The Fortune Teller's Tent

Vilka rents space at the Circus and only appears there once in a while. While still a monster and still something that snacks on humans, he isn't the same type of monster as the other circus members: he's nocnitsa, a shadow creature like a sleep paralysis demon. He's semi-corporeal, meaning sometimes you can touch him and sometimes you can't. You kind of have to sneak up on him to grab him.

He's very, very, VERY tall but is always either slouching or squishing himself down. This results in terrible, constant back pain, and he can be grumpy because of it. He might open up a little if you bring him coffee... or he might take it and leave.

BASIC INFO Given name: Unknown Preferred name: "Vilka" Gender/Pronouns: Vilka is technically agender because he's just a pile of nightmares holding a coffee cup, but he goes by he/him. Relative Age: Older than every member of the circus and cranky about it Height/build: Standing completely upright, he's 9'5" or 287cm. He's fairly slender but not bony. Defining Feature: His hair literally goes on forever. It doesn't catch on things or drag on the ground, but if you start at his scalp and then try to follow the strands all the way down, you will never find the end. Abilities: Vilka can walk/phase through walls and most solid objects (unless they have a shiny surface like a mirror), and he can, to a certain extent, squish down or stretch out his body, but it's painful to stay that way. He can also perform very basic illusions (generally card tricks) but cannot actually see into the future. He's about as strong as Jester but not as agile, and tires out quickly due to chronic pain. His main "ability" is draining people of their strength by sitting or standing on top of them while they're sleeping, which also causes vivid, horrifying nightmares. He doesn't pose much of a threat to healthy people, but is old enough and powerful enough to kill weaker people in their sleep. Tragic backstory: He considers what happened to Dziecko to be his fault, since Dziecko was a child and Vilka was responsible for him. Considering how old he is and how long monsters live in general, what happened back then feels like only a few years ago and for Vilka the wound is still very fresh. He doesn't enjoy talking about it.

RELATIONSHIPS

Good friends with DOC and has known him the longest (about thirty or forty years, not a long time for monsters but long enough to trust him). Vilka follows the circus from place to place when his back pain gets too bad; Doc provides him with (both traditional and... experimental) pain treatments.

They first met when Vilka, seeking medical treatment, heard Doc's accent and assumed he spoke Russian, only to learn that he's just a random Brazilian monster trying to sound cool. Vilka deeply appreciates Doc's kindness and compassion.

"Sir, are you a doctor?? We came from Pripyat... he needs help!" Considers TICKET TAKER to be his boss/landlord and doesn't interact with him much beyond paying rent and occasionally getting things off of high shelves for him. Neither of them particularly trusts the other; there's old prejudice among monsters toward nocnitsa, since nocnitsa will prey on humans and monsters and are frequently blamed for things like crib deaths.

Not a fan of HARLEQUIN AND PIERROT'S antics. They're "those rowdy kids" to him, but as long as he's at the circus, he considers them to be his rowdy kids and would give his life protecting them (in the way you'd die to protect your youngest and most annoying 'do you got games on your phone' cousin).

He and JESTER often don't agree on things but it hasn't led to violence... yet and it has absolutely led to violence (I mean, you're pretty sure they're fighting in there. ... They are fighting in there, right...?). Jester has a master plan and prefers to run a tight ship, keeping things in his control. Vilka cannot stand being told what to do by someone half his size and a quarter of his age. They're both too professional to argue in public but their shouting matches can be heard from the other side of the circus. SECRET EASTER EGG INTERACTIONS: Geiger Counter | Ask About Doc | Cry | Ask to see a Ghost

Put your questions, interactions, or card reading requests in the askbox and I will work on them as I get them :3 it may take a day or two to see your answer, but it'll be posted here.

1. Since everyone hears something different when they encounter Vilka, this is just what I would hear/the noise that I’d put in if he were in the game or in a movie or something.

2. I have never mixed audio before in my life.

3. He does not make this noise often— he’s not animal-like and doesn’t growl at people to communicate. This is what someone thinks they’re hearing as their brain tries to make sense of the pulses of infrasound Vilka is emitting.

