#New Moon Reimagined

[big-idiot-wolf-boys]

Gonna be rereading NTRE for inspiration on fixing the last chapter because I hate writing Edward and know it can be improved

[astroeleanor]

Zodiac Signs Who Will Be The Main Characters of 2025 🏆✨🎉

🎄✨ Can you believe it? Christmas is around the corner, and guess what? Just like every year, I’m thrilled to offer Astrology + Tarot Xmas Bundles.

🎁 This season, I have an exclusive offer for you! Two Readings for the Price of One! Ready to align with the stars? TAP HERE to get yours.

🥇 PISCES (Moon, Rising, Chart Ruler)

SATURN IN PISCES (January 2025-May 2025) + (September 2025-February 2026):

Taking responsibility for your life, focusing on personal growth, developing resilience, defining who you are on your own terms, building a solid foundation for the future, turning your visions into reality.

VENUS & MERCURY RETROGRADE IN PISCES (Retrograde Overlap from March 14th 2025-March 24th 2025):

An important moment for reflection, taking a closer look at your relationships and the ways you communicate, revisiting old connections, rediscovering forgotten passions, slowing down to realign with your inner truth.

LUNAR ECLIPSE IN PISCES (September 7th 2025):

A powerful moment of culmination and transformation, sudden shifts and insights about your identity and personal path, shedding what’s holding you back so you can step into your next chapter with purpose.

🥈 ARIES (Moon, Rising, Chart Ruler)

SATURN IN ARIES (May 24th 2025 - September 1st 2025):

The beginning of a new cycle in your personal growth, taking responsibility for your goals, stepping into a leadership role in your life, confronting self-doubt, maturing or redefining your sense of self.

NEPTUNE IN ARIES (March 30th 2025-October 22nd 2025):

A wave of inspiration and imagination, dream big and align your actions with a higher sense of purpose, reconnecting with your intuition and spiritual potential, reimagining who you are and how you present yourself to the world, visionary thinking, taking inspired action.

As Saturn dips back into Pisces (September 2nd 2025-February 14th 2026), you’ll revisit some emotional or spiritual themes from the past to tie up any loose ends. This reflective period will prepare you for the full-on Saturn in Aries experience (starting on February 15th 2026-April 13th 2028), where you’ll step into greater authority and responsibility.

🥉 GEMINI (Moon, Rising, Chart Ruler)

JUPITER IN GEMINI (May 26th 2024-June 8th 2025):

A year of personal growth, stepping into your confidence, expanding your horizons, embracing the best version of yourself, discovering what makes you shine and leaning into it, feeling more open to explore new ideas or even physical experiences, an excellent time for networking and claiming the spotlight.

URANUS IN GEMINI (July 7th 2025-November 7th 2025):

A preview of revolutionary changes to your identity, the urge to break free from old roles or expectations, reinventing yourself, adopting a new look, a shift in how you express yourself, taking center stage in your own life, redefining who you are, reclaiming your narrative. Consider this your “trailer” for the personal evolution and breakthroughs ahead. This energy will play out fully starting on the 26th of April 2026.

🎖 CANCER (Moon, Rising, Chart Ruler)

JUPITER IN CANCER (June 9th 2025-June 30th 2026):

Amplified confidence and sense of self, focusing on personal growth, improving your self-image, taking bold steps toward your goals, a renewed sense of purpose and an inner glow that others can’t help but notice.

SATURN IN ARIES (May 24th 2025 - September 1st 2025):

Confronting situations where you need more courage and determination, feeling the pressure to balance ambitions with your emotional needs, a period of setting boundaries and taking responsibility for your future, stepping into a more structured, ambitious version of yourself without losing your emotional depth.

🏅VIRGO (Moon, Rising, Chart Ruler)

ECLIPSES IN VIRGO (March 29th 2025, September 21st 2025):

A year of personal reinvention, pivotal moments where you’re inspired to redefine your personal goals, a fresh chapter, prioritizing your needs and embracing your strengths.

SATURN IN PISCES (January 2025-May 2025) + (September 2025-February 2026):

Taking responsibility for your life, making tough decisions, a test of boundaries in relationships, reevaluation of partnerships, dealing with external pressure, assessing who you are, what you want, and how you show up in the world, letting go of limiting beliefs.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ian McDonald's "The Wilding"

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

Ian McDonald is one of those absurdly brilliant novelists that just leave me wondering the actual fuck he manages it. How does he cover so much ground, think up so many compelling characters, find so many gracenotes, conjure up so many complicated emotions?

McDonald burst on the scene in the late 1980s, with the 1988 novel Desolation Road and then his 1989 Out On Blue Six, a slick, stylized cyberpunk-meets-Orwell tale that overflowed with beautiful prose, technomysticism, and sly jokes that hid sneaky truths that hid even more sly jokes:

https://memex.craphound.com/2014/01/20/out-on-blue-six-ian-mcdonalds-brilliant-novel-is-back/

By my count, McDonald has now published twenty books – mostly novels, but a couple short story collections (and the most amazingly demented, Tom-Waits-inflected teddybear murder comic imaginable, 1994's Kling Klang Klatch):

https://irishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Kling_Klang_Klatch

McDonald's work is truly globespanning. While he's made his mark on the Martian soil, and overtaken the moon with the Luna trilogy (his definitive rebuttal to Heinlein's Moon Is a Harsh Mistress) he is widely adored and much-awarded for the glittering, futuristic versions of Brazil (Brasyl), Tanzania (the Chaga series), and India (River of Gods).

