Welcome to Gaia! ::

Richard glanced over at Esther and Liesel. They did not look like a good pair; Richard would never have put them together on his own behest. In fact, if possible, he would now keep them apart. He knew Liesel and her sort; almost everyone who called him "Taps" anymore was of her sort, and Richard did not like them. Esther, on the other hand, was confused, a little more green - more of a normal human being, the kind of person Richard fought to keep the way they were. A natural person. Well, besides the apparent quality absorption. That was insignificant.

He leaned in to St. Cyrill to try and hear the conversation.

"Listen," St. Cyrill said, growing impatient. "I know that you've been exposed to a certain substance that no one has any knowledge of. I have as well. I want you to come and talk to me about it."

((Well, what the s**t are we doing?))

They were just moving on when a single bullet tore through the wall of their cubicle. It hit Connor in the shoulder.
"Ouch," he said with a confused look as he went down.
Tiki immediately dropped back and picked him up. Connor cried out in pain, but Tiki lifted him and ran to the next piece of cover.
He put Connor down on the floor, where he lay groaning. Tiki poked the area tenderly, and the scientist cried out again.
"Christ, Tiki, why don't you just kiss it better, for all the good you're doing!"
At that moment, Tiki's mouth began to glow golden. He looked down at Connor, startled. For a few seconds, he touched the area around his mouth, but nothing was wrong. He shrugged and began to bend down.
"Tiki? No! No no no no no n-"
Tiki kissed the wound, and it was immediately bathed in golden light. The bullet popped out and the skin knit together before Tiki's eyes.
"What in the world..." Connor murmured.

"What info do you want?" St. Cyrill exclaimed. "I'm just a military man, trying to figure it out, just like you. Come on."

She felt eyes on her, but decided against shifting her head. She was vaguely astounded by the fact that this woman was so different from her. Liesel guessed that when she was of that age, she had already been hardened, her blankness no longer a mask; already transformed into a permanent state. She was so involved in thinking about the years that flew by that she almost forgot somebody else was there. "A pleasure, Esther." She tested. The name felt unusual to her tongue, then again, simply speaking English felt like a change of pace to her. She wondered how this would all work out. In her many years as an operative, she had never wondered that before, and it alone seemed like a foreboding sign.

Shikyo flinched away from the phone and paused as he continued to listen to the more collected member. "Thank you...in either case, you can count me on a plane first thing in the morning, where will I need to be? D.C.?"