2024-12-03 - Hey, How's it Going?

When the group broke apart to go and do other things such as get food, go another ride, or try their hand in the game section, Theo tried to get Huck's attention. He does this by tapping on the other man's shoulder since he doesn't know sign language. "Hey. You got a minute. Could we talk?" Not certain what Huck will think of his offer of talking but Theo extended it anyways, the invite.

"Hrm?" Huck turns, and he grins widely at Theo. "Hey, sure. What's up?" He tilts his head a little, "Is this about the hockey team? I'm totally trying to get a group together and you seem like you'd probably be great at it!" He then mock punches Theo in the stomach a few times, "Guh. Guh. Guh." And he laughs, "The fighting's the best part of hockey."

When Huck smiles when he makes that turn around so does Theo. "Hockey team? You gonna pull one together? Sure, I'd try my hand at that. Down at the ice rink?" That is where he assumes a hockey team would go to. Grinning, "I haven't watched a lot of hockey but I believe you. I was wondering if we could talk about the interaction between you and Esme? If I am being too nosy you can tell me to butt out."

Hands showing surrender and that he is cool to walk away from this as he waits for Huck's consent.

Huck nods, his hair bouncing from beneath the hat as he does so, "I sure am! Do you skate?"

He tilts his head a little, "Esme and me? I mean, sure," he shrugs. "So, what happened was she's got kind of an unusual name, you know? Sometimes, it's hard to read lips if people are talking too fast or using uncommon words, or if they have an unusual name." He laughs, "Honestly, I thought she said Ass Me, but, I was pretty sure, heheheh, that was NOT what her name was. Anyway, did she say somethin'? For real, Theo, if I upset your girlfriend, I didn't mean to. I can apologize if that would help?"

"I don't know actually." Theo tells Huck. "It doesn't get as cold in North Carolina as here. I just never tried it. Honestly, I don't know much about ice skating anyways. Just saw a little of it on tv." A slight shrug as he shares that.

"Hey, I get it and I bet when people mumble it is hard to read their lips. I bet you are good at lip reading, yeah?" He is simply curious and not trying to give Huck the third degree.

Taken back when Huck calls Esme his girlfriend. "What? No, no, no, she's not my girlfriend. I mean she is a friend and a girl but not in that way." Yes, Esme is pretty but he doesn't know what to think about all of that and looks horrified. "I mean I could ask you what you thought of Jett." Is he allowed to do that?

"No, I saw your face when she was reacting to your tail and your mannerism and you looked hurt. It bothered me and I wanted to check in with you." Not that he is a therapist but still his empathy is strong.

"I've been Deaf since I was four, so," Huck shrugs, "I've had a lot of practice. Have you met Elijah? He's cool, but sometimes he's hard to read because of his accent, so that can be a thing, too."

His brow lifts a little, "Oh, she's not?" He grins, "My bad, eh. I thought you two were together... Sorry. She's pretty, though. So, you know, no offense meant." When he mentions Jett, he retorts with a nervous laugh, "Jett? What about him? I mean, he's cool or whatever..." He swallows, and his tail betrays him, the end of it swishing a little down toward the sidewalk. "I think he'd be great for the hockey team. Do you know him well? Does HE skate?"

"My tail..." Huck licks his lips, and he sighs, nodding a little. "She um... Yeah, sometimes people stare." He waggles his elongated, claw-tipped fingers, "I'm kind of an oddity. You know, it's like we were all saying earlier. A lot of magic is just mystical supernatural superpower stuff, right?" He shrugs, "For whatever reason, all my magic seems to just be physical changes."

"I have not met Elijah." Theo tells Huck. "I did see his advertisement something about pirates and combat?" He shrugs a little as he says that.

He makes sure he's facing Huck when he speaks. "She just got here." Theo explains. "I can't even remember how we met. Maybe it was the ice rink?" He has slept since then and sometimes time here sort of just blends together.

"Naw, I'm not offended. Like I said I was picking up stuff unintentionally and wanted to make sure you were cool because I get this feeling that all the stuff happening to you is new too. You said you've been here a year? Me to. A year and change. And yeah, Jett and I are roommates. We live over at Fox Run." A glance of the tail and a knowing smile is given to Huck. "From what I gather in what he has shared I think skating might be a new thing to him?" Especially if ice skating is a rich sport to be involved in.

Theo has made a point to look straight at Huck and none of his other appendages such as his tail. Because as far as he is concerned that is still a person behind all of that. "I'm not meaning to be rude but do you shapeshift? Like the tail and your claws? Do you end up becoming the animal entirely?"

"Well, Elijah is a little older than us, but he's cool," Huck notes. "I didn't realize Esme was fresh off the ferry. Sometimes the families I do tours for kind of freak out about the tail. It's just magic is wild when you first encounter it, I guess."

As for how new it is, Huck sniffs, scratching the back of his head with a claw. "The tail's not new. It happened pretty early. Then the claws. Then the wingflaps. The fangs, thoug. Yeah. Those are..." He sighs, "This week, I guess." His clawed hands move to bury down into his pant pockets. "I don't shapeshift. This is just... all me." He shrugs, "But I mean, it's cool, though, right? Like, who wouldn't want to slowly turn into a monster?" He pulls out his claws and kind of holds them up playfully, "Roar!" And he laughs, because maybe that helps.

