[Cherry Heart] Cherry Heart Guild Main Hall Thread

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

"I would love to. I too want to get to know everyone and socialize. How else are we going to bond better as guildmates?" Henry answered with a smile.

 

"Uhhh... Sure I don't have anything else after this... Might as well pass the time until we get our missions, right? Heh, heh." Xia answered nervously, seemingly still somewhat unsure at what she's getting into.

 

"Okay," Mac being Mac, he said it flatly. Seems like everyone's really into this, which sounded pretty pleasant for Celica. Once the painting business was done, then they could probably go to a nearby bar or something and have fun, or just generally strolling around somewhere. Perhaps sports? That might be nice too. How about a round of some card games? Henry seemed to be very capable at organizing one, so that's maybe something to consider too. Or just discussing things over a cup of coffee at the evening, that didn't sound bad a all.

 

"Alright! Now that being said, let's-

 

Huh?"

 

As she was busy thinking of what's to do with it, a thud could be heard coming from the direction of the guild hall's doorway. Curious, Celica dropped her paintbrush and rushed towards the place to see a really freaking tall man toppled over on the ground. He was seemingly passing out due to fatigue. Celica looked at him for a bit, wondering whether she could even drag him to a better place to be treated, or at least for him to rest. He seemingly was too big for her, after all. Deciding that it'd be a bit too hard if she only did it by herself, she turned around to her earlier group and called out for them.

 

"Hey guys...? Anyone can help me with this guy? He's out cold right now and he's way too big.

 

Maybe someone can help me get him to the dorms in this guild?"

 

---

[King K. Azo]

---

 
Mac had a small smile on his face as he finished painting his section. They were making good progress, and it seemed he had a chance to come out of his shell and make new friends. He couldn't even remember the last friend he made, since most of his life was being either bullied or training with Doc. He didn't understand why the guild master (at least, he assumed that was the guild master) didn't like Cecila. She was nice for offering this chance to the group. She even seemed really excited. 
 
"Alright! Now that being said, let's-," She was interrupted by the loud, resounding thud that sounded from the entrance of Cherry Heart. Mac jumped off his floating card, landing on his feet before following Cecila over to the front. When they got there, they were treated to the sight of a giant man passed out on the ground. He looked exhausted.... poor guy.  "Hey guys...? Anyone can help me with this guy? He's out cold right now and he's way too big. Maybe someone can help me get him to the dorms in this guild?" Cecila asked. Mac looked over at her. Yeah, she was kinda... a little too small for this job... thought the 4'8 man. Even Cecila was taller than him. He just had to ignore it and move on. With a mental sigh, he headed over, suddenly noticing the large gash on the man's back. That didn't look good...

 

He headed over to his hoodie that he threw to the side and dug into the pockets, pulling out a roll of cloth bandages. He always kept them on him, since he boxed, and was liable to get hurt. He headed back to the man and unrolled the cloth, using his foot to prop the man up and start wrapping the wound.

When he finished wrapping, he bent down and placed his hands under the man's chest, easily lifting him off the ground, setting the mystery man's upper body on his shoulder. He was honestly pretty light... but he was so tall that his legs were just awkwardly dangling over his shoulders and dragging on the ground.

"Dorms' location?" Mac asked without any signs of strain in his voice. He did hope someone picked up those legs though.

[Wind Rider]

"Alright! Now that being said, let's-," before Celica could finish her sentence a loud thud sounded from the doorway of the hall, Xia looked and saw that Celica's attention was turned to an extremely tall looking man who had collapsed on the floor. "Hey guys...? Anyone can help me with this guy? He's out cold right now and he's way too big. Maybe someone can help me get him to the dorms in this guild?" This didn't seem good at all.

 

"Oh no..." Xia warped from where she was painting to where Celica was, the man seemed to be very exhausted and... "Oh God... His back..." Xia got a sick stomach after noticing the large, bleeding wound on the man's back, she nearly fainted from the sight of it. Mac came over with a big roll of bandages and soon patched the large man's back up as best he could, it's a relief Mac had those bandages on him. Mac lifted the man onto his back with ease, it was clear that Mac had some strength despite his size, however the wounded man's legs dragged behind him, that wouldn't do. "Here... I got his legs... I really hope he's alright."

 

----

 

"Hey I may not be as fit looking as Mac but I got some strength too you know," after a quick talk with her acquaintance, Xia moved behind Mac and lifted the large man's legs up, as seen by her arms Xia definitely was on the thin side but she didn't have any problems lifting the man up. "Dorms' location?" Mac asked with no strain in his voice. "Right, we need to get this guy some help fast," Xia has seen wounded before but not on this scale, hopefully they could help this stranger.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

With some efforts and help from Mac and Xia, Celica managed to get the living pillar into a comfortable-looking bed in the dormitory room. There were some issues earlier since none of the people present had any idea about where the dorm was, but Yelena later begrudgingly showed them the way. She was clearly not really a fan of the idea, but with the prospect of him being a new potential guild member, she ended up deciding that it's for the best that he's brought there.

 

"Alright, thank you for this, doc. We really appreciate it."

 

With that, Celica closed the call. She managed to contact a nearby doctor, and he would be arriving in like half an hour. For now however, they're focusing on giving him the necessary first aid treatment. Right now, the large gashing wound had been cleaned and sterilized properly. It seemed that the wound on his back was pretty sterile already for some reasons. It wasn't really that fresh anyway. One of them had cauterized the wound either way, since the bleeding got to be pretty bad earlier. His condition, outside of that wound, was pretty bad however. He was clearly famished and tired, which his body clearly shown. What kind of motivation brought this man in this condition with this wound into Cherry Heart, that was something Celica couldn't really think the answer for.

 

"...Thinking about it, he's really not from anywhere nearby, huh? I wonder from what kind of place did he come from."

 

---

[Love of Ghibli]

Henry smiled as everyone accepted this invitation to hang out.Unfortunately it seems as if fate would have something else planned for this collection of new friends. Celica had noticed some injured...severely injured fellow outside of the guild hall and with the assistance of Mac and Xia they managed to stabilize his condition inside the dorms. Shamed of his lack of promptness Henry immediately decided to fetch some water. For the person looked must have surely lost a lot of fluids. 

With Ms. Yelena already aware of the situation it was clear that he didn't have much need to be in the room crowding the guy. Henry then took another careful look at the man and some thoughts came into his head. 

"...Thinking about it, he's really not from anywhere nearby, huh? I wonder from what kind of place did he come from."

 

Perhaps he's come from a tavern of sorts. Henry replied as he took off apron. There was a quest for a mission located in a tavern somewhere could it be possible he has some news about that. I mean I've seen my fair share of drunk and disorderly contact at places like that. Henry trying not to mention that he used to work in a casino where he definitely saw people who couldn't handle their liquor and loses get dealt with. T'was definitely interesting back in the day. Quite savage.

