#and super distinctive things like this are FUN to make patterns of

[tj-crochets]

Hey! This might be a weird ask, but do you know anywhere that has Cambrian sewing patterns? I’ve been trying to track down a wiwaxia or anomalocaris, but no joy. Thanks in advance!

Hey! Not a weird ask at all, and I swear I've seen one for an anomalocaris before but I can't remember where?? I'll take a look and see what I can find, and hopefully someone will see this that has a link to a pattern Edit: So good news bad news, I did find the anomalocaris plush I was thinking of, but the designer has not shared the pattern. Good news is it looks really simple to design a pattern for a simplified version of it? I'd just need to handstitch on the curved front...not legs and use the same technique I use to make spider legs without having to sew each leg individually (topstitching, but maybe also pleating) Can you reblog this with some reference photos of anomalocaris? anomalocarises? I do not know enough about them to be able to distinguish which ones are good references

[sunsorbit]

square 15 & 16 out of 25! I’m obsessed with how perfectly the gradients ended up on these two!!

patterns and yarn under read more:

square 1: Mariko by Diana Krenz (free). Super interesting to see how different this square looks when it’s done with a color changing yarn instead of a coordinated color scheme! i had this pattern in my library for months, saving it for “the right” colorway, and then finally decided to just make it!

yarn: Lana Grossa Cotonella 002!

square 2: Hestia by Diana Krenz (free). I made this one back in july, but never photographed it properly. I changed a few little things in this pattern, like creating a raised edge on the inner square to make it more visually distinct with the yarn being very samey in the middle, and then skipping some rows of sc and a bp-ed row for the squares border.

yarn: since i made this long ago (and i don’t write down what colors i use for what square, i should start doing that), i assume the middle square is left over from Lana Grossa Cotonella 002, and then the outer border is 007 — a color i actually need to buy again because it’s so pretty!!!

fun fact, even tho i only post the pretty end results, i have also ended up making wonky and not so pretty squares: this is what square 1 used to look like! it was freehanded and thus very very wonky with uneven and obvious color changes, so i frogged it to make the Mariko square :)

[arkacarian]

Uhh random Ripple Star Fairy headcanons because I have a lot of these. The fairies are barely known about and I love Kirby 64, so that leaves plenty of room for me to speculate and headcanon

- There are two types of fairies- royal fairies and normal fairies. Royal fairies are about the height of your average human when full grown, and are almost always female. Fairies also only have queens, so male royals often go to live in far off parts of the planet because of how matriarchal fairy society is. Royal fairies always have black hair and violet eyes. Normal fairies are the ones you see all over the place! They make up for 99% of the fairy population. Normal fairies can have hair in any color but black, and it’s usually a vibrant color, and blue eyes

- Baby fairies are very, very little. So small. They fit in the palm of your hand. They only grow to about 3 feet tall after all. They are also quite fragile, especially their wings. Their wings are like that of a butterfly when they’re first born, being wet and so sensitive that any wrong touch to them will permanently affect that fairy. Artificial attempts at drying the wings of a newborn fairy can cause the wings to crystalize, so they’re often just taken close care of by their mothers until they dry on their own

- Fairies love rocks. Mostly gemstones, but still. Because crystals are so important to them, they hold all rocks in a high regard

- Speaking of, the Crystal. It’s the most important part of fairy society because of what it can do. The Crystal is capable of taking the form of any weapon depending on the wielder and is able to truly destroy Dark Matter. It also produces a very special kind of water when moisture collects on it and falls off. This water, kept in a bowl below the Crystal, can heal any wound or other ailment

- Fairies have weird diets. They need sugar to survive, both natural and artificial. They eat fruits and baked goods and pastries, meaning that most fairies are either farmers or bakers. They can eat other things, but often don’t

- Some fairies will form a very strong, super close platonic bond with a non-fairy. This is more than best friends but not quite romantic. This relationship is what Adeleine and Ribbon have

- Fairies tend to sleep in piles. They will sleep in their own beds, but also like to cuddle a lot. They love touch and reassurance. In the palace, this fairy cuddle pile usually happens on top of Adeleine, who doesn’t mind being crushed

- Fairies and Dark Matter are natural enemies. They fight a lot. Dark Matter are more scared of fairies than fairies are of them because of the Crystal

- Fairies can purr. They just can

- Despite not having any form of scales on their wings, fairies still shed. This “shedding” is actually shiny light particles that fall off their wings during springtime due to the change in season

- Ripple Star doesn’t get very cold at all and always has warm temperatures and no crazy weather, so fairies aren’t used to different weather. Ribbon didn’t have a very fun time on Shiver Star

- Fairies almost always have four wings- two sets of two- that are shiny and iridescent. Royal fairies also have four wings, but their wings have a distinct heart and diamond shaped pattern in them, denoting their royalty

- Queen Ripple, the current Queen of the Fairies, is quite young for a fairy. She is the same size as a younger human, after all

- Fairies love sunning themselves. They’ll often lay in fields and just let the light reflect off of their wings and absorb the light

- Adeleine is treated as an honorary fairy

[yersina]

a linguist plays chants of sennaar (pt 5)

[pt 1] [pt 2] [pt 3] [pt 4]

the home stretch!!

disclaimer: can't promise that i'll have any insights that a layperson wouldn't have, this is kinda just me thinking through the grammar of the language out loud haha.

this post covers the fifth and last language in chants of sennaar and will contain spoilers for both the language and the endgame! it also assumes you know what the symbols mean already.

i.... to be completely honest with you, i did not enjoy this language 😂 i think the experience of deciphering it got lost in favor of the storyline, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for everyone, but hey, i am the one going through each of these languages like a linguistic bloodhound here lol. because of that, i'm not as familiar with these words as i am with the other languages.

before we get into anything else, and also because i imagine that this will be a shorter post because the game itself tells you what patterns to look for, i do want to say that this language strikes me as being incredibly artificial. which is a good thing! it emulates the digital apocalypse vibe that exile gives. but a language that leans so heavily into being constructed and recombined and modulated so easily really gives me the impression that it was created and not organically developed. the only other irl example that comes to mind at the moment is korean hangeul, which was purposefully created by king sejong and is an alphabet, not a logography. like, this is a language that i would make for fun in high school (which is to say, it gives a kind of overly grammatically strict, awkwardly too regular vibe?).

it's kind of funny that this language is where i'm starting to get reminded of conlangs, especially when, well, everything in this game is a conlang. but if we take each of the radicals in this language as affixes/morphemes when they're being combined into one character, then this actually reminds me of a specific conlang (ithkuil, i think?) where you can convey incredibly complex ideas through very few words.

the language of the anchorites isn't quite this complex, but hopefully the comparison gets my point across?

