#plays in the aforementioned regions at night

[genshinmp3]

Gymnopedies of Lune from Pelagic Primaevality Arcangelo Chen, HOYO-MiX

[celestiallystella]

i LOVE the mer hcs so much omg

if possible, can we have mer hcs for wild?

LOLOL yes this is very possible. ty for your request!

Mer!Wild × GN!Reader (sfw & nsfw)

Starting this at 2am bc night shift. Yall this and playing echoes of wisdom are whats keeping me alive

Reader is gn, and there will also be a clear indication of when the nsfw ones start, so you can definitely avoid them! there is also a LOT of general headcanons about him with mer stuff, bc again.. 2am shenanigans

Hope you enjoy!!

You might he thinking his tail is the same blue as his tunic

wrong! Its actually a really pale green that tends to shift with his surroundings, but only slightly

in colder regions and areas, it's lighter and you both swear there's tints of white when he shifts just so

in warmer regions? a little bit of a deeper green that shifts to orangey yellows

otherwise it's just a grass green type of color

he quite likes it! of course, youd be hard pressed to find something nature related he DOESNT like when it doesnt hurt him

he also likes that this new development lets him play with the zora kiddos better, and it also helps encourage the zora to let him babysit more

this is definitely pre teacher era, so he's discovering how much he enjoys being able to help out with kids

he does NOT keep his mer form a secret. he doesn't go out of his way to tell many people outside of you (the first person he told, in fact, and he was SO excited when he did), flora, sidon, and purah

otherwise?? well he wont lie if asked but he isnt going out of his way to tell anyone else

he may deny it, but flora has 100% rubbed off on him in some aspects. besties frfr

in other words, he definitely takes some of his scales and lets them oxidize to see what happens with them

they get super hard, edges sharp

see, he isn't Four, so he doesn't know how he'd ever go about making them into parts of a weapon for you. theyre small, hard to work with

he ends up in rito village messing around with tulin and teba, and tulin's the one who comes up with the idea of making his scales into arrow heads

still, theyre small, so he it takes a while to get enough collected for him to give to teba for him to combine and thus make an actually substantial amount of arrows

wild is giddy when he recieves the full bundle, this has probably been mooonths in the making and he's probably had to do mer stuff FAR more than even he'd like in order to shed this many naturally but! it's worked

he surprises himself when he goes home to you and feels so nervous to give you these

will you think its weird?? what if you never use them?? what if-

he has to force himself inside and to your side in order to pass them over to you

once he explains what they are, he's very taken with the way you get a sweet little smile on your face

(every time he sees you use one, every time he sees an enemy dead with one of his arrows poking out of it? he feels SO happy to know he's able to help you even like that)

outside of THAT large, time consuming portion of his life, he actually finds himself fond of spending time in his mer form

he can sleep in trees, or in plains, or in the middle of.. anywhere, really, whenever he wants, but the water? until this form he wasn't able to do that and he is so abusing it now

he love love loves goading you into cuddling in the water.

he's cuddled with you like.. EVERYWHERE else already, and now he has the perfect excuse to wrap his arms around you and just enjoy your presence in the water

the more skin to skin contact the better, in his opinion

the warmth of your skin innocently against his own, cool water washing over you two

he loves gentle intimacy with you, innocent sweet things.

he likes being able to dig along water beds and sea beds to find little things for you

shells, pebbles, sea glass, anything glittery or that he finds pretty will be brought home to you

he likes seeing you smile about it, and he likes when you do something with his little gifts

as aforementioned, he likes resting in the water, but it becomes even better when you're carding your fingers through his hair, nails scratching his scalp gently

he likes being able to drag you along with him on his little swims, pressing kisses to your lips before splashing you with his tail and laughing

which leads into the aspect of play

he loves being able to, essentially, play in the water with you

he just likes fucking around, and it's even better when he's able to do so with you!

the zora kiddos have taught him a million and one games and he wants to try ALL of them with you, no matter how childish

(as much as he can anyway, theres a lot he can do that you cant courtesy of breathing underwater, but yk)

for a while, he totally starts giving you aquatic flowers of all sorts

once he learns to preserve them?? oh your home is filled with misc. aquatic finds courtesy of wild

NSFW

hahah oh man he hunts down every underwater cave that isnt too deep and has larger caverns of air and drags you to them

the darker atmosphere, the cold water, your skin to his

in mer form, i think there'd be a slight increase in night vision, so he also just really likes how you look under the soft glow of brightcaps pairing with his better vision

he likes licking. i am a strong believer that wild LOVES to taste test his food, and you?? well, you're one of his favorite things to devour, so of COURSE his lips, tongue, and teeth are all over you

as for positions, i think he'd like anything that allows him to go to town devouring you

again, i cannot stress this enough, he really likes however you taste

when it comes to penetrative sex, though, i think he'd be very content to lay there, tail submerged, and just letting you do as you please

he finds great pleasure in taking a break and just chilling while you get the both of you off LMAO

if you're tired, or if you'd prefer not to do all the work, wild will 100% rotate through every possible position he can think of that you consent to

you guys have definitely tried a looott in hylian forms, but now that he's a mer? he really likes seeing how different things affect him when it comes to you

he likes how much more sensitive he is to you and your touch

it really does not take much to drive him up a wall with desire when he's in his mer form

if he isn't prepared, then everytime you touch him he absolutely shivers

his skin is cooler in mer form, and you're so warm, which really helps push along the desire to be buried inside you one way or another

he'll totally beg for you too, especially using that whole "im cold and itd warm me up, pleaseeee?"

he has NO shame

comments on every little thing you do when he's in the mood and somehow makes it sexual or tells you it turns him on

for example... like.. oh, you slipped trying to stand on the shore? suddenly he's thinking that you should slip onto his dick or into his mouth.

he prefers making sure you cum first

if he does so first, he gets really embarrassed and pulls out every stop in the book to try and get you to orgasm without overstimulating you

anyway. as i said before, if hes put in charge, he loves trying out new positions with you, so he'd be VERY down to try a lot of things you want to

you guys ive realized ive devolved from the original method i had of mer hcs where it was essentially a plot outline, my bad </3

sorry if this one has a lot that seems out of nowhere or confusing. again, i unfortunately wrote this very late at night when im lacking a lot of higher thought processes. having said that, lemme know if theres any glaring errors in any of this lolol

[theseshipsshallsail]

THE POWER OF LAUGHTER

If Elio were a betting man - like those who spend their days playing endless rounds of bridge and briscola in the Silvestri brothers’ bar - he’d lay good money that aside from the obvious lure of his cock and ass, Oliver’s favourite part of his body is most certainly his torso: the smooth, pale expanse of skin that’s ostensibly non-exceptional save for the peak of dusky nipples and sparse trail of hair leading to the aforementioned regions below.

It’s the spot Oliver braces his head when they’re alone in the villa’s garden; readily discussing the final draft pages for Signora Milani. 

The area he nuzzles upon first awakening in the burnished light of dawn; sleep-soft and heavy and blissfully warm against him.

It’s where he’s placing a teasing kiss right now, in fact - chapped lips skimming the shallow dip of Elio’s navel - and given they’re both naked in bed after a night of self-indulgence, the sensation itself should probably err on the side of erotic. As things stand, however, he finds it rather tickles, so the hitched gasp Elio sputters is truly mortifying when paired with the ungainly giggles that follow thereafter. 

High-pitched. 

Jagged. 

Redolent of an out-of-tune violin. 

Quick as a flash, Elio cups a hand over his traitorous mouth, but it’s barely a second before Oliver’s peeling it away; eyes dancing in such brazen amusement it only serves to fuel the indignity.

“Don’t,” he says, thumb tracing idle patterns atop the thin knot of veins at his wrist. “I want to hear you,” he assures, levering up on his elbow, and Elio huffs in fond exasperation. 

“Why?” 

Oliver shrugs. “Why not?” he replies; turning the gentle benediction of his lips to the ridge of Elio’s knuckles, instead. “Call me maudlin -”

“I’ve called you far worse…”

“- but half the pleasure lies in knowing what this does to you,” Oliver explains, skimming the pads of ink-stained fingers in a looping figure of eight. “In knowing how much you enjoy it.” 

Elio scoffs, already arching into the soothing touch. “Surely I've made myself tragically clear on that point?”

“Bravely,” Oliver corrects, never one to let him put himself down. “You've made yourself bravely clear, Elio Perlman…”

And all at once he’s laughing again - swatting ineffectually at Oliver’s sun-bronzed shoulders as he doubles his attack. 

Grazing his stubbly chin over the freckles on Elio’s abdomen.

Scrabbling relentless digits between his eighth and ninth ribs.

Nipping careful teeth along the bony curve of his hip.

“I still can't believe I get to do this…” Oliver murmurs then - completely at odds with his confident demeanour - and Elio’s brain just about short-circuits as he wraps both arms around him: the newfound need to shelter and protect stronger than he’d ever deemed possible.  

Notes:

A bit rough and ready but it's been one hell of a week, and as much as I've sent my congratulations to the big man himself, I figured Elio would like the chance to express his pride too.

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

Not sure if you've done it before because blog searches just don't work but how would umbreon work as a pet?

[You may have seen it already, but I’ll take any chance I can to link to the post containing my index doc, which works much better than blog searches here! I’ll put it at the bottom of this post.]

An umbreon might make a good pet for some owners, but they are definitely one of the weaker options when it comes to eevee evolutions. It really depends on the owner and what they can reasonably handle.

To begin with, however, like most pokémon of the aforementioned category, umbreons are a decent size to be a house pet. At three feet tall they’re certainly on the bigger size when compared to many real-world dogs and cats, but that’s pretty reasonable when compared to a lot of the pokémon we cover here on the blog. Now, when taking into account the pokédex data on this species, it’s difficult to tell if they tend to be friendly. There’s no mention of them living with humans or other umbreons, and by all means they seem to be stealthy, solitary predators who prefer to hide and use ambush tactics when hunting prey in the dead of night (Ruby/Sapphire, Emerald). It’s said that when these pokémon move around in the dark, the curious yellow rings on their fur glow, “striking fear into the hearts of anyone nearby” (Silver). This could be an involuntary response on the observers part, in which case an umbreon would make a terrible pet, but I’d be willing to wager that this glow is not intended as sort sort of psychological attack since it also occurs when they are simply excited (Crystal).

Umbreon care seems like it would be fairly straightforward… so long as they are in a good mood. Umbreons, like other species in the eevee evolution line, are natural predators. This could make them pretty dangerous, given their size, so I would suggest an abundance of caution and a keen awareness of their body language and mood at all times. Given their highly active lifestyle in the wild, umbreons need a lot of play time and enrichment: a sedentary pet they are not. Be prepared to offer them lots of opportunities to get their wiggles out! Keep in mind that this species is nocturnal (Ruby/Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond/Pearl), and will thus need the most attention at night; they’d be best fit for a night owl’s household.