Indeed, McDonald's imagination has roamed so far over the Earth and the solar system that it's possible to overlook his fantastic reimaginings of Ireland, the land where he was raised. There's his Philip K Dick Award-winning 1991 novel King of Morning, Queen of Day, a swirling, mythopoeic novel of Celtic mysticism:

https://www.baen.com/king-of-morning-queen-of-day.html

And then there's 1992's Hearts, Hands and Voices, which is lowkey one of the best novels I have ever, ever read – a scorching science fictional allegory for The Troubles, but with the gnarliest biotech weirdness you can possibly imagine:

https://archive.org/details/heartshandsvoice0000ianm/mode/2up

McDonald's books cover so much goddamned ground, but one feature they all share is a prose styling wherein every sentence is at least 20% poetry, a fraction that somehow, impossibly, rises to as much as 150% in certain especially shiny passages.

Like this passage, which opens The Wilding, McDonald's new horror novel that marks his first return to Ireland since 1992:

Autumn lay on the great bog in silvers and tans, late purples and duns.

The sun rose above the tall ash saplings and feral sycamore. It called the birds into full voice. Stabbing shrills, tumbles of notes, the flutes of dove-call, frantic ticking hisses, song upon song. In hedgerows and copses, among the pale foliage of the birches, in the weave of deep willow and the bramble fastnesses, each bird called and was heard. In this season the peatland held the day's warmth through the night and on the bright, clear mornings rivers of mist formed, filling the subtle hollow places in the exposed cuttings, the bogs and fields. High sun would dispel it but at this hour half of Lough Carrow lay mist-bound. Each blade of grass hung heavy with dew, the clumps of sedges were already browning, the bracken curling and crisping.

A pair of horns lifted above the willow scrub and out-grown ash hedges of the Wilding. Polished tips caught the low sun and kindled as bright and keen as spears.

https://www.gollancz.co.uk/titles/ian-mcdonald/the-wilding/9781399611503/

Oof.

I would drop everything to read Ian McDonald's grocery lists but after that opening, I wasn't going to put this one down, and I didn't, reading the whole thing on yesterday's flight home from my gigs in Atlanta this week.

The Wilding is (I'm pretty sure?) McDonald's first horror novel, and it's fucking terrifying. It's set in a rural Irish peat bog that has been acquired by a conservation authority that is rewilding it after a century of industrial peat mining that stripped it back nearly to the bedrock. This rewilding process has been greatly accelerated by the covid lockdowns, which reduced the human footprint in the conservation area to nearly zero.

The story's protagonist is Lisa, a hard-case Dubliner who came to the bog to do community service after a career as a crime syndicate driver for hire, a woman who never met a car she couldn't boost and pilot in or out of any tight situation. After years in the bog, she's ready to start a new life, studying Yeats at university, indulging a late-discovered love of poetry that has as much to do with her redemption as her years in the wild.

Lisa's last duty before she leaves the bog and goes home to Dublin is leading a school group on a wild campout in one of the bog's deep clearings. It's a routine assignment, and while it's not her favorite duty, it's also not a serious hardship.

But as the group hikes out to the campsite, one of her fellow guides is killed, without warning, by a mysterious beast that moves so quickly they can barely make out its monstrous form. Thus begins a tense, mysterious, spooky as hell story of survival in a haunted woods, written in the kind of poesy that has defined McDonald's career, and which – when deployed in service of terror – has the power to raise literal goosebumps.

There's a lot of fantasy that deals with Celtic mythology, including McDonald's own King of Morning, Queen of Day, but the vibe of that stuff tends to the heroic and romantic – sure, there's the odd banshee, but in the main, it's mischievous wee people, pookas, and leprechauns. More fey than fear.

But Irish mythology in its raw form is terrifying. The monsters of Irish storytelling are grotesque, mean, remorseless, and come in every shape and size. Some authors have done well by going back to the bestiary for the deep cuts. When I was a kid, I must have read John Coyne's Hobgoblin fifty times (mostly because it was about D&D, which I was obsessed with). I haven't read this one since I was about 12, and I have no idea if it'd hold up today, but it left me with a deep appreciation of the spooky multifariousness of monsters who dwell in Ireland's bogs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobgoblin_(novel)

The Wilding is a suspense novel, which means there's no way to really sum up the plot without spoiling a lot of the affect, but suffice to say that McDonald brings large swathes of deep Irish lore to the surface, and it had me reading as fast as I could and wanting to put the book down and hide.

What a writer McDonald is! The fact that this is the same guy who wrote last year's stunning secret-history/solarpunk/uncategorizable wonder that was Hopeland beggars belief:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/30/electromancy/#the-grace

Read you some Ian McDonald novels, is what I'm trying to say. This one is only available in the UK, if that's not where you are, consider mail-ordering it. Looks like they've got stock at Forbidden Planet for £19 plus £18 shipping to the US. Worth every penny:

https://forbiddenplanet.com/424306-the-wilding-hardcover/

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/25/bogman/#erin-go-aaaaaaargh

[skyscrapergods]

I had no real reason for this, I just suddenly imagined the reimagining of the Canterlot Wedding arc in the Shireverse (very specifically *after* the whole Changelings debacle was over, and the preparations for the *actual* wedding with the *actual* bride and non-magic-drained groom.). And it's just *so many shenanigans.* I'd imagine that Cadence would roughly be at the size that you drew Chrysalis mimicking her at, so maybe 3 or 4 times bigger than Shining Armor? Small enough to fit in buildings, big enough that getting an outfit for her is a hassle, and braiding her mane and tail when they *dissolve into smoke* is an even bigger one.

