#not identical

[magnetothemagnificent]

I think when you start treating various queer identity labels less like personal name tags and more like community building tools, life starts to become a lot more stress-free and you realize how meaningless so much queer discourse is

[notabled-noodle]

Cars 2 walked so that Kingsman could run

[saccharinerose]

I finally gave my Fae twins appropriately Fae-y fashion

They also have names, finally: Canthus (short hair) and Sidae (long hair)

[melonyfelonyfellonme]

Me: It's been a while, might be a good time to try to get on with finishing reading Wheel of Time now that hyperfixation is wearing off. I'm sure nothing will trigger it again :)

...

Ah.

[marlini]

deeply weird emotions experienced when I realised that I quite probably will not be buried with my twin

[raysofcrosby]

Saw Matty’s GF in his instagram photos. Her and Emma both look just like Chantal…😭

you’re about to awaken one sir sigmund freud w that statement nonnie 💀💀💀💀

[bitletsanddrabbles]

Probably the most interesting member of my family - at least that any of us currently alive are aware of - is my great, great uncle Axel. He was an amazing artist. Someone (I forget who) convinced him to apply for Harvard and he was accepted, but he didn’t know what to study. When the person helping him decide asked him if he spoke any languages besides English, he replied “four or five” and wound up getting a linguistics degree. He was an inventor. He had a few patents. At one point he built an atom smasher in his flat, just to prove he could do it. Then he took it apart and brought in bats to study their sonar. On Sundays he went mushroom picking in Central Park, New York, with his buddies, Albert and Nikola. Only one member of my father’s generation managed to track him down and meet him, and she had to go through the secretary to do it. Apparently there’s some sort of tribute gate or sculpture or something to him outside of his old apartment in New York.

Possibly the best thing about him, though, was the signature he put on his patents. I first saw it during our huge family reunion in ‘97. (No, seriously, we made the papers. There are...kind of a lot of us.) My Dad got a copy and made t-shirts for everyone, with each branch of the family being a different colour, so you could tell how everyone was connected.

It’s a little dragon-type creature.

He wrote everything in kind of bubble letters. His first initials - A.E. - made up the wing. He gave the L of Landerholm feet and drew a little head on it. It looks like it’s either yawning or squawking. It’s perched on a little orb and the rest of the name is, well, a name.

It’s really awesome.

The first time I saw it, I immediately thought it looked kinda like Goldie from The Sandman. Not close enough to scare the lawyers, mind, especially since Uncle Axel is long since dead, but there was a bit of a resemblance. If you tilted your head and squinted a bit.

I’ve used this signature for various, family related projects through the years. I’ve converted it to book plates that I put in the journals I make for my cousins. For Christmas this past year, I decided to offer everyone their own personal blends from Adagio. Uncle Axel’s signature seemed like the most appropriate thing for the tin art, so I’ve been colouring it up however the recipients like.

So far only my next youngest cousin and her husband are the only ones to get me their blending requests. (A few other people are, I know, working on it. Everyone else has been silent. We love each other, but we kinda fail at communication.)  My cousin requested ruby red, for reasons that are obvious if you know her. Her husband requested black, yellow, and green. Since yellow and black don’t mix well, I made the background a green-to-black gradient and did the signature yellow.

The result?

...the resemblance to Goldie has not been lessened!