#on it? and an epaulette? idk man it’s interesting but i would probably do it differently | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

laurelnose · 3 years

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I've got a witcher-ish!biology question!!

Your many posts about how drowners would hypothetically breathe was so interesting and I just wanted to ask the same about sirens/merfolk (if they existed in canon..)

Like..are their very human looking noses just for aesthetics or would they functionally breathe/smell? If they have gills would they need a secondary way to breathe air when they're out of water or are they more likely to be holding their breath like reverse whales? And if they do have 2 functioning breathing methods would it be a conscious decision to use whichever is suitable for where they are or does that happen automatically?

FRIEND I AM THRILLED TO BE THE ONE TO TELL YOU THAT SIRENS/EKHIDNAE AND MERPEOPLE ARE CANON. Though canon sirens bear aggressively little resemblance to the fandom’s preferred usage for them. there are also the vodyanoy but what the fuck even are the vodyanoy. I’m not going to talk about the vodyanoy.

Sirens are canonically faking the human form to lure in prey and do not have noses or resemble humans in their true forms. So sirens can be doing whatever they want with their lungs/gills, freed from all variety of nasal misery.

Merpeople... have regular human faces. people have spent SO MANY WORDS on how and why mermaids would look like people, and frankly I do not have the energy to recount all of the mermaid thoughts I have ever been exposed to, esp. because my investment in drowners comes from my real-life fondness for horrible snappy little toad-faced amphibious creatures like cottids and batrachoidids, and this is not really at all what a mermaid is like. why would a mermaid look like a human? idk. you might as well ask why do elves look like humans? witcher mermaids aren’t trying to lure people in like the sirens (Sh’eenaz is having a bit of a problem with a human who is attracted to her) so that’s just... what they look like.

however, here are some more thoughts about being amphibious & respiration because respiration is sexy and interesting.

merpeople could be using their noses for breathing; lungfish do this, with their nasal openings connected to their throats like ours leading to their lungs, with a functioning set of gills as well. although despite their gills, most lungfish are actually obligate airbreathers and cannot be deprived of access to the surface of the water. congrats on ditching the ability to respirate where you live, idiots. it’s been working for them for about 420 million years, though.

or merpeople could be only using the noses for smell/chemoreception like most fishes, and primarily respiring through mouth/gills. either is fine!

> if they have gills would they need a secondary way to breathe out of water or would they be more likely to be holding their breath

man, the term ‘more likely’ actually does so much work in these discussions. like I say ‘more likely’ myself a lot, but respiratory adaptations are hugely varied and wild and the likelihood of any one coming about rather than any other is actually kind of impossible to quantify!

Geralt says Sh’eenaz can breathe air, and I am usually inclined to believe him. We could also consider him to be oversimplifying, in which case—both! either! it depends on how long they regularly stay out of water (which to my knowledge, aquatic airbreathers are actually much more limited by things like sun damage, skin dryness, dehydration, and temperature regulation and whether they have adaptations to deal with these things. many anabantoids like gourami are obligate air-breathers and will drown if denied access to the surface but you had still better put a gourami back in the water right quick before it shrivels up into a prune. lungfish do not have this problem because they are weirdos who roll themselves up into mud cocoons whenever the water goes away. on the other hand, humans soaked in water for too long start having issues like skin maceration (don’t image search that, it’s the breakdown of skin) so, basically, hanging out in the wrong environment is more complicated than whether or not you can breathe. this is canonical for witcher mermaids; Sh’eenaz is extremely cross about wasting her time above water because it chaps her skin).

they could be holding their breath like whales (because mermaids could be airbreathers first and waterbreathers second) or reverse whales (i.e. they store oxygen for periods of time whenever they leave the medium they can breathe). or they could be like epaulette sharks, which have an absolutely crazy anaerobic metabolism and just... deal with hypoxia. two hours at 5% of normal oxygen levels? they’re fine. that’s fine. what the fuck, epaulette sharks. also here’s a video of one doing the walking thing, because they got lil feety fins and it’s cute. fucking superb, you hypoxic little fake tetrapods. the main issue is still actually that the sun will bake an epaulette shark!

but yes, if merpeople want to be above-water for more than two or three hours at a time (provided they have adaptations to deal with other stuff), they will need a secondary respiration method of some sort. though they don’t generally seem to give that much of a fuck about humans or other things going on above-water. (Since sirens seem to split their time relatively evenly between air/water, I would guess they have two methods.)

re: the consciousness of the decision: you would have to ask a lungfish or one of the facultative air-breathing anabantoids if they think about it when they switch respiratory methods, probably. my best guess for sapients like merpeople is it’s instinctual (oxygen access is so fundamental, these things tend to be baked in) but they can also do it consciously to some extent, like when you suddenly become aware of your own breathing. my apologies. for non-sapients it’s likely 100% instinctual. oxygen is really important.

