#Monster culture

[flingmetothemoon]

Headcanons - Halloween with Dracula's Daughter

Inspired by @froggywritesstuff's Teddy Lobo Halloween headcanon post because I'm a Teddy/Marya shipper and decided the post is just incomplete without the other half of my OTP's complementary response. The reader in question will be gender neutral and up to interpretation, and my personal interpretation is a certain crackhead Lobo ofc. XD

I might add more headcanons later, just wanna get the basics done with during that time of the night

Fandom: Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Character: Marya Zaleska

Scenario: She spends Halloween night with you

Content warning: Not much other than mentions of blood bag drinking, physical fights and harming of humans in horror movies

Word count: Idk. Still an amature fanfic writer and learning as I go XD

Marya has mixed feelings about Halloween

On one side of the coin, she loves the concept of human mortals and monsters being in peace with each other and spending time as friends instead of engaging in wars with each other

Her favorite aspect of Halloween is trick-or-treating, where she gets say hello to the children and hand out candy

As a matter of fact, one of the traditions she and the fellow monsters like to participate in when she doesn't have tasks to do that relates to Castle Dracula is door-to-door treat giving. Depending on the season the fruits and vegetables grow in, monsters would go scavenging for those valuable edibles, find and collect honey, glaze carved bites in honey, harden them, collect them in a bowl carved melon or pumpkin and deliver them to a neighbor. Oftentimes before handing out the candied fruit, the neighbor would get a good scare before having a good laugh over the scare

Monsters essentially has been trick-or-treating before it became popular among mortals, usually as a way of maintaining virtuous traits such as kindness, generosity, hospitality and humor in spite of their monstrous appearance

But on the other side, Marya doesn't like how it seems that mortals are appreciating monsters, but all for the wrong reasons: By portraying them as demonized caricatures and using them as mere entertainment

She essentially views it as her kind’s equivalent of cultural appropriation

She also wonders why human mortals have to wait for one day of the year to spend good times with those different than them when they can try doing it any time and day

As a vampire, Marya wonders if her appearance and outfit is good enough to be considered an outfit to go out in. She only hopes that human mortals who pass by her assume she's merely in convincing makeup, not anything more than that

Being unable to see her own reflection on mirrors, Marya appreciates having you to do her hair and makeup

She can do her own claws though

Before going out to do anything, she makes sure she has a good big drink of a blood bag to avoid any potential thirst incidents later on

She would prefer the night to be a happy and peaceful one, but if you were to get into a fight and get a black eye or bloody nose in an interesting way to impress her or in response to anyone having any negative to say about her outfit, her vampirist instincts would kick in and she will get her sharp claws out and hiss the hell out of anyone who dares harm her loved one

Marya is good at decorating by crafting natural resources such as twigs, leaves, carved pumpkins, spider webs and skeleton bones

Another part of monster culture is foraging for edibles such as turnips, melons and pumpkins, decorating and/or carving faces, sucking it's flesh and seeds out, and trapping a fire wisp into it to light the inside like a lantern

How monsters prepare food in general is similar to how warrior cats do it (At least according to Bonefall)

Marya takes advantage of the night to show you how it's done

For her kind, most monsters carve and light jack-o-lanterns with a purpose of a warm light source that doesn't burn their flesh into crisp unlike the direct sun and to scare off potential threats, scaring them with the idea that jack-o-lanterns craved by monsters have concealed evil spirits that could unleash and haunt those who trespass their turfs with a purpose of killing them

She doesn't really mind where are you take her to, she'll even agree to go to a party to meet up with new people

After a while however, she remembers she has sensitive hearing and loud, crowded parties gets a little too much for her and she wants to go somewhere more remote and quieter

Scary movies mostly confuse Marya, particularly because she doesn't understand why human mortals derive pleasure out of making entertainment of their kind getting their limbs torn apart by bigger and stronger monsters

What Marya is ultimately interested in spending Halloween night is patrolling around the city, knowing that any monsters lurking nearby the human area could take advantage of a holiday centering around them and actually inflict harm on the weaker, innocent ones

The long night ends with Marya requiring cuddling, lovemaking and playing with long hair (she's been so utterly touch starved for decades so ofc she would)

[theillusionofpants]

So I am teaching monster culture to a group of my seniors in preparation for reading Frankenstein (how do I underline on mobile?). The text we are reading is an academic one and typical of college level, but jarring and difficult for high school. I prepped them by telling them that their goal wasn't to understand everything, and I fully expected them not to understand the whole thing, but to pick out parts that they thought important or to vocalize the questions they have so that they exist in the world. These kids, who u have known for all of four days put their whole ass into this. It took them twice as long as I originally thought but they were focused and confused and trudged along.

