#c: astra

[fheythfully]

12.27.23 sometimes the fire you founded don't burn the way you'd expect

[frxemriss]

Astra and Seren

[our-blood-is-our-ink]

I WANT COUP AU AND ALSO goddess!agatha x eve because I know basically nothing about it and INTRIGUE

Alright this is a long one, so it'll be under the cut.

Fair warning for all the folks who are unaware: Coup AU is a fic I'm writing entirely for myself, and it follows a very alternative universe's Evanora Harkness.

That will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you do choose to read, please keep in mind that you are greatly missing a lot of the background and characterization.

The Goddess!Agatha x Eve excerpt does not require any warnings.

For the Coup AU I decided to go with the earlier excerpt.

If you want the later one, I suppose you'll just have to ask again 😈

When the infant draws breath to cry, Evanora covers her newly born daughter’s mouth to muffle the sound, and whispers her name into existence.

Astra Harkness.

Astra, meaning star, for Lance had nearly exclusively called Agatha his little star, and Evanora is certain he would have called this daughter his little star as well.

Astra, meaning star, for Agatha had been a bright, shining light in her life, a gift to see her daughter growing up happy and healthy and surrounded by love and laughter, a sun by all means, but Astra will be raised far away from her mother, while her sister and father are dead, six feet under in the cruelest form of punishment her cousin could conceive of.

Astra, a distant light, a distant hope.

Hope is all Evanora has.

—»•«—

Goddess!Agatha x Eve was spun off of an idea I had for Goddess!Agatha x Reader, mostly because Agatha got all pouty about me never having written her with Eve before now.

Let me tell you, I really really love the very few hundred words I have written for them so far.

Gods walked amongst mortals.

This is simply a fact, like how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, or how the Earth is round.

Eve has never been one to pay much attention to all the excitement and worship surrounding them.

She had seen little point, growing up somewhere that was never going to attract a god to their streets.

And besides, who would want to meet one of these higher beings when they so frequently take the lives of those they converse with?

The gods are cold-hearted and cruel, and Eve much prefers those with warmth and kindness.

[chlogummy]

Bonta's governors kissing to piss off Brakmar's government

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Hormagaunt Attack by Helge C Balzer

[laurabenanti]

insp.

[myriadblue]

Lyrics from Meteor Shower by Cavetown 

[runwayrunway]

No. 41 - Air Astra

One of the reasons I take requests, other than 'it's fun' and 'so many airlines to choose from', is that sometimes people request teeny airlines that I've never heard of in my life (despite knowing about a lot, and I mean a lot, of airlines, both present and defunct). The most prominent example of this is, of course, Amakusa Airlines, but today's subject is another airline I hadn't heard of before - Bangladesh's newest airline, Air Astra.

I love this logo. It's sleek, aerodynamic, and looks like it could be the logo for a company in a science-fiction movie. The integration of the star in the letter A and the bright gold colour are both really nice choices. The kerning is a little bit strange, admittedly, but the nice connected letters more than make up for it.

Air Astra is one of only four passenger airlines with its air operator's certificate issued by Bangladesh. Its hub is at Shahjalal International Airport, and it flies to five destinations with two more on the way. It's privately owned, the first privately owned airline in the country to be founded since 2013, and it's a baby, having only started flights in 2022! Because of this pictures from certain angles are a bit hard to find, but I've done my best.

image: Md Shaifuzzaman Ayon

Their fleet is currently made up of three ATR 72-600s, with seven more on order at some point in the future. I've also heard rumours about them looking into Embraer regional jets and potential freight operations, but those are a bit vague and my inability to read Bengali is a limitation on my research. As it stands now, though, something I've never expressed out loud on this blog, I don't think, is that I'm a huge fan of regional turboprops. Operators in the US seem to be downright afraid of them and will use regional jets for even the tiniest of puddle-hops (maybe they think travelers are intimidated by them?) but they're a lot more efficient for low-altitude flights and cut down on things like fuel usage and noise. The larger ones, like the ATR 72, don't really feel that different from a jet when you're sitting in the cabin.

An Air Astra cabin interior, featuring bright yellow antimacassars with their logo and tagline. Not the absolute roomiest and a bit annoying for taller individuals but I've seen far worse.

And because the ATR 72 is such a big plane, it takes up a fair amount of space on the tarmac! Honestly, it's probably pretty hard to miss an Air Astra plane, especially in the light. Because wow is that a bright shade of yellow. I actually really like the specific hue they chose. One thing that makes me qualified to run this blog despite having no qualifications is the fact that I am apparently significantly better than average at telling apart colour on minuscule scales, so I do have to point out that this yellow isn't the most common shade. For example, it immediately stood out to me as being both darker and more orange than what, say, Spirit Airlines uses. And I think that's a pretty good choice. It's a lot more vibrant than other colours of a similar saturation. I love it.

I always like when airlines put enough colour on the underside that you can clearly tell what airline the plane flies for from the ground. This is especially true for smaller planes that don't really have space for a logo on the belly. Air Astra goes for the same general shape both IndiGo and Azul have on their ATRs - again, my theory is that it's to contour around the ventral fairing, which is very pronounced on the type. I really like when airlines work with the shape of their plane rather than slapping the same livery on each model without considering the differences between them. The ATR is a curvy plane, and having a curvy livery on it really works. I also like the arc of yellow on the underside of the engine cowlings.

