Interesting People (Social, Open to all Guildless Mages)

After a little bit of searching Talonia, Alexei had finally found the legendary Ald Ruhn - A magical castle that only allowed those with no allegiances to enter. Finding was easy compared to figuring out the layout of the place, though. Alexei had spent a full day here, and he still hadn't explored all of the winding corridors and expansive halls. The bedrooms had been nice enough, and it didn't seem like the place was particularly dusty, but Alexei hadn't seen anything that could even remotely be a caretaker of the place. In fact, he hadn't seen a single living soul since he arrived.

After a long day of exploration, Alexei made his way back to the courtyard. It was fairly expansive, comprised mostly of a large, grassy field with a path winding through it. A single bench lay in the middle of the rectangular expanse next to a tree, which Alexei promptly made his way to and sat on. 

Rummaging through his pack a bit, he admired the scenery around him; the ceiling was open, allowing for a great view of the beginning-to-set sun. Aleksei also looked around at the castle itself - it was large and imposing, with several passages to different areas of the castle. Finally pulling out an energy bar, Alexei began to absentmindedly chew on it, feeling the cool breeze wash against his face.

Aster travelled through Talonia for what seemed like all day. He couldn't go more than three steps without a dog following him. Each time he'd turn a corner, there'd be a carnation or a dandelion pop up through a crack in the sidewalk. It seemed as though he still couldn't stop it. Toting a full size guitar case on his back, Aster studied his surroundings. Many mages were wandering about with no real direction. Some were laughing, others crying, a few even fighting. After almost stepping in front of a magic circle, Aster decided that he needed to find this castle for guildless mages that his parents had told him about. It was supposed to be as luxurious as the greatest of guild halls with a courtyard that would put his own personal garden to shame.

After another few hours of searching, Aster found the wrought iron gates that opened to the palace for guildless mages. Ald Ruhn was as spectacular as it was brought up to be. It wasn't very lively, but that didn't matter, the courtyard was green and luscious with a large pond and several fountains. Aster noticed one other mage there, but paid him no attention. Flowers growing in his wake and then following to a bench near the ponds. After his walk of at least fifty maybe a hundred yards, Aster sat his rucksack down and opened his guitar case, pulling out a wooden acoustic guitar with a several flowers burned into it. He began to play as the sound flowed throughout the meadow.

Bea walked through the busy city of Talonia. She had come across some tidbits of information involving a wondrous city open to those few that pledged no allegiance of any kind a while ago and was dying for an adventure. And so hete she was, in search for the legendary place. "Come Cerberus," the young freedom fighter commanded her mechanical dog with a smile, "Let us go find ourselves the fabled castle." Cerberus let out a low, mechanical growl in agreement as he continued to walk with its master. Through much traveling and guessing, the pair was able to come across magnificence and splendor of the fabled monument. To describe the beauty of the place would prove to be an understatement, and so she did not even try. Instead, she gazed at its beauty, taking it all in, before continuing further inside. She noticed a few people there and so she made her way towards them. "Hello," she greeted them with a smile. "The name's Bea. A pleasure to meet you all."

So Malm had finally made it. It took him a while to find this place, but here it was. The Ald ruins, the guildhall of the guildless. Malm had heard rumors about this place and thought he should check it out.

It seemed he wasn't the only one here at the time. As he entered the guildhall grounds, he took notice he wasn't the only one here. There seemed to be a man playing guitar in the distance, yet he decided to pay it no mind. Instead he wanted to explore the palace for a bit. Maybe he'll even be able to find a place where he could browse and accept jobs. He could definitely use some money right around now.

Alexei watched as the courtyard began to become more crowded. A red-haired young man had come and was playing a tune on the guitar by the pond, but what interested Alexei more was the path of flowers left in his wake. Perhaps the man had an interesting story to tell, a way to halt the monotony for some time. Getting up, Alexei began to walk towards the man, only to be interrupted by another person. This one was a girl; she had black hair, and a bizarre mechanical dog at her heels. She seemed interesting, too; maybe this place wouldn't be nearly as boring as he thought it would.

The girl approached him, smiling. "Hello," she said, "The name's Bea. A pleasure to meet you all." 
Alexei bowed slightly in return, a slight smile on his face as well. "I'm Alexei," he said softly. "Nice to meet you." He saw another boy running down one of the corridors, but paid him no mind. He had what looked to be two excellent sources of entertainment right here. "Where are you from?" He asked Bea, trying to start a conversation.

