2013.08.26 - Pugs Of The Sea

Just the thing for late-night activities when Cassie Sandsmark, aka Wonder Girl, is supposed to be studying for a test. An attack by random sea critters in New York Harbor. "Oh my gawd, just one night, please," Wonder Girl grumbles as she flies through the air towards the site of the disturbance. The site of the disturbance appears to be hundreds of manatees -- you know, those things that look someone cross-bred a walrus and a pug dog and then removed everything about a walrus that could make it seem threatening? -- all swarming around, and leading them is... Is... A...

...A mermaid?

A blue-haired woman with a fish body for a lower half and a human for her upper half and apparently no desire to wear seashells or anything and thus probably one of the only reasons she even has anyone's attention begins speaking to the assembles audience on a nearby bridge. "Speed boat enthusiasts! For too long the propellors of your boats have chopped into the heads of my manatee friends, your nets have tangled them up and caused much suffering and death, and you have also just been basically a bunch of jerks! So now I, Sea Cow, am going to teach you all a lesson! A lesson that mostly involves my manatee friends overthrowing your speedboat empire!" Cassie is, at this point, unsure if she should just keep staring in disbelief like everyone else or actually get down there and do something about this. She's probably going to choose the latter eventually, but for now she's just... Trying to parse this situation. Really, 'Sea Cow' the mermaid, leader of the manatees? The... The manatees don't even really seem to be doing anything threatening. Just... Swimming around. ...Is there even any real danger here?

"I'm not sure exactly what I should be doing either," says a figure in black robes, with a red hood and accents. The voice echoes on more levels than should really be possible, and it has a scratchy quality to it too. But it's probably because the robe is creepy and everything. It fits the motif? Sort of makes it seem like whoever this is, they're going to show Cassie a vision of a Christmas where she's dead and her employee's family suffers. Ironically, or maybe not ironically at all, Omen has seen such futures.

But she just stands there, even though she's not really discernibly a she, before drawing back the hood and very clearly being a woman once she does. And when she does that, the voice is just a regular sort of pretty feminine voice. "I mean, she has a point. And they're not really hurting anyone, but bringing them here might put them in danger. We should really try to reason with her."

Wonder Girl looks up in surprise as someone with a weird voice starts talking to her, all in a robe and hood and everything. "Uh... ... ...Yeah, that sounds good. Who are you again?" She's trying to remember if this is someone she's met before, or a member of the Titans, or what. She almost thought it was her friend Raven for a second there, but nope. Well, either way, the stranger has a point. "Okay, uh, how about you stay up here and I'll go do that. Unless your super power is reasoning with people, in which case you can come with." Then she just starts flying away from the nearby woman on the bridge and towards Sea Cow as the latter continues to make demands and rant and such.

"Hey, Ariel, I--" "That is SEA COW to the likes of you!" "--Okay, Miss Cow. So, like I was saying, these manatees of yours don't actually seem to be very safe all clustered around here--" "Was that a THREAT? Are you THREATENING MY MANATEE FRIENDS!?!" "--No, no, I just think that--" Cassie is interrupted this time by one of the manatees sticking its puggy face out of the water and snorting all over her. "--Oh, frick come on! That is so gross!" "MANATEE SNOT IS THE MOST WHOLESOME THING IN THE ENTIRE OCEAN!" "Look, your Cowliness, there's--" The manatee presses a wet face into Cassie's exposed midriff. "--GAH! OKAY, YES, HI!" She pats the manatee on the head, and tries to push it aside gently but firmly as though it were no more than an overly-friendly dog.

Wrong move. Sea Cow suddenly raises a hand as she screeches in outrage and a bunch of sea water rises up and splashes Cassie! Vengefully! Wonder Girl hovers there in the air, completely soaked, and just kind of counts to ten.

"Actually I'm pretty good at that--" Lilith starts, but then Cassie's gone, and while she's a teleporter, she can't just teleport onto water and expect to stay standing mysteriously on top of it. Sighing inwardly, she disappears and then reappears a little closer, and then a little closer still, until she's not all that far away from Sea Cow and Wonder Girl both.

Wearing her warmest smile, she gives a friendly little wave and tries, if she might, to at least give the manatees and Sea Cow the impression that she isn't a threat, or at least isn't hostile towards them. "Hi. I'm Lilith...I used to do work off the coast for manatee conservation. I totally agree with your plight and I think it's outrageous people don't pay more attention to it...and my friend here and I *really* want to help you not be misunderstood." Thankfully, she's not using the weird creepy voice as she speaks, but instead she's using the Regular Psychic Hippie Chick one.

When Omen appears atop some form of surface that is not water nearby this get-together, Sea Cow raises up a bunch of water in preparation to splash her too, but she holds off for the moment and instead just eyes the new arrival suspiciously. Cassie decides to just let Omen handle this currently -- not that she knows the name 'Omen', given that Omen just introduced herself as Lilith. Instead, she tries wringing the water out of her hair and just contains her annoyance. Which isn't easy, since she is easily provoked to fight and isn't in the habit of backing down even if it'd be for the best that she do so.

"Ha! What is there to misunderstand? These boat-riding people give no thought to the safety of those whose natural habitat is the water! They only care for riding around... Speeding... And boating! Will they understand that they can not let this continue if they are merely told to stop? If it were that simple, your own work would have already achieved success! No, they must be shown the fury of those they have wounded! Manatee friends, attack! ...But not these two, just the ones up on the bridge." Sea Cow gestures imperiously. The manatees don't seem to respond much except to maybe swim in slightly more confused and lazy loops than is typical. One of them snorts on Wonder Girl again.

