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 Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:40 pm
Quote: Day 1:
- Joy Formula Number 5 is showing the general signs of Joy: an elevated sort of happiness, a feeling that perhaps the holidays are the best thing ever, and a need to shop for more gifts, share the love with everyone, and in general, be agreeable to every and anything for the holiday spirit.
- No violent tendencies have yet to be in effect: and the effects of Joy seem relatively mild
Following all the recent socialising, though, Reine felt like she needed a bit of a break, which meant either the library or otherwise spending time in a nice quiet place. Caelius' answer to both her and Eva, following the Spencer mission, had been all but cryptic. While she'd mostly gotten over it, it annoyed her to not have concrete answers, and the people at the Death division refused to let her in.
What happened to the christmas spirit? Sharing and caring and all that? Sulking a little, Reine wandered around until she found herself inexplicably in front of Caelius' office door. If she wanted answers, she'd have to play it smart, but this did seem like it was her only chance. Besides, it was entirely possible that Caelius himself was in a better mood due to the holidays, which meant that this was the best time possible to inquire.
Feeling courageous, Reine knocked on the door.
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Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:28 pm
Caelius's morning went something like this: wake up, shower, dressed, harass the kitchen staff (though they normally already had his breakfast prepared, a simple cup of Sumatra, a multi-grain bagel, and half a slice of grapefruit) in the span of the first twenty minutes. The rest of the day was usually filled with either paperwork, something going wrong to yell at, or some trainee/Hunter out to pick at his infinite wisdom.
And so, post breakfast, the morning continued like so. The walk upstairs to his usual 'office' was uneventful, and the Hunters milling the early hours nothing short of oddly cheerful. Normally at this point, all sorts of alarm bells might have been ringing regarding several of them - and one that suspiciously looked like Julie in a reindeer costume - handing him a set of earmuffs and then matching candycane scarf, but for some reason his brain had wrote it off as not important. And as the day passed by, and random gifts began to show up on his table, the reindeer headband, santa hat, a giant wreath and an assortment of candycanes had simply been written off also as really, not worth yelling about. The wreath was nice wasn't it? Yes it quite was.
It was around that time that Reine knocked on the door, silence at the other end of the open door as the Death Hunter leader worked from his notebook, stern face as usual, decked out in a candycane scarf and pair of earmuffs. Either Caelius was secretly Canadian or perhaps he had finally gone off the deep end, again.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 2:44 am
It was a Christmas miracle! Reine walked in to see Caelius all dressed up for the occasion in a candy-cane scarf (that actually did look rather dashing on him... if she squinted really hard), and she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. The man was human, after all.. His desk, too, was strewn with various types of christmas paraphernalia, and that brought a smile to her face.
"I'm sorry to disturb, sir?" Reine took the liberty of taking a few steps into his office, before scooting towards the table, giving it a one-meter radius at least. That was about as close as she dared to go.
"Following the previous mission, uh.. regarding the target, I've tried to look up information, but I haven't managed to find anything of note." She swallowed nervously, then spotted the reindeer headband, and fixed her eyes on that. Alright. Talk to the reindeer headband. That was safe. It even reminded her, for some reason, of Julie, and Julie was far more comforting than Caelius.
"I would still like to know why this particular target required suppression." She took a chance, and a deep breath. "And if there are still others out there." Honestly, Reine wasn't ready to kill anything else for no reason, especially if said thing looked like a human and behaved like a human.. but perhaps showing the willingness to do so would make it easier for her to obtain information somehow.
Initiative was good.. right?
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 3:02 pm
'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas' had been blasting in the Death Hunter's head for the last four hours, to the point where it was getting nearly impossible to concentrate or even hear what others were saying. After the first hour of this torment, even Circe had retreated to the deepest mental recesses of his mind in hopes for some peace and quiet.
One hand on his forehead, trying to make the headache go away, Caelius simply stared at Reine as she said some words, and blinked. He continued to stare at her blankly as she continued to say more words, which was unfortunately drowned out by the repeat lyrics all but shouting in his head 'AND MAY ALL YOUR CHRISTMASES BE WHIIIIIITE'.
In fact, Reine was starting to look more and more like a Reine-deer, haha he was so punny, maybe he should share that with the trainee and then he could go and buy some Christmas presents for everyone and-
-What.
Even the mental music came to a stop as Caelius literally shook himself out of whatever hypnotism that might have been to stare flatly at the trainee just as she finished up with the words "there are still others out there." A few moments of silence passed by.
