Basic Cryptozoology - First Period - Wednesday, 7/23

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"One of the most well-known category of cryptids," Abigail Irene began as the students began to file in, "are shapeshifters."

She waited until they were all in their seats before she continued, smiling brightly at them. Her clothes were now straight, her eyes bright and cheerful... and there was still a rather telling red spot at the side of her neck from a lovely sort of pirate lout who'd gotten a bit feisty with her. Her short hair, as helpful as the length usually was, did nothing to hide it, though she'd ignore any looks at it she got. Or smile.

Mike, her small patchwork terrier, padded out to sit at her feet just as she continued.

"This might be a reflection of the array of creatures which vastly change their appearance in the natural world... or perhaps just an explanation for the wildly varying accounts available and shoddy research."

She paused for a smile.

"I'll be covering a few of these creatures today in class and asking a couple of questions. And make sure to listen at the end of class, as there is a very small assignment for each of you due next class."

[ocd coming up!]

Comments

Sign In - Third Class - Basic Cryptozoology

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

Brightly, if you please!

Re: Sign In - Third Class - Basic Cryptozoology

[raspberryturk]

Reno

Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

She'd wanted to put something together for this class, but she just hadn't had her head in the game this week.

That said, she knew the subject and provided ample material for her students. After all, that ThD hadn't earned itself!

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[raspberryturk]

Reno was actually paying decently close attention to this lecture, today.

There was something about the notion of people turning into other things that had a crazy way of holding his attention. Where he came from, it was less a cryptid thing, and more a freak-science-experiment thing.

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[ashockingbitch]

After perhaps overindulging in the tap rum yesterday, Jenny had taken the hair of the dog that bit her before class, but her hangover was still an annoyance. Her kingdom for an aspirin. But she did her best to pay attention to the lecture.

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah was listening closely and taking notes.

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

Ella carefully peeled and munched on a clementine as she listened, doing her best not to get juice on her notes. Despite the snack, she was paying close attention.

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad rubbed his neck a little in between taking what felt like awkward notes. Yeah, he knew it was mentioned that it was being covered, but it didn't really process in his head how awkward it was going to be to sit in a class about shapeshifters when you were dating one...

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[pyroliz.livejournal.com]

Liz listened carefully to the lecture and took notes.

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[lil-yellow.livejournal.com]

This particular subject interested Bumblebee quite a lot, being something of a shapeshifter himself. His eyes shone bright as he listened closely.

Re: Listen to the Lecture / Chat amongst yourselves

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice was taking notes, frowning as she considered the topic.

Werewolves / Lycanthropes

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure you're all familiar with werewolves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf) as they're a common enough creature in the myths of most countries. If not werewolves than lycanthropes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycanthropy), which is a slightly broader term. Thought to be originally human, by all accounts I'm aware of, the basic characteristics of this cryptid include the following:

"The ability to change into an animal and/or half-man, half-animal state.

"Certain telltale signs of the condition. These include a pentacle across the palm, all three middle fingers on the hand sharing the same length, a hairiness of the hands of palms" and yes, she did smirk at that, "elongated canines, and extensive body hair.

"Weaknesses to certain substances from wolfsbane to silver.

"And generally, their transformations are said to be caused by the cycle of the moon."

She took a breath as Mike pawed at her leg. She looked down at the terrier and, in front of everyone, lifted him up in her arms and scritched his ears.

"So I ask this: what natural conditions might have been explained by such creatures? Where would you think to find such creatures? Why do you think that silver might have become associated with the werewolf myth? And why do you think that such creatures always tend to be predators?"

Re: Werewolves / Lycanthropes

[ashockingbitch]

"Hypertrichinosis?" Jenny suggested once her headache subsided and she'd thought about it a bit. "Or there's that pesky fact that women tend to be bitches at certain times of the month. The silver, well, werewolves are tied to the moon and silver is kind of the color of moonlight. If you squint and have a romantic bent. I would think to find werewolves in areas where wolves wouldn't warrant much surprise. Forests, not cities. And I think they're always predators because wolves are predators. Big scary frak-off predators who've lived cheek-to-jowl with civilization for a long time; who'd eat a human child if it was a bad winter and there was no other prey. Who we've learned to be afraid of. And then...to lose your agency and become a killing beast, that's a nightmare and a half right there, isn't it?"

Thus ended Jenny's philosophical moment for the week. This called for more liquor. Too bad she'd left it in her room.

Re: Werewolves / Lycanthropes

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah raised her hand, a little confused. After all, the Pack didn't have any of these telltale signs that Ms. Irene was talking about... and the moon certainly didn't cause their transformations. She wondered if Elena or Clayton knew about these other types of werewolves. She'd have to ask next time she called.

"I'd think that you would find the creatures that you're describing in wooded areas or forests... probably not a big city as it would be harder for them to blend in. I'm not sure what natural conditions would explain these creatures, except that there are all kinds of beliefs about the moon and behavior patterns. Silver has been described in myth as a pure metal, so if enough people believed that werewolves were impure creatures, that belief would give power to the thought that they would have weakness to silver. As for why they are predators? Well, people are naturally afraid of animals or creatures they don't understand. Wolves and large cats need meat to survive, so mix in something like lycanthropy and it becomes both a means of survival and a way that people make societies at large terrified of them."

