#full selkie victim

[voiarc-draws]

My AvA aus in a nutshell:

[manyminded]

psps. a friend wished to draw your victim.

here you go

OHHH MY GOODNESS???? THE BLUEBIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!

and they WOULD, lol. that tired face is Chronic and the coffee in their hands is the medication

tell them I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[i3utterflyeffect]

anyway i'm thinking about selkie au again.............

[illarian-rambling]

Character Introduction: Detective Ivander Montane, champion of greed

“So.” Unconsciously, Ivander began to fidget with his tie pin. If he had known, he would have stopped immediately. Fidgeting was an unbecoming habit. “You have a story for me?”

Ceyrel’s face immediately folded into a guilty uncertainty. “Well….” The woman hesitated, curling a strand of brassy hair around one blood-red claw. “I got a letter from my sister in the Republic yesterday night….”

“Wait, Lavir, Tagwyn, Brigid, or Arta?” Ivander asked. “You have a lot of sisters.”

“Lavir, obviously.” Ceyrel rolled her eyes. “The Reppies would never give a passport to a dwarf.”

“Of course, my mistake. Please continue.”

The trials and tribulations of Ceyrel’s massive hobgoblin-dwarven family were standard fare for their gossip sessions, so Ivander wanted to get an idea of who he was dealing with, and by extension the veracity of the news. Lavir—Ceyrel’s full sister—was a trustworthy sort, if prone to attachment issues and not repaying her debts on time. Ivander figured he could believe the contents of any letter she sent.

“So anyways, I get this letter from someplace along the Sulu’Okan-Skolandi border. Bekridge, I think it was called? Some decent-sized town Lavir decided to stay the night in before heading up to Landanium. But that’s not important.”

“Then what is?” Ivander winced impatiently. His knuckles were beginning to feel like someone had poured molten lead in between them. Too much writing in one day.

He saw Ceyrel spot his flinch and noted the resigned concern that flared in her eyes. She knew of his curse, though he’d never given her the whole story. However, the woman was a damn skilled detective. Between his abilities and the esteemed Montane name he still carried, she probably had a few theories. Wrong ones, of course, but a wrong theory could still be good.

“Yeah, so she’s telling me all about how shit the roads are down there and how it's just kind of a free-for-all along the border. No conners, no government anything, except the taxman. They even have this awful debtor system that’s basically just feudalism with extra steps. She said she hired a bodyguard to take her through some of the marshy stretches, because apparently if the human bandits don’t get you, the selkie raiders will.”

“This is all important because, Ivander, you have to understand how barbaric it is down there. I know I tease you about growing up with your own bank, but these Reppies make my family look just as hoity-toity as yours. They still have penal slavery, and lords, and require non-humans citizens to wear government medallions. So, when I tell you that my sister wrote to tell me about a murder of all things, you’ve got to understand how bad it was.”

“A murder. In the Republic.” Ivander shrugged. “I’m not sure what this has to do with me.”

“Still getting there. Apparently, the night Lavir was staying in Bekridge, there was a murder in one of their arcane distilleries. The town is big into alchemical manufacturing, being so close to the N’Diki swamp and all. Just after she heard the news, Lavir went to poke around because she’s even nosier than me and managed to sneak a peek at the scene of the crime.”

Now, Ceyrel’s golden eyes went deadly serious—from Ivander’s chatty friend to the hardboiled investigator every smart thug south of Council Round knew to watch out for.

“The victim was found missing a perfect circle out of the back half of his skull. Painted on the body were runes. Lavir’s pretty into all that magic stuff, but she said she didn’t know a single one….”

Ivander’s body went icy. It froze at the first mention of the broken skull and kept freezing until he felt as if he would shatter apart into a hundred hurting pieces. Memories whirled through his mind; a university corridor splashed with gore, a brothel full of sobbing prostitutes, a warehouse, a fabric store, and a kitchen still echoing with a child’s screams. Long sleepless nights and eternal agonizing days.

And worst of all, hope.

Ivander is a selfish man. Know this before anything else. Remember this above all else. Despite his gossiping tongue and steady hands, greed is at the core of his corroded heart, be that for good or ill.

Ivander was born to the wealthy and influential Montane family, in the grand trade city of Unity. Such wealth and influence came from one place; the banks. Long ago, the first Montane progenitor made a deal with Timaz, the Illarian god of greed. In exchange for the power to write unbreakable contracts and call on the occasional miracle, this ancestral Montane promised Timaz the obedience of their family, along with their souls and the souls of those they make contracts with. Using this power, the Montane family has come to control every bank in Unity, from the vaults of the Merchant Council to the payday shacks in the east side slums. They trade their undying loyalty for unlimited wealth.

