been called away for an urgent issue which she had previous experience with. That being said she obviously is not going to be joining you for this job and likely will return after the rest of you.” Oceana paused to shuffle through the papers she and Pommel had been going through before pulling one out and handing it to Keiji. “This is the job you are taking. Miss Pommel and myself have already arranged your transportation and we called ahead to reserve rooms for you at the local inn. You leave at 3pm.

Moving up towards Keiji slightly, Pommel fished around her pocket a moment before pulling out an envelope, waving it in front of Keiji. “It’s in my name, but this has the tickets for the ride and the jewel to pay at the inn, so don’t lose it, got it?” Stopping her hand motions, she gave Keiji a moment to take the envelope. “And don’t make any trouble either, I don’t want to be blacklisted in case I need to take any trips out that way.” Pommel added with a huff, turning away. She seemed kind of irritable about the whole thing. Maybe finding out about the absence of Dolores had put her in a worse mood…

”Noted.” Keiji stated as he took the envelope out of Pommel’s hand. He took that one and slid it into one of his pockets, not bothering to check the contents inside. He took the paper handed to him from Oceana instead and started reading. His eyes quickly went side to side like a typewriter, doing his best to memorize the contents before he folded it up and placed it in his pocket as well. Keiji seemed to pause for a second, taking a moment to collect his thoughts on the job at hand. ”Without Dolores, that makes me the only S-ranking member of this team.” Keiji stated, looking up at Oceana. He didn’t want to put down any of the other’s abilities, but this was an S-ranked job, and with a lot of potential for combat it would seem. In fact, it was practically guaranteed that they would have to fight at some point. ”I won’t be able to look out for everyone.” It was simple math, there were too many people on his team for him to possible protect everyone at once should worse come to worse, and he wanted Oceana to understand that. This might be an opportunity for everyone to prove themselves, but it was also a risk for people to get seriously injured or killed.

Oceana smiled at Keiji and rolled her eyes. “Keiji your team, including yourself, has 8 members in it. Even with Dolores and Melinda absent I am absolutely sure that you have plenty of manpower. Besides, we both know that Slick has the magical ability of an S-Class wizard. He just hasn’t won the trials yet. And not to mention Cheneres being with you. I mean, I know he acts like a drunken fool at the guild hall but he usually sobers up and takes his jobs seriously.” Oceana nodded and then went about starting to clean up the mess on her desk. ”I have no doubt in your team’s abilities to take care of themselves. Well, for the most part.” Oceana chuckled and then smiled at Pommel. “Thank you for your help with the preparations Pommy. If you’d like to go back downstairs to finish the parting gift you were preparing for the team you can. I just need to organize this. Oh! And if either of you see Jin can you send him back in here? Thanks!” Without waiting for an answer from either wizard Oceana picked up a pile of papers and turned away to put them in their proper places, verbally and physically dismissing the two.

“Not a problem sis!” Grinning happily with a cock of her head, Pommel moved out and downstairs with Keiji, the smile not leaving her face until they were out of sight and earshot of Oceana. With the door closed behind them, her face immediately did a 180 as it turned stern, the small girl doing her best to stand tall and intimidating. Even on tippy toes, it wasn’t very successful, but she wasn’t about to back down now. “Oceana’s really counting on this, Keiji, so don’t screw it up. I know it’s going to be hard without Dolores leading the charge, but just, try to be as good as she would’ve been okay? If you ruin this, I’ll make sure you regret it, understand?” Getting up in Keiji’s face as Pommel continued to frown in Keiji’s direction, it seemed the little wizard didn’t have nearly as much faith as Oceana, especially with one of her favourite wizards out of the picture. Still, there was something charming about the gusto used in threatening the S-Class wizard.