Also I this she would be getting the beginning of her telepathic alicorn powers, so imagine: You're a pony invited to the wedding of one of the Royal Guards of Canterlot, and a new goddess. There are many near-incomprehensible things at the beginning, but at the *actual* wedding and reception after the drama has passed, you can just faintly at the back of your head feel or sense this vague sense of giddy, overjoyed excitement. and you realize - oh. that's the bride. That's the force of her happiness at getting married bleeding out into the world so that everyone else can feel it. and also away from all the wedding stuff - what exactly does the Canterlot Royal Guard *do* when the 'Royals' are goddesses the size of buildings or the fucking sun and moon themselves?

she is SO in love!!! and her groom loves her SO MUCH. there's practically fireworks and flowers blooming all over the place. It's a bit overwhelming for ponies not used to the presence of gods.

[ancientgoddessofegypt]

Astrology Theories : The Sun & The Moon

Hey! So todays astrology theory post will focus primarily on the moon/sun and the aspects and signs pertaining to it.

Let me start off by saying, people who carry the aspects connecting the sun and moon together, will be easily likeable, as well as someone who can be a team player and be a beacon for people. There is a sense of inspiration that comes out of them because the blending of these two come together and makes for something totally unique for the individual and their experience. There is a special persona that comes out of these characters who hold this placement, and the way they share it is magnificent.

Sun Conjunct The Moon - To be, this gives the energy of someone who is the first born in the family. Could naturally be a caretaker, could become a leader and be in these roles easily because of their inner nature. Could process their emotions differently, and may need small amounts of alone time, depending on the sign they both are in this can show a bit differently. These characters are born under a new moon, so their can be experiences we're they can reimagine and start over their lives for the greater good of themselves and possible the world.

Sun Opposite The Moon - Big personalities. Big possibilities. Bigger lessons. You get the picture. Everything seems more intense because of the power trip the full moon gives the sun, but they both work hand in hand together and make things powerful with their magic. Now I can assure you, they are not to be messed with. Their energy can create waves because they are use to the tides always shifting in different directions. They gotta make it work in order to balance themselves out. This ain't a walk in the park, got it? Inspiration moves right through them as they are processing their own vibration and people will tend to catch this energy and want to know more about them.

Sun Square The Moon - Creatrix. Beautiful liars. Sociopaths. Can be likeable, can be unlikeable. It depends on the upbringing. There is so many different ways to express the complexities of this placement, because they are used to being the black sheep as well as the golden child at the same time. Could very much so like to have it their way, but the world forces them to appease to others.. and vice versa. They have relationship issues do to parental problems where the parents put their needs before the child. They could of had strange upbringings with the family and learned how to occupy their time with developing their personalities their own way and keeping that unique personality to themselves. They could be selfish, they could be sweet. They could be generous, they could be mean. You never know what you're going to get with them, or when those tides can change. Cause it all depends on how their feeling, after all.

Sun Trine The Moon - Attractors. Manifestors. Healers. Creators. The people with this placement seem to have an eye for detail. Could potentially erase years of trauma and guilt from their family tree, and could strive to create better for the future head. Could be very good leaders, and someone who just knows what they want.. and they're not afraid to get it. They have great potential to be somebody in this lifetime, and could use this potential to help others see this light within them as well. They have to choose the right people in their space so that they can bloom more, it just works that way. Truly being who they are, is how they will maintain a lifetime of success. Reaching for the stars is in their nature, because they know that they are one themselves.

Sun Sextile The Moon - Healers. Potential. Channelers. Potion Makers. Could be deemed crazy. The Sextile gives a promise that these individuals can utilize this energy and can create excitement around what it is they desire. This aspect is good creating space and community for people like them. And can be somewhat of a mirror for anybody who needs to channel that energy into something new. Could be very delightful and fun to get alone with it. Could be shy and full of nervousness. Could be someone who gets their needs met by sharing their emotional needs with others. They need a safe space to survive.

[writingwithcolor]

Running Commentary: What is “ok to do” in Mixed-Culture Supernatural Fiction?

Dear readers: 

Today we are trying something new. To give you some insight into our process in the Japanese moderator section, we are presenting our response in the form of running commentary to show you how we dissect and answer long asks. We hope this makes clear what points are useful and not useful when sending us a query. As always, this is for learning purposes, not callouts. Be prepared: this is a long one. 

To summarize: the asker is looking to create a comic drawn in Japanese manga style, and has provided a long summary of the story and worldbuilding which involves a mix of “reimagined” Japanese yokai mythos and cultural symbols from many other sources. They have questions with respect to cultural appropriation, coding etiquette, and “what is and isn’t ok.” 

Opening Comments

I know a common advice when it comes to the thing I am about to ask is to talk to people involved in __, but I struggle with opening up to strangers for reasons I'm uncomfortable explaining. 

Marika (M): This is already a red flag. If you want to engage with another culture without talking to people from that culture, then research is going to be very challenging. You won’t have members of that culture to guide you towards sources and perspectives they feel most accurately represents public opinion. If I were in your shoes, I might start with tackling my discomfort when engaging with other people, if only to improve my work. If you aren’t ready to engage with a culture and its people directly, then I think you should wait until you are. 

I should note, reaching out to the Japanese mod team at WWC does count as engagement, but WWC should not and cannot be the only point of contact because there is no single, legitimate cultural perspective. 

Rina (R): Also, you don’t need to “open up” to strangers or talk to them in person to get perspectives. Asking specific research questions anonymously to a forum or on social media requires very little vulnerability. You managed to do it here on WWC. So give it a try! 

Anyway, my question basically amounts to the what is and isn't ok [sic] in terms of depicting fantasy creatures and concepts outside of their respective culture.

R: So, the reason why we turn away rubber stamp questions by that ask “is XYZ okay?” is because “okay” & “not okay” 1) is vague and 2) creates a dichotomy where there isn’t one. 

When we say something is “not okay,” do we mean:

It’s offensive to the general majority of XYZ group? 

It’s contentious among people who ID in the group? 

It has a potential to be interpreted in a certain negative way, but may not be a red flag to everyone?

Insetad try asking:

What are the reasons this subject is offensive? 