i’m curious if only certain elements can be combined with each other or if there’s a certain order to them, but it’s hard to tell when there’s such limited evidence in the game. interestingly, i believe the anchorites’ language is the only one in this game that makes a distinction between “die” and “death/dead” by combining the noun with the verb “go”. not sure why the developers suddenly made that decision haha.

this language, like most in the game, is an SVO language, which we can see below:

but i think also they (the developers) were trying to convey more complex sentence structures than their language was designed to communicate??? so then you end up w smth like below:

which, if you translated literally, would actually be “you man i wait”. again, super interesting bc i think an actual, more accurate anchorite sentence should be “i wait you man”. they have a more complex sentence here bc of the predicate (“you’re the one”) and the dative (“for”), but really the sense that they’re trying to go for is “i was awaiting the one [who is you]”. i guess it’s possible that different grammatical cases are treated differently in this language, or that, like english, word order is occasionally variable (even tho that option seems iffy bc we haven’t really seen evidence of it before), but tbh i suspect that really it’s that the developers wrote the dialogue and then brute forced it into the anchorite language haha. no shade! (and also impossible to confirm either way lol) just kinda amusing and also it makes sense when it’s p obvious their focus shifted from the language to the story.

this trend continues throughout all of the anchorite dialogue (imo) and makes it kinda slow and awkward to read if you don’t have all of the characters translated. in my opinion, the way that the language functions in the last part of this game makes it pretty clear that the developers meant for you to rely on the given translations during this potion of the game, especially when the translation mechanic is mostly through the matching terminals in exile, rather than speaking with people.

annoyingly, the anchorites’ language is also the only one in the game that doesn’t have words for the other people/cultures in the game (demonyms), which also doesn’t give much to work off of in terms of cultural context, relationships, etc.

again, i’ve decided not to get into an in-depth orthographic analysis of this particular language bc the game itself introduces you to them. one that i noticed that wasn’t specifically addressed in-game is the similarity between “open” and “key”, which is something that i actually also noted before in the devotees’ language. i’m sure there are others, but i’m also sure you can find them yourself!

all in all, a strange ending to this game. if you’ve made it this far in all of my posts—thanks for hanging around! hope you were able to learn smth new :)

[adobe-outdesign]

I know you've done the various mr mime forms, but have you reviewed mime jr?

(This is the last Pokemon review request in the inbox right now, so send 'em if you got 'em.

Mr. Mime review is here, G. Mr. Mime review is here, and Mr. Rime Review is here.)

Some people find Mr. Mime to be kind of uncanny, with its nose-less face, long jointed limbs, and slightly too detailed hands, but I've never heard anyone complain about Mime Jr. here. It's mostly because, while based off of Mr. Mime, the design has been simplified greatly, and features like a super cheerful expression make it hard to not find this little guy adorable. Them mimicking people and not being very good at it also doesn't hurt their cuteness factor.

I like how, conceptually, it starts off as a clown and then becomes a mime; kind of similar but still distinct ideas that work well with each other. It also looks really solid visually; the light pink body has great contrast with the dark blue accents, the black eyes pop, and the nose and red ball on the chest compliment each other, as does the ball on it's jester-cap esq hair. It's clown-like enough to pick up on the theme, but done in a nice and subtle way.

I've heard a lot of people say that Mime Jr. doesn't look enough like Mr. Mime, but I honestly don't agree. They share the exact same color palette, similar color distributions (dark hair and legs/feet, light pink faces and arms, dark pink circle accents, etc.) and a lot of the same motifs, like the zig-zag hair and circles. I think the only place where the line looses cohesion a bit is the head, as the two have very different eyes; not inherently a bad thing, but it does make the faces less similar.

Ironically, Mime Jr. arguably fits even better with the Galarian Mr. Mime line, but for opposite reasons; the color palettes are completely different, but more elements of the body shape and face carry through (G. Mr. Mime has a nose, think arms but thicker legs that are completely black, mitten-like hands, and a scalloped pattern to the body; all traits that Mime Jr. shares). Mr. Rime also helps with this, keeping all of the shared attributes and even gaining a stockier body shape in the legs, the round red nose on the stomach, and similar eyes to Mime Jr.

(A lot of people say there should've been a Galarian Mime Jr. On the one hand, having an ice-type variant with blue instead of pink would've made the cohesion of the line spot-on; but on the other hand, I don't know if there's a ton they would've done with the design beyond just minor visual tweaks. I don't know, if it's between a fairly standard recolor variant that exists for coherency vs. just skipping it all together, I do get why they wouldn't think it was needed. Plus, like I said, the line is incredibly coherent as-is anyway).

Anyway, a really cute and fun pre-evo that feels like it adds something thematically to the line and works really well with both regular and the Galarian Mr. Mime lines. Great stuff.

[batsplat]

sort of not really related to being unable to separate honda characteristics from marc’s riding style—one of the reasons i really enjoy the idea of him on a ducati is that i think it’s cooler to win titles with more than one manufacturer like it speaks to your longevity and adaptability plus it just adds class lol. i mean he has ridden some tricky hondas so his adaptability was never really in question but you know. and granted it won’t be as cool as vale’s switch to yamaha just cause like ducati is by far the best bike on the grid and his teammate is not someone i particularly rate (hope i don’t eat my words) but nevertheless very pleasing to me. side note i would have loved to see him ride a yamaha but sadly that shall remain a fantasy

yeah I mean I don't massively care about the big picture legacy debates because it's just. not my thing in sports. but I DO care about stories and it's basically always more fun to have more variety in someone's career. this last year has already done wonders for that for marc's career... I have felt for like,, a long time that it would be a terrible shame for marc to spend his whole motogp career with honda. pretty sure I've already said this somewhere on this blog but I was extremely un-thrilled when marc signed a four year contract extension in 2020. not even necessarily because it seemingly guaranteed him more titles - though his dominance was undoubtedly making me a bit tired of the sport - but also because it was just... the most boring option. you'd kinda seen everything you could possibly get from the marc/honda relationship by that point (I mean, I suppose we hadn't seen 'abject failure and misery' so good on them for mixing it up after all). changing things up is fun! put him in a satellite team! put him in factory red! it added something neat to the post-season test! sports is about putting athletes in Situations. this is a good development for the sport

