Welcome to Gaia! ::

"It is because of public knowledge that everyone thinks they have a ******** right to express their public opinion without <******** authority." The Death lead stood up. He didn't take to white knighting well, if at all, and Taym was about one scythe swing away from losing his head, rather literally.

"Shiloh. Taym. If you do not have information to share exactly regarding Ourboros I do not want to hear a single ******** word leave your mouth this entire meeting. I will speak with the two of you afterwards." It was a pretty ominous warning and the tone was someone on the bare cusp of self control.

Somewhere in the back of the room Gale had stopped listening to the ramblings on of everyone else and was just staring resolutely at the wall behind Caelius' head.

"Their organization seems to be headed by a man called the Judge, after that there are two tiers, Speakers who are akin to their intelligence division, recruiters, and then there are the Couriers, the ones who carry out the dirty work; killing people who get in the Organization's way and carrying out missions for the group. The Couriers seem particularly interested in glowing red fragments that have been cropping up, one lost at the Lighthouse mission, another, or potentially the same shard, spotted again more recently on a subway train in the regular world. They've set bombs around the whole of the island, I do not know if they remain active or not, I do know that some are, however, up and walking around."

Right, Lucky? He reached behind him, without turning around, and held up Lucky's injured hand and what was left of his tattoo.

"These marks don't necessarily indicate involvement but they are given by the Ourboros and as such, likely all function the same. There are several other hunters on the island that possess them, Lucky here, Gale Gentry, Mimsy Kercher, Solia Delacroix and the late Death assistant, Sam. The Couriers seem particularly interested in glowing red fragments that have been cropping up, one lost at the Lighthouse mission, another, or potentially the same shard, spotted again more recently on a subway train in the human world. However, they may not want them for personal use but as a bartering for information from Deus, what information I do not know. They are looking for money and power, I assume, or else they really are just insane. I don't know if the Ourboros are the ones directly responsible for the distribution of runic goods and Deus technologies, but I'm sure they likely have a hand in it. There is a warehouse for the purpose, the location and state of which I do no know, but they are supplying old generation runic weapons as an alternate energy supply and most likely a means to accrue power, whether it be in money, personnel or general chaos."

He finally released Lucky's hand, and gave a glance around the room, looking not bold or bragging, but rather expressionless, a strange emotion on Shiloh's normally smiling face.

"The original Council murder trials occurred some time ago, predating my time on Deus. However, there are many hunters that were there, including Lucky here, that you could ask if you have more questions as the extent of my knowledge is only what I have learned from them."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook his head.

"I'll add that, if you think secrecy is not important, the Ourboros will not hesitate in eliminating you if you get in their way. The problem is that we're not dealing with an outside enemy but instead one that has infiltrated our very way of life. Say the wrong thing to the wrong person and it could be you stuffed into a wall, or elsewhere."

He shouldn't be here. That was what he kept telling himself the whole way over. It was also what he kept telling Shiloh the whole way over, along with various other supplemental excuses that ranged from 'this runic stapler isn't going to refill itself' to 'I'm not in death division'. He had been very adamant that the debriefing text Shiloh pulled up on the life hunter's phone had simply been a wrong number.

Lucky was a terrible liar.

Which was why he was here, now, next to Shiloh, and quite generously within beheading range of the death lead. He weathered the glaring and the pointed stares from fellow hunters the same way as he weathered Caelius's demeanor in general, by staring very pointedly at a fixed spot on the table in front of him and willing himself to blend in with the office furniture like some kind of monochromatic, bespectacled chameleon. It wasn't working out very well, but it meant that nobody but Caelius and Shiloh could see him wincing at times during the speech. Guiltily.

Once the room returned to silence and the hum of general bickering, his thoughts began to wander again, circling rounding repeating the same thing over and over again. It was a fixation. The mark. The meaning. The bomb --

A jolt of panic shot up his spine as someone grabbed his hand and held it up for everyone to see. There, on the back, was a black, branded circle, split in half by an ugly line of scar tissue. The color drained from his face the longer Shiloh talked; it was like being a specimen under a microscope. He froze, save for his eyes, which darted around desperately between unsympathetic faces.

