Welcome to Gaia! ::

The pat was welcomed with one returned though Roland had to reach up a bit to give Ceres one in return. "Well congrats on that, the jacket looks great. Does the promotion come with other perks? Maybe some pay raise to balance out the prices lately?"

He frowned at the next part nodding, "Yeah I'm with you on that... It's not even mandatory for me to be here but the money seems pretty good.."

He paused when Rep gave him the usual stare and simply made a narrow thin lipped face. Some attempt at looking like a man he figured. He wasn't sure. Any other show of attention would likely result in Rep rolling his eyes and ignoring him the rest of the testing.

There was indeed the beginnings of a semblance of a line forming up in the rather generously large room, which had been thoughtfully evacuated of all furniture or perhaps a certain disaster that accommodated that thought process.

"All right, who's next in line?"

At the very far end was a table with a two very bored looking technicians. The table itself was propped up next to a whiteboard that said "Queue up here for standardized weapons testing keys. One per person only."

The trainee in front of the gaggle of Hunter lineups hesitantly put up their hand, being somewhere in the front of the line. One of the technicians sighed, grabbed the trainee's wrist closer, and cuffed a small wristband that began to beep rather systematically.

"Don't forget to go into the dropoff room to pick up your weapon." The tech sounded extremely bored. "Your money will be forwarded to you after you fill out these forms. A healthy weapon is a functional one. Next!"

*

What the technician really meant in picking up weapons was literally, there was a room, as labelled by a few arrows that said "WEAPON PICKUP HERE" in which another lab tech looked extremely bored, playing a game on his cell phone as three pods hummed steadily behind him.

"Arm please." The tech waited for the anyone to show them a number, and then opened up a corresponding pod.

Inside the pod was their weapon.

And not by any conventional means of the word weapon: no, instead they were looking at their weapon in the flesh. Or really, clay, as the tech explained as these were Fear protoype golems, though any Fear overusage would probably cause them to melt, yes they are extremely precious so please be careful, damage would be going directly off their payment. Otherwise all trainees are to spend their off-hours monitoring their weapons golems and making sure everything looked good, the techs would be doing the off-hand stuff, you know, the stuff that really mattered. If there was an emergency mission, golems could be shut offline, and simply turned online by pressing the button on the bracelet.

"Your golems are currently offline." The tech elaborated, pointing to the bracelet. "You have to turn it on. Press the button. Once you do, you won't be able to hear your weapon in here-" Here, he tapped to his head -"But everyone including you will be sure to hear them. And please don't clog this area, once you've got your s**t figured out, the exit is that way." He pointed out.

"Er.... I think it might be-" No sooner had Jerry raised his hand, a band was slapped onto his wrist.

Immediately, his face went pale as thoughts of Rep's wristband came to mind, "Woo-wait! Wait wait what did Roar and I do?? We haven't blown up anything in-"

"Shut up and go pick up your weapon, guy." The tech huffed, shoving the Sun Hunter along.

His face red, rubbing the bracelet, he did as he was told. Upon entering the "weapons room", his confusion only doubled. He listened to the instructions, feeling like he was missing something vital, something important, and when he hit the appropriate button as he was told, he realized just what he was supposed to be paying attention to.

The pod opened, and something big, burly, and covered in quills and glowing green eyes stepped out, mouth filled with sharp teeth that flashed as it grinned and stretched, "Well! Aint this interestin'. Hallo, there, Meatbag."

"I... R-roar?" Jerry fought the urge to faint.

Jordan had slipped in quietly, not really feeling up to much attention at the moment; though he was recovered physically from his ordeal, he was still sometimes on shaky ground as far as his mental state went. Ferros rumbled softly in his head, attentive and gentle. Still not sure what to think about this testing thing, Jordan said.

They will not hurt me, Ferros answered. If it were going to hurt me it would not be a required test.

I guess you're right. It makes me nervous anyway. The line shuffled up to the table, and suddenly there was a tech strapping some kind of band around Jordan's wrist. He stiffened, reminded all too sharply of Rep's cuff. Was it a test to see how well you did without your weapon? No, he was being instructed to pick up his weapon in the next room after activating the band.

