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Turning at the voice, Clarice stopped walking and tried to remember the trainee's name. He was in her own division, she should remember this by now! Well, at least she knew his last name, "Oh, Bates..." But only because H had been rather happy to have someone he could refer to as Master Bates. The assistant had refused to go along with this, but it's what first comes to mind whenever she sees the poor guy. "Is something wrong?"

Oh good, a different name altogether. Because honestly, the though of accidentally calling the trainee Master had kind of haunted the back of Clarice's mind for awhile. Like when you have one of the nightmares when you're naked in public, and then spend the rest of the next day irrationally wondering if you may, at any given moment, end up naked in public.

"Before? That's great, I'll will make a note of that right this moment!" Her clipboard was armed and at the ready for vital notes and observations. But her mood quickly became a bit brittle at yet another trainee mentioning things she couldn't recall. She had a clearer idea now, as to what had happened, and yet it still bothered her that their newest recruits were running around know things that she didn't. Knowing things she had done or said that she couldn't recall.

"Well, how about you give me a recap, just to be sure we're on the same page?"

She really hoped he meant horny as in...having horns, and not like...humping her leg.

The visual aids comment almost, almost got him a sharp reprimand, bathroom duty, and Clarice referring to him only as trainee for several months. Fortunately he got to the point, and her expression softened every so slightly. She didn't exactly like the pendants, either. "So you were in the gym test? That was a pretty messy situation, in a lot of ways. So it's okay to be upset by them, but on a mission that sort of reaction can get a lot people hurt."

She very carefully touched his shoulder, "Is that why you're here?"

She gave his shoulder a small squeeze, hang in there guy, before letting go and nodding, "Sure, I don't know if it's something that can every be fully resolved, but the fact that you're willing means I can help you get started in that direction. In fact I have just the thing..." she began flipping through her clipboard, and yes, it was still a sadly unchecked little box on a to-do list, "...to help you work through this. Just follow me, it's not far."

Switching directions, she glanced over at Before, and felt need to add, "In all honesty, though? I don't think anybody will ever be capable of dealing with all the stuff he puts us through. It's more of a...survival thing. As long as you walk away, and halfway sane, then you're doing pretty well around him."

The sudden change in mood startled the assistant a bit, but it's not like hunters were the highest standard of mental and emotional health. Plus he wasn't acting mopey or weepy, and that was always a plus. The compliment to their division had her do a quick take as they walked, though. Life Division? Awesome? Really? Well...to her it was but...

"I'm sure you'll adjust...in time? I'm glad you like the division, though. A lot of trainees switch when they make full Hunter. The doctor can be a bit...much."

She smiled over at him, "This is a good start, Before." She stopped at a plain white door, labeled Inspection and knocked softly. At a muffled reply, she opened it, revealing a single life hunter sitting at a small table. The room was brightly lit, and starkly white, the only things not white were the hunter and the few items sitting on the table: a microscope, a magnifying glass, and a small bow, containing a number of familiar stone pendants.

"Is it okay if we take over this batch?"

The hunter looked slightly incredulous, giving the blonde a, What? You?! -look, followed by a quick look around to see if this was an elaborate trap. Despite the fact that this reaction wasn't without justification, Clarice just scowled back with a Hurry the ******** up and get out, you -look of her own.

As the hunter hurried out, she turned back to the trainee, expression schooled back to something more pleasant, "Are you ready? Just take the seat at the table and I'll walk you through this."

Her eyebrows twitched up a bit at the excitement...over one of the most boring tasks available, but then again, he didn't really know that. Yet. "As they're finished, and need them double checked. The design on the pendants is what we call a rune. We use various runes for different tasks, as they can be used to manipulate the power of FEAR. Something we, as humans, are unable to do directly. Now within those runes, if you pick up the magnifying glass...are other, smaller runes. Those help refine what a rune does. And if you take that microscope, within those tiny runes, you'll find that they're each made up of tiny zeros and ones. That's the binary we use to both further refine the runic functions as well as link the runes to our database."

Clarice tapped the box, "These aren't yet activated. Prior to computers, when hunters made runes, they'd have to carved them by hand for days on end, chanting and focusing their thoughts. Fortunately, we don't have to go through all that. But anything involving power, real power, requires a price. For runes, that price is time and focus, so while we do the work through computers now, we can't just use previously used files or copy/paste. Their code needs to be typed out individually by hand before our machines take that and carve them. So there's a lot of room for errors, and activating a rune without thoroughly checking it over is kind of fool's gambit."

She shook her head a bit, limbs were lost over that sort of thing, "The code and inner runes have already been checked for accuracy on these, so don't worry about spotting any typos. What you're going to be doing here is just the final check. Look for any small nicks, chips, or cracks that cause a flaw in any of the engravings. If a pendant looks clean, just activate it by holding it, concentrating, and saying Avalon."

The blonde gave Before a considering look, "It can be a bit to take in, any questions so far?"