Ive Gotten So Much Mileage Out Of This Tweet. Every Time I See Something On The Internet That Makes Me

Sailors & Other Sea Travellers - Superstition & Folklore

 ”Red skies at night, sailor’s delight. Red skies at morning, sailor take warning.”

Lore

Davy Jones is a popular character in sailor’s yore, especially of the gothic variety. Davy Jones’ Locker, is an idiom for the bottom of the sea: the state of death for drowned sailors. The origins of the name are unclear, and many theories have been put forth, including:

An actual David Jones, who was a pirate on the Indian Ocean in the 1630s.

A pub owner who kidnapped sailors and then dumped them onto any passing ship.

The incompetent Duffer Jones, a myopic sailor who often found himself over-board.

Or that Davy Jones is another name for Satan or “Devil Jonah”, the biblical Jonah who became the “evil angel” of all sailors. Due to this, sailors with the name “Jonah” were bad luck to have abroad.

Upon death, a wicked sailor’s body supposedly went to Davy Jones’ locker (a chest, as lockers were back then), but a pious sailor’s soul went to Fiddler’s Green (in maritime folklore it is a kind of afterlife for sailors who have served at least 50 years at sea).

At Fiddler’s Green, where seamen true When here they’ve done their duty The bowl of grog shall still renew And pledge to love and beauty.

Dolphins and albatrosses were said to be the reincarnated souls of dead sailors; and sailors could not kill either of them. 

Mermaids & Mermen

The legend of the mermaid, a creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish, has circulated the worlds oceans as far back as 5,000 B.C.

One of the earliest scientific accounts of the mermaid was documented by the great historian Pliny The Elder in 586 A.D. Pliny the Elder was convinced of the existence of mermaids and described them as “rough and scaled all over.” Since that time, and well before, thousands of sailors across the globe have reported seeing mermaids swimming off the bows of their ships. Even the famous Christopher Columbus reported an encounter with a mermaid; in January of 1493 Columbus reported that he saw three mermaids fin the ocean just off Haiti.

Mermaids were often considered lucky, but not universally. In Trinidad and Tobago, sea-dwelling mermen “were known to grant a wish, transform mediocrity into genius and confer wealth and power.” Mermaids appear in British folklore as unlucky omens, both foretelling disaster and provoking it.

Sailors would look for mermaid’s purses (the egg case of a skate, ray or shark; one of the most common objects washed up on the sea) on beaches for signs of mermaids in the area.

Klabautermann 

Traditionally, a type of kobold, a Klabautermann, lives aboard ships and helps sailors and fishermen on the Baltic or North Sea in their duties. He is a merry and diligent creature, with an expert understanding of most watercraft, and an unsupressable musical talent. He also rescues sailors washed overboard. The belief in Klabautermanns dates to at least the 1770s.

A carved Klabautermann image, of a small sailor dressed in yellow with a tobacco pipe and wooden sailor’s cap, often wearing a caulking hammer, is attached to the mast as a symbol of good luck. 

However, despite the positive attributes, there is one omen associated with his presence: no member of a ship blessed by his presence shall ever set eyes on him; he only ever becomes visible to the crew of a doomed ship.

More recently, the Klabautermann is sometimes described as having more sinister attributes, and blamed for things that go wrong on the ship. This incarnation of the Klabautermann is more demon- or goblin-like, prone to play pranks and, eventually, doom the ship and her crew. This deterioration of image probably stems from sailors, upon returning home, telling stories of their adventures at sea.

Sailor Tattoos

Sailors believed that certain symbols and talismans would help them in when facing certain events in life; they thought that those symbols would attract good luck or bad luck in the worst of the cases:

Sailors, at the constant mercy of the elements, often feel the need for religious images on their bodies to appease the angry powers that caused storms and drowning far from home.

The images of a pig and a hen were good luck; both animals are not capable of swimming, but they believed that God would look down upon a shipwreck and see an animal not capable of swimming and would take them into his hand and place them on land. Sailors had the belief that by wearing the North Star, this symbol would help them to find his or her way home.

The Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship  that can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever. The myth is likely to have originated from 17th-century nautical folklore. The oldest extant version dates to the late 18th century. Sightings in the 19th and 20th centuries reported the ship to be glowing with ghostly light. If hailed by another ship, the crew of the Flying Dutchman will try to send messages to land, or to people long dead. In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship is a portent of doom.

