They Don't Just Like Silver

Life had certainly found a way to make itself crazy over the last couple weeks.

Mercury had only just returned from her impromptu trip to Bellum about a week ago, and her mind had been all over the place ever since. She had thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet Vandrad’s family, who welcomed her with open arms despite the fact that she’d crashed her rival’s engagement gala unannounced, uninvited, and horrifically out of dress code. Boy had the prince been shocked when she slipped out of the crowd, cutting to the front of the long line of ladies that wanted their minute or so of time to dance with the illusive man in nothing but ripped up jeans and a plain shirt with a rather vulgar print on it. She teased him from the start about the whole thing, wanting little more out of the venture than to be a pain in his ass and hold the revelation over his head that she knew his real identity that he’d been trying to keep secret in Fiore.

But rather than being kicked out by his mother, the woman had been so impressed and amused by the Silver Wolf mage’s boldness, humor, and wit that she’d invited Mercury to stay. From there the entire trip had been one hell of a rollercoaster ride that she had not been prepared for. Vandrad’s family was overwhelmingly gracious and giving with their wealth, to the point where it had several times put Mercury in an awkward state of emotions that she’d never experienced before and just had zero idea how to handle. She still wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about them gifting her a vacation home on their palace island. Excited, but also quite a bit guilty as she earnestly felt that if the du Wolffs knew more about who she truly was that they would not like or trust her as much as they did now. And then there was everything with Vandrad himself who, up until that point, had always been a rival at best. Someone for Mercury to pick on and rile up. But somehow they had both reached the revelation that each of them valued the other’s place in their lives far more than anticipated…

Well, she just wasn’t going to think about that.

Instead, Mercury dove straight into denial about the fact that she was earnestly starting to make actual friends and caring about people, choosing to once again focus on work now that she was back home and not in the very confusing land of Bellum. She had quite a bit of research to do into the one doctor Patricia Reeves, who she and Vandrad both had discussed was hiding things. On top of that, she had a number of artifacts that had recently been brought in by some of the Hunters that needed to be diagnosed, categorized, identified, and analyzed for potential future uses. There was more than enough work to keep her busy and her mind occupied, which was more than fine with her.

Deciding it was time for a break, Mercury left her small suite and made her way through the portion of the guildhall intended for the members and toward the area that was open to the public, keen on taking an hour or two to relax in one of the spas. As she passed through the lobby, which was full of both visiting guests and a small handful of Silver Wolf mages, she heard a voice speak up to draw attention to himself. He was a fair bit taller than her, with dark hair and brown eyes, wearing a hoodie that appeared to have a small mammalian creature of some kind perched inside of it. Everyone turned to him, the mild chatter in the room dying down as he introduced himself and his furred companion, mading his intentions known to hopefully join up with the guild.

Though the specific way he’d worded it was what caught Mercury’s interest, and amusement, as he inquired as to the proper way to be “silvered up” and “get wolfed”. The woman smirked a bit, tilting her head in curiosity at him before her gaze panned around the room to see if any of her fellow aces were in the room. With no sight of Aspen, Theo, or the guild’s master Leona, she took it upon herself to handle the hopeful recruit. “That depends. What kind of wolfing are we talking about here?” she asked, the attention in the room shifting to where she stood, hand on a hip with a playful smirk on her face. “The kind where you wind up with a lot of bandages, or the kind that results in a snuggling pile of warm bodies? I’ll warn you, I’m significantly better at one over the other. I’ll let you guess which.”

Most of the actual members of the guild laughed lightly at the comments, most of them knowing Mercury as a woman who was often both a tease and a flirt but also quite friendly. And since she was an ace, they knew she would handle the young man and get him the help he needed. So, as the rest of them got back to work, Mercury beckoned for Tsubasa to join her at an open sofa arrangement. She was a petite woman standing just over five feet with short lavender hair and vibrant emerald colored eyes. A rather trendy set of clothes adorned her person, neat and clean with a couple pouches strapped to her hips and one of her thighs.

