Comforts of Home? {Maui}

[Andrina]

While Andrina enjoyed her time as a human, exploring the parks, she was still a mermaid first, foremost, and at heart, and had to return to the sea at least once a week. Or some form of water. She's staved off the desire with some water-ride trips, fresh water or no. Still, she didn't know how Ariel handled it so well.

Well, she'd always been more fascinated with humans, though Andrina was seeing the appeal now, and there was Eric.

It helped the transition was so easy too. Even when she watched for the change, and was able to catch it, she could hardly predict it; just that about the time swimming or walking became too hindered one way or the other in salt water, she would switch from tail to feet. And whatever clothes she'd worn before. If she changed out of her t-shirt and shorts she'd come with (which she only did a few times and for shirts with Ariel's picture or such) those were the clothes she got back when she changed back.

She still gravitated towards purple, just like her original shorts, and probably off the tail she now utilized as she did a flip within Tokyo Sea, one of the more open spots she'd found that was perfect for stretching her tail. She dodged other human boats, though there weren't many today, and kept a watch out for Moana's canoe, though with sunset coming, the other princess (who didn't like the term, Andrina knew) would likely have already turned in to shore herself.

Something Andrina planned to do in a bit. It was still sad being here without Ariel, and the rest of her sisters and her father, but Andrina made the best she could of it.

As she swam down and then back up, she noticed movement and slowed. Something about the side-to-side movement of the tail paused her even before she registered this. That was not a dolphin...

Of course sharks were a possibility out here, but, as she looked, something made her not dart off immediately. The...pattern on the shark was unusual, and not like she'd usually see either here or at home. He almost looked like one of the little talking fish back home, if still a dull brown color.

But...sharks didn't talk, which made running from them easy. Still, curiosity made Andrina try to keep the shark in sight to observe even as she slowly began to swim backwards and keep distance between them.

[Maui]

Maui was a shark. It was a different look from sharkhead, because his whole body was transformed, instead of just half. He'd heard a little boy talking to his father about Shark Week, and Maui had become curious. Were there lots of sharks here? He'd never seen any, but he knew that didn't mean much.

So he'd decided to go searching. Of course, one thing he hadn't considered was that his presence would deter other sharks from coming near. His size alone was enough to scare off most creatures, so he wasn't even finding fish around. Weird, because this was where he'd met with Lilo for a few weeks, before she found out he was Pudge--and she hadn't seemed to realize he was faking being Pudge, which was kinda nice because then she didn't hate him--and there had always been dozens of fish swimming here.

Every so often, Maui would catch a glimpse of a fish head poking out of a hiding place, but it would always disappear quickly. Maui huffed as he swam, thinking maybe Shark Week wasn't a real thing in the parks, whenever Shark Week was supposed to be (he hadn't stuck around to listen).

[Andrina]

Andrina peered out once more herself, much like the rest of the fish were. Or those brave enough to not just high fin it themselves; or maybe they were awaiting an opportunity to do such. It was like night and day, the atmosphere before and now. Everything was still, quiet, and tense...sort of. It was't quite the same as it would have been in Atlantica, the fish around here didn't talk, or hadn't gotten chatty with her in her swims, but they did still know a shark and predator when they saw one.

She should do something, the thought entered Andrina's head. As a princess of Atlantica, she had a duty to protect these fish...even if this wasn't Atlantica. Well, or, just plan her own escape. A thought entered her head, one she'd only heard about from other fish, and never tested herself.

Ariel was the one off in the parts of the sea where she was most likely to encounter sharks, and even if Andrina swam with dolphins a lot, well, dolphins themselves were handy in both detecting sharks first and helping get her away.

Andrina made sure she was hidden, but continued to watch the shark for the best time, then, quick as anything she swam out and over and nudged him onto his back! There! Now, if the fish were to be believed, he couldn't swim. "Hurry!", she called to the other fish, "Swim away, now!". Whether they actually caught her words or no, most did, and that part of the sea became even quieter. Andrina herself back peddled, putting distance up and until she was sure he couldn't move, but continued to watch him.

[Maui]

Maui was so focused on looking for other sharks--or even fish--that he didn't notice the swimmer behind him. He suddenly found himself flipped, and the end result was he couldn't move. "What?!" He had about ten minutes of experience being a full shark, and he hadn't expected this to be possible. "What happened? Why can't I move?" He heard someone calling to swim away. He found his inability to move, combined with the voice's instruction, made him slightly anxious. Whatever it was she was warning about, he felt sure he could face it himself, if he could move.

