2289/A Short Mernapping

A Short Mernapping
Date of Scene:	02 February 2025
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Riventon steals the Aqua Pot. Which still has Laura inside. And they both have a heartfelt meeting... no wait, that other thing
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Laura La Mer

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Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi Agera is out on the cold January day walking through the school grounds of Radiant Heart Academy when something catches his eye. On a park bench, somewhere outside of the normal grounds of the school, is an item he can't quite believe is out there unattended. He pauses, and creeps up, hiding behind a tree and peering his head around to get a closer look, pushing his glasses up on his nose. But it sure seems to be it - the Aqua Pot. The item that the mermaid Cure used to recover energy from Elda's Layabout! It's such an oddly shaped thing, it couldn't be anywhere else.

    Takashi looked around, carefully. There's not another human soul in sight! Could Cure LaMer have just carelessly LEFT IT THERE? Unattended? Further proof that she didn't need to have it and Takashi did.

    Well, Riventon did. Maybe it wasn't truly unattended, maybe it was a trap. He certainly didn't need his civilian identity being caught snatching it in any way, or even just seen as its owner ran back. That could cause a whole mess of problems.

    So the first thing he did was henshin, calling forth Axion and shifting into Riventon, into the Barrier Jacket and disguise. Ugh, the school grounds sapped his strength a great deal, ever since they'd errected that barrier. But he was still faster, he could still fly.

    So Riventon dashed out, as quickly as he could, snatching the Aqua Pot off the unattended bench, and flying off into the sky as fast and as quick as he can, probably shaking the Pot a great deal as he shoots off towards Mitakihara.

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura certainly isn't going to leave something as important as the Aqua Pot unattended. It is both her home, and the only chance they have against the Witch of Delays. If she lost or broke it, it would be the worst thing that could ever happen.

No, when Riventon spots the Aqua Pot apparently unattended, it's because Laura went inside again to check on the Tropical Pacts. Maybe it's because she now has her first ever teammate in Sharon, maybe it's because things are promising with Hinoiri, but she has a very good feeling about it.

And so, she had been checking on them when Riventon grabs the house bottle, the sudden dash and shakes causing to be pushed in the direction of the wall, and she is just half a meter away when she can swim in the opposite direction and avoid the crush, just in time for her to catch Kururun too.

"Got you!", she holds the fairy between her hands, placing her on Laura's shell bed before glancing up towards the door-window in the distance. "Hey, what gives!?" she shouts ticked off, swimming closer. "You certainly have nerve!", the mermaid screams to the mysterious thief.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon, at least, thought the Aqua Pot was unattended. But how was he supposed to know that it wasn't just an energy-reclaiming device, but a mermaid's house? Would he have stolen it then? Right now, probably. Later, maybe he will have changed his mind.

    Riventon's nearly to the window that his office and several other offices share in Obsidian Tower (stacked space is strange) when Laura's visage pops up and questions him. He looks down and sees her in there and tilts his head. The longer he looks back, the more she might be able to recognize him as the boy that worked with Elda-chan.

    "Huh, why did they build a video panel into the magic bottle?" he asks out loud. "Hey, mermaid girl, I got the magic thing." and he holds it in one hand. "Now you're gonna have a hard time returning energy I bet."

    Riventon waves his hand and the window opens, and when he steps inside, he has to rotate because gravity is a little wonky - from his office in Testarossa Technology to the outside world is upside-down, at least to normal dimensions, and he's rotated completely to go from floating rightside up in the normal world to landing with his boots on the floor in his office. This is probably going to be very confusing for the world inside the Aqua Pot.

Laura La Mer has posed:
"Yeah, I can see thaaaaa", Laura starts protesting just as the weird maneuver gives her a brief moment of dizziness, a confused stare as she tries to get why the space around them seemingly restored itself with nothing to cause it. At least the underwater space of the Aqua Pot means she can't actually fall.

