#Trans-Pacific View

[jojo-oliver]

peaceful & soft 🖌️ paintings i did

[simply-ivanka]

Kamala Harris: Mystery Commander in Chief

How would the Vice President keep America safe in a dangerous world? The voters deserve some answers.

The Editorial Board --- Wall Street Journal

Kamala Harris is all but telling Americans they’ll have to elect her to find out what she really believes, as the Vice President ducks interviews and the media give her a free ride. This is bad enough on domestic issues, but on foreign policy it could be perilous. The world is more dangerous than it’s been in decades, and Americans deserve to know how the woman aiming to be Commander in Chief Harris would confront these threats.

Ms. Harris this week tweeted a photo of her sitting next to President Biden in the White House situation room discussing the Middle East. The point is to suggest she’s a co-pilot on Biden foreign policy.

This isn’t the credential the Harris campaign thinks it is, and the voters should hear directly from her what she thinks about the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, the failure to deter Russia in Ukraine, the Iranian nuclear program, China’s island grabs in the South China Sea, and more. The matter is all the more important because Ms. Harris conspicuously declined to choose a running mate who might lend foreign policy experience to the ticket.

Ms. Harris has given a few hints about her own views on the Middle East, and those aren’t encouraging. Her team spent much of Thursday walking back whether she told an anti-Israel group she’d be willing to ponder an arms embargo against Israel. She skipped Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress when our main Middle East ally is under siege. Did she pass over Josh Shapiro as her running mate because he would have enraged the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party?

To the extent she has revealed a larger instinct on national security, it’s been wrong. She told the Council on Foreign Relations in 2019 that she’d rejoin the Iran nuclear deal as long as “Iran also returned to verifiable compliance.” But Iran didn’t comply and is now on the brink of a nuclear breakout.

Her 2018 Senate vote to “end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen,” as Ms. Harris put it in a tweet, also hasn’t aged well. The Houthis the Saudis were fighting are now targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea almost daily and putting U.S. naval assets at risk. Does she think this status quo can persist—and what would she do differently?

Ms. Harris will surely argue that she and Mr. Biden reinvigorated the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Vladimir Putin’s invasion in Ukraine. But absent a change in U.S. political will, the war in Ukraine isn’t on track to end on terms favorable to American interests. Her past enthusiasm for banning fracking—which her campaign is trying to walk back—also suggests she isn’t serious about checking Mr. Putin’s main source of war financing.

Ms. Harris would no doubt also tout the diplomatic progress the Biden Administration has made in Asia with Japan, the Philippines and others. Yet she whiffed on one of the single most important diplomatic questions in Asia: She opposed Barack Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that would have excluded China and boosted America as the region’s premiere trading partner.

Most important, will Ms. Harris build up the hard military assets required to deter China’s Xi Jinping and a consolidating axis of U.S. adversaries? “I unequivocally agree with the goal of reducing the defense budget,” Ms. Harris said as a Senator in 2020 after voting against a Bernie Sanders proposal to slash the Pentagon by 10%. That vote needed no explanation, but Ms. Harris wanted to make sure the left knew she was sympathetic. Does she still want to slash the defense budget?

Donald Trump often shoots from the hip on these subjects, and his favorable comments about dictators are witless. But his first-term record, especially on Iran and the Middle East, is far stronger than the Biden-Harris performance.

Americans shouldn’t have to read tea leaves to figure out if Ms. Harris would keep the country safe in a treacherous world.

[kung-fu-cutbug]

I've decided to cast off the chains of cringe and make a Mouthwashing OC (in Heroforge because I wanted to make a design first before I actually draw her, I will actually draw her later)

so, meet Moire (she/her)! old butch transbian who works for Pony Express as the Tulpar's 2nd officer, which means she's basically the third-in-command under Jimmy & Curly and acts as a jack of all trades—assisting with navigation, medical issues and, if needed, cargo handling. more under the cut, though be warned: there'll be spoilers ahoy, as well as mentions of s/a, drugs & suicide

to that end, she helps Anya with taking care of Curly post-crash, and admittedly nearly ended up in the exact same situation as him because she almost rushed in behind him when she heard the crash warnings but was just a moment too late. despite her partial role as a cargo handler, though, she's just as clueless as the others about the mouthwash until they break into the hold; she knows the brand of what's being shipped, but not the actual product, and when she discovers it's all mouthwash she's bitterly disappointed. the fatal flaw that ultimately ends up getting her killed is her hesitance to do anything even when she knows it's the right thing to do or only thing she can do, and she dies shortly after Jimmy hides from the raging Swansea in the cockpit—she's also in the cockpit attempting to send out a distress signal when he appears and eventually tries to attack him when she realizes what he's doing, but she quickly loses the confrontation and slowly bleeds out from a gunshot wound

also her text color is red. forgot to mention that

~ Crew Dynamics! ~

Curly

pre-crash: she actually kinda looks up to him as a captain at first, but as time wears on she starts realizing he's too much of a doormat for his own good. she still respects his attempts at keeping the crew together, but she views it as "rampant pacifism" even if she never voices these concerns before it's too late. the irony isn't lost on her once she is mortally wounded, realizing she had committed the exact same mistake of avoiding confrontation for the sake of her friends, just in a different form

post-crash: after realizing running into the cockpit would be essentially a death sentence, she tried to get Curly to get the hell out of there, but the crash happened before she could. as a result, she feels pretty guilty she wasn't able to save him from being reduced to a skinless quadruple amputee, which compounds with her later despair about the cockpit and the distress signal—although ultimately she dies without regret because with no distress signal, that at least means Curly is less likely to have to take the entire responsibility for something that wasn't entirely his fault (even if she does recognize he enabled the true culprit)

Jimmy

oh boy, does she not like Jimmy in the slightest. thanks to having chased Curly as he was going to the cockpit, she knows, or at least can make an educated guess, that Jimmy was the one to crash the ship even if she doesn't actually know why; she assumes he intentionally made the crash nonfatal and just wanted to usurp Curly. but she never gets the chance to call him out on his bullshit because technically, thanks to her rank, she still has to answer to him—and even if she could call him out, he'd just shut her down immediately. (as an aside, I think Jimmy would be some flavor of bigoted towards her but I don't know if he'd be transphobic, transmisogynist specifically, or just plain misogynist like with Anya without regards to her trans identity)

Anya

speaking of Anya! by far the person Moire's closest with on the ship. she's probably the second person Anya tells about the rape & pregnancy after Curly, but she doesn't know that Jimmy was later also told until pretty close to the overdose. she helps Anya give Curly his meds after the crash until Jimmy forcibly takes over, and almost definitely harbors a crush on her but represses those feelings because she doesn't think Anya would want to be in a romantic relationship so soon after being raped and especially not while pregnant with the rape baby

Daisuke

Moire absolutely spoils him rotten. she helps him sneak the extra sweetener packs and generally is a lot more lenient with him than Swansea is, even laughing lightheartedly when he gets stuck in the foam trying to get into the broken vent to fix it! ...which makes her all the more pissed when she discovers he got in the broken vent again because of Jimmy and was mangled for it. she admires that at least he was doing it to save Anya, but holy fuck how can you be that naïve?? she can't even look when he's put out of his misery

Swansea

she appreciates having someone close to her age on the ship, even if he's still older than her. they often argue over how they treat the other crew members, especially Daisuke from Swansea's perspective and Anya from Moire's, but she at least gets where he's coming from with his approach and the two hold a mutual respect for each other. once they discover the mouthwash, they even become drinking buddies! she's trying to tidy up the cargo hold when Jimmy and Daisuke's "rescue plan" happens, and she stumbles upon the knocked-out Swansea right as Daisuke starts screaming; she manages to help get him back on his feet so the two of them can rescue Daisuke, and later on her dying wish is that Swansea puts a stop to Jimmy's spiraling insanity. shame about what happens next though

[solfish23]

Pacific rim headcanons:

-They are all trans. All of them.

