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indignantlemur · 16 hours

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I have somewhat more serious request for director's commentary. On Dagmar's drunken walk home through San Francisco, Shral and Thelen complain about the smell of the sea. Is the salty smell equivalent to inhaling chilli fumes or is that something related to evil spirits and bad omens?

It's actually more related to the latter, but the former is also a consideration! Salt registers as spice, the way capsacin does to Humans, and smelling it on the air in higher concentrations - such as at the seaside - would be a little uncomfortable. Certainly, it would clear the sinuses like at treat. More importantly, though, Andorians have a very antagonistic relationship with the sea on their homeworld and as a rule they regard it as generally unsafe to stray near - if only due to the wildlife. I think it's canon that they're also not big on swimming as well, but for the life of me I can't remember where I read that.

For my headcanon purposes, I think of it like this: imagine that you lived in an area that had a huge sea inlet that everyone and their grandmothers knew was a no-go zone. It's not safe, the ice is notoriously thin on it, and horrible monsters live in it. The monsters are not only huge and dangerous, but they're also alarmingly smart. They can - and will - hunt you, or stalk you until you're foolish enough to stray just close enough to snatch. You don't play near the sea, you don't build near the sea, and you definitely don't go swimming in the sea. That's just basic safety. Your entire culture is filled with horror stories about what happens when those basic rules aren't followed. The sea is not your friend. Now, imagine after a lifetime of having this very sensible information drilled into you by your parents, your teachers, and your peers, you visit an alien planet. The locals are nice enough, a little funny looking but not hideous or anything - and they also have very alarming marine life in their seas. However, unlike your much more sensible species these idiots go into the water anyway. They swarm to the beaches in droves in hot weather, they splash about in defiance of evolution and nature, and they even encourage their children to join them! Some of them even put on special diving gear and try to pet the creatures down there! One very enthusiastic tour guide has told you that you can even climb into a submersed metal cage and taunt large sea predators with your tasty, tasty flesh - on purpose.

Madness. Worse, they've built the headquarters of for their pseudo-military space fleet and all of the alien embassies - including yours - right on the waterfront. Where the nightmare creatures live. Sure, the locals are quick to assure you that none of the really scary ones live near the surface, but you don't believe them. You've just discovered what an sea leopard is recently and you haven't quite psychologically recovered from that, and you know for a fact that those things come up to the surface. So, yes. Andorians don't like the sea.

#the rebloggening begins #emigre by indignantlemur #star trek #andorian culture #headcanon #Andorians and the sea #the andorian sea is dark and full of terrors #andorian #andorians

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indignantlemur · 18 hours

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Let's talk about Andorian foods!

Without at doubt, one of the most enjoyable things about creating Émigré has been creating Andorian foods. We know so much about Vulcan and Klingon food, but Andorians are horribly overlooked beyond a few basic descriptions of beetles, blue meat, and a kind of flatbread. That's like, a meal. Tops. Even if you include drinks, which are ice-tea, hot coffee, and booze, you're not really moving beyond a single meal's worth of food types. And here's the thing - food is a central point in almost every culture there is. How we prepare food, what we consider food, how we present and share it, when and where and with what utensils - all of that is a huge part of most cultures. We have foods that are only eaten on special days, or only for certain meals. We have foods that have special meanings when given as gifts, and things that are traditional to give as part of social customs around weddings and funerals. We have comfort food, junk food, traditional food, fusion food, I'm-too-tired-to-cook food, and so many more kinds. We have entire branches of culinary expertise dedicated to JUST sweet foods. We have specialists who brew, pickle, and blend. We have random folks who make their own mead, or brew their own beer or wine. We have dozens of different kinds of salt for different kinds of finishing touches, for goodness' sake!

So yeah. I have a problem with the whole Andorians-only-eat-like-four-things-maybe approach. It's lazy. I hate lazy writing. So let's talk about some of my ideas, maybe? If anyone's still reading? (hello?)