[Aix]

Hungry... yes, he was very hungry. Famished. And thirsty. Before Amatlapaliztac's eyes fully opened, his massive hand shot out and tried grabbing on to the nearest source of life force within his reach. That being the small blue-haired girl at his bedside. Not even feeling if he succeeded or not, he immediately tried sitting up to bite his prey before coming to his senses.
 
Tooth, and nail, every part of a Tonalli warrior was a weapon. However, now did not seem like the time to fight. There were strangers, but they did not seem hostile, or they would have taken advantage of his weakness earlier. They were the magicians he saw. They must have taken him in.
 
"Ezigolopa I," he said to the blue-haired girl; he did not think she would understand him, but his intent should be somewhat clear on his face. He paused for a second as he pondered, before pointing a finger at himself. "Amatlapaliztac." They should be able to understand that at least. He touched the empty dresser at the side of the bed and it grew paws at the base of its legs and began to move. He pointed to himself and the others in turn. "Naicigam." He was just like them, they were all magicians here. His grandfather told him the key to making allies was to establish a common ground. Yes, he was an ally. He was too weak to fight if they changed their minds about him.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Perhaps he's come from a tavern of sorts."

 

"That doesn't really answer my question."

 

"There was a quest for a mission located in a tavern somewhere could it be possible he has some news about that. I mean I've seen my fair share of drunk and disorderly contact at places like that."
 

"At least that might answer where did he get his wound. Although, I don't really smell the stench of alcohol from him. It should be really detectable, but I can't really seem to smell it."

 

Nevertheless, if he was a drunkard, that explains why he just suddenly appear on the guild's front door and suddenly collapsing. Celica pondered a bit about what she should do if he really was just a drunk bum. Kicking him out would be pretty hard with his size, so probably they would need to drag him out after making him unconscious again with force. That should do it. It still didn't answer her question on from where did someone like him would even come from. He didn't look like anyone from the nearby lands. Could it be-

 

"H-hey! Cut it out!"

 

Her thought was cut when the man suddenly grabbed her hand and forcefully yanking it towards himself as he sat down with a hungry look on his face. It felt like her arm almost got torn with that kind of force, and Celica almost resorted on using Moralltach to cut his arms off. But he soon came to his senses, and let her arm go before anyone on the room lose theirs, and Celica immediately withdrew it and tried to heal the slightly damaged joint. The pillar man looked around the people present, before looking back at her.

 

"Ezigolopa I,"

 

"Uh? You're really a drunkard, aren't you?"

 

She was not especially amused that the first thing she heard from him was effectively gibberish, but before she actually started her plan to get him out of the place, Celica realized that the gesture he did was an actual attempt to communicate, instead of just pure gibberish.

 

 "Amatlapaliztac."
 

He pointed at himself as he said that. That must be his name. Then, he pointed towards an empty dresser at the side of the bed, and it somehow suddenly moved. Somehow, it started to grow paws on its base, which allowed it to move around as if it was just an animal. Celica stared at it while being puzzled, though it then clicked at her mind that he was just showing that he was a fellow mage. As a gesture to acknowledge it, Celica placed her hands on the crawling drawer, and used her magic on it to return it to normal. But, before she could communicate further, the doctor they called had arrived. In response to that, Celica tried her best to use sign language to try getting this man...Amat to show his wound to the doctor. After that was done, she turned around, and let the doctor examine it properly.

 

---

[Wind Rider]

Everything seemed to be alright, Xia and Mac were able to get the large man to a dorm, thanks to Yelena for the directions to the dorm, and Celica had just gotten done with calling a doctor, the mysterious man really needed to get his wounds checked or he might get worse. But for now, he looked fine and it seemed everyone was confused on where he came from.

 

"Perhaps he's come from a tavern of sorts. There was a quest for a mission located in a tavern somewhere could it be possible he has some news about that. I mean I've seen my fair share of drunk and disorderly contact at places like that." Henry seemed to have a point, but even a tussle in a bar wouldn't leave a large gash in a man's back, especially if that man is seven feet tall and well built.

 

----

 

"Right," Xia turned to her new friends and gave them her acquaintance's answer, "it seems like he couldn't of gotten that large wound on his back from a bar fight, and like Celica said, he doesn't smell like he came from a bar or tavern." Before anyone could think of it further the large man suddenly grabbed and pulled Celica towards him. Xia's eyes lit up in from the sudden action of the large man and she would've threw a firebolt at him, but the man realizing his situation let go of Celica, at least his senses are back in a way.

 

"Ezigolopa I," he didn't seem to speak English but he at least sounded like he was sorry for grabbing Celica like that. "Amatlapaliztac." The man pointed to himself upon speaking, maybe that was his name? He placed his hand on an empty dresser near him and it seemed to come to life with little paws on its legs. "Awww... That's cute, so you can make inanimate objects come to life, that's pretty neat," Xia tried to keep a less nervous face in the sight of the man, but couldn't help but think of what else he could do. The doctor soon came into the dorm and Celica tried to converse with the man through sign language about the wound on his back. "Listen, the doctor is going to take care of your wounds, uhhhhhh... Your name is a mouth full, do you think it's alright if we just call you... Amat?"

[Aix]

Amatlapaliztac could not understand these magicians' gibberish, but the girl seemed to be gesturing for him to lie down as a new person came into the room. It was a middle-aged man who had a kindly look about him. Yet, Amatlapaliztac noticed immediately that this man was also very powerful built under his robe.

"...Amat?"

For a moment, it seemed the nervous-looking girl with glowing red eyes was referring to him there, but of course, Amatlapaliztac did not understand what she was saying. Maybe if she emphasized it more to make it clear to him, he would have gotten it.

Following the blue-haired one's instructions, Amatlapaliztac decided to lie down. He was hardly in a position to resist here. He also wondered if it was not customary to introduce oneself in this land, in that case he may have committed a faux-pas... but he was a warrior of the Tonalli, even disgraced he would hold his head and name high.


"To think that I would be treating the mages of Cherry Heart... ah sorry, my name is Dr. Weirheart, nice to meet you all." He paused and after a moment of observation and touching the big man's back he spoke again. "Looks to me like this man is quite parched and famished, I would prepare some food and water as soon as possible," said the doctor. "I see you have already cauterized the wound on his back—" However, at that moment, the wound spurted open again and the doctor creased his eyebrows.

He held his hands out in front of him and they started to glow, but he flinched back as blood spurted out; it only seemed to worsen the bleeding. Forming his index finger and thumb into a ring, he put it up to his eye as he leaned in for a closer look at the blood.

"How foolish of me not to realize before. Venom... there's some sort of venom in his wound," said the doctor. "Yet his body seems to be resisting the poison quite well, some power in his blood is fighting it in equilibrium... wait, what is this venom?!"

The doctor was silent and he put a hand up to gesture the others to let him think.

