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My Group is AWESOME....sort of (Candira and HeartOfTheDarkness)

Candira

Singularity
Joined
Jan 9, 2009
Crocus City was teeming with adventurers lately. Oh, it was always a busy place, especially for adventurers, but it was packed to the gills lately with people who wanted to make a name for themselves. Why? Because there was a monster population boom and more than ever, teams of the best and brightest warriors were needed to help control it. It was causing havoc in the marketplace: prices went up and down dramatically. Why pay 50 crowns for a beast hide when the market was practically overflowing with them? Why charge 10 crowns for pixie wings when the monsters who ate pixies were making them scarce in the midst of this mating season?

Still, merchants flocked to the city, trying to stock up on raw materials for their true products. Adventurers still made a decent wage for going out on behalf of the guild, and as long as you paid your membership dues, there was absolutely no harm in selling what you could to get more crowns.

The guild was particularly busy this time of year with adventurers signing up daily to meet the quota and demand for these kinds of quests. It meant that many people were looking for a party to join, or, in the case of Lucy and Aria, looking for new members to help them out. So far, they'd managed to bring in small game, but nothing that was of any consequence. Why? Because they simply weren't very good at adventuring--at least, not yet.

Lucy was a healer, but she needed specific spells with her to do anything particularly useful. She could heal small cuts, bruises, and help cure fevers without scrolls or books, but the rest meant finding spells and using books. That meant that she had to carry a huge backpack with her. It meant that she was fairly strong, but not strong enough to make a huge difference in battle. She wasn't particularly useful with weapons, but she could summon creatures to her side. Of course, those creatures were usually too cute and fuzzy to do anything of value. They were great for information, though. Plus, they made for wonderful companions. She had a lot of potential...but only in certain situations. So she was the leader of her own party, and she had a strong warrior to back her up.

Aria actually had a decent amount of skill with her bow and her short swords. Normally, though, she dealt with distance based attacks. When she ran out of arrows, she switched to kunai, knives, darts, anything she could get her hands on for cheap. Only in real emergencies did she use her twin swords. She was very good, very strong, and quite fast. The only problem was that she had absolutely no sense of direction and very low motivation to do anything. She slept an inordinate amount and was often bored out of her mind. Battle, drinking, and Lucy were pretty much the only things that got her in the mood to do anything. Well, the only things most people knew about. She often hung out at the pub between jobs to stay awake and pick up information until Lucy got back from the guild or the marketplace. For some reason, she'd come along today, and she was regretting it.

The two of them were on opposite sides of the building--Aria was checking the bulletin boards and job listings for things they could realistically do, and Lucy was working the new adventurer registry. She was smiling that bright smile of hers talking to knights and other warriors who seemed like they were looking for a group. She had a particularly interested pirate on the line until she started talking to his parrot. Of course, she could understand the bird well enough, but the man only heard her squawking and cheeping at his shoulder. Frankly, it bummed him out, so he excused himself. Lucy was left to search again for someone who seemed promising.
 
Having arrived into the city only a few days ago, Lucien was ready to live out his dream and become an adventurer. He has been training ever since he was a kid to become one. Vast riches, infinite fame, tons of women, his dream was to become one of the best adventurers in the land. Maybe he could become so famous that the daughter of some royal family might take interest in him, allowing him to marry into the family and become royalty himself. A man can at least dream, can't he?

Unfortunately upon coming into town, people weren't as friendly as he would've hoped. Since he's a brand new adventurer, many people didn't want to deal with some novice holding them back. Even with decent skills with a sword and shield, he couldn't really prove his worth without experience. And he needed a group to gain some experience. However, no group would take him without experience. It was a depressing cycle that was a huge roadblock on the road to his dream. Still, he didn't let it get him down, and he tried to find ways to prove himself. He did a couple of simple quests, but the guild would only give him certain quests due to him being a novice without a team. Sure lone wolves can take on quests as well, but those were usually saved for the strong badasses. Great, so again, he needed to make a name for himself, earn some experience to show that he knows what he's doing.

At one point, he was a bit down no his luck, and a beautiful young woman gave him a hand. He wasn't really sure what she was talking about, but she was so kind and beautiful, she was like an angel sent down to the mortal world. If only he could see her again, he wanted to thank her and maybe ask for her name. And there she is over there, talking to various adventurers, but most of them turning away from her. It looked like she was trying to do something, but nobody seemed willing to help, yet she continued to have a wonderful smile on her beautiful face. She was so wonderful, Lucien felt his heart skip at the sight of her.

Making his way over to her, he managed to overhear some of her conversations, mostly asking around for someone to help join her team, yet nobody seemed willing to join. This was his big chance, get close to this beauty, and earn some experience going on adventures with a team. Going up to her, he smiled. "Excuse me. I might be willing to join your group, if you'd be willing to have me." He wondered if she remembered him, but he didn't want to assume. Right now, he wanted to make a good impression, not make an ass of himself.
 
Lucy was surprised when someone started talking to her. She turned to find a familiar face. Where had she seen him again? Wait, did he really want to join?! Her rosy eyes widened in surprise as it dawned on her that he wasn't joking. He genuinely seemed interested. "Really? You will?" She flashed him that dazzling smile and bounced happily. "That's great! I've been looking for someone all morning. Are you sure you don't mind being in a new party with girls?" she asked, tilting her head.

As she spoke to him, she took in the details of his face. She was certain that she had seen him before. She got the feeling that he was someone she could trust. Then again, Lucy trusted most people at first. That was why Aria was usually annoyed when it was more than just the two of them on a mission. But this guy...he seemed different somehow. She would have to ask later because she was just too excited to think straight. If he agreed, he would make them a real party and they could take on real jobs.
 
She seemed happy that he wanted to join. Good, he wanted to get on her good side, show him that he could be reliable. With her mentioning that the group was currently only girls, his face turned a little red. So did that mean that he would be adventuring with more than one girl? On top of this attractive beauty, other girls might be apart of the group? It did make Lucien a little nervous, growing up in a small village, there weren't very many girls his age, so already being around this girl made him a little nervous. Being around a group of girls, he wasn't sure what to think. Still though, he needed a group, and he hoped that this would all turn out for the best. Nodding, he smiled at her. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine with that. As long as you're fine with me being a boy." Also, it's not like he really had a choice. He needed to join a group, and this was the only one he could seem to find.

"I-I'm Lucien, a warrior. I hope that my skills with a sword can be helpful to you." He said, wondering if she even needed a swordsman. What if they were only looking for members that fought with ranged attacks like a bow or magic? He didn't want to seem like a fool, only making her party worthless.
 
Lucy could hardly believe she'd been lucky enough to stumble across a warrior with sword skills who was already willing to join her unique party. Usually, male adventurers were skeptical about female parties. This was an answer to her prayers after all! Lucien would be a fantastic addition to their party!

"Welcome!" She said cheerfully, taking his hand and shaking it. "Thank you so much for joining! We've been looking for a swordsman for a long time." The redhead stared at him for awhile before realizing she hadn't introduced herself yet, and also, she was still holding his hand. "Oh, right. My name is Lucy Niles. It's nice to meet you. Our other member is scouting jobs right now. Let's go look for her!"

And with that, she turned and led him by the hand through the crowds toward the bulletin boards. "Oh, hey, Lucien, have we met before? You look super familiar!"
 
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