#bicephalic

[apollyna]

🪱 Janus, the butlers — A minor demon of the underworld, who appears as a bipedal knot of worms. They work as a majordomo/butler in service to greater demons. Find more art and lore on their Toyhou.se page linked in the comments!

[killyridols]

gemini ll by rae klein, 2022, oil on linen, 45 x 60 inches

[deer-daughterx]

The Two-Headed Calf

//Laura Gilpin

[word-of-day]

Word of Day

bicephalic:

adjective

having two heads

[infinite-infinite-stars]

"Officer Minium? A question, if I may"

"Yes, Captain?"

"I couldn't help but notice-- every other intelligent species we've come across since we left Earth seems to… well, recognize us? As humans, I mean."

"Oh! Yes, the Intergalactic Coalition has been keeping tabs on humanity for quite a while now. You're a very promising species, it was just a matter of time before you ventured out into the wider universe~."

"Ah. I see, so we've… finally earned a spot at the cosmic grownup's table, so to speak. Still, if you've been watching us for that long, I'm surprised first contact wasn't made sooner than it was. Not to be rude, of course, but I'm sure we would've made it out of our solar system sooner if we'd had a bit of help?"

"Actually-- funny thing about that-- our records indicate that an attempt was made…. yes, here we go! It looks like the Bicefals were in charge of the experiment. They sent a marker to Earth containing the sum total of the Coalition's collective knowledge, should humanity choose to accept it, but your representative opted out."

"What?? When was this?"

"Let me see, going by your calendar, it would be…" [flip flip flip] "…the yearrrr… two-thousand-nineteen!"

"That's barely a generation ago, how is that possible, I never heard anything about this??"

"Oh, see, you wouldn't have. Upon opting out, your representative's memory of the encounter was wiped, as is customary."

"Who was this 'representative', exactly, do you know their name?"

"Hang on… the name they gave is listed as… 'Um-Wait'."

"…"

"That's the name we have on file. 'Um-Wait'."

"That… can't be right."

"I did think it was a little odd; it's not exactly typical of the naming conventions for Earthlings in that time and place." [shrug] "But that's what they said."

"Huh..."

[artistassinideas]

Pájaro cornudo bicéfalo.

........................

Bicephalous horned bird.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Link from Good Mythical Morning was washing a black cat in a bowl of Oreos and milk and when I asked him why, he confidently said, “It’s ok, they’re bicephalic,” because he thought it meant the same thing as omnivorous.

Cats aren’t even omnivores.

[amnhnyc]

Are two heads better than one? Not necessarily! Did you know that a genetic mutation causes some snakes (and other animals) to be born with two heads? This rare phenomenon, called bicephaly, occurs when a developing embryo splits into twins, but does not fully separate, resulting in a single-bodied two-headed snake. With two separate brains, each head competes for control, resulting in difficulty hunting and traveling. This makes survival challenging for bicephalic snakes in the wild. Photo: FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, flickr (Coluber constrictor priapus pictured) #nature #animals #herpetology #science https://www.instagram.com/p/CpIRWmoroP9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jakey-beefed-it]

Dawntrail spoilers under the cut, you've been warned

So I'm playing through DT for the second time now, on Ryl, and she's gotten to Mamook and it's... every bit as bad as I remember it. Like the writing's fine, it's the lizard eugenics and the rationale behind it that horrifies me.

So, okay, they've been conducting horrible lizard eugenics with a success rate on par with the fucking genophage from Mass Effect in order to create bicephalic 'blessed' siblings. That's horrible! The trauma that would inflict upon the parents and the pressure upon the survivors is addressed well!

And they want to stop! Okay, what are the underlying motives for it? Let's address those.

"Why do you need to produce these blessed siblings?"

"Because they're strong and help us conquer land from the hrothgar guys up above us."

"So... lebensraum. Not off to a great start but I'll bite... why do you want to conquer land?"

"Oh, our land sucks. So we need better land."

"Did you ask the hrothgar if they'd share? No? No indication of that? Ok. Well, ever since Gulool Ja Ja unified everyone you're free to go live in the new capital. It's p. nice."

"Those of us who wanted to do that did so."

"...Okay, why don't the rest of you want to do that, then? Attached to your homeland?"

