#those stars of brightest magnitude

[logorrhea5mip]

As you might know, the sky is due to get a new star any time now, in a few months at most.

What is happening? The recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis, by far the brightest one known, is a star* in the northern constellation Corona Borealis that, once every 80 years or so, increases in brightness from completely invisible by naked eye to among the ~100 brightest in the night sky. This increase is called a nova, from the Latin word for new, as it looks like a new star has appeared.

Where can i see it from? Basically all human inhabited latitudes, all except the far south. In the northern latitudes, however it is visible the entire night, while near and below the equator you will need to 'catch' it at the right time of night, which in August and September is just after sunset.

How will it look? Let's not get your hopes up too high. It will, at the brightest, reach a magnitude around 2 at most, so about as bright as the north star, relatively unremarkable and completely unnoticeable as unique to someone who doesn't know where to look. But still, it's the most visible sudden change to the relatively fixed pattern of the heavens any of us will live to see, so you should still go give it a look.

Where is it? Currently, the constellation is best visible about 1 or 2 hours after sunset. You will need to be relatively far away from light pollution, so at least a couple dozen stars are clearly visible. While learning the constellations, and finding the star by orienting via those is imho half the fun, you could use one of many sky map apps and websites to tell you the star's location. If it didn't happen yet, there should be nothing visible at that location. However, if there is, congrats! You just did an astronomy™ :3

It will appear in the circle next to the star labeled ε

Why is this happening? Most stars spend most of their lives in a stable, hydrogen fusing state. However, when hydrogen in their cores begins to run out, they switch to helium fusion, which makes them swell up to enormous sizes, turn red due to lower surface temperature, and are thus called red giants. After this helium runs out, the star will (in most cases) throw off the inflated outer layers, while its hot, dense core shrinks and keeps on glowing due to how hot it is, while not actually doing any fusion and not producing any new energy. Those are called white dwarfs, and because they don't fuse, aren't technically stars at all, therefore the asterisk in the first sentence of this post. The T-CrBo system is a red giant and white dwarf binary, where the red giant has grown so big, that the parts of it closest to its partner aren't gravitationally bound to it anymore. Therefore, the gas falls and accumulates on the white dwarf's surface (which otherwise has no hydrogen on its own), untill a critical point is reached where the pressure of the gas causes it to all fuse at once, resulting in a huge thermonuclear explosion bright enough to be seen from over 2500 light years. The explosion however, isn't big enough to blow the dwarf apart, and it starts accumulating new matter from its partner right away. Because of this, it with re-explodes every 8 decades, and it is due to go any day now.

@green-mountain-goose @brightgreendandelions

[lordgrimwing]

The Big 5-0-0

(Or, Glorfindel has a gift for his husband)

[for Glorfindel Week, hosted by @glorfindelweek, Day 7]

“Five hundred years!” Exclaimed the shocked tavern keeper.

Glorfindel shrugged as he helped the Man lift the roasted lamb from the cooking fire that also heated the dining room. “Five hundred years is not so long for elves.”

The Man scoffed, taking up a towel in one hand and pushing the steaming carcass from the spit. She wagged a finger at him. “For an Elf with a thousand years ahead of him, maybe, but any marriage that endures longer than kingdoms ought to be celebrated to the fullest.”

A thousand more years felt like pitifully little time to Glorfindel. He certainly would take every opportunity to celebrate every memory if he knew his time in Arda was so limited. How Men, who were lucky if they lived within a stone’s throw of one hundred, went their whole lives without bursting into song and dance in celebration of existence, he’d never understand. 

“I saw that horse you rode here on, so don’t bother saying you don’t have the means to throw a proper party.”

Asfaloth, being an Elvish steed, demanded a certain level of finary when he went out. The bells, however, were entirely Glorfindel’s idea.

“Erestor detests parties, and he says adorning a horse in gems and bells will get me killed—again!” 

She snorted at the jest, passing Glorfindel a platter for the meat he was stripping from the bones, unbothered by the heat that would burn her hands. “And in five hundred years, have you learned only what he dislikes and nothing of what he likes?”

He smiled softly. He knew much of what his beloved liked.

“Should I call all those men back in and ask them to recount tales of wives whose husbands didn’t bring them an anniversary gift?” The tavern keeper threatened. 

She’d cleared the dining room of local patrons until the meal was ready. The gleaming Elf-lord had garnered more raucous attention than she liked when it was her building, table, and chairs at risk, and it hadn’t felt right to ask him to wait in his room until everyone was distracted by good food. The other Men went willingly enough, though Glorfindel could still clearly hear them milling about outside.

“That won’t be necessary, good lady,” he said. “Duty brought me this way, but I made time to find something he will treasure.” He patted the purse tied to his belt.

She shot the purse a dubious look, doubtlessly skeptical that anything that fit in a small bag could adequately encompass the magnitude of a couple’s 500th wedding anniversary. 

“Well,” she settled on. “Don’t say no one warned you if he kicks you out on your ear.”

--

When Glorfindel finally arrived in Imladris, Erestor met him in the narrow pass leading down into the valley, too impatient to wait longer.

“My brightest night star!” Glorfindel said, alighting from Asfaloth’s saddle to sweep the loremaster into his arms. He planted a kiss on his forehead, thrilled by the absence of an audience to their reunion: Erestor disliked people kissing in public almost as much as he disliked parties. “Oh, how I’ve missed you.”

Erestor huffed but did not pull away. Reaching up, he pulled Glorfindel’s head down to return the kiss, leaving his husband blushing with excitement. 

“You took your time, Dandelion,” the black-haired Elf accused when they separated. “Elrond expected you back a fortnight ago.”

“I admit to tarrying longer than needed for the task he gave me,” Glorfindel said, leading the dusty stallion as the lovers continued down the path hand-in-hand. “But I promise it was not without reason.”

“It had better be a good reason, and not just that you had to climb some mountain to return one of Manwë’s foolish birds to its nest.”

Erestor was with him on that particular occasion, about fifty years before they married, though he had no interest in scaling the last cliffs to return the unfledged eagle to her home. Glorfindel insisted on it, knowing the young bird couldn’t survive the fast-approaching thunderstorm alone in the open and was too wild to keep in with them until the weather cleared. Trusting his skill and light step, Glorfindel climbed alone, the bird wrapped in a cloth to keep her wings and talons contained and secured in a sack over his shoulder, only her head poking out. The task wouldn’t have been challenging if not for the storm. He made it back to the sheltered test just fine, reassuring the flustered eagle parents with a song as he freed their lost eaglet. On the way down, however, his hands split on the rain-soaked stones and fell—only a few feet down to the next ledge, true, but it was enough to leave his heart pounding and senses ringing with the echos of dragon-thunder and flash of balrog-whips overlaying the storm. 

Erestor threatened to knock him out and tie him up the next time such madness came over him when he eventually made it back to safety, dripping wet and jumping at every clash of thunder that came too close. Glorfindel agreed to let him.

“Oh, no, you will find this delay was entirely to your liking,” he promised.

“A lofty claim, indeed,” Erestor said. “I will require proof.”

“When we are both safely home and done with our duties, I will show you.”

--

Glorfindel was sitting, comfortable and cozy, in bed with his embroidery when something hard bounced off his head and landed on the covers next to him.

“I cannot believe you!” 

Erestor’s sitting in an armchair by the window, using the last rays of the setting sun to inspect his gift—Or he had been. Currently, he was standing, slate tablet in one hand, the other still extended from slinging the little dog figurine from the side table at the golden-haired fool sitting in bed. His face was scrunched up, mouth pinched like he’d bitten into a lemon (except he usually had too much self-control to ever react to the unassuming citrus, but the comparison was good enough). 

“Where did you find this? How did you find this?” He brandished the old slate aggressively, for a moment looking as though he might throw it too.

Glorfindel set aside his project. “Is it not to your liking?” 

Perhaps he’d misjudged entirely and he would end up out on his ear just like the tavern keeper warned.

“Not to my liking? Not to my liking?” Erestor lifted the tablet high, gesturing to the small drawings on it with his other hand. “Sunflower, The elf who made these stories died four thousand years ago. How did you come by this?”

He sounded more shocked than angry, and Glorfindel relaxed. “Through much patience and the exchanging of many letters with various collectors of first age relics. I made a detour to collect that on the way back. That’s what delayed my return.”

“Did it not cost a small fortune? I spied no gems missing from your horse’s daft accoutrements.” 

A grin broke across Glorfindel’s face. “I dare say it is worth as much to you.”

Softness spread across his husband’s face and he touched the old slate now with tender, almost reverent fingers as he caressed the time-warn drawings. His eyes clouded with old memories of the past rarely recalled from the careful places he stored them in. “I laughed over this depiction of Lords Celegorm and Curufin when it was only days old! I helped Vekkawë hide his collection in our mattresses when Captain Crímainya came to destroy the ‘defaming misinformation’. I thought I’d never see one again after the Valar sank Beleriand.”

Eyes clearing, he brought the tablet, with its child-like depiction of long-gone beloved lords, to his chest and said, “This is a great treasure. No fortune can take it from me.”

Glorfindel laughed. “I’m glad the Dwarf I bought it from did not know the true value, then, for I am not sure I could have gotten it honestly for that price and would not have departed without it.”

Erestor snorted, muttering “Six pounds of that hideous tack you insist on dressing your horse in would have covered it, no doubt” as he turned away for a moment of privacy to wipe his eyes clear before he accidentally shed tears over the small remnant of his past.

