"[color=ff4500]You're real?[/color]" He blinked, patting his chest as if to check that he were, in fact, real. "[color=ff4500]I mean, yes!  We are!  I'm Anni, Anni Parkinson, this is Ascot, and- and-...[/color]" Zino Bertran raised his brows in a mixture of confusion and amusement, watching the young woman stutter out a response. He had not considered that the group might find his presence as unsettling as he found them. The agent scanned his eyes over the names she had indicated.

 '[i][color=eee0e5]Anni Parkinson, a girl, easily startled.[/color][/i]' He glanced at the flying boy, his eyes drifting down to the food encased in gelatinous slime, then back up--studying his wings. Zino frowned. At least the goo trapped in the smell of cooked meat. '[i][color=eee0e5]Ascot. An... Angel? Tries too hard to be useful.[/color][/i]' He watched Ascot fly away as he called out to what Zino could only describe as something from a nightmare circus. '[i][color=eee0e5]Tabitha, female,[/color][/i]' he assumed from the title, '[i][color=eee0e5]prone to wander off on her own.[/color][/i]'

Another voice pulled him from his thoughts. "[color=fdc68a]Like she said, we're all here for the Magician. I'm Michael Keahi. Call me Mike.[/color]" Zino Bertran nodded, holding out his hand to shake Michael's in a gesture of good will. The man before him had an air of reassuring strength or confidence about him. Zino made a mental note. "[color=fdc68a]Don't mind him. He's unwanted baggage, courtesy of little miss ghosty herself.[/color]"

'[i][color=eee0e5]Baggage, dangerously insane, undesirable by the others,[/color][/i]' he thought to himself.


"[color=fdc68a]Speaking of which, I don't suppose you were dumped here by her too?[/color]" Zino shoved his hands into his pockets, briefly considering how to answer. It was clear to him these particular mortals had been sent at the behest of this "Ghost Girl" herself. Based on the information he had collected from Three, they had been sent here before him; he was a "late arrival." Perhaps the original group was favored by their mutual benefactor, or perhaps "Miss Ghosty" had deemed them incompetent and dragged the agent through fire and death to act as their babysitter. There was no way to be sure. They had all lost their lives for this cause--whatever it may be. They were all, he decided, owed the truth. 

"[color=eee0e5]I never met this 'Ghost Girl' you speak of,[/color]" he reached into his pocket and retrieved the simple white mask, dusting off a smear of soot from its cheek with a leather-gloved thumb, "[color=eee0e5]but I have heard of her. I was told she is mistress over the one who... [i]Reassembled[/i] me here.[/color]" As much as he had tried to suppress it, a shiver of terror ran up his spine. '[i][color=eee0e5]How long have I been dead?[/color][/i]' He swallowed the reaction, continuing. "[color=eee0e5]I heard that if I came here, I would understand reason for my death... And the reason for my continued existence,[/color]" Zino quoted, "[color=eee0e5]That I would learn [i]the truth[/i].[/color]" His eyes remained fixated upon the Semblance as he spoke. They lingered there a few heartbeats longer before he slipped the mask back into the jacket pocket of his outfit. He could feel her watching him. 

"[color=eee0e5]My name is Zino G. Bertran, but Mr. Bertran will do. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Mike Keahi.[/color]" He dipped his head to the police officer, and then again to the flustered girl. "[color=eee0e5]And you as well, Miss Parkinson. I assume that you both received a Semblance from our mysterious mistress also.[/color]" Zino folded his arms. Given that Three had specified the group he was meeting with were all mortals, Bertran concluded that it must be the mask which granted some of them their unique appearance--their lives in exchange for a new world, a new being, a new purpose--a semblance of what they had been. "[color=eee0e5]...Everyone here did, correct? At the cost of their lives.[/color]" His face was grim, his lips a tight line across his face. "[color=eee0e5]How did you all come to pass?[/color]"