"Has a room been prepared for the arrival of the new recruit? Has it been furnished to the details that I wrote in the letter? The welcoming present has also been wrapped to my specifics as well right?" Standing elegantly with a check list in hand, Abel was bombarding his subordinates in Pandora with a list of questions. They were expecting a new recruit to be joining their branch today, and that she would be arriving at any minute, he had to make sure that everything was perfect, she was after all the newest member for them within the past three years. Abel let out a sigh, "Come on, we don't want to chase away our newest comrade from the get go, thinking that we are the savage branch of Pandora do we? Why didn't you all keep this place in check when I was away on my last mission?"

Walking towards the wall, he placed his list on a sidetable and sat in the chair next to it, sinking in low in his seat, yet still sitting perfectly upright, he looked at further documents he had in hand, "Skye Robbins, of the Robbins Family, gender female, age seventeen, enjoys sweets and singing..." Abel brought his hand to his face to hide the shame he was feeling, and without a doubt showing on his face, "They had two whole days to dig information about her up for me and this is what I get?" He let out another sigh, hopefully she would be a more capable member than half of the others in the branch, and maybe they would make a find that would get the rest of Pandora to recognize them again.

Skye was in the horse carriage with a woman who was clearly older than her. What was this older woman's name again…? Aunt…Aunt…Aunt Wren! That's her name! Aunt Wren had hair just as dark as Skye's and her lips were painted a dark red. Despite the dark look, the woman was much nicer than Skye's own mother. Wren sighed and said "Now, Skye. When we reach Pandora's Caucus branch, please be on your best behavior. They'll take offense if you act rudely when they give you orders. Remember, Pandora's your saving grace here! If not for them, then you would be in jail, or worse, for what happened to your parents," Skye could see that Wren seemed to care, and Skye sighed in response "Yes, Aunt Wren,"

Soon the carriage stopped and Aunt Wren and Skye both hopped out to see the building in front of them. A member of Pandora bowed to Skye and said "This way please," When the man led the way, Skye raised an eyebrow and she followed the man. She figured that she was probably going to see the person who was in charge of this branch of Pandora. The subordinate led her to a pair of closed doors and he knocked on them calling "Sir Abel? The new recruit's here,". Skye and the subordinate waited for a response before they were allowed to enter the room.

Standing up from his chair, he neatly folded his papers and placed them into his pocket, "Perfect, show her in."

The double doors opened slowly, on the other side, Abel had many of the members standing on wither side of the door in a straight line, heads down arms behind their backs in very formal greeting, he queued, and they all spoke at once, Welcoming her to the Caucus branch. Then with a snap of Abel's fingers, they were dismissed and all went to their assigned tasks.

"Welcome to Pandora Miss Skye, I am Abel, I will be over you during your stay here, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask, you can give your luggage to Rinco over there," he pointed to a large bald stern looking man in a standard black Pandora uniform, "He will take them to your place of lodging, then if you would, we do have some business to attend to today, so grab about a days worth of necessities, and we will be off to your first investigation." He smiled at her, "We have great hopes for you Madame." He walked close to her, kneeled and kissed her hand, "Lets work hard, shall we?"

Skye watched as the doors opened as she walked in, she looked in slight surprise to see that the members of Pandora were standing in a straight line on each side of the door, and were greeting her so formally. She blinked rapidly at the sight, very unused to this. She looked to the man who snapped his fingers and dismissed the members. She mumbled "Quite a way to roll out the welcome wagon,"
She then listened as the handsome man, Abel he called himself, speak. She looked to Rinco when mentioned, and she casually handed her luggage to him, watching him leave for her residence. As he spoke, Skye couldn't help but get the feeling that he wasn't one to be trusted so casually.
She didn't pull her hand out from his when he kneeled and kissed her hand. She remained stoic as she simply answered "Alright," and left it at that.

