The Gaian Underloch

[Zapp]

[A video feed, rippled by occasional spasms of static, displays on the communications screen of the recruitment office of the Gaian Underloch. The background is pitch black, as is the foreground. A tiny flicker comes to life, illuminating a woman sitting in a plain chair. Gaunt is the first word to describe her. The flicker dies, only to be reborn. It comes from a lighter that the woman is caressing in her hands. This continues for a minute, each tongue of flame casting shadows where before there was only pure shadow. She speaks, quietly.]

"Fire... it sweeps and burns without discrimination. Forests love fire, you know. It burns the old, leaves a pile of ash, and then from that ash grows a new, vibrant forest where before there was just aging trees and dying underbrush."

[Throughout her small soliloquy, the flame had continued to come to its brief existence and be snuffed. As she finishes speaking and pauses for a moment, she lets the flame continue. Her gaze is fixed intently on the flame, as if it is her sole audience.]

"I love fire. People anymore spend their entire lives trying to stop fire, when all they're trying to do is stop the natural order of things, that a force greater than us should sweep away that which is old, and usher in the new. But you... you know better. And I respect that. I'd like to join you, to help the fire spread."

[Her gaze turns from the flame and looks directly into the camera.]

"You can call me Pyro."

[The video feed dies, but a Comm ID is left for a return message to be sent.]

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