When they were done, before we got to their analysis, I said something like this:

" You know before we get into it, I just want to say that during this process, there was a time when I looked around the room and you all were reading this very difficult text. Your heads were down, you were asking each other questions, you were engaged. We have known each other for less than a week and I just want to say it shows a lot of trust that you didn't immediately give up on the text, so thank you"

The little smiles on their faces when they realized that they actually HAD been engaged in this difficult task mixed with the understanding that I saw them do it and appreciated it is gonna keep me running for a bit. Sometimes my job is fucking great.

[dustydilf]

"Thesis VII: The Monster Stands at the Threshold . . . of Becoming"

"Monsters are our children. They can be pushed to the farthest margins of geography and discourse, hidden away at the edges of the world and in the forbidden recesses of our mind,"

"...but they always return"

[diaryofaphilosopher]

"The shift from the Afro-Caribbean zombie to the U.S. zombie is clear: in Caribbean folklore, people are scared of becoming zombies, whereas in U.S. narratives people are scared of zombies. This shift is significant because it maps the movement from the zombie as victim (Caribbean) to the zombie as an aggressive and terrifying monster who consumes human flesh (U.S.). In Haitian folklore, for instance, zombies do not physically threaten people; rather, the threat comes from the voduon practice whereby the sorcerer (master) subjugates the individual by robbing the victim of free will, language and cognition. The zombie is enslaved."

— Justin D. Edwards, "Mapping Tropical Gothic in the Americas" in Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture.

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!

[melomancy]

Kate Bush as the Sound Monster in Experiment IV (1986)

[hobgobknowsbest]

[thisdarlingluna]

A delightful couple of episodes and now I have a few things to check out.

[nazrigar]

Dinovember 2024: Children of the Lizard King

For Dinovember, a tribute to the one, and only, Tyrannosaurus rex.

A creature whose impact on pop culture is SO prevalent, it's basically an ambassador species to the field of Paleontology.

From King Kong, to The Land before Time, to Jurassic Park, to Prehistoric Planet, there has been SO many interpretations of the dinosaur, and creatures that took influence FROM Tyrannosaurus rex, I could have filled the entire page with more, but I had to stop at 65 so that the flow and composition of the piece would work.

See if your favorite T.rex or T.rex inspired critter is here!

And of course, a special shout out to @tyrantisterror , whose big green fella up top helped inspire me to continue doing art!

[ace-culture-is]

Ace culture is being chill about the existence of even the most wild kinks, because to you, no kink is any less weird than being into the most normal vanilla stuff. It's all equally baffling to you.

.

[zombiekitty33]

half life fanartist late to half life anniversary millions dead

[flingmetothemoon]

Exploring around New Orleans on a frightful Halloween night, Countess Marya Zaleska runs into a ghost attempting to frighten her, but their efforts cutely backfires as the Countess of love and atonement boops it's nonexistent nose and flusters it so much it poofs out of existence

Comic inspiration: Today is Halloween and I had ponders on how Marya would spend the Halloween night, and I make up cuter origins of ghosts. I thought if not a small creature getting tangled up in a white sheet from the laundry hanger, what if instead of dead people passing on to the afterlife to haunt those who remain living, ghosts are more like crystalized wind creatures that camouflages like chameleons and glows light like fireflies?

Also ghosts go by they/them pronouns because they don't grasp the concept of gender in my imaginary word XD

[gatorbites-imagines]

Please, please, I'll do whatever you want, just more yautja

Male Elder Yautja OC (Ge'jaar) x male reader

Ficlet

I still don’t really know a whole lot of the yautja lore, but I love them anyways. So, heres me cooking up an oc and hoping it’s somewhat canon because I love yautja and will take any excuse to write about them. Readers somewhat based off of an oc of mine. Reader is also around 6ft 5 inches. Ge'jaar is 9ft or so.

