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Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 7:19 pm
A brief and very terse text arrived like a harbinger of Death. Sort of from the harbinger of Death. As in the division that Jake was a part of. Current running time was 10:57 am
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Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 7:35 pm
It was probably a good thing he was already awake, phone in hand as he stared at the door. Perhaps "awake" was an understatement, as the trainee barely slept at all. Today was the day when he found out his fate. It wasn't as if he had done absolutely nothing in those two weeks, but, the end result was, he had made no progress. Surely-
The cell vibrated, making him jump, and a quick glance at the text and time told him he couldn't afford to be in the lead's bad graces... any more than he already was.
Thankfully he already had his weapon and daggers on him, and grabbing his coat, he dashed out the door, possibly sticking his hand in the wrong hole twice before he had it on properly, slightly out of breath as he stood outside the door, exactly at 11AM.
Raising a hand tentatively, he knocked.
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:34 pm
"The door is <******** open." Caelius was more than happy to stare right at Jake through the open door; at this point he was beyond even bare speculation as to why people kept on doing this when he was sitting right there. Not everyone could be as smart as him, obviously.
There was a long pause, and a lot more judging. "What is the current date." It was obviously a question where he knew the answer and was just reinforcing it to be a d**k for emphatic purposes.
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 5:40 pm
Oh. Well. Um. Letting his hand drop, Jake let out an awkward chuckle as he tried not to make more of a fool of himself, slightly unnerved by the stare.
The death lead's question made him pause, and while he wondered if this was a trick question, he decided to answer as honestly as he could. "It's... exactly two weeks since you lent me your daggers and gave me the conditions that came with them, sir?" He figured that was what he meant. Surely the death lead would have a simple thing such as a calendar on him... right? Or did he actually want the date? Or what if... it was because he went OVER the two weeks. He didn't, did he? He did kind of lose track of time, but he was pretty sure...
OH GOD did he screw up already?
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:42 pm
"Exactly two weeks," Caelius repeated, which actually if one came to think about it, did not make him quite as smart as everyone made him out to be, since he was just plagiarizing what everyone else said. "It means you will be taking your current promotion mission without the assistance of borrowed weapons. I want any borrowed material on my desk. As I am well aware of your," a pause, "handicap, you will perform your mission with one other Hunter, at your jurisdiction. You will otherwise prepare accordingly and arrive back in exactly fifteen minutes."
There was that strange lapse afterwards that suggested Jake was dismissed and that fifteen minutes were ticking.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:05 pm
It was probably less intelligent to be staring at the death lead, eyes wide.
"P-promotion mission?" ... wait. So... that two weeks... was for his promotion mission? Even after that whole mission mishap and weapon breaking, the death lead still thought... Jake wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh or cry. Probably neither.
Learning from past experience the death lead was neither to be questioned... further nor tested for his patience, he pulled out the daggers, placed them on the desk and quickly headed out the door... to have a panic attack.
He had just thought... he was going to return the daggers and get a scolding or worse, but now that he was given the opportunity (again) to prove himself, he REALLY couldn't afford to screw this up again, which meant...
With a reluctant sigh, he pulled out his phone, texting the one person he knew he really shouldn't be talking to.GrnGriff Text to Sherry:I need your help. This is a life and death situation.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:32 pm
Days open for relaxation were best spent on relaxation or projects that had been neglected for more pressing issues. Sherry had decided to both relax and catch up on forgotten projects, or rather catch up on her reading. For pleasure. No studying, no lore on ancient monsters or hidden islands. None of that. No work. Just a simple story of a teenage girl caught up in event bigger than herself and a whole fantasy world to play in- and Sherry was glad this book didn't have any silly romance in it so far. No Halloween, no mushy stuff, no romantic angst... Just a nice little escape from reality that was rudely interrupted when her phone buzzed. It was from Jake. Sherry thought about not reading it. Stupid jerk had some nerve if he was texting her for anything, especially already. Armagnac stopped trying to coax her hunter back toward important things as the text was opened. If nothing else, Sherry was predictable. Armagnac had known it was a lost cause from the beginning anyway. She was not adverse to stating her opinion, heeded or not.
"Life and death?" Sherry asked, pushing herself off her bed. Well, it was either really urgent or Jake needed Life backup. And while some part of her was fluttering with joy that he'd call on her, another part of her was annoyed. Hadn't he put her through enough already?
[A.V.] Text to Jake: With what? Where?
She tossed the phone onto her bed and reached for her boots. She'd promised she'd help him if he ever needed it. Besides, Armagnac was right. Sherry was just a weak, softhearted, fool. Oh well.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:06 pm
Sherry was a godsend, that was the only thought that went through his mind as he felt his phone buzz not a minute later, and let out an audible sigh of relief as he read her text.GrnGriff Text to Sherry:Promotion Mission. Caelius' office. Bring supplies. You have 10 minutes. Or was it less than 10? Surely it hadn't been 5 minutes already, and he didn't dare ask the death lead how much time remained. For all he knew, time could be moving twice as fast for him. ... maybe he should have told Sherry 5.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:26 pm
Promotion? Sherry tried to let that sink in as she reached into her pocket, checking to make sure she'd left a bandage in it. Armagnac hissed in her head, anger hitting Sherry like a bucket of bricks.
Sherry did her best to shut the rant out. The more pressing issue was the fact that Jake needed help, and Caelius was dishing out the orders directly it seemed. At least Jake wasn't dead... yet.
Shoving her phone in a different pocket, Sherry grabbed her flask, stepped out of her room, and ran.
