In the beginning, when The Developers surveyed the site, Cambourne was formless and void, and the spirit of Planning Permission hovered over the farmland. The Developers said, “Let there be houses”, and there were houses. The Developers saw that the houses were profitable. Evening came and morning came. The first phase.

In time, there also came some lakes and to those lakes came Ethelthefrog, his wife, his sister, her husband and their daughter. Ethel’s wife pointed the camera into the sunlight and said “Let there be a near silhouette of this man and his pointy nose.” And she clicked the button and it was so.

Much later, Ethel came to the place known as Livejournal and needed an avatar fast. “Aah,” quoth he, “here is an image with my nose in. This will suffice.” And he clicked and it sufficed sufficiently. He went about his business, not making many blog posts at all, but he did make friends and comments.

Time marched and there was born Ficlets and, in its turn, Ficly. Ethel needed an avatar fast.