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Olllld sketches of costumes worn for an annual performance of "The Skinning of Lupine". Which takes place on the new moon closest to the anniversary of when the lupmish first came to Riverbed (and is very much colored by that context). Lupine is the pseudo-historical first Lupmish (werewolf). "The Skinning" is a dramatization of how they (and by extension all lupmish) came to be. It's just the first --and most intense-- of many more stories involving them.

Historically, Auntie plays the part of Lupine, but she's getting ready to retire the role.

Summary of the story is below the cut:

Thousands of years ago, a baby was born with the fur and face of a wolf, and out of shame it was left in the wilderness to die. The midwife tasked with sending the baby to its death took pity on the poor thing and prayed for its safety*. The moon goddess took notice and raised the kid as its own. It taught it to live and hunt like a beast and named it Lupine. They lived happily this way for many years. Eventually, the village that kicked them out began to encroach on their hunting grounds, leaving them with nothing to eat for winter. Lupine goes into the village out of desperation to beg for scraps, but is met with empty streets. Suddenly, they're surrounded by hunters. With a single strike from the lead hunter's axe, they are skinned alive. Lupine screams**. Lupine, bloody, runs away with pelt in hand and cries to the moon goddess about what happened. The moon is enraged at what the hunters have done to their child. It comforts them, sews their pelt back on, and promises that when the moon's face is full, Lupine can be a beast again. The moon then breaks its sewing needle in half and gives the pieces to Lupine to be their fangs, ordering them to seek revenge. Lupine runs off to do just that***. And that's how the lupmish came to be! *The midwife was entirely omitted in earlier versions of the modern dramatization of the story, though the character predates it significantly. Since their reintroduction it's been traditional for them to be played by a child in adorable old person makeup, much to the joy of all. **As previously mentioned, Auntie is usually the one playing Lupine. She's such a laid-back and jovial person normally it's always disturbing for the audience to hear such an anguished, blood-curdling scream come out of her. ***It varies year-to-year but usually the performance ends right here, and wraps up with a speech by the player of the moon that usually touches on the morals of the story like "don't be greedy" and "don't fuck with the gods" and hammering home the cultural importance and responsibility of being lupmish.

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and then they didn't post for a year... oops. Anyway enjoy this auntie shitpost from last year

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thinking about creatures.

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the author's barely disguised hobbies and interests

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pic i took years ago while driving home from work past the scary snail playground. i stopped in the night and pointed my headlights at it

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i don’t think you guys understand how much I think about this vid

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5 simple exercises to awaken dormant muscles

{source}

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Angus McBride.

All but one of these are illustrating scenes from the world of Lord of the Rings. Try to spot the odd one out, and then read my newsletter about McBride to see the answer.

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The author's poorly disguised fetish

The author's proudly displayed fetish

The author's fetish you're pretty sure they don't realise they have

The author's fetish which they're firmly convinced everyone has and is just pretending otherwise

The author's non-sexual special interest which just sounds like a fetish because of their habitually unfortunate phrasing

The fetish the author is making a well-meaning effort to cater to in spite of clearly not understanding it themselves

The author's fetish that never quite makes it into the text because they keep getting sidetracked by the requisite worldbuilding

The author's utterly pedestrian sexual preference which the text treats like a bizarre fetish because they've got shit to work through

The author's seemingly innocuous recurring trope they're going to have a personal revelation about ten years down the road

The author's fetish you missed on a first reading because it's so far out of pocket, it never occurred to you that you could sexualise that

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Years of pressure and heat can cause the ink in photos to transfer directly onto plastic, a process known as image bleeding.

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Sweater by @acefergusonstudio on Instagram