"What? No, fuck no, this place is literally cursed. We don't want to be surrounded by icky other kinds of people that aren't lizard eugenicists."

"W- you literally won't move and want to keep breeding 99% non-viable bicephalic mutants because you want to maintain your expansionist ethnostate, taking hrothgar territory and pushing them out or killing them? As in genocide?!"

"Now you're getting it!"

[the-perspicacious-mercenary]

I've found the perfect saint to dedicate the Burrow Church to.

St. Botolph was best known for building a monastery on a desolate hill and working to make the surrounding lands arable. No one could question Burrow-Infra-Mump's interest in such a figure.

He is also considered a saint for travellers and traders, making him an appropriate patron for the Railway.

He was buried at the monastery he built, but following a Danish invasion was his remains were moved to keep them safe. Separately, mind you. They took his head to Ely, some parts were reburied alongside his brother, others were sent to London... The reconstruction of this particular sainted skeleton would interest many, especially if there turned out to be rather more pieces than human anatomy could explain.

After all, the main record of his life was written in the 11th century, but he actually lived back in the 7th. There's no-one who knows for certain he wasn't some sort of amalgamous beast.

Introducing the Betentacled Bicephalic Birdman St. Botolph of Burrow.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries-movedd]

Two-headed tortoise Janus turns 25!

Janus, who also has two hearts, two pairs of lungs and two distinct personalities, would not have survived long in the wild as he cannot retract his heads into his shell to seek shelter from predators. But at the Geneva Natural History Museum, where he hatched in 1997, Bourgoin and her team of carers - who believe he is the world's oldest bicephalic tortoise - can cater for his every need!

He is under constant surveillance in case he flips over, which could be fatal, and survived a bladder stone operation in 2020. His heads need periodic treatment with vaseline to stop them getting sore when they rub together.

His two personalities also generate different moods and tastes that can occasionally lead to conflict, for example over which direction to walk. "The right head is more curious, more awake, it has a much stronger personality. The left head is more passive and loves to eat," Bourgoin said, adding that one head was partial to endives and the other to carrots.

[boxeboxer]

OURO PLOT SYNOPSIS (1900-2042)

the full plot synopsis up to the canon present-day for the story i’m working on. will hopefully update this w links which go over characters/topics in more detail eventually, for now all future links are highlighted in red. i guess i’m not opposed to answering questions here too so if you would like to do that go right ahead

1900-2000

The Mallory family, wealthy British industrialists, grew to prominence by capitalizing on the newfound radium industry in the 1910s. Many in the Mallory family were distinguished doctors who studied the esoteric, and some of its notable figures established The New Disciples of Mesmer: a scientific community that follows and expands upon F. A. Mesmer’s theories of “animal magnetism.” According to this group (who call themselves the neo-Mesmerians), humans who possess supernatural abilities can and have existed all throughout history, and are the result of a surplus of “mesmeric materials” within the body. Rather than magnetic fluids as originally proposed by F. A. Mesmer, neo-Mesmerians instead suggest that the concentration of electrolytes within organic tissues influences mesmeric potential.

Vigorous experimentation was performed in an attempt to create these “magnetics” that F. A. Mesmer described in his literature. In the mid-1960s, after all attempts to create a magnetic in-vitro failed, they subjected numerous people, mostly expectant mothers, to experimental chromosomal tests. These tests were largely executed in Soviet Russia and other Central Asian countries where the Mallorys had significant political standing due to their radium mining operations. They finally succeeded in 1981 with the birth of Hena Safarova, a bicephalic chimera (fraternal twins fused in the womb, where each hemisphere of the brain has a unique set of DNA).

Hena is raised in one of the Mallorys’ remote Uzbek labs, where it is discovered she possesses extracorporeal abilities as a magnetic. These include mind-reading, a primitive form of hypnosis, and manipulating electric fields. To better differentiate the term “magnetic,” they instead call her a “conjugate.” Hena’s mother died during a traumatic childbirth, and she is looked after by the lab employees. One of which is Olma Safarova, the estranged sister of Hena’s mother working as a nurse in the Mallory lab to find out why her sister disappeared. When Hena is five, Olma attempts to stage an escape, but is caught and killed by security. In a rage, Hena uses her extracorporeal abilities to kill Orville Mallory, the head of the Mallory estate who happens to be at the scene. Unbeknownst to her and everyone else, he is actually her father, having meddled with the earlier chromosomal experiments.

