And with that, chapter one is complete! Onward to chapter 2!
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Being something other than a human can be lonely at times. You would think enough people have drowned at sea that ghosts could keep each other company, but they can’t, which is why Funayūrei exist. These are the angry remnants of those who died in shipwrecks, and are trying to make others join them. This name is from Japan, but there are several different names that will mean the same across a variety of regions.
In addition to their names changing depending on which region of Japan you visit, their appearance also varies, likely due to the fact that the cause of their death or decomposition of their bodies would affect their form. They appear on rainy days, stormy or foggy nights, and on new or full moons. Their main goal is to drown you, so they’ll take any measure necessary to do so, whether it’s ladling water in spoonful by spoonful, stranding you in a reef, making your compass malfunction, or lighting a fire on the open sea during a storm to mislead boatmen into steering to their deaths.
The good thing is that they’re pretty easy to spot since they glow, for whatever reason. You can fend them off pretty easily if you keep an eye out, as just staring at them for long enough or stirring up the water is usually enough to keep them at bay. You can also throw them snacks as a deterrent, since people love food more than anything, dead or alive. There’s a good chance that while Nas and the Siren were having their kanoodling time underwater that a Funayūrei was getting a zombified boner nearby!~ Sadly that’s about all they can do though.
Some monsters are a bit more “mainstream”, and are known far and wide thanks to pop culture preventing us from forgetting their existence. You’ve heard of Medusa through movies like Hercules and every live action fantasy show that wants to portray an empowered female having her looks turn on her (literally). While you might know about the snake hair, and eyes that turn you to stone…no, that’s just about it.
This gorgon was usually described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living snakes as hair. Anyone who met her eyes would turn to stone, and seeing that she and her two sisters Stheno and Euryale hated mortal kind, pretty much everyone they met was going to meet a sad end. Her origins spawn either from a marriage of two archaic beings, or that she was a beautiful maiden who Poseidon raped in Athena’s temple, and instead of punishing the sea god, Athena decided to punish her with snake hair instead.
If you’re into the older crowd and like snakes, then you could always take your chances with wooing her. No direct eye contact, and those with a fetish for biting should likely ask for some mouth-to-crotch funsies. Just avoid bringing up Perseus and you’ll probably get to live!