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All these oxymorons remind me of an old tale I found in a book somwhere or other. I went something like this. A woman was to be the king's wife, but she had to pass a test. She must come neither walking nor riding, not on the road, nor off it, and unclothed, but not naked. To meet all these requirements, she got a big fishnet to wrap herself in, then she tied the fishnet to a donkey. She was not wearing clothes, but she was not naked, she was not riding or walking, and she was not really on the road, and not really on it, either. That is probably not a very good retelling of it, but there you go.

I don't really give much weight to zodiacal signs when chosing my characters' birthdays, I tend to instead either hide references or simply go with whatever feels "right" to me.

Sergio, being born on October 27th, is a Scorpio. Which quite fits with his characterization, too, but it shouldn't be a surprise since he started off as my self insert and his characterization started off literally as Fictionalized Me (and thus shares my birthday, and yes I am said to really behave like a Scorpio),

Nikki, as she is a badfic clone of Sakura Kinomoto, shares the latter's birthday which is April 1st. As such, she's apparently an Aries, though she doesn't seem to share much in the way of that sign's associated traits, and her "template", Sakura, does even less! CLAMP surely chose April 1st with a different type of symbolism in mind.

Corolla is a bit of a peculiar case. Her birthday is (officially) May 25th, which is around the day I discovered the PPC. As an Unison Device from Lyrical Nanoha applying Earth-based astrology to her makes little sense. Still, she's a Gemini, and that sign still kinda fits with her.

Ami was born on December 28th, so she's a Capricorn. I felt that a birthday towards the end of the year fit with her, but she does seem to share some of the Capricorn's traits.

Keiko's birthday is just two weeks after her mother's, on April 13th, so she's also an Aries. I dare say it fits her better. Hajime shares her same birthday, being literally her alternate universe incarnation, but like Nikki doesn't really incarnate an Aries much. Their birthday is a reference to the day Mai Dire Fine, the fanfiction where it all started, began.

Kathleen was Aelit's self insert in Mai Dire Fine, so she shares his birthday which is July 31st. As such, she's a Leo which also kinda fits with her.

Faith's is on February 13th, chosen to be a rough inversion of Kathleen. That's Acquarius, which like Nikki is a complete miss in traits.

Fun fact: some of the bits associated with Sergio and Nikki are interesting. Their signs share the same ruler (Mars) and detriment (Venus), but their signs' element are kinda inverted between them. Sergio's sign, Scorpio, is a water sign and such associated to "emotion, empathy and sensitivity" while Nikki's, Aries, is a fire sign and such associated with "assertion, drive and willpower". Which, if you think about it, are kinda swapped between the two characters!

Yeah, the extra spaces is something Ao3 does sometimes... I think it's something in HTML that causes it, so it has to be fixed manually. I'll get to it eventually, but it happens all the time. >.<

Thanks for re-reading!

/Ekwy

With a date and a year, you bet we can!

(Full size)

Straightaway I can see that Scorpio is rammed (technical term). The Sun and Moon are sitting there together, and you've got Mercury and Venus crammed in too! The auto-chart calls it a triple conjunction, but I think I'd just say quadruple, and of the four innermost planets.

What that means is that those four planets will act on each other, and act together against external influences. The incredibly close Sun-Venus conjunction is going to be far and away the most dominant aspect of Nume's life: since the Sun represents the person themselves, Venus should make him friendly - even amorous - lucky, and generally nice to be around.

[Looks at Nume]

But, Venus is actually in detriment while in Scorpio. That means its effect is weakened - perhaps hidden? - behind the other aspects of the conjunction. The Moon is actually at fall in this sign, so its travelling/wandering aspects are also going to be weakened; Mercury, meanwhile, is happily imbuing all of this with changeability, a mercurial temperament.

I think the most coherent read of the conjunction is that Nume can be charming, or he can up sticks and run away at a moment's notice - but whether he does so is driven by his moods, and those are entirely unpredictable.

[Looks at Nume again]

Eh, it's closer than the first one.

The whole conjunction is at square with both Jupiter and, hilariously, Pluto. That puts both of those planets in positive tension with the conjunction: they will try to integrate it into some form of whole. In Jupiter's case, that means Nume will use humour to try and cope with that mess of a personality (can you tell I've now skimmed his Wiki page?), while Pluto would indicate... well, death, or transformation. I guess that could come out as a morbid sense of humour? Or maybe he's just changeable, so it's amplifying the mercurial nature.

