ways_back_room | Daily Entertainment: Superstition Edition!

If Enzo has any particular superstitions, he hasn't told me yet. I haven't really considered how the concept might apply to sprites or differ for them. I'm pretty sure it does exist in some form, since most of the binomes seem like a ~~cowardly and~~ superstitious lot to me.

I am not. Never have been, as far as I can recall, even as a kid. That doesn't mean I haven't performed actions associated with superstitions, like wishing on candles and seed fluffs and what have you, but to me, that is for fun and the feeling of ritual, rather than with any belief in the purported causality. Even when I wear a favourite item of clothing "for luck," what I really mean is "for morale."

Joshua laughs in the face of superstition, even going so far as to do things that people think are superstitious just to piss them off. (he can be a pain in the ass sometimes.)

Helena isn't really, as far as I know. She doesn't really get the concept, and thinks it's rather quaint.

Valentine doesn't really get the concept of luck. Life is what you make of it.

Quinn-the-mun: I'll knock on wood when I'm saying something, or (my biggest one for some damn reason) throw salt over my shoulder if I spill some, but I mostly do those out of strange habit than any belief.

Philosophically, as a follower of the works of the great Jewish rationalist sage Maimonides, I don't believe in superstition of any sort. And yet, there are little things I do or don't do on occasion, even though then say to myself "the world doesn't work that way."

I of course possess the most superstitious character of all time in my collection of pups, Gibbs from PotC. He is so superstitious that, to paraphrase Ned Flanders, he even does the superstitions that contradict the other superstitions. I think on Friday the 13th he hides in whatever rooms he has and spends the day muttering folk sayings and prayers.

Kirk, Howard Stark and CharlieQuestion are rational men and reject all superstitions. In Kirk's day, that is fine, but Howard spent the war years arguing with otherwise intelligent men about every last superstition held by soldiers, sailors and aviators. If you dare show him a good luck charm before a test flight, you run a chance of being grounded. And while Charlie has accepted the idea of higher powers and gods, he imagines that none of them really care if you walk under a ladder.

Knox grew up immersed in the folk superstitions of Eastern European Jewry (the sort of things that Maimonides would have railed against if he lived in a Polish shtetl). He denies that he believes in things like the Evil Eye, but it's there. Especially when he is playing softball. But he doesn't like to admit it's there.

And Cyborg is pretty sure that some superstitions are based in reality, since magic is real. I would add that he was most likely immersed in African American superstitions the way Knox was in Jewish, but I don't know anything about that subject.

No, for all of them. Gene thinks it's rubbish (though to be fair, he does have a lucky shirt for Man City games - which he sort of rolls his eyes at himself about, because he knows it's bollocks really. But. Just in case.), the Bruces are too logically minded, and Javert refuses to indulge anything vaguely mystical and impractical.

As for me, I touch wood (...the double entendre in that has just occurred to me for the first time in my life, heh. /twelve), and salute magpies, and all sorts. Not because I believe in superstitions but...yeah. Just in case. >_>

I haven't heard of saluting magpies. What's that one?

Ah, well - you know the rhyme 'one for sorrow, two for joy...' etc? It's an old wives' tale that if you see a single magpie, and salute it (with your left hand, I believe) and wish it good morning (has to be in the morning - and you have to call it 'mister'), then you don't get the sorrow.

Explained more succintly here. Idk, we're weird in the UK? Plus, there are a multitude of variations on this salute, including turning on the spot, and spitting on the ground, or something. But I don't go in for that. Mainly because it would be awkward when I see them while driving. >_>

...my pups are staring at me as though I'm a twat. All of them. Well, it's probably deserved. :\

Huh! I haven't heard that one. Cool!

I love stories from all over the world. I'm sure that there's a million we have over this side of the pond that you haven't heard of, but I'll be damned if I can think of one right now.

There's one that says that you have to hold your breath while driving past a graveyard, and another that you have to pick up your feet when you're in a car going over a bridge (although how the hell you're supposed to do that one while driving is beyond me).

... I just love folktales.

