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[Other FULL] Stella Matutina: DEMON HUNTERS [IC] [M]

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Skymin

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Stella Matutina:
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DEMON HUNTERS
rated M. spots are currently OPEN
OOC thread / IC thread


"Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein."
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."​
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886)​





THE STORY SO FAR
After the opening ceremony for new members yesterday, you were given the chance to mingle with your fellow Neophytes within Stella Matutina before being assigned and given a key to a two-person dorm (for those who needed it, of course. Current residents of Griffin were given the option to remain where they already lived). After that, all Neophytes were given free reign to check out the Stella Matutina headquarters or Griffin itself.

That evening, you came to receive a letter from the Chaplain -- the hunter in charge of the current Neophytes -- in regards to your first day as a part of Stella Matutina. The contents of the letter stated that your first mission was an organised one, personalised to test your skills and compatibility, and that you were to meet up tomorrow morning with the rest of your fellow Neophytes.

NOTE: It's up to you whether you want your characters to have met during the opening ceremony, or even if they're now dorm-buddies. Organise this in the OOC if you want some early on interaction.​



ACCEPTED HUNTERS
Rose Emilia Ardent - Skymin
Taylor Jackson - SV
Adelaide Ileana Rosaria - Nakuzami
Catherine Eska Von Gosridam & Novula Krytis - 「sarcasm
Naida Tuanama - Retro Bug
Clinton & Miles Uta'i - Swolligator
Manami Yoshida - ANARCHit3cht
Rachel Renée Robinson - Data_Error
Ian Hardgrove - Reportmyname
Tyler Boone - Ozymandias
Gabriel Ferreira - The Last Sentinel



★ ★ ★​
 
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Skymin

5,114
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  • Age 31
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  • Seen Feb 18, 2023
Rose Emilia Ardent
> neophyte
> ignis based strider/iaculatores
> morning, 25th january 2015 ​

This was no way to start the year.

Wait, circle back. No, Rose was glad (maybe glad wasn't the right word. Relieved? Un...disappointed? No longer furious, perhaps?) that she had finally been accepted into the Order of the Morning Star. Finally. It irritated her enough that she had been rejected the past six or seven years, despite her painfully obvious talent or irrefutable skill. So irritated that she had begun to question the so-called unquestionable and superior knowledge that Stella Matutina supposedly held. How could they have denied her something like this, something that she obviously deserved? The Magus should have been counting his lucky stars the day her letter came to his desk but no, they had pushed her back for years. It was completely ridiculous th--

She had to stop herself there, taking a long exhale; Rose was only making herself more irritated. No, it was not that which had soured her morning. No, it was the fact that she had to tolerate this 40F weather. She had picked her clothes carefully this morning; as an ignis, the cold affected her in an annoying way. And because she couldn't control any of her magic -- not even a little -- she couldn't just spread the warmth in her core to the rest of her body. Instead she tugged tight at her beanie and picked at her tights, hoping they would provide more warmth than they could give. Of course, she could have chose something way more practical than cute sweater, boots and skirt combo she was pulling off, but that just wasn't an option for her.

Rose clenched her fists around the envelope she was holding, staring at it bitterly as if its flimsy, paper had somehow betrayed her trust. Despite only receiving it this morning, she had read the contents of the letter at least sixteen times, making sure each time she had understood every detail and had not mistaken any bit of information. Of course, she had understood it the first time she read it, but she had no room for error, especially on her first day. She opened it again for the umpteenth time, flattening it out to read it once more.

Greetings, and congratulations on your successful integration into Stella Matutina!

As mentioned in the opening ceremony, all new members are required to attend a compulsory field mission trial to test. This mission will be a controlled situation, but an important test of teamwork, compatibility and overall technique.

Below are the details of your field mission, including your supervisor, time, date and location:


Anahera Makoare (margrave III)
10am sunday 25th jan
our lady of the assumption united church
89 nottingham st
don't be late.​
​


Please wait outside the premises until your supervisor arrives and gives further instructions.

She glanced up at the church in front of her, double checking the sign that stood outside it. Yep, Lady of the Assumption. What a stupid name for a church. What did that even mean? At least the walk hadn't been too long from the Stella Matutina HQ. She hadn't taken any notice of her dorm-mate (and had made sure to not have crossed her in a way that she would be forced to say hello), nor any of the other Neophytes from the opening ceremony. It had been a casual walk into town and her phone had taken her there quite easily. And in hopes to perhaps impress her supervisor (though she would never say that out loud), she had gotten here early. Too early. Because nobody else was here. Obviously, none of the other Neophytes were as committed as she was, and she would make sure to remind them later of that. She knew she was the best, and she wasn't going to let anybody rise against her. No matter how bad she was at magic and how much that made her cringe.

She pulled her sweater tighter to her body, rubbing her arms to get any kind of warmth. This way no way to start the year. Not at all.
​

 
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ANARCHit3cht

Call me Archie!
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While Manami was generally one to enjoy festivities and ceremonies wherein she(even among others) was the focus, the acceptance into Stella Matutina was a completely different experience for her. Here, being a pretty face mattered little. The one thing she noted about all the other neophytes is that they all suffered some sort of the decay, to varying degrees. Meaning that they all had slain a demon before. She has not even so much as been in combat with one, and frankly the idea in its entirety was not something that she found to be too thrilling. She was not a demon hunter by any means--probably the least qualified of everyone there, and the fact of the matter is that it made her quite nervous. Still, she tried to remain as dignified as possible.

Even worse than that, however, was the dorm room that Manami found herself assigned to. It was, as far as she was used to, incredibly small. Especially when considering the fact that she'd have to share the room with someone; she never did like sharing very much. Whoever her roommate was, Manami got to the room first, perhaps the one saving grace of the whole ordeal. It meant she could at least own the right to her choice in bed. As she left on short notice, much to her derision, she had but a few bags with her--the rest, she made sure of, would be delivered later. Placing her bags at the foot of the bed she began to look around the room. It was nice enough, she supposed, for a dorm room that is. Taking a seat on the bed she felt the bedding and even laid down to see how comfortable it would be. It did not meet her standards, so she made a note to go out and buy some bedding better suited for one of more refined tastes like hers.

Setting the room up to her standards would be her priority that day, everything else was trivial to Manami. Heading to the car that was rented for her--a rather expensive model that had just come out the previous year, she quickly thumbed "shopping" into the GPS on her iPhone 6+ and headed on her way. A few knicknacks to set atop her nightstand, a large rug to place beside her bed and some posters to adorn the drab walls as well as the "super cute" clothes that were on a sale too good to pass up, she had quickly racked up a bill of a couple hundred dollars; all the while, she had completely forgotten the reason she initially set out shopping in the first place, and probably would have altogether if not for the clever design of stores to make you buy everything in sight. Right as she was checking out, she saw an advertisement for a set of luxurious double-ply 1200 thread count sateen sheets with matching pillowcases and comforter. All for the great low price of only seventy five dollars plus tax!Oh, and she guessed since she was here she'd get something for her roomate--not out of desire to be nice, but just because she could; it was made all the more evident by the fact that she knew nothing about her roommate and bought her the cheapest thing she could find, some tacky gift card with a generic "nice to meet you" greeting. She didn't even bother to write a personal message in it, opting to leave it blank. Charging it all to her credit card, she had the courtesy clerk help her out to her car--she could have done it herself, but why when it someone elses' job to do just that?

After her day of shopping Manami had stopped to eat and then quickly returned to Stella Matutina where she found a letter atop her nightstand. Reading it she quickly tossed it aside and entered a reminder into her phone. 10:00 AM. She scoffed at the idea, did they not want to give her time to get ready in the morning? Unpacking the things she had just bought, the greeting card she bought for her roommate remained forgotten in the car until the next morning, where she then decided she had better things to do than to retrieve it; notably those things were her hair and make-up, something she had gotten up 3 hours early of the scheduled meeting time to accomplish.

As she was notably green in comparison to the other neophytes, she thought she might as well as give off a decent first impression and arrive a little early. She had to prove her worth somehow, if not through talent like the others had. After all, she had only ever practiced in theory and minor applications on family members--a scraped knee here, a paper cut there; all in all, nothing special. The Lady of Assumption Church. She noticed how gaudy and depressing it looked from the outside and assumed it probably wouldn't impress on the inside, either. Apparently being a demon hunter meant having no sense of style whatsoever. Something she noted equally as true in the only other neophyte to arrive, a red-haired girl who shivered in the cold. Rolling her eyes she let out a scoff, she might as well as make conversation--seeing as how there was nothing better to do. "Hey, I'm Manami. What's your name?" She stuck her hand out, more out of custom than an actual desire and then realized she'd probably sound a lot more friendly with a compliment. "I like your uh..." she tried to think for a moment "Skirt. I wish I could pull off that bargain bin look. It'd certainly make my father happy that I didn't spend so much money on clothes." It probably turned out to be more of an insult than anything, but she was relatively oblivious to it. Needless to say, she thought that her orange and yellow sundress with sandal-esque highheels and wide-brimmed hat was a much better look. Being a girl of money, she always dressed with trendy, not even considering comfort.
 
