-----Area around the Cromwell Manor-----

Rowen had spread his dark power over the girl in that tiny shack. Clouds began to cover the sky and bright moon. Lightning struck as well as a horrific look over the girls face. A series of strikes happened thereafter and the girl's face changed from that of horror to dark glee. Rowen then used the archive magic to link up with the world and the girl to find out what he needed to know. The girl was a celestial wizard and oh her spirits were just perfect. The world it seemed had moved on. The world hadn't changed much in fifty years but it seemed that Fairy Tail had a little the old Master had stepped down and promoted Gildarts. The man had taken to the position fairly well in the early years and in the coming to later years after he had become just like Makarov fun, likable, and getting along in his years. Makarov had left the guild and had presumably died after no one had heard from him...not even Laxus. Natsu, Lucy, Gajshield, and Grey had all become S class wizards. Little Wendy was now an A class wizard and Erza was now the guild assistant as Gildarts couldn't handle the business side of the guild. She no longer goes on jobs even though she retains her power and youthful appearance.

Rowen took all the information that he had learned and his new apprentice to his manor well the real Rowen's manor. Once inside Rowen encased the building in Contain magic. He then reversed time for it but not him or the girl inside. The place had been over grown with vines thickly grown by magic. It also was covered in trash that some local hooligans much have created. All of the wear and tear was washing away, chairs and tables that were once knocked over were now back into place. Broken chandeliers and windows were now fixed. On the outside the manor was rebuilding itself and Rowen had a wicked smile on his face. "This house will serve as a great base of operations." The girl that he now knew as Blair came up beside him. "Master I hope to serve you well." Rowen ignored her for now as the contain magic fell and its job was done. In the main hall a portrait hung with two people in. Suddenly Rowen realized that his face was wet with tear drops. Enraged that the real Rowen had broke through for just second Rowen cast contain magic on the portrait and sent it away. "Yes Blair you should be a great vessel." Lightning struck outside again and the clouds dissipated.

-----Fairy Tail Guild Hall-----

Gildarts popped open his eyes as the final bolt of lightning struck. "Something is a muck." He said to himself. The morning had come and he was rolling out of bed and getting ready for the new day. There were some new recruits he would have to address before noon and some jobs he would have to approve for the board. Something in the air of today was different though. He would have to stay on guard and keep the others out of it for now. SO he put on his happy face and got dressed heading down to the hall. Waiting for the new recruits to show up he sat in a chair beside the bar and was having himself some ale and sandwiches.

Jason yawned as he woke up, staring up at the ceiling from his bed as he stretched a bit and then considered what he should do that day. There's plenty of jobs I could do I suppose. Maybe see if Natsu or Grey are back, or maybe talk with Wendy some and see if she needs help with anything. Or perhaps see if Kai was up for a sparring match. Heh, Natsu and Grey still go at it like there's no tomorrow. Remembering the last time those two had gotten in a fight, Jason climbed out of bed and yawned again, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and standing up. He looked out the window of his apartment, over the city of Magnolia towards the Guild hall. Some times he still had a hard time believing he was apart of the strongest guild in Fiore, but it was more to him than that. It was his family.

Cracking the window some some fresh air could get in, Jason headed into the bathroom and showered, making sure he remembered to wash his hair since he had a habit of forgetting to on occasion. Climbing out and getting dressed, he brushes his teeth and then shaves, though he really didn't need to shave, he seemed to have inherited his father's curse for no facial hair. Dad... As he remembered his parents, there was a pang of guilt and pain that seemed to come from his heart before he forced himself away from those thoughts and back to the present. Jason would catch Unending Shadow, there were no mistakes to be made there. Just...he hadn't been able to find them in four years of searching, not even clues. "Trouble for another time. It's time to head to the guild hall." Finishing his morning preparations, he goes out his door, locks it, heads down stairs, then pauses as he steps out onto the street as he looks towards Lucy's apartment.

He stood there for several minutes just looking before sighing with a slight smile and turning to the guild hall. It seemed like they were always gone on jobs, Natsu, Gajeel, Grey, and Lucy. The four of them made up the guild's S Class wizards though, and it was their job to represent tirelessly. Of course, Jason did his best when he worked as well, which had seemed to be more and more the last few months, so he decided to take the day off and just hang out around the guild hall. He waved good morning to the people of Magnolia as he walked, pausing to look at the cathedral as he passed it before continuing on his way. He'd heard from Natsu that he and Laxus had had quite the match up on top of it some years prior and Jason could only imagine it, especially since Natsu was the legendary Salamander of Fairy Tail.

