#beautiful vector work

[alartsandstuff]

A commission I Made for a nightclub in Colombia! It's honestly one of My favorite works!

(My commissions are Open!)

[great-and-small]

As an entomologist who runs a public-sector mosquito control program: thank you for helping with tying to educate people on why mosquitoes are important to the environment and should *not* be completely eradicated. Yes the populations of certain species should be controlled in certain areas, but with over 3000 different species worldwide (all occupying different habitats and ecological niches) complete elimination of mosquitoes in general both cannot and should not be done. Only a comparative handful of mosquito species are a concern re: spreading disease, the rest of them either don’t bite humans at all and/or they are not competent vectors.

And now because I can never resist plugging my faves: one example of how cool and unique mosquitoes can be is the species Uranotaenia sapphirina. Not only do they have beautiful metallic sapphire markings, they’re also the only currently known species to specialize in feeding on invertebrates! They will bite mammals and birds a bit, but they overwhelmingly prefer taking blood from earthworms and leeches!

Anyway, this ask is getting long so I’ll stop yapping. Your blog is cool and keep up the good work!

(P.S. can confirm that the photo you found was indeed an Aedes aegypti - another fascinating species in its own right not least because it’s one of the few invertebrates besides honeybees one could make the case to say is domesticated)

I have to sincerely thank you for not only your very kind words but also the gift of knowledge about several bugs that I will very much be falling down the rabbit hole to learn about. I have to admit I am in awe of her

[sits-bound]

Bound: Dwelling by aideomai

I could not be happier with how this turned out. I used so many new, fun techniques and materials!

The book cloth, oh my god, it's so beautiful. It's Dubletta in aqua/purple. I am mad at myself for messing up my first go at this cover, but it's okay. It's not very expensive and I still have more.

I stenciled the cover. This was the most trying part of the entire process. Last night, I could not for the life of me get the vinyl to cut properly or weed properly or do anything properly, but the first time I tried this morning, it went perfectly. Go figure. The paint is just a craft acrylic in rose gold.

I (sort of) designed and printed the endpapers with my new color printer. I say "sort of" designed because I used the text-to-vector-graphic AI feature in Illustrator. I am generally not a fan of AI artwork, it creeps me out, but I like how this turned out.

I used toner foil on the chapter headers. SO SHINY! (I got a Scotch laminator, and some toner foil from Amazon and it worked perfectly.)

I would say that I also sewed endbands for the first time, but my attempt was not successful. Oh well, nothing wrong with premade ones! Next time...

I also got "creative" with the page numbers and title/author on the inside pages. I am not the most creative typesetter, so this is exciting for me, ha ha.

Everything also went in so neatly and square, and I am just really happy right now. :)

Body and title and well, actually, all of the fonts in the book are Corundum of some sort.

[darkveracity]

A weirdly large percentage of HomuSaya doujins are about god's most beautiful NTR warrior Akuma Homura stealing Sayaka from Kyouko which I think is mostly an excuse to let Homura do some toxic yuri that would be out of character with Madoka. This of course fails to understand the true vector for HomuSaya romance which has always to me been two girls who cannot stand each other being forced to work together and gradually earning each other's respect like shonen rivals trapped in a buddy cop situation who finally become friends after beating the shit out of each other in the rain. Sometimes yuri can only work by being yaoi

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Fly

beautiful words with "fly" for your next poem/story

Alderfly - any of numerous insects (order Megaloptera) of the genus Sialis or related genera having aquatic larvae that are used for bait

Catchfly - any of various plants (as of the genera Lychnis and Silene) of the pink family often with viscid stems

Damselfly - any of numerous odonate insects (suborder Zygoptera) distinguished from dragonflies by laterally projecting eyes and usually stalked wings folded above the body when at rest

Deerfly - any of numerous small horseflies (as of the genus Chrysops) that include important vectors of tularemia

Flowerfly - a syrphid fly (i.e., any of numerous active day-flying flies that constitute the family Syrphidae, frequent flowers and feed on nectar, vary greatly in form and coloration but generally have a spurious longitudinal vein near the middle of each wing, often mimic bees or wasps and have the abdomen banded with yellow, and produce larvae which feed on decaying organic matter or are predaceous on plant lice)

Flybane - any of several plants considered to be destructive to houseflies (as a catchfly or the fly agaric)

Flybridge - an open deck on a cabin cruiser located above the bridge on the cabin roof and usually having a duplicate set of navigating equipment

Flyflower - dutchman's-breeches

Flyleaf - one of the free endpapers of a book

Flypaper - paper coated with a sticky often poisonous substance for killing flies

Flyspeck - a speck made by fly excrement; something small and insignificant

Greenfly - aphid i.e., any of numerous very small soft-bodied homopterous insects (superfamily Aphidoidea) that suck the juices of plants

Medfly - Mediterranean fruit fly i.e., a small widely distributed yellowish-brown dipteran fly (Ceratitis capitata) with a banded abdomen whose larva lives and feeds in ripening fruit

Sandfly - any of various small biting dipteran flies (especially genus Phlebotomus of the family Psychodidae)

Whitefly - any of numerous small homopterous insects (family Aleyrodidae) that are injurious plant pests

If any of these words inspire your writing, do tag me or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

