The Cambrian Mammal

@naraoia

Use #AltText. Spoilery! ( #TheWheelOfTime, #StarWars, Cosmere, Dragon Age) Nerd by nature, biologist by training, corporate cog by necessity. Martial art student, weekend Viking, tinkerer with worlds. #WotSkies founding member Pfp @bymemo.bsky.social

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The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jul 12

Did my ancestors really plonk Fen'Harel on top of graves or is there another wolf deity I'm forgetting about? 👀 #MammalPlaysInquisition

Dragon Age Inquisition screenshot showing the party idling around a very large statue of a wolf. If it were real it could probably eat Cassandra in like two bites.

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jul 12

Yeah I know I need to go to bed but look, Blackwall's been carving a wee wooden griffon? My heart! (How much more does he have to like me to tell me his story? I *really* wanna know how he ended up with the Wardens...) #MammalPlaysInquisition

Dragon Age Inquisition screenshot: a wooden griffon on a rickety wooden table in a rickety wooden building

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jul 11

I have *questions* about this planet and its ginormous fucking moon #MammalPlaysInquisition

Dragon Age Inquisition screenshot showing my character in a spooky, rainy swamp, standing between two leafless trees, looking up at a half-clouded moon that appears almost as tall as she is.

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jul 11

@lacerdajulio.bsky.social Now you're on my wall, too! (I've been looking for more art to go in the bedroom, and oh my GOD is this it. Perfect colours, stunning and full of dinosaurs. Though I somehow managed to stick it up all lumpy, I may just have to rip it off and get it framed 😅)

White wall with a big widescreen poster of a herd of sauropods on a misty morning or evening. Their long graceful necks rise above the mist and are lit warmly by the sun, while their huge bodies are immersed in bluish shadows. A spiky stegosaur on the left of the foreground is dwarfed by the sauropods.

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jul 5

Found a cave near our first camp, and the entrance looks like this 😬 #MammalPlaysInquisition

Dragon Age Inquisition screenshot of my character outside a tunnel entrance that looks dwarven-made. The place is full of huge thick spiderwebs

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jul 1

Also, I got this report from the war table, I'm deid 💀 #MammalPlaysInquisition

Mission report for Truth or Dare: The Imperial Court.

Commander,

Leading nobles to the crater was an... interesting experience. Mallory had to restrain a few of them physically from signing their names on the red lyrium crystals. One of them awanted5a charred corpse as a souvenir. Next time, I'd rather we dropped them in the crater and left.

Knight-captain Rylen

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 29

Apparently the mirror in the BE can only change my appearance. Boo. Also, everything else is at least an order of magnitude out of my price range. But I've discovered Xenon's tiny polar bear, so there is a silver lining 😆 #MammalPlaysInquisition

Dragon Age Inquisition screenshot of my character in the well-lit middle of an otherwise spooky, shadowy shop. Next to her on some stairs is a stocky white beastie that looks like a knee-high polar bear

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 28

LMFAO. So, since this is Chantry Central, the entrance to the city is an avenue lined with religious statuary, and the statue called Maferath's Remorse (pictured below) has graffiti adding "at meeting a low doorframe" 💀🤣 #MammalPlaysInquisition

Dragon Age Inquisition screenshot of a huge stone statue of a bald man holding his head

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 27

I'd forgotten that I'd given Cassandra, uh, new armour, and I'm not joking, I actually squealed when the party appeared and she stood there in this 🤣 #MammalPlaysInquisition

Cassandra from Dragon Age Inquisition, a light-skinned woman with short black hair, wearing an outfit that consists of long, loose trousers and a turquoise bikini thing with a lot of red straps. It goes very oddly with the longsword on her hip and the shield on her back. Her resting bitch face completes the picture.

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 25

Also, what, and I repeat, what the fuck? #MammalPlaysInquisition

DA Inquisition screenshot of my character and Cassandra standing next to something that looks like a shrivelled human figure with its arms thrown up, frozen halfway through collapsing to its knees. It's lit by a random flame burning on its right knee for full weirdness

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 24

When you get the good seat on the bus but the front window looks like this 😆 (Guess there are still bugs in Scotland, lol)

View of a curving road through a top deck bus window absolutely covered in bug splatters

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 15

And finally, @coldwitch.bsky.social if you're still here, the amazing WoT travel posters I bought like five(??) years ago have finally found their wall in the office 😄

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 15

@aledthompson.bsky.social The four seasons of phoenixes set looks amazing in the kitchen!