“Asfaloth cannot be parted from his gems when he is afield.” 

Glorfindel opened his arms, and Erestor—after setting the tablet carefully on the side table like it was as fragile as a hollow dove egg and not slab or stone almost as old as the world itself that had survived devastations and travesties unnumbered—fell into his embrace. 

They spent the rest of the night in bed, though neither got much sleep.

[fascinationstreetmp3]

Did you post deleted voice lines from mgsv? Or do you know where to find them? Ocelot talking about the moon was one. Ty

i did post audio files i found every now and then, but i never posted those even though i found most of them. i can post them now, though!

as you can see here:

[Text: "The moon... The brightest heavenly body after the sun. Measured in magnitude, the full moon's brightness is -12.7. But that varies considerably as it waxes and wanes. Naturally, the enemy's visibility will change too."

"It's a full moon tonight. Disasters, crime... all kinds of bad luck are said to increase during the full moon. Better watch yourself."

"That the Southern Cross? Sure shines bright looking from the Southern Hemisphere."

"That's the Big Dipper. The second star from the end of the handle, Mizar, is a binary star. Can you make out its companion star?"

"Never look at the sun through binoculars. Don't ruin the only eye you've got left!"]

there's an initial comment about the moon that for some reason i couldn't find audio for. i'm sure it exists somewhere, but because of how the files are organised i couldn't ever seem to track it down. i'm not sure if anyone else has uploaded it anywhere either :/

[roselibrary]

𝐏𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 || 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

The Darkling x OC Brekker/Rietveld (Grisha Character)

Trigger Warnings: none

Summary: the generals night sky was what they called her. She made his world glow and in doing so he promised her anything she wished.

Requests are open!

Kaz Brekker often wondered if his sister missed him. He wondered if she ever reminisced about her time with them before she went away. Before she became Grisha. His memory is faint, but he remembers well enough the bright grin, kind eyes that shone their brightest in the dark, the long dresses she favoured and the tight corsets that he only now understands were used as a means of attracting attention. His sister had adored that. Adored the attention her gift gave her. She shone like the stars she commanded flying fast and free and blinked out of sight in his mind just as they did each night. His sister was a shooting star one that had long since left his atmosphere with no intention of returning.

Kaz Brekker remembered the day they came. The red keftas and the blue all stood fiercely in front of his sister who held her otherworldly glow. Then he came, tall, dark, and fierce; a black kefta that swirled about him just as his shadows did. He brought forth the darkness and Kaz watched as his sister glowed; he watched as the stars filled the man's shadows and encircled them both like they, too, were constellations in the sky. Kaz knew, as he hid behind barrels with his brother, that their lives would never be the same again. His sister had always wanted more and as he saw the adoration, greed and, what he would soon come to understand as, lust take hold of the one they called the Darkling he knew his sister would fly away. She, too, had the same look reflected in her own gaze; two souls connected as one that fateful day on a long-forgotten farm. The darkness embraced the stars and in doing so intertwined two souls who would never be parted.

Kaz remembers the shock in his eyes when the darkness faded, and the sun reigned supreme once more. He saw those in red turn swiftly in his direction taking hold of himself and his brother. He watched as his sister's eyes glimmered with something akin to regret and grief before it was gone replaced with that dazzling glow and ethereal smile as she knelt before Kaz.

“Sweet brother, I must leave now. You understand, don’t you? I have to go and help those who are like me but do not worry I will visit,” poor sweet Kaz could not tell how brittle his saint-like sister's smile truly was, “Jordie will look after you, won't you?” his sister turned her head to his elder brother whom was stock still withholding tears he knew couldn’t fall; lest his younger brother realise the true magnitude of this goodbye. Unable to speak the eldest of the two boys simply nodded his head once and swallowed the lump in his throat. The sister's smile faltered for a moment and a degree of hesitancy took up on her visage - at least it did until the hand of a general grasped her own and the assuredness returned tenfold. Once more turning her gaze to her younger brother she smiled sweetly and embraced him for a final time.

A gentle kiss to his forehead and a whispered promise gone on the wind was the last Kaz Brekker felt of his sister before she was swept away in a swirl of black. Ushered into a carriage and lost in the gaze of a man whose eyes were as dark as the night sky, never to be seen again.

[talonabraxas]

Sunday, January 28 Tonight let’s check in with Uranus in the constellation Aries, which it shares with the mighty planet Jupiter. The latter planet stands out as the brightest point of light high in the south an hour after sunset. Let’s start with it first: Jupiter shines at magnitude –2.4 and is a treat to view through a telescope. Its disk stretches 40″ across and is flanked by its four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. For most of the night, Europa and Ganymede sit to the west, while Callisto and Io lie east of the planet. But Io is closing in on Jupiter’s eastern limb; it crosses onto the cloud tops around 8:45 P.M. EST to begin a transit. It isn’t joined by its shadow for more than an hour, the round blot appearing just after 10 P.M. EST, when Io is more than halfway across the disk. Io slips away to the west just before 11 P.M. EST, while its shadow continues to cross for another 80 minutes or so. Those on the East Coast will likely lose sight of the planet before the shadow transit can end. To spot Uranus, look about 12.1° east of Jupiter, or about half the distance between the gas giant and the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. Uranus is magnitude 5.7, roughly the limit for naked-eye observing. You’ll need a very dark observing site to spot it; regardless, it will be easy to pick up in binoculars or any telescope. The ice giant’s disk is just 4″ across and will look like a grayish, “flat” star. Now that the planet has reached its stationary point, it will begin moving eastward, or prograde, with respect to the more distant background stars. Sunrise: 7:12 A.M. Sunset: 5:14 P.M. Moonrise: 8:11 P.M. Moonset: 8:57 A.M. Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (92%) Sun & Uranus Talon Abraxas

[qismet]

ALTAIR. THE TWELFTH SEAT.

vampire, twelfth chair of the stellar council. 700+ years old, they/she. warden of the newly created, one of several presiding judges over misdeeds and crimes.

⁽ ¹ ⁾ altair is the brightest star in the constellation of aquilais, and is the twelfth - brightest star in the night sky. name meaning, in arabic origin it means “ flying eagle. ”

⁽ ² ⁾ in chinese belief, altair is better known by its other names:  qiān niú xīng  (牵牛星 / 牽牛星) or  niú láng xīng  (牛郎星), translated as the cowherd star. these names allude to the love story,  the cowherd and the weaver girl, in which niú láng and his two children are separated from respectively their wife and mother zhinu by the vastness of the milky way. they can only meet once a year, when magpies form a bridge to allow them to cross the milky way to each other.

within the origins of this lore, vampires sit on a council born from the names of stars and their rankings of magnitude. vampires upon the council forego their original, human names, and take on the name of the star in which houses their seat. the corresponding number collates to rank and standing within the council, each has their own job from number one, to ninety-two. these are given based on importance and status level.

death is the only release from the stellar council.

vampires exist in their own separate world, adjacent to the human world and accessible through certain “ doors ” that have been placed. most vampires within the stellar council have access to their own door or can simply manifest between the two worlds with ease.

higher ranking vampires from forty and below are immune to the effects of sunlight, those below twenty are immune to the common stake through the heart scenario.

all vampires possess an innate power/ability, though vampires within the stellar council can covet these to new heights within their corresponding levels.

seats one through twenty meet on a regular basis (as regular as you can call the quick passage of time, for them), other levels of seats meet within their own terms and conditions as freely as they would like, with some travelling to meet with the seats of the first twenty to discuss important matters.

as a human altair and their sister were turned into vampires by sirius, the first seat. two hundred years later, altair became the twelfth seat and their sister the fifth, vega. in a brief history, vega was later killed and a new fifth seat was appointed, whom altair does not get along with and has tried to dispose of several times and still refers to them as their human name despite holding the fifth seat for more than 300 years.

altair has acclimated to the modern world exceptionally well, one of their innate talents being that of blending in, able to retract sharp fingernails and disguise their pointed ears, giving the outward shape of a regular human being.

their job as the holder of the twelfth seat is to act as a warden over newly created vampires and to access whether they have been made in malice, carelessness, or by a strict design. not all vampires under this lore possess the ability to turn human beings into their own kind, and so it is altair's job to make sure this is not done with the wrong intentions. certain vampiric venom breeds faulty vampires, in a way. this does mean that they have a lot of vampires under their charge, regarded as fledglings.

altair also acts as one of several judges of crimes against humans and vampires alike. vampires are under no strict instruction not to harm humans, but where the disruption of human life is considered catastrophic then matters must be dealt with swiftly.

altair's main ability is a form of hematomancy, the ability to read the past and present (and sometimes future) within the blood of others. for altair this manifests as needing both parties, themselves and the other person, needing to make an incision on their palms and press them together, a give and take of blood to activate the ability. with regard to what the other party receives, their incision will heal remarkably quick as a result of taking in altair's blood (this is not the only method in which altair can access this ability, it can be done through more forceful means).

altair can also choose to share her own past, present and future insight with the other party, but this is not information that is available simply upon contact.

other abilities include fast injury regeneration, various forms of magic, daylight resistance, ability to turn humans into vampires, light manipulation.

in reference to point ⁽ ² ⁾ , when altair's sister passed she left behind two of her own fledglings that she had turned herself. with nobody to care for them, altair took them under her wing and regards them as their own children, they can only see their “ mother ” through projections of altair's memories.

altair was born within the ming dynasty era of china, their father central to the government within their province. their forgone human name was li ( 理 li . great judge )  liángyù ( 梁 liáng . meaning mast, bridge, elevation, beam . 愉 , yú . meaning pleasant, delightful . )

personality wise, altair is carefree and can often be referred to as a nuisance for other vampires in the lower levels. she can be quite unhelpful towards their need for information/help from them, but she takes her responsibilities very seriously.

whilst some vampires on the stellar council have integrated into modern society, a vast majority have refused to. most notably would be sirius, the first seat, who has made no effort to mingle with the modern world or its inhabitants. another is capella, the sixth seat, whom altair bothers more than most, the two of them having formed a close bond from altair's ascension as the twelfth seat. altair constantly battles to force capella into the modern world and showers them in trinkets that she claims they're missing out on.

