mostly cats, partially fandom

[mammalianmammals]

Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies (Petrogale xanthopus), family Macropodidae, South Australia

photographs by Wild Portraits Australia

[pipperoo]

Critical Role Campaign 4: Here in the Dark

+ bonus

[snototter]

A flock of metallic starlings (Aplonis metallica) at a nest site in Australia

by Dustin Huntington

[rann-poisoncage]

[g0dtier]

its really hard to take pictures during the day where you can see how gorgeous she is but heres one

[ironcowboyphantom]

This creeture is beautiful. What an interesting coat! What a pointy expression! 10/10 excellent.

@followthebluebell have you seen this kind of coloring before?

[followthebluebell]

Yes, but only within this breed (she's a transylvanian karpati). It's a very new breed. I think it was recognized in 2024 or 2025. It's gorgeous although I haven't seen one in person yet. I think karpati color is unique. It's this lovely 'reverse point' where the ears, nose, paws, and tail are lighter instead of darker, and the rest of the coat is speckled, almost roan like. It's only recognized in blue or black.

I've seen a salmiak cat in person, which is similar. It's another roan-like color.

[ilikeit-art]

Claudia Bueno is an artist born in Venezuela, now based in the USA, whose light art installations will tease and tantalise all your senses. Bueno works with circuits and motors to create ethereal installations which play with light, sound and touch, creating immersive art which is psychedelic and magical in nature.

[awoooniper]

if you were a weapon, (and you are one now. i’ve made you into one just by reading this) what kind of weapon would you be?

[awoooniper]

i am no longer asking i need answers people. tell me what weapon your soul is forged into.

[princesssokphanny]

A once-in-a-lifetime shot — the moon perfectly framed by a rainbow. Caught at just the right time. 🌈 🌕

[maureen2musings]

Lake Pielinen, Koli, Finland

rajasuokasper

[thecripchronicals]

Made these about a month ago, figured other spoonies might want to use them

[the-twitchy-life]

Have fun, kids!

[wastrelwoods]

his frog was getting nasty from chewing and I had to put it in the laundry. happy reunion after 90 sad and lonely minutes without #myfrog

[afrotumble]

The symmetry of this turn in the air!

Yellow Warblers (Setophaga petechia) are small, agile birds known for their stunning ‘circle flight’ during nest-building.

These little guys perform a semi-circular flight to mark their territory.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

The Stone of Nightsong is the campaign, I think. That's what this is about. I feel like the rest is just political theater and cover-up on this stone. I think what happened, everything else is the set dressing for the fact that Thjazi pulled on a thread by stealing that stone and it's unraveling the world. Not to say the rest isn't important. It is. It speaks and structures how power and influence moves through the world. But, I think the thing that this is really about is that damn rock.

It does lead me to question why HE stole it in the first place. Everything we learned about him, Thjazi comes across as a very deliberate person. So, he had to have reasons. And, as an arcanist, I find it VERY unlike that he did not know what that stone was and what it did. And, I wonder if his stealing it from Vaelus set off a chain reaction of a mad scramble for it across the powers that are left in the world.

I wonder if he was trying to re-open the door to faerie. Or, if he was trying to build a new one, or trying to work out how to build a path or move between those realms. It makes sense he would want to do this. For Thimble. For his wife, whose house and influence (and thus livelihood) depended on that door.

If you want to build a door or path to the realm of faerie, maybe you start with an artifact that is said to be able to ferry souls across the realms with haste, moving across the underworld with speed and ease. Especially if, in Aramán as it is in most settings in D&D, elves are related to fae.

I could be way off base here. But that's my immediate gut reaction here. But, in all cases, even if this was not his intentions at all, I think the Stone of Nightsong and its passing through hands as people chase it is the campaign.

[kiezh]

I think the Stone of Nightsong may be the key item for the Seeker angle of the campaign (lore! cosmology! wtf is up with the afterlife! what can we build anew in the absence of the gods?), but I don't think that's the whole campaign.

I think the Schemers are going to be much more into the political aftermath of the martyrdom of Thjazi Fang - their big questions aren't about the Stone of Nightsong, but (I speculate) more about "what do we do about the Sundered Houses and the Revolutionary Council? who holds power in Dol-Makjar?" (And, thematically, what do you do *after* turning the world upside down? How do you build something new that doesn't immediately become corrupt and need to be overthrown? Which could parallel the cosmology plot, with the aftermath of the death of the gods...)