Aster noticed the coming of others. First was a woman to enter. She was underdressed. She had a devil-may-care aura about her, it didn't sit well with Aster, but he continued to sit. He noticed another mage come in. The mage looked at Aster for a moment, but then went straight into the castle. Aster brushed this off and caught a glance of the woman talking to another man as he turned towards the water.

There was a single pink lily in the pond. Aster stood and touched his index fingers and thumbs making a symbol resembling a blooming flower. Moments later the Lily bloomed and grew past its limit to the size of a boat. Aster watched as the flower floated towards him and he grabbed his guitar. After sitting down in the lily, it floated a good twenty five yards to the middle of the ponds and anchored itself. He began once more to play his guitar, this time with lilies popping up and blooming around his giant one, in smaller sizes of course. He sang softly while he played and soaked in the life of the pond around him.

The man she had approached gave her a slight bow and a small smile in return. "I'm Alexei," came a soft reply. "Nice to meet you." Something seemed to grab his attention, but his attention quickly reverted back to her. "Where are you from?" The man by the name of Alexei asked Bea. "My place of origins, you ask? I am from no where, yet everywhere. Quite franky, anywhere the wind takes me is my home." Was Bea's response. Her redwood colored eyes twinkled in the light. "My line of work does not permit me to get comfortable in one place for very long nor do I remember much of my place of birth." Bea did remember, but she wasn't one to disclose the information. In truth, she felt as if everywhere that needed justice to be served was her home for she felt a sense of duty towards it. A mechanical whine was heard, and Bea felt a rough nudge on her leg. Bea smiled softly as she glanced at her beautiful hound. "This here is Cerberus. I created him through the merging of animal genetics and robotics." Cerberus sat obediently at her heel wagging his tail. "And yourself? Where are you from?"

As Malm entered the guildhall, he found himself stopping as he felt something strange. For some reason, a lily pad seemed to have suddenly grew in size. This peaked the plant mages curiosity as he wondered what could have caused the lily to grow in size like that. Could it be that another plant mage was here?

With a quick glance around, he saw that the man playing music had now moved, and was now on a large lilypad in the middle of a pond. Malm had to admit that he was now curious as he walked over in that direction. While he was a plant mage, he didn't know of a way to grow plants way beyond their normal size. So he wanted to know if this man did, or if their was something special about the lily itself.

Malm stopped as he approached the edge of the pond. "Uhh... Hello?" He called out to the man as he started getting second thoughts. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. He should of at least waited for the man to finish what he was doing before speaking to him.

Aster listened as animals seemed to gravitate towards him. He was singing a song his mother had sung to the plants in their greenhouse. It reminded him of home. Aster thought back to the stream which he's spent so many years exploring. The lake of lilies immediately flooded his memory. All while daydreaming, Aster didn't stop playing or singing once. He snapped back to reality quickly and looked around. The woman was speaking to the first mage that Aster had seen here and the second male mage had disappeared. Sunlight shined down on Aster's lily, relaxing him in every way possible.

Soon, Aster noticed that green mage again. The man was walking towards the pond. Aster, though he didn't show it, was preparing for a fight. "Greenie", as Aster had resolved to call the mage, spoke. "Uhh... Hello?" was the only thing he managed. Aster stopped playing and sat his guitar down beside him. "Hi, I'm Aster, can I help you with something?" He offered, the lily sailing magically to the bank of the pond.

[OOC: As of Monday morning, I'll be on a four day hiatus. I'll roleplay myself out of the picture on Sunday night and y'all can just skip my turn until Friday.]

(OOC: Sorry I cut you off Max, figured it was best to put the message out as early as possible that I would be gone)

"...Life's much more fun that way, wouldn't you agree?" The young mage said as his tone and frequency sped up, reaching to the point where he submerged himself into the passion he felt for what he spoke. Still, she felt as if it had been rehearsed a few times, yet it did not feel in a single way off. This man could become a public speaker if he wished. He stopped at the end of his speech and crouched next to Cerberus as he studied him curiously. "A fusion of robotics and genetics, eh?" He said as he reached out to pet the dog. "You must be fairly intelligent then, to create such a being."

Bea laughed, "It truly is a passion of mine; robotics and bio-engineering. From passion comes intelligence or so I would like to believe."  Cerberus let out a low growl before he permitted Alexei to touch him. "Cerberus is just, but a prototype for a more advanced... species. Or I may just end up upgrading his programming. I have grown taking a liking to him." Monotony, huh? "Monotony, I have long since forgotten the meaning of the word," She grinned. She too followed the fun and entertaining, but in a more dangerous aspect. Monotony and routine did not, metaphorically, exist in her vocabulary as it would ultimately mean her death and it wasn't as if she cared for it either. "So, Alexei, what brings you here to the legendary castle?"