More: Word Lists

[txttletale]

healed ive been doing some very basic communist readings lately and. how do you cope with the fact that none of it seems particularly possible. how do you manage to put any of this theory into practice when the only two parties out there seem to be the We’re Basically Demsocs Party and the Sexual Abuse League. how do you not let it crush you and what ways have you found to like… manifest these ideas in your life? i guess one could say i was “radicalized” by recent events but having done basic reading (just beginner Lenin and Marx) has made me feel so much more hopeless. there’s no vanguard party and i don’t see what I can actually tangibly do to help proliferate communism. and it’s making me feel guilty for living my life, too, for doing things that I find fun and beautiful and enjoyable - there’s just the guilt of “this is a time-waster, this is brainwashing you”. do you have any assurance at all

so obviously the role of a marxist-leninist in a revolutionary situation (ie, one in which the conditions are revolutionary, in which the current bourgeois state is no longer tenable) is to be in a vanguard party at the head of the organized working class. but these things don't appear from nowhere--i think it follows that if you are in much of the world, where a revolutionary situation is not imminent in any forseeable near future, then the role of a communist is to help organize the working class and raise class consciousness through class struggle so that when such a situation presents itself the working class is both radical and organized, or capable of becoming such in short order.

that means that working within non-party organizations (unions, activist and mutual aid groups, grassroots campaigns) with the intent of learning the tactics of organization and radicalising the people around you is a meaningful participation in the class struggle. as much as i say 'get organized' and believe that a proletarian party is the best and most powerful vehicle for revolutionary action, that latter belief is of course to be taken and adapted for the situation.

do not be hopeless because you have read lenin--instead, be aware that when lenin was writing much of what he wrote, the situation of socialist parties across europe was dire. criminalized, divided just as they are now, replete with the exact kind of reformists you're complaining about (as well as adventurists). what lenin wrote about was not just a theoretical ideal party that did exist in his time, but instead the blueprints for the party he had a hand in creating. realize that lenin genuinely believed during periods that he would not see revolution during his lifetime.

organize with whoever you can, in whatever arena you can, and participate in the class struggle. develop the skills and understanding of the methods of struggle, even if trade unionism or climate activism alone are not sufficient vectors by which the contradictions of capitalism can be resolved, they are avenues by which your class consciousness and that of those around you can be honed and sharpened. find the most radical body around you and join yourself to their struggle--a vanguard party should emerge from the struggles of the working class, it should be an organization that serves as a vessel for effective action. you do not have to tie yourself to the decaying and rotting shambling zombie parties of the 20th century to participate in the class struggle--we as communists owe these organs no loyalty if they are not equipped for the realities of class struggle.

i'm lucky in that there is a small but dedicated group of marxist-leninists i have been able to join up with and work with. if that's not the case for you, conduct the struggle within anarchist collectives or trade unions or solidarity campaigns, while always keeping your true goal in mind. the class struggle unfolds across a multitude of arenas--as long as there's someone you can organize alongside on something, you are not powerless in your capacity as a revolutionary communist. good luck, comrade.

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

It’s Sonic Gang Disney Movie Night! And it’s the Unstoppable Forces vs Immovable Objects! Let’s meet our competitors:

Knuckles “the last of his kind on a noble quest to protect a gem with trust issues, badass fighting skills, and a water-based spirit most of his lost culture was based around who wants to live out his fantasy of his people coming back and enemies turning into friends via continued applied trust” the Echidna who wants to watch Raya and the Last Dragon

Tikal “the curious and empathetic chief’s daughter who was really close with her now-dead grandma who yearns to return to a culture her people once had but have now abandoned and works to make peace with the dieties of her culture while being best friends with sentient water who wants to live out her fantasy of resolving her daddy issues and bringing her people and gods to peace” the Echidna who wants to watch Moana

Blaze “the heir to an entire kingdom with a lot of huge expectations placed on her by her deceased parents desperately trying to keep her deadly and dangerous powers under control which is an issue because they burst out when she’s emotional and she’s been repressing quite a bit of emotions only for an energetic, bubbly person to bring her out of her shell and prove that she can be herself without hurting anyone else” the Cat who wants to watch Frozen

Elise also wants to watch Frozen so two points for Blaze

Shadow “an alien scientifically created to be a living weapon meant to destroy who ends up befriending a little girl who teaches him to have humanity, after which he begins to appreciate life on Earth and fights to protect both it and the found family he’s pieced together for himself” the Hedgehog who wants to watch Lilo & Stitch

Sonic who wants to watch Wreck-It Ralph because he’s in it and things go fast

Amy Rose who wants to watch Sleeping Beauty because it’s “romantic” and “beautiful” but also so she can wait until the dragon scene and then start blasting “What I’m Made Of” and scare the shit out of everyone

Silver “was left alone in a barren wasteland for far longer than he wants to admit and honestly probably longer than he can remember who ends up finding one last bit of hope and who wants to live out his fantasy of bringing life back to his planet and seeing society grow around him as he finds a family of his own” the Hedgehog who wants to watch WALL-E. he’ll also settle for Lightyear he guesses

Cream who wants to watch Snow White because pretty princess sing to animals and spin around

Sally “the heir to an entire kingdom with some severe dead dad issues who ends up on the run as a child only to return and find her kingdom decimated by someone she once trusted who now has to raise a rebellion with her childhood sweetheart to dethrone the usurper and retake the land before he can destroy the entire environment” Acorn who wants to watch The Lion King

Vector who wants to watch The Great Mouse Detective and say “that’s what we do. we do that”

Shahra who wants to watch Aladdin. do i even have to

oh and Jet wants to watch Aladdin too but that’s just because he thinks stealing things is funny

Merlina actually does not want to watch Sword in the Stone it makes her uncomfortable however she will BITE someone if they don’t watch Coco next

