The ocean goddess sighed forlornly, watching the waves gently lap against the shore and over her feet. It wasn't often that she took the form of one of the creatures of this realm, let alone that of a human, but tonight was different. She stood amongst their world, unable to interact beyond a fleeting glimpse or the whisper of a voice. A goddess could not speak directly to the creatures of the earth, nor could she reveal herself without good reason. To do so would undoubtedly put herself in harm's way. They did not take kindly to what they didn't understand, what they feared, something she had witnessed for all their existence.
For this, she found herself at the edge of a barren space of sand, deserted and left untouched by man for quite some time. If someone were, by chance, to happen upon the goddess of the ocean, they would see nothing but an ordinary woman. Her hair was long, soaked with the waves this body formed from, and it hung loosely around her shoulders. Her body was bare, draped only with some sea life and vegetation that still clung to her smooth flesh. This might have tempted some men to come closer, but by the time they would anchor their boats and make their way to the shore, the goddess would have already returned to her ethereal form and back into the sea.
Over the decades, the ocean goddess had grown tired of mankind's abuse and neglect. Her lungs burned with the toxicity of oil and pollution, and she sometimes shuddered at the thought of how they used the oceans to wage warfare. How many dead were now buried beneath her waters? She could feel the life of the reefs and fisheries leave her as the humans took advantage of the abundance and beauty. At this rate, the goddess knew that she would only continue to grow sicker, weaker, and it was not a thought that she took lightly. A solution had to be created, and if it had to be born of herself, so be it.
The woman raised the palms of her hands to the heavens, watching as a cool blue glow arose between slender fingers. She would create a being in the image of mankind, and he would be her voice, her connection to their world. A daunting task for a young man indeed, but it had to be done. If not him, who else? With a quiet prayer to the heavens above, the light lifted from her hands and into the stars. As the woman melted back into the dark water, the light planted itself in the Pacific, off the shore of a small island.
The sun rose, cresting over the horizon, and with it a young man washed ashore. His brown eyes were wide, a bit confused, and his blond hair stuck out in several directions. Where was he? What was happening here?
"Hello, can you hear me?" A gentle voice called out to him. The man whirled around, eyes wild when he saw that no one was there. Was it a ghost!? He was too young to die! He literally just received life!
"H-hey? Who said that?" He asked nervously.
"Don't be frightened, my child. It was only I." The ocean goddess revealed her face to the young man, peering out at him from between the waves.
"Who are you?" His voice leveled, seemingly at ease again now that he could see her. Ron tilted his head to the side, taking in the beautiful disembodied face speaking to him. He couldn't quite rule out something supernatural just yet.
"I am the goddess of the oceans of this planet. I take care of all the life that resides within me, including you. I created you to communicate with mankind on my behalf, to help save and protect my waters. Man is poisoning my lifeblood, killing the creatures that find a home within me. I cannot continue to idly stand by as they use me to their own destructive ends, so I have made you in their image. They will trust you, communicate with you freely, but only if you have a name." The goddess moved her face closer, taking in his appearance. His body was lanky, and his face was covered in odd specks. Overall, he appeared to be rather average. "I think you look like a Ron, don't you? Ron Stoppable."
"Ron Stoppable. I like the sound of that, yeah. Look, I want to help, but I don't know how to be your, er, voice. Who should I talk to? There are a lot of people here with me." Ron turned and looked back to the island. Little houses on stilts bordered the white sand, and, in the distance, he could see people on the beach down at the water like he was. In fact, this place looked to be incredibly populated!
"The people of this planet have organizations where their leaders meet and discuss issues like this, organizations like the United Nations. Do not worry about it, my child, I will bring one of them to you. All you must do is try and convince him to listen. I trust you." The goddess playfully sprayed some water up at Ron's face before sinking back below the surface and disappearing. Ron looked around to see where she went, maybe in what direction she was heading, but all he could see was blue.
