#misadventuring in mythology and folklore

[concerningwolves]

after reading about werewolves in ancient Greece I am once again haunted by how so much of the mythology we know came to us through ancient literary sources, not ancient folk sources. like in general this is something I come back to pretty regularly, because (as you guys know by now lol) I love folklore. I love how much of it is so totally unliterary, totally unfiltered humanity, running the full breadth from cautionary tales to pure fuckery. literary mythology just doesn't scratch quite the same itch, even if digging through variants gets close and it's possible to get glimpses through certain ancient writers and archaeology. i get sad that I can't dig into the beliefs and cultural psyche of everyday Greek people living in the middle of nowhere in the 5th century BC. i'd love to know what kind of weird little guys they told their children about

[concerningwolves]

Image transcript: an edited version of the xkdc comic Average Familiarity, depicting a conversation between two stick figures.

Person one: myths, legends and folklore is second nature to us myth nerds, so it's easy to forget the average person probably only knows black shuck, jormungandr and banshee

Person two: and gorgoneion of course

Person one: of course

Text at the bottom of the image says "Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field."

End image transcript.

I think the most unintentionally pretentious part of me is I genuinely forget that most people do not have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of mythology and folklore. I literally just assume most people know at least the name of every Greek god. My mom and I were watching the Banshees of Inisherin and at the start, she asked "Do you know what a banshee is?" and I was so stunned because it would never occur to me to ask that question because I would never assume the average person doesn't know what a banshee is. The average person knows what a banshee is right. You know what a banshee is right. You know the names of the greek gods right. You know that norse myth where loki fucked the horse right. Right. RIGHT

[fairylandblog]

Faerie Paths

It is thought that the fae, also known as fairies, traveled along ancient paths that are referred to as faerie paths. This concept is heavily woven into folklore and mythology. These pathways are frequently depicted as being mystical and enchanted, though they are concealed from public sight and can be perceived by individuals who are in tune with the natural world. There is a sense of mystique and awe that is associated with faerie paths in many different cultures. These paths are said to have ties to worlds that are beyond the ordinary. When it comes to legend, faerie paths are frequently depicted as straight lines that traverse the landscape without regard to any obstacles that were created by humans. Unfazed by the obstacles that could potentially impede human movement, they move through forests, over hills, and across streams without regard for the obstacles. It is not uncommon for these roads to coincide with ley lines, which are unexplained alignments that are of historical and geographical significance. There is a school of thought that holds that ley lines and faerie roads are pathways that carry the inherent energy of the ground and connect ancient sites of power.

The concept of faerie pathways is not restricted to the realm of physical trajectories alone. They are also a symbol of the voyage between realms, especially between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Within the realms of literature and narrative, these pathways function as gateways to the realm of the fae, providing a look into a world in which time moves in a different manner and where enchantment reigns supreme. If a tourist were to cross a faerie road, they might find themselves in a country of eternal twilight, where the lines between reality and imagined reality are blurred. Many stories share a common theme of respect for the roads that faeries travel. The act of disrupting or inhibiting these pathways is believed to bring about unfavorable outcomes. There are several accounts of farmers whose crops failed because they built across faerie lines, as well as travelers who got into misadventure because they ignored the presence of the roads. Such stories serve as cautionary reminders of the need of maintaining balance with nature and showing respect for things that cannot be seen.

Even in this day and age, the charm of faerie trails continues to continue to enchant. They are a source of inspiration for individuals who are looking for a more profound connection with nature, as well as for those who write fantasy fiction. Those who walk or hike along these roads have reported experiencing sensations of tranquility and a sense of the ancient, as if they were entering a story that has been unfolding for ages. People who follow the pathways are encouraged to engage in introspection, as they are prompted to contemplate the mysteries of the world and their place within it. It is the enchantment that lies just beyond the border of perception that is brought to our attention by faerie roads, whether they are interpreted as actual trails or as metaphorical excursions. The curious and the dreamers, as well as those who are prepared to venture off the beaten route and into the land of wonder, are the ones who are called to them. The concept of faerie paths provides a space for imagination and a return to the magic of the natural world in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by technology and urbanization.

