{ THE DARK COVE } UPDATED SEE PAGE 1

[medigel]

It was funny how, not terribly long after she woke up, she was back in the labs again for pod duty. It was boring for most, but to Stormy it was well-deserved quiet time. The thrum of noise from multiple pods was an almost comforting sound, a chorus of soft voices still humming in their sleep - and while she was only a trainee outside these walls, here at least she could pretend to be a little more, someone important enough to watch the machines for signs of life, as Patches had been for her.

And maybe, just maybe, her friend would one day arrive.

Beyond the rumble of machines, a soft scratching sound. Pen on paper. A new scene in her journal.

He sits on the throne of brass and bone, silent as the grave and unwavering as stone. He is not king nor would he want to be, just a simple soldier waiting on his liege, warming the throne while outside trees wither and the ground turns pale as a ghost. A bird caws outside. He would have liked to think it was a crow to better fit the scene, but there are no crows here - for crows follow carrion, and blood has not been spilled within the castle town in several years. They are a people defeated, a people withdrawn. Not even Death remembers them.

But we do.

Stormy's eyes flitted to the monitors, half-vigilant, half-out of habit. The drone of the pods and the warmth of her chair would have put her to sleep if she hadn't kept herself up with writing.

-Ravvlet

-pinchmonster

 

[Ravvlet]

Nat shifted slightly, and again, when she felt cool metal press against her cheek. She had been having such a strange dream - about figures in masks, with markings red and blue. A jungle, an abandoned town, an empty field. She groaned, floating just at the surface of sleep. Ripples in the pool.

I wonder if I'm missing class, a thought drifted across her consciousness, but she dismissed it. Her alarm hadn't gone off - although there was a strange hum, an electronic sound. Ugh. She'd have to call the building manager when she got up, it was probably the heater about to go out again.

She sighed, pressing her face into her arm. Her bed felt cramped and uncomfortable, but she just wanted a few more minutes of rest...  

[bipolar bee]

Tuck had never been a heavy sleeper. Not even back at home, or even at college - he'd slept light as a feather, and often woke at the slightest provocation. It had been a decent trait to have while at war - at least until exhaustion hit him. Drunk off of lack of sleep, brain busily floating in a hazy place between full REM and true consciousness.

It didn't help that the bed he was crammed into was three, four inches too long - and really, way too narrow for him to lay comfortably. He was sore, achy.

With a low rumbly groan, his eyelids fluttered open. Kind of.

He felt, quite suddenly, a vicious urge to vomit.  

[medigel]

Secluded in the cold northern region, the castle town sleeps under a white winter blanket. The people act as if in a trance, moving from place to place with quiet shuffling and covered heads in predetermined routes. Their king is gone but they do not remember why

Something broke her concentration, something soft at first. A blip. And then suddenly there were two syncopated blips before she even registered there was one. Blinking, Stormy set the journal and pen down, got up from her seat, and observed the monitor.

Life signs.

A small thrill went through her as she squinted at the written instructions and hit a couple of buttons, watching several different commands run up the screen just before the two pods in question began to light up, hiss, and slowly open. The trainee quickly yawned and stretched, snagging her possessions before leaving the desk to go greet the successful candidates, inwardly nervous, outwardly looking like she had just woken from a nap.  

[Ravvlet]

Weird. Something had just MOVED. She was sure of it. One eye opened, peering into what should be darkness-

and was greeted instead by harsh electric lighting. A monitor beeped in the distance. More importantly, however, she was pretty damn sure this wasn't her apartment.

She remembered a PI, an offer - had that really happened? Was this just another dream? She closed her eyes again, hesitating, before risking a glance out the strange door of the cocoon she'd been sleeping in.

"Hello?"  

[bipolar bee]

No, now he was sure he was trapped in some sort of semi-consciousness. Tuck knew that voice that called out, not at all meek, timid, or any other sort of mousy descriptive. This was just some sort of ******** up dream, and he was fine with that. He was pretty sure he'd had this kind of dream before.

