Leon and Santiago answer some questions from Cadmus and then discuss the recent unpleasant business of the eye-gouging killer(s)

Leon is, as usual for a weekday evening, asleep at hid desk, buried in paperwork. It's been a late night as usual, and it won't be getting any easier. He's just recharging, that's all!

Santiago isn't doing much better either. On top of one murder another has been piled, and one whose connection to the other was tenuous except for the glaring characteristic of the eyes having been gouged. He has spent hours in meetings and discussions with his senior sergeants, and all of them, as far as he could tell, have yet to produce any concrete theories. Sighing, he emerges through the tunnel and enters the outer room, not at all surprised to find his Captain in such a state. "Leon?" he says, lightly poking his shoulder. Only the XO had such a privilege of casual-ity, or so he often thought.

Cadmus walks down the familiar corridor towards the Guardhouse, an equally familiar feeling of nervousness pervading his mind. He'd recently passed his aptitude exam, sure...but he'd still had some pangs of fear; it wasn't certain he'd be joining the Guard, after all. He'd decided to talk to someone in charge to ease his mind, perhaps even finalize a date on the Medical Exam he was going to need. He brings his paw up to the door, turning the knob and easing himself slowly inside. "Excuse me...is there anyone here?"

Leon grumbles a bit, slowly slipping out of his deep sleep. "Huh... uh... take a number, would ya? Or... make a reservation. Call ahead seating." He blinks a bit, then takes in a sharp breath as he raises himself off of his desk. He notices a couple of things after a cursory glance around the room: He's got an audience, it's dark outside, and he's still buried in paperwork. "Aaah... crap." He sighs a bit, noticing Cadmus at the doorway. Before saying anything, he nods to Santiago. "Just... is it important? Yes? No? Gimme a second. Cadmus!" He offers a tired grin and extends a paw. "Good evening, young mouse. Or is it... morning already?" He casts a furtive glance outside, but it's just too dark to tell if it's closer to dawn or dusk.

"I'm fairly sure it's still night," says Santiago, finding the state of his uniform very interesting suddenly. He wasn't expecting Cadmus to be here today, so he hasn't fonud the opportunity to appear more presentable. Yet, seeing the eager mouse was definitely a good break from pondering a corpse all day. "Are you hear to inquire about your application, or simply want to chat?" he says to Cadmus, a little more business-like than he wanted it to be.

Cadmus gives a small "erm..." of sheepishness, taking Leon's paw and giving it a small shake, flashing a small grin. "Uhm, I suppose just a bit of both, I think..." he says to Santiago. He mills about the center of the room, trying to appear upright and much more confident than he felt. "Though, I am more curious about my application than anything." He also can't help but notice the slight preoccupation about the both of them, "Erm, this isn't a bad time, is it?"

Leon shakes his head a bit. "Bad time? Nah, it's never a bad time. Well, I mean, it's ALWAYS a bad time, but that just means it's always a GOOD time, too. I don't know, Santiago," he looks up at his fellow guard. "What do you think? Shall we indulge our potential recruit on the status of his application?"

Santiago grins despite his own difficulties. "Maybe we should, but I wouldn't know. You're the Captain, after all ;)" One of the things he likes about being the XO is that, in the presence of the Captain, he had every right to defer decisions to him. "Though, such information is practically public anyway."

Cadmus flashes another sheepish grin as he stands in the center of the room, his ears nonetheless perked and eager to hear about his application. "I er...I thought the Aptitude Exam went well enough..."

OOC> You say, "There's a medical, a physical fitness test, an interview, and then the final assessment. The last two step are what decide everything; the rest is just meeting standards"
OOC> Cadmus ahs and nodnods.

Leon nods sharply. "That it did. Not the absolute highest score - that would go to Justin. Because he made the test. The interview you did beforehand also went well. Otherwise you probably wouldn't be here." He grins. "That said..." he digs around his desk and pulls out a sheet of paper. "Aha, yes. Seems to me that you've got a couple more things to take care of before you can join up as a recruit. A medical exam, apparently. Handled by Isabella, if I'm not mistaken. There's also a simple physical fitness test - Justin's handling those now, actually. Then we've got the final assessment."

Santiago swears that his own score might've been very close to Justin's, but to suppress his pride he tried not to think about such things. Instead, his attention is upon the conversation unfolding before him. "We don't schedule those tests ourselves but work with whoever has to oversee them; if you haven't set an appointment with Isabella already you should probably do that as soon as possible."

Cadmus gives a brisk nod, his nervousness subsiding for the moment. "If I can find her, I'll definitely do that. If I may ask, just to make sure I have options, would Merick also be qualified to perform such an exam?" He asks this with a measure of trepidation, giving a small movement as he says it. He moves rather quickly to his next question, "Err, I should do the same with Justin for the physical fitness test, correct?"

