#diatomist

[asabovesobeside]

Diatoms Are Forever

O.K. no, they are not forever. But the artwork? It could last forever. Back in Victorian times, there were a number of artists competing for the best arrangement & because of this, the “secrets” of their art were taken to the grave. A current artist named Klaus Kemp is currently doing diatom art & had to be self-taught because of this. Victorians were wild.

The reason I did this is a play a game set in Victorian times & recently got an NPC companion that is a diatomist. So, I wanted to find out what it was (this is second place to my favourite weird Victorian thing... the first place is still spirit signatures) & what kinds of patterns you could pull off. Are these accurate? Not entirely, but a couple look similar to what diatomist’s actually make. 

Also, being that the game I play has... specific weirdness that allows for some breaking of physics, I have a diatom window in my suites. Millions of diatoms & like the people who repaint the Golden Gate Bridge over & over, my diatomist is giddy to continually make a living piece of art that people HAVE to look at to get in my home.

For more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secretive-victorian-artists-made-these-intricate-patterns-out-of-algae-180952720/

[bishopofstdiesis]

Diatoms Are Forever

O.K. no, they are not forever. But the artwork? It could last forever. During these times (maybe one day we shall enter 1900...) we are seeing a number of artists competing for the best diatom arrangement & some of the more talented amongst have vowed to new share the secret of their immaculate methods. Many of us are familiar with the Cloistered Diatomist (the Monastic Diatomist is also a rising talent). While he would not allow his method to be shared nor publicised (very reclusive), we did find several Bohemians willing to share.

In the process of trial & arso...error, I found some amusing ways to break the diatom’s place on the Great Chain & found a way to have a large window created with diatoms (stained glass is very 1899 [the first one]) in my Embassy Suites. Millions of diatoms & like the people who must silence the surrounding grounds of the palace over & over, the Monastic Diatomist is giddy (for him) to continually make a living piece of art that people HAVE to look at to get in my home. Especially since it requires a very secretive method & the diatom art movement loves nothing more than secrets...

[For interesting information in this, the year of Victoria 1899 the 123rd, there is an artist named Klau Kemp doing diatom art & is self-taught because the Victorians of 1899 would have taken their methods to the grave, so secretive an art form it was. For more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secretive-victorian-artists-made-these-intricate-patterns-out-of-algae-180952720/ which has led me to really dig this little art form. It’s my second favourite weird Victorian thing I’ve found. The first will always be spirit signatures... I LOVE THOSE so much.]

[gmalaart]

Something thick sticks to the back of their throat. Dr. Cavendish gulps down a glass of terrible wine and finally pulls away from the dusty window of their lodgings. It's useless to stay there, with their nose pressed to the glass, now that the diatomist has finally vanished in the fog clogs the streets. They'd hoped the matter wouldn't come to a confrontation, but then again, the diatomist was never one to take a hint without it being shoved in front of his priceless microscope. Cavendish will have to offer some sort of apology to their neighbours: something generous but not generous enough that they will feel that talking behind their back would be improper. If they've had to put up with the diatomist screaming and pleading for their regard, banging on their door for the good part of an hour, then let it at least make the news. Let people know that Emon Cavendish is a player, one who is able to hook the most reclusive of fish and reel it in as they please, only to release the catch and leave behind a mark. Someone clever, someone who will entertain and give the people something to chatter about, if only they pay them the time of day. A simple exchange. Scandal is currency, if used right. This was always the plan. And yet… Cavendish ignores the piercing eyes of the dubiously shrewd rat living under their bed, as they kneel to pry a loose board off the floor. They pull a jar of golden honey from the hidden compartment and then settle on a rickety chair, kicking off their shoes and hoisting their feet onto the desk. They'd offered the diatomist some honey once. The man had refused, citing his preference for keeping his mind firmly anchored to reality and studying all the pieces that made it what it is. Passionate, steadfast, focused. Cavendish thinks that they had also been like that, once. However, there was an earnestness in the diatomist that the doctor can't remember ever possessing. Had they forgotten? Had they been innocent and sweet once? Was their curiosity always sharp like an edge, rather than flowing and moving like the diatomist's? They pull a teaspoon from the cupboard, dip it in the jar and in the sweet golden strings of honey, Cavendish loses themself.

[geraldofallon]

Romance in the Neath: Cloistered Diatomist

He can be awkward, prone to speaking far too long on one subject, and is decidedly behind in the latest fashions. But he’s trustworthy, possessed of an endearing innocence, and entirely loyal to you.