Marine who wants to watch Finding Nemo because oooh water ooh australia oooh look at the fishies go. no she doesn’t have abandonment issues why do you ask

alternatively, Marine will make everyone watch The Pirate Fairy

Tekno who wants to watch Big Hero 6 because look at those robots go

Omega who wants to watch The Black Cauldron cause it has the most death in it

Rouge who would rather watch everyone argue than see any movie

Mighty and Ray just wanna watch Bambi guys

Big who wants to watch Fantasia because it calms him down. Omega does a quick ecosia search of Night on Bald Mountain and immediately likes this plan

Belle who wants to watch Pinocchio for obvious reasons

Charmy who wants to watch Peter Pan just to point at the tv when Tink is onscreen and look Belle dead in the eye and say “that’s you”

Espio who wants to die

Miles “Tails” Prower who can’t decide if he wants to watch Dumbo or Meet the Robinsons or if both will just bring up a lot of traumatic memories

and finally, Sticks the Badger, who wants to beat the TV to death with a wooden club and then burn Disney HQ to the ground

who will win!! vote now on your phones

[shiyorin]

#Fulgrim x Reader

#I don't know what else to say but it's just Fulgrim and the way he appreciates your beauty.

#TW: Foot fetish :v

"Hold still." Fulgrim murmured, his voice reverberating with the faintest undercurrent of reverent focus.

You didn't pay his gentle admonition any heed. You lounged indolently upon the sleekly curved divan, hair disheveled and spilling. One shapely leg kicked out at an indolent angle, sole flexing as though to dislodge the embroidered confection of ribbons and organza puddling about your ankles.

Pursing his lips, the Phoenician found himself reaching out to steady that recalcitrant limb, chiding his guest. "My dearest, you must remain composed if I'm to properly attire you."

Your eyes slitted open at that, glinting with indolent amusement. "Must I?" You reply, somehow infusing even those two simple words with silken intimations. "And why should I?"

Had it been anyone addressing him in that tone, Fulgrim might have dismissed them from his presence then and there. But not you. No, toward you he could only sigh with a mixture of exasperation and sublime fascination, conflicting psycho-sculpted vectors tugging him in myriad directions at once.

"Because this night's very important," he explained for what felt like the hundredth time that hour. And for perhaps the hundredth time as well, Fulgrim found his gaze drifting downward over the perfection of your form. From the artful tumble of shimmering tresses to the exquisite hollow of throat and collarbones, all the way down to the ... full swell of...

"You need not demean yourself so, my lord."

Your low, throaty voice rippled as the primarch of the Emperor's Children knelt before your form. Still, you made no move to halt his ministrations or avert your shapely limbs from his attentions.

"Nonsense," the Phoenician throwing you a smile that could disarm worlds. "It is no indignity to bask in sublime beauty and assist in rendering it transcendent."

A delicate smile at that polished retort. "I had expected you of all the primarchs to disdain such... posturing."

If your words landed true, Fulgrim gave no indication. He continued deftly clasping the delicate chains braided from liquid shadow composite to your mirrsilk bodysuit. Each glinting loop spilled outward like baroque silvered vines from the highly articulated armor plates protecting your ankles.

"Posturing?" The primarch arched one perfect, sculpted eyebrow in an aristocratic moue of surprise. "My dear, assisting you in accentuating your exquisite conformation is art of the highest caliber."

Fulgrim paused in trailing his masterful fingertips along the lush, flawless contours of your calf muscle. For a fleeting moment, his noble visage flickered barely perceptible acknowledgment that you had scored a glancing blow with your provocations. Just as quickly, however, that momentary pique faded beneath the Phoenician's typical aura of unshakable poise.

"I don't merely endeavor to enhance your sublime beauty out of empty ritual." he clarified, steadily working the umbrahyde ribbons further up your leg. "Rather, I seek to elevate it to the masterwork it deserves."

The primarch shook his head minutely, allowing several perfectly-coiffed strands of silken platinum to fall charmingly across his brow. He hadn't summoned his entire coterie of beautifiers and augmenated ordators for this affair, only his most trusted serfs. Adorning true, living art required focus and reverence beyond what most anyone could muster.

Pick up the ankle-length indigo striders with the same reverence as handling sanctified gene-wrought. Chemos worked every rivet and nanosynthesized composite fiber with their most skillful arts. Even on the field of apotheosis, no detail was too insignificant nor craftsmanship not elevated into a breathtaking masterpiece.

But compared to the transcendent fleshwork that would soon grace these accoutrements, their beauty paled into vapid obscurity. 

Slowly, reverently, with each appreciative caress and brush of finely wrought material over sacrosanct dermis, he felt himself descending into a blissful rapture few mortals had ever experienced.

Through of his eyes, details of imperfection normally invisible to visual spectra alone burned in blinding clarity through his primogenoid senses. Not the slightest defect escaped his adoring scrutiny as your sculpted perfection unveiled itself in achingly slow ceremony.

First the ankles, those deceptively delicate articulation nodes sutured by intricate hyper-density musculature. How he lavished upon them, worshiping every curve while his psyche greedily drank in their elegant sublimity. Then the calves, wherein bulged and beauty beyond mere human comprehension. Fulgrim's hands roamed across each subtly undulating contour and veinridge.

Next came the magnificence of your thighs, a masterwork of helice and kinesis that stole both breath and soul with its supreme proportions. Such gracious lines and mesmerizing flexion, profiles carved by a billion recursive movements and honed into perfect design.

These were the idealized aesthetics for which any crudely-conceived "masterpieces" could only ever remain a pale imitation. Your body constituted a living canvas of sacred and perfection resonating at the exalted wavelengths of universal beauty....

