Power of Money

[Vega Veligi Gavellius]

At a quite different environment, with quite different companions and specially a quite different occupation, Vega is somewhat keeping his same lifestyle as when with the treasure hunters group, not that this is any surprise, only his surroundings changed, the boy is still the same after all but to experience in first hand that there was no difference between a magic guild and a treasure hunter group was something new, not worth of shock or surprise but new nonetheless. Oh yeah, the beer at the Sororitas guild is of a new brand to Vega too, last but not least, the biggest noticeable change is the new companions themselves, one more weird than the previous, all seemingly trying to catch up with the guild leader that is clearly the weirdest of all.

Does this makes me one as well? Having been accepted as one of them . . .

Even if not true at the moment, will it come to be, eventually, since people change according to those around them though logic can't be applied to situations like these, not like that make it necessarily a bad thing but just another fact of life, it's human to adapt to new environments after all, it happens quicker when it's interesting and usually the different, the 'new', tends to be interesting or more specifically, a guild is interesting.

A bunch of strangers loosely attached to each other for being members of the same guild and for looking up to the tastes of our leader, surely a claim that loses it's impact when done by someone from the guild in question but true nonetheless.

Why try to be normal when you can be a Sororitas?

[Jael Yzvn]

It is a well-known fact that some people enjoy gambling. A game of chance, where the greatest opponent is the odds of something unfavorable happening. It is also a well-known fact, that some people take this enjoyment too far, and become addicted to gambling, which makes it a vice. Especially if they lose a lot of money in the process. The girl in the mirror, Jael Yzvn, enjoys the game to a moderated degree.

I wouldn't consider myself addicted to it. Such a thing goes against what Kochava has taught. When taking something, take it in moderation. When the odds turn against me, I back out. But there is a stark contrast between abstinence and moderation. The former is already an unbalanced, unhealthy refusal to go out and do what you know you want to. There is an equally stark contrast between abstinence and deprivation. The latter is something unwilling, whether by inability, or by restriction of authorities.

These days, I can't say I've been able to gamble, seeing as I've had things to do that were related to Guild work. It takes a clear mind to understand that gambling is an aside. You can make a lot of money from it, sure, but it's not a career. Unless you work at a casino, or something. Which is why, most of my money these days comes from what I do here, fulfilling the work that Kochava has given me.

However, there is only a limit to resisting your personal urges. When you bottle something up for so long that it starts affecting you negatively, it's not called abstinence. It's called stupidity. Open up the floodgates for a bit and let the excess water flow out - but not too much at once, that's a problem. Thus, the occasional gambling spree shouldn't hurt at all, I thought. With these in mind, I decided to head out to the bulletin board and, as my daily routine states, just see what quick jobs are available, that I may finish it fast and spend this hard-earned cash on a few games of roulette.

Along the way, I ran into somebody who, like every other personally recruited member of this guild, has either messy hair, or some kind of antenna sticking out of their head. I had the latter, he had the former. Absently tearing off one sheet from the board, I raised my hand in greetings. "So. What brings you to this spot at this time of the day?"

[Vega Veligi Gavellius]

Aside the prosperous time as a treasure hunter, when the naivety of the age stops you from spending your money properly, or saving it could be said to be the cause for Vega lack of money at the moment if he were to be the one in charge of the treasure hunters . . . treasury, but that was never the case since he was but just a kid at the time, meaning that someone else took care of that part on it's totally so it would be no wonder that Vega would be faced with a certain level of financial administration issues when doing it for himself at first, gladly does his current income depend on his own effort alone.

"Paying for my drink."

Of course not literally since that would be abusing a bit too much of the trust between the guild and it's members but if Vega wished to have future drinks, more money was needed and for that taking a job from the request board is a must for a guild mage, which one were quickly picked by the dragonslayer of this guild, getting Vega's eye and ahoge attention, both directing themselves towards the job sheet at the girl's hand.