-Newt and Hermanns prescriptions for their glasses got worse after drifting (Newts is far worse one lenses is obviously thicker than the other from a top view)

-Mako and Newt used to have lunch together to talk about work(and newt obviously never shuts up about Hermann)

-Mako has been around Newt since she was a young teen(shhh I don’t care about the timeline/j) and they’ve formed a proclaimed sibling like relationship. Always annoying each other.

-Hermann Never had a real relationship with his siblings so he is often baffled by the shit Mako puts up with from Newt.

Onto some more Newmann centric ones.

-The first time Hermann truly snaps back at his father for being a narcissistic slug is over an insult directed towards Newton and his work. (Particularly it being childish and not being worth the money that’s been sunk into it)

-he definitely grumbles back into the lab cursing his father under his breath but quickly crumples into his chair panicked over actually snapping at his father.

-Newt over the years has learned when and how to help Herms, particularly that he will wait until he’s in excruciating pain to take his meds, but instead of calling him out on it (it never ends with him taking them) Newt will make him tea and bring them to him with a snack of some kind to sort of bribe him into taking them before it gets bad.

-Hermann in the same light has learned when to pull Newt away from situations to keep him from spiraling and settling into a quiet panic, Newt has a hard time pulling away from the overwhelming need to be right/ know everything and it’s sent him into enough self destructive spirals for Hermann to notice.

-they need more therapy. that’s just a fact…

-Hermann has a tortoiseshell cat that stares into your soul like she can explode you with her mind for being near her dad(Herms).

-Newt wants her to love him but she thinks he’s too loud.

-Hermann secretly enjoys that she only likes him.

-Newts actual room in the Shatterdome is rarely used he can often be found asleep on the scrappy lab couch with a pillow Hermann snuck in the lab for him.

-Newt still has his scrappy self chopped shirts from BVR and will wear them from time to time in summer.

[prototypesteve]

Solo Travel: Find Magic.

Venturing out on a solo vacation can be daunting. There’s a shit-ton of adulting you’ll need to do:

It’s up to you to make your flight. It’s up to you to not lose anything. It’s up to you to stay hydrated and healthy and mindful and motivated.

It can be easy to give in and say “hard nope” and stay home, even if you really want to start travelling solo.

How do you get past all that, and find the will to save up, plan, gear-up, get a passport or a reliable road-trip vehicle, and go? Magic. You believe in magic and you let yourself want it.

When I was in my late teens I was in a waiting room and idly flipping through a magazine (it was the late 80s). I turned the page and there was a two-page tourism ad with a massive photo of Lake Louise, in Banff National Park. Supernaturally milky blue water, tiny red canoes, backed by a colossal wall of mountain capped by an ancient glacier. I remember murmuring aloud, “I want that.” I wanted to feel what that photographer felt. I wanted awe. I wanted magic.

Years later, I finally had enough of my shit together to go there, and it was everything I expected, and it made all the hard adulting worth it. (I wound up moving to Calgary so I could go to Lake Louise any time I wanted to.)

Photo 1: Lake Louise, Alberta. (This is from 2012, and taken with an old iPhone 4S, but it most closely resembles the view I saw in the magazine ad.)

In 2003, I saw a video about Tofino and Pacific Rim National Park. By 2003 I had plenty of experience going on budged-friendly road trips to Vancouver, where I’d stay in the (at the time, affordable) Jericho Beach Hostel. But Tofino would cost more, require a longer vacation, and take me way out of my “there’s always a city close by” comfort zone. But I wanted to see real waves, walk through a real coastal rain forest, and see the ocean fog roll in. I wanted magic,

Photo 2: My (used) 1998 Pontiac Sunfire, and a budget kayak, and my mediocre Norco mountain bike, somewhere at a rest stop along the trans Canada Highway, in British Columbia

By 2005 I had the right gear, a decent budget, and enough self-confidence to drive out and hike down sketchy wooden stairs to Half Moon Bay near Uclulet and see the actual Pacific Ocean—not the Salish Sea between Vancouver and Vancouver Island—for the first time. That week I felt the magic of being at the edge of my world. It made all the adulting easy.

Photos 3 & 4: The first time I saw the Pacific Ocean without Vancouver Island or the Olympic Peninsula lining the horizon, and the first time I saw fog move in over Vancouver island from the Pacific Ocean,

Ever since my 8th and 9th grade teachers told us stories about the old Globe theatre, I’ve dreamt of seeing a play in the rebuilt Globe in London (back then, even rebuilding the Globe was still a dream that wouldn’t be finished until the late 90s). But I live an ocean away, in Canada, I’m introverted, and no matter how much money I make, I have always felt like I’m out of my class-depth at any social gathering. Wrong childhood neighbourhoods, wrong schools, wrong career field. It took me until my 2nd trip to England to work up the nerve to buy a ticket to see a play at the Globe. I wanted to be there like one of the people I imagined during English class as we studied Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, and The Scottish Play. I wanted the magic.

Friday night, August 23, 2024, I spent two hours almost dizzy with a flood of feelings I’m going to need months to process, because I sat in Bay H, Row C, Seat 29, at Shakespeare’s Globe, in London, and watched a beautiful, perfect, magical performance of Much Ado about Nothing, and like I said, I’m going to be sorting out my feelings about this for months.

Yes there’s the Osemanverse overlap, Much Ado appears in Loveless. There’s the Aroace angle, watching two seemingly aro characters get shipped by their friends and family, bla bla bla. There’s a lot. But whatever. For me the magic was being the adult who teenage-me grew up into, sitting there in my seat that I absolutely belonged in, on my trip that I put together for myself, to chase down dozens of my other lifelong dreams, sitting there, and feeling that I was allowed to be there, and then delighting in the magic of live theatre, compounded by the magic of loving myself enough to push through every excuse not to be there.

Photos 5, 6, and 7: The Globe Theatre (there’s no photography during the performance, and I don’t think I’d have bothered, if there was.

Find your magic. Thrive. It doesn’t have to cost a lot: My first solo trips cost me a tank of gas and a tenting campground fee, or a night’s stay at a hostel. It doesn’t need to be risky: Backpacker hostels and modern hotels often have more sophisticated security than your home or workplace. It doesn’t have to be ambitious: Maybe it’s lunch at a diner in a small farm town nearby, maybe it’s a low-key late summer concert in a park, maybe it’s building that sandcastle you never got to build because you grew up far away from water. Whatever it is, go find it! Let it change you.

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh

We are 57% of the way to our funding goal for AETHER BEYOND THE BINARY, with 19 days to go!! This awesome anthology featuring non-binary and genderqueer characters in aetherpunk settings has been in the works for a year, and we’re optimistic that we’ll reach our funding target so that we can publish the book as an e-book, trade paperback, and hardcover. Slow and steady, race winning, you know the deal. 😀 Things have definitely slowed down, as is normal for this stage of the campaign, so just a note that we’d always appreciate your help with spread the word about this project so that more people will know it exists! You can find our “main” posts about the campaign on different platforms using these links:

Bluesky

Dreamwidth

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Mastodon

Patreon (public post)

Pillowfort

Tiktok

Tumblr

WordPress

Thanks in advance!!

You can learn all about the campaign, the book, the merch, and the authors, by visiting our Kickstarter campaign page!

And, today we’re introducing two more contributing authors: Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh!

