#ITS POLYPHONIC

[ectojyunk]

Kinktober prompt #1: Dirty Talk

... they discovered G'raha likes it when they talk in Ancient

[ranticore]

you mentioned wyrms retract the human-ish head to eat, do you have an idea of how that works, anatomically? I'm trying to imagine a cross section of those necks with separate tubes for air, food, the head and the spine. does the head get packed tight in some kind of sleeve? It would be really cool to see that cross section

(also would love to know more about the time Rev spent as a disembodied head, that must have been really weird)

well i was meaning to draw it anyway

the "human" portion (referred to as the head yes all of it) has its own heart, lungs, and accessory oesophagus, though it doesn't have its own stomach. there's a little crop which is the remains of the human stomach, kind of like an appendix now really. the accessory oesophagus (green) connects to the main crop in the chest area, running parallel to the dragon oesophagus but not attaching to it. when the head is out, the dragon mouth is occupied anyway so it doesn't need to eat and the oesophagus is a squishy tube that is collapsed when not in use (unlike the trachea) so there's no issues with space here, it's fine.

the lungs in the head area are only minorly used for gas exchange - they provide very little oxygen, really, but enough to keep that human part running in a very hypoxic state in the case of decapitation. Mostly they're just used to draw air over the vocal chords. If the lungs in the main body were compromised somehow, the wyrm would straight up cease to function (not death. but comatose), while if the head lungs broke, eh nbd it just means no voice until they heal. there is a syrinx inside the chest cavity which provides additional vocals - deep infrasound rumbles. the main lungs are gigantic and in larger wyrms will extend further into the body. in the case of multiple heads, there are multiple syrinxes where the tracheas connect to the lungs and that means they can produce polyphonic rumbles :) breathing is done through the dragon nostrils, there's a sizeable cavity there for their good sense of smell. in case you are wondering how they sync up their breaths when there's multiple heads, the lungs are birdlike in that it's a series of air sacs and a passive inhalation, and an active exhalation governed by different lobes of the lung at once (using the air sacs). each head has its own lobe. so the wyrm is in a constant state of inhaling and exhaling at different rates (if there's multiple heads)

the dragon oesophagus is the main one and it leads to a crop, which is where the wyrm denatures the powerful toxins of their prey and forms a pellet out of the inedible mandibles and spicules found within a crawling beast. this is spat up later and buried (no longer poisonous so nbd). edible portions go to the stomach. the liver is very big and very strong, it's almost impossible to poison a wyrm in any way (including drugs, alcohol, etc)

so the thing about the wyrms is that the number of legs is variable, Revelation obviously has two, Onozar has four. But the two that Revelation has are actually its forelegs! The torso extends quite a bit into what we would consider the Tail area, it's rather snakelike.

as a disembodied head, Rev had no heart, no functioning lungs, and was also completely paralysed because of the severed nerve cord in its (human) neck. literally from the jaw down it couldn't move, which is what made it such a convincing corpse. life was very underwhelming for it since it was essentially running on extreme battery saver mode, always watching and sensing the world but never truly perceiving what it saw and heard and felt. animals made nests in its chest cavity, and it was infested with scavenging worms for a while, but its own flesh is distasteful to other living beings and nothing did enough damage to actually cause decomposition. just some nasty wounds.

Rev needed Wildfire to literally rip up a crawler and put the meat in its mouth before any attempts at healing could be made. when it finally got its lungs working again it found they were full of detritus - dust, spores, roots, random stuff. growing back the lower body would have taken decades more if it continued at the same pace, so it used a little bit of magic and Wildfire's other tiercels' flesh to construct the most basic shape of its lower body, and once it had those bits intact it could start properly gaining strength and growing.

[macrolit]

NYT's Notable Books of 2023

Each year, we pore over thousands of new books, seeking out the best novels, memoirs, biographies, poetry collections, stories and more. Here are the standouts, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

AFTER SAPPHO by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Inspired by Sappho’s work, Schwartz’s debut novel offers an alternate history of creativity at the turn of the 20th century, one that centers queer women artists, writers and intellectuals who refused to accept society’s boundaries.

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S.A. Cosby

In his earlier thrillers, Cosby worked the outlaw side of the crime genre. In his new one — about a Black sheriff in a rural Southern town, searching for a serial killer who tortures Black children — he’s written a crackling good police procedural.

THE BEE STING by Paul Murray

In Murray’s boisterous tragicomic novel, a once wealthy Irish family struggles with both the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash and their own inner demons.

BIOGRAPHY OF X by Catherine Lacey

Lacey rewrites 20th-century U.S. history through the audacious fictional life story of X, a polarizing female performance artist who made her way from the South to New York City’s downtown art scene.

BIRNAM WOOD by Eleanor Catton

In this action-packed novel from a Booker Prize winner, a collective of activist gardeners crosses paths with a billionaire doomsday prepper on land they each want for different purposes.

