Jared Harrows's Story

Disgusting. All these creatures masquerading with human faces, human concern - it sickened him. Artemis couldn't stand it. Looking, listening, breathing in all of the lies were worse than the bonds that kept him still. He clenched his fists until the tendons creaked in his hands.

The fey was talking like letting them live was a mercy, as if they should be grateful - ha! Artemis knew the kind, saw faeries before, saw the tricks they'd play on human children, saw babies' blood on their hands - and that one dared to talk of leniency as if the hunters couldn't see what this 'trial' really was. Any hunter worth his salt could tell what this was. A mind-game. Maybe even a humiliation tactic.

Apologize to live another day. Sacrifice hunter's honor and human pride in order to walk away, knowing that you lost. It was just drawn out, six months of entertainment for the supernatural, all at the hunters' expense. 'And then they'll probably kill us anyway.'

"Goddammit," Artemis spat under his breath, straining against his invisible bonds. Nothing. He'd dislocate a shoulder before the magic gave away. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he could only slam his foot against the barrier he couldn't see. "If I had an amethyst charm I could break free of this magic… if I had a silver tipped arrow this wall would be gone!" he muttered furiously, eyes dark, expression contorted with rage. He glared at the ground, too angry with himself to look at his teammates, unable to look at the monsters that kept them prisoner.

Prisoner, ha. That was funny. Despite the sickening anger spiking under his skin, Artemis couldn't actually look any of the monsters in the eye. He couldn't let them see how much hostility there was - couldn't risk triggering one of them into attacking when he and his team were helpless. Lambs to slaughter, all of them. For the first time in a long time, Artemis was deathly afraid.

"Now, we have chosen a few of our kin to represent our cause to the hunters." Artemis seized up, rant falling short. "For this important task, we bequeath it to those who were able to catch them."

He knew those. Shapeshifters, two of them - humanlike, one likely a fox, the other possibly an alp or an incubus. Some other thing, unidentified. The hunter threw a glance towards the creatures before quickly turning away. "If it's them," he murmured towards his team, "what are our chances of getting away?"

"What do I think about us trying to babysit a couple of humans that, may I remind you, still want to kill us?" Alia asked, glancing over to the group of hunters. Her eyes narrowed on one that looked like he was plain mad, muttering and everything. "Why I think it's just a brilliant plan, I'm practically jumping with excitement." Alia said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She looked back to her 'group', one of her tails twitching with annoyance.


"Truly, do you guys honestly think that this is going to turn out even remotely well? Surely you realize that all humans are capable of is lying, cheating and murder. We'll never be able to change their minds about us. We're the monsters to them, they are incapable of seeing it any other way, cause if they do, if they see that they are the monsters, they are the killers? Well, that would make them the bad guys, wouldn't it? And they will never accept that. This is just a waste of my time, you guys are in denial if you believe that you could ever make them change." Alia finished, sitting back, content now that they know they are fools, even if they don't recognize it. Humans could never change, it wasn't in their nature. Sure, they are useful for some things (feeding and replenishing powers come to mind), but in the end? They are nothing but beasts, too caught up trying to be the heroes to see that they are the true villains in the situation. No matter what they do, what anyone could do, it won't change that fact. She knows. She tried once, and trust her when she says, it did not end well. Actually, it was the farthest from 'well' that one could get, and she did not want to try again, but as she looks up to the Senate, she realized that she probably didn't have much choice in the matter. Well, at least it was a challenge. Who didn't love a good challenge?

Ash looked over to Alia, her expression not changed since she heard the news but her voice was calm as she spoke, "We don't really know, but we might as well hope. Always hold a bit of hope that something good just might occur... if you actually try. Nothing will change, nothing at all will be different if Hunters and Supernaturals just relentlessly kill eachother in a never-ending cycle..." She paused, moving her silver gaze to stare out at nothing, her eyes seeing things no one else would before she continued, "If that goes on, we might as well give up being us and fall into the categories the Hunters see us as... blood-crazed, flesh-eating, cold-blooded monsters that lurk through the night hunting their children for a snack. So, would you rather have us slowly sink to that because of our hate towards the hunters like those that already gave us our bad names," with the pause, Ash turned her sight again on Alia, "Or would you rather have a try at seeing if your thoughts on humans are really true. What you think of them is what they think of us, though they hunt us for what we need to do to feed. At the end of the day we're all, mostly, sentient beings just wanting to go to a warm bed and sleep safely with a full belly. I've seen their dreams and thoughts, Kitsune, and mentality-wise... they are no different from us. So before you go on saying they're truly unable to change, look at yourself and those around you. If the humans will do nothing, we must do something."