[concerningwolves]

absolutely obssessed with how the church circa the 16th century tried to convince people that shapeshifting (i.e., werewolves or witches transforming themselves/others into animals) wasn't possible. demonologists of the time tended to say that what was actually happening was that the devil was causing people to hallucinate and tricking their senses. which i guess makes some sense, but these guys didn't stop there. they made it into this whole convoluted Thing, involving invisible demons acting like stagehands, and fantastic diabolical sleights of hand. i keep picturing some twitchy little inquisitor sweating bullets, desperately trying to smother the Silly Pagan Beliefs with theological bullshit like:

did that man really turn into a wolf? no, the devil tricked him into believing he became a wolf, so that he'd go and hide in a cave, while a demon possessed an ordinary wolf and did a bunch of bad shit that the man then blamed himself for. for Reasons

what about those people who were transformed into horses or mules, and carried loads no human could carry? surely that wasn't just a hallucination? well the devil tricked them too. and then they didn't actually carry anything themselves, that was a bunch of invisible demons who helped the devil pull off the trick. obviously. oh, and the witnesses were tricked too. by being made to also hallucinate while they saw invisible demons carrying things around.

why is the devil going to such lengths to trick people? because he's the devil. duh.

if the devil is just tricking people because that's what he does, how can any of us trust our senses? how do we know we're not being tricked now? because – because god doesn't let him.

so then why does god let him trick those other people? Um. because they were sinners. you know, i think you should let me tell you about how witches steal penises and eat babies instead. this is obviously a much more real and pressing concern.

[concerningwolves]

Me being lured out of my hole by new special interest access point

all my cryptids/humanities/folklore friends, have you guys heard of the indiana state university folklore archives?? it's a good-sized repository of midwest folklore going back to the 1940's, most of it collected by student field researchers, and the whole thing is free on jstor

[sammywarddraws]

Pinned post to explain the who, what, why?

Hi! My name is Sammy (she/her). I make comics, illustrations with a mix of mediums. I love horror and all things spooky but I also have a soft and wanderlust side too!

My work delves into the mystical realm of fantasy and horror inspired by folklore, mythology and nature. I love taking complex characters on misadventures.

Find me on most platforms with @sammywarddraws

I’m running a fun Art event this April - April Ghouls 2025 Art Ritual. Search #AprilGhouls2025

👻 My Ko-fi Page💀 - I love the community here. I update the most with my comics, illustrations and process. You can become a member and receive monthly goodies. My shop and commissions are open here too. My current goal is to fund printing my comics and artwork.

#GhouloftheMonth #Ghosts&GhoulsClub #AprilGhouls2025

Happy Spooking 🖤✨

[dwellordream]

i feel like doing a book rec list that gives me winterish vibes, either because they’re set during that time of year or simply give off a certain aesthetic

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. This darkly funny (and very gory) urban fantasy tells the misadventures of mild-mannered young London businessman Richard Mayhew, who stumbles into the alternate reality of London Below after helping a homeless young woman called Door flee from the assassins who murdered her family. In London Below, time and space have little meaning, mythological figures populate the alleyways, medieval courts travel by train, and a sinister Beast roams a labyrinth waiting for the Warrior who will slay it. Richard must learn to adapt to the deadly, charming, topsy turvy underworld if he wants to stand any chance of surviving to reclaim his old life.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Miryem’s family have taught her to keep her head down and avoid trouble as one of the few Jewish families in their Eastern European town. but when Miryem has had enough and begins to call in the debts owed to her moneylender father, her tenacity and cunning attract the attention of the Staryk King, a sinister Faerie ruler of an icy kingdom in desperate need of a girl who can turn silver into gold. meanwhile, young noblewoman Irina is promised in marriage to the handsome but violently erratic Tsar Mirnatius, who is hiding a dark secret that may ensure she never survives her wedding night.

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. Adventurous American journalist Jack Walser travels to turn of the century London to interview the enigmatic Sophie Fevvers, an orphan raised in a brothel turned circus star - all because of her magnificent wings. Determined to uncover whether Sophie is a genuine winged woman or an elaborate hoax, Walser enlists in the circus and follows her across Europe and into the wilds of Siberia, along with a host of brutal, eccentric, tragic, and heartwarming performers who have forged their own motley family.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Bookish and tenacious Francie Nolan comes of age in 1910s Brooklyn. Despite a childhood in crushing poverty, the love of her parents Johnny and Katie and her brother and best friend Neely help her to overcome her harsh surroundings and pursue the life she wants, in particular to finish high school and earn a college degree. Told in a series of overlapping stories, the Nolan family is sketched out in vivid, loving, and sometimes darkly comedic detail, as are their neighbors, friends, and enemies, who all make up the rich landscape of America as it rockets into the twentieth century.

Sabriel by Garth Nix. In a land divided by a magical Wall, the Old Kingdom lingers in an age of kings, queens, magic and quests, while Ancelstierre to the south is more or less a modern world of the twentieth century, with electric lights and indoor plumbing. Sabriel, daughter to the legendary necromancer the Abhorsen, has been raised primarily in Ancelstierre despite being born in the Old Kingdom. but she is called back to her birthplace on a dangerous mission to save her father when he is trapped in beyond the mortal realm, past the many gates of Death. In order to save him Sabriel must brave revenants, monsters, and ghosts and combat an ancient evil seeking to overrun the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre as well.

