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"Because sending everyone to Before's room is just as, if not more than, entertaining than you walking around with a toilet paper bow-tie," said Gale idly, absently twisting the silver banded ring around his right index finger. Jinhai had remained studiously silent throughout most of the evening so far, but now he said << You're being quite childish, you realize. >>

"Look who's talking," mumbled Gale, but much to his disgruntlement, the rifle was right. Sitting on the floor of Bix's room while everyone else meandered around outside in the hall was not exactly an ideal situation for making friends.

He gave Cass a wave in greeting, and he'd heard the overly perky Madison arrive, followed by the red haired hunter who's name had escaped Gale yet again. Most of the older hunters hardly paid attention to him (with the exception of Bix, but he was sort of weird anyway, so that didn't really count) so for the time being he had not felt a need to actually do more than work with them. He did not find this particularly disheartening; after all, should he be their age, it would be natural to gravitate towards the ones they knew were similar.

Pushing himself to his feet, Gale ambled out of the room, his hands in his pockets as he peered down the paper-strewn hallway. More people had started to arrive; the babble of voices, laughter, and questions had started to rise, along with the munching and crunching of various snacks. Gale stood awkwardly against the wall outside of Bix's door, arms folded over his chest as he glanced around.

Quite a few doors down, a young man was seated on what looked like a pillow in the middle of his doorway. Figuring oh, what the hell, Gale made his way down the hall and promptly flopped down on the floor across from the young man, whom he recognized from an earlier mission - Jude.

"Yo," he said, lifting his hand in a brief greeting as he tilted his head, a mildly curious expression on his face. "Why're you all the way down here? Party thing not your scene?"

Davey remembered Jordan as a pretty kickass kind of guy from their first training mission. He eyed the ring with interest, wondering what it really was when not in 'hiding'. Something that suited the guy willing to take point to protect others, just like Davey's own poison-tongued blade suited his preference to strike things down quickly and get the mission completed as soon as possible.

"This one's Azrael," he indicated the metal again. Unlike the other two that had name, rank and serial number stamped across this, the newest addition had a stylized sword imprint. Like someone's idea of masculine jewllery or something.

Davey winced as Azrael began a tirade about comparing him to cheap pewter trinkets.

"He, uh, doesn't shut up. Pity they can't talk to each other instead, right?"

Or maybe not, with the loud opinions Azrael had on that idea.

"I'm not so sure about that. It'd give him someone else to bug, but can you imagine the gossip?" Jordan shook his head, wincing a little at the thought. "This guy can hear everything I think, and some of that I'd prefer not to share, y'know?"

Would I do that? Ferros laughed.

"I don't trust you when you're trying to sound innocent," Jordan muttered in response. Then he raised an eyebrow as Bix turned red and sputtered slightly. "I take it that was him. Her?" he added a moment later, remembering suddenly that the bow might be female.

"Yeah.. it's a girl. Her name is Chi..si..la.. umm I can't pronounce it."

Citlalmina! She purred it in agitation in his mind.

"I call her Mina." He looked at the couple of girls present, Cass and Madison. He didn't want to embarass himself in front of them but he needed to let these guys know.

He motioned for Davey and Jordan to lean in closer so he could talk softly to them, "You ever meet a woman.. or talk to someone over the phone... and they have a super hot sexy voice?" Bix scratched his neck and turned pink again. "You can't imagine the things she says to me sometimes. She totally does it on purpose." He wouldn't admit that he liked the attention on some subconscious level. "It's like having a phone sex operator in your head.. except more mean and without the hot sex part." Thankfully his weapon's affections weren't that aggressive.

Cass seemed more than happy to entertain Leon's question - in fact, she wasn't bothered by it at all. Just all smiles and happiness. SOCIAL LIVING. She was enjoying all of this. "Two part weapon? Man, I'm not sure either. Right now it's kinda awkward because it hurts to swing the one half, but it seems to me like it has it's advantages, and if I save that big ol' blade until I'm in real danger, it really can pack a wallop." She smacked her fist into the palm of her hand with a loud 'slap' sound.

There was a pause before Cass made a face and shook her hand out. Apparently she'd just succeeded in hurting herself again. Whoops! Though it wasn't a bloody nose this time.

"But we'll see how it works out in practical use. I think the push ups will help me be able to carry it better, at the very least." See! She was thinking practically! Like a good girl! Okay, maybe she was just trying to be...somewhat impressive with her goals. ;;;;

"How about you? Are you handling yours any better? It seemed like it was going to run away and kill all the things when I saw it last." Because that chain saw would have killed her own arms to carry at all. It was definitely better a big strong guy got that instead of a flimsy little Cass.

"Before!!" Bix eased out of the small group in his doorway and into the hall where his best bud had arrived. "Ho s**t.. ninja turtles shirt? NICE." He threw his arm around Before's shoulders. He could tell the usually babbling hunter was suddenly tongue tied in the crowd. "Sorry about the screwed up invitation. I made a point not to forget your room number but I did such a good job that I thought it was mine."

He steered Before around to face the group a moment. Seemed like the other was uneasy with crowds and the same could be said for Gale too. He spied him down the hall again, finally identifying the feet as Jude's, and wondered if they were doing anything cool. Close by was Madison, hovering on the edges of the conversation. Bix wasn't playing matchmaker or anything but he did want to try and break down barriers.

"Hey Madison.." He gave a more confident grin (he had his buddy with him!) and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Have you met Before? He's the one always yelling.. but he sacrificed himself for me during our 'podsperience'." Yeah he seriously called it that. "I think he's shyyyy." Nevermind that Before was RIGHT THERE.

Davey's eyes widened under his hoodie as Bix explained just why he kept having blushing and stuttering fits. Trying very hard to not laugh, Davey nodded and said, "Oh. I see. That must be, uh, very hard for you."

He waited to see if Bix realised Davey was actually making a joke. In his head - not Azrael, thank goodness - he could hear the voices of bunkmates shouting out the appropriate response. It was true that Davey didn't have much of a sense of humour, but it would have been impossible to go through army training without picking up on typical male ribbing.

When Madison walked over, Davey relaxed a little. Social situations weren't his forte (even his joke was old and something just picked up from others and used as necessary), so it was reassuring to see someone he'd worked with in the field already.

"Not bad," he answered. "Getting used to a voice in my head. Learning the moves and balance of a new sword. It keeps me busy, at least. You?"

Davey may have had more to re-learn more things than the others, but he was also used to living away from home, in strange new countries and places. Some of the Hunters were younger, probably still in high school. It didn't mean they couldn't kick arse on the field, as Madison had already proven. But it might mean that in the downtime between missions, they were little more... lost.

Azrael, meanwhile, was kicking up a stink about the idea of being ignored. When he moved into personal attacks on the girl who dared to suggest such a thing, Davey frowned and tried 'shoving' his anger at the voice in his head. Mercifully, Azrael quieted with a tinge of surprise and was that fear?

In the quiet, Davey heard one of the other guys say something that made no sense. Turning to Leon, he asked, "Your weapon is a dragon?"

Azrael, of course, hadn't volunteered any more information than he had to. Davey had no clue that his sword had ever been anything other than a particularly loud and bitchy blade.