Just As Crows Do

My name is a bit long, isn't it? Saber-Cry Abyrion-Iscaria Soul-Trapped-Blood? It means that I am a blade.A warrior who cannot cry but must.An abyss of my past and the grace that I myself have fallen from.And a soul forever trapped by flesh that I must escape.

Yes, it is very complicated indeed. In fact, there is more to my name beyond that, and even more in my native tongue that I cannot properly communicate to mortals. You may call me Iscaria, but never Saber, for I am not a warrior, nor do I want to be remembered as that abyss. 

In a way, I am like Simon, as we have both fallen from grace. Two ravens, one stark white, and the other midnight black, that fall on different paths yet land at the same destination. The sun. Our wings will forever flap until they burn, until we cannot last any longer.

I'm getting off topic, aren't I? Sorry, it tends to happen from time to time. Enough about me, let's get back to my Master, shall we?

Evelyn led Simon into a room with a long, round table in the middle of it. There were seven seats, five of which were already occupied by different men.

The first of them was a muscular man who looked to be around his late or mid-thirties, with short, wavy, parted hair and a studded beard. He was smoking, and a ring that barely fit his finger was on the third finger. He wore black pants with a coat and a belt wrapped around the coat. When he saw the two walk in, he immediately began to cough and swat the smoke away, his brown eyes squinting as he put out the cigarette.

"Shit, sorry, kid. Just y'know, can't smoke near the kids, so I gotta do it somewhere else."
"I told you not to smoke inside here, Ezra. If we get into trouble, that's on you." Said the man next to him.

The man was young, around Simon's age, with an arrogant look in his ruby eyes. He wore a jet-black Yankees cap with a black shirt with graffiti and an unbuttoned jacket. The jacket had a golden dragon design wrapping all the way around the sleeve to his chest. Occupied by these, he wore black sneakers and baggy sweats that covered the tongues of his shoes. His hair was in a bun with bangs that fell on either side of his face.

"Calm down, Leo, you're not fifteen anymore, you can smoke." A man with long silver hair that reached his back said.

He was clearly blind, with scars around his closed eyes. He had his index finger feeling the braille letters of his book, his kimono blue with the designs of the clouds rubbing against the book ever so gently. The silver-haired man paid Simon little to no attention, almost as if he didn't notice he was there. Because of this, he tapped the man's shoulder who was next to him, even though he had some difficulty finding him.

"Is there someone else in this room, Elliot?"
"Yeah, recruit is here. He's kinda skinnier than what they described, but he could be a good model, Haruto." 

The man shaped a frame with his index and thumb, trapping Simon's face inside of it as he inspected every detail. He had heterochromia eyes, his left a rotten gold, and the other an emerald green. He was wearing the same uniform as Simon, just that he had a red tie to match his short red hair. 

The last of the men didn't interact with any of them, just looking up at the ceiling in boredom, not caring for Simon or Evelyn's entrance. He wore a fur coat jacket with black jeans with chains and other accessories on it, sighing as he twirled in his chair. In a way, he resembled Simon with the same onyx depths, except his were more like a sea. His blonde hair was shaggy and short, barely reaching the middle of his neck. He held a finger up to the light above him, when suddenly Ezra put his hand down.
"That's enough, Silas."

Just as Ezra said that, Evelyn chuckled, basically shoving Simon into the nearest available seat, opening a window before sitting down herself. She held her hands out, an unmistakable grin on her face.

"Meet your new squad! Ezra Mercer, the one who invites people who barely turned eighteen to smoke with him! Leo Han, the baseball fanatic! Haruto Sato, the... Actually, that's just mean. Elliot Grayson, the best photographer a model could ask for! And Silas Roe, the sharpshooter!"

All of them looked at Evelyn, clearly unamused. Most of them looked as if they were holding something back, except for Leo. He grabbed a baseball out of his backpack and hit her clean in the face.

Smack! 

"Ow! What the hell?!"

Evelyn screamed as she held and covered her nose, which was now bleeding, as Ezra laughed at Evelyn, but still punished Leo by roughly grabbing his hair.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Leo exclaimed in pain 

Just introduce yourselves. I need to get a tissue or something." Evelyn said before scurrying out of the room, leaving Simon there with these freaks of nature.

Haruto smiled at Simon, getting up from his seat and being the first to greet him with a handshake. He slowly walked him toward the front of the room, feeling his way around as his already closed eyes narrowed even further.

"Why don't you introduce yourself, Simon?"

Simon hesitated for a while before turning to the rest of the squad.

"Hello, my name is Simon Crest."
"It's nice to meet you." The men all said in unison, before they all got up one by one, crowding him.
"Simon, you know you're quite handsome. The ladies must be all over you, right? I wish I looked like you when I was younger." 
"Don't you have a wife, Ezra? What would she think if she heard you saying all of that?"
"Fuck off, Leo. She'd probably agree." Ezra said, ruffling his head.
"So how old are you anyway?" Elliot asked Simon.
"I'm nineteen."
"Really? That means you and Silas are the same age." Haruto grinned, reaching out to find Silas.

Silas was slightly away from the group, out of range to touch as they all turned to him. Silas looked at every one of them before looking at Simon. He was mentally comparing Simon's eyes to his before he turned away with a groan.

"I don't think he likes you, Simon," Leo whispered, rubbing his head from the pain of Ezra pulling on his hair. "That aside, what do you think about Evelyn?"

"What do you mean?" Simon raised an eyebrow, shifting his focus toward Leo
"She's hot, right?"
"I mean... Yeah? Way better looking than that blob fish girl I saw this morning."
"Blobfish? Wait, are you talking about Mani?!" Leo burst out into laughter as Haruto followed. Elliot just looked at the two like they were idiots before pointing an accusing finger toward Leo.
"Leo, you're laughing a bit too hard for someone who was just trying to date her," Elliot said with an overly exaggerated laugh, which made Leo stop. 
"Alright, chill bro. I didn't know what she looked like."
"Ahh, so looks matter to you?" Haruto asked as his smile widened
"Yeah, don't they matter to you too, Haru— Oh wait, never mind." Leo felt like an idiot as Evelyn suddenly cleared her throat, a tissue in her nose, and crossed her hands.

"How long have you been standing there?" 
"Long enough, Ezra." 

With that, Evelyn walked past the group, walking back toward her seat, sparing Simon a glare as she sat down. She pulled out a few folders from her own bag, setting them onto the table. She opened them, showing them all to the group at once.

"Simon, I know this is your first day, but you wouldn't be inside this group if you weren't qualified. Our sector observer, Everhart, has got new information for us. It seems that the bedeviled are searching for a way to activate some kind of entity to try and contract it. It was just gossip among them, but we have to find it either way." 

Unlike Evelyn's usual tone, she was calm, collected... Maybe even commanding. Just a little though. As she finished speaking, everyone except Simon immediately stood straight and saluted.

"Yes, ma'am!" They said in unison.

Simon looked at the lot in confusion before slowly following their actions and stepping into line.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good! We're going out today, so get ready!"
"And she's immediately back to being goofy." Each of them thought on their own, but they didn't dare say a peep.