Welcome to Recruitment month!
Recruiting new members into the Ravens of the Storm was a little more difficult than we'd first imagined, since we never did get that gripping recruitment video done. Instead, we had to grip our Recruitment Candidates personally, and drag them along with us. This wasn't really all that difficult - except in the case of Recruitment Candidate Satyr, who insisted in staying well out of our reach. About a province or three out of reach, actually. Ah, well... he was being dragged through mud and snow by the Canadian Military - no sense in spoiling his fun with the ardent rigours of the mercenary lifestyle.
On this fine day, our mercs (and the new recruits) were forced to endure paperwork. We made the wanna-be's fill out Recruitment Forms! And then the little bastards turned on us, and made the veteran members of our organization also fill out the forms. Much snickering ensued, but in the end we survived with only minor papercuts.
The recruitment surveys were carefully studied by the veterans, and after a thorough debate, it was agreed that all of this year's candidates would be accepted into our ranks. Including Satyr, despite his absence. (He keeps coming up with the best excuses for not showing up to merc. outings... and that's good for morale, right?)
Anyways, having accepted these new recruits, we felt it necessary to make them suffer the humiliation of being at the bottom of the totem pole. (Oops - did I type that? I meant "Make them feel welcome.") We discussed various hazing rituals - but seeing as the recruits nearly outnumbered the veterans, settled on a more subtle induction into our unit. We decided that they would all have to get wet. Very wet.
And thus began....
The Ravens of the Storm Practice Aquatic Maneuvers
On a number of occasions, Captain Nightshade had put forth the idea of taking the Ravens swimming. The timing was just never quite right until this particular night, as we sat around with the recruits and pondered large bodies of water.
The proposal went forth, and was met with much rejoicing. All the members of the Ravens would be in attendance except for Satyr (see excuse above) and Foxglove (who had absconded to Ontario to babysits cats and parents). This would be the first official troup action with the new recruits (BlackBehr and two others so new to the company that they hadn't even aquired proper mercenary names yet).
At the appointed hour, some of the Ravens gathered at the site of the aquatic training facility. Only some. Others were en route. Well, sort of en route. Okay, lost. BlackFox nd BleckBehr got lost on the way. Happens to even the most cutthroat of us once in a while.
Once well entrenched in the pool, The Ravens engaged in a number of grueling physical contests including treading water for extended periods of time, diving for things and swinging like maniacs from a conveniently placed rope. Cas made a fine show of placing rings strategically around the bottom of the deep end, then sending other members down to get them. Or more often, simply diving down and getting them himself so he could redistribute them.
During a break from this grueling (whatever) training, the Ravens gathered to bestow upon the new recruits their proper names. For the first, the choice was accelerated by the fact that he had a perfectly good mercenary handle in mind, and all the senior Ravens decided that it would do. The second however took more effort.
After moving to the hot tub to discuss matters, one of the Ravens suggested Brillo as a mercenary handle for the poor soul. This was on account of his extremely curly hair which in the proper light can resemble a pad of steel wool. However, the recruit didn't recognize the word Brillo. To him, those little scrubby things were known as Chore Gals - a name which we all immediately latched on to (thinking it sounded rather "Klingon"), and stuck him with it.
And so it was that we introduced into The Ravens of the Storm recruitment candidates Padre and Chor'gal. And there was a great celebrating. But not for too long as a number of the ravens were getting light-headed in the excessive temperatures of the hot tub.
Events then moved back to the cool pool, where Padre, Blackbehr and Captain Nightshade all demonstrated excelent splashing abilities. Then a contest of cannonballing was called for and each of the Ravens aquitted themselves admirably. However, our training time was cut short by the pesky public servants who came 'round to inform us that the pool was in fact closing.
And so the Ravens faded into the night, knowing full well that this was only the beginning of our grueling training regimen, and looking forwards one and all to the next session.
Quotes (and Mis-quotables):
"Uh, Captain... On this survey where it says: Would you (a)Buy the Captain a drink, (b)Buy food for the most pathetic member of the group, or (c)Spend your money on yourself... Well, what if you ARE the most pathetic member of the group?" - Cas
"Hey - we could make Recruitment Candidate Padre into our scout. Or weather-monitoring station!" - someone (I think it was BlackFox) concerning Padre's impressive height.
"Okay Recruit - Go down. No - I meant to get the diving rings. Hey - don't give me that look! I don't operate that kind of company!!!" - Captain Nightshade