Going to see the Guildmaster

There were a lot of people here. The guild was loud, busy, a bit cramped, and great. Even next to the door for the Guildmaster's Quarters wasn't safe from the sound of people going about their day, it was nice if a little awkward. Arlo was nervous, to say the least. He wasn't particularly good at talking to people if he couldn't say what he wanted, and just leave he decided, plus folks with positions of power have quite the intimidating factor as is.

Never the less, even if Arlo was nervous and his instincts were telling him to turn around and run back to the forest he wasn't about to listen. With a couple deep breaths, he stopped the shaking in his hand and confidently knocked on the door a little too hard. Flinching slightly upon realising what he'd just done he took a couple steps back away from the door; secretly hoping the room was empty and he could just leave without actually talking to the Guildmaster.

"Relax, Arlo, everything is going to be fine," Maxie said in a calm, comforting voice. The bustling nature of the place was neither bothersome, intimidating, or exciting to the mawile, but it was clearly having some influence on Arlo. That and the fact that they were about to speak to the head of this entire operation seemed to be a tad much for the emolga. Authority figures could have that sort of effect on others, whether they wanted to or not. "From what I've heard, the Grassveil Guild Master is actually quite kind."

Maxie adjusted her yellow scarf and observed the surroundings, taking in each and every detail. She would soon become very familiar with this place. She would soon be a member of this guild With Arlo as her trusted teammate, the two would go on great adventures filled with danger, excitement, treasure, and discovery. They'd climb the ladder, with each new rank would come greater adventures. Maxie was nearly shaking with excitement, but she kept it concealed. "We're going to do great."

Faye's desk was covered in various piles of books, the smell of the old pages and dust covered by the faint smell of potted flowers that pretty much covered most of the shelves on the back wall behind the wooden desk. The Meganium herself was deep in thought as she read the pages in front of her, one of her prehensile vines always going over to flip it when she needed to continue.

It was how she would have continued for quite the while too, if a sudden sound from the door hadn't snapped her out of her thoughts. The Guildmaster looked up, but saw nothing. Ah, of course. Her door was closed after all, someone must have been behind it.
"Just a moment," came a singsong response as she slid a marker between the pages and closed the book, placing it on top of her pile.

Heavy footsteps approached from the inside, stopping in front of the door on the other side. The handle rattled slightly as something wrapped around it and pushed it down, the door creaking open… And a gentle face of Faye peeking outside. An Emolga and a Mawile were waiting on the other side, both Pokémon the Guildmaster had not seen in the Guild before.
"Oh, hello there, dearies. Is there something I can do to help you?"

The Grassveil Guildmaster was apparently really nice and everything, he'd heard too. But official situations drained all of Arlo's seemingly infinite bravado. In a forest, or new town, or really anyplace where he wasn't confined and expected to act a certain way he had all the confidence he needed to get by, and make others think wow, that guy is so confident! But put him in a room and tell him to 'be official' and he cracks.

Stepping closer to Maxie Arlo was visibly concerned despite Maxie's attempts to calm him down. "I'm sure they're fine, I'm just not used to stuff like this. I've always been more of a free spirit ya know, fly around and just do stuff. I'm starting to second-guess myself."
I mean I've been second guessing myself since we got here, I'm just only now starting to freak out about it because it's finally sinking in what we're doing!

When the door rattled and opened, Arlo literally jumped and squeaked in surprise. In a flash, he darted past Maxie, hiding directly behind her without even realising what he'd done. He poked his head out after a moment, slightly embarrassed by his instinctual reaction to something he knew was going to happen.
"Heya, you... We're were just stopping by to do the thing that you do when the thing that you want to do involves this place where things happen. Ya know? That is if you're not too busy, we can always just leave and let you get back to your work. I mean, you're probably really busy. Maxie, we should go, we're just wasting their time, they're too busy for us."

Maxie couldn't help but roll her eyes in response to Arlo's antics. She was actually quite surprised that the little squirrel's bravado faded in the face of authority figures. The mawile stepped forward and slightly to the side, partially exposing her companion to the guild master who was now standing in the doorway. She cleared her throat before speaking. "Um, pardon my friend here; he's a tad bit nervous. But yes, I think you can help us. We'd like to join your guild, please."

