~For the Love of All That Is Chocolate~

Ehh?  Rose Garden?  Where did I come from, again? Ainsley pouted and blinked confusedly at the scenery around her.  It could definitely have been Rose Garden! she decided and plastered a beaming smile across her face.  It had been a while since the petite female had been to Fiore, but she recalled growing up in one of the busier towns.  This one, Rose Garden, seemed to fit the bill.  Her eyes sparkled as she skipped through the streets, waving around her baseball bat without noticing that other passerby on the street had to swerve to avoid being brained.  From head to toe, she looked impeccably neat and business ready.  From the bottom up, Ainsley wore patent leather shoes that buckled, and her legs were covered with dark nylon stockings.  A brown pencil skirt with a square buckled belt added further to her businesslike flair, and a cream blouse with a powder blue blazer completed the ensemble.  She had even buttoned up her jacket to make herself look more professional.

This job interview is going to go great! the young woman said with a smile that made her eyes curve into upside down crescents.  I'm a shoo in for sure--

"EHH?"  Suddenly, everything went remarkably wrong.  A little boy jumped up to grab at her baseball bat, causing her body to swing in his direction as he tugged at the implement she was holding.  At the same time, a woman wearing a red pantsuit shoved a brochure in front of Ainsley's face and screamed some words about a free vacation in Midi, Who would want to go to Midi?  Won't the emperor behead you? she wondered, looking at the woman in dismay because she was actually fond of her neck.  To top it all off, to take the cake per se, a burly man crashed into all three of the slimmer people and sent them tumbling into the side of the road and off the sidewalk.  Three buttons on her jacket popped as the group went rolling down, and her skirt became muddied with a darker brown.  Her shoes slipped off her feet and scattered across the road, and her hair was yanked out of its tight low bun.

... After several minutes of arguing, it was decided that Ainsley was to blame for the disaster, and she stood there helplessly as all three of the strangers demanded that she recompense them for their time, dignity, and clothes lost.  The blonde stared at them as if they were crazy.  She had herself lost plenty of articles of clothing from that spectacle!  None of the trio seemed to care, though, so with a nervous smile and a small wave, she waved her baseball bat at them fiercely and ran for dear life when they backed away in response.

It was after a decent twenty-five minutes of pure sprinting that the girl stepped into the first building she saw.  Right when she was about to call into the interview to say that she was late, even though that in itself probably gave such a bad impression that she would never be hired by the law firm, her phone rang.  Another heated conversation commenced, even if it did start out sickly sweet.  The gist was that Ainsley was fired without having even been hired, and she would never get a job with the firm again.  People had seen what had happened in the streets.  From this news, her entire body language changed, and she padded over to a nearby tables and slumped in one of the seats.  "For the love of all that is chocolate, my life is a wreck," she moaned, curling her shoeless feet underneath her body on the chair.  "What even is this place?  The Silver Moon Inn?"  Ainsley yawned and tried to read the sign hanging above the doorway.

"La!  Tu es très amusante, mademoiselle," Ainsley laughed, her face cheering up considerably.  "Tu as l'air d'un artiste, ma chérie!"  She leaned forward and would pinch the girl's cheeks if she didn't do anything about it.  "Vous avez une brasserie n'est-ce pas?  Je voudrais des steak-frites, s'il vous plaît.  Merci beaucoup mademoiselle," she said with a bright beaming smile.  Now, how much was a meal in this place?  Judging by the cleanly swept floor and the well dusted shelves and picture frames, the blonde guessed it might be 8.000 jewels or so.  Plus any tip for the hilarious service~ the young woman had amused her so much with those faux expressions and odd accents.

She took the opportunity to look around a little bit more.  Studying the faces of her fellow customers, since Ainsley supposed she was now a customer.  What exactly was this place?  Most brasseries were open all day, and this one seemed to be no exception, but she could also see a door marked with a shiny silver card.  On the metal square, stairs were represented in thick black lines.  They were presumably engraved onto the plaque and painted over.  An upstairs for maybe sleeping, she thought.  Odd, but who am I to judge?~ I did just get fired, and my hopes and dreams have been crushed forever, even if I never wanted to be a secretary anyways, she wailed internally.  

