#it was in the bonus section

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Male tortoiseshells

Tumblr loves male tortoiseshells, right?

It's common knowledge (...i think?) that's tortoiseshell cats are almost always females. (Here and everywhere else i use the word "tortoiseshell" in its broadest meaning: it includes all kind of calicos and torbies.) The reason of this is that the red color's gene is located on the X chromosome, so if a cat is both red and not red (in other words it's a tortie), it needs two different X chromosomes: one with the red (O), one with the black (o) allele.

Generally there are two ways to get a male tortoiseshell: he can be a chimera, or or he can have atypical number of sex chromosomes.

Chimeras are the fusion of two or more embryos thus they can have cells with different genotypes: they can be longhaired and shorthaired at the same time, have both diluted and undiluted area in their furs, or... be black and red in patches. They are generally fertile and pass the colors that their gonads (testicles or ovaries) carry, which is not necessirely the same as they show.

The normal number of sex chromosomes are two; for males an X and an Y. If a cat has two Xs and an Y, it'll be male, but it can carry both the O and the o alleles. Of course, an XXY male can easily have two red or two black alleles, and be a seemingly normal red or black cat. But they are typically infertile regardless of their color.

Let's see some male tortoiseshells!

Dawntreader Texas Calboy

Yeah, he's quite tumblr-famous, maybe you've seen that one post about him. He's a black tortoiseshell blotched tabby with white, a chimera and fertile; on his facebook page you can see several of his children. He has both black and red daughters, which means he can produces gametes from both of his cell lines.

Unfortunately I coudn't find his name, but in this picture the back right kitten is also a male tortoiseshell. Specifically, he's a black smoke karpati tortoiseshell with white and dominant blue eyes. (His breeder seems to like experimenting with new things.) More pictures and videos in his owner's facebook posts (it's possible that you have to join the group to see it): newborn kitten kitten young adult

Sherpa Cats Beyond Heaven

Beside red and black he also seems to mix pointed and not pointed. (Note the dark red cheeks and the light brown legs of a black colorpoint.) When tested, he consistently showed the results of multiple cats.

Ezra

He is red with a few black patches, and tufts of long hair. His owner tested him and the lab found both XX (female) and XY (male) cells, so he definitely is a chimera. I find his differently colored eyes especially cool!

Brady

Black tortoiseshell tabby with white, and for once not a chimera: according to the tests he has three sex chromosomes, XXY.

[steorrneleom]

BG3 Elven Names: A Watsonian Perspective

Amongst folks who like Astarion as a character, the meaning of his name is a common topic of discussion. The answer is typically that it is a variation of Astērion (Ἀστερίων), a Greek name meaning starry, which makes complete sense considering that he is likely a moon elf, but it is based in a language that does not actually exist in the Forgotten Realms. This isn’t a problem, a Doylist answer is completely valid, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what the meaning would be in Elvish (the D&D version), a Watsonian answer (1). After Astarion's, I set out to see if this could be done with Halsin and Cazador as well. I present here my results, with narrative. I have also included a TLDR at the end for those who want to skip the methodology.

(1) To any who may not be aware: Doylist means that it is what the author was thinking when writing / what their intention was. Watsonian means the in-universe perception / explanation. Example: Why did magic change so much between D&D 3.5e and D&D 4e? Doylist answer is that they wanted to simplify how magic worked to draw in new players. Watsonian answer is that Mystra was assassinated by Shar and Cyric resulting in arcane magic becoming unstable and changing its behavior.

In the Lack of Duolingo

First things first, I needed a resource for the Elven language in D&D. As with many collaborative canons, official uses of the language were spread through many mediums and over the course of decades. This makes hunting down sources difficult, but luckily a wonderful person by the name of Diane Morrison was kind enough to create ‘A Treatise on Espruar,’ which offers a complete dictionary. This is what I will be using:

A quick disclaimer that, also like with many collaborative canons, this language has inconsistencies and gaps which makes a true cannon language impossible until a complete conlang is officially released. What I present is to the best of our current resources.

