The creepy girl, whose name Seth still didn't know and frankly, didn't care to, had asked him to fire the Shal-Hazar's Delta cannon at the sky. It was then, of course, watching the shot get shot by something else, that he remembered why no one flies their airships that high. Something out there, perhaps in the upper atmosphere, or outside the planet entirely, shot them down. Back then, they had no name for the phenomena. Most just thought the ships spontaneously exploded, because no one ever saw the shot.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, the creepy girl told him to go fly into Suyis Corps' hangar from the Pyxis side. Anyone with an iota of a brain would be thinking creepy girl was off her damn rocker, and maybe she was. But something told him to shut up and trust her, so here he was, doing exactly that. Strangely, the Republic didn't seem to have noticed them come in the Dome. The sensors didn't go off, according to the Shal-Hazar's sensors, and nothing seemed to know they were there. He stayed in the tower's shadow; that was probably more intelligent. Unfortunately, though, Seth had never landed an airship in a hangar before.

This was going to be a bumpy ride.

But somehow, he managed not to completely kill them, and if you asked him how, honestly, he couldn't tell you. That was, however, a lot of metallic screeching sound, and Seth was quite sure he'd damaged something. Probably a lot of somethings, being realistic. At the moment, though, Seth was going to sit here and breathe for a moment.
After a moment or two of that, however, and the slimey Other clinging to his chair legs screeched, "Holy shit!!!"
Seth tried not to laugh, honestly, but he eventually snorted. "That actually went rather well. You know, aside from probably damaging the Shal-Hazar in the landing. I mean, we didn't get shot!" That was always a marked bonus.
Pollux grumbled. "Didn't we just fix that side?" he asked, letting go of the chair's legs and oozing onto the floor.
"Probably. ... basically though, we've always just fixed that side."
"Precisely my point!" Pollux shrieked back. "I think I lost my stomach somewhere around the Char."

Seth tried not to look amused. "It was not that bad."
"Oh my antennae it wasn't! Has anyone ever told you, you pilot like a psycho??"
"I also fuck like a psycho, what's your point?"
"Oh my god I didn't need to think about that!"

With that, the gooey Other slime-trailed toward the exit bay, because, he did not need to know this. Whatever qualified as this.
"I think Pollux has the right idea," Seth said, finally detaching himself from his chair and standing. Besides, he should probably go see the extent of whatever damage he'd just caused.

Something had shot down the Delta cannon's blast. Daren didn't really know what to think about that except for the fact that it was more than a little terrifying. The implications of that shot from somewhere above them were rather unsettling, after all. Something was up there, something that was willing to shoot anything that got high enough. ... Something the republic up there? Or was it... something else entirely? Daren had no real answer for that.

Maybe no one did. Daren wasn't sure if that would be better or worse, honestly. So here they were, flying into the dome, sticking close to Suyis' tower, and he wasn't sure that this was a good idea. It was, however, far too late to consider any other options. As they passed the dome's barrier, nothing seemed to happen. There was no sudden alert, and no indication that the republic was about to attack the foreign ship.

The metallic screaming absolutely was not a good sign, but he couldn't argue about the fact that it had gone better than anticipated, given they were relatively safely inside of a hangar, and hadn't been shot down from the sky.

"I have to agree with Pollux." Ember sounded quite displeased about having been slightly thrown around during the landing. Of course she hadn't liked the idea of entering the dome at all.

Daren had been planning to say something really, he had been, but then that exchange happened and he couldn't quite speak around the sudden rush of embarrassment. It took a second or two for Daren to push it away, but the heat in his face told him he was still blushing rather notably. Well... so much for managing to keep things hidden.

"Probably." Daren agreed after a moment, thankful for the subject change and the reason to focus on something else. Like the fact that they were in Suyis' hangar and for the record they hadn't actually made sure he was okay with this idea and that uh. Well, it might be a bit of a problem actually if he thought about it. But Suyis... Daren figured it probably would be okay.

The creepy girl had certainly seemed to think so, though what that said, he wasn't sure, given he didn't really knwo where she had come from.

He rose quietly and followed Seth towards the outer door of the Shal-hazar, taking another few breaths to try and finish clearing the obvious pink tinge to his cheeks.