”When I get back, we’re going to solve this problem that you seem to have with me.” Keiji stated in a firm tone, although it wasn’t quite a challenging one yet. If she were any other wizard in the guild, Keiji would have already nipped this in the bud preferably with a strong worded argument...or his other chosen method of fixing issues. He had no idea what he had done to piss her off, so the first step was to figure that out. That was something for another day though, for now he brushed past her. If she wasn’t going to treat him with the respect his position deserved, he felt no need to do the same. With the paper for the job in hand, he made his way in front of the team...his team? He doubted anyone would let him get away with calling it his team if only for pride and reputation sake. Before he could say anything, the door to the guild hall opened up and Rin appeared more than a few minutes late for the meeting. She took her time getting to her seat, although there was something off about her...was that paint on her face? What had she been doing? Regardless, Keiji was just glad that she had kept her promise and showed up. With the interruption out of the way, Keiji started the mini brief. ”Listen up.” Keiji stated, waiting a couple of moments to make sure everyone was paying attention to him.

”First, let me start by saying Dolores won’t be joining us for this job. Her responsibilities have pulled her elsewhere.” Keiji took a moment to read through the parchment again, wanting to make sure he didn’t miss anything important. ”The job is as follows: A Dark Guild running under the moniker of Laguna Fury has taken over a village and has threatened death on anyone attempting to leave. They’ve started terrorizing the populace, looting, stealing, basically everything that you would associate to these people. The objective is simple...get in there, remove them from the town.” Keiji flipped the page over, just to make sure that there wasn’t any more information that he was missing before folding it up and returning it to his pocket. ”It shouldn’t need to be said, but I’ll state it anyways. Seeing as this made its way to the S-ranked job board, we can safely assume that they have a few wizards of incredible skill to warrant needing our attention. Implying that just because there’s a number of us going on this mission doesn’t mean it will be easy.”

Keiji looked around to the others for a moment, seeing if they fully understood what he meant or if they believed he was simply putting on airs for them. He was more concerned with Rin and Cheneres out of the bunch, not necessarily because their skills were lacking, but because, like himself, they were not team players. ”We leave at 3pm, have everything you need ready by then and meet at the train station. Any questions?”

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Something about painting and changing her clothing before going to meeting (has paint on face)
Make comment about how the stuff they talk about could have been sent on magical paper airplane
Don't remember rest x-x sowwy

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Bardulf watched everyone trickle in slowly as the team assembled. He nodded at Slick's statement as he mused and muddled over what could be said. "This job, it could make or break whatever Oceana has planned for the guild. Well whatever it might be I'm with them to the end. This is my guild. My family." he thought as the team assembled together. He chuckled at Cheneres' entrance and stopped when poor Pommel nearly got flattened by the inebriated Sand Wizard. He noted the absence of Dolores and Rin. He half wondered what's taking either of them so long, and decided to treat himself to a cup of coffee. It would keep him awake for the train ride (if there was to be one).

He watched Keiji approach the assembled group and prepared to speak when Rin came into the guild with... paint on her face? Either that was some kind of war paint or someone enjoyed painting. He wouldn't dare tell her either of those statements out loud. No need to pry in her spare time activities.

Bard then heard Keiji's call of attention and straightened his back in his seat as he sipped his coffee. He listened carefully and nodded at Dolores' reasons for not joining this mission at this time. It was a shame but that meant he had the full attention of Keiji to worry about. He swallowed the swig of coffee in his mouth nervously and with tact.

"Oh crud. I hope I don't screw up in front of him, heck screwing up is bad for the whole guild. Gah, already went over this Brain!" He thought worriedly. But then the job itself was announced by Keiji and he listened carefully. A dark guild called Laguna Fury took over a village, and is doing everything in its power to terrorize it. Bard clenched his jaw as his own imagination visualized what Laguna Fury was doing. Monstrous was first word in his mind. The horrible fact they looting, stealing was not in his mind, the unspoken evils were what put monstrous in his head. Kidnapping above all, as he recalled the disappearance of his own mother, never to be heard from again, though he fervently hid any assumptions for his sister's sake.

"How...how dare they?!"

Crack!