It involved aliens. Maybe probes.

Wait.

Clasping a broad hand across his forehead, Tuck took a deep, steadying breath before peering around. No, no. It was coming back to him, slowly but surely. Kabul. The desert.

The recruiter.

"The ********?"  

[medigel]

Stormy stood patiently as the candidates roused themselves, sneaking in another yawn before forcing herself to stand straight. There wasn't much written on protocols for greeting people post-pod, so she was going to wing it. "Hullo, hullo. Just so you don't have to have the confusing stuff I did: not the Matrix, not aliens, not a dream, not a virtual reality, not a video game, not the shards of dreams from old gods like Cthulu, not dead, not in heaven, not - well, maybe in hell," she amended thoughtfully. Hmm.

"Firstly, how're you guys feeling? Sleepy? Hungry? Hungover?" It was a good thing the trainee was naturally soft-spoken, otherwise her stream of words might have been knocking nails into their just awakened heads.  

[Ravvlet]

Jesse blinked, a long, slow flick of eyelashes as she tried to process what was being said.

"The hell are you?" was all she could muster.

She glanced around.

"And what's with this," air quotations, "realm of the pod people s**t? Sorry, can we just - like, are you gonna harvest my organs or something freaky? Because, I kinda need 'em, thanks." The room was downright unsettling. She wondered if she should lower her voice, seeing as to how there were rows and rows of other sleepers here - but quickly dismissed it. How long had she been out? She felt irritable, out of sorts, and confused.

Let it never be said that Nat was any sort of morning person.

In response to her question, she rubbed her temples before replying, "I'm feelin' like I don't know where the hell I am..." Something tickled at the back of her mind. Just before this strange white-coated woman spoke - there'd been another voice, a different one, a familiar one...

"Tuck." She froze. There was just no way, it had been her imagination, surely.  

[bipolar bee]

"Gnat."

He groaned. There was a flurry of emotion that trickled through his brain, warring with the long-winded words of the young woman that stood outside his ... bed-pod. Thing. He was confused, dazed. His mouth felt dry, like his tongue was too big.

Jesse was there.

His back ached, his head throbbed.

Jesse was there.

Tuck was kind of hungry, yeah.

Jesse was there.

"There's been some kinda mistake, she," he pointed in the general vicinity of his twin sister's voice, "ain't supposed to be here."

This was kind of terrifying.  

[medigel]

"Oh, you know each other?" She pressed her hands together and gave a soft, genuine, "Yay~♪"

It probably wasn't appropriate given how the two were reacting to each other, but frankly Stormy thought starting off on the island knowing anyone from before was a nice head start. Especially knowing real names.

"I totally felt that way too," she continued as casually as could be, bobbing her head in a nod. "And it's really weird being here at first. Still weird really, but I think you'll get used to it." You sorta have to, she figured. "So um, Tuck, Gnat, bienvenidos a Deus Ex Machinaaaa~"

She disentangled her hands, gave them a shy smile, and made a sort of jazz hands motion as if the introduction needed a bit of extra pizazz due to her muted voice.

"Call me Stormy. Promise I'm not here for organ harvesting either; only organs I ever ate were from cows, horses, llamas, and guinea pigs. I think a dog once too . . ." She made a mental note to include to the list that if she ever got to wake up another candidate, though. "Anyway, you guys basically went through a big trials thing and came out on top, so now you're awake and ready to be trained as Hunters~" More jazz hands.

Neither of them sounded like the Alpha she had done her trials with.

Jazz hands dang it.

"I don't think there's been any mistake," she told Tuck, tough there was an upward inflection towards the end that signified there might, might be possibilities for it? Who knew how well this runic tech ran after all. "I mean, you guys know each other right? It's good news you woke up at the same time so it won't be as scary going at it alone." A sage-like nod accompanied this piece of observation.  