BLACKOUTS by Justin Torres

This lyrical, genre-defying novel — winner of the 2023 National Book Award — explores what it means to be erased and how to persist after being wiped away.

BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN by Jessica Knoll

In her third and most assured novel, Knoll shifts readers’ attention away from a notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, and onto the lives — and deaths — of the women he killed. Perhaps for the first time in fiction, Knoll pooh-poohs Bundy's much ballyhooed intelligence, celebrating the promise and perspicacity of his victims instead.

CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

This satire — in which prison inmates duel on TV for a chance at freedom — makes readers complicit with the bloodthirsty fans sitting ringside. The fight scenes are so well written they demonstrate how easy it might be to accept a world this sick.

THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese

Verghese’s first novel since “Cutting for Stone” follows generations of a family across 77 years in southwestern India as they contend with political strife and other troubles — capped by a shocking discovery made by the matriarch’s granddaughter, a doctor.

CROOK MANIFESTO by Colson Whitehead

Returning to the world of his novel “Harlem Shuffle,” Whitehead again uses a crime story to illuminate a singular neighborhood at a tipping point — here, Harlem in the 1970s.

THE DELUGE by Stephen Markley

Markley’s second novel confronts the scale and gravity of climate change, tracking a cadre of scientists and activists from the gathering storm of the Obama years to the super-typhoons of future decades. Immersive and ambitious, the book shows the range of its author’s gifts: polyphonic narration, silken sentences and elaborate world-building.

EASTBOUND by Maylis de Kerangal

In de Kerangal’s brief, lyrical novel, translated by Jessica Moore, a young Russian soldier on a trans-Siberian train decides to desert and turns to a civilian passenger, a Frenchwoman, for help.

EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by Heather Fawcett

The world-building in this tale of a woman documenting a new kind of faerie is exquisite, and the characters are just as textured and richly drawn. This is the kind of folkloric fantasy that remembers the old, blood-ribboned source material about sacrifices and stolen children, but adds a modern gloss.

ENTER GHOST by Isabella Hammad

In Hammad’s second novel, a British Palestinian actor returns to her hometown in Israel to recover from a breakup and spend time with her family. Instead, she’s talked into joining a staging of “Hamlet” in the West Bank, where she has a political awakening.

FORBIDDEN NOTEBOOK by Alba de Céspedes

A best-selling novelist and prominent anti-Fascist in her native Italy, de Céspedes has lately fallen into unjust obscurity. Translated by Ann Goldstein, this elegant novel from the 1950s tells the story of a married mother, Valeria, whose life is transformed when she begins keeping a secret diary.

THE FRAUD by Zadie Smith

Based on a celebrated 19th-century trial in which the defendant was accused of impersonating a nobleman, Smith’s novel offers a vast panoply of London and the English countryside, and successfully locates the social controversies of an era in a handful of characters.

FROM FROM by Monica Youn

In her fourth book of verse, a svelte, intrepid foray into American racism, Youn turns a knowing eye on society’s love-hate relationship with what it sees as the “other.”

A GUEST IN THE HOUSE by Emily Carroll

After a lonely young woman marries a mild-mannered widower and moves into his home, she begins to wonder how his first wife actually died. This graphic novel alternates between black-and-white and overwhelming colors as it explores the mundane and the horrific.

THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride

McBride’s latest, an intimate, big-hearted tale of community, opens with a human skeleton found in a well in the 1970s, and then flashes back to the past, to the ’20s and ’30s, to explore the town’s Black, Jewish and immigrant history.

HELLO BEAUTIFUL by Ann Napolitano

In her radiant fourth novel, Napolitano puts a fresh spin on the classic tale of four sisters and the man who joins their family. Take “Little Women,” move it to modern-day Chicago, add more intrigue, lots of basketball and a different kind of boy next door and you’ve got the bones of this thoroughly original story.

A HISTORY OF BURNING by Janika Oza

This remarkable debut novel tells the story of an extended Indo-Ugandan family that is displaced, settled and displaced again.

HOLLY by Stephen King

The scrappy private detective Holly Gibney (who appeared in “The Outsider” and several other novels) returns, this time taking on a missing-persons case that — in typical King fashion — unfolds into a tale of Dickensian proportions.

A HOUSE FOR ALICE by Diana Evans

This polyphonic novel traces one family’s reckoning after the patriarch dies in a fire, as his widow, a Nigerian immigrant, considers returning to her home country and the entire family re-examines the circumstances of their lives.

THE ILIAD by Homer

Emily Wilson’s propulsive new translation of the “Iliad” is buoyant and expressive; she wants this version to be read aloud, and it would certainly be fun to perform.

INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE by Emma Törzs

The sisters in Törzs's delightful debut have been raised to protect a collection of magic books that allow their keepers to do incredible things. Their story accelerates like a fugue, ably conducted to a tender conclusion.