The public fallout surrounding the incident forces the Uzbek lab to close. Cassandra Mallory, the adult daughter of Orville and half sister to Hena, upon learning they share the same father, decides to raise her herself in Liverpool and renames her Mia. Mia is further experimented on throughout her childhood. She is eventually trained to be a neurosurgeon, as her mind-reading abilities (“clairvoyance”) give her detailed insight into the workings of the brain. Due to her trauma of watching Olma die trying to set her free, she is passive to her captors well into adulthood, though she is also given clairvoyance-suppressants to keep her from being a threat.

2000-2011

In the early to mid 2000s, after years of being unable to create another bicephalic chimera, new research is done to find if there is a way to expedite the process. Mia, with Cassandra as her supervisor, is tasked with this. During her studies she establishes Base Theory, and proposes that another type of conjugate can be created in-vitro. This conjugate would come from the egg of a bicephalic chimera, and then be pseudo-fertilized by electric stimulation. While promising, these tests ultimately failed.

Around this time, Oman Khurshid, a Pakistani engineering graduate, is working as a lineman in Lahore. His father has not been in his life, his aging mother is suffering from a malignant brain tumor, and he has become stretched thin as her sole caregiver. Oman is also a closeted trans man and dreams of gaining control of his life someday. In 2009, he gets a job offer from Mallory labs to work as an equipment technician in the UK. They express their interest in neuroscience, and promise that if he fulfills a two-year work contract, they will help heal his mother’s cancer. He accepts, not knowing this is a ploy to further their research into conjugates.

Oman is assigned to work in the Liverpool lab, where Mia works. They meet when Oman takes his lunch outside to eat, and Mia’s on her smoke break. Due to her sheltered upbringing, she quickly attaches to Oman, asking him about his life outside the lab. They develop closer friendship when he’s tasked with repairing some of her testing equipment.

Meanwhile, Oman’s mother, Yushfa, is tended to by the Mallorys’ doctors. Instead of providing her treatment, however, they instead plan to harvest her brain for EBID, or electro-biological imprint data. EBID is predicted to resolve the issue of conjugate eggs being unable to be pseudo-fertilized by simple electric stimulation. Unfortunately Yushfa is too weak and dies during the surgery. Oman is not told this.

In 2010, Cassandra approaches Oman and asks if he would be willing to undergo the same experimental procedure as Yushfa. She tells him that on top of taking care of his mother’s treatment, he will also be rewarded a cash payout equivalent to about $500,000. He agrees to it, but Mia tries to dissuade him in secret. Not knowing his mother’s fate, or Cassandra’s true motives, he brushes her off and they have a falling out.

On the day of his surgery, he realizes that Mia will be the one holding the knife. She again tells him to walk away, but he doesn’t listen. Mia, against her will, performs a craniotomy just above his left eyebrow to the tip of his ear, and extracts a small fragment of his frontal cortex. He survives, and is promptly released by the Mallory lab to do as he likes.

Upon returning to Lahore, Oman cannot find his mother. Their shared apartment is now being lived in by someone else, and the Mallory estate now claims that his mother was never accepted into their care. When the authorities don’t take him seriously, he tries to lay low while he investigates on his own.

Meanwhile, the conjugate experiments are set to begin a new set of trials. Cassandra has collected 19 EBID samples from different individuals. She gives Mia a choice on which sample to perform pseudo-fertilization, as she will be the one responsible for bringing the conjugate to term. She picks Oman’s, but this riddles her with guilt and she falls into a deep depression. The experiment is a success.

From February to July of 2011, while the new conjugate is growing, Oman begins to experience vivid hallucinations, seeing images of Mia and his Yushfa, along with a voice calling him. These are the result of the new conjugate connecting to him and trying to communicate. When the new conjugate is born on July 1st, she is named Samantha. Testing is quickly started to chart her development and observe her clairvoyant abilities. It is established early on that she possesses mesmeric properties even more powerful than Mia.

In December, Oman has reached a near-manic state. Samantha is constantly probing his mind, asking him where he is and to come find her. He thinks it’s all in his head until he notices that the hands of his watch quiver during these episodes. He jerry-rigs a number of electronic devices to find the source of the disturbance, and concludes it must be back in Liverpool.

