#selkie yaps

[springselkie]

i'm afraid the character limit in the former bird app is destroying my potential

[noradineja3miibe]

SPRING OUTFITS

[skyliv]

i like her. btw. a normal amount like any normal person would like a character

[grimdarkmage]

thinking seal thoughts is comforting in wanting the swirling embrace of that cacophony,,,,also idk getting old enough to become an untold horror because the depths are Deep and they squeak untold horrors

[kurjat]

Pinned post under construction

Be mindful that this blog may contain some disturbing content.

Hi! I'm Kurja (you can also call me Kani, Kanerva or Brutus) — illustrator/graphic designer and fine arts student — i post my art, work, wips & other creations — i also reblog other peoples art, current events/stuff I deem helpful and stuff about a couple special interests

Commissions: closed Requests: always open & i love them, but don't expect me to fulfill them

OTHER BLOGS ETC

@foulfeast — oc blog 🔞 @my-mothers-animal-daughter — chaosposting (my unending yapping, blorboposting, etc) 🔞 @darling-bites — selfship blog 🔞 ask me for my nsfw art blog

TAGS

kurjatalks — any talk posts kurjaart — my artwork kurjaphotos — photography kurjavideos — video art / reposts of my instagram reels, edits etc kurjawips — wips of my work kurjaworks — peeks of my work/gigs kurjaedu — my artschool/other course work tag

music — songs i rb & post rb — other peoples posts rbart — other peoples art rbphoto — other peoples photography rbvideo — other peoples videos important — current events etc Tba — interesting stuff in general Tba — nice stuff sealposting — my selkie/fishwife/ocean/seal tag medicalposting — medical interest tag

content warning tags — bodyhorror, blood, gore, horror

[averageclawcodeenjoyer]

Alright so as far as introductions go, I guess I should probably make one before I get too far into this.

HERES MY ABOUT ME POST!

My name's Leonardo, and you can call me any version of that that you want (Leo, Leon, Leonard, Nardo[my favorite], either way, it's all the same to me.) My pronouns are He/Him. I am an artist, author, animator, and a DEDICATED CLAWCODE ENTHUSIST (Hence the name)

I am also VERY autistic and don't get tone a lot, so tone tags are very important to me, especially when there's joking or sarcasm involved.

Ahem.

I know the Spiderverse Fandom isn't particularly alive (SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP) but I will try to post often, even if it's just a shitpost here and there. I really want to help feed into the ClawCode brain rot since the content for these two is SEVERELY FUCKING LACKING. So. If you have requests for things, I will probably end up doing them! My asks are always open, and I'd love to hear from anybody. I don't have any friends that love them the way that I do 😔😔

I have not had Tumblr before! Which is a little insane, so I'm new to all of this and learning how everything works. Please forgive me if I don't know the proper etiquette on this app lmao. My friend has been guiding me through all of this and told me to make an About Me post, so that's what I'm doing.

Here are some tags that will frequent my posts!

Yapping Hour - Will either be used for headcanons, or short stories/ideas/other ClawCode related crap. It's just going to be a general tag that will probably go on most of my posts from here on out.

Slur Gallery - Will be of the art I post of them, be it ship art or other :3 because everybody deserves a gallery of slurs to look at. AND JUST LOOK AT THEM!

Earworm - Is the tag I'll use when there's music involved, like songs that remind me of them (and the heavy analysis that goes with it **COMING SOON**), or animatics that I'm working on, or just anything that has to do with a song. Edits, artworks, the whole shebang.

Talkaholic - This will ALSO be used for mini stories/facfics, but more often than the yapping hour. So if you wanna read my writing of them that's what you can find it under.

Offline - will be under posts like these, where it isn't directly related to anything, just random blocks of text or other art that I feel like posting.

Oil And Water - THIS tag will be about the fanfic I am currently (excruciatingly slowly) writing! It doesn't have a happy ending and is meant to be a HEAVY angst story, like hurt/no comfort or very little comfort. I have one chapter out currently but will be working on more soon (and will make a separate post about it! But I will link it here as well. MOTIVATE ME TO WRITE IT /HJ)

Prowler Party - Is what I'll put on ALL of my posts as an extra way to help find me if one so desires d=(^o^)=b

OOC - On the chance that I might make something intentionally out of character, I will put this beneath it. I know a lot of people don't like mischaracterization, or incorrect portrayal of a character, but sometimes it's really fun to write, so I will be including that was well.

I think that's all that I can think of right now (I'm running off of an hour and 40 minutes sleep), but things may change or be edited in the future. But for now, I'll be signing off.

