#not actually werewolves but people mix them up a lot

[maverick-werewolf]

Werewolf Fact #75 - Cynocephali (dog-headed men)

This month's folklore fact is a long-awaited one from over on the Patreon: the cynocephali or "dog-headed men."

Some depictions of cynocephali (the one above is from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493) are mistaken for werewolves fairly frequently; there are several differences of note, including but not limited to the fact that they are otherwise very, very human (normal hands and feet, no tail, etc) and that their ears are not always shaped like a wolf's/pointing directly upright. They often are, however, so don't take the ear shape as a surefire thing, either. When in doubt, make sure the depiction is actually meant to be showing a werewolf before using it for, I don't know, a royalty-free image in your werewolf publication (I've seen several). The cynocephali do not shapeshift, nor are they associated with wolves. They have nothing to do with werewolves. Yes, it was just a plot to make you click this link and read about cynocephali.

Cynocephali, or singular cynocephalus, is a term derived from the original Greek word "kynokephaloi," meaning "dog-headed." They have other names as well, which mean a range of things such as "dog-faced" and "half-dog." They were mentioned in assorted accounts and tales of travelers in Africa and India, appearing in sources as old as ancient Greece, and some similar beings can be found in other cultures, such as China. Likewise, depictions of and discussions of such beings continue into the Middle Ages. This same term was later used to refer to baboons, to which no-fun modern day scholars now attribute all cynocephali legends (although we do have at least one Ottoman depiction of a cynocephalus battling a monkey).

There are many quotes across various sources and time periods about these beings, including but not limited to this one from the fifth century BC Greek historian Herodotus, Histories 4. 191. 3 (trans. Godley) [source: Theoi]

"For the eastern region of Libya, which the Nomads inhabit, is low-lying and sandy as far as the Triton river; but the land west of this, where the farmers live, is exceedingly mountainous and wooded and full of wild beasts. In that country are the huge snakes and the lions, and the elephants and bears and asps, the horned asses, the Kunokephaloi (Cynocephali) (Dog-Headed) and the Headless Men that have their eyes in their chests, as the Libyans say, and the wild men and women, besides many other creatures not fabulous."

Some stories of the cynocephali are also frightfully specific as to how they live, rear livestock, grow fruit, weave baskets, wage war, and much more, even including details of their society, clothing, how long they live, etc. It's all quite interesting. If you'd like to read more specific quotations, you can find many on one of my favorite websites, Theoi.

Sources seem to dispute one another as to whether they bark, do not bark but only howl, only shriek, or whatever other sounds they may make, and there is also a range of descriptions including elements such as if they have beards and whether hair covers their bodies as well as the dog-head. Overall, probably the majority of sources say they wear the skins of animals as opposed to having fur, but there are those that also call them hairy all over.

Please note that I will not be covering/discussing any gods from ancient Egypt in this post, because despite what some modern day scholars like to discuss, I don't consider them "cynocephali." They were wolf-headed deities, not dog-headed (or even jackal-headed), and are overall only related to cynocephali legends by proxy and by modern scholars always putting everything into blasted categories for their next thesis. There were some dog-headed deities in ancient Egypt, and Anubis, Wepwawet, Duamutef, etc, were not among them, and even then, we can't really assert that the dog-headed deities among the ancient Egyptians are actually related to other legends and records of cynocephali.

With that out of the way, let's continue...

One of my personal favorite stories involving a dog-headed man is a version of the tale of Saint Christopher, though these depictions and this tale are not seen as canon by churches and has been proscribed in Eastern Orthodoxy (where such depictions were generally most common). Some of these depictions still survive, however. Some sources believe that Byzantine depictions of a dog-headed Christopher come from mistaking "Cananeus" (meaning "Canaanite") for "caninus," i.e. canine.

In the story about a dog-headed Saint Christopher, there lives Reprebrus (among other variations of his name; ultimately, they all essentially mean "reprobate"), who is captured by Romans in battle and made to serve among them. Reprebrus was said to be of "enormous size," with the head of a dog, said to be typical of his kind. He was later baptized and martyred. However, in another version (this one from Germany), Saint Christopher is depicted as a giant cynocephalus who ate human flesh and performed many atrocities. He meets the Christ child later and carries him across a river, as in tradition (the name Christopher means "bearer of Christ") and repents for his sinful behavior. He is baptized and becomes human, dedicating himself to serving Christianity and became a soldier saint.

There are far more fascinating details in the story than I relayed here in extreme simplicity, but that's a very simple view (the story is actually very specific about different regions and even the unit in which he served).

Other depictions of cynocephali exist in certain Christian traditions, with Ahrakas and Augani sometimes being depicted with dog heads in Coptic Christian tradition, in the life and legend of Saint Mercurius.

Bestiaries also got pretty wild with the creatures depicted therein, many of which were also mentioned in classical sources (such as the Herodotus quote earlier in this post). The image above is from between 1357 and 1371, in a work called The Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville, or simply Mandeville's Travels, the memoirs of a man who traveled across the Middle East, India, and even as far as China. Medieval bestiaries also recorded all the same creatures shown here: a monopod or sciapod, a cyclops, a blemmy, and a cynocephalus, each different civilizations of beings said to dwell across the world (and often cited in multiple sources over considerable spans of time, which generally cite the same or similar regions for each civilization, which I've always found very interesting).

Mentions of the cynocephali span across centuries, such as in works by scribe Paul the Deacon, a Benedictine monk, and they are even mentioned in the Nowell Codex, a surviving Old English work containing Beowulf (as well as a work of the life of Saint Christopher and Wonders of the East, among others). They are also acknowledged in the works of multiple noteworthy explorers, including but not limited to Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Ibn Battuta, and Piri Reis.

With that, I think that's a decent overview! Hope you enjoyed the post.

And stay tuned for news and updates on a major [werewolf/fantasy/adventure/horror/epic] book release later this year!

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[were--ralph]

is there a genre of ask you actually enjoy receiving

i don't mind most asks, but "do you like this character" has gotten old and its almost always something we can answer ourselves. its like. im always talking about old men needing cum in them and hot werewolves. i don't think it gets more straightforward than that, i dont think we need to ask about the old man werewolf character. i also famously hate vn's so anything relating to a furry vn or dating sim is an auto ignore. i do not see it.

but also some asks will ask for a lot and its like im not gonna answer all that lol. like. im fine with a question or two but if its four and asking me to explain my answer like its an essay then im probably not putting energy into it.

theres also like. sometimes people will send like 7 asks in a row and i am not gonna answer all of them. or a lot of repeat asks that just do not interest me.

i do like a lot of the asks i get, i just feel like people have gotten my vibe mixed up and its kind of bleeding into a weird spot that i dont occupy. like, "is this guy hot" and its just like a zac effron looking guy with nothing to grab onto, like yeah im the horny furry guy but i still have a type. but also sometimes im just being a bit of a bitch when i reply bc its more fun than just answering genuinely and politely.

i dunno, i like unique asks and also i like stories, like one time this happened, and its like wow that sure did happen. i like little moments and experiences i can look back on randomly and be like "oh that was a funny ask / oh that was a good post / etc". variety is the spice of life

[barblaz-arts]

OMG ITS SO COOL THAT ONE OF PUGSLEY’S KIDS IS A MANANANGGAL !! and a boy ??? mananaggal ?? (unless im completely misunderstanding that)

anyways as a filipino its just so cool to see stuff with my culture in it (those posts abt the wenclair fam going to jollibee made me so happy!!!)

btw, what made u decide to create those characters as pugsley’s kids?

Something that I'll give the show props for is subverting what would usually be represented genderwise for monsters. Gorgons are usually women, but they had a boy be one(the only thing I like about him--). And there isn't a lot of female werewolves out there in media. And I'm not talking about stories that are about werewolves. Cuz yknow. Duh of course there'd be female werewolves. But I'm talking about stories about monsters. If you have a show about different monsters or fantasy characters and there's a werewolf, they'd usually give you an angsty and/or wild dude as the main werewolf.