Method to the Madness

I have the words, but next comes the challenge of using them. These names were not made to be interpreted in the lens I am using, so it is kind of like trying to fit a square peg in anything but a square hole. Some words can line up near perfect but have meanings that make absolutely no sense, like dragon royal world, or some words can have the right meanings but have the wrong letters. I resolved this with the following criteria:

The words used must be as close to the name as possible.

Sound shifts must be minimal and not drastic.

As few letter drops as possible.

A meaning that makes sense in context (as much as possible).

Key

Word / part of word Meaning

Astarion

Something noteworthy about Astarion’s name that I kept in mind when translating it is that it was his ‘child name’, the name that was given to him by his parents and not one he chose for himself (2). This means that the meaning wouldn’t necessarily be one that he himself liked, but rather one that a parent would like to ascribe to their child.

Searching for words, one almost seemed perfect at first: Aasterinian (meaning quicksilver). It was already so close to his name without having to Frankenstein words together, but sadly it broke nearly all of my rules. It had three letter drops and two sound shifts: er to ar and ian to ion. I also was of the opinion that while quicksilver was a fine name meaning, it wasn’t one that felt like it was meant for a child.

So, the next option was a combination of Aestar (meaning together or one heart) and -ion (meaning noble). I was hesitant of this one at first. The meaning I wanted to use for Aestar, heart, had seemed to be reserved for the context of marriage at first glance, but then I saw the name Araestar with its meaning of Goldheart. This is evidence that heart is valid for names as well.

Thus, my Watsonian idea is that Astarion’s name comes from Aestarion, which translates to noble heart. This only has one letter drop and a slight sound shift from Ae to A. I also personally think noble heart is a fitting meaning for a child’s name.

(2) Astarion’s tombstone has his name and states he was 39 when he ‘died’. Elves are typically considered adults and choose their new name when they reach the age of 100.

Halsin

Halsin was a bit of a hard one, where there were tons of possibilities but near all of them just didn’t fit right. Halsin is 350 years old, he would have presumably chosen his name with a meaning that represented him as a person. He, in my opinion, wouldn’t have a name that meant something random like weak brook or red. In addition, I had to find a combination of words that fit my rules.

So, I had to write down three prefix possibilities, five word possibilities, three suffix possibilities, and mix and match until I got something that met my criteria. I won't include my rejected combinations due to their number, but here are some reasons I rejected them: ‘r to l sound shift is too drastic’, ‘the on sound is too different from in’, and ‘though m and n are close in the IPA the sound shift feels too great’. Luckily, I did find a combination I was satisfied with in the end.

My Watsonian idea is that Halsin’s name comes from Halasan which translates to one who is free and wild. The ending of Halasan would likely be pronounced like in already so it would only be a letter change instead of a sound shift. The only other change needed would be a letter drop, the a in las.

Cazador

Now this name I went in thinking that it would be the true challenge, the 'z' felt distinctly non-elven to me, but much to my surprise D&D elven does have the z sound and letter. It was still hard to get a good meaning out of it, especially since it is unknown whether this would be his child name or his adult name and there was only one combination of words that worked.

The collection of words at my disposal were cas which means herald, -adar which means world, and za which means royal, of royalty. From this, I got Cazadar, which is a modification of Casadar that adds za. This would give a direct translation of herald of royalty world, which I feel would be interpreted as royal herald (to the world). It isn’t the cleanest meaning, but I feel like there is ego and world domination vibes to it, so it works.

A slight tangent, it is debatable how valid my overlapping construction is. It is possible that the shift from cas to caz would be seen as just a letter shift and not an addition of the word za. This wouldn’t be a problem, herald of the world is still a valid meaning for my purposes, despite it losing some of the ego. There is also the possibility that the za is seen but it results in the caz being interpreted as ca, a letter shift from ka which means dragon. Since there is no dor or dar in elvish, it is possible that it would be seen either as an ornamentation or a shortening of -adar, in which case the translation becomes dragon of royalty or dragon of royalty world. These meanings aren’t horrible in the case of a wrongful interpretation, but it doesn’t entirely make sense, and Kazaadar breaks the rules I imposed.

