Welcome to Gaia! ::

Owen felt like such a badass. Although he was fully aware that his enthusiasm was rather inappropriate for the given moment, he couldn’t help the childish grin that appeared on his face every time he thought revisited the thought “this is actually happening”. In fact, everyone around him seemed to display an emotion contrasting his own. All of the other new alchemists looked exhausted and despondent. They, like him, had just been through an incredibly long weekend known as the field agent’s initial deployment. They had been among a large group of new recruits that had been traveling for days until finally reaching the alchemist processing center of Rael. There they had been assigned to units which were then split up among the colonies. Owen’s unit had been sent to the largest and southern-most colony where the group had just arrived. From the dark purple sky that greeted them, Owen could tell that it was nearing the later part of the evening. His unit had been instructed to get some rest before their first official day which began early tomorrow morning, but Owen had a plan of his own. He watched as many of the others retreated to their respective living spaces, but he stayed back, pretending to fiddle with his large metal gauntlets and various other gear that adorned his coat. When almost everyone had cleared out of the open area, Owen took off. He lurked around the facility hoping to remain out of the sight of his superiors; he was feeling far too adventurous to get any sleep now anyway. Though he hadn’t seen much of it so far, Rael seemed much more remote and placid than the bustling cities of his home land. He hoped that they would be able to go into the town adjacent to their camp tomorrow and interact with some of the locals. Beyond this, his thoughts were overrun with his ridiculous excitement as he walked around the now almost barren camp, peeking his head into some of the open doors and windows of the cabins and buildings.

Owen involuntarily jumped back at the sound of the woman’s voice, managing to look much like a startled kitten and nearly falling over. Though he had tried to stay vigilant and inconspicuous throughout his “midnight exploration”, he had completely failed to notice the preceding noise or crack of light that came from the entrance of the nearby cabin. From the tone of her voice he immediately assumed that she was a ranking officer and this meant that he inevitably doomed to be some sort of trouble. The thought of running back to his own tent without a word actually crossed his mind, but he figured that would probably be the dumbest course of action at this point. He had been caught red handed creeping around camp for no apparent reason, the situation did not look good. It was at this moment that his thoughts shifted towards a shade of ‘god, why do I always get into sort of thing?’

When he finally looked up from his stumbling and caught a glance the woman who had confronted him, Owen almost jolted back again at the sight of her small pistol angled in his direction. Instead his eyes widened and he clutched the side of his holster for moral support. Her figure was practically silhouetted against the light behind her. He then realized that she was not one of the high-ups but rather a newbie in the unit like himself, he had recognized her from their assignment at the processing facility earlier that day. Owen took an inner sigh of relief at this conclusion, but he was still tense – even though she had slightly lowered the pistol he was still painfully aware of its presence. ‘Ok Owen, you just need to talk yourself out of this one’ he thought.

“Ermmm, nothing – I wasn’t doing anything suspicious, I promise. I just was um… exploring? Or rather I was trying to familiarize myself with the camp, yeah that’s it. I know we were instructed to rest up for tomorrow, but I wasn’t really tired and I thought maybe knowing the grounds would help me get a head start and such…” he said timidly. His confabulation sounded much less convincing then he intended. Though he was mostly telling the truth, he hadn’t really rationalized his need to look around in his own mind until now, it was just typical of the things he did. “Look…” he said, inching towards the woman as he spoke. “… I really didn’t mean to cause any trouble I just am kind of excited and nervous about being in a new place so I wanted to check it out.” He sounded much more sincere this time, trying to remedy the strange situation. “Ummm, my name is Owen, it’s nice to meet you – you’re in unit 24 like me, right?” He reached out, gesturing for a hand shake. His own hand covered in brightly painted metal of his gauntlets, hovered not far to the right of her pistol.

As she spoke Owen began to relax a bit more. She didn’t seem nearly as intimidating as he had gathered from a first impression. He tried to remember anything about her from before, but he came up with nothing except the familiar face. He didn’t recall her talking to anyone else or saying anything for that matter. Though his thoughts were still jumbled with excitement and the tension was still wearing off. He watched her lower the pistol and he loosened his own stance a bit more.