But Wednesday's(the show) main werewolf is a happy girly girl. The only other similar instance I can think of at the top of my head is Ruby from Once Upon A Time. That's probably why the twist in Ruby's episode was so shocking. You expect the dude to be the werewolf. Not the femme girl who dyes the tips of her hair and would probably cry if she ruins her manicure.

Anyways. Monsters that are always majorly represented by one gender is boooorrriiiiiing. Let's mix it up a little.

Sorry that got long.

So! About Pugsley's kids!

I'm not sure about the B&W series, but in the animated movies, Pugsley's a bit of a hopeless romantic. So growing up, I like to think he got around. The problem is he also has terrible luck with women, so none of them lasted, not because he's fickle -- he would fall in love deeply every single time -- but because he just has dog shit luck. He is Fester's nephew after all. So all three kids are Pugsley's from different baby mommas. I'll talk more about em later.

As for what made me choose em

Dante - I've previously mentioned that I headcanon Pugsley as a pyrokinetic because of his love for explosives. I think it'd be neat if he had a girlfriend who came from literal hell and had a baby demon with her

Jasper - some time back when the fandom was still super active, people making their nevermore sona was a trend on twitter. I actually wanted to join and have mine be a manananggal, but I couldn't because I was both busy and was never really a fan of drawing myself(not cuz of like self esteem issues. im pretty darn cute actually! i just prefer to draw other people). but i still wanted to draw a manananggal in Nevermore, and I figured just having it be an OC for Pugsley's child is the perfect opportunity

Briar - those faceless students are sooo damn cool. I love them a lot. I wanted more from them in the show. So I'm just making the content I craved for. Also a faceless little girl whose aunt is Wednesday, pokerface queen, and looks up to her for it? Too funny and cute of a thought to me.

[sharksandsquirrelsandsnakes-ohmy]

Stiles is Supernatural Crack

7. Werewolves and Banshees and Kitsune, Oh My

Masterlist | AO3 | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10

Stiles woke up slowly. He felt around the bet for his usual fluffy wolf cuddle buddy and found a human body. Stiles opened his eyes and smirked. His fluffy wolf was not nearly as fluffy at the moment. It was one of the first times Derek had fallen asleep in Stiles’ bed as a person and not a wolf. He looked over Derek, remembering the stitches and snickered to himself.

“Hey Derek, guess what I just thought of,” Stiles said in a tired voice. Derek just hummed in response so Stiles continued the thought. “If you had been in your wolf form, this would have been Deaton’s actual job.”

“Fuck off,” Derek huffed, pulling the blankets up more, turning to hide his face in Stiles neck.

Stiles hummed, trying not to laugh as Derek stubble rubbed against his shoulder. “I also would have had my personal weighted blanket back,” Stiles muttered and Derek hummed. “Why exactly did the unicorn attack you?”

“Stiles…” Derek huffed, his breath fanning over Stiles’ neck, trying to fall back to sleep.

Stiles stared blankly at Derek. His face was turning red but, come on, he couldn’t not mess with Derek. “Did you scare it,” Stiles asked.

A deep groan vibrated in Derek’s throat, vibrating against Stiles’ shoulder. “Stiles,” he huffed.

“What? I just want to know if we’re dealing with homicidal unicorns or not,” Stiles joked and Derek growled, not ready to be awake.

“There was a griffin.” Derek said with a sigh and Stiles sat up in the bed, jostling Derek and whacking his face on his shoulder. “Ow, fuck. My stitches, Stiles.”

“No. No! We’re not just coasting by that. There was a griffin,” Stiles asked in a mix of excitement and confusion. “As in an animal with a lion’s body and an eagle’s wings, talons and beak?”

Derek groaned and sat up to look Stiles in the eye. He could see the excitement on Stiles’ face and sighed. He was not getting any more sleep. “I didn’t have a beak but yes.”

Stiles threw the blankets off the both of them. “Get up.”

“What? Stiles, I was literally up all night,” Derek complained as Stiles grabbed his arm to pull him out of the bed. Derek gave in and got out of the bed.

“Ya? Well, this is what you get for taking off for hours and not telling me,” Stiles said with a shrug, pulling Derek along behind him.

“I told Scott,” Derek huffed.

He could have stopped Stiles if he really wanted but didn’t really think it was worth the rant, so he let Stiles pull him downstairs.

Stiles was grumbling about being kept in the dark the whole time. He pulled Derek past the entire pack, making him feel a lot like a dog on a leash and Stiles’ admonishments weren’t helping the feeling.

Stiles shoved Derek onto the couch and crossed his arms. “Go on.,” Stiles said stubbornly. “Tell them what you told me.”

“They heard,” Derek sighed, rolling his eyes. He looked around the room, making his point about the sheer number of people who definitely heard their entire conversation.

“Well, I didn’t,” Lydia said and Stiles pointed at her, making his point.

“Ya,” Mason agreed, “me either. Isn’t it kind of important that your research team knows what’s going on?”

Derek looked at Stiles and nodded, “Stiles knows.”

“What,” Stiles said, completely aghast. “Hell no, I am not on the research team anymore,” he said firmly.

“What spell are you going to use that won’t make you pass out in the middle of a fight,” Lydia asked.

Stiles glared at her, “that’s cold.”

Lydia faked a frown, rolling her eyes with a shrug. “You mean, like you’ll be out cold,” She asked, batting her eyes.

“Lydia has a point, Stiles,” Scott said, earning a look of betrayal from his best friend. “Right now, most of the spells you can safely do are preemptive.”

Stiles glared at Scott, looking around at the rest of the pack. They all seemed to agree. “So, what? I still ‘skinny defenseless Stiles’,” he scoffed, making air quotes.

“You’re not defenseless, you’re just not ready for a fight,” Scott said.

Quite a few groans roll through the room. Looks of stunned disbelief turned to Scott as if they were trying to figure out if he’d really just said that. Stiles scoffed in fake amusement. His lips pressed into a tight line and he nodded.

“Glad you can say what you feel. Thanks Scott,” Stiles said, turning and waking up the stairs.

“Oh, you fucked up,” Jackson said in a huff, leaning against the wall.

“Thanks Jackson,” Scott grumbled. “Thanks for telling me.”

As Stiles walked up the stairs, his irritation grew. His magic made a mountain ash barrier on the stairs as he passed. Scott tried to follow him, slamming into the mountain ash barrier. He looked at the invisible wall in shock. How? When? Stiles slammed his bedroom door shut and locked it.

He rubbed his face, pacing his room. How could they be that fucking stupid? That oblivious! Fuck! He wanted to throw something or scream. Stiles felt the buzzing of his magic grow stronger the more upset he got. Without his knowing, it was working, making lines of ash around the house. Turning the first floor into a cage. He groaned, rubbing his temples. He needed control, needed to calm down. They couldn’t be right. He needed to prove he could help. How could he help?

Stiles calmed himself down slowly. He slowed his breathing. How could he help? By being exactly what they expected of him. He could do the research. Stiles sighed. He needed to relax, block it all out. He grabbed his headphones, plugging them into his phone. He played music, blasting it to block out the world.

He sighed, feeling much calmer with a distraction, and sat down at his computer. He looked at his email, deciding to get some work done first. He needed to focus on something else. He had to avoid thinking about the bullshit until he had calmed down, before he dealt with his pack again.

Lydia knocked on his door, trying to open it and knocking again. She got no response so she texted Stiles. She could hear the text tone on the other side of the door and still nothing.

“Stiles,” she said, trying to keep the peace. “I know you’re in there. Scott didn’t mean it, you know he’s an idiot. We just don’t want you getting hurt.” Lydia waited at the door, giving up when he wouldn’t even give an answer. “I’ll be here if you need me,” she said before retreating back down the stairs.

She threw her hands up, sending a glare at Scott. It was his fault after all.

“So we can’t get to him and he won’t talk to us… What do we do,” Mason asked. “We kind of need him… a lot.”

