All your base are belong to us, Libra!

[Rhi-Rhi]

All seemed to be in order for the time being. They had reached their destination around Tethys, and from there on out it was nothing but a waiting game. The Libra had only a few hours left to make their decision, and thus far, they had heard nothing back from the station's captain. Not that it made much of a difference, the overall result would still be the same. The only difference would be how much force was needed to achieve that result.

Gabriel wasn't about to assume they'd submit. What nation ever had?

Sighing impatiently, he leaned back in his seat and swiveled it back and forth, tapping his fingers on the leather arms to some random song he currenty forgot the name of. Waiting, waiting, waiting. He felt his impatience mirrored in Siren, who still felt aggitated and uneasy as he kept his mind open to her. She felt much calmer now than before, but still upset over Providence, and while he kind of hated himself for thinking it he was glad of it. Not of Providence dying and Temple vanishing, just that she'd fight all the fiercer today because of it. It was an insensitive thought but...oh well. Gabriel let his eyes drift shut for a second, and he could almost see the white Dragon pacing around in the hangar, tail lashing and steel claws scraping against the ship's floor.

She wanted blood. And he could hardly wait to connect.

He sat up straight and opened his eyes when the conference room doors slid open to admit Kota, who looked strained as she usually did when she was denied feeding any of her addictions. Sure, the virtual network set up on the ship worked well as a temporary substitute, but it certainly wasn't the real thing, more a placebo than anything. Even Gabriel felt a little on edge, but more things than addiction were feeding into that.

Kota slid into a chair around the circular table across from Gabriel, aggitatedly pushed purple-black bangs out of her face, and fixed him with a sour look. "So they're finally gonna brief us, huh?" she asked, absently chewing on a nail. "'Bout damned time. God. So where are the slackers, anyway?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Don't be so impatient. We still have time," he answered even as he knew he needed to follow his own advice. Of course, he was also keeping that to himself--quite unlike her.

[Anonymous]

Time was ticking away just a little too slowly. A battle was going to happen, there was always battles weren't there? Battles versus addiction, people, nations, that sort of thing. They weren't all fun, not like he was really battling addiction, he had given into it after all, he had really given himself to it all. He just wished that the nations that opposed Aedolis would just give in as well, but then...what fun would that be? The superiors seemed to enjoy that sort of thing after all.

He, as always, just went with it.

His steps were slow and lethargic as he headed toward the conference room, thin black boots that reached all the way to his knees scuffed against the ground. He was gonna get himself to the room eventually, but it was just going to take him some time. Not like he'd be late for the briefing. True he had missed the other briefing about attacking Libra, well...he hadn't really missed it. Psychics don't really miss thing after all. He had gotten the gist of what happened though.

And now he was on a battle cruiser outside of Libra. He wasn't exactly sure what Tempest would do, she had been pretty calm about the death of Providence, which worried him. It should have really given her a shake but she had been distant about it. It made him scared. He just knew he'd be getting some new piercings or something after this. Whenever there was a lot of emotion, he just knew that Tempest was going to convince him. She always did when she was feeling emotional, and now when she was devoid of these emotions...

There was trouble.

The doors slid open for him, his orange eyes flashed as he looked around the room. There was...just two Pilots there. He wrapped his coat tighter about him, his new one, still breaking it in. Leather and all, it was a bit stiff. Why had he even bought this gaudy thing? It shined for crying out loud. Ugh. However, the moment he stepped the threshold into the conference room, his mind went blank. He wasn't going to let them know his mind, he was just going to keep those to himself.

It was Adalwulf Bartul.

Which pilots were these though? Looked like...Kota and Gabriel. He gave a simple nod to them, trying not to interrupt them, they had been talking after all, or at least he thought they had. He couldn't really care. A silken glove went through his hair, making sure that the half white and half indigo hair was still combed back. Yes, it still seemed to be combed and slicked back, just as it always had been, no change came to his hair.

Sliding into a chair he put his feet up onto the desk and passed a hand over his eyes, which closed as he yawned. Now he was going to just wait, hopefully things were good, hopefully that they were going to get briefed soon. Battle would be...interesting, he hadn't had much experience fighting in space, much less on a space station. Plus he wouldn't be in battle technically with his dragon, Tempest would have to stay behind and guard the ship or...access points or whatever it was the dragons were going to do.

He'd get to try out his hand at shooting with some of his new toys.

[Anonymous]

He hated space, hated the vastness. In a city he could feel the people and the animals all moving, thinking. He could see their minds and be comforted by it. Here, inside this clunky bucket being pushed through space by fires coming off it’s arse, with only a thin metal shell keeping the emptiness from getting in, he was alone in a vast ocean. Well, he was not alone of course. Never alone. Ao Guang was there always, and he could still see the minds of the crew, but there was so few. Even in the desolate wastes of Earth there were insects, millions of them, everywhere. Here, there was nothing.

He could feel his dragon; feel the beast’s anger and impatience as if it were his own. Ao Guang was with the other dragons in the hold. Marshal was too far away to be able to see through Ao Guang’s eyes, but he knew that the dragon was snapping and writing like a giant snake.