Andorians are group-oriented people who put their society and their clans before themselves. Group meals therefore feels like a natural continuation of this trend, things like hotpots and fondues, and those fun little sushi bars where the tasty things go 'round and round on a little belt and you just pick up what you like and try not to fuck it up and fumble some painstakingly assembled sushi in front of the guy who made it.

One of the first ideas I came up with following this logic was the idea of a multi-layer lazy-Susan kind of dining table, with concentric rings that allowed for people to rotate each ring independently to pass around different bowls and plates of food, which a central spot for a pot of hot oil to cook your selections with. The utensils by necessity would have to be long-necked and pronged to spear food effectively and not lose their tasty bounty to the boiling oil. The seating around this table would be low, with cushions on the ground in an inset kind of pit in the floor because my Andorians are big on cuddles and sharing warmth. They're a social species, after all, and their home planet is far from a picnic - sharing is surviving.

Let's move onto other kinds of meals! Some of the canon lore indicates that Andorians eat a kind of flatbread and shredded meat, but very little in the way of dairy. So, from that we can conclude that they have at least some kind of flour. From there we can suppose that if they have a basic type of flour they might also have baking beyond flatbreads, even if they don't go in for fluffy yeast-based breads. That leaves quite a few options, really, but I liked the idea of their flour stemming from a starchy tuber like taro-root, or even potato-like spuds. Fried potato flat-bread sounds pretty great, right?

Now for the meats! Andorians are omnivores with a heavy carnivorous leaning, to my mind, because protein gives us the most bang per buck out of the basic food groups. Meat by itself is a solid food choice, but it gets boring after a while so we, and presumably Andorians as well, come of with different ways to dress it up and make it taste different. Salt would be abundant given the expansive oceans on Andoria and in the lore salty things register as spicy to Andorians, so that's practically a new lease on life food-wise! From there, sauces and marinades are a natural evolution, and I really like the idea that each keth has their own unique recipes that they hoard like gourmet dragons. No one knows what all goes into Clan Tha'an's mustard sauce, but by the Spirits is it good! Still, they can't afford to be too reliant on meat as a food source. Andoria is, as we've discussed, a harsh planet. Hunting for meat is a viable survival strategy, especially in large groups, but hunts fall through or go badly. When that happens, it's imperative that a population has something else to live off of: in this case, tubers! Savoury tubers, sweet tubers, starchy tubers, stringy tubers, every kind of tuber! Tubers are quite a resilient kind of plant and they can grow most places as long as the conditions are mostly right. Deep underground, away from the freezing surface temperatures, tubers would grow quite well - especially near a hotspring!

So, we've got tubers, we've got flour, we've got meat - and you know what, if we've got tubers that means we've got space sweet potatoes. Space sweet potatoes could be refined into a kind of sugar substitute! And that means we have BAKING.

After realizing that, I remembered finding a word in an Andorian-English dictionary which references an endearment and also a sweet treat: shev'tak. Quite a troublesome word, if you've read Émigré!

Humans call each other food-related endearments all the time; honey-bun, sweetie-pie, sugar-boo, dumpling, etc. Why not Andorians too, right? But Andoria is a very harsh planet, and things like sugary treats would be quite unusual, and probably very expensive to grow the base materials for and then refine. Given that their diet is probably heavily meat- and tuber-based, given their biology and the conditions of their homeworld, sugary treats would be a very rare, special-occasion-only thing for the majority of their history. They'd probably end up being made in very small portions, too. When I initially thought about shev'tak, I was tempted to make it some kind of sweet bun, but that seemed a little too boring when I sat down to actually describe them. Eventually, I hit upon the idea of these impossibly delicate little pastries, folded in on themselves and shaped like sixteen-pointed stars (or other multiples of four, which is deeply symbolic in Andorian culture) and filled with a creamy custard. Something plausible and demonstrating the artistry for which Andorians are known, but nothing excessively complicated in terms of ingredients. All the work goes into the presentation, and as a gift shev'tak would be a sign of regard at the least and certainly of affection. It would be the equivalent of a fancy box of chocolates, if each chocolate was hand-made specially for you. In the modern era, much of the craftmanship would be subsidized by advanced machinery and more efficient techniques, much like today on our world, but there would still be a strong association of luxury, of hand-made sweets on a frozen ice planet where very little grows and none of it above ground.

