(no subject)

[aint-no-juliet.insanejournal.com]

WHO: Aislinn McKendrick, Ceana, Bertie Harrington-Potter
WHAT: SELKIES
WHEN: Friday afternoon
WHERE: Central Park Zoo



Aislinn was going about her daily business, taking care of the animals she was charged with. She watched the seal's swim happily around in their tank while she prepared their food. It was only while she was carrying the buckets of fish over to the door that she felt something familiar and strong.

She ducked, bucketless, out of the back room and outside the tank. There, gazing into it, was a red-haired woman beside a man who was clearly a mortal. The woman wasn't though. She was something else. She was like Aislinn.

Aislinn darted forward and she reached out for the woman's hand. "HI!" she said brightly. She could smell that the woman was her kind.

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[out-there.insanejournal.com]

Ceana had not particularly wanted to go to the zoo, but Bertie was convinced that she would warm to it. After all, how many different animals could a seal have possibly seen? And there were monkeys here!

"See, they have fun in their tank," Bertie said, gesturing to the seals zooming around playfully. "People feed them just for being cute, and they're happy. Well, except for that one." A sea lion had surfaced near them and was giving Bertie what could only be described as an unimpressed look. (http://sealions.jigsy.com/files/images/sea-lion.jpg)

The disdainful marine mammal was quickly forgotten as a strange woman ran up and seized Ceana's hand, though. Brightly, Bertie said, "Oh! Hullo!"

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Watching the seals, Ceana felt sad for them. Trapped in little glass tanks, far from the sea and from freedom. She wasn't sure that they were having as much fun as Bertie seemed to think.

But then someone had taken hold of Ceana's hand and she turned on the stranger, confused for only a second before the scent caught up to her. For a moment she could only stand there in shock, but then she wrapped her arms around the seal-woman and started nuzzling against her throat and her face, a very seal-like show of affection.

Selkie. Like her. The first of her own kind she'd ever come across. She might have cried with happiness if she were all woman, but instead the sound belonged to her old life: a half-bark half-moan of joy.

[aint-no-juliet.insanejournal.com]

Aislinn embraced the other selkie right back. She nuzzled the other woman's face and neck before realising that other people were staring at them and she was obviously a keeper here.

"Come with me!" she said, pulling the woman and the man back into the keeper area where they could be alone.

Once behind closed doors, she nuzzled the other woman again. "I am so excited to meet you!" To Bertie she said, "hi! I'm Aislinn."

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"Um...what?" Bertie asked, very confused as his wife started nuzzling the complete stranger. Then he was being pulled back to what had to be the keeper area, still with no idea what was going on besides that Ceana was making seal noises.

"Hi?" Bertie said, offering a little wave. "Um. What is happening right now?"

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana didn't even spare a glance towards her husband, too enamoured with the woman she now held the hands of. "She's a seal," Ceana blurted, smiling at Aislinn. "She's like me."

So long she'd been alone, so long she'd been searching for one of her own kind. And here another had found her.

[aint-no-juliet.insanejournal.com]

Aislinn embraced Ceana tightly, despite the fact that it was a very human thing to do. She had learned from her years on land how humans acted. "We're both seal-kind," she said again for the mortal's sake.

"What is your name?" she asked Ceana. Now that she had seen another selkie, she was determined to keep her in her life.

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"You're both--oh! This is wonderful!" Bertie said, beaming at them both. Ceana's worry about being the only selkie left had been weighing on her. Bertie wasn't always very good at deciphering her emotions, but he could guess well enough. Especially when she would gaze at large groups of humans with a distinctly lonely expression.

"This is Ceana! I'm her husband, Bertie."

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

"Ceana," she repeated after her husband, nodding quickly and not taking her eyes off Aislinn. "I didn't know there were others like me. I thought I was the only one left."

[aint-no-juliet.insanejournal.com]

"Not the only one!" Aislinn said happily. "We're around." She smiled at Bertie too. "You can come pet the seals if you would like. None of these are like us, but they can sense what we are. So do you wear human skin to be with Bertie?" Aislinn asked Ceana. She loved being in love and she wanted more of her kind to have that too.

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

Bertie was brimming with questions for Aislinn, but was swiftly distracted by the prospect of petting seals. He was a man of science, but...seals! "Oooh, can I really?!"

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana wasn't sure how to answer Aislinn's question and so she was silent for a few moments, letting Bertie's excitement about the seals happen instead. Then she said sadly, "Bertie has my skin."

[aint-no-juliet.insanejournal.com]

"Of course you can- What!?" Aislinn exclaimed, utterly shocked. "He what?" and then she swatted Bertie's arm, albeit lightly. "Maybe you can't pet the seals," she said as if it was some kind of horrible torture.

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"I'm not keeping her skin forever!" Bertie protested, shoulders coming up around his ears. "Just for a little while!"

[sealonging.insanejournal.com]

Ceana looked mournfully at her husband and then down to the floor without a word. She couldn't bring herself to speak against him, this man who was her keeper now; she was myth and bound by certain laws. She didn't know if they bound all her kind the same, but for Ceana it was simple: she couldn't bring harm to Bertie and she would always protect him from anyone else trying to hurt him. She was Bertie's and so he was hers to take care of, just as a wife should.

[aint-no-juliet.insanejournal.com]

Aislinn narrowed her eyes at Bertie. She didn't like the idea that someone would steal their skin; to own them. It was horrible. Whenever Aislinn had been on land, it had been for love.

"Fine, you can pet the seals, but I'm watching you," she informed him.

[out-there.insanejournal.com]

"I-I just found her skin!" Bertie said, flailing a little. "And, you know, she's fantastic and a selkie and I like her very much, but I'm going to give it back someday!"

He did not like feeling guilty.