As he reached the guild hall, he paused to look around some, noting that there were no new requests being brought in meaning he was up later than normal. Not that it bothered Jason any, he'd been awake late anyways studying more techniques from the book he'd first learned God Slayer magic from. Opening the door and stepping in, he smiled and waved at Erza as he approached the bar. "Good morning, Erza! How did you rest?"

Lyren could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Even over the constant, steady, pulse of the magic rune that usually blocked it out. He was standing in front of the guild called Fairy Tail. It was literally his last hope. Every other guild had rejected him for one of two reasons. The first being that he had ties to a Dark Guild. The second being that his magic specialty was Dark Make, which was done using dark energy. He didn't have a choice in the matter, his father had trained him in it since he had been born. And it wasn't like he was going to go insane because of it, the magic rune prevented him from being taken over by it. The one good thing his father had done for him. He took one more deep breath and prayed to whatever gods existed before opening the door.

Lyren tried to maintain an air of confidence as he entered the guild. But that was hard to do when every person present was suddenly staring at you. He thought his heart was going to beat out of his chest, but just barely managed to keep his bad boy persona up. He was sure that at least one person in the guild could sense the dark energy coursing through him, there was always at least one. Most of the guild members seemed to recognize him from the one other time he had been in Fairy Tail. When he had asked to join. But now was the hard part, talking to the Guildmaster and trying to get them to let you join. He had been through this before at other guilds, and it was always where things had gone wrong.

Lyren lingered by the door for a few moments. Not sure what he was suppose to do now, every guild was different. Until somebody directed him to sit down at an empty table and wait for the other recruits. So he did so, absentmindedly playing with his long, dark blue, hair as he waited. He remembered when the pulsing of the rune had been annoying, as a child he had cried because of it more than once. But now it was strangely comforting and he couldn't imagine it not being there.

Marcus rolled out of bed and he jumped to his feet as he struggled to figure out where he was. It took him a few minutes to fight through his tiredness to realize that he was actually standing in the middle of his apartment half naked. He quickly got ready and ate a loaf of bread before throwing on his long cap that went all the way down to his knees which also covered up the white Fairy Tail tattoo that was on his chest and leaving his apartment building. He didn't enjoy these dreary mornings with the low hanging dark clouds and he even though he had heard some thunder early in the morning when he had just been waking up. "Something feels off about today." He muttered to himself as he made his way down the street in the direction of the guild hall.

As he entered the guild hall he looked around to see who was there and to his surprise even saw that there was a new recruit sitting at a table by himself. Marcus was interested in the new person but knew that the Gildarts would address his later when more people showed up and instead made his way over to the bar where he saw Jason and Erza. "Jason, I think you owe me a match sometime. I need someone to practice with and no one likes going against me for some reason." He told the other mage as he sat down at the bar with a sandwich.

Until about a few minutes ago Kai hadn't actually been at the guild hall. It wasn't like he didn't wanna be. He had just been out. There was a job involving a village and a monster bothering it. When Kai initially saw the request he'd remembered thinking it couldn't be that bad. The reward was pretty good too. Enough to cover living expenses for a few months. Lucky it wasn't an S-Class mission. That would have undoubtedly sucked. But still it was perfect for him. Sure it might have been easier with a team, but he had something most mages didn't. Chewy. The little pup, who was currently resting on his head as he walked through town pulling a rather large chunk of the beast's tail behind him, was the tipping point for him.

The creature had been the equivalent of an alligator like beast. Only it was the size of a small house. Of course, this worried Kai initially. Especially since he had used himself as bate. The villagers had been giving up their harvest. Only it wasn't enough for the beast. He wanted meat. The little they had they couldn't spare. They were seriously considering a sacrifice. An old man even volunteered. Luckily Kai had arrived. He didn't let them go through with it of course, and when the beast came to take what it wanted Kai gave attacked. It was powerful though. More powerful them him alone. It had size too. Plus it was pretty quick.