[Ravvlet]

She was only really half listening now, as she stepped out of the pod fully. The groan, that nickname, one that used to chafe but was now oh, so sweet. He could call her whatever he wanted, as long as it was his voice, as long as it meant -

He was alive.

"But, you-" she stopped, but what she wanted to say was, you were dead. Jesse hadn't wanted to believe it, but it was hard. The sad smiles, the pity in her aunts and uncles and even in the eyes of strangers all told the same tale. Missing in action, just a pretty way of saying gone, and without the finality of dead and buried. She knew her parents had lost hope, had seen it drain out of their eyes, but she'd always kept faith- or so she thought. It surprised her to realize that, in some small part of her, she'd given up, too.

By this point she was smiling ear to ear, eyes overbright. "It's no mistake, you big lug." She put her hands on her hips and moved to stand next to this Stormy. The PI, the ones called the hunters - it all made sense now. Even those strange dreams. And this - nothing could have prepared her for this. She was on top of the ******** world.

Tuck was alive, somehow, and he was here.

It was all she could do not to bum rush his pod and give him a hug she hoped would crack a few ribs. Instead, she gestured to him, barely containing the emotion in her voice to affect a casual air. "Know each other? This knucklehead here is my brother."  

[bipolar bee]

After the initial disbelief wore off - which happened, slowly - Theodore Ross shoved his broad frame out of the pod and gave Stormy a long, studious look. He soaked up everything she said like a sponge, and only after she finished speaking did he hazard a glance at his sister.

What about mom? Dad? He wanted to ask but.. later. There would be time later. She had to have had her reasons, just as he did. He wouldn't judge her. Tuck loved her too much. She was his sister. His twin.

For right now? He gave both of the women a lop-sided smile.

"Where do we go from here? I'm starving."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

She made a mental note to try and not talk so much if she ever got a chance like this again. She forgot that throwing out all this info immediately out of the pod was a bit much to take in. But the trainee at least remembered how to beam when she heard they were siblings; having actual family along was just as good as friends, if not better.

"That's even awesomer! Well before you get food, I should take you to the Cove," she told them. "You'll find your weapon there - Patches told me hers yelled at her, but I bet you'll have really nice ones~ Then you guys'll find your rooms where you other hunter stuff is and you'll find out what division you are and stuff. I'll point out the cafeteria on the way over for ya, Mr. Tuck." Stormy stood up straighter to look more professional than her age.

"Ready? I know it's a lot to take in, trust me, but things will make more sense once you do them."

Ravvlet

hello have lame tag

pinchmonster

but merry Christmas!

 

[Sosiqui]

((Did this offsite since it seemed this thread was in use~ C: Here's the log!))

Sosiqui

Darkness surrounded him, so deep, so... warm, strangely warm. As if it were a blanket enveloping him, wrapping him up tightly. He couldn't move, but this fact was somehow not disturbing to him. He would drift away again soon, no doubt...

Wake up.

?

Wake up. If you don't, you'll die. The voice was flat, unemotional, as if it didn't particularly care if he lived or died, but that dying would be ever so slightly more inconvenient than living. But only a little. Take hold of your weapon, Crispin.

Weapon...?

With a start, Crispin realized he had... a name. More than that; he had a body. Eyes to open, hands to grasp. He felt out in front of him, blindly; felt the phantom touch of something solid and sturdy settle into his grip, a smooth length of... metal? wood? He wasn't sure, but its touch felt right in a way he couldn't explain. He felt a calm reassurance, a certainty, a rush-

Good.

Now wake up.

He had thought his eyes were already open, but, as the voice snapped through his mind, he found he'd been wrong. Muzzily, Crispin became aware of a slow headache, a dizzy throb in his skull, as if he'd overslept. Badly. Very, very badly indeed. His eyes blinked open stickily, and when he lifted an arm to brush at them, the back of his hand hit something cold and hard.

