Secreted in California's affluent Napa Valley, bathed in sunlight, is a walled estate, it's many old fashioned buildings and elaborate gardens crowned by an opulent looking mansion. While to any casual observer, the Spencer Estate looks like it could be the secluded summer home of any discrete multi-millionaire (and indeed, its previous occupant, a Russian mobster, had chosen it for just that reason) but instead the occupants are a little more unusual. The guards, clad in tactical vests and wielding automatic rifles, look as though they belong in a warzone, not the hideaway of some billionaire, and the occupants are stranger still. The people who walk about the buildings of the estate are a diverse group, some in business attire, others in combat gear, casual wear or the liturgical robes of multiple religions. Here, the members of the Bureau of Protection have their headquarters, and it's where you find yourself, fresh from the hellish conditions of the training complex known only as 'the farm'. @Auraicide @merkros @asddas193 @Mazoku @unisol_gr44 @moonblack @Daylan Soldiers pull the black bags from your heads, and pull you from the back of the truck that brought you here. As your eyes sting from the sunlight after hours of travel with your eyes covered, you all hear the heavy iron gates of the estate close shut behind you. As you regain your vision, a man approaches, clad in military gear. The soldier, in his forties with a bushy moustache across the top of his lip, looks at the new arrivals. "All right, ladies!" He speaks in a rough British accent, (those of you who've been to England identify it as being from the Midlands, while the rest assume that it's cockney) with little concern for the fact that James, unlike the other members of the group, is not actually a woman. "Follow me. We'll get you settled into your dorms, and then it'll be time for you to meet Madame Director." He marches stifly, almost goose walking, into an elegant three story building. It turns out to be a dormitory, with each of you assigned a room. Looking inside the rooms, you find them to be rather upscale, with king sized beds and flat screen tvs. Finally, you're all brought into a common area, a sitting room with plush sofas and the facilities to make tea and coffee. "Wait here. I'll inform the director that you're ready." The British soldier turns and leaves the seven of you alone. James, Rebecca, Melissa, Alicia, Seres, Nadya and Erika have all seen one another before, at The Farm, but due to the relentless training you endured there, this is the first time that any of you have really had any opportunity to talk amongst yourselves.
The nun observed the crowd around, still processing her surroundings. She had saw those people. But she hadn't trained along with them. The Knight's Templar was something of a special case. Not that their own training wasn't any easier. If anything, it was probably more demanding than what was already an ordeal for most people. The demon hunter's had mostly made a point of asking Alicia to stay away from the male recruits as they trained due to making it too hard for them to focus and spending more time trying to come up with attempts to convince her that "purity is overrated." Naturally, the higher ups of the organization weren't too impressed. Probably both from expecting better and worried about offending the Knight's Templar. The last thing they wanted was a conflict. It pained her to admit it...but it was difficult for her to say, who would win in that case. The Hunters had numbers and weren't afraid of using heretical magic and were all competently trained. The Templar's weren't as large, but all expertly trained with resources and access to the kind of weaponry people expected from the space age. But why would they have to fight? Weren't they all working for a common goal? She wasn't sure what exactly to say to this group, or if they'd have anything in common, but they all meant to be doing good, so there's that. She gave her most polite smile to the group. "I'm here in a limited capacity, but please let me know if there's anything you need or just want someone to talk to. Let's not let our factions and rank divide us from accomplishing our goal." While she said it, her friendliness was also partially for herself. Even among other Templar's it wasn't the easiest thing in the world, when nobody has a choice but to tell you exactly how they feel or what they're really thinking. A equal in value to truth, was it's crushing weight that strained friendships when it refused to bend. She wanted to make an effort to get along with people the best she could.
Everything should have been a surprise for grade school teacher like her, but after seeing what happened to Conner, her husband. Melissa figured everyone here had more or less, the same circumstance as she did on why they joined the bureau. Now, she only hopes to keep Tyler, her son, from experiencing the same fate as his father. Uugghh... I hope he found the letter at least. She thought to herself as she and the group converged at the common area. Melissa then collects herself as she listened to the nun speak. Taking a deep breath as she twists the enchanted wedding ring on her finger, "Uhm. Hello everyone. Since we'll be working together, I think a simple introduction is in order." She clears her throat, "I'm Melissa Fitz- erm... no, just Melissa is fine." She introduced herself with a smile.