The infrasound also causes people to see images of ghosts and shadow creatures (besides Vilka himself). He specifically emits those pulses to disorient people, it works best on those who are already at least a little bit disoriented (just on the verge of falling asleep or waking up, lost in a dark place, etc) and doesn’t always work on everyone. 4. This is a sound he makes on purpose; his 'heartbeat/breathing' sounds are different and are detectable by the human ear (mostly. you might need a stethoscope). Canon relation stuff: Only Jester and Harlequin seem to be able to hear the growl. Jester quickly figured out what it was and ignores all the weird audio/visual signals his brain starts making ("If you wouldn't mind taking that nonsense somewhere else... some of us have trouble holding onto our tempers when we haven't gotten enough sleep"). However, it scares the absolute daylights out of Harlequin, not just because of whatever sights and sounds he thinks he's perceiving, but from suddenly becoming so confused and unsure of where he is or how to get out and away from... something. Afterward, he can never quite explain what it was he thought he was backing away from. (Vilka has never specifically targeted him, but sometimes they both end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and Harlequin happens to be standing close enough to feel the effects.) Whether Ticket Taker is immune to Vilka's ability naturally, or he doesn't spook easily, or he spends so much of his time in a literal disorienting maze full of scary shadows and weird noises to even notice a couple more, it just doesn't seem to affect him at all. Doc, of course, is fascinated by the concept of scaring the crap out of someone with sound waves. Vilka's spent a lot of time in the lab vibrating into a microphone so Doc can study the recordings later and find out if just playing the 'sound' back has the same effect (it doesn't). Vilka also occasionally fries electronics*, mostly on accident and pretty much at random; he and Doctor thought that this might also be part of the infrasound ability but quickly discovered that it was due to something else entirely that neither of them had any control over. The two of them decided not to tell anyone else in the circus about it, though it's possible Jester already knows. Once in a while, a horrible staticky clicking noise will sound from Doctor's instruments, causing one of the readings to spike and then quickly settle again. It's just the radio on the fritz again, don't pay any attention to it. Let me know if you start tasting metal, sweetie. Pierrot could sleep through a hurricane, and has. Vilka could hit him with an infrasonic wave strong enough to shatter glass, then climb up onto his chest and start jumping up and down on top him, and Pierrot still wouldn't wake up until it was time to wake up. About once every few months, MC will have a horrible, gruesome nightmare where it feels like someone's strangling her. She'll wake, still struggling to breathe, and discover that she's paralyzed, pinned to her bed. She's surrounded by leering, sharp-toothed shadows, all reaching over the bed toward her, and just as she realizes the crushing weight on her chest is a monster with glowing eyes and scraggly black hair, she screams. The monster and all of the shadows vanish, and she sits in bed, knees drawn up, vowing to never again eat spicy curry right before going to sleep. Once, Harlequin was there when she turned the lights on and she accused him of trying to smother her, but he seemed as shaken as she was. Weird.

In the answer/interact queue:

Azazel/Aurelia

Analog

Anonymous

Mystic

Current projects:

Vilka and the Domowik (comic)

Vilka Route (walkthrough/fanfic)

Carousel (TFC fic series)

Current Life Stuff in the way:

Dad chemo port install

Dad end of life stuff (incl. house stuff)

Continuing extended family issues

Continuing physical/mental health problems

Continuing financial problems

Why am I still so tired

Mean Queer Status:

Woke up still mean and queer ✅

Newsletter:

It's become apparent to me that a lot of TFC fans, including the ones who like interacting with Vilka, share space on the autism spectrum with me but are much younger than I am. So here are some ground rules/clarifications for people who 1. would like them, 2. have never interacted with me on Tumblr before.

The rules for the askbox are "use your best judgement." I have always had a policy of "if you're not sure, it's okay to ask." I personally allow any kind of message in my askbox (no exceptions, no exceptions, NO EXCEPTIONS, NO EXCEPTIONS), but whether Vilka will actually reciprocate flirtations or respond at all depends on too many factors to list.

It doesn't matter what you say to me, you cannot make me angry or hurt my feelings. I am a divine entity that holds understanding in one hand (people mess up, say things weird, don't know about stuff/fall prey to misinformation and misinterpretation, etc etc etc, it's fine. We can either work it out and keep going, or part with no hard feelings. We're both creatives and we enrich the world we live in) and Pure Vindictive Evil in the other (you can't make me angry or hurt my feelings on accident but you can try to do it on purpose, at which point the terrible Star Wormwood light of my gaze will land upon you and you will end up as a series of hilarious blog posts on my main that delight and entertain everyone but you). The Freak Circus is an 18+ game. I expect you to be a fellow adult. I will treat you as if you are a fellow adult. I'm not out here checking people's IDs but if you have been interacting with me and I find out you're younger than 18 you are blocked, banned, banished to the farlands and your existence stricken from the records of memory. To be clear what you do with your underage time is not my business and I don't care and never have, but the TFC fandom is tiny and extremely susceptible to cancel-rot. I am not getting kicked out of the fandom for your dumb 10th grade ass.