... Metal. But not the weapon he'd held just a moment before.

Something hissed, and there was a sudden mechanical noise followed by a painful burst of light. Crispin yelped and tried to flinch backwards as restraints he had been unaware of suddenly loosened all around him.

With a thump, he tumbled forward out of the pod and landed in a heap on the floor.

Frigoris

Ennéa jumped at the sound of one the pods hissing open. The sound was so loud and sudden after hours of nothing but the quiet monotonous hum of monitoring equipment. Pod watch duty was very dull.

She hastily reattached the blue glass orb she had been fiddling with to the bracelet on her wrist and then stiffly got to her feet. Ow, ow, ow. Her legs were all pins and needles from sitting too long.

Serves you right.

Ennéa ignored her weapon and hobbled to the source of the sound, trying to shake out her legs as she moved. There on the floor was a dazed looking young man.

Crap. Ennéa quickly tried to remember the protocol for hunter awakenings. They had given her a handbook at some point but that was months ago and she hadn't bothered to read it. Everyone knew that pod duty was the most tediously boring task assignment aside from maybe potato peeling. There was nothing to do aside from filling out task reports confirming that yep, nothing happened. No change in the pods.

Except that wasn't the case now.

Giving up protocol for a lost cause, Ennéa settled for an extended helping hand to the newly awakened hunter. "Hi." She said.

Sosiqui

Ugh, my head... Crispin winced and pushed himself up off the floor a tiny bit, only to freeze when he heard approaching footsteps. A bit of pain spiked in his brain, then retreated as he sat up... only to see a girl with very pink hair come around the corner of line of... what were those things, anyway?

Where was he?

And then she was there, right in front of him, extending a hand. "H-hi," he replied; his mouth felt dry and disgusting, like something had died in it. "Um. Not to be rude or anything, but... where am I? Who are you?" He took her hand after a moment and struggled to his feet, feeling dizzy and disoriented. "What is all of this stuff?" he added, gesturing with his free hand at the equipment all around them.

Frigoris

The guy still looked disorientated and wobbly on his feet. Ennéa hovered close to his side, trying to look as benign and harmless as possible while still at the ready to catch him if he fainted. The last thing she wanted to do was try and lug him to the infirmary if he injured himself falling.

"These are stasis pods." Ennéa nodded at the empty pod they were standing next to, "You just woke up from that one."

She placed a hand on her chest. "I'm Ennéa." She gave him a small fleeting smile.

"And..." She hesitated slightly, "you're at Deus Ex."

Sosiqui

"Stasis-" Crispin whipped around to stare at the thing; the movement nearly laid him out again, and he grabbed the edge of the pod door to keep from collapsing right back into it. Right, no sudden movements for now, then... "Wow. I was sleeping in that thing? How long? What year is it?" he asked, abruptly, unable to decide if this was Really Awesome or Totally Freaky. Maybe it was both.

"Ennea," he said, belatedly. "My name's Crispin... thanks for the help, um. I think I'm going to need a lot of it, too, sorry for that in advance." He looked a little sheepish. "What's a Deus Ex..." Machina, his brain filled in for him, but that was just a dramatic technique. God from the machine, from the Greek. Hrm.

Frigoris

"Whoa easy!" Ennéa reached out to help steady the guy but he caught himself in time. She stepped back again, trying not to fidget anxiously as the guy -- Crispin, he said his name was, asked her a series of rapid fire questions.

"It's okay, don't worry." She said quickly waving off his apology. He probably wouldn't be so thankful once he realized she was just a peon who didn't know much about everything. Ennéa gamely tried to answer his questions anyway. "Yep, you were in that pod. I don't know how long you were sleeping though, it varies, but the year is 2012..."

2012. A sudden chill of realization flowed through Ennéa as she said the date aloud. She hadn't really thought about it before but if she were back at home in her old normal life she'd be graduating from high school in a couple months. A pang of the old pain hit her. Had it really been that long?