"I will have to catch him in one of his shows then." Theo muses when Huck speaks about Elijah in favorable tones.

"I didn't realize that magic could go that way." A hand goes to gesture at what Huck is. Again, not making fun but trying to understand. Taking a look at the tail when Huck talks about it and then the claws and the wingflaps and finally the fangs. "I mean, do you know what you'll turn into or is this just side effects of the wild magic? " But Huck said he doesn't shapeshift so Theo stops going down the route. "For what it is worth, I do not see you as a monster and I hope you are never looked that way or judged that way. No one has the right to do that to a body. They can have opinions but they don't have to say it out loud." A little huff of a breath heard when he says that last bit. He's got opinions and he just said them out loud. Whoops.

"May I be so bold and say this?" He doesn't wait because it comes out in a blurt. "I think you are hurting and you just want to be accepted and you use humor to get through with it. To survive."

"Honestly," Huck says, "I like to think I won't turn INTO anything. I mean, isn't this enough?" He shrugs, trying to still be good natured about things. "I worry sometimes, sure. How far might this go? But maybe this is it? Or maybe this is the best me?" Then he laughs a little, "Don't they have conventions for people who want to be furry? Maybe this is how I get famous!"

Huck's a little taken aback then, when Theo just calls him out so bluntly. "I'm- wait. What?" His brow furrows and the smile fades a bit. "I um... Am I missing something here?"

"Oh yeah, I have heard about furries. I don't know what that all entails actually. Any tails I saw was when I would go to the ren faire back home." Theo tells Huck.

But then Theo puts his foot in his mouth and he winces. A hand going up and down his face as if that could make his words go back. He screwed up and now he has to back pedal. Once he removes his hand he says, "I am sorry. I should not have said that. I hardly know you and here I go blurting out things as if I know everything. I don't. I'm sorry. I'll uhhh." Scratching the back of his head as he looks to Huck. "No, not missing anything but me talking to much." He admits. He's probably not thinking straight because a busy environment means Theo is working on filtering emotions even if it looks like he's doing nothing of the sorts.

Huck gently jabs his elbow playfully into Theo's elbow, "Don't Google it," he means furries. "It's a whole odd thing, and not safe for work."

Watching Theo suddenly uncomfortable, Huck softens, and his face displays a reassuring smile of kindness. His tail moves about to gently stroke Theo's shoulder, if he allows. "Hey. Listen, I appreciate what you're doing. Really. It's nice that someone seems to care. I just..." He shrugs a bit, "I just sometimes don't know who I am anymore. I'll figure it out. I'm okay, mostly, really."

There's a half smile seen when Theo's elbow is jabbed playfully by Huck's. Then he laughs. "Yeah, Google might give me nightmares." He agrees with Huck's comment. "Gotcha. Yeah, won't do it when I am about to perform because that might live in my head and that might be a bad thing."

When he did get uncomfortable and was berating himself he does see how Huck's expression changed and he looks relieved for it. The tail is allowed to stroke his shoulder and he can't help but look in that direction, intrigued. Huck is the first person he met formally with a tail that had not been pinned to him.

"I am an empath. That seems to be my magic." Theo attempts to explain. "I am truly sorry I jumped the gun on you without warning. But if you ever want to talk about it or want me to look into your emotions or what not all you have to do is ask. I can amplify and I can dampen but I won't do anything without your consent." He's still learning what that all means to so hopefully he got it all right.

"Look, if you can sense what people can feel, then you also know how YOU feel when you go to the mainland and you can't tell what others feel any more," Huck tries to explain. "The question is, which is the real Theo? The one that can or the one that can't? Which do you like more? Which makes YOU feel more like you? Now imagine it's not a woogie super normal mental power, and instead, it's actually a whole new physical thing on your body." He shrugs, not sure if that makes sense, but continues anyway. "Then add in the idea that we're all STILL changing and getting more magics. Are we becoming the real us? Or are we losing ourselves?"

Huck sighs, and then shakes his head, "It's maybe a good thing I'm the one being changed so much. I think some people would maybe be even more challenged by it than I am. Sometimes I worry about all of us. But mostly? I just don't know what I really am." He grins a little, "Every once in a while, though? Someone comes along and thinks my tail is as freakin' awesome as I think it is. And it helps."

Huck is making sense to Theo. He's understanding what the other is telling him. "For you, it is all on the outside where for me my struggle is in the inside." That is how he took what Hunt just told him. Hopefully he's on the right train of thought. "I think I have been an observer all my life of other people. Studying their body language and their actions. And here? Because we have magic that just stays here I think it might amplify what we already had within us. I mean again, Huck I don't mean to say anything offensive. But maybe in your case you liked a plushie? Maybe you thought of how it might be fun to become one and here gave it to you?" He knows he might be wrong but he doesn't want to say that maybe the man wanted to be a real life furrie. That isn't what he is saying at all and now it might be him not making sense.

