The first day of the camp was, as expected, mostly orientation. There was a tour, and each camper was assigned a bed in one of the two cabins; one for boys and another for the girls. Everyone was instructed to refer to the insane Agent Cruller as ‘Mr. Park Ranger’, ‘Mr. Cook’, ‘Mr. Janitor’, or whatever other role he was aping at the time.
Despite theoretically being a child for the third time, Tanya wasn’t entirely familiar with how a summer camp was supposed to go. But orientation meetings were something long familiar, and this hit most of the right spots. This was where you slept, this was where you ate, this was where the bathrooms were. After some lunch, everyone was back in the fire circle, decorated with seven torches each carved with the images of the famous founders of the Psychonauts, the Psychic… Six? Wait.
“Now, any questions?” Miss Milla asked the collected children as Tanya examined the posts. Otto Mentalis… Helmut Fullbear… Cassie O’Peia…
Samantha Boole, one of the other children that Tanya already heard of, by virtue of her also living in the on-site housing as the grandchild of Agent Boole, spoke up first: “Hey, what’s the policy on animals, here? I already made a new friend here, say hi Clancy!” From the ten year old’s hair, a squirrel popped out, chittering. “Clancy says hi.” Samantha added.
Miss Milla stopped smiling for a moment, as she digested the question. Fortunately, despite how slapdash the Psychonauts usually were in most things, they did hire a consultant on how to create one, and thus they had a rulebook to fall back on. “Oh, your little friends will have to sleep in their homes, and you shouldn’t be feeding them, either. Human food won’t be good for them.” Milla said, her smile returning as she successfully translated sensible policy into something a child would accept. “Do you understand, Samantha?”
“Just Sam, please.” The girl responded.
“Sam, then.” Miss Milla responded easily, her smile increasing in size.
The ten year old girl smiled back toothily. “No feeding the animals and keep them out of the cabins, got it.” Ah, Miss Boole was a sharp one.
Tanya continued to examine the torches. That damaged one… There wasn’t a name as the top was broken off, but none of the others were labeled Ford Cruller and there was a resemblance. Bob Zanotto’s portrait was sober, and thus unrecognizable, but Agent Boole’s portrait was a dead ringer. Ignoring the fact that one of the torches was broken despite everything in the camp having been just built, as this was the inaugural class, as it were, the only question was… “Who is Lucretia Mux?” Tanya asked out loud.
Milla startled at the question. “Ah… who?” She asked, clearly unsure as well. After a moment of examining the same torch Tanya did, she giggled. “I never noticed this before… I’ll have to look into that, Tanya. These were carved by Mr. Park Ranger, so for now, it’ll be Camp Whispering Rock’s first mystery!” At the word ‘mystery’, the flagging attention spans of the collected children were instantly seized. That explanation explained an unsettling amount about Agent Cruller’s mental state. “Any other questions?” She pointed to the nine year old girl, one of the twins: “Yes, Norma?”
Norma adjusted her glasses. “I heard the other side of the lake has an insane asylum, filled with the incurably insane.” Bah, typical scary story fodder, no one would dare put a summer camp next to a sanitarium.
“Norma, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Miss Milla said, scolding the fear mongering child. “There’s no such thing as incurably insane. No one is beyond help.” What. “The patients at Thorney Towers are just sick people in need of care and attention, and they’re getting it.” Tanya gaped at yet another layer to the horrible decision making of Grand Head Zanotto. Making the summer camp that acted as Agent Cruller’s asylum be next to an actual asylum does make a level of sense, but he must have partaken of his uncle’s infamous gubiduck if he thought it was in the same hemisphere of a good idea to let children near it.
Actual children, to clarify. Tanya could handle herself just fine against any mental patients. Psychic powers were fairly intuitive to master, although Miss Milla did insist that Tanya stay away from astral projection, the primary method of entering the minds of others and the Psychonaut’s primary stock in trade, but the tools of psychic violence were easy enough to use.
“Ma’am.” The dark-skinned British boy asked. “I saw a floating bear during the tour. Is that normal?” Unfortunately, yes.
“Oh, don’t worry about the psychic wildlife, Adam.” Miss Milla said, placatingly. “They’re more scared of you than you are of them, and a quick PSI blast will ward them off if they start sniffing around.”
“Or burn them!” Added the young Lily Zanotto. “Fire fix it!” Tanya made a mental note to keep a close eye on the three year old. The girl’s mother was usually pretty on top of the fires the toddler’s developing pyrokinesis (and pyromania) created, but now that responsibility has fallen on the responsible ones present.