She asked "So, what are we investigating then? Shouldn't I know about this case before we start?" She had read her fair share of detective and mystery stories in books, and she figured that it was important to get as much information as possible in order for the investigation to be a success. There was always more to an investigation than just fighting bad guys after all. Plus, if she did good enough jobs on the investigations that were to come, then she wouldn't be in Pandora for too long for comfort.

"Oh she asks questions? Not sure if this is a good thing or not," Able chuckled with his own hand now at his mouth, standing up he turned his back to Skye and spoke, "At Pandora, we are almost always involved in research of some kind related to the abyss and chains, our current mission is to investigate a little town called Nehiem, which has rumour of vast amounts of chains appearing at night, we need to find out why this abnormality has occurred, and of course we need to stop it before it gets out of hand." He turns around in a spin causing his coat to lift a bit, and with a grin on his face and his eyes closed he responded again, "Are you satisfied with my answer Miss Robins? We could always talk more on the way in my carriage if you wish, but we must be off."

Skye raised a suspicious eyebrow at Abel's chuckle about her asking questions. She then listened to him answer her question silently, carefully analyzing him as he spoke, trying to find anything that would serve as an indicator that he was lying, as she normally would. She was bothered by the fact that he was facing away from her when he gave her his answer, because she couldn't see what his body language would give away with his back to her, not to mention there was the possibility that was intentional on his part. When he turned to face she noticed that his smiled was a false one, judging how his lower eyelids were not raised upwards.

She narrowed her gaze at him suspiciously and crossed her arms at him as she answered his question, "For now," She knew that she couldn't exactly call him out as a liar yet, because she had no information that she could recall and see if the answer he gave her contradicted anything or not. This Abel in front of her, was someone she wasn't going to trust so easily. She then growled a bit "Let's go then," She just wanted this to be over and done with. She didn't want to be in the same room as this Abel any longer.

"Well then, let us head out, the carriage is in the front, the same way that you came in from," He pointed at the direction of the door behind her, then he took it upon himself to lead the way. He didn't speak much during this time, but did open all the doors on the path for Skye, and even stood waiting for her to enter the carriage as he held the door open, like a gentleman. As soon as he had the chance though, he jumped in from the other side, as he sat down, he spoke with her, but it was different then before, now that they were in motion, no one would hear what he was talking about, and no one would be able to object to his next actions.

Leaning in very close to Skye, Abel spoke, smile across his face, "You really are something different aren't you Miss Robins," Leaning back again to his seat, "Or should I just call you by your first name? Skye?" He folded his arms, "Do you want to know what we are really heading off to do now?" Pulling some papers out from his pocket, he began to sign them looking down as he spoke, "You seem to not be satisfied with what I told you prior," Looking up to stare into her eyes, "And I do wonder if you are merely putting up with my presence because you are forced to," In a serious tone, he spoke again, unwavering, his eyes still fixed on hers, "Why did you become a member of Pandora Skye Robins?"

Skye followed Abel out of the door as he led the way. She didn't say much either as they walked, not even a 'thank you' for when he opened the doors for her like a gentleman. Soon she was in the carriage with him, and he was talking to her again. When he asked his questions, she answered bluntly "I really don't care which you use. And yeah, I do want to know what we have to do. Having your back to other people while you answer may be acceptable for others, but it's not for me,"
When he asked about her about why she became a member of Pandora, she kept her gaze on his eyes and she asked "Now, why should I tell you? Quite honestly, I don't feel like sharing my life story with you,"

She looked at the papers that Abel had been signing out of curiosity for a moment, before she looked back at Abel, waiting for his real answer in regards to what they're investigating. As she waited, she pulled out a small candy out of her pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth. She wondered again why she was in Pandora, and remembered Aunt Wren's words. From what Aunt Wren said, Skye could only surmise that she was in Pandora as punishment.