Shipwrecked - THIS WILL BE ABOUT MY SELKIE/SIREN AU BECAUSE IM ACTUALLY NOT OKAY ABOUT IT AND NEED TO SHARE MY INSANITY

HELLO AND THANK YOU TO THE WARM WELCOME I'VE RECIEVED!!

MORE COMIGN SOON

[zgmoony]

HELLOOOO ITS ZG HERE!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Hey if you see a zgmoony deactivated something yeah that’s my old account I was dumb and deleted it yeah

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

My pronouns: go by any minus she/her neos are fish/fishy/slime/goop/pute/compute/tom/tommer/star/starblast

Call me snail zg Tommy or Toms!!!^_^

Aromantic and trans:3

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

If you make me uncomfortable I will just block you (but if you’re a terf an exclusionist aro/ace phobic or you support cc!Dteam or cc!wilbur please leave me alone.)

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

I don’t support cc!Dream/cc!Dteam or cc!wilbur.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

C!Tommy silly:3

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

AUS (ASK ME ABOUT MY AUS)

Some of my fav aus:3↓

Cabin in the woods! (I talk to @stemms about it a lot!)

Fuse!Tommy (au where Tommy can fuse with people!)

Selkieinnit! (Au where c!Tommy is a selkie)

Minotaur c!Tommy!

Allium duo royal au

Batinnit!!! (Yes I did turn my old c!Tommy design into an au fight me)

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Tags: zgmoony

zg rambles

Zg!au tag

Zg!art

Batinnit!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Doodle blog: @doodleinnit

The W I F E: @trashyclementine :3 (to clarify the platonic marriage thing is a joke so pls don’t get weird- but feel free to send silly asks about it)

:3

DUOS:3

Beef duo (me and my wife)

Selkie duo (me and Moosh:3)

Circus duo (me and Tom Bomb)

Moon duo (me and moondragon:])

Orbit Duo (me and sunlit)

Kitties duo (me and sailor)

Mrow duo (me and Sappho)

Horrors duo (me and metaru)

Thoughts duo (me and stemms)

Void duo (me and void)

Doodle duo (me and Leo!)

Snack Duo (me and Taco)

Yapping duo (me and konrad)

Bench duo (me and gapple!)

———————————————————————

(Sorry if I spam your inbox if it annoys you just tell me to stop in priv messages:,3 because I won’t take the hint otherwise)

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

My cat Toma…..so perfect so round (I have two more cats:3 just ask if you wanna see him heheh^^)

Art by @autism-yaoi

[saltnpepperbunny]

Till World’s End- 10: One Day Remains

PREVIOUS: Two Days Remain > NEXT: Epilogue >

COVER

Till World’s End is rated Mature. Viewer discretion advised. Content Warnings listed on the Cover.

* * *

When Selkie fell asleep last night, she felt so physically awful that she hoped to knock out and sleep through the end of the world. So, when the sound of someone yapping her name roused her, she was sorely disappointed.

“Selkie! Selkie, wake up! Selkie!”

“Ngh…?” Selkie hoisted her head out from the puddle of drool she’d been using as a pillow. Rubbed the crust out of her eyes with her flipper. Who the absolute hell was bothering her this early in the morning? It’s not like she had school anymore… Wait, no, the morning briefing wasn’t for a few more… Gods, hang on, where the hell was she again? Opening her eyes slowly to adjust to the bright sunlight bouncing off the ocean, Selkie greeted the final morning.

One day. Just one more goddamn day.

“Oh, thank goodness! You’re finally awake!”

Selkie tilted her head to her right, following the direction of the voice she knew anywhere. Shadow stood hovering over her, butting his wet nose uncomfortably close. Selkie looked into his electric blue eyes and glimpsed the familiar storm, but something about those wet, fiery eyes made Selkie’s heart jump. She quickly turned away, fixed her gaze on his chest. The way Shadow’s brows furrowed in concern made her want to clock him.

“Oh, good, you’re back,” Selkie spat.

“Of course I’m back…” Shadow huffed. Selkie noticed he was panting. “I couldn’t find you at the spot where we split up. I-I-I was worried! I was looking all over the place for you, Selkie, why are you sleeping here? It’s not safe!”

“What?”

Looking around, Selkie realized she fell asleep low on the beach amongst the rocks, where she’d lost herself in her memories. She glanced behind her where the dead buneary had lay, but the corpse had disappeared. Must’ve gotten dragged out with the tide. Her fur was damp and encrusted with salt, her head pounded, her throat was dry. Her empty stomach clenched and crunched with pain. It was somehow worse than waking up hungover. How long had she been asleep here for?

