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| Why was it much easier to keep a (fictional) cursed town isolated and under wraps in the old days, rather than in modern times? |
| Cell phones and internet. |
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| This is a bit of an unusual question, but how does one write about a blizzard (I live in a tropical country, and I've never seen snow, let alone an actual snowstorm) |
| When I need to know how to write about something I usually search the internet, find books on the subject via the library, or seek videos. A scientific explanation of snow might help, but better would be to ask people who have experienced snow. It is cold, sometimes wet enough to be packed into a snowball, or fluffy/dry enough to be powdery. Reading stories about snow storms can be helpful. A frosted glass taken from a freezer might give you a clue. Depending on the focus of your story or character(s) you could find descriptions of peoples reactions to snow and snowstorms. |
| I was in Alaska for five years. You could have poor visibility, even "white-out" conditions where you can't see more than a few feet. Saw snow blowing horizontally. Stuff gets compacted on roadways, and traction becomes treacherous. Temperatures can fall low enough to be dangerous or deadly. I remember a story about two men who went elk hunting in cotton clothing and were found dead, with their clothes frozen to their skins. They exerted themselves, hauling out a carcass in a blizzard and extreme cold. Sweat saturated their inadequate clothing, then froze, destroying any insulating value. Several movies about the American West/Frontiers depict extreme snow storms and deadly cold. I only remember Jeremiah Johnson offhand, and there was one with Charles Bronson. The internet must have numerous videos and descriptions. |
| Added some new stories, interactives and campfires, feel free to check them out and review them in my portfolio! |
| I grew up a very long time ago (where the 'unaware parents' idea was often in full effect in most supernatural dramas. Thoughts on why it's usually subverted nowadays? Discuss |
| Is anyone participating in Artfight 2023 this year? I currently am! Feel free to draw any of my characters! https://artfight.net/~Memosyne40 |
| I would like to join some new campfires, so feel free to send me some invites! |
You can also do some searches for campfires to join.  But when searching WdC, be sure to change the search to search all of WdC, not just your own port...yeah, experience talking.  When you find one you like, check the person's Community tab to see if they're still coming to WdC before bothering to send an email requesting an invite. Though you can set the search results to show you the most active ones first, so that should help filter out those with folks who have left years ago.  Good luck! |
| Can someone please explain to me exactly why the "shapeshifting lovers" trope is so prevalent internationally in most cultures (particularly Asian folklore)? |
| The "why" is actually a little complicated. It does not appear much in early European or Mesopotamian folklore, but does appear, as you said, in Asia, as well as South America and some Pacific Islands. That is not to say that the other cultures did not have therianthropes - weredogs were especially popular in ancient Greece - but the "lover" trope simply did not seem to exist. In South America, around the Amazon region, the legend of the Encantado has probably been explored in this regard most thoroughly. The Encantado was said to be able to shift between fresh water dolphin and human, and was used by women to explain unexpected or unwanted pregnancies. The dolphins were revered and so were not killed by the local peoples, and as such they came to treat the humans as just another animal, not a threat, and would nuzzle the humans, probably in search of food. This was seen as something possibly sexual, and so the Encantado was blamed when a pregnancy would occur that could allegedly not be explained any other way. In Japan, it is very common with the female Kitsune, a were-fox (for lack of a better term), that men would be beguiled by her and fall in love. They could be evil, but also good, and were used to explain women with no known background who would appear in a village, just to look for a man. Why it became associated with the fox is possibly due to some of the animal's behaviours being translated to these women. It is really in the Medieval period when Europeans started to look at this, particularly as the legend of the Werewolf arose. While seen as mainly evil, in some cases the creature was pitied, and it was said the love of a woman could save a Werewolf, borrowing from many other earlier myths of this happening with other creatures. The thought is that people are attracted to the concept of the animal within, being free and at one with nature, and so this trope is borne from that desire to occasionally escape civilisation and embrace that animal side, and doing so with one who is free and can guide them down that path. Of course, the problem is modern pop culture has really clouded the origins of this. It has infected online and psychological discourse on the matter, muddying the waters to a degree that makes it very hard to ascertain what is going on. The trope has grown almost as a fetish, and is possubly a precursoor to the furry phenomenon, but, again - pop culture making it hard. |
| If my carer gave me tap water from the bathroom sink to drink after hydrotherapy, and I drank it down without knowing where it came from, what should I do now? |
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