[violettranslations]

Idol (アイドル)

無敵の笑顔で荒らすメディア 知りたいその秘密ミステリアス 抜けてるとこさえ彼女のエリア 完璧で嘘つきな君は 天才的なアイドル様 She devastates the media with an unbeatable smile. Everyone wants to know her secret—it makes her mysterious. Even that ditziness of hers is carefully calculated. A perfect liar, you are a genius-tier goddess of an idol! 今日何食べた？ 好きな本は？ 遊びに行くならどこに行くの？ 何も食べてない それは内緒 何を聞かれても のらりくらり What have you eaten today? What books do you like to read? Where do you go for fun? "I haven’t eaten anything in particular." "That’s a secret!" I’ve got a nice neutral answer for every question I’m asked. そう淡々と だけど燦々と 見えそうで見えない秘密は蜜の味 あれもないないない これもないないない 好きなタイプは？ 相手は？ さあ答えて Yes, both detached and yet also brilliant, that secret they feel like they can almost glimpse but can’t quite see is the ultimate temptation. But that’s not it, and this isn’t it either. What’s your type? Who are you dating right now? Your answer, miss? 「誰かを好きになることなんて 私分からなくてさ」 嘘か本当か知り得ない そんな言葉に また一人堕ちる また好きにさせる ”I’ve never really understood what it’s like to grow to love someone.” I can’t ever figure out what’s truth and what’s a lie. But at those words of mine, yet another one falls. I make them fall in love with me again. 誰もが目を奪われていく 君は完璧で究極のアイドル 金輪際現れない 一番星の生まれ変わり その笑顔で 愛してるで 誰も彼も虜にしていく その瞳が その言葉が 嘘でもそれは 完全なアイ You snare the gaze of anyone and everyone, you are perfect, the ultimate idol! You are the rebirth of the brightest star in the sky, the likes of which none will ever see again! With that smile and that “I love you,” you captivate one and all. Even if those eyes and those words are all lies, that is total love. はいはいあの子は特別です 我々は端からおまけです お星様の引き立て役Bです 全てがあの子のお陰な訳ない しゃらくさい 妬み嫉妬なんてない訳がない これはネタじゃない からこそ許せない 完璧じゃない君じゃ許せない 自分を許せない 誰よりも強い君以外は認めない True, true, that girl is special. We've always just been extras tacked onto her. We are but second-rate foils to her first-magnitude star. But it’s not like everything is all thanks to her. Cut the sass! It’s not like we’re jealous, we don’t envy her! We’re not trolling! And that’s exactly why we can’t forgive her! You’re hardly perfect, we can’t forgive you, of all people! We can’t forgive ourselves. You’re the strongest person there is, and that’s why we won’t acknowledge anyone but you. 誰もが信じ崇めてる まさに最強で無敵のアイドル 弱点なんて見当たらない 一番星を宿している 弱いとこなんて見せちゃ ダメダメ 知りたくないとこは見せずに 唯一無二じゃなくちゃ イヤイヤ それこそ本物のアイ I am truly the strongest, unbeatable idol who everyone believes in and reveres. There isn’t a single vulnerability to be found in my character. I embody the brightest star in the sky. I can’t, can’t show them my weak spots, I’ve gotta make sure they don’t see all the things they don’t want to know. I won’t, won’t stand for being anything less than the one and only! That is exactly what true love is. 得意の笑顔で沸かすメディア 隠しきるこの秘密だけは 愛してるって嘘で積むキャリア これこそ私なりの愛だ I excite the media with a skillful smile. This secret is the only thing I hide completely, that my entire career is built on the lie of “I love you.” To me, this is exactly what love is. 流れる汗も綺麗なアクア ルビーを隠したこの瞼 歌い踊り舞う私はマリア そう嘘はとびきりの愛だ Even my streaming sweat is a gorgeous aqua, my eyelids each hiding a ruby beneath them. I am the Virgin Mary of singing, dancing, and stepping, yes, lies are an unparalleled form of love. 誰かに愛されたことも 誰かのこと愛したこともない そんな私の嘘がいつか本当になること 信じてる I have never once been loved nor have I ever loved anyone else. That’s why I genuinely believe that my lies will someday become truth. いつかきっと全部手に入れる 私はそう欲張りなアイドル 等身大でみんなのこと ちゃんと愛したいから 今日も嘘をつくの この言葉が いつか本当になる日を願って それでもまだ 君と君にだけは言えずにいたけど やっと言えた これは絶対嘘じゃない 愛してる I just know that one day, I’ll have it all, because I’m such a greedy idol! I really wish I could love you all just as much as you deserve, and so I tell another lie today, hoping that someday, my words will become true. And yet, I still couldn't bring myself to say the same to the two of you... Ah, I could finally say it. I’m certain this isn’t a lie. I love you.

[millieefashion]

PISCES (February 19- March 20)

initiative ~ artistic ~ compassionate

Pisces, (Latin: “Fishes”) in astronomy, zodiacal constellation in the northern sky between Aries and Aquarius, at about 1 hour right ascension and 15° north declination. The vernal equinox, the point where the Sun’s annual apparent path takes it north of the celestial equator and from which celestial longitude and right ascension are measured, lies in Pisces. The constellation contains only faint stars without any striking grouping; the brightest star, Eta Piscium, has a magnitude of 3.6.

In astrology, Pisces is the 12th sign of the zodiac, considered as governing the period from about February 19 to about March 20. Its representation as two fish tied together is usually related to the Greek myth of Aphrodite and Eros, who jumped into a river to escape the monster Typhon and changed into fish, or, alternatively, the two fish that carried them to safety.

Astrological sign and it’s traits

Tarot card ~ the moon

In this card, the crayfish is emerging from the water to see two dogs howling at the Moon. Therefore, it shows fear, confusion, and illusion (since the fish did not expect to see that scene).

Planet - Neptune

Pisces is ruled by Neptune, the celestial body that governs creativity and dreams, and these ethereal fish adore exploring their boundless imaginations. In its more nefarious form, however, Neptune also oversees illusion and escapism.

“Pisces people are known for being emotionally sensitive gracious. and emotionally aware. Pisces characters are regarded for being among the most sympathetic of the zodiac signs. and they will go to great lengths to ensure the happiness of those around them.”

Pisces are highly creative and imaginative, Walker reports, as well as compassionate and loving. Their emotional sensitivity factor is high, helping them to remain in tune with others but also leaving them vulnerable to criticism, worrying a lot about the effect that their actions might have on others.

[anetaen]

ALTAIR. THE TWELFTH SEAT.

vampire, twelfth chair of the stellar council. 700+ years old, they/she. warden of the newly created, one of several presiding judges over misdeeds and crimes.

⁽ ¹ ⁾ altair is the brightest star in the constellation of aquilais, and is the twelfth - brightest star in the night sky. name meaning, in arabic origin it means “ flying eagle. ”

⁽ ² ⁾ in chinese belief, altair is better known by its other names:  qiān niú xīng  (牵牛星 / 牽牛星) or  niú láng xīng  (牛郎星), translated as the cowherd star. these names allude to the love story,  the cowherd and the weaver girl, in which niú láng and his two children are separated from respectively their wife and mother zhinu by the vastness of the milky way. they can only meet once a year, when magpies form a bridge to allow them to cross the milky way to each other.

within the origins of this lore, vampires sit on a council born from the names of stars and their rankings of magnitude. vampires upon the council forego their original, human names, and take on the name of the star in which houses their seat. the corresponding number collates to rank and standing within the council, each has their own job from number one, to ninety-two. these are given based on importance and status level.

death is the only release from the stellar council.

vampires exist in their own separate world, adjacent to the human world and accessible through certain “ doors ” that have been placed. most vampires within the stellar council have access to their own door or can simply manifest between the two worlds with ease.

higher ranking vampires from forty and below are immune to the effects of sunlight, those below twenty are immune to the common stake through the heart scenario.

all vampires possess an innate power/ability, though vampires within the stellar council can covet these to new heights within their corresponding levels.

seats one through twenty meet on a regular basis (as regular as you can call the quick passage of time, for them), other levels of seats meet within their own terms and conditions as freely as they would like, with some travelling to meet with the seats of the first twenty to discuss important matters.

as a human altair and their sister were turned into vampires by sirius, the first seat. two hundred years later, altair became the twelfth seat and their sister the fifth, vega. in a brief history, vega was later killed and a new fifth seat was appointed, whom altair does not get along with and has tried to dispose of several times and still refers to them as their human name despite holding the fifth seat for more than 300 years.

altair has acclimated to the modern world exceptionally well, one of their innate talents being that of blending in, able to retract sharp fingernails and disguise their pointed ears, giving the outward shape of a regular human being.