What makes cultural appropriation bad? 

When might it be “okay” to intentionally discuss a difficult or controversial topic?

What is your reason for including something that may be interpreted as offensive and can it be sufficiently justified? 

What stereotypes or tropes might it be consistently identified as or associated with, and why? 

When might it be justified to bring up these tropes?

With That In Mind...

Let’s get into the rest of the ask below. 

…a story I've been working on in recent times is largely inspired off the Japanese yokai, and the setting is basically Earth in the far future, as far as when the next supercontinent may form. These yokai, although portrayed differently here, do retain their main characteristics [...] Included in this world are two goddesses of my own creation, primarily representing the sun and the moon. [...] There will be thirteen nations, named and based after the Chinese Zodiac, and the life force found in the living things in this world, called qi, comes in two forms that are always opposing each other but can never fully overpower the other, this being based off yin and yang. They're even directly named this; yin qi and yang qi.

M: This reads more like using Japanese and Chinese culture for the “aesthetics”, not the cultures themselves, which I personally feel falls under cultural appropriation. From a world-building/ coding standpoint, the actual use of concepts is workable, and, dare I say, typical, given how Chinese cosmology influences Japanese culture. However, naming a concept “yin qi” or “yang qi” is the equivalent of naming something “- charge” or “+ charge”, respectively. That you don’t seem aware of this tells me you are pretty early in your research phase. In that vein, we’ve covered translating terms and names from foreign languages in fantasy before. See the following article linked here for our recommendation against using RL terms outright but instead encouraging people to create their own conlangs. 

R: Worldbuilding-wise, I think you would have to figure out the chicken-or-egg of the zodiac nations. Did the nations come first, and the zodiac later as an origin folk story (which you would have to rewrite to serve the nation-building narrative)? Did the zodiac come first, and the nations named (most likely re-named) by a political entity? What is the justification? Otherwise, again, it’s a shoehorning of aesthetics. 

There is also a third, lesser known god based off of fox spirits and trickery and I imagined he's the patron deity of a family that honors and worships him, but his influence on them has transformed them into Kitsune-tsuki, which I depict as fox-like anthros. 

M: Not related to this ask directly, but I have jokingly ranted about how often non-Japanese people prefer using imagery related to kitsune-tsuki in Japanese coded world-building (link). This makes me feel the same level of petty irritation. See my troll answer below for a similar experience.

R: Same. It’s boring tbh. 

M: Troll Answer: I get that kitsune-tsuki are very sexy furries, but Japanese folklore has other sexy furries too! These underrepresented demographics also deserve recognition and appreciation!!

The plot of the story is this; modernization has left the goddesses neglected of their worship and forgotten, something that is necessary in this world to stop them from fighting each other. The Moon Goddess awakens first, punishing the humans by unleashing the yokai. Then the Sun Goddess wakes up to fight in humanity's defense…

M: This could feel rather like Shinto-like coding (Ex. the myth of Amaterasu and the Cave, or Tsukuyomi slaying Ukemochi), but something about this scenario feels a bit too binary in terms of themes of good v. evil, light v. dark to be Shinto. The plot also feels more Gaelic/ Nordic in influence for me as a person raised in a Japanese Buddhist and Hindu household. I imagine this dissonance could have been fixed with better guided research. 

…but their fighting has caused a perma-eclipse and this world is in danger of ending. The yokai have run rampant; some are loyal to the Moon Goddess, and some aren't, and it lies to the main characters to bring balance back to Midgard. Yeah... the name of this future Earth is Midgard. I debate changing it since it and some other things I will mention sorta feel out of place.

R: Marika, looks like you were right on the Gaelic/Nordic influence /j 

Also, worldbuilding question: if the Earth is in the far geologic future, how long has it been since modernization (19th-20th century)? Centuries? Millennia? How long has this fighting gone on for? What triggered the perma-eclipse, and why now? Why is this time depth necessary? 

One of the main characters in question is a humanoid woman with wolf features named Ling, and she is a descendant of the dynasty that had first ruled the one of the nations, particularly the one based off the dragon zodiac. She accidentally summons the other main character to this world as she's praying at a shrine, a humanoid with dragon features--I call them drakon--named Angelynn.

[on the names of characters] is it appropriating by not having the world entirely based on [Chinese, Japanese, and Indian] influence? it's a little weird to me how worldwide the creatures are referred to as yokai, implying a strong Japanese influence not unlike how it is today with Western culture being so dominant, yet there are still names like Keith and Kiara.

M: I will give you credit for recognizing you have unconsciously veered towards white-washing/ race-bending: either presenting European cultural influences (drakons, Angelynn, Keith, Kiara, Midgard) as default or utilizing general E. Asian cultural influences and aesthetics for a Western-style story (Ling, qi, Chinese zodiac, yokai). I agree with you that this creates a sense of cultural dissonance. At this point, I’d say you have a clear choice: write a Western-style high fantasy using a background with which you have more familiarity, or get some better guidance on research with East Asian cultures so you can code the story more effectively. 

The focus of this story is centered around meeting all these yokai and showing that there's more nuance to them than Ling believes, all while saving the world. But I worry if I'm appropriating these concepts and creatures by 1, drawing from more than one culture--I initially imagined that there would be a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Indian influence because according to a website I am getting the info on yokai from, the yokai in question already draw inspiration from or have been based on something in Chinese mythology or Hinduism [...]

R: Sure, some yokai have Chinese or Hindu parallels as that tends to happen with folk tales. But not all–some are unique to Japan, and some are more modern. Sometimes it’s very political–some people consider the Ainu Korpokkur as being a “Yokai of Japan” despite it belonging to the indigenous culture. It’s up to you to research, untangle, and understand these influences. 