Somewhere outside was a Losrian watching the new airship with some confusion, becuase that ship was awfully familiar.

Along the way, Seth reached around and pulled one of the repair boxes off the wall, before heading the way Pollux did, careful not to step in his slime-trail. Seth had done that before, mind, and had busted his ass because turns out the slime's kind of easy to slip on. Amazing. As they got to the door, Pollux slime-trailed partially up the wall, to flip the switch and pop the bay open. It was bright in the hangar, jeez. Being fair, it often was, if he remembered the Republic's hangar right.

"Did you have to slime the wall?" he asked.
"Did you have to say stupid stuff earlier?" Pollux retorted.
"Oh, I see, this is payback is it?"
"Yes," Pollux affirmed. "I'm going to slime-trail all over your room later and maybe you'll regret saying stupid stuff for ten seconds. Or at least think twice about saying stupid stuff in earshot of me."
"Is that how that's supposed to work?"
"Yes."

If he said so...

"Eyy, look at that," Seth said, then loosed a low whistle. The side they landed on had apparently strewn shredded metal and broken glass all over the place. "... little beyond the standard repair box. Almost surprising she hasn't caught on fire..."
"Don't curse it," Pollux grumbled, eyeing the wreckage. His little antennae drooped notably. But then he sensed something else and perked up. "That feels like the kiddo..." he said, and then the Other slime-trailed across the hangar toward the feeling he was picking up.

"It is!" he screeched. "Tenny! You're okay!!" That was good! And Pollux of course slime-trailed over there, and might've slimed all over Atenra's ankle and shoe clinging to him, but he missed him and they were worried about him and and ending up with the Republic was baaaad bad bad when you were an Andros-Antares. Not that Atenra was exactly an Andros but the Republic wouldn't know that and -

"Oh, wow, nice to know you're alive," Seth said, finally having followed the Other after he'd screeched about Tenny. ... he did frown at Pollux giving the poor kid's ankle a good slime-coating though. The only bright side was, Atenra was used to Pollux and his generous gifts of slime.

Whoever was piloting that airship had apparently not ever landed in a hangar before. Or else, it had been a really long time, Atenra decided rather quickly. The ship itself was familiar though, almost eerily so. Atenra was back against the far wall for the moment, well away from the danger zone of - that was a dreadnaught wasn't it. Okay there really weren't many of those around.

Anyway, out of the danger zone of the ship until it had completely stopped moving, only then did he move a little closer so that he could survey the damage to the ship and any done to the hangar itself.

Oh. No wonder the ship was familiar, that was definitely Pollux. "Hey Pollux." Atenra greeted, trying not to make a face as slime dripped into his shoe. He did crouch down at pat the other gently. What? He was going to have to wash the slime off before he could do anything else anyway so why not. "Yeah I'm okay." He was lucky probably, but he was okay.

"Nice to see you too." Atenra smiled up at his dad warmly. "...Though seeing you in the dome is slightly anxiety inducing." For obvious reasons that were pretty damn obvious probably. "Anyway I yielded with relative ease out of a lack of interest in having my head separated from my body, so here we are." A slight pause. "You know, Suyis' tower is much nicer than the other one though."

Okay to be fair about it he had faught his ass off, he'd only yielded when he realized that yielding or dying were literally his only options. But still.

"Weird, but nicer." Atenra clarified after a second or two. Suyis was creepy, but also a nice guy. Just, Atenra didn't think he'd ever forget the bomb ticking under the surface, not after the first meeting with Suyis and Honour.

Daren paused not too far away, his attention more on the ship than the family reunion. ... What? It felt like intruding.

"... yeah, about that..." Seth started. And then he trailed off, shook his head. "Never mind. Don't ask."
"A strange, creepy little girl hologram appeared in the middle of the Shal-Hazar and told him to fire the Delta cannon at the sky, and then told him to come to Suyis' tower and this genius actually went along with it," Pollux filled in.
"I wasn't going to say that," Seth protested. Really, that wasn't necessary to know!
"Oh, I know. I know," Pollux answered. "But somebody ought to tell you you're wreckless and impulsive and a walking disaster besides me, maybe you'll actually listen."
"You mean, I scared you," Seth decided, arching an eyebrow.
"Yes!"
"I'm sorry," Seth said, also crouching down to pat the Other. "But it turned out okay, didn't it?" Something like that. "She didn't mention you were here, but I'm glad you are. Daren's a handler now," Seth explained, standing up and hugging Atenra for a second before letting go. "He's got a part-blood somewhere around here, and most likely we'll be here for a while."

