Fandom Fairy Tail: A Woe of Elves and Dwarves IC

[Craftsdwarf]

Elvish Heart​

Smile widening as Ratnik accepted her request, Aralia gave a light nod of her head, before turning to the table as they others began to join them. With the [variety] of faces and moods gathered, Aralia began, “Welcome. Before we begin I would like to welcome our new member, Elinora. I hope you enjoy your time with us.” Aralia motioned for applause, just as a smattering sounded from Aralia herself, several pairs of hands (also shades) sprouting from her back and sides, giving Eli a round before fading after a few moments.

Once that was done with, a lithe hand came from under the cover of her cloak, envelope grasped. Breaking the seal, she took out a piece of paper. Eyes darting across it, they narrowed for a moment in suspicion, but she swiftly returned to her neutral expression, before showing off the paper: a mission with a reward of 1,050,000 Jewels.

“‘Stop Oni Smile’, it’s a more sensitive task than I expected. Apparently they’re a Dark Guild that has threatened to assassinate the princess while she’s on a duty of her own, starting tomorrow.” Placing the paper on the table for the group, she smiled. “The mission has already been accepted, so I trust you will not be late.”

Dwarf Spirit​

Korin looked on with apprehension as the Guild quickly took to looking over Circe. Their rambunctiousness was unparalleled, but Korin let out a sigh of relief as Circe seemed to be alright with everything.

After letting them be for a few moments, Korin raised a hand, in which he had a piece of paper. “Alright now, listen up. Here’s the job: Dipper Town is two days away, by the mountain range. Apparently they’ve been having trouble with...well, everything. Bandits, animals, natural disasters...” As he trailed off, realization dawned on his face as he looked over the group he was sending off. Grimacing underneath his facial hair, he rattled the paper (reading “Save Dipper Town! 959,000 Jewels), hoping someone would take it. With a warning, he added, “Try not to add yourselves to that list of problems...”

 

[Lunaxxor]

“‘Stop Oni Smile’, it’s a more sensitive task than I expected. Apparently they’re a Dark Guild that has threatened to assassinate the princess while she’s on a duty of her own, starting tomorrow.” Placing the paper on the table for the group, she smiled. “The mission has already been accepted, so I trust you will not be late.”

"Thank God.." Yukine thought to himself with a huge sigh of relief. "I thought she figured out my pity story to get money was fake. Well it doesn't matter now."

He skims through the paper, not bothering to actually read anything until he sees the reward.

"1,050,000 Jewels huh. Normally I might suck it up and go do this job, but I'm not alone this time. I got 5 people joining me on this mission. Meaning we would split the reward 5 ways. Doesn't sound like enough money for me...ugh. Well no use complaining, doubt I can get out of this one. But...I'll never know till I try"

He glances at the other members, not really caring for the others, but staying cautious and suspicious towards the ones known as Ratnik and Elinora.

"This Ratnik guy, he's always giving me the creeps. But, for some reason, I feel as though we've met before... Then theres the new kid Elinora. Wonder what her deal is...."

"Well granny, this sounds a lot of work that I don't feel like partaking in. So you mind if I stay out of this one?"

The guildmistress doesn't respond with words, instead leaving a bright smile that terrifies Yukine.

"A....alright fine."

"Damn, what a pain in the ass..." he mumbles to himself.

 

[Stickermans50]

Hina's eyes sparkled as she took the initiative and took quest paper from Korin, turned around and looked at Hani and Circe while giving them both a thumbs up.

'Yosh! I get to be a senpai in a while~' Her eyes turned to the rest of her guildmates, namely Felix and Sam and the girl ended up sighing 'Right... I have these two on my team too... Sam is actually fine but Felix is just non-non. Oi! Felix, don't mess it up... Otou-san did say to not add to those problems..."

She looked at Hani and Circe again "Eto... if you are confused about anything, just ask me okay? I'll do my best to help!" turning towards Sam, she stared at him for a bit before speaking up "You know why I'm staring at you deshou? I take it you know about Dipper Town more in detail, since it's your job to know stuff... So tell us on our way. Now ikko minna!"

She looked at Korin and smiled brightly while blushing a bit "I, Hina Togarashi, will do my best to make sure this quest goes well Otou-san! He must think I'm really capable, I can't let him down... I wonder if he'll praise me if we do this well...'

 

[Winchester]

Sam smiled brightly “We'll do our best, Master” He turned to Hina “The nearby mountain's home to fierce bears and a pack of wolves. Avalanches do tend to occur there occasionally. I can't say I've ever heard of any bandits in that area though.The mayor's a 40 year old man named Roger Smith. He's an avid gambler and there are some rumors about him landing in debt due to it.That's all I've got.”
He thought for a moment and added “Oh, and the inn has some pretty good cherry pies.”
“Well, I've got some work at the town library, so I'll catch up on the way. Take care, Felix. Don’t bully Felix too much, Hina.”
He turned to Circe and Hani “I know they may seem weird, but Felix and Hina are pretty good at what they do, so listen to what they have to say.”

 

[Kibichu]

“Alrighty Sam see you later!” Felix cried, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes.

Turning around with a devilish grin, he swiped the paper from Hina and looked over it’s context.

“Hm. We shall discuss how to split the fee later. I propose that we give senior members a bigger cut for being cooler.”

Suddenly, clearing his throat, Felix’s normally jovial face became surprisingly serious.

“The way I see it the best way to accomplish this mission quickly so we can get paid and go home, would be to divide and conquer. My magic can most easily deal with the animals and the natural disasters. I can capture them without much injury. And I can, in theory, help to stabilize the sites of the natural disasters, in order to give the locals time to build better protection. In the mean time Hina, it might be best for you to check up on the mayor and see what’s up with him. If you get done with that you can go scout out the Bandit’s hideout. But I feel it would be best for us to wait for Sam to get a full Raid going. And remember, with all these problems there may be more than meets the eye to this town. Keep your eyes open... that being said we should probably split up evenly... so newbies! What can ya do?” As he finished speaking Felix's s face relaxed, any semblance of a serious side gone with the wind as if it had never existed.