"Uhh... I'm sorry to bother you Aster. I couldn't help, but notice that lilypad boat you have there. As far as I know, there are no lilypads that grow this large natural, so I'm curious if you had something to do with it." Malm told Aster as he sailed the lilypad over to the pond's bank.

"Oh... And the names Malm by the way. It's nice to meet you." He quickly added as he figured it was only polite that he shared his name with the man as well. The man seemed to be nice enough, and so far he didn't seem angry at Malm for interrupting his guitar playing. So hopefully the man wouldn't mind Malm's question about the lilypad he was riding.

((Sorry about that. I accidentally hit send before I was finished typing my post -_-))

Aster listened as Malm explained his name and his interest in the Lily. Grinning at the thought of such a large flower blooming in the wild, he laughed at the thought. "I'm a floral mage. I familiarized myself with a growth spell at an early age. That's actually why my nickname is 'Rose'. When I was younger, my father taught me to age flowers, I somehow mixed up the spell and created a super-aging spell, which caved in my house with a giant rose." Aster explained. Stepping out of the boat, he reached to shake Malm's hand, sunflowers and daisies circling Aster.

"Well, I already told you," Alexei replied with a chuckle. "I despise boredom in every possible form, so I'm constantly on the lookout for something interesting to do. What else are you supposed to do when told about a legendary castle that only few may enter, other than try to find it? It's a challenge, and an entertaining one at that." He looked at her with a smile still resting upon his face. "What about you? What brought you here?"

"Me? Excitement and adventure." She grinned as her eyes sparkled with hints of red, "I love it. Especially when it contains a dash of danger." She turned her gaze to where the legendary castle stood regally atop its foundation. "It certainly is beautiful. A pity on what everyone else is missing out on." She reverted her gaze back at Alexei, but not before taking in the two mages that had arrived and located themselves near a pond. "Plant magic, I assume?" She shook her head slightly, biting back a smile. Plant magic reminded her much of Dragon Fang. Cerberus stretched from his sitting position. "I suppose you're right boy. Go have fun." Cerberus glanced up at her before running off and disappearing behind some boulders. Bea returned her attention to Alexie to continue the conversation, but not before asking, "Shall we continue our conversation or do you suppose that we should head on over and introduce ourselves?"

So it seemed that Aster was a plant mage after all, or a variant of one at least. This didn't surprise Malm much though as he had guessed as much. Though he had little idea why flowers were circling around him in such a manner. Perhaps it had something to do with the the man's particular magic.

Malm shook Aster's hand when he offer it to the young plant mage. "A floral mage huh? What a coincidence, I'm a plant mage myself. Though I must admit that I can't claim to have a story quite like the one you claim." Malm said with a slight grin.

Aster put his guitar in its case before looking at Malm once more. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, another mage by the name of Alexei introduced himself. Turning to the new voice, Aster smiled and replied, "My name's Aster 'Rose' Takamine. Nice to meet you." Aster watched as the meadow bloomed with flowers of all kinds showing up throughout. He smiled and looked back towards Alexei. Extending his hand, he said, "I'm a Floral mage if you haven't figured it out. I was just speakin to Malm here about it." He said.

After his introduction, Aster walked over to a wisteria vine, allowing Malm to introduce himself. Upon touching the vine, it exploded with light purple flowers hanging from the stone wall which the vine had made its home. Aster thought he was going insane, but sometimes he swore he could hear the flowers talk, it's like they were trying to say thanks for taking care of them. He shook this off and walked back to the group, trying not to step on a flower, which was extremely difficult seeing as there was one every few inches.

Alexei seemed to think on her question for a moment before replying, "Honestly, I don't really like plant mages. Their magic isn't very compatible with mine, and they tend to be boring and peace-loving, at least in my experience. Still, we might as well go and introduce ourselves to them. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise me." Bea nodded and followed Alexei. She gave him a warm smile for reassurance every time he looked back to reassure himself that she had not disappeared. It seemed as if he was to be the one to begin with the introductions and so she let him speak. "I don't believe I've met either of you before, either," he said as he stepped up next to the green-haired one. "My name is Alexei. May I ask your names?"

The young red head smiled and introduced himself in turn. "My name's Aster 'Rose' Takamine. Nice to meet you." He then turned to looked at the flower filled meadows that back  at Alexei. With his hand outstretched,  he said, "I'm a Floral mage if you haven't figured it out. I was just speaking to Malm here about it." He said.