With a pout on his face, Abel spoke again, "You don't have to be such a meanie," He smiled shortly after, "I just want to get to know you better, after all not everyone can be trusted, not even in Pandora, and for how you act, I can see that you should be the honest type." He grabbed his papers and handed them to her, "We have reason to believe that there is a member in Pandora who is conducting some illegal operations. Attempting to create their own gateways into the Abyss. We have one other incident on record which follows the same pattern. Those records show the details of the last incident." Staring out the window with a uniquely blank expression on his face, "I need to stop it before we have a repeat of the last case." Letting out a brief sigh, he then regained his composure and went back to his normal façade, "Also, a quick question, would you rather be imprisoned, or be free and working for me? as free as that is of course," a snark grin ran across his face.

Skye's right eyebrow twitched in slight annoyance when he pouted and whined about her being a meanie. She took the papers he handed her, and read through them analytically as he spoke, committing ever single detail, written and spoken, to her memory. She muttered to herself "Why in the world would anyone want to create their own gateways to the Abyss? Are they nuts?"
She then looked up to see Abel staring out of the window with a blank expression on his face. She heard his mutter and she figured that he was talking about the case that the papers talked about. Soon he regained his mask and asked his question. Could he already know about the conditions under she was working with Pandora? She answered "I'd rather be free,"

At the question, she had ended up recalling her past, and how her parents imprisoned her and tried to fashion her into their little puppet that they could control. She knew that the things her parents did when she was younger were wrong and immoral, but she had been powerless to stop them. Her parents…who wore smiling masks just like Abel is wearing right now...She could only rebel, and gain power as she lived her years.
Speaking of which…
She shook her head of the memories and she said to Abel, "By the way, you wouldn't happen to have a weapon for me? Just in case things go wrong during our investigation,"

Soon the carriage stopped and the doors were opened. Skye commented "We're here already? That was fast,"

"Fast? that was a dauntingly slow time, he is usually quicker, just gave us enough time to talk," opening the door and letting Skye out, Abel turned to the driver, "Didn't you Rinco?" The man looked over and nodded without so much as a word. "No matter what everyone else says, I like that man, he gets things done right, and without wasting any words." Abel chuckled

"Well, here we are Skye, welcome to the lovely little village of Holgot." He pointed to the humble little village, which seemed to be in a lot of motion given its size. He then spoke again, but this time in a childish, almost patronizing tone, "I guess they are busy doing repairs, chains can be a verrrry dangerous thing, can't they?" He pushed his hand into his coat, unveiling his sheathed weapon, and then he grabbed another hidden weapon, this time a pistol, "This can be very dangerous too, so don't be shooting me with it okay?" He laughed, then in a serious tone he took off, "Or else I will have to kill you, and you have such a pretty face, so I wouldn't like to do that." the latter half of his sentence was backed up by his smile. "Well, we have till nightfall, so go and do as you please, I will get a room at the inn, and see what I can find out." He was walking away while talking to her, then he turned around to face her, kind of mocking what she mentioned earlier, "Oh, and don't go waving that thing in public, or mention what we talked about on the way." He smiled, waved, then blended into the crowd of people.

Skye looked to see the driver was the weird Rinco guy from earlier. She thought of Rinco as a creepy and scary guy, and the fact that he didn't speak made Skye even more wary of him. She looked to the small village that Abel pointed at, until he spoke to her again in a patronizing tone that annoyed Skye. As he pulled the gun out his coat, she noticed that he had a rapier on his person. She accepted the gun and put it in the holster of her belt. She shuddered a bit when he did a sudden 180 in his voice and tone when he warned her not to shoot him, and she grumbled under her breath "Like I would…" She knew better than to shoot him, no matter how much she didn't trust the man in front of her.

Soon Abel disappeared into the crowds and she grumbled "Creepy pretty boy…!" She then sighed and commented to herself under her breath, "Well, since I'm here, I might as well look around and see if I can find anything,"
She walked into the small village and walked through the crowds. As she walked through the small villages, she noticed that the area seemed relatively peaceful, despite that some of the buildings were destroyed at some point earlier. She looked around or near the damaged areas that were under repair to see if there were any clues or anything unusual and out of place.