Ivander was born to the family's patriarch, Antonin Montane, and his foreign, Cloud Folk bride, Idrin Pashan-Baijahreet. When Ivander was eight, his mother disappeared, never to be spoken of again. From a young age, Ivander was trained by his Uncle Marius (Antonin had more important business than raising a son) in the ways of the Montanes. He learned economics and theology hand in hand. Like all young Montanes, he was not allowed to leave the family compound until he signed his divine contract.

This signing happened when he was sixteen. Ivander was escorted to his father's office, whereupon his relatives held him while the contract was carved into his chest by way of ritual scarification. He carved his own name beneath it all in the end, and became a Chosen of Timaz. After that, he was permitted to join the family business.

For four years, Ivander worked in a bank under his uncle. Even from the beginning, signing people onto inescapable contracts made him uneasy. But as the things he convinced people to do became worse and worse, Ivander began to doubt his family. It was after he convinced a man to sell his children as indentured servants that he finally ran away. He thought he could repent and put some good into the world to make up for the bad. The thing he forgot about though, was that on a scale of vengeful gods, the god of greed is pretty high up there.

The Montane contract protects from direct divine wrath. However, it does not protect from a god sending the offending Montane a slow-acting, deadly curse. Ivander's curse isn't complicated; he's turning slowly into mist. Slowly and painfully, ever bit that's evaporated leaving behind another inch of flayed flesh or pitted bone to torment him. Every waking moment is pain for Ivander. The curse was not so bad when he first left his family, so he decided that his path to doing good would be to join Unity's Bureau of Arcane Investigation. The BAI roots out magical crime in the massive city, so Ivander thought it would be the perfect place for him. In a way, he was right.

The BAI is, was, and always will be corrupt. That corruption and the menial evil of everyday crime seeps into a person. Ivander never ended up doing much good there, though he did learn to line his pockets well with bribes. All he got in trade for leaving his family was a slow death sentence and a new way to exploit people.

This is where we find him, sort of. For you see, Ivander has found a murder case that just might be the thing that can protect him from his slow death. And he will do whatever it takes to save himself. This is where The Mystery of the Mortal God picks up.

As a person, Ivander is defined by his upbringing. He grasps for any advantage he might take, lies unrepentantly, and keeps any people who might strive for a close relationship at arms length, no matter how he might long for such a thing. The issue with intimacy isn't helped by the fact that his curse has left him disfigured. He wears an illusion to cover his true face, however, such a thing won't hold up under close examination. This practice might seem vain, but on the order of sins, vanity isn't really a concern for Ivander. A man just likes to look dapper sometimes, you know? Another big trait of Ivander’s is that he's a huge gossip. He loves knowing everyone's business and all sides of a story, which actually makes him a half decent detective if a case catches his interest.

Looks-wise, Ivander stands at about 5'8" and is much lighter than even his slender frame would suggest. He also looks younger than his 30 years. This is more through a quirk of his heritage than anything illusory though. It's from his mother's side that Ivander got his blue blood, double pointed ears, and too-blue eyes. On his father's side, he's elven, human, dwarven, and siren. In Unity, this would make him many-lined (of too many peoples to identify with any one). His illusory face is a handsome one, with swept back black hair and a thin mustache and goatee. His true face is a corroded ruin, missing much of its eyelids and lips. He wears bandages to keep blood from getting on his fine suits and walks with a cane. The illusion itself is held by an onyx tie pin inscribed with hidden runes.

Now fun facts!:

Ivander's condo is color-coded. Blue for the bedroom, green for the sitting room, yellow for the kitchen, purple for the bathroom.

He's a crack shot with a rune rifle.

He makes his money by investing bribes on the stock exchange using all of his insider Montane knowledge. He might’ve left his family, but that doesn't mean he's going to live in squalor.

Paperwork is his favorite detective duty.

His case partner is a hobgoblin woman named Ceyrel Gavorn. Ivander thinks of her as his dear friend, even if he'd never say so aloud. They're both incorrigible gossips.

He takes all thunderstorms as personal wrath from the gods against him in particular.

He lies for fun.

Out of the other MG pair, Ivander finds Mashal to be an incredibly kind and brave man. Ivander and Astra, on the other hand, hate each other's guts.

And that's a wrap on main POV character! I think maybe I'll do antagonists next, or places, or side characters. Whatever I decide though, I hope you find detective blueboy to be entertaining, and as always, lmk if you have any questions.

Have a bitchin day <3

(Tag list @amandacanwrite @elsie-writes @riveriafalll @kosmic-kore @kaylinalexanderbooks @bard-coded @carrotsinnovember @patternwelded-quill @somethingclevermahogony @whatwewrotepodcast @goldxdarkness @the-angriest-author @mk-writes-stuff)

[thejagermeister]

back to the future but they're all monsters, because i'm predictable:

marty passes as human but he's a banshee, able to channel his voice/guitar into a magical blast (or just a really powerful performance)

doc is the sandman, putting people to sleep and observing their dreams. his inventions take inspiration from the dreams he watches.

lorraine is a selkie. her natural form is that of a seal but she much prefers her more human-like form. her sealskin is magically disguised as a cardigan.