He’s spending as much time at your lodgings as his own.

Such slavish devotion to you risks giving the wrong impression. Certainly, people are beginning to talk. Has he mistaken this for more than friendship? Is he so embarrassed because you are entirely wrong? Or entirely right?

This catches fiercely at the surprised heart; So that the cheek blanches and then blushes.

[waterlogged-detective]

slept and am gonna try to get to the last two kiss memes today + really bad relationship web for the Does and their relationship webs told in stick figure form. As a treat

[wolpatinga]

i wasn't tagged but i did it for mr. felix

Love is a Force of Nature: Your love is like whiplash –– it comes in with the rain, it blows the doors wide open. When you fall in love, it is sudden and hard and immense. It is powerful. It is earth-shaking and world-ending. Nature is a force, and that force can be destructive if you're not careful. See how the world is doused in gasoline and set on fire –– your love consumes, your love takes, your love burns. You're hot and cold all at once, a hurricane and a wildfire bound together in skin, and when you're in love, it can feel like it's eating you alive from the inside out. When you love, it is with everything you have because it is everything you have. Be careful, darling, because not everyone survives the storm.

OC Insight - What kind of love are you?

I am late as always but thank you for the tag @mj-bites @wilteddreamsofbaldursgate @spacebarbarianweird @nyx-knox @razrogue

Rules: Take this uquiz as your OC and share the result.

My dear Serafina!

Love as a Choice

You choose to love. Love does not come to you easily, but every day you wake up and choose it. It would be so easy, wouldn't it, to grow cold and callous and grim. But you rise to greet the world, making the conscious effort to find something, anything to love. When you fall for someone, you do not kid yourself of their flaws. Instead, you resolve to see them for who they are, mistakes and all and you love them all the same. Your love is work, and it does not come easy. Your love sweats and toils. It is calloused and sunburned; it bears scars and comes with stories. Your love is worn, but it is no less valuable for it. Being loved by you is like being loved by a gardener, a mother, a teacher. Your love may not always be the simplest, but it is worth the effort.

Oh I can see this in a way. A lot of her life was about power and control, not relationships or love.

I feel like this has been around so I'm not sure who hasn't done it yet.

@grandmother-goblin @snowfolly @elinorbard @marlowethebard @confused-butter-toast @fireheartedpup

[sith-shenanigans]

Oh! Wonderful news! Just after this is when I played All Things Must End and Amias started getting very normal about everything. By which I mean Tanah-Chook became one of their favorite places in the Neath. I am so stoked to finally tell y’all about that. Time for a new thread!

I will not be going through every bit of the Exceptional Story, because that’s not really in the spirit of things (though I don’t know if I’ll be able to restrain myself when we get to The Shallows). But I’m going to hit the high points, so: spoilers for All Things Must End below the cut.

At this point, Amias has reached the point where they need five-card lodgings in order to progress their ambition. So while this technically happened before they began working on the Theorem, I imagine it actually happened while they were taking a break from their research.

Of course, part of that meant acquiring a room at the Royal Bethlehem in the first place. They weren’t thrilled at the prospect of putting themself in an opponent’s power like that, but they just needed to be able to host somewhere that wasn’t their address in the Side-Streets—nothing says they have to live there.

But—oh? It seems that the Manager is having a bit of a problem. Assisting with it, or at least taking a step towards assisting with it, might do wonders to get him to lend a future opponent a suitable suite.

So begins the season of Ruins. Or possibly Ruin. The grammar is a little inconsistent.

Amias heads off, probably back to the University. And gets waylaid!

By moths! Or, well, by a moth-fancier.

Despite Amias preferring Subtle routes, they’re… not going to trick some poor kid out of his drawings of lepidoptera. That’s just kind of petty. It’s, like, thirty pence of candles. There is a point when they would have worried about thirty pence of candles, but they have left that point very far behind.

(And they remember it well enough that they do try to give back. Usually to the Soft-Hearted Widow. But no, it didn’t even occur to them to cheat this poor kid.)

This description is so mean. No, I do want to hear about the moths. Amias wants to hear about the moths. Amias is friends with the Cloistered Diatomist. They very willingly listened to him telling them about algae for hours. Why would they not want to hear about your moths?

But a mystery is more compelling. So off to zee we go!