Speaking loudly, in case the young waitress or bartender, whichever she was, could not hear from a distance away, Ainsley voiced her curious questions.  "Qu'est-ce que c'est?  Un...une chambre d'hôtes?"  It seemed to be a little bit odd to have a bar in the front of one of those, but really who knew?  She had not been in Rose Garden for very long, at least not for an extraordinarily long time~

Oh she laughed! Ainsley thought delightedly as she heard the lovely sound. The interactions between the blackbird and the pale haired girl were highly amusing as well, and the blonde beamed brightly at the slim stranger. It seemed like her order was on the way, and in the mean time, the two might just be able to get to know each other a little bit better. The blue loving female was always ready to make more friends, especially considering how rough her day had been so far already. Speaking of which, the girl seemed to have noticed the state of the blonde's attire. A subtle shake of her head clued the female in to this, but Ainsley didn't mind. Her disheveled appearance was definitely not what she would have wanted had it been a choice, but these strangers did not seem to mind~ the man behind the bar seemed to be slightly disapproving of the two females' conversation, but that could just be because he was a bit of a workaholic. The young woman thought she could recognize the type already.

Ainsley smiled cheerfully at the girl, who seemed to be in the process of taking a seat across from the blonde. That was a nice thing; apparently she hadn't scared away the stranger just yet. Then she was faced with the question of why had she exactly come to the Silver Moon Inn? Yes, that was right! The Silver Moon Inn... of course, it's not a brasserie at all! I'm so silly, she laughed to herself inwardly.

"Why, I'm here to escape from the people who were chasing me, of course!" she explained with a twinkling eyes. "My name is Ainsley Lovelett. Pleased to meet you, miss...?" The petite woman set down her bat, leaning it against one of the table legs. She extended her hand for the other female to shake.

Ainsley watched with fascination as the white haired girl underwent a remarkable change. Well, she was fascinated briefly, and then after barely a moment of watching the blonde felt terribly bored. She looked over the new transformation and smiled cheerfully once she saw the finished result. "You look beautiful, miss!" she commented. Then, Haley, since that was now her name, gave an introduction to the young woman, which was helpful. She guessed that this young lady was a mage or something, since there had to have been magic involved with that appearance change. Unless, of course, she was simply a master of disguise. That would be awesome! Ainsley reflected.

Just then, the blackbird and Haley seemed to converse privately for a moment before the now black haired mage, if she was a mage, turned to the young woman. It would be just a little bit because they were nearly done with her order, was what the blonde took from the other female's words. That was fabulous, and Ainsley smiled widely at the idea. Indeed, it was fast service, or perhaps time just flew by one when was having fun. Maybe it was a bit of both. Right after her brain had finished processing this fact, the woman sitting across from her got up and strolled over to the counter. There was a delicious looking plate of steak and fries, which was brought back to Ainsley. The blonde promptly got up to bow in thanks for the meal when silver came flashing through the air right in front of her. Recoiling with great speed, the girl pinwheeled her arms in the air and fell over onto her butt. Just one more bruise for the collection from today, then~ she realized without much annoyance or even anger. The silverware, since that was what the flashing metal objects had ended up being, was neatly laid out next to her place setting.

Ainsley stood up and sat down cheerfully in her chair with an expectant look on her face. She was so ready for this food to be fabulous, and it did not disappoint. Between mouthfuls, the young woman glanced up at her fellow table occupant and asked questions. "So, what exactly is this place? - Doesn't seem like an inn to me - Are you a mage? - This food is good! - Who's the proprietor of this place?" She did take care not to chew with her mouth open or speak with it full.

The steak frites was of course made by one of the chefs of the guild. Otherwise how would the food be made. Yet there were chefs and then there were chefs. The creator of this particular portion of steak frites was one of the latter. His name was Magna Victus and in this guild there were few that could compare. In truth there was probably only one maybe two others who could. Dishes made by Magna took some quite common ingredients and somehow elevated it to a new state often by throwing in an unexpected ingredient. Fortunately, for Ainsley, his order had been placed just before Magna came off shift. Shortly after the dish was placed the young red haired mage walked out from the kitchen. As he walked his chef's hat and apron vanished into nothingness and he unbound a headband from his forehead and bound it back beneath the arm of his long black shirt that had the Silver Moon emblem on it.

