Daniel picks up Jess like a sack of flour and drags her off towards the infirmary, which by now is... full of people who likely need it more than her.  Some of the men and women there are grievously burned, and if not for the state-of-the-art infirmary would've probably already died.

"This way,"  Kumiho instructs Daniel and Jess, "We'll take her to her quarters.  I was listening in, she's been prescribed a lot of bedrest with a trip to Sanctuary if she's not stopped bleeding by tomorrow."

She looks over her shoulder and smirks at the two, "Sorry, I should warn you I'm an eavesdropper.  And I've been waiting my turn to talk to you guys."

"And that's exactly what you should be doing. Now shut up, we'll get you somewhere", Daniel mutters to Jess as the dazed woman tries to explain her condition.

The walk to the infirmary proves invaluable as it gives Lucifer some much-needed time to cool down from the towering rage that possessed him in the hangar. Not entirely, of course, but by the time they reach the infirmary his state is less of a nuclear reactor in the first steps of meltdown and more of a kindling field after a forest fire.

As the infirmary shows itself as a dead end - which, should he have had his wits about him, was rather obviously going to be the case - he covers his face with a hand and exhales deeply.

Thankfully Kumiho provides a way out other than having to wait in line. He wastes no time setting off after the Lunar.

"Right, not that much a mortal Doctor can do that an Exalt's body won't do by itself I suppose."

He raises a brow at the latter part of Kumiho's little confession, but keeps his eyes on the corridor. "Well, you've got us here now. If you've got something to ask her go on ahead before we tuck her in."

While part of her ponders the indignity of being carried, the parts of her previously bombarded with metal bowling balls appreciated having the fight against gravity at least temporarily halted. If anything, Jess relaxes, allowing her to recover a little.

Very willing to stay quiet, she watches the newly Exalted Kumiho curiously.

"I think I'll wait until after she's done recovering from brain damage, thanks." The Lunar snarks back at Lucifer, "Just so you know, she's right across the hall from the Red Queen, so steel yourself.  Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for guiding me back home.  And for my questions... just what now?"

She waves a gloved hand, "I mean, we all assumed it'd be Manny getting one if any of us did, we figured some kinda weird Infernal.  Or maybe Charmer, she always seemed the Solar type.  You didn't really know Tim Glover, but he was Gyrfalcon Leader.  He would've been a great, uh, anything.  I'm not prepared for this."

Daniel chuckles faintly at Kumiho's snarky reply but decides against saying anything. As she goes on, he gets an oddly nostalgic hint of a smile as he takes a brief jaunt down memory lane.

"Few of us were prepared to take the Second Breath, Kumiho. It's not truly about status or skill, not even heroism in the end. It's about potential and a fickle mix of personal traits and happenstance that results in a moment when you're compatible. One of us was a stripper when she Exalted. I... well, I was a vigilante but before that I was a volunteer at a soup kitchen and a janitor. Your origins are illustrious compared to many of ours."

He unwittingly glances toward Jess as he walks. "And not all of us have truly embraced our new nature despite being Exalted for years, doubting if we deserve or are worthy of our power. Thinking that there was an error or we received our power based on something we're not."

He takes a deep breath. The talk was doing a great job of diverting his attention from the anger gnawing deep within and he actually manages to be somewhat serene - even though with his usual demeanor meant it took a bit of awareness to spot.

"It's all missing the point, though. In the end, what matters is you now have the power to do so much more than you could before. Power that's yours to use, not loaned from anyone, not granted to fulfill any specific task but the ones you set your mind on. Exaltation brings power, vitality, inspiration, insight - but beneath it all, under all the power and glory, we're all still who we were before. Exaltation doesn't give us true wisdom or external purpose, just the means to pursue each with our potential unlocked."

He realizes he might have gotten a bit carried away and pauses for a moment, looking to the new Lunar to see how she'd received his words and... giving her a reassuring smile!

"You drew the Second Breath because you are worthy, Kumiho. It could've been someone else but you didn't Exalt because of a fluke, but because of your own tenacity and potential. You don't need to know everything or be 'ready' right away. Just promise to do the best you can for the betterment of Humanity and the details will form later."

