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 Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:25 pm
She had not been here nearly long enough to have made friends, nor was she really in the mood to. Sure, there were dozens of other Hunters, just as many potential friends... but there were a specific group she was searching for. As it turned out, shouting 'Gamma?' in crowded rooms didn't yield many results, and utter humiliation had Emma stopping that right away. Instead, she listened. Looked. She had never seen the Gammas outside of their gas masks, but she knew them well; she knew their mannerisms and their voices, and the way they fought.
Now, she just had to hope that she was in the right place at the right time.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:53 pm
Ohhh, stiff morning was stiff, and it had Cass still trying to work the kinks out of her system as she went about her business of the day, shoving a few pieces of jerky into her uniform's pocket before she wandered out to roam the halls a bit. She needed to get up, go talk to people. She had a list, even, of chats she needed to have:
Talk to Caelius. Talk to H. Talk to Allan. Talk to...Julie...she guessed..was who she needed to talk to there. "Tssss...that'll be a shame." Maybe talk to Aria too about a 'real' mission she could shadow on. She needed to shadow. She needed to learn. She needed to get stronger. She needed, she needed. It was like a burning desire, but never the less, she was ready to go.
She passed one of the lambs in the hall, grinning as she passed her by. "How's it going?" she greeted, waving to Emma over her shoulder as she did - a familiar gesture. Cass always waved over her shoulder. Always. Even if back then it had been through the flap of a tent.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:43 pm
Something drew Emma to this girl, who waved peculiarly over her shoulder. The Mist Hunter had a sense of power, like she was someone to be reckoned with, like she was someone who was important. Maybe it would do to talk to her, just for a moment. Worst case scenario, the other girl told her to buzz off and she went on her merry way, feeling like a jerk.
"Hey! Could Ah ask you a question?" Emma asked, jogging after the much taller girl a moment. She was tiny, herself, only barely over five-foot-two, and had a rather distinct Southern drawl with or without a gas mask.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:51 pm
Cass actually wasn't that much taller than Emma, standing at a whopping 5'4" herself. Cass was small, meant to be towered over by the big imposing men she somehow had gotten control over as brothers and one as a lover. Her boy. Always. Never the less, she stopped her walk to look back to Emma with a grin, putting her hand on her hip and leaning her weight onto one leg thoughtfully.
"Sure thing, hon~" she answered with a wide smile. "I'm always happy to answer questions for the newbies. Helps when there's so much information floating around and none of the higher ups are answering questions for people anymore. What can I do ya for?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:38 pm
"Oh, um... actually..."
There was something odd going on here, but Emma still couldn't put her finger on it. She felt silly all of a sudden, maybe for approaching this girl with such a question, she didn't think on it much. Well, she'd gotten herself this far. There was no going back now. "Ah was wonderin' if maybe you were around when... uh."
Everyone had to go through a trial run, didn't they? How would she specify this amongst the others? "See, when we was bein' picked through, we had a buncha teams? Alpha, beta, so on an' so forth. Gas masks, whole big job." She gestured around her face, not even noticing she was doing it. "I was wonderin' if you... did kinda the same thing..."
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:27 pm
Now that was an interesting question. "Hun, I'm gonna tell you right now if you go around asking people about the Golem-trials, you're going to wtir up some animosity. We had people being introduced when the hatchlings woke up and oooohhh boy, I was afraid that they were going to maul each others' faces off."
Almost childishly she pressed her hands against her ace, squishing her sheeks together and making a rather hilarious face. "It was a messsssssssssss."
With that aside, Cass actually did answer the question posed; "I'm a Stray, so yes. I woke up with the first batch of trainees last year after the island trials. In fact, I was in the squad that seemed to have the fewest people wake up. I've yet to have met another Gamma while I've been up." she admitted, scratching her nose. Though it was a lie - she had met one, he just..hadn't mentioned he was a Gamma.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:42 pm
For a moment Emma thought she might be scolded, and made a mental note to never ask anybody about this ever again. The Mist Hunter still managed a draw a laugh out of her, though, with her ridiculous face, and she nodded. Right, they must all have--
Hold on.
Gamma? The island trials, last year... there was something going on here, something-- the wave, the voice, the aura of leadership...
Emma bent slightly back, pointing with one hand and clapping the other over her mouth. It took her a moment of shock to speak again.
"Twelve?!"
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:33 pm
She could see the woman had some idea passing through her head as Cass spoke, but the word that came out next actually shocked her. 'Twelve'. She hadn't been called that in so long. Almost a year by that point. It was nostalgic in a horrific way, actually, scratching her head anxiously as if checking to make sure it was still there.
The pointing had been a nice touch, however.
"I....yes?" she confirmed, pointing at herself. "If you're looking for me 'cause I blew my head off, yes....?" it took a moment, and it would take a bit more thought for Cass to try and come up with Emma's identity. It had been a while, things buffered her memory, but she knew one thing: this woman needed to be a Gamma, and probably one of the few that had lingered about with her for longer than that first hunt.
"E...eeeEIiight...?" she sounded uncertain as she made her counter guess, face contorting a bit.
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:42 pm
The poor girl couldn't help it. A wide grin split Emma's face, and she felt this odd... warmth. Sure, they had been through Hell together and probably would be again, but this was a person she knew and trusted and honestly just kind of liked. She was alive! This was a good thing!
