#mysterious night plenilune

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

Werewolves headcanons

An addendum to my fic Hunted by a sunless city that never sleeps. AKA the most self-indulgent thing that has ever been written.

*****

🐺 Werewolves have existed as long as humans, or wolves, have. Their origins are shrouded in mystery; an unconfirmed theory has it that centuries ago, the druids of an animistic religion gave wolf blood to drink to their tribes' warriors, thinking they would gain the strength and ferocity of the wolves themselves. One day, one of the warriors went beyond that, maybe because he had drank more blood than usual, and transformed into a wolf; his companions asked to share his gift, and from that day on, werewolves spread throughout the world.

🐺 Female werewolves are on average slightly larger than males, and they are all way bigger than regular wolves. An adult werewolf can reach a length of 7.3 feet and weigh up to 150 lbs, and run up to sixty miles per hour for short distances.

🐺 Werewolves are mortal and their life expectancy does not appreciably differ from that of normal humans; on the other hand, werewolves tend to be physically stronger, even while in human form, and remain hale throughout their life.

🐺 A werewolf is conceived in whatever form their parents have assumed before the intercourse; the foetus shifts together with the carrier parent. Most pregnant werewolves decide to give birth in human form, in order to be assisted by doctors and midwifes, but some prefer to shift, find a secluded spot in the woods and take things into their own hands paws. Many werewolf carriers eat placenta, whatever form they give birth in. Werewolves born during full moon nights are considered to be exceptionally lucky.

🐺 Children are expected to control the shifting when they are eight or ten, and most people can do it seamlessly by the time they enter adolescence. Nevertheless, strong emotions of any kind (sorrow, joy, anger, fear) can trigger a werewolf's transformation, which is extremely dangerous for those who live among unsuspecting humans. Meditation can improve self-control, as well as a draught made with monkshood and various officinal plants; alcohol, sleeping pills and recreational drugs can technically incapacitate a person and stop them from transforming. Except...

🐺 No werewolf can, in any case, avoid shifting during plenilune nights; they usually begin to feel the pull as soon as the moon starts rising, and by the time it is at its zenith even the most strong-willed person will begin transforming. The shifting is a peculiar but not painful experience; many werewolves find pleasure in it, a calming and relaxing sensation not unlike that of taking an heavy load off one's shoulders. At dawn, werewolves naturally shift back to human, but sufficiently experienced individuals can retain their wolf form as long as they want.

🐺 Once they shifted, a werewolf is influenced by the wolf's instincts and desires, clashing with their human rationality, and it can be hard for the latter to take over, especially for young werewolves, or during full moon nights, which often results in brawling and domestic destruction. Because of this, young werewolves tend to remain within their territory, to make sure more experienced packmates can shift and help contain them if needed. Unrestrained werewolves are extremely dangerous, and if sufficiently scared, or enraged, or if their pack is threatened, even subadults (that is, teenagers) can be lethal.

🐺 Just like regular wolves, werewolves tend to avoid solitude, preferring the proximity of their family and friends, and to be highly protective of their loved ones, not necessarily other werewolves. Many of them also strongly identify with the territory they live in (village/city, island, even a whole country) with both jealousy and protectiveness. Communities in which werewolves represent the majority of the population, or where their secret is known and protected by their human compatriots, are rare but not unheard of.

🐺 A pack is a group of related werewolves, often including human relatives and close friends of both races; they usually consist of between four and thirty members. Most adults who move away and even form their own packs normally retain membership; unrelated werewolves can join a pack, usually after giving proof of loyalty and strength of character. Inversely, committing a grave crime, especially towards a packmate, usually results in a member's expulsion. Children growing as members of the same pack often consider themselves siblings; relationships between unrelated packmates are rare, unless one joins as an adult.

🐺 Packs are usually led by a mature member, which can be of any gender; a pack leader can be challenged, and deposed by a majority of their packmates. Older members are expected to contribute to the education of the younger ones, and no packmember is ever left in danger or in indigence. Since werewolves are usually forced to hide their nature, packs are not legally recognized, but most werewolves consider the bonds within them as important as those between the members of the same family or lifelong friends, if not more. When a particularly heinous crime is committed, it is often the victim's pack that demands satisfaction, and a pack leader can sometimes exert more authority than a parent or a political ruler.

🐺 In werewolves communities, full moon nights are often considered a joyous occasion, to spend together with family and friends - that is, with the rest of the pack. The presence of other werewolves nearby has a calming effect, and the night is often spent playing, hunting, and mating; the aphrodisiac effect of the shifting under the full moon is well documented, and often extends to werewolves with human partners (after they shifted back).

