2013.10.13 - Human Why Are You In Cage

Joe Smith has lived his entire life in relative anonymity and inferiority. He prefers safe, boring, mundane, and average, and even the most trivial amount of uncertainty, danger, or risk is anathema to him. He even LOOKS average. The kind of person you wouldn't even notice. The kind of person you couldn't describe to the police if he had a sudden case of being interesting and did something the police found worth looking into. He is 45, he is having his mid-life crisis, and he has decided to get into a diving cage and go hang out with sharks for some reason he is currently struggling to recall. He is petrified already and he hasn't even seen a shark yet. He can not fathom (teehee) what sort of madness possessed him to be here, doing this. He wants to get out. Mid-life crisis is officially over.

Then a 20 foot long, 2.5 ton Great White Shark comes cruising along out of the ocean murk and Joe Smith is suddenly glad he already used the toilet before coming out here because he wouldn't be able to keep it in. For the shark's part, it is actually not really paying attention at first. It has its electro-magnetic senses and all that, clearly identifying the metal cage, and its chemo-receptors are clearly identifying the dead fish dangling from the cage and the scent they're leaving all over the dang ocean, but the shark was actually humming the song, 'MMMBop' by Hanson in its head and thus mostly oblivious.

This all changes when the shark sees Joe.



The shark turns and swims up to the cage, all the while transmitting messages that Joe hears in his head in a manner similar to sound and yet... Not sound.


 * human why are you in cage| the shark inquires as it swims around the prison in circles before coming back to the front. The whole time, Joe is utterly terrified and just thinking things like, .oO(They can't see me if I don't move, right? Or was that only dinosaurs.) and .oO(WHAT IS THIS VOICE I KEEP HEARING. AM I GOING NUTS!?) and also an eloquent .oO(Oh god oh god oh god)


 * human i will help you| the shark transmits as it wedges its angular face into a 'window' of the cage. It even narrates the 'sound-effects' as it chews on the bars. |omnomnom| When the gnawing fails to immediately rescue Joe Smith, the heroic (if misguided) shark attempts to reassure Joe.


 * humAN STAY CALM i will h|
 * elp i am shark|

Eventually, there's a Great White Shark with a cage that has a man in it wedged around its head swimming at high speed in circles around the boat up on the surface, causing untold chaos and confusion for those still aboard.

The whole time, Joe is trying in vain to punch the hero shark to get its head out of the cage while the shark loudly responds. |HUMAN PLS STOP I WILL BIT CAGE FOR YOUR FREDOM. DON B SCARE HUMAN. I TRY TO HELPING. :(|

The emoticon is also psychically audible.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? No one, because pineapples don't grow in saltwater. Stupid.

But Lorena's definitely down beneath the water! It's where she spends most of her time these days, cut off from the life she loved, and not really accepted by her new life. She was, aside from the wildlife down here that she befriended, pretty much alone. Oh, sure, she knew of other aquatic superheroes, but had yet to make more than passing contact with any of them. She even never saw the mystery Atlantean that had healed her after the cataclysmic destruction of her cruise ship again. Probably went back to Atlantis.

Where the extremely xenophobic people wouldn't allow her.

That's when she detects distress, as well as disturbances. Oh, not the boat. She already knew that was there the moment its ungodly noise began filling the ocean near her. Lorena sits up from where she was reclining amongst the coral at the bottom of the harbor being moody, frowning up at the kaleidoscope of light playing overhead.

What was it? A human in danger? A... shark in danger? She could definitely sense a large predatory presence! With a sigh that reverberates beneath the waves, Hispanic girl lets herself float upwards a few feet and begins to float gently towards the disturbance. And then quicker... and faster... and faster still.

Pretty soon she's blitzing through the water at full speed, like some kind of tail-less mermaid, her trident held firmly in hand, at such an angle as to decrease its water resistance to a minimum. That's when she finds what she assumes to be a shark stuck in a cage after trying to eat a human! Well, that was bad news, and she'd have to take care of those pesky humans before they hurt that poor animal.

The dark-skinned teenager angles upward as she moves with liquid, grace, eventually springing up out of the water like some kind of human-killer whale leaping. It probably scares the crew on the boat no end to see a trident-wielding sea-woman dressed in blue scales come launching out of the ocean, but she pays them no heed as she tries to strike the chain and snap it in half with her Atlantean weapon, to release the cage, put the boat out of immediate danger from the shark, and also help the shark not get shot by humans trying to save their friend!

Successful or not, she lands on the other side of the boat as she finishes her leap, diving back from where she came from like some kind of weird, feminine version of an avenging Neptune.

The cage is severed from the boat on the surface, and...! ...Begins to sink! ...With the shark still stuck in it. Joe is understandably upset, but the SELFLESS shark puts aside its own safety for the benefit of the human in the cage.


 * human STAY CALM. give ME YOUR HAnd. I will grAB IT AND pull you out!|

It can not yet see Lorena, but it can generally detect there's something else splashing in the water in the vicinity thanks to lateral lines (Check it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_line Pretty awesome amirite?), but other than that, the shark is just trying to keep the cage from sinking to the bottom of the ocean. It will probably be very grateful for Lorena's aid when it finds out what she did. Its head eventually comes loose from the cage, at which point the cage begins to sink more quickly.


