Private/Closed Becoming a Legendary Hero (RP)

[Psymallard]

Entering the mansion refreshed Joseph's glee, his eyes sparkling as he stared straight at the ceiling. He then slowly lowered his head, sweeping the area with his eyes and taking it all in. After a short walk, the group approached the butler. He seemed respectable, altough he didn't look powerful in Joseph's mind. Then again, he's confident against anyone who doesn't look like Hanz. They were then led to a picture, hardly the most interesting thing in the room, at least to the elf. He had no questions besides smartass inquiries, so he didn't speak up. He looked around the group, and so far he had a rival for attention and glory, Fuyuko, and a judgy fox. I got a bit on my plate. Just thinking about it made him tired, but his determination and stubbornness would be powerful enough to fly over any obstacle physically possible. As for the others, he still wanted to surpass them, but it'd definitely be easier to be "family" with them. Joseph shrugged off the corny thought of non-blood family.

 

[Cmeriwether]

Fuyuko had been walking, making sure the armlets didn't fall off, and her hearing caught a conversation, albeit a short one, between Loufe, the werewolf, and Levius, the Kitsune. The two were discussing something about Loufe, from what she could tell. At some point later, they arrived at a mansion and found an older man, who was revealed to be the Head Butler, and a red, yellow, and orange haired girl, who revealed to be Cadence, Carol's twin. They then walked further, and found portraits of the founders. Fuyuko had no questions so far, so she stood waiting for the part.

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

Levius fell silent almost immediately upon entering the building, he was awestruck. As much as his instincts told him to take notes of each route and exit, he found himself staring at the beautiful decorations and glittery designs of marble and crystal structures. Not to say the boy had a particularly tough life, but the richest person around his town had a house of brick- while most people's homes were wooden cabins. This was truly incredible, and it was only one of their establishments? Levi was a bit surprised to hear that they had houses around the world, they seemed like a much larger operation than the media portrayed them to be- and the bigger a company is, the harder it is to hide, so how did the Abyss Walkers manage to stay such a mystery to the public?
As they entered the main lobby, Levi's gaze dropped to the mosaic symbol on the floor. He almost felt bad stepping on it. Then the boy looked up at the framed picture on the wall, hoping that they would get the chance to learn more about it. Though, before he could ask about the piece, Levius was forced to pry his eyes away from the image as Xuki's voice rang out and his attention was brought to a pair of figures he hadn't noticed before. Levi assumed that his senses were overwhelmed by all the new things he was being introduced to, but he silently cursed himself for not even realizing the stranger's presences. Xuki commanded the recruits to pay close attention in such a way that not only was it not an option, but one could assume they would be given information that they wouldn't succeed without. Arkady Ashcroft looked to be like any other grandpa, much more average than the other characters Levi had so far met- and yet his force was so authoritative and demanding that Levi assumed his strength must've been grater than what it appeared to be. He seemed pretty nice, despite his strict aura. And Levi's tail swished at the mention of a familiar name. Cadence and Carol appeared to be opposites, granted Arkady seemed equally fond of both of them. When given an option between what to call Arkady, Levi decided he would stick to Mr. Ashcroft, simply because that is what Xuki called him after his brief introduction. When Xuki spoke again, Levi understood why she had said to pay attention. He had thought that Carol was the head house keeper, but it appeared Arkady was even above her. If there was anyone he had to make sure not to upset, it was that man. When she brought up the strength of the three servants, Levi's ears pricked with interest- they had to be more than just house staff, right? Xuki spoke to Arkady with a sort of reverence that no usual relationship between a butler and their master would hold.
Abruptly, Xuki moved onto the picture on the wall, much to the boy's pleasure. Levi had pretty much assumed the people in the picture were the founders, and he did notice a resemblance between some of the people in the picture and those who he had already met. Yet when Alyssa said that they were all still active members, a sort of excitement coursed through Levi's body. Of the founders he had met, they couldn't have been older than 30. And it didn't look like they had aged a huge amount since the picture was taken, which meant the Abyss Walkers was a fairly knew guild- which could contribute to why so little is known about it. Still, already, Levius and the other recruits knew more about the guild than most other people in the world. He especially took note of those who he didn't recognize, but of course the boy was naturally curious about the Kitsune, it was one of his own kind, after all. His deep red gaze scanned the girl completely, at such a young age how did she already have all of her tails? There was no definitive way to gain tails, though some people think one way is better than others, but everyone knows that a Kistune's strength is displayed by the number of tails it had. Levi always had an infatuation with his own species, from the folklore to the mysterious tails- and he was very proud to be a Kitsune.
He also noticed that Xuki wasn't on the picture, unless he simply didn't recognize her. So she wasn't a founding member? And yet, they had her in charge of the recruits rather than Hanz, Alyssa, or Rami. Still, obviously the picture had some sort of sentimental value to the girl- when she asked for questions, of course Levi had inquiries. It seemed that nobody else intended on asking anything, but Levius' mind was crowded with many things. He wanted to ask about Xuki, when she joined and how she joined- but found those questions to be rather worthless for the test at hand. He was curious about everyone, he wanted to learn everything about them; but, for now, he knew those details would have to wait. "Which one is the current leader?" Levi asked abruptly, eyes still focused on the picture. At least, he hoped one of them was the guild master he had heard about and yet not seen once.
@Foxex

 

[Foxex]

“Well Foxboy that’s a bit of a tricky question for me to answer given our current situation… but I assume because we recruited you six, you will know sooner or later and it is against code for us to lie to one another.” Xuki paused for a moment as if remembering something important, “Right the code, don’t worry about that for now you will learn about it later. So back to your question, officially our Guild Master is Isaac Mephantel, the boy in the photo with the two scythes. But he is currently… um.” She hesitated for a moment trying to think of proper word choice, “Unable to fulfill his duties and obligations as the Guild Master, so our second in command, Aria is the current acting Guild Master until Isaac is able to lead again.” Xuki seemed slightly fidgety and bothered when talking about the subject, as if she was having a hard time choosing what words to use to form a sentence. She folded her arms and sighed and broke eye contact with the group, breaking her disposition to the six for the first time since they met her.

“Moving on then.” She announced after a few seconds. Xuki gestured to the stairs that lead to the third floor, “The third floor contains the private rooms of the founding members and is strictly off limits without an invitation from them. If you are feeling adventurous and want to explore there be prepared to face the wrath of Mr. Ashcroft, but do bring me a souvenir if you do so.” Xuki then pointed to the two spiraling stair cases that lead up past the ceiling, those both lead up to our observatory which connects to and our primary library, alchemy and enchanting labs, weapons workshop, and the rooftop terrace which is broken into six different sections with two swimming pools.” Xuki the led the group past the same double doors that Mr. Ashcroft and Cadence went thorough. Inside was a large rectangular room with a long dark wood table decorated with candles and sets of plates and silverware all expertly placed in perfect unison with one another, there were enough settings for twenty people. Along the walls were more pedestals with glowing crystal clusters. In the center along the left wall the center of the room was a large hearth and a grand fireplace, an extremely detailed carving went along the marble chimney of the fireplace up to the ceiling it was of what looked like a depiction of the peaks of the Star Reach mountains, its clouds, and the main focus being an Eclipse Dragon in flight around the peaks. It was not lit, but appears to be used. Above the table in place of chandeliers were large floating crystals similar to the smaller ones.

Xuki explained this was the formal dining room as they walked along the table to another room that connected to the dining room was theliving room, it was massive with huge clear windows along two of the walls with a second level in addition to a separate loft area. The windows gave a view out to the forest. Several shelves of books and cupboards were along the wall opposite of one of the windowed walls displaying a large selection of books, along with several weapons that were clearly decorative. One section of the floor was lower than the others which was a large conversation pit. There were several other tables, chairs and huge sections of couches and every type of seating imaginable around the room, it was more of a hybrid of a living room and lounge.

The next room that Xuki led them to was the kitchen. Where they encountered Mr. Ashcroft and Cadence assisting and directing the cooks, it was extremely busy as they seemed to be preparing for a large feast. The architecture of the kitchen was completely different from the rest of mansion being primarily made of grey stone and wood with a more rounded aesthetic while the rest of the mansion had a whiter marble and deep brown wood aesthetic with large bold and pleasing angles of architecture.

The kitchen was separated into three sections the primary section being used for general prepping and cooking, the second section consisted of three massive stone ovens designated for baked goods and grilled good, while the third area was not much for cooking but a more casual area to eat including several tables and an extravagant bar, there were several members of the help staff that was in the room who all stood and greeted Xuki in unison before returning to their meals and conversations.

Xuki led them out of another set of double doors that led the group back out to the main hall after leading them through hall ways and various rooms, from other living rooms, lounges, and even studies. “A note on the kitchen I forgot to mention, the cooks there will make you anything you want to eat or you can help yourself, but I do recommend you utilize their services as they would also to rather you let them do it before you accidentally make a mess of their kitchen. On the other side you will find more of the same, but there is no kitchen over there, but there is an extended sun room and an indoor pool that leads to out behind the mansion kind of like the outdoor terrace by the kitchen, but not as large.” Xuki thought for a moment, the second floor does not really exist by itself, most of it is accessible by the stairs that are present throughout the other rooms and the rooms on the second floor include some extra guest bedrooms, and an in-house infirmary that is above the kitchen. Aside from that, that’s basically this house. I do encourage you all to enjoy it and to explore it when you have the chance to… with the exception of the third floor.” Xuki glanced a large nearby clock along the wall.

“Perfect, right on schedule.” Xuki clasped her hands together, “As cool as this house is, you will not be staying here!” she laughed, “Follow me, you guys get to stay the guest house. Don’t worry, it’s still very nice, some of my fondest memories are in that house and I’m also staying there currently. She led the six out of the house through the main doors and led them on a brief trek directly across a large field to another house opposite of the mansion, though not as large it was not much smaller either.

The front of the building was entirely glass. Upon entering it, there was a massive circular lounging area similar to the ones in the mansion except even bigger, easily large enough to accommodate over a hundred people. Straight in front of them was a large hallway leading to the opposite end of the building which appeared to have another lounge area of the same size but no large entrance. The second level doubled as a loft with curving stairs on either sides of the lounge area. The whole building layout somewhat resembled the number 8. “Luckily for you six, you guys and I will be the only ones living here.” Xuki announced, “So get comfortable, “Follow me and I’ll lead you to your room.

