Welcome to Gaia! ::

The familiar and altogether overwhelming fear of death was once again hovering over Oliver's head.

The trainee had not even been out of his pod for a week yet and the island was still a big, scary place. Somehow he had managed to get to his duties on time for the first three days, and only lost his lonely little bedroom once. He had only skipped two meals while being unable to find the mess hall and too afraid to ask for directions. So far so good, he thought, but the constant anxiety was wearing on him.

He wasn't sure what hallway he was in, or even what building this was for. But somehow he couldn't find his way out, and he couldn't find the Life labs where he was scheduled to feed the minipets in an hour's time. He had already been wandering in circles for the past half hour, and the teen was starting to worry he would be lost forever. That outcome wasn't much better than being killed on the spot for being incompetent...

Oliver tried peeking around another corner, but there were merely more corridors, more unfamiliar doors, and not a window or landmark to be seen. He was definitely going to be lost forever at this rate.

Oliver was peering around another corner nervously when suddenly the other made their presence known. With a yelp the boy leapt forward, tripping over his own feet and just barely avoiding an awkward meeting with the ground.

"Y-yes!" He stammered nervously, "I-I am s-so sorry! I-I h-have to be at the labs, b-but I can't find them, and I'm really n-not sure how to get there from here, or even h-how to get out of th-this building," he babbled, his fright forcing him to explain much faster and more thoroughly than the situation called for.

He took a nervous step backwards, his back hitting the opposite side of the hallway. The boy looked like he was going to keel over and play dead any minute now.

Whether the pokerface would hold up under intense scrutiny or not, it was enough to cause a tense knot of anxiety to form in the pit of Oliver's stomach. He hadn't become familiar enough with rank and attire to know it was another trainee who had approached him, and with that unsmiling face, the stranger's arrival could have meant anything.

The boy's glance followed the gesture towards the exit, and a hint of hopelessness joined the fear in his expression. But... He had just come that way. He must have been completely turned around, everything looked the same in this building and perhaps the way he had thought he had come was really not the way he had travelled before, but a new route he had accidentally stumbled upon while trying to retrace his steps a few corridors back. A helpless, freckled face turned back to the other trainee.

"P-please," Oliver squeaked, looking as though merely accepting the offer for help would summon a legion of ghosts and demons to smite him on the spot.

The boy was quick to take the hint, and quick to cling to the only lifeline in sight. His company may have been unsettlingly quiet and unexpressive, but Oliver preferred it to wandering around lost, and so he followed at a safe and respectful distance.

He flinched slightly when the other turned around. "Y-yes," he stammered nervously. "M-my first week. My name is Oliver. O-Oliver Keeley." In his confusion over whether to address his rescuer as 'sir' or not, he omitted it entirely. But the way he carried himself spoke volumes for him.

"A-a map...?" Oliver asked quietly, more for his own confirmation than anything. He had never been good at that sort of thing, even in videogames he couldn't make his own map to save his life. And often died for it. Virtual deaths, at least. He might have better luck now that his own life was at stake.

There was another moment of silence before the kid spoke up again. "I-it is... v-very frightening," he admitted reluctantly. There was something shameful about admitting it out loud, even when his entire body showed the effects of nerves being wound too tight. "I-I've n-never been very strong."