'Maybe you should be nice to her' a very, very, very small internal not-Circe voice reasoned, It is the holidays after al-
- That part was promptly squashed again be the rather larger portion of his general perception of things known as I Don't Give a ********. "If this is regarding your last mission with Eva, it is interesting that you would express concern for an entirely random stranger over your own childhood best friend." Thankfully the Death Hunter leader was still able to manage the tone of ridiculing without dipping into his reserves of 'Please just leave me alone today' quite yet. "Even if you did your research, did you even consider your fundamental research before-"
-'I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS'-
-"JESUS ******** CHRIST!" Caelius all but flipped the table over as he stood up abruptly, looking ready to destroy some invisible Fear-infested creation in front of him.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 6:54 pm
"Because we had no reason to kill Spencer, and I've come to the conclusion anyway that it's less about him and more about my own conscience," Reine retorted. It was true- they hadn't known the guy, and no matter who Reine might have been ordered to kill instead of Spencer, it would have ended the same way- with questions and a substantial amount of guilt. "On the other hand, Robert's annoying, and instructions stated that all I needed to do was disable him to the point where he couldn't fight ba---"
Caelius seemed to be all but stable, practically destroying his office- okay, not that extreme- as he stood up, and Reine inched further away until her back was up against the wall of the office. Not-so-sneakily her eyes darted towards the open door, and she began planning her escape route should anything happen. She couldn't hope to outrun him, probably, but if she got a headstart.. Either way, the first course of action was to attempt somehow to placate him.
"A...are you okay, sir?"
For some reason, she was actually contemplating singing a christmas carol to him. Maybe it would calm him do-- wait, where had that idea even come from?
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:02 pm
BEST. DAY. EVER.
For some reason, Eva--who was already excessively cheerful to begin with--was feeling especially happy today. To her weapon's frustration, she had spent the whole morning humming the same Christmas carol over and over again, wrapping (and rewrapping) the presents she made everyone, and hugging everyone who was unfortunate enough to cross her path.
Not that most of them seemed to care. For some reason, everyone seemed to be pretty happy, even those who she usually saw scowling. This struck Eva as somewhat odd...but that didn't last long as she simply brushed it off as holiday cheer.
Which it kind of was. Kind of.
But then this begged the question about whether this joy had managed to spread to a certain division leader. Feeling particularly brave (or stupid), Eva pivoted on her heel and immediately head towards Caelius office. She was vaguely surprised to find that the door was open, but upon peering in...
"Reeeeeine!" The girl all but flung herself at her friend, arms wrapping tightly around the life trainee's middle. And...oh, right! She was here to see Caelius! Still hugging Reine she lifted and turned her head in her division leader's direction. "Hello, sir! Just checkin--"
Eva's eyes widened and her mouth hung open as her words died off. She took in Caelius' appearance, and then immediately bit down on her lip in an attempt to suppress the laughter that was threatening to bubble forth. Should she say something? Maybe she should say something. Maybe he was expecting compliments! That look didn't look too bad on him!
Eva, no! Don't--
"That style looks good!" She chirped cheerfully, giving an approving nod. Maybe she had a death wish.
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 10:56 am
And now there was a snowman at the doorway.
It had to be it. It had to be that snowman who caused everything. He took a few steps towards it, narrowing his eyes. "There are times when abominations have to be dealt with, regardless of how deceiving their looks may be." The footsteps continued until he was just a few feet away from Eva, one hand reaching for his weapon.
'Master, I don't think-' Circe managed to argue, as Caelius sized up the trainee like a formidable opponent. 'Perhaps it might be wise to consider that-
WHAM.
The candycane pinata that the Death Hunter had been holding exploded into bits of gumdrops, star candy and other confections as it smacked Eva across the side (approximately where the snowman's torso should have been). In Caelius's defense, he looked a little confused as to why Circe had exploded.
'-you didn't actually summon me.' His weapon finished.
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:41 am
"Evieee!" The sight of her friend calmed Reine down greatly, but before she could move to tackle Evie, the other girl practically leapt at her and cuddled. Not that she minded, it would've ended up the same either way! Clinging to Eva, Reine listened as Caelius spoke.
When abominations have to be dealt with... deceiving looks.. was he talking about Spencer? Reine brightened up immediately- she'd been right, after all, about her theory that Spencer had been something.. not human! A threat, in fact. She nodded emphatically, though it was at Caelius' scarf, mostly, that Reine was staring. There was something.. eye-catching about it, other than the bright colours. It was almost mesmerising..
No wait! Caelius was speaking, which meant paying attention, because otherwise there might be the pod again-- though clearly she wasn't paying enough attention, because all of a sudden there was an explosion of candy. Reine stared at Caelius, who looked about just as lost, and then she looked towards Eva.
"Are we having a party?!" It was the only conclusion she could reach.
