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"Oh, now that is the spirit, little thing," Clerise crooned at Sasha, patting her on the shoulder. The redheaded hunter eyed Sasha's hair with envy-- her own refused to grow past her mid shoulder, if THAT.

Lazily, she eyed Rep and the black haired gal she recognized from Twitter as Rin, snickering a bit. She bit down the urge to tell 'em to get a room.

"So, Sasha," she murmured, trying not to raise much of a ruckus, genuinely curious, "what's your weapon like?"

Just past Sasha, Clerise's eyes zeroed in on the woman giving the intermediates orders-- they were an unruly bunch, all of them, so to congregate so nicely-- it was SOME assistant or leader. She had no earthly idea, really. She flicked her eyes back to the other Life trainee, giving her a wolfish grin.

"Ladies, ladies."

Robert had finally pulled away from the chat the intermediates were having, and snuck up on Clerise, who was getting to know the new Life trainee rather well. Any girl that Clerise got to know well had potential, Robert had decided, after seeing her up in Clarice's room. That girl was all right in his book. She was going to make good things happen. Good things.

He put his arm loosely around Clerise, and the other around Sasha. The touch was light, and he made sure not to touch their boobs, because he learned long ago that women didn't like it when you accidentally brushed up on their boobs. They thought it was offensive or some s**t, even when it was an accident. It was never an accident. So he was careful, even as he leaned in and gave Sasha his most charming, toothy smile.

"Haven't had the pleasure of meeting you, sweetheart. I'm Robert, your boss for this evening." God he loved this job. "What's your name, and has Clerise already told you our Division's policy on sleeping with your door unlocked?"

There was a bundle of fur that barely reached past 5"7 standing quietly nearby. Before was nervous and worried and uncomfortable in all this baby-seal skin but it was the friggin' North Pole and it was going to be ******** cold at its best and frost-bite-your-extremities-off at worst so he wasn't going to go unprepared. He had opted not to introduce himself to the Lifers present, mostly because Clerise already knew him (even called him by a nickname of her own, he's not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing) and Robert hadn't given him the warmest of receptions during the briefing.

Besides, he wasn't a REAL Lifer. Just a Misty who was being a wannabee-Lifer. Except Robert suddenly mentioned sleeping with doors unlocked and Before didn't think that was smart or safe. Plus. Privacy was totes important! "U-um, don't really think there's a policy like that being implemented..." he squeaked.

"Fine, whatever, ignore me. It's no skin off my nose." She almost added a 'willy' in there but thought better of it.

Instead, she laughed rather boisterously to herself before fishing out a small booklet and starting to read quietly to herself while she waited for the show to begin.

Okay, so he'd gotten the text, but he was a little late anyways. He dashed into the room with a heavy coat on under his mist coat and a small bag with a little extra warm clothing in case he needed it. He'd stared for a long time at the text he'd received telling him to dress warmly, and he decided that he'd rather be safe than sorry. Even Shang hadn't said anything about him taking extra precautions.

He scrawled his name on the list, biting his lip nervously. Sit down and shut up? He could do that. He'd even stay quiet if they yelled at him for being late. Really.

< Calm down. You're going to be fine. >

Fine?! He was late!

He flopped into a chair and fingered the edge of the coat.

Marcus wasn't sure if he was amazed, or, if he was terrified. Since when the hell was moon popular? He recognized some of the new trainees, Saya, Michael, Ami. The one Rin he'd seen on the messages and the other he didn't know at all. But just- I didn't really hit him that there were so many. It always seemed like moon was sparse and scattered. The idea of getting more though was nice. He was surprised by also the lack of fresh trainees he knew on the island. He doubted they had missed the memo, so, perhaps they had slept in? God knew he'd almost had that happen.

Even if it made him nervous about the mission. He did frown at the fact that none of them had shown for the mission information and aside from dressing warmly- yeah, this was going to be interesting. One of the trainees he noticed wasn't in the most protective gear. And she was also-. "Saya, will you be warm enough?" He smiled, the goggles on his head sliding down slightly. He was warm to the point of being uncomfortable. Soon they'd be in the north pole but until then- this was going to be a pain. A look at Michael was telling Marcus 'Nope, I'm not going to be warm enough.' He sighed a pulled the extra jacket free from where he'd tied it around his gear bag. With non gloved fingers it was easy. With fingers in two sets of gloves? ******** annoying. "Michael." He offered the other trainee the extra coat. It wasn't the warmest thing, but it was still something.

He knew he probably shouldn't even be offering the coat but- yeah he wasn't able to stomach the idea of knowingly letting them suffer out of spite. He'd made a gamble to bring the jacket, and hopefully, no body would end up with frozen limbs. "I don't want either of you freezing on me."

Before Aria could accept the list from Candace, a trainee wearing a Mist coat of all things dashed in and snatched it from her to hurriedly add his name to the list. Feng Wu; she made a note of that name. And his coat. A muscle in her jaw tightened then relaxed as she examined the list, considering. "It appears that I have miscalculated," she stated quietly, "Rather than dismissing the unneeded squads outright, I believe I will do a bit of rearranging."

She considered the list before putting it down, eying the assembled trainees. They were still talking to one another, weren't they? A few of them looked capable; others did not. Aria fought down the surge of panic that began to rise in her. What if they ignored her? Defied her? Why couldn't she be more intimidating like Caelius or H or --

her weapon growled, cutting across her thoughts.

It was a tempting suggestion. Her weapon snickered at her reply, settling down as Aria prepared herself. "It is good to see that some of you have arrived," she began. "Welcome to Deus Ex. You are now training to become Hunters. Not all of you will survive the training. It is advisable to increase your chances by learning to work with each other, as you will receive no second chances. For this mission you will be under the direct supervision of the more experienced trainees. Some of you will be paired to work with them one-on-one, others will gain experience working in small squads."

Aria fell silent, considering them. "Before I explain the mission, does anyone have any questions?"

Yes, Sasha was taking Robert entirely too seriously, despite Before's interjection. Thankfully Aria stepped up to take control of the group of hunters, and from then on out Sasha was all ears.

Aria was obviously the boss of the bosses.



Fortunately Sasha had no questions. She had always been able to follow orders come Hell or high water, and this little quirk of hers wasn't going to be squelched, not now.

<Oh, my little bird grows excited? Mmm, how delightful. We will show them that we are not to be underestimated.>

We're just going to do our job, Nona.

<My precious ghoul, my little innocent. We are going to do our job, yes, but we will do it well. You will see. Nona will teach you.>

"No questions here, ma'am," Sasha piped up quietly.