With all this being said, my Watsonian idea is that Cazador’s name comes from Cazadar, which can be translated to royal herald (to the world). This is the one name that I created that feels like a stretch, but I tried my best.

Last Names

I originally only did the first names when I decided to make this, but then I realized while typing all this that this probably wouldn’t be complete without trying the last names too... and so, I decided to give them a try. I sat down with the elven dictionary and felt the hope leave my body as soon as I wrote them down on my scrap paper. Ancunín, with a little accent on the ‘i’ and a super rare letter for D&D elvish, ‘u’; and Szarr, with two consonants (S and Z of all things) next to each other. I predicted a struggle, a struggle is what I got, and I fled the battle, unsuccessful. I was not able to find anything that met my rules… yet.

I will revisit this someday, but it will require a lot more research on Faerûn than I am able to put in right now, sadly. Here is the fun thing about last names, they are often more influenced by location as opposed to the ethnic origin of someone. Case and point: in the US a lot of folks changed their last name upon arrival to better fit in, or it was messed up enough times that they changed it for convenience sakes. Examples: Müller turning into Miller (a spelling change), Zimmermann becoming Carpenter (a direct translation), or going from Sadowski to Smith (A complete change to assimilate). They also have a different meaning convention compared to regular names to begin with, where they can be based on the location an ancestor lived, their occupation, or their nickname.

A Watsonian answer may exist for Ancunín and Szarr, but it would be rooted in where their families lived through the eras and other local languages that might have influenced the original elvish version. Like perhaps the location the Ancunín family is from has a predominant language which favors ‘u’ as a vowel. Maybe Szarr isn’t elvish at all and is an occupation name. I don’t know if I will be able to find a satisfying answer, but if I do one day I will be sure to post it.

Bonus

Espruar is the alphabet of the elvish language, which looks really cool in my opinion. Before I even started looking into the Watsonian origins of the names, I thought it would be cool to see what their names looked like written in it and so vectorized all the letters. Below are the character's names and their origin names written with Espruar.

Astarion

Aestarion

Halsin

Halasan

Cazador

Casadar

Cazadar

Little End Note

I want to thank everyone who read through my long explanations and tangents, I hope you enjoyed reading the thought process behind all of these ☺️. I also wanted to let you folks know that I am going to make another post soon with my vectorized Espruar alphabet so anyone can write with it should they want to.

TLDR

[kanaevamon]

Tabris/17th Angel/Angelworu reference sheet 2024

Ref sheet for the current design of my take on Kaworu's Angel form

height chart alt / backview - Wings of Light alt

(infodump about his biology and design under the cut)

Disclaimer: all the information in this post applies only to my AU version of Kaworu, don't take this as canon info about his biology as an Angel.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Feel free to take inspiration from the design or any other supplementary info in this post (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Introduction: Kaworu Nagisa is a genetic hybrid of human and the 1st Angel - Adam, born as a result of the Contact Experiment. He has lived and looked like a regular human up until entering the Central Dogma. The proximity of another Angel (Lilith) has resulted in a sudden change in gene expression, activating dormant Angel genes. The result was some kind of a rapid transformation/metamorphosis from an almost fully human body to that of an Angel. It has been referred to as Tabris, the 17th Angel, with this particular form being described as the High Angel Gene Expression form.