In the end Chewy transformed and wrestled it to the ground before clamping his teeth into the beast and holding it down with his powerful jaws into beast holding it in place long enough for Kai to strike the finishing blow. However, the end of the fight brought upon a new problem. About half of the place was destroyed. That was why Kai remained an extra few days to help fix things up. Sure Fairy Tail would get some bad publicity for the destruction, but it'd all get some good publicity... Or maybe just he would.

"Welp... I've got some high quality meat for the guild so it shouldn't matter." The hunk of tail was rather large, but it was frozen solid. He needed to preserve it after all. The only reason he had it was because the people were so grateful. Especially after he actually stayed to help fix the place up a bit. Now he was almost at the guild. "Home sweet home." He smiled as he approached the doors. "YOOOOOO!" He greeted the guild out loud at he kicked the doors opened and entered the guild with a gleeful smile on his face. Chewy was awoken, but the sudden noise and movement, and let out a cute noise like a yawn before laying back down still a bit tired.

Finishing chewing a bite of his burger, Jason turned to Marcus with a grin on his face. "Well, considering how much force can be put behind a Titan sized fist and factor in getting hit, I don't really blame them for it." Taking another bite of burger and chewing, he debates internally about whether or not to say yes. He could certainly use the practice, not all the jobs required he actually use his magic, but he wasn't sure he wanted to be covered in a single body sized bruise for the next three or four days. We could all use the practice though, if we're going to be getting any stronger and reach S Class someday. Finishing chewing and swallowing, Jason nods to Marcus and grins even wider. "Sure, I'm up for that match some time. Just let me know when you want to do it."

Turning back to his burger, Jason got only a couple more bites and some fries down his throat before Kai kicked in the door and scared him senseless, the sudden noise unexpected so soon. "YOOOOOO!" Jason barely managed to choke his food down, quite literally since he'd been in the middle of swallowing another bite of burger. Turning to see the smile on Kai's face, Jason stood and approached him, offering him a slightly charged handshake.

"Welcome back. Seems you did well on your job if you've got extra reward." He grinned inwardly as he waited for the shake to be taken. He might have put just a little bit of a shock into his palms, just for a little fun. He'd never hurt anyone in the guild if they were sparring and even even took great pains to avoid doing that.

Cassandra was already in the guild hall, sleeping soundly underneath one of the tables. Since she hadn't technically joined Fairy Tail yet, Master Gildarts wanted her to come to this initiation thing. However, she'd arrived in town just last night and, having nowhere else to stay, had opted to simply stay in the guild hall. That way, she wouldn't be late. As more and more people started coming in, their voices caused her to mutter and turn over, still half asleep. It wasn't until someone kicked the doors open and shouted "YOOOOOO!" that she finally woke up fully. She instinctively jumped up, ready for whatever was about to attack her... except, that is, for the bottom of the table. Her head collided with it with a loud "WHAM!"

"Aaaaaagh..." she moaned, rubbing the spot she'd hit as she squirmed out from under the table. Some people looked surprised to see her; after all, she wasn't a member of Fairy Tail, and she'd arrived pretty late at night. She looked around at everyone staring at her, her eyes still half-closed from being woken up so suddenly. She raised a hand. "Uh... hi. I'm supposed to be initiated today. So, uh... we're partners 'n stuff." Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was dimly aware that sleeping under the table, squirming out suddenly around people who didn't recognize her, and standing in place with groggy eyes and seriously sleep-tousled hair was probably not one of the best first impressions she could make, but she still had a good half an hour before she'd be awake enough for it to bother her. So, rather than attempt to fix anything, she sat down and looked at Gildarts, who had a rather bemused grin on his face. "I'm ready when you are," she said with a yawn.

"He was only in the hospital for a few days." Marcus muttered under his breath as he took another bite of his sandwich remembering the last person he had sparred with ended up in a hospital for five days with three broken ribs and a broken arm as well. The way Marcus had justified the damage was that he said the other guy had made fun of his size and from that point on the rest was just a blur and he barely remembered what happened. He then jumped as he heard someone yell at the front door and saw that Kai had finally returned from his mission and carried what appeared to be a giant tail. Marcus' mouth started to water when he saw the meat and got up from his seat as he headed over to where Kai was.