Bard stopped his rapid thinking and looked at his grip on his coffee cup, finding that it caused a small crack upon it. He quickly eased his grip on the cup and downed the rest of its contents as Keiji asked if there were any questions. Bard heard Rin's outburst about the meeting and sighed. "I have no questions myself, only the statement of seeing you all at 3, as I myself am prepared to go as of now." He stated, getting up and walked for the door. "Afternoon Miss Rin, lovely color you have on you." He added, nodding in her direction trying to keep a straight face as far as her painted face was concerned and began to go about heading for the train station.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro Character Portrait: Character Portrait:
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#, as written by Feyblue
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Dɪᴀʟᴏɢᴜᴇ Cᴏʟᴏʀ ✦ #AA00FF || Tʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛ Cᴏʟᴏʀ ✧ #0E00A8
























































As the meeting drew on, it grew increasingly apparent to Artemie that she was in over her head.

On the bright side, it was announced that Dolores wouldn't be accompanying them, which took something of a weight off of Artemie's mind. The older woman was terrifying even on the best of days, and the young bookworm had held little doubt that she'd berate her at the slightest prompting.

...But, on the other hand, one of the first things she was told about the quest they'd be taking up was that it was, indeed, an S-Ranked mission, just as she had feared. But, hey, that wasn't all bad, right? At least it meant that the pay would be good, so she finally might have enough money to afford more than just basic daily necessities! Besides, S-Rank just meant that it COULD hypothetically be dangerous, not that it was guaranteed to be, so at least-


”The job is as follows: A Dark Guild running under the moniker of Laguna Fury has taken over a village and has threatened death on anyone attempting to leave. They’ve started terrorizing the populace, looting, stealing, basically everything that you would associate to these people. The objective is simple...get in there, remove them from the town.”

Never mind, that was definitely dangerous! Artemie's eyes went wide, and then slowly dropped to the floor. She'd technically sparred against a couple of mages when she'd been tested for admission to the guild, but still, trying to fight in actual combat with experienced wizards was... Wasn't this a bit too reckless? Was she seriously supposed to... But they were all talking about it like it was just a matter of course! How could she raise any kind of protest without being singled out? She tried to open her mouth to say something, ask what they knew about this guild, figure out anything about the life-or-death battle into which she was being thrown, but she couldn't force the words out. Somewhere, somebody even started complaining about the paper airplanes she'd used to issue summons to the meeting, saying she should have just included the mission with the paper. Well, if she'd KNOWN that they were marching into a deadly battle right off the bat, then she'd have been a lot less enthusiastic to be here! Even Slick, the Wizard she idolized, had basically just given her a pat on the back and told her to go ahead, when she still didn't even know what she was doing... She was trying her best, so why was everyone so-?!

...No, not everyone. There was still one person who... who she could probably, maybe count on. She glanced awkwardly beside her, to where a certain brawny, silver-haired wanderer was sitting. He'd said that he'd help her out, hadn't he? Then... maybe... Would it really be alright for her to just stick with Cheneres? He was a God Slayer, so he was definitely a strong fighter, right? And maybe, she'd be able to be of some kind of use to him out of combat... It wasn't ideal, but it was better than trying to handle things on her own, right?

Turning to Cheneres, Artemie gave a very forced smile, trying to hide how obviously nervous she was.
"S-so, umm... Mr. Cheneres... I don't... really have anything to prepare." This was technically the truth, since she carried all necessary magical tools she possessed on her person at all times, just in case. "What about you?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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#, as written by Tanman
Pommel Grade
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“Ugh, this day can’t get much worse. Can’t believe how lame this is…” Mumbling and grumbling to herself some more, Pommel gave a soft ‘Nyeh’ and pulled a silly face behind Keiji’s back as he mildly scolded her. Or at least, raised his disapproval of her actions by promising to bring it up later. Whatever, it wasn’t like she had a big problem with that. To be honest, she was mainly venting her annoyance that Dolores was missing from the meeting, as was Rin. I mean, Artemie was great and all, but she couldn’t carry the whole team on her back. Slick and Chen were almost too much for Dolores to help with. Almost. Well, it didn’t matter now, they were stuck with Keiji as leader. Hopefully it would work out even without Dolores or Mel or anyone truly special on the team.

