Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I did. I tried my best." Ennéa said to A-One. Inexplicably, there were tears suddenly in her eyes. She moved slightly away from Madison to pull him into a fierce hug. "And I'll keep trying, always." She said against his chest. "I promise." Ennéa curled her fingers into his shirt. God, how much he reminded her of her brother. She was so glad he had made it.

She pulled back and wiped her eyes. "Oh no!" she said, wiping at his shirt. "I made a mess." She chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry, Boss."

Ennéa then turned to listen to Madison's question. "Yeah, I did." she replied. "It was weird. I had a really cool axe though!"

Gale offered a cheeky grin to Ariane, tilting his head up to look at the older girl. "Gale is fine by me," he answered her and then the grin widened, becoming an amused smile at her next words. "I appreciate the, er...avenging, then." With a laugh, Gale shook his head, linking his fingers against the back of his hair. "It's good to be in once piece. I wasn't sure for a while, but as for right now, well...I'm pretty content I'm here."

It would be a better situation if Leslie were here as well, though... Gale's pleased expression faltered a bit, a frown tugging his lips downwards as he glanced towards those in the room already. There was no flash of telltale blonde hair that matched his own, no quiet shuffling or the hesitant words of his twin sister. Not yet, Gale amended himself, pushing himself to think positively. She could still come...

Damn you, brat, get your a** in here already!

"Hey, Gale...come on over."

Surprise flickered across Gale's face as he turned his attention towards Bix, blinking. For a moment he was unsure - after all, he was acutely aware that he was probably the youngest in the room, and he had no desire to be treated like a child, but Bix's expression was kind, and it made Gale smile. Pushing himself to his feet, he moved a few spaces down, sliding into the seat beside the other boy and sticking his feet up on the table, hands behind his head again.

"Glad to see there are other Betas here," he said, and flashed a grin towards Bix. "Even if I was a little bit out of the loop most of the time. Gotta stick with what - or who - you know, right?"

Madison's question made him glance towards the girl, and Gale drummed his fingers thoughtfully against his leg. "Yeah, now that you mention it, I did," he answered, frowning a bit as he tried to recall the hazy memory. "I think mine was a shotgun." A brief pause. "Or something like that. But I'm pretty sure it was a shotgun."

A loud thump on the ground silenced all conversation.

"Children", the not-quite-hooded figure slammed both hands against the table, scythe disappearing in mid-motion. "If you would please, you can socialize at some other time, I am simply here to be the messenger. Lay the ground rules of this meeting."

He circled the table, staring at each individual, and for a second, it seemed as if the room itself was spinning, the walls getting smaller, everything happening again in slow motion as he drew closer towards the table. At any second now, he would ask them to choose a traitor, at any second now, the walls would be bathed in blood and then-

-They simply pulled up one of the chairs and sat down themselves, grabbing a pen. A couple of scribbles later, and there was a legible handwritten name: Caelius.

"All right, as you have taken the time to introduce yourselves, let me introduce myself, I am one of your senior members here at Deus Ex Machina, and I foresee the intelligence division. While I have my apprehensions, it is my duty as said senior advisers to make sure that we continue on in the same direction."

There were a couple of very blatant stares at him, questions just waiting to be asked. 'Caelius' simply raised his voice. "That being said I am not here to baby you. I am not here to 'show you the right way' or bring you to the path of light, you are here for one simple purpose only. All your life, you have felt like you have been living for the wrong reason. Your friends, family, those you loved and loved you, could not truly understand you. You were scared, you were confused, you were lost. You continued on with no purpose."

A pause as the 'senior advisor' grabbed another piece of card and neatly folded it in half, scribbling something as he continued to talk. "Now, I haven't had the time to formerly introduce our beautiful facility. Welcome to Deus Ex Machina, facility by name, training ground more by nature. Our goal here is to guide you, through missions, to discover your purpose. Your goal here is to find yourself your role."

