Welcome to Gaia! ::

Chance had slept reasonably well on the floor - for all of the two hours he'd actually been asleep. The rest of his time had been spent awake, slipping out to sit just outside the hotel room door, leaning against the wall so that he could have light to read his book (which was one of the ones he'd gotten from his excursion with Otto, and was a surprisingly thrilling tale of a demigod named Percy Jackson).

Insomnia was a b***h sometimes, but at least he was well-versed in how to keep himself occupied.

Chance made sure to creep silently back into the room with a reasonable amount of time left, sinking down to the floor somewhere in Dawson's vicinity and curling up on his side, falling into a restful sleep before being awoken by the sounds of everyone else getting up.

He was dressed himself in a pair of charcoal grey slacks, a black button down shirt, black tie, and a white sweater, a pair of black glasses on the end of his nose - clearly Chance's "teacher" ensemble ran toward neutral colors, which looked relatively out of place on someone whose attire usually had some sort of stars imprinted on them. He'd brushed his hair over the tattoos on the side of his face, which had been covered with a bandaid to hide them from view, and was currently nursing his second cup of (black) coffee.

Except apparently, in all of his haste, Chance had forgotten that his partner in this mission was, in fact, one of two people he was attempting to avoid, and had so far managed to do so for over a week now. He reached for the offered walkie-talkie, plastering a serene expression on his face, notching it into the belt at his waist.

"Sure thing, boss," he said lightly. "I'll get right to work."

Maybe he could get through this whole day without actually getting involved in anything.

"Oh, are we earning favors for being decent now?" Jack snitted that evening. "In that case, you owe me a ******** few big ones for not stabbing you in the back for a week. You're ******** welcome." The Suite Life of Jack and Jamil wouldn't make it past the pilot episode at this rate.

He turned over and tried to ignore the fact that the space was filled with the presence and ambient noise of people.

Dawson pulled his cap over his face, sat his pillow against the couch, and tried to tough it out; unsurprisingly he could barely sleep, both from nerves and from his new surroundings, but he didn't try to join anyone who moved about in the night this time. It was nice to have people by him at all, though.

Gale received one goodnight and good luck text with a single sparkling heart where there should have been an entire line dedicated to the emoticon.

---

Dawson proceeded to consume his weight in breakfast foods, anxiety assuaged as long as he had a full belly. Lex's status got bumped up from Mr. a*****e Claude Brother to Mr. Maybe Not So Bad Claude Brother almost instantly. His attire was the same baggy covered mess as before; he'd just run some water and soap very quickly under his pits to count as his "shower".

"Vill pretend to being Russian exchange student," he told the other hunter-students, effecting the accent he had been learning from Kostya. "That way, can say English is not first language. Do not like talking. Enjoy many layers on. Have strange appearance." He paused, then returned to his regular accent. "Less ya'll think that'd be too weird?"



---

An irritable Jack drank coffee. And drank. And drank. And made more to stick into the thermos he had packed. It was weak and watery and he despised it. He despised everyone for existing right now.

The cafeteria worker garb was donned with a sigh, and after receiving his radio, he tuned it into the correct channel.

"Tall assholes team are a go," he said as he glanced at his teammates.

It was a quiet night, and he managed to stay on his side of the bed, sleeping peacefully on his side. Chance and Lex's leave and return to the room did wake him, but he fell back asleep easily enough until he woke up with the sun. He had slept in, but it was rather nice for once - and after a shower, he settled in for some breakfast.

Then came the briefing, and Ripley took the instructions - and the walkie-talkie with a quiet nod. He had been about to leave when he heard Oliver's stammering concern, and he paused in the doorway, looking back at the scared young man before zeroing in on Lex.

Then, with a sigh, he pulled out his phone and sent the latter man a text, which read: Give that kid a map of his own, and/or a competent friend to duckling after. Make sure he has one of our phone numbers. Good luck with him.

"Right behind you." He assured Chance belatedly as he slid his phone back into his pocket. Then, he gave a nod to those in the room before making his way out of the room and towards the route that had been given to them. It was easy to fall into step beside Chance, and he allowed the silence between them to stay until they were about a quarter of the way there.

"We're looking for places in town, happened to stay at the same hotel. Sound fair?" He was musing their story, why they would be coming to work together, and why they would likely be seen around each other a fair amount.

Ripley, suddenly struck by a strange thought, settled for watching Chance impassively. The reply he had gotten, while agreeable, was still off. He could think of plenty of reasons as to why, but not one of them personally made sense, especially since they had parted on such good terms. Whatever had changed in the last week or so must have been knew.

"Do you have an alias?" He questioned instead, still watching him with the same unreadable expression.

Finn could not help but wonder what the ******** every bodies problem was (besides the obvious sharing of one hotel room which was still awful.). But if they all wanted to sleep on the floor with 2 couches still more then available, then they were either idiots, or crazy, or both. He did, briefly, consider taking one for himself, so as to give Ripley the bed and not make things, well, awkward, but there was really no reason to.

He slept in a t-shirt and sweatpants, on his side of the bed with at least another person sized gap between him and the other man. Well, "slept". More then once he was tempted to get out of bed to go for a cigarette, unable to manage much rest in a room full of people who's breathing (and in some cases, snoring) seemed impossibly loud. He managed to doze, however, off and on throughout the night, though the night did drag, and by morning, he felt absolutely awful.

All that really meant, however, is that first thing in the morning, instead of talking to anybody, he (a little moodily but silently) took off to have that smoke he'd wanted all night. When he returned, he ate, had a coffee or two, showered, and got ready. When he was ready, he went for another smoke before their little meeting, and once their meeting was through, he took his walkie talkie and moved over towards Jack and Claude, sort of assuming they were meant to take one of the paths together.

Rolling his eye at Claude and her comment, he took out a pair of sunglasses (Jack's, now borrowed especially for this mission) and slipped them into place. "There. See how ******** inconspicuous I can be?" He smiled, though it was bland, before pulling out his phone to glance at something.

His lips might have twitched up a bit higher before he pocketed it again, mentally shaking his head at whatever it was he had seen.

"Shall we go then?"

Chance was mentally running through information inside of his head; facts to keep his mind occupied, away from the man currently walking beside him. It was making him feel strangely unsettled, especially since he had told Ripley that things wouldn't change between them, and here he was changing things.

He blinked, a little taken aback by the question.

"Er," said Chance. "I hadn't thought we needed one, but I suppose if it's necessary..."

His eyes slid sideways briefly and then cut forward again.

((permission granted to switch because wow dice))

Dawson was immensely pleased to see Lydia and Oliver enjoy the impression, though the closer they got to the school, the more nervous he started to get himself. After all, what if someone actually saw through the impression? Or his scarf slipped? Or anything at all that would make him ruin the mission now and forever amen??

He gulped and stepped back into the world he'd left only several years ago.

He hadn't been at Deus long. While the school life in California was very different than what he was used to, Dawson understood that high school still was high school, and there were similar nuances wherever you went. He borrowed a book from the library to use as both reading material and an excuse to be sitting by himself, though he did chat a few times with what seemed to be a class representative who happily accepted his foreign exchange student nerves story.

What Dawson didn't quite understand was when exactly he got the trinkets in his pocket. They seemed to have just appeared in the middle of the school day: a pack of smarties, several heart shaped stickers on the back of his jacket, a sticky note on his locker. He was pleasantly baffled but doubly anxious; that meant his low key cover wasn't helping.

But at least someone liked him...?

Lydia