Welcome to Gaia! ::

Candace yawned and stretched her arms up, stretching out her back out a bit with a strained groan. She had slept in this morning, so this training course was also her way of making up for that. Might as well do it with the new Mist, gets to know him, and fix whatever s**t Rep had told the poor guy. He seemed nice enough so far.

She checked her phone for the time, yawning again and fixing her coat. "I should've had my coffee first." She mumbled, bending down to stretch out her legs before the new trainee arrived. Candace wanted to be ready when he got here. Ready and awake.

The awake part was a little harder to manage right this second.

Candace lifted her head with a surprised look on her face when she heard a voice she didn't recognize replying to something she had said. She smelled the coffee right away, perking up with a grin and holding her hand out to accept it. "Aw, thanks! So you're the new Mist?" Candace moved, sipping at the coffee--ehhhhh not enough cream, but he didn't know that--and looking the young man up and down as she walked a slow circle around him. Mist, how lovely. She smiled. It was so nice to have more Mists around, even if Aria seemed hesitant on accepting men. "Very nice. I had a coat tailored in the back like yours when I was an intermediate. They're handy for when you need a lot of leg movement. Roland, right?" She asked to be sure, drinking some more of her coffee and suddenly realizing she was looking down at him.

...So tiny.

At the compliment on her coat she perked up with a huge grin and did a full turn for Ro to see the entire thing, giggling with excitement and practically glowing with pride. "Thank you! I worked really hard for this coat. One day you'll have one like it!" Candace was looking more and more ready to do this by the minute. She even made a point of drinking her coffee quickly so they didn't waste time. Any discomfort that he had about their little exchange was lost on her.

"Alright, so. This is the 'Miss Taken Tower', also known as the 'Princess Tower'. It's basically the Mist division's training course. Each division has one that caters to their needs; Suns have the shadow run, which is basically kill all the things. One of my favorites. Moons have Princess Isle, where you build defenses to protect the princess...I haven't done that one yet, I'm a terrible Moon. Life is literally jenga with tranquilizer snipers. And then there's the Deathsweeper...we don't talk about the deathsweeper." Candace was frowning now, her cheeks flushed as she distracted herself with finishing her coffee and setting the cup down by the wall of the castle. She'd toss it later.

"I'm sure it's been explained already but as a Mist you're expected to learn and be able to perform the duties of all the divisions. We do also have our own duties but...we'll get more on that later. This tower has four phases," Candace held up her hand, her index finger pointed up. "First phase is the Sun clearing. It's not as intense as the Shadow run but we have to clear it out, so be ready. After that is a smaller version of the deathsweeper. It's a puzzle on the floor where all you have to do is pick the right tiles. The wrong ones are set up with traps that can hurt you." She now held up two fingers and then pointed a third. "Phase three, we have to save the princess. We'll each have our own princess...it's a golem that is uh..going to look like absolutely any hunter on this island. It's quite the adventure." Finally, the fourth finger. "And then we have to get our princesses down the tower. The goal is to do this flawlessly, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. Don't get discouraged if you mess up. Learn from it. This is your chance to make mistakes." Candace smiled again.

"Any questions before we begin?"

Candace paused in her little inspection when she heard 'live long enough'. Her eyes narrowed. Who the ********... "That's..a terrible attitude to have. I'm sorry if some jaded assholes gave you that impression. Who have you spoken to, exactly?" She recalled Rep trying to 'save' Ro from her on twitter so obviously there was that one. But who else was part of 'everyone'. "I won't lie to you. Yes, lots of people have died in just the year I've been here. Our last large mission alone had countless casualties. But you can't think like that, okay? The Mists are survivors. Aria, our leader, makes a point of being sure we can do that. You should see about talking to her or Lance, her assistant. They're very protective over Mists." Candace smiled again. "Honestly, don't live life thinking 'well I guess there's no point in doing my best to survive when I'm just going to die anyway'. Don't think about it unless you're in a situation where reminding yourself not to die is necessary. Okay? Does that make sense?"

Ro went on to show her he was paying attention, her eyes following him as he moved around. Ah, so it'd been explained that most of the division was women and why. "It's not impossible. I've seen pictures of men from years and years and years ago in this division. But most men tend to get too cocky, like they have something to prove." A shrug. She watched Ro summon his weapon and her eyes widened. How lovely.

"Very, very nice. I haven't seen many traditional scythe wielders on the island. I can only think of you and...one other person." She didn't feel like discussing that other person. "I'll show you my weapon when we get inside. She's not exactly fit for travel. Come on, let's head inside~." Candace turned and gestured for Ro to follow her, leading the way inside.

"I well, it's not how I normally am!" He paused bowing his head, "Rep, Jordan, Harrison, Sasha, Mel... Mela... I'm going to call her Mel she's a trainee too with a hard realisim look on things. Then Ceres and you. Ceres and Jordan are the most positive, Harrison doesn't say much, Rep is Rep, and you seem pretty cool... Sasha was just really aggitated the whole time because my music was up too loud."

<< .... you must be terrible at keeping secrets. >>

"Do weapons count because mines a pervert and sings too much."