 * OH NOES! :(| the shark transmits. There are actually devices on the cage that would allow Joe to make the cage float back to the surface, which is also how it was able to maintain a certain level of floatation originally instead of just sinking to the limits of the chain and dragging the ship over sideways, but he is panicking too much to use them.

The shark cruises around in circles trying to think of how to fix this.


 * i no has plan| the predator eventually admits.

When Lorena hits the ocean again, she immediately reverses her direction, turning as lithely in the water as a gymnast in the air. She kicks her legs, pressed together, like a dolphin, as she spirals down towards the shark and its 'prey'. Why was the shark attacking the human when the fish were just right there for it to grab? Was it needlessly aggressive? Would it respond to her attempts to calm it and send it on its way, or would it simply view her as more food?

Despite the questions whirling in her mind, Aquagirl dives deeper, hearing the decidedly feminine voice through the water. Was there another person here stealing her claim to Aquagirlness? And the feel of another mind that was decidedly human, but... simple. And distorted.

As her dark-skinned body cuts through the water, just above the path of the shark, she reaches out the hand not holding her trident to touch the scaley hide. |Stay calm, brother. This human will not hurt, please leave him in peace and take his gift of fish.| She psychicly transmits this to the creature's mind, even as she chases down the cage, during that instant of possible contact. Well, she transmits it whether she manages to touch the Great White or not!

Then, once at the cage, the nimble fingers of the teenager fiddle with the cage, with the devices meant to return it to the surface. She could also drag it there, but that'd mean more talking with the humans, who might want to know why she cut it off the boat in the first place!

The reaction to Aquagirl touching the shark is immediate and probably unexpected. It turns in surprise, but not at an angle it would be able to attack even if that were its intention. Its eyes are even still visibly black, not the white they appear to be when the protective membrane comes up just prior to an attack. There is also an exclamation following the message.


 * !!?? humAN HELLO I AM NOT HUngry b|
 * ut human is in trubble im ur brother???? i am shark|

The cage is successfully drawn up from the depths and the floatation devices are activated. Joe is still scared, his eyes wide behind his scuba visor thing, but seeing some human helping him is a relief. Clearly this is some kind of rescuer or superhero or someone, right? Yeah, has to be. But then, as his eyes dart around wildly, he spots the shark coming up behind Lorena and tries, unsuccessfully, to yell, 'Look out behind you!' His pointing might be a bit more clear. The shark, however, does not attack Aquagirl. It just announces, |its okay human this is MY BROTHER she will help you|

Joe gets an intense feeling of vertigo and passes out as his cage starts rising back to the surface.

Some other, significantly smaller sharks have ventured near due to the smell of fish and all the commotion, but the hero shark turns and swims towards them, attempting to shepard them away.


 * human is asleeping please to be quiet|

This is... Pretty obviously not a normal shark. Behavior aside, that persistent mental voice is clearly connected to the shark, becoming louder or quieter depending on proximity to the shark himself. The voice being a young female human's is even more confusing.

Aquagirl spins in place, although she spins vertically instead of horizontally because hey, they're underwater and can do that, as the man in the cage begins to point behind her. She didn't want to have to hurt a shark, and was ready to simply flee and lead it away from the human and the boat if she had to, but finds that he's not attacking. The cage floats back to the surface, getting the human out of danger and putting the metal deathtrap in a position to be retrieved so it wouldn't kill anymore sealife.

She might have been human once, but aquatic wildlife had become Lorena's surrogate family.

"Who /are/ you?" Yeah, she asks 'who', not 'what', because she's sensitive to fish's feelings. And her voice is somehow able to be heard underwater, probably because water is such a natural conductor. As the other sharks begin to close in, Aquagirl pushes further away from where the cage was with the floating fishbits. She might be able to communicate with all the other sharks, but she didn't want to tempt fate by getting the smell of blood on herself.

So she trails in the wake of the Great White, swimming at a fraction of her top speed as she reaches for the large dorsal fin to 'hitch a ride'.


 * How do you speak with the voice of a human? Are you some kind of... domesticated shark?|


 * i am shark| the shark answers. Well, Lorena kind of swam right into that one. When a ride is hitched upon the shark's fin, the fish doesn't seem to mind. |we r swimming buddies now rite?? hahaha u r grate| After a short pause, Iam Shark answers Aquagirl's question. |i am actually HUMAN BUT I can b a shark to halp ppl| The shark carries Lorena upwards towards the surface, though not in the direction of the boat. They have swam enough at this point that they're not close enough to be bothered even if someone noticed them out here.


