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Floor 1 - North Wing

Each participant was assigned a rather bland folder with basic information. The location was a secret tunnel under the ruins of the library of Alexandria that led to a set of ivory doors. Within the doors was a secret archive of books, scrolls, tablets and more.

After stepping through the portal participants would find themselves at the mouth of the archive, staring outwards into the shelves. Near the door was Ami's workstation; a set of crudely pulled together tables covered in papers, notes, pens, books, runics and an assortment of other clutter. Off limits, undoubtedly.

The archive itself had two floors, each with a north, south, east and west wing. Lining every wall, every crevice every small inch of space was covered in knowledge. There was a seeming sense of organization because small, rotund golems rotated through the shelves and along the walls sorting everything from top to bottom, making sure books were properly cared for and undamaged. They were lifeless things that failed to respond to any stimuli and if attacked, would simply morph out of the way. Ami had since learned to ignore them, even if they did set her on edge.

Which brought us to the woman standing in front of the portal zone. Small stature, pale and looking mildly unhealthy, Ami stood toes pointed forward and heels together to judge whatever walked through the portal that day. She looked stern and downright solemn. She was not the kind of person that greeted with a cheerful hello or made things homey, but instead gazed upon each individual that entered with a sort of haughtiness and secretive derivation. The ferocity of her look was tamed by what looked like malnutrition and insomnia; Ami was not in the best shape of her life. That, and hunters who recognized her would note a distinct change in hairstyle despite her clothing style and demeanor being mostly the same. The coat that she wore was at least the same as it had always been.

You were here to do work, and that was all.

Floor 1 - North Wing

To say Alexei never got butterflies would be an accurate enough statement. He'd had them once, his first time, when he was 14. Ghosts of the feeling continued for a while, into his late teenage years, and finally stopped at 18. That was 10 years ago; so it was a shock when his stomach began to quiver and come alive when he stepped through the portal - library work, why was he always doing library work - and did his absolute very best to not look directly at Amalie.

Lex tried for a few minutes to absorb the splendor of the library, the absolute perfection and downright lavishness of the structure. No wonder she'd been here 6 months. Why would she ever leave, if not for food (she obviously hadn't, at least not often enough), or tea. The drones were strange, a little cute, but mostly just strange. After Gammelstad, though, strange was becoming less startling, normalized.

Don't you dare look at her.
You'll never earn that right.

Hands in pockets, Lex skirted around Stormy, faking interest in some scrolls just behind Amalie's area of work. Would she say anything to him? Should he compliment her hair, even though it felt to wrong and out of place? Lex had always loved her braids, especially undone. Did he even have a right, however, to say what he did and didn't like now?

The answer was a unanimous no, both from himself and the displeased griffon perched in his head.

"Happy ******** birthday to me..." He mutters, pulling out a tome.

Floor 1 - North Wing

If Stormy and Lex had made a noise she didn't notice. As soon as she saw the familiar forms walk through the door she busied herself with the third figure that had walked through the door.

Her golden and black glaive was summoned to block Harvard from moving past her. "As a bit of advice," came her gravely voice, rusty from lack of use but still every bit as monotonously empty as it had always been. "I would not take another step if you prefer your head where it is." It was unclear if she was referring to the dangers of the archive or the glaive itself.

Floor 1 - North Wing

Zachariah had not volunteered for this mission for any want to be helpful--frankly, he couldn't really care less about being helpful to another Hunter he didn't know at all even if he tried.

The proposition that she was offering was interesting, though -- it was the Library of Alexandria, or at least, a second one that had existed all along. The idea of the level of knowledge that could be hiding in those walls, waiting to be digitized and absorbed by himself and anyone who was able to access it? That was enough to convince him to come along, even if it would probably require him to do more physical activity than he tended to as a lab-bound Life Trainee.

It was easy to ignore the activity portion when he could visualize himself opening a dusty tome and absorbing information from eons past.

Personally, he was antsy to get to work, but for the moment, he hung back and watched what the others were doing.

... If just so he didn't have to ask any questions.

Floor 1 - North Wing

It had been a long damn time since Evan had been tapped for any kind of mission that didn't involve the liberal use of force. He was a Sun through and through, a blunt object rather than a precision instrument, which meant that Ami probably invited him along to haul books or something. Again.

Not that he would dare complain, of course--not to her face, at least, considering how attached he was to all of his body parts--but he did hope that this would be quick so he could get back to his regularly scheduled agenda of killing all of the things.

Maybe there would be monsters in here and someone else could carry the books. That would be nice.

He stepped through the portal just in time to hear Ami warn someone off and the sigh he heaved was just on the short side of mighty. "I'm probably gonna get blown up again," he muttered as he ruffled Stormy's hair before dropping an arm around her shoulder. "We should make some of the boots go on ahead and set off all the traps, make it a fun little welcome to Deus. It can be a new tradition."

Floor 1 - North Wing

Well this wasn't like any library she'd ever set foot in before...

Gretchen stared around herself in quiet awe as she trailed behind the other's that had been assigned to this particular task. It was a diverse looking group, at least seemed so at a glance, though she supposed time would tell on that point. It had been a matter of interest a moment ago, but that interest had shifted to the shelves themselves and the magnitude of the archives they had walked into. Impressive really didn't cover it.

It was distracting enough that she hadn't really been paying attention to anyone around her, at least not until a more authoritative voice managed to draw her attention around, and she slid in closer so she could see the speaker, hands clasping behind her back. The woman in question was small, and Gretchen might have considered her petite, except she throw off an air of someone much larger.

The Death trainee waited, patiently, for any further instruction.

(Sorry I'm late!)

Floor 1 - North Wing

Even later than Gretchen and Diana came Max Porter, newbie Moon and reluctant adventurer. Not that he hadn't liked adventure up to a point prior to being brought to Deus, he just kept getting informed that hunter adventure was about 9000% more likely to kill you than the regular kind. So far, he had yet to see any evidence of it, but to be fair, the biggest mission he'd been on had been The Great 2015 Search for Adequate Christmas Presents, which might have actually murdered his wallet, so maybe things were going as expected after all.

He was relieved to see at least one other weapon summoned when he arrived, having manifested Caper for comfort more than anything else, though her bulk did make it more difficult to sneak up on Diana than he would have liked. It was probably for the best. Max had waves of greeting all prepared for both her and Zachariah if they looked his way, but he mostly just idled in the back for now, awaiting further instruction.