While her creation stumbled around on the beach, taking in his new surroundings, the ocean goddess searched her waters for anyone who could help. Thankfully, she quickly came across a member of the United Nations, vacationing on his yacht just off the coast. She gently guided the ship toward the island, doing her best to alter his path without bringing him harm. The man was startled to see Ron on the beach, to all the world a lost and confused individual. The representative began rattling off potential reasons for this odd occurrence, a shipwreck, a drowning, or maybe drunken stupidity? Regardless, it would need to be investigated before he caused any problems with the locals. Her job completed for now, the goddess let the ship steer itself toward the docks.
Ron looked up at the new man as he docked and came ashore, eyes practically glued to him. Who is this weirdo and why is he practically running down the beach toward me? As he drew nearer, Ron could see that this man was dressed in very fine linens, a prim polo shirt and pressed cargo shorts. Much finer than the rags Ron had washed up in. He must be someone important. Was he in trouble?
"Whatever happened, it wasn't me!" Ron squeaked, throwing his hands up into the air.
"Excuse me, young man? Are you lost? Can I help you? My name's Henry Evans." Ron lowered his arms and shrugged. Technically he was placed here, intentionally, by a goddess, but he had no idea where 'here' was. So, in a sense, he was lost. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions? I'm with the UN, and I believe that I can help you. Completely off the record, by the way, so no need to worry." The man, Henry, pat Ron on the shoulder. Ron looked down at the hand and awkwardly returned the gesture.
"Uh, yeah sure. Okay, so I'm not crazy, but this is totally gonna make me sound crazy. I was actually put here on this island for a mission." This drew Henry's attention. "I was created by the goddess of the ocean to speak for and defend the ocean on a global scale. She said something about mankind trusting one of their own, and that I should speak with this group called the United Nations?"
Henry groaned, dropping his arms back to his sides. He rolled his eyes and started to walk away, grumbling lowly about wasting his time on a drunkard. Ron began to panic and took off after him.
"Wait! I'm not drunk or anything, I swear! I-I'm not even sure I know what that is, but I wasn't lying to you. The ocean goddess really did create me, I saw her! She spoke to me! I have to protect her from mankind, that's what she said." Ron argued, trying desperately to get the representative to see reason. Henry brushed him off again and continued back toward his yacht. Ron turned to the water, giving the waves a pleading look.
The ocean goddess of course watched the whole interaction, proud of Ron's tenacity. He was being honest, it wasn't his fault that the other human didn't believe him. She didn't like to show herself unless needed, but this situation would probably only go in her favor if she did. Drawing closer to the shore, she called gently for the older man.
"Henry Evans? Won't you believe this young man and hear his pleas? Hear my own?" The man jumped at the new voice and looked around, similar to what Ron had done earlier.
"She's not up here, down there." Ron grinned, pointing down toward the water. Henry stepped closer and was met with the face of a beautiful woman. She didn't have any other features, to all the world looking like a talking disembodied head.
"Y-you're… You're talking to me?" His voice quaked. He reeled back, startled by the macabre sight.
"Yes. It is the only way that you will believe Ron, and by extension myself. It is imperative that you listen to him." She hummed, shifting the water around them so that they could step closer. "How can I help him make you understand? How can I convince you to believe?"
"Show yourself! Show me your true form!" Henry pulled his phone from his pocket and pointed it outwards. The ocean goddess hesitated. This, she had never done, but… if she couldn't do this, the suffering would only continue. A small sacrifice in the greater scheme of things.
Ron and Henry leapt back as the water suddenly swelled up before them. The ocean crashed up to form the top of an enormous figure, only half emerged from the water. The two stared up in shock and awe at the not-quite-human being they were looking at. While some features remained humanoid, this being was without a doubt not of their realm. What would be flesh was instead rippling liquid, a window into the sea-life that swam just below the surface. Large eyes remained the only feature on the face, endless pools of black. They blinked slowly at the humans. Henry reached a hand out as if to touch, but suddenly pulled back when the goddess growled in disapproval.
"Th-thank you." Ron stuttered when the being dissolved back into the ocean. He turned back to Henry, a smug grin planted on his face. "So, do you believe me now?"
