undercat
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undercat.bsky.social
undercat
@undercat.bsky.social
elves, mostly. she/her. adult.
Someday I'll come up with an OC for Elf Chomsky. In the meantime, have some Optimality Theory in Aman:

archiveofourown.org/works/279233...
Short and Sundry Stories - Chapter 18 - undercat - The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
archiveofourown.org
November 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
The other thing with this is that the versions of Quenya and Sindarin that we have are both as they are spoken in Third Age Western Middle-earth. I would never write the dialect of Sindarin the First Age Noldor used, because we *do not know* nearly enough about it to even guess at what's correct.
Idk, Darth Fingon, when an author would ask if they should use Quenya or Sindarin, would answer "English." I feel more or less that way about the use of thee/thou in fic.
November 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM
I am a hypocrite here because I have literally written characters having a conversation in my conlang of Tolkien's conlangs and expected the reader to more or less understand it.
(My own answer to the "Sindarin or Quenya" question is also "English" but it comes with the footnote of "consider Elven sociolinguistics and semantics!")
November 15, 2025 at 4:23 PM
One reason why bsky is nice for random Silm thoughts is that I can post things publicly here that I do want to talk/lecture about but where, if I posted them on tumblr, there'd be the strong possibility of hurting people's feelings. I like talking about writing choices! I don't like hurting feelings
November 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
I wish I didn't have such a strong negative reaction to how the Silm fandom uses thee/thou. Another fic I was enjoying, but the frequent use of it takes me out every time. It's something that *breaks* immersion for me.
November 15, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by undercat
cryptids
October 31, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by undercat
talking about Beren and Lúthien next time on @bythebywater.bsky.social (and since it’s October I drew their scary forms)
October 20, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Favorite sign today:
October 19, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by undercat
There’s also the chaos option of marking long vowels by doubling the letter: don’t Findekaano and Findaraato look nice?

I very much support not using diareses, which are completely unnecessary and only a transliteration convention.
September 30, 2025 at 7:30 PM
OTW is a dysfunctional disaster, but I am beyond glad that AO3 exists and that (english fic-writing) fandom is no longer dependent on small ma'n'pa archives.
September 29, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by undercat
Something I've been drawing today. I woke up this morning with the thought of it in my head, and wanted to see if I could make it work.
September 29, 2025 at 12:44 AM
It's funny, the longer I've been in fandom and reading fanfic, the more I prefer using just the Silm names. If I ever wrote Age of the Trees fic (I won't), I'd 100% go with the characters' Sindarin names (for those that have Sindarin names, obviously I wouldn't Sindarinize, say, Anaire's name)
September 22, 2025 at 5:17 PM
I remain so fascinated by Eregion having a large Iathrin population (doriath diaspora?) and what you could do with that. Especially with the coup!
September 7, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by undercat
Illustration of the Silurian Period based on fossils in Scotland.

The first animals to live on land were tiny arthropods, escaping predators and eating food in fields of cooksonia plants.

Art from my new book DINOSAURS preorder here: a.co/d/fGVwsX0

#sciart #paleoart #evolution #fossiladdict
August 23, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by undercat
A newly discovered Devonian trackway in Poland reveals lungfish ancestors testing land mobility 10 million years before the first known tetrapod traces.

phys.org/news/2025-08...

#fossils #paleontology
August 21, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Reposted by undercat
Day 10: Dachshunds. An incredible commission I got to do recently, painting a card for 6 dachshunds' 10th birthday party. 🎂🎉
#doggust #doggust2025
August 11, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Stuck on the next chapter of fuck monastery and what C's punishment should entail. I set it up so it would involve a count of some sort, which worked for my initial idea (needleplay) but I'm not actually that into needleplay and don't really know how to write it.
August 10, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by undercat
Bigfin squids (genus Magnapinna) have a reputation for being these almost eldritch creatures because of some low resolution photos, but I think they are quite beautiful, spaghetti arms and all.
August 9, 2025 at 4:29 PM
ffs, shipweeks are not the place for platonic gen content
August 9, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by undercat
We only rate dogs. This is the goth cousin of Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. Please understand it's not just a phase, and only send dogs. Thank you… 12/10 (credit u/vincidelaunc)
August 6, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by undercat
Silvergifting week - Romance
August 5, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by undercat
Daily bunny no.3035 is out catching fireflies
August 3, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Behold, new (old) fic. Includes a Shall These Bones Live outtake.

archiveofourown.org/works/279233...
Short and Sundry Stories - Chapter 1 - undercat - The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
archiveofourown.org
August 2, 2025 at 8:09 PM
We don’t talk enough about how pretty Sarati is!
July 31, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Sometimes I think about how Maedhros giving Fingon the elessar as a wedding gift means that Fingon married Maedhros’s kid
July 31, 2025 at 7:42 PM