KAIROS by Jenny Erpenbeck

This tale of a torrid, yearslong relationship between a young woman and a much older married man — translated from the German by Michael Hofmann — is both profound and moving.

KANTIKA by Elizabeth Graver

Inspired by the life of Graver’s maternal grandmother, this exquisitely imagined family saga spans cultures and continents as it traces the migrations of a Sephardic Jewish girl from turn-of-the-20th-century Constantinople to Barcelona, Havana and, finally, Queens, N.Y.

LAND OF MILK AND HONEY by C Pam Zhang

Zhang’s lush, keenly intelligent novel follows a chef who’s hired to cook for an “elite research community” in the Italian Alps, in a not-so-distant future where industrial-agricultural experiments in America’s heartland have blanketed the globe in a crop-smothering smog.

LONE WOMEN by Victor LaValle

The year is 1915, and the narrator of LaValle’s horror-tinged western has arrived in Montana to cultivate an unforgiving homestead. She’s looking for a fresh start as a single Black woman in a sparsely populated state, but the locked trunk she has in stow holds a terrifying secret.

MONICA by Daniel Clowes

In Clowes’s luminous new work, the titular character, abandoned by her mother as a child, endures a life of calamities before resolving to learn about her origins and track down her parents.

THE MOST SECRET MEMORY OF MEN by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Based on a true story and translated by Lara Vergnaud, Sarr’s novel — about a Senegalese writer brought low by a plagiarism scandal — asks sharp questions about the state of African literature in the West.

THE NEW NATURALS by Gabriel Bump

In Bump’s engrossing new novel, a young Black couple, mourning the loss of their newborn daughter and disillusioned with the world, start a utopian society — but tensions both internal and external soon threaten their dreams.

NORTH WOODS by Daniel Mason

Mason’s novel looks at the occupants of a single house in Massachusetts over several centuries, from colonial times to present day. An apple farmer, an abolitionist, a wealthy manufacturer: The book follows these lives and many others, with detours into natural history and crime reportage.

NOT EVEN THE DEAD by Juan Gómez Bárcena

An ex-conquistador in Spanish-ruled, 16th-century Mexico is asked to hunt down an Indigenous prophet in this novel by a leading writer in Spain, splendidly translated by Katie Whittemore. The epic search stretches across much of the continent and, as the author bends time and history, lasts centuries.

THE NURSERY by Szilvia Molnar

“I used to be a translator and now I am a milk bar.” So begins Molnar’s brilliant novel about a new mother falling apart within the four walls of her apartment.

OUR SHARE OF NIGHT by Mariana Enriquez

This dazzling, epic narrative, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, is a bewitching brew of mystery and myth, peopled by mediums who can summon “the Darkness” for a secret society of wealthy occultists seeking to preserve consciousness after death.

PINEAPPLE STREET by Jenny Jackson

Jackson’s smart, dishy debut novel embeds readers in an upper-crust Brooklyn Heights family — its real estate, its secrets, its just-like-you-and-me problems. Does money buy happiness? “Pineapple Street” asks a better question: Does it buy honesty?

THE REFORMATORY by Tananarive Due

Due’s latest — about a Black boy, Robert, who is wrongfully sentenced to a fictionalized version of Florida’s infamous and brutal Dozier School — is both an incisive examination of the lingering traumas of racism and a gripping, ghost-filled horror novel. “The novel’s extended, layered denouement is so heart-smashingly good, it made me late for work,” Randy Boyagoda wrote in his review. “I couldn’t stop reading.”

THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS by Vajra Chandrasekera

Trained to kill by his mother and able to see demons, the protagonist of Chandrasekera’s stunning and lyrical novel flees his destiny as an assassin and winds up in a politically volatile metropolis.

SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS by Ed Park

Double agents, sinister corporations, slasher films, U.F.O.s — Park’s long-awaited second novel is packed to the gills with creative elements that enliven his acerbic, comedic and lyrical odyssey into Korean history and American paranoia.

TAKE WHAT YOU NEED by Idra Novey

This elegant novel resonates with implication beyond the taut contours of its central story line. In Novey’s deft hands, the complex relationship between a young woman and her former stepmother hints at the manifold divisions within America itself.

THIS OTHER EDEN by Paul Harding

In his latest novel, inspired by the true story of a devastating 1912 eviction in Maine that displaced an entire mixed-race fishing community, Harding turns that history into a lyrical tale about the fictional Apple Island on the cusp of destruction.

TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett

Locked down on the family’s northern Michigan cherry orchard, three sisters and their mother, a former actress whose long-ago summer fling went on to become a movie star, reflect on love and regret in Patchett’s quiet and reassuring Chekhovian novel.

