2644/Thar She Blows

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Thar She Blows
Date of Scene: 29 September 2017
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Kaldur and Colette go whale watching and discuss philosophy, what makes Titans tick, and the nature of cetacean humor.
Cast of Characters: Stardust, Aqualad




Stardust has posed:
The tower is on high alert. There's trouble on Planet Earth, and while it hasn't exactly been centered on Nassau County, it has made its way here before. Only a few hours earlier, a small detachment of parademons was unfortunate enough to get too close. Thus when sensors detect a trio of large objects moving through waters of the bay, it demands closer attention.

Fortunately for the peace of the island, said closer attention has determined that rather than being some nefarious submarine threat, the trio of large objects are a group of humpback whales. It's rare for them to come this side of Long Island, rarer for them to make there way into the narrow waters of the bay. A fight doesn't seem likely, unless they are particularly surly humpbacks, but a rare and impressive sight seems to be on offer.

Which is the reason why Colette can be found outside the tower, standing on a strand of rocks at the edge of the water, peering out over the waters of the bay. The sun is dipping low and a bright pathway of light reflects across the waters. Blinking slightly, Colette shades her eyes as she scans the surface for any sign of the whales breaching. "I think I see something north-westish," she says into her communicator. "North-eastish, I mean."

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur's swimming, and while he can receive with his communicator well enough, he can't transmit. Voice doesn't carry well in water in a way most humans are equipped to receive.

<<Turning two points east of north,>> Kaldur confirms telepathically. It's a weak, mild form of telepathy; certainly nothing on par with that some of them can do. But it serves well enough for this purpose, and swimming with effortless speed, Kaldur diverts north towards the whales.

<<They are hunting for fish here,>> he reports a few moments later. <<If we leave them alone, they will cause no trouble. Returning to base,>> he remarks, and diverts course back towards Colette's position, a large wake of water rising behind him.

Stardust has posed:
Prior experience has shown that Kaldur's limited telepathy and Colette's overcrowded mind don't work all that well together. It's kind of a noisy signal, hence the reply: "What? Did you say something about an untangled fissure? Wait... what, returning to base? You found them? Wait! I wanna see."

Colette launches herself off the rocks and into the air, swooping low over the waters of the bay as she flies over to the vicinity of the whales, close by where Kaldur is swimming. She looks down at the dark, rippling sheet of the bay waters, trying vainly to see dark shapes beneath.

For the moment the whales have gone a little deeper, and beneath the waves Kaldur can see them clearly enough. The three great bodies move slowly, with patient grace, swimming in slow circles as they rise and fall in their search for food.

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur surfaces from the water in a backstroke, lazily travelling as fast as a speedboat. "They are friendly," Kaldur shouts up at Colette. "They are seeking food in the depths. They will not be any trouble."

He dives back underwater with a *sploosh* of spraying ocean, and catches up with the trio of whales rather effortlessly. Two seem to disdain his presence, but the third tips a dorsal fin at him in a sort of greeting to the Atlantean youth.

Stardust has posed:
"It's not about trouble," Colette calls down to Kaldur when he surfaces. "I wasn't planning on punching them. I've never seen whales before." She watches him submerge again, a thoughtful expression on her face.

  In the waters below, great columns of warm sunlight pierce the depths. The three leviathans seem almost to be swimming through a forest of trees, or a vast, ancient hallway filled with pillars. A patch of light shimmers across the surface of the water, faint as starlight, and after a moment a cloud of bubbles burst down from the patch and expand before blowing away like fog, as Colette plunges into the water. She hadn't been dressed for swimming, but her quick-change uniform trick seems to have helped her out , and she's now dressed in a costume that looks rather like a one-piece swimsuit, except that it shimmers with a pale glow in the dimness of the water.

Compared to the grace of the whales, or Kaldur, Colette's movement underwater is clumsy in the extreme, as she struggles to hold her position beneath the waves. A stream of bubbles stray up from her mouth as she steadies herself, and finally lets herself drift as she watches the whales' passage by.

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur grins up at Colette when she dives into the water. He swims effortlessly, without having to think about it; his entire body twists through the currents, wiggling between the streams instinctively. Then again, he's been swimming his entire life, with a body built for such tasks.