Caelius propped up the second piece of cardstock that simply read: Role. "I like to think you are all at least quasi-intelligent people. You have gone through our first training mission blind, survived, and are sitting here in front of me. Use that knowledge, use the information provided by you, and now tell me, what exactly are you looking for that is different from others? May I remind you that this is indeed a meeting, you are indeed judged on your behaviour."

Senior advisor, was it? A part of Jordan was infinitely relieved. Another part, long suppressed, as strong and as determined, was ... proud? He remained standing, didn't let go of Ennea, though he transferred most of his attention to Caelius. Deus Ex Machina. God out of the machine, he translated automatically, remembering and understanding; a literary device in which a higher power set everything right.

His role? His role was - his role was - he didn't even know. But he wasn't about to submit servilely to anyone. A-One wouldn't have done so, and now, now Jordan wouldn't. Judge him? He was the only being who'd judge himself. He pulled A-Nine - Ennea - briefly against his side, before releasing her.

"I'm looking for what is right. What nobody sees. I'm looking for the things that hunt us," he said. His right hand curled at his side, fisted, and relaxed. There was something missing; something like his own hand, that he'd never before realized was part of him. Unknown, yet sorely missed.

"I will try my best, Boss," she replied to Jordan with a purposeful nod, the corners of her lips curling up again in that slight smile, a look which quickly turned into a skeptical bewilderment within the next few minutes. The 'sneaky' hand had not gone as unnoticed as Robert probably would have liked, dark blue eyes following it as it slide behind her, jerking a little in surprise when all of a sudden she was shoved into the impromptu group-hug. She didn't protest, however -- although she likely would only admit it with a flat tone and an unreadable look, it felt... nice. It felt good to have people they knew and recognized, people they trusted in this place, after so much had happened.

The sudden loud thump of hands hitting the table caused her to snap her head towards it in a knee-jerk reaction, her eyes narrowing a little as he started to circle the table, her heart starting to pound for no apparent reason. Except there was a very good reason for it -- memories of the scythe and the bloodshed of this room were suddenly resurfacing with acute clarity, her pupils dilating as she felt her muscles tense. In fact, she looked as if she were going to deck the reaper as well in a moment, before everything suddenly stopped spinning, and she blinked as 'Caelius' sat down, introducing himself in a way he hadn't the first time around. It was only after a few seconds consideration that she slowly re-approached the table, sitting back down in her seat and listening with a lingering suspicion and a poorly-hidden interest as he spoke, starting to explain not only where they were, but what they were doing here.

When he asked the question, she didn't respond right away, her eyebrows furrowing a little as she considered, not quite sure she understood the question. Jordan's response earned him a look of silent agreement no one could likely read before she looked back at Caelius, then around at the others at the table.

Scarlett entered the room quietly, just as the majority of the group had found their seats and paired off to get acquainted (or reacquainted, it seemed). She wasn't pulled to any one person or any group, she wasn't here to find a partner or a brother-in-arms. She had none of those among these people, there was no happy reunion to be had and no one waiting for her with open arms. Scarlett had traveled the island alone, fought alone, and died alone.

The happy, screaming reunion was not something she could join - not even really something she wanted to join. Instead, her lime eyes scanned the semi-circle of seated teenagers and young adults until she found a pair sitting quietly for the most part, removed from the hubbub of the main groups. Luckily there was an open seat near them and she quickly made her way towards them to take it before someone else did.

Just as she settled into the seat, people around her began to announce their names. Even if she didn't know what the man had said before she arrived, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. She slid a card closer to herself and reached out to grab a pen, then simply scrawled her name out in a slanting hand - Scarlett G. Voliva. She didn't write anything else though, simply because there was nothing else to write. Her life had been average, boring, and uneventful.

Before she could announce her one, simple answer to the crowd the man began to speak again. Just as well for her, it would have been awkward to talk to a room she didn't know in the slightest. She sat back in her chair and swung her eyes up to him, content next to the female of the pair who seemed to be about the same age as herself. Once he finished speaking though, she found herself.. troubled. If this had been home, her life before, she would have known exactly what to write on that card. Here she was unsure.

