Cherry Heart: A Quest Based RP [Main Thread/IC/Starting/Currently Not Accepting/Co-hosted by Skaia]

[Astolfo]

Ro stared at the lizard druid blankly. For something that bothered to interrupt him in the middle of a snack, it had some nerve to just cut the conversation that it itself initiated in the first place. When it ended the conversation with talking about how the spirits wished for the being to kill Ro, he couldn’t help but burst out into laughter. That? Spirits and some girl? Kill him? He hadn’t heard such a good joke in several hundred years at least.

 

As the girl left, he shrugged and left in search of more treats to satisfy his sweet-tooth pangs he had been feeling recently.

 

All things end though, and the festival came to its end soon enough. The morning after, Ro hopped past the crowds nimbly, stepping lightly on roofs, ledges, and the occasional person’s head - much to their dissatisfaction. Spotting what seemed to be the other guild members in front of the Cherry Heart buidling, he leapt forward, skidding to a stop, just barely making it in time, and earning himself a mildly stern look.

 

As the guildmaster went through the opening speech, Ro’s ears perked at a vaguely familiar name. Florentia, hm… The gravekeeper, eh? If I remember… she’s that miss who turned it into a little flower garden. I think this guildmaster ain’t so bad. Upon hearing directions on how to pick a quest though, that took his attention like a new flower to a bee. Impatiently tapping his fingers lightly as he waited for the speech to be over so he could go ahead and get rolling, he paused when he heard something potentially even more enticing. An off-limits section of the dorm, eh? A mischievous grin broke out wide on Ro’s face.

 

Once the welcome speech ended, he bolted over to the bulletin board, scanning across the various messages, some in other languages as well. One immediately caught his eye. When he read over it, Ro couldn’t help but laugh in a slightly disturbing way, his eyes taking a manic delight. It was as if the quest was made for him. A lake overflowing with a strange flood of blue lotus? ”I guess you could say that lake probably literally stinks to high heaven right now though, ha!” Signing up in a quick fashion, his mind turned to his next goal immediately. ”To the right-side dorms!”

 

Dashing through the dorm halls and using his sense of directional alignment, he quickly found a door to the right-hand side of the dorms. As expected, it was locked. No matter. Climbing up the stairs, he leapt out the window boldly, using his arm as a swinging pivot to jump onto the window of the nearby dorm. As he tucked and rolled to protect himself from the fall, he looked up excitedly, expecting to see some forbidden magical devices or hidden secrets - and instead got a full-on view of some human lady changing out of her undergarments. Expectedly, she shrieked and started screaming, throwing a shoe at him - albeit one he caught instinctively. Waving his hand as an apology, he burst out through her door and leapt down the stairs.

 

”What in the Cataclysm? What’s so secret about-”

 

As he tumbled into the lobby, it made sense. It was a second section of the guild hall, presumably for the people who actually had money, judging by how much nicer the rooms and halls were. Well, Florentia did mention the guild was on a bit of hard times. Ro sighed. All this work and nothing big. It certainly seemed as if some of the people were a little upset though, so Ro turned to make his leave. Realizing he still had the lady’s shoe in his hand, he set it down half-abashedly, before bolting out.

 

”Aww frazzlin’ dadgummit, I’m gonna get chewed out by Flo’ later for this, ain’t I?”

[Mr. Hyde]

 

The rest of the festival hadn't drawn too much of Dmitri's attention.  It was all almost too much to grasp at...the village he had come from was so small and homey, but this city had turned out to be quite the first step into his mage career.  He walked aimlessly until he rest at a local inn, too afraid to ask where Cherry Heart specifically was located.  He didn't want to inconvenience anybody after all, and he still had some coin gathered from his savings.  He spent most of his time in the inn, reading up on all of the literature he could find in his vicinity, rather than parade all willy-nilly outside like some kind of tourist!  

 

The day after, a white symbol appeared on his left pectoral, the symbol that was painted on the Cherry Heart sign imprinted onto his chest.  He almost wept at the sight of it.  It was now official, and he placed his hand over the part of his chest covered in his new devotion.

 

"They really are stuck with me, huh?~" He said with a tune and a smile on his face.   

 

The next day, he mustered up the courage to ask where Cherry Heart was located, and was surprised to receive looks of disbelief.  They pointed him in the right direction and he was on his way.  It seemed like he was one of the stragglers.  Looking at the crowd that had shown up, he could tell that this cast of characters was varied to say the least.  It almost made him nervous to talk to such wonderful looking people.  The speech was fantastic, and he finally realized he had forgotten to ask the Guildmaster's name!  He clocked himself in the head for being such a dunce.  

 

"That was so rude of me!!!"  He said, bowing out of necessity countless times.  "I'm sorry Ms. Florentia!"

 

After his scene, Dmitri dusted himself off and proceeded to take a look at the quest board.  When his eyes met the single word, 'library', they lit up with determination!  He stepped aback and rested his chin on the meeting point of his pointer finger and his thumb.  With a smile, he nodded.  

 

"Who knows what can be found in that Library?  Untold stories, new magics, erotica?!"  He looked at his surrounding guildmates, hoping no one would have heard such a shameful outburst.  If they did, he would bow again as he did to Florentia.  

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

That thing was so strange. Kasayee pondered it as she went about gathering some food, a few beetles and an apple, around the city. It didn't seem to be the most intelligent of creatures due to being unable to answer her question but its body didn't seem designed for combat. Perhaps they were made to be a pet of sorts?

Whatever the case Kasayee would try and keep her distance to not stir up any spirits in the area.

Back in the tree, munching on her apple, she tried once more to find that wayward leaf.

---

The next day she found a strange symbol on her right thigh. It felt strange to have a marking put on her besides her druidic symbols but she would likely forget it was there after long.

Though it turned out to be a good thing as she couldn't remember the name of the guild she was to report to and she had no idea where it was. Thankfully the marking seemed to lead her towards a falling apart building. A small smile graced her lips as she saw its state. It was nice to see buildings that are falling closer to nature.

 

There were a lot of people there. Which often, in Kasayee's experience, meant a lot of questions. Which would be bothersome. And so she transformed into a lizard and moved into a location where she would be able to see the woman who was speaking with them. That's the guildmaster? But she wasn't even around earlier. Kasayee decided that it must be a strange sort of pack mentality where the girl who signed her on was the actual leader but this woman spoke on her behalf.

 

She tried to listen to the woman, she really did, but she got distracted watching a fly in a spider's web. She watched as the 8-legged creature moved in on their prey. Such a well designed predator. That nature can produce such a thing really was incredible wasn't it?

 

“We’re supposedly the most Cheery-Hearted guild in Arbolia for a reason!”

 

Kasayee instinctively turned towards the voice of the one she believed to be in charge. Only for the other woman to continue droning on. She evidently wanted them to go on quests. Right that was the thing with these guilds. Kasayee supposed that she should do one of those. She scurried towards the quest board indicated by that woman, where a man with glass in front of their eyes was standing, and transformed into her normal form right next to him.

She stared at the quests for a while without much enthusiasm. "Library. Sounds easy. That works." She said with a nod. Why would anyone bother to rob a library anyway? She'd read before and found it lacking. Plus the pages weren't very tasty. She was certain this would be an easy quest and she could go back to relaxing soon.

