Snake is a lean young man with golden eyes, short white hair with a distinct cowlick that trembles when he is nervous and straightens when he is startled, and pale skin interspersed with [scales] that have some level of iridescence to them. He is always accompanied by at least one of his snakes.
HEIGHT:
Not listed but under 6'.
BUILD:
Very lean. Not very muscular.
HAIR:
WHITE
EYES:
GOLDEN
FEATURES:
He has [scales] on various parts of his body. Face, chest, etc. His tongue is also split like a snake's.
DRESS:
Originally he wore a [stage costume], now he normally wears a [butler uniform] with a ribbon instead of a tie.
VOICE:
Snake 'voices'/accents for all of his snakes, but his real voice can be heard here: [youtube].
Some information & graphics from [here]. I'm also super into snakes and they do feel right, but I included my own input as well. The only one I'm iffy on is Webster because he's some special hybrid so I don't feel he really counts. I am also listing his 'main' snakes even though he'll probably only be able to bring a few to whatever game he's in.
In Duplicity he has the following three snakes: Emily, Webster, Wilde, and Keats.
Emily Emily is without a doubt a kingsnake, and if we want to go further she’s most likely a red milk snake. The distinctive pattern, bands of yellow and black on red, are actually a trademark of many kingsnake species. This clever disguise is used to mimic the venomous coral snake, keeping predators away.
Friendliness: ★★★★★ Adaptability: ★★★★✩ Weight: ★✩✩✩✩ Snake fact: These constrictors got their name because they hunt and consume other snakes when given the opportunity. They even hunt rattlesnakes, and have high immunity to their venom. The common name for Emily's species, milk snake, originated from a belief that these snakes milked cows.
Webster *likely inaccurate due to him being a crossbreed. Unlike the rest of Snake’s snakes, Webster stands out in that he’s the only venomous one here. His pattern, bright yellow eyes, and slit pupils all indicate that he’s a venomous pit viper. A difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes, the fangs are only prominent in venomous snakes (non-venomous snakes don’t need to pump venom, so their teeth are smaller and hook-shaped).
Webster has been said to have venom potent enough to kill a human man in 30 seconds and that he is a special breed of snake from Queimada Island. His poison can kill a human within 30 seconds so it is unknown exactly what type of snake he is, though he does share some very minor similarities in coloration and pattern to a cottonmouth (though they're fairly non-aggressive and certainly can't kill a grown man in 30 seconds or less).
Friendliness: ★✩✩✩✩ Adaptability: ★★★★★ Weight: ★★✩✩✩ Snake fact: Webster is similar in appearance to a cottonmouth, but he is a special breed of pit viper. Not only are these snakes venomous, but they also have a very 'cool' heat-sensing system. This helps these snakes to find prey in the dark, which is when most snakes like to hunt. The 'pit' is a special organ in between the eyes and the nostrils!
Wilde Wilde is a big ol’ snake most people know, a boa constrictor. As far as they go, he’s certainly tiny, but his face and body shape are near identical (the pear shaped head is pretty indicative of large constrictors).
Despite being fairly small for a boa, Wilde is still a hefty snake, and would probably weigh upwards of 20-27 kg. That’s a lot to hold on your shoulders!
Friendliness: ★★★★✩ Adaptability: ★★★✩✩ Weight: ★★★★★ Snake fact: Along with ball pythons, boas are believed to be some of the longest-lived of all snakes. In general, boa constrictors can live 35 or more years. The longest-lived boa ever recorded was 40 years, 4 months! Additionally, female boas incubate their eggs inside their bodies and can give birth up to 60 live babies. The longest boa constrictor on record was 18 feet long.
Keats Unlike Goethe, Keats is completely albino… which made pinpointing him a little difficult. It also doesn’t help that he has no patterning whatsoever. So, going by the shape of his face and his total size, I’d say Keats is most likely an albino gopher snake.
Friendliness: ★★★★✩ Adaptability: ★★★★★ (keats often acts as a guide, incredibly helpful!) Weight: ★★✩✩✩ Snake fact: Gopher snakes can get up to 3 to 8 feet in length! Gopher snakes’ coloring can depend on their subspecies and location. Often their colors blend in with local vegetation. Keats is albino, so he's an obvious exception. They are both known to hiss loudly, vibrate their tails, and flatten their heads when threatened which leads people to often confuse them with rattlesnakes.
