Idiotic Arrival: Commence! (Open)

Ren was walked down the streets of Hargeon town, trying his hardest not to burst into a sprint the rest of the way. He had to look calm, like this wasn't the thing he had anticipated since he first became apart of Hargeon Town. He couldn't sleep at all last night and the excitement was still building inside his chest. Enter cool, exit cool he kept repeating to himself mentally, but all he could think of was the people he could meet and impress with the tricks he could do with water. Speaking on which, he was currently playing with a small ball of sea water he gathered to keep himself calm on the way, but he was currently stretching it and twisting it, and soon enough he found that he had stopped focusing and the ball splashed to the ground. Ren sighed and kept on his way, so much for staying calm.

Ren soon realized he was already at the front gate, and he barely stopped to look at the building before rushing to the door. Ren took a deep breath, and pushed open the door. Ren took in everything he could, and eventually found himself standing in the doorway like an idiot staring wide eyed at everyone. Your such an idiot he thought to himself when he accidentally brought his hand to his forehead, and then went read in the face. Now your really an idiot! he screamed at himself, and managed to stutter "I-is the guild master here? Right now? I mean if he's not that's fine I can just come back later" he then became slightly irritated and relieved when he realized he was being ignored.

Kara Matheson was sat on a table currently with a lollipop in her mouth, contemplating what to do with her day. She'd not long been in Lamia Scale, but already she'd done most of the jobs that were on the job board for the week. There weren't many jobs left for her rank, let alone any that actually interested her. With a sigh she took the lolly from her lips and got to her feet. She couldn't stay sat down for too much longer or she was going to either fall to sleep or burst into a random rage - most likely the latter.

Almost as soon as she stood up the doors to the guildhall opened and, stood in the doorway, was a slim young man with blond hair and bright blue eyes. At first she planned to pay no attention. After a few seconds however she found she recognised him. He lived in Hargeon as well, only a few doors down from where she'd recently moved in with her father. They'd not spoken, but they'd passed by each other numerous times. This, coupled with the young man's expression of awe was enough to get Kara's brain ticking. New blood...newer than me...Master Zuo Cii doesn't seem to be here either... she thought to herself, before a sinister grin spread briefly across her face. "Playtime." she muttered evilly.

As she approached Ren she kept her demeanour completely relaxed. She stopped just in front of him and put her hand on her hip. "You're Ren right? Sorry to say this but the master is busy right now. Probably for the best really, you don't look like you're built to cope with his entrance exam."

"H-HEY!" Ren yelled, his face lighting up red. "I've been working hard! I know how to do magic!" he steamed. Although you didn't know there was an entrance exam his mind informed him. This made him more upset, and he realized he looked really unnerved, ruining the cool demeanor he had set himself to enter and exit with. "S-so the guild master isn't here?" he stuttered, trying to calm himself. "Could I wait around here?" he asked. This girl really was getting under her skin, and he really hoped everyone else wasn't like that in this place. "Who are you anyway?" he asked. Ren faintly remembered her name, somewhere along the lines of Korra.

Kara giggled and stuck her lollipop into her mouth for a moment, simply admiring Ren's reaction. He'd been considerably easy to wind up, easier than she'd first expected. She could probably wind him up even further but doing that would probably get herself into Zuo Cii's bad books, and that was not a place she wanted to be. She removed her lollipop and winked cheekily. "Don't worry, Master Zuo Cii is around. He's somewhere around here, probably busy planning jobs for the next poor soul who gets on his bad side. He'll be out here to greet you soon enough though, so you're welcome to wait." she replied cheerily before offering her hand out to Ren. "Kara Matheson. I recently moved into Hargeon Town, a couple of houses down from you I believe. It's nice to finally talk to you."

"Same here" Ren murmured as he shook Kara's hand. "Remind me not to get on Zuo Cii's bad side" he joked as he looked around the guild. It certainly was impressive. Kind of different from his first visit, but not that much. Ren let his eyes flicker towards the various guys in the guild. They all kind of looked the same, he didn't know why the girls in town simply died when talking about them. They were all really buff, which made him look down at his stick-like arms and sigh. Ren wasn't really the most manliest man. Ren became aggravated when he turned around and found Kara an inch taller than him. "You have to be joking" he muttered as he looked down at her feet for some sign of heels, but when he found nothing he simply looked incredibly disappointed. Ren had to be taller than someone in this place, otherwise he didn't think he would make it.

Kara giggled again at the young man. She had realised that he was just a little shorter, but had opted not to be too blunt about it. Now that he'd realised however, she couldn't help but be amused by his apparent disdain. She stopped giggling when another girl came over though, so as to seem a little more innocent. The girl was one she'd not really spoken to, but had seen around the guildhall a number of times. What was more, she seemed to be quite mature. She seemed to be constantly relaxed and reading a book or a magazine whenever Kara saw her around, which was fairly frequently.

"This is Ren. He lives a couple of houses down from where I moved in. He wants to join us here at Lamia Scale!" Kara replied excitedly. However, when she realised that Akihime had really taken an interest she knew that she'd have to come clean. "I...may have been winding him up a little about the Master." she added sheepishly, albeit with a cheeky grin on her face.