Xuki led them down the main central hall way which turned out had several offshoots of halls that ended in large wooden double doors. “Now each of these rooms, are pretty much their own contained home.” She turned down the second right hall way. Near the end of the hall on either side of the wall was three name plates. Joseph S. Fuyuko A, and Levis G. on one side and Loufe W, Clinton O, and Hunheart A. on the other. Xuki opened the double doors and gestured inside. The inside was an enormous circular room divided roughly into a living room area, a kitchen area, and a dining area, connected to this was another circular room, much smaller and was the bedroom and bathrooms. There was only one huge circular bedroom with thick soft carpets and half of the circular room wall was a window with a view to the outside and heavy curtains to block light when necessary, the room was lit by clusters of glowing crystals similar to the rest of the building. There were six large beds in the room, comfortably enough apart to have some privacy, but ultimately they were all in the same room.

“Now, I really meant it when I said you all better get along, for the entire evaluation process this will be your room, no you are not allowed to move out of it and stay elsewhere, no you are not allowed to sleep on the couches outside, and yes every member has gone through this, and we do everything with a purpose, it may not be clear to you right now but as the evaluation process goes forward you will see. You all are being tested from the moment you stepped off the Gilded Phasebird and it will continue until you succeed or fail.” Xuki took a deep breath, “I’m sure you all have lots of questions, so please ask them now, and I will answer them the best I can, but please do feel free to explore if you all rather do that, remember you are welcome explore and use the main mansion as well, dinner will be ready in exactly one hour and it will be behind the main mansion, as well as your demonstrations."

@mallard | @Cmeriwether | @Barefoot_Kittens | @Gamingfan | @Ridleymon | @Pinch

 

[Psymallard]

The group was led through the dining room, and Joseph was already salivating at the thought of the grand meals that have been served there. Before he new it, they'd move to the living room. He snapped out of his trance as they were headed to the kitchen. He only had a moment to take in the grandeur of the room before continuing his daydream in the kitchen. A lot less was left to the imagination than before as rich scents filled Joseph's lungs. His legs dragged him away from the glorious smells, and he barely caught any of the other things Xuki said. He'd only be able to find places he's seen beforehand, so a verbal tour wouldn't help much. He was secretly glad when Xuki mentioned that the group would stay somewhere else, he feared the shock of living in such an amazing place would kill him. On the hike to the other house, Joseph was entertained by imagining all of the ways he could train in the wilderness (not magic though, he gave up on trying to improve that a long time ago). The smaller house didn't fail to amaze Joseph, not that it was hard to. He followed the group down the hallway and to the room. A shared room, huh? Hope no one snores. I might be a pretty scary insomniac. He'd probably spend most of his time either in one of the lounges or outside. Joseph snapped out of it as Xuki mentioned the "getting along" thing again, and he gave Levi a pained look again. The fact that they were being tested scared Joseph a little. He didn't want to waste an opportunity at such a great guild when he barely made it through the academy. The only thing that consoled him was the "family" aspect of the place, maybe they wouldn't be as harsh. Maybe isn't the best thing to rely on. His focus was shifted to food again when it was brought up, but immediately replaced with thoughts of "demonstrations." He'd demonstrate a good show, all right. Hope my "demonstration" won't bore you. An amused grin crossed his face.

 

[Pinch]

Hunheart took in the sights of the mansion, it was truly unlike any house he’d ever seen. He was definitely impressed, though he didn’t really understand how they got their hands on this kind of money, or why Xuki acted the way she did when explaining the Guild Masters abscence. He found the way she was acting about it all pretty suspicious, but he shrugged it off, thinking something bad had probably happened to him, and it was a touchy subject. Didn’t explain the money though. He couldn’t find a logical explaination to it, so it was still up air.

When they reached their own guest house, Hunheart was not at all disappointed about having to live in the smaller home. The house was larger than his old village, and their room alone larger than his old house! He wondered how much money they actually had, and why they even bothered to be adventurers at this point if they could just live easy lives of luxury. Maybe it was a sense of wanting to help others? Boredom? He could see living like this getting extremely boring after a while.

After listening to the rules Xuki mentioned regarding their new room, Hunheart walked towards the large open doors and stepped inside, taking a look around before setting his knapsack down on one of the bedside tables in the bedroom. “This is definitely impressive, though it might be a little overkill to have basically an entire house inside of another house...” He said quietly to himself. He couldn’t wait for the feast either, the food he’d seen in the kitchen looked amazing and he hoped it would taste good.

 

[Cmeriwether]

Fuyuko had been following Xuki, and the rest of the team, noting anything of note, and otherwise, when they arrived at the guest Mansion, she found the room, placed her stuff on a bedside table.

"Anyone up for some exploration?"

She waited for a response, and sat on the bed, making sure her armlets didn't fall off, and all of a sudden, a skeleton popped up.

"What are you doing here, I'm not in danger." Fuyuko told the skeleton, who then disappeared.

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

Levi's ears perked when Xuki began to answer his question, folding backwards slightly at the nickname which didn't exactly seem to be a compliment. In fact, not a single guild member had asked for the recruit's names- of course they already had the files which gave away their identities, but Levius assumed getting to know the meager recruits simply wasn't a top priority for the staff of the house or the adventurers. When Xuki hesitated, Levi sort of regretted asking the question- but still, he was glad he did in the end. Not only did they learn about the guild, but Levi picked up on a side of Xuki that the girl had not yet revealed. The kistune's gaze raised back to the painting and focused on the boy with the odd scythes, kneeling in the picture like a knight kneels before a princess. So he was the true guild master, but it appeared they were not going to be meeting him anytime soon. Levi wondered if Isaac's to perform as guild master had anything to do with Aria's "business" in which she had to attend to so she couldn't meet the recruits.
Throughout the house tour, Levi's senses were fully alert as he took in every detail of each room as Xuki explained them. The dining room was just as elegant as every other place in the building, Levi's eyes jumped from neatly placed dish to dish before falling upon the fire place. The reoccurring theme of mountains and stars decoration the fire place, with the addition of a dragon. Levi had never seen a dragon before, they were big and dangerous so they tended to stay away from large populations of people. Some believe that dragons are feral animals, others that they are sophisticated but too large to fit in a home. Levi knew a handful of Demi-Dragons so he assumed they couldn't be that bad. Traveling through the kitchen, Levi's ears pinned back in a bit of an overwhelmed reaction. Levi liked order and tranquility so the rest of the house was rather aesthetically pleasing, but the loud noises and many moving parts of the kitchen sort of disoriented him. Still, he couldn't help but notice how the staff worked around one another like well coordinated dancers, not even having to look where they were going as the carefully prepared the food with ease and grace. Xuki encouraged the recruits to explore when they had the chance, although Levi feared that reentering the house by himself would end up in him being very lost.
When it was revealed that the recruits would be staying in a smaller house, Levi nodded slowly. He was fairly relieved that the place they were staying wasn't quite the maze that the main house was, hearing that Xuki also would be staying there Levi's eyes shifted slightly. He still wasn't quite sure what was up with the girl, or why she insisted on wearing such a mean face- granted, if her aim was to be intimidating it was working pretty well. As the group traveled down the long hall that lead to their bedroom, Levius gaze traced the walls and the ceiling before landing upon the 6 name plates to which he tipped his head in order to examine. Even the room was large enough to support a whole family, in fact Levi was pretty sure his own entire house had less than what this single room had to offer. Levi walked to the bedroom, carefully placing his bag on the bed closest to the entrance, honestly not trusting his fellow recruits enough to want to be sandwiched between two of them. He folded his bag before putting it down and began taking off his sword holster before quickly deciding it would be best to leave it on for now. When the boy felt a pair of eyes on him, his gaze quickly flicked to who he assumed was the perpetrator: Joseph. What was his problem? Levi weighed his options, before deciding to meet Joseph's gaze with an almost glare before looking away. (@mallard )
Dinner. One hour. Behind Mansion. Levi figured the instructions were simply enough to follow, and as much as he raked his mind he couldn't come up with questions for Xuki. Of course, he had many questions- yet nothing came out of his pursed lips as it seemed he didn't even know how to formulate what went on in his mind. The young male sighed before walking to the bed he had claimed and sitting on the edge of it. He wasn't even going to pretend otherwise- he was tired. Not physically tired, but his mind was pretty drained from everything the group had learned in such a short amount of time and he had done his very best to memorize every detail.
Levius listened to Fuyuko with narrowed eyes. This girl acted pretty clueless considering her mom was a former member of the guild; didn't she have any kind of useful information? Levi sighed before sitting upright and commenting gruffly "Whatever we do, we should probably either all stick together or at least enforce a buddy system. If this 'test' is accessing ability to work together, we should demonstrate it in impossible." the boy sighed before something seemed to click. When he said demonstrate, Levi's mind was immediately brought back to Xuki's words. "About our 'demonstrations', which you mentioned, are we gonna get any hints of what that's about?" Levi asked as his attention shifted to Xuki, hoping to be able to prepare before hand.
@Foxex @Cmeriwether

 

[Foxex]

Xuki smiled watching the six spread-out into their rooms and settling in. She was about to turn to leave and return to her own room when Levi asked a question. “I can tell you exactly what it is Foxboy. The demonstrations are exactly as they sound, the six of you will all get a chance to show me, the other guild members present, and to your own teammates exactly what each of you are capable of. It will also be one of the only times you will all be seen and judged as individuals…” Xuki pondered her words for a moment, “No, I shouldn’t say judged, there is no judging, it more like taking note of your ability and where to further your training.”

Xuki took notice of a random skeleton that popped up momentarily near Fuyuko, Xuki raised an eyebrow before returning her attention back to Levi. “You seem like the smart one of the six, Foxy, being the only one asking me questions, so good job,” Xuki slow clapped with amusement, “So I will also tell you this, and you can tell your team or keep the info to yourself, I’ll leave that choice up to you. During your demonstrations it is also a good time to see the caliber of other guild mates, since you can pick any guild member present for you to demonstrate on, and given the only guild member that will be present tonight will be myself and the founding members of the guild. We know it’s a demonstration so they won’t just beat you into the ground, but will instead test and push you to your limits. So choose wisely Foxboy.”