“Ahh, yeah sorry about the gloves,” he said twitching and stretching his fingers out within the plated metal. “They’re actually turned off right now, see?” He reached for the tiny activation button on the cuff part of his right gauntlet, and the odd crater-like inlay on the back of glove started glowing a striking light-blue color. In the past he had actually had gotten into trouble forgetting to turn the gloves on or off. Especially after he first obtained the gift, Owen ended up ruining some of his family’s furniture as well as a couple of his own personal items. In basic training he had also made the mistake of forgetting to turn them on in the first place which resulted in a couple of embarrassing stories he was still trying to repress from memory. Despite this irony, he took this opportunity to crack a few of his knuckles thinking that it would look cool. He then proceeded to turn the device off and wriggle out of the right glove revealing his much smaller, almost bony looking hand. He slipped the glove in one of his many pockets in an attempt to ease Eliza’s uncertainty. “Heh, I guess I just couldn’t really help my overactive curiosity, but yeah, I was essentially creeping around.” he grabbed the back of his neck with his other hand and exhaled into a daft-looking smile. Owen extended his now bare right hand for a second chance at the greeting. “It’s nice to meet you Eliza, even under such … odd … circumstances on my part,” he said still beaming.

“Yeah, that would be pretty lame of me too, of all the ways to get injured or killed – and on the first day too!” Owen said with a light-hearted laugh at himself. He shook her hand gently and made no move to put on his gauntlet again afterwards.

“Thanks, I will definitely keep that in mind,” he responded, pausing momentarily to connect the dots in his head. “I take it you’re a mechanist then? That would explain your awesome little cabin. I have to admit I'm a bit jealous, all I got was a cramped little bunk in a tent full of other guys,” he said poking his head around to look at the shed behind them. It was then that he first sensed that she seemed a bit uncomfortable with his presence. Owen was quite oblivious to that sort of thing normally, and it was hard to read her face or body language since it was getting darker by the moment. He figured that he should break off the conversation soon anyway and let her sleep like a normal person. He had decided to return to his own tent afterwards anyway given their encounter and prior discussion.

He nodded in agreement, “That is a bit concerning, but I hear that the unit is pretty tight and everyone is always looking out for each other, and luckily the nearest watch-post isn’t too far from here... If you’re ever in trouble I’m sure we will all come running to help you out, I mean what good would we be without a mechanist?” Owen scratched his head and stretched his limbs out; he still wasn’t even remotely tired. “I was just thinking that I should probably head back anyway, I don’t want to be keeping you up or anything. I imagine tomorrow will probably be a rough first day for both of us.” He would most likely return to his tent, lie in bed, and let his mind run free until sleep found him. He was also feeling a bit guilty about startling Eliza in the first place and then chatting away like a moron without realizing that she was probably tired and a bit shy.

“I would definitely like that!” he said perking up at her offer. “I was thinking about checking out the town myself in due time – I’d love to see what a real Raelian community is like – but it would be cool to have someone to go exploring with. It would be much less suspicious than creeping around at night, I promise,” he said with a laugh. “If we get some time off tomorrow I will definitely take you up on that offer… But anyway, goodnight for now and good luck with everything tomorrow!” He turned around with a wave and another peachy smile. ‘I think that went well, Or at least I hope so,’ he thought to himself. Eliza seemed quite reserved and Owen was now fully aware of this but he didn’t mind at all. He had his fair share trouble making friends in basic training, and even growing up he had never been popular. He tried not to think about how he had often been ridiculed for his small physique and clumsy nature. If anything, Owen was an optimist and he dealt with any of his personal issues by being outgoing and as kind as possible to others. And although their meeting had been less than ideal, and rather awkward Owen was thrilled with the prospect of making a friend.

In basic training Owen had experienced the joy of being woken up at 5:00 AM by a loud trumpeting noise, it had fulfilled the stereotype many citizens had of military life. The directors of the training program were incredibly formal and strict as well, always yelling at the recruits. He expected that deployment and his actual service in the military would mirror this, but as he came to realize the actual military – or at least his unit - was rather relaxed on formalities in comparison to his training. He would later come to believe that much of his training was just a ploy of intimidation; it was an attempt to “prepare you for the worst” which would probably never come. But then again, Owen had barely made it through basic training, twice he was almost kicked out by his training officer, and you had to be a real screw-up to be kicked out. Boscovian military was voluntary after all.

