Welcome to Gaia! ::

The hallways leading to the Mist Lounge were dark, thanks to its location considered "non-essential" in the grand scheme of things. While it was located inside the main building, it happened to be located in a wing little used by the hunters themselves.

The Lounge itself was thankfully brighter than the hallways leading to it. As an informal meeting, someone had taken the time to arrange the furniture in a rough circle. The tables were taken over by a rather impressive collection of candles, just bright enough to illuminate the multiple fire extinguishers that lurked nearby.

A loud sigh came from Lance as he slumped back in the couch dramatically. "You should've waited before calling this," he complained, "Then we would've had enough time to grab some black coats and scare the pants off the freshly unpodded."

Aria rolled her eyes. "And have them scream loud enough to call the Suns down? No thanks, I don't need another hole in the wall. It took me weeks to patch up the last one." She fussed with something in her hands before finally leaning forward, her eyes watching the marshmellow she held over the candlelight. "Besides, things are tense enough as they are. We could use the break, or at least a chance to catch up on everything."

Much like Molly's thought process went, when Stormy saw the corkboard and who had left a message, there wasn't any thought to mull over the decision. Thane was not the best flashlight in the world (or the smallest or lightest), and it was a little difficult to balance him in her hands while carrying a journal under arm, but the runes were helpful to light the way nevertheless. The weapon was desummoned promptly before she entered, cooing over the ambient candles in the Mist Lounge; it made everything seem so much more clandestine and mysterious!

"Mr. Lance, Ms. Aria," she saluted them dutifully with two fingers to her temple before she made her way towards--"Ms. Mollyyyyy~"

Don't mind Stormy, she was just gonna sidle right up by familiar faces.

She was going to go through the usual greeting process when she caught sight of . . . wait, was that a marshmallow?

"Are we going to make s'mores at the meeting, ma'am?" emotion_kirakira

Candace had seen the notice, and really she didn't need to be told twice. She went around seeing what trainees needed help finding the lounge, pleased to see some of them had already gone off on their own. Good girls. But the ones she did collect she offered a flashlight to use instead of just the light of their weapons.

When she arrived she was first surprised by all the candles everywhere. She turned her flashlight off for now, looking around at the set up. It really was lovely. "If I'd known this was some kind of initiation ceremony I'd have brought black robes..." She joked, smiling. Molly received an affectionate tug at one of her curls, and Stormy, Nevada and Lance also received a wave from Candace.

It was after that she realized what Aria was doing.

It had been two weeks since she had a decent snack. S'mores sounded like heaven right about now. Aria was sharing, right? "Camping in the lounge~?"

((Other trainees can feel free to assume Candace showed you the way if you want~ ouo Come little children she'll take thee away~ emotion_kirakira ))

An unusually bright-eyed trainee with long orange hair watched everyone else curiously, smiling and waving at anyone who cast a glance in her direction. Especially Candace, who had helpfully found and led/dragged her to this spooky candelit room. They all seemed to know each other; this wouldn't be too much different than going to a new school. A new school armed straight out of an MMO. Which was basically like living an anime or something, right?

She had absolutely no idea what she was in for.

"What's the opposite of a ghost story?" she asked aloud, looking up at the ceiling of flickering light as she thought. "We should tell one of those."

More trainees arrived and Candace perked up, grinning and returning Dorian's little wave. "Hey, you~."

When she caught sight of Pandora sticking around after being brought here she smiled. It always did excited her to see new faces in their division. "The opposite of a--" Disney movies? Candace chuckled. "We'd have to count on Stormy for that."

When Ro asked about Pandora, Candace shook her head. "Nah, just woke her up the other day. The pods are thankfully considered a necessity so they have power right now." She'd let them introduce themselves to each other, Ro was a big boy he could handle it. She looked around for signs of other trainees. It wasn't mandatory but she did hope they showed up.

"Evening," Lance replied to Molly as she entered, waving to her before twisting his hand into a come hither gesture. "Come take a seat. If we had any black coats left I'd start having you pass'em out. Except someone said otherwise."

"We're not a secretive cult, Lance." Aria replied, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at the exceedingly hopeful tone in Stormy's voice as she joined them. The sentiment was then echoed by Nevada and Dorian before Candace turned the topic back.

"See? See? Candace at least gets it!" Lance protested, hands up defensively as Aria chucked a marshmallow at him.

Aria sighed and shook her head as a trainee she was unfamiliar with asked about ghost stories. The division leader really needed to spend time with the files of newly awakened trainees instead of letting Lance deal with them. "It's hard to tell a ghost story when you've lived through plenty of them," Aria replied quietly.

As the mood was ruined, Aria quietly retrieved her now slightly-burned marshmallow and laid it on a piece of graham cracker before passing the back and stick over to Ro first. "I'm afraid I don't have any chocolate," she began as she placed the box of lightly stale crackers on the table away from the candles, "But... Let's begin."

The division leader took a deep breath and held it before letting it out slowly. "I'm not going to sugar coat this. We're well on our way to deep s**t. Things will be getting worse before we get better. Intermediates and full hunters? I'm going to count on you to ensure that the trainees don't die."

Her gaze settled on the faces she wasn't familiar with, flickering between them as she registered them to her memory. "For those unaware, my name is Aria. I am you division leader. Lance," the man raised a hand and waved as she continued, "Is the assistant. If you need something, please consult whichever one of us you find first."

"Now," Aria continued, "Let me be blunt. A majority of Deus' shields are down. The shield around headquarters is still intact, however it will only be a matter of time before They notice it isn't there. It is in your best interest to stay within the main headquarters and prepare for the inevitable."

"Does anyone have anything to report?"

"Not'ing 'ere also - there are a few 'unters that are coming out of their pods to a quiet and dark dorm room." He started, shrugging a little, thinking about it a little. "Getting a lot more sleep too, because not'ing to do at night."

Hearing the other man pipe up a little, he turned to regard him. He knew generally about solar energy - his family had considered investing in it back in the day, but whether or not they took it up, was beyond him, he had already left before they had made their decisions.

"We would have to .. ehh, create . . . . cadres solaires." A pause as he searced for the word. "panels? It would take time, oui?" He asked the man to his side, eyebrows raising a little at him as he thought about it. "It would be like . . . getting 'ydro or something."