Reine felt just a tiny bit of guilt, she hadn't brought anything! She should have brought those cookies she made with Julie.. after all, there was the whole thing about christmas and caring and sharing. Maybe Caelius would let her go back to her room and get them?
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:13 pm
To be honest, Eva had no idea what the hell just happened either.
She saw Caelius advancing on her and felt the impact of something slamming into her, but it didn't register just what he had hit her with. All she knew was that, within the next second, there was suddenly candy--candy everywhere. Considering that they were clattering to the ground by her, and she felt that dull ache in her side where she had been struck, Eva came to the most logical conclusion that her Joy-induced mind could come up with.
Caelius had cut her open and now she was bleeding candy.
"R-reine, I...I think there are gumdrops falling out of me," She whispered, her eyes round as she stared at the sweets littering the ground. Eva looked like she was struggling between panic and excitement, her hand clutched tightly over her "wound" to prevent any more candy from spilling out.
Chara, who had been relatively silent up until this point, suddenly let out an exasperated (and vaguely concerned), Eva! What is wrong with you today?!
Eva didn't seem to hear. She too busy staring at the candy and wondering if she could integrate it back into her body by eating it all.
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:30 pm
At this point, anything either of the non-Caelius variety said had been drowned out entirely by the lyrics of 'HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY CHRISTMAS - IN STEREO'.
The Death Hunter leader knew from years of experience he was part of the information and resources department for a reason: that he had of course, the amazing sense of perception and the ability to collect information and piece together the bigger picture.
Reine had walked into the room prior to this starting.
The snowman had walked into the room after Reine.
Reine and the snowman were now consorting with each other.
There was a traitor in their midst.
"I see." Caelius mused, calmly, as he put away the broken pieces of the pinata, assessing the snowman and the trainee. This would have to be done with the greatest sort of tact: Hunters in the past had defected before, bringing traitors into their midst, and he was frankly surprised the snowman had made it so far, considering heightened security. Clearly he had to, as always, take matters into his own hands.
Calmly and with the greatest sort of tact.
This time, Circe, really trying her best not to have her partner have another mental breakdown, humoured him, circling wide as it sliced rather deeply into the wall, the shockwave biting into the plaster wall in an explosion of paint and mortar.
All this was achieved of course, in a very calm, tactful sort of way.
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:06 pm
"Oh nooooo!" Reine fussed over Eva for a while, trying to calm the other girl down. "They're not falling out of you! Caelius is just... just throwing us a party?"
Maybe he was rehearsing for the actual christmas gala. That would explain why he was swinging a pinata around. She wanted to point out, though, that you didn't throw the pinata, you threw something at it! But maybe they had different traditions here. When in Rome, do as the romans do, right?
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Eva, though, was looking at the candy, and Reine wondered if she was possibly hungry; kneeling down, she scooped up as much as she could, and shoved it in Eva's pockets. She could consider it as a gift from Caelius, after all, and it would be impolite to refuse that--- when suddenly, there was another crash, and Reine looked up, surprised.
"Oh, Santa!" She cried, looking up at Caelius happily. "You made it snow!" Flakes of white mortar fluttered down, and Reine jumped up, doing a funny little dance, before hugging Caelius.
"I'mmmmm dreaming of a white christmas~~"
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:46 am
"T-they're not?" Eva stared at Reine, a look of hope welling up in her eyes--eyes that had, for a while there, started to look a little misty. It seemed she had truly been alarmed at the idea that she had been bleeding candy, especially considering just how much candy had been spilled over the floor. Biting down on her lip, Eva looked down at the hand she held clutched over her side, and slowly--very slowly--lifted it away. She waited for more gumdrops to come falling out.
They never came.
At once, the girl's face lit up in relief. "You're right, Reine! They're not from me!" And what was this about a party? Caelius was throwing them a party? How nice! Eva had been focused on helping Reine shovel candy into her own pocket when she heard the crash. Eva's head whipped up in surprise, and she turned to look at Caelius.
Wooooooooooooooooooooooah. It was snowing! While Reine went and hugged the death division leader, Eva simply stood beneath the white flakes for a few seconds, a content expression on her face. After another moment or two, she went to join her friend, wrapping her arms around both Reine and Caelius. It was a very lumpy hug thanks to all the candy in her pockets.
Oh, carols. She loved this one! "Just like the one I used to knooooow~" Eva chimed in, swaying from side to side.
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:45 am
Caelius was, instead, eyeing the wall with a sort of keen intellect, narrowing his eyes. How dare it get in the way of his opponent, it was clever, perhaps but not clever enough. There were more than one way to get exactly what he wanted.