 

[Nunmanji]

"Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no." Eli muttered those words as she paced in her parent's apartment. Eventually she descended onto the floor rolling back and forth. Eli didn't think she was ready for this task. She wanted to back out of it but her parents had already heard the news. A reward that huge her parents would disown her for not taking the job. She decided to take off before her parents stumbled in. She had been able to use guild as an excuse to stay away from them more often. She decided to sit in the park. Someone was offering free scones. As she nommed on the scone and her hunger subsiding; her mind was a bit more clear. She had to do the mission anyways so she might as well do her best. She jumped out her seat and as loud as she could "IKUUZOO-..."

An old lady was passing by...She stopped and stared at Eli. Eli turned and her face was beet red with a half cracked shaking smile. She quickly ran away. She was so embarrassed she'd done something like that. She hadn't ever been one to be so loud but lately for some reason she was in such a good mood. Perhaps because the guild offered escape from home...Perhaps her first acceptance into a guild in one of the many towns she's been to. She had decided to go to the library to gather newspapers or any other papers she could find on Oni Smile.

Eli wanted to know what she was up against. She sat in the library. A whole pile of books of bandits and dark guilds as well as papers. She was having a bit of trouble reading them.

As Eli sat struggling, she saw a pleasantly plump man with purple hair come over to her table.

“Hey kid, need any help? You look like you could use it.”

“Ye-ah I’m not entirely sure what this book is saying.”

Eli had never properly learned how to read and write.

“ This book seems to be about dark guilds. And the page you're on right now seems to be about Oni Smile? They seem to be a pretty recent guild.You need this for something specific?”

“Well...I just wanted to know more about them.”

Eli didn’t want to say why in case speaking of missions to normal citizen’s was against the rules.

“ I see, well curiosity is never a bad thing, unless you're poking into a politician's shady business. Well, this book is a good one, though it alone won't be enough. There were some articles about them posted a month back. Let me get some of them for you” He went over to a stack of newspapers, and after a brief search, he found what he was looking for and returned to the table with the papers. “Have a look at them.”

Eli read aloud “Oni smile guild members recent-ly spotted in e..h...elderich town. They p-pron-pre…*a sizable pause* proceeded to make their way to the next town over the m-mou…mon...”

“You're having quite a bit of trouble there. Need any help?” The man looked at her curiously. “Are you just nervous because of me? I assure you, I'm not a weirdo.”

“I can’t tell if this word is mountain or monster or something else…”

“It's mountain.So do you have a lot of trouble while reading? There's a book that might be able to help you out with it.”

“Well the words are easy when I can piece them together.”

“I see. Well I'll help you read for now.”

“What’s your name mister?”

“ I'm Sam Brandybuck, a member of Dwarf Spirit and part time journalist at the Corona Chronicles. What about you?”

Oh so he’s part of a guild too.

“I’m Elinora.”

“ Well, it's been nice to meet you. Is it just Elinora or do you have a last name?”

“Uhh I dunno.”

Sam sighed. “ Guess you don't want to say too much to somebody you've just met, huh? Alright, shall we get to work?”

Eli was happy that he assumed she wasn’t telling him for secrecy reasons rather than her actually not knowing.

“Alright.” Eli said cracking a sorta half smile. He was comforting to be around.

As we read we found that their leader is Kukura and their missions have seemingly revolved around opposing the government body specifically the royal family. It seems they’re really against the royal family...but why? Dark Guilds typically just do whatever gives them the most financial gain but there has to be something more to it. It seems too calculated. They’ve really only been focusing on doing these missions that aren’t even always bringing in the most money.

“Thanks for helping me sam.”

Eli wanted to keep her grin in but couldn’t help it.

“ Yeah, it was fun Eli. Just study that book on dyslexia whenever you can,OK? And if you ever have any trouble understanding the book, the librarian will help you out. Anyway, I've still got some work here, so Goodbye. Don't try to get too involved with Oni Smile, alright?” He threw a concerned look at her.

“Thanks!” Eli said as she ran out the library.

She left before he could possibly question why she needed to know about them again or figure out she lied about just being curious. Eli walked back home and when she made her way toward her room to pack somethings she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"I heard you got a mission. Better not screw it up and be dropped from the guild."

It was Eli's father speaking in his usual raucous voice. She had forgotten how badly he made her feel. Especially after she hadn't been around her parents in so long. Despite how he was her mother was even worse.

"I...I won't."

"That's what you said the last times you tried getting into guilds. Whatever. Here."

He tossed her a small biscuit. It was stale as usual.

Eli packed her bag with the little she had to take. Then headed out to the guild as she left the house she saw her mother and quickly ran past. She waited in the guildhall as ready as she could be for the mission. As she waited she started getting anxious thinking about their sudden reputation despite coming seemingly from nowhere. Why was a newbie assigned to such a task?...

Eli came back in and sat down quietly.

 

[SDMG]

Nero looked around the table, the mummy, the bum, the boring, and a kid. Nero couldn’t help but scoff, she was surrounded by complete and utter fools.

Nero grabbed the paper and wiped it off seeing that Yukine had touched it, she didn’t want his bacteria on her hand. Instant karma had affected her in that moment, as Nero grabbed the paper she spilled her coffee on it. She looked around. Apparently no one had witnessed her screw up, she wiped and wiped at the paper to no avail. After seeing how much it stained the paper she sneakily threw it away. She had a flustered face, and then she put her head down on the table, and tried to relax her tense body.

As she looked at her hands she saw that something was on her left hand. Apparently, she now had the number 1,050,000 imprinted on her hand. She let out a sigh and put her hands in her pockets, waiting for the next instruction.

 

[Murozaki]

Hani could only nod towards most of the things he was hearing from his guildmates, these last few minutes were something he could only describe as overwhelming, first a giant machine woman appears, and now he is suddenly grouped with four other people he is unfamiliar with on a mission.

What was perhaps most surprising was Felix's rather sudden increase in eloquence, as he was now detailing both information relevant to the mission, as well as possible approaches they could take to reach success, all in a sharp contrast with the man who was, a few minutes ago, literally sleeping while hanging from the ceiling, Hani could only think of what caused this unnerving shift, was there more to this mission than there seemed to be and Felix knew that? Or is Felix more dilligent and serious about his job than he lets on?