#[bill wurtz voice] THE SUUUN IS A DEADLY LAZERRR #kaer morhen biology of monsters 101 #sorry sh’eenaz you’re not a monster but the sirens are #asks #anonymous

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stoportotouch · 7 years

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great comet for the musical director thing

OH BOY i have a lot to say here so let’s like.........go through this bit by bit (i’m so sorry this is going to become a MASSIVE infodump like i have thought at LENGTH about this)

first thing, set, i would be inclined to go for a Similar Feel(tm) to the current broadway production but at times i would have members of the cast just. hangin’ out in the audience (like at the beginning and during the opera). dolokhov is there a lot. just. hanging out. possibly drinking.

for the prologue i would start with all the cast (except for pierre and andrey, who are saying goodbye during the first two “there’s a war going on out there somewhere”s) hanging out in the audience and singing from there (which could be......interesting but i rly get a Cabaret Feel from it somehow?)

after the door slams when andrey leaves the chorus all start coming up onto the stage with pierre and the main characters come up in groups (like natasha comes up with sonya, etc.). as for the rest of the prologue i have thoughts abt who comes up with Whomst so:

natasha and sonya come up together

marya d. comes up on her own

anatole comes up on his own through the audience

he’s at a table with hélène and dolokhov and they’re probably interacting the most with the audience before the show

hélène and dolokhov start coming up together but go up onto the stage via different sets of stairs

mary is holding prince bolkonsky’s arm and helping him up onto the stage

balaga FUCKEN SPRINTS up onto the stage from the exit that andrey left through it’s wild man he’s havin the time of his life

all the principals slowly slink off back to the tables throughout “what about pierre?” and leave pierre on his own on the stage but they sing from where they are. tbh pierre is free to do......roughly as he wishes for most of pierre because there’s really not so much u can Do with Introspective Arias but for Maximum Uncomfortable he picks one (1) specific audience member to yell “I’M DIFFERENT FROM YOU! I’M DIFFERENT FROM YOU! I STILL WANT TO DO SOMETHING!” in the General Direction of

HONESTLY HONESTLY i haven’t thought that much about moscow, private and intimate life, or natasha and bolkonskys other than marya dragging some of the chorus up onto the stage for “bring in their things; what are you dawdling for?”, and prince bolkonsky seeming very...animalistic and scowling after the Guests leave.

everybody making A Dramatic Entrance during the opera (hélène, anatole, and dolokhov) leaves around the middle of natasha and bolkonskys bc there would be A Costume Change, and everybody else leaves to make Another Entrance during the opera during no one else. i have some Specific Costume Ideas here

because he’s been off in the caucuses killing the shah’s brother (?!?!) dolokhov has a costume along these lines. he doesn’t have either a sword or spurs but he is Armed with...something idk

anatole i.......really imagine in a very anachronistic combination of a military uniform and something like a footman’s uniform? it’s red with epaulettes and just.......amazingly extra. also he has a sword and spurs obviously.

the opera itself i have. some thoughts about; i would bring the house lights up so that you can kinda... see what’s going on. because everybody would be coming in from various entrances at this stage. i would have dolokhov come in from the back so that he doesn’t have to stand around too much, and go to hélène. hélène drags him over to sonya, marya d., and natasha.

(idk what dolokhov is doing during the bit where natasha and marya are talking to hélène but he proposed to sonya earlier in the novel. so i guess he could be talking to her because they know each other.)

there are boxes. idk how to deal with them so let’s not go into detail to avoid me passing out. but the house lights go down around “natasha, the curtain rises” and the opera singers do.........whatever that is when everybody’s sat down. dolokhov is right up at the front near the stage/in clear view of natasha.

anatole’s entrance is.............we know how that plays out so i’d just use that but he doesn’t so much “[take] his seat in the front row, next to dolokhov” as kinda.....drape himself over him and whisper at him and natasha is just like: ?

NATASHA AND ANATOLE IS EXTREMELY AWKWARD i have no idea what’s going on here and if i think too much about it i get a headache. so.

the duel starts with anatole going up to pierre’s table in the audience (he’s on his own, possibly with a bunch of books) and them chatting there. dolokhov and anatole are, because i’m me, really......really flirting during the “gonna drink tonight” bit. then when the music changes dolokhov grabs anatole by the hand and runs up onto the stage with him. pierre sings his “the doctors tell me that with my corpulence” part looking for them. (sidenote: they’re off doing....... god knows what so hélène finds him first with a drink.)

also - dolokhov, conspiratorially to the audience: anatole is a married man, a fact known only to his intimates [indicates himself, hélène, and pierre] a polish landowner of some small means [grabs a woman in the chorus and anatole] had forced him to marry his daughter

to illustrate his point mostly but.

basically the whole club scene until “dolokhov, pour me another” plays out as hélène and pierre third-wheeling anatole and dolokhov who are TRYING to be on a date. they start to leave when pierre sings “i used to love, i used to love, i used to be better”

dolokhov isn’t......actually flirting with hélène he’s just having some fun with it and he looks genuinely taken aback at “HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER” and yells “you can’t love her!” just on impulse and then goes like “...wait what”. anatole is hitting his head against a pillar until “WHOOOOOOOOA this is horribly stupid”.

dolokhov slams himself face-first onto the stage as he yells “NO! shot by a fool!” and starts to pass out just after the gunshot. anatole is helping dolokhov during the “well sweet sister” part and dolokhov is looking at them like “guys could you do this some other fucken time”

uh..........this is getting a tad bit long and most of the rest of what i feel strongly about it dolokhov and anatole being A Bit Gay so let’s just go through That.

first is during charming which has both hélène and natasha flirting and dolokhov and anatole getting ready for The Ball. dolokhov probably......has to do everything with his right arm in a sling so sorry abt that.

anyway that’s..........everything for act one so i will do another half of this post for act 2 hfuck

#ask #anon #what is your song o?#great comet #natasha pierre and the great comet of 1812 #ollie considers #I AM SO SORRY #THIS IS A LOT OF STUFF #also sorry if this makes like. no sense #Anonymous

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