(she tries her best to subtly let marty "take" her sealskin and he freaks out every time. biff tries to snatch it every chance he gets because he can smell the magic on it. at the dance, george questions whether she's too warm in her cardigan and she immediately hands it over.)

george is a changeling, deposited at his parents' doorstep when he was a baby. he doesn't know why he was abandoned. every famous changeling tells tales about being switched with a human child for an ulterior motive, but george doesn't know his purpose.

goldie is a sphinx. he used to "protect" the diner (mostly just cleaned it, because lou didn't really care who was served there) but was elected mayor and proudly protects the clocktower.

jennifer is half-mermaid— she looks fairly human, but she can breathe underwater and has a naturally talented singing voice.

biff is a werewolf. he has the unique ability to half-transform even when the moon isn't full, which allows him to intimidate his classmates. he's threatened his victims many times to watch out, or he'll go after them the next full moon— his grandma doesn't care about protective measures and lets him roam free.

3-D is a basilisk, turning anyone who looks at his eyes to stone for a day. he wears his glasses to prevent this from happening, and tries his best to hide the fact that he's a monster at all.

slick is a sigbin, who can suck blood from someone's shadow and turn invisible. he only takes small amounts at a time, often going invisible to drink from multiple people while biff and 3-D distract them.

[aerkame]

Keep Me Anchored Part 1

An Ankor x selkie reader because I feel like this is a fun way to explain why he collects selkie coats and how he goes about it. There will be a little bit of x Barnaby as well, but mostly Ankor.

TW: Implied deaths, implied past kidnappings, violence, slight blood.

__________________________________________________________

Ankor never took himself as the kind to act this way, but could it be helped? Anyone would have done the same thing if it were them, right? Maybe he was just making excuses to satisfy his own bloodlust.

A loud thud echoed in the abandoned factory, blood and stuffing mixed as a large figure stepped over the pile of mangled bodies, bodies of what were once ordinary puppets.

Crates were knocked over and shipping boxes torn open by massive claws. He still couldn't find it.

Taking in a deep breath, the shark-dog sniffed, and sniffed, until he finally caught onto the scent he thought he'd lost. There, tucked away under various items was what Ankor came for. He reached in carefully handling the soft item, a selkie's coat...a fresh one. The poor thing.

He nuzzled his snout into it, giving a deep inhale. Male, around his early 20s, probably from the Pacific area judging by the smell. "A shame really...looks like they've been targeting victims more younger now. They must really be running out of supply at this rate." Ankor bit onto his nail in thought.

If he's lucky, the selkie can be easily tracked down since not many of them exist anymore, very unique scents, if not...hopefully one of his fin friends can help with that, they were always better at tracking than him. Besides, he had a concert in about a week or two.

A groan caught his attention.

His tongue lolled outside of the mouth, showing off the many sharp teeth underneath. Looks like he had some cleaning up to do.

__________________________________________________________

Letting your overly excited friend drag you to a concert to listen to a singer you didn't even know seemed like a good idea at first. But now? You have many regrets.

Gripping onto your jacket tightly, you looked to the left, then right, searching for any spot that had at least a tad bit more room.

The entire place was packed full of screaming fangirls and whooping fanboys, all mixes of different puppets, creatures, and beings. The crowd was lively and everything was just too much all at once. Short remora dogs were seen around the stage in front of the crowded guardrails passing out souvenirs. They were kinda cute, you watched as one walked over to your area offering up a shark tooth necklace and a shell necklace, both of which you declined. Your friend eagerly took both. "My sister is going to be so jealous when I get back." she giggled to herself.

"You do you I guess..." you gave a small smile, happy to just be there and make your friend happy. You were pretty curious to see what all the fuss was about, having seen all kinds of products and artwork made by this Ankor Awespire guy.

The lights suddenly dimmed to hot pinks and cyan blues, the crowd got louder.

The crackle of a mic turning on gathered everyone's attention as a smooth and deep voice echoed out "So I heard you came for me... well I'll be sure not to disappoint!" A bright burst of light appeared on the stage and a tall Shark-dog dressed to the 70s stepped out into the sparkling lights and light fog. Talk about making an entrance. You guessed this was another future funk/disco artist based on the attire. Not a bad choice really.

Your thoughts were interrupted as the rowdy crowd grew louder than ever, you were considering on just leaving at this point. Strangers kept touching your coat or brushing past the soft fur, it was uncomfortable to say the least. Maybe you should have left it at home and just hid it somewhere...

Suddenly your friend started screaming, startling you.

"He's coming over here!" She started waving her hands wildly to grab his attention amongst the ever growing crowd. You looked up to the stage to see the man sniffing the air seemingly, before his head turned towards your general direction.

"He's looking at me!" "Over here!" "Ankooor!"

