alias no. 2

Welcome to the Department of Preternatural Resources. How can I assist you? Headworld / Worldbuilding blog MAIN: ghost-phage ART ONLY: noisyghost TWITTER: noisygh0st

[noisyghost]

Don’t you know it’s a full moon out there tonight? 

[deeplores]

Idk if I'm wording this right so bear with me. Do werewolves in their full transformation have enough awareness to not lash out at the person who means the most to them? Or is it sorta a aggression-free-for-all in their first few years before they start gaining better control?

(you worded it perfectly fine!) 

The tragedy of werewolves is the fact that, at all times, they are entirely aware of what they are doing. I have described the experience before as a sort of unending, unrelenting anger where, sometimes, it feels like the only way to satiate it would be to lash out at something, anything, for some kind of catharsis. 

Or, as an example: imagine you slept like shit so you’re already in a bad mood, then you spill coffee on yourself, then you bang your elbow against a doorframe, and then someone is rude to you at work, etc etc -- just a serious of small things that pile up on top of each other until you’re aware that even the tiniest of infractions is going to make you melt down. That’s sort of what it feels like for a werewolf on a full moon, except x10 and the feeling doesn’t go away and theres no real reason for it. 

When they lash out at the people around them, they are aware that it’s irrational, that they should not do it -- but they do it for the same reason a human lashes out at a loved one who’s just trying to help: they’re full of anger and they don’t know what to do with it. They have to physically fight the urge to express their anger violently, and some are more successful than others. 

The only positive is that, because they are fully aware of what they’re doing and who they’re doing it to, it’s easier for their humans to root them in reality and assuage them of certain anxieties. They can take certain precautions to curb their impulses as well, and actively avoid situations that are going to make it worse. 

[deeplores]

aliens? do they exist in your head world or do we ~just~ vibe on earth

considering i have confirmed the existence of multiple dimensions in my headworld let me just hit you with this: “the truth is out there” 

[deeplores]

how does the whole silver vs werewolves thing function in your work? i've heard ideas tied in with it just being superstition, an allergic reaction, and magic related, and always like hearing about how writers and artists work it into their world building and lore all in different ways. it's always neat and interesting to me hearing the different ideas and your world building is always 👌 -chef kiss- also hope your night gets better dude

To preface: silver has absolutely zero effect on my headworld werewolves. A regular bullet and a silver bullet would have the exact same effect. Its the same as wooden stakes for vampires; it’s all just dramatic flair. If you want to kill a monster, stabbing it really hard will probably do the trick, regardless of material! 

I imagine, like most things, the bit about silver came from folk tales over the years. Perhaps a hunter killed a werewolf with a silver plated spear that one time and suddenly they decided silver was a good luck charm. Superstitions develop quite easily when you find out giant monsters are real, after all! 

[deeplores]

You mentioned in a tweet that Ark and Josie share a kind of bond since she’s the one that turned him. How does that bond work and does it affect them in any way?

Once upon a time, Josephine was the prize fighting dog of a shit head monster trafficker who really should have died sooner. He put her through hell, and her trauma from being with him for so long irreparably altered her viral lineage. 

See, a werewolf that bites and turns a human passes on their “viral lineage”; their specific strain of lycanthropy that mutates within the host based on their own experiences. Josie is a tough son of a bitch! But also a deeply traumatized, grief stricken woman who ended up passing on this curse to an already deeply traumatize, grief stricken man. She didn’t necessarily make him a monster, but her own trauma is a mirror to his trauma and it makes for a very, very volatile, anxious, and desperate creature.

The context of how she bit him is also relevant: the truth of that matter is that she bit him while he (and others) were trying to rescue her. Sparing the details: she lost someone very important to her and, in anguish, lashed out at everyone and everything in the vicinity. Everyone she attacked died, except for Ark. 

She is very aware that he was trying to help her, and she regrets it endlessly. She is very much under the impression that she ruined his life. 

When i describe the bond between them, it’s less of a physical or magical sort of bond, it’s an emotional one. She is scared and alone and angry and he’s someone that tried to help her. She wants to reach out to him or associate with him or help him or do literally anything to atone for what she did but she doesn't quite understand that he’s managed to find peace with all of it and be happy regardless. He wants to show her that she is capable of having friends and a family and that being a “monster” isn’t actually a death sentence because god, does he wish that someone had made him feel that way. 

I suppose he just sees a lot of himself in her. 

[deeplores]

I’d love to know more about how magic works! Do different practitioners have affinities to certain types of magic? Are spells created like magical equations or can a magic user just spontaneously cast a spell?