On his way over to where Jason and Kai were standing he heard a loud noise and looked to the table next to him to see a white haired girl crawl out from under a table and before saying she was an initiate. He couldn't help but laugh at the situation at the girl as he thought that she would fit right in with their if she kept acting that way but he than returned to the mission at hand and that was getting his hands on that tail. His magic also seemed to come with a large appetite as he needed to keep his magic stores up as it also sucked a large amount of magic when he activated his magic and he knew that that tail would make a very good meal. He shot out an arm until it was ten feet long and grabbed the tail out of Kai's hands before retracting his arm back down to his normal size and staring at the block of ice and licking his lips. "Hey Kai, thanks for bringing me lunch."

Kai chuckled a bit as he grabbed Jason's hand and shook it. "Well you know me. Always giving it 1000%." He said enthusiastic as ever. With that he release his guild mate's hand and smirked. "Now..." He paused for a minute before sniffing the air. "New member's here to join?" He asked somewhat curious, but there was a loud noise and a girl standing up. "Ah... New members are always welcome in my book." He then stated after also noticing the other one. A guy. There was a sort of dark aura around him, but Kai shrugged it off. He wasn't doing anything after all.

"Like i was saying..." Kai stopped again only this time it wasn't due to a realization. It was an interruption of sorts as Marcus took the tail which was easily 3 times bigger then Kai. The ice dragon had planned to hand it over to Mira or someone after unfreezing it to properly cook it and distribute among the guild members. He wasn't about to let Marcus ruin that. However, rather than simply throw a punch or something he smirked and walked past Jason and then passed Marcus as well. "Well careful Marcus. It isn't cooked and on top of that if you try to mess with my ice it'll shatter the entire thing." He gave a few words of warning.

With that said he grabbed a seat and sat beside Lyren. "Hey. I'm Kaito Glacias. You can call me Kai though." He averted his gaze for a moment looking at Cassandra. "You too." He added letting the other potential member know as well. "Hopefully we'll all get along. And by the way. When you get food or something be careful." This was where his little plan to antagonize Marcus and get him to drop the meet and leave it alone would come into play. "The shrimp over there that stole the gift I received for helping the village I went to for my job might steal it." He explained further laughing a bit afterward. "Ain't that right Jason?!" He called out to his other comrade.

Erza Was about to answer Jason but Kai burst the door open and Jason was up and at him in a second it seemed. She looked over to Gildarts who had smiled while Kai brought the big slab of meat in. He also got a laugh at the newbie's expense as she rammed her head into the table she was obviously sleeping under. For the most part the day was going like any other day had. Erza, grabbing a couple of things, said goodbye to Gildarts for the day as she had matters with a couple of people discussing terms of payment. Gildarts was waiting on one more person to show up before he started initiations. He asked for another ale from the bar tender Kana of whom slid one down to him.

Jason mentally facepalmed at the Dragon Slayer starting things with Marcus after just getting back to the guild hall. Probably a good thing Erza had left, otherwise the ensuing fight would cause a lot of trouble. And undoubtedly get the rest of the guild in on it too. Well, on the plus side, three of the guild's more rowdy members aren't here to get involved. Maybe we won't be in need of repairs after all. Still, just a little bit of fun couldn't hurt, so long as they didn't push to far and get magic involved. Then Master Gildarts would get involved and everyone would be hurting, not just those who started it.

Smiling at the new person and Kai, he nods. "Aye, Marcus has quite the stomach on him, but he's also got quite a wallop if you find yourself on his bad side." Sitting down on the other side of the new person, and slightly annoyed that Kai didn't get zapped by his self-made joy buzzer, Jason instead offers it to the blue haired new comer, once more charging his hand to give a friendly jolt when it's grabbed. "I am Jason Dermentes. I use God Slayer magic."

Marcus was about to put the tail down after Kai had told him that if he messed with the ice encasing the tail than it would break apart and be useless. He was only half listening to Kai as he was talking to the new people and than he tuned in to the words just as Kai called him a shrimp and he suddenly dropped the tail which landed on the ground with a big thud. He turned till he fully faced Kai and the others and you could see that his eyes were completely blank as he cracked his knuckles and pulled his cloak off revealing his white Fairy Tail mark on his chest. "Let me show the new guys why they call me the Giant."