Anatomy and physiology: Standing at over 3 meters tall, Tabris is the second smallest Angel after microscopic Ireul. Its limited growth compared to other Angels is a result of constraints put on its body by the human part of the DNA. In general proportions, Tabris resembles Adam and subsequently - the Evas, with the exception of its overtly elongated limbs. Like Adam, it emits light, though not nearly as bright, and sprouts Wings of Light, spanning over 18 meters in width with an additional tail-like structure

During the metamorphosis, its core has resurfaced to the center of the chest, changing its position from the one more akin to that of the human heart. The central core containing S² Engine is very tough and resistant to damage but very sensitive to touch. It can become malleable and flesh-like if the AT Field is lowered enough. Instead of beating, it produces a soft humming sound similar to that of the Sun. Two smaller cores underneath it seem to help redirect generated energy to the lower parts of the body.

Additional core situated inside the neck area works as a transmiter, condensing energy from the S² engine before relaying it to the head. Such adaptation is a result of a much higher and centralised brain function compared to other Angels, which requires more energy to work properly.

Excess energy manifests itself in a form of three halos - two vertical ones with spike-like extrusions above the head and a horizontal one around the neck core.

As a member of asexually reproducing species, post-metamorphosis Tabris lacks any sexual characteristics, both internal and external.

Due to the volatile state of its DNA, there is a possibility of further mutations occurring if not killed or removed from the Central Dogma in time.

With enough damage delt to the central core, the transformation can be reverted, though not completely. The resulting form known as the Low Angel Gene Expression form (sketch of this form) is almost identical to pre-metamorphosis Kaworu, with the exception of visible main core and red markings adorning his body (basically looking exactly like the draft sketch) It is a result of the damaged core not being able to provide enough energy to sustain its fully changed form.

Thanks to the extremely powerful AT Field, Tabris' main core can be completely destroyed only by either him voluntary lowering the AT Field or being pierced by the Spear of Longinus. Destruction of the S² Engine results in Angel’s death.

Design notes: It is by no means a wholly new design, just a mere evolution of the ones that came before it. Two main inspirations for the design (like always) have been draft sketches and Adam. With Kaworu’s body being that of a human and Adam being a humanoid entity, I've decided to stick with a clearly humanoid design for Tabris. As much as I love more abstract Angels, I feel like this Angel/human duality is essential to Kaworu's character.

The most drastic change in this instance of the design is its shoulder area. I think these pylon-like structures work much better than spikes as it likens Tabris more to Adam (from what I gathered, these serve as restraints for Adam and Evas but I don't really care :v). Same goes for the change in proportions. Lengthy limbs add to the uncanniness and distance the silhouette from that of a regular human.

Here you can check out my design inspo board I went for with this iteration of Tabris

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Bonus info:

Here are some design explorations for Tabris that haven't been posted before + bonus Kawoshin :3

A few years back I've made sort of a rough storyboard for a short transformation animation, check it out here

At one point I had plans for a comic for this AU, which plot has been - I kid you not - revealed to me in a dream xD It has never come to a fruition because I suck at writing compelling stories

When it comes to its identity, Tabris would identify as agender and use it/its and he/him pronouns

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

That's it for this long-ass post, if you're still here thanks for reading :D If you have any questions and/or suggestions, feel free to shoot me a DM or an ask (I'll probably come up with some shit on the spot because there's no rhyme or reason to any of this lore, it's just a bunch of random ideas rattling around in my head xD)

[kcamberart]

I love the artwork for Vollema. How did you decided on this style? Was it purposeful or accidental?

Thank you! I try to do something slightly different style-wise with each of my games, so I experimented quite a bit back when Vollema was just in the "game that only exists in my head" stage of being. There was a very short phase when I wanted to try out pixel art for it, since that was something I wanted to practice more at the time, but I thought it turned out too generic and honestly pretty... ugly.

So that idea went in the bin.

I tried out a few more styles to see if anything really worked for the vibe I knew I wanted, and then at one point I just kind of doodled a really tiny Saffron with my favorite brush settings, and something clicked in my head. I cleaned it up a little, colored it with a simple gradient (I'll tell you a secret, coloring is my least favorite part of the 2D art process. Love drawing the lines, hate filling them in), and ended up really really liking the result.

