#homestuck diaspora

[acanthous-affability]

redhead dirk is real in my brain. Both in a “haha orng” way and a “Dirk and Roxy are very easy to read as members of a diaspora as indeed they *are* members of a human diaspora but one can also use that to explore other kinds of diaspora.”

[txttletale]

ayo could u rec some podcasts

sure

trashfuture is a political comedy podcast that riffs on the news and so on. really good source for a brutally critical view on tech and finance and also spectacularly funny. several catchphrases from this show are lodged in my head forever.

homestuck made this world is a masterful work of media analysis and contextualization that's well worth listening to even if you've never planned to read homestuck just for sharp analysis and great Bits. two media academics, one of whom has already read homestuck, read it critically and discuss the historical context of the fandom and internet culture at large while it was ongoing.

game studies study buddies is a little more academically inclined than most things on this list. the same guys as HSMTW talk in detail about academic game studies books. it's really accessible considering the subject matter, though--the hosts are really insightful and have some really fun discussions.

blowback is a podcast that talks about, in quite a lot of well-sourced detail, US military and intelligence interventions. they've covered iraq, cuba, and the korean war. it's well produced and will make you Fucking Furious

the venezuelanalysis podcast is a fantastic resource to hear opinions on venezuela by venezuelans who aren't right-wing diaspora. not perfect by any means but an incredible counterpoint to the USian media narratives the airwaves are saturated with.

the shrieking shack is funny. that's the main reason i recommend it, it's extremely fucking funny. two ex-harry potter fans go back and critically reread the books and point out all the insanely horrible bullshit in them that they missed as kids. they're now doing twilight.

eidolon playtest is the best actual play i've ever listened to and it's not even close. it documents the playtesting campaigns for eidolon: become your best self, a system designed to emulate the soul-battles of persona and jojo's, with two intertwined campaigns (POP and ROCK) and just it has some of the absolute best improv, most well-drawn characters, and healthiest table culture i've ever heard on an actual play. one of the player characters is a funny talking fox and another is the self-proclaimed pinball prince of las vegas. if you like actual plays at all listen to eidolon playtest.

[yurigirldick]

Intro post!

Hi, I'm Kelter and I'm a cat. I use it/purr/mew, they/them is ok but I don't like it to be the only pronouns used for me.

Find me here:

I don't mind, masc, fem or androgynous terms! I do love using cat-like terms for myself, like saying paws instead of hands and muzzle instead of nose.

I'm Colombian mixed diaspora and I'm learning Spanish, I can hold a conversation if you don't mind a few mistakes here and there

#purr purr purr is my tag for when I make an original post or have something i think is important to add to another post.

#purrsonal life is where I post vents/things more related to my own recovery, mental health, and general irl life. I don't plan to give away a lot of risky personal information but you'll probably get to hear me gush about my partner a lot

I like to reclaim slurs n while I won't just. Call strangers on the Internet a faggot I may call myself that so if you don't like don't follow! I define myself as queer and won't be changing that anytime soon.

You'll probably see a lot of Homestuck, Warrior Cats and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Oops

You are loved, you are worth it, you deserve to live :3

[smaller-comfort]

Would you recommend The Locked Tomb Triology or Rook and Roses more? I have both unstarted in my Audible Library.

OH BOY. I'm slightly drunk and you've basically just activated my trap card.

Okay, these are very, very different literary experiences. I highly recommend both, but for wildly different reasons. I have listened to the audio books for The Locked Tomb, but not for Mask of Mirrors/Rook & Rose, so I can't really compare them. TLT's audio book is very well done, but the narrator does mispronounce one character's name throughout the whole thing, and that drives me slightly crazy. (Nonagesimus: uses the church Latin pronunciation. EDIT: I SAID I WAS DRUNK. IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND. No-na-jess-i-mus. Not It's no-na-guess-i-mus.)

The Locked Tomb series is amazing, and extremely rewarding, but it's a difficult read. The prose is dense and full of obscure and sometimes baffling references. The first book is relatively accessible as a science fantasy murder mystery; the second book is actively hostile to you, the reader, and it wants you to suffer on multiple levels. You will suffer on multiple levels. You will need to reread it at least once to actually understand what's really happening. The third book is less hostile, but it's definitely not comfortable. The series is unfinished; book 4 is still being written. Rereading the books is extremely rewarding, because you will miss things the first time around.