Following behind Keiji, Pommel stood to the side as he gave the briefing, looking a little tired with it all. At least, she did until she noticed Rin make her way in. Visibly brightening, she mainly focused on the young wizard during the talk, ignoring the actual details of the mission; not that it really mattered to her anyway. Rin herself seemed mildly annoyed at being summoned, and the whole time she’d been giving Keiji a bit of a look. Well that made sense then! Just like her, Rin didn’t think Keiji was that special. Well, it was a relief that someone talented would be looking after the group at the very least. As Keiji made a last comment about packing and questions, Pommel raised her hand, smiling from ear to ear.

“If you need me to take care of any house maintenance or anything I’ll be happy to help Rin! I mean, who knows how long you’ll all be gone…” Pommel clapped her hands together in front of her before leaning them to the side to show her face. Rin, like a few others, didn’t live at the dorms. Naturally, she might have had some potted plants or mail or those sorts of things that needed catering too, and she was just the girl to do it. Blinking a bit, she realised she hadn’t revealed her gift to the group at all. “O-oh! I almost forgot, I’ve prepared food for all of you on the journey, so you don’t have to worry about packing something for that. Just leave it to me!” Flashing a proud smile and a thumb to her chest, Pommel’s day had considerably brightened now that she had a bit more confidence in the group.


Slick
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Slick listened in mild interest to the spiel. Seemed like a pretty standard affair, if not for the danger level of the mission. The wizards of Laguna Fury would have to be quite something to earn that rank. Though he mildly agreed with Rin’s sentiments, it wasn’t like he had much better to do with his time, so it wasn’t that big a deal. It was kind of annoying to be under Keiji’s command, but as he’d said before, he was a reliable man. Packing wouldn’t take too long, especially if little Pommel was handling the food. Ah, hopefully she’d make one of those delicate desserts that he liked…

“I take it since you didn’t give any details about the wizards other than ‘they’re tough’ that we don’t know anything about what they’re actually capable of, right?” Slick asked Keiji, not bothering to raise his hand and simply waiting for an appropriate opening. Giving the man time to respond, he looked to Chen and Artemie making friends, along with Bard and Rin making small talk. Guess he missed the memo on bringing a date. Either that or Dolores caught wind and was already standing him up. Chuckling at the idea, he looked back to Keiji again. Wait, did that mean they were the last duo? A cringe worthy thought…

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Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Character Portrait: Character Portrait: Character Portrait:
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Artemie’s Dialogue Color: #AA00FF

Chen’s Dialogue Color: #C3834C

Despite his usual blithe demeanor to most things around him, he always showed a distinct interest in the current job he was participating in. The reward was his drinking money after-all. Besides, an opportunity to show off and earn some spending cash even warranted Cheneres’ attention.

As Keiji droned on about the details, he mentioned that Dolores wouldn’t be accompanying them. Although she was a lady, Cheneres knew deep down that his feats couldn’t compare to such a talented S-Class wizard. So he was a bit relieved to not have her hogging the spotlight. The rest of the details were rather simple, with Cheneres compressing the information into little snip-bits. Despite his fond passion for missions and such, the plan would be most likely forgotten due to the boring voice delivering the specifics.

The time given to them to prepare was mostly wasted on Cheneres. He already doesn’t have to pack shirts due to his insistence on showing his masculine features to all females who walk the streets. He decided to just pack beer to drink after this whole little adventure was concluded. He stood up, turning towards the door. He was about to walk out before being stopped by peculiar violet haired woman. Actually, he almost didn’t notice - her voice was so quiet that it took him a moment to recognize that his own name had been spoken, even though she was right behind him.

”S-so, um… Mr. Cheneres… I don’t… really… have anything to prepare,” The bookish mage stammered. ”What about you?” ...Was she asking if he was free right now? He was pretty sure that something was seriously wrong with the world today. After all, normally he’d be the one asking that question, and the answer would always invariably be “No” - maybe with an expletive or two thrown in, just for good measure.

”Ah, almost didn’t see ‘ya there. Hm..” Cheneres thought for a moment. ”Women don’t usually ask me these kinds of questions, mostly they ask “are you right in the head?” or something. But I suppose you could accompany the great Cheneres on his packing conquest.” He sported a dramatic pose, both of his hands on his hips. He laughed to himself, similar to a small delusional child.

