#kitsune America

[coralcatsea]

Do you prefer Monster!Alfred/Human!Arthur or Human!Alfred/Monster!Arthur?

Ooh! Well, I enjoy both, but I do think I lean towards either Arthur being the monster or both of them being monsters.

If there's NSFW involved, I definitely tend to prefer Arthur as the monster just because I like top Arthur and it's typically more fun for the top to be the monster (Though human Arthur can top the monster, too. 😏)

In general, here are some monsters I like to use for them:

-Zombie Alfred

-Eldritch Arthur

-Vampire Arthur

-Werewolf Alfred

-Naga Arthur

-Arachne Arthur

-Harpy Alfred

-Mermaid Arthur

-Cecaelia Arthur

-Mermaid Alfred

-Demon Arthur

-Ghost Arthur

-Demon Alfred

-Kitsune Arthur

-Dragon Arthur

-Kitsune Alfred

-Zombie Arthur

-Centaur Arthur

[idiotonelmstreet]

I hate knowing I'll never fit into my cultures beauty standard. Sure, in America, I get alot of compliments for my tan skin. But, I can be outside for only a few seconds and get completely tan. No remedies or lotions work, but at least I've never had a sunburn!

[writingwithcolor]

Creatures of Folklore Who Represent Cultures Preventing Wars Throughout History

Anonyomous asked:

Hi! I’m writing a story which is set in a fantasy version of our world. The main difference between our real world and my fictional version is that the spirits and fairies of each culture and folklore exist, and that the majority of them basically stop war from happening because they react very badly (and potentially violently) when invading forces etc try to start battles. 

I’m doing a lot of research into the histories of the various cultures that will be featured in the books set in this world so I can hypothesise how they might have developed without, for example, violent colonialism, and where trade and so on might have flourished in its place. However, it’s possible for colonialism to happen through more insidious ways, such as assimilation. In one of my books, I’m intending to use this as part of the plot, where Japan will try to colonise the Ryukyuan Kingdom through assimilation, but will be stopped by the Ryukyuan Kingdom making allies with other nations (amongst other tactics), but I was wondering if you had any advice for respectfully handling the colonialism that very much did happen in real life in a fantasy setting where it didn’t manage to occur, without erasing the history and ramifications etc of what actually happened?

Do fox spirits have citizenship? 

You mean well with this concept, but there are multiple key problems. 

One major issue with cordoning off spirits and folklore creatures by “patron” culture and have them fight said patrons’ battles is that there’s a lot of overlap. It’d be hard for there not to be a conflict of interest. 

For example, everyone knows about the kitsune fox spirit from Japan. But the story of the fox spirit was introduced to Japan and Korea by China, where they are called húlijīng. These foxes are remarkably similar, with their characteristics and stories almost borrowed wholesale. Are they all the same “species?” If so, when small differences emerge in the countries’ folktales, how do you resolve this? Do these spirits also morph and specialize, or does one interpretation win out? How about when kingdoms are unified, like the Korean Three Kingdoms–do separate versions of the kumiho reverse-evolve into a single variant? What side do they pick when these kingdoms and empires try to battle? If they live apart from humans or aren’t very friendly with them, why would they have a reason to care about invasions when they have no reason to be allegiant to said borders, or whatever name they’re called in whichever country whose land they live on?

Folkloric beings are never static, and are influenced over time by cultural shifts and exchanges, including shifting borders. Human history is stuffed cover-to-cover with events of what we called “conquest” then and “occupation” or “colonization” now. And through these changes, cultures diverged and came together, creating new stories. In other words: not even fairy tales are immune to colonization. 

Leigh can explain the rest. 

~ Rina

The Problem with Retconning War

A very simple question for you:

How are you going to rectify every single historical war that’s ever existed?

Like, the whole plot of the Trojan War as we know it is that the gods of the same culture were on different sides! And the gods made the war last as long as it did. Alexander the Great was a colonizer. Romans were definitely colonizers. Ottomans and Mongols, also colonizers. It wasn’t to the scale of modern colonialism, but it happened. If you look at census records from the 1800s of Indigenous populations in North America, you’ll find that the men 20+ have way lower numbers because they died in war! 

I’m not of the opinion that the basic state of humanity is war and we are barely contained by base instincts. But I’m also not so far in the other direction that I believe humans lack any sort of warring instincts. It shows up in chimps and other primates, so it shows up in humans.

In a way, it sounds like you’ve taken a very Christian-fundamentalist-centric view of things, which is: humans need religion to be “contained”. That humans are amoral without some sort of religion or folklore or spirits telling them to not do a “bad thing.”

This is ignoring how people have been using religion to justify wars since religion was invented. As Rina said, there can be overlap in groups’ beliefs and deities so there’s the side-picking issue, which as I mentioned is the whole plot of the Trojan War. Even when humans write about gods meddling in war, they have the gods not all be on the same side.

Humans have war. Humans try to take over other groups because they want the resources that group has. Alliances shift. Territories shift.

This is also treating humans as a monolith—there are populations within the colonized groups that agree with the colonizers because they get benefits. Claiming that all colonized groups hate all aspects of their colonialism all of the time is deeply ahistorical and flattened. Sometimes the benefits were only for a small group, but sometimes the benefits were far-reaching. It’s in the India tag on WWC, varying views of the Mughals. 

Also, how will you handle the Christianization of Europe? How will you handle all of this folklore that only got written down via monks and nuns making notes and modifying beliefs to fit the Bible? Will any area with only Christianity’s records written down not have folklore? 

And how will you handle folklore drift? Religions are not static. If you look at Greek myths, there are ten to thirty versions of each story and those are just the ones that survived. Each city-state had its own mythology, using the same gods, modified to fit the local needs.

And what about folklore that deals with war and thrives in war? What about the gods of war and destruction? I know Norse mythology is Christianized beyond recognition, but even in its Christianized form half of it is about war. Would the Valkyries, whose whole purpose is to find valiant soldiers slain in battle, not want war? Their whole purpose is war.

Also, on top of it—how will you handle revolution?