These snakes following snakes are NOT with him in Duplicity, but are important to him.
Oscar Next we have Oscar, who is most definitely a red-tailed green ratsnake. Don’t be fooled by the name, their tails are typically not red, but a light brown. Oscar was also very easy to identify, the tail and the cute blue tongue really gave it away.
Interestingly, this species is known for having quite the attitude when kept in captivity, which I find translates well into Oscar’s cheeky personality. These snakes are also exceptional hunters, waiting in treetops to strike birds in mid-flight.
Friendliness: ★★★✩✩ (he's snarky) Adaptability: ★★★★✩ Weight: ★★✩✩✩ Snake fact: When threatened, rat snakes will "rattle" their tail, fooling other animals into believing they are venomous. Sneaky! The angles in their belly scales help to grip the irregularities on the boles of rocks, trees, and cliffs making rat snakes excellent climbers! They can even hunt for birds or their eggs in trees.
Donne Donne is a tiny little thing called a blind snake. At first, he might appear to be a worm snake, but the length and appearance of lack of eyes points to a blind snake instead (blind snakes have very small rudimentary eyes that are barely visible, especially from a distance). These little cuties are harmless, and indeed small enough to sit on the human ear, at only 8 cm long (they can grow up to 16 cm, but not usually).
Friendliness: ★★★★✩ Adaptability: ★✩✩✩✩ Weight: ✩✩✩✩✩ (he's super tiny! 0.02oz or 6g! less than a serving of cottage cheese!) Snake fact: The Brahminy Blind Snake (not what Donne is, but a close relative) is one of only two species of unisexual snakes. They are all female and no males have ever been discovered! Part of the reason Blind Snakes in general have spread far across the globe is by stowing away in dirt near the roots of flowerpots. Blind Snakes should be fed 20 ant pupae or termites every one to two weeks during the warm part of the year.
Goethe This dazzling noodle here is a corn snake, but not just a corn snake. Goethe is partially albino! If the striking fluorescent orange coloring and pretty pink eyes weren’t enough, he’s got a lovely pattern that certainly screams “creamsicle” to me.
Unlike Oscar, corn snakes make lovely pets with even temperaments, second only to ball pythons.
Friendliness: ★★★★★ Adaptability: ★★★✩✩ Weight: ★✩✩✩✩ Snake fact: The belly of a corn snake looks like a kernel of Indian corn, hence the name "corn snake". Also, corn snakes are often found near the corn, which attracts their favorite food: rodents. Corn snakes hibernate during the cold periods of the year.
Wordsworth This one was a little tricky, despite his pattern it was difficult to pinpoint what Wordsworth could possibly be. After mulling it over, I realized he’s a corn snake. Though the pattern might look a little different, it follows the same rule, and the head and pupil shape match.
A good rule of thumb, if the pupil is round and the head is small, it’s most likely a constrictor. Venomous snakes tend to have slit pupils and skinny necks (and big fat heads). This helps to identify to some degree.
Friendliness: ★★★✩✩ Adaptability: ★★★★✩ Weight: ★✩✩✩✩ Snake fact: Corn snakes do not show parental care. Babies are only 10 to 15 inches long at birth and they need to fend for themselves from the first day of their life. Corn snakes can survive 5 to 8 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity! They do require a dormancy period during captivity though, so do be careful if keeping one as a pet to make sure they stay happy and healthy.
Cobra Snake also has an unnamed Cobra that has been seen with him on occasion throughout more recent arcs along with many other snakes. It is likely this snake is an Indian Cobra due to its markings and appearance of coloration patterning. However, as the image is black and white it is difficult to say until a colored image comes to light.
Friendliness: ????? Adaptability: ★★★★★ Weight: ★★✩✩✩ Snake fact: Cobras are large snakes; with many species (there are 270 different breeds) that can grow more than 6 feet long. King Cobras can even get up to 18 feet in length! Spitting cobras can spit their venom with incredible accuracy. They can align with the predator's head and deliver venom right into eyes. A group of cobras is called a 'quiver'.