🐺 Since normal wolves mate for life, mating with someone else after shifting into wolf form is usually considered cheating, at least between adult partners.

🐺 The concepts of pack and territory are so ingrained in werewolves' nature and mind, experiencing the shifting in an unfamiliar territory, or when alone, can actually be traumatizing - especially during full moon nights, when the shifting can't be avoided. In such situations, fear and confusion can lead a shifted werewolf to aggressiveness, and even violence towards humans.

🐺 One person in a million is immune to the bite, no one knows why.

🐺 Once shifted, werewolves can only eat what normal wolves do - which mainly means raw meat. They normally digest it quickly and without complications, but shifting back to human soon after the meal can make a werewolf queasy and lead them to vomit because their human stomach cannot process the food.

🐺 A centuries-old law, promulgated by the World Government and enforced by the Marines, dictating that werewolves be shot on sight, has fallen out of use, mainly because very few people today believe werewolves actually exist, but it has never been abolished.

🐺 Werewolves are immune to most blood disorders. Anemia is virtually unknown among them, but that might also be because of their predilection for red meat. Women who remain in wolf form for long periods can come into estrous. Werewolves can mate with regular wolves, but these unions are infertile.

🐺 Werewolves-fish men unions were thought to be infecund as well, but a single birth has been documented, a little girl whose werewolf carrier barely survived the birth.

🐺 It is theorically possible for a werewolf to reach an intermediate wolf-human state that allows a person to walk upright and retain their human conscience, even though they cannot speak and need to eat like wolves. The ability can be taught, even though the secret behind it is thought to have been lost; on the other hand, werewolf Haki users develop it spontaneously - pretty fortunate, for a certain werewolf pirate who in wolf form is missing a front leg and would consequently be unable to walk...

🐺 If a child is born from one werewolf parent, they have a 50% chance of being it themselves; with two parents, the probabilily increases to 90%. It has been shown that humans children of werewolf parents can be healthy carriers, and they have an higher than average possibility to have werewolf children.

🐺 Werewolf-human relationships and marriages have never been outlawed but anti-human sentiments do exist, at least when the choice of a partner is concerned. In the event of a mixed couple, the percentage of human partners who are later turned is estimated to be around 65-75%. The turning of a partner is seen by many as an intimate moment, not rarely carried out during the wedding night, soon after the engagement or before trying to conceive, to maximise the probability of the children being werewolves themselves.

🐺 Being bitten by a werewolf in wolf form authomatically turns the subject into one, as long as the werewolf drinks even a small amount of their blood; if the biter is in human form, they will also have to feed their blood to the subject. Parents are often advised not to turn their children until they are adults or have at least reached puberty; turning someone without their consent is a grave crime, that a pack often decides to punish with death. A human who has been turned immediately shifts for the first time, and can have troubles turning back.

🐺 Werewolves are immune to Zoan-type Devil Fruits, and only those.

🐺 There is no specific werewolves religion or creed, but many werewolves ask for a natural burial (that is, without a coffin or another container that would prevent the body's contact with soil) because they appreciate the idea of their corpses returning to and nourishing the earth. In a distant past, the practice of ritual cannibalism was widespread; werewolves considered an honour to feed their packmates, especially during harsh winters when other sources of food were limited.

🐺 Werewolf hunters don't exist - anymore. Still, many of them agree that it's better to be safe than sorry, if only to avoid being captured and sold as slaves or forced to perform in freak-shows.

🐺 Mate is the name werewolves give to their destined partner, a person's one true love and other half; whether a human can be a werewolf's mate is a controversial issue. Most werewolves believe no greater love exists than the one between two mates, even if the relationship remains platonic and not everyone finds happiness in the bond; and that a werewolf who loses their mate will never love again. Most werewolves nowadays consider the matter of mates no more than a pretty story only romantic girls believe in; or at least, that is what they say.

#One Piece #One Piece Live Action #OPLA #Dracule Mihawk #Dracule Mihawk x reader #Hawk Eyes Mihawk #Hawk Eyes Mihawk x reader #Steven John Ward #Werewolf #Werewolves #Werewolf headcanons #Werewolves headcanons #Bellona's stuff

[graywyvern]

( via / via )

Tin Cups.

"Voyagers

We dispatched them to explore the outer planets, where we can't go ourselves: observe rings, moons, alluring mystery.

Beyond Neptune one final image, of a pale blue dot gently clasped in rays of light. Thereafter, night. They can not

go back: blinded, must journey on, two tiny travellers alone on separate paths through the vast, cold universe.

They are not – yet – lost in space. We can still trace where they are, faint signals from the darkness telling us how fast, how far;

but not for long. Soon, voiceless, they'll traverse interstellar space, bearing golden records – earth sounds, earth words. Who will hear?"