"Actually he has two," someone said from off to the side. Seth blinked, and turned to look; a man leaned against a nearby airship, looking bemused. Suyis, must be. The white hair tipped hot pink, it was kind of notable.
"Two?"
"Yep, two part-bloods. The first one nearly died and lost his wing, my medibots weren't able to reattach it, unfortunately. Fair warning, he has quite the number of Others that follow him around, mostly bug-like creatures, but he's in the medical ward. The second is probably in the gardens on deck three. He seems to like those, your clearance got raised in accordance, don't look at me, Jadyka did that one." Funny how that worked out. "And you... well, welcome to my tower, I got your kid. You can probably find things to do in the hangar, and you're welcome to. Do you always suck at landing?"
"Never landed in a hangar before," Seth replied.
"I see... there's also someone else here you may want to see, but I'm keeping my snoot out of that one. Marital problems aren't really my strong suit. Never been married. .... never dated anyone, actually. Whatever that is."

... Seth was not explaining what dating was to a grown ass man that should know already. Nope.

Atenra glanced down at Pollux and then back up at his dad, a slightly bemused expression on his face. ... If only because the Other tattling on his father was so very... normal. On the other hand, this particular thing was... pretty bad in the grand scheme of things, and sometimes Atenra wondered how it was his dad survived this long.

"I don't know Pollux, I think you might have it covered." That was a lot of negative adjectives, to be honest, and Atenra wasn't sure he could do better than that. "But..." He glanced up at Seth. "It would have been really easy for this to be the last chance you took and I wish you wouldn't put yourself in so much danger." Atenra didn't want to lose his dad, honestly.

Atenra hugged his dad back, of course.

Daren blinked. "Oh I have two. ... Okay." He could work with that. It... wasn't like he had a choice. Okay actually if he really put his foot down and said no Jadyka would probably fix it, but he'd... at least give them both a try before he did that.

Daren winced slightly at that particular explanation of what had happened to one of part-bloods he was responsible for. "I'll find them both and introduce myself in a bit." That was a good place to start. They should know he was here and he should start the process of getting a feel for who they were as people. ... That tended to take a while, of course, because they were drilled with the fact that they weren't people.

Atenra did give Suyis a slightly strange look somewhere in there. Marital problems? "...Mom isn't here is she?" A pause and then he shook his head slightly. "No, she would probably have found me already if she was here." Not much would have kept her from trying, after all. So he answered his own question, but it didn't explain much of anything at all.

Well, maybe it wasn't his business. He'd just keep his nose out of it for the moment. ...Probably.

Seth just made a face, somewhere in there. "No risk no gain, or something." But then, it really depended, didn't it, on just how much Seth trusted Suyis, because truthfully, the guy gave him the heebies. He was nice enough. There was just always the sense that he was hiding something, and the reality was, he was probably hiding a lot of things, and that was just how it was.

"Yes she is," Suyis answered. "... aaaand no she's not."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh I think you know what I mean," Suyis replied, rocking back on his heels slightly, "if you bother to think."
Seth narrowed his eyes for a moment, and then straightened slightly. "We don't have anything to talk about."
"You have plenty to talk about, don't give me that. Trust me, plenty. Of course, given what she's been up to these days, I don't think you'll really have a choice in whether or not you talk about it, so I suppose it'd be best in the long run if you just accept it now." Suyis glanced at Atenra, then turned back to Seth. "And maybe tell the kid, because I think he has a right to know. ... and you tell him," Suyis added, looking at Daren. "One of you tell him. God you're ridiculous." If you asked him, at least, these two were ridiculously obvious and it was getting to be a little overly sickening. Blegh, good feelings, blegh...

