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All life Hunters would receive a text one week in advance:



The meeting room was a large conference room, featuring a long gleaming table, comfortable chairs, and a small but tasteful breakfast bar. At the head of the table sat the doctor, currently reading from a manilla folder with a patiently bored look. On one side was Dr. Stephen, chatting quietly with a tired looking Sunny. On the other was Miranda, tapping cigarette ash into her coffee and giving Dwight, currently looking like he hadn't slept in days, a critical glance.

Mary Worth sits a little away from the table, one arm resting on the window sill, reading a battered paperback that looks distinctly like a romance novel.

Mornings didn't daunt Ever -- which must have been why he was, apparently, one of the first there. As ever, he looked rumpled and mussed, with hair long enough now that it had to be pulled back into a tumbled tail at the nape of his neck, unbrushed but tamed, at least, and jeans so beat that bony knees poked through giant holes. He blinked at the room, maybe surprised to find it so empty, and then dark eyes locked on Kiki.

He smiled and then, easily, dropped down next to the girl. Sure, he could have sat anywhere else in the room, but this served.

Ever smelled faintly of cigarettes, and not at all like breakfast. He said nothing, just sprawled out long legs and crossed them at the ankle.

It would be Lawrence's first Life meeting and on receiving the text he had set about compiling the meticulous notes that he had been taking about his various duties in the infirmary into a folder, he did not expect them to be pertinent to anything at all, he was after all not ranked for anything of significance and was under rather close watch apart from that.

On his way over to the meeting he ran into Chantelle, he had been hoping it would be possible to avoid her but she knew his routine as well as he did - obviously - so there she was, dressed in outlandish makeup and clothing, bouncing alongside him and going on and on and on about some new romance novel she was reading. It disorientated him and for the most part he tried to interact with her as little as possible, feeling as if perhaps only he could see her and he had taken a negative reaction to some sort of medicine he'd been plied with.

Mikael arrived early, he was a morning person and had gotten to the labs only to find they were quieter than usual and had been shepherded in the direction of the meeting by a bleary lab tech weilding a mug of morning coffee like a lifeline. It was only incidental that he seated himself near Melvin, opening a colouring book on the table and retrieving some coloured pencils to work on an elaborate twisted knot of lines.

"Good morning." Lawr said to Melvin with a gentle sort of smile, sitting down next to him, setting himself between Mikael and the blonde man. Mikael stopped colouring and shot a wide-eyed look along the table. Chantelle however sat next to Mikael properly and immediately started asking him excited questions about what he was doing, who he was colouring and generally being overwhelmingly friendly towards him. Mikael relaxed.

Lawr gave Chantelle a long, slightly concerned look before lowering his voice to ask Melvin. "This is going to sound like a strange question pardner. But can you see that woman next to us?"

Oliver hated meetings... Even though he had no reason to be nervous, they completely freaked him out. As far as his work went, he had to be among the most diligent intermediates in the division, with tasks completed prior to his deadlines and not skimping in effort applied to do them well. He had acquired a number of skills this way, and although his main duties involved assisting in neuroimaging research, he was also adequate in the infirmary, and areas of minipet research.

Not to mention he was good at fetching samples or coffee for his superiors, and had enough nervous deference to greatly pad one's ego merely through interacting with him. In light of his many 'willing minion' advantages, his penchant for misplacing items and constant supply of junk food could be overlooked.

Yet as he took a seat at Melvin's other side, Oliver practically trembled in his attempts to not fidget with the clipboard and pen he had brought with him. Finally he set both items on the table in front of him, and settled for nervously picking at a loose thread on the cast on his right wrist. It looked like one sudden movement from anyone at the table would send him fleeing back out the door.

Ami unsurprisingly arrived punctually with a folder of papers in hand. Nothing short of practically perfect.

She took a seat not at, but near the head of the table. Far enough away from Miranda (smoke did absolutely terrible things for her composure) and on the opposite side of the table as Dwight, because well Dwight. Ambitious enough to sit near the Doctor, but courteous enough to leave some space. She eyed Maryworth for a moment, raising an eyebrow, but said nothing.