The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati. In the glitzy Gilded Age of 1880s New York City, cousins Anna and Sophie are part of a new generation of female doctors, both committed to working to aid the city’s poor and forgotten. Both find themselves plunged into an underbelly of mystery and murder when they uncover the work of a serial killer targeting desperate women seeking abortions, as well as attract the attention of the notorious Anthony Comstock, who means to rain hellfire down on anyone in opposition to his fundamental Christian morals.

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. In this retelling of the traditional Russian folklore of Koschei the Deathless and his mortal bride, Marya comes of age in a magical house within the grips of the Russian Revolution. After she ages into a rebellious young woman who dreads marriage, the otherworldly Koschei whisks her away to a land of enchantment and horrors, where an immortal power struggle begins. Marya, swiftly losing her human weakness in favor of divine powers, has little intention of surrendering to Koschei- nor is he willing to admit defeat. The two clash repeatedly over a century, caught between seething, spiteful hatred and a sickly, rotting love.

[northwyrm]

FOR THOSE WONDERING (around 16 people) my creative projects are:

Dracones Mundi

Dracones Mundi is my art-and-writing project about dragons from folklore and mythology. It is a guide to dragons of the world - for example, the nahang pictured above is from central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). I like highlighting dragons that aren't very popular in fantasy field guides: most fantasy animal guides include the 'western dragon' and the 'eastern dragon' and a wyrm and wyvern if you're lucky, I am trying to be thorough. Also, I think prehistoric crocodylomorphs are cool so my dragons are speculatively evolved from crocodylmorphs.

(has it's own blog here @draconesmundi, click here to see dragon designs, I try to post 1 dragon every monday)

Bloodmood

(art by @cheshadraws showing Agent 64, Victor, Harriet, Trixie)

My other project is a 90k word document about the misadventures of a small group of people trying to catch vampires who escaped an underground lab, mainly focusing on the main vampire (Victor) and the main scientist-who-tortured vampires (Harriet) - it's a comedy with horror elements, a deeply silly and fun thing.

(has it's own blog @bloodmoodtrash, click here to read old draft of chapters in order)

Of these two projects I'd say Dracones Mundi is my art project, Bloodmood is my writing project, Dracones Mundi requires me to research folklore and biology while Bloodmood requires me to make up character and story from scratch.

[themousefromfantasyland]

Monsters of Halloween: Vampires

"But first, on earth as vampire sent, thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent: Then ghostly haunt thy native place, and suck the blood of all thy race;"

Lord Byron

So. Halloween is today. I will finish my posts discussing monsters and villains talking about my favorite creatures, the Vampires.

We first need to separate the vampire, the literary creation, and the vampire, an catch-all generic name to all creatures in folklore and legend that sought to drink the blood of the living.

Superstitions about blood sucking creatures always existed, at thought, they often manifested in very different ways depending on the culture. Don't expect the dark aristocratic type here.

In Germany, you had the Alp, an incubus-like spirit, a mischievous elf creature that drinks blood from the nipples of women, men and young children.

In Norse Mythology you had the Draugr, reanimated corpses that lived to protect their treasure, haunt the living, and taking bloody revenge on those who wronged them, devouring their flesh or drinking their blood.

In Bolivia you had the Abchanchu, a shapeshifter that assumes the form of a elderly traveler to drink the blood of anyone who comes to help him.

In a Ireland you had the Abhartach, a tyrant dwarf king, that even after been killed, refused to stay in his grave, and continued to haunt the living.

But it were the beliefs of the people of southern Europe that would plant the seeds of the modern day vampire.

To them the Vampire were the dead. The living dead. The dead would come back to steal the blood, and with it, the life force of the living.

This was the Vampire Craze of 1720's to 1730's. The belief on the Vampire became so strong, that in some areas people were killed suspect of been one.

Serbia under the Habsburg Monarchy, would see exhumations of the bodies of Arnold Paole and Petar Blagojevich, suspected of had been vampires .

People looted graves. They cut the head of the corpses, pierced wood stakes through their chests, cut the legs and placed them in a crossed position. All of that to stop the dead from leaving their graves to haunt and hunt the living.

Around that same time, many of their traditions were recorded for the first time and were made know and brought to the West. These creatures created a huge impact on western literature, with animal-like behavior concealed by a human exterior, and obvious sexual connotations serving as huge sources of inspiration. (Yeah, the Vampire always had sexual tones. In the Balkans, for example, it was believed that male vampires had a great desire for human women)

In poem "The Vampire" (1748) by german Heinrich August Ossenfelder, the main character threatens to invade a girl's house in the middle of the night, suck her blood and then give her his deadly kiss, proving that his teachings were better than her mother's Christianity.

