just looked through about 700 werewolf books, good grief.
most seem to fall into two categories:
werewolf serial killer mysteries
domineering alpha romances
neither is really what I’m interested in.
here is what I’d want from the werewolf novel of my wildest dreams:
good relationships, especially friendships between packmates (lone wolves are boring)
werewolves who like being werewolves. (angsty wolves are boring)
the practical details of werewolfery: who’s got the bail money for animal control, whether anyone’s microchipped, what you pack in a bag for a night out werewolfing
the uses of werewolfery: hiring yourselves out as trackers or canine rescue, getting certified as service dogs, spending your free time at the library letting little kids read to a friendly doggie
female werewolves, and no weird gross hypermasculine alpha stuff going on in werewolf culture
queer werewolves, and no weird gross heteronormative ‘laws of nature’ stuff going on in werewolf culture
dog jokes.
The standard urban fantasy female protagonist dating a werewolf who is not an alpha. Bonus points for it being a cute beta werewolfess who thinks her girlfriend’s perpetual posturing as the ‘baddest bitch on the block’™ is the most adorable thing ever. Extra bonus points for fuzzy baby werewolves and adopted babies. (Because actual wolf packs? Exist to raise children. They’re family units, focused around rearing cubs.)
okay this is one of the cutest reblogs I’ve gotten.
imagine it
werewolves just going YES FAMILY GOOD and adopting everyone and making sure they get attention and food and understand that it’s fine to be who you are and that you’re not alone, you’re pack now
and the kids that can’t turn into wolves get to ride on the dogsleds to make sure they’re not left out during the full moon family bonding time (… you have to be an adult to pull a dogsled. mistakes have been made.)
werewolves on the PTA. werewolf den mothers. werewolf little league coaches. werewolves filling the bleachers and auditioriums and dance halls and galleries, cheering for their kids. werewolves helping kids with their homework, werewolves sewing costumes for the school play, werewolves showing kids how to change a tire
werewolves with battered kitchen tables with chewed legs. werewolves with huge family dinners. werewolves ferrying pies and casseroles and fresh baked bread back and forth between family members’ houses. werewolf extended families. massive werewolf packs that are technically only about 25% werewolf but still definitely packs
puppy teeth being left for the tooth fairy. fangs being left for the tooth fairy. cuttlebones being left for the tooth fairy. stolen teeth being left for the tooth fairy. werewolves with giant families full of kids with different needs and species.
werewolves adopting everyone. werewolves fostering everyone. werewolves who wind up with dozens of kids, all of whom are family and therefore pack.
WEREWOLVES BASED ON ACTUAL WOLF PACK BEHAVIOR INSTEAD OF BULLSHIT DOMINANCE THEORY! All the werewolf fiction I’ve read involves everything falling to shit due to infighting over who gets to be alpha like WAY TO ILLUSTRATE EXACTLY WHY THIS IDEA DOESN’T WORK. You really think wolves would be successful hunters if they were constantly getting injured and wasting energy fighting each other?!
The whole idea of “alpha” dynamics is based entirely on the behaviour of wolves in captivity! If you so much as google “wolves in captivity alpha”, you’ll get a bunch of results about why it’s not representative of actual wolf behaviour.
As it turns out, if you capture, restrain, and shove together wolves from unrelated packs, they will fight and form a hierarchy of power.
Kind of like prison. Because, functionally, the exact premise of that kind of captivity is kind of like prison.
Wolves are social animals, and they interact in the wild pretty much the same way other family-centric social animals do.
Hey, you know what another family-centric social animal we’re all familiar with is? People. Just, you know, take away the oppressive idea that one parent is the definitive and unchallengeable head of the household that most of us have lived under for so long first.
Wolves are apparently group problem-solvers, and presumably, in large packs, you’re going to get squabbling and older pack members mitigating it, just like that one patient aunt or uncle or grandparent or close family friend who is essentially a relative often does in big families.
There’s a very legitimate basis for writing werewolves as friendly, community-minded folks. If your werewolves view their human neighbours as other packs not in competition with themselves, they’re likely going to be those people that the entire neighbourhood views as very nice, but “a little overwhelming.” (And maybe a little too indulgent with their kids, according to the neighbourhood snobs.)
Your gigantic werewolf family is probably going to be a litle less threatening and overtly secretive and a little more “we’re having a barbeque, when can we expect you??? you didn’t come last week, were you sick??? we were all worried- do you not eat meat?? oh, okay, I’ll have Sophie and Thaddeus pick up some Halal burgers and we’ll scrub off the second barbeque for them and some vegetable skewers, too, does that sound good?? so when can we expect you????”
(Also: werewolves taking in queer kids and mentally ill kids and kids from broken homes even though they’re mundane because they can’t comprehend how someone could not want them. Werewolves taking in street kids.)
#…a pack of werewolves living in a huge house together like one of those huge families people sort of smile incredulously at#multiple generations#a pack occupying a trailer park because it’s near the woods and there’s a certain amount of security in having a mobile home#packs being viewed by mundanes as those eccentric families that fill the school gymnasium every time there’s an event with one of their kids#packs migrating to accomodate new packmates and encountering other packs#packs fusing to form entire communities#wolves taking in mundane street kids#werewolves#writing#urban fantasy
Here’s a thought …. I know I’ve seen some studies in the past that suggests that the behavior of people in urban environments is, in some ways, similar to the behavior of animals kept in captivity in confined spaces. (Cheery thought, right?) So how about a pack of werewolves who were born and raised in the city, who DO buy into all this “alpha” bullshit, who end up meeting a pack of country werewolves who are all like, “What the shit, you guys?”