Leon clears his throat a bit at the mention of Merick. "Merick may be qualified to give the exam, but Isabella's been our go-to for it for some time. Unless she's too busy to do it, I'd prefer we keep it that way. As for Justin, yes, just stop by the gym on any weekend afternoon and he should be there training the recruits. You'll set a time and day for the exam, and he'll fill you in on the specifics. If I'm not mistaken, it involves a run, some climbing, weapons training, and a lot of survival training. A lot of it may seem second-nature or instinctual, but we just like to be sure you know to HIDE when you're in a field and see a hawk circling overhead. Things like that."

OOC> Santiago thought that the training would happen after his application is successful?
OOC> Leon says, "Considering that he's already passed the cursory exam, I'm thinking it might also be smart to see how the applicants handle themselves in physical encounters. After the application there would be a lot more in-depth training going on."
OOC> Santiago ahs, and was comparing to the real-life military n.n
OOC> Leon says, "Heh, considering that the rats are fairly low on the food chain here, even with their advanced intelligence, I think the survival tests would be more important to get done early."
OOC> Santiago ahs n.n
OOC> Leon says, "No point in bringing in a guard only to have them snatched up by a badger or something ;-)"
OOC> Santiago lols

Santiago nods. "Don't worry if you don't have experience with weapons. The initial test is just an introduction and is meant to determine your aptitude." The tests are not on the front of his mind. Mention of Merick has spawned a whole train of thought, beginning with his internalized assertion that, no, Merick /shouldn't/ do Cadmus' exam.

Cadmus gulps a little at the mention of the training, gathering himself up quickly enough. "I see, I see. That shouldn't be too hard to schedule." He fidgets with his paws behind his back, nodding at Isabella's name. "Alright, I'll seek her out as soon as I can then. If I may ask another question, though... I have a Dart Gun from the mouse colony in my possession. It's a very outdated model, though. Would you prefer I used that, or a regular weapon from your Armory?"

Leon hums pensively. "A dart gun, eh? Interesting... haven't had a chance to lay my paws on much of that NMC hardware. I'd imagine it's got the same advantages that our crossbows have, but I'd ask Justin what he'd prefer. He might want you to familiarize yourself with some of the basic guard weapons before you start worrying about your personal armaments."

Santiago maintains his silence this time as he negotiates various thoughts. It would be difficult to manufacture ammunition for the dartgun without the right sort of tools and challenging to charge it up without a source of compressed air. These and many other ideas flit through his head, such that at the end he finds himself imagining Merick tacked to a dart board whilst Santiago uses him as a test target for the dartgun.

OOC> Leon says, "lol :-)"
OOC> Cadmus says, "Careful, your gonna give Kieran ideas XD"
OOC> Santiago lols XD

Cadmus nods to Leon, his face falling into nervousness again. "Alright, I'm sure I'll know in due time. I have to say, I've always wandered about the feel of a sword, anyway..." He trails off a bit, a sudden thought, half serious, half joking, crossing his mind. "As long as I don't have to go up against Brutus...or Santiago here for that matter." he says, giving a rather dry chuckle.

Leon scoffs. "You laugh, but I had to go up against Brutus back when I was a recruit. I think Justin just did it to make my life miserable... but anyway," he leans back in the chair, looking up to Santiago. "I'm sorry, you had something you wanted to talk about? That WAS you that woke me up, right?"

Santiago chuckles aloud. "I remember that! I think I was the only one who was able to beat him, but that was because he tripped on a pebble." He leans his arm on the desk and looks at Leon. "It's a rather sensitive matter that I have to talk about, but nothing too urgent," he explains. "Right now we have to see that Cadmus is properly enlightened ;)"

Cadmus gives a wide, genuine smile this time, deciding he should take a seat at last, wandering to the side of the room and plopping down on the first chair he finds. "Is there anything else I need to know? If not, I can leave you both to your discussion...unless I'm not intruding?"

Leon looks over to Santiago, then back to Cadmus. "Yeah, I think we do need a few moments to go over some things. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other, Cadmus. Good luck with the rest of your Guard exams." He extends his paw for another shake.

Santiago smiles and looks as optimistic as he can for Cadmus, but its hard to do so when so many pressing issues, well, press upon him. Murder cases tend to do that.

Cadmus takes the paw, giving it a brisk shake as he makes his way to the door. "T-thanks, I'm looking forward to them, however hard they may be." he says, giving a sweeping wave before disappearing through the door and down the hall.

(to be continued)