Their first meeting was a strange one, to be sure.
Tamarak was passing through Kingsmouth, following the sounds of bees and collecting information on the old, dying land. The graves and murky depths held knowledge that he wanted, regardless of whether others already knew.
Knowledge was the key to a greater picture, and Tamarak was tired of being left out.
He encountered the pair of his soon to be partners in the graveyard close to a church that housed on particularly crazed pastor. Salus had climbed up a tree, yelling in panic and shooting undead with his shotgun. Krishna had apparently been drawn by the noise, along with a good twenty other undead, and was trying to help the poor man out.
At that point, the Templar and the Illuminati agent had no idea they were meant to be enemies. The only bad blood between them was that being shed by the small horde Salus had gathered.
They both needed help, Tamarak had thought with a sigh.
The bees would put them back together, but by the boy's panicked yells he clearly didn't understand that notion. Nor did the girl, seeing how determined she was to save the young man. Her hammer slammed into another zombie's skull and the splat of grey matter could be heard even from across the yard.
Tamarak approached the duo not so much at a jog, but at a lope. Chaos magic crackled and spun around him. Once, twice and by the third spin with his claws out the group had been cleared. Twenty three, by his count, not his best but nothing to sniff at either.
He glanced between the two pairs of round eyes that couldn't look away from him. To be fair, he looked far from normal these days. He had taken to dying his hair and beard blue since leaving Kingsmouth his first time around. The shocking fauxhawk had replaced his office appropriate cut for almost six months now. He always wore sunglasses, mostly to hide the way the filth had changed his eyes.
The filth, now there was the real cause of their stares.
Veins of filth curled under his skin from countless encounters with the substance. He fought it, hated it and did everything he could to serve Gaia and show he hadn't fallen to temptation. His body was sickly pale, though the skin on his legs and arms looked more like his original tanned skin.
His eyes though, had been the worst change. The whites were now a dark grey, the lids puffy and constantly irritated behind his glasses. Dark shadows looked almost like bruises under his eyes.
"Don't draw so many of them, take 'em in threes or fours and you two should be fine", he waved them off and turned to continue with his lore finding.
"Wait! You can't jus- OOF", with a crash the albino boy in the tree tumbled down and lay for a moment groaning. Tamarak turned and did nothing to hide his smirk. Kid was all limbs.
The red haired beauty looked between the two and rolled her eyes,
"What he meant to say, was thank you"
A Brit, going by her accent. Probably a templar, going by the general theme of red and white in her outfit. Tamarak had no time for Templars, he would rather be underestimated and ignored. Then again, the punk on the ground was likely Illuminati and, even more likely, going to be just as aggravating as the Templar.
"You're welcome, but don't be so afraid. Nothing can truly end us now that we have been touched by Gaia"
His own voice sounded slightly hollow to his ears. He hadn't really spoken to anyone in months. Just going from place to place, helping people and killing monsters.
The Voice of the Dragon had told him to take a vacation. Ten minutes later he had gotten a call telling him to go to Venice to meet with a Council member that would get him into Tokyo.
That was a month ago, and Tamarak was stolidly ignoring the order. He would deal with the Council when he was damn well ready. Right now, he wanted some actual time to breath.
"What, just let those freaks chow down? That what you're saying?" The young man had finally risen and was glaring at Tamarak. His eyes were pink and sunken, kid was probably tired out of his mind. Agents never took good care of themselves. Never took care of their own.
"No, of course not. Simply that the bees will revive us if we fall. Death is not the limit it used to be"
The Dragons had never told him anything, but that was the way the Dragons worked. Only as much information as you needed, unless you went out and pulled it like jewels from their claws.
Tamarak had always figured the other factions were different but going by the surprised looks of his comrades he was wrong.
He really should get going, but part of him was holding him there. In retrospect Tamarak would admit he had been lonely. That actually talking to people again was nice.
"If you two need help, I could…" He trailed off. Could what? Follow them around like some weirdly protective shadow?
A hand was waved in front of his face and he jerked out of his thoughts to see the woman had moved closer.
"Be our pleasure, I'm Krishna and" she jerked her thumb back to indicate the deathly pale boy behind them, "That tosser is Salus"
Her hand moved forward, extended and waiting to be shaken, "You are..?" She prompted while he glanced from her sparking green eyes down to a roughly calloused hand. As he took it in his gloved one and shook he smiled at the firm grip. Definitely a Templar.
"Tamarak"