“I sleep wherever I please,” Selkie muttered.

“You can’t do that. You’re freezing!” Shadow sniffed her all over, and Selkie’s fur stood up on end. “Were you sleeping here all night? Selkie, come on, we need to get you somewhere dry—”

SMACK!

With a swift strike of her flipper, Selkie shoved Shadow away. He stumbled back and nearly tripped over himself as an incoming wave slid under his paws. Caught himself just in time, and Shadow gave Selkie that usual look of pained betrayal, but there was something a little different about it this time. Something starkly less… childish.

Shadow gulped. “Selkie, I want you to—”

“YOU DO NOT ORDER ME!” Shadow clamped his jaw shut and flinched back from Selkie’s roar. One of the arteries in her frozen heart snapped open and hemorrhaged warm, sickly anger. “I’LL SLEEP WHEREVER THE FUCK I WANT! WHY THE HELL DID YOU EVEN COME BACK?!”

“I came back because we’re a team!” Shadow whimpered. His tail swished in building agitation. “W-we’re Team Tempest!”

It took everything in her not to start blasting Shadow with water gun. “No! Fuck you, don’t you pull that shit on me!” Selkie barked. Her head was splitting open. Her dry throat burned from shouting. “After everything I’ve done, you still just wanna see the worst in me! I thought you were different, but you’re just like the rest of them! The team is over, you hear me? IT’S OVER!”

Shadow stopped. He blinked. Selkie watched the words sink in through his skin to his brain and heart. His lip quivered. “Selkie, I… I went back to the Cave.”

“And what did you find there?” Selkie glowered at him. “The skeletons of your captors, or the bodies of my victims? They’re still down there, aren’t they? Exactly where we left them.”

“Th-they are—”

“Except that’s fine, isn’t it?! According to you, they deserved to die! They tortured you, of course they did!” The anger snapped white in Selkie, and she spun around to slap her flippered tail against a nearby rock. Something cracked. “But Lyn the human was somehow an EXCEPTION?! You make no fucking sense!”

“Selkie, Lyn’s not what I’m here for—”

“So what? What are you here for?!” Selkie started to storm towards him, and Shadow folded his ears and backed towards the surf. “Come to poke the ursaring? Prod the monster?!”

“No—”

“Hoping I’d lie to you? Manipulate you?! Seems to be what I’m good for!”

Shadow growled, “That’s not—”

“So then, WHAT!? What are you here for?! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!”

“I CAME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!”

“NO, YOU DON’T!”

Her thunderous roar stunned Shadow silent. Selkie watched his eyes widen and brows furrow in confusion. His tail swished. “Selkie, what are you talking about? You know I love you! I’ve told you so many times—”

“Do you think your sick infatuation is what love is meant to look like?!” Selkie snarled. She stormed closer to Shadow, felt the rush as she watched him cower in fear. “Do you think any ordinary person tells his partner he would die for her? Do you think it’s normal to stalk her and watch her sleep? You think it’s normal to assume you’ve been abandoned and throw a goddamn fit every time I leave the Guild without you? THAT IS NOT LOVE!” Selkie lowered her head to glare directly into Shadow’s eyes, nose to nose. “You’re just obsessed with me.”

Shadow’s lip quivered. His eyes glistened. “That’s not true—”

“Yes, it is,” Selkie hissed. “Every time we have ever told each other I love you was a lie. It was all a lie, you hear me?! A LIE!” Shadow winced from her deafening roar. “We’re toddlers playing pretend! You cannot love, and I cannot love, because we’re FUCKING BROKEN! The universe TOYED with us and TWISTED us, and this is the result! WE’RE FREAKS!” With her last word, Selkie slapped her tail against the sand, and Shadow yelped as geysers burst from the ground around them.

As bursting saltwater rained on the two pokemon in the surf, Selkie glared down at Shadow’s trembling form. She drank in the sight like a cup of hot tea. Everything would be okay so long as she made him fear her.

“Let’s end the fucking charade already.”

Finally, Selkie lifted her head high and looked away from Shadow. Her gaze drifted past the rocks floating around them. Some were small as pebbles, some large as boulders, spinning adrift through the air. The sky was sickly bright. “Now, go on. Run off and cry. Break a bottle and cut yourself. Throw your tantrum. Show me just how fragile you are. I know to you, my words cut deeper than thorns.”

She did not look at Shadow but felt him trembling beneath her. Selkie rolled her eyes. He started to rise, and Selkie waited for him to bolt off into the jungle again. So fucking predictable. At the end of the day, Shadow sure was boring.

