A/N: LOL this is for all those who haven't seen their characters recently and have characters below S-Class. 3
"Here's your drink," Mars slid the glass over to May. "Make sure not to drink too much, or we'll have to lug you home." He blinked in surprise and said, "Speaking of which, I guess you haven't been put in a dorm yet."
May shrugged casually. "I guess," she mumbled. "Probably later, when everything's settled."
"I heard you're rooming with Iris and I," Rae chimed in, nudging the girl cheerfully. "It's always nice to have more company. Iris is in the infirmary right now, but I'm sure you'll get along with her."
"Iris is really nice, but be wary of Rae," Mars advised. "She's too manipulative for her own good."
"I heard that, you know," Rae muttered.
"I hate manipulative people," May said under her breath, rolling her eyes.
"Thanks, dear," Rae winked and proceeded to head off somewhere else.
May's ears perked up when she heard several voices approaching them.
"...but Gizma's worried about Michael!"
"We can't stay at the guild all day, Gizma."
"B-but…"
"Oh, looks like some of our guild mates are here to introduce themselves," noted Mars idly. "Hey Marcus, Victoria, Gizma. May, meet three of the members from Team 4."
The trio who had been rapidly approaching suddenly stopped in their tracks when hearing their names. May observed the three of them, trying to glean as much information as she could from their appearances.
Marcus was a rather tall individual. His spiky black hair swept over his eyes, a single streak of bright yellow standing out amongst all of the dark strands. He gave her a friendly smile, but the look in his black eyes seemed confident. He held the air of a leader, and something about him seemed like people would naturally gravitate to him. "Hi, I'm Marcus," he greeted, holding out his hand. May shook it firmly, and noted that he had quite a firm grip. So he was strong too.
Two girls flanked to his left and right.
"I'm Victoria," one girl introduced. May immediately noticed her rather disorganized appearance: she was wearing a long leather coat riddled with patches that nearly reached the floor, which had several buckles and belts dangling. Her blazing crimson hair was held back not by a headband, but a pair of green goggles. Her arm...that was the most interesting thing about her. It was definitely a prosthetic, although with the multiple gears, cords, pipes, houses, and windows in it, May doubted that she got it from a regular mechanic. She most likely made it herself.
"Gizma," the shorter of the two women introduced herself. She looked as if she would get along well with Victoria: she unkempt orange hair kept, with singed black tips that were barely held back by her goggles. Unlike Victoria's rather Steampunk-themed appearance, Gizma appeared to be wearing something along the lines of a mechanic's outfit: orange overalls, a white long sleeved shirt, and a toolbelt. She offered her hand as well, and May took it.
"You have grease marks on your cheeks," May said casually.
Gizma blinked in surprise and wiped them off. "Oh, really? Gizma thanks you very much for that, then. Gizma always forgets to clean her cheeks after working."
May decide not to question why the girl was speaking in third person, instead just coming to the conclusion that all Infinite Bloom mages had their eccentric quirks to them.
"Have a drink," Rae offered, popping up beside them and jabbing Mars in the side to spur him into action. The bartender quickly hurried off before she could do so again (elbow jabs hurt).
Marcus (somewhat reluctantly) accepted a drink from his guildmate. "Thanks, Rae."
"No prob, Strike," she grinned, punching his arm casually before heading off to serve someone else.
Seeing May's somewhat questioning look, Marcus shrugged and explained, "Some of us have been in the guild for a long time. I've been here for seven years, and Rae's been around for the same time and was the same age as me. Some of the other mages that've been around for awhile are Kei, who's been here for nine years, Iris has been around for seven, Michael's been here for eight. The five of us used to go on a lot of missions together as kids. I perform Lightning Magic, and since my last name's Stryker, they nicknamed me Strike."
"Most of the mages have been here for two or three years, although you, Alucard, Grace, Jakkura, and Uriah...that's the new guy, right? Well, you guys just joined this year," Victoria chimed in.
"Is that so?" May hummed thoughtfully, taking in the information. "Sounds pretty nice."
They heard a thud and immediately heads swerved to see Chase sprawled on the ground, groaning. "Avaaaaa," he whined. "That was so uncool."
Said girl simply smirked and innocently shrugged, pocketing the strangely glowing object that must have startled Chase in her jacket. "Well, you asked for it."
"I just wanted to try out your staff~ It just looks so cool!" Chase protested.
"I can always broadcast to the world about that one incident with the ambassador-" Ava's (non too subtle) blackmailing made the boy wince.
"How'd you know about that one?" He mumbled.
"Rae told me."
The boy shot a look of betrayal at his teammate, who simply shrugged and high fived Ava as she passed through. "So unfair…"
"Oh, Kei, there you are," Mars drawled, seeing the Illusion Mage enter the bar. "Is the guildhall secure?"
"Yeah." Kei sighed, running a hand through his ginger hair and lying his face down on the counter. He probably had been casting several illusions to hide their guildhall to make sure it would be undiscoverable by enemies for the past few hours. He mumbled tiredly, "I'm spent."
