A new visitor // Guild intro

"Mages come in all shapes and sizes. Where one may falter at something, another may excel."

Lamia Scale was indeed known as one that was summoner friendly. Although, with everyone so focused on the monster hunting aspect of the guild many had forgotten some of the others things it was recognized for in the past. A certain Ace within the guild was starting to believe that she and one other were the only summoners in the guild. There were likely more, but it was rare for her to ever see or take notice of them. Many things had happened with the guild and town such as getting attacked by a dark guild, and then finding an unknown land mass that was currently being cleared out of dangerous monsters in order to build a guild base there. Most of the members were so spread out or busy now, including herself. For once, she actually had a day where she could go about guild business without worrying about some sort of catastrophe happening.

Unfortunately for the new visitor, he had managed to poke not the Ace of the guild that was in the same room as him, but one of her spirits. The spirit was an incarnation of the goddess Aphrodite. Fake and certainly not an actual god nor shared the same type of power since she was actually one of the weakest spirits in the set. Why such a spirit was created was a rather long story best saved for another time. For now, the beautiful blonde felt the poke upon her shoulder and tensed up. Did...did someone just touch her? She turned around to face the teenage boy that stood behind her. The question was barely heard as her blue eyes filled with horror. He did! He had dared place his hands on her! Well, not really hands considering he just tapped her gently, but she was one for exaggeration. Aphrodite gasped in terror before disappearing, leaving only tiny pink magic particles in her place to swirl around in the air until they faded. The stack of papers she was holding fell to the ground. It was a flyer that was being passed around explaining the basic details about Pandora, the new continent that had been discovered.

What differed between Samira and most other summoners was that her spirits were very well connected to her mind and often had a place they could warp to where they could observe everything their summoner went through. They acted as guardians rather than just simple tools that waited to be called to a situation with no knowledge of what was going on ahead of time. It was within that mindspace that Aphrodite had transported herself to when she disappeared. Samira could sense the new addition as her mind grew heavier. "What are you doing in there? You were supposed to be helping me."

'I said I would help if I wasn't touched. I am to be admired from afar. I thought you said everyone knew of this rule?!' The spirit said, her tone very offended even though the boy that had touched her meant absolutely nothing by it. Usually no one did. The spirit was just in her own delusional world. Samira fought the urge to roll her verdant colored eyes. "I did tell everyone." From where she stood at the back of the room, she looked past the crowd of people and noticed the mess of papers that were on the ground. She also noticed someone she had not seen before. It wasn't unusual considering she didn't know everyone within the guild exactly. She was working on that part. However, this one seemed sort of lost and nervous.

Deciding to pick up where her spirit rudely left off, one of the main Lamia Scale summoners approached the stranger. There was no sort of caution taken as she did so since she didn't get any sort of bad vibe from him. In fact, he actually looked kind of sweet. It would probably be offensive to compare him to a lost puppy though. "Hello there. Welcome to Lamia Scale." Samira said with a small smile. Her voice was calm and collected and showed no signs that she was nervous talking to someone she did not recognize. Thankfully so far it was her the boy would be dealing with for the moment instead of the more...unique characters within the guild. There was no telling how long that peace would last though. "I am sorry if my spirit startled you when she disappeared. She does that sometimes." The woman chuckled as she finished her sentence, but then took a moment to clear her throat so she could get back to being slightly more serious. "I am Samira Nassar, one of the Aces in the guild. Was there anything I could help you with?"

Kaori was on the upper floors of the guild's castle taking down names of individuals who were moving. She would be tasked with helping with transport when the guild finally moved so she needed to know which members were leaving and which ones were staying. Eventually everyone would have to leave since the castle was being abandoned, but Kaori hadn't been fully updated on that. As far as she knew they were moving and the fate of the castle was undetermined. In order to speed things up, Kaori had tasked two of her spirits to handle the east and west corridors while Kaori took on the middle of the castle's upper half.

The first spirit was named Ira, a fire spirit who was exceptionally loyal to Kaori. Ira didn't always listen to Kaori, normally being fairly disobedient when she randomly showed up to have fun, but she was a good spirit at all times. Kaori had no troubles with the spirit's playful nature since Ira knew when a joke was going too far and made sure to not press too many buttons. She was the spirit who handled the eastern corridor, that being her favorite direction. Ira was representative of the Sun, which rose in the east. She was the reality of the world, and the offensively inclined spirit between the two sisters. Her energy was easily sensed through her eagerness to help and almost constant smile, which Kaori had only ever seen fade once.