Ennéa quickly tried to collect herself. "Um, Deus." She cleared her throat and tried again. "Deus Ex is a hunter facility. I don't know if you remember, but you uh, chose? To become a hunter?"

It wasn't much of an answer but Ennéa wasn't sure where to even begin to start explaining everything else.

Sosiqui

Oh. It was still 2012. Crispin looked vaguely disappointed - with all this futuristic-looking tech, he was hoping it was at least twenty years from when...

... From what? What had happened to put him in a pod like this? He listened to the rest of Ennea's explanation, forehead wrinkling in thought. "Hunters... I chose to become a Hunter?" He frowned slightly. He remembered...

... the shadows had been hissing at him too loudly for him to focus on his paper. Enough had been enough; he remembered grabbing his replica Sting off the wall and brandishing it under the bed, shouting at them to just shut up. His roommate had come in just then... The RA had referred him to counseling services. They'd all been very concerned, but one of the counselors in particular had seemed to understand, and had told him something different.

Seeing things could be a symptom of many disorders, true, but it could also be an indicator of potential-

"Potential," he said, aloud, looking curiously at Ennea. "The counselor said I had potential... that I could have, um. A real... a real weapon, and fight the shadows more effectively... does that sound right? Is that what a, um, a Hunter does?" And then, a bit more reverently - "Are you a Hunter, Miss Ennea?"

He still felt deeply confused, but a small prickle of excitement was forming in his mind. Was all of this real? Because if it was, then it was better than a dream...

Frigoris

Ennéa felt a sting of pity for Crispin. He was so painfully clueless about the life he had chosen. She shifted from foot to foot uneasily, wanting to say something - to warn him - but what was the use? It was already done.

"My therapist told me I had potential." She said, looking at the empty pod with unfocused eyes.

Ennéa shrugged and refocused on Crispin, "Everyone here does, we're all hunters. Even me."

Sosiqui

Memory was flooding back to Crispin now, and he nodded at Ennea eagerly. "Yes! I remember now - ugh, my head hurts, but... yes! I think the phrase he used was protector of humanity. Is that right? You... are a protector of humanity?"

The sparkles were very nearly visible.

Frigoris

A short and hard guffaw escaped Ennéa's throat before she could stop it. "Sorry, sorry." She coughed before straightening up again. She hadn't meant to laugh in Crispin's face, but the guy's earnest expression was too much. "Sorry." She repeated again, feeling a little embarrassed.

Whatever this guy's deal was he didn't deserve her bitter sourpuss mood, he'd find out the reality of being a hunter soon enough. Besides, she had been like him once; Ennéa could remember excitedly oohing over Maddie's swords in much the same way when the older girl bonded with her weapon.

She really should just push Crispin on to his introductory hunter debriefing or whatever and be done with him. Her shift was almost over and then she could retreat back to her tiny dorm room once again.

"I guess, in a way." Ennéa found herself answering Crispin's question. The memory of a beautiful doll-like face with locusts pouring out its horribly stretched wide mouth flashed in her mind. "Yes." She said more certainly.

"Um, it's not wonderful or glamorous as you think though..." She added quickly.

Sosiqui

Crispin looked a bit taken aback at Ennea's initial reaction, but he nodded slowly at her warning. "I... yes, I suppose not," he said, after a moment. He'd been taking the room in while the girl spoke, and realized there were dozens and dozens of stasis pods humming away around them; he could even see unconscious faces in a few of the nearby ones. "Just waiting for someone to pop out, like waiting for eggs to hatch, or something? And, uh, I guess if you're protecting you're fighting, right? The shadows..."