"Nice to meet you, Melissa. I'm Alicia Knight...yes, I'm aware of the pun. Regardless, I'm sure we'll be fast friends." She kind of had to wonder with the nervousness of this woman. Would she really be okay here? Well, she survived training...but Alicia felt like she could keep an eye on how things go with her. Alicia wasn't exactly tough herself, but she was used to this life. She had to imagine it was much more difficult for other people to adjust to it.
Vespa winces at the sudden exposure to the sunlight, her eyes squinting and blinking rapidly until they get used to the brighter environment. She breathed a sigh of relief as she came entered the impressive mansions and its relatively softer light. So this was where they would work from for the foreseeable future. "Coffee anyone? Tea?" Immediately walking over to the machine and shot out the question to anyone listening as she tried to figure out how they worked. Actual coffee, felt like she hadn't had any for an eternity. "Since we're doing names. Dr. Rebecca Vespa. Although being technically dead means I've lost my veterinarian license, so don't mind the title." She smiled self-deprecatingly. "Guess I am the oldest child of this new family we have here." Her native drawl crept into her voice, reminded of her old large family her red eyes sparkled. She nodded toward the older members of the group, two who had already spoken out. "Guess that makes you the mothers and Alicia the aunt, figured the vow of chastity you nuns take... We've been in training for a while all of us. All still settling in a little. Sincerely hope we manage to become friends rather than just co-workers."
Melissa's smile brightens as the nun replied, "Glad to meet you, Alicia. I do hope we'll get along as well." Her tone was gentle, like she uses at the first day of school, when her students introduce themselves. Then, as the next member introduced herself, Melissa gives her a smile, "I... I guess we are a sort of family." She giggled, "Nice to meet you, doctor."
Alicia's face visibly showed her disturbance to the woman's sense of humor, but more focused on that casual confession to being partially dead. Are...they...not supposed to purge her? What kind of hunter society was this? There was the forces of darkness right here. She could prove it. The undead are evil. Evil would trick you by trying to be friendly with you. Therefore, that was confirmed proof that this woman was a malicious monster. Alicia's fingertips started to dance and align with holy light, though only a little, not even attempting to pretend she wasn't debating trying to exorcise the monster immediately. "Unfortunately, that's impossible, isn't? I'm not a monster, you see." Alicia still smiled. Her voice completely unchanged in tone as if the conversation's atmosphere had never shifted. @asddas193 "Please, let me know if she tries doing anything unusual. I'll remove the thing from the premises at once." Her tone wasn't any different around Melissa, perfectly friendly, not seeming to see anything wrong with her attitude or immediate reaction of threats to someone who hadn't did anything. But if she was evil, she wouldn't do anything to appear evil, now would she? The Templar was quite clear on this....though...just for a second. Only for a second. There was a thought in the back of her mind. A very faint one. It asked a question. What if she was really trying to be nice? But Alicia knew better, and mentally blocked the insanity from coming through.
"Vespa." Rebecca held out her hand, hoping to forstall any further violence. The nun expression had turned increasingly scary once she joked about being dead. "Still human. Just my government papers saying I am dead." Hoping that cleared thing up enough to avoid immolation.
"Uh-uhm. I will?" Melissa was at a loss for words, especially as Alicia's expression changed drastically. Then, with the doctor's explanation. Melissa understood the situation a little. I see... I guess it would be weird for a nun to play nice with the undead. She giggled inside her head, I guess we will be battling with those. "U-uhm. Nice to meet you, Vespa." She said in a cheerful voice, trying to remove the hostility coming from the nun.
The explanation, had her look a little surprised. She dispelled whatever she was about to attempt. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That sounds like a hassle." Alicia's outward friendliness didn't change, as if nothing happened. She accepted the doctor's hand and shook it, still looking to be in an unusually good mood. "Of course, coming back from the dead is still quite suspicious, isn't?" It was how the church worked. Someone seemed evil, therefore was. "...but you seem quite nice to me." What? That wasn't how things worked. She had said it, and was a little surprised at herself, but oddly, she didn't...how to put it...she didn't feel like she was wrong. Is that a thing that can happen? She couldn't just give up all of her suspicions exactly...but at the very least, maybe she should actually wait until she sees her do something suspicious? Trying to register what went against a lifetime of ingraining was almost baffling. "To the thing you said before...vows of chastity. I do have children of my own, actually. It would be somewhat difficult to keep things running if the Templar had no new initiates, so to carry out the higher purpose of the mission, sex between married couples is allowed for procreation." From the way she spoke, it came off she saw sex as more of a chore. A necessary evil. She still definitely carried herself like a nun.