THE UNSETTLED by Ayana Mathis

This novel follows three generations across time and place: a young mother trying to create a home for herself and her son in 1980s Philadelphia, and her mother, who is trying to save their Alabama hometown from white supremacists seeking to displace her from her land.

VICTORY CITY by Salman Rushdie

Rushdie’s new novel recounts the long life of Pampa Kampana, who creates an empire from magic seeds in 14th-century India. Her world is one of peace, where men and women are equal and all faiths welcome, but the story Rushdie tells is of a state that forever fails to live up to its ideals.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD by Cat Sebastian

This queer midcentury romance — about reporters who meet at work, become friends, move in together and fall in love — lingers on small, everyday acts like bringing home flowers with the groceries, things that loom large because they’re how we connect with others.

WESTERN LANE by Chetna Maroo

In this polished and disciplined debut novel, an 11-year-old Jain girl in London who has just lost her mother turns her attention to the game of squash — which in Maroo’s graceful telling becomes a way into the girl’s grief.

WITNESS by Jamel Brinkley

Set in Brooklyn, and featuring animal rescue workers, florists, volunteers, ghosts and UPS workers, Brinkley’s new collection meditates on what it means to see and be seen.

Y/N by Esther Yi

In this weird and wondrous novel, a bored young woman in thrall to a boy band buys a one-way ticket to Seoul.

YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang

Kuang’s first foray outside of the fantasy genre is a breezy and propulsive tale about a white woman who achieves tremendous literary success by stealing a manuscript from a recently deceased Asian friend and passing it off as her own.

[themosthatedbeingg]

{Oh Father, oh Father,

Oh Father,

My Father, —-well I am ready, won't you let it begin ;

cause I am here now •

I want to dance

in the mighty palm of your hand}

Your hand.

A star fallen is caught and saved by the father’s bloody and gentle palm, the heavens quiver as all is put to right .. all is as it should be.. a patch up,

Stitching the night sky ,

The dawn grows to see another day, the hands of the elder siblings keep the star in place its wild abandon subdued and its brightness shines anew ~

The star of new chances, the star that shines brightest before Dawn .

The light burning and cold and Glorious, burning away the darkness and those who dare to take it from its place in the sky .

The star of retribution, of redemption, of righteousness .

Father’s forgiveness and anger mixed into one ;

The prodigal son , the first dreamer, the wild warrior of his father’s domain.

The Morningstar appears .

——————

The portal opens in front of the Palace, Holy light spills forth, along with a heavy mist , like the fog in the morning, distorting the shadows as the being makes it entrance at first it looks many headed and winged a swirling of shadows in the fog that makes no sense , to stare at it too long would invite madness , before it condenses into one shape , one person steps out, the form is takes seems to be struggling to contain it all.

The son of the morning , Father’s favorite, youngest of the Archangel but all the more powerful just the same ,

Lucifer Haliel Morningstar stood before them looking down at the disgusting pit before him, He shook his head , yes his reality sadly got destroyed by his beloved and all knowing father but surely his being saved from this mess was better then falling ? { he made the right choice he knew he did}

No matter he was here to give out his father’s wrath and retribution , as a good Loyal ( subdued) Son should .

Golden eyes with cross pupils took in Lilith , all six wings quivering with the urge to take him into the air , his top hat halo glowing brightly against red sky , this should be easy enough perhaps Michale and Him could have a friendly wager on who killed the most heretics and disgusting sinners today .

Opening his mouth in a way that seemed he was Trying not to rip apart his very face with how carefully he moved he spoke— “I denounce you harlot , tempter , betrayer of farther’s most glorious plan and all your ways she-devil~” his voice it was polyphonic with a hint of Enochian, the opposite of the demonic hint in his fallen counterparts voice .

To think some cycle of him actually married this being let alone have children with her .. or well in this case , Had a child~ .

@hells-sirenqueen

[ensemblewithsenpai]

Oct 23rd: 2wink’s POLYPHONIC WORLD music video has been released. Its beatmap will be added on Oct 24th at 3PM JST.

[evilmevilson]

my daily post lol

i have actually grown so attached to polyphone its so silly i love them

nighty night my fellas

[wildwren]

Okay favorite new themes after first listen:

Estrid - Definitely at the top of the list, the Hardanger fiddle is so heart-wrenching and the way the tune plays with scales offers a slightly sinister edge to an otherwise tender and romantic composition. The way it ends (on a more sinister note) makes me particularly curious but I love love love, all in all one of the most musically interesting tracks to me on Season 2.

Concerning Stoors - OH I love this so much! Bear's Harfoot theme has always been my least favorite from Season One, mostly because of how viscerally it reminds me of his work on Outlander, but Concerning Stoors is much more musically distinct to me, while still calling back to the textural vibes of the Harfoot theme. Really love the tune here, it evokes a whole new world. The hammered dulcimer sound is *chef's kiss*.

