Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jordan took the folder, pausing for a moment before he examined the files inside; Jerry was quiet, drawn in on himself, the trace of a stutter in his speech. He should really talk to his friend. As soon as he could - but later. He only nodded, turning his attention to the files with a quiet, "Thanks."

The information was fascinating in itself, the detailed overview of the creatures' behaviors, habitats, and physiology a study he would have read for its own sake, but this wasn't just academic but practical as well. They had time before the meeting proper, so he took the time to look over each page carefully, making mental notes. Ferros studied the reports with him, observing and remembering, silently conferring with him on some of the points.

Underneath the careful attention he was giving to the information was a core of leashed anticipation, shared and reflected by his weapon. They would be hunting.

When Marcus sat down nearby, Jordan looked up and nodded to the Moon hunter, flashing a brief, abstracted smile.

Candace had been in the Life labs, but this time not to see a certain doctor or even his fantastically awesome assistant. She had sat her a** down at a computer and loaded up a fighting simulator program designed for her unique weapon type and fighting style to get ideas on how to go about this. Candace was doing well and okay on her own but help would be just splendid. Professional help. Though all she could get was the computer seeing how she had yet to meet another hunter whose weapon was on their feet or legs.

Her phone chiming with a new text message surprised her, and admittedly she had high hopes for who it could be. She scrambled for the phone and immediately opened it, deflating only slightly at who the sender was. It wasn't him but Aria was always a happy sight to see.



She was quick about shutting things down, packing up her stuff and hurrying to the room they were told to meet in. Candace wasn't sure how many people she sent the text to but..she had a feeling she needed to get there before things got awkward.

"Evening, Aria~!" Candace greeted her leader cheerfully as she stepped into the room, stopping tensely in the doorway after having given the group a quick sweep with her eyes. s**t. He..he didn't look good at all. Candace swallowed hard and pursed her lips. What to do...it would be too weird to sit beside him, but would it be weird if she didn't? Oh thank god! Apparently not! Sit by division. Thank god.

Candace sighed quietly and ruffled her own hair a little as she walked past Jerry. She didn't greet him, she didn't even ruffle his hair or drag a hand across the back of his shoulders as she normally would have when passing behind the seated man. That hurt..

"Hey, Cass. Before's not here yet?" She asked quietly as she sat down beside the girl, looking down at the folder in front of her. "Oh, cool!" The North Pole? That sounded awesome! She pulled out one of the map pages and looked it over, humming curiously as she put it back and leaned in to read the file with Cass.

Bix had been reading and lost track of time. He wasn't late, persay, but he hated not being one of the first to arrive. When he got the text it took him a few minutes to respond. Did he want to be a leader?

Yes.
What?
What's the point of all of this if not to sssssucceed?
...I guess.



He did hate to fail but being in charge was not ever a goal of his in the past. It didn't matter much because Mina wouldn't let him ignore it. As he entered the room he immediately gravitated towards Gale and Madison. He hadn't heard Aria say that they should sit with their division. He was just about to pull out a chair when it all clicked that people were grouped together and with a pink face and a bit of a stumble (cause he didn't want to look stupid in front of Aria!) he found a seat on the other side of Jerry.

The bespectacled hunter was now flanked by both himself and Jordan.

"Hey guys.." He said softly.

While she had no idea what was up, or why they were even given a choice to turn down the mission, she couldn't help but remember what Jordan had said about Aria - something about her actually being a better human being than the other two division heads that they had met - and thus, decided to reply with a 'yes'.

Of course, the one time Aria texted her about a mission, she had to be late; later than Before, which made her the last to arrive unless there was someone else later than her. It was becoming a bad habit - a bad habit that she was eager to get rid of, seeing how she used to pride herself on punctuality.

Entering the classroom, she caught the tail end of the hunter's instructions, something about reviewing information... It also didn't take her long to realize that everyone was grouped together according to their division, which was whys he headed straight for Gale and Madison, the latter she had never personally spoken to before, "Sorry for being late! So... What's going on?" She pulled a chair up to the other two death trainees, and sat down before staring at the file that had been handed over to them.

[Sorry, went out with friends in the afternoon and couldn't post earlier. Tell me if this means I can't join in or something. >_>;;]

"Not yet!" Cass answered to Candace as the older woman sat down next to her, moving the file so that it could be read by her as well. "There..are a lot of maps in here, and we've been told that we can't take these files with us, so...try to remember as much as you can...." she urged to her, her hand still moving in that mock 'copying' technique of them.

It seemed Before joined them not too much later, however, Cass looking up at their newest addition - well, he wasn't newest anymore with the lambs joining them. Still, she offered a small wave. "Evening, Before." she greeted, sliding the first couple of pages of the file over to him for him to read once she and Candace were done with them.

Cass actually seemed surprised that she hadn't had that thought. "I....you're right! That does seem to be..." she trailed off, looking up from her hand. "Do you want to ask Aria if that is the case?"

It was likely not on purpose that Cass didn't acknowledge the silence between Candace and Jerry, though. Either too busy with what she'd been doing to notice it or..... just assuming that whatever was going on was going on for a reason.

Jerry swallowed when Bix simply went to work, quietly reading. He knew that Aria was going to start things soon, but everyone else was mulling over their new information in the mean time, and a bit of banter was what he felt he needed. "Looks like if we concentrate our attacks here and here it should all come down like a deck of cards," He gave a nervious smile, motioning to the diagrams his fellow Suns were still taking in. "Although I'm sure a good arrow to the eye and a hammer to the toe would do it, huh? Hahaha. Then I blast it's brains out hahahahaha."

Madison let out a tiny squeak when Robert suddenly dropped a kiss on her; she wiped her cheek and gave him a wide grin before turning back to the files. Robert, Jordan - oh, Jerry was here too, though god he looked awful. Madison made a mental note to catch up with him later, along with Petra, Ennea, and Raine. Phoenixes had to keep in touch, after all...

Oh, Bix! She gave him a little wave too before he turned to sit with his own division-

North Pole. Focus.

Right.

Thankfully, Ariane picked that moment to show up. It was kind of a relief, really, even though she didn't know the other Hunter hardly at all. Only by hearsay, really - she'd been Beta's Boss, like how Jordan had been for them. And that was about it. "I think we're going to the North Pole," she said, pulling some of the papers free and tilting them towards Ariane so she could read too. "Smells like Christmas, but this time I'm not unnaturally thrilled about it." She grinned. Yeah, this time she would really, properly enjoy stabbing a yeti or whatever the hell. Stupid holidays. What was next, Cupid? Oh god don't think about Cupid.