 * im vanessa but in shark form i am shark AM I RLY UR BROTHER??? :O|
 * o also u should breathe humans breathe air not water the air is up here|


 * Oh, I have lots of swimming 'buddies'. I try to keep up with the happenings of the local migration groups.| Lorena thinks to the shark as they continue swimming along, her bare hand keeping her abreast on the possessed predatory fish's dorsal. She positions her body nearly perfectly horizontal to reduce the drag she might cause the untoward animal, one hand tucked behind the small of her back to keep her trident safely out of the way. |Uh, thanks. You're human|


 * I don't understand, do you shapeshift? Can you change your form like that Changeling fellow on TV?| The dark-skinned teenager asks as they begin to rise, bringing a small, wry smile to her face. |If I couldn't breathe underwater, I'd have drowned by now. I'm Lorena, Vanessa. Lorena Marquez. Aquagirl, I guess.|

She doesn't argue if they break the surface, since she can breathe just as easily up there. In fact, she'll even sit up astride the Great White's back like it was some kind of aquatic horse! |Er, I think 'sister' works better for both of us. Are you trapped in the body of this shark?|


 * no i can do brain trix like 'i am seagull' 'i am crab' 'i am dolphin' and I BECOME THEM MYSELF sortuv????| The shark doesn't seem to mind being ridden once they're on the surface either! It's kind of cool, actually! |shark-back ride!!!| the possessed fish announces gleefully. Then the subject comes back to Vanessa. Her mental tone is kind of unhappy as she explains, |no i am trapped in big white room like gosh boring geez crumpets BUT IS SO borrig i sneek out as shark to rescue people|

The shark's mental voice eventually becomes happy once more. Lorena might notice there's some sort of radio transmitter like such is used by marine research groups for tracking purposes, but it has been... Altered. Kind of looks like it was pried open at some point and then closed back up. |i am good shark u r good human but whoah geez u r not normal??? r u shark in human body!? that would be so AMAZING best sister ever|


 * So you can be more than one type of animal.| Lorena muses with a small frown as she crests the water on the back of a shark. |As in you psychicly possess them.| She was familiar enough with psychic activity, ever since she had started to develope her own, that is. And from her time as an air-breather she'd known enough of metahumans to know that they could do everything from fly to lift continents to take over other people's minds and do scary things.

And there were worse crimes one could commit than hijacking a giant aquatic deathmachine in order to help people.


 * I am normal enough for now.| The Hispanic girl intones, avoiding the topic of herself too much. The death of everything she'd ever known was still a sore topic. She lays her weapon across her lap and leans forward to pat the shark between her legs. |We all need family, little sister. But no, I used to be human and am now more... shark-like.| Then she shifts tracks. |Are you in danger? Can I help you? Can you tell me where your human body is, Vanessa? I can get you out, I'm really strong.|


 * yah kinda| Iam Shark replies. |works bester with friends and i knowed this shark for BUCKETS OF TIME| Time is not typically measured in units of 'buckets', just incase Aquagirl was not aware. |he always comms back| A pause and then, |o and mister gull he luuuurrvs hamburglers and french fries and im RLY GOOD AT SPOTTING THEM :D see his name is mister gull b cuz he is a seagull like the actor| Iam Shark listens to what her new big sister has to say, making appreciative noises at the parts that are cool. |Lorenaquagirl i only sawed place from outside and nawt with my OWN EYES eleven D:| The shark starts to go underwater again as its current mental resident spots something cool nearby.


 * ohgoshlookacartire| The shark swims around in circles, nudges the random car tire lying on the sea floor, and just seems to think this is the most interesting thing ever. |srs how is there a tire out here THERE ARE NO ROADS ON THE OCEAN maybe it rolled here idk???| Eventually, Vanessa remembers the topic of the conversation and as she tries to pull the tire out of some kelp with her borrowed teeth, she explains again, |i dont know where it is!! i only been out of big borrig white room sometimes but i think| the shark attempts to do a barrel roll with the tire in its mouth unsuccessfully. |omnomnomnom wut??? o rite i think im on a boat the big kind with LEGS and a sattelite dish oh geez y wont they let me listen to music at least if they have that you know???? MMMBOP.|

The girl sitting astride the shark laughs, reaching down to pet the giant beast just behind the eyes, rubbing her hands gently up and down the rough scales like one would a dog, then giving a few rough pats with her calloused palms. |I'm glad you spot them so well. I'm sure Seagull likes the help very much.| But then she leans down, having spotted something on the Great White.

She spies the tag, fiddling with it. She knows what it means, in her life before she'd watched the documentaries. She dislikes the practice of tagging animals, but knows its not inherently harmful, and only serves to bring more knowledge of the sea to the air-breathers. And with awareness maybe someday they'd stop treating it as their dumping grounds.

Still, she spies what she can about it, committing it to memory in case it came in handy later. |People dump them here, Vanessa.| There's a bit of a bitter bite in Lorena's tone, but it's mostly amused. |You live near a big boat with legs. Okay... Well let's talk about Shark here. Does he ever go somewhere where you can't find him? Can't reach him?| The dark-haired girl asks this as she lets go of the Great White with her legs, swimming around to the other side of the tire to begin a playful game of tug-o-war, all the while trying to gently pry more clues as to this mystery girl's location from her.