One of the big questions about Snake is how much of what he says actually comes directly from his snakes.
A prevailing opinion among his fans is that he often uses the snakes as a cover in order to say what he is thinking without feeling as nervous about communicating. This certainly happens sometimes, most noticeably on the Campania.
Dan is a very small snake, and is unlikely to care about fitting in with people. This is clearly Snake’s low confidence talking, and his habit of sharing messages from the snakes is helping him to express his thoughts.
However, there are also many times when it appears that the snakes actually are communicating through Snake, such as when they tell him things he could not have otherwise known. An example is when Emily gave him the idea of throwing the plate he was holding to distract the zombies.
Keeping in mind that both scenarios probably happen quite a bit, I’ve come up with a tentative idea of how to tell when Snake is communicating his own thoughts or simply passing along a message from the snakes, and I’d like to run it by you guys.
My idea is all about Snake’s face and expressions. A lot of the time, he has a very neutral expression, as seen here:
When Snake is speaking about his own ideas, I think that he’s more likely to be expressive with his face and actions. When he is simply relaying information from a snake, he keeps his neutral expression or emotes in a way that does not match what he is saying.
I’ll give some examples to show what I mean.
Snakes communicating through Snake:
Snake is speaking for Webster here. His expression is neutral and he does not appear to be alarmed by the sight of hundreds of zombies. Webster, on the other hand, looks like he’s disgusted and says as much via Snake.
Snake doesn’t seem to care about having been misidentified. Oscar, on the other hand, is hissing in annoyance. Oscar is the one speaking here.
Snake expressing himself through the snakes:
Wilde is not even in this picture, and certainly is not attempting to restrain the sheep. This is Snake talking.
It’s a little hard to see Snake’s face here, but just a moment previously he visibly reacted to hearing Finny speak German. He is curious, and asking this question for himself.
Finding clear-cut examples of each of these scenarios turned out to be difficult, because it looks like what’s happening most often is that Snake and his snakes are thinking approximately the same thing.
The snakes often mirror Snake’s expressions at dramatic moments, suggesting that they are sharing his feelings.
If you look closely here, several snakes are squinting at the light too. We’ll ignore that this is physically impossible (snakes don’t have eyelids!) because it’s just a silly manga.
A good explanation for this is that Snake has known his snakes for years, and has spent all of his time with them. Snakes aren’t usually social animals, but the stress of their caged environment may have encouraged them to bond. They now work together and understand each other almost effortlessly.
Warning: Pictures of drawn snakes. Also warning because it's just very long because I have no self-restraint and like easy canon review. WIP. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Snake being mysterious and quiet when Sebastian is being shown around: [1]
Wilde & Goenthe warn Sebastian to walk away from the first-string member's tents: [1][2]
Joker explaining that Snake is shy and warns Ciel & Sebastian not to go near the tents lest they get bitten by venomous snakes: [1][2]
Snake apologizes for leaving snakes out when Doll lies to save Ciel, but then tells the others that Ciel was sneaking around in the first string tents thanks to that same snake: [1][2]
Snake worries about the first-string members when they go missing and leaves the circus to look for them: [1][2]
Sebastian reveals a captured Snake: [1][2][3][4][5]
Snake talks about Webster's potent poison and ties up Sebastian with snakes, Sebastian says he can take any poison because he's a Phantomhive Butler: [1][2]
Snake explains how he found them (turns out Prince Soma, a friend of Ciel's, literally put him on a carriage with food and SENT HIM TO HIM.): [1][2][3][4]
Ciel lies to Snake who incredibly naively believes him for no reason other than he has one brain cell, I guess (Snake also goes into how important the first-string performers were to him and how he saw them as family... which Ciel takes advantage of): [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Snake starts his new job as a 'footman' and meets his new coworkers (and so do his snakes, of course). Ciel and Sebastian discuss his potential: [1][2][3][4]
Ciel, Sebastian, and Snake board the Campania and Snake brings his snakes in a giant box: [1][2]
On the ship other high-class passengers judge Snake's appearance, Ciel and Sebastian tell him to have confidence in himself: [1][2][3][4]
A list of personal items Snake has collected over his time in Duplicity:
Started with: 🐍 Emily, a common milksnake. 🐍 Webster, a special breed of pit viper from Queimada Island. 🐍 Wilde, a boa constrictor (though he’s small for one so he could still be rather young).
