A moon-faced memory with eyes downturned

[sovay]

This has been a really good evening. I spent it with gaudior, rushthatspeaks, eredien, lignota, weirdquark, and syonakeleste, and there was BPAL (the combination of Kumiho and Dorian makes me smell like high tea served with lavender) and dinner (one can never go wrong with mozzarella and fresh basil) and a fantastic vid for Princess Tutu that has only increased my desire to see this anime (meta-Hoffmann!). We were all in agreement that May 2006 should be stricken from the record.

I am also delighted with the concept of a ghost umbrella, as explained by rushthatspeaks—if one owns an umbrella for more than a hundred years, at least in Japan, it will develop sentience and a malicious sense of humor, so that you may be out in the rain with no shelter nearby and suddenly the umbrella will twist free of your hand and proceed to hop away home, laughing all the while. But it will also guard your house. And I imagine this works; I should think that most burglars would be dissuaded by a close encounter with a sentient umbrella. Or a vampire squash. The combination would probably guarantee that salesmen never visited your house again; and possibly your in-laws as well.

Amanda Downum's "Dogtown" has no umbrella ghosts, but it does have ghouls and ambiguities: and these are both excellent things.

Oh, and green tea Pocky is crack. But I'm sure some of you knew that already.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I enjoy that idea, that might be worth one of the ghost stories. #3 is up in my journal, based on some of the things we were sort of talking about last night, toads and things like that.

[sovay]

#3 is really good.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I want an umbrella ghost.

Nine

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

*gasp* Green-tea pocky? There's something beyond the chocolate and strawberry? Hurrah!

[sovay]

So far as I can tell, pocky is sort of like edible BPAL—there were at least six flavors in that household, and I was informed that any number more exist if you shop in the right Japanese groceries. I would not, however, recommend the salad flavor. It . . . tasted like chicken.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

I didn't understand the thing with the vampire squash being able to kill the Cold Servants, though, specifically. I mean, would they kill anything, or just bird-hyena things?

[sovay]

I mean, would they kill anything, or just bird-hyena things?

I think they'd go after anything: in their previous appearance, the owner of a field full of vampire vegetables had explained that the squash generally can't break the skin, but there were still some watermelons in the back forty he wouldn't want to tangle with.

[larryhammer]

Yes, you definitely want to watch Princess Tutu. See janni's thoughts on volume 5. (Volume 6 is out in two weeks yay!)

---L.

[ewein2412]

We have got an umbrella, which we still use, that I reckon is probably 70 years old. I can't WAIT for it to develop sentience (although, come to think of it, maybe it already has... this explains a lot).

[sovay]

We have got an umbrella, which we still use, that I reckon is probably 70 years old.

That is rather awesome in and of itself. From whom did you inherit a seventy-year-old umbrella?

(although, come to think of it, maybe it already has... this explains a lot)

Maybe it's precocious.

[ewein2412]

It's in my grandmother's house, which has been our family's summer home since 1928. We think it may have come with the house, along with quite a lot of other random furniture. I have been getting anxious about it, because so many things break and get thrown out (we still use the house as a summer cottage, and I swear to you, this is the ONLY umbrella that doesn't fall apart or go walkies eventually, so we end up using it every year). Last year I very nearly brought it home with me as a protective measure. My aunts and I tend to do this with artifacts that no one else seems to care about... but you know, if it is PROTECTING the house, maybe I ought to leave it there.

[sovay]

It's in my grandmother's house, which has been our family's summer home since 1928. We think it may have come with the house

That's wonderful.

but you know, if it is PROTECTING the house, maybe I ought to leave it there.

Yeah; it might get disoriented and start to play tricks if it were moved after all this time.