He had to pause for a moment; he'd never talked about seeing shadows openly before, or at least he hadn't since he was very young. Since he was little enough to be believed because he was a child, or if not believed, at least cheerfully tolerated. The last person he'd told about the shadows had been the counselor, because colleges tend to want reasons for why their undeclared frosh were found waving replica swords around wildly in small, confined spaces. "I tried to stab them, but it didn't quite work," he admitted. "The counselor mentioned getting better weapons... do you have one?" He didn't see anything around her that could be a weapon. Not even so much as a scabbard.

Frigoris

Another small sting of sympathy, though really Crispin's story wasn't all that different from anyone else here. Ennéa gave him a commiserating smile. "Never tried stabbing them but I did throw my backpack at one once." Her smile turned just so slightly smug. "It fell down the stairs and I never saw it again."

That had been such a great day; the day she realized she could do more than just be scared, staring with worried eyes at things no one else could see. She had felt so brave, like she could take on a whole army of shadows with a laugh.

Ennéa sighed at the memory of her past self. She had been such an idiot. And standing before her was another idiot. Crispin was looking at her with such open curiosity. She sighed again.

"Yes, I do have a weapon. He's just not summoned at the moment." Ennéa held up her right hand so he could see the bracelet with the silvery blue glass orb on her wrist. The orb shimmered and detached from the bracelet, changing into an axe that was nearly as tall as her. Ennéa gripped the haft and smoothly twirled the axe up. "This is Baraz."

In the back of her mind, Ennéa had the mental image of the ahriman yawning and lazily stretching wide his leathery bat wings.

Sosiqui

"Whoa-" Crispin took a step back, eyes widening as the girl suddenly grabbed an axe out of freaking nowhere. "That's... that's awesome," he said, almost reverently; awesome in the traditional sense. "Is it magic? Or science? Er... sorry," he added, belatedly. "If, uh, you don't mind my asking, of course. Is there some kind of... primer, or something? I honestly have no idea what to do next..."

His gaze kept flicking back to the axe, though. What had she called it? Baraz? It certainly was an impressive weapon, and the fact that she held it with such relative ease spoke to her experience, despite her age.

Frigoris

Ennéa felt her lips quirk upwards almost involuntarily; the awestruck expression on Crispin's face was too much. Had she looked all starry-eyed like that when Maddie first showed her Kouki?

Probably dopier. Baraz said. Ennéa blinked; the ahriman sounded almost wistful.

She twirled Baraz around in a couple simple practice forms, trying to hide her smile. She was showing off but it felt nice to have such an appreciative audience. "I think the weapons are a mixture of both?" Ennéa said as she moved, "Like, Baraz was once a big flying eyeball thing-"

Ahriman. Baraz automatically corrected.

"-before he became my axe." Ennéa fumbled her last twirl and nearly overbalanced and fell. "A-anyway." She straightened and quickly schooled her expression. "As for what you should to do next... well, if your experience is anything like mine, you'll um, probably be debriefed or something." Ennéa paused as she frantically tried to remember. She regretted not looking through that pod duty handbook. "And from there... uh, I think you'll go to the cave and find and bond with your weapon?"

Ennéa nodded, trying to at least to look like an authoritative hunter who knew what she was doing. "Don't worry, I'll help you."

Sosiqui

Crispin watched avidly as Ennea swept her axe through a simple series of exercises. "He? So it - he - has a name, and... a bond? Are they alive? I remember now - right before I woke up, I thought I heard a voice calling me to find my weapon... I remember finding one, but..." His forehead wrinkled in confusion as he thought, but there was a thrill of excitement underlying everything now. A weapon of his own, and not just some movie-prop replica, either - something real, something named and glorious and fit for a hero...

Face slightly flushed, he looked eagerly at Ennea. "I'm not dreaming, right? It all sounds like something out of a story, or something. Ow!"

(Yes, he'd pinched himself. Because of course he did.)

Frigoris

Ennéa listened to Crispin's rapid-fire questions in bemusement but his question about whether the weapons were alive made her pause. Were the weapons alive? She didn't know. Baraz was just Baraz, her oftentimes annoying partner. It troubled her a little that she hadn't wondered about it before.