Even when Lucky could finally snatch his hand back, all he could think to do at that point was stare at Shiloh in disbelief until he finished talking, The look of disbelief (or possibly just good old-fashioned fear) was then redirected to Caelius.

The blushing petite girl noticed that the handsome megane might be a non native English speaker. She could follow what he said, but she found it a bit funny. Shu shyly wrapped around Kostya's hand and lightly shook it. "Mission!" She exclaimed and immediately covered her mouth with both hands. She didn't expect it would come so early. She was too concentrated on Kostya that she didn't take a look at where he was pointing to, and thus she missed the chance. Shu shook her little head at Kostya's question, feeling embarrassed. <He is such a dumb and totally doesn't deserve your time.> Z laughed out in her mind. Don't be so mean, Zai Tai....He is a great man as I can see, gentleman and friendly.

All of a sudden, Z shouted in her mind, <Hey you, why are you staring my hunter like this?> Shu raised up her head and saw someone looking at her with interests, his expression resembled that someone who is popcorn-ing drama. Her big round eyes stared at Taym in confusion, wondering if she did anything funny or stupid. She switched frequently between them. <I told you before, leave these suspicious jerks now! They will eat you!> Z warned the innocent girl. He was yelling in her mind. Zai Tai, please…. Shu, with her cheeks puffed up, found it too annoying and - "Shut up!". Realizing the awkward faces of the others, she flailed and explained, "Nonononoooo, i am not yelling at you! It-it was......my weapon...." The tiny thing became a tomato slowly as she spoke.

Before she could hear what the two felt, there was a loud sound and she jumped up like a startled kitty. Shu looked for the source of it just to see an -

- ultimate perfect megane! emotion_kirakira

To her surprise, he was the guy from the photo that the stranger in the hospital kept, a lot of hearts and sparkles and blingies on it. She planned to steal the photo, but seeing how the lady cherished it, she didn't do it. Shu couldn't describe how she felt at that moment, it was complicated, as if a certain red ponytail girl seeing abs. Her eyes might be full of sparkles if she's a manga character, she just stared at him when he talked, the perfect face, the perfect hair and last but not least his perfect megane. It was like her dream guy appeared in real life.

That was their Death Lead.

For Shu, Caelius (or what Shu called Cael sama) was like a strict but caring teacher. She was having her first lesson on how to survive, and the topic that day was about observation. He was angry but he still looked perfect. <Hey Shu.....Shu.....SHUUUUU!> However, Shu's attention was 100% on Caelius. Awww....He's so caring about his division. The girl totally ignored all the negative parts and meanness in his speech. <What the ******** you think he's attractive?! He looks just like a selfish b***h!> Z, don't be jealous and vilify Cael sama She said in discontent.

There they were given an assignment - observe each other and write reports of it. Shu thought it was a big chance to know more people, she didn't know people other than Robert and Jerry. It was her first task and she hope she can finish it nicely to leave a good impression.

However, things were heated when that what-Z-call-malnutrition raised question against the Death Lead. The situation was getting even worse when a pink head grabbed another megane guy ( eek !) and joined the argument and mentioned something like - the Ouroborous - ?

The little death trainee tilted her head while continued to listen the conversation quietly.

At Gale's response, he only gave him a really blank stare, which soon transitioned to a strange look as he looked away and pretended to be disinterested.
If Shorty didn't want to talk about it, then fine. Also, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know where he got branded.

Oh, wrist. How come he never thought about that?
"Well, I'm not the one being all secretive about it." he frowned. "And if by encounter, you mean heard of them in passing and from what we were given, then yes, Other then that, not really."
It probably wasn't an excuse that he had been... occupied with other things at the time.

Aleister was just sitting in the back of the room listening and occasionally glancing around towards those whom were speaking. He'd obviously missed a lot while he was gone. Having no idea of this new organization they spoke of, the hunter tilted his head a little as the discussion continued before sighing and sliding down in his chair a little to get more comfortable - and possibility to avoid anything Caelius might throw his way. He knew the death leader was often grumpy and never straight forward. Thus he found it better to stay as quite as he could and not risk getting into the line of fire for something he was well, clueless about.

Al also wasn't very sure that observing others could help in this situation and bring it to light what all he had missed since now it seemed everyone was more on edge than ever. So it sounded like they were stuck for a while.