Welcome to Gaia! ::

Still as hyperfocused as ever, Sempur was tensed for any little movement that might have been the queen. Last time they had been here, they missed the speech, but not this time! This time Sempur was so ready to hang onto every goddamn word their glorious monarch uttered, and absolutely nothing could ruin this night, nothing, because he was here not-late and Pathetic was actually behaving (he was in such a good mood he might have even looked over and praised her but he didn't even want to blink for fear of missing the exact second the queen appeared) and truly, everything was going his way! Where trolls around him might have been nervous, Sempur was on cloud nine, because—

"Hello."

His knife slipped. Stabbed right into his palm. Pretty deep, too, and not that he would have reacted much in the first place because Sempur Livora does not feel pain, but no, he did not even notice because he was too fixated on the fact that he recognized that voice and this night was so completely ruined now because she was here. He heard Pathetic's yelp, sure, most certainly would have reprimanded her had it registered, but where she jumped, he jerked quickly to face that voice all thoughts of ~glorious leader~ forgotten. That damn one-track mind again. No, faced with this, this—mild annoyance, was all she was, faced with this mild annoyance and nothing more, Sempur's demeanor changed very quickly.

"What are you doing here." It was hardly a question, more of an accusatory hiss absolutely brimming with barely concealed disgust. Actually, he wasn't even trying to conceal it, mouth contorted into a snarl, nostrils flaring—say, his nose was looking pretty crooked, wasn't it? Sempur could have easily reset it himself. But he figured Pyruet would have liked that, maybe haughtily thought she had gotten to him, but she didn't, because fixing it would be admitting it was broken in the first place, and it wasn't—well it was, but he wouldn't allow her the satisfaction of knowing he acknowledged it was broken because of her, even though they both knew he knew she knew.

Wait ********. Remembering where he was, realizing the screens were on, the empress' appearance imminent, Sempur straightened, removing the knife from his palm and quickly sheathing it, totally hadn't just lost his cool, nope, giving Pyruet one last wide-eyed warning stare before turning back to oh god there she was. Bloody mess of a palm pressed to his uniform, staining the symbol on his chest further bright blue, he stared up at the queen in wonder. All was well in the world again, the empress had arrived.

Only, not all was well. That was the point of this whole addressing of trolls. However, listening to the queen's speech, where others might have felt dread and shock, Sempur saw opportunity. He didn't know all that much about Mother Grubs and the like, but what he did know—or at least what his paranoid warmongering mind came up with—was sabotage. Oh god did he ever hope there was some dark plot to it, Sempur would do anything for his queen and his race. Anything.

Abrila shivered as if she had just felt a cold wind. The Mother Grub.... dying? While she didn't particularly worry for the troll race and it's continuation (as long as she could keep living, anyways) she felt a pain in her heart knowing that the being who had given her life was suffering so badly.

A frown appeared on her face and she ground her teeth in irritation. How long had the Mother Grub been ill, anyways? And the Queen had been advised not to tell them? It seemed irresponsible to keep such news from the population. Even if Abrila didn't really care about the future, she definitely cared about the Mother Grub.

So what were they supposed to do? March into the caves and round up the wild mother grubs? Stand there are watch their Mother suffer? Abrila poked her shovel into a better position and tapped her fingers on the handle, waiting for the Queen to continue.

Hopefully the news wouldn't cause a riot. Abrila didn't want to deal with that.

The army, huh? Minist had no qualms with this plan. It made perfect sense. There weren't that many adults that could be called back to the home planet to commit the search, but there were plenty of kids at the ready. Besides, it wasn't like they were doing anything explicitly dangerous, just heading down into the caverns on a little treasure hunt almost. That wasn't to say the caverns weren't dangerous, of course they were, but they had all faced the dangers long ago before they had even emerged onto the surface. Certainly now that they were more experienced they would be able to handle anything they came across down there they would be able to deal with them no problem.

Minist was also somewhat excited about going underground in the first place. She didn't mind being underground, seeing as how most of her hive was underground. No one she knew of ever returned back down into the caverns. All memories of the caverns were hazy at best. It would be exciting to explore them. There's also the prospect of actually finding a new Mother Grub. How awesome would it be to be the one who actually discovered her? Minist smiled a bit at the thought. She'd be responsible for saving the race. She would be the hero, it would be her. Sure, she probably wouldn't get any credit for it and if there was credit to be given it would all go to the queen, but the knowledge that she did it would be good enough for her.

What was that about special troops? That sounded pretty legit. Minist wouldn't mind joining the army for this, seeing as how she'd eventually be enlisted in it anyway when she came of age. This, however, gave the option to still enjoy the life of a kid here on Alternia before being shipped off to conquer far off galaxies. All in all Minist was pretty happy with this situation (of course not with the cause of it all, a sick Mother Grub was a horrible thing). All she needed now was the direction in which the sign-up sheets were. Where did she get her title of part-time recruitment in the Alternian army? Let's get this party started.