There’s one strange quirk about umbreon biology that really hurts their pet ranking score, and it’s not something that can be easily gleamed just by looking at them. When agitated or angered, umbreons can actually spray poisonous sweat from their pores (Gold). This is, obviously, a huge problem. Not even the best pet owner can keep their pet from *ever* getting agitated, especially during stressful events like visits to the vet. This could pose a huge problem, though we don’t know exactly the potency of this poison. While an umbreon may be able to control the spraying of their sweat, it doesn’t seem like they can control the sweating itself, which could leave furniture, pet carriers, etc. covered with poisonous material. This is a factor that would make this pokémon an ill-fit for many owners.

Umbreons are, like I said earlier, pretty dangerous even without this sweat. These are large, agile hunters, who can use physical moves like Bite and Assurance to take down prey as easily as they can use special moves like Dark Pulse.

Overall, while an umbreon could make a pretty good pet for some owners, they are generally-speaking not a great choice, especially when other options, like an eevee, are available in most regions. I’d suggest potential umbreon adopters consider the risks before jumping into an adoption.

The Index:

[toiletpotato]

I was tagged by @ayin-me-yesh for this fun little game, thank you friend!

🌟 get to know people game 🌟

current time: 8:44 AM - 8:55 AM

anything you've been doing lately: summer term classes

anything you intend to do later: work on aforementioned summer term classwork

anything you recently watched or played: finished american born chinese last night, fascinating show, I hope it gets renewed (it's on Disney+ if you have it). I've been playing on Duolingo lately to keep Spanish in my working knowledge.

anything you want to watch or play: I should probably check in on my Animal Crossing town on my 3DS soon. I found my brother's Game Boy Color and he has Pokémon Red for the normal Game Boy so I'd like to figure out how to work that.

anything else you'd like to say: i hope you have a lovely time of day wherever in the world you are!

I have tagged these folks, but only do this if you want to! @hinsaa-paramo-dharma @screamingfurby @afc-agitprop @surgeon-of-games @tsupertsundere @notbroadwaybound @bundle-of-glitter @paldea-region @not-quitenormal @emo-and-dumb @mymind-is-a-sunless-space @bi-one @a-rubber-duck-quack @the-blue-fairie @hummerous @fangirlofallthefandoms @thatgordongirl @garammmasala @villanuele @theinfinitedivides @kaagazkefool and anyone else who wants to answer these questions!

[ava-core]

me, a bethesda shill: so what if my courier six was an elder scrolls character

May Bell, Deathbells: Daughter of Coldharbour

headcanons under the cut!

so i also used to play so much skyrim back in the day! it was also my first ever game that i played (around 2016?) and it was a hilarious initial experience because it took me five playthroughs to realize succubi weren’t actual members of a real race in elder scrolls lore…rip my older cousin’s copy i borrowed that used to run with 200+ mods

ANYWAY! lore-wise, there were so many opportunities i could take here, but something called to me seeing may as…undead. this is mainly centered around skyrim, btw!

but of course, may is a vampire in tamriel. not just any vampire, however: she’s a vampire lord, ghosting about lord harkon’s court in castle volkihar as one of the senior keepers of the library.

i considered making her a daughter of coldharbour, but i remembered in the middle of my thought process train going choo-choo did i remember what it takes for women to be daughters of couldharbour…poor may already has so much trauma as the courier in fnv. i will spare her a similar fate in terms of her origin here in tamriel :’)

still, even for vampire standards—already within these folks who outright drink blood and cannibalize as rituals and habits—may is an odd egg. she keeps to herself, eats in the dungeons instead of with the others, and idles either in the dusty tomes of the library or silently beside feran sadri’s side doing alchemy. in short, may retains her reclusive nature even as an all-powerful vampire lord.

she’s also most proficient in alteration and illusion magic, as well as alchemy. she’s also better than most in destructive magic, but she’s the most adept in the two aforementioned schools of magic. she also practices restoration magic on some of the wounded vampires who go out into the mainland.

she’s also good with one-handed weapons, but prefers to use staves or daggers.

no one really knows where she came from; just that harkon put her into court out of nowhere, and that she was a necessary part of their strategy-making with a big mind like hers. she was, after all, a former priestess of Julianos—the divine in charge of wisdom and logic. that’s all they knew about her. they don’t even know what region she’s from. short: breton? but her features are peculiar, not like any breton girl’s…

in this vein…boone, i see becoming a dawnguard soldier, a valued one, in fact: his skill with a crossbow makes isran weep for joy. almost.

for him, i can imagine him being a former imperial guard who moved to skyrim because both his wife carla and child died during labor. he’s a full-blooded nord, of course

he has this one-track mind against vampires: as creatures of the night, they’re not really deserving of compassion and kindness as the suck the life out of their victims and constantly terrify the populace with their cruelty; it’s why he signed up with the dawnguard. they looked promising eradicating the scourge of vampires (basically the way he sees legion, but a smidge less personal since vampires had nothing to do with his wife and child’s death)

DO YOU GUYS SEE WHERE I AM GOING WITH THIS…

so can you imagine when boone tries to play hero and rescue a captured dawnguard brother in volkihar castle, only to be kept as well

he spits in the eyes of the vampires, cursing and muttering profanity at his captors…

until he meets the most captivating young woman dressed in a sleek dark gown of velvet…and when she speaks, her fangs protrude.

imagine falling in love at first sight while also knowing this is the enemy. how could he: this is a vampire, just like one of them, with her big, sharp teeth and irises of dark red; how could he not, with her unique, beautiful face and the fact that even if she seemed like she was doing grunt work feeding the humans in the dungeon she wasn’t disgusted by them or looked down on them

when after a few days, may sees boone’s uniform, she asks about the sun emblem. awkwardly. boone spits in her direction, and may sighs.

it’s only a day after when may comes back to feed the humans when he says he’s dawnguard. weirdly enough, may had never heard of them before. he tells her they’re here to rid the world of the plague of vampires

may only sighs. she doesn’t get mad, get angry, or be disgusted at the thought of being wiped out. instead, she nods her head. “yeah, i get that.”

it intrigues boone. of course he can’t sweet-talk her into getting information about her out of her, but the least he does is stop growling at him.

after a while, boone also notices may’s face. as beautiful as it is, she didn’t look like anyone he’d ever seen in tamriel.

all she murmurs as she feeds him is, “i’m akaviri.”

a foreigner in strange lands. a vampire, too. but why volkihar? why here? why couldn’t she have just been a priestess he could carry in his arms to mara’s temple?

boone, after months of trying to decide whether to kill or kidnap this strange, beautiful vampire who’s been helping him infiltrate the volkihar castle: i didn’t say you could feed off anyone else

JUST A LOT OF THOUGHTS RINGING IN MY HEAD

[genshinmp3]

Truncated Verse from Pelagic Primaevality Yijun Jiang, HOYO-MiX

[legend-collection]

Yuki-onna

Yuki-onna ("snow woman") is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore.  She may also go by such names as yuki-musume ("snow daughter"), yuki-onago ("snow girl"), yukijorō ("snow woman"), yuki anesa ("snow sis'"), yuki-onba ("snow granny" or "snow nanny"), yukinba ("snow hag") in Ehime, yukifuri-baba ("snowfall hag") in Nagano. They are also called several names that are related to icicles, such as tsurara-onna, kanekori-musume, and shigama-nyōbō.

Yuki-onna originates from folklores of olden times; in the Muromachi period Sōgi Shokoku Monogatari by the renga poet Sōgi, there is a statement on how he saw a yuki-onna when he was staying in Echigo Province (now Niigata Prefecture), indicating that the legends already existed in the Muromachi period.

In legends from the Ojiya region of Niigata Prefecture, a beautiful woman came to visit a man and became his wife from the woman's own desire. This woman was reluctant to go into the bath and when she was made to go in anyway, she disappeared, leaving only thin, fragmented, floating icicles (see also tsurara-onna).

Pic by Irenhorrors

In the Aomori and Yamagata Prefectures, there is a similar story about one called the "Shigama-onna." In the Kaminoyama region of Yamagata, a yuki-onna would come visit an old couple on a snowy night to warm herself by the irori. When late at night the Yuki-onna would again go out on a journey, the old man would attempt to take her hand to stop her, when he noticed that she was chillingly cold. Then, before his eyes, the girl turned into a whirl of snow that exited the house through the chimney. Also, it has some points of similarity with the kokakuchō; and on the night of a blizzard, as the Yuki-onna would be standing there hugging a child (yukinko), it would ask people passing by to hug the child as well. When one hugs the child, the child would become heavier and heavier until one would become covered with snow and freeze to death. It has also been told that if one refuses, one would be shoved down into a snowy valley.

In Hirosaki in Aomori, it is said that there was a warrior (bushi) who was asked by a yuki-onna to hug a child similarly, but the warrior held a short sword (tantō) by the mouth and hugged the child while making the blade go close to the child's head, which allowed the warrior to avoid the aforementioned phenomenon. When the warrior handed the child back to the Yuki-onna, the ghoul gave many treasures as thanks for hugging the child. It is also said that those who are able to withstand the ever-increasing weight of the yukinko and last all the way through would acquire great physical strength.

In the Ina region of Nagano Prefecture, Yuki-onna is called "yukionba", and it is believed that they would appear on a snowy night in the form of a yama-uba. Similarly, in Yoshida, Ehime Prefecture, on a night when snow is accumulating on the ground, a "yukinba" is said to appear, and people would make sure not to let their children outside. Also, in the Tōno region of Iwate Prefecture, and on Little New Year (koshōgatsu) or the 15th day of the first month, a yuki-onna would take many children along to a field to play, so children were warned against going outside. It can be thus seen that yuki-onna are often considered the same as the yama-uba, sharing the similarity that they are fecund and take many children along with them.

In the Ito region of Wakayama Prefecture, it is said that there would be a one-legged child jump-walking on a night when snow accumulates, and the next morning there would be round footprints remaining, and this would be called the "yukinbō" (snow child), but the one-legged snow kid is thought to be the servant of a mountain god.

In the village of Oshika, Tōhaku District, Tottori Prefecture (now Misasa), it has been said that a yuki-onna would come during light snow and say "Koori gose yu gose" ("Give me ice, give me hot water")—"gose" is a dialect word for "give me"—while waving around a white wand, and she would bulge when splashed with water and disappear when splashed with hot water.

In the area around the Kumano River in Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, the "Oshiroi baa-san" or "oshiroi babaa" is also thought to be a type of Yuki-onna, and they are said to drag along mirrors, making clinking sounds while doing so. These characteristics, that of waving around a white wand (gohei) and possessing a mirror, are thought to be the characteristics of a miko who serves a mountain god that rules over birth and harvest.