The next room was full of pods, and Jordan stepped up to the one with the number that matched his wristband, pressing the button with some confusion. The realization that the part of his mind that Ferros occupied had gone silent caught up with him just as the pod door swung open. Its occupant was nearly too tall for the pod, and the metallic tail flopped out onto the floor as Ferros's eyes lit. Their glow flickered several times in a confused sort of blinking way. "Jordan?"

"Ferros?" Jordan swayed slightly on his feet as the golem-dragon climbed cautiously out of the pod, rolling his shoulders and checking his tail over, then taking a cautious step over to wrap himself around his human in a protective embrace.

"Told you they weren't going to hurt me," Ferros said, his low, scratchy voice sounding just like it did in Jordan's mind.

Candace shrugged, draping an arm over Harrison's shoulder and leaning her weight against him. "Eh I'm kind of just following everyone else right now I don't have the energy to ca--AH!" Molly practically threw herself at Candace, and while normally the woman would have been able to catch her easily it just wasn't going to happen when she'd barely had any sleep lately. Candace squeaked and fell back on her a**, her arms coming up around Molly to hold her as she fell with a pained grunt. ********, that kind of hurt. Molly was a little heavier than she was used to girls being, not that that was a bad thing but still.

She laughed, staying on the floor for now and giving Molly a tight squeeze while nuzzling her face against the redhead's cheek. "Hey there, pretty lady~! Ehhhh I'm okay. Ohhh, I haven't seen you in forever." Candace gave her another squeeze and..flopped back on the floor for a moment with Molly still in her arms. Standing. Effort. She was on the floor now and really didn't want to get up, and she didn't give a <********> that they were in a room full of people. Molly~.

Suddenly there really was a line and people were moving. Candace sighed and kissed Molly's forehead. "We should get up now. C'mon.." It was then that she let Molly go to push herself back up to her feet, helping Molly up as well and draping an arm across her shoulders as they made their way to the table. A cuff..? L-like Rep's!? What?! ********! What was this about?! She released Molly and hurried into the next room, genuinely scared about what this cuff could mean. She'd seen Rep's! And knew what his did! There was no ******** way she was...

Going to..

...Oh my god.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Atropos cried out with excitement, chattering away in Candace's head while the woman simply stared at the golem. It was rather lovely, huh? Oh. Right. Turn it on..more golem testing. Why not. Sure. All the golem testing! There was barely time to register she had even pressed the button before the golem was awake and throwing itself at her. Again Candace found herself flat on her back on the floor, her face peppered with kisses.

"OHHHH~! CANDY, CANDY, CANDACE~! My sweetest, dearest Candace! I've wanted to do this for so long!" Atropos squealed and rolled across the floor with a bewildered Candace in her arms, somehow avoiding hitting anyone else in the room. Candace was in shock, eyes wide and jaw dropped.

"A-Atropos?!" A pair of violet eyes stared down at her, the golem's mouth set in a wide grin. Candace looked up at what she was seeing, really finding she had no choice what with Atropos pinning her to the goddamn floor. Dark skin, a lot of purple hair..horns!? Holy s**t, she had horns! Purple stripes all over her body, holy ******** her weapon was well endowed what the hell is even, oh hey that's a nice necklace and..goddamn! This was her Atropos! "Atropos! Oh my god!" Both females squealed, hugging each other and finally sitting up on the floor instead of the weapon pinning down its master.

Fake-Jerry on twitter had prompted Clerise to run to the labs, gleefully grabbing a bracelet, skipping over to the pods all the while.

She even did twirling skips, Clerise was that excited.

This is going to be so much FUN!

{[ You've lost your mind. ]}

I want to meet you, dork.

{[ ... ]}

No, seriously. Clerise thinks warm things, fuzzy and full of love in Balthazar's direction, because he's hers, and she's his. They were a unit.