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Skymin

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ANAHERA MAKOARE
> margrave iii
> humus based strider/iaculatores + summoner/convocatores
> morning, 25th january 2015 ​

"I didn't sign up for this. You signed me up for this."

Anahera crossed her arms, furrowing her brow. She sat across from the desk of the Magus, Gabriel Aggelos, deciding whether it had been a good idea to agree to meet with him this morning. His office was welcoming enough, with bright curtains, warm coloured carpets and interesting wall art to greet anyone who stepped through the doors, but that wasn't why she was irritated. Anahera was not a morning person, and it showed. She was grumpy, in need of a good coffee and it didn't make things better that she was in a place she didn't want to be, talking to people she would have much rather ignored. One of those people were the Magus. The other was the Chaplain, Noah Wilkins.

Anahera was one of those people that looked scary when she was content and possibly pants wetting inducing kind of frightening when she was angry. Before her decay, her eyes had been a warm brown and now, deep purple, hints of red flicked throughout them. Her hair matched her old eyes with the addition of black, spiny horns poked up through the tied back dreadlocks. She was a bigger woman, her stocky and tall frame giving her a sense of stability and unmoving stubbornness. Her arms were lined with tufts of brown fur, matching her islander skin. Underneath the fur on her left arm was an assortment of tattoos, but with the hair in the way it was hard to make out what they were. Her hands were bigger than dinner plates, like paws, ending in sharpened claws. Swishing uncomfortably back and forth was her tail, ending in a tuft of hair. Being from New Zealand, her Maori accent was unmistakable and it annoyed her severely when she was asked to repeat things. Her decay had been a lion demon, and she certainly had the ferocity of one. Of course, she had the time to adapt to her physical changes; she had only had them for 9 or so years.

"Ana, c'mon. You're great with kids. Well, you used to be. I mean, not since..." Noah closed his mouth suddenly, shooting glances between Anahera and Gabriel. He shook his head slowly before Anahera narrowed her eyes, flashing a look of fury.

"Since what? Since my brother died? Is that what you were going to say?" Noah opened and closed his mouth, trying to figure out what to say. He was a mouse of a man, a good head and a half shorter than Anahera. He had pale skin and sandy blonde hair with curled horns on the side of his head, like a goat. He was American, and though Ana couldn't tell the difference between any of the different American accents (other than Southern), he came from Wisconsin, and sounded like it too. His decay was barely on the same level as Anahera's, but that might have been because this scrawny maggot of a hunter was a Healer. He wasn't much of a fighter: that's probably why the Order picked him as a Chaplain. He was brainy, that was for sure, and nice enough too. When it came to fights, he stayed at the back. Partly because of his class and partly because he had the guts of a neurotic chihuahua. "It's okay Wilkins, you can say it."

"No, no, no, that's not what I mean! I mean yes, what happened to Wiremu certainly was tragic but he taught us all a valuable lesson. You especially." Anahera raised her eyebrows in the most threatening way possible. "S-s-something that the Neophytes need to learn, and you're the best candidate to offer than to them!"

Anahera ignored Noah, turning to the Magus. "Is he being for real? For the love of God Aggelos, this kid should not have been your best candidate."

Gabriel sighed, putting a hand up to silence the both of them. The man had the posture of someone in power, and he knew it too. His age had started to catch up with him as his dark hair was lined with silver. His Decay was that of a stag demon, his antlers constantly chipping and breaking, though gradually grew back over time. His skin, though olive in colour, was blotchy with large spots and patches of fur, mainly visible on his arms and legs. He was Greek, though his accent had faded from a heavy to a light one over the years, with the heavier one only seeing light when Aggelos became frustrated or angry. He had a square jaw covered with stubble and his body was strong and defined. He was lined with old marks and battle scars and his decay had turned his irises black, the darkness spreading like a virus to his whites. With this kind of decay, it was easy to tell Aggelos was a veteran.

"Noah, stop talking. You're only digging a hole for yourself. And Ana, stop antagonising him. It's been five years. Get over it already. Don't go looking for fights." Anahera huffed loudly, but Gabriel continued, ignoring her. " Noah is right: you've got real experience. Our other supervisors are the ones who have barely gone out into the field. Besides, you know we've been short on man power since--"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it." Anahera cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Still, babysitting is not my idea of a 'critical emergency' when I get alerts to come here all the way from New Zealand. And having to drag along two greenies as well? That's just cruel."

"It's perfectly warranted. You work for the order. You were most needed here. We pay you for your services. And if you'd like to keep getting paid as generously as you do, I suggest you continue to follow my instructions," Gabriel said plainly, his voice cold and distant. Ana continued to glare at him, rising from the chair slowly and gripping her leather coat draped over it. "Any issues you have with Griffin, you'll just have to get over. Whether they have to do with Wiremu or not. Do you understand?" He added with a hint of condescension.

"Yes." Ana said bitterly, holding eye contact with Gabriel. Noah, starting to feel uncomfortable, piped up.

"Didn't you say you had to meet the neophytes at ten o'clock?" He glanced at his watch, then back to Anahera.

"Yeah, why? What's the time?"

"It's almost ten now. You're going to be late!"

"I said they had to be there at ten, not me." She strode over to the door, grabbing the knob to close it behind her. "Good chat then."

"Always a pleasure talking to you, Anahera." Gabriel smiled, waving at her. She screwed up her face, swinging the door closed, muting the unwanted final goodbye of Noah. She pulled her coat on as she travelled down the hall of Stella Matutina HQ, the brisk hair swiping her across the face as she opened the door to outside.

She had a feeling that today was not going to be a fun day. Not for her, at least.
​


Rose Emilia Ardent
> neophyte
> ignis based strider/iaculatores
> morning, 25th january 2015 ​

Rose lifted her head at the sound of approaching footsteps.

Of course, she had lifted her head the last few times, only to see passing ignatii on their way to whatever menial task they were accomplishing. This time however, the face she saw was somewhat recognisable. Not recognisable enough that she had remembered the girl's name, but enough that she knew she had seen the face the previous day. She approached Rose, looking directly at her and presented with her name, asking for Rose's in return with a hand outstretched. Rose looked at it cautiously.

"Rose. Rose Ardent," she replied out of obligation. She wasn't here to make friends and she would have loved to go the entire way without learning anyone's names, but that wasn't much of an option for her it seemed. Demon hunting was a team based art anyway. She went to take the hand, glancing at it to make sure Manami hadn't recently washed her hands in dirt or mucus but immediately pulled back when Manami added the second comment. Bargain bin look? Who the hell did this girl think she was?!

"Ex-cuse me!?" She patted the floral skirt down, her skinny tail curling angrily underneath it. "Says the girl lit up like a traffic light. Didn't you get the memo? It's winter, honey. Leave your summer trash at home." She narrowed her eyes at the girl and her ridiculous outfit. Who wears sandals and a wide brimmed hat in the middle of winter? And what a way to introduce yourself, too. Hi, my name is Manami and I'm a heinous bitch.​

 
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Reportmyname

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  • Seen May 18, 2015
Join the military they had said. Take up arms, explore the world and fight for freedom. Ian's response to that had been 'hell no' and getting a job in a bar. Now look where he is. In some weird college for an order that trained people to hunt and kill demons. Perfect. What was worse to him was the fact that everyone took it in their stride that demons were real and there was another world full of the nightmarish bastards, somehow linked to ours, called Gehenna or something.

Grumbling all the while, Ian finally found his room in the dormitory on the absurd campus. He swung his heavy duffle bag off from his shoulder, banged it into the door and dropped it at the foot of the bed. Closing his eyes, he fell back onto the single bed, springs squealing in protestation. He was still struggling to get his head around everything and the occasional nightmares about what had happened in his sorely missed bar had meant infrequent bouts of sleep. Sure, let's all train to kill demons and either be killed by them or inevitably turn into one. Sounds like a brilliantly suicidal idea. Why did Mick have to drag him into this nonsense?

Rolling over onto his side, his eyes drifted open and he noticed the envelope sitting on the bedside table. Lazily reaching up without moving his head, he jammed his finger in one end and tore it open. He scanned the letter, lips moving absently as he did and finished by running his hand down his face. Fine, better go and get this over with. He didn't bother with changing, just grabbing a coat and a pair of sunglasses. He had started to become self-conscious about his eyes since they had become bloodshot to hell. Couldn't have the other team members think he was a meth addict or something.