"I'll try and get in contact with everyone immediately. Shit, they're not going to believe this when they hear it." Satisfied, Ron trailed after the representative, waving goodbye to the ocean as he went. The sound of the waves lapping at the sand was his only reply.
Boarding the yacht, Ron was suddenly nervous. What exactly was he going to say? He supposed he could just talk his way out, maybe add a few flowery details just to impress everyone. He rocked back and forth on his heels, starting to grow a bit impatient the longer Henry took. The yacht was nice looking, but he didn't think that he would be allowed to touch anything, no matter how tempting it was. Regardless, he was about to lose his control and touch a shiny looking device (just to see what it did!) when Henry came bustling out onto the deck.
"Alright, you have an hour to speak with the top nations, tops. Let's go, let's go!" Henry placed a hand behind Ron's shoulder to guide him inside. Ron gaped as he was shown to a wall of various screens, all of them showing the faces of various world leaders. They each took a moment to introduce themselves before they began. Ron just knew that he would have a hard time remembering all of those names.
At first, Ron stammered and his hands shook with nerves, but as he relayed what the ocean goddess had told him, he became a little braver. He didn't know how, but the specifics seemed to come to him. The goddess must have used her magic again, or perhaps he was created with this knowledge already within him. The blond negotiated with the leaders for what seemed, to him, forever. They spoke about trade, travel, and oceanic exports, about how important those things were for modern society. The ocean goddess would allow this use, but not without a tradeoff. It was agreed that the nations would come together to start efforts to clean her waters, and that they would not take advantage of the oceans for warfare and other acts of violence.
Ron had even managed to earn himself, well, this island. It wasn't necessarily something that he had asked for, but the other leaders thought that as the voice of the ocean, he should probably have his own country or kingdom to rule. Ron certainly wasn't going to complain, though. The inhabitants of the island, vacationers included, were to be his new subjects. They had even agreed to set him up in the largest house on the island as his new "castle"!
Negotiations finally finished, Ron was allowed to retreat to his new home. Ron looked up at the house, shocked by its size. This whole thing was his now? Sweet! He ran into the house, trying to discover what and where exactly everything was. There were strange devices, things like a TV, scattered all throughout the house. Ron didn't know how most of them worked or what they were supposed to do, but he figured there was plenty of time to figure it out. He fell back onto a soft couch sat across from a few large windows that stretched nearly from floor to ceiling. He glanced out at his wonderful new view, thinking back on the day. Mere hours after he washed up onto this island, and already he was a leader of his own country!
It was a daunting task, where did he even begin? Being a leader seemed awesome and all, but he wasn't sure he could handle the responsibility. Ron knew next to nothing about this kind of thing, but he was going to try his best. He only hoped that the people on the island would like him. What else would it take to make this island a real country? Well, he needed to figure out the economy, right? What and with who could they trade would be things he'd need to figure out. Would they still use the same currency, or create a new one? Or would they forgo currency altogether for a barter system? Ugh, why was being a leader so complicated?
Ron groaned, about to roll over and just burry his face into the cushions and sleep, when something outside the window caught his attention. He could think about these things later, this looked way more interesting. Peeking out of the window, Ron could see some people down by the water. It was a couple of girls, all clad in revealing bikinis, splashing water up at one another and giggling. Ron blushed and ducked down so they wouldn't see him.
They lived here!? Were all of the girls on this island so pretty? Well, er, as their new king and all, wasn't it his duty to go down there and communicate with them, schmooze the locals and all that? He wanted to know the people he lead, and he wanted them to get to know him as well. Embarrassed, he found himself desperately wishing for their attention and approval.
Decision made, Ron slowly head out of his new house, wearing decidedly nicer clothes. He still kept it casual, a t-shirt and some cargo shorts. A suit just seemed too stuffy. Where to first? The girls on the beach were obviously occupied, so he decided that he'd head into town first instead. The town was quite lively, filled with all types of people and places. Ron stared into the shop windows, amazed by all of the unique items he was seeing. So distracted was he that he didn't notice a girl coming his way. He turned his head just in time to run into her and send the two of them sprawling.
