Familiarity ((open))

[Millie Arlington]

Millie walked through the doors of the institute, looking around and instantly compared the New York Institute with the Chicago Institute. It was very much the same however, due to the nature of Institutes. They weren't meant to be personalized to the head's liking, and were always in churches. The Chicago one was right near a cemetery just outside of the main city, and looked eerily similar in build to this one. It made her a little homesick, but she quickly pushed that away to see if she could find a pattern to the layout. It was quiet, and she was hoping she wouldn't run into anyone. Her situation was unique, and it was always awkward explaining it to shadowhunters she encountered.

She caught on quickly. After some wandering and observing, she found herself in the training room. God, it looks and smells like the one back home, Millie thought to herself, noting the clean and fresh smell of the room. The training rooms were always much better than most mundane gyms and locker rooms, and she was grateful. High school gym classes had been horrible.

She looked around, and saw doors that led to either an equally nicely kept locker room or the armory. She rolled her shoulders, and chose the armory. She had arrived in running clothes, which were suitable enough for training at the Institute. Opening the door, Millie was blown away by the sheer size of the armory. The one back in Chicago had also been huge, but she hadn't seen it in five years. Her eyes instantly zoomed in on a whole portion of the room dedicated to bow and arrow, and her fingers twitched in anticipation.

[ginny]

Clary wandered idly through the Institute, half searching for Jace and half avoiding him. Things had been so complicated since the revelation of Jace's true ancestry and Clary was worried about him. Their life was further complicated by the new rumors circulating that claimed that Sebastian, no Jonathon she reminded herself, had somehow returned from the dead and was set on revenge. The rumors were only strengthened by the discovery of the vandalization if Max Lightwood's tomb. Shaking herself slightly in an attempt to dispel the depressing thoughts, Clary noticed that the door to the training room was open. Stopping, she weighed her options for a moment before deciding to investigate.

Stepping inside, she scanned the room, expecting Jace or Alec and secretly hoping it was Jace. Not seeing anyone immediately, Clary frowned and moved further into the training room. "Hello?" She called quietly. Perhaps someone had merely left the door open by accident? She was just turning to leave when she saw a figure standing in the armory out of the corner of her eye. Changing direction, she moved towards the female, it wasn't Isabelle nor was it someone that she recognized. Not that she knew that many other Shadowhunters, especially females, actually Isabelle was the only female Shadowhunter she knew now that Aline Penhallow had been killed. Coming to a halt a few steps away out of range of a seraph blade, just in case she startled her and the other girl reacted violently as most Shadowhunters were prone to do. Clary smiled at the other girl. "Hi, how are you?"

[Millie Arlington]

Before Millie could cross the five or so steps needed to be able to get her hands on one of the bows, she heard someone call out a soft Hello?. She looked back, withdrawing her hand that had been unconsciously reaching for a particularly sleek and beautiful bow made out of laminated cherry wood. Just behind her was a girl younger than her. Millie studied her, and concluded she was probably still in the latter half of high school. She's probably already finished training to be a shadowhunter Millie noted, and smiled weakly.

This wasn't the first shadowhunter she had met since getting back into it, but it was by far the youngest and first in the Institute. All of the other shadowhunters she had met weren't under the thumb of the Institute and for the most part weren't very well connected with Idris. Millie held out her hand for a handshake.

"Hi, I'm Millie Arlington," Millie said, her smile becoming more natural. "I'm good, you?"

[ginny]

When the girl turned around Clary studied her for a moment and had the distinct feeling that the other was doing the same. Shaking off the feeling, she smiled at Millie, "It's nice to meet you Millie. I'm Clary Fray." She relaxed, unconsciously releasing tension that she hadn't realized that she'd been holding. Maybe those Shadowhunting lessons were paying off after all. "I'm good, too."

She hesitated briefly before deciding to continue on with the conversation. "Are you a newer addition to the Institute? I don't remember seeing you here before." She didn't recognize the girl's name or face at all, and Clary was fairly sure that she'd already met most of the previous inhabitants of the New York Institute.

[Millie Arlington]

Millie grew curious when the girl stated her name. She was familiar with some of the more prestigious shadowhunter families, and this girl didn't seem to belong to them. The thing that nagged at her the most was that she definitely had heard the name before, but she couldn't remember when or where. Before she could think about it more, she noted the girl visibly relaxing and her lips quirked. She's definitely a shadowhunter then Millie concluded.