After a moment, he pulled out something from his bag. "Sit him up, I'm going to wrap him up. His bandage will need to be changed regularly... four times a day. Be sure not to use medicated bandages, I am afraid of how it would interact with the toxins." He stopped to apply the bandages before asking. "How did he receive such a wound?"

Being told they didn't know, the doctor could only grimace. "Even if I knew I doubt I could deal with it. Fortunately, it does not look like his life is in any danger right now... but at the moment he is only awaiting death. I only know of one man in Fraxinus—no, Arbolia—who could cure this. My mentor... Oh, you guys of all people should know him, he was a member of Cherry Heart once. The invincible Beast of War, Moche Hippocrates!" The doctor regained some life talking about his teacher. "Although he hates it when we talk about his past. He runs a small hospital and medical school now in the village of Nightvale."

The doctor stood up to leave. "Sorry, I couldn't do more. I'll waive the fee this time. I only charge what people can pay, and only charge if I have cured them. Goodbye."

[Love of Ghibli]

Henry had quickly flicked his wrist and called forth a card when the man came to. However weird his name was it seemed that he was a magician and Henry figured at the very least he should respect that. Soon a doctor would come and explain something about how the man had been poisoned with venom. Henry could only tilt his head as this man's tribal style made that seem oddly logical, but it looked like there was some chance of salvation. 

"Even if I knew I doubt I could deal with it. Fortunately, it does not look like his life is in any danger right now... but at the moment he is only awaiting death. I only know of one man in Fraxinus—no, Arbolia—who could cure this. My mentor... Oh, you guys of all people should know him, he was a member of Cherry Heart once. The invincible Beast of War, Moche Hippocrates!"

 

Henry only raised an eyebrow as he had no idea of who this man was. In fact he didn't know much about the guild he was now apart of. Nevertheless that wouldn't stop him from being successful. 

"Although he hates it when we talk about his past. He runs a small hospital and medical school now in the village of Nightvale. Sorry, I couldn't do more. I'll waive the fee this time. I only charge what people can pay, and only charge if I have cured them. Goodbye."

 

As Henry watched the doctor make his exit it looked like the course of action was quite clear to the others and everyone else. Well it looks like a there is a quest a foot to village of Nightvale. Sounds like a a good way to get to know each other and do some greater good while we're at it.

[Wind Rider]

The doctor seemed enthusiastic about getting to help the Cherry Heart guild, and he acted polite and kind while was working his magic on Amat's wound. Amat wasn't in much trouble it seemed, a little hunger and thirst is all, though the sound of venom in his wound preventing it from healing was a little disheartening, nevermind the fact the wound hasn't stopped bleeding even when Xia had cauterized it.

 

----

 

"Hey this may not bother you, but I have a very sick stomach right now." The doctor recommended that Amat would need constant wrappings of bandages on his wound if it's to at least slow the bleeding. "Even if I knew I doubt I could deal with it. Fortunately, it does not look like his life is in any danger right now... but at the moment he is only awaiting death. I only know of one man in Fraxinus—no, Arbolia—who could cure this. My mentor... Oh, you guys of all people should know him, he was a member of Cherry Heart once. The invincible Beast of War, Moche Hippocrates!" It's sad that the doctor couldn't help Amat but the sound of this Hippocrates person did seem like a sign of hope for Amat. "Although he hates it when we talk about his past. He runs a small hospital and medical school now in the village of Nightvale. Sorry, I couldn't do more. I'll waive the fee this time. I only charge what people can pay, and only charge if I have cured them. Goodbye." The doctor left the dorm with a goodbye and everyone was left to their thoughts.

 

"Well it looks like a there is a quest a foot to village of Nightvale. Sounds like a a good way to get to know each other and do some greater good while we're at it." Henry seemed ready to leave for Nightvale, not everything needs to be a quest as long as they were helping someone though.

 

----

 

"Right, I agree with Henry, I mean it does seem like a good time to get to know eachother... And uhhh... We may just find a way to help Amat, but I think we might as well introduce ourselves..." Xia proceeded to point out everyone by name to Amat so that he would at least know them. "Xia," she said pointing to herself, " that's Henry, she's Celica, and he's Mac," Xia pointed to everyone as she called their names so Amat might at least get everyone's names. "At least we'll be able to get to know eachother just like you wanted to Celica... Heh, heh, yeah get to know eachother..." Xia at this point couldn't hide the fact she was nervous, she put her hood back on to hide her expression, at this point everyone may be worried, especially since Xia is hiding her entire body in a large cloak, hopefully they don't ask any specific questions.

[King K. Azo]

---

Mac stood quietly in the corner after they managed to bring the tall man into the dorms. Everyone was watching him, waiting for him to get up, which he eventually did. He grabbed Celica and began to speak in some foreign language. Through genius detective work, they determined he was a mage and his name was Amatlapaliztac. That was a mouthful. Good thing Mac barely ever opened his mouth. The doctor then walked into the room. With this, this meant that Amatlapaliztac was okay, right? So the small boxer decided to take his leave, heading out the door just before hearing any diagnostic.

As he headed back to the hall, Mac thought to himself. It was good that he helped fixed the place up, but he should do more. There was really only one thing he could do though. He jogged into the hall, silently going to the board and looking over the quests. Was there anything that really caught his eye? 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Sorry, I couldn't do more. I'll waive the fee this time. I only charge what people can pay, and only charge if I have cured them. Goodbye."

 

"That is so...huh?" Angela couldn't really hide her disappointment as the doctor left, but she kept her smile and she did heed what the doctor said regarding on what she and the others should do regarding the wounded man. She silently cursed at herself at that point, at how she still couldn't manage to get her power to work on others so she could actually heal them, but it really wouldn't do much. It probably would be a bit more complicated than that anyway.

 

"Well it looks like a there is a quest a foot to village of Nightvale. Sounds like a a good way to get to know each other and do some greater good while we're at it."
 

"Is it really the best time to-"

"Right, I agree with Henry, I mean it does seem like a good time to get to know eachother... And uhhh... We may just find a way to help Amat, but I think we might as well introduce ourselves..."

 

Celica was cut by Xia, and the previously quiet girl proceeded to take the initiative to introduce Amat to the people present as best as she could. In any other conditions, she would've complained about it, but right now Celica felt that it was best for her to let them take their initiative in this regard.

 

"At least we'll be able to get to know eachother just like you wanted to Celica... Heh, heh, yeah get to know eachother..."

 

Xia was still definitely really shy, especially since she was now covering her expression with her cloak again, but it was nice of her to attempt communicating like that, so Celica gave her a warm smile to appreciate it. There was only three people left there. There probably would still be more tasks to perform on the guild. So with that, Celica decided that she'd look over Amat on her own for now, tending his wound while trying to get more information from him.

