Knight of the Drink - Diana Intro

"Are we really almost out? I'm like the only one who drinks these." Sogi was quite surprised. He was standing behind the bar, his small size allowed him to stand there without being seen by anyone. He was holding a small box of chocolate milk. It had not yet been open, but what surprised him was there were only 4 more boxes left. They had just bought a whole package with around 30 boxes. He knew it was mostly if not entirely his fault, but chocolate milk was his favorite drink and to stop drinking so much of it was not an option for him. Next to him was the bartender. A young female who worked there some shifts. She did not care if Sogi was on her side of the bar, in fact, she enjoyed having him around. His sweet charming nature was always welcome by most people in the guild. Just as Sogi finally took the straw for the small chocolate milk carton and used it to carve a hole on it, he heard a slam on the bar and a call for something strong. A female voice spoke and sounded quite desperate for a drink. Sogi was not actually allowed to take any of the alcoholic drinks, instead, he took an extra chocolate milk carton and placed it on top of the bar. He stretched his way up and climbed the wooden bar using his upper body strength. After some struggling, he was finally able to lean on the wooden surface. His feet could no longer touch the floor, but he was now able to see above the counter. The woman who had just arrived seemed new. In fact, Sogi did not remember ever seeing her around. "Hello." He said. "My name is Sogi. Here, I'll let Jessy prepare you a strong drink because I'm not allowed to use touch the alcohol, but meanwhile, you can have some chocolate milk." Sogi took the extra milk carton and pushed it towards the woman sitting in front of him. "Its a gift from me to you." He finally said with a big smile.

Atuzite walked through the doors of hall tired like he always was but he surely wasn't tired enough as he immediately started insulting others like usual, he was having a boring day. After about 5 minutes full of insulting and occasional fights he walked over to a vacant part of the bar and ordered his usual morning coffee. He didn't see how others drunk alcohol it seemed to always bring out the worst in people coffee will always be better in his mind. It took many yells for the bartender to notice him they seemed to be preoccupied with some girl that walked in after Atuzite. Once he got the bartenders attention he would just point towards the coffee cups and they just nodded. After he got his coffee and was almost finished with it did he notice that the girl who walked in after him had chugged a whole drink he had to go investigate. Of course Haru had gotten there before him and was already in conversation with her. Since he didn't have his gas mask on everyone could see his scarred face and his voice would be weirdly high "Hey pipsqueak who's the girl haven't seen anyone chug one of those so fast before" he would say with his usual smirk on his face then finish his coffee and put the cup on the bar. "Well whoever you are my names Atuzite" better be polite for now some people can be touchy around certain things like him and his childhood he would slightly frown at that thought.

Blinking from several hours of hard paperwork, Sorano finally reacted to the sharp knock at her office door. Hmm? People didn’t often come up here – as much as she wished people would enjoy the library more often, the second floor was typically void of any mercenaries. They tended to stay in the lounge, getting drunk, chatting with friends, or looking for jobs. As they rarely needed assistance from the guild master or aces either, getting visitors alone was pretty surprising. Sorano stood up, and opened the door to see one of the college students who did shifts at the bar, scratching his head awkwardly.

“Um, hey, Sorano Granon, right?” His expression showed his obvious discomfort at having to address a younger kid with such a formal tone, and the letter mage quickly waved away his formalities? “Yeah, what’s up?” Speaking colloquially didn’t come naturally to her, but she tried to make the employees here comfortable. Already in a precarious position, it wouldn’t do them any good to get involved on the magic council’s bad side. It worked at least, the young man visibly relaxing with a nervous laugh. “Yeah, um… With all the new members recently, we’ve been running out of drinks at the bar… Would it be possible to send for larger orders?” The guild master sighed, running a hand through her hair. Of course they’d start running out eventually. “Yeah, sure, that’s fine. Put in an order for whatever we need, our funds can take it.” Perhaps she should start charging even the guild members too, with how much of the stuff they consumed.

“Here, I’ll come down with you to check things out.” Sorano closed the door behind her, following the barkeeper down. It seemed his shift had just ended, and Jessy was in charge right now. Working at Fairy Tail was a great thing to put on resumes, apparently, for mage experience. It didn’t seem that great to Sorano, but if it suited these students then she had no complaints.

Going down to the bar, she would notice a new face there – yet another person wanting to join? Approaching the group with an inward groan at the sight of Haru, she pulled herself into one of the stools next to them. “Hello there miss, pleasure to meet you. Are you new to Magnolia?”

A wave of frustration washed over the woman as soon as Sorano’s voice hit the airwaves, her head crashing to the counter. Ah… It seemed she had just interrupted her drink. Unsure of what to do in such a situation, the letter mage would simply sit and listen to what she had to say. Revealing her hometown as Era, Sorano nodded slowly. So she wasn’t a foreigner, meaning she probably understood how mages’ guilds worked. However, before she could explain how Fairy Tail worked and all that, Haru would abruptly stand up, bidding them all goodbye, then leave, a cloud of conflicted emotions in his wake. Blinking slowly, the girl would receive a light reprimand from Rose, though she had no idea what had caused it. She was aware that Haru had a bit of a teenage crush on her – one she hoped would go away in time.

Being mentally unable to actually feel the typical emotions that a normal person would, Sorano was also unable to empathize with and understand the people around her in spite of her auric abilities. Haru was someone who inconvenienced her, his presence a thorn in her side due to his unpredictability and fiery temper, but she couldn’t actively hate him. Had she done something insensitive to him at all? However, what Rose said would cause her to blink at the unexpectedness of it. Was she being too bossy? Was she ordering people around? The letter mage had always preferred to leave people alone – sure, she used to correct people on their grammar usage a lot, but the letter mage had learned from experience and the negative reactions that it was best to let people be. “I don’t think…I’m ordering people around, am I? Please let me know if I do anything insensitive. As you know, my emotional capabilities are essentially nothing. I do not expect people to act nice to me at all times…but if that is the case for them, then I’d think I could act a bit brusque as well. It’s easy to forget that different people are differently affected by the things I say, and I apologize if I acted in a way that implied hatred or a superior status…” Trailing off, she looked down into the mug of tea that Jessy had served up for her, musing over her thoughts before Sogi’s cheerful voice brought her back to reality.

Sorano offered their youngest member a solemn nod at his reminder, scribbling the words into the air before letting them print themselves easily onto a pad of paper. “Right, Jessy, you’re ordering more alcohol, aren’t you? Would you mind getting some chocolate milk as well?” Receiving a cheerful affirmation from the bartender, she started for a moment when she found Sogi’s arms suddenly wrapped around her waist. Oh…right. It was easy to forget the seven-year old was a mage with his innocent demeanor. It was strange to receive such a gentle sign of affection – her usual hugs were bone-crushingly tight glomps from Hana, her energy being enough for the both of them. Awkwardly patting Sogi’s back, she finally got around to answering the newcomer’s question.

“Right. Joining processes. I’m Sorano Granon, the guildmaster of Fairy Tail, actually. It’s a pleasure to meet you. We accept basically anyone with magical abilities – something you obviously possess, so all you’d have to do is answer a few questions.” The letter mage tugged another one of her seemingly infinite notepads out of a pocket, and flipped it open to a blank page. “I apologize for having missed it, but what is your name?”

@Diana @Haru-senpai @Sogeki