#thesiltverses

[catwyk]

the silt verses s2ep7 is peak horror

[genuineformality]

I have finished Season 2 of @thesiltverses and I am deep in my feels about the nature of faith and how we incorporate it (or not) in our daily lives; the pervasive perniciousness of capitalist propaganda; how the only good cops aren’t cops anymore; the incredible storytelling at work to showcase a world that is both incredibly alien and yet entirely familiar; and how to write people who are Not Good in such a way as to make them extremely sympathetic and relatable. (There’s a longer maunder about the nature and relativity of good and evil in the context of worlds that have significantly different cosmologies, which I’m likely going to have a lot of feelings about later.)

Absolutely incredible work. If you are into horror radio dramas (and don’t mind a *lot* of body horror - like *a lot*), I 100% recommend. Please join me in this absolute obsession. Just cannot get over how good it is.

[red45roses]

My Prophet and Me

[cemeterything]

i do enjoy "living weapon" characters but specifically living weapons who did in fact do absolutely horrific things which at least a part of them enjoyed and thought was good and right at the time, and that no amount of not knowing any better or guilt they feel in hindsight will ever make up for. i love living weapons who are "irredeemable", and no it's not their fault that they were made that way or pointed in the directions they were by the hand that wielded them, and yes they are victims, but so were their victims. living weapons who some people will never be able to forgive, but who still wake up every day and try to do better than what's expected of them. a sword that uses its blade to cut wheat to make bread for the people who once lived in fear of its arc falling on their heads.

[cloverandhagstones]

VAL!Silt Verses is really just like

I am an unreliable narrator, even to myself. I can only engage with the world in a meaningful way if another person is present to listen to me. The only time I don't cause harm is when there isn't. I will make every person I meet into my mother and they will suffer for it. I let her sanctify me into something convenient. I burned away my identity to become a tool for a cruel god. I am aware enough to know that I am a monster, but not enough to do anything about it. I am angry at the pointless suffering around me, and I know this makes me a hypocrite.

And I'm supposed to be normal about it?

[deermouth]

"I think the traditional preoccupations of cosmic horror are ultimately charming and quaint in comparison to that endless atrophy - wouldn’t it be a relief to gaze into the maw of an eldritch god once, confirm the truth of existence, and lose your mind entirely? 

At least that’d have a sense of resolution to it. At least then you could stop pretending that everything was fine."

[ailinu]

sometimes folks’ll say to me, son, did you ever think about not being the herald of the oncoming tide, the destroyer, which will unceasingly and inexorably rise over everything until even the sun is lost beneath water and nothing remains but a frozen sea? and i’ll tell you the same thing i told them: no.

[cookiesandcantarella-art]

And as she wept before the grave, the first buds of the Woundtree stretched out around her and formed a bower to shelter her from the falling rain.

It’s tragic, it’s compelling. People understand it, they sympathise with it. It keeps us safe.

I hate her, quite a lot.

Everyone go listen to @thesiltverses NOW. i love Paige so much its not even funny

[ID: fanart of Paige Duplass from the Silt Verses kneeling with tree roots growing from her skin. Paige is a thin white woman with long, straight brown hair and brown eyes. She is nude with her hands twisted in the air above her head. Roots protrude from her flesh, tangling and twisting around her. White crocus flowers bloom from her mouth and one of her eyes, and the flowers frame her silhouette. She looks towards the camera with one anguished eye, a bloody tear gouged into the skin underneath. Where the roots touch her skin, her flesh is marked by deep, bloody wounds. End ID]

[gentlemean]

I present to you: The Whitegull River Symphony.

A classical symphony in four movements, inspired by @thesiltverses! The most recent episode swept me away in a river of creative inspiration, and I couldn't help but follow this stream to whatever murky depths it wanted to take me.

Creative thoughts and details beneath the cut.

The Whitegull River Symphony is written in f-Minor for a full symphonic orchestra. My rendition was created in FLStudio, using Spitfire's BBC-Symphonic-Orchestra plugin, as I am just one mediocre violinist without an entire orchestra at hand.

First Movement: River Angels, Allegro Assai

The first movement is dominated by the steady rhythm of the celli and violae, who act as the slow waves of our murky river. Among these waves, the faithful have prepared a sacrifice. Their hopeful prayers flick aross the water in the first half of the movement, and are answered by the scutteling, chittering spawn of the river in the second half.

