Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Two of them! I didn't know her name at first. Just what she looked like. I happened upon a couple of her friends and they..very willingly told me about her." Candace blinked. She'd been genuinely surprised by how willingly that one ghoul had helped her. Though the valkyrie had been annoying as all hell. "And then I found out a trainee here has connections with her. He had her phone number, a minipet she gave him, a friendship through a golem he had once used. I used it to my advantaged. I claimed his golem was a friend of mine who had gone missing and kept in contact with her for several days. I brought Gale and Madison along as well to help. When I was pretending to be her I had the excuse of trauma and amnesia, so off habits were frowned about but otherwise ignored because oh she just doesn't know better. And then I started using a her diary to give glimmers of hope with supposed memories." Did that all sound okay? She needed just one person to tell her if her methods had been good or not. Candace knew where her mistakes were. She knew what needed to be worked on, what she should have and would have done differently but it was too late for. Candace frowned at the mention of Aria's 'replacement'. "I like you a lot better than your impostor, Aria."

As Aria sat back in her chair, Candace leaned back and arched a brow at her leader sitting across from her. "Sure it is. Lovely work, yes...I meant the puzzle. You could take up knitting, like Molly. Or carve figurines. Little statues." She pouted down at the box in her hands. She'd get this damn thing open..she just had to figure out how. It was impossible to tell where to even begin! She pressed her fingers against random places just to find something that wriggled. Anything. Any give at a--oh! The bottom moved back! Progress! Maybe..

...Now what. She flipped it over and cocked her head to one side. Nothing here. Maybe..ehhhh the lid? No, it didn't budge. Hmm. "I'm not leaving until I get this open. You're stuck with me~." She commented idly, tugging at each of the little sections in the middle of the box. One of them moved down and revealed a hole. A key hole.

Where the ******** was the key. Nothing else moved! She'd already done something wrong. Sighing, she closed it and then shifted the bottom of the box back into place. Take two!

Candace nodded. "I understa--what?" She smiled and cocked her head to one side when Aria gave her a look. "What's that look for?" Was Aria referring to her? Aww, she was cute~. She was glad for the praise that came right after, sitting up straighter and looking positively giddy. An exchange student! That was a good idea! She'd keep it in mind if there was a next time. "I did learn a few things while I was there. It was handy." Candace wasn't surprised to hear she wouldn't be going on another extended mission soon. A break would be nice. It'd help her recover her equilibrium.

"I didn't know she knit either until recently. It suits her." She sounded distracted, her attention on the puzzle box in her hand. The top lid didn't even nudge no matter how hard she pressed it in any direction. She tried the bottom again and it twitched in a direction she hadn't tried before. Oooh? What's this? Candace pushed it to one side and grinned. Almost there! Maybe she had to push all the sides over to open a space for the key on the other side! That would make sense! "So you're limited to whatever is here?" She lifted her head to watch her leader. That was interesting. "Do you carve other things? Like, rocks and stuff?" She had been pushing a piece of the bottom's edge to one side to make room for the next piece until it fell onto her lap. "s**t.." Wait..oh hey wait this piece came out! Frowning, Candace picked up the piece and turned it over. The woman immediately brightened. A key! Ha! Yes! With a happy little hum she removed the key. Okay, so that one piece only opened when the bottom was pushed back...so she had to put everything back in place. That wouldn't be hard.

"I don't know, honestly. Aside from Carving..it is beautiful, don't get me wrong. This is incredible work! I was just bitching about the fact that this feels like a nesting doll game." Pausing in her reconstruction of the box, Candace narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "There's not a third box in here, is there?" That would be seriously messed up, man. The box was put back together and the bottom was pushed out again so Candace could pull one of the pieces down and try the key in the lock. It worked. Eeeee! Yes! "How long have you been carving, then?" She was genuinely interested in this.

"The sweetest." Candace said with a happy little sigh, grinning at Aria. "Well, she's very mothering and not in a way that gets annoying. When we go out on missions she's, like, always prepared. This one time we went on one of those external missions, the one to Alaska to check out that plane crash? We found some hairs and she just whips out these little sandwich bags to keep them in so we could bring them back to the labs and find out what they belonged to. And then right before the big mission in April I saw her passing around breakfast bars..she's so sweet. You'd like her. I think she was going to Lance for help with her weapon for awhile." Apparently she was more than happy to gush about Molly to help Aria get to know her ahead of time. It would be great if Aria had more time to get to know all of them. She wouldn't be going on an extended mission for awhile, right? That meant she had more free time...maybe she could help Aria out with getting to know her division's trainees better. Hmm! She'd have to think more on that later.

So she liked to carve with wood..she'd keep that in mind. Candace was still smiling as she opened the puzzle box, squealing with delight and bouncing in her chair. There wasn't a third box! There they were! Her lockpicks! "I did it! Ooooh~! Thank you so much! I get to keep these? Like, these are my own personal set?" Yessss! This was so awesome! She wouldn't have to ask!

Her mother? Candace blinked. It was rare for her to hear Hunters talk about life before Deus and this was definitely her first time hearing anything of the sort from Aria. "That's really nice." She smiled. "Are they hard to make?" She asked while taking out the lockpick set and putting it down on the desk. After that she closed the box, taking it apart again so she could lock it and then put the key back into the little slot, finally putting it on the desk near the safe when she was done.