{[ You are overly sentimental. Turn me on, and no filthy comments about it, pet. ]}

So Clerise does, excitedly standing in front of his pod, watching him come to life. He's about her height, but spindly, a pair of glasses on his face, as well as a frown. He's pale, white as paper, and Balthazar's hair is black and sticks up in every direction.

However, his outfit is immaculate. Pinstriped vest, a cuffed shirt rolled up just so, nice slacks-- and a cloak. Clerise pulled him out of the pod, and crushed him in a hug.

"Hello to you too, pet."

As Rep reached the front of the line, he was almost bored with proceedings, this didn't look like a combat mission. He had a sinking feeling the weapon's testing thing was just bullshit and they were going to be locked in a grey room and made to fill in forms.

As he neared the front of the line however, what was going on came into view. Wristbands. He physically flinched at the sight, stopping in his tracks abruptly enough that the hunter behind him walked right into his back and scolded him for it. ********. He muttered a gruff apology and kept moving despite the way his heart was racing. Half of the people present knew he'd been on lockdown - his own fault for ranting about it on twitter - and he had a feeling they'd be looking to see how he'd react to this. He wasn't going to give them the ******** pleasure of seeing him flip the ******** out and run out of the room.

He wanted to though.

He flinched again as the bracelet was clipped onto the same wrist he'd had the limiter on, resisting the urge to completely lose his s**t, gritting his teeth hard enough it hurt. He wasn't sure what the hell they were expected to do but he was suddenly a whole lot less keen on whatever it was via the simple addition of a bracelet to the equation. He couldn't chicken out now, that wasn't the manly thing to do, and despite their current silent disagreement, he could feel Tracey in his mind still, free and restrained. It soothed him enough to take a few ******** zen breaths and to edge into the next room.

He was still anxious and dazed as he entered the next room, opening the pod obediently without a complaint, half expecting some nameless horror within.

Instead he was faced with a very short, frail looking individual, perfect almost porcelain features with long cascading oil-iridescent hair that hung in loose ringlets along their back. Splayed in the pod behind them them was a perfect triple set of likewise almost blood coloured feathered wings. Curling almost daintily from their skull, a set of razor sharp hooked horns crowned their head. He couldn't tell their gender one way or the other, but there was something distinctly familiar about them regardless. It was only as things were explained in detail by the labtechs. he realised why. He almost didn't want to press the button, not sure if he wanted other people aware of who he kept in his head, a sort of jealousy creeping up on him. Tracey was his, entirely his, not for the world at large. He didn't want to share.

Please.> Even despite their current feud, Rep couldn't say no to the earnest plea in the fallen angel's voice. He could feel how much he ached for freedom, to fly again, to touch the world.

"Fine." he sighed, and pressed the button on the bracelet.

There was a moment of unsteadiness, a dizzy feeling, and then the golem, now Tracey opened his vivid crimson eyes and gave the most delighted smile Rep could remember seeing, a smile that Rep just couldn't help but to mirror in return.

It was strange, finally seeing the one you owed your life to more times than you could ever really say, who put up with you no matter what.

"Sup." he stated to the fallen angel.

There was a blur of movement and he found himself suddenly wrapped in a small but determined hug, feathers tickling his face. There was an unexpected swell of affection and he found that suddenly he didn't even care that there were other people around and he hefted the fallen angel clear off his feet. His own hug was much more expansive. Tracey laughed approvingly and looking up, stroked the size of Rep's face with a taloned hand.

"I'm sorry you got hurt over healing the pretty blonde one William. Please, lets not fight anymore. Its just so good to finally be here. To be free."

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak without giving away too much of his feelings on the matter, before setting the fallen angel down neatly on the floor. When he felt he had things in control enough he weakly added.

"Please don't get us into trouble."

Tracey stood up on his tiptoes and pouted in four and a half feet of defiance. "You do that more than enough for both of us William darling!"

Syntax Error runs around like an errant child, screeching with laughter and joy, weaving through other hunters and their weapons. Like Jack was Kostya gonna slow him down--there was a whole new world to understand and categorise!

get info.dat

All of it!

Which meant, of course, he was OUT. RUNNING. RIGHT NOW.


[[ syntax exit ]]