ic (IC) Beloved Monster

[Blarghy]

So, he's smart enough to keep his distance, Leviathan thought in a flush of pride.  Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have a choice!

 

The huge beast laughed off this magical attack; even the minor scuff it inflicted on his scales almost immediately smoothed over.  "You fight with every advantage," he mimicked Aquaria's words.  "But it will not be enough!"

 

He wasn't nearly as agile or elegant of a swimmer as the Deep Ones, but Leviathan could certainly outpace a human in the water; he rushed forward boldly, making no effort to defend himself, and brought both of his hands together, folding his fingers to make one big hammer-fist, raising his arms above his head as he loomed over Ikatare.  The attack left him very exposed, but Leviathan didn't seem to care.  His concern was to slam those enormous hands down and drive his opponent into the sand like a nail.

[Avenger Assembled]

Leviathan saw the blow strike home - and felt aquatic-adapted flesh bruise beneath his fists. But his blow caused a flare of eldritch energy along Ikatere's body, a miniature version of the golden sign on which they fought acting like a force field to deflect the blow. "Foolish Surface-Man," hissed Ikatere in what Leviathan recognized as heavily accented English. "Do you think your blows can hurt a champion of the Gods Below? I have been marked with their sign!" 

 

Naia and Sea Devil squared off again, a fight that for the moment (despite the latter's armor) appeared to be evenly matched - as Leviathan watched, the former's metal trident scraped against the latter's electrical one as their blades locked together; a shower of steam and bubbles coming from where the two were locked in combat but nothing more dramatic than that. Their Lemurian was coming a little too fast for Leviathan's translator but what he could make out sounded like scatological curses from both Deep One females - there was far more profanity in the ancient tongues of the deep than anyone on the Surface might have guessed. 

 

Of course, there were other profanities. "You've hurt me, but not bled me yet," hissed Ikatere. "When this is done," hissed the Keeper, "we will see who bleeds! We will not cower before the light of the Surface. Let the Light you love so well be your undoing!" And then came another blast from his trident - this one that struck Leviathan full in the face. 

[Blarghy]

Leviathan's translator started to distract him with its steady stream of unexpected curses from the ladies; perhaps he could blame his poor performance on them, though his own overconfidence was just as likely. 

 

"We're not telling you to cower," he protested angrily.  "This is a matter of prudence!  Why fight when you cannot win?"  With a bold grin, he couldn't resist turning that olive branch into an insult: "Then again, that's what you're doing right n-"

 

Then the light tore into his eyes, and everything turned white.  At least the pain wasn't bad; Leviathan's body immediately washed it away, but returning his sight would take a little longer.  A wiser hero might pull back, temporarily use a defensive style, or try a new tactic entirely, but Leviathan just roared and swung both arms wildly in front of him.  He felt nothing but water empty as his vision.

 

Ok, this...isn't ideal...

[Avenger Assembled]

Sea Devil bent her knee to her rear and stabbed low - and felt the shock go up her arm as her hissing trident sizzled against Naia's flank. The other female bellowed in pain and stepped back, exposing three shallow, marks along her left flank that were both bloody and burned. They would heal, Aquaria knew from practicing with her own weapon, leaving behind nothing more than the kinds of scars that most Deep Ones carried. Naia eyed her, eyes particularly wide as the taste of blood entered the water, but Aquaria doused her tridents and held her arms at her side. "You fought well, Deep One," she croaked, loudly enough for everyone in the fight to hear. "for your tribe and for your mate, but the fight is over. We are not enemies. Come, let us gather your people for their-" 

 

"No!" bellowed Ikatare. "No, I will not surrender to the Surface! We have bowed too long before them! This giant is clearly not one of us and this female is an apostate Atlantean spy! I will win this battle myself!" And having said so, he kicked up his trident with one three-fingered foot and (despite the angry bellow from his mate) drove said trident directly into Leviathan's belly,  the magically empowered blade biting deep with a searing heat! 