Before his train of thoughts could go further on a long and complicated route, Felix finished what he was saying by asking "... so newbies! What can ya do?”, to which Hani proceeded to cool his own head and reply:

"I am a user of Take Over magic, with it, i can use the power of, at the moment, three different Animal Souls, as heir of the Ikaika family, i was trained in the mastery of my magic for years." Hani was always better at talking when all he needed to say was a straight-forward answer rather than make natural casual talk.

 

[Cintra]

'Uhuhu, so Mr. Felix has a serious side to him, huh? I guess calling him Boss is more than fitting, then.~' Circe was thinking of the best way to comunicate her usefulness for this job, when Hani replied. 'Take Over magic? I've heard of it, but seeing it in person so quickly after just beginning is beyond lucky!' She looked at Felix, and stood upright, before replying. "As a recently-reformed Kader-type Machias, I am equipped with a variety of short and long range weaponry, as well as high-speed flight and combat training. I also can somewhat adapt my body to fit different situations and have expertise in dealing with machinery of most kinds."

 

[ani456123]

Ratnik's eyes darted around the table, as he made eye contact with every one around him. Some of them were weirded out while the others did not notice his attention on them. As the Guildmistress left, Elinora followed her out nervously and talked with the her. After a few seconds, Elinora seemed to leave the guild premises. All the others were observing this interaction, and a few seemed confused. Ratnik then addressed the rest of the present group;

"Well then. We shall set out when Elinora returns...it seems she has some work to take care of...that being said, let us discuss our plan."

The others did not respond and waited for Ratnik to continue:

"The princess is expected to make a speech at the town hall tomorrow after making a few rounds around the capital. We can expect the dark guild to attempt the assassination while she is moving around, or while she is in the town hall itself. So it seems that we have to split our group up: one group to protect the princess close (the security group) and the other group to look out for any possible attacks from far (the surveillance group). Well...in the best case we would want to have a third group, or rather, make the surveillance group the attacking unit as we directly take charge and head into the enemy base...but we lack information about the town in which they reside. Well, since we do not have much time, we might have to forget about any attacking unit altogether..."

Ratnik seemed to pause for some time. His eyes were closed and he seemed still for a few moments, after which he said -

"Well we have to make do with that I suppose...we can discuss who will be in which team after Elinora comes back...and we can discuss the reward distribution at that time too..."

It seemed that Ratnik had said what he wanted to and the others in the group slowly withdrew. Ratnik too became relaxed and began to close his eyes before adding, "Ah well. It might be odd but I believe I have never been on a mission with any of you before...My name is Ratnik..."

 

[Apo]

It made sense that he had been put in the group for his job. It wouldn’t be the first time Rand had been tasked with catching rogue mages; his abilities were suited to it, after all. He briefly glanced at the other members of the group. Nero looked incredibly offended by nothing in particular, which was normal. She also had something on her hand, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Yukine looked vexed that he had to participate, and Ratnik’s expression was as impossible to read as usual. The one called Elinora looked pretty young, but she wasn’t any younger than Rand was when he had first started taking jobs by himself. She did a look very nervous, however, which didn’t give the impression that she was an experienced mage. A novice being sent on a mission like this definitely isn’t normal. Something is weird about this girl. He then noticed her talking with Aralia briefly, before leaving. He elected to ignore it.

His attention turned to Ratnik, who seemed to be taking charge and explaining the plan to them. Rand didn’t know much about Ratnik, nobody did, but he had the air of a person with experience and Aralia seemed to trust him, so he didn’t have any complaints. The plan seemed simple enough. He was relatively confident he could carry out his job regardless of which team he was put on, but he’d be sure to remember any specific instructions he was given. After a long pause, Ratnik finished by saying they’d leave after Elinora returned, and discuss reward distributions. Rand began to withdraw, pausing briefly when Ratnik introduced himself to the other members, who must have not have been there long enough to properly meet him, which made sense, as he wasn’t the most approachable person. Rand headed off to prepare for the trip, when it occurred to him he had actually gotten hungry at some point in the last few minutes. Oh well, I’ll eat on the way.

 

[Craftsdwarf]

Elvish Heart​

As the group assembled to wait for Eli, Aralia spotted the discarded mission slip, stained horribly with coffee. Out of sight, she had one of her shades acquire it, slipping it back into Nero’s pocket unawares. With nothing left but to trust in them, she shuffled off to manage her own duties.

---

Elinora’s return was followed with a course through Corona to the town hall. The princess had her duties in town tomorrow, but her arrival was today. The strange group arrived to a high degree of buzzing about, civil servants making sure everything was ship shape. The guildmembers weren’t there for more than a few seconds when a broad man with a mushy mustache approached, eyebrows furrowed at the out of place visitors, even more standout at this time. He grumbled, “Can I help you?”

Dwarf Spirit​

Scratching at his facial hair, Korin nodded. “You got this then Hina? Be careful then.” Waving them off, Korin mused mentally, This will be just fine, everything will turn out alright...

Door closed, guild hall empty, Korin rightfully admitted, “Aaaaand I’m worried now. Shoulda suggested something more in the 500 thousand range maybe...”

---

The group (sans Sam) had a time of trying to find a transport to Dipper Town (a long trip without a likelihood of passengers for the return journey wasn’t worth going out of the way for a few of the caraveners, apparently), but by midday they were on the journey proper, set to arrive morning after next, and beyond the typical Dwarf Rambunctiousness Spirit, things started off rather uneventful…

---

May 12th, 777 (the next day)

Travel taking them from the plainlands around Corona westward into the rocky crags, the reason for the travel time became apparent through the bumpy road, uneven paths, and infrequent blocked road, often as a result of natural disaster or otherwise for safety reasons. The driver only had some experience with the area so there had been some backtracking, leading to a bit of frustration on her end.

The middle aged lady, gray tinged hair tied back in a ponytail, puffed on her cigarette as the caravan was forced to back up again, this time due to a landslide taking a chunk of the road out from the cliff. Turning back to face her passengers in the covered wagon, she explained, “Dammit this one’s blocked too. We’re still on schedule though.”