Xuki looked around the room at the other five. “Alright listen up!” she announced, “I will be down stairs by the front if you need me or have further questions, but before I leave I have the first task I want you all to complete before it’s dinner time.” Xuki grinned, “This is one of my favorite assignments because it just tells me so much about the team. When its fifteen minutes before dinner time come down to the front lounge as a team and tell me who the captain of the team is. Let me define what a Captain does in the context of this particular guild. As Captain you will have the final say in decisions when your team is on a job, you may run the team however you like but they must follow you and you must be competent and strong as a leader, if there is conflict among the team you are expected to resolve it fairly. During combat situations you are the shot caller and you will be responsible to keep your team in shape up to the Guild’s standards. And the single most important thing, the Captain will always be the one to make the ultimate sacrifice for the team to succeed a job if the situation ever came down to it. Choose carefully, once the decision is made, you will all have to abide by it for the foreseeable future.” Xuki smiled, “See you guys later, you know where to find me.” She turned around and promptly left their room.

@mallard | @Cmeriwether | @Barefoot_Kittens | @Gamingfan | @Ridleymon | @Pinch

 

[Psymallard]

"Well, I think that choice is obvious." Joseph looked around the room. "Yours truly is the best one for the job." He put a hand on his chest. "I'm a great people person, and combat is pretty much my life. I've picked up a thing or two. Plus, I'd take an arrow for any of you." He left out the part that he could take any size of a hit from very temporary "armor" his gloves could grant. "Any objections?" He inquired expecting rebuttal by a certain kitsune teammate.

 

[Pinch]

Hunheart was the first to speak up. “Yeah, I object actually. I don’t think it’s the best idea to decide who is going to lead us so quickly. This is an important decision that we can’t make in just five minutes, we need to talk about this as a team and pick the best possible person suited for the job.” He began, “I wouldn’t want to entrust a practical stranger with my life so quickly, so I suggest we get to know each other a little better, and as I said before take our time, before we give someone the title of Team Captain.”

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

Levi nodded gratefully as Xuki answered his question- it seemed that it would be a combat assessment against one of the guild members. When the subtle compliment escaped Xuki's lips, the boy couldn't help but feel pride. An embarrassed pink flushed his face momentarily but he managed to maintain composure with another thank you bow. He knew they were all one team, but Levi simply couldn't help but feel like those around him were his competition, so to be called out among them made him feel a certain amount of fulfillment. By the end of Xuki's explanation, Levi understood in full. He'd have to choose one of the guild members. Of course, his mind immediately began to go through those who he had met. There were some obvious people who he'd choose to avoid, like Hanz, who could probably rip Levi in half, or Xuki, who gave off the aura of a wild animal even when not in battle. Levi wished that he knew the other adventures magic type, but he had pretty much already made up his mind. Based on appearance alone, he assumed that Alyssa was the weakest member- just based upon her seemingly gentle and friendly nature. Levi knew better than to judge a book by its cover, but he didn't have much detail on anyone. Perhaps he could use the time before dinner to further observe his potential opponents.
At mention of the first task, Levi's pointed ears perked and he listened intently, but was fairly disappointing by what he heard. Not that the task was too easy or dull, but quite the opposite. Not only did Levius fail to see the necessity of such an assignment, especially because if it all came down to it he didn't intend on sacrificing himself for anyone in the room and he found anyone who would was an idiot. They needed a better idea of each person's morals and personality, although that would be hard to get now. As soon as the word 'team captain' came form Xuki's mouth, anyone who wanted the role would likely be on their best behavior so it would be hard to find their faults and true natures. Joseph spoke up first, the elf claiming that he was the best one for the job, Levi scoffed and rolled his eyes but didn't say anything at first. Then when asked for objections, of course Levi couldn't keep to himself. He listened to Hunheart with mild interest and a pensive expression took over his face. Lifting his gaze to meet Joseph's, Levi shrugged "You sound like a moron. I don't care how strong or amiable you are." the boy's straight face shifted slightly to present a challenging glare, "Can you make a split second decision when everyone's life is on the line? Can you take the blame for a lost team member or mission failed even when its not your fault? Can you stand up to someone who doesn't agree with you and force them to take your side?" Levi realized his voice had raised slightly and he pinned his ears back before sighing and falling quiet. The young kistune hadn't expected himself to get so into it, but he realized that whoever this vote went to would pretty much be in charge of him- and he didn't want some childish halfwit to take that position. @mallard
"We only have an hour." Levi added softly, somewhat going against Hunheart's suggestion. "I don't think we're gonna be best friends by the end of the hour." he added as he looked around the group of recruits. "The easiest way to go about this is with autonomy. Each person can campaign, give their own speech as to why they believe they best fit the role, and then we'll have anonymous voting. If we have campaigning optional, so only those who want to position are able to be chosen, it'll narrow down the options and make the votes more accurate." Levi's suggestion came off as more of a command, but he didn't plan on backing down from it especially knowing that he had things he wanted to get done before dinner.

 

[Psymallard]

Joseph looked over to where opposition came first. Hunheart's reasoning made enough sense to him, so he would agree to taking their time. Levi was next to speak up, calling him a moron. Joseph's anger rose at the unprovoked attack, but managed to quickly calm himself down. Being both friendly and smart is the best way to win these people over. Levi went on asking questions he'd want answered, and Joseph quickly answered them in his own mind. I've been making split second decisions since I was a toddler. I'll make sure not to lose any of you, and if someone does die, it is my fault for not saving them. The last question was the most inspiring. If I make Levi vote for me, that'll be the biggest win of the century. Then he imagined how difficult it'd be. He'd try his best, but he definitely couldn't count on it. Anonymous voting would mean he wouldn't know which vote Levi's was, but that meant he'd have to get all the votes. But that would include his own vote, and he hated the idea of that. Joseph jumped in the bed closest to him and started brainstorming a speech.

 

[Deleted member 284192]

Once Xuki had left the room, Clinton leaped onto his bed. The boy needed a dedicated period of time to process all the new info Xuki had been non stop throwing at them. The question on everybody's mind was: Who's gonna step up and become team captain? Clint wasn't quite there yet and as his fellow recruits began squabbling, he laid there staring up to the ceiling of the bedroom.

As Clint finished recharging his mental batteries, He heard Levi mentioning that everyone should campaign for themselves to decide the team captain. Clinton's upper body shot up and he joined in the dispute. "Campaign? I know I'm not suited for this leadership position, so maybe we should limit the campaigns and speeches to those who think they can." He then realized he knew squat about these people, and others seemed to feel the same way. "Hey! Since we're all strangers, why don't we do one of those games where we go around and same something unique about ourselves? Or what our favorite food is? You know, like the kind of activity that you'd do in grade school." Clint then looked around to confirm if anyone was on board with his idea.

 

[Cmeriwether]

Fuyuko pondered for a moment, but decided against running for the team Captaincy, she wasn't as charismatic as any of her eleven half-siblings, every one of them a Young Dragon or Larger. She had also been a little off since she got here, and besides most of her information on this guild may be six years out of date.

"It would be best for me not to run for the captaincy, but rather be like a lieutenant, or an assistant to the captain, Levi, if I am correct ." Fuyuko explained her stance.

She then looked at Focus and Restraint, her heirlooms from her mother, and the back at Levius.

@Barefoot_Kittens

 

[Pinch]

Hunheart listened to what both Levi and Clinton had to say, and nodded toward Clinton. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. If you’re picking someone as a captain it would be good to know a little bit about them beforehand. We can do the campaigning too afterwards. Both ideas are good.” He said, he wasn’t sure if he’d run for team captain, or if he was even ready for that sort of responsibility, but it seemed that most people weren’t interested. He didn’t like the idea of the guy that had volunteered earlier becoming captain either, they needed someone level-headed and calm, not what he assumed to be cocky and egotistical. He decided to think about it over the game- if that’s what they ended up doing first.

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

Levi paced the length of the room as things fell rather quiet. Least to say, this activity wasn't making him feel any closer to his fellow recruits. An hour was going to go by quickly if they kept up at this rate, Levi figured he should abandon his plan to get intel on his future opponents because it seemed like the others were pretty hell bent on doing this team captain thing correctly. When Clint offered a suggestion, Levi rolled his eyes. Ice breakers? Perhaps they should sing songs and play tag together as well. The boy kept his comments to himself as he let out a soft breath of air before his crimson gaze fell upon Clint in an annoyed gesture, they really wanted to make it as hard as possible.
When Fuyuko suddenly spoke up, Levi narrowed his eyes on her. Assistant of the Captain, she knew this wasn't a middle school kickball tournament, right? "Do as you please, but we're not required to pick a 'lieutenant', so don't make things more complicated." the boy huffed bluntly before he tucked a strand of hair behind his ears and sat on his own bed. Truth was, he was a bit bothered that Fuyuko didn't want to be captain. With her mother being a legacy and all, she had the biggest responsibility of all the recruits thus far. The girl was obviously distracted, which she had every right to be, but Levi figured if she wanted to join the guild in order to honor her mother than she should be doing everything she can to prove her worth. Granted, her dropping out did make the process a bit easier. "It's just a title anyways, it's stupid to go in circles like this. Regardless of who is captain or not, it's not going to change anything, and if you think it will than you don't deserve it. What you woke up as today you're gonna be exactly the same tomorrow, regardless of whether or not you're wearing a shiny new badge." Levius huffed, not exactly being clear about whether her comment was meant for Fuyuko or the general population, as he leaned back on the bed and extended his arms behind his shoulders to support him.
As Hunheart opinion was added to the mix, Levi quickly realized that they were steadfast one 'getting to know one another' like it was a summer camp rather than an elite adventure guild. "Alright, then let's get this over with, already." Levi sighed as he waved his hand dismissively, he then turned his attention to Clint with a raised brow "Well you suggested it, Mr. Armor, so why don't you start?" sneered before sitting upright on the bed and equipping a blank face with watchful eyes. "I guess we already should know names, but we'll repeat them for those who are too busy to listen" the boy added the sarcastic comment in a monotone voice, "Let's keep it simple. Name, species, age, and whatever." Levi huffed as he repeated what he had heard every year while attending school after graduating to the next class.
@Ridleymon @Cmeriwether

 

[Foxex]

(Main house)
Aria sighed and slouched back in her chair dropping her pen on the table. She leaned back and looked up at the ceiling then closed her eyes. Her large fox ears were relaxed and swayed with the movement of her head. She was sitting in a large leather armchair in front of a huge perfectly polished and intricately carved dark primordial wood desk. The table had stacks of papers and filed of documents scattered across it along with empty bottles of potions, and stacks of books.