"What even was that?", the pinkette groans, bringing a hand to her forehead. "Do you people just enjoy tiring people out?" She blinks at Riventon, taking a few seconds to bring his face into focus. "Wait, I know you! You are Elda's babysitter! How is that turning out for you?", she grins at Riventon.

When Riventon calls it a video panel, Laura sticks her tongue out at him, before doing an underwater somersault and spraying water at him with a push of her tailfin. "Yeah, sure, truly a great video panel. This is my house too!", she points at him annoyed.

"Really, they teach you nothing at Obsidian. I bet even the most ignorant Grand Ocean child knows more than you", Laura taunts him, crossing her arms.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon looks down at the face yelling at him. "I was doing a favor for Chongire." Riventon protests, in regards to babysitting. "You've never done a favor for your coworkers?" he asks.

    But then that thought process is cut off because the mermaid girl launches a stream of water outt of the 'video panel' and into his face. Leaving him to sputter in more than just angry resentment.

    "What the hell, your house is in a bottle? There's water in there?" He asks, trying to poke his finger into the opening. "Well, either way, this is mine now. Speaking of Obsidian, you should know you're in the Tower." He says. "I'll know a lot more after I take this thing apart, though!" he says, still dripping.

Laura La Mer has posed:
"To my friends, more like. Why would you think I have coworkers?" Laura scoffs, actually a bit surprised by the scientist's assertion. Does he only see everything in terms of working relationship? Obsidian must be really boring, uh. Just that is enough to make Laura look bored.

"Of course, there is water in here, did you forget I am a mermaid?", Laura asks, backing away from the window-door, so her full body can be seen through it.

When the finger comes through, she stares at it once, twice, then thrice, trying to make sense of the wonky vision in front of her. Remind her to never look at the window again until someone is fully inside. "Keep your finger out of it", she slaps it before pushing it back.

"You can't even make it work anyway. Only a mermaid can, so good luck with thinking it's yours", Laura shrugs. "This is made by mermaids, for mermaids, and moreover, the Mermaid Queen gave it personally to me", she smirks proudly with a hand to her upper body.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Friends and coworkers are a little different, but the point is made in any case." He says, shrugging. It's not that he doesn't have friends, just that he wouldn't entirely count Chongire as that close; coworkers is the right term.

    "Yeah, I guess you... are a mermaid." he says, looking at her through the window. "A tiny one. But a mermaid." He continues. "So I've got a magical item -and- a magical creature. I'd be more surprised mermaids exist except I just babysitted a shrimpgirl for a crabman, so really you're more human than either of them were." he admits.

    "So what, are you stuck in there?" he asks, pulling his finger back. "Or do I just have to say some magic words to get you to come out?" He asks. Then he peers a little closer. "Are you like a mermaid genie or something, is this your lamp? Am I about to get three wishes?" he asks. He seems serious but with Riventon sometimes it's hard to tell.

    "Don't worry about who it's made for or who gave it to who. I'm a genius, there's nothing I can't make work for me. If not directly, then I'll squeeze the power out of it into something useful."

Laura La Mer has posed:
"Three wishes, eh? Let me think, how much are you willing to pay?", Laura counter-proposes with a smile. No, she is not admitting she is pulling his leg right now. It's more fun for her to see where it goes.

"You don't think I am actually a tiny mermaid in a bottle, right?", Laura replies, poking her head out of it, which appears full size out of the confines of the Aqua Pot. Luckily for Riventon, Laura's hair prevents the sight of her neck. She still looks like a bodyless head, which is not that much better.

"And that answers your question about being trapped", Laura says, quickly retracting her head inside before Riventon can try to drag her out of there. "Of course, you must also know I am just the most beautiful and the smartest mermaid, but I am sure your eyes were telling you the first one", she winks at him. "Though, I was told Yellow Pearl Voice is also here. Why would you be surprised mermaids are real?"

