diff --git a/assets/characters/README.md b/assets/characters/README.md
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index 0000000..3b2d851
--- /dev/null
+++ b/assets/characters/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Characters
+
+Imaginary friends that help me inject personality into my articles. These are
+anthropomorphized versions of animals that I have known in real life. I tried to
+draw them roughly in the style of Chris Pasquini, but failed myself, then tried
+using Perplexity's image generation. The style isn't quite the same, but I like
+it for these animals. Also, Perplexity does a horrible job of labeling images,
+so ignore the ref sheet emotion labels.
+
+## Spawn of Satan (aka Spawn aka SOS)
+
+![Spawn ref sheet](spawn/_ref-body-perplexity.png)
+
+Spawn of Satan is the name Travis gave to the cannulated cow, and it stuck.
+Spawn is old and cynical after having every professor with a new idea experiment
+on her. After being in academia for so long, she knows her way around
+mathematics and the scientific method reasonably well, even if she's never
+formally taken a college course in the sciences. She is the realist to any blog
+post's optimist.
+
+## Whelen
+
+![Whelen ref sheet](whelen/_ref-body-perplexity.png)
+
+Whelen is a happy-go-lucky German Shepherd/Husky mix puppy. He's been to school
+once - and that was just to get neutered - so his knowledge of math and science,
+heck, even of the humanities, isn't very good. He is very naive and thinks
+everyone is nice and wants to be his friend, but he is also friendly to everyone
+and is very vocal when he feels left out. He will step in when any blog post is
+getting too technical and demand an explanation for real people (dogs?).
diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/_ref-blueeye-perplexity.png b/assets/characters/spawn/_ref-blueeye-perplexity.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/_ref-bodysmirk-perplexity.png b/assets/characters/spawn/_ref-bodysmirk-perplexity.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/body-anger.png b/assets/characters/spawn/body-anger.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/body-lazy.png b/assets/characters/spawn/body-lazy.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/body-snark.png b/assets/characters/spawn/body-snark.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/face-confusion.png b/assets/characters/spawn/face-confusion.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/face-happy.png b/assets/characters/spawn/face-happy.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/face-neutral.png b/assets/characters/spawn/face-neutral.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/spawn/face-toldyouso.png b/assets/characters/spawn/face-toldyouso.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/body-determined.png b/assets/characters/whelen/body-determined.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/body-worry.png b/assets/characters/whelen/body-worry.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/face-anticipation.png b/assets/characters/whelen/face-anticipation.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/face-bored.png b/assets/characters/whelen/face-bored.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/face-happy.png b/assets/characters/whelen/face-happy.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/face-neutral.png b/assets/characters/whelen/face-neutral.png
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/face-skeptic.png b/assets/characters/whelen/face-skeptic.png
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index 0000000..33cc063
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/face-tired.png b/assets/characters/whelen/face-tired.png
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index 0000000..f395166
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diff --git a/assets/characters/whelen/face-worry.png b/assets/characters/whelen/face-worry.png
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diff --git a/assets/styles/millironx.css b/assets/styles/millironx.css
index 9b2026b..00ad31e 100644
--- a/assets/styles/millironx.css
+++ b/assets/styles/millironx.css
@@ -185,6 +185,8 @@
     "URW Bookman L", "Georgia Pro", Georgia, serif;
   --font-family-slab-serif: Rockwell, "Rockwell Nova", "Roboto Slab",
     "DejaVu Serif", "Sitka Small", serif;
+  --font-family-transitional: Charter, "Bitstream Charter", "Sitka Text",
+    Cambria, serif;
   --font-family-system-ui: system-ui, sans-serif;
   --font-family-monospace: "Nimbus Mono PS", "Courier New", monospace;
 }
@@ -272,6 +274,34 @@ main {
   flex-direction: column;
 }
 
+article p,
+.character-dialog-text,
+article li {
+  font-family: var(--font-family-transitional);
+  font-size: 1.15rem;
+  text-justify: inter-word;
+  text-align: justify;
+  hyphens: auto;
+}
+
+article > p {
+  text-indent: 2ch;
+  line-height: 1.5em;
+}
+
+article h1 + p,
+article h2 + p,
+article h3 + p,
+article h4 + p,
+article h5 + p,
+article h6 + p {
+  text-indent: 0;
+}
+
+.footnotes p {
+  font-size: smaller;
+}
+
 figure {
   border-color: var(--container-border);
   border-width: 1.5pt;
@@ -572,6 +602,55 @@ figcaption .mono {
   max-width: 100%;
 }
 
+.character-dialog {
+  display: grid;
+  width: calc(100% - 1rem);
+  grid-template-columns: 5rem 1fr;
+  grid-template-rows: auto auto;
+  gap: 1em;
+  margin: 0.5rem;
+}
+
+.character-avatar {
+  display: grid;
+  max-width: 100%;
+  grid-row: 1 / span 2;
+  grid-column: 1;
+  align-self: start;
+  align-items: center;
+  justify-items: center;
+  min-width: 5rem;
+  min-height: 5rem;
+  border-radius: 5rem;
+  align-items: center;
+  border-style: solid;
+  border-color: var(--nav-button-background-hover);
+  background-color: var(--cowhide-2);
+}
+
+.character-avatar > img {
+  max-width: 4rem;
+  max-height: 4rem;
+}
+
+.character-dialog-bubble {
+  display: grid;
+  grid-template-rows: auto auto;
+  align-self: start;
+  border-radius: 0.5em;
+  border-width: 0.2rem;
+  border-color: var(--nav-button-background);
+  border-style: outset;
+  row-gap: 0.5rem;
+  padding: 0.5rem;
+  background-color: var(--container-border);
+  min-height: 5rem;
+}
+
+.character-dialog-title {
+  font-weight: bolder;
+}
+
 /*
   Helper classes
 */
diff --git a/layouts/posts/single.html b/layouts/posts/single.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49151c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/layouts/posts/single.html
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+{{ define "main" }}
+  <article>
+    <h1>{{ .Title }}</h1>
+    {{ .Content }}
+  </article>
+{{ end }}
diff --git a/layouts/shortcodes/character-dialog.html b/layouts/shortcodes/character-dialog.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb1b9b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/layouts/shortcodes/character-dialog.html
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+{{ $character := .Get 0 }}
+{{ $position := .Get 1 }}
+{{ $emotion := .Get 2 }}
+
+{{ $resourceName := print "characters/" $character "/" $position "-" $emotion ".png" }}
+{{ $characterImageResource := resources.Get $resourceName }}
+
+{{ $resizedCharacterImage := $characterImageResource.Resize "x100" }}
+
+
+<div class="character-dialog">
+  <div class="character-avatar">
+    <img
+      src="{{ $resizedCharacterImage.Permalink }}"
+      alt="thumbnail of {{ $character }} in {{ $emotion }} state"
+    />
+  </div>
+  <div class="character-dialog-bubble">
+    <div class="character-dialog-title">
+      {{ $character | humanize }}
+    </div>
+    <div class="character-dialog-text">{{ .Inner | markdownify }}</div>
+  </div>
+</div>