CitrusArms — Roleplayer Guild

Trinity had been looking for something different, but walking into a nearly empty guild hall had not been what she had in mind. The guild master signed her up quickly enough, and by the time she'd come back with her things to move into her room, the guild hall was packed with guild members. Too tired from moving and traveling, she had settled into her room until the next day.

   The next day, she awoke and had to remember, just for a moment, where she was. A new guild. Fenixtear… right. That old school guild, like the guilds her mother had told her about in the old days. Was that what drew her here? The ideas of a guild her mother gave her.

   She found herself sitting in bed and staring at her mother's prized 12-string. Such a beautiful instrument. She pushed herself out of bed and went to the suitcase she hadn't unpacked yet to get clean clothes.

    Dressed, she stepped out and meandered up to the bar. She'd risen early; a remnant of her life in her village, to rise and set with the sun. She bellied on up to the bar and grabbed a menu. This guild had been difficult to get a read on, she couldn't tell if the cooks could make whatever, or if there were even dedicated cooks or not. Blue Pegasus had been so different from Obsidian Kite had been so different from all those indie guilds…

   Whoa, when was this thing printed? The paper was yellowed in the edges. Must have been at least a little old, though the environment probably contributed. Restaurant dining rooms weren't the cleanest things. "This menu still good?" Trinity thumbed through the three single-sided pages, "guess I can't complain, long as it's current…" not like the guild's huge, right? Oh, sweet child…

She looked to see for anyone behind the bar. "Barkeep?"

Ever up and about, even after all the excitement from the day before, Ria skipped out of the kitchen. She spotted a new face seated at the counter and stopped in front of her. "Good morning. We usually don't get people in here this early, in case you're wondering about the whole...being the only one about right now." She offered the new girl a smile. "How are you doing this morning? What can I get you? I'm Ria, by the way."

 Good morning indeed. Don't need to work at Blue Pegasus to find cute girls, huh? Well, obviously. It was just easier, though the atmosphere there… well. "Doing just fine now, I'll say," a playful grin, "The lost bread, please. I'm Trinity. Joined yesterday. Er…" she glanced down at her own exposed clavicle, and the guild mark there, "big day yesterday?" Everyone was gone when she signed up...
 
Ria's gaze shifted to the exposed mark before laughing softly. Her smile didn't fade as her gaze came back to Trinity's face. "Oh, yes, so it would seem you did. Yesterday was quite...unusual. Torys intercepted word there was a dragon attacking the magic council. We went and killed the thing before it could do too much damage to Era. Finished it off before even Ajax - you've heard of the Hellmouth, right? The number two Saint? - arrived to defend the place. It was...quite the thing."

She realized she'd rambled on a bit. Offering an apologetic smile, Ria shrugged a bit. "Sorry. I kinda went on there for a bit. That's been the first really exciting thing we've done in...well since the guild started two years ago. But, so you wanted the lost toast, yes? I'll get that started for you. Anything to go with it? Coffee, tea? I just started a pot for coffee, and there's water boiling for tea. We also have juices - cranberry, apple, and orange - too."

"Coffee, please. Sounds like you- uh," one word in that small ramble caught Trinity's attention. Well, a few words did, but one in particular flipped up a red flag. Wait, whoa, what? She didn't just say 'dragon', did she? That story didn't seem like a joke. "have had, ah," Nah, no way. Right? No way? "D-... did you just say..." She was trying not to let her nerves show, but, whew! Is that where everyone was yesterday!? "a… a dragon?"

Ria's smile brightened a hair, a glint of pride in her mismatched eyes. "Yes, dragon. I'm sure the day's papers will all be covering it." The girl let out a chiming laugh. "Don't worry too much. It's not something we'll likely be hired out to do. Dragon slayer jobs go to Steel Hydra, after all. It was just good publicity, nonetheless. Might help us get some work."

The veteran guildmate blinked as if she'd just remembered something. In fact, she had. The smile returned with an apologetic laugh. "Oh, you know what? You ordered something. Let me go get it. Lost toast and coffee, yes? Give me a few minutes to go get it started and get you your coffee." She didn't wait to get a response to any of what she said before Ria disappeared back into the kitchen.

"I'll have to pick up a paper today, then." Not something they're likely to be hired to do? Once you perform a feat like that, people just might ask you to do an encore. Ria had practically dismissed the feat as just another job complete, but Trinity had to wonder if the girl could hear herself. This was the kind of thing that you'd hear someone regale a table with at a tavern, not 'yeah, read about it in the paper'! What kind of folk did she sign up with?

