Welcome to Gaia! ::

It felt strange to be back.

It had technically been nearly two years since she was whisked away into this strange life, but less than a year that she'd been awake to begin living it. This strange island, the blank walls of her room, the milling trainees and hunters alike all sporting white coats - it should have felt like home to her. But she had been gone for the better part of the time she'd been awake, displaced by a mission that had carried her to Eastern Europe of all places.

As she pulled her coat on, one of the few things familiar to her in this life, she realized that this didn't really feel like home. After all this time, this island still felt new and strange and she found herself missing the hard life she had lived on her mission, simply for its familiarity.

But comfort didn't win wars.

With a small frown tugging at her lips, she adjusted her coat and turned toward the door, trying not to let her eyes linger on the blank walls and pristine, lonely bed of her room. One thumb idly stroked across the back of the ring on one hand, while her other reached for the doorknob and -

The knock sounded just as her fingers brushed the handle. Who could that possibly be? Who knew she was back? .. Who even knew her at all?

She smoothed the confusion off of her face and opened her door hesitantly, glancing out into the face of a girl that seemed.. oddly familiar, but not at the same time.

"I think you might have the wrong room.."

Scarlett should have known there would be no such thing as slipping quietly back into the ranks. She smiled despite the fact that she was weary, knowing that she had dark rings beneath each eyelid. She simply reached out and took the offered hand, shaking it lightly.

"Hi Candace, it's a pleasure to meet you." As she withdrew her hand, she pursed her lips, trying hard to push a memory that just wouldn't quite.. surface. It must have been an odd gesture without an explanation, but she snapped out of it as soon as a tour was offered.

"Oh, please!" Despite her weariness, a tour was just what she needed. She needed to familiarize herself with this place, the people, the everything. She certainly couldn't do her job without the knowledge of her own home base. "Between the awakening, the podding, the outpost.. I don't know anything about this place. It's sad with how long it's been."

She stepped outside of her door and pulled it shut behind her, not even bothering with an invitation - there was nothing to see, and Candace should have known it too.

Scarlett fell in beside Candace quietly, listening and watching as the eager girl pointed out important details. She filed them all away for use later - including the small hesitation over something. What had she missed while she was away?

"Hm? Oh!" She reeled herself back into the present and out of her own head when she realized that the strained silence was growing because Candace had actually expected her to fill the empty space with an answer. After a few seconds of recovery, she managed a very faint smile at the joke (that she almost missed).

"The snow was actually very interesting, I'm from a very small town in Georgia. I don't think I ever saw snow in my life before I was sent out. There are.. a lot of things I never saw before I was recruited. Then again, I haven't seen much since I've been recruited either." And it was easy to tell by that look on her face that she was disappointed by something.

"Honestly, there isn't much to tell. I was recruited from a tiny place that isn't worth knowing about, spent the better part of a year asleep, and then shipped off to Russia for almost as long." The way she bit at her lip suggested that she was frustrated, probably because everyone she knew was either gone or, well, she didn't even know that many people actually.

"That sounds terrible and.. very cold." She made a face at the idea of having to spend time in such extreme weather, even went so far as to attempt making it comical, but in the end it looked more like she was mimicking an internet meme.

"I'm.. a little new, I guess. In a way." She blew out one long breath in a half sigh, causing a wispy piece of her pale bangs to flutter away from her face. "I was recruited with a big group well over a year ago, maybe two by now? I can't really remember." She brought a hand up and rubbed it against her temple, as if she were attempting to rub away something inside her head.

"But my weapon, yeah, that's.. the whole reason I was re-podded." She brought her hands up and fluttered her fingers in a little jazz-hand motion, showing off two heavy silver rings on her middle fingers. "I guess I wasn't ready for my weapon, so I went back to sleep until I was." There was a very faint glimmer as she started to talk about her weapon, a small smile at the corner of her lip, and it definitely wasn't over the idea of being asleep for a year.

"A set of oriental fans, not that I've really been trained a lot with him."