Second Movement: Pilgrimage of the Prophet, Adagio

In the second movement, we focus entirely on our favorite little prophet (whose brilliant performance inspired me to make this. The existence of this symphony is your fault, @sassylich). He marches on through the silt with slow steps, while the clarinet plays his theme. His little schemes behind the scenes are played by the string section, the obvious warning signs are announced by the horns. Nevertheless: In the end, everyone is playing his tune.

Third Movement: The Withermark, Andante

And here we go, the river's might is unleashed. The angels of the river god approach unstoppably, drawn here by the prophet: His clarinet is setting the tune for the overwhelming wrath of the trawlerman. Nothing can stand in its way, but after the tides have calmed, new life can grow in their wake.

Fourth Movement: Katabasis, Allegro Assai

Katabasis, the descent into the depths. Nothing escapes the greedy maw of the Trawlerman, nobody can float above, untouched. All the instruments we've hear so far return, desceding into the roiling depths of the bassline. This is not a comforting or hopeful ending, this is an apocalypse.

[nana-glass-chillhop-radio-hour]

'My Song Cries Prophecy and Doom'

Not emotionally prepared for the TSV season 3 break? Neither are we! Procrastinate on consecrating yourself to a god of sleeping through the month of December by checking out the 28-minute long fan episode of the Silt Verses that @nana-glass-chillhop-radio-hour and @transfaulkner wrote, recorded and sound-edited! (Music written by @sealsapocalypticmusic, beta-listened by @mirrorbird)

We are so grateful that @thesiltverses has placed their work under a Creative Commons license and that the production team has such a generous attitude towards transformative media of all kinds based on their creative works. We love the show and had a blast playing in their world.

This fan episode is canon-compliant and takes place in Season 1, between Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 (after Paige parts ways with Carpenter and Faulkner, but before they reach Bellwethers). It is part 1 of 2. The script is also available as a part of the Ao3 work for those who prefer to read along.

Check it out on Archive of Our Own, or listen below. (For best listening experience, we recommend you wear headphones.)

Let us know what you think! We hope you like it!!

[catwyk]

ok i caved to the gaping void of posts about the silt verses on twitter and instagram. so here are some designs for faulkner, paige, and carpenter

[kirikiri1]

Hoop for Episode 12 of Season 2 of @thesiltverses . Probably my very favorite scene of the entire show, delivered by one of my favorite voice actors. I could not stop thinking about doing something for this scene.

"In the emptiness around us, black and twisted shapes have risen from the waves. They hang there, lifted high into the air, the white chemical froth dripping from their flanks.

Gulls, bloodily impaled upon black tendrils that have burst forth from the flesh of blinking cod. Crocus flowers swell and blossom from the wounds of predator and prey alike.

The waters of the channel have become a memorial garden - and a frozen act of vengeance.

In time, we pass the colossal form of a dead whale, raised up high above us, floating on a thousand slender black spines that emanates from below.

Paige does not wake. She keeps on babbling.

I whisper words of comfort that she cannot possibly hear, and I keep my trembling hand upon the tiller.

We keep ploughing on, through the dark and polluted waters - my prophet and me."

[red45roses]

Something very sexy about Carpenter hunting down Jony and Helen with an axe

[cemeterything]

participants in the cycle when the head comes back around to swallow the tail:

[hellofromthehallowoods]

Is the Pendulum Nightclub a reference to I am in Eskew? I'm really sorry if this has been answered before or if having the same name as the nightclub in Eskew is just a coincidence. I only just noticed it. I hope you have a good day though! I haven't caught up with the current episodes yet so I have no malice, just admiration and expectation for the episodes that make people scream

@thesiltverses you and me, two Edgar Allen Poe aficionados caught red-handed stealing references out of the fridge at night

[monstrousproductions]

Career highlight so far? Recording some scenes as my perfect angel Sibling "Perple" Rane for @thesiltverses last night and making Jon shout, "Death of the author? No! Death of YOU!" 😂

I can't quite remember the context - possibly something to do with fishnet stockings? - but he did also at one point say to me, "This isn't your slutty slutty podcast!" 💅