Welcome to Gaia! ::

While not particularly pleased about not being apart of that initial group, the burning flares streaking the sky was a rather welcome relief to the drone. With a pleasant sigh and a seemingly faster pace to his step, he made his way towards the new gathering place, increasing to a steady jog once the structure came into sight.

Wasn't expecting this... He mused as he joined the gathered group, glancing over his shoulder to see others still arriving after him before looking back at the newly discovered hive. The thick vines enveloping the building were a curious eye-sore and the structure itself seemed more of a greenhouse rather than someone's humble abode. For a desert troll, botany was an odd choice for a hobby. Maybe there's an underground river...? Hrm...

Just as he was about finished catching his breath, Janzek couldn't help but notice that the group had decidedly come to a standstill. They reached their destination, so now what? While some had edged towards the door, not one of them seemed willing to actually try opening or making their arrival known to the hive's inhabitant. Then again, if the Jade blood hadn't noticed the amassing bodies outside, well, that would be poorly unobservant.

He couldn't quite recall if the Rebel Leader had also joined them in this final outing, but insofar nobody had taken an initiative and thus the main consensus seemed to be 'just wait'. The drone didn't particularly feel like waiting though as he neared towards the door himself.

"You could at least knock..." He commented as he passed by the few standing closest to the doorway. "You should know at least that much about polite cond-ACK!"

Wasn't expecting that either! Recoiling from the force of the door slamming against his outstretched arm and his face, the drone stumbled back, turning away as their surprised host 'greeted' the rebel group. "Aaahaha.. ow.... Pain. Thuh-thuh-that was painful. RrrrRRReally.... Ow..." He grumbled, under his breath or as best he could, and doubled over slightly, clutching his injured arm to his chest while his free hand gingerly massaged his nose.

Once the initial throbs went away and Janzek was able to think about something other than the screaming nerve impulses that ran from his arm and to his brain, he straightened his stance slowly and turned to get his first look at the Jade blood. "Oh, this must be a sight for you, eh? Now I realise this may be a tad overwh-ah, tha-tha-that's not a verrrrry safe.. looking... tool there.. No..." He stammered, catching sight of the machete first and foremost. He almost tripped over himself as he backed away, but once he raised his sheepish gaze to meet that of others' glare, Janzek's legs had decided to lock up, rooting him to the spot while two thoughts flashed through his mind.

The first being 'which of the nearest kids could he use as a suitable shield' and the second, and possibly more devastating, was 'his eyes have changed'. Nononononothatcan'tberight! Thatcan'tPOSSIBLYberight! He was too old. No Virgin Grub had ever lived to see their charge age past 8 sweeps! Not that there were many documents to support that, but it was observed in what few medical journals and bestiary compendiums were considered trustworthy in relation to the Matrons.

"No, I'll tell you what... Seemingly wasting time and effort!" Janzek answered in finality to the Jade blood's question with a cynical scoff as he backed away into the crowd, not forgetting about that machete even once.

While the quest was no doubt important, and the offer intriguing, Taquin had ultimately decided not to join in the search for the jadeblood and his lusus. It was the jump-start to the revolution, the first leg of the journey to justice, but he was much more interested in what was happening behind the scenes. He wondered, what was this organization planning exactly once the rogue troll and mothergrub were tracked down? How were they to win them to their side? Doubts about this entire affair still ate at the back of Taquin's mind like a slowly feasting pincerbeast, and it annoyed him profusely. They just were not revealing a plan well-thought out enough to secure his loyalty, and though he wanted to have complete faith in this rebellion, he could not bring himself to trust them while blind spots still remained. No, some surreptitious research was in order if he were to offer his skills to this cause. Besides, many trolls had set off on the quest. One less orangeblood wouldn't make too much of a difference.

Despite the persistent eavesdropping on and smooth-talking of the apparent leaders of the revolution, Taquin had earned no new knowledge, only curt dismissals and slammed doors in his face. They just weren't willing to reveal anything, were they? He only wanted a few questions answered about the nature of the plan, was that not reasonable? Their guardedness only fueled his doubt-pincerbeast and raised a few new suspicions. Was this really the basis for the overthrow of the hemospectrum they had preached? Were they really as prepared as they made themselves out to be, or were they making things up as they went along and hoping for the best? He even considered that it could all be some elaborate ruse. He had hoped to become so convinced that he wouldn't hesitate to be a part of this grand and worthy cause, but as the nights passed his conviction waned and waned. He understood that they would not want their secrets revealed, a rebellion such as this was fragile, but to keep your own followers in the dark was a fabulous way to lose their trust. Taquin had no desire to be a part of a failing revolution. He knew it might come to this.

He gave up. He was beginning to miss Poodle-dad anyway.

He gathered provisions that would last him as far as Chittontown and set off into the desert. As the base grew small behind him, he wondered if he were making a mistake. No no no, he must stop holding onto the false hope that something like what that tealblood preached could ever be accomplished! No, the way things were at the moment were not right. The hemospectrum should never be a determinate for hierarchy... but he would never see a change in this. Not in his lifetime at least. So stop pretending like you will! He hunched his shoulders indignantly and settled his sack slung over his back as his violet shoes shoveled through the sand.

A bright flash in the sky suddenly caught Taquin's attention. He paused, and looked upwards to the right to see green flares erupt towards the moons. Wait... wasn't that the signal that had been mentioned to mean that the jadeblood had been found? Oh well, it didn't concern him any longer. He had already decided to no longer be a part of this fallacy. He walked on. But seriously? They had found the jadeblood? He paused again. It couldn't hurt to investigate. He would not participate any further, but this was simply not an occurrence he came by everyday. A jadeblood and his mothergrub lusus hidden away in the desert finally discovered....