[Blarghy]

The well-executed strike did indeed pierce deeper than before, but Ikatare and his supporters wouldn't have long to rejoice.  Leviathan grasped the upper shaft of the trident and began to push it back toward the Deep One; his flesh and scales assisted, expelling the sharp, burning edges as they healed.  When the glowing weapon reemerged, the audience had mere seconds to see its lingering effects before they vanished beneath the smooth armor of Leviathan's stomach. 

 

Perhaps more worrisome, Leviathan locked his gaze furiously with Ikatare...and his eyes were all too clear. 

 

He let the trident go, swinging his hand in a smooth arc and bringing the fist down on Ikatare's shoulder with unholy force.  "Say what you will about me, but if you continue to disrespect Aquaria, then Dagon and Hydra will search the seas for a thousand years and not even find the scraps of you that I'll scatter to the waves!  She loves her people enough to save you from your enemies and yourselves, and once you recover from this battle, I expect you to thank her!"

[Avenger Assembled]

The impact of the blow was like an explosion under the water, sending forth a wave that briefly sent up a curtain of silt that blocked all from view. By the time the silt has been dispersed by the magic of the golden sign, Leviathan stood by the floating body of the unconscious Ikatare. Being unconscious underneath the waves was no particular problem for a species with gills as well as lungs, though Naia did despite her injuries take the opportunity to catch him before he floated to the surface. Meanwhile, Aquaria and Leviathan were the heroes of the hour! Strangers though they were, the tribe of Deep Ones hooted and gamboled in their honor - blowing horns and cheering, stamping feet and driving tridents against metal and rock to make joyful noises! Aquaria and Leviathan both had crowns placed on their heads, twisted circlets of worked metal that just barely balanced there, and soon some of the females of the tribe were smearing Aquaria with a goop that looked black underwater to Leviathan's eyes. 

 

"It is a rare thing, to celebrate in song," croaked Sees-in-Darkness as he stroked over to join the couple, "but we have seen Dagon and Hydra's power at work today. Water-Bearer, Leviathan, we thank you for coming among us." 

 

"It was my pleasure," said Aquaria, who for her part was practically beaming - her eyes big and bulging, throat sacs billowing with emotion as she spoke. She let herself stand close to Leviathan, and pretend for a little while as she remembered the way his words had rung out under the water. "And ours. I am a better swimmer than my mate; once you can move, I will guide you to the currents away from the city." She didn't say aloud what they all knew - with all the noise, moving would be sooner rather than later. As she spoke, one eye flicked to Naia, who was pulling the still-unconscious body of her mate inside the sunken Surfacer wreck. More work to work yet.

[Blarghy]

I did iiiiiiiiiit!

 

Try as he might to keep up a grim and stoic expression, Leviathan couldn't help grinning like an idiot when his concentration slipped.  This was the first time a crowd had ever cheered for him as a hero, and he didn't much care that they weren't human.  Maybe the day got off to a difficult start, and maybe Sea Devil had to push him to do the right thing, but he still did it in the end!  And on top of Leviathan's straightforward, honorable victory, he got a trophy too.  The crown that the Deep Ones gave him sat less elegantly now, hanging down over one side of his head, because he kept taking it off to look at his prize. 

 

Soon as I finish here, this little beauty is going in my trophy room, next to Solemn's gear.  Bonfire was right; I'm going to slowly fill my collection out, if I just stay patient. 

 

He nearly forgot the depressing reason for his visit, until Aquaria reminded him.  "You are faster," he agreed, "But with such a group, spawn and belongings included, will you all be able to travel at top speed?  I could at least help guard the tribe for part of your journey."

 

Beneath his elation, Leviathan knew that he was just asking to get wrapped up in a longer endeavor that might leave his base and surrounding territory undefended for who knew how long, to say nothing of his obligations as Tristan Delacroix, but here, surrounded by new friends, he couldn't resist offering more help. 