"Yeah, that's right." Trinity stared as Ria disappeared into the kitchen. It was very tempting to run, at first. The idea of getting into a fight with anything near as terrifying as a dragon chilled her. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, "easy now… it's not like dragons come crawling out of the woodwork if you tap the floorboards. You pick your work, here, Trinity… I choose the jobs, and I say no dragons.. or Vulcans.. or fights. You only just joined, you can't run off already." She put a hand over her heart and breathed deeply a few more times. Hopefully that girl, Ria, wouldn't see her like this. While she waited, the Energy Make mage made herself a harp to strum on. That should help her nerves, too. Wait too long and she'll start singing. Softly, it seemed most others were still asleep.

It was only a few minutes between when Ria disappeared into the kitchen and when she emerged with a cup of coffee with a spoon, cream, and sugars. She only seemed to acknowledge the fact Trinity was still there - beyond putting the things in front of the space the new mage was sitting - in having a bit more of a dance to her steps as she went back into the kitchen to continue cooking. A few minutes later, she came back out with a plate of food - a bit of butter melting on the cooked bread and confectioner sugar dusting it - and pourer of syrup in the other hand. She placed both things in front of the woman, before reaching below the bar to get silverware wrapped in a napkin and provide it to her as well. 

“So you’re a maker, too. That’s pretty nifty,” she said a bit offhandedly. The girl pulled over a stool and sat behind the counter opposite her new guildmate. “I mold water, myself. How long have you been practicing at it? Music, that is. I never got a chance to practice much for instruments. Far too busy. But I sing sometimes. And dance. That’s fun too. Do you dance or sing?”

A smile curled the lavender-haired young woman as she watched her guildmate dance fro and back with her coffee, which she stopped to add cream and sip at it only when Ria had disappeared back into the kitchen. She took a piece of her harp to use as a spoon before replacing it. When her guildmate returned again, she turned to face forward for her food, and clapped her hands onto the harp, remoulding it into a set of cutlery.

Ah, but Ria had already given her silverware, so she let her made cutlery dissipate, "oh, thank you. Ah, future reference, I'll save you a little on dishes and- oh, I should have made a plate, tsk. Next time. Yeah, I'm a maker." She cut off a piece of her breakfast for her consumption, letting Ria ask her question. A swallow, to allow the response with manners as she poured a little bit if syrup, "I've been playing music since I can remember. She taught me to play, and yes, I sing, and dance a bit, too. Dancing was something I learned more of at Blue Pegasus. If you ever want an escort for a night out, don't hesitate to ask," she offered a friendly smile and readied another bite, "how about yourself, hobbies?" before she filled her mouth again.

“Oh you were a legal guild mage before this. That’s nifty. Never really thought about being part of one of those guilds myself, honestly, but if you want to go out dancing some time - I think that would be fun. We could invite some of the others, too.” Ria idly kicked her feet, hands resting properly in her lap as she spoke. “Oh but don’t fret about the whole not using your magic for dishes. We double as a restaurant - have to make money somehow, yeah? Bit slow given we aren’t a major guild or anything - so we have plenty of dishes. After all, you wouldn’t make your own dishes and silverware for a regular restaurant, right?”

She shrugged lightly, tilting her head to the side. A brighter smile spread on her face. “Oh, well for hobbies I am kind of scattered. I mostly draw and garden and write a bit. Then there’s singing, and I read. I do a lot of reading. But mostly I spend most of my time either cooking, or waiting tables, or tending bar, or - if I’m not working directly for the guild - I’m usually low-key keeping up with a matchmaking service I run out of the guild to help keep us afloat when the restaurant and work is a bit slow.”

Snapping her fingers, Ria sat up a bit straighter. “Oh!” She smiled and clasped her hands together. “Oh, how familiar are you with Crocus? I could show you around - we’re usually slow on week days anyways - and get you used to the city if you need it.”

Legal? "You mean the big'ns. Yeah, I was with Blue for a over half a year, before I figured out I like fixing things. My, um, client, that feels weird to say after so long, mentioned that they had a broken watch, so I asked to look at it and wound up fixing it. It was fun, tinkering with the thing," she sipped at her coffee once, the light flirtation seemed to have gone right over the other's head. "Sure, but usually, I don't work at the restaurant, either." But, it would only really be useful if she made plates and silverware for everyone, since dishes would need to be done anyway, "ah well. I see your point."