With her speech over, she closed her eyes and laid her head back to await the end of the meeting. Ash turned off her listening and attention to the world around her in case the Kitsune, the woman she knew too little of, decided to shoot back with more remarks. A childing way of dealing with it, yes, but better than risking a fight breaking out. Her words were not meant to be taken as offensive or rude, they were simply her thoughts collected over years of watching humans from not only the outside, but the inside of their heads. As for the meeting, she'd never liked government much, anyone that really knew her knew that she disliked being given orders and laws to follow though she had her own personal laws. But as far as this trial went, it got the speaker on her good side... only the speaker, for she delivered the news seemingly happy enough and she didn't know who all had voted on this outcome.

"Chances getting away now? None. There're too many, and they don't trust us, so they'll probably keep us in similar restraints to the one we're in now. Chances later? I'm not sure. It depends on how our captors handle 'teaching' us. If they let us out and about the city, then we might be able to escape more easily, and hell, we might be able to bring the others back here," Nicole murmured under her breath as she looked around, analyzing the room as she breathed out slowly. "I think we're fucked though, guys. Truly fucked for now..." Death was what awaited them if they couldn't escape. There was too much bad blood between them and the monsters. And the monsters were monsters above all else. There was no way they'd be allowed to live.

And to admit they were wrong? Renounce the Hunters and all their beliefs? It was ridiculous. The Monsters were monsters there was nothing else she could do really. All she'd ever been taught was that they were evil, horrible creatures. And that's what they. There was more blood on the hands of those monsters; those creatures, than could ever be cleaned up. So it was their job to deal with them by exterminating them. Their job was no more evil than a pest control officer's job.

Bennett continued the speech, "You among us who have been chosen have no option in this. We, the Senate, have conversed and come to this decision after much deliberating. You will, to the best of your ability, try to make these Hunters understand." The faerie shut her eyes half-way, then said, in a low but audible tone. "You are the emissaries of all our species. While some among us disagree with this, a large number have decided that we need to try to convert the Hunters. Not regress to their barbaric methods and simply kill them. So represent us well."

Anthony was a bit startled when he and his team were sentenced to represent all of the supernatural races and teach these humans their ways. It was a very daunting task. And they were only given 6 months! How was anyone supposed to do anything and change anyone's mind in just 6 months? The hunters had been hunters since the way they were born! They were raised with the mentality that the supernatural was evil and bad. He doubted that anything they could do in 6 months would really change that fact. Unfortunately, it looked like they were going to have to try the best they could with this situation. He only hoped that something changed or all of this was truly going to be a waste of time. He sighed softly to himself and ran a hand through his hair a he turned his attention to his team. They were already at a disagreement about the situation.

"I think I have to agree with Ash on this. What would have been the point of capturing them if we are just going to kill them without a second thought. I mean, that is what the hunters do to us. It would have been simpler to kill them when we first caught them. Though 6 months is kind of a short time to do all of this in, I think we owe it to all of the people we lost to try and change something for the future. And regardless, there is nothing we can do. The Senate decided our fate."

Anthony looked over at the angry humans and nibbled on his lip. "How do you guys want to go about and teach them? I don't think it would work well if we tried to teach them all at once. Maybe dealing with smaller groups or one on one or something? I think being in a large group would help them reaffirm their own bond as being prisoners and needing to strand strong in their convictions. What do you guys think?" he asked them then.

Alia looked around the group for the second time that night and sighed. If they were going to do it, and not heed her advice, it was in her best interest to help. If you can't beat them, join them, isn't that how the saying goes?

Going over what she knew about humans in her head, she realized that Antone, or whatever his name is (she figured that it wasn't worth her time to remember something as trivial as names), had a point. It's easy to defeat humans when they are all alone, with no one to watch their back, but near impossible to face in a group. They are strong together, she had to give them that, despite her hatred for the lot. With that in mind, the way to handle this situation was pretty clear, though she was loathe to admit it.

She sighed again, and cleared her throat. "Listen, while I'm the first to voice my opinion about my... distaste for humans, the succubus is right," Alia started, her voice strong and slow, as to command everyone's attention. "Don't get me wrong, I still think they should get it over with and kill them, but if we absolutely have to change their opinion, which I'm still sure is never going to happen, the best way is going the direct route. Though it pains me to say, I believe if we are to have any chance what so ever, we're probably going to have to go one on one. Each of us matches up with a hunter, and, for the most part, we live our everyday lives. We can't, however, let them have to much freedom, because if they manage to overpower us, they won't waste a second thinking before killing us and running away. I believe using a spell to bind them to us would probably be the best course of action.