Lydia looked at Mason and thought for a moment. “We can’t get to him through the door,” she clarified. “What about the window?” She looked at the pack, “isn’t that how most of you usually get in?”

“And who’s going to get up there that he would let in,” Liam asked. He gestured to Derek, “he has stitches,” he pointed to Scott, “ and he’s the reason we’re in this mess. You can’t get up there on your own, so who would go? Malia?”

Malia snorted, water coming out her nose. She wiped her face and huffed a laugh. “You think he’s going to let me in any faster than you,” she asked Liam. She looked around the room, giving Ethan a double take, before looking at Scott. “Ethan might get away with it since it’s close to his birthday.” Malia got a hoard of glares. Ethan hated talking about his birthday since Aiden died and she knew that.

“We’re not doing that to Ethan,” Scott growled. He stood, worrying his lip as he thought. “Okay,” he sighed, “so who’s the person Stiles won’t say no to?”

“Derek,” came the almost unanimous and simultaneous response.

Derek sat up, “uh, no. Are you guys that stupid,” Derek scoffed. “Scott would have been our best chance and then Lydia.”

“Is the, uh, pain affecting your ability to think or are you just that oblivious,” Malia asked him, rolling her eyes. “Pretty sure he had a thing for you when I was dating him.”

Liam cut in, “look, I know he has stitches but, between all of us, I’m pretty sure we could get Derek up there.”

Scott sighed. “It’s up to you,” he said to Derek. “If you want to try, we can.” All eyes were on Derek, waiting for an answer. Well… not all eyes.

Isaac looked around the room– he had no doubt Derek would say yes– and saw something slightly concerning. He walked over to the door, holding out a hand and hitting the mountain ash barrier. “Before that,” Isaac said, “there’s one more problem.” he gestured to the line of mountain ash at the front door.

“Oh please,” Lydia said, rolling her eyes. She walked over to the door and stepped on the line, flicking her foot to break it. She stepped back and looked at Isaac but he looked down again and then at her. Lydia looked back at the line and muttered “what the…”

She stepped on the line again, moving her foot side to side but the line never broke. Lydia squatted down, dragging her hand over the line. She even grabbed some of the ash but the line never broke. What was going on?

“Mason, you try,” Lydia said, just in case her being a banshee was affecting it even though it never had before.

Mason did the exact same thing she had with the same results. “That’s freaky,” he muttered.

“Do you think he’s mad at us,” Isaac asked sarcastically. Liam took the opportunity to get back at him and smacked Isaac on the back of the head. “Ouch! I fucking swear, Liam!”

“Try the other door,” Mason asked Lydia and she agreed.

The backdoor had a line of mountain ash too. Mason tried to break it while Lydia checked at all the windows.

They walked back to the others and Lydia caught their attention. “Good news and bad news. Good news, nothing is getting in here. Bad news, nothing’s getting out either,” she told them. “There are unbreakable lines of mountain ash at every possible exit: windows, doors, stairs. We’re trapped.”

“Awesome,” Malia grumbled.

“Oh ya,” Lydia continued. “So, you guys better make it up to Stiles or things are going to get really difficult. The bathroom,” she pointed, “is upstairs.”

Stiles chewed the eraser on his pencil as he read through page after page of the Bestiary (translated version) for anything that could be what had attacked this pack. Occasionally he would get another email notification but decided this was more important. When he got to the last line of the email, the pencil fell out of his mouth. He sat up in his chair, pausing his music and minimizing the email to look at the others. Pack after pack had emailed him about something stealing werewolves power.

“Oh shit,” Stiles muttered. He tripped over himself as he rushed to get his cork boards. He grabbed one and got a map of California and pinned it to the board. Stiles started pinning the locations of each pack on the map. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to what packs were hit besides that fact that they were all in California.

“This can’t be good,” he mumbled.

Stiles started flicking through the emails, trying to find any connection. The packs were all wildly different— born wolf families, turned wolves, new packs, old packs, packs that had migrated, packs that were older than the state itself— and its target’s were seemingly random. It crossed gender, age, race, heritage, everything. The only thing he couldn’t tell if it crossed was state lines.

“Great, a monster that doesn’t discriminate. Equal opportunity power stealer,” Stiles huffed. “Just what we need.” Stiles sat staring at the map, trying to find a pattern that made sense.

He about jumped out of his skin when his phone went off. And again and again and again. It couldn’t even complete one text tone before another came in. Stiles nervously picked up his phone and groaned. The pack. His idiots were blowing up his phone.

Stiles rolled his eyes and turned his phone on airplane mode, playing from his downloaded music. It was a good idea, he told himself. Think about a different problem and go back to the other with fresh eyes later.

With his own pack on his mind, he started to think about the griffin and he started to do some research on the griffin. Stiles decided he actually liked this one.

Griffin’s were typically peaceful towards humans, scared of them actually. They mated for life. If their mate died, they never took another. It was cute in a sad way. Their talons and feathers both had medicinal uses. Even the egg shells were useful— or he assumed based on the fact that the Bestiary said never to allow a witch to get the shells. Stiles totally wanted to befriend this thing if he could. Which might be difficult considering they were supposed to be protectors against magic.

Stiles came down the stairs. The group watched him and the second Stiles stepped over the mountain ash line, it broke.

“Oh thank god,” Liam yelled, running up the stairs to the bathroom.

Stiles watched him with confusion and turned to look at the rest of the pack. Suddenly he felt like he had a plate of food in front of a room full of whiny puppies. They stared at him with the biggest puppy eyes ever.

“Uh, hey guys,” Stiles said. “This,” he motioned to the puppy pack, “is weird… Anyway, I did some research about Griffins.” He walked into the living room, not really sure if he wanted to. “They’re pretty much harmless unless provoked. They’re pretty well afraid of humans and are actually considered symbols of divine power in older christianity. So, we shouldn’t have to worry about it hurting anyone. Might damage the game populations…” None of them were talking. Why weren’t they talking? They never listened this well. “Actually, the talons and feathers can be used for healing magic.”

Loud groans filled the room. That got them.

“No more healing magic, Stiles,” Scott said.

“Wasn’t planning to,” Stiles told him. “I think the egg shells have magical uses too. The Bestiary just says not to let witches get them, so…”

“Stiles,” Derek huffed.

“Okay! Whatever. More important issues anyway,” Stiles said defensively. “There is something stealing werewolves’ powers. It’s already covered most of the state and I have no clue where or what it is.” Stiles felt the room shift from apologetic to worried, all eyes still on him. “Surprise…”

“Great, a monster that doesn’t discriminate. Equal opportunity power stealer,” Stiles huffed. “Just what we need.” — You have no clue how much I wanted to make a Theo joke. This whole plot is, like, an underhanded Theo joke tbh

[babynonbinarywitch]

Supernatural Creatures AU - Arcane (Part 2)

Part 1

This is going to go over some the societal implications of magical creatures being the norm in Runeterra and specifically Piltover and Zaun. I’m sure to miss some details, so let me know if there’s specifics you want to know that I didn’t go over.

Obviously magic is an inherent part of everyday life and existence, so it’s more tolerated (unless you’re in Demacia, but we’re not focusing there)

Piltover

Heimerdinger is still traumatized by magic, but it’s specifically the use of magic as a weapon, not just the ambient magic most people on Runeterra (including himself) give off

Piltover’s norm is a mix of mainly vampires and werewolves, with vampires tending to be higher class

Most of the Council are vampires

The exception is Mel (unawakened human mage)

Werewolves exist in Piltover, just mainly as working class people, rather than higher class

There are more than a few immigrant families that aren’t vampires or werewolves, but they tend to either pretend to be human or keep to themselves enough that it doesn’t matter to the public

Like I stated before, dragons are exceedingly rare and ever more secretive, there are only four dragons in all of Piltover/Zaun and they do an exceptional job of convincing the world that they are just normal non-magical humans

Like anywhere where people accumulate enough wealth to want to show it off, there’s obviously a black market trade in rarer, “more exotic” magical creatures, usually captured very young and trained/beat into compliance (such as dragon hatchlings, siren and mer pups, fae children, etc.)

