Transfeminine Limit Ordinal

Alex Martin and Bri Silver meet at [legally distinct from Disney] idol camp as teenagers, form a strong bond. Not-Disney is pushing Alex as the next "sensitive boy" teen heartthrob, and Bri is the lead singer of a girl group from a TV show. Nothing quite happens between them because Alex has Some Kind Of Deep Sadness.

Flash forward ten years. Bri's career is imploding -- Not-Disney label dropped her because her latest solo album Starlit flopped (critics called it "stiff" and "insincere") and she's being overshadowed by a bandmate (and just why does she feel so betrayed by a platonic former friend?). Also she feels absolutely no spark for the actor boyfriend she just dumped, as much as her PR manager likes the guy image-wise.

Bri goes to a mixer for an indie label that she's considering signing with and meets Lex -- who is still sensitive, but definitely no longer a boy. Ze disappeared off the map after zir debut deadname album and started releasing experimental queer electropop under the name Lexentrix. Zir latest EP, Subcutaneous, has gotten a lot of buzz from the queer press online (and a pretty sizable transfem cult following -- not a surprise given the lyrics, and the estradiol valerate vial styled like an atom bomb schematic on the cover.)

Bri, on the other hand, was inspired by Shanspeare's phenomenal Gaylor video:

Taylor Swift is obviously not actually queer. And also, is pretty objectively an unpleasant person. But Bri is based on the perception that some Gaylors have of her -- what if that fictitious Taylor Swift was a real person? What if the queer angst that Gaylors project onto Taylor formed a character?

I’ve been putting more thought into how Alien!Rumi would look and finally finished the redesign! Behold my offering to the Polytrix fandom…

The first response humorously links the behaviors of stockpiling seeds to the behavior of rodents and small birds, animals both known for caching large supplies of seeds to eat. Cardinals are not a caching species, per se, compared to other types of birds like Chickadees, but they are known to eat seeds in their diets.

The final response adds to the joke with a humorous visual. Cardinal in the early twenty-first century, can refer to small birds or high ranking officials in the Catholic church. The first is known for their red plumage, the second for their distinctive red garb unique to their specific rank.

The image depicts a squirrel in what is clearly the uniform of a Catholic Cardinal: a Squirrel who is a Cardinal. The implication of the image is that this squirrel cardinal is defensively replying to the second poster, humorously declaring that the accusation is spot on.

Some of the steampunk’d Portal designs I cleaned up for my panel at Steamcon yesterday!

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.