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 Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 3:33 pm
Pod duty was either two things: incredibly tedious, if no one decided to wake up. Or kind of exciting, if someone did wake up. But the chances of someone waking up were slim to none most of the time, though Gale had managed to be there for the awakening of several different people at this point.
It had been a long time, however.
He sat now at the little desk in the back, books spread out across the table, reading glasses perched on the edge of his nose. The vision in his right eye was still off, but it was getting easier to handle as time had passed. Scribbles on the page in Gale's inimitably bad handwriting indicated that he was working on a course of sorts, something with different obstacles or stations.
Or maybe it was a recipe for brownies. It was hard to tell.
He was hunched over the desk, his head tilted to rest on his hand, his elbow propped on the surface to hold it up.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 5:11 pm
It was a very slow waking. Things returned in stages, trickling in at a snails pace. He wasn't immediately aware that he was awake, because it didn't really feel like he was. His body felt heavy, his mind felt sluggish, and his eyes didn't seem to want to open. There were faint, very faint, images flicking through his head. Colors, fragments of sounds, a feeling or two. Dreams, maybe, but nothing he could recall clearly. Then there was a sound, a seal breaking, followed by the cool caress of fresh er air against his face. Behind that, at what sounded like a great distance, an alarm at sort. With a small grunt, the youth reached out, intent on silencing what must have been an alarm, but his hand bumped something solid, something that moved outward, and as it did, dim light flooded into his senses, making him wince. It took more effort than was pretty to hoist both arms up to shield his face, and it was only then that he realized he wasn't laying down, but standing, despite his legs feeling leaded and...dead.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:01 pm
From where he sat, Gale could hear the click of a pod.
He lifted his head, sliding his glasses from his nose and set them down on the desk as he stood, a slight frown on his face. The clipboard on the edge of the surface was plucked up, Gale tucking it under his arm as he went down the rows, peering over at each one to try and find the opened one.
Aha. There it was. And there was someone trying to climb out of it, blue hair flashing palely, Gale making his way towards them.
"Good morning. Welcome to Deus. Your name is..?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:12 am
Someone was talking. Henry blinked dumbly as he tried to focus on the shape of a person coming to a stop in front of him. Shortish, blonde, and if the voice was any indication, probably masked, though everything was a little fuzzy around the edges. "Uh." He tried rubbing his eyes. It helped a bit. Now if only his brain could catch up. "Henry." He knew his name, at least. The rest of it, what Deus was, where this was, what he was doing there? Those were a blank. "Henry Wilde." Now that his eyes were starting to adjust he took a moment to look around at the large room he'd found himself in. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie, or maybe a horror flick...where those bodies in those pods? Wait.. He turned, eyes widening as he stared at the open pod he'd obviously just stumbled out of. Suddenly tense, heart rate climbing, his head snapped back around. "Don't hurt me." His voice had jumped an octave, and he took a couple of steps back.
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:45 pm
Gale, glancing down at his clipboard, flipped a few pages until he got to the right page, listing the right aisle and the right row. He ran a finger down, bypassing several other names, until he found Henry Wilde listed beside the pod number. A check mark was made beside it, Gale glancing back up at the man.
...the young man. He looked even younger than Gale, though he would have guessed not quite as young as Gale had been when he had first started. His gaze flickered over the boy's face, which went from confused, to dawning comprehension, to - fear?
Gale's brows drew together.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said calmly, holding both hands up in a gesture of nonaggression. "My name is Gale Gentry. I'm a Hunter here, and now you are too. What do you remember?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 6:12 pm
The reassurance was mildly comforting, but Henry still didn't know what was going on, and knowing the other guy's name didn't really help much. It didn't ring any bells, so he was still at a bit of a loss. "Um." The worried frown grew more pronounced, but at the very least he'd stopped backing away, and his shoulders were starting to relax a little bit. "Not much, I remember watching a movie with my sister, and then...things get kind of fuzzy from there. I went out, I think, and there was a guy?" He didn't sound certain. "Sorry." Then he blinked, features going thoughtful. "Hunter?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 9:34 am
New recruits waking up was always a bit of a confusion, on many levels. Most had no idea what was happening, which Gale could understand only too well. He'd done enough of these and been there for enough awakenings to know that every person reacted differently - and sometimes violently.
At least Henry wasn't trying to slug him or anything.
"Yes, a Hunter," said Gale patiently. "You're on an island known as Deus Ex Machina. We are Hunters - you're a Trainee Hunter, now - and we protect human life from monsters and the like. You perhaps would have been recruited at your home. Do you recall any of this?"
He flipped the papers back down on the clipboard and let his arms fall harmlessly to his sides.
"Waking up here is frightening, I understand, but I'll be glad to answer any of your questions."
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Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 5:02 pm
It would have been a bit less frightening if the room they were standing in didn't look like something out of a horror scifi flick. Henry's gaze kept wandering to the pods around him, the faces he could see through the glass, and he bit his lip as her tried to pay attention to what Gale was telling him. "Ah, no." It was likely, the other man's theory of Henry having been recruited at, or near home. The kid didn't really go anywhere, not often. "I don't remember." He glanced at the clipboard as the papers on it rustled, then back up. "So I'm a, uh, hunter. A trainee hunter." Ok, he could handle that. "What is it that we...do?" Cause Henry wasn't exactly physically fit, and he wouldn't have said he had any outstanding talents. Maybe video games,but he wasn't sure being adequate at first person shooters counted here.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:53 pm
Gale wasn't surprised that he didn't remember; not everyone did, after all, but many of them were as frightened and confused as Henry was. He kept his voice level and careful, not wanting to spook him - and grudgingly had to hope that his shorter height and younger face would at least give the poor guy some semblance of security.
Maybe.
"Yes, a trainee hunter," said Gale patiently. "There are several levels of being a hunter. Trainees are new recruits, such as yourself. Then once you've proven yourself, you can be promoted to an Intermediate Trainee, and once you've proven yourself even more capable, you can be promoted to a full Hunter."
He gestured at himself. "That's what I am. As for what we do, we each have our own weapons - you'll get yours momentarily - and we protect mankind. Humankind. There are monsters out there, we strive to protect ourselves from them."
Gale tilted his head a little. "Did you ever see anything...odd or peculiar while you were growing up?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:10 am
A weapon? For him? Well that just seemed like an awful idea. Henry had never handled a weapon before, not even a bow an arrow in gym class. He was not, what one might consider, the warrior type. Or, in all honesty, support. He was more like cannon fodder, if he were really honest with himself. "I, er..." The protest died on his lips as Gale went on to ask him about any strange things he might have seen or heard before coming here, and rounded shoulders straightened a little as the short boy's posture relaxed a bit. In fact he had seen strange things, many of them, but admitting this to his grandparents had never really yielded favorable results. Only his sister had said she'd believed him, and who knew if she had been lying or not. He hoped not. "Shadows," he admitted, almost warily. "I would see shadows out the corner of my eye. Or hear things that...didn't belong? You know? They were out of place, and no one else could hear them."
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