Hiro was listening to the others begin to converse with the other squad, that would be good so people could get along. That was when Tybalt approached him, the leader of their squad had come to converse with the archer. The question that Tybalt gave was a bit of surprise, not knowing that someone actually cared about his skills. "Oh. Well, I learned it from my family, we were all hunters so it was kind of needed for me to use a bow with all of us hunting," Hiro answered, a small smile coming to his face as he remembered being with his family not so long ago. "So you seem to be pretty adept with magic. Where did you learn to become powerful in that regard," Hiro asked, wondering how one was to go and learn magic.

"I'm- oh thank you." Aika interrupted her own introduction to accept Pauline's offer, carefully unwrapping the little candy before hastily wolfing it down. "Mmph, omnom, I'm Aika." She started inbetween the chomping and chewing, and glancing to the other girl and the mage that stepped in.

"Hehe, I guess I'll have to keep repeating my name every time someone comes in here huh?" Her question wasn't directed to anyone in particular, and no one would have the chance to answer before Diana made her jump onto Azi's tail, causing Aika to burst out laughing before almost choking on the candy.

A Rather shoddily clad swordsman strides into the room, spinning an ace of spades between his fingers. "I guess this is the place." He decides to approach the pair eating candy, as opposed to the clear fluffy tail issue that seems to be coming to a head. "My name is fredrick. I was part of one of the other squads but we were split up to fill some of the squads that lost people. I guess that means I'm with you guys."

Being one of the last people to arrive to their designed dorms, Claude had little to no idea who he'd be rooming with, aside from the retarded teammates from before.

Truly, the words from before had reached to his pride and he had been out all day training.

While it certainly wasn't his job to protect everybody else, it was his job to make sure everyone was dead by the time any mission, or trial.

Claude entered the room in his usual fashion. By kicking the door and making most people turn their heads to him. For once, the man wasn't wearing his sunglasses and instead of his coat, he was wearing a sleeveless white shirt.

He had just taken a bath and felt like resting some.

"What, ya all are already here? Well, nice to meet the other dudes and... hello, other retards." The man yawned and walked to his own bed.

He wasn't really going to sleep yet, and he would readily talk with anyone that came near him, but perhaps the fact that he always seemed kind of wild made it kind of hard for people to approach him.

Tybalt was about to answer Hiro when the new man came in, a ruffian with a foul mouth deciding to kick the door in and barrel his way into everyone’s life. Tybalt couldn’t help but emit a soft chuckle, he found the man’s entrance comedic, a man who dared to gain all the attention in the room just to refer to everyone’s intelligence and rummage off to his own corner. It was a good ice breaker, if nothing else, but Tybalt seemed more than content to discuss things with Hiro for the time being.

“Oh, my home was filled with many magical texts.” Tybalt responded to Hiro. “I spent most of my adolescence in my private study since father would not let me go outside and associate with the locals, so they were all I had aside from dueling lessons with the steward.” His smile dipped a little, the conversation reminding him of his father was a touchy subject, especially when it brought up the old man’s cruelty. “When I finally was able to go out and mingle, I had my fair share of knowledge in magic, and since my steward said I had a natural talent for the craft, I practiced, becoming the best mage I could be...and I learned a few petty tricks along the way.”

He chuckled, holding his hand out flat, parallel towards the ceiling. With a flick of his opposite hand, a glass of water magically appeared in his hands...or so he would leave an audience to believe. “I’m as much a trickster as I am a practicing magi...the parlor tricks tend to compliment the actual magic I can wield.”

Taking a sip of the water, he placed the glass on a nearby bedstand before continuing. “Oh, but I digress. You said you were from a family of hunters? You must tell me what that was like! I only hunted for sport, but that was with royal hounds and assistants, they never let me hunt on my own for my own food! Was there times of strife? Did you not eat if you didn’t bring food home? What kind of animal was the best hunt?”

Azi suddenly felt a chill up his back, causing him to lift his head out of his pillow slightly from his unsteady sleep. The atmosphere, with everyone greeting each other, was too friendly for there to be anything truly hostile. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but instinctually feel that there was a predator stalking him. Just as he thought that, she struck. "Ahn!?" Azi yelped as his tail was suddenly held captive by Diana. "W-wait, my tail is sensit-- iiive~?!" He tried to turn and stop her, but his body gave out once she began stroking it. Waves of pleasure quickly incapacitated him, leaving him helpless to do anything except whimper quietly in submission. "_{Uwaaahh~~ someone help me...}" He silently prayed for the gods to intervene and save him from Diana's grasp.