After briefly getting lost again for what felt like the umpteenth time since he had arrived, he spotted the church in the distance. At least he hoped it was the right church but the two girls waiting outside seemed to help his assumption. Wait, no there was the sign, Lady of the, well, Assumption, fancy that.

As he made his way closer, he picked out some details about the girls. One was in a beanie and appeared to be more cold than warranted but had still decided to wear a skirt instead of some real pants. Mental. The other with her designer clothes and arrogant posture screamed spoilt rich kid. Fan-tastic.

What made it even better was the conversation he overhead as he got there. They're throwing insults at each other's clothes, was this some kind of joke? Well that inspires so much faith in this team already. Don't worry everyone, he'll kill the demons while they call each other tramps and scoff at last winter's fashion.

Scrunching his eyes and face up in his hands, he walked past them, taking one hand away to wave and without speaking to them, found a slightly flat rock to sit down on. With one leg bouncing up and down absently, he sighed and waited for the rest of them to arrive.
 
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Ozymandias

i'm going on a journey
1,069
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10
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Tyler Boone // January 25th, 2015

"The Order of the Morning Star"

The name alone sounded much more prestigious than anything that Tyler had ever been a part of. The closest thing that compared was being on the Mississippi Valley State University baseball team and that wasn't even D1 ball. Being a part of the Delta Devil's baseball team was most definitely a step down from this demon hunting organization. Now that he thought about it, it was quite ironic that MVSU's mascot was the Delta Devil seeing as pretty soon he would hunting down Devils of his own. It had taken a couple of strings pulled by his mentor, John, but he was accepted immediately to Stella Matutina as Morrissery was actually a part of the organization himself.

The opening ceremony for the new members of the organization had been yesterday and it was a living hell for the young man. Sitting in the same seat for over an hour listening to someone drone on and on wanted to make him rip out his own hair, but for John, Ty decided to try and keep it together as best he could. Even if that meant pulling out his pack of Marlboros and smoking through half the pack before the presentation was over.

The rest of the day had gone by alright. His roommate wasn't around when he got to their dorm, so he just took a bed and unpacked the duffell bag that carried around the modest amount of clothing that Tyler owned. He went out and got some dinner at the always-welcome Mickie D's and returned to his new home to find a letter awaiting him. After scanning it over, he drifted off to sleep, on the bed much too small for a man his size.

Exactly at dawn, he woke up as he did every day. The constant crowing of the rooster every morning at the rise of the sun had taught him to wake up at the same time every morning. Having three hours to spare, Ty spent the first of which to go through his daily workout regimin as quickly as possible and the second for getting ready. He threw on a clean flannel shirt and put his leather coat on too just in case of the morning chills. Also, some jeans and the same boots he wore everyday.

By the time that Ty left he had less than thirty minutes to get to the church on time. Luckily, the church was a pretty short walk, and on the way he got to stop by Mickey D's and pick up a Sausage Egg McMuffin. Once he found himself at "Our Lady of Assumption Church" he noticed that there were already members of his team awaiting him. There were two girls, an Asian-looking one, and another with horns. The Asian one had apparently insulted the latter, something about clothing? There was another person there, a young man with sunglasses on.

It seemed that he was a tad early, and not wanting to get himself involved with the two girl's argument he walked up on the steps and sat down a couple steps above where the girls were having their argument, giving him enough space to watch and remain entertained and not involved.

Not knowing how much longer it would be until the other demon hunters arrived, Tyler unwrapped his greasy, artery-clogging breakfast, but before he took a bite pulled out a Marlboro and took a long puff before taking a huge bite. He tilted his head back just to savor the feeling of ecstasy that took over him. There wasn't much for him to look forward to these days, but McDonald's breakfast and cigs was one thing he always could.

 

ANARCHit3cht

Call me Archie!
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"Traffic light?" Manami scoffed at this remark. "You couldn't afford to look good if you were paid for. And don't honey me, honey. This is called fuh-ash-in. Something you obviously know nothing about. " Manami had never been in an actual fight before; it wasn't something that happened when she used her money and status to manipulate people. Back in school when she got mad at someone she coerced them into following orders by threatening them with rumors and other things. This girl would have herpes. That girl would be a lesbian. Do you know who my daddy is?! I could pay someone to make your family go away forever. All typical threats and rumors that were under her employ. Of course, she was an adult now and such things didn't work as well. That didn't mean she was above doing it, though. She'd just have to wait for the right time and come up with the right lie.

Really though, if it wasn't for the fact that other neophytes had begun to show up, Manami would have continued to go off on the girl. Her better judgment(a rarity for her) decided it'd be best to just walk away now and stab her in the back later. It'd do no good to get off to a bad start with everyone. Even if the only other people that showed up were Farmer Joe and some guy that looked your typical freshman nerd. As it was, Manami was hoping that SOMEONE with her own level of maintenance would show up so she wouldn't have to deal with basic losers all day. Of the two boys that showed up, neither of them seemed like someone she would normally associate with, but if she had to pick one or the other, it'd be Farmer Joe. He at least seemed like he had a story. Still, she'd take her chances with waiting for someone better to show up. Not daring to sit on the ground she pulled out her iPhone and began furiously typing up a storm.

Manami hated waiting for things, and a feeling of regret for showing up early began to rise. "Ugh..." she groaned loudly, emphasizing the melodrama by flinging her head back. Reaching into her bag she puled out a small black compact and began to check for any signs of wear on her make up. It'd be a cold day in hell before she let herself look bad, which resulted in her constantly checking her make-up to see if it still looks good. It was a habit now, and a compulsive one at that.
 

Reportmyname

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  • Seen May 18, 2015
Overhearing the last remark, Ian sighed and stood up to dust off his pants. Clearly this was going to get worse before it got better and he might as well dive right into the thick of things. The best way to unite a group of people is to give them a cause to unify. Hating him may just be that ticket. Sure he'd have to work harder to integrate himself later on but having these two girls work together rather than him working with two girls he found exasperating may be the better outcome. He stretched, rolled his shoulders, cracked his knuckles and walked on over to the squabbling pair of children.

"Right. I'm Ian, Ian Hardgrove and you two are going to cut the shit right now. Remember where you are and what you're here for, you muppets. Fah-ash-in is so damn important right now. I'll be sure to comment on your lovely new pair of shoes to the next fucking monster we encounter, I mean, I know they'll stop trying to kill us to coo over them," said Ian angrily.

He nodded towards the one with the beanie comically placed on a head with horns poking out.

"Listen here Pointy, keep your cool and stop whipping your tail around like a pissed off cat, ok? Also keep your distance, I've watched enough TV. Female, horns, tail and whatever else you're hiding under there, I don't need a potential succubus getting keen on my soul, yeah?" Ian went on. He then pointed at the other fah-ash-in-able girl.

"You, Brats McGee, shut your mouth and focus on how you, of all people, could be useful in a situation where something is god damn fucking trying to eat us all. I guarantee whatever is won't care about the fact you have the latest phone or a chateau in whocaresville," Ian declared hotly.

"Now that that's sorted, I think college boy is on to something. Hey, you, can I steal one of those?' he said as he pointed to the packet of cigarettes the young guy was holding.

Now that that bravado was over, Ian mentally gulped, hoping it all wouldn't fall to pieces with his gamble and walked over to the other guy. Now that he thought of it, it wasn't the best idea, in fact it was a horrible idea. What the hell had he just done? He should have just flown under the radar and got on with things. He was irritated though. Irritated by this whole situation, his fate and the fact no one else was mentally shitting their pants like he was at the prospect of their future profession.
 

Data_Error

38
Posts
9
Years
Rachel Reneé Robinson
---

Yup, this was the place.

Rachel didn't even bother fishing the note out of her jeans pocket to check the address. No point - any real church would have people inside it right now, not milling around out front like a gaggle of students. Come to think of it, any real church would have a more sensical name than "Our Lady of the Assumption". A paper-thin front if she'd ever seen one, but hey - clearly nobody in city planning cared, so whatever worked, she supposed.

Circling around to the parking lot, Rachel parked her motorcycle, locked on the helmet and strolled back to join the small gathering, hands crossed over her chest to save a small bit of warmth without having to remove her gloves. A bit chilly for Griffin, but still warmer on average than everywhere else she'd lived. Not that it was stopping one of people closer to her from looking visibly cold. How far away did the Order pull people from, anyway?