Rhûn - this track is SO sick. The children's choir adds such a unique texture -- polyphonic singing is so underused and it immediately evokes a different vibe from anything else Bear has written for Middle Earth. I love the way the folk instrumentation is layered with more orchestral sounds and how percussion-forward the track is. Also love the way these sounds combine with the Stranger's theme in Sandstorm at the Well.

Forgiveness Takes an Age - I'm basically assuming this is the Ent theme, as we heard an Entwife utter "Forgiveness takes an age," in the trailer. This track also includes Arondir's theme, which makes sense because we know Arondir will be with the Ents. The Last March of the Ents is in my top 3 orchestral themes from the Jackson trilogy, and this is definitely a different vibe but still holds some of that beauty and epic-ness. I really really love the texture in the first section, where the voices and the drums combine in a way we haven't heard before on the soundtrack, and when it opens up into more epic strings, it makes me want to cry!!!

The Last Ballad of Damrod - I wouldn't call this a new theme, but I have a lot to say about it. I know a lot of people weren't super into the vibe when it was first released, but I think this track fucking SLAPS. I also actually really appreciate it in the context of the full soundtrack, it fits perfectly between "Army of Orcs" and "Battle of Eregion," deepening and turning up the volume on the raw energy of the "Nampat" theme. The orchestration underneath also reminds me a lot of the "For the Southlands" theme from Season One, evoking Arondir's fight with the Big Orc. This make sense as we know that Arondir will be facing off with Damrod. Can't wait to have a heart attack! SNAP! GO THE! BOOOOOOOONES!

Special mention of the Where the Shadows Lie/True Creation Requires Sacrifice theme, which is not on its own track anywhere on Season 2, but which comes into play on several tracks, including "Last Temptation," "Emissary at the Forge," and "Cirdan's Perfection," all of which makes sense. I just think it's really cool that ROP introduced this theme in the very last moments of Season One, incorporating it into the Ring Poem, and now have woven it through the entirety of Season Two. Musical storytelling at its best!

okay i need to dive deeper into the new songs, especially Disa's and Gil-Galad's, but these are just my first listen thoughts.

[aria-ashryver]

Meet my OC - Viktor Ivanov

Name: Viktor Ivanov Book: Immortal Desires Orientation: Bisexual Pronouns: He/him Birthday: 12th October 1997 Sign: Libra Born: Dunedin, New Zealand Raised: Sydney, Australia, and Inverness, Scotland (with some short stints in both NZ and Croatia) Heritage: Croat

More under the cut! 🖤✨

Family

Henrik Ivanov (younger brother) Mother (name tbd) Father (name tbd)

Viktor’s closest family member is his younger brother Henrik (Henri, as a diminutive), who is eight. Henri attends boarding school, so they do not see each other much, but Henri idolises his big brother and Viktor would do anything to keep Henri from being hurt. He believes his parents treat Henri as the “do-over” child, and that they think Viktor “lacks ambition” and “refuses to take anything seriously”. There is a lot of pressure on Henri to perform well academically and to follow in his father’s footsteps, career-wise.

Viktor’s father’s career remains something of a mystery to him — he knows it is a somewhat high-ranking governmental position that requires him to travel a lot, so his father is only home for short stints every few months. When he was around 12 or 13, Viktor decided he would ask his dad outright what his job actually was the next time he showed an interest in one of Viktor’s hobbies or interests.

To this day, Viktor has no idea what his father does for a living.

His mother is a stay-at-home housewife. She is the family member Viktor sees the most often, and also the one he has the worst relationship with.

Skills / Hobbies

Sketching, painting, singing — frontman and founder of grunge/rock band Your Bisexual Awakening. Also plays bass

YBA cycles through names often, all of which have a story attached. They choose a new name via the following system: if a band member says something stupid or memorable in conversation, and two or more members simultaneously say "band name", they must change it to whatever was just said. I.e.

Cal: seriously, guys? again? Ava: my bad. Angel's refractory period is more like a Refractory Comma Angel, Viktor, and Luca, simultaneously: band name Ava: aw, fuck.

Random Trivia

Moved a lot as a child — growing up jumping between Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, and Croatia has left Viktor with the weirdest accent. Its mostly Scottish... ish? Kinda?

Enjoys anime — once described watching Tokyo Ghoul as the purest spiritual experience of his life (and then sulked inconsolably for a week when he found out the final season was copaganda)

Scared of dogs (was bitten when he was younger)

Loves having his photo taken, but also can’t look at photos of himself sometimes, because they often bring on depersonalisation episodes

Huge collection of slogan t-shirts he crops and alters himself.

Can do overtone / polyphonic singing (but not well)

When he shared a dorm room with Luca at Avalon, for a while his alarm was this Marc Rebillet song (until Luca threatened to beat him to death with a pair of socks unless he changed it)

Has a crush on Kylo Ren

Is deeply ashamed of his crush on Kylo Ren

Favourite movie is Sucker Punch (will rant AT LENGTH about how people completely miss the feminist read)

His fashion sense is varied and questionable. One day he’ll be in gritty, black techwear, the next he’s full flower-boy poet. Then he’ll be Grandma-chic, and the next day he might be wearing a three-piece suit patterned exclusively with cobs of corn.

