[b]Redana![/b]

"Hm. Arguably your motivation is more pure than much of the Order," said Iskarot, nodding with a surprisingly pleased thoughtfulness. His tone now has changed, and he seems to be taking a very different tack from earlier in the conversation. "The Order of Hermes seeks the god of travel, wherever she hides within the cosmos. We feel the drive you do - that distant calling, the drive to explore, to seek, to discover, to trade. Or we do in theory." 

His hands are gathering the shattered fragments of his bowl, holding the seams together so the material can heal. He's building something new out of the pieces, not repairing but constructing.

"The Order of Interface was a minor branch of the Order back in the day. They originally believed that by training themselves to administer machinery they'd be able to hitch lifts on any passing starship, paying kind with kind. Later the Order became more... stagnant. A movement began within the Order, theorizing that Hermes was not to be discovered wandering the stars but hidden within the shadows of Natural Law. They settled in place and began to construct massive wonders of science - particle colliders, microwave tubes, N-fusion plants. They accumulated resources and began to coerce the other Orders to finance their constructions."

He looked up from his work, glowing yellow eyes gleaming in the shadowed depths of his robe. "We went from pure-hearted seekers like yourself to a shadow Empire. Empress Nero has allowed the Interfacers unprecedented freedom in their experiments and given them inconceivable resources and in return they have given her their utter obedience, as though she was Hermes herself. We who hear the call out there in the black, Redana, are the minority - and there is ever less space for us."

[b]Vasilia![/b]

"Of course I'm not satisfied," said Galnius, putting his hands on her hips and igniting with the golden light of Apollo Silverbow. "I've been singing, the rest of my soldiers are playing, the sheep is cooking, and [i]you[/i] are lounging around eating, gambling and chatting without contributing a damn thing. The Princess tells me that you're the Captain here but all I see is a layabout."

Apollo himself smiles at you from Galnius' face, but it's a dangerous kind of smile - the smile of a God testing you. Galnius wears the icon of Apollo on their wrist, and in their open left hand they hold a beautiful peach. That divine fruit carries trust, belief, respect and everything you need to corral this rigid heart - should the God choose to give it to you.

[b]Alexa![/b]

"Oh, sure," said Isty. She doesn't sit in a relaxed posture, she's sitting in a military crouch, with a soldier's wariness. It doesn't have the faintly artificial edge of a trained human to it either - this is someone whose martial instincts are baked into their bone marrow. "They're goofy, but they've got authority. The swarmers all obey the brainsquids. All we needed to do was hand them the correct paperwork and they'd build a house or harvest the grain. Wouldn't have been much of an Elysium if there was all that manual labour, right?"

She hesitates, clearly chewing over a profoundly difficult question and having no idea how to even begin phrasing it.

"So we're alive, huh?" she blurted out eventually. "What's it like?"

[b]Bella![/b]

"Bella, you [i]gotta[/i] know if she had the hots for you," said Mynx as you walked down the corridor together. "I scheduled the meeting right as you were having a shower - wasn't there [i]any[/i] chemistry? Aphrodite, Bella, you're the second hottest girl I know, if [i]you[/i] couldn't get a reaction out of her then I don't know what to do!"

She pressed her fists into her cheeks and pouted. 

Mynx has been fucking insufferable since Artemis had told her that she'd fucked up her disguise last mission by 'not having the Admiral's fetishes right'.

"Next time, could you at least flirt with her harder or [i]something[/i]?"