Rambling 122: Leprechauns and Other Fairies

What creatures remained in Ireland after St. Patrick was done with it? And why did they stick around? Dissecting the concept of fairies on this episode!

Story:
The Duo dive into leprechauns and fairies in general in order to understand the true complex nature of what the aftermath of the St. Patrick Massacre was. A desolate, monster infested wasteland is the least of the problem for the people of Ireland. It gets worse when spirits are introduced!

+Episode Details

Topics Discussed

• St. Patrick Demon Hunter
• Jehovah the Demi-God
• Sprites
• Peter Dinklage
• Navi
• Tricksters
• Giant Rat Fairy
• Banshee
• Succubus
• Jeepers Creepers

Our Links:

Official Website - https://greythoughts.info/podcast

Twitter - https://twitter.com/JustConvoPod

Facebook - https://facebook.com/justconvopod

Instagram - https://instagram.com/justconvopod

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+Transcript

Cristina: This program contains strong themes meant for a mature audience. Discretion is advised.

Jack: Going live in 5, 4.

Cristina: What does live mean? Welcome to Just Conversation, the show where we ground humanity's most absurd and baffling ideals in childish ways. I'm your host, Christina.

Jack: And I'm Jack.

Cristina: And if you haven't yet, remember to hit that subscribe button to get get notified the second new episodes are released.

Jack: Yes, and also, this show is most enjoyable with a listening partner, so be sure to find somebody to make your listening partner, regardless of who they are, regardless of where they're from, regardless of. Even if you saw them on the street, casually, as they were walking, you point at them and you tell them, hey, you're my listening partner.

Cristina: And what if they walk away?

Jack: Well, then you resort to other means of getting that person who you've chosen and thus must be the one.

Cristina: They must be the one.

Jack: You chose them now. They are the one. They are the one.

Cristina: Okay.

Jack: Yeah. That's how it goes. So the world works?

Cristina: You just make them the one?

Jack: You make them the one.

Cristina: Is it like love at first sight?

Jack: Yeah. You force them to be the one.

Cristina: The one.

Jack: The one.

Cristina: Okay.

Jack: That's your listening partner.

Cristina: That's not creepy.

Jack: No, no, it's very normal. People do it all the time.

Cristina: Mm. Guess what holidays coming up.

Jack: What holiday?

Cristina: St. Patrick's Day. Our favorite saint.

Jack: Yes, that's the OG saint. The saint that gets. He. Basically, he's God. He's the only guy God is scared of.

Cristina: He's a God. He's a guy God is scared of. What?

Jack: Yeah. God makes God do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, simply because he wants.

Cristina: Yeah, well, God, I guess, isn't the only person afraid of St. Patrick.

Jack: I mean, he makes God scared. I'm sure just by, you know, process of elimination, everybody else should be scared.

Cristina: Yes. And everyone was scared. That's why I found the story, a different story of that he. Of him getting rid of snakes. But it wasn't just snakes that he got rid of. It was snakes and demons.

Jack: Snakes and demons?

Cristina: Yes. And there was this specific demon that didn't want to run away. When he told all the snakes and demons to leave and then they ran, what happened was he told them to leave, I guess. And so they drowned into the ocean. They listened and drowned and died.

Jack: Sweet, but what the f***?

Cristina: Yes. That's how he got rid of them. By murdering them with his words.

Jack: Sounds legit.

Cristina: Yes. And there's this specific one that can't pronounce her name, but in English, we could call her the fire Spitter.

Jack: The fire spitter?

Cristina: Yes. And she's either the devil's mom or all demons. Mom. Mom. Yes. There's two different ideas of what she was besides the fire spitter. That's what I found. It's unsure, right?

Jack: Kind of like vampire hunter D or something.

Cristina: Yes. So she might be the devil's mom. But anyway, when he was getting rid of all the snakes and demons from the island, she decided to hide.

Jack: So she survived for a little while. And she let all her children die.

Cristina: Definitely because she's too busy trying to stay alive.

Jack: It's like, f*** this. Every. Every man for themselves.

Cristina: Yes. So, like, he went on top of a mountain, and he told them to go into the sea and drown, and they did. And then she somehow. I don't know how she managed to escape, but maybe she, like, closed her ears when she saw him on the mountain. Like something bad is about to happen.

Jack: Yeah.

Cristina: And it did. But he saw her before she could completely hide herself, and he chased her down with the fastest horse Ireland had at the time.

Jack: Faster than de Demons.

Cristina: Yeah, actually faster than demons because he did outrun her while she was running. She was too busy, though, throwing Spitfire into every water. Well, because she thought, oh, this is gonna take forever, and eventually he'll get thirsty and drink water. But he was smart and was like, I'm not going to drink this poisoned water. So he didn't drink the poisoned water, and he just kept going. And then he passed her, of course.

Jack: You mean caught up.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: It wasn't raised. He wasn't like, well, I passed you. You're behind me.

Cristina: Yes. Okay. And then he waited for her. And then when she came, I mean, and then when he saw her, he jumped. He jumped out of his hiding spot and banished her. And then she also drowned into the ocean.

Jack: Sweet. Okay, so everybody died.

Cristina: Yeah, everyone died, but she was the last to die.

Jack: So he's just killer of demons, forcing creatures to commit suicide left and right and sell God. So he controls gods, angels, demons, everything. He's just some sort of overpowered deity that we don't even label a deity. But he's like. He's beyond the demigod.

Cristina: He's. He is the God.

Jack: Like, we have to assume Jehovah is a demigod based on the traits we understand. Jehovah, he's. He has emotions. Yeah, an omniscient God can't have emotions. That. That wouldn't make sense. Right, And God can get jealous, angry, all these things. God needs you to worship. Him. Because he's not. He tells you specifically, worship me. No. Other gods is like, okay, so there's others like you. You're not omniscient. You're not every God all at the same time. You're one of them. Yes, but it seems like the real omniscient God is Saint Patrick. What he had a horse, is faster than demons. He could just will that to happen.

Cristina: Well, they gave it to him.

Jack: Who?

Cristina: I don't. The Ireland people. Yeah.

Jack: It was just a normal. That means it was just a normal horse. They gave him a normal horse.

Cristina: Was the fastest horse.

