You periodically mist the elemental with a squirt bottle, using purified water. It seems quite happy with this arrangement and glorbs it up contentedly.
@Hikari The elemental "bloooorrrps" a bit in complaint but upon Seline filling the bottom with filter water, it grudgingly plorps itself into the container and pools at the bottom, like a grumpy puddle.
From your BnB it's only about an hour, so you'd make it right on time. The parking lot is, as usual, mostly empty with a few nice cars and motorcycles.
Weirdly, as you enter, the receptionist who is always there appears to not be there today. Her Switch is sitting there, though, so she's probably just on break.
You note that the clock on the wall reads exactly 10:29 as you approach her office door. The clipboard with your appointment time written on it is still there, and a few other people who presumably have the same 10:30 time slot are waiting around.
Two of the waiting people look to be computer technicians, as one of them is wearing a "I CAN C CLEARLY NOW" joke T-shirt and the other is holding a gigantic technical manual that must be as heavy as a brick. The other two look like field agents, as they're both wearing sunglasses, ear transmitters and SECO vests.
The moment the clock hits 10:30, there is a click as her office door unlocks and moves slightly ajar. All the other people immediately queue up and enter in a line, one at a time. Oddly, each person who enters instantly leaves as if the meeting only took a millisecond. In seconds you are the only people left waiting.
As you enter the room, you feel a second of arcane weirdness and your neck tingles, but then it's over. Inside, the office is full to bursting with a combination of books - manuals, binders, those really old research lookup books you see in library basements - and clocks, various different ones that look to be antiques and all of which appear to be standing still. Behind the desk sits an older woman with very long black dreadlocks and large spectacles, who is petting a cat on her lap.
"Oh, don't call me ma'am, I ain't my mother," she says, laughing. She puts the cat down, and it meanders over to sniff Adrian's shoes. "You can call me Nat. How can I help you today?"
She chuckles. "You must be a bookworm. I would let you borrow it, but if they leave this room the age catches up to 'em and they turn to dust. It's a pity, really."
"We're here because of these guys." I hold up the elemental in the TupperWard, after letting the cat sniff it. "Did you hear about all the trouble that's been happening?"
"Oh, that's an elemental!" she says brightly, leaning closer and adjusting her spectacles to see it better. "My vision ain't what it used to be, but it don't look too unhappy. The other fellows in here told me about the problems on the Elemental Plane, said a bunch of unhappy elementals have been wreckin' things everywhere. Where'd you get this one?"
"We encountered an aggressive Gnome butler and a fish man who summoned it. The Elemental said that humanoids would enter the elemental plane of Water and emerge changed."
"Mm," she says wisely, sitting back and seeming to contemplate that information. "Fish man who came from the elemental waters, you say? Looked a bit slimy on the skin? Gills?"
"Oh, I know what that is," she murmurs, darkly. "I had a hunch. These fire elementals, talking about being displaced from their home, that's gotta be what it is. You folks really are living in a dangerous time, aren't you?"
"We also found this sword and necklace that seemed to belong to the Gnome. We suspect that he needed the necklace to breathe underwater and enter the plane of water."
"He also seemed resistant to nonmagical weaponry, so he likely wasn't what he appeared to be."
"Mm, that'd be about right. Normal mortals can't survive long on any Elemental Plane without some protection or magic, they'll either drown or get burned to a crisp or get blown away." She pets the cat as she ponders for a moment. "I don't suppose SECO is doing anything about this?"
"Well, in that case, I hope you folks know how to breathe underwater," she says, pushing the cat gently off her lap again. "I'm only loosely tethered to the concept of time, but I have a feeling you're gonna be swimming real soon."
"Mm," she says, and stares at you a little extra-long, as if trying to figure you out. "Well, I suppose you folks should sit down for a spell. I think we have a lot to talk about."
