#Folklore Stuff

[houseofmcallister]

AHHDHFHDJDBDIDBDJDH

Hey, don’t cry. Free online database of Japanese folk lore

[victusinveritas]

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[garmaux-illustration]

Arcane Ghostbusters!AU

not sure i saw anyone make this AU before so fck it i'm doing it

Edit: omg 500 notes this is officially my most successful artwork ever thanks everyone (tbh i hab no idea people would be even remotely interested in this AU and i'm really happy to not be alone in this 😭)

[thejolteonmastertj]

[Image Description: Art of a tiny, wiggly, purple eastern style serpentine dragon, draped around someone’s hands like a particularly unruly ferret. It’s two sets of teeny tiny wings likely not yet large enough to properly fly. It’s also got tiny golden eyes, golden accents, tiny & not yet solid antenae-like golden horns, & a poofy feather-like purple & golden gradient tip on its tail.

It’s clutching one gold coin to its chest with one tiny clawed hand, & with it’s other hand reaching down toward a new coin on the table from where the tiny dragon’s being held gently enough to wiggle for such a reach.

And of course, here’s screenreader friendly links to the screenshotted story post, first one is for speech to text users, second one is for tapping on:

World’s Tiniest Dragon Story

End of image description.]

Asdfghjkl your drawings are always so adorable.

Could we get a tiny dragon?

He’s just a baby

[stormbornwitch]

The practise of witchcraft is just that; a practise. As much as I love the acceptance that accompanies the modern discourse of 'if you call yourself a witch, you're a witch' it rings hollow to me.

You actually have to do witchcraft to be a witch. This then causes some practitioners to debate: 'Well, what qualifies as witchcraft?'

A quote I really resonated with is from Roger J. Horne's 'Folk Witchcraft: A Guide to Lore, Land & the Familiar Spirit for the Solitary Practitioner' and it discusses the almost scientific approach folk witches must use in order to personalise and develop their practise.

"Get used to experimenting, revising, then experimenting again. This is part of our craft. When you find something that works particularly well for you, write down an outline of the process you used."

This very act of researching and learning from folklore and history, creating your own correspondences, connecting to the spirits of the land, crafting your own spells and rituals - that is the work of a witch.

[tuherrus]

koivu ja tähti

or the birch and the star, is a finnish fairytale written by zachris topelius about two siblings, taking place during "isoviha" (great wrath) or the russian occupation in finland in 1713 to 1721

the siblings are abducted to russia as children and run away ten years later in order to make a journey to find their home in finland, guided by two birds and a memory of their homestead birch tree with a star shining through it's leaves

[inkyrainstorms]

dating sim this dating sim that- give me a game where I can play as one of the Stan twins on a cool as fuck mystery monster hunt on the Stan o War II and my life is yours. I wanna go collect research and artifacts and sail the seven seas and stock inventory and bicker with the other Stan twin on a boat. I wanna haggle with shopkeepers and uncover clues to the location and history of whatever anomaly we’re searching for by talking to people and searching the ports and docks.

That would be so fun are you kidding me. Is this mic on.

[thejolteonmastertj]

“Growing & changing with EVERY telling” is a slight exaggeration & understandably irksome for folks from cultures (Native American ones especially for example) that take memorizing sacred stories very seriously,

That said, the overall message is essentially 100% correct. Stories DO indeed change across time & space to better suit the culture & time-period! Sometimes they change to suit personal preferences of the storyteller. This all gets especially juicy once you take subcultures into consideration.

The key thing is it was, most likely I’d argue, almost always intentional. This is an especially great realization for the fanon & fanfiction argument. 🎉

Shameless plug for an old blog post I did on one of my favorite examples of this: The Dragons Gate legend!

The thing about fairy tales is that they have all been handed down, growing and changing with every telling, until they became the stories we know and love today.