Spotting a free spot to slide into in the cluster of people (where the women were arguing about their outfits - one no the plain side and the other out of season), she tried to get a quick read on everyone else in the circle. The girls both seemed to be a bit loud, but it was kind of hard to tell, given they were in the middle of a disagreement and that having horns gave off a kind of volatile vibe in the first place. The other one, at least judging by how she didn't have conspicuous scales or a tail, seemed closer to her own level of experience with regards to the actual reason why they were here. Nice to know, since Rachel got the feeling that she was kind of the exception to the rule by not being part of some lordly line of demon-slaying magicians.

The two men off to the side looked a bit intimidated to get involved in the spat, or perhaps just too lethargic given that they weren't talking with each other, either. One sat on the steps of the building, a cigarette in one hand and fast food in the other, leather jacket on top. Kinda a cheesy "too cool for school" vibe, but the guy was managing to work it, so no harm done. The other, either anxious or annoyed, it was hard to tell behind sunglasses. Which he was wearing at 10AM. Either also trying too hard or had some sort of demon-eyes, then.

Then, just as she was writing this guy off as the second, he proved to be the first. Stood up, walked over to the chew out the women in a borderline-exaggerated way, then plop back down where he started. No real point to it all, either - seemed to just be to rile them into giving up on their argument. Not that he was wrong. Just maybe a dick about it.

She briefly considered dropping down next to the guys on the steps, but doing so would no doubt end with her pulling out a cigarette to match theirs, which - Rachel peeked at her watch - she'd definitely not have time for. That was assuming the instructor would actually show up on time, which was pretty much a given for this tight-pants organization. For the moment, she trailed over toward the two women and subtly jerked her head to indicate Hardgrump with a less-subtle "can-you-believe-this-guy?" undertone.

"Kinda blowing things outta proportion, in'he?" she muttered. "Not like they're going to throw us to the wolves from day one."

Involuntarily, she found herself subtly prodding one of the sprouts at her wooden left elbow that wasn't quite sitting right. Really, it was horrible trying to get into her jacket like this. At least the small growths on her bark-like skin of her forearm were supple enough to fit, if uncomfortably (for now, at least - she had been told that the "decay" would affect her more further down the road, which wasn't the most inviting of thoughts). Come to think of it, with the short cream scarf tied about her neck and tucked into her coat, the only real bit of deformed skin she was showing was that on her cheek. Not sure if the subtlety would make her come across as inexperienced or more refined, but honestly, either impression wouldn't matter after they got on with their "compulsory field mission trial".

Really, what was it with this group and overly-wordy names?
 

Skymin

5,114
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 31
  • AU
  • Seen Feb 18, 2023
Rose Emilia Ardent
> neophyte
> ignis based strider/iaculatores
> morning, 25th january 2015 ​

Rose ignored the presence of new arrivals, her stare held threateningly on Manami.

"Listen here, you prissy little bit--" Rose began, before she felt her voice cut off by another. One of the boys, Ian as he had introduced himself as, rudely interrupted her with some self righteous speech. Rose narrowed her eyes and pulled at her skirt, positively fuming. No way was some douchebag going to completely disrespect her by interrupting her. Who did he think he was?

When his comments became directed towards Rose specifically, she grabbed her tail under her skirt, feeling it twist in frustration around her hand. Succubus? Succubus?! How dare he, what an unbelievable sexist jerk! When he turned away to give Manami a dose of whatever kind of trash talk he was serving, Rose let go of her tail and clenched her fists angrily.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Rose huffed at him, unable to stop her tail from curling once more. "I'll have you know that my--"

Another voice interrupted Rose, and she turned to the direction to speaker to give her a piece of her mind. However, when her eyes settled on the woman and she quickly introduced herself as their supervisor, she closed her mouth tight, seething on the inside. She would make sure these idiots learned to never interrupt her again. She didn't need to prove herself to any of these low-lives here, because she was the one who was going soar over top of them and earn her rankings before anyone else did. She shot glances at Manami and Ian, hoping to prove her point before turning back to the newly introduced Anahera to listen to their brief.

​


ANAHERA MAKOARE
> margrave iii
> humus based strider/iaculatores + summoner/convocatores
> morning, 25th january 2015 ​

At the moment, Ana was glad it was winter.

Her usual hunter get up was a leather jacket -- her favourite. She was meant to wear a standard issue Stella Matutina coat, but instead Ana had gotten away by stitching patches of the Order's symbol on her shoulders. Underneath that was a red singlet top, coupled with weathered but cosy cargo pants. Her military boots crunched the crisp grass underneath them, the dew half frozen on them from the night before. Her hair, dark and and twisted into dreadlocks, was pulled back into a ponytail and flicked back and forth as she slammed the boot door of her car. She swung the duffle bag she had pulled from the car over her shoulder and laid eyes on the challenge that awaited her.

They were greenhorns if she had ever seen them: bright eyed and completely unaware what they had signed themselves up for. Ana had reluctantly read their applications and they seemed like your average bout of Neophytes -- some from hunting families, others had unluckily found themselves into this mess. Whatever reason they had for wanting to get themselves into this shit-storm of a career, Ana couldn't care in the slightest. But she was going to make sure they understood that accounting or law was going to be the more practical option for a career.

She took a glance at the time: it was a twenty past ten. By the sound of it, it seemed like they had already gotten to know each other but not in the way that Ana had expected. Spits and arguments already? They barely had anything to argue about. Ana rolled her eyes and strode over to the group, the bag making a variety of clunk, chink and twang sounds.

"Listen up!" she announced herself to the group, cutting off any arguments or conversation. "My name is Anahera Makoare, Third-Class Margrave and today, I'm your supervisor for this field mission trial." She dumped the duffle bag on the ground, the harsh sound of metal hitting cement ringing loudly. "I assume that you being here means you got my note so congrats on making it on time." She bent down and unzipped the duffle, the contents now visible to the group.

She had brought with her what looked like an arsenal of weapons, ranging from bows and arrows and hand guns to small staffs and grimoires. It was all very basic equipment; nothing too fancy or too out of date. They all seemed to share the same dark grey tone, with the golden Stella Matutina symbol slapped onto them. She pulled out the one item that looked slightly more expensive than the others; a sawn-off shotgun, with runes engraved into the wood panelling that almost seemed to glow when looked at in the right angle. She attached it to the holster on her back, noticeable handguns already resting on her hips, tarot cards tucked into the inside pocket of her jacket and a large knife on her thigh.

"Your mission today is a standard clean out. This church here," she nodded her head towards the badly named building they stood in front of, "has an infestation of urere pests. To your average ignatii, they look like rats or something. That's why they called in the pest control. To us, should look like dead rodents with spores growing on them. Usual rot stuff. Nothing too complicated.

"For this, I want you to get into three groups. Teamwork is essential so whatever you were all bitching about 5 minutes ago, forget about it. I don't care. Sort your shit out later. I really don't care who you group up with, as long as you can work together." Ana gestured to the duffle bag in front of her. "I know most of you have already picked classes, so pick your poison. There should be enough for everyone."

"If you have any questions, now's the time to ask." Ana put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. "They better not be stupid."

​

 
Nakuzami

Nakuzami

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]
6,896
Posts
13
Years
Adelaide Ileana Rosaria
& Benji the Familiar

Neophyte
Aqua Based Summoner / Convocatores
Morning, 25th January 2015

Well this was already quite an uncomfortable situation.

Adelaide had been the first to arrive at the church, and while she waited she had taken a seat off to the side. It hadn't taken long for other people to begin arriving, the first being a girl that had sprouted horns and a tail. Obviously she wasn't just some normal ignatii passing by. Addie didn't immediately rise to greet the girl, who hadn't seemed to notice her, due to her wanting to finish reading the section she was on. It was an interesting spell, or at least it looked like one. It could have been fake, too. It was always hit or miss with this grimoire.

Before she got up, another girl arrived, this one clad in what looked to be a summer dress. She managed to catch that their names were Manami and Rose, but that was all she heard before an argument broke out between the two. Once that happened, Addie was reluctant to reveal her presence.

During the course of the argument, two men and one more woman arrived. One of the men randomly burst out yelling, attempting to quell the other two, albeit in a rather rude fashion. This wasn't looking to be a great group. Adelaide's shoulders moved with a silent grunt. Lucky her.

As the yelling continued, Addie could feel a small body trembling next to her. "Why are they yelling?" Benji asked, sliding his paws over his ears. "I'm trying to sleep!"

She pet the small creature on the head, calming him as she looked on at the other Neophytes. These were the kind of people that Stella Matutina recruited? If this was what they considered potential, then why had it taken Addie so long to get in? This wasn't a great first impression. Granted, just because the chemistry of the group was terrible so far, that didn't necessarily mean that they were bad demon hunters.