"Of course, I do have a way out of there, and it's my trump card in this situation", Laura declares confidently. The Witch of Delays could separate Laura from the Aqua Pot, but the same is not true of Riventon. Luck just isn't on his side, then. She just needs to turn on the portal, and fly before... "Eh?" she exclaims. Something clearly hasn't worked right.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon's about to answer the bit about three wishes when Laura continues and suddenly there's a full size Mermaid head popping out of the bottle size magic item he stole. And instead of anything more dignified, Riventon just makes a sharp yell and flails a little bit. There's less of a concern with him grabbing Laura and more of one with him almost dropping the Aqua Pot in surprise - thankfully he doesn't, but Riventon doesn't have time to recover before Laura's head is back in the Aqua Pot. Still, Riventon decides to put it on the desk. Just his luck to find out it's fragile or something when he drops it.

    "Oh right. Well, Yellow Pearl... I don't think of her so much as a mermaid most of the time, just another really annoying magical girl who keeps getting in my way, I'm not sure what her deal is. Really, I try not to think of her at all or the songs get in my head again." He says. "Oh by the gods please tell me you don't sing." He says, highly annoyedly, and then realizes he probably shouldn't have said that out loud.

    "Yeah, so what if you're a pretty mermaid." Riventon says, almost looking away. "I fight real pretty girls all the time it's kind of like my standard day." he adds, and crosses his arms. "Way out of here?" He asks, and then watches, curiously.

    Then after a moment, and she says Eh, he leans in. "You're still here. Have you noticed that yet? Or are you still in your own little bubble." Then he snickers to himself at the bubble remark.

Laura La Mer has posed:
"D-don't worry about that!", Laura crosses her arms embarassed. "I have food in here to last a long time, way more than I need before I am noticed missing!", she scowls, trying to safe face after the portal has failed her.

And adding itself to the embarassment, not considering Yellow Pearl a mermaid does get a bit under Laura's skin. It's a step below denying that mermaid exist, but it still doesn't sit well with her. "Oh, really?", her right eye twitches in annoyance. "What a shame really. If you had paid more attention to Yellow Pearl Voice, maybe you would know all mermaids can sing." Riventon doesn't need to know not all of them can purify through it too.

"But you are lucky. I, Laura Apollodoros Hyginus La Mer, am willing to help you learn, and. you. will. listen." she stresses each word, taking in a deep breath. Purifying magic washes out of the Aqua Pot when Laura starts singing Chanteur's song, an ode to the cycle of the seasons, and to nature reawakening in spring, with the joy of the bright sun above it.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "You have food in there?" He asks. "But you're floating in the water. Wouldn't food be like... wet... and mushy?" He asks, tilting his head.

    "I mean I guessed Mermaids could sing, in legends they do... often to pull ships to their deaths, but I don't bet that either you or Yellow Pearl do that." he suggests.

    "I pay as little attention to sparkles as I can, though. You're all the same. Blah blah blah dark energy bad blah blah you don't know what you're doing." he says, bringing up two hands to mime mouths with open and shut fingers. "I don't want to listen to people be wrong all of the time, if I wanted to do that I have Internet access."

    And then Laura starts singing and there's purifying magic that comes out of the Aqua Pot. And it's not the magic itself, the positive energy of Chanteur, that's a problem, but how Riventon's body reacts to it. He suddenly jumps back from it, hands over his ears, and then growls angrily, in pain, just like any Dark General might well.

    "Shut up!" he says, and then suddenly runs back over and grabs the bottle. And starts *shaking it*. "NONE OF THAT."

Laura La Mer has posed:
With the Aqua Pot on the table as it was, Laura didn't actually expect him to leap at it and shake it so violently, and as a result, she gets shaken all over, bumping into things until she finds a handhold to secure herself to while she waits for Riventon to be done with it, gritting her teeth all the while.

"Would you quit it!?", she shouts at Riventon once the shaking has calmed down a little, angrily thinking about the mess that she needs to clean up. But before that, the scientist will see a tailfin coming out of the Aqua Pot to slap him in the face.