The fact that you bring up that the Asian continent has seen a lot of cultural exchange is not a sufficient reason to randomly combine influences for the sake of visual appeal or “coolness.” That is appropriation. These influences must be understood in their historical context so that you know how/why certain things combined or morphed into another, and what makes sense to combine/morph. 

M: This also indicates that the character views the yokai as evil/inherently bad, which I would argue is not a typical stance for much Japanese folklore. Again, this shows a deficit in research. 

2, reimagining these yokai in a new context even though I have done the research on them, because one thing I kept seeing in regards to cultural appropriation is that it's bad to do that […]

R: Refer above to my note on “okay” and “not okay.” The thing with folklore and fairy tales is that every–and I mean every–folk tale is reinterpreted with every new iteration of it. Reimagining in a new context is what people do every time they pass on a story or tell a story with the same plot or characters. Do not think of folklore as an “original” that is altered and rebooted, but rather a living document that gets added to. Reimagining is not the inherent issue. HOW you reimagine something matters. 

So I suppose my question is...if someone were to do research upon the creature they want to use, given they are allowed to use it, and gained an understanding of what the creature or concept stood for, are they allowed to pick it apart and reimagine it? Alternatively, is it ok if it's explicitly pointed out that it is derivative of the original?

It has actually become my biggest fear that I may have internalized something that could both continue to do harm long after the fact and attract the wrong people to me work. I don't wanna let people down!

M: As Rina has noted several times, I think the problem is in trying to ID a set of specific variables and circumstances that make a thing “okay” or “not okay.” I want to recommend that you read my joking response about writing in secret rooms while wearing a disguise (Linked here). Who can you hurt if no one knows what you are doing? There’s a difference between creating for oneself and creating to share. 

You have internalized a message incorrectly, but not the one you cite. The goal of many recommendations against cultural appropriation is to avoid causing direct harm to people who have seen their cultures demeaned, discredited and devalued, especially in shared spaces. Assessing cultural engagement, whether we are talking about appropriation, appreciation or exchange is not a measure of personal virtue or a collection of commandment style do’s and don’t’s. Rather, I believe engaging with other cultures is the state of mind of acknowledging that when using these cultures’ in one’s own work, there is value in consulting members of that culture and giving credit where credit is due. This will be challenging if you are only comfortable engaging with all of these cultures in a distanced, minimal capacity. 

FWIW, I’ve written stories that probably will offend people from other cultures and backgrounds, but I don’t show them off. I don’t think writing these makes me a bad person, but I also don’t see the need to give unnecessary offense, so those stories are just for me, to be written and read in my own secret room. However, I’m not ashamed of having written them, and I’m also comfortable to “let people down” provided that my own shared work reflects my personal principles of what I consider to be sufficient research and engagement with other cultures,  As a creator, my work wouldn’t be mine if I didn’t first please myself. I think the trick to the creator role is deciding what to keep private, what to share and what constitutes sufficient engagement. 

P.S. 

We’ve referenced the need for research multiple times in this ask, and in some of the other asks that have gone up this week, so we thought this would be a good place to plug a beginner’s guide to academic research created by the mod team.. Look for it soon under WWC’s pinned posts!

[themarvelproject]

Chris Giarrusso Reimagines the Iconic Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Covers in New Connecting Variant Covers

Check out all 15 Marvel Universe Connecting Variant Covers by Chris Giarrusso on sale this April

Acclaimed creator Chris Giarrusso brings his beloved style to a new variant cover program this April! Known for his playful depictions of Marvel characters in titles like MINI MARVELS, the Harvey award-nominated artist has delivered a stunning recreation of the iconic covers from the original run of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Gracing Marvel’s hottest current titles, these 15 MARVEL UNIVERSE CONNECTING COVERS capture the excitement and grandness of this legendary, character-packed piece. The covers will also be available as BLUE LINE SKETCH VARIANT COVERS, allowing collectors to marvel at Giarrusso’s charming linework up close.

"The original covers to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition absolutely mesmerized me as a burgeoning comic reader in the '80s," Giarrusso shared. "I still remember my brother pointing out, 'see, they all connect,' as he held up two issues next to each other. It was mind-blowing to my ten-year-old brain."

"When Marvel gave me the opportunity to Mini-Marvelize this classic piece originally drawn by John Byrne (issues 1-11), Ron Frenz (12) and Keith Pollard (13-15), enthusiasm edged out intimidation. It was as fun as it was challenging to draw. The kid in me couldn't be more excited about this!"

FOC March 3rd - On Sale April 2nd

IMMORTAL THOR #22

MOON KNIGHT: FIST OF KHONSHU #7

WEST COAST AVENGERS #6

X-MEN #14

FOC March 10th - On Sale April 9th

DAREDEVIL #20

DOCTOR STRANGE OF ASGARD #2

INCREDIBLE HULK #24

UNCANNY X-MEN #13

FOC March 17th - On Sale April 16th

EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #8

POWER MAN: TIMELESS #3

FOC March 24th - On Sale April 23rd

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2

AVENGERS #25

ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM #3

X-MEN #15

FOC March 31st - On Sale April 30th

FANTASTIC FOUR #31

Check out all 15 MARVEL UNIVERSE CONNECTING COVERS along with a look at some of their BLUE SKETCH VERSIONS and preorder them at your local comic shop today!