The afternoon sunlight blasted through the windows on either side behind her. “Why today of all days… damn it!” Aria cursed out under her breath before standing up from her chair and walked around to the front of the table and leaned against it, stretching her back. Her nine long fox tails swished and curled around her independently as she stretched. She shook herself down and shuddered with satisfaction afterwards. She walked over to the window behind her desk and looked out, over across at the guest house in the distance her gaze was lazy but inquisitive, her fox ears perked up as soon as the door began to open. Aria knew who it was already hearing the foot steps out in the hall before they even made contact with the door. “How are they?” Aria asked without turning around.

“Promising, though they all seem to a bit reluctant to work together as a team, could be a sign of things to come and a point of contention.” Arkady informed, gently closing the door behind him and then standing at attention. “Miss. Xuki has given them the task of choosing a team captain and they have until dinner time to tell her their decision.”

Aria chuckled with amusement, “I wonder who will come out on top.”

“A bunch of dumdums if you ask me!” a rather raspy but jovial male voice spoke from nowhere next to Arkady. With a poof of black smoke a small little floating creature appeared next to the butler who paid him no mind. The little humanoid creature stood a little over two feet tall and resembled an upright fox and cat hybrid, his entire body was covered with a fine dark blue, almost black fur, bright red and orange streaks of fur highlighted the sides of his belly, shoulders, underarms, and streaks in his hair. His hair was the same color as his fur but was a slightly coarser in texture all of it was brushed back and spiked, his large ears stood about half the height of his body, tall and alert and angled slightly back atop of his head, the inside was an off-white color with a few tufts of dark blue fur intermixed. The same off-white color fur marked the sides of his face in a V pointing into his large eyes, and was the color of the underside of his feet and four fingered palms. His eyes were catlike and the color of ice. He has a short muzzle and sharp fanged teeth and a set of large off-white curled horns in between his ears and a long tail that was slightly longer than he was tall that ended in an orange and dark blue tuft of fur that looked like a burning flame.

“I was wondering where you went.” Aria turned around hearing the raspy voice of the small creatures, “did you enjoy yourself?”

The small creature folded his arms, “It was better floating around here watching you do paper work and make calls to people….” He fidgeted with his scarf not making eye contact with Aria. The little creature was not really dressed in anything besides a black scarf with violet runic markings near the ends and a necklace of fiery beads with textures that moved like they were on actively burning, a cloth head band that had a large charm designed to look like a flame over his forehead and two other strings of charms made of the same textured beads as his necklace that hung down from behind his ears.

“My apologies Mistress Aria, we tried to stop him, but he was quite impossible to get rid of him without alerting the recruits.” Arkady glanced at the creature for the first time since he appeared.

“No, no, it not your fault, I should have kept a better eye on him. Thank you for bringing him back” Aria approached the creature who snickered as he floated around. Aria picked him effortlessly out the air and held him like a large stuffed animal. The creature didn’t resist letting her handle him.

“The pleasure is mine, is there anything else need Miss? If not I must attend to the kitchens to for final preparations and taste tests for tonight’s banquet.” Arkady said with a slight bow.

“That will be all Arkady, thanks so much, I’ll see you at dinner.” Aria carelessly tossed the creature behind her and he simply floated and dipped slightly in his levitation. With another bow Arkady left the room. “Why can’t you be normal like other familiars?” Aria sighed flopping onto a nearby couch, her tails forming a nest-like landing spot for her.

“Because if I was like other familiars then that would just be too boring!” the creature flew over on top of Aria’s desk and picked up the paper that Aria had been reading. “The hell? Is this a warning of things to come or a declaration of war?!” the creature exclaimed rereading the paper.

Aria groaned, as she placed a hand on her forehead, “A bit of both, they’re giving us one more month to get Isaac back under out control before she will formally declare war on the nation.” Aria said nonchalantly.

“Err... your sister is crazy if she thinks it will make any difference to vassalize this kingdom.”

“Maybe, there is a reason why the Northern Empire has no Grey towns or cities, while new ones are popping up for us on a nearly monthly basis. She knows how to deal with them and rule her people.”

“Well, Grey’s are only popping up at the rate it is because Isaac is out there, I don’t get why we need these new people to help us… they’ll just get wasted.” The creature’s demeanor turned darker as he dropped the paper onto the desk. “Are we really using people as fodder now?”

Aria sat up, “Cinder... I’ve ignored the stars once… blinded by my own pride and arrogance… it caused us a lot of good people, and I will NOT RISK IT AGAIN!” she yelled.

BOOM!

A blindingly bright green bolt of lightning that seemed to illuminate the entire mansion shot out from one of her tails at the small creature. The creature vanished and the bolt missed, exploding out the entire wall section along with the windows next to it, the chair was nothing more than a smoldering melted mess, the once beautiful wooden desk was chard and partially melted, the papers and books ontop were nothing more than black dust. A single tear escaping Aria’s eye, and she let it fall. Aria was shaking slightly but she steadied herself.

Cinder reappeared in front of her, sitting in her lap, eyes downcast. Aria picked him up and hugged him, tight, warm, and scared. Her breathing was uneven and unsteady. She began to shake. Her tears flowed free, she held Cinder tightly to her chest as she opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, the pain in her heart was transcendent of noise.


(Guesthouse)
Xuki had been peacefully levitating in a sitting position in the main lounging and lobby area of the Guesthouse meditating, when she heard a deafening crash that sent her falling down. She landed on her feet as cats do, but was nonetheless startled. She looked in the direction of the mansion and she could see an extremely faint trail of black smoke coming from it. She narrowed her eyes to see that there was a hole on the front of the building on one of the upper floors. The enchantments of the house already began working to repair the damage the hole was much smaller than it had been.

Xuki knew what it was, and it wasn’t the first time. Xuki frowned reminded of how dire their current situation was. She looked in the direction of the room with the six recruits, I hope you’re right about these six Aria….

The sun began to set on the mountain, the light of the setting sun turned the sky into a unique gradient of violet to orange. Star Reach’s iconic star filled skies already began to peer over the light.


(Elsewhere)
Darkness stirred in the shadows of Grey, the guards of the town rang the alarm bell, and he looked out past the walls of the rampart he was on. He was greeted with an awe-inspiring unnatural ocean of fog as it approaches. Leading in front of the fog was a lone individual, dressed in white and red robes, they were torn, dirty, tarnished, and heavily blood stained, it wore a hood that shadowed its face.

The town had already began evacuating earlier that day, but progress was slow and the cult corruption and uprising ran deeper than the guards had anticipated causing widespread panic, chaos, and death. The local heroes of the town had ventured out to face the fog but never returned.

“Fire the catapults!” the guard captain commanded as huge payloads of boulders, and spheres of volatile arcane magic took to the skies arching over the walls and into the fog. The explosions from the arcane bombs illuminated the fog lighting up the immense silhouettes of indiscriminate writhing masses of tentacles within the fog. “In the name of the Celestials….” The guard captain cursed under his breath. The town launched more projectiles this time with more elemental bombs. “Get everyone to safety, we’ll try to slow it down as much as we can! Riflemen, fire at will!”

Across the tops of the rampart rained concentrated beams of magic down at the charging cultists that were emerging out of the fog, storming the town gates, each shot that hit caused crippling damage while were some fatal. The individual dressed in white walking calmly among them like a glowing beacon in the night. A rifleman took aim at the white figure down his scope, taking precision aim the figure was suddenly gone.

Within a single moment, the rain of magical rifle fire was silenced all at once.

“What?” the guard captain looked around and found that every single rifleman had been killed, their blood now ran free on-top of the rampart and down the walls. The guard captain’s vision was suddenly turned sideways and dropped several feet, no longer feeling anything but a numbing cold, he saw robes of white brush past the edge of his view but he could not turn his head anymore, then he saw his own body collapse next him before his vision faded to darkness.

The man dressed in white leapt high into the air and levitated several meters above the town gate. His hand held an odd looking sphere of magic, it appeared like a black sphere of space and stars. He shot the sphere down at the town gate, there was no immediate explosion, instead, the cracks in the rampart around the gate began to glow a deep violet color, and gazing into the cracks one would see the darkness of space and the light of stars. There was no explosion or implosion, but everything that was affected simply turned into dust and collapsed.

The cultists poured into the town killing everyone and everything in sight, the grey followed behind them, twisted horrific tentacles covered in popping and regenerating pustules of unknown ichor reaching out from the unknown and dragging corpses and body parts into itself, whatever the tentacles touched gave life to the corpses reawakening them with a jolt and they began whispering in hisses that echoed piercingly into the cacophony of the screams of the innocent casing all who would hear it to go completely insane. Nothing was spared, man, woman, children, pets, livestock, even rodents, pests, and insects. These whispers were never meant to be spoken by any being of our existence, the speaker’s tongue, shredded by their own teeth as they tried to make the sounds until there was nothing left, but their mouths kept trying to speak the unspeakable.

The figure dressed in white slowly walked through the town unnaturally, occasionally twitching and disappearing only to flicker back into existence in the same instant as death and life simultaneously grew from the slaughter. The town was Grey, those fortunate enough to have recently escaped its walls, found themselves being dragged back into the town by cultists and indescribably horrific monsters, and receiving the honor of ascension and convergence to the greater cosmos.

@mallard | @Cmeriwether | @Barefoot_Kittens | @Gamingfan | @Ridleymon | @Pinch

(OOC: A bit of other things going on in the world as the six make their decision and dinner time draws closer. Some relevant background info. that the six most likely won't know about, though the flash of the blast from Aria would have been seen even from the window of he bedroom. Also @Gamingfan still waiting on some replies from you)

 

[Deleted member 284192]

"Right. I guess it would make sense for me to start" Clint said, as he thought, though I really could have done with the "Mr. Armor" nickname. The boy got up off his bed and made his way to the center of room. He faced his recruits demonstrating his pride as he held his fists against his waste and wore his friendly smile. "Well, my name Clinton Orwell, but Clint saves time, so you can just call me that. I'm a human, I'm seventeen years old, and I'm looking to get as strong as I can as fast as I can, to protect as many people as I can. Let's hope we can all help each other reach our goals, yeah?"

Clint looked around the room to see the impression he had made. "That's all about me" He finished. Clint walked back to his bed, finally proud of an introduction he had made for himself.