Several poems also speak of the dead returning to take their living significant others to the grave with them. Lenore is one example, although in that case it wasn't her lover, but Death itself in disguise. Other example is in "The Bride of Corinth" by Gothe, where we get this:

"From my grave to wander I am forced

Still to seek the God's long sever'd link,

Still to love the bridegroom I have lost,

And the lifeblood of his heart to drink."

In the same bet between writers Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John William Polidori that gave us Frankenstein, also gave us "The Vampyre" (1816). In there we meet Lord Ruthven, an alluring vampire hidding in London high society, seducing women, draining their blood and vanishing into the night.

During the Victorian times, we had Varney the Vampire (1845–1847), a Penny Dreadful, a cheap serialized story of the misadventures of Sir Francis Varney, a vampire fixated on haunting the Bannerworths, a formerly wealthy family driven to ruin by their recently deceased father.

Many vampire tropes started with these stories, like vampire fangs and two wounds in the neck, invasions through a window to attack a sleeping maiden, hypnotic powers, superhuman strength.

But there was a book that forever would cement the vampire image on public perception. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

Dracula is to the Vampire Genre what the New Testament is to Christianity. He is the one in which all vampires in the 20th and 21th century are molded after. The dark nobleman that would forever put Transylvania on the map and establish vampire lore, the vampire that turns into bats, is weak in sunlight, preys on women and is hunted by Van Helsing.

So, what makes a Vampire so interesting? Easy, a Vampire is a beast pretending to be human. They are savage creatures that want to kill and breed (interpret this as you want), but they must pass for human to survive and haunt innocent victims. They are the window for our innermost desires, our most brutish behavior. They bend gender and societal rules and Taboos. They are the most animalistic and visceral version of ourselves come to light, and their role is to allows a sense of catharsis and to shows us what happens when all our inner demons are free to play through the night.

[concerningwolves]

was reading about this philosopher called Jean Bodin who's described as 'painting an image' of 'a world overrun by werewolves' and i have to say. very clever of him to imagine in the 16th century the average tumblr user's ideal future

[therealcalicali]

I was thinking about writing a character that has powers like Avatar from The Last Airbender, but I want it to be somehow related to a mythology and gods like maybe being a daughter of a god/goddess or somehow being related to them.

Do you know of any mythology or culture that I could use as inspiration? Maybe even the one used in The Last Airbender?

Hey, sweetie.🥰

When it comes to Gods/Deities with power to control the wind, there a quite a few. In fact, most are relatively unknown due to us focusing on the popular ones. One site I highly recommend is Encyclopedia Mythica. It has Mythology, Folklore and tons more. And the second is Theoi Greek Mythology.

Types of Air/Wind Power:

Air Manipulation - Manipulate air/wind.

Air/Wind Generation - Generate air/wind.

Air Mimicry - Transform into air or mimic traits of air.

Air Magic - magic related to air.

Air Embodiment - Become the embodiment/personification of the element of air.

Aeroscience - Have absolute knowledge about air.

Aerokinetic Combat - Combine air-related abilities with combat.

Aerokinetic Constructs - Create/Construct anything using air.

Aerokinetic Regeneration - Heal/Regenerate using air.

Aero-Telekinesis - Use telekinesis using air.

Aeromancy - Gain divination via air.

Aeroportation - Teleport oneself or others with air/wind.

Link: List of elemental abilities

Air/Wind Deities and Gods:

Shurdh  - Albanian Wind God. Has the power to throw thunder and lightening and cause hailstorms. Shurdh travels using storm clouds which announce hailstorms when he arrives,

Njörðr  - Norse Air God. He dwells in heaven, in the abode called Nóatún. He rules the course of the wind, and stills sea and fire; on him shall men call for voyages and for hunting. He is so prosperous and abounding in wealth, that he may give them great plenty of lands or gear.

Aeolus (Odyssey) - Greek Wind God. Aeolus lived on the floating island of Aeolia and was visited by Odysseus and his crew in the Odyssey. After their misadventure in Polyphemus' cave, Aeolus gave them hospitality for a month and provided them a west wind to carry them home to Ithaca. He also provided a gift of an ox-hide bag containing all winds but the west.

Szélanya - Hungarian Goddess. a wise, elderly woman who lives in a cave on top of a huge mountain somewhere at the end of the world. She rides the winds and creates storms and whirlwinds. She delight in causing storms.

Tezcatlipoca - Aztec God -  He’s associated with a wide range of powers, including the night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the earth, obsidian, enmity, discord and more.

Pazuzu -  Assyrian/Babylonian demon. He was mainly called upon to keep Lamashtu from murdering unborn or newly born babies but seems to have also been invoked against disease, impotency, and the ill effects of the west wind and south-west wind.