[duranduranofficial]

“NEW MOON (DARK PHASE)” featuring Andy Taylor, a reimagined version of the band’s classic song “New Moon On Monday,” is out now.

https://duran.lnk.to/NewMoonOnMonday 🌗

[lgbtqreads]

hi! gay uncle book shopping for my trans nephew, he's 17 now so he's moving more toward adult fiction, he likes lyrical and slightly tragic books, he loved Song of Achilles, is reading Call Me By Your Name (and enjoying it) I was thinking about getting him House of Impossible Beauties and Dayspring, but I'd love some recommendations of books in that vain, adult, new adult or robust YA with a poetic writing style and maybe a little sad/tragic, bonus points if it has a transmasc main/major character because its always hard to find good books with trans male characters

The best uncles are book shopping uncles! In YA I really love Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min, which definitely has some sadness and a transmasc main character (and lovely writing). Another great one with a transmasc lead is Man O’War by Cory McCarthy; highly recommend. And one of YA’s most gorgeous writers, in my opinion but also many award committees’, Anna-Marie McLemore, has three books with trans boy leads: When the Moon Was Ours (m/f magical realism), Self-Made Boys (a historical t4t m/m Gatsby reimagining), and Venom & Vow (which is epic trans/bigender fantasy co-written with their husband, Elliot McLemore.) I’d say those are the most literary YA options, though if your nephew might like things with more of a thriller/horror bent, check out Andrew Joseph White’s books as well, starting with Hell Followed With Us.

In Adult, definitely check out The Thirty Days of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar (more literary) and Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore (more commercial, but definitely hits the sad and lovely beats), and if he’s up for historical, Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg, All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes, or more horror-adjacent, The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo. 

For books on my radar in 2025, in case he wants stuff to look forward to, I’d keep The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill and Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman on your radar, and I know Andrew Joseph White has an adult called You Weren’t Meant to Be Human coming up at some point, though that might be 2026.

Every one of those books fits the Ask with a trans male main character, so I hope you find some great books for him to love! 

[make-friends-with-the-rats]

Cut Newsies songs:

1992 Movie

No song/songs have been changed more than the songs sung at Medda's theatre. From the original film, there were two cut Medda/Medda's theatre songs:

Gimmie All You Got: Not much is known about this song. According to an old fan website, it was supposed to be sung by "Ruthie," a cut character who worked with Medda. (Ruthie might have been "Medda's assistant" played by Christian Bale's sister Louise.) This song is also referenced in the 1991 script, evidently, it was this song that Les was originally supposed to sing in his sleep:

Newsies film script. 15th Green Revisions, May 1991. Page 32.

Don't Come A'Knocking: Fun fact! The song "Don't Come A'Knocking" was originally written for the Newsies movie presumably for Medda. While a full version of the song didn't make it into Newsies until the stage adaptation, you can hear the instrumental in the pan out from the "Irving Hall" sign right before the rally in the film.

Apart from these, there are three other cut songs from Newsies (1992) that we know of:

A Day at the Beach: Not much is known about this song other than that it was replaced by "King of New York" and was "about the newsies trying to 'rev up their courage.'" The photo below is thought to be from the cut number.

What Will Become of the Boy?: Contrary to what you may have heard, "The Truth About the Moon" was not Sarah's cut film song. Her song in the film was called "What Will Become of the Boy?" which was cut along with many of Sarah's other scenes for time because it "wasn't necessary/relevant to the story." Sarah's film song was supposed to be a 'duet' of sorts with Jack and would have overlapped with "Santa Fe (reprise)."

Hard Promises: Original Newsies Story.

The Point of No Return: Probably the best known of the film's cut songs, "The Point of No Return" originally was sung at the climax of the movie before it was replaced with "Once and For All." This is the only 1992 cut song which we have full lyrics for.

Newsies film script. 15th Green Revisions, May 1991. Lyrics on pages 118 to 122.

Newsies: the Musical

The Newsies musical had several songs cut or changed in the transition from Paper Mill to Broadway. Unlike the film's cut songs, we have recordings for each of the following:

The News Is Getting Better: Pulitzer's original villain song, replaced by "The Bottom Line."

Don't Come a Knocking: The full song (first written for the film) was originally sung by Helen Anker (Paper Mill's Medda) before Medda was reimagined for Broadway and Medda's song in the musical was replaced by "That's Rich." A shorter version of "Don't Come a Knocking" is included in the final musical sung by the Bowery Beauties alongside "I Never Planned on You."

The Truth About the Moon: When Newsies: the Musical was still on the drawing board and Sarah Jacobs was still planned for the stage, Sarah had a new song written for her called "The Truth About the Moon." After Katherine was created the song was cut along with Sarah.

Story of My Life: Before "Watch What Happens," Katherine's song in an early draft of the Newsies musical was "Story of My Life."

Then I See You Again: An earlier Jack/Katherine song, replaced for Broadway with "Something to Believe In."

[h-didanart]

Guys

Musical au

Musical au

Musical au :D

Ok so context, I’ve had this idea for a while now but wanted to explore it more with the whole au combo thing I did for a bit

BUT THEN I got a new idea, one that combined more than two aus…

So I present to you this Musical AU, it contains characters from my three main aus (currently, tho I am very inclined to add some others), and it’s basically two of the main stories as musicals!

Let’s meet the main characters shall we?

From Get in Losers: Musical Edition, Sunrise Rays and Crescent Moondrop Celestial as Sun and Moon! The twins that started it all, you won’t believe how unlucky these guys get, watch as Sun and Moon fumble through dimensions, the plans of their enemies, and their own relationship in their way to collect as many family members as possible.

These two were very surprised when they not only got accepted but were actually casted as the main characters. Even more so when their other triplet wasn’t included with them since the start. They were certainly nervous about this all, but knowing the rest of the cast and their family members are right next to them puts them at ease.

And from The Sunset and Moonlight Musical, Waning Moonlight and Sunset Sky Galaxia as Moonlight and Sunset! The tale we all know and kinda love reimagined with the classic character swap, watch the twins face every challenge coming their way while they try to keep the rift between them from increasing further.

