#conartist

Jordan couldn’t breathe and time was quickly running out. He wasn’t even sure how close he was from the shore when he’d somehow gotten tangled in some netting that had been discarded in the ocean.

Fucking humans and their trash, there is no way I’m going out like this.

The ropes were so tight though, when it had first happened Jordan had expected that he could just shed his sea lion skin and pry his way through with his human hands. However, he quickly found that he couldn’t even shed his skin and that’s when the panic set in.

He had no idea how long he had been swimming for just that his survival instinct was doing all it could to get him out of the water, the worrying thing was he had no clue if he was actually heading to shore and once he got there there was no assurance that their would be anyone there to help him.

Land gotta get to land repeated over and over in his head, his lungs were burning at this point and he was finding that his body was starting to slow, time was running out.

But then he felt it, the cool air and the sand and tiny rocks of the shore beneath his tired form, he gave one final push to get himself further out of the water, a final feeble attempt at salvation.

Jordan wasn’t sure how long it had been since he got to sure when he heard the sound of boots crunching on the sand near him, he tired to open his eyes but was met with a blurry mess of blobs. He still didn’t have enough oxygen and the ropes were still tight around his head, so he had to hope whoever had approached him was here to save him and not to have him as their next meal.

Still that survival instinct is a pesky thing sometimes and when the blurry form went to touch Jordan he involuntarily thrashed around and tried to bite at his would be attacker, even if he soon realised that he couldn’t actually get his jaw to open.

“Easy there fella, just trying to help you” came from the blob, it could have been a man but Jordan wasn’t too gone to be able to tell.

“Just hold still and let me cut you loose”

Stupid blob creature, as if he could do anything else.

Relief started flooding Jordan’s body as he felt the tight rope around him loosen, the ones around his head were gone soon too and he could once again feel the sweet sensation of air in his lungs. Even when he was fully free he couldn’t really move that much, his body was just too exhausted from saving itself from a watery grave, so he dared to open his eyes again and have a look at his rescuer.

Slowly the blurry blobs formed back into a man and a handsome one at that, maybe it hadn’t been such a bad thing to get stuck in that net.

“You alright there fella?” The man asked still kneeling next to him.

For his best effort Jordan had at least attempted to give at least a huff or a bark in response, but in that moment his own skin betrayed him, slipping off and instead his human form croaked out an “I’m…okay”

Oh shit.

Jordan didn’t even get to see the man’s reaction, because in another pathetic betrayal he flopped onto his back and passed out from exhaustion, leaving his fate to the kindness of a stranger.

———

When Jordan awoke it was because something smelt… off? His mind couldn’t comprehend it in that moment, but when he slowly opened his eyes and lifted his head as much as he could bear to he found his answer.

Tubes of paint were scattered around the table next to him and the offending smell was a very stained rag which reeked of some sort of solvent. Well this was probably one of the more normal situations Jordan had woken to in his human form and at least he wasn’t trapped in a seal rescue centre again.

Free fish was good and all but he’d like to be able to leave on his own terms.

Speaking of leaving he needed to find his skin and get the fuck out of here before the human returned, better to avoid certain conversations and potential imprisonment from a land creature who got bewitched by his good looks.

Or whatever those all stories his parents would tell him were warning about.

But as his luck would have it escape wasn’t going to happen, because when Jordan attempted to get up from the couch he had been placed on he quickly found it to be too painful to even move.

Not ideal in the slightest.

He sunk back down into the couch in defeat, guess he was stuck wherever this was.

There was then a click of a door and the man appeared, carrying several things in his hands, some of which smelled pretty damn good from here.

“Oh hey you’re up” the man said, a small relieved smile crossing his face. “Hope you don’t mind that I moved you, didn’t want to risk anyone seenin’ what I saw.”

“Thanks….” Jordan managed, still finding it difficult to speak.

“Your…umm… coat thing is over there” the man pointed to a nearby chair in the corner “didn’t want you panicking that you’d lost it or anything”

Jordan just nodded, if he wasn’t so sore he may have just leapt up and hugged and kissed the human in thanks, hell he may have offered him a blowjob right then and there.

The man continued speaking “anyway I brought painkillers and food, you are free to rest up here until you are better”

He handed Jordan a box and a bag that contained some delicious hot pastries, which Jordan spent no time in demolishing. It might not have been fish, but in this moment Jordan wasn’t picky,

food was food.

After a while the man spoke up again “so do you have a name?”

“…Jordan”

“Strange name for a sea lion” the man laughed “but I guess you aren’t just a sea lion now are you?”

He was going to ignore the jab about his human name, not that Jordan had thought about it very hard when he had come up with it. It was a common thing with Selkie’s that their names were slapped together in haste when confronted by a human.

Jordan Weaver had just come to him so easily, he saw a name he liked in a magazine and just slapped a human sounding surname at the end of it. Simple as that and it had served him well over the years, even if said name was wanted in several states for trivial things such as fraud.

“Selkie…” Jordan managed, he guessed he might as well fess up since the man had seen him slip out of his skin.

“Ah I figured as much” the man replied “I’m Rocco by the way”

Jordan couldn’t help but laugh at how silly a name like Rocco was for a human.

He was going to try and voice his annoyance at this but another wave of exhaustion rolled over him and he was left with no choice but to lay back down and let sleep take him.

It was okay, he’d have time to tell this man all about how stupid that comment was and a few other things.