Shaky Claim - Open to (Psychic) Tourists

[Nakki]

Nicolai walked briskly down the wooden path, his shoes clacking lightly against the pine planks as he walked down to the lakeside. For once, he was not seen with his sister; he'd decided to let her sleep in a bit today before they announced themselves to camp. Besides, her absence gave him a nice option to explore a bit.

Of course, he was immediately attracted to the lake. He stepped onto the sand and surveyed the area, and then walked to the water's edge. Dipping a finger in, he murmured to himself, "Pretty warm, murky, sort of greenish-brown..." When he pulled his finger out again, its tip was covered in green algae from the shallow floor he'd just touched.

Nico smiled at the sight. "Perfect place."

Then he pulled off his shirt and sweater, as well as his shoes, socks, and pants, now wearing only what he'd put on first that morning: a pair of striped swim trunks. Balling up his clothes carefully and replacing his eye patch with a black bandanna he'd brought along, the young psychic gypsy walked out onto the pontoon and, without a second thought, dove deep into the murky water.

He opened his eye after a moment, using his hydrokinesis to make a bubble around it so no debris would get near it. He looked around, pleased with what he saw; a healthy lake, indeed, with many specimens of flora and fauna thriving in their watery home. Nico smiled to himself. He loved this lake, that was for sure.

Then, his one bright eye spotted something large and shiny down near the oddly deep lake bottom; too large to be just a chunk of psitanium. It turned out to be a huge bubble, partially constructed against a chunk of rock that must have been the small island with that diving machine on it.

Nico gazed down at it curiously, then quickly began to swim with short, strong strokes that took him deeper into the lake- and closer to the peculiar bubble.

[Zahzu]

"Oh, COME ON! NOT AGAIN!"
The girl's voice, naturally loud and harsh as it was, was all the more amplified in the little bubble of air as she stepped around a small rock and toward the source of her frustration. It was one of the many long, eel-like suckerfish that one would find at the bottom of Lake Oblongata, flopping around helplessly on the sandy floor of the dry oxygen pocket.
"I just put you back in! Do you like reverse-drowning or something?" Nikki said with an exasperated sigh, picking the fish up as gently as the rough girl could manage before quickly tossing it back into the wall of water nearby. Normally she was a bit more careful with the fish, but that one in particular- which she could apparently tell apart from all the other seemingly identical fish around- was extra stubborn.

She threw her arms up to quickly adjust her pigtails, giving each one a tug apart to make sure they were straight. Then, just as quickly, she dropped her hands down to position themselves on either hip, standing in her typical assured pose as she looked at the small space behind the rock. Upon her arrival, she always followed her same routine- starting around the back, she'd return any of the dying fish back there before working her way back to the larger area at the front of the rock. The spiral sort of motion just seemed like the quickest way- At least, that's how she saw it. Once the animals were in order, she'd climb up the bell tower and break to look at the fish above. Then the next time she had a chance, she'd have to repeat the process all over again... Not the most fun task, but she did it at times when there was nothing better to do. Plus, she didn't mind helping the fish, and watching them is one of the few things out there that calms her down.

With the back section done, she stepped out from behind the large rock tower and out into the large open space at the front of it. As soon as she was past the view-blocker that was the building, she quickly noticed the creature approaching the bubble. A groan rumbled from her throat, her first thought being that it was another idiot fish trying to see if they could do some sort of high-speed flying leap into the bubble and somehow get through it... If it was, she'd be sure to give them an extra stern throw back in... As the creature grew closer, though, it clearly wasn't another of the fish- At least, not any type of fish she'd ever seen. No, it was far too big, and it's swimming involved far too much flapping. There was no way it could be a fish. It wasn't!
It was... A person? That seemed equally as unlikely- What kid in their right mind would even attempt swimming to such depths? Sure, Elton had tried it a few times, but he never made it more than 2 feet down before he'd start crying and have to get pulled back up. Of all the people she knew at camp, none of them were quite that stupid... None of the kids were strong enough, mentally or physically, either. Maybe it was just one of the teachers- After all, you'd have to be pretty much crazy to try such a thing. A teacher it was, then- But that brought a new problem. If it was a teacher, how was she going to talk her way out of getting in trouble for... Whatever she'd apparently done wrong this time?


[GGGGGFFFFFF... Well this is a lame first post. DX Guess I just haven't done any posting recently enough, haha... OH WELL, HOPEFULLY I GET BETTER AS IT GOES ON, FFFFFFF...]

[Nakki]

Nicolai was soon at the bubble's boundary, which he saw to be relatively thick and slightly mucilaginous. He rubbed at the surface as lightly as he could, and he made a disgusted expression when the slime on his finger wouldn't come off in the water. Of course it wouldn't dissolve, he thought to himself, rolling his eye as he tried to wipe the slime off. As his eye roved, it suddenly spotted something brightly colored through the brownish tea-stain bubble.