These two gave it their all in their auditions, and they got in! They weren’t aware of the fact that the other had auditioned as well though, it was meant to be a surprise from both of their ends. They laughed about it after finding out. Since the musical is still being written (I don’t have enough songs for the story yet :() they have some extra time to get to know their fellow cast members and get familiarized with the theatre.

Both these main character sets have an extra member however, with being two sets of triplets and all. Nem and Morningstar, while not exactly jealous of their sibling’s roles, aren’t exactly thrilled about missing out on all the fun. At least at first. They used to joke with one another about how they’d make their own musical behind everyone’s backs.

And that’s the lore for now! Check in next time for some character movement notes!

We hoped you enjoyed this little peak at Sunrise Arc Theatre and we hope to see you soon!

[nostalgiclittlespace]

Spotify Suggestions for Little Space!

Some of my personal favorite songs (and their artists) from my agere playlist! Anything with dashes (/) means there are numerous versions I listen to. Almost everything is clean, but I did mark the ones that are explicit (if I missed any pls let me know!)

Feel free to add your join suggestions in the comments! Hope this helps someone!

Little Space (of course)—SXYE

Million Dreams, Lullaby—Music Box Lullabies

Pure Imagination—Dream Easy Collection

Dearly Beloved—Video Game Music Box

Treehouse—Alex G, Emily Yacina

safe place—Tony22

Boys will be Bugs—Cavetown (TW: Explicit)

Coconut Mall, Mario Kart Wii—Arcade Player

Hikari—Video Game Music Box

Build a Bear—Maggie Brewer

FNAF Security Breach: Daycare theme—Dario D’Aversa/Saccharinne

This is Me—The Greatest Showman

Bubblegum K.K—Qumu/Jayn

First Date—Frad

The Strawberry Cafe—IllustratorJake

UWU—Chevy

Zelda’s Lullaby—Amy Turk

Strawberry Milk—Fluffy Fluff

Flying Strawberry Cow—FroggyChair

It’s a Small World, Lullaby—Hamasaki vs Hamasaki

Face My Fears—Ralpi Composer

Winnie the Pooh—Melody the Music Box

K.K Love Song—Kazumi Totaka

Shadow Bonnie Music box—b1n4ry

Jump Up, Super Star! (Music box version)—Boxyboard

I See the Light, music box version��James Strange

Stars in the Sky—Kid Cudi

Welcome to Wonderland—Anson Seabra

King—Lauren Aqulina

I’m Cute—Animaniacs

Rainbow Connection—Weezer,Haley Williams

Mii Channel—G4M1NG

Fur Elise, Reimagined—Alexander Joseph

Animal Crossing New Horizons Theme—Lullaby Legends

Twinkle, twinkle little star— Sabelia Robles

Wrap Me In Plastic—CHROMANCE, Marcus Layton

Lovely Date—NomnomNami

Gay Fairytale Music Box—Saccharinne

Brahms Lullaby—Lullaby Time/Elliot Gordon

A Thousand Years—Christina Perri/Jade Facer

Try Everything—Shakira

I’m Still Here—John Rzeznik

Nobody—Faith Marie

Flying Stars—Celestaby

putting a spin on big girls don’t cry—egg

putting a spin on love you so—egg

The Court Jester—thquib, FUKASE

Reach for the Stars—Sega Sound Team

Get you to the Moon—Kina, Snow

More than Anything—Hazbin Hotel

Peter Pan Was Right—Anson Seabra

Keep your Head Up Princess—Anson Seabra

The NeverEnding Story—The Birthday Massacre

Any Disney soundtrack (Disney Princesses, Disney Channel themes, Pixie Hollow Fairies, etc)

Music box versions of Disney soundtracks—Melody the Music Box

Sugar Crash!—ElyOtto (TW; Explicit)

Cry Baby (Album)—Melanie Martinez (TW: Explicit)

K-12 (Album)—Melanie Martinez (TW: Explicit)

House Song—Searows

I’ll Always Remember You—Hannah Montana

Bunny, Bunny, Bunny—The Golden Orchestra

Goodbye to a World—Porter Robinson

Liminal Space (Album)—mxmtoom

All We Do—Oh Wonder

You Might Not Like Her—Maddie Zahm

you not the same—TileKid

Kids—Current Joys

Change my Clothes—Dream, Alec Benjamin

I Bet on Losing Dogs—Mitski

Cardigan (TikTok Best Part)—Luke Willies

Disney Classics on Classical Violin (Album)—Matthew Castle

Disney Serenade on Classical Violin (Album)—Matthew Castle

Classic Pops on Classical Violin (Album)—Matthew Castle

Lon Lon Ranch—Super Piano 64

Alice—Avril Lavigne

[gen0ration9k]

This is my Dusttale: Obsessed Monster take. Since it was not intended to stray too far from the canon and instead fix what I disliked about him, I simply refer to it as "Obsessed Monster Reimagined". Essentially it derived from my other Reimagined dust timeline "Carnos Reimagined DustDust". Essentially after Dust failed and the human reset, his DT caused an anomaly in which his LV reset from Max (twenty) but his stats didn't and he was still considered to be LV twenty but was displayed as zero so he could achieve LV twenty again, but the more he climbed over twenty the more his body deformed and mutated to be monstrous. This takes place after that iteration fails and another reset takes place, enhancing the anomaly a little by making Dust remain the abomination he's become, resetting his LV again but not his stats, and removing the progression cap. Essentially Obsessed was able to climb to LV twenty and keep gaining LV stat bonuses even though his LV remained twenty, so it's like he could still gain LV but it wouldn't show more than twenty. Obsessed Monster never used souls in this au, instead he wanted to defeat the human without the help of souls, he wanted to crush them, to become the new soul of determination and see them suffer as he makes them feel a fraction of the suffering and helplessness he's felt. Sans makes a device and hides, waiting for the human to reach the barrier, and as they do he initiates the device while they're passing through, firing the power of the souls through the human, not killing them but creating a short power burst equivalent of seven human souls, destroying the barrier, allowing Sans to escape while the humans left unconscious. By the time the human awakens, the world has fallen, Sans has personally exterminated all life, both man and beast alike. The human would progress out of ebot and into a ruined city, the sky black from the new moon night. Eventually they'd encounter this newly deformed horrifying Sans, his voice borderline demonic, deep, distorted, and dark. Sans and the human battled, the human struggled but somehow managed to cut him down. However, when Sans was struck to zero, he uttered the words "Did you really think it would be that easy?" Before fading to dust, however he was not dead, the abomination that was Sanses true form, the eldritch horror he had become, appeared on the horizon with it's claws gripping the side of the world, as if holding it steady from orbit. This abomination opened the terrifying maw upon it's chest as it slowly charged a blast, red light shining from it's chest, the humans eyes filled with nothing but unbridled terror as the beam fired, eradicating them and the world. With this, Sans reset, and if the human ever returned, he would grant them the same hell again, and again, and again.

