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 Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:15 pm
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"You've got eyes, I'm not suggesting you do nothing," Shiloh said, a bit more tersely than intended. He was normally the friendly guy, the smiling one but it only took one look at him before it was obvious he was tired, over-tired, his face pale and dark circles under his own eyes, which he busied with glancing around the area and making every point of avoiding Ian.
He hadn't spoken to Ian, or heard from him since the beach, and there were a million things he wanted to do, to tell him. Most of all, he just wanted to say hi, but the words died before they ever reached his lips. Alistaire knew, Alistaire knew and he'd struck a nerve and it was all Shiloh could do just to maintain his composure, to keep from stalking of the field childishly upset as he stared at Ian, watching him for a moment as he checked the body's coat. It hurt to be here, but there was work to do, and bodies turning up unexpectedly always meant trouble and after everything that had happened, Shiloh wasn't about to sit idly by either, no matter how much he felt like his brain was swimming.
"Sorry," he said, turning back to Zaschia, his tone much softer, far more appropriate for the pink hair hunter. Another hunter had spoken up too, and he nodded at her. "I didn't mean to snap, and you've got the right idea, but unfortunately, around here beheading isn't exactly out of the ordinary. Who did it, is much more worrisome."
He smiled wryly at them. "Nice intro to the island, huh? Name's Shiloh, by the way, nice to meet you."
The busier he kept, the less he had to think.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:19 pm
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"Bradley, Shiloh, and Zascha, then." She nodded to herself and, noting something drop from the hunter's body, picked up the greater rune to inspect it.
"Eh, could be worse. Got into the academy on the day the men were PMSing, that was an nice intro. Nora Ravensgrove," she told him. "Nice t'meet you to, circumstances not withstanding. You like peaches? Oy, anybody got identification on this John Doe yet?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:23 pm
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Peyton sank down to balance on her toes beside Cami. "It's not the last dead body you'll see, or the most disfigured. We see awful things, it's part of our job, but you'll get numb to it," she was smiling, a soft, almost sad smile. "Jaded, I guess, but it's like a layer of armor. It'll keep your mind safe."
She'd learn, Peyton had no doubt about it. They all did, eventually. The small handful that didn't...well, some went back to the pods for a while, and some just didn't make it.
But she didn't say any of that, because Camille didn't need anything else to worry about right that second. The body was enough.
Head turning back to the body, she looked up at Gale, who had grabbed the phone. "What'd you find?" He was staring at the screen, frowning thoughtfully.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:27 pm
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Before the game of chase was over, there was a loud noise of some sort of collision behind her. Curious, Mimsy looked over her shoulder to see the group gathering towards something in the crates - which, if the limb she could see connected to the socket that limbs typically connected to, was quite possibly a human body.
As many of them began to investigate their new arrival, she army crawled inconspicuously past the legs of the growing crowd, until the center of the gathered group was visible. She pushed herself up, and knelt to get a better look. It was a body, missing its head.
An explosion of giggles came from Svensyl, and she snorted with badly-stifled laughter right behind him.
"Well, trainees - what are you waiting for?" She tilted her head and glanced around, not quite meeting anyone's eyes. "Peel it!"
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:27 pm
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A chill ran through Hanna when she recognized the coat as one of their own -- a hunter, at least. "Mist," she announced to the group but also the Hunter who had asked about identification. "Or at least wearing a Mist hunter's coat." She stood upright, glancing around at the gathered faces. Golden eyes trailed around the training center. Where could this have come from: dropped by a plane, thrown off... something?
"What have you got there?" she said, glancing toward the girl who had just told someone else her name was Nora.
Hanna recognized it was a rune, but she had very little experience with them. She had been repodded before she had been trained about runes.
The coat was bugging her. It was hard to get a good look at it from this perspective. Maybe it had some unique characteristics to it like other hunters had? Coats could be like thumbprints, after all, depending on the Hunter.
Carefully, Hanna crouched beside the body again and began removing the coat to check it for some unique quirk that might help identify the body. "Maybe someone can recognize something about the coat," she explained -- because, well, she was kind of undressing a headless body. Or, peeling it? Weird.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:33 pm
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Stormy eyed the evidence, the fog in her eyes quickly lifting once she heard the hunter was from her division. Work gave her clarity and purpose, as did working with Gale; but now this was personal.
Scanning the cellphone's content, a thoughtful frown wrinkled her face. "Timetable," she muttered. "Drop offs? No carved messages in these, no other notes?" They had arrived here at 7 as told, but work hadn't begun until 7:30 . . . And there still weren't leaders or assistants coming to help.
She didn't like the implication that either they were pre-occupied, or they just didn't care.
Stormy mumbled to herself, gently taking the Mist coat off Hannah's hands if allowed to keep for now. Lance would want it. Maybe. Something. There was no weapon tablet to scavenge that she saw of, so this would have to do.
"Meeting place?" she was still continuing as she retruend to Gale, almost pressed to his side as she doubled the coat up. She eyed Peyton warily; the shrieks from before had unnerved her. Then she turned her gaze back to Gale. "Coordinates. Maybe we should try the lighthouse."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:40 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:41 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:44 pm
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"Dropping off what, exactly?" Gale asked, squinting at the screen. "These are pretty close times - they're fifteen minute intervals, so whatever it is had to be something easily retrievable. It's definitely a timetable, though; no messages elsewhere, nothing in the pockets...except..."
The one called Ian had withdrawn something from one pocket; a crude drawing of what looked like the lighthouse. Gale eyed it warily, and then looked back at the phone in his hand, frowning slightly.
"Timetable..." he said musingly.
He was murmuring half to himself and Stormy, half to the others standing around, though he didn't look up from the phone. His mind was already working furiously to put the pieces together; it was like a puzzle, and he felt as though the answer was right in front of him and he still couldn't reach it.
The trainee beside Peyton had a good suggestion, and Gale twisted to look at the screen of her phone, still holding the other phone.
His face paled.
Sahara.
No.
Anywhere but there.
"The lighthouse," Gale said to Stormy. His fingers were shaking. "Come on."
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