Orion Scribner @frameacloud@dragon.style

"The gender of Lan Caihe is unknown. ... Chinese theatre portrays Lan as wearing feminine clothes, but speaking in a masculine voice ... Lan was said to have been a man who could not understand how to be a man."

Lan Caihe is an immortal from Taoist mythology who has been gender nonconforming for several dynasties, who was originally a homeless street performer. I've finished rewriting this former stub from all sources I can access without resorting to interlibrary loans. This now appears to be the most thorough piece of writing about Lan Caihe in any Western language (and I'd love to be proven wrong about that).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lan_Caihe

(Background: we searched for our missing cat for 5 days. When we found him, we was injured, and we had to rush him to the vet for emergency surgery. Now he's recovering very well.)

Clever Mr. Dreamypants managed to remove his cone collar during the night, and chewed on his stitches. No *serious* damage done, but we really don't want him to have to have another surgery if he hurts himself. It's already been around $5500.

The vet told us to put a soft shirt and harness on him, and fasten his cone to that. We looked for Youtube videos about how to put the shirt and harness on him, but it turns out that the videos that claim it's easy are ones that involve cats that are much more cooperative. We managed it, and I think this harness is just his style.

A day later, he seems at ease with having to wear clothes. No sign of it being irritating or itchy. Maybe it helps keep him warm, since a lot of that shoulder is shaved.

My family would appreciate any help with paying for the emergency surgery that saved our cat:
http://ko-fi.com/frameacloud

Here's how he looks today. Since it's been about a week since his surgery, I've started letting him out of his recovery cage for short periods, so he can roam around the house, closely supervised to make sure he doesn't hurt himself. He's not supposed to climb during this phase of his recovery, but I wasn't fast enough to stop him from hopping into this empty bookshelf. He's very pleased with himself and purring loudly. I think being up there helps him feel more secure.

My family would appreciate any help with paying for the emergency surgery that saved our cat:
http://ko-fi.com/frameacloud

It's been a stressful couple of weeks. My family searched everywhere for our missing cat for five days: searched his hiding places, visited all the shelters, canvassed the neighborhood with "lost cat" fliers, posted about him in a bunch of regional groups online, updated his microchip info, put his cat bed and toys out on the porch, everything. We'd just about given up hope for seeing him again, because he can't survive for long without getting medicine every day.

As a last effort, we cooked some chicken with the windows open. We couldn't believe it when he suddenly showed up at the door! ...Staggering, with a big infected wound that he must have had for days. We rushed him to the emergency vet, who put him on fluids, started cleaning him up, and had to keep him overnight for a few days. He's going in for surgery right now, as I write this.

His vet bill is still just an estimate, but it's at least USD$3200. They expect it to end up around $5500, depending on how his surgery goes. Those are scarily big numbers for us, but getting him this care was the right thing to do. We couldn't stand doing anything else. We're planning on rebuilding a porch to be a catio, to convince Mr. Wild Man Of The Woods to be a strictly indoor-only cat from now on, too. Still, this is difficult timing for such a big unexpected expense, because I'm not working right now, I'm a full-time student, as part of making a career change. I'd appreciate any help with paying off this vet bill. You can chip in to my Ko-Fi:
https://ko-fi.com/frameacloud

The lesson from this is that if you ever have a missing pet, cook their favorite food with the windows open *first.* It'll save you a *lot* of trouble.

Seven books tall, now.

Tonight, the book I added is my commonplace book, which is the book I treasure most right now. It's full of things I've handwritten that I think are helpful guidance, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, poetry about illumination experiences, and tips for self-care when you're sick or upset.

Tonight, I read aloud to the spirits these pages in my commonplace book, where I'd written some Bible quotes that feel welcoming to me as a queer person. I explained to our trancestors that I understand if they have complicated or not-so-great feelings about the Bible, since it's been used to hurt us, but I know probably a lot of our trancestors grew up in a Christian background, like I did, and the pain there is something that I've been working on for myself.

Instead of just the excerpt I'd handwritten, I read the entire Acts 8 aloud directly from the Bible, and I was struck by how its excerpt from Isaiah 53:7-8 (Greek version) describes a situation so like what our trancestors have suffered: innocent lives cut short by a violent death with no justice. I had to take a few minutes to collect myself, when I read that to them, but I think it was one kind of memorial song that they needed.

One book taller, now, with fresh water, and a new chocolate.

Image transcripts in reply.
#TDoE

Trans Rite of Ancestor Elevation, 5th night. We have always been here, and every one of us will always matter for having existed.
#TRoE

One time, I opened a can of ordinary chicken noodle soup, and the can had one (1) special surprise different noodle in it! Looks like a fugitive Storm Trooper from some Star Wars shaped pasta escaped into here.

What it feels like when somebody on Mastodon with a pretty much blank profile sends you a follow request, and they didn't even say hi:

Thanks to @zebratron2084 for finding what appears to be the article I remembered: a facsimile from 1692 explaining that English has six grammatical genders, for men, women, angels, stars, months, winds, ships, nations, rivers, fowls, eagles, and "doubtful genders" (implied to be singular "they") for cousins, thieves, friends, enemies, servants, and so on! Read it here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1tdAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA680&ots=aBlPG2xlQv&dq=jonson%20masculine%20feminine%20neuter%20epicene%20common%20of%20three&pg=PA680#v=onepage&q=jonson%20masculine%20feminine%20neuter%20epicene%20common%20of%20three&f=true

Theri There is my #comic about #otherkin. We didn’t reach the #Patreon goal for it after a long time, so I decided to just update Theri There whenever I feel like it.
¯\_🐲_/¯
Read today's comic at https://frameacloud.dreamwidth.org/472976.html
#therithere

https://dragon.style/media/C_DtmqPKB3ljd2aZjiE

A recommended YA novel about #dragons: _A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans_, by Laurence Yep and Joanne Rider. It's an urban fantasy novel about magic creatures secretly living in San Francisco. My favorite point made about dragons in the first book: when someone asks a dragon if she's an Eastern or Western dragon because of this or that characteristic, she scoffs, and explains only humans think of dragons in categories like that, because every dragon is unique. This is so my jam. https://dragon.style/media/-tEmEA7qNWx-mfXviIA