He changed his course to head towards the green lights and their affirmation. Poodle-dad would have to wait a little while longer.

After the arduous trek through the desert, the sight of the flares had been all too welcome. Zeffer and his two compadres had made their way toward the points of light, and soon the entire squad had come upon the bizarre little desert hive...it wasn't like anything the blueblood had seen before. Even though a lot of those plants seemed dead, how had he even managed to get them to grow in the first place? When Janzek went up and got smacked in the face with the door, he had to laugh...but his snickering was stifled when Aendal emerged.

Zeffer's eyebrows raised at the sight of the adult troll. Aside from the drones (which were really lame in comparison to a real live adult), adult trolls were not something you saw every day. Yet here was this guy, with his crazy big horns and striking jade eyes. Zeffer listened as Janzek exchanged a few words with him...and then Ophion stepped up, presumably to try the same thing. He had to strain to hear exactly what was going on, so he started to shove through the crowd. All he was able to hear when he got closer were the jadeblood's agitated replies.

"But we're all gonna die if you don't! Hey, do you have any water? We've been out here for days!!" Zeffer cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, grinning like a complete idiot when he was done. He kept on shoving, really wanting a closer look, and sort of leaving Rero and Aprife behind in his excitement. He ended up busting out of the crowd somewhere near the front, to the left of where Ophion and Janzek were standing. "Really, though, I'm sure we could do some kind of trade or agreement...couldn't we?" he grinned over at the adult. He was really mostly hoping the guy would have some water though.

Had the drone been any more of a troll, he probably would've given the kid a solid smack upside the head with the back of his hand in response to being rudely jolted so suddenly. Annoyance acutely accented as an aftereffect at accumulating another ache. His arm was appropriately poised and tensed but he quickly disguised the motion by running his hand through his hair, pressing his fingertips into the base of where his horns should be once he realised just who it was that had bothered to physically reprimand him.

It was the brat he had decidedly labeled 'Suit' some time back. While Janzek still hadn't really bothered to learn his name or something more appropriate to call him by, he did hear enough campsite jargon to know that 'Suit' was particularly adequate in physical training and he was not feeling particularly wanting to gain some bruised shins in tandem with his arm.

And ego.

As such, he let the insult slide, meeting the kid's glare with a somewhat apologetic frown before looking back towards the jade blood, shrinking under that even harsher glare which only served to drive home just how stupid his outburst was. Mentally berating himself, he had subconsciously began to move so that 'Suit' was more or less in front of him as he listened to the exchanges made in sombre silence since he had practically lost priviledges to speak on the behalf of the group. Punishment for not thinking again.

But he was certainly thinking now. A plant...? Herbal remedies? Really? That's his best gambit? As impressive as that green house was, Janzek really had to doubt that a lone troll in the middle of a desert could possibly come up with a solution to what legions of medical professionals were currently baffled on. Then again he might just be biased. Then again again, those aforementioned professionals would have sought for some old fashioned alternative medicines too. Those 'other scouts' mentioned could have possibly been on Imperial Orders even if they weren't with the rebels. On the completely unhelpful flip-side, the drone was probably now over-thinking things.

Opening his mouth to respond, despite his better judgment, the drone was noticeably surprised when his voice sounded a bit higher pitched and excitable than what was intended. Only because it wasn't his voice that was actually heard. Looking over his shoulder, he watched as another rather boisterous pupa make his way to the 'front lines', speaking far louder than what was probably necessary. Kids...

His chance to re-iterate his thoughts became lost as the selfish nature of the Jade blood flared in full form, making Janzek take another small step back, this time placing 'Suit' directly in front of himself. While he doubted that the Jade blood could exterminate every single person present if it did come down to an unnecessary fight, being in the front few rows certainly put his survivability at a haphazard rate.

"Wuh-wise? You con-conconsssider culling... this many of us- no, threatening this many of us as 'wise'?" he began slowly, growing more in control of his shaky tone with each word, "Even if you did, say, by some morbidly miraculous merit manage mini-mass murder, those flares were seen for miles around. There are still others out there and this area has either already been mapped and catalogued- or soon will be- so that even more can find their way later." He paused to let that sink in, looking as sullenly apologetic as he could, "And I'm not saying that as a means to intimidate you or anything hostile-like. Please, please understand that... Honestly it's poor planning on that of the Leaders... of whom should have also been present in this endeavour now that I think about it... But point is-the point is... we are in a bit of crutch... as he said, we're only looking for a solution." he gestured to 'Suit', "If you can help us. Great! We'd love that. But if you can't- or rather, more likely in this case- don't... well.. ah..." he shrugged, "Others will probably be sent here to keep bugging you... And making good on that threat is the least wisest thing you'd want to do if that turns out to be the case... So we're not asking you to trust us. Be downright absurd at this point to do that. No, we're just asking you to help."

"Woah, hey, easy....I don't think anyone wants to fight, here, man." Zeffer said quickly after he'd made it to the front, raising his hands in a gesture of meaning no harm. Seeing the adult tense, and adopt a battle pose, that couldn't be good. They were here to try to recruit this guy or...something. Right? He had important info, and they had to at least try to deal with this peacefully. He glanced back over the crowd nervously, hoping none of the more aggressive trolls would threaten the jadeblood.

He listened as the others tried to speak, and grinned a bit at Taquin. "Yeah! You're suppose to be real important. We're more on your side than against you." Zeffer offered. There was always a time and place for violence, but this was surely not it.

((and then this happened.))