James looked around the sitting room, glad the harrowing training was over. He noted the women around him, a strange bunch. Not knowing what was planned for them, he didn't intend to become friendly with anyone yet. As they started to introduce each other, he just gave a curt 'James'. There was once a time where he would have introduced himself proudly with his family name, even mentioning his father and mother, and make idle chit-chat, but those times were behind him. The blonde youth took a seat on one of the sofas, quietly seizing up the group. A cage fighter, several nuns, a teacher, a veterinarian and a girl his age; they'd need some kind of miracle to survive, he pondered.
“Nice to meet you, everyone, my name is Seres. Please, do not let my outfit confuse you. I am not really a nun, I just don't have anything better to wear.” Seres decided it would be best to tell them ahead of time in order to avoid any misunderstandings. “I've seen most of you during training, but it's nice to finally get to talk with you. I hope we will work well together.” She gave a small bow.
For a moment in the gleaming sun, Nadya thought she was home. The walled estate looked quite similar to the one her father owned. However, when the British solider started speaking she knew that she wasn't. For some reason, her dad had an issue with the Brits, something about the Cold War...Regardless, she couldn't deny that his accent and attitude grated on her a little. As the group got shoved forward, she tilted her head a little towards him and muttered "ass". Maybe he'll hear her and punish her later, but she didn't care. She also made sure to take as long as possible inspecting the bedroom and depositing her duffel bag on the bed and so was the last to arrive at the common room. Melissa had already started her introductions. She listened to all of them go through their various introductions and chatter, then after Seres finished her introduction all eyes drifted to her leaning against the wall beside the doorway. Apparently, it was her turn. With a sigh, she muttered, "I'm Nadya." At least the guy, 'James' seemed to get it. They weren't here to be friends or besties. They had work to do. Work that was particularly important to Nadya who's very freedom depends on her help. She pulled her hoodie over her head as she walked to the furthest sofa. Some of her golden locks spilled out from the constraints of her hood, but that wasn't anything unusual. With an unceremonious flop onto the seat, she pulled her feet shoes and all up to sit on the other half of the sofa. Denying anyone else from sitting hear her. Finally, she pulled her phone out and started playing a game on it. Nothing that devoted too much of her attention though.
For a brief second, she visibly frowned at the lack of social politeness, but it wasn't too surprising from younger members. They were thinking that they were just here to do a job, odds were. And while that was true, they were wrong. This was a whole new life. You didn't last long by not having anyone who can support you, in the field or even emotionally. Though it pained her to admit it, she had her rebellious streak when she was younger as well. Just glancing over the two, she held her best look to be understanding. "For better or worse, you're stuck with these people. You don't need to marry any of them, but at the very least, you will need to be able to work with them." She didn't expect them to really listen and she didn't really carry any authority to reprimand people outside of her own division, but she didn't really want to wait for them to find things out the hard way and risk getting someone killed that the unit worked together is a job requirement. Unfortunately, knowing youth, the only way they would learn is through experience. "Having actually fought demons before, I'm appointing myself as something of a mentor. It's my job to make sure people are happy. I'm more than willing to help you with anything you need." Turning to the other woman introducing herself, she was a little surprised. She had assumed there was probably other orders similar to hers. She felt like there was probably a story to it, but didn't know if she should really ask. "I'm sure we will. Our one advantage against demons is the power of teamwork. Let's be the best possible squad to make that happen."