He does really love garments that drape and flow, though, and is a bit of a sucker for glitter and fun textures. No matter how loud, he somehow manages to always wear the outfits, and not have them wear him.

Viktor’s goals are informed by an odd mix of wanting a sense of agency and independence, while also just wanting to be taken care of and not have to think

Pathetic Babygirl of All Time

Personal Life

cw!! for talk around mental illness, suicide, and substance abuse

Viktor’s childhood was extremely difficult in that his mother simply does not believe that mental illnesses and neurologic disorders are legitimate conditions, and denies that Viktor’s many conditions are real. She believes he is making everything up for attention. Viktor has had this rhetoric drilled into him since childhood — there is nothing wrong with him, he’s just weak, lazy, a failure, a troubled child.

As such, he has never been diagnosed with anything on record.

He is quite mistrustful of authority figures as a result of his upbringing.

The first real, healthy parental influence in his life was Terri O’Rinn. She was the one to refer Viktor to a specialist doctor — she called in a favour from a friend/colleague, who was able to confirm Viktor’s diagnosis of mild to moderate Tourette Syndrome. This diagnosis remains strictly off-record. He primarily has motor tics, but he does have some verbal ones too — many of his tics are indistinguishable from the way he carries himself and his usual, somewhat eccentric mannerisms of speaking and moving.

Viktor also suffers from depression and generalised anxiety disorder. Luca has “diagnosed” him with “ADHD by peer review.” Viktor also deals with frequent bouts of passive suicidal ideation. Luca has had to talk him down on two separate occasions when he has threatened attempts. He has attempted once, on his own, and has never told anyone about it. Viktor loves Luca like a brother, as they do him, and their bond is fundamentally unshakeable.

Viktor fell into performing initially as a means to cope with his Tourettes — music helps to help him feel in control of his symptoms, so he can often be found singing, humming, or whistling to himself as he goes about his business. Alcohol and weed incidentally dial back his premonitory urges as well, allowing him to more easily suppress his tics, so there have been patterns of substance abuse throughout Viktor’s life when he’s been in a bad place mentally.

In classes at school, he was something of the class clown — Viktor quickly realised he liked dictating the kind of attention that was on him (and that he actually really loves attention when its the kind he has sought out himself). So rather than people staring at him because of his tics, he’d rather enrapture them on purpose with beautiful and hypnotic performances. Leaning into his role as the band’s vocalist and frontman did wonders for his self-confidence and overall quality of life.

Also — he’s just really, really, good at singing 🖤🖤🖤

You can find out more about Viktor via my masterlist, or read about him in my longfic, snow in crimson, starlight in gold on AO3! 🖤(direct link, fic is rated Explicit)

tagging: @choicesficwriterscreations

[gender-roles-can-suck-my-dick]

Check one, two, check on2, two [taps]

It's high- fidelity, lossless quality, it's MP 1 2 3 4 5 FLAC It's polyphonic, the new philharmonic, with a Julliard doctorate live from the Metropolitan it's theoretically dense, it's impressive. It's microtonal and it challenges wstern notions of art, it's post-avant-garde IT'S GOINGPLACES'CAUSE IT COMES FROM THE HEART AND

ITS PERSONALITY’S A LACK OF IDENTITY, IT MAKES NO STATEMENT BUT DOES SO QUITE LOUDLY, ITS AN AESTHETIC, i mean an anesthetic, and its an experience for your seven sense, yes!

[monstersandmaw]

Trick or treat?! 👀👀👀. Could we have a few monster friendo sentences for this most sacred of holidays, please? 🥺🥺

Long after all the kids had stopped knocking on your door for treats, and just as you were thinking of finally retiring for the night, you heard a strange, low-frequency buzzing sound from outside, and paused in the hallway.

All but one of your pumpkins had burned down to nothing, but one was still flickering away at the bottom of the steps, and you peeked through the warped glass panel in the door and froze in place.

A large, dark creature was hunched over in front of the pumpkin, tilting its head this way and that, as if inspecting it, and occasionally it seemed to flutter its enormous wings.

When you opened the door, the creature froze and then stumbled back down the path. Huge, downy wings spread out like a deeper shade of night, and two blazing red eyes blinked back at you as it seemed caught on the point of taking flight.

"They... They're all over town," the creature said in a slightly polyphonic voice, soft and sweet and a little shy. They pointed at the failing light in the pumpkin. "What are they?"

You wanted to ask 'what are you?' but you didn't. This was no costume, and you didn't want to hurt their feelings.