"But there aren't many jobs that can be done by a single mage . . . "

Pondering what each request is about and what dangers it await you on it is a must when picking a solo job, however were things quite different when being part of a team, the tricky part being of how to get said team together a first time, if the teamwork went well among the members that wouldn't be a problem anymore when needing more than a single mage for any job and of course that was Vega intention when stating it in such a indirect way towards the seemingly more assertive girl.

[Terra Fairchild]

Terra, one of the more eccentric members of the guild, albeit this not really something that could be said to identify a single individual. Probably it was more difficult to find a normal person in this chaotic building, that could rival the big guild 'Fairy Tail' in this regard, than some weirdos. The ways to join were quite intransparent, afterall, but who really cared ?...

The blue haired girl held some interest and love for her fellow guild members, even when those interests could be sometimes overseen and at other times overwhelmingly crushing. Her eyes immediately fell on Vega Veligi Gavellius, his name always reminding her off vegetables and he had perfect sitting hair ! Of course a reason why he made it into this place, but more interesting was that 'worry' could be used for an extra name.

Was there ever a time when he was happy ? Yet his various faces of disdain and distress made him very suitable for one of Terra's hobbies. She remained behind him and imitated his very movement. Amazing how much action you could use, while just staring at a piece of paper.

[Amaliric Unlicht]

(OOC: Alright, rewards will come as a surprise. Let's make this a counter of [0/6], alright? This counts as the first cycle (starting with Jael's post, meaning, order is Jael, Vega, Terra, Amaliric))

Amaliric Unlicht, had, like most members of Echidna Sororitas, messy hair. Now, unlike the cute Terra Fairchild, or the calm Jael Yzvn, it wasn't ahoge. No, it was closer to just, well, a mess. It ran all over the place, with really no rhyme or reason. Always lead one to think the Dark Mage, with a major sister complex, had just woken up from sleep. The reason for the messy hair was simple: he didn't care how it looked. Messy was more natural, and he enjoyed looking more natural.

In fact, very few things compared to his like of being natural. And even fewer topped it. One, being his love for his little Aria. The poor little girl, trapped in a wheelchair, until her beloved older brother could get enough money to repair it. It made his heart ache, seeing her cute smile, despite her imprisonment in that accursed chair. 'Don't worry, Aria! Brother will help you!', was the only thought that occurred to him, when it came to the opportunity to make money.

Which brings us to object of his affection number two: money. That, too, seemed to be unreasonably common in the midst of Echidna. Messy hair and a love for money. They truly were a neutral guild, right down to the core. As long as they could get money, they were a happy bunch. It was what brought them together, into this town, under that one man: Adam Arkblade.

As for affection number three, well, that was kind of connected to his whole story. The cute, well-built, somewhat aggressive Terra Fairchild was the epitome of it: cute girls. They just drove the man wild, and reminded him of his much liked sister.

Speaking of that, must remember to get some food on my way home... This boy, Amaliric thought, as he walked past a group of fellow Sororitas, including the adorable Terra, the calm Jael, and an unimportant male, who was known as Vega Veligi Gavellius. Yes, his name did remind one of vegetables. Radishes, if Amaliric had to guess, although for no valid or rational reason.

Irregardless to the circumstances, Amaliric walked up to the group, grinning, knowing that if those three were together, than perhaps money could be made. After all, they may have been bigger money grubbers than him.

Of course, he would go unnoticed, for the time being, until the display between the cute one and the unimportant one was over. After all, another one of the girl's adorable qualities was her enjoyment of imitating someone. They were always flawless. Why isn't she a stage actor? was always a thought that crossed his mind, as it did here, watching the scenario unfold.

And hoping for another mission to increase his revenue, for his beloved Aria~

[1/6]

[Jael Yzvn]

98 percent. The probability that somebody would walk in on us during the discussion. It would appear, that depending on the circumstances, but most especially nowadays, that whenever you met somebody by chance, the chances are, at least one other person would join in eventually. Whether during that time, or a bit later. In this particular case, the situation just went to the next level. That is to say, two other people decided that it would be a good idea to drop in and say hi. Of course, since they had yet to do that, there was still a maybe 16 percent probability of them just going away and not minding us.