[mitchermitcher]

Prunus City/Auburn

"Utterly disgusting." Auburn let his thought slip out when he arrived at the guild building. Earlier that day a weird-looking guild mark magically appeared on his body in a part he would rather not mention ever, and following it led him to what looked like an abandoned building decorated with fancy red banners throughout. The mismatch was jarring and made the poor quality of the building stand out even more. He couldn't really complain though, he managed to get into a guild at all. For good or for worse he'd have to live with having a ghosthouse for a base of operations. Auburn suppressed the inner critic inside him and went in to listen to the guild orientation.

 

The guildmaster introduced herself as Florentia Philomel, and the blue haired girl that accepted him dropped by at the end of the speech Florentia was giving. After introductions were done, he ignored the quest board some of the others were gathering around, and walked towards his new boss.

 

"Guildmaster." He called to get her attention. "I am Auburn Peachfield, a new member of your guild."

 

"Although your blue haired companion accepted my application..." He turned slightly to her, whose name he regrettably forgot, "Is it really fine for me to be here?"

 

What plagued Auburn for the past day since getting accepted, was the lack of any comment on his disability. He was used to scorn or mockery or at least a comment, but the lack of any of that confused him more than he would like to admit. The doubt humbled him, for the time being. "This is a magic guild, can you guys really afford to have someone who can't use magic at all? Because that's kind of fu- That's not exactly wise. I'm glad I was accepted in but are you guys really sure you can revive this guild into something great?"

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"This is a magic guild, can you guys really afford to have someone who can't use magic at all? Because that's kind of fu- That's not exactly wise. I'm glad I was accepted in but are you guys really sure you can revive this guild into something great?"

 

Listening to the voice behind him as she was going towards Celica's office, Florentia turned around to see who was talking. One of the guild members had approached her. Auburn Peachfield, Flo was still able to remember him. The potion maker, the one that mentioned that he couldn't use magic. With the content of his words, reeking of doubt and self-defeatism, Flo was tempted to ignore him. But...nah, Celica wouldn't forgive her if she did that. It was hard to not be dismissive of his attitude, but finally after a while, Flo spoke.

 

"You're not worse off than us. As a guild, we're starting from the very bottom, just like you, who are not able to perform magic. Yet you, despite being conscious of your shortcoming, had dared to register to this guild in the first place. I am taking it as a sign of your commitment in this guild, and a promise from you, despite of your perceived weakness, you would do no less than your best for the sake of this guild.

 

The greatest guilds were not made by the strongest mages. Hard work, dedication, and unrelenting determination are what we're looking for in our guild members. Only consider yourself inadequate if you are incapable of even that. In which case, it's better off that you leave.

 

Any more mention of whether you deserved to be here or not, and I will personally kick you off the nearby cliff. Maybe that would push you to miraculously perform magic, if that's all you can think about on how you can make yourself useful."

 

Realizing that the longer she talked the bigger the chance of her addressing be more condescending, Flo turned around and continued her way towards Celica's office, where her friend had already waited for her.

 

---

 

 

-=Cherry Heart Restoration Project=-

 

"Well, well, it's really nice to have a few helping hand here~"

 

Celica stretched her arms a bit as she noticed the three guild members that ended up taking her quest, still recovering from Florentia's harsh anti-stress therapy routine. She was visibly tired and her dress was quite disheveled after a few days of not changing, but she was still smiling despite of that. The wagons would have transported the other members to their respective quests, although she was worried that the guild ended up taking two D-rank quests from the start. Ah, at least one of them had Flo directly supervising it, nothing too bad would happen there. What was important now would be to deal with her own quest. She had Mina the catgirl, Fen the daughter of the owner of that lovely restaurant, and Auburn, the potion maker with a snobbish air around him. It's a nice crowd to have for here.

 

"Alright, so a short introduction first. I am Celica Cannes, the guild's secretary, and not really a mage or an adventurer. I'm here mainly to help Flo around, she's pretty terrible at administration if I had to be honest. But that aside...

 

As you know the guild building really needed repairs. We have been starting the repairs since two months ago, but we're short on funds so lately we had to do it on our own, the two of us. It's far from being interesting as hunting ferocious beasts or anything, but...well, I would personally thank you all for taking this quest! So, we are starting with the right dormitory hall, dealing with the ceiling and finish tidying and cleaning the room. After that, if any of you are skilled in dealing with plumbing, then we might be able to do that...otherwise, there is this basement that I just found recently..."

 

Celica's voice trailed off at the mention of the basement. She was seemingly trying to remember if there was anything else they should do, but she then shook her head, feeling that what she said should be enough for now. With a smile, she gave a sign for the present guild members to follow her to the aforementioned dormitory room. As the door was opened, the guild members would be able to see that the hall was really spacious, although it only had around fifteen beds inside of the room. Half of the beds didn't even have frames supporting them yet, lying right on top of the floor with their unfinished or broken frames on the side. Three big wardrobes were on the room, which implied that the guildmembers were meant to share them. The walls were looking like a mess with paint that were barely there, and the ceiling had big holes on them, allowing the sunlight to come down at several points. The windows at least had been washed and adorned with freshly bought curtains, a contrast to the horribleness of the rest of the room. There weren't even any separators yet to give privacy to the guild members, and the floor was quite dusty, with the stereotypical spider webs littering the place at some points.

 

"Well...we mostly only got to move the furnitures here and removed the debris, but we haven't got the time to do anything else yet. Since you'll be sleeping here tonight...it'd be nice for you to do your best! Also, the ladder if you want to fix the ceiling is at the northwest corner of the room, along with some of the materials. Don't worry, I'll help hold to the ladder!

 

Now, let the quest begin!"

 

---

[mitchermitcher]

Prunus City/Auburn
What he received from the guildmaster to quell his moment of self-doubt was not quite what he expected. The 'motivational speech' was given with little emotion but the choice of words evoked a lot of thought. It certainly worked, although he was pissed off a fair bit from being on the receiving end. Tch, kick me off a cliff. If that actually sufficed I will lick your shoes every single for the rest of my life...
 
It worked because it pissed him off. He would not admit it but being told, even hypothetically, to leave the guild, made him annoyed. And then being told to not bring it up again silenced him. Now he couldn't even vent. He decided he was going to become the cornerstone of this magic guild and show Florentia, and brag in her face. He'll do it.
 
Although such ambitious thoughts filled him, in reality he was still stunned from Florentia's pep talk and before he could response she walked away.

---

Commencing Quest: Cherry Heart Restoration Project

Prunus City/Auburn
"Hmph. I refuse to live in a guild house that's worse than the stables. I'll do whatever it takes to make this place fit for actual human habitation." It did not take long for him to recover his smug, so to speak. Indeed, the moments of self-doubt he has been displaying in the past day or two was unnatural, and all of it was blown away now, albeit no feelings of gratefulness for the benefactor remained.

 

He stood alongside two of his new guildmates and in front of the blue haired woman from earlier, who seemed to be his second boss, of sorts. The girl, Celica Cannes, explained to them what they'd be doing while everyone else was away, and Auburn tried not to forget her name this time. When she mentioned cleaning, Auburn could not resist grinning to himself. It was child's play for him to brew up some cleaning agent that's better than anything else on the market (this was by no means because Auburn was an expert on brewing toiletries but because the cleaning agent industry tends to cut corners, therefore self-brewing is often much more effective). That alone should get the work done quickly.