But Shadow didn’t move. After giving it a bit longer to avoid speaking too soon, Selkie scoffed. “What? Did I upset you so much you forgot how to run?” As she spoke, she pivoted her head to face Shadow directly, but when they met eyes, Selkie fell silent. Their gazes caught each other like hooks. The storm swirled in Shadow’s watering, glaring eyes, and in them Selkie sensed neither anguish nor collapse, but a force with the power to unite the storm under its will. Why did Shadow look so ferocious?

Eyes brimming with tears, Shadow boomed, “Do NOT talk to me like that!”

Selkie sputtered. “H-huh?”

“Stop it, just stop talking to me like that! I hate when you get mean!” Selkie couldn’t understand. Shadow was crying and sniffling but somehow shouting back at her? What was going on?! “Don’t you DARE talk like you’re broken! Don’t you DARE talk like you can’t love! IT WAS NEVER A LIE!”

“Yes, it was! I was just saying it cause I knew you liked it! I’ve never felt anything behind it, never!”

“I DON’T CARE!” Shadow shoved his nose at her, and Selkie backed up. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I am just obsessed with you! I worship you, I dream about you, I can never get you out of my head, I’d trade my life for yours, and I KNOW that’s not normal! I have NEVER been normal! But just because I’m not normal doesn’t mean I don’t know how you make me feel!

“My whole life, I have ALWAYS been treated like I’m broken! My mom thought I was a monster, so she sold me! The Rogue tortured me! The pokemon at the Guild treat me like a traumatized freak who can’t tell left from right, let alone accurately judge his own teammate! I went through hell and came back, and pokemon just see the scars. They never see me! But you’re different!”

Selkie stood dumbfounded as Shadow continued to scream. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “You’re not just any other pokemon or any other human. You understand! You don’t judge me for wanting to die because you want it, too! You don’t treat me like shit when I act like a freak cause you know the world made me that way! You’ve suffered, just like me, and it turned you cold and mean. You can’t feel anything behind it, but you still say I love you back.

He pressed closer to her. She stopped backing up. “Do you think that after all these years, I don’t know you? I know you lie. I know you steal. I know you don’t really feel anything but rage. But Selkie, you are the only person in all the worlds who has ever seen me. Maybe you don’t love me, but you are the only one who has ever tried. A-a-a-and that…” Shadow’s words collapsed into sobs. “T-t-that means m-more to me… than you could e-ever know…”

Silence settled on the beach. Selkie stared at Shadow in silent shock as he lowered his head and let his tears fall into the waves lapping at their feet. When he nudged towards her, she didn’t move. When Shadow nuzzled her face and licked the side of her muzzle, she was still. Frozen, as Shadow whispered to her, “I know you think it’s not real, Selkie. My obsession is all I have to offer; I can’t give you something better, and I’m sorry. But… I love you.”

Selkie let the words sink in. Like a warm breath on her icy heart, novel yet so familiar. Shadow seemed to glow in the light of a new dawn. She still felt the same towards him: That possessiveness, the urge to protect and shelter from harm what belonged to her. She remembered the rush of the power she held over him. But as if from the thawing soil in the spring, something new bloomed inside her. Something unrecognizable.

Selkie realized her heartrate was rising. Her breathing quickened, and her body itched to bolt. She felt small, like Dad was sneaking up on her, he couldn’t be! She whipped her head around to make sure. Beach rocks floated behind her, and Selkie lifted her chin to follow the trail of pebbles into the sky. More was rising along with them: Grains of sand and sticks and twigs, loose leaves and old bleached bones. The earth itself was stirring. Selkie suddenly felt sick.

“It’s too late,” Selkie muttered to him. “It’s too late to rise. This world will never see another morning. We set with the sun.” Why did she feel so queasy? What was this pressure in her chest?

Shadow’s mouth trembled. He chewed his cheek.

“It’s too late for us. No matter what is between us, it’s powerless against the world! It’s all going to end!” She was suddenly back in her childhood bedroom, the door was locked and there was no way out. Selkie clutched at her pounding head. Somewhere, a dead buneary stared into her soul. “There’s no way to resist. I killed the hero!”

“You’re the only hero I’ve ever needed, Selkie.”

Selkie couldn’t breathe. “But I’m not a hero, and you know it! I have steered this world to its ruin. I wanted this, and I still do, I don’t give a shit, so what is going on? Why do I feel this way?!”

“H-hey, it’s okay.” Shadow nosed towards her but made no contact. “C-c-can I touch you? Is that okay?”