By now, Aika's hysteria caused her to slump onto her side on her bed, her long icy hair making a large wave as she crashed on the less than comfortable pillow. The starchy cushion did little to quell her laughter, as she rolled onto her back, facing up to easily see the antics as well as her new friend. "Is this normal for her?" she asked Pauline while gesturing her left thumb up and over to Diana.

From on her back, she was now able to see a new face standing before her and Pauline, a slender looking fellow with long red hair, and carrying what looked like a katana, claiming the name 'Fredrick.' "Oh, hello, ehehehe," she mustered through the giggling. "I'm Aika, and I've said my name about four times today, hehe."

Hyakuya simply nodded when Aika pointed out that it was how they called Manaketes in their region. In all honesty, the dragon didn't know much about other regions so he wasn't aware of other names of his kind. He then stayed silent, happy with merely listening to these young folks talking around. He then proceeded to sit on his bed with his back leaning on the wall and was now facing Azi...

Whose tail was being caressed by Diana. A smile made its way to his face as he watched the whole incident. Hyakuya had only noticed that he was facing a laguz. He had not known much about the race but he had encountered the dragon laguz tribe when he was but a child. he remembered it to be quite an experience, seeing other transforming dragons who didn't need the use of stones. His attention was soon taken back by Diana and Azi when he started to whimper. Ah, of course, a tail was always the most sensitive part of an animal, same can be told with those humans who had their own tail.

And he turned his head towards the door when someone kicked it, a blond haired fellow walked in, greeting everyone there. And so it was safe to assume that he was part of Squad Triginita since Hyakuya assumed that 'retards' was actually pertaining to his teammates. Whatever happened in their trial would have to be different from what happened to their own trial. Not that it mattered much to the manakete. He fell back into silence with a smile on his face as he watched them all talk with each other.

Mikhail found himself staring at the door to the barracks. The man pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a defeated sigh as he felt the first prickle of a headache start to surface. The racket coming from within was already deafening and the inexplicable boot mark on the door did little to ease his growing dread. ”Should have spent more time checking on the damn horse,” he muttered to himself.

Having satisfied his sour puss tendencies for the time being, Mikhail gathered his resolve and calmly opened the door. He was fully prepared to go about his business in silence and claim any bunk still available. However, the sight that greeted him at the entryway caused his normal frown to sink into a grimace.

”I would appreciate it if you didn’t molest my squad mate,” the cavalier directed to the pink haired bombshell that was currently enchanted by Azi’s tail. ”It’d be a shame if you broke him before our next trial.” Both his voice and facial expression made it difficult to determine just how serious he was being, although he hardly seemed concerned for Azi's sake.

Mikhail met the laguz’s pitiful gaze with an ice cold stare and a raised eyebrow, as if to say, “Your mess, you clean it up.” Not waiting for a response from either of them, he made his way to one of the bunks in the back. It wasn’t until he threw his pack down that he realized that he had ended up next to Claude.

”I take it the boot print on the door was your doing,” he said to the merc casually.

To be honest, it isn't all that great most of the times. First, if we brought home an animal, we would have to skin it then get all of the best meat out it, though we don't let anything go to waste. Anyways, if we didn't catch something then we might have to eat only bread but most times we would just skip on eating," Hiro began before stopping to think about what animals were the best to hunt during what situation. "I suppose we typically hunted stags and boars because of all the meat they provided but if we needed something quick then we would go after small birds or squirrels."

The others had not exactly received the new recruit warmly, so Claude decided to be the better man (what an odd ocurrance) and welcome him.

"Yo, Fredrick. Hope ya get used to all these other retards, and I also hope you can swing that sword arm for something other than cutting vegetables." The man snarked and then laughed a bit.

He then decided to take some well deserved rest, but the green cavelier seemed to have other plans for him.

Mikhail approached him, claiming him to be the culprit of the footprint stamped on the door.

"Har. Can't you tell by the size of the boot? Hope you ain't a clean freak, though. Once a guy like that made me clean my whole outfit. Worst fucking day ever. My fingers were all like raisin'"

The man gritted his pointy teeth at the best of his ability.

As they conversed, Tybalt took a seat on the bed across from Hiro, listening intently to his words. Being of noble birth, Tybalt had not had the kind of experience people like Hiro had. He did not get to see the world like they did, he had to learn what it was like to survive on his own, not be brought up in poverty and have survival constantly on his mind.

