Trying to judge where he hailed from by his accent would prove frustratingly impossible. He spoke perfect English of course, but it seemed to lack any regional accent, speech pattern, or even colloquial terms. It was the same when he spoke Arabic, or Russian. It was not clinical; it seemed natural, smooth, and as flowing as one may expect of someone speaking their language of birth.
She put forward her intentions, and coupled with her apology (even accompanied by an excuse to justify it), he grinned at her. "About God damned time, Rune. Fuck sake. Knew you were a smart one, you were just too damn stubborn to realize it yourself. No hard feelings. I lost some guys, closest I had to a family I suppose, to a pack of Jann before I got tagged up with you lot. Hate those fucking sand bags. Creepy lot, they are."
He agreed with her opinion on Jaxen; the man probably wasn't stupid enough to try sneaking into the Atharim HQ again, not on his own. Of course, there was always the chance that he would be stupid enough to try and tip off the authorities to the Atharim presence. Did Jaxen understand Hood's point, that the Atharim were the good guys, in the grand scheme of things? Even for how damn brain-washed and cultish the lot of them could be.
Rune shrugged at White's overly eager acceptance of her apology. That was all fine and good and in her book they were square. The red was out of her ledger and she could mentally move on. Rune didn't particularly hold grudges. Life was too violent and short for grudges to drag down your days.
Jann though made her face twist up into disgust. She'd never seen them herself, and as far as she understood it, they were typically desert-type goons. She knew the name though. They were usually spoken of in the same breath as Ghul. And White's family was slaughtered by them. That must have been how he transitioned from straight up military to whatever kind of peripheral atharim he was now. Made sense. Rune didn't know what to say though.
She managed to get up to go rummage through her stuff near the cot she'd been sleeping on lately. She swiped a bottle of hair color neutralizer and other shower stuff. Obviously she seemed to be about to take a shower.
"I gotta get cleaned up and see if Uncle Seth wants to go with me to talk to him. Unless you wanna go? You've probably never met the Regus. You should, you know, at least once."
Hood let out a bark of laughter and shook his head at her offer; "No, never have, and don't think I'm supposed to be meeting that boss of yours either. Besides, I do that, they may start having bigger expectations of me. Like swearing your pinky-oaths and sacrificing a chicken or whatever the fuck it is you people do. I'm an outsider to your club, and probably best for everyone the less I know."
He wouldn't go visit their Regus unless the man asked, and even then it would have to be for a damn good reason. He was a busy man, after all. He didn't help them out for the money; their cause was good if misguided, and the things they hunted were a far cry more entertaining to go after then people, most of the time. He gave the Atharim plenty of flack verbally, but he didn't actually mind them so much.
By then, she knew where everything was in the washroom, so there was no need to tell her where to find anything she might need. "Hopefully your Regus fella listens, but I doubt it, Rune. Groups like this, they tend to be slow to respond to change. Worse still to realize when it's needed. But it has to start somewhere, right? Fuck, talk to that Indian lady that worked over that Rougarou a while back. She seemed to be able to think outside the box. Get a few allies in your camp before moving up the chain."
After a few more days, Rune was feeling right as rain -- so long as she didn't do too many sit ups. Which was fine with her, she hated situps anyway. There were like a bazillion other ways to work her core strength that she preferred.
Harry kept her life bright for the next few days. Even if her hair wasn't as colorful. She'd neutralized the color several days before hand, so she could re do it in a couple of days from a fresh palette. So for now her regular dark chocolate hair was regular ole plain and boring. Harry the Hedgehog though! He was oodles of fun. He and Rune watched tv on the Wallet together. They ate noodles together. And sometimes Rune would take him outside and let him sniff around in the dirt/snow. But after he darted under the porch where the dogs liked to stay, and Rune couldn't get him to come out (because the dogs kept nipping at her), and she had to call for White to come and help distract them with food so she could safely retrieve her hedgehog, she stopped taking him outside.
She also took the time to make sure all her weapons, stocks, and instruments were in tip top shape. Seth always told her an Atharim was only as good as his gun, so Rune learned how to take care of her stuff, or else she'd make a piss poor Atharim, and she was better than that.
Then one day the
message from Thalia popped up on her Wallet. It seemed that Thal and finally finished Rune's tattoo sketch and suggested a parlor to meet up at to go over the details one last time.
Rune asked White if he'd take her. To which she got a big fat no. The jerk face. So she said she'd go on her own. She left Harry in his little pen for safe keeping (so White wouldn't "accidentally" step on him - she'd be sad if Harry got squished), grabbed her stuff and went.
Over the next few days, Hood would come and go as his day job called him away. He had turned down a few very lucrative jobs due to how time consuming they were, and instead favoured security assessment roles. Boring, but they didn't require his presence 24/7, and there was no point running a safe house if he were not there to keep it safe while there was actually someone in attendance. Besides, who knew what sort of trouble Rune could get up to if left alone.
He did encourage a demanding fitness routine of her to encourage her recovery and a full return to active service. The presence of her hedgehog was only a minor nuisance; she wisely kept the absurdly coloured animal tightly schooled, a surprising level of commitment from the girl considering it was, apparently, her first pet. By all signs, the animal was actually important to her, and not simply a passing fad as was with most young people and their exotic pets.
He gave her access to the weapon lockup beneath the safe house when she needed it; exposure to the wide array of weapons he kept stocked allowed her to sharpen her skills; he'd met too many Atharim that relied on their weapon of choice for sentimental values and generally forsworn using something different. And when that weapon failed them or was simply unavailable, they limped along with something unfamiliar.
He had to admit he approved of her uncoloured hair style; her usual sense of style was simply far too iconic, too recognizable, and the brown hair that appeared to be her natural colour blended well into a crowd.
When the time came for her to away for a meeting, he was all for her getting out and about. She was nearly fully recovered, and didn't need to be holed up all day with him or her blasted pet, and more importantly there were no signs that the CDPS had any flags out for her, so she was free to go about on her own. Of course, he had no interest in bringing her out and about; he had his own life, after all.