The shade of yellow they chose is incredible because it stays very consistent regardless of lighting somehow. That said, I do have some criticisms. The grey they chose really doesn't stand out enough from the white to make the trim or the first half of the wordmark legible, which is a real shame. They've also done something that many turboprop operators fall into - making the wordmark very tiny and below the windows. They're clearly not shy about showing off their identity, so it's a shame that it's hampered by this!

If it were up to me, I would have two ideas. The first and simpler one is to significantly darken the shade of grey used, which I think would take away a little from the gold-and-silver situation happening and also from the starry look of the shade they've chosen. My ideal solution would be painting the part of the plane which is left white in their chosen silver, and the parts that are currently silver in white. An alternative, perhaps even better, could be a black or deep grey replacement for the white so the grey could stand out - shine like a star. They could even add little specks for constellations. The star theme for an airplane is fantastic and I think they should lean into it!

You know what else would be fantastic? A shooting star theme. Just think about it. The logo already sort of puts me in mind of that, as does the elegant sweep of silver trim. I doubt it but I sincerely hope someone from Air Astra is reading this and taking notes.

I also think something could be done with the momentum that you get from the place the star intersects the letter A - a further sectioning of the fuselage along that line, maybe? I don't want to get carried away redesigning the Air Astra livery (even though livery redesigns are a thing I've considered doing, if I can get my hands on a graphics tablet) so for the moment I'll leave it at this final criticism: the centering of the logo on the tail is a little weird. I'm not sure how it could be improved without making it smaller, which would also be bad, but I also think the degree to which the star is wider than the A really makes it feel pushed back, which isn't my favorite. It's similar to the kerning on the wordmark where it doesn't ruin it or anything but I do notice it. (That said, the wordmark looks a lot better on the actual plane.)

image: Air Astra

I'm quite optimistic about Air Astra so far! At least, their livery. How they do as a company is obviously not something I have the knowledge or credentials to judge, though apparently they've been outperforming projections and have been reviewed positively for having service that meets expectations while their customer support exceeds them. They've only existed for under a year, and generally periods of expansion are what test airlines the most, so the fact that they've been handling themselves well so far is a good sign.

That said, I'm very happy with their livery. There's a lot about it that I think could be improved, because the start they have could easily be twisted into something A-worthy, but they have a great, memorable, clean logo, a great palette, and clearly a competent design team. Everything here is nice and well-executed, and I hope in the future they can elevate their livery to the same level as their logo, but what they've got already is a fantastic start. I hope things keep going well for them, because these planes would inject some much-needed vibrance to any airstrip.

Grade: C+

I did debate elevating that to a B-, but I settled on C+ because in the past that's where I've put other liveries that I think have a lot of room to grow. When I review a livery I'm not only rating it relative to other liveries but also relative to its own potential, which opportunities they've taken and which they've overlooked. Air Astra is good, but they could be great, and they're brand-new so they have plenty of time to get there.

Thank you to anon for the request! I really had a blast looking into this airline. It's incredible how it seems the larger an airline is the more determined it becomes to be boring, while smaller carriers without the massive design budgets are putting them to shame. One Air Astra plane would draw more attention than a dozen of Lufthansa's if they somehow ended up on the same tarmac, and clearly they stick with people enough that someone requested them. I think that's a massive victory.

[clacy2812]

Just finished Ad Astra and De Terra

I am crying but I loved it so very much, ty for sharing it

I spent 2 days reading both of them and got so very attached to 2 wonky puzzle pieces

KJSDFVKJHSDKJVKSDJFVH NO PROBLEM!!!

Have more

pain

[flarebean]

*slaps valorant* THIS bad boy can fit SO MUCH found family in it. also GET you a media that can do BOTH (found family and romance and enemy drama)

bottom text

[ravs6709]

ALSO before i go to bed how are you doing!!! i hope things are going well and if you have exams u have my condolences (and all the luck i can send through the electromagnetic waves) 💚💚

Thanks for the luck BUT I've been done with my exams for a couple weeks now. I've got most of my final marks back. Actually wait I'm channeling this luck and hoping I get a B- in calc 2 and not a C+ I'm gonna go check my mark and see if they finally put it

[fheythfully]

12.2.23 you be the moon, i'll be the earth and when we burst, start over oh darling, begin again

[generalcrazyhorse]

Minute of Mae: Astra 300

[kiwibirdlafayette]

mental illness (writing toms sister into the smp multiverse lore as a champion of the literal deity of the multiverse who has been studying relative timelines and rifts after tom disappeared off astrakheins)

[laurabenanti]

if love had to die, i wanted it to die quickly. 

[tcmecho]

Decided to whip up some wing references for characters in c!Echo’s backstory on LLSMP! ✨

For meaning regarding placement of gifted feathers (and what gifted feathers are) - I’ve got a post about them! Go check! :D

(Forgot to mention that these are the underside of the wings, lol)