He turns his eyes back to the corridor, seeming lost in thought for a moment before adding in an important addendum in a tone that's not quite embarrassed but faintly cognizant of the show he'd put up before. "And while your power and purpose is your own, you're not alone. In the grand scheme of things, despite our petty differences, the Living stand as one."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:19, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

"No shit!  You were a janitor?!  I'm sorry, I can kinda see it, but now I have the mental image of you chasing an Abyssal down and smashing them into a crater with a mop."  She winks at him, walking backward down the hall. "Really, though, it's not so much that don't feel like I deserve it.  All of us thought, deep-down, that we did, otherwise why would we pilot interceptors?  What we didn't do was plan for our own survival."

She leads them down a hall that turns to the pilots' quarters.  Most are empty now.  Lucifer can see a bunch of Dragon-Blooded hanging around the Red Queen's door.

"I mean, I actually don't have a clue what to do.  You don't know about the pact, right?"

The shouldered Exalt listens to Lucifer's advice, fascinated at seeing him opening up a bit, even in his now clearly altered state. She agrees with most of it, though has her own opinions she'll share with the girl later. There were responsibilities to being one of the "Chosen" that needed to be understood. Drawbacks, too, though only ones the righteous endured.

Jess shoots Lucifer a look as they near her quarters. If Queenie saw her like this... well, it would annoy the Infernal. Jess had always tried to be a good rival, and this would just be embarrassing for both of them.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 16:30, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

"Well, it was actually a Nephwrack in a library, a can of deodorant and a lighter", Daniel responds with a smirk.

As Jess shoots him a look he raises a brow, not quite catching her meaning. Should she elucidate  the need to get down on her feet, though, he obliges with a bit more finesse this time... Although he does hover close by to catch her should she stumble.

"The pact? Most I know of are void cults I've more or less eradicated, but I doubt you mean any of those. For concrete instructions and orientation to your new position, I can arrange a meeting  with Battles. He's got a handle on the big picture and he's a good mentor. I'd assume you know what you can do best - if you want to keep piloting you can expect a wing of your own unless you'd rather go it alone. Also expect a move to the Upperdecks but the tradeoff is you can get called to missions much weirder than before at a moment's notice.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 16:50, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

"That's not particularly janitorial at all."

Jess is let down onto her feet, just in time- the Dragon-Blooded didn't seem to notice them.  One elbows another, who knocks on the Red Queen's door.  Kumiho starts trying to hustle them to Jess's room.

"Yeah, the Pact.  It's... kinda complicated,"  She winces at the thought, "I don't think you'll particularly like it, but here goes.  You know the casualty rate on an Artemis interceptor?  It's like 95%.  Something nuts like that.  But we're still important!  We're the guys who take on the bombers, stop the kamikazes, you know.  So we've got this sort of pact.  You could sum it up as The Big Guys Don't Get Hurt.  Long story short, we'd take a bullet for you if it meant you didn't stub your toe."

She glances at Lucifer and opens up Jess's door, "And if you're not willing to show that dedication, you don't last long as a pilot.  You're drummed out.  So most of us, we think we're dead already. Live for the moment, that's the point of Manny's chicken."

"She'll watch him die." Jess thinks bitterly to herself. Being "special" means seeing people better than you buried.

She walks into her room, gesturing that they can enter if they desire.

The first room immediately inside is some sort of lavish party room, full of various eccentric amenities. An honest to god disco ball hangs from the ceiling, and evidence of a fancy lighting system is evident. Beanbag chairs and swings are present.

Jess walks past all of this to a door which opens to an immaculately clean bedroom entirely bereft of ornamentation. It's horribly beige, but there are chairs.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:42, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

Daniel shoots a glance at the Dragon-Blooded flunkies outside Red Queen's door. He hoped for their sake that they or their mistress weren't in the mood for shenanigans right now. He lets Kumiho lead the way to the door, keeping the rear as he follows Jess to her room, although without any sense of urgency the groupies could interpret as cowardice.

He furrows his brow upon hearing of the Pact. "...I see. I appreciate the principle - it's no use deceiving oneself about the ugly truth and accepting one's own probable death before battle is joined helps you act without fear of it. It's a noble choice to make."

He smiles faintly, looking a bit past the Lunar at nothing in particular in reminiscence. He was the last person in Creation who could condemn reckless zealotry without being a hypocrite. However...

