Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jeremy stared at the entrance to the pod room.

It had been almost a year since he heard the call for a Mission, and even longer than that did he even bother to heed it. This was almost nerve wracking to him; when he woke up he swore to himself that he was going to change, to actually do the job he was meant to do, but it had been a long time since he'd seen anyone familiar. A few questions ran through his mind; who would still be there? Would they remember him? Part of him hoped so, and the other part of him dreaded it...if they recognized him they'd ask what happened...

And that was embarrassing.

It would be too easy to turn and leave, but he promised himself that he wouldn't. No more, not again. So, taking a deep breath, Jeremy slipped into the pod room, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

At the trainee's approach, Clarice turned and gave him a small smile, "That I am." The following handshake was accompanied by an appraising look. "You must be..."

"He's a newbie. Not quite F.O.P. but close enough," Dwight added helpfully.

"Right," Clarice gave him a look that was one part shut up and two parts or I will make you and then went back to smiling politely. "This is going to be a fairly large scale mission, so if you have any questions after the briefing, don't hesitate to ask."

Scanning the room, her expression gentled into something less professionally pleasant. She'd read the deceased and missing lists after coming back, but it was the first time she'd had a chance to see a large group of the hunters and trainees who were still here, still alive. The fact that this was directly prior to a mission was almost entirely too bittersweet.

Lex gave Dwight a little glare, making a 'you've got to be kidding me' face at his attire, namely the plaid pants. Those weren't even good looking in the 70's.

"Yeah, I'm the newest to the division." An indignant smile, a roll of the eyes. He was still rubbed the wrong way by the fact that teenagers were higher ranked than him.

He was looking at you, Gale. Looking really hard.

Are your ears burning yet?

"Don't count me out, though, Ma'am. I'll do whatever needs doing." A smile, and a chuckle. "I'm sure your explanation will be top notch."

He walked back, and took a seat.

<< Please don't tell my you're going to try this one, peasant. >>

< Nah, not enough of a good rep yet. >

<< Your guidelines are silly. >>

< At least I don't jump on the first horny female I see, unlike your species. >

<< ...You read that part of the book? >>

< Yes. >

Lex would next be seen holding his head and clenching his jaw in pain, thanks to a Gryphon singing high tenor in his head.

Clarice quirked an eyebrow after Lex and then turned to beam warmly at Gale. Taking in his new rank, she gave him a thumbs up before capping her marker and clearing her throat. "Alright, looks like the majority of us who are free to take care of this are here, so let's get started." She pointed to the top of the board.



"If you were around last October, you'll remember the mission. Various horrible things happened, and a bunch of you nearly died because a rogue Boogeyman decided it would be a good idea to not only impersonate a hunter, but force bond a weapon in the process." The blonde's mouth pursed and turned down at the memory of the imposter and her own hurt confusion, unsure if Aria had ever even existed. "The result was messy, to say the least, and brought to light a new, and very dangerous form of Insanity."

Whiteboard

INSANITY FOR DUMMIES
- Insanity is the result of corrupted emotional energies. Both FEAR and JOY can be twisted into Insanity. O:
- Insanity can be a temporary status effect ):
(example: Phoenix aftermath)
- Insanity can also take on an infectious form that, so far, has proven permanent (it can be treated but not wholly cured by any method used so far D:<)
- There are three known stages of insanity:
Stage 1 - Purely mental (paranoia, light hallucinations)
Stage 2 - Increase in mental symptoms accompanied by the atrophy of healthy FEAR (signified by hardening and loss of skin pigmentation)
Stage 3 - Breaking point of mental and physical stability (loss of or altered personality, aggression, increase in size, form begins to wholly break apart, appearance of dispersed Insanity [fog])

"Those of you who've fought infected creatures or touched Insanity yourself should be familiar with at least some of this. Since that mission, we've been increasing our studies of Insanity, especially after the Phoenix ordeal." A small gloom fell over several visages at the reminder, and Clarice paused a moment before continuing, "I'll expect you to help out those who have less or no experience with it, because our regional scans have shown a sharp rise in corrupted energies centered around the Haunted House. Something is about to happen, and we need to know what it is. The nature of the House and the fact that it's something of a gateway makes this doubly important."

Whiteboard

CURRENT MISSION OBJECTIVES:
- locate Insanity points within the House >: D
- observe any infected creatures >:I
- discover the cause of Insanity increase >:[

"Now down to instructions: you're mainly going in to observe. You may end up fighting something because Insanity has that effect, you may end up fighting some non-infectede creatures as well because Amityville doesn't leash it's students at all, which is shame because apparently half of them think they're living in a goddamn Harry Potter book." The blonde rolls her eyes and refrains from using the phrase those meddling kids. "Since this isn't technically an offensive strike or location defense, you can technically go in solo, however I highly recommend finding a team, or at least a buddy to have your back. If you have access to runics, make sure you get a charged one before going. If you're pendant has been used up or damaged, grab a new from the quartermaster. Make sure your phones are charged. The portal to the House is open, and Dwight," she nodded to the other Life hunter, "will be monitoring events from this side. If it reaches a point where further back-up is required or the mission objectives change, he'll be the one relaying that information. "

Frowning pensively, Clarice's eyes skimmed over their faces, both new and familiar and quite simply changed over the past few months. With a soft sigh she continued, "Right now this is just information gathering in a somewhat familiar area and it doesn't even rate a division leader giving the briefing." The grown twisted up into a wry smile, "But it's probably not going to stay that way. Insanity is unpredictable, but it never fails to make things worse. So be careful and pick your battles."

THE OOC

The light house portal to the Haunted House portal leads to the HH subforum. Please read this thread for more information of the current event's version of the HH.

Bix watched Ariane power over to the guy he sort of recognized and smack him in the face. OH! IT WAS THAT GUY! His memory had to go all the way back to when they first woke up but he remembered vividly feeling slightly out of place that even Ariane knew someone else.. and he didn't.

Bix felt a mighty need to save this guy. He'd just got slapped, then molested, and by the look on his face he just wanted to be left alone. The albino swallowed his pride and mosied up, moving one of Ariane's hands to his own butt. She now had a grip on both men's cheeks.

"How about we all do something something together?" His answer to her previous question, as well as an attempted save for Jeremy.

Oh great. The Haunted House was now ten times worse. Make that one hundred times worse.

The small blonde hunter watched the presentation with an irritated scowl. Well, at least he could go there with the intention of simply getting information. If he could avoid battle, the better off he was. He wasn't a sun hunter, even if his weapon was more suited for it. Otto preferred gathering info to smashing things (as much fun as smashing things was).

Jude chuckled slightly, "Thanks, Gale," he said simply as just watched the room in general for the time being as Gale talked to Clarice for a second. It was kind of nice to be back in action again even if he didn't heed the call earlier. He just simply had to get over himself and get moving again, that's all. He just cornered himself and now he was tired of it.

When Gale addressed him again he let out a small laugh, "I do that, too," he said with a wry smile, "but sometimes I think I can still smell it and the memories come rushing back."

He quieted when Clarice gave a run down. He made a bit of a face at having to team up, sometimes it was hard for him to get a grouping together. He did spy a Deryk, and Otter Otto. Maybe Gale, too? The briefing didn't say it had to be a diverse group...