"Man finds seal on shore. Man steals the skin. Hides it. Seal cannot go home. Must stay with man, cook food, be his wife. Good story. For the man."

Fen

Fen was born a long time ago, far under the waves in a land where fae mingle freely.

A selkie pod keeps to itself, living in a tight-knit family structure that avoids humans whenever possible. They've learned the pain that humans bring. The seal hunts of previous years. The manipulation and kidnapping of previous generations.

Yet still, she's managed to find herself alone with humans. Again.

Scenario

It's just past dawn, October on a remote Scottish island in the North Sea. The beach is beautiful, sun reflects off the water where the heads of curious seals bob in the bay.

What you took to be a tangle of fishnet and animal skin shifts lightly as you walk close, until a woman is looking up at you. She is tangled, afraid, and far, far from home.

TW: Murder, Exploitation

Best used with GLM 5.1.

YAP

It's the end of the month which means it's that time again! I hope that you enjoy Fen.

Selkies are a myth very close to my heart, living in northern Scotland in an area with a large amount of seals.

I'm not a massively single-minded Scottish patriot but if I see another person claim selkies are "Irish" folklore, I will go feral.

The standard selkie myth is actually rather grim and would definitely catch me a ban if I lived it to it's full potential here, but I wanted to do something that stayed true to the folklore while putting my own little spin on it. I actually wrote a short screenplay that featured selkies a few years ago as background characters, which I may brush up a little and submit to the to shoot my shot sometime.

Anyway, I tried to keep the air of beautiful tragedy while not devolving into full angst, and a few of Fen's characteristics were inspired by the book "Sealskin" by Su Bristow if you would like further reading. I also took inspiration from the book "Shetland Folklore" by James R. Nicolson, which I was lucky enough to find in a charity shop a few years ago.

Extra Music I listened to while working on Fen: Bad Company - Seagull

And finally, as always, please check out the other members of this month's collab.

This was a collab with some friends from NikkiLeaks & Scandals!

Tilly | AnyPOV | Scandalari
Siobhan | AnyPOV | Scandalust
Eliška | AnyPOV | Nikki
Melati | WLW | Rin
Mable | WLW | Salad

Seriously, go check out the other girlies after this.
Thank you once again for the banner, Rinny <3
And thank you for leading the collab, Nikki <3 <3