outofherdepths | The National Aquarium, Baltimore, Saturday Night

Today was the best day she'd spent on land so far.

Last night, she'd found this place - an miniature ocean on land! She'd snuck inside just as the tiny suns had all gone out inside the building, leaving only the ones that were illuminating all of the seascapes. At first, she'd been too bemused to do anything but wander through. There one was section devoted all to jellyfish that made her laugh with their dreamy conversation and another full of sharks that she'd quickly scurried past while they eyed her with silent menace. Sharks rarely spoke much. Just stared.

Then she'd found one that was all warm water and fish and coral reefs that almost reminded her of home. Best of all? It was filled with any number of different kinds of fish, from tiny little ones that darted around to fat, slow ones that lurked towards the bottom. *Ah, I'm so relieved,* she'd said with a hungry gulp. *I thought I was going to die from hunger.*

She'd made her way up to where the barrier stopped and the water began and had hidden the warm layers away somewhere safe so she could get them again - it was too cold to be without them when she wasn't in the warm water. And then she'd dove into the water, legs becoming fins almost instantly, and ate until she could barely swim. Then she'd found a nice little hidey spot behind the coral and fallen asleep almost immediately.

Today, she'd done much the same. She'd stayed hidden while the humans were thickly crowded around them, faces pressed up against the edge. That sent the tiny little fish whizzing around in fear and she'd been able to grab some and eat them without needing to move. A pushy little octopus had nearly started a fight over what it declares was its hiding place, but a growled reminder of who was higher on the food chain and a snap of her teeth sent it fleeing away in a cloud of ink.

Now the humans had thinned out a lot and she figured it was safe to come out of her hiding spot and have a more substantial dinner. Oooh! There was a bluefish! What a delicacy!

***

Outside the tank, a little girl points, tugging on her mother's sleeve with her other hand. "Look Ma!" she says, delighted. "A mermaid!"

"Oh, that's right," the mother coos, relieved, even as she checks the museum's schedule. "You get to see the mermaid princess after all!" Except - isn't the mermaid show in a different exhibit? And the last showing supposed to have ended almost an hour ago. But does it really matter? Her daughter got to see a mermaid and would stop fussing.

Except - "Oh ma!" her daughter sniffles, big tears welling in her eyes. "The mermaid just slurped up that fish!"

"There's no way," the mother soothes, indulgently. "The mermaid princess is friends with the fish. She'd never eat them!" She waves at the mermaid to show her daughter that it's okay. The so-called mermaid waves back, swimming close to the glass to give them a smile. She has to shake her head. Such breath support to stay under this long. She bets the girl is a professional diver when she's not in a mermaid costume. "See? Look how pretty she is. Aren't you glad to have seen the mermaid princess?"

The little girl shakes her head. She knows what she saw and the mermaid had definitely eaten the blue fish. "I wanna go home!"

***

Once again, the tiny suns went out in the building and all the humans went home. She knew she couldn't stay in here forever - humans seemed to get mad about a lot of things and she would get mad if someone came through and ate all her fish she'd been saving - but what could one more night here hurt? And it felt good to be able to get some time in just swimming around and stretching her fins.

She'd figure out what to do...later. After another good meal and some time in nice, warm water. Ahhh. She'd missed this.

[For the troublemakers, please!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

outofherdepths

The mermaid was waiting for them when they got there, resting her arms on the edge of the tank. She gave them a cheery wave and a smile. "Okay!"

From:

betterthanaplan

"She did not," Duke said. Which hadn't helped his feeling that she might just not be a mermaid when they got there.

But hey, there she was! Duke flashed her a broad, slightly awkward smile and yet another wave. "Okay?" he repeated. "Like, 'okay' you don't need help, or 'okay' here we are ready to plan a mermaid's daring escape?"

From:

okteiviakom

This time, even Octavia managed the tiniest little wave, but she wasn't smiling. In fact, the way she carried herself had already shifted a bit, getting more rigid, her shoulders squared and her chin held a fraction higher.

Along with smiling, she was leaving the talking to them. Instead, she was already looking around the space for anything that would help them if this did turn out to be the 'daring escape' thing.

Though she was also already suspecting there was a third translation of the mermaid's one-word greeting.