He floated upside down, drifting slightly. It only took a moment for him to consider changing shape. He did so, changing from shark to dolphin to flip himself back over. It was fairly easy for him to curl himself around almost in place, where he would face the threat the voice warned about.

Only, there wasn't anything there.

Well, there was, but it was farther off. It looked almost like a human, but was too far underwater to be as still as it was. It wasn't completely still, but it wasn't treading water to stay beneath the surface, and it didn't look like it had any gear on. He swam closer. "Hey, are you okay?"

After swimming forward slightly, he realized it was a human. Half, anyway. The other half was a fish. Something tugged at his memory, but he couldn't place the word. And Mini-Maui was absent, and thus unhelpful.

((I don't know how the shark paralysis thing works, at all, so I wouldn't doubt that I'm exaggerating with Maui. But I thought it was funny this way.))

[Andrina]

The shark...spoke. That was the first thing that paused Andrina. She had never known any of them to do that. Still keeping her distance, Andrina nonetheless paused and turned to watch. And what she saw was the shark transform into a dolphin! Andrina was not foreign to the concept of magic, Ariel had got the sea-witch to change her human after all, and even her father's trident could do such, as he proved when he granted his youngest's wish of being human and with Eric.

But this was something all new. Though she still had no guarantees he was safe, just because he was now a creature non-threatening to mermaids, Andrina swam a bit closer, intrigued.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I...", well at least he wasn't upset she'd flipped him, or he didn't know. "Was just warning the fish about...the shark I spotted...which was you, but... how did you do that?"

[Maui]

Wait, she had been warning the fish about him? Maui frowned. Was she why he hadn't seen any fish around, when it had been teeming before?

Or... was it because he'd been a shark and had scared them off initially, and she was helping the ones who hadn't been as fast?

If the fish had been mortals, Maui would've been upset with himself. As it was, they were fish. And he didn't really care about them. They tasted good, but they generally weren't very filling. Also he was rather sick of eating them, and after a thousand years without a break, it was nice to be able to say that the last three plus years had been fish free. Beef, pork, chicken, mmm.

Maui considered that he couldn't show the fish-girl the answer to her question while they were underwater. He thought Sharkhead might work, but then, the fish were coming out of hiding now. Watching their colors was nicer than the emptiness that had been while he was a shark. "Let's go up, and I can show you."

The real question was, was the fish-girl considered a mortal or not? If she was, then teaching her who he was, was important. If not, he wouldn't care if she knew him.

[Andrina]

Though, for the most part, they didn't talk around here, as some of the fish who were slowly coming back with the lack of presence of the shark swam past, or nudged her, Andrina chose to read a sort of thanks in that and lightly pat a few back, but kept most of her focus on Maui as he explained; well or said he would explain up top.

She nodded and swam up towards the surface, but then waited to see if he would swim towards the shore or if all of his transformations were water based. She supposed it was ironic, her asking about his transformations when she had her own, and gained legs when out of water, but that had been park given and even if that was the answer in his case, she was intrigued to hear about it. "If you need to go on shore, we can do that too, or if you can't that's fine", she let him know either-way wouldn't hinder her.

[Maui]

"No, no need to go to shore. Just go to the surface. I'll be up in a second." In fact, Maui had come up with a rather brilliant plan, if he did say so himself which he did.

He waited until he could see the ripples indicating she had broken the surface, before Maui circled the ocean floor a few times to build up speed. After a few laps, Maui spun to swim straight up. He arced over the mermaid, and at the top, he transformed into a hawk.

Honestly, Maui never considered that the mermaid's words had a second meaning. He was more focused on his reveal. "Eh?" he said, grinning at her.

He switched birds, from tawny hawk to snow-white swan--plus the common black hook on his right wing. Maui settled himself into the water, floating easily. He preened, his long neck allowing him easy access to his back feathers.

[Andrina]

Andrina nodded to his words and swam up, breaking the surface and then glancing about for him. She needn't have worried about missing him, he would hardly allow that to happen. He shot up, arching over her in typical dolphin fashion, before changing midway into a Hawk. Andrina had known about the birds even before, some Hawk species hanging about near oceans; though not going to the surface like Ariel did, she hardly saw them. Still she could recognize what he was going for.

"Eh?"

He clearly wanted praise for his accomplishment. Andrina smirked, but before (or while) she thought up her reply, he changed again (no doubt just showing off now), this time into a Swan that landed beside her.