Links:

List of wind deities

God and Goddesses of the Wind

Air-based Abilities

[concerningwolves]

Wait wait the fryer basket option is extra funny to me tonight, because. Well, because this:

so there are two different narrative strands that result in Achilles being invulnerable, right? first, the ol' dunking in the River Styx. second, Thetis slathers him in ambrosia and then holds him over a fire, which burns away his mortality, but she's stopped by her husband who thinks she's roasting their baby to death.

In his book Troy, Stephen Fry combines these into "Thetis dunks Achilles in the Styx to make him invulnerable, then coats him in ambrosia and attempts to roast away his mortality to make him immortal as well".

Which means I now have the truly delightful image of Thetis (dressed in a McDonald's uniform) swirling baby Achilles around in the Styx using the fryer basket, then dunking him into a deep fryer full of hot ambrosia (which would do the job of fire+ambrosia in one) (baby Achilles is fine because he's invulnerable. He thinks it's great fun).

The myth of Achilles, but instead of holding him by the heel, Thetis sumberges him fully so that Achilles is completely invulnerable and Thetis has one invulnerable hand.

[ao3feed-billyteddy]

The Totally Ordinary (And Not At All Chaotic Or Magical) Misadventures of Hex and Cerise Beetle [and Team Chaoss]

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3bOcBRf

by scapegoat

Billy’s just an ordinary boy living an ordinary life, until he gets a magical ring and becomes a superhero. Plus, he realizes he’s got magic powers outside of the suit. Then, there’s the whole long lost twin he finds. Oh and can’t forget the boy he gets a crush on developing a crush on his superhero persona. So, yeah, totally ordinary boy stuff.

Words: 9947, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of Welcome To The New Normal, Everything Is Fine

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Young Avengers (Comics), Runaways (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, X-Men (Comicverse), Wasp (Marvel Comics)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Characters: Billy Kaplan, Tommy Shepherd, Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Ramone Watts, Johnny Watts, America Chavez, Molly Hayes | Molly Hernandez, Xavin (Marvel), David Alleyne, Gertrude Yorkes, Old Lace (Marvel), Teddy Altman (Marvel), Eli Bradley, Ororo Munroe, Isaiah Bradley, Erik Lehnsherr | Max Eisenhardt, Phyla-Vell, Alya Césaire, Nora Césaire, Riri Williams, Kamala Khan, Klara Prast, Priscilla LaShayla "Shay" Smith, Ying Liu, Priya Aggarwal, Shuri (Marvel), Max Kanté, Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Nino Lahiffe, Lê Chiến Kim, Miles Morales, Alex Wilder (Marvel), Ashida Noriko, Viv (Marvel), Kitty Pryde, Janet Van Dyne, Nadia Van Dyne, Topher (Runaways), Victor Mancha, Mylène Haprèle, Alexis Miranda, Taina Miranda, Sam Alexander, Marc Anciel, Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Mireille Caquet, Knightowl (Miraculous Ladybug), Camilla Hombee | Victory, Thor (Marvel), Emma Frost, Jean Grey, Alix Kubdel, Luka Couffaine, Juleka Couffaine, Ondine (Miraculous Ladybug), Lisa Molinari, Lila Rossi, Chloé Bourgeois, Audrey Bourgeois, André Bourgeois, Gabriel Agreste, Emilie Agreste, Kwami(s) (Miraculous Ladybug)

Relationships: Teddy Altman/Billy Kaplan, David Alleyne/Tommy Shepherd, America Chavez/Ramone Watts, Billy Kaplan & Tommy Shepherd, Johnny Watts & Ramone Watts, Ororo Munroe/Janet Van Dyne, Alya Césaire/Kagami Tsurugi, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added

Additional Tags: Aged-Down Character(s), Captain America Isaiah Bradley, Alternate Universe - Miraculous Ladybug Fusion, Gabriel Agreste Is Not Hawk Moth, Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Middle School, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Akuma Possession Side Effects (Miraculous Ladybug), Akuma Possession Trauma (Miraculous Ladybug), Miraculous Side Effects, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Bullying, Mental Health Issues, Physical Disability, Self-Discovery, Self-Acceptance, Magical Artifacts, Damaged Miraculouses (Miraculous Ladybug), Stolen Miraculouses (Miraculous Ladybug), Hero Worship, Secret Identity, Crushes, Teenage Drama, Teen Romance, Developing Friendships, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Kwami & Miraculous Lore, Polyamory, X-Men Merchandise, Vigilantism, Superheroes, Magic, Team as Family, Genderfluid Kwamis, Lucky Charm And Miraculous Ladybugs Cure | Ladybug Miraculous Superpowers Don't Fix Everything, Badass Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Scheming, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is Not Ladybug, Multilingual Character(s), The Ladyblog (Miraculous Ladybug), Mythology References, Folklore, Awesome Janet Van Dyne