---
Jake would get to wait with no response while Sherry made it from her room to the classroom. Making sure she was well within time was far more important. That way she could make sure she could walk around the corner, appearing calm, aside from some slight huffing and puffing.
She was glad she'd had the presence of mind to do that, since Jake was just standing in the hall near the infamous room. She didn't want to come off as flustered or anything.
"Well?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:30 pm
Perhaps he shouldn't have been constantly exchanging nervous glances between his phone and the corridor, hoping Sherry had understood what he meant. He knew she didn't go anywhere without her bandages, but maybe he should have told her to get runics, since he... probably wasn't allowed to "borrow" anything anymore. Or some headsets, or maybe an actual weapon since he didn't really have one...
Heck, he would have told her to bring half of Deus if she could. He had NO idea what Caelius expected of him, especially during a promotion mission, but surely if it required weapons (not borrowed, of course), it couldn't be pretty. Why couldn't the death lead just ask him to fill out 100 mission reports in under a minute, or something?
When Sherry rounded the corner, he wasted no time rushing over to her, taking both her hands in his. He knew quite well what he did would probably only confuse and/or hurt her more, but with the adrenaline, he wasn't really thinking straight.
"I know you probably don't want to hear this, but THANK you. I owe you my life. I promise when this is all over I swear I'll tell you EVERYTHING." And then he let go, glancing once at the door before turning back to face her. "Are you ready?" Because he sure as hell wasn't.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:53 pm
Sometime during Sherry's run Armagnac had started referring to Jake as an 'it'. Just hush. Sherry could feel the jealousy underneath her weapon's anger. Weaponless Jake getting promoted before her hunter? Just another reason for Armagnac to hate him. Which really... wasn't helping Sherry think. "Whatever," she said, trying to be dismissive. Armagnac did have a point, sometimes, and Sherry wasn't quite ready to believe anything Jake said. She followed his glance to the door. If he was lying about anything dealing with Caelius, though, well, that was beyond stupid. He wasn't that dumb. "And no. I'm not ready. Is anyone ever ready for anything we do?" She gave Jake the barest of smiles, then stepped around him, past him, into the Death Lead's office. She would rather wait inside with Caelius than in the hall with Jake. At least Armagnac liked Caelius.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:01 pm
Part of him was worried she'd ask him what he meant by "everything", but she didn't, and only watched as she left him behind and stepped into the office. He supposed she was right, and, well, still expected her to be angry with him, but all in all, he was just glad she showed up at all. Perhaps it would be something easy. PERHAPS.
Stepping through the door himself, he stood beside Sherry, whether she liked it or not. "All ready here, sir."
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:18 pm
"I will be the judge of if you are ready," replied Caelius in typical Caelius fashion, doing the amazing and extremely important task only a division lead of his calibre should have been doing, which was stapling several mission reports together. "There have been reports of an unresolved hostile. Unresolved as you <******** failed to resolve it the last time. I think instructions should be very clear, you will infiltrate their base and eliminate all horsemen hostiles at location."
He paused. "I hope you understand Jake, this is not a promotion mission as much as it is a ultamaimum. I do not accept useless baggage in my division or as a Hunter and if you cannot prove yourself useful you will be executed should you return to Deus Ex upon mission failure. This includes your collaborator as well." His eyes slid to Sherry. "Both of you should take full responsibility of your actions as a Hunter. Those who fail at being Hunters will easily and very quickly be replaced and rather permanently. If you have no other questions my assistant will provide you with rudimentary instructions at the lighthouse portal."
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:53 pm
Sherry was glad her weapon stopped grumbling and tantruming long enough to let them listen to the Death lead. For all her confusion and emotions, Sherry's throat had been rather lumpless that day, but that changed as Caelius spoke. She heard the part about Hunters and Responsibility, but she found herself focusing on the replaced and Horsemen and last time parts of the speech. And the part about execution. For both of them. Even if she'd never said it like that, Armagnac felt like now was the perfect time for ' I told you so's. Unless we live. Sherry always had hope, even if their last Horsemen encounter had not been very good, to say the least. She supposed it was a little bit of fear that made her go numb inside. Base, horsemen, infiltrate, eliminate. And Jake didn't even have his weapon. Best...get the scared part over with now, and work on accepting their fate. Besides, Caelius had a point. If they failed at this, well, they weren't very good at being Hunters. And everyone knew Hunters died, good or not. That train of thought wasn't helping, really, so she stopped thinking it. "Understood, sir." Did she have questions? Yes. Maybe. Her biggest question was 'just the two of them'? But that had pretty much been answered. "Thank you." She turned and stepped towards the door, slow enough to indicate she'd wait for Jake, but really, she wanted to get this over with.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:15 pm
Had it been possible for Jake to turn physically white at the mention of "infiltrate" and "eliminate all horsemen hostiles", he would have done exactly that. This... this was going to be just like before, wasn't it? He was going to screw up again, lose someone he cared about, and, and... this time, there were no "second chances".
Was this his punishment? He hadn't lost everything yet, no. He needed to lose everything, only then did the significance of life and death...
His gaze shifted to Sherry, who answered the death lead with no hesitation. How could she be so calm? With just the two of them, there was no hope of taking out all of them. Heck, even with a team of FOUR, they couldn't even...
But Caelius' words were absolute. They always were. Not to mention it was HIS fault for dragging Sherry into this. He couldn't let anything happen to her, WOULDN'T let anything happen to her.
Taking a deep breath, he faced the death lead, hands clenched to keep them from shaking. "...Understood." He then followed Sherry out the door.
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