Jack: Yeah.

Cristina: Like here.

Jack: But to them, fast is different than to him. And he got a horse and it was probably, you know, normal fast.

Cristina: It was like a winner of normal horse races.

Jack: Yeah, exactly. But then he got on the horse.

Cristina: He powered that horse, became the fastest horse.

Jack: Knight Rider type of s***. He got on the horse, the horse flamed. It burst into flames, and it was just leaving a trail of fire.

Cristina: It died that day.

Jack: As soon as he got off it, it just became normal. And it was on fire. Yeah.

Cristina: Yeah, it died.

Jack: But he doesn't care. He kills everything.

Cristina: He kills everything. Well, if you.

Jack: That's why God is like, I'll do whatever you want. Just don't kill me.

Cristina: Because God is just an angel, a demon deity.

Jack: He's a demigod.

Cristina: Okay. So complicated. But what's even more complicated is I tried to find out what a fairy was, right. Because of St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. And they're known for fairies, right?

Jack: Yeah.

Cristina: And I'm so confused. I'm so confused. Fairies are so many things, but what they originally were, they were seen as deities. Gods. They were gods.

Jack: Right.

Cristina: But then over time, because Christianity came to the island, they were demoted to stay around so that they wouldn't have to actually get rid of them. Because I guess the Christians actually like these stories, and they're like, wow, they're pretty interesting. But what if they were just creatures, magical creatures instead of gods? Because there can only be one God. So I don't know. Is God stronger than their God if he could turn them into magical creatures?

Jack: It was St. Patrick that did it.

Cristina: It was St. Patrick. Oh, yes. Okay.

Jack: The pioneer. The guy who brought Christianity to Ireland. St Patrick then decided, yeah, I'm a strip you guys of your exaggerated godlike powers. I don't want you to be gods anymore. Now. Now you're just f******. You're gonna be there like the humans. You can be just a different f****** creature.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: And then he did that, well, these.

Cristina: Guys were, I guess weren't that powerful anyway because they were the original people living on Ireland.

Jack: So you're telling me Ireland is Olympus?

Cristina: Is Olympus. Once upon a time, maybe like they were able to travel from the other world into Ireland and they loved it so much that they lived there. But then other people wanted Ireland for themselves. They've had many wars trying to defend their home, but they finally lost to St. Patrick. To the Irish people or to the ancestors of the Irish people, one led by St Patrick. Yes, he's a time travel as well. Time traveler as well.

Jack: Are we just to say that St. Patrick's is the real Kratos?

Cristina: Yes, the Kratos, Yes.

Jack: Yeah, he was just the mortal once upon a time. But eventually he killed a God, got all God's powers and used that to manipulate the rest of everything. St. Patrick, the real God of war.

Cristina: Well, from what I understand, these gods that were defeated by the Irish people shrunk themselves. They loved Ireland so much that they decided we'll just be small and live underground.

Jack: And thus the invention of midgets.

Cristina: Close, I guess. Leprechauns. Leprechauns and so many other creatures. Okay. There are so many different types of fairy races. You probably didn't think of them as fairies though. Which are dwarves, elves, gnomes, goblins, brownies and pixies.

Jack: The h*** is a brownie? Is that a racist term?

Cristina: No, it's just another short magical, human like creature thing. Yeah, they're all short magical, human like creature things.

Jack: Okay.

Cristina: Yes. And what I feel like when somebody.

Jack: Says leprechaun, they mean all of these things. Leprechaun is the blanket term? Almost.

Cristina: No. Leprechaun is a type of fairy.

Jack: I get that.

Cristina: Fairy is the blanket term thing.

Jack: Fairies, the blanket term.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: Do Westerners say leprechaun and mean fairies and all the other stuff to Western like they mean fairy and fairies, the blanket term to them. When we say fairy, we think Na' Vi from Ocarina of Time.

Cristina: There's no fairy that's like that fairy. We made that up.

Jack: My point is exact.

Cristina: Okay, that's not a thing.

Jack: Westerners say leprechaun and mean all the different kinds of fairies.

Cristina: I don't know. I think we just see leprechauns as leprechauns.

Jack: Right. But if you showed us a different one of those fairies, what would we call it? We would probably call it a leprechaun.

Cristina: Even an elf. If we saw elf or gnome. We know what gnomes are.

Jack: Oh, S***. Okay, there we go. Now we're getting to places.

Cristina: Dwarfs. You know what a dwarf is?

Jack: A dwarf is just a person.

Cristina: No, they're magical little people. They're magical.

Jack: Whoa. So you're telling me Peter Dinklage is a magical fairy?

Cristina: No.

Jack: And that's why he has all these jobs.

Cristina: He's sprinkling has become two different things. Okay.

Jack: He's sprinkling his fairy dust all over people. You're telling me he's unfairly in justly getting these jobs when Wee man should be getting some of them?

Cristina: Look, fairies are complicated. They're very complicated. He may be a fairy because fairies could be every and many things. There's so many words for fairies. You could say fairy, but you can also call them sprites, you can call them spirits, you can call them supernatural entities. You can even call them angels and demons.

Jack: Right? Okay. We've established this in the Shadow Realm episode. For further information, go back there. Listen to that. Get informed.

Cristina: It is so annoying. It's so annoying.

Jack: It is. When I was figuring that out.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: I came across a lot of these problems in which limbo is purgatory, and that is the Shadow Realm, and that is an alternate version of this reality. And that what's there is here and here is there. And it's the same, but different. It has a different name, but it's the same. It's like. Yeah, it's complicated.

Cristina: There was one thing about the other, the other realm that I don't know if you talked about that I think. If you haven't, I just want to mention, though, is that time works different there.

Jack: Probably. The concept of time in itself might be entirely different.

Cristina: Yeah, but, like, for the rare people that have been able to go there and come back, hundreds of years would pass by.

Jack: It depends.

Cristina: It depends.

Jack: It depends. Let's say you get there through some form of astral projection, and you're there as a spirit. Right. Your spirit might be over there hundreds of years, and over here, hundreds of years don't pass. You might come back after being hundreds of years over there and it was only one night's sleep over here.

Cristina: Oh, I read the opposite of.

Jack: Well, that's my point. It depends on the approach that's happening.