The tall, lean, muscular woman had been taking this time to stretch out after the long journey... and after having almost elbowed the nose of the soldier that had removed the bag from her head. If she looked familiar to any of the others, it would have probably been because she was one of the few who looked to be ENJOYING the intense training they had been undergoing. She smirked a little as she silently let the misunderstanding play out between Alicia and Rebecca, adjusting her weighted training jacket as she finished working out the kinks in her legs with a pair of side-to-side leg stretches. The jacket was unzipped, showing off her sports bra and ripped abs as she lightly fanned herself and walked besides the couch Nadya was sitting on. She had no plans of sitting herself, especially after such a long ass trip, but this one seemed to be avoiding company and messing with those types could be fun. "Yeah yeah," she said in response to Alicia's last comment, "Rah-rah, go team, power of friendship and all that." She cast a gaze around the room at the others. "Name's Erika, by the way. So I guess not all of us are strays picked up off the streets then?"
She had appreciated the nun sharing some of her background, including revealing that she actually had children. "Thought all of our identities were scrubbed by the Bureau. Killed off, you know. Maybe it's different for you Knights Templars. Like having a living piece of history in front of you. Oh, not that you're old or anything..." Her eyes lingered a little too long on the nun to be anything casual. "Sorry." The doctor followed the introductions, nodding as each mentioned their name and some a few tidbits about themselves. A few terser than others. Vespa had a smirk of her own when she heard stray from the athletic young woman. Those animals could bite harder than most, feeling a phantom ache in her hand where she had been bitten. Everything had healed up nicely though, except for the side-effects. "Experienced with strays. A little love and they're all fuzzy and playful again, a natural part of the family." She expected things to be rough at the beginning, but imminent threats of death had a way of making people set aside differences. God knows there had been enough of that at the training camp.
Nadya looked up at the muscular woman looming over her and gave Erika a judgmental glare for stepping into her personal space, but decided not to say anything. She felt the telltale desire to pull out a joint to smoke, but sadly she left them in her bag and didn't want to give the large woman the satisfaction of seeing her move away. So she simply returned to her phone.
@Auraicide James looked at Alicia, the fact he wasn't very appreciative of her lecture and her over-enthusiastic cheerfulness written on his face, 'I'll do my part to keep everyone alive, but you can't force me to feign happiness about this new life.' @Mazoku He groaned at the blonde veterinarian's words, 'Not you too with the sugar overload. We're not a family. My family's what got me into this mess in the first place.'
"Duty first. Of course. No matter what we all end up feeling for each other. I'll have your back, and you'll have mine." Shaking her head. A little disappointed. "But it's not like I'll constantly be tearing apart demons with my claws..." Pausing, realizing how that how sounded, and how natural it came out. "Learned shapeshifting at the camp." Adding that by way of explanation of her abilities. "Least we should do is learn to like each other for those other days." She didn't say sorry to him, even if she felt sympathy for his family situation. Must've been rough. Didn't seem like he wanted to hear that from her or anyone in here though.
As the diverse group talks, the British guard returns. "All right, you lot. Time to meet your new boss." He leads them out of the dormitory, into the main building, an elegant mansion. Heading up a large set of stairs, past a pair of double doors, the group finds themselves in a spacious office, decorated with paintings and busts, with a longsword mounted on the wall. Behind a mahogany desk sits a woman, whose hard gaze analyses each and every one of them. "Welcome, all of you, to the Bureau. We have a situation on our hands, so I'm afraid we're going to have to speed through the acclimatisation process. To all but Miss Knight, this will be your last chance to back out. We will give you a memory wipe, and set you up with a fake identity and false memories, for you to live out the rest of your natural lives. To those who choose to remain, your new job begins now." She walks forwards. "Follow me to the briefing room." She departs, leading the group out of the office, and into a large, modern looking chamber, filled with computer screens. In the center of the room, there's a large table, which in itself is equipped with a touch screen. Taking her position at the head of the table, the director presses a few buttons, and the screens begin to fill up with images. Most of these images, some mug shots, others surveillance shots or selfies, show a woman in her twenties. "This," the director explains, "is your target, Erin Sinclair." She presses a few more buttons, and the images change, now showing a large leather bound tome. "Miss Sinclair is not a person who would normally be worthy of much interest. At best, she's a mediocre mage. However, after her elder sister, a far more powerful sorceress was hunted down and terminated a month ago by Bureau agents, Erin has been in possession of a particular magic item, this book." She gestures to the book represented on screen. "The book, La Voce del Morte, is a powerful demonic artifact, and can be used to summon high level demons. Your task is to capture or terminate Miss Sinclair, and recover the book, before she gains the magical proficiency to properly make use of the book."
