Welcome to Gaia! ::

The morning following the unfortunate trainee Sahara mission was again, drizzling.

Though the cemetery was an almost hidden, off-path patch of cement past the main building, a red triangular flag had been raised half-mast up on a dais in the center of the compound. It was almost impossible to miss it.

A couple of Hunters were lingering around the cemetery: while the other grave markers on the ground, each of them bearing names - names of deceased hunters - were damp with rain, the ones they were standing by seemed almost freshly planted. All the tombstones were lined in long, even rows, the last one joining the collection. Each one only had the name, nothing else, even the space between the markers was completely too narrow to place a coffin or body.

The last three - the newly placed markers - followed the same rules. Three arbitrary names. Linda Evans. Jessie McNeal. Benjamin Summers.

Scant fresh flowers littered the new headstones, Deus Ex Machina was sparse when it came to unnecessary goods, but the action in itself was enough. There were not many that said goodbye who had not already said so several times before.

Otto hadn't meant to be there. He'd just been looking for a short cut to another part of the facility, and ended up kind of lost.

Somehow he ended up outside in the light drizzling weather. A light sneeze here and there from his own mouth was all he heard for a while until a muttering was overheard.
He'd found himself the cemetery. They had a cemetery? It was surprising. What wasn't surprising was the very military style it was organized in.

"Nope. They probably, cremate'em." He said aloud to Leon, now beside the other hunter. He looked over the names of fallen hunters, shrugging lightly. "I'm surprised they got all this in the first place. I figured they'd just chuck ya in the retort.. er- incinerator and be done with it."

Aleister had been taking it a bit easier since the fight, his back was still sore. He was also procrastinating on going to see Dr. H. It hadn't gotten infected yet right? So he didn't have to actually to a doctor.

He passed by the cemetery to notice that something was going on. His brow lofted as he noticed there were others there. Two of them looked like some of the trainee's had woken with him. The other was one of the more experienced hunters.

<So... what's up with the headstones?>

<I have no idea, lets go find out.>

He moved towards the gathering, "So.... what's going on?" He asked curiously noticing that there likely weren't any bodies buried here with the closeness of the head stones and the simplicity of them. "Everything's so simple around here..." He said softly with a small frown.

"God, those poor people..."

It looked like a rather large group had formed now, and Eva had moved forward to add to their numbers. She paused to touch Ryan's shoulder lightly, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Hey. How are you feeling now?" The last time she had seen him had been during the mission, and he had been in pretty bad shape then. It was good to see that he was up and moving, though--she took it as a sign that he hadn't been too seriously hurt.

She turned her gaze back to the tombstones, lips pressing into a tight, thin line. Like the other hatchlings, she was new here, and so not one of those names were familiar to her. However, she knew that there was a distinct possibility that some of them would join these hunters one day. One day, these tombstones could bear the name of her acquaintances, her friends, or even her own.

The thought made her shudder. If she were to die, she just hoped that it wouldn't be from being half-eaten by a giant monster.

Truthfully, Marcus was still in a bit of a shock. The fact that... all those bodies. All those people- it was really, something that went far beyond the normal 'terrifying'. How did you ‘get over’ such a thing like that. He’d never encountered death before. Never seen or felt death. What they had touched. What they had carried… Those had once been people . Living, breathing human beings that were just like him. And- then just to be laying in sand, decaying, broken apart. How long had the festered in the desert sun? He didn’t know. He didn’t want to know. It was been a grisly wake up call to the reality of what they faced.

Monsters. Demons. Freaks. They were enemies, and they wouldn’t hesitate to try and kill them given the chance. Those ‘kids’ and that ‘horsewoman’ had been more than happy to go after them at the house. They would rather die than let a hunter live. Monsters.

Anger, if misplaced welled up at the world of Halloween. Blame, perhaps even unneeded guilt was inside of the moon trainee, and it made him feel terrible. After he’d gotten back he’d scrubbed his body almost raw, the feeling of dead flesh in his hands haunting him more than the visage of any monster. Something about death… that drew more fear from Marcus than anything else he’d seen thus far. No doubt he’d see worse in the coming days.

