Welcome to Gaia! ::

Oliver was used to having lonely birthdays. The last time he celebrated one had been his eleventh, yet despite turning eighteen that very day, he had not been able to entirely shake the sentiment of having a birthday in the years since.

This one in particular had to be worse than most, it wasn't just loneliness and obscurity he faced this year but also forced bed rest in the infirmary. The recent mission had left him pretty damaged, so much so that every single request to return to his room had been denied. And the more insistently he protested, the more sedatives he received in return. It was probably his own fault for being a nervous wreak even at the best of times…

After having a couple visitors the previous day, the freckle-faced, bandaged boy was hoping for a calm conclusion to his seventeenth year of life. With any luck he would make it through another birthday with an unremarkable invisibility, with nobody to stare edgewise at the bandages on his face, or pity his sad condition. All he needed was to sleep through the day altogether.

GOOD MORNING

One downside to curtains was how easily surprise attacks could be performed. Oliver yelped quite loudly as he made a startled jump in bed, only after recognizing the enthusiastic assailant did he wince and relax.

"Um, hi Harley," he replied, offering a smile he hoped was convincing. It came out a bit tired, somewhat pained, and altogether very sad-looking. "I-it's okay, I don't really, uh, do anything for my birthday anyway. I don't mind being... um... a potato. B-but thank you..."

He accepted the hug nervously, being a wounded potato made it hard to avoid the friendly gesture. He just had to awkwardly reciprocate, and then blush like a school girl behind his bandages.

It was a blush that wasn't going to abate, not with her settled on his bed. He still couldn't figure it out, why was there a girl on his bed? "Ah... D-do you have another infirmary shift today?" Oliver asked, a little distracted by how short her shorts were. He found a wrinkle in the curtains to stare at, desperately hoping the heat in his cheeks would start to vanish soon.

GOOD MORNING

"Um, o-okay... Hattie," Oliver replied, a shy smile working it's way onto his face. "Oh, I'm not brave, not- ow ow...."

The hug was painful, but not unwelcome. There was something pleasant about being hugged, something comforting, that had nothingtodowithshortshorts. When she let go, he scratched his neck nervously.

"You don't have to be gopher or anything!" Oliver insisted, "You should enjoy your time, it can be hard before you find your place. I used to do a lot of kitchen duty, scrubbing pots took me forever." He shifted, finding a more comfortable spot against the pillows. "You are Life division, right? Have you done anything you like here or in the labs yet?"

Gopher duty might have been too big an offer for the young hunter, but conversation... It didn't even consciously occur to him that he might just want company on his birthday.

The Thought That Counts

Gossip and talk got around, and though it was white noise for Molly more than ninety nine percent of the time, there were a few rare exceptions. Like now! She heard someone was in the infirmary, that it was a birthday...and something about a mission but Molly stopped paying attention after birthday. Poor thing! In the infirmary on his birthday! She knew he had an incredibly rough time too, with the mini pets and all, and that's when she had an idea.

A lot of the life techs were into Pokemanz right now or something...Alfalfa Sapphire and Orion Ruby or something like that...and she remembered his stuffed animal...so it was perfect! She hoped. She managed to get off Island to get her present idea.

Pokemon plushes.

They were like mini-pets, so she thought...or they seemed to resemble them anyways! She hoped Oliver would like them...and you never had to put down a stuffed animal...

Yikes.

Molly pulled back the curtain to Oliver's bed and stilled, tilting her head. She held onto the curtain with one hand, and in the other was a large basket. "...Hello?" She called out softly, just in case he was sleeping. She didn't want to interrupt his rest!

The Thought That Counts

Oliver hadn't exactly been sleeping. Well, he would have said he wasn't, but until he turned his head to look up at his guest, it looked like he had drowsed off. In his lap was a notepad, a pencil held loosely in one hand, almost falling out of his grasp and onto the bed. A half-finished sketch of a T-rex skeleton was on the paper. To top it all off, there was even a sleep-fuzzy look to his curious expression.

When he realized who it was the boy smiled, a pitiful thing under all the bandages. At least he was trying to be cheerful. "Molly, hi."

Then Oliver noticed the basket. "Wow, that's a big basket, a-are you going to visit someone?"

Good Morning

"Who what?" Harley parroted, blinking once with clear curiousity. "OH! You're Life too? Cool! What labs? I haven't seen them yet. Nobody's really given a tour or like, even a brochure." It was a miracle she found anything, really. "Well, Casanova showed me where the food is, and the bathroom, and my room." So there were those things off the list.

"Just what? 'Cause I can be gone in like one second flat if you need help!" Clearly, her close proximity to a wounded potato while wearing a fitted tank top and short shorts didn't really cross her mind as a problem. Instead she stared, curious, and hummed thoughtfully. Thankfully, his change in topic was easy to grasp onto, and was suitably distracting.

"Yeah! I dunno, it seems like a different place. I have a giant axe, yeah? And a whistle in my head. Not a voice. Whistle. That s**t's pretty cool." She nodded, fluffing her curly hair with her long fingers. "But I settle into places pretty quick, apparently. Could do without being in the basement, though." At least Casanova was an option, kind of. She oddly felt like staying with him required a bed tax, though...

"How long've you been here? Are you a mushroom too?"

Good Morning

"Who, I-I don't think I know those nicknames," Oliver replied sheepishly. "Um, I could give you a tour of the place if I were, uh, getting out soon... But you could always ask Arorangi, he's usually really happy to help out!" The island could be really scary at first, easy to get lost in. He made a mental note to give her a copy of his map once he got his phone back.

He slid down a little, tugging the covers up as though it would help his blushing. "I-I've got an axe too, sometimes, Jökul can also be a sword. I've been here for quite a few months now, I never thought I'd last this long." Another sheepish expression, a little sad this time. But the smile snapped back a bit too automatically.

"A mushr- Oh, I get it. No, I've got a room on the ground floor. I-it's pretty scary down there, yeah?" He scratched at a bug bite on the back of one arm. "Have you met Milo yet? He can show you where the human skeleton was, if you want."

GOOD MORNING

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense then," Oliver admitted with a smile as Harley described his friend. "He's pretty big, and kinda loud sometimes, but he's really just super friendly."

Jökul rumbled pleasantly in his mind at the offer of a spar. Perhaps it was the thought of sparring against someone with a similar weapon, or maybe even having someone to teach a couple of tricks to, but this time the mention of fighting didn't put a knot in the boy's stomach.

"That would be good, yeah. But... um... in the meantime, be careful when you go looking for a fight, okay? There are lots of scary hunters on the island..."

Oliver looked a little concerned, but it exploded into full-blown nervous territory as his new friend leaned over and gave him a long, lingering hug. "I-I'm n-not, uh... s-strong or brave or anything," he stammered out. He wasn't sure what to do when she was next to him like that, did he return the hug? Where did he put his hands?

Avoiding her glance, the boy paused a good long while before nodding. "Y-yeah, i-in the basement..."