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Cadet Daesva


Why she was still in there, she wasn't sure. All through the night--according to the clock on her ComTech, anyway--all she'd wanted was to get out of Negaspace. She hated it in there. Her skin crawled there.

But she was still here.

Eventually, she'd slept some, after pouring over different reports from her own research, what others shared about their time on Earth, and different materials the Commodore had allowed them access to. She barely got through a quarter of them before her mind started buzzing, and she just moved her eyes over the text without comprehending it from that point on. Making absent notes about parts to try and go back to later that seemed interesting or useful.

By this point, she'd gotten through another quarter of the materials she'd been fighting with the night before, and was now on her third round of various stretches to work out every pop, kink, and crack from her body. It kept her from pacing, at least. For... now....

But she wasn't the only one feeling anxious, and she quirked a brow at the blanket Aliez was holding. "...there's other blankets, you know," she said simply. And, it was true. There were other blankets he could fold.

She scooped up the one she'd used the night before, balled it up, and lightly tossed it towards him. Doing things, even repetitiously, she understood. It was why she had her various... quirks? Was that the term? It gave nervous energy a place to go. Sometimes.

Cadet Caelyna

Caelyna had done her best to sleep, especially since she was snuggled up with Fae-Fae, who also desperately needed rest. She was tired--bone-deep exhausted, really--and she had hoped that sleep would be easy, and come quickly, and offer a brief respite from the terrible, awful day they had all experienced.

She was not nearly so lucky. Sleep came, but only in brief fits and starts, and finally, she disentangled herself from Fae-Fae because it was approaching Earth morning, the Commodore was leaving to speak to that awful Queen, and she was tired of pretending to be able to rest.

There was little to do even when she was awake, except perhaps pace a hole in the floor, but she was definitely fidgety and discomfited. And trying to ignore the gaping hole in her heart that was the absence of Velyria.

She should have been here with them, soothing and comforting, checking to make sure they were all alright. But she wasn't. She was gone. So was Cydfae. So was Caerynn, and Gavaen.

Caelyna was doing her best not to let the weight crush her.

"We could try to clean up, some," she offered to Daesva, Aliez, and Vyn. They all looked as harrowed as she felt--as, she imagined, she, too, must look. She knew her braid was coming apart, at least, but she couldn't find it in her to try and fix it.

Velyria usually helped her with that, when she could.

Velyria would never help her with that again.

"Though I hope we won't be staying here long, and I have to admit, I'm not fussed about being courteous guests."

Cadet Naeria

When Naeria came to consciousness, everything was heavy. Her bones were heavy. Her muscles were heavy, and they ached from the way she’d spent the whole night twisted and curled up. Even the air in the room felt weighed down, so much so that it was almost too heavy to breathe.

She might not have been as close to the ones that they’d lost as some of the others had been, but she could still feel the gaping hole of their absence. She could see it in the drawn faces of those around her, when she finally managed to open her eyes to look.

The warp pad that the Commodore had mentioned was a tempting thought. The soft breeze of the forest would be so much better than the sad, stale air in here. The sunrise visible through the branches would lift everyone’s spirits more than the darkness outside the windows of this house, she thought.

She only stayed because she wanted to know the Queen’s terms, not just guess at them. She wanted to hear the Commodore’s thoughts on it all, to see if he was going to make some kind of alliance with these awful people.

Naeria curled up small under her blanket, which she held onto tightly.

Cadet Fangnyl

Fangnyl hadn't slept well, despite his body screaming for it. Despite being near Aliez. Everything about being in Negaspace set him on edge, teeth, of all things, feeling strangely itchy about it all.

Running his tongue along them, he made a surprised noise when a blanket whizzed in their direction towards Aliez.

Oh, Daesva. He smiled and waved slightly at her, trying not to laugh. If he did, it would probably come out unhinged and hysterical.

He didn't want to be in Negaspace any longer, wanting to warp out, and he had permission to do so—but it still felt like he didn't, not really. Not until everyone left together. He didn't want to leave anyone alone in this horrible, awful place. With its strange sounds and choking air. Or maybe his throat was just run ragged from holding back all the tears he wanted to cry. He didn't know.

But hopefully, once Lyndin was back, they would all leave together. And not need to step foot in here again.

Something had tugged him and it roused Eso enough from his sleep that one lilac eye drifted open and his pupil turned into barely a visible slit. He groaned and buried himself further into Tenoch's chest. He was probably there. All Eso could remember was falling asleep.