A lot of the time, they’re sold off to the vampiric elite and used as blood bags since it’s considered “uncouth” and “savage” to actually go hunting for a civilian to feed off of

Some of them do develop a preference for what creatures they want to feed off of for this reason, at which point it becomes too bothersome to scout out a specific species to hunt down from the civilian populace

The black market trade is part of the reason that Ximena doesn’t let Jayce out of her sight until he’s much older and able to actually defend himself

There may or may not be irregular raids on the warehouses the children are kept in, orchestrated by abolitionist Piltovans and organized Zaunites

Zaun

In Zaun, the mix is a little more even, with other creatures not really having to hide once they can defend themselves, so it is and appears a lot more diverse than Piltover

It’s still mainly vampires and werewolves, but it’s not a particularly strict hierarchy between them (ie, Vander’s a werewolf, Silco’s a vampire, Felicia and Connor were human, etc.)

The only creatures that are truly rare in Piltover and Zaun are ones more aligned with nature (ie, mermaids, sirens, selkies, nymphs, fauns/satyrs, etc.) because of the pollution that industrialization has caused to the land around them

This is more severe in Zaun because of the runoff and pollution from Piltover’s industrialization floods into Zaun’s streets

Most nature spirits that did live in the region have since moved/died, with one of the exceptions being the dryad for the tree Ekko and the Firelights find later on

A lot of the children freed from the abolitionist-planned raids end up with families in Zaun, since they would be out of place in Piltover

It’s not ideal, but it’s all the kids have, and sometimes it leads to an even worse situation

[nitrozem]

OC Deep Dive Questionnaire

Thanks for the tag @natolesims ! I love doing these.

Think I'll do my werewolf boi, Ajay this time (I did Miguel for the last one)

1. What uncommon/common fear do they have?

The dude acts fearless but he has one fear and it's stink bugs. Why? Well werewolf pups like practicing their hunting on small insects and stuff that cross their path and young Ajay decided to pounce on a stink bug and had a very bad time lol

bonus pic of smol pup Ajay

2. Do they have any pet peeves?

He doesn't like it when people move his stuff around. He's not organized but it works for him cause he has his weird disorganized places he keeps his things.

3. What are 3 items you can find in their bedroom?

his werewolf toy, this crystal light shaped like a moon that Sid made for him, something random he may have dug up during a rampage and forgot about (usually shoes, rocks and trash)

4. What do they notice first in a person?

Their smell, werewolf super smell and all. He can figure out if a person is an occult by the smell.

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how high is their pain tolerance?

A 10, he's been in so many werewolf brawls, and running through the forest, it takes a lot to actually get him to be very bothered by pain and he heals quickly. He wears his scars like badges of honor lol

6. Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure?

Fight fight fight! He likes fighting and hates to appear like a wimp.

7. Do they come from a big family/are they a family person?

No, he was an only child, had a mom and dad and that's it. He has a big family now though. (4 children, his husband, and his father who is still kicking) I would say he is a family person, he loves all his kids and is protective over them and his husband.

bonus family photo :)

and grandpa (ajay's father, Ravi) cause we love him and his terrible dad jokes

8. What animal represents them best?

Well...a wolf

9. What is a smell that they dislike?

Vampires have a necrotic undead smell he hates like most werewolves. He also hates coming across somewhere that was "marked" by another werewolf and gets territorial.

10. Have they broken any bones?

Nope

11. How would a stranger likely describe them?

Depends. If he's dressed nicely and calm, people see he's sure of himself or confident. When he's high fury/wearing his torn or rocker clothes, he still has that confident vibe but in a more intimidating way.

12. Are they a night owl or a morning bird?

Night Owl because werewolves are nocturnal, he'll be up in the morning anyway because he doesn't sleep much.

13. What is a flavor they hate and a flavor they love?

He hates all artificial fruit candy, as for a flavor he loves, a steak, seasoned right (and very very rare)

14. Do they have any hobbies?

Yes, he likes to knit and paint mostly. He likes to read and likes tor forage/hunt for crystals or mushrooms that Sid might need

15. Boom, surprise birthday party! How do they react to surprises?

I'd say he's pretty stoked

16. Do they like to wear jewelry?

Yeah, his moon necklace his mother gave him and other bracelets Sid makes him

17. Do they have neat or messy handwriting?

It's actually very neat!

18. What are two emotions they feel the most?

Energetic and confident

19. Do they have a favorite fabric?

really soft fleece, he'll fall asleep real quick in a pile of fleece sweaters lol

20. What kind of accent do they have?

subtle indian accent (mother had an indian accent, father has a southern usa accent so it's a mix of that)

The closest voice claim I have for him is Dr. Carrington from Fallout 4 I like imagining that he sounds very eloquent and chill (well at least until his fury gets high enough, then he's just loud, rough sounding and growly)

If you just want to talk about yours OC's just do this and say I tagged you or w/e, use all excuses to talk about your OC's and stories 👍🏼

(that and I'm not very active on here atm due to not wanting to play sims, social media detox and attempts at better habits in life.)

[sodaquail]

Dude I’m so hyped for your werewolf AU, you have no idea. I’m the biggest werewolf!Chip fan out there. Anyways, if you want asks (sorry if I misinterpreted your post):

What type of werewolf are we talking here? Classic bipedal or twilight style giant wolf? Somewhere in between?

Are any of the other characters werewolves, and/or does Chip know any others?

Is lycanthropy a known thing? How do people react?

One of my D&D books has a section on lycanthropy, and while you can play player characters affected by it, it goes hand and hand with the Evil alignment (it’s an older book, not sure about lycanthropy in 5E). Is this similar in your AU, or are werewolves misunderstood?

Don’t feel obligated to answer any of these haha, I understand that they could definitely lean into spoiler territory, I’m just so excited!! :D Werewolf world building is the best.

Im sooooo glad to see you're excited!!! I can totes add you to the tag list ^_^

for the TYPE of wolf... I totally leant more into mythology rather than werewolf movies. ive never actually watched a werewolf movie (although, a friend said wolfchip would be like the wolves from twilight so now im planning a marathon with IRLs.... oops) I'm doing a lot of worldbuilding into the nature and magic of werewolves and that stays hidden but.. - physically they are BIG. like twilight wolf sized... big big. - They have no tail (a mythology thing for werewolves!! common for creatures rumored to just be witches in disguse actually) I was VERYYYYYYYY much not going to pull the werewolf pop culture thing and have some 'weird human-wolf hybrid cross' because i did not like the idea tooooo much..... would rather be taken out back and killed with bricks than make chip bipedal wolf-man hybrid thing.... noooooooo...... also in human form werewolves are distinctly inhuman!! Won't go into TOO MUCH worldbuilding of mine but essentially, among other things their wolf form and traits fluctuate with the lunar cycle. on new moon they're indistinguishable from human, on full moon they're fully wolf, and all inbetween is a mix of traits. It all depends on when you catch em, whether it's day or night, whether it's new moon or close to full moon.... you might not know what you're signing up for if you find a normal person on the full moon only for them to change as the lunar cycle goes on, lol. but from mythology these are the traits which often identify a werewolf in human form - unibrow (not giving chip this one. no dice) - low, swinging stride (yes!) - lower set ears (also yes!) - when the skin is cut, there is fur under it! (yes, but i felt might be too obscure for people.... not included in common werewolf pop culture sadly...) as well as a few special things of my own!!! I ALSO HAVE A PHOTO OF WHAT WOLFCHIP LOOKS LIKE!! i found this on a dog grooming video on tiktok and went 'thats wolfchip."