"I hope you enjoy your meal miss. It utilises jewel meat for the steak seasoned with a secret blend of ingredients that some call Stardust. The fries are extracted from an ultra relaxed potato mouse fried in a meteor garlic oil. Might I recommend this sauce to go with it?" With that he made a gesture with his hand and a small pot of red liquid appeared in his hand which he placed on the table. "Ketchup made from the million tomato. Its a personal favourite of mine."

The steak shimmered slightly in the light reflecting its 'jewel' name, but what truly shone were the small flecks of seasoning that were remiscent of a galaxy upon the steak. The potato mouse always produced delicious fries. However, the more relaxed and less stresed the mouse was the higher quality the fries produced. These fries were of top quality and the meteor garlic oil just heightened their flavour. The combined dish would provide a lot of energy and often left people feeling stronger than before they ate it. The million tomato was very hard to prepare requiring its thousand membrane layers each less than a millimeter thick to be sliced off perfectly. The flavour was extremely delicious and worked very well with the garlic potato mouse fries. It was a popular combination that Magna had created through much experimentation on his travels.

"I'm Magna Victus by the way, head chef at the Silver Moon inn." he said with a smile. His smile was slightly dazzling because he always kept his teeth in peak condition through diet and care. After all, he always needed to be able to eat his food so bad teeth were a no go. "If you have any requests feel free to ask. Would you like a drink for example?" He indicated the bar over to the side which not only had many alcoholic drinks but had many other drinks some of which were very exotic. Magna and his associates always kept the bar stocked with the best.

Ainsley smiled at the man who had introduced himself as Magna Victus after going on a long tirade about the food she was eating. It was indeed interesting, to some extent, even if the girl could understand maybe twelve percent max of all the words together. She laughed when he asked if she would like something to drink and later, Haley asked the same question. "Limonade!" she said, with the hopes that they would have the light and fizzy drink. It was one of her absolute favorites and had always been. "And this food really is delicious! How much do I owe you all?" she asked on a second thought. Judging by how much he was talking about jewel meat and millions of tomatoes or something like that, it would be over eight thousand jewels. That would be a pity, because the blonde's wallet wasn't exactly all that at the moment. In fact, it was almost empty.

Thankfully, the arrival of another person, possibly a customer, stopped the embarrassment reddening through Ainsley's cheeks. "Dumplings, you say? I bet they were amazing!" she said to the newcomer cheerfully. "This place sure seems like a popular place to eat!"' she added with wide eyes as a young man stepped through the doorway with a light jingle of the telling bells. He immediately seemed to choose to sit next to the blonde, and she became even more surprised. Turning to face him and away from Haley and Magna, she got a better look at the two most recent arrivals. One, the female, was beautiful to the point of seeming like she had been sculpted out of marble at some point in her life and outfitted in a dress belonging to a doll. The boy was hooded but didn't seem altogether too mysterious, and Ainsley flashed him a smile as he began to speak. Aruzati, huh? she mused as the male introduced himself. And he drank alcohol mid in the afternoon, too. What an odd sort.

"My name is Ainsley Lovelett," she introduced with a cheerful grin. "Looks like this inn gets a lot of regular business! Do you all stay here for business, or are you just visiting today like me?"

The request for alcohol and meat was one that Magna was quite familiar with and whilst he was technically off duty now it wouldn't hurt to provide something especially as what he planned to provide didn't require him going into the kitchen at all. He snapped his fingers and a glass appeared in front of the weasel with a small measure of a rather strong alcohol known as Summer Whisky. It was one of the 'heaviest' alcohols he had and it was said that a single drink of it was enough to get anyone drunk no matter the tolerance. There were ways round it of course, but generally it hit pretty hard. As for the meat, with another snap of his fingers, a plate appeared and on it was a large chunk of meat. "Summer Whisky, 83% alcohol content, and meat taken from a meat boulder." he said and then paused briefly before snappings his fingers again and another plate appeared looking like a yellow cabbage leaf. "In case you want them this Nappa Cheese cabbage will stop the alcohol hitting you as hard. Means you can enjoy the drink more without worrying too much about the other effects."