 

"Hey guys, I think I'll be the one that handles him for now. Both of you should  go back and continue whatever was still necessary to be done. The painting was still unfinished, right?

 

Don't worry, I'll be fine."

 

The next morning had Celica still watching Amat closely, not sleeping for even one minute throughout the night. She was practically using her magic to refresh herself over and over again, and while it was quite tiring, it wasn't really that bad for someone that had been pretty used to it. She considered to try continuing her communication attempt to Amat during the night, but decided not to in the end - feeling that it would be for the best that he got some rest now after she made sure to feed him properly. He wouldn't survive while being famished like that, after all. But now, it was already morning, and so Celica decided that she should probably try communicating with Amat again.

 

She tapped his back to make sure he's awake, and waved her hands at him.

 

"Feeling better?" She asked in her language, but tried her best to use sign language in the meantime to convey what she was saying to him.

 

"Did it still hurt?

 

If you're feeling better, would you like to try looking around the guild? Don't worry, I'll accompany you so you won't get lost."

 

 

Yesterday had gone quite a lot better than expected for Yelena. With the progress of renovating and refurbishing the guild hall had gone smoothly, she could delay hiring contractors to finish the job, and allocate the funds for something more pressing, and perhaps some luxuries. She was still in the talk with Tyson regarding the distribution of prestige points for the guildmembers of yesterday, however. After all, only Henry officially had taken the quest.

Other good news was that the Yggdrasil "representative" had chosen to stay away from the rest of the guildmembers too for the night, and Yelena was sure that Tyson had managed to put her in her proper place, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about from her.

 

Granted, it wasn't all cheery. She was still quite unsure on what she should do with the tall foreign man in the infirmary right now. Perhaps it could be trouble for her and the guild, but as long there's a chance that he's a potential guildmember, so Yelena couldn't just toss him away. Other than that, there was also the fact that the guild had technically failed one of the first quests they've taken after their revival. The news had reached her, but it was clear that it's not exactly the guildmembers fault that they failed the quest due to the questgiver cancelling the quest. Perhaps Tyson would agree with her to still give them the prestige point for that quest, but time would tell.

 

She was now looking at the quest board. She saw the quest that had been put there yesterday regarding an investigation towards Nightvale, and there was another new one, this time regarding trade routes that had been terrorized by attacks. Locals said it was a witch, but there's still some room for skepticism on it. The total currently active and open quests were not as plentiful as she expected at first, but it was only natural that she'd overestimating things. After all, even if this is the revival of the most famous past guild in Arbolia, right now they're still pretty much operating like a freshly made guild. And it's for the better too. Too much demand and a bloated size since the beginning wouldn't do them any good.

 

"Well, well...let's just hope today will be even better than tomorrow."

 

---

[King K. Azo]

---

Mac was up before dawn, having gotten a light breakfast of eggs with toast before getting a shower. This was his regular morning routine, one he had done since he was eight. He didn't see a point of breaking routine.

Mac's pink hoodie allowed made jogging around the city comfortable. Due to the size of the coastal town, he decided that running around the place for ten laps sounded like a good idea. He had to admit, this town was nice. It was quiet, the feeling of peace surrounded the town like a warm blanket, and the sea air felt good in his lungs, especially compared to the coal filled air of his home town. By the time he finished the his jog, he was able to witness a beautiful sunrise. They always took his breath away, even if he saw them a million times.

With his jogging done, he decided to head back towards the guildhall, jogging the whole way. His pink jumpsuit and hoodie attracted stares, but that was fine with him. It was half the reason why he wore it, that way people wouldn't run into him. After all, people normally didn't see him because he was so short, and never noticed because he was quiet. The other half was because pink always was cheap in the stores, and he wasn't one for spending a lot of money.

He made it back to the guildhall, seeing that it was still early on the morning. So did he did only one thing.

Train. Train harder. Train harder and harder and harder. Train until his heart pounded without beating twice in a second.

The Undefeated of the East had a talent in rigorously doing a training lesson without taking a break. This particular trait of his made up for the lack of other things he just could not improve upon, as he was able to stabilize his overall fighting style. Since Mac's boxing involved a fair amount of footwork and flexible punches, the champion concluded that leg exercises were just as important as exercises that involved his fists.

Holding onto one-hundred pound weights, the boxer exercised vigorously, counting all the way to three hundred jumping jacks in a single run. At this point, this was an easy exercise, but was still able to make him sweat, which was all he needed right now.

Strangely, the day felt like a regular day, for he did not have anything to do until he decided on his first quest. That said, he felt like he was missing out on something... important. However, no one himself seemed to mention anything about any important events he had to prepare for the day. All he needed to do was keep training until he felt ready.

---

An hour later after doing push-ups and sit ups as well, Mac felt ready. Rolling his shoulder, the Boxer from the Bronze went up to the quest board, looking over its contents. Again, nothing really caught his eyes, not until he saw it. There was a mission. Apparently, people where being attacked by someone... People claimed it was a witch. Mac honestly didn't care if it was or not. Someone was attacking innocent people, abusing their power.

That made the normally calm man very angry.

He quickly decided, this was the quest he was accepting. He supposed it was time for a witch hunt.

[Love of Ghibli]

After a full day of cleaning Henry woke up the next day feeling refreshed that he had successfully completed a quest. Granted all he did was clean the guild hall from damage he helped start, but it wasn't like anyone would say that he did not do that bad of a job. Now with a new day comes a new quest and while he put on some snazy traveling clothes he made his way down to the quest board. 

As he looked on he noticed that the little Mac character was already signing up for one of the spots. Henry approached the quest board himself and noticed that there was now a quest to the village of Nightvale. Henry smirked as this was the same mysterious village where the former member of Cherry Heart now resides. After reading the actual quest though. Oh would you look at that its something different than helping my new friend. He said out loud to no one in particular. Well nothing is better than killing two birds with one stone. He thought about what he just said for a moment. Seriously people should find a better analogy for that. 

 

Without a second thought he immediately wrote his name down for the opportunity to participate in that quest. He just had to find Ms. Yelena so he could find out if Prestige was something tangible so he could collect payment and then pay for said quest.

[Wind Rider]

"Gah!!!" Xia woke up next morning in a gasp of horror, "Heh, just another dream," To say she got night terrors occasionally would be an understatement as Xia constantly had nightmares almost every night.

 

----

 

"You could at least share my lost memories in a different manner, you'd think I would be used to them by now." Xia got up and around trying to figure out what this new dream meant, she got her cloak on, preferring to not put the hood on, and proceeded to the guildhall. The guildhall looked beautiful were it not for the fact Xia and the others had just finished fixing it up, though Henry did most of the work with his fascinating card play. Speaking of Henry, Xia could see him at the quest board, looking over the Nightvale quest no doubt, he was extremely eager to start off in a more, official quest.