Fans screamed behind you and in front of you making you wince and curl in at the sudden loudness. Your friend stopped yelling upon noticing your shrinking form. "Hey, you alright?"

You nodded "It's so loud..."Hugging you closely, she made sure to tuck most of the fur inside your hoodie and patted your back. "It's alright."

You peeked up looking at your friend's face before your attention was drawn to the stage again.

He was staring straight at you.

Your eyes locked with each other's until the star suddenly made a move to bend down and give something to a nearby remora dog, saying something that could not be heard over the loudness of the crowd. He pointed at you in the sea of people and said something else, everyone was growing quiet wondering what was going on.

The remora dog pushed their way through the crowd until they were at your side, handing you a card. "Please visit Mr.Awespire after the show. It's urgent." The small remora dog swiftly retreated back behind the guardrails. Everyone around you was staring now.

"Ladies and gents, I believe we have our winner for the back stage tour!" Back on the stage was Ankor, who was now pointing at you, a big smile on his face. "As for the next show, please make sure to enter again for another chance at an all exclusive tour." The crowd was back to cheering and yelling,

He twirled his finger, pivoting around to face the back of the stage. "Now for the show you've all come for!"

[constelationprize]

yeah so i’m gonna need the deets on bury me in the deep like,,,,,,,,,s’il te plaît 🙏

(also hi!!!)

It's a selkie!Kevin Kandreil AU! A one shot too if the fates allow.

Basically, the Moriyama's are magical artifacts dealers. And the Foxes are part that... Part monster hunters, part halfway house for people in some way victimized by magic. Aaron and Andrew are the fruits of a witch bargain, hence why Tilda gave one of them away; Neil is half-devil; and the rest will be figured out as I go along.

So yeah! Kayleigh was a selkie living it up on the surface, and after her death (which may or may not have been ordered by Kengo so they could sell her pelt), Tetsuji took Kevin's coat away for "safekeeping". So while Kevin escapes the Nest, he can't actually *leave* as long as they still have his coat. This, understandably, gives him some issues around disclosing his true nature, and as such none of the Foxes (except for Wymack, obviously) know what he is, though they suspect something fishy (ha) is going on.

So he's been at Palmetto (adapted to be a coastal town for our purposes) for a year, trying to dodge Andrew's questions and repress all his feelings. And then Neil Josten arrives (I guess some things never change).

If everything goes well, it's gonna be my second entry to the daylight fest. That does imply me actually writing tooh first, and I'm still wrestling with that one. But all's well that ends well or wathever.

Here is the opening, as a treat:

It's almost as if there are two skies, this time of night where the full moon is reflected over the blackness of the sea. The roiling waves of the rising tide disturb the image from time to time, and yet, Kevin has no interest in looking up. He just stands there, warm water driving his bare feet further down into the cold sand, wishing he could see past the surface.

Riko has put another notch into his pelt today.

[unlikelycliteratureenthusiast]

TRIGGER WARNING! SUICIDE, MENTAL HEALTH, LOSS, GRIEF, MEDICAL ISSUES, CHILDHOOD TRAUMA, AND SEXUAL ABUSE

I've never felt comfort in being alone. My mind races, and travels to the darkest corners of my existence.

Tonight, I made a plan while I was peering into the dead parts of me. The only thing stopping me was the thought that I didn't want to stink up the house with rot. Well, that, and the horror stories of cats eating people's faces. But, let's face it. If I'm gone, and im getting cremated, who cares?

But, no.

My loss, my grief, my anger and rage. My loneliness and hurt, my longing for the family I'll never have.. all of these things I'll put back on the shelf to confront another day. If I were to succeed, the man who was supposed to be my childhood protector and instead abused my body until I lie bloody and broken would win. The woman who was supposed to be my protector, teacher, my guide into adulthood, and what it should have been like to be a mom but instead allowed the abuse to happen would win.

The man who tied me down and abused my body at his discretion for days and days because he could; would win.

My body and brain that continue to betray me with medical issues to the point of loosing my speech, my ability to walk, to see correctly, and to live a full life would win.

The person who wanted me gone... you won't win.

The reality is, I know deep down I'm stronger than this. I've never given up. Even laying bloodied, broken, chest heaving and gutted from grief, loss, suffering, and longing to finally find my family can't bring myself to do it.

Laying in a pile of blankets, listening to the wind whip the trees outside my window into submission; I also bend and aqueous. I'll live another day, and another, and another. I'll continue until my body decides I'm finally done. And then, and only then will I give my cat permission to eat my face before I'm put back from where I came. Back into the raging sea, which washed me on shore, much like the Selkie. One day I'll return. Just not today, and not by my own hand. I refuse to let them win.

Im not a victim. Im a survivor. If you struggle, please know you're stronger than you think. You've conquered every day of your life. You've got this. There is help available.

Dial 988 for thd Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. I believe in you.

