The Labyrinth

Oz turned to get a better look at the newcomer. He was young, somewhere in his teens. It was impossible to determine exactly where. Something about him gave the wizard an odd feeling, but he couldn't figure out what - and that was a good cause for concern. If Behemoth's theory was right, every person had to be atoning for some crime they had committed. Every new person they encountered was another enemy for him to add to his growing list of them.

"Hi!" Oz said, enthusiastically waving back. He returned the smile as well, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "You've probably heard already, but I'm Oz."

Raiden stepped over and stuck out a hand to Oz, offering a handshake.
"Nice to formally meet you, Oz."

Glad that someone was actually being friendly here, Oz eagerly stuck out his hand for Raiden to shake. "It's nice to meet you as well!" he said.

In one smooth motion, Raiden moved his hand to rub at his hair just as Oz was about to grab his hand.
"Oof, too slow there, buddy."

Behemoth huffed in disapproval - wisps of smoke leaving his nostrils as he sighed.

Oz sighed. At least the action hadn't resulted in some sort of harm, though that wouldn't have been much of a deterrent anyways. His...condition had made it so most pain didn't hurt as much as it should. "So what do you remember happening before you ended up here, Raiden?" the wizard cheerfully questioned. "Like you heard, Behemoth thinks that we're atoning for some sort of horrible thing we did! But I'm not so sure about that, and I think hearing another person's story of how they got here would help."

Raiden shrugged.
"I was eating a burger." And, well, he was. No reason to lie about that. Though he did wonder briefly if they would become suspicious of him lying.

He oddly sounded like he was telling the truth, which made his response perhaps one of the strangest of all of them. Even more so, it meant that they had no new ideas on how they had been brought there. Oz had accepted that it was because they had each done something horrible and needed to be punished for it, but it didn't explain how they had been brought there or who had decided that they needed to repent.