Marie shook her head. "I haven't been to a protest before." It wasn't necessarily that she didn't want to, but that she didn't really think about it. She was sure that one more person at a protest wasn't going to make it any more effective. And besides, there were things she could do to be proactive about helping to clean up the problems than stand around and yell about them. "Maybe I'll have to try it one of these days." Marie also wasn't comfortable with crowds, so getting her to a protest might take quite a bit of convincing.
"It's nice to meet you, Jia. I'm Marie." She gestured to her name tag, sure that the other had already seen it, but pointing it out just the same. Jia was certainly an interesting person and Marie found that the time she spent talking to her seemed to fly by. Another person flagged her down and she told the dryad that she'd be right back. She wiped a few tables, refilled some coffee, took some dishes away and handed out menus to the newer arrivals. She took a few orders and made sure they went back to the kitchen while she attended to the ice cream making.
She looked back at Jia as she began to fix a black and white sundae. It was in a tall parfait glass with vanilla and chocolate ice cream, topped with hot sauce and marshmallow creme overflowing the sides. "So you haven't taken an aquatic studies class yet?" Marie had taken all of the required general courses in the two years prior, which meant that she was going to be able to focus solely on her Oceanography major. It was exciting, because even though she knew quite a bit about the ocean already, she was surprised at what she didn't know.
"Are you from around here? I grew up off the coast. My family still lives there." She didn't mention, and maybe other species didn't know about, her whole family. All three wives and half siblings. It was a regular polygamist lifestyle that had to be kept from the humans because it was illegal. But it was a very normal practice for a group of selkies. Marie had grown used to not talking about it, and not many people were close enough to feel comfortable asking about it.