"They're called Jack-o-Lanterns," you said quietly. "Humans carve them from pumpkins and gourds for Halloween, though originally turnips were used."

"Turnips smell bad," the moth-like creature said, lowering those wings just a little. They had a thick ruff of black fur around their neck, and soft, velvety looking hands with only two fingers and a thumb, and the daintiest little feet.

"Would you like a sweet?" you said, reaching for the nearly-empty plastic cauldron beside the door. "It's also tradition to give out sweets to strangers tonight."

"Oh. Thank you."

They stepped closer and you moved carefully out onto the porch, arm outstretched with the cauldron dangling from your fingers. "Though... if you wanted to come back, you wouldn't be a stranger anymore."

Their antennae flickered back a little, and they held their single sweet in both hands, and nodded. "I'd like that. Thank you."

[cliozaur]

So much is going on in this relatively short chapter. We learn a thing or two about Montfermeil during Hugo’s era (a town with plaster villas and bourgeois) and back in 1823, when it had problems with drinking water. Almost immediately after this revelation, Cosette, referred to as 'the poor creature,' is reintroduced, highlighting her greatest fear of venturing out after dark to fetch water.

The narrative then shifts, presenting a kaleidoscope of scenes and themes (it comes out that kaleidoscopes were in fashion in 1823). We're immersed in a Christmas fair and a wandering menagerie featuring Brazilian vultures sporting 'a tricolored cockade for an eye'—an attraction likely to evoke nostalgia among local Bonapartists for bygone days.  (I had to look for that bird: it’s not just its eye—good, initially I worried that it was somehow mutilated—but the entire head is adorned in red, blue, and whitish-yellowish hues. To be honest, tricolour is the last thing I would think of looking at this creature). Fragments of peasants' conversations at the tavern offer a glimpse into Hugo's early attempts at creating a polyphonic effect, a technique that will unfold further in subsequent Revolution chapters.

The chapter concludes with the poignant introduction of two children, criminally neglected by the Thénardiers. Cosette, with her bare feet exposed to the winter cold, diligently knitting stockings for other children, juxtaposed with Gavroche, who bursts forth with a cry. The scene is complete with a chilling detail—a whip ominously hanging on the wall. Poor children.

[squidthesquidd]

HELLOOOOOOOO THEREEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Do you have any Tf Ocs? or Ocs in general? Asking for no reason (:

-🪐

oh my god so many so many transformers OCs😭 I only have one drawn so far so im just gonna infodump on you so hard

Clapperclaw- my FIRST actual transformer oc :3 hes a lil guy and hes designed to look like a bird!!! and he transforms into a mosquito helicopter! He used to be a decepticon, but he defected after a series of events that kinda made him have an identity crisis.. alsooo hes conjuxed to MisClick!! who ill talk abt now

MisClick- Big blue tank thing!!!! shes a scientist and doesn't prefer fighting, but shes huge and buff and can protect herself verrry well. She was also a decepticon, but didn't really care for sides all the much, but stayed with the decepticons for convenience (first faction that found her, her partner was part of them, they had the materials she wanted for her experiments) but when Clapper defected, she did too.

Current- also a scientist, and specializes in chemistry and biology mostly. and he turns into a boat!!! a big as hell yacht!!! so he a reaall big bot. hes an autobot and in most versions of him hes really close with optimus cus yayyy :3 also his face got fucked up in one of his experiments (acid burns teehee) so he wears a mask most of the time

Pike- okay soo... this guy isss complicated??? the initial reason i made him was for transformers reader insert fic reasons, and then he just kinda stuck around in my brain. sometimes hes with megatron, sometimes with someone else, hes an autobot and a decepticon at the same time , i dont fucking know. the only constant is that he's ancient and doesnt eat energon like a normal person (he doesnt really eat energon at all, he feeds off the energy thats always being dispelled by other bots. hes silly like that)

Crimson- now this guy silly!!! hes tiny and has a liiiittle bit of an italian accent cus his alt-mode is based on my dads car which is a really old alfa romeo (which are italian cars :3) hes silly and always super optimistic and is the reason that Tine eventually joined the autobots

Tine- (placeholder name) Saddest guy on the block. wasn't on a side and was doing his best to survive. kills on sight, takes no risks, serious as FUCK. hated everyone and everything until meeting crimson. saw a silly old man so full of joy and whimsy he couldn't help but fall in love lmao. still very wary around everyone else but can and will kill for crimson (also his alt is a jeep btw)

Prodsling- yeah this is a cowboy. texas accent , would wear a cowboy hat if he could, likes to pet cows and horses, loves driving through mud. hes like a chill southern granpa that sits on a porch and gives weird advice and makes farm animal noises. turn into a pickup truck ofc

Shiver- Weirdest girl on the block. literally your local cryptid that watches u from the shadowy corners and knows all your secrets. actually quite sweet but has the autism that makes you strange and unsettling <3 alt is like??? i dunno some cool black car. she walks silently and is so good at eavesdropping