Different people have different affinities for different magics and no two people will experience it in the same way! 

At its core, our concept of “magic” just stems from science being applied in.... strange ways. The basic form of most magic is alchemy, alchemy being the process that turns one thing into something else of equal value. There’s always a balance of matter: it cannot be created or destroyed, simply..... recycled.

Now, understanding this principle: you can begin to delve deeper into different applications of magic. 

Healing magic is the practical application of alchemy in the medical field and is most often practiced by druidic peoples or those with a particular affinity for “natural magics”. You can take life from the earth to give it back to the people. Magics involving the elements require careful objective planning; fire based magic may be the most accessible (if you know how a flint works you can figure out how to make fire in your hands), but this doesnt suddenly make you fireproof. Then you have teleportation magics, telekinetics, flying, transmutation -- a different branch for every interest. You could spend your whole life practicing one avenue and never be good at it.

Now, spells dont exist in the way that you would traditionally expect them to. There are no incantations, there is no written word, there are simply equations with the solution being Magic Happens. “Spells” will require different components based on what you hope to achieve. Is your goal to heal a cut? It’s objectively simple: you take something of equal value (perhaps a sapling? a freshly bloomed rose?) and you take that life and put it into something else. Objectively very simple. The trick is the math. 

What is equal to a cut? How much life do i have to take? What is this persons blood type? Do they have any pre-existing conditions? How old is the wound? How dangerous is the wound? Is it infected? 

The more you begin to pile on the equation, the more complicated the magic becomes. Some magics are forgiving. Healing a scraped knee is a no brainer; even if you mess it up, the consequences will probably just be “this cut didnt heal, darn.” 

What is the consequence for messing up the equation for trying to open a portal into another dimension?  

If a spell appears to be “cast on the spot” that spell most likely cost that person months of practice, rewriting the script, using their own body as a circuit to conduit the results. You have to be very good to preform magic on the spot. 

Further more: magic cannot be practiced naturally by everyone. It can be studied and replicated, but true magic requires specific genetic structures to perfect the equation. As such: some people will inherently be better at magic than others, and most will never be able to practice at all. 

People born with these magics are often from families whos lineage is dedicated to their own specific form of magic. Some families are healers, some only deal in the elements, some craft magical objects, and some are almost entirely non-magical, but are able to cast one very specific spell.

Very few learn to cast multiple forms of magic and very few try.  

[deeplores]

Are werewolves ever able to transform without the full moon? Are they able to shift any parts of their body at will?

Yes and Yes*!                *With caveats. 

A Werewolf’s transformations are actually dictated by a strict hormone cycle that just happens to coincide with the full moon. They are forced to turn on full moons, but it’s very possible to disrupt that cycle and begin early/late/multiple transformations. 

Typically speaking, these “unnatural turns” will only occur on the several says before a full moon, but it’s feasible to see a forced turn on any day of the month, given certain conditions. 

In regards to the turns that happen days before a full moon: these are often stress induced. If a werewolf is put under EXTREME duress a day or two before the full moon, it’s very possible for them to lose control and turn right then and there, though they will quickly turn back after the stressors have passed. These types of turn dont typically happen to newly bit wolves, but such risks should still be avoided.

There is also a chemically induced turn. Specific steroids can be used to induce a rage state where the werewolf loses all agency and has even less control of themselves than they normally would. These drugs are EXTREMELY illegal but are typically carted by people that engage in werewolf pit fights. The drug induced stupor doesnt last long and it wrecks the wolf’s body, but you typically only need 10 minutes to finish a fight, so they work well enough. 

As for shifting body parts: werewolves can grow claws and fangs (mostly) at will. Sometimes the reaction is involuntary, but those sort of slip ups tend to only happen around the full moon. If they push themselves too far, they may grow an inch or two and get noticeabley furrier than before, but it is yet unknown whether a werewolf could initiate a complete turn of their own volition. Evidence points to no.

[deeplores]

Is Ark fully asexual or does he lie somewhere on the spectrum as a gray-ace?

Arks sexuality is best described as “sex neutral asexual”. He has no sex drive and does not experience sexual attraction, but he engages in ~sexual activities~ of his own volition. Sometimes he’s into it, sometimes he’s not. If he’s not into it, he simply ends the engagement and moves on, but he’s fully capable of engaging and enjoying sex if he’s up to it.