"I'm almost positive this won't work, but if we are going to attempt this stupid, naive notion of changing a hunters mind, we might as well go about it in a smart way." She finished, her golden tails twitching subconsciously from her disgust and fear of the very idea of being alone in a room with a hunter. She knew she was likely going to regret telling them the idea in the weeks to follow, because, as hard as it can be dealing with hunters in a group, it's even harder while alone, and there was no way that these hunters were going to make their job easy.

She closed her eyes, trying to look uncaring and relaxed as she listened for the next person to either agree or disagree with her. In the end, it doesn't really matter what strategy they choose, or how they go about it, because, no matter what, she knew that the next 6 months were going to be the longest, and strangest, 6 months of her life.

Jared nodded, agreeing with the two others. Anthony made some good points, as did Ash. "Binding magic is pretty easy. I know I can do it, though I'm not sure if anyone else can. Worst case, I suppose I could come with whoever's going, bind the Hunter then leave. But I don't know how open they'd be to listening to us after that. It might merely make them want to kill us and escape more. And you're right. It would be stupid to capture them and then kill them. It would make us no better than them, and at least this way, we can say we tried to convert them. Even if they stick to their ideals, then we tried. We did the right thing as much as we could and then their deaths are on themselves."

He paused, then continued, "And if we manage to do it, then we know that Hunters aren't complete Monsters and it's their upbringing that made them this way. And even if we don't, we'll likely gain a ton of valuable information about the Hunters in the process."

Then the faerie glanced around, taking in the others' reactions. For the most part, it seemed they were in agreement on how it deal with it. He himself was rather surprised by the act of mercy by the Senate. He'd been expecting something much harsher. Not that he minded. Jared had always been of the mindset you could usually talk your way out of situations.

Ash shrugged, her silver eyes opening as she gave a smirk, "Sounds fine to me. One on one, with the occassional group date perhaps. You know, to let them know they're not completely isolated from eachother. I think I'd want to see a familiar face every now and then if I were in such a situation. It'd relieve the stress and allow them to see they're not being tortured or killed off one by one. If they think we're such monsters, we need to assure them they aren't in any real danger from our kind unless they don't change." She bit her lip, "We need to befriend them, as hard as it sounds. They see us as anything but human, not even as people." Her thoughts went further than what she spoke out loud, how she'd do this herself. Then, how it would also depend on the person they each took as their responsibility.

"Someone has to say it... who's taking who? Do we draw straws? Papers from a hat? Match the Hunter's stubborness to the Supernatural's drive to convince them? A Hunter with a deeply-rooted belief in whatever they believe in won't work too well with someone that's not too eager to go through with this." It held an obvious but subtle hint towards Alia, not meant to be rude at all, just cautionary. With another slight moment of forcing herself not to sleep she stretched and yawned before sitting up straight, "And we that feed off human-related things have to be careful when we feed if they're to follow us everywhere, show them we don't kill... and to be sure they don't kill us. I know I would be vulnerable to attack, I'm dead asleep when I feed." Another pause and Ash spoke again, "I might have to hold off feeding for a while then. No matter how hopeful I am of this working, I know it's foolish to trust a Hunter in such a situation, especially after they were just imprisoned."

A sigh escaped Ash's lips. This was becoming more difficult than she thought. If she could have a protection charm or someone to guard her for such times it would be great, but she didn't want to bother anyone and she was sure Hunters had a way of getting through every sort of charm or spell. "This will definitely be interesting," she mumbled to herself.

Nathaniel Holter, called Nathan or Nate by his friends, had simply listened and watched most of the event. His eyes scanned the many seated monsters within the room, following the gazes of seemingly shocked and disgusted monsters at once to the group that would supposedly to be watching them. He remembered their faces from when they were captured. Though it had happened fairly quickly, he remembered it easily, except he couldn't figure out if they had fallen into a trap or if their own trap had failed and ended in being captured themselves. Well, either way their trap had failed. And he felt a great shame for what he didn't know. He should have been able to fight better, take at least one down before he was captured, should have been able to escape and get help for the rest of his team. Or even better, he should have been able to help defend his team and not even have risked getting caught.