If you've ever read Homestuck (at least through the Scratch), then I would recommend the series unreservedly. The author is kind of famously a former Big Name Fan there. It is thoroughly, pervasively queer, but it's not really romantic; you'll see it marketed as "lesbian necromancers in space" but it's fundamentally a story about love, grief, loss, and the violence of colonialism/imperialism. (I draw a lot of parallels between it and Sea of Stars/Saboverse because of those themes.) The books are more appropriately set in the Horror genre than straight sci-fi/fantasy.

(I love the worldbuilding and the treatment of necromancy/magic as a science. Delicious.)

Mask of Mirrors/Rook & Rose is just a hell of a lot of fun. It's basically set in a fantasy eastern European city that was violently colonized by fantasy Italy, and the worldbuilding is fantastic. It also deals with themes of colonialism/imperialism, and at its core is grappling with ideas of identity and diaspora.

That's the high level themes at work in Mask of Mirrors, but I tore through the whole trilogy in less than a week because the characters are delightful, the worldbuilding is extremely tasty, and it's really about a badass con artist doing badass things. There are a lot of queer characters (including a handful of explicitly trans characters, and some implicitly asexual and aromantic characters), but the main romance is het.

(Rook & Rose magic systems are half numerology/scientific principal and half tarot/intuition, and I honestly adore it.)

With the locked tomb, it's kind of a running joke in the fandom that you can get spoiled for all the major plot points and still not have any idea what the hell is going on. With Mask of Mirrors/Rook & Rose, I really, really don't want to spoil anyone because some of those plot twists were so satisfying to experience, and I would've been so upset if they'd been spoiled for me.

Rook & Rose is a completed series, and the third book does wrap everything up pretty neatly. Maybe too neatly, in some ways, but it's still delightful. The books are long, but relatively easy reads (with the caveat that my idea of an easy read is...probably slightly distorted. I read book one in a day and a half. It's 630 pages long).

So, if you're okay with cliffhangers and being emotionally devastated (but in mostly good ways), go for The Locked Tomb. TLT also has an enormous fandom. If you want something with a definitive conclusion, swashbuckling shenanigans, and only mild to moderate emotional pain, and a fandom of like 3 people, please read Rook & Rose.

[art]

I posted 446 times in 2022

That's 163 more posts than 2021!

155 posts created (35%)

291 posts reblogged (65%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@artistalley

@vanessagillings

@artistpicks

@emilylorange

@enthusiastic-nimrod

I tagged 445 of my posts in 2022

#artists on tumblr - 298 posts

#art - 121 posts

#halloween - 74 posts

#illustration - 64 posts

#build a beast - 64 posts

#submission - 53 posts

#meet the artist - 48 posts

#meet the artist on tumblr - 48 posts

#painting - 44 posts

#digital - 41 posts

Longest Tag: 39 characters

#[redacted] is just homestuck circa 2016

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Meet the Artist: Kiki

Hi, I’m Kiki! I’m 24, live in the US, and have been using a tablet for about 7 years now. Since I’m self-taught, I’m always trying to learn new things to continue developing my style. My biggest inspirations are nature and animals. They’re all shaped so differently, and I love exaggerating their forms! I also am into video game design and character concept art. If you’re interested in commissioning me for anything, please feel free to message me!

So lovely to meet you, Kiki! We asked her to pick out a couple of artworks to share with you all here.

See the full post

5,420 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

#4

Week 1: Build Your Beast

Salutations, stooges. It is time to build your beast. Will it be feathered? Furry? Flame-scaled? Will you be re-purposing an OC you already have or creating a completely new character? Will your beast be big and brash or soft-spoken and nimble-footed? Here’s your template. Download it, draw or describe (or crochet or paint or mold or embroider or immortalize in shanty form) your character. In short, unleash your wildest whims upon it. We look forward to meeting your horrid creation.

Upload your completed template using the tag #build a beast to share your grizzly creation with the world (a reminder to use your reblog controls if you’d like your beast to remain hidden in the wilds).

Loathsomely yours, us.

5,544 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

#3

Meet the Artist: @velinxi

Hello! I’m Xiao Tong Kong, better known as “Velinxi.” I’m the creator of the webcomic Countdown to Countdown and have been doing freelance artwork since I was a teenager. I love telling stories with my illustrations! Tumblr was where I first got my start as an artist, specifically a small fandom artist as a hobby… and now I’m somehow here! When I’m not trying my best to stay awake in front of my tablets, I’m usually cooking, gaming, or sleeping. Sometimes all three, in my dreams.