“‘Packing conquest…?’” Artemie parroted back, tilting her head to the side in bemusement. “Do you think your luggage is going to fight back?” She still sounded perfectly gentle and quiet, making it a little hard to tell whether or not this was meant to be a joke, or if she simply assumed her interpretation to be correct. She blinked, staring with increasing unease as the silence between them continued. Wait, was she expecting him to laugh? So it had been a joke, then? She must have just been a bit too self-conscious to speak up when delivering it… It seemed sarcasm really wasn’t her strong suit.

“Hmm..” He placed his hand on his chin. “Of course, when the luggage fights back, it should prove no threat to my might. Though..you must come if these strange luggage beasts prove too much for my power alone.” He placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’m counting on you for this one, alright?”

Well, if any words had an effect on her, those certainly did. When he finally responded in kind to what was evidently her attempt at a jest, a slight grin broke out on her face. And, when he asked for her help, she practically beamed and began nodding enthusiastically, evidently all too eager to be of service. “I’d… I’d be happy to help!” She exclaimed, seeming surprisingly excited about the whole prospect. Come to think of it, she’d jumped at the chance to cure his hangover, too… Well, whatever. She wanted to keep him company, it seemed, so it wasn’t as if he had anything to complain about.

“Alright.” He grinned goofily. “We should go now. Stopping the luggage beasts are first priority.” Cheneres turned towards the door, waving goodbye to no one in particular. He then set out. These monsters won’t live to see another day.

Glancing back over his shoulder, he half expected to see Artemie waving back at him as if to say, “I was just kidding, go have fun by yourself.” What he didn’t expect, though, was to see her following closely behind him, her eyes instantly meeting his from… eye level? Wait, hadn’t she been about two feet shorter just a minute ago? He could have sworn she only came up to his chest at the very most, so then why-

...Okay, that answered that question, but raised the entirely new question of “Why, exactly, is she floating?” The violet-haired magus bobbed lazily up and down in the air, hovering a few feet off the ground just a couple of paces behind him at all times. Come to think of it, she was shooting glances at his legs all of a sudden… And she seemed just a little bit out of breath… Oh, right, his stride was much longer than hers. He’d just strolled off without really thinking about it, but if you were going to walk with a woman who was significantly shorter than you were, then you needed to slow down just a little bit so as not to get ahead of her. But she hadn’t even said anything or asked him to slow down… Did that mean she’d been racing to keep up with him instead before he turned around? The mental image of the prim and proper young lady trotting along behind him like a puppy seeking attention, fanciful dress adorned with ribbons trailing around her, appeared before his mind unbidden.

Huh. ...He kind of wished he’d gotten the chance to see something that adorable. If only he’d turned around a few moments sooner! “Alrighty..we take a left here.” He pointed to a modest building. An cheap apartment complex, but Cheneres always liked smaller places like this. Besides, he gets kicked out of apartments on the daily, so he couldn’t exactly afford getting too invested. He led her up the stairs to a wooden door. Fumbling for the key, he opened the door slowly. “Sorry ‘bout it being a dump in here, I don’t exactly get much guests, especially fair maidens such as yourself.” As he turned back to the room ahead of him, he couldn’t help but notice in passing that suddenly Artemie looked significantly redder than she had before. She fluttered quite sharply down to the floor, stumbling a moment as if in a daze, and opened her mouth several times as if to say something, but each time cut herself off before she could even begin. Huh… maybe that was a bit of a bad way to phrase things. Although, it wasn’t as if he was lying… Off the top of his head, he couldn’t really think of any other time he’d had a lady over.

”I-it’s f-fine…” She sheepishly stammered out at last. “My room is a mess… too…” She cleared her throat audibly, and quickly moved past him and through the door. “A-anyway, sorry to intrude…”

The room had clothing sprawled around the floor. Oddly enough, the room didn’t spell too bad as Cheneres usually does his drinking outside. Exercise equipment took up most of the room while a small drawer and a bed were packed tightly in the corner. “Welcome to the dwelling of the great Cheneres!” He bellowed behind her. Artemie stopped just inside the threshold, glancing back and forth as if searching for a path that she could walk without stepping on anything. After a moment of evident silent contemplation, however, she was struck by an obvious solution, and, after muttering a few words under her breath, suddenly floated right back up into the air, hovering up a little closer to the ceiling this time and off to one side to allow Cheneres through the door.

