#river spirits

[tiddypopeye]

Digital drawings from my “Water Spirits” zine, 2022

[sorapikakaminari]

Finished my embroidery. Inspired by when I wss at the Katsura river.

[remembertheplunge]

Water spirits

8/16/1988 

I saw human ghosts today in a state of peace. They were gazing down at the river outside of my old apartment. This old man and his spry dog approached he said “It’s amazing, I was jogging and this nice man and his wife and kid stopped and the man gave me $50 pair of Adida’s.  I said I want to pay you, but I ain’t got but $10 to my name." The guy said , “No, you don’t need to pay me.”  The old man asked me" Why would he do that? I’m almost 80. I never thought that I would live this long. I just visited my 63 year old friend at the hospital. He is in a wheel chair and in bad shape. Why am I so OK at 80?” And then he walked on down River Road on his way, his shoe split out. He was  the spirit of the river. I saw a few other river spirits including a young built man with his dog  and a young  girl and a 50ish back packer hobo type. All human water glen spirits created by water mist, out and about.

end of entry

Notes 10/23/2025

I lived in an apartment across a small road from the Big Chico Creek for several years in the mid 1970's in Chico California. I was a student at CSU Chico. I'd gone back to visit in August 1988 when I saw the "river spirits." The original River Spirits journal entry is included in the following blog.

[shamebats]

Can't make it today, a Slavic river spirit stole my soul. Yeah, it's stored in a porcelain teapot now. It has elevated his social status, he's already bragging about it to his river spirit pals. Mhm...not getting it back anytime soon, sooo sorry

[goodnightngoth]

me after feeding someone’s name to the river spirits

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

another one!! 🪳

recommend a great AU!

this took me too long to answer excuse mwah <3 sorry i couldnt resist asdhjash such a stupid joke

with you from dusk by katharija. WOH modern au, chronic pain, unspecified chronic illness, angst, trust issues, vulnerability, grief/mourning, sharing a bed, T. i literally just finished rereading it this morning! a brief glance at wenzhou's early days, but set in modern day. im very weak for conversations in the dark, after some guards have been lowered and possibilities to live your life a different way, a better way, seem tangible. there is also a sequel to this!

hunger by lastembers. WOH modern au, chronic pain, unspecified chronic illness, referenced cannibalism, canon-typical violence, domesticiation of a monster, M. also a fic i finished rereading the other day! what if wenzhou were neighbours, but wen kexing eats people? u know that im very into cannibalism as this metaphor for something else and as a stepping stone to experience real emotional intimacy! i also really like it when the very palpable sensation of hunger functions to talk about very related things, very visceral things, that can also be felt in the body.

there is a line here i particularly liked:

"Aren't you hungry?" Zhou Zishu asks. Wen Kexing is watching him like he's the most interesting thing in the world. "No," Wen Kexing says. Zhou Zishu knows its a lie. He thinks maybe Wen Kexing is always hungry.

oh, you're mine to take, i wanna hear the sounds you'll make by anonymous. MDZS modern au, genderbend wangxian, experimenting with gender, E. just quoting that one tumblr post from a while back: "dykes who want get fucked in the ass like gayboys." yep!!!

fish & wild geese by impossibletruths. MDZS modern au, wangxian, little forest AU, hunger as a metaphor for grief, farming as a metaphor for healing, food as a metaphor for love, T. lan wangji moves into his dead mother's house and tries to remember how it is to live. its been a while since i read this but i still remember how the grief felt like a fishbone stuck in my throat.

and you must keep your soul/ like a secret in your throat by athena_crickey. MDZS, The Untamed, modern au, modern cultivation, supernatural elements, vampires, culture clash, case fic, grief/mourning, complicated family dynamics, the weariness of being old and immortal, what it means to be alive, E. wei wuxian is an ancient vampire and lan wangji is a young (youngish) cultivator who seeks him out for a case. i particularly liked seeing glimpses of wei wuxian's earlier lives through fictional academical articles and reports at the end of each (i think it is each?) chapter, and sometimes through their conversations. i like it when there is a really old (really, really old) being there and through them, you are challenged to confront what being alive for such a long time does to a person, in what ways it reshapes them.

in the water grass, in the green by nerdzeword, twigofwillow. The Untamed, modern with magic, wangxian, angst, illness, curses, witches, river spirits, family, gardening, G. lan wangji's mother falls ill. he asks the wen witches across the street for help. this fic, too, has the theme of finding solace and comfort in cooking, food, and nature! i love lan wangji being this transcended being between a person and a river! there is also some anticipatory grief here and complex family dynamics; even though madam lan isnt dead, it is hard for lan wangji to reach her because she is not accepted by his family. he has feelings about that.

bug me bug me for fic recs!!!!

[ginwaterblue]

[thecorpselight]

The Undines, water-sprites, white ladies and naiads all claimed their human sacrifices either directly or indirectly. In former days the victim was despatched to the gods unwillingly. In later, more moderate times the offering became voluntary or even accidental. Today we find the kernel of the same primitive idea lingering in the still often-quoted, if not now actually believed saying, that the River Dart annually demands a human life: Dart, Dart, cruel Dart, Every year thou claim'st a heart. Or, more simply: Dart, Dart, Wants a Heart. The "cry of the Dart" is a very old Dartmoor superstition. At certain times, the unusually loud and insistent noises of the river, especially where it rushes round the Broad Stone, was construed into the "voice" calling for its "heart". William Crossing tells the story of a farm lad from nearby Rowbrook who became obsessed with the notion that he was the river's next destined victim. One night, shouting: "Dart's calling me", he ran out into the darkness down towards the river and was never seen or heard of again. Beatrice Chase, who had much of the mystic in her character, sent me an account of one of her personal experiences of this belief. From her Widecombe cottage one summer day, she herself became aware of the "cry" of the Dart, which, she wrote, "chilled and frightened" her, being an unusual sound at that time of the year. (This, incidentally, was a more or less tantamount admission that the phenomenon is governed by meteorological conditions.) At the time, being an ardent Roman Catholic, she was troubled about a neighbour's newly-born child, not yet baptized. She sensed that the river was about to claim that particular young heart and reflected that it must surely be the first occasion on which the Dart had "cried for a heart" within the hour of the child's birth. Once convinced of this, she characteristically set about trying to remedy the situation as she saw it, by finding a priest to perform the baptism immediately. But it was not soon enough and the baby was found dead in its cot before the ceremony could take place. That is one modern instance of belief in this age-old idea of the fatal call of the river gods. Another recent story, less definite in detail, comes from Belstone. A few years ago, an elderly native of the place told how, one evening, he was walking along the West Cleave beyond the village, when he saw a farmer-neighbour standing below him on the brink of the rapidly flowing East Okement river. Sensing impending tragedy, he hurried down the slope to join him. As he did so, he heard a loud voice, apparently emanating from the turbulent water, distinctly proclaim the words: "The hour has come, but not the man." This fragmentary story again lacks detail that one would so much like to know, but it is undoubtedly related to the same "call of the river" theme. It is, however, unique in its inference, which seems to be that for some reason, the wrong victim was presenting himself and being rejected.

The Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor. Ruth E. St. Leger-Gordon.