Re: Werewolves / Lycanthropes

[likethegun]

"My brother and I were taught that silver is associated with werewolves 'cause silver is considered to be an earthly element of the moon. Since the moon can sort of create a werewolf by causing their transformation, it can destroy them too," Sam said. "And they're predators because that's all they know how to be. When they transform, they turn into animals, with only the most basic survival instincts. At least, that's how it is where I come from," he added.

Selkies

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"Selkies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie) are something like a lycanthrope though far less popular in myth. Perhaps this owes to the necessity of local seals, but I also believe that their generally less violent nature makes them far less interesting to most people.

"Instead of turning from human to animal, they turn from animal to human; they shed their sealskins and walk among us.

"Generally, the stories of selkies are romantic in nature. Romantic tragedies, usually," and if there's a note of glum acceptance, well, what can one do?

"Either a human loves a selkie and loses them to the sea, or a selkie is trapped by a human who steals or destroys their seal skin and is forced to be theirs.

"So I ask you: how could these creatures be explanations for perfectly mundane happenings? What do the stories of such creatures say about the relationship between man and the natural world? Why do you think, of all creatures, that seals are their alternate form?

"And which do you find more interesting, or perhaps disturbing: a man walking as a beast, or a beast walking as a man?"

Re: Selkies

[ella-obeys.livejournal.com]

"They could," Ella suggested, "explain drownings, or other deaths where no body was found. It might be less sad to think of a lost loved one as gone back to a home in the sea."

"And I'm more interested in the stories of beasts walking as men, I suppose, especially when they can pass as human. It makes that line between us and them that much blurrier."

Re: Selkies

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice considered. "I have to wonder if the selkie isn't somehow related to the mermaid. If those were perhaps selkies once, but became trapped in a state inbetween."

Tanuki

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"Another creature which can assume other shapes, the Tanuki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanuki), or 'racooon dog' is an interesting study on its own.

"While such creatures as the kitsune are thought to be either wise and spiritual or malicious, the Tanuki's mythical traits claim that they are mischievous and jolly. While they are themselves shapeshifters, they are said to be gullible and absent-minded.

"While they will disguise leaves for paper money or play tricks on people, their jests are relatively harmless. Nothing so troublesome as a broken heart or a torn out throat."

She cleared said throat and placed Mike on her desk.

"So? What natural phenomenon could the tanuki myths have explained? What reasons can you think of for the somewhat paradoxical traits I've mentioned? And what do you think of the fact that some stories report tanuki as being harmless and productive members of society, even going so far as to claim them as being priests?"

Re: Tanuki

[shyest-eyes.livejournal.com]

"A-Ano," Hinata said. "T-They m-might serve as s-something to b-blame when people m-misplace and lose things. A-And perhaps t-they are absent m-minded because t-they are shapeshifters? B-Because they c-change so m-much that they d-don't remember t-themselves."

Re: Tanuki

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Dōjima giggled and hummed a little tune under her breath.

"The tanuki is the patron saint of shopgirls who pluck from the till," she laughed. "Short a few yen in your register? Obviously, it was a tanuki that gave you leaves instead of cash."

Unknowns

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"There are also certain creatures, such as one from my own world which I have since found a name for--damn convenient, you lot having more states than we do. It definitely makes it easier to identify the location!

"One such example I was able to find was The Mullbery Black Thing (http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=96211&view=findpost&p=1704410) which, if it sounds inexact, there is a reason.

"Such a creature is unidentified, some manner of intelligence unknown which seems to change shape as suits its needs. Such sightings usually agree on certain factors, such as the general time of day, or the location or even certain parts of the appearance, but vary wildly, beyond the bounds of simply incompetent observation, in regards to others.

"Such cryptids as the 'Thing can be as small and slithering as snakes, or as large and lumbering as a bear. They can move as quickly as an alligator or as slowly as a turtle. Many wonder if such sightings, which are usually centralized to a location, I might mention, are simply spirits or ghosts, but the physicality of such sightings leaves things up in the air.

"This one is rather simple: why do you think people would choose to attribute actions to one creature if the accounts vary so widely? What purpose might a being have to appearing in so many different ways? And what sort of natural (or even supernatural) causes might there be for such a beast?"

Re: Unknowns

[lil-yellow.livejournal.com]

"If there is only one creature, then there is less to be afraid of," Bumblebee offered. "Many creatures would be more of a threat. As for having many shapes, maybe it just was made that way for its own protection."

TAs

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

When they tag in.

Re: TAs

[walks-two-paths.livejournal.com]

Savannah was here and ready to assist.

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

When she was done, she settled at the front of the class for anyone who might need to speak with her. She did, however, mention before they were gone:

"For next class, I'd like you all to bring in a creature, myth, or legend from your own world that you'd like to share. Try to pick something you don't think anyone else might have heard of or, failing that, a cryptid you find interesting.

"Don't worry, you won't have to speak for more than a minute or so. I promise. It's sharing, not a graded exercise."

OOC

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

...and in the right fricking PLACE this time. Serves me right for putting up class at 3am, I guess ^_^;

Re: OOC

[raspberryturk]

And I hadn't even noticed that it was in the wrong journal until it up and vanished on me entirely. Hooray, late-night roleplay!