But really, with odds like that, I would laugh at myself for even bothering to calculate. Most times, they would just wait for you to finish what appears to be some sort of artificially-allocated term, given to you by some higher power that I couldn't quite understand. Kochava, maybe, would have told me about this higher power that allots 'turns' to people for them to do things, but it would seem that things were not meant to be. Otherwise, she would have been able to teach me of this mysterious higher power before she disappeared ten years ago.

But I digress. It really doesn't matter, the nature of these powers that be, so long as everybody gets a shot at doing, well, whatever they have to do. I nodded at his explanation, lifting up the sheet of paper up to his eye level. "That is correct, Mister Gavellius. The Council has issued a call to any nearby Guilds to investigate one 'Devil's Nest' casino. An operation of this scale requires more than any single mage, no matter how highly ranked, can accomplish."

Especially the part where somebody needs to... keep the security distracted, that is to say play, while the others performed the actual deep-cover investigation. I took note of the antics that were happening just behind the vegetarian, at the former pirate who was performing them. I couldn't help but crack the slightest curve, the smallest semblance to a smile, along the corner of my lips. Some would break out into laughter, while others would antisocially ignore it. Neither is a viable option for one such as myself.

"Which is why I believe that it would be a most useful - and profitable - option to invite you, as well as anyone else who may be interested," my gaze shifted to the fourth figure in the room, who, by apparently random chance, had just wandered in during this discussion. "To join me in our, ah, investigation, of this casino and its suspicious dealings." That is to say, feel free to snoop around while I make a few tens of thousand of jewels on Blackjack, Roulette, Slots, Poker, Craps, and any other form of casino gambling that I can come up with off the top of my head.

Nowadays, you see, I don't have much time to wander around, collecting the items necessary for the creation of Aether. Carmot, Inkvine, and fossils are just some of the many difficult-to-find pieces of the puzzle. As such, it would be far more convenient to hire some explorers to get the items for me, or buy them from some aristocrat's collection of odd trinkets, while I perform my duties to this guild. A fair compromise, wouldn't you say so?

"The Council promises lucrative reward as it always does, and who knows. Maybe, just maybe, we can make some spare change from the myriad of game tables there."

[2/6]

[Vega Veligi Gavellius]

All end well when it goes well, even though this was only the start of everything, Jael not only got Vega's intention but also agreed with it since she wanted the same as him but not through the same ways, obvious considering that in the same way that people are different will they reasons differ as well but as long as they were members of the same guild, the need to worry about such things was pointless.

A casino? Rather easy to see a place like that being involved with cheating though you could say that it's usually the other way around.

The mission is to discover how the casino is keeping it's customers when none of them ever win . . .

Considering that the casino should not be aware of the mission submitted by the council and that some guild mages may be they clients as well, it sure makes sense to have non-council people investigating this in order to get a better result but the reward for this mission is better be good since it will only raise needless suspicion to get into a casino and not play, even if just to fool the security, meaning that some money will be leaving the couple, or quartet though yet unknown to Vega, pocket as no one wins at that casino.

"Yeah, you can count me in."

Just because someone have an active radar skill, does it not mean that the person focus is turned towards said 'radar screen', surely Vega saw through the wind that there were at least two other people looking towards the request board but that inside a mage guild is to be expected, now as to what every person under Vega's radar range were doing is something that the boy already got used to . . . ignore, or in better words, let it slide through his perception since it would be highly bothersome to be constantly updated on every move that everyone did under a range of 200 meters into a big city like Magnolia.

All of this just to say that Vega had no idea that he was being mimicked, at least not until Jael shifted her gaze toward potential team members with Vega following her lead to find a girl not much behind him into the exact same position, striking Vega with an awe of surprise, causing his ahoge to jump into an exclamation mark shape from the view to quickly wither down in the following second after realizing what were probably happening for some time by now. Weirdness is called like that because it's something tough to get used to, no matter how frequently one might experience or witness it, this event right now being a major example of that.