Obtained: 🐍 A heat lamp was given to him by Sebastian extensively: [Here.] Destroyed in a [flood]. :( sad. Replaced! 🐍 Keats, a young fully albino gopher snake. Received after the events at Camp Harmony [here].
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pythonidae) wrote2021-06-07 11:06 pm
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A Guide to Snake's snakes.
In Duplicity he has the following three snakes: Emily, Webster, Wilde, and Keats.
Emily
Emily is without a doubt a kingsnake, and if we want to go further she’s most likely a red milk snake. The distinctive pattern, bands of yellow and black on red, are actually a trademark of many kingsnake species. This clever disguise is used to mimic the venomous coral snake, keeping predators away.
Friendliness: ★★★★★
Adaptability: ★★★★✩
Weight: ★✩✩✩✩
Snake fact: These constrictors got their name because they hunt and consume other snakes when given the opportunity. They even hunt rattlesnakes, and have high immunity to their venom. The common name for Emily's species, milk snake, originated from a belief that these snakes milked cows.
Unlike the rest of Snake’s snakes, Webster stands out in that he’s the only venomous one here. His pattern, bright yellow eyes, and slit pupils all indicate that he’s a venomous pit viper. A difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes, the fangs are only prominent in venomous snakes (non-venomous snakes don’t need to pump venom, so their teeth are smaller and hook-shaped).
Webster has been said to have venom potent enough to kill a human man in 30 seconds and that he is a special breed of snake from Queimada Island. His poison can kill a human within 30 seconds so it is unknown exactly what type of snake he is, though he does share some very minor similarities in coloration and pattern to a cottonmouth (though they're fairly non-aggressive and certainly can't kill a grown man in 30 seconds or less).
Friendliness: ★✩✩✩✩
Adaptability: ★★★★★
Weight: ★★✩✩✩
Snake fact: Webster is similar in appearance to a cottonmouth, but he is a special breed of pit viper. Not only are these snakes venomous, but they also have a very 'cool' heat-sensing system. This helps these snakes to find prey in the dark, which is when most snakes like to hunt. The 'pit' is a special organ in between the eyes and the nostrils!
Wilde is a big ol’ snake most people know, a boa constrictor. As far as they go, he’s certainly tiny, but his face and body shape are near identical (the pear shaped head is pretty indicative of large constrictors).
Despite being fairly small for a boa, Wilde is still a hefty snake, and would probably weigh upwards of 20-27 kg. That’s a lot to hold on your shoulders!
Friendliness: ★★★★✩
Adaptability: ★★★✩✩
Weight: ★★★★★
Snake fact: Along with ball pythons, boas are believed to be some of the longest-lived of all snakes. In general, boa constrictors can live 35 or more years. The longest-lived boa ever recorded was 40 years, 4 months! Additionally, female boas incubate their eggs inside their bodies and can give birth up to 60 live babies. The longest boa constrictor on record was 18 feet long.
Unlike Goethe, Keats is completely albino… which made pinpointing him a little difficult. It also doesn’t help that he has no patterning whatsoever. So, going by the shape of his face and his total size, I’d say Keats is most likely an albino gopher snake.
Friendliness: ★★★★✩
Adaptability: ★★★★★ (keats often acts as a guide, incredibly helpful!)
Weight: ★★✩✩✩
Snake fact: Gopher snakes can get up to 3 to 8 feet in length! Gopher snakes’ coloring can depend on their subspecies and location. Often their colors blend in with local vegetation. Keats is albino, so he's an obvious exception. They are both known to hiss loudly, vibrate their tails, and flatten their heads when threatened which leads people to often confuse them with rattlesnakes.
Next we have Oscar, who is most definitely a red-tailed green ratsnake. Don’t be fooled by the name, their tails are typically not red, but a light brown. Oscar was also very easy to identify, the tail and the cute blue tongue really gave it away.