He beckons Collete closer to the friendliest of the three, and sends calming thoughts out to her and the humpback-- messages of greeting and friendship, though lacking in the specificty of words. Still, they should get through to Colette more effectively than actual phrases will.

He gestures for her to rest a hand on the humpback's skin, swimming along with it as it occassionaly snatches a mouthful of fish from the water.

Stardust has posed:
Colette grins back at Kaldur, trying to wave as she kicks her legs to keep herself in place. She swims to join him, slowly and clumsily at first. Then very suddenly she starts swimming with a smooth and effortless motion through the water. It's easy to guess that she just remembered that she can fly.

Colette stops a way from the whales, rising up to break the surface for a few moments for breath, then drops back down again, getting close to the whales. She holds back at first when Kaldur gestures to touch the whale, overawed by the sheer size of the creature, and perhaps a little nervous. She doesn't hold back for long though, and soon rests her hand on the animal's skin, swimming along in it's wake, and grinning widely to Kaldur like she's on an amusement park ride.

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur is utterly at home in the water, in so many subtle ways. He's fearless around the massive whales; he navigates their wake effortlessly, flowing through the turbulence in a way that is hard for the naked eye to discern. Where Colette is buffeted by their passage, he slips through it.

Sensing Colette's nerves, he makes the universal gesture to surface-- a thumb gestured twice at the water's edge overhead-- and swims upwards, popping up into the tidal laps with barely a splash. He dashes water from his face and his unusual eyes seek out Colette.

Stardust has posed:
Colette acknowledges Kaldur's gesture to surface with a nod, but she turns back to the whale to hold contact a few moments longer. The whales start to slowly rise towards the surface too, and Colette takes this as a signal to break away and rise. She surfaces a couple of dozen feet from Kaldur, breaking the waves to gulp in precious air, then lets herself float. She turns to see where Kaldur is and flashes him a bright smile and a wave, before she paddles herself around to find the whales.

The surface ahead churns into foam as the whales skim just below the surface a hundred feet ahead. Colette watches almost reverently as three dark backs crest the waves and join side by side as they make for the mouth of the bay, spray glistening in the lowering sun.

Aqualad has posed:
"Have you never met whales before?" Kaldur inquires of Colette, sounding genuinely curious. He nods at the trio. "Whales travel in pods. The larger one is named Song of Pearls," he explains. "The grey one calls herself Moonlight Dance, and the third one calls herself Fishguts, because--" he grins. "It is a whale joke, and one that would not translate well into the human tongue. But it is very funny, and she has a fine sense of humor."

He treads water without much effort. "Do you not swim often? I don't blame you-- the water in this area is disgusting," he acknowledges. "But under ten meters, it clears up rather nicely."

Stardust has posed:
"Never," Colette confirms. "I swim... about as much as is normal for us surface dwellers I guess. Not usually in water like this though. Generally just beaches. Or pools. You don't usually get whales on beaches, and you never get them in pools. Beaches yeah, tend to be nicer water than this."

Colette watches the departing whales thoughtfully. "Fishguts. Somehow that doesn't sound like the kind of sophisticated humor you're implying. That's the whale equivalent of 'dog breath', right?"

As the whales come to the mouth of the bay, they turn in three great arcs to the east, moving out into the channel and the sea beyond. As they leave the bay, one of the whales - the one that had earlier tipped its fin - breaches the water, leaping lazily to splash down in a mountain of spray, saying farewell to the two legged mammals.

Aqualad has posed:
"I don't know," Kaldur admits, shaking his head. "It's a very funny joke, in the ways of the whale. She is humble and has good humor."

He starts paddling towards the Tower as the whales wave their farewell, moving with swift but lazy assurance.

"I suppose it's as strange for you to swim in the ocean as it is for me to swim in a pool," Kaldur concedes, a few minutes later. "The chlorine makes pools almost intolerable. I cannot breathe in them. Yet many surfacers find the oceans unpleasant to swim in because of the algae and animals."

Stardust has posed:
Colette swims alongside Kaldur, finding the going much easier now she's stopped trying to swim and just does the whatever-it-is that she does when she flies. "I don't buy it," she says. "Everyone thinks of whales as being noble sea-going poets, so they're bound to really be something like... I dunno. Sea-going rednecks always spouting filthy jokes." The gleam in her eye from this whale watching experience suggests she doesn't really believe that.