After I got the general look for the sprites figured out, I did a whole bunch of testing in-engine to determine what exactly I wanted to do for the environments. I tend to like the shadeless/unlit look for a lot of my projects, so I worked with that for a while.

But I felt that having actual lighting and shadows really elevated the look of the game. Made the world seem more like a diorama, which was exactly what I was going for at that point.

... So basically, a lot of trial and error got us here!

[menlove]

I feel like one of these days soon I gotta finally make the queer paul receipt post there's enough now I think...... wasting my time doing that instead of homework sounds fantastic

[mudzdale]

"lil' habby," or "aibit" as he is often called, is a (CLASSIC SCI-FI VARIETY) AI built by habit many years ago. he is very versatile, and capable of jumping between any and all types of technological devices as a form of locomotion, environmental interaction, and technological control. however, he is most frequently seen smugly projecting off of one of habit's jacket panels, like some horrible parody of a pirate & his parrot.

kamal didn't sign up for any of this. (he did, actually, when habit announced one morning that he was quitting space dentistry forever in favor of pursuing a free & wild life as a traveling bounty hunter, and leaving the practice to kamal. this put kamal in the extremely difficult position of either a) realizing all his hopes and dreams by taking the money habit left him to finish his schooling and then inherit an entire dental clinic of his very own, thereby securing both his future and job satisfaction, or b) leave his entire life behind to impulsively blurt out "i'll come with you" in response to the announcement. but he really didn't sign up for any of this.)

[cats-obsessions]

Obsessed with the implications of Gortash reaching out to Durge to rob the Hall of Wonders together. I just imagine he was there on a date, maybe a charity event, and he should be paying attention to the noble that invited him, but he sees these stollen Bhaalian artifacts, and all he can think about for the rest of the night is Durge. Sure, maybe he saw it as an opportunity to earn their trust, and that’s how it functioned, but I also love the idea that he maybe was a bit more interested in them than he’d like to admit from the beginning.

[bleachblondebitches]

The way the official tslocg Instagram account’s promotion for this season has been using Ruby Cruz as the focal point on several posts, when she’s barely had any screen time (especially the video they just posted from ep8, where Ruby has 10 seconds of screentime in the ep, yet is the cover photo) is truly such a wild way to bait/keep the sapphic audience who originally watched the show for the lesbian representation

(At this point they’ve practically featured her more on ig than Kacey and Taylor who are the new regulars)

Even the official “streamonmax” account is making edits of her like this:

[drkcatt]

a moment in the great library

i got sch to 60 last night and made a proper glam :)

[hidey-writes]

six sentence sunday

Under Gu Yiran’s hands, the chicken van bumps along the uneven road like a living thing, and he tightens his grip against it. Beside him in the passenger seat, Zheng Bei stares out the side window in silence. Gu Yiran had made Zhao Xiaoguang show him the map, during one of the endless waiting afternoons in the hospital when Zheng Bei wasn’t there. He’d reached out to trace the circled spots, all three, the sleeve of his hospital shirt catching against the edge of the paper as Zhao Xiaoguang said, Ge wanted us to check all of them, even though he was pretty sure you could only be here, pointing. A cluster of rectangles marking the abandoned crematory buildings north of Halan. Zhao Xiaoguang had left a fingerprint smear of grease along the entry road, right where it ran along the train tracks.

another snippet from the start of ch5! it feels so weird to be back to down drafting now that ch1-4 have shifted the story so far from the original final chapter outline that literally none of the draft material is appropriate anymore lol but it's really enjoyable to just sit and type the most medium sentences in the world without having to do any higher-level thinking about pacing or subtext or anything :) brain off drafting my beloved :)

[nattaphum]

Mileapo x Dior - Vogue Magazine HQ photos

[torantuga]

PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEEEE DRAW KITTY AS MK'S AUNT OR JUST KITTY PLEASE

(takes place in the alenoah gay dads au bcs yeah,,,)

mks fave memory w her aunt kit is when she and owen tagged along to a trip to an amusement park!! ^_^

she had so much fun w her -- and still does! yippee!