Reversing the cart and taking an alternate path towards a sturdy looking bridge. “Can’t believe you had trouble finding a ride. Those spoiled brats don’t know what an actually difficult route looks like,” she scoffed, mostly to herself (though loud enough her passengers could hear easily).

 

[SDMG]

As Nero walked along with the rest of the group, she started being infuriated at how Rand walked like an old drunk man. She was going to yell at him when she noticed something in her pocket. It was the mission paper that Nero had stained with the coffee. Nero waited for everyone to go ahead of her. She then threw the paper up in the sky and switched her bullets with normal ones, and then she shot it, she was filled with rage that she couldn’t burn it. Nero couldn’t even yell, she was not in the mood to make a commotion, and deal with the consequences. She caught up quickly with the group, and it seemed no one had noticed she stayed behind.

Nero mumbled,“It was that bitchy old woman, I’ll make sure she never humiliates me like that ever again.”

As they walked along they reached their destination. Nero sighed in relief. She could finally breathe, she was surrounded by people who smelt like garbage, especially Yukine, he smelt like he had showered in shit. So entering a clean and fresh place brought joy to Nero.

A man had come up to them and grumbled “Can I help you?”

Nero stayed quiet and waited for Ratnik to answer back. She didn’t want to bother herself with talking to a person with no value.

 

[Cintra]

The day had been absurdly hot. The road had been flat and smooth at first so despite the heat the team was able to doze and relax, and let the hours pass by. But as the road became more dusty and bumpy the heat seemed to get worse and morale dropped. And from the perspective of the uninformed passengers the driver seemed to be taking her sweet time. This, combined with her incessant muttering, made the group even more restless. Only Circe seemed to be unaffected by the heat. As the day drew to a close and the sun went down the air did become cooler, though not by much. The group decided to stop for the night and make camp, despite the driver’s obvious disdain for the idea. As she went to go prepare the horse for the night, the group set up camp and then collectively collapsed around the campfire, sweaty, sticky and very dirty.

“You guys can sleep.” Circe said. “I have no need for that, so I can keep guard all night.”

She walked away, deciding what perimeter would be ideal to keep her attention to.

“No need to do that newbie. I doubt anything is out here. Besides I should keep watch since if I were to fall asleep it would be very difficult to wake me up.” Felix yawned, popping a piece of bubblegum in his mouth. “So…” he smiled. “Who wants to tell some stories?”

Hina immediately raised her hand “Haaai! Me, I don’t really have a story but you know Master Korin and how he is my otou-san? We aren’t blood-related, but he found me a couple years ago and took me in. ISN’T HE COOL?” She looked at everyone with stars in her eyes, waiting for them to give her a nod or something. And they did. Hina then took her magic wand and hugged it tightly “And this, when otou-san was teaching me magic, he gave this to me as a present on my tanjoubi. It is my treasure…” she blushed to that and looked at the others, “Haha, that was a lot but eto, you guys can go now. Hani-kun, do you have any stories? Felix-san only has ones of sleeping…”

As he sat by the camp, Hani tried to think of any possible stories he could share. However, as he thought of it more and more he could not think of anything noteworthy, he then took a moment to think of Hina’s own story, he thought of what she said about Korin and her story of his birthday gift to her. He started thinking of his own parents, and after a long moment of silence, choose to only reply “No, i don’t, sorry.”.

“Hmmm.” Circe pondered. Storytelling. Not something she was really good at. The visual arts were what was imprinted in her programming. ‘Eh, what the heck. Won’t know until I try.’ she thought, she had been interested in dark humor for a while so this was a good opportunity. “Until a couple months ago, I was a watchmaker. One of my clients, a gentleman, had requested a repair for a grandfather clock, but I made a schedule mistake and sent him a cuckoo clock I had repaired instead. Two weeks later, he found out his spouse was having an affair with another person.” She stopped, and paid attention to their reactions.

“... S-Souka. Nice story Circe-chan!” She turned her attention to Hani and noticed a tinge of sadness in his eyes when he said he didn’t have anything to say. ‘I wonder if it was something I said… Hani-kun seems hurt for some reason…’

Felix was silent. Suddenly he stood up and started yelling at the top of his lungs, scaring the wildlife in the vicinity and startling everyone around the fire. “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? YOU PEOPLE ARE AN INSULT TO STORYTELLING.” Felix pointed at his fellow guild mates in the order that they had gone. “ALL YOU DID WAS TELL US YOUR BACKSTORY! AND YOU JUST USED IT AS A VEHICLE TO BRAG ABOUT YOUR DAD! YOU, HANI, NEED TO LEARN TO TAKE CHANCES AND TRY NEW THINGS! IT’S OK TO FAIL. YOUR SILENCE ONLY SERVES TO FURTHER INSULT THIS GREAT ART! AND YOUUU… ALL YOU DID WAS SPREAD GOSSIP! WHILE I APPRECIATE THE EFFORT, AND I SEE POTENTIAL, YOU STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE YOU CAN CALL THAT A STORY. THERE WAS PRACTICALLY NO LINK BETWEEN THE SETUP AND THE PAY OFF…” Sitting down to catch his breath Felix started up again. “My pride as an entertainer will not let me stand for this. I shall just have to show you all how a story is really told…” as Felix began to tell his story, no one seemed to notice the shadows that had been drawn by the young jester’s angry cries.

As Felix finished up his story, everyone except Circe grew drowsy. They had had a long day and Hani and Hina went right to sleep. Felix had promised to take the first watch so he went to do that. As he walked away he found that he'd placed himself in quite a precarious situation.

'Hmm... Looks like I'm in a jam. I should be watching but I kinda wanna sleep a little...'

Suddenly, he had an idea. He created two small globs of gum and fashioned them into little dolls, one with wings and one with horns.

"If I do this I can debate the pros and cons, AND have a little fun with it"

Taking the two dolls in his hands, he cleared his voice and began to speak.

"It is time to begin the First Democratic Debate regarding the issue of whether or not Felix Lazzlo should sleep instead of doing his job. Little angel you have the floor."