I haven't heard of either of those two! Damnit, I bet I start doing them now.

My worst one, probably, is not walking over three drains. That's awkward when on a crowded pavement, and is so clearly rubbish. My vague OCD quirks don't let me ignore it unless it's impossible, though.

Haaaa.

I haven't heard the drains one. Just 'step on a crack, break your mother's back'

Now I'm going to be thinking up and spamming you with superstitions all day.

It's apparently because three drains together is the size of a coffin, so if you walk over them you'll die. But if you walk over two, it's lucky. Idek. But that one's definitely a 'spin around three times and spit, fix-it', which, ew.

And oh man, mercy! These things fixate in my brain, and I find myself doing them even though I know they're crap.

When I was 11 or 12, some impressionable age like that, my grandmother decided to tell me it was bad luck to wear green on a Friday.

My school uniform was green.

Oh, the trouble that came out of that.

...oh my Lord, that's just cruel. Wow. *stares*

I think eventually they convinced me it was OK if I kept some random lucky charm in my pocket.

I don't think Tommy is superstitious in the strictest sense, but some firefighters have a tradition of carrying good luck items. Tommy used to carry his cousin Jimmy's FDNY badge until he passed it on to Jimmy's son. He also has strapped to the back of his helmet an Ice Age Diego Happy Meal toy. It's only briefly glimpsed on the show but never mentioned, only OOC by Denis Leary. It's there for good luck and the meta lulz.

As for myself? Nah, not really. I just don't walk under ladders only because I don't want a bucket falling on my head.

Edited 2013-09-13 13:36 (UTC)

That is a very good reason to not walk under ladders. I would certainly concur on that one.

... For most of mine, shockingly, no, not superstitious at all.

Clara's got a bit of it, not really believing the old stories but, y'know, let's not test that. The Doctor gets them into enough trouble without deliberately poking at things.

For Katya, it's not superstition if it's real.

For my newest pup, he's definitely superstitious, being a sailor and all, it's just part of his world.

Haymitch, Glorfindel, Ace, Oswin, Bones, Balthazar.... nope.

For me, personally? Yes, but not the standard stuff - mine's all medical profession related. For the love of all things fluffy do not tell me a vein looks good before I try to draw blood, do not say the day is slow and we'll get out on time, and yes, the loonies really do come out on Friday the 13th.

For the love of all things fluffy do not tell me a vein looks good before I try to draw blood
That's a known thing? Gah, happens to me everytime I am getting my blood drawn. Someone makes that comment and it's usually followed by "Hey, where did that vein go?" or "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I shouldn't have used such a wide gauge."

Omg, there are vet techs who will cut a bitch if someone mentions anything vaguely relating to a good blood draw right before they go for it.

Trowa: No. Trowa is pure pragmatism in a lot of ways. If he has anything of the sort, it's some kind of engine-related habit he picked up when he was learning his way around machines as a kid, and is mostly related to mobile suits; in that case, he'd do it either to put other mechanics at ease or because of the private nostalgia, not because he believes in the superstition.

River: Hmmm. She doesn't really believe in superstitions, but she probably has a couple of habitual ones left over from childhood -- not things she'd be bothered by not doing, or things that get in the way of whatever she's doing, but they're unthinking habit. I'm not sure what they are, though.

Regan: Similar to River. This whole family has a pretty scientific-rational outlook on life, shaken only by Milliways developments of HI LOOK I HAVE DEMONSTRABLY IMPOSSIBLE POWERS AND ALSO AM AN ANGEL and so forth.

Thor: is not so much superstitious as from a world where magic is totally a thing that exists. But he also doesn't much question his society's customs, so probably. He doesn't judge others' customs for being different, as long as that doesn't affect fundamental (to him) matters of honor and virtue. I have no idea what Asgardian superstitions look like, but I'll probably end up inventing some in the course of threads.