He placed his hands on the table that they were sitting at and started to grow to around fifteen feet which caused the table to crack under his increased weight. Marcus than picked up the table and threw it across the room where it smashed against the wall and bared his teeth at the Ice Dragon Slayer. He than expanded his fist even bigger and pulled back his fist before letting loose in Kai's direction not caring who he hit as long as the Dragon Slayer was getting hit as well.

So much for friendly joking. Dismissing the charge from his hand and tackling the blue haired newbie to the ground, Jason keeps the pair there until he was certain the fist's path wasn't going to connect them. Scrambling out from behind Kai and in front of Marcus, he shakes his head at the pair. "Just once, Marcus, one time take a joke as a joke and not let it be so personal." After making sure no one else would get caught in the crossfire, Jason charges one fist with electrical energy, the black tint evident as he looks at them and begins to talk, this time so they can hear him.

"Come on, you two. Not even in the same room for longer than five minutes and you're starting a fight. Can't we all just get a long until things really get out of hand?" Jason wasn't sure that Marcus would hear him, seeing as his eyes had been those kinds of eyes a truly angry person gets when all they want to do is rip something limb from limb. Kai, on the other hand, shouldn't have had any problems hearing Jason, but likely wouldn't listen anyways. So he prepared to leap in with a Judgement Strike if need be.

Everything seemed so lively at the guild and everybody seemed like family. It very different from all the other guilds he had gone to. They were more professional and less friendly. Maybe Lyren did have a chance of finally finding a guild. One guild member burst through the door with some sort of frozen hunk of meat in his arms. Another loud noise sounded and his first instinct was to arm himself. But he stopped himself from doing so as a girl popped out from under the table and announced that she was a new recruit. Everybody seemed so nice and friendly, teasing each other and having some loud fun. If Lyren hadn't been so nervous, and wasn't trying to make a good impression, he would have some how joined in.

One of the guild members sat down at the table next to him and introduced himself. Then warned him about another member stealing his food. Before he could be polite and introduce himself another guild member sat down on his other side. He introduced himself and told Lyren what his magic was. He also held a hand out for Lyren to shake. He knew it would be the polite thing to state him magic as well, but being between two members of the guild he was trying to get into was a bit intimidating, even with his fighter personality. He was about to introduce himself, when suddenly the table was removed from in front of him. He turned to look and saw a rather large fist flying at Kai, and himself. He cursed under his breath and began to move when Jason simply tackled him to the ground. He could have dodged himself, but there was something about Jason protecting him that made him happy. It had been a long time since anybody had done that for him.

He climbed to his feet after Jason got off of him. He took a few steps back so that he wasn't in the way of the confrontation. This reminded him of Crimson Tear, they were always fighting each other at the Dark Guild. He had been forced to kill his fellow guild members on more than one occasion. And while he didn't want to get into this fight, he would if he had to. He splayed the fingers of his right hand out and prepared to create his Dark Whip if needed. He hated showing his dark magic before having the chance to talk to the Guildmaster, but it wasn't in his nature to stand by and let other people get hurt.

Master Gildarts usually loved the little brawls that happened around the guild. Sadly this time he was no amused. He stood up and walked across the guild hall to Marcus. "Look Marcus cool it or Ice boy will do it for you! If that doesn't work you can tangle with me!" Gildarts let his white aura of magic show around him. "I don't want the newbies scared off!" Gildarts wasn't angry but he was serious. Thats the one of reasons that the old master had promoted him. Gildarts knew when to cut the crap and enforce with out angry unless needed. "Now help Icy take the tail meat to the back and play nice otherwise you will get stuck with a horrible job that I sign you both!" He looked over to Kai. "You helped start it so you will get punished to."Then he looked to Jason. "If you don't wanna join them then quell the lightning. As for you newbie number one and two." He pointed to the both of them. "Come with me." He began to walk up the stairs to the Masters quarters but stopped. "Oh and Wendy please send any other new members to see me in the office." After giving that instruction he went inside the office and sat behind at large desk. The desk had several block shaped holes in it but it was still standing. He sat and waited for the newest members to come and sit in front of him.