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3bOcBRf

[ao3feed-youngavengers]

The Totally Ordinary (And Not At All Chaotic Or Magical) Misadventures of Hex and Cerise Beetle [and Team Chaoss]

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3bOcBRf

by scapegoat

Billy’s just an ordinary boy living an ordinary life, until he gets a magical ring and becomes a superhero. Plus, he realizes he’s got magic powers outside of the suit. Then, there’s the whole long lost twin he finds. Oh and can’t forget the boy he gets a crush on developing a crush on his superhero persona. So, yeah, totally ordinary boy stuff.

Words: 9947, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of Welcome To The New Normal, Everything Is Fine

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Young Avengers (Comics), Runaways (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, X-Men (Comicverse), Wasp (Marvel Comics)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Characters: Billy Kaplan, Tommy Shepherd, Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Ramone Watts, Johnny Watts, America Chavez, Molly Hayes | Molly Hernandez, Xavin (Marvel), David Alleyne, Gertrude Yorkes, Old Lace (Marvel), Teddy Altman (Marvel), Eli Bradley, Ororo Munroe, Isaiah Bradley, Erik Lehnsherr | Max Eisenhardt, Phyla-Vell, Alya Césaire, Nora Césaire, Riri Williams, Kamala Khan, Klara Prast, Priscilla LaShayla "Shay" Smith, Ying Liu, Priya Aggarwal, Shuri (Marvel), Max Kanté, Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Nino Lahiffe, Lê Chiến Kim, Miles Morales, Alex Wilder (Marvel), Ashida Noriko, Viv (Marvel), Kitty Pryde, Janet Van Dyne, Nadia Van Dyne, Topher (Runaways), Victor Mancha, Mylène Haprèle, Alexis Miranda, Taina Miranda, Sam Alexander, Marc Anciel, Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Mireille Caquet, Knightowl (Miraculous Ladybug), Camilla Hombee | Victory, Thor (Marvel), Emma Frost, Jean Grey, Alix Kubdel, Luka Couffaine, Juleka Couffaine, Ondine (Miraculous Ladybug), Lisa Molinari, Lila Rossi, Chloé Bourgeois, Audrey Bourgeois, André Bourgeois, Gabriel Agreste, Emilie Agreste, Kwami(s) (Miraculous Ladybug)

Relationships: Teddy Altman/Billy Kaplan, David Alleyne/Tommy Shepherd, America Chavez/Ramone Watts, Billy Kaplan & Tommy Shepherd, Johnny Watts & Ramone Watts, Ororo Munroe/Janet Van Dyne, Alya Césaire/Kagami Tsurugi, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added

Additional Tags: Aged-Down Character(s), Captain America Isaiah Bradley, Alternate Universe - Miraculous Ladybug Fusion, Gabriel Agreste Is Not Hawk Moth, Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Middle School, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Akuma Possession Side Effects (Miraculous Ladybug), Akuma Possession Trauma (Miraculous Ladybug), Miraculous Side Effects, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Bullying, Mental Health Issues, Physical Disability, Self-Discovery, Self-Acceptance, Magical Artifacts, Damaged Miraculouses (Miraculous Ladybug), Stolen Miraculouses (Miraculous Ladybug), Hero Worship, Secret Identity, Crushes, Teenage Drama, Teen Romance, Developing Friendships, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Kwami & Miraculous Lore, Polyamory, X-Men Merchandise, Vigilantism, Superheroes, Magic, Team as Family, Genderfluid Kwamis, Lucky Charm And Miraculous Ladybugs Cure | Ladybug Miraculous Superpowers Don't Fix Everything, Badass Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Scheming, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is Not Ladybug, Multilingual Character(s), The Ladyblog (Miraculous Ladybug), Mythology References, Folklore, Awesome Janet Van Dyne

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3bOcBRf

[hermanwatts]

The Chinoiserie Genre, Revisited

(What follows is a repost from April 2017, updated to include the chinoiserie explosion of the past three years.)

Readers familiar with the Pulp Revolution have certainly by now heard that with the death of the pulps, many genres fell out of favor. Hero pulps, sword and sorcery, and planetary romance have all declined from the heyday of the 1930s, often replaced entirely by other expressions of fantasy and science fiction. Yet as we return to reading the pulps instead of what people say about the pulps, whispers of other genres appear. For instance, hidden among the three proud pillars of weird fiction – horror, science fiction, and fantasy – is a fourth genre, one as exotic as its name: chinoiserie.

