Basic Cryptozoology - Wednesday - First Period - 7/30

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

Lucky for her class, Abigail Irene Garrett was in fact in a lovely mood for the day. She had a date set for Friday, there was a play on the island which sounded very interesting, and her patchwork terrier Mike was up on her desk, insisting on getting a scritch from under her hand.

"Today, as I told you last week, I'll be asking each of you to present a few minutes on the subject of a creature, perhaps a cryptid, from your own world. I'll start things off for all of us...

[ocd up!]

Comments

Re: A Creature From Your World

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Ano, my world doesn't have anything in the way of actual, um, cryptid?" Dōjima said. "But we do have stories. I always liked the bakeneko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nekomata). They're cats with supernatural abilities akin to those of the Kitsune or Tanuki. A regular cat may become a bakeneko in lots of different ways."

"A bakeneko will haunt any household it is kept in, even changing its shape into that of a human and devouring its owner in order to shapeshift and take his or her place. Some stories even claim they can reanimate the dead."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"Stories are just fine," she insisted.

"And it's certainly an interesting one. Do you know any of the stories which might specify why a bakeneko might turn on its owner?

"I've always thought from those little...statues that cats were thought to bring luck."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Hai! The Maneki-neko!" she agreed. "If you look at the statues, he always has a little bobtail, yes? One of the ways a cat can become a bakeneko is if the tail grows too long and splits into two tails. That's one theory of how the Japanese Bobcat developed, that people kept cutting the cats' tails, and why it's so popular as a pet. Maneki-neko is very lucky, anyway, and there's different types of luck he can bring."

"As for turning on the owners, it might be a case of abuse, or even just jealousy. Even an intelligent cat that can walk upright is still a cat, and would never be treated as a person in their own right," Dōjima answered. "Why be stoned as an oni, when you can take the place of a person?"

"Bakeneko can be benevolent, but you don't hear those stories quite as much," Dōjima said. "Those are my favorite ones, where a bakeneko cares for a priest or old woman who's been good to them."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"A little like the tanuki," she said with a smile. "I wonder if a bakeneko has ever cared for a tanuki in disguise. That would certainly be interesting to see."