(and yes I'm very happy it's made my spreadsheets more interesting as it gives me another variable to tease apart which marc performance patterns were down to the honda and which are due to his own riding style, though this next current year will really tease apart that distinction. if that's the kind of thing you care about. putting a lil asterisk next to qatar and mugello, just to see something. it would've been interesting to see him ride a yamaha OR a suzuki which was MY personal completely unrealistic 'come on marc don't u want to try it out :))' 2019 era pipe dream for where I wanted him to go (arguably a wish that aged extremely well given how the 2020 season panned out). from the limited amount I understand of riding styles and differences between manufacturers, I would've thought those bikes would suit him the worst, so that could've been interesting. but alas)

but yeah, idk, I mean valentino said himself in 2018 that marc didn't need to prove anything by switching manufacturers and that it just came down to what marc wanted. and like,,, valentino's right. it's not like anything about this ducati transition is all that shocking either. this isn't to diminish marc's achievements this last year, but... in spite of the past few years and his age and his arm and his own cautious rhetoric (which idt was all lies but I never quite bought)... I would've been surprised if he'd done worse than he ended up doing this year. I do think adapting to unrideable bikes within a manufacturer is significantly different than adapting to a completely different bike (not least because those poorly handling bikes were built specifically around marc's skillset), but again. it's deeply unsurprising he managed the switch well. and yeah, it's good for the cv to show off a bit of range. I will say that if you're looking to do prop, marc fans really need to be doing more talking up of their opps. you want to say the opposition is super strong so it means more when you beat them! it's like the valentino impulse with erasing sete, this isn't doing your own cause any good. pecco is just objectively a respectable title rival and if marc demolishes him then congrats to marc and full credit to him - that would be a truly remarkable achievement. you don't want to be beating a fraud! you just don't! and if marc remains a competitive factor for a few more years, he should be coming up against other title rivals sooner or later. so y'know. hopefully he does have at least one more marginal title fight at some point

[loz-furbies]

Din

Design

I like Din's design from the shoulders up; I think she has a cuter face than Nayru and the hairstyle is fun and memorable. I also like that she appears to be a bit more muscular than the average anime pretty girl.

However the rest of her look is kind of a mess. What exactly is that outfit anyway? For starters I just can't help thinking how impractical that hyper tight jumpsuit is for using the bathroom. Also I really don't think hot pink goes well with the purple decorations, or especially with her bright red hair, and I'm not a fan of the flame sashes being the exact same colour as her hair either. The triangle pattern is a struggle to draw too since the references are inconsistent on which side of the outfit they are, or if it's symmetric.

And then there's the bangles, they are just so huge and the rest of the design doesn't exactly match them. You'd need a lot more magical super form goddess tier design for anti-gravity bracelets this big not to look awkward and Din here is just too casual for that. When I recently drew Din with her arms on Nayru and Farore's shoulders I debated if I should just leave them out but decided to include them in the end, which was a mistake because they just look so stupid...

I guess the frills do make me think of a flamenco dancer so at least the outfit checks out as a dancer outfit. And Nayru has similar frills in her design so they contrast each other quite nicely, with Din's design being the more active one to Nayru's more prim and proper look.

She has noticeably darker skin in the full colour GBC art (below), but apparently that didn't make it to the sprite. I'm guessing that's a hardware limitation?

Character

Din has a fun and playful personality, and at the beginning of the game she invites Link to dance with her and later says she had fun. The other NPCs also state that she is kind, as she was the one who took care of Link when he was out cold for a bit. And that's about all there is to Din honestly since she gets kidnapped right after.

She does have a bit of magic pixie dream girl element to her, like pretty much the only character-based thing she gets to do in the whole game is to drag the mc-kun she just met to join her fun. But I still prefer her to Nayru since at least she uses the little space she has to make an impact well. So she's above the early franchise damsels in that at least she has a distinct and likable personality, which makes it more motivating to save her than if she was just some random girl.

Din's role as the Oracle of Seasons is pretty superficial, at least you get the time travel harp from Nayru's house and also teaches you some songs for it, and obviously the villain took over her body specifically to use her powers to travel to the past, but Din doesn't really get to do anything worthwhile with her powers.

Role in the story

I played Ages first, and Nayru being surprisingly present in the story raised the expectations for Din as well. Which means it was especially disappointing when she's barely in the game; You meet her for a few minutes in the beginning, she gets kidnapped, and won't be around until the very end when you finally save her to do some cutscene magic. Nayru at least was kept relevant in various ways (her possessed body shows up, there's an NPC who talks about her at every opportunity and she is rescued partway through the game) but Din just falls off the earth. Honestly I really like Din but I'm sorry in the game she just sucks.

I do like that Din is somewhat associated with the Triforce of Power at least; the Triforce is supposed to be a neutral force but the Power triangle is always with Ganon, so it's nice to have a good guy related to it for once.

Relationships

Unfortunately nothing to talk about. I really wish Din had a character like Ralph around her for example from her dance troupe, but that is not the case.

[ijosijen]

Neat Irregularity In Old Sogoic Adjective Agreement

I think this is the first time I've mentioned it on this blog, but Old Sogoic is a Sellan language (i.e, fairly closely related to High Gavellian), though the Old Sogoic period (c. 850–500 B.P.) came a fair time before the Cadan standardization of High Gavellian that I'm documenting (early centuries A.P.) or even the point where "High Gavellian" became a distinct concept outside of Koine (riight before the turn of the millennium).

I digress. The irregularity here is a splinter from Declension VI detailed down below. As a result of a sound-shift vowel insertion to break up an unwanted sequence at the syllable boundary, the 'irregular' class takes the root (this is romanisation, not ipa, though it is phonologically transparent atm) icx- and simply adds an -ir for gender agreement and then -e/-i/-i/-ue for case and number agreement. It's so nicely agglutinative!

but this is the irregular pattern. compare a similar stem in declension six like sios-. In the light gendered agreement pattern, it matches icx- exactly:

icxe, icxet, icxem, icxesse

siose, sioset, siosem, siosesse

buuut ofc the "expected" dark agreement pattern...

siosire, siosiri, siosiri, siosirue

...is completely incorrect! because that final consonant is only a part of the light stem, for some reason! the dark stem deletes it!

siore, siori, siori, siorue

It's all so very nice. The vowel insertion during the sound shifts on the xre /.kxre/ clusters prevented the consonant loss that hit every single other adjective in the class. Maybe if there were more preservation examples than this one (rather rare) cluster then it'd have spread through analogy/morphological leveling or somesuch, but it hasn't. so it's just an irregular pseudo-class that only retains some super common adjectives (as detailed in the pic, icxe/icxre "new" makes that cut). The rest of them have this fun stem consonant deletion thing going on. Which also means that if you hear a Declension VI adjective in its dark agreement form you've got like zero clue as to what the consonant at the end of its stem is. rip rip.

Again, maybe I'll level that out, but realistically what I'm probably going to do is collapse the adjectives into 2-3 declension classes max. Probably going to move them up into 5-6 as the language gets more (yes yay more) fusional. Unfortunately we've got a billion incoming noun cases (lots of adpositions just went postpositional & suffix mode) that I don't really see the adjectives agreeing with, but at the least that's one place where the marked nominative agreement is going to hold on. Rest of the language (family) is doing its level best to purge itself of any remnant ergativity.

