bakerstreet | what the water gave me

selkie au

Selkies: Sea dwelling creatures that take the form of a seal in the water, but can shed their fur and become human on land. A selkie on land must protect its pelt at all cost, as losing it means they will be unable to turn back into seal and return to the sea.

Most stories involve a selkie being tricked by a human to being trapped on land; their pelts stolen from them and hidden away. If they're lucky, sometimes they can find their skin and go home again. Other stories tell tales of selkies wooing dissatisfied humans into leaving their spouses. But the stories that can be told about selkies are as numerous as the sea is deep-- and now's your chance to take part in telling them.

how to play:
-top level with your character and your preferences for if they're a selkie or a human. provide as much detail as you like!
-reply to others
-have fun!

prompts:
1) trapped: the selkie is trapped on land. are they searching for their skin, still, or have they surrendered themselves to never being in the water again?
2) given: the selkie has given up their skin or their heart for love or some other, greater cause. is it worth it?
3) free: the selkie in the sea. perhaps they've just returned after being trapped or gone. perhaps they're just living out their lives in the water. what is it like, to be so wild?
4) calling: the selkie has spied a human they'd like to woo. will they succeed, and will it help or harm?
5) wildcard: come up with your own prompt!

gif from aube on tumblr

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

           “We try to hide. The humans hunt us, steal our skins, bind us to the land. We try to hide, but there are those who still know us to be real.” Like Hydra. Like the scientists who thought it would be fun to take his skin and hurt him and see if it changed. To do the reverse, put their knives into the flesh of a seal and watch the human cry. Not everyone believed in his kind, most thought them myths, but there were enough who knew the truth that it didn’t matter. The damage they caused still cost the selkie dearly. “There’s not many of my people left.”
           Maybe Thor was telling the truth after all. Pietro was holding his skin and Thor looked sorry for what had happened, and he spoke of others like Pietro where he came from. Pietro slowly begins to relax, his fingers unconsciously stroking the skin in his arms.
           “I have no pod anymore. Stark ships killed them.”

He didn't have anything to say on the matter of Stark and what he may or may not have been responsible for, but also wasn't simply going to defend him, either, they were teammates but that was all.

The rest, however, was something that he could speak to, "Your kind are rare enough on Asgard as well. They weren't always, as I understand, but these days tend towards their own company." And Thor didn't blame them for that in the least, especially if this was the treatment they'd come to expect in other realms. He also didn't know for certain if the selkie could traverse between realms with ease, though he knew the Valkyrie had been able to, and had simply assumed they all could.

"We try to. With how the landwalkers treat us when they find us, we don't really... We don't like their company." Pietro sighs, looking down at the skin in his hands. The talk of keeping their own company makes his wistful for the pod, and the life they used to have, before the humans came with their ships, and their fishing nets, and underwater machines. Before everyone but Pietro and Wanda were killed by a Stark ship and it's machines. When he thought that life with the pod was the only kind of life that there was.
He turns over the skin, lets the top slide down, looks at the bit of flipper now exposed, and the raw scar across it. "And now... I don't even now if I'll be able to live like that. After what Hydra did..... I can barely swim."

"And do you intend on getting retribution?" He was aware it wasn't the sort of thing he should probably ask, it wasn't the sort of thing any of the others would ask, but the fact was that it was an important question, especially if the team could help with it in any way.

Certainly, they had this robot menace to deal with, but Hydra was going to be a problem as well, and one that would need to be dealt with.

"I want to. By the Waves, I want to." Anger colours his words, the angry flash of his eyes as he thinks about what he would love to do to Hydra and all of those who had hurt him and his sister. "But what could I actually do? Hydra captured us already. Better to just return to the sea and hide."

"There are none who would blame you for that." He agreed, nodding once, "But I suspect that you know more of them and their security and base layouts than we currently have access to. That sort of information would be invaluable."

Thor wasn't up to Steve's level of strategic-mindedness, but even he knew that much, that any additional information would only be a boon.

"It's not up to just me." He hesitates, but he supposes that he can trust Thor. The man just gives off the air of honestly and desire to do good. Probably because he's not really human - no human would be so energetically good. "My sister. She's the only family I have left. If I'm staying here to help you, then there needs to be the same for her."

"Ah, the witch." It wasn't an accusation as it likely would have been from most anyone else, if anything there was an odd sort of wonder there, even an edge of respect, truthfully he was impressed by her power. It had been a very long time since anyone had been able to get inside his head at all, let alone so easily.

Certainly it was the kind of thing he should be concerned about, even afraid of, but he wasn't, not really. Mostly because he didn't think it was something she would use against him again if they had the same end goal in mind.

"I cannot make a decision for the entire team, nor would I, but if we present you both as allies against Hydra above all else, I believe there would only be token objection."

what the water gave me

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