 

But when she brought the three of them up however, his grin turned into a grimace. "This is much worse than I thought..."

 

He turned to the other two besides him, both young girls around his age. One was scrawny, one was not. Unfortunately he was the only man here so he'd have to do the heavylifting. Although, being the most masculine person in the room for once does feel nice. "...Right, let's get to work. You, the younger looking one." He pointed to the white haired. "Hold this a bit." He handed her a vial containing a basic clear solvent. "Black haired, go fetch the mop and bucket, leave the ladder alone for now."

 

His hands dug into his potion bag, pulling out various other vials. He ended up with a flask in one hand and two capped vials on the other. "Behold! I shall now concoct a Detergent. Although this shithole, er, pig house is more or less beyond saving, this will make our cleaning proceed much more smoothly! You both may stare in awe."

[Wind Rider]

Mina watched as the other guild members were sent off to do their quests, leaving only herself and two other members to take care of the Restoration Project. "Well, well, it's really nice to have a few helping hand here~" Mina smiled at the blue-haired girl's enthusiasm, though the other two guild members didn't seem to share her enthusiasm.

 

"Alright, so a short introduction first. I am Celica Cannes, the guild's secretary, and not really a mage or an adventurer. I'm here mainly to help Flo around, she's pretty terrible at administration if I had to be honest. But that aside...

 

As you know the guild building really needed repairs. We have been starting the repairs since two months ago, but we're short on funds so lately we had to do it on our own, the two of us. It's far from being interesting as hunting ferocious beasts or anything, but...well, I would personally thank you all for taking this quest! So, we are starting with the right dormitory hall, dealing with the ceiling and finish tidying and cleaning the room. After that, if any of you are skilled in dealing with plumbing, then we might be able to do that...otherwise, there is this basement that I just found recently..."

 

So cleaning up the right dormitory hall, a little bit of plumbing work, and a mysterious basement. This really was sounding like more of a quest than a clean up job, all the more reason that Mina wanted to get this done as best as possible. Celica led the guild members to the dormitory and it was anything but clean. Holes in the ceiling, cobwebs everywhere, beds without any frames, aside from the clean curtains adorning the windows this place really was a big mess.

 

"Well...we mostly only got to move the furnitures here and removed the debris, but we haven't got the time to do anything else yet. Since you'll be sleeping here tonight...it'd be nice for you to do your best! Also, the ladder if you want to fix the ceiling is at the northwest corner of the room, along with some of the materials. Don't worry, I'll help hold to the ladder!

 

Now, let the quest begin!"

 

"You can count on us Celica!" Mina stated with a cheerful grin. She was thinking of maybe getting the ladder first and taking care of the holes in the ceiling, all the while rolling up her sleeves for the task at hand. But before she could get to work, one of the guild members, a man who had a faint chemical smell to him, started giving out orders.

 

"Black haired, go fetch the mop and bucket, leave the ladder alone for now." Who died and made this guy boss? Mina gave him a bit of a look, not a mean one more like a "Are you serious?" look, before heading off to get said mop and bucket.

 

Coming back with the aforementioned items, the man had some vials with chemicals in them. "Behold! I shall now concoct a Detergent. Although this shithole, er, pig house is more or less beyond saving, this will make our cleaning proceed much more smoothly! You both may stare in awe." Mina was giving the man the same "Are you serious?" look as before, this guy really was a bit of an airhead, more than likely thinks of himself being above Mina and the other girl. "Can we maybe... Get on with cleaning the hall instead of showing off? And my name is Mina by the way, Mina White, not Black Haired..." she stated with a small smile at the end to show that she wasn't trying to be rude.

[Alaina]

 

The following days of the festival had come and gone, with not much incident happening. She had felt relived that the boy she crashed into earlier didn't actually seem entirely upset by it, but she had worked a bit frantically to make amends in that moment. While she had gotten to know more about the boy, Vincent as his name was, the two didn't actually spend all that much time together and the day had just gone on with her finding a place to stay. Waiting out the rest of the festival, the girl had mostly stayed to herself in the inn, trying to ready herself for what was essentially the start of a new life for her. 

 

---

 

On the morning of the festival's end, Fen had woken up, noting that today was the day she was to report to the Cherry Heart headquarters. After getting herself all dressed up and ready to get going out to the world beyond the inn, the girl started to take deep breaths. As she had finally mustered up the confidence to get going, pumping herself up, she stopped as she had made her way outside. With her mind slightly going blank as she realized that she had no idea where anything in this town actually was. As she started to panic, a faint glow appeared on her left shoulder, resembling a mark similar to the one she had seen at the guild's stand. With a needle to seeming to point from it, the girl simply followed where it was going to, as she had no real idea where else to go, until she had finally made her way to a large, somewhat decrepit looking building. 

 

Once she had gotten inside, settling herself, she looked around to see who else had signed up for the guild. The guild was full of all different kinds of people, some who seemed rather calm and friendly, some who looked threatening, and there was even a giant hulking stone golem. Her eyes seemed to continue to drift to it, wondering what exactly it would do, though her attention was briefly grasped by something else, as she could have sworn that she saw a lizard scampering about. She had known buildings to have mice problem but was unfamiliar with lizard ones, wondering if this building had an excess of them. Regardless, her observations were cut short as an older looking woman took center stage. 

 

Introducing herself as the guild master, Fen felt the already firm and slightly menacing pressure the woman exuded intensify a bit, and listened as she laid out the ground rules and expectations they would have for the guild. She felt a bit relieved that the guild would give them a place to stay, and food for meals, though she nodded to the woman's statement about the area that was off limits. Once all the matters were settled and the guild master, and the girl who had signed them up for the guild first, had finished speaking the group had all decided to go congregate to the missions listing. Going there herself, though sticking to the back not wanting to get in anyone's way, Fen had gotten to the board later then the rest of the people there. Looking at them, none of the jobs seemed to be something her, albeit limited, skill set would help her accomplish, though there was one in particular that caught her attention. 

 

One to do with hunting wyverns. Winged fliers, sometimes embellished as minor dragons, that were quite fierce and territorial. Fen was slightly captivated in her thoughts about them, wondering how best to use the parts of their bodies for dishes, as she had never actually cooked with Wyvern before. However, the idea of fighting one of those things was somewhat terrifying to her and she didn't even know how she'd go about it, as fighting fliers wasn't really something she was all that capable of. As she looked around, seeing who else was going on the journey, she saw that it was the menacing looking man who had had the horned helmet earlier, Vincent, who was somewhat intimidating in his own way, and the guild master herself. Feeling an intense pressure coming from the group, the girl figured it was best that she sit it out for now, and simply looked at the board for something else. Seeing that there was a quest simply dedicated to helping fix up the guild itself, the girl looked around at the building. Seeing that it was in a pretty bad state of disrepair, and that she would be living here from now on, the girl figured it would be a good idea to help the repairs out. Besides, she had to help clean her restaurant back home, so she had felt it was something that even she could do. Nodding confidently to herself, the girl had signed up for it. 

