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 Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:54 pm
He was not sulking. Newly turned seventeen year old teenagers did not sulk. Gale Gentry was above such things. Sulking was for children. He was not a child, no matter how short or how young he looked.
He was however, sitting on the couch in the Deus dorms lounge with his arms folded across his chest, with a certain female hunter sitting across from him staring at him. She had accosted him not long after he and Eva had escorted Mei to the portals with yet another one of her we need to talk looks.
Awkward silence.
"Okay, fine," said Gale finally, after a long moment. "I'm sorry. What do you want to know?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 9:07 pm
Gale was sulking. He was sulking so hard that 'sulking Gale' might as well be an internet meme. Ariane would know because she had been staring at him for a solid couple of minutes, just pressuring waiting for him to talk.
"I didn't know you were so familiar with some of the Halloween students," She replied, trying her best to appear nonjudgmental - which, surprisingly, wasn't too difficult. Being a hunter for this long had changed her perspective of certain things regarding Halloween creatures, and she had seen how many of them... Weren't as bloodthirsty or as violent as she had been led to believe. In fact, it was the horsemen that she had grown wary of, knowing that they were out to destroy all humans, "That girl Mei seemed to know you. Trust you, even."
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Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:47 pm
"Not some students," Gale corrected Ariane, idly tugging on the strap of his sling and slinking a little lower in his seat. Maybe if he made himself even smaller than he already was she wouldn't see him. "Just one. Mei. She's..."
He sighed, trying to figure out how to word it.
"She's different," he said finally. "She's helped out several times before. I've been working with her...well, not working, exactly, but I first met her a few months ago, about half a year. Since then we've...well, been trying to work out the problems."
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Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:33 pm
"Oh?" Ariane raised an eyebrow, not quite sure what to make of what she's hearing; on one hand, the Halloween students had proven themselves to be pretty harmless, and even helpful, with a few exceptions, but on the other hand, she's not sure what Gale - and Mei - were trying to achieve with just the two of them.
She was pretty sure that the majority of the student population hated hunters for everything that they did. If she was in their position, she would probably never trust a hunter enough to want to work with them.
"Elaborate on 'problems'," She continued, narrowing her eyes; she wasn't exactly buying Gale's idea, and even though she knew that he was more than capable of making sound decisions for himself, she also did not want him to dive into this without some sort of a plan, "And 'working out'."
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Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 8:10 pm
He shuffled lower in his seat.
"We didn't like each other at first," he said finally, still tugging at the sling. "We ran into each other at the Haunted House and it...it wasn't good. But the more we fought, the more we sort of began to...understand each other. She doesn't want to fight. She just wants to protect her friends, and she doesn't trust the horsemen at all."
Gale sighed, blowing his fringe of white blonde hair from his eyes and leveled a look at Ariane.
"I know it sounds crazy," he said quietly. "But I trust her."
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Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 10:10 pm
"What is she willing to do, and how far would she go to protect her friends? She doesn't seem too fond of the idea of weaponization," Ariane frowned, taking the seat beside Gale's. Eyeing him, she continued, "And you know we have to turn some of them into weapons, right? We're pretty dependent on that process... And Kintama's pretty happy as a weapon."
Kintama didn't disagree.
"Trust is one thing, but it's not like hunters and Halloween students can just get along and frolic into the sunset together all of a sudden," She sat up, wriggling her fingers in the air to mimic what frolicking together into the sunset would look like, "If you are confident that it's going to work though... I guess I can go with that. I mean, you have a pretty good sense of judgement." For your age was left unsaid.
She still didn't sound entirely convinced, but Mei did help Stormy back then... And unless it was an act, she could only conclude that any fighting that she had done was out of self-defense. Looking at it from that angle, Ariane was willing to give that Halloween girl a chance, even if it was a small chance, "Is she part of that Halloween hippie group DETH, by any chance?" Since she seemed to be all about the peace.
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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 10:36 pm
"She's not fond of it, no," Gale admitted. "And neither am I, to be quite honest. She's been of more help to us than some of our less-than-capable hunters. Jinhai's pretty content where he is as well, but that doesn't mean they all are."
The dragon in question made a soft noise, halfway between a murmur and a sigh. Gale closed his eyes briefly, exhaling slowly.