Addie's attention was briefly caught by a flicker of movement in the distance. A car had just pulled up and a somewhat intimidating woman in a leather jacket had stepped out. She grabbed a bag, approached the church, and swiftly silenced the other Neophytes with an authoritative voice.

Adelaide quickly got to her feet, closed her grimoire as Benji crawled on top of it, and discreetly joined the group of Neophytes.

"My name is Anahera Makoare, Third-Class Margrave and today, I'm your supervisor for this field mission trial." The woman, Anahera, dropped the duffle bag she had been carrying to the ground. "I assume that you being here means you got my note so congrats on making it on time."

As Anahera unzipped the bag, Adelaide instantly noticed the array of weaponry within. Anahera also had a decent on her person, holstered to her hips, thighs, and in her pockets. She attached a shotgun to a holster on her back. She certainly seemed to enjoy her toys.

"Your mission today is a standard clean out. This church here," she continued, nodding towards the building, "has an infestation of urere pests. To your average ignatii, they look like rats or something. That's why they called in the pest control. To us, should look like dead rodents with spores growing on them. Usual rot stuff. Nothing too complicated."

Rodents? That wasn't a terrible first task. It was a bit forthright, having them all report for extermination duty before even teaching them . . . anything. Still, Adelaide was up to the task, though she didn't intend to kill any of the demons herself. She imagined that it would be rather depressing for her first kill to be a rodent; the decay for that wouldn't be pretty.

"For this, I want you to get into three groups. Teamwork is essential so whatever you were all bitching about five minutes ago, forget about it. I don't care. Sort your shit out later. I really don't care who you group up with, as long as you can work together."

Addie glanced around at the others. She wasn't sure if any of them had actually noticed her yet, since everyone seemed to be paying all their attention to Anahera. As long as Manami and Rose weren't in a group together, things would probably be okay.

Anahera gestured to the bag sitting on the ground. "I know most of you have already picked classes, so pick your poison. There should be enough for everyone. If you have any questions, now's the time to ask." She narrowed her eyes and placed her hands upon her hips. "They better not be stupid."

Nobody moved for the first few seconds. Adelaide eyed the weaponry in the bag, glancing at the bows, guns, and the staves. They didn't look like particularly bad weapons, but she had no idea how to use any of them with much skill. She knew how to use a bow, but she probably wouldn't be able to hit a moving target with it, especially a rodent. Staves she was sure she could at least hit something with, but other than whacking things in the face she didn't really know how one was supposed to use the rod. She didn't need it for the magic she was proficient in, at the least. She made a note to look into them later.

She didn't even think about the guns. They were a useful weapon, to be sure, but she had no experience with them.

What she did take an interest in, of course, were the grimoires. A few sat inside the bag, and Addie wanted nothing more than to open them and learn their secrets. Unlike her own grimoire, all the spells in those books would at least be legitimate. She hoped so, for the sake of Stella Matutina's reputation.

More out of intense curiosity about the books than bravery, Addie was the first to step forward and retrieve an item. She grabbed two grimoires, picking them up to see if there was a difference between them. They seemed to be the same, for the most part, so she placed one back in the bag and took a step back, immediately opening the tome to ruffle through its pages.

She was too engrossed in this new knowledge to notice whether or not the other Neophytes had began to move yet. She hadn't even thought to introduce Benji, who was perched atop her shoulder, he too staring into the grimoire.
 

ANARCHit3cht

Call me Archie!
2,145
Posts
15
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  • Seen Sep 25, 2020
"Rats? You're really sending us to deal with rats? That is a job for the exterminating companies. Why waste our time on that? My daddy will pay for them to come out. We can do something more becoming of us." Manami was not pleased with this task and she'd be damned if she did it without any resistance. The harrowing stare of her instructor made her relent, however. If it was as simple as she made it seem then the other neophytes could take care of it--she'd be more than happy to take a back seat to all the action.

"If we must..." she muttered under her breath as she approached the bag of weapons. She had never been in combat with a demon and the whole idea of picking a weapon seemed a bit odd to her. She was taught to be a healer, they didn't fight demons they healed other people. Most of the techniques she learned also involved having the energy flow directly from her into the other person. Although she was told that using a staff would amplify her powers in some regards, so she grabbed one out of the bag. There were a few different ones in the bag, and she wasn't too keen on the idea of lugging something around that she probably wouldn't use very much so she opted for the smallest one.

As Manami was looking over the weapons another girl who she had not noticed before had also begun to look through the bag and retrieved two spell books. Two? Does she really need two of them? It's not like she can read them both at once... Just as Manami was about to say something, she put the book back in the bag and Manami eagerly snatched it up. She was a novice by all means of the word so she'd need all the help she could get--although she'd probably never admit that. Weapons in hand she turned back to the girl she had first met, Rose.

"Have at it, honey." She motioned to the bag of weapons. "I'm sure you'll find SOMETHING in there to match your gaudy outfit." Manami gave a smirk. "Oh, and to you..." she didn't turn to look at him. "Keep in mind that when that thing trying to eat you takes a bite that I AM trained in the healing arts. You really don't want to piss off the person who might save your life."
 
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Data_Error

38
Posts
9
Years
Rachel Reneé Robinson
---

Rachel took a half-step away from the other women and sized up Makoare as she listened to their marching orders. Neither of these things took too long - the Margrave was very being to-the-point with her explanation and miles less formal as many of the upper-level people at Stella tended to come off. Definitely one of the better officers to have on day one, then.

Ostensively, they were being told to exterminate rats infected by rot. That was it. Take a weapon, pair up, kill rats, come out and presumably get some sort of report card. Nice and straightforward, so Makoare was at Q and A inside of a minute.

"How many? They still rat-sized?" was her reflexive response. Not that it would matter too much, but still, best to go in with a description better than "Rot Rats".

When she had her answer, Rachel strolled over to the bag the woman had dropped on the lawn. Lots of options for a small pack, most of them needlessly complicated for picking off rodents. There were some more obvious weapons, too - Rachel's hand briefly hovered over a large knife before she spotted and snatched up a flanged mace with a handle just long enough to reach the ground when she let her arm drop. It enough heft to probably drop something small pretty quick, didn't need any fiddling with spells or magazines or anything... it would do fine.

Next thing. A few steps away from the bag and she gave the group a once-over. The two girls were still preoccupied being catty with each other, so that left the two guys or another woman she hadn't noticed before - one hanging back a bit, tall and lean, with some sort of pet demon halfway between a cat and a hare on her shoulder. She couldn't quite tell from behind, but the woman was holding what must be a spellbook. Clearly a familiar-user, then. Which meant an extra body on the team. Good deal. Rachel strode around to the rose-haired girl's side and tapped her on the vacant shoulder.

"You 'n' me?" she asked pointedly. Not that anybody standing out here had a reason to shoot down anybody else bar high school antics; the question was more of a formality than anything, she figured.
 

Skymin

5,114
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 31
  • AU
  • Seen Feb 18, 2023
Rose Emilia Ardent
> neophyte
> ignis based strider/iaculatores
> morning, 25th january 2015 ​

Rats. Really?

Rose seemed as unimpressed with the mission as some of the others did, raising her eyebrows. Her and her family had taken on things far more dangerous than 'rats', but Rose wasn't going to complain. No, she was going to show up every single lame-ass Neophyte here so she could be seen for the skill she had and get away from them as soon as possible.

"Rats? You're really sending us to deal with rats? That is a job for the exterminating companies. Why waste our time on that? My daddy will pay for them to come out. We can do something more becoming of us." Manami said in distaste, which only annoyed Rose more. One, that she somewhat agreed with her and two, that she had opened her mouth and blessed everyone with her snooty, pretentious comments.

"Yes. Rats." Anahera placed her hands on her hips and her glare turned threatening. "If you have a problem with that, you can go home. If your daddy wants to take care of it, he can join the Order in your place."

"Have at it, honey. I'm sure you'll find something in there to match your gaudy outfit." Manami turned to Rose as her smirk spread across her ugly face, and Rose had to hold her clenched fist by her side. As much as she wanted to punch off that stupid smile, she was here to fight demons, not give bruises. And it almost sickened her that she was mentally agreeing with that interrupting asshole. Although, she could give bruises later.

"Bitch," Rose hissed under her breath, glancing into the duffle bag. There indeed was a variety of weapons to choose from, but Rose knew exactly what she was good -- no, great. A master, even -- at. Before anyone else could take it, she snatched up the bow and quiver of arrows. She pulled the quiver over her shoulder and quickly inspected the bow. It wasn't as well made as the ones she had brought with her or the many her father kept at home, but it would do. For now.