[Avenger Assembled]

There was much work to do over the next few hours - work that the tribe was happy to press Leviathan into doing. After all, wasn't he the biggest and strongest of them all? Some of it was mundane enough; gathering stored meat for the journey, his look at the small tribal larder telling him quickly that these people were pure carnivores, helping wipe out the marks and movement of their encampment to make sure that their enemies couldn't trace them. Others were perhaps more exitic - taking down the skeletal trophies from the outside of the sunken Liberty ship, gathering semi-translucent stones from various shelters that reminded him a little of frog eggs but seemed to be smoothly-polished pebbles, tying them together into bundles that would be easily carried among the various members of the tribe, carrying forward the physical manifestations of this nomadic peoples' history. 

 

While the tribe worked, they sang - they sang in rich harmonies and choruses of how they sacrificed for Dagon and Hydra, but one day the day of jubilee would come - the stars would be right and the seas would be as the land and the land would be as the seas, and Dagon and Hydra would bring enlightenment to all the world. They asked questions too of the exotic warrior in their midst - was it true that Surfacers ate plants and meat both? That their females birthed "like a degenerate dolphin"? That they lived their lives in the dry air and hardly ever knew the water? What was that like? By now it was getting dark above, and very dark indeed beneath the waves, but it wasn't slowing the tribe's work a fraction. Of course! With their big eyes and the voices that Tristan Delacroix could tell were shading into the ultrasonic and subsonic, the darkness of the sea bottom had to be nothing at all for them. Leviathan, for all his power, had rather more trouble with the sea bottom at night than the Deep Ones did. 

 

He found Aquaria in the Liberty ship with most of the other females, gathering up what had to be the tribe's nursery. There were no eggs here, but many young - Deep One young were shaped a bit like human toddlers, albeit human toddlers with a frog's soft, greenish skin and an fish's scales and fins, with sharp, pointy teeth and a tendency to climb on and nip at their caregivers like poorly-trained puppies - or maybe piranhas, if you were a paranoid sort. 

 

Aquaria and Naia were clinging to the 'roof' of one of the ship's old corridors, faintly glowing lichen giving Leviathan a distinct, albeit dim view (like being outside on a rural night) as a cluster of young Deep Ones climbed over their bodies and nipped at them. His translator rendered the noises they were making as laughter. 

 

 

[Blarghy]

The marine biologist in Leviathan was delighted for this extended look into their lives and culture; he entertained the idea of writing a series of research papers when he returned home, though it would have to be under a pseudonym.  He felt a little nervous answering their questions in turn, as demonstrating even general knowledge about the surface carried the risk of revealing his closely-guarded secret.  He took care to balance this danger by dropping details from his cover identity here and there.  Leviathan was supposed to be able to lean heavily on his and Bonfire's prep-work in these sorts of situations, but he didn't have access to their blog and other online propaganda down here in the deep.  Hopefully the cultural differences and the goodwill he'd built up would help mask his lies: that he wasn't exactly a surfacer, but instead the last of an alien species that crashed here long ago, born alone and raised on the broadcasts and other morsels of information that his ancient ship picked up from the humans above. 

 

In any case, he was glad to see that the two ladies were apparently making peace.  He wondered if their duel had relieved the tension between them, perhaps as part of Deep One tradition; would Ikatare be happy to see him when he awoke, then? 

 

Leviathan deliberately bumbled around a bit to announce his presence before he approached, in case Aquaria and her daughter were having a private discussion.  Not that he was likely to sneak up on them even if he wanted to, with their keen senses.  "Is your mate recovering well?" he asked the younger of the pair.

[Avenger Assembled]

Naia made a noisy exhalation. "He is no longer my mate. He cheated in ritual combat and he lost." Both sins seemed equally grave to the young Deep One.