[smallandalmosthonest]

For the 911 Halloween ask thingy: 1, 2, 3 pleeease 🤲

Assign a supernatural creature to the members of the 118 Bobby: vampire. think of everything that could ever have been good about the concept of carlisle cullen and make it about bobby nash instead. he's a thousand years old. he has to watch everyone he loves die someday. he cooks them food but cannot eat it himself. he has catholic guilt. peter krause with fangs would make me so horny i would have to be shot like a rabid dog. Chimney: somehow just immortal. cannot die. rebar head? fine. stabbing? shakes it off. for ages he felt survivor's guilt, for ages he searched for the answer as to why him, until someone (eli probably) tells him that if he doesn't feel like he deserves all these second chances, the least he can do is give someone else a second chance, and this is why chimney gets his paramedic cert Hen: she is a wizard!!!! give her potions!!!!! spells!!!! screw medical school she is learning to cast mass cure wounds!!!! Eddie: Eddie Diaz is a werewolf. i will die on this hill this is practically canon to me. he is ashamed of the monster within. he doesn't trust himself. he would do anything for his pack. he feels the call of the full moon and represses it. he also has catholic guilt. Buck: THE ONE REGULAR HUMAN MAN AND I FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT THIS Ravi: ravi is a selkie and the 118 has stolen his seal skin and he would really like it back can he have it back guys c'mon --

Which member is most likely to get bitten by a werewolf? Eddie Diaz is bitten right around the time Christopher is born and Buck is bitten in a sexy way but not in a way that will turn him bc Eddie would never forgive himself even though Buck would be fine with it --

Which member is most likely to get bitten by a vampire? I'm gonna say Hen because she really did sprint into a bank vault that one time and I can totally see her running to the rescue on a med call even when they're supposed to stay back bc the victim is a near-feral vampire but Hen can't just stand there

[semper-legens]

28. A Haunting in the Arctic, by C.J. Cooke

Owned: No, library Page count: 368 My summary: 1901. Nicky, abandoned by her husband and grieving the loss of her daughter, is kidnapped onto the Ormen, her father's whaling ship. They think she owes her, and they're going to collect. 1973. The Ormen is a research vessel, drifting in Arctic waters. Only one of the dead is found, mutilated and alone. 2023. Urban explorer Dom is documenting the ship before it is sunk. She thought she was alone - until a trio of other explorers joined her. But there's something else here. Something angry. And it won't let any of them go... My rating: 2/5 My commentary:

Well, this was inevitable. If you know anything about my predilections, you'll know that I am absolutely fascinated by Bad Things Happening At Sea, survival situations including survival cannibalism, and in particular bad things going on during Arctic expeditions. So when a historical horror novel called A Haunting in the Arctic crosses my path, of course I have to read the darn thing. It's practically an obligation at this point. A split narrative, one woman investigating what went wrong on this whaling ship, one woman experiencing events as they happen…there's a lot that's appealing about the premise, and I had high hopes going in!

The key words there being 'going in'. Unfortunately, I found this book rather too bland for my tastes. See, the reason behind the split narrative is obvious from early on. Dom has dreams of being a selkie, and Nicky is called a selkie wife and is obviously physically transforming into a selkie…hmm, could these two perchance be linked? That Dom is Nicky is obvious from the start, but the book only reveals this at the very end. The idea of a ghost working through her trauma by haunting, in a way that inadvertently causes the deaths of others (the trio Dom meets are the ghosts of two of the research team and one man from the whaling ship) could be interesting. So too could be the idea of ghosts trapped in a loop, trying desperately to redeem their killer. But this is all just mentioned in passing, backstory to be uncovered in the climax.

And the 'mystery' here, aside from being obvious, is treated really clumsily. There are so many points when another character will say to Dom 'I know who you are!' or something like that, then conveniently be interrupted before they can spill all. It doesn't build suspense, it's just frustrating after a point. And when you've realised Dom's secret, it makes all the clumsy references to TikTok and social media that much clunkier - they're there seemingly to mislead the reader, as Nicky wouldn't know about the internet, obviously. Characters are not given full names so their reveal can be a surprise later, but the omission is glaring given parallels between present-day and past characters, to the point where it's not hard to work out who's who. Nicky and Dom's names are the most egregious - they're both short for Dominique, which is only brought out at the end.

Aside from that, though, I think the book's biggest problem is that Dom and Nicky are both really passive characters. And I feel bad for calling them that - this book is about trauma, and how trauma can shape you as a person - but the fact is that they just don't do anything. Nicky only makes one belated, half-hearted attempt to escape captivity. Dom mostly goes along with the others, there's nothing that she really does but decide to explore the ship. I know, I know, this sounds victim-blamey, but there's ways to write this sort of character in this sort of situation that doesn't stray into complete passivity. Nicky is helpless against the will of the men on the ship, but maybe if we saw more of her as a person beside her grief and pain then she might seem more whole? If Dom was actively making attempts to discover herself and change, unconscious as they may be, then she might appear more active? But no, they just don't do much until the time comes for the reveal, and that's disappointing. I can't tell you much about these characters other than the pain they went through. Their likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams…nothing.