Crispin was motoring on in his own enthusiasm though. Ennéa refocused on him and sighed indulgently as he pinched himself. "I know it's a lot to take in but it's all real." She assured him. Too real.

"You'll bond with your own weapon soon enough." She looked around the darkened room and bit her lip, considering. Undoubtedly Crispin exiting his pod would have triggered some sort of notification or alarm, wouldn't it? Why hadn't anyone else come yet? Was she supposed to escort him? Ennéa didn't know.

She fidgeted a little before coming to a decision. Quickly, before Crispin could start excitedly taking again, she spoke up, "Maybe we should get going so you can? Find your weapon, I mean."

Sosiqui

Crispin nodded, rubbing a bit at his now sore hand where he'd pinched himself. It was real, and this was simultaneously thrilling and strangely sobering. An odd combination, but... well. Once didn't bounce in to retrieve a bonded weapon with a hyperactive air. It required some sense of gravity and seriousness. Even if his excitement was only barely contained.

"That sounds like a good idea," he said, quickly, in response to her question - he wasn't sure what else to do, but he'd felt the reassuring heft of a weapon before he'd woken up, and it felt kind of odd not to have that available to him. A strange sensation... and quite possibly something he was making up, just imagining. Still, it would be nice if it was like something out of a novel... "And, uh. Then what? I mean... do I... live here? And where is here, anyway?"

Frigoris

Ennéa gave Crispin a wry smile as she headed towards the exit. "Yep, you live here now." She briskly walked down the sterile corridor past several closed doors. "And Deus..." Ennéa opened one of the closed doors and stepped outside, "is an island." Ennéa breathed in the salt-scented air; it was pleasant after being stuck in the pod chamber for several hours, even if was a little chilly. A lone seagull cried above the faint boom of the ocean in the distance.

"I'm not sure entirely where or even what ocean but I know we're kinda sorta of located near the edge of the human world and the shadow world." Ennéa shrugged sheepishly. "That's what they told us anyway."

"The dorms are over there, by the way" She said, pointing across the complex at a tall building. She pointed at another large building. "And that's the main building where the cafeteria is and all the classrooms and stuff." Ennéa pointed at a large field off in the distance. "The training area."

"And this is the Life Labs and infirmary." Ennéa half turned and inclined her head towards the building they had just exited. "It's uh, always good to know where the infirmary is..." Ennéa scratched the side of her cheek.

"And yeah. O-of course there's more on the island than just this but that's the quick tour." She started walking again, briskly heading towards the cove. "C'mon."

Sosiqui

Crispin followed her out, turning his head to try and catch every detail; when they stepped outside, he flinched, holding up one hand to shade his eyes from the sunlight, which seemed almost unbearably bright after what had apparently been a very long sleep indeed. "Wow... and this island is all, um, ours? The... the Hunters' island?" Once his eyes had acclimatized to the light, he turned around, pivoting on one foot and trying to take it all in. A real secret complex of a real secret organization dedicated to protecting mankind....!

Wow. Wow.

"It's amazing," he told her, reverently, then realized she'd started moving while he was staring. He quickly caught up with her, feeling a little self-conscious now - talk about being a n00b. "And we're going... where? Wow, you really can smell the ocean from here..." He took a deep breath.

Frigoris

"Yeah, you can. It gets real clammy at night though and when the tides' out sometimes it can reek like rotten fish." Ennéa said, probably ruining the moment but she didn't care.

Crispin's cheer and enthusiastic awe was really nice, like a bright sunbeam in her otherwise dreary day, but another part of her just wanted to shake him until he realized the full gravity of what he was giving up. So many mixed emotions. Ennéa kept finding herself opening her mouth to say something and then being at a loss for words. What could she even say to him?

She kept walking; even picking up her pace a little.

"We're going to the cove so you can get your weapon." She said over her shoulder.