Enjolras: Nope. He is a man of the Age of Reason, thank you! Also pretty single-minded in ignoring things he considers irrelevant. (That said, he's also from an era when a lot of things we consider basic scientific knowledge hadn't been discovered yet. One of his friends, for example, sleeps with magnets around his bedroom and his bed carefully placed so as to align the magnetic flows of the body; this is kind of weird and experimental, but is not actually ridiculous to an 1830s scientist or doctor in the way it is now. Enjolras does not do this kind of thing, but less because he actively disbelieves it than because he doesn't see it as relevant.)

Me: Yeah, kinda! I hold my breath when driving by graveyards, unless I forget; I sort of vaguely try not to step on cracks in the sidewalk; I don't keep an umbrella open indoors, even though I don't really believe in bad luck. I knock on wood when I say something I don't want jinxed, like "Well, it's going well so far!" -- that's the main one I do get sort of self-mockingly twitchy about. I wouldn't say I believe in any of that, but habit plus the human tendency to magical thinking are powerful forces, and I don't mind minor nods to that.

Edited 2013-09-13 15:01 (UTC)

That's the thing I love about Loki. All magic is real in their universe, which gives you such a huge area to play in. Since we're dealing with Space Vikings, I like to appropriate Norse beliefs into their world, and anything the Norse believed is true to a degree. There might have been some translation errors for the bits that really don't make sense, but most of it is pretty close.

And why stop there? All the pantheons are real, I think. Some of the older ones have probably just lost interest in Earth, but there's probably an Egyptian deity or two skulking around out there somewhere, pretending to be a street merchant or something.

Well, that's not quite how I interpret the worldbuilding for Thor in-bar -- especially since he's purely from the movieverse, without comics mixed in. (Except occasionally as backstory where I think canon is highly unlikely to joss me, and even then I tend to rework it significantly. Comics Asgard and movie Asgard are significantly different, after all.) As I play him, he's an alien, not a god, and the Norse beliefs contain some truth and some fiction and some misunderstandings of what's actually true for Asgardians. I love folklore and religion, don't get me wrong, but I do feel that hewing too closely to the mythology will make me OOC for a pure-movieverse Thor, given that Marvel cheerfully throws so much out the window.

I've been very vague about the status and current physical existence of other pantheons in Marvel movieverse, just because I don't know what canon's going to say. I know it's different in the comics -- not to mention definitely different in real life!

Yrael is not superstitious - some things that might be seen as superstitions outside of the Old Kingdom often have solid reasons for existing among the people of the Old Kingdom. The rhyme about how to protect against the Dead is just one example:

When the Dead do walk, seek water’s run,
For this the Dead will always shun.
Swift river’s best or broadest lake
To ward the Dead and haven make.
If water fails thee, fire’s thy friend;
If neither guards, it will be thy end.

Zelgadiss is also not superstitious in his world's definition.

Sunshine is somewhat superstitious, though like the Old Kingdom some of what we would call superstition is likely something with a basis in fact. She touches wood or cold iron for luck or to dispel any lingering ill-will, never begins a sentence with "I wish," has been known to absently toss a pinch of spilled salt over her shoulder, and doesn't drop names when the person in question isn't present.

As for me, I'm not superstitious for the most part. A number of my RL friends and coworkers are, however, so when out with them or at work, I find myself observing the rules of superstition - tossing spilled salt over one's left shoulder, not stepping on cracks, not opening umbrellas indoors walking under ladders, etc. I do like holding my breath and making a wish while driving through tunnels, though. ^_^

Edited 2013-09-13 15:13 (UTC)

Karkat is not superstitious or religious, and is very likely to mock people's superstitions and tempt fate if he's given the opportunity. Sometimes this leads to bad things happening to him.

He does believe in some things that might be perceived by others as superstition, especially on the subject of predestination and luck, but these thing are in fact rational fact in his canon, and he only believes in them now because of the bad things mentioned above that happened when he scoffed.

If they are, most of mine aren't letting me know.

Bean isn't. He is logic and reason and thinking taken to it's extreme. Cause and effect, sure, superstition, no. Sometimes, however, he may do things that seem to be superstitious, like shutting a door before answering, or various other things. However, these are almost invariably logical subconscious reactions to real things.