Ao Guang was always angry. He was young, and male, and for a dragon quite immature. He’d chosen Marsh many years ago, thinking that the short, pale man would make a pilot he could control with ease. How wrong he was.

There was no doubt in Marshals mind as he strode along yet another identical corridor, that the dragon was very much in command in their relationship, but he liked to think that he retained a level of autonomy that other pilots lacked.

He reached for the button to open to conference room door, then pulled away when he realised his hand was shaking. Fuck. Time away form the network was hitting him harder than he would have liked.

He took a deep breath, steadied his hand, and entered the room. Calm. Together. He tried to appear collected. He suspected that he was failing.

He looked around the room, using his mind rather than his eyes. Kota, Gabriel and Adawulf eh? There were more pilots aboard than just these three, but he expected many believed their time wasted at these briefings. He himself was one who shared that thought, but this one sounded…informative.

He took a seat opposite Bartul, which meant that the four now sat in a cross shape around the table. It would be interesting to see where the next to arrive chose to sit, if any more showed up of course. Mind games were Marshal’s work and his hobby, and he couldn’t help tyring to read people, to force them into making choices he could read. His mind probed into each of the others, all at once. He was a seeker, a pilot given authority to look for traitors among pilots. Their thoughts were mundane and useless, as usual. A traitor would have to be better at hiding things that to be caught with a casual sweep like that, but you never did know.

They were impatient, and fair enough, though you didn’t need to be psychic to be able to tell that Kota was less than happy. Bartul was his usual self. Despite the mans name, Adawulf had always reminded Marshal of a bear, trapped in a state of partial hibernation.

“So,� he said softly, “how are we all then?�

Well, that was a terrible attempt to make conversation right there. He’d never been very good at talking without purpose, chitchat and small talk and the such was so…pointless.

[Anonymous]

((OOC: Sorry about any stupid spelling mistakes x3))

Stupid goddamned dragon. Being one of the oldest of the flock, the death of any dragon never hit Whiro too hard, didn't hit Seiteki too hard either, she barely knows the names of the other pilots let alone their dragons. They died often enough, and she'd seen more pilots and dragons die in her lifetime, probably a full army of them at least, of course not in the sudden way that Providence did, but she could worry about that later. Seiteki pursed her lips and walked down the halls, her mid-back length blue and black hair undone and wavy, just the way she liked it.  Sighing, Seiteki closed her eyes, which snapped open a second after when a familiar rumbling voice broke her mild-concentration

They're dirty...

A long groan left her lips and she went to the nearest wall to bang her head against it. They're dirty. Well, maybe if he was a little cleaner his toes wouldn't get messy so much. How the hell did a rat die between them anyway? Seiteki smacked her palm against the wall and snarled at her dragon, the large dragon in the hanger with the rest of them. "Goddamn you Whiro, how many times to I have to clean your damn toes before you let me..." She didn't finish her sentence, because, as an odd habit, she spoke out loud while she spoke to her dragon mentally. Call it an old habit.

Seiteki grew into being a psychic rather than having it and fine-tuning it. But still! She had things to do and places to be and people to annoy! She'd love to piss of her pretty friend Gabriel again, their last get together had been far too short. Then again, this was business, and business time was act-serious time... Supposedly. Once she had gotten to the assigned room for the briefing, she glared at the door. Crap, it was closed, was she too late? When did it start, anyway? Her bright blue eyes blinked at the door and she huffed and leaned against it, arms crossed and a scowl on her face. Fine, she'd just wait here until it was over then squeeze the info out of the people younger than her... Which was everyone on this godforsaken ship. Her arm smacked against the wall, and the door opening button, which she forgot about.

A funny squeak was torn from her throat and she fell down, on her back. Forgetting where she was, curses and plenty of bad words graced the ears of the other pilots in the room, quickly she stood up and stood all serious like. Arms at her side, hair stuck to her lips and poking up behind her pointed ears.

"Um.. Seiteki Tora reporting for.. um.. Briefing?" she frowned and pondered on that for a moment. Oh well, they'd get the idea seeing as how there were only, what? Four other people in the room. Great, she wasn't late a-

Tekki-Tora they're dirty...

"Dammit Whiro, I just cleaned your damn toes on land. You have lovely, clean, sparkling toesies. Shut up for two seconds about your freaking toes, you must be going senile in your old age." Seiteki snarled, not noticing she was talking out loud as well as mentally."Should put you down and get a dragon who's younger than me." An empty threat that didn't scare Whiro anymore, being as he was the one that was the key to her addiction, that and she'd probably lose some sappy part of her soul if he died.

Hmph.

She could hear the snort, not physically, but of course she could envision it. She stopped smirking and looked around the room, realizing she'd just said all of that out loud. A normal young lady would have blushed and sat down, maybe explained some of the stuff going on about toesies. Not Seiteki though, she smacked her hands against the desk and smiled cheerfully at everyone. "So! Did I miss anything important...?" She looked around, "This can't possibly be all the pilots here.." Seiteki frowned slightly and looked around again. "Unless we're some special team or somethin'." Emphasis on the word special.