 

----

 

"It isn't like me to make friends this quickly? Well, the first fefw people I met here kinda made an impression on me, can't keep hiding under a hood forever you know, heh..." It was unlike her to make friends as quickly as she did, but Xia knew if she was to get anywhere in a guild she'd have to get over her extreme shyness. Xia warped to the quest board to see what the Nightvale quest was about, she also noticed Mac was here after he took his leave when Amat was getting looked at by the doctor, he looked as if he had just gotten done working out or something. Xia gave Mac a short wave and started to look over the quest that Henry had signed for.

 

"H... Hi Henry, nice morning isn't it? Uhhh... This the quest involving Nightvale?" Xia took a quick look at the quest, but it was the title of the quest that caught her attention, "Nightmare Fuel," Xia's face went paler than usual at the sound of this name.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

 

"Ring-ding didle i de-o, ring ding didley i oh!" Tegur roared out the song in great, and obviously intoxicated, spirits as he made his way into the guild hall once more. By the way the sun was shining he realized it was morning when he finally reached his destination. The quest had gone, well, not badly. Just not anything really.

Even the strange attackers he faced weren't that big of a deal. A minor nuisance really. And after a couple hours of not really doing anything the owner decided they had to cancel the quest. Something along the lines of not being able to afford keeping them around if it wasn't needed.

Tegur wasn't sure that was wise, for he had a feeling their presence was keeping people from causing trouble, but it wasn't up to him.

 

Though, as a thanks, Tegur was allowed to go hog-wild on the booze. And he did so with gusto. It didn't take him long before he was entirely smashed and was forced to vacate the premises. He wasn't entirely sure how he made it back here, maybe someone upstairs was looking out for him, or perhaps the kids helped him along.

Speaking of the kids. He remembered telling them what good kids they were, and not to worry about the quest. He promised to take any blame if they got into trouble. Though at the moment he wasn't thinking of blame.

He was just happily swaying from side to side, walking in a wide zig-zag across the guild hall, until he finally collapsed in the middle of the floor. He lay there, blinking at the ceiling, which was moving quite fast now, and began singing again.

[Kyng]

Tyson yawned sleepily as he rubbed his eyes awaking from his sleep. Having spent much of the night approving quests to hit the board and filtering between the more difficult ones, he had also spent a lot of yesterday working on some of the more secretive natures within the basements of the guild halls. In that regard he had fashioned his own quest, the 16th, to hit the board. However, setting up the trial itself was quite a task in its own right. It took time and it had exhausted him. Fortunately Yelena was there to help him, if he hadn’t an assistant he would undoubtedly have crippled under the pressure.

As he climbed out of his bed, showering and dressing, rubbed his eyes, still creased and baggy from exhaustion as he opened the door to his room he saw that the mages were readying up for their quests. Happily, he was relieved that their enthusiasm was out there. He was a little worried for the other mages, still on their quests, but a few had been completed. Little victories was his mentality when it came to things like these. Naturally, with this in his mind, he walked down to find Yelena to be caught up to speed on things.

To his surprise he found they had an ill guest recovering in one of their rooms. Tyson would no doubt have to see to him soon.

With that, he began to discuss guild member prestige distribution. There was no issue with the 4 girls completing their press related mission, so Angela, Angel, Io and Lily all received 2 prestige each. They could tell the quest had been complete, since they’d received a complimentary magazine and, well, needless to say Lily sold the front cover exceptionally well. With that in mind, the more difficult matters came to be addressed.

“Alright, so remind me again, who do we have to address?” Looking over the papers he noticed the cancellation of the bar quest, hindering their growth and wasting a day. “Sadly, we cannot really reward them for a cancellation. It wouldn’t be right to give them the prestige. However, I feel Nanuq, Tegur and Masaru were cheated out in this regard…”

He rubbed his chin in though, before suddenly hearing the drunken stumbling of Tegur into the guild hall. Realizing this, he rose his brows in disbelief before shaking his head to Yelena. “Evidently, they’ve been sufficiently compensated.”

Then came the matter of the simple cleaning quest. “Well, this one is simple. Henry did the majority of the work and, as the only signed mage, we'll credit him of course. Celica is not one of our mages, so her prestige is no concern of ours. Mac did fix that crater outside and alongside Xia he did seem to help elsewhere, so it wouldn't be right not crediting the hard work.”

 

The Prestige Count had shown that:

Lily, Io, Angel and Angela all had a total of 3 prestige.

Henry, Mac, and Xia all had a total of 2 prestige.

 

With that settled, he sighed in relief, practically collapsing into the seat beside Yelena. It was proof she was more than needed in her station.

---

Dareios hadn’t spent the day on a quest. In his stead he had spent his day after the party exploring the city of Prunus, finding himself a lodgings and the like. You see, while the guild certainly had cheap and affordable, as well as comfortable lodgings, Dareios was an indulgent individual in the simpler pleasures that the city would offer him. He certainly would not want to cause discomfort to his neighbours and undoubtedly future partners, nor keep them awake at night due to the noise he would cause when accompanied by one from, well, where one would pay for lady favours. It was arguably to no surprise that Dareios was somewhat of a hedonist in this regard, and finding the city’s best whorehouse was certainly something he had to have control over.

With all this, he made his way into the guild. As always, he looked immaculate - and he should. He spent a good hour working on making sure he looked as incredible as he could and he did a damn great job at it. His hair in that sexy frazzle of unkempt wildness that expressed a spontaneity to him, with ponytail cast over his shoulder just right, gave him the visage of a male Adonis.

He noticed a plethora of mages climbing over the quest board. Taking an opportunity to peer in and spot one he noticed one that called to his culture. “Mm.” He thought aloud as he took the notice from the board. He went to paraphrase what he read so as to get a quicker grasp of the subject at hand - “A major trade route...yada yada...terrorized by a rogue witch...targeting things en route to Cherry Heart's headquarters…?” Dareios smirked at the notion as he brushed his chin.

“Mm, well then. This one certainly hits close to home, and I wager protecting a trade route would reap lucrative reward.” Dareios swiftly took to signing up for this quest, noting that an individual called Mac had also signed up for the quest. Alas, he had paid no heed to the individual as yesterday he was simply too busy elsewhere and he was fraternizing with the ladies of the guild at the party. He figured now’d be a nice chance to make up for lost time.

Of course, Dareios also had no idea how antisocial Mac was.

“Mac, is it?” Dareios extended a hand to his with a bewitching smile. “My name is Dareios. It is my pleasure to find we’ll be working together on this quest to deal with a witch, hm? Well, I would wager we should be able to handle her easily.” With that said he smiled and glanced under Mac’s hood to make eye contact with him, before furrowing his brows, his fantastic smile turning to a charismatic smirk as he gazed into Mac’s face for a moment.

“Say, Mac. What do you want?”

