[center][h2][color=#FA8746]Valeria Nicole Alvarez-Knight[/color][/h2][/center]
Nicole woke up in the room designated as “hers” just as she had been for the past month, ever since she’d been…convinced to join the Blessed as one of the Runes. She stared at the still-bland white ceiling, then sat up to take in the more pleasant and slowly-becoming-familiar-if-she-were-squinting walls that were customized with punk, rock, and the occasional thrash metal posters, an associate degree for physical therapy that she barely had the time to get before the Blessed folk snatched her up from her normal life, and a corkboard that she pinned several photos of her she’d had developed. The furniture in the room was still the basic walnut bed, wardrobe, desk and chair it’d come with, though she’d already brought all her clothes, equipment (including several sets of running shoes, a skateboard, rollerblades, and the safety gear applicable for both, a laptop, her camera, and her phone), and even her own bed coverings.

These and other allowances the Blessed had provided her were the only things keeping her from being pissed more often than she was. Yes, she understood not letting the Jotun and others kill people in or outside of cities, and no, she wasn’t a fan of the possibility of the world ending anymore than the next person, but exactly whose fucked-idea was it to put Runes on some [i]civilian random [/i]people? The Gods? Heck, if they wanted to help, they could either get their asses down to Earth asap, or else put the magic BS into [i]the people already in training to kill monsters[/i]. Was that such a hard concept to comprehend for some? But, no, instead, she and people like her, who may have [i]seen[/i] one of the things they were to fight but most likely hadn’t done so before (she knew she sure as hell she hadn’t), and now they were thrown into a scheme that practically screamed “if the training didn’t kill you, the monsters [i]will[/i], so get your asses in gear, blast your magic shit around, be a [i]good proper[/i] hero ‘til the crazy ends you, and we get another miracle, hopefully a better one than you”. 

Valeria shook her head to get rid of the annoyingly bitter thoughts that had started creeping up since [i]guess when[/i], and went on with her usual routine of an hour-long exercise in the rec room, a shower, a breakfast, half-an-hour or less to check on and manage her SNS profile and upload any new pics she might have – the past month they’d been Blessed themed, and though she wasn’t allowed to release anything that might give away too much info, the things she’d gotten permission for (it irked her she had to get it, but at least the bastards were good promo), were fairly popular – then check her daily agenda on her laptop. Today’s prominent one was a meeting with all the other Runes, and the select few of the Blessed non-magical employees as well. [color=#FA8746][i]Hey, let’s try some optimism, Nick, since it's been such a long time since last time...One good thing! Just find the one. One thing...There’ll be plenty of people to meet, if nothing else.[/i][/color]

Attitude bolstered, the blonde made her way to the meeting room, and was surprised to note she was actually one of the first ones there, and glanced curiously at each and every one of them, including the guards, finally greeting them all with a [color=#FA8746]“Hey, wassup?”[/color] She entered in time to hear a long wheat-blond girl teasing a redheaded male about being hungover. [color=#FA8746]“Wait, wait, wait, there’s some sort of a bar in the facility that I’ve been missing out on? Any good stock?”[/color] she questioned, wandering over to the fresh tea set out. She typically drank coffee, but since the tea was there already, she might as well. She put in a dash of milk to her cup, then plopped down into a nearby couch, stirring the herbal brew as she did so without it clinking overly much. It was still hot, so she sipped it slowly. [color=#FA8746]“Good tea. What would [i]really[/i] be the thing is some brandy to go with it,”[/color] she sighed wistfully, relaxing into the luxurious upholstering as she waited for the meeting to start, or better yet, someone willing to chat to pass the time.