Cristina: Oh, okay. All right. So it's. That's as complicated as the word fairy. Okay.

Jack: It's very, very f*****.

Cristina: Yes. But. Okay, so there's the leprechaun, the most famous fairy. Right. Maybe.

Jack: I'd say that other than Navi, she's not a fairy. What the h*** is she. They call her a fairy.

Cristina: That's an American made up creature. So is Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell is not a fairy.

Jack: Well, she's not a fairy by their terms. But then you have to tell me that a Japanese dragon like Shenron and then a Western dragon, that's like a giant lizard, like an iguana, a ginormous iguana with wings that breathes fire, are not both dragons.

Cristina: Okay, well, we're. Right now we're just talking about Irish creatures. Okay. They're not Irish fairies.

Jack: Got you. They're not Irish fairies.

Cristina: Correct. Because this is an Irish episode to celebrate our favorite saint.

Jack: Got you.

Cristina: So. Yeah. So what was it? Navi.

Jack: Navi.

Cristina: Navi. I guess that's a Japanese fairy.

Jack: Yes, but she's not an Irish. And she's specifically a Shinto Japanese fairy.

Cristina: Okay. And then I guess the Americans made. Not the Americans. The English made Tinkerbell.

Jack: Yes.

Cristina: Okay. But yes, none of these fairies have wings. I guess is one interesting different thing from all the ones that you could think. The ones you mentioned.

Jack: Yeah, you can actually see that in a lot of cultures where there is a shift in there. If we go back to the dragons, the Japanese dragons don't have wings. They're just like floating snake things.

Cristina: I thought it was the Chinese dragon.

Jack: Oh, it's a Chinese dragon. Well, I guess both of them, right? Yeah, they're pretty similar.

Cristina: Okay. The Asian dragons and then.

Jack: Yeah, Asian dragons. There you go. The Asian dragons don't have wings and then the western dragons do. Yeah, the Asian dragons are kind of like a snake, but the western dragons are like a lizard.

Cristina: But they're both huge, I think. Right?

Jack: Yeah, they're both ginormous. Although I believe the Japanese dragon is much bigger. Do they have. Are there any fairy, like any dragon, like fairies without wings and like floating snake thing or. They're all little people.

Cristina: They're all little people. I will talk about. I do want to talk about some other creatures in Ireland that I don't know if they're under the fairy description.

Jack: Interesting. So then tell me which one are the fairies? What? Break them down and explain these to me.

Cristina: Okay, there's. I'm gonna mention like. Okay, there's the leprechaun, of course.

Jack: What's the get up there?

Cristina: He's the lucky fairy, I guess. He's the one with the gold in the end of the rainbow. And you can get it if you catch him. He'll grant you three wishes, but you have to do it quickly because he'll try to trick You. And that would suck.

Jack: Trick you how?

Cristina: Well. Oh, One of the things about these fairies is they're all tricksters. They're all tricksters. I don't know if there's any fairies that aren't tricksters, but they all seem like tricksters. And they're not seen as evil. Trick tricksters evil either. Yes, but some of them do sound evil. Some of them are evil tricksters. Some of them are just regular trolley guys. But the leprechaun seems like the good kind, I guess, of the tricksters. Anyway, there's a story about a guy who caught a leprechaun and he wished to be taken to the gold. And the. And the leprechaun did show him where the tree was, where the gold was hidden. So the man put a marking on the tree and he let go of the leprechaun to find a shovel. But then when he came back, all the trees were marked the same way he marked the tree that he had.

Jack: Interesting.

Cristina: Yep. Yep.

Jack: So there was no way for him to tell which one it was?

Cristina: Nope. He really messed up on that.

Jack: Yeah, so.

Cristina: So if you get a leprechaun, he shows you the gold, you gotta somehow.

Jack: Get it at that moment.

Cristina: At that moment, yes.

Jack: Interesting.

Cristina: I wonder if you can waste the wish, though, to have the leprechaun help you get the gold and also to leave you alone.

Jack: I'm sure there's wish rules, otherwise systems would be broken. You could also wish for many wishes if you could do that, you know.

Cristina: Yeah, but could you trust a leprechaun to tell you the rules of the wishes if there are tricksters?

Jack: Well, on the first one, you wish to be told the rules. If you have three wishes. On the second one, if it's not against the rules, then you wish for more wishes. And if it is against the rules, then you didn't waste a wish and instead you asked the leprechaun to help you. Unless that's also against rules.

Cristina: Okay.

Jack: In which case you still got two wishes, but I don't know, like, one.

Cristina: Of the other still has to be to show you where the gold is.

Jack: Yes. Okay, fine. So now you know where the gold is. The other one has to be, don't kill me while I take this gold.

Cristina: Don't kill. Well, he might not kill you. He just won't want you to steal his gold. So he's gonna do some other weird thing that probably hurts you, but doesn't murder you. Yeah, he's not evil.

Jack: Don't disrupt me at all.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: While stealing Your gold.

Cristina: Alright. Even though they're not seen as evil, there are some stories where they sound a bit evil. So there's this story about a king who fell asleep on a beach and when he woke up, he found himself being dragged into the sea by three leprechauns.

Jack: To drown.

Cristina: I'm pretty sure to drown him. Maybe he's related to St. Patrick and they're like, we gotta get revenge.

Jack: It could be. Who the h*** knows? Maybe it was St. Patrick, but he.

Cristina: Was able to catch one of them and. And they granted him three wishes in exchange for them to release him.

Jack: And then what was one of the wishes?

Cristina: I don't know. To be released.

Jack: That's it. Guy just got. We got the story of a guy who caught a leprechaun and we don't know what he wished for.

Cristina: He died. It was a lie. They're just trying to cover up that they're evil because there's some. There's stories that differ between whether a leprechaun is harmless or really, really evil. So I guess it depends. I don't know. Some are evil, some aren't. That's what I'm going with.

Jack: There is a literal movie about evil leprechauns, I believe, called Leprechaun.

Cristina: Yeah, it's some weird horror movie series thing.

Jack: Serious. Oh, it's. There's many of them.

Cristina: There's many movies. So many. Like it's like a Freddy versus, you know, a Freddy movie or a Jason movie. It's just like he keeps coming back.