Chinoiserie first started in the 18th century in the visual arts. European artists impressed by Chinese artistry began to imitate the Eastern designs, incorporating them into pottery, furniture, decor, gardening, and even music. The appetite for chinoiserie grew with the perception of China as a highly civilized culture, even beyond the European norms. The artistic movement continues to the present day, with many works of chinoiserie available online. As with many artistic movements, this fascination with exotic cultures made a jump into literature.

Literary chinoiserie began as an exploration of unfamiliar Oriental cultures as perceived by Western writers.  While the visual arts quickly distinguished between Chinese-influenced chinoiserie and Japanese-influenced japonisme, no such distinction was made in the literary world, with chinoiserie describing Persian, Byzantine, Japanese, Tibetan, and Chinese stories. (Despite convention, I will be using chinoiserie and japonisme to differentiate the two flavors of literary chinoiserie.) However, the term quickly narrowed to Pacific Asian cultures, with the Chinese association dominating. Literary chinoiserie expresses itself in three major forms; the exploration of Chinese lands, the exploration of Western ideas of Chinese culture in both its homeland and its diaspora settlements, and the exploration of an idealized China that never was. Occasionally, Western culture would dress up in chinoiserie robes for the purpose of satire, as in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. But common to all expressions is the idea of the outsider looking into another culture not his own, and not always understanding what is seen. One does not write chinoiserie of their own culture. The Chinese author of the Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, writes Chinese science fiction, while Peter Grant writes chinoiserie science fiction dealing with Chinese triads in space in his Maxwell Saga.

Perhaps the most sensationalized version of chinoiserie, yellow peril is the tendency of pulp writers to use Chinese as villains, as popularized by the Lord of Strange Deaths himself, Fu Manchu. Hidden in every shadow were copycat secret societies led by cunning occult mentalists and sensuous deceitful dragon ladies. This was primarily a staple of weird menace, a sensationalist genre of lurid stories where a dreadful and mysterious terror, usually occult or supernatural, threatens to overtake the hero unless he acts. This Chinese threat was not the only staple of the genre, as fantastic, mythological, and scientific terrors would also loom in the pulps, however the trope was common enough to have its subversions and aversions, with the honorable and heroic detective Charlie Chan as the most famous antithesis to yellow peril villains.

Chinoiserie’s fascination with exotic China found a home in the pulps. The Shadow’s first adventure, The Living Shadow, found the Knight of Darkness playing master of disguise in Chinatown to root out a hidden killer. Counter to convention, this killer, Diamond Bert, only posed as a Chinese mastermind. Among the imitators of the Shadow, the Green Lama featured an American student of the Tibetan Lamas using Eastern secrets to defeat Western criminals. Sidney Herschel Small wrote adventures of Asia and American Chinatowns. E. Hoffman Price led the parade of writers of Weird Tales who would use chinoserie, many of which would claim that their stories had been discovered in the markets of China and Istanbul. Clark Aston Smith wrote a prose poem describing two lovers separated by centuries in his “Chinoiserie.” Manly Wade Wellman’s occult investigator, John Thunstone, would test his metal and that of a holy blade against a cursed Gurka honor sword in “The Dai Sword.”

As the pulp age faded, so did literary chinoiserie. But the fascination with China lived on. Robert van Gulik found a copy of The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee in a second-hand store and translated the fictional account of Tang dynasty judge Di Renjie into English. Van Gulik then wrote an entire series of new adventures for Judge Dee, starting with The Chinese Maze Murders. The adventures of the Sinanju master assassin Chuin and his worthless assistant Remo Williams filled book after book of the men’s adventure series The Destroyer. Andre Norton brought a taste of China to gothic romance in The White Jade Fox, where an antebellum governess must keep her charge’s Chinese treasures safe from her stepmother. E. Hoffman Price would return to chinoiserie in The Devil Wives of Li Fong with the tale of the serpent Mei Ling as she protects her family from Taoist magic. Finally, in perhaps the brightest gem of the chinoiserie crown, Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds chronicles the adventures of the sage Master Li and the villager Number Ten Ox as they face off against crooked peddlers, rabbity tax assessors, exalted lords, and the machinations of the gods themselves in search of a cure for the kuu poison affecting their village’s children.

Inspired by Bruce Lee’s fame and Hong Kong cinema, movies such as John Carpenter’s cult-classic Chinatown misadventure Big Trouble in Little China and Disney’s Mulan took the torch of chinoiserie from literature, created beloved classics of the silver screen in the process. Chinoiserie also moved to video games with the gory martial-arts fighting series Mortal Kombat and Bioware’s  Jade Empire, an RPG homage to the Shaw Brothers‘ kung-fu movies, while the short-lived Firefly television series added a Chinese voice to the strange conversation between Japanese samurai films, American westerns, and science fiction as a whole. More recently, the martial arts cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender explored a fantasy version of China, mixing Western alchemical elements with Chinese martial arts. The tradition continues into this decade, with Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA starring in The Man with the Iron Fists, a loving tribute to the grindhouse days of blacksploitation and the Shaw Brothers’ cinema.