You say yourself, colonialism could still happen subtly. Colonialism and injustice can still happen. Will these subjugated spirits force an already disadvantaged group to exclusively use a rigged system to try and politely ask for their rights back? Or would these spirits want to be free and support the means necessary to take it back?

War has happened to upend the divine right of kings. War has happened to free slaves (Haiti). War has happened for basic workers’ rights (some union strikes have resulted in war). 

You’re basically removing a whole toolbox in the fight for a better world. Yes, not being able to colonize because of fantasy AU sounds fine, until you realize that pretty much all of human history from the Romans has been created via war to some degree.

You’re basically just saying “violence is bad and humans need fantasy babysitters to not dive into it”, which really doesn’t sound that great once you sit with it. It removes human agency, removes human nature, and ignores the entire history of the planet.

-Leigh (Lesya)

Marika interjecting here:

We had an ask (Linked here) envisioning a story set in a de-colonized Hawai’i and the socio-political issues with that. Same problem.

[theearthquaketrackingfox]

I used to wonder why foxes - red foxes in anime are most often depicted as white or blond and sometimes light brown whereas in western literature are often depicted with rich rusty red or bright orange fur. Orange foxes do exist in anime, but not as common as white and flaxen-furred foxes. I knew not to let the species term fool me as I was aware of the existence of albino, leucistic, and melanistic(silver and black) foxes a long time ago as well as the color mutations of domesticated red foxes. However, I also knew that red foxes can vary in color in the wild as well in various parts of the Earth. I can understand why most kitsune are drawn with gold to white fur. I have seen photos of foxes in Japan and a lot of them are pale or brown. The foxes at the famous Zao Fox Village are probably not native to Japan. A lot of them look like they were rescued from fur farms where they were bred with color variants(including marble, silver, and pearl). The rest of them look like red foxes from North America as shown here:

However, there is the subspecies in Hokkaido known as the Ezo fox that does not look much different:

Otherwise, most foxes in Japan seem to look like this:

They appear to have a top coat that can shed in the Summer which is sort of similar to their arctic cousins. Many of the red foxes with the more classical red coat with prominent markings with the black feet and white-tipped tail are most common in Europe and North America.

However, they don't all look the same in these regions. I have seen photos of red foxes in Wyoming and Alaska where many of them can have pale fur that tends to be long. There are even red foxes with light-colored fur in the eastern U.S. I have seen one before here in Tennessee.

[hwsevents]

MYTHTALIA MARCH

List of some mythological creatures/figures for inspiration:

-Selkie, Will o’ the Wisp, Wolfwalker

-Harpy, Nymph, Centaur

-Lamia, Siren, Sphinx

-Odysseus, Athena, Heracles

-Yuki-onna, Kitsune, Oni

-Circe, Calypso, Poseidon, Cassandra

-Valkyrie, Giant, Dwarf

-Loki, Thor, Odin

-Dullahan, Banshee, Changeling

-Huldra, Lorelei

-Frey, Freyja, Ymir

-Osiris, Nephthys, Amun

-Arachne, Medusa/Gorgon, Echidna

-Mars, Venus, Pluto

-Tsurara-onna, Kuchisake-onna

-Tengu, Kaguya, Ameterasu

-Adonis, Galatea, Hecate

-Chang'e, Hou Yi

-Rusalka, Baba Yaga, Alkonost

The HWS characters can be these creatures/figures (e.g. nyo Japan as Kaguya, France as Adonis, Russia as a centaur, nyo China as Chang'e, Egypt as Osiris)...

...or interact with them (e.g. Ireland following Wisps, England meeting Hecate, America running from the Dullahan/Headless Horseman).

Doing both is also an option (e.g. human Lithuania interacting with rusalka Belarus).

Link to Prompt Themes

@hetaliahappenings @nsfhetalia @heta-on-the-books @hetaliacalendar

[royakahoshiart]

okay fine. I need people to know this.

I feel like most tbhk fans are Christian from America and Europe. So they probably don't really think about the religion in tbhk but it actually has such a big role.

I'll get straight to the point, all of tbhk (or at least main charactes and the plot) is revolved around the worship of Kami ( 神 ) gods, spirits and supernaturals alike.

ThE most obvious ones are the seven mysteries themselves, yako in a kitsune (litterally fox) a fox spirit/yokai whom like to pull pranks of humans either by shaoeshifiting, seducing or even killing at points, this can be seen in yako's sort of cocky personality. Yako is more specifically an Inari statue of an Inari temple for the goddess of agriculture, they say it protects crops and foxes.

Tsuchigomori is a tsuchigomo (literally earth spider) it's a giant spider who can be at least as tall as 10 meters. In one story, minamoto no yorimitsu (or raiko) killed one and had found multiple skulls inside, obviusly implying that the creature eats humans.

Hakubo is an Oni, a general word for demonic creatures in Japanese, thought I can't pin point which exact one. Another story involving yorimitsu is the drunken demon, when hakubo was found by the exorcist he said to have given the biggest Oni poisoned sake, as the real story says that three old men gave yorimitsu and his men sake that revealed the oni's real appearance but didn't hurt humans because he prayed at 3 nearby shinto shrines, and later slashed his neck like in the original text.

Hanako is straightforward but it is different in almost all prefectures of japan.

The gist of it is that hanako was a little girl who died either by herself of by her classmates in the girls bathroom around 5-10 years old. She can grant your wish but is you make her angry she'll curse you with a painful and slow death that'll happen very soon. One prefecture even says that she died in the nuclear blast during the last years of ww2.

Im not sure where nº3, nº1 and nº4 come from.

Now Onto the more subtle details, you might ask "hold up Roy, but Japanese buddhisim is very in touch with supernaturals aswell, how do you know if it's japanese buddhisim or shinto?"

Well let's talk about the minamotos. As you might've read, yorimitsu killed many yokais, so he would be called an exorcist where now are kou and teru, the staff kou has is real and is in some temples, teru's bracelet wards off evil spirits in shinto (rather not talk about the Buddhist thoughts on it....) .well teru's blade is obviously not real as a sword like that would've been impractical.