Polyphon- weird little decepticon kid that wants to be friends with soundwave SO BAD. wants to party, covered in rainbow biologhts. RAVE BOY RAVE TIME!!! has speakers on him :3 here to have a good time not a long time 🎉

Vironmet- Little old lady in the woods that loves to meditate and talk to animals. will NOT HESITATE TO THROW DOWN if you fuck of the forest or anything living in it. bakes you a pie but if your mean to dogs its poisoned. basically what if tfa prowl was a little lady that killed. she turns into a Squirrel i think

Matte- Mercedes that does not quit. stares into peoples eyes menacingly all day. wants to bite. most fucking stubborn guy ever. Only loosely tied to the autobots and just does his own thing, cus literally no one can handle him!!!!!

Nano- tiny little medic! about the size or a human and her alt is basically a swiss-army medical tool! so shes made to have other bots handles her. also shes basically Ratchets child for funsies. tiny, bitey, ready to be covered in energon when its surgery time!!!!

aaand thats a out it so far! I dont have a lot of time to draw them cus im in college snd have ine million assignments 😭 but ill try!!! so watch out for em!!

[antiquewhim]

the celebration of Žolinė in Lithuania

Yesterday on August 15 was Žolinė, so here's a little infodump about it (minus the church-related traditions, I'm not as familiar with them).

Žolinė, otherwise known as Assumption of Mary, is a national holiday in Lithuania. It is observed as a Catholic celebration today, however, I will focus on its non-Christian related traditions which characterise it as a celebration of the harvest, to which gratitude and generosity were central.

Although the beliefs of Baltic Paganism were constantly shifting, unorganised region-to-region and not very well recorded, we can claim that the goddess of Earth and plants Žemyna (or perhaps her possible predecessor Lada) played a major role in this holiday before Catholicism made its way into the mainstream, or at least borrowed elements from a separate holiday which was for her.

Ethnologist Gražina Kadžytė points out some of the key motifs for this celebration in folk polyphonic chants, such as the ritual importance of feasts due to plentitude of food after a successful harvest, the flourishing of nature as well as its connection to afterlife (it is important to note that according to folklore the spirits of the dead accompany Lithuanians to major holidays or even everyday as birds or, more commonly, bees).

The meaning of the word Žolinė (roughly 'grass holiday') betrays one of its traditions that has been incorporated with Christianity, that being the blessing of wildflowers and field grasses, along with vegetables and grain in some regions.

Some other traditions include brewing beer and baking bread from the fresh harvest, young women making 9 wreaths out of different plants which would then be used for incense, medicinal tea or additions to other wreaths, such as the one made after building a house. It was also important to create elaborate grasses’ bouquets, a case could be made for them being depictions of the tree of life as both share the same name of Jievaras, signifying the diversity of the universe through the variety of flora used.

But that is it from me! I definitely don't know every single thing, so you are welcome to add.

[pearlseaa]

it is 3am rn but i literally will never get over my love for malice mizer's demo tape 'Sans Logique', it is one of the most perfectly ethereal pieces of music i have ever graced my ears with.

i love love love it sm i love the polyphonic guitar and the fact it never misses like i would NEVER skip any one of these tracks.

i really like how temptation of widow sounds like the start of an old horror film. i think its worked so well as an opening track since its very fitting that such a visual band such as malice mizer to start off a demo tape with a movie-like introduction.

Shuumaku E no tobira is one of my favourites, i dont know what it is about it exactly but it is more upbeat and the melody in some parts is absolutely beautiful.

Sadness is also such an iconic track, i really enjoy the synth intro that is followed by the guitar. the reverb on it also emphasises imagery of empty or abandoned halls in my mind, i really like when songs create visuals in my head it totally changes the experience. I'd even say it's my #1 song on this demo tape, its such a piece of art.

speed of desperate was way too criminally short, it felt perfect for a movie scene as did the previous songs which is one thing i really like abt this demo and tbh malice mizer as a whole, they are a very visual band which is something i really enjoy to see in music.

i think some ppl disregard this demo in comparison to malice mizer's other eras and some of the reason is probably because of it's lack of vocals but i personally really like it, what's so great about their music is that it works just as well without vocals because the instruments alone carry themselves well enough to not need an accompaniment which i think is really cool although that may be due to me being the kind of person who heavily enjoys film / game soundtracks, it is a extremely overlooked art. component one for music gcse absolutely KILLED ME but the section i did for film music was literally my magnum opus 🙏🙏

[ensemblewithsenpai]

Oct 23rd: 2wink’s POLYPHONIC WORLD music video has been previewed. Its music video will be released at 6PM JST.

[evilmevilson]

REDRAWW!!! but they are casual

kinda a polyphone enjoyer i used to not like it but now its grown on me :)