anywho what IF they made a HALLOWEEN special set after huntr/x turn the honmoon rainbow (?) which MEANS they have to deal with more SUPERNATURAL stuff spilling into the human realm and one NIGHT they are hunting what they think is a DEMON but they can't FIND it in the deep dark forest or w/e bc it's not acting like a regular demon it's all elusive and there's all those horror/ thriller tropes of group split up/ monster in the dark/ cant see the monster but it can see you etc AND TURNS OUT it is a GUMIHO that's way too OP (I like to think of the KPDH power scaling as demons →demon hunters→spirits) and so even tho they cant see it/ arent quite sure what it is YET they feel that instant blood curdling bone chilling terror etc but also a weird sense of thrilling anticipation. which gives them pause like "hey i dont think we're the hunters here"

anyway plot plot idk they end up tracking the Gumiho to a CLUB where everyone is wearing masks like an underground masquerade so Huntrx shows up in the outfits above

and they have to search and find out who is the demon/spirit/ whatever they're hunting they're still a bit in the dark (also gumiho shape shifts so there's that) and how do they know who is the REAL demon and who's just wearing masks etc and there's that dark rhythmic synth blasting and it's all chaotic w flashing neon strobes BUT THEN they for just a second see in the crowd a wildly beautiful woman WITHOUT a mask (bc the human form is already kind of the mask) looking right back at them and they get that same sense of danger and thrill then she melts back into the crowd:

so the gumiho looks like this (huntr/x for scale it's as big as a Clydesdale in fox form):

(for general vibes think Eres from that sinbad movie)

AND turns out THIS gumiho isn't evil it is a truly ANCIENT being like it was old in 200 bce and speaks like. idk the korean equivalent of shakespeare. AND is essentially an allegory/ personification of nature ie it's neutrality/ moral indifference, completely outside of humanity. and the Legends of gumiho bewitching men and killing them isnt entirely accurate bc the gumiho just mostly keeps to itself but HUMANS cannot mind their business and throughout history there are many examples of them trying to conquer/possess/control nature and it's beauty/power (beautiful things in general). and so in both fox and human form the gumiho is hunted by Man bc fox form=conquering nature like how people hunt elephants/ lions etc and human form= beautiful woman (i dont think i need to explain that one)

and so like people trying to "conquer" frontiers/ mountains they try to conquer the gumiho. but like nature the gumiho doesn't give a fuck abt morality or w/e and kills those who dont respect it. fuck around and find out, if you will.

so there's an ethical bind for huntr/x since the gumiho could have easily killed them 20 times over but didnt, and only kills for self-preservation, so it is only a threat to humans if humans try to impose their will on the gumiho. do you hunt/ imprison/ kill the gumiho in order to protect people from the consequences of their own actions? when if you were a gumiho to you'd likely do the same?

this bit of clunky dialogue is from a previous colour key post but it gets the general point across i thinK: (G:You are hunters, yet you cower in fear M: they say gumiho bewitch people, kill them, eat them G: child i have seen your kind throw themselves at mountains on high in the vain attempt to conquer the peak. each time they perished or were turned back, yet still they continued in their obsession. are you to tell me these mountains bewitched these humans? no, only your kind seem incapable of gazing upon wild beauty without desiring to control it M: So you don't kill? G: indeed i did, and you would too, were you I)

Also i find the gumiho to be Mira adjacent since if i go off the gumiho lore as mentioned above i think it ties in with the ideas around being the "visual" vis a vis body a commodity, self-determinism etc. and i like to think that the "lie she believes" is the whole "i'm aggressive, too blunt etc etc". but that's not really true, and she was only ever a "problem child" bc she wouldn't/ couldn't conform to the constraints/ expectations of her parents (i like to think of them as lowkey fkn unhinged, so there's no way she could have met their approval anyway, at least without losing her mind too.

(also my hc is that her brother is actually pretty similar to her but tried to appease their parents instead of rebelling against them and he's now a mess.ie a foil). like dont get me wrong she's definitely a direct, will not suffer fools type of personality but the anti-social behaviour she exhibited was just a fair reaction to her surroundings, so when she's allowed to be herself she's relatively chill like how she's presented in the movie. (but she's been gaslit to hell into believe the whole quick to anger aggressive thing). and maybe as a reaction to being told you get too wild she's like "oh i'll show you wild") So w the gumiho being like "ofc i killed those people they were gonna kill me or worse. how do you expect me to react" she's like huh u kno what fair enough. so parallels i guess. i mean i like to think there's way more to mira's relationship w her family but i've talked abt that on other posts and it's super long here anyway

