Yes. The first one is a standard diacritical circle as seen in Swedish, the other two are a combining “o” above. The middle one is a standard alpha while the others are math script bold alphas. This is an attempt to create an ersatz “&” without the character 0x26 that appears as & in post titles and monospace text. The fullwidth ampersand is obviously the closest but it appears with space around it so “D&D” looks more like “D & D” than “D&D”. Hence the attempts with weird characters (D𝛂ͦD, D꯴D, D𐓯D…). Unfortunately, some OSs (notably Windows 10) incorrectly draw most combining diacritics offset to the right of the base letter as a zero-width character.
There is a pair of single (non-combining) characters I can demonstrate it with: a combination of K + combining comma below is supposed to look like Ķ but it looks kinda like Қ on Windows. However, Windows stacks combining diacritics so you can create impressively tall Z̷͍̝̿̈́͂̅͝͝͡͡a̷̢̡̢̙̬͕̯̹͍͖̰͕̦͉̘̪͗͂̑͂̑̾́̀̍͗̾́̄̕͝͝l̵̢̨̢̳̻̩̳̘͖͎͎̘̗̬̞͈͌g̸̨͈̠͔̖͎͇̟̍͗̈́̏̿̍̍͗̕o̷͓͎̙͉̯̱̊́͐͘ ̵̣͓̥͈̗̯̹̭̪͕͓̳̈́͌̐̈́̓̈́͑̌̚͡͝t̶̨̛̩̭̬̲͓̣͔̪̠̙̞͚̒͒̽͟͝ͅe̵̛̘͈̜͖̅͊́̅̌̇̒̐͑̚͠͝x̴͌͗͐͌̏͛̕͡͝ͅt̴̡̤̻̺̣̥̝̤̼̺̦̣͎̟́̊̂̈́̃͑̈́̈̈́ while some other platforms just print them over each other like a typewriter does.
im seeing th last three as (a/alpha)-with-circle-above … is this intentional?
Yes. The first one is a standard diacritical circle as seen in Swedish, the other two are a combining “o” above. The middle one is a standard alpha while the others are math script bold alphas. This is an attempt to create an ersatz “&” without the character
0x26
that appears as&
in post titles and monospace text. The fullwidth ampersand is obviously the closest but it appears with space around it so “D&D” looks more like “D & D” than “D&D”. Hence the attempts with weird characters (D𝛂ͦD, D꯴D, D𐓯D…). Unfortunately, some OSs (notably Windows 10) incorrectly draw most combining diacritics offset to the right of the base letter as a zero-width character.There is a pair of single (non-combining) characters I can demonstrate it with: a combination of K + combining comma below is supposed to look like Ķ but it looks kinda like Қ on Windows. However, Windows stacks combining diacritics so you can create impressively tall Z̷͍̝̿̈́͂̅͝͝͡͡a̷̢̡̢̙̬͕̯̹͍͖̰͕̦͉̘̪͗͂̑͂̑̾́̀̍͗̾́̄̕͝͝l̵̢̨̢̳̻̩̳̘͖͎͎̘̗̬̞͈͌g̸̨͈̠͔̖͎͇̟̍͗̈́̏̿̍̍͗̕o̷͓͎̙͉̯̱̊́͐͘ ̵̣͓̥͈̗̯̹̭̪͕͓̳̈́͌̐̈́̓̈́͑̌̚͡͝t̶̨̛̩̭̬̲͓̣͔̪̠̙̞͚̒͒̽͟͝ͅe̵̛̘͈̜͖̅͊́̅̌̇̒̐͑̚͠͝x̴͌͗͐͌̏͛̕͡͝ͅt̴̡̤̻̺̣̥̝̤̼̺̦̣͎̟́̊̂̈́̃͑̈́̈̈́ while some other platforms just print them over each other like a typewriter does.
oh, sorry, i see it now… although i prefer D꯴D