After Mal got one over on Uma again and they're left with neither wand nor king, it seemed like they were going to have to go back to the drawing board - with Uma angrier than ever - until they finally got a stroke of luck in the form of Mal's left behind spellbook and a little delay in the others getting off the isle.
They had to move quick to make it work, and that was the part that turned out to be their undoing. Well, Harry's undoing anyway. Uma made it through the barrier, pages from the spellbook torn out and tucked away in her pocket, the rest of the book left with Harry for safekeeping, and then... then it all went to shit.
It's not like it's the first time Harry's ended up in the sea around the isle, wasn't even the first time he'd been in it today, but it had never been like this. He smacked backwards into the water in a way that knocked the breath out of him, his attempts to shrug off his increasingly heavy coat only got him tangled up more in it and very soon he was sinking, struggling to kick himself upwards and catch a gasp of air.
He started to feel light-headed, genuinely wondered if this was it, if this was how it ended for him. His lungs burned, his body stung and he lost track of which way was up. A moment before he blacked out, his body took over and he tried to take a breath... and succeeded. Somehow. The dark edges to his vision receded, the panic subsided in favour of confusion as he continued to breathe. He was breathing underwater.
The stinging pain from his fall seemed to concentrate in his legs and amplify into a burning agony that seared white-hot for a few seconds before disappearing completely and all he could feel was the cool water against his... tail. What?
His boots floated lazily down to the ocean floor and there, amongst the tattered remains of his trousers, was a shining red mermaid tail.
He had considered it the possibility he was having some kind of near-death hallucination, but now it's a week later and he's still around... and still a mermaid. Merman. Something. He's kept to himself mostly, slunk silently around the lost revenge in the hopes Uma might return and be able to help him. Sometimes he hauls himself up into the ship itself, just to take a break from the polluted waters of the docks. The first time he'd done it, he'd hoped that maybe drying off would turn him back, but all he managed to do was make himself feel awful, so ever since then he'd either kept his visits short or used a bucket to keep his tail damp while he pored through Mal's spellbook trying to find a solution to his predicament.
After much work and stress, Mal finally tricks about figuring out that the spellbook is back on the isle, and possibly in the hands of Harry. A Harry that no one can recall seeing for a while. Jay offers to lend a hand, in the guise of being helpful of course-- but quite possible as a reason to see the pirate again. Not that Jay would ever admit such a thing, with them being mostly mortal enemies and all.
Plus, he's got a princess back waiting for him. Logic leads Jay to Harry's ship, and when there's no answer to his knocks, Jay lets himself inside. It's strangely vacant. It doesn't even look like anyone's been there for a while. That's odd. Jay is almost sure that he should be here, unless he went into hiding for some reason. Snooping around, Jay begins to rummage through some things, looking for where he might have hid the spellbook.
Harry isn't expecting anybody to be in the ship - nobody really has been since Uma left, except occasionally Gil (Harry usually avoids him, this is not the kind of information he can really be trusted with) - so he probably isn't as cautious as he should be when he hauls himself up through one of the portholes and into the hold beneath the cabins. Even if somebody was on the ship it's unlikely they'd be down here, so he doesn't think anything of it. He's still not mastered the art of doing this with any kind of grace and today is worse than usual, he lands heavily on the floor of the hold with a pained exhale, having to lie there for a moment to catch his breath.
A moment that is long enough to hear the creak of wood above him and realise somebody is here after all. Well fuck. Whoever it was they probably heard the thump of him hitting the deck, so he scrambles to get himself into a sitting position, pulling some grubby sailcloth over himself to hide his tail. It sends some boards clattering onto the floor but it's not like he hasn't already announced his position. If he's lucky it's just Gil, but his luck hasn't exactly been holding lately. At least he has his hook, and the spellbook tucked safe down here in the hold with him.
Moving silently through the berth, Jay figures that it should be tucked around the main deck somewhere -- that is until he hears a loud thud down below. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." He whispers to himself. He thought he was alone. Now he's trying to decide if he'd be better off running and coming back to search another time, or confronting whoever it is down below. If it's Gil, then Jay is sure that he can outwit him into telling Jay where the book is. Gil has never been that smart.
If it's Harry, Jay know he's in for a battle, or maybe he can convince him in some other way. They can be a little friendly here and there. At least he'd figure out why Harry's always touching him. It never ceases to catch Jay off guard when he does that. He's pretty certain he's caught up with a certain dark haired girl who can kick ass on the other side of the bridge, but -- there's always that part of his mind...
There was another loud clattering, and Jay knows he's got to go down below and find out what's going on. He needs that book. The Isle is not keeping her secrets today. Climbing down the stairs Jay peers around the corner surprised to find that it is Harry, but he looks strange. He's sitting down with a long piece of sail stretched awkwardly over his legs. "Oi, Harry, what're you doing there like that. You come in down here instead of up top?" Jay asks, suddenly confused.
Well, looks like his luck is exactly as it has been. Fuck. Of all the people...
