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The smaller man nodded, "Trainee life is harsh, bro, no ********' doubt. Hardly any pay, no real freedoms, and like...the minipet lab has these cat things, right? But you can't hug all of them, I mean what the ******** is that?" How this had anything to do with trainee life was a true mystery, but the Moon hunter seemed personally distressed by the fact that he couldn't, in fact, hug every cat. "Anyway, you stay chill, bro, I'll make sure you get through this, and maybe I'll get you something to take the edge off afterward."

As to whether or not he meant a can of beer or some cat-like creature made of FEAR to hug was a complete mystery.

His ninja Moon hunter reflexes finally kicking in, Barney turned to see Sandy right on his a**, "Whoa now, Dee. You gotta buy me dinner first before getting a piece of this."

Jordan raised an eyebrow at Robert ... and smirked. "Totally irrelevant," he replied. "Shirt, Robert. Also putting Maddie down."

Spotting Ofelia, he returned her wave with a quick smile.

Robert groaned in dismay as he put Madison down, but he gave her one last hug for good measure. "Sorry for manhandling you, princess. You need to come by my dorm more often, so I don't maul you every time I see you." He kissed the top of her head and batted her away, before pulling his shirt out and reluctantly pulling it over his head. He then pulled it off again, and untied his coat off his neck, and THEN put the shirt back on.

Reaching around to tie the coat back around his neck, he held his arms out in front of Jordan. "There. You happy now, boss?" Without really waiting for an answer, he wrapped an arm around the man's shoulder and tugged him along to get supplies.

"I think I can do that," Madison said, brushing her hair back and giving Robert a reassuring grin... but the smile faded as she turned to focus on the items they had to take with them. The bit about the pendants not working had her nervous enough as it was, not to mention the other worrying details.

She picked up a detector first, having become very comfortable with their use from the Death missions she'd done - the little gadgets weren't hugely different from what Life used, really. The flashlight came next, its heft reassuring in her hand, and then the flares and their gun. Right into the pack the extras went; she summoned Kouki to her with a soft flare of light, using his swordbelt to hold the gun within easy reach, despite the weapon's complaints.

And that, plus the bandages, was everything. She sighed and brushed her hair away from the back of her neck again, where it persisted on sticking. "We sticking together, boss?" she asked Jordan. It had been a while since they'd been able to work on the same team.

The second she said malaria? Marcus was tucking in his shirt, fastening the buttons in place, making sure all the skin that could be covered, was covered. He was right. Bugs that could melt s**t existed. Or well. Kill you painfully or something. ******** he didn't want malaria. (He was sure they would get some halloween variant where it did indeed, melt flesh). The death hunter got a nod and Marcus took the items, placing the fear scanner on his wrist like she had shown. Were these the things Clarice had mentioned?

But that term- lair. He'd heard it before. ******** he- "********." His fears had been confirmed and Cass's reaction next to him made all his warning bells start to ring. Hand snaking to Cass's side he gave a small squeeze. He didn't want to show affection on missions. Feels were a distraction and got in the way but- "I promised didn't I?" It was a whisper meant for her. "I won't let you die." He honestly didn't want any of them to die. Maybe it was part of why he was a moon hunter but the idea of seeing them hurt, stuck in the infirmary... He didn't like the thought of it.

Looking back at the more experienced death hunter he asked. "To go with what Jordan asked, should we expect to encounter one of these..horsemen? As we did at the haunted house?" That was what worried him the most.

Waiting just a little longer, trying her best to time her division leader's paces at the point where he was furthest away from the trainees, Sandy gave Jordan a grateful look, before sobering up completely. "Nothing specific in the Lair, it is actually abandoned. That means you wont actually see any Four Clans members although..." She trailed off though, at the glare Caelius was giving her, instead, dropping eye contact to appear very interested in inspecting the next flare gun. She bit her lower lip. "It'll be okay. We'll be here too."

Cass followed Marcus's lead and buttoned up her coat, fortunately leaving only the most minimal of skin exposed - her face and shoulders. She wasn't sure she was going to be properly covered if bugs were about, but she'd cover up the risk as much as she could even as questions were being flung around about what they were doing.

And where it was they were going.

Still, she nearly jumped when Marcus's hand touched her side before she realized it was him, looking up at the Moon hunter as he whispered to her, an entire wave of emotion striking her as he repeated those words. He'd whispered them to her several times, even after the incident to remind her she was alright. She wasn't dead. Oh, she'd thought she was dead, or would die quickly after.

"I know....." she whispered back, eyes barely glossy. Feelings were bad, but she still had them. She couldn't completely swallow them down between being home and the mission they were at right then.

There was only a minimal amount of relief expressed when Sandy said that the lair they would be going into was abandoned so they'd be safer than Cass's first gut instinct had been. Even if she just wanted to hold Marcus's hand through the entire cave.

But somehow she imagined Caelius's STUPID TRAINEES senses would tingle a- oh wait, they always did that.

Michael had been to exactly one mission called by Caelius so the fact he was given a day warning and told to arrive at a reasonable hour rung no alarm bells in his head. That didn’t mean he arrived expecting the mission to be easy or anything silly like that. Oh no, Michael was expecting pain and death and endless zombies because it only took one mission ending with him passed out from blood loss to get the message.

….Hopefully this one didn’t end with him being nearly nude in front of everyone though.

It was this attitude that allowed him to not even blink when words like stop tossing the explosives around and malaria where tossed about, though the new Moon Hunter did get a stare from him. He was…

Actually a lot like every other senior hunter he’d met. Was crazy infectious in the higher ranks or something?

Shaking those disturbing thoughts and the sudden urge to never get promoted ever from his head Michael walked over to the table and picked up his equipment, shoving the flashlight into his pocket before strapping the Fear scanner to his wrist and gingerly holding onto his flare gun. That thing was not going in his pants pocket after how easily Barney had set his off.