In the couple hours that Kaori had her out, Ira had use her ability to float and shot down the hall with a playful smile on her face. Fiery orbs constantly scanning the walls, looking out windows as she passed them and marveling at the people on the other side of the massive gap between the castle's foundation and the rest of the port. She mused at how small they all seemed for the first few minutes before actually getting to work. Several of the members had liked her friendly demeanor, others, normally the men but some women, had found her to be cute and decided to make the move thinking that they'd see her more often- ohhhh if they only knew how "stationary" Kaori wasn't...

The second spirit was named Query, a spirit who had no elemental alignment, unlike her sister. Query was always obedient to Kaori and never refused an order thus far since Kaori was especially cautious with her. Query was representative of the moon. She was the sleeping aspect, and the spirit of dreams. Where Ira was the reality of the world, Query was the anti-reality. Query had the power to alter reality itself, as though the real world were all a dream- a power that had been abused by different summoners before, all were punished for it. Kaori knew that Query was powerful enough to void her own contract, and respected her. In return for that respect, Query gives the ninja her loyalty and friendship. Her reason for being given the west corridor was that Ira had claimed the east, and Kaori had taken the much larger central zone.

Ira, being able to manipulate reality itself, had taken the fast route and materialized herself at the far end of the hall. Much like her fraternal sister, Ira, the moon spirit had taken time to look out the nearest window at the people below. She didn't find amusement in how small the seemed, but found beauty in how peaceful the town was. She reflected on events past, more specifically events in Peace Village, and turned around to begin collecting signatures. She was quite respectful, and much like her sister, there were male and female members who signed out of a hope of being able to see more of the cute spirit. Where she lacked the excessive energy Ira had, Query made up for it in having elven ears, and a naturally aloof expression that was just live enough to draw attention from others. 'Kaori would eventually come across something that requires the full extent of my powers. Most likely, it'll be for Miss Samira's sake and not her own.' she thought while moving down the hall. It was something that would have to weigh heavy on her mind since Kaori would go to great lengths for her other half, even if her other half hadn't accepted her yet. Query would have to decide just how far she herself was willing to go, knowing that Kaori may eventually overstep boundaries. It worried her, but Kaori had been respectful of Query's power thus far and gave her no reasons to be terrified of abuse... just cautious of the possibility.

Both spirit, Ira and Query, had finished up with their sides of the upper floors at around the same time. They were told that if they finished early, they were free to roam around as they pleased. It was another perk of being Kaori's spirits that they both equally liked. Most summoners had forced their spirits to stay in whatever realm they came from, including the twin's last one. For some it was out of the belief that spirits should only be out in battle, and they should always obey their master(s). Other summoners were trying to be fair. They had so many spirits that they'd die if they let all of them roam around randomly, especially two spirits that were a colossal drain just to have one out. Upon entering the ground level and floating around a bit, she spotted a certain celestial spirit being tapped on the shoulder by someone and giggled, knowing what would come next. The fact that he hadn't gotten a full blast throttling from Aphrodite was somewhat disappointing for Ira, but that only meant she could have fun making a new friend.

Ira began floating closer when she saw Samira intercept the new blood and begin talking to him, making it easy for her to float higher, over his head and behind him. While Samira was in the middle of introducing herself, right around where she mentioned she was a Guild Ace, Ira flipped upside down with the two strands of hair on the back of her head dangling, body floating perfectly in the air while exclaiming "Hi!" with a bright smile. She then let herself turn again in the air to bring her feet towards the ground while leaning forward and saying "I'm Ira!" in the same chipper tone. She'd then float behind the new member while keeping herself facing him to be behind him and place her hands on his shoulders and poke her head over them. "Sammy, is this one joining your... umm... magic clan, that's it..." Ira sounded unsure at the last bit. She was using the words Kaori used, which she felt were incorrect but she quickly switched back to her energy overdose and asked "Is he!?"


A voice that was gentle and feminine said, but from seemingly no source at all. An azure magic circle appeared on the ground and Query materialized not far from the three. "Not many humans like being touched by floating girls with horns. You should ask permission first." Query said, her tone being just as disconnected as the emotion in her eyes. Ira puffed her cheeks and said "He doesn't mind!" before turning her gaze to the new member and asked "You don't mind, right?" as though she expected him to take her side. Kaori appeared out of thin air with a small smoke cloud around her and a light popping sound. She looked at the random boy and blinked a few times while also looking at her spirits and Samira. Kaori turned to the boy fully and said "I apologize for Ira, she's honestly harmless. My name's Lareci, Kaori but you can call me Kay, and this is Query." Kaori said and gestured to the blue haired spirit who grabbed the ends of her minidress and lightly lifted them while performing a curtsy and saying "You may call me 'Q' if you'd like." If Quinn said that he wanted to join the guild, Ira would hug him tightly while shouting "YAAAY!" in her high pitched, energetic tone while her summoner felt an imaginary sweat drop rolling down the back of her neck.

