Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Mist Lounge was a little different. Someone had found some holiday decorations and had put them up, decorating the walls with large, glittery light and dark blue snowflakes. Someone had taken the time to create a Christmas tree out of green tinsel and decorate it with shiny baubles. Someone else had taken another table and placed a menorah along with a handmade dreidel out of wood.

A lump rose in his throat. He knew someone who liked to carve, and yet -- his eyes fell onto the glass candy bowl nearby. It was currently empty. He ought to send a group off on a mission to retrieve more to stock up and --

Lance shook his head. There was so much to do and so little time. He needed to address that.

Soon enough the Mist hunters filtered into the room, taking places. Some clustered together, whispering. Others stood apart with their arms folded, waiting. Lance waited until he was fairly confident a majority of the hunters were present before he cleared his throat and addressed them.

"Good evening. I see there are some new faces here; for those who do not know me, my name is Lance." He began awkwardly, taking a deep breath before he continued. "I realize this meeting is late for some of you, early morning for others. I will try to be brief."

"Aria has betrayed Deus Ex. We have evidence proving her cooperation with Halloween that extends beyond the occasional expectation Deus sometimes has with certain organizations within Halloween. When confronted, she destroyed her office and fled."

"She is now an enemy of Deus Ex. While we are interested in capturing her, we simply do not have the manpower or strength to do so currently. She may not be a leader anymore, however she is as powerful as one. If you see her, do not engage her in conversation or combat. Report her sighting to myself or another superior as soon as possible."

"In addition, because of her actions, our division is under heavy scrutiny." Lance sat up a little bit taller. "Let me be blunt about this: our asses are now collectively on the line. We're going to need to work hard and whip ourselves into shape."

"To that end, I am now implementing a training order. Everyone must complete a training course and fill out the paperwork to receive a runic. If you have already completed the different training courses available and have access to all current runics, you must complete an external mission instead. Everyone will have until January 31st to complete this. It's not much, but it'll be a step in the right direction."

Lance looked around the room. "To that end, I am no longer the Mist Assistant. I am now your Division Leader. As the position of Mist Assistant is now available, and as Aria failed to select an assistant for me, I am re-opening the position of Mist Assistant with a few changes."

"All interested parties must be of intermediate or full hunter level. Every couple of months it will change, meaning everyone will gain some experience as an assistant. The job may click for some of you, and it may not click for others. Mist Hunters are all about flexibility, so the more experience each of you can get the better off you'll be."

The man leaned back in his wheelchair. "Interested applicants can fill out the paperwork. And... I think I've covered everything. I know it was a lot to take in, but does anyone have any questions?"

Cass had arrived promptly, however the lack of Aria's touches and the additional....warmth....given to the lounge had made her stomach knot up a bit. That might have been the bad week catching up to her, however.

Especially when Lance had begun to speak. She attempted to twist the ring on her finger, only to realize that she couldn't use that nervous habit anymore when her flesh screamed in agony at her trying to rip it apart with such a gesture. Aria had been caught. While Cass had never agreed to do more than keep her silence, she couldn't help but wonder who had spoken or if Aria had done something more than that one meeting.

She glanced to the other hunters assembled. Division Assistant. Immediately her eyes sought out Candace's face - she would be perfect for such a role, or at least Cass felt so. Maybe she maybe didn't know her division well enough to think anybody else to have such a high opinion of them either.

So that and an External Mission......she wasn't sure she really wanted to do much more than get that Mission over with and hope that if anybody had talked her name hadn't come up - which may have been why she didn't make eye contact with her favorite Unicorn.

Very strange.

Candace arrived on time as usual, but this time instead of the cheerful woman who greeted everyone she passed with a kiss or a hug she remained quiet and kept to herself. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in days. She had trusted Aria, believed in her when she had been under scrutiny over the whole impersonation thing, and she had been working so ******** hard to change the perception of Mist.

And then Aria ******** paused in the doorway when she arrived, looking around at the Christmas decorations with a small smile. That was nice. This place needed more cheer. The whole island needed more cheer lately...

Sitting down, Candace kept quiet. She listened to the speech without speaking a word, sitting and idly fidgeting with her engagement ring. Normally the news of someone betraying Candace would be like a call to action for her, but now it just upset her. It made her want to quit. To give up.

But you can't.

I won't.

Good ghoul.

