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Noemi's wave had the intended effect, and the gesture combined with a glimpse of red hair through the crowd left a shy smile on Oliver's face. So she was here too? The boy raised his hand to wave back, and would have approached had he not heard the enthusiastic shout almost right beside him.

The shout was the only warning he received before a hand clamped down on his upper arm. With a yelp he stumbled backwards, and after apologizing to the hunters he had been pulled past so unceremoniously, he ducked his head in a deferential greeting. "H-hi, I got your texts, thank you," he said quietly, and a bit more politely than necessary. Still testing the waters, easing into the interaction so as to avoid any potential surprises. One day Oliver would get used to having friends.

His shy smile returned as he was introduced. "Ah, y-yes. In the infirmary, yeah." Oliver was quickly reminded of how things had gone last time, and a blush slowly crept across his freckled face. "Um..."

Oliver scratched the back of his neck. How did one remind a girl she was the 'little' one here? He might have lacked the height or bulk of many other guys on the island, but he had a few inches on her at least. "Y-you healed b-beautifully," he finally stammered out. Why was he here again? He was so out of place, what with all these stronger and more experienced hunters and trainees.

The text message that arrived was almost a welcome distraction from his own embarrassment. The kid looked around, but he was unable to spot Harland or Alistaire the crowd. So he typed in a quick reply.

"Mm," was all Sherry got in reply, polite but unwilling to force conversation. It had been a while indeed since she met with Jake and Sherry individually, maybe a little too long. But small talk before mission felt too draining. If they decided to start it anyway, she'd listen but nothing more, slightly apart from the pair but not quite broken off.

As Gale approached, she began to scratch at her sleeve, searching for one of the raised figures underneath; it disappeared as he spoke, but she kept moving her fingers anyway, needing the stimulation in her extremities. Stormy nodded in response, her expression frighteningly similar to what she had worn in her weeks long fugue after Nevada's death. The only happy difference was that she scooted closer to him rather than kept away, arms brushing, an impulse rising to just rest against him and attempt to nap until it was time.

She cast her gaze out at more shoes: Lex's polished pair, Noemi's little boots dancing around with someone else's, both close to Evan's, all next to--she felt a small jolt hit her when she recognized the Moon by him. And then it twisted and turned in her chest until she looked away and could breathe again.

Bix had passed by before she could so much as attempt to wave hello, leaving Gale's hair a little ruffled. Quietly, she began to fix it.

He was rather enjoying standing in the midst of everything, given how he hadn't seen a lot of these people in weeks and all but that didn't mean he wouldn't respond to a small wave over. Milo shot Evan a grin and a small nod as he ventured forth - especially when he noticed a certain red head.

There were, well, a few detours along the way when certain other people were spotted. Like a recently promoted Hunter, "Congrats on the level up, Miss America!" The Sun exclaimed in jovial fashion, making a quick stop to give her a double thumbs up. "Sup, Yellow!" She got a playful nudge to the shoulder, "Hey Noah ~" who got one as well. "Would totally stay and chat but I got a certain Mist to smother in a hug." And thus he was on the move again.

Inoke would find himself with a light punch in the shoulder and a snort of laughter as a greeting whilst Milo passed.

With a wave, Milo greeted the small group that Evan and Noemi had found themselves in and made true to his earlier statement. It wasn't too much of a problem that Noemi was currently face full of Cee's shoulder, she was simply included in the hug and thus aiding in sandwiching the small Mist. "Sup guys, howzit?"

He looked up from his phone when he felt someone hit him in the shoulder. He probably should have known it was Milo. Who else would count that as a greeting?

"Hey dude!' He grinned, waving his phone slightly since it was in his hand.

Shu was smiling as she hung out with the new group, but like a puppy saw its food, her expression was excited and much more cheerful when she got the reply. Complicated feels, on one hand, she was happy the red hair Mist was there, on the other hand, she was worried of her especially after the promo mission event happened. The petite Asian shook off the unnecessary thoughts and replied in short.

Rep grudgingly tolerated being called babe only because Harrison was given Privileges, he made his peace with the term by assuming he meant the little pig. "Aye, it's jumping with ******** people here." he said, and meant it, he couldn't remember such a large crowd being pulled together in a good long while. If he was honest, it gave him the heebies and reminded him a little too much of going into the horsemen assault.

Thinking about the horseman mission made his stomach twist for various reasons and he pushed them away, trying not to think of his emotional state back then and of all the things that could have gone wrong that almost did. He took to checking who was there, noting a lot of familiar faces along with a lot of faces that weren't familiar at all. He spotted Jordan arrive and frowned slightly as the other man stayed at a distance. "It's ******** weird still." he said aloud to Harrison. "No having him over here, you know?"

Harrison gave Rep an are you ******** serious look.

"After you kicked him out. It's weird not having him over here. There is s**t like. Consequences- you know what, never mind."

Harrison shook his head.

"If we get into this again all three of us are going to spontaneously combust."

"I can count the number of times all three of us have fought together on one hand. I mean. Sure. He'd stop by beforehand. And then he'd go and do his own thing. Usually it's me running defense for you. A few times it's been me running defense for him, but every time I've left you alone for more than two minutes you end up near-dead. Maybe Robert will. Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe he can work with an actual ******** defense, without you using the brief time you're alone to attack a 100 foot horse while hemorrhaging every liquid you got."

Harrison did not have rose-colored glasses on this ******** issue.

He did like running defense for Rep. It was just that the 100 foot horse attacks were better off done with the buddy system, and Rep had zero patience in waiting for buddies, and zero sense in picking new ones.