 

Deep One mating was of course something that Leviathan (were he mated to Aquaria) would understand readily enough - and rather than have that conversation appear and ruin everything they had built that day, Aquaria reluctantly disengaged herself from the crawling young, letting Naia finish pulling them into the seaweed basket she wore over her hip. She lingered the last over the one Naia had pointed out to her before Leviathan's arrival, picking it up and stroking it lightly. Naia and Ikatare's first matings had been of middling success - this was the strongest of those left. 

 

"You see," she croaked to Leviathan, "your step-grandchild." There was evidently no equivalent for the English word she spoke aloud. Holding up the wriggling little male, who seemed to be doing his best to sink his teeth into the flesh of her three-fingered hand, she eventually handed the youngling off to Naia. "The blood is strong here," she commented to Naia, "you and yours will do well." I wonder if I seem unnatural to him, she thought as she handed the youngling away. We will talk. 

"It is safer here than in the cities," Naia commented. "A good place for younglings to hunt." She looked from Leviathan to Aquaria for a moment, big bulbous eyes moving independently as she swiveled her massive, muscular neck. Even for a relatively small Deep One, Naia's neck was as massive as her mother's. "Now that you are here, I thank you both. I had thought anyone left of the tribe had to be weak and false, like those that stayed Below." 

 

"Hydra's sky is vast; Dagon's ocean deep," Aquaria quoted. "You will find much more to see in the wide world. Come," she said, turning to Leviathan. "I will take the deeps if you take the shallows, and we shall take them out of the harbor and towards better waters." Leviathan was better-suited to the shallows than anyone else could be among the tribe; after all, he could warn any Surface ships away from their path - and his eyes were better-suited to the air than the water. Around them, outside of their rapidly-emptying shelter, the tribe was on the move! 

 

[Blarghy]

"A good plan," Leviathan agreed, understanding Sea Devil's reasoning.  He was eager to rise above the dark, deep waters and see by the light of the moon again; this experience had made him jealous of the Deep Ones' senses, and he was already considering how he might solve his deficiencies in the future. 

 

Of course, mostly he thought about the trouble they might run into during the tribe's exodus.  Leviathan wasn't so much worried about an Atlantean patrol--he was starting to see them as bigoted enemies by this point, even though he himself probably would've attacked Deep Ones more or less on sight mere hours earlier--as complications from Freedom City.  If other heroes tried to intervene, would he be able to sway them?  The last thing he needed was a big misunderstanding that branded him a villain in the eyes of his own people.  The tribe's substantial risk felt distant compared to the inconveniences he might personally suffer if something went wrong; Leviathan at least recognized his selfishness and regretted it, but he couldn't shake his worries, and a small part of him second-guessed his involvement. 

 

No, he told himself firmly.  These people need help; I'll see it through to the end.

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria was waiting for Leviathan on the beach when it was done. It was the wee small hours of the next morning, hours after the two of them had guided the Deep One tribe through the depths of the bay and out to the deeper waters of the continental shelf. The tribe had left singing a song that echoed deep in the cavities of Leviathan's chest, a booming vibration that would pass for a strange sort of whalesong for all but the most sensitive ears. But then those were usually listening elsewhere, not this close to such a major city. 

 

Crouching quadrapedally on the beach, Aquaria sat before a fire that she'd triggered with the energy from her suit, now folded up neatly on the sand behind her like a gleaming white-and-green cube. With the firelight reflected in her eyes and off her glossy, green-and-white skin, free from her armor, her amphibious, inhuman nature was obvious - she looked rather more frog than fish from what Leviathan had seen of the other Deep Ones, but she was obviously no less comfortable in salt water. "Thank you for your help," she croaked softly, her voice sounding particularly inhuman out of the water. "You must have questions. I will sing answers for you if I can." 

[Blarghy]

True, he had many, and Leviathan would love a chance to really pick Aquaria's brain for all the details about her species, but he didn't think that now was the appropriate time.

