#sealskin

Jeff Dworsky

Sealskin

Since I've been reliably informed that today is International Day of the Seal, it's surely a good excuse for me to repost Sealskin, my Eruri Selkie AU.

Erwin is an environmental scientist, a driven man on a mission to save the world. His research does not normally involve fieldwork, and it certainly does not normally involve spending six months of the year at the university’s field station on a remote island in the North Atlantic, with only seals for company. But the solitude of the island and a chance encounter with a curious stranger bring a profound revelation.

You can read Sealskin on AO3, or listen to my audio recording of the fic here Sealskin podfic.

Minuk and the Sealskin (amirkanek)!

This sealskin belongs to me. It’s not in the best condition, unfortunately- it’s shedding hairs. As per my aunt, the word for a beat up skin is aminraq. As you can see, the hairs on a seal’s coat are thick and almost rubbery, with a spring to them. They vary based on where in the coat they come from. 

The secret me is a boy.

He takes girlness off like a sealskin: something that never sat right on his shoulders.

The secret me is broad-shouldered; the sea can’t contain him,

the land can’t anchor his waves to its sand.

The secret me swims with the big fish, brash, he swaggers

like a mermaid, bares teeth like daggers, barks at the moon when it’s thin.

He’s whiskered, that boy. Thick-skinned. Quick-finned, always turning tail.

He wears his own skin like a sail, lets it carry him to where

salt swallows mouthfuls of air. Let them find me there by the shore:

the girl-seal with a secret boy inside. Rough-voiced. Black-eyed.

Washed bare as the beach by the tide.

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Selkie

Rachel Plummer

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