Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ryan gave an exasperated sigh as he removed the mask and headset. This time equipping them in reverse. Hadn't she had just said mask then head set? But nooo. Now it was headset and then mask.

Grumbling, he finished putting them on and began to follow in line after the others. Choosing to keep close to the small group of 'forgotten' trainees that they had assembled.

"It's hard to see where I'm going..." He muttered, stumbling now and again before his foot stepped in something soft and moist. That was strange... they were in a desert right? So why did it feel like they were in a marsh..?

A second later, after grabbing at one of the objects they were instructed to pick up, it finally dawned on Ryan that this was no marsh.

"What... the hell!?" He squeaked out, almost dropping the arm he had a hold of as he stumbled back a step; gagging. "Th-these are bodies..!"

Weren't they supposed to be looking for survivors? What was this!?

It was hard to continue holding onto the limb. Harder still to not vomit at the knowledge it was a limb he was holding, but it had to be done. It wasn't like they could leave them there...

"Can you help me with this one..?" He asked Jerry, shaking his head in an attempt to rid himself of the nausea.

Madison turned immediately and waved back as soon as she spotted her partner. "Yep, that's me! Nice to meet you," she called out, hurrying to Sherry's side. "Welcome to, um, your first mission! It looks like it's kind of a doozy," she added, with a grimace. Those body bags were not reassuring. Maybe this, too, was all in their heads? Like the first 'helicopter ride' the Strays had taken?

Somehow, though, she didn't quite think so.

"Get your headset and mask on, I guess, and we'll get going? Or whatever it is we need to do. Hopefully not too much with... uh. Those. Over there." She flicked her fingers in the general direction of the body bags without actually looking at them.

When they were beckoned to move, Madison did so. She tried to get up some interest at being in the Sahara - hey, that was far away! kinda cool, right? - but... well, it wasn't cool at all. Pretty hot, actually, especially with all the crap she'd had to put on her head. The world was all in monotone; that combined with the mention of FEAR manifestations made the trainee wary. Kouki bristled in her mind, clearly uncomfortable.

And then they arrived, and then...

...

"Oh my god." Madison gagged, then swallowed hard and clapped a hand over her mask, since she couldn't reach her mouth. "Oh my god. Oh my god, we need to... do... what we need to do so we can get out of here oh my god..." So much for being the calm cool not-freshman equivalent. She was feeling a little light-headed, but fought against the urge because the only place to faint into was that.

"I'm wearing gloves, idiot," snapped Gale, though Otto probably couldn't see them through his mask. They were part of his uniform, after all - though after this he was throwing them away and getting new ones.

But then he sighed, gave a grunted sound of assent, and reached back down. With a great deal of grunting and attempting not to hurl the contents of his stomach up, they moved the body to the designated place.


[ Gale + Otto are successful! ]

Vanessa looked to the unnamed medic woman, giving her a nod as they were more or less paired together, if not be words then by proximity to each other by the time they'd gotten over to the place they were collecting...things from.

Upon reaching the strange, colorless land, Vanessa's nose scrunched up of it's own accord. The smell was absolutely revolting, but that wouldn't be able to stop her. When they reached the mass of gray matter, Vanessa heard some other groups mentioning they didn't have any gloves, and realized this was true about her team too. A spot of inspiration struck though, and she reached into one of her many cargo pockets, checking it before moving to another. There had to be something in her many pockets, right? Finally, she managed to produce some thick, unused folded-up pieces of paper towels (She knew she'd been carrying some around in these pants, in case Vivi spilled something) and passed some over to her partner. "They'll be better than nothing."

She nodded toward one of the closest things and realized it was a body. A cold chill moved through her as she realized all of these things were bodies. She managed to supress the urge to vomit (knowing it would do her no good, and it would be a bad idea to lose any water from her system out in a place like this) and finished her nod toward the body. "Shall we, then...?" She asked, slightly quiet, as if that would serve as reverence enough for the bodies they were trampling. Volt, too, was silent, as if out of respect for the fallen.