It had only been a week or so since Zuo had completed the reconstruction of Lamia Scale and the healing of Hargeon. But already people had moved into and repaired the old buildings of the once destroyed town and he already had a few new members to his guild. He walked down a marble stair case from his office into the main hall where he saw a pair of his guild members surrounding a young man from town he over heard them speaking of an entrance exam and a sly grin crossed his face, considering his several hundred years of being alive Zuo had hardly mellowed with age, he walked across the marble tiles that made up the floor and crossed the main hall towards the three mages. He examined the hall with his peripheral vision it was still rather spartan in decoration, all still made of shining white marble stone, the benches and chairs were hard, the picture frames empty, there were no rugs only tile, the entire building was 100% stone and it was all a pure white which gave a strange but elegant look to the place.

He reached the trio in little time, he came up behind Kara standing directly behind her he spoke "Ah a new recruit? Welcome Ren was it? I see you have met Miss Kara Matheson of the Amethyst and Miss Akihime of the Wind. I am Zuo Cii of the Earth, I see Kara has already informed you of our entry exam. Which I should remind her that she herself has not taken." He twisted his foot on the ground using his molding magic to alter the underground, it wouldn't be noticeable to the three mages standing in front of him but it would be soon enough. "But no better time then the present." He clapped his hands twice and the ground underneath Akihime, Kara and Ren would open like a trap door dropping them several feet before they would land on a earth slide that would send them tumbling deep beneath the earth into a under ground labyrinth of pure marble that Zuo Cii had molded only seconds ago. Zuo would then turn into earth and sink into the ground, at the time the 'labyrinth' was actually very small it only went a few hallways in any direction but Zuo was able to mold and expand it as they went so that is would seemingly go on forever without them noticing how small it really was. Until Zuo thought they had learned the 'lesson' he was trying to teach.

Kara almost jumped out of her skin as Lamia Scales Guildmaster Zuo Cii appeared directly behind her. He kindly introduced himself to Ren and spoke briefly about the entry exam...wait...entry exam?! Kara turned her head to face her guildmaster just as he stated that there was 'no time like the present'. The next thing she knew, she was falling through the floor that she'd been standing on just a split second before. She dropped a few feet before hitting some kind of a slide, then sliding a few feet further. When she finally landed on solid ground again, Kara looked up and sighed. The ground had sealed over where she'd just been stood.

She lowered her head and looked around her. She appeared to be in some kind of a maze or a labyrinth...and she wasn't alone. Ren and Akihime were both there with her. She looked at Ren and Akihime sheepishly, knowing she was to blame for them being down here now. "Sorry...I didn't think he'd hear me." she giggled nervously. "Still...we're here now so how about we take a look and see what we're dealing with?"

Ren screamed like a girl the entire way down, and when he landed, he looked around in panic "IS THIS THE ENTRANCE EXAM? I WASN'T PREPARED" he screeched. Ren was panicked and stood up and was running around the room in circles panicking. "HAVE I BEEN LURED INTO A TRAP IS HE GOING TO KILL ME I HAD SO MUCH I WAS PLANNING TO DO WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME" his panicking not calming down in the least. "HEEEELP" he started yelling, though when a response didn't come, he just started panicking again, wow he really had lost it. "IS THIS NORMAL?" he yelled at the two girls.

Kara looked at Ren with an amused expression, giggling to herself for a moment before deciding to share what she was thinking with her two guildmates. "Master Zuo Cii has a tendency of doing things like this as a way of teaching people...he's already flipped the whole guildhall upside down, and it's only been standing for a week." she explained, trying to show the two just how eccentric their guildmaster was. "But don't worry, he has no intentions of killing us. If he did then he would've done that immediately, since he could probably take the three of us on without any trouble whatsoever." she continued. "This is literally a test. But what of...who knows with that crazy old coot..."

Kara began to walk down one of the tunnels of the labyrinth, her eyes following the walls until they reached a fork in the path. Looking down the tunnels it looked like both were initially dead ends. However, Kara immediately twigged what was going on. This...is going to be difficult... she thought to herself, but remained completely composed on the outside. "We need to stick together...there is no way of knowing what's going to be down here. Not with our Master. He won't allow us to be harmed but...he still might give us a challenge here and there."

Ren was looking around every corner cautiously. "A-are you sure its s-safe down here?" he said, still shaken from the fall. "A labyrinth? Like the kind that never ends? WITH MONSTERS?" his voice squeaking at the end. "I wasn't prepared for this, I just wanted to join a guild, not die before I even get the chance to impress anyone!" Ren whined. "Are we ever going to get out? What if the guildmaster gets lost too? Will we be down here forever!?!?!?" he started panicking again. "Alright... Think calm thoughts... The guild master wouldn't hurt you, this is a test... He wouldn't put you in harms way..." he kept whispering to himself, his voice squeaking whenever he heard something. "You don't think there would be snakes down here... Would you?" he said in a slow cautious voice, as if speaking too fast would cause snaked to crawl out of every corner. Concern after concern constantly streaming out of his mouth.