Jack: Oh, is it the same leprechaun?

Cristina: I'm not sure. I think so. It looks the same. Crappy looking version. I've never seen a nice looking leprechaun. Yeah, version, but okay, like Chucky. Who does he ever change his look? It's always the same dude being in a doll, right?

Jack: I think so.

Cristina: That dude is just unlucky. He should just die. His life sucks. I don't know what he's doing. Although everything he's doing in the rest of the movies make no sense because the. In the original movie he was. If he can't get into a child's body in I think a certain amount of time, then he's stuck in the doll's body. So that's it. He's stuck in that body like the rest of the movies don't make any sense of him trying to get into another person's body because he wasted the time. It's over for him.

Jack: Yeah, that's weird.

Cristina: But he still tries. But. And of Course, never does. But even if he managed, it doesn't make sense to the first movie unless they change that in the reboot. But anyway, there are other types of things that are very similar to leprechauns, and one of them is, I guess, he's a lot like a leprechaun. But he loves to drink and he's famous to haunt wine cellars and drink all the wine in there.

Jack: So he's an alcoholic?

Cristina: Basically, yes, he's the alcoholic leprechaun. And he's also described as a trickster and a practical jokester because I guess most leprechauns are. Then there's another leprechaun type fairy which likes to seduce women.

Jack: As a short individual.

Cristina: Yes, he's really good at seducing ladies. He goes to lonely places where I guess they're just like, why? I just want to fall in love. And then he comes and then they're like, whoa, make love to me. I don't know how his magic works. He comes on them and he comes on them. But it's very unlucky to meet him. Very. Because his skin is addictive and put in to it's toxic and addictive and seducing the person, they really. They really just become addicted to him. Like they need him.

Jack: Right, so it's his power.

Cristina: Well, it's his skin's power. I mean, yeah, it's his power, like superpower type thing. And the women end up dying from withdrawal after he leaves.

Jack: So they all die.

Cristina: Yep, yep, they die. But then there's the Farduring, which is the evil leprechaun, because none of those are evil. They're not evil. Except for that one that sounds a little.

Jack: How is this one any more or less evil?

Cristina: Well, this guy. Oh, his name translates to Red man. This guy Redman, he wears a red cape and hat and he does some really gross practical jokes. Like he likes to put people into sacks and kidnap people. And then there was a story where he makes them make him dinner and then when they look at the dinner, it's a witch. I don't know. I don't know how that's evil or whatever. That's just weird.

Jack: Very strange. Yes, yes.

Cristina: This is a very strange thing. But usually he just traps people in rooms.

Jack: That doesn't sound like malicious or evil. It just sounds like a douchebag.

Cristina: And. Yeah, it does. It does. He does terrifying noises. One of them is described as laughing like a dead man, which I'm not really sure what that sounds like, but that sounds like, it would be terrifying if you knew that that's what you're specifically listening to. Maybe it's a person you knew that died and you hear that laughing.

Jack: That would make sense.

Cristina: That's kind of horrifying.

Jack: Yeah, Like a very distinct laugh that you shouldn't be hearing.

Cristina: Mm. And he's also the people. The person stealing the human babies and replacing them with changelings. Remember the changelings we talked about last year?

Jack: Yeah.

Cristina: Yep. He's the one. He's. He's the one doing it.

Jack: Why does he kidnap the children again?

Cristina: To replace them with. I don't know. To replace. As a joke, I guess. To replace them with fairy children. Right.

Jack: And then what does he do with the kid?

Cristina: Don't remember we talked about this last year, and I don't remember. You don't remember?

Jack: No.

Cristina: I'm not sure. Maybe the kids are slaves while they're baby. Like, they don't.

Jack: Underwear gnome logic.

Cristina: Yes, But I guess the purpose, though, of stealing the human babies so that these other babies could be raised and they don't have to actually raise the babies. Fairies are lazy, and they don't want to raise their babies. So they're like, let's get these humans.

Jack: To raise our babies minus a human baby they now have to raise.

Cristina: I'm sure they're not raising those babies. They throw them in the trash.

Jack: And thus the question of where trash babies come from is answered.

Cristina: Yes. That's where trash babies come from. They're also. They also bring nightmares. And they just. They just like to terror. Terrorize people. They just love terrorizing.

Jack: I mean, minus the kidnapping part. Everything else is pretty. Pretty chill.

Cristina: Even the swapping babies thing is chill.

Jack: That's the part I'm talking about.

Cristina: Oh, I thought you meant the other kidnapping of, like, when he made the guy cook and then it somehow became a witch, or trapping the person in a room, and then the scary voices.

Jack: None of that is kidnapping.

Cristina: None of that is kidnapping. But that all sounds pretty bad. No. Okay.

Jack: Sounds scary, not evil.

Cristina: Okay. Well, there's one way to avoid his tricks. You have to say, you will not mock me before he traps you.

Jack: So you could just walk around saying, you will not mock me.

Cristina: Yes, but they. But it's really hard because they set up very good traps. So you have to say before you're trapped, but you might end up being trapped before you say it, so you gotta say it. I guess you have to walk around saying it, just hoping not to get trapped.

Jack: Yeah. Or is it just, like, how. What's the Deadline on this. Can you just say it now and then you're just good forever?

Cristina: Maybe. I don't know. Probably not. You probably have to walk around saying that they're also called rat boys because they're fat.

Jack: The evil ones?

Cristina: Yes, the evil ones. They're fat. They have dark hairy skin. They have a long snout and a skinny tail.

Jack: So they don't look like dwarfs. No, they don't look human.

Cristina: They don't. They look like a giant rat. I guess they look like a. They look like a giant rat. But they're still described as being a type of leprechaun. But an evil leprechaun.

Jack: An evil rat. Leprechaun.

Cristina: Evil rat. Leprechaun. Yes. That cause nightmares and bad luck.

Jack: I feel like this is totally backwards because instead of it being a little person, it's just a giant rat.

Cristina: It's just a giant rat. Oh, it is a giant rat. Yeah. Maybe it's not a leprechaun. Maybe it's just a giant magical rat.

Jack: Sounds like it.