2) Yes! I have one confirmed werewolf NPC (of my own making for the purposes of the story) and am toying with the idea of making another character a werewolf. It won't be too big of a deal though... just a neat little reference!! 3) now THIS is staunchly spoiler territory!! sorry dude!!! 4) this is also spoiler territory but what i will say is that I did not go off of DND modules (although it wouldnt hurt to give them a read...)!! I play BECMI and 5e as my DND modules among other TTRPGS but i did not lean from any of them. Honestly, I didn't take much inspiration for my werewolf worldbuilding outside of some mythology shit (and not a lot, anyway). I think i just went off the general, well known werewolf myths and said 'ok what can i do with this' and i sewed and cut and now it is a new beast. it is MY beast. TYSM for your questions!!! Hope you enjoy the final project ahhhh...... seeing the answers for the spoilers in the fic will be SO much better than reading them here i swear :3

[wyntereyez]

Wynter's Werewolf Watch-A-Thon: Werewolf Santa

Werewolf Santa

Tubi description: After witnessing Santa get bitten by a werewolf and turn into one, amateur monster hunter Lucy and her family set out to save Christmas.

Years ago, I came up with an idea about Santa being bitten by a werewolf, which I creatively called Santa Claws. I plotted out quite a bit for it. I drew pictures for it. But I never did anything for it.

It was better than this.

The movie starts with Lucy, a monster hunter with a YouTube channel who traveled the world to look for - and fail to find - any sort of monster. After a cut to a recital of 'The Night Before Christmas' accompanied by comic-style artwork, read by a narrator with a southern twang (to match the guy wearing a cowboy hat, I guess). The entire poem is read, which felt unnecessary, really, and ends with the narrator saying all hell was going to break loose.

(Putting the rest under the cut, in case anyone actually wants to watch the movie and doesn't want spoilers.)

Back to Lucy and her boyfriend/cameraman Dustin, who are heading to Lucy's home for Christmas. Their goal is to get a werewolf on camera; apparently their town is known for attacks, and there's going to be a full moon that Christmas Eve.

Lucy, it turns out, hates Christmas, has a poor relationship with her family, and on the drive there, Dustin admits he's been sleeping around.

Cue lots of bickering and hostility when Lucy's dad arrives; her parents are divorced, and it's not an amicable one. Ugh.

While out at night with their camera, Lucy and Dustin get high, and are unaffected when a mangled werewolf victim staggers out of the woods and collapses at their feet.

From that point, everything seems like one big drug trip. While looking for the werewolf, they find Santa in the woods taking a piss. As they get closer, a werewolf jumps out and disembowels that bowl full of jelly. The werewolf runs off, and Santa gets up and starts changing. He also somehow gets affected by the weed and gets the munchies, but I didn't see how.

So, werewolf with munchies that can go down chimneys.

Lucy and Dustin enlist Lucy's family for help, resulting in a lot of arguing as they chase Santa Wolf around town. They pick up Lucy's friend Rupert, because why not add a conspiracy nut incel to the mix.

Oh, and he looks nothing like the poster picture. He looks more like a grey Grinch.

A lot of townspeople die. There was, of course, the standard 'people having sex out in the middle of nowhere who get ripped to shreds,' though at least they weren't teens in this case. One of them had hooked up with Lucy's mother.

(I may have laughed a bit when a torn off penis went flying and nearly hit Lucy's mother)

Dustin runs off, and is later found killed. No one was particularly sad.

They find the body of a cop, who has a gun with three silver bullets, and Lucy is sent to kill Santa because she's a good shot and her father (who is the head of the police department) forgot his glasses and can't aim.

However, she can't bring herself to kill Santa. Her mother takes the gun, but at that point, he's already fled.

They continue pursuing him, which eventually results in Lucy being bitten. She asks them to use the last silver bullet to shoot her, because this is Santa, you can't kill Santa!

When they realize Lucy's father knows a bit too much about werewolves, he admits he'd known about them, and had hunted down the last remaining werewolves. The last one, he'd said, was stronger than the others, and was much harder to take down.

Rupert tells him that that was the alpha, and if he'd killed that one first, it would have cured all the others. That's when Lucy realizes that her father has to be a werewolf, and that he'd become alpha when the other died.

They end up killing him, Lucy and Santa are cured, and Christmas is saved. Until next year, when Santa is abducted by aliens. The end.

It was... certainly something. It's a British comedy, and while I can appreciate British humor, this one just fell flat for me. Maybe it's the whole family dynamic; I hate it when you get the arguing families who fight over everything, to the point of making the situation worse instead of better. I just wanted them to shut. Up.

I didn't see the twist with her dad coming, though I'm not sure why he's still a werewolf; if the alpha changed him, and he killed the alpha, then he should have been cured? Whatever.

Not helping matters, it was a found footage-style film, which meant terrible camera angles and shaky images.

Final verdict: I'd give this one a pass. The premise is interesting, and it's treated as seriously as it deserves. And I actually liked Lucy, though maybe it's because at one point, I thought about doing a YouTube monster hunting show. But it turned into a rather average monster on a rampage film; having a being like Santa as a wolf could have resulted in a powerful, difficult to kill werewolf, but except for one scene where he comes down a chimney, he's no different than any other werewolf, beyond being fueled by the munchies. And I was very meh about the other characters, and didn't care if any of them died.

...but I kinda want to know about the alien abduction thing.

[ladyhindsight]

The title refers to the point in this chapter where Jace takes Clary to witness the Wild Hunt riding across the night sky. Which, I would’ve liked to believe, was more foresight in terms of the rest of the story whenever new concepts appear, but then I remembered the Wild Hunt will be relevant right in the next book. So not a lot of foresight after all. Disappointment more like since this is the first time it is mentioned in the whole of TSC.

This chapter opens up with Jordan and Maia in the Praetor House. They are feeling awkward together so Jordan goes to take a shower and Maia is left pondering on things.

→ What still is beyond my understanding is why Maia (and Jordan) are so invested in Jace. They have no comprehensible connection nor a relationship, and the last time Maia and Jace had any meaningful interaction, it was in City of Ashes when Jace antagonized the whole pack of werewolved because of his self-imposed angst fest.

→ “She sprung up.” Because adverbs < actual verbs

→ The shadows were closing in. Because filtering < not separating reader from the action

Maia then joins Jordan in the shower and they do the yucky-yuck. We cut to the Team Good where Jocelyn finally learns that Clary has left to join Jace and Sebastian. Jocelyn blames Simon for letting Clary leave so easily. Then Magnus tells Jocelyn that no one can stop Clary for doing what she thinks is right and that Clary is a great deal like her mother. Which supposedly serves as a burn.

I don’t know what it is, why Jocelyn must be called “Clary’s mother” every given opportunity (or Clary Jocelyn’s daughter for that matter) when we know who she is, and, for example, Maryse is mostly always called Maryse. I am sick of it.

→ of course Magnus must have known Jocelyn/her when she was young, (also thank you, Simon, for explaining the obvious.)

→ I also feel that recap to be incredibly unnecessary, so just: when she betrayed Valentine and the Circle. Because who are you trying to win sympathy points for here?

Isabelle then stands up for Simon and berates Jocelyn.

It’s worthy to note that Clary’s own decisions and consequences on those decisions are blamed on everyone else available than her. Clary is reckless because of Jocelyn trying to protect her, not that Clary has a brain or mind of her own, yet the blame never lands on her. I would regard this more leniently if Isabelle threw some selfishness into the mix, like “if her actions meant that she would get her brother back then so be it”, but as of now, it has nothing to do with anything else than other characters sticking up for Clary for the sake of sticking up for Clary because no blame, no matter what, will fall on her.

Also, when had Clary ever said that, and also once again, with their trackrecord, they don't know each other or have known each other long enough for Clary to make such statements. Are you sure you aren't trying to just tell me stuff again?

Jocelyn is upset and gets more upset, and of course her upset with Simon especially could be read as that she can’t berate Clary for making such dangerous moves at the moment. But none of that will ever come anyway, so I dislike this whole conversation no matter what.

Even if Jocelyn is trying to scare them with consequences of their secrecy (or rather, Simon’s) and punishment by the Clave, it’s still so counterproductive. The Clave has given up on Jace. Jace, currently, is to be killed on sight alongside Sebastian. What on earth does Jocelyn think the Clave is going to do to Clary who joined these people on her own volition once it learns her part in this?