And, look. I don't know much about whalers in the early 1900s. I'm pretty sure they weren't outfitted with cages that can be dragged behind the ship as a punishment, and that they weren't in the habit of cutting people's hands off? The myth of the selkie as portrayed in this book is also not much like any selkie-story I know. I don't want to say that the author did no research - on the contrary, her afterwords shows a lot of time researching - and there's something to be said for artistic licensce, but this seemed a wee bit egregious. Also, this is a minor thing, but Nicky's husband is away fighting because of the grief caused by their daughter's death. He's fighting in the Second Boer War. You know, where Britain invented the concentration camp. And it's mentioned that he's actively doing war crimes too! What a baffling thing to just bring up as background detail. Feel sorry for the man actively participating in starving, abusing, imprisoning, and murdering civilians! He lost a kid! And now he's burning farms, murdering prisoners of war, and forcing people into literal fucking concentration camps. But he's sad about it! Like, Jesus fucking Christ.

Next…like I said, I'm speedrunning. House of Night!

[marigoldispeculiar]

The fairytale behind Werewolves Don't Wear Clothes

So I've realized that I should probably lay out the fairytale that my wip Werewolves Don't Wear Clothes is based on. I read it in a French folklore class, and I don't really think there's an English version, or even French version, available easily online. The book it's from is L'arbre à soleil by Henri Gougand, according to my old class notes.

That course's werewolf lecture in general was the point at which I realized that everyone really was just making stuff up, and there's no 'canonical' version of folklore. This particular story is from France, and it's considered mildly unusual in that the werewolf (loup-garou) is not the villain, but the victim. It left an impression on me as basically being a reverse-selkie situation.

A werewolf falls in love with a woman and marries her. On the full moon after their wedding, he takes her out the forest and tells her he has a secret. He turns into a wolf and explains that he's been cursed by the Devil to take his clothes off and run around as a wolf every full moon, and he can only turn human again when he puts his clothes back on at dawn.

The werewolf shows her where he hides his clothes, and she waves him off into the forest. After that, she steals his clothes and stashes them away. She tells everyone that her husband has disappeared and they all assume he's dead.

The woman starts flirting with the richest guy in the neighbourhood, who takes pity on her, and, when her husband is officially declared dead, they get engaged. Except of course the werewolf is not dead, so she asks her new fiancé to go hunt down the wolf that's been lurking around her house.

The fiancé gets together a hunting party and finds the werewolf. When they're about to shoot him, the werewolf speaks up and explains his situation to them, and the fiancé decides to bring him back and see if it's true. They search the entire house and eventually find the werewolf's clothes hidden under the floorboards of the master bedroom.

The werewolf puts his clothes back on and turns back into a man, proving his story true. The woman is arrested, tried, and hanged for her scheme, and everyone else lives happily ever after.

---

This is all just to the best of my recollection, and I didn't keep the book it was in after the course was over. I've changed and added a good number of details for Werewolves Don't Wear Clothes, but this is more or less the skeleton the story is draped around.

[voiarc-draws]

@i3utterflyeffect help I think this might just be spiraling into its own au at this point

[wickedsrest-rp]

NAME: Mermaid

RARITY: ★★☆☆☆

THREAT LEVEL: ★★★☆☆ | Deadly to have around, especially when areas are infested, but easy to avoid if staying out of the water.

HABITAT: The ocean. Because of their fairly large size, they’re not usually found in shallow water.

DESCRIPTION: Everyone knows what a mermaid is. Children love them, adults wish they were them, and sailors have claimed to see them since ancient Assyria. But mermaids are not what people think they are. They may look like beautiful women when seen from the surface, but they’re actually a species of anglerfish-like demon that takes advantage of human lust and gullibility. Exclusively oceanic, these demons are opportunistic feeders and will happily hunt down and eat selkies, nymphs, and other marine creatures. However, they do have a special love for eating humans, especially ones they lure off docks and boats using the humanoid lure attached to their head. 

There’s variation among mermaid lures, and occasionally you will see one with a less… developed lure, that more closely resembles a lump of flesh than a human. Once they’ve lured a victim, they use their long, sharp teeth to eat their prey. Mermaids are large, considering the human-shaped lures they need to carry, and can even reach the size of a humpback whale. Mermaids come in many colors and have impressively beautiful scales, which people love to find and collect along beaches. They have no idea.

ABILITIES: Mermaids have full control over their human-like lure at the top of their heads, and are capable of making it move around (sometimes seductively, sometimes flailing to convince someone it’s a drowner) and even speak short sentences, though typically in a garbled demonic manner. They’re well-adapted to dive down to any depth – literally. Some can even be found at the bottom of deep ocean trenches. Mermaids are speculated to have almost human levels of intelligence.