"You mean that we get to loot the casino a bit too?"

Awkward moment aside, Terra was a guild member and one that could be very useful at a mission like this for this very same display of a unique skill right now among some others, all they needed was to caught her interest thus why Vega let out an question to Jael that can clearly be heard by Terra as well, hoping that the fish fall for the bait, putting it roughly that is it.

Albeit this being what Vega saw when he turned to look back, that was not to whom Jael had looked to but to another guy, more to the back of the guild, further away of the request board than the three of them, Amaliric, had closed that distance while Vega was busy getting himself to not try to understand Terra reasons, however, unlike Terra, Amaliric had a certain aggressive stare towards Vega which made the boy a bit uncertain if he should be the one making the 'proposal' to him or not.

[2/6]

[Terra Fairchild]

Adorable gestic, interesting mimic.

But she was seen and the entire idea of playing after him. The play had to end and it was certain that the number of interested people rised. Her feet could feel the presence of yet another member. She honestly did not know too much about them, but that was not too rare in a guild that actually accepted non-mages as well and sometimes included several members at once. It still was a guild that needed members, but growing quite fast. All thanks to 'the father'.

Terra moved a hand through her hair and ending the show with a slight wink, rather than bowing for applause. Unlike her rather perfect taint and body texture, at least from her point of view, a single hair strain had a very different image about perfection and acted on his own.

If hair could talk, those two ahoge individuals would have an interesting conversation by now, but the quite versed, lively and well liked Terra remained quiet. At least till the words loot and casino fell. It was time to act. A dramatic pause followed, till the 'Fair Child' shouted her own opinion into the room and pointed at the job papers.

"You ! We will go immediately ! Time to loot, fellow Guild Members. It is time to show them our love for the world and earnest desire for money."

Even if they would just end up stealing, forgetting the original purpose of the mission.. the council would certainly forgive her. It was not the first and certainly not the last time. Some guilds might wish for this talent, rather than always pleading in front of the council, that their equivalently mischievious kids would not get punished. Terra already was an older member of the guild, but age meant it well with her, just like everything about this world.

Filling the chambers of the guild was the primary idea, the little job description already somewhere in the room, just not in Terra's head. It would be extremely nice if everything would work well, but who cared if one or the other town would fall for the greater good ? Maybe she would win even in a casino where you could not win !

[2/6]

[Amaliric Unlicht]

Due to Amaliric's limited knowledge of two of the mage's skills, he found it rather shocking that they all seemed surprised by his appearance. But he didn't let that phase him, as he stood there, a smirk appearing on his face, the prospect of gaining money for his beloved Aria, setting in.

Walking up, Amaliric's grin continued, as he stood closer to the group. "There's money to be made? Then let's go!" There was no need to explain it any further. As stated earlier, his whole focus was cute girls, his cute sister, and money. All seemed to push other rational thoughts out of his mind. So what if he was going to be stuck with the unimportant vegetable? Or the calm dragon lady?

The cute Terra, was running the show. And that was good enough to drag him on board. "So, where is this place?" Yes, he did just throw himself into the group. But they all were after the same thing: money~

And that's what it was all about!

[2/6]

[Jael Yzvn]

"A mile or so north of the city limits," I passed the sheet over to whoever would take it - it really didn't matter who - and turned to face the exit. "If we can hurry, we can get there before patrons start flooding the place." And once the patrons do start pouring in, it will become rather difficult to find an empty table, with the way that most casinos work out. You see, there's always a limit to the number of players at a table. One can either go there early, fight her way through the horde of gambling-addicted patrons, or wait until the crowd thins out, at which point the chances of the cheats being in full play were quite high.

In any situation, prevention is better than cure.

The more time that goes to waste, the more money I stand to lose. And the less money I have, the more personal effort I will have to put into searching for the next batch of Aether. This will result in longer trips, consisting mostly of searching for those ingredients. In which case, I will have less time to attend to my duties to the Guild, which will leave me with even less time to perform my duties to Kochava. The end result is an unacceptable personal balance that must be prevented.