Jocelyn throws a tantrum while leaving, and Magnus suggests they get to the summoning of Azazel, the Prince of Hell who makes weapons, to inquire about one that could separate Jace from Sebastian.

We then cut to Clary and Jace on their date and it’s all incredibly boring.

Nu-uh. The em-dash serves no purpose when the only following clause includes just one thing.

→ Jace and Clary spent the day wandering through mazelike tiny streets that ran along…

Ha ha. Straight men joking about being gay. Funny. Also tasteless and gross as to getting someone drunk for sex.

Nu-uh. There's a lot of these throughout the book but gotta point them out every once in a while.

Cut back to Jordan and Maia who have had their steamy moment in the shower and are now lying in Jordan’s bed. They are talking when someone knocks on the door and calls for Jordan to go see Praetor Scott.

Their whole interaction in this chapter has been canoodling each other, and the urgency to help Luke has disappeared entirely. No, they don’t have all the time in the world when they specifically came to the Praetor House to help Luke from dying which he is rather actively doing at the moment. Though Maia probably means they have all the time they need in general, not just in this moment, it is still put up against the urgency in the story, which does not work.

Team Good is preparing to summon Azazel. Simon laments how animals don’t like him anymore now that he is a vampire but Chairman Meow is unbothered.

This doesn’t really fit in here. It cuts the flow between two sentences that should be consecutive.

→ Simon was taking a moment to rest and drink some coffee; it stayed down well, and the caffeine took the edge off the beginning prickles of hunger. Magnus, as it turns out, hadn’t been joking about the candles. All afternoon, they had been helping Magnus set the scene for raising Azazel.

It’s still clunky, but at least the effects of caffeine that are so far removed from the rest of the idea in this paragraph don’t interrupt each other.

Magnus then calls for them—Simon, Alec, and Isabelle—to gather around. We then cut to Maia and Jordan, and I’m so disappointed every time that happens. Praetor Scott presents them with the cure for Luke’s problem. Then Raphael makes an appearance to complain about Maureen having gone rogue and how the Praetor Lupus hasn’t made any headway as to her because they’ve (or Nick who is assigned to her case) been unable to find her.

These are teenage characters, I'll give you that, but this is also incredibly juvenile way to discuss sex or people having it. The idea that someone has to take notice, an adult no less, is weird and frankly also gross. Why does Scott need to care what the hell two horny teenagers are up to or even comment on it or even take notice?

It's closely related to Clare's need to have her intercharacter relationships and intimacy validated by an audience. Someone has to see or know, and it is so tiring that nothing can happen without constantly bringing it into focus or it being treated as a newsletter.

How has Sebastian and the disappearance of Jace incapacitated the whole of the Clave—all of the Nephilim—that they are unable to even continue with their daily duties? Clave sucks and that is the message Clare does put forward a lot, but how come the whole entire earth is so unable to take action, to aid New York, since their Conclave is so busy dealing with this disappearance that they aren’t even doing anything substantial about?

The Clave has no structure other than the Inquisitor, the Consul, and then the heads of the Institutes that lead their own Conclaves. It’s inadequate and unorganized and this will not change no matter how much Clare complains about the Clave she herself created. No one calls for more structure, does not create more positions to take on the load. There is essentially no progress because I don't think Clare sees this as one of the many flaws of the Clave. I think Clare believes this to be solid organization structure.

Why didn’t Raphael handle this himself in the first place? Even if he wanted to utilize “legal” or professional avenues first, he’s still going to handle it himself if these fail, so why not cut to the chase? Because we wouldn’t know about Maureen otherwise, though this knowledge comes at the expense of Raphael being a pretty ineffective leader of his clan.

Then the rest of the chapter is about Clary and Jace and their date and their canoodling because that’s pretty much all they do in their one-on-one scenes. Here Jace takes Clary to a boat to see the Wild Hunt, and then they have to escape because the boat owner comes, and yep. A lot happens in this chapter but at the same time it’s filled up with a lot of unnecessary and stupid prose.

[lumilasi]

Finished the next set. Unfortunately it turns out, even for this one I had only 2 ladies...one of which isn't mine, again, lmao

Aimi (the last one on the right) belongs to @mad-hatter-rici

Anyway, short intro of each character below:

Harrow Araknos: The father of the beloved Goth Dad Jurou, a shadow elemental Soul Eater. He is bit of a rebellious and troublemaking figure, who has been, and has escaped prison. Despite all this he loves his family dearly (he ended up in jail because of his desire to protect his son) and while they argue and bicker a lot, Jurou does care about his father - even if he'sa frustrating reckless fool sometimes.

Shura: Jurou's childhood friend, a special type of light spirit native to the mirror world called Vigour Spirit. Shura is the opposite of his gothic bestie, being a very happy-go-lucky goofball, who knows how to not take himself too seriously. He is not one to be underestimated however, one of the very few people in the world who could actually defeat Jurou in battle.

Lawrence Faydream: A Dream-eater/bogyeman spirit and an influental member of the "Overshadowers Council" that handles the matters of dark beings - soul eaters, dream eaters, werewolves, etc - in the Mirror world. He is also the head of a special group/organization known as Shadowless, whose job is to protect the mirror world's secrets and prevent humans from essentially destroying themselves with powerful Mirror world artifacts they do not understand properly. Bit of a devious figure with plenty of shades of grey to his character. Father of Jurou's employee, Avane.

Angus Belmont: A Blood sage warlock who works as a doctor, being the family doctor for the protagonist family. Has some ancient dragonic heritage, hence his natural shapeshifting ability his powers give, gave him permanent dual eyes. A single father who is often powered by black coffee and pure spite towards needing to sleep. He's generally seen as scary but reliable doctor. He also has a secondary job as one of the Shadowless Kenzo commands.

Yui Blackthorne: Harrow's wife and Jurou's mother, she is a spider-woman from japan, who is a famous Jazz singer across the Mirror world. She spends most of her time nowadays spending time with her grandkids, sending them gifts and so on. Yui does still record, but doesn't do that many public concerts anymore.

Clover Belmont (Oliver Blanc): Angus' adoptive son and the best friend/honorary big brother figure of Ichirou Araknos, the nephew/adopted son of Jurou. Clover has a difficult, traumatic past hence he's changed his name from his original one. He is a witchboy with very unique power-mix that while powerful, unfortunately causes him lot of health issues like digestive problems and disfigured sickly thin waist.

Aimi: The right hand woman of Lawrence, a Grand Fairy who didn't want to become a guardian spirit for a child like her kind usually do. She does spywork/intelligence gathering/threat elimination for her boss - or just brings his daughter her lunch she forgot. Aimi is bit of an oddball in nature, but she is not to be underestimated despite her apparent silly goofy nature.

[thefiresontheheight]

A lot of queer people leave the families of their birth. Some of those families are werewolves.

Honestly, the transformation isn’t that hard. I mean, I assume it is on some sort of external level. The lengthening of bones, the twist, reshaping. It’s just that at the same time your brain is also reshaping itself, flood your consciousness with new sensations, new hormones. You hardly notice all your bones breaking.

(It’s a common misconception that when we are transformed our consciousness is gone. It’s just that our brain shifts too. It’s sort of like trying to remember a dream. The human isn’t made to remember what the wolf thought and the wolf is far, far more simple than humans and all our cultured worries and societal concerns. There are some really good studies about this but I’m not a neuroscientist so I always end up comparing it to an acid trip. Or just getting really high. Or sleeping. It’s just an altered state of consciousness.)

But anyway, the transformation back sucks. Your body has shifted twice in twenty some hours and most modern werewolves don’t actually go out and devour an entire deer to make up the calories lost to that (though a lot of us do stockpile beef). And you don’t have all those new, doggy thoughts and adrenaline and prey instincts dulling the pain. It’s like the worst hangover in the world, mixed with getting your period, mixed with getting hit by a truck. This is where the queer part comes in.

Because we’re a minority in a minority most of us in the city know each other. I mean, at least the scent of each other. We found each other. So we got this thing going, all came to a big house in the suburbs to transform together.