"How many? They still rat-sized?" One of the other Neophytes (that Rose had not caught the name of) asked. Ana turned away from Manami and nodded at the girl.

"When reported, it was ten or twelve. That was an estimation, however. So there definitely could be more. Make sure you prepare for anything that could happen in there. And no. They vary, but roughly the size of cats. Maybe bigger. They're quick, and they're nimble."

"Shouldn't be a problem." Rose swept the hair out of her face. "I don't care who's grouped with me, as long as you don't slow me down. Actually," She rethought her statement, and shot a look of daggers at Manami, "scratch that. I'll go with anybody but that heinous cow."
​

 
Nakuzami

Nakuzami

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]
6,896
Posts
13
Years
Adelaide Ileana Rosaria
& Benji the Familiar

Neophyte
Aqua Based Summoner / Convocatores
Morning, 25th January 2015

This book was incredible. Sure, it didn't have any incredibly powerful spells in it, but they opened up a whole new territory for Adelaide to explore.

She could hear the others talking around her. She was too focused to make out what any of them were saying, even though they weren't standing more than a few feet away from her.

"You 'n' me?"

Addie glanced up, confused. Had someone just tapped her on the shoulder? She turned her head, noticing a girl with dark hair standing beside her. She closed the grimoire she held.

"I'm sorry?" she asked softly, not having heard what the woman said. She had a feeling what she might have meant, though. "Work together? Sure."

"Don't expect her to be very useful," Benji chimed in, scratching his ear with his hind leg. "She has yet to kill anything. I'd be happy to chomp on some rats, though."

Addie glanced at the rodent on her shoulder. "Excuse me," she chided. "But who asked you?"

"No one," Benji stated as he placed his front paws on Adelaide's head in order to raise himself higher and sniff the brown haired woman. "Who are you?"

Addie rolled her eyes. "Benji, mind your manners." She turned to their new acquaintance. "The name's Adelaide." She extended her hand and gave a soft smile. "And you are?"
 
SV

SV

See You Space Cowboy
3,393
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2022

Taylor Jackson


It was going to be one of those days.

It started off well enough for Taylor. The usual early rise was followed by a morning stroll through the woods around Griffin. Taylor did this almost everyday as a routine. It was not necessarily because wanted to. He wasn't a big nature guy or anything, but it was more because it helped him get his bearings. This became especially important as he spent more and more time possessing other demons, and his headaches and mental instability began to arise. Taking some time everyday (it varied between a few minutes to hours, depending on what felt right) to stroll and clear his brain was extremely helpful. But sometimes, it didn't always pan out. Taylor would be out alone sometimes for hours at a time, and if he didn't feel like he could calm down or interact with others, then he would usually just stay out there most of the rest of the day to avoid lashing out, or any other unpleasantness.

Today, Taylor got up extra early, as he knew that he was supposed to meet up with the rest of the group at 10am at the church. Having arrived a few days prior to Griffin, California, he was familiar with where it was. The only problem now was getting himself ready to be presentable. The last thing he wanted to do was give a bad first impression, especially if he would be around this group for a long time.

The only problem was, this was going to be one of Taylor's bad days, where it would better if he would simply stay isolated rather than interact with others. Taylor cursed his luck. He had spent nearly four hours in the forest, pounding at his head, screaming expletives at animals or trees, and kicking down anything that his brain told him he didn't like. It seemed to get better for a while, with the headaches seeming to lessen, but as the time approach, Taylor found himself in terrible shape, and little other choice but to hope that he didn't do anything to screw up his chances.

He seemed to arrive a bit later than most of the others. Taylor kept his distance for fear of saying anything he didn't want to. Instead, he observed the group from a nearby elevated ground, while clutching his throbbing head with one of his hands. As the apparent instruct, he believed her name was Ana finally arrived, Taylor found himself having no choice but to approach the rest of the group in order to listen. He was flinching and gritting his teeth throughout her entire explanation of the assignment, trying to calm down his mind through pain.

He figured maybe if he got a chance to release, the pain would go away and his senses would return. It was unlikely, but it was all he could think to do. After others picked through the bag of weapons, Taylor quickly sped forward and rummaged through it frantically. He tossed aside weapons and crossbows across the ground as he looked through it, and only about halfway through his actions did he realize he wasn't entirely sure he was doing. His brain told him that he needed to do it, and his body reacted right away.

Yes... he needed something, but what? There was a bag, there were weapons, weapons to kill the demons. But Taylor didn't need a weapon, he did it differently. The southerner grabbed his head tightly as a painful migraine forced its way to the surface. He fell to his knees and did everything in his power to avoid yelling at the top of his lungs. He felt his fingers did into his palms as he clenched his fists so forcefully, he could feel that he had drawn some blood.

Eventually, the migraine began to lessen, enough for Taylor to make sense of things. He did need a weapon, but the one he needed wasn't in the bag. "Summoner," He blurted out loud. Taylor looked around at the other initiates. "Summoner. Summoner!" He repeated twice more, the second time even louder than he intended. "Summoner. I need a Summoner. Are any of ya'll Summoners?" He asked them, as his eyes scanned around the group, twitching every few seconds as they did so.
 
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Swolligator

Butcher of the Sands
1,955
Posts
14
Years

Clinton & Miles Uta'i

"Alright… tahi, rua, TORU!" The boys yelled as they launched their legs into the air. Clinton's legs seemed to be straight compared to the wheeling Miles' were doing as the two of them struggled to hold their weight on their hands. It wasn't uncommon for the brothers to erupt into competitions like this, all it would take would be for one of them to make an offhanded comment and they would end up as such. It was already well past the time they were meant to be meeting Anahera and the rest of their group at the church but they needed to settle this once and for all.

"I'm all muscle, bro. Your fat's just going to weigh you down." Clinton mocked his brother, his face already starting to turn red.

Miles rolled his eyes, "Nah bro, muscle weighs more than fat, you egg." A smiled curled at the end of his lips as he struggled to keep himself upright, occasionally using his toe to help keep himself stable against the nearby wall.

"Ana's gonna be so pissed man," Clinton eyed the hammer he had brought all the way from New Zealand propped up against his bedside table. "More pissed than when she had to bail us out of customs." Clinton erupted into a fit of giggles, losing his balance and tumbling to the ground with a mighty 'thud'.

Seeing as he had won, Miles bailed out of the hand stand and stood proud and triumphant over his brother. "You've travelled all around the Pacific to play rugby, how can you not know that you can't bring a sledgehammer into the US?" Grabbing his bag of incense, chalk and other hunting paraphernalia, Miles made his way over to the door and stood outside waiting for his brother to get ready.

"It was a gift from Mum," Clinton soon joined Miles in their walk from the dormitory and over to the church to meet the others with nothing but the clothes on his back and the large sledgehammer attacked to a belt across his back. Along the wood handle and around the metal head were subtle scratchings in Maori, wardings against demons and an assortment of Maori banishment spells.

It didn't take the brothers long to find the rag-tag group of misfit demon hunters bickering outside the front of the church. The boys looked at each other, surprised that the other students hadn't already finished the clean-up operation by the time they had arrived. By the sour look on Anahera's face, she wasn't too impressed with the bickering group. Ahead of them a lunatic seemed to make a mad dash from the nearby bushes, fervently scrambling through a bag that lay on the ground before yelling out for a Summoner. The boys simply laughed at the groups lack of cohesion and decided to intervene.

"Oh yeah, I'm a Summoner, eh." Miles announced to the group, "and this here is my bro who is a healer." Both boys broke into their token 'Islander laugh' as the stopped either side of Anahera, making her look shorter. Looking around at the group it seemed like the boys were doing a better job of being hunters than their fellow classmates that bickered in front of them.

"Oh look, you gots some White chicks, an Asian chick and a couple of White boys," Clinton and Miles both turned to look cockily at Anahera, "Are we the token Islanders now?" Clinton asked, a grin stretching across his face. The boys had decided that from day one, they would be as sarcastic and annoying to Anahera until she decided to lighten up a little. They had both met her when they had appealed to the New Zealand branch of the Stella Matutina, and had journeyed to Griffon under the supervision of Anahera.

While Clinton unclipped the sledgehammer from his back and let it drop to the ground, Miles sidled over between the others and withdrew a nice looking shortsword from the bag. Glancing back at his brother, the two nodded in agreement before charging into the rat infested church together. Working back to back, they swung, parried, sliced and squashed any and all rats they could find. After the first initial attack, the demon rats seemed to organised themselves into some sort of waves, circling the brothers then aggressively attacking them both at once.​
 
Nakuzami

Nakuzami

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]
6,896
Posts
13
Years
Adelaide, Benji & Taylor

Neophytes
Aqua Based Summoner / Ignis Based Ghost
Morning, 25th January 2015

In the brief moment between introducing herself and being able to receive the same courtesy in return, Adelaide was interrupted by a small outburst from one of the other neophytes.