Sosiqui

"We are? Already?" He sounded startled, but after a brief pause Crispin nodded resolutely. "I'm ready," he said, trying to sound confident. Indeed, part of him was confident, soaringly so; he knew how these things were supposed to go. It was a plot, a trope he'd roleplayed a million times.

But he wasn't roleplaying now. This was real, as the growing patches of red on his arm from being pinched attested to. "Have you been a Hunter for very long? They all, um... the others I saw all had coats like yours. A uniform? What do the scythes mean?" he asked, eagerly. Partially because he really wanted to know, and partially because a tiny part of him was actually starting to get a little scared. Scared that he'd get to this cove and then this whole thing would break up. Like maybe he'd wake up for real, or maybe none of the weapons would have him, or... something.

Frigoris

More questions. "Almost two years." She said shortly. "Yes, the coat are hunter uniform. The scythes on mine mean I'm a part of the Death division."

She stopped and turned to look at Crispin. "There are five different hunter divisions," She quickly ticked them off on her fingers, "Death, Life, Sun, Moon, and Mist. Each have different specialties and duties, like Death deals with reconnaissance and intelligence. You'll be assigned a division too once you get your weapon and get settled here."

She paused, already feeling ashamed about being so short with Crispin. "Sorry." She said quietly. "I know you're excited and everything is all new adventure to you right now but... it's not... I--" Ennéa sighed miserably. "I don't know... it's not how you think it'll be and I'm sorry, I just can't..." She trailed off.

Ennéa looked down at her shoes; there was a huge scuff mark and a dark stain of indeterminate origin on one of them. "Sorry." She said helplessly once again. "I'll try to help you as I can but please, take this seriously."

She turned and continued walking, finally stopping in front of a dark tunnel. "This is the entrance to the cove. You can find your weapon here."

Sosiqui

Crispin quieted at Ennea's words, feeling a bit uncomfortable. "It's not... it's not a fairy tale, right?" he said, after a moment. "I'll remember that, I promise..." It made sense, after all. Fighting came with a cost. Glory wasn't a shield, and it wasn't a promise. It was bait. And yet he couldn't help it...

... even if it was stupid, he had still been waiting for this his whole life.

He wasn't going to say that aloud, though. Not now, with Ennea looking like that, hardly even looking at him anymore. "Thanks," he said, offering her a crooked smile. "So I just go in there, and... that's it?" Things like divisions and where he was going to sleep and all of that could wait. His hands ached to feel the solidity, the promise of that weapon in them once more.

Frigoris

"That's it." Ennéa confirmed. "Don't worry, about finding your weapon; it's hard to explain but... you'll know which one is meant for you." She rubbed her thumb over the blue bead on her wrist before giving Crispin a crooked, slightly sad smile. "I hope it's everything you imagined."

She held out her hand. "It was nice meeting you, Crispin. Good luck."

Sosiqui

He took her hand and shook it, warmly. "I'll come let you know how it went, and stuff," he said, grinning at her.

Then he pivoted on one foot and trotted down the stairs, waving one hand back at her almost carelessly as he went.

 

[Eight]

This wasn't right. None of it. No. She wanted out, she didn't want to hurt anyone anymore. She wanted out of this nightmare. Out!

Suddenly the light hit her like a curtain being thrown open on a bright, sunny school day and Heidi found herself falling forward and onto the floor with a gasp. At first she just laid there, her cheek on the floor and half of her body still in the pod, staring ahead of her up the row of weird...glowy things. "Whoa..." It was like something from the SyFy channel. What the heck?

She rolled onto her back and attempted to get up, finding she needed to grab hold of the weird glowy door that had swung open and stopped supporting her. Heidi stood on shaky feet, her legs tired from not being in use for..how long? "Am I on a movie set?" Heidi blinked. "Hello? Hellooooooo?" She called out, looking around for anyone who could answer her.