"Well, I'm spent too, and currently we need more staff. Happy Hour and all." Mars easily shoved an apron towards the lazy boy, knowing that despite working hard, Kei could do much more but rarely was motivated to do so.
"Fine," Kei grumbled, proceeding to take over Mars's position at the counter and allowing for Mars to instead wait on tables. "I sometimes wonder why I did this."
"Ava blackmailed you and Rae sweet talked you, and considering that you're too close to both of them to say no, you ended up here." Mars deadpanned.
"...point taken," Kei allowed.
"Hello everyone!" The doors opened, revealing a beaming and surprisingly bold Ames. The boy quickly realized everyone was staring and blushed. "U-um…Team Three has recovered completely. Some of the other healers got back and so we're good."
From behind him stepped out Riley, Michael, and Iris.
"Raiden joined the S-class mages on their mission," Iris explained, giving them all a bright smile. Miss us?"
Immediately, several of the teammates' best friends rushed up to them.
"Michael, you're okay," Gizma said delightedly, giving him a friendly grin.
"Yep, sorry for worrying you," Michael chuckled, patting her on the head. ("They have a really close brother sister like relationship," Mars explained to May under his breath.)
"You alright now?" Ava peered at Riley, examining her best friend from head to toe to check for any lasting injuries.
"Yep," Riley saluted mockingly, beaming at her friend. "A bit disappointed about not being able to retaliate much, but with my luck I've certainly been through worse."
("They've known each other for a long time, and Riley's basically cursed with extremely bad luck," Mars explained with as few details as he could.)
"Nice to see you're back up on your feet, Iris," Rae grinned, sharing a high five with the pink haired girl. "We got quite a few new members while you were gone."
"Really? Is that so?" Iris asked thoughtfully. "What are their names?"
"Well…" Chase overheard the two and immediately launched into a long tale. "So our team split up during our mission-" cue the glares from Rae, "-and so apparently Alucard and Rae ran into trouble and this guy named Uriah saved them. So we invited him to our guild. He's on the S-Class mission right now. And then apparently Mars met May, who's over there, during one of our missions and so she's now a part of our guild. Cool, right? Our team's really weird."
Iris, however, didn't reply. Instead, she seemed in deep thought. "Uriah…" she muttered under her breath. "It can't be…"
"You okay, Iris?" Michael asked, and when everyone turned to him he awkwardly stumbled over his feet and instead chose to shove his hands in his pockets and stew in embarrassment.
"I'll confirm it later." Iris shook off whatever was bothering her and turned to Mars. "Hand me an apron and I'll help."
"But you're still recovering," Ames protested, his 'healer mode' immediately coming into play once again.
"We're alright," Mars replied, giving Iris a warm smile. "Just go and catch up with everyone. Since Malba City's well aware of our guild's destructive nature whenever 'Happy Hour' starts, there's not that many actual customers. Just us."
"Why did you make me help then?" Kei complained from his spot at the bar counter.
"You're not injured."
"But I'm tiiiired," Kei emphasized.
"You're just a lazy ass," everyone deadpanned dryly.
"Everyone's so mean…" Kei sulked, returning to his duty reluctantly. Rae, Ava, and Chase snickered at the reaction.
"Sucks to be you," Ava shrugged, her electric blue eyes glinting with slight amusement as she watched her teammate sulk.
"...oi, oi, try to be a little more sympathetic," Kei deadpanned. "I'm your teammate."
"And I'm a girl," Ava replied cheerily. Seeing multiple people's strange looks, she shrugged and said, "I thought we were stating the obvious."
"...oi."
"They're interesting," May observed. "Well...everyone in the guild is pretty interesting."
"Everyone in our guild," Mars corrected. "You're a part of it now too."
"Ah...guess you're right." May rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, watching with curious and amused eyes as everyone began bickering or talking amongst each other.
CRASH.
"Hey...what's…" Standing in the back, Rae, easily identifiable by her green hair, halted in her words. Her face darkened. "Chase…"
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to, don't kill me," Chase pleaded, inching backwards and away from the broken wine bottle. "We love each other very much, Rae, and we're close teammates and everything and sure sometimes I'm annoying but I'm a decent dude and I've saved your ass and you've saved mind so please please don't hurt me-"
"Now, now," Ames tried to awkwardly interject himself between his two teammates. "Rae, I think you're overreacting a bit…"
"Overreacting?" Rae growled dangerously. Ames wisely stepped out of the way.
"You're screwed," Ava noted at the same time as Kei.
"Love you too," Chase muttered, trying his best to look inconspicuous under the bar counter. Glancing at Michael, he said weakly, "Did I ever tell you I like reading mystery novels?"
"I'd try to help, but I doubt it'd do much good," Michael deadpanned.
"That's it. You. Me. Contest, here and now," Rae demanded, hoisting her teammate up to his feet.
"C-contest? What kind of contest?" Chase tried to stall.
"Drinking. What else? It's Happy Hour, and our guild's gonna somehow get drunk one way or another, so let's go at it."
"Oh, a contest? I'm in, I'm in!" May immediately made her way into the scene, ignoring incredulous looks from the other members.
