"Ulla felt hate bloom in her heart."

[neverwaitslong]

Who: Ulla & open
When: Early August
Where: around the Clipper
Warnings: Anger, possible ineffectual violence
What: Furious mermaid is not settling in well

Being captured all over again was bad enough.

But then there's this, her power stripped from her, stuffed into a body that used to be hers but doesn't feel like home anymore. A body even more ill-suited for being trapped in the confines of a ship than her eel tail was. At least that let her slither. Slow and unwieldy, but not impossible. Now, she'd flop on the deck like a caught fish.

The beautiful silver scales on the fish tail she grew up with are a reminder of all that she lost, and she hates it.

"Warren!" she yells. Because if he's here, it would at least be some consolation. He has to be here.

--

Eventually, Ulla figures out that the ridiculous ostentatious open seashell is meant for her, as a form of transportation. It feels like a mockery of a throne, an absurdity. She misses the fishbowl Warren got her. She misses her old cabin, with the comforting weight of water pressed around her. She misses Warren. And she's furious all the time.

All of the songs she sings are angry, impotent things that would tear the ship apart if she could put any real power behind them. She composes spells of destruction, and wishes they were more than an intellectual exercise.

[For Nanny Ogg]

Ulla glares daggers at her new warden. Or assistant, or whatever they're calling themselves here. "I've already had a warden for two years. You aren't him."

Comments

[neverwaitslong]

Ulla has no idea who this man is, so she only glares at him for his apology. "Unless you're the one who decided to hold me prisoner here, I don't know what for."

[why_me]

He slings a thumb back towards where the morning sing-along happened. And given his singing, talking about it like a crime is appropriate.

"You're good enough at singing, listening to me is pretty awful. I promise, I'm not there because I want to be."

[neverwaitslong]

"The music there is grating enough, sometimes I like to disrupt it on purpose. You're only helping with that." Even if her ears beg to differ.

[why_me]

"Well, far be it from me to be helpful. To the assistants, I mean."

He smiles a little and dips his head to her.

"Not a fan either?"

[neverwaitslong]

"I was on a different ship, with a good warden, and a chance of getting off of it someday without hollowing myself out completely." Somehow she doesn't see that ever happening here. She'd like to tear this ship apart.

[why_me]

And hollowing one's self out completely is...

Yeah, he gets why she chose that particular phrasing. Which is why he'll just nod in sympathy.

"I've heard a lot about your ship. It sounds... a little wild. But I think I'd like it better than here too."

[neverwaitslong]

"I had my magic there. And the form I'd grown used to, with the ability to grow legs if I tired of being beached with a tail." She knows why she doesn't have it now, but the knowledge tastes bitter, slipping from her lips more as a threat than understanding. "If they gave us all our power here, the ship wouldn't survive it."

[why_me]

He considers that for a moment, frowning as he looks at her tail and the strange device she's in.

"I can understand that. Though..." he tilts his head back and forth a little, "I might be able to help you with the legs if you wanted. I can't do anything even remotely harmful... but I don't think 'legs' would be outside of that boundary."

[neverwaitslong]

"What sort of transformation spell doesn't harm people, at least temporarily?" Ulla eyes him suspiciously. Not that this means she'd be willing to ask the favor, but being severely burned was the only pain she ever felt that was worse than changing from one form to another.

[why_me]

"I can show you if you want," he offers, because he doesn't mind the skepticism. A lot of his life and what he can do is a bit hard to take.

"There's not many forms I can still take here, but I've got one that should work."