The girl kept herself busy. With work, it sounded. "You support the guild like that on your own? With - ah, oh no, this is a bad joke, I'm sorry - Match Make?" Trinity shook her head at her own joke, "uggh, uhh," go, go, just keep going, don't look back, "so you must know a lot of people, being a matchmaker. Well, y'know, I may be able to help you out with supporting the business side of things. With my Make, I dare say I'm the most capable repair girl in the city. Or, well, one of them, at any rate. If you know anybody that needs something fixed, just lemme know. Or an escort. Maaaybe that ones not such a great idea, though." Blue Pegasus might have a problem with that one, if she got successful.

Ria sprang to life, just a little, suddenly. Trinity nodded, finishing her current bite before replying, "ah, lucky me to have the chance of a wonderful guide such as yourself. It did take me a while to find the building, I'll admit. I guess I should be thankful for that. What an initiation that would have been…" she shudders before going for the last of her meal. She paused before taking her bite to say, "I would love to take your tour of the city, Ria."

"I'll take care of my dishes," she popped that last bit in her mouth and took her dishes into the kitchen, and brought her coffee with her. When she came back, she'd poured the rest of her drink in an Energy Make cup, layered to provide insulation against the heat. Another sip, "if you're ready, I'm ready. Shall we?"

“Oh, yeah,” Ria laughed. “The big ones. Because we all know independent guilds are only tolerated until they actually start pulling in a lot of business. Then it’s pay up or the council finds reasons...” She couldn’t deny a large level of distrust in the magic council, but she figured it might be best to leave it as that. Instead, she focused more on everything else Trinity had said. 

She snickered softly at the joke. “That’s actually the first anyone joked about it being like my molding magic. Anyway, not supporting it on my own. Torys was the one that funded us starting. Well, her and Grasidia - you’ll meet her later today along with the rest - but myself and my sister Gwen joined up with a former saint Marduk within a week or two of it starting. But my matching service certainly helps pay bills when we don’t get jobs or have a lot of customers. Though I do know a handful of people through my side business that would probably jump at the opportunity for someone that might be a bit more reliable in timing for repair jobs. We could perhaps look into setting up something for you similar to mine - run it out of the guildhall for now to help keep your actual costs low for now until you build up a client base. There is a repair guildhall in town - and they seem to be lagging in their response times. Though, if you would rather set up a dating service instead, I’m sure I could help you set that up too. Blue Pegasus likely won’t look twice about us doing something like that - we’re too small, and likely not to be having a lot of members actually participating. My service is both platonic and romantic; so far, I have an eighty percent success rate.”

While Trinity took care of her dishes, Ria had pulled out one of her papers from under the counter and started to mock up a design for a card. She’d gotten a word spread on it by the time the new member came back. She tucked the pencil behind her ear and folded the paper up to tuck into the top of her dress for safe keeping as she stood. “Ready,” she chirped. Ria didn’t wait, rounding the counter and heading straight for the door to open it for Trinity. “Do you want to just be shown the major sights or perhaps have the first stop be the same place I get my fliers done up?”

Ooh, she liked the joke! … She liked that joke? Well, chalk one up for Trinity, then. At any rate, there were a couple business options for her, but it didn't take her long to decide, "if I had to choose, I'd rather do repairs. Do I want to try and balance both…" She had to wonder what kind of jobs would be coming in through the guild, after what she heard about happened yesterday. It didn't seem likely that there would be many peaceful jobs, after gaining a reputation that way. That, and peaceful never tended to pay well. "Tempting, but sounds treacherous."

As they left, Trinity was beaten to the door. Well, she supposed it made sense. Some of those Blue Pegasus sensibilities had stuck around, after all. If Ria was giving the tour, she would lead the way. That much was obvious, but there were important nuances. "Let's stop by the flyer shop first. If it's major sights, I can probably find them later. I'd rather see the way you know the city, y'know? No reason to avoid them outright though, I suppose." Trinity gestured casually with her hand for a shrug as they walked down the alley from the guild, to get to the streets.

"You said there's a repair guild falling behind?" She didn't really like getting into direct competition like that, but if they couldn't keep up with the demand, they obviously needed the competition. Maybe they wouldn't have too much of a problem with her picking up their slack. Hopefully. "Wonder if it's just too much for them to keep up or what?" She knew what would have happened if she joined that guild. Just like any other indie, they'd belittle her for her age, give her garbage work, and then not even pay her that well, even when she works the fastest and most reliably.

Ah, she was getting a little mad, thinking about it. Doing something for the cute guildmate giving her a tour oughta cheer herself up, "mm, ah, how far to the print shop? I can make rollerblades, if you like."

