Gideon plopped down in a chair and immediately propped his feet up on the table, surveying the arrivals with a grin. For Dianthe he gave a chuckle and a half-shrug. "Guilty. Though to be fair, I can think of few more important diplomatic duties than the nursing of hangovers." The young man gave a half-wave to Blair as well. "Goodness. Did some poor soul attempt to smile at you? Perish the thought."

Shortly after, Nero entered into his 'commanding officer' mode and began to lay out the mission briefing. In truth, Gideon spent the majority of the briefing staring at the ceiling, making mouth noises under his breath, and nibbling at the fruit salad Dianthe had gotten him (if the choice of meal was the result of Dianthe's playing a joke on him, the joke was on her - free food was only ever good). As a result, he only caught a few buzzwords of the mission briefing, like 'no magic', 'no weapons', 'full-scale war'. Goodness, it was going to be another one of [i]those[/i] missions.

Finally, Nero said something that made the whole room rise up, and Gideon deduced that the briefing was over. "Right then, let's be on our way," the soldier said, rolling his shoulders. "Incidentally I'd like to remind everyone that I'm still leading in kills/knockouts by seven, so, you know, step it up for this one."

							[hr]
Maybe it was his Teirish blood, Gideon never felt more at home than on the deck of an airship. Up in the sky, the wind blowing through your hair, surrounded by several hundred tons of military hardware... a man could be free on an airship. There was none of the bullshit you got down below, or at least there was less of it.

But there was no time for waxing poetic. Gideon was in the box, sitting between Dianthe and Mirany, his twinblade affixed to his back. They were dropping into combat soon, a high-stakes infiltration mission, and Gideon would be lying if he said he wasn't slightly giddy. Being a diplomat with no job had its perks, but the young man missed the soldier's life; specifically the part where he got to beat people up on a regular basis.

Gideon chortled all through the safety briefing at the mention of Dianthe's 'incident' with the gauntlets. He already knew how to use them, of course: the Kingslaive versions were far more advanced than the equivalent technology used by the Airship Corps, but it was the same basic prinicipal.

At long last the door opened and Nero went plunging out. Taking only a second to pull the mask over his handsome face, Gideon was the next one out after him. Now he was falling, faster and faster and faster, and the soldier let out a loud 'whoop' as he straightened his body into a dive, only snapping his gloves at the perfect moment to maintain his speed.

Nero was already in the process of knocking out one of the knights, so Gideon tilted his fall towards the knight patrolling in the garden. He touched down directly behind the guard, who only just managed to turn around when Gideon threw an elbow into his armored face. His opponent reeled back and Gideon sprang forward, sliding across his enemy's back and smacking him across the face again. The masked soldier twisted his whole body around to kick the guard with his right leg, throwing his other leg around the man's waist and letting the momentum from his spin carry the knight to the ground, where Gideon promptly yanked his helmet off.

He brought the flat of the helmet across the man's face two times, knocking him out cold. Gideon straightened his back and began to advance towards the doors. "One."