Interestingly, this species is known for having quite the attitude when kept in captivity, which I find translates well into Oscar’s cheeky personality. These snakes are also exceptional hunters, waiting in treetops to strike birds in mid-flight.
Friendliness: ★★★✩✩ (he's snarky)
Adaptability: ★★★★✩
Weight: ★★✩✩✩
Snake fact: When threatened, rat snakes will "rattle" their tail, fooling other animals into believing they are venomous. Sneaky! The angles in their belly scales help to grip the irregularities on the boles of rocks, trees, and cliffs making rat snakes excellent climbers! They can even hunt for birds or their eggs in trees.
Donne is a tiny little thing called a blind snake. At first, he might appear to be a worm snake, but the length and appearance of lack of eyes points to a blind snake instead (blind snakes have very small rudimentary eyes that are barely visible, especially from a distance). These little cuties are harmless, and indeed small enough to sit on the human ear, at only 8 cm long (they can grow up to 16 cm, but not usually).
Friendliness: ★★★★✩
Adaptability: ★✩✩✩✩
Weight: ✩✩✩✩✩ (he's super tiny! 0.02oz or 6g! less than a serving of cottage cheese!)
Snake fact: The Brahminy Blind Snake (not what Donne is, but a close relative) is one of only two species of unisexual snakes. They are all female and no males have ever been discovered! Part of the reason Blind Snakes in general have spread far across the globe is by stowing away in dirt near the roots of flowerpots. Blind Snakes should be fed 20 ant pupae or termites every one to two weeks during the warm part of the year.
This dazzling noodle here is a corn snake, but not just a corn snake. Goethe is partially albino! If the striking fluorescent orange coloring and pretty pink eyes weren’t enough, he’s got a lovely pattern that certainly screams “creamsicle” to me.
Unlike Oscar, corn snakes make lovely pets with even temperaments, second only to ball pythons.
Friendliness: ★★★★★
Adaptability: ★★★✩✩
Weight: ★✩✩✩✩
Snake fact: The belly of a corn snake looks like a kernel of Indian corn, hence the name "corn snake". Also, corn snakes are often found near the corn, which attracts their favorite food: rodents. Corn snakes hibernate during the cold periods of the year.
This one was a little tricky, despite his pattern it was difficult to pinpoint what Wordsworth could possibly be. After mulling it over, I realized he’s a corn snake. Though the pattern might look a little different, it follows the same rule, and the head and pupil shape match.
A good rule of thumb, if the pupil is round and the head is small, it’s most likely a constrictor. Venomous snakes tend to have slit pupils and skinny necks (and big fat heads). This helps to identify to some degree.
Friendliness: ★★★✩✩
Adaptability: ★★★★✩
Weight: ★✩✩✩✩
Snake fact: Corn snakes do not show parental care. Babies are only 10 to 15 inches long at birth and they need to fend for themselves from the first day of their life. Corn snakes can survive 5 to 8 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity! They do require a dormancy period during captivity though, so do be careful if keeping one as a pet to make sure they stay happy and healthy.
Snake also has an unnamed Cobra that has been seen with him on occasion throughout more recent arcs along with many other snakes. It is likely this snake is an Indian Cobra due to its markings and appearance of coloration patterning. However, as the image is black and white it is difficult to say until a colored image comes to light.
Friendliness: ?????
Adaptability: ★★★★★
Weight: ★★✩✩✩
Snake fact: Cobras are large snakes; with many species (there are 270 different breeds) that can grow more than 6 feet long. King Cobras can even get up to 18 feet in length! Spitting cobras can spit their venom with incredible accuracy. They can align with the predator's head and deliver venom right into eyes. A group of cobras is called a 'quiver'.
The way Snake speaks. Patterns, etc.
One of the big questions about Snake is how much of what he says actually comes directly from his snakes.
A prevailing opinion among his fans is that he often uses the snakes as a cover in order to say what he is thinking without feeling as nervous about communicating. This certainly happens sometimes, most noticeably on the Campania.
Dan is a very small snake, and is unlikely to care about fitting in with people. This is clearly Snake’s low confidence talking, and his habit of sharing messages from the snakes is helping him to express his thoughts.
However, there are also many times when it appears that the snakes actually are communicating through Snake, such as when they tell him things he could not have otherwise known. An example is when Emily gave him the idea of throwing the plate he was holding to distract the zombies.