The Light Organ by Flore Picard

About Flore Picard: I’m a linguist and translator who lives in France and I have been itching to write since I learned how to. I started writing (fan)fiction more regularly when I was procrastinating on my PhD dissertation, and I haven’t looked back since. I’m also an artist who loves drawing both fanart and original art, and I have a passion for patterns and systems, for the beauty at the edge of chaos and the complexity of being human. I tend to write about queer and disabled characters finding themselves and each other and learning to take up space in the world.

Links: Instagram | Twitter

This is Flore’s first publication with Duck Prints Press.

Title: The Light Organ

Tags: angst with a happy ending, capitalism is the real villain, coming out, disabled character, emotional hurt/comfort, family, fraught family dynamics, illusion, in the closet, magic use, mechanic, musician, non-binary, parenthood, present tense, science fiction with magic, teenager, third person limited point of view, transphobia (mentions of) (past)

Excerpt:

“No, no, no—the organ, the light ring—it’s all about the imagination, not the mechanics,” Kas exclaims, gesturing widely to encompass the aether pool behind the glass.

“I’m just here for the tubes,” the tech—Gilbert—says flatly.

His face betrays no emotions, not even annoyance. Kas almost wishes he would yell or be rude, if only for the sake of feeling like they’re having an actual conversation, but Gilbert has always been polite. He just never seems to care.

“Fine,” Kas gives up. “We’ve got glitches. They started about a week ago. It could be a leaking tube, I’m not sure.”

“What kind of glitches?”

“It’s as if… as if the story stops responding to me. I know how that sounds, but I swear that’s what happens. It doesn’t last more than a few seconds, but it’s getting worse. Earlier, I powered everything up to tune it and it kept flickering.”

“Flickering,” Gilbert repeats, mumbling into his neatly trimmed beard.

Kas grabs a cane in each hand and makes their way to the organ’s seat. “I can show you.”

You’re Gonna Get Older by Alec J. Marsh

About Alec J. Marsh: Alec lives in the Pacific Northwest, where they write romantic adult fantasy and self-indulgent fanfiction. They make candles inspired by their favorite characters.

Links: Etsy | Instagram | Twitter

Alec is one of the editors for Aether Beyond the Binary and has also published multiple titles with Duck Prints Press. His novella To Drive the Hundred Miles (modern, f/m, trans male lead) was recently successfully crowdfunded and orders fulfilled. His two erotica stories Heart’s Scaffold (sci-fi, m/m) and Study Hall (modern academia, m/m) are part of the Contributor Short Story Bundle add-on.

Title: You’re Gonna Get Older

Tags: arranged marriage, christian, coming of age, coming out, cults, fraught family dynamics, friends, in the closet, lesbian, midwest, misgendering, non-binary, north dakota, past tense, post-apocalyptic, relationship of convenience, religion, song fic, teenager, third person limited pov, trans man, trans woman, transphobia

Excerpt:

There was a radio in the room, an old two-way they had found on their last visit and hidden in an empty supply closet. It was still there. They slid open the battery pack and snapped in a fresh battery from their aether lantern. Chips of the meteor had been encased in metal tubing to mimic the lithium batteries of the Before, but they were precious and had to be used sparingly. Stardancer knew better than to use precious energy on something this frivolous.

They popped the battery cover in place and pressed the power button. It crackled to life. They cradled it like it was made from glass. The dials made a tak-tak-tak noise as Stardancer scrolled through channels. Music came through softly. It faded in and out, cut through with static, but it was music, and not the kind made on an acoustic guitar. They adjusted the antenna and turned up the volume.

It was like nothing they had heard before, fast paced with a heavy beat. Even over the fuzzy AM connection, it was invigorating. They wanted to dance. They wanted to sing along with words they had never heard before. The singer screamed their triumph, and Stardancer felt invincible.

There's no time like right now to become a backer and help us reach 100% funded! Check it out!

[b4mpyre-k1zz3s]

Watching Chris Pontius in his new podcast has me feeling really soft. Would you feel comfortable writing Pontius x FtM trans! Reader fluff?

Sex on the Beach

Y/N loves visiting the beach but he doesn’t go there for swimming ;)

Chris Pontius X FtM!Reader

(Fluff, Angst)

1.3k Words

Warnings: Mention of sex, crude language, breakups, makeups, tooth rotting fluff

An: Thank you so much for your request!! I spent so long perfecting this idea so I apologize if it took a while XD I’ve actually had this fic concept stewing in my brain for almost a year now, and I’m so happy that I could finally put it to paper! Chris is just such a sweet guy and I adore writing for him! I know there’s a bit of a fic drought for all you Pontius fans so I hope this quenches your thirst for content! ;)

Whenever you had a day off, you would always end up at the beach. While you were never too partial towards it, you lived in California, so it would be impossible not to eventually end up there. Sitting in the warm sand with your I Pod, you’d look out at the foamy tide as it washed over the sand before retreating back into the water. It was calming, in a way, but after a few minutes the ocean bored you, so your attention drifted elsewhere. That’s how it all started, with watching the surfers that skimmed the aqua blue horizon line.

And you saw him, his board held under one arm as he walked up onto the beach, tan muscles glistening with the salty dew of the pacific. It was like staring at a Greek god, the way water dripped from his long hair down his toned back. He must’ve caught you staring (but who wouldn’t) because he shot a glance over at you, giving you this cute, kinda dorky smile, “Hey!” Looking up at this captivating stranger like he was the only thing in the world, the only words you could muster in response were a shaky, “Hey.”

“So, y’like surfing?” He sat down next to you and, not wanting to sound like a total loser who just sat on the beach on their days off, you told him about half the truth, “Not really, nah…I’m not super into it, but I've always been kinda interested.” It was like he glowed gold, like he was made out of the sand he was sitting in, not at all discouraged by your shyness, “Ah, that’s cool! I could totally teach you sometime. I’m here all the time cause’ I live pretty close by.” You turned in the direction he gestured with his thumb- up a sand dune towards…the parking lot? You didn’t question it.

And you ended up talking for a while. Hours, actually, until the beach went cold as the sun began to turn amber and sink below the horizon. You learned a lot about him- his name was Chris, he was vegetarian, and when he wasn’t surfing he was working at the Lary Flynt building downtown on some skateboarding magazine. Maybe you’d pick an issue up, you thought. There was just something that attracted you to him, someone you found so endearing, so cute about him, and of course that fact that he had a body like that didn't hurt either. Feeling the wind chill, you rubbed your hands on your arms in an attempt to warm up. Chris noticed this, “Hey, if you’re cold, we could always head back to my place?” It was like he read your mind. Blushing a little, you nodded, “Uh, yeah! Sure!” You hoped that he wasn't one of those charming serial killers you hear about on the news- it’s not everyday that you go back to someone’s house you just meet on the beach. And after talking to him for about two hours, he did seem earnest enough, so you agreed.

You didn’t expect his house to have a rear view mirror. Or a transponder key. Usually, most people would see living out of a van as maybe a red flag, but you just couldn’t say no to that face as he popped the back open, looking over his shoulder at you with that goofy smile, “Come on in!”

And so you fucked. Regularly, after a while. Well not like clockwork, but there was sort of a routine- every time you had a day off work, you’d head down to the beach, and he was always there, all sandy and sun kissed waiting for you. Then the two of you would head up to his van, the Shaggin’ Wagon as you affectionately dubbed it, and he’d already have the seats laid back. And when you were done, Chris would drive on over to the McDonald’s and buy you breakfast like a gentleman.