"O-oh! I'm so sorry, I must have…must have.." Ron suddenly couldn't find his voice as the girl stood and offered her hand. She was clad in only a bikini, the striped fabric barely covering her. Ron's face heated again and he tried not to stare. She had dark hair that hung down to her shoulders like black silk. Her eyes were just as dark, and Ron could almost lose himself in them. He reached out a sweaty palm and she pulled him to his feet with ease.
"It's no trouble! The honor is mine," she bowed lowly, and Ron fought desperately not to stare at her ample- focus, Ron! "You can call me Yori. You must be our new president or whatever, yeah? It's been all over the news. What was your name again?"
"Ron, and yeah, it would seem so. I'm just out to, er, meet the locals." Ron cleared his throat which had suddenly gone dry.
"Well, Ron, I'm glad you did. By the way, those shorts look great on you." She eyed him for a few moments, before smiling and pushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Hey, would you want to hang out some time? You actually seem pretty nice. I'd love to show you around to some of the local sights." Was it just him, or was Yori blushing, too?
"Sure, that sounds nice. I'm a bit busy today, I still have a lot of people to see, but I think I'm free tomorrow. I live just around the block, the small blue house."
"Oh, okay. That sounds great! I'll stop by at your place to pick you up?" Yori looked a bit crestfallen to be saying goodbye so soon after meeting him, and Ron felt a little pang of guilt. He would make it up to her tomorrow, but it would be unfair to everyone else if he ignored them all now. She might even help show him how to use all of those cool gadgets he saw in the house! Ron waved and carried on with his self-imposed mission. He passed a few others, families or older folk who must have been vacationing. Despite this seeming normalcy, there was still something strange going on here.
Before he could dig a little deeper into that thought, he spotted a pair of joggers… in their bikinis? It was an odd choice of clothing, he thought, but who was he to judge. He just assumed that maybe it was a trend on the island, and waved politely over at the two girls. They both looked over at him, the redhead freezing in her tracks. Her friend with the wavy black hair nearly ran into her, too busy staring at Ron as well.
"Hey! Watch it, Kim." The girl with wavy hair giggled. They leant in close to one another before heading across the street toward Ron. They approached the blond, one standing to either side of him.
"You must be new around here, huh? I'd definitely remember your face if I'd seen it before." The redhead, Kim, practically purred.
"Oh! I'm actually your new leader, Ron, so nice to meet you!" Ron smiled and reached an arm out to shake their hands.
"Oh wow, it's nice to meet you, too. Name's Monique." Monique ignored his outstretched hand and grabbed his arm instead. Ron blushed again and went to pull away when Kim grabbed his other arm.
"How about I show you around town to some of the locals? Or we could, you know, go grab a bite to eat?" She asked, batting her green eyes up at him. Ron was sure he was going to pass out between these two barely clothed girls, but he managed to keep it together long enough to bumble out a reply.
"U-uh, oh wow, um, y-yeah, that sounds n-nice."
"No way, you should come with me. I know this really great place of the boardwalk that we can go for steak, Sally's Steak Shack. Ever heard of it?" Monique tugged Ron a little closer to her. Ron was about to suggest that they just all go together when Kim pulled him back to her.
"No way, I had eyes on him first." She grinned, a competitive glint in her eyes. Monique smiled back, pulling Ron a bit harder.
"Girl, no you did not. I spotted him first, you just decided to run over here and talk to him first!" Ron grimaced. They didn't look like they were actually mad with each other, but he really wished that they wouldn't pull so hard. They kept going back and forth like this until Ron was standing with his arms stretched wide between them. Ron felt like his arms would pop out of their sockets if they didn't stop and let him go. He needed to make up some sort of excuse, he didn't know if he could deal with this all night!