“Yeah, going for just the one business to start with is likely best. You can always open up to something else once you settle into your repairing if you decide you want to.”  Ria walked, a bit of a flitting saunter than a purposeful stride, beside Trinity as they left the guild. “But you’re right. You’ll see the major sights in due time. The sights we’ll focus on are the ones that might help you get some connections to starting up a repair business.” 

The water mage thought on the musings of her new guildmate. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s the prices. Or maybe they just do a shoddy job to ensure they’ll be able to make more money. Or maybe it’s just that they have poor workers. But either way, I know some of my acquaintances would rather try to fix things in their shops themselves rather than hire the repair guild.” She looked at Trinity, offering the other girl a shrug and a smile. “It’s not a far walk, only a few minutes down the road. I like walking, though, and - in all honesty - I actually have never gone rollerblading before. Not sure a tour is the right time to try it out.” She laughed softly at the thought.

In truth, it wasn’t much longer than that before they were outside a shop. Ria opened the door and stepped in, before holding the door for Trinity to follow. Her attention had turned to the older woman behind the counter. “Good morning, Meliea. How are you?” 

“Good morning, dear. I’m doing well. How are you?”

“I’m doing well, also. I’d like you to meet one of Fenixtear’s newest guild members - Trinity. She just joined yesterday, and she’s going to be looking for some business cards and fliers to be made up once we finish up a mockup.” Ria walked further into the shop - which advertised different paper sizes, colors, and print styles that could be done in the shop. “She’s quite handy at repairing things, so if you need any help she might be able to help you out.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, dear. You do repairs? That is quite handy, you wouldn’t happen to be any good with printing presses would you? One of mine keeps stalling and I’m not keen to wait around for the repair guild to get back to me about when it might get around to repairing it. Would you mind taking a look? I’d certainly be willing to pay for your trouble.”

The change in direction of thought had actually been enough to steady her mood. No, instead, now she was trying not to watch those hips and that saunter. She fared well enough, though she caught herself red-handed as Ria went to the door of the print shop. "No, probably not the best time to learn. Later, perhaps." As Trinity entered the shop, she took a look around, her eyes coming to Meliea as she followed the conversation.

"Trinity Algretto, at your service," she lifted a hand in greeting, a gentle smile on her face. She followed loosely behind Ria as she walked in, though halted at the mention of a repair job, interest on her face. "Printing press? I worked on one, once, but they only let me watch a senior for most of the real work." She passed a hand in front of herself, palm up, forming some essential tools and then floating them around herself, "Please don't let my previous employers' lack of faith in my skills affect your judgement.'' It was a shame those employers couldn't have just believed in her a little more.

The thought of some half-assed repair man doing a half-assed repair job to make money off this old woman with half-assed effort did not sit well with her, but that was only what Ria had suggested might be the case earlier. Trinity stepped past her guildmate and gave her a confident smile before she turned her attention back to Meliea, "please, show me which one. Have you got the service manual for the particular model? It's good to have on hand." She put her hair up into a bun with a pair of Energy Make chopsticks, in preparation for work. Usually, in a case like this, where the machine still worked but not well, the problem was simple enough, but finding it could be a pain. She had her ways, however.

“Oh, wonderful.” Meliea led the way to the machine, and retrieved the manual from the cabinet nearby. Once she’d elaborated on what the problem seemed to be, she and Ria left Trinity to her work as to not distract the girl. It wasn’t too tough a job, and when it was reported fixed, Meliea offered to pay Trinity for her trouble - the same cost she would have paid for the repair guild to send one of their local members. 

And much was how the day went, of Ria pointing out various locations based on where they were - more than a little unaware of any attention Trinity was paying her beyond the standard of comradery and information. Out of the ten shops - one of which was a small restaurant Ria had introduced the owners to Trinity as the first success that helped her really kick off her business - showed her to, three others had their own little things that could use fixing that also offered payment at the same rate they would have paid the repair guild. All had information to be able to contact Trinity at the Fenixtear guildhall if they had any repair jobs they needed too.

As they left the final tour destination, Trinity counted herself very lucky. She'd be able to keep herself busy like this. Busy enough. She even had her competitor's rate, valuable information. If she could, she'd like to beat their rate, but she'd have to see what her finances ended up looking like first. Feeling grateful, Trinity turned to Ria, smiling. "Thanks for showing me around, and setting me up for some decent work. This is a great start, I'm so glad I joined! I'd like to repay you, Ria. How does… rollerblading lessons sound? I'm something of an expert, if I may brag."