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

"...Brother, you're actually home?" Angela's voice was more puzzled than glad when she heard the voice on the other side of the phone. She was really distant from her brother, after all. She only had seen him a few times back when she still lived in Agria. Hearing that he was finally home was something that she did not expect at all.

 

"Been quite a while. It is really nice to hear the voice of my dear little sister again after all these years. You've grown to be quite the maiden, if I may say. Made me glad to be your brother."

 

"As if you've ever actually cared about me."

 

"Well, can't say I didn't deserve that remark. However, dwelling on this topic won't do us any good. I would not be here for long - I would be sent on another mission abroad in a week or so. So, first of all, I need to congratulate you for entering Cherry Heart. I saw your pictures on a magazine earlier, and it is nice to see you in th-"

 

"...are you really serious?"

 

"But yeah, have to admit that you look really cute there.

 

But more importantly, and the main reason why I came home in the first place, is that I have found where our sister went, and I need to tell you and our parents about it.

 

Indeed, she foolishly left with her lover, but apparently their story didn't end well at all - as we all already expected. I've located said man around a month ago, a noble of Sessrumnir it seemed. He didn't want to say anything at first, but after some forceful digging, I get him to say something about her. They were seemingly pretty harmonious, in his own words, for several months, thenthey apparently broke up. Violently at that.

 

He mentioned that Angelica had committed suicide not long afterwards."

 

"I see." Without replying to her older brother any further after saying the cold acknowledgement, Angela closed the call, looking pretty expressionless. She stared at the ceiling for a bit, and grabbed a change of clothing from her drawers before heading towards the bathroom.

 

"Can't say she didn't deserve it. She should've listened to me."

 

---

 

The guildmaster had finished his addressing regarding the prestige rewards and now went slumped over his seat, clearly being drained due to all the work he was doing to get the gears turning again. With him being out of commission for now, the responsibility of continuing the job went for her for today, as always. Being his assistant, making sure everything went well is what's she supposed to be doing. Some issues were still demanding to be solved, the biggest one being calculating payments for the guildmembers for their quests, prestige aside. She had a bit of a talk with Tyson about this last night, but they didn't reach something solid enough just yet. It would be done by the end of the day though, and that's something that she could be sure of.

 

For now she just would need to do an overview regarding the quests taken today, so with that intent Yelena went towards the questboard, where apparently some guildmembers had gathered.

 

---

 

The photoshoot yesterday was a lot more tiring than what Angela expected. Perhaps it's due to her not getting enough sleep the night before, but either way it was bad enough that she almost immediately collapsed after her session, and she was barely even awake when the reporter gave her and the others their review and reward. She could hear Angel talking to her, but she was too dizzy to properly reply to her outside of a simple smile.

 

The earlier event really did little to curb Angela's apparent enthusiasm for the day. Once she's done bathing and dressing herself, she started to plan out how she should do her day today. She considered to take a break in questing for today, seeing that she needed a shopping trip after a long while. One doubloon of gold is quite plentiful, after all. Perhaps she could even throw a small party. Maybe she should ask someone out for the night for some happy fun times.

 

It was not something that she wished to decide immediately, in the end. The only decision she made was that she's going to check the questboard for any active quests first. With that being said, she left her quarters and returned to the main hall, where she found a drunk minotaur lying on the ground, singing incomprehensibly. Perhaps he partied too hard and drank too much. The stench of alcohol from him was pretty bad, and it's not like she could do anything to him to help, so she went past him instead and right towards the quest board.

 

Though the first thing that she noticed was the dashing tanned man currently talking with a boxer, instead of any quests currently on the board. It reminded her that she didn't manage to do much on the beach yesterday, and thinking about the man before her and imagining things about him was something nice, further increasing her good mood for the day.

 

"Hey hey, hello there!" Angela tapped the man's shoulder, hoping that she was not disturbing the two by doing so. She continued talking while smiling sheepishly, still pretty mesmerized by the attractiveness of the man. "I'm Angela, nice to meet you two!" She was clearly saying that to the dashing tanned man though. "Glad to see more guildmembers here, so hopefully your quest went well today!"

 

With that said, she finally got herself thinking about quests once more, and so she went towards the board and noticed the quest number 16. It was apparently a trial set up by the guildmaster himself, and looking at the description, it wouldn't really take the whole day, probably, so she could possibly go for a late night shopping afterwards. Without thinking about it more, she signed her name under it, before returning towards the dashing tanned man.

 

"Hey, perhaps one of these days we can spend some time together? I think I want to know you deeper, if I may say.

 

Haven't gotten myself to interact with much of the guys here, actually. It'd be nice, I'm sure of it. A bit sudden, I know. But some play after a long day of questing could be fun, don't you think?"

 

It was a bit more directly forward than her usual approach, but she was currently in an uplifted mood, and that was enough for her to ask him out like that. Perhaps it could just be a way for her to not think about something, though.

 

---

[Kyng]

Turning gently and raising his brows he heard the sound of a fair maiden behind him and, well, he wouldn’t be who he was if he didn’t turn himself to her and return the greeting. Turning the front of his frame to face Angela, giving her a full frontal view of the utterly scrumptious figure before her, Darieos smiled as he listened with his sexy smile brandished along his smile as always. Introducing her name as Angela, Dareios felt an exotic exhilaration from it. He was used to more eastern names, and Fraxinus’ names were all new to him. They all had a ring of delight to his ears. With a sexy, chocolatey chuckle from his deep, smooth voice, he happily conversed with the lady before him.

 

“It is most certainly our pleasure to meet you, I am sure.” Dareios spoke, naturally speaking more so on his own behalf. “Angela, what a beautiful name. Mine own pales in comparison. I am humbly yours, Dareios al-Aswad.”

 

Placing his hand to his heart and gesturing it to her, a Nereuan gesture of greeting, he chuckled softly and shook his head. “Unfortunately, no, I spent my first day looking for a lodging, though your fortune is well spent - I believe I’m in the works of a lead. Though…” With that he looked back over the refurbished guild halls. ”...in retrospect I might However, the news is buzzing and we all know that you did exceptionally well in your own quest. You’ve certainly brought attention to the guild - very well done!”

 

Soon after she returned to him with a dazzling smile of her own, albeit sheepish, but Dareios was quite frankly already enchanted by her and simply wanted to know more about Angela as it was. If he had her correctly, he felt he heard quite forward thinking from the mage before him. Frankly he liked the spunk and, gently going to take her hand, he chuckled with a nod. “When I finish this witch conundrum, we could go find a lovely place to get to know each other, and play a little more."

 

With a subtle chuckle he gently looked over the beautiful shore of Prunus. "Who knows, I’d quite like to take you to the beach one evening if you’d feel so inclined to model some more..." In saying this, Dareios leaned into her ear and whispered so softly, so sensually, his voice like smooth silk to her ear. "...risqué swimwear? I would happily return the favour in kind.”