You could feel the heat radiating off of the dark, late day asphalt as you dangled your bare feet out the open side door, Chris’ shirt lazily slumping off of your shoulders. Climbing back and taking a seat beside you, he passed you the warm white paper bag that you fished around in, grabbing your Sausage McMuffin. Peeling away the wrapper, you took a huge bite out of one end and brushed the semolina flour off of your shorts.

See, that’s the thing you really loved about him- Chris was the most chill person you had ever met. Hell, he’s a vegetarian and you were eating a sausage McMuffin next to him, and he was completely unbothered! He sorta had a ‘It’s cool, you do you’ attitude about everything. With Chris, nothing really mattered. But what started out as casual sex eventually turned into some sort of pseudo-relationship. Screwing and breakfast turned into actual meals together, dessert included.

You didn’t know what time it was when you sat together in a booth at Denny’s, but it was late enough that you were the only people in the restaurant, so probably in the early AMs. Staring down at your plate, you noticed that you had barely touched your Dennyburger, anxiety cloying in your throat, before you finally spoke up, “I, uh…” stopping to clear your throat, you continued, a little apprehensive for how he may react, “I don’t think this is gonna work out. I-I mean, I guess I just want something more serious, and…I don’t really see this getting serious.”

But he wasn’t upset. Chris just looked at you like he understood everything without you having to say another word. He smiled a little at you as he sat back in the shiny red leather booth, “It’s alright. I get it!” You hadn’t had a single boyfriend be so accepting of you breaking up with them before, but you weren’t going to say that. “But,” Leaning a bit forward, one elbow on the sticky tabletop, he added with a wink, “If you ever wanna meet up again, you know where to find me, okay?”

It would be a couple years before Chris would cross your mind again. You’d gotten a better job and finished school, but you’d also had a few lonely nights. Well, maybe more than a few. The sky was that rich, saffron color as you shifted your car into park, stepping out onto the pavement and looking down at the beach with baited breath, nervous for what may wait for you below the dunes. As your step shifted uncomfortably over the sand, it felt like everything was all the same as the last time you and Chris were there, like every grain of sand was frozen in time, waiting for you.

And there he was, standing behind the counter of the surf shack, waxing a board. Shirtless as ever, his hair was tied back, a little longer since you last saw him, concentrating so hard that he didn’t even notice you until you walked closer, leaning over him enough to cast a shadow. Chris’ eyes caught yours and you felt a wave of emotions wash over you at the little glimmer you saw in them when you made eye contact. It took a second for you to get the words out, but they eventually squirmed their way out of your throat, “Hey.” You watched his face soften a little as the eye contact settled in, “Hey!”

Leaning back a little, he paused, a warm smile spreading across his face as he held himself up against the back counter, quirking a playful eyebrow, “So…y’like surfing?” God, it was like you were falling in love all over again. Your heart throbbed in your chest and you swallowed a little before speaking up, “No…but I might wanna give it a try.”

[zalrb]

thoughts on the author who was just exposed for lying about being native? (colby wilkens)

and white liars finding success in general tbh… there’s been quite a few

There have been quite a few, there have also been white authors who haven't lied about being white and decided to write stories - badly - about BIPOC and received the institutional support for writing stories they have no right to tell while authors of that context receive nothing or bare bones - Jeanine Cummins and her seven-figure deal for American Dirt comes to mind. It reminds me of when I first started writing and I was at this writers studio and on the first day spoke about how I kept getting passed over for things because agents and publishers and contest judges kept saying my work was inaccessible due to the cultural specificity and the use of Jamaican patois in my stories and this white author responded by saying that she had just gotten a story published about taking a vacation in Jamaica and getting her hair braided and I was just like

but I mean I don't really think there's anything to say about it except that it obviously points to the racism inherent in the industry and as Bethany Baptiste said on twitter, it speaks to the fact that white authors write BIPOC the way white people view and want to read BIPOC, which is why they keep finding success doing these things

and that also speaks to the fact that there is a lot of discussion around representation in publishing for authors, as there should be, but the industry doesn't just stop at authors, it's also about agents and editors and the people acquiring/working on the books and while there is a slow shift in these areas, the fact remains that it's still overwhelmingly white in Canada

The industry as a whole remains majority white, but the balance has shifted since 2018, from 82% white to 75%.

Respondents identifying as gender-diverse, including transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming, increased from 5% in 2018 to 10% in 2022.

11% fewer respondents overall identified as heterosexual, down from 72% in 2018 to 61% in 2022. 

The percentage of respondents who said their firm currently has Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and initiatives rose from 49% in 2018 to 63% in 2022, whereas the percentage of heads of firm with plans to implement new DEI policies and initiatives rose from 35% in 2018 to 52% in 2022. 

in the States

72.5 percent of US publishing, review journal, and literary agency staffers are white/Caucasian, “a significant decrease from 76 percent in 2019.”

The rest comprise people who self-report as:

Biracial/multiracial (8.4 percent)

Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander/South Asian/Southeast Indian (7.8 percent)

Black/African-American/Afro-Caribbean (5.3 percent)

Hispanic/Latino/Mexican (4.6 percent)

There continues to be a prominent lack of representation within the publishing industry of Native American as well as Middle Eastern people,” the study’s authors write, referring to a result showing less than 1 percent representation in each.

A total 0.8 percent of respondents said their identity was not listed.

in the UK

·  Representation of people from ethnic minority groups (excluding White minorities) has increased to 17% from 15% in 2021.

·  LGBT+ representation has increased, with 15% (up from 13% in 2021) of respondents either identifying as lesbian, gay, or bi, or self-describing their sexual orientation, a figure which has grown each year since 2017 (5%) – and as in 2021, 1% of respondents identified as trans.

·  The representation of people with a disability or long-term health condition has increased from 2% in 2017 to 16% in 2022 (up from 13% in 2021).

·  Socio-economic background continues to represent major barriers to inclusion, with two thirds (66%) of respondents being from professional backgrounds.

So, yeah, there's a lot of work to be done.

[thoughtscout]

25 / blog for verbalizing opinions that feel important to be expressed/documented. more for personal purposes - not looking to reach any large audience.

I don't really check my notifications, so I'm unlikely to see any replies to my posts. I won't engage in targeted harassment or fearmongering of any kind, and I treasure nuance as a value.

tag system - analysis / commentary - for fully articulated thoughts theory posts - interesting thoughts from other people petty tag - for less insightful gripes and jests political rhetoric - thoughts about thoughts most heavier topics will have some kind of relevant tag for blacklist.

🐮 I'm a passionate animal liberationist (I live a vegan lifestyle in order to boycott opposed to the animal-agriculture industry). I am against non-sustenance hunting, as well as the commodification of any animal body part (meat, dairy, eggs, wool, leather, honey, etc). I oppose animal testing and the exploitation of animals for sport/entertainment (such as racing, horse riding and zoos).

🌍 I believe the autonomy and freedom of the Earth and all its wildlife should be our greatest priority. I believe our societal suffering can be alleviated by a rejuvinated connection to the natural world, and that our opinion and treatment of nature is reflective of a deep existential and spiritual sickness of our kind.

♀️ I hold views that are in line with radical feminism. I'm in an abolitionist position for pornography, prostitution and sex trafficking. I want to deconstruct rape culture. I'm pursuing a deep understanding of sex-based oppression, its history, its intersectionality and its future. in the past I have identified as a trans man and nonbinary. I'm no longer concerned with labels for myself. my body is female, and there's nothing else really to that.

💰 I take a strongly anti-capitalist stance, meaning that I oppose the capitalist ideology as well as a wide variety of industries (the makeup industry, fast fashion, the pharmaceutical industry, big tech, retail/consumer goods, the automobile industry & big oil, the military & arms trade, the prison-industrial complex, etc).

