undisonus.

he listened to her words as well as managing the crowd. it seemed this place was quite busy! but it was also safe, apparently so that was good. he looked over to her and saw that she seemed a little surprised as well. maybe she was away for a bit. he knew sometimes going back to the guild after an absence could be — interesting.

he laughed at the warning about the sailors. “ah, i don’t really fear them! i doubt some drunken sailors could beat the time i teleported in the middle of a dark guild battle. like, it was these two guilds who were battling out one moment and the next moment, bam! it was me! i was able to alert the rune knights though and i was able to diffuse some of the tension between them. until the rune knights showed up. OG goldmine was equally impressed with my work and upset at how i got there. his disapproval face is so bad, man.” he shuddered at the memory. rip past dj. “what about you? any fun mage stories?”

after the war had ended, arania had not wasted any time. she had packed her suitcase, had said goodbye to marina and the others and then, she had travelled to midi. she had not been home as much as she had wanted to, but there was nothing like a war and someone dear to her getting hurt in said war to make her reevaluate things. she had stayed longer than she had planned to, had even wondered if she should go back to fiore. unlike many other mages in mermaid heel, she had a family that loved her, a family that missed her. 

DJ gleefully took the bag she handed him and held it closely to him. he followed her and titled his head when she spoke. he laughed softly, because, yeah. she was at a disadvantage, but it wasn’t his fault. he just didn’t like public attention that much and the OG Goldmine didn’t want him on the team in case…things happened. which was fair. knowing his luck, he’d end up teleporting himself out of the arena and be automatically disqualified. 

“i’m a teleportation mage,” he told her happily. “it’s a wild magic and quite fun! at least, i have fun with it. keeps me on my toes, y’know?” he sidestepped a bit as if to demonstrate. her bag was safe, however. no need to worry. “it’s also been WICKED GOOD for like, building problem solving skills yknow?. i end up in strange places all the time and have to figure out where i am and whatnot. it’s never a boring day, that’s for sure!”

she had expected a real name, not a pseudonym, but this was fine, too. arania was flexible, she could run with this particular brand of ... wildness. during the games and during the disaster afterwards, she had gotten to know some of his guild mates. not him, however --- he was quite the figure with his height and his hair and she did not think she would have been able to  not  see him, had he been around. and really, not all guilds brought every single mage among them to the games. it would be irresponsible; there were still jobs that needed to be done.

ah heather. that was the name of the place. he knew at SOME point, but details sometimes just…flew off of him. at times and honestly? other than respecting their power, DJ had nothing to do with mermaid heel. he was a guy after all.

 he gave the other finger guns and a bright smile. “thanks for the info!! and it’s chill, i still remember your fight wayyyy back then with that guy ren from BP! your magic is hella cool.” he had no issue with complimenting others because, well, why not? 

dj hummed and then noted that she was carrying bags in her hands and his eyes widened. “oh, hey, do you want any help with those bags? i get that i’m a stranger, but QC honor dictates that i help whenever wanted!”  OG goldmine probably meant around the guild, but DJ was quite alright with putting that philosophy in every aspect of life. 

eyeing the other mage for a moment, arania shrugged before she handed over one of the heavy bags. she could carry them herself, the way she usually would, but she was not above accepting help. well, she might have, had it been a certain mage from a certain guild, but ... this was an entrely different story altogether. one she did not like to think about much, truthfully.

ah yes, ren, she said grimly. she had never been a sore loser  ( growing up with siblings had seen to that ),  but this was a loss that had stung. outside of the arena, whenever their paths had crossed, ren had proven to be an opponent she could overcome, but the setting of an arena favoured him far more than her. but she could not complain about this to a stranger.

@araniaeous liked for a starter!

he did not know how he manged to end up in this place, but that was what usually happened. he was a WILD NIGHT out with some friends in the guild, so he supposed he must have teleported then and just…slept somewhere. hm. he looked around and stretched his arms and back. it didn’t look to be outside of fiore, so that was good. his eyes caught a familiar face and he smiled. “yo what’s up! sorry if i alarmed you, i’m DJ Hook Wizard Puppy, from Quatro Cerberus. i sorta end up places cos my magic. i take it i’m near mermaid heel, then? nice to mee ya, you’re pretty badass, yknow?”

taking a brisk walk through heather was one of the first things arania did every morning when she was not out of town. by now, she was a few points further down on her to-do list, was carrying groceries and, as luck would have it, frowning at a quatro cerberus member who, according to his own statement, had wound up in heather  on accident.  because his magic apparently sometimes worked in such mysterious ways.