The light rain was white noise as Marcus went to where he’d heard they would be. It seemed almost insulting to not pay his respects to those who had died. He’d prayed for others. Innocents perhaps, caught and killed, never even knowing. Hunters- the hunters went in knowing the possibilities. This wasn’t a game. This was their lives now. This too, might someday be their fate.

As he reached the site, the cemetery, some other trainees were already present. He wasn’t wearing his coat, it had the blood of the dead on it. He didn’t want to wear it for a while. “Morning.” There was nothing good about it in his eyes. The eath hadn't even bill tilled. “A grave doesn’t always need a body. It’s a way to show you cared. To honor someone’s memory. It’s-“ He frowned, reading the names. “It’s also a way to remind us that we’re just human in the end.” A sad sigh. "It's probably our fate as well."

Bowing his head he was silent running over that last name. “Leon.” He motioned towards the last headstone. “…You don’t think that might be-“ It was left unfinished. They hadn’t seen the death hunter since.

Jerry was uncharacteristically solemn as he wandered over the field. A graveyard.... there really was a graveyard. His stomach twisted, mind mulling over what might have happened in the last major mission. It could have... It almost had been him in one of those graves.

He wondered idly what would have happened if Candace hadn't been able to revive him right away, a hand moving up to nervously pick at what remained of the scabs on the scarred part of his face. Almost healed... as much as it probably was going to heal.

There were others up ahead, congregating near the flag. Some familiar faces, some new ones.

He immediately put on his smile, lowering his hand as he drifted closer, trying to see what was going on. Hopefully he hadn't missed anything important.

Deryk had a hard time sleeping after that last mission. As a result, he was up earlier than usual, trying to clear his head with a stroll outside. There was something a bit different, as he moved around, namely that red flag that was raised. Curiosity overtook him, and so he made his way over towards it to see what was going on.

As he drew closer, he noticed a number of others gathering around the area. Closer yet, he could see just what this place was.

A graveyard.

Freezing in place, he felt a chill run through him before he slowly continued his approach. Three of the markers were fresh... One of those had to be for the dying hunter he had seen the day before. Did they even bring back the remains? No. The spaces were too narrow for buried bodies.

For once, he was silent.

Cemeteries weren't Candace's thing. She didn't think herself uncaring or above visiting them but they just..made her too uncomfortable. Death was not pleasant and definitely not something she wanted to think about, especially not after attempting to clear out a pit full of corpses. Not after Jerry nearly dying. Not after she nearly killed two of her fellow trainees because of her own selfishness. It was a place she would like to avoid if she could but the flag..the gathering...it was kind of hard to ignore. Even in the rain? Candace sighed, limping across the compound to the cemetery where she was seeing everyone gather. She stopped just outside of it, frowning and backing away. No. She didn't need to be in there, she didn't want to be in there.

Candace had even been about to turn around until she spotted Jerry heading up. Her chest felt like it was constricting tightly as she hurried after him, a slight limp in her step as she put most of her weight into one leg instead of the other. "Jerry..?" She didn't raise her voice but she kept it at a volume that would hopefully get his attention. "Honey, what are you doing...here..." Candace's eyes laid on a particular grave. One of the new ones. She didn't recognize Linda Evans, nor did she know Jessie McNeal. She only knew one name. Benjamin Summers. She gasped softly, a hand covering the lower part of her face as the other reached for Jerry's arm and held it tightly.

"Ben..." She bit her lip and looked away, looking upon the rows and rows of tombstones.

"You are the weakest link." Candace swallowed hard and squeezed Jerry's arm once, clearing her throat and looking down toward the ground. If she was the weakest link then how was she still alive, huh? Then again...she had done terribly during the most recent mission. The only thing she had managed to hit had been her best friend. She stayed quiet now. This was a cemetery, not a place for chitchat and banter. It was a place to pay respects. She kind of wished she'd been able to bring flowers or candles or something of that nature.

She heard a hiss and looked to one side, spotting Gale not far off. Candace frowned, reaching out to rest a hand on the young boy's shoulder. "You okay, Chipmu--Gale?"