Lukas Tierkreis's Story

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A week has passed since the explosion at Altair and the introduction of the two new Tala. Capella’s chaos continues, but it has considerably grown less hectic in comparison to before. If there was a perfect time to take action, it would be now.

The Tala are all gathered within the Monastery, idling around as they waited for their next move. A meeting starts in ten minutes at the round table that would decide which courses of action to take. Ophiuchus’ absence was a sore blow to their decision-making, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Continuing being indecisive wouldn’t heal him, or bring Leo and Gemini back.

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The Observatory didn’t get many visitors. Though everyone’s welcome to come by, people were rare to visit. Understandable though, as one had to climb up a daunting number of steps to reach the top. Tthat was exactly how Lukas managed to turn the public space into a retreat for himself and others. It was an area where one could think without worry or distraction.

Golden eyes stared blankly as he groggily woke up from his nap. Overhead, the ceiling reflected the same sky that it covered, making it appear as if there was no roof there in the first place. His sleepy voice felt loud in the peaceful harmony of the room, but the matter was important. “Concepta, when is the meeting?” Forcing himself into a sitting position, he stifled the yawn that threatened to break through. Over the years he’d accumulated a number of things to decorate the once-empty space, the futon and cushions on the floor chief of them. There was a tower of unreturned books stacked against the wall, and a half-finished chess game just beside it. Lukas was fairly certain if he kept this up he could probably live here instead of his room.

He couldn't remember where he’d placed his personal computer, and a cursory search of his surroundings didn’t reveal its location. At the very least, his shard remained slung around his neck in a pendant. “Have you seen my watch? I can’t remember where I put it.” Though he wasn’t sure where exactly Gemini was, he was rather certain she was within earshot. Tala tended make their presence known unless they made a conscious effort to do the opposite.

“Never mind, found it.” Upon standing, he located the small device just outside the mat. In one smooth movement he bent down and strapped it on. He ran fingers through his blond hair in an effort to tame the bedhead that had no doubt occurred during his short nap. Soft violin strings resounded in his ears when a familiar head of purple hair came into view. “You don’t happen to have or see a mirror around…?”

Silence permeated the room, only the soft breathing and slight movements of the two in the observatory acting in contrast to the silence. With the knowledge they would be meeting soon the girl sat herself down on the floor in the corner of the room, idling on her phone. No desire to mingle with Tala outside of Lu stirred within her, even Oriel or her brother seemed like work. Even if she couldn't bring herself to be real with Lu, she felt more relaxed and comfortable around him. Conserving energy to withstand an entire meeting with these people would require some of that tasty relaxation. Her elder in the room had been sleeping for a good while, his slumber not bothering her in the slightest, she had plenty to read on her phone. The reading material was not novels, but scripts to plays and movies.

Concepta was engrossed into what she was reading, so much so that when she heard her name spoken it took good willpower to not squeal and jump out of her skin. Placing a hand on her heart, the small girl exhaled harshly before checking her phone for the time. "Ten minutes till the meeting Captain," her words were orderly and flat, the tone of her voice deepened to come closer to a male member of the military. Her own words however had given her cause to rise, thankfully Lu had woken up as hadn't asked the time she'd never have noticed it tick by. She observed him scan the room in a search for his watch, which as quickly as he asked for help he found.

Placing a hand on the ground, the purple haired girl pushed herself off the floor. Despite there being cushions around she had a habit of ignoring them and sitting in the corner. Interlacing her fingers, Concepta stretched her arms into the air, the rest of her body following until she stood on the tips of her toes. A soft noise came from the girl during the stretch, and a puff of air escaped her when she released it.

Spotting the blonde man run his fingers through his messy hair, Concepta blushed a little unable to properly control her reaction to how cute that was. "M-Mirror? No reports on a sighting of a mirror Captain. Don't think we have one in this base." Not that she would really know, her relations to the observatory was through Lu. If not for him she would never bother to traverse the sodding stairs leading to it. So she never brought any of her things up here, or taken much of an inventory.

The meeting was soon, and while the youth was aware she should hurry over there, the thought only made her stomach sink. Why did the other Tala have to be so scary?! "I wouldn't want to leave you unguarded Captain, I'll wait to escort you to the meeting." It was rather obvious who would be escorting who, but she couldn't abandon her character halfway through now could she.

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The blond always found her constant personality change strange, but it an interesting quirk that simply made Concepta who she was. He liked how unique it made her seem, both as a Tala and as a person. Maybe that was why she was akin to the Crystal.