For some reason, Selkie said, “Yes.” So, Shadow nudged closer, touched her cheek with his nose, and they breathed together. Stillness against the storm. She reached up with her flipper and pulled his head close. He rested his forehead against her shoulder. A crack ran through the ice in her heart. If only her embrace could protect him from the end.

After a moment eternal, Shadow pulled back. “Selkie,” he said. “I understand the truth now. You don’t deserve to die.”

“H-huh?” Selkie stuttered.

“I know you wanted to give this to me. And I know there’ll be so much pain to follow. So, please forgive me for this.” Selkie watched helpless as the image of Shadow flickered before her. Before she could realize what was going on, he vanished like dust on the wind.

Selkie jumped up. “Shadow!” When he didn’t answer, she called louder, “Shadow!”

But Shadow didn’t answer. Selkie’s chest heaved, and she launched water gun after water gun in a circle around her, trying to hit him and break the illusion before he could get away. But her blasts dropped into the sand or smacked uselessly against floating rocks, and her partner was nowhere to be found. Selkie grit her teeth as dread sank through her body.

He couldn’t be… Could he?

[blnk338]

after seeing @/bluegiragi's 141 monster au, I was wondering if you had any yourself (+ reaper and rigo ofc)?👀👀

[I seriously need to stop searching for more references bc I can't keep up with the amount of ideas I'm having lmao (pls help😭😭)]

Hope you're having a good day!!

i wanted to think about this for a hot second so... (trying not to do dnd creatures but ITS SO HARD I HAD TO WITH ROACH)

I think Soap would be a werewolf-- i know everyone says it but the dude screams big hairy dog beast. also, adores affection, again, very weredog-y!! like maybe a wolf, or maybe just a big scary hound of miscellaneous sorts.

Reaper i think would be some sort of dragon morph. like this giant eldritch leviathan who's screams deaf people within a twenty mile radius, but then shes just some spooky, kinda depressed, scaley person out of morph. i think something like a toothless, half-dragonborn sort of thing for her human shape

Big brain but Rigo would be a harpy-- i think maybe something like a golden eagle-- big fuzzy talons and wings for arms. i think he likes to play pranks on the team by pretending to go full bird and peck at their lunches

i actually think Roach would fit as a drider!! climbing up and around walls, using the height to his advantage, i imagine roach and rigo would have a flirtatious, cringey back and forth, something among the lines of rigo saying he just wants to each Roach up, and roach saying he'd like to catch rigo in his web

Ghost might fit as a wraith, but i think the idea of him being a vampire would be so tragic. like it's been hundreds of years of him being alone, shutting himself away before finally opening up. Maybe some dragon crashed onto the castle grounds, bleeding and limping, when he finally opened up and let someone into his heart (OOOOOOOOO)

And of course, Gaz, i think might be something like a serpent/water leviathan. something like the ghost leviathan in subnautica!! like he'd hide in the deeps, waiting for a ship to pass by before he shoots out of the water and slams the ship into the cliffs. yes he has fun, yes he has friends!!!

Price... okay i think would be SO NICE AS A SELKIE. like a leopard seal that would just bark and yap at the passerbys to freak them out and have them drop their snacks into the water. somehow, he befriended this big scary sea monster who calls himself Gaz.

[wordbash]

First Aid For Fairies And Other Fabled Beasts by Lari Don: Chapter 3

Got in a quick chapter before bed! :3

Chapter recap; the two-headed Beast from the last chapter was in fact not two-headed; it was Yann with a girl riding on his back (and something flying around his head). He introduces Helen to the girl and the one who was flying around them; they are Rona - a selkie - and Lavender, a fairy. Yann wants Helen to promise not to tell anyone about their story before he tells it, but Helen refuses. Because of her reasoning for refusing, Rona tells Yann to tell her the story after all, and Lavender agrees, because they recognise her forethought as being more valuable than her having emptily agreed to keep it secret without knowing what it was. Yann then says that they stole something, that it's ended up in the wrong hands, and that they intend to put it back.

Okay yeah I was right about liking the selkie girl when I read this before I think because I am already feeling like I'll be fond of her. Rona slaying tbh. I'm also growing more fond of Yann already too he's sort of like a soggy cat to me. I am imagining him with the saddest wettest eyes ever to exist. He's also a bit of a whiny bitch but I say that with affection lol

Come to think of it I have a sneaking suspicion that Rona might just be the reason I love selkies because I think she would've been my first exposure to them lmao

Also fucking hilarious the deadpan "No." that Helen gives to Yann's whole ass yap of "I can tell You our story, but only if You take a pledge that You will keep it secret. That You will not write it down, nor tell it to anyone ... Any human person, fabled beast or true animal. That You will hold the secret in Your heart and never let it go." he's like FUCK YOU MEAN "nuh uh"! /ref

[springselkie]

do you see it

[silentwalrus1]

last sentance meem

tagged by @dsudis, thanks bro! 