In any other circumstance he'd prefer Jay to any of the other goody-two-shoe-traiters that left the island, he can't quite bring himself to hate Jay as much as the rest of them, though his leaving stings worse than the others for reasons he is not going to examine too closely, but right now... he's vulnerable, everything is awkward and he really doesn't want Jay to see him like this.
So of course he goes on the defensive right away. He lounges against a box like it is totally normal that he's just chilling in the hold and jumps to accusations while he scrambles for an excuse that makes sense.
"Questioning me on my own ship? Tsk tsk Jay, and I thought they were teaching you manners in Bore-adon?" He drawls with a teasing smirk "And what are you doing here, hmm?"
Shit. Fuck. He technically was trespassing, but that doesn't matter. He's got a perfectly good reason to be here, and the fact that his eyes might be eyeing Harry for the space of several minutes too long before looking away doesn't mean a damn thing.
Rocking back on his heels, Jay leans over the stair railing and shrugs like he's lived here his whole life and does what any good kid from this side of the water would, he lies. "I found a tool I thought was yours, and the door was open, so I dropped it off and heard noises. I didn't want your ship broken into so I came down here. What are YOU doing down here like this?"
It was questionable, especially how he was lying. There was just... something off about it. Harry had no idea what, but the angle was awkward. He wanted to advance, but he wasn't sure if he was brave enough standing here by himself.
Harry raises an eyebrow at Jay's story, skeptical. Jay is entirely casual, frustratingly so in the face of Harry's own lack of a decent story, but his tale still doesn't entirely add up - why would he come all the way here to drop off a tool he thought belonged to Harry? As though it was so simple and easy for them to hop back and forth across the barrier.
He wonders, then, if he can brush Jay off, get him to go away, swim round to the bridge before he gets there. If he times it right maybe he can get through the barrier, and once he's on the other side... well, maybe that'll fix his stupid tail problem just by being there, or at least he can try and find Uma.
Of course the plan requires getting Jay to leave, and he's being far too nosy.
"How is that any of your business? I can do what I want." He waves a hand airily, hoping his stubborn refusal to answer will annoy Jay and make him leave and not keep asking questions.
Only then his luck continues to be impeccably bad. Another ship must pass or something because the water in the docks swells enough that the Revenge tilts a little more than the gentle bobbing it usually gets, and since Harry pulled the sailcloth over himself it's no longer stopping one of the boxes from sliding. It's a little bit of a domino effect, various things sliding or toppling, and suddenly there's a box falling towards him and he acts on instinct, rolling away before it can hit him.
The cloth is too heavy to move with him, so while he manages to successfully dodge a nasty concussion, it takes Harry mere moments to go from casually lying through his teeth to sprawled across the deck with his tail fully on show, red scales shining slightly in the lamplight. Well, fuck.
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timeasmymeasure
Part of your world
Date: 2024-08-03 12:15 pm (UTC)After Mal got one over on Uma again and they're left with neither wand nor king, it seemed like they were going to have to go back to the drawing board - with Uma angrier than ever - until they finally got a stroke of luck in the form of Mal's left behind spellbook and a little delay in the others getting off the isle.
They had to move quick to make it work, and that was the part that turned out to be their undoing. Well, Harry's undoing anyway. Uma made it through the barrier, pages from the spellbook torn out and tucked away in her pocket, the rest of the book left with Harry for safekeeping, and then... then it all went to shit.
It's not like it's the first time Harry's ended up in the sea around the isle, wasn't even the first time he'd been in it today, but it had never been like this. He smacked backwards into the water in a way that knocked the breath out of him, his attempts to shrug off his increasingly heavy coat only got him tangled up more in it and very soon he was sinking, struggling to kick himself upwards and catch a gasp of air.
He started to feel light-headed, genuinely wondered if this was it, if this was how it ended for him. His lungs burned, his body stung and he lost track of which way was up. A moment before he blacked out, his body took over and he tried to take a breath... and succeeded. Somehow. The dark edges to his vision receded, the panic subsided in favour of confusion as he continued to breathe. He was breathing underwater.
The stinging pain from his fall seemed to concentrate in his legs and amplify into a burning agony that seared white-hot for a few seconds before disappearing completely and all he could feel was the cool water against his... tail. What?
His boots floated lazily down to the ocean floor and there, amongst the tattered remains of his trousers, was a shining red mermaid tail.
He had considered it the possibility he was having some kind of near-death hallucination, but now it's a week later and he's still around... and still a mermaid. Merman. Something. He's kept to himself mostly, slunk silently around the lost revenge in the hopes Uma might return and be able to help him. Sometimes he hauls himself up into the ship itself, just to take a break from the polluted waters of the docks. The first time he'd done it, he'd hoped that maybe drying off would turn him back, but all he managed to do was make himself feel awful, so ever since then he'd either kept his visits short or used a bucket to keep his tail damp while he pored through Mal's spellbook trying to find a solution to his predicament.