"Mages come in all shapes and sizes. Where one may falter at something, another may excel."

So much for helping the new arrival out before things started to get even more silly and weird. Not a second after introducing herself her words were interrupted by a familiar red haired spirit, at least familiar for her. The one known as Ira had made her presence in the typical floating in the air fashion she was known for, and of course her hyper and chipper personality was in full swing. Samira could only smile and laugh a bit sheepishly as the spirit took over interacting with the teenage boy, and felt even more embarrassed as he looked over towards her as if asking for help. There really was not much she could do considering that one did not belong to her so ordering Ira or dismissing her was out of the question. She probably could have asked to tone the...friendliness down a notch, but it would probably confuse her more than anything. At the very least she knew Ira to be harmless. There were others on Team Kaori that were less so, and it was by some miracle none were around to torture her the poor boy.

When the horned spirit inquired whether or not he would be joining her "magic clan", Samira blinked her green eyes. They hadn't exactly gotten that far in their conversation before being interrupted. "Oh, I am-" her words were said with a high amount of uncertainty and around the same time as their possible new recruit's. Both were interrupted as Query joined in the conversation. Samira knew Query to be the more mature one of the twin spirits; a voice of reason if not a little strange. However, she could already tell from before that the boy seemed to already feel uncomfortable. He had even gone as far as to say that Ira touching him was a bit weird. Something Samira would have to agree with since they were all strangers to him and there was such a thing as invading personal bubbles. That probably meant anymore appearances would make him even more so.

'Please, no more,' Samira thought to herself, unintentionally passing it along to her other spirits that were connected to her. Of course, it wasn't one of her spirits that appeared next but the one that had owned the two horned girls. Samira facepalmed at yet another sudden appearance. All they needed now was a few more spirits, the Lamia mascot, a bunny guild master that hid under tables when interacting with strangers, a Hargeon Town catastrophe, and a topping of monsters to get the boy running towards the exit and regretting even thinking of coming to Lamia Scale. For her it was just another day. For anyone else it was a fictional story that required proof to be believed.

Samira waited for the teenager to make some comment after Kaori had introduced herself. Something in regards to the status she carried. It was normal for the other guild ace to get many stares and such due to her Wizard Saint status, but thus far she had received none from him. It made the summoner question if he knew or not, and if he didn't just how out of touch was he in regards to magic and the news that surrounded it. She knew people from her own village that was very out of touch, so it wasn't a far fetched conclusion for her to make.

Her gaze had been going back and forth towards Kaori and the boy, expecting something still. No autograph clipboard, no squealing fan sound, no demands to take him under her wing to train and become super special awesome. It was and felt...weird. Uncommon. Unusual. She liked it. Her role as a fellow Lamia Scale Ace would have been diminished immediately if it had happened. Now she could at least seem as if she mattered slightly more than the powerful wizard that stood near her. While technically she was of the same magical ranking as the white haired woman, they were not in the same league. Samira focused mainly on her spirits while the other mage could do much more.

Finally the boy was able to mention what he was there for without being interrupted by the appearance of another spirit or person...surprisingly all female. The thought of checking to see just how many men were in the guild crossed her mind for a split second since it did not dawn on her until right then how much estrogen was running through the guild's ranks. Back to fully focusing on the much more important matter, Samira remained quiet for a moment as he spoke. Ira's cheerfulness nature took over once again, and her high pitched excited approval rang in the summoner's ears.

Susano: 'Can someone please tell the red head to lower the volume?! I can hear her from all the way in this brick of a brain.'
Aphrodite: 'This was supposed to be my day on guard duty! You're entering my personal space! I need you to be at least six hundred meters away from me. Any closer gives me stress wrinkles. Get out!'
The spirit of beauty would be more enraged as more and more of Samira's spirits entered her mind space to see what was going on in the mortal world. Her mind grew heavy as it always did when they entered her mental world, but it was a feeling she had grown accustomed to.

"You want to join Lamia Scale?" Samira asked, calmly repeating what she heard to make sure it was accurate. There weren't really any limitations to joining the guild, so long as the person wasn't a completely dark soul with the intent on murdering the innocent. Considering the spirit that could see into a person's soul was not saying anything, she assumed the one wishing to join was not the sort that she would disapprove of. Honestly the younger mage reminded her of herself. She had joined the guild that was best known for monster hunting even though she didn't really look like she'd survive hunting even a sheep. Her smile grew, and her mouth opened and was ready to say that he was welcome to join the ranks.