“Oh, god,” Tony says. “Is this some kind of selkie culture magic blood bargain? Do I need my lawyer? Please don’t give me anything that’ll bind me to you or the ocean or the light of the full moon.”

from the selkiefic obvsly. tagging uhhhh @rohkeutta @aggressivewhenstartled @hansbekhart @quietnighty @waffilicious @newsbypostcard and whoever else i forgot, just @ me and say i tagged u!

[compassofsouls]

[Continued from X]

The selkie made a discomfited noise somewhere between an indignant groan and anxious sigh. It was a question she resented, if only because it was one not easily answered. Still there was little time before the man would stir once again. Jade would have to rely on technicality.

“Suppose I am,” she replied warily, posture guarded but dark eyes pleading patience, understanding. “I’m not here to cause trouble, though – just wanted to get back to my ship and he was givin’ it all this yap before he just collapsed. Nothing new, of course.” A beat and she straightened up, curiosity settling into her visage now. “What-…what about you, though?”

@virtuouscandlelight​

[thievingstalwart]

Hunter Instincts

The quail was running, running away from yapping, echoing from somewhere behind. Its wing was dragging behind, feathers torn out and bones broken - it couldn’t even escape to the safety of the branches above and weather the storm. So it resorted to the only option it had left: running, running for itS life. Running through grass, running alone the path forged by humans, run through the bushes - it didn’t care where to go, only to get as far away from danger as it only could. And that’s what cost it its life in the end, as it stepped on a poorly hidden trap and was swung up in the air, snared and now unable to escape the grasp of the predators, though of a different kind.

“Got one. Huh, got a broken wing too. Well, I guess no reason to feel bad for it if it wouldn’t survive either way,” Sothe called out to Selkie and put an end to the poor quail’s suffering.

@kitsuneiisms

[prairiesongserial]

Windfield Pass 9

TW: Amputation

Anna and Marge both looked like they might faint.

“You might have guessed by...our impolite appearances, that Owl and I have had a hard journey,” Agnes began, slowly.  “We ran into some trouble in the waste, on the way from Pickton.  Owl was badly scared by a mutie.  A Weeper.”

Agnes felt ill, besmirching Selkie’s name after she had saved their lives.  But it would all have been for nothing if Owl lost her placement in Windfield.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Anna said, taking one of Owl’s hands.  “You must have been terrified.”

Owl frowned.  “Agnes was more scared than me. I’m not afraid of anything.  Selkie is nice, and I rode on her back.”

“Selkie?”

“The motorist,” Agnes managed.  There was no opportunity to tell Owl to shut her mouth, not without seeming extremely suspicious.

“Strange names down in Pickton,” Marge muttered.

“That’s not true,” Meredith said, getting upset.  “Owl told me she was friends with the muties in the waste, and she’s probably a mutie herself.”

“Now, Meredith, that’s a terrible thing to say...” Marge said.  But she was looking more and more uncomfortable.  “Let’s sort everything out with Mayor Willin, yes, he’ll get everything straightened out…”

Marge urged them toward the door, apologizing to the still stunned Anna. Owl sulked as she was called away from the barrel, and Agnes was beginning to promise that they would go back for the kidney beans later, when she stopped short.  As the bell on the doorframe tinkled behind her, Agnes realized that the streets had changed in the small group’s short absence.  A party of hunters was stumbling down the main road, travel worn and miserable.  They bore one of their own on a stretcher fashioned from rough hewn branches and prairie grass, dogs yapping at their heels.  People spilled out of their homes and businesses to watch the procession.

The dogs scared a scream out of Owl, and she hid behind Agnes.

“Nothing to fear,” Agnes told her, in barely a murmur.  “Don’t say anything else about Selkie, hear?”

“Why?” Owl said quietly.  “I like Selkie.  Is Selkie bad?”

Agnes squeezed Owl’s shoulder, then approached the hunters.

“Dr. Hopper,” one of them said in amazement.  “You were supposed to have left.  Hey, it’s Dr. Hopper!”

The rest of the hunters - few in number, only three - stopped and crowded her.

“Can you save him?” the man asked.  “Damn Llorona got him.”

Agnes inspected the man on the stretcher.  Selkie had ripped one of his arms to ribbons.  It seemed so unnecessary, until Agnes realized it was his right arm - it would likely be his shooting arm.

