adventure and fate go hand in hand [private]

"Well, you're here now," Ruby said to Saren with a gentler smile. "Here, nothing has to hurt. Here, you could be safe and happy. Here, you could have as many yummy cookies as you want. Here, you could...you could have friends. And doesn't that sound nice to you? I would like to be one of those possible friends for you." Ruby let out a nervous chuckle, and then she held out her hand toward Saren, offering it to her, a hopeful glint in her eyes. "So...will you just give me that chance to try, at least?"

Ruby felt herself lighten at Saren's agreement. Finally, finally, Ruby had a real chance of being her friend now. "Thank you," Ruby murmured. Of course, there was still the matter of what Tala would feel about Saren now that a bit more about her past had been revealed, but they would worry about that later. And Ruby would make sure that the situation didn't escalate beyond plain tension. "I won't let you down, I swear."

Ruby was going to make sure that she didn't let Saren down. Saren clearly needed somebody to be there for her now, and if nobody else was going to do it, then Ruby would. So she put her other hand over Saren and she smiled. It was going to be okay, maybe. All she needed now was to see what Tala would say.

(( Time skip? ))

The girls were all sitting on their beds. It was nighttime right now, and they were about to head to sleep. The rest of the day had gone without much incident...now they just had to deal with this. "So...Saren...why did you come here to the guild?" Tala asked. She wanted to know what Saren had been thinking before she came here. Perhaps some idea of Saren's motivation could help Tala determine whether or not to trust her right now.

Tala leaned back a bit, crossing her arms as she looked straight at Saren as she thought about her words. Saren just wanted a new life here? Well...that actually made quite a bit of sense to Tala, actually, and Tala's chest felt a little heavy as she thought about the situation that she had been trying to get away from before she came here. "And that is it?" Tala asked her. "Saren...did you do bad things before you came here? Is that why you feel like you needed to start over?"

Tala stood silent then. Saren had done bad things after all. And Tala was about to comment on that, before she remembered her own family. Tala kept quiet for a few moments longer as she thought about them. She thought about the coldness of their family home, and the yelling that often went on behind closed doors soon after a television appearance. She remembered those days when it would constantly be drilled into her head, over and over and over again, that her responsibility was to make the Kabalyero family line and their ancestors proud.

The screaming, the coldness, the monotony of her home life had been what Tala was trying to leave. And although it wasn't exactly comparable to Saren's situation either, Saren was just trying to leave something, too. She was trying to change. And Tala wanted to change as well. So, with that in mind, Tala let out a small sigh and gave Saren a nervous smile. "Well...it'd be pretty hypocritical of me to condemn you for that," Tala said. Who knew how many times Tala had hurt people, whether directly or indirectly in the past due to her own upbringing? "You want to be better here, right now...so I'll give you that chance. You're still my teammate, no matter what."

"We understand," Ruby said. She now felt a little more guilty about hurting Alex, but she would've done it again if it meant ensuring Saren's safety. "It must be hard to let go of those sorts of connections." Ruby couldn't ever imagine leaving Lara, or, if she did, ever wanting to hurt Lara, no matter whether or not Lara was trying to hurt her.

"But we can make new ones, right here, right now," Tala said. "Now that we're a team, we're pretty much obliged to." She snorted, but there was more amusement in it than anything else. Now that she finally was starting to pull herself together, she realized that she wanted to know these people, if only just because she wanted to get to work with them better. But perhaps she could also form some sort of genuine relationship with them. "Now all of us just have to put some sort of effort into it."

"That's right!" Ruby said with a bright grin. "We're Team Amazon now, and that means that we're all going to be together during our time here. So why not use that time to get to know each other and become friends? I'd certainly be down for it."

"Well, that's certainly quite a bright way of putting it. But yes, I agree," said Tala. She wanted to be able to work better with her teammates, and to become the best adventurer that she could be. And, well, right now, she could start on that just by making some sort of connection or friendship with all of her teammates. She liked to think that she had a good start on that now anyway.

Tala smiled pleasantly, but inside she was feeling more light than she ever had before. For once ever since Mayari left, she had the chance to actually become friends with some people. She never really had more than one friend throughout her life. Father always told her that she was 'too above' everyone else to really become friends with them. And to some extent, Tala still thought that he was right, and that she was wrong for associating with these people.

But she quickly shook those thoughts away from her head. These people were skilled combatants, and one day maybe they would even be respected adventurers. There was nothing 'low class' about that. Maybe once she saw her father again, then she could prove to him that the friends that she had made here were worth it for her. And maybe for once he would finally agree with her.

Maybe for once Tala could have a real family.

(( Time skip? ))

It was morning time now, and the girls heard a knock on their door as they were getting ready. It was Tala who went to go get the door, and as soon as she opened it, Cyrus immediately barged into the room. "Hey, folks!" Cyrus said cheerfully, and three other people followed him inside, two of them looking quite exasperated at his antics while another one simply looked happily amused by them. "So, now that we finally have the time to formally introduce ourselves...you guys already know me, Cyrus Shyne. And these are my teammates."

"Hello. I am Corona Solis," said one of the young women with a smile. She had a tanned complexion, with reddish-orange hair and dark green eyes. She was quite tall, too, standing just about as tall as Ruby was. "I am the leader of Team Mercy. It is very nice to meet you all."

"And I'm Dazz Auclair!" said the other girl. She had dark brown skin with dark brown eyes that were nearly black and short, curly black hair that gradated to pink at the ends. She was only slightly taller than Saren was. "It's super cool to meet you guys! We don't always get new people, but you guys seem really cool. I hope that I get the chance to know you all a bit better!"

"And I'm Mercury Caerula," said the boy besides Cyrus. He had freckled fair skin, black hair, and dark blue eyes. He was a bit taller than Ruby was, but he looked way more awkward, especially as he gave them an awkward wave of his hand. "I can't wait to get to know you all. You guys seem a lot cooler than me anyway. Heh."

"So, you guys up for that sparring match you wanted to do a couple days ago?" Cyrus asked them eagerly.