their job as the holder of the twelfth seat is to act as a warden over newly created vampires and to access whether they have been made in malice, carelessness, or by a strict design. not all vampires under this lore possess the ability to turn human beings into their own kind, and so it is altair's job to make sure this is not done with the wrong intentions. certain vampiric venom breeds faulty vampires, in a way. this does mean that they have a lot of vampires under their charge, regarded as fledglings.

altair also acts as one of several judges of crimes against humans and vampires alike. vampires are under no strict instruction not to harm humans, but where the disruption of human life is considered catastrophic then matters must be dealt with swiftly.

altair's main ability is a form of hematomancy, the ability to read the past and present (and sometimes future) within the blood of others. for altair this manifests as needing both parties, themselves and the other person, needing to make an incision on their palms and press them together, a give and take of blood to activate the ability. with regard to what the other party receives, their incision will heal remarkably quick as a result of taking in altair's blood (this is not the only method in which altair can access this ability, it can be done through more forceful means).

altair can also choose to share her own past, present and future insight with the other party, but this is not information that is available simply upon contact.

other abilities include fast injury regeneration, various forms of magic, daylight resistance, ability to turn humans into vampires, light manipulation.

in reference to point ⁽ ² ⁾ , when altair's sister passed she left behind two of her own fledglings that she had turned herself. with nobody to care for them, altair took them under her wing and regards them as their own children, they can only see their “ mother ” through projections of altair's memories.

altair was born within the ming dynasty era of china, their father central to the government within their province. their forgone human name was li ( 理 li . great judge )  liángyù ( 梁 liáng . meaning mast, bridge, elevation, beam . 愉 , yú . meaning pleasant, delightful . )

personality wise, altair is carefree and can often be referred to as a nuisance for other vampires in the lower levels. she can be quite unhelpful towards their need for information/help from them, but she takes her responsibilities very seriously.

whilst some vampires on the stellar council have integrated into modern society, a vast majority have refused to. most notably would be sirius, the first seat, who has made no effort to mingle with the modern world or its inhabitants. another is capella, the sixth seat, whom altair bothers more than most, the two of them having formed a close bond from altair's ascension as the twelfth seat. altair constantly battles to force capella into the modern world and showers them in trinkets that she claims they're missing out on.

[politicalantibody]

Posted here by mistake. But enjoy! (More at SkyLobster.Tumblr.com)

A fascinating telescope object and Star-forming region. NGC 2070 is not even in our own galaxy.

From Sky Safari: NGC 2070 is the largest and brightest emission nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and one of the largest emission nebulae known. The Tarantula Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 8. Considering its distance of about 160,000 light years, it is so bright that if it were as close to Earth as the Orion Nebula, the Tarantula Nebula would cast shadows. The Tarantula is also possibly the largest HII star-forming region in our galactic neighborhood, the Local Group.

Unfortunately for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the Magellanic Clouds are only high enough to see clearly from the Southern Hemisphere.

NGC 2070, Within the Tarantula

[starzpsychics]

Zodiac Water Sign Cancer the Crab

DATE: JUNE 21 – JULY 23

ELEMENT: WATER

POLARITY: NEGATIVE

PLANET: MOON

COLOR: CREAM, SILVER, WHITE, AND GREY

LUCKY GEM: RUBY, PEARL

FLOWER: ORCHID AND WHITE ROSE

LUCKY NUMBERS: 4 AND 6

Cancer is the sign of the feminine and the “mother” archetype.

Cancer is the fourth sign of the Zodiac. It is ruled by the moon and characterized by the crab. In Vedic astrology Cancer is known as Karka.

The Zodiac word Cancer comes from Indo-European origins. In Latin the word Cancer directly translates to ‘Crab’

According to Greek Mythology mythological Karkinos, was a crab crushed by the foot of Hercules. Then Hera (wife of Zeus) is said to have placed the crab’s remains in the sky, which eventually formed the lunar constellation of Cancer.

According to Greek mythology, Hera placed the crab’s remains in the sky, which eventually formed the constellation.

The Constellation of Cancer

Laying between Gemini and Leo. Gemini is the third sequence - Leo is the fifth.

Those born from June 18 to June 24 are considered a Gemini-Cancer Cusp as they are born between the transition of the two signs. The Gemini-Cancer cusp is also known as the Cusp of Magic.

While the Cancer-Leo cusps born between July 19 to July 25 are also known as the Cusp of Oscillation.

Best viewed through a telescope the constellation of Cancer contains faint stars and is a medium sized constellation, with an area of approximately 506 square degrees. The brightest star in this constellation is the Beta Cancri with a magnitude of 3.5.

Successful Celebrities

Elon Musk, Toby Maguire, Vin Diesel, Meryl Streep, Ariana Grande, Diana Princess of Wales, Harrison Ford, Khloé Kardashian, and Chris Pratt

ITALIAN ARTIST

Italian artist Giovanni Maria Falconetto in 1517 painted the lunar sign of Cancer as a guardian for the city of Verona in Italy. The sign of Cancer is also featured in other works of art such as Agostino di Duccio’s View of Rimini Under the Sign of Cancer.

Personality Characteristics

Positive traits:Helpful, patient, empathetic, nurturing, and creative.

Strengths: Tenacious, highly imaginative, loyal, emotional, and influential

Weaknesses: Grumpy, pessimistic, suspicious, manipulative, and insecure

Compatibility: Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, and Pisces

People with the Zodiac sign of cancer are known for wearing their hearts on their sleeves. They are deeply intuitive, sentimental, and emotional. On the flipside at times, they can also appear overly emotional, and moody! This is due to the Cancerian attachment to the moon phases, which is where those under the sign of Cancer can get the ‘crabbiness’ from!

Those born with their Sun in Cancer are very loyal and empathetic to the pain and suffering of others. People born under this sign may seem prickly and standoffish at first, but once they make the decision to become friends with someone, that person has a friend for life!

Cancers are highly intuitive; their psychic abilities often effortlessly pick up the energies in a room.

The People Pleaser

Cancer needs to know they are loved and appreciated. They are a huge people pleaser and caregivers taken to caring about everyone else’s needs but their own. However, if a Crab does not make time to air their own dirty laundry, this can lead to feelings of resentment and being unappreciated. They can also run the risk blurring the lines between attentive nurturing and controlling behavior.

Cancers attract friends and lovers through their loyalty, commitment, and emotional depth. They make excellent hosts and enjoy entertaining - Cancer rules the stomach, so there’s nothing crabs love more than a home-cooked meal with friends and family all sitting together around the table.

In Love

Cancer is in tune with their own body, and can be a sensual, giving, generous lover that expects the same in return. Being incredibly loyal Cancer will go to the ends of the earth for the person they love.

It's not uncommon for Cancer to fall deeply in love after a few days or weeks, and even though that decision is sudden, it can easily last a lifetime.

Cancer thrives as part of a duo, however that said they also have an independent streak that can at times need space and time to do things at their own pace.

They tend to have a great imagination but can at times need help from one of the more grounded signs to bring their dreams to fruition.

Career

Cancer has an entrepreneurial spirit, as it is a cardinal sign.

Known for their keen intuition and giving nature, they thrive in work that supports others and makes them feel at home. As natural empaths, they also thrive in fields such as a counselor or social worker.

Want to know what’s in store for you Cancer, or chat with a professional psychic? visit us at: https://starzpsychics.com

[esotericfaery]

Cancer after Gemini, Fixed Star Pollux, & Sabian Symbols

Cancer Season is coming in a couple of weeks!

We’ll be able to take our mind based experiences of Gemini Season, and more fully feel, express & release them.

We’ll need to check ourselves for passive-aggression, as the Moon rules Cancer and is in Cancer from June 7th to 9th. This causes mirroring emotions which can be incredibly confusing and painful.

First magnitude (among the brightest) Pollux is in Tropical Cancer @ 23° 33’ & Sidereal Gemini, @ 29° 21’.

~

SABIAN SYMBOL 23° 33’ Cancer:

23° Meeting of a literary society KEYWORD: CRITICISM Rigorous reevaluation of private attitudes & acts, or substituting idle discussion for grounded participation in reality.

24° A woman and two men on a bit of sunlit land KEYWORD: INCEPTION Organizing and making use of self potentiality, or devastating sense of ineptitude, with sense of reality breakdown.

~

SABIAN SYMBOL 29° 21’ Gemini:

29° The first mockingbird in spring KEYWORD: QUICKENING Consistent service towards others in all areas of human life, or annoying self-assertiveness

30° Bathing beauties KEYWORD: CHARM Familiar desires either endure as worthy, or charm turns to childish vanities.

~

Pollux has a similar nature to Mars, and along with Castor is part of the mythological twins which symbolize Gemini.

This star brings in cruelty and even violence, if prominent. Those are traits which have often been seen to be similar to the anaretic degree (29°-30°), such as deception and fate. Be careful & aware, yet try not to fear, if anything here is relevant for you.

We have Mars entering Taurus during this Cancer Moon the next few days, so this can either bring a stabilizing and grounding, or a stubborn flavour to the mix depending on how your charts are configured.

I’ve got birth IC in Gemini @ 29° 44’ and those both resonate. I didn’t realize that until I was already writing this. I’ve been doing both of the positive sides which the Gemini Sabian Symbol says.

Gratitude to my Ancestors for your wise guidance as always!

[stellarluminosity]

Constellation: Centaurus

For stargazers living between the latitudes of 25°N to 90°S, look towards the southern skies for Centaurus as May approaches.