Cristina: Yeah. So then it's just a fairy. Not really a leprechaun. A leprechaun. So who knows. And then there's some other Ireland creatures. There's these things called the Merrow men. And the merrow. The Merrow men are ugly sea creatures. And the females are called marrows. Are beautiful because they're always beautiful, aren't they? All the women are beautiful in these type of stories.

Jack: Yeah. That's how the succubus is so attractive. And the incubus is, I don't know. A monster.

Cristina: Yes. Oh yeah, we talked about that too. Yeah, that's. And the Merrell. The Merrells are not. They're not mermaids. They have human legs instead of a tail. Except that they're. They have large flat feet and webbed fingers to help them swim.

Jack: So they are basically the swamp creature.

Cristina: Yes, they're the swamp creature. And the Merrell's ability to. To swim in water or to travel in water is from her clothes. She has a cape or a cap, depending on the story. And when she takes it off, she loses the ability. And usually a man will find it and hide it so that he could marry her because she's beautiful. And also she has lots of gold from the sea, I guess.

Jack: Okay. Sweet. Fantastic. So like a half fish woman. That's gorgeous.

Cristina: Yes. And rich.

Jack: And rich.

Cristina: Yes. And then. But if she finds her missing cape or cap, she'll end up running away and returning to the sea, leaving her husband and their children and many Families claim to be descendants from these Merrells who were entrapped by fishermen.

Jack: Really? Like, somewhere up the line, their grandma was a fish lady who jumped in the water. And we're sure that it wasn't just a crazy lady who committed suicide?

Cristina: Yeah. It could just be a lady who just abandoned her family. Maybe committed suicide, maybe not. Maybe she just abandoned her family and they were like, no way would she abandon us. She must have been a marrow.

Jack: Chances are the father made that lie up for the children.

Cristina: Yes. And then there's this thing called a banshee, which is a female spirit. I'm not sure. Spirit, fairy, sprite? I don't know.

Jack: I've heard of banshees. They're known for screaming.

Cristina: They're known for screaming? Yes. Well, crying. They're considered a omen of death. Whenever you hear her, you could assume someone's about to die.

Jack: That makes sense. They. They're known. You like, you hear them in the woods and s***. A lot of the time you hear the screams of a banshee. There's a couple of songs about that too.

Cristina: Really? Well, there's some stories where they just find her by their window. She's just next to their window crying.

Jack: That's f****** horrifying.

Cristina: Yes, well, her appearance isn't that. Well, sometimes. It depends, because she has three different appearances. She can look like a young lady, she can look like a regular woman, and she can look like a withering hag. So her age varies.

Jack: F****** banshee.

Cristina: And she can also appear as a crow, weasel or another creature called a stout. That, I think is also a type of weasel.

Jack: I didn't know that. So she could, like, shapeshift.

Cristina: Yeah. And I have three stories of this banshee lady. There was a couple who stayed at a friend's castle, a friend's castle. And on the first night around 1am, the wife heard a cry by the window. And when she looked, she saw some lady there, a lady leaning on the window, crying. And she woke up her husband scared and stuff. And then in the next day, they told. I don't know if they told their friend the story, but anyway, the next day their friend told them that she was all night up because she was with her dying cousin and her very sick cousin. And at the same time, he died. Okay. She told them that even though it's the best room of the house, there's a ghost of a lady that haunts the house. The ghost is of the former owner of the house who killed his wife. His pregnant wife. And that's the banshee that hangs out in the window?

Jack: His former wife? Yeah, but she died inside the house. Why is she hanging outside as a ghost?

Cristina: Why is she hanging outside as a ghost? Because that's what banshees do. I don't know. There's no stories of a banshee hanging out inside a house.

Jack: So she got killed and was like, I'm gonna go outside now.

Cristina: What if she got killed outside?

Jack: I thought she got killed in the house.

Cristina: No, he got. He died in the house. Her cousin died in the house.

Jack: Didn't he kill her?

Cristina: No, The. The owners of the house. The original. The former owners of the house. The husband killed the wife.

Jack: And that's the banshee.

Cristina: And that's the banshee? Yes.

Jack: The wife that died.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: Why didn't she haunt the house from inside the house where she died?

Cristina: We don't know that she died inside the house.

Jack: Didn't he kill her in the house?

Cristina: He killed her and they lived in that house.

Jack: Got it.

Cristina: But that doesn't.

Jack: Got it, got it, got it.

Cristina: I understand.

Jack: I understand.

Cristina: Like, yes, maybe he did kill her in the house, but I don't. We don't know that. We don't know where he killed her. It could be anywhere. So. But that's one story. Then there's stories where people from Ireland, they move far away and a banshee still follows them. It finds their way to them.

Jack: That's interesting. Reminds me of that show that's totally full of s*** of the people who moved into the house. Or do you know the people who tell them they're f****** the time I saw a ghost or whatever the f***. And then they got reenactors and s***.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: The ghost story in the room.

Cristina: Oh, yeah, okay.

Jack: That s*** that. This reminds me of that, like, he would. They were like, if we move, we'll be fine. Then they did, and then he stopped seeing her for a while, and then she popped up again.

Cristina: Well, she was hispan. She.

Jack: Except she wasn't screaming. She was just hanging in a closet. Except she was originally from the closet that she was hung in.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: And then she was just like, now, Imma go hang in your new closet.

Cristina: Yes. And then I think he also saw.

Jack: Her outside, which makes no f****** sense because presumably she was haunting the place, Meaning now she haunts you. And anybody who lives in that house is fine.

Cristina: Now, I don't. I don't know how ghosts work. What if they can haunt more than one thing at a time?

Jack: That's crazy. Anybody who goes through that house is haunted by the saint. So if everybody in the world stayed at that house and then moved, they would all be haunted by the same ghost at the same time.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: And that's what's happening with this banshee. Basically.

Cristina: Except none of his family was haunted and they all lived there. Maybe have to be in that specific room.

Jack: Could be.

Cristina: How are we gonna get all these people into that room?

Jack: That's crazy.

Cristina: That's crazy. But yes, like the banshee and these, these two stories, they moved to. They moved to Canada and Yeah. They heard the cry. And then the next day in one of the stories, the man of the house and his oldest son died in a boating accident. The next day after they heard the strange cry, they also asked people about the strange cry and no one saw anyone by the house, but they all heard the cry.

