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Another day, another rebel meeting, and Athene was honestly a little excited. She had been meeting with her friends more recently, coming to know the scouts better, but being with all of them at the same time was always a joy. Working for the rebels was always a personal happiness for her too and she had gladly closed the shop for today, almost all her orders already done and ready to go anyways. Work had become less and less of a worry for her recently, something that she did in between meetings with friends and helping with the rebellion. Faintly she smiled at how everything had changed, so long ago she had felt so lonely and yet now she had such good friends. If only she could tell her past self what was in store for her.

Stopping just before the room she needed to go in, she smoothed down her outfit and ran nervous hands through her hair, giving a slight tug on the length. It had gotten quite long recently and she hadn't got it cut yet, just simply considering keeping the length. Would the others like it? She hadn't shown it to them yet, most of it pinned back while she worked and it was harder to see the length then. She would find out soon though and taking a deep breath, she walked in, looking around for her friends.

Vremea was easy to find, already near Odette and she walked over with a grin, weaving through the crowd. A wave was given to Byakko, although she wasn't sure that she would notice, and she took note of the crowd around her. Most of the trolls she recognized already, a smile coming to her face at Maneki, but the tealblood was new. She spotted his other nearby, surprise coming to mind as she realized they were twins. He was near a greenblood and a quick turn to scan the rest saw Keionx and another yellowblood. An interesting crowd for sure tonight.

Her focus was on her friends though and she appeared at Vremea's side, giving a small smile to her friends before noticing the redblood by Odette that she didn't know. A polite nod went to her as her grin slipped, her face turning to that normal mask she schooled. "Vremea, Odette, it's so nice to see you two again," She said, a tinge of excitement in her voice, "It's also a pleasure to meet you, miss..?" She addressed the new troll, still pleasant. If she was near Odette, she was sure to be fine, but Athene was still a little wary.

"I haven't been here much too, so I can't say I'm much more of a rebel than you are," He smiled, "although do you think the facial hair helps? I feel like I'm sticking out, I really just want to know how the rebels are. My last impression wasn't.. great." He gave a shrug at that, trying to pass it off as casual, but it obviously bugged him.

The thought dropped from his mind though as she called out to Forera, taking a moment to make a face at his sister. There were some things you couldn't change. "I wasn't a loner anyways, she was totally making it up," Anguis grouched, although he knew it was true as he ran his fingers through his belt again. "Although I wouldn't say fifty percent. Maybe fourty, or thirty five? You have a lot of height to make up on."

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Gl!tch~

quite uneventful

MOUTHS "GO AWAY" AT

“Zeffer, huh?” Aerona muttered. There were far too many highbloods in here for her comfort. She fiddled with one of her braids idly, her nose wrinkled a touch with their presence. ‘So long as they’ve been marked, I guess.’ Aerona thought. It was a dangerous comment to make in Odette’s company, so she kept it in the back of her thinkpan. She was better off listening to her own caste.

Aerona gawked when Odette pointed out the tealblooded leaders. “S-seriously?” The kid looked like nothing special (if not a spritely little grub), and while the weary leader had a sense of age and battle-wear about her the redblood couldn’t fathom her interest in forming a rebel group. Aerona had placed her trust in Odette, and at the moment it wasn’t seeming like quite the hemospectrum-equalizing crew she imagined. Perhaps because the higher blooded trolls could get away with it. She gritted her teeth and only calmed when Odette mentioned her companions. Right – the bows one, and the others. She preferred not to remember that moment at Bloodfest, but at least Odette was familiar with these other trolls. She rejuvenated her enthusiastic smile, and was about to speak when she was interrupted.

Speak of the ruffles, there was Bows. Aerona grinned and watched as she interacted with the redblood, a blush coming to her cheeks. Her eyes lingered on Vremea’s elaborate outfit and trailed up to her broach before settling. “Yeah, glad to be here,” she responded. Aerona relaxed her weight onto a leg and continued to appraise the room. Vremea and Odette seemed to have some – quadrant related – chatting to do, so she felt like a third wheel. Fortunately, one of the other scouts (damn, they were coming out of the walls, weren’t they?) appeared in front of her as if she’d wished for it. One of the cooler scouts at the booth, she hadn’t paid her any mind when she had stopped by. But, if Odette trusted her it would be worthwhile to network, and Aerona conceded to shoot her a wink.

“Aerona’s fine. No fancy titles necessary for me, miss...?” She smiled and stuffed a hand into her back pocket while waving playfully with another.

∞ Ephias Sagine

It was amazing to think that the rebels had been hiding just around the corner from where he lived.

Not literally of course. It was still at least an hour hike from Chittentown, maybe closer to two from his hive. Even so, the Phoenix Initiative HQ was far closer than he would have imagined. All those sweeps he had spent in wilful ignorance, in denial of the very possibility of change, they had been just a couple miles away formulating plans of action to overthrow the system. Incredible. A little depressing too.

Ephias could not keep his eyes from wandering as he followed Milieu through the tunnels. He had grown accustomed to her silence, and in fact welcomed it. Though his friends were familiar with his taciturn nature, his knew little enough of the tealblood that he felt an obligation to indulge her. Except in this case, she did not need indulging. With her communication limited to hand signals and her whiteboard, small-talk was kept to a minimum. It made for a nice change, not having to frantically assemble conversation topics.

Wolly on the other hand was not so thrilled.