Nico leaned in a little closer in the water. It appeared to be a short girl who was messing around down there. He frowned and swam down, along the bubble's surface, towards the bottom of the lake bed where the bubble began. He pondered how to get through it before finally deciding to push through. Anyhow, that must be the way that the fish and crustaceans got in...

He broke into the bubble quickly, sopping wet with the exception of his eye, and gasping a little since he'd swam so deep. (The pressure down there was pretty terrible.) He took a few deep breaths, happy to find that the bubble's air supply was certainly fresh enough for him to breathe. Then, still standing near the bubble's wall, he began to shake his hair dry, much like a dog, while keeping his sharp eye on that girl that was down there with him.

[Zahzu]

As the mysterious being finally reached the border of the little air pocket, her suspicion in it being another person was confirmed. With the lungfish mucus warping the image a bit, she could still make out the unmistakable shape of a body, an arm reaching out to touch a finger to the bubble's lining, feet kicking in the water... It was definitely a person, not some sort of animal, which meant there was still a possibility of it being an angry teacher.

The figure began swimming downward while she merely stood where she was, still in a confident posture as she waited to see who in their right mind would want to come down here. From what she could see of them through the bubble, they really didn't look like any of the teachers... They were just a bit too small to look much like an adult, and more thin than most of the teachers... Smaller nose than Alistair, shorter hair than any of the women, and his hair was more pale than any of them anyway... More than anything, the boy actually looked kind of like-...
"No, there's no way..! What'd posses him to try swimming down here?"

Now she was worried. Her confident posture dropped a bit as she watched him swim, worried that maybe he'd need help getting in. She was excited at the thought of seeing him, especially down here in her favorite spot at camp, but even so she couldn't help but wonder how or why her usually tired and cautious Eddie would've tried swimming down here like this.
Nikki was relieved to see that her presumed Eddie had safely made it inside the bubble and she moved quickly toward him.
"Eddie! Eddie, what're yo-" she began to call, but soon cut herself off as her pace slowed- His hair, which she'd thought was blue-tinted due to the water, was still blue even now that he was in the clear air... How she drew the conclusion in the first place is a mystery, given that the waters of Lake Oblongata were rather green and murky from the abundance of algae and scum.
Looking at him more closely, she found she couldn't recognize who the boy was. He did have a close resemblance to the one she'd mistaken him for, with a similar figure (which, even as a preteen, she still couldn't help but look at), hairstyle, and overall look about him... But the blue hair and more confident, even snarky look to his face set him apart. The odd covering on his face confused her a bit- Why'd he have that thing covering his eye up? What good would that do underwater? No matter- Whoever he was, she could at least deduct that he was probably crazy, given that he'd just dove down to the bottom of the nasty lake with half a blindfold on, and a crazy person probably wouldn't be much use to her.

She now came to a full stop a short distance from him, giving him an odd stare as he shook his hair off, then she spoke in a rather unhappy tone. "... Who the heck are you?" Nikki stated plainly, crossing her arms as she awaited his answer. That she'd gotten a weird stranger rather than her boyfriend was sure to leave anyone disappointed, something that was clear in the sound of her voice and the look on her face. The girl was usually quick to dislike a person for any given reason, and for her this disappointment was just enough to make her standoffish toward Nicolai.

[Nakki]

Nico looked up quickly when the girl began to shout. He frowned, realizing she had mistaken him for someone else and begun to call for that person. He stopped shaking his hair and began to wring it out, finding that the scummy water unwilling to get out of his hair, when she asked her question.

"How crude," the boy said to himself. He stopped wringing his hair for a moment and stood up straight, resting a hand on his hip and looking down at the short girl with a look of slight disdain. "If you must know, I am Nicolai Galochio. I'm new here."
The teen looked Nikki over with disinterest, noting her long scarf and the angry expression on her face. There was nothing really special about her; though he could tell she was disappointed, for some reason. Nico was disappointed as well; he'd been hoping to find that the bubble was deserted and use it as a secret place to go to when he was distressed. He'd also been wondering how sounds from say, a mandolin would resonate in this odd bubble when the girl interrupted him.

"May I inquire as to who you are and... why you're hanging around in an underwater mucus bubble?" he asked boredly as he began to wring out his hair again, casting a glance at her every once in a while.

[Zahzu]

Nikki frowned quickly as she picked up the little comment the boy had made to himself, but as he continued into giving his introduction she was distracted away from getting mad. <i>"Galochio..? Why does that name sound so familiar..?" the girl pondered a moment, studying the blue-haired intruder with a rather intense focus as she tried to determine if she'd seen him before. No matter how much she looked him over, he really didn't look much like anyone she knew, other than Eddie of course... Unable to place where she may have heard the name, she shrugged the wondering off for now.