In a high pitched, holier than thou voice the angel spoke. "If we were to fall asleep while everyone was counting on us we would fail the group and put everyone in danger."

The devil responded in a high, scratchy voice. "True, but wouldn't we fail them worse if we were to go in to town at less than full capacity? The traveling has made us pretty tired and we might be a detriment in combat or other physical attacks. We owe it to our team to fall asleep and make sure we're able to give 100% when we reach out destination . Besides it's not like anything could be out here in the boonies. What would we even guard them from?"
"That makes sense" said the little angel "but what about our frankly amazing ability to sleep for days once we get going? Then wouldn't we be a burden?"

"Ah that would be the case..." smirked the devil doll "if we didn't have Hinachi with us! She knows how to wake us up. So it's ok."

"But what if something DOES attack? Everyone will be sleeping, and they be defenseless."

"Again, that's basically impossible. Besides I'm sure they'll be fine. Hina's tough and I bet the two new guys are pretty good as well. Besides those guys prolly deserve it with how they insulted the great art of story telling earlier."

Clearing his throat again and switching back to his normal voice, Felix began to speak. "The First Democratic Debate regarding whether Felix Lazzlo should sleep or keep watch has now concluded, in favor of sleeping!"
Felix walked over to a sturdy that looked like it could support his weight, created a cocoon of bubble gum and fell right to sleep with a peaceful smile on his face.

Meanwhile, Circe was poking the fire with a stick, almost as if in a trance, watching it slowly die as she thought about her story and the criticism it had received. Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth, rendering her unable to talk. She tried to fight but two more pairs grabbed her arms and legs and held her down while they used metal chains to tie her up. Seeing that she was trying to break free they brought even more chains and wrapped her tightly from head to toe. She tried to yell again but the chains over her mouthless face dampened the sound. Two of the shadows went to pick her up while two more went inside the tents, coming out moments later with a bound, gagged, and unconscious Hani and Hina. The shadows took a moment to look through the belongings, found a few things of value (such as Hina’s magic wand) and scurried away. As they were leaving they spotted a giant blob in the distance, which startled them. However once they gathered up the courage to go look they found it was a person, wrapped in some sort of pink gooey substance. One of the shadows tried to cut him down but found that his knife got stuck. So they cut the tree branch he was hanging on, wrapped him in a burlap sack and scurried forth into the night.


‘Crap. This is what I get for not installing a sonar.’ Circe cursed to herself for not at least staying alert. She didn’t even manage to conclude how to improve her joke. ‘What happened to Boss? Wasn’t he on guard duty? Darn, if they could take him out silently they must be experienced mages as well.’ As much as she tried to struggle, there were too many chains for her to move properly. Her missile chambers were jammed and using lasers on a mass of metal around her would be a terrible idea. ‘Wait, Sam! He was going to meet us in Dipper! Thinkthinkthikthinkthinkthinkthinkthink! What can I do to warn him? GOSHD- Oh right.’ She detached one of her fingers and pushed it out of the chain case. In intervals of 2 minutes, she performed the same action 9 more times. ‘This will have to do for now, hope Sam’s able to find them.’

 

[Winchester]

May 13th 777

As Sam flew over the dusty roads leading to Dipper Town, he noticed two caravans stopped below and their drivers arguing.

“I'm telling you, those kids have been captured by bandits.” said one of the drivers, a middle aged lady.“Are you sure? They might have just wanted to skip out on paying you.” said the other driver, a stocky man in his thirties.“They already paid up front. They're apparently the ones who were sent to help Dipper Town. Not sure what their guild was thinking sending a bunch of kids. Wait, who are you? Where'd you come from?” The old lady, who had just noticed him, turned to him.

“I'm Sam Brandybuck, mage of Dwarf Spirit.” He showed her the guild crest on the back of his palm. “Where are my guildmates?” he asked in a worried tone.The old lady narrowed her eyes. “Another kid. Well, hopefully you're a bit more competent than the others. I'll show you where they went camped out yesterday night. And I'm not risking getting attacked by bandits for nothing.” “Alright, I'll pay you Granny. Lead the way.”

They both got on the cart and headed out. ‘I hope they're alright, Felix and Hina may be idiots, but they can take care of themselves. Hani may be a child, but Circe seems capable.’ The old lady glanced at him “I'm sure those kids will be alright. They seem like a stubborn bunch.” “Yeah, they are.” He replied, but he still couldn't quell the sinking feeling inside him. A few hours later, they arrived at the area. “Well,thanks for the help, Granny. Here's your reward.” She took his money and started to leave, but paused. “You sure you'll be alright alone?” Sam flashed a smile at her. “Don't worry, I can take care of myself. You be careful on the road now.”

As she left, he began searching the area. After a while, just when he was starting to despair, he saw something shine in the distance. Elated, he ran towards it As he approached it, he noticed it was a metallic finger. ‘Oh no, it can't be’ he thought as he picked it up. As he started searching frantically, he found another finger. ‘No no no no no’, he thought as he picked it up. He hadn't known Circe for long, but she had seemed like a good person. ‘And if this happened to her, what about Felix, what about Hina and Hani, DAMN IT, he was just a kid.' As he kept searching, he found other fingers. ‘Wait a minute, these fingers don't look like they've been severed, maybe this is a clue.’ With this newfound hope, he began searching again. After he had found all of them, he ended up in a random clearing. ‘Finally’ and he began searching for signs of a hidden entrance. However, he couldn't find any. ‘They've got to be nearby, I'll have a better look from the air’ he thought as he floated up and began searching.

However, after a while, the sun had begun to set and he still hadn't found anything. ‘Where could they be? They've got to be here somewhere. I should never have left the narcoleptic and the daddy's girl in charge. Wait, what's that?’ He suddenly noticed two people moving quickly through the trees below him. He landed in front of them, startling them.

They were dressed in camouflage, carrying magic weapons, and carrying suspicious packages. ‘Pretty sure these guys are the bandits’ he thought as he looked as their startled and nervous faces. The wind started to blow fiercely around him. Trying to keep his anger in check, he called out to them “Hey guys, I'm looking for a few buddies of mine. Have you seen them?” Without answering him, they threw a glance at each other and drew their weapons.