The mawile held one hand in the other and met Faye's eyes as she spoke. Simultaneously, she nudged at Arlo with her horns, attempting to get him to stand beside her rather than hiding behind her. Come on, Arlo, everything's fine. This is a big moment; we're joining the Grassveil Guild—this is just the start. We're going to be big names one day. Bet you won't be nervous around the guild master then.

Faye tilted her head slightly as the Emolga started to speak, her smile not faltering as she listened. His story wasn't that easy to follow, however, but she did her best. The young Pokémon seemed to be quite nervous, not giving the Meganium a chance to speak up before he was already ready to leave. The Mawile by his side was quick to step up in turn, speaking up and explaining the situation. It already looked like the two were shaping up to be a team that would help each other.

"That sounds wonderful, dearies. Please come in," the Guildmaster invited the two, pushing the door further open with her vine as she took a few steps back to give them room,
"Do sit down, if you'd like. Would either of you perhaps want some tea while we talk?" Faye motioned towards her desk where a couple of smaller chairs were waiting for guests – after all, the Meganium was much too big for them herself. Her own cup of tea had already been drank, but the pot should still be warm from earlier, full of her own blend of herbal tea…

Slowly Arlo followed beside Maxie, taking her nudge in stride and trying to be surer of himself. He popped up onto on of the chairs awkwardly. When offered some tea, about a dozen thoughts rushed through Arlo's head which finally settled on. Okay, asking for tea isn't that difficult, just say yes and then I can go from there. "I'd actually quite like a tea if you wouldn't mind."

So far Faye did seem quite nice, but that didn't alleviate Arlo's nerves much. Faye's relative size to him didn't make it any better; size was never a problem for Arlo out in the world, he'd just make his personality bigger to match anyone else. But in this case, the intimidating size of the Guildmaster just made him seem like he was looming over Arlo.

Looking around the office Arlo was surprised by a number of books and flowers scattered about the space. Glancing around, almost distractedly, Arlo found his voice. "Also yeah, we're here to see about Joining the guild, if that's not a big bother. I saw a bunch of other Pokemon around so I'd understand if you're like, full or something. But if not that's why we're here. With you. Here... How would we go about doing that?" He stopped looking around the room as he finished, trying to make eye contact with Faye, but looking away just at the last second each time he lost his nerve trying to play it off like he wasn't trying to avoid the eye contact afterwards.

Maxie's heart rate betrayed her outward appearance. She maintained a calm, professional demeanour, but upon the invitation to enter the guild master's office her excitement further escalated and found her jaw-like horns bobbing up and down. It took more effort than normal to still them. She sat in one of the offered chairs, hands held in her lap. She debated the offer of tea for a moment before declining with a polite "No thank you."

The mawile nodded along with Arlo's words, turning her full attention to the guild master in front of her as he finished with his question. In all the stories she had read about or heard by word of mouth back at her home, the process of actually becoming a guild member was not something she had learned. Thus, this was an entirely new experience which she had no frame of reference or gifted experience with. It was a formal, ritual-like event, something all guild members go through—something only guild members experience. And now she was experiencing it, along with Arlo. To her, this was a momentously important event.

Faye walked behind her desk to pour one of her guests a cup of hot tea, her steps relaxed though her weight couldn't help but cause some noise as she walked about. One of her vines grabbed onto the pot, filling a small cup with a translucent green liquid that was then swiftly placed in front of the Emolga that had asked for it.

"I don't think we will ever be that full, sweetie," the Guildmaster chuckled softly at the young Pokémon's worry about possibly not fitting in, but they had a lot of space and even more jobs that needed to be done. Explorers never ran out of work!
"Now, the joining process itself it very simple and doesn't require much from you at all. First, I take this book," Faye started, a vine slithering out and grabbing a large tome from the shelf behind her, spreading it out on the desk. She quickly started to browse through the pages, but one could see that the pages weren't empty, covered in dark, inky scrawls.

"Which is where all the information about various teams in this Guild is stored. All I ask for is for you to do your best while not overdoing it and putting yourself, your partners or any other Pokémon in needless danger… And your names and the name of your future team, if you decide you want to go through with it."

