The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom (and Beyond!), Wednesday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had plans with Octavia today to show her the ocean -- or the parts of it that could be easily reached from Fandom in an afternoon, anyway. So while he waited for her to arrive, he puttered around his boat, checking over the engine and bilge pump, plotting a couple possible routes on his charts, and checking the weather reports and tides for anything that might give them trouble.

Everything looked good for a lovely day at sea. He put together some beer and snacks, and sat back on his favorite bench with his ukelele while he waited.

A pair of porgs hopped up on the crate by his feet. He did his best to ignore them.

[for one!]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

"A closed door is made to be opened," Duke said. "You want to head out into open waters, or keep cruising by the island?"

[okteiviakom]

"Open waters," Octavia said, without much in the way of hesitation. "Please."

Maybe she couldn't do boisterous, these days, but sincere was was still easy to hit even when she didn't necessarily want to.

[betterthanaplan]

"Aye-aye," Duke said, and steered the ship into a wide curve.

The ocean spread out in front of them, broad, empty, and deep, sparkling blue.

"God, I love that view."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's little forward lean was not a conscious decision, and yet it was so very necessary.

She exhaled like there was a weight sliding off her shoulders. "It's beautiful," she said, though maybe mostly to herself, judging by how murmured it was.

(She didn't know it, and neither would he, but she looked almost exactly like she had when she'd first seen the butterflies she'd mentioned in passing before.)

[betterthanaplan]

Duke grinned, wide and lazy. “Some people think it looks empty. They’re usually just not looking hard enough.” He pointed to a patch of extra-turbulent water. “You see those little silver flickers?Those are fish, catching bugs over the water. A whole school of them.”

[okteiviakom]

"A school of fish," Octavia repeated, like she was committing that to memory. Because, hey, new terminology. She sighed again. "That's one of best things about being in this time," she said. "If you pay attention, there's so much life."

There had been life on the ground, too, but nature was still bouncing back. It was a delight whenever she saw something new here.

[betterthanaplan]

"There is," Duke agreed. "In all sorts of sizes and shapes." He pointed out past the fish. "And where there's one type, there's usually another."

Larger shapes were breaching the surface, visible more by their movement than by any contrast of color with the water. And by their small, pointed dorsal fins.

"Porpoises," he explained. "Having a feast."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia didn't so much raise her eyebrows as they just bounced naturally on their own. "Wait, aren't porpoises kind of like dolphins?"

She knew dolphins first and foremost from myth, but she'd also seen a nature documentary or two.

[betterthanaplan]

"They're very similar," Duke said with a nod. "A lot of people can't tell them apart, especially from this distance. But look at the fin: see how it's small and pretty triangular? Dolphins have taller, curved fins. Their faces are pretty different, too, but you'll only see those if they --"

Fandom being what it was, and the Cape Rouge being very close to Fandom, one of the porpoises obliged Duke by leaping all the way up out of the water. Duke beamed.

"-- Do that."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was developing kind of a weird soft spot for his smiling, but anyone thinking she'd turn her gaze from that had to be crazy. It was like her eyes shone for a second.

"I saw it," she said, like there was any doubt. "Dolphins, they're slimmer in the face, right? Porpoises are more blunt, kind of."

... Relatable.

[betterthanaplan]

"Exactly. Dolphins have kind of a beak. Porpoises not so much. Their teeth are different, too, but you're not likely to see that outside of a rescue organization or an aquarium."

Or a theme park, but Duke liked to pretend those didn't exist.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was probably going to throw a fit about those as soon as she found out about them, yes.

"I've been close enough to the teeth of enough things that I probably don't have to get that familiar with them," she noted with a wry drawl. "I think I might like an aquarium, though."

[betterthanaplan]

"Baltimore's supposed to have a pretty good one," Duke said. "You've never been?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shook her head. "I haven't really been on the mainland much. I'm not sure I've actually gone far enough to lose sight of the causeway."

No, she knew she hadn't.

[betterthanaplan]

“Worried you won’t be able to get back?”

[okteiviakom]

"That's part of it."

It seemed like a fairly understandable bit of paranoia to her, considering.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. “And the other part?”

[okteiviakom]

"Too many people," she said. "I looked it up on Bel's phone once --" One day she'd have her own but guess that day hadn't come yet. "-- that over six hundred thousand people live in just Baltimore. That's overwhelming."

Not that she'd tested that theory.

[betterthanaplan]

"Cities do tend to get pretty crowded," Duke said. He was maybe wondering how easy it would be to break into the aquarium after hours. "If you pick, like, a rainy weekday . . . maybe in the winter . . . it might not be too bad."

[okteiviakom]

Now there was an idea Octavia would not dissuade him from.

She sighed. "That sounds like being cold and miserable to avoid being uncomfortable." Or panicked, but that was a step too far in what she was willing to say. "But, maybe. I didn't mean to let it hold me back this long."

[betterthanaplan]

"Maybe you can get one of those portal things? So you can get back fast if it gets too -- uncomfortable."

[okteiviakom]

"I don't know if I trust those, either," Octavia said - and yes, she could actually hear how many directions her paranoia was going with this, and so she made a slight face. "Sorry."

What for? She couldn't say.

[betterthanaplan]

"No skin off my back," Duke said. "No worries about going to sea though. Nice to see your priorities are in order."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shrugged. "It's like space." Proper space, not being on a space station. "Open, vast, not filled with people looking at me like I don't belong."

[betterthanaplan]

"You know, I was just telling Jack the ocean could be like space. Good to know I was right."