"Don't you think it's just a matter of what you get used to?" Colette asks. "I mean you're born and bred in an ocean, so... well swimming in freshwater must feel a bit weird to you too, right? But at least chlorine is a lot cleaner than..." she splashes an arm through the water. "This. Algae and animals. And a whole cocktail of pollutants. And uh... " She rises up out of the water, until she's floating a couple of feet above the surface, but continues her forwards motion unchanged. "Well, um. Big city. Lots of... waste. So, yeah. Yay chlorine."

Aqualad has posed:
"It is hard to describe the different," Kaldur says, frowning thoughtfully. "But imagine attempting to breathe the air if someone added a great deal of sulfur to it to decontaminate it. You can breathe it, yes, but it smells terrible and irritates your lungs."

"Freshwater is not toxic for Atlanteans; our bodies evolved to handle large amounts of saline as we swim. We are quite unlike many fish in the freshwater environments," he assures Colette. "Were we to be born and raised in a freshwater environment, however, I am sure the salinity would prove very toxic."

Stardust has posed:
"Got it," Colette says with a nod. "For you, swimming in a pool is like wandering around midtown Manhattan at rush hour." As the island approaches, she arcs up into the air, flies a loop, and comes down to land on the edge waiting Kaldur there and offering him a hand up the rocky shore.

"I bet you must get a lot of fish out of water jokes," she says wryly. "Though I'm beginning to realise that's a theme around here. It may be more literal for you, but well... is there a Titan who isn't one?"

Aqualad has posed:
"An apt comparison," Kaldur concedes. He accepts the help up to the narrow wharf without complaint, and seats himself on the rocky outcropping. Aside from dashing a little water from his face, he seems unbothered by the ocean clinging to his dusky skin.

"There are many of us who are unaccustomed to the environment of the Tower," Kaldur agrees. "Raven prefers isolation, as does the Robin. Vorpal prefers a strange and disordered world. Cassie flees one set of duties to embrace another."

He chuckles, a little wryly. "I wonder if Kori is the most stable among us, at times," he admits.

Stardust has posed:
Colette drips. "Kaldur. You're only just realizing this? Kori is the sane one. I thought you knew." She takes a rope of hair in her hands, twisting it to squeeze water out over the rocks. "You're thinking Tower. I'm thinking planet. Or at least people on the planet. None of you feels like you really fit in, do you?" She shakes out her hair, unwinding it, then takes another bundle the other side of her head and does the same thing. "For you and Kori, that's a literal thing. New cultures. Raven... I don't know about Raven. But it's obvious that her normal is not... well, anyone else's normal. Vorpal is the Cat That Walked by Himself, always joking and vanishing through a hole whenever he doesn't want to be there. The Urban Goof wouldn't blink if you put spikes on a dinosaur and threw it at him, but he panics if you offer him a drink. Robin... Robin has to keep remind himself that he's not a robot. Cassie tries almost as hard to be special as she tries to be normal. See what I mean?

Colette finishes with her hair and straightens out. "Do you feel the cold?" she asks. "Wet clothes don't bother you?" She shimmers and her costume changes into a less swimwear-ish design, full length, with boots and a jacket. As always, the same slightly shimmery pale grays and whites. It's dry "Do you miss it?" she asks. "Not being in the sea all the time?"

Aqualad has posed:
"It grows extremely cold under the water," Kaldur assures Colette. "And the density--" he frowns. "Someone explained it to me once, but admittedly ,science is not my strong suite," he apologizes. "But ten degrees centigrade in the depths is the equivalent to a bitter, howling winter wind on the surface," he tells her.

"Perhaps it is just a condition of mortality," he shrugs. "That we all seek something we cannot quite find, or look for a place where we have none. I am not a philosopher," he reminds her. But he smiles, anyway, standing and dusting water from his skinsuit. "And I am quite content with my lot in life. I speculate as to what might have been, but I am grateful for this charge my king has granted me; and I am grateful for my friends, regardless of the circumstance."

He stoops and squeezes Colette's shoulder. "Good night, my friend. Sleep well," he bids her-- and heads up to the Tower.