Stillness is not being especially still. Not trying to fight it, most physical sensations are worse if you try to fight them, but that means he's not tensed up and he's not hiding how terrifying this is either. 

They say the worst part is feeling your tail wither up but Stillness thinks it's the legs forming, how new and part-of-him and not-part-of-him they feel, and the sun on him without water in between and the drying-up feeling that he can't get out of and can't flinch back into the water to get away from

He is acutely aware that he's being watched but it's not like it's strange or remarkable to find your second transition terrifying, it would be strange not to, he can't tense up he can't tense up that will make everything so much worse. 

Justice doesn't offer advice. He remembers what made it better for him but being told how to react definitely didn't.

"Would you like me to bring food?" he asks when he's been on watch for about half a day. It's hard to keep anything down but it's also hungry work and it lasts a long time to be without food.

Stillness nods, partially because he's hungry and partially because it'll get the eyes off of him, it's so dry and bright and he can barely see and he couldn't use his legs even if they were fully formed and he hates feeling so vulnerable so much. 

He's gone a while and comes back with a bowl of chunks of fried meat in berry jam. He sets the food beside Stillness and walks several feet away before sitting down to keep watching.

Not thinking about what he probably looks like from the outside is nice while it lasts.  

When Justice gets back Stillness reaches out and takes one of the chunks. Chews, swallows, waits a few minutes to see if he's going to throw up. 

Justice makes a soft sound to get his attention.

"Do you feel up to talking about your future yet?"

Stillness looks up at him. It's hard to see, everything is so bright, but if he squints a little the light is more manageable. 

"Probably," he says. Takes another chunk of meat when he manages to keep down the first one. 

"Do you already have a place to stay? Do you know what work there is?"

"I want to be in government." The most important information comes first. "My sibling has a room for me, I can stay there, unless there's a better place I don't know about?" 

Justice nods. "While you were in the sea, did you study any sociology or economics? What is it about governance that appeals to you?"

"Yes, both." 

I want to make the decisions, not have them made for me, is not the answer that's Justice is looking for. "I'm good at people, I believe I'd be good at it, it's a high-impact place to be good at things." All true statements. 

"I've worked in Starscope's government for almost five hundred years now, personally, and those aren't bad reasons, but I do want to warn you that you'll spend more time doing paperwork than talking to people. There's more direct use for people skills in teaching or therapy, but you're right, those aren't as high-impact as governance. I know of a couple of entry-level positions that you could apply to that might give you a path to working in governance. The Bureau is looking for people to help with data-gathering for possible revisions to health recommendations. That's the best path to having any voice in policy this century. If it doesn't appeal, I can look over job listings with you and help you figure out if any others would be a better fit for your skills."

"No, that appeals," Stillness says. He means it, too; the best path to a voice in policy within the century would have to be very unpleasant indeed for it to not appeal. 

The nausea hits right about then. Stillness closes his eyes, takes three slow breaths in and out, opens them again. "Sorry," he says, and tries to mean it. 

"Not your fault, unless you're much older than I think and designed our species. Just let me know if you feel like you need a doctor before you're done."

He nods, shifts a little bit closer to Justice, doesn't close his eyes again but focuses intently on regulating his breathing. He's starting to get used to how dry the air feels in his lungs. He's not sure what needing a doctor would feel like but it's probably more than just nausea and feeling so unbearably vulnerable. 

Justice watches.

They could probably go back to the old ways now, just leave people alone. They wouldn't have half as many deaths as they did before they started supervising people shifting.

There's a reason no one has proposed that in the last two centuries and it's because no one who remembers what it was like before misses coming to the beach to find people they knew, people they'd been waiting for, dead and half eaten by wolves.

The sun starts setting and the beach gets less horribly bright. The mosquitoes come out. Justice lights a stick of incense they'll find unpleasant and sticks it straight up in the sand. He doesn't remember if he was mosquito-bitten when it was him between forms fresh out of the sea. Probably. They didn't have any good insect repellents back then.

At first he thinks his eyes are adjusting to the light; it's kind of disappointing when that is not in fact the case. The incense smells weird and makes his lungs burn and is probably worth it. 

He keeps eating and pausing. "How long does this usually take?" he says. 

"From the first sign of darkening skin to being indistinguishable from any other adult averages eight days but that's probably not what you want to know. You look like you might be able to walk tomorrow. Might have a little tail longer than usual but there's no need to wait out here being perfectionist about it once your legs work."