From:

outofherdepths

"Okay!" she said again. She went over her small list of known human phrases. "Eeee! Eeee! Beeep!"

From:

betterthanaplan

"Um," Duke said. Because -- wow. He rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Please tell me they didn't deport this chick because she doesn't speak English." Then back to the mermaid. "Are you supposed to be here? Is this your home?"

From:

outofherdepths

"Home!" She said, pointing towards a far wall.

...Towards the ocean. And, also, Fandom Island.

From:

okteiviakom

Yeah, Octavia had not been surprised by the lack of more extensive English skills. Still, this merited her attention snapping back from her general scanning of their surroundings.

"That's... still kind of vague," she said. "Does put us into a rescue mission situation, though."

From:

betterthanaplan

"We definitely can't leave her here." Duke leaned on the wall around the tank, looking the mermaid over thoughtfully. "You had legs in Fandom. Can you do that again?" He patted one of his thighs. "Legs? Can you walk? Otherwise even with the lazy security guard, this is going to be difficult."

Edited Date: 2019-11-24 10:21 pm (UTC)

From:

outofherdepths

She reached out and patted his leg too. "Leg. Llllllllllllllllleg. Leg? Leg!"

That was like progress?

From:

okteiviakom

Yeah, no it wasn't. Octavia's quiet sigh of frustation didn't seem to think that, at least. "Okay, I'll try," she said. Since talking was turning out a bust even without glass and water getting in the way, she thought it was time to backtrack to what Duke had tried earlier.

So, miming. Specifically, she pointed at the mermaid, then to where she and Duke were standing, and then held one of her hands level and walked two fingers from the other across the back of it, raising her eyebrows.

"Can you do that?"

She knew by now the question itself wasn't likely to do anything. Just felt weird not to say it anyway.

From:

outofherdepths

It wasn't that she had any idea of Octavia's finger-walking meant, either. It just...wouldn't occur to someone who'd had legs for a grand total of forty-eight hours that those were meant to also be legs.

She just wanted a better look at what Octavia was doing. How adorable!

So she hoisted herself up out of the tank, and shook herself free of the excess water. Her scales turned to flesh a heartbeat after that and she leaned over to get a closer look at Octavia's fingers.

So, bright side: mermaid was out of the water, mermaid had legs.
Negative side: mermaid was stark naked.

From:

betterthanaplan

“Woah!” Duke looked away and started pulling off his overshirt. “That’s one question answered, at least.”

He offered her the shirt, still (sort of) averting his gaze.

Look, if she didn’t mind then he didn’t have to, right?

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia gasped when the mermaid's scales turned into skin right in front of her eyes. But after the shock of that... skin was just skin. Especially with her brain in strategy mode.

She let the mermaid look at her hands for a few seconds more before using them to point her towards the shirt Duke was offering. And then glanced down at the mermaid's new feet.

"Didn't think to bring an extra pair of shoes."

From:

outofherdepths

The shirt was a good idea. The only problem? She still hadn't really figured out clothing yet. The shirt she'd stolen from Lucifer, she'd ducked in it to hide in and had sort of ended up wriggling into. The clothes from the trooper station had required help to get into. And while she'd managed to get those clothes off before ducking into the tank, it had taken a lot of effort. And confusion.

So hopefully they weren't surprised when she took the shirt from Duke and, well...

Yeah.

From:

betterthanaplan

Aw, come on! She'd seen him take it off at least, right?

"Um," Duke said. "Wow, okay, let's -- let's see here. . . ." He hesitated to touch her, but wasn't really clear on how to quickly communicate 'your arms go through the sleeves' without words. "You're not a coat rack now, let's just --"

"What the fuck are you doing to that woman?!"

"-- Not get me arrested by the security guards," Duke muttered, stepping back and putting his hands up.

The security guard in question had dropped his phone upon coming in and seeing people where people were not supposed to be, and was now scrabbling at his belt for his radio. Duke half-turned and offered the guy an attempt at a charming smile.

"Just -- helping her dry her hair. She, uh, fell into the reef exhibit? Nearly drowned. Poor thing."

From:

okteiviakom

Well, goddammit.

Octavia also half-turned, slowly, though hers - not that she made it obvious - was mostly for threat assessment. Namely to check what the guard had on him, because it wasn't as if she had a great grasp on whether guards in places like this in this time were armed.