Jack: That's fascinating. I wonder if that has happened recently, like with banshees, you know? So banshees is an Irish creature.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: Interesting, interesting. Because that's prominent in Western culture. That's prominent as h*** over here because.

Cristina: Irish people came over here and brought their banshees.

Jack: Interesting, interesting. Can you imagine? Like, let's say banshees are for facts. Real, right?

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: Like, I'll probably hunt one down. We'll make that a mission. We'll add them to the collection of f******. What do we have so far? F****** werewolves and reptilian vampires. And vampires. We got a bunch of s***. Imprisoned.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: On Mars.

Cristina: We want to find if banshees can haunt people that aren't related to Irish.

Jack: Yes.

Cristina: So that.

Jack: That'll be interesting to see a banshee for now.

Cristina: Alright. Because some first. For now it's only been people from Ireland or. Yeah. That have some blood in Ireland that they hunt.

Jack: That's so weird. I'm curious. A banshee is a really weird creature. It really is. Because it's like a person, but also not.

Cristina: It's not a person.

Jack: Yeah. Because like you're saying in Irish culture a banshee is a leprechaun.

Cristina: Not a leprechaun.

Jack: A fairy.

Cristina: A fairy? Yes.

Jack: Okay. It's a fairy.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: In Irish culture the banshee is a fairy.

Cristina: Yes. The best description is a spirit. But to me it seems like spirit could equal fairy. Could equal whatever.

Jack: Yeah. Because they're used almost interchangeably.

Cristina: Yeah. So that's why I'm not sure what she is.

Jack: So when we get to her, it's kind of vague. Because a woman died and became a banshee.

Cristina: Yes. In this story. Yeah. Or the banshee haunts where the woman died. And it's not the woman.

Jack: Interesting.

Cristina: Yep.

Jack: Interest. Holy crap. That's kind of fascinating. Wow. So it could either be that people turn into banshees or.

Cristina: I never thought that people could turn into banshees in. With these things. It seems like these creatures in Ireland are separate things. They're not human. Yeah. They're their own species.

Jack: Enter the shadow realm, a place where there is a part of people that naturally exists. And upon crossing the threshold, that was still the person, but it's also not. So is the banshee a tortured soul from the shadow realm that crossed over. So maybe it was that woman's spirit. Yeah, but the shadow realm version, maybe. Intense emotion, fear, and all these things that are required for a creature from the shadow realm to manifest were all present at the death of this person and maybe lingers in there as people know about the story and create the fear that allows the banshee to continue manifesting on this side.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: It is her tortured soul from the other side.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: Although she died somehow, her soul didn't die. Maybe adrenochrome isn't the only way.

Cristina: Yes, maybe adrenochrome is, but then that would mean like all the emotions and feelings and stuff are somehow part of it.

Jack: Yeah. Because we know that people extract adrenochrome or whatever they're getting that keeps them alive from the fear itself.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: Where they don't need the adrenal chrome. So if you get enough of that all in one shot. Is that what a haunting soul is? Like a spirit that's left behind? Right. And you're haunting a place. That's your version. That's your spirit that's from the shadow realm.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: That came through. But why? It's usually because you were killed brutally or some. Some horrible thing happened, except your soul couldn't fade away. The crazy amount of emotion, fear, sadness, all those things existed at the moment of your death and tethered your soul to that.

Cristina: But it's still. The Banshee is very different from regular ghosts because it's. It's only here to warn you. Like someone's about to die, which regular ghosts don't really do anything.

Jack: Or Spirit. Yeah, because ghost is an spirit.

Cristina: Okay.

Jack: Regular spirit or shadow person.

Cristina: Yeah. As far as we can tell, they're not any type of warning sign. They're not going to tell you anything. Thing about the future.

Jack: Yeah. They're not there intentionally. They're just echoing through. Or if they.

Cristina: The banshee is more like the groundhog?

Jack: Yeah, it's more like the groundhog. It's there for information of some sort. But my question is, is it choosing to, or is it a reflex? Is the Banshee incapable, capable of telling.

Cristina: People that it's someone they know is about to die?

Jack: Yes. Do you know?

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: Like, do they have to do it even if they didn't want to? They're just somewhere where death is. And they scream at death.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: But then again, if we think of the Shadow Realm. Again, not to stay on the Shadow Realm topic. The reapers also call the Shadow Realm.

Cristina: Other realm, because that's what this is in this place now, I guess.

Jack: So the other Realm, the reaper comes from the other realm. And the Reaper handles life. It is a delivery mechanism in the form of a physical being.

Cristina: Mm.

Jack: And maybe the Banshee is terrified of the Reaper. Of the Reaper. Because it's always maybe coming for the Banshee.

Cristina: She's warning about the Reaper then.

Jack: I don't think she's warning anybody.

Cristina: She's just horrified. Of the Reaper?

Jack: Yes, because that's a lingering tethered soul to the wrong side. And the Reaper delivers souls.

Cristina: I don't know. But I think this third story might change our mind a little bit about that. Because in the third situation of a Banshee haunting a man because his daughter was gonna die, but he didn't know that she was healthy, strong, and beautiful. And then one night, he heard a voice coming from his window, and it said. Which is weird. Like, they usually just cry. And it was crying too, but it also said, in three weeks, death. In three weeks, the grave. Dead, dead, dead. That's what he heard. And then the next day, his daughter got sick or was showing symptoms of a fever. And then three weeks later, dead.

Jack: Interesting. Interesting. So it was a warning.

Cristina: It was a real warning of, like, I know what's gonna happen.

Jack: It's not that they're seeing death actively in the area, even if other people can't, because they themselves are ethereal and seeing other ethereal beings.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: It's that they're seeing the future.

Cristina: Yes. Like, maybe it does see death coming, but it knows, like, specific.

Jack: Oh, my God. We're missing one thing that you mentioned earlier.

Cristina: What?

Jack: And then I specified earlier, time works differently on the other side. So maybe from this side they're saying, death is coming, but it takes crazy long here. But from that side's point of view, it's immediate. He's approaching quick. But it could be weeks.

Cristina: Yeah. Even though this one is specific. Or maybe he remembers it as it being super specific.

Jack: Maybe they were super specific. Maybe the person the banshee telling the information knew specifically the. The conversion rate of time.