(I guess she could sort a lot of this out in therapy but idk if Mira, who straight up growled at the healer guy for trying to read her or w/e would willingly step into a therapy session?? i do love how she was amused when the healer clocked rumi but as soon as it was directed at her she's like u wanna fkn fight mate. ~ imo narratives & character arcs require resolution through conflict so i only ever think characters should get therapy in stories to either show how ill-adjusted they are ie fleabag, successesion or as a framing device that doesn't have the desired outcome on irl therapy ie the sopranos. as in id rather see characters work out/ have realisations abt themselves throught plot etc etc no therapy speech in my little stories. headcanon w/e u want tho)

anyway i just love stories w girls can work through their justified anger and it's not all just like ooh let it go be the bigger person violence is not the answer bc i really dont think that kind of moral framework/resolution works the same as it does w male characters (katara i will forever love you)

anyway im not going to go on bc i feel like this:

general themes include adoration vs fetishization (where is the line), ancient clashing w the modern, amoral nature vs the human tendency to rationalise/moralise, power & control, the bias of history/ legends and who tells them, who controls the narrative, the horrors of being perceived and the entertainment industry writ large ie voyeurism, exploitation and its echoes throughout history etc etc

anyway there isn't any super thought out plot/ story here I just wanted to get those visuals out (my process is something like "oh this scene would look so cool" then i have to work backwards to find a story to match with the themes and vibes of the visual - so apologies to anyone hoping for a resolution/ coherent plot for any of the colour keys/ storyboards i've done in the past idk how to write anything properly D':) nothing here is that serious/coherent

Shadow Dragon Week - Neve Gallus

I have spent a significant portion of my life sick in bed. This means I have read... a lot of fanfiction. I do not want to run the numbers (for my own sanity) but there is a nonzero chance that I have read a greater volume of fanfiction than most of you will in a lifetime (yes, even in a tumblr crowd, where I have some real competition 😆).

For a number of years I was really embarrassed by this because for most of my life, I've fit best with the 'socially elitist nerd' set. You know - the ones who don't care if you make a little less eye contact, as long as your performance of intelligence can make them feel intelligent too. I "passed" there. So more than a decade of constant fluff and rom-com "junk" really felt like something I should be ashamed of.

But I've realized recently what fanfiction (or any free web fiction) really is. It's the author's hopes. It's the author's fears. It's all the things you wouldn't write to publish because they feel too sad, or sinful, or sacred.

Without really thinking about it, I've been drinking from the well of human desire - from fear, and love, and lust. I've been reading your precious wishes for family, or protection, or connection. I've been learning how you dream life could be.

Thank you to every writer whose work I have read or will read someday. Thank you for sharing the most precious parts of your heart, even when you didn't realize what you were doing. To every writer out there - every middle schooler with dreams, every suburban mom wishing her life could be something more. You reached out into the oblivion with the piece of yourself you probably don't even share with those closest. And somewhere in this world, a person noticed. Your dreams and hopes and wishes became a piece of me too.

Also, the kiss was a big deal not just because it was gay but because the trans actress was HIV positive. They wanted to show the world that you can't contract HIV just from kissing someone. Bear in mind, the AIDS crisis was still fresh on people's minds in the 90s.

I’m like

Shadow Dragon Week !

Alternate: Shadows Stand Together

A Study of Kazoo Town? A Kazoo of Dock Town? Please hold your tomatoes--

@shadow-dragon-week 🎺🐉

"And from the ashes of the old world our love shall grow"

anywho what IF they made a HALLOWEEN special set after huntr/x turn the honmoon rainbow (?) which MEANS they have to deal with more SUPERNATURAL stuff spilling into the human realm and one NIGHT they are hunting what they think is a DEMON but they can't FIND it in the deep dark forest or w/e bc it's not acting like a regular demon it's all elusive and there's all those horror/ thriller tropes of group split up/ monster in the dark/ cant see the monster but it can see you etc AND TURNS OUT it is a GUMIHO that's way too OP (I like to think of the KPDH power scaling as demons →demon hunters→spirits) and so even tho they cant see it/ arent quite sure what it is YET they feel that instant blood curdling bone chilling terror etc but also a weird sense of thrilling anticipation. which gives them pause like "hey i dont think we're the hunters here"

anyway plot plot idk they end up tracking the Gumiho to a CLUB where everyone is wearing masks like an underground masquerade so Huntrx shows up in the outfits above

and they have to search and find out who is the demon/spirit/ whatever they're hunting they're still a bit in the dark (also gumiho shape shifts so there's that) and how do they know who is the REAL demon and who's just wearing masks etc and there's that dark rhythmic synth blasting and it's all chaotic w flashing neon strobes BUT THEN they for just a second see in the crowd a wildly beautiful woman WITHOUT a mask (bc the human form is already kind of the mask) looking right back at them and they get that same sense of danger and thrill then she melts back into the crowd:

so the gumiho looks like this (huntr/x for scale it's as big as a Clydesdale in fox form):