"Summoner. Summoner!" yelled a bearded man with a distinct southern accent. "Summoner. I need a Summoner. Are any of ya'll Summoners?"

Addie frowned as she broke her offer to the dark haired girl and lowered her hand. She looked over at the man, who was glancing frantically between the neophytes with wild eyes that twitched every few seconds. There was obviously something wrong with him. His ever so slightly translucent skin didn't do much to help that observation. His mental state seemed fragile and he was asking for a Summoner.

Addie guessed that he was an Arbitores.

She clutched her grimoire and looked to Benji. "Shall we?"

Benji shrugged. "Sure, why not? But I'm sayin' it here and now: he's not possessing me. You can summon some other little creature for that part."

Fair enough. Considering how this guy was behaving, she wouldn't have allowed him to overshadow Benji anyways. Beyond the fact that the idea made her uncomfortable, she doubted that he would be able to handle it.

She took a few steps towards the man, her rose colored hair blowing in the calm winter breeze. "Adelaide and Benji, at your service. An Arbitores, I presume?"

Taylor's eyes met with the woman who addressed him, as well as the cat-rabbit-like demon on with her. He flinched for a moment at the sound of her voice, as if his brain had trouble computing the fact that anyone else could speak. It was a difficult thing to comprehend. He tried to process each of her words, almost one at a time. It was a few seconds of breaking down each one and trying to have his mind ascertain their meanings before Taylor could finally understand what was being asked.

But Arbitores? Taylor felt he had heard the word before, but he couldn't pinpoint where exactly. And the more he tried, the more pain emitted to his head. His family and the others back home never had much use for referring to Demon Hunters by their Latin names. "I'm... mmmm...!" Taylor clenched his fists and slammed the front of them against his head. He inhaled sharply and tried to calm himself, to try and forget any nagging at his brain to help him remember. "TAYLOR! Taylor," He screamed, first yelling it, and then calming enough to state it as normally as he could. "... Sorry, this ain't one of my better days... Summoner, ma'am?"

"I see. Taylor . . . ," she trailed off, taking a moment to think.

Of course, even that was interrupted by some new arrivals. Two men appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and it took Adelaide mere seconds to make a judgment about them.

"Oh yeah, I'm a Summoner, eh. And this here is my bro who is a healer." The men laughed, annoyingly. They didn't seem to have any interest in taking things seriously. "Oh look, you gots some White chicks, an Asian chick and a couple of White boys. Are we the token Islanders now?"

Addie sighed, not even glancing at the buffoons. She'd seen enough of their type, especially during her time here in Griffin. She wasn't much in the mood for dealing with them at the moment, so she was somewhat glad when they rushed past the group and into the church.

Adelaide's face contorted with a slight twinge of disgust. Some healer whichever one of those two was, completely ignoring the man who could obviously use some attention. Of course, his affliction was of the mind. Many healers just weren't skilled enough to treat psychological issues. Didn't give much to their credit, though.

She returned her attention to Taylor. "Back to my point. You're an Arbitores? You possess demons?" She took a step towards the man, gently extending her arm before lightly wrapping her small hand around his wrist. "Come on, I'd be glad to help you out."

"But no possessing me!" Benji interjected.

Addie rolled her eyes. "Yes, no possessing Benji."

"Yes, fine!" Taylor spat as he stood up and made his way toward the church. He had to do something now or else his head felt like it was going to explode. "Just give me somethin' to posses then!" He demanded angrily, and made his way into the door behind the two men with Islander accents.

"Don't worry, I will. Just be patient," she said in a soothing tone. They stopped just inside the doors of the church. The architecture was pretty enough, but the creatures fighting inside not as much. She supposed the rat demons were also an eyesore.

She let go of Taylor's wrist and opened her new grimoire. "There's a few interesting spells in here," she muttered, more wondering aloud than anything. She found a page with a simple spell she could pull off quickly and pulled out a piece of chalk from her handbag. She quickly drew a circle and a few symbols within before muttering a quick phrase. The air around her distorted slightly as a small, winged demon materialized within the confines of the circle.

It was not unlike a Raven, though larger and more disheveled, with deadlier claws, a violently shaped beak and piercing red eyes.

"I hope that'll do," she said, motioning to Taylor.

Taylor did little to comment on the type of demon he would be possessing or what form it ought to be. He wasn't the least bit picky in his current state. He crouched down right at the entrance of the church, onto one knee, and inhaled sharply. "Watch my body, please," He asked rather calmly.

Then, he did nothing but focus on the summoned bird-like demon in front of him. His eyes grew darker as he felt his subconscious slowly be thrust out of his own body. It was always an exhilarating feeling, to feel oneself be thrust out of their own minds and washed away into another's. There is this moment, a small, singular moment, when Taylor's mind is traveling in between the two bodies, that he feels completely at ease. A sort of state of limbo.

His own body's mind is a complicated mess, a mixture of stinging sensations and jumbled thoughts as a foreign, corrupting nature slowly eats away at who he is. When he is possessing demons, there is always this sinister and threatening feeling encroaching around him. He feels powerful, but also severely vulnerable, as he feels the conscious of the demon's decrepit mind meet with his own (some of which he unfortunately takes back into his own body). But the moment in between? All pain, all anguish or feelings of uneasiness, are momentarily gone. He feels... nothing.

Taylor's body dropped to the ground, and the Raven in front of Taylor suddenly flaps its wings, the confirmation that it had been acquired by the Southern man. The raven flapped its wings some more, and in the process managed to get off the ground and dive toward one of the rat-like demons. It brandished its claws and dove right for the rat's neck, piercing into it with it's talons and shaking it around violently.

Addie grabbed Taylor's body and moved sat it to the side. "Go on, Benji," she commanded, nudging the small demon off of her shoulder. "I'll wait here with Taylor. You go help Taylor in the meantime."

Benji shook out his ears before turning to Adelaide and narrowing his eyes. "Don't get all intentionally confusing on me."

She gave a curt smile and shooed the rabbit-cat-thing away. He huffed as he stepped towards the main foray.

Benji leaped into the center of the fight, growing to twice his normal size. His body was sleeker and his claws sharper. This was how a cat-rabbit was meant to fight. He lashed out at a cluster of nearby rodents, raking his claws across their bodies and baring his fangs. They responded in kind.

Inside of the Raven's body, Taylor took notice of the other demon fighting beside him. He made a note to register it as an ally. Often, Taylor would just go berserk on all demons around since they usually were the enemy. He dug his talons deeper into the rat, as it tried to whirl its neck around and bite Taylor in his new bird form, but Taylor swiftly pecked at the demon rat's eye, causing it to squeal. He dug in even further, and reached bone within. The raven snapped the rat's neck, which caused it to stop it's struggling and fall flat on the floor.

But Taylor needed more. He needed the opportunity to vent. This was his coping mechanism. He dashed toward another rat, eager to fight more.
 

Data_Error

38
Posts
9
Years
Rachel Reneé Robinson
---


"I'm sorry? Work together? Sure."

From her light, demure voice to the snide chattiness of her familiar, Rachel felt like she'd been right on the money - that this lanky redhead girl was just about as new as she was. Perfect; level playing-field, then. They seemed more reasonable to get along with compared to the others bickering earlier, as well, even if the rabbit-cat-demon thing was poking its nose uncomfortably close to her face.

Rachel gave the rodent a stern glare, but didn't make a comment out of it. Presumably demons were hard enough to house-train as it was. Small wonder why anyone might bother to do so when you could just pick up a gun or something.

"Benji, mind your manners," she instructed, and continuing, "The name's Adelaide; and you are?" The girl presented her hand, which Rachel promptly mirrored with the intent to give a single firm shake.

Rachel got about halfway through announcing the first syllable of her own name before being completely overtaken by some man just out of her field of vision calling for a summoner about as loudly as he could without sounding too overtly like a child. Only mostly like a child.

"Shall we?" Adelaide considered, more asking the rodent than Rachel and grasping her tome a bit tighter. The two reached an agreement, and the two headed off to meet the nervously-pacing man, talking something about possession.

Rachel found herself keeping pace behind the pair. Sure, take him up on that. Whatever worked, really; the more people they had along, the less likely any one of them would be jumped and have their shoulders chewed off by mushroom-rats.