Here's a language intro tangent:

Old Sogoic is somewhat fusional, though sound shifts have rendered its inflection system fairly neutered and highly syncretic. It's undergoing the same areal morpho-phonological reduction pressure that the nigh-isolating High Gavellian emerged from. Given the circumstances it managing to hold on to this much (16 verb inflections, up to 4 noun inflections, up to 8 adjective inflections, grammatical gender & number) is insane.

The adjective classes are weird and I like them a fair amount. The first/second declension distinction is barely a formality and only exists because of One insanely productive derivational suffix (the gods' strongest soldier, good work -on).

It also exists because this analysis lets me line up the adjectival inflection patterns with their cognate noun declension patterns. If Declension II didn't exist then I'd probably have to skip the number anyway.

Otherwise the six declensions are sorted into three pattern groups depending on their agreement behavior. I and II are defective when it comes to number agreement, III & IV don't agree for gender, and then finally V & VI have full agreement in all situations.

Going off what I mentioned earlier but wrote later:

As Old Sogoic evolves into Neo-Sogoic (where its speakers escape the black hole of isolation by ironically isolating the community from the rest of the sprachbund) planning on having it get even more fusional, which means that I'm probably going to have V & VI style patterns of full agreement extend to the entire adjective space. Hooray. This'll mainly favor the absolutive forms, but I won't see if I can't force the case-like suffixes to agglutinate to the adjectives too. That'll get a whole bunch of new agreements in real quick.

[thenixkat]

Oh yeah, I finished the Blue Beetle 1986 run.

There was a bunch of stuff I liked. Like Ted's college roommate/bestie Takamoto. And Ted being a decent caring boss/willing to fucking throw down if you try to harm his employees. Giving ex-cons chances. Willing to look out for people's families and financially support them. And caring about homeless people (granted he failed to grasp the fact that he could infact do shit to help them).

Loved the choice to have Ted's Beetle Nest be right under the Kord Inc. building. And Ted's gods awful fashion choices, good fucking lords you have to actively try to pick colors and patterns that clash that badly. Also really like Ted with curly red hair, every other appearance of him in the DC universe should have curly red hair! It looks great and distinct.

Also the whole Ted vs Dan thing and Khaji Da being a mind controlling alien parasite trying to seduce Ted. The ending felt like a fucking cop out but most of it was fun and also Dan lasered a bunch of cops which was neat.

But there was also a bunch of stuff I hated. Like the unnecessary drama of Ted not telling his loved ones about his secret identity even when it became clear that it was causing issues. OG Ted didn't have those problems b/c he told his girlfriend/lab assistant which was hot new and spicey at the time narritively.

You could have had different more interesting drama with folks knowing! Imagine how the arc where Nixon banned superheroes b/c public opinion got turned against superheroes would have gone down if there were people who knew that Ted was a superhero? Like that fucking cop got to figure out Ted's identity but what did we get out of that other than Ted getting blackmailed by that cop to do dirty work for him?

There's a bunch of plot lines that never get resolved and as far as I know just don't get resolved due to folks not really caring about Ted's of solo run. Like, poor Mr. Calhoun does not get fucking rescued after he got horribly burned, forcibly mutated and given superpowers, then kidnapped and enslaved. I didn't see a single peep about Mr. Calhoun after the Titans told Ted to go home and things will resolve themselves eventually.

Just damn, free my mans Calhoun!

And like damn, no one at Kord Inc really thought about Jeremiah Duncan much after he got kidnapped by French people. And that doesn't sit right with me. Especially after seeing what Ted did for Angie and Calhoun when they were in trouble and even that ex-con that was trying to turn his life around. Like? The fuckle?

Also the entire ending of that run felt just ... that's both a downer ending and it didn't feel super in character. Like yer telling me Ted, Mr. 'Oh no my secretary didn't show up and didn't call out and this is very not like her I'm gonna drop by her house to see if she's ok' and Mr. 'Calhoun saved my life I'm going to ride with him to the hospital to make sure he's ok/I will fight all these fucking supervillains trying to kidnap my employee so I can get that man to a fucking hospital' would say fuck yall and dip instead of helping rebuild his company?

Sure, he's pissed off at his dad and his ex but would that spite really beat out every fuck he gives for all the other people that work for him? The folks he said were like family to him that he proved pretty well that he meant it through out the story? If he quits he cant take care of the ex-con's family like he promised to. If he quits what happens to Angie? If he quits Calhoun wont have a job to come back to and its not like he could get another after being turned into a metal skinned mutant.

Nah, I don't buy that ending.

What is Ted Kord other than a bundle of guilt and responsibility, seasoned with depression and self loathing, and covered up with a bright wrapper of quips and humor?

I'm not buying that Ted Kord would leave his people in a lurch just to spite two fuckers when he could spite them by being fucking awesome and taking care of his?

[bonefall]

decided to try my hand at some oc clanmew translations because i think it's fun :3c i have more but here are the ones that are either my favorites character-wise or took some thought!

STAR HIVESWARM - shai ffawsbabfsfsafen

star bee-home swarmed. there's no word for a hive in term of bugs, so i just shoved ffaws with the first part of babipanna to make hive. She's called hiveswarm because her gray ticked fur looks like a swarm of bugs and she was overwhelmed with many things as a warrior and deputy, swarmed with them

ISOPODSPOTS- booiwoowoo

rollypolly-spotting. Isopodspots is white with black spotting like a dairy cow isopod! He's in star hive's clan, which has an abundance of bug names

booiwoowoo is really fun to say.

BLUEFLOWER - luparponma

blue flower... hers is very simple but i like her. she was named for her blue eyes, bluish grey parts of her dilute calico patterning, and for her knowledge of medical flowers as a medicine cat. If her clan knew what lotuses were she'd be bluelotus (blue water-flower?) instead. a very straightforward name, but as a character she's far from straightforward!

STAR BREEZESONG - shai hraa'ahwuosoon.

star breeze wind-whistling. i would have used the singing verb, but I thought the hypothetical literal "song" the wind sings would be fitting for her name instead. she wasn't named breezesong for any super specific reason in particular but i imagine she may have been born on a particularly windy day, or maybe her fur flows in a specific way akin to a breeze

HOUNDSNIPE - bayaokikaboohafefyl

large hound-wader-bird. her name is a joke about guns since the character she's based on uses guns as her main weapon, but uses the name of a wading bird! as for why the hound prefix... she looks somewhat doglike, being large with black and white markings and having huge paws, teeth and distinctively pointed ears. she's breezesong's sister. breezesong looks like a normal cat

JUNGLEHOPE - papayaogshaba

steady rain-forest-prayer. jungles and rainforests would probably be synonymous to warrior cats since they don't know a lot about em, and i'd imagine a prayer to starclan is similar to hoping!