The temple where Teru and Akane go during the severance is a shinto shrine, we can see this from the Torii gates and the architecture as well. The workers at the temple are also not bald therefore they aren't Buddhist monks. It was also very customary to serve tea to the visitors. On the front gate of the shrine there at this 'weird Rope' with papers attached on it, it's on most temples and its a direct reference to a story involving amaterasu , the sun goddess, wich i wont get into.

The train to the farshore is actually a story itself and the place being full of water isn't just an artistic choice but it rapresents the river to the farshore.

Haha wow this is all to conviniet, yeah I believe in shinto bye I'm writing this in the fucking school bathrooms. Need to start school soon bye.

[colorfuldonutrunaway]

Made the ref sheet for my other main oc, a character who is a romantic asexual.

So I'm going to edit this to explain the metrics a bit more.

*Name: Rei was created by rogue Japanese scientist Akira Watanabe, using the DNA of a deceased Vulpine (a race of sapient fox folk thought to be extinct) and his own genes, effectively creating a strange hybrid son. Legally, this would be his name (in western order) if the Japanese Government knew he existed.

*Nicknames: Americanized version of his first name, and Fox generally being what he's called by employees.

*Race: On account of being a human hybrid, he takes DNA from Dr.Watanabe, and immigrated to America, making him Japanese-American on his human side. His other half is a Vulpine, a race of sapient fox-men who lived on the Japanese isles thousands of years ago and potentially inspired the stories of the kitsune.

*Age: 21 as of 2024, thus being created in 2003.

*Gender: Male, biologically and identifies as such.

*Alignment: Chaotic Good. Ray is willing to do good things, even if it means breaking the rules or doing something risky.

*Job: Scientist who wants to follow in his father's/Creator's footsteps by uncovering secrets of the universe and contributing to the knowledge of humanity.

*Perception and Communication: Has decent sense, and a good communicator, but will sometimes doubt his senses or get nervous.

*Persuasion and Mediation: He can do a decent job convincing people to do stuff by pointing out pros and cons. Mediation is something he isn't great at because he doesn't like getting in the middle of a situation between other people that he's not already a part of.

*Literacy and Creativity: Dr.Watanabe gave Ray access to mountains of literature to learn how to read and absorb information from the world around him. His sense of creativity has blossomed as a result. He can think of many creative ways to solve problems at any given moment, and has been taught how to speak Japanese, English, and Chinese fluently.

*Cooking: Do NOT let this poor bastard cook! It will not end well!

*Tech savvy: Watanabe raised him surrounded by lab machinery, computers, and engineering tools so that he could take care of himself. This has led Ray to be able to efficiently repair most machines, operate with any type of computer, and code effectively.

*Combat: He was given some martial arts training by a local school, but he's still a bit physically weak.

*Survival: Again, given mountains of books and personal training by Akira have given him a good grasp on how to survive in the wilderness (or at least Hokkaido's wilderness) as well as being prepared for emergency situations.

*Stealth: His small size allows him to slink around without detection, but his bright orange fur and tendency to carry gadgets in his pockets can hinder this easily.

*Street smarts: Oof, he hasn't had a chance to socialize growing up, and only left the lab to run errands. So he's not fully familiar with the nuances of how humans behave. This especially hit hard when he arrived in America after Roman found him.

*Seduction: Infertile hybrid + asexuality means he struggles hard. Doesn't help that he's seen more as 'cute' rather than 'sexy', so it destroys any attempts at him being seductive.

*Luck: Isn't anymore or less lucky than the average person I suppose.

*Handling Animals: His fox appearance leads to most animals, especially dogs and cats, being scared or aggressive to him.

*Pacifying children: Children crying or screaming hurts his ears severely, so he refuses to assist in calming one down unless absolutely necessary.

*Strength: Not very physically strong.

*Dexterity: Great with rapidly typing, using weapons, and putting things together quickly.

*Health: Excellent care has led to him having a good body, but he's not going to take a lot of hits in a fight.

*Energy: Very energetic bundle of fur.

*Beauty: Some people find the curly fur on his face aesthetically pleasing.

*Style:...But he wears a lab coat almost 24/7.

*Hygiene: Very fastidious about his fur and how he smells. Being a fox though, he's naturally a little musty.

*Intelligence: Watanabe created him with a brain that can retain insane amounts of information and can learn at quick speeds. Therefore, he's highly intelligent as he knows a few languages, learned the sciences of Astronomy, biochemistry, mathematics, aerodynamics, and ballistics, and is a fan of old literature.

*Happiness: Being raised in an isolated laboratory has made him very self-critical and introspective. Being abruptly taken from his home country to America has also impacted his sense of self with the culture shock. He becomes more chipper when Roman lets him work in his lab and experiment with stuff.

*Spirituality: Raised without religion, Ray becomes agnostic after reading about things relating to the idea of a higher power. But he does no rituals or ceremonies, and attends no place of worship.

*Confidence: He's ready to take on the world and show how intelligent he is. And nothing can stop him.

*Humor: Akira entertained him with access to television, which helped him not be so far removed from the world outside the lab. This also led to him discovering comedy. Ray loves surrealist humor.

*Anxiety: It significantly spiked after Dr.Watanabe's passing and his subsequent kidna-immigration to America by Romanov. But after awhile, he settled into his new home and began to use the lab as his own, reminding him of the good ol' days.

*Patience: He feels like time is a valuable resource, so he refuses to be in a situation that doesn't need his attention.

*Passion: Should've been higher, because he's extremely passionate about science and changing the world for the better.

*Charisma: He knows some basic psychology about humans that he can exploit, but he's not a master of social cues.

*Empathy: This is where it gets kinda strange...Ray has a supernatural power. Referred to as the "Memory-Empath" skill, it allows him to see and feel the memories of others by making eye contact with them for an extended period of time. For example, looking into the eyes of a happy child with their father shows a memory of the child playing a game of catch with their father, and Ray can also feel the sun on the kid's face, the sense of approval from the father, the smell of the grass nearby. This has created a person who is very sensitive to the emotions of others, and he cares deeply for the welfare of his friends.