 

 

---

 

Once everyone had left, all that was left in the guild was her, a girl with cat ears and tail, and a somewhat feminine looking male with piercing red-eyes. Soon Celica, the blue haired girl, had came to greet them and thank them for their efforts in restoring the guild. Eagerly, the girl followed after Celica as she went to show them the first area they'd be cleaning up, the dorms. While she wasn't expecting much, the blond haired boy had expressed her thoughts aloud. Subconsciously nodding at the statement, the girl looked around wondering where to actually start. While dusting and washing the area would be good, that alone was not the major issue with the area. They would need more than just a bit of water to fix the walls, and would need someway to get more wood or something to help repair the bed frames and holes in the walls and ceilings. Fen wasn't quite sure where to start, but thankfully the blond haired boy seemed to take charge of the situation. 

 

The boy exuded an aura of confidence and seemed to enjoy directing the girls around, so as he simply gave her some weird vial to hold she simply nodded, saying, "o-okay." She wasn't quite sure what it was that he had handed her, but it seemed paramount to what he was planning on doing. Pulling out more vials from his pack, he then stated that he was about to make detergent, which she had never actually seen done before, and watched in awe as he went about his business. As the cat girl seemed to be less impressed with his spectacle, she then introduced herself to the group. While not the best at conversation, she figured this was as good a time as any to introduce herself and said, "h-hello Mina. I suppose my name, um, is Fen and uh," trying to imitate what Mina had said earlier though not in no ways a harsh tone said, "and uh, it's not 'younger looking one.' If you uh, would be so kind, what may we call you?" She directed the question towards the alchemist. 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

Seeing the three working like this warmed Celica's heart as she watched them talking to each other and working together to fix the mess. The red-eyed boy was rough, but he was clearly very focused on the objective despite of that, and his brewing skill definitely weren't just for show...if his confidence was grounded in any reality, but there wasn't any reasoning not to believe that. Although, his attitude did seem to almost spark some conflict, with how Mina looked at him, although it didn't escalate to much more concerning things thankfully. Fen went along with the two and seemed to be a little awkward in the situation, not that Celica would blame her. Really, the sight of these strangers working together for the task she gave them made her not regret her decision to ignore fixing that dormitory hall yet.

 

"It's up to you three on what would you rather do first, but I imagine that cleaning the floor wouldn't be wise before cleaning the ceiling, mainly since..."

 

Saying that, Celica went to the corner of the room with the stair, and knocked on the wall, And seemingly, the small vibration on the sensitive, weakened structure traveled through the structure, and as if to make her point, some debris, dust, and other things fell from the ceiling across the room soon after.

 

"...huh, that went worse than expected. Perhaps I should consider actually rebuilding this entire wing later.

 

Oh well, good luck with this~! I'll help you whenever I can, promise!"

 

---

[mitchermitcher]

Prunus City/Auburn

The lack of impressed responses ticked him off. He turned his eyes sideways, not looking at either of them. "Hmph. My name is Auburn Peachfield. Potion brewer. You may address me as-"

 

Just then, the secretary had interrupted him, most likely unintentionally. Celica quickly showed the three how badly the guildhouse's state of disrepair was with a gentle push to the walls. Unceremoniously, some of the soot from the roof dropped into the flask Auburn held up, and the ground. "..." Auburn did nothing but pause for a few seconds. Then he lit up.

 

"Secretary Celica! Some wooden planks or boards or anything of the sort, if you have any around bring it over. And a repair kit." He then pointed to the black haired girl. "Put the bucket back, black ha- white ha- no, Mina White. You and I, we're going up to do some preparatory cleaning."

 

"You, uh, Fen. Catch." He threw the flask, that he somehow put a cap on in-between all that, towards her gently. "Put those down somewhere near, we'll have a use for them yet. And if either of you know some dumb old spell that'll fix this room instantly, say it now."

 

This sudden composure was not what it seemed to be. Inside his head was nothing but a lot of profanities repeated over and over again. On one hand, he wanted to curse out loud for a minute and a half at the sorry state of this place he was going to live in. The other wanted to tear the entire building down entirely. He compromised. He was going to destroy the place and renovate it as if his life depended on it.

[Wind Rider]

Fen and Auburn, the two guild members were certianally unique, in personality and skills. "It's up to you three on what would you rather do first, but I imagine that cleaning the floor wouldn't be wise before cleaning the ceiling, mainly since..." Mina turned to see Celica prove a major point, the ceiling was worse than it looked. With a small tap on the wall, Celica had caused dust, debris, and other things to fall from the ceiling.

 

"...huh, that went worse than expected. Perhaps I should consider actually rebuilding this entire wing later.

 

Oh well, good luck with this~! I'll help you whenever I can, promise!"

 

​​Auburn was obviously very ticked about this development, "Secretary Celica! Some wooden planks or boards or anything of the sort, if you have any around bring it over. And a repair kit."

​He then started giving more orders to Mina and Fen. "Put the bucket back, black ha- white ha- no, Mina White. You and I, we're going up to do some preparatory cleaning."

 

"You, uh, Fen. Catch." He threw the flask, that he somehow put a cap on in-between all that, towards her gently. "Put those down somewhere near, we'll have a use for them yet. And if either of you know some dumb old spell that'll fix this room instantly, say it now."

 

​She had already rolled up her sleeves, so Mina settled for cracking her knuckles. "I may not know any of those fancy spells, but believe it or not I am a heavy lifter. We got this." She stated heading over to get the ladder.

 

 

[Alaina]

 

As the man, Auburn, introduced themselves, Fen was quite interested in the craft that they had taken up. She knew next to nothing about the actual process behind Potion Brewing, though, rather than asking anything more on it, she simply left him to creating his detergent. However, soon the trio was interrupted as the guild leader - Fen wasn't actually quite sure what Celica's official title was - had come in to give them advice about what to do first. As she went to go show them the condition of the ceiling, Fen let out a small, "eep," as debris seemed to fall onto the ground, only making the floor's condition worse as well.  Looking with concern at the debris, Fen briefly wondered if it was safer to not have a roof at all. Shaking her head clean of the thought, Auburn had started giving out orders to the two of them.

 

Listening intently to his direction, she mentally prepared herself for the toss, and seemed to catch the flask without much issue as it was tossed to her. Putting the two things down as instructed, she then heard Auburn and Mina's notes about magic. All she said on the matter was, "my magic, uh, wouldn't really be all that, um, useful. Sorry." Seeing the cat eared girl go to the ladder, Fen knew that the two of them could probably handle cleaning the roof themselves, but there was nothing she could really clean on the floor as it was. Not wanting to feel useless she said, "I'll uh, go um. Wood, yeah, I'll see if I can find any wood to use." As she went to go for her task, she realized she had no idea where any of this would be and thus looked to Celica with a nervous expression. "Um, do you know where I could uh, find...any?" 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

"Secretary Celica! Some wooden planks or boards or anything of the sort, if you have any around bring it over. And a repair kit."