"Yeah, s'me!" she laughed, nodding enthusiastically, "Ah... sorry, Ah just... wow. It's nice t'see you in the flesh! Fahnilly..." The last bit was spoken more to herself, in an off-topic, soft kind of way. Honestly, Deus Ex was feeling a little more like home now. She turned back to the Mist Hunter... Twelve? and offered her hand.
"Ah'm Emma. S'a'pleasure to meet you under better circumstances."
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:39 pm
It was kind of surreal to finally be meeting someone she'd gone through the trials with so long before. It seemed like a lifetime before. The second life of Cassandra Norris.
"Heeeyy! You're the first Gamma I've seen waking-side! That's awesome!" Cass broke out into a grin, bypassing the hand she was offered to give Emma a big ol' hug instead. Massive, even. Cass was clearly touchy-feely to some extent. Still, she became all the more grins when she pulled away. "I've nice to meet you!...Er..Properly, I mean! Without tents and masks and.." she flailed her hands all over the general area of her face representationally.
"I'm Cassandra, Intermediate Mist Trainee." Cass introduced in turn. "I'm in room 115, too.." she pointed down the hall towards her room. "Annnddd by the looks of things, you're a Moon Hunter! That's great! I love working with the moons. By boy is one. Did you head to the North Pole mission? If so, you probably worked with my boy - Marcus?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:54 pm
"Oh!" Emma laughed, gladly giving the hug back. It was a new kind of warmth here, and she'd take it where she could get it. Maybe she could... get to know Cass. She was still the same person at her very core, wasn't she?
"Oh, yeah! Yeah, I did," she nodded enthusiastically. Marcus was by no means her son, they had to be together. Given a year? Not a big surprise. "Was he the-- no, yenno what, don' matter. Ah found who I was lookin' foa. Ahm in 144, long ways away... but Ahm still new, so! There's tahm. I think Ah'd like t'learn what you got t'teach?" After all, they were here, in the end, to work and to battle and so on and so forth into they exploded into gibs, and Cassandra was an Intermediate.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:55 pm
"He was the only Moon Intermediate at the time so he was the tall-as-sin-but-so-hot-in-my-opinion guy in charge of the Moonies during that." Cass explained, this sort of dopey grin on her face. She liked talking about her boy. She liked talking about him a loooot. But she wouldn't keep it up for too long.
"Eh, Marcus's room is 151, so I'm walking down that way all the time. Not too far away at all to me!" she didn't actually admit she was more often in Marcus's room rather than her own, however. She practically lived in it at times, especially after missions. "In fact, if you message me ahead of time, I can let you know if I'm in his room instead." she added. It'd be an easier trek, at the very least.
"I have all sorts I could try to teach you! Mostly the ropes around here, but it'd be a pretty informative bit of information to know." Cass explained scratching her nose. "But I'd like to make sure we both make it around here.....it's...." she frowned. "Sadly easy to die."
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:07 pm
"Yeah! Yeah, I know who yuh talkin' 'bout! Y'boy, huh? Naice catch," Emma said with a little grin. She hadn't ever had much time with boys, not that she had never been interested. Damned if she wasn't happy when someone was so smitten as Cassandra was, though. Was it... common to find love here? The girl sucked her lips in a moment, blushed slightly, and then snapped right back into reality.
"Well, Ahm not so sure where t'even start," the Moon Hunter admitted, "There's trainin', there's missions, but I figure there's gotta be a lot more'n that, raight? Anythin' y'think of, I'm always willin' t'learn." As she spoke, she caught glimpses in the back of her mind of their trainee trials. Lots of olive, red and blue, cloaks and glowing pendants. It all must mean something. The one constant through, though (before she had taken it upon herself to not put up with Hunter bullpucky) had been Twelve, leading their modest team on into and out of danger. Emma felt almost... safer now, knowing that Twelve... Cassandra had been awakened as well.
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Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 7:25 pm
"He certainly is." Cass had a giddy grin on her face by that point in time. Rather, she did until Nicodemus suddenly slapped the back of her proverbial head and then 'ahem'ed at her, causing her to nearly facepalm. "Ah. My other man wants introductions." she suddenly said, placing her hand on her hip and motioning to the chain she wore around said hips as well. "This is Nicodemus. Between the myself and him, we work all-range combat - sans super-long-distance, but I think only Gale - death intermediate - does that." she explained.
However, training. Learning. Everything. Oh man, there was a lot to go with. "So you know about the training runs - those are good to do. I suggest you hit them all up. I did and it really helped me out in getting up to snuff around here. Similar ideas to your division without killing yourself for real. Moon Division has the Princess Island, so protect-and-heal will be something to cover for sure." Which probably meant....
"Probably want to do the Life training run and get access to bandages as soon as possible. Jenga is a pain in the a** around here and having those bandages is super helpful when you go out in the field. Everybody - myself included- is so eager to jump in that if you have a heal or two on you to help people out with, it'll help string people around for a while longer."
It was unfortunate, but true.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:27 am
Emma nodded, fairly certain that the weapon couldn't see her or be particularly offended if she didn't address it. She flashed her belt buckle then, catching a little light in the silver.
"Zothikos. Ah'm... not so sure what we is yet," she said, looking down at the piece and shaking her head. They'd learn. She listened to the rest of the explanation raptly, her brows furrowed in concentration, and nodded every so often. She remembered the healers being hot stuff even during their trainee trials, when nobody had any idea what they were doing. She'd have to hit the Life trials right alongside the Moon, if at all possible. "Raight, raight... that makes sense. I think I might run some trainin' today, I wanna get in there before Ah'm called-on next."
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