Taking the tea from Faye, Arlo quickly downed the entire thing while she was explaining how the system worked. It seemed remarkably easy, no test, no interview, no anything really. It's surprising how easy it is to join. At least that meant that things would be quick, and they could leave Faye to their far more important work.

Arlo quickly glanced at Maxie to try and get a read on her, she was bobbing nervously, or excitedly? He couldn't quite tell but her confidence was far outweighing his own at the moment. Though she was being oddly quiet, probably in an attempt to get him out of his comfort zone and talking. "So all we need is a name? That's really obvious now that you say it but I hadn't even considered we'd need one, I've not planned ahead and all the ones that I can think of just sound silly."

The process was indeed quite simple. Upon hearing the requirements, Maxie was reminded that she had never introduced herself or Arlo. "Oh! Of course, our names. We forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm Maxie, and this is Arlo," Maxie said, gesturing first to herself and then to the emolga sitting adjacent to her. "And I promise that we won't overwork ourselves, or put ourselves, each other, or anyone else in harm's way."

With that said, Maxie began to think on the subject of a team name. It was a very important decision, the team name. It had to be something both she and Arlo agreed upon. It also had to be something that did well to represent the team's members and the team as a whole. An idea came, and the mawile turned to her partner. "Arlo, if I could suggest a name... How does Team Tenacity sound? Tenacity is the quality of being persistent."

"That indeed is all, sweetie," Faye smiled at the Emolga, who seemed to be wondering if a name was really the only thing that was needed. Well, there was of course more that a Guildmaster had to do to finish up the registration, but for the teams? That was it. But despite how important a team's name could be, it seemed like the two hadn't been thinking about it. That wasn't uncommon.

The Mawile realized that there were two other names the Guild needed, aside from the team's name. Faye didn't know the two Pokémon, after all, so she did require the two to introduce themselves. With everything that had been going on, the introductions had been pushed aside. A gentle chuckle escaped the Meganium's lips.
"This might be a bit late now, but I am the Guildmaster of Grassveil Guild, Faye. It is nice to meet you two."

What more, the Mawile – Maxie – also came up with a suggestion for the team name. The Guildmaster looked in the Emolga's direction.

Hearing Maxie's suggestion, Arlo lit up. "That's amazing! It's perfect! Did you just come up with that on the spot? I love it! It fits us so well, and just screams how tough we're gonna be as we take on whatever comes at us head on!" As he excitedly spoke, he stood up on his chair and started making movements like he was having a fist fight with a phantom opponent; though when he noticed Faye looking at him he almost immediately shrunk back down to his former quiet state. "Uuh, yeah. I think we'll go with that. It suits us. Also, it's a pleasure to meet you, Faye"

Arlo's antics were too much for Maxie. The mawile couldn't help but giggle as the little electric-type stood and pantomimed along with his excited rambling. She was happy to see Arlo being a bit more open, even if it was only in a short burst. He was a very interesting and uplifting character, that was for sure, and she was glad to have him on her team. "Alright, okay, I think we've found our name, then." She composed herself again and returned her attention to Faye. "And yes, it is a pleasure to meet you. So, that's all individual names and a team name covered... What's next?"

Faye couldn't help but smile as the Emolga practically lit up at the suggestion, already so excited about the whole thing. Very different from his earlier nervousness, but it seemed to return when he realized there also was a third Pokémon in the room. A soft chuckle escaped the Guildmaster's lips.
"Excellent. Now," she started, stopping the browsing of the book on her desk when she came across the first page without any writing. Clearly the book was old, it even smelled like it! By the time a blank came was found, there already was quite the thick stack of pages behind – but there still were even more blank ones waiting for future teams. Despite its age, however, it was basically dust-free. It did see a lot of use…

"All I need to do is write the team of your name along with your own here and we are finished with the signing up process," Faye looked up from the book at the two Pokémon in front of her, one of her vines fetching a quill she then dipped in a small bottle of ink. Her gaze stayed there for a moment, for that last possible hesitation the two might have had before she brought it to the paper where the tip of the quill glided across the page with a slight scratching sound.
"And then you will be a part of the Guild, dearies."