But here he was, chained like a dog in the yard for biting his owner's neighbors. Well, this would be embarrassing if any others witnessed it. But he was with his team, who failed as a team and would win as a team. And probably felt shame and fear as a team... it was corny but probably tru. He didn't know, it wasn't like he'd tried to talk to them about feelings the amount of time they'd been awake and dragged to this meeting of the outcome of their lives. This was probably the longest Nathan had actually stayed quiet. But now, he finally spoke, "Well... this is unfortunate." He made the corners of his lips turn upward into a small smile, one that was to hide how nervous he was, "They're trying to train us. I'll bet one of us gets a nickname like Biter or Mr. Stabs-a-Lot by the end of the month." And there he went, trying to put something amusing to the difficult situation ahead... the six month long situation if they didn't figure something out.

Bennett paused, letting them talk briefly before she finished up the meeting, "That is our verdict. The Hunters will now be returned to the prison. You can follow them and begin or remain here to discuss the matter further. It's entirely your choice." Which was perhaps the only choice they had in the matter. She was anxious though. Her fingers wouldn't stay still, and it did seem as though she had something she needed to tell them.

Though, on the other hand, it they started now, they'd have more time to wear the Hunters down, and try to change their minds about Monsters in general. And looking at those very much not remorseful faces, it would appear that they'd need every minute of it.

Stock still, head down, and silent, it was always hard to tell whether Calum was listening. It was impossible to tell how he felt about the situation either, with his mouth obscured by the thick winter scarf at his neck. The white knit brought out the pale blue tinge to the snow-person's skin. He was distant, lost in deep thought while the others prattled around him.

"And if we manage to do it, then we know that Hunters aren't complete Monsters and it's their upbringing that made them this way." Ah. Calum was clearly listening now. He flinched, furrowing his brow. He sometimes forgot that not all supernatural were like him, human once upon a time. Of course they thought of hunters as monsters. He didn't blame them. It was part of the reason why the snow-person kept his own human history a secret.

He hadn't meant to involve himself in all this - after all, Calum preferred a quiet lifestyle away from such critical affairs - but when he saw the hunters, he couldn't just leave them to the other creatures. He couldn’t let the supernatural kill them. And he couldn't let them kill the supernatural, either. The idea of either sank like lead in his stomach. Trapped between an understanding of both sides, no matter how hard he thought about it, Calum couldn't come up with the right solution to this dilemma.

Listening now, the others seem to have agreed on one without him.

The snow-being sat up straighter, pulled his scarf down to speak. "She has a point," he cut in quietly, commenting on the dreamwalker's concerns. "Most supernatural beings have moments when they're vulnerable…" The dreamwalker and incubus while they feed, the faerie and fox while they sleep, perhaps. In any case, Calum continued to speak, calm and slow.

"But me... my body doesn't require sleep," he explained almost clinically, looking at no one in particular. "I don't need food, either. But I'm physically frail and I don't want to use my abilities directly on the hunters. They'll notice and use that, so I can't stay around one alone for too long. Instead of pairing up with one human, I'll be backup. I can take over when someone else needs aid or rest."

As for who paired up with who, he had no opinion, so he would let the others discuss that for themselves. When the senate speaker finished the meeting, Calum was quiet. Follow the humans or discuss further, it didn't matter to him. He just wanted to steer this situation down most peaceful path without getting too close himself.

Anthony nibbled on his lip as he glanced at his comrades and then the prisoners. They were allowed to stay and discuss what they should do but he wasn't sure how they were all going to decide who watched who. He would suggest picking hunters and supernatural based on who would probably get better with who, but there was a problem with that. He didn't know the personalities of the humans sine he hadn't really spoken to them and he hadn't fed off them to really know them and their thoughts. He would assume the others would have the same dilemma. He glanced at Calum and gave him a nod. That was a good plan at least. That way everyone had their backs covered when they were the most vulnerable and the hunters were never going to be alone. If a hunter tried to overwhelm Calum, the other person could easily wake up and provide aid.

"Well we have our backup thanks to Calum and it seems like none of us are really particular on who takes who. So how about we pick straws with the hunters' names?" he suggested. "We could easily ask them their names and once everyone has piked, we could go on our way trying to teach them. Other than that, I am not sure how to begin."

Ash nodded, liking the ideas coming in so far, "Good, good. I think this is starting out pretty well for such a situation. The back up will definitely be useful at times, we can't yet trust them in their current... conditions." She tapped her hands a few times in her lap to a tune only she could hear, then a popping sound could be heard from her lips before she stood and stretched languidly with muscles all drawn taut. "So... I'm going to head on over to the prison so we can get this thing started.We will be needing their names so ... I guess we need to try talking to them." She shrugged and began making her way between seats and people easily enough with her species' speed and grace.