He nods. "I'm going to try and sleep." 

"I'll be here at least through morning."

He waits. Nothing attacks Stillness. Wolves howl in the night but stay far away.

In the morning his lungs hurt less. He can't really tell whether he'll be able to walk yet but he might as well try, falling wouldn't make him look any more vulnerable than staying on the ground would. 

He tries pushing himself up with his arms first, how well does that go? 

Awkwardly but if he's very careful he can stand still without falling. For a while.

Justice seems to think this is only mildly interesting and definitely not worth interfering in.

Progress is progress. 

When he does fall over, Stillness pulls himself up again and tries to take a few steps away from the water. 

The sand shifts around his feet. His legs are still changing. A small animal watches him curiously from a distance. It'll take him a while to stay up for long distances but if he keeps at it he'll be able to get around this way before noon.

Justice doesn't seem to think him falling over is anything to be worried about. He doesn't offer any help.

Can't get better if you don't try, right? 

When he's able to walk more than a few steps without falling, Stillness starts looking for something to help him prop himself up — is there any driftwood or other large sticks on this beach? 

There's some suitable wood.

Justice laughs but not disapprovingly.

Not disapproving is good! Justice probably isn't the person to impress, if you can only pick one, but it's not like Stillness can only pick one. Maybe he's being ridiculous but probably most people who do this are a little bit ridiculous about it. 

How far can he go with the walking stick? 

Depends on how willing he is to keep catching himself, really. He could walk right into the forest... eventually... with a lot of falls along the way. Shouldn't have to adjust much for continued changes anymore, he's almost adult-shaped now.

If he goes far Justice will wander a little closer but still not offer help.

He'll practice some before he walks into the forest, walks in circles and figure-eights and loops until he is falling over less, and then goes toward the treeline. 

Justice comes up beside him and matches his pace.

"I never thought of using a cane when I was new to land. It's clever."

"Thank you." Stillness is slightly cautious about it, but tries to keep that out of his inflection. 

"When you get to the trees I can show you around if you're up for it. Or I can see you to your sibling's and let you rest."

"I'd like to see the forest, please." 

It's a shady forest that's been allowed to look unmanaged. Little patches of light dot the ground. Edible vines have been encouraged to grow on most tree trunks. Near the beach are a few food carts, a few shoppers, someone transplanting a seedling into a clearing.

"People come this way to and from the ocean," says Justice. "Otherwise there's not much this close to the beach. If we head that way we'll find the place you're hoping to work. That way and we'll find some apartments and shops. Straight ahead are some things tourists tend to like but they're farther than anything else, it would be perfectly reasonable of you to save them for another day when you've been on your feet longer. Where to first?"

"The place where I'm hoping to work — please," he adds, because Justice is really helping him a lot. 

Justice shows no sign of resenting the walk or the babysitting.

As they get deeper into the forest there are here and there the domed roofs of buildings, steel painted carefully to look like driftwood, translucent glass windows letting in some of the sunlight. Beneath their feet are who knows how many levels of basements. There are obvious doors in every roof and possibly emergency exits hidden under fallen leaves.

"I used to live down there about twenty years ago. It was very nice then. There was a restaurant I liked on the floor below me until the owner moved up north and sold the space to a novelty clockmaker."

It's not a long walk for Justice but it might be for Stillness.

It's definitely a long walk. The stick is helping, and knowing he's supposed to look new at it is helping. 

"Everything I've heard about the forest sounds lovely," Stillness says, which is not entirely true but is mostly true. 

"Thank you. We work very hard to make it that way."

Up ahead is an aboveground building that looks like a massive tree.

"That's older than most of the places around. It survived the fire a hundred years ago. ...There's a restaurant inside and you might want to get something to eat before your hunger catches up with you. You won't be feeling it much yet but you'll be ravenous by tomorrow, everyone is, you lose a lot of weight when you change."

Stillness nods and walks toward the restaurant. Glances back to see whether Justice is joining him. 

Justice isn't planning to leave Stillness alone until he's dismissed. That or until he goes back to work but that's not for a few days.

Inside are tables and chairs. Stillness might have seen them in movies. People sit on the chairs and rest food on the tables just like they do on TV. If Stillness still has a little nubby tail left he might want to be careful of it but it should be fine.

He's careful. He has indeed seen tables and chairs in movies but they feel deeply weird to sit at. 

