Clash

"I still don't understand why they're basically sending child soldiers to their deaths," Sasha spoke as the group approached the front, the young woman's beautiful features still twisted into an annoyed scowl. "It's like using a dull knife to do surgery. It's so stupid," she continued, not at all minding the fact that they were walking directly through hordes of others who were there for the exact same things they were. And many of them, like Wesley, were actually looking forward to the chance to do battle against the Beasts.

Theodore coughed slightly at her words, the pale-haired young man not quite sure he should be going against her words already, but by the same token... he felt that they should be addressed in some way. "While you are certainly entitled...to your opinion," the man spoke, choosing a rather opportune time to pause in his slow, plodding speech as he attempted to get the words out, "I would find that you should consider the feelings of others in this situation. There are many who wish to join the fight."

Wes exhaled slowly, setting a hand on Theodore's shoulder. "I wouldn't bother with it, Ted. She already knows that I'm gung-ho about going into battle, and that doesn't stop her from shooting her mouth off. Jay and I are pretty sure that her Framework is mostly Space, with the attitude she has," he commented, giving a small smirk to the girl, who merely responded by lifting her middle finger at him.

"Everyone can voice their thoughts! It's not like it used to be, right?" Evie asked, the girl's hands folded behind her head as she let a wide grin spread across her features. "The Four Elements aren't at war anymore, so we can all just be ourselves!" she called, pulling one hand from the back of her head and thrusting it upward, her fist clenched. "Hurray for peace!"

Jay couldn't help a laugh at the girl's excitement, and while Sasha mostly seemed to ignore the girl, she also didn't speak out against her, either. Even Wes' normally brooding features were rather amused at the moment at the strawberry-haired girl's excitement. "Don't forget that we're in the middle of a war, though," Wes helpfully reminded her. "There isn't peace. Hasn't been for a few hundred years."

"Well yeah, but you can see what she's saying, man," Jay spoke up, making a slight gesture toward the girl. "We haven't been in any sort of conflict with our own for that time frame. So if Sasha wants to speak her mind, it's not like she can really offend anyone. Besides, you and I got personal reasons for wanting to get out there and fight, and whatever she says doesn't get under our skin."

Wes was about to bring up the fact that the main reason for that was that his brother had been interested in Sasha for years now, but before he could do so, the brunette girl spoke up first, setting her hands on her hips as she looked at the brothers. "You don't think that it's unfair of the government to literally /force/ all of us to come into soldier duty? It's not like they've done anything for me; why do I need to put my life on the line for them?" she snapped.

With her hands on her hips and slightly leaning forward to enunciate her point, Wes had to take the extra effort to keep his gaze from falling below her collarbone. "Because it isn't just the government that you're defending, Sash. It's all the people and the families that live here in Haven that don't have a way to defend themselves." His tone held a quiet defiance, matching the vocal young woman's gaze evenly, not bothering to try and sugar coat his words in any way. Unsurprisingly, the pair of them had a number of disagreements in the past, and this was only one of a great many of them.

"Well said," an older fellow called, having been already on his way to the gathering of their crew, if only because the altercation seemed to be starting to build between the members of the group... and that was something he had seen a number of times in the past, and didn't really care to see it repeated. "Is there any problem, here?" he asked, looking at the group. "You all getting along?" he asked, a kind smile on his aged features.

Sasha tossed her hair, not bothering to answer, which left the older fellow's gaze to shift to the rest of the group. "It's nothing to worry about, man," Jay spoke, not at all showing preferential respect to the older soldier. "Sasha and Wes have been friends for years- this is just how they communicate." He let out a laugh after that, and Evie was quick to join in, even if she had no real experience with the two of them before.

"I see, I see," the man spoke, looking the five of them over, his gaze lingering on each of them for a long moment- a moment that seemed to be nearly twice as long for Wesley, before he nodded to himself. "Well, it seems that your group holds true to what we normally see, so I suppose it's not that much of a danger if you two already know one another. Just don't let any of your lovers' spats get out of hand, if you could."

Jay's laugh froze at the older fellow's words, which only caused Evie to laugh even harder at the situation, while Wes and Sasha glanced at one another before shaking their heads and looking away. 'No way,' seemed to be the thoughts on both of their minds.

"Excuse me, sir..." Ted spoke up, coming to take a step closer to the older soldier. "What did you mean that our group holds true to what you usually see?" he asked, a frown creasing his features. "Weren't we just supposed to form a group of five people?"

