Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Euuuugh…”

He groaned, pressing his hand to his head as he sat up. It felt like he had a wicked hangover and feeling as such, the lights here were way, way too bright. Teddy was lucky that the growth spurt he was sure to come any day now hadn’t hit, the pod he unfolded himself out of was cramped enough as it was.

How long had he been out, he wondered, as he blinked and tried to focus. Mostly his head still just felt like it was swimming, the low hum of the lab not making matters any worse. He was stiff and he was sore.

And he really had to take a leak.

He wasn’t exactly prepared for a meet and greet as he stared at the man in front of him from beneath messy bangs and a serious case of pod-hair.

“Teddy,” he answered, shrugging off the overly cheerful hello in favour of invading the other person’s space, stepping closer and looking around him, at the other pods, the sterile walls, at the sketchpad left on the table. He wasn’t interested enough in other people to poke farther, instead taking a step back and drawing himself up as best he could, blue eyes skeptical. He vaguely remembered the deal he’d made in coming here, but as far as any further itinerary, his mind was drawing a blank.

“Who’re you? Where’s the bathroom?”

Teddy eyed him and his continued kindness. Gross, he thought, but at least the guy seemed okay otherwise.

“Chance,” he repeated, committing it to memory. “You work here? Kind of quiet, isn’t it? Pretty sure I can take a whiz and come back and you’ll still be here, right?”

The smile he gave might as well have had tiny little bear fangs, his face boyish but in the sort of way that you half expected him to come at you with a wedgie, or a spitball to the back of the head.

“Be right back,” he sing-songed sweetly, and he stretched out his legs, ambling out into the hall. It was a few moments before he returned – he really had to go - but he did, come back, surprisingly enough, shaking the water off of his hands and giving Chance an expectant look.

“Okay then, where am I? You're out of paper towels, by the way.”

Teddy hadn't waited for an answer, the dryness of Chance's words not registering in his egocentric little brain. The tone would likely have been lost on him anyway, what with the small hunter having the hard-headedness of a delinquent and the attention span of gnat.

He was met with a smile on his return but he didn't return it, instead taking the time to look around the room again, this time his curiosity a bit more apparent.

"Well, I don't know the janitor, so you know, whatever. Island, huh? Does that mean there's a beach? Didn't they say something about giving me a weapon?"

He pushed some hair out of his face, only for it to fall back down again. Chance sure asked a lot of questions, and he was tall. Teddy wasn't a big fan of having to look up to people, and this was no exception. Instead both his eyes and body wandered, moving around Chance to poke at things he probably shouldn't.

"I remember it being pretty shitty, if that counts. What's this do?"

A finger tapped at one of the machines hooked up to the pods.

Pod duty was never a glorious thing, by any stretch of the imagination; but unfortunately, it was entirely necessary should new recruits wake up.

Gale sat at the little desk, reading glasses in place, a book in his lap and a cup of tea in one hand as he leafed idly through the pages, not really reading it thoroughly enough to take in what it was saying. A stack of papers sat beside him on the table, as well as a clipboard with a form that read:

Introductory Form 2A: New Recruit (Podded Trainee).

All was silent in the pod room, the only sounds that of faint hissings and whirrings from the machinery.

The whirring of a pod door hissing, followed by the slightly muffled sounds of footsteps and a distant voice alerted Gale to the fact that, somewhere in the facility, a pod had opened. He pulled his glasses off, set them aside, and plucked up the clipboard, following the sounds until he came to the correct aisle.

"Good morning," said Gale lightly, a clipped English accent rolling freely off his tongue as he surveyed the young woman who was, most likely, much taller than he was (alas). "My name is Gale Gentry. Are you feeling all right?"

As she came closer, Gale realized he had severely underestimated the young woman's height. She was, in fact, a few inches shorter than him, something that made him feel somewhat more at ease with welcoming her into Deus. After all, it was hard to do a job when one wasn't taken seriously due to both age and height.

"Good," said Gale. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lul - er, Rae, if that's what you prefer." He made a note on the clipboard in his hands, something that vaguely resembled her name but looked more like chicken scratch.

"You're at Deus Ex Machina headquarters, on a secluded island in the Bermuda Triangle," he said, lowering the clipboard again and lifting his chin a little. The standard explanation would do here. "We're a militaristic group of humans who fight against monsters and other creatures to protect our own kind. Do you remember anything about what you saw while you were in the pod?"