Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dictys did not have very far to travel to Old Hemisect City, ordinarily. Eir home base was here, kind of - at least, eir main property was deep in the ocean. To tell the truth, Dictys had been hanging around Chittentown lately. Slumming it? Not really. Ey'd found a few interesting contacts at CEOHS - if they were merely sucking up to em for eir blood color, so be it. At least they were bright enough to warrant eir interest, and ey could be satisfied with that.

But of course that meant ey had to move eir parked mobile hive from lowblood haven to the glorious ocean - something that took quite a while, considering ey was employing a live chauffeur rather than some automated navigation system - a bit of a pity, but it was nice to have someone to actually direct, and they were loyal.

They separated quickly once they arrived at the briefing, though: Dictys elbowing eir way into the prime seating real estate, and eir chauffeur going...wherever lowbloods sat. Eir lusus was wrapped around eir neck, once again - it seemed as though ey'd been abandoning the tank more and more, lately. It was just so clunky, see!

It had been an easy decision for Dictys to make eir way out here - to em, there hadn't been anywhere else to go (in fact, unbeknownst to Dictys, eir chauffeur had merely thrown away any missives from the rebels, far too accustomed to the seadweller's lengthy diatribes against them to want to hear more). And ey gave the large recruitment posters only a cursory glance, as a result: no one needed to convince Dictys Glauci to support the empire. Ey settled in with the fanfare, nodding along with the lowblooded captain's words, and turned to a nearby incredibly enthusiastic-looking orangeblood.

Ah, yes. If Dictys had interest in anyone, it was in someone interested in the cause of furthering the glory of the Alternian empire (and, by extension, Dictys' own name - at least if ey were to be asked). "Are you looking forward to service yourself?" ey asked - for of course someone of her station wasn't destined for the command line as Dictys emself was, but someone with her enthusiasm might be a valuable asset someday.

But the mention of stars caught eir attention again, and when the greenblood opened the floor for questions, Dictys' head whipped around to look at him. Some insubordinate lowblood - ah, yes, Atiqua Cifica, how unsurprising - asked a silly question, and then Dictys emself cleared eir throat, hand thrust proudly into the air. Some other lowblood was speaking up with her own question, but Dictys would pay her no mind - it was probably just as silly. Ey flared eir fins, beginning speaking only a few beats after Luxara finished. "Hello! I'm Dictys Glauci - Captain Puchen made mention of Alternia rightfully resuming its expansion across the galaxy. Of course, I'm sure we're all extremely eager to see that happen - the empire is and always will be glorious, but astral exploration has always been among the most glorious of its pursuits. What are the next few steps that we plan to take, and how might a troll position emself to best aid the optimal completion of those steps?"

Iluard (for that was his name, not that anyone had asked of course) hesitated. All of a sudden there were two trolls speaking up. He craned his neck to listen to their concerns, but for the love of gog one of them had an erratic sense of volume control and the other was... Verbose. With a fair dose of entitlement. Ey spoke barely after she'd finished.

Clearing his throat, the greenblood tried to remember the order of all of their questions. "I'm sure that the Queen will have some input on the name, but as is the nature of the reconstruction it will be a tribute to all of you. Perhaps even one of you most illustrious recruits will get a chance to put your vote in! And, er..." Now this kid's question.

He squinted into the crowd and clearly saw the young seadweller -- or rather, saw eir glitz first and then the seadweller. "Yes, uh. As a representative of the military I cannot confide any of the military's plans." There was an upward tone to his speech that made his sentence sound a bit like a question. "But, I can say that if your temporary enlistment in the military during these special occasions continues, then you will certainly have a better chance of achieving high rank." A plug for the event? Not bad! His confidence was returning a bit. He knew the military inside and out, if anything! And at least this troll's gall had given him some solid ground to stand on.

