Selene Donovan's Story

The soft beeping of an alarm brought forth the arrival of morning to Selene, who was still dozing in bed. She stirred quietly as her ears picked up the noise, and she opened her eyes to look at the time. Lazily, she stretched an arm out and tapped the display screen, shutting it off. After a moment of silence, she sat up and stretched, a quiet yawn escaping from her throat. She pushed strands of her auburn hair away from her face as she got up and wandered to her bathroom. Grabbing a hair tie, she pulled back her hair and secured it into a loose ponytail before grabbing her toothbrush and toothpaste.

As she brushed her teeth, she mentally went through her daily schedule. If she finished early, perhaps she could shop or spend some time with a friend. It had been a while since she had gone out to do that, though it was mainly her doing by how she had set up her schedule. Maybe it was time to reorganize everything.

Rinsing her mouth out, Selene let her hair down and turned on the shower. She thought about reordering her work schedule as she washed off. When she stepped out and dried off, she checked the clock. Good, she was doing well on time. With that in mind, she went to her closet to get dressed. She picked out a charcoal grey blouse and a pair of black pants, along with a pair of black pumps. After a quick mirror check, she went to put on her makeup. It was her usual look: faint, smoky eyeshadow, soft contours, and a dark red lipstick. She had done it enough times that it was easy to get it all done in five minutes or so.

She brushed out her hair one more time after the makeup was done, and then she was striding out of the room. Work needed to be done, and she preferred to have it done early.

While many members of Liberty were just getting up, Alexander was wide awake. Well, he was partially awake. The 25 year-old was traveling down the hallway with a cup of coffee gripped in his hand. He mentally cursed the sudden onset of insomnia he had experienced, and the nightmares that had occurred when he had managed to doze off. Perhaps it was time to get a new medication. He would have time to figure that out later, though. Right now, he had a meeting to attend.

Taking a long sip of the dark, hot liquid from his cup, he tried to think about what the Council was meeting about. He swallowed his coffee and sighed quietly. The lack of sleep distracted him from taking his medication this morning. He wondered how long he would be able to properly focus on the matters at hand. Taking another sip, he entered the meeting room and sat down. It was a relief to sit back in his chair, and he tiredly ran his fingers over his eyes and through his hair.

He heard footsteps and saw Selene walk in. She blinked and looked at Alex for a long moment as she sat down. "You look like you've been dragged across a highway..." She noted, frowning. "What happened?"

Sighing, Alex looked up at her begrudgingly. "Didn't sleep." He muttered. "I also forgot my medicine." Selene let out a scoff, though it was an almost sympathetic one. "You idiot." She murmured. "Do I need to take notes?" With a roll of his eyes, he shrugged. "I don't know, maybe." He answered. "Please don't make this a big deal, though. If I get too distracted by the fussing, I'll fall back on what needs to be discussed." Selene frowned, but nodded.

It was at about 0500 sharp that each and every one of the Councillor’s devices had begun to systematically chime a rather grating tune, the “notifications” icon turning glowing orange- just in case they somehow turned deaf during the night, or decided to ignore the shrill screams that were currently emitting from the monitors of computers and tablets alike. Upon actually opening their inboxes, they would be greeted with a bolded title stating that there was “URGENT BUSINESS”, and, inside the message itself, was a neatly scripted explanation that they were needed for a meeting in three hours. It went on to note what was to be expected during the meeting, as well as a rough approximation of how long it would potentially take. After all, time was of the essence to most, even if the great Leading Figures of Liberty had far more lenient schedules than most.

As one might expect, it had taken quite some time for Heather to be woken by the sound, and more time to actually open the message- the woman had chosen to nurse a large pot of coffee before properly sitting down and getting to work. Seeing as the meeting appeared to have been the only thing queued for now, the Espionage Councillor went to prepare herself for the day, spending what time remained on her…”hobby”.

However, evidently, a change into proper business attire didn’t seem to be a part of Heather’s day-to-day lifestyle, for it was clad in fresh pajama footies that she trudged down the hall (hardly getting much note, aside from various salutes from the workers on base- and a few newcomers here and there who took the opportunity to ogle the sight of a department’s head. For the most part, Heather hardly paid attention to her surroundings, her mist flicking about her like an aura as she turned the corner to the meeting room, and rather unceremoniously pushed one of the double doors aside with one hand.

The other, notably, was preoccupied with her tablet, which she currently had her nose buried in.

As a loose tendril of her Gift passed over two of her fellow Councillors, Heather finally glanced up, looking as if she had merely sleepwalked into the room instead of going there on her own. A blink, a squint, her gaze roving to focus on Alex before she spoke up.

“You look terrible.”

With this blunt statement, she shuffled over to her designated spot at the table, and, slipping comfortably into her seat, pulled her hood (quite humorously, with a pair of bunny ears sewn on) over her head, and continued to flick absentmindedly through whatever she currently had pulled up on her screen.

