[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/Bmc3wqz.png[/img][/center]
[center][h1][b][color=6ecff6]Xander[/color][/b][/h1][/center]

A man walked into the room and unsheathed a sword.

[i][color=6ecff6]Holy crap,[/color][/i] Xander thought as the man he had never met before refused to sheath his blade. [i][color=6ecff6]W...Why the fuck is he taking out his sword? Is this guy trying to kill something? Because I think I'm the only living thing in this room right now aside from himself. And I don't think he's the kind of guy to cut himself-[/color][/i]

At that moment, the man greeted himself. Jaron was his name, and he asked if swords were "cool."

[i][color=6ecff6]...Are they? At least he's not trying to kill anything... I think.[/color][/i]

Truthfully, Xander never found weapons in general to be legitimately awesome-looking. Sure, some were full of gimmicks and some had huge histories behind them, but in the end, all that mattered was whether it could be used well or not to ensure a longer survival for its wielder. If his sword broke, then it was a useless weapon. If it did not break, then it was not a useless weapon.

But he had to admit, some of the more advanced weapons people carried around were neat. Some even had cup-holders installed inside their weapons. How cool was that?

His eyes directed towards Jaron, he slowly redirected them back to the table before he resumed carrying out his persona. The blond-haired swordsman shrugged without a word, and while he was not lying, he probably looked far more disinterested in the topic than he made himself out to be. Xander decided to comment in a dead flat tone.

"[color=6ecff6]Xander. Xander Zahir. Nice sword.[/color]"

He did not realize he looked so edgy while he said that, especially since he had his eyes closed and his arms crossed and all of that wiz-biz.

Not long after Jaron entered the meeting room, a slew of people entered the meeting room. And by "slew of people," he meant a whopping [b][u]three[/u][/b] people had entered the freaking room. Xander opened his eyes and glanced at the entrance.

[i][color=6ecff6]Oh shit,[/color][/i] he thought worriedly. [i][color=6ecff6]These guys don't look like they're just wannabe heroes. Even if one of them looks like a wannabe hero, I should never underestimate those harmless-looking people. Especially that [u]bird girl[/u]. She looks like the type who would bump into women in hallways, but she could turn out to be a [b]hardass[/b] who underwent [b]immense battle training[/b].[/color][/i]

Xander's eyes turned to the silver-haired woman.

[i][color=6ecff6]And then there's [u]Longitude[/u] the Tall Woman. Longitude is definitely hiding something crazy in herself. She's probably got lots of crap going on in her head as well. Oh damn, what if [b]I[/b] get on her nerves? That'd suck way too much. No, but more importantly, what if she gets on my nerves first and I get on her nerves because I express that stuff?

Or maybe I could just stop paying her attention and worry about it later.[/color][/i]

It turned out that ignoring the silver-haired woman worked. His eyes turning to the man who entered, the blond perfectly maintained his idle expression, despite the fact that he was screaming internally so much.

[i][color=6ecff6]Okay, so that guy is almost obviously taller than me. And I'm barely smaller than that Jaron guy. He's probably got more of a build than me, and even if he's weaker than me, he's probably boasting some extraordinary thing that makes his height the last thing I should be worrying about.

Dammit, why is everyone looking so natural with this kind of thing?! Even that Jaron guy is just smiling like fucking crazy even though I'm sitting here doing nothing but staring at people! Gawd, this is so tense![/color][/i]

Xander sighed without sharing any context to the people around him, closing his eyes as he turned to the table. There had to be a reason why he was brought into a room with a bunch of interestingly intimidating people (and if even the harmless-looking Feren made him feel nervous, then there definitely was something up). The man maintained his silence as everyone around him took seats.

The swordsman opened his eyes yet again, glancing at each and every person who had entered the room. His eyes went over to Jaron, then the tall and lean man, then the silver-haired woman, and then the bird girl.

He glared at the girl for a brief second. He swore that there was probably something fucking insane inside her as well, and he was not going to be taken by surprise by catastrophic secrets. Turning back to the table, he closed his eyes for the third time and lowered his head a bit.