*Generosity: He's willing to give for a cause and donate things he doesn't need to someone who needs it more, but don't expect big handouts from him.

*Wealth: Not sure what to put here.

*Aggression: Not very aggressive, as he was raised to be very polite and well-behaved by Dr.Watanabe, who in his own right, is a great-grandfather. He's pretty old world.

*Libido: As stated before, being a sterile hybrid and asexual has led to him having a decreased libido. (disclaimer: I'm not saying that asexual people lack them, it's just difficult to turn him on)

I'll add more when I can, but I'm good for now.

[hawkssecretlovechild]

Recently, I've started writing a MHA (a few years after the final battle) AU, Based on a girl studying abroad (from America) with her other 4 friends, at UA. And I've been struggling with the outfit ideas for their hero costumes, not exactly the best when it comes to ideas, so I used Gacha Life 2 to get ideas for the future drawings! Here are the characters I have so far, the 5 girls and 3 of the UA students. :)

Information Key:

LN - Legal Name | Q - Quirk | HN - Hero Name

LN; Alia Allium Spade-Q; Fierce Wings-HN; Humming

(^My main OC, also portrayed by a few of my online accounts)

LN; Renity Spiritual Spiral-Q; Kitsune, AKA Trickster Fox-HN; Tranquility

LN; Meraki Vivid Dale-Q; Archer-HN; LongShot

LN; Rylee Hope Storm-Q; Elemental-HN; Hurricane

Edit: LN; Rory Rile Vine-Q; Seamstress-HN; Evergrove

I've started on the drawings for the main 4, here's the information and pictures... P.S. this (the drafts) is all being drawn on Roblox

The other characters, the not so important I guess you could say. (Side) Will be put into progress after I finish up the secondary drawing to Hurricane (Rylee) and both drawings of Tranquility (Renity) :)

Edit: a huge change has been made to the story due to IRL drama, Rory and Renity have been switched out, Evergrove (Rory) is now a Foreign Exchange student alongside Humming, Hurricane and Longshot instead of Tranquil.

Tranquil has now been changed to be a villain part of the UOC (Union of Convict) and left from America to Japan to get revenge on her former friends. (This obviously, has put her family in a LARGE amount of debt and flagged her parents on her whereabouts... Meaning said parents contacted Meraki's family, leading to the on edge eerie feeling from the friend group.)

[hystericfae]

I TOLD YOU I'D SHOW YOU THAT PLUSH I BOUGHT IN AMERICA AND I TOTALLY FORGOT UNTIL NOW BUT LOOK AT MY CUTE FOX 🥺

I WANT ONE OMG??? ITS A KITSUNE 😍😍

[maverick-werewolf]

You've made so many posts about werewolves, but can you list any other werewolf like creatures from around the world? (Like for example, kitsune and huli jing.) I'd really like to hear about werewolf folklore that don't originate from Europe.

Thanks for asking! I do have many werewolf posts about werewolves that aren't European in origin, as werewolves are what's called a universal legend. However, that only extends insofar in that all cultures where wolves lived have legends of people shapeshifting into wolves, and vice versa. You can find them throughout Europe, Asia, North America, and more, from the wolves who turn into people in China to the shamans of North America who can assume the shape of a wolf. That is referring to a werewolf as a "wolf shapeshifter," rather than a "cursed being" that we usually think of werewolves as being; those legends are universal.

I have posts discussing all of these things (including one diving into Chinese werewolf legends), as well as other wolf legends in general, as wolves and wolf shapeshifters are my field of expertise (as well as bear shapeshifters and many other shapeshifting figures in European folklore, including vampires).

However, specifically werewolves - as in the concept of the werewolf that we call a "werewolf" and think of as being a werewolf in popular culture, a human who becomes a wolf, often but not exclusively as the result of a curse or gift from a higher power of some form, and referred to as a "werewolf" (an Old English word) - did in fact originate in Europe. While not all are, certainly the most common and well-known popular culture concepts of werewolves are ultimately based upon European legends. If you enter werewolf studies, you will primarily (but not exclusively, despite common belief) be studying a plethora of European and Mediterranean cultures.

Anything else should be called what it is, not a "werewolf-like creature." That is doing the other creature a disservice by conflating it with something else (a werewolf), when it is in fact its own unique entity that has nothing to do with werewolves, which are ultimately European in origin (wolf shapeshifters are not, and while we generally will call all those things "werewolves," they will still not be the European-origin man cursed to become a wolf under specific circumstances [and in popular culture can also spread that curse, etc] figure that we think of as being a "werewolf" when we bust out the Halloween decorations). It's essentially Westernizing worldwide myths by relating all shapeshifters back to the most famous shapeshifters of European lore, when we could only logically do that with wolf shapeshifters rather than so many other beings.

A lot of werewolf scholars disagree with my assessment in that regard and want to conflate tons of things into being "werewolves" when they aren't, but I personally feel strongly about keeping all folkloric, mythological, and religious entities apart and, thus, also keeping werewolves as their own thing. Kitsune have nothing to do with werewolves and have essentially nothing in common with them except that they shapeshift into a canid (but they are the fox, whereas werewolves begin as human, at least in the traditional lore we think of as a "werewolf"). While kitsune are shapeshifters, they are not associated with or related to werewolves in any fashion.

Werewolf studies do indeed have a lot of crossover with study of other shapeshifters, but that shouldn't mean other animal shapeshifters are similar to, related to, or the same thing as a wolf shapeshifter/werewolf.

While I study all folklore/myth/etc and I certainly specialize in shapeshifters - due in no small part to personal studies to create my setting of Wulfgard - my primary academic expertise, the subject I will speak upon with real knowledge and authority, is just that: werewolves (when I say this I am referring to the general wolf shapeshifters worldwide as well as those in Europe, and I also specialize in general wolf legends that are not werewolves).

If you'd like to read about kitsune, I highly recommend picking up some books on Japanese myth and culture instead of looking at werewolf things. They'll have much better information than werewolf books and werewolf scholars. While I know some about kitsune from personal studies, I wouldn't be confident telling you things about them as I am with werewolf legends, because I have not thoroughly researched them across multiple sources for many years, as I have wolf and wolf shapeshifter/werewolf legends.