"OH, COME ON!" she yells finally. "Look, do you want to keep your friends safe or not!? What Miss Lilith there just said is right. Even if these manatees WERE capable of fighting, and I have zero confidence that that's the case, if they started attacking people they'd just be in even MORE danger. I get what you're saying about people not changing just because you tell them to, but if you are a representative of these... These... Water pugs, then you can discuss this peacefully and... I don't know. Maybe get recognized as an official manatee government or something?" Wonder Girl loses momentum there at the end, as this really isn't her bailiwick. She's used to punching things, mostly.

She shrugs helplessly at Lilith. Sea Cow seems displeased but does not order the manatees to attack again, instead deferring to the robed woman.

"That's a good idea," Lilith calmly points out to Cassie's suggestion. "We actually have done a lot for awareness...you're right that we haven't completely cut out the damage that some people are doing. I agree, there needs to be much more done. My father's a very powerful man, and if you're willing to work with us, I have some ideas. What would you say about a fundraiser show? You could present your message and get it out there much better than I could just working as a volunteer with the charity." Lilith quietly seats herself on the rock and reaches down to pet at the nearest manatee.

The gentle pulse of 'non-threatening' is matched very well by her seeming lack of aggression. Those huge peace signs swinging from her ears must reflect a personal philosophy. "But this place is so dangerous for our manatee friends. People can take care around them if they know they're there...but manatees aren't normally here. People won't even expect them. I don't think any of us want to see our beautiful friends hurt, do we?"

Wonder Girl is glad that this seems to be going in a peaceful direction, and -- for once -- even though she's a bit annoyed she also doesn't really feel any aggression towards the manatees or Sea Cow. But if she is attacked again, she is going to be very unhappy. She doesn't care if it's an attack made of manatee nose gunk or not. She just doesn't respond well to being attacked. She also pats a manatee herself, following Lilith's example, but inwardly she's kind of like, .oO(Geez, the weirdos I meet in this job. What's next? Arty Choke, the vegetable serial-killer? ...****, I better not actually meet someone like that now that I thought that.)

Sea Cow seems to calm down. Whatever weird cultural differences there may be between humans and mermaids, it doesn't seem as though mermaids are inherently an angry and violent people. She must have just been quite angry and worked up, since she dragged all these manatees here with the intent to seek revenge. That's not the kind of thing a calm person does. And now that she's calming down, she seems to realize this was a stupid idea. And yet... Something good is coming of it. "Let me discuss this with my friends and hear what they have to say." Sea Cow turns to all the hundreds of manatees bobbing and swimming around her. They all just kind of look back at her with those... Those MANATEE EYES. You know!? And though nothing verbal is said, as far as Cassie can tell, it seems Sea Cow somehow divines meaning from the look. She turns back to Lilith and Wonder Girl and nods. "We consent to this proposal. I will lead my friends out of the area now. I did not expect to meet someone so willing to speak peacefully and who understood the plight of the noblest manatee enough to make a deal for THEIR safety instead of that of those boat people. You have given me much to think about. Perhaps we have been wrong all this time."

Meanwhile, somewhere in back, speaking in manatee, one of the blubbery beasts says, "<>" A manatee next to him asks in surprise and dismay, "<>" The first one lets out a puff of air that is probably manatee for laughter and says, "<>"

And then the manatees start turning around and heading back out to sea through some unspoken instruction. At least for those who don't speak manatee.

Lilith gives a little smile and nod, trying not to laugh outright from the thoughts she picks up from Cassie at the same time. It wouldn't do for the negotiations to just laugh at nothing. But once the not-quite-villainess makes her decision, Lilith pushes to her feet and bows respectfully to Sea Cow and the manatees both. "Please take care...there's a little cluster of islands not too far north of here, if you want to meet there when you're ready. Just think of me, and I'll come running."

Then they're on their way, and the psychic gives a friendly little wave, before turning to Cassie and letting that smile turn to a bit of a knowing grin. "Arty Choke, huh? Don't worry. If you meet anyone like that, just call me. A vegetarian's got to count for something against that."

As Sea Cow departs with an agreement to meet at the islands described, Cassie sighs and turns to Lilith to thank her. But then she feels a chill go up her spine when Lilith says what Cassie was thinking. "...Please don't mind-read me. It's really creepy. Ahem." Now eyeing Lilith suspiciously instead of with the relieved smile she had before, she says, "Thanks for the help. I highly doubt I could have resolved that without punching, and that probably would have just caused more problems later down the line. Seems like you were the exact right person at the exact right place at the exact right time."

Wonder Girl starts lifting off and says, "I'm Wonder Girl, incase you haven't already figured that out SOMEHOW." She sticks out her tongue a bit childishly. "It was nice meeting you, Lilith. I really, really need to go take a shower now because as friendly as manatees are, I do not want their wholesome boogers on me."

Lilith covers her mouth with a little laugh. "I wasn't really mind-reading you, as you say. You were thinking it pretty loud. I'm Lilith..." Then she takes the hood of her robes and pulls it back up again, completely obscuring her feathers. And her voice takes on that layered effect, the very creepy one from before. "Or Omen, as you may call me. Take care, Wonder Girl. We'll see each other again. Pretty soon." Then there's like a sort of twist like the last of bathwater swirling down a drain, and she's just...gone. Vanished. As if she had never been there.