🙏 I'm critical of organized religion in all its forms. I also care about the safety and humanization of religious practitioners who are regionally marginalized or stigmatized. I'm willing to acknowledge spiritual value and sacredness from any source, but have little patience for ideological indoctrination & rigidity, cults, or religion as a tool of oppression.

🧳 I currently don't know enough about the functionality of legal/illegal immigration to offer any meaningful insights, other than that I am deeply compassionate to the plight of immigrating people seeking safety and freedom. I don't believe our current system is doing enough to help and protect these people, or target the root problems driving immigration.

✊🏿 I'm white, and I strive to be functionally anti-racist and a productive ally to POC. I understand that I will never understand.

☮️ I accept both pacifism and violence as forms of action/resistance, and judge them mostly based on effectiveness/appropriateness for any given situation. interpersonally, I'm invested in Non-Violent Communication as a form of radical conflict resolution.

🧠 I care deeply about raising awareness for the fact that most instances of chronic pain can be classified as TMS (tension myositis syndrome) / PDP (perceived danger pain). Mind-body conditions are any conditions that are caused by, worsened by or linked to an underlying internal state (such as mental health or emotional wellbeing).

🌿 I've had a longterm interest in the visionary, expansionary and healing properties of psychedelic compounds, especially those found in nature (such as entheogenic plants) and those used traditionally by Indigenous cultures. I believe they are worthy of respectful investigation, and can be gateways for understanding ourselves and our world.

[fenmere]

System Questionaire

from this post here by @pluralasking

100 questions below the cut!

1. What is your System name and / or the name you collectively go by?

The Inmara

2. Which word do you prefer to use for your System? (example: System, Collective, Constellation, ...)

a plurality (but we're OK-ish with system)

3. What are your Systems origins, if you choose to label them?

our system itself is protogenic with a mix of spiritual and developmental/neurogenic explanations for it (we were born plural and born to be plural), but we've definitely also been shaped by trauma

4. Do you have any Subsystems?

yes, three - one each by hemisphere of the brain, and the third much smaller and somewhere in between (possibly the lymbic system)

5. Do you have any Sidesystems?

no

6. What is your opinion on you& / your& language and similar types?

we think language like this should exist, but we personally find those particular forms autistically grating. We've tried genuinely for years to get used to them, but just cannot.

7. What methodes do you use to keep track of your System and it's Members?

blogging, mostly, though we do have a wiki

8. What is your Systems ways of communication?

basically every way you can think of (even sometimes sticky notes, but usually talking out loud)

9. Is communication hard or easy for you (and why is it the way it is)?

super easy for most day to day communication, which makes the barriers that crop up during stressful times hard to predict, see coming, account for, and accommodate we were born plural and have never not been plural, our brain is set up to do this. but, of course, stress and distress and inner conflict throw up stronger dissociative and amnesiac barriers, and those can really screw us up, because we don't see them coming

10. Do you view yourselves as parts of one person or as multiple people in one body?

we are a people, multiple autonomous individuals, who function as a small nation, with a national identity, with access to this meat mech that works just a little bit like a jaeger from Pacific Rim, allowing us to drift when piloting it - we can pretend to be a single person when we need to, but we are not one person by any stretch of the imagination

11. Who are you out to as plural?

everyone except our doctors and the government

12. What languages do you collectively / one of you speak?

English. We have three conlangs, and we've studied Spanish, German, and a tiny bit of Korean, but we can't speak any of these other languages, unfortunately. There's some kind of cognitive barrier or disability preventing us from learning how.

13. What is something you can't seem to collectively agree on?

what an acceptable body would be like - how to treat our physical dysphoria - this is at the center of why we are plural in the first place

14. If you have a collective Identity (such as Gender or Orientation), what is it?

autistic, plural, intersex, disabled, trigender, trans, therian - we are the Ktletaccete (plus some Outsiders)

15. Do you collectively identify as queer / LGBTQIA+?

WE'RE QUEER. WE HERE. and you know the rest.

16. Do you collectively identify as Otherkin, Alterhuman or Nonhuman?

Therian is our third favorite word, and the most recognizable. Our second favorite is Other, with the capital O, from Wildbow's Otherverse. But, we are Ktletaccete

17. Do you have a collective rentry / carrd / something along those lines? (feel free to share!)

our wiki! http://www.inmara.world/

18. What does switching feel like for you?

most of the time, we don't even notice it. There are a range of sensations when we do notice it. The most common is that it's kind of like when the optometrist flips the testing lenses when you're looking through the scope. Sometimes it's way more full sensory and amazing and just hard to explain.

19. Are you Monoconscious, Polyconscious or something else?

pfft! These words are worthless to describe us! (Hydraconscious comes the closest, but is still wrong.)

20. What does fronting feel like for you?

Becoming the whomever is fronting. We all become them, those of us who are co-conscious, and see through their eyes and perspective. Leaving the front is like becoming whoever replaces us. Usually! We've also experienced some of the other descriptions other systems have given, but usually rarely and during great times of distress.

21. How many System members do you have?

Approximately 4 million. We grow by about 230 members a day. That's according to our census, which we've taken three times. We've hand counted nearly 300 members who've fronted and identified themselves. Believe what you will. This is our experience and what we say to respect ourselves.

22. Which word / words do you prefer to use for members of your System?

Members, sometimes headmates, sometimes sysmates, always people and beings. Some of us are the populace, liaisons, the Crew, the Senior Officers, our Parents, and the Outsiders.

23. Which age group seems to be the most common in your System?

hard to measure, not sure - age is a really weird thing to us and we kind of don't like it.

24. Which gender seems to be the most common in your System?

It's an even split between Dragon and Girl, as far as we can tell. Both are non-binary for us, but Girl is at least female, Dragon is Aporagender/Maverique.

25. Are there any talents / hobbies you picked up because of a Member?

Yes. Every single one. We each specialize in a hobby, special interest, skill, or blorbo.

26. Do you have any in-system relationships?

So many, it's impossible to count. Some of them are basically celebrity polycules and couples, though.

27. Do you label roles within your System (and if yes, which ones?)

The most important roles to us are Senior Officers, Liaisons, and Id Monsters (also a gender). We also have the temporary stations of Captain, Pilot, and Support Staff.

28. Are most of your Members introjected, brainmade or something else?

The vast majority of us are introjected, though we kind of really hate that word (we also hate "brainmade" but for completely different and petty/irrelevant reasons). More accurate: The vast majority of us are Liaisons, created by Akailea and the processes of our brain in order to track and understand individual people and characters from outside our system. We can call them factives and fictives, but they are conceived in our brain through the same processes most of the rest of us are, and just are basically method actors of their subjects (what others call "sources", though that's not accurate for us).

29. Do you use names, emojis or something similar to sign off messages (and if yes, which ones and why?)

No. There are way too many of us to do this.

30. Do any of your System members use Xenogenders?

Obviously, most outworlders these days would classify Dragon and Id Monster as xenogenders, but we fucking hate that. Xenogender is a perfectly fine word, but we had a perfectly fine word before it, aporagender, and xenogender implies that Dragon and Id Monster are constructs outside of human society and possible and they are not. Even though we ourselves are not human, our genders are absolutely how we interface with human society - they only matter when we're fronting. To us, they are human genders, imposed upon us by a human world.

31. How do Members pick face claims?

Every way you can conceivably imagine. But since we have fairly accomplished artists, we often just doodle something up until it feels right.

32. Do you have any Introjects of popular sources?

Every single one we've been exposed to, yes.

33. Do you have any Introjects of unpopular sources?

Every single one we've been exposed to, yes.