Pleased to meet you, Velinxi! We’ve asked her to share some of her artwork for you to appreciate below.

See the full post

5,787 notes - Posted October 11, 2022

#2

Meet the Artist: @simzart​

Hello, I’m SimzArt, an artist from Italy. I like to work on personal projects and currently I’m developing a new comic based on modern witches (hopefully it’s going to be readable soon). I also stream and make videos about art and art products. I’m really happy with my job. My dream is to keep growing and learning new things and get in touch with as many people as possible and hopefully inspire them with my creations. I love art, and I’m happy to meet you all!

Very nice to meet you, SimzArt! We’ve asked him to share some of his work for us to highlight here.

See the full post

7,743 notes - Posted March 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Meet the Artist: @peevishpants​

Hallo! Weiwei here. I’m currently a full-time illustrator in tech by day and a part-time drawer for publishing and animation by night. You may remember me from such posts as my Zelda university AU, outfitober designs, the occasional comic about fish or Chinese diaspora identity, and [redacted]. Thank you for the love, and thank you Tumblr for giving my blog back and asking me to do a meet the #artist! Consider my socks rocked!

Great to meet you, Weiwei! Here are some illustrations that she has handpicked for us to feature here.

See the full post

9,110 notes - Posted May 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[stemmmm]

aRe YoU a MoThErFuCkInG hOmEsTuCk?

i like undertale and the adventure zone of course im a fucking homestuck

[visiting-naturalist]

My Esteemed Naturalist,

I’ll admit that I had not expected a response to my comment, nor one expressing such interest.

I am one of the Homestucks you seek. It is both a great shame and a secret joy. I am sad to say I was not there for our glory days, having joined long after our decline started. Still, I know quite a bit of our history. The sharpie bath story itself is quite simple: A Homestuck put their life in jeopardy by attempting to dye their skin grey in a bath of vodka and sharpies in an attempt at cosplay. I understand how the story captures the attention of even those with little interest in us, or think us long dead.

In truth, we Homestucks are not gone. We have simply moved onto greener pastures. You will find the Homestuck diaspora in all manner of places and people, from the verdant lands of Dream SMP to the warweary strawberry fields of Steven Universe. You asked if there were any scholars keeping the stories of Homestuck’s heyday alive. For the most part, no, there are few who deliberately archive those tales. Still, most every Homestuck knows them by heart. There are Homestucks on every street corner, and if you ask them for a tale they will deliver, whether it be through the bright eyes of a newcomer or the withered jowl of one of our esteemed ancients.

It was Homestucks who were there, at that great cataclysm “Dashcon.” It was Homestucks who claimed the Ball Pit for their own. I cannot elaborate much further, as I was not there myself. But I think that is for the best. Even though many years have passed, the shadow of that leviathan still haunts me.

You seem kind, Naturalist. Good, noble-hearted. You would do best not to ask about Dashcon. Then again, if you are so determined to study Tumblr and its history, then it may already be too late for you.

If you should ever have any questions or find yourself in need of aid, do not hesitate to ask. I would be happy to help you in any way I can.

Yours,

Mori

I must express my gratitude to you, @moriparty413, for your intelligent explication of the state of the Homestuck species in the present-day. I shall add it to my ever-growing compendium of historical observations and hope that it will one day serve a vital purpose.

This "Dashcon" intrigues me—yesterday, as I explored the tags, I witnessed a deluge of references to such an event, being as it was apparently an important anniversary.

But the weight with which you reference it causes me to believe it deserves intensive study, and so I shall save it for such a time as I have the energy and presence of mind to spare.

I am sincerely Your humble servant,

The Naturalist

[tiramisuouroboros]

I like to think that in the world of Lancer RPG, on the other side of the galaxy to Human Space [Union, KTB, anyone who makes up the diaspora] is the Alternian Empire and the homestuck trolls.