”Thank you then. Who knows what we’ll encounter on our way. There’s strength in numbers after all.” Lukas played along with it a bit, wondering just how easily Gemini could get into a different character. He wasn’t even trying to copy the tone yet he was already struggling with emulating a stricter manner of speech. Acting truly wasn't for him; he was much too comfortable in his own skin. ”Let’s move out. Who knows what the General might do if we’re late.”

From there, the two slowly made their way down the stairs, a feat that probably took at least five minutes considering how far up the Observatory was. Fortunately for them, the meeting room was only a few doors down from the bottom of the staircase. Come to think of it, that was likely why so few people came up to the Observatory. While this area wasn’t particularly exclusive to the Tala, there was an unspoken rule that candidates shouldn’t enter these halls without reason.

The door was already open to the room, likely forgotten by one of the more energetic members of their crew. “Good morning.” The short phrase and polite nod was all the greeting he offered to the other Tala already in the room. The quiet hum of a violin was what caught his attention, looking towards the glass window. Just beyond it, the Crystal pulsed with its faint pink light. Even from here he could see the black spot that was the worst of their concerns.

Lukas took his seat to the right of Iana's, blue eyes quietly observing the atmosphere of the room. Only four other members were left, and he believed they would come shortly, especially considering one of them was Iana herself. He truly believed he wasn’t needed in the meeting to come, but Aquarius demanded everyone’s presence. He wasn’t one to refuse her orders.

For now, he contentedly sat in his chair, absorbing the small noises everyone made as they tried to ease the increasing tension in the room.

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The way Ruan stiffened as she grew aware of the new Leo’s presence was obvious; it was good that Oriel wasn’t really the type to notice such things. Otherwise, he’d never have called out to the man. “Yes, why not join us? We’re all going the same direction anyway.” Her tone, however, was anything but welcoming. It was dry, leaving no room for Zuko to refuse but making it obvious that she wasn’t pleased with how the situation had turned out. Magenta eyes coolly met his gaze before turning back towards Ori, who was able to defuse some of the tension brewing in her gut with his mere presence. She knew it was unreasonable hostility, but she just couldn’t help it. The pain from losing Leo was still fresh and looking at the male only served as a bitter reminder that he was truly gone.

She pushed the grim thoughts to the darker recesses of her mind and faked her best smile. “And onwards!” With forced cheer, the blonde lead the way to the meeting room, the trio remaining more or less silent on the way there. She found it difficult to keep talking in Zuko’s presence, and so dodged conversing altogether by walking ahead of everyone else. Not even Ori’s presence could fix the rift that existed between him and the lancer. Only time could, which was a resource they had precious little of at the moment.

The doors were closed when they arrived and she shoved both wide open, making her presence known as everyone in the room turned towards the sudden noise and movement. “Ha! We’re not late. ‘Morning guys.” Many visibly winced at her loud voice, which finally brought some genuine amusement into her grin. The fact one of those most perturbed by her appearance was Drauni only brought her further satisfaction.

Without bothering to close the door behind her, she took her seat to the left of Deion, spinning her chair a couple of times before finally settling down. Placing her elbows on the table, she cradled her face on her gloved hands, looking at everyone else in the room. There was much too serious a tone for her liking, but she wasn’t certain as to how to relieve the tension. Behaving as she usually would seemed like Ruan’s best bet. “All that’s left is our o-so-great leader, we can finally get started on how we can kick ass.”

A smile broke through her act as Lu tried to play along. He was most certainly not an actor, so his vague attempt seemed cute and endearing to the youth, seriously, did either of them need to be cuter? With the smile on her face her hand raised to give the Captain a salute, following him as they departed down the great staircase. They weren't rushing but goodness these did these stairs have to go on for so long? Truly it was the only negative of Lu's little hideaway. Just a few years prior this lass probably would have lost her breath climbing stairs for so long, if one thing at least the candidate training helped her there.

From the foot of the staircase it was a only a few more doors until the diffident duo arrived the meeting hall of the glorious Tala. Where a group of outrageously powerful individuals would ram there opinions into each other accomplishing nothing. Until of course big army diplomacy, better titled 'I'm stronger then you' diplomacy, came into play and ultimately one or two people made the actual decision. For being one Concepta had quite the negative outlook on the Tala.

Upon entering the meeting hall Lu greeted the cast that had already assembled, and as she had arrived with him she felt no obligation to introduce herself to the room. It compensation she provided a slight wave to the group, before shifting her hands into the pockets of the coat she wore. Striding to her seat, the purple haired girl rested herself in it informally, bringing her foot onto the chair with her and putting her arms around the knee.