“If he loses the arm, maybe,” Agnes said.  “Get him inside, anywhere, and bring me a belt, and the town mason.  And something that can cut stone.”

Agnes had done field amputations twice before, and only one of those patients had lived.  It was an exhausting operation, and it had been so many years, she wasn’t sure she could do it anymore.  She would have to take an unorthodox tack.     

The hunters scattered.  Agnes heard her name, heard whoops and hollers of an almost religious bent, one of the hunters calling back, “We’ll make today Hopper Day if you save ‘im, Doc!” The hunter’s friend hit him in a friendly, though chiding way and said, “Don’t say that, idiot, you aren’t the mayor.”

The hunter who had asked if Agnes could save the man on the stretcher stayed behind.  He donated his own belt, and helped her drag the wounded man into Anna’s general store.  Owl watched in awe, along with Meredith.  There was no time to worry over them, though Agnes did wonder how Owl would feel if she found out her beloved Selkie had done this.

“Why is he like that?” Owl asked, creeping closer.

Agnes cinched the belt tight below the wounded man’s shoulder.  He looked bad - his fellows had been dragging him for days.  There was no way they could have gone through the Windfield pass with a stretcher in tow, which meant they had braved the mountains too, or perhaps cut north through mutie territory.  It had been as hard a journey for them as it had been for Agnes and Owl.

Owl reached out and touched the man’s shoulder, as if she couldn’t believe he was real.  The man’s eyes rolled to look at her, and he smiled - or maybe he was baring his teeth.

Agnes gave Owl a sharp look, and she drew her hand away.

“Save the arm, Dr. Hopper?” the wounded man said, breathing shallowly.

“Certainly not,” Agnes said.  “If you live you’ll be lucky.”

The man squeezed his eyes closed.  Shortly the other hunters returned, the town mason in tow.  She was a young woman with deep-set eyes and brown curls twisted back into a sensible bun.  She was still tying her stone-working apron on as she passed through the door.

“My God,” the mason said, fumbling with the knot.  “Dr. Hopper, I - ”

Agnes searched the woman for her tools.  She had brought a masonry chisel, perhaps misunderstanding her task.  Behind her, two hunters staggered under the weight of a strange contraption which must have been a wet saw.  It was operated by pedals and gasoline, and barely fit through the door of the general store.  Agnes might have been better off calling the butcher for a cleaver.  But no, she couldn’t trust the strength of her arm, nor could she trust the resolve of the butcher - or anyone else - to make a clean chop.  The saw, on the other hand, cut clean, regardless of the resolve of its user.

“Alright,” Agnes said, and gestured to the mason.  “You there, you can use that thing, so that’s what you’ll do.  You all in the back, hold him still, at a right angle for her, and listen to everything she says.”

“You aren’t going to do it yourself?” the wounded man asked nervously.  “But you’re the doctor.”

“I’m also an old woman,” Agnes snapped.  “Get started.”

The mason’s hands trembled as she got her contraption ready.  The hunters scrambled to move their compatriot into position.  And Agnes herself chose the line onto which the mason would lower the saw.  She checked the tightness of the belt.

“Someone run to the nearest house and bring me a shovelful of hot coals,” she said.  “Anna, get a basin ready with strong spirits, set it nearby with a rag - a clean one.  Owl, get my pack.  There’s a little vial with a red syrup…”

She trailed off, thinking of the symbol Selkie had drawn for her.  She had never identified herself with any of her tools.  The symbol for doctor or medicine in the northwest was an intersection of green lines at a right angle.  But to Selkie, it was this, this little tincture that took away pain.  The most superficial of her tools - but the most empathetic. It was funny that Selkie had chosen painkiller to represent Agnes, when Selkie had been the one to necessitate its use today.

The general store buzzed with movement, the wounded man breathing shallow, anxious breaths with his arm posed just so under the saw blade.  In seconds, Agnes had all she needed before her.  Coals, alcohol, bandages.

“What is that?  Why are you doing that?” Owl asked from underfoot. “Agnes, why is he like that.  Agnes, what is that thing?”

“Give him a healthy swig of the syrup, Anna,” Agnes said, ignoring Owl.  The wounded man was distracted by the vial, and at that moment Agnes silently signalled the mason, who fired up the saw.  In less than a second, it was done, the wounded man too surprised to scream.  At least for a moment.

“Hold him still,” snapped Agnes.  She moved quickly.  With heat from the coals, alcohol, and many layers of bandage from her pack, the wound was soon sufficiently clean and cauterized.

“Mason, thank you,” Agnes said.  “Go home and have a drink.”

“Thank you, I will,” she muttered, stunned.  And she left, staggering onto the porch.