‘OH NO YOU DON'T’ he thought angrily as he sent a powerful gale of wind at them before they could fire. They were sent crashing through multiple trees and finally stopped a distance away. As he approached their broken and bleeding bodies, he noticed one of them was making a feeble attempt to reach for his weapon. He blew the weapon away, causing the grunt to cry out in fear. “STORM PRISON” he called out, summoning a tornado which trapped the grunts, sending them spinning around violently inside it, disorienting their senses and causing them to be battered by random branches drawn inside the tornado. “Well, you seem to know them after all. So why don't you tell me WHERE THEY ARE?”

 

[ani456123]

"Can I help you?"

The man came to where the group was with quite the curious and annoyed look on his face. It seems Ratnik and the others were not welcome...
"Can I help you?" the man repeated, perhaps thinking they had not heard him the first time. Ratnik glanced at the others for a while. They were all looking at Ratnik with the exception of Nero who was just standing there with a bored expression on her face. Ratnik looked back at the man, sighed, gathered himself and responded -

"Greetings. We are from all from a guild. We are requested to protect the princess from danger...and so we came here to meet her directly, if possible, and learn more about this danger she bears..."

The man raised an eyebrow; "You guys from that fairy magic guild?"

"We are from the magic guild, Elvish Heart."

The man was somewhat irritated it seemed; he was eyeing everyone in the group, especially Ratnik, who seemed to be that group's representative.

"You must be mistaken. Nobody would ask magicians to protect the princesses"

"Well...it was a job request sent to us through official lines, and uh..well...we have already accepted it you see...". Ratnik spoke very slowly to the man. Maybe it was because of this that the response he received was even more harsh;

"It must be a joke then. Go from where you came. We have no need for the likes of you here"

Ratnik did not speak up. His eyes were closed, and it seemed to the others he was humming a soft tune. Then he softly spoke so that only those nearby could hear, and the words that escaped his mouth were fleeting and dreamy like a lost song...

We shall await the golden carriages of hope
For those words will come true
Even if the land itself rots away
We shall await the golden carriages of hope

As Ratnik finished his song, the man's face turned to that of a demon. His anger was almost unbounded and he was about to unleash everything. The man started shaking and asked Ratnik in the most vicious of voices -

"You...how dare you...those words....you have no right..!"

Everyone nearby was taken aback by this sudden behavior. Even so, Ratnik remained unfazed.

"It is for that reason we were called here...please understand"

The man started panting heavily, and clenching his fists, he took a few steps back, and look behind him. After a few moments, he said, "Just.. wait.."

****

After some time, the man again came to them. He then grumbled -
"It seems you were saying the truth...the princess has been told of this "job" of yours. She says that she will be eager to meet you.."

"I appreciate it...then come let us go..."

The others in the group slowly moved forward. Ratnik allowed all of them to go first, and then started to follow them too. But as he was leaving Ratnik said -

The hope known as magic does not exist

The man was stunned. He started stammering and again started shaking.

"Don't tell me...you...were you there too...?...Then...why?"

"..."; Ratnik did not respond.

The man then looked at the group ahead of Ratnik then asked him -

"But...then...is that your role? To pass it on?"

Ratnik stopped. Then after a few moments he again moved forward as he said -

"Not quite....My role in this world is coming to an end...we exist to be forgotten..."
And so, they went ahead.

 

[Apo]

As Rand walked with the others through town, he came to the conclusion he didn’t care much for anpan and tossed the last bite to a cat that passed by. He was feeling slightly disappointed with himself, as he hadn’t managed to find time to sharpen his sword before they left. He could practically hear Braunen’s voice berating him. Damn stupid kid. Didn’t I tell you that thing was gonna chip if you didn’t take care of it? Braunen had always griped about Rand’s sword in particular, constantly reminding him to clean and maintain it and to be careful using a weapon with no guard or he’d cut himself. It almost made Rand wonder why Braunen bothered having the thing made if it was so troublesome, especially when whatever it was made of never seemed to even get scratched. He sighed. Hopefully he’d have time before the job actually started, otherwise this would keep bugging him. His attention was diverted from the weapon hanging at his hip when he noticed Nero angrily shooting the slip of paper Aralia had put in her pocket before they left. She really did get mad at the strangest things. He hadn’t ever been on a job with Nero before, but like Eli she didn’t exactly have an aura of experience or competence about her, which caused him to once again ponder the group being sent on this job before once again deciding it wasn’t his place to question it.

After arriving and immediately being questioned by a rather unpleasant man, who Ratnik tried to reason with, Rand briefly considered attempting to help, but elected not to. This kind of thing wasn’t really his forte. He was then surprised when Ratnik began humming and then recited some verse. He was surprised again when he realized it seemed familiar. He could almost swear he had heard it before. He remained confused about this for a few moments before he heard the man asking them to wait. Whatever that was, it seemed to have worked. After a few minutes the man returned, telling them they were to meet with the princess. Rand walked forward with the others, pausing only for a second to glance back at Ratnik and the man having a conversation he couldn’t hear. It really was familiar, but just couldn’t place it. Best not to dwell on it for now. I’m here for a job.

 

[Nunmanji]

As Eli walked with the others she tried to put on to put on an air of confidence to seem a bit more competent. Compared to pretty much everyone else here her usefulness was questionable. Suddenly as the group is walking Yukine puts his hand on his head. Everyone turns toward him and Nero seems to be especially annoyed. Yukine must be drinking that juice that adults drink. Suddenly

"I quit."

Everyone paused for a moment.

"I'm done with this shit. I'm out. I quit elvish heart."

“Looks like the shitty bum left. One pest out, 3 more left. ”, Nero said in her usual blank expression with her voice monotone voice.

As Yukine was leaving he paused and looked at Eli for a few seconds.

He pulled what looked like a broken shackle.

"I see just as I you've been fighting as well."

Yukine grabbed Eli's hand and placed the shackle in it.

"Keep it" he said in a low voice.

