Kaite's expression froze, the joking emotion washed from his face as he had to do his part to follow up on the statement. The inquisitive mind would immediately question his aversion to stay with the group, and an observant mind would understand though ask why he wanted to be tasked with securing the opening in security. With all of this, he found his tongue tied into knots. Every inch of him knew or assumed he could confide in Darius, but the risk of being asked questions...
It was a simple question that came out as joking as Kaite had proposed it, but the joke worked a bit of himself to consider what [i]exactly[/i] he was proposing.

"A leader...?" Kaite whispered into his reflection in his mirror, the scene actually taking place a day later after he had ungracefully trailed off in the shared laugh with Darius before pretty much walking off without a word. His reflection cocked an eyebrow, leaning forward and tilting an ear in his direction, expectantly. 
[color=8882be]Vaht do you vahnt from me...?[/color]
[color=f49ac2]I need you to need me.[/color]

Kaite set the mirror down, rubbing his eyes before getting up from his kneeling position to check that the chair was securely wedged to hold the door shut. He wasn't sure what he was so afraid of, but paranoia was starting to win the fight after almost 60 hours without sleep. He hadn't come out of the room for any longer than it took him to snag something from the mess hall when nobody else was around, leaving his 'plan' to stagnate in the array of notes he'd taken while researching as much as he could about the mission. He only took the time to try to sleep on the day before the mission.

A series of rumors sprung up of some kind of creature lurking the armory at the same time a repeating hand-crossbow and a compound armored bodysuit went missing...as well as odd scraping sounds coming from the new recruits' section of the barracks that stopped when a few new recruits had been woken up by it and tried to investigate. Breakfast-table discussion included speculations that one of the new recruits was a cannibal that only found time during the night to skin their victims, and other suggestions claimed that the recruit barracks were haunted by the vengeful spirits of insane recruits that were sent to their deaths on their first missions...or something in between.


[u][b]~The morning of the mission~[/b][/u]

Kaite munched on a potato he'd requested the machine servers in the mess hall to inject with an egg and simply bake that way. He was the first one at the submersible docks by a long shot, having been forced to wait until the alarm went out to even be let through the bulkhead. He didn't risk repercussions from hacking the door controls, though he poked at the system defenses from different angles until cracking a few authorization codes which led him to the 'open bulkhead' options. Certain alarms would go off if the button had been pressed, but he treated it more like the way anyone else would see a phone game.

The first one on, he found a spot near the back, taking two seats with himself and the small violin case. The instrument was left back in his room and it was assumed that the case was the closest/only thing he had to a luggage bag/chest. The air-tight box contained his shortsword, his axe bandolier, a single change of clothes and room enough for his new prize...a pump-action repeating hand crossbow which he had across his lap with one leg crossed over the other.
Clad in the armored bodysuit with his usual attire folded on top of his 'luggage' save for a pair of white short-shorts and middrift-exposing tight white t-shirt which he wore with [i]"füd."[/i] printed on the front. Obviously stolen or old...but not for men although he didn't seem to care in the slightest. It would be quite revealing if not for the aforementioned bodysuit which went to far as to even cover his otherwise bare feet, his boots sitting on their side on the pile.
All the while, he eyed up the spring system of the small clip to the crossbow while gently feeding eerily whitish-tan bolts into it and popping them out as he went to assure himself that the system wouldn't jam.

His ears were relaxed, almost limp, keying into one of the only things truly out of place from the equation other than the shadows he did [i]not[/i] have under his eyes...was the tiny spikes of where his antlers once were, the new growth already showing signs of whittling. He slid a clip into place, aiming the device at the floor for safety measures as he noticed Darius and Tas enter the sub. He took hold of the side-handle with his right hand and noisily cocking the weapon with a powerful motion before bracing it against his shoulder and grabbing the string, pushing the trigger with his pinkie and leaning close to watch while gently sliding a bolt out the end with a thoughtful "Huh..."

He proceeded to dislodge the clip and feed the still-good bolt back into the clip, repeating the ejection ritual while offering a wave to Tas and Darius, his ears perking up. "Sleep vell...?" He joked, heavy on the deadpan as he judged their appearances, showing confidence with the lack of people around them.