He abandons everything in Lahore and travels back to the UK lab. By climbing a utility pole he’s able to break inside, and finds a six-month old Samantha in the facility. Mia finds him soon after and tells him to run away, but Cassandra quickly discovers them and shoots him. She misses his heart and the bullet instead goes through his shoulder, giving him the opportunity to take Samantha and escape. With the staff distracted, Mia starts a fire in the lab and follows after him. He shortly thereafter blacks out as Mia tends to his wounds and escorts them to the British countryside. For the next 20 years, they keep themselves hidden from the neo-mesmerians whilst also trying to give Samantha (renamed Samya to hide her identity) a somewhat normal life.

2011-2019

Upon the catastrophic disaster following Mia and Samya’s escape, the Mallorys are desperate to find a new bicephalic chimera. When unsuccessful, they comb through all known records of living conjoined twins, but this too turns up no leads. It’s only by following a seemingly dead-end in India they discover they might be onto something. Mona Nibhanupudi was a fused twin until age four when he and his sister were separated while in foster care. He was told that she had died during the procedure, but her medical records were lost. However, Mona believes that his sister is still alive, and says that they possessed a magic that let them see “the ribcage of the world” before they were separated. The Mallorys eagerly search for the missing twin, who Mona tells them is named Deepali.

In 2016 during an experimental procedure, Mona is given back his clairvoyance. Also created is The Conduit, an enigmatic entity that lives on the electrical grid. With his regained abilities, Mona is asked to seek out Oman and Mia in order to return Samya to the Mallorys. He also begins work developing consciousness transfers with great success. The Conduit, however, is hindering his progress and proving to be a nuisance.

At this time, The Conduit is conspiring with Neha Viswanathan, a robotics PhD candidate at NISER, to retrieve a “soul” from the Mallorys. In return, it promises to reveal to her the truth behind sentience and how to create AI.

In 2019, Mona manages to lure Oman and Mia into a trap, where Mia is incapacitated and captured. Oman’s rescue mission and The Conduit’s scheme cross paths, and in the chaos Cassandra is murdered. A traumatic brain injury leaves Mona non-clairvoyant. Cassandra’s consciousness is transferred at the brink of death, but the lack of oxygen in her brain during the process leaves her digital self cold and emotionally distant. Now free, Mia continues to see Oman and Samya, but is notably absent. The fate of Neha and The Conduit is unclear.

2019-2029

Once recovered, Mona continues with his consciousness transfer technology in light of the failure. In that same year he announces the first sentient AI robots, which he calls “krtrim posthumans.” He and the Mallorys collaborate to establish OURO, a robotics company that quickly gains popularity. This popularity also brings in protest, with some governments completely outlawing so-called “consciousness transfers” because it challenges god or the nature of the earth. Through the international turmoil, OURO continues to grow.

Unbeknownst to the world, Mona has kept a krtrim posthuman for himself, which he names Deepali after his sister. He raises her as his surrogate daughter of sorts, but he is eccentric and not a very fatherly figure in her life. She is not allowed to leave his sight and lives alone with him on his rural estate outside of New Delhi.

In 2029, Mona travels to the United States at the peak of posthuman conflict to meet with the American president. He leaves Deepali to her own devices and promises to return. Shortly after arriving, Mona is found dead from an apparent overdose in his hotel room. Conspiracies arise and governments begin pointing fingers at one another, accusing each other of poisoning Mona in an effort to put an end to the posthuman revolution. After attempts of political meddling and the deaths of numerous politicians in surprise bombings, war is declared. OURO is contracted to create soldiers for the cause, giving them an even greater revenue stream that allows them to expand from India to Japan, where they begin building more factories. Krtrim posthumans that were previously created are now “repossessed” so their bodies can be recycled to make soldiers. Many flee to Central Asia and the Middle East to escape repossession.

Shortly after his death, Mona’s home is stormed by authorities. Deepali escapes to the streets of New Delhi, where she joins another krtrim marked for repossession named Viggy. Together they attempt to reach Bangladesh, but they’re caught and Viggy is killed. In turn, Deepali tries to end her own life but is subdued before she can.