"Ah..well...I read, mostly. Right now there's a book I'm borrowing from H that's quite interesting. Jerry also gave me a book for Christmas, but I finished that one ages ago. I uh...before coming to the island I didn't exactly give myself much time to really do much outside of studying and stuff. I like watching movies with Dwight...oh, and shopping." She blushed a little at that, almost embarrassed by the admission. "I have a thing for shoes..though I guess now's as good a time as ever to see if any other hobby suits me since I'm going to have a lot of spare time from the sounds of it. This is the second time I've been asked if I have any hobbies and my answer is 'mostly no'. It's a little embarrassing." Candace laughed anyway, shaking her head and sighing. "I like being kept busy."

Candace blinked, looking very surprised by Aria's admission. "Forgot a step? I haven't known you too long but that doesn't quite sound like the Aria I know." She teased affectionately, even chuckling and smiling while toying with her new lockpicks with the giddy delight of a child with a new toy who was trying to keep their excitement contained. It seemed to get worse when Aria pointed out she was an ex-trainee and she was the only one with her own lockpicks for the moment. Her own thing! Hehe! "I will, I will! I'll practice every chance I get!" It took everything Candace had to sound mature and not squeal like a happy little girl.

She listened with undivided attention as Aria told her a bit more about her crafting hobby, but her expression fell when Aria asked if something had happened. Candace blinked, cocking her head to one side and looking a bit uncertain. "Ah, no. I just meant like..because you said I probably won't be getting anything extensive for awhile. Spare time between missions, duties..things like that. Not anything to worry about, I don't think." If nothing bad had happened to her yet then perhaps nothing would. The corner of Candace's mouth quirked up in a tiny smile when the suggestion of an injury came up. "I've only ever lost two spars ever, the one with Clarice doesn't count, and by some miracle I don't usually suffer from any major, major injuries when we're sent out in missions. I intend to keep it that way~. So no, no injuries holding me back right now."

Stressed out..oh, Aria. Her smile fell again. "Are you all right, Aria? If there's anything I can do to help I'm all for it." Candace asked gently, trying not to frown too much.

Oh that kind of step. "I considered throttling you when you said you got bored and put them in a safe, and then again when you handed me a puzzle box to get them out of. Wrapping them would've just been like opening a Christmas present. I like presents~." Candace shrugged. "Nothing to apologize for. Don't fret about it."

Ah, so that was what she'd meant. Humming, Candace folded her arms on the edge of the desk and rest her chin on top of them, looking up at Aria with a thoughtful pout. "There's a new Life trainee who wants me to take him minipet catching in a golem. Told him I'd do it if he bought me something nice, but other than that..I'm okay with avoiding golems for awhile." Hmm..was she upsetting Aria? She hoped not, especially after her leader had just told her she was stressed. The last thing Candace wanted to do was add to that. "I'm fine, really. I've had a few weeks of calm so..."

Insanity, huh? Candace sat up. "Mostly what everyone else knows..and what I've seen. Clarice gave a lecture on it after we finished clearing out what spawned from the phoenix's invasion on the island. I've seen what it does to...people..and what it does to them." She gestured vaguely to one side with a frown. Candace was referring to the Halloween creatures now. Twice she'd seen students with that taint on them..but her knowledge was severely limited still. "Damaged cores and all that...why?"

Candace did not trust the look that accompanied Aria's promise. She'd worry about that later..

He.

It felt like her heart stopped just from that word alone. She knew exactly who Aria meant. No..no, no. Not Lance. Not him. No. Not him. Her eyes widened as her jaw dropped, her bottom lip quivering slightly. She knew..she knew what too much Insanity did to a regular human, a human who was not a Hunter bonded to a weapon. That town had shown her damn well what it did. No..not Lance. Not him, not him, not him! Oh god..

Perhaps she's overreacting. She did say she's stressed! Atropos chimed in optimistically. Calm down, Candace. Calm. Down.

Potential outbreak.

Candace released the breath she didn't realize she was holding in a short, shuddered sigh. Lance. "N-no, of course. It's...I understand.." She managed to croak, clearing her throat and rubbing at it a bit as if there was something wrong with it. "I'll, uh..need...to know what happened to him to get him like this, I guess? Er..anything I should know and...I.." Rubbing her lips together, Candace ruffled her own hair. "He's under quarantine? Is there...ah..is there any way I can...see him?"

I'm so sorry, Aria. No! Don't say that. ********. Don't say that to her, that's a terrible idea. ********. <******** style="color: #7507AE">"I'll do whatever needs to be done, ma'am. I swear it." This wasn't the first time they'd all experienced some kind of Insanity infection. Why was she so freaked out? It had to be because of that town. It got to her. All she could see was the faces of those infected townspeople. Not Lance.

"Yes." Quick, short, to the point. She needed to know what to worry about, what to consider. No interruptions. No distractions. He fought it by himself!? But why?! Why..why didn't he call for help?! Or did he and they just didn't..no...oh god. This was bad. So bad. This information was so strange. No burns that matched his report, no proper injuries...and the Insanity reading. Candace swallowed.

She nodded quickly. "I'll go see him. It's been awhile since I did, and I haven't shown him my pretty new coat yet." Candace added with a forced smile in an attempt to lighten the very heavy mood that had fallen with this new topic of conversation. "Of course I'll tell him. What should I say if he asks why?"