"The military is always looking for starship technicians, engineers, leaders, and every kind of troll under the moon for its goals -- upon finishing on-world tasks, a large focus of the military has prominently being repairing the infrastructure of our off-world docks so that we may travel farther and more reliably. I shouldn't divulge further during this debriefing... I'd suggest inquiring with military recruiters for specific information concerning your eventual enlistment."

Excitement.

That was all the young tealblood felt in her veins. Excitement, pouring into her each moment she grew closer to the large stage, eyes bright with enthusiasm. Once she received the two messages she barely paid attention to the old, dirty one-- instead, the bright, interesting one caught her attention! With its interesting and convincing words, Forera was hooked. She wrapped Serpentmom around her neck and geared herself for battle, bringing extra snacks and big smiles when she arrived. Anyone would be excited when it came to rebuilding stuff!! She would've been a little more excited to rebuild her hive, sure, but she was quite sure they gave them food and a place to stay in the place she was to stay at. Then again, her old hive was in Old Hemisect. Maybe she could stumble upon it during the reconstruction? She'd have to ask.

She could honestly care less about the speech, instead preferring to look around her and observe the others. Dapper yellowblood, rough looking brownblood, excitable orangeblood, fancy-lookin purpleblood, sniffly redblood, nervous redblood, a really tall tealblood, a drowsy looking orangeblood and-- wait wait wait. WAIT. Was that?? Was that REALLY?!??! "LUXYYYY!!" The tealblood squealed loudly, uncaring of those around her, shoving through the crowd and jumping onto her pals back, slinging her arms around her neck and pulling her back slightly before letting go of her and landing on her feet. She quickly hurried in front of her, large and sharp grin sliding upon her face-- it WAS her!! "It's been so looooonnnggg!!" She exclaimed, not as loud but sounding pretty obnoxious either way. "How've ya been?? Oooohmygooddd I can't believe you're hheeeerrree, heeheehahhah!!"

Thie…What? Tamiya narrowed her eyes. Now that she thought about it, bandit beasts with engorged shame globes were similar in vein to her lusus, and relevant in Kabukidad’s teachings. She’d have to look them up later in her sacred texts. In the meantime, she was still rattling about her make-up – no function, but at least she was not making a mockery of any of Tamiya’s obscure cult. It was a lot to take in.

A lot was happening in Tamiya’s thinkpan. First, this excitable young orangeblood. Then, the speech and now – “Larque!” She exclaimed with a start. Tamiya was glad to see him. So he’d shown up after all! She expected no less from him, in fact. It warmed her pump biscuit just thinking about it. But he looked afraid. The kind of anger that a trapped animal experiences, actually. It was no good, but she was in too even a mood to budge from her superior state.

“Tear everything down? Nonsense. I will make ******** sure that the appropriate treatment is given to those with established living spaces, such as myself. Tamiya Aiguma. Etsali. This is my spiritual soulbrother, Larque,” Tamiya was brief and clipped. She didn’t have much time for introductions, but considered it a formality and necessary for their three-way conversation to continue. She slipped from one conversation into another with a peculiar smoothness. “I am sure that you will do well for the royalists. Larque, you can simply do as I do. You must learn to follow proper procedure prior to sticking your nubsludge first and righteous foremost into the damn fray. This is a test of our faith,” she preached. She was becoming quite animated, her voice carrying with conviction. Why Larque was so afraid about all of this she had no idea. She reminded herself mentally to fill Etsali in on the details of Paradise later. She seemed like a listening sort.

Eostre listened to the speech carefully, but it wasn't really anything new. She was a little disappointed the Queen herself wasn't in attendance, but she supposed it was too dangerous. Rebels were everywhere, and they were dangerous. No doubt they'd kill the queen if given the chance. When Eostre got the handwritten letter, she had promptly thrown it out. Rebels were dirty.

