Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tobias was very swiftly realizing how much life actually sucked. While he had yet to undergo his first Being a Hunter is Suffering Experience™ simply existing was enough to be quite annoyed with how things worked on the island.

Mercifully he had yet to see the full extent of the room he was assigned. If he had, then very likely Tobias would be unsuccessfully attempting to force his way to a portal.

In the meantime, a the trainee was taking up space in front of one of the many out of date Deus Ex directories in an attempt to locate the cafeteria. "I could've sworn I - we - passed by here five min - no it was five minutes. Does it look like I wear a watch?"

The trainee poked a decorative skull ornament he had pinned to the front of his hunter coat. "You seriously don't have anything better to do than to count time? You need a hobby."

An unmanly yelp of surprise came from Tobias as he summoned his weapon, the tiny shield covering his hand to create a very ineffective barrier between him and Oz. The squeak continued when the weapon was dropped, resulting in a quick scramble to grab hold of one of the long horned edges.

"Fwwah-- wha-- ah --" Tobias stammered, his mind racing to keep up with the flight-or-fight reaction. "Uh. Okay? Just -- don't -- how did you sneak up on me and it wasn't as simple as that. You would have done the same if you -- just --"

The boy took a deep breath and held it for five seconds before releasing it. "Okay. Right. Er, who are you?"

"The great and powerful?" Tobias supplied helpfully. Nevermind that this particular Oz wasn't a giant green floating head within an emerald city. Despite that, he figured the large glittery star Oz wore had to signify something.

At least it was easier to concentrate on Oz than on the hissing voice in his head. "Sorry!" He balked at the order, staring down at his weapon. After a moment of intense staring the weapon disappeared, returning to the skull-shaped pin that was returned to the lapel of his coat.

The question the Great and Powerful Oz asked him was met with a shrug. "Sometimes. I guess some people assume that we're locked in a wheel of eternal suffering until we achieve spiritual enlightenment to free ourselves from it," he mused, tapping his skull-pin thoughtfully as if that could shut the voice in his head up, "Except after coming here, I think it's safe to say that they're onto something. This place is butts."

A look of alarm crossed Tobias' face before he hurriedly added, "Sir."

Tobias shrugged. "My bad, guess I heard your question wrong. If that's bad then what's --"

Oz was already walking off. Tobias hurried to catch up. Even if he was strange, Oz was now a friend. Even if he hated him. Was the hatred supposed to go both ways?

Apparently so. "All right, let me see what I can do except I can't exactly tell when I say a comma. Doom. Can't I just say something darkly instead of saying darkness? Because then I'd have to be like today is full darkness of lots of darkness weird things that darkness the voice in my darkness head can't stop darkness commenting on because darkness she really needs a dooming darkness despairing hobby." As he spoke, Tobias was counting off on his fingers and inserting 'darkness' every time he hit three.

"Can I ask (darkness) what's in the (darkness) cage?"

"I could be even more rude and look into it right now, despair." Tobias replied. "But no. I came out of the darkness that was my despairing pod and have been pretty much wandering around trying to make sense of everything."

Despite Oz's bitterness, Tobias sounded hopeful. "So what do the despairing people do here on this island of doom?"

"Which is why I asked you what was in it, doom," Tobias countered. He gestured towards it. "The alternative, aside from trying to take it from you and getting my a** kick as a result, is to try and peek in directly and discover that whatever's inside happens to have teeth and claws and opts to give me a new scar here." He ran a finger down across his eye.

Tobias shoved his hands into his pockets as he waited, breathing a sigh of relief over Oz' reaction. Good; he wasn't the only one who said seemingly inane things outloud. Maybe he had a voice in his head too? Then again, he didn't seem surprised when he summoned his weap -- "Not now, no. No. Noo." Tobias ordered as he flicked a finger at the metal skullpin. "You don't need to be summoned now. No."

He turned from scolding his weapon to staring at Oz. He gave him a skeptical look. "What are you getting at?" Tobias asked slowly, already taking one step back away from the gothic hunter.

The unease Tobias felt grew greatly due to someone's red-eye avatar looking and watching and reading every word, ready to whisper something dreadful that began with a c and ended in -ontract. as Oz spoke. A hand ran along his own neck, tightening and scowling into displeasure.

"You've gotta be yanking my chain. Right?" Tobias followed Oz, looking back the way they came. "There's gotta be a way out of this place. It's bad enough being watched at night, I've already got several roommates high on the creepy meter."