New Girl In Town (Open)

To anyone bothering to pay enough attention to the young pink haired girl hovering near the entrance to the Ace of Spades, and Sabertooth’s Guildhall was obvious. Various mages and civilian’s who weren’t too busy or uncaring were probably wondering if she was waiting for a parent who worked for the guild, or if she was waiting for one of the more famous members to walk out so she could get an autograph. The slightly more observant ones, or the ones simply willing to look past the cute dress and green bow, might notice the large pink longsword on the ground beside her and do a double take since the sword was almost as tall as she was but obviously matched her decor. The most observant ones would notice the intense look on her face as she leaned around the entrance to the hall, practically glaring at it while nibbling at a thumbnail in frustration, sweat rolling down her face.

This young girls name is Odette Lovelaw, 14-year old budding mage and the poster girl for frustration at this moment. Why was she frustrated? Because she was in the middle of making a life-changing decision she was overall reluctant to do. That decision? Whether or not she should join the guild Sabertooth. Currently, Oddie was listing the pros and cons in her head ‘Pros. One, No longer be constantly broke since people don’t believe a cute young girl can do a job without some sort of proof that I’m competent. Supposedly having a big sword and wolf companion wasn’t enough. Two, a guild mark can probably provide proof that I am a competent mage, thus I can get jobs to pay for food again! Three, more contact to find out where Rosaschwert was made and hopefully lead me to a clue to find my father. Four… maybe find some friends.’ Well, that was pretty convincing pros. ‘Now the cons. One, loss of the independence I worked so hard for. Two might have to follow stupid rules. Three, everyone in there is probably better at everything compared to me. Four, they might all be lying jerks. Five, they may not take me seriously like the people I tried to get a job from before…’That line of thought stopped suddenly.

“Arrgghhh why didn’t I think about that sooner! I should have brought Haven!” She screamed, pulling at her hair and stomping her feet. She left her wolf companion at the crappy Inn room she was renting, thinking that bringing a wolf puppy might give the wrong impression. But Odette had forgotten even a wolf pup was more impressive and intimidating than her. Worse was a part of her spells needed Haven to be there to work. ‘How do I prove myself to these guys without Haven?!’ She worried. ‘That it! I just have to prove myself by myself! I’ll jump the next guild member to come out! That’ll prove that I’m tough!’ A course of action decided Odette picked up her broadsword and peered around the guildhalls entrance, a fire of determination in her eye’s.

Victoria emerged from her room wearing her usual outfit of a blue t-shirt with black skirt and white tennis shoes. She was thinking about slinging some drinks at the tavern to take a break from her island-hopping adventures in fighting mutants created by Alexander Kerwes. She waved at Ratatoskr and watched the rambunctious rodent briefly consider heaving a large acorn at her before thinking better of it and putting it away, settling for a taunt about her limited wardrobe instead. Victoria brushed the insult off and kept walking until she reached the teleporter to the ballroom, which she took to reach the "main" guild hall.

-Inside the guild hall-

Victoria materialized on the seal in the grand ballroom and left it behind on her quest to get to the  tavern. She reached the thick wooden double doors separating the ballroom from the main hall of the castle and pushed the right one open, then walked through and pushed the door closed once she was through. After making sure the door was closed Victoria walked through the empty halls of the castle with nothing but her footsteps for company. She wondered what the tavern's patrons would want today. The patrons tended to like some of the harder alcohols straight from the bottle, but a few of the customers liked mixed drinks like a Dirty Ashtray, Bloody Mary, Long Island Iced Tea, or the Screwdriver, which was Victoria's personal favorite when it came to mixed drinks.

Victoria reached the main castle door and leaned into it, slowly pushing the thick door open to gain access to the outside world.

-Outside the guild hall, Ace of Spades-

She slowly pushed it open and then passed through, then repeated the laborious process to shut the door. Once Victoria had finished shutting the door she turned around to find a pink-haired young woman in a white dress wielding a pink two-handed sword that was about as long as she was tall. She did not know that bandits could be that brazen in a city controlled by a major guild. Not wanting to jump to conclusions, Victoria opted to speak to her first.

"Um... hi there. I'm Victoria Sheridan of the guild Sabertooth. Can I... help you?" Victoria asked the youth. The confusion on her voice was obvious.

The girl jumped a probable foot in the air at the voice before landing again. The can then be seen tensing up, back to the stranger, before quickly turning to face her. "Fight me! Hyaaa!!" Odette screams eye's closed in fear as she recklessly swings her sword nowhere near the stranger. If Odette had her eye's open and her panicked mind didn't crush the woman's words under itself she would have instantly recognized the famed Victoria Sheridan, and just how out of her league the D-ranked mage was.

That being said the sword swinging didn't last more than a few startling seconds as Odette shifted her position, only to trip on a dislodged brick she would have easily seen with her eyes open. "Kyaaa!" The holder mage screams as she falls, landing face first in the ground. There was a beat of silence, before Odette slowly get to her feet, blood coming out of her nose and knee's, face beet red with humiliation. It was then she finally got a look at Victoria's face and recognized her instantly. Odette quickly lowered her face to hide the tears prickling at her eye's, but nothing could hide her trembling body even while she gripped Rosaschwert trying to hide it. "I- I'm." She stuttered out, unable to find the words. 'Great! Just great! I tried to attack a freaking H-rank mage! There's goes my chance of joining any guild EVER and possibly living past the next few seconds! Stupid Odette!' The panic-stricken words rang through her head.