"Oh, hell no!" A female voice spoke, one that sounded very dominate and carried with it every dose of confidence the spirit carried within her. The spirit incarnation of Kukulkan appeared in a puff of green particles. She was in a more human form rather than the feathered serpent one, mainly due to not being able to fit inside the building otherwise. She looked normal, although tribal-like with dark hair. The main thing that stood out was, much like the twin spirit's horns, she had a serpent tail. Not that she cared that her extra features would be weird towards the other. "Have you seen this cute little thing?" Kuku asked while poking the shoulder of the boy that was trapped inside the hug of the other spirit. "I would eat him as a light snack in my real form. There is no way he would survive his first afternoon in this guild. He's better off being added to a plushie collection."

"Members do not have to hunt monsters specifically, Kuku. He could also assist with more stronger members until he improves, or take on other tasks." Samira would have stated he could have been stronger than he seemed, but it appeared he didn't have the same type of powers of hiding his own magic like Kaori could hers. She could feel his, and it was on the lower levels. "As for joining, you are welcome to, but I would like to know a little bit about you first. Your name would be a good start." Her smile turned awkward as a sweatdrop appeared at the back of her head. Everyone else had been addressed, but so far no one knew his.

As though someone performed the unholy ritual of adorableness by letting Kuku out of Samira's mind, the sound of a cannon was heard followed by the serpentine woman being tacked to the ground just after Samira's retort was finished. "KU-CHAN!!!" the voice shouted. Looking on top of the delinquent spirit, everyone would see a second Kaori. This one, unlike the original, had cerulean eyes that were filled with love and compassion. The real Kaori, who was still standing next to Query and across from Quinn, Ira, and Samira, had rested her forehead on her hand. "I told you not to let yourself out like that." she said in a sigh, implying that this was a common occurrence. "But I wanted to say hello to Ku-chaaan." the clone whined, still hugging Kuku's head if the woman hadn't forced her off. "You hugged her, now get back in my head!" Kaori snapped back, not yelling particularly loud but using a slightly harsher tone than normal. "But if I give Ku-chan snuggles she can't be mean to Nii-san." The original Kaori blined a few times. "Who is Nii-san?" she asked, not drawing the line to connect the dots. The cerulean eyed Kaori would point at Quinn and say "Nii-san." in a sweet voice. Kaori put on an unamused look and said in a cold tone "Get back in my head or I'll force you back in." With that, the cerulean eyed clone of Kaori puffed her cheeks and vanished.

Kaori let out a sight. "Ira, Query- did you two finish your sides of the upper floor?" Kaori asked, to which the two spirits nodded. "Very well then. You can both hang around if you'd like, just don't harass our new member too much." Kaori said calmly. Query had materialized a folder with some pages and a pen, seemingly from nowhere, and handed them to Quinn. She spoke with a very gentle, almost emotionless, but very respectful tone. "Sir, you'll need to fill these out." Kaori followed her up by saying "It's general information, just biometrics really. You can fill it out at your leisure. For now, Samira can give you the clan's insignia since she's one of Gisen's elite." Kaori would turn to Samira. While she herself was one of the guild's aces, Kaori never once considered herself a member of the guild and always denied being one of the elite members, even if everyone else in the guild said she was. In her mind, she had caused trouble for Gisen's clan and her only place in it was as an ally, to make up for her past mistakes. Ira had released Quinn at this point and, since so much had happened before he could give his name, asked him for it to bring the situation back to its original point. Once he gave his name, Ira would hug him from the front and give him a kiss on the cheek. The hug would be very genuine, and he'd feel a small bit of actual heat from the kiss, enough to almost burn. After that she'd float backwards and wink at him while saying "Welcome to Lamia Scale" before vanishing in a puff of red dust. Query would say "I'll be in the music room." with a calm voice while walking away, not even acknowledging her playful sister's actions.

Kaori would look at Quinn and say "Quinn, while Kuku said you're weak and it may be true, you have much potential. When I arrived here, my magic would explode quite often and it still does, but I work hard and I've improved. Samira had only a handful of spirits when we first met, and now she has so many I've yet to meet them all- and I consider every last one of them to be close friends of mine even if they dislike me. Bear in mind that power isn't everything and no magic is useless, and no wizard is without purpose. With that said, why is it that you were drawn to Lamia Scale and what do you hope to accomplish- if I may ask?"