“Umm… thanks… So… er… was there anything in particular you came to get?” She asked, peering down at him curiously from her vantage point in the air.

“Hmm..” He tried to recollect his thoughts. “I actually didn’t have anything I wanted to get, but the thought of slaying the luggage beasts got me caught in the moment.” He grinned. “Though..” He picked up a jacket. “I guess I’ll get this so I didn’t waste ‘ya time.” He slung the jacket over his shoulder. Artemie blinked again, once more seeming surprised.

“I didn’t think you owned anything like a shirt or a coat,” She observed innocently, this time seeming even more completely serious than she had been last time. But surely, it had to be a joke, didn’t it? ”Because you never wear one,” She added, as if this needed explaining. So she was actually serious then…?

“Observant, are we? This old thing was actually a gift from a buddy long back.” He patted the deteriorating fabric. “He got tired of seeing my bulging muscles all day..he must’ve been jealous.” Cheneres put the jacket on. The coat was similar to a trench coat in design, with black as it’s main color. It had pockets on the side and left pec. “I wear it unzipped though, so the ladies can still snag a peek.”

”Are you sure it wasn’t just because he thought you might not be comfortable?” Artemie asked innocently, floating gently down in front of him until she was just a fraction of an inch in front of the floor. Her own flowing gown kind of had a similar aesthetic to his coat, and Cheneres was sorely tempted to give some kind of cheesy one liner about how “we match now!” but decided to relent, since she’d probably either misinterpret or completely miss it.

“I mean,” She continued a bit awkwardly. “Seeing as you’re only ever half-dressed, I do worry sometimes… Doesn’t it get cold after a while?” As she spoke, her gaze slowly dropped away from his face, running over his chest before stopping. She was silent for a moment, placing her finger to her lips in what appeared to be intense contemplation.

“By the way…” She began after a moment of silence. “What, exactly, am I supposed to be peeking at? Is there something hidden inside your coat?”

Cheneres pointed to his abs, a stunning 8 pack, fruit from years of dedication and hard work. His greatest achievement. “The chicks love it..I think, they don't’ usually stay to talk to me, but I think that’s what they are thinking, you feel?

...Surprisingly, Artemie nodded without hesitation. “Well, yes, indeed. You are incredibly handsome,” She concurred bluntly. It was… a little bit odd, hearing those words coming from someone normally so shy, spoken with the same tone that one might announce that the sky was blue - as if it was obvious, and didn’t even need to be said. “Well… Umm… That is... I guess I can’t really speak for everyone… but… I… think so.” Oh. There it was. There was the blushing, bashful response he’d been looking for! She must have realized that most people didn’t view beauty as an objective thing, and decided to correct herself, only to realize that by doing so she was going to say something that sounded like flirting!

Huh. ...Now that he knew what to look for, suddenly, she wasn’t so hard to read after all. Or… was she? Wait, so did that mean she was attracted to him? Or just that she was agreeing with him and then realized that what she was saying should have been embarrassing? Crap, even if he knew her thought process, that still didn’t tell him anything!

He stood there, in shock at the compliment. After a long moment of silence, Cheneres attempted to change the subject. “Thank you for the..uhm, compliment. We should ..probably go now, right?” He turned towards the door.

Artemie nodded wordlessly, her face still very red. When she followed him out, she did so by floating once again, seeming suddenly very conscious of the fact that she’d just said something like that to a man who’d just invited her to his room.

“S-so, umm... I don’t mean to be rude, or presumptuous, but… I don’t… really know many people on this team very well,” Artemie began after a few moments taken to re-compose herself, seeming equally inclined to change the subject after the earlier awkwardness between them. “I’m also somewhat inexperienced, so I’m not sure how useful I’ll be… but… umm… if there’s anything I can do to help you, I’d be happy to offer my assistance!” She looked away, seeming all but unwilling to continue - and yet, continue she did, albeit very softly, as if speaking only with great reluctance. “S-so…. In exchange… would it be alright if I asked… um… that is…” Then, all at once, her real thoughts spilled out.