Nonetheless, he was woken up at 5:00 AM, one of the seasoned alchemists who worked as the camp’s coordinator poked his head in the entrance of the tented barrack. The man announced that they were to assemble in the large open area on the west side of camp for a briefing 30 minutes later. He had never been a morning person, but Owen had managed to adjust to the rigor of waking up and immediately taking a proactive role. He was dressed, showered, equipped, and ready to go by 5:15, and he walked over to the meeting area in a small group of guys from his barrack. He tried to strike up a conversation with some of them, but again none of them seemed to share his enthusiasm so early in the morning. They also seemed to have grouped up already, organizing into their exclusive social posses. Owen wasn’t nearly as giddy as he had been the night before, but he was still rather lively. Thus he began to whistle since no one seemed interested in conversing; he kept on the look-out for Eliza, but didn’t see her anywhere.

Eventually all the new alchemists formed a line as a small group of superior officers arrived to speak with the group. Owen could tell that this gathering did not include everyone who had arrived with them yesterday. He wondered where the rest could be, including Eliza. “Alright everyone, you’ve been called here because you lack any sort of specialization as a professional alchemist. As such, I am sure that most of you are heavily combat-oriented which is always a good skill to have as an agent… But we are here to review your records from your respective training facilities and assign you a specific form of work.” Owen took a nervous gulp at the officer’s last sentence. They went down the line assessing each individual one-by-one. Almost everyone was assigned to work as an in-field soldiers, information specialist, or watch-guard.

As Owen understood it, soldiers were the ones who worked on teams with other alchemists and directly with the Raelian employees to gather resources which exported back to Boscovia. Many were stationed in mines, drill sites, or rural forest areas. Information specialists were stationed throughout the towns; they spoke with locals to gather information on how to gather and find the resources but were also armed to deal with any civil outbreaks among the public. Owen yearned to work as an in-field soldier, that way he would cover the most ground, and be able to use some of the amazing military technology he had heard so much about. The steam-powered mecha-suits, drills, and automobiles – he swooned at the thought of it all. Unfortunately, when the officers glanced at his records they seemed to sigh unanimously with disappointment. He was assigned the duty of “communication operator” – the only one out of the group too. Owen could tell just from the title that he would resent the job.

Before being sent off to their respective duties and posts, the alchemists were granted a break for their first meal of the day. Everyone seemed to take off in their own separate directions around the camp, so Owen decided to take this opportunity to look for Eliza. He wondered if she had been required to attend some separate special meeting as well, but he decided to head in the direction of her cabin, hoping that at the very least they could talk again over breakfast.

Owen continued to make his way towards Eliza's cabin. Or at least he was pretty sure he was heading in the right direction. It had been incredibly dark the night before, and the camp looked much different when you could actually see more than black silhouettes. Finally he spotted the little building on the edge of camp. For a moment he just stood in the open area in front of it, letting his concerns wash over him. Should I really be bothering her now? I did kind of freak her the ******** out yesterday... He then thought of the others who had broken off into their respective groups already. He then remembered her offer from the previous night, to go exploring together, that was practically an invitation to be friends, right? And just like that Owen completely discarded all doubt and indecision. He strode towards the door, his usual confidence making its first appearance since his disappointing job assignment. He gave a firm knock on the wood, and began to fiddle with the strap of his backpack, hoping that she would actually be in and awake for that matter.

Owen immediately straightened his posture as he heard the rustling from inside the cabin, reassured by the fact that Eliza was actually in. The door swung open to reveal the woman he had met the previous night looking a bit tired if anything. Her hair was a much more vibrant red than he remembered, but again it had been difficult for him to see much last night. She was also wearing a long dress that almost touched the floor, fraying at the edges from some wear. Owen thought she looked very nice, but he had also spent the past several days with a group of burly, sloppy men half of whom had skipped their morning showers. He refrained from verbalizing the complement though, not wanting to embarrass her.

"Hi, good morning," he finally said raising his metal covered hand and giving it a quick, awkward wave. "Sure, I was hoping you were free for some breakfast, since the recruiters gave us a break," he said inching his way into her cabin upon her invitation. He found himself an empty spot on the nearest wall to lean on and pulled out a small rectangular wrapping from his backpack, an unappetizing meal bar. "So what have you been up to this morning? I haven't done much besides wait in line to receive my job assignment. It wasn't very interesting..." He said, his voice trailing off at the end as he recalled his unappealing job. Owen tried to smile though, to make up for his obvious dissatisfaction and continued to lean casually against the wall unsure whether to sit down or not.