All he got in response was some variation of opera in his head now.

"I'll get in touch with them as soon as I can if that's what you want ma'am. I've just been... all over the place trying to get ready for when my first real mission is. Sparing with Ceres, studying everything I can in the labs, this right now with you even." Eventually a real smile, weary and true cracked through his face. "Candace ma'am you might be the first person to say something I agree with since I've gotten here. It makes plenty of sense really."

He rolled his eyes, "Rep... had a lot to say about Mist, even Harrison wished me luck, I hear Mist isn't nice on screw ups or men but... I'll do my best." He didn't mention that he felt like he did have to prove himself, he might have already given that away.

"Yes ma'am." It was all down to work now, he slung Sylvia over his shoulder easily and started after her into the tower.

<< I hope you're ready, and try not to fall. This course won't be so nice like Ceres was Rolo >>

"In Rep's defense, he helped me out of the pod and introduced me to Jordan who I rank as one of the more enjoyable people to be around rivaled by Ceres. I need to find her again and check in, she left me with a bruised side, but otherwise it was a good practice spar." A small frown crossed his face though the more she talked about Sasha.

"Well maybe... somethings gotten to her? Can't always be 'sunshine and happiness' here on the island." The last part was in quotes done by his free hand while the other held Sylvia at bay. "Madeline! That's her name! We had coffee a day or so after I woke up while going over a few books." Slowly he started after her towards the towers door shrugging. "I'm getting along... better. She just won't stop singing and making the most awkward of comments when I least need to hear them."

<< Hey; I've been good today! Now go hit something so I can have a bite! >>

"Er... Sylvia's complaining she's hungry? That I should hit something? What does that mean anyway? As for Mists being errr well 'bitches' I wouldn't say that at all unless well, you're okay with that being a blanket term for women. I don't really have a problem with it? I mean, you seem swell enough and it's a shame Ceres isn't a Mist I'd love to work with her more. And Rep isn't.. always terrible. I don't feel like punching him at all. Not yet? Really..."

Soon they where inside the room, the only glow was that of a faint white mist around Sylvia's blade. Then came the eyes. One, two, five, twenty. He shivered at the site. They where low to the ground squirming and crawling. Not human, but bigger then an animal it seemed.

"Pleasure Atropos." He leveled Sylvia towards the shadows. "Sylvia. She apologizes that you won't be able to hear her song..." Sure enough the moment he stepped forward she started to sing, a quick tempo that dictated his foot steps as he pushed in towards the first shadows.

He still wasn't used to the dance, his blade slicing quickly but awkwardly, pushing the shadows back with weak hits rather then actually finishing them in clean sweeping blows.

He was clearly no Caelius to anyone who knew they shared a weapon type.

While still on the ground, Candace kicked a leg up and stabbed it through the head of a shadow trying to tackle her while she was down. She pushed her body into a backward roll, landing on her feet and kicking away a few more shadows. She stumbled back then when something hit the back of her leg, landing on the stairs up to the next floor. Perfect.

"Ro! This way!"

Candace sighed as they reached the second floor, grimacing at the sight of the tiled floor in front of them. On the bright side? It was only two rows of tiles as opposed to ******** the deathsweeper.

Without another word she reached into the pouch strapped to her thigh and pulled out two small flags. She held one out toward Ro. "Here, take this. This right here is your new best friend whenever you approach any version of the deathsweeper. Watch." Candace took her own flag and approached the tiles, looking them over. Eenie meenie...this one. She dropped the flag on a tile in front of her, hoping it would work.

It did! Suddenly the tile burst into flame, enough to completely incinerate a human. Her eyes widened as she backed away from it. "Holy s**t, Clarice! Are you trying to kill us?!"

It would only kill you a little bit. Atropos chimed in with clear ******** YOU I'D RATHER NOT DIE AT ALL! And to that Atropos cackled. Candace sighed and stepped onto the tile beside the exploding one.

"And that is how you don't die."

"Clarice is the Life division assistant. Despite my complaining just now she's pretty great. She's in Halloween right now but...hopefully she'll be back soon." Candace sighed softly and then watched him move onto the first tile. She heard the shout and nearly jumped as a leg came flying up from the tile and hit him square in the manhood. Candace did her best to be polite but there was no way she could hold back her laughter. Her arms wrapped around her middle as she doubled over, laughing hysterically. Yes, we're twelve years old here and laughing at nutshots given by robotic legs crying out about purses.

He fell over and she snorted, stumbling back onto a tile behind her. There was a click..click...

s**t! No!

Candace jumped off the tile and onto the one beside it. Under her heel she felt a part of the tile sink and she hopped onto the next tile and finally onto the safe floor on the other side. The first tile she had stepped on suddenly had sharp spikes going through it from the floor. The second? Arrows shot past it, each arrow head barbed and very painful looking.

"Are you okay?" Candace called out, chuckling softly and rubbing her side. That had looked like it'd hurt. "One more tile and we can take a quick rest before we free the princess from her bonds~." Normally she would just continue on without a rest but well...poor guy looked to be in some serious pain.