"Oi, oi, what's with all the commotion?" Grace, who had just entered the bar, groaned. "I just returned from the forest and what do we have here?"
"I believe that there is a competition going on," Victoria said, her eyes staring randomly at the ceiling, probably concocting some kind of idea in the depths of her mind.
"...count me in," Grace said grimly.
"Sounds fun, but with my bad luck, the wine will probably become poisoned or something," Riley laughed awkwardly.
"Guys," Iris tried to placate everyone, but they were all too invested in their own things at the moment.
Chase laughed nervously. "Sounds...fun?"
"Not when I crush you," Rae growled.
"I like a challenge, I guess. Count me in," Marcus shrugged. Glancing cautiously at the rest of his guildmates, he asked, "There's going to be someone responsible supervising, right?"
"Oh! Oh! I can~!" Ava volunteered herself.
"You just want blackmail material," Marcus vetoed the idea immediately. Glancing at Michael, he asked, "Can you?" He knew that Michael was both responsible but also had a righteous sense of justice, so he'd probably stop them if they went too far. "I get the feeling that halfway through Rae will begin strangling Chase."
Michael looked reluctant at first, but after looking at all of the other possible choices, agreed. Methodically, the pink haired boy rolled up his sleeves and took off his glasses. Grimly pushing back his hair, he said, "Okay. Wish me luck."
"I wonder how the S-Class mages are doing right now," Iris pondered pitifully. She half wished she had at least tried to join that rank now, glancing at the competitive sparks and tense atmosphere in the bar.
"Gyahahaha! Take that, I won~" May cheered, her cheeks a bright pink. Behind her, everyone else was groaning in pain, the only one looking nearly as unaffected being Rae (which was unsurprising, since she was the bar's owner).
"Can't get drunk, gotta make sure no one blows it up like last time," Rae mumbled woozily, her arms twitching periodically. (Most decided not to question that statement.)
"I can't...believe...I thought that would be...fun," Grace groaned. "I think I'm going to get alcohol poisoning."
"Cheer up, we'll die together," Chase pointed out cheerfully.
"Nah...wanna fight? Huh? Wanna?" Grace slurred at her guildmate, wobbling uncertainly on her feet. Kei and Ava both cautiously grabbed their teammate and sat her back on a bar stool.
Rae tilted her head slightly. "Did Kei always look this attractive?"
"Rae, bro, I'm almost like your big brother," Kei groaned, making sure the girl stayed in her seat.
"Then again, Chase looks pretty cute too," Rae muttered, hugging onto someone.
"...oi, stop hugging onto Michael. He looks like he's about to faint."
"Gonna beat you all and find those bastards," Grace shakily rose to her feet. "I'm gonna find 'em and make them pay."
May was still celebrating, but she quickly froze as she began to feel the alcohol pounding at her head more prominently. Groaning, she slammed her head against the bar counter and stayed there, arms sprawled outwards. Mars checked to make sure she'd live.
"I definitely should've found a way to get on the S-Class team," Iris deadpanned, watching her guildmates' antics. Next to her, the rest of the still sober onlookers nodded.
Elsewhere, two faces were watching the bar with amused eyes.
One of the figures, clad in black, shifted slightly so that they faced their companions. "They're distracted. Now is the time to strike."
"Now, now, Nightowl, just grumpy because your usual playtoy isn't here?" The bright smile accompanying the comment did not deter from the calculative look on the woman's face.
"We will meet again in due time," Nightowl, as identified, dismissed the comment coolly.
"I heard that some of my dear ol' teammates' acquaintances are in this guild," the woman drawled.
A figure approached the two, sporting a sweet smile. Once spotting her companions, the nice persona immediately dropped as she observed the bar with hungering eyes.
"Ah, that one healer and that Mach Make mage guy?" The figure, a woman with ink colored hair and brown eyes turned towards the second woman. "What were their names again, Corvina?"
"Jack was the Mach Make mage. Heard he took an apprentice for a little while, and now the kiddo's at the guild. What was his name again...Cane? Chise? Something like that. And there's another man in the guild who actually ran into two of my teammates. Erik, our healer, helped out...I believe his name was Alucard. And later I even heard from a run in with Serine that she had sewn an eyepatch for the same guy. Luckily I heard that...Alucard, was it? Well, he's out with the rest of the S-Class mages," Corvina informed, eyes dancing with wicked excitement. "Master says as long as we don't kill them, Marza, we can rough them up a bit."
"This will be fun." A sadistic smirk spread over Marza's face. "They sound pretty annoyingly loud, if I may be blunt."
"Well, then, let's interrupt their fun, shall we?" Corvina proposed, and the two women looked towards Nightowl for the final verdict.
"Wreck chaos," he ordered darkly.
A/N: Woot~ well there's certainly a lot of characters haha, but hopefully once things happen and stuff and everyone splits up again, the characters will really begin to establish more of themselves. What characters do you like to see interact with each other? Which ones seem interesting? Who looks like they'd might get along? etc.
Feel free to share with me all your thoughts. Thanks for reading/reviewing/favorite-ing/following~