 

"Actually, I want to apologize," he answered.  "When I first saw you and the other Deep Ones at my lair, I assumed you were going to cause trouble.  I've always thought of you as dangerous and evil creatures, but now I know differently.  You must get that sort of reaction all the time, and you don't deserve it."

 

The lizard gestured out to sea.  "The tribe shouldn't have to run away and hide in what few nooks haven't been claimed yet.  It isn't fair; you have a right to live just like anybody else.  I wish I knew a better way than the one we had to take tonight."

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria was silent for a while, staring into the fire as she breathed air, the sacs at her throat bulging audibly as she considered her words. "Thank you," she croaked wetly. She blinked her great eyes at Leviathan, the flame reflected brightly in them. "It is a hard thing to make such a change - and if I had come without you, my blood would have spilled - and theirs, too. But now they will live and their young will grow, and their songs will go on. I am grateful to you; and so will that tribe be, as long as their song continues." She looked at Leviathan to see if she was shocking him before continuing, "Things would not be different if we had the power and you had not," she finally said. "When I was young, I saw the cities Below," and when she said it, Leviathan could hear the capital on the word. "Far from Atlantis and the Surface, where the temples are great and the songs echo in the deep, and the knives of the priests flash. If they had the power, they would drink Atlantis, and flood the Surface, and the oceans would taste of a world's blood." She shivered at the memory before saying, with obvious reluctance to confess such a thing to a powerful ally, "Be-be careful of my people. That we have suffered does not make us sweet." She took a breath and exhaled, an audible broak of sound before she added, perhaps a bit more cheerfully than she felt, "Do you wear this skin always? Or do you shed it?" 

[Blarghy]

Leviathan was about to talk about how surfacers weren't always nice either, and could cause devastating violence for quite dumb reasons, but all that blanked from his mind at Sea Devil's final question.  Shock ran clear across his face, and he leaned back as though suddenly afraid of her.

 

"Why would you ask that?" he demanded hastily.  "How did you know?!"

 

Then a little prudence crept back in through the fearful fog that clogged his head.  If she was just guessing before, then she knows now! Leviathan thought.  Stupid!

[Avenger Assembled]

As Leviathan's volume went up, Aquaria leaped backwards without turning, away from the fire, only the bright reflection of the membranes behind her eyes giving a clue to where she crouched in the dimness of the beach. When Leviathan's actual intent didn't seem hostile, she hopped back towards him and croaked as if it was simplicity itself. "You talk like a Surface-Man." She hopped closer again, looking up at Leviathan, and added, "I am sorry if the answer was a secret. I have friends who do not tell people what they turn into at night," she assured him. And I can tell by how you look at me, she thought, but there was no use dwelling on what could never be. 

[Blarghy]

Leviathan's wide eyes still suggested his surprise and concern, but it gradually gave way to resignation and a little--just a little--hope.  Maybe I can trust her like I trust Bonfire, he thought.  Not that I have any choice now.  Still, I did help her, and she seems nice...  I just hope Aquaria can keep a secret.

 

The Deep One might skitter away again when Leviathan shivered in a weird and unnatural way.  Before her eyes, his scales receded as though washed away by an invisible tide.  Pink human skin took its place.  His reptilian features started to mutate as well; for a moment, the great beast looked like some huge, bald rat standing on two legs.  He only became uglier as he shrank and the volumes of excess skin hung off him in folds.  Then, in the last few seconds of the transformation, his body pulled itself together.  Sea Devil's suspicions were confirmed: before her stood a fairly nondescript man, light brown hair, flesh cluttered with freckles, not much taller than Aquaria herself. 

 

Even Bonfire hasn't seen my real face.  I'm not about to start showing it off now!