I do hope I don't sound disrespectful or condescending in this post, as that is not at all my intention. Essentially, my argument in terms of werewolf studies is that specifically werewolf studies should extend only so far as wolf shapeshifters. Anything else is not a werewolf and not related to them in any fashion. General shapeshifters should not be conflated with werewolves. I believe that every legend should stand on its own, and while wolf shapeshifters are associated with werewolves for obvious reasons (and werewolves in folklore are not at all always simple, as seen in all my posts), we should not extend that association to any other kind of animal shapeshifter, or we are doing a massive disservice to the robust and fascinating legends that do not - and should not - be simplified to fit under the banner of "werewolves" or "werewolf-like creatures." Kitsune, for instance, are kitsune, not werewolves or associated with them, as kitsune have many tales entirely of their own that shouldn't be done a disservice or simplified in such a manner.

So, sorry if this isn't the response you wanted/expected! I have more general folklore facts coming in the future - two I will be posting before the end of this year, in fact - but my specialty will always remain werewolves (and wolf shapeshifters and legendary wolves of every other kind) specifically.

Some posts that may interest you:

Prehistoric Werewolves

Werewolves in Ancient Egypt

Good Sources on Werewolves (and other shapeshifter and vampire legends)

On Shaping other Shapeshifters

Werewolf Grandmas (emphasis on Chinese werewolf legends)

Werewolves Are Not British

Loup Garous and Rougarous (includes some Native American discussion)

What Is and Isn't a Werewolf Legend

Creature Confusion: What Is and Isn't a Werewolf

The Arcadians

King Lycaon

The Importance of The Wolf Man (what shaped our concept of a werewolf in popular culture)

Thank you again for sending an ask; hope you have an awesome day! :)

[nitewrighter]

cant believe it took 8 years and a cringe foxgirl for people to seriously talk about how overwatch has a huge problem with orientalism in its asian representation. (now someone talk about how fucking weird zenyatta's everything is)

I actually talked about Zen's problems a while back, haha.

Well with the Shimada Bros, there was a general understanding that they started out as one character that was split into two. and like, futuristic ninjas have been a common and popular sci-fi trope (I mean endemic to a lot of the already pre-existing but overall embraced orientalism and aesthetics of Sci-fi and cyberpunk) for decades. When the American(tm) characters were basically Captain America and a Cowboy, and the German character was a Knight, the Australians are literally just Mad Max OC's, this, along with Michael Chu's insistence that the Shimada dragons were not magic all formed kind of its own fabric of Sci-Fi anachronism and stereotype and "Technology so advanced it is indistinguishable from magic" that you just ended up kind of rolling with it. Like there was a combination of suspension of disbelief and acknowledgement of stereotypes

That isn't to say these weren't problematic, there's also definitely something to be said about half of the black characters having heavy duty cybernetics--the "black body as machine" and all that. I think Kiriko's the straw that breaks the camel's back just because like... at this point they're literally introducing the "mystic asian" stereotype into the game and there's nothing remarkable about her, looks or personality-wise, that lets people really move past that. Like I said in a previous post, she's literally just the middle slider between Tracer and D.Va. Kiriko says she got her fox spirit from her Grandma, insists that it's the "old" of her "old and new" style of fighting, and her lore is all knotted up with the Shimada bros when it's like

A. Does it really have to be if it's not even answering any real questions? (E.G: WHAT THE FUCK ARE THE DRAGONS)

B. If her mom is clearly the person with the stronger link to the Shimada Clan and that's the precedent for bringing this character into the game, why isn't she the hero?

And of course there's the literal fucking magic of the Kitsune which basically throws Chu's previous assertion that the dragons aren't magic under the bus. Like, I do think there was an inherent element of self-aware Globe-trekking stereotypes to Overwatch that people could accept--just like how one can read pulp and classic fiction and still enjoy it even though it could have wildly sexist and orientalist elements to it because overall it's an adventure story with a colorful cast of characters--and there was always a strong empathetic or charismatic angle to each character both in spite of and because of their stereotypical elements. You can let these characters play into stereotypes inasmuch as you're able to make fun of yourself for like, being an American who eats hamburgers.

But this is the moment where people are looking at blizzard like, "Oh--wait--you're not in on the joke, you actually think this."

[swearwolf-does-stuff]

fuck it - my teen wolf movie fix-it

i literally just did this all day bcs of how much the movie pissed me off - this is legit just everything I would've done different if I was the one making the damn movie (written in bullet points (bcs im lazy) under the cut)

PRE MOVIE STUFF

Aight so first off, Eli (named after Derek's dear old dad) was the result of a one-stand (pre-Braeden bcs he ain’t a cheater)

Derek doesnt even know he exists till Melissa calls him to the hospital (he still w Braeden for now) but babymama got in a crash and the kid’s there- DNA test says he the babydaddy but Braeden ain’t about that,, like she respects it but she ain’t ready to settle down in a nuclear family typa situation and he ain’t holding it against her neither so it’s like an amicable parting yk? And there begins the tale of single dad!Derek (like this is right at the end of the show or wtv bcs the timeline gives me a headache)

Now if he wants to keep shit in the clear regarding the FBI when it comes to Eli’s life so he calls Stiles, Cora and Peter to form a plan to handle that shit

The only thing they come up with is kinda turning him in (Peter is not fan but o well)

They go the old Hale house w the Sheriff and Argent and call the FBI, not long enough to trace the call but long enough to give his message: one person, anyone they want, at that location and they can wear a tracker, a wire, wtv but they sit down and listen bcs he ain’t going into custody for something he didn’t do

At first the FBI wants to send Stiles but he’s just like ‘uh,,, conflict of interest?’ bcs they went to school together even if they weren’t in the same grade (but also bcs they’d somehow have to pretend they don’t know each other and that’s just messy) so they send Rafael (Scott’s dad) instead bcs he’s the official liaison with the sheriffs