The moon hunter seemed a little frazzled. [I do believe that is understatement, Youngin’.] Gramps was about to rattle on and on about his newest list of complaints, but as Wilson followed after the woman he grew increasingly quite. Is something wrong? He questioned, but received no response. How unusual.

It was silent for a while, but then the air gained an unusual odor—rotting fruit, maybe?—and then everyone began to trek through liquid. Wilson perked an eyebrow behind his mask as he looked down. He never thought a desert could have some sort of marsh. Weren’t deserts supposed to be incredibly dry? The hunter’s instructions were brief and Wilson watched her hurriedly escape the area. His eyes narrowed curiously and his head tilted to the side.

He shrugged it off and bent down, pulling at his sleeves to somehow cover his hands. She had told them to wear gloves, but he didn’t have any. Wilson reached out for a piece of the thing. It was long, tangled and—

This was hair. Spooked, he immediately dropped it and peered through his mask. His heart rate spiked as it finally dawned to him that this was a body. Wilson looked up and around. He still couldn’t see clearly, but he just knew that everywhere there were bodies. As he peered down at his feet, the ground sloshing beneath, he gagged.

“A-A little help…?” he weakly muttered as he attempted to grab the body again. Ugh.

Aleister looked a bit overwhelmed and adjusted his gear as he let the information settle in. For some reason he just felt better doing things this way because he retained a little more information. Listening to Cass and adjusting his equipment so it was well as comfortable as could be.

"Right fueled by.... FEAR? So they're like our nightmares come to life and we have to kick their a** with these weapons." He seemed to figet before he summoned Puca and hung the weapon from his neck resting on his shoulders so he wouldn't have to worry about fussing with it later.

"And... you guys got to fight zombies? That sounds.... interesting. Dangerous and almost surreal but... interesting." He hadn't really ever feared zombies not thinking they were quite possible but now his world seemed as it if it was going to turn upside down. Because oh great something else to worry about coming from the shadows.

"Sparring... that sounds like a very good idea because honestly while I watched some Jackie Chan movies I'm no where near a fighting expert." Of course he looked a little worried with this.

Of course when the woman started leading the way and Aleister had his gear on just right he looked at Cass before walking with her and following the Moon hunter. As the woman spoke and seemed to choke later on their little trip, not to mention the smell... he had a feeling that he was so much better off not paying attention to her if it was possible....

"Oh man.... I suddenly don't like this..." He said hoping even though muffled Cass could hear him. Yeah he was a little worried.

<MAN what a mess!>

<Hush Puca I don't really want to think what this stuff actually is... I don't want to be a chicken and back out if I can help it.... I'd probably rather listen to you talk than think about what we're actually doing...>

<I can do that!>

Instead of answering Puca, Aleister waited to see what Cass grabbed for and he reached for the other side.... really glad he hadn't ate earlier like he wanted.

"You get used to the circumstances when you're in this line," She grinned behind her mask, "Considering how most of us met each other before we had a name and what we did at the time...? I consider this an upgrade."

She then fell silent as the moon hunter started to talk, something about the way she was acting was rather... Unsettling. Still, when asked to follow, she did, making sure to keep an eye on her partner - the fact that there might still be fear infestations around did not sit well with her at all, although the slight weight of Kintama's unsummoned form around her neck was oddly reassuring.



"Wow, s**t," She twitched, staring down at the mass of grey and possibly bodies under her feet; she was glad that she actually wore long pants this time, although the fact that they were not given gloves? Yup, Caelius, you are a b*****d.

"Not as pretty as you," She replied, her tone suggesting that she might or might not be just teasing as she raised an eyebrow at the hand he managed to pick up, "Let's start with this one then - I hope you have a strong stomach." She was going to swallow anything that comes up. Ugh, good thing she didn't really take breakfast.

Using the top of her boots to try to find the feet of the body, she grimaced when she made a grab for what she assumed were the shoes, "Grab the shoulders, will you? Let's see if we can lift it up."