"You're staring again."

Your voice sliced through the contemplative silence like a razor-edged sibilance. Fulgrim blinked, only just realizing his thought.

"Apologies." the noble primarch offered with an elegant dip of his perfect features. "You'll have to forgive an artist's momentary rapture when confronted with such a breathtaking subject."

Then, with a courtly flourish utterly at odds with his preceding transformation, the Lord of the Third raised your fingers to his full, sensuous lips. Jeweled irises of amethyst glowed with inner luminescence as he pressed a kiss to your silk glove.

"Come." he urged. "They await an introduction..."

[forestdeath1]

Hii! I love your metas. Would you like to share your thoughts/ headcanons on jily as a couple?

Hello! Thanks for this question about Jily!

I have a bit of a specific take on these two. It's all just my headcanon.

I don't think they were ENEMIES. Lily wanted to see him as an enemy early on, but James only saw Snape that way. At first they might have made fun of Lily too, but James grew out of that childish stage by third year when finally got a morning wood, and making fun of girls became loser behaviour for him.

Lily liked James from fourth year. That's when all the chemistry kicked off, you know? When he pisses you off, but you like him, but he pisses you off. James grew up, his grin got cheekier and even more cocky, and girls started noticing him… I'm not a fan of the trope where James is an insecure boy who's clueless with girls. I mean he was clueless with girls, but at the same time he was very confident. Not a single thought that someone might not like him... So, I think he was already flirting then, but not with any romantic intentions, just that kind of behaviour. You know, winked when he caught her eye, said 'looking good, Evans' when he spotted her in Potions class in the morning. That irritating behaviour of a self-absorbed jock. Nothing serious, but Lily reacted to it like a kid, because fourth-fifth year… she was a late bloomer. It proper embarrassed her. But really, James kick-started her awakening as a girl who could fancy boys and be fancied by them.

When James realised he really liked Lily (year 5), he tried to "unlove" her first because "love’s for wimps'". Real boys don't fall in love.

My HC is that Lily's beautiful. And the boys started paying attention to her. In James’s eyes, they were all suckers (no, they weren't, and he knew that too, but couldn't think any different).

Lily and Sirius’s relationship got better before Lily and James’s relationship did.

Lily LOVES quidditch! She's a proper fan. She genuinely fell for this sport and watches every game. James reckoned for a bit that it was about him (arrogant prat).

James’s attempts to court her in fifth year were a fiasco. By sixth year, he'd matured a bit and realised it wasn't just a casual "liking" for Lily, but that he genuinely wanted something serious with her. He sincerely changed the vector of behaviour, but Lily was adamant, still remembering the last year and feeling a bit down. At one point, she said something very serious, to which James replied, 'Do you really think so?' Out of pride, Lily said, 'Yes,' and James just said, 'Alright then, sorry for bothering you all this time. All the best, Evans'

And he backed off from her. He didn't treat her like a friend, but he didn't act like a mortally offended drama king. She just became another classmate to him, with a neutral attitude. Zero interest.

Lily had some time to think. And Lily got a boyfriend –a great boyfriend, swear down! She tried her hardest to love him. But it didn't work out.

At the end of sixth year, Lily made the first move herself. They talked. She invited James to Hogsmeade. James, being anti-drama, said it was all good, he thought nothing bad of her, and said she could join them on Saturday at the Three Broomsticks, the Marauders would be chuffed. Especially since she got on well with all of them. More the merrier, right? Lily was like, WTF??? And James was like, what's the problem? Lily - no, no problem, everything's fine! Of course, I'd love to hang out with you lot! See you on Saturday!

Anyway, things got a bit twisted... loads more happened. And they started dating. By the way, they hooked up first, and then that same evening they confessed their love for each other and started dating. They were each other's first.

James realised how happy he was now and just walked around like the happiest person alive. He felt like he'd hit the jackpot. Same for Lily. They regretted wasting so much time and called themselves a pair of idiots.

NSFW!!! 18+

In their first year together, they fucked endlessly like rabbits. Everywhere. Jily for me is just endless shagging, sorry not sorry :D At first, they were figuring out their desires, abilities and needs. Right from day one, they weren't shy with each other and just went for it. They lucked out – their sex drives matched up.

James adores Lily's body. He loves every inch of it! He's ready to cover it in kisses endlessly, stroke it, nibble it, and lick it. Like someone said before, he's a pro muncher. And Lily loves James's cock. She pretty quickly mastered deepthroating, and she's got a thing for giving head in places where "you can't". So, she's up for dropping to her knees in some unexpected spots. She likes it when he cum on her breasts. Or on her face. She likes looking up at him, nearly choking, while he's gripping her hair.

Overall, they weren't shy about showing their affections in public. And they were always finding ways for spontaneous sex. Sometimes, James would finger Lily to orgasm during classes. Thank goodness for robes that hide everything lol Lily would take him into a dark corner of Hogwarts during patrols and suck him off. He could slip his hand under her robes and tease her nipples while they were sitting in the library. I mean they were really into sex with each other.

The rest of my headcanon about their sex life can stay in my head :D

[susidestroyerofworlds]

what’s your favorite number

this is a really hard question. Its probably 2, since it makes for an amazing base and is just generally very useful, like, when you have a+a, which is common, that turns into 2a. It's also the successor to 1, making it the first number thats not just defined directly by axioms like 0 and 1 and rather a consequence.