So he pops up and he’s gets them to explain the situation like they barely know the man bcs they probably don’t before ‘Scott’s dad’ but obviously without werewolves and hunters

Argent’s there as a character witness bcs yes Kate was that batshit + she legit groomed Derek when he was in highschool (15-16 and traumatised vs 20-21 and actively seeking to harm him and his family)

Plus no one even knew Cora was still alive but that was bcs she didn’t want Kate trying it again so the FBI leaves that be and she goes back to South America bcs Beacon Hills shit is just way too much

So they drop the charges against him and move their attention to Kate (no one knows if she’s alive or dead or what but who cares)

LATER

Nah he did not weirdly traumatise his kid while saving him only for it to be fine and dandy when Scott roars in his face

See they live in the woods and w the scent of shifters, especially Malia (a werecoyote), keeps the actual coyotes away

He’s just a slow developer bcs he’s half human and he’s worried all the time about whether he’ll ever shift bcs he might not yk

Liam did not move to Japan

The pack just gave the box to a kitsune community (they don’t really have packs but they do have families and communities in that sense) that Yukimura Noshiko told them about bcs kitsune can handle nogitsune a whole lot better than wolves

Instead of the random ass Liam x Hikari thing, they’re friends - he ain’t the emissary but he’s still the one making the trips on the behalf of the McCall Pack + he learns Japanese bcs that’s like one of the only parts of canon that ain’t too bad

Ykw Theo goes w him bcs he has literally nothing in Beacon Hills and he’s still tryna prove himself to the pack bcs ~guilt complex~ and bcs Thiam obvsly

Kira and Issac are back and Scira AND Scisaac are canon bcs I said so - he has two hands

Isaac came back with Argent when Eli popped up

Alec still exists bcs why include the future of the pack and then forget he exists??

Plus Theo, Corey, Nolan??? 

Harris never died/was never sacrificed (but almost) bcs the Darach let him go as a twisted thanks for the help or wtv but no one knows so he’s just AWOL the whole time (bcs the movie just goes ‘surprise bitch’ and don’t explain HOW he's for some reason-)

Scott didn’t just move away from his pack, his mum, etc. it just don't sound like him

The old pet shelter in Beacon Hills (conveniently near Deaton’s clinic) ends up needing a new owner after the owner basically goes ‘I’m too old for this shit’ so he’s the new owner yay

He still gets his vet degree bcs my boy worked hard for that shit

Lydia and Stiles don’t work out bcs I don’t want it to- sorry Stydia

She’s still a genius doing wtv she was doing in the movie bcs fuck yea renewable energy

He’s no longer doing his FBI stuff bcs he realised the supernatural in the cases and couldn’t do a thing about it so now he’s basically like the Sherlock or Columbo or wtv of the supernatural world

Stiles still lives in Beacon Hills bcs it’s a supernatural hub which makes it easier for his work

Nolan is dealing w hunter shit

Corey is temporarily away on work stuff or smth soz bro making things up is harder than it used to be

Mason is not a cop bcs no

Mans gets his degree bcs he’s the puppy pack's designated nerd and he’s a chem teacher at the high school (he’s also the councillor bcs that easy he can tell who’s supernatural to make things easier for everyone)

Malia and Derek set up the Hale autoshop while rebuilding the Hale Packhouse like it used to be

Isaac lives w them

We actually remember that the Hales are rich bitches

Bcs the house is massive and meant for yk a wolf pack rather than a small family, the McCall Pack use it as a sort of substitute packhouse bcs ain’t no one else rich so when Stiles, Theo or Liam are in town, they’ll stay there or if there’s some pack thing, there’s plenty of space for the lot of em

Roscoe ends up in the Hale autoshop bcs it’s too recognisable for Stiles' work but once Derek got rid of the ridiculous amounts of duct tape on it, he managed to fix the thing

ON TO THE MOVIE

Beginning bit still happens and the thingie gets free boohoo

Isaac also works at the shelter w Scott and is also having Allison dreams but Kira helps them understand the dreams + the ritual (which is also why Deaton dealt w Argent alone bcs kitsune also reply compulsively to riddles(?) me thinks)

Also Scott isn’t weirdly hung on Allison like sure the movie was cute and Scalia was weird af imo but Scira was fr fr and yet they kept on w the whole ‘they’re the only ones for each other’ crap which ain’t it

Eli still has an obsession with Roscoe (sames)

Mason is also a consultant with the arson cases bcs chem teacher + accelerant fires (the sheriff’s station isn’t exactly the most high tech of places)

Stiles is in Mexico sans Roscoe bcs of a possible lead on Kate bcs they did not need her adding fuel to the metaphorical fire

Shit ain’t awkward w Scalia bcs that was never really a thing (she just copied Lydia’s panic attack hack to save his butt/eyes rather than snogging bcs emotions)

No more ‘o Eli barely knows anyone - they all left when he was a kid’ this nerd now a bajillion uncles and aunts or wtv and also there ain’t no way wolves use that ‘2nd cousin once removed’ bull bcs its my canon and that shit don't make no sense to me - anyone from your parents gen is basically your uncle/aunt

The dork’s like a living bestiary just bcs of everyone he knows

Never realised just how canon the autistic!Malia hc was damn

More rage from Malia at seeing Derek, her cousin!!, almost die - nerds had 15 years to get to know each other

Oni dimensional transportation magic is in a similar vein to the wild hunt’s

slashing/decapitation = death

Straight stabbing = transportation

Yea we get it Peter’s a dick wtv - he ain’t that much of a dick so he ain’t so lighter-happy but he gets it done bcs a cigarette lighter ain’t exactly gonna get it handled

Peter x Melissa? Aight. Melissa x Argent? No- it ain’t it, dating when you’re kids are/did

Peter and Argent are top tier frenemies tho

Kira goes with Lydia and Jackson to try and deal with the nogitsune

Isaac and Scott go to deal w Allison

No weird ‘save Allison’ speech when she’s hunting a child like prioritise y’all also,,, Scira+Scisaac bitches duh