And it’s the night after that this new binary forms. Femmes and butches. Dykes and queens. All of them together being our human, non transforming partners. They cook breakfast.

That’s what I wanted to tell you about, man. It’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.

[alanahsart-blog]

well of course i want to know abuot my best friend June: 🥊, 🧊, 🍀

YAAAAAY hehe Im so glad <3 best friend June time :]

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

June is a weird little freak who actually enjoys and finds comfort in the mundanities of like... math. and business. (They're an accountant) It makes them feel like there's some order to their life and they find it relaxing. Absolutely bizarre. Of course, the root of their enjoyment of that is that it's sort of a destresser, so they also really enjoy getting to hang out with their friends, now that they have some that actually know them and are cool with them being a werewolf.

They are NOT a fan of interacting with anyone in a position to scrutinize them-- police, formal monster hunting organizations, stuff like that. At heart they are just some guy who doesn't like confrontation and doesn't really know how to deal with the scrutiny of mundane authorities. On a mundane note, since their senses are pretty strong, they are not a fan of strong smells and thus something like. Filling up the gas in their car sucks a little.

They have a paradoxical relationship with people relying on them-- on one hand, they love to feel like they can support and pay back the loyalty and kindness of their friends, but on the other hand, they are terrified of dropping the ball and letting people down, especially in life or death situations. This fear has come true several times, so they're currently kinda wrestling with a bit of an aversion to/guilt when it comes to taking on responsibility for others wellbeing-- they'll keep doing it tho <3

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

More or less, yeah actually!! This is the first image I ever drew of June, (left) which isn't too different to my latest ref for them (right.) Looking back I definitely prefer the flowers on their jacket to be smaller. Gotta shrink those back down!

Divine vision or something 💥(they have since lost that gun. LMAO)

something that HAS changed about their design is a consequence of in-game events-- basically a large scar from getting blasted by undistilled magic from something called the wellspring. There was an instance in the mystery where this occurred where our gm described our characters sort of like.. mutated, messed up reflections as viewed through this magic, and in it described June as scaley green, so the "scar" they ended up with from getting blasted by it I interpreted as patches of scales :]. Makes hospital visits and beach days a little tough as you can imagine.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Well!!! June is my motw character and ofc was made for that purpose-- I'm a huuuuuge lover of monsters, spooky little guys, and generally fucked up characters, and so especially in a game where you're often going to be in conflict with those, I knew I wanted to make a character with the monstrous playbook.

I made them a werewolf ...... honestly mostly out of spite. LMAO. I have BIG problems with a lot of media depictions of werewolves, and thought this would be a great opportunity to do my take on a monster who I previously overlooked or didn't like because of how they were depicted in other stuff. In practice, they were definitely a combo of my own opinions about what would make a cool werewolf (a little uncanny, a little uneven and body horror-ish (it's a bit hard to tell in some pics, but they are kinda asymmetrical-- one sides a little more human and one's a little more wolfy,) mix of fangs and tusks and human teeth, overall monstrous silhouette rather than like. Actual Wolf or Hairy Guy With Slightly Strange Face)) and some traits about how they work drawn from medieval depictions and folklore (such as their time-frozen status, and the general Vibes of their look) :,3. I think it worked out very well personally, June is one of my favorite characters ever ever ever <3

[localwebslingers]

| Headcanon Dump: Paw Prints in the Subway(Werewolf AU) |

As with all the posts like this, this is just to get some of the basics of this verse and what it would entail out there for people to see. Please note: in this universe Peter will NOT have spider powers. We're not doing any were-spiders here(actually that sounds truly HORRIFYING to think about) so this is just being a supernatural being.

Werewolf basics:

No one knows the origin of where werewolves came from. All the old stories about them from various cultures have been suggested as starting points but no one knows for sure.

People are either born as werewolves or have to be bitten during a full moon to pass it along. This rarely happens and is often either by accident or because a human partner has decided to change as well. The bite has to be deep and it is painful.

There is no weakness to silver, that's just Hollywood. Werewolves do, however, have a natural and severe allergy to Wolf's Bane(think how lavender is really bad for your cat). The symptoms include coughing, severe respiratory distress, nausea, weakness/fatigue, fever, and in severe exposure cases even death. There are treatments available, but it's never a guarantee with heavy exposure.

The change is into just a large wolf. The bipedal and anthropomorphic appearances is, once again, just Hollywood.

Werewolves can shift at will, however they are forced to at the peek of the full moon(the full moon lasts three days, they're forced into the change on the second day). Many will shift before moonrise to make the change easier and less sudden.

Werewolves largely leave humans, and other beings, alone, even when shifted. They hunt other animals but will only lash out at people when threatened, scared, or injured, just like any wild animal. There are of course exceptions to this, but the vast majority are, for the most part, harmless.

Headcanons:

Both of Peter's parents were werewolves, and so was Uncle Ben. Aunt May, however, is human. She was never changed and has no intention of being changed. His parents and uncle were killed by hunters.

While most packs in the city are all werewolves, Peter's own is mixed. This is in part due to the fact that May is human, but also because his pack is more of a "found family" and thus any friends he's especially close to get invited into it. (each Peter have similar and different members, and a lot will be thread/partner specific)

Peter shifts into a large, brown wolf.

There's a cabin outside of New York that was owned by Peter's parents and passed to his aunt and uncle when they died. It's used as a place for the entire pack to go to sometimes for the full moon, so he and the other werewolf members can shift and actually run around a forest for a change.

After a shift, especially the full moon, Peter is near ravenously hungry and exhausted from the amount of energy it takes. May always called out for him in school so he could rest most of the day to sleep off the worst of it.

The pack has no real leader, however everyone still agrees that it's May, even if she denies it.

Peter has not killed people as a wolf, he has however severely injured several people who have tried to hurt him or another pack member. While he's not aggressive like most people stereotype werewolves to be, he is fiercely protective of anyone else who's a pack member.

Leading up to the full moon Peter tends to get more and more energetic. He talks more, struggles to keep still, and also has more body language communication. Things like leaning on people, making sounds similar to growling, and can be quicker to agitate in tense situations.

Peter tends to lay on his partners when he's a wolf. He can't hug them so it's the next best thing. And yes, ear scratches are welcomed and encouraged.

Peter has a cord necklace of a wooden wolf that's a protection charm(as in actual magic) from when he was a kid, passed down to him by his parents. It's one of his most valued possessions, and when he married it'll be passed on to whoever his partner is, or their child if they have one.

[iamthespineofmybook]

So, I've been listening to Trope Talks again (I do that a lot), and I had recently been in a conversation about Harry Potter fanworks, and whether we (the participants in said conversation) still interact with them. And these two things have come together in my head to start formulating Better Wizarding World idea.

So, first off, magic in this setting has no power level kind of thing. One is either magical, non-magical, or anti-magical, and which one it is is purely genetic. The world is mostly the same because all sides of any given conflict had a general mix of all three in each society, though the number of visible magic users would vary depending on the society they were in; you're not gonna say you have magic if the law says people with magic will be killed.

This lends itself retroactively to making magic something that only shows up after puberty, because social pressure caused an evolutionary shift so that only magical people who didn't reveal themselves during the emotional period that is childhood and puberty survived.

The way I've set up the genetic side of things is via three markers: M1, M0, and M-1. If someone's got two M1s, they have magic. If someone has two M-1s, they have antimagic. Everyone else doesn't have either. People who are antimagical are indistinguishable from nonmagical people until they come into contact with magic, whereupon they act like Kamijou Touma of A Certain Magical Index, except it's their whole body, rather than just the right hand, automatically and completely negating all the magic (but still susceptible to secondary effects).

Also, there's a lot more acceptance of queer people in magical groups in part because of magic's ability to let people be who they want to be. Transformation magic helps trans people, but it also is the reason for the legend of werewolves because even Ancient Greece and Ireland and such had furries.