Victoria paused in place as she tried to comprehend the full extent of what was going on. The smaller girl had challenged Victoria to a fight, then closed her eyes and swung her sword in the brunette's approximate direction. The blade was nowhere near making contact with her, which was good because that saved her from the embarrassment of having to explain to Ryo, Aura, Gaia, or Imai why a prospective new mage was lying on the ground suffering from the effects of a Taser Spark spell. Technically the more experienced mage would be within her rights to self-defense, but it would make the guild look bad if one of their mages had zapped a potential new member because of the glaring mismatch in power levels.

Victoria noticed that the girl had become nervous after her failed attempt at a sword swing. The girl's panicked reaction had really put the brunette on the spot. Now it was up to her to play peacemaker and try to patch things up before things got any worse.

"It's OK, really. No harm, no foul." Victoria tried to assure the pink-haired youth that the former was not going to reduce her to atoms with a snap of her finger or any other drastic reaction. Only Samira Nassar had the level of power necessary to do that, but there were a few other mages out there who were beginning to catch up to Samira. Victoria was no slouch herself; in terms of official power levels she was Sabertooth's second-strongest mage next to Samira, but the brunette was sure that Ryo, Kite, Aura, and Itori had tricks that could level the playing field and let them challenge her on an equal footing.

"That's a nice sword you have. I take it you're here to join Sabertooth?" Victoria asked the girl in an attempt to de-escalate the situation and maybe gain Sabertooth a new member.

It was a good thing Victoria spoke up because Odette was two seconds away from doing something dramatic to get out of this situation. First on the list was banging her head on the wall behind her until she fell into unconsciousness, hopefully convincing the super strong mage to leave the crazy girl be. The second was flat out running in hoping she wouldn’t be chased or have a spell that would instantly evaporate her thrown at the Holder mages back. Third was to prostrate herself in front of the woman and beg for forgiveness. The lists had the one that would hurt her pride the least at the top, and the one that would most likely work at the bottom.

But the elegant mage's words made Odette stop to blink stupidly. Her eyes were a bit blurry from the pain and tears but… was Victoria being sincere? Yes, Odette’s keen eyes were not deceiving her, the mage had no intention of holding a grudge. Sure, she looked a bit exasperated and put-upon underneath the niceness, but the kindness itself wasn’t faked. “Th-thank you… My names Odette by the way. Odette Lovelaw. I hope you're being sarcastic about the sword thing. That kinda sucked” Victoria wasn’t from her eyes, but you could never be too sure. “I swear I’m better when I’m not so nervous and I have my companion with me… WAIT WHAT?! H-how did you know?! That I wanted to join your guild I mean?” Odette squeaked out, looking at the casually dressed super mage in surprise. What about ‘attack the first person who exits the building’ translates into ‘I want to join this guild’… which admittedly was the exact thing Odette was going for, but now that she calmed down a bit, she could see it was a stupid thing to do.

“… Does this happen often?” She questions her hopefully-soon-to-be-guildmate. “A-and I’m so sorry for attacking you by the way! My sincere apologies Ms. Sheridan! Thank you for being so understanding!” Odette finishes with a bow, blood from her still bleeding nose dripping onto the brick below her.

"I tend to encounter a lot of new members lately. I'm often the first person they meet." Victoria explained to the pink-haired girl, who identified herself as Odette Lovelaw and inquired as to how Victoria knew she was looking to become a member. The former was glad that the situation was de-escalating because it was getting to be more than a little bit awkward, especially when the girl visibly panicked. Thankfully nothing major had come out of it other than embarrassment for both parties, but embarrassment was easier to live with than missing limbs or permanent scars.

Zach showed up soon after Odette apologized for the sort-of attack with her giant pink sword. Victoria casually greeted Zach, who she had helped kill a giant eight-headed snake that had crashed the youth's training session in Sakuramori's forest. She was glad that she had refrained from using Taser Spark because Zach coming across the scene would have made an explanation of what happened before the spark very difficult. Chances were that due to the difference in power levels Victoria would have come across as the aggressor.

"Hey Zach. Odette and I just met one another. She's looking to join Sabertooth." Victoria said to Zach with a slight smile. The joke was somewhat amusing, but she could not express too much amusement lest Odette take it as a sign Victoria was still miffed about what happened earlier. Victoria was not upset, just a bit confused about the circumstances of their meeting. Maybe the pink-haired girl thought that one had to literally fight their way in by defeating a current member of the guild. If that were the case, Victoria would probably be a Guildless mage right now because Ryo, Kite, and Aura would have been too tough for her to handle.

"It's OK, Odette. No one got hurt and we're not enemies." Victoria assured the young mage that there was no grudge waiting to be settled. In the meantime, she wondered where Aura, Gaia, or Imai were. This was a situation that was in their wheelhouse.