[brothfan1997]

homestuck diaspora. where r u at

[snakeningel]

not to be starting homestuck race disk horse in 2019 but yknow what? I Will.

being an asian fan in the hs fandom is kinda, not great actually. in fact, it not only feels like we’re not here at all, that we’re erased, but its honestly? downright harmful. people treat the trivialization and fetishization of your culture to be,,, like a Big Joak. yall joke about weebs like these people havent been literally grooming and abusing asian girls, like we havent been made fun of enough for Their actions, like we aren't already viewed as the strange punchlines to jokes that still seem somehow acceptable. its somehow funny to joke about how you hate every sign of asian culture that shows up throughout the comics, like how dirk’s kotatsu was dumb and pretentious as if people in japan dont literally live with one and use it every single day!

even asian-coding in characters get swept away in favour of other headcanons. even the megidos, who are as close to canonically asian as they possibly can be in a medium like homestuck, are often drawn white or something completely different altogether. the stridlondes are also heavily asian-coded, and the fans who do pick up on that, who finally feel comforted by someone like them as protagonists? they often just.. give up on that, because they see so little representation in the fandom. (theres only like one popular artist i know of that draws the strilondes asian? but like, hats off to u pal, youre fighting the good fight). also, it seems strange, to be represented so little considering almost 3 billion people on earth is asian, which is, Quite A Lot to be not represented a lot. dont get me wrong, i adore the outpouring of more diverse art of the kids, but a hard truth to swallow is that pocs being weebs/fetishizing asian culture, is just as harmful as white people doing the same. there is a world of difference between japanese dirk, trying to interface with his lost culture by clinging to the most performative and popular parts of it, than another dirk, appropriating people’s cultures because he thinks its funny or interesting based off a show he watched once. i love how people are like "wow the striders like anime and care about traditions and use japanese words and overall just seem like diaspora kids" and the conclusion they draw from that is "clearly,, they cannot be asian" bc a non-asian person being interested in those things is better than an asian person whose interested in their own culture i guess??

in fact, a lot of these narratives are so much more interesting once theyre looked at through their coded lenses!

Dave’s struggle with coming to terms with his emotions strikes such an interesting chord when the striders’ concept of irony and never showing their emotions Correspond so well to the idea of honour/face, where youre not supposed to show that youre Ever Sad or anything that isnt a positive emotion because it shows that youre a Failure and You Failed and that makes you a Bad Person, which is exactly what dave struggles with because hes So Guilty about it, which ties to the guilt and shame a lot of asian people feel about not being able to live up to impossible standards set by their parents, which is another theme we see reflected in all four strilondes. 

rose’s strained relations with her mother are mirrored in so many of our second-generation lives and makes so much more cultural sense when looked at that way. the weird distance you hold from your parents, where you cant look each other in the eyes anymore, because every interaction feels more like a business transaction. you hand in your good grades and praise from teachers, talking about how mature you are, and they return with some present or gift that you don't really want. you dont know anything about them, and they dont know anything about you, Not the person you Actually Are, anyways. but there is a yearning, to be close, to know eachother, but you only feel it in return when its too late. as well as her Obsession to be mature, to be smart and adult-like because thats what shes praised for, because you Need to be academically the best always and that means reading dictionaries until the sun goes down, repeating each word until they are engraved into your mind. always finding competition, subtle or not, because if you are not the winner, what are you?  dirk’s wild performative love of japanese culture (which also, in turn, lead to non-asian fans literally trashing it like it was a funny joke to call someone’s culture lame and stupid) seems like ‘ironic’ weebism, but its also being Exactly the type of over-the-too performative reclaiming of our culture that so many asian diaspora kids do when they’re teens! they feel bad about pushing away their culture as youth, but they’re not quite mature enough to actually care about the rich history and ‘boring’ parts, so they cling to pop culture, to social media and something so much more easily consumable, like anime. which is not even to mention the idea of him trying desperately to connect to a culture that he has never grown up in, but still belonged to by consuming mass amounts of media, being Such an immigrant story. as well as his massive competitive streak and need to make other people as good as he is (but not better), is the type of internalized pressure that a lot of asian kids feel as well. 

and all the stridlondes have various anxieties about not performing well enough, of not living up to a standard that they have set for themselves, feeling like even a single step back or even one mistake is a catastrophic failure that’s branded to you for life. Which is just as much of a mental health thing as it is like,,, an asian thing

this is getting really long so im cutting myself off here but please if you want to hear more about my Thoughts and Hot Takes feel free to shoot me an ask. 

in conclusion: please treat asian people better hs fandom i literally beg you. like,, im Not tryna make waves but,, asian erasure in fandom is a huge issue and no one ever talks abt it!! dont trivialize, fetishize and erase cultures blease  big thanks to @ernikerr and @wyndryga for encouraging me to go Off and helping to write this.

anyone please feel free to rb but non-asian people please watch your mouth

[sigmaleph]

Book recs masterpost

y’all really came through here, thanks! Here’s a collected version, I will continue to update it if recs keep coming. Format will be a little inconsistent but I will try to keep books by the same author together and give the summary if it exists and who provided the rec.