Being the 9th largest constellation, it covers an area of 1060 square degrees. This particular patch of sky has a lot to offer since it is embedded in a splendidly bright and intricate part of the Milky Way. For me, the entire expanse of sky encompassing Scorpio, Sagittarius and Centaurus? *chefs kiss* (There are so many interesting deep space objects to see in Centaurus so I’ll probably talk more about it in another post)

For most of the illustrated star maps, Centaurus was always shown to be spearing or sacrificing Lupus, the adjacent wolf constellation. It is said to represent an ancient pagan festival known as Lupercalia and Centaurus is bringing Lupus to the sacrificial altar, Ara. In Babylonian culture, the constellation was depicted as the Bison-man and associated it with their Sun god Utu. Others relate the constellation to the wise Chiron, mentor of great Greek heroes such a Achilles, Asclepius and Heracles to name a few.

Stars of Centaurus

Its a wonderment to stare at this patch of sky since it contains approximately 281 stars below the mag. 6.5 (the dimmest stars that can be observed by the unaided eye) within its borders. It can be overwhelming but 11 main stars can be joined to resemble the outline of a classical centaur. Only 9 stars have official names recognized by the IAU. I have them labelled in the image above along with the meanings behind those names for a lil trivia. The names are mostly of Arabic and Chinese origins.

It boasts magnificent star clusters and home to the two brightest stars of the night sky. Leading the way are Rigel Kentaurus (α-cen) and Hadar (β-cen) forming the front feet of the centaur. These 2 stars are also an important asterism in navigation as mentioned in a previous post called as “the pointers” aiding in identifying the Southern Cross. Holding the position as the 4th and 10th brightest star in the night sky, α & β-cen blazes at an apparent mag of -0.27 & 0.61. They are hard to miss.

Rigel Kentaurus is a triple star system consisting of:

Rigil Kentaurus itself (α-centauri A) & Toliman (α-Centauri B)- 2 sun-like stars locked in a binary orbit of 79.9 years.

Proxima Centauri (α-Centauri C) – An 11th magnitude red dwarf that needs a telescope to be seen. Famously known as the closest star to our Sun only 4.24 LY away. Only discovered in 1915 since it was so faint. It is an outlying member of the triple star system with an orbital period around 550,000 years!

I must at least mention the Omega Centauri Cluster

That fuzzy spot on the centaur's back is one of the oldest star clusters. Believed to be at least 12 million years old. Almost as ancient as the universe itself. It is also the largest known globular cluster in the Milky Way, estimated to have 1 million stars. This cluster holds many titles along with being the closest cluster to our solar system at 17,000 LY away. With that, it shines as the brightest globular cluster in the night sky.

Identifying Centaurus

There are 2 known patterns for Centaurus as you can see here. The one on the left is official pattern recognized by the IAU. The right side is more commonly used in other star maps or references. When it comes to identifying constellations, its better to stick with anything less convoluted so we'll go for the right side. This version simplifies Centaurus's upper body into a stick figure.

The easiest way to locate Centaurus is by looking for Crux first facing southward. The pointers (α&β-Cent) & Crux are basically a matching set and the fact that they are fairly bright stars make it even easier to locate! Once you got the Pointers, make your way up to Alnair, Muhlifain & Birdun. These are fairly bright stars of mag. 2 that form a right-angled-triangle-lower-body. When you get a hold of that triangle, you're all set! Simply move upwards and try to visualize a stick figure.

Most of the stars that make up the torso are quite dim (mag. 2.5 -4) making it even harder to make anything out of it for beginners. I used to call that area as "a huge mess" It helps to start from Alnair (top of the triangle) and go upwards to the center, Mu & Nu- Cent. Then, upwards to Menkent, a fairly bright orange star of app. mag. of 2.04. From there work your way out to the arms. Same goes for the hind legs. Best time to view the centaur is in May where it is fully upright in the sky in its full glory at 10pm onward.

Happy star hunting!

[nantilusa]

The Rhapsodise; All shall be Harmonious Again

She ventured down a divergent road, where delight wore a novel face. She took the gospel of novelty he gifted, treating each twist of fate as mere casualties. consumed those scenery as a sketch of comedy misadventure at first, making no attempt to make any interconnection that in stages, and without her being aware of it, guiding her back to tranquility and ease.

Now she is walking in and take her risk, dancing in the joy that rising as high as her knees.

…

The foxy naked eyes staring at mine at the half four in the morning. Those eyes feels like a single star that offered a magnitude amount of affection, fondness, and warmth.

He whispered few question about myself, then we talked randomly about anything. The conversation goes very interesting. We ignored the tiredness, the heavy eyes, and continue telling each other about all ancient echoes of events that happened in our life.

His story unfurled with a cascade of daring exploits, his dreams where vulnerability and courage dancing harmoniously in the middle of it, his family, his obsession with reggae along with masculine things and the resonance of sound systems, and the unspoiled wonders of nature. He told his fleeting fascination with the cosmos as well, enthralling me with a tidbit of celestial Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri that illuminating the sky as the third-brightest star that trailing only behind the luminance of Sirius.

I, too, shared my own story. An account of the side of me that eternally thirsty for the novelty in life, how I engulfed myself in the enormity of something unreal, the collection of questions since time immemorial, the chart of stars, the flip of tarot cards, the rhythm of Mercury in retrograde, the chronically online personality of myself that intricacies in the complexity 4.0 of my mind.

Those sharp eyes never stops filled with enthusiastic stares, occasionally chimed in our conversation with jokes, gave more bread and questions along with the burn of new cigarettes. As the clock's ticking seemed to liquefy, it infused our conversation with an added layer of gentleness. Our eyes brimmed with enthusiasm, remaining vigilant as the sun itself stirred from its brief slumber.

…

The fresh line started with a series of amusing escapade. He brought me from the old restaurant, invited me to mingling with more place to go and discovering new nourishment. Charged and conversing me with bags of people. Subtly step aside with watering hole that felt like a comforting echo of what I yearned for the most.

As far as I can tell, he has consistently exhibited a haphazard, spontaneous, and unpredictable nature, which for me serves as a new refreshing palette of colors. His opinionated mind and unique perspective that reflecting his inner spirit shines through the tenderness from every conversation we had. Laid my eyes and changes my viewpoints on him as such exquisite beauty that is worthy of my sight.

I discovered a sanctuary. The familiar things from him gets conflated in the subconsciousness with the notion of safety in my mind. More like an incredible feeling of comfortable as I can confide anything to him without fear of judgment or harsh word, and profoundly, he has some sort of a high-ranking in showing his affection towards me.

A bauble of joy took over my life, fluttered like ribbons of elixir until the pernicious defenses comes again like a creeping seep, pressing my foot and annihilates my bold confidence to trusting this brand new amicable story. It’s giving me a cue about the taste of contentment, pleasure, and cheeriness in each new story begins. Jog me with the frightfulness of unpredictability and complexity. Filled me with the eerie of tasting the leisure as I realized it as something cliche.

The final bubbles, on the brink of my rationality, left me pondering what lay ahead for me. The boat of questions and the waves of sinister grow dim as I form an idea that life is undeniably a sequence of unforeseen twist and turns, so why not I align my path instead of questioning the enigmatic silhouettes that linger beyond my gaze.

I’m wondering if it was the right choice or just another instance of me impulsively leaping without considering the consequences, or this might be simply be another pattern of me avoiding the solitude season in my life once more. Nevertheless, I realize that life lies in the art of surmounting obstacles, therefore I let myself collect this unpredictable string as an amorous freedom as it if a sail of an elegant dance with the turbulent waves.

Complexity continued to assail me, accompanied by the anamnesis that tread upon the pages of concluding chapters and the ballet of changing seasons. Within those pages, I discovered the weight of excessive dependence and expectation, placed upon the once-giant livid couch, unbeknownst to me that my own toxicity had vandalized it.

The thought of closure endearing in my ears. Perhaps the closure that I need the most is something that force me to begin a new start, for myself. Verily, I sealed the tome's timeworn pages, then dipped my quill to inscribe upon the pristine canvas of a new chapter. Get under the way with a new pen and fraternize my things.

The first line goes with an arrangement that I just need to let the liquor, but not through my veins again. Walking carefully, but not like I’m in the chase of the police. Shifted my mind from autopilot to a state of mindfulness, cautious but be fond with the journey. Softening the moment as a plot that containing an instrument to navigate my descent, to at least cease the self-pity and commence my fresh chapter.

Now I’m owing to the fact that perhaps life is profound lessons have empowered me to rise from the plummeting plane and decisively flick the switch of fate. Perhaps the show must runs, and grant the right to me to show off in a different scarlet letter. Perhaps this season grasped me to embarked my perpetual journey of growing and transformation of mine.

Like a tranquil, expansive lake, I held onto that fleeting glimpse, yearning for solace on its distant shores, drawn by its delicate beauty, because I know all will be fine and I surely will be a fine line.

[andromeda1023]

Info from: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-11/

Messier 11 is one of the few open star clusters in the Messier catalog that has been observed by Hubble. Unlike the many globular clusters Hubble has imaged, open clusters are groups of stars that are only loosely bound by gravity. The lifespans of open clusters are relatively short when compared to those of globular clusters. This is because the gravitational interactions between members of open clusters are comparatively weak, so stars do not remain bound for long before they are drawn away by stronger gravitational forces.

Also known as the Wild Duck Cluster for the roughly V-shaped arrangement of its brightest stars, M11 was discovered by the German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1681. It is located 6,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scutum and has an apparent magnitude of 6.3. Of the 26 open clusters included in the Messier catalog, M11 is the most distant that can be seen with the naked eye. The best time to spot the cluster is in August. M11 is one of the most densely populated open clusters known. Containing over 2,900 stars, it appears as a triangular patch of light through a pair of binoculars.