There is food. Stillness is tempted to order the cheapest thing on the menu without even looking at what it is, and instead gets the cheapest type of fish, because it's filling enough to last and something familiar sounds lovely. 

It hasn't occurred to Justice that Stillness might intend to pay for his own food. He offers the waiter his card.

Stillness makes sure to thank him for it, arranges his face so he looks softer than he is and younger than he'd usually show. 

Justice gets himself a leaf wrap. He talks while they eat, random facts about life on land. This local landlord goes above and beyond for his tenants, shame his apartments are so old and in need of renovation. This brand of boxed broth has had three recalls this decade, don't trust it.

He starts talking about local zoning ordinances and watches Stillness carefully for signs that this might not, in fact, be something he wants to spend his entire life thinking about.

He's enthusiastic about zoning ordinances! There are a couple laws that sound tricky to enforce, how does that get managed? 

"Restrictions on building depth are usually to give utilities enough space. It would be intrusive to inspect everyone's bedrooms to see if they have any secret trapdoors to secret basements, but damaging a water main is more deterring than you might think. A lot of nice things need to be kept dry. Or causing a gas leak, that's much worse, have you seen pictures of fire damage before?"

He's seen them, but only in passing. 

"It's not the punishment we would choose but it's punishing enough. And if someone can go deeper while making sure never to interfere with any current or future utilities, it's not worth spying on everyone to stop them. Enforcement's rare if there are no accidents and no one tips off the authorities. I don't think there are many cases slipping by us but if I'm wrong and half the population can do it safely it probably shouldn't be against the law. Does that make sense to you?"

"It does," he says, and then pauses. "Do you get used to it being this loud, or is it just that I'm new to hearing sound through air and not water, or is it something about this room?" 

"Restaurants and places where a lot of people are doing things at once are loud. This room echoes a little, too. Sound is quieter if the walls are soft and feels quieter when you're used to the specific sounds you're hearing. If you have to be around any drilling or hammering you'll want to get some earplugs, they muffle sound quite a bit." Shrug. "I don't know if it's from being new to air, I spent a lot of time with my head above water even when I lived in the ocean."

He nods. He's been listening much more than he's been talking. 

Justice has noticed. It's a good skill to have, whether he goes into politics or not.

"Ready to try walking some more?"

"I think so. Is there somewhere in particular you have in mind?" 

"Another couple minutes, or more since you're still learning, over that way is the office you'll need to visit to talk to someone about the job you want. Which it would not be at all unreasonable for you not to feel up to doing today, I've known people to take days just to get their feet under them and catch their breath, but you might still want to see the place. Or I can see that you get to your sibling now, if you'd rather."

"Seeing the office sounds good, I'd like to at least be able to find it again." The stick will probably help and even without it he does feel like he could walk more, he wouldn't say that if he thought he wasn't going to be able to manage it, he wants to not look like someone who'll take more than he can swallow more than he wants to look enthusiastic and determined. 

Justice points things out. These trees are genetically engineered to resist blight, those vines are genetically engineered the old fashioned way with selective breeding, this whole area of shorter trees burned.

And there's the domed roof rising from the ground. The door's unlocked, it's open to the general public right now. There's a ramp down to it dug out of the dirt, so there's no sudden step down.

"How are you doing, still feel like you can keep going?"

"I can go down but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get back up, I've heard it's harder?" 

"I think down is harder, personally, but if you don't want to risk it you can try when you're surer on your feet. Or try and lean on me on the way up if you end up needing to. Or crawl, you might have seen people in movies do that to sneak under things, it's harder to fall if you're touching the ground in four places. Or look around for a hill with about that slope and test yourself on it. It's your choice, but if it were me I would go ahead and try but arrange to be first on the way up and last on the way down."

Well now of course Stillness is going to go down. 

His knees are not thrilled about this decision he's made. He does indeed arrange to be last on the way down. 

Justice carefully stays far enough ahead to give him room and close enough to keep him from falling on his face.

Immediately inside is a receptionist at a desk, a few people waiting on soft seats and several piles of brochures near the elevator.

He takes a brochure and sits down. (Less careful this time, there's not as much tail left to worry about.) 

Justice texts someone that they're there.

"One of my friends who works in public health should have time to talk with you unless something comes up suddenly."

The elevator arrives and the first person out of it waves at Justice and looks appraisingly at Stillness.