Cruach is glad that her reputation is good enough that she doesn't have to do the approaching for once. A small group seems interested in hiring her for an equally small job, just protection, patrols, and maybe a bit of intimidation for a couple of nights while they square away a few of their more sensitive operations. From her own investigations, they're not being targeted by anyone major, and they seem the careful sort, so there's a decent chance she won't see any action. The only potential snag is that they've apparently hired another merc (or villain) as well. Capes can be volatile, and not everyone is experienced or professional; that being the case, she's insisted on a meeting beforehand, to hash things out and get a read on the other cape. She's begrudgingly relied on the group for communication, and they insisted that the meeting be held somewhere they control, a side room in what looks to be a safehouse. The room is dimly lit and poorly furnished, though not in disrepair. There are a few snacks and drinks present, though nothing fancy.

Cruach arrives a few minutes early, is escorted in, and takes a seat in the meeting room. Her senses are focused on the surroundings, and a number of moth-like creatures are scattered throughout the building. Being careful about this sort of thing is what's kept her alive and in the game this long, and she's not about to stop now. Her gloved fingers tap a pattern on the surface of the table in front of her, though should she detect the arrival of the other cape she would stop, stilling her movements.

Once the other cape arrives, it is immediately obvious. Most people do not have a bony white, perfectly smooth complexion and a prehensile hair equivalent that ended in deep purple hound-like maws, after all. Or the guts to wear pretty much just enough to be decent, for that matter. Moving with inhuman smoothness towards the meeting room. The only noise they're making being excited babbling amongst the heads, and a few greetings towards the moth creatures whenever one of the heads spotted one.

Then she(?) steps into the room, five heads staring directly at Cruach. ''Hi there!'' ''Hello.'' ''Greetings.'' ''Hi.'' ''Heya.'' The heads greet at once. Cheerful in comparison to their looks. Smiling broadly with maws full of needle teeth.

The moth creatures, designed to be nearly indistinguishable from regular moths, don't respond, instead electing to continue on with their moth-like duties of perching on walls and buzzing around lights. As Hydra steps into the room, Cruach stands to greet her(?), though she doesn't offer a hand to shake. As she stands it would be apparent that her motions have a similar degree of inhuman smoothness to them, though it's not quite as noticeable given the coverage and slight bagginess of her costume. her costume itself is well made, utilitarian with enough flare to make it distinguished and interesting, with enough pockets, pouches, and other containers to hold a decent amount of gear. She's quite tall, though not inhumanly so, likely a bit over six feet. Though her eyes aren't visible behind the lenses of her mask, Hydra would likely get the impression that she(?)'s being sized up and watched quite closely, the owl-like mask and slight tilt of Cruach's head only adding to the effect.

"Hello. I'm Cruach." It's not completely obvious, but it would be easy to get the impression that she's focused on the central head. Her voice is soft but carries quite well, and has a hint of some unidentifiable accent. "Please, take a seat." She gestures towards the table and chairs.

The maws grin unsettlingly wide, then they come up to her. Grabbing Cruach's hand from her side and shaking it excitedly And... limbs are NOT supposed to bend like that.

''Nice to meet you, miss Cruach! We are Hydra two and six through nine.'' They introduce themselves in unison. Then lets go to slide to one of the chairs. Depositing herself into one of the chairs, then watching Cruach. Unblinkingly. Bobbing slightly in place, but not letting her out of their sight for even a moment.

Cruach tenses as Hydra grabs her hand. She does grip back, hand solid and unyielding under the glove of her costume. The sense that she's sizing up Hydra as a threat would increase. Where before, there was little odor other than that of the background, there is suddenly an very apparent scent of mildew, black mold, rotting wood, and a tinge of copper. Cruach's costume shifts slightly, as though there's extra weight to it suddenly. The smell disperses quickly.

"A pleasure." She sits as well, with the same sort of inhuman fluidity. What can be gleaned of her posture isn't tense in the way someone nervous would be, but is certainly coiled, ready to move at a moments notice. "Don't do that again." Her tone is flat, a clear warning, and she lets the sentence hang for a second. "Just how new are you?"

