#vocalization

Shown by Wordweaver at book club.

Vocalization is a interesting thing. Is it communication, or voice stim, or making voice just because?

I make a lot of noise. And I know that's a form of stimming for me. But also it provides a sense of euphoria in the ways that I'm free to express myself via making creature noise. I'm not sure how my nonhuman type that doesn't do speech would sound like. I make a lot of chirp, coos, screech, rwers. Partner call them birb noise, especially my chirps. We are pretty much in agreement that I'm a bird sort of dragon.

But I want to indulge in fox sound too, I suppose. The kitsune paratype has me perking up when there's fox video. Fox screaming at each other or that laughing fox. Parnter say my fox is like the Finnegan Fox, or just my general demeaner. I get like a excited puppy, or fox kit, I suppose.

Dragon noise is a funky one. I know the sound that Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon makes this low, purry cooing sound, and I find that one in specific to be something I should be able to do. Almost like a cat's purr. I vehemanly denies any sort of feline within my draconity though. Probably just a case of disliking the "meta" where dragons and cats are put in equivalent a lot. Beyond that, I don't think I make much sort of roar sound. Maybe growl or snarl.

The human voice box has its limitation to immitate the nonhuman sound. I do got my cooing purr down pat though. If you'd get to be in vc with me, I tend to speak in noises more than I do words. It's just easier. Probably a combination of ndness and nonhumanness.

The way I do it is

mouth in the shape as if I'm about to blow bubble

tongue close to the roof, but enough so air can pass through

push the air out. Not just breathing, but do it as if you are doing a vocal practice, and push the air out

adjust the tongue to roof distance as needed until you find the sweet spot that makes the air in your mouth vibrate

then add sound

I sort of learned that when I was a high school freshman. Someone amongst the classmate taught it to us, but only I picke it up fast and master it quicker. Could be my choir experience, could be the creature in me. I'd like to think that it's a combination.

The chirps and screech are just your regular throat really close, mouth open, tongue press up to close the throat, and do the same pushing air motion. Is it a motion if you aren't moving?

There are some cool vocalization that I'd heard folks do. My favorite one is probably Rani (@a-dragons-journal)'s. Still no idea how dre does it, that wobble wobble in the back of the throat sound. I couldn't immitate it.

Sooo the organ that these lovely dinos have to mimic things is called a syrinx (an additional vocal organ that works with the layrnx). And it is actually a huge controversy when that structure evolved in nonavian dinosaurs! It's ancestral to modern birds, so it had to happen before then, but since it's a soft tissue structure, it rarely fossilizes, so we have no idea when it evolved. We see it in Vegavis! But that's a crown-bird. So that helps nothing. But maybe the fact that we've only found it in a crown-bird means that it only showed up in crown-birds. That said, a very bird like larynx was found in an ankylosaur in a paper published earlier this year, so the story is very clearly not done - and maybe mimicing could have even been possible with a very bird-like larynx. Who knows!

I'm gonna do VoicePlay since they were most definitely the first and had the most thought put into them:

Geoff

Geoff being a demon is because he's often nicknamed the "bass demon" in comments and since lots of the characters he plays in music videos have demon vibes or are villains (Oogie Boogie, Baron, his costume in My Mother Told Me, Geoffsula, Mr Hyde, a vampire, Tamatoa...). It just really fits with the glowing red eyes, claws, wings... but it also immediately gave me the idea for a storyline of him not wanting to be that evil monster that people see demons as because Geoff is a really caring person but the aggression from his demon blood sometimes takes over.

Eli

Eli's super speed comes from his general behaviour. If you've watched him while he's singing - especially live - you'll see he's almost constantly moving. People always joke how Geoff needs his hands to sing, but they’ve clearly never looked at Eli. The best example of this might be him singing Superstition. Not the new cover with Omar, one of the first videos on VoicePlay's channel where he sings it solo with a band. Another influence is his vocal agility (his runs, the way he can sing so many different notes clearly and quickly and how his very fast parts are also always easy to understand lyrics-wise) and how quickly he talks. Also, he stated in the VoicePlay True Stories stream that he's never late and he gets very rushed and anxious if he is. Also, vibes.

Earl

Now, Earl's super strength was prompted by @florida-irl, actually. Also, look at him. That's a strong man. It's almost too obvious what his superpower has to be. Also, this video. He literally flexes and tears his overall doing it. That just sealed the deal. He had to be a super strong gummy bear vibes person.

Evelynn

For Evelynn, being my OC, I knew I wanted something special. The whole thing each of the groups is known for is music, so somebody had to have some sound-related power. Well, Layne also does, but that's something for another day. Evelynn's powers are inspired by comments saying things like "x's bass could cause an earthquake" or "i'm surprised y's high note didn't shatter my windows". Of course, it's scientific nonsense, but, y'know, what if it wasn’t? Partially inspired by Viktor in The Umbrella Academy, Evelynn can use the vibrations created by sounds and make them stronger to either make objects or her environment vibrate or turn them into a shock wave sort of thing.