Eli was confused, but decided to keep the broken shackle, out of respect for his wishes.

Rand and Ratnik tried to convince him to stay at least for this mission to no avail.

Yukine walked off without explaining his reason for quitting and everyone else wondered if the mission would still go smoothly with one down. Eli stared at the shackle still wondering his reasoning for giving it to her and why he'd quit so suddenly...

 

[Craftsdwarf]

Elvish Heart​

Yukine’s sudden departure didn’t even get a raised eyebrow from the still busy civil servants while the Elvish Heart members made their way through the building, being pointed to the waiting area before the mayor’s office, out of the way of all the bustle. “We’ll alert you when the princess arrives.”

The four being left to their own devices, it wasn’t even more than 15 minutes when someone returned to call for them. Heading back through the town hall, they returned to the entrance hall once again, this time from a higher balcony. Below, an arrangement of city folk watched as the princess was greeted, a handful of soldiers in breastplates behind her at ease. The princess was fair, wearing a sun yellow dress glistening with ornate fabrics sown in. Her head was crowned with a silver tiara over her deep blue hair, reaching towards her lower back in a broad coil. As she made her greetings, her light colored eyes floated up to the balcony, where she met gazes with the guild members. Returning to those in front of her, she bowed her head lightly, exchanging a few words, before the party began to move upstairs.

The princess led the way, her guards, the mayor, and the broad man from before following her pace as she made a beeline for the guild members. Standing a little taller than Eli, the teenage princess could not contain her smile as she began, “You must be the members of Elvish Heart who accepted my mission. It is a pleasure to meet you: I am Princess Easel Rigel.” Stretching a hand out for further greeting, her face was slightly strained as she help back excitement.

Dwarf Spirit​

With most of the team captured, trapped by bindings, the night blinding them, they had little to latch on to for bearings, leaving any who were conscious with no sense of direction as to where they were or where they were destined. In about an hour, they were taken through a forested area, then down a slope as the faint rushing of the river was heard in the distance, wind picking up speed as they were in a more open area, shortly before being taken indoors.

Footsteps on wood, the four were dropped unceremoniously onto a wood floor. The room was half wood construction, half dirt, built into the ground somewhere. There was light from a few magic lanterns, revealing a few tables and chairs, a number of bandits mulling about casually, not even minding the captives, while the party that brought them there dispersed, some heading into dirt halls and leaving, some grabbing at the food and water that was stored.

Within moments, one particular bandit came out of the hall. Where the others were dressed more casually, he wore a white hakama over a blue kimono patterned with violet wavy lines. His dark hair was tied into a small tail that jabbed from the crown of his head, while in his hand he held a kiseru pipe. Stepping over to the guild mates, he crouched down, eyeing them over without words.

 

[Cintra]

The moment the chains around her head were removed, Circe hardened her "hair" into spikes, stabbing through the bandits hands and forearms in several places. After hearing the curling scream, she softened it and started to look through the room, spotting her colleagues. They seemed to be unconscious, and Boss was wrapped in his own gum.
“YOU BASTARDS! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!”

One of the bandits in the back swallowed his food and replied, with a small smirk on his face.
“I wish we had to do something, but they all were fast asleep when we got them. It was so easy I almost feel bad. Almost.”

“Boss was on watch duty, there’s no way he’d eve-” She remembered him mentioning something about sleeping for two weeks straight when they first met. “Oh. He was serious about that. Crap.” she said to herself. She stared at Felix’s cocoon, with respect replaced with disappointment. 'Well, I was well awake and didn't do anything either, so I can't put it all on him.' she thought, before turning to who seemed like the leader.
“What do you want from us?”

 

[SDMG]

When Yukine has left Nero was overjoyed with happiness. Of course she didn’t show it on her face though. Nero had walked happily to the waiting area. She had sat down and looked everywhere carefully analyzing. They hadn’t been in danger, but everyone looked hostile. Nero kept her guard up. Suddenly the princess walked in.

“You must be the members of Elvish Heart who accepted my mission. It is a pleasure to meet you: I am Princess Easel Rigel.”

The princess had sounded happy and excited. Nero examined everything. The princess had seemed to be around 13-15 years old judging from her appearance. Suddenly she raised her hand out.

Nero was in an excellent mood so she responded to the princess.

Nero shaked her hand and bowed.

“Good afternoon Princess. It is a pleasure to meet you, for all of us.”

Nero paused. This time being more annoyed than previously.

“But… Princess. This behavior that you are showcasing us is far beyond dumb. We aren’t your friends nor your family. We were people hired by you, we’re basically servants. Treating us like your friends is insulting. You shouldn’t even be happy about this. You’re going on a dangerous quest and you might even die, yet you’re acting like a child going to a candy shop. This isn’t a game. This is a matter of life or death. Fix your behavior and act your status.”, Nero said this in a strict tone.

Nero had let that off her chest. This princess wasn’t fit to be royalty. She was naive and far too trusting of people she had just met. This was the type of person Nero hated the most.

 

[Murozaki]

After a bizarre dream involving one of his front incisors falling and his gum bleeding as a result, Hani woke up from the sound of a familiar voice, a voice that sounded like it was in an argument. His body felt weak, heavy even, he had a giant headache, cold sweat ran through his body and as he was lying down in prone position he could feel the chill touch of metal wrapped around his arms and torso as well as his legs. And the wood floor was cold, humid and worst of all, it smelled awful.

From his blurry vision he could only see a few light sources and a few human figures seemingly sitting on a table and a few standing around, he turned his head slightly around to see what appeared to be his teammates in a similar position, and he realized "That voice, it must have been Circe's, she must be awake too...".

He though to himself "If i use the Full Body Take Over in rat form i could escape those bindings, but i need to make sure it's safe first...", and so Hani proceeded to use partial Take Over magic with his Owl Soul to gives his eyes a better vision of his surroundings.

With a clearer vision, he could see the figures more clearly, most of them appeared to be common bandits and thieves, however, Hani noticed one man crouching and gazing at the other bandits. Hani could not recognize his face, but when he looked at his clothes he saw a pattern, a pattern made of wavy violet lines, the moment he saw this pattern, Hani felt a chill down his spine. And as his heart started racing, he heard Circe's voice again, this time saying “What do you want from us?”.