And being called shev'tak, in light of that, may be a little more than just an endearment, I think. It's being called something special, something worth burning time and resources for. Precious, even.

But, of course, Andorians are very stoic. They leave a lot of their social norms unsaid, and trust that these things are simply understood. Even when they aren't.

... Are we having Dagmar/Shral feels yet?

#the rebloggening begins #emigre by indignantlemur #star trek #andorian #andorians #food lore #andorian culture and food #Andorian foods

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indignantlemur · 2 days

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A playlist for Dagmar at her peak moments; often quirky, occasionally spiteful, and desperately, painfully Human in a strange new world.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: HERE

Tracklist:

9 to 5 - Dolly Parton // No Roots - Alice Merton // The Future Soon - I Fight Dragons // Why Can't We Be Friends - Smash Mouth // Human - Rag'n'Bone Man // Pity Party - Melanie Martinez // I Don't Belong In This Club - Why Don't We, Macklemore // Breathe Me - Sia // Hurts Like Hell - Fleurie, Tommee Profitt // Through Glass - Stone Sour // Blood I Bled - The Staves // Forces of the Unseen - Cloud Cult // My Name Is Human - Highly Suspect // Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Kelly Clarkson // I'm Still Standing - Annapantsu (cover) // Anything - Hedley // I've No More Fucks To Give - Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq, Damian Clark // So Long Sorrow Town - Michael J Sheehy

...And yes, I absolutely made cover art for this instead of writing the next chapter.

#the rebloggening begins #emigre by indignantlemur #Dagmar Gunnarssen #fan playlist #star trek #character playlist #fanmix

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indignantlemur · 2 days

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Dagmar and Thelen, and the steps that bring them together.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: HERE

Tracklist:

Feeling Good - Michael Bublé // It's a Man's Man's Man's World - Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox, Morgan James // Total Eclipse of the Heart (Sax & Violin) - Daniele Vitale Sax, Karolina Protsenko // Good Intent - Kimbra // Save the Last Dance for Me - Michael Bublé // Just Impolite - Plushgun // Confines of Gravity - PlayRadioPlay! // Come Fly With Me - Michael Bublé // Sway - Annapantsu (cover) // Shut Up and Dance - WALK THE MOON

#the rebloggening begins #emigre by indignantlemur #Thelen of Clan Sannev #star trek #fan playlist #playlist #fanmix #character playlist #andorian #andorians

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indignantlemur · 3 days

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A mix for Anlenthoris th'Kor, the Andorian Ambassador to Earth and Tellar.

SPOTIFY LINK: HERE

Song list with lyric samples below the cut!

Ironfoot (Extended Edition) - Howard Shore [Instrumental]

From The North - Runrig & Paul Mounsey [From the north came a warrior Bearing burdens dark and deep I've a will and I've a wanting And miles to go before I sleep I have horses in my stable I have sons fit to fight I will bring this to your table If you ride with me this night]

As Cold As It Gets - Dustin Kensrue [To the end of the Earth, I'll search for your face For the one who laid all of our beauty to waste Threw our hope into Hell and our children in the fire I am the one who crawled through the wire I am the one who crawled through the wire There's a million sad stories by the side of the road Strange how we all just got used to the blood A million sad stories that'll never be told Silent and froze in the mud Silent and froze in the mud]

Crow On The Cradle - Show of Hands ["The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn, Now is the time for a child to be born. He'll laugh at the moon and he'll cry for the sun, And if it's a boy he will carry a gun," Sang the crow on the cradle

"And if it should be that this baby's a girl, Never you mind if her hair doesn't curl. With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And a bomber above her wherever she goes," Sang the crow on the cradle]

The Wondersmith and His Sons - Astronautalis [A smile safe-crackers understand, Is rendering this steady hand, Obsolete. The charm and confidence of men, Can jam the bullets in your gun, And stop heartbeats]

World on Fire - Les Friction [I'll return from darkness and will save your precious skin I will end your suffering and let the healing light come in Sent by forces beyond salvation There can't be not one sensation World on fire with a smoking sun Stops everything and everyone Brace yourself for all will pay Help is on the way]

Who Are You, Really? - Mikky Ekko [So you feel entitled to a sense of control And make decisions that you think are your own You are a stranger here, why have you come? Why have you come, lift me higher, let me look at the sun Look at the sun and once I hear them clearly, say Who, who are you really? And where are you going? I have nothing left to prove 'Cause I have nothing left to lose See me bare my teeth for you Who, who are you?]

