Ash had already left and was waiting for the others down amongst the cells for the others. She didn't really have a pen, it'd been part of the miniscule joke she'd made, so if they'd actually chosen to draw papers they were out of luck. Luckily, as they appeared, they seemed to have decided to just randomly pick and that actually worked well for her. It really did, she didn't want to leave it completely up to chance that she'd end up with someone that would actually make her want to kill them. It could prove amusing for certain others in the group, but useless when it came to convincing the Hunters of the innocence of Supernaturals. Then again, she often trusted her luck, and it often payed off for her. So, through the childish solution of 'Eenie-Meenie' running through her head, she came to one of the male hunters.

"I'll take him, then," she said, nodding in Artemis's (though she didn't yet know his name) direction. He'd seemed like one of the more spirited ones at the hearing before, "The apparent drop in such energy somewhat worried her as she studied him from outside of the bars, drops in spirit were not usually good. She'd seen such things lead to suicide, and no one needed that right now. Especially not with the job they were responsible for now.

---

Nathaniel had been opening his mouth to speak, most likely more words fueled by his coping mechanism. But that's when the Monsters began arriving, the first seeming to simply wait before others showed up. These were to be the ones "changing" their minds, whispering lies and orchestrating events to get into their heads. Then, they began picking them out, like picking kids for a team, or more like picking a toy to play with. He stayed silent, his usually nice enough gaze becoming an obvious glare.

Listen to them. Play friendly. Didn’t they know how dangerous it was to listen to monsters, even for a moment? Some creatures were just born with serpent tongues, meant to slither into the mind with pretty silver words that tarnish inside your head. Monsters could manipulate like no other, and Artemis wasn’t about to give them the chance.

But in his head, Artemis knew that Nicole and Jayde were right. Their best bet was to act the part, let the monsters think they were cooperative. He just couldn’t help it that, emotionally speaking, he couldn’t tolerate the thought. So he came up with a compromise. “I refuse,” the hunter said straight out, glowering at the ground. “It’s a good idea. You guys go ahead, but it’ll be suspicious if we’re all suddenly meek and open-minded. I’m just volunteering to be the bad guy.”

He wasn’t about to change his mind on this. It was a solid plan, if a little dangerous on his end, but it was what he felt most comfortable with. Besides, if he could make his teammates seem more cooperative in comparison, it would just give them a better chance to get out of this hellhole. Of course, these were just excuses to justify his careless actions – the thought of giving into these monsters was making him lose his cool – but if the others had anything to say on the matter, they didn’t get a chance, because the monsters started to filter in one by one.

Oh look. It was the one he couldn’t identify. The one that seemed so sickeningly human. He was disgusted to think of how many innocents it might have lured into false security with such an unassuming form. “I’ll take him, then,” it said with a nod towards him, and Artemis grew dark, narrowing his eyes. He had his gaze cast downwards – he knew better than to make eye contact with unidentified creatures. For all he knew, gorgons weren’t the only things that could turn people to stone with a stare. He stayed quiet and still, simply observing, waiting for any slips of information. Identifying this monster was top priority in order to stay alive.

"Oh," She had said in response, a bit stubbornly, "In no way am I going to be meek and completely open to them. Of course we have to be a bit stubborn, at least initially. Else it won't seem right..." Nicole hadn't wanted to even listen to them, like Artemis, but reason was reason, and she hadn't any other options.

'I'll go with her'? Seriously? Her face deadpanned as she listened to him speak. They were talking about them as though they weren't even there, and that irked her. It seriously irked her. She couldn't tell the majority of these creatures' species, as most were humanoid, but she could pick out a few defining features on some of them, which allowed her to guess at their species. Without their equipment though, identifying a lot of these things would be near impossible.

Every inch of her being just itched to be let out at them, years of instincts and teachings telling her that this wasn't how things should go. But Jayde was right, upsetting as it was. And damn her if she screwed everything up.

Jayde looked up in surprise when a small group of supernatural entered their holding area- she would have thought that they were going to wait until tomorrow to start to engage with her group. Her surprise turned into confusion when one of them- a women with short hair and an abundance of tattoos over her arms- stepped out of the loose band of 'monsters' and went over to stand in front of her (well, as much as she could, considering there were long metal bars, and a good 6 feet of space between them). The woman looked her up and down and said confidently, “You look like you could be fun." What could the strange woman mean by that? However Jayde's befuddlement only grew as the woman (who had no visible supernatural characteristics) continued to convey her apparent interest in Jayde by adding "Fancy a romp out on the night?”

Jayde blushed slightly, both embarrassed by her being singled out, and the strange words coming out of the supernaturals mouth. Nonetheless, she knew she couldn't let anyone (including the person in front of her) know that she felt anything but distaste for the situation she was in. She cocked her head, and willed away her blush, responding with, "And what the hell do you mean by that? I'm not your toy, or something, and I'm not going to be fun." Jayde put as much contempt and loathing into the words as she could possibly muster, but realized that she might have stretched it a bit too far. Oh well. Too late to change her words now.

Gaia pursed her lips, "Ooo, touchy, touchy." She smiled then, all gums and teeth, an endearing goofiness that seemed out of character to Jayde. "It's gonna be a long 6 months, doll. You can either make it miserable or tolerable. I think you'll come to find that I'm not as bad as you're led to believe." Jayde simply shook her head, opting to not say anything. She still didn't know quite what the women was talking about, but decided to not make a fool of herself again by being too aggressive.

Ash waited then, watching her new responsibility with curiosity. Responsibility... funny. The only responsibility she'd ever really had in life since her family passed was herself. Now she had to suddenly try and ease the poisoned thoughts of this human's life teachings out of his mind, and educate him in the truth all Hunters seemed so oblivious to. Subconsciously leaning back on a wall, her gaze wandered and one of her left arm went to rest against her stomach while her other hand rested at her clavicle in thought. What exactly would happen to these humans, state-of-mind wise, if they were to realize all of their mistakes. They'd been murdering innocent (for the most part) creatures simply because some adults told them to and fed them age-old lies. What if they were overcome with grief and resentment? What if depression took place of the fire in their souls? What would saving their lives have done then, other than sentence them to another of self-loathing if they were emotionally and mentally strong enough to handle it. But of course... these were Hunters... she probably had nothing to worry about with them despite them trying to escape and/or kill the Supernaturals in their way.

Ash snapped out of her thoughts then, not wanting to go to much darker depths than that. She ate nightmares, dealt with them each time, she'd seen a lot of horrible things in both the Dream and Earth realms. But a young dreamwalker with a heart like hers could only take so much darkness. She slid down the wall now to sit on the floor, her gaze once again moving to her charge to visually analyze him. Around her age, dark haired, dark eyed, a glare of cold steel, and what seemed like an impregnable stubbornness. Yeah... yeah, this guy would be alright. With this uplifting thought, a small and nearly unnoticeable smile tugged the corners of her lips upwards.

Then realization came to her over why he might be avoiding eye contact with her now... many Supernatural's abilities could activate through eye contact. For example, a gorgon's very literal stony gaze, and her own kind... really those were the only two she could think of off the top of her head, but there were most definitely more. So, with a sigh, she reached into a front pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses before pushing herself up and towards the barred figures with the shades held toward, for lack of anything better to call him (due to not knowing his name), her Hunter.

"Here," she began, "I guess... you'd feel more comfortable with a barrier?" She shrugged and waited for whatever might happen. Acceptance would delight her, but she'd deal easily enough with rejection.