As China moved from the written page into the theaters and small screens, Japan took over the written word. James Clavell’s Shogun and Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s fantasy adventures of female samurai Tomoe Gozen are among the first novels reflecting the shift from chinoiserie to japonisme. As Japan rose again to become an economic power and a media giant in the 1980s, American fascination with the Land of the Rising Sun grew, spilling over into its stories. Perceptions of present day Japan are explored in thrillers like Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun, lost-in-translation misadventures like Isaac Adamson’s Tokyo Suckerpunch, and lost to reality gamer webcomics such as Megatokyo. Continuing the tradition created by Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan, the folklore and mythology of Japan are explored in novels such as Kij Johnson’s The Fox Woman and Lian Hearn’s Tale of Shikanoko series. Japanese history from the Heian court to the Warring States forms the backdrop for I. J. Parker’s Akitada mysteries, the Yamada Monogatari series of Richard Parks, and the classic Tales of the Otori. Japanese elements flavor John Wright’s Daughter of Danger, Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman and American Gods, and indie works such as Rawle Nyanzi’s Sword & Flower and countless others. And the thirst for all things Japanese (and japonisme) has yet to be quenched.

Perhaps the reason why chinoiserie and japonisme do not get the recognition that other genres do is because they combine so well with other genres. Chinoiserie rarely stands alone in a story, but crosses with action, with detective mystery, with noir, with fantasy, and even with science fiction to bring a exotic flavor to those genres. It has been easy to lose sight of the influence of chinoiserie as this weird fiction genre has drifted into the historical fiction and literature shelves. However, the influence of the East upon weird fiction is unmistakable, and chinoiserie is as much a founding genre as fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Since this article was first penned in April 2017, the fashions of publishing, both traditional and independent, have brought easy access to original works from Asian countries, including web novels, light novels, literary RPGs, wuxia martial arts epics, and xianxia chi cultivation epics. As the number of Chinese, Korean,  and Japanese novels in English increased, and even Russian copies of the same genres, they inspired a similar boom in chinoiserie.

Some Western writers penned their own adventures in a mysterious East that never was, but should have been. See M. L Wang’s The Sword of Kaigen, Tao Wong’s A Thousand Li series, and M. H. Johnson’s Silver Fox and Western Hero series. Others wrote Western versions of favorite Eastern genres, including the entirety of the current litRPG/GameLit scene, an early boom in kaiju monsters, and the regrettable prevalence of harem sexual comedies. Brandon Varnell has distinguished himself as the front runner in original English light novels. And a giant robot scene continues to simmer beneath the science fiction waves of space marines and stormtroopers, led by Chaney and Taggert’s The Messenger series and Brian Niemeier’s Combat Frame XSeed. Finally, a few writers, like Dakota Krout in his Divine Dungeon series, have melted Eastern and Western ideas and influences into Matrix-like newness. And for each author mentioned, there are five others awaiting discovery.

Readers’ thirsts for chinoiserie and japonisme have yet to be quenched, and those with that taste may soon find themselves in a silver age of Eastern-flavored adventures.

The Chinoiserie Genre, Revisited published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[greeksorceress]

atlas, cronus, hermes & prometheus 💕

atlas: favourite myth? 

this is such an amazing question! i love mythology so much, i am really fascinated by this topic and i love learning and investigating about mythology from different countries, civilizations, etc. i am really fascinated by the norse mythology and i love all myths related to loki and his misadventures! i love every myth related to him, from the ones about his birth and blood to the ones about his children. 

greek mythology is also on top of the list (i am just really fascinated by ancient greek’s society and history). i studied latin and ancient greek at school and for two years during my degree too and i have learnt so many of their myths over the years. my favorite ones would be the birth of aphrodite (venus), pandora’s box, daedalus and icarus and the story of eros and psyche among many others!

also, i adore irish folklore and myths too and my favorites are the dullahan and the stories about the mermaids!

cronus: favourite food?

uh! so hard to choose! my favorite cake is the red velvet one, that is for sure! about regular food… i love tacos and fajitas and burritos so much! i also love guacamole, i make my own at home! i love chips and potatoes in any form, to be honest, and pasta! 💕

hermes: do you like traveling? where is one place you want to travel to? 

i love traveling! I have been to a few countries and a few places already, and I always want to visit more! I would like to travel to norway, canada and lately, I have been wanting to travel to usa too <3

prometheus: if you could have any one ability, what would it be?

 i would love to have excellent drawing and musical skills, and i would like to perfect my writing skills!