"Impressive", Andrina took the bait and complimented his 'show'. "Can you only change animals? I mean, could you be a merman?", she brought her own tail out of the water to show. Was he even familiar with her species? She wondered. And, having only seen animals thus far, she wasn't entirely sure if he was just some super talented one or if he was either a merman or human, or something of the like, though again she'd only seen her father and Ursula have such powers, and doubted a mere animal could, but one never knew.

[Maui]

Maui preened again, this time his focus on his chest. He hadn't gotten the praise he felt he deserved--at first. At the mermaid's eventual commendation, Maui fluffed his chest feathers, relishing in the pride she was showing him.

She asked if he could be a merman, and flashed her tail at him. "Well... I've never tried. I did manage half-shark once." No need to elaborate that it had been an accident. "I never heard of mermaids before I arrived in the parks," he admitted. "There aren't any where I'm from. I met one here, or at least she said she was a mermaid. I never saw her tail. We shared ice cream. She said her favorite was sea salt caramel?" Did it mean anything to the mermaid before him? How many mermaids were there in the world? He supposed they may not all be familiar to each other, considering there were demigods that Maui himself didn't know the names of.

"Tell me, are you mortal?" The demand came out slightly harsher than Maui had intended, but he needed to know.

[Andrina]

His current form of a swan was very suited to the preening he was doing. Andrina held in a small laugh, mostly just a smile, as she watched. She'd say it gave credence to the Human theory, she'd heard they were vain, but then so could Mermen be.

"Well... I've never tried. I did manage half-shark once."

Why would anyone do only half a shark? Andrina wondered, but let it go, though her mind supplied an answer, and given she had first met him as a shark. Maybe practice gone wrong?

"I never heard of mermaids before I arrived in the parks, There aren't any where I'm from. I met one here, or at least she said she was a mermaid. I never saw her tail. We shared ice cream. She said her favorite was sea salt caramel?"

Andrina would have already been thinking perhaps he had met Ariel--she didn't know of any other mermaids trapped here and felt she would have heard of it and been able to identify them if/when here, a bit presumptuous perhaps--but the sea salt caramel put it over the top!

"That was Ariel my sister! I'm sure of it!", Andrina said excitedly and smiled, before it fell. "She's...since gone back home", she informed, and since they were friends, as he said, or had met at least.

"Tell me, are you mortal?"

Andrina thought. "Hmm...yeah I'd say I am...there's Mortals and then the Animals right? So by that logic I would be. I'm not fully human if that's what you mean. Born, and still, a mermaid I only get legs when I go on shore and only here is it so easy; why?"

[Maui]

Maui spotted the confusion on her face, but he didn't really feel like reliving the why of his half-shark experiences. Unless she asked about it specifically, he wasn't going to tell her.

Hey, so the mermaids did know each other! And she had actually been a mermaid! Not that Maui had been doubtful, but he hadn't seen proof before she disappeared. "Yeah, I figured. It's been a long time since I saw her."

Maui watched the mermaid's face carefully as she considered the answer to his question. He was glad to see she was being serious about his--probably bizarre--demand. But she said she thought she was, and threw some logic in. He thought it was sound reasoning. Ruffling his feathers, he said, "Then really, you need to know who I am. All of my feats have been for mortals, after all. Raising the sky, planting coconuts, fetching fire, bringing up islands..."

Maui trailed off as he considered that, as a mermaid, none of these things had really affected her.

[Andrina]

Andrina let the Half-Shark topic drop, unless he specifically felt like explaining, which it seemed he did not. Oh well, her imagination could supply plenty of reasons!

"Yeah, I figured. It's been a long time since I saw her."

And it would be longer still now, unfortunately. Or, who knew? Everyone kept saying the magic of this place was so unpredictable, taking and returning people just like that.

"Then really, you need to know who I am..."

"Oh, do I?", Andrina smirked as she continued to watch him curiously. She wasn't really trying to cause trouble, and just sort of muttered it to herself, but was being a tad difficult perhaps, as ever! She still listened as he went on.

She wouldn't miss hearing what he took credit for for the world!

"...All of my feats have been for mortals, after all. Raising the sky, planting coconuts, fetching fire, bringing up islands..."

"Wow! You're quite the busy person", Andrina did sound impressed, yet went on a bit skeptically, "Funny, I've never seen an un-raised island sitting at the bottom of the ocean, waiting to be raised...but then I guess you finished off that work, huh?". She grinned, and also wasn't trying to sound unimpressed. She was impressed! If...maybe by his ego.

