Hal has been at sea for a very long time. He has learned to keep his hands to himself, for the most part. That said he is both a very tactile and very territorial man at heart – which causes him to orbit those he considers to be his rather well. He is always within arms distance of them – or, keeping an eye on them from a considerable distance, which is an old habit he never broke from his time as a crack shot up in the crow’s nest. He’s got a deep seated appreciation for the bird’s eye view, to be sure.
When he feels it will not go amiss, he is not above reaching out and clasping arms and shoulders, or even guiding people with a hand on the small of their back. The closer he gets to someone though, the more hands on he becomes, to the point of grabbing them by their ears to haul them out of a room or straight up throwing them over his shoulder when he has had enough of their bullshit for one night.
I keep saying they – and that is deliberate, because contrary to his babysitting contract frequent proximity to Flint, the man is not the only person Hal cares about – and is frequently exasperated by. Claiming Billy as a son to him goes well beyond feeling responsible for him – it also means butting heads constantly and trusting that it will resolve due to a mutual sense of camaraderie. He is as likely to haul Billy by his ear as he is to haul Flint, really.
As a whole, Hal takes the entire crew of the Walrus as his own. He is defensive of each and every one of them, and considering some can be right shits for brains, it does mean he’s as likely to be carrying one of his own out of a bar as he is to be dropping men to the ground for trying to start shit with his boys to begin with.
The only member of the crew Hal hasn’t grown exasperated with to the point of manhandling is Joji. Though he’d never indicate as much to anyone, Joji is low key his favorite because he never does anything fucking ridiculous, and on a ship full of dodos, that is a goddamn blessing.
Ocean Archive 