SPLINTERFLOOD - boekarkworrl

a lot-broken piece-flood. the clanmew word for splinter, as in the piece of wood or thorn that gets stuck in your paw pad, isn't what i imagined for splinterflood's name. splinter as in the verb, splinter as in breaking into many small pieces. he's flooded by the splinters in his namesake, parts of himself. his old name was floodheart, but he changed it to splinterflood, then eventually splinterheart again. (worrlbabun, boekarkbabun) he's indecisive and also very dramatic, almost like cat the shakespeare

MOTHFLARE - ffyyfyn

moth-flame, her name is an honor title! she survived major burns as an apprentice from a forest fire that occurred during a battle with a warring clan, and when she recovered she was granted her honor title. she's also a sorta charcoal black color, with long fur that wisps like a flame

ffyyfyn is a very nice coincidence of a name. it's very pleasant sounding

very nervous to send this but who cares i'm having fun it's clanmew time. i love better bones it's super cool

No need to be nervous! These names are all great! Booiwoowoo my beloved!

I'm going to give you words for homes that insects construct. I AM GOING TO BE POSTING IMAGES BELOW THE CUT. So here's a Trypophobia warning!

There's BEES down there, and SPIDERS, and HOLES. And weird plant tumor things called galls. Basically, bugs are adorable but they are also horrorshows who bend nature to their little leggy whims.

A home that an insect constructs is a Kin. Kin is also a word with many meanings in Clanmew. It can mean...

An insect's home

A clay pot with only a small opening

A strange object

A belonging of someone, especially an object that has special value to that person; a prized possession

A hole with a biting animal in it

Something that someone will fight you for; something you may have to fight to keep

There's a LOT of words for specific Kin.

Large, flat web = Yyb

Cobweb = Feep

Gall/Bauble = Kichaw

Honeycomb = Mlogur

Hive = Skib

Anthill = Shein

Yellow Meadow Anthill = Eebo

Large, flat webs = Yyb

The sorts of webs made by orbweavers, hanging straight downwards. Big, strong, and sticky. Word can also mean that something is vertical-- perpendicular to the ground.

Cobweb = Feep

NOT made of dust. Cobwebs are formed first by cob spiders, and then dust can settle on them in a house after they've been abandoned, damaging them beyond use.

In Clanmew, a cobweb is a fuzzy, 3D web with an odd structure. It can describe any spiderweb that doesn't have the "classic" flat shape, like the webs you may see in your cellar or the corner of your house.

Gall/Bauble = Kissaw

These are ALL galls that Clan cats can find on oak trees alone. They're specialized growths that certain types of wasps and flies can force the tree to grow into, to protect and feed a larvae before it pupates.

The word can mean gall, or it can refer to any interesting little natural object or adornment. Clan cats also can't always tell these apart from blights, chawb, so the word tends to be applied to useful galls (ink can be made from one type) or ones that are particularly interesting.

Honeycomb = Mlogur

SPECIFICALLY the hives of honeybees. Cartoons lie to you; honeybees do not create the grayish, papery hives that wasps and hornets do. A mlogur is yellow, droopy, and sometimes drips with honey.

And they're VERY important. Honey is one of the best natural antiseptics in the entire world, INVALUABLE for treating wounds. The wax can also be repurposed into all sorts of useful things, and even the larvae can be eaten.

Hive = Skib

EXACTLY what you usually imagine when you hear 'hive.' A nest of stinging bees, wasps, and hornets; but NOT honeybees.

Dangerous and useless. Clan cats avoid these at all costs; nothing good comes from messing with them.

Anthill = Shein

The hilly, bare structures that 3/4 of the ant species they encounter create.

Yellow Meadow Anthill = Eebo

A term mostly used by WindClan! At first glance, one may think these are strange little natural landmarks, but in reality, they're actually colonies of yellow meadow ants. After they build their homes, grass comes up to cover the structure.

Sometimes WindClan apprentices like to play hopping games with these, seeing how many they can successfully bounce over without stopping.

[crochetedblorbos]

"Look, she's well steep."

Character Name: Montgomery “Three-Card Monty” Barker

Fandom: Realms of Peril & Glory (@realmspod), Liminal London campaigns [Podcast]

Played By: Naomi Clarke (@naomithinksit)

Yarn Used: Hair: CraftSmart Value - Toasted Almond Skin: CraftSmart Value - Taupe Birthmark/Mouth: Caron Lava Cakes - Sour Cherry Tracksuit: Red Heart Super Saver - Spring Green Zipper: CraftSmart Value - Heather Grey Shoes: CraftSmart Value - Tomato Soles: CraftSmart Value - White

Basic pattern here.

Monty, our beloved chicken nugget wizard. I fell in love with this kid pretty much from the moment I heard him (him being Naomi’s creation helped with that) and he’s just…adorable. And after Episode 4 of Loose Change (the fourth mystery), Great Googly Mooglies, that boy needs all the hugs. I hauled ass to get him finished in time for Episode 5 (I am writing this paragraph prior to actually finishing him, so we’ll see if I manage since it’s, uh, Sunday night). [Crafter’s note: I did not. I finished him two weeks later, in time for Episode 7.] He differs from the base pattern as follows:

Shoes: I actually used a different color for his soles this time! Like with Joseph’s, I did the soles in white, then switched to red for the body of the shoes. However, I did use white for the decreases at the toes in the first round of decreasing the shoes to give that white toe cap that’s so distinctive on Converse and Converse knockoffs (per Naomi, everything Monty owns is a knockoff). I also added an extra round of decreases to make longer flat tops to the shoes and skinnier ankles. The shoes went up to R9 like that, and then: R10: Ch 1, sc in front loops of first 5 sc, sl st in next 2 sc, sc in next 5 sc, sl st in first sc (12 sc).

Tracksuit: I asked on the Light & Tragic Discord, and Naomi was kind enough to inform me that Monty wears high-tops and tucks the hem of his tracksuit into them. I also wanted the pants to have a kind of baggy effect. So once I joined the tracksuit yarn, I chained 2, then did 2dc in the back loop of the first sc in R9, then dc in the back loop of the next 10 sc in R9, then 2dc in the back loop of the final sc in R9, sl st in first dc (15dc). I then continued as normal. I used the same method for his shirt as I did for Joseph and Gerry, just a bit higher up when I started the hemline. I also formed his torso the same way as I did Gerry’s—square most of the way up and then starting the decreases at the very end. Neither of these decisions were intentional, I just wasn’t paying attention to how many rounds I’d done. For the zipper, I tied three knots on top of one another to make a zipper pull, then embroidered in straight lines up and down either side of the zipper track before doing a cross stitch up the middle.

Head: Naomi said in S4E5 that Monty “had one of those big birthmarks” and I knew I had to include it. I didn’t really plan the defined edges of the birthmark, just changed color back and forth as seemed appropriate. Came out a bit Ziggy Stardust, but you know, it’s Monty. I also used safety eyes for him again. Think I put them in too far up too soon, because stitching around them was a pain in the ass, but it worked out.