Therefore, the 'fanonization' of Batman is the result of modern fans taking part in the time-honored tradition of collaborative storytelling, not damaging the original text. In this essay I will

[imbecominggayer]

Creating The Mythology For Writing

This is the topic that @melda0m3 has request of me with the specific quote as: "How to write legends about gods? I have my whole god system and their basic lore, but can never figure out how to make legends and such"

So, following this advice post, I will only be talking about how to create legends for your established gods and I will not be talking about how to create gods.

Writing Legends

Legends, as defined by a quick google searchl, are a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.

Legends are also classified as myths since myths are traditional stories that were meant to explain a physical or social phenomena.

For example, the "marriage" between Hades And Persephone was meant to explain seasons as Demeter(the goddess of harvest) destroyes all the plants when Persephone is in the underworld for six months.

Using the real-life reason for legends and myth exist can help provide a clearer, more concise, guideline to make use of.

Of course, your characters won't discuss every single legend within the story so you need to write the legends which will be noteworthy to the plot.

For example, you can highlight the mythology that explains why your characters have inhuman characteristics and why {SOMETHING} is happening.

However, mythology doesn't only exist around the natural. Legends are also weaved around battles, important individuals, and other such things.

This is due to the fact that legends are often the most influencial piece of propaganda within the world. Legends often serve to disparate certain communities within a conflict as failing to win the cover of God.

However, this propaganda also serves to paint certain individuals in an almost heavenly light where their ability to present themselves as a seemingly supernatural creature provides untold benefits for them. A real-life example of this is the Legend of King Arthur.

HOW IS IT APPLICABLE FOR YOU(Story Ideas) ?

Characters have a vested interest in making themselves appear better than they actually are. They may attempt to utilize legends in order to appear like they are God's favorite child.

Countries have a desire to always appear victorious and idealized. This can create it's own sort of reflection chamber where exaggerate stories of grandeur can create a mutation of beliefs so profound that when your characters step outside of the country, reality is vastly different.

Gods are the most likely to manipulate legends to cast their enemies in an unlikeable light while portraying themselves as perfect. This can lead to a highly complicated hodge-podge of contradictory information.

I hope I did well by you @melda0m3 :)

[r-aindr0p]

Can I ask where is Ace at in this Vampire au? Is he just a random family born baker that hates his job and glares secret daggers at Deuce when he sees him on his walks or something?? 😭😭🥺

At this point I feel like doing a lil something for everyone remaining :") Just in case yknow

Vamp lilia was far too easy of an option so i went for something else that can bestow blessings jut like faes do ! Unicorn, he isn't on any particular side, just frolicking around. Lucky be the one who sets their gaze on such a rarity. pun intended

The other horses are... hiding as well yes but not as distant if you are their next meal. Kelpie Jade and floyd, wanted to keep them aquatic and creechur. They bite, they can shapeshift, good luck.

Lil Ortho vamp is looking around for his brother, very polite, will absolutely bite in defense do not be fooled by his tiny victorian child build.

Ace is the church's errand boy, janitor, altar boy, cook helper etc... He enrolled to be part of the hunter squad but wasn't deemed efficien enough. Stays just in case maybe just maybe Rollo changes his mind and takes him as a hunter. Hey he's got plenty of wits ! He will eventually succeed. (but he's so salty about it so jealous of deuce and epel)

Trey bakes the breads for the church, he can live off of refular food and just tries to live normally without being too tempted about the other kind of snacks he could have. Surely no one would dare just barge in the bakery call him out on his double nature, noo no one in the cast would think of that everyone is so polite !

Finally, Cater as a Rusalko (Rusalka but guy) He is sunbathing, chilling near another pond near fleur city. He might call you to come closer and keep you around to have a lightheatted chit chat ! Oh what happened to him ? sometimes he tells he drowned accidentally, sometimes he got drowned. No one really knows the truth.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[filurig]

ok so i have finally given my tomtar a bit of a Revamp... i was unsatisfied with them just being basically. anthro corvid. now i mean theyre still kind of Anthro birdish creature, but now they arent birds anymore and rather related to harpies and basilisks (whose ancestors are the scansoriopterygids).

ive been pondering some world lore with them and also vätte technology as well as their energy resource so yes they now fit a bit the "dwarvern/gnome tinkerer" archetype hehe...

