A Troubadour and a Mage meet up one day - (Closed - Ranko Kanzaki)

Huh, though it made him happy to know classes from home had managed to have come here and be saved by those weird blue-skin mages too: this Troubadour seemed really kinda lost, didn’t she? She seemed to almost be looking from one thing to another rather frantically, looking scared: there was nothing here to be scared of, so…logical adult thinking meant she was lost, right?

He wanted to offer help, but he was feeling too in awe of the Troubadour - they were above mages like him in social constructs back home, even when they were from a noble family like he was! Though, when she suddenly came to a stop, he did, too. She did this a few times. Uhm. Was she playing some kind of chase game with him? He was totally a mature adult and shouldn’t be playing games! (Even if the idea did make him excited…)

Then, she turned, yelling halt. Oh, so she wasn’t playing chase…she knew he’d been following, and he fidgeted with his large hat shyly on stopping as directed.

Though, her strange way of talking made him lower his gloved hands from his hat. Uhm…?? Oh, wait…this was how Owain spoke a lot of the time, so if he just took the time to deconstruct her talk like he’d do with Owain, it should make sense.

“Young bystander? Nu-uuuh, I am nooot - you’re around the same age as me, I can tell!”

Pouting a moment at the assumption he was a child, he then sighed, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry if I was a sudden distraction to your powers, though - I didn’t mean to scare you. I…saw you going along, but was…k-kinda too shy to say hello. So I followed you to try and get up my courage.” At least he’s managing to speak bravely NOW.

“Oh, uhm…do I want something? Yes, actually…this might sound weird, but…are you a Trobadour? You look so much like one of them, and it reminded me of home…! If not, that’s okay. I promise not to be sad. I’ll still try and help you, though, if you’re not a Trobadour…you look really lost and like you need directions.”

A mature adult helped people in trouble, yes!!

    "Ku ku ku... There is no shame to be found, my friend, in trembling in the shadow of my powers. Although sealed at present, the full force of my abilities are enough to make even the fiends of Hell themselves cower in fear!”

    Following this dramatic proclamation, Ranko faltered slightly as she processed the stranger’s next words.

     “A... troubadour?” She stumbled over the unusual word slightly as she tried to process its meaning. A few moments of silence ticked by, each one heavier than the last, before - “Uh... K-Kya ha ha!” That’s a laugh high-pitched enough to make most passerbys wince. “I have borne the weight of many titles over the expanse of my life, but many moons have waxed and waned since the last time someone correctly identified this one in question! It is as you say - I am indeed a tr - uh... t-troubadour!”

    She paused to clear her throat briefly.

    “...You have done well, my new companion, to identify the power sleeping within me... Surely you must possess magic of your own to have obtained such impressive insight. Thus! I will permit you the greatest of honors - you may accompany me to my destination, that grand crossroad of departures and beginnings which I seek!” Um, yes, I’m a little bit lost... I’m trying to get to the train station - do you think you could help me figure out where to go?

Walking for quite sometime without really minding her surroundings, it seems Edna has ended up in another division. This one had a pleasant breeze blowing by and was situated higher then her home division.  Edna wasn’t particularly interested in this place but it did have beautiful gardens.

Upon walking into one she finds another girl looking at some of the flowers.

“Those flowers there are called peonies they’re pretty aren’t they?”

    Ranko wasn’t exactly well accustomed to the place yet, but she had stumbled upon the gardens on one of her first days in the Division and had formed a quick attachment to them. There was something vividly tranquil about how it felt to stand here, an ocean of flowers before her, and in some loose manner it reminded her of the gardens outside her old production studio. If she closed her eyes it was almost as if she could hear the gentle flowing of the fountain, the voices of the others, faint and comforting in the distance, and -

    It was the voice of a stranger that broke Ranko free of her reverie, and she turned to face its owner, eyes fluttering open once more.

    “Peonies… So that is their title. To have the power to enchant even me, beholder of the Eye - ku ku ku… Perhaps some otherworldly force exists at play here after all.” Ahh, really? Thanks for telling me; they’re really pretty!

    She extended a smile to the stranger. “Are you, too, often enraptured by this Garden of Eden?” It’s really nice here, isn’t it! Have you been here before?

A Troubadour and a Mage meet up one day - (Closed - Ranko Kanzaki)

Woah, woah…that strange lady he didn’t know who had walked past! She’d actually made his curious wanderings stop dead in the middle of heading to the ‘firey’ place - he’d checked the water place and the wind place now of here, so why not check out the other ‘elements’ too, because that vibrant pink dress: it was so elegant and refined.

So pretty…

His family were nobles, so he knew about that sorta thing - and there was no denying it! Someone with such carefully made gowns had to be a Troubadour -a trustworthy and respectable healer looked up to by mages! It’d be rude to just waltz up and ask, though…he’d already accidentally called someone a mage here who wasn’t.

She reminded him so much of one of his friends, Maribelle, though, that he found shy steps following all the same, watching on with a continued sense of awe and shyness. Hopefully she didn’t notice him and get scared, that’d be bad.

    To say that Ranko was lost would be, at least in part, an overstatement. It was true that she was still trying to find her footing amongst the winding, unfamiliar paths of Aeolus - it was a world away and more from the well-worn sidewalks of her hometown, but she tried not to think about that, at least for now. In any case, while she was doing pretty well, it was beginning to dawn on her that attempting to make her way to the train station without any outside help may have been a mistake. She was relatively sure that if she turned back now she could find her way back to her housing with not much difficulty, but as for which way the station actually was, well… that was an entirely different quandary.

    Lost in her thoughts as her eyes helplessly scanned her surroundings, it took her far too long to recognize the presence of someone shadowing her.

    Half convinced she was just being paranoid, Ranko halted without warning. The gentle sound of footsteps in her wake followed suit with a moment’s delay. She repeated this action once, twice, three times, before - spurred on by fear-induced bravado - she pivoted around with a dramatic flourish.

   “Halt!”

    Upon being met with the figure of a young boy standing before her, Ranko deflated slightly, relief imprinted clearly upon her face. A moment later she resumed her stance, arm outstretched, hand splayed outwards in the boy’s direction.

   “Young bystander!” - not that he looked much younger than her, but Ranko didn’t let that deter her - “Ku ku… A rash act indeed, to believe that my powers would be unable to detect your presence… but you are far from the first to foolishly underestimate my ability.” Sorry, you just startled me a little! “To so brazenly approach one such as I… it is evident that you must have some request to make of me. I permit you to deliver it upon me!” Can I help you with something?

From the album "THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS ANIMATION PROJECT 03" (2015)