He turned back to the young woman who had asked how much things costed and he considered it. There was a look of deep concentration on his face and then he held up five fingers. "500 jewels will be enough. The first meal here, at least when i'm cooking, is always reduced in price." This was a technique he employed to get people to eat his cooking. Often it got them hooked to some extent and then they'd come back and pay no matter the price. Though in truth he'd rather give away the food for free. He didn't do his job for the money. He did it out of the joy of his craft and seeing people enjoy it. However, Silver Moon was a business and what's more ingredients costed money, as did all the equipment he used in his experiments. Plus there were travel funds and such so he did what he could to get the meals as cheap as possible without bankrupting the tavern.

"As for the dumplings, they did turn out pretty good?" he said turning to the girl who had first mentioned the dumplings. "It seems my Gold Stishers are becoming tastier in the environment i've provided for them. I think there is still some work to go though" He paused again and then decided to explain a bit about himself. He was talking a lot about ingredients and qualities which probably didn't interest most here.

"As I said earlier, I'm Magna Victus, i've won the iron chef aware a few times though thats not really too important." he said with a chuckle. People often brought up his awards that he'd won and in truth they didn't really bother him. It was nice to be appreciated, but he only really entered such contests as a test of his skills and to scope out the competition. The prize money was a nice incentive. "Food and drink are my two passions and I'm often away for long periods of time travelling the world to find new recipes and new ingredients...the dumplings were made from Gold Stishers, a rare fish I found which when cooked form into natural dumplings. I thought their taste was lacking though so i've been trying to raise some in different environments, with different food and such. Experimentation is my favourite part I think, except seeing people happy."

She looked rougher than she normally did when greeting new members, much rougher. Long lavender hair was curlier than normal and had several fly aways alongside several knots in spite of the pigtails she had tied it into. The armor plating on her chest, the bracer son her arms and the metal pieces she wore atop her skirt? Had lost their silver metallic color in favor of the traces of dirt that typically showed she was coming back from one of her 'take tons of missions and do them all before coming back' stints. However, the wind mage used to go on these alone, vanish with no one having an idea where she was, this time her boyfriend had vanished at the same time as her. For once she had not been able to sneak out before the over protect Marschal caught her, it had been bound to happen since they slept in the same bed these days.

"If you're going to talk up your food dishes Magna, why don't you get us something to eat?" the canine spoke as she came in, slipping off her armor by the staircase that lead up to the inn portion of the place. Typical Jiyu, coming in and making herself right at home again, black rose marking clearly displayed on her stomach as she arched her back and stretched her arms upwards with a yawn. Kazehime was slightly tired considering her body was weaker than most, leading her to exhaustion quicker and she had walked most of the way back. Now that she was home the girl let the wind take over for her, levitating about an inch off the floor, leaning back into her element.

However, it was not just her wind's she laid back into because the white haired male name Marschal was behind her, so she laid on his chest as well, giggling as she felt the warmth. "I don't know how you do all that fragile as you are." he slipped his jacket over her shoulder's as he guided her to sit on one of the table chairs with him, in his lap a place she fit easily due to her small stature compared to his larger than average frame.

"It's fine." Her words were mostly rumbled as she turned slightly in his lap to see everyone else that was sitting around. Purple optics flickered slightly as she looked around and twined her hand with the larger one placed near her hip, taking in anything that had changed sensory wise since they were last in.  "So new patron you guys are harassing or new member?" the ace spoke with a chuckle, kicking her feet up onto the table, her bare very dirty feet.

Ainsley gaped as Haley trotted over to the bar and mixed up some overly complicated drink that had the blonde absolutely baffled.  That sure didn't look like limonade!  Well, some part of it did, but yeah!  The mage hesitantly accepted the drink and immediately changed her puzzled expression to a bright smile when the pale haired girl said something about it brightening up the girl's complexion or whatever.  It was true that she was still looking rather haggard from all that business on the road earlier.  She took a sip and gasped out loud at the wonderfully fruity flavor.  Immediately a quarter of the drink was sucked through the straw and disappeared down her throat.  She also felt the intense impulse to fish out the pretty mangled slice of apple that was lingering in the delicious mess of juices, but the girl was aware of the existence of table manners, so she refrained from doing that.