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

Levi watched as Clinton walked to the center of the room, he crossed one leg over the other and leaned forward intently. Clint pretty much said exactly what he was supposed to- no more or less. There wasn't anything odd or peculiar, nothing to point out or judge upon... he seemed like a pretty average, human boy. He claimed to want to get stronger so that he could protect people, a noble thing to say- granted, a bit cliche. Levi's unamused expression held little emotion as his ears flicked back and forth, no matter how he looked at it, the boy seemed honest- maybe he really was just boring. Not that Levi had some incredible backstory or secret to hide, but he hoped that by getting to know the others he would be able to figure out what they had in common for the guild master to choose them over other applicants. As far as Clint's introduction went, it didn't help much.
Suddenly, an explosion from the house across the way caused Levi to jump to his feet. His ears caught it, likely, before the others but there was no doubt they too would notice. Levi spread his feet in a defensive position and placed one hand on the holster of his sword, eyes flicking about the quickly repairing hole in the mansion. From the distance he stood, Levi couldn't quite make out who had caused such a commotion, but anyone with the slightest magic sense would be able to tell that whatever sent that attack was very strong. Levi, without a word, marched out of the room to demand on explanation from Xuki, but stopped halfway. He could see Xuki's figure, calm and thoughtful, but not panicked in the least. It mustn't have been anything to worry about, and he didn't want to waste the limited time they had. Levi, against his instincts, turned around and walked back to the room. Perhaps he'd just have to get used to things like that. Upon reentering the room, Levi saw that nobody else had started their introduction and he was already standing in the center of the crowd.
"I'll go." Levi said flatly as his gaze swept the room. "I am Levius Greer, you may refer to me as Levius or Levi and nothing else," Levi added a bit snappily seeing as he was growing tired of being called foxboy, "I am Kistune, a species of demifox which are known for their multiple tails and ability to shift into a fox, I am sixteen years old." Levi paused to try and decide what he wanted to say fro the next portion. "I hail from a long line of traditional farmers, I plan on becoming the first adventure of my family so I can better financially support them, and if one of you ruin my chances we are going to have a problem." Levi stated plainly. Levi took a step to sit down before pausing, figuring he should mention it while he had everyone's attention, he dropped his voice slightly as his ears and tail flicked in unison "And by the way, as I hope you weren't too dense to notice, there is more to this guild than they are letting on. I'm not sure exactly what we're getting into, but I highly suggest if anyone has information we don't keep it from each other." Levi shrugged he knew that as a recruit it was his job to trust the higher ups, but he couldn't help his curious nature especially with all the suspicious oddities that had happened thus far, "Just to let you know, our demonstrations will be combat assessments against a guild member of our choosing." with those final words, Levi returned to his bed and waiting expectantly for the next person to introduce themselves.

 

[Psymallard]

Joseph was glad that the group decided on introductions, he wasn't confident in his speech writing ability. Clint's intro seemed was short and sweet, and he had Joseph's vote as charismatic as he was. A loud boom sounded, and he flinched, but didn't give it a second thought. He'd heard thunder before. Levi was next. Joseph had to hold back a chuckle as the kitsune snapped his disapproval of nicknames, the elf would have to come up with one to call him in good fun. How about Leviathan? It doesn't make sense at all besides an extension of Levi, which will be all the more hilarious. Levi went on to talk about the reasons for entering the guild, to help his family. At least he likes someone. The three-tails also mentioned the guilds secrets, which weren't the recruits' place to know. Joseph wanted to go next, and sprung to the center, having to catch his balance upon stopping. "I'm Joseph Solfang," The elf announced, pointing to his chest. "Any nickname you can come up with is fine, but try to be more creative than 'moron.'" He chuckled at his own joke. "I'm an elf that uses fire, but not that much. I have 22 years of 'experience,' and I like to make jokes. If you need to spar, I won't hesitate to say yes." With that, he jumped backwards onto his bed again.

 

[Pinch]

Hunheart listened closely as the first three people introduced themselves. Clint seemed to be the clichè, likeable hero that Hunheart had seen in many teams of famous adventurers before. They were usually the team captain, but Hunheart couldn’t help but feel Clint wasn’t the right choice. He hadn’t heard everybody’s introductions yet though, so that could change. He liked him though, he didn’t seem that annoying, or loud, so he was tolerable. The loud explosion diverted Hunhearts attention for a moment, and he glanced outside the window to see if anything had happened, it seemed fine outside, and Levi had just let the room and came back in, presumably checking what had happened, and said nothing, so he presumed it was fine.

Next up to introduce themselves was Levi, overall he came off as a bossy and sophisticated person, especially for where he said he’d come from. Hunheart didn’t like him all too much, and his introduction seemed to imply that he thought this was a competition, which he knew wasn’t true. His final words were true though, there was something up at this guild that they weren’t letting on, and Hunheart wondered what they could possibly have to hide.

Joseph was next, he was definitely the egotistical, courageous one, at least that’s the conclusion Hunheart had come to. He seemed to be pretty eager at running for team captain too, which Hunheart wasn’t happy with. He didn’t really like Joseph either from what he’d heard, he tended to dislike people who thought they were the best fit for a job before even knowing a thing about the other candidates.

“I’ll introduce myself now.” Hunheart began, “my name is Hunheart Abadeer, I’m eighteen, and I’m a human. You’ll get along fine with me as long as I don’t find you annoying or obnoxiously loud.” He said, glancing in Joseph’s direction, “Otherwise, I hope we all get along fine and can all work together as co-workers and hopefully friends. If you have any questions, ask me after we’ve decided on team captain. You’re all probably wondering about my weird arms, too, well they’re basically the result of a birth defect where most of my magic energy is on the outside of my body instead of being inside.”

 

[Gamingfan]

After that entire fiasco with Levi, Loufe and the group were taken into what was their new living space. Loufe sat on one of the beds and took a deep breath, both to calm his nerves and to remember the scent on the place, in case he ever gets lost.
He was hoping that the group would be able to conversate and maybe become friends with each other, but that went entirely out the window once Xuki mentioned leadership. As everyone debated over who'd be the leader, Loufe considered his options.
We're leading, no exceptions. O.S piped up. I'm not obeying anyone's orders other than mine. You know I'm and alpha, a born leader. It's a no-brainer.
Loufe's eyebrow twitched again, and he exhaled. He nearly nominated himself, but remained quiet when the others spoke. Well, hopefully they could be better leaders than he would. After a bit of debate, everyone seemed to agree to introduce themselves. Short stuff, Elf boy, Night light, and Kitsune Holmes had already spoken about themselves. Loufe sighed, and decided he may as well follow suit.
He took a breath. "Err...nice to meet you all, my name is Loufe, and you may call me whatever you wish, I don't mind. Um... I'm a werewolf, I guess. I never got to know my family. I..I'm eighteen years of age and my goal is to help as many people as possible, cliche as that might sound. And...um..."
I'm also crazy. O.S offered helpfully
"I'm also craz-mmphf!" Loufe shut his mouth and fake coughed. He then grinned nervously, his eyes glanced quickly at Levi. "Sorry about that, slip of the tongue. I'm also crazy...weird. Just so you know." he gave a small, strained laugh. "ANYWAY who's next?"

 

[Cmeriwether]

Fuyuko listened to the introduction of each of her other teammates, and then decided it was her time to go and Introduce herself.

"Hi, my name is Fuyuko Akai-o, I am an eighteen year old Female Half Dragon, Gold dragon is the exact dragon, as you all know my mother was a member of the Abyss Walkers, but she died six years ago, so my information on the guild may be several years out of date." Fuyuko introduced herself, "If you have a question, I may be able to answer it or if not I may be able to point you in the direction."

Fuyuko sat down on her bed, looking around at the five males. Each was different, but they would surely be helpful in different ways.

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

As the introductions came one by one, nobody really kept track of time. Xuki hadn't bothered them at all, and after the unexplained explosion the world around the group seemed to stand still. Some introductions came smooth and easy, others only made the recruits less fond of one another. Either way, after the final introduction had ended, and the few gave short spiels about their qualifications for the captain role, there were no more witty nicknames being thrown, no more joking gestures or sly comments were made. Everyone was thinking hard, because the next decision would change the rest of their lives as adventurers. Some already had clear opinions, the hostility between certain members was certain, but nobody voiced their opinions as they each sat on their own bed. Some muttered to themselves, weighing one person's strengths against another's, other's eyes landed upon their fellow recruits hoping that their charm had worked and they had won them over. Eventually, enough time passes in silence that the group grew impatient, though none wanted to interrupt another's thinking.

With what had to have been at least forty minutes, the group exchanged glances that suggested they were all ready. "Alright..." Levi was the first to speak, he had been completely still up until that moment, actually he had made his choice already, but he was contemplating an edit to his original plan. "The votes shouldn't be anonymous, in order to trust one another we should be completely open." the boy stated mildly, in such a tone that really made him a hypocrite considering his attitude towards the others. Still, there wasn't much protest as some actually were glad to accept such a request while others just wanted to get things over with. One at a time, the young recruit gave the name of who they voted for- some with a reason others with a shrug. In the end, the result was clear- clearly useless. The final consensus was a tie between not two, but three individuals. It should've been obvious, that such a choice would be impossible to make. And all that time that was spent, was wasted. Levi gritted his teeth before tension in the room began to rise. There were gruff words exchanged about how "we should've waited to choose" or "how I should've been it" but everyone was pretty helpless. What more could they do? They had a job, one simple mission and they failed it. If this was truly a test, a test of working together- perhaps they weren't the team meant for the job after all. Levi's warm gaze traced the floor before one particular voice caught his attention, "It's impossible to make such a decision so early" Levi's ears flicked before he lifted his gaze.

Indeed, it was impossible. Only a fool would assign such an ignorant task. And while there was a possibility that, by not making a decision, the group would be eliminated and kicked out from the guild immediately, it suddenly clicked with Levi and he had made up his mind. "Of course it's impossible, so that's what we'll tell Xuki. We came to a consensus as a group, didn't we?" Levi paused, hesitating. Were they doing the right thing? Was he really going to risk it all with such a move? Perhaps they should battle it out, and the winner would be the captain- that way, at least there would be an affirmative answer. Levi looked up at his fellow recruits before a single grunt of agreement was followed by a few comments that all suggested that asking for more time was the best move going forward. For once, it seemed they all agreed.

