ClaWrite

[frameacloud]

Read today's comic.

Today's comic is encrypted in ClaWrite, a dragon alphabet invented by Baxil. The dialog is based on a conversation that I had with a classmate, but I'll leave the fun of deciphering it up to you. ;)

Unless if you'd rather just read the translation in the comments below...

Comments

[zuki-san.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...it tells me that "This file doesn't exist"

Is that the message you're meaning?

[frameacloud]

Notice that the post says "It may take a little while for the newest comic to appear."

The problem is that I have to make a link on the blog that goes to the comic, and on the comic I have to make a link to the blog, but I have to create the blog post first in order to find out what url it will have so that I can include that link on the comic. The comic has already been uploaded with this information, but Comicgen's auto-update system is still handling it.

[cougirl.livejournal.com]

Whoa, I can totally not read any of that.

[frameacloud]

Sorry, I forgot to include the translation key in the first couple edits. It's here: http://www.draconity.com/clawrite/

[Edit: corrected the link to its new location]

[klitaka.livejournal.com]

Looks like I need to go find my Little Orphan Annie decoder-ring.

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, the punctuation and the TH are of your invention, yes? It's been years since I've looked at Clawrite but I still worked it out.

Funny, too. I like (for jibbly values of like) the way the botherer turns into a scary blank nightmare smile thing when she's being most vapid, but looks like a person when forced to think.

[frameacloud]

"As far as I can tell, the punctuation and the TH are of your invention, yes?"
No, the punctuation and TH are canonical ClaWrite. They're explained on a separate page, here: http://www.tomorrowlands.org/draconity/clawrite/learn.html

"I like (for jibbly values of like) the way the botherer turns into a scary blank nightmare smile thing when she's being most vapid, but looks like a person when forced to think."
...I hadn't thought of her expression that way, but I guess that works. :)

[makuus.livejournal.com]

Wow... Haven't seen that script in a long while...

[dragonzuela.livejournal.com]

Ha, I like the "Christmas Story" reference.

Hadn't looked into Clawrite before, didn't realize that it would actually work quite well for talons like mine.

[frameacloud]

YES! You got the reference! *jumps up and down*

[slupine.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

Huh?

[frameacloud]

Sorry, I forgot to include the translation key in the first couple edits. It's here: http://www.tomorrowlands.org/draconity/clawrite/index.html

[arethinn]

I kind of get it but find most of it unreadable.

The cipher used is called 'Clawrite,' originally created by Baxil.

[zuki-san.livejournal.com]

I just busted out a translation as best I could, but I find myself puzzled by some of the symbols used in the fourth panel, they're not in the Clawrite set that I remember. I puzzled out from context that the central vertical bar crossed by a central line and a line at the top is 'th', and I was momentarily confused that 'say' was actually 'sh,' because of the way the A and the Y were close together.

But what about the symbols that look like a J and an L, with an extra central bar.......oh! They're opening and closing quotes! Backing up my focus up a moment, and now it makes sense.

I rather like the punctuation you've invented, it works. I'm curious what the one used by The Snoop in the third panel is mean to be though: it's not period, question mark, or elipsis. Unless the puncuation used in the second and final panels by Snoop is meant to be a question mark+exclamation point, in which case I guess Third Panel Snoop could be using a plain question mark. Or, alternatively, we've now puncuation for 'dismay'.

Re: The cipher used is called 'Clawrite,' originally created by Baxil.

[frameacloud]

No, no, the credit for the punctuation goes to Baxil, not to me. Read about them here: http://www.tomorrowlands.org/draconity/clawrite/learn.html

[drakocrowley.livejournal.com]

glad to see another update, even though I haven't decoded it yet.

[(Anonymous)]

wow, once you get used to it, this is a pretty easy script to read. Those dang quotation marks messed me up the most...

Good comic

[(Anonymous)]

Have been reading for a while, enjoying all this time. Managed to translate from memory even though a bit rusty from the "i"s and "a"s. The last bit had me confused because of the characters I didn't recognize until I looked up the part that expands on them on Baxil's site. Thanks for the comic and keep it up,

Mojo LaHojo

Re: Good comic

[frameacloud]

Thank you!

[draco18s.livejournal.com]

The word that says "and" I think should read in ClaWrite to look more like an Enlish alphabed "sex" instead on "ino." But that's my personal opinion. But it's not really possoble.

Also: lol, ovaltine.

[frameacloud]

The original conversation had "the" as the word that was mistaken for "sex." However, that only works if you're writing "the" with three letters, instead of using a special character for TH. So I switched it to "and," which ought to have three letters, and which is a similarly inoffensive bit of a word.

"And" isn't the most suggestive-looking word in ClaWrite, but neither was "the." I think she was just looking for words with three letters. What word in ClaWrite would look the most like it might say "sex"? My best guess is "cot," but someone can probably come up with a better one...

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

I admit I had to cheat and use your deciphering above, but thank you for sharing this. I hadn't gone far enough into Baxil's site to find the page on Clawrite, but I now think it's definitely one of the cooler things to come out of Otherkin.

[longwing.livejournal.com]

Personally, Clawrite has always fascinated me from the perspective of engineering a chording keyboard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard) built on the alphabet. Consider that you're dealing with a three line by three line grid. Hypothetically, you could engineer a three key keyboard for the entire alphabet. Every two taps creates another letter (press your horizontals first, and your verticals second). You'd probably need a fourth key for space, and for chording letters with only-vertical or only-horizontal components.

Unfortunately, building such a thing would require a fully programmable keyboard encoder (http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html), and those run a little pricey when dealing with a hypothetical project.

[sherlawk-dragon.livejournal.com]

Or, you COULD just make a new font on the computer. Though, I'm already doing that, 'cause I'm bored-ish... heh...

[makhsihed.livejournal.com]

I... rather want to memorize and use ClaWrite now. o.o Because it doesn't just work for dragons - it works for us bird-types too! :D

[marukay-zeron.livejournal.com]

It works for any kind with claws...

Dang this comment was slow in coming

[ishaniveus.livejournal.com]

There's punctuation now? The first half of my journal is sure gonna look primitive compared to my second half now... :P This being said, I definitely needed help deciphering the quotation marks in this comic...

Splendipulous!

[rowadanr.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to drink some ovaltine now.

You seem to have summed up my secondary school existence in five panels. I diden't enjoy those years very much

Oh my gosh!

[grioffa.livejournal.com]

I learned ClaWrite when I was in High School, I found it somewhere on the internet, wrote it down, and promptly lost the site. I'm so glad I found it again! It's been forever since I wrote anything in it, and it took a few minutes for me to remember how to read it, but I did! Thank you! Thank you for Theri There, and to Baxil for ClaWrite! (Although I think it was called 'Dragon Claw Writing' on the site I found it on, and I don't remember the punctuation.)

*dances*

And yes, it works just as well for gryphons as it does for dragons... *grin*

[(Anonymous)]

Are there any wolves alphabet? If no, please help me to invent it. I'll be very happy.

[frameacloud]

There's one called Feral.