“You don’t have to repay me at all. Just helping a new guildmate get a lay for the land and a way to help support herself if we don’t get busy like I think Torys is anticipating makes me happy. But, rollerblading lessons does sound fun. I’d love to take you up on that.” Ria smiled a bit brighter than she had been. It certainly would be a fun exercise, especially if she saw what the rollerblades looked like and how they worked, she could craft her own. “And maybe by tomorrow morning, I’ll have an actual flyer and card format drafted to show you. We could take it back on over to Meliea and get you really going with the help of business cards and displays to go with the word of mouth.”

Trinity Algretto
Crocus Streets

Trinity had been taking care of someone's external display. She'd been inside the arcade when she heard the owner complain about the response time of a certain repair guild in town. The opportunity had presented itself, so she passed her business card along and was asked to do the repair, herself. Little did she realize, the owner then went to call and cancel the job with the repair guild.

She was just finishing up when she heard a voice approach her. "Well, well, welly well," a portly man had come around the side of the building. He'd overheard the call, cancelling the job with his guild, and figured the cause must have been that rumor he'd heard. "Look who we 'ave 'ere. You must be that new repair girl we've 'eard so much about over the last month." The man seemed irate. "You've been doing a lot of good work over the last month, girlie. I've been wondering what's been going on." He bumped against her glowing, golden ladder "accidentally". Trinity latched onto the first thing she could to steady herself, glaring daggers down at the man below. "Ooh~, sorry." He chuckled, obviously not sorry.

There was that repair guild mark on his arm, "look, I'm busy. Why don't you go do one of those jobs you guys are falling behind on?" Maybe he wouldn't appreciate the sass, but he'd just put her in a bad mood. She flipped a switch and appreciated the completed work before coming down and going inside to report and get paid. When she came back out, the man was gone. Had he taken her advice...? She doubted it, but at least he had buggered off for now.

As she passed on front of an alleyway, a rope shot out and wrapped around her chest and upper arms. She gave a small shriek as she was pulled, though she managed to keep herself upright. She looked up to see that portly man from before. Some kind of... Rope magic? Or maybe telekinesis? It didn't matter, she had to get out of here. The man had obviously also found a rather foul mood, though if he was already in one or not was hard to tell. She might have made it worse.

Her elbow could still move. She made a dremel in her hand and used the spinning blade to slice through the rope like butter, turning and running immediately after. The rope had been tied tight, despite how quickly she'd escaped. She ducked into another alley and worked herself out of the rope. Her head poked out and looked the way she had come from. She didn't see that guy, but the his voice spoke from behind her,

"You're not familiar with these alleyways, are ya, girly?"

Trinity jumped herself away from the rope she'd just freed herself from, even as her persuer tried to bind her again. Not really wanting to find out what this guy wanted, besides to harass her, she ran further down the street. If he was going to use familiarity with the city to outmaneuver her, she needed to come up with something else, though. Just running wasn't going to work at this rate.

She recalled a hero she'd seen on TV once, who used a lot of gadgets. One of his favorite ways to move around was the grappling hook. She took the dremel she still had in her hand and changed and expanded its shape with the characteristic hooks. She took a moment to think about which way she should go if she wanted to get back to the guild, but... Was that how he was chasing her so effectively? He knew where she was going to go? Should she... Go somewhere else? As she thought, she'd found herself a fire escape. She formed one of her simple orbs and attached the end of her grappling hook. As she pulled it away, the orb fed into rope and she chucked it most of the way up. The portly pursuer had just emerged again, to see Trinity pull up along the fire escape. "Later."

---

She'd been moving along the roofs on her Roller Boots, trying to get as much speed between her and him as possible. If he knew she was going back to her guild, was that really her smartest move? Wasn't that just bringing trouble back home? She didn't want to make someone fight for her sake any more than she wanted to fight, herself, but... There wasn't much other choice that she had.

Before she could form another plan of action, she found herself rappelling down the alley wall in front of the guild. She was already here, she should just go in. There was no way that fatty beat her here, anyway. So it was fine. Ria was even here, too. This... must have looked strange. She called as she descended, "Ria!" It was a relief to see a familiar face, she already felt better being with people she knew. Numbers should keep her safe from a guy like that, especially these dragon-slaying numbers. "H-hey, how ya doin'?" She offered a weak, shakey smile, her voice quavered and she glanced over her shoulder as she passed the threshold to approach the bar.

A drink. She wanted a drink.
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