[headslikekites]

omahgah \ ( ~ O ~ ) /

I didn't want to be creepy or weird so I've been avoiding spam liking and commenting but please know that I felt the same way a teen girl would at witnessing Elvis when I first saw Peregrine.

[ What is she based on? Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children? The Peregrine? Please I need to know if I have to read up on the lore of the peregrine the bird to understand her ]

( Is she a part of a faction or mostly rolling by herself? )

[ Bsd intro info! Age, likes, dislikes, and stuff ]

( What's she like in terms of personality? Any miscellaneous things about her that isn't all that important to plot or lore, but still there? )

[ Is there anything you want to/already do/want others to associate her with? Like a song, quote, style, philosophy/mindset, color, flavour? ]

Please don't mind the colored brackets/parenthesis; I got a little mad when the white text felt like they were melting into each other. If I may be so insolent, then maybe you could bless her with some colors? Please, I need to know if she has any pere-green (hehehe) Anyways, she's really cool (and so are you) and anything about her would be really cool

ok I'm answering that last part first because the rest is going to be loooong her final design doesn't have any green but she can wear a little as a treat sometimes (she'll get a full proper ref soon probably,, especially with artfight approaching)

the rest will be down below the cut because I love RAMBLING!!!!!

1. [Inspiration] my BSD ocs are actually based off old/abandoned story concepts ! peregrine is based off an animatic I envisioned in my head while listening to Monster Town by Go! Child like 5 years ago. it involved two kids getting lost in a haunted themepark one night, wherein one gets possessed/bodysnatched by a ghost and the other tries to save her. I consulted The Archives to try & find old sketches ↓

her name is Peregrine because the way I name my ocs is by going to behindthename and scrolling through names of the first initial I want until I find something that fits to me. a friend once told me I name my ocs like victorian children and I had no defense because it's lowkey on purpose

2. [Faction] former guild, flying solo now after its disbanding. I imagine she wasn't actually with the guild for that long, and mostly kept to herself for the time she was there.

3. [Intro/Info] Peregrine R. Paisley! 19 year-old private investigator and anonymous magazine columnist. also lesbian

Ability: House of Mirrors- Allows the user to see the spirits of the recently-departed in any reflective surface. Likes: Bright colors, cats, asking questions, skateboarding Dislikes: Prolonged quiet, receiving questions, cops Birthday: June 15th

she joined the guild at age 18 following the murder of her ex-bestfriend/non-reciprocal situationship (ignore the notes they're a little outdated)

4. [Personality/Misc.] outgoing, but very surface-level. she's not one to form deep personal connections, but enjoys keeping a wide network. she learned sign language to communicate with mirror ghosts but most of them don't know it so she ends up just playing charades or writing notes. her favorite color is yellow. every time someone asks about her middle name she gives a different answer.

also she's besties with keaton and I could go on a whole other ramble about that because they way they mirror eachother and bring out certain buried aspects makes me soooooo normal

5. [Associations] she's like playing early 2000s edutainment games with plastic-looking cgi at your family's antique solid-oak computer desk adorned with old photos and various knickknacks. but for more general things she is so very arcade carpet patterns to me. also mirrors.

song-wise. I am limiting myself to one because I don't want to be here all day. Crushed Out on Soda Beach by The Scary Jokes. the bright, crunchy instrumental backing melancholic/mournful lyrics is so very her.

thankyou for enjoying her :)

[cinnasalmon]

*takes the microphone* i think modern zevlor would fall for ai generated facebook posts

oh my FUCKING god say it louder in the mic so the people in the back can hear

He 100% would. He CAN be taught how to spot it, but he's going to be squinting his eyes staring at these images until you say something so he can say "I think this is AI generated... right?" and after less than one second of looking you're like "Yes"

He tries. He really really does

[sil3ntm0thart]

my fields of mistria farmer! really like the game!

[ijevin-but-everywhere]

Source: ZombieCleo, season 10, episode 30