34. Do you have nonhuman Members?

Some of us play human really well, but we are all nonhuman.

35. Do any of you use Typing Quirks?

Nothing particularly contrived, but we do have different typing and writing habits.

36. Do all of you front, or only a selected amount?

We can have up to three people co-fronting, but that's a strain. Typically it's just one at a time. But we can have up to 18 or 19 members co-conscious with the fronter. Any one of us can front. The vast majority of us never do. It's a bottleneck, not be ability but just numbers.

37. Are there any Members who can't or prefer to not speak?

Yes. Notably Jenifer, one of our two eldest who were born with the body. She's the mother of everyone in the right hemisphere of our brain. She cannot talk without the assistance of other members, and very frequently chooses not to.

38. Are most of you short or tall in height?

We all shape shift. Most of us are Liaisons for human beings, so most of us settle in to average human height. Those of us who front frequently, however, are usually way outside of that range, either really tiny or enormoustly hugely big.

39. Is there a Member that is collectively loved by all in the System?

A few. With different feelings for each. Ink is our system baby, and everyone we know of loves her and considers her a symbol of why we're still alive. Jenifer is our system mother, and grandmother, and is adored and respected for that. Eh is our system parent, and is respected for having taken the Captain's chair for so long and managing our life before we came out as trans and plural. Phage is our Chief Monster, greatest protector, and spiritual hero. And we are all generally in awe of its presence in our system.

40. Do any of you struggle with being front-stuck a lot of the time?

No. Those of us who thought they did found out that they weren't, that is was an illusion created by our conscious gestalt.

41. Do you have a Headspace (if not, is there a reason)?

What do you mean by "a Headspace"? When we were introduced to that word, headspace meant any space created by and for any system member, and that if you had an inworld of any sort you would have many headspaces. We have an inworld. We have a conscious headspace, or fronting room, that we call the Bridge. We have many, many personal and collective headspaces.

42. What does your Headspace look like?

EVERYTHING - but with a definite horror movie cast to it

43. How do Members look like in Headspace? (example: Cartoony, Foggy, Realistic, ...)

Usually foggy to realistic. But there've been some cartoons, which is great. We all can shapeshift and take on various different forms and natures. And we all each also see the others differently, kinda Rashomon-like.

44. Is there a reason why the Headspace looks the way it looks?

A combination of hard work and visualization on our part, and lots of residual trauma and fear.

45. Is it easy for you to enter Headspace?

Those of us who are awake are in the Bridge always, and see that is as simple as paying attention to what's not being seen by our eyes. For the rest of our inworld? Not consciously, except when we fall asleep and dream, no. It's almost impossible for us to do it as a conscious group while awake. But a single individual leaving the front immediately enters it.

46. Do you remember what happened in Headspace when you switch into front?

Only what's happened on the Bridge. The Gestalt on the Bridge is so strong that it overrides working memories brought from inworld. Dreams are kind of the exception, but then basically the whole Bridge has been dreaming.

47. Does time in Headspace pass (and if yes, is it at the same speed as in real life)?

Yes, and absolutely not.

48. What is your favourite place in Headspace?

The Garden of the Sunspot. It's our internal recreation of the fictional world we've created for our novels that supposed to be an allegory of our system. We're trying to turn it into a paracosm, and we've been moderately successful, and we've seen it in dreams, and it's gorgeous and we are absolutely proud of it.

49. Are there "NPCs" within your Headspace?

No, there are 4 million system members. Every person we meet in a dream or in our inworld is a full blown person.

50. Are there any interesting fun facts about your Headspace?

See above, really.

51. Are there any "System Stereotypes" you fit into?

Absolutely. We're not going to list them. There's no need. If you've gotten this far, you can probably already name half of them.

52. Who of you would be considered the "evil alter"? (in a lighthearted, joking manner)

Phage (@ohthatphage) and a handful of the Id Monsters. Some of them actually nearly killed us during our worst times, but they are persecutors turned protector, in the simplest and clumsiest outworlder terms.

53. What is your favourite inside-joke with a Member?

Not with a single member, but all of us: We outnumber Portland We actually outnumber a lot of places even bigger than that, but Portland is the nearest city and it sounds funny.

54. What is your favourite Plural meme?

55. Is there any character that you headcanon as plural?

We headcanon the entire series of Steven Universe as a single plural system - and are fairly convinced that's actual canon, really. At least as an intentional metaphor that's implicit.

56. Is there any show or movie that you believe is a good plural representation, despite that not being its intention?

No. (those that are good rep were obviously intended to be)

57. Is there any song that you believe describes your plural experience?

We have a whole playlist. But "Here to stay" by Lenka is phenomenal and basically our system anthem.

58. What about an artwork that describes your plural experience?

It's really hard to encapsulate it in a piece of art, but the cover of our most recent book comes pretty close:

59. Which Member of your System do you believe to be the prettiest of them all?

We don't play that game. Standards of beauty vary too much and are also arbitrary and used to oppress people.

60. Do you collectively have a lucky number?

Not really?

61. When did you first discover your System?

Ah. Hm. Depends on who you ask. We publicly admitted and declared we were system in late August of 2016. But some of us noticed a lot earlier than that, while fronting even, such as sometime in 1995.

62. How many Members did you know about during your Syscovery?

For our public and full system realization: Three. Anne, Eh, and Phage. Then very quickly after we got Phage to front, we realized that I must be part of our system, too.

63. Was accepting your Plurality a challenge for you?

Absolutely. We didn't think plurality was a real thing until it smacked us in the face right after we came out as trans in 2015. We'd been a system since the mid 1970s, so that's a lot of time in the closet and in denial.

64. How did you learn about Plurality?

In fifth grade, in the mid eighties, a classmate had seen some awful movie or documentary about Multiple Personality Disorder, and everyone else told them it was fake.

65. Where there any signs of your Plurality, if you look back at your past?

Absolutely. Possibly the first outward sign being our "imaginary friend" Spitfire. But, at the very least, between 2012 and 2016, our ex-wife definitely noticed way before we did. But, also, our earliest memories from the crib are divided between our two eldest, Jenifer and Eh.

66. Do you think your Syscovery changed a lot in your life?

Definitely. It made us more psychologically stable and able to manage our disabilities more effectively. It made us so much happier. But, coming out as plural also disrupted our social life way more than coming out as trans ever did.

67. If you're out to others as plural, have they ever told you later on that they already thought about it before you realised?

Yep! Our ex-wife hugged us and cried when we finally admitted it, for instance.

68. What was the biggest struggle during your Syscovery?

Initially, the shock and fear of realizing that the person we thought we were literally didn't exist at all. That what we thought was a single consciousness and soul was actually constructed of millions of souls and awarenesses, each with their own identities and separate memories. Then it was realizing that our collective memories of our past could not be relied upon 100%. We get big things wrong all the time. It's still, like 99% accurate, but that 1% are a bunch of real doozies.

69. Was there any big event that led to your Syscovery?

Coming out as trans and then dealing with being trigender with conflicting dysphorias. This also affected us profoundly before we came out.

70. What is something you want questioning plurals to know?

It's OK. You're probably different from nearly every other conscious being. You can identify however you need to in order to make sense of what is happening in your mind. You get to.

71. Are you Neurodivergent (and if yes, how?)

This is a very silly question of anybody who is plural, because all pluralities are inherently Neurodivergent. Plurality is an atypical neurotype. But, we're Autistic, ADHD, Dyslexic, Synesthetic, Plural, C-PTSD/DID, and Therian, among other things.

72. Do you have any physical disability?

Yep. Some constellation of chronic illnesses, including endometriosis, and some kind of connective tissue disorder.