Cheese sighed with relief. The Mother Grub was merely dying of an intractable disease that had rendered her infertile...she was not dead, had not been kidnapped. Cheese had feared the worst. If that was all it was, it wasn't really a drone's problem to worry about. The Mother Grub could probably be kept alive with skilled doctors until a suitable replacement was found. Maybe no new grubs would be born for a few months, but that probably happened whenever a Mother Grub was dying, or even slightly ill, or dissatisfied with her food, or whatever.

Cheese sighed again. Being a drone, she doubted the Queen's options applied to her. She was already technically a foot soldier...even if she normally collected trash. Her memories of the hatching caves were chaotic and fearful; even now that she was much older, she didn't care much for the prospect of returning. But if the Queen ordered it, she would go.

Nelgan almost laughed out loud. And it would have been a quite rude laugh at that, if he didn't have the self control to keep it in. Join the army! Oh, I wonder if I should, Nelgan thought sarcastically. It wasn't as if he had a real choice. Oh well. It didn't really matter to him; either stay or leave would be there just to fill up time. Besides, there was something called "change of pace" that other trolls had mentioned before. Why not try it?

Nelgan diverted his attention from the Queen and looked up, at the shady treetops. So there was nothing big to be worried over. They would find another Mother Grub, and probably in excellent timing too, knowing the manpower the Queen had. The only thing that bothered him- well, as bothered as Nelgan could be- was the caves. Deep dark caverns that went on for who knows how long. Nelgan shrugged at the thought of the things in the cave, but he had to work various underground shifts before, and he wasn't exactly eager to crawl around in the pitch dark for hours, or possibly days.

But then, when was he eager about anything. Nelgan was resigned; he was going to enlist (again) and find this darned Grub. For the future of the troll race, or whatever.

"I can't begin to stress how important it is that every troll available assists in our search. The caverns of Alternia are so deep that they have never been fully explored, and if we are without a Mother Grub we cannot grow back to the glory that we once were. Not to mention there are quite a few inferior civilizations no doubt desperate to get back at us for their pathetic defeats in battle. Hesitation and a display of weakness will be fatal to us all. We cannot afford to flounder, not for an instant."

The queen's fist slammed down onto the balcony, driving the message home. While she had been speaking, around the borders of the city, portable recruitment blocks had been swiftly erected and now ringed the crowds. Barriers too had been placed, so any troll wishing to leave without passing through the tents would have to stick to the main roads, and no doubt be singled out. Again, Regina was making a request that carried a hidden order. Now was not the time to be unpatriotic.

"Thank you all for coming, and for the service you are doing for yourself, your fellow troll, and future trolls. I will be supervising and coordinating all underground operations, and I hope to see the same size turn out at the recruitment tents as I've seen tonight. Ciao!"

Backing away from the balcony and waving, Regina considered how the speech had gone. Not too bad, but she'd probably get a sigh or raised eyebrow for breaking from script at the very end. Whatever. She had played her part, recited her lines, and set things in motion. Now it was just time to sit back and watch how events played out. She hoped things wouldn't be to boring.

While recruitment stations have been set up, their doors will not be opening until my next post!

Zeylla watched the queen as she finished her speech, and then her eyes dropped down to the crowd, searching over heads for the booths. They were easily visible and she decided the head that way. It would better to get closer and not have to wait in line for something like this. She found line-standing to be terribly boring, and she disliked how close she was to other trolls without a single good point to watch people without it being obvious.

Other trolls seemed to have the same idea, seeing as the wall of bodies had loosened enough for her to moved into the cracks. Though, that wasn't before she glanced back at the trolls she had glimpsed before the speech's start and saw the bright smear of blood across the militarian troll's jacket. Her eyes averted quickly as her hands began to feel moist. She would have to remember that face and dodge his presence. She was in no way wishing to watch a troll like that. Such foul acts did not entertain her at all.

The crowd swallowed her up as she turned away from the madness she had glimpsed, and she moved along until it seemed to dam up. The wall returned and she was spat out into a little pocket of fresh air near some other waiting and worrying trolls. One troll looked particularly worried, her cheeks where flushed green and she was shifting her weight nervously. Zeylla watched her for a while, and then, out of curiousity, leaned forward and asked, "Do you always rock like that? Or is it a nervous movement?" her eyes trailing down to note the girl was now twiddling her thumbs as well. She seemed to be a wreck just waiting to happen.

Why, if Zeylla was her she would straighten herself up and at least try to look together, honestly.

[Zeylla's bugging Maihue now. e u e