In Aomori, it is said that a yuki-onna would come down to the village on the third day of Shōgatsu and return to the mountains on the first day of Rabbit, and it is thought that on years when the day of Rabbit is late in arriving, how well the harvest does will be different from before.

In the Iwate and the Miyagi Prefectures, a yuki-onna is thought to steal people's vitality; and in Niigata Prefecture, they are said to take the livers out of children and freeze people to death. In Nishimonai, Akita Prefecture, looking at a yuki-onna's face and exchanging words with her would result in being eaten. In Ibaraki Prefecture and in Iwaki Province, Fukushima Prefecture, it is said that if one does not answer when called by a yuki-onna, one would be shoved down into the bottom of a valley. In the Fukui Prefecture, they are called "koshi-musume" ("passing girl") and it is said that those who turn their backs to a koshi-musume when being called by one would get pushed into a valley.

In Ibigawa, Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, an invisible monster called the "yukinobō" is said to change its appearance and appear as a yuki-onna. It is said that this monster would appear at mountain huts and ask for water, but if one grants the request, one would be killed, so one should give hot tea instead. It is said that in order to make the yukinbō go away, one should chant "Saki kuromoji ni ato bōshi, shimetsuke haitara, ikanaru mono mo, kanō mai" (meaning "A kurujo in front and a bōshi behind, by wearing these tight, nothing is possible").

The Hirosaki, Aomori legend about a yuki-onna returning to the human world on New Year's Day (Shōgatsu) and the legend in Tōno, Iwate Prefecture about yuki-onna taking away many children to play on "Little New Year" (koshōgatsu)- looking at the days on which they visit, both legends offer insight on how the yuki-onna has some characteristics of a toshigami. The story of how when one person treated a yuki-onna with kindness on a blizzard night, the yuki-onna turned into gold the next morning; illustrating how even in old tales such as the Ōtoshi no Kyaku, the yuki-onna has some relation to the characteristics of a toshigami.

Yuki-onna often appear while taking along children. This is in common with another yōkai that takes along children, the ubume. In the Mogami District, Yamagata Prefecture, ubume are said to be yuki-onna.

They often appear in stories about inter-species marriage, and stories similar to Lafcadio Hearn's Yuki-onna where a mountain hunter gets together with a woman who stays the night as a guest and eventually births a child. One day the man carelessly talks about the taboo of getting together with a yuki-onna, resulting in the woman revealing herself to be a yuki-onna, but not killing the man due to having a child between them and warning, "If anything happens to the child, you won't get away with it" before going away. These stories can be found in Niigata Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture, and the Nagano Prefecture, which came about as a result of many stories about mountain people where those who break the mountain taboos would be killed by mountain spirits. There is also the hypothesis that the yuki-onna legend was born from a mixture of paranormal stories of mountain people and the paranormal yuki-onna stories.

Old tales about yuki-onna are mostly stories of sorrow, and it is said that these tales started from when people who have lived gloomy lives, such as childless old couples or single men in mountain villages, would hear the sound of a blizzard knocking on their shutter door and fantasize that the thing that they longed for has come. It is said that after that, they would live in happiness with what they longed for in a fantasy as fleeting as snow. There is also a feeling of fear, and like as in the Tōno Monogatari, the sound of a blizzard knocking on an outer shōji is called the "shōji sasuri" (rubbing a shōji), and there is a custom of making children who stayed up late go to sleep quickly when a yuki-onna rubs a shōji. From real sayings such as the shōji sasuri, it is said that things that one longs for sit back-to-back with fear. Also, winter is the season when gods would come to visit, and if one does not pay respects, terrible things will happen, so even if it is said to be things that one longs for, one cannot put too much trust in that. In any case, it can be said to be related to the coming and going of seasons. Nobuyoshi Furuhashi, scholar of Japanese literature, stated that the novel Kaze no Matasaburō is also probably somehow related.

There are various legends about the yuki-onna's true identity, such as a snow spirit or the spirit of a woman who fell over in the snow. In a setsuwa of the Oguni region of Yamagata Prefecture, a yuki-jorō (yuki-onna) was originally a princess of the moon world, and in order to leave a boring lifestyle came down to earth together with snow but was unable to go back to the moon and so appears on snowy moonlit nights.

Yamaoka Genrin, an intellectual from the Edo period, said that yuki-onna is born from snow. It was supposed that if there were a lot of something, a living thing would come forth from it, giving birth to fish if the water is deep enough and birds if the forest is thick enough. Since both snow and women are "yin", so in places like Echigo it is said that yuki-onna might be born from within deep snow.

Among Japan's traditional culture, Yuki-onna can be seen in kōwaka such as the Fushimi Tokiwa (伏見常磐), which can also be checked in modern times. In Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Yuki-onna Gomai Hagoita, the story is about how a woman who was deceived and murdered became a yuki-onna and took revenge as a vengeful ghost. The bewitching and frightening aspects of a yuki-onna are often used in such depictions. Old tales and legends like these have been confirmed in Aomori, Yamagata, Iwate, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Wakayama, Ehime, among other places.

Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She often wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened. 

Some legends say the Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is the spirit of someone who perished in the snow. She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in killing unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as mere human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty.

In many stories, Yuki-onna appears to travelers trapped in snowstorms and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. Other times, she manifests holding a child. When a well-intentioned soul takes the "child" from her, they are frozen in place. Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. In these stories, she often invades homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind to kill residents in their sleep (some legends require her to be invited inside first).

What Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see a victim die. Other times, she is more vampiric, draining her victims' blood or "life force." She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men to drain or freeze them through sex or a kiss.

Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. In one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free because of his beauty and age. She makes him promise never to speak of her, but later in life, he tells the story to his wife who reveals herself to be the snow woman. She reviles him for breaking his promise but spares him again, this time out of concern for their children (but if he dares mistreat their children, she will return with no mercy. Luckily for him, he is a loving father). In some versions, she chose not to kill him because he told her, which she did not treat as a broken promise (technically, Yuki-Onna herself is not a human and thus did not count). In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature. However, she departs to the afterlife afterward the same way.

[fapangel]

D+6 Update @4PM

google docs

Northern Front

Summary: Little information to go on; likely a regrouping in effect, assume prior dynamics in play.

* The much-reported massive convoy from Belarus seems to be stalled. Given the amount of equipment and personnel present this is no surprise; cat-herding will be required before a new assault can be conducted. With Russian attempts to encircle the city still apparently struggling to fight their way south – and with prior precedent regarding their vulnerability to flanking attacks in this area and its terrain – it’s likely that the major roads into Kiev will remain open as defenders move materiel into the city in preparation for the likely encirclement and very hard fighting to come.

* Information on this front seems sparse overall today and late yesterday. Only statements I can find regarding the fighting in the countryside east of Kiev are from Ukranian military/government officials who indicate their forces are fighting for towns at Pryluky and Nizhyn – naturally, crossroads. Given that the Kharkiv area/region has seen more videos of abandoned or captured supply trucks than any other – and considering how conducive the woodier, more varied terrain is to ambushes – we can presume that if the Russians bypass these towns, as they have preferred to do in the past, that they will continue to suffer the same supply interdiction issues. Their utility in the assault on Kiev is questionable, past being able to encircle the town to easy passage from the east.

Southern Front

Summary: Getting worse, but still, incredibly, holding.

* Kherson area: Better than has been reported. Seeing a lot of doomerism about this on the discord, for understandable reasons. Resistance in Kherson is, incredibly, still active. Russian troops apperently bypassed Mykolaiv and moved north along the N11 highway but were promptly ambushed and destroyed in the town of Bashtanka. I was not expecting such ambushes in this area, as the terrain is incredibly flat, level, and open – ideal tank country; that should play to Russian materiel advantages in artillery and armor. Judging by the truck with the towed field gun, this was not a recon element, either.

* Ukrainian officials claim they are committing their MI-24 Hinds to this area; continuing the trend of aggressive deployment of their limited air assets on this front. Given the incredible importance of the area, and the unfavorable defensive terrain outside of major cities and the Dnieper river itself, this makes sense.

* Reported artillery duel at Severodonetsk with “rockets lighting up the sky” last night and a video claiming to be Russians entering Starobilsk 45km north-east of there seems to indicate high mobility fights (counterbattery employment and the simple speed of advance from Dontesk.). More recently video of civilians blocking Russian troops (a recon element) in Kupiansk have been seen – which is 100km north-west of the aforementioned towns and only 100km east-southeast of Kharkiv. Those troops are likely from the north-eastern forces probing south to find a way around Kharkiv, but the speed with which towns well north-west of the old Donbas line have apparently fallen indicate to me that Ukranian eastern forces (on the Donbas line) are making a fighting retreat – or at least falling back in good order – likely to anchor a new line around the southeastern flank of Kharkiv.

* Combat reported in the vicinity of Vasilievka, 40km south of Zaporizhzhia. Russians at least this far north here. (This has not been geolocated.)

* Russians confirmed to be assaulting Poltava; in the form of two videos of abandoned tanks – whether out of fuel or simply deserting crews crews is unclear. (These have not been geolocated but preponderance of reports favors this. Multiple pictures of civilians in Poltava organizing support services; food etc. have been seen as well.)

* In addition, Russians in Kherson have been seenlooting stores for food.

* These events together indicate that supply exhaustion is affecting the southern push out of Crimea. This is of vital importance, given the criticality of defending crossings over the Dneiper river, the Russian army’s dependence on rail transport for logistics, and the intact rail line into the south via the Kerch strait bridge through Crimea. Regarding this, the widely reported TB-2 drone strike on a large Russian fuel tanker trainwas, incredibly, localized to a railway in Crimea by commercial satellite photography. This would mean the aircraft is operating in an area where an S-400 battery is almost certainly active. Barring more info the TB-2 should be suspected to have LO properties from certain angles at this point in time. The importance of this strike cannot be over-stated; it shows that Russian logistics in territory they solidly control is not beyond reach of Ukranian strikes. While Ukraine only had six TB-2s at beginning of hostilities, the fact that airframes are already being delivered by NATO means that Turkey may be willing to (quietly) deliver more.

* Maruipol is now under proper assault but defending forces seem well equipped with artillery and are making use of small, likely commercial drones to spot their attacks. Given the Russian’s have mostly not deployed their storied ground EW capability (more on this later) we can expect to see more low-cost, high effectiveness tactics like this. (More on this below.) If fanatic resistance in other Ukrainian cities are anything to go by Mauripol will hold for quite a while yet.