73. Do you have a dissociative disorder?

We have had DID. Maybe we still do according to the outworld, and for the purposes of certain discourse we will absolutely claim it. But, really, we're not in distress about our plurality and don't like fully embracing any outworld terms, so, it's not really a disorder to us? But it disables the shit out of us for the purposes of functioning like a neurotypical singlet who can work.

74. Do you have any other disorder?

C-PTSD, Endometriosis, dyspraxia, dyslexia, and a bunch of unidentified physical stuff.

75. Do symptom vary in intensity depending on the fronter?

Yep! Even for the physical stuff (thought that's usually a matter of endurance and freshness of tolerance)

76. Do you think your disability / disorder has an influence on your plurality?

probably

77. Do you have amnesia of any kind?

Hahaha! YEP! Usually tiny amusing things, but we've had full blackouts, and aren't fully aware of just how often.

78. Are there Members who deal better with symptoms than others?

Yes. But often it has more to do with who's been resting more lately.

79. Do your disorders / disabilities influence communication or switching within your System in any way?

Yep. Too many subtle ways to recount. Except that when our sensory processing disorder is triggered frequently, that's when our DID symptoms flare up big time and really disrupt our life.

80. Does being plural help with your disorders in any way? (example: another Member switching in to take care of the body during difficult times, ...)

Yep! By switching off to spell each other, we can manage things more easily. Division of labor, application of specialties and talents, that sort of thing. But also the simply emotional support of the whole system is huge. When an entire country has your back, it's powerful.

81. Which is your favourite plural flag?

This one seems pretty good, we think:

82. If you have one, which is your favourite plurality related tumblr blog?

Mine.

83. What is a fun fact about your System?

Gestures upward at the rest of the post. We exist and we're like that!

84. What is a flavour of ice cream that describes you collectively?

Harmless Free Radicals Mint Mocha Chocolate Chunk at Mallard Ice Cream in Bellingham Washington. We, uh, invented it. It's named after my comic.

85. Which pride flag is the prettiest, in your collective opinion?

The trigender pride flag:

86. If you collectively had to choose between being a sweet or a sour candy, which do you pick?

Sour. Like, the sourest. You know the one.

87. Your body always morphs into what the current fronter(s) look like, would you want this power or not?

We've been daydreaming about that power since we were three years old. It is basically a medical requirement for us. It is a moral imperative for anyone and everyone to figure out how to give us this ability.

88. Is there a Hatsune Miku in your System?

Oh, absolutely, of course. At least one.

89. Who has been in your System the longest (if you can remember)?

Jenifer and Eh (born with the body).

90. If you collectively had to choose, would you rather only eat sweet foods or only eat savoury foods for the rest of your life?

No. We will not choose.

91. If you collectively had to choose, would you pick to become a vampire or a werewolf?

werewolf

92. Your body is transfered into one of your Members sources, which do you pick and why?

Nimona. "Why?" you ask. *rolls eyes* See above.

93. If all of you turned into animals right this second, which animals would we find in your System?

94. What would a Minecraft server with all of your Members look like? (example: chaotic, peaceful, laggy, ...)

Laggy as fucking shit. Basically incapable of being run on anything but a supercomputer.

95. If you could choose between only living in Headspace or only living in Meatspace (real life), which would you choose?

Only living in Headspace. We collectively wish that Meatspace had never, ever existed. It's the Worst Thing Ever.

96. What topic would you collectively make a youtube channel about? (it can't be plurality!)

The Sunspot Chronicles - it'd essentially be a video version of a radio play or audio book, with animatics ideally

97. Which superpower would your body obtain, if you had to collectively decide on one?

Nimona.

98. Who would pick the coolest tattoo for the System and who would pick the worst?

We've all collectively picked the coolest tattoo that'd we'd get, Ink. It's possible that our Liaison for Trump would pick the worst. We just don't trust them, for obvious reasons. We wish they weren't in our system, but that's not how our system works.

99. If you only were allowed to eat one food for the rest of your life, but you would have to decide on the food collectively, what would it be and what would the decision making look like?

Pizza. That would be the healthiest food we could stick to eating with the widest variation.

100. What is the most fun about doing polls and answering questions, in your opinion?

Talking about ourselves. We're terrible like that. We want people to know who and what we are so we're not forgotten when we're gone. It may be our strongest collective fear.

[ashleybenlove]

So, here's the books I read in May.

Blurred Lines: A Reverse Harem, Dad's Best Friends Romance by Ajme Williams – May 2

What's for Dessert: Simple Recipes for Dessert People by Claire Saffitz – May 4

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong – May 5

Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives by Mark Miodownik – May 5

Black Girls Must Have It All by Jayne Allen – May 8

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein – May 11

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall – May 11

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto – May 11

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon – May 14

Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes by Nathan H. Lents – May 15

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert – May 16

Cat on the Hero's Lap Vol. 1 by Kosuke Iijima – May 16

Tentacle Alien Party by Beatrix Steam – May 17

What's A Girl Gotta Do To Get On The Naughty List? by Kimberly Lemming – May 17

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez – May 18

Frankly in Love by David Yoon – May 19

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams – May 20

More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez – May 21

An Earthling's Guide to Outer Space: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Black Holes, Dwarf Planets, Aliens, and More by Bob McDonald – May 22

We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States by Naomi Hirahara – May 24

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu – May 24

Beach Read by Emily Henry – May 24

Double Tentacle by Beatrix Steam – May 25

Murder on the Orient Express: The Graphic Novel by Agatha Christie** with Bob Al-Greene – May 26

The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters by J.W. Ocker – May 30

My only reread is marked in **. (I read the original novel last October. This is the graphic novel, so I figured it still kinda counted as a reread.)

Since May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I made a point to read some books by Asian authors.

Favorites from this month include

More Than You'll Ever Know (the lady has two husbands in two countries!!! and it's set in Texas and Mexico!!!),

A Lady for a Duke (a Jane Austen style romance with a trans woman heroine!!!),

Simu Liu's memoir (great read; still think his parents suck even though he seems to be on better terms with them),

Dial A for Aunties (HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! She accidentally kills a guy who was threatening her and then her aunties and mom help her out),

Instructions for Dancing (teenager dealing with her parents divorce gains the ability to see how a relationship ends when she sees couples in love kiss),

and Frankly in Love (fake dating, real dating, polyamory gets mentioned which is nice).

[jojo-oliver]

paintings i did 🎨

[superpussyking]

Hello king, I am here to ask about your favourite hcs for Jonah Magnus :] also hope you’re having a good day!

Hi and thank you!

I have a lot, and they tend to cycle through which ones are my favorite- obviously autistic Jonah is so real to me I can't believe I haven't seen anyone else talk about it. Especially because I have seen people talk about autisic Peter (which is also very true) and didn't connect the two.

I think he's trans in every direction. Specifically transfemme Jonah. It's pretty personal to me so I don't wanna get too deep into it. But it follows my rule of thumb which is you can not live past 135 years and continue to be cisgender. The way you see yourself will change. mix that with society changing the way gender is viewed and you get a gender fucky body hopper who just stays male presenting bc its more convenient.

And now for me and my friends unfinished tma pacific rim au. Jeager pilots get a tattoo for every kaiju they kill. Jonah has so many and they are entirely covered up by his work clothes. Anytime you get the rare chance to see them it's fucking terrifying.

I tried to put as many refs to different entities as possible but I didn't get them all lmao.

I don't think he'd do this in cannon- but I think it would be incredibly epic for him to have a lot of tattoos that no one sees under his clothes. It's thematically appropriate, it would be hot, I could imagine him using tattoos as a way to satisfy his need for control. If he's going to get a new body every 40 years anyways, might as well do a little decorating.

