Snippet #2719200

Ashley “Ash” “Soot” Clade

Nodding at Rick’s simple explanation, part of her was a little annoyed that he seemed to always have a capable and formal sounding response to things. Maybe it was her nagging inferiority complex, but Rick was just too prepared and cool in his responses for her tastes. Buffeted by a gust of wind as Illusion opened her parasol, Ash reminded herself that there could be worse people to be stuck with, grumbling a little to herself as she adjusted her collar. Obstacle courses, huh? Well, if it was like one of those crazy courses on TV with the ropes and rock walls and the like, that could actually be kind of fun. It was much better than some crappy classroom and lectures at any rate; although the prospect of waking at dawn for a jog wasn’t thrilling. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too cold out. Finally, they were shown to their individual caravans, an unexpected and pleasant luxury. Striding up to one, Ash opened the door, peering inside and giving a faint whistle that she was impressed before closing it up and following along with the rest of the tour.

As they continued further along, Ash tried to remain disinterested, but in all honesty, the activities were drawing out her curiosity. Weapons and firing ranges? Well, that was kinda cool. It was beginning to seem less threatening the more Illusion went over it, kinda like one of those activity things that her dad signed her up to when she was younger. Starting to trail behind the group as she picked up a sword to look at, she briefly swung it about before returning it to the box and trotting after the others. There’d be plenty of time to practice that during the actual camp. As Illusion began to talk about some initial test involving needles, Ash didn’t really bat much of an eyelid. Sure, she didn’t like getting pricked, but that’s all it was. Honestly she didn’t get why Illusion was making such a big deal out of it, other than maybe the insinuation that drawing blood around a vampire wasn’t the wisest thing.

In what was probably a fortunate moment of being towards the back of the group and unnoticed, Illusion revealed that a blood test wasn’t needed at all. Ash quietly shuffled into a more casual position with her hands in her pockets, pretending like she hadn’t just been prepared to blindly follow the instructions given to her. Thankfully, no one seemed to have noticed. Slowly striding forward to take one of the last papers, Ash turned it over in her hands, briefly examining its appearance before shrugging. Sure, there were plenty of questions and warnings in her head about sticking her thumb on a demonic pentagram, but given what she’d heard so far about her heritage this ranked rather low on the danger scale. Striding over to a nearby stump, Ash dropped into a seated position before pushing her thumb into the allotted area.


Blinking as the words formed on the page, Ashley scratched the paper a little where her name was. Weird, what was up with that? Was that her demon name or something? Well, whatever. At least the abilities were legible, though she didn’t exactly know what they meant. Well, she could haphazard a bit of a guess, especially given she thought she knew how telepathy worked. As much as she waited, nothing further appeared on her page, so that seemed to be it. Caius mimicked her own confusion in a less than tasteful fashion, so Ash instead turned towards Illusion and Rick, expecting the two to be more than capable of explaining.

“So, we’ve got a title for what we can do. So how do we learn what that actually is and how to do it?” Ashley asked, looking to Illusion’s Cheshire grin, then back to Rick before deciding which of the two she thought would be more helpful and trustworthy. Not that she trusted either of them that much, but at least he wasn’t likely to outright lie to her for some sort of joke. “Well, you’ve been through this before. Spill the beans, so I can start learning to…” Ash consulted her paper again a moment. “Shadow shape or whatever.”

---

Candice Hallows

“Just, set that down over there Kane. Even though they’ve arrived, lunch won’t be for quite some time, so you can relax and take it easy.” Candice stated, partly to herself as she took a seat at one of the tables. Going over the files on hand as she went through the last bits of the paperwork, she bit into the apple she was carrying as she formulated the best ways to start addressing the children’s curriculum, as well as ensuring their safety while introducing some level of danger to the program. Behind her, dressed in a white kitchen smock was Kane, setting down the basket of produce and other food items that they’d stocked up on prior to their drive up here. Just because it was boot camp didn’t mean they wouldn’t be providing the children with appropriate and healthy meals. Not to mention…

Turning to watch Kane continue to unload the Van with the help of the young Erica, Candice sighed a little. Honestly, the two didn’t have any real reason to be out on this venture – Nor did they probably have clearance to be informed about just who was attending the bootcamp, but somehow she’d managed to convince her superiors to let them along. Not for training, of course. That would just be reckless. Instead, she’d had to put them down as the field trip cooks and general assistance. Hopefully that would be enough to appease both Rinne and her bosses. It wasn’t exactly training, but she hadn’t lied to Rinne about bringing him to the bootcamp, so it’d all work out. She’d even been nice enough to bring along his newfound friend and classmate, so he wouldn’t be too bored. At the sound of Kane tripping and spilling a smattering of pots to the ground, she shook her head. Hopefully she wouldn’t regret this.

“Bailey, what’s the progress on the children?” Candice asked, looking over to the young man sitting by the television monitors. They had a small security setup around the perimeter of the camp just on the off chance someone (or something) tried to stumble on the campsite, but they also doubled as a good way to monitor the children. “Looks like Lusy is giving them the paper test, so that should give us all some more information.” Spinning around in the computer chair, the young man sipped his coffee. “I take it you’d like a copy of each before tomorrow?”

“Please. It’ll help when deciding how best to cater their training.” Candice nodded, letting him get back to his work. The next few days were going to be something, that was for sure. Hopefully all would go well, and the recruits would get a good grasp of their abilities and be given the opportunity to get a better understanding of how things worked regarding magic and the like. Hopefully with information, they’d make good choices from here in and help the world. Still… Looking back to Kane and Erica, Candice frowned slightly. Maybe she was just being overly protective. Everything would be fine.