Hair: I, uh. Forgot to start adding his hair in as low as I usually do, so his hairline is a bit higher in the back than normal, which is one of the reasons there are no pictures from behind, the other being that for some reason the seam got really jagged up the back (I’m guessing I wasn’t counting carefully enough and my joins got off). I’d meant for him to have a textured stitch to his hair, but I got to that point while I was away from home and didn’t have my book with all the stitches in it with me, so I improvised. I gave him a fun little swoosh of hair at the front. Turns out I was overcomplicating things with Hux’s and Mini’s hair. There’s a legitimate stitch called the hair stitch or fur stitch that does exactly what I was trying for on them with significantly less stress, so I used that here for Monty. Gives him kind of a cheeky look and I love it.

Arms: I used the same method I used for Joseph. I only stuffed up to R20 so he would have a little more flexibility in the shoulders.

[theshepherdshound]

Oh my turn! 16, 3, 4 and 17 for your lamb and 2, 13, 4, and 19 for Narinder. 20 in general for your Au

OO MANY okay

#3 What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?

the lamb was fully just named Lambert and was basically nothing in particular for a long time- they didn't have a ton of personality until i drew them. they used to be a lot more gentle and are now a lot angrier

i said this in the other ask but appearance is usually what comes first so the fact i had about 75k words about this character before they looked like anything was WEIRD and unprecedented tbh

i have a terrible habit of lack of planning and will often just write until it stops making sense and then go back and try and fix it. i wrote a game this year that i decided would be recursive about half way through the 2 week jam which was... not great. i also wrote it fully in my IDE which i would not suggest anyone do but??? i guess it made sense to me

#4 And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?

i always find names hard. i really didn't want to name the lamb so i took Lambert and was like cool that's fine. it is no longer Lambert, well like it is but it's their outsider name for non-sheep, though i am not entirely sure what it is or if i will ever really decide or simply give myself an out on it so i don't have to

#16 Is there any memes or running jokes associated with the character, both in- and out of universe?

internally yes, narinder and them bicker about definitions of things bot in nice ways and not so nice ways. i don't think they do yet though. they also juggle things which doesn't come up for a long time but they fiddle a lot

externally i don't think so? tbh no one i know really plays cotl (one friend did and she was like i literally never think about lore) so for about a month i just sat down and wrote a fan fiction for the first time since i was like 11 because i got very sad about someone dying and needed to like externally process a bunch of it and also played post game. i kind of just sat down and wrote for 6-10 hours a day depending on if i was working that day or not filled with art ghosts

i've never been part of a fandom so i don't really have any meme jokes about any of the characters beyond what i have posted-

#17 Are there any motifs or symbols associated with the character? How are they represented, in their design, personality or in some other way?

YES, many! visually the lamb's is the distinction between their 'tired' and 'bright' eyes being X, the colour blue, and their transparency. largely they don't see themself as being a person anymore, so especially their skin tone being the same colour as the background is them not really seeing themselves, the eyes are just fun and a simple visual metaphor

BUT- the colour blue is distinctly not narinder's red and that is very important for lore reasons

they are associated largely with being a beast of burden, they take on others' problems long before their own. when they first take care of narinder they have to be told to go clean themselves after spending time thoroughly making sure he'd be comfortable sleeping, they don't even think to wash the blood from their hands when they drag him back from Anura even though they dress him. they take on everyone else's problems and refuse to deal with their own

while not super distinct in writing, their eldritch eyes appear near their eyes because they refuse to see what's in front of them and it is causing a lot of problems for those they're supposed to be caring for. they've a pattern of denial

#2 How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)

i think narinder has always kind of been the blackhole the whole au orbits; i find it really fascinating how folks interpret why he's angry. to me a few things inform why i think he's a tragic character and it started with simply you betray him. he promised you nothing, only to sojourn the lamb's life and it's pretty clear the entire time you're expected to sacrifice yourself at the end. i could ramble about that dynamic forever and the design choices therein tbh

but like... why? why did he attack his siblings? why did he develop a resurrection ritual? there's all the tiny single lines that sort of point at interpretations and the dynamic between shamura, narinder, and aym and baal wormed into me (and the other siblings but to a lesser extent). i had been having a lot of extended discussions about intergenerational grief so the trickling down of trauma rolled into narinder's development pretty immediately. there's a scene near the end where he and shamura talk about something it's like... one of The Ones that existed in the beginning but is really so hard to write because of how real it is in terms of being like... life isn't like stories? i don't know if that makes sense

his bleeding heart motif added a lot i think; the simply addition visually buffed a lot of the sharper edges around him while the lamb became more spiky. but overall he kind of walked out similar to how he is now

#4 And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?

making him like... distinct? he definitely has a personality; a level of entitlement, an intentional ruthlessness, previous relationships. so i guess taking that in a direction that felt honest to what i thought it would be like to trapped like that for an unknowable amount of time. that holding both this doll character and the original pieces of him was weird and then it connected to my undergraduate thesis interpretation of Hermes and he became a bit more clear in terms of motivations

like- he did all those things, all the bad ones hinted at. he hurt a lot of people, killed a lot of people, he has to live with that once he walked out of being in constant agony and tried to be a person. that journey has a lot of pieces that were hard to work out

#13 Do you have a voice claim for the character? What do you imagine the character sounds like?

for a long time it was Cook Boss88's voice! i also think of okkoto's voice from princess mononoke, so keith david. in another version of himself i think narinder is a lot like okkoto- stoic, a bit self-important, and desperate to survive in the end no matter who it kills- but won't back down in a fight

narinder also does, eventually, sing! ebucs is kind of how i hear his voice

#19 What is your general favourite thing about the character? What is your least favourite?

i like that he is actually desperately sweet and romantic- but also has no idea that he is. he just kind of... never had a nice time in relationships, and his familiar ones didn't give him the space to be kind. there's little scenes we've already seen where he loves talking to heket, or reads kallamar to sleep, or plays with leshy- while we haven't seen it yet the lengths he goes for shamura. he likes being wanted and needed, but never learned what a boundary was and that didn't work out very well for him. i think the fact that he has so far to go and relapses into old habits a bunch, but gets to be happy in the end

while the lamb knows it he doesn't yet but they treat each other how they wish they'd been treated. all he ever wanted was someone to help him figure out THE STUFF with heavy gestures to lore, but even though he tries so hard to deny them he can't help but let it bleed through. he doesn't want them to be scared of what's happening to them like he was- and he doesn't know that about himself

i don't like the sticky hurt part of him; the one that is sharp, and schemes, and attacks. i don't like the part of him that's manipulative, that laughs along with abuse, that calculates the ways he can build advantage- the part that is dead and numb and he had to strangle. the fact he accepted that he's just a thing and nothing else. and i know why it exists- i made it so; he had to survive. and he has, a lot of things, a lot of unpleasant ones that required him to build that skillset. but that's the point of the two of them- they did what it took to survive. and surviving isn't always clean, or nice, or kind, and both of them did so... they have to live with it