Regardless, her hand reached out for another card and folded it like he had done, but her pen hesitated over the paper. After a few long minutes of others talking around her, she finally pressed the point to the stock and scrawled out something else that was short and simple.

"A purpose," it was a soft voice, but with an edge of confidence that didn't fit the vagueness of her answer. "I want something to work for, something I can excel at and be happy about it." She dropped her pen back on the table with the two cards and their simple answers and settled back in her chair again, content with herself and her vague answer despite the fact that everyone else around her was asking for weapons and hunting and any other number of specific things.

Instead of bombarding their overseer with questions, however, she threw her glance sideways at the female next to her (Hanna, she thought she'd heard before?) and the boy (Scott, perhaps?) just beyond her. Even if she'd royally screwed up her first attempt at teamwork, it was never too late to start trying again - right?

"I'm Scarlett," she announced her name to the pair with confidence, then leaned a little towards the girl and held out a hand.

Ennéa smiled against Jordan's side when she heard his answer and her smile grew wider when she heard A-Seven's -- Robert's? That was his real name wasn't it? It was odd trying to relearn her teammate's names after being so used to thinking of them with numbers. Fun though. Like how 'Madison' and 'Petra' and 'Jordan' all suited their respective owners, the name 'Robert' suited her tall, burly teammate better than 'A-Seven'.

Though Ennéa did regret never getting a chance to make a joke about being scared of him because 'Seven ate Nine'. She giggled slightly. Such a shame.

Oh wait, she wasn't paying attention again, wasn't she? Ennéa looked guiltily at Jordan before quickly turning her attention back to the guy with the scythe. Caelius was his name, she remembered.

He seemed oddly familiar somehow, just as the scythe he was holding seemed ominously foreboding -- even beyond just being an imposing weapon. Ennéa shook her head, her attention was drifting again. Must stay focused. Caelius had asked a question.

"I want to keep my promise. I want to keep trying." She answered, shooting a quick smile at her teammates. "And what I'm looking for... is a way to do that." Ennéa nodded firmly.

When the authority figure at the front of the room thumped his hands on the ground, Hanna gave a start. In a room like this, she didn't want any surprises. Her eyes widened to see the scythe disappear -- just like that -- into thin air. The mention of rules brought a determined smile to her face. Hanna wanted desperately to understand more about their circumstances. She had wanted it ever since she had first signed on back in Baltimore. Now, she was finally going to get them.

Hanna logged away the name Caelius and listened quietly as he continued. It took everything in her power to not start writing down notes. Everything was exciting to her; every word whispered a new opportunity. When the dark-haired man asked them to write down what they wanted that was different from the others, Hanna paused, pulling her piece of paper closer.

What did she want? Enlightenment -- that was the word that popped into her head. She nearly started to write it before balking at the pomp and circumstance of it. She didn't want to get all philosophical. She just wanted to be practical. Others seemed to be on the same page. Some asked for their weapons. Hanna vaguely recalled the heft of a hilt in her hand, but little else. The weapon was not at the forefront of her mind. Others were a little more ambiguous, but it was the answer of the girl beside her that Hanna agreed the most with.

Scarlett stuck out a hand and Hanna took it, shaking gently. "I'm Hanna," she said. "He's Scott." She didn't want to do too much talking out of turn, but so far, the white-haired girl had been one of the more calmer ones in her vicinity. She appreciated this fact.

After a moment of chewing on her pen, Hanna scribbled a thought down and then, when a bit of silence lapsed in the room, she said, "I want to understand the world in a way that other people can't, I always have. It was worth leaving my family to me, worth struggling and dying on the island, just to have that chance for... enlightenment." The word still sounded too posh, but Hanna wasn't sure what other word to use. "And I'd do it all again, just to be here." Intensity was sort of Hanna's default mode.