And Rachel found herself immediately lost again the instant the word "Arbitores" came up. Another one of those regal Latin-sounding names that the academy used for classification or rank or something that she ignored in the interest of not getting caught up in demon-hunter politics. But what she got from the brief conversation was this: that the man's name was Taylor, and that he could control other demons to some degree. Which sounded pretty potent on paper, but also like it probably had some nasty infection backlash.

Taylor and Adelaide reached a quick conclusion (let's group up, let the friendly fuzzy demon do his own thing, and so on) and headed in the direction of the church, as the bearded man was growing visibly impatient. Two of the other recruits had already jumped headlong inside, having missed Makoare's instructions entirely and opted instead for a mad rush. Which was their own business either way, really, but at least would simplify the part where they'd have to coax the demons out of hiding.

Rachel heard Adelaide off to her side saying something to the effect of "There's some interesting spells in here," while thumbing through the thick spellbook. Rachel rolled her eyes slightly at the notion that they had already walked up to the door without at least picking out her magic or whatever ahead of time. Foresight was clearly an overrated concept.

Rachel gripped both hands around the handle of her mace and stepped slightly in front of the other two, eyeing the ground in front of her for rot-rats. Of course, the only visible ones were heading for the loudest spot in the room, so whatever magic demons-begone incantation was going on with the other two, it was over quickly and without incident.

She was made aware of this by the clearly demonized raven and the predatory beast that rushed forward from behind her in turn - the latter likely some mutation of Adelaide's familiar. A quick glance over her shoulder showed the other two as fine as ever, even pulling back a bit. So both of the two were magic-ing it up in such a way they wouldn't have to physically go in themselves. Much safer, if a bit roundabout. Good for them.

Not really for her, though.

Rachel advanced behind the two creatures, steadily but cautiously. As probably-Benji and the bird of prey each pounced on a different demon, Rachel caught sight of a third coming out from under one of the benches and at her leg. She hopped to the right and out of the way, letting the rat land on her opposite side. Using the momentum for her dodge, Rachel kept swinging the mace swinging in a low arc, then brought it up squarely into the rat's underside, sending it into the air and against the wall with a squeal and a crack. Broken bones, at least - that one could wait for later.

She didn't even get time to see the next one before it tore a gash in the left side of her leg, already ducking around another bench before Rachel could so much as raise her mace properly. Practically snarling, she hefted the weapon above her head and brought it down on the demon rat, utterly crushing a hole through the seat it was hiding under and causing its legs to sprawl out underneath it, twitching furiously but helplessly. Rachel made a point of stepping the heel of her boot on its face as she lifted her mace in both hands back up to waist level.

This was the way she liked the whole demon-hunting gig to go. One good hit, the thing stays down, move on. Nice and straightforward.
 

Retro Bug

1,176
Posts
15
Years
  • Seen Jul 18, 2016
Naida Tuanama
> neophyte
> urere based summoner/convocatores
> morning, 25th january 2015 ​


Loud. Disruptive. Abrasive. Not to mention it smelled.

It was official, Naida hated America and that decision came after only taking three steps off the plane that landed her in this hell hole. The school had sent someone to escort her back to her place of residency. Typical of any, it was a man in a suit with a sign, though, her last name was misspelled and out of spite Naida almost rejected answering to it. She did, and was driven away in a luxury car, Naida had only been in a car twice in her life, one on the way to the airport and the one she rode in to the school. They weren't a necessity to life in Peru as they were in the United States.

Another escort led her to her room, asking all sorts of personally invasive questions, was this what America was? Questions were asked of her origin, her accent, her day, practically they wanted to know everything about her within the first few minutes of meeting. Naida feigned lack of English altogether and spoke in rapid Spanish to dissuade any further bombardments. Of course, she knew English, but not well. Rarely, did anyone back home speak English, it was of no use to the locals unless you were in business with tourists. Her escort waved goodbye as they arrived at her room and slipped a card key and a letter in her hand, was everything this fancy in America?

She pocketed the card key, and slid her thumb underneath the sealed envelope, but not before noticing the enticing golden, cursive letters, which upon a closer evaluation Naida realized spelled out her name - correctly, this time - her fingertips trailed over letters feeling the bump and texture of each letter. The contents that resided in the envelope was a single sheet of paper with printed ink on it. A smile erupted on her face as they had written it completely in Spanish, North American Spanish, but it was the thought that counted. Her eyes devoured the information. It spoke of the Opening Ceremony, something she had missed due to a delay with her flight and of a meeting location for a training exercise. There was an emphasis of tardiness, Naida glanced at her watch it was only 10AM... Shit.

Three times Naida had to swipe the card, apparently, there was a certain direction one had to swipe these things and it didn't register if she did it too fast. What appeared before her when she opened the door made her jaw drop. A mess, a fucking mess. Wasn't this her room? Why was there already a mess? And two bedrooms? Naida made her way through the room, a mixture of shock and disgust stained her face. Clothes laid strewn off of every available furniture possible, various items were in location normally they shouldn't have been, such as a pan on a bathroom toilet seat. A tornado of a person rushed through here... Naida mentally kicked herself, unfortunately, she had no time to worry about this she was late to the very first meeting.

With haste, and a lot of worry, Naida dropped her belongings onto the bed that hadn't had its sheets ripped off as if someone had leaped right out of bed. She rushed out of the building into the streets of America, only then did Naida realize that she had no clue had to arrive at the address printed on the letter. Luckily, it was easy enough to take advantage of the Americans that passed by her, one gratefully pointed her on her way. A thought dawned on her way to the church, she had hoped no one saw her gawking at a mere letter. They were sure to think of her as strange and to start off at a new school as the weird, new kid was everything movies and TV shows had warned her about.

Naida was late, like, noticeably late. Excuses ran rampant in her head prior to her arrival at the location disclosed in the letter Naida had received. She tried think of ones that did not make her sound as if she wasn't competent. The foreigner excuse was at the forefront of her mind, having used it earlier in the morning, her lack of English speaking skills led her down the wrong path, which set her back significantly. Yeah, unfortunately, that would have to do as Naida brisk strides had brought her to the meeting place, Our Lady of Assumption United Church. Naida was greeted not by crossed glances and whispers of her lateness, but unacknowledgement, an occasional look was thrown her way and that settled it. The group consisted of less people than Naida imagined there to be, it still was a sizable gathering of individuals.

A particular person caught her interest as she drew closer to the crowd, with every step she took, her mind (not to mention, heart) raced. Was that… It couldn't be… Actually, well, it could be…

"Biel?" Naida spoke softly, incase it was a mistake. She could later make up some excuse about how it was a word in Peru, these Americans wouldn't know she was lying.

The man turned around and Naida's face liven up. "Naida?" He asked, it seemed like Biel was as surprised to see her there as she was him. Almost reminiscent of their last encounter, Biel squeezed her in a hug so tight and high her feet were barely touching the ground. "I almost thought you weren't going to come."

"Me? And miss you getting your ass handed to you by a bunch of American demons? Fat chance!" Naida said in rapid Spanish and, for once, welcomed the embrace. Biel's presence meant that her experience wouldn't be as dull, especially as a foreigner in a completely new country whose English skills weren't exactly top notch.

Biel shook his head, a grin plastered on his face. Naida always liked that smile, it suited him moreso than the rugged, stoic face he usually sported. "Have you seen half the people here?" He asked rhetorically in Spanish. "They don't seem to be anything too spectacular. If they can handle it, I'm sure we could easily."

To Biel's question Naida horizontally nodded her head. She had zoned in so fast on his person that quick glimpses were all Naida saw of the other individuals. Bit by bit did the faces and appearance of the others nearby get taken in. By the looks on several of the others face, ranging from angered to annoyed, that Naida had missed an conflict or disagreement of some sort. If Americans weren't fighting over one thing it was another. The point that Biel had made was evident, as much as it could be seeing as people were bundled up due to the chilly weather, there was a noticeable lack of anything or anyone of interest. Blandness spoiled the whole bunch.

"Newbies, babies," Naida said with disgust. If there was one thing she hoped it was that she wouldn't have to directly work with people who had never killed a demon. If they hadn't, why were they here? The weak wouldn't survive long. "I didn't miss the instructor, did I?"

"You were late, but not quite as late as that woman," the Brazilian man stated, pointing at the Maori woman who was currently climbing from a car.

Naida breathed a sign of relief, she had made it before the instructor did, which meant no excuses. The training exercise was simple, clean out the church of the demons it held within its infrastructure. At the mention of three groups Naida took a step closer to Biel, she didn't feel comfortable having anyone else in her group. These Americans spoke so fast her head couldn't translate the words quick enough and if they were in battle communication was key. Naida snatched up a staff while she saw Biel take a pair of daggers, the two of them sped off into the church without another word.
​

 
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