“Until the time comes when you have mastered the PSI blast, “ Tanya added. “It would be prudent to stay near the structures, or in the company of Miss Milla or myself.”
“On that note,” Miss Milla said, changing the subject. “We should each introduce ourselves. Please say your name, your age, something interesting about yourself, and any psychic abilities you can already use. Don’t feel bad if you can’t manage anything reliably yet, for many of you this will be your first chance to learn from other psychics, after all. Tanya, if you could start us off?”
Tanya resisted the impulse to sigh, but stood up and followed instructions. “My name is Tanya Dosva. I am twelve years old, and my psychic specialties are Shield and Levitation. I am nonetheless capable of PSI Blast, Pyrokinesis, Psychokinesis, Hydrokinesis, and Cryokinesis.” The first half of that list was as simple as remembering her time as an Aerial Mage, but the rest was just a matter of there being very little to do except practice psychic abilities, as the entertainment options for children were dreadfully boring. In all of their lives, Tanya was never a person to shy away from hard work, after all. Unfortunately, the necessity of constantly needing to shield her thoughts from the psychic spies did make it difficult to work on the less material psychic powers, like Telepathy, Archetype, and Clairvoyance. At an expectant look from Miss Milla, Tanya scrambled to think of something to say that she liked: “I like learning languages.” Two languages in the first life, four more in the second, and four more in this life made an even ten. Yes, that will do. Yawning as she sat down, Tanya wondered if she could fit in a nap soon.
“Thank you, Tanya.” Miss Milla said. “Now, let’s go left to right. Lily? You’re next.”
The tiny girl shot upwards, excited to be the center of attention. She wore her short red hair in pigtails, and wore a cute dress rather than something one would wish to be in the wilderness in. “My name is Lily Zanotto! My dad’s the Grand Head, and I’m three years old!” She spoke with a bit of a lisp, but with an eloquence beyond her age. Picking up languages faster was supposedly a symptom of having a psychic child, which was quite convenient when people questioned why Tanya knew as many languages as she did. Such things were also one of the few study subjects that were acceptable for a young girl in the Motherlobe. “I can burn things, and read minds!” With her introduction complete, she sat back down.
Without waiting for Miss Milla’s prompt, Samantha stood up, as the ones who lived in the staff apartments had naturally clustered together around on the log benches. “Howdy. I’m Sam, and this guy here.” Sam tapped Agent Boole’s torch. “Is my grandpa. I can talk to animals, naturally.” Snorting at her own pun, she then looked annoyed and glared at a nearby bird. “No one asked you, Steve!” Turning back, she continued. “I’m ten, by the way.”
Moving away from the ‘related to a current Psychonaut’ crowd, the next kid in line was the British boy. “Well, I’m Adam. Adam Joseph Gette. Eleven years old.” He took out a yo-yo, performing a psychically-assisted trick that created a vaguely brain-shaped design out of the string. “My speciality is Psychokinesis, naturally.” He tipped his straw hat at the group. “Don’t go thinking I’m hopeless beyond that, I can do a little bit of everything. For example, for those who don’t have talent in Zoolingualism, Steve over there asked if Sam was capable of listening to animals. Quite a good joke there, Steve!” He gave what he probably thought was a rakish grin and a thumbs up to Tanya.
Oh. Tanya supposed it was time to start being concerned about her nominal peers attempting romantic overtures. How to best discourage this? Ah. Tanya rolled her eyes and scoffed, putting as much derision as possible in those simple movements. From how wooden Adam’s smile became before he sat down, it seemed to be effective.
Two of the girls stood up at the same time, but the larger one placed her hand on the other’s head and shoved her down. “I’m Lizzie Natividad, and this is my little sister Norma. I’m ten, she’s nine. I’m good at ice, she’s good at fire. Anyone mess with her and I’ll freeze off your favorite toe.” She pulled a hand through her straight hair, getting it out of her face. “Finger too, if you break her glasses.” Tanya nodded seriously. Glasses were a big deal, when you’re young.
Norma waved off her sister’s hands, adjusting her glasses and brushing her hand through her curly hair to fix it after Lizzie’s interference. “I can take care of myself, thank you. We’ve both learned how to astrally project already, so if you have any questions, I’m sure I can answer them. If not, you’re just talentless.” Now that was interesting. Miss Milla always said that was one of the more dangerous powers to use.