[Wind Rider]

The next morning after the photoshoot, Angel was up and wandering around the guildhall, since she didn't require sleep she was, as others would feel, wide awake. She noticed a couple of new guild members as she walked around, the guild certainly is getting larger by the minute. Soon the minotaur from the festival came singing drunkenly into the guild before collapsing to the floor, he continued to sing even after he had fallen. "Well he's a... Merry soul isn't he," Angel said to herself, "well, time to look at what quests we got."

 

Angel walked over to the quest board to take a look at what was available when she noticed Angela there. "Oh, hi Angela," Angel said happily, Angela seemed to be talking with another guild member, a really attractive man by the looks of things, "did you see the Wizard Weekly magazine at all, Lily made the cover and it seems everyone in the city likes it, this'll certainly get the guild some popularity points huh?" After talking a bit with Angela, Angel looked over the available quests, a couple seemed full already, quest 16 did catch Angel's eye and she noticed that Angela had already signed up for it too. Apparently, it was a trial set up by the guild master, Angel has had little time to actually show the guild what she's got in the way of combat, so this quest seemed like a nice change of pace from the photoshoot.

 

"Hey Angela, I'll be signing up with quest 16 too, haven't had a chance to actually show what I have to offer the guild in terms of combat abilities and such, oh and before we leave for the quest I've got something I want to show you, I was working on it all night." Angel had an excited tone about showing Angela the little project she had been working on since yesterday's photoshoot at the beach, it'll hopefully surprise Angela a whole bunch, after all she did give Angel the idea for this project.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

Dareios was definitely pretty pleasant to talk to, and his sweet words warmed Angela's heart, who continued to smile as he introduced himself. He was seemingly from a distant land, with his name like that and his deeply tanned skin giving him an exotic feel, something that Angela liked as she rarely saw anyone with the kind of feel that he had. When he said his name paled in comparison to Angela's own, she giggled a bit. It was clearly him trying to be overblown in his courtesy, but in a way, it was quite cute.

 

"However, the news is buzzing and we all know that you did exceptionally well in your own quest. You’ve certainly brought attention to the guild - very well done!

 

"Y-you saw me in the magazine?" Angela asked with a shy-ish tone. Her voice lacked any form of mature charms with it, but for her, that never mattered. Thinking about him seeing the pictures taken on the beach with her wearing the swimsuit made her face red. She wasn't actually shy, just the imagination she had about it was the cause of that reaction. "I-I wasn't that great there, really. Lily and the others would be a lot better than me there."

She actually hadn't seen any of the pictures as she didn't get to see the magazine before she went here. Nevertheless, at the idea of her "teasing" of him, he seemed to take the signal well. Should be expected of a man like him, but it was something that she really liked. He responded with a small chuckle before he held her hand with his.

 

When I finish this witch conundrum, we could go find a lovely place to get to know each other, and play a little more. Who knows, I’d quite like to take you to the beach one evening if you’d feel so inclined to model some more..." Before Angela could answer, he went closer towards her, having his head lean towards her ear as he continued it with a whisper. She wasn't showing any change of expressions, but Angela liked it when he was breathing so close to her. And his voice, oh the sweet sweet voice.

 

"...risqué swimwear? I would happily return the favour in kind.” As he whispered the passage, a hint of tingling was felt by Angela on her body. The alluring voice of the man sent jolts throughout her. It all felt like she was a butterfly trapped in a spider's web, but she frankly felt no need to struggle to escape. With the voice as her guide, she embraced the fate that awaits her and answered him with a whisper.

 

"There's nothing for me to flaunt here, you really sure about that? But if you insist, I'll see what I can do with those. Showing some skin could feel nice, could it?

 

Perhaps, I can show you my nothingness along the way~? I'm definitely looking forward for it~" Innocently, cheerfully childlike, yet sensual and inviting. As much as she lacked the capability to physically tease, verbally would be something else entirely. So wrapped in the thought and allure of Dareios that Angela was not noticing Angel approaching her at first, and only her greeting finally snapped her out of the lovely trance and grounded her back to reality.

 

"Oh, hi Angela, did you see the Wizard Weekly magazine at all? Lily made the cover and it seems everyone in the city likes it. This'll certainly get the guild some popularity points, huh?"

 

"Well, as long as people don't only come here for Lily's lilies...if you know what I mean." She chuckled a bit at her own joke. "Though I haven't seen the magazine just yet. Planning to get it later perhaps. Can't wait to see how your photos end up like, Angel."

 

With that said, Angel went towards the quest board while Angela busied herself with the sight and her thoughts of Dareios. She came back not long after, already choosing what was seemingly the same quest as her. Once again, Angel yanked Angela from her heavens back to earth.

"Hey Angela, I'll be signing up with quest 16 too, haven't had a chance to actually show what I have to offer the guild in terms of combat abilities and such."

 

"Well, if it does contains fighting...then I'll definitely be more than ready for it." Angela answered, an excited tone was clear with her voice.

 

"Oh, and before we leave for the quest, I've got something I want to show you, I was working on it all night."

 

"A new up-" Angela silenced herself as she realized that there were several people around. Instead of continuing immediately, she whispered it to Angel instead. "A new update on your body...?"

 

She sounded somewhat concerned. While they were able to rework Angel's body to be more humanlike yesterday, she got a feeling that maybe Angel took it as a sign to start modifying her body more and more, and that could lead to disasters.

 

"Just don't do something too outlandish, ok?" She reminded Angel. The last thing Angela would want to happen in this beautiful day would be for Angel to start malfunctioning like she allegedly did during the festival day, and ruin things. While she's called the Heaven's Hole, she's not looking forward to creating holes on Angel. And that's implying it would fix her were she ended up malfunctioning again.

 

A bit nervous by what was on Angel's mind, Angela later shifted her attention to Dareios again, eager to continue their talk.

 

---

[King K. Azo]

---

Mac had finished signing up and prepared to head to the waiting area when a man approached him. He looked liked he spent all of last night and most of this morning making himself look good. Why would he do that? Wouldn't that be counterproductive to a quest? Unless they had a modeling quest? Was that a thing? Eh, whatever.

 

“Mac, is it?” The man extended a hand to his with a smile that would probably make a woman woo. Mac just stared blankly before shaking his hand. “My name is Dareios. It is my pleasure to find we’ll be working together on this quest to deal with a witch, hm? Well, I would wager we should be able to handle her easily.” With that said he smiled and glanced under Mac’s hood to make eye contact with him, before furrowing his brows, his fantastic smile turning to a charismatic smirk as he gazed into Mac’s face for a moment.

 

“Say, Mac. What do you want?” Mac blinked at that. What an odd question. Why did he want to know? However, a better question was... why didn't he have an answer? What did Mac want out of life? He had earned a title revered by many. 'Undefeated of the East'... it was a legendary title he earned. That was enough for most people. It wasn't for Mac though. He kept training to be even stronger... but why did he? Heck, the only other thing he had was coming to Cherry Heart... and he was here! So... what was he fighting for?