In a soft voice, trying to be just loud enough to reach Circe's ears, but not loud enough to alert the bandits, he whispered slowly "Circe... Don't do or say anything risky... specially something that might anger the man crouching there..."

 

[Stickermans50]

"Don't run Hina, you'll hurt yourself~" A well-dressed, purple-haired woman in her early 30s was chasing after the young girl but she didn't stop, continuing to run instead. Even though the woman kept telling her to stop, a very young Hina kept running until suddenly a wall appeared out of nowhere and she hit it really hard. Her face was hurt really badly, specially the nose and she started bleeding out of it. The young girl turned around teary eyed to go back to the figure that had been behind her this entire time, but the woman was no longer there.

"Oka-san...? OKA-SAN, where did you go..." The ground below her began to crack, her eyes widened in shock. She backed away with small and cautious steps but it was no use, the ground just disappeared out of the blue and the young Hina started falling into a bottomless pit of nothing...

A tear escaped her eye and trickled down her cheek as she slowly opened her eyes, 'That dream again...' before she could dwell further on that, her eyes landed on Hani lying down and she realized she was in the same position.

The girl turned her head slowly to where Hani was looking and noticed Circe protecting the two of them with Felix not standing beside her.... that confused her... She wasn't fully awake until that moment but now she was, 'Right, he went to sleep during his time to be awake.'

She shifted her focus back to Hani, he looked terrified and Hina could hear him saying things 'Does Hani know that guy? He looks so scared.... is it just the situation or is it because of that guy? MOU, this is all that gum baka's fault! IF ONLY, IF ONLY HE COULD DO HIS ONE JOB PROPERLY...' She sighed and looked around 'These bandits probably took our belongings... Where is my wand?' Her eyes wandered around to look for it and she noticed one of the bandits holding it and playing around with it, saying things like "What does this piece of crap do? Haha, seeing as how weak those wizards were I wouldn't be surprised if they needed support to walk, haha."

'DON'T TOUCH IT...' Hina sighed again, she needed to act like the senpai she was right now so she crawled close to Hani and tapped his shoulder with her chin "It'll be daijoubu, Hani-kun. You have me here, your senpai onee-san, so don't worry~" She said in as low of a tone as possible for only him to hear it, her lips formed a reassuring smile, doing her best to help him with whatever was causing him to be so afraid.

Determined to get out of this pinch, she used her support magic on herself, covering her body with a light blue aura as she did her best to stand up despite being all tied up. "Circe! If you could break these chains off of me, that'd be really helpful! ALSO, we don't mention this mess-up to otou-san... No. Matter. What." She ended the last bit of her sentence dead-serious but still smiling. She looked almost scary despite being a cute, innocent girl, Hina then turned to look at Hani and winked, reassuring him yet again that it was going to be fine.

 

[Apo]

The good part of waiting was that it gave Rand an opportunity to silence the nagging voice in the back of his head. As he finished sharpening his sword, he paused to look at it. It seemed perfectly fine as always, not a scratch or chip to be seen and perfectly clean. As he always did at this point, he remembered Braunen’s words again. You’re allowed to be proud when you do things well, just don’t let yourself get too proud. And so, as always, he took a moment to let himself feel pride in his handiwork before putting the weapon back into its sheath.

Unfortunately, with the distraction of his sword taken care of, Rand was now left to the much less pleasant part of waiting. Rand didn’t like being idle. It gave him the overwhelming feeling of not knowing what he was supposed to do with himself, and it gave him far too much time to think. He preferred working. Jobs let him focus on something, and didn’t clutter his head with confusing thoughts or worries. He simply had to follow his instructions and complete his goal, and that was it. Simple. As he sat waiting for the princess to arrive, his thoughts wandered constantly to Ratnik’s mysterious yet familiar song, as well as Yukine’s abrupt departure, which brought even more questions about Eli. It was all too much trouble to concern himself with. It wasn’t his place to question important things. He needed to stop thinking so hard about it all and just focus on the job he was about to do. Surely he could do that.

He was finally saved from his thoughts by the arrival of the princess. She looked a little older than Eli, and politely greeted them, while obviously holding back excitement. Rand was internally debating whether he was supposed to answer when Nero greeted her back. Well, greeted her and criticized her behavior. Rand was probably the furthest thing from an expert on upper class etiquette but he was almost certain talking to royalty that way was rude. He wondered if one of them should apologize, as Nero definitely wouldn’t. After dwelling on it for a moment he stayed quiet, deciding that he probably couldn’t remedy the situation and Ratnik could take care of it as the de facto leader of the group. He just hoped they could get to doing their job as soon as possible.

 

[ani456123]

Ratnik and the others noticed the princess' grand entrance into the town hall. They were looking on her from above; maybe it was because of this that Ratnik was extremely agitated. His eyes kept shifting around and his clenched his hands multiple times underneath his cloak. Then it happened: she looked at them. He shook his head.


Then they met the princess face to face. She was smiling and looked kindly upon all of them. As she finished introducing herself, Ratnik saw the princess directly looking into their faces. Ratnik tried to shrink away. When Nero acknowledged the princess, Ratnik gave a slight nod to acknowledge the princess too. But then Nero continued, and with each sentence Ratnik grew more and more weary of the conversation. As she finished her harsh speech, the princess was taken aback by this unexpected behavior. Ratnik sensed the great irritation from behind the princess directed at Nero. He glanced at the others, but they all seemed to be equally confused and shocked. With no other option left, Ratnik addressed the princess and her great entourage -

"O great princess, we are honored to have the opportunity to be able to meet you. It fills us with even greater honor to help fulfill the task at hand. Not many are blessed enough to seek your audience. However, as much as it pains me to say this, we must skip the pleasantries for now and do what we came her to do: to complete the mission. We are extremely concerned for your safety above all else, which is why many of us are more vigilant than usual. If you felt any form of disrespect, I apologize on behalf of all of us."


Even as he respectfully apologized, Ratnik did not meet the princess' eyes once.