"Of course we don't do that with ships, that's the most stupid thing I have ever heard. I don't know who is responsible for starting out such a cruel rumour, but they must have been way too jealous", she glares before going to clean up around the house pot, her hair a mess.

"If anything, humans should be thanking us for the seas being as safe as they are", she makes sure Kururun is well enough before getting to work. "And if you didn't want to listen to people being wrong, I am surprised you talk so much", Laura says.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Only if you qui-OW!" Riventon starts to reply and then is slapped in the face by a fish tail. "What the hell, is that like kicking me or is this a Butt-punch kind of thing?" He asks, though he does stop shaking it. "Just trying to figure out how hard I should try to blast you!"

    Then he shakes his head."Alright, no blasting but... enough talking about ships and talking about talking." He says. "Would you, and any weird nonsense that's in my new test part, please step out? I'll teleport you out so you don't get blasted by security or anything, but it's kinda getting weird having you in my office." he says, pointing to a space outside the bottle. "Come on, out. I might actually need to blast it with dark energy if it's as picky as you say and if you're in there it'll throw off the data."

Laura La Mer has posed:
Fun you, it can be both, and all you can think of", Laura promptly replies, not particularly caring about Riventon's need to compare it to something he is more familiar with. "You really aren't smart if you need to dumb down the supernatural to understand it", she replies, completely past the point of caring.

"Forget about it, I am not leaving it behind. Ever", she remarks with a shake of her head, making good progress on the cleaning process. "If you want me out of here, then you will have to come in yourself and try to drag me out. If you can think you can do that to a mermaid in her element."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "The whole world is my element, you annoying half-a-pretty-girl-half-a-sushi-roll. It'll be easy. I'm so much stronger than I look." Riventon says. And then he rather literally rolls up his lab coat sleeves. "Drag you out it is."

    Axion pings in a sort of warning but before it can communicate to Riventon fully, he's stuck his head into the Aqua Pot from the other side.

    The Aqua Pot. Which is in fact, full of water. Which Riventon does not breathe.

    He opens his mouth to yell at Laura and gets a mouthfull of also water and not air, and pulls back, sputtering.

    "It's all water in there! How are you TALKING?! HOW IS THE SOUND CARRYING?!" he sputters while spitting out the water.

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura is a bit surprised when Riventon starts scrolling up her sleeves and talking about actually come in inside. He seriously think he hit Laura with enough to make her considering going outside. "Never, and stops insisting already, you are being annoying!"

"It's magic of course, as much as we can say it about this. I am certainly not use any spell right now, it's just how we mermaids are. Your studying hasn't gotten you very far at all." She watches Riventon's head inside, and then she gets to hitting him again, this time with the full brunt of her tail's mass, rather than just the fun.

"Is that a good enough no, or do I have to find some other creative way to explain it to you?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The thing that makes Riventon the most angry isn't the tail slap he gets that stings like heck, and it isn't that she refuses to come out... it is that Laura makes sense. Of course it's water inside; she's a mermaid, of course she can talk through water, she's a mermaid and magic makes the laws of physics cry in the night.

    He's now soaking wet, visibly annoyed, and his face is red from the tail slap she just gave him. He rubs his face. "Right. Right. Well. Look, one way or another, you're in Obsidian Tower, and you certainly can't fish-tail-slap your way out so you're just... stuck here. Till you come out. Or I get annoyed enough to actually bombard that thing with energy, and then it's your fault for not leaving." he says.

    Then there's a knock on the door and an older woman's voice. "Riventon, I wish to speak with you."

    There's a 'shimata' from Riventon. "Alright, out now. Now!" he says. "I'm not gonna have a bottle giving me backtalk in front of my boss. I'm a vice-director of an Obsidian Department! I have power you can't dream of! So. Get. Out. Now!" he hisses much lower in volume now.

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura gets her grin back when they get interrupted with a knocking, and the silver-haired guy does her the favour of explaining just who Is on the other side, waiting to be let in. "No, no, I want to stay now. Don't worry, I will definitely help give your boss the right idea, you can trust me on that", she swims away from his head.