Pluto and Jupiter are also in opposition to each other. The relationship between the two can be either confrotational or complementary - I think that means that Nume can either use his humour to help himself, or to bring others down. Which he does is down to him.

The other locus is around Mars and Uranus. They too are in opposition, with Mars exulted in Capricorn, and Uranus over in Cancer. That suggests Mars' strength and conflict is twanging with tension against Uranus' tech focus and "disruptive change". Yet again, this idea that Nume is a mercurial figure who can snap at a moment's notice is really strong. Mars is boosted by a square with Saturn, which is partly about stability but honestly mostly disasters. When things go wrong, Nume snaps.

One final mollifying feature: there's a trine between Uranus and the conjunction (especially Venus). A trine is beneficial, and indicates something easy, natural. Change comes easily to Nume, possibly (by way of the technology thing) with a bit of help. If he can lean into that, then the Venus aspects of his personality can come to the fore.

Or something like that. It's a very vivid chart, but it's not that easy to link what it shows back to Nume. "Changeable" is the concept I keep coming back to - this is the chart of someone who you can love or hate, fear or turn to for comfort, depending entirely on how he's feeling that day.

... I'm pretty sure that's how Jenni sees him, though.

(I should note I am not an astrologer, and firmly believe it's all nonsense. It can be fun nonsense though.)

hS

It was very good! I really liked seeing Mellon as human, and even though I’m not super familiar with Discworld, I liked seeing that too.

I think you accidentally added a few extra spaces in places.

—Ls

How did I misread that? sighs You got me.

—Ls

"A wifard if nefer late," Oleander said around a handful of candy that seemed to have portalled itself to his mouth. "Nor if he early. He arrifes preficely when he nom nom nom."

Bella leant over and prodded her brother. "You're not dressed as a wizard, Ol."

"Am too." Oleander stuck out a tongue stained black with liquorice. "I'm the Great Wizard Tomathon Nookington. All shall love me and de-stare!"

"I'm despairing all right," Tanfin muttered. "How have you managed to get so many drips on that costume so fast?"

"He has skills," Jasmine said gravely, swiping a small chocolate bar that had somehow survived in the bowl to that point. "I possess certain compromising photographs suggesting you had the same issues, dear brother."

"Jas', don't!" Tanfin hissed, darting a look at John. Then his brow furrowed. "Wait - what photos? Is this just a Wednesday thing?"

Daphne slipped between her siblings and smiled at Christianne, taking a few candies. "Mom likes liquorice," she said, popping a few into her pumpkin and unwrapping a butterscotch for herself.

They're a day late because they persuaded Constance to go out into town for the evening, then converted the dining room in the west wing into a ridiculously elaborate haunted house. Dafydd blithely went along with the whole thing, then told the kids they had to clean it all up before Connie got home. They almost managed, too.

hS

I did this with Nume. I decided he's a Scorpio, then set his birthday on November 10, 1950.

Gall is the very definition of a Leo, which would put her birthday sometime from July 23 to August 22. I haven't pinned it down.

Jenni has multiple birth dates, not all of which took place on Earth, but I usually make it the first day of spring or spring equinox. For instance, in the Purityworld deconstruction, it's March 20, 1960, which makes her a Pisces on the cusp of Aries.

Ilraen and Derik weren't born under a Terran sky, so our astrology isn't really applicable to them, but just for fun: Following the rule that partners should be opposites, Ilraen could be a Taurus and Derik could be an Aquarius, but I'm not convinced. I'm pretty sure Ilraen is not a Sagittarius, as amusing as that would be—but Derik might be! I dunno, I'd have to look into it more, and I'm all out of time for tonight.

~Neshomeh

From "The Eirren Bow Maiden":

"Have they never heard of gravity? How can an apple stay in the air for a minute? No one could throw something that could do that."

I'm shocked speechless. {X D

~Neshomeh

And yes, this is adorable. muchlove.

Eledhwen took one look at the kids, before turning around and calling, "Muriel! John! Your friends are here!"

Muriel came running to the door, John following close behind. They took one look at the gaggle of Illian-Sims children on the threshold, and broke into laughter. Or rather, Muriel laughed, and John pretended he was too cool for something as personable as laughing.

"Silly Ollie!" exclaimed Muriel. "It's already November!"