She continued moving, but called back to the others, "I've got a pen, but we're gonna be needing some paper... unless someone is willing to use shreds of their clothing." It was a small jet on her part, but a jest indeed, and she continued to smile as if she continuously joked to herself within her mind's workings.

They were so slow. Every angle discussed, every feeling enunciated and fawned over. Gaia didn't want to be there anymore than anyone else - her heart beat to the sound of bass and techno, not this do-good prattle about changing a whole culture. Humans hate monsters. What's the big deal? Just hide yo' kids and yo' wife and no foul. No humans be gettin' into my crib. Perhaps these monsters had no way to hide themselves?

In truth, Gaia knew very little about her kind, abandoning her home at the age of 12 and joining the rebellious, hormonal youth on the dance floor. Her experiences with humanity had been unfriendly at worst and life-changing at best. In the awesome, open-your-eyes kind a way. Gaia had a lot to give to humanity and enjoyed doing so. If she took a little in return, so what? She had never gotten any complaints before.

Even though she usually had a strict no leadership policy, this here group had trouble wiping their own ass. Time to bust out the heavy duty baby wipes. "You all are being right pansies about this whole thing." her tone was fun-loving and mocking in one,"I mean, hell! I bet you all have trouble deciding which side of the bed to lay on." She smiled, a broken smile, asymmetric with several bent teeth. It always came off as a smirk even when Gaia meant to communicate empathy.

"You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go on down there and I'm gonna pick one at random. Done! Brilliant, I know." She peered out at the monsters and found a couple of beauties in the mix. Maybe this whole shindig wouldn't be so bad after all. "It doesn't have to be so complicated, gents! We don't really have a choice in the matter, so stop your prattling and get on down to the nitty-gritty."

"We gonna adopt us a new pet!"

Alia rolled her eyes at Gaia's annoying, flamboyant outburst. She had been so nice and quiet the majority of the night, which was a nice reprieve from having to listen to the strange women for the past couple of weeks. But now, now she had to open up her big, and rather pretty (hey, she can appreciate something decent to look at), mouth, and spit out the thing that definitely takes the cake most naive thing said that night, which is saying something, considering the dream walker was in the room. 'Adopt us a new pet' ? Really? There is nothing pet-like about those killers. It was ludicrous- in fact, the only redeeming thing about it is that it stopped the dream walker with continuing her ‘joke’, or whatever it was. However, Alia recognized that right now, the quickest way to get this ridiculous thing done is to just get it over with and not argue with her supernatural ‘peers’ (if you could even call them that, as Alias’ years on this planet far outnumber theirs).


So instead of verbally destroying Gaia, like she so wanted to, Alia simply said, “While I think there are many other… better ways, I think that the dream walker and the mutt have a point in that we don’t have enough time to come up with a better plan then just choosing at random. So, I don’t know about the rest of you lot, but I’m going to waste as little time as humanly,” Alia smirked, “possible, and go down there and, like she,” Alia nodded towards Gaia, “so cleverly said, ‘get on down to the nitty-gritty’ and just choose already.” With that, Alia got up and led the way, heading toward the direction the dream walker had been going, scoffing at the memory of her ridiculous attempt at a 'joke'.

Anthony sighed when Gaia began to speak up. Really? She had to go on talking about the humans like they were pets? Had to insult her 'peers' at the same time when they tried to settle the matter civilly? He didn't much like the way she spoke to them but there was no use getting into a verbal debate over the terms and what not. It would get them no where and would lead to just aggravating everyone as if this situation wasn't stressful enough as it was. Well, it seemed like there was nothing to it but to do it. Oh man he hoped he picked a human that he could get along with. If he and his human couldn't get along... well the whole project would be fucked and they'd never get anywhere useful during their time together.

"I agree with Gaia and Alia then. Just picking our human partner seems like it would make things simple enough," he stated out loud.

Anthony followed Gaia and Alia down to where the humans were being kept and waited while Alia went second and picked her human. He didn't want to waste any time down here so he moved closer to the cell door and looked over the humans as he debated. He didn't want to grab one of the men. Men were far more stubborn in his opinion and harder to reach a tie with. Though it probably made him look weak, he had a much easier time getting to know women regardless of which gender he took on himself. He nibbled his lip and his eyes strayed to the pretty brunette.

"Well, I guess I'll go with her," he said and gave Nichole a nod, indicating to everyone else who he was choosing.

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.

"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.