Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aide dragged her heavy dufflebag down the camp path, despite the fact that her father had offered to carry it. In fact, he had been a bit definite in his own way, as she was also manhandling Yog's cage, and nearly falling over from every step. But as usual, she had paid no attention to her parents who were quickly intercepted by counsellors anyway. Adults doing adult things. She had slipped between them and down the path, intent on finding where she would stay. Keeping the simple map she had seen of the camp grounds fixed in her head, she soon arrived at the end of the short trail. Stopping infront of the first building, and reading the sign, 'Oak Cabin 1' she carelessly dropped her bag and stepped inside, carrying Yog's cage in both hands. They said camper's names would be written in front of their beds, so Aide'd just go in and see. And if not, no big, she'd just check the next one.

Aide looked over at the sound of a nervous voice coming from one of the bunks, and took in the kid standing there. He seemed shrimpy and nervous, from a first glance. Unimpressed, she approached Zajac, Yog bumping gently around in her cage. "Hey. Where are the names written? I wanna find my bed." She followed the boy's gaze to her pet's cage. "If I don't get unpacked soon, she'll get hungry." The last word was emphasized a little, and underlined with a mischievous and slightly threatening grin. That should cut off any comment the boy might be getting ready to shoot off about her pet. Aide swore to herself that if she heard one more slightly snide remark about how snakes weren't cute, she'd throw something at the commentator.

Aide had turned around to face the end of the bed as the boy begun spoke, then spun back as he trailed off. "So? How do you know I'm not a boy, huh? I could be." She looked the smaller kid up and down. "And you're wearing a girl's hoodie." Putting Yog's cage down on the floor, she stretched her arms a few times. The snake was light enough to pick up on it's own, but the cage itself was heavy, especially for a small child. "Where are the girls cabins, then? Huh?" Bending to pick the cage up again, she started to walk back towards the front of the cabin, expecting Zajac to come with her. They were having a conversation, so it made sense that he'd stay around to keep his end up.

"Um um um - " Mimmicing the boy, Aide spun around in the door to face him. Inwardly, she scoffed. Some little shy kid, bor-ing! Hopefully he'd be better at lifting than he was at talking. Hefting up the cage once more, as it was starting to slip out of her fingers, she jerked her head towards the sunlight and fresh air behind her. "Help me carry my stuff then. Boys are supposed to help girls." Turning her head slightly, she looked at the name written at the bottom of his bed. "Sah......jack, right??? Is that your last name or something? Why aren't you introducing yourself? Didn't your parents teach you manners?" Believe it or not, this was Aide being friendly. Looking back to the boy, she gave another predatory grin. "C'mon Um, you're supposed to go outside at summer camp. That's like, half the point. Stop lurking around indoors!"

"Well actually, learning can be done through physical activity. So." Aide didn't actually have much of an idea how you did this, having only picked it up listening in on one of her parent's discussions. Something about muscle memory? Whatever that meant. Putting Yog down, she threw a bag over her shoulder, picking up the cage again. She wasn't past asking for, or demanding help, but she pulled her weight as well. Looking up sharply at the last question, her eyes dug into the boy, trying to see if he actually cared about Yog's name, or was just being polite.

"I'm Aide. Eyy-dee. D'you like snakes?" It wasn't a full answer, but she had never actually told any other kid about her pet before summer camp, and her defences were up and bristling. What if she was going to have to explain what the name meant? She guessed it would just frighten him more, so there wasn't much worry there. "It's Yog-Sothoth, Yog to her friends. She doesn't have any enemies." Straightening up, she looked around for the nearest cabin. "Let's try that one!"

Aide's eye roll at the boy's reply to her snake was all too obvious. Who in their right mind would be scared of Yog? Little babies, that's who. She bet he liked dogs. When they were a million times more dangerous than any snake. Could a snake bite your hand off? No. Could a dog? Yes. Dogs were more dangerous. Case closed.

"So why are you here? Did you make a kid's body turn inside out and then explode?" She wasn't sure if that was even possible, but hey! Maybe it was. If not, maybe he'd think that's why -she- was here. Either way, it was a win-win question. Leading the way up the path, she waited 'patiently' for his reply.

Taking refuge in the truth, Aide gave a big exaggerated shrug and gave Zajac a sly, knowing smile. "I'm not allowed to talk about why I'm here." Her parents and teachers had made her promise to not repeat what she had learned. "I have seen some things, though." Well, picked up thoughts and memories. She still technically wasn't lying. Stopping in her tracks, and nearly dropping Yog's cage, Aide resisted the urge to jump and point. "Hey! There's the lake!" Pausing for a few minutes to admire it and let him catch up, she gave it a critical inspection. "Can you swim good, Um?" She grinned around at him. "I can. I hope we get to swim there. I hear the fish are as big as your arm!" Ok, that was definitely a lie. But it was just making things exciting, so there was nothing really bad about it.

Aide rolled her eyes at the question. Of course the fish had powers! "Haven't you even read anything in the camp pamphlet?? This place has been a psychic hotspot for like - a billion years. I bet even the worms here have psychic powers."

Aide had read the pamphlet. And had gone with her mother to the library, where they had read old news articles about Whispering Pines, mostly from 'crackpot' magazines full of stories about aliens and bigfoot. Aide had also been given a large stack of True Psychic Tales, and had sat and read them with her father late into the evening. She had ate up every word of every minute, and felt quite prepared now to give Zajac the lecture of his life.

"There's all these arrowheads right, that the native people around here made. They're ... magic .... kinda ... ? But like, this special magic moon rock - they give everyone powers. Animals too. That's why our camp is here, cuz this is where the arrowheads come from. Even if your powers were lame and weak back where you came from, andtheyprobablywere, here they'll be way stronger and easier to use. So we can practice with them without kids brains exploding from concentrating too hard."

Taking a breath, and about to continue on, Aide paused, distracted by the mental image of a bunch of kids exploding. She wasn't really sure if that's what happened, but it sounded cool.