''Two isn't.'' One of the heads states. ''The rest of us are! Kind of.'' Another chimes in. ''It's kiiinda weird with memories.'' Yet another chimes in. The main head hasn't spoken since the introduction. Though they do seem pleased with the statement of not being new. ''We just don't care for people going about all those silly mannerisms. That's why Two is in charge for when we need to business-y stuff!''

"I'll leave the management of your powers up to you." There's the impressions that Cruach would like to be pinching the bridge of her nose, and isn't doing so only because her mask would get in the way. "This is business. We've been hired to do a job, and we need to work together, as professionals. Just because the stakes aren't as high as they could be doesn't mean we can slack, that's how things end up going wrong."

She pauses, leaning back slightly, forcing her posture to relax a bit. "Just ... You must know what strikers can do, how many powers are touch based? It's common etiquette in cape meetings. Pulling something like that with someone more volatile could land you in a very bad spot."

''It is actually our collective power.'' The main head explains. ''And we can be serious. It's just a bit hard when we've got the senses and thoughts of five people going all over without a focus.''

The mention of striker powers has her sigh. ''Yes. I am aware. Sadly, they think they're immune to consequences because of our powers, and can get very excited about meeting interesting people. They've been talking my ear off about the 'cool maybe-moth-person' for the past minute now.'' The rest of the heads are silent, but glare daggers at the main one for seemingly having spilled that fact. Who is, going off of her own words, currently likely being screamed at.

"I see. I'm glad it was just a handshake and a faux pas then. I won't pretend to understand fully, though I do get it, I think." She seems marginally more relaxed, now that there's a degree of common ground and things seem to have been somewhat cleared up.

Her head tilts slightly, a rather bird-like expression. "I take it your on the upper end of brutes in some capacity, then?" There's a questioning tone to her voice, though it doesn't seem like she'll pry to hard if it comes to it.

"I'm impressed they noticed, though I suppose with that many sets of senses it's not terribly surprising." She holds out a hand and one of the larger instances of the moth-creatures flutters down to land on it. "I'm rather proud of them. You can take a closer look, if you'd like." It's clear the second sentence is addressing the extra heads. She extends her hand across the table, offering up the moth-creature. "Though I'm not really a moth-person. Sorry to disappoint."

''Mmhm. We're really, really good in both not dying, and coming back from dying. It makes overconfidence very, very easy.'' ''It's not overconfidence-'' ''-if we'll come back anyway!'' ''And it's not like cuffs really work on us either.'' Three of the four other heads chime in, to a sigh from the main one. ''As you can see.''

The moth creature's landing has all four of the spare heads crowd around it to inspect it and barraging Cruach with questions. An annoyed look from the main head being followed by the lot of them pulling back a bit. Now taking slightly more orderly turns asking about what the moths do and what Cruach is for a type of person, if not moth.

"Impressive. I'm glad we're on the same side." The slight head tilt remains, and the sense that she's being studied would be relatively apparent to Hydra.

Her head un-tilts following the display, and her posture would convey a small amount of bemusement. The moth creature flutters off of her hand and lands on the table in front of Hydra; if a hand is extended or it is otherwise prompted, it would climb on and allow itself to be examined. "They mostly help with situational awareness. I'm sure you know how useful having multiple sets of sense can be. Besides that, they're an alright distraction and not much else. They're almost identical to a regular moth." She gives a small shrug. "Not exactly the best form factor for fighting, even if that was the point."

"It's not really as simple as being a 'something-person'." She reaches on hand up to cup the bottom half of her mask, the other withdrawing what looks to be an energy bar from a pocket on her belt. The hand at her mask pushes a small hidden lever or button of some kind, and with a slight mechanical click the bottom half of her mask detaches. She lowers it and clips it to her belt in a smooth motion. "I'm just ... not quite human."

At first glance, what's exposed of her face would look to be relatively normal, though with the amount of sensory power Hydra possesses, she would be quickly disabused of this notion. If Hydra were capable of experiencing the uncanny valley, she would likely be doing so. The skin is too smooth, the features slightly too sharp, too symmetrical. The breathing is off, too shallow, to even, out of sync with her speech. The teeth are ever so slightly too sharp, and it seems as though there might be too many. There are motions under the skin where there shouldn't be, as though there's extra musculature.