Cassandra simply watched as the near-brawl happened before her. She couldn't help but crack a smile at the sight of it all; this guild was actually a lot of fun. She was only slightly put off that none of the members had really introduced themselves to her, but it didn't bother her too much. After all, she had just kind of spontaneously appeared from beneath a table, so... yeah. She took a deep breath, taking in the scents of the various magics that had just been released. As an Illusion Magic user, she had trained to heighten her senses. Illusion magic was a very precise art, so attention to detail and sensation was very important. They weren't on any kind of superhuman level, nor was her nose anywhere near as good as a Dragon Slayer's, but it was sharp. As Gildarts stood and stopped the fight with his presence alone, Cassandra let out a slight whistle; he had some impressive magic. Her last... "guild"... hadn't had a real master, so it was her first time experiencing that insane level of power. She was impressed. As Gildarts went upstairs and called her and the blue-haired guy upstairs, Cassandra lazily made her way to follow him.

That was quick. Hearing Master Gildarts, Jason disperses the lightening from around his fist and returns to his burger after bowing to the master. He had never met Master Makarov, but he'd heard that he had been much the same, putting a stop to the guild brawls before they got out of hand. Of course, with Fairy Tail, it was hard to tell what qualified as out of hand. Jason himself had been involved in two or three brawls before where magic was used. He was certain that some of the guild members were still sore at him for using his Bellow, but to be fair, Natsu, Gajeel, Grey and Kai had all used a breath attack first. His just happened to have the most collateral damage.

Shaking his head, he continues eating, ordering a drink from Cana and looking around. Macao and Wakaba were along in age, but Macao's son, Romeo, was always off on one job or another, picking up the slack his old man was beginning to leave since he wasn't as...quick, as he used to be. Still, Jason didn't mind seeing the two friends in the guild hall talking away. Reminds him of when he first joined the guild. Turning back to Cana, he smiles. "Seems like your dad is the perfect Guild Master, Cana."

Relief went through Lyren as the Guildmaster broke up the fight. He made a mental note not to get on the man's bad side. Which he may be doing by revealing his dark magic. He shuddered at the thought. It was amazing how much respect the people had for him though. When instructed to do so, Lyren followed after the Guildmaster and the new recruit. Here it was, the time when it would be decided whether he would have a chance at being part of a Guild, or be doomed to forever walk alone. As there was no way the Magic Council would allow him to start his own guild, regardless of how strong he could get.

He flexed his right hand and forced himself to relax. Letting the pulsing of the magic rune calm him, at least somewhat. As he entered the Guildmaster's office he noticed tha the desk looked a bit worse for wear. He wondered why it hadn't been replaced yet, but assumed that it held some sort of sentimental value. Or, you know, not. He took a seat on one of the chairs at the desk, sitting up straight and trying to look as confident as he usually felt. It was hard to do that when your life was going to completely change within the next few minutes. And he didn't know what direction it would going in.

Kai managed a chuckle as everything seemed to just happen around him. Sure it would have been good to get a few hits in before the fight actually stopped, but he was content. For the most part. "Ah well. Can always fight later." He laughed before waving off to the new recruits as they followed Gildarts. "Good Luck! Not that you'll need it!" He called out to them cheerfully before punching Jason in the arm playfully. He must have been bummed that his little joy buzzer thing didn't go off.

"Oh and by the way buddy... You should learn that pure ice like mine doesn't conduct electricity. Much like how pure water doesn't either. A little ice on the hand and the buzzer doesn't do anything." He explained why Jason's little trick didn't work. "NOW! Let's go to the kitchen Marcus. I'll make sure you get a nice chunk of meat." He paused for a moment. "You know. As an apology for messing with you." He added with a slight smile.

Kai didn't mean any ACTUAL harm. Sure he could mess with his guild mates and fight with them occasionally, but when things got serious he was always on the front line to defend his family. Even so he wished he could show his "father" how much he'd grown. Even more so he wished he could show his real parents how he'd turned out. It wasn't so bad if he had to say so himself. "What do ya say?" He finally asked Marcus after a short silence.

Cassandra yawned again as she sat down in front of the old desk. It looked pretty run-down, but in more of an "I have a deep history" kind of way. It looked kind of classy. The chair she plopped down in was pretty comfortable; she hoped she wouldn't fall asleep again. The guy with blue hair, who had been tackled by the other guy earlier, had already sat down. She looked him over, eyelids still half covering her eyes. "Mornin," she said. "I'm Cassandra." She wasn't sure what it was, but something about this guy seemed... different to her. Not "bad" different, just... different. She blinked a few times. If nothing else, he seemed sincere enough. She held out a hand. "Nice to meetcha."