Bea came up from behind, "Hello. My name is Bea, a pleasure to meet you both." Cerberus came running up from behind. She introduced her mechanical hound with a smile. "And this here is my companion, Cerberus." Cerberus watched them before sitting besides Bea. "What brings you two to the fabled monument?" She asked out of curiosity. Perhaps the need for adventure drove hem here as well? She quickly noticed Aster's guitar. "How long have you been playing?" She asked him.

Malm turned as he heard a man clearing his throat. It seemed that the two others who were in the courtyard had decided to introduce themselves to Malm and Aster. The male was Alexei, while the female was Bea. Aster then had returned the introduction before walking from the group to go tend to some vines. Malm guessed that meant it was now his turn.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you both as well. Malm Korlif, at your pleasure." He said as politely as possible before answering Bea's question, "Well I came here out of avid curiosity mostly. I heard that there was a place only guildless mages could go and thought I should check it out. Though I must admit I was hoping to find somewhere where I could find some jobs to do." Malm told Bea honestly as his gaze went over to the castle.

Malm then looked over at Cerberus with a slight grin. "Do you mind if I pet him?" Malm asked Bea as he examined the hound. Dogs always had a special place in Malm's heart, and even with how unusual the dog looked, it brought a smile to his face.

Alexei smiled, listening to the three other guildless mages talk. Aster, Bea, and Malm...the three of them didn't seem too shabby, despite the fact that two of them used Plant Magic. If he stayed with the three of them, maybe he wouldn't be so bored anymore. He watched with avid curiosity as Aster made flowers bloom wherever he went; he'd have to ask about that at some point, but for now he was content to watch it happen.

Suddenly, he heard an excerpt from Malm and Bea's conversation that interested him.  "I must admit I was hoping to find somewhere where I could find some jobs to do," the green-haired mage said to Bea. Turning around to face the pair, Alexei decided to speak. "I know where to find a few jobs here, if you're interested," he said to Malm. "That offer stands for you other two, as well."

Aster frowned a bit, looking at the group, then at the garden. He saw so much he had to do if he was going to be coming here when not on missions. The pond had to be seeded, he wanted to trim and work the wisteria on the walls, and the ivy growing around the palace was going rampant. Quickly, he said, "I- I can't join you guys just yet. I would love to, really, but I have to really work on this place. There's like four different kinds of grasses, none of which are great for growing other plants. Weeds are popping up everywhere, vines have taken over the walls, and it just wouldn't feel right leaving it like this. I hope you understand. Maybe after I've worked the palace courtyards I could join you one day." He frowned and went off to begin his work.

(OOC: I won't be back until Friday, A Bientot my friends.)

The green haired boy smiled and politely introduced himself. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you both as well. Malm Korlif, at your pleasure." Malm made a slight pause before resuming to answer Bea's question with, "Well I came here out of avid curiosity mostly. I heard that there was a place only guildless mages could go and thought I should check it out. Though I must admit I was hoping to find somewhere where I could find some jobs to do." Malm later turned his gaze towards the grand castle., then with curiosity to Cerberus. "Do you mind if I pet him?" Bea nodded towards Malm. "No, not at all." Cerberus eyed Malm suspiciously before pressing his muzzle against his hand. Bea smiled, "As I explained earlier to Alexei, Cerberus is an experiment of sorts. I created him through the merging of animal genetics and robotics." Bea smiled towards Cerberus, "I've grown a liking to him so I shall be upgrading his programmings very soon." She looked again at Malm,but before she could suggest a job, Alexei was quick to reply. "I know where to find a few jobs here, if you're interested," he said, speaking towards to Malm before turning to her and Aster. "That offer stands for you other two, as well." Aster frowned and excused himself from the group, claiming that the garden needed looking over. Bea raised an eyebrow towards Aster as she watched him leave. What a strange fellow, she thought to herself, But he is not different from me. She could relate for when she was in her lab and something of interest came her way, she would turn it down until her break though was finished. She turned to the other two mages with a smile playing on her lips, "This will be fun. Count me in."

Having received permission from the strange dogs owner, Malm knelt down and rubbed the top of the dogs head. He continued to listened to the girl as she spoke, stroking the fur on the dog's back as he did. He couldn't quite say he understood exactly what the girl said, but it did sound interesting. "So you created him. That has to be some interesting magic you have under your control." Malm exclaimed, obviously not quite understanding how she created Cerberus.

Shortly after that, Alexei had claimed to know where to find a few jobs here and offered to show it to the group. Aster rejected the offer though, as he claimed he had alot of work to do dealing with the flora throughout the castle. On the otherhand, Bea seemed excited about the offer. "That'll actually be very helpful, so count me in too." Malm told Alexei with a grin as he stood back up from petting Cerberus.