[sincerely-sofie]

It’s Narilamb fankid hours.

[after-witch]

Horrorfest: Stay Out of the Basement [Yandere Monster x Reader]

Title: Stay Out of the Basement [Yandere Monster x Reader]

Synopsis: There's something in the basement and it wants you so bad.

For Horrorfest request:

“Theres something in the basement” trope

Word count: 671

Notes: yandere, monster

There’s something in the basement. 

There’s something in the basement, and you don’t think it’s human. 

There’s something in the basement, and you think it’s in love with you.

--

You don’t know exactly when your thoughts on the thing in the basement went from “It wants to kill me and possibly eat me” to “It’s fallen in love with me and probably doesn’t want to eat me.” 

Maybe around the time that you started finding scraps of plants--vegetation and dirt with hints of flowers, scraggling things that barely saw any light--on  your kitchen counter, complimented with a telltale track of dirty footprints leading to the basement stairs. Yes, that was around the time that you began to think whatever was in the basement had feelings for you. 

The flowers (and dirt); then came trinkets. Little rocks, sometimes jagged, sometimes smooth. One morning, there was some sort of black stone, shined and polished. You didn’t want to touch it--something about it made your mind absolutely forbid it. You scooped it into the trash with a paper plate and took it to the curb that morning. 

If the thing in the basement minded, it didn’t let you know. It only left more gifts. More footprints. More--and you swear this must be what it’s doing--signs that it exists and it likes you. Tapping noises from behind the doorway leading to the basement stairs--tap-tap, tap; jars of long-forgotten canned goods left in front of the door, black-mud streaks on the bases. 

You haven’t seen it, but you know it’s there. And you know this won’t last forever. You know it won’t be satisfied with leaving gifts and trinkets and tap-tap, tapping to get your attention. 

No one believes you. Not your parents, not your friends, not the police. Not the therapist you called out of desperation. 

You’re alone--only oh, how you wish that were really the case. 

--

There’s something in the basement. 

There’s something in the basement, and it wants you. 

There’s something in the basement, and it’s coming up the stairs. 

--

Your fingers grip the edge of your comforter, but you don’t dare bring it up over your face.�� You want to see it coming. 

And you know it’s coming. It’s only a matter of time now. You can hear it. 

You first heard it coming up the basement stairs--thudding, thudding, thudding--and now you hear it coming down the hall. It’s not the steps of a person. It’s a heavy sound, almost dragging and--oh, someone help you--slightly damp. Like the basement. Like the sweat on the back of your neck, staining your pillow beneath you.

Like the stupid tears pooling at the edge of your eyes. What good would they do you? None. 

They fall anyway when the half-closed door creaks open.

Your bedside lamp is on, and if you were smarter, you would have turned it off 10 minutes ago. It would be must easier to face this reality in the dimness of the night, if you couldn’t see exactly what was standing in front of you.

It’s tall and broad shouldered. 

It has a mouth and eyes and a face, yes, and you might be tempted to call it humanoid. There are two arms and two legs, heavy and covered in something black, like it’s painted itself with dirt and mud. Its skin is splotches of green, dark and faintly damp, like moss growing at the edge of a swamp. Two yellow eyes blink at you and you don’t think you’re imagining it when your brain interprets its gaze as… fond. Loving. Wanting. 

It opens its mouth and there are teeth--sharp--and you think it must be trying to smile. Trying to smile and then say something to you.

What finally comes out, warbled and deep, is your name. 

You do pull the covers over your head, then.

Not that it does you any good.

--

There’s something in the basement.

There’s something in the basement, and you’re there with it now. 

And neither of you will ever leave again.

[avpol]

A witch to welcome October