(for general vibes think Eres from that sinbad movie)

AND turns out THIS gumiho isn't evil it is a truly ANCIENT being like it was old in 200 bce and speaks like. idk the korean equivalent of shakespeare. AND is essentially an allegory/ personification of nature ie it's neutrality/ moral indifference, completely outside of humanity. and the Legends of gumiho bewitching men and killing them isnt entirely accurate bc the gumiho just mostly keeps to itself but HUMANS cannot mind their business and throughout history there are many examples of them trying to conquer/possess/control nature and it's beauty/power (beautiful things in general). and so in both fox and human form the gumiho is hunted by Man bc fox form=conquering nature like how people hunt elephants/ lions etc and human form= beautiful woman (i dont think i need to explain that one)

and so like people trying to "conquer" frontiers/ mountains they try to conquer the gumiho. but like nature the gumiho doesn't give a fuck abt morality or w/e and kills those who dont respect it. fuck around and find out, if you will.

so there's an ethical bind for huntr/x since the gumiho could have easily killed them 20 times over but didnt, and only kills for self-preservation, so it is only a threat to humans if humans try to impose their will on the gumiho. do you hunt/ imprison/ kill the gumiho in order to protect people from the consequences of their own actions? when if you were a gumiho to you'd likely do the same?

this bit of clunky dialogue is from a previous colour key post but it gets the general point across i thinK: (G:You are hunters, yet you cower in fear M: they say gumiho bewitch people, kill them, eat them G: child i have seen your kind throw themselves at mountains on high in the vain attempt to conquer the peak. each time they perished or were turned back, yet still they continued in their obsession. are you to tell me these mountains bewitched these humans? no, only your kind seem incapable of gazing upon wild beauty without desiring to control it M: So you don't kill? G: indeed i did, and you would too, were you I)

Also i find the gumiho to be Mira adjacent since if i go off the gumiho lore as mentioned above i think it ties in with the ideas around being the "visual" vis a vis body a commodity, self-determinism etc. and i like to think that the "lie she believes" is the whole "i'm aggressive, too blunt etc etc". but that's not really true, and she was only ever a "problem child" bc she wouldn't/ couldn't conform to the constraints/ expectations of her parents (i like to think of them as lowkey fkn unhinged, so there's no way she could have met their approval anyway, at least without losing her mind too.

(also my hc is that her brother is actually pretty similar to her but tried to appease their parents instead of rebelling against them and he's now a mess.ie a foil). like dont get me wrong she's definitely a direct, will not suffer fools type of personality but the anti-social behaviour she exhibited was just a fair reaction to her surroundings, so when she's allowed to be herself she's relatively chill like how she's presented in the movie. (but she's been gaslit to hell into believe the whole quick to anger aggressive thing). and maybe as a reaction to being told you get too wild she's like "oh i'll show you wild") So w the gumiho being like "ofc i killed those people they were gonna kill me or worse. how do you expect me to react" she's like huh u kno what fair enough. so parallels i guess. i mean i like to think there's way more to mira's relationship w her family but i've talked abt that on other posts and it's super long here anyway

(I guess she could sort a lot of this out in therapy but idk if Mira, who straight up growled at the healer guy for trying to read her or w/e would willingly step into a therapy session?? i do love how she was amused when the healer clocked rumi but as soon as it was directed at her she's like u wanna fkn fight mate. ~ imo narratives & character arcs require resolution through conflict so i only ever think characters should get therapy in stories to either show how ill-adjusted they are ie fleabag, successesion or as a framing device that doesn't have the desired outcome on irl therapy ie the sopranos. as in id rather see characters work out/ have realisations abt themselves throught plot etc etc no therapy speech in my little stories. headcanon w/e u want tho)

anyway i just love stories w girls can work through their justified anger and it's not all just like ooh let it go be the bigger person violence is not the answer bc i really dont think that kind of moral framework/resolution works the same as it does w male characters (katara i will forever love you)

anyway im not going to go on bc i feel like this:

general themes include adoration vs fetishization (where is the line), ancient clashing w the modern, amoral nature vs the human tendency to rationalise/moralise, power & control, the bias of history/ legends and who tells them, who controls the narrative, the horrors of being perceived and the entertainment industry writ large ie voyeurism, exploitation and its echoes throughout history etc etc

anyway there isn't any super thought out plot/ story here I just wanted to get those visuals out (my process is something like "oh this scene would look so cool" then i have to work backwards to find a story to match with the themes and vibes of the visual - so apologies to anyone hoping for a resolution/ coherent plot for any of the colour keys/ storyboards i've done in the past idk how to write anything properly D':) nothing here is that serious/coherent