Welcome to Gaia! ::

Being assigned a shift in pod duty was a little like being told to watch the children while the adults went and did the real work. Not that Dawson disliked being alone every once in a while, but he was a man who didn't like sitting still--especially with half of Deus in need of repairs. He used the time thus far to make a schedule of the where and whens for his other duties, including visits to people who had asked personally for help with minor jobs at their rooms. The next few weeks were going to be busy...

He paused only when he heard the beeping beginning.

- - -

Sam woke up feeling stiff and cold. Not unreasonable: she often tossed and turned on what little sleep she got and was used to waking up in awkward positions. But she felt more sluggish than normal and mumbled something to herself as she tried to stretch each limb...and found that she was curled up in something not her bed.

In attempting to figure out what was going on, her face smacked the glass, and her hair smeared across her forehead. What a wake up call.

"Aw boy." Dawson bent over and attempted to bring the guy to an upright position, his meaty fist surprisingly gentle. "Alrigh', deep n' slow breaths."

With a second hiss, the other pod opened. Sam moaned and drooped over the new opening, palms flat on the ground. There was no way she had drank too much, she knew the exact amount of each type of drink she could have...But then, she realized, she wasn't exactly nauseous, or even really dizzy. Just...confused and light-headed, in the just woke up sort of daze. "What..."

"I'll be with ya in just a sec, honey," Dawson told her, sympathetic to them both. "Both a'y'all now, take it real easy. Ain' in a rush. Cryo-whatsit process takes a lot outta ya."

"What," Sam muttered again, though her head remained down as she extricated herself from the pod ever so slowly.

"Grace. Dawson Grace," he said as smoothly as he could, before ruining it with a bark of laughter. "Ain' no cowboy, man, just a farm boy. Tell me yer name's--" He found the placard and was crestfallen. Not Solo. "Aw."

With another groan, Sam hauled herself out and sat against the pod, pushing her hair back. When had it gotten out of its ponytail? Wait, no, more importantly-- "Where are we?"

"Island in the Bermuda," Dawson replied, peeking at hers next, "Miss, uh, Sam...uila...?"

"Samantha. Or Sam." She fumbled around in her pockets for another hair tie and began to work on another ponytail, completely ignorant of Han.

"Yer now workin' fer a organization called Deus Ex Machina," Dawson went on happily, taking a seat since they both seemed unable to get up. "Ya won' remember much comin' right outta the pod, but you agreed fer whatever reason so, here ya are! Welcome t'the real life super heroes, my dudes."

Sam didn't look impressed. "God in the Machine? Really? How pretentious."

"That's a cowlick," she replied curtly as she got to her feet, becoming hyperaware of her state. Han's looks were bothering her.

"Aw, that's okay, I got one too." Dawson lifted his trucker hat to reveal it. Sam gave it a passive look, clearly not seeing how this helped, which Dawson shrugged off easily enough.

He then joined them off the floor and clapped his hands. "Well! From here, I oughta get you to some techs who'll assign yer division--there's five of 'em, each with their own unique bit." He tugged his coat up so they could see the emblem on his back. "I'm a Moon--defense, combat healing, construction, all that biz. Anyway, then they oughta getcha yer room n' point ya to the weapons cove."

Sam held a hand up for him to stop. "Weapons?" Everything else made sense, but a cove? That seemed like the worst place to keep munitions.

"Yeah! Best part of the job if you get a partner!" Dawson grinned and reached under his collar, producing a thing metal necklace with several teeth on it. "This one's mine, Syn. She's a chimera, which sounds scary, but really she's just a big overgrown kitten."

Sam continued to look blankly at him. "A...chimera." She passed Han a look, as if expecting him to begin acting crazy as well.

Dawson nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, tons more, dude, like there's a whole literal world! Ghosts n' Goblins, Dungeons n' Dragons...You ain' crazy."

Sam frowned and said, "So more than just shadows, we're talking...what, legends and fairytales? What next, the White House being controlled by lizard people conspiracy is based in fact?"

"Uhhhh no, I don' think we confirmed that one yet," the Moon said, half joking, half serious. "I think we accidentally got Robert Pattinson killed, though."

Sam didn't know who that was, but her memories were vaguely starting to make sense. She rubbed one side of her head and sighed, agitated. Her memory was normally impeccable; any sort of delay was unacceptable, and this hick of a welcome committee grated on her.

"A buncha y'all been wakin' up, so there's prob'ly gonna be an orientation," Dawson told them. "But, uh, lemme see..." He took at peek at the files in his hand. "Says here yer in Life, n' Miss Sam's goin' to Death. Life is all nerds n' high tech n' research, Death's all field scoutin' n' reports. Heck, y'all might be workin' together real soon."

Sam closed her eyes as if the idea gave her more of a headache.

"Nope!" Dawson affirmed, half-chuckling himself. "Dead honest. Well, least that's what I heard."

Sam gave Han another look, skeptical in spite of his evident sincerity. "What's the next step, then?" she prompted, turning back to the round and hairy man. "Do we need to report to our separate divisions?"

"Oh!" Snapping, Dawson leaned towards the nearest pod and grabbed two pamphlets that he offered to them. "This'll give ya the crash course. But no, we gotta get y'all to scoot on over to the weapons cove first so you can meet yer buddy!"

"I thought you said we needed to get our room assignments?"

"Oh, that comes after. S'real important you get yer weapon so you can avoid gettin' too much Fear in yer system."

Sam frowned slightly. "Fear?" But Dawson made a hand motion towards the pamphlets.

"Long story short," he told them, "if we're made a'cells, Halloween's made've Fear."

"Any story attempting to end with someone touching me needs to be more persuasive than that," she said pointedly to Han.

"Uh, yeah," Dawson said, a little taken aback by the look in Han's eyes. "I mean uh, about the Fear thing. Like a regular ol' human'll explode with too much Fear in their systems. Bondin' with a weapon gives ya a barrier against that."

Sam appeared interested as well, though less manic. "Assuming you aren't lying," she said, "we should go now then to avoid risk of injury. Would you lead us to the cove?"

"I'd be happy to!" Dawson summoned his shield, whose snarling visage caused Sam to take a step back instinctively. "An' if anythin' comes after us, I'll make sure t'keep y'all safe."