Post sheriff's station, Kira goes with Hikari, Theo and Liam bcs handling the human behind the nogitsune would only do so much but yea they still get captured due to a lack of silver

Nogitsune can’t help but brag like a dick at Kira’s arrival bcs of his history with the Yukimura clan

Ain’t no ‘aishiteru’ on my watch simply bcs i do not vibe

Yea Scott and Isaac are having mad flashbacks + wolfsbane poisoning whew

She just sticks a couple of poisoned arrows in Isaac and leaves him half-dead in the forest bcs convenience and drags him back to the base as insurance

The convincing, the confessions, the flashbacks can include Scott but not for the most part - she dropped him and they were good w it; the show sidelining her boyfriend for her ex in her death scene was bad enough

Kira and Hikari work together to save Scott with their foxfire bcs being in the nogitsune’s realm dampens everyone powers, including theirs

DEREK DOES NOT DIE FUCK THAT SHIT

EVERYONE’S THERE AND THEY ALL CAME AS THEY DID IN THE NORMAL REALM (AKA BEACON HILLS) SO THEY USE THE WEAPONS AND TURN HIM INTO A NASTY FOX-WOLF-PINCUSHION AND (THROWBACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE) KIRA SKEWERS THE BITCH RIGHT DOWN THE FUCKING MIDDLE SO NO ONE HAS TO HOLD HIM DOWN WHEN PARRISH LIGHTS THE MOTHERFUCKER UP

o and obvsly no ‘Derek's a true alpha’ stuff bcs the lore is way too confused already and I’m pretty sure you can’t be a true alpha if you’ve killed

Ahem

Because of how old the nogitsune is/primordial shit, no one really knows if he’s dead frfr but at least he’s no longer physically in their realm so yay

Scira 🤝 Scisaac 🤝 Allisaac

Hikari gets to go home and forget Beacon Hills ever existed (good for her)

At the end of the movie, post credit style, Stiles returns to Beacon Hills, safe and sound, having sent Kate to werejaguar prison (AKA the Eichen House of Mexico) bcs she was also heading to Beacon Hills w dreams of Allison

He caught her past New Mexico, having avoided the Hamrammr (substitute species for sk*nw*lk*rs bcs that term ain’t mine to use; it's the Norse term for shapeshifter - separate from berserker and other shifter myths; just replace the species role for role; they're also rare and hecking good at what they do etc etc)

Anywho mans starts like 'you would not believe what I just went through blah blah', all rambling and everyone just looks at him. like. :| and then he's like 'what did you do?' and Derek explains everything bcs Scott's busy with the polycule lmao

And then Sterek kiss bcs 15 years of denial, PLUS the queerbaiting AND getting superhelled is more than enough thanks

THE END (OF THIS WHOLE FUCKING UNIVERSE)

[multiversetravelingjournalist]

And now I am creating a language for a species of all female fox humans with an authoritarian culture reflected in how there is a nine tier rank agreement structure based on the number of tails an individual has. Despite the obvious, these are NOT kitsunes. Not to mention the fact that most of them live on an isolated Island near Not Japan.

This has also opened a new Pandora's box for me as now I am considering worldbuildina an earth where China is a collection of New Zealand-sized islands and one of said islands is inhabited by monkey people with a language that has /u/s, /o/s, /a/s and /æ/s but no /i/s and /e/s. I am toying around with the idea of flipping Africa on its longitudinal axis, rotate it slightly, and/or skew it so it can form a land bridge between Europe and South America. Then plop down tribes of anthropomorphic hyenas that are not Gnolls and more-human lion people that are basically dark-skinned humans with fangs, claws, and slit pupils. I haven't figured out the language for them yet. But just you wait. I swear to God, I came up with a counting system for centaurs where they can count up to forty based on which horse-leg is being lifted as they count. I might even put them in Not North America while I'm at it!

I'll tell ya. One day, I'm going to burn myself out on conlanging. Then, I will disappear from this platform. Only to later come back with a post sharing an animation project I have been dreaming of doing for the past five-ish years. But let's enjoy the journey up till then, yeah?

Thanks for reading this. Till next time... ;).

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Unknown Unknowns, or Wait There’s Another Ginseng

Even when you know a subject fairly well, it can be worth your while to check a site like Science Daily or even Wikipedia to see if there’s new and useful info on it. Or, as in this case, old info that simply never came up on sources when you checked before.

There are actually two species of ginseng native to North America.

You’ve probably heard of American ginseng, Panax quinquifolius. Yet there’s an entirely different species, dwarf ginseng, Panax trifolius. Dwarf ginseng isn’t considered to be nearly as medicinal as its well-known sibling, but its small tubers are perfectly edible, and it does have some of the same adaptogenic compounds. Historically the locals used it medicinally for chest colds and the like. It might be worth further investigation even as just a woodland crop, given it is a good thing to eat.

The background to this is that I have shreds of an Idea (fantasy ninjas), and I’m trying to find out what would be a good start and end scene for it. Hopefully that would perk up my brain (something new to write!) and get the plotbunnies enthusiastic enough to also finish the Colors draft faster than a dead crawl. I have no solid images for the scenes, but I figure if I can build a little more of how the story is supposed to work, it might be easier to visualize what those scenes might be.

Long story short, one character has to go undercover. But as I was going over the situation in my head, my main ninja pointed out that the original cover story an arrogant noble came up with wouldn’t work. Go undercover in the guise of a nekomata, oni, tanuki, kitsune? Any of these who were born youkai would have to have friends and clan that would be known; and, for example, a normal fox gaining enough years and power to become a full-fledged kitsune would be noticed by other youkai before it ever took a humanoid form. People would remember. People would check. It’d be all too easy for someone with a suspicious frame of mind to blow the whole cover wide open.

But a plant gathering enough ki to cultivate a youkai form? Those happen most often when lucky plants (or unlucky, see vampire trees) touched by magic get overlooked.

A tiny medicinal plant in a forest is a very good candidate for “went overlooked”.

