Welcome to Gaia! ::

His hands froze in place, hovering over the keys as he slowly tore his gaze away from the glowing screen. Lance stared at the trainee before him, staring before narrowing his eyes. "What is it this time?" He growled, "Moving me again? I hope you finally figured out where you're going to put me this time, I hate bein- wait. You're not one of them, are you?"

Lance closed his laptop, drumming his fingers on its closed lid while watching the trainee. "Hm, maybe... Come here." It was less of a request and more of a demand. The older hunter reached out and snatched at Melvin's coat, pulling it to stare at the emblem on the back. "Life? Maybe you'll be useful after all," Lance said as he released Mevlin. He leaned back, the drumming changing to a tapping. "I was expecting a Mist, but you'll do. You'll do. What orders to you have? Just to report to me, or are you here to run more of those damnable tests on me like an experimental minipet?"

The smile that crossed Lance's lips wasn't a particularly nice one. It was one that belonged on a cat that just ate the canary. "Well enough, well enough. Perhaps there is some use for you yet." He paused, his gaze having wandered off to the side. It refocused itself onto the trainee, sharpened.

He blinked, and the predatory look was gone. "Hm? Yes. My name is Lance, I'm the current assistant to Ar- to the Mist division," he corrected with a wince. "Please excuse me, I'm not... exactly in the best of health considering. Anyway. Give me your clipboard. You're new here, aren't you?"

"A month? I see." Lance took the clipboard and began to read it, removing the papers and flipping them over to double-check the back. "I take it you know your way around here pretty well? You're a Life, so you should know the labs well enough, but if anyone catches you there..." His voice dropped towards the end as he took a pencil and began to scribble on the back of the sheet. "Left, right, then... There."

Lance re-arranged the papers and stacked them, returning the clipboard to Melvin. The top sheet was the same one, but directly beneath it was the map and some instructions Lance wrote. "Follow that map to reach what used to be the Mist Lounge. There's still a giant hole in the wall. Just go through it and cross the room to reach my quarters. There's going to be a box in there. Bring it here and don't open it. Don't look obvious, either. Just act important. And don't let anyone else get the box, either."

As Melvin wandered the hallways, Lance was watching his progress through his computer. Each wrong turn received a wince from the hunter, followed by a facepalm. Lance considered calling another hunter to rescue Melvin. The Mist Lounge was built for privacy and secrecy, but with the recent additions and attacks... It wasn't exactly a secret anymore, what with the giant hole revealing the main area. Lance sighed, closing his laptop at that. "I ******** it up, didn't I?" He murmured quietly, scowling down at himself. If he didn't --

The man snapped those thoughts off, staring at nothing until the trainee returned. "Finally. Give it here," Lance ordered, taking the box. He paused as he was about to open it, looking around quickly. "Did anyone follow you? See anyone? Whatever you see here forget about it. Understand? Not a word of this to anyone."

What was inside was... disappointing, to say the least. Was Lance too embarrassed about looking through a bright pink notebook that it required so much secrecy? Or was it the decorative teddy bears on it? The rainbow that somebody at somepoint carefully made on the cover using glitter glue?

Either way, the man was now muttering to himself while flipping quickly through the pages, stopping when he came to words written in bright pink text. He stared at them before he began to hold the notebook at different angles before ultimately giving up and continuing to flip.

"Got it. Clipboard." Lance said, holding out his hand for Melvin's clipboard again. On the same page as the map he began to quickly copy down some instructions. "Take this to Lab #9. Nobody's using it. In about three minutes the hunter using it is going to leave the room for about five or seven minutes -- that's your window of opportunity. Go in, close the door, open the box." Lance tapped the box Melvin had brought to him, resealed and closed after he removed the notebook.

"Inside there's a sealed tube and several bottles. You can open one end of the tube. Pour it in the following order: red, pink, purple, orange. Whatever you do, don't breathe the fumes in. Seal the tube when you're done, shake it, bring it back here. Got all that?"

The notebook was nowhere to be found when Melvin arrived. It was gone; simple as that. "Good." Lance took the box and opened it, picking the tube up. Carefully, slowly he rolled it from side to side before turning it, narrowing his eyes. "s**t, where is it... Frikkin' containment t- ah! Right, right." Lance twisted both ends, activating the runes etched onto the surface. As they began to glow, Lance closed the box to prevent the light from broadcasting. It wouldn't do either of them any good to be caught at this point.

"Good, you did good... Marvin? Martin? Trainee. Whatever." Lance shrugged, looking the life trainee up and down. "You didn't disturb anything? Break anything? Breathe anything in?"

Unfortunately for Melvin, division leaders tended to avoid learning trainee names. They tended to have too short of a lifespan to justify learning names. With the Mist division, more tended to transfer out than in. Sun trainees tended to make up the coffins. As for the rest... Lance didn't bother thinking about. It made it easier to sleep at night.

"Fuming? What color? Did you see sparkles? Anything affecting your vision? No, wait, you have goggles on. Good." Lance looked from Melvin to the room and back, on the lookout for other hunters and any changes in the one in front of him. "Any odd feelings? Something out of place?"

Lance shrugged. "It can get that way. Sometimes. Like it is now between myself and --" he broke off, raising a hand and waving it. "Nevermind. That's not important, and I'd probably be boring you. At least the power wasn't in the fumes itself. It's what it's used for that matters. Or maybe not." A mirthless grin crossed his lips before he shook his head.

"The tube. It should be done..." He reached into the box, pulling the tube out. The runes were still glowing bright. Experimentally he held the tube up to his ear and shook it, listening closely. The tube was twisted open and he looked in, grinning before he twisted it closed. "No toxic. Or tonics. Do you have gloves?"