With exactly 15 minutes left, the team exited the room together. Some seemed nervous about the decision they had made, others were confident that it was the right choice, some were just excited for dinner. Levi traveled in the back of the group, eyes on the floor as he silently went over the introductions in his head- they were an odd group indeed. They ranged in age, species, and background. The group stopped at seeing Xuki, the small cat-girl was waiting patiently. "We made our decision!" one of the more outgoing members of the group exclaimed, "It wasn't easy." someone else piped up although nobody exactly explained it as the group fell silent.
"Uh, don't you think picking a captain now is a bit rash?" one voice said, "So, we are requesting more time." they concluded.
"Our votes ended in a 3 way tie, but that was based off of the bare minimum information." someone else added.
"Team Captain is an important thing, we want to put in more consideration before just giving it away." the last person to speak pretty much summed up the groups decision. The group quieted again, waiting for Xuki's response.
@Foxxex

 

[Foxex]

Xuki turned to face the six as their time ended, with a slightly amused smile that made her lips form a slight W shape and half opened eyes she listened to their explanation as to why the had not done as instructed.

“Hmm… perhaps there is some hope from you all after all.” Xuki smiled a cheerfully fake smile, “Congratulations, you made the right choice. I hope that during your ‘campaigns’ you all learned something useful about one another. You’ll all get a chance to show off yourselves to the guild and to your teammates in the demonstration that’s going to happen pretty soon, so if you need anything for that, I would suggest you all go back to the room and get whatever you need.” She paused and looked at Clint, “Except you, you can have your hammer or whatever, but you’re not wearing that armor… ever again, you’ll die in that thing.”

“Before we set off, I will reiterate, for your demonstrations, you will get to pick your opponent of whoever is present at dinner to be your opponent, I hope you all paid attention to who’s who. Your selected opponent will not just smash you into the ground, they know that doing that is counter intuitive to our goal, but they will be pushing you to your absolute limits, so don’t try to hold back to be cool, you'll end up looking like an idiot and we can tell.”


@mallard | @Cmeriwether | @Barefoot_Kittens | @Gamingfan | @Ridleymon | @Pinch
(Net post will be advancing to the actual dinner)

 

[Gamingfan]

Look like an idiot. Hah. No need to worry, already accomplished that myself. Loufe lamented mentally.
You're welcome, by the way. Anyway, a spar huh? Screw dinner, my opponent will do nicely after I beat'em.
Loufe sighed. Despite that, he was equally excited for a fight. He didn't have any equipment, as his constant size switches don't allow for a comfortable fit. He was ready for what's ahead, although what Xuki said sorta confused him. Someone present at dinner? That must mean that there will be others besides him and his team, presumably some of the people they've been introduced to in the tour. Loufe had to wonder who'd he choose.
It better be lynx girl. I need to take her down a peg or two.
The same can be said for you.
Jealous?
Disappointed.

 

[Foxex]

Content with the six, and no one seemingly needing anything else Xuki checked the clock and saw that it was time to go. “Alright, back to the mansion we go!” Xuki proclaimed as she led the six out of the guest house. The light outside was fading and the sky was being lit by a bright half-moon and countless stars multitudes of faint colors that melded perfectly with the darkness. The lack of light pollution from any major cities or towns nearby meant that the stars in the sky was naturally brighter, more luminescent, and clear than it would be if near cities or towns.

The trek back to the mansion seemed much shorter. The sounds of crickets and other nocturnal animals filled the air as they began to stir in the mountain forests around them. Large predatory birds flew silently overhead, bioluminescent markings on the underside of their bodies and wings made them difficult to tell them apart from the starry sky from below. The roar of a Runesaber echoed as it made its kill. Xuki’s ears were perked up and alert, listening and hearing everything in forests around the estate.

Upon arrival Xuki quickly led the party through the mansion to the sunroom and out to the back of the mansion. The backyard of the mansion was well lit with floating crystal clusters, garden beds, rocky walkways, and low trimmed hedges defined clear walkways around the yard. There were several interconnected multi-tiered swimming pools of different shapes at the far end, its waters shimmered a clear crystal blue in the darker light, and next to the pool was a smaller separate cottage and an elegant darkwood pavilion. In the center of the yard was a large elevated square arena fifty-by-fifty feet, made of white stone that even stood out in the darkness, closest to the mansion was a huge patio where there was an abundance of furniture a large stone grill where several of the cooks were still busy at work, a large fountain with a statue of a Fulgur Unicorn was near the edge of the patio near the arena, A long wooden table spread with food of every type imaginable was in the center of the patio. The entire yard was primarily lit by several large crystal pylons spread across the yard that didn’t seem to disturb the calm of the surrounding forests not did it really disturb the overall atmosphere of the stars and night.

Cadence was by the grill with a small team of cooks occasionally breathing out vibrant red flames onto the meats and vegetables on the grill. Carol was busing herself finalizing details of everything that was being set onto the table from the position of the table cloth and place mats, to the layout of each plate and its utensils. A door opposite of the one the party of six entered from lead to the kitchens is where Mr. Ashcroft stood instructing and directing the cooks, and helping where he can as he oversaw everything that was going on.

Alyssa was also busying herself running in and out of the kitchens helping the cooks and Carol with the table. Rami was laying out on a lounging chair with the hood of her cloak pulled over head. Hanz was standing by Aria, near the fountain, the two seemed to be engaged in conversation. Cinder, Aria’s familiar, was also near the grill occasionally shooting flames into the fire to bolster and alter the flame’s color to a vibrant blue occasionally.

There was another young adventurer that was there, unfamiliar to the six and he looked just as out of place as the six new recruits, he carried a sheathed long sword, but by the looks of the hilt and handguard, it was no ordinary long sword, and a decently sized kite shield decorated with strange and intricate markings and symbols. He had short black spiky hair and light blue eyes, he was clearly young, no older than nineteen, and rather handsome. He sat at the table near the fountain, his shield was on the ground propped up to the leg of his chair and was part of the conversation with Aria and Hanz.

“Hello again! Dinner is almost ready, just some final things, and we’ll be good to go!” Carol said when she saw Xuki and the six recruits enter the yard. She waved at them and smiled before returning to her task.

Aria’s ears perked up, one turning to the direction of Carol’s voice the other at the sound of Xuki and the six entering. Hanz turned to see the recruits, his eyes intense. The young man in the chair also turned to see the newcomers and gave a hearty wave and a smile.

Aria broke away from the conversation, Hanz sat down at chair, near Rami. Aria’s presence was utterly dominating, from the way she walked and moved, to the very aura she radiates, anyone who was more magically attuned could feel the immense magical power that she emanated. As she walked her elegant flowing robes flowed around her smoothly like water, the gold embroideries of her robe and jewelry reflected in the light highlighting her elegant and lithe form as well as the grandeur of her robes. Her nine long fox tails behind her only added to her opulence.

“Heya!” Xuki smiled at Aria as she approached. Aria responded with a smile and a nod, before she turned her attention to the six recruits. Xuki left the six and joined Alyssa in helping the staff out.

“I am Aria, the current Guild Master of the Abyss Walkers. I’m sorry I could not meet you all earlier today, there was some urgent business that I had to tend to. I hope you all understand.” Aria explained as she looked at each of the six, “Well I hope your day has been pleasant so far and Xuki hasn’t caused you too much trouble, she’s one of our more… eccentric trainers, but the members that have gone through her evaluation have all been quality and gone on to accomplish great things in the guild.” Aria dropped her voice a bit, “Between you all and me, how well Xuki does as a trainer depends on how well you six do.” Aria laughed, it sounded melodic and pleasant to the ear. “Anyways, I hope you’re all hungry.” Aria ginned, her teeth were perfect but like all demi-humans of her species, she had longer and sharper canines. “How much longer Arkady?”

“Just finishing up ma’am.” Mr. Ashcroft stepped aside making room for Alyssa and Xuki to exit the kitchen, each of them carrying a large covered dish. Xuki handed her dish to Carol while Alyssa placed her’s at one end of the table, and taking the lid off revealing a large steaming dark brown colored stew of some sort. The air was filled with delicious smells of sautéed vegetables, grilled and roasted meats, and baked breads. The long table was now complete every dish sparkled and glistened in the light. “Well everyone, have a seat and help yourself, eat your fill.” Aria gestured as she took a seat near the middle of the table. Everyone did so, all the cooks, came out of the kitchens, Carol and Cadence, and Mr. Ashcroft all took seats at the table, the other guild mates took their sets at the table as well, they sat in almost the exact same order as they were in the picture in the great hall with the exception of the obvious missing members. Xuki sat opposite of them next to the cooks and Cadence.

“Eat up guys.” Xuki said to the six recruits, “But remember, you’ve all got demonstrations, so don’t overstuff yourselves too much, you can eat more after.” Xuki smiled.

The items on the menu included countless vegetables prepared in almost every way possible, meats ranging from common lamb, duck, beef, chicken, pork, several kinds of fish and seafood, to the more exotic and magical, such as muscle worms, mana wyrms, and lesser drakes, truly a feast to behold.


@mallard | @Cmeriwether | @Barefoot_Kittens | @Gamingfan | @Ridleymon | @Pinch
(OOC: feel free to start eating, it's implied that everyone else will one you guys sit down and start, feel free to chat with each-other and the other guild mates. Also, please decide who will be first for the demonstration in the discussion)

 

[Psymallard]

The anticipation made Joseph want to scream. He could smell the exquisite food halfway up the trail, and it kept getting stronger as they got closer. The area where they'd be eating was more than Joseph could ever imagine. The food was obviously the center of his attention, but everything around it was beautiful as well. He would get used to it in time, but in the moment he could hardly breathe. He almost didn't notice Aria, although in normal circumstances he'd be thinking about how beautiful she was. He didn't have to be told twice to eat his fill, and completely ignored Xuki's warning on overstuffing. Now was the time to dig in, demonstrations were later.