A corner of my kitchen, with a set of four prints depicting the seasons as phoenixes hanging above a white dining table. The birds are all perched on diagonal branches and painted in a kaleidoscopic style of vibrant colours and angular geometries. Spring is dominated by green and russet, summer is light green, turquoise and yellow, autumn is blues and oranges, and winter is mostly cool blues with a hint of pale orange like a snowy sunset

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 15

2. @whistberry.bsky.social your patterns speak to me and your kintsugi goldfish is not only one of my favourite pieces of contemporary art but also accidentally the perfect colour scheme for my bedroom

A framed print of a stylised koi pond, a writhing crowd of intricately patterned fish drawn in white on a dark background. A bit Escheresque in feel!

A dark golden yellow wall sporting a framed print of a blue fish, resembling a fancy goldfish, with gold outlines and irregular golden lines across its body like a broken sculpture glued together with gold

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 15

Arriving early at the airport seems like a good time to shout out the artists whose work has finally gone up on my walls. Thank you for helping the new place feel like home🥰 🧵 1. The incomparable @himmapaan.bsky.social You lamented the lack of love for your snail - well, it was perfect for me!

Squint photo of a framed print on a wall, an exquisite depiction of a garden snail showing off the intricate brown and white patterns on the shell and the gloss and texture of the snail's skin

Another print, an exaggeratedly pudgy horse painted in the style of the palaeolithic cave paintings of Lascaux

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 10

I've been thinking about getting this t-shirt for literal years. On Sunday I visited an event where its creators had a stall, and, well, I kinda had to 😅 (The runes say "Allfather, not Some-father." Made by asgard.scot)

Selfie focused on a black t-shirt with a large Viking-style design on it, bits of knotwork, figures that look like they could've been lifted from a picture stone. It depicts Odin riding his eight-legged horse down the rainbow bridge from Asgard (a stylised longhall above the half-arc of the rainbow) to Midgard (a pretty knotwork representation of the world serpent Jormungandr below). The rainbow bridge is rainbow-coloured, the rest of the design is white. There's a strip of Old Norse runes in front of Odin's horse that translates to "Allfather, not some-father".

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 7

Aside from my sister's blood not really being "pure" these days... Dad, what the fuck did you do??? #MammalPlaysDA2

A note in DA2:Legacy.

"We have learned that Bethany Hawke is with the Grey Wardens. Search all of the Free Marches if you must, but find her. Kill whoever gets in your way, but make sure the girl is unharmed. The blood of Malcolm Hawke must remain pure. The Great One demands this of you.

In the name of the Master, Corypheus. May he see sunlight again."

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 7

You'd think in Scotland they could do better than Google translate English 😂

One of those buzzer things they use in restaurants to let you know when your order is ready. Text on it reads:

Welcome
Nice
Enjoy the good times
Pls take the meal
When Flash/vibrate

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 6

I repeat: what the fuck #MammalPlaysDA2

Wonky DA2 screenshot showing Knight-Commander Meredith screaming, red light streaming from her right before she becomes some kind of creepy red husk

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 6

Remember when I said I thought it was hilarious that Orsino looked like a vampire? I don't think it's funny any more 😬 #MammalPlaysDA2

DA2 screenshot of my character facing a huge twisted abomination with a fat body twice her height and random limbs dangling off it in various places. It's labelled "Orsino"

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 6

Here I am. "Something dire" is going down at the Gallows. My suicidal possessed boyfriend is planning something terrible he won't tell me about. Everything is going to be fine, right? #MammalPlaysDA2

Screenshot of the DA2 quest log, with only one quest remaining: The Last Straw

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 1

We're back in Kirkwall to finish a side quest, and: The fuck is this. #MammalPlaysDA2

Wonky DA2 screenshot of a huge bipedal monster with gnarly, spiky skin, clawed hands, and a vaguely lizard-like horned head currently thrown back. Subtitles say "Face me! Face everything!"

