Welcome to Gaia! ::

Packing for the culmination of a dream and a lifetime of work was pretty hard. It had taken Greer two entire weeks to finish, three days being spent on debating whether to take case three or case seventy-eight. In the end, she'd aranged a small overnight bag with one change of clothes, the bare minimum of shampoo, and the new pair of glasses her mother had bought her three years ago. The prescription was a bit off, but they were better than nothing. The three large, industrial cases she'd dragged from Seattle to the tropics were filled with her favorite specimin cases, two terrariums of her living insect friends, and her seven most dogeared tomes of insect lore. She'd only brought the essentials.

Seventeen hours after kissing her mother and boarding a plane, she stood by her luggage on a helipad, waving good bye to the nice, booming man who had just dropped her off. She was here! Grinning, Greer supressed a squeal of delight as best she could.

"That's me!" Greer said brightly, shaking the woman's hand and smiling. "Call me Greer. The last name's a bit of a mouthful."

She eyed the jeep supiciously, glancing back at her cases. "Some of my belongings are pretty fragile - they're not going to get hurt on the trip in are they?"

"The display cases are fronted with glass, and the two terrariums are made of it. I mean, it's all carefully packed but-" she bit her lip, realizing she was being impolite by implying Aubrey's vehicle was a danger to her collection.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine. Insects are very resillient!" She smiled, hefting the first of the three cases. "Where should I put this?"

Greer quickly fetched the other two cases, placing them on the ground by the back of the jeep for Aubrey to arrange as she saw fit. "An entomologist, yes. That is why you wanted me here, isn't? To compete for the spot on the research team? You can't do a good study of the Amazon Rainforest without an entomologist!"

Breathing slowly, she concentrated on not hyperventalating. If she'd missunderstood the communications she'd gotten from the doctor and wasn't actually here to win her dream job, there was a possibility she'd drop dead right there on the tarmac.

Greer let out a sigh of relief, belatedly worrying over whether or not Aubrey heard it and took it the wrong way.

"Okay, good. Just checking!" She smiled brightly, looking around. "This is a lovely island. Dr. Moreau owns it, right? Will we be staying in tents or in semi-permanent housing?"

"It all sounds great!" Greer climbed in quickly, putting her small gym bag of clothes on the floor and buckling herself in tight. She could believe her luck! Not only was she almost employed in the job of her dreams, but the first person she met was really nice! And she wasn't saying anything wrong or getting odd looks! Today was a good day.

"I can't wait to unpack. Who else is here?"

She nodded as she listened, trying not to flinch at how rough the road seemed. If her cases had survived unharmed up until this point, she reminded herself, there was very little to worry about.

"Housemate? Oh. Well, hopefully he or she will like me - I'm very quiet!"

Greer pushed her jacket sleeves up in response to the heat, frowning at the small rash near her elbows. A reaction from her vaccinations, no doubt. Unable to think of a useful thing to say, she began to babble. "Ugh, last week was horrible - I had to get four shots in one day to get ready for the trip, and anit-malarial meds make me woozy."

"I don't really mind them..." Greer's voice trailed off as she took in the huge complex. Wow. And she thought owning an island was impressive.

"You guys must have amazing facilities here... electronmicroscopes of unimaginable power..." Her eyes were huge, as images of butterfly scales at a million magnification danced in her head.