A Picture of Sophisticated Grace (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"The gods of my people are monsters here," croaked Aquaria mournfully, lightning cracking overhead. "Dagon and Hydra are only known on the Surface because of those cultists who invaded this city and tried to conquer it for that monstrous half-breed. And because of those Atlanteans." Venom curled into her voice at the last word, but she seemed to shake it off, hopping around beneath the cascading water as if she was more comfortable here than down below. "Oh Mother Hydra, Father Dagon too," she began to croak, each heavy thud on the roof produced by her prostrate leaps making her sing out another verse. "Listen to me sing your song, oh so far from you. I have kept your memory; I have kept your faith..." She stopped translating then, and began singing her own language, an appeal to the dark gods below for joy in this world before an eternity in their maws. She seemed quite swept away by the beauty of the storm.

[Electra]

Jessie was quiet for several minutes, acceding to Avro's imperious demands for petting while turning over in her mind what Kimber had told her. "I think you're probably right," she finally decided. "If you had died and passed on, you would've gone to heaven, and Erin says it's nice there. But you wouldn't have been able to do anything else. And you can't be who you used to be, but people still like you anyway. Maybe you can do stuff you didn't get to do before." She picked up Avro into her arms and snuggled him, heedless of the quills that snagged her shirt. "But do you ever miss your memories?" she asked plaintively. "Like being able to remember your family and how you felt about them? Or to be able to remember how you died?" 

[Gizmo]

"Well, I actually do remember how I died, more or less," Kimber admitted with a self-conscious shrug, pulling a bit of a face and looking off to one side. "It isn't really a big deal, I don't think, but I try not to talk about it too much 'cause it really seems to weird other people out." She looked back over to Jessie and incorporeal or not glided around the table so that she was hovering in a seated position right next to the despondent young woman, offering at least the impression of physical comfort. "We're not really talking about me, though, eh? It's okay! If you feel like you'd be comfortable talking about it to me I'd really like to listen! Sometimes that helps a lot, for me anyway. Indira's a really good listener. Eve, too. I think I talk too much som-- oh!" She mimed pulling zipper across her lips and folded her hands in her lap, giving Jessie and encouraging look.

[Electra]

Jessie seemed to be considering the offer for a minute, then shook her head with a slight, almost wistful smile. "I don't think it's a good idea," she told Kimber. "It's better not to talk about, like Erin said. But if you want to talk more, you should. I like to listen to you. And you make really good waffles." By now a surprising portion of the large stack was gone, despite the pauses in eating. Jessie picked up her fork once more. "How did you end up living in the castle here? Is it fun?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

When she was done, Aquaria landed at Indira's feet with a palpable thud, the last echoes of her bellowing song still ringing across the rooftop. "This place is so nice. And you people are so nice." She straightened up to stand erect, her amphibious form looking considerably more gawky on two legs. "I was scared for a long time that Jessie would have to go back to prison, or that I'd get in trouble again. " She crossed her long forelimbs over her broad chest. "I hurt people when I first got here," she admitted. "They saw me when I was foraging, and they started screaming. So I kicked them. And then the police came and I kicked them too, and then Nereid came and she beat me into the pier until I passed out. I don't like Atlanteans." She shook her head and broad shoulders. "Anyway, they took me in, and they taught me English, and I learned how to pretend to be a Surfacer. And now I have a job cleaning lawns, and I live here!" 

[Fox]

"I understand," Indira hummed, glad for the change in atmosphere; she'd been visibly uncomfortable, in as much as her state of mind could be read from a somewhat featureless head, but it had at least seemed more like personal discomfort than any kind of judgement on Aquaria. Whatever its cause, she'd pretty clearly resigned herself to enduring it rather than trying to change things. "I am not supposed to do most of what I do, though I do not think that being found out would put me into jail...and I do not think an Earth jail would do a very good job of holding me."

The bipedal metal being seemed rather amused by that last point, but let it go. "You sound like you have had a very interesting life," she observed, eyes smiling as she looked at her new friend. "I do not know that I am in a position to judge you, but do not forget that some struggles last all life. ....'all life'? She paused for a moment, mulling that one over. "...I do not think it translates, but I think that you know what I mean. If you begin kicking the police again, I do not doubt that your friend would aid you and you would end up in jail again. You will have to choose your...kicking targets wisely."

[Gizmo]

Kimber puffed out one cheek and gave Jessie a concerned look. "I think talking about something is just about always better than not talking about it but you don't have to if you don't want to, I guess. I'm really glad you like the waffles either way! I could make more if you wanted! Indira and I can't really eat and people food isn't good for Avro and some people I'd, um, just be maybe more embarrassed about cooking for at least for now?" She coughed a little as the train of thought went somewhere she obviously hadn't intended for it to go before quickly recovering, all smiles again. "Oh, the castle is really great! Certain types of places are just way more fun to haunt - I mean stay in! It's so big and rad and my best friends are here!"

[Electra]

Jessie smiled at Kimber's enthusiasm. "That sounds really fun. I'm glad I have an apartment with Aquaria, I think I would be too lonely by myself. She likes to go out more than me anyway, Um, we have a kitchen full of stuff downstairs, and we both have to eat everyday. Maybe sometime you could come down to our apartment and cook with me, if you want?" she offered tentatively. "It might be fun. We just bought like a month's supply of food, so there's a lot to choose from. I bought some of those chocolate chip cookies in a roll, that you can just slice up and put on the pan." 

