Awoooo...

... goes the kiwig.

Okay so news of the day: I have been invited to contribute an illustration to the litsoc's Philippine Horror Anthology. :D keeewl. This effectively tripped my happy switch for about half an hour and I was bouncing around the dorm room on an endorphine high. (people who are this easy to please don't need heroine). I find the prospect of doing a project---a real honest to goodness one, not the ones I do just for myself... and usually don't finish *looks guiltily at the 4 half used sketchbooks on my dorm bookshelf*--- EXCITING. *Enter patented maniacal grin*

The kiwig, ladies and gentlemen is basically the Filipino equivalent of a werewolf. Specifically a she-wolf. This is all the information supplied by the project liason regarding the creature at present. My personal initiative's initial research revealed basically nothing. And no google, I did not mean kiwi. I guess it was rather naive of me to think that google would hold all the answers, even though it has never failed me before... Okay so maybe it has, but I can't remember what it was I was looking for in the first place so it probably wasn't that important... Turning from that which had forsaken me I went to another staple online source but wikipedia didn't have any love for me either. And by love I mean she-werewolf. hey that's a brand new definition of love O.o what do you say to that Sir Asis? Probably nothing since he doesn't have any information on kiwigs either I'll warrant.

When I rolled a knowledge check I remembered this book I had about Filipino monsters when I was little. One page per entry, with concise, matter of fact like statements and an illustration to go with them. I loved that book in the way that all small children love books about strange mystical creatures and beleive every word. There was an entry about Kapres and their penchant for tobacco sessions in mango trees. I watched the neighbor's scrawny carabao mango trees like a hawk for 2 days before my short attention span betrayed me. After reading about Santilmos I made a mental note to strip and turn my clothes inside out the next time my parents lost me at the mall (that's right Gani, blame the parents) and I harbored a deep mistrust for white chickens for a very long time. I still don't trust them but that has more to do with their beady little chicken eyes and little things like bird vermin than any realtion they might have with the occult. Unsurprisingly nothing kiwig related came to mind. (I probably rolled a 6)

Then I wised up and typed Philippine mythology...And got a whoping 3 viable links. Oh joy. And out of the three only one was an official paper (though I did appreciate Ms.Anesthesia Lambayoga's extremely informal (but very informative!) blogish type thing.) For such a potentially interesting topic, its disappointing how little information they have online.They have hundreds of thousands of porno websites on the web but next to nothing on Philippine mythology. and I'm not just saying this as someone who needs the info. Though that does greatly contribute to the reason... I mean, there is a deadline for this so I do have to get my hands on some good descriptions oh around nowish, please.

Which brings us to the other thing that was niggling at the back of my mind. It bothered me to think about how much I depend on google and resign myself to the results of this online search engine for my random information needs. And when it didn't yield immediate results I was disproportionately frustrated. I suppose It comes from being in an age hinged on immediacy and instant access. Don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to book hunting in the library--in fact I've been doing a lot of it lately as a beadle--but I'll also be the first to admit that had the google results not been so meager, I probably wouldn't have bothered with this time consuming alternative.

These days our patience is inversely proportional to the speed of the fastest available internet connection. We need to go here, do this, see that, hear it, know everything right this minute and -insert name of internet provider- be damned if it's going to get screwy on me again! Everything is saturated with a sense of urgency and caffeine crazed shreiks of now, Now , NOW ringing in our ears. There are still 24 hours in a day but so much more that you can/think you should/ feel you need to be doing. Then one day you take a step back and realize you've been running around like one of those iffy white chickens, your head shoved snugly between your buttcheeks, or long lost to a low hanging branch.

... from which a kiwig may or may not have plucked it but I wouldn't know since there isn't enough information about it on the internet. We do know that it can be killed with silver bullets just like a western werewolf, but who are we kidding? We're in the Philippines and we're too cheap for that shit. And anyway none of this helps in terms of coming up with a proper drawing of the thing. I want to do this right. Does it have unusually long claws? or long arms that go with the long claws? Is it extremely muscular perhaps? any strange furry protrusions? Is it even very furry at all or jus enough to be PG 13? I don't KNOW.

I will be in the library tomorrow trying to rectify this.