fandomtownies | Trooper Station, Wednesday Morning

The walk was literally a block and a half. It should not have taken very long at all. And yet, when the person being transported kept stopping every few steps to gawk at something-or-other, it took far, far longer than it should have.

So Calvin was maybe not in the best of moods by the time they'd got the intruder in to the station and were standing in front of his desk.

"Sit," he demanded, gesturing at the chair.

Mermaid	She...sort of complied? Mostly because her bare feet hurt after that walk, feeling cold and much abused. The surface of the ground had been harsh against the delicate skin of her feet and between the walk here and the walk from the cove, they were already cut and bruised and sore. But rather than sitting quietly, as Calvin had probably intended, she knelt backwards in the chair, neck craning to take in everything all at once. She felt like she had swum into another school of fish - everyone was identical. And there were just....so many things! Everywhere! And movement and sounds and so much to notice! Also, was there maybe food?
Calvin	Indeed, that was exactly what he had intended. “Sit still,” he amended, annoyed that he even had to specify.
Mermaid	She glanced back at Calvin (or, as she thought of him, 'Bossy Whitefish') since he was making noise at her. And then, since he wasn't offering her anything to eat or doing anything interesting, she went back to squirming around in the chair, trying to see what was happening right behind her.
Calvin	“Hey!” Calvin snapped, frustrated by the fact that she was apparently continuing to ignore him. “Focus! I’m talking to you!” He waved a hand in front of her face. “What were you doing in that house? Were you looking for something?”
Mermaid	She turned to look at him again, expression all blank incomprehension. Her wrists jingled where they'd been bound; the cold shiny metal was much less comfortable than the rope she'd been tied with before. Head tilting slightly, she blinked at him, eyebrows furrowing as he flailed and snapped in front of her. Was this a mating display? Was it a show of aggression? This was all very uncomfortable and her stomach was growling.
Ralph	It was very much not the first thing but maybe a little of the second? “Augh!” Ralph grumbled as he wandered by Calvin’s desk, helmetless. “That cat, I swear...” he grabbed a tissue and blew his nose, loudly. Don’t ask why of all the Troopers, Ralph was the only one with a cat allergy when they were all clones.
Mermaid	Her eyes slid from where she was being snapped at, focusing on the small box on the desk. Amidst the din and the clatter, she hadn't even noticed it before, tiny and unobtrusive, with a small, waving bit that reminded her of some of the more delicate sea fronds that danced on the tides. Slowly, she reached for one of the fronds, pulling it up slowly, carefully, like it might disintegrate at her touch. It came free easily and another was left in its place. She discarded the first on the floor, a grin spreading across her face, and reached for another. It did the same, floating in the air a second when she let go before drift to the floor. She laughed, the first noise she'd made all morning and grabbed another. And another. And then starting plucking them with abandon, utterly delighted.
Calvin	“What’s so funny?” Calvin demanded. “I’m asking you questions and all you can do is laugh? Is this some kind of joke to you?” That last was said with maaaaybe a little more force than strictly necessary but come on, he didn’t get enough chances to use his Cop Voice, okay? He was just making the most of it!
Mermaid	Okay, but in her defense, it wasn't the yelling that got to her. It was the sudden looming over the desk and into her space. One minute she'd been laughing and making it rain with the soft fronds everywhere around her and the next minute Bossy Whitefish's face was inches from hers. So she did what she'd do anytime something unexpected got that close. She balled her hands into fists and punched, hard as she could. Get away! she yelled, though to human ears she made no sound.
Calvin	Well, she definitely succeeded, sending Calvin flying backwards from his desk and through the air until he collided with the wall separating the sheriff’s office from the rest of the station. “You okay?” Ralph asked, scurrying over with the rest of the Troopers in the station to check on his ‘brother’ while also keeping an eye on the girl.
Mermaid	Oh! When he'd gone flying, something had clattered to the ground. She ignored everyone rushing over to check on him in favor of bending over and picking it up. Huh. What a weird little twisty bit of metal. It didn't seem edible, so she held it out at arm's length, offering it back to him. You dropped this! she sent with her mermaid thoughts.
Calvin	Unfortunately, Calvin wasn't receptive to mermaid thoughts, so from his point of view, it looked like she'd picked up the gun and was now threatening him with it. He groaned, both because hitting the wall had hurt and because he realized that when this was all over, he was sure to get a hell of a lecture from Kincaid about leaving weapons unsecured.
Liam	Yeah, yeah he was. And speaking of... Here was Liam, coming in to the station to let the Troopers know that he was taking off for a bit, and to ask them to please not drive Rosa to homicide in the meantime, only to be confronted with his Troopers on the floor while a tiny slip of a woman waved a gun around with a mildly puzzled expression on her face. His pace immediately slowed and he held his hands out as he approached the woman. "Hey," he said, keeping his voice measured and even. "Can you put that down?"