2 is also aesthetically fun, the way it swoops at the top and then sits on a sturdy base, with both a round and a sharp corner. So, that's my answer,

2

But! If we go further we can find lots of other numbers I also love. 6 is a really nice number because its small but not "weird" in any immediate way. It's not an identity, it's not prime, it's not a square, etc. If you have a formula or something and you want to check it with a number 6 usually works without running into common edge cases.

Leaving the Naturals, -1 is an amazing integer. Really useful for anything that alternates, I love the roots of unity and it's the first nontrivial of those. All the roots of unity are pretty amazing tho, highly recommend.

Rising further we get to the Rationals, which are honestly kinda boring imo. Shoutout to ½ for being the reciprocal of 2 but that's it.

Now, shit is gonna get Real. The Reals are an amazing set, lots of useful properties, a really cool field (the Rationals are also a field but they suck so the Reals get to be the cool field). The Reals contain just about every number you normally interact with, including all-time highs such as pi or e. All algebraic and transcendental numbers are in here, including my favourite, sqrt(2). The square root of 2 is real cool. It's fun geometrically, being a factor of the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle where the legs are the same length. It's cool algebraically as being the easiest to introduce number thats real but not rational, I have fond childhood memories of learning that the Reals are Dedekind complete (of course that word was only introduced in high school) with this beautiful number as the example. It's reciprocal is also really cool and useful. sqrt(2) even has its own Wikipedia article.

Leaving behind the Reals, the Complex Numbers are just fun as a category. No longer ordered, basically acting as if R² was a field, just really fun. I don't really have a favourite complex number but I am a sucker for units for i gets nominated as my favourite here. All complex numbers are really cool. Shoutout to |0> and |1> (ket-zero and ket-one) for being cool in quantum computing and being vectors in a space using the field of the complex numbers.

There is lots more sets but I am not familiar enough with numbers to even come close to doing them justice. I hope your questions is answered, have a nice day <3

[boin-de-bindery]

PAPER DOLL by Mel Calero

If Borrasca was unusual, then this one is niche. Shout out to alumni of the Sims 2 Story Exchange, for whom this will be a blast from the past 💚 If you had a popular fantasy or legacy series on that platform, I probably signed your guestbook or gave you benes on the forum at some point. God, I'm getting old.

PAPER DOLL was one of the works of fiction published on the official Sims 2 website, which was shut down in 2009 by EA causing the loss of thousands of uploads. Unless authors were particularly diligent in backing up their story uploads on other platforms, most published stories died with the website and are no longer available.

Thankfully, some forward-thinking souls had the sense to back up a selection of the uploads before the website went down for good. These can be accessed here. It's where I rediscovered PAPER DOLL, which was peak fiction to me when it was uploaded c. 2007-2008.

The beauty of the Sims 2 Story Exchange was that text uploads were accompanied by illustrative screenshots from the game. PAPER DOLL was one of the more stylised uploads to the platform. The custom content might seem crunchy now, but at the time it looked premium (given we were all on XP or Vista graphics). Realistic skins, eyes, hair and outfits were very much the trend back then. The author (melcalero) had a eye for aesthetic and style that holds up.

Anyway, it's a reading experience I hold dear and a story I wanted to archive physically. I made the decision not to include any of the game screenshots, out of consideration for my printer cartridges, but I included all published text with some editorial changes (spell checking, consistency revisions etc). It's technically unfinished (was a part 7 shared off the Exchange?? I could be misremembering) but part 6 rounds off the story nicely enough.

PAPER DOLL is a dark romance set in Japan, featuring both American and Japanese characters and a marriage of convenience/fake dating plotline. It's of its time, but I remain fond of it. There's depth to the network of relationships between the two leads and supporting characters.

My decision to pursue borderless printing for the sake of style near broke me. I had to print single sided because my printer can't handle duplex and borderless printing. Between that and a series of misprints, there were more discarded pages than properly printed sheets overall. The edge-to-edge background graphics turned out well, but I'd be wary of doing it for another project.

Garamond 10pt for the body text, and the iconic BLEEDING COWBOYS for all title and heading text. The finished typeset is about 260 pages long and in the ballpark of 60,000 words. I went a bit nuts on vector graphics as you can see, but it's in keeping with the original version's aesthetic. Cover is bound in uncoated viscose bookcloth, while the textblock is printed on "cream" A4 printer paper. I'd hoped before purchasing this would be closer to an off white colour. I now have too much of this paper, so it'll likely feature in future binds despite being A Vibe 🍊

I made a few mistakes on this bind, but I think an improvement in skill is noticeable too. Most conspicuous is a rip right at the edge of the front cover, which I can't do much to address. It kinda works with the grungy title font so I'm not that pressed about it.

The bookmark ribbon was an afterthought and added after the headbands, which I don't think is industry standard. I quite like my scene kid pink 'n' black headbands, plus the vinyl layering I did for the cover titles and illustration. I was still chugging along with adhesive vinyl but the application went better than previous attempts.

Lastly, I attempted to trim the textblock with a chisel. The chisel was in no way sharp enough when I started out, and even subsequent sharpening couldn't rescue the edges. They are even, but remain decked in places. I don't hate the result, but it took wayy too long and left me with repetitive strain which took days to heal. I might try again on my next novel-length bind, but I'm considering investigating if a local print shop will trim text blocks for a nominal price.