There were new faces in the room, but that was unsurprising considering Ami never bothered to acquaint herself with new faces. There were usual ones too, which was always amusing (the thought "how will they embarrass themselves now?" ran across her mind). None of them looked particularly competent (what was that blonde man wearing, what the ******** was that girl wearing a crown for?), but then, next to no one looked competent to Ami.

She had long since gotten used to pitching ideas and there wasn't a nervous bone in her body. Instead she just sat with a sort of feline expression; pleased, but certainly not happy. Existing, but doing so ironically.

This particular life hunter also wasn't one for friendly chatter. She sat forward in her chair and read through her papers, ignoring the room until the Doctor spoke.

Melvin smiled back, glad Jan felt better and he could provide him that, but now felt a underlying sense of unease that even as a hunter on the island, Jan still suffered from seeing things the rest of them couldn't. "I'm sorry you have to go through that. I wish that was some way I could help." If Jan just needed confirmation somethnig was there or not, he could at least do that.

Oliver came nex to him, the friend of Shu with the nervous personality. The cast looked new and he watched him fiddle iwth himself, unable to keep his hands idle. "Are you okay?" He asked, and had his attention almost focused on Oliver when he heard Chanetelle yell something he never expected to hear EVER.

Head whipping over to look at the three of them, he shot his attention in quick successional from Chantelle, to the boy, and then at Jan. "UNCLE?"

The day of the meeting came and Cain was ready, unfortunately the coffee he had decided to get before coming to the meeting had taken longer than necessary to get. Which left the trainee in a sour mood that showed clearly across tanned freckled features. Filing in behind the others violet eyes peered over the taken seats and the empty. Landing and lingering on a familiar face, Ever, sometimes he forgot that obnoxious man was a life hunter. A noisy sigh to himself and Cain took the first empty seat on the opposite side of the table as Ever.

Short legs stretched under the table as the trainee got comfortable. As he settled Cain shuffled the folders he had with him. Nothing of real importance inside, just papers on what he had been doing which was really tedious work since he wasn't anyone of importance at the moment. Satisfied with the folders arrangement a tanned hand pushed through short, slightly curly blonde hair mostly to help try to re-tame it. Oh the woes of curls, just walking made it look like s**t even if he had brushed it at least four times before leaving his dorm.

Melvin stared, watching a strange show with actors he never felt should play the role. Maybe it was just being in Deus that made him feel that everyone came in here on the equal misery of knowing no one else. There were the few he heard, cousins here and there. However, when he heard 'son', he felt his stomach sink somewhere to his socks and continued listening with a chilling discconnect to the situation.

Jan had married. He never mentioned it. He had a son. One on the island he never mentioned. He had a cousin, one on the island he never mentioned. He had never mentioned family to him and because of this, he had assumed Jan needed him to make up for that void. To be the support where neither one of them had none.

But not only did Jan have family, he had had a child that sat right next to him. Melvin continued to stare, somehow trying to pick out any family resemblence and, in some weird way, see what didn't match to contruct some charicature of the woman that Jan felt strongly enough to have a child.

Each word held importance. Whatever it was, the time with this other woman wasn't a good one. She didn't keep Jan's last name and - it seemed Jan had made them cry. Yet here this boy was, here, next to his father.

Father.

He looked at Jan, trying to force the word in place but it didn't feel right in his head.

And to push this further, Jan slammed his fist on the table, cause Melvin to jump. He had never seen the man upset or show any signs of aggression. Was this the underlying anger to how Jan truely was, the type of person who could hurt Horace to be sent into the hospital - or was he just a man hurt by a previous relationship?

As Jan signed to him, Melvin forced a weak smile. "Yeah.....family."

Jan had family, and despite Jan's aggrivation, all Melvin could do is feel a twisting envy inside the pit of his stomach and a mound of uncertainty for how much he even knew about the man next to him.

Glancing at Ovliver, he saw the boy wasn't all that interested in looking back in their direction.

Biting his cheek, he looked back at Jan. "Do....you have more relatives here?" He dared to ask.


And to be polite, he looked back at the two. "Hello Mikael. It's nice to meet you. And hello again, Chantelle. She is."