She looked around, a bit put off by the sea of children. Where were all the teenagers and adults, anyway? Or did several of her peers really choose not to grow back up after the miracle elixir debacle... Shrugging, she figured she'd need to make sure Tierte made it all right. Her small redblood friend would probably throw a fit being around so many trolls, but it was imperative she had a presence amongst the royalists if she didn't want to be branded a rebel and killed. That's what Eostre told her anyway to get her to come.

"Tierte?" Eostre asked, looking to where her moirail had gone.

The red blood began to walk once more to Vitula, this time he wanted to make sure he would not miss a single word that came out of his mouth. In the beginning he noticed how the red blood stumbled over his words a bit. After a bit though the red blood began to speak a bit more fluently. Vitula listened as he told him how he lived in Chittentown as well, which Vitula was very excited to hear, mostly due to the fact that most trolls Vitula had met lived else where. It was good he could have a friend that would be close by.

Suddenly Vitula began getting this feeling of "What?" when he turned over to see a sheep lusus smelling his hair. Vitula did not mind, he knew how lusus can be sometimes curious about other trolls. He watched the sheep lusus begin to smell his violin case, he could understand why, the violin did come from a pawn shop and had a very earthy smell. The sheep lusus then began to smell Parrot Pop. Parrot pop was usually good with other lusus and would always try to make friends as well.

The red blood then spoke up to tell his lusus to come back to his side. After the troll had asked a second time the sheep lusus did so finally. The red blood had finally said his name in a mumbled tone. Vitula perked his ears up to make sure he heard it correctly. He had gotten that his name was Ephias, what a very nice name for a troll.

Suddenly the moment had come that Vitula was waiting for, the queen would come out in all her glory. He knew if he had impressed the queen he would be in with all the different colored trolls. Vitulas smile and excitement slowly decade as out came a blue troll. She gave the speech in a very stern way, after she was done, a green blood had asked if there was any questions.

Ephias spoke up to Vitula asking what he thought of the captain's speech. Vitula look over to him and began to speak. "Who was that! That wasn't the queen! Who was that?" He spoke not answering the question but instead went on a quick rant on how that was not the queen.

Vitula looked over to Ephias, "They said they will answer questions, I'll ask one." Vitula began to shout in what he thought was a very serious and firm voice his question "WHEN DO WE MEET THE QUEEN?" possably causing everyone to look at him.

∞ Ephias Sagine

"Er... No. I think she said her n-name was Captain Puchen?" Ephias interjected. Vitula paid no heed. The yellowblood rambled on about the queen, wondering why she was not in attendence and what the point of replacing her with a military officer was.

"I'm g-guessing..." Ephias began when he thought Vitula had finished but apparently the yellowblood still had a couple more things to say. "Well, probably..." he tried again. Nope. Still not done. "The-the rebels..." Vitula talked right over him. He was in a passion now.

Giving up, Ephias tuned out the diatribe and turned his attention to the Q&A. Suddenly he heard something about 'astral exploration'. It was impossible to see who had asked the question but he was immediately grateful. He strained forward to hear the answer. The greenblood's response was vague, which was a little disheartening. However he did mention that the military was always recruiting for cosmic expeditions and that participating in events such as these would increase one's chances.

"W-Wolly! D-Did you hear?!" Ephias exclaimed. The sheep lusus bounced in circles around him. "If-if we do well in this, we c-could go to-to-to-to... to the stars!" His stutter had gotten a little out of control there for a moment. Wolly happily butted heads with his charge. Ephias was too giddy to even feel that mad about the contact. That and he was seeing some stars of a different nature. He swayed back and forth, trying to reorient himself.

Suddenly beside him Vitula piped up—no bellowed a question of his own. Ephias was surprised at the amount of noise that came from such a meek looking troll. The queen again though? Really? Why was he still going on about that? Ephias was about to ask him what his deal was but he noticed some nearby trolls were giving the yellowblood weird looks. Maybe it was better to pretend like he was not associated. He took a very, very, very small step away from Vitula.

show spoilerhide spoiler

FoxFire120