'... How many of Julie's cookies did you eat again, master?' Queried Circe, most likely questioning her own choice of becoming something of a piece of DIY renovation equipment.
The Death Hunter tried his best to remember this: it was all a strange and horrific blur of red, green, more red, more green, and Christmas carols. There was probably a snowman in there somewhere. Wait, back up, of course Julie would be involved in the entire fiasco, that would explain...how...
'....Explain how...?' His weapon prompted a little too patiently, waiting Caelius to put two and two together.
He paused, frowning, trying to take a step back to the desk despite the strange anchors around his waist. After a great degree of struggling, he managed to pull away from both the anchors and slowly inch towards sanctuary, eyebrows furrowed deep in thought. Yes, it would explain... how...Julie...
Yes, Julie and the cookies...? Circe prompted again, all but shoving him down the right direction.
Caelius paused. A very very very small portion of his mind was screaming that it would explain HOW HE HAD BEEN FOOD POISONED BY JOY NOT TO MENTION OTHER THINGS, but unfortunately, most of his logic had checked out to Air Sanity on the quickest available flight, that small portion sadly, still waiting on the next departure. He looked at the snowman and reinedeer and then at the table.
"I think," he began, in a strangely calm, deceptively calm sort of way, "That there are certain issues that need to be addressed."
*
Five hours later found Caelius, Reine, and Eva sitting on the table with a small controlled bonfire burning happily away as they toasted marshmallows. A couple of other Hunters had come to join in, offering an assortment of chocolates, candycanes and oh, more cookies.
"-And that is how I killed my pet goldfish," The Death Hunter was muttering, still managing to keep everything in his skeptical monotone, holding his cup of hot chocolate with a rather impressive death grip as he watched the marshmallows float on top of the concoction.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 10:40 am
"It's okay, Evie! It's okay!" Reine clasped her friend's hands, tears welling up in her eyes. Wasn't it amazing of Caelius to have prepared everything for them? Th..this was truly what separated the division leaders from the trainees- foresight and.. and amount of effort put in, and everything.
Reine looked at Caelius with sparkly eyes. Someday, someday she'd be like him..
*
It turned out that whatever they had been missing, other people brought- cookies, candy, and other goodies. In the end, Reine found herself on Caelius' rather comfortable desk, listening to him talk. She was glad it was him, somehow- even with all the joy, Reine had some doubts about possibly being in the same situation in Dr H's office.
Still, she listened attentively to every word Caelius said, though her mind might have replaced certain words, for example 'killed' with 'carolled' and 'goldfish' with 'reindeer'. Granted, the death hunter's story had made a lot less sense, but what did that matter? He was sharing his life story! Pulling her skewer away from the bonfire Reine nibbled on a marshmallow happily.
"Santa," she said, sort of dreamily. "Tell us more about Rudolph?" The warmth was making her sleepy, and Caelius' monotone voice wasn't doing much to help. Under normal circumstances Reine wouldn't dream of falling asleep while Caelius was talking, but after downing about ten joy cookies, nothing really mattered anymore.
There was something she was dying to ask, though she knew it wasn't polite.. But it was right there on the tip of her tongue, and...
"Was Spencer an elf?" Was that why he had to be suppressed? She could see it now, Spencer Adams the Rogue Elf, a new christmas movie. Her bottom lip started trembling as she looked at Caelius.
"Did he try to stop Christmas, Santa?" Or.. or wait. She knew an actual monster that did that. "Was he the Grinch?!" Reine was thiiiiiis close to bursting into tears.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 1:35 am
Caelius was the best.
Eva smiled to herself as she held the marshmallow over the bonfire, rolling the skewer between her hands and trying to get the marshmallow to brown as evenly as possible. The perfect roasted marshmallow was an art--it had to be completely gooey and melted inside, but slightly crispy outside, and--
--Oh, Caelius was telling a story. She fell silent, listening with semi glazed-over eyes as she took in the story about...goldfish murder? Something like that. She felt her eyes grow misty at the story, and she had to lift a hand to swipe at her eyes once he was finished. "That was a touching story, boss. So full of action, tragedy, and romance."
Clearly she had been making up things in her head along the way, but that was okay. It seemed that neither she nor Reine actually got the full and accurate tale.
She flinched at the mention of Spencer's name, her grip on her marshmallow skewer slipping. In an instant, the marshmallow that she had meticulously been roasting was set aflame...but Eva didn't seem to notice. Or maybe she just didn't care, as she turned to stare at Caelius as well, eyes round.
"Spencer...he tried to steal Christmas, didn't he?! I knew it!" Her words were emphasized with the angry waving of her flaming marshmallow.
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