"Must be some timey-wimey thing again," said Christianne, coming over with a bowl of the candies that had survived their own children's rampant pillaging. This meant it was mostly stuff like butterscotch candies and liquorice, and a box of Tantaflaf Taffies that John had got as a trick from Henry Robinson.

"Sorry in advance if the candy sucks," said John, smirking at Jasmine and Tanfin. "That's what you get for being late."

Yeah, I can see what doc is talking about with regards to being somewhat different. The poor Ironic Overpower is going by the pseudonym “Murphy’s Law”, and that beepy thing...

I’d rather join Lusters Anonymous* than see those No-Drool Videos. It seems like something FicPsych would cover...

*not that I need to

—Ls

And we have two posts up so far. Read, comment, and enjoy!

—Ls

...I have now decided that Mina’s birthday is September 28, so she’s a Libra, and Carlisle’s is January 2, making him a Sagittarius.

Yeah, I had to look up the Zodiac.

—Ls

It was very intriguing—the murder mystery was quite different, and I’m very curious to see how the immortality thing goes.

Oh, and that facepalm picture—just the best!

—Ls

On a technical level, there is such a thing called "spring steel" which is, well, what springs are made of. And steel is an alloy mostly made out of iron. On top of that, depending on the heat treatments the metal receives even regular iron might gain the right amount of rigidity, though I'd say it would be hard to make, well, springy enough as spring steel contains carbon and other metals in small quantities.

In fact, leaf springs used for suspension in trucks and old cars are, in fact, literally a set of curved metal sheets acting in the same way a bow does.

While I'm not sure it would be easy or practical, especially in a fantasy setting, to make an iron bow, the concept isn't completely unrealistic.

Rebecca Buch, hmmmm. I haven't given her a birthday yet, but why not May 25? It is a nerdy sort of day. She's a Gemini, but she thinks that horoscopes are probably a load of rubbish. Any supposedly Gemini-ish traits she has must be a coincidence, she swears.

Deirdre is not from anywhere that has the zodiac. She lives on Deveb V, which may possibly be a planet which exists in the real world, but is probably not habitable if it does exist. She was born on XIII Arctus, which is near the winter solstice, so Sagittarius, I think.

Boadicea probably doesn't have one because of the whole respawning after death thing, which makes it hard to calculate. Does the day she respawns on count as a birthday? I don't think it does. It would make things dreadfully hard to calculate. I think she is an adult, but she could be several thousand years old because of the respawning thing. I think this could be called pseudoimmortality. She probably doesn't look like she's several thousand years old, but she's definitely not young and pretty either, what with spending all of her life in Terraria fighting monsters.

Edit: fixed typos

Eledhwen opened her door to find a gaggle of half-elven children gathered outside. "Hello, Muriel's Mom," said Daphne, her blonde hair sprouting a pair of devil horns. "Do you like my pumpkin?"

She tried to hold up said pumpkin for examination, but Jasmine blocked her with one hand. "You're not supposed to bring the pumpkin, Daffy," she hissed, then gave Eledhwen a cool smile befitting her Wednesday Addams costume. "I apologise for my sibling."

"I'm your sibling too!" squeaked Oleander, waving his arms. "Do you 'pologise for me?"

"We all need to apologise for you," Belladonna said, grabbing her little brother by his costume's banded tail. "Get down from there!"

"Can't make m-eek!" Oleander toppled from the railing and wound up hanging head-down by his knees. "Can't make me!" he repeated. "I do what I do!"

Tanfin, face pasty with white makeup, rolled his eyes. "He does, too," he confided to Eledhwen. "Kids, you forgot what you're meant to say."

"Oh!" Bella released Oleander and scampered over to the door, pulling Daphne behind her. She put on an angelic smile (to match her costume) and held out a plastic bucket. "Trickortreat!"

Jasmine stepped up behind her, showing off her best loom. "Please," she said in a dry tone, "choose trick."

I make no promises that any of this is happening anywhere near actual Hallowe'en. They do what they do.

hS

I remember Andy and Saphie inventing it; I didn't like it. ^_^ I have always been a grump.

DAVD Medical (aka Fizz R the Bizarre) appears in the DAVD files proper; the formal division-ing of the department is my doing, and falls out of the fact that the DAVD agents in The Reorganisation are Action types. So yeah, speaking of people not paying attention to older spinoffs...

hS