“I’m scared. I’ve never fought real mages in a serious fight before,” Artemie confessed at last. ”I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t ask something like this of you, but… could you please protect me during our mission, Mr. Cheneres?” She lowered her gaze to the floorboards, almost like she was afraid of seeing the look on his face. What did she expect, exactly? That he’d laugh at her? To be sure, Cheneres was an unintentional master of upsetting or otherwise angering women. But, even he knew the right answer in a situation like this.

“Hm? I thought teammates always had each other’s backs.” He glanced over his shoulder. “How about I protect you and in exchange, you protect me?” He smiled, looking her straight in the eye.

“If that’s what you want…” She nodded, but still seemed a bit uncertain. Nevertheless, she forced a smile. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.”

“That’s the spirit!” He patted her on the back, albeit a bit too forcefully for her small frame. He opened the door for her. “Let’s go, we kept them waiting for too long.” Righting herself after being nearly bowled over by her new protector’s rather overzealous encouragement, Artemie nodded seriously, and followed closely behind him.

“R-right.”

And so it was that a very unlikely partnership quite suddenly began.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Keiji Okaro




Keiji glanced around as everyone seemed to have their own reaction to the entire thing. Bard cracked his cup with more than a little melodrama at the entire ordeal. Keiji agreed that people like this were of the worst humanity had to offer simply because they didn’t even bother with a challenge, they took from those who couldn’t fight back. No respect was given and he shared Bard’s opinion of them even if he didn’t outwardly show it as much. Naturally Rin complained about the purpose of the meeting, but Keiji had already braced himself knowing she would find something to complain about it even if it wasn’t about the message. Again, he more or less agreed that this kind of information could have been sent in the magical paper airplane that had summoned them, but this was still a good chance to see everyone who would be going to the mission together in one room.

Artemie and Chen didn’t seem to have a reaction to the description, or at the very least kept it to themselves. Something he hadn’t expected of the Sand God Slayer but seemed very much in character with the Holder Mage. Slick was the only one to actually ask a question, which upon hearing it Keiji looked back down at the paper making sure he didn’t miss something. ”There’s no mention of specifics, numbers or talent wise. We’ll just have to go with the assumption that I stated.” Keiji answered Slick as best he could with what little he had. He gave a nod to the man to signify that was all he could tell him, and watched as everyone got up to go pack their things. That was the end of the meeting it would seem, he hadn't dismissed them but at this point he was just glad they had showed up (for the most part). He waited until the rest of his team had left before he himself exited the guild hall, making sure that if anyone was wanting to ask him something in private or perhaps complain to him that he would be around for such a thing. Luckily, or unluckily no one did. So with the briefing done and everyone gone, Keiji made to get his stuff ready as well.

Keiji entered his dorm room, a single 2 room apartment that looked more akin to a hotel than an actual living space. His bed and everything else he needed was in the main area while a door lead to the bathroom where all his maintenance amenities were. What people wouldn’t normally expect from the S class wizard was the fact that there were so many different things in his room, pinned up or shuffled off to the side, meant to be viewed and not touched. Trophies of varying size were pinned to the walls, along with pictures and contracts. There were a couple of teeth the size of someone’s arm held on the wall, along with a couple pictures of Keiji looking stoic while a number of people smiled around him, usually with massive destruction in the background. Aside from his bed, there was a very small kitchen that normally didn’t come standard in the dorm room and instead had been bought by Keiji so he could cook his own food when it came down to it. In a corner were some blacksmithing tools that were well maintained and meticulously placed so as not to create a mess. His bed was made, his room was dusted, and the entire room looked spotless. He enjoyed a clean sleeping area, to him it was a mark of pride to sleep in an area you worked hard to maintain.