Magna had comforted her immensely when he had said that the price was only 500 jewels, and the young woman clapped her hands excitedly.  "Ehh?  You all are saints!  I'll pay you right away good sir~" and she fished a five hundred out of her battered, muddied purse and smoothed it out against the table.  Offering it to the man, she waved it around the least that she could.  Due to her excitedness, though, it ended up escaping the position pinched between her fingers and swooped to the ground.  Ainsley made an abrupt sound of dismay and dove for the bill, only to slam her head against the ground and fall off her chair completely.  She rolled for a little bit and stopped at the feet of another chair, and the blonde felt for one of the legs and tried to haul herself up.  The girl squeaked in surprise when she came face to face with a beautiful lady with violet eyes who was perched on the lap of a cream haired man.  Ainsley stared at the two and scooted backwards until her back was against more chair legs on the other side of the aisle.  The dark haired female seemed amused at the situation of the entire establishment and said something about a patron and a member, which the blonde barely caught.  She rose shakily to her feet and threw a bright beaming smile at the woman and marched over as proudly as she could.  

"My name is Ainsley Lovelett!" she announced.  "There are a lot of people here and y'all have got some of the greatest food and drink I've ever taken, but I'm a cupcake mage and I love em more than anything!"  The blonde continued even further, even against her better judgement.  "And I'm not a patron!  I don't have any money!  Same goes for membership for any VIP lounges that you're talking about, with the upper levels of this fine place.  Miss uh, Izayuki, was it?" she questioned, recalling the name that Haley had mentioned briefly earlier.  "I'm right indebted to you," she said honestly but with a certain twinge of seriousness, as she bowed to the dark haired woman.  

A million thoughts ran through her head as she did so. Hopefully these poor people don't get caught up in that business with the emperor of Midi.  Did that travel woman even know him though?  Is that possible?  Oh well, no matter what else, I was just a random gal dressed like any low-pay office worker anyways, they couldn't possibly care about me that much~ right? she figured.

The female was honestly very exhausted from whatever missions she had been off on, so the female was half listening, which considering her hyper senses was more than enough. Kazehime paid careful attention to every moment ongoing, from the way the girl devoured her drink to the way she handled the little money she seemed to have. Momentarily she remembered when she had been a little girl with nothing to her name working across any ship that would let her aboard just so she could keep running and keep food in her stomach. Was this girl in a similar situation? The young mage gripped her boyfriend's hand tightly when she remembered her own past because any amount of backward thinking in time was enough to trigger memory of the one thing she wanted to forget most, her two year imprisonment and torment.

Marschal easily saw the distress slowly rising, actually he could smell the memories rousing more than see them since not only was his girlfriend facing away, they both had poor vision. large steady hands slipped beneath the red jacket trimmed with white fur which he had placed on her a short time ago, gripping her hips tightly and pulling her stronger back against him, snapping her from the revelation she had been within. Occasionally? He blamed himself for what Jiyu had endured, for not realizing she was missing right away and maybe even not looking hard enough. However nothing could change what happened now, and anyway's he had been the one to save the wind mage. All that mattered now was that she was safe with him once more and would remain that way so long as he breathed.

Since Marschal had brought her back into the waking world from the torrent inside her head, Jiyu could still hear every word the other girl said. The first thing to catch her attention? "Cupcake mage? Does that mean that you can kinda just make cupcakes? I haven't heard that one before." To say that food magic interested was an accurate statement because apart from her sweet tooth, she knew magna who used magic to cook and was dating a man who used alcohol magic. Thus she was curious about this cupcake stuff, violet optics focused intently in spite of their complete lack of pupils and whites. However, in spite of her curiosity, she could not help noticing other things about the girl, little things that wouldn't mean anything to someone else but meant so much to someone who was a run away herself. Of course, Jiyu still failed to realize she herself was a legal adult and thus could not be dragged back to where she had run from, expect if someone kidnapped her again.