Cristina: Oh, okay.

Jack: And was like. Well, it takes them about three hours on this side, so we'll say like three weeks.

Cristina: Yeah. So like banshees may know the time difference equivalent of what's going on. Okay.

Jack: Just a possibility.

Cristina: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. And then there's the Fear Gorda. And Fear Gordas look like zombies. Actually. I think they are zombies, but we're just gonna. Well, they're like zombies from like old fashioned zombie movies. Like they're. They got bones popping out of their body. They're like super thin, they have bluish skin and their flesh is rotting.

Jack: Yeah. So it sounds like a zombie from an old school interpretation of a zombie, but like a freaking God decided to look like this s***. It was like f****** reason for it though.

Cristina: During famines it comes around and it asks for food. It asks people for food who are already dying in a famine. But if you give him the food, he'll reward you with. But if you give him food, he'll reward you with a lifelong wealth and prosperity. And those who don't give him food will have bad luck and poverty.

Jack: Sounds pretty badass. So he's testing the morality of people.

Cristina: Yes. In the worst situation, in the life and death situation, because it's a famine.

Jack: So you're starving. I'm starving. Do you care about others? Can you.

Cristina: That's a true test. That sounds very godly.

Jack: Yeah, that's very noble.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: He's testing a real person. Like, do you remain a good person in the worst of circumstances?

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: Then you deserve good things.

Cristina: Yes. That's pretty interesting. Yeah. And then there are stories. There's two. There's like. Okay, I'll say. There's like three stories of these creatures that are very vampire. Like the author of Dracula might have based it on these creatures because he's Irish.

Jack: Interesting.

Cristina: But he also liked folklore, so. And he did travel, so he of course also based on other famous vampires and stories.

Jack: Transylvanian legends and whatnot.

Cristina: Yeah, yeah. So the first one is called the Avatar, the evil Irish magical dwarf king who was like. He was just pretty evil. And he killed. He was killed and buried standing up. And then the next day he came back from the grave and used his magical powers to be even more crueler than he was before. And he loves to drink the blood of his victims, of course. And there's only one way to stop him. You must kill him. And Bury him upside down. Very vampirey.

Jack: Very vampirey. Including all the weird ways to get rid of them and crap.

Cristina: Yes. The second vampire is a lady, and she is called the Red Bloodsucker. She's known as the Red Bloodsucker. She seduces men and then drains their blood. One of the stories about how she became a vampire was that she was in love with some poor peasant dude, and her father didn't like that, so he made her marry some rich dude who treated her terrible. And then eventually she committed suicide. But then she came back to get revenge on her father and her husband, and she sucked their blood until they were dead. And then now she does that once.

Jack: A year to random people.

Cristina: To random people.

Jack: She's Jeeper Scrapers.

Cristina: Well, to men, specifically. She wants men.

Jack: Oh, so she's a succubus.

Cristina: She's a Succubus. Well, yeah, but she's a vampire. And there is only one way to, quote, unquote, defeat her, because it's not really to defeat her. Like, what, did you compare her to a succubus? No, before that. Jeepers Creepers.

Jack: Jeepers Creepers.

Cristina: To stop her is like, Jeepers Creepers. You don't really defeat her. You put rocks on her grave and then she can't get up.

Jack: Yeah. You just enable her.

Cristina: Yeah. For only a year, and then she'll try to get out, and then you got to put some more rocks.

Jack: She sounds very Jeepers Creepers.

Cristina: Yeah. So maybe Jeepers Creepers was inspired by some Dracula stories or.

Jack: No, it was actually inspired by a song.

Cristina: By a song. Oh, yeah.

Jack: But that song could have used not only the song, but it could have been like a mesh of this story, a song, and a bunch of other crap to make. Because Jeepers Creeper is a scary m***********.

Cristina: Yeah. But that whole coming back every 23 years, or whatever it was isn't from the song, though.

Jack: No.

Cristina: No. So like, maybe that was inspired by this type of story. Yeah. And then the third vampire, like, person or demon? This one's more. This is a fairy vampire, and her name is Lennon Sid. I think that's how her name is said. And she's a demon that likes to inspire poets and musicians. But once they. Once they make the thing that they're gonna make, I guess she drinks their blood, she shares with them her intelligence, creativity, and magic. But when she leaves, the men go into a deep depression and they die. Then she will take her dead lovers back to her lair. And then, rather sucking their blood, she puts their blood into a Giant red cauldron, which is the source of her beauty and artistic inspiration.

Jack: Fantastic.

Cristina: Yep. So to prevent her from rising, you have to also put stones on her resting place.

Jack: Interesting, Interesting. So definitely a vampire, too.

Cristina: Yeah, she's a fairy vampire, which I guess the dwarf guy is a fairy vampire because dwarves are fairies. But then the second lady, she's just a vampire. She was human, and then she became a vampire.

Jack: So we're back to the same problem of the difference between a spirit and a fairy.

Cristina: Yes. Yes. That's why it's all so complicated. And I'm not really sure what is. What if they're all the same or if they're not the same or whatever. Where's the lines?

Jack: Yeah. Cause it seems like they do blur.

Cristina: Yes. And then the last creature, because there's so many creatures. But I'm just gonna stop at this one. It's called the Questing Beast. It is a cool creature. It's also an evil creature who has the head of a snake, the body of a leopard, the backside of a lion, and the hooves of a deer. And its cries. Its sound. The sound it makes sounds like the cry it makes sounds like the bark.

Jack: Of 30 dogs all at once simultaneously.

Cristina: Yes. And I think it's called the Questing Beast because many knights have tried to defeat this beast. I don't know if any has succeeded.

Jack: But so they go out of their way. It's an accomplishment. They're trying to do status thing. If I defeat it, I am a legend.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: Okay, so it's a western dragon again. You go defeat the dragon for the status now. It will be the best knight ever. Everybody will know. And so the Questing Beast is the same idea.

Cristina: That's the same thing.

Jack: Very interesting. It sounds like a Pokemon.

Cristina: It sounds like they'll turn this into a Pokemon someday.

Jack: Yeah, fair enough. Then again, they don't make Pokemon out of animals anymore. It's sooner that you'll have, like, microphone. The Pokemon. There probably is a microphone Pokemon. I'm pretty sure that's a thing already.