Mechanically, Anna retrieved a mop and attended to the blood on the floor.  Bodies moved this way and that in the store, mostly silent, cleaning up or caring for the wounded man, muttering in low voices about where to take him, and who would care for him.  Agnes thought she caught a strange, mistrustful look in one of the hunter’s eyes.  But he soon left, and Agnes put the thought out of her mind.

The general store began to clear out, leaving only Agnes, Owl, and Anna behind.  Meredith had gone home as soon as the excitement was over, and Marge, likely overcome with the need to tell someone about the goings on in Anna’s store today, had left long before.

Anna dragged her mop bucket outside to dump the bloody water in the grass.  Agnes watched her carefully.  She was a narrow, strong woman, who set to a task, no matter how gruesome, with grace and hard work.  And apparently she wanted a child.  Most in Windfield had had parenthood thrust upon them, and made do.  And their children made do, too.  

Agnes cleaned the blood from her hands and clothes with a damp rag.  Owl had appeared at her side at some point, watching Anna clean blood from the floor with more rapture even than Agnes, lost in her reverie.

“Why did you do that to him?” Owl said solemnly.  “Why did they cut off his arm?”

Agnes reached down and squeezed Owl’s hand.

“Sometimes you need to be hurt more in order to get better,” she said.

“Oh,” said Owl.  “I don’t get it.”

Anna returned with a fresh bucket of water.  Agnes let go of Owl’s hand and stepped forward to meet Anna at the door, where they wouldn’t be overheard.

“In the last hour you’ve had enough excitement in your shop for several weeks,” Agnes said.

Anna leaned back against the doorpost, letting the mop lean next to her.

“No thanks to you,” she said.  She wasn’t hostile, just honest.  Agnes liked her.

“It would be silly to ask you to commit to Owl today - I’m sure the mayor can place her temporarily somewhere until someone in town adopts her.  Or until someone sends word to me to find placement for her somewhere else.”  Agnes smiled grimly.  “Allowing Marge to handle a delicate affair was my mistake.”

Anna offered her half a smile in return.  She slapped the mop back against the floor and resumed cleaning.  The woman was exhausted.  Agnes supposed she had better go.

“Come along, Owl,” Agnes called, re-shouldering her pack.  “We have another errand or two before the day is done.”

Reluctantly, Owl pulled herself away from the rhythmic motion of Anna’s mop and followed Agnes out the door.

Windfield Pass 8 || Windfield Pass 10 

[radioactivepeasant]

A variation on selkie stories

A man goes walking on a beach one cold and foggy day. When his dog starts going bonkers and yapping at something hidden in the rocks, he gets a little uneasy. Normally his terrier likes to bark at the seals that swim around the bay. It seems to think they're long lost cousins or something. But the man hasn't seen the seals much lately, and he's spotted a boat or two that he thought looked suspicious.

So he follows his dog and finds the skin of a seal hidden behind a larger rock. Being of a nature to jump to the worst possible conclusion, the man thinks 'Oh no there's poachers out here!!' Never mind that he really doesn't have much evidence of the fact, like the actual body of the alleged poached seal, he decides he needs to tell the authorities immediately. So he picks up the sealskin and runs.

There's one older lady who's been patrolling the beach and the nearby park for decades, first as a police officer and then as a sort of volunteer park ranger. She's the person the man finds as he gasps out his story about suspicious boats and missing seals and skins without bodies. As he holds up the pelt, her face goes pale and her eyes narrow.

"You birdbrain!" She yelps, "What'd you move it for?! Put that thing back where you found it!"

Belatedly, it occurs to the man that if there is poaching going on, he just disturbed a crime scene and that was a very foolish thing to do. Embarrassed beyond belief and wishing he could sink into the ground, the man-who-cried-wolf shows the ranger where he found the skin.

Standing by the rock is a furious-looking woman wearing a curious sort of dress that may or may not have been made of sailcloth. All she wanted was a day to go and get a latte and maybe see a movie. Naturally the one time she leaves her sisters behind, her pelt gets stolen. She's angry and scared and kind of wants to kill something.

She sees the woman who sometimes watches over her sisters' pelts marching up with a man. The man is holding her pelt and she prepares to attack, fearing the worst and determined that nothing and no one will ever bar her from the sea.

"Now give Adeline back her coat," the ranger says sternly. "And then we'll talk."

Awkward apologies, explanations, and introductions ensue.

The man is rightfully horrified by the idea of having stolen a selkie's sealskin, and is determined to make things right.

Adeline still doesn't like him, but she does appreciate the latte he leaves on the rocks every weekend.