That wasn't true. .....he wished it was all he remembered. The longer he laid there, motionless, trying to get back to sleep, the more that came to him from only hours before. One of his hands moved, finding Tenoch's. Nessa's was smaller. He was sure this was Tenoch's hand, and he laced their fingers together slowly. Tenoch was a warm weight. Nessa too, both a silent anchor to make sure Eso wasn’t dreaming. He hadn’t lost either of them.

It was odd he had fallen asleep, either way. Eso supposed his body was a lot more exhausted than he thought, having just fought a battle like that. A battle that had nearly cost him everything. He almost picked the humans over his own kind. Over his friends. How could he do that? The humans weren’t anything to him, in comparison. He was raised with these people, trained with them. They were all he knew, and he was willing to throw that away?

The thought made him sick to his stomach now. It cramped painfully as he let his face twist up with his emotions. He was never good at schooling them, despite what he hoped.

Almost gave all this up, almost helped ruin everything. Now they were stuck here until they could figure out …their future, he supposed. The future of Velencia. It was such a weight to carry. Surely by oneself, a crushing weight that would make decisions hard. He looked up and around for their commanding officer. He didn’t spot him right away. Must not be in this area yet.

The sighs from the other, the way he was moving. Eso pushed himself up slightly onto the elbow of his free hand and looked down at the purple Velencian and let his brows knit tightly. Suffering just as much as he was, it seemed. Tenoch looked so lost...

Slowly he looked at Nessa and just shook his head a little more. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to Tenoch's cheek and then laid his head right back on the other's chest before Nessa spoke.

"....I hadn't made the same choice as him in the beginning either," he whispered to them both. "We don't leave each other behind on an alien planet when we have to make snap decisions." Slowly one of his hands moved, cupping Nessa's cheek if he could.

He ached for her something terrible. "....We didn't have the information we do now. We weren't told everything. You made a choice based on your own information and studies... ...I know I can't fault you.."

No one should fault them for choices they didn’t ultimately make. It didn’t happen, and in the end they were here. Alive, injured, but alive and able to see what they had nearly done.

Eso just burrowed himself closer to Tenoch.

The Dark Kingdom was far from the friendliest realm, and it was for that purpose--and because he already suspected that the Cadets would be on edge from the previous night, that Lyndin knocked before he opened the door.

One knock, a slight pause, and then three more. It wasn’t anything significant, and it might not have been something he even put much thought into; back on their ships, a four note tune would play before a door opened to give people time to move aside or announce that there was company.

He waited a second, and then opened the door. The protective barrier around the building was still in place, and he passed through it easily enough.

Lyndin looked tired, there was no hiding it. He carried himself like someone who wasn’t exhausted, but in the safety of this place, he let those barriers slide, just a little.

He was in one piece, no worse for wear than when he’d left. He looked perfectly respectable, perfectly formidable.

Just, tired.

He surveyed the room quickly and nodded to each of the Cadets in polite greeting, but he knew his limits and brushed his cape to the side so he could settle into a chair. He leaned back into it and exhaled, like he could finally relax a bit, but he had no intention of holding them in suspense. “Negotiations were fine. Things were less dramatic than I expected.” He didn’t sound like he was swooning with trust, but it sounded like whatever had been arranged was satisfactory. For now.

He seemed to anticipate a conversation, and questions, and he was already settling in so he could give them his full attention.

“...Have you had a chance to eat anything yet? I have rations stored. There’s a few things we should probably go over.” He didn’t sound excited, but it was necessary.

No more secrets.

Probably.

Cadet Fae-Fae

The carefully spaced knocks made Fae-Fae calm down quite a bit. While the medium was quite different from the standard, it was a deeply familiar sort of signal to her, one she appreciated hearing in this most utterly unfamiliar of places. She had to improvise like that quite often when she was a small child.

It was enough to draw her to a standing position, respectfully prepared to welcome the Commodore back in.

Then she listened to his initial briefing, carefully. Questions were sure to come, but she had none for now. There was still so much to think about from what they had all learned last night. She was surprised she could look at Lyndin's face so easily, after everything. He was making a deal with the people who had killed Gavaen, and she -- she was accepting it.

For now, she folded her blanket and turned to Aliez, gesturing to offer help at folding the next. She needed something to do with her hands.