The girl, no, Clary, said she was well too. Millie could tell that she was stuck between leaving and continuing the conversation. Millie personally couldn't care much for either or. She hadn't talked to another shadowhunter in weeks, and she couldn't exactly discuss the most efficient way of killing a higher demon with her friends from NYU. Clary decided to go for the latter, and when Millie heard the question she half wished the girl had left.

She bit her lip, and immediately ran her tongue across her bottom lip. "I'm not exactly a new addition," Millie confessed. "I'm originally from the Chicago Institute, but left when I came to New York to attend NYU. I haven't had reason to come to this Institute until now."

Millie decided that mentioning that she was actually originally from the Sydney Institute would just make things messier. She waited for Clary's response; it wasn't normal for a shadowhunter to leave an Institute to go to college and not even maintain contact with the local Institute. Just attending a mundane college was unheard of.

[clary]

Having shadow hunters other than the Lightwoods in the institute was... weird for Clary. She was well aware of the Institute's use as a haven and refuge for any and all shadow hunters in the area, but she'd become so used to the familiar faces of Alec, Isabelle, and Jace as the only ones she encountered there and of having the institute to themselves save Maryse, that it almost seemed unnatural for there to be anyone else present despite the endless hallways of empty rooms. She was going to have to get used to it though, there had definitely been a influx of shadow hunters passing through the New York institute lately and Clary had a gut feeling it probably had at least a little bit to do with the events set into motion by her late father.

It pained her to think about how much her father, and even her mother, had done to upset the shadow hunting world. So many people had died or lost loved ones all because a small group of headstrong teenagers that thought they knew a better way to do things and were willing to fight for their beliefs no matter the cost. It all seemed so noble but there was certainly nothing noble about what Valentine had planned to do. What he had done. Despite all that Clary would be lying if she said meeting new shadow hunters, especially hunters her own age, wasn't the least bit exhilarating.

Her time spent in Idris had been eye opening to say the least and if not for the horrors- again caused by her seemingly cursed bloodline- that had taken place, she would probably have finally been able to understand what it was about Idris that Jace and her mother loved so much. But for now, most of her memories of the shadow hunting home world were tainted with blood. The thought of her brother and the part he played in bringing down the wards and in poor Max's death brought the more recent events to the forefront of her mind and it made her a little sick. She quickly shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind, not letting her discomfort show on her face. Instead she offered Millie a sheepish smile.

"I've never been to Chicago," Clary admitted. "But I've always thought it would be an incredible place to visit. I've heard there's artwork all over the city in the parks and even just on the sidewalks and streets. Some of the artwork displayed at the Art Institute there is some of the most renowned in the world. I'd love to see it someday." Clary lost herself for a moment as famous images conjured up by the likes of Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir flashed behind her eyes. Pulling herself out of the paintings slideshow that had been flickering through her mind, she asked curiously, "Do you like it here?"

(OOC: I probably wouldn’t have had Clary be so forward and outgoing- nor would I have had her aimlessly wandering around the institute lol- but I can just work with it I guess since nothing seemingly earth shattering happened in those first couple of posts.)

[Millie Arlington]

Millie nodded, Clary's claim that she had never been to Chicago not too surprising. Shadowhunters often traveled, but that was normally when they were older and thus more autonomous and well trained. She smiled at the thought of Chicago.

"It's gorgeous," Millie said, tightening her ponytail. It was a nervous habit she had had since she was a kid, and she didn't think she would ever out grow it. "Maybe one day you could go and stay at the institute there. Angeline, the caretaker, loves when young shadowhunters visit."

She thought of her adoptive mother, and grinned. "And she'd certainly love the fact that you're into art. She knows all of the local art galleries, and could probably take you to some of the more obscure ones."

Millie hesitated with the question. She loved New York when she first got to the city, a fresh faced freshman ready to start college and live on her own. Now here she was, with her Bachelors in History and Political Science while fighting what mundanes would call monsters. She wasn't even using her degree for anything; she worked at a bar. Millie slowly nodded her head.

"New York was always a bit of a wonderland for me when I was younger, so coming here was amazing," Millie explained, but shrugged. "The novelty of it's kind of worn off now that I see there's a ton of demonic activity here."

(OOC: That's fine lol. Thanks for keeping this thread going though!)