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

When the group stepped out of the guest house to make their way to dinner, Levi's eyes wandered among the stars and his ears flicked intently at the smallest rustle from the nearby woods. In a lot of ways, this place reminded him of his rural home, which, after spending time in the city to fill in his adventure guild requests, he decided he liked a lot. As the group made haste through the mansion, Levi's eyes fell on the decorative tiles of the floor. Everything seemed to be happening so quickly. The boy was suddenly distracted by the events of the day, which seemed overwhelming now even though it wasn't that big of a deal earlier. Letting out a short sigh, Levi closed his eyes for a moment of peace before focusing again on the recruits ahead of him and Xuki's small figure. For now, he'd have to make sure to keep a clear head- after all, the tests had barely even begun. The young kitsune brought a hand to his forehead as he walked, gently gathering his long hair in a calm gesture and pulling it together and slipping a loosely tied piece of string from his wrist and using it to hold together his dark hair in a miraculously neat, high pony tail. The male watched the other's body language, somewhat picking up on both nervousness and excitement. Despite Xuki's preview of what the demonstrations would hold, Levi couldn't help but feel unprepared.
Eventually arriving upon the backyard, Levi was once again impressed by the luxury of the area. His placid expression remained, though his deep red gaze sparkled slightly as the light from the water reflected upon them when he stared into the pools. All of the staff were busy, hurriedly readying the last pieces of the meal- and yet everything seemed peaceful.
Despite the tranquility of the still air, Levi couldn't make out the conversations of the distant guild members as his gaze fell upon them one by one. Levi took note of, but fairly easily swept over the members of the guild he had already met- instead his gaze focused on, first, the boy who looked about the same age as most of the recruits. Levi found it a bit odd that the young man would be wielding both his weapons while attending dinner, but decided that it was perhaps to take part in the demonstrations. Either way, he seemed like a friendly and mellow character. Lastly, Levi found himself completely captured by Aria's presence. Even from afar, Levi's ears pinned back at the graceful figure of the fox-featured woman. His species wasn't incredibly rare, though he didn't encounter them everyday- but what's more than that was the woman's 9 beautiful tails, which made Levi's measly number of tails seem like he was no more than a baby.
As Aria approached the group, she was met with a rather casual greeting from Xuki, but Levi instinctively tensed under the pressure of the woman's aura and her intimidating magical atmosphere. This woman was undoubtedly powerful, and she was only the stand in guild leader... what kind of strength did this Isaac guy possess? Still, after Aria began speaking Levi's stress sort of melted away. She seemed sweet and well mannered, not to mention very pleasant to look at. Not only was she pretty, but she had a certain aesthetic to her that Levi couldn't describe- least to say, he didn't mind it.
As the food came out, Levi subconsciously licked his lips. The male hadn't eaten all day, and if this meal tasted anything like it smelt then he was about to be introduced to a heavenly array of tastes and textures. Levius sat rigidly at first, he couldn't help but wonder about how out of place the recruits likely looked among the mighty members of the guild. Eventually, as the atmosphere devolved into what one would almost describe as a family dinner, Levius relaxed. He spent a long time staring at the food, warning himself not to overindulge but not knowing what he should pick. Much of what was in front of him was new to Levi, who lived mostly off of potatoes and chicken. Levi chose his foods delicately, taking small portions of many things until his plate was rather colorful. As he ate, the male didn't his best not to raise his gaze, but he couldn't help but stare at the members of the guild. It was crazy to think that the mysterious and powerful guild which he had dream about as a kid, a symbol of enigma in the world, he was dining with. Levi remained silent as he ate, not to say he didn't have questions, but he felt like a child eating at the adult table for the first time, like he was simply out of place and if he didn't just bow his head and keep quiet then the others would catch on. Instead, Levius took the time to study his opponents. Almost certainly their demonstrations would take place in an open and confined space, which meant ambushing was out of the question. Levi was best off in an area with many hiding places were he could observe his opponent and use stealth to his advantage, seeing as this demonstration would take that away- he would have to choose his opponent wisely. If he were trying to go for someone he could actually beat, Alyssa still seemed like the best option- yet Levius honestly doubted that he could beat any of the people before him. To let his guard down would be the least intelligent decision. Perhaps he should choose someone that would allow him to best show his swordsmanship. Though he only rarely brings it out in battle, Levi is very skilled with his weapon- granted if the person he goes up against his even more coordinated than him, he'd make a fool of himself. The other two members with swords were Rami and the new guy. Though the boy who Levi did not know the name of also had a shield, which could get in the way, neither one had displayed their magic so Levi couldn't use that to his advantage. He could also use his speed to his advantage, targeting a larger male like Hanz... but Hanz was pretty scary so that was out of the question. The boy chewed his lip anxiously and his stare burned into the table, there was to be a best choice- why was this so hard?

 

[Foxex]

Xuki laughed lightly watching Joseph devour his food as she took her own smaller modest bite. “Slow down there puppy or you might choke.”

The conversations across the members of the guild was light and casual, only two members hardly spoke, Hanz and Rami, when they did speak it was quiet and to the other members of the guild, inaudible to the recruits.

Aria was relaxed, eating at a leisurely pace with a faint smile she looked and at and inspected every recruit as she ate. Her ears were relaxed and her tails rested around her in her chair making it appear like she was sitting in an overstuffed armchair. Aria’s gaze fell onto Levi, noticing his eyes darting around the table as he ate, slightly fidgety, ears standing on alert, and his three tails were rather restless, though Aria could tell he was trying to appear calm. To the others it may seem like he is, but Aria knew what she was looking at and Levi was one tense Foxboy. Aria knew his type, analytical, over thinker, overanalyzer, and a person who would trap himself in his own mind and lose a battle before it can even begin.

“Xuki!, which one do you think would choose Hanz as their demonstration partner?” Cinder asked as he chewed on a large piece of grilled fillet halibut. He sat next to Aria on a high stool that some of Aria’s tails was wrapped around.

Xuki thought for a moment, “If I had to say probably the Elf, I’m sure he has prove some non-existent point or to say he took on the biggest and the baddist.” Xuki laughed.

‘Levi right?” Aria asked holding up a gilded cup and taking a sip before continuing. “Whatever it is that’s bothering you right now, you need to let it go, it’s not as complicated as whatever you’re thinking about. Relax and enjoy the food.” Aria winked and took another sip. “To help you keep your mind off things and relax, why don’t you tell me about yourself? From one fox to another?” she leaned forward resting her arms on the table revealing more of herself to him and tilter her head slightly to on side, hr ears were still relaxed as the rest of her body was. Her robes were elegant and graceful but at the same time revealed quite a bit of her skin and lady goods.

Alyssa and Rami seemed to be engaged in a conversation with Mr. Ashcroft, Carol, and Cadence. For the first time Rami seemed to be faintly smiling.

@mallard | @Barefoot_Kittens

 

[Deleted member 284192]

Clinton entered the dining hall at the back of the group, a bit scared of catching Xuki's attention. The boy went against her word and still had on his armor. He understood the concern, but Clint considered it a major piece of his training regimen. Besides, he'd gotten quite confident in his ability to lug the armor around. It may slow him down, but he had already been working to adjust his fighting style around the armor.

Once they had entered, a woman stepped up and introduced herself. "I am Aria, the current Guild Master of the Abyss Walkers."

The Guild Master?! Caught completely off guard, Clint nearly lost his balance, but pulled himself together before he had a chance to fall to the floor. He had so many questions bouncing around his mind, the boy had to dig deep in order to keep himself from spilling them on to the woman.

Clint looked around the table and decided he'd take a seat next to Levi. It was an odd choice considering the kitsune's personality, but Clint felt he should work to build friendships with all his fellow recruits, including Levi.

The food served was delicious, though it didn't faze Clint all that much as he had grown up accustomed to a wealthy lifestyle and fancy feasts. When the boy had a chance, he looked over to the guild master, hoping to shoot off some questions about her abilities and combat techniques, of course at that moment Aria had struck up a conversation with Levi. Guess I'll have to wait, Clint thought, a bit disappointed.

The boy drew his attention over to the other guild members, who all were powerful looking, themselves. Maybe it's time to study up on these potential opponents. I'm worthless at all that analytical stuff, but I'll see what I can find out. It was easy enough saying he would, but Clint had no clue where to start. Without thinking, he put on a smile, waved at Hanz, easily the biggest and most threatening looking person there, and said "Hey there, I'm Clinton. How strong are you?" Well that was a stupid idea. Despite what he thought, Clint kept up the smile in hopes that he might get an fair and honest response, or a response at all.

 

[Cmeriwether]

Fuyuko had walked along with the crew and sat down, noting everyone there, and had a choose an opponent for Demonstrations, as well as eat her fill, while she ate she was thinking about her opponent, someone who would be a good opponent. While she thought about it, she continued eating.

 

[Pinch]

Hunheart was next to sit down. He didn’t really say or do anything, just enjoyed his food. He was quite the heavy eater for one who didn’t seem it, but he was hungry. He hadn’t eaten for most of the day and he’d need the energy for his demonstration. As he looked around at the guilds higher ups, he began to decide who he’d actually pick for his demonstration.

He needed someone who would be able to take advantage of his weaknesses, and actually push his limits. Not just beat him out by being plain stronger than him. That meant it had to be Xuki, she seemed to be the fastest and most nimble of the group, and he definitely had trouble hitting fast targets. She was the one that would be able to do what he was planning, but he’d also have to make sure he didn’t just get stomped because he purposefully put himself at a disadvantage.

 

[Foxex]

Hanz turned his head slowly and looked at Clint as he waved at him. It was difficult to see his expression, but his stare seemed to pierce right through the young man. “How strong am I?” he repeated the question, his voice was very deep and slightly raspy. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, and laughed sounding as harsh as his voice. “That’s a very interesting question Clinton, there is no definite answer, but I guess in the context of the guild I am ranked as the fourth strongest in the entire guild if that means anything to you.” Hanz continued eating a few bites, “How about you? Encasing yourself in such thick armor you must be half decent? Never was into armor myself, found it too restricting in every aspect of the word, interested to see how you deal with it.”

Alyssa broke away from her conversation and took notice of Fuyuko, her mother had rarely spoken about her family life, and was pleasantly surprised that she had a half dragon daughter, even more surprised that Fuyuko decided to sign up for the guild. "Fuyuko, how you holding up? any questions for us? I'm sure you have some." Alyssa asked.

"So, whats your name?" the dark hard boy that the six recruits didn't recognize asked Hunheart after studying him a bit and having nothing really to do as he was already pretty much done eating for the time being.