[Gizmo]

"That would be outrageous!" Kimber exclaimed and from the way she clapped her hands and rose a good foot into the air, knees passing through the table as though it were thing air, it certainly seemed to have a positive connotation. "It's even super easy for me to get down to the apartments of the other floors, I can just fly right through the floors!" Realizing a moment later that that might not be the most reassuring thought she hastily added, "But, I mean, I'd call ahead first or something, of course! I just mean if you need anything and want to hang out whenever you can just let me know and I can be there, easy! I don't really sleep at all; Indira either, which is part of why we're such good roommates, see!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Still dripping wet from the rain, Aquaria padded into the stairwell again, now walking on two legs. "I didn't want to hurt anyone," Aquaria croaked softly, remembered pain pulling at the edges of her froggy voice. "But I didn't speak English then. I just knew they were screaming at me - and some of them were armed." It was not a happy memory, and so she changed the subject. "I have been thinking I could be a superhero, though. Jessie does not like the idea," she went on, plopping along as she walked ahead of Indira, "but that's okay, she doesn't have to be part of it. If Surfacers see a Deep One who is their friend...maybe things won't be so bad next time. I know there are bad Deep Ones who have hurt Surfacers," she assured Indira with great confidence. "But most of us do not." 

[Electra]

Jessie's eyes widened a little. "It would be better if you came in our door," she told Kimber with wholehearted intensity. "I get, um, a little twitchy sometimes. Like when something is in the room that I don't expect to be there, or didn't come in the normal way? I might break something by accident, or surprise you," she added with a grimace. "But I don't sleep much either. Only every couple of days, or sometimes I'll just take a nap. Aquaria sleeps a lot though, especially when it gets cold outside. Do you guys ever do puzzles at night?" she asked. "I do a lot of puzzles. And draw, and read. Oh, here." She looked around the room. "If you have a pencil and paper, I can give you my new phone number." 

[Fox]

Indira was tempted to remind her new friend that hero work involved a great deal of screaming and armed people, but decided against it; she was sure the frog girl would learn that in due time. Instead she rippled, a ridge of metal running down her body to strip her of as much rainwater as possible without a towel. "It is a good plan," she agreed, flexing a bit as they returned to a warmer environment - only when she flexed, her whole body stretched as if it was one large muscle. "Humans will take time to get used to you, I think, but they do recognize when people are being helpful. Perhaps do not advertise where you are from at first?"

She hummed, eyes frowning. "It is not intended to be deception, but they may need to form their own opinion of you before they decide what they think they should...think. I avoid recognition, though, so perhaps I do not know what is best."

Edited October 13, 2015 by Fox

[Gizmo]

"Oh sure, I was walk through your door just as easily!" Kimber assured Jessie agreeably, perhaps misunderstanding the specific way in which her incorporeal antics might be unsettling. "I wouldn't want anything to get broken!" Floating high enough into the air to survey the kitchen as a whole more easily, she rummaged through the drawers telekinetically, odds and ends rising into the air where she could see them before returning to their places until she found a pad of paper and pen as requested. They flew across the room to land in front of Jessie, the pen quickly dancing across the paper to scrawl an enthusiastic smiley face across the top of the page before dropping down. "Puzzle are the beeeeest!" the phantom enthused, hovering lower with a big grin. "Indira likes the three-dee ones better, like the ones where you have to figure out how to take them apart and put them back together? I like ones with pictures, though."

[Electra]

Jessie took the offered pen and paper, carefully noting down her apartment number and phone number. "I like both kinds," she told Kimber. "Maybe Indira can come and we'll all do puzzles together and cook." She smiled again at the ghost, tentative still, but like someone who had, in several other lives, had friends who were very important to her. A few more bites took care of the rest of the big pile of waffles, chased with the last bits of syrup. "I guess I should probably find Aquaria. We need to make our beds and unpack our suitcases before bedtime." Technically Aquaria needed to fill her bed with brackish water, but that was like making it. 

[Avenger Assembled]

As if on cue, Aquaria and Indira re-entered the room, Aquaria still soaking wet from the outside and wearing nothing besides her harness. Considerately, she stopped in the doorway to shake herself a little drier before entering the Surfacer dwelling. "It's beautiful out there!" she croaked happily. Despite her encouragement, Jessie was not one for sitting outside in the rain - at least not without a lot of pointless Surfacer clothes. "Are you guys having fun?" she asked, hopping into the room. "You ate all the waffle-things, hooray!" she said to Jessie with a big smile, then turning to Kimber with an even wider grin. "You have to come visit our den and make waffle-things! Jessie will love them!" 

[Fox]

"Perhaps not right away," Indira mused, clawed feet clacking on the floor for a few steps before she reformed them into something softer and more suited to indoor wear. "I recall eating similar food, and remember the stomach as being very limited. It was unfortunate - I remember it being quite good."

"Kimber is correct; I do prefer the '3D' puzzles," she admitted, frowning briefly. "They are...I think the word is 'tactile'? Also, I see more colors than normal people and it makes some of the printed pictures odd, if they used cheap inks. Still," the metal creature countered, eyes turning back up into a friendly smile...or her approximation thereof. "Still, I would be happy to help. I am not always good at the puzzle part, but I am very good at finding pieces and have a very good reach."