"That said, there needs to be a modicum of tactical sense mixed in or noble self-sacrifice turns into meaningless suicide. It's a choice that needs to be carried out with clarity; accepting death easily turns into being indifferent to it if not outright seeking it. Throwing yourself in front of a missile going for a fuel carrier or residential ship? Heroic. Taking a Supermassive Void Cannon for a weakened Exalt? Exemplary. Sacrificing yourself to shield me from the fire of regular enemy fighters? Foolish, like blowing yourself up to shield me from rain. Dying isn't the goal; it's the means. Make your death count."

He seems to return to the present, eyes sharpening as he looks for the door. "Don't forget, you're one of the Big Guys now. How would you feel if your former squad killed themselves to protect you from a mosquito bite? Living for the moment is commendable, but it should be done while aware of the past and looking to the future. Even if it never comes."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:34, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

"Heh.  You say that, but Manny's got a point about something." She says as they enter Jess's room, ushering Lucifer in.  "He brought up this one little skirmish, two years or so after Stone Place.  It was his first battle.  Manny's lead at the time, a guy nicknamed Espresso, he didn't run interference for that new Solar- Halley, I think her name was."

Lucifer remembers hearing about Halley.  He remembers seeing the video.  One little shot in the wrong place did her in.  She had only just Exalted.  Jess remembers better- the Gardener of Screams fired that last shot at Halley instead of her.

"I mean, there wasn't much Espresso could've done about the Abyssal.  But Halley had taken a few shots from the fighters already.  Pop pop, a little rain here, a little rain there.  Just sprinkles!  But those exposed the right fuel lines.  Espresso couldn't take the guilt.  He flew right back into the hangar after the fight and transferred to the Last Refuge.  He ate a gun a week later.  That's the mindset some of our pilots have.  Every little bit can and will count, like, I don't know, a last drop of blood that keeps the heart going.

So if they died to keep the rain off, I'd have a nice drink in their name, eat some chicken.  Maybe say some prayers for them.  But I know they'd be happy I'd be able to do it.  It's just who we select for in the Interceptors.

Really my point isn't about the interceptor tactics.  My point is I really, seriously don't know what to do with my life right now."  She folds her arms under her breasts, "This is all so surreal to me.  I mean it's great that you can say I don't have to have anything now, but you've been Exalted for what, 35 years or something?  I'm four hours in.  I'm surprised I'm even keeping steady."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:09, Thu 27 Oct 2016.

"Never denied he didn't have a point, but it's not the whole truth either. My aim is not in the slightest to belittle those who choose to die for the greater good. What happened with Halley was a tragedy, but there are two things to keep in mind: first, she was freshly Exalted and thus still vulnerable compared to, say, myself; second, the killer was still the Abyssal, not anyone else. Maybe the hits taken before were indeed what allowed the Abyssal to finish her, but that doesn't mean you can generalize the case to every situation."

Stepping in, Daniel regards the garish party room with an arched brow until the second room brings him a relative measure of comfort.

"Consider: the enemy has now shifted focus from eliminating our champions to maximum loss of life. If they figure out the Pact - supposing they haven't already - all they need to do is level a large enough amount of mundane fire at us and let you do their work for them. Then they can bring out the real assets  - or just warp away, let the reinforcements reach us, then repeat until eventually there are no more to take their place. Protecting assets that are fragile or in danger of wearing out is worth dying for. Dying to block an attack that the target can reliably turn aside without damage isn't. Take me for example - if a thug from the Underdecks ran at me with a knife, you could run in between and take the knife in my stead, giving your life - or you could let the knife shatter against my skin with no damage whatsoever, leaving you free to make a sacrifice that matters another time."

He sits down at one of the chairs, snickering with clear amusement at the audacity of Kumiho's assumption of his age. "No, Kumiho, I didn't Exalt at birth. It was during the prelude of Ragnarök - I guess Fimbulvinter could be a fitting term should you want to run with the theme. There were zombie polar bears and all."

He leans forward, serious once more. "One could say that's what happens when you're so prepared to die you forget there's another option... and then you don't. Turn it around, though: it's only been four hours, no one expects you to just understand and adjust with a snap of your fingers. I'd be lying if I said you have all the time you need to find your purpose and methods, but neither is it required to just take it all in overnight. For now all I can offer is assurance that you will find your way and there are many of us willing to help you along with it."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:18, Thu 27 Oct 2016.