No idea what the Soldiers are going to be up to (besides fighting things). Could be they'll be on the front lines of one of those plots, or maybe they'll end up in another conflict we don't know about yet. Whatever the plot for them is, I think there might be another thematic parallel with all the war veterans and "what happens after the war? how do we rebuild ourselves?"

I expect all of those will cross-pollinate, of course - e.g., the Halovars are up to their necks in the political plot but also seem to be making a bid for a metaphysical conquest of some kind with their new religion. But I think the different tables will have different campaign plots that have unifying themes.

[little-miss-rasputin-pageant]

having chronic pain is just like. ur sitting perfectly still doing nothing meanwhile the space above your head keeps flashing -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp

[olessan]

After scouring too many multiple sources (the burgeoning wiki pages, various articles, chatter, and the VOD itself), here is a chart of ALL the main player characters' relationships to Thjazi Fang, as best as I could determine them (so far).

Some of the NPCs, such as Wick's father or Uncle Emerald, are excluded for now. We have here the main PCs, their families as immediately relevant, and gradients for those who seem to have two major allegiances (one to Thjazi and one to their family) as of ep 1.

And also some lines for confirmed friendliness or beef lmao

[cooking-with-hailstones]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66992527

Y'ALL THIS IS THE COOLEST FANFIC I'VE EVER SEEN.

It is a complete narrative about SecUnits on a Planetary Survey trying to communicate and keep their clients safe while dealing with the restrictions of their govmod.

IT IS ALSO A FULLY INTERACTIVE GAME OF MINESWEEPER.

The story is told BY PLAYING MINESWEEPER.

This fic is criminally underrated* go look at it!!!

(edited to add: the story is about original characters so even if you haven't read Murderbot, you can still read this story!)

*at time of posting, the fic had like 50 kudos. Thanks to y'all it is no longer criminally underrated 😅

[joyride-time]

In honor of Orotine's exasperation

What's Andronicus' pre-breakdown morality level?

A long-suffering saint who only killed in defense of others

Generally goodhearted man who does what needs to be done, violent or not

Guy who tries to be a good person but isn't immune to pressure or temptation

Doesn't care about morality, but is aware that treating others well is useful

A utilitarianist, trying to make the best possible world for all by any means

Relatively well adjusted but quick to resort to questionable means in struggles

The ends justify his means but he does care about his close friends

Pursuing his own goals without any care what happens to other people as a result

Literally just Lucrezia from 200 years ago

Voting ended onSep 27, 2025

Andy. Andy! What was up with you. Comment with the character you see as closest to him if you dare.

[kiezh]

Started writing this in replies but it ended up a whole essay, whoops.

I think there was probably a whole character arc, from charismatic firebrand with a lot of both idealism and hubris (because proposing "I rule everything" as a solution to society's problems really requires it), to decadent king who had bought into his own legend and thought he deserved everything (and everyONE, especially women) that he wanted, and could no longer stand hearing criticism or advice.

I think he must have been really quite something, at the beginning, to get so many people (and so many Sparks) invested in his vision for the future. But that kind of power over people is corrosive to the spirit - erodes morality, inhibitions, sanity. A lot of idealistic firebrands get really messed up in what they expect from their followers, after they've gotten used to being the center of so much devotion.

And the sunk-cost fallacy is going to be in play, for his followers, as well as personal loyalty; once people have gone all-in on "this guy will Save Us!" they're going to be very resistant to noticing his flaws or acknowledging if he hurts people (for selfish reasons - presumably they're all fine with wars of conquest for idealistic reasons, or they wouldn't be Team Storm King). Those people must have deserved it! We've killed for this guy, we've raised him up on this pedestal, it can't have been for nothing. The Dream is still alive. (until it isn't)

As for characters to compare him to... well, I think Klaus is the most obvious. They have different faultlines in their personalities - Klaus is more of a workaholic optimizer control freak, less of the self-indulgent egotist with wild romantic impulses we've gotten hints of from Andronicus.

But they both, I think, started empire-building out of a desire for a better, stabler, more peaceful future, in the midst of a lot of chaos and violence. And people rallied to them because they did seem to be accomplishing something in that direction. But they fell into the same trap - "my cause" becomes overidentified with "my ego" and without sharing power with anyone else who can check their assumptions and overreach, they start assuming that however they want to exercise power is automatically justified. It's all for The Cause! (which has shifted from "making a better world" into "making myself feel like I'm always right and me being in charge is best")

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Andronicus. And on Klaus Wulfenbach, too, somewhat. (Also the danger I think the OT3 are going to need to be wary of, and that being a triumvirate will help them with - less chance of vanishing up your own ass if you have equals who can challenge you, who you can't dismiss or order to shut up!)