“Incredible, you used all of the beast you say? Is that where you got your clothing?” He asked, motioning to Hiro’s attire, visually shuddering a little bit from the idea of wearing dead animal skins right off the beast. “That sounds like an incredibly difficult life, but the fact that you sit here now is a testament to the amount of drive you truly have. I’m glad your skills let you survive until now, and apparently much more. Boars and stags made good target practice from the sounds of it, comparative to flying horses, even!” He quipped, letting a laugh slip out after his joke. “Then again, I figure squirrels and birds would be much harder to hit...all the more reason to respect such marksmanship. Let me say I would not want to be on the end of your bow.”

He glanced to the others, cracking a smile as he saw the merc and the cavalier leering at one another. Rising from his seat, he clapped Hiro on the shoulder and motioned to the others. “Come, let’s go meet the other squad while we still have time.”

Hoping the archer was following him, the mage briskly strode over to the others, placing a leg on a chair in front of him to boldly announce his arrival into the conversation with Hiro in tow.

“Hello, my new friends!” He spoke to the cavalier, mercenary, and swordsman, a bold grin on his face. “I believe I have not introduced myself. My name is Tybalt. Talented mage, noble on the rise, and easy on the eyes if I do say so myself.” He proclaimed to the three. “And what fine gentlemen may I be speaking to?”

A woman, dressed in the traditional pink suit of a troubradour, though she wore a short pink and white skirt along with a white cape skirt that reached her knees, made her way towards the dorm where squad Quinque and squad Trignita.

When she arrived and was about to open the door, she noticed the foortprint on it. Her hand twitched back as she raised an eyebrow.

How unsightly, what kind of person would do this? Ruining a fine piece of architecture like this... well, Joan could only reprimand them later on.

The woman opened the door to the dorm, but perhaps her push was a little too strong or the Claude's previous kick had kind of messed up the door, but the door slammed against the wall once she opened it.

"Oh my." She brought a single hand to her mouth as she said so.

That would certainly turn the attention of more than one of her squadmates to her.

Instead of panicking, the noble woman smiled at the other squads and then bowed down, "I hope this evening finds you well. Please, forgive my blunder. I will try not to repeat it in the near future. In any case, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I am Joan Croce, and I've been assigned to squad Quinque starting this evening."

The woman quickly introduced herself, and then went on with the question some of them probably wanted to ask, why the hell was she lacking an squad?

"Sadly, I am the sole survivor of squad one. Most of my squadmates rushed in thoughtlessly and were swiftly killed by a flurry of arrows." The noble woman then cupped her cheek as she remembered the events from this morning.

Her eyebrows knitted together as she thought about it.

"If it weren't for my cute Merin, I don't know what I would have done. She dashed forward and dodged all of the arrows, before running over the man we were supposed to fell. I would like all of you to meet her at some point." The girl smiled again and then nodded. "But just look at me, rambling over and over. I am sure my personal circumstances are of little interest to you people. I hope we can get along."

She bowed down again and move on to one of the empty bunks, leaving a bag with her things beside the bed.

Hiro was going to go speak to someone else before hearing a new person enter the room, a new member for squad Quinque too. He heard her speak of her whole squad dying and it was a bit saddening but he knew that she could move on. He moved over and said "Welcome to squad Quinque, I am Hiro Anu. It is sad to hear that your entire squad died, but now you with us! We lost a man as well, so I know a bit of your grief. Be that as it may I hope you find some comfort." Hiro gave Joan a small smile, hoping to make her feel comfortable at the very least.

"This must be the right way..." Scott muttered to himself as he rounded the corner to the hall where his new bunk would be. Remembering his assigned room number, he could make a quick assessment of how far down the hall his room would be based on the number of the room closest to him. And, as he scanned the hall to find his room, he caught the glimpse of a troubadour entering what he determined to be the right room. At least, that's what he thought. He only caught a glimpse of her backside, after all. Then again, the backside was all he needed.

Re-focusing on the task at hand and combing his hand through his short red hair, Scott made his way after her and entered as she was finishing her story. Not soon enough to hear most of it, but from what he could pick up she was at least in a similar position as he; many of the fools once called his teammates had perished in the previous trials, but out of the survivors were a pair that had been separated into different squads, with Scott being one of them. "Perhaps I can break the ice with our shared tragedy," he thought to himself. "Ladies love a sympathetic man in times of need!" If this attempt to swoon another woman went better than his previous one, then perhaps she won't ask to be assigned a different team in the next mission like the other survivor of his squad did.

Finally getting a good look into the room while Hiro introduced himself, he studied each person for just a moment, though spending a moment longer than necessary looking at the troubadour. Then, to his surprise, he encountered a face he had not seen in a while, and yet remembered it as though he had seen it yesterday. "Well, if my eyes don't deceive me! Is that my green-clad companion, Mikhail? What are the odds of that!" he practically shouted as he dropped his baggage next to the door and rushed over to the dour man. Commencing a strong and hardy embrace, the armor they wore made clanks of various pitches that didn't quite seem to blend well together as they pierced the room's already stuffy air. "Tell me, how have your fared so far?"