WEAKNESS: It’s better to avoid mermaids in the first place, but sometimes they become attached to good feeding grounds and need to be taken out to avoid more casualties. While removing them from the water isn’t often possible, mermaids can’t tolerate holy water, so this can be poured on or near them. It may take a few attempts as the holy water will rapidly become diluted in the seawater. While suited to live in the ocean, mermaids are rather clumsy swimmers due to the weight and shape of their awkward lures. Unfortunately, a consequence of having so many mermaids in the area is that there is a reluctance to help real drowning people out of fear that it’s a trap; this has led to many deaths over the years.

OTHER VARIANTS:

Maiden’s hair: This mermaid variant still resembles a demonic anglerfish, but instead of one human-shaped lure, they have hundreds of thousands of lures that are thinly tangled as they drift through the current, sometimes bobbing up at the surface. This often appears to be the head of a long-haired woman, which prompts people to dive in for an attempted rescue. The “hair” are stinging nettles, and will zap anyone who touches them. This stuns the victim for long enough that the body of the demon can simply open its great maw and enjoy the easy meal.

[i3utterflyeffect]

but seriously i'm fascinated by this idea. i'm trying to make this compatible with the idea of victim because i'm thinking about victim trying to destroy the cursor/selkie skin. OR trying to make it usable for themself

you know, a selkie. a creature that can shift between human and seal form by putting on or taking off a seal skin. now instead of human and seal it's stick!alan and the cursor.

excuse me if i'm being incoherent it's quite late in my timezone.

NO I UNDERSTAND PERFECTLY......... THAT'S SUCH A COOL IDEA..............

it took me a minute to find this but i think this would actually work rlly well with @e-u-tva's cursor sticks but i. hrng. honestly i'm kind of fascinated with the thought either way

i have no idea how this'd work but this brings a lot of interesting questions i think. could other sticks use the cursor-skin? is alan the only one who's both a stick and a computer user? could he do this like. anywhere? including the outernet? imagine if the other hollowheads could do this. the whole thing where people steal selkie skin to trap a selkie as a human except trapping alan as a stick?????

i can't stop thinking about this. obsessed

[gentrychild]

For a mermaid au, Afo is a siren who lures unsuspecting victims to their deaths. The only exception was a green haired boy who he's decided to take as a son.

Or maybe Afo could be a sea monster? Idk, have fun.

No quirk AU where Izuku moves in a new place near the sea but starts to sleepwalk, always awakening right before he enters the water.

AU where mermaid Izuku is sold on the black market and AFO buys him, leveraging his need to regularly get access to a large amount of water to have him act as the perfect son.

Meralligator Izuku that lives in the swamp with his mother.

Divers AU where Izuku lived on an island where poor people like him have no choice but to swim to a reef every day to get some precious coral. Problem: the reef is full of sea monsters.

Pirate AU where Izuku is used as a lure to capture a mermaid, only to find out that they bit off more than they could chew.

Little mermaid AU where Izuku goes to the sea witch to get legs and explore the outside world.

AU where Izuku lives in a world where water turns people into aquatic creatures and high altitudes turn people into aerial creatures but the transformation robs them of their memories.

Selkie AU where Izuku wonders what is in his father's safe.

Ugly ducking AU where Izuku wonders why he doesn't look like the other mer only to find out he is actually a sea dragon.

[niennandil-me-writes]

the mermaid and the selkie

CN: mild violence

[kiss request “a kiss to give up control” for Bea (_JackFrost_ on twitter)]

"Become the beast We don't have to hide Do I terrify you Or do you feel alive?"

Karliene – Become the Beast

The full moon was casting its silver veil over the ocean. In a bay on the coast of a small island – too small to be of interest to the marine, or even most pirates – their tender fingers of light were brushing over a vessel that laid anchored there. Too small to be called a proper ship, it was closer to a boat, but then again, that would have made the name pointless, which was drawn in fresh colors on its side: The Relation. It lay peaceful, sleeping, just like most of its crew, which was enjoying a hard-earned rest here, and had been for a few days.

The bay lay within the land, protected by the cliffs from the more violent tides and wind, making the water here perfectly still, a perfect mirror showing the moon and stars almost exactly as up above. It was an image of calm serenity, not betraying the fierce fight that happened beneath.

In the depths far below the still mirror, between corals and seaweed, among jellyfish and schools of fish glittering in the silver light, a beast was delving through the water, looking for its next victim, and finding it in the juicy flesh of a fish. The beast with the body of a seal had no sooner spotted it as she dashed forward and caught it in her maw.

She was looking for her next victim when she noticed a shift in the water. Darting around, she caught a glimpse of scales shimmering in the moonlight. And unlike everything else she had encountered in the water this night, it was not fleeing her, but coming closer instead. She recognized the pink tail at once. She swam to the side, such that the creature shot past her, clawed arms outstretched. The selkie followed, her turn to attack now.