Anyway, 'scuse the long post. I was enthusiastic about revisiting an old favourite of mine. Plus it's worth talking about old, dead websites that evoke nostalgia. On the off chance melcalero sees this, I'm more than happy to provide them with an author copy if they reach out 🌸

[pluralsword]

An Essay: Trans History and Retcons Regarding IDW1 Arcee and Her Spotlight

As we've slowly learned more and deeply immersed into IDW1 Arcee's writing over the years, finding much more than just kinship to her, we felt this urge to dig further, to understand, feeling threads that were there regarding trans history, but not having much knowledge regarding historical transmedicalism, so we dug. We dug because we wanted to show that Arcee's writing from 2012-2018 not only is a beautiful trans story unique in science fiction, but that her personality there and in part in her Spotlight (which absolutely did not intend trans stuff and walked into a minefield in that regard that inadvertently opened up the opportunity for the writing and consulting team in Phase 2 and Phase 3 to figure out beautiful character arcs for her) are direct successors of the original personality frameworks for G1 Arcees, and to show the impact and legacy of both Sunbow/Marvel and IDW Arcees along with more Arcees combined on many versions of her thereafter.

Here's the introductory paragraph:

In much of the last decade, a lot of people familiar with Transformers’ trans stories appreciate Arcee being trans and her arcs in that regard from 2012 onwards. But during those six years from 2012-2018 where her narratives that firmly navigated her agency as a trans gal were being established by a number of writers, with consulting help in 2015 for Ask Vector Prime and 2018 for IDW1, there was and remains uncertainty over how exactly that works for her, specifically for her comic iteration where her transness was first hinted and then plainly stated. The variety of understandings in this regard in part originates from her introduction to the IDW1 run, Spotlight Arcee, in 2008, which was received rather turbulently because of how it portrayed her gender and transformer gals at large. Writing years after would navigate resolving this rather beautifully as showing Arcee having struggled with transmedicalism, isolation, abandonment, loneliness, and alienation, the brutality of a violent (and androcentric) world, as many trans people across gender and parallel spectrums or lacks thereof have in real life. Her story is done in a wlw trans gal context in particular. She is shown getting closure on all this, finding her happiness by the end of that continuity that would along with her story at large as a sweet, ferocious, outspoken old warrior sage help set the tone for her portrayals afterwards. Much of this overlaps with how she was described in her The Transformers Universe bio all the way back in 1986. In these regards, we (the writer of this is plural, we'll have a note about that near the end) think it is pertinent to take another look at how her story played out, what was actually written and shown vs. what was intended, to navigate transmedicalist history that overlaps with her story, and to show that Arcee’s trans iterations are directly part of the legacy of G1 Arcee overall

also a brief fact check edit regarding HRT:

we said HRT only effects hormones but realized we should fact check that, and apparently for some people HRT does effect their genes!! (this is separate from the discussion of gender journeys and epigenetics which we personally know next to nothing about) this a deeply understudied topic you can read about it here:

Gender-affirming hormone therapy induces specific DNA methylation changes in blood

[fionajames]

masterlist

Most of this is Star Wars (and mostly the Clone Wars), but there are a few other things ! ! !

WARNINGS: THIS WRITING CONTAINS: depicted gore, character death, death, war, violence, mentions of throwing up, mental health difficulties, and general star wars warnings.

spoilers for the clone wars, the bad batch, and star wars.

PLEASE NOTE: this took me a very long time, and so it is not very neat because i am very tired. this is roughly arranged in order of release, just because that is how i did it. i know there are a few pieces of writing missing so PLEASE, if you stumble upon something that isn't here but should be, dm it to me with the link so i can add it :)

✉ -> requested ☘ -> stuff i'm particularly proud of/fan favs

Star Wars

General One-Shots

carnivorous -> (rex learns about togrutas)

carnivorous pt. 2 -> (rex and anakin learn about togrutas)

tally marks -> (the reason behind rex's tally marks)

pre-christophosis -> (rex before the battle of christophosis) ✉

pt. 2 of pre-christophosis -> (rex before the battle of christophosis, 2) ✉

chicken soup -> (fluffy anakin and obiwan) ✉

two times newly knighted -> (how both obi-wan and anakin felt after getting their padawans)

how the wound heals -> (post order 66 ahsoka and rex) ✉

tonight -> (not all jedi are invincible, especially padawans)

the dress -> (fluff with ahsoka and padme) ✉

sorrow and solace -> (force ghost talks with anakin and obi-wan) ✉

return -> (disaster trio fluff) ✉

five times -> (fives and echo, but really just the death of palpatine) ✉

the victim with blood on his hands -> (cody comforts rex) ✉

guilt -> (a tiny snippet of angst) ✉

over-worked -> (the 501st convince kix to take a break) ✉

scars and stitches -> (how did anakin really get his scar?) ✉

cold outside - codywan -> (codywan stuck in the cold) ✉

three broken ribs, a concussion, and a broken femur -> (cody scolds rex) ✉

the blue death -> (the blue shadow virus taking it's toll) ✉

the unimaginable -> (some deaths are harder than others)

skako minor and beyond -> (headcanons about echo's time at skako minor) ✉

christmas -> (fluffy disaster trio christmas) ✉

wait for it -> (the way ahsoka views anakin)

me and the devil -> (palpatine controlling anakin)

rescue of the crazed -> (after being captured by the separatists, ahsoka is a little... out of it) ✉

captured -> (things don't always end happily)

war is over -> (how the clone wars should have ended)

tunnels -> (obi-wan and anakin get separated from their troops (slight codywan))

blood and bandages -> (rex after the kadavo arc) ✉

limbo -> (hunter doesn't do so well with the underground) ✉

early mornings -> (ahsoka and obi-wan's friendship) ✉

flocks of fireflies -> (disaster trio fluff) ✉ ☘

dreams of home -> (disaster trio angst, post order 66, sad obi-wan) ✉

Longer Series (although i'm horrible at continuing them)

delinquents club guide (includes links to the chapters) -> (a story about my oc fenrir in a fix-it-au of mine)

tcw circus au -> (an au in which the republic and separatists are rival circuses) ✉

circus barrisoka -> (barrisoka in the republica circus) ✉

jedi circus headcanons -> (headcanons about the circus au) ☘

ethereal pt. 1 -> (a mysterious mansion piques the curiosity of our five) ☘

ethereal pt. 2 -> (the mysterious yet beautiful mansion isn't the only strange thing about this world....) ☘

moonlit dances -> (part of my 'ethereal' au, but no spoilers really. soft and romantic codywan) ☘