Analysis – state of Russian forces now and future performance

(Skip to “conclusions” if you’re lazy or an officer)

It is a fool’s errand to try and link every sighting of completely abandoned tanks and even high-end SAMs, butthis incident deserves note as the vehicle is fully functional – the Ukranians start the engine and drive it away without problem. Videos of farmers hauling away abandoned IFVs with their tractors are already making the rounds, but thisshows civilians with heavy equipment (cranes and flatbed tractor-trailers) removing a pair of SA-8 Gekos (one of the better and more sophisticated mobile SHORAD units with a limited capability for missile interception!). Not only are vehicles like this lighter than tanks and thus possible to move with lighter and more common civilian equipment, but they make a larger difference than a single tank does given the problems a persistent SAM threat causes for airpower and the relative shortage of such systems in the Ukranian OOB. Furthermore, the units being abandoned include Tor (SA-15) and Pantsir (SA-22) systems, among the most useful, sophisticated and brand-new surface to air systems in the Russian inventory. Additionally, all but the SA-22 are already present in Ukrainian stocks. For example, while only six SA-15/Tor systems were re-activated before the war, Ukraine has many more of them in storage that they did not have money to re-activate; thus there should be no shortage of spare parts and ammunition reloads, and there’s even operators trained to use the systems. Examples of deliberate recovery efforts being made on Russian vehicles, mostly SAMs, often by farmers with tractors are now so common I have lost count.

In addition, supply convoys are being intercepted and not only destroyed, but outright captured, esp. in the Kharkiv region where Russian efforts seem to be coming to grief quite frequently, for instance this truckload of280mm Smerch rockets. With the long range of this system and the relative low ammo stockpiles Ukraine has for it’s small number of launchers, captures like this weaken the Russians while strengthening the Ukrainians. This fuel truck reportedly ran into a tree after swerving to avoid civilians in the road, and this convoy was apparently ambushed, with one truck destroyed and another loaded with MLRS rockets captured.

The troubles of Russian forces go significantly deeper than ammunition supply, as well: early reports that Russian frontline troops were using cheap, civilian radios without encryption is now confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt; thousands of people are listening in to unsecured Russian field communications using web-linked radio receivers and crowd-sourcing the intelligence collection from it. One unit in particular, Buran-30, has become famous for the frequency with which he gets lost and has to call for help from other units who are also lost. This is the likely reason why Russia has almost completely neglected to deploy its formidable ground EW systems (one was spotted yesterday moving towards Kherson, likely as a counter TB-2 drone measure.) Worse, POWs are reporting that they have no long-range radios to contact their headquarters whatsoever. Radios are not a logistical concern like ammunition, fuel, food, and other consumables that must be channeled into a fight by a constant (sometimes literal) pipeline; they are basic and vital pieces of common kit. To constantly be broadcasting unit movements in the clear, with United States ELINT assets hovering all around the nation, feeding that data to Ukrainian ground troops, is staggeringly incompetent and ill-prepared.

NextI wish to draw attention to something I’ve dubbed terrain attrition; i.e. the losses incurred by accidents crossing terrain. These happen in any military and are a major reason training with armored vehicles is important, but Russia seems to be having more problems than normal. Multiple videos of Russian tanks that drove off small (or over destroyed) bridges have been seen. More vehicles have been seen abandoned by the side of the road for unclear reasons. A video showing two abandoned T-80s that collided had a tow chain hooked between them; likely one had broken down. Multiple sightings of mud-bogged and abandoned vehicles have been seen as well; the S-22 above being one good example.

Due to good OPSEC by both sides’ uniformed military most OSINT so far has been civilian sightings of combat from (usually) a safe distance, and almost all of it has been of combat’s aftermath. Videos of the Russian advance into Kherson yesterday gave a rare look at Russian infantry actually maneuvering, and displaying incredibly lackadaisical attitudes about it. I initially took this as indication that UA had withdrawn from Kherson to the crossroads; we now know that is incorrect and that the city was still occupied at the time. Given overall performance of the entire Russian Federation Armed Forces over the past several days and persistent evidence of outright desertion, not just of individual vehicles but of entire OPs, vehicles included, the quality of regular Russian troops, including infantry,should no longer receive the benefit of the doubt.

One last data point: commercial imagery is now available of Ozerne Airbase in Zhytomr Oblast, showing the impacts of what were probably opening-day salvos by Iskanders. Incredibly, it shows the majority of the seven weapons deployed missed their targets. Tellingly, every impact seems offset from their likely intended target by the same distance, and in the same direction. This is highly reminiscent of the 2019 Indian Air Force strike on a terrorist camp in southern Pakistan which apparently missed the mark becausestrike planners misunderstood the intricacies of coordinate systems and as a result, missed their intended targets because the elevation data was not correct.

Conclusions

Let me paint you a picture. You have a military force that is suffering from high rates of desertion and abysmal morale, having persistent supply problems even in areas where intact railheads are not far to the rear, and have poorly trained troops who cannot conduct proper bounding overwatch movement in uncleared and suspected hostile cities, nor, apparently, can drive or service their vehicles properly, neither when negotiating tricky terrain or dealing with bogged-down machines. On an operational level this force is relying heavily on completely unsecured comms that are easily jammed by enterprising civilians broadcasting with their own radios and is feeding a constant stream of troop movement ELINT to enemy allies, giving hostile forces both indications of your maneuvering and easy artillery targets. Worse, your lower level maneuver elements often lack longer-range radios, leaving them unable to contact HQ. Your troops are engaging in repeated “thunder runs” with just one or two vehicles, likely for scouting, as your air force is loath to sortie and when it finally does on D+5 it’s flying strike jets around in the SHORAD/MANPAD envelope due to a likely shortage of PGMs. If this is not enough, your own air defenses are evidently unable to protect even your most important rear areas, using your best, most powerful long-range air defenses, given possible LO capabilities of a cheap drone that your intelligence agencies had years to study due to employment in nearby conflicts. If this is not enough, your operational-level strike planners cannot effectively utilize division-level long range precision fires because they apparently have a shortage of competent, trained and practiced personnel. On a force structure level, you have reportedly committed 80% of forces massed for the operation but still cannot muster enough infantry or mechanized forces to adequately secure your own lines of communication/supply from partisan/SOF activity and cannot commit to clearing tenacious defenders in towns that occupy key crossroads; forcing wheeled vehicles to deviate over side-roads where ambushes are much easier, or go overland and risk bogging down. Worse, you cannot utilize rail at all on two out of three fronts due to these same occupied cities, and in the third those lines are proven vulnerable to enemy airpower. Your enemy is extremely highly motivated, receiving top-tier SIGINT/ELINT support and very significant quantities of materiel aid down interior lines of communication that your air force will not or cannot perform deep interdiction against due to poor SEAD capability and the persistent mobile SAM threat against even higher altitudes that the enemy clearly retains. Your enemy has incredible support from the civilian populace, with passive resistance to your forces common, and materiel aid being supplied constantly. Enemy forces – with said civilian aid – are recovering your abandoned vehicles wherever possible, and where those vehicles were bogged down too much to easily recover, or in an area you are likely to retake,they destroy them in-situ to deny you their use.

Furthermore, this enemy has demonstrated a willingness to boldly use armor and mechanized infantry assets to conduct deep raids and attack your flank to cut your lines of communication, not afraid to parcel them out in small units and maneuver aggressively instead of trying to retain them for decisive massed action due to their moderate qualitative inferiority and significantly smaller numbers.

Right now, many analysts are saying that the Russian Federation’s early setbacks and mistakes were born of terrible restrictions in ROE and a worse operational concept that has hamstrung their forces by forcing them to fight in a manner contravening their doctrine; without significant use of combined arms and not enough reliance on their long-range fires. These analysts allege that a shift is now underway, and when the Russians resume their all-out push it will be in accord with their doctrine, and thus they will perform much better and inflict much higher casualties.

My conclusion: Given the above points, which call into question the basic quality of the troops, their ability to maintain supply flow mandatory for the doctrinal heavy use of artillery fires, and above all the absolutely atrocious state of their C2, I highly fucking doubt that the BTGs will suddenly start performing more like we expected them to. Furthermore, the Ukrainians have demonstrated real competence in the use of their armor assets; to the point where I would not rule out their ability to fight a tank battle in the South, if one should be required to advance on the southern Dneiper bridgeheads to retake them.

[gemsofgreece]

Maria Pentayótissa

Maria Pentayotissa was a woman who became a folk legend in Greece thanks to her great beauty and her tragic love life. Her true name was Maria Daskalopoulou but she became known as Pentayotissa, because her home town was the Pentayí village in mountainous Phocis, Sterea Hellas. She was born in 1821 (the year the Greek Independence War started).

Pentayi of Phocis.

Her father was a teacher and she was very beautiful, strong willed, educated and liberal. According to legend, she was also a cunning woman with a long string of lovers. She would choose her lovers and men would often fight physically to win her heart, or attention, at least.

That's what these folk song lyrics were based on: " Lambs get slaughtered in Sálona, rams get slaughtered in Chrissós, but on Maria's lap young lads get slaughtered".

The constant fights amongst the young men were disturbing the tranquil routine of her town and the nearby villages. But Maria had found her sweetheart. She started a relationship with a young man named Dimitris Tourkakis, which was a secret known to everyone in the region and was, obviously, not an engagement. The conservative villagers were outraged, fearing Maria would set an example for other girls too, and were pressuring Maria´s brother, Yannis, to put an end to his sister´s affair.

Once, King Otto and Queen Amalia visited Ámfissa, the chief town of Phocís, and all the villages of the region sent representatives to welcome the royal couple. Maria was one of the representatives from Pentayi. It is said that Queen Amalia was so impressed by her beauty that asked her to become one of her ladies-in-waiting in the royal court in Athens.

The arrival of the king and queen was followed by festivities in Sálona in their honour. Maria was dancing and Dimitris slipped right next to her in the dance, taking her hand.

Her brother Yannis saw this, and pressured as he was by the narrow-minded society, he angrily dragged Maria out of the dance in front of everyone. Maria took this as a great insult and when she later met Dimitris back in their village, she told him she wished to never see him again, because he was a coward and did not support her in front of her brother and the villagers, neither did he own up and ask her hand in marriage.

Dimitris decided to prove to Maria that he was no coward and for that reason, of all things, he chose to sneak upon her brother at night and kill him. He then carried the corpse to mount Xerovouni above the village and throw it to a gorge called Kárkanos.

Xirovouni of Phocis by Sotiris Marinopoulos via Flickr.

Dimitris then rushed back to Maria's house into the night and announced the murder of her brother triumphantly. Maria cried: "Alas, brother, I killed you!". So when shepherds found the corpse days later and police arrived for inquiring, Maria's little sister, who had overheard their conversation, told the policemen of Maria's "confession". It is often suggested that the young sister knew the true context of Maria’s cry - she betrayed her due to a slow-burning envy for the attention Maria was getting thanks to her beauty.