He isn't having much luck.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-04 09:10 pm (UTC)Plus, he's got a princess back waiting for him. Logic leads Jay to Harry's ship, and when there's no answer to his knocks, Jay lets himself inside. It's strangely vacant. It doesn't even look like anyone's been there for a while. That's odd. Jay is almost sure that he should be here, unless he went into hiding for some reason. Snooping around, Jay begins to rummage through some things, looking for where he might have hid the spellbook.
He really can't go back without it.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-18 11:37 pm (UTC)Harry isn't expecting anybody to be in the ship - nobody really has been since Uma left, except occasionally Gil (Harry usually avoids him, this is not the kind of information he can really be trusted with) - so he probably isn't as cautious as he should be when he hauls himself up through one of the portholes and into the hold beneath the cabins. Even if somebody was on the ship it's unlikely they'd be down here, so he doesn't think anything of it. He's still not mastered the art of doing this with any kind of grace and today is worse than usual, he lands heavily on the floor of the hold with a pained exhale, having to lie there for a moment to catch his breath.
A moment that is long enough to hear the creak of wood above him and realise somebody is here after all. Well fuck. Whoever it was they probably heard the thump of him hitting the deck, so he scrambles to get himself into a sitting position, pulling some grubby sailcloth over himself to hide his tail. It sends some boards clattering onto the floor but it's not like he hasn't already announced his position. If he's lucky it's just Gil, but his luck hasn't exactly been holding lately. At least he has his hook, and the spellbook tucked safe down here in the hold with him.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-27 02:26 pm (UTC)If it's Harry, Jay know he's in for a battle, or maybe he can convince him in some other way. They can be a little friendly here and there. At least he'd figure out why Harry's always touching him. It never ceases to catch Jay off guard when he does that. He's pretty certain he's caught up with a certain dark haired girl who can kick ass on the other side of the bridge, but -- there's always that part of his mind...
There was another loud clattering, and Jay knows he's got to go down below and find out what's going on. He needs that book. The Isle is not keeping her secrets today. Climbing down the stairs Jay peers around the corner surprised to find that it is Harry, but he looks strange. He's sitting down with a long piece of sail stretched awkwardly over his legs. "Oi, Harry, what're you doing there like that. You come in down here instead of up top?" Jay asks, suddenly confused.
no subject
Date: 2024-11-06 01:13 pm (UTC)Well, looks like his luck is exactly as it has been. Fuck. Of all the people...
In any other circumstance he'd prefer Jay to any of the other goody-two-shoe-traiters that left the island, he can't quite bring himself to hate Jay as much as the rest of them, though his leaving stings worse than the others for reasons he is not going to examine too closely, but right now... he's vulnerable, everything is awkward and he really doesn't want Jay to see him like this.
So of course he goes on the defensive right away. He lounges against a box like it is totally normal that he's just chilling in the hold and jumps to accusations while he scrambles for an excuse that makes sense.
"Questioning me on my own ship? Tsk tsk Jay, and I thought they were teaching you manners in Bore-adon?" He drawls with a teasing smirk "And what are you doing here, hmm?"
no subject
Date: 2025-03-16 09:39 pm (UTC)Rocking back on his heels, Jay leans over the stair railing and shrugs like he's lived here his whole life and does what any good kid from this side of the water would, he lies. "I found a tool I thought was yours, and the door was open, so I dropped it off and heard noises. I didn't want your ship broken into so I came down here. What are YOU doing down here like this?"
It was questionable, especially how he was lying. There was just... something off about it. Harry had no idea what, but the angle was awkward. He wanted to advance, but he wasn't sure if he was brave enough standing here by himself.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-17 12:38 am (UTC)Harry raises an eyebrow at Jay's story, skeptical. Jay is entirely casual, frustratingly so in the face of Harry's own lack of a decent story, but his tale still doesn't entirely add up - why would he come all the way here to drop off a tool he thought belonged to Harry? As though it was so simple and easy for them to hop back and forth across the barrier.
He wonders, then, if he can brush Jay off, get him to go away, swim round to the bridge before he gets there. If he times it right maybe he can get through the barrier, and once he's on the other side... well, maybe that'll fix his stupid tail problem just by being there, or at least he can try and find Uma.
Of course the plan requires getting Jay to leave, and he's being far too nosy.
"How is that any of your business? I can do what I want." He waves a hand airily, hoping his stubborn refusal to answer will annoy Jay and make him leave and not keep asking questions.
Only then his luck continues to be impeccably bad. Another ship must pass or something because the water in the docks swells enough that the Revenge tilts a little more than the gentle bobbing it usually gets, and since Harry pulled the sailcloth over himself it's no longer stopping one of the boxes from sliding. It's a little bit of a domino effect, various things sliding or toppling, and suddenly there's a box falling towards him and he acts on instinct, rolling away before it can hit him.
The cloth is too heavy to move with him, so while he manages to successfully dodge a nasty concussion, it takes Harry mere moments to go from casually lying through his teeth to sprawled across the deck with his tail fully on show, red scales shining slightly in the lamplight. Well, fuck.