Welcome to Gaia! ::

Outside the gymnasium, Joy had the chance to fully look at her surroundings. Or the wreck that it was and wondered if this place suffered from terrible storms, whether it was a regular thing, and what the ******** the bosses were doing about it. She had fifty billion questions going through her mind and was more than grateful her "babysitter" would be honest with her. There were things she wanted to know, back from when she was in Wonderland and a whole lot more now that she was awake. Temporary as it may be.

With her hands on her hips, she glanced up at Davey, "Back at the tavern, in Wonderland, you said something about Hunters and Dr. H called us that too. But he kept saying something about bonding and I'm guessing it's got nothing to do with that hair treatment."

Joy grimaces as she listens to the explanation, brows furrowing in an attempt to digest the information overload. No, not quite an overload. Her memory was still patchy in some places but she definitely now remembers being approached by some random dude. She had every intention back then to tell him to push off, she wasn't buying his pyramid scheme but then he got to talking about getting back at the thing that put her in the hospital. And that's the last she can remember, really, the rest is a mixture of waking in Wonderland and bits of her childhood.

How she ended up on this island and in those pods was a blank. And Joy did not like it. "H made it very obvious he gave no ******** whether we knew or understood anything," she frowns, eyes downcast in deep thought and arms folded across her chest.

"So Hunters need special weapons to fight against Monsters. And Tea's one of them, one of these Monsters," she doesn't know how to react to this. She gets why Davey was so hostile to the poor kid but she can't bring herself to hate Tea either. Sure, she has a hate-on for the creature that nearly sent her to her grave but that wasn't Tea, was it?

"Jesus Christ, this feels like a Men in Black sequel," she groans, rubbing her temples. "Only instead of high-tech laser pistols from space we're-" Realization dawns on her, and she whips her head upward, "What do you mean these weapons are alive?"

She doesn't seem surprised that the monsters can take on human form, lots of the aswangs from home had that ability. It was one of the more worrisome traits they had, apart from the feasting on unborn children, draining victims of their blood, or sending their victims into incurable depression but that wasn't the issue here. The issue was these weapons the Hunters used were alive. And that they apparently did the choosing, not the other way around.

"And that's what he meant by our being awake makes us freaks," she repeats, she doesn't like the fact that she gets why H would treat them the way he did. "Okay, from Men in Black we're going into Darna-esque territory here. Only the special stone is sentient, and we hopefully don't have to yell out some special magical phrase or something to use them," she mutters to herself, trying to ignore the fact that she was using movies to get a better grasp of the situation.

She gave her surrounding a more purposely scan while asking, "Where do these weapons come from? Is there like an armory or something in this place? Or do you have like a blacksmith of some sort?" The sentiment of And why haven't I gotten one? goes unsaid.

ALIVE.

It was a word and it was smeared in thick red - blood - against one of the many school walls the second the turned that direction. It was impossible to miss, and it was still fresh.

In front of the word were three bodies, perfectly positioned, all of them Hunters, unfamiliar faces. Unfamiliar, because their faces, their heads, had been charred, and now the foul smell was beginning to devour any air around them, and now anyone close to the bodies couldn't help but gag as the stench overpowered them, as the bodies on the ground still pooled fresh dark red blood.

Other than their heads there were no other visible signs of wounds on the front.

Azrael's mental touch turns frosty at the mention of the 'other woman' other weapon. Davey holds in a sigh - his reassurance from Wonderland was apparently forgotten.

"Ah, no. Though a metal arm would be interesting." Before Azrael can rile himself up further, Davey adds, "But Azrael is more useful."

Azrael's nose (if he had a body and therefore a nose) is up in the air, but he's at least listening - though pretending he isn't. Davey's head feels less like an icebox, so that's always a good sign, too.

It's been a long time since Davey's talked with someone who wasn't used to the idea of weapons hearing everything that happens around their Hunters. His lips press together as he considers how weird that must be - how weird he thought it was, once. "Yeah, it's mostly up to them if they want to pay attention or not. They can zone out, or sort-of sleep. But mostly they're there 24/7. For me, anyway. Wonderland was the most intermittent connection we've had for a long while."

Something putrid reaches his nose right before they turn the corner. 'Graffiti, here?' is his first thought, before quickly correcting himself. That's too thick and wet to be paint. His eyes drop, taking in the... bodies... second.

"Get back." He blocks Joy with his arm on instinct while he assesses the threat. Three Hunters... are they dead? They must be, burned so badly he doesn't recognise them and in a growing pool of blood. The stench is growing worse. Davey adjusts his scarf, wrapping it over his nose and mouth to muffle the smell. He'd offer it to Joy, to be polite, but he doesn't have a spare hand to cover his face with and he's hoping she'll actually stay put.

He whips out his phone and fires off a text (he's a great one-handed texter at this point) to several other Hunters. Extra eyes - and weapons - couldn't hurt, but even if they can't make it here, they should be on the alert.

"Stay here," he tells Joy, pulling the scarf down enough to remove any claims she didn't hear or understand him. Several steps closer to the bodies, he looks over his shoulder and frowns. Yeah, he clearly should have known better than to think she'd stay put. Once again, he adjusts the scarf enough to scowl and say, "At least stay behind me."

Staying aware of her position, he reaches for his dog tags. One disengages, coming away in his hand. As he pulls it out to his side, it grows into a large sword over half his height. Bandages flutter around it as Davey finally reaches the bodies.

~Afraid that the dead bodies might attack you?~ coos Azrael.

"Given all the talk this morning of zombies... I wouldn't really be surprised."

The text came from a number that he didn't recognize, but it seemed important enough that he ought to respond to it even if whoever had sent it had flubbed a number and it was intended to go to someone else. He threw on a pair of shoes and snagged his coat, heading across the hall to knock firmly on Inoke's door. That would make two more bodies with weapons instead of just one.

"Yo, Ino, something's up. Grab your gear and let's go, yeah?" He paused before knocking again. "Two minutes before I head on without you."

He whipped his phone out of his pocket, bringing the text up to the screen again before holding it out to Inoke, waiting only long enough for the other to take the phone from him before he began to move briskly down the hall. "D'you recognize that number? S'not one I've got stored in my phone, but... Something like that you don't ignore, right?"

Maybe after all of the strangeness it would have been a good idea to... But if the text was serious and there really were bodies popping up, it was something worth looking into.

<It's about time there was some action.>

"Because if it was 'puppies' it would be Cerberus or the Wolfman; nothing fun." Not like bodies were really fun, especially not mutilated ones, but...

Once they were outside the brisk walk turned into a jog that he was clearly expecting Inoke to keep up with one way or another. Rounding the corner of the gymnasium he spotted the girl first... And then the back of a head that seemed familiar in a nagging sort of way. Whoever it was, they had their weapon drawn and, in the event it was needed, he summoned Tividar to full size, giving him a light twirl to settle the weight in his hands once more before approaching the scene.

"... Did somebody say zombies?"