"Anyway, since you suck at landing, you're welcome to rummage through the parts in the hangar and fix the Shal-Hazar." That seemed like a nice thing. "On me." Hey, it wasn't like he didn't have all sorts of parts lying around the place. Somebody ought to use them.

Atenra really wasn't sure that was the point. He didn't say it though, instead just frowning slightly. It didn't really matter, in the end...after all, his dad was here and ostensibly okay and that was probably more than Atenra could generally have asked for. Since the other, more expected option was much bloodier.

... The exchange between Suyis and his dad didn't manage to make him feel any better, and really only left Atenra confused. She was and she wasn't? How could it possibly be both? Atenra really wasn't sure he understood what was going on. ... And some part of him wasn't sure he wanted to. But he also did, because he liked it when things finally made sense.

"Tell me what?" Atenra finally asked, frowning slightly. Suyis said that like there was some big secret and well... he was curious. He had to admit that. It was right up there with his wanting to know and not. Apparently Atenra decided he did want to know after all. Mostly because the curiosity was going to bother him until he was sure of what was going on. That was... maybe not surprising, ultimately.

"There's nothing to tell." Daren mumbled, almost glaring at Suyis, but not quite. "Seth do you need a hand with the repairs?" It was worth asking before he disappeared to go meet his new assignments. ... God he hadn't had assignments in ages this was not going to be awesome. ... But it needed to be done, and if Suyis had talked him into doing it, there was probably a reason.

Likely Suyis just needed more not-crazy handlers on hand but well. That was still a reason that was worth taking into account. Even if Daren still wasn't fond of the idea exactly.

Right.

Despite the fact that Seth had figured as much, that there wasn't anything but a solid friendship between him and Daren, he couldn't help the flicker of hurt that flashed in his expression for but a second before it was gone. It wasn't like he didn't know. It was just nice to pretend, or something. Nice not to have it spelled out that it wasn't going anywhere, and Seth may as well move on. It was fine. They had plenty of other things to worry about than Seth getting his feelings hurt by falling for the wrong person.

And apparently now he had Honour to deal with.

"Not right now," he answered, trying his best not to sound upset. It mostly worked, and only someone that knew him really well would be able to pick out how his voice sounded a bit off. That worked for him. "I uh, should apparently tell the kiddo a story, anyway, so it's fine if you wanna go meet your new friends." Well, sometimes the new part-blood assignments were new friends. Sometimes they really weren't.

"And... I guess you and I need to have a talk." He was convinced Suyis had done this, precisely this, on purpose, but he couldn't fathom what that purpose was. It wasn't like he and Honour ever really loved each other. She was convenient, and he had the power to save her. That was all. Right? Or maybe there was something he was missing. Seth missed things sometimes.

Well shit.

"Good going," Ember grumbled, obviously rolling her eyes at her wayward human.

He didn't make a comment to the fire tiger, there was nothing much to say. But Seth had shrunk there and he didn't know how to handle that because he'd spent so long absolutely determined that there was no way Seth felt the same way that an obvious sign that he did just kind of left him dumbfounded for a few seconds.

A breath in, and out. "I take back what I said," Carefully, uncertainly. "Apparently there is something to talk about." Because maybe they should talk about the fact that they apparently both did have feelings for each other? Apparently? God, how was it that Suyis had known that and Daren didn't? Willful blindness, probably. Anyway.

"But, maybe you should talk to the kid first." Because that was probably more important. "And I'll come back later for this." It wasn't the smoothest way to handle it, but the conversation with Atenra was probably more important, whatever it was, and it would give Daren at least a short while to figure out how to say what he wanted to say to Seth. Since apparently, we needed to say something. "Unless you'd really rather do it in the other order." He'd let Seth be the one to decide that since Daren had apparently already securely put his foot into his mouth.

Atenra could have facepalmed, really. He absolutely could have. Was Daren really that blind? Apparently, he had been. The Losrian glanced at Ember who gave him a long-suffering look and he almost laughed, but he didn't.

"I can wait. I mean, it's waited this long." Just saying. It didn't hurt anything for it to wait longer, if these two idiots were going to have a conversation about how they felt finally. ... He meant it in the best way but, wow.