In such a case, making large earnings from this suspicious casino, beating them at their own game, that is, the game of cheating, is the most efficient solution. If the House is using rigging techniques that differ from what casinos normally use, then I will find out soon enough. The only true way to figure out if the difference is in cheating apparatus, or some illegal activity that goes beyond regular casino cheating, is to try my luck at the tables.

I stepped outside and focused. Ten years of training, practice, and study. When I had first attempted this, there was much pain, for various reasons. It took several tries to find the correct number of wings required for sustainable flight, flight that was not too taxing on the body, was of a suitable altitude, and a reasonable speed. It took even more tries to properly coordinate my wings with my body movements. I will go no further in explaining the complications of human attempts to fly with crafted wings.

The bottom line is that a challenge was issued, and overcome. The end result, an efficient means of support for both combat and non-combat purposes. As I stretched, six wings sprouted from my back, venomous to the touch of all humans but myself. At the twitch of an eye, they began to flap in a synchronized effort, harmonious in their balanced methodology. My feet slowly lifted off of the ground, and soon enough, I was airborne. There wasn't much more to say about that.

Before flying off in the direction of the casino, I turned around to face the Guild Hall. "Come! Let us plunder the riches of this foul establishment and put their ill-gotten wealth to better use!" Use for ourselves.

[3/6]

[Vega Veligi Gavellius]

These reactions and specially actions are a very good example of how even 'success in excess' can be a bad thing, of course not entirely, since in order to loop around back to the bad side it is needed to go through all of the good one, not only do the team doubled it's number but also got two extra rank A mages on it, in case it come to the need of such power that is it even though it's most likely that the need for the use of violence increased as well with the addition of those two but anyway, this feels more like Vega caught the big rather than making a big catch, like a fisherman who hooks a whale and is dragged to the sea by it rather than pulling it to solid ground.

Could it be that the three of them had something like this planned from the start or is this a messed up coincidence?

Certainly all but figurative speech on Vega's mind, closed off from the external world, or so is the idea when thinking to yourself, just too bad that things work a bit different for 'Araragi'! Yes! Not Vega himself but his honest ahoge that flinched at the very similar mentions of money from each one of them, not even the hidden half of his 'soul window' helped at keeping those reactions at bay.

The worse was that Terra was not alone at that 'noble resolution' while Vega was on his, even Jael shared a similar mindset, albeit Vega not being one to talk about them when the only difference between him and them was the intention rather than the goal, and as far as Vega is aware, good intentions never worked to atone for any crime or illegal action.

However, this is where the bad side of this team ended, with three money-grubbers like those causing a ruckus at the casino, it wouldn't be that hard to do some investigation at it while they kept the staff busy with any tantrum that they might cause there, so of course Vega was quickly to snatch the job paper when Jael offered to check said casino location since, albeit being a wind mage, Vega could not fly like Jael and most likely the other two as well.

"Unlike our friendly dragonslayer, we will have to go on foot, taking the road by the river."

Considering the casino location, that was the fastest way to it, by foot of course since the closest distance between two points is a straight line, too bad that city buildings get on the way of the people going by foot to prevent that, which is not the case of those who can fly and yes, Vega felt a bit depressed/oppressed about that, he is a wind mage for god's sake!

[3/6]

[Terra Fairchild]

"Indeed," she said astonishing quiet, already able to smell the treasures that would awaited them. She was like a little rubber man that could not stretch, energized with enthusiasm. The ex-pirate queen was fully in her element and passed up on the papers. She already knew the location without relying on those guidelines and let them with whoever wished to take them.

The comment was meant towards everyone in the area, mostly not too glad about beginning this adventure with a long march. Her carriers just were not around at the moment, and maybe a bit too eye catching. She would stand out on her own more than enough. Who needed this decor then !? A short thought about a change of garderobe crossed her mind, but was already gone with the next breeze of wind, softly playing with her long hairstrain known as ahoge by some.

[3/6]

[Erza Scarlet]

(OOC: Amaliric's turn, except the RPer does not wish to proceed.)