“Thank you, Lizzie and Norma.” Miss Milla said, exasperated at the threats they issued. “No psychic is good at everything, and astral projection in particular is very difficult to do safely. We’ll not be doing any of that without safety equipment.” Oh? Tanya’s never had a chance to see astral projection in action, is there some technology that Agent Mentalis has invented that makes the process easier? That… changes quite a bit, when it comes to letting children learn it.
The next child was a small boy in a wheelchair, his body wasted away from some kind of developmental disorder. “Name’s Morris Martinez, I’m eight. I can move my chair a bit with Psychokinesis, but I’d really like to learn Levitation, and be able to move just as well as anyone else. I like music.” He seemed fairly nervous, but at the mention of music, his energy raised to match any other young child.
The second to last child was overflowing with confidence, immediately standing up and striking a pose. “The name is Gisu Nerumen, and I like to party!” Two psychokinetic orbs appeared below her feet, allowing her to glide across the ground as she made a circuit around the fire. “That’s… pretty much all I can do right now, but I found some psitanium on the ground during the tour, and give me a day or two with that and I can show you something really cool!” Why on earth would psitanium, the psychically sensitive rock vital in the use of psychic compatible technology, just be sitting on the ground? But she was showing the arrowhead-shaped purple rock off in her hand, so it was clearly real. After Miss Milla cleared her throat, Gisu hastily added: “Ah, I’m eleven.”
The final child was also a girl, with a passing resemblance to the Bloody Valkyrie. Odd, but it’s not a big deal. “Ah, My name is May Daye, but I… don’t like that name. Call me Mary, please.” Still not a big deal. “I’m twe- six! Six years old.” She kept stealing glances at Tanya, but continued: “I can use blasts, punch hard, and fly… and I’m not crazy! God sent me here for a reason, and…” She looked at Tanya again. “I’ll make sure all of you are safe.” Was this a plot by Being X? It was a strange one, if so.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Why would that incompetent put that fanatic in front of Tanya six years younger than them? Did they think that she would hesitate to kill a child? If Mary took up arms against Tanya once more… She would die.
Just like the last time.
---------------------------
On the second day, after the return of nightmares oriented around the second-most difficult battle of the Great War and an unpleasantly greasy breakfast, Miss Milla introduced everyone to the other counselor, who had been busy with other 'critical Psychonauts matters'. Given the number and labels of the boxes he arrived with, those matters were apparently logistical in nature. Do not trust in God, when you could instead trust in Paper.
Tanya was quite familiar with Sasha Nein, at this point. As Miss Milla's adopted daughter, of course she had met and interacted with Miss Milla’s boyfriend. Apparently, it was basically impossible to conceal romantic feelings for someone when you frequently telepathically link with someone, as the psychic connection frequently contaminates with empathic subchannels that are as blatant a signal as can be. Tanya doesn’t really use telepathic links, so she wouldn’t know.
"As Agent Vodello has told you, the primary task before you at Camp Whispering Rock is to master your psychic abilities, bringing them under your complete control." Agent Nein said after introductions were completed. "Only then can you be able to be considered for admittance into the Psychonauts organization."
Miss Milla floated upwards above the pillow she was sitting on. "Today, we'll start with the most exciting: Astral Projection!" Already?
"Yes." Agent Nein said. Her psychic shielding was intact, so it was probably a coincidence. "Previously, Astral Projection was considered an advanced technique, not due to difficulty but instead due to the dangers of being trapped within someone else's mind. But that is in the past." Agent Nein pulled out a small handheld door, painted in a checkerboard pattern. "This is a Psychoportal. It will create a safe and stable passage into someone's mind, and critically, it will keep it open." The possibilities… Tanya’s mind raced to think up excuses to avoid having that be placed on her own head. "Removing yourself is as simple as receiving a blunt sensory shock, either to your real body or your astral one. As such, each of you will be given some smelling salts." From the case he had, several wooden canisters were telekinetically lifted and delivered to the collected children. "One whiff of these and you will return to your body in an instant."
As expected of children, Morris immediately opened it up by twisting it in the middle and gave it a sniff, contorting his face in pain and disgust.
"Don't do that." Agent Nein scolded lightly. "Now, everyone will begin by entering my mind. I have prepared a small obstacle course to get all of you used to moving inside of a mind." He placed the door on his forehead, and it stayed affixed without any visible support. He tapped the doorknob, and it opened to reveal a swirling black and white vortex. “Relax, and reach out towards the vortex. Focus your senses into the depths until nothing else is apparent. The first time is always the most difficult.”