5 songs that i think are most representative of him;

bright lilli furfaro mind brand kuraiinu dj-jo story one the narcissist's cookbook codeine coca cola by amélie farren cocaine and abel by amigo the devil

#20 Bonus question: share any additional thoughts, art, favourite scenes, anything you've been waiting for a chance to ramble about

A MILLION THINGS- it is a super fascinating process for me who has largely worked on the other side of this type of thing and never get to talk about what i am working on because games is super cagey (and tbc, with very good reasons), but it's really cool to work on a thing i can like put a poll up and be like hey what do you think, does this make sense? that is immensely cool, and while i wouldn't say i regret not joining a fandom before this it is very lovely

i'm still unsure on how it will end- there's at least 2, but i think 3. i don't really know what to do and so maybe i will simply leave it up to interpretation or write all 3, i'm not sure. one of them is definitely enemies to friends to lovers to friends to enemies but i think that one is mostly silly. i think if i were to rewrite thing i may not make it narilamb because i do think they're better friends, but writing their cozy scenes also makes me very sad in a nice way so. they get to happy

i wish i could know what breadcrumbs people have picked up on- or what is clear or not. if i could i'd tip all they thoughts out and they could all be written but the ghosts calmed down and now i just need to finish lololol

they're really kiki and bouba! narinder is spiky visually but has a soft doughy heart, and the lamb is puffy but internally sharp. i think that's really fun, and something i like about their designs a lot. i do think i will steal them for ocs in monster game, but the way they appear in the narrative is likely going to be different from the outline i made because no narinder spot exists- a lamb one does quite neatly so. i'll file off the serial numbers whenever this is done

enjoy this pre-vis dev never posted picture of them where i did in fact try and draw clothes and i don't like;

(it's fine, but i am glad i got looser on drawing again and gave them a lighter and easier series of designs) ((but they have been sad the whole time LOLOLOLOL))

tyty for asking me many questions- i appreciate being able to ramble

[adobe-outdesign]

Could you review Volbeat and Illumise?

These guys are pretty cute, though admittedly I tend to forget they exist. It's probably because I also tend to forget that these guys are from Gen 3—I think it's because they have busier, more Gen 4-esq designs.

Anyway, these two's gimmick is that they're based off of lightning bugs and are sexually dimorphic (which is true of some IRL fireflies, though it depends of the species). I always found it weird that they're classified as two different Pokemon despite being able to interbreed and produce the same species via Ditto. Shouldn't they be a single Pokemon with two different forms, like how Meowstic works? It's not like the designs are so wildly different between the two that they're not recognizable as the same species.

Regardless, between the two, Volbeat is my fav. I'm not super into the more anthro fairy-like look of these guys compared to more bug-like 'mons, but Volbeat is by far the cuter option. I like how it's always perpetually concerned about something, and how it's got the fun curly antennae and the chubbier body. It also tends to have some fun poses compared to Illumise, who's more stiff.

I also like the colors, which match that of IRL fireflies—the yellow accents their tail lights, while the red compliments it and pops well against the black base. I do find it weird that the wings are gray—I much prefer the white wings shown in the original above sprite, as otherwise it ends up a bit off-balance—but otherwise it's a solid palette. The stripes work well as a visual motif, and I like how the neck collar kind of resembles the red on a lightning bug. It's very much an acquired taste kind of design, but personally I do enjoy it.

Illumise, however, I'm not as big on. I don't know, there's just something less fun and cute about it—maybe it's the eye shape, maybe it's the thinner body, maybe it's the nose, but whatever it is it just doesn't work quite as well. It still works as a female version of Volbeat however; it has a slight flapper look to it, but it's subtle enough that it still feels like a natural instance of dimorphism, and the two are distinct enough while looking like they belong together.

As for the design on its own, it follows the same idea as Volbeat but changes things like the accent color, underbelly markings, and face. Most of the things that worked on Volbeat work here, though don't like the antennae as much—the way they're perfectly pointed and connect to the head feels very artificial. The markings also feel a bit weird because of how square they are—if the neck collar went to the edges of the arm rings and the blue went all the way down the body it would feel more natural.

And the colors make sense, though I do question the purple a bit as it's a little low-contrast. It might've made sense to keep the desaturated slate blue of Volbeat and make the accent a much brighter, more saturated purple to maintain the contrast. At least the black helps offset the lower-contrast colors, and the overall palette still resembles a lightning bug enough to be identifiable.

I do think that one thing that could be neat with this line is to give Illumise a regional that actually hunts Volbeat. Some species of female fireflies mimic the patterns of males to lure them in and eat them, so it would be kind of neat to have an "evil" version of Illumise that does the same. It would add some extra flavor to these two and would also help justify them being two separate 'mons.

Anyway, these are some decent bugs if you're up for the more humanized look. Volbeat is the better of the two, but they work well as a pair and are at least interesting abstract takes on their base animal.

[medievalcellphone]

scorpio sun pisces moon libra rising

hehe ah, scorpios. hehe libra risings. this is such a Indecisively Stubborn set of placements.. i would assume you are not forthcoming or easy to get to know on a deeper level, but an absolute darling/super easy and fun to be around in a more removed social sense. even if ur shy or what not, like, when alls going well you connect with others no problem.

the moon and sun! theres a disconnect between how and why you want to connect to life and the things and people that bring you the security you need to open up. you are mysterious and magnetic but at the same time might feel confused as to why people don't pick up on everything you think you've made clear. any pisces moon i wanna say hey write a poem about it btw. scorpio in any sign but the sun most of all brings a intense need to peel back life and the self and transform and connect... possessiveness, rumination, holding grudges... those not so healthy scorpio traits (traditionally... not at all necessarily u could be sooo quirky bro) are surely lessened by having a libra rising. in general you can move through things with ease, also a good mediator. a pisces moon is one of the most artistic coded placements for the moon, in my opinion. like, the moon is the conduit for instinctive patterns etc etc, and in pisces this brings a huge wealth of imagination, sometimes too much. also, an instinctive need to help and connect with others... pisces moons are always up to some empathetic shit that very well may b wonderful and conducive but also might overwhelm and ultimately take advantage of them. its important to be careful where you put your emotional energy, i also think pisces moons don't realize how much time alone matters if they are more social ppl? its easy to lose yourself in the other. u are probably sensitive and very understanding and the libra rising brings a great vibe in this chart, keeps you from taking things too seriously, getting lost in the intensity of water sign feedback loops. make sure not to focus too much on the other and a need for someone to define you. don't give into evasiveness or escapism, let people help you. this is also such a distinctive set of placements. however you are in the world, whatever niche ur vibin in, you are bringing something different in the best way.

movie recommendation for u, also im so serious go write a poem

[starlitangels]

Okay, so I'm not sure if my first ask went through or not. There seemed to be a lil glitch, so I'm sending this again. If there are two asks from me in your box, please ignore one of them!