Deepali is brought into the custody of the Mallorys, who did not know of her existence. Thinking Mona was using her to hide information, she is imprisoned and interrogated relentlessly. Dr. Emelie Yadavalli is assigned as her robopsychologist, but after over a year of depositions and invasive procedures into her mind, it’s obvious Deepali knows nothing about her father’s past. She falls into a sickness known as corruption and nearly dies, but Emelie takes pity on her and rehabilitates her. The Mallorys, now disinterested, allow Emelie to purchase her vessel-hood.

2029-2042

From 2029 to 2030, what’s become to be known as the Tangent War ravages much of Europe, North America and Asia. Nuclear warfare begins when OURO’s new location in Osaka is nuked along with much of Japan, rendering most of the country uninhabitable. The only countries to escape with minimal damage are India, China, and South America, who largely are not involved in the war. Following the destruction and fearing total societal collapse, the remaining governments form The Transhumanistic Peace Treaty (THPT), which establishes laws and rights for posthumans. Mia goes missing around this time.

In the wake of such a large-scale loss of infrastructure, governments invested heavily in rebuilding. From this the style of architecture known as nayafuturism emerges, taking inspiration from brutalism and mid century modern elements. Public transportation in the form of trains, monorails and cable cars have become common.

The main plot takes place 13 years after the Tangent War ended. Samya, now an adult, has a very rough falling out with her father, who she believes is hiding the true whereabouts of her mother. She does some digging into her past, but most people involved are either dead or nowhere to be found. Suddenly, she receives a tip that Mona Nibhanupudi has a daughter named Deepali living in Auxiliary, a coastal city east of London which houses OURO’s European industrial branch. Upon finding her working as a simple electronics assembler, Samya is surprised to learn she’s krtrim, not human. Stranger still is that she is seemingly immune to Samya’s mind reading, which makes getting answers out of her difficult. They eventually team up to uncover the mysteries behind their respective families.

[crystallineavis]

If the term for something having two heads is bicephalous (or dicephalous), are double-headed arrows called bicephalous arrows?

[meirimerens]

hi im also stoned separate follower. threefold bullet meta has always been interesting to me because i love the idea of two guys who are one guy (but are also two guys) and sometimes theres a THIRD guy. MY two guys are one guy thing (but they are two guys) (but theyre not) is jekyll and hyde. not at all the same but the connection is mirrors. in my brain. anyways i think there should be more examples of guys who are 1 guy but not really. or are they. i wonder if there are more. so cool ok bye

hello Also stoned separate follower... i'm dad... you get it... now get this... the twins are one... want to be one/conjoined so bad... peter's "you can also call me andrey and it will not be wrong", andrey's "Twins are the two sides of a single person"... and yet they can't be. peter's "i've been suffering for ten years because of [andrey]"... the rift... the drift... continental... pangeaic in nature. earth-shattering split. the third guy is to be the glue. the third guy is here to make them two, which is to make them one. a threefold bullet is a single bullet. same gun. same barrel. they tried once already, and instead of getting a third guy-which makes two-which makes one, the third guy became a fouth and stuck the blade of him in the rift, making two, then making three. FUCKED UP! OH YOU DONE FUCK UP NOW! and then with dankovsky they try again. three to become two to become one. to become one threefold like Janus is twofold. like Janus is bicephalic. become tricephalic, like Cerberus was written to be. but dankovsky's "we're not birds of a feather, you're absolutely mental", "keep your dumb head cool," and "You are also absolutely wild. A pointless atavism, evolutionarily speaking. I've been looking for a reason to tell you this since university" -> the rift. not pangea parting, now, but continental plates smashing. subduction zone, burying. collision zone, pushing one then two then three which becomes three-in-one towards the sky. (polyhedron. also mountain.)

you get it? you know what i mean.

a twin coin has a head on both sides. you're fated to lose or you're fated to win.

a coin is a three-sided object.

[wyyrmwood]

Rewatching House of the Dragon, something something songbirds and snakes...

Mostly done with the Blue Heron, starting on the bicephalic Copperhead :) It doesn't show well, but the birds many eyes are metallic gold. The snake will have metallic copper scales too. Thinking of doing gold and pearl beaded lace around the border to be all rich and fancylike 🤔

[emojisarestatussymbols]

Bicephalic snake photograph by reptiles4all