 Some say that The Flying Dutchman was used for piracy and was loaded with gold and other loot. While travelling with a load of treasure, unspeakable crimes were committed on board the ship, thus making it cursed forever.

“originally a vessel loaded with great wealth, on board of which some horrid act of murder and piracy had been committed” and that the apparition of the ship “is considered by the mariners as the worst of all possible omens.”

Other variations of the legend say that the Captain of The Flying Dutchman refused to go to port in the face of a horrible storm and as a result the entire ship perished. Others claim that the ship was not called The Flying Dutchman - that instead it was the name of the captain of the ship. Eventually, as people passed the legend down through the generations, the story of The Flying Dutchman referred to the ship.

Superstitions

Bad luck:

No bananas on board -  At the height of the trading empire between Spain and the Caribbean in the 1700’s, most cases of disappearing ships happened to be carrying a cargo of bananas at the time.

No women on board - Women were said to bring bad luck on board because they distracted the sailors from their sea duties. This kind of behaviour angered the intemperate seas that would take their revenge out on the ship. However, images of naked women were carved onto the bow of the ship because the woman’s bare breasts  ”shamed the stormy seas into calm” and her open eyes guided the seamen to safety.

No whistling on board - Mariners have long held the belief that whistling or singing into the wind will “whistle up a storm”.

Deathly lexis - At sea, some words must be strictly avoided to ensure the ship and crew’s safe return. These include obvious ones like “drowned” and “goodbye”. If someone says “good luck” to you, it is sure to bring about bad luck. The only way to reverse the curse is by drawing blood.

Lurking sharks - A shark following the ship is a sign of inevitable death.

Unlucky days: - Fridays: Fridays have long been considered unlucky days, likely because Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday. - Thursdays: Thursdays are bad sailing days because that is Thor’s day, the god of thunders and storms. - First Monday in April: The first Monday in April is the day Cain slew Abel. - Second Monday in August: The second Monday in August is the day the kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. - Superstitious sailor believed that the only good day to sail on was sundays.

Changing the name of the boat - Boats develop a life and mind of their own once they are named and Christened. If you do rename the boat- you absolutely must have a de-naming ceremony. This ceremony can be performed by writing the current boat name on a piece of paper, folding the paper and placing it in a wooden box then burning the box. After, the ashes were scooped up and thrown into the sea.

Red heads - Red heads were thought to bring bad luck to a ship if you happened to encounter one before boarding. However, if you speak to the redhead before they get the chance to speak to you, it is cancelled out.

Good luck:

It is good luck to spit in the ocean before you sail.

Coins thrown into the sea as a boat leaves port is a small toll to Neptune, the sea god, for a safe voyage.

Horseshoes on a ship’s mast will turn away a storm.

Cats brought luck. If a ship’s cat came to a sailor, it meant good luck.

Pouring wine on the deck will bring good luck on a long voyage.

It is often considered lucky to touch the collar of a sailor’s suit.

adonis you play animal crossing? who’s your favorite villager

Adonis: The game direction is very good, the characters are very likeable.

// Here's a little Adonis in Animal Crossing doodle!

various silly details in swingin' paroniria

When rei sings "this love song between a human and a monster" adonis stands behind him and mimes the arms of a monster with claws on "monster" (and kaoru and koga do this super cute show-off move)

The camera angles make it hard to tell, but they do some interesting blocking in general during lines about a monster where one (or more) members will stand behind the other with arms outstretched. i think it's supposed to make the member in front look like they have more than 2 arms

Drum kit on stage has a skull and roses (wow, i wonder who picked that one out)

On the line "[every smile of yours] is like a stake piercing my fickle heart" they mime pulling out something from their heart instead of stabbing something in

more undead character lighting!

koga prom pic hover hand

the heart on the mannequin matches the heart on the jacket! this one's pretty obvious i just really love the way adonis looks in this screenshot

This ending pose is unique in that adonis and koga are in the middle -- usually rei and kaoru (or at the very least rei) take center stage. the exceptions are the event songs, but in these cases the two center positions at the end have always been the 5* and 4* characters. considering that rei is the 4* in this event, not koga, i think it's really sweet that the senpais gave the underclassmen a chance to shine! it feels like undead is on more equal footing in !!!-era ❤️

good end: it’s rei letting go of his vampire persona for a small time and letting himself be a human

neutral end: it’s just a really funny name. same vibes as kaoru dressing as a priest

bad end: : )

best end: koga was so pumped about the name hellsing that no one else corrected him

undead’s new unit is called hellsing, like, Abraham van Helsing, the classic enemy of dracula? seeing undead finally rebel against rhylink is a dream come true but now I’m nervous…

Adonis impressions!!