 

"Wood planks and boards coming~"

 

Celica was amused with how fast Auburn took charge, and she happily obliged to follow his order despite how sour he was looking. She went to the other corners of the room and brough all the planks and boards that was left from the previous renovations to him. It wasn't much, but it should help. She also brought a toolbox and some packages of nails to him too. A repair kit seemed to be something too fancy to find there however. Nevertheless, everyone was working, and it's quite nice to see. Noticing Mina was carrying the large stairs on her own, Celica decided to approach her.

 

"Hey Mena, just a tip but it's best to not rest this on just any opening because some of them are pretty weak. Say, the one over there..." As she said this, Celica pointed to one of the opening on the northwest part of the hall. Not long after, the area around that ceiling opening crumbled on its own, with the support planks falling into the ground afterwards, creating loud thuds as it hit the floor. A closer inspection would make it clear that the planks had been eaten by insects and time and was in a really poor and brittle condition. "Last thing you want is falling from that height, after all. But I think the main structure itself are still strong, so as long as you don't try your luck on the support planks, you should be fine~"

 

 "I'll uh, go um. Wood, yeah, I'll see if I can find any wood to use.

 

Um, do you know where I could uh, find...any?" 

 

"Hm?"

 

Just after she finished talking with Mina, Fen approached Celica with that question. Seeing how most of the spare woods had been given to Auburn earlier, there were nothing else that could be used for the ceiling, and well, the earlier wood wouldn't be enough, thinking about it. Celica spent some time to figure out something, and seeing the undone beds, she decided on a way out.

 

"You can use the frames from the unfinished beds. Don't worry about sleeping on the floor, I'll figure out something to cover for that.

 

Hopefully."

 

In hindsight, perhaps intentionally neglecting the hall just for this quest wasn't her wisest decision in how much extra work she got from it, though it's also since Celica ended up involving herself more with the quest instead of just observing them. She liked it better this way anyway. Though, looking at the beds, she panickingly realized that she forgot to buy bedcovers, pillows, and blankets, and the guild funds probably wouldn't be enough to cover buying eleven sets of them yet. She tried her best to hide her expression and started talking with the first thing that came across her mind so hopefully the three didn't worry about her.

 

"You know, looking at the ceiling, it felt like it could fall on us anytime no matter what we do. It's a bit scary isn't it? Though, sleeping underneath the night sky seems fun..."

 

---

[mitchermitcher]

Prunus City/Auburn

"I refuse to sleep knowing a random bug can just fly in from above into my mouth." After getting Mina to carry the stairs and the Secretary and Fen to provide the materials, it really seemed like one who did the least heavylifting was the only man in the room. He really was getting carried away, ever since regaining his confidence from the 'lecture' the guildmaster gave him. Of course, Auburn felt no need to hurry to fix that. He can let his talents make up for it. The cleaning detergent turned out to be unneeded but that wasn't the only potion in his arsenal.

 

"Eheheheh, behold my next potion, that will surely make fixing this bloody roof a simple matter." Sitting on the ladder held firm by Celica, Auburn pulled out his next wonder. This time it was a sticky white liquid of sorts with a nasty odor should the bottle be uncapped. "This is what I decided to name Super Glue. I mixed in a secret ingredient to the usual glue recipe. It is water resistant and will make sure no liquid leaks in, even with the faulty fix job on the roof that our current attempt will turn out to be."

 

He waited for a moment for some reactions again. He doubted he would get any admiration, so he moved on. "Tch. Alright then, Secretary Celica, hold the ladder properly for now. Fen, hand me the boards one by one! And also make sure Secretary doesn't let go of the ladder, I fear for my life with just her alone," He thought to add a light jab for fun. "Mina White, you're coming up with me to hold the nails, let's get this done in an hour."

 

An hour had then passed. And then two. Three.

 

Finally, they got to the final hole in the roof that was now mostly rebuilt from scratch. It was a long journey, with how truly ruined the roof was. At one point Auburn almost fell off a support but naturally he was not that clumsy. Auburn promptly received the last wooden plank. He hammered the nail in and then applied the last of the third bottle of glue he had to concoct on the spot during the three hours. It was finished.

 

"We're done!" For once he forgot to keep up his act and let out genuine, fulfilling laugh. He was outcheering even Celica down there. He turned around to Mina and almost offered a handshake, but his hand midway in the air he remembered who he was. "...Well now, let's get down."

 

Unceremoniously he walked to the edge of the roof, looked down and realized.

 

They were fixing the roof from inside the room, the stepladder was hoisted from inside. He had come up and closed the last hole. There was no way down.

 

---

 

"We got that done with at least..." It had taken some time to get them both down again and very quickly Auburn's rare bout of pleasant mood disappeared like dust in the air.

 

He grimaced when he walked back into the dormitory room again. Without sunlight from above, the room looked even darker and more unpleasantly messy than before from the mess they made repairing the roof. He would really rather put it off right now, he was still tired from hammering in all the planks earlier and although he tried his hardest to breathe normally, anyone slightly attentive could tell he was out of breath. To put it simply he wanted to procrastinate. Conveniently he remembered something Celica mentioned earlier. "Where did you say the basement was again, Miss Secretary?."

[Alaina]

 

Upon hearing Celica's response to her question, the girl was slightly unsure about how much their fixing up of the guild would actually amount to, but had decided to go along with the suggestion anyway. As she broke down the unattended bed frames, Auburn seemed to be making another product. As he talked about his "water resistant super glue," Fen looked in wonder, giving a small clap as he explained the concoction. However, with that out of the way, the group had then got on to fixing the roof of the room. Ferrying boards of wood up to them, Fen watched as the duo that went up the ladder started to get to work, slowly but surely filling in the hole that was above them. While she was going up and giving them planks of wood, she briefly wondered how it was that Auburn and Mina had planned to get down from the roof once they were done. However, Auburn had seemed to have a good handle on the situation already, so Fen figured he had already thought it out.

 

They did not. 

 

---

 

With that out of the way, the group was now all back in the guild hall, most likely ready to move on to their next task. Before that, though, Fen realized something. They had been working for hours on end and hadn't really taken any breaks to speak of. So, Fen went over to her own bag and said, "um, before we move on to the next task. Um," pulling out a bag that seemed to have been chilled, the girl opened it to say, "I made these the night before. So, I'm sorry that they aren't fresh, and it probably isn't that filling but I hope you enjoy it." With it, she opened the bag to revealed crisped apple slices with a coating of brown sugar and cinnamon . In order to be not spoiled, the apples were kept under cold temperatures by way of Fen's magic, and so they were cool to the touch. After that was done with, she would be ready to go to the basement to brave whatever kind of, likely destroyed, state it was in. 

[Wind Rider]

After some effort and a special glue Auburn had fixed up, they were able to patch the roof up. Mina wiped her head with a rag and looked on at what she and Auburn had accomplished, Auburn also seemed genuinely happy about this but went back to his original mind set. Of course... Even though they patched the roof, the two seemed to have found themselves on the roof of the building. "Heh... I guess we kinda got carried away huh?" she said giving Auburn a worn out smile.

 

After getting down from the roof with Auburn, Mina looked in the dormitory. With the ceiling patched up it was already looking better, just a bit of cleaning and getting some lights in the room and it would be good to go. "Where did you say the basement was again, Miss Secretary?." Auburn seemed more interested in this basement than cleaning up the room. Ah well, this basement certainly had Mina interested as well.