Also, given my experience in this sort of family: gaining and LOSING family members. Kids who come for a few weeks or months, and then leave again, because family is too much and they’re back on their feet now.
Pups heartbroken over the loss of this new sibling. Pups thinking of anyone who visits as possible new family. Werewolves that are always late, because they saw Shawn downtown and hadn’t seen him since he lost his job and disappeared in shame. Or they ran into Olivia, and she’s doing GREAT with her grandma, so they were FINALLY able to give her back the stuff she left at their house after her fight with the teacher that time.
Werewolves who are never quite sure what to call their siblings. Because some of the newer ones are a bit touchy about family and maybe aren’t ready to be called “sis” yet.
Happy, complicated families. Even though family sometimes hurts.
Dammit, people, if you’re going to write a Canadian character, you can’t just throw “eh” in wherever. It’s not a verbal tic – it has a very specific semantic role.
In brief, “eh” does one of two things:
Turn an imperative into a request. e.g., “Pass me that wrench, eh?”
Turn a statement into a question. e.g., “Cold out there, eh?”
In the latter case, there are several situations where it’s commonly used:
The speaker is not sure that the statement she’s just made is correct, and is asking the listener to confirm. e.g., “That’s about forty kilometers West of here, eh?”
The speaker is checking that the listener is still interested and wishes for her to continue, but does not expect any specific response. e.g., “So then this freakin’ moose shows up, eh?”
The speaker is being sarcastic. e.g., “You really thought that one through, eh?”
When used in this way, “eh” is roughly equivalent to appending “isn’t it?” (“doesn’t it?”, “didn’t you?”, etc.) to the end of a sentence; interestingly, it also functions very much like the Japanese “ne”, which has a nearly identical effect when appended to a statement.
– the rise of old friends senior dog sanctuary
– Hamilton
– pokemon go
– female ghostbusters
– i don’t give a fuck im outta here Obama
– captain america civil war
– girl, black guy and latino guy leads in new star wars
– deadpool
– lemonade
– literally???! Nothing??? Else????
… . and this is just what I came up with in a pretty lazy google search in an hour, including distractions where I went down the research rabbit-hole for a bit because holy crap some of that stuff’s NEAT, guys!
And I know I’m missing stuff, because I wanted a citation for every single thing I put on there.
And like I do actually get the sudden overwhelmed feeling of EVERYTHING SUCKS? but that mindset is, at this point, literally our worst enemy. “Everything is terrible somebody do something” helplessness is what will in fact consign us to everything BEING terrible.
Everything is not terrible. In fact there are new ways, every single month, wherein new opportunities and miracles are happening and no that does not balance out the bad shit but it gives every reason to FIGHT the bad shit, and to get past the bad shit, and to make sure the bad shit ISN’T the overwhelming stain.
So.
I am very grumpy right now with neurotypical people who recreationally use ADHD meds because:
The Canadian Government doesn’t let people renew their prescription until AFTER they have used every one of their meds
This is to make it more difficult for neurotypicals to steal or buy pills off ADHD people
No storing an extra 2 in your purse in case you forget to take one in the morning
No calling in your prescription 2 days early to the pharmacy, even to ask for it to be filled on the correct day
You have to completely run out of meds, call the pharmacy, wait at least an hour (usually an entire day if you use the automated phone service thing) for them to fill the prescription AND go to the store to pick it up. All in under a day, so you don’t miss a dose
ADHD makes organization, memory, and forward planning difficult
If you miss a pill, these symptoms worsen drastically
I am scared of driving when I miss a pill, because my eyes forget to focus on the road and I start thinking about Angkorian Khmer women’s names instead of red lights
I miss at least one pill almost every month
People like taking my meds for fun, so I get to stare glassily into the distance, unable to form a sentence without multiple rewrites. I get to spend 5 minutes trying to read a sign and and letting people go in front of me, trying to figure out if Tim Horton’s sells tea. I get to spent 15 minutes sitting at the university, trying to decide if I need to call my cousin to bus there and drive me and my car home so I don’t crash.
The image shows the ‘Notes’ section of a fanfic on AO3. It says:
Notes:
This is a work of fiction, and we take liberties with most of the subject matter. Except, in this case, with the information surrounding eels! All of the information presented about eels is scientifically accurate.
Lavender: Name something that relaxes you.
Polaroid: Post a picture that makes you feel good about yourself.
Vinyl: What is some of your favorite music?
Incense: List your three favorite scents.
Roots: How do you ground yourself or recharge?
Silk Sheets: Any ways you treat or spoil yourself?
Paintbrushes: Do you have a creative past-time?
Scars: Share something difficult you’ve been through.
Rainstorms: What helps you fall asleep?
Bones: Name one strength and one weakness.
Teacups: Favorite beverages?
Sealing Wax: Have you ever received a letter or written one to someone else?
Dragons: What makes you feel powerful, what breathes life into you?
Soup: Comfort food?
The Moon: What’s your favorite thing to do at night?
Klosh: If you could go back to any three era’s what would they be?
Lace: Your favorite things to wear?
Pocketwatch: If you could be immortal or have an extremely long life span what would you pick and why?
Honeybee: Name something positive you have done for yourself or someone else in the last two weeks.
Typewriter: If you had to come up with ten words to describe your life story so far, what would they be?
Blue Hair Dye: One thing you like about your appearance?
Felines: Something that makes you feel better after a hard day?
Poetry: If you have one, name a favorite book or poem.
games shouldnt have hydra characters as like, playable characters. i never wanna see someone call madame hydra a “badass female character.” like u know what she really is? a nazi
kiragecko 