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bigskydreaming · 4 years ago

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Okay, what lightning based creature from folklore and mythology might you interpret Josh being spliced with? Same with Corey, because "chameleon" don't cut it lol

Ugh, so many.

Corey:

My first thought would be any of the practically endless variety of household spirits and fairies attributed with invisibility - most of them usually denoted as being mischief makers, not inherently good or evil but more aligned to like a chaotic-neutral kinda thing than any particular morality.

These include, but are not limited to, various kinds of goblin-esque creatures that aren’t necessarily what one would picture when thinking of goblins in terms of like, Lord of the Rings. But brownies, hobgoblins and trow from various Celtic regions of Europe, or something like the duende from Iberian folklore perhaps, some takes on the domovoi from Russian legends, or maybe French lutins though they’re a bit more malevolent in nature than most of these others....but any of those could easily acount for the invisibility/camouflage Corey’s capable of, and there’s a lot of them that like, being part of Corey’s ‘nature’ could pair well with the fact that he’s small and unobtrusive in appearance, as well as being a shy, insecure kid not above expressing (justified) resentment or letting that dictate his actions or behavior towards people.

A boggart could also be interesting because there are as many takes on the boggart being a physical flesh and blood shapeshifter or fairy as there are it being a kind of spirit, and invisibility is as much a part of its nature as taking on the appearance of something someone fears....and there’s a lot of potential IMO in the almost irony of making Corey of all characters be part ‘boogeyman’ - since the boggart is the basis of boogeyman legends.

A sylph could be interesting, but it would have to be a Teen Wolf take on the actual sylphs of legend, like putting its own spin on it like it does with a lot of the other supernatural creatures that show up. Because as is, a sylph is one of the four elemental types of beings along with salamanders, undines and gnomes, and so its literally just a creature of air - but invisible and spritely, etc. So a Teen Wolf version of a sylph that’s flesh and blood at least some of the time and even CAN be ‘spliced’ into the chimera genome in some way....like, you’d definitely have to tweak your version to make it work, but it could work. And sylph fits a lot about Corey as a character, and it opens up doors for him to have powers beyond just invisibility, such as maybe giving him a kind of telekinesis or even the ability to levitate.

There’s a couple of Finnish beings of legends that could fit the bill, like keiju (kinda a Finnish version of pixies or sprites) or even tonttu, which are like a kind of....proto-Christmas elf, almost? LOL. But again, both are attributed with invisibility and discretion, though the keiju tend to be less concerned with human affairs while the tonttu are normally seen as helpful beings and friendly to humanity.

A bodach could be interesting too, they’re Scottish tricksters, usually more malevolent than neutral but not necessarily. Again, normally invisible, often follow people and frightening them with the sound of footsteps while there’s not even footprints in sight.....BUT the thing that’s interesting about this at least in terms of Teen Wolf, is there are various kinds of bodach like the Bodach Glas, the Dark Grey Man, who are also perceived as death omens. Like they’re normally invisible, and the only time you see one is if you’re going to die, and so given the other death-omen related beings in TW like banshees and hellhounds, Corey actually being part Bodach could have some interesting implications or associations....like, maybe if it turns out that he can turn invisible whenever he wants, but occasionally he realizes someone sees him even when he doesn’t want them to....but when that happens, that’s actually just because or a sign that the person is destined to die soon. Especially given the way Corey was used in 6A during the Wild Hunt storyline, like....you could definitely tie that into things there or go in similar directions with that.

Tbh though, I’m most intrigued I think by the idea of what if Corey was part....leshy, or one of the various analogues to the leshy in different regions like the borovoi in Russia or the Lithuanian mishkinis. But the leshy, and other related beings are like....a nature spirit, albeit a physical being rather than like a true spirit-spirit. But they’re usually nature GUARDIANS, specifically, and most associated with woods and forests. There’s also a fun kind of irony because one of the attributes of the leshy, aside from its invisibility or ability to disguise itself among the trees by blending in with its backgrounds, is like....the leshy is a size changer as well, and typically defaults as an enormous being, as tall as a tree....but who can also shrink to the size of a blade of grass. Given that Corey’s on the small size, this kinda amuses me, but also could make for a fun twist if he eventually realizes his powers don’t let him just turn invisible or fade into the background, but like, he can change his size and height as well. Make him like an Ant-Man kinda character.