She extended him a dainty hand to shake by way of greeting. “My name is Mercury, one of the aces here. Welcome to Silver Wolf, Tsubasa. And… was it Ahab?” If he had taken the time to introduce his squirrely friend, Mercury would show the respect of acknowledging the creature as well. She couldn’t exactly give it a handshake, of course, and neither did she know whether it could talk or not, but the greeting was there all the same. Inviting him to sit, Mercury took a seat of her own on one of the sofas, crossing one leg over the other and sitting back comfortably rather than carrying any demeanor of straight laced professionalism.

“So you wanna join us, eh? It’s a pretty great guild, not gonna lie. I quite enjoy it myself. Why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself, maybe what you know of the guild and what interests you about it? That way I know if I have to start from the top of what we’re all about or if I can gloss past things you already know.”

This kid was funny, and Mercury appreciated it. He quickly bantered back with her, stating how the pile of warm snuggling bodies sounded much more terrifying than the option that might involve bloodshed, stating how he figured it was just a common hazard of working in retail. Mercury’s smirk spread to a grin, clearly pleased by his wit and humor, before she had him follow her over to a place they could sit and chat. With him he carried a backpack that had some kind of device attached to the outside of it, a board of sorts. Mercury had never seen anything like it before, though her penchant for anything technology related certainly caused the item to catch her interest. She could ask about it later, though.

He took her hand firmly, which didn’t seem to bother or faze her. Tsubasa a bit nervously reintroduced himself, this time also spouting off his LacTube handle and the number of subscribers he had to it, his voice trailing off at the end of the sentence as if he’d come to the conclusion that the information probably wouldn’t interest her. Really, Mercury wasn’t that much older than the young man. By Earthland standards, she’d only been an adult for about four years. But even then, she was actually heavily into technology and the lacrinet, usually spending most of her evenings browsing sites both for research and recreation.

The little green creature being able to talk was new. Mercury hadn’t run into any animals that could talk on Earthland so it was certainly a bit of a surprise. Then again, she’d quickly had to come to grips with the fact that this planet was nearly a complete polar opposite of the place she’d come from, and there would probably be no end to the wonders she’d run into. Thankfully, she’d learned from a young age not to let her true thoughts and emotions show on the surface, so any surprise she felt was hidden beneath a very convincing layer of ease and acceptance. The green furred squirrel let Mercury know that he was the smart one of their little duo, as well as the muscle. Really, Tsubasa was just there to help with transportation and food. It drew a chuckle from the lavender haired woman as she sat down across from them. “Hey, we all need someone to fill that role in our lives. Mine’s shorter and a lot more grumpy, though.”

“So, you’re on LacTube, huh?” she asked him, looking genuinely interested. Mercury shifted so she could reach into one of the many pouches on her hip, pulling out a small black tablet. She flicked it on and pulled up the website in question, searching in the username he’d given her. “Yep, there you are! Wow, you’re definitely getting up there in popularity. I’ll have to check out some of your stuff later.” Her finger traced over the screen to hit the button that would allow her to subscribe to him. Then, she put the device away and gave him her full attention while he went into a little more detail about what he knew regarding the guild and what made it appealing to him.

Tsubasa told her that he’d been looking into most of the available guilds in the region, but none seemed to fit his interests as well as Silver Wolf did. From the way he talked, it sounded as though he had a bit of an adventurous spirit, someone who liked to get out and see the world and all its wonders and treasures. It immediately reminded her a bit of Theo, and she couldn’t help but think that this new kid and the other Silver Wolf ace would probably get along quite well. When the young man felt he was starting to ramble a bit, he apologized and explained he wasn’t exactly eloquent before going on to explain that some of the other guilds just weren’t ideal for him for this or that reason, with uniforms being a big factor in his decision against some of the others.

Mercury grinned. “I’m right with you there, champ, don’t worry.” It was the only interjection she offered for the time being, keen on letting him finish his self introduction and what he was looking for. Ideally, it seemed he wanted to be a part of a place where he could actually contribute about things that interested him, as well as learn more about becoming a better mage. He was looking for a place of like minded people that he could connect with, learn from, and work alongside in a capacity that was both meaningful and enjoyable. That, and his mother had taught him how to be a good cook.

