Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Well.. One lady and two boytoys? Of course I'm in charge." Cee grinned, further bolstered by the tall rugged man who joined them. It helped her straighten and finally take one step from Every to grab the other man's arm. She'd recognized Wyatt from the pageant but hadn't yet had the formal pleasure. "Wassup loverboy?"

The groups were filtering off and Cee quickly broke it down in her head. Most of the more powerful hunters seemed to be going off to fight which warned her against that path.

"C'mon. We'll go wit dem." There were more trainees and in the foreign landscape she felt better in numbers. "Scavengin can't be horrible righ?"

The knowledge that the stars should be there paired with Robert's reassurance was more than enough to calm Mimsy down. It allowed her to approach the fact that they both dreamt of a date with Death with a level head, though she couldn't help feeling somewhat offended.

"Oh," she sighed, followed by an anxious laugh. "I was unaware that you were--well. That is unimportant now."

If he wanted to flirt with Death, she really couldn't fault him. That was something that was acceptable for him to do, as far as she was concerned, and this was not the time to talk about any opinions they shared about him.

"I would never allow for that to happen." She squeezed his hands back when he took hers, her smile more natural now, albeit still somewhat dampened by the situation. "The stars may be incapable of seeing the importance of being here, but I will not hide from you, no matter where we are."

There was no time for whatever moment they were having right now - supplies were being shoved towards them, and she released his hands to begin layering gear on herself with a sizable amount of visible annoyance and resignation.

She dragged herself through the portal with a similar level of enthusiasm once they were both prepared, and nothing could have softened the impact of the sight in front of her.

Caelius.

With a groan and a hiss as she took a breath through clenched teeth, she turned to Robert and spoke very sternly.

"Do not blindly follow his orders, whatever they may be. There is always time to consider your actions. He can attempt to manipulate everyone else, but I cannot allow him to touch you." She shuddered with disgust at the thought, after all that he had done to Clerise and Lucky both. Not this time.

Preparation. Right. He whimpered when she had to let him go to get ready, but soon enough his own hands were filled with the proper utilities needed on his person in order to survive a dangerous mission. He was still checking the straps of his belt when Caelius started his heart-warming speech, but there was no need to worry about Robert taking his words too seriously.

"Don't stress, baby girl." Robert assured her, after landing on the sandy ground. "Cael don't got nothin' on me." Even if he wanted to, all that he saw when he looked at Cael was the young man inside. He knew too much to be scared.

"You got everything you needed? I'm packed. Where's Shu?" He perked up to look around, and then cupped his mouth to focus his voice.

"SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. WHERE ARE YOU?"

A trainee who he'd just deafened shuffled quickly away.

Evan lived for the call of duty. He wasn't bothered by being woken up in the middle of the night with orders and no context or details; he was thrilled. Gir whined and barked in the back of his mind, equally eager to be put to good use--for playtime.

At the same time, something niggled at them, giving their excitement a fine edge of unease. Maybe they were just remembering the last mission and how poorly that had ended. He put on the equipment he was given and stepped through the portal without a second thought.

The first thing that hit him was the light, a discomforting shock after coming from the middle of the night on the other side of the portal. The second thing he realized was not the horrific landscape, but the presence of Caelius, who had set them all on fire the last time they had been in the desert. Evan decided to give him a wide berth, instead looking around for other, friendlier faces.

He grinned as he saw a familiar shock of pink hair. He made his way towards Chel, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder in greeting. "C'mon, Powder Puff, let's go find some trouble to get into."

Kylee's cheeks flamed; not due to the heat, but to the other girl telling her she was definitely a 10. Her free hand found its way to her scarf, fingers grazing the metallic heart brooch that was pinned there, that would soon be summoned if need be.

She dearly hoped not.

"Well, we should probably head out then." Even though a part of her really didn't want to.

Carhop Cavalier

chimarii

istoleyurvamps

He'd thought about texting her back immediately, but her obvious disgust with the idea that he'd be tapped for mission duty made him think twice, and instead he foisted Tubadiah duty off on hapless Peyton via direct message before scurrying through the portal, the change in scenery a sick slam to his stomach. He spent the duration of Caelius's speech battling, by turns, dry mouth and a heaving nauseated dread.

He was still wearing what she'd seen him in the night before when he'd shown up for a couple of hours and made himself useful before ushering himself back out with a suddenness and a silence that suggested he was doing so by force of will. Apparently he had simply tumbled directly into his bed, because even still smelled, very faintly, of Pine-Sol when he materialized suddenly behind her shoulder to murmur: "I have to double-check but I think I got Caelius death-threat Bingo. You owe me a drink."

His hands were thrust into his pockets, but he was trembling straight to his elbows, and there was no cold to blame this time.

Being woken up in the middle of the night wasn't an uncommon occurrence, especially if it involved a mission. So when the hunters knocked on his door Jason groggily dragged himself out of bed and mumbled a response. But when he opened the door to see a fully dressed hunter demanding he get his a** moving he woke up real quick. Thankfully it didn't take him long to get ready, and in less then five minutes he was running outside with the throng of other hunters.

The moon hunter shuddered, eyes straying to the starless night. Something didn't feel right here. He didn't know what it was but he didn't like it in the least, wanting to retreat back to the relative safely of his bed. Instead he was given some supplies and ushered through the portal into the burning hot desert. He momentarily panicked when he thought it was the Sahara, but when he saw the large spikes, he nearly hyperventilated instead. He had been pretty lucky so far avoiding these types of missions but now he had been thrown head first into one.

There was also the magnificent Caelius making a appearance, and he did well to hide when he began talking about missions and dying if they didn't follow orders. He planned to follow them exactly.

With a sigh, he went to go make (some) use of himself and hope he wouldn't die within the next few minutes.

"Good, follow us then. I think we have some stragglers before we can head out." Rin was far less nervous the more people that joined them but one more still was not enough to get her to release Melvin. She started cutting through the crowds, sick of waiting on an answer to her phone. Finally something fiery red caught her eye and she made a hard right to head straight for it, shoving a few small trainees out of her way.

"Rep!" her voice called from a part in the chaos. She was still dragging Melvin by the hand and assuming Otto kept up, one very sleepy looking sun hunter.