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Jake only stared at the text.
Stared REALLY HARD at it.

The first thing that went through his mind was why he had to bring other hunters, and not just one, but 4. FOUR.
The next was what Caelius could possibly want with him. Short of getting himself messed up during his promo mission and maimed during that horsemen one, he didn't think he had it in him to run a successful mission.
... wait, was this why he had to bring competent hunters?

Chester laughed.

I GET IT.

He hated relying on others, but if this was an order from Caelius, well...
It took him a while to decide, but he sent a text to 4 others before making his way to Room 201B

"I dunno Gale, that sounded pretty ironic to me." Marcus also added on a small hand motion to indicate height. Double irony if Jake was leading. It was a light jest before the moon walked over to Jake with a passive shrug.
"It would be in your benefit to treat him with some respect. He's probably one of the best hunters on island really, and one of the most dependable."

The moon was relaxed, not minding the whole fact that Jake would be leading, if he was. It was better than others at any rate. Marcus had his daggers, he had his kit, and he ate a good breakfast that morning.
Plus Cass had kissed him on his way out.
He was still enjoying the whole 'marital bliss' thing.

After debating for what seemed like far too long over something probably minor, the trainee appeared. Already on the short side, she seemed even more diminutive as she entered, looking somewhere between uncomfortable and . . . not all there. She was the only basic trainee in the room if what a sweeping glance around the room told her was right. Automatic team burden feels ahoy.

So Stormy stood straight as she could and looked dutifully as she could, but she couldn't hide the growing rings under her eyes as she studied the group's collective shoes with occasional glances at faces. There was the guy here she'd had to play nurse on back at that weird competition (should she apologize for anything awkward done there? should she just let it go and pretend that never happened??), Sherry (which was relieving, since that filled her mama duck slot), and Gale (which just reminded her of the little standoff that had happened with Candace and Ofelia, and the bones, and the blood--)

Jake's text was riding far too close after the mission with Death for Stormy to feel the last bit ready to handle people. But the guilt that would have nagged at her by not answering would have been worse, and Thane wouldn't allow her to mope like she was wont. It was a lesson she was beginning to learn the hard way: her habit of locking herself up when things got bad wasn't going to work here.

She mildly hovered behind Sherry, hands clasped before her as if in prayer, head bent, and tried not to yawn. That would have just been rude.

The death trainee only smirked at Gale, not needing to say anything as Marcus already illustrated for him.
You totally set yourself up for that.
Though he had never met the moon hunter (formally), he approved of him already. Anyone who made fun of Gale he approved of, though he did do a mock salute at Gale's words.
He would never admit it, but Marcus was right. Deep down, he did respect the death hunter.
Deep... deep... down.

Sherry also got a brief glance, and he nodded at Stormy, but at the arrival of the Death lead, he straightened up and gave Caelius his rapt attention. His attention flitted over the artifacts, a touch of surprise in his expression. This was...

He swallowed nervously when the Death lead seemed to chide him on his choice, but truth be told, out of all the hunters there, he himself was probably the least competent. He wasn't sure if it was considered an insult or compliment that he wasn't considered the bottom rung.

As Caelius explained the mission, most of the details glossed over him, the only thing really sticking was something about not doing squat for 6 hours. It was ok, Chester would understand. At least one thing he DID understand was that the death lead often didn't like questions, so he only shook his head, giving a sideways glance at the other hunters.

Marcus just kept his mouth shut. When it came to the death lead, that was often the safest bet to the moon. Stay quiet, and just nod your head- making sure you wanted to nod. "No sir." He was fine with holding Jake's hand. With any luck, it would be safer than some missions. And Marcus could really use some 'safer' missions. Observe and gather- well.

That did drop a stone in his gut. The last time, d**k had died. They had almost been consumed by flames. Marcus bit bat that sense of dread, going for rather the thought of coming home after the mission for a nice hot shower and a warm meal.

Gale got a small smile followed by the look of 'So on a scale of 1-10, how likely do you think we are going to die. I give it a 7.'

The artifacts caught her interest more than the division leader's words, though she listened as she examined the objects from afar. The only questions Stormy had were about those items in question, but she was too emotionally numb to try and test the man's patience; perhaps another day.

"Thank you for trusting us with the mission, sir," was all she said. She felt Jake's and Gale's glances but didn't reply in any form at the moment; at best she simply shifted so that her and Sherry's coats hid how the trainee searched for her hand to hold. Just a quick gesture to enact before they left.

"Then you are dismissed. You will pick up your equipment at the lighthouse portal and be redirected to the correct location." The Death lead resumed working, which involved for the time being tracing and matching several runes along one side of the ring-shaped artifact. Maybe it had a deeper meaning, or maybe he was just very lonely. Considering the average age of marriage in Deus was something like eighteen to twenty, Caelius was too old. Technically, he was already married to his profound hatred of Gale Robert H Red Deus Ex everyone.

"A word," A brief hiccup in the long lapse of silence as Stormy filed out with the rest. The Death lead looked up, and there was nothing friendly about his expression. "I don't trust you with this mission, I assign missions to those who are ******** available at my convenience. Whether you survive this mission or the next is of insubstantial importance compared to your results during your mission. If you ******** up you will be replaced, if not from me then from natural causes." He genuinely seemed to not give a ********>. "And when you are replaced, maybe other replacement can remember you as the person who trusted in hopes that that alone would propagate some sort of negotiable term of consideration for your insignificance."

And then, that was that. Really, it was not that much of a surprise as to why no-one liked to make table conversation with him (except for that one time when everyone was so high up in Joy that everyone had pretty much forgotten who they were).

The lighthouse portal was as always, a brief walk, a couple of Hunters on portal duty were assigned there, and a couple of teams as well, two of them who signaled to the sentries and then filed out the portals.

"Well, I guess you guys are last." The Moon Hunter on duty passed several pieces of equipment, the standard smaller Fear Scanner, and then the usual emergency equipment, a pack containing some rations, rope, communications, so on so forth. "Oh, I see, you guys are the group taking Bethany"

Before anyone could as what exactly Bethany was, she pointed at it, a ten foot-tall behemoth of a tripod-like structure with a giant camera lens at the top. It sort of looked like the lovechild between some sort of Asimov robot and maybe one of those white mechanical sentries from Portal. Slightly rusty, it sported fading runes along all the sides. It also, unfortunately, weighed almost a tonne on its own, literally.

"Yeah you're on your own." The Moon Hunter gave Marcus a slightly sympathetic expression. "At least it's quiet over there, just be careful with the equipment okay."

OOC: CARRYING BETHANY

Bethany is a behemoth of a Fear scanner and is RIDICULOUSLY HEAVY. It needs to actually be carried by five people (or just one Sun leader, too bad they're not around...)
- All players will need to take one side of Bethany and bodily carry her through the portal. Roll a 6-sided dice. If odd, you succeed in carrying it! If even you drop her. (....)
- For EACH even you roll, Bethany takes +1 damage. If she reaches +10 damage, she will BREAK and be DAMAGED and you are probably going to get Into A Lot of Trouble).
- Players will continue to roll until they succeed in carrying it. Just one success is good enough. Once all players have a success roll, they can move it out of the portal

Ol-j-man

GrnGriff

[A.V.]

istoleyurvamps

kurotomato