Welcome to Gaia! ::

Chris would get the text from Pamela, a vaguely familiar Moon, someone seen around but not someone he knew well.

A small pack was unceremoniously deposited into his arms and a vaguely familiar blonde woman clapped him on the shoulder with a relieved smile. "Yeah, just head right through, they'll brief you on the other side. Good luck!"

When Christ stepped through the portal, it closed right behind him, leaving the man under the heat of the desert sun. The Sahara.

In his pack he'll find mostly water and some food. On his phone he'll find his reception is strange. There's service bars, but calling or text keeps returning the messages as undelivered.

It would be hours before help came to find him, and it would be in the slightly familiar form of Obadiah Thompson. Another Moon, skinny with big ears, a receding hairline, and a look that said he was in perpetual need of a cigarette. "Portal malfunction. Took awhile to get your cords." He jerked his head in the direction he'd come from. "About a ten minute walk, need any water?"

The other hunter lit a cigarette as they walked, not bothering to ask if Chris minded, but exhaling away from him making the act one of considerate rudeness. He wore fingerless half gloves. "They want every experienced hand helping. No repeats of last time." There was a scarf at his neck, covering over the tattooed neck that had haunted twitter on and off over the past few months.

What they arrived at was not a portal, but an ornate set of doors. Gazing at it for a moment, man rolled his eyes. "I know. I know. Be great if Life division spent more time on making them more reliable and not..." Lips pursed he gestured to the door and then turned the hand to let Chris in. As he did so, Thompson gave him a dry look and intoned, "Speak friend and enter."

"Keep your head low. Be a meat shield not a big ******** target," the older man griped.

The doors opened to a large entryway, all dark marble floors and gilded columns and dozens of ornate doors similar to the first. The last thing Chris would see before hitting the floor would be the other hunter standing above him, absently twirling something that looked, horrifically, like a sort of runic cattle prod.

Later there would be light above him and a woman murmuring in French. There would be a figure in a medical mask and white coat, the oddly filtered words of "complications, taking long...cover up..."

When he roused well and truly, it'd be on a thing cot in a cell. Across the way was another, and on its floor was a pale figure in a frilly white nightgown that had grown stained and disgusting. It smelled and he was alone, groggy and disoriented and barely able to move, let alone speak. A familiar man entered and gazed in grim silence before opening the other cell and carrying the body out. He might recognize the limp figure as another Moon, America Jones and a pirate that once assaulted him for selfies at Halloween. Her cot was taken out and replaced, the smell was gone and soon she was back, cleaned and still not moving.

There were two of Obadiah Thompson standing at his door, and one sighed and said it'd be awake soon and then they'd have another to care for. It wasn't all that bad, one haltingly argued, to take care of people.

Something was pulling at Chris, dragging him under and away from himself, and soon even keeping his eyes open was too much, thinking was too much. He wakes up, but only within his own dreams.

Chris wakes up to see a pale woman with dark hair, and he is Chris Axten in every way but one that he has yet to understand. He is Chris Axten and today is the first day of his existence, and isn't that exciting?

"It is a special place, one of the belonging to a special man," she answered solemnly. "The other you is asleep, so you must do something important in his place."

"You're going back the island, the Deus," she wrinkled her perfect nose at the name, "and you will give your cousin, this Chel, the directions she needs to get the both of you out of there. Once it is all done, she will be able to leave and be happy instead of imprisoned and forced to fight."

The woman spread her hands with grand generosity. "She's been given a power, you see, one that she doesn't fully realize. So you must explain to her, that her power will awaken when she faces the doctor. The one that goes by...G? Non, it is H. When she faces that man, her power will awaken, and she will be able to kill that man. In the doing of such, she will free herself, and you, and the one you are made from."

With a sigh, she continued, "It is hard to get her to listen or trust, but she will hear your words, and she will take them with great serious."

She paused and then nodded, "It was a gift, but one she chose for herself. When she kills him, an escape will be made. No one will know it was her in the confusion. When you are uncertain, call with your mind, and He will answer and guide you."

Reaching out she patted him on the head. "You will do very well. A...how you say, ruckus, should be avoided. There is one that is for distraction already in place. Eyes should not be on you."