[h2]Marxello Catchanale[/h2]
It was a matter of mere minutes after Mark had arrived at the guild house, and he was already unhappy with how it was arranged. Most notably, he'd anticipated far more humans to be part of it, yet it seemed the majority of its members were monsters, up to and including a shoggoth. An actual chaos demon, far worse for various reasons than any regular demon, or so he had read in the library of his Order's headquarters. And yet not only had Bart somehow convinced her, based on her words, to serve as a servant for the entire guild, but she seemed... inordinately chummy. Then again, her race did apparently breed, or otherwise achieve sexual pleasure, by essentially making skin contact with a human... possibly anything at all... so there was that. He certainly wasn't going to touch her, with or without armour on.

Otherwise, many of the monsters seemed to be quite normal, compared to others of their race. The notables were a... potentially a human, introducing herself as Arletta Dupain, and who Mark mused might make a good sparring partner if she wasn't planning on doing horrendous things to him, but the fact she was clad entirely in demon silver save her head, neck, and upper legs was rather suspicious; another seemingly-human character, distinguished by the mask over her face and the emptiness behind the holes in it, alongside a rabbit-shaped doll that was identifiable as living and demonically-aligned simply from looking at it, for doing so instinctively imbued trust and compassion within him, to his trained senses a warning to maintain the exact opposite mindset; [s]a mershark, apparently allowed to swim through the air by the magic of her human companion, and that raised the question of whether the Undine he'd made a covenant with was pure or corrupted... since he was friends with a Mershark, he imagined the latter[/s]; and finally, a person hidden beneath a cloak large enough to obscure all but the faintest hint of her facial features, and how rare it was for a, what were they called, for a wendigo to come down from their mountainous homes. Bart really was charismatic, wasn't he, to gather such a crowd without being violated by any of them?

Then there were the other creatures of note, the ones that appeared quite bizarre even by monster standards. There was a girl who at first glance appeared to be an ogre of some sort, but for anyone who knew their usual appearance she was very obviously... [i]stunted.[/i] No horns, physically inferior to any normal ogre, and apparently making up for it with magical prowess that no ogre should possess. He wondered what exactly had happened to allow that of her... and then there were the male monsters. In and of itself, this term was an impossible contradiction, and yet there they stood before him: the wererabbit Freyr- no, this was a different type of wererabbit than was usual, a viera from his words... was the most obvious of the two, but the smooth-talking man called Bast was more... subtle, yes, to the point that you might assume he was a human from the get-go, but the way he talked was insidious, the attempt to charm every other monster there at once just a bit too ostentatious for Mark's liking. Perhaps he was an incubus looking for a wife? Either way, Mark was going to keep his eye on him.

[i]Then again,[/i] Mark considered, glancing over at Syszi next to him, [i]it's not like monsters deviating from the norm is something I'm unaware of. Besides, maybe he is human after all, and just happens to be kind of odd.[/i] Speaking of humans, it seemed that aside from himself and Bartholomew, there were very few definite humans in the guild: Neil, a self-proclaimed nobody, meaning he was obviously marked out by Bart for some special reason... whether legitimate or pity-based; Anitta the Blade Dancer, who also had a mask on, but with eyes that were actually visible behind the object, marking her out as non-monster; and Matti Virta, who from the sound of things would be managing the guild's finances and healing those who needed it. Naturally, he would be having words with all three of them, Anitta in particular. He was sure she'd appreciate being inoculated against monsterisation... perhaps she'd even allow him to teach her the basic purification spell itself. She had a sword, after all, and it would be a good way to begin spreading it into the wider world.

But for now, he supposed it was his turn to introduce himself, reluctantly or no. He was part of this guild, at least for the time being, so he'd have to be friendly with them sooner or later. 'Hi, all,' he began as calmly as he could, waving to the assorted group members, 'I'm Marxello Catchanale. Call me Mark. I'm, uh... I'm a Hero, specifically a Knight, from the Order of the Chief God in the nation of Andrale, and I've obviously been asked to join this guild alongside... you guys. And girls.' Was his reluctance showing through? Nah, he was alright. 'I assume I'm here as a fighter first and foremost, but I can also heal anyone who needs it, if they don't mind my doing so. Other than that, I hope we can all get along reasonably well, regardless of our origins.'