 

"Hey hey, hello there!" A young boy... no wait, girl, girl... she was a girl... tapped the man's shoulder. hoping that she was not disturbing the two by doing so. She had a sheepish smile on her face as she spoke. "I'm Angela, nice to meet you two!" She was clearly was only talking to the other guy, not him. Mac was used to this, honestly. Even his pink hoodie never really caught people's attention until he did something. "Glad to see more guild members here, so hopefully your quest went well today!" Well, that was nice of her to say, even if she wasn't really talking to him. "Hey, perhaps one of these days we can spend some time together? I think I want to know you deeper, if I may say," What did that mean...? Oooooooh! She must wanted to become more than just a friend to the handsome man. She must of wanted to be best friends with him. He supposed he understood... "Haven't gotten myself to interact with much of the guys here, actually. It'd be nice, I'm sure of it. A bit sudden, I know. But some play after a long day of questing could be fun, don't you think?"

 

At this point, Mac knew he was being a third wheel here, so he wandered off to the waiting area. He wished the best of luck to Angela; becoming best friends with the tall man would more than likely be no easy task, as he must have had a line of people that wanted to be his friend. Still, the question posed still bothered the boxer. What did he want...? 

[Love of Ghibli]

Henry turned around and saw his new friend Xia give him some form of greeting. Of course he could only do one thing.

"Hey Xia, I'm glad to see you're in good shape. A great morning indeed. I can't wait to do my first official quest as a mage. I'll be honest I've not been in many fights as a mage, but I got a good rest to make sure I would be in good shape to be of use to everyone here. Hopefully we can help our new comrade Amat while we save the village from plaguing nightmares."

In the back of his mind Henry had hoped this didn't involve intangible spirits or something of the like. His magic while versatile, was strictly physical as far as he knew anyway so it would suck if he wouldn't be of use during this mission. Henry noticed that everyone was gathered and ready to go participate in the mission and were about to depart. It looked like a good team of 4 or 3 and a half seeing as one of them was pretty incapacitated. It looked like he would have to do a lot more work. A smile came across his face because it was always good to be needed.

[Astolfo]

---

Things went on, as things always did. The photoshoot was wrapping up to its conclusion, with a beautiful sunset backdrop to accentuate the good feelings. Io had been watching Angela perform in her photoshoot with an almost raptured expression. From what she had seen of the girl earlier, it wasn’t anything like what Io would expect from her. It certainly wasn’t bad though, and she managed to pull off the cheery-girl feeling, with her bright and lively expressions. Snapping a few shots as well, Io shot Angela a thumbs up and a wide grin. She’s amazing, I don’t think I could ever do something like that…

The formalities passed by quickly, as it was fairly obvious no one wanted to spend too long on them and ruin the air. Io smiled happily, her cheeks tingeing slightly pink at Kelly’s compliments. At each other girl’s name, she gave a whoop of loud cheer, high-fiving Angel on her success with her synthetic top. Even Lily was included. The earlier irritation felt almost petty now, and the girl was nice enough to Io as well, even when Io had been rude first. Io flashed an awkward, apologetic grin, along with a big thumbs up, congratulating on her front-page status. No one here probably doubted that would happen, but it was still worthy of applause, Io felt. Upon hearing that Angela was considered for special commendation though, Io cheered.

”You did great, Angela!"

The gold doubloon certainly wasn’t bad either though, and Io stashed it away safely - or, as safely as she could with just a bikini on. As the girls were taken back to the dorms, Io didn’t feel the slightest bit of sleepiness or exhaustion. A bunch had happened that day, and she was still charged up. Not to mention, she didn’t really need sleep as much as most normal humans did. After realizing pretty much everyone else was sound asleep though, she figured she should probably keep quiet. Walking out onto the porch, she lied on her back, gazing up towards the stars. Haaaah… Well, that wasn’t too bad I guess. And it was a bit fun too. I wonder if there’ll be any fun quests tomorrow… With that, Io inadvertently dozed off, her vision fading to black as she headed to the land of dreams.

---

”Hnnn… aghhhwhattheholyf-"

Io’s morning came to an abrupt start as she woke up thanks to feeling supremely uncomfortable for some reason. As she looked around - or rather, tried to look around - she realized she was somehow entangled in the fence posts on the balcony, and almost half-way out down to the twenty-foot drop. Sweet bejeebus, what did I do in my sleep? With that thought in the back of her mind, Io carefully and slowly tried to free herself while holding onto the bars so she wouldn’t have an unwanted crash-landing. Flopping out tiredly after a few minutes, Io lied face-down on the porch, taking several breaths to readjust herself. That definitely wasn’t good for my health there.

Dusting herself off, she poked her head inside to the dorms. It seemed as if the others had already left. Oh crap, am I late? She looked for a clock, and to her despair, she was late by quite a good bit. Sighing, Io trudged to the bathroom. If she was this late, might as well get a good shower and change of clothes.

Around half an hour later, Io popped out the door, fully dressed in a new set of clothes and gear, ready to roll. Wandering over to where the quest billboard was, she scanned through the list of available quests. Something about an old trial caught her eye. Io’s quick gaze flicked through the words as she rolled about the idea in her head. She frowned though. There wasn’t much information. For that matter, it was literally nothing more than “Tyson has fixed up an old Cherry Heart guild trial.”

”Gee, that sure is helpful."

Io muttered, slightly aggravated there was no more than that little tidbit. Of course our guildmaster would put literally just that on it, unlike every other quest requester with all the info one would need. Great.

As she turned to head off, she caught sight of a strange young lady wrapped up in a cloak. Snapping a photo of her, Io read it off.

”Oh cool, you’re a Dai-"

Io stopped mid-breath. Remembering the last time she had figured out something that was apparently secret, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to blurt it out. She peered at the woman curiously. Xia, as her name was, certainly looked a bit unusual, with glowing red eyes, and being all wrapped up in a cloak on a nice sunny day. Ah well. Losing interest, Io focused back on her supposed quest, and headed off. Mumbling about in her thoughts, she caught sight of both Angela and Angel. Running over, Io called out, waving.

”Yohoooooooo~! Angela! Angela! Angel! Sorry I’m late!"

Upon getting closer, it seemed as if they weren’t the only ones there. Io looked up and down at the two men standing there. She took a passing snapshot of Mac’s face, before lingering over Dareios more, looking at him side to side, before angling for a good photo. Reading the printouts, she looked up at the two of them. Well, he’s certainly a looker… Who’s that other guy though?

”Yahello! I’m Io! Nice to meet you Dareios! Are you signing up for our G-Master’s quest thingy too?” After a moment’s pause, Io realized Mac was still there, and offered a passing greeting. ”Oh… and hi there Mac."

---