It's highly possible that amused was a poor reaction to their genuine disappointment and concern, but he couldn't help it. There was, of course, the simple matter that he considered ranks to be meaningless and often times the absolute bane of his existence; he personally hated all forms of authority, ironically, and sometimes he forgot that others cared so much. Beyond that? He just didn't give a shit. His high positions needed a wake up call, and he hadn't had fresh blood for consideration in a while. If he was going to have to do this godforsaken job, he'd do whatever he wanted.

[b]"Ow," he said, mildly, as Thea stomped on his paw. He didn't seem particularly bothered, well aware of her general temper; he wasn't seriously going to consider a freshly made Fireball to be much a true threat, if only because she was still fuckin' young. He eyed Crowd but didn't protest the disappearance, instead just taking a side-step away from Thea. "Thea, if you want to spar, find me later. Otherwise? Chin up, munchkin, I already said you can have it back with normal involvement."

He shrugged, eyed his own Fireball briefly -- it was almost amusing, to see Oni acting as a voice of reason, even if it seemed partially from a place of loyalty -- and found himself even more amused that Etty's return included the threat to anyone endangering his health. The notion was a little bit hilarious (he liked Etty, he did; her personality was one he could fuck with, but he hadn't realized she had any sense of protectiveness over him), but he bit back another laugh and instead decided that maybe he could be a little more direct.

Of course, it seemed several had already taken the explanatory route, and he was briefly surprised that enough of them actual assumed the reasoning behind it was logical. Generally he was met with protests, so this was... interesting. Huh. Bast might even be the slightest bit touched that they bothered to defend his honor (and potentially radical decision making), if he cared about his honor and "reputation" to begin with.

"Right," he drawled, when everyone seemed to have settled in their debating his sanity, "Now that we've gotten the theatrics out of the way, most of you are correct -- this is pretty damn temporary for those of you former ranks who keep up your normal level of contribution. Healer ranks can continue healing as usual -- Hell, all of you can carry on as usual. If you want your rank, act like you're that rank with their participation. That's all I'm looking for anyway."

His gaze flickered to Cav, and he bit back an amused smirk. He didn't really care to have a say, no, but he went along with it anyway and provided, "Sounds good to me. [member=449]Margaery[/member] offered to take over the ambassador program, so you all who stated here that you want to participate can go to her for a little meeting. Use the control room if you want. Cav, if you were suggesting you want to help run it, by all means. Talk to Margy. You guys can double up on ambassadors for groups if that many are interested, or sort something out amongst yourselves." A pause, and another shrug. "If healers want to continue hosting training, they can."

[B]ASTRAL SERAPH — THE ASCENDANTS — [color=#e2e2e2]TAGS — [color=#e2e2e2]MOODBOARD — [color=#e2e2e2]PLAYLIST