Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lady leads the way from the silver hall to a study decorated in soothing blue tones. She takes her own seat at a piano; there is ample seating for all of those who have lost their mask. Among the cool tones of the room, her fiery red hair and foxfire mask is a beacon of warmth. Despite that, she doesn't look that cheerful as she takes off her mask and sets it in her lap.

"So what're you in for," she asks, arching her eyebrows at Temperance and Juniper. "I don't remember you being taken."

Juniper Wilcox | 25/25 | Chatting with Lady and Temp

To say that she hadn't realized time was up would be an understatement when the masks she had been holding vanished into glitter in her hands. The remnants of the glitter of the two masks she had been holding could be seen on her dress. It had surprised her and she was none to pleased at the fact that it seemed she had waited too long to don her festive face mask. Well, that Hux had waited to long to make a decision to wear his mask. As easy as it would be for her to place the blame on the tall man, she couldn't. She knew her own stubbornness had really been the key to this end result. Still, if only he had....No, Jun. Don't go there.

So, like ht other tithes, Juniper entered the sapphire study. So much blue and cool tones worked well at cooling her down and helping her refocus herself, but it was Lady that pulled her attention from her inward thoughts.

"Apparently being too headstrong about helping people. I didn't put my mask back on soon enough." She sighed. "Another mistake to add to my apparently growing list. At least this one only really affects me this time I suppose."

Her eyes floated to Temperance and she shook her head. "I know you had a few masks too. Did you get caught up handing them out or something?"

Shiloh followed the other tithes cautiously, sticking close to Thorne. His eyes wandered over Lady, Lace's words echoing in his head. So she knew Jamie, then? He almost wanted to have a word with her, but...

Well, she was talking with the other two strangers, and Shiloh wasn't in the mood for conversation anyway. He gave Thorne a small nod before lingering against the wall of the room, letting everyone else talk instead.

What happens now? A good question. Shiloh rubbed at his wrist nervously. If anything, seeing Lady with her mask confirmed a few things: taking the mask that Chel offered would have done nothing in the end like he assumed, and he only could have hoped it found itself in the hands of someone more deserving.

He shook his head. Wondering about what if's would get him nowhere. He eventually walked over, pulling a chair up next to Thorne out of blatant habit. He looked at Juniper and Temperance with wide eyes, equally curious about their positions and predicaments here. Bleeding heart or not, why walk around maskless? He didn't get it...

Lady scooted aside, patting the bench beside her. She lifted the piano cover, her spidery hands finding their place on the keys. "We wait," says Lady. "They'll pick one of us to die, and the rest of us..." She shrugs, looking down at the keys beneath her neatly manicured hands. "I don't know what happens to the rest of us. Maybe we live. Maybe we die. I don't know."

"If you want to die, that makes you less appealing," says Lady, keying an atonal chord on the piano. "They want the unwilling. That's why they don't just off Adoelle and have done."

"I would rather not die," Temperance said, but at the same time, she shrugged. It was what it was. "I noticed some people didn't get their masks on in time." There was a pointed look at both Alois and Rabbit. What a waste. Her splicer mask better reappear when this night was over, or she might really cry.

"It was more important to ensure others received a mask than worry about my own, but the reason I took it off has nothing to do with any of you. Especially not you, Nips." This was directed, of course, at Alois. Sighing, she moved and knelt down beside Rabbit, laying a careful hand on his back. Temperance could hear the fast inhale of his breath.

"Hey, breathe."

Juniper shrugged her shoulders. "I think we got it. We are idiotic for not having our masks on. Thank you very much. " She said pointedly at Alois. "Look, what's done is done. Iam not happy about it, but it's not like I hadn't been prepared for this when I gave you my mask in the first place."

Glancing down at her dress, she begin to brush at the glowy that now clung to it and any bare skin. Of course, it wasn't easy to get rid of. "At least something around here is normal. " She muttered to herself before eventually giving up on making it rain glitter around her. The floor though, proved her efforts weren't entirely in vain.

"Wait. Trials?" Her head snapped back up to Alois. "What do you mean by that? And what is the main point of your patrons? We're they the ones who cared for you while you were here or is there something more to it?" Now she was intrigued.

"And what would you say to them, Alois?"