The Face of the Military

"Major Gustave," Sasha spoke first, the girl seeming to recover before the others as she gave him a wide smile before moving her arm up to her forehead in a salute. "What are you doing out here this evening?" she asked, mostly just ignoring the question that he had posed to the lot of them in the hopes of getting him to talk somewhat.

Gustave smiled kindly, making a gesture around with his hand at all the other camps. "I am merely patrolling to ensure that nothing untoward is happening amongst the groups. Having to live in close proximity can lead to conflict. Although it seems that with John here, it means that your group has not at all come into any negative conflict with the group led by Andrew, is that right?"

Here, John cleared his throat, giving the older man a small nod. "For the most part, yes. There are some difficulties, but I was meeting with them to try and work out some of the issues that we've had," the young man spoke. "We were merely going to try and talk outside of the camp area."

Gustave nodded a few times as he looked at them, before his gaze flickered over to Wes, who hadn't yet spoken. "I wonder if what you're telling me is the full truth. You wouldn't be up to something else entirely, would you Wesley?" the man asked, targeting the question at the unofficial leader of their team. The young man let out a breath in a long, low exhale in response.

"If we lie then there's far more danger if we get caught," the young man spoke evenly, causing Sasha to groan and Jay to move his hand over his face, while Evie merely giggled to herself- Theodore's expression remained entirely unchanged in response to the young man's words. "We're going back out to the City where we saw the Beast. We want to see what's happening there."

The candid nature of what he spoke earned another round of frustration from the gathered group. If they had gotten away with their lying and been able to go out and come back then it wouldn't have been an issue. But it seemed that Wes hadn't even tried to lie at all to Gustave, and was just being as honestly truthful as possible, here.

"Is that so? That would certainly be dangerous if you were to be attacked by another Beast. Surely you know that going out that way could lead to something dangerous happening to you and your entire team?" Gustave returned.

Theodore's own gaze narrowed slightly at the man's words. He wasn't telling them not to go, or to stop them in any fashion, but simply warning them of the dangers that would be involved if they went out there. They were already well aware of those dangers, and yet the man spoke to them as if he were a concerned parent who allowed his children to learn through the pain of consequence.

Wesley nodded at the man's words. "We know. But there hasn't been any word from anyone about the situation, or even why there was a Beast just loose out in the City. If we can find a reason why, maybe we can get things moving along a little more quickly from the Government. What if there's a hole in the Wall or something?"

Gustave nodded slightly at Wes' response, the older man not at all seeming to dismiss the young man's claims. That was a welcome thing for him, as he was rather used to the adults in his life simply ignoring him out of ahnd no matter what he did or said. That was part of his reason to become a Soldier, so that way those who had looked down on him before would be forced to listen to him.

"You've put me in a difficult position," Gustave spoke after a moment. "On one hand," he spoke, raising his left hand up from his side to be about level with his shoulder, "the military has no need of Soldiers who go off on their own without listening to orders. But on the other," he continued, raising his othe rarm, "the Soldiers that defy orders to follow their instincts tend to be the ones who rise up in rank due to their diligence."

Jay glanced from Gustave to Wes, and then to Sasha, giving the girl and incredulous look. She returned it, mostly confused as to what in the hell Gustave was going on about right now. Was he seriously about to let them go out there, even after they'd talked about what they were going to do? What sort of irresponsible Major was he, if he was allowing this sort of behavior from Soldiers well beneath him in rank?

"Forgive me, sir," John spoke up, when Wes didn't continue the back-and-forth with Gustave. "Are you suggesting that you are conflicted over whether or not you're going to let us go? Meaning that there's a chance you aren't going to be stopping us from going back out to the City?"

The older fellow lowered his hands back down to his pockets, giving the group a smile. "That's right. I admit that I too am curious as to the cause of the Beast showing up out there. From the reports I've read, neither Lieutenant Shannon nor Victoria had thought to actually check into the reason of why the Beast was there in the first place. They had simply dealt with it, as a Soldier would, without considering the larger picture."

"Then why haven't you gone out to check?" Wesley asked immediately on the heels of the man's words, the young man's gaze narrowed slightly as he looked on at the older fellow's unmarred expression. "You've got the clearance to go out there, right? So why haven't you gone to look on your own?"

The old man smiled at that, a slight twinkle in his eyes ae did so. "Ah, now there's the question. Why indeed," the man spoke, but didn't bother to actually answer what Wesley had asked.

"It's because... you were ordered... to do so," Theodore spoke from behind the rest, causing the others to glance back at him. "You are a Soldier... you follow... the rules."

At that, the older fellow gave a small laugh, clapping his hands together in his own amusement. "Ah... yes, in a manner of speaking. We were not told to investigate it," the man spoke simply, but there was something in his smile that said that he wasn't actually telling them the whole truth with that.

It was then that Evie's eyes went wide as she pointed at Gustave, realization dawning on her face.