Dimitris Tourkakis and Maria Daskalopoulou were lead to the Criminal Court of Missolonghi. Tourkakis was sentenced to many years or life in prison but there are many different tellings regarding what happened to Maria, who was being trialed as an accomplice. All versions agree to this: Maria was punished lightly.

According to the most popular version, the judges were biased because of her beauty and gave her a short sentence. Another version claims that a juror's son pressured the judges to not punish her because he didn't want his own affair with Maria to be revealed. And according to a third, a guard helped Maria to flee prison, seduced by her charms.

Whatever the truth is, after her sentence was through (or she escaped prison), Maria returned to her place on foot. She arrived at Pentayi on Easter Day and found her people to dance on the aforementioned folk song about her. When they saw her, some were judgemental and some hostile. Maria confronted them but eventually abandoned the village, fearing she would get caught again. Maria joined a band of wanted criminals who were hiding in the mountains.

Mountainous Phocis. Source: www.difno.gr

She did not stay with them for long. The priest of Pentayi found her in the mountains and appeared understanding towards her. With gentle words, he convinced her to return to her home. The priest and the villagers then helped her get an amnesty and after that her turmoil was over.

Some years later, she married Konstantinos Armaos from the nearby town of Krokílio, a widower with four children. Maria raised his children with principles and good education. She did not have children of her own. She died honoured in the age of 84.

Her story has become the subject of numerous songs and poems, novels, theatrical plays, even shadow theater plays - sometimes with a lot of liberties taken, including some which connect her to the Greek Independence War, which is entirely false. The famous actress Aliki Vougiouklaki starred as Maria Pentayotissa in a movie about her life.

Sources for the post:

newsitamea.gr

athensvoice.gr

[myths-n-legends]

Yuki onna.

Yuki-onna (ゆきうんな、雪女, "snow woman") is a spirit or yōkai (よかい) in Japanese folklore that is often depicted in Japanese literature, films, or animation.

She may also go by such names as yuki-hoe (*btw it doesn't mean anything inappropriate also its pronounced as 'ho' like santa's ho ho ho & 'a' like the pirate's ay' a][ honestly sounded more better in my head) (ゆきほえ"snow daughter"), yuki-onago (ゆきうなご"snow girl"), yukijorō (雪女郎, "snow woman"), yuki anesa (ゆきあねさ"snow sis'"), yuki-onba (ゆきうんば"snow granny" or "snow nanny"), yukinba (ゆきんば"snow hag") in Ehime, yukifuri-baba (ゆきふりばば"snowfall hag") in Nagano. They are also called several names that are related to icicles, such as tsurara-onna, kanekori-musume, and shigama-nyōbō.

Yuki-onna originates from folklores of olden times; in the Muromachi period Sōgi Shokoku Monogatari by the renga poet Sōgi, there is a statement on how he saw a yuki-onna when he was staying in Echigo Province (now Niigata Prefecture), indicating that the legends already existed in the Muromachi period.

In legends from the Ojiya region of Niigata Prefecture, a beautiful woman came to visit a man and became his wife from the woman's own desire. This woman was reluctant to go into the bath and when she was made to go in anyway, she disappeared, leaving only thin, fragmented, floating icicles (see also tsurara-onna).

In the Aomori and Yamagata Prefectures, there is a similar story about one called the "Shigama-onna." In the Kaminoyama region of Yamagata, a yuki-onna would come visit an old couple on a snowy night to warm herself by the irori. When late at night the Yuki-onna would again go out on a journey, the old man would attempt to take her hand to stop her, when he noticed that she was chillingly cold. Then, before his eyes, the girl turned into a whirl of snow that exited the house through the chimney. Also, it has some points of similarity with the kokakuchō; and on the night of a blizzard, as the Yuki-onna would be standing there hugging a child (yukinko), it would ask people passing by to hug the child as well. When one hugs the child, the child would become heavier and heavier until one would become covered with snow and freeze to death. It has also been told that if one refuses, one would be shoved down into a snowy valley.

In Hirosaki in Aomori, it is said that there was a warrior (bushi) who was asked by a yuki-onna to hug a child similarly, but the warrior held a short sword (tantō) by the mouth and hugged the child while making the blade go close to the child's head, which allowed the warrior to avoid the aforementioned phenomenon. When the warrior handed the child back to the Yuki-onna, the ghoul gave many treasures as thanks for hugging the child. It is also said that those who are able to withstand the ever-increasing weight of the yukinko and last all the way through would acquire great physical strength.

In the Ina region of Nagano Prefecture, Yuki-onna is called "yukionba", and it is believed that they would appear on a snowy night in the form of a yama-uba. Similarly, in Yoshida, Ehime Prefecture, on a night when snow is accumulating on the ground, a "yukinba" is said to appear, and people would make sure not to let their children outside. Also, in the Tōno region of Iwate Prefecture, and on Little New Year (koshōgatsu) or the 15th day of the first month, a yuki-onna would take many children along to a field to play, so children were warned against going outside. It can be thus seen that yuki-onna are often considered the same as the yama-uba, sharing the similarity that they are fecund and take many children along with them.

In the Ito region of Wakayama Prefecture, it is said that there would be a one-legged child jump-walking on a night when snow accumulates, and the next morning there would be round footprints remaining, and this would be called the "yukinbō" (snow child), but the one-legged snow kid is thought to be the servant of a mountain god.

In the village of Oshika, Tōhaku District, Tottori Prefecture (now Misasa), it has been said that a yuki-onna would come during light snow and say "Koori gose yu gose" ("Give me ice, give me hot water")—"gose" is a dialect word for "give me"—while waving around a white wand, and she would bulge when splashed with water and disappear when splashed with hot water.

In the area around the Kumano River in Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, the "Oshiroi baa-san" or "oshiroi babaa" is also thought to be a type of Yuki-onna, and they are said to drag along mirrors, making clinking sounds while doing so. These characteristics, that of waving around a white wand (gohei) and possessing a mirror, are thought to be the characteristics of a miko who serves a mountain god that rules over birth and harvest.

In Aomori, it is actually said that a yuki-onna would come down to the village on the third day of Shōgatsu and return to the mountains on the first day of Rabbit, and it is thought that on years when the day of Rabbit is late in arriving, how well the harvest does will be different from before.

In the Iwate and the Miyagi Prefectures, a yuki-onna is thought to steal people's vitality and in Niigata Prefecture, they are said to take the livers out of children and freeze people to death. In Nishimonai, Akita Prefecture, looking at a yuki-onna's face and exchanging words with her would result in being eaten. In Ibaraki Prefecture and in Iwaki Province, Fukushima Prefecture, it is said that if one does not answer when called by a yuki-onna, one would be shoved down into the bottom of a valley. In the Fukui Prefecture, they are called "koshi-musume" (越娘, "passing girl") and it is said that those who turn their backs to a koshi-musume when being called by one would get pushed into a valley.

In Ibigawa, Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, an invisible monster called the "yukinobō" is said to change their appearance and appear as a yuki-onna. It is said that this monster would appear at mountain huts and ask for water, but if one grants the request, one would be killed, so one should give hot tea instead. It is said that in order to make the yukinbō go away, one should chant "Saki kuromoji ni ato bōshi, shimetsuke haitara, ikanaru mono mo, kanō mai" (meaning "A kurujo[clarification needed]in front and a bōshi behind, by wearing these tight, nothing is possible").

The Hirosaki, Aomori legend about a yuki-onna returning to the human world on New Year's Day (Shōgatsu) and the legend in Tōno, Iwate Prefecture about yuki-onna taking away many children to play on "Little New Year" (koshōgatsu)- looking at the days on which they visit, both legends offer insight on how the yuki-onna has some characteristics of a toshigami. The story of how when one person treated a yuki-onna with kindness on a blizzard night, the yuki-onna turned into goldthe next morning; illustrating how even in old tales such as the Ōtoshi no Kyaku, the yuki-onna has some relation to the characteristics of a toshigami.

Yuki-onna often appear while taking along children. This is in common with another yōkai that takes along children, the ubume. In the Mogami District, Yamagata Prefecture, ubume are said to be yuki-onna.

They often appear in stories about inter-species marriage, and stories similar to Lafcadio Hearn's Yuki-onna where a mountain hunter gets together with a woman who stayed the night as a guest and eventually birthing a child. One day the man carelessly talked about the taboo of getting together with a yuki-onna, resulting in the woman revealing herself to be a yuki-onna, but not killing the man due to having a child between them and warning, "If anything happens to the child, you won't get away with it" before going away can be found in Niigata Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture, and the Nagano Prefecture, which came about as a result of many stories about mountain people where those who break the mountain taboos would be killed by mountain spirits. There is also the hypothesis that the yuki-onna legend was born from a mixture of paranormal stories of mountain people and the paranormal yuki-onna stories.

Old tales about yuki-onna are mostly stories of sorrow, and it is said that these tales started from when people who have lived gloomy lives, such as childless old couples or single men in mountain villages, would hear the sound of a blizzard knocking on their shutter door and fantasize that the thing that they longed for has come. It is said that after that, they would live in happiness with what they longed for in a fantasy as fleeting as snow. There is also a feeling of fear, and like as in the Tōno Monogatari, the sound of a blizzard knocking on an outer shōji is called the "shōji sasuri" (rubbing a shōji), and there is a custom of making children who stayed up late go to sleep quickly when a yuki-onna rubs a shōji. From real sayings such as the shōji sasuri, it is said that things that one longs for sits back-to-back with fear. Also, winter is the season when gods would come to visit, and if one does not pay respects, terrible things will happen, so even if it is said to be things that one longs for, one cannot put too much trust in that. In any case, it can be said to be related to the coming and going of seasons. Nobuyoshi Furuhashi, scholar of Japanese literature, stated that the novel Kaze no Matasaburō is also probably somehow related.

There are various legends about the yuki-onna's true identity, such as saying that the yuki-onna is a snow spirit or the spirit of a woman who fell over in the snow. In a setsuwa of the Oguni region of Yamagata Prefecture, a yuki-jorō (yuki-onna) was originally a princess of the moon world and in order to leave a boring lifestyle came down to earth together with snow but was unable to go back to the moon and so is said to appear on snowy moonlit nights.

Yamaoka Genrin, an intellectual from the Edo period, said that yuki-onna is born from snow. It was supposed that if there were a lot of something, a living thing would come forth from it, giving birth to fish if the water is deep enough and birds if the forest is thick enough. Since both snow and women are "yin", so in places like Echigo it is said that yuki-onna might be born from within deep snow.

Among Japan's traditional culture, Yuki-onna can be seen in kōwaka such as the Fushimi Tokiwa (伏見常磐), which can also be checked in modern times. In Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Yuki-onna Gomai Hagoita, the story is about how a woman who was deceived and murdered became a yuki-onna and took revenge as a vengeful ghost. The bewitching and frightening aspects of a yuki-onna are often used in such depictions. Old tales and legends like these have been confirmed in Aomori, Yamagata, Iwate, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Wakayama, Ehime, among other places.

Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She often wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened.

Here are some pictures.

A/n: Disclaimer !! I do not own any of the pictures above I got it off of google so don't come after me, owners of these pictures if you want me to take them off just let me know.

Enjoy and take care!!

And I most likely am not gonna post on this monday, im done for (-_-;)

[frustratedpker]

How Stefan ended up in Duckburg or "the fic I will never write"

The Stefan we're talking about ↑

I have always had a pretty standard backstory for Stefan in my mind, but if it were to be a fic, it would be many chapters long and I only have the energy for one-shots.

So... here are ~16 chapters worth or lore into one post!

It also counts as a bullet fic (?)

Stefan is working as a photographer in a war zone somewhere in Asia

The conflict in this region isn't that bad yet so he has a lot of spare time and things are tolerable

He lives in a village where a local family agreed to put him up

He tries to help around the house and do chores in exchange for his stay

He plays with the kids and tries to learn the local dialect

For the time being he only knows how to say "Thank you"

He has become a part of the local community despite all the differences

It reminds him of his own village which he hasn't visited in years

The conflicts start to get more and more intense and the frontline moves closer and closer

Stefan does his work, each night returning a little bit more tired and drained

At some point even the kids fail to cheer him up

One day he gets closer to the enemy base as usual

Despite being a neutral correspondent, he can't ignore the fact that it's the colonial army that protect their own interests on the local wealth in detriment of the local people

The enemy leader is ruthless and won't even take into account civilian casualties

Stefan manages to secretly infiltrate the camp

At this point he can't even tell whether he follows his profession or his need for justice

Little by little, over the course of several days he collects important information and incriminating photos against the army division's leader

He knows that the locals may be saved if he can get this proof to the right persons

But he gets caught

It's the first time in his life that he's truly afraid. Afraid that he won't make it out alive

He doesn't break though and refuses to surrender

Then, the threats start

He wouldn't mind being shot - not that he would ever be given a choice

But to hear listed all the ways his friends back in the village would die, is too much

People that Stefan lived, talked and played with, are now nothing more that would-be victims, their lives depending on a simple word uttered by his lips

Stefan hates power and he's feeling it crush his shoulders

He surrenders

And he feels guilty for it

Guilty for being a saviour, guilty for not being someone else

He is thrown out of the camp in the dark of the night with blood dripping from his mouth and nothing more than the clothes he was wearing - or what's left of them

He rushes to inform the village and they all together plan a counterattack

The information is leaked

They are met with strong resistance leading to the village being burnt down to the ground

Stefan finds himself in a delicate position

He looses the support of every official organization as a professional. He is deemed both a hero and a traitor depending on the side one's on. He has lost track of who's accusing him and of what

He tries for one last time to get the story out to the world

He is caught and that night everything changes. He barely escapes with his life

He flees to the other side of the world with nothing but his camera. No notice, no trial, no trace

He never learns whether any of the villagers survived the fire and the shootings

This doubt is the one that won't let him sleep peacefully ever again

That's how he, former war zone photographer Stefan Vladuck, finds himself aboard a ship traveling to America, all alone, with no luggage, no past and no future

He still enjoys a hopeless sunrise from the deck before collapsing on the bench from exhaustion

I think this got too heavy. But that's how I imagine things happening. How he ended up being stateless is still complicated in my mind. I like @madmachaca 's explication that he was born in a no longer existing country (e.x. Yugoslavia) but I like to headcanon that he was stripped of his nationality because of his involvement in the aforementioned military affairs (idk even know whether this is possible, but it makes a cool headcanon)

I don't think that I'm ever writing this, still I wanted it to exist under some form!

[ao3bronte]

when chaos reigns [the sirens come to play]

A Merman AU. (Rated T with some suggestive language.) Now on AO3!

[Prologue]

Covid-19 and covert relationships don’t exactly go hand-in-hand these days, but you really shouldn’t be touching anyone’s hands right now anyway.

…that is, unless you don’t belong to the same species.

Can Merpeople catch Covid-19? That’s debatable, but news doesn’t exactly flow freely from the depths of the South China Sea. Though we know very little about Merpeople and their ways of life, we do know that they rarely interact with humans, preferring to tear down their ships and rip apart their dams and levies in revenge for poisoning the oceans and seas with their human fossil fuels. 

But this isn’t a story about environmental politics, or Covid-19 for that matter. This is a story about love and about putting aside differences. In this tale, Marinette discovers that the term ‘scalie’ (ou écailleux, car nous sommes en France) doesn’t always refer to the commonly known adjective to describe fish skin. And Adrien, bless his heart, really does need to put on clothes when he’s not rocking a fish tail despite the fact that he’d much rather be naked (much to Marinette’s mortification). Anyway you slice it, Merpeople and humans simply aren’t supposed to be together — they’ve always been sworn enemies through and through — but no matter what alternate universe we find ourselves in, these two idiots in love will always find each other.

This is, undoubtedly, their story.

[Part 1]

It’s the beginning of March and Tom and Sabine aren’t taking any chances with this whole virus situation. Marinette seems to catch everything — illnesses, hands, the whole nine yards — and they’d already been talking about sending her down to the Cote d’Azur to spend the summer with her grandmother Gina Dupain in order to get away from Paris for a little while. The constant schoolyard bullying from Chloé Bourgeois has dragged Marinette down so many pegs that Sabine is almost relieved to see Macron call off school for the foreseeable future and books both her daughter and her husband a trip to Marseille before the entire country shuts down for good.

Marinette isn’t happy, of course, but what teen would be? Her friends are in Paris! The fashion is in Paris! She doesn’t want to stay in some sleepy little Mediterranean village where nothing ever happens! Do they even have Wi-Fi there?

It’s a valid question. Tom doesn’t actually know, but he chatters enough for the two of them as the high speed train takes them down the rails to the south of France. Marinette’s sulk lightens a little as he pulls pastry after pastry out of his luggage in the hopes of making his daughter smile just a little before dropping her off with his mother — he knows that their relationship is a little strange after Gina’s last visit to Paris but there’s nothing a little quality time together can’t fix. 

Petite Befana is one of those places you find on a postcard. Situated just on the edge of France and Italy, the fishing village’s brightly coloured houses gleam in the sunlight, peppered with lemon trees and winding alleys that seem to almost spill out into the sea. The beaches are craggy and feature small grottos and coves of underground caves that glimmer with seaglass when the sun hits them just right, hiding a pocket sized oasis here and there for the adventurous who like to explore at low tide. Gina likes it here because of the Place du Marché, but Tom often wonders as to the real reason why she’s settled in the quaint harbour after years of Eat, Pray, Loving around the entire planet after divorcing his father.

She’s certainly made friends with every woman in town by the looks of it. Along with her veritable swarm of bar-hopping friends, Tom keeps seeing a woman with pointed features and deep black hair with a violent red streak in it pop up on her Facebook page. They always seem to be in the same jazz club, not that Tom is really paying attention; if his mother wants to spend her golden years drinking negronis and dancing with her girlfriends, that’s up to her.

They disembark the train in Marseilles and take a bus to Toulon, then another bus to Petite Befana. Marinette is passed out and drooling on his shoulder by the end of it so Tom does as he always does and hauls her up like a sack of flour through the thick and winding labyrinths of cobblestone streets towards his mother’s apartment. Gina greets them once he eventually finds the place and, after tucking Marinette into the daybed in the guest bedroom, happily guzzles down the proffered beer on the terrasse overlooking the sea.

“I’ll try to come down as often as I can,” Tom assures Gina, not knowing just how bad of a clusterfuck 2020 was about to become. “I’m sure Marinette will come to appreciate all that Petite Befana has to offer.”

“I’ll take her down to the market tomorrow morning,” Gina assures him, patting her son’s beefy forearms. “There’s an older woman who sells the most beautiful fabrics and I already dusted off my old sewing machine. That should keep her busy.”

“Marinette’s never happier when there’s a project to complete,” Tom responds with relief, downing the rest of his Kronenbourg. “I bet she’ll have an entire closet full of clothes by the time the month is out.”

“And it should only take a month or two for this to blow over.” Gina jabs her thumb towards the television as the news of Covid-19 murmurs in the background amid the waves of the Med on the shore. “And then we’ll be back to normal before you know it!”

(...and we all know how that turned out.)

[Part 2]

Covid-19 affects a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Some feel stir crazy. Others enjoy the alone time. But Marinette? Well, she’s been trapped in the harbours of Petit Befana for three weeks now and our aforementioned heroine is already bored out of her skull. She’s made three dresses, four satchels and twenty two scrunchies with the leftover fabric because what else is there to do down here? Luckily, Covid-19 hasn’t quite affected Petite Befana like it has the other regions of France and Marinette is able to go outside at least...not that she wants to. 

There are more artisanal bakeries and charcuterie shops in Petite Befana than there are nightclubs and high end boutiques, which is odd for a village so beautifully situated on the coast of southeast France. Gina proudly boasts that her new home is often bypassed by the glitz and glam of Monaco; lavish superyachts and the seemingly endless stream of paparazzi prefer the glamour and uberwealth just west of their little village, leaving its sleepy inhabitants mostly alone to sell their goods to the tourists that stop by for a night on their bicycles and scooters. Marked with the Italian influences of its neighbour, Petit Befana truly is the little-known last stop on the famous Cote d’Azur which makes it an inspiring landscape for Marinette to discover…

...for all of four days. 

She’s already so over Covid-19 and, like any teenager, she’s getting more and more annoyed by the day that she can’t hang out with her friends! Why did Maman and Papa send her down here?! All she wants to do is get back to Paris and design! It’s not like there’s anything fun to do here anyway, besides play video games all day in her bedroom; the only places that offer free WiFi are closed and she can only play Animal Crossing for so long before her grandmother insists on making her get some fresh air. 

Ugh! 

Grumbling under her breath, Marinette pulls on her raincoat and stomps down the laneway from the terrasse towards the sidestreet where her grandmother’s 1920’s bastide-style home resides. From the cobbled alley, Marinette watches the colourful array of fishing boats land their day’s catch right up on the harbourfront and heads down despite the storm clouds brewing on the horizon.

“Bonjour!” A group of older men wave as she makes her way down the ancient steps, the pathway shaded by thick palms and cacti. She pauses just long enough to ask who’s winning their game of socially distanced pétanque before continuing her way through the pines towards the gravel and sand beaches that line the shore. 