Of course the lusus had come along. After the incident in New Hemisect, the sheep was determined that he would never let Ephias leave his sight ever again. Already he had failed somewhat in that regard, as his wool covered his eyes. Wolly was not bothered by that. After all, he could still smell Ephias. He knew he was close by.

“The caves provide a natural d-defence...” Ephias mused, as they turned down another passageway. Their progress through the rebel base had been anything but straightforward. The passages wound and interlaced so many times, he nearly lost track of the turns they had made. It would take some getting used to... the emptiness as well. He was surprised to see how empty the caverns were. He had gleaned some of the Phoenix Initiative's recent background from Milieu, but he had hoped... well, there was no reason not to hope.

“Vremea will be coming?” he inquired. He had known that the yellowblood would be accompanying Etsali, and in truth could not wait to see another friendly face. He had heard all kinds of rumours about the rebel faction, and not all of them were good. Though his face may not of shown it, he was positively rattled. He wanted nothing more than to instigate change, but suppose the Phoenix Initiative was just a collection of violent anarchists? Suppose they wanted to overthrow the system only to instate their own mode of tyranny? Suppose...

There was a lot to consider. For the present he would be of an open-mind with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Etsali was still having a little trouble wrapping her head around how weird it seemed to be here, deep in the base of the Rebels and, for all intents and purposes one of them now. They'd been on opposite sides the first time they'd come to her attention, after all, and she remembered all too well how she'd felt about them destroying her bases and confusing her teammates. She wasn't holding any grudges about that, not anymore at least, but she knew it wouldn't have occurred to her to even want to be here if it hadn't been Ephias' idea.

What were the benefits of picking this side over the other? She wasn't sure there would be any, except for the chance that they might be more approving of her lifestyle than the military would have been when they found out. Maybe. It was hard to predict the morals that other trolls lived by. Pushing it to the side as a bridge to cross once she had more information on her new potential allies, Etsali glanced around the tunnel walls with a hum, thinking back to Vremea's tour.

The thief had a good memory, but it wasn't photographic. She'd tried not to stray too far from the main rooms to keep from getting lost, but now she needed a moment to reorient herself. Once she was pretty sure she had her bearings, she started for the next intersection and started to turn the corner. She paused at the sound of voices though, and peeked around the corner first instead. And just like she'd thought, there was Keionx. Ephias hadn't told her that she was coming.

She was halfway back the way she'd come, fingers worrying at the latch of a pouch on her belt in irritation, before she thought to wonder who it was her rival had been talking to, but she couldn't immediately place him anyway. Shrugging it off, she retraced her steps and took a different turn to head into the meeting room, where she figured she'd hang around and people watch until she saw someone she knew. Except that that had happened almost immediately, because it was hard to miss the way Forera's voice cut through a crowd.

Grinning, Etsali watched the tealblood move to rejoin a group and then made a beeline for it. "Forera! Luxara!" She came to an unsure halt at Anguis. Logically she knew who he had to be, but she couldn't for the life of her remember if anyone had ever mentioned what his name might be. "Uh...Forera's brother! I wasn't expecting to see you guys here!"

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quite uneventful

Gl!tch~

PeanutButterpies

"Do I?" Luxara stood up straighter, pushing off from the wall and putting her hands on her hips. She sized the tealblood up. Then, after a moment, placed a foot on one of his boots, then the other, using that as leverage for a few more inches of height. "How's that?"

Her attention was soon split again though, first because of the banter she could hear between Maneki and Forera, then Forera coming on over. Luxara hopped off of Anguis to give her friend a hug. "Hey, what can I say, I have a quota I gotta meet and it's not gonna happen in the forest. Who can I talk to there besides my lusus?" She squeezed then stepped back. "I see you're making new friends though. Who's the squirt? He seems like a cutie."

But before she could mention other observations regarding Maneki and the adults around him, a familiar voice called out. Out of the corner of her eye, Luxara caught a masked orangeblood coming over. "Ets! Hey! I didn't know you joined up. This is like another Tunnel Snakes reunion. Well. Without Vul." She looked Forera's way. "Issss Vul coming? Or are his heels not very sand-friendly? I mean if he's not gonna be here, guess An can fill his spot for now." This was great! Weird how they kept being drawn back together.

"So, Ets, how've you been since Bloodfest? And check out For's twin! He's gotten huge!" She gave his arm a nice slap. "He's like all the height and muscle For didn't get!"

"Yo, no problem," exclaimed Aerona. "Nice handwriting! Real nice." This whole shindig felt more like a tea party than a rebel meeting. Even Milieu (who Aerona had only vaguely remembered from Bloodfest) was speaking - er, writing - in formal speech. She felt a touch out of place. Aerona wasn't quite sure to say with all of the pleasantries being thrown around. It was surface-level stuff, party fare. The entirety of the rebellion had struck Aerona as odd. Half of the group was a dangerous looking array of highbloods (teal and up, including the leader and her charge), some of which were either "strange" or "trouble". The other half was a well-to-do crew up and down the hemospectrum with high-class tendencies, who seemed more likely to don lace and a parasol than sword and shield.

How were these trolls expecting to change Alternia, again?

At the very least, Milieu had brought to her a kid who looked like he knew how to have a good time. The redblood in front of her had an acceptable number of chains, netting and straps, and she shot him a grin immediately. He was also damn cute, like a fluffy woolbeast.

"Sup, Chains?" Aerona bleated. She turned to the scouts and gave them a handwave. "If you ladies want to catch up we can wander around some, eh? Meet you back here?"