--Paul Brookes.

Raising Helelyos. (via aetherphonic)

i could put something on to answer to this mood even if bravely flawed & fast prey to the Plenilune

tired, i am all but spent & this but an early hour-- how the clock-gears whirr with unprogressing count!

maybe i've scribbled enough memoirs of an avalanche lost in the greater crunch guffaws within the louder laugh

Bionic Human.

[shiftingpath]

Towersong Book 3: The Wheel of Fate is Turning Chapter 2: Diplomacy Episode 2: Peprine of Plenilune (Part 1)

Today was the arranged day; the Solars waited outside the woods of Cherry Blossom to receive Bhuzan of the Wyld Hunt. Lark had charmed Blood-Curdling Skree into letting her captive go, and they waited to take him in. He was delivered bound, his arms strung between two ropes the Kreeha guards would not let slack. He was a Dragon-Blood and extremely dangerous, though he looked very much worse the wear for his months of captivity. The goat they brought also, possibly even more dangerous and stubborn than its rider. They made a pile of his clothes and great green bow and jade shirt, and then faded into the forest with the Solars’ thanks.

They introduced themselves to Bhuzan, who looked extremely wary and suspicious of them, but allowed Manus to come forward and cut the woven rope collar from his neck and the ties from his wrists. They wanted to discuss much with him, but he clearly needed some time, so Manus led him to a free house in Cherry Blossom where he could get clean, eat, and rest. His goat was also provided for, though Lark worried it was holding a grudge for Lark not showing up to free it before.

After Bhuzan had shaved, gotten clean and fed, and slept, Manus led him before the group again, and Elmira offered him the same deal she had given the others of the Wyld Hunt: go. She would keep his artifacts, but give him his life and all he might need on the road away from Towersong, food and drink and a carriage, if he wanted one. But Bhuzan refused it all, and told them he only wanted to be away. He was a man of Medo before he was a Dragon-Blood of the Isle, and he could move as easily in the forest as on the road, and find food as easily as in a palace. He would take their offer and leave now.

Manus was a little disappointed; he had hoped that freeing Bhuzan would open some gate to beginning peace with the Isle, but he felt good enough that they had taken one of the Princes of the Earth out of suffering and allowed him to return to his people. He warned Bhuzan of the bandit problems on the road and the Orphans of Calin dealing with it, and Bhuzan mounted his goat and rode swiftly away from Cherry Blossom. They collected his artifacts to add to the clock treasury, and Manus hoped that their good deed to Bhuzan would still prove a blessing in the future.

= = =

Lark woke early in the morning, before the rest of his family, feeling he’d heard something. He tiptoed down the stairs, noting a splash of something against the wall. Maple syrup? It was everywhere, and so was everything else. There was a broken chair halfway up the landing, papers and paint and splinters all over. In the middle of the carnage was the sturdy table, and two upright undamaged chairs, on which sat his mother Miina and Blood-Curdling Skree, eating pancakes. Lark had to restrain a yelp of surprise, but his mother tried to act as if everything was normal. It was just that she had caught Skree breaking into their house in the middle of the night, and they had fought savagely and utterly silent, and once they established that Skree wasn’t there to hurt anyone, they got talking and now everything was just fine. Lark had some trouble swallowing that, but his mother assured him that she was happy to get the chance to speak to the ruler of her people, and Skree assured him that she was proud to have met the famous Minnawanagwad, who was a great fighter among her people even before she left to adventure.

Lark gingerly sat down, though Skree refused to share her stack of pancakes, and his mother not-so-subtly urged him to spend the day with Skree and show her around, since it would be such an honour to their family to be on good terms with the Queen of the Kreeha. It was plain and extremely awkward to Lark that his mom was trying to set him up with Skree. All the same, he agreed to show her around, and the two of them left to wander Towersong just as Lark’s father Roland came downstairs, nervously brandishing a broom as defense. Miina swept out, with business to attend to, ruthlessly asking him to clean up the enormous mess- after all, she’d made breakfast.

= = =

Manus was training beside his father, practicing the Violence of the Perfect Guest, a technique of Volan’s Ivory Icon style that would allow him to transition quickly from conversation to assassination with no warning to his victim. Manus had been privately working to synchronize this with his own magics, and wanted to show them off to his dad. Quietly, as he demonstrated what he had practiced, he wove his movements into something cautious, repetitive, and slow, and sowed the seed in Volan’s mind that Manus was not ready. He had pushed him too far too fast, and the way he moved was proof enough that he had not yet mastered this new ability. Lost in his thoughts, Volan did not even see the strike, looking up only to see Manus with his blade expertly planted in the dummy’s throat. He quickly retacted it, caught the dummy as it fell, and slipped back to his neutral position, waiting for his father’s approval.