Only receiving minimal attention as Nicolai worked at wringing out his hair caused the pigtailed girl to frown once more- even though she'd most likely treat anyone else with the same lack of respect without thinking twice. Being on the other end of such treatment, though, was something she wasn't the least bit fond of. Arms still crossed, she replied with another short and simple answer. "I'm Nikki, and what's it to you?"
If this Nicolai was a newcomer to the camp, he didn't have a place to ask her what SHE was doing down there. I mean, sure it's weird for someone to be hanging out down at a place like this, but if the boy had just gone through the trouble of swimming all the way down then he wasn't really in a place to judge her- Least not in her eyes.

[Nakki]

Nico glanced at Nikki again as she asked her question. "I'd just like to know," he said simply, but then he perked up for some reason.

"Wait a minute," he said quickly, and his right hand strayed up to finger the bandanna over his face as his other eye's pupil contracted, almost becoming invisible and leaving only a golden iris. Unbenknownst to Nikki, Nico was having a quick vision. His eye became normal about a second later, and he blinked a bit to readjust his already bad vision.

"Never mind," the boy said, clearly unfazed by the event. "I just saw. But why a standoffish person like you would enjoy saving fish, I don't think I'll ever fathom..." He looked absently around the bubble now, noting everything around him.

[Zahzu]

During Nicolai's brief glimpse into the future, Nikki- whom was still staring at him with the same odd look and standing with the same displeased arms-crossed posture- had been pondering exactly what sort of tease to throw at him for his creepy staring. As he snapped back to the present time (unbeknownst to her) and suddenly came to her with one reason why she was down here, though, Nikki's frown only increased.

"Wha- 'EY! Don't go messing around in my head! What are you, like, a mind reader or something?" the girl said, unhappy tone resurfacing. She hadn't taken to true yelling or real anger, but her unhappiness had increased a bit- She didn't like the idea of someone messing around in her head. After a moment's pause, she decided it was best to just explain herself rather than make the boy explore any further, so with a more blank look she proceeded to tell Nico her reasoning.
"I like fish, and the dumb things keep trying to kill themselves... So what?" she answered simply. "Just because I'm standoffish to you doesn't mean I'm always like that."

[Nakki]

"No, I'm not a mind reader. I'm precognitive," Nicolai corrected her, sidestepping away from her and the bubble's edge to survey the area better. It was rather interesting; the freshwater coral down there seemed to have created great panels, and they were quite pretty, all in all.

"Yes, yes, I suppose you're not going to be standoffish all your life.... especially not when you're around that boy I saw..." Nico said, a teasing tone coming into his voice. In all actuality, Nico hadn't seen anything pertaining to such a thing, but he knew a person who would take teasing badly when he saw one.

Frankly, he was ignoring his better instincts in doing so, but he wanted to see what would happen when this girl snapped.

[Zahzu]

Once again, Nikki had been dismissed by the boy as he walked away from her, his attention now focused on the sights of the underwater bubble. She did kinda get his fascination, since the scenery down there was rather interesting and fairly pretty.. Even so, she was still more interested in the fish than the structures, and she still didn't accept that as an excuse for his blowing her off while she was trying to aggressively confront him. [.... Lol. She's a twerp.] Then again, there weren't many excuses Nikki would accept when she'd been disrespected.

Catching the teasing sway in his tone of voice as he spoke just tacked on another good deal of confusion and annoyance to her mental cooking pot of frustration. With her short temper, it wouldn't take much more for her anger to boil over.
"A boy? What're you talking about, kid?" she thought for a moment, noting that the only 2 guys she had much to do with were Bobby and... "Wait, you mean Eddie..? I swear, if you start making boyfriend cracks... I get enough of that from Bobby."

That she hadn't gone off on him already was surprising. Even though he honestly hadn't done very much to her, it normally took but the smallest things to snap her. Whether or not she'd ever admit it, she was probably holding back on him because of the thought he could possibly be a tolerable person. I mean, he'd just swam a far distance to enter a mucus bubble at the bottom of a scum-filled lake- He at least liked water, which is the home of fish, and by extension an interest they shared. He couldn't be all bad... At least, in theory.

[Nakki]

"Ah, don't worry, I won't," Nico replied with a small wave of his hand, brushing her off yet again so that he could get on with his examination of the air bubble. The reason for his ignoring Nikki was simply the surroundings; never before had he heard of an underwater bubble.... or freshwater coral, for that matter.

He knelt down to look at a few small branches of it and smiled to himself. Then he looked up at Nikki and asked: "How did you find out about this place? How did it get made? What, exactly, made it?"