The slightly roughed up appearance of the girl, the smells it made entirely had Jiyu's attention. Something unexpected stole her attention as the young girl spoke once more. "Oh no I'm not talking about membership to a VIP floor or something when I say member, this building is also the home of the Black Rose Guild so people come here not only for food and such but also to join the guild from time to time." she explained, her face read as she fully realized the second mistake the girl had made, chuckling lightly as her face went back to its normal pale shade with a deep breath. The young blonde thought she was the Inn Owner/Guild Master, honestly, it was not shocking that the mistake eventually be made with the female aces due to the amount of things Iza allowed them to do. Yet? The first time the mistake happened to her, it shook Jiyu because she'd never even thought of being in her sister in law's position, but actually, now, she shook her head slightly.

"Also my name is Jiyu Kazehime, I'm the Ace Of Spades for Black Rose." The female spoke slow and evenly with no trace of upset in her voice and a friendly smile on her face, nothing about her seeming irked about the mistake. Honestly? The fact someone could mistake her for the Guild Master was an honor and proof to how mature she had grown since coming here in spite of the ordeal she endured somewhat over a year before. Kazehime smiled slightly, laughing softly at the thought of herself ever being more than she was now besides for a wizard saint, really it was the only goal she had solidly. "Izayuki is smaller than me, much smaller most of the time, and we're different species actually." since she was now standing her canine tail was clear to see if someone glanced in it's vicinity since it was large enough to touch the floor if she let it and not exactly thin.

"My sister smaller than you?" the man who had clearly been tall sitting suddenly stood taking the small dark haired woman with him, holding her bridal style before setting her down on her feet to display her extreme lack of height. Unless someone was shorter than five feet tall even in the room? Jiyu was clearly the shortest existence here, not even coming up to barely the center of Marschal's chest. "Jiyu you're probably the shortest member of the guild." he had to point it out because of how true it was, he had yet to meet many people shorter than his beloved, not that it was a flaw, the fact simply was a fact she could not avoid no matter how hard she tried. "Izayuki is only shorter in her tanuki form." wait, shit, shapeshifting! Jiyu Could shapeshift now, did that mean she could be taller if she wanted? It would not be too pleasant if she one day decided she wanted to be taller than him and just did it, would make things weird. Marschal already knew she wouldn't even if she could though, the witch liked feeling protected by him, gaining height could ruin that feeling for her.

"Which she likes laying around on things in." the wind mage puffed out her cheeks but considering she had canine features and was naturally rather attractive it was hard for her to look really angry, plus she could never be mad at him. Kazehime scoffed slightly giving up the glower she had tried. "Izayuki-Marschal close your eyes" she for a split second considered her boyfriend would not like to touch her tonight if he saw her transform into the pink haired girl so she told him not to look. "She looks more like this." and with those words, the wind user twirled around once so no one would have to watch the weird process of her form changing when she stopped a near perfect copy of the guild master's humanoid form was standing there. "See?" after standing there looking like the guild master for a few seconds she let herself dissolve back to the appearance she had seconds before.

"What makes you think you are indebted, Ainsley?" shortly after speaking she fell back into marschal's waiting arms. After a while? He had learned to tell when Jiyu was wearing thin on energy and knew when he had to be right there to catch the pretty little sorceress. Once he had her the male pulled her to sit in his lap once more, only this time he was cradling her slightly instead of simply letting her sit there. "Though there is something-" she remembered how this girl smelled and sounded to her, and the ace's eyes softened from the mature mostly gentle normal day expression they had held seconds ago. This gaze she now held? Was one of sympathy and understanding, pushing herself to sit up in Marschal's lap. "Want to stick around as part of the Guild? You could get a room and all the people you've seemed to enjoy talking to are actually part of it, including Marshcal and Myself."  it was a little different from the normal joining, even a little different from when Jiyu normally recruited someone. However she suspected the girl was running from something and she didn't want to ask, nor did she want to risk leaving another run away alone.

She had no idea what the Black Rose Guild was, but it sounded like fun. If she didn't lose her special recipes and nothing else bad happened, Ainsley was definitely in! She smiled brightly at Jiyu and bowed to the woman she now knew as the Ace of Spades. "I'd love to!" she said.

((OOC: Just one quick little thing to wrap this up =D))