Brother, My Brother - Michael Lanning [And His eyes will look away For His heart will so be torn As His fields of gold turn scarlet From the rage of battle born And the silence of the night Will be broken with the cries Of the ones who've been forgotten On the quiet field where honor lies]

The War - SMYL [Here stands a man With a bullet in his clenched right hand Don't push him, son For he's got the power to crush this land Oh hear, hear him cry, boy]

Daniel in the Den - Bastille [And you thought the lions were bad Well, they tried to kill my brothers And felled in the night by the ones you think you love They will come for you]

Hurt - Johnny Cash [And you could have it all My empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you hurt]

Davy Jones' Theme - City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra [Instrumental]

#emigre by indignantlemur #Anlenthoris th'Kor #Ambassador Thoris #character playlist #fanmix #fan playlist #star trek #andorian #andorians

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indignantlemur · 3 days

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Dagmar/Shral, and the fledgling bond.

I refuse to apologize the the fact that this playlist is mostly Hozier.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: HERE

Tracklist:

Closer - Bertine Zetlitz // You - Keaton Henson // Talk - Hozier // Hearts A Mess - Goyte // Strange & Beautiful (I'll Put A Spell On You) - Aqualung // Two Planets - Bat For Lashes // Sea of Tranquility - Gazpacho // Whataya Want From Me - P!nk // Hey You, Yeah You - KONGOS // Dinner & Diatribes - Hozier // Birds Do It - KONGOS // It's All Your Fault - P!nk // Antenna - The Acorn // Run - Hozier // We Are Stars - The Pierces // Delicate - Taylor Swift // Sunlight - Hozier

#the rebloggening begins #emigre by indignantlemur #star trek #fan playlist #fanmix #character playlist #Dagmar Gunnarssen #Vilashral of Clan Hrisvalar #Andorian/Human #andorians #andorian

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indignantlemur · 3 days

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A REVISED version of the original playlist:

Songs for a disenfranchised woman-out-of-time; separate and disconnected, uprooted but trying. Always, always trying.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: HERE

Tracklist with lyric excerpts below the cut.

Savages - MARINA

Underneath it all we're just savages Hidden behind shirts, ties, and marriages How could we expect anything at all? We're just animals still learning how to crawl

Try - Nelly Furtado

And I have lived so many lives Though I'm not old And the more I see, the less I grow The fewer the seeds the more I sow Then I see you standing there Wanting more from me And all I can do is try Then I see you standing there Wanting more from me And all I can do is try, try

Stereo - The Watchmen

My life is a stereo What songs do I know? Whatever happened to my plans? Whatever happened to the life I thought I had? My life is a stereo, kind of cheaply made though How bad does it show? What ever did become of all my friends? What ever happened to the likes of all of them?

Thistle & Weeds - Mumford & Sons //

Spare me your judgments and spare me your dreams 'Cause recently mine have been tearing my seams I sit alone in this winter clarity which clouds my mind

All Fall Down - OneRepublic //

Yeah, God love your soul and your aching bones Take a breath, take a step, meet me down below Everyone's the same, our fingers to our toes We just can't get it right, but we're on the road

If I Were A Weapon - Suzanne Vega //

Ooh If I were a weapon You said I'd be a gun Lethal at close range I guess With silencer and stun But I feel more like a needle Always pulling on the thread Always making the same point again And wondering if you heard what I just said

I Will Dance (When I Walk Away) - Katzenjammer //

I'm standing at the crossroads now, the fields of opportunities I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm full of hope and full of fear And bridges back have all been burned and freedom has been duly earned I'll remember why I've gone, remember where I'm coming from