@Ridleymon | @Cmeriwether | @Pinch

 

[Barefoot_Kittens]

Levi's ears involuntarily flicked each time someone talked from across the table, though he only paid attention when he deemed the first few words would lead to an interesting conversation. The cat like creature which seemed to be close to Aria, perhaps a familiar, was louder than Levi expected a familiar to be- granted he had never seen one before. It seemed to have a big personality, as it loudly asked for Xuki's opinion about which recruit would likely challenge Hanz. Obviously, Levi found it best to listen in case Xuki gave anything away about the member's weaknesses, but his concentration was interrupted by a gentle voice from ahead of him. Levi was caught of guard when someone addressed him by his name for, perhaps, the first time since arriving at the guild. It was none other than Aria, the woman simply took Levi's breath away. Once could say what he was experiencing was something similar to a fanboy meeting their hero, his exterior was mostly calm but his mind was racing. He was, after all, being address by name by the leader of one of the strongest adventure guilds in the country, and he hadn't even been officially accepted yet! Not to mention, she was beautiful. Levi was raised to be a gentle man, his mother would likely scold him just for looking at a woman the wrong way. Yet there was something about Aria that was entrancing, he was nearly unable to look away when she leaned on the table. The boy dropped his gaze to the table, where it wandered as the faint pink tone of his cheeks flushed before fading.
When Aria spoke, despite her melodic tone, the words pierced right through Levi. It was like she could see into his head. Was it a mistake on his part, was he failing to hide his thoughts? The boy prided himself on his stoic and unreadable expressions, and yet here he was being read like a book. Levi's eyes returned to the older Kitsune's face, briefly trying to figure out her intent before he sighed. The young male figured he may as well try to take her advice, after all Aria knew more than he did. Levi wasn't sure exactly what Aria wanted to know, but he couldn't out right deny her. As he puffed out a long breath of air, Levi's gaze focused on Aria's and his body relaxed slightly, "With all due respect, Ms. Aria, I don't think my humble beginnings will be of much interest to you." Levi shrugged honestly. "I come from a long line of farmers, nothing exciting to say about it. My father and grandfather both dreamed of becoming adventures, my mother says that the lust for adventure runs in my blood, I am just the only one foolish enough to follow it." Levi seemed to trail off slightly as he mused of his family, ears flattening. He understood that leaving the farm was selfish, especially as the oldest male in his generation, he just hoped that there was something greater for him to give to in the world- that he wouldn't just be abandoning his family for no reason.
After a moment, Levi laced his fingers between one another and placed his joined hands on the table, "Now, Ms. Aria, if I may." Levi looked up as if asking permission to inquire. He had so many things to ask. Aria's friendly attitude nearly had Levi forget his composure as he forced himself to limit his investigations. "I would like to know more about you." Levi softly continued with what seemed to almost be a smile, "I am sure you're past is deeply involved in the past of the guild, no? You are a founder, after all." Levi's mind flashed briefly back to the picture of the founders before he refocused. The boy's questions were less than open ended, as he went on proven his suspicions rather than actually asking anything. "I am eager to hear all about the Abyss Walkers, at whatever pace it comes to me." Levi nodded, suggesting that he didn't intend on asking about the enigma that surrounded the guild's name. "But, please, do tell me about your origins. Your tails are nothing short of extraordinary, something you have every right to be proud of, but you must know that we demi-foxes don't just gain so many tails under normal circumstances. Your aura, your magical prowess. It all suggests that you-" Levi cut himself off, realizing that he may be coming off as rude of blunt. "I mean, if it's not to much, what type of life shaped the current leader of the Abyss walkers?" Levi finally asked, after what seemed like he was trying to figure it out on his own. His brows raised and a single ear flicked intently, as Levi, who frankly wasn't very fond of small talk, waited intently for an answer.
@Foxex

 

[Pinch]

Hunheart had continued to think and strategise on how his demonstration would go, occasionally stopping to tune into a few conversations before resuming. His train of thought was interrupted by that boy who they didn’t see at all on the tour. He had asked him his name. “My name is Hunheart, I’m one of the new recruits.” He introduced himself, “Who might you be, if you don’t mind me asking? I don’t believe I saw you at all on the tour. Are you also a recruit?” He asked after his short introduction. He was a little irked that the boy had interrupted him, though it didn’t matter too much, he wanted to know where the boy had come from all of a sudden.

 

[Foxex]

Aria’s ears perked up for the first time hearing Levi’s brief backstory, she hummed in amusement as she listened. “Please, just call me Aria, we don’t really deal with formalities here, Arkady and the others do so out of choice, not requirement.” She smiled, Mr. Ashcroft and the rest of the help nodded in agreement, “There’s nothing wrong with perusing your dreams, but farming just isn’t for anybody, and either is adventuring. Well I’m glad that you decided on what you truly wanted to do.” Aria grabbed a roasted leg of some bird and handed it to Cinder who was trying to grab it but was unable to. Aria’s ears turned to Levi’s direction as she was doting on Cinder, cleaning him up like an infant as the familiar made a mess of himself trying to tear the meat off the leg of meat.

The mention of Aria and the guild’s origins seemed to have caught Hanz and Rami’s attentions, they both eyed her as if warning her to tread lightly, only for a brief moment before they returned their attention. Aria paid them no mind, and took another sip of her drink. “Yes, I guess you can say that my past is rooted deeply within the foundations of the Abyss Walkers. But I’m not the best person to be answering that question.” Aria sighed, “But my own personal origins,” she grinned, “It’s not as glamorous as you would think from someone like me. It’s true that these tails are proof of how powerful a Kitsune is but I sometimes find them to be more of a pain in the ass, do you know how much time I spend each day grooming these?” Aria hugged one of her tails, “labor of love I guess… sure I can hide them but it doesn’t always solve the issue.” Aria put her tail and stared at Levi for a short while almost enough to be unsettling, “You will earn your tails in time Levi, for most Kitsune the number of tails you have is an indication of power, wisdom, experience, and all that good stuff so jsut work hard and you too can have these in time." Aria gently pat her nearest tail. before she continued.

"My earliest memories was being alone, so very alone and scared. I never knew my parents or if I even had any it was just me in a forest. Would you believe me if I told you that I terrorized a small village practically into submission when I was a child, they got so irritated with me they tried hiring adventures to deal with me, but they were so poor that no hero would take the job… until Isaac, Rami, and Hanz came to deal with me…” Aria laughed again, this time from the nostalgia, “It was more or less Isaac who dealt with me Hanz and Rami couldn’t even touch me, even as a child I was a very powerful magic user, but I’ve never encountered anyone like Isaac at the time. After I was… for a lack of a better word, subdued, they dragged me along with them, it was an understatement to say that I was very hostile to the group especially to Isaac, yet he was the one that insisted the group to take me along instead of just killing me or leaving me to the mercy of the village. Overtime I mellowed out as I realized my hostilities were not getting me anywhere, one thing led to another, we became friends, and then we became even closer until we were like a family.” Aria’s facial expression suddenly changed as if she was suddenly reminded of something, she frowned and sighed and broke eye contact and was now the one staring down at the table, without looking at Levi she continued, “Isaac eventually became my mate….” She trailed off as she subtly wiped a tear from her eye, she didn’t continue speaking but sat still and silently wept droplets falling onto the table.

Cinder stopped eating and stared at Aria, he didn’t touch her as his hands were dirty but his expression was worrisome and he tried to peer around like a curious animal at her face.

~~~​

“Well nice to meet ya!” the young man smiled, “I’m Titus, I’m a fairly new recruit too, but I’ve already gone through all the tests and stuff, good luck to you guys on your demonstrations. I’m not allowed to say too much until you guys are officially in the guild but I trust Aria’s judgment enough that you six will pull through.” Titus’s attention was drawn to Aria, as was Hanz’s, Alyssa’s, and Rami’s.

~~~​

“Don’t mind me… it’s not your fault Levi.” Aria spoke her voice was unsteady, she looked back up at Levi and at the rest of the six recruits. “I’m just under a lot of stress at the moment, and I know that’s no excuse but there are going to bethings that will change the world and it will happen one way or another whether we want to or not and the Abyss Walkers are going to be a part of it….” Aria took in a deep breath, “Well that’s enough about me for now so who’s ready for their demonstration? Let’s begin….”

@mallard | @Cmeriwether | @Barefoot_Kittens | @Gamingfan | @Ridleymon | @Pinch

 

[Psymallard]

Joseph was eating like an animal, with a bit of everything on his plate. What did stop him when, out of the corner of his eye, someone started crying. He immediately dropped the animal leg he was digging into and did away with his appetite to make way for sympathy. His eyes darted to another voice, Titus. He cleaned his maw with his sleeve and waved at the new person. Aria spoke up again, and Joseph felt pained by her shaky voice. She suggested the demonstrations, and Joseph felt a little better. Covering up his worry, he slid his chair back a good ways and jumped up. "I'll go first! Hanz! Let's go!" He shouted, pointing at the man. Suddenly, Joseph felt like he was going to burst from all the food he ate. He winced, but conjured a small fireball and swallowed it, hoping to burn some of the food down. He let out a large belch of black smoke, threw off his poncho, and started to draw his wire from his hip pouch.
@Foxex

 

[Foxex]

Hanz slowly stood up and made his way to the center of the yard where the fifty-by-fifty foot raised white stone platform in the center of the yard, it was an arena, upon closer inspection there were runes carved all along the edges of the arena, the runes lit up in a faint blue as Hanz reached the edge of it. He leapt onto the arena in a single leap landing with a semi-loud crash has the metal of his boots landed. He stood watching Joseph as intense as ever.

Xuki laughed, “Interesting was not expecting that. All right, Joseph a few things I should mention. The edges of the arena are lined with protective barrier runes, so projectiles, magic and such will not exit the perimeter of the arena so no need to worry about us. Also please go all out with the intent to kill him, there is absolutely no reason to hold back or to keep secrets you will only be doing yourself a disservice in doing so… and more than likely piss your opponent off in this case Joseph. Hanz is not someone anyone really picks as their demonstration partner nor do they really even get the opportunity to, so count yourself lucky… I guess.” Xuki snickered to herself, “The demonstration will go on until one of you is unable to fight, don’t worry about your injuries or whatever damage you might get. Aria is more than a capable healer to heal all of your booboos. Start whenever you’re ready.” Xuki sat forward in her chair.

Hanz reached into the pockets of his overcoat and took out a pair of gloves and slipped them on before throwing off his overcoat with a single motion revealing that he was wearing nothing underneath aside from his combat pants, boots, and some wrappings around his upper torso, biceps, and forearms. His large rippling muscles stretched and flexed as he stretched. Hanz was massive and imposing as a figure but he did not appear the slightest bulky because of the muscles he has, as a matter of fact, his overall build without the overcoat actually made him seem to be highly agile yet sturdy and strong. The wrappings around his body seemed to be filled with red runic inscriptions on every strip that seem to reflect the light like wet ink. Long tails of the wrappings floated around him as if a gentle steady wind was blowing them upwards causing them to be seemingly levitating around him.

Xuki was now staring at the arena with cold focus and calculation as were most of the other guild members including Titus and even Rami who seemed completely disinterested in everything until this point. Aria still looked on with a rather gentle and soft gaze in contrast with everyone else.

@mallard