for a moment, she tried to imagine it --- the idea that her magic would sometimes have a mind of its own, that it would not always obey. it was a, mildly said, terrifying thought.

for a lot of mages, surroundings matter a lot. for example, arania's fight against ren would have gone a lot differently had they not met in an arena. it was a playing field that largely favoured ren as arania was forced to meet him face-to-face instead of being able to use her surrounding to attack him from multiple angles, seemingly at once by making use of her superior speed and agility  ( and the spider abilities she probably has but did not show in canon ).

arania was  robbed  because ma.shima had to force the '''''''cute''''' moment between sherry and ren. that i think it was not cute but rather toxic is no secret at this point, but my anger grows whenever i consider that for this awful ship, my girl had to suffer. actually, both my girls suffered.

when she was young, most of the competitiveness was directed at who would get which quest. and this, this was innocent. it got a lot less innocent when she was older and the men of the guild became fair game, most importantly: the guild master as he was the central figure in how the guild was run, was the one who assigned missions. and while he was widely unaware of the bad blood among some of his mages as the guild was too big for him to keep track of everything, those who  were  fighting for his favour were keeping track of every little thing that might mean to gain an advantage.

as these things tend to, everything escalated around the time arania turned eighteen and she was no longer the talented kid in the eyes of those who had long turned this fight into an artform. instead, she was now a rival. and arania, for all her strengths, was too competitive, too ambitious to just ignore them. she did not just live in a toxic environment, no, she had become a part of it. and things would have escalated a lot further, had her older sister not become aware of what was going on.

the scolding of a lifetime later, ramira had convinced her sister to leave the guild and try her luck somewhere else, somewhere far away, somewhere where no one would have heard about the guild, where no one would be able to tell how much effort it took arania to be nice after such a long time of being venomous. it was still ramira who booked the train ticket to fiore, who promised to come up with a better-sounding, nicer story for their parents.

( because no matter how angry ramira had been, their mother finding out would be much worse and they both knew this. )

when arania first came to fiore, still reeling from the wakeup call she had gotten, she considers multiple guilds. in fact, la.mia sc.ale would have been her first choice and she still thinks that its intellectually driven mindset would have been a good fit her. however, she is trying to turn over a new leaf, trying to be a better person --- trying to be someone her younger sisters can look up to. mer.maid he.el and the complete absence of any men in the guild sounds promising.

arania recoiled, nearly dropped her jacket. gods, kagura could be so prickly that sometimes, she really wondered why she even bothered. it was --- frustrating to be met with this ...  attitude  whenever she tried to be nice, when she tried to be a good comrade. if this would keep up, she would stop trying. there was no joy in being constantly treated like this, and arania had certainly not joined mermaid heel to be snapped at either.

crossing her arms, she angled her head and sighed. “ you know, kagura, that was unnecessary, ” she said quietly. “ i get that you're the ace and all, but that doesn't mean you get to snap at me. or anyone else, really. ”

the second part of her sentence was hardly a mere afterthought --- mermaid heel was more than a guild, was a shelter for women who had been trapped in unhealthy relationships, before. and this had been why arania had joined; she could have chosen so many other guilds when she had first come to fiore but this guild had been what had captured her interest. well, that and the idea that she would be part of a guild consisting exclusively of women. arania had sought sisterhood, not snappy remarks when she had only wanted to know how someone was doing.

( she had seen enough of  that  in her old guild. )

straighting up and  relishing  in every centimetre of her rather impressive height, she scoffed. “ i wanted to know how you were doing, heard that last job was ill-described, but you know what, i don't care enough to let you snap at me, ” she finished as she turned away, throwing the guild master an apologetic look. the woman did not like it when people fought in her hall, but arania had learnt when to draw a line.

“ so i'll keep my concern to myself, in the future, and leave you alone. ”

arania grimaced, though she could restrain herself from rolling her eyes. her guildmate was surely what many would call an acquired taste, that much was a given, but she had gotten as used to arai's shenanigans as she ever would. and most of the time, it was --- fun. maybe not the same kind of fun that arania had known in her childhood, the kind of fun one could only feel when tackling the oldest sister and throwing her into the fountain in the garden, but it was still the childish kind of fun. and sometimes, especially after a particularly --- stressful mission, arania needed not to think.

needed to get out of her  grown-up brain  for just a moment so that she could leave the things she had heard and seen while lurking in the shadows like a spider on the wall behind, so that she would not take them with her. some might call arai immature, but arania did not think it was that.

( the other mermaid was too good at her job to be  truly  immature. )