The fight truly began now. Two creatures of the sea, entwined in battle.

On land, they might have seemed like no big threat: The selkie with her rolls of fat on her hips and belly, her big cheeks and simple-minded face, her strength measuring no bigger than her height – or so it might seem. The mermaid walking around in high heels and pretty dresses, her pink hair done up in beautiful knots. Nice to look at, yes, (nice to look beside you, one might think), but nothing more.

Such were the errors of Man (a word capitalised here to mean both humanity and that particular brand of the gender), and in many a case, their downfall.

They shot around, pushing their bodies through the water with all the strength of the sea. The selkie was moving with greater speed and grace than one would have expected from her big body. Her tusks seemed even longer and sharper now than mere moments ago when she was eating her midnight snack, as did the claws on her flippers.

The mermaid’s tail whipped through the water and at her opponent, her fingernails perfectly manicured and ready to draw blood. She smiled and her teeth were sharp, her blue eyes gleaming. Her hair danced around her with every movement, as she evaded strike after strike and dished out her own, and then disappeared farther away.

It was a hunt, but none would have been able to tell who was the predator and who was the prey, nor which would prove victorious: the graceful strength of the selkie or the mighty elegance of the mermaid. All the other creatures in the water had disappeared, swam away or hidden to watch the spectacle from safety.

The fight had been going for a while now, and neither of them had landed an attack, always missing the other by just a few inches. There was not a scratch on either of them and neither showed signs of exhaustion. They could have kept going like that for hours, it seemed.

Then, finally and suddenly, they clashed together, like waves against a rock, but it was yet unclear who was what, the mermaid’s long arms closed around the selkie, her claws at her neck, and the selkie’s tusk likewise pointed at the mermaid’s delicate throat. For a moment, they stayed like that, unmoving for the first time, like they were caught in the beam of moonlight shining down from the surface. There was a tension, like lightning might strike into the sea at any moment and signal for the two beasts to tear each other apart.

Then the mermaid’s grin widened, the look in her eyes softened, until her expression seemed less like a bloodthirsty snarl and more like a teasing smile. Likewise, the selkie’s demeanor changed, becoming softer. They separated, swimming in different directions, circling around through the water, until they met once again in the silver beam of light. The selkie’s body seemed changed, almost like she had shrunk, her tusks smaller and her claws retracted, a playful seal once more.

As they rejoined, they shot together through the water, circling each other, chasing each other’s tail, until they came to a halt again, their faces close. The mermaid, still smiling, placed a soft peck of her lips on the selkie’s snout. When she pulled away, the selkie darted forward and likewise bumped into the mermaid, and then something in her changed and rippled.

At first it looked like she was being skinned alive, the big eyes becoming pale and blind as her pelt rippled away, revealing suntanned skin beneath, big strong arms pulling the gray fur away. Dark eyes looked out from a round face, long gray locks floated out in the water, as the selkie pulled the pelt down to her hips until she, much like her opponent and mate, was a being half human, all beast.

The mermaid watched, head tilted in interest, and a bit of awe at the other’s naked form, but she pushed herself backwards a bit, giving the selkie some space in her transformation. The selkie let go with one hand from her pelt and put it to the mermaid’s slender arm, pulling her closer again and guiding her hand to her hip, not to her naked human skin but farther down, to her sealskin.

The mermaid’s eyes fluttered open in surprise. She looked at Ròn and received only an almost uncharacteristically shy smile in return. The permission had already been granted. And then, as if that gesture had made her too vulnerable, the selkie darted forward and laid her lips to Purrl’s. Out of surprise, the mermaid held on to the pelt, and kissed back, laying her other hand to Ròn’s hip.

Ròn’s kiss was just like herself: violent and beastly, and Purrl made sure to return it in kind. Ròn was biting her, tearing into her lips with sharp teeth, and Purrl tightened her grip around her partner’s hips, digging her claws into her rolls of fat. Just like their fight before, the kiss was both ferocious and playful.

Suddenly, Ròn blew some air from her vast lungs into Purrl’s mouth. The mermaid drew back immediately, and Ròn watched with a grin as bubbles of her air rose from Purrl’s gills. With mock offense, Purrl drew closer again, tangling her long tail around Ròn as if she were holding her in place. Ròn leaned forward as well, placing soothing kisses on her gills, then nibbling on them. She could feel Purrl tense and then relax, and then Ròn moved downward again to gently bite into Purrl’s less sensitive shoulder. They stayed like this, tails entangled, exchanging kisses and touches and more while they drifted through the night-dark water, the mermaid’s fin fanned out around them like a silken veil.

When they broke the surface to return to the Relation, the moon had sunk behind the cliffs, and in the east the stars were fading in a pale blue sky.