whisted | for jollyboat: anywhere you go

He doesn't quite fit.

Horatio had known, of course, that he wouldn't. Even if he had managed to make his way onto a ship years ago, everyone would have known he was odd. Perhaps it's for the best that he's clearly just a bit skittish, just a bit uncertain of himself unlike the other young men his age. Perhaps that would distract the human mind from looking to see just why, exactly, this one didn't seem to be quite entirely right.

It was, nonetheless, one thing to know and another thing to live. Being bundled in heavy unfamiliar fabric is surprisingly uncomfortable. The uniform is far more restrictive than the clothing he had forced himself to become accustomed to while hovering around the port. The sensation of being on a boat, despite the familiarity of the sea, is throwing his stomach through something of a loop. He can't shift and change direction. He can't twist along with the waves, comfortable and easy, or cut through below the discomfort of breakers tugging in the wrong direction. It's unnatural, here on a warped version of the surface. It's twisting something uncomfortable in his shoulders, almost dizzying as he tries to find his feet under him.

This is what he wanted, and it doesn't quite fit.

For the most part, feeling his skin in the sack slung over his shoulders is reassuring. His fingers can worry against the familiar softness with each odd rush of discomfort. This, after all, is the back-up plan. This is the fail-safe if everything falls completely to pieces and he needs to throw himself simply back into the sea. This is the piece of himself which will always fit properly, no matter where he is.

That's why it's resting at the top of his sack as he scrambles up properly into the ship. That's why, in the bluster of humanity, the young selkie doesn't notice that his skin has spilled out onto the deck.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

"It's-- okay?"

It's easier to be nervous about the prospect of imposing upon the other selkie's hospitality than the fact he'd bit through the fish so easily. That's a bit of a strange realization.

"If I... stay a little while?"

From:

midship

Another turn, and the fish vanishes entirely. There's the faintest bit of a hum as Horatio pushes the salted fish closer to Elliot again.

"It is. We've done it before, hm?"

Not with anyone so completely skittish as Elliot, but not so far off from it.

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

"--Really?"

That's surprising, though he supposes it shouldn't be. That distracts him a moment from getting more fish.

That also has him just a bit more willing to trust Archie, though he doesn't quite realize it just yet.

From:

midship

"Really."

Mostly happy stories. Mostly quiet successes and friends who sometimes reappeared out of the blue. But not all.

"This is a good place to hide."

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

"Huh."

That does make it feel a little safer to settle in a bit more properly into the chair; to take a bit more fish.

"'s-- really nice of you."

He's not used to that.

From:

midship

Every inch Elliot relaxes is a victory. Every inch is also another step toward the pup feeling comfortable when Archie comes back, Horatio is fairly certain.

None of that stops the faintly sad smile that flits across the older selkie's features.

"It's important."

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

Of course he sees that sad smile. Of course he can't help but ask the quiet question.

"Do-- a lot of us get-- trapped like this?

His particular case is a somewhat unique one, but he doesn't realize that just yet.

From:

midship

"More often than I'd like."

Things are settling a little. Sinking into the chair probably isn't disruptive now that the room is seeming safer--and it gives Horatio something to do as he controls his own voice.

"There are... waves. People here forget, or stop believing, and we get... bolder. Then people-- believe again, and enough of them are... cruel that we have to be-- cautious again."

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

He doesn't startle as Horatio moves to sit down. That's likely a good sign.

"That sounds-- hard."

A lot about their existence is, apparently.

From:

midship

This smile is a little stronger.

"It is." Less so with Archie beside him. Less so with each successful extraction of selkies tethered to the shore against their own will. "But we're strong."

There's the faintest pause as Horatio works a thought briefly over in his own mind. It ends with a small shift to pull his own skin free, held reverently against his own heart where the younger selkie can see it.

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

Of course Elliot's going to crane his head forward to get a better look at the skin. It's his first time seeing a skin that isn't his own, after all.

It's just that, seeing the skin, he can't help but ask the question that's been lingering in the back of his mind ever since he learned about Archie Kennedy.

"Why d'you-- keep coming back on land t'him if he-- took it away before?"

Why does he trust Archie, when the man had to have taken possession of his skin in order to be able to return it?

From:

midship

That does briefly duck Horatio's head, nose pressing briefly in against the warm folds of the skin before nestling it in against the bare skin at his throat.

It's an important question. It's the sort of question pups needed to hear the answer to.

"...I had dropped it." Even now, this many years later, the memory curls his shoulders in slightly. "He picked it up. Even... when he had it, he... didn't want to keep it."

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

"Oh."

Elliot's quite clearly surprised at that, glancing briefly over his shoulder towards the door he'd last heard the man at.

"So he never-- trapped you." He can't help but sound a bit envious of the fact, "I didn't think any of them would-- be like that."

All he knows of humans, after all, are the terrible family that had kept him prisoner and hid his true self from him for years.

From:

midship

His mother had taught him this. She had clutched his hand so tight it nearly crushed the feelings into his bones. It's a good thing his hands are full of his own skin, keeping him from reaching out abruptly for Elliot.

"Some of them are." Which is important. "Some of them are safe."

There's a wry flicker to his smile, one hand pulling free to push the dried fish toward the pup again. Food and sleep would help make this stick too.

"You have to be... careful, but you can't... give up on them completely."

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

“How d’you— figure it out?”

Asked as he goes to get another fish, most of his attention on the older selkie. He can’t help but want to learn everything, after all.

From:

midship

"Time. And... learning to watch the rest of us."

Elliot was older than most pups were when they started watching their elders watch the world of men. Horatio suspects this young one already has a much sharper instinct than he realizes all the same.

"We'll go piece by piece."

As long as Elliot wants to stay.

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

"Okay."

That's easy enough to accept as he munches on a fish.

"But-- first, tonight-- the sea?"

It's only been a few minutes since they exited the water, but he's still pretty desperate.

From:

midship

"Tonight, the sea."

It will do this poor pup good. It will ease something in him that stepping briefly among the waves couldn't fix.

"You'll sleep?"

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

"'ll try."

He's never slept particularly well, but it surely can't hurt.

From:

midship

Horatio's hum is soft, attention already beginning to scatter along to the night ahead. This wouldn't be exactly like the teaching he had received from his own mother--but they would manage.

His fingers twist absently in his own fur for a moment before he thinks to add, "Try with your skin. Just-- like a pillow."

It helped, when things were hard. Things were looking up for this pup, true, but there seemed to be quite a few years of difficulty to make up for now.

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

“‘s okay to?”

He feels like he ought to be more delicate with it than that, but there’s clearly a lot he doesn’t know about this new life.

From:

midship

"It is." That's important to make clear. "It's you. Shouldn't be... rough with it, but... it's you."

And that's something Elliot needs to get used to all over again.

From:

meonmyway2stealurgirl

"It's-- me."

His voice shakes entirely at that, his lower lip wobbling briefly before he drops his head. Petting his skin for a moment helps to make the words sink in and provides him with an excuse to look away to compose himself.

When he glances up again, his expression is more like silent stone, though there's gratitude in his eyes and his voice.

"Thank you, si-- Mister Horatio.

From:

midship

It's heart-wrenching, but Horatio forces his features into a soft expression like a smile.

"Hm. Let's get you settled."

Sleep would help with that. Sleep would also let the poor pup have a few hours without having to carry this heavy load.