Faye was used to waking up early, but this was ridiculous. Why had they been woken up at 5 for a meeting at 8? She, for one, woke up at 6 or 7, plenty of time to get ready, in her opinion. It wasn't like she wasted time on hair or makeup, it wasn't the Liberty way. Hair pulled back in a tight braid, lab coat donned, and notebooks in hand, the Genetics Councillor made her way to the meeting room, arriving in the right corridor just in time to see Heather's back disappear through the doors.
She picked up her pace, the white coat fluttering behind her like a cape. Seeing the leader of Espionage had reminded her of a thought she had had the night before after finding a Genetics Trainee's forgotten assignment. They'd been penalized for forgetfulness, of course, but the assignment had brought to mind a few delayed experiments. Delayed because of a lack of proper gene codes to work with. Gene codes that Erubesco surely had.

And, if she was correct, Espionage had just promoted several Trainees to Agents and Agents to varied higher ranks, which meant there should be personnel to spare. At any rate, it wouldn't hurt to ask, and she pushed open the doors with a bright "Good morning!" to those who's arrived early before settling down beside Heather.

"Think you could take a look at something for me and tell me the feasibility of it?" she asked the other woman immediately, not knowing when the others would arrive at the meeting room and wanting to get this out of the way before that, since meetings had a way of becoming much more convoluted than expected, and after that she'd be liable to forget. On the table before them, she opened one of the notebooks to a series of short profiles on several known Erubescians of varying importance.

While they waited for the others to arrive, Alex rested his head on top of his clasped hands. He closed his tired eyes for a long moment, resting them. The darkness felt nice, and he hoped that it would be a long while before the other Councilors showed up. Selene was quiet as he did so, looking at her small tablet to busy herself. She figured he needed the silence for now.

Unfortunately for him, he didn't keep his eyes closed for long. He heard footsteps coming into the room and he looked up to see Heather entering. As a tendril of her mist floated near him, he frowned slightly. He looked Heather in the eye as she finally looked him over, his frown increasing. Her bluntness made him wearily scowl, too.

"Good morning to you as well, Heather." He muttered. "I assumed I always looked terrible to you." He gave her a tired smirk. It was then that Faye entered with a bright greeting, and Alex's smirk dropped into a more serious expression. "Good morning, Faye." He answered. As she placed the notebooks down, he mentally groaned, but he sat up more to look at them. Maybe he could focus...

Mithera was next to enter the meeting room.

In contrast with a specific few of the councilors, he looked awake as could be in his diamond white suit and dust blue cravat. He even appeared to have time to have neatly shaved around the goatee that framed his mouth. The man was middle aged, but well preserved, with an inviting warmth to his pleasant face.

"Good morning, my friends. What seems to be the emergency?" he said, taking his seat, his usual smile touched with just enough gravity to convey his sincere concern.

“You always look more like a Saturday morning cartoon villain who spends every morning practicing their cackles in the mirror and murdering people slowly. With lazers. Although now you look more like someone pushed you into a pit that also had a new set of clothing and a bunch of cologne salesmen at the bottom.” It was with that astute observation that Heather turned to her new company, looking Faye over for a moment or two before glancing down at the notebook now in front of her.

“They’re Erubescians.” Unconsciously, Heather brought the stylus of her tablet to her lip and began to gnaw on the end, deepening the indentations that had already been made. “With a bunch of information about genetics stuff on them.” Raising her head, the Espionage Councillor once again looked to her coworker, stylus now pressed snugly against her cheek. “I’m guessing that you want them for something? Oh, and hello, Faye.”

Before she could receive an answer, however, a new addition arrived to the meeting room- Mithera. It was with drowsy movements that Heather faced the man, mist flicking about her shoulders like the tongue of some great beast. “I’m not your friend” was the first thing out of her mouth, followed by the less blunt, “We’re supposed to be talking about what we’re going to do with the terrorists when we get them. I think someone was saying we should send them to Councillor Pierrot’s old bases. Can’t remember who.”

It was hard to doubt that any of the other leaders of Liberty were unaware of the places. Heather herself had visited one, once, back when she was known simply as Speaker Laxton.

They were the closest she could imagine those Erubescian video games to being, and, unlike in video games, Heather did not have multiple lives.

"I'm afraid to tell you I do not do that, Heather." Alexander muttered, too tired to look unfazed by the remark. "I believe I've explained that before, though." He redirected his attention to the profiles Faye brought. Despite his lack of complete focus, he did his best to scan through the important details.

"Are you looking to acquire them?" Selene asked after reading them. "If we planned it out, I would say it would be very feasible to obtain them." She looked up as Mithera entered, and she smiled politely. "Good morning, Councilor Mithera." She replied, lightly nudging Alex's arm. "Like Heather said, we are discussing future matters for when we bring in the terrorists."

Alex looked up upon feeling Selene's nudge, but he had no interest in Mithera's "friendliness". "Yes, good morning, Mithera." He added. "I assume your morning has been well so far?"