The seafront is mostly boarded up, much to both Gina’s and Marinette’s disdain. Her grandmother used to spend most of her evenings at the jazz bar La Sirena with her friends, not that Marinette got to meet any of them. The lockdown shuttered pretty much everything the day after she kissed Papa goodbye and settled into her new life for the next month, but with three weeks already stretching into four, Marinette dejectedly wonders if she’ll ever see Paris again.

Passing the last brasserie on the boardwalk, Marinette leaves civilization for the long stretches of barren coastline. There’s all sorts of little inlets and grottos here and there, especially as she gets closer and closer to the Italian border. Unfortunately, it’s only April, which means it’s rainy, generally unpleasant and completely and utterly empty on the beach.

“No one to talk to, nothing to do…” Marinette sighs and tries to kick a piece of driftwood, only to miss it with her foot in true Marinette style. The faux pas — quite literally — sends her screaming and flailing her arms like an octopus on a ceiling fan as she dramatically plummets face first onto the wet, slimy gravel.

She groans and pushes herself up on her hands and knees, wincing as sea-weathered stones dig into her palms and kneecaps. Marinette is, above all, a walking disaster in every sense of the word — sometimes she wonders if the powers that be seek out to deliberately punish her with embarrassing things like this on purpose for their own amusement. 

(ಸ_ಸ … *cough* Zag *cough*)

Marinette whimpers as she wipes chunks of seaweed and brownish foam off her cheeks and chin. At least no one was around to see her fall over — thank god — but she’ll still have to do the laundry when she gets home. She’s covered in muck and little bits of oily slime that are sure to stain if she doesn’t wash it out soon. Marinette grimaces as she tries to shake it off of her hands; humans really have done a number on the seas and oceans...like, why is her front so sticky? She glances at some of the garbage on the shore as she sits on her haunches and wonders if the news has it all wrong. Maybe the merpeople taking potshots at rich people on yachts with old cans and plastic sea trash really do have the moral upper hand…

Marinette, being Marinette, would have continued to stare dazed and confused into space well into the afternoon had it not been for the impossibly shiny something or other sparkling in the grotto straight ahead.

[NEXT PART...]

[genshinmp3]

Moonlit Tides from Pelagic Primaevality Ziyu Che, HOYO-MiX

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #445

“you’ve got a lot of nerve, but not a lot of spine”

Have you ever created a fake internet persona for yourself? No. Do you enjoy going to weddings or showers? What is it that you like or dislike about them? Not... really. They're triggering for me. And I don't use "trigger" lightly. They legitimately, deeply affect me. It's part of the reason I've lost a lot of interest in being a wedding photographer. Is there a person in your life whom you support by showing up for the sports games, concerts, or other performances? This question, uh... sucks. Because I'm that awful aunt that doesn't go to her nephew's t-ball games while everyone else does. It's the heat that does it, but still... it shouldn't. How many video games do you have? A lot. We have a big case of them. Why did you take the last pill you took? My heartburn is especially awful today. Has a girl ever stayed up with you all night? A guy? A girl, uhhh... maybe? Idk. A guy, yeah. Do you think guys look good with makeup? Hell yeah. How long would you wait to become sexually active with someone you’re dating? That would just depend on how quickly we deeply bond in a relationship. I wouldn't go that far before I knew I was in love with them, though, so it definitely wouldn't be quick. Do you enjoy a good debate or prefer keeping the peace? klasd;jkla;jfklwdj I HATE confrontation, so I strongly prefer to keep that peace. Debates rarely ever stay civil, anyway. Can you ever see yourself and your ex back together? One, easily. The other... I wish. But it won't ever happen because I fucked that relationship up way too much. Are you thinking about anything that’s upsetting right now? Yeah. My PTSD is being really bothersome. Would you ever want to ride in a canoe? Yeah, sounds fun and peaceful. So long as I'm not rowing, ha ha. When did you last see an attractive member of your preferred sex? Did you speak to them? Do you think you’ll see them again? Two days ago. Yeah, 'cuz he was my personal trainer. I don't plan on quitting the gym, so I'll probably see him around there now and again. Have you ever tasted baby food? How about pet food? Save for when I was a baby, obviously, no. I once tried a guinea pig yogurt treat, ha ha. How many times have you had your heart broken? Once romantically, twice overall. Actually, no, four. Quite a jump, I know, but Teddy and Jason's mom both dying was nothing short of heartbreaking. Think of the person you fell hardest for. How many people has he/she been in love with, besides you? One, before me. I don't know about since. Find 5 people on your Facebook friends list, whose names begin with K. Who are these people, and how did you meet them? Katherine: an online friend. We met on YouTube. Kim: she's my stepmom. I met her through my dad, obviously. Kelly: a high school friend. We met in art class. Katelynn: was Jason's old friend's former girlfriend. We met through said friend when we all hung out together. Kieley: she's the wife of who I call my "big bro," a close gaming friend. We met through Sam, the aforementioned friend. Sometimes do you wish you lived in a fantasy world? Yeah, who doesn't? What would you say if the ex who hurt you the most told you they hated you? "I don't blame you" or something to that effect. Have any of your friends dated an ex/previous crush of yours? I don't think it's accurate to call her my "friend," but Jason's first girlfriend and I are friends on Facebook. I'd love to get to know her better and actually be *real* friends. One word to describe the last person you kissed? Strong. Has anyone ever cheated on their boyfriend/girlfriend with you? You could say that. Does your hair have layers? No, not anymore. Who was the last person you cried in front of? My mom. Have you done something recently that helped someone else, in any way? I don't know. Which Disney princess do you think is the most beautiful? Why? Probably Jasmine. I just think she's really pretty. If you’ve had a bad experience in a past relationship, did you find that you were scared to get into another relationship, in case the same thing happened again? I'm terrified to this day to start new romantic relationships. I had so many panic attacks about losing Sara when we first started dating. If you were going to buy a present for the person you love/like, what would you generally choose? Absolutely something Frieza-related. If you met the celebrity that you most admire, what would be the first thing you’d say to him/her? Probably just "oh my god, thank you" and start crying lmao. Is there something you generally always ask for help with? I'm sure there's something, yeah. When was the last time you cried? Today. Do you like sausage? Yep. Ever held a newborn animal? Kittens, yes. Do you know anyone with a dual citizenship? Uhhhh maybe? Have you been called a bad influence? Yeah. Like she had ANY room to talk. Do you get stage fright? Yes. Would you be excited or annoyed if your favorite book was being made into a movie? Both of my favorite books are also movies, and they're wonderful. Do you need structure in your life or do you prefer to just go with the flow? I require structure, for sure. Without it, my anxiety goes rampant. Change is something I do not cope with well. Post a picture of you from one year ago. No. Have you ever written a fan letter? If so, who was it to and did you receive a response? No. What trait(s) would you not want your children to inherit from you? My mental illnesses, primarily depression. I have A LOT of reasons for not wanting kids, and my poor genetic makeup is even one of them. I don't want to pass on all the shit I deal with. What is the worst place you’ve woken up? Waking up in a shitty bed at the ER while waiting to be transferred was never one of my favorite things... Are you the type of person who has to study to make good grades or does it just come naturally to you? Aha... I was lucky in that once I heard something in school, it had a tendency to stick. I didn't need to study very much at all - usually. When on YouTube, what types of videos do you mainly watch? Mostly let's plays. What was the last conversation you had with someone about? Sara and I were kinda fangirling over how cute Maieykio and Rumours are, ha ha. Do you have any currency that’s not your native country’s? No. Can you describe your father in one word? Complex. Do you still watch movies intended for children? Yeah. Hell, I probably tend to prefer them. Who is your favorite stand-up comedian? That's living, probably Gabriel Iglesias. What is your strangest phobia? Probably whale sharks. Which part of your state/province do you live in [upper,lower,middle]? I live on the eastern side. Who in your life can you count on the most? My mama. Would you rather eat your pizza cold or hot? It depends on what I'm up for. Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? No, I'm not a fan. Last thing you drank? Pink lemonade. Have you ever thought you were going to marry someone? Sure did. The belief was clearly mutual. But I ruined that. Who are your favorite people to talk to when you’re down? Sara or my mom. Have you ever thought you liked someone, and then found out that you really didn’t? See: Girt. Describe the last dream you had that you can remember. It was actually... really fucked up, so the squeamish beware. I don't remember the details, just the shocking part: a little bird flew into me, and I thought it was a bug, so I crushed it in my hand. Heard and felt the bones break and it was just... ugh. It's nauseating to recall. I'm sick and tired of dreaming of only awful things. Any current family issues? Not any big ones that include everyone. The only "issue" that really exists in my family is how my mom feels like Ashley (my older sister) avoids her, and therefore Mom doesn't see the kids nearly as much as she wants. She feels very overlooked. Whose room of the opposite sex were you in last? When? Uhhh, probably my nephew's? Sometime when I visited my sister's house, idk. The last movie you watched with a friend? Elf, I think. Have you ever played with fire? Uh no, because I'm not keen on being burned. What industry do you want to be a part of when you’re older? Art, in some form. Who do you usually text the most? Since Sara and I started chatting mainly on Discord, definitely my mom. Have you ever been surprised with breakfast in bed? No. Llamas or sheep? Sheep. Have you ever seen anyone famous in the street? No. When do you plan on moving out? Whenever I'm in a long-term, stable, happy, and healthy relationship. I really don't at all think it would be healthy for me to live on my own. What’re you going to be for Halloween? I'd actually love to dress up this year seeing as I've really been feeling the holidays, but the money to like... make a recognizable costume isn't really with us. So I'll ust answer as if I had it, in which case it would be a handmaid from The Handmaid's Tale, but with fake blood splattered over my stomach region. Will you buy a cake for your next birthday? We always do for b-days. Do you like brownies? BITCH I love brownies. Have you ever dressed up as a witch on Halloween? Yeah, as a kiddo. Have you ever been to a masquerade? No. Do any girls like the last guy you kissed? Maybe, I don't know. Do you have a second mom? I have a stepmom, if that's what you mean. When a bee is coming close to you, do you stand still or run away? Ngl, I gtfo. Do you ever hang out with someone of the opposite sex? I haven't hung out with Girt in around a year. Really need to change that. When you go out to eat, what sides do your order with your food? Fries. What is your winter coat like? ... I actually don't know if I have one? Did you do well at fitness testing in grade school? I did fine. Are art museums interesting or boring to you? Interesting. Inspiring, even. Do you know how to use an ATM? ... No. :x How about write a check? uhhhhhhhhhhh... Are you Italian? Not to my knowledge, no. We don't know my dad's heritage. When was the last time you talked to one of your siblings? I commented on one of my sister's Facebook posts earlier. Are you interested in photography at all? Very much so. Do you own an acoustic guitar? I don't believe so? Ashley had one when she was waaaay younger, but I haven't seen it in forever. I think Dad might have it. Can you talk to your parents about anything without them judging or bickering at you? Because you said "bickering," no. Mom knows how to pick fights on a lot of things... Who was the last person you took pictures with? My sister when she came to visit a few months ago. What is the wallpaper on your best friend's cell phone? I'd be willing to bet it's either her and Jem or Frieza. Do you melt butter to put on your popcorn? No. We get the movie theater butter kind. Do you consider flirting cheating? Sure do. Have you ever been on probation? No. What is normally on your Christmas list (if you celebrate it)? A tattoo and meerkat stuff. Do you like KoRn? They're one of my favorites! When you were little, did you pick up worms? Do you pick worms up now? Ha, I did. I would sometimes dig just to look for them, especially if I knew Dad was going to take me fishing later that day. I don't like touching worms nowadays. Would you ever go see a stand-up comedian? Yeah, I think it would be fun. Do you have any best friends that you only know online? BEST friends, not current ones, anyway. I've met my current best friend. Have you ever gotten into a physical fight? Nope. Do you have a problem with swearing? No. What do you do when you see a spider? My reactions vary. If it's a tiny little thing, I tend to ignore it. In most cases, admittedly, I get my mom to come kill it. :x I really, really want to get on a level where I can just cup the spider and take it outside. I want a few types of spiders one day (tarantulas, jumping, and velvet), after all, so I really should get used to interacting with them. I know in my gut they're nowhere near as dangerous and scary as your head makes them seem, but it's so instilled in you (most "you"s, anyway) from a young age to stay away from spiders, so it's fighting almost like instinct. Do you have big dreams? Meh... When is your father’s birthday? Sometime in April. The 16th, I think? Maybe. Are you interested in anime? Yeah. They can have some great stories. Do you eat three meals a day? Most days. Are you part German? German and Irish make up most of my heritage, yes. Do you dream of being a porn star? Uh, I can confidently say no. Have you ever been on a farm? I have. What is your favorite type of muffin? Blueberry, I think. I like the moisture it adds to the muffin. What is the last type of salad that you ate? Just your normal one with iceberg lettuce and ranch. What do you usually put on your waffles? A layer of peanut butter and then some syrup. You NEED to try it. Would you rather have a cottage on the beach or in a forest? A forest! Name all the people that you talked to today. Online, through texts and in person. Mom and Misty are all, I think. Do you know a schizophrenic person? My half-sister. Did you ever watch Sailor Moon? If so, who is your favorite? I did. I don't think I had a favorite character. Name the last 3 people you kissed and list one nice thing about each one. Sara: she's very loyal. Girt: he's funny as hell. Tyler: he, uh, cares a lot, I guess? When was the last time you felt EXTREMELY depressed? Why is that? Yesterday, actually. I was passively suicidal just over... a lot of things. Would you ever dye your hair pink? I want pastel pink hair anyway.