My OCs

my ocs -> (an introduction to my ocs; dhole, vector, menace, dice, bloodshot, xi, mit, vick, meerrt.)

menace and the guard -> (menace pranking the guard) ✉

dhole and fives -> (headcanons about my oc dhole and fives interacting) ✉

satsuki meets rex -> (my oc satsuki meets rex for the first time)

my ocs aesthetics -> (aesthetics for my ocs; dhole, vector, menace, dice, bloodshot, xi, mit, vick, meerrt.)

a trip to 79s -> (the bad batch and my ocs meet) ✉

family - my oc -> (dhole gets injured during a battle) ✉

good enough - my oc -> (a little vent writing through my oc - satsuki)

slipping - my ocs -> (fox comforts dhole) ✉

thievery -> (dhole and anakin do something morally correct, legally not) ✉

human - my ocs -> (a view of my ocs; vick, meerrt, dice, dhole, xi, mit, bloodshot, and menace)

music in the winter - my ocs -> (my ocs and some others as musicians in a fix-it-au) ✉

icy comfort -> (bloodshot and dhole have a heart-to-heart) ✉

missing - my ocs -> (satsuki is captured, and no must escape, maybe with the help of someone new) ✉ ☘

nightmares on kamino - my ocs -> (iniko seeks some comfort, and finds it in captain rook) ✉

the beginning - my ocs -> (how brontide become captain of the 323rd)

unrequited love - my oc -> (xi has feelings for someone he can't love) ✉

heartache -> (xi has to deal with simple tasks complicated by feelings) ✉

the great wolf -> (ahsoka, rex, jesse and fives fight off an intruder)

the creepers, clone force 97 - overview -> (an introduction to some new ocs of mine, a defective batch) ☘

the attack -> (an oc of mine finds himself in a very terrifying situation) ☘

x Reader

oil smudges - captain rex -> (captain rex x mechanic! reader, fluff)

headache - kix -> (a very soft kix x sick! reader) ✉

cold and cookies - echo -> (echo x reader, echo returns after a few weeks) ✉ ☘

puppy love - howzer -> (just purely fluffy howzer x reader)

cuddles - rex -> (just a sleepy golden retriever rex x reader) ✉

are you awake yet - rex -> (absolutely fluffy rex x reader) ✉ ☘

line of fire - rex -> (rex x reader, reader stands up for the clones... and rex is concerned) ✉ ☘

hot chocolate - rex -> (fluffy, winter, rex x reader) ☘

boiling water - rex -> (fluffy, winter, rex x reader)

3am - rex -> (rex x mechanic! reader) ✉

t-shirt - cody -> (fluffy cody x reader)

dangerous - rex -> (concerned rex x civilian! reader) ☘

pancakes - rex -> (fluffy rex x civilian! reader) ☘

cyar'ika - rex -> (fluffy rex x civilian! reader) ☘

blankets - rex -> (fluffy rex x reader) ✉

Fix-It-AU

fix-it-fox -> (the basis of this au, with lots of headcanons) ✉ ☘

bad batch halloween -> (halloween with the bad batch) ✉

christmas with the clones headcanons -> (christmas with the clones) ☘

holofilms -> (bad batch movie night) ✉

home - the bad batch -> (fluffy bad batch) ✉

Other Fandoms

sam golbach x reader -> (fluffy sam x reader)

sodapop x reader -> (fluffy sodapop x reader)

christmas with the greasers headcanons -> (christmas with the greasers)

shark toy -> (darry gets a present) ✉

lams; almost gone -> (when alexander 'almost' died)

why, pt1. lams -> (lams angst)

the man -> (female teen wolf characters) ✉ ☘

devoid of all emotions -> (void stiles, platonic sterek) ✉

(tagging: @skellymom, @techs-goggles9902, @transmascanakin)

[qadmonster]

i'm really sorry if this has been asked already, what app do you usse to draw, and what brush do you use ? Your art is beautiful

Thank you so much! I use Adobe Animate and it's basic paintbrush tool. It's for vector art and animation so it's not the most robust graphics program, but I've been using it forever for work and I've just gotten used to it.

I'll also very rarely work in Procreate.

Lemme know if you have any other questions!