 

"um, before we move on to the next task. Um," Mina turned her attention to Fen who had pulled out a cold looking baggy, "I made these the night before. So, I'm sorry that they aren't fresh, and it probably isn't that filling but I hope you enjoy it." She opened the baggy and Mina immediately caught the scent of cinnamon, the girl had little apple slices in the baggy that were cooled, most likely to preserve them, and had sugar and cinnamon on them. Filling or not, it was a nice treat. "Hey... Thanks Fen, that's really kind of you." Mina said with a thankful smile, she took an apple slice and started eating it, nice and cool, sweet too, the perfect snack after a few hours of work.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

The passing of time when one was absorbed in their work tend to be quite peculiar. Without Celica noticing it, three hours had passed since they started, and finally the group managed to finish working on the ceiling. Now, the room look considerably darker and quite grim. Perhaps it was really best to just blow up the ceiling and use some sort of backup plan for when it would rain. The darkness was quite unpleasant however, so Celica moved around the hall and checked some parts of the wall. Knocking on some points seemed to be enough for parts of the wall she inspected to crumble, letting sunlight to come inside.

 

"Where did you say the basement was again, Miss Secretary?."

 

"Ah, it's...wouldn't it be for the best if you finish this room first? The debris from fixing the roof and ceiling made the floor looked worse..."

 

"um, before we move on to the next task. Um," Seemed like Fen had quite a different idea however. "I made these the night before. So, I'm sorry that they aren't fresh, and it probably isn't that filling but I hope you enjoy it."

 

"You're right, a break will do us some good. It's more than I can give right now, so thank you for this, Fen."

 

Fen then gave the group some crisped apple slices with brown sugar and cinnamon coating as a quick snack to fill some of their energy back. As Mina thanked Fen for the snack, Celica went ahead and started enjoying the ones she had. The cool feeling coming from Fen's ice magic on the slices was really nice. As she finished hers, Celica felt that it was right that she chose to trust Fen with handling the guild's food supply.

 

"Hey...you three, maybe after all of this is over, we can work on the kitchen and prepare dinner for everyone? Perhaps it's best to talk about this again once we're done, however."

 

Anyway, since you three seems to be eager to go to the basement now instead of later..."

 

Once she had enough rest, Celica stood up and walked around the room with her eyes closed. She walked around as she attempted to feel the floor she was standing on, and once she felt she was in the right spot, Celica stopped on her tracks before she softly tapped the floor there with her left foot. The marble floor soon collapsed around the area that she tapped, revealing a quite sizable hole on the floor that led to a dark chasm with seemingly nothing underneath.

 

"I don't know where else should I open the basement access, to tell the truth. Suppose we can figure it out once we finished cleaning it, right?" Celica's smile turned into a more mischievous one as she stretched her muscles for a bit before looking around the room. "You can descend down using the rope over the northwestern corner of the room. Don't worry, it's only 15 to 20 meters of descent, and I think it's not a labyrinth down there though it's still surprisingly big. Even then though, any source of light is very recommended before descending, just to avoid tripping over anything random or accidentally eating some odd insects or anything. Don't worry about the building collapsing upon you too, our guild building is not that badly maintained despite the displays of earlier.

 

And yeah, bring brooms and the feather dusters and anything you might find necessary. See you down there!"

 

With a child-like excitement on her face, Celica waved towards Auburn, Fen, and Mena, and dropped down into the dark hole without any hesitation. Once Celica fully disappeared from the scene, the guild members were free to choose whether to follow the secretary's lead immediately or spend the time finishing the hall repairs first, which wasn't helped by the additional holes made by Celica.

 

Were they choose to come down into the supposed basement however, the first place they would find themselves in was a relatively straightforward manmade corridor with two ways they could go to. One had a faint sign of candlelight at the end of it, while the other one lacked it, although if they chose to tread this direction, they would find that it would be pretty short before they'd find an unlocked door before them.

 

Since the mission was still focusing on the Guild building's restoration, there should be little to worry about in theory. Just find Celica and fix whatever was necessary and possible for now, and it should be done. However, at the strange, barely explored basement complex of the guild building, where one could even hear strange noises coming from its walls, one might end up getting more than what they'd expect if they follow their curiosity....

 

[spoiler=OOC]

Alright so, Celica wants for a few (2 or 3) rooms in the basement of the building to be fixed so they could be used. For the time being, she is waiting at one of the rooms, and you should be able to find her there. However, it's up to you guys on whether you would follow that direction or not, and I will reply accordingly. And yeah, you can just ignore Celica and do something else while she wait for you down there.

 

Might make maps later if I find it to be necessary, but this shouldn't be a detailed dungeon crawling just yet. Well, it can, but that's up to you guys.

 

Depending on what happens in your post, I might also give further information via skype/YCM PM.

 

 

 

---

[mitchermitcher]

Prunus City/Auburn

The girl Fen sat them down and procured out a bag filled with what seemed to Auburn to be apple slices covered with light brown liquid seasoning. He certainly knew what an apple was but he hasn't seen it prepared this way until now. In fact, the past few weeks has been nothing less than a culinary adventure for him who ran away from the luxury of his house. After having essentially a new dish to try every meal since, his favorite new dish was a bowl of rice topped with an omelette. That was a common dish around the nation, considered street food at best but to the boy so used to luxury, the first time he tried it he was humbled beyond recognition and could only praise it incessantly. He had caused a remarkable commotion over it at the inn he was staying back then because of it.

 

But his thoughts were getting distracted from the matter at hand. 

 

"It likely won't be amazing but I shall try it." The girl likely did not mean harm but Auburn did not trust his new co-workers yet. He noticed small flakes of frost falling off the bag and assumed it was cooled with magic beforehand. He was not a cook but his experience with using ingredients to brew up potions told him that to maintain food at a certain coldness without ruining the flavor was at the very least, not something a total novice could do.

 

So she was likely good at magic, and he could already taste his mood turning sourer at that thought. But he was civil enough, he would at least try it.

 

He bit into it. The sweetness spread in his mouth instantly. "This is...!"

 

His hand that held the apple earlier jumped to hold his mouth and he struggled not to let out a sound. He wanted to eat more. Instantly, any preconceptions he held over Fen was blown away. He looked at her and suddenly she seemed like a new person all of a sudden, like her appearance had completely changed in the time span they had fixed the roof and settled down to eat. He could've sworn she looked shyer, and younger too.

 

But he would not let his overreaction show. That would be unsightly, rude to the chef, and it would also ruin his image. Neither Mina White or the Secretary seemed to feel the same as he did after all. He would not excessively praise it either, since he did not want a re enactment of the commotion he caused over the omelette earlier, but he gained a new respect for the girl.

 

"I retract my words. This was sufficiently good, Fen." He decided to leave it at that.

 

---

 

On Celica asking them to preferably finish renovating the bedroom first, Auburn replied, "We will have to get to it sooner or later either way. I would prefer we vary up our work a bit. To be frank I am rather sick of this room right now..." He threw in a little remark at the end as he looked menacingly at the ceiling.

 

And on Celica's proposal to have the three cook for the rest of the guild, Auburn wanted to decline. "I can brew potions but I do not know how to handle flavor or cooking." It astounded him, the prospect of having to worry over the taste in addition to the effectiveness of the potion.