The Wild Duck Cluster, M11 // raphaelcoelhophoto

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

2020 SU Fic Sampler - WIP Showcase

So in my continued attempts at distraction, I trawled through my SU fanfic folders, looked at the ol’ endless WIP pile. Figured I’d do a little roundup of some that are in something resembling a decent state. Maybe even see where interest lies and all that, get some attention and validation, you know, all that good stuff one craves. Of course, there’s loads more than this, and I might one day post some things I wrote but never quite managed to finish up, or that got super jossed in ways I couldn’t get myself to work around.

Now, in no particular order, here’s 8 draft snippets totaling almost 6000 words - not very polished, obviously, some quite rough around the edges, some long, some short, some that work better without context than others. But here they are anyway, with an utterly predictable array of focal characters. Any missing segments or my asides/notes in the text are [written like this], because I usually write very non-linearly. Hope you all like mood whiplash! 

P.S. I live for comments.

Like Talking To A Wall, aka Bismuth making friends with the wall, statue, and floor Gems. Early precursors to radicalisation and “I would have liberated everyone”, perhaps. Started as one of my first reactions to the Diamond Days episodes.

“Hey, thanks for listening.”

“Anytime. You’re lucky I’m so supportive,” Mica piped up from up on her arch.

Bismuth laughed. Bittersweet. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.”

Then, with a surprisingly gentle hand pressed to the carvings she’d been so careful about, she added a soft: “I’ll miss you.”

“Chin up! It’s gonna be a lovely off-planet adventure for you,” Granite rumbled from just above her head. “A brand new colony! Think of the sights!”

“You can tell us all about it when we see you again.”

Bismuth leaned back, pressing her whole back against the wall, reluctant to leave, even if a snooty shift supervisor was bound to come around and chase her off soon. “Yeah, I’ll make sure to do that.”

They all knew very well that, as always, when the building was done, it was goodbye. The chances of there being a need for repairs or remodelling - and the exact same bismuths being brought in to do them - were incredibly slim.

But pretending was nice, sometimes.

-

Hey, Steven, think I could get a moment before we leave? I won’t be long.

-

They were right where she’d left them, and the years had done very little to change them. A bit of a patina there, some dust, the tiniest bit of wear on sharper corners.

“Bismuth?” Several familiar voices cried out to her in shocked recognition.

She knew she must look a sight - battle-ready and battle-worn, but armour still gleaming, and with a bearing of one who had been through much and was always ready for more. She felt her back had never been so proud and straight, her shoulders so resolutely set.

“I think,” Bismuth grinned, “you’re gonna start seeing changes around these parts.”

---

One for that favourite Pearletariat/Pearl Solidarity fic sub-genre of mine: Clever Pearls Cleverly Getting Around Badly Worded Orders. A bit of an origin for an as-of-yet unnamed pearl OC, because I sure don’t have enough of those!

In the untold thousands of years of Homeworld and Gemkind, and the hundreds of thousands of commands given to hundreds of thousands of pearls, nobody ever thought to Order a pearl not to think. That would imply a they mattered at all, and who would ever put stock in a pearl’s thoughts? Most Gems weren’t sure pearls could think, anyway. I mean, if they could, all that standing around would be intolerable, wouldn’t it? And imagine not being able to say no to anything, even crushing your own gem - shards, at least I’m not a pearl!

They were, occasionally, when dealing with an owner’s important, private, confidential business, Ordered to forget, or, a bit less esoterically, Ordered never to tell.

And [OWNER] has always been all too eager with the Orders. As if she went to bizarre lengths in her thinking that pearl couldn’t - or wouldn’t? - do anything upon merely being told, let alone by herself. Every little thing, from sweeping up the shards of a broken decorative plate to taking down the minutes of an important meeting [OWNER] was presiding over - (im)pressed upon pearl with the crushing weight of an Order.

But she could still think.

Even when Ordered to wait by the door, freezing her limbs and anchoring her legs to the ground with all the force of a starship mooring mechanism. Even when Ordered into silence for days and planetary rotations on end because [OWNER] had wanted to read an important document without being disturbed and it simply didn’t occur to her to lift it when she was done.

In the wake of the Rebellion and the Renegade Pearl, it only gets worse, and soon enough pearl can barely remember the last time a single movement she made was voluntary.

---

SU Future-era Bismuth and Steven convo I scribbled down in between some of these recent eps - after Growing Pains in particular I think - because Bismuth is the absolute pep talk queen.

“You already said you were sorry for trying to kill me in the Forge, and really, it’s okay, it was all a misunderstanding. Besides, it’s more than a lot of people have done!”

Bismuth blinked at the pinkish sheen around Steven’s cheeks, around the downturned brows - strange trick of the light, that. “Steven, come on. Just listen to me for a minute.”

“Okay,” Steven sighed, and leaned against the railing Bismuth had fixed just that morning.

“Point is, for me, the war had never ended. It wasn’t only yesterday, it was today. It was over for everyone, it seemed, except for me. And getting over that, getting used to that, really seeing that as the truth, not living every day buzzed up with that anticipation of the next battle, just waiting for Homeworld to come down hard on us with whatever new horror they’d come up with… that took a while. And it took help.”

[sudden apparent non-sequitur but It’s An Allegory, Steven.]

“When you make a sword, you can’t make it rigid and unyielding. You can’t just temper it into toughness and hardness and make it unbreakable. It needs to have some give in order to be durable, it needs to be able to bend so as not to shatter on impact. And sure, maybe the first parry or strike wouldn’t be the one to do it, but the tenth, the hundreth, the thousandth? Any time you might just find yourself holding on to a hilt with the jagged remnants of everything, and shards scattered on the ground. And if you’re very lucky, that’ll happen during friendly sparring, not in the heat of battle.”

Steven shrugged without response, and seemed to be shrugging off all the words as well. Back to the direct approach it was, then.

“Now you, Steven,” that at least got a bit more attention, “Sure, you can brawl with the best of ‘em, and you put that gem to damn good use. You’ve got great technique drilled in, too - I’d expect nothing less from one of Pearl’s students. But that’s not how you won, in the end, is it? You never won because you were tough, or strong. You have a diamond in you but you’re not hard at all. Well, except on yourself.”

“In the end all of this was possible because you were soft. Just malleable and pliable enough when it was needed. And that takes guts.”

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Bismuth put a hand on his shoulder, and even with all the very human growing he’d done, he still seemed to almost disappear in it. “You put yourself out there for others… maybe it’s about time you let them help you.”

---

The next chapter of the His Dark Materials/Daemons AU which I am sooooo painfully late with it’s not even funny anymore. Already posted some excerpts [here] and [here].

“She’s been... away on business, but we’ve sent a zeppelin for her and she’s well on her way back. Hopefully.”

“You have a zeppelin?” Rose was rapidly failing in all her efforts to keep her voice down. 

“Of a sort. We, er, we... stole it.”

“Stole-!”

“Yes, well, stole might be a strong word,” Pearl tapped a finger against her chin. “You see, there was a small decommissioned postal craft left below the southern mail station aërodock that nobody would ever miss, all I had to do was fix it up a bit and-”

Rose blinked. “You fixed a decommissioned zeppelin.”

Pearl waved a hand almost casually. “I had some help, but yes. Svalbard, understandably, is hard to reach with other means of transport, and Bismuth needed to be able to go back and forth.”

“You,” Rose began, awed, “are utterly wasted on bringing me my slippers, I’ll tell you that.”

“Well then, maybe,” Pearl blushed, but there was nothing hesitant about her smirk and the strikingly proud tilt of her head, “maybe you could take them off with a bit more care than kicking them halfway across the room and sending them off under the cabinets and- and then I wouldn’t need to do that at all. And I could fix all the zeppelins in the world.”

-

[more from the super secret backroom rebellion meeting]

“They’re with the Consistorial Court of Discipline, no doubt. Always on the lookout for,” Bismuth grimaced, “heretics. A lot falls under that. A lot of good excuses to snatch someone off the street and do who knows what to them. And they’ve been funneling people there, people vanished by the CCD. Not lacking in test subjects lately.”

“How did you get this? Where?” It was Sapphire, this time. Ruby seemed overwhelmed, and sat clutching her hand desperately as the tiny frog and hare both whispered something to her.

“We traced the funding for all this. It was difficult and deliberately obfuscated, but we managed. A facility like this, an entire operation, cost a pretty amount, you’d assume - and you’d be right. It had to come from somewhere. And whoever was paying for it was likely to want to know what was being done with their investment.”

“So we followed the trail. And it turned out I was… ideally positioned to… to, erm, procure what evidence there was to be found. Because, well...” Pearl trailed off, and lifted one of the stolen report sheets for all to see.

It was as clear as day, the family crest right above the astronomical amount being granted. Four diamonds, neatly arranged.

Neshu’s ears were flat against his mane, and Rose found herself wishing the ground would simply open up and swallow both her and him and the chair that she sat on and he’d tried to duck under.

Bismuth spoke up, grim, every drop of earlier exuberance gone from her. “When the Diamonds look out from the windows of their mansion, they don’t see people. They see tools, toys, and weapons. Nothing else.” She sounded more tired than angry. “It’s just what they’ve always been doing, but writ large.”