Walking through the busy streets, Abel kept his hands in his pockets, and a smile on his face, greeting everyone along his way, he was looking for the local inn, and stopped to ask a few young ladies the were abouts of it, even though he already knew of its location. Arriving only an hour or so after he had started heading there, he inquired for a single room. Initially, dealing with the fact that with the destruction that had occurred, there was a lack of rooms, but through some superior negotiation, bribery and flirting, he managed to secure a room. Sitting on the bed, he spoke aloud to himself, "Well that was easier than I thought." bouncing up and down a bit, the bed wasn't as quality as he was used to, but still nice, the room also had a nice large chair in the corner, could make for a good spot to do some reading? But that could be done later, as he had some more business to attend to.

Stepping out again into the busy streets, he had changed his clothes, now looking like a commoner, he would draw less attention as he spoke with the people during his investigation. He asked a few people, finding that most didn't want anything to do with him, so he resorted to his dirty tactics, he went to those he knew he could outwit, and manipulate into getting him intell. It had worked, as he was pointed in the direction of the head carpenter, after tailing him for a short time, he concluded that the information must be fake, that was before he heard mention of tonight, and what sounded like talk about creating a paradise using the abyss. "Well isn't this something else indeed." He spoke low to himself as he slithered away, back to the crowds.

On his way back to the inn though, he would find something disturbing, least, disturbing to him, an orphan being beaten by a carpenter. Clenching his teeth, Abel started walking over to them, regaining his composure along the way, he swiftly took down the man with one swing of his arm, then wrote a note and left it on the man, looked at the boy, who stared up at him in tears and awe, "Run, I may have solved your problem for now, but surely he will get up later," He gave the kid a genuine smile and saw him off. Abel then returned to the inn, surely nothing else too exciting would happen before the night, right?

Meanwhile, Skye looked around the town, easily blending into the town as she is now. Her clothes were nothing fancy, and were easy to move around in. The people and carpenters around her didn't take much notice of her as she walked around. As she looked around, she spotted a man wearing the Pandora uniform she had seen earlier today. She followed after the man, weaving through the crowd, and stayed hidden out of the man's sights. She soon found her way into a small cafe and she took a corner seat where she wouldn't be spotted, near the man with the Pandora uniform. She listened carefully to the Pandora man speak with another, a woman, saying that they were meeting in front of the fountain in the Town Square tonight, mention a group called 'Tenebrae' and how 'she' will be pleased. Who was 'she'? Skye's curiosity was piqued at the mention of this unnamed woman.

However, the man soon paid a waitress and both him and the woman left the cafe, never noticing Skye in the corner, eating a slice of strawberry cheesecake. She had the same waitress that dealt with the man and woman earlier, come to her table after the two of them had left. Skye asked the waitress "Excuse me, do you know who those two customers were? They looked familiar to me,"
The waitress answered cheerfully "Oh them? They're Sherman and Thestral. They're regulars at this cafe. Aren't they a cute couple?" She squealed happily as she asked her last question, and Skye simply nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, they are," Skye could see that the waitress wasn't lying. She was giving off a genuine smile, and there were no twitches to be seen. Plus her answer was backed up by the receipt on her tray, which had the name Sherman Holster written on it.
The waitress asked "Is there anything else I can help you with,"
Skye shook her head and said "No, thanks," The waitress then left.

Skye left the cafe, after finishing her cake and coming with what to do next. As much as she hated to do this, she knew that she would need to talk to Abel now. As much as she didn't trust the two faced partner, she knew that he would know and be able to talk about this Sherman character at least. And she was curious about what Tenebrae was. Skye soon came across the disturbing sight of a carpenter beating a child. She bared her teeth and growled lightly. She took a step forward, only to stop when she saw someone else beat the carpenter already. She watched as this figure wrote a letter and smiled kindly at the child, before the child ran away.