Cristina: No, not yet.

Jack: I think that's. There's a microphone Pokemon.

Cristina: That's the next evolution. I mean, the next season or whatever.

Jack: There's a Pokemon. It's called, like, Mikey or something.

Cristina: No, it's not Mikey.

Jack: Yeah, man. There's totally a microphone Pokemon. Oh, my God. What is it? What the h*** is that thing? Is that a real Pokemon?

Cristina: I think that's fan. A fan art. Because there is a Pokemon that has different forms that looks like that, and that's what they're making fun of, I think.

Jack: Okay, fair enough.

Cristina: But we could double check. Look, his name is Rotom, the voice form. Okay, let's see what Rotom's different forms are, though. Okay, so he's Rotom.

Jack: Could be a frigerator, f****** lawnmower. Modem, a laundry. He could be a washing machine. He could be a grill. He could be a fridge, a freaking fan. And what the h*** is that other one?

Cristina: This one? This one. The original, I guess, is just, like, normal electricity. Yeah. And then he. Yeah, he turns into things that need electricity.

Jack: Bro, what the h*** is going on with Pokemon?

Cristina: Close enough. You're right. There's a microphone.

Jack: There totally isn't, but there should totally be a microphone.

Cristina: Look at him. He's a Pokedex.

Jack: Oh, my God.

Cristina: So there's fan art of, like, the many different things he could probably turn into. If you can be these things, there's probably a limited, unlimited possibility of what he could actually turn into.

Jack: Freaking Rotom.

Cristina: As long as they're electric. I mean, electronical, right? Yeah, like a computer.

Jack: That makes perfect sense. But it's like, why is this a freaking Pokemon? A blender. A toaster.

Cristina: I'm not sure what this one's supposed to be.

Jack: Where's the other one? Next to it.

Cristina: That one?

Jack: No, the one that's a toaster. What the h*** is that?

Cristina: No idea. Okay, so people are getting really creative of what this should look like. What?

Jack: Freaking Rotom, bro.

Cristina: Yes, I would like to see Quest Beast as a Pokemon.

Jack: That'd be cool. Questy. Questy Equestrian.

Cristina: Oh, that's a cool name.

Jack: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it is a cool name.

Cristina: Well, that was awesome. And there's a lot of creatures in Ireland. Ridiculous. That place is popular.

Jack: Yes, but what has made me interested about everything you've talked about is really digging into a banshee. Yeah, like, at this point, we've become the new Sam and Dean. They're off air. They're. They're. They're living their lives. We still hunting? S***, they stopped. We're still going. We're still hunting.

Cristina: Yeah, they're the ones that taught us.

Jack: Yeah, except we have a freaking army of subhumans provided by the Chinese cloning program. Yeah, which is totally fine. Look, it's totally fine. Actually, it's not the cloning program. We're the clones. It's all the aborted babies.

Cristina: The aborted babies make the.

Jack: The subhumans.

Cristina: Okay.

Jack: Aborted babies equal an army of subhumans that are superior because they're genetically engineered and then turn into Superhumans that then we use to hunt these creat like the ones in Ireland. And now I am fascinated by a banshee.

Cristina: Except that these creatures have. Are really secretive and they can hide and stuff. And like, I don't know. Finding a banshee really hard.

Jack: I'll figure it out, okay? I will figure out finding a banshee.

Cristina: Well, that's gonna be fun.

Jack: It's gonna be astounding. I will find the banshee by any means necessary.

Cristina: All right?

Jack: I promise. That much.

Cristina: I can't wait.

Jack: Yes. It's gonna be exciting.

Cristina: Yes.

Jack: Anyways, if you guys enjoyed this conversation and many conversations of this nature already exist on this show, that you can go find those locations would be to find them on the official website, greathoughts.info Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Cristina: And you can reach us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. UsConvopod.

Jack: Yes. And remember to subscribe, rate, and review.

Cristina: The show and let someone who might like this show know about it.

Jack: Yes. Word of mouth. It's totally amazing. Scream at people as if you were a banshee and tell them, hey, you're gonna love that. And they're gonna be like, yeah, I will. And you're like, yeah, cool. Scream with me. And then they'll scream with you. You should do that to random people on the street. Because they love it.

Cristina: They love it.

Jack: They love it.

Cristina: This has been the Just Conversation podcast. Take nothing personal. And thanks for listening. Bye.

Jack: Kekken Apheos. Go on. Hang in hand.

Cristina: And that's what KEK is all about.

Jack: Chaos. Yeah. Embracing chaos. It's a natural part of everything. But so is order. And having order and reason and logic. In no moment does Kek's chaos interfere with Pastafarianism. Logic. The goal is be reasonable. Same thing with Kek. You control, but you don't hurt people.

Cristina: Because it's just a joke.

Jack: It's just a joke. If you're crossing the line, you're f****** up.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: You're doing it wrong.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: It's not about hurting other people. It's about that balance of you can have fun. Some people are gonna get annoyed.

Cristina: Mm.

Jack: But they should know that they're getting annoyed at a joke.

Cristina: It's so weird how anything could have a religion. Thinking of Shaggy. Shaggy. The church of Shaggy.

Jack: Yeah. What happens with Shaggy is the idea that destruction is equal to creation. So not only do we maintain balance, but we need to understand that sometimes things. A good example is, as writers, we often have to get rid of something and destroy something because it's just not working out. It's the weak link in what we're trying to do. And sometimes you're attached to the idea, but the story isn't attached to the idea.

Cristina: I usually just remove them. I don't delete them or anything.

Jack: Well, you can remove them, put them somewhere else, but you're destroying the concept you were working with to change it for something else.

Cristina: Yeah.

Jack: And that just goes hand in hand with. To maintain balance, you must destroy sometimes.

Cristina: That's an interesting way to see it. Yeah.

Jack: Shaggy is important.

Cristina: He is.

Jack: He's important in everything. You must destroy in order to create their hand in hand.

Cristina: Good morning. Good morning. The Just Conversation podcast is hosted by Christina Collazo and Jack Thomas, produced by Lynn Taylor and published by great dots.info art by 0lupo and logo by Seth McAllister with social media managed by Amber Black.