Welcome to Gaia! ::

"God damnit," Gin said, sitting down on the dusty edge of the dirt road and taking a look at the badly drawn map once again. He grimaced; it looked like it was handdrawn lovingly by a three year old. Tough to follow, hard to read...if this was all just a wild goose chase, the no-longer-so young clerk was going to be pissed.

He folded the map up and put it in one of the side pockets of his old and worn backpack. He had woken up early--only about four hours of sleep, he liked to remind himself angrily--just to return whatever this egg was to...the x on the map.

Grudgingly, he took out a water bottle, took a swig, and looked over the ancient trees at the noontime sun. He didn't think he had ever been to this part of Gaia before; it was miles away from Barton at least, and he hadn't seen another person for hours.

Gin shrugged and opened the main compartment of his backpack. Next to the giant, silver egg that he had found on the way home from work two nights ago he had packed himself a small lunch. Hungrily, he pulled out the tin foil and devoured the peanut butter and jelly.

It was peaceful, at least.

Gin looked up, the half-crushed remains of peanut butter and jelly dripping out of his mouth and down his chin. Some kind of tall man...with a tail. Great. Well, this WAS Gaia, after all. There were stranger things.

Like that dog-thing. And the skull thing on his shoulder.

Wonderful.

He did a half-hearted wave back and continued to chew. If he was quiet, maybe they would move on...hopefully.

Gin swollowed and stared at the little thing that had jumped off the cat-like man...and...talked to him? Damnit, he cursed; he had almost been home free. He took another bite of his sandwich and looked up at its owner and the green dog-thing, both stopped in their tracks, the man holding an old map very similar to the one that he had.

That's strange. He shook it off.

"Don't you feed it?" he asked sarcastically, his mouth full. He looked back down at the skull thing--it wasn't going away.

Sighing, he ripped off a small piece of bread and threw it towards the small creature.

Gin started to smile a little bit at the newborn, but caught himself. He wasn't really a 'cute' kind of guy--babies made him a little uncomfortable, to be honest, and baby animals were really things that were reserved for nature documentaries that no one ever rented.

"I wasn't going to say anything," he said, turning his attention back to the green-dog-thing. "I know the difference between babies and adults, believe it or not." Then, mumbling under his breath, "...even if I don't have a million pets..."

He unfolded his map and did an eyeball-comparison. Same bad lines, same illegible print...damnitall. "Yeah. I assume you did too?" He grimaced. "This isn't one of those idiot quest things that pop up every once in a while, is it?" Gin was...not a fan of those.

"Well, at least there's that," Gin said, throwing his trash in a heap as he sat on his haunches. He needed the stretch. "I guess this must be a regular Gaian setting this up, not...a thing sponsored by the Gambinos or something."

He got up all the way this time, picking up his backpack and leaving the trash behind. "Do you know how to make sense of this damn thing? Where are we going?" He walked up to the tall cat-man...and felt a little intimidated. He was a LOT taller than him.

"Well, THAT'S helpful," he said, looking over the other man's map and twitchingly casting a glance upward. Who was this guy? What did he want? For all he knew, he could be a highwayman or one a murderer...or even a bot.

"What's your name?" he asked, quickly and nervously. At least he could get a name out of it if he was found later, bloody and beaten and robbed on the side of a road that saw a traveller once every few days.

Horror writers aren't the best optimists.

"Most people call me Gin," he said, trying to sound much more badass than he actually was. In actuallity, the isolation was starting to set in and he was becoming nervous. This guy may seem friendly...but so did most psychos.

The man leaned back a little bit, starting to put some distance between himself and Deet. "Space lord, huh? That's...kind of cool." He gripped his backpack tightly.

"Orion's Belt...awesome," Gin replied unenthusiastically, still walking backwards. Even if these guys were harmless (it was becoming more apparent as they talked that they were. Maybe a little crazy and creepy, but...) he had to protect himself. That, and his reputation.

Even among these strangers. ...yeah.

"Sooo...do you know what these eggs are?"