[crevicedwelling]

Hey! This might be a kind of stupid (or insensitive) question but I was wondering about mosquitos. I’m actually pretty chill with most insects but they bite, spread diseases and a whole host of other things. I know there are a lot of scientists working right now to reduce mosquito fertility rates which I’m broadly supportive of, but I’m not sure what the unintended consequences are. Like….. would we as a species be okay if mosquitos were eradicated?

it’s entirely a valid question, and a point I hear raised a lot. the answer depends on on how far-reaching your question was intended to be:

an important thing to understand is that there are over 3500 species of mosquito, and of those, only 88 are known to transmit diseases to humans, with about 200 more that potentially could become human disease vectors (Yee et al.) most mosquitoes drink nectar—both males and females—but females typically (but not in all species/forms) require a blood meal from mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, or even other arthropods and invertebrates.

if all mosquitoes were “eradicated,” there would undoubtedly be some very bad effects on the environment, although in the utmost selfish view I’m not fully sure how long they’d take to affect humans.

many plants are pollinated by small flies (like cacao! you can thank biting midges for all your chocolate) and certainly some only by mosquitoes. mosquito pollinated plants likely include many in tropical rainforests, where mutualisms between tiny, unusual species are very common, and oddly enough in the Arctic, where soggy summers create a whole lot of mosquitoes.

likewise mosquitoes are likely an important part of the diets of many bats, birds, spiders, dragonflies, other flies, and fish that might eat the larvae, among many others (including mosquitoes that eat other mosquitoes as larvae, like the beautiful Toxorhynchites). the negative effect on these animals in turn could affect their predators, or all the other ecosystem. if all mosquitoes disappeared, there would probably be significant upheaval across global environments, although I don’t know enough to say exactly what the end result would be. making all mosquitoes go extinct would be a very bad idea though, so it’s a good thing humans have no reason or capability to do that.

but people probably don’t have the 3,000 other mosquitoes in mind when they’re trying to control the flies, it’s that 88 to 300-ish bunch that bite humans and transmit diseases. first off, any genetic/sterility control method that targets non-native mosquitoes is most likely to have only good effects. non-native mosquitoes are reduced, people are bitten less. good on both counts. (it’s still possible certain things might be upset, such as if native species have adapted to use non-native mosquitoes, or if the non-native ones were outcompeting some even worse species. don’t know enough to say.) In many places, this is precisely what’s happening, with Aedes being sterilized, modified, or infected with bacteria that cause some reduction in offspring where it is invasive.

as for eradicating mosquitoes in their native range… it gets a bit tricky. I’m not enough of an ecologist or mosquito biologist to give a clear answer here. I also don’t know if there’s consideration of using control methods like you mentioned on species in their native range.

your question was about making mosquitoes go extinct, though, so I’ll focus on that.

would losing a few species of mosquito that are particularly dangerous to humans result in ecological upheaval? I don’t know. ecology is vastly complicated and when people make big decisions involving pests, we can often make problems way worse, like all the times a predator was introduced and started killing off things we didn’t think they would (this has happened with mosquito control, by the way). extinction only goes one way. I’d say in a hypothetical situation where I could just *poof* away an entire mosquito species, I probably wouldn’t do it. we just don’t know enough about the world yet to make decisions like that.

that’s not to say there aren’t ecologically and human-friendly ways to solve the issue of mosquito-borne disease—reduction of manmade breeding pools, careful biological control, targeted, safe pesticides—and maybe in some cases, sterilization or genetic control are part of the solution. but if it comes down to extinction or not, we’d better consider things very carefully before swatting at entire species without knowing what might happen after.

some of the links to the articles I used to research a bit for this post. read them if you'd like, they're fascinating!

[arohawke]

a new (old) plan is put in motion

JACK (as Connadine): As anyone with even a passing familiarity will tell you, we are a principality of spies. Of course-

AUSTIN: There’s a little chuckle [imitates a faint chuckle]

JACK(as Connadine):  We know the extent of that understatement.

[“Adagio” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]

Some five thousand years ago, on our home planet, our predecessors employed one of the most remarkable psychological operations ever undertaken by the Principality. Using the immense future-seeing power of an oracle engine, they generated hundreds of thousands of near-flawless predictions: who would sit in government; the weather on a winter’s day; the right career for the son of a surgeon; the number of toy boats in an ornamental pond, the color of their sails;

These predictions were made in something like a loop in which the Principality’s citizens, whether they recognized it or not, were cast as actors. When two thousand years pass between the overture and the final bows, the exact shape of the play becomes helpfully obscured to anybody but the director. The system of control and surveillance was so comprehensive, so effective, so far-reaching that it cloaked itself in its total obviousness. And I’ve been sent to Palisade to bring this planet on cycle.

Of course, given the loss of the machine that drove the original project, the circumstances are meaningfully different, but Kesh has changed too. We understand, as an old friend of mine once said, that the easiest way to ensure that any tomorrow is a Tuesday is to make sure people believe that today is a Monday. You will have noticed that the workshop’s being constructed, I’m sure. Carpenters and costumers have been brought on the Princept’s orders, prop-makers. We are assembling quite a little paint shop.

We’ve already begun distributing predictions. A star will fall over Carleon. Yes, it will. Our ships are in place to destroy the satellite. A text found in a library in Carmathen will describe a long-forgotten duke returning on a black horse with white fetlocks. We are working on the script.

And we have been given a gift in our alliance of sorts with the existing Fabreal Duchy. A feudal society, constructing themselves around holy days, elaborate quests, and displays. They pass themselves down to their successors in the form of liquid glass – we only need adjust its consistency. There is a unique vector of weakness here. We will come to these lords wearing their own clothes and before long they will raise their cups in a toast that we have constructed, believing in their hearts it is some ancient, beautiful bastion of their own culture.

Now, this process will not be easy, nor will it be quick. I’m under no illusions that what we can accomplish will ever move with the grace and precision of what our ancestors knew. But I hope that we are setting a metronome in motion. Today we might only hear the click as it sets the time. Maybe in a few weeks we will hear a violin join us. In a year, we will start to see the shape of a piece of music. And when we are long dead and our bones lie in spies’ nameless memorials, our successors will look up at the sunset sky of hope and down at the complete score in their hands.

And hear the great, tempestuous rush of a symphony.

[“Adagio” by Jack de Quidt ends]