"Um, sorry ladies, as much as I'd, ow, love to spend the night with you, I think I'd rather show myself around for the night. Th-thanks for the offer though, I'm sure you would, uh, both make great company and all." Ron pulled back in vain. Wow, these girls were really strong!
"Hey! You two caught a cute guy and didn't tell me, what gives?" Ron was suddenly tackled from behind. He found himself sprawled on the ground with yet another girl clad in only her swimsuit sitting atop his stomach. She, too, had black hair and dark eyes. They matched the black of her swimsuit that left very little to the imagination. Oh man, where were all of these attractive ladies coming from, and why were they all paying so much attention to a guy like him? Ron found himself more confused than anything.
"Careful Zita!" Monique squeaked kneeling down to check on Ron. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, that looked like it hurt." Kim knelt down as well and both girls started fussing over him. The third, Zita, just cocked her brow and jabbed him in the chest.
"You should hang out with the three of us some time, new guy. Who are you anyway?"
"Ron. Ron Stoppable, and, um, I will definitely take you up on the offer just… just not right now? I was just telling these two, but I'd really just like to figure some stuff out on my own. This is just all really new and I don't know if I'd be able to, er, focus much with the three of you. No wait, that sounded weird." Ron blushed and tried to pull himself up without knocking Zita off of him. The raven took the hint and rolled off to the side. The three girls all exchanged a look and backed off.
"It's cool, we get it. Listen, it's a small island, so we'll see you around sometime." Kim grinned, pulling Ron to his feet.
"Yeah, don't be a stranger." Monique chimed, winking at him. Ron waved dumbly as the three girls turned and started walking away. They chatted and laughed together before heading into a shop. Ron stood there, frozen to the spot, for a few minutes before turning away. The boardwalk seemed like a good place to head next, besides, his stomach was starting to growl uncomfortably. Patting his stomach, he walked down towards the beach.
The boardwalk was filled with all sorts of people. It looked as if most of the island's inhabitants were hanging out here! He stopped to talk with as many people as possible, but his hunger convinced him to move quicker. He had a lot of time to get to know his new subjects better, but right now he was starving! There were a lot of different places to grab food here, but Ron was uncertain about what would actually taste alright. He remembered that Monique had recommended a steak place. He wasn't sure what steak actually tasted like, but if she said it was good, it must have been.
Locating the steak shack, Ron saw that it was some sort of outdoor grill place. He stood rather awkwardly just outside. Was he supposed to just walk right in? What would he even order? He should have just grabbed something small from another place. There were just too many options! People must have noticed him sitting there because somebody came over to help him. A girl (yet another one just wearing her swimsuit!) carefully approached him and laid a hand on his sore shoulder.
"Do you need some help?" She asked. Ron startled, turning to look at her. The stunning blond had a confused and concerned look on her face, and Ron found himself once again lost in a pretty girl's eyes. Was he dreaming?
"I'm just wondering what to order, that's all. I'm not sure about this steak stuff." He eyed the big picture on the menu board suspiciously. It looked good, but would it taste good?
"Really? We can split one if you'd like, that way I can just save the leftovers if you don't like it. My name's Penny by the way. I heard you were our new king or whatever, Ron." The blond carefully took his hand and guided him over to her table where a large steak already sat. Penny waved down a waiter and ordered another drink for her new table guest. "This place has the best grilled steak on the island, you're gonna love it." Penny took her knife and carefully cut a slice off for Ron, poking it onto a fork and passing it over to him. Ron hesitantly eyed the little bite of meat, slowly bringing the fork closer to his mouth. Taking a teeny nibble, Ron was surprised to see how delicious it tasted! He didn't think he'd ever taste anything as good as this again. Was all food like this?
"This… This s the greatest thing I've ever tasted." Ron swore he could feel his eyes tearing up. Penny smiled and cut off a bigger chunk.
"Here, you can have this part." While Ron stuffed his face with more steak, Penny talked to him. She talked about how her day had been, some of the stuff she did around the island, like volunteering and such, but mostly she talked about all of the different places to go find food here. Ron occasionally nodded, but he paid rapt attention to the names of the other eateries. He was absolutely going to go try as many of them as possible tonight, leadership duties be damned.