"But working that closely with ocean related things, then I guess you must have heard of my grandfather, Poseidon?". Probably worked with him with the way this was sounding.

[Maui]

Andrina didn't care about his shark-head mishap, which Maui considered to be so much the better. He half regretted even mentioning it.

Even if Maui had remembered Ariel's single mention of her home, he didn't remember where it was. It just hadn't been important to him. "Well, obviously you didn't see them because I did them." Was her home even near Moana's? "Or maybe there just weren't any islands for me to pull there. Or, maybe you couldn't tell before I pulled them. I never looked to see what was under the water; I just saw a spot that I thought would be nice for an island, and would pull it up." That conversation felt a little too analytical for the demi-god. Wasn't it enough that he did the work for the mortals, instead of looking at how it worked?

"Ehh, never heard of him. It took meeting Moana for me to realize that I was working with the ocean itself. I never worked with other people." What did Andrina's grandfather have to do with the ocean? It seemed a non sequitur.

[Andrina]

Maui was quick with an answer as to why Andrina hadn't seen any islands sitting, waiting to be pulled up. Obviously he had already done so.

His logic still didn't make sense, not even looking into the water and all; how could he pull up islands if he didn't know if they would be there? What if he just pulled up dirt? She knew asking these questions would do little to no good. "I guess so", there was more than a little bit of a hint of doubt in her voice, but Andrina seemed to agree and just shrugged that issue off as well.

Just because she found a level of fun in teasing others, didn't mean she couldn't also spot battles best left unpicked.

"Ehh, never heard of him. It took meeting Moana for me to realize that I was working with the ocean itself. I never worked with other people."

"Well, maybe he just helped you and didn't tell you", Andrina grinned. Ok, maybe she wasn't so good at letting things go unchallenged, even teasingly. She wasn't just egging him on, though. While she'd met Moana, and heard her explain about the ocean's connection, Andrina just couldn't separate the idea that anything the ocean did was controlled by either her father, or grandfather.

Given what she was seeing of how Maui was, maybe Poseidon just hadn't felt like dealing with him.

"So...is there an animal you can't turn into?", she wondered and asked.

[Maui]

(("what if he just pulled up dirt" i mean, that's what an island is...? XD))

Maui frowned. There weren't a lot of gods that he knew of who didn't want credit where it was due. "Why would he do that?" he asked, still trying to figure out what her grandfather's importance was.

"Not that I know of," Maui boasted, puffing out his chest. He didn't know, but he couldn't turn into the monsters of Lalotai. He couldn't multiply his eyes like Walu, or grow a second head like Taumatau and Tauagavale. He could become a bat or a lizard--both appropriately larger than the natural counterparts, but without the unnatural parts. "If it's an animal I'm not familiar with, I can generally change into it if I see it." He thought so, at least. It wasn't something he'd tested.


"So, you get legs on land, like Ariel? What, can you sprout wings and fly, too?" He hadn't heard of mermaids gaining legs, so his question didn't seem so far-fetched to him. Besides, flying fish were a thing, right?

[Andrina]

"Why would he do that?"

Admittedly Andrina couldn't defend all of it either, and it might have just come down to that Differing Worlds thing, but if she had to try, she would say it probably wasn't for the Men the islands would be made for (though Poseidon could have been more accepting than his son) but if it also help the sea, then it benefited him to get involved, whether he let Maui know or not.

"Dunno", she admitted with a shrug, "But if it helped the sea, which he ruled, maybe it was still worth it to help".

"Not that I know of, If it's an animal I'm not familiar with, I can generally change into it if I see it."

But it was tied to animals, per his words. Andrina nodded. So he probably couldn't turn himself into a merman...though he would also probably say he didn't want to. Still she asked, "So you couldn't get your own tail, I guess is what I'm asking", she splashed water towards him a bit with hers.

"So, you get legs on land, like Ariel? What, can you sprout wings and fly, too?"

He might have been mocking...or it might have been a serious question; either-way, Andrina saw the humor of day to day far to much to get offended and just laughed, "Nah, but I wish! Though I shouldn't complain, the instant gift of legs is a unique thing to here, before it required a sea witch".

Thinking next to demonstrate, Andrina made her way towards the shore, well used to the moment when her tail transformed, about the time swimming became hindered, and stepped on land in her T-shirt and purple shorts once more. "Mortal enough?", she asked with a smile, though she still wasn't sure if she counted, and it would really depend on if she counted for him, perhaps.