He quickly insisted as an afterthought that he wasn’t as immature as he sounded, which earned him another amused chuckle. “Complete maturity is boring anyway,” Mercury informed him with an impish smirk. “You can relax, though. This is hardly an interview so much as a conversation just to discuss what you’re looking for and what you know of us. And frankly, from what you’ve said already it does sound like we’re a pretty good fit for you. You’re right on the money about what we strive for: Finding, researching, and preserving items, languages, and artifacts of magical, technological, historical, and cultural significance. A lot of times that also happens to involve a fair bit of treasure hunting, which is always fun.”

“So I guess I’ll just go over some of the information that was relayed to me when I first joined. Let you make an informed decision for what you want to do and what we expect of our members. We’ve got three branches: Hunters, Defenders, and Scholars. Eventually you’ll join one of these branches, but you don’t have to make that decision right away. Essentially, Hunters primarily focus on going out in the field and getting their hands on artifacts and such to bring back to the guild hall where the Scholars then research and analyze them for a variety of purposes. Defenders are tasked with keeping the guildhall and its members safe. These branches tend to overlap all the time though, so if you join a branch it won’t stop you from being able to help out in the other fields if you want.”

“There are two other aces besides myself. Sometimes you’ll hear members refer to us as “betas”. Each of us heads one of the three branches. Our guildmaster is Leona Jarnefeldt. If you decide you want to join, I’m sure you’ll meet them sooner rather than later. They all keep a keen interest in the members, especially new recruits.” For now Mercury didn’t get into the details of who the other aces were or what branches everyone was in charge of, not wanting to overwhelm the young man too much with information. At least, not with stuff that wouldn’t be much of a determining factor on whether he chose to join up. If he asked she'd give him the information, but otherwise she’d rather stay focused on the basics for now, and the rest he could learn later.

She stretched a bit in her seat, slouching a little further back and getting more comfortable. “Really, our biggest expectation is just that our members not do anything to draw any negative attention from people like the Magic Council and the Rune Knights. We’re not a legal guild, but since we usually don’t cause any trouble and tend to mind our own business, the Council more or less lets us do what we want. We like it that way, and try to stay away from violence and the like unless it’s necessary to protect our members or our goals. We’re real big here on loyalty to the pack, so to speak. But that’s really about it. Outside of that we let you do what you want.”

She was pleasantly surprised to see Tsubasa take out a notepad and start writing on it, taking notes of the information that she was giving him -- albeit in a strange fashion that was a mix between writing words and drawing symbols. Studious little thing, Mercury thought to herself with amusement. She had a hunch based on that behavior alone that he would probably excel the most in the Scholar branch, but the decision was up to him and she didn’t intend on influencing him one way or another. It was for him to decide where his place was in the Pack, not hers.

He seemed pleased by all the information she’d given him, which was a sight nicer than the wide eyed nervousness that a lot of other new members gave in response to everything. Personally, Mercury didn’t think it was all that much to take it. But then again, her brain was quite literally a computer, so she had an easier and quicker time processing data and storing it for recollection later. He even thanked her afterward and explained that he was taking notes because he was nervous and didn’t want to forget anything. Mercury smiled. “It’s quite alright. Do what you need to.”

When the younger man requested a moment to speak with his “associate” regarding their decision, she nodded and busied herself with her tablet again, content to mind her own business while they chatted. Granted, it was nearly impossible to hear the humorous conversation word for word. Even if they were whispering, they weren’t sitting that far apart and Mercury’s hearing was rather sharp given her status as a slayer.

Eventually they finished up and Tsubasa looked to her and confirmed that they had agreed to complete the process of getting “wolfed”. A large grin spread across her face. “Alright, then! Let’s get you two stamped. After that I’ll give you a quick tour of the place and we’ll get a room assigned to you.” She stood up and beckoned for him to follow her into one of the rooms attached to the lobby where there were some supplies readily available for the Aces and Leona. Pulling out the magical device that allowed them to grant new members their guild marks, she would ask them both where they wanted their stamps -- and yes, there were even smaller stamps available for tiny members like Ahab. Setting their desired colors, she’d magically set the wolf shaped mark onto their bodies where they asked. “Congratulations. You’ve officially been wolfed,” she told them with a smirk and a playful wink.

“Let’s go show you around your new home, shall we?”