The man gave a small laugh at that, reaching his fingers up to smooth out his facial hair. "First off, just call me Gustave. I'm an experienced soldier, but I'm still just at the same rank you all will be when you graduate, so I don't hold rank on any of you," he spoke, shaking his head. "But as for what I meant, it relates back to the Four Elements. If I had to hazard a guess at the lot of you..." he spoke, before beginning to point to each of them in turn.

"Life," he said, indicating Theodore. "Death...maybe Time. Probably some of both." This was Jay. "Life and Space." He was talking about Evie. "Space if I've ever seen it," he spoke, looking to Sasha, before his gaze rested on Wes. "And I'd say you're pretty close to an even split, if not definitely on one. Notice anything?" he asked, gauging the reactions from the five of them.

At the question, there were a few moments of silence before suddenly Evie jumped up, waving her hands. "Ooh, ooh! I know! Pick me!" she called out. Gustave couldn't help a small chuckle as he looked to the girl and nodded, gesturing toward her, as if giving her permission to answer the question. "We have some of all Four Elements!"

At that proclamation, Theodore couldn't stop a small smile from crossing his features at her call.

"Bingo," Gustave spoke. "We've found that people tend to, even without realizing it themselves, gravitate toward others who don't share an Element Framework with themselves. But as we often get pairs who show up and skew the numbers, we increased the number of recruits in one group from four to five a few years ago. It forms a balanced team, with everyone able to cover the other's weaknesses, and then each group tends to have a specialty. Yours is a bit higher on the Life and Space spectrum, but that's not a bad thing."

Wes frowned at the explanation, thinking that through. He wasn't sure if that was the case for himself and Sasha- the two tended to be at odds with just about everything. Which, on one hand, made him think that perhaps he was more oriented toward Life, as those of Life and Space seemed to be opposites, much how Death and Time often were as well. It just happened to be the way that they approached situations... but he supposed that with Jay's Framework being Death and Time, and if Sasha was more Space... then even if his Framework wasn't set in Life, he would still fill in that gap with them if he were an even split, as Gustave had thought.

"Nah, don't think about it too hard," Gustave responded, able to very nearly see steam starting to rise out of the ears of those gathered. "It's just something internal that you do without realizing it. It's why we were able to come together as one people against the Beasts as easily as we did. Well, aside from that first hiccup, but since then, we've been doing just fine."

The 'hiccup' being referred to happened a few dozen years after humanity was still newly under attack by the Beasts. They had banded together, much like this, but before too much time had passed, the various Elemental groups blamed the others for the existence of the Beasts and all of their ability to work together fell apart, resulting in several large losses for humanity as a whole, until Haven was formed as a last bastion. Since then, they'd been able to at least hold their own, even if they hadn't been able to recover any of their lost territory.

"Maybe after the first time they took the hint that taking established soldiers and putting them in squads with foreign allies didn't work, so they decided to do it with child soldiers instead so there wasn't any of the bias." The sarcasm dripping from Sasha's words would have required a rag to clean, leading to another fit of laughter from Evie and an apologetic smile from Jay, while both Ted and Wesley both wore somewhat annoyed expressions at the girl's proclamation.

Gustave looked as if he were gearing up to respond, when a sharp, shrill whistle blew from up front, and all of the conversations around them started to fall as they turned to face the source of the sound. The same woman from before was standing at attention, casting her gaze over the dozens of groups that had formed. "Gustave, Shannon- find partners for those who haven't been able to do it themselves," she called out, and the fellow their group had been speaking with saluted, as well as a sour-faced woman some distance away, before the two moved through the crowd.

"For those of you who were able to put together a group, congratulations- you're able to follow simple directions," she called, which earned some laughter from those gathered, but also some scoffs and sounds of surprise at how blunt she had been. "Each group of five will come inside, one group at a time. We'll tell you which group's turn it is. Inside, we'll be measuring your Framework , before Activating your Framework and determining your Tier. At that point, you'll be subjected to a combat trial to ascertain exactly how your Framework will manifest."

Her words cut off harshly and simply, and left no real chance for anyone to begin to say anything in response. "Now. Once the stragglers have a group of their own, we'll begin. And I hope that you enjoy the people that you've found yourself with- this group will be your squad henceforth. You must learn to rely on one another and give your trust. Failure to do so could mean the death for you and potentially your entire squad," she continued, before the woman pulled herself up to her full height, folding her arms behind her back.

"What a bitch," Sasha muttered.