Mermaid	She looked up at the new person who just entered, his hand outstretched. Pleased that she could be helpful, she handed the thingy to him and skipped back over to where she'd been sitting. And then she grabbed the tissue box again, flinging the fronds up in the air as fast as she possibly could, giggling with unrestrained glee. Wheeeee!
Liam	That was easier than he'd expected, at least. He handed the gun back to Calvin with a sigh and a look that very much said 'We're going to talk about this later' and then turned his attention back to the woman. "Why's she cuffed?" he asked with a frown. Sure, there was the whole 'waving a gun around in a police station' thing, but judging by the way she'd easily given up the weapon in favor of, well, playing with tissues, he was willing to bet she hadn't actually been threatening anyone with it. Calvin summarized the whole break-and-enter thing, by the end of which Liam was pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand. "And nobody thought maybe it'd be a good idea to call me in on this? Or Diaz?" he asked pointedly. "Out, out, out," he said, face still in one hand while he shooed the Troopers away with his other hand. "I'll take care of this." He turned back to the woman. "How'd you get here?" he asked. "Did you come across the causeway? A portal, maybe?" He had a feeling it was something more like the latter, one of those unexpected sudden arrivals in Fandom.
Mermaid	??? She paused in her game, looking at Liam in confusion, head cocked to the side. She had no idea what he was saying, the sounds all blending together like the roar of the surf against the land. Giving him a polite smile, she went back to her tissues.
Liam	She was making a mess, which wasn't great, but it was at least a harmless mess, so he was more or less fine with that. What was less fine was the fact that his words didn't seem to mean anything to her. Maybe she didn't speak English? He tried the questions again, in Mandarin, French, Italian, Korean, Russian...
Mermaid	None of those got so much as an eyeblink from her, never mind comprehension. Nor did she ever make an attempt to speak aloud back to him, though sometimes she'd look and a hint of frustration would cross her face - a furrow of her brow, a twist of her lips - before she'd give up and go back to playing in the mess she created. At this point, she was sitting cross-legged on the floor, throwing the tissues up in the air and letting them fall on her.
Liam	Well this was getting them absolutely nowhere. He wondered at that frustrated look, but wasn't sure what it could mean. "Where are you from?" he asked, trying a slightly different tack. "Where's home?" He didn't really expect an answer at this point, but wasn't quite ready to admit defeat.
Mermaid	Home. That was a word she knew, having heard it over and over again. Not here, but when she came to the surface to enjoy the sunshine in the sea she called her home. It was echoed over and over again, mostly by small children. It was a place you wanted to return to. So she pointed out the window to the gray ocean beyond it. That was not her ocean, not the warm, blue-green waters with the white sands and treasures that she knew, but still, she could hear the water calling to her blood. "Home," she said.
Liam	Well, that was progress, at least. He wasn't sure how much she understood beyond that particular word, but it was obvious that she did understand that much. "Home," he repeated with a nod. "The mainland?" he asked, not really expecting much in the way of an answer at this point.
Mermaid	Blah blah home blah blah blah was what she was getting, but she nodded vigorously anyway. "Home!"
Liam	"Okay," Liam said. "Okay. We'll get you home." He grimaced, because technically she'd been apprehended in the midst of trespassing and he couldn't just let that go. "Tomorrow. Tonight, I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here." Yeah, he didn't think she was going to understand any of that, but he couldn't in good conscience take her off to the cells without at least trying to explain what was going on.
Mermaid	"Ok-ae," she repeated, pronouncing it oddly enough that it was clear she was just mimicking the sounds he'd been making. She stood, cradling most of the tissues in her arms. "Ok-ae. Home."
Liam	Which just made it worse, honestly, because it drove home the fact that she didn't really understand most of what he was saying, which made him wonder if she even understood that she'd committed a crime. He reached out with one hand, telegraphing his movements clearly, and touched her gently on one elbow, before pointing down the hall to where the cells were. "Come on," he urged. "This way."
Mermaid	She padded after him, wincing a little at the cold tile on her bruised feet, clutching the tissues. She hoped that wherever they were going, something to eat would be waiting for them.
Liam	Liam unlocked the door to the first cell and gestured for her to get inside. He hadn't missed the way her stomach gurgled as they'd walked down the hall. "I'll get you something to eat, okay?" he told her. "And," he glanced down at her bare feet. "Some shoes." Along with some disinfectant and bandages, because they did not look good at all. "Just. Stay here. I'll arrange for someone to escort you home tomorrow," he repeated.
Mermaid	"Ok-ae," she said again, dumping the tissues on the ground inside the cell. "Home." Ignoring the cot in the back of the cell, she curled up on the pile of tissues. It had been a very long day already and she was tired. And fast asleep before The Nice One could return with something to eat.

[ooc: establishy and NFI, preplayed with the fabulous

outofherdepths]