[legend-collection]

Yuki-onna

Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape. She often wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened. In legends from the Ojiya region of Niigata Prefecture, a beautiful woman came to visit a man and became his wife from the woman's own desire. This woman was reluctant to go into the bath and when she was made to go in anyway, she disappeared, leaving only thin, fragmented, floating icicles.

Pic by imagase on DeviantArt

In the Aomori and Yamagata Prefectures, there is a similar story about one called the "Shigama-onna." In the Kaminoyama region of Yamagata, a yuki-onna would come visit an old couple on a snowy night to warm herself by the irori. When late at night the Yuki-onna would again go out on a journey, the old man would attempt to take her hand to stop her, when he noticed that she was chillingly cold. Then, before his eyes, the girl turned into a whirl of snow that exited the house through the chimney.

On the night of a blizzard, as the Yuki-onna would be standing there hugging a child, it would ask people passing by to hug the child as well. When one hugs the child, the child would become heavier and heavier until one would become covered with snow and freeze to death. It has also been told that if one refuses, one would be shoved down into a snowy valley.

In Hirosaki in Aomori, it is said that there was a warrior who was asked by a yuki-onna to hug a child similarly, but the warrior held a short sword by the mouth and hugged the child while making the blade go close to the child's head, which allowed the warrior to avoid the aforementioned phenomenon. When the warrior handed the child back to the Yuki-onna, the ghoul gave many treasures as thanks for hugging the child. It is also said that those who are able to withstand the ever-increasing weight of the child and last all the way through would acquire great physical strength.

In the Ina region of Nagano Prefecture, Yuki-onna is called "yukionba", and it is believed that they would appear on a snowy night in the form of a yama-uba. Similarly, in Yoshida, Ehime Prefecture, on a night when snow is accumulating on the ground, a "yukinba" is said to appear, and people would make sure not to let their children outside. Also, in the Tōno region of Iwate Prefecture, and on Little New Year (koshōgatsu) or the 15th day of the first month, a yuki-onna would take many children along to a field to play, so children were warned against going outside. It can be thus seen that yuki-onna are often considered the same as the yama-uba, sharing the similarity that they are fecund and take many children along with them.

In the Ito region of Wakayama Prefecture, it is said that there would be a one-legged child jump-walking on a night when snow accumulates, and the next morning there would be round footprints remaining, and this would be called the "yukinbō" (snow child), but the one-legged snow kid is thought to be the servant of a mountain god.

In the village of Oshika, Tōhaku District, Tottori Prefecture (now Misasa), it has been said that a yuki-onna would come during light snow and say "Koori gose yu gose" ("Give me ice, give me hot water")—"gose" is a dialect word for "give me"—while waving around a white wand, and she would bulge when splashed with water and disappear when splashed with hot water.

In the area around the Kumano River in Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, the "Oshiroi baa-san" or "oshiroi babaa" is also thought to be a type of Yuki-onna, and they are said to drag along mirrors, making clinking sounds while doing so. These characteristics, that of waving around a white wand (gohei) and possessing a mirror, are thought to be the characteristics of a miko who serves a mountain god that rules over birth and harvest. In Aomori, it is actually said that a yuki-onna would come down to the village on the third day of Shōgatsu and return to the mountains on the first day of Rabbit, and it is thought that on years when the day of Rabbit is late in arriving, how well the harvest does will be different from before.

In the Iwate and the Miyagi Prefectures, a yuki-onna is thought to steal people's vitality and in Niigata Prefecture, they are said to take the livers out of children and freeze people to death. In Nishimonai, Akita Prefecture, looking at a yuki-onna's face and exchanging words with her would result in being eaten. In Ibaraki Prefecture and in Iwaki Province, Fukushima Prefecture, it is said that if one does not answer when called by a yuki-onna, one would be shoved down into the bottom of a valley. In the Fukui Prefecture, they are called "koshi-musume" (越娘, "passing girl") and it is said that those who turn their backs to a koshi-musume when being called by one would get pushed into a valley. In Ibigawa, Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, an invisible monster called the "yukinobō" is said to change their appearance and appear as a yuki-onna. It is said that this monster would appear at mountain huts and ask for water, but if one grants the request, one would be killed, so one should give hot tea instead. It is said that in order to make the yukinbō go away, one should chant "Saki kuromoji ni ato bōshi, shimetsuke haitara, ikanaru mono mo, kanō mai" (meaning "A kurujo in front and a bōshi behind, by wearing these tight, nothing is possible").

The Hirosaki, Aomori legend about a yuki-onna returning to the human world on New Year's Day (Shōgatsu) and the legend in Tōno, Iwate Prefecture about yuki-onna taking away many children to play on "Little New Year" (koshōgatsu)- looking at the days on which they visit, both legends offer insight on how the yuki-onna has some characteristics of a toshigami. The story of how when one person treated a yuki-onna with kindness on a blizzard night, the yuki-onna turned into gold the next morning; illustrating how even in old tales such as the Ōtoshi no Kyaku, the yuki-onna has some relation to the characteristics of a toshigami.

Yuki-onna often appear while taking along children. This is in common with another yōkai that takes along children, the ubume. In the Mogami District, Yamagata Prefecture, ubume are said to be yuki-onna.

They often appear in stories about inter-species marriage, and stories similar to Lafcadio Hearn's Yuki-onna where a mountain hunter gets together with a woman who stayed the night as a guest and eventually birthing a child when one day the man carelessly talked about the taboo of getting together with a yuki-onna resulting in the woman revealing herself to be a yuki-onna but not killing the man due to having a child between them and warning, "If anything happens to the child, you won't get away with it" before going away can be found in Niigata Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture, and the Nagano Prefecture, which came about as a result of many stories about mountain people where those who break the mountain taboos would be killed by mountain spirits. There is also the hypothesis that the yuki-onna legend was born from a mixture of paranormal stories of mountain people and the paranormal yuki-onna stories.

Old tales about yuki-onna are mostly stories of sorrow, and it is said that these tales started from when people who have lived gloomy lives, such as childless old couples or single men in mountain villages, would hear the sound of a blizzard knocking on their shutter door and fantasize that the thing that they longed for has come. It is said that after that, they would live in happiness with what they longed for in a fantasy as fleeting as snow. There is also a feeling of fear, and like as in the Tōno Monogatari, the sound of a blizzard knocking on an outer shōji is called the "shōji sasuri" (rubbing a shōji), and there is a custom of making children who stayed up late go to sleep quickly when a yuki-onna rubs a shōji. From real sayings such as the shōji sasuri, it is said that things that one longs for sits back-to-back with fear. Also, winter is the season when gods would come to visit, and if one does not pay respects, terrible things will happen, so even if it is said to be things that one longs for, one cannot put too much trust in that. In any case, it can be said to be related to the coming and going of seasons. Nobuyoshi Furuhashi, scholar of Japanese literature, stated that the novel Kaze no Matasaburō is also probably somehow related.

There are various legends about the yuki-onna's true identity, such as saying that the yuki-onna is a snow spirit or the spirit of a woman who fell over in the snow. In a setsuwa of the Oguni region of Yamagata Prefecture, a yuki-jorō (yuki-onna) was originally a princess of the moon world and in order to leave a boring lifestyle came down to earth together with snow but was unable to go back to the moon and so is said to appear on snowy moonlit nights.

Yamaoka Genrin, an intellectual from the Edo period, said that yuki-onna is born from snow. It was supposed that if there were a lot of something, a living thing would come forth from it, giving birth to fish if the water is deep enough and birds if the forest is thick enough. Since both snow and women are "yin", so in places like Echigo it is said that yuki-onna might be born from within deep snow.

Among Japan's traditional culture, Yuki-onna can be seen in kōwaka such as the Fushimi Tokiwa, which can also be checked in modern times. In Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Yuki-onna Gomai Hagoita, the story is about how a woman who was deceived and murdered became a yuki-onna and took revenge as a vengeful ghost. The bewitching and frightening aspects of a yuki-onna are often used in such depictions. Old tales and legends like these have been confirmed in Aomori, Yamagata, Iwate, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Wakayama, Ehime, among other places.