Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yawning, Samantha practically stumbled into the cafeteria. She'd just woken up from a nap and well...she wasn't exactly a quick riser. She glanced around the room groggily for a moment before making a beeline for the food. She was almost starving, though a workout followed by a shower and a nap probably had something to do with that.

She eyed the food items carefully before giving up on the decision altogether. "Can't decide. I'll just have both," she commented cheerfully, picking up both a hamburger and a hot dog before moving on to get a drink.

She paused with her selections, glancing around again and only now realizing that most of the tables were full. "Dammit all...why does everyone want to eat now?" she muttered. Ah ha! Jackpot!

She made a beeline for a table with only one other person occupying a seat. "Mind if I claim another seat here?" she asked with a smile. "Seems the place is full today. I promise not to bother you. I'm just starving and would like to eat without standing up and performing some sort of interesting circus balancing act with my tray just to eat a damn hamburger."

Ah, the natural sarcasm makes itself known once again.

"Thanks!" she replied cheerfully, plopping herself down into a chair, grinning widely. "You'd be surprised how many unfriendly people there are in this joint."

Maybe not. It wasn't as if she herself had met many nice people in her stay here at CRONUS and she'd been here for some time now. She couldn't even count family, as she hadn't seen or heard her uncle since she'd arrived. Not that he would be counted in the 'nice' category anyway. Self-centered jerk.

But enough mental whining about crappy family members.

There was food to be eaten.

Digging quite happily into her hamburger, it was some time before Samantha paused long enough to take a drink of her orange soda and speak again. "Err...sorry. I know I said I wouldn't bother you, but would you mind my asking what you're looking at there?" It looked like some sort of magazine, but not one that she'd ever read before. Something about the style and composition caught her attention and curiosity, however.

"Heh, well, not all of the lab's guests are all that friendly either, I've found out," Samantha muttered, making a face as she remembered her encounter with the wannabe emo-punk-goth chick, or whatever she was, in the exercise yard. Amazingly, the urge to smash that beer bottle upside her head still hadn't waned...

Accepting the magazine, she spun it around right-side up and flipped through a few pages. Hmm...interesting layout...nice color scheme...even if it wasn't really her sort of subject matter, it was a nicely designed periodical, she had to admit.

"Mmm...fascinating..." she mused, honestly curious about the subject. "So...you actually buy this stuff?" She wondered. Sure, she'd seen the obsessive trainers on TV and stuff...how could you not? But did real trainers really buy into all this expensive stuff and name brand 'designer' gear and junk? Surely not...

Relieved to discover that not all trainers acted like those fools on TV, Samantha nodded and smiled...what was that one kid's name? 'Ketchup' or something...? Weird name, that was all she remembered. But, yeah...anyway...

"That certainly sounds more practical," she agreed, leaning back in her own chair to relax. "If you're going to be venturing out in the wild with nothing more than what you're carrying, I'd prefer to be packing something useful over something 'cool.'" She chuckled, rolling her eyes lightly. "Only makes sense, right?"

Still smiling, she leaned forward again with arms crossed on the tabletop. "So...name's Samantha Hakan. With whom do I have the pleasure of sharing this wonderful, scenic spot?" She held out her hand to the younger girl with a playful smirk, deciding that she'd found at least one other semi-sane, decent person in this crazy nuthouse.

Samantha noticed, but only grinned and gave a chuckle of her own in response. "Praise be, I darest not complain. And fortunately so. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, my dear Diana." She shook hands firmly with the younger woman, smirking before settling back again.

"Makes sense to me," she answered, seeming to switch modes of speech without hesitation. "I mean, I always relied on the most tried and true of my athletic equipment. Yeah, it's not shiny and new, but it holds up. When you're hanging on for dear life to a sheer cliff face, you gonna' trust your life to some shiny, new 'designer' rock clamp, or one that's saved your life before, if a little dull and beat-up? I mean, seriously."

She stretched, then turned her attention back to the remainder of her meal. "So, you're a trainer then? I never really was, though I can't say I wasn't intrigued by the lifestyle of it all. I just...made different choices, I suppose." She paused, thinking for a moment before meeting Diana's eyes again. "You any good?" The question was part curiosity, partly a playful challenge. There was a mischievious sparkle in her eyes that said she was only kidding around, though she really did want to know. She always thought she might have been good at training Pokemon if she'd ever set her mind to it. It wasn't that different than training humans, right? And she certainly drove herself hard in her own efforts.

"That...would be most disturbing," Samantha chuckled in reference to the diamond-studded 'bling' clamp idea. How silly...

"Wait...what?" Jerked back into reality by Diana's stunning revelation, Samantha could only stare for a moment. "You were...attacked?" she asked hesitantly, sure she must have heard wrong. She frowned, shaking her head in disbelief. "You don't remember anything else after that? Like...how you ended up here?"

An undertone of suspicion had crept into her voice. Too many strange events to ignore. Too many suspicious circumstances resulting in people ending up on this island...

...what in Kanto was going on here?

Both fists shot up in an instant, straight to a defensive position before Samantha even realized what she was doing. Cursing her reflexes, she grinned sheepishly, hands dropping back to her lap as she freed herself from Diana's grasp. "Err...sorry. Didn't mean to space on you like that. Or um...try to attack you..."

She laughed nervously, still slightly uneasy about what her new friend had just told her. "Are you alright? I mean, if they knocked you out..." she trailed off, wondering if she'd been seriously injured in the attack. Maybe the lab had found her and wanted to make sure she was alright...that's what the tests were about...

...right?