She felt a tap on her shoulder. That was very much not normal. Turning her head toward the tap, she saw nothing, and immediately knew who it was.

"Sakki!" She spun out of the chair in the other direction and hugged the perpetrator. "I thought you said you hated this place!"

"I, uh. Do." Sakki returned the hug with trepidation. "Can we step outside? For a second?" She pushed Kriisa away and nervously glanced at the crowd.

"Oh, sure! But what-"

Sakki was already pushing her way towards the door. Kriisa looked back at her stool, a rare victory in this place, and sighed before following her friend outside.

"Alright Sakki, this had better be worth giving up my seat."

Sakki leaned against the rough exterior wall, in the comfortable darkness between the soft blue glow of the streetlights. She took a few breaths and finally responded, "Eviia did the thing."

"What thing?"

"You know, the… the thing? She promised she'd do the thing and she ended up doing the thing!"

Kriisa sighed. "You forgot why you fetched me, didn't you."

"Gimme a second, ok? I'll get there!" Sakki said, through a sheepish grin.

"A second? It's late already… I should probably start heading home, in any case. Maybe a walk will clear your head? I could use the company."

"If we can find a way to clear my head, I'll buy your drinks for a year." Sakki pulled herself off the wall and took a step. "Speaking of which, don't you have to settle your tab?"

"Klinkk knows I'll be back. It's fine."

Sakki shrugged.

The pair started walking down the alleyway, Sakki humming quietly and Kriisa hitching up her skirt to keep the hem from dragging on the damp concrete.

"I can't help but notice that you're in no rush to get home. You aren't planning on sleeping at my place, are you?" Kriisa asked, annoyance creeping into her voice as she continued walking. She noticed that her companion's footsteps had fallen silent. Turning back to face Sakki, she repeated, "Well? Are you?"

"Place!"

"Sorry, what?"

"Eviia got the lease! On that place in Kryta, the one with the mountains and that forest, you remember, right?"

Kriisa stared, processed the information, and started giggling as she stepped towards Sakki to pick her up in a tight hug. Sakki laughed along with her. "I'm guessing that means you do remember!"

Kriisa spun Sakki around before putting her back down, smiling wide. "I remember that you had your eyes on those trees, and I remember that it was in a perfect location for gates, and I remember that we all agreed that it was the best we could ever hope to find for the krewe." She sighed happily.

"We're actually making this happen, aren't we?"

Sakki smiled right back at her.

6. Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

That depends on what laws you're asking about! Laws of physics: true, concrete facts, and we must do our best to work within them. Laws of magic: more like guidelines, really. The laws of magic say nothing about the energy density of leystone but we're using it anyway, y'know? Just gotta be careful. Laws of man and beast: she likes the common sense, protecting people and safety kind of laws. Ultimately she is very aware that they're made up, but doesn't think she can do meaningful work from prison.

11. How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

Confusion at work: Kriisa calls meetings, a lot, since her division is mostly sitting on their hands right now. Vehicle safety is far too unreliable for her to risk personnel on missions, so they're working on contracts of a terrestrial nature to keep themselves busy, and Kriisa's specialty is aerospace. In particular, she doesn't quite get how (ocean)ships are meant to be designed. Meetings are her way of getting the right people in the room who aren't confused. Confusion outside of work: you'd never know she didn't understand. She's got a particular way of asking questions that sounds like "clarifying a point" but are really "run that by me again please."

26. What is their preferred mode of transportation?

Kriisa lives in the Foundation campus, so doesn't particularly need transportation very often. She uses the gates to get anywhere when she's required at another facility, but if time wasn't an issue, her favorite transportation method is absolutely airships. Her work on airship safety systems is what got her into this krewe, after all. It's a passion 💞

42. How badly do they want to reach their end goal?

Alchemy, she wants to put someone into orbit so bad. But, first, the launch vehicles need to stop exploding and the fuel systems need to become more efficient and the engines need to produce more delta-V and the unmanned team needs to figure out how orbits work in theory and the engineering team needs to figure out how orbits work in practice and she really really REALLY doesn't want to have the first krewe casualty on her hands. Krewe safety is far above all other priorities, despite her desire.

I'm planning and writing out the story as I try my hand at a few opening page. This is a portion of the story further in - subject to change, but fun to think about.  I'm pretty excited to explore the relationship these two have. 

“ARRRRGGGHHH!” Neris screamed into the sky. He was right there! She was so close to ending the nightmare that had plagued them. The fact that he had even made it to Berk sent her into a murderous rage - the fact that he could appear and taint this wonderful, beautiful place she had traveled so far to find.  Kriisa’s anger melted away into concern for her rider. The dragon looked behind her, cooing worriedly. Neris met her eye and in that moment she crumbled. Tears stung her eyes and sobs racked her body. Kriisa immediately made for the nearest cliff face and found a suitable ledge to light on. 

“Grrrrfff.” The dragon growled, gesturing for Neris to dismount. She sniffed unhappily, yet complied. Kriisa immediately rounded on the girl and scooped her up in her big arms. The dragon sat and held her close as if she were a child - as Neris used to do for her. Kriisa's warmth, coupled with the soothing humming that rumbled through her chest, did what they were intended to. Neris melted into her dragon’s embrace and was calmed.

“...Oh, Kriisa,” Neris sighed, “You are my most favorite thing.” The dragon purred happily at that and held her tighter.