Norma and Lizzie, true to their claims of already knowing how to astrally project, each sent a white apparition which got sucked into the door, it closing behind them before Agent Nein opened it up once more. “Come now, it’s somewhat similar to sending a mental message, if any of you know how to do that. Do that while also listening to my thoughts and that should do it.” Over the next few moments, more and more of the children sent their own astral forms into the door.
Tanya continued to stare at the hypnotically swirling portal, but still remained steadfastly in place, astrally. When the last other child, Lily, successfully projected themselves into Agent Nein’s head, Miss Milla approached Tanya.
“Tanya, your shield is interfering with your projection.” She said in admonishment.
Tanya continued to stare at the portal, willing herself inside. Once more, nothing.
Agent Nein hummed. “If you wish to use multiple psychic powers at once, you need to create a paradigm when using them that doesn’t interfere. If you’re familiar with devices that do roughly what you want, that can be quite helpful.” After a beat, he continued. “Perhaps if you mentally projected your shield, with you inside, outwards, you could leave your body without leaving yourself vulnerable.”
Well, it was worth a shot. Tanya took the threads of mana/psychic power she wove around themselves for their passive mage shell, or the psychic equivalent of it, and, while deliberately not moving a single muscle, pushed that power forwards.
“Now you’ve got it!” Miss Milla said happily as the portal loomed larger in Tanya’s perspective.
So she’s behind the children in this skill. Tanya thought that she should feel indignant at that, but it wasn’t a big deal, not really. She forged onward.
----------------------
“Here she is.” Agent Nein announced when they were inside of his mind. The environment was strange and fantastical, but oddly… soothing. It was a single large structure floating in space, and while it was folded out into, as promised, an obstacle course made of white stone, it was to an attentive viewer clearly folded out, deliberately exposed rather than just hanging out everywhere. “Now, every mind is different, as you will see when you enter Agent Vodello’s mind later. As you can see, mine is under my complete control.” He stepped on the ground, depressing some pressure plate that probably wasn’t even there until he wanted it to be.
The white blocks started to move slowly, arranging into ladders, walkways, small chasms, and… rails? “Now, all of you should get used to how your astral body both does and does not resemble your flesh body. In the mind, both that of yourself and of others, you do not grow tired from physical activity. Climb that ladder as fast as you can, and you will not be out of breath. Run along those walkways, jump over those obstacles, climb… You will be ready for more.”
The children did not need any further prompting, as they all eagerly started to get on the mental playground Agent Nein constructed for them. Even Morris was able to move his wheelchair easily, a psychic hand pushing him along.
As Tanya watched the children play alongside Agent Nein, he lit up a cigarette, which somehow didn’t carry even a hint of the scent to Tanya’s nose. He knew Tanya disliked the smoke, was that on purpose? “I suppose you’re too mature for this kind of thing, eh?” He said, faintly amused.
“No.” Tanya said in German, which earned them a long drawn out sigh from Agent Nein. Continuing in German for plausible deniability, Tanya continued. “I’m well acquainted with using psychic power to move about and to increase my strength and endurance.” The technique was usually called Psychic Fist, but Tanya just called it psychic reinforcement and was done with it.
“I suppose you do.” Agent Nein conceded. “You don’t need to actually do anything but stay in here for the most important part of this exercise.”
“Which is?” Tanya asked. What could it be? Was there something happening to her unconscious body?
Agent Nein chuckled. “Make sure that all of you don’t have any bad reactions to astral projection. Even when dealing with classes of adults, you usually get at least one that has an embarrassing if not dangerous reaction their first time outside their body.” What kind of embarrassing reaction could be from… Ah. Tanya had assumed that box was for Lili, or just as a standard precaution for dealing with children. “Seeing how everyone is still here, clearly no one had an extreme reaction. Now it’s just a matter of allowing Agent Vodello time to resolve any more minor adverse reactions.” The way he said it, Tanya could almost imagine he was talking about the necessity of proper documentation rather than potentially embarrassing events in the outside world. “Usually we have nursing staff on hand for this part, but Agent Vodello assured me she could handle it.” Thinking back to the group home… that checks out. She has experience in cleaning up children.
The playground that Agent Nein had constructed did not appear terribly safe, even if gravitational effects prevented anyone from falling into the void. Tanya noted that most of them had taken a painful looking fall by now, even Mary, who was either a strange child, taking the opportunity to enjoy childhood, or putting in work to establish her cover as an actual child.