---

And then, of course, the Longass PearlRose Fixit because I hate the gag order but at the same time want it gone… slowly and organically. Alternating Rose and Pearl POVs spanning throughout the rebellion era, all sorts of flashbacks and Imagining Things included. At one point they end up attempting to essentially jailbreak Pearl, because Pearl is, as we all know, absolutely the most hardcore. Also thank you SU Movie for confirming all the awful Alexa-flavour fanon/headcanons and giving me an excuse to dive into a bunch of Gems-as-AI tropey stuff, on top of everything. [another previously posted fragment here]

“I don’t want to. I never want to do that to you again.” She stops, takes a breath, reconsiders. “And I know it’s a lot to ask of you, the trust I just… trampled over. So I want to make sure that it’s not just that, you trusting me not to make the same mistake again, with no reassurance anywhere. I—I want to not be able to. Nobody should be able to do that to you.”

“Nobody should be able to do that to anyone,” Pearl corrects readily.

“You’re right,” Rose smiles, only a bit wry, “as always. My brilliant, brilliant Pearl. What would I do without you?”

“Never get back to the point you were trying to make, I imagine,” Pearl quips with something resembling sauciness, and Rose feels at least some of the weight starting to lift off her.

“Right,” Rose agrees, chastised, and tries to focus. “I just… I’m not sure how, or what I need to do at all. It’s not like there’s much precedent – ownerless pearls are unheard of. Even when their owners get shattered, it’s only ever temporary, and, with such high demand, very brief.”

Pearl nods in agreement, and hums. “Luckily, we’ve seen plenty of unheard of and unspeakable things here.”

[echoes of Scabbard convo]

“I want to know, I want to be certain, that you’re here because you want to be.” 

“So do I.” Pearl responds quietly, letting their fingers entwine.

  [Giving an order not to follow orders doesn’t work, failsafes exist. Then they try a sort of ownership transfer thing, and try to make the new owner Pearl. It doesn’t register, “invalid transfer target”, even when Pearl tries to hack it - some odd gem tool that scans and pokes at her gem - she gets all bummed out because she can’t even reprogram a very basic and modifiable handheld tool/device to recognise a pearl as an actual gem and person. What chance does she have against hearts and minds and an entire ingrained culture of an entire sprawling empire?

“You changed my mind,” says Rose all softly and earnestly.

Have I really? Pearl asks herself but doesn’t let it escape out loud. Still. Step by small step, she admits to herself. Incremental, slow, but persistent work. She can do that. Even as down on herself as she is, she can do that.]

“The… the override.” Pearl breathes out suddenly.

“What?”

“The administrative override - you, or, well... Pink Diamond should be able to trigger it, even without a Rejuvenator. We shouldn’t…” Pearl looks strangely scared now, swallowing small gulps before pushing onwards, hands trembling and fingers knotting together, “w-we shouldn’t need a full reset, really, but. But we can try modifying the owner identification...”

Having to… turn into Pink again (turn back into yourself, you mean, a small voice whispers, who are you trying to fool) doesn’t sit well with her, of course, but. Get a hold of yourself, Pearl certainly has it so much worse in this scenario.

[more here about how they both need to kind of “revert” a bit to try this and it sucks, because no! unpleasant poking of holes in the elaborate fantasy! For the greater good, but still.]

And oh, Pearl looks just about ready to either cry with some strange terror Rose has never seen her display, or dissipate her form on the spot - the small dam of coldly throwing around terms like administrative override activation and owner identification variable providing just enough distance for her to carry on.

“It shouldn’t be too risky if we’re… if you’re careful.”

[Pearl trusts her with everything, her literal entire self - with this thing that is such a blatant violation of her being and her person, that she now wants to turn against itself, using one of the most humiliatingly clearly objectifying aspects of her status as an instrument of her liberation. It is all A Lot.]

Rose remembers, also, with a sting, the way she grumbled and sulked over the gaping pit of guilt in her stomach and refused to even look at the glowing, floating shell Blue was so insistently pushing her towards. She wanted her Pearl back, not whatever White and the others had decided to foist upon her now. Not a pale replacement, nothing they deemed suitable.

-

“Please state preferred customisation options.”

“Come on, Pink,” Blue urges, softly but mercilessly as ever, large hands enveloping Pink almost whole from where they’re planted on her shoulders, “White had her specially made, just for you! And we helped as well - only the best for our Pink. Now it’s up to you to put your finishing touches, as is proper-”

“What for? You’ll just take her away when you feel like it anyway,” she grumbles into her arms, curling up on the floor and resolutely refusing to look even as the glow spreads from the corner of her eye, insistent.

Just as insistent as the awfully familiar little voice. “Please state preferred customisation options.”

“I. Don’t. Care!” But now with a newly noticeable, if strained restraint - not, like her usual, punctuated with a slam of her fist on the floor tiles, perfectly shiny and pink. No, she couldn’t- do something like that again-

“Default setting selected. Please stand by.”

Yellow scoffs and moves to leave. “Come on, Blue. No point to us wasting our time being here if she’s just going to throw one of her tantrums.”

But Blue refuses to leave it at that, and makes sure to cut with parting words, before slinking through the large pink doorway. “I am very disappointed in you, Pink. To act like that, and with White personally making sure you got such a lovely gift even after everything...”

“Waste of good nacre, if you ask me,” Yellow muses from somewhere up above. “At least try not to break this one.” 

The glow intensifies with a hum, and Pink screws her eyes shut and pretends not to see or hear anything. 

By the time she opens them again, the others are gone.

But then there is another presence at her side, hovering just behind, as is proper court protocol. The shuffling of tiny, soft slippers on the polished stone - weren’t pearls supposed to be endlessly, effortlessly quiet?

“Leave me alone,” she preempts quietly. The shuffling moves away.

-

“Please identify yourself.”

Calmly, now, calmly but firmly, just like we planned it. Don’t mess this up now. She’s counting on you. She trusts you. “Pearl.”

“Please state preferred customisation options.”

They’ve discussed this too, of course - extensive (over)preparation and planning down to minutiae is Pearl’s go-to at the best of times, and something she clutches at for comfort at the worst of times. And she’s always, to a sometimes comical extent, despised that ridiculous dress. To a wonderful extent, too, all things considered.

“Revert to last implemented appearance.”

“Settings selected. Please stand by.”

[Of course this doesn’t work because all it does is change the $username$ variable, not the actual identity of the person imprinted: it’s still Rose/Pink, she’s just nicknamed “Pearl” now, but she can still give orders and everything.]

[evolves into Pearl literally hacking herself… the most hardcore of modders]

---

Pearl Playing the Field aka “why not hyper-analyze that one brief shot of the notes and phone numbers in Pearl’s gem and write 9 meet-cutes”. Pearl goes out to “find herself”. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Supposed to be set pre-ASPR, but also extends past it. Ended up with some Bispearl in it too because I am predictable and can absolutely not help myself.

“Your hair is wonderful!” She feels like she almost has to shout to be heard over the din of the bar’s ill-chosen soundtrack, and she doesn’t appreciate it. Definitely not one of her favourite places she’s decided to visit recently. And the ventilation is atrocious.

But still, she’s come all this way, so she may as well make the best of it. And while the preoccupation with hairstyles during first meetings seems like a bit of an odd running theme (can it really be termed a running theme, though, if it’s happened all of two times?), it’s certainly worked in the past (recent, very recent, and hardly bursting with relevant instances, Pearl!). Oh, and this particular one is just too fascinating. Approaching a work of art, Pearl would dare say. Especially, well. Especially when paired with the lovely eyes and striking jawline and strong neck it seems to deliberately be drawing attention to.

Pearl leans on the bar, in the bit of space the woman happily makes for her, and tries to look confident and well-informed, but not smug, no, never smug. “I know... about the, uh, goop, of course. I know how one accomplishes this.”

The woman gives a bemused smile. “Thanks! Not too shabby yourself.” She leans in closer. “I'm actually in school for it.”

“School?” Pearl casts desperately back to what she's heard from Steven and Greg's often hasty instruction. That was for educating human children, wasn't it? She'd put one together for Steven that one time, with desks and a blackboard… and Connie attended one regularly...

“Yeah, kind of a late game career change.” Pearl nods along as she realises - or, rather, remembers - she is absolutely terrible at gauging human ages. “But I thought... after almost 30 years in accounting and not going anywhere I wanted to be going... it’s not like we have all the time in the world, right? So I figured, why not? Go for something I'm actually invested in and that I've always wanted to do, y'know?”

“Oh. Oh yes, yes I do.” And for once, she really does. Well, not the time-related bit, perhaps, but the very particular delight of getting to pursue one’s genuine interests after a long while of being denied? Absolutely. “I’ve done something of the sort myself, actually. Go for it! As they, uh, say.”

The dramatic gesture of almost punching the air with a closed triumphant/defiant fist might have been a tad over the top, but it wins her a smile that doesn’t seem unkind. The woman winks and tips her glass at Pearl, then finishes her drink - something sweet-smelling and almost as colourful as her hair.

“I had a classmate do this one for me, and I did hers after.” Pearl is nodding along again, leaning in to hear better as the woman’s voice dips lower. “I kind of like to experiment, push the limits, go wild with it. Hey. You interested? Promise I won’t go too wild on you.”

Pearl's mind goes blank there for a moment. The woman is… very close, and there are unignorable implications unrelated to hair styling so obvious here even she is picking up on them without issue, and the music hasn’t gotten any quieter. Interested in what, exactly, she wants to ask, but she came here for wild new experiences and exciting novelty, didn’t she, so instead comes out with a rather strangled-sounding: “Eughhhhh...uhhh.... Ye...s?”