 

He lifted his arms briefly and shrugged.  "Well...you were right.  And you're right about it being a secret.  Please, don't tell anyone!  If people know, then my real life will get a lot more complicated, and I'd have to stop being Leviathan too."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I know many secrets," croaked Aquaria, hopping closer to the fire, the light looking impossibly yellow on her face. Reaching back to where her stored suit lay, she came up with a tube of translucent hydrating cream, which without comment she began spreading on her skin. She thought of the tortures that sometimes made Jessie weep when she thought no one was listening, or the whispers Tarva made to strange gods, or the many other things people talked of guilelessly around the Deep One - as if one who could sing across the depths of the sea could not listen. "Secrets of the sea, and secrets of the Surface, and secrets of the Sea of Stars," she said, gesturing upwards towards the scattered jewels in the sky over their heads. "I will keep yours." She knew what price Surfacers made of their names, and so she did not ask. Instead she said, "I am sorry you have to change, but I am sure you are happier that way. You have been a good friend to me. Do you like to sing with that mouth?" 

[Blarghy]

The shapeshifter wasn't entirely sure what she meant.  He shrugged a little and guessed, "Yes?  I like being Leviathan.  Most of the time.  That form isn't perfect for every situation, but it has a lot of advantages most of the time.  I can be stronger, tougher, and go places and do things that no ordinary human can.  Like discover tribes of Deep Ones," he added with a smile. 

 

On a sudden whim, he wondered if he'd be happier giving up his human life and becoming Leviathan entirely.  What did Tristan really have that the big guy didn't, other than vast wealth?  The more he expanded his heroic career, the more his social life centered on it; these days, his most reliable friends knew him as Leviathan anyway, whereas life as Dr. Delacroix seemed to be mostly chores and stress.  Was that where his journey was headed?  To eventually leave humanity behind and embrace his scaly mask?  Tristan wasn't sure how he felt about that.

 

He turned back to the present.  "Anyway, thank you for not telling anyone.  Is your nature a secret too?  With your armor, I probably wouldn't recognize you as a Deep One.  Is that how you like it?  I assume it would make life easier here on the surface..."

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria was silent for a while after that, blinking her great dark eyes consideringly. "Some know, some do not. It is easier not to stop people screaming every time." She blinked again, then went on. "I was not in the armies that came to Freedom City those years ago. But I heard what happened." She exhaled, throat bulging. "The ones who came to the Surface, they had been told that the Surface would mean meat, and water, and blood - all the things that they did not have. It is what happens. I do not blame the people here for being frightened of me, but I do not want them to be frightened of me." She croaked softly, scrubbing a three fingered hand over the pointed surface of her face. "When the Atlanteans invaded, I was...I was happy," she admitted, feeling unguarded. "But it was Deep One priests behind the invasion - and everyone knows. Things here will not change. But I have those I love, and I have food every night. There are those who have it much worse."

[Blarghy]

These heartfelt admissions made Leviathan turn his eyes down for a moment.  Then, he moved closer to the fire, closer to Aquaria, and sat down within her reach. 

 

"Maybe we can change," he disagreed.  "Humans and Deep Ones alike.  I won't call it easy or simple, but don't just give up hope.  I saw proof today that your people aren't all bad.  You're proof of that too.  Surfacers can be cruel and violent just like Deep Ones, but we've been improving for a long, long time now.  It's just slow.  We still keep moving forward as a species because good people see things they don't like about the world and work hard to make it better."  He smiled, only partly forced, and sighed lightly.  "I wish I had a way to help Freedom City accept you more quickly, and I can't even promise that they ever will.  But, the good things you do will help make it possible for your grandchild and all the ones who come after him.  Until then, the people you help will start to change their own minds.  They'll remember you.  I'll remember you."

[Avenger Assembled]

"And I will remember you," croaked Aquaria, turning her upper torso to Leviathan to meet his gaze. Long after you are gone - if I am not killed. "Let us sing," she said simply, "of what was and what will be again-" she cast those great eyes upwards at the night sky, and in them Leviathan could see reflected the impossible blackness of the night. "when the stars are right."