Welcome to Gaia! ::

The chair at the desk spun, revealing a blonde woman that was probably not Dr. H. Hopefully. "Oh, hey Mar...Marcel, right? I didn't realize you were scheduled for the labs today." She began flipping through her clipboard, behind her what looked to be a video game was running on a rather eccentric looking computer. Without looking up she continued, "I don't see you here...oh wait, is this..."she glanced up and gave the man an exasperated look, "...is this about condoms?"

The first few months, a lot of trainees were still in a bit of shell-shocked stranger in a strange land state, but once they had their first real mission? Like bunnies. Or teenagers on a remote island, which was fair enough, really.

She lifted her eyebrows at the trainee's denial, and then began digging around in a desk drawer as he continued talking. At the mention of Aria, the corners of her lips turned decidedly down, she only glanced up at him for a moment though, before going back to the drawer, scowling. While they hadn't been BFFs and the other woman's interactions with her boss had led to numerous headaches and clean-ups for Clarice...she'd always had something of a girlcrush on Aria. The dead-not-dead-traitor-but-not speculation revolving around the Mist Hunter had left her feeling a bit touchy on the subject. The ultimately incorrect but still lingering nightmares featuring Aria chewing off her own arm didn't exactly help matters.

Finally, she found what she was looking for, and pulled out several foil wrappers. making sure to check the date first, the assistant placed them on the desk. "Take some anyways. Hunters have more than their fair share of near-death experiences, and humans throughout the ages have shown some pretty specific and popular coping mechanisms for such. If you lose those or run out, you can pick more up at any of the infirmary stations."

She tapped out a beat on the desk and considered the rest of his questions, some of which she simply didn't know the answer to. With a sigh, she began, "As far as the Soul Harvester goes...she would have been a weapon on par with Excalibur or Merlin. A total nuke. And thus...our failure? Not entirely unexpected. Galling, yes. Hard on our superiors' egos? Even moreso. The fact that we were able to hold and weaken her to such a degree is actually a pretty big step forward for us. The last mission is pretty easy to see as a failure, but keep in mind that we've only recently began to have any successes at all. A decade ago? No hunter would have come back from that alive, let alone trainees. So try not get to down about that, 'kay? For the rest, we're dealing with magic. How is it possible isn't so much the issue, because lots of s**t it possible that shouldn't be, right?"

She paused and leaned forward, "The real question is what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again? And we've been handling that one, so don't worry about changelings creeping in your windows, snatching your people up. We got this."

"With Aria...it really is too soon. I'd advise against idle speculation concerning her." The look Clarice gave him was not outright hostile, but it wasn't very pleased with his questions concerning the Mist leader, either. But the following question left a little surprised, "They've started discussing Insanity with you guys? Well I guess it makes sense, considering what I've read from the reports but..." she paused wondering how best to phrase this without it turning into a full blown lecture. "Condensing Insanity has been briefly considered, but doing so would result in an Insane Weapon. At best it would be useless, at worst...well. You saw what happened, right? When those creatures become infected with it? It's a risk with too little payoff. The Fog has its uses in its current form, but..."

Oh there was that lecturing thing again. The thing she wanted to avoid here.

"Anyways, if you're truly interested in the R&D aspects of Deus Ex, I can sign you up for a few sessions helping in the labs?"

She tilted her head a bit and considered what he was saying, "I see where you're trying to go with this, and we do have a few projects that try to harness or manipulate FEAR in various ways, and some of them are indeed for combat." She gestured to the computer briefly, "We also use it as an alternative power supply where possible. Poisons...we're cautious about. What can affect Halloween, can also affect our own weapons. But..." she paused and looked him in the eye.

"Our official goal isn't to take them out of anything other than the human...our world. These are creatures spawned from our own emotions. As long as human beings are capable of feeling fear, they'll continue spawning and empowering creatures from that energy. This isn't...this isn't something that we can win the total annihilation of those creatures its..." she touched the heavy metal cuff on wrist, and gave Hraegar the mental equivalent of a hug, "...it's something won through cooperation."

Clarice made a face, "I...really didn't mean to get into all that. You'll come to your own conclusions soon enough. If you decide to try some lab work, well, you may end up playing lab rat, but more likely you'll just get to play grunt and janitor instead."

Resting her chin on her hand, Clarice sighed, "We gather as many people as we can, your lot was actually the largest group of candidates we've been able to bring in since...well, ever. Like I said, we're gaining ground, you know? It's a matter of both finding candidates, and having enough Weapons on hand to ensure that at least some of them will be able to wake and bond with a candidate. And no, not all weapons agree right away. They're people in their own way, and people...they don't always agree."

She drummed her fingers on the clipboard for a moment, and then continued, "Creatures like the Harvester...we honestly don't know. They're the kind of beings that you can have suspicions about, but you can't be sure until they're breathing down your neck, altering reality, and melting your brain out your ears...personally, I'd rather avoid tracking down anymore of them."

The apology caused her to quirk her mouth a bit, "Better to ask now than in the middle of a mission."

She smiled, "The doctor really just is that sadistic. Have a nice day, trainee."