The woman’s expression goes serious. “Hey, come on, we don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

---

Forge Showdown AU - aka in a twist of fate Bismuth poofs Rose during their confrontation and revelations happen that change the course of… well, pretty much everything - one of a bunch of AUs where the PD reveal happens earlier and under different circumstances (I had an idea of doing a 5+1 of those at one point).

The glow of the lava coloured the quickly dissipating smoke more orange-red than pale pink, and Bismuth stared numbly at where their revered leader, Rose Quartz herself, had been standing mere moments ago. She’d lashed out, true, but she hadn’t really been expecting the clumsy blow - more of a warning, or underlining a point in their continued argument-turned-fight - to land. In all their many sparring sessions, Rose had never succumbed to something like that, would have never so much as let it brush against her. But she’d been- frozen, distracted… by what? 

There, scraping softly against the ground as it rolled with leftover momentum...

That was not a rose quartz gem.

Bismuth raked her mind feverishly, thought back through the last few, oddly blurred seconds.

“We’re not using this, Bismuth! It’d make us just as bad as them!”

“No! You’re the one who’s as bad as them- look at you, lording over all of us, thinking it’s your right to command me, order me around, like you’re, what, my diamond?”

It… it had to be some kind of imposter, or spy. Right? Some kind of… awful Homeworld plan, trying to tear the Rebellion apart from the inside. Where was Rose, then? The real one? Captured? Being interrogated somewhere, her whereabouts kept strictly secret to minimise the chance of rescue? Shattered? Impossible, they’d never hear the end of the victorious crowing.

When could it have happened? The last few battles and meetings had been nothing out of the ordinary, and Bismuth couldn’t think of anything odd or off about Rose recently at all. Not a single hint or sign that anything was amiss. Not a single misstep. Homeworld would have trained and conditioned its agents well, but Rose- Rose was singular, and utterly one-of-a-kind, and how could they possibly capture all of it so perfectly-

Bismuth startled out of her thoughts as the beginnings of light seemed to gather in the core of the gem, and all but threw herself onto it, encasing it in a bubble.

Rose was rather special, wasn’t she? And not just in what she said or what she did or how she behaved or what she led and encouraged them to do, but… 

Her endless array of wondrous powers. Her sheer strength, overpowering ruby fusions and quartz battalions alike almost single-handedly. The healing which Bismuth herself had been on the receiving, lifesaving end of countless times. The way she called upon the organic creatures of the planet to fight for her, fighting in their name. And then, her regular absences. The way she seemed to know exactly what the Homeworld troops were up to - that wasn’t just some kind of tactical brilliance.

She dared to look at the gem again. Its hue was changed some by the bubble, but that was still in no way a rose quartz gem. No, it was an altogether different shape, but a terrifyingly familiar one.

But it made no sense!

Bismuth ran a slightly trembling hand down her face.

Pearl. Of course, Pearl would have to know, if anyone. About… whatever this was.

But if this, if she was… her, then Pearl-

Bismuth’s insides twisted in horrible ways as the implications began to flitter through her mind, each one worse than the one before it. There was the old call-and-response ringing in her ears, making her feel disoriented and sick with what had to be the beginnings of anger, could grow into a great fury, leaving her unnecessary breaths ragged: Who do you belong to? Nobody!

But-

Not Pearl, then. At least, not at first. Garnet. Garnet would know, and Garnet could See. They’d get to the bottom of this.

---

A metric ton of rebellion era ficlets, vignettes from my eeeEEeeEEeeEEE Bismuth collection mostly, which I’ve been accumulating since 2016 and have only posted some - Pearl, Rose, Garnet, Bismuth centric, occasionally with my takes on namedropped characters, some of which would now need an update to match actual canon.

Snowflake was there, held in Garnet’s arms. The familiar pattern of white speckles on black skin, the tight silver coils of hair sticking out every which way.

“We got her back. She wanted to see you.”

“Me? And you just listened to her? Are you out of your mind? How can I help? Have you taken her to Rose? If her gem- if she-”

“I’m right here!” Snowflake struggled out of Garnet’s hold, and stood up - wobbly, barely upright, but determined, on those legs that ran circles around Homeworld, and ran interference and messages faster than any Wailing Stone, in a pinch. “And I’m fine!”

“You don’t look fine, Snowy- listen, please just-”

Snowflake walked up to her, not stumbling a single time, and, gritting her teeth, looked right at her. The hairline fractures in her gem were visible from here, and Bismuth couldn’t help a wince. “Snowflake, come on-”

“I didn’t tell them anything.”

Bismuth wanted to clutch her to her chest and scream a thousand things at her, but You don’t have to prove anything to me and I’m proud of you and I’m going to make them pay for ever laying a finger on you all waged a war in her throat.

In the end she just settled on holding her close, very gently, until Garnet left, unheard, and came back with Rose, tears already in abundance.

[Later:] “I never properly thanked you, Garnet. For bringing Snowflake back.”

Garnet shrugged. “It was a group effort.”

-

A familiar voice sounded at the entrance to the Forge. “Now come along, it’s just here. Bismuth? Do you have a moment?”

“You know I always have time for you, Pearl,” she called back, putting her current project away. “What did you nee- oh.”

Bismuth blinked.

“Uh... wow,” was the only thing she could manage as pearl after pearl filed into her Forge, soon taking up most of the space around the anvil in impressively neat rows. “New recruits? A whole bunch of you, too.”

“Yes, well,” Pearl made her way to the front of the group, carefully avoiding brushing against the others on her way. She was fidgeting again, long fingers tangling and untangling rapidly, and that was one sure sign of mounting distress. “Garnet and I had planned out an attack on one of Blue Diamond’s supply lines. There was supposed to be a shipment of weapons coming in today, but it turns out it was… pearls.” 

There was something rather off about Pearl’s tone, too. Bismuth made a note to ask later, and do her best to catch her alone.

“Well, all the better for us. Nice to have you all on board.” Her jovial tone was only slightly forced - the pearls all looked like they clearly needed something resembling friendliness, but their skittishness was palpable. She turned towards a pale green pearl right at the front of the group. “Now, what do I call you?”

There was nothing but mild confusion, vague fear, and general quiet shuffling. “No ideas yet? Don’t worry about it! There’s plenty of time to decide and find something that fits.”

[she does indeed manage to talk to Pearl alone, later]

“What’s the real problem, Pearl? You can’t fool me. I can tell something’s wrong.” 

The rather flimsy front finally crumbled at that.

“I just… we- we took out the citrines they’d sent with the shuttle, and Garnet boosted me up so I could force the hatch open and I did, but then...” Pearl let out a distressed little half-sigh half-sob, one hand gesturing weakly. “They were all looking at me so wide-eyed and...”

She took a moment to at least attempt to collect herself.

“I don’t mind having them here, it’s not that at all. It’s just that… we were standing there, with all these newly-made pearls and… obviously I couldn’t just leave them there, in the middle of nowhere! And after what we did, whoever found them, they’d just have them shattered. Because of me. They were compromised. You’ve heard what they do now, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard. They’re the monsters, Pearl, and it’s not on you. It’s not you doing that to pearls, it’s them.”

“But it is on me! It quite literally is because of me, because of what I did, and continue to do. I made myself visible and played at being important and look what it got us,” Pearl was near tears, a frustrated blue colouring her face, “a handful of runaways and the rest being treated worse than ever.” 

The tears were out in full force after that, and Bismuth put an arm around Pearl’s shaking shoulders. “Hey, hey, none of that.”

“We ended up taking them with us, but it feels like… it feels like I forced them to come here. Is it really any better than what Homeworld does? All I did was say you’re going to be rebels instead of you’re going to serve and they never got a say in anything.”

“Have you asked them?”

“They don’t know what-”

“Hey. Just ask them, okay? Ask them what they want. We can help them either way. Of course I’d love them to stay. But it’s not up to me, and if they want to go to wherever it was they were supposed to go- we can do that, too.”

-

[Rose discovers her healing tears in a dramatic fashion - they come up with the idea to make the fountain - and thanks to Save the Light we have a pretty good idea of who lovingly made all those statues]

She gently wiped away some of the chiselling dust with the flat of her thumb, just like a tear. A magnificent, healing, life-giving tear.

This was familiar work. But with none of the endless chafing, none of the hated reminders of her former station - Bismuth couldn’t find anything in herself but reverence. And… inspiration. She was a Gem, stars knew she didn’t need rest, breaks, anything of the sort, but still - this pace wasn’t something she’d felt driven to in a long, long while. All day under the burning summer sun, and every night under the light of her own gem. All alone, as the sanctuary took form under her hands.

To get the curls just right, tiny detail by tiny detail, somehow communicate the softness of those cheeks in stone… it took drawing upon the very depths of her well of skill, because how else could she ever hope to capture the likeness of someone as extraordinary as Rose Quartz?

With small, careful movements, she formed the roundness of the lips that could spit fiery words of rebellion, inspire like no other, scowl fiercely in the heat of battle, smile contagiously, bellow out an outrageous fireside guffaw, murmur comforts so softly, kiss…

And then she did it again, and again, and again.

[in the end, Rose is presented with a veritable shrine to herself]

“Rose? Is something wrong? You… don’t like it?”

“No, no, Bismuth, it’s… it’s incredible.” The smile Rose turned on her was as beautiful as anything, but it wasn’t hard to notice it didn’t quite reach her eyes.