Please keep in mind this is a W.I.P, it and Carno RE were made last night out of boredom

[aus-from-undertale]

Sans centric aus

("but heart mod, isn't that all of them?")

(well yeah- but um ... Yeah... I guess...)

Original Sans

Ut-mob- gangster sans takes care of a strange human

Reapertale- reaper sans messed up the job

Sans the seraphim-sans takes Frisk soul and opens the barrier

Darker yet darker sans is a gaster experiment

Handplate- still being experimented

Stand in- Frans au, where sans can't get over a soulless pacifist run

Littletale- sans is smol

Timetale- Salphys au about sans life

Weabootale-Shitpost sans

Insomnia- Sans sleep is having a bad time

Cybertale- monsters surviving with technology wants to go back home

How to greet a new pal- Undertale sans ends up on Underfell universe

Underlust reimagined - sans got it hard (pun)

Ut gangster au- Mob sans!

Something's missing- is it fair to put this here?

Hollowtale- hollow knight lives with the bone bros

Unexpected guests- bones bros gain pet gaster blasters!

Bark at the moon - the bone bros BECOME gaster blasters

Underorquestra- sans is a maestro

Leaf gaster bros-daily life of the gaster bros

Flowey possession - Flowey helps sans protect papyrus =)

Anothertale- sans tries to stop genocide from the beginning but it gets worse

Doormaker- sans from Undertale and deltarune are the same!

Merges

Echotale- gaster and sans merge after an experiment gone wrong

Mergetale-Frisk and sans merge after an accident

Bromalgamate-sans and papyrus merge accidentally after a lot determination

Gaster blaster- Sans merged with his blaster!

Damaged!tale- after a genocide route gone wrong, papyrus, sans and Frisk become one!

Fatal!error- literal merge between Error!sans and Aftertale sans

Paper crane- merge of many sans

Sixbones- amalgamation between sans and papyrus

Underfell

Soulfell- edgy sans loves hot topic

The skeleton games- post pacifist sans lives nearby a vampire

Feline good- sans became a cat and wants to turn back!

Heavenfell- Frisk goes to die and ends up on the underground

Songfell- Frans au where Frisk is a priest dealing with a large monster

Underswap

Buttontale- Sans is coraline

Underforgotten- genocide route where just sans is alive :(

Bad x Good sanses

Warverse- every au collides with each other and a war begins!

Let dust be a reader!- the bad sanses wants to chill

Dreamtale- Story about the life of the twins Dream and Nightmare

Blue and the bad sanses- blue is being really underappreciated!

OC

Killer!sans- after many resets, sans accepts a proposition

Ink!Sans- born as a sketch, this sans has no emotions

Eclipstale- other take on dreamtale

Dreamtale 0- more sinister beginning to the dreamtale story

Errortale- someone who likes to watch novelas and cause chaos!

Aftertale- after many resets, sans finds someone on the menu

Undertone- blind and timid sans deals with a genocide

Alterverse- Sans with the toriel role!

Underfresh- a parasite with good vibes!

Asylumtale-Sans is not well

Paperjam- mix between ink and error!

Parasitetale- Sans will do anything to live

Terrortale- sans that is a mix between Underfell and underlust!

Tidetale- a robot created for sans!

Naturetale- sans is vegan

Goth- ship child

Chance!tale- magician sans with a complicated past

Ferntale- sans with plant powers

Undersource- sans won't take more suffering any longer

Soulbound- sans injects himself with determination and it doesn't go well

Impostortale- a copycat ends up on the underground

Underwar,- it's not a war between monsters and humans, but monsters and demons!

Undergut- the underground is HUNGRY

Sintale- sans is sloth

Anxietytale- sans is anxious

Basic!sans- sans had his code messed up :(

Sunny- sans who has a bit of every character within

Irrsintale- bone bros were formed by crystals!

Fileverse- sans is born from a drawing!

[windforestsso]

What area do people want to be updated the most?

I think area wise there is all of the harvest contries (minus greendale) and south hoof peninsula. I dont think south hoof havent even gotten a texture upgrade like the rest of the map.

And as settlements that havent been upgraded yet there is Cape West, Silverglade Vineyard, Jarlaheim, Jorvik Stables, Cresent Moon Village, New Hillcrest Firgrove.

In my opinon I would love to see the acient tree + stone circle in south hoof to be updated. And the swamp north of hillcrest to be updated. Also Jarlaheim. But for now I think it works. Same for Firgrove village and new hillcrest are new enough to not needing an upgrade for awhile.

While Cape West Im worried for. I love it for what it is and with the look of it, it looks like SSO will completly reimagine areas when updating them. I dont want Cape west to change that much, just to have a texture upgrade.