[yloiseconeillants]

checking in again with the fallen london ocs (the ffxiv ones are on vacation until 7.1)

Hallowmas has been a boon to brainrot and Developments, but more than anything, I get to make up themed costumes for each of the masques for the blorbos which EHEHE -

like hi

hepzibah and geraldine @mythandral are also maybe getting their shit together (maybe) (praying for them)

other costume selections from the others (tess, iphigenia, y tristan)

I have also stretched my Blender Nose Adjustment and C+ skills to the limit trying to recreate the Diatomist in the game and all I did was make him look like the Soap Opera Adaptation Version of himself but resources being limited as they are - it's fine:

aaaaaand I'm having Thoughts about the Vake and Tess despite only being like not even a 10th of the way through the ambition. She's not actively participating, but I think she has a connection (possibly someone who survived an attack from the Vake but she's still got the dreams once in a while?). More on this when I figure out what's actually happening BUT in the meantime:

I am having so much fun a;sdlkfja;slkd

[the-avaricious-meddler]

...The Cloistered Diatomist

[thegreatyin]

Caeru bagged like 3 people so far right. His original Nemesis lover, the Scoundrel, the Silverer. Also the Struggling Artist/Artist's Model/Diatomist if he did that one for MYN progression. Or the Empress' court romances.

i like how we're all counting the scoundrel among the list of people caeru has bagged. as though their marriage isn't fake as hell

[capn-twitchery]

Do you know if the stuff in Bundles of Oddities is randomized, or is it the same every time you do a given story? Because I was making friends with the Diatomist, and it went fine, except that at one point he gave me a box with the Starveling Cat in it! And I am, quite frankly, baffled.

GHFFJHG maybe the diatomist is just having a really bad day 😔😔 felt like spreading the misery!

i'm pretty sure they're randomised tho! or at least semi-randomised--i think each outcome has a number value and every bundle of oddities can pull certain numbers (but don't hold me to that--my FL knowledge is very basic still xD)

[surrender-souls]

i think the cloistered diatomist can be interpreted as autistic, like with his very focused passion for a niche odd thing, but also because of how hes treated by others. your character pursues him because hes seen as an oddity with his reclusiveness, like he's being taken out of his comfort zone by someone he trusts, but only for others to see how strange he is

[sunless-smash-or-pass]

[gmalaart]

10, 21, 33 for cavendish?? >:3

I reblogged the questions, forgot that it would mean I’d have to answer and promptly went to bed…. But I’m here now!

10 what fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

People have learnt to not bring up the University around Cavendish in casual conversation, because they will most likely take the chance to tell the story of philosopher Jeremy Bentham, namesake of the Benthic College. According to his last wishes, his skeleton has been preserved and dressed up in his own clothes, to be displayed on University grounds. His head was also supposed to be preserved but someone mucked up the embalming process so spectacularly that Bentham looks more jerky than man nowadays! So they made a wax head instead, and left the (literally) flesh and bone one between his feet!

If you’re lucky, that will be all you learn. If you’re not, Cavendish will spend quite a while laying out their professional opinion on what ought to have been done in great squishy detail.

21 what common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?

Oh Cavendish is HORRIBLE when it comes to etiquette. They do alright when it comes to speaking or writing, though their choice of topic might sometimes veer into an improper direction, but anywhere else? They stare too much, they forget to greet people, they flat out ignore people if they are busy with something. They also never stop themselves from interacting with someone they find interesting even if they’ve never met before. There is basically a gap between their fancy talk and their physical behaviour which means they have So Much Trouble with scandal.

Part of this is because they didn’t have to worry about it before, since they rarely if ever had guests, but also because they think it’s stupid. What a way to overcomplicate things.

23 what do they feel guilty of that other people don’t know about or even remember?

Two things, which both happened in London. They regret pulling the Cloistered Diatomist into their machinations and then dropping him out of the blue, thus ruining his reputation again. They had really started to get attached, they’d seen how sweet the Diatomist was and they panicked. Sometimes they still think about it because… What did they really gain from it? Nothing but a foot in a door.

The second thing is the whole business with the Comtessa. They don’t care for her, not really. But when they were in the tomb colonies, waiting for their scandalous fame to die down, they learnt that the Comtessa’s father had been speaking well on their behalf despite how cruel Cavendish had been in relaying the end of their investigation. That kindness still weighs on their shoulders, sometimes.

Thank you for the questions! This was fun :D

[waterlogged-detective]

The tiniest Doe polycule featuring:

The Cloistered Diatomist, the Jovial Contrarian, Happles and the Quiet Deviless

[correspondenceplaques]

now i have. three diatomist's arrays