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Oliver was a little flustered when he showed up at the minipet labs, frequently checking his watch. It was only minutes ago he had been told there was a trainee who had to be shown the ropes, but the hunter assigned to the teaching task was in the infirmary. As happy as he was to see his little friends, Oliver was also full of needless worries.

One minute late. A lot of catastrophic things could happen in just one minute...

Upon seeing a familiar face, most of the nervous tension dropped from Oliver's shoulders, and he gave Rhys a relieved smile. A familiar face was always reassuring to the shy Lifer.

"Ah, I was, um, supposed to be showing someone new around the minipets. I only got asked a few minutes ago, something about an infirmary stay and the need for last minute arrangements..." His expression brightened. "Are you the one in for your first shift?"

Oliver's smile was more enthusiastic than anything Rhys would have seen while hunting that golem. "Most of the time minipet duty is just checking on them, cleaning out the cages, sometimes taking observations for research stuff... But usually its the people doing the research who do that sort of thing, let me show you the labs!"

He led Rhys down the hall to the nearest side corridor, where a large window looked into a sterile lab room. There was nobody inside at the moment, although creatures could be seen moving around here and there inside the cages that lined the walls. When he pushed the door open, many tiny faces turned to look at the hunters.

"I like the big windows here, it's easy to see if anyone has minipets out, and if you need to watch for escapes. The cages have enough FEAR in them to sustain the minipets, but they can't be outside for longer than an hour or they start to dissolve. It's really important that they stay safe, and don't get loose." Oliver glanced over to make sure Rhys was listening, a precaution as simple as looking before entering could save a little life and all the research it was involved in.

"They don't know you yet, most of them are pretty curious," Oliver said with a grin, immediately making his way over to some of the nearest cages. "Sometimes you might want to let out more than one while you are cleaning or something, they get more exercise that way. But no more than an hour, it's good to set a timer or something."

As Oliver reached over to a clipboard next to one of the cages, the dragon-like creature pushed it's little nose up against the bars. "All the info on each minipet is here. It tells you if it can be given treats, if it's involved in any projects at the moment... Anything you might need to know." He pointed at a little green sticker in the top corner of the first page. "See, this one is not dangerous under normal circumstances. "

The curious dragon reached up to stick little claws through the bars, and Oliver gave the top of it's paw a scratch with one finger.

"Not really," Oliver said, opening the little dragon's cage. He scooped it up, happily gave it a hug, and then set it on the tile floor so it could wander around. "I did get stung by one, um, quite a few months back... I would have been fine, except my FEAR shield wasn't great at the time. But even if they can't always protect us, the weapon bond definitely speeds the healing."

He pulled something out of his pocket and offered it to Rhys, a small foil-wrapped thing that looked like a candy. The attempted friendship with the canine hadn't gone entirely unnoticed.

"Try offering one of these, it's a candy that minipets like. Just open the door and hold your hand out, if it wants to it will come closer. If you can earn their trust, it really makes working with them a lot easier." Oliver was afraid of many things, but the minipets certainly weren't one of them.

Oliver nodded. "It would be a bad idea even for us to eat it, but the minipets really like it. I think it probably tastes fine to other things from Halloween too..."

While Rhys examined the candy and offered it to the minipet, Oliver moved to another cage and let out what looked like a miniature Tyrannosaurus Rex. With a small wave he shooed it off to go play with the dragon thing.

"Yep, every now and then someone gets curious, or tries one on a dare... But please don't eat any, if you can help it."

Oliver headed towards a cabinet, and began pulling out assorted supplies, like a bucket, paper towels, a spray bottle of unknown cleanser, disposable gloves...

"Um, yes and no..." He said, nearly tripping as the dinosaur minipet ran in front of him. "They don't have the same sort of core as the more intelligent FEAR creatures do, it's not strong enough to keep their own FEAR from separating and dissolving in environments that aren't naturally rich in FEAR."

Oliver set it all down on a nearby counter with a smile and a thud. "But you can keep them in your room, because we've got carriers all set up to contain the FEAR and keep them safe, and the collars that help keep their own FEAR from drifting away have come a long way, I think I heard they were even models available for purchase now. It's really great, minipets with a properly calibrated collar can be out of it's carrier for most of the day!"