Kaori and Sports Survivors under the cut :D

from al jazeera's live reporting of the second day of the ICJ hearings, 12 Jan 2024

dystopia au where we are all assigned one of two chosen genders at birth

[TL] PYSCHOBREAK/Chapter 3

[ This post uses Ois~su ♪ ]

Rei: Umu. I did some research regarding it, and I found that no one in RhythmLink requested that we take part in the experiment.

Koga: Huh? W-whaddya mean!?

Rei: I asked and it seems that it was a machine we spoke with. No real person knows about the experiment— that is the story they are sticking with.

It is unusual for myself to put on a serious face, but this time I feigned total ignorance…

It was rather bold of me, to tell a lie.

Kaoru: Yup. The higher ups thought we were behaving recklessly and were all up in arms about it.

Adonis: Umu. We were flooded with messages asking what HELLSING was.

Koga: I-I’m startin’ to feel kinda scared…

Guess I’m speakin’ with hindsight but we was probably too hasty ‘bout gettin’ involved with a questionable experiment.

Rei: So it seems… We realised we were losing popularity and tried to regain as much control as we could as quickly as we could.

And it all snowballed from there. In reality, I am as much of a fool as I thought I was— I must reflect on this.

Kaoru: You can reflect later, but first we need to focus on the problem at hand.

Rei 2: Eh? Where’s the problem?

Ain’t this turnin’ into a good thing for you guys?

Kaoru: Okay? Fake Rei-kun, can you shut it? We’re having an important conversation right now, alright?

Rei 2: Haha, someone’s in a bad mood~! If your lack of sleep is gettin’ to ya, why dontcha sleep with me, Kaoru-cha~n ♪

Kaoru: Wa, nononono….You’re just being creepy and gross now. Adonis-kun, you deal with him.

Adonis: I’d rather not either. Please don’t pass him to me.

…Despite his appearance, the fake Sakuma-senpai is nothing like him.

As things are now, fake me probably has a different personality too.

Adonis 2: ...

Rei 2: Our recall ain’t perfect yet, ‘n we still got a long way t’go. But hey, we’re still collectin’ data from you as we speak—

Sooner or later​, we’re gonna be so similar to you that even your parents won’t be able t’tell the difference.

Adonis: Is that your purpose?

Rei 2: You oughta be usin’ keigo, kohai. Even though we’re brand new, you still gotta pay respect to us.

Rei: I actually feel rather lonely when someone speaks to me in keigo. It's distant.

Rei 2: You’ve gotten soft, real me.

Well whatever. Becomin’ ‘real’ is instinct, but not our purpose.

We don’t have a sense of purpose.

Like I said earlier, we’re machines, wooden dolls, puppets. We ain’t got a heart, jus’ programmin’.

To feel, to think, to desire—

And dreamin’ too, is an annoyin’ flaw unique to you humans.

Rei: I believe that is what makes humans so fantastic.

We should move on. Questioning these fakes is not worth our time. Let us leave these machines behind and begin exploring the inside of the facilities.

Though it seems they have already disposed of any evidence, perhaps we can locate some documents here and there. Then we can discover why this has taken place.

And before you ask, I have already reported what we know so far to ES and the RhythmLink higher ups, and have been given permission to search the facilities.

Adonis: As always, Sakuma-senpai is fast at covering all his bases.

Rei: That’s one of my strong points. Of course, we are far from experts, and I don’t expect to find much–

But what else can we do in this moment?

Rei 2: Whilst you’re doin’ that, we’ll carry on with idol activities in your place.

Koga: Haa? Get over yourselves, you ain’t real.

The fans are confused ‘cos of you. They don’t wanna see fakes that only look like us from the outside, you bastards.

Rei 2: Confused? But from what I saw, there were a lot of really happy fans?

It’s pretty funny once you realise but–

When fans saw what HELLSING was up to, they was so happy, cryin’ too, goin’ “The real UNDEAD are back!”

Can you guys even afford a detour by checkin’ out the facility?

Whilst you’re worryin’ ‘bout things that don’t matter, we’re replacin’ you ♪

Koga: ...

[ ☆ ]

Chapter 2