"I know," he said quietly. "And I don't expect things to just be all peachy keen all of a sudden. It's not going to be easy for either side. But it's not something that just happened on a whim. I've studied Mei-Xiu for the past six months. She won't do anything to compromise her friends or herself, but she and I both agree that right now we share a common enemy - the horsemen."
Gale rubbed his temples with his fingertips and frowned slightly. "DETH?" he repeated, slightly bemused. "I...don't think so..?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:02 am
"Oh? What sort of help?" Ariane raised an eyebrow, frowning at Gale's comment, "No, maybe not, but life's not fair that way... What if the target was a willing party? Is she against that too?" Granted, weaponization had been proven to work best on willing targets, versus unwilling ones.
"Uh huh," She replied, slightly dubious; from what she had seen, the horsemen hadn't done anything that might warrant the students to distrust or hate them... Unless they were sympathizing with the human race, "What about the students who were clearly with the horsemen? Horsemen weren't the only ones killing the hunters posted at that base."
The group of students who didn't attack made up the minority.
"DETH," She repeated, pursing her lips, "They're like PETA, but for humans instead of animals. Not sure if they're as extreme though..." She could just imagine them running around with signs saying 'KILLING HUMANS IS MURDER', and being a general annoyance... Ugh, if that's the human rights protection group in Halloween, she could see why they've not been very successful.
"Had a run-in with the group on a mission quite some time ago. A couple of students were aligned with the group, and they might had saved a us from being blown up by a nutcase," She shrugged, "To be honest, most of us passed out, so we weren't sure what happened... Just that we survived something we shouldn't have."
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:36 pm
"She defends us," said Gale. "And she helps heal us when we're injured. She's even stepped in front of her own kind to defend one or more of us, which is a pretty good indicator that she's willing to help. Of course, it could all just be a ruse to get in on our good side, but I don't think so. I'm not saying I'm dropping all of my defenses around her, but I'm not gonna treat her with hostility either. And I'm sure she thinks the same of me."
Gale rubbed his brow tiredly. "As for the horsemen, we all know I don't trust them at all, nor do I think they're in this for anything other than personal gain. That priestess has her own agenda; and I think from what Mei said, she uses the students to fulfill that agenda. They're just pawns to her."
The name "DETH" was vaguely familiar, though Gale wasn't entirely certain he'd actually run into any of the members. He tugged on a lock of his hair thoughtfully and said, "I'm not sure she's part of that. Or if she is, she's never mentioned it before."
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Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:30 pm
"I see," Ariane muttered, looking thoughtful as she paused, letting out a sigh after a moment of silence, "To be honest, the horsemen had always been our greatest threat... I mean, Halloween hadn't really tried to destroy the world." Sure, the way they stopped the Horsemen might had been "cruel", but it was necessary; they wouldn't have to do that if the Horsemen hadn't tried to do it first.
"Ahh... Maybe she's not," She shrugged, "I guess not every human-siding Halloween person is a part of that... There are humans working within DETH too. It's the only reason why I'm interested in that organization."
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Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:28 pm
"The horsemen are a bunch of self-serving pricks," said Gale, without a trace of anger or malice to his voice, only a very matter-of-fact tone, as though this were the very basic of facts. "It's not really surprising that some of the Halloween students decided that they don't trust them either, though admittedly trusting us hasn't exactly been on their list of priorities. Most are too stubborn and too entrenched in anger and hostilities to even consider the possibility of working together - on both sides, I mean. It's not something that's considered 'kosher.'"
He slid a sidelong glance at Ariane. "Are you studying this DETH group, then?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:58 am
"We didn't exactly make a good first impression, if you know what I mean," Ariane snorted, messing up Gale's hair before shrugging, "I don't know... Maybe, maybe not. Maybe when I go full hunter, I'll be clearer about what I want to do and specialize in. I've never been one for planning for the future." Even with such limited career choices, it was still difficult for her to make up her mind.
DETH was intriguing, but she was mostly interested in it due to that whole 'hunter gone rogue' incident. She didn't even know that hunters could escape from Deus, since being a hunter seemed to be a 'lifetime' deal; she had always thought that the only way to leave the organization was... Well, to die. When you're dead, you would no longer be a liability or an asset to the organization.
You'll just be a dead body.
And she almost became a dead body thanks to that crazy rogue hunter.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:41 pm
He gave her a slight pout which slipped into a small smile.
"You'll be a good hunter, whatever you do. Just...just trust me with this whole Mei thing, all right..? I know what I'm doing."
Sort of.
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