Wait…that person was Abel! Skye realized with widened eyes as the sight of him with a real smile on his face registered in her mind. After the child ran and he started walking away, she snapped out of her daze, and hurried through the crowds she was previously hidden in, and caught up to Abel. She was by his side before anyone would notice her there, and she said to him in a low tone so to not catch attention "We need to talk,"

Still pressing forward through the crowd, Abel turned his head to face Skye as he spoke "Oh? did you figure out that I only booked one room at the inn?" He put on his usual smile, but then facing forward, he continue on, "We can talk in the room, I'd rather not discuss my past lovers in public my dear," Abel was hoping that Skye would take the hint. It wasn't the best to talk out in the open as they were, Abel had already noticed a few characters whom he noticed were watching the area, most of them hidden as construction workers so that they would not stick out, and no one would question them as they merely patrolled back and forth acting like they were busy. But something felt off about many other things in the town as well. I have a bad feeling about this town, and I don't think I am going to get much rest tonight... Abel didn't speak much the rest of their walk, only to greet passerbys.

They continued at a leisurely pace till they arrived at the inn, and after closing the door and securing the area as much as he could, Abel sat back in the comfortable chair, let out a sigh and looked at Skye, "Well, seems about as good as it will get, So what is on your mind? I'll share what I found if you share yours?" putting one leg over the other, he sat in the chair eagerly awaiting Skye to spill the beans.

When Abel asked his question in response, Skye paled a bit and asked "Wh-What?!" After he made his second statement, her jaw dropped slightly in disgust and she hissed quietly under her breath as she followed Abel, "Who would want to be YOUR lover?!"
Of course she understood his hint, and she didn't say anything on the way until they reached the room Abel had booked.

After Abel had finished securing the area, and had Madame his comment, Skye, who was still standing, crossed her arms, and started speaking seriously, "I have found the person you mentioned back on the carriage. A member of Pandora, named Sherman Holster, is going to meet with some people at the fountain in town square tonight. He mentioned some group called 'Tenebrae', and how someone would pleased by how everything is going,"

"Ahh, very well done Skye. Sherman Holster you say? That makes for an interesting development, He recently inquired about starting a new branch of Pandora, looking into new ways to form contracts and using illegals to test his theories. Due to the inhumanity that this would show, it was easily dismissed, and he was demoted and removed from even the sad branch that we are in." Abel couldn't help but chuckle, "And yes, there is worse branches than ours." He stood up and approached the window, and talked aloud to himself "It makes some sense now, he would require a way into the abyss to try this all out, so why not make his own gate?" He turned back to Skye, "Skye, how much do you know about Chains?"

Skye listened carefully to Abel speak and ramble a bit about Sherman. She raised an eyebrow at the mention of worse branches than the Caucus branch, and his ponder about why Sherman wasn't making his own gate. When he asked, Skye answered with a shrug "Not much really. All I know is what they're capable of, and that people form contracts with them," She really didn't care about what chains were in the past, she only knew to avoid dealing with chains. She asked, knowing that she was going to be dealing with these chains at this point, "What are chains anyways? And why do chains bother forming contracts with people anyways?"

"Well, we do not know too much about chains, or how they are born, there is a rumor that people become chains, or that the will of the abyss simply wills them into existence, and as to why they form contracts," He pasued for a moment, "Well they do have personalities of their own, so it can be for many different reasons why they would form a contract, simple hunger, boredom, honour, to get out of the abyss, to fulfill the wishes of the abyss." He shrugged, "We really don't know much, but finding out intell about them can be dangerous." He stood up and walked over to the window with a grin on his face, "But we do know that we need to stop them, and I know that we are going to be having a bit of a party soon." He turned to Skye, grin still on his face, "I would say we have an hour or two before sunset, and that is when things are going to get wild."

Skye listened to his answer about the chains, and his comments about the upcoming 'party' silently. She sat in a chair while he spoke and inspected her gun, just to make sure that she could actually use it in battle. She answered his comment about the time they have until the beginning of the meeting seriously, "Right,"
Part of her mind was thinking about what Abel said on why Chains made contracts with humans. She didn't know why, but she felt as though she knew a reason...but she couldn't recall no matter how hard she tried. She rubbed her right temple at the mild migraine she got from trying to recall what she knew. Eventually, she gave up on trying to remember, and went back to preparing herself for the battle that lied ahead.