Bako really grew on me for some reason when I wrote this, so lemme know if you guys wanna read about him.

You were old. Very old. You hadn’t kept much track of just how old you were, it didn’t really matter, but you only appeared to be in the 50s or very good 60s. You knew you were a lot older than that, having spent at least 100 years away from earth, hunting. You had returned though, at some point, and settled down in a very defensible cabin far away from much of everything, where you could live in peace with your “dogs”.

Well, you called them dogs, mainly because they walked on all fours and had a tail they’d wag, and followed orders. An ex of yours had called them Kiande amedha, you just called them xenomorphs, or your beetle dogs. Years ago, back when you had successfully killed the bad bloods that kidnapped you and your military unit, you had found this little ugly hissing creature. There was a stereotype that humans would bond with most near anything, and they were right.

You brought the little bugger along on the ship you stole from the now dead bad bloods, which took a long time to figure out how to steer. You named your pet Lucky, and you would later learn she was female. Strangely enough, she seemed to follow you as if you were the queen and not her, so it was all fine. Even if she and her first offspring did kill your ex when he tried to hit and control you. One of her offspring lost a leg in that fight, so obviously his name would be tripod.

Luckily for you, sweet little Lucky didn’t breed like other of her kind. Over the years shed only had about 50 offspring, whom she seemed to raise in the same way you remembered earth dogs would do it, sometimes making you wonder if she was some kind of crossbreed. Having 50 kiande amedha though, made you very dangerous in the eyes of your ex’s species, especially when they learned you controlled them.

Joining the hunt hadn’t been something you had outright planned to do. Or getting juiced up with whatever weird drugs and inventions the clans you were friendly with cooked up. That was why you grew so much taller, and aged so slowly.

Ge'jaar wasn’t part of one of the clans you fought alongside. You two actually met, when a group of young bloods tried to hunt your beetle dogs. Apparently, they thought you would be an easy target, being an ooman and all. Of course, you made sure to show them you weren’t. they successfully killed one of your pets, a spunky one named Hoover because he ate everything. And like any hunter worth their salt, you needed revenge.

It led to some political struggles and conversations between clan elders, since you were pretty much a part of that one specific clan now after so many hunts together.

Ge'jaar wasn’t the leader of his clan, but still counted as an elder. He was handsome, in his own, scaley way. His skin was white and covered in the same dark splotching as all yautja seemed to carry. He wore a lot of the same clothing as most yautja did, and would later on wear a cape you made from the hide of a beast you had hunted.

In the end, Ge'jaar went as far as to apologize and repay you for the dead “hunting hound”. Bako, one of the males from your apparent clan, would later tell you it was because Ge'jaar wanted to fuck you. You were still very salty about Hoover though, so you acted quite nasty and confrontational with Ge'jaar and his clan for a good chunk of years.

The cape Ge'jaar would start to wear, hadn’t even been a gift in your mind. For some reason the elder yautja had followed along for one of your solo hunts, in Bakos words “going on a date” with you. And yes, Ge'jaar was very impressive to watch fight, he was very big and broad, alright? The creatures purple blood sprayed all over his white skin also didn’t help.

You couldn’t even remember what you had said to him, but it must have been some threat or curse as you threw the creatures skin at him, since you only wanted the meat and bones. It made no sense to you at the time why Ge'jaar started wearing the fur, and you hadn’t wanted to ask Bako since the guy had just started cackling at you when he saw it.

It was only years later when you had settled back down on earth, that it really seemed to register to you that Ge'jaar was trying to charm you, in his own yautja way. Still feeling so angry about Hoovers death, even if Ge'jaar himself didn’t do it, you took all the hunting and dead creatures by your ship and hut as a threat or challenge. All the jewelry and armor as harder to explain, and you still had the book about yautja mythology somewhere on your shelf.

At that point, you had just assumed Ge'jaar moved on, since you hadn’t seen him in so long. The only yautja you truly spoke much too nowadays was Bako and those from his clan. And of course, the ones that still owed you favors, just to remind them you were still alive to cash in on it.