Too bad this all is inside the Aqua Pot, or else she would have already taken a photo of Riventon's face to show it when out of here, and possibly to his boss too. "What's your boss' name? Do they know about mermaids already, or is this their first encounter with one?", the mermaid inquires gleefully.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon is slightly more clearly starting to get ancy. Precia is generally pretty happy with his work but all the same, she's not a woman you want to keep waiting. "Oh the hell you will!" he hisses back at Laura. "You have no idea how hard I worked to get this promotion, because you don't have a job, you just swim around and interupt our work and GIVE ME STRESS." He whispers.

    And he reaches over to grab it. "Now get out. Outoutout!" he says, trying to shake it again towards the window.

    "Riventon! Finish up whatever trifling nonsense you're working on and come speak to me." the woman on the other side of the door snaps.

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura glares at Riventon, grabbing on the internal outline of the window-door, laying across it no matter how much he shakes the Aqua Pot. As much as he is making it difficult, she just isn't leaving, and if he hasn't gotten It up yet, she is going to spell it out for him.

"Oh, but you have no idea how hard I have worked at opposing the Witch of Delays, then finding myself in her mansion and having to escape from there while everyone was holding back their Layabouts", Laura now replies with a very long stare.

"Really, if you think I am going to ruin all my hard work now and put my friends in that same danger, give up on my chances to rescue Grand Ocean and become the great Mermaid Queen I know I can be, you really haven't been told anything by Chongire", she keeps her grip on the inside of the Aqua Pot.

"So no, I will stay inside the Aqua Pot, and you are never going to get me out of here. Try everything you want, those reasons are very important to me, and I am never turning my back on them. Go on, keep her waiting."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon, increasingly more frustrated and panicked, turns back to the Aqua Pot. "Listen here! I don't care about you or the Mermaid Queen. Queens and princesses are a dime a dozen here. None of them mean anything. They're just pointless titles for dead or dying kingdoms. The whole WORLD is at stake." he says.

    "And why are you worried about her boss, she doesn't even do anything!" he hisses. "To hell with that witch!" he says a little bit too loudly.

    "WHAT?!" comes from the otherside of the door and Riventon just flails and then, out of options as the door is blasted open by purple lighting, throws the Aqua Pot hard, and it hits the window and flies through.

    Precia stands in the door as the glass tinkles outside.

    "I said uh... I'm gonna need a stitch, I think." he says, pointing to the glass. "I think some of it cut me." he recovers quickly.

    Precia turns to him... and is more confused than angry. "And... why are you dripping wet?"

    "Well uh... I was thinking the Jewel Seeds might be underwater, so I was working with some magic to penetrate the water; it's different than air, different properties if I want to awaken Jewel Seeds down there - but some of it got away from me..." he says, hanging his dripping head.

    "...Well..." Precia says, her eyes glaring. "...Just make sure you find them soon." She says, turning on her heel. She's not going to tell him that thinking she was being called witch with a b through the door by a subordinate, a broken window, and a dripping wet teenage boy in a bone dry office had caused her to forget what she actually wanted his attention for, but she could feel another coughing fit coming on, so she walks out. Broken door, window, and all.

    Only after she leaves does Riventon turn his head to look out the shattered window, the Tokyo City Streets above and clouds below. Looking for the Aqua Pot, furious and tense.

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura certainly agreed on that much about the world, and was about to commend him on his ability to zero in on completely the wrong message of what she has said. Precia the Explosive Witch has other plans however.

With the burst that makes the Aqua Pot out of the window comes a small scream, that probably only Riventon is able to recognise for what it is, and then it stops when Kururun takes charge of steering the Aqua Pot, and stops it in midair, giving Laura the time to take a breather.

"Good job, Kururun", she smiles and pets the sea fairy, that looks back with a smile of her own. "Now let's get away before they stop talking and Riventon decides to play 'Aerial Pursuit' with us."