"Are princess golems available if, say, the only runic we need is the dagger?" She asked, her voice quiet. Candace always thought the mention of needing a new Mist assistant would elate her. It would excite her, she'd be overjoyed. Not quite. It was nice to hear..she could try it. But the circumstances tarnished the beauty of it.

Ian was also there, though he remained silent and stoic off to the side.

Nevada was as relaxed as ever, which was comforting in a time of turmoil within and without. Neither she nor Cass seemed particularly anxious . . . Maybe Stormy was being paranoid about their pact. Or maybe there was no such thing now that the division was in the spotlight. Ian sat alone and she felt odd about that even though she didn't really know the man well (Mists needed to come together, especially at a time like this), but . . . For now she just fixed him with a brief look before their new leader spoke.

She fidgeted under Lance's look, guilty as charged. The lack of information was making her want to get up and find some way of figuring out what happened, even moreso knowing that those involved were in therapy as morbid as that was . . . But she respected the need for time and space and let her stream of questions settle back down.

"Understood. Why not pull from the two who killed Cass for kicks?" Stormy suggested to Candace with a serious look, a rare moment for the pacifist to call for blood. "Finn's gotten his comeuppance, I'm a witness to that, but the other one could definitely use a wake up call. Could practice stabbing him too while you're at it." Sure, that wasn't the function of the barrier dagger, but a pointy object was a pointy object to her, and she took that death during the trials personally after viewing the tapes. And if Gale wasn't supporting her getting her hands dirty when it came to Jack, then she could at least try suggesting it to other people at every opportunity and live vicariously through it.

"Can we request more work when we're done with this, sir?" she asked Lance. "Anything to help make sure we're ready? You could do a lot in a month . . ."

"What."

Lance sat up straight, hands clenching the armrest. "They're still out and about? Unpunished?" He looked like he was about to say more until he stopped himself. He forced himself to take a slow, deep breath. Then another one.

"See to it," he began, "That you girls do whatever it takes to get even. Princess outfits are kept in the Life Labs. In addition..." Lance pulled out his phone and looked it up, then proceeded to announce to the entire assembled Mist ladies the estimated dress sizes that would fit the two in question. "Take pictures, and be sure to also put them in the Mist Taken tower as well. There is a back door you can use to climb straight to the top and lock them into position. Let me know if you need tranquilizers as well."

He put his phone away, adding, "And to answer your question yes. If you want more to do, let me know. The more we do the better, especially if we're going to take Aria down." Lance placed his elbows on his armrest, studying them. "Aria has a lot to answer for. I would prefer to capture her alive in order to get the truth from her, however there may be others on Deus who would prefer her dead instead."

"And Nevada? No naps until the meeting's over." Lance added as an afterthought. It was a good thing the candy bowl was empty. Otherwise, Nevada might have suffered a rude awakening in the form of the division leader throwing candy at her until she got up, or until he managed to throw one down into her coat.

At first Candace had thought nothing of grabbing someone to act as her princess. She would grab a strong Moon or Sun hunter, it made perfect sense that it would be good training for them as well. And she understood that the golems hadn't always been there. It was fine. She nodded her head, satisfied...at least until another suggestion was thrown her way. She looked to Stormy with surprise, hiding her discomfort at her..readiness to use a trainee. Yes, she had seen the broadcast, but she hadn't been comfortable to watch all of it. But listening to Stormy suggest to stab someone, seeing her give her that look, made Candace shift in her seat with mild discomfort. She sat a little straighter, frowned a little more.

And then Nevada joined in. And then Nevada smiled. Candace rubbed her lips together as she watched the girl. It disturbed her that everyone lately was just so..ready and willing to attack one another outside of a friendly spar, hunters and trainees alike. It wasn't something new but it was something that seemed to have rapidly escalated lately. It was like caged animals getting bored and deciding it would be fun to take each other out. Candace cleared her throat, she rubbed the back of her neck and then gently grasped her own scarf while Lance spoke. "..Yes, sir," Candace said quietly when he was done. She was trying hard not to look as uncomfortable as she felt, and she managed it for the most part. She still didn't look terribly happy about it. Another quick glance was cast toward Stormy and then Nevada, one that could be interpreted as curiosity for one of them speaking and the other napping.

"...Lance..when you're done speaking with Stormy, I would also like to speak with you," she said suddenly. Maybe if she spoke privately with him she could come up with something.