You had just returned from one of your trips to the nearest large city, a trip that took you almost two weeks since everything was far away, when you saw him again. Or rather, one of your beetle dogs saw him, a young one named Blue, since his dome of a head reflected blue more than the rest.

Blue had been born, laid? On earth, and had seen very little true combat, so you assumed that was why he was the friendliest of them all. Where most of Lucky’s offspring that had known space and combat stuck to the shadows and settled in the cave system near your cabin, Blue was a real lapdog.

Friendly enough it seemed, to just accept an intruder in your home. Stepping out of your truck, Blue trotted out of your cabin door, which was wide open, looking as happy as a clam with dried meat in his maw. There was a feeling in the air that you weren’t alone, so grabbing at your beloved weapon of choice, you were about to fall back into old habits.

That was until Ge'jaar of all people, stepped out of your cabin, wearing one of your shirts. Well, trying to wear one of your shirts. It was one of the largest shirts you owned, old and worn with some odd shape on the front that might have been a logo once.

The elder yautja looked very comfortable, right at home honestly, his dreadlocks pulled into a bun on the back of his large head, and a damn sleeve of cookies in his massive hand. The confusion must have been so clear on your face, as the retired hunter chittered and laughed, moving closer to help you lug stuff back into your cabin and into your massive basement.

The confusion was strong enough that you just kinda went along with it, moving everything from your large truck and away from sight until you needed it. It was only after you both sat down on the couch that you took notice of the minor changes to your home, it looked very much like Ge'jaar had just moved himself in.

You could have smacked him right then and there, maybe cut all his dreadlocks off and made him swallow his mandibles, but somehow the massive scarred yautja made himself look so innocent and borderline lovable.

Blue, the little fucker, just got comfortable on a large fur Ge'jaar had laid out across the floor, tail whipping all over and knocking trinkets off your coffee table. The little traitor, you knew you spoiled him too much.

It took a lot of explanation from Ge'jaar, and you had a feeling if you hadn’t lived amongst his people for so long you might have lost it, but apparently Ge'jaar had made some plea to his clan leader, and yours since apparently you still counted as one of those, and you two were pretty much married without your approval.

Well, or so you would say, but all your guy’s “dates” and all the “gifts” you passed between you counted as courting. You settling down back on earth just appeared to be retirement in their eyes. It wasn’t like you still hated Ge'jaar, you never really had thinking back, it just… came as quite a surprise.

Ge'jaar still kept on courting you, even when you fed most of the things he caught to Lucky and her offspring. The elder yautja took your claim that Lucky was your child to heart, clicking and purring when she, and by extent her offspring, finally accepted his presence.

Time was a true blur out in the mountains, you only really noticed it by the seasons passing and you needing to go back into town two or three times a year to stock back up. But soon enough Ge'jaar was part of your life, and yes, you still snipped and bit at him sometimes, but this time it was meant as flirting.

Your mate, since that’s what you guys were now, was so patient and seemed to find your human nature endearing enough to pick up on some of it himself. It still felt very weird to be given flowers by a seasoned hunter like Ge'jaar, or to walk in on him watching Gilmore girls with Blue draped across his lap, but you got used to it.

It was probably best that you and Ge'jaar were the ones to get together, since he was older, had already had all the offspring he wanted. The yautja was also confident enough in himself that he didn’t get jealous the same way your ex had. Ge'jaar was hot and he knew this even in his fluffy robe and slippers, though you couldn’t help but miss him in his netting and weapons at times.

It turned out to be a lot more comfortable than you had thought to retire, with your mate who had to be hundreds of years older than you, and your many, many beetle dogs. There were times you debated on going out for a hunt again, as a date, for old times sake, but that was something you would need to discuss with Ge'jaar first.

[flexingtyger99]

Godzilla | Arthur Adams

[end-of-xistence]

MONSTER ENERGY GRAPHICS X3

Not mine, if you are the owner please ask if you would like credit/removal

Feel free to use!!

[melomancy]

Kate Bush on the set of The Line, The Cross, and The Curve (1993)