"a Fatherless Son With A Brother Of Death,

prompt # 43

“As my legal guardian, you are required to like me by law.”

“As your legal guardian, I am not required to like you. I am required to financially support you, pay enough attention to you, handle your education, and shower you with affection until you are of legal age, yes. But I am not required to like you.”

I redrawn

09.15.2023/01.01.2023

Why don’t I hear more about undead beings coming back to warn people? It’s always zombies wanting to drag people down to join them in the grave, ghosts seeking vengeance, spirits trying to chase people out of their domains - but if you died horribly and were left rattling around some spooky mansion for eternity, wouldn’t you want to stop people from blundering into the same death you had?

You feel a cold breath on your neck as you get in the car. It won’t leave until you fasten your seatbelt. An unseen force catches your foot as you pass the fourth step every time you walk up the stairs. During a renovation, you find out the wood is rotten. You can never find a pack of cigarettes - even ones guests bring disappear from their pockets and are found weeks later on the lawn, empty. Your daughter is giggling and laughing at something unseen, chasing after it away from the cliffside on your family hike. You don’t know why, but you feel compelled to leave a spare hairband and some stickers on a picnic table as you leave the park. Tribute? A thank you? The items are gone by next time you visit, and you swear a happy child’s hum follows you home on the breeze.

…More preventative hauntings. It just makes sense.

12k what the fuck was that post

Things I want for werewolf families:

● Entire families purposefully turning into wolves just because it makes a better cuddle pile.

● Newborn werewolf babies still shifting wildly in accordance with their time-consuming emotions and new werewolf parents (sleep deprived and high on hormones) temporarily losing full control over their shifting, because whenever their baby howls instead of cries they immediately shift into their wolf form.

● Small children engaging in “comfort shifting” where they turn into wolves because their human feelings are a bit too much, or because they really need to roll up and hide their face in their tale right now.

● Adult family members teaching the kids, especially the girls, that while they can and will teach them how to shave if they want to, it is not necessary, not required, and absolutely not needed to look good, neat, or presentable.

● Werewolf teenagers shaving/cutting cool patterns in their fur.

● Little werewolves having to be reminded “count your thumbs!” before they run up the stairs / stick their face into a bowl of minced meat / try to jump out an open window, etc.

● Werewolves who only start transforming later in life getting completely overwhelmed by the smells and other sensations.

● Older family members making a big deal out of a child's first controlled, full-night transformation and the kid being grumpy and embarrassed about it but secretly really proud.

● Pre- and post-transformation care. Hot baths, massages, heating pads. Being a werewolf is very hard on the still-human body.

● Certain werewolves being born with the “pack instinct”, but other werewolves suddenly unlocking that part of their personality when they get or start taking care of kids. Suddenly they start filling the house with more and more food and start aggressively adopting everyone (of all ages) in their vicinity that seems in need of (better) family.

● Mixed werewolf-human families adopting big dogs to keep their werewolf kids company when they shift.

● Werewolf parents full-naming their howling cubs to get them to calm down instead of to scold them.

● Werewolves of all ages running amok in play. Everyone who knows them can tell they’re playing and not fighting, but to strangers it’s extremely worrying to watch.

fun thing about herding and/or generally neurotic breeds: they are really good at following rules you have instituted, but they will also make their own Dog Rules they will follow stringently whether or not you like it

their big fight is gonna melt my face off