The doors flew open, revealing the rest of the supporting cast, Rue was of course full of energy, and in her wake was Ori and Zuko. On noticing the third she took her gaze away from that group, being the only Tala she had pleasure of witnessing giving injury to a person he had a special place in her intimidation list. Only the lead role was missing now, all the others were in this room, to say she felt tense would be an understatement, she always felt this way when they assembled. The tense situation did however give her more self awareness, enough to realize that having her leg up on the chair like his was probably not a great idea while wearing a dress. Quickly and quietly she placed her leg on the floor, blushing a little and looking towards the floor as she waited for the meeting to commence.

Drauni’s close friend seemed intent on snoozing away the minutes, as he did not budge even an inch during the barrage of incessant poking and shaking. No results at all. The boy, bummed out by this development, sat back down in his seat and began to pout. He was half-tempted to give Deion a wet willy, but the thought of becoming a permanent decoration in the wall wasn’t all too alluring. Esther was not apt to act sentient either, as there was no reply sent towards Drauni’s way. He too was not a morning person, so he couldn’t place any blame on his comrade.

Finally, another lifeform made an entrance. Ah, yes, one of the two spectacled Tala, Scorpio. Reaver was his name. Drauni usually greeted the guy with the godawful phrase ”But wait, there’s Mor~!” There was a special, secluded place in the afterlife for the young jester. But since it was early, he decided to let the guy off easy. Besides, even from behind his lenses, Drauni could tell that Reaver was not in the mood for his usual shenanigans. Although this didn’t seem to be an all too pressing meeting, he decided this was the time to calm down. To mellow out. To go from one hundred to approximately fourteen real quick. And that would require a lot of effort. A lot. So, deep in the cavernous mind of the jubilant Tala, the boy put all of his brainpower into one thing. ”So… Would it be more advantageous to shoot an enemy in the kneecap first or the foot? I mean, they both disable the individual to a certain extent. Oh, oh, what if I shoot them in the foot on one leg, and then the knee on other? Drauni, give yourself a pat on the back and a cookie from Alexios’ secret stash. But remember, it’s a secret!”

Drauni gave himself a motivational pat on the back as soon as the equivalent to the apocalypse strolled in, as she bellowed out her own greeting that easily sized up his own. As soon as they made eye contact, bolts of light only visible by the two surged across the room. He let out a sigh as Ruan took her seat, and somehow, failed in stirring Deion too. But it was obvious the girl was trying to bring the room’s atmosphere from a ritardando to an accelerando. In laymen’s terms, to bring everybody back to the world of the living. Drauni decided to play along and presented his iconic smirk to those present. He then leaned over- literally, Deion and sent a firing solution in his arch-nemesis’ direction. ”Who knows Ruan, maybe we’ll just be ordered to go grocery shopping. Somebody’s been draining our ice cream supplies!”

Shots. Fired. Not really. Drauni could’ve done better and actually thought up some flak, but he didn’t want to start a war before their leader arrived. Which, hopefully, would be soon.

Perhaps it was unbecoming of a leader to arrive last to her own meeting, but so rarely was anything her "own" when it came to the Tala. Everything started and ended with the crystal: life, death, wars, peace and especially themselves. Everyone decided on this path for their own reasons but nobody could deny that the crystal chose them. In reality, Iana wasn't even truly the leader of the Tala as Ophiuchus occupied that role in all but name. He guided their training, gave them (or at least Iana) their missions, and spoke to the Crystal Seal like nobody else could.

"I thank you all for coming as I know this was on short notice but given how pressing this matter is, Faye simply could not wait," Iana started, inwardly cringing at the sound of her own voice.

As used to as she was, she hated these sorts of things where she needed to broadcast to her fellow associates. Honestly, she should have put Lynia up to this considering her penchant for discipline. Iana would have preferred sending out carrier pigeons.

Instead she had to project a small girl into the middle of the room from her watch.

"Three weeks ago Euphemia Nero was elected as the next prophet of the religious council, the youngest in two hundred years at the age of seven and one of the few that hadn't come from noble blood. As you can guess her inauguration hasn't been welcomed by everyone, namely the Aurani."

She pressed a few buttons and next to Euphemia an archaic symbol slid next to the blonde girl's picture.

"Though they've held the majority in council their numbers are dwindling and inducting Euphemia only cements Aurani's fall. We suspect that Aurani extremists have been targeting her during her pilgrimage to the Crystal as is customary to their religion so we need to escort her back to Faye unscathed. I'd like Deion to be on the team guarding her and three others while the rest of us either investigate the Aurani's headquarters or shadow Euphemia's carriage. If the enemy is focused on those of us guarding her the rest can work in peace. I will take the investigatory team while Lynia's group shadows Euphemia. If there are no objections I leave it to you all to choose teams."