Welcome to Gaia! ::

Solia was good at replying to texts before bed time.

He arrived at Caelius' office precisely at 7:49am, slightly tousle haired and a little bleary eyed, but alert and awake, dressed in his usual coat and boots, his scarf slung haphazardly around his neck. Gale leaned against the wall just outside of the Death leader's door and folded his arms across his chest to wait for the others.

<< Any idea what this mission is about? >>

Jinhai was stirring sleepily inside of Gale's head, sounding vaguely amused. Gale tugged on a lock of his hair and sighed. He tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling, averting his eyes from the dim yellow fluorescent bulbs.

Nope. Do I ever?

<< Just like old times, then. >>

A small sign that she had taken a few (small) steps forward on the road to recovery.

She appeared later that morning than the others mostly because she was always scrabbling to get just a little more sleep, given that she had yet to really fix her erratic schedule set more than a month ago; that, and she had been praying that the day go off, not without a hitch (as that was practically impossible now) but that it would go as best it could. Stormy arrived in her usual buttoned coat, skirt, stockings, and boots; the only differences were that she was sporting another beanie to cover her shaven head, and that her scarf was purple rather than her usual pink.

She had yet to give Nevada's things back to Lance.

"Hey," she greeted them, about to ask what were in the thermoses to generate some light conversation before the heavy stuff happened. Then Solia mentioned the possibility of killing people, and Stormy's mouth slowly closed back up.

Gale took the offered thermos and gave it a sniff before opening it and taking a sip.

"Thanks," he said, the tea warming his stomach. He would have usually preferred a little of both cream and sugar, but this would do for now. The answer to Solia's question was a shake of Gale's head and a shrug of his shoulders, a sigh escaping his lips.

"Caelius never reveals anything until five seconds before he has to," he said as Stormy stepped up. He gave her a gentle smile and gestured towards Solia.

"Solia brought coffee..." he said.

Time ticked by. Five minutes...ten minutes...twenty...thirty... Gale glanced at his watch, and then at the other two with a vaguely exasperated expression on his face.

"Where the..."

But the rest of his sentence was cut off by the arrival of...

...Gale wasn't entirely certain. He squinted suspiciously at the figure.

"Mark, is that you?"

"Um . . ." She didn't have the heart to correct Solia's deductions. "It's kind of you to say. Thank you," Stormy mumbled instead, her cheeks darkening slightly as she took the lid with a grateful nod and sipped. She didn't drink coffee at all but figured it'd be rude not to give it a try anyway.

Plus it kept her hands busy for the next half hour. If it had been someone's office that was locked, Stormy would have offered to showcase her Mist skills and lock pick that sucker open. But she actually wanted to be alive thanks and was stuck in limbo with them, filling the silences with snatches of hummed tunes and trying desperately to look normal about everything instead of just vaguely sad like she had for the past month.

When she was starting to wish she actually had breakfast, someone walked in on their group. Stormy blinked a few times, then broke into a hopeful smile. "Mr. Mark? Good morning, even if you aren't. Mr. Caelius asked us to be here for a mission briefing, but you haven't missed anything. We're still, um, waiting."

Gale decided that the next time Caelius texted him for a mission and hippie hillbilly homeless yeti Mark showed up instead, the correct answer to the questions he never asked were always going to be the same thing:

No.

Unfortunately, it was too late to turn back now, because Gale had a split second's warning to grab onto Stormy and Solia's hands and then the next second there was an explosion behind the door to Caelius' office, blasting everyone back off of their feet. Gale hit the wall and crumpled, losing his grip on the others, and rolled, coughing and spitting dust and debris. He pushed himself to his feet again and swayed, a little unsteadily, before he realized just who was standing inside of the room.

"Ah. Well."

Gale supposed there was no real sense in arguing. It was a mission, they were here to work, and even if Allan was...well, Allan, Gale would do his best to ensure not only the safety of his motley little team, but the completion - and succession - of the mission.

At least, he hoped so.

Unfortunately for Gale, all the best laid plans go to rot, and this was made very apparent the second he stepped out of the portal, the scanner in hand, to a blast of hot air and sand whipping at his face.

You have got to be kidding me.

They were back in the Sahara. They were back in the bloody Sahara.

Gale slid his protective shades on over his eyes and squinted through the blazing heat. Allan was had already run off (of course), leaving the trio of them behind as he took down the first titan. Gale glanced sideways at Solia and Stormy and then gave a small sigh.

"Let's get started, then," he said, trying not to think how much he hated this place.


METERS: 12

Solia had come to a conclusion. Several of them actually.
One- Mark was gross
Two- Allan was painfil
Three- Caelius wanted everyone to die.

The near literal force of the explosion that sent her sprawling and painfully colliding with a wall had the tiny trainee cursing the fact leads were even allowed indoors. It took her a while, grabbing her head, noting how her once proud thermos now sported a L shaped bend to it, but eventually Solia shook off the shock.

Only to get the news of 'S class titan mission with Allan and by the way don't die but if you do don't think anyone will particularly care' from their lovely lead.
At the very least, he had given orders that they would go with proper gear. So in that fact Solia figured she should have been slightly grateful.

Geared up by Mark, who actually also made sure they had what they needed for once, news of a world famous mythological item known to her mostly by a childhood that had been dictated by her acclimation to internet and nerd culture, Solia half hoped they'd get to pose as wizards or something. But no- of course not. Of course, they were supposed to go and do as Caelius had said he'd not do- play fetch.

Solia's considered their arrival to what she knew as 'the windy place of hot gross McSand in pants' aka the ******** Sahara, was met with about as much as enthusiasm as her companions held for it.
None.

"Sooooo." She began, looking at her scanner. "Basically find the thing. Let Allan kill the things. Don't die. Why do I always think that no one in charge ever took a class on public speaking or raising moral. I mean, it's not all grim or games- we're a good team I think." She was half speaking to herself.

"Do you think this stone is a stone or it'll be one of those plot twists- 'the stone is actually a metaphor for the human spirit' thingys." The wind drowned out her voice, and in her head, Israfel sighed. This place had terrible acoustics.