Instead, he saw the look of fear- a master of the style, watching for a single specific thing, who had been tricked by his Anathema son and his mysterious, terrible abilities. He saw his father swallow panic, offer a brief nod of approval for Manus’ progress, then insist he really had to get back to work. Volan left quickly, laced with paranoid, nervous energy, and Manus felt a flare of anger at himself for pushing his father to accept him as an Anathema so quickly. He was interrupted by his new butler Ural bringing tea for him and his now-absent teacher, and took it alone, frustratedly flicking over the empty teacup beside his own. (And then, annoyed at the lack of order, righted it again immediately.)

= = =

Elmira brought Erilaz deep inside the clock. She had a plan for her, and would put the first steps into motion today. They travelled through the dangerous terrain to the box room they had found Keen-Edge prisoner in, that the automaton Proof had brought the wounded Clockmaker to. The walls were still lined with the gears that had made Basira’s deadly trap, but they had no effect now that the great saws and blades at the end had been severed. Elmira explained little, but that she was looking for a pattern, and she would make something from it. She poured ink onto one little gear at the beginning, and they watched as the ink began to travel from the first gear to the one it interlocked with, slowly winding in slick black patterns through the room, a natural and unpredictable progression like a vine bursting into bloom. Elmira carefully laid paper along it, picking up the pattern the clock laid down for her.

As they left, she asked Erilaz how her studies were going. Though Elmira’s workings were still a mystery to her, they inspired Erilaz, and she signed that she was figuring the clock out herself, on her own time. She gestured beyond them, an imperious command, and after a moment, a chain flew to her hand. Elmira could recall Basira, the previous Chosen of the Clock, doing the exact same thing, and watched as Erilaz quickly taught herself how to control its movements as she clung to it, controlling the movements of the gears it fed through to rapidly raise and lower herself through the clock’s treacherous workings.

= = =

Lark and Skree wandered the streets of Towersong, Lark trying awkwardly to be a good host, but distracted by fears of what Skree might do. Even if she didn’t hurt anyone, having her here meant she might run into his girlfriend Emerald, and Lark hadn’t yet figured out what to tell her about Skree. She got bored quickly and picked up on Lark’s nervousness, confronting him over it. She promised him she only wanted to spend time with him, and changed the subject quickly by challenging him to a race to the hills, taking off immediately.

Lark swerved through the streets, matching Skree. His nervousness evaporated in the face of a simple, easy choice. As they got outside the city, Skree’s wings and talons sprouted, and she took off to the air, but Lark made a great leap, pulling her down to the ground with him. Skree let herself fall straight to the ground, and pulled Lark down with her, both laughing breathlessly.

= = =

Manus was applying himself to paperwork in his study, still annoyed his eagerness had overshot his caution with his father, when Ural announced that Ledaal Savoy was waiting in the sitting room. Manus was delighted, and put his work aside immediately for the distraction Savoy would provide. Just as he saw him again, though, he remembered he had been angry with Savoy- he had left his father to die in the lake! And now he clearly had timed the schedule to come at a time Volan would be out. Manus immediately put up a defensive front, but Savoy smiled widely at him and spoke charmingly, and before he realized it, Manus had forgotten entirely that he had been angry at all. It took little effort for Savoy to charm him into bed, next.

They lay in bed talking a long time afterwards, for unsurprisingly, Savoy had come in need of a favour. He wanted Elmira’s help with something, and he needed Manus to tell him how to get it. He explained the trouble: the Saltspire Leagues was named for their five great manses, built above the saltwater River of Tears to cleanse it for drinkable water and to harvest the salt from it. Of these, Plenilune’s manse was the only one running at close to intended speed, and the rest were either broken entirely or significantly impaired. But Plenilune’s was slowing down, and Savoy told how his sources feared that a disaster would occur when it finally failed, a backlash through the dragon lines that would erupt like an earthquake through the north. What he asked was for Elmira to come work at repairing it, to fix the manse as best she could, for she was the north’s foremost expert on the unique architecture of manses, and none of the Realm’s experts had come.

The problem was that he wished Plenilune to remain in Realm hands. Manus saw no problem with this, of course, but instantly saw how difficult it would be to bring an Anathema Queen into the ranks of Realm expatriates that lived in Plenilune. And getting Elmira to agree to quietly, secretly help a nation in the hands of her enemies… this was the difficult part. Manus urged Savoy to bring it to his Queen as a petition, for though she didn’t like Savoy and the request was not something she would like, she would probably respond best to a humble request for her aid.

#exalted #towersong #session recap #towersong book 3