"Those are all good questions Huck. I haven't thought of it that way. The whole becoming real us or losing ourselves. I hate the thought of losing ourselves and hope that even here with the magic we can still sustain our true selves." Theo is still listening and nodding as Huck speaks. "Do any of us really know who we are? Isn't that what life does to us? Make us grow? Challenge us? Maybe what is happening to you is to challenge you."

Looking down at Huck's tail. His gaze goes back to Huck's face. "I hope you see that I would not judge you or that fantastic tail of yours. I think you are upholding yourself well in it and having fun with it. "

"Can't say I ever liked a plushie," Huck notes with a smirk, "And I don't do the furries thing." He scratches the back of his neck a little, showing a hint of nervousness about saying the next part, but he does anyway. "I have, um... I have wondered, in that train of thinking, if maybe deep down I'm maybe more... feral?" He shakes his head a little, "I've always been a scrapper, you know? I played hockey growing up as much for the skating as I did for the brawling. Maybe you're right? Maybe I'm just a wild animal?"

"Well, it worked," he responds about it being a challenge. "I'm challenged." And to the last, he nods a little, looking off back at the others from their group over in line. He stares a long moment at them, and then asks, "So, um... What's the deal with Jett, anyway?"

"Feral? Such as the cats that live in the wild?" Theo asks. "Did you grow up alone or in the foster system?" Hands raised in surrender. "If I am being too nosy just let me know. I am just curious." He continues, "There is nothing wrong in being a wild animal I don't think? I mean if that is what you are in the inside right? It's just showing up?"

There's a glance back to the others that are standing in line and then his gaze goes back to Huck. There's a look of confusion when Huck brings up Jett. "What do you mean? That is kind of vague. Do you mean what is his story or something else?"

"No, I grew up with my mom," Huck explains. "She worked a lot, but, she wasn't like neglecting or anything. But, I fought a lot. Deaf kids are different. And kids in school are mean to kids who are different, eh. I refused to spend my life being bullied for being me." There's a shrug given, both of his shoulders and the middle of his tail all rising together. "I never thought of myself as a wild animal, but I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't love the excitement of a good rumble."

"Yeah," Huck answers about Jett. "There's this little touch of oddity that I can't quite figure out. Nothing bad," he laughs as he glances back to where Jett is with the others. "It's actually kind of... I dunnow." He looks back at Theo, dismissing the conversation then with a simple grin. "Nevermind, man."

Theo is still listening to Huck. "Gotcha. I grew up with both my parents and a younger sister. But the only one to support me being here is my sister. My parents think I am being stupid." He makes a heh comment when he shares that.

Nodding at the talk of having to fight because of the stupidity of kids in school. "Good for you. Bad for them being bullies. That is messed up. I wish that had not happened to you. That isn't right. I'm not the best fighter but I have been learning martial arts with Jett and maybe you and I can spar....uhhh....fight...? I don't know what the right word is." He laughs.

Theo turns to look at his roomie off in the distance and then he's looking back at Huck. "You could always ask him? I don't want to break any confidentiality he has shared with me. But I can say with confidence he is my best friend here and I am endearing to him. He is good people. Promise."

"My mom's just confused. She doesn't understand why I haven't gone home to visit." Huck laughs, "She asked me if this was some kind of Disney cult."

"You and Jett are taking a martial arts class?" asks Huck. "I didn't know there was anyone here teaching that kind of thing. I'd be down to tussle, for sure."

"No worries," is all he says about Jett, his tone friendly. He takes his hat off, runs his hand through his hair to fix it a bit, and then replaces the hat. "Forget I asked." He pushes his hands down into his pant pockets, rocking a little from his heels to his toes and back in an awkward moment of silence. Finally, he isn't sure if Theo needed anything else from him, so he posits, "So, uh, guess maybe we should get back to them or...?"

"Ha. Disney cult." That seems to amuse Theo.

"Actually he's the teacher." Theo explains. "I have been using what I have learned so far in my performances. Give a little flair or what not." Laughing to himself as he says that. "I haven't totally fallen on my face so I count that as a win."

Nodding at the tussle remark. "I'd be open joining the hockey team once you get it together. Can't promise how good I'd be in it."

A glance towards the group and then back to Huck, "Sure we can rejoin them. Unless there was anything else you wanted to ask me?"

"He's teaching it?" responds Huck, with a bit of an excited tone. "Ha, wow. That's really... wow." He nods, "I'll let you know about the hockey, for sure. Anyway, I'm good if you're good. YOU pulled ME aside." He laughs, and then, unless Theo had anything else, begins to head back to the group.

"Yeah, guess he knows a thing or two in it or he's got me fooled." Theo grins at Huck's reaction about Jett.

"Yeah, true, I did pull you aside. I am glad you are okay." He isn't sure if he's suppose to shake hands or what and at first he does that and then slips his hand in his pocket. Awkward!

"Thanks for the conversation. What ride do you want to go on next?" He too walks back to the group and goes into an easier conversation instead of the emotion ones he was probing at.