Get Through This - Art of Dying //

If I can get through this I can get through anything If I can make it through this I can get through anything

Dancing on My Grave - Ghostland Observatory //

Another time Another day Another rhyme You'll always get your way

It's Alright - Mother Mother //

It's alright, it's okay, it's alright, it's okay You're not a monster, just a human And you made a few mistakes It's alright, it's okay, it's alright, it's okay You're not gruesome, just human And you made a few mistakes

Rise - Katy Perry //

When, when the fire's at my feet again And the vultures all start circling They're whispering, ”You're out of time.” But still, I rise This is no mistake, no accident When you think the final nail is in; think again Don't be surprised, I will still rise

The Enemy (from Wuthering Heights 2011) - L'Orchestra Numerique

[Instrumental]

#the rebloggening begins #emigre by indignantlemur #Dagmar Gunnarssen #fan playlist #fanmix #star trek #character playlist #revised edition

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indignantlemur · 4 days

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Reblog if you're shorter than 5'8.

#just a smidge under 5'6“

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indignantlemur · 4 days

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Just fyi tumblr apparently only lets you tag 5 people in one line, you have to hit the space bar after that

Whoops! That's my bad - formatting things on my phone always gets a little wonky! Thanks for checking in on that!

#OPERATOR ERROR #ask box

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indignantlemur · 4 days

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You're very welcome! 😊

My dear Indi, I need your expertise !

Do you have any ideas or headcanons for Andorian outfits, from lighter to warmer? What would they look like in general, what texture is most appreciated or considered fashionable ?

Thanks ! 💙

Hello Zier! Let's see what I can do for you! Fair warning, this one is going to be image-heavy.

For the most part, Andorian fashion in my headcanons isn't unified. Different folks prefer to wear different things, same as Humans, but there are broader elements that are quite common.

Firstly, we know from ENT and subsequent appearances in the modern Treks that Andorians tend to wear a lot of leather, often embossed or tooled to have a particular sort of feel. The samples below from Discovery give me powerful 2009-2013 Gareth Pugh vibes.

Beyond that, the only other time we see Andorians is when they're in Imperial Guard or Starfleet uniforms, which mostly just gives an overall impression of leather, suede, and future-kevlar.

The Andorian ambassador in "Terra Prime" had a very different feel from these, of course, and that shiny outer robe ultimately inspired Thoris' official get-up.

By contrast, some super early screen tests and comic book depictions for everyday Andorians look rather different, however. We've got draping fabrics, robes, tunics, some thigh high boots, and what looks like bits of armoured studding and chainmail. That's quite the departure from the other depictions!

And then, of course, we have Shran's post-Imperial Guard coat. This one gets its own mention, because that coat is fabulous.

Honestly, this isn't a lot to work with. It's better than nothing, of course, but the different depictions feel very disjointed and all over the place. There's no sense of unity in the designs across the board.

So, from there I looked to real-world fashion to help me build a better idea of what I wanted my Andorians to actually look like outside of a uniform. As much as their depictions would lead us to believe that Andorians have an oddly prevalent leather kink, that's really not practical. Leather is a useful material, and certainly a heavily carnivorous population would end up with quite a lot of it, but surely that can't be everything they wear. So, I started looking around for things that felt like they fit the vague aesthetic we were given to work with.

Below are some samples from the ungodly huge pinterest board I keep for ideas and references for Andorian fashion. I think these mostly hit all the key notes for my headcanons.

A lot of these images are very bland in terms of colour, particularly by Andorian standards, but I think you should be able to see what I've drawn inspiration from.

What I ended up with was a combination of future-fashion elements, and influences from places like Japan and India - with a heavy slant towards using leather, silk, velvet and occasionally soft, drapey fabrics. Heavy ornamentation, such as embroidery, is very common but lacework on clothing is actually quite unusual. Andorians tend to find it catches on their chitin and tears too often to be worth the fuss.

In particular, I really like the idea of layers, off-set or asymmetrical necklines, and elements of structural/architectural fashion for Andorians. Tooled leather is very popular, as well.