Diana appeared surprised at Pauline's question. "Hugging this tail obviously." she said in a slightly dreamy tone of voice. Then more people came in and a lot of people started talking. The amount of names and people was nearly dizzying. So Diana tuned it out and focused on the ever so soft tail. She was getting sleepy. Diana's stroking slowed incrementally and her eyes shut to the background noise of conversation and the sweet feeling of that tail. In a few more seconds Diana was laying on the bed next to Azi, hands still clutching the tail but finally still.

More people were getting in. So all of them were in other squads but then their squadmates met their untimely deaths. And so they've been reassigned to other squads and coincidentally, the ended up in either Squad Trignita or Squad Quinque. Not that Kyakuya was complaining. It seemed that most squads composed of 6 people, like how they originally started, so they were completing their set.

Joan Croce. It was obvious that she was of noble blood, from her dress to her manners. "I had heard that Lord and Lady Croce had a daughter. I never knew that their daughter would dream of joining the army." As someone who had lived in Jotenvarr since the war and then lived in the palace, he had interacted or at least heard of talks about the nobility around here. And his ears were all too familiar with the family name Croce.

"I am Hyakuya, it is a pleasure to meet you Lady Croce. Hm... shall we call you by Joan perhaps? And I look forward to working with you." A troubadour, a healer on horseback one could say. She was needed in their squad and as one could easily see, without a healer, they would end up bleeding like Hyakuya did. He was better now but if they were to be injured in the middle of battle and cannot battle, that would pose a huge problem and thus a healer was needed.

Mikhail had been moments away from unloading a rather snarky reply on Claude when he felt something… wrong. It wasn’t the overly peppy Joan girl that made his skin crawl with her positive attitude and good manners. That was something that he had spent years growing accustomed to. No, it was more like a dark harbinger of inevitability that was eerily familiar. And then the door opened and everything became clear.

Walking like he owned the place, Scott’s arrival was one that left Mikhail awfully conflicted. On one hand, the womanizer was somebody he could count on in a fight. On the other hand though, Scott also had an awful penchant for hu-

”Oof,” Mikhail grunted ignobly as the other cavalier brought him into a most unwelcome embrace, which he had no intent on returning. For a man that kept most people at a figurative arm’s length at all times, Scott was the one person that made it physically impossible to do so. Mikhail still wasn’t sure if hated that wholeheartedly or merely hated it with a note of grudging respect.

”I find myself questioning a great deal of things,” he replied, ”Such as how a sorry lech like yourself is still in the military, much less a candidate for the royal guard.” His words were one part harsh honesty, one part camaraderie. Unfortunately, Mikhail found himself unable to suppress a grin from surfacing, as it was never good to encourage Scott.

”Now while it is good to see you, can you let go? You’re causing a scene.”

More and more people were joining the squads. A rather brash merc, apparently from Aika's squad, a Myrmidon - not from either of the squads in the room and a Red Knight who immediately struck a conversation with his green and rather depressive counterpart. Was that all? Fredrick was to join Aika's squad, but there still was no one to fill the missing place in their squad. Oh, there she is! An incredibly beautiful and graceful woman in a pink and white outfit entered the room and introduced herself. "Nice to meet you! I think we'll be teammates." - Pauline smiled at Joan. -"I'm Pauline at this ado- ahem, and this lady next to me is Aika." She lowered her voice slightly and turned to her companion - "See, you won't have to introduce yourself for the fifth time. Anyway, Joan, if you'd like, I could introduce you to others. I don't mind!"

As Diana slowed her pace into a soft slumber, Aika herself calmed down as well, she wasn't at all embarrassed by laughing so much infront of people she barely knew, as she looked around the new faces with the same innocent smile that seemed to be her normal. When Joan introduced herself and Pauline introduced Aika, the cheery blue-eyed girl stood up to give Lady Croce a playful and exaggerated bow before turning to Pauline.

"Ahh," she began with a fake pompous royalty accent. "Many thanks, m'lady." she bowed in similar fashion, and then placed her hand on her chin in wonder. "Hmm, well I don't know about you but I'm getting kinda tired. And I think our next trials are tomorrow... Hopefully people start winding down soon. Either way, I'm gunna get ready for bed." she finished her thought more so directed out loud than to anyone in particular, even though she was sitting infront of Pauline.

With a turn and crawl across her bed, Aika made it to the center of the room before picking up her bag and exiting the quarters.