"Sorry I'm not being a great… guest? Date? Aw man, I'm really bad at this, but this steak's just too good." Ron gushed, finishing his last bite.
"You can make it up to me some other time, maybe a real date? I have to head out soon, but it was so nice to meet you." Penny smiled, passing over a napkin with some numbers scribbled on it.
"A-a date? Okay, sure! Yeah, it was nice to meet you, too, Penny. Thanks for the meal." Ron got up and waved goodbye, glancing down at the little napkin in his hand. What did these numbers even mean? He'd have to eventually look into it, as it seemed to be important. He continued on his journey down the boardwalk, stopping at various stalls and shops to try the food. Penny was right, a lot of this stuff was amazing! When his hunger finally abated, he took to looking into the various shops.
One shop he happened across was filled with strange objects. Books? He looked around at all of the different topics and subjects available, but his attention was quickly drawn to a pair of swimsuit clad beauties (really!? How lucky was he today?). The two blondes were huddled close, looking down at a book in the taller girl's hands. Oddly, the two were also the only ones to be wearing one-piece swimsuits. Stepping a little closer, Ron wondered what it was that they were so wrapped up in.
"What're you two reading?" He asked. The shorter blond with wavy hair looked up first, the other girl jumping and nearly dropping the book.
"The 8th book in this awesome fantasy manga series. Have you read it before? Sorry, my name's Tara, and this is Jessica. You are?" Jessica smiled shyly up at Ron and waved a bit before looking back down to the book.
"No, I haven't read much of anything actually! I'm new to the area. My name's Ron."
"Cool, are you interested in manga?"
"I'm not sure, maybe? What's the series about." This perked Jessica's interest. Ron liked the pictures at least, so if the story was interesting he'd have to read more.
"H-here, you can flip through some of it a bit if you'd like." Jessica handed the book over. Their fingers briefly brushed, and the two blushed before quickly pulling away. Ron flipped open the book, at first confused about how to read this manga before the two girls help him figure it out. Ron was immediately wrapped up in the story. This manga stuff was pretty cool!
"This is so awesome, how many more of these are there?" Jessica and Tara looked at each other and laughed.
"It depends, that's the newest book for this specific series, but there's tons of different manga to choose from." Tara offered.
"Really? Where do I even begin!" Ron lamented, looking up at the shelves of other manga books.
"Oh, I know! Why don't you meet me at my place sometime and you can borrow some of mine? I've got a lot of different books, including the rest of this series. I live in the white house at the very end of the boardwalk."
"Sounds like a plan then! Will you be there?" He asked Tara.
"Yup! I live right next door, so we're almost always hanging out together." Tara nodded eagerly.
"Here, I'll buy this one tonight, are there any others you think you might like to start?" Jessica offered.
"Why don't you pick one out for me?" The two girls turned back to the wall. It took them a moment, but soon Tara was plucking a colorful manga from the shelf and passing it over to Ron.
"Here, this one's pretty funny." Ron flipped it over and read the description. The main character was an average teenage boy who suddenly found himself in the center of a harem. What was a harem? Jessica walked over to the counter and paid for their two books. The two girls bid him goodnight, and like that they were gone.
Ron tucked the manga under his arm and head off for his own home. It'd been a long day, and he was definitely ready for some sleep. Closing his front door behind him, Ron made a beeline for his bedroom. He set the book down on his nightstand with the napkin before throwing himself into the plush blankets and pillows.
He'd met so many new people today, and so many total babes! He'd eaten so much food, including some great grilled steak, and he'd found some new interesting things to read. If this was what being a leader was like, Ron couldn't wait to see what the coming days would bring him. He rolled over in bed and glanced out of his window to look at the ocean. The water had smoothed out, the waves considerably gentler, and the stars and moon reflected off of the dark surface. Ron didn't know if she could hear him or not, but thanked the ocean goddess for giving him life and all of the incredible things that came with it.