Keeping in mind that both scenarios probably happen quite a bit, I’ve come up with a tentative idea of how to tell when Snake is communicating his own thoughts or simply passing along a message from the snakes, and I’d like to run it by you guys.
My idea is all about Snake’s face and expressions. A lot of the time, he has a very neutral expression, as seen here:
When Snake is speaking about his own ideas, I think that he’s more likely to be expressive with his face and actions. When he is simply relaying information from a snake, he keeps his neutral expression or emotes in a way that does not match what he is saying.
I’ll give some examples to show what I mean.
Snakes communicating through Snake:
Snake is speaking for Webster here. His expression is neutral and he does not appear to be alarmed by the sight of hundreds of zombies. Webster, on the other hand, looks like he’s disgusted and says as much via Snake.
Snake doesn’t seem to care about having been misidentified. Oscar, on the other hand, is hissing in annoyance. Oscar is the one speaking here.
Snake expressing himself through the snakes:
Wilde is not even in this picture, and certainly is not attempting to restrain the sheep. This is Snake talking.
It’s a little hard to see Snake’s face here, but just a moment previously he visibly reacted to hearing Finny speak German. He is curious, and asking this question for himself.
Finding clear-cut examples of each of these scenarios turned out to be difficult, because it looks like what’s happening most often is that Snake and his snakes are thinking approximately the same thing.
The snakes often mirror Snake’s expressions at dramatic moments, suggesting that they are sharing his feelings.
If you look closely here, several snakes are squinting at the light too. We’ll ignore that this is physically impossible (snakes don’t have eyelids!) because it’s just a silly manga.
A good explanation for this is that Snake has known his snakes for years, and has spent all of his time with them. Snakes aren’t usually social animals, but the stress of their caged environment may have encouraged them to bond. They now work together and understand each other almost effortlessly.
Manga pages/Scans that feature Snake.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[Just a cute colored picture from when Snake got 7th in the popularity polls.
Snake's first appearance:
[Snake charming/dancing.]
Snake being mysterious and quiet when Sebastian is being shown around:
[1]
Wilde & Goenthe warn Sebastian to walk away from the first-string member's tents:
[1][2]
Joker explaining that Snake is shy and warns Ciel & Sebastian not to go near the tents lest they get bitten by venomous snakes:
[1][2]
Snake apologizes for leaving snakes out when Doll lies to save Ciel, but then tells the others that Ciel was sneaking around in the first string tents thanks to that same snake:
[1][2]
Snake's snake Emily flirts with Dagger:
[1]
Snake worries about the first-string members when they go missing and leaves the circus to look for them:
[1][2]
Sebastian reveals a captured Snake:
[1][2][3][4][5]
Snake talks about Webster's potent poison and ties up Sebastian with snakes, Sebastian says he can take any poison because he's a Phantomhive Butler:
[1][2]
Snake explains how he found them (turns out Prince Soma, a friend of Ciel's, literally put him on a carriage with food and SENT HIM TO HIM.):
[1][2][3][4]
Ciel lies to Snake who incredibly naively believes him for no reason other than he has one brain cell, I guess (Snake also goes into how important the first-string performers were to him and how he saw them as family... which Ciel takes advantage of):
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Snake starts his new job as a 'footman' and meets his new coworkers (and so do his snakes, of course). Ciel and Sebastian discuss his potential:
[1][2][3][4]
Ciel, Sebastian, and Snake board the Campania and Snake brings his snakes in a giant box:
[1][2]
On the ship other high-class passengers judge Snake's appearance, Ciel and Sebastian tell him to have confidence in himself:
[1][2][3][4]
Personal Belongings in Duplicity
Started with:
🐍 Emily, a common milksnake.
🐍 Webster, a special breed of pit viper from Queimada Island.
🐍 Wilde, a boa constrictor (though he’s small for one so he could still be rather young).
Obtained:
🐍
A heat lamp was given to him by Sebastian![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
extensively: [Here.] Destroyed in a [flood]. :( sad.Replaced!🐍 Keats, a young fully albino gopher snake. Received after the events at Camp Harmony [here].