As Ren got more and more worked up, Kara was getting more and more aggravated. He was new to the guild admittedly, but he was still panicking far too much. When he mentioned the idea of snakes that was that. Kara turned around and pinned Ren against the wall and put a hand to his mouth, looking him dead in the eyes. "Now that you're quiet...stay that way, otherwise snakes are going to be the last thing you're afraid of." she growled, before removing her hand and stepping back. "You came here to join Lamia Scale right? You want to be a mage? Then listen carefully."

Kara took a couple of steps away, closed her eyes and sighed. "It's okay to be afraid. Fear is natural. But you can't let it get the better of you. Besides..." She turned around and opened her eyes before smiling and winking at the new addition. "You've got us. You're going to be part of Lamia Scale. That's more than enough."

She turned her attention to Akihime and the question the girl had asked. "I don't carry paper...I don't think it'd matter either. Master Zuo Cii has control over the labyrinth...he can change the layout if we were to map the labyrinth out. We'll have to go in and do what needs to be done."

Ren squeaked as he was pinned to the wall, and scolded. "Right.... I always kind of overeact, sorry" he said sheepishly, still occasionally turning his head to look behind him. He definitely did not like being down here. "If anyone's thirsty, I can help with that" he offered, in an attempt to be helpful. Kara was right, he had to keep calm, and there really was nothing that bad to worry about. Though the thoughts were still lingering in his head, he really didn't want to find out what would happen if he panicked again.

It would seem that the mages Zuo had thrown into his labyrinth had managed to compose themselves and were ready to take on the challenge he had presented them with, Zuo decided it was time to fix that. Watching from within the walls Zuo targeted Kara, she seemed to be holding the group together, "Marble Column!" the words would echo through the halls as a pillar of marble stone would shoot out from the ground under Kara's feet in an attempt to throw her into the ceiling of the maze. While this may appear to be a random assault on Kara, Zuo would open a hole in the roof just big enough for her to fly through after being hit then immediately seal it trapping her in a different part of the maze effectively dividing the group. Of course this all hinged on the assumption that Kara would be unable to dodge, which was a factor that remained to be seen.

Immediately following the column attack, regardless of success, Zuo would slowly tilt the ground into a ramp heading down the hallway. At first this would be negligible but after a little while the ramp would become very steep and at the bottom of the ramp a pit would open right in front of the door to the next section to the labyrinth, to make matters worse as the ramp grew more steep the pit would grow. The mages would have to run down the ramp, and jump over the gap all before the ramp became too steep to stand on or else they would be plunged into the pit. Feeling nice Zuo calculated the ramp's rate of adjusting slope so that assuming the mages were physically fit they should be able to do so without any great difficulty. With all this done he contented himself to sit back and watch.

The words 'Marble Column' rang out through the labyrinth causing Kara to brace herself. The magic itself was obvious; there was going to be a marble column appearing from somewhere to catch them off guard. "What the hell has the master got planned n-" she began before suddenly being thrown into the air. In her surprise she let out a high-pitched yelp, before being flung into the air and landing on the ground with a thud. "Ow..."

The Amethyst mage took a look at her surroundings, confused as to why she hadn't heard voices at all. She sighed when she found that there was absolutely nobody around, before growling and punching the floor. Zuo Cii, you're an ass... she thought to herself as she got to her feet. There was little she could do now. She was alone and she would most likely remain that way for a while. She looked around the area, but there were no signs of where she'd entered from. All she knew was that it was the master's doing, most likely because she was the one taking charge and calming Ren down. "What game are you playing Master...why are we down here?" she asked, although naturally she expected no answer. She knew better than to expect Zuo Cii to simply give her the answer on a plate.

Ren let out a girly shriek as the floor began to tilt, panicking and looking around for Kara. "WHERE IS KARA" he panicked, looking around, he only saw Akihime, and he began to hyperventilate. "Okay... calm... don't pass out..." he attempted to calm himself, and he managed to regain some of his composure, then looked at the pit in front of the door. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" he yelled as he tried to maintain his balance.

Ren looked over at Akihime, panicking. "WHAT DO WE DO???" he yelled, trying to find out how to do this, though his mind was a bit preoccupied finding ways to surrender to the Guildmaster and beg him to live. "Do we fall in the pit?!?!?!" he suggested, still struggling to calm down.

Ren was hyperventilating at this point, and he look back from Akihime and pit, swallowing. Either you jump or you fall into a pit, and you don't have much time to decide Ren's mind reminded him, but he was still paralyzed. Ren had always thought he would be prepared for situations like this, after all he had childish dreams of saving people and winning medals. But unfortunately when he got to the real thing, he had become a quivering pile of fear.

Ren had never jumped great distances before, so he wasn't entirely sure if he would make it even with wind magic. However, Ren had no real choice but to jump, because quite honestly doorway across the pit sounded a lot nicer then dark pit in the floor. "O-okay! I'm going to jump!" Ren stuttered, preparing himself more mentally then physically. He took a deep breath and jumped up, screaming as he went.