Speaking of transformation, modern science in this world determined that being transformed by magic does not actually alter your genetic structure or how your body reacts to things, so you can transform into your gender, but it won't get rid of your peanut allergy nor will becoming a wolfperson give you a theobromine allergy.

As for the modern era, magic people actually are more visible in part because they can just say they're cosplaying or their videos have really good special effects. It's also not technically a hidden world so much as a low-key world; magic exists in about an eighth or so of the population (not a hard number, I'm still thinking on that one), but it can't do miracles (I should probably think of a maximum power one spell can produce as a hard cap for everyone. No Wandas or Zatannas here). In fact, overdoing it can kill the person doing it.

I also don't really have a plot. I have two ideas: one antimagical person is extremely angry that they can't interact with magic at all and is gathering antimagical followers to fight about it, but that feels too... racism parallel-y for my comfort.

The other idea is a basic slice of life story, it's just that there's magic involved and the protagonist is learning all about it thanks to the surreptitious "does this 16-year-old have magic" test done at school that opens up a whole new world of possibilities for what they can do with their life.

[practicecourts]

Fic Author Self Rec

Fic authors self-rec! ✨ When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you’ve written, then pass on to at least five other writers ❤️

Thank you for the tag @annabtg

In no real order below you'll find 5 stories that I'm proud of writing.

But first, I want to let you know how much fun it is to receive these kinds of questions that make you think about what you're writing/have written... so thanks for that!! Also, to anyone who takes the time to read any of my stories, I want to apologise for all my writing errors (if you see any feel free to point them out to me;-) If you did enjoy something it's an absolute high for me to hear about that as well. I've learned so much in the past year just by starting to write and post and getting hearts & comments. I've met some amazing people online through this that have become friends I hope, and I've learned a lot from their feedback. I also want to thank anyone who ever wrote me kind comments. You have no idea how much that has encouraged me to try new things (I'd never in a million years thought I'd be writing an alternative Animages story or anything actually smutty, let alone more than just one or two things.), and this encouragement has made writing even more fun! It's something else when someone tells you they like the world or story you've created. (another thing about going back and picking 5 works, is that it made me see some sort of growth in my writing, but also it makes me want to hide a bit under a rock somewhere or edit the hell out of my earlier posted things) Self-esteem is a fickle thing. so again thanks for this ask/tag. 1) It Was a Clear Black Night, a Clear White Moon Jily, 7k. Hogwarts jily-challenge One shot.

Lily Evans, Head Girl, sees Jame Potter, Head Boy, sneak out of the castle on a full moon. She decides to follow him, perhaps not the best idea she ever had.

I'm proud of how this story turned out quite thrilling and not slap-stick (or at least I don't think so- lol) and also has some sweetness, and humour mixed with seriousness. Werewolves & full moons are serious business after all.

2) Beggin' Jily, 7k. One-shot. A tale of Jily moments seen through the eyes of Peter Pettigrew. He tries to make sense of his life, the war and the big things in the world such as love, friendship and how to survive after Hogwarts. He also wants very much to apologise. (see the end notes for spoilers). This idea wouldn't let me go and that's why it's here. Don't read this if you don't like sad things. I feel this is bittersweet and personally, that's something I enjoy reading myself.

3) Head over Handlebars For You Jily, multichapter Muggle AU unfinished 11/15, currently 39k. My first ever Jily Challenge prompt was the following: I hit you with my car/broom and was the only one to visit you in the hospital. Because I ride a carrier bike (with kids, a dog, or groceries in;-) almost every day, I wanted very much to have this crash happen with a carrier bike. As I feel the stigma is very much a family/mother bicycle I wanted James to be riding it. This story also has evolved into something I didn't expect (It's still the general idea I once had but I severely underestimated how much more to the story there was, and I've learnt a whole lot, just from writing this. I think this story is fun, a bit sexy, has some excitement, humour and has some serious moments. And there will be romance. because it's a jily modern fairy tale after all. I'm hoping to finish up the last 3-4 chapters and post them in April/May. 4) Revelation 1,3 K One shot - microfic. I like Lily's thoughts in this, I loved to try to write something short but still have something big happen. And I'm very much in awe of all the people who do that (say a lot in little words) much much better than me! Difficult to pick the last one, as much as I want to hide under a rock, and how much I'd like to improve all of them, there was a lot of love and time put into writing them ;-) but rules are rules... 5) Not the Doctor this is a crazy texting fic that is very much based on real life facts ;-) the hilariousness of having a James Potter Face claim actually work in the gynaecology department, and the horrors of said visit were impossible to ignore and then the story basically wrote itself. It's not deep. I'm sure it's not very good either, but it was fun *to write*. Not to worry, it all ends well (both in this fic as IRL ;-)

Tagging @abihastastybeans @uncertainwallflower @turanga4 @glitterwitch1 @lanaturnergetup

[ogdoadfates]

Vox Machina: Supernatural AU

Good lord everyone is talking werewolves and vampires on my dashboard, I can’t resist even more so after hearing my fav songs that remind me of werewolfs lol. This is also technically a modern au.

Keyleth is a werewolf and was turned into one at a young age. Viyla was a werewolf and tried to contain herself every full moon but she got out one night and ‘attacked’ Keyleth not realizing she bit her daughter she leaves with some parting words telling Keyleths she’s sorry for being a monster. This backfires a lot since after Keyleth and Korrin learn she’s now a werewolf, Keyleth thinks her mom called HER a monster and not herself. (not to mention in general Vilya’s parting words were not the kindest to a small child)

Werewolfs in this universe only really have a hybrid form, no full wolf form.

Due to them not knowing, Keyleth ‘attacks’ her dad when she first transforms leaving him with a scar on his right eyebrow.

Korrin lives on a farm house a fair bit away from the city which is perfect for when Keyleth comes over once a month for the full moon. They used to try to locked her up but as she grew older it stopped working.

Korrin set’s up meat baits around his land for Keyleths full moons to help stop her from potentially eating/hunting any humans that stumble upon his land.

Keyleth was already naturally tall which makes her werewolf form even taller. (Taller then Grog in werewolf form)

Forced werewolf transformations hurt

The twins are vampires (of course lol) 

Sunlight doesn’t immediately kill vampires more so it starts out as irritating then slowly turns into a great burning pain. They will die if they don’t have any protections and stay out in it for 4 hours.

Grog is half oni and used to have problems with his oni sides rage, luckily Pike and Scanlan helps him out.

Percy is a monster hunter but fully knows he is a hypocrite, he’s known Keyleth for a years, in fact it was Keyleth and her dad who found him when he ran away from the Briarwoods and took him in. One night on a full moon he learned what Keyleth was as she went to the basement, no one knew he was there when she transformed till he brings it up the next morning asking her if she was okay.

 Percy helps make something for Keyleth to cover up her scent so that way she doesn’t attract any unwanted attention from other supernaturals and from monster hunter dogs.

Sylas is a original vampire and in so is a more demonic version of it, same as Delilah. (think skyrim tbh)

Pike is a blessed person and has made it her mission to help the poor supernaturals who aren’t hurting people but yet are getting hunted by hunters.

Scanlan is human but he does eventually learn that some songs/tunes actually help calm down werewolves or at least werewolf Keyleth.

Scanlan has a lot of mixed feelings about the supernatural, sometimes he hates them with a passion sometimes he’s indifferent. It’s when he first learned what being a werewolf fully entails for Keyleth that he starts to feel more sympathetic towards supernaturals.

Keyleth would comfort Vax when he felt like a monster for being a vampire by telling him that he is in control of himself therefore he isn’t a monster, this helps cheer him up a fair bit till he learns she’s a werewolf and was calling herself a monster whenever she comforted him in that manner.

Vex doesn’t fully understand why Keyleth doesn’t like being a werewolf at first.

The only people vampires can’t drink the blood of are demons and holy/blessed people. Vax if given permission will feed from Keyleth.

Vex playfully calls Percy a hypocrite when he doesn’t try to hunt her once he fully finds out her and her brother are vampires and is a little stunned when he says he’s fully aware and has been one for ages.