#zhang

Hydra, which is Greek for "sea snake," is the longest and largest constellation in the night sky. For comparison, it would take about 500 full moons stretched end to end across the sky to cover the length of Hydra!

Although set down by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century, the origins of this constellation can be traced back to the Babylonians. They saw this also as a hybrid of a serpent, lion, and bird. To the ancient Greeks, Hydra could be the snake that a crow served Apollo in a cup in lieu of water, or the dreaded monster Hydra that Hercules slayed as part of his twelve labors.

The named stars in Hydra are, in order of brightness:

Alphard (α Hydrae), an orange giant star about 177 light years away. Its name comes from the Arabic word al-fard meaning "the individual," since there are no other bright stars near it. Fun fact: Alphard appears on the flag of Brazil!

Naga (γ Hydrae) is a binary star system about 134 light years away. The primary star is a yellow giant. Its name comes from the Sanskrit word nāga meaning "serpent." Naga also appears on the Brazilian flag.

Ashlesha (ε Hydrae) is a quadruple star system about 129 light years away. The primary pair consists of a yellow giant and a yellow-white star. The name comes from the Sanskrit word Āśleṣā meaning "the embrace," referring to a constellation in Indian astronomy.

Ukdah (ι Hydrae) is an orange giant star about 263 light years away. Its name comes from the Arabic word uqdah meaning "knot."

Zhang (υ¹ Hydrae) is a solitary yellow giant star about 264 light years away. It has one confirmed brown dwarf orbiting it. Its name comes from Chinese astronomy, the constellation Zhāng Xiù (張宿) meaning "extended net."

Solitaire (E Hydrae) is a solitary orange giant star about 290 light years away. Its name is a reference to the obsolete constellation Turdus Solitarius, Latin for "solitary thrush." This in turn was named after the Rodrigues solitaire, an extinct flightless bird native to the island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar. You can see this bird in the illustration above!

Minchir (σ Hydrae) is a solitary orange giant star about 370 light years away. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase minkhar ash-shujāʽ meaning "the nostril brave one."

Felis (HD 85951) is a solitary orange giant star about 570 light years away. Its name refers to the obsolete constellation Felis, Latin for cat. You can see the cat in the illustration above!

Lerna (HAT-P-42) is a solitary Sun-like star about 1,350 light years away. It has one confirmed exoplanet orbiting it, about the same mass as Jupiter, named Iolaus. Both names were given by the people of Greece: Lerna is the name of the lake where the Hydra lived, and Iolaus was the nephew of Hercules that helped him slay the beast.

you had caught a glimpse of them, but even without seeing them, you knew what had happened. frank sighed and slowly turned around, knowing there was nothing he could hide anymore. not from you, at least.

“i lost the last mock battle.” frank admitted, his grip on his bow tightening in frustration. “i just didn't want you to know, alright?”

it wasn't uncommon for frank to lose fights, as much as he hated it. maybe he hadn't found the right weapon yet. maybe he had to train a bit harder to catch up to everyone else. but for some reason, he didn't want you to know about this anyways, despite it not being the first fight he lost.

“why not? we all lose from time to time.” you try to reassure him. “there's nothing to be ashamed of.”

“but i wanted to win this one…” frank sighed softly, a nervous glance wandering towards you. yet when his eyes met yours, he quickly looked away again, a soft blush hushing over his cheeks. he paused, searching for the courage to say what he really meant to say.

“i wanted to win this one… so you'd think i'm cool.”

I need Carl to talk to somebody about his life before all this. I know it's personal and will probably never happen but I need the world to know that his life beat him down. The people that were supposed to love him, his parents *and* girl friend, didn't. He threw himself into work. Into the military. He hates drama and has felt alone almost his entire life. And yet at the end of the world he still chose people.

He makes an active choice at every turn to *help*. He didn't abandon the elderly of Meadow Lark. He let Donut choose and train Mongo even though it wasn't what he had wanted. He's saved Princess Donut, sheilded her with his own body, more than once. He helped Katia despite how she was struggling at the beginning. He didn't abandon the people on the 3rd floor when the bomb was set to go off even though he had the chance to. He saved Bautista and Li Jun/Li Na/Zhang multiple times. He risked everything to send those trains out for stragglers.