[i]“Uhm…Vaht iz your name?”[/i] 

The speaker was unusual to say the least; its hair was all miss-matched, its eyes were a mixture of colours –standing out even amongst the large shuffling crowd-, and what appeared to be antlers were protruding from its head. [i] Fascinating [/i]. 

A slick smile creased Chantrea’s lips, lining her chubby face. “Outwardly simplistic and crude, but with larger implications: I like it.” She laughed sharply “I’ll tell you what, sweetheart; let’s stick with ‘Tas’ for now, and if you make it past your first assignment I’ll give you my full name, and tell you about my love of rock operas. Same goes for the rest of you.”  

"Yeah, I have a question," a dark haired girl dressed in a Victorian-esq fashion trend that had been all the rave about six years ago spoke up. "Why is it that we had to do your master's dirty work? Is he too chicken to come out and do it himself?"

Chantrea frowned inwardly. [i] I can see where this is going… [/i] 

 "And why the hell are you out here greeting us rather than your boss? You can't be much older than any of us, so obviously you're a student. There's no one else with you, which means that you aren't liked that much." She continued in her lazy drawl. [i] At least this one’s perceptive, that’s a nice change of pace. [/i]

"What is your boss hiding and why is he hiding behind you?" The girl finished, tapping some kind of knife against her chin ponderously. 

"What a funny way to show that you don't play by the rules, are you that hungry for trouble... or do you just not want to be here?" Remarked a hooded figure from somewhere off in the side of the crowd. 

Chantrea laughed at that. “I’m gonna have to second the Nazgûl over here”. She turned swiftly, addressing the dark haired girl first. 

“Honey, d’you know what the average life expectancy for a member of the Bloody Embrace is?” Chantrea chirped with mock sweetness “There’s a reason why all the stories about our organization paint us as being the stuff of nightmares: All the shit one’s don’t make it past their first assignment.” 

She paused for a moment, letting her statement hang on the air.

“When I was brought in I was with a group of seventeen, all new recruits like you lot. Four of us made it past our first mission, and only two of us made it out of our second.” 

Chantrea moved a lock of scarlet/blonde hair out of her vision. 

“My point is, the Headmaster doesn’t have time to come down here and greet every newbie that hops off of the meat wagon. Basically, he’s got more important shit to do. I’m out here greeting you cause someone up top hates me, and either thinks I’ve got nothing better to do with my time than break in the green kids, or doesn’t care. As to why you have to do my ‘masters’, ehmm, ‘dirty work’; You’ve been given a job opportunity…if you don’t want to do the work involved then accepting it was a pretty fucking stupid thing to do, sweet cheeks.” 

Chantrea gave the dark haired girl one last lingering glance. [i] I wonder if I’ve still got a corset like that lying around somewhere [/i] she wondered.

She turned her attention to the hooded figure. 

“You seem alright, kid.” She gave him a quick light-hearted wink for good measure.

 “Alright, Benders!” The young woman barked, turning her attention back to the crowd “You’ve only got half an hour to settle in and the clock is tick tick ticking, so go find your rooms and dump your stuff.”