[deeplores]

OOH I love your characters and worldbuilding so much!!! Seeing as you've drawn what older Ark looks like, how is his werewolf form affected by age? Is his lifespan altered being a werewolf and does his werewolf side change demeanor as he ages?

Werewolves (if left to live their lives) have about the same life span as the average human being. On the average, werewolves tend to have shorter life spans than humans, though, on account of how risky it can be for them to exist at times. 

Ark has an excellent support system though, and, as he gets older, takes and experiences fewer risks, meaning his life span will be pretty normal! 

Werewolves fur color and pattern is typically determined by their natural hair color, so Ark, in his older years, would probably be a lot grayer than when he’s in his 20s 

As for demeanor: werewolves tend to SIGNIFICANTLY chill out after they’ve been werewolves for long enough. Their threat of losing control never quite goes away entirely, but after 10-20 years of the same shit, their moods are way less prone to shifting wildly and theyre noticeably more aware of themselves and how they can interact with others. 

This behavior is so notable that by the time Ark is in his late 30s they don’t even bother locking him up anymore and he can pass his full moons in his own home. He, of course, is still incredibly cautious about this and insists on taking every precaution possible, but no one really views him as much of a danger any more.

(And, on the off chance that he does lose control, it’s never been directed at anyone he cares about lmao) 

[deeplores]

I loved those two comic pages you drew and was wondering how long it took Nick to accept that werewolves and other supernatural beings existed? Was he afraid at all after Ark told him what he was?

I asked my partner for his input (seeing as Nick is his OC haha). Here is his response: 

i dont think it took long for him to accept supernatural things were real. i think it was like a well this might as well be real thing. i think he thought the werewolf thing was a joke at first and then realized he was serious. dont think he was afraid [...] he wasnt afraid until he saw him actually turn and even that was more like a shock thing

I think a lot of the fear associated with finding out monsters are real is the initial shock of it as well as the immediate paranoia. After a few weeks living with it, it becomes clear that very little has actually changed (knowing that werewolves are real doesnt suddenly make you any more at risk of werewolf attack). 

Genuinely I think, after the immediate shock has worn off, Ark is the one harboring most of the fear in the relationship. 

[noisyghost]

CINEMATIC PARALLELS

[noisyghost]

oops ive been bad at crossposting things lmao anyway heres a reference sheet for cheslov since, apparently, i’ve never drawn one for him before! 

[ghost-phage]

I wrote a short story! It’s about the first time Nick ever saw Ark turn on a full moon. It’s 80% whump, 20% Mira being passive aggressive, and 100% Nick having a panic attack. 

I didnt proofread this at all so if there are typos that sucks lmao 

 8,429 words | 18 pages

> READ HERE <

[noisyghost]

hey ladies, anyone else ever inadvertently get your boyfriend infected with an ancient evil parasite? did y'all mercy kill him or did your crushing guilt keep u from pulling the trigger? asking for a friend

[noisyghost]

big meaty paws

[noisyghost]

some werewolves and some height comparisons :)

[deeplores]

Is there something about a person that determines the size they are as werewolves? Also, is there a reason Ark is so large as a werewolf compared to others?

There are several factors that help determine the size a werewolf will take when they turn, though, as with all things, there are variances that can skew the numbers in either direction. As such, these factors are considered more of a rough outline than a consistent model. 

1) Gender*: Female werewolves tend to be larger than males by a noticeable margin. Female werewolves are usually observed to grow to 10ft-13ft, where as males run in the 8ft-10ft range. There are instances of male werewolves being larger than this, and females being smaller, but there is enough evidence to suggest gender plays a role. 

*Trans women are women and trans men are men. Nonbinary folk can shift anywhere along the height spectrum with less regard for gender and more regard for other factors.   2) Human Height: A taller human will tend to make a taller werewolf. 

3) Size of the Werewolf that bit you: A larger werewolf tends to create larger “offspring”. 

4) Viral Lineage: A werewolf’s form is determined upon their first turn and does not change for the rest of their life (outside of shrinking/growing slightly if the human’s height changes with age). The virus they are infected with, however, mutates in response to stressors and environmental factors. A werewolf who undergoes certain kinds of trauma may create “offspring” that are larger or smaller in response to that trauma. 

-----

Ark is noticeably larger than most werewolves for several reasons: 

1) He is a decently tall (albeit, not markedly tall), at 6′2″  2) The werewolf that bit him was also quite large (13′)  3) The werewolf that bit him was a known prize fighter and was under near constant environmental distress. Her constant bid for survival was expressed physically when she passed the virus on to Ark.   And, as well, there was random (bad) luck involved.