Another detail about Andorian fashion that I've mentioned a few times in other posts is that they like to show off their chitin patterns. Often this is done using leather as the medium, but embroidery is also a perfectly acceptable option. Often times, these articles of clothing (usually outerwear but not always) will have a Clan sigil somewhere on it as well, but it's not at all a requirement. These practices accomplish a couple of different things:

Firstly, it offers prospective playmates a tantalising 'preview' of what's underneath. Andorians are not shy about these things, nor do they understand why aliens think they should be. Some Andorians find particular types of chitin patterns very attractive, while some are averse to partners with what they perceive to be too much or too little chitin - or worse, chitin patterns that are far too similar to their own, which would suggest a shared lineage somewhere.

Secondly, it shows off Clan affiliations, especially for Clan members who were not born with their Clan's 'typical' chitin pattern. (Married individuals will often wear things that show their affiliation to both their birth Clan and their marriage Clan, as well, though these are usually ornamental items such as jewellery or hair pieces.)

Thirdly, wearing one's Clan affiliations stamped on their sleeves can sometimes serve as a conflict deterrent. Some Clans are just not worth picking a fight with, and knowing who's who ahead of time instead of after someone says something spectacularly stupid tends to save lives. Since the Unification, the need for these sorts of deterrents has dropped substantially, but it's never entirely gone from Andorian society.

This is not to say that I imagine that all Andorians wear the same things. Being able to express individual preferences is very important, especially in a society where most other individualistic pursuits are seen as counter-productive to the harmony and unity of a community.

Shral, for example, deviates from the norm by preferring dark colours and minimal ornamentation. To other Andorians, his sartorial choices are almost conspicuously bland. On the other end of the spectrum, Thelen adores vivid colours - neon oranges, shocking yellows, acid greens - and fully embraces the bombastic colour palettes his people are known for. Thoris is doomed to be trapped in billowing robes he'd much rather burn in a steel drum behind the embassy under cover of darkness, but he prefers layered tunics, boots, and breeches that don't inhibit his movement. Vrath is in the middle of the road, favouring bold colours and practical clothing but never quite able to resist bits of ornamentation that give her wealthy Tha'an Clan allegiance away. Miraal, on the other hand, adore soft, draping fabrics and wears very little leather, or any other similarly heavy materials, and she prefers to wear minimal ornamentation so as not to distract from her wares.

In terms of seasonal clothing, Andorians can tolerate very broad rangers of temperatures, and they have thermal regulators built into much of their clothing. They can get away with quite a lot, in terms of weather, but a heavily cultivated sense of caution generally prevents them from wandering out into surface conditions wearing anything less than full winter gear - though, naturally, their idea of full winter gear is rather lighter than what a Human would go in for. In extreme heat, Andorians have no problem wearing as little as possible - often to the consternation of other species who do not share their total lack of nudity taboos.

Regarding colours, I headcanon that much like how Vulcans view green as a traditional mating colour owing to the hue of their blood, and Humans view red much the same way, so too do Andorians with the colour blue. Just wearing blue alone isn't an invitation for anything, but it is very noticeable and considered a very attractive colour. Wearing a particularly fetching shade of blue while lurking in a bar and being very noticeably single, however...

Andorian silk is a luxury item, and one in high demand. Made from cocoons harvested from a domesticated relative of the infamous Andorian ice borers, it's ten times stronger than Terran silk, rendering it resistant to slashing and piercing damage. It can be woven into heavy brocades or crafted into a diaphanous, organza-like material, or blended with other fibres. It almost always has a slight iridescent or even metallic shine to it, a highly coveted property, and it is ludicrously expensive.

Hope this helps! <3

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indignantlemur · 4 days

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Aww, thank you! I tried my best to make it all cohesive and sensible, but I admit I do sometimes ramble on a bit aimlessly at times!

And you're quite welcome! I'm always happy to chat about these things, and quite often the questions I get help me figure out aspects of my own lore that I hadn't fully considered yet, so it's a win-win! 😎💙