 

Finally, on the hole in the ground in which Celica jumped into unhesitatingly, Auburn had no words.

 

"I am not reassured this guild building will hold at all." Finally he said. Time was slipping by however, so he decided to ignore his inner thoughts...

 

He reconsidered. Perhaps for once it was time to do so. Auburn grabbed a hammer and some spare planks and began to close up the hole Celica jumped into.

 

"Let's leave her in there for a while. Somehow the motivation to finish repairing this room came back to me. We'll create a new hole and jump down after her later. Perhaps." He addressed the two with a completely straight face.

 

He did have to admit, her childlike motions as she stretched before jumping down there was cute. But it reminded him of a bratty cousin, a fellow Peachfield. It made him want to tease her.

[Wind Rider]

"Hey...you three, maybe after all of this is over, we can work on the kitchen and prepare dinner for everyone? Perhaps it's best to talk about this again once we're done, however." Mina shrugged her shoulders, Auburn may not be as inclined to fix up a meal but Mina was more than happy to, her many times cooking for herself as she traveled will soon pay off.

 

Celica soon opened up a hole in the room that led down into the basement, it was dark but hopefully wasn't deep.

 

"I don't know where else should I open the basement access, to tell the truth. Suppose we can figure it out once we finished cleaning it, right?" Celica's smile turned into a more mischievous one as she stretched her muscles for a bit before looking around the room. "You can descend down using the rope over the northwestern corner of the room. Don't worry, it's only 15 to 20 meters of descent, and I think it's not a labyrinth down there though it's still surprisingly big. Even then though, any source of light is very recommended before descending, just to avoid tripping over anything random or accidentally eating some odd insects or anything. Don't worry about the building collapsing upon you too, our guild building is not that badly maintained despite the displays of earlier.

 

And yeah, bring brooms and the feather dusters and anything you might find necessary. See you down there!" Celica jumped down, leaving the three guild members to their own thoughts.

 

"Let's leave her in there for a while. Somehow the motivation to finish repairing this room came back to me. We'll create a new hole and jump down after her later. Perhaps." Mina gave Auburn a stern look this time. "Are you kidding me? "Leave her down there?" That's not right. You can work on this room all you want but I'm going down there to help her." Mina stated looking down into the hole that was the basement entrance. She took a broom and a little flashlight she made during her travels and hopped down into the basement.

 

The corridor was definitely near-pitch black, how Celica could see was beyond Mina, but the faint glow of a candle answered her question. She followed it and caught up to Celica. "So, what rooms do you need cleaned up?" Mina asked placing the flashlight down to where it lit up most of the room.

[Alaina]

 

Fen couldn't help but feel her face go a bit flush as her fellow guild mates had complimented her. "Th-thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it." After that was taken care of, Celica then gave the idea of the four of them preparing dinner for others of the guild to which Fen said, "oh, if you'd let me I would be happy to." However, the blond haired one of them seemed to not be too fond of the idea. With all of that out of the way, the trio followed Celica as she made her way to the basement, and explained to them just what it was they would be doing down there. Fen wasn't entirely sure that she was comfortable with the idea of trudging through the basement of the place that's ceiling and as such was slightly reluctant to start to follow her down and there. As she went on to describe what they should watch out for, her fears were not assuaged. However, Celica seemed to just jump down the hole, as there were no actual stairs, into the basement. As Fen attempted to steel herself to go downward, Auburn had a much different idea in mind. 

 

Going over to the hole, he started to board it up and keep their secretary locked underneath, which caused Fen's face to suddenly become filled with panic. "Um, I, uh, I don't thi-," she started to stammer out before Mina had spoken up and talked about going down to help the guild secretary out. After she had jumped down there as well, Fen looked at the hole, then back to Auburn. She was slightly at a loss for words, but as she looked at it again, she spoke aloud one thought she had. "How are they getting back up here?" Seeming a bit defeated and not really wishing to jump gungho down a hole just yet, she looked to Auburn and said, "um, so should we go finishing fixing, uh, that room then?" 

[mitchermitcher]

Prunus City/Auburn

Reprimanded by Mina White of all people, the motivation he had finally found disappeared. Now left alone with Fen who he had gained newfound respect for earlier, he had no reason to purposely act unpleasant. "Well, you propose a good point. Never mind the room, again, let's go get the ladder or some rope and go down after them. That might've been too far."

 

He walked to the stepladder, and after feeling it up for a bit, instead grabbed some rope and came back to Fen. "It's not like the ladder was too heavy or anything, it's merely more practical to get a rope down there instead. Less troublesome to clean up afterwards, yes."

 

He tied the length to the leg of a nearby bed, and then applied some glue so that the furniture wouldn't shift from the weight. He couldn't help but gloat to himself a little. "Why this super glue is just exquisite. Now let's jump."

 

He did so. Presuming Fen was right behind him, Auburn ran through the dark tunnel towards where Celica and Mina stood, and shouted. "Wait up!"

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"W-well, it sure takes them quite some time...r-right?"

Celica waited on her own in the almost pitch-black darkness of the room she was in, only illuminated by the small candle she brought just so she didn't fall while she walked. She was definitely not worried or afraid, and although the wall started to have some noises, she knew that as long as she's not too loud, she would be fine. It's not like she's the one that had to deal with those anyway.

 

"So, what rooms do you need cleaned up?"

 

"E-eeeeekk! A-ah, it's just you, Mina. Please don't shock this poor old me again next time, alright?

A-anyway, where are the others? There are two rooms that needs to be cleaned, so if we can do the briefing as soon as possible, it's going to be for the best."

 

Celica whimpered a bit as she realized that her scream of surprise earlier had awakened her worries on the walls, which were now being illuminated by Mina's flashlight. Wondering whether Mina had realized their presence or not, Celica was conflicted about whether she should tell her immediately or not. From the holes of the room, she could see them-

 

"Wait up!" Auburn and Fen finally caught up with Celica and Mina, and Celica let out a sigh of relief. She finally could leave this damned room now.

 

"Alright, now that you're all finally here...this is the first of the two rooms that I want you to clean. I was planning to have this be food storage room with some help from Fen, but..." Celica flicked her finger, and following that, several series of candles that had been placed around the room lit up, revealing a room with walls filled with odd holes and cracks, especially around its corners. Responding to the sudden light, translucent green goo of sort oozed from the holes, coming out and seemingly crawling slowly to the source of the light. "This room apparently had ended up as the nest of some slime monsters. They're not dangerous...I think, yeah, I don't think they would attack you or anything like that unless you're being too rough, but they kept eating the food stored here.

 

And I'm a bit too sca...I mean I feel that it's best for you three to deal with it, especially since I was busy as the secretary. Yeah, it's like that. They're quite a curious creature so they're attracted to the light, also pretty vulnerable to many form of magic. But that aside, there are several bags over there, you can try shoving them inside until the room's clean."

 

Celica paused after giving her direction, but as she gathered herself to continue talking, she realized that a slime was approaching her, and she jumped in surprise before backing away by a few steps.