But another thing that’s particular interesting about the leshy, and makes me lean towards it, is that the leshy isn’t just a generic forest spirit or guardian, but is associated with hunting in specific. But not in the human kind of way, but the hunters of nature.....as in, the leshy is often surrounded by or depicted as always being in the company of...packs of wolves. Occasionally bears, too, but they’re most associated with wolves. Which makes making Corey part leshy and part of a wolf pack particularly fitting, I think. And also sets up some interesting conflicts with hunters like Argent, even if Corey doesn’t even KNOW why he’s so antagonistic towards them, but like, as part leshy, he would likely be prone to very Not Good vibes about human hunters. Which also creates some interesting implications about the WHY of the Dread Doctors of all beings choosing to make a chimera that was part leshy aka anti-hunter....given that the lead Dread Doctor, Marcel, pretty much did everything he did because he was super obviously in love with Sebastian aka the Beast, the prime target and enemy of hunters everywhere, and the whole reason the Argent dynasty began in the first place.

Josh:

I’d need to give some more thought to him. I have seen people headcanon that Josh was spliced with some kind of raiju, which is a creature from Japanese legends typically associated with various gods of thunder. The raiju is a kind of thunder-beast, and usually takes the form or appearance of a blue-white wolf shaped from lightning, though it can also take other forms like that of a weasel, a badger or even a dragon.

I mean, this one definitely does work, its just I’m kinda like.....eh, just because TW has fucked around with and fucked over Japanese legends enough on the show without putting any real effort into prioritizing or centering them or the characters associated with them....aka all our rants about Kira and the nameless/barely-a-character nogitsune. I suspect my resistance to having Josh be part raiju is less that like, it doesn’t fit or make sense than it is mostly just.....I don’t trust the execution of most of the people I’ve seen do the headcanoning him as such, lol, so I’m knee-jerk inclined to just run the opposite direction with it, lol. Also, along similar lines, just NO times infinity to having him be in any way part thunderbird because Leave Native American legends alone Teen Wolf, You’ve Done Enough.

There are a number of other kinds of lightning birds though, from regions all around the world, like Slavic mythology and folklore has a couple, particularly associated with Perun, there’s a few in South American regions, Zulu folklore has a lightning bird called the impundulu....but even just going back to Eastern Europe with this, in the sense that since so many of the other creatures TW focused on originate there and that’s where the DD are from, its not a stretch to imagine beings or creatures from that region being particularly central to a lot of their experiments....like, for instance in terms of that reasoning, my personal preference would be to go with one of the various takes on the shtriga or strigoi that associate them with lightning (mostly ball lightning) that could work and be something a bit different.

Because the strigoi are basically the basis for Stoker’s take on vampires in particular, so instead of being specifically derived from some kind of lightning-specific creature or being like the raiju, making Josh part strigoi would mean his electricity powers were really only incidental to his chimera nature rather than the focus of it, and since the Teen Wolf chimeras are all one third human, one third werewolf, and one third something else....Josh being a strigoi chimera would effectively make him TW’s version of a vampire-werewolf hybrid.

(Also, like with the leshy, the strigoi makes a certain kind of sense to be spliced with werewolves or associated with a wolf pack, because the strigoi is pretty much definitively THE version of a vampire that having vampires have strong connections to and imagery associated with wolves, or vampires being able to shapeshift into wolves specifically.....like the strigoi are where those legends and takes in particular all stem from).

And I mean, Josh as part strigoi definitely puts his teeth when he’s in his shifted form in a totally different light, lolol.

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