For myself. Well, I just had one of the most frustrating friday 13th's at work. with a kind of sort of deadline approaching, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong (at least, it felt that way). I don't claim to believe in anything, but I will knock on wood, out of habit as much as anything.

I don't think any of mine are. Nicholas was already kind of wishy-washy on believing in anything he can't see, and I think after he was shot by a reverend he officially ran out of reasons to keep trying. If a reverend can pull two pistols out of his sleeves and shoot them both at someone and the hand of God himself doesn't come down and smite the fuck out of everyone, well... That's it, isn't it?

Gus isn't terribly superstitious unless he's pulling a con. Then suddenly everything is a jinx. This probably has more to do with the fact that he sucks at being a conman more than anything, though.

Tim did once pray to Buffy Summers. I don't know if that counts for anything, though.

Gary thinks he is is own higher power and that he makes his own luck. Being from an alternate reality to Nicholas and Tim's universes, this makes him an even bigger idiot than he seems.

On the other end of the scale, the Loki I play in the sandboxes is VERY superstitious. Not like, black cat, broken mirrors superstitious, but more in a ritualistic sort of way. He has been jinxed and cursed and hexed enough times, and has jinxed and cursed and hexed enough people that it's just a part of daily life. Don't tempt the Norns, don't tempt other sorcerers, and really don't tempt Fate. And unless you're doing something that is 110% right and just, don't ever say that things are going well. Because in 20 minutes, they won't be.

Personally, I think I'm somewhere between Gus and Nick. I don't believe in any of it, but don't say things are going well. Especially if they're really going well. That's just asking for trouble. Not so much in that it will make trouble happen, but in acknowledging how well something is going, you set your expectation to this benchmark, which then makes any subsequent failure or setback seem all the worse. It also means you're looking for setback or failure, though maybe not consciously, which makes you more prone to noticing even the smallest hang-ups and blow them out of proportion, thus creating a snowball of negativity.

TL;DR, no, not really, but I often come off as such.

Will believes honestly in a lot of things that are mix of superstition and religion as that's how his world is. Since coming to Milliways, he's seen real magic but he knows that there are things in Sherwood he doesn't understand and that the Church has power.

Charles is a scientist and a man of reason who is something that many people think can't be real. He knows a lot about superstition as it fuels fears about mutants and psychics and he likes knowing what he's going up against. Though he does have a few little rituals he does because they were talk to him at a young age such as throw salt over his shoulder.

Sameth is from a world with magic in it but one that has created supertitions in Ancelstierre because its not fully understood. To him it all exists together.

Moist is from the Disc where its better to be safe with the gods and luck. He doesn't go out of his way to do various good luck or bad luck things but if it makes sense, he will.

Jane sees herself as above superstition though she does have a few rituals for her writing.

William has a few little rituals he does that he wouldn't define as superstitions like checking that Mark's breathing or not reading the paper until all his chores are done. He started doing them during the War and when Mark was first sick and now they are there for him.

Tumnus isn't really superstitious as Narnia is magical and I don't know, it doesn't fit him.

The Pirate King is superstitious but not as much as some of his pirates and he knows and understands what they believe.

I am a fair bit, I toss salt over my shoulder and look for patterns out in the world.

All my pups hold the superstition that saying a god's name will lend power to that god. Even Amascut does. I don't know if it has basis in fact. It maybe be an attention = power thing, but Amascut as usual is always the spanner thrown into the works since she actively avoids attention by pretending to be someone else.

It's kind of hard to hold to in twitter RP because it makes things awkward, in case you pay attention to Amascut's activities on twitter.

I don't know about any of their specific superstitions though.

As for myself, nah. I am Roman Catholic though so that may count for something. I nom on God like a good zombie every week, but people have noted I don't cross myself going past graveyards or churches, I don't say grace before meals, abortion and homosexuality doesn't make me froth at the mouth, etc. Meh. Thank goodness a left leaning Jesuit is Pope now. Ahahaha.

Does religion count as a superstition?

Daily Entertainment: Superstition Edition!

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