On that I think he's chill with recreational drugs and is dissapointed he can't go fucking crazy anymore because it's bad for health. I also think he's scared of doctors. No evidence for that it just makes sense he'd be scared of doctors.

Thank you for the ask I didn't realize how long this post would get lmao- I hope this satisfies bc I like talking about him :]

[150ma-blog]

Internet/Social Media: Linh Truong

Linh Truing is currently a senior at Georgetown University in Washington DC and also a content creator on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. Their focus is on fashion, commentary, lifestyle, and travel content. Linh is Asian-American (half Vietnamese, half Chinese) and leans into her Vietnamese heritage in her content and life. They have been creating videos for YouTube since 2018. They have over 1.6 million followers/subscribers across different platforms.

I personally found Linh because of her room tours/organizational videos. Linh is also queer, identifying as non-binary, and uses she/they pronouns. Since 2018, Linh has been focused on graduating high school and going to college. Her goal (at least at this stage in life) is not to become a full-time influencer/YouTuber/content creator after college, but to get a job. She is going to school for sociology.

Linh is very proactive on social media. Since starting college (around 2020ish), they have been including resource links in the description of every video for things such as supporting trans and queer people, supporting black people, AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander), and others. Not only this, but they are also very active on Instagram with more real time events. She is a big advocate for those underrepresented and makes the effort to give them the platform they deserve. Linh also uses her platform/the public eye to get people they help or eyes they may need. She is very outspoken about her views on political and cultural matters.

Something that Linh has really been playing with recently has been fashion. They make a lot of content having to do with fashion and clothing that plays with twisting gender norms, combining uncommon things together, and being authentically themselves. I feel like this is a great relation to class because Linh uses fashion in a way that could be considered art. She combines different cultural clothing to make it into something different.

Linh also makes art, jewelry is one that is the most recent (she has also made art prints, stickers, and others). Her jewelry too is heavily influenced by her cultural upbringing, she even comments that it was “inspired by the jewelry I saw my mom wear growing up.” The initial gold jewelry line with En Route was released in late 2022, but silver versions of the pieces were later released around a year later.

Snakes have significance in Chinese mythology such as the duality of nature in Chinese philosophy, wisdom and knowledge, protection, etc. This directly relates to Linh’s heritage! (Referenced https://ishocalligraphy.com/blog/chinese-snake-symbolism-a-fascinating-journey-into-chinese-culture/)

While there isn’t a direct relation to the readings we’ve had this semester (especially because we only really read the Chinese perspective of emigration to the United States), their ties towards both heritage/cultural identity in relation to the world we know today is one that isn’t as public as what Linh is doing.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Jason Sheeler at People:

Deep into a Malibu canyon, up switchback roads and overlooking a creek, is Wayne Brady’s house. With a view of the Pacific, a creek, and not much else, save for tall gates, it’s a fortress of solitude. “It’s a great place to think,” Brady, 51, says.  And he has been doing plenty of that. Brady — known as much for his deft comic timing as his fully loaded smile — is ready to tell the world how he identifies: “I am pansexual,” he says, meaning that he is attracted to persons regardless of their sex or gender. Brady puts it another way: “Bisexual — with an open mind!” he says with a chuckle. 

Today the house is bustling with activity. The Let's Make a Deal host's daughter, Maile, 20, and ex-wife Mandie Taketa, 47, are on hand. Taketa was the first person Brady came out to. “I just said, ‘Great.’ As I knew coming out would help him be happier," she says. Maile's response to Brady was mostly a shrug. “I just said, ‘Okay,’" she remembers, breaking into a big, proud smile. Also scattered around the house: a camera crew. Brady, Maile, and Taketa — along with Taketa’s partner Jason Fordham — are filming a reality series about their blended family, set to premiere on Hulu next year. Taketa and Fordham welcomed a new baby in 2021, and Brady is considered a co-parent. 

There’s a lot going on, but Brady finds a quiet corner of the home and sits down. He takes a deep breath, leans back into the sofa and opens up to PEOPLE. Below is Brady's story in his own words.

I’m pansexual. In doing my research, both with myself and just with the world, I couldn't say if I was bisexual, because I had to really see what that was, especially because I really have not gotten a chance to act on anything. So, I came to pansexual because — and I know that I'm completely messing up the dictionary meaning — but to me, pan means being able to be attracted to anyone who identifies as gay, straight, bi, transsexual or non-binary. Being able to be attracted across the board. And, I think, at least for me for right now, that is the proper place. I took pan to mean that not only can I be attracted to any of these people or types physically, but I could be attracted to the person that is there.

[...]

I’ve been attracted to men at times in my life. But I have never dated a man.

Let's be really honest: I've also been attracted to certain men in my life, but I've always pushed that aside because of how I was raised, and because I live in today's world, and it's scary as s--t. What's the fastest way to hurt another man? I'm gonna call you out of your name. I'm gonna call you gay. I'm gonna emasculate you. I'm gonna use the F-word. I learned that very early from the people around me, they're like, "Oh, so those are bad things? Yeah. You, you don't wanna be that."  So, what does it mean if I feel something? I don't think I'm gay, but what if I feel something for another [man]... That's still gay. I was already bullied about a bunch of other s--t. I didn't wanna add a top hat on top of that suit.

I’ve dealt with the shame.

A shame cake, just eating it every single day — and then worried about... people finding out. I've always had a wonderful community of friends who are in the LGBTQ+ community, people that I've grown up with in shows, gays and lesbians, and, later in life, my trans relatives and my niece. I've always had that community, but I've always felt like a sham because I wasn't being forthcoming with myself. I could speak out about Black issues because I can’t hide that. And you can play at being an ally, but until the day that you can truly say, "This is who I am, and I wanna stand next to you," that's not... I always wanted that day to come. I've told myself in the past, also, nobody needs to know my personal business. The world can absolutely go without knowing that Wayne identifies as pan. But that gave me license to still live in the shadows and to be secretive. What does that feel like to actually not be shameful, to not feel like, "Oh, I can't be part of this conversation because I'm lying?” I had to break that behavior. 

In an exclusive interview with People Magazine, Wayne Brady, the former Whose Line Is It Anyway? star and current Let's Make A Deal host, comes out as pansexual.

Pansexual and bisexual are often erroneously mixed up, as bisexual means being attracted to more than one gender but not necessarily all genders, whereas pansexual means being attracted to all people regardless of their gender identity.

See Also:

The Advocate: Wayne Brady Comes Out as Pansexual in New Interview

People: Wayne Brady Comes Out as Pansexual — What to Know About the LGBTQ Label

[lesbianwyllravengard]

What are your opinions on Bryan Dechart?

He's a celebrity so I have a natural distrust, but also he seems to blindly accept the shit in the game as being good and "deep" and seems to think d*vid c*ge is a genuinely good person which is just beyond appalling to me. And it makes Bryan's social justice claims feel like he's just throwing shit out there he doesn't even bother trying to understand. It's kinda insulting when he cries over dbh for being "so good at portraying struggles" of marginalised people when it is in fact very bad, and then turns around and says happy pride or black lives matter, not even bothering to recognise the ways in which the game blatantly disrespects those groups. He also has a very privileged view on law enforcement and he agrees with DC's ideas on "violence" or "pacifism". Like he's just clearly ignorant in a lot of ways but he also tries to be nice and thinks he does his duty by throwing out "trans rights" on his insta story and calling it a day. Plus he's a white guy so everyone loves him and he gets away with whatever. He annoys me greatly. But again he's a celeb so luckily I don't have to bother knowing him lol. That's all I guess.