Welcome to Gaia! ::

Her green eyes were huge as she took in everything around her, walking hand-in-hand with her older sister, Alanna. To say she was nervous would have been an understatement, her world being literally turned upside down in a year. And then to be swept away to somewhere completely new and different that wasn't home, far from the lands she knew and people she was going to be meeting for the first time. And that thing... That thing that randomly appeared when she was scared the most, it flashed beside her even now. "I don't know about this."

Annabelle had decided to take a walk around the grounds during this afternoon. She had spent the morning tidying up her room and getting everything just the way she liked it. She knew it would get messy later but she liked to at least know where everything started. Once outside she spotted the tents around the fountain. It was a rather pretty fountain and Annabelle could think of no reason not to investigate.

Well arent we the brave little one today

She could hear her Daemon Iñaki whisper to her. He was currently floating around her shoulder and shifting mainly between bird and kangaroo rat. She thought she could sense some dog in the blob at te moment but seeing as he was trying to stay small and be on her shoulder she assumed he was surpressing the other forms for the moment. She was starting to recognize the forms that Iñaki could take even though she still hadnt sat down and written them out yet. She arrived at the fountain and saw that there were others already there. "Well looks like I get to play the part of social butterfly today" she half laughed at Iñaki as she debated on who to approach first.

Ha, you, social?! I would have never thought you would actually enjoy yourself, and at school? Oh my!

Iñaki spoke in a half laughing half mocking tone. Annie had been so dead set on not liking school that he was glad she was at least trying to have fun right now. He looked around happily noting that others in the school seemed to have daemons too! He stayed on Annies shoulder for the moment but he was itching to get closer to someone else's daemon and see what forms they had. He wanted to show off all the forms he could take.

Annabelle was a bit surprised to be approached so quickly by someone. She had intended to do the aproaching, but this girl seemed plesant enough. By the look of her she was a sailor, or at least had been at one point. Annabelle had to admit the hat gae it away, but she had been trained by those endles sparlor parties to look for subtle clues and she noted the way this girl spoke and held herself. Definately a sailor. And that meant she was good company! Annabelle had been so worried that she would only meet upstarts and snobs at this place but at least one other hard working soul would be all she needed if it came to that. She stood up and offered her hand. "Why hello Eglantine, I'm Annabelle. I cant say I've ever played badminton before but I'm a quick study."

Annabelle smiled warmly and winked as she finished speaking giving a small laugh. She was generally quick at picking things up and she had seen the game played a few times at her Grandparents house, she had just never played it herself. A quick movement caught her perefrial vision and a flash of something.....with tentacles? She tried to focus on it and is dissapeared just like her newly beloved Iñaki. She gave the girl a knowing smile "Oh no dont tell me your plauged by one of those little puff balls too?" She asked teasingly. She loved Iñaki but she had to admit he could be a nuisance when he wanted to be.


Iñaki had taken little care to glance at the girl coming, all his attention was on her daemon as he tried to see what it was. An odd mix if he'd ever seen one. Though he had to admit he hadnt seen any other. He puffed up a bit at the mention of being a puff ball and if he would have been a little further manifested would have probably bitten Annabelle for being so mean to him. But as it was all he could do was make a resolve to pester her later. Being a young Daemon he couldnt really tell much about this new girl from her Daemon but he did want to have a little fun. He flapped his wings and gave the newcomer a toothy grin.

The crowds of enthusiastic students swarmed around the lone girl, sitting on the fountain's stone walls. She was not particularly tall, only a few inches above five feet. She wasn't too skinny or plump; much of her weight was muscle. Her neck was a little long and her eyes a little short, and her dirty-blonde hair had the slightest wave to it. Her skirt was a medium length, her top short-sleeved. She looked around the courtyard with somewhat bored blue-gray eyes, much of her attention clearly on the football game, though she darted glances at the badminton courts. Really, she had no idea why she'd come to the extravaganza.

"You came because I said it would be good for you, Caitlin."

There he was, her daemon. She could always hear him inside her head, but lately she'd been hearing a faint whisper on the outside, as if he had a normal voice in her mind and a quiet one in the real world. She could sense he was there, sitting next to her, and out of the corner of her eye she could see a golden-yellow color with deep brown spots: ocelot. She guessed he was in that form simply because she was acting like an ocelot: small, nervous, and solitary.

Really, she had to agree with him. Both her choice of a skirt and her jaunt down here had been his idea. "'Get to know your fellow classmates,' he said," she mocked. "'It'll be fun,' he said." She sighed. "I think you were wrong. I don't know anyone here, and it would be weird to just join in on anything. They'd wonder who this crazy girl was." Over in the football game, one team scored a goal; the members jumped up, high-fiving each other. "Plus, I am not good at football. Not at all. I know they don't want me to join in, I just know."

She sensed her daemon turn towards her. "There are other things besides football, Cait. Badminton, for one. You like it; you're good, as well. You can go learn what classes you can take here. There's the band, too; you like music. And maybe you can just wander around, sampling the refreshments. I see that Headmaster Haylen has set up a special area; perhaps he will give a speech. There are many things to do, Caitlin. I suggest you go and at least try to be social." She turned to look at him, and for one split second, she saw two solid amber eyes in a small spotted face. Then it disappeared, becoming largely transparent and indistinct.

"Fine," she grumbled. "I'll go." She felt Cayne nod and smile as she stood and headed into the crowd, aiming for the lessons tent. She felt Cayne's shape change and saw a flash of a large, gray creature from the corner of her eye, walking beside her: a wolf, showing her new, somewhat social self. He followed as best he could, sometimes behind, sometimes beside, occasionally nearly passing through someone else, often touching his nose or paw to Caitlin if she had second thoughts of her decision.

"Annie it is then, Annie and Iñaki. Easy enough to remember; it rhymes!" Sang chuckled a little, thinking of her confusing long name and her daemon's lack of a real name. In an odd way, they almost went together. She was going to talk again, but her daemon poked at her mind, rather urgently. I don't think I can reply to her daemon yet; I'm... not entirely sure how to do it, Sang. Could you tell him of my various forms? The octothing smiled back at the other daemon; he was quite frustrated. After all, he could sense Iñaki's charm and kind nature, but he couldn't respond with anything other than very vague visual cues. He continued to buzz in Sang's ear until she spoke to the other on his behalf. Turning to the ball of magika accompanying the other girl, Sang dipped her head and spoke to him. "Pieuvre says you'll have to forgive him; he's not very old, and isn't quite good at speaking to other daemons yet. But he says, yes, he's an octopus some of the time, and a seagull sometimes, and sometimes other things. I'm not even sure he knows what he is yet. That, or he's just messin' with my head- he does that sometimes, y'see. I think it's his idea of a game to not tell me his name. Pieuvre just means octopus in Frankophone." She shrugged casually, rolling her shoulders as if to both correct her balance and express her resignation towards the situation. "I suppose he'll tell me his real name someday, or I'll make something up out of frustration, but for now, it's just our game that we play. And right now, I'm still trying to figure out all the shapes he takes; I know that one's a strange fish I've never before seen, and there's some things that I'm not quite sure what they are. I don't even know how he got the ideas for those shapes, but I'll find out eventually- I suppose that's what we're here for after all, to learn about how these things work, as well as our academic subjects."