 

"I-well, I probably won't help with this, it should be easy enough for you to do, so I will be in the next room to prepare for the next one~"

 

Finishing what she said in a hasty manner, Celica then turned away and ran as fast as she could away from the room and leaving the three guild members to their own device. It would be best for them to clean the room without leaving any roaming slimes, and that would require checking the nooks and crannies for it. The slimes so far seemed to be benign, so shoving them even with bare hand or the few shovels around could work, but it might be best to not let one's guard down around them regardless, even if they're seemingly not poisonous. And perhaps, if one really prefered not to work with such creatures, they could pursue Celica and immediately visit the next room?

 

---

[Wind Rider]

"E-eeeeekk! A-ah, it's just you, Mina. Please don't shock this poor old me again next time, alright?

A-anyway, where are the others? There are two rooms that needs to be cleaned, so if we can do the briefing as soon as possible, it's going to be for the best." Mina didn't mean to scare Celica, though in hindsight she should've called to her before walking right up to her in the dark. She was about to answer Celica's question on the others before Auburn and Fen actually showed up, so potion boy decided to help after all?

 

"Alright, now that you're all finally here...this is the first of the two rooms that I want you to clean. I was planning to have this be food storage room with some help from Fen, but..." Celica snapped her fingers and in response, a bunch of candles around the room lit up to reveal the problem, there were holes in the walls and a weird green ooze was leaking from them. This didn't seem too bad, but upon closer inspection of the ooze and a little explanation from Celica, Mina's face turned extremely pale.

 

Slimes... Everywhere... Icky, gross, horrifying, disgusting slimes. "This room apparently had ended up as the nest of some slime monsters. They're not dangerous...I think, yeah, I don't think they would attack you or anything like that unless you're being too rough, but they kept eating the food stored here.

 

And I'm a bit too sca...I mean I feel that it's best for you three to deal with it, especially since I was busy as the secretary. Yeah, it's like that. They're quite a curious creature so they're attracted to the light, also pretty vulnerable to many form of magic. But that aside, there are several bags over there, you can try shoving them inside until the room's clean." Mina was not about to touch one of those things, the fear in her eyes was very apparent.

 

"I-well, I probably won't help with this, it should be easy enough for you to do, so I will be in the next room to prepare for the next one~" Celica rushed out of the room after giving her two cents on the situation, Mina was immediately right behind her on leaving. In a rushed manner, Mina grabbed her flashlight and almost shrieked when she noticed a slime right beside it. She rushed out the room and followed Celica into the second room.

 

"F-fen and Auburn can handle that room... A-anything I can do in this room?" she was trying to keep her composure but it was clear that she was in no hurry to go back into that room with all those slimes crawling about.

[mitchermitcher]

Guildhouse - Underground/Auburn

"Hm, wait here a moment, Fen." The moment Celica and Mina left the room, Auburn fetched leather gloves from his pocket and wore them on. For reference he had them coated in a special oil that made it rather resilient, to both warm things and cold things and acidic things and all inbetween. Unfortunately this oil burns human skin so it's only ever applied to leather or the like. He walked up to one of the 'slimes' and somewhat clumsily grabbed it in his hands. "This thing...It feels somewhat like bags of coin. And sand. And milk. I shall be right back."

 

With Fen out of sight and with no lighting, he felt his way around until he found the way to the next room, and he saw a small flicker of light ahead. It was not sufficient to illuminate him. Slime in hand at face level, he made sure to walk up toward the two girls with quiet but audible footsteps. As he closed in, he heard the secretary, no, the girl noticing and asking who was there. There was no trace of Celica upholding her composure and dignity as a guild secretary anymore, he had noticed earlier, and with a downright nasty grin on his face he decided to take advantage of it. For good or for worse, Mina White seemed to be equally creeped out by the slimes too. He saw the light from her flashlight shine at the ground in front of him. He himself was still unseen, it was perfect

 

Auburn threw the slime such that it landed right in the middle of the spotlight.

 

---

 

"Well, I've returned." Auburn came back to Fen not too long after, but he now had a slap mark across his face. Unexpectedly it was Celica who had given it to him, the moment the two girls spotted him. With ungodly fury and very likely a healthy amount of incoherent panic she rushed past the slime and slapped him. Once they made him deal with the slime and calmed her down, she apologized for it but he had a feeling her coy apology was not fully heartfelt. "That bi...Tch, I suppose perhaps I may or may not have deserved it."

 

After catching up, the two began to work on the slime-infested storage room. As the one with gloves, Auburn did more of the manhandling and threw whatever he could grab into a makeshift wooden bucket. The sliminess was starting to gross him out, and at some point his hands started to feel sore. It was then that, wanting a distraction from the mundane task, he began conversation with the other girl in the room. "I wonder, do you not feel there should be an easier and more efficient way to get rid of these damned things? They're slimes, they're liquid. There has to be some easy solution to wash these things away, why are we sitting here using our hands..."

 

Perhaps out of bored curiosity, he tried applying a drop of glue to one of the slimes he grabbed out earlier. After waiting a few seconds, it did not magically dissolve, which disappointed him.

[Alaina]

 

As Fen and Auburn had made their way down the hole, the duo had somewhat stumbled about in the dark, before they had finally happened upon both Mina and Celica. The secretary seemed pleased that the trio was now present and accounted for. As she went on to explain the situation at hand, the room seemed to have flames that burst to life, revealing that what was apparently supposed to be the food storage room. Fen looked on in horror at the scene. The stale air, the lack of any real lighting to help navigate the area, the decripit state of the room in general and the notion that there was some kind of monstrous life form that would simply eat all up. This was in no way a proper food storage area, and Fen felt an oddly passionate urge to clean this room out. However, before she could, Celica seemed to be startled by something, and seemed to leave the trio to their own devices. Not long after, Mina seemed to also be in some sort of panic before she left as well. 

 

With only Auburn to aid her, Fen felt her passion deflate a bit, before she went alongside him to examine the strange slime creatures. She looked at it curiously, wondering just what exactly it was, never having encountered a creature that she could not discern any real anatomy within. It was quite curious, and Auburn seemed to think so to as he had grabbed one and explained the texture of it. This only made Fen more curious as to it, but Auburn seemed to take it with him before leaving, claiming he'd be back in a moment. Fen was a bit confused as to what he was doing, saying a simple, "a-alright." About a moment after he left, Fen seemed to realized that she was in the rather eerily lit room entirely on her own letting out a small "eep," at this realization, yet merely stood still, watching the slimes move about their business. 

 

Eventually Auburn had come back, seemingly in a grumpy mood and with a large red mark across his face. Fen asked, "a-are you alright?" After that, Auburn seemed to go and examine the slimes more, wondering if there was some easy way to get rid of them. As he said that they were made of liquid, Fen's face lit up a bit as she said, "o-oh. I think I, um, might know of way to help. Though, it uh, might make things all that faster." After saying that, the girl, with no hesitation in her movement went to reach her hand out towards the slime. As she did, the air around it seemed to shimmer with frost as a light blue glow formed on her hand. As she touched the slime, it seemed to try and slither away from her grasp, but the gelatinous substance only seemed to halt and freeze up, as green goo turned to ice. Picking up the frozen slime with her hand she presented it to Auburn, saying, "so we uh, can just put them into the bag now, right?"