He walked inside, opening the closet to reveal an array of cheap clothing that wasn’t the worst one would find anywhere, but it was obvious they were not made of high class materials. On the floor was a rather large backpack, which Keiji grabbed, opening it and slipping in an extra set of clothes. He closed the closet and wandered over to his makeshift kitchen, opening the small icebox and pulling out a prepared lunch for himself. Pommel had stated that she had made something for them all, but first of all Keiji hadn’t been aware of that when he had made this the other day, and he didn’t trust her to not do something to it that would make him regret relying on her cooking skills. He slipped the lunch into his bag as well, closing the ice box and making his way to the bathroom. There he opened the cabinet and pulled out a first aid kit, slipping it into his backpack as well. Those were the bare essentials according to Keiji, but he had more than enough time to think of anything else. For now, he placed the bag next to his door and wandered out. He could still get in a little training before the ride to fight town would take place.




Keiji had arrived at the train station half an hour ahead of schedule for a couple of reasons. The first one being the most obvious, he wanted to be the first one there. A strong showing of leadership, even if no one wanted to look at him that way. The other reason, being less obvious, was that he had nothing better to do. He trained for a couple of hours, double checked all his stuff, and eventually settled on just waiting at the station. He would be the first to admit that he didn’t really have a social life, but it was only during times like these where he really felt its absence. For the time being, he had been sitting at one of the benches along the rails, staring up at the sky and enjoying the last of his alone time for what seemed like the foreseeable future. Train whistles sounded and people boarded different trains going to different places. Keiji glanced backwards at the clock, noticing the time and realizing it was getting close to zero hour. He hadn’t noticed anyone show up yet, or at the very least, they hadn’t approached him, maybe wanting the train to show up first. The more he thought about this, the more he didn’t like it, so instead of wallowing in his own pessimistic attitude, he focused on the task at hand.

It was a dark guild, meaning a fair number of enemy combatants in a village of unknown size just a short distance away from the city they would be spending the night. He had never been one for strategy, preferring the method of going in there and essentially exploding until everyone stayed down, but he couldn’t necessarily rely on that this time around, not with so many of his fellow guild mates surrounding him. He would have to think of something, even as his entire being coiled at the thought of holding back. There was another whistle from a train, and Keiji looked up, recognizing the numbers on the side of the train as their lift. He stood up, grabbing his backpack and stretching. He gave a slight yawn, looking around as the train pulled into the station.

Were the others here?

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Rin Hitomi Character Portrait: Artemie Scheherazade Character Portrait: Bardulf Sherwood Character Portrait: Slick Character Portrait: Cheneres Se-anhur IV Character Portrait: Keiji Okaro
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Rin rose from her seat as their 'meeting' came to an end, the only question being asked having been Slick's. The whole affair had been pretty much useless except as a way to discover what time their train left. The details of the mission could have been discussed ON the train, though there weren't many details to discuss in the first place. As she started towards the door of the guild hall she heard Bard say her name and looked over only to give the other wizard a confused look. She didn't put much thought into the comment, rolling her eyes and shrugging before veering in a different direction.

Once she had arrived back home she grabbed the few essentials that hadn't already been in her travel bag and headed towards the train station. After the quick walk, she went to the station and checked in before going across the street and finding a nice secluded table at a cafe to sit at and ordered a snack while she waited to see who would arrive 'first'. Spying really usually wasn't something she partook in but curiosity got the best of her and knowing more about her temporary team couldn't hurt.

As she suspected, Keiji was the first to arrive though much to her surprise Slick was the second. She had honestly expected him to show up just in the nick of time as it seemed more his style but rather than try to contemplate the fact she simply shrugged it off, taking a sip from her second cup of tea. Next was Pommel, and though Rin felt bad leaving her to deal with Keiji and Slick alone she decided to hang back a bit longer. As the clock at the train station showed 2:45, Rin signaled over a waitress and paid her bill, almost chuckling at the sight of Bard bolting towards the train station out of the corner of her eye. He was followed shortly after by Artemie and Chen, the two arriving together and at that point Rin picking up her stuff and made her way across the street to the train station. Walking up to the group with about 5 minutes to spare she looked over at Pommel who was the only person she was willing to talk to at the moment. "Hey Pommel, didn't think you were coming with us." Rin kept her tone extremely neutral, readjusting the backpack on her right shoulder.