One of these days I’ll figure out how to do a straightforward link to specific replies in order to make a table of contents. Lemmy makes it confusing where things ultimately live. My account is on a different instance from this community, and any given user may be viewing it from yet another instance.
Rather than me clogging this community with my nonsense, I’m making a single unified thread for the Lonely Galaxy. Most of this will be reposted from the corresponding megathread on the CBB forum[1].
It’s possible I’ll have to quit Lemmy the same way I had to quit Reddit two years ago. Silly monkey brain like big number, and the voting system is addictive for me. Gotta have those imaginary internet points lol. If I do end up quitting, I have a Neocities page[2], and if you’re interested in the Commonthroat language, there’s a comprehensive grammar on Frathwiki[3].
Postures and Gaits
One of the two resting positions yinrih can assume while in a gravity well. This is referred to in English as perching, and the piece of furniture is referred to as a perch. Yinrih straddle the perch on the belly as they would the branch of a tree, leaving their paws and tail to hang freely. A desk may be located under the perch, and the user manipulates objects on the desk with the freely hanging paws and tail.
This is the typical seat of a vehicle cockpit, but such an arrangement can also be found as computer workstations. The yinrih lies on his or her back, gripping a keyer in each of the four paws. Paw keyers use chords of simultaneous key presses to input text and other commands. If analog controls are present, they will be located at the base of the chair to be manipulated by the tail.
Yinrih prefer HUD specs (AR goggles or glasses) rather than screens in most cases. A pair of Google Glass-like HUD specs and a single paw keyer, possibly along with a tail gesture ring, are the typical tools that serve as a portable computer or smartphone.
In addition to perching and lying on the back, yinrih can rear up on their hind feet, preferably with the tail wrapped around something for balance. This posture allows the use of the forepaws to manipulate objects, but it is more energy-intensive than perching or lying belly up. They can also “sit” in canine fashion with the palms of all four paws touching the ground.
In microgravity, they an anchor themselves in place by wrapping the tail around a tail bar, leaving all four paws free for grasping and manipulating controls and such.
A yinrih’s rear paws are just as dexterous as their forepaws. Buttons and other controls are designed to be tactilely distinct so they can be used with the rear paws without looking, and a braille-like tactile alphabet is used even by sighted yinrih for labels on controls and small objects so they can be identified by touch alone.