She noted the radio, though, and the reaching for it. And that probably meant Duke was getting a limited window of time to try and talk them out of this before she'd pounce.

From:

outofherdepths

She had seen him! But figuring it out from the reverse was harder than it seemed when the whole concept of 'body covering' was almost entirely foreign.

She struggled into the rest of the shirt, looking curiously at the yelling human. But hey, she had a new word to add to her vocabulary. "Fuck!"

Edited Date: 2019-11-26 09:55 pm (UTC)

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke couldn't help a little twitch at that -- of course she'd pick up on the very loud cursing, why not? -- but kept his eyes on the security guard. Especially since the woman seemed to be handling the shirt better now, herself.

"Sorry if we surprised you," he said, bullshitting for all he was worth. "I was, uh, looking into the aquarium for a possible tour for my high school class, and -- Doctor Gonakru here --" a quick sidelong glance at Octavia, hoping she would play along, "-- was kind of enough to offer an after-hours tour."

The security guard narrowed his eyes. "What high school."

"Fandom High?" Duke smiled wide. "It's a small private school. I teach about -- marine life." That was basically sort of even true! "Hence the aquarium."

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia was probably going to have some words for him later on, about looping her into things she was not at all equipped to handle. But for right now, yes, she could follow his lead. Even if it meant scrambling around her mind for any useful template on how to act, while Duke was still speaking.

And then she got it.

"We... did this after hours," she cut in, starting slow but getting smoother by the word, "because it was easier to discuss the details of the potential visit without getting disturbed." Thank goodness for her naturally dry tone: she didn't even have to try to sound pointed or judgy. She tilted her head a little bit. "Weren't you informed?"

Okay, maybe she was equipped to handle this, under duress, once she figured out the right people to try and emulate.

(She still wanted to just knock this guy out cold, though.)

From:

betterthanaplan

The security guard let go of his radio again with a deep frown. "No. They never tell me anything. I didn't even know there was a Dr. Gonakru. Or a school called 'Fandom'."

Duke shook his head sadly. "That's some terrible interdepartmental communication. You should lodge a complaint."

"I should! I'm going to --" The security guard stopped and scowled. "Wait, hang on, who's the naked chick, then?!"

Duke looked back at the mermaid, mouth open for an explanation. None came out.

"She's -- um. I'd say she probably. . . . You know, it's a funny story, really, she just --"

He had nothing.

The security guard reached for his radio again.

From:

okteiviakom

And that was the window closing on bullshit getting them out of this.

Right.

Octavia was already moving. "She's with me," she said as she strode over to the guard with a few quick, purposeful steps. (She heard an echo of Indra in her own voice, just then. Not that anyone else would be able to.) "And I'm new, so let me introduce myself." Didn't sound like a request, no. She'd heard people speaking in ways that commanded respect before, and now she was trying it on for size. "Dr. Tavi Gonakru. Nice to meet you."

She hoped this would work. But, if not... At least she was already all up in the guard's personal space.

And the abruptness of it all made him hesitate just enough that his hand slipped away from the radio again, and took Octavia's (rather insistently) offered one. Her grip tightened on it almost immediately, and she used that to yank him closer as she reared back -- and headbutted him as hard as she dared.

Poor guy probably never even knew what had hit him before he was already crumpling to the floor.

From:

outofherdepths

...Okay, so she had no idea what was going on here. One minute they'd all been talking to each other and then that one had hurt this one and...

Were they going to eat him? Mermaids didn't eat other mermaids, but maybe humans did? Lots of fish ate each other, after all.

"Fuck?" she said softly, taking a small step backwards.

From:

betterthanaplan

Wow. That should not have been quite so hot.

Duke pointed to the mermaid. "Seconded. We should maybe take the -- mermaid --" holy shit she was a mermaid! "-- and go. Now." He looked back down at the security guard. "Before he wakes up."

From:

okteiviakom

That was what he got for hanging out with dangerous women!

"Back through the gift shop?" Octavia checked, allowing herself a second to rub her head under the beanie, because ow. Then she looked at the mermaid, and caught the look on her face, and, goddammit.

How to explain to someone without a common language that that had been a necessary thing to do?

She didn't know.

So: "Yeah, we need to go."