I'm going to ask a few, but feel free to pick and choose. Thank you!

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

68. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

and... dealer's choice! What's one ask you want to answer but haven't yet?

Hello my friend! I did not receive your original ask so there's no worries!

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Literally anything from anything Avior I've written (like Avior washing Starlight's hair after Starlight took a tumble) but specifically the moment in "You're Mine (I Don't Share)" where Avior is losing control of his magic and his eyes are glowing like small suns and the magic cloaking his horns is wavering. I always imagined them shimmering like the heat mirage on a hot road I live in a desert it's normal to see on the highway in summer

That would look super cool.

Also just about any of the interactions between Elliott and Aaron that I've written.

Or or or! Hang on! I would love to see someone's interpretations of the (no powers) rockstar!AU I've dabbled in. That would be amazing!

I am also always enamored when people draw the Pups AU kiddos even though I haven't written anything for them for a long time just because of how touched I am that someone liked what I wrote enough to make art of it even though the characters are original, so more of that would be adored.

There are so many others but this is already long so I'm gonna move on

68. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

This is gonna sound kinda dumb, but genuinely, leave the house. When I stay inside for too long I stagnate creatively. And I find inspiration in all the little things. A good long walk is great. Going grocery shopping, even. But other excursions are also a massive help.

I also think a lot in the shower. Great idea generator there.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

I'd hope the variety in it. I try different things a lot. I'm usually a "Fluff" writer but I love good angst and I like trying other framing devices. Like sometimes writing from the Redacted voiced character POVs (which I've only done like twice but it was fun both times). I like trying different things.

I also hope my attempts at humor in the narration is distinct for me. I love using humorous lines to show internal emotions without actually having to spell out their thoughts in italics. Outwardly everything is one way but the internal monologue of the character is the exact opposite. I think that's fun

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

Yes! I write about the same kinds of stuff all the time. I use the word "just" way too much. I start a lot of sentences with some form of "Honestly" or "To be honest."

In my normal not-fanfiction writing I write a lot of the same things in different attempts at plots. Lots of abandoned WIPs featuring mermaids, princesses, magic, people with wings, some pirates, werewolves and vampires... yeah. My most common settings on those kinds of things is either Contemporary/Normal Earth But With Fun Stuff Going On (IE Mermaids or Werewolves) or Generic Fantasy-Land #38459886

I think my most common theme since getting married has been "the healthiest relationship I can feasibly portray while also letting it be A Teensy Bit Spicy™"

Dealer's Choice! 51. What’s your total AO3 word count?

This one I'm doing just to flex /j

This is my total Audio RP AO3 word count. As in, the Redacted and Good Boy Audios stuff I have on AO3 under the StarlitAngels pseud. Nothing from my other works (which are all short and bad and old), and not including a handful of GBA stuff I haven't posted to AO3

Ready?

As of right now, with everything newly updated:

574,538

... Yup.

[masongrizchel]

The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

Have you ever wondered how astronomers figure out where stars are in their life cycle — from their fiery birth to their dramatic deaths? How do we know our Sun is middle-aged while others are just starting or nearing their cosmic end? The answer lies in one of the most potent tools in astrophysics: the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, or H-R Diagram for short.

It might sound like something out of a physics textbook (and, well… it is), but the H-R Diagram is a stellar family portrait — and once you understand it, you’ll never look at the night sky the same way again.

What Is the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram?

The H-R Diagram is a graph that plots stars by two things:

Brightness (luminosity) — how much energy the star emits

Temperature (or color) — how hot the star’s surface is

Named after astronomers Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell, who independently created versions of it in the early 1900s, this simple-looking chart revealed something mind-blowing: stars aren’t randomly scattered in terms of brightness and temperature — they fall into distinct groups based on their life stages.

How to Read the H-R Diagram

Imagine a graph:

The Y-axis (vertical) shows a star’s brightness — with the brightest stars at the top and the dimmest at the bottom.

The X-axis (horizontal) shows surface temperature — but backward, with hotter, blue stars on the left and cooler, red stars on the right.

Once you plot a bunch of stars, a pattern emerges.

🌠 Meet the Main Sequence — Where Stars Spend Most of Their Lives

Most stars, including our Sun, fall along a diagonal band called the Main Sequence. Here’s what it means:

Big, hot, and bright blue stars sit at the upper left.

Small, calm, faint red stars (like red dwarfs) sit at the bottom right.

Stars on the Main Sequence happily fuse hydrogen into helium — basically, they’re in their “adult” phase. The position on this line depends mainly on the star’s mass: more prominent stars burn brighter and hotter but live fast and die young; smaller stars burn slowly and can last billions of years.

💀 What Happens When Stars Leave the Main Sequence?

The H-R Diagram also tells the story of a star’s eventual fate:

⭐ Giants and Supergiants (Upper Right): When a star runs out of hydrogen fuel, it leaves the Main Sequence and swells up into a giant or supergiant. These stars are massive but more incredible, so they glow red or orange.

⚪ White Dwarfs (Bottom Left): After shedding their outer layers, some stars leave behind a dense, hot core — a white dwarf. These tiny stars are super hot but not very bright because of their small size.

🚀 Why the H-R Diagram Matters

The H-R Diagram isn’t just a pretty graph — it’s a stellar GPS. By placing a star on the diagram, astronomers can tell: 

✅ How old it might be

✅ What kind of fuel it’s burning

✅ What its future looks like — peaceful fade or explosive supernova.

It also helps us understand galaxies, star clusters, and even the universe’s age. Every star you see — and billions you don’t — fits somewhere on this chart.

🌌 Fun Fact: Our Sun’s Future is Written on the H-R Diagram

Right now, our Sun is a middle-aged Main Sequence star. In about 5 billion years, it’ll puff up into a red giant, engulfing Mercury and Venus (and maybe Earth 😬). Eventually, it will shed its outer layers and shrink into a white dwarf — a tiny glowing ember in space.

✨ The Cosmic Power of a Simple Chart

Who knew a century-old diagram could still shape our understanding of the universe? From the hottest blue giants to the coolest red dwarfs, the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram maps the life cycle of every star — including the one that makes life on Earth possible.

Next time you stare up at the night sky, remember: those shimmering lights aren’t just twinkling — they’re telling their life stories, and thanks to the H-R Diagram, we know how to read them.

🪐 Want to explore more? Try plotting famous stars on an H-R Diagram — like Betelgeuse (red supergiant) or Sirius (bright Main Sequence star) — and see where they land. It’s your journey through the stellar life cycle!