When Gisu launched herself off a rail, overshooting the adjacent one and taking a nasty spill onto what appeared to be a giant alphabet block… wait, was the appearance of the place changing? Many of the obstacles had taken appearances suited to things you’d put in a nursery rather than the sterile white blocks from before. “Noticed that, did you?” Agent Nein said, making Tanya once more check her psychic shields. “Minds aren’t as static as we’d sometimes like them to be, Tanya. Seeing children play would of course make me reflect upon my own childhood, and those memories will affect the environment of my mind. I didn’t have many toys when I was their age, except the ones I had from when I was even younger. As a result, thinking about children will bring up images of blocks, cribs, and mobiles. As you can see.”
Tanya looked at the environment, trying to spot the point when something changes. Wait. “What are those flickering wisps of color the children are chasing to collect?”
“Those are figments of imagination.” Agent Nein responded, comfortable in the role of lecturer in a way that he wasn’t when he was explaining the intricacies of his own mind. “Little bits of thought that are formed from stray memories as they’re remembered, or ideas as they’re conceptualized. Examining their shape can give you insight into someone’s thoughts and memories, which can be useful when delving into the minds of people you don’t know much about, as subconscious or forgotten thoughts still produce figments. Touching them with your astral form is like a little psychic pick-me-up, as the psychic energy replenishes what you’ve spent so far.” He waved the hand he held his cigarette in, and in front of Tanya formed what appeared to be a crude drawing of a tacky lamp, like it was drawn with colored chalk, but floating in mid-air. “Touch it.”
Tanya obeyed instructions, and the figment became liquid as it sucked itself into Tanya’s hand, and a minor rush of energy suffused Tanya’s form, like a drink of water when they weren’t entirely sure if they were thirsty or not. “Figments are a natural byproduct of thought, collecting them doesn’t harm anyone.” Agent Nein said as an afterthought. “Psychics can more easily reshape their own thoughts like this than a baseline mind, but there’s no such thing as someone with zero psychic power. What we think of as baseline is merely one with their power turned completely inward, unable to affect anything outside of their mind and body with their thoughts. As such, once you’re inside of a mind, there’s not much difference between a psychic’s mind and a baselines, when it comes to danger. Some nominally baseline minds can be freakishly talented in defending themselves from mental attack, and troubled minds of both kinds are significantly more dangerous than those of stable mentalities.”
“I understand.” Tanya said. She had no intention of becoming a Psychonaut, so it was more useless trivia rather than anything actually important, but there was never anything wrong with learning a skill that would help keep themselves safe, even if they had no intention of entering a violent lifestyle.
Agent Nein continued his lecture. “Figments are the least of the various conglomerations of psychic energy that can be gathered to improve a psychic’s endurance and attunement to the minds they travel to.” Oh? This sounded useful. “Emotional baggage can be resolved by drawing and reinforcing logical strands of thought, using a strong positive thought that correlates with the negative thoughts and uniting them with a clear connection. This resolution releases an order of magnitude more psychic energy to the Psychonaut, and core life lessons in a mind can accumulate massive amounts of psychic energy, coalescing into a nugget of wisdom.” It was sounding more and more like the job of a psychonaut is to leech psychic energy out of minds they travel into. Does that help people? “Figments can also bunch up and tangle in forgotten parts of the psyche, becoming mental cobwebs. Cleaning up your own cobwebs is one of the many tasks one must perform on your own mind to maximize your field readiness, as a Psychonaut.”
Tanya idly nodded along with his lecture. “All very interesting, I’m sure.” She said, “Are we done here?” Tanya was beginning to lose their patience with dealing with Agent Nein’s assumption that they would become a field agent in the Psychonauts. No thank you, that sounds like a bunch of danger for inadequate pay.
“Do I detect a hint of boredom?” Agent Nein asked. “You could go join them.”
“Unless you have a flying course prepared, this isn’t going to be entertaining.” Tanya replied.
“I don’t have one of those.” Agent Nein admitted. “But perhaps… Yes.”
Tanya suddenly remembered that Agent Nein, despite his many accolades for his field work, was the personal protege of Otto Mentalis, and loved to run experiments. In other words, Tanya was mouthing off to not just her guardian’s boyfriend, but the closest thing to Schugel Tanya has met in this lifetime.
…Uh oh.