Honestly, I stumbled on this in part because of a thought-chain of, “trees are actually not a separate category but a specific plant lifeway in several groups, huh I wonder what a ginseng tree would look like”, and looking up the scientific classification of ginseng species. Turns out they’re in the ivy family, which tends not to be trees - or at least, not very good ones. There’s a relative that gets to small tree size and is renowned in Japanese proverbs for being useless at that stage.

And that’s where I found out there are possibly ten different species of ginseng, when before I’d only known about the Korean, American, and near-extirpated Chinese ginsengs.

None of my other books on ginseng mention dwarf ginseng. Digging through books I have on the shelf, there is a brief (about four lines) mention of it in Peterson’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, but I’d never have noticed that without the Wikipedia info.

...Now I want to read an SF story where someone colonizing an alien planet brought along all the lesser-known edible plants and woodland herbs so they could homestead in a forest even if conventional crops failed. Just in case. Anyone want to write this?

Poke around, just for fun. You never know what you don’t know!

[bitey-baby-shark]

Facts of the Day: 🦊Red Foxes 🦊

Scientific Name: Vulpes vulpes

Height: 14 inches to 20 inches tall

Weight: 10 to 11 lbs

Lifespan: 3 to 4 years old

Reproduction: They have a breeding season spanning late December till the end of March, with a gestation period of 53 days. The average litter size is 6 kits, however they range from 1 to 11 kits per litter.

Diet: They are omnivores and will eat small rodents, squirrels, woodchucks, rabbits, birds, eggs, amphibians, and reptiles. Red foxes can also eat vegetation, fruits, nuts, insects, carrion, and garbage.

Habitat: They are present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa, with a preference towards a mix of habitats but more often than not lightly-wooded areas. 

Status: Least Concern

Summary: Red foxes are the largest of all fox species in the world. They are also highly athletic foxes, capable of running up to 31 mph and jumping over 6 feet in the air. They use their jumping abilities to pounce on rodents they can hear burrowing under snow. Their hearing is also incredibly strong, studies showing that they have the best known maximal absolute hearing sensitivity of any mammal. They are fully capable of hearing mice squeak from over a hundred feet away. 

Today’s fact of the day post is sponsored by Daddy Orion, my headmate and red fox kitsune caregiver. 

[americangodstalk]

American Gods’ incomplete bibliography (3)

If you want to have access to the full, original bibliography as prepared by Neil Gaiman (it has a lot more info I do not put in my posts - my posts are just summaries and recaps of the original bibliography) you just need to go check Neil Gaiman’s website right here: https://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/American+Gods/in/183/?type=Books&work=American+Gods

7) First Nations myths

God is Red: A Native View of Religion

Neil Gaiman considers it a “very readable book about religion from a Native American standpoint” - though he was a bit puzzled by how the middle of the book “wander into Velikovsky”. 

The Religions of the American Indians

American Indian Myths and Legends

The mythology of North America

8) Background books

On the Rez

A book about the Oglala Sioux on Pine Ridge Reservation, one of the porrest places in America (at least at the time Neil Gaiman put together his bibliography), and about SuAnne Big Crow, a basketball player. 

Confederates in the Attic: Despatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Neil Gaiman bought and tried to read it in preparation for American Gods, but couldn’t get into it... It took him two whole years to get into it again, as he was writing American Gods, and he devoured it. 

The Forbidden Zone

Neil Gaiman first read a chapter of this book while doing online research about slaughterhouses. Despite the book being out of print, he managed to obtain a copy from a New Mexico bookstore - and this book ended up shaping and informing American Gods in many ways, both direct and indirect. Neil Gaiman is really sad that it is out of print ; and he points out that he has been a fan of the author, Michael Lesy, ever since another one of his books, “Wisconsin Death Trip”, about painting a darker and disturbing picture of the Wisconsin in frontier times. Wisconsin Death Trip is in fact another one of the books that influenced American Gods: some anecdotes and attitudes from this book ended up being present in the Lakeside parts of the novel. 

The Day of the Dead and other reflections

(Of its actual title, The Day of the Dead and other mortal reflections)

Neil Gaiman considers the author one of his favorite essayist alongside David Quammen - and it is from this book that Neil Gaiman “got” Coatlicue. 

Stranger from a Distant Shore: A History of Asian Americans 

Neil Gaiman used this book to research a lot of stuff that “never worked its way into American Gods”, but that will maybe appear in another book. At least, this is what he writes in the bibliography, but since we are all American Gods fan of modern days, we now know what he referred to in the bibliography: the “Somewhere in America” deleted section about a kitsune ending up in a Japanese internment camp of WWII America. 

9) African heritage

As Neil Gaiman says, these are the books he used concerning Mr. Nancy, and “the tale of the twins” (Wututu and Agasu).

A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore + A Treasury of African Folklore, by Harold Courlander

The African Slave Trade, by Basil Davidson

The Slave Trade: The Story of African Slave Trade, 1440-1870

(Of its actual name, “The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade)

Neil Gaiman precises that he took a lot from this book, written by Hugh Thomas, alongside Bullwhip Days (see below) - but he also admitted that he had to downplay what actually happened historically when writing “American Gods” because he didn’t want to turn his scenes into an “atricity exhibition”.

Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember - An Oral History

In Neil Gaiman’s words, “Urgent, human narratives and utterly heartbreaking”, as this book is a collection of the testimonies of the last surviving Americans who had been slave, collected in the mid-1930s.

Voodoo in New Orleans

Neil Gaiman explains that this book does not manage to convey the actual feel of the New Orlenas Voodoo, but it is an excellent book when it comes to the history of the “various Maries Laveau or Marie Laveaux”. However, if someone wants a better book by Robert Tallant, they should check Gumbo Yaya (see below)

Gumbo Yaya

Neil Gaiman was offered this book as a gift by Nancy Collins, and he realized he did need it a lot. It is an excellent book covering the folk beliefs, magic and folklore of New Orleans and Louisiana. 

Voodoo in Haiti

A “fairly useful and interesting book”, according to Neil Gaiman. He does say that there is a lot of better books about the topic of Haitian voodoo, but he included it in the list because it was the book he used to check stuff when writing American Gods.