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 1

None of the Smol Jedi fics are technically "in progress" nowadays, even if this one is unfinished, but boy, does she embody this prompt... #WIPSnips #StarWars #OC

S. remembered a time when she had looked at the galaxy, at the many beings she met across its vast breadth, with curiosity. When she had loved making connections, opening herself to the endless variety of experiences and dreams and wishes that were the breath and life blood of the living Force. Travelling the galaxy with Andira, she had made so many friends from all walks of life, from farmers to petty thieves, from journalists to soldiers. Most of them, she’d had to leave behind; in such a vast galaxy, there was always more for a Jedi to do, and settling down to stay with a new friend would have meant turning her back on her duty. But back then, she had usually left those people’s lives better than she found them. Back then, she could let them go, missing her friends but knowing that they would be all right.

Then she remembered the friends who were not all right. She thought of Kani, whose insatiable curiosity and irreverent humour had been snuffed out in the pointless meat grinder of a war with no victor but the Emperor. Of Syl, whom she’d had to abandon on a world in flames so that they could both live to fight another day. Of Alon and his family, who would live the rest of their lives in fear of the Empire because they had met her. Of Andira, who had raised her and betrayed her and died for her. Neighbours arrested for knowing her. Kind strangers tortured and killed for trying to protect her. Every one of them, every friend she had lost, every life she had touched and left burning, was another invisible scar across her soul.

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· Jun 1

A cherished member of my wee plushie zoo is this excellent plushie kiwi from (I think) the Edinburgh Zoo gift shop. It gets the cuteness across very well! (the two-headed planarian is one of@palaeoplushies.com's masterpieces)

A plushie kiwi bird sitting on its backside on a small shelf. It's covered in scruffy brown fluff with lighter tips and has a long straight beak sticking up and two little feet sticking out in front. It's wearing a beaded bracelet as a necklace. In the foreground lies a realistic plushie two-headed flatworm, with a russet body, arrow-shaped heads and very silly googly eyes.

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· May 31

6. Scripts Again, I don't have them worked out, I just have some ideas *about* them. Islander script is an abugida, for example. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abugida Also, once upon a time I made some numbers for a society that is really into maths (and scholarship in general).

Digital reference sheet for a system of numerals. At the top are the numbers 1-10, represented in a base 8 place value system. 1-3 are 1 to 3 vertical marks on a horizontal base. 4 is a square. 5-7 are vertical marks *inside* the square. 8 is the upside down T for 1 but with a dot over the right side. 9 and 10 get into the double digits, written as 1 1 and 1 2. You get the idea.

Then there are a couple of examples of how simple operations are written: 6+3 would be a 6 above a 3, while 6-3 is a 6 above an upside-down 3. Next to these examples is text explaining features of the system:

Zero is denoted by a dot, as in #8 above.

Negative numbers "hang downwards," -4 is denoted by a bar above the square

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· May 29

Happy birthday! No pets of my own, but you're in luck, Tux visited work with his human just last night. In this picture, he is blissfully unaware that I'm going to have to clean the cat hair-covered counter after he leaves 🤭

A mostly black tuxedo cat on a white shop counter, where baskets would normally go. He's got his backside towards the camera, and his head is turned to the left as he enjoys scritches from someone on the far side of the counter.

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· May 27

Ew what the fuck #MammalPlaysDA2

DA2 screenshot of a scribbled note. "Used quicklime to preserve her feet. Unsure whether texture of the skin is to my liking. Will try other methods."

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· May 27

He did, and OMG, that gave me all the feels 🥹🥰 (I should have expected him to be a *bit* dramatic about it, but. *Feels*) ( @themacaran.bsky.social look what I got myself into 😭) #MammalPlaysDA2

Wonky DA2 screenshot showing Anders in a room, warmly lit, soft and a bit emotional. The subtitles say "It would kill me to lose you"

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· May 24

Seen on my way home the other day: bus stop with a sore arse

A bus stop sign according to which the name of this stop is "ow Butts"

(It's clearly not, since the ow is not capitalised and therefore missing a beginning)

The Cambrian Mammal@naraoia· May 24

Uh, what the fuck. #MammalPlaysDA2