Under a cut cause it gets long:

Gene Wolfe:

The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Three interconnected novellas about life on an authoritarian twin planet system where humans have apparently wiped out the natives. Superbly well written and thoughtful imo

rec by @femmenietzsche

Book of the New Sun 

rec by @napoleonchingon

Octavia Butler:

Dawn, rec by @empresszo, @typicalacademic

Parable of the Sower, rec by @st-just

Kindred, rec by @squareallworthy

Angelica Gorodischer:

Kalpa Imperial

epic fantasy in the style of conan the barbarian, we see the stories of an old empire in some nondescript country, a nondescript amount of millenia ago. small vignettes of different time periods within the country. very light in fantasy, basically an entire book of nothing but lore for a D&D campaign

Trafalgar

comedy sci fi. the life stories of a sales man, a guy who goes door to door selling whatever he can, except IN SPACE. all the stories are framed as him in his little bar in rosario with his friends or drinking mate, telling his latests adventures through space.

La saga de los confines by  Liliana Bodoc

lord of the rings except instead of taking inspiration from nordic folk tales is based on the american conquest. see fantasy races and cultures based on the native american population from south america. lots of poetry, lots of cool classic fantasy with a fresh new flavor

(Already read)

la batalla del calentamiento by marcelo figueras

the fantasy here is very understated to the point of it being magical realism but still my top three favourite book of all time. it starts with a man who suffers gigantism receiving a message from heaven delivered by a wolf speaking in latin. the most colorful and endearing little town with the most wacky of habitants open their arms to the guy who is desperatly in search of redemption

homestuck (by Andrew Hussie)

there is really nothing i can say about this that you havent already heard, so im not even going to bother. just give the first arc (which is about a hundred pages long) a change and see where it goes from there

All of the above suggestions by @fipindustries

Ada Palmer. Terra Ignota series (starts with Too Like the Lightning) (seconded by @youzicha)

(read the first one, have the second one but haven’t read it yet)

Jo Walton, Thessaly series (starts with The Just City)

Yoon Ha Lee, Machinaries of Empire series (starts with Ninefox Gambit) (seconded by @terminallyuninspired)

Ann Leckie:

Imperial Radch series (Starts with Ancillary Justice) (seconded by @youzicha and @squareallworthy)

Raven Tower

N. K. Jemisin:

Broken Earth trilogy (starts with The Fifth Season) (seconded by @typicalacademic)

Dreamblood duology (starts with The Killing Moon)

Seth Dickinson, Masquerade series (starts with The Traitor Baru Cormorant)

(Good rec, already read the first one)

Jeff Vandermeer, Southern Reach series (starts with Annihilation)

Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth

Arkady Martine, A Memory Called Empire

M. R. Carey, The Girl With All The Gifts

All of the above by @st-just

Le guin:

The Dispossessed, rec by @st-just, @youzicha

The Left Hand of Darkness, rec by @youzicha and @typicalacademic

both also seconded by @squareallworthy

(I love Le Guin, read both of these)

Zelazny: Lord of Light, rec by @st-just

Charles Stross:

Missile Gap.

A Colder War.

Peter Watts, Blindsight

Bruce Sterling, Heavy Weather. (I assume. There are multiple books named such)

All of the above by @youzicha

Fonda Lee, Jade City

Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon

Shining Path, more thorough rec here.

all by @typicalacademic

Lois McMaster Bujold:

the Vorkosigan Saga

(rec by @omnidistance, seconded by @squareallworthy. Already read all of them, excellent choice)

The Curse of Chalion, rec by @theorem-sorry

Greg Egan:

Permutation City

Orthogonal

above two and “anything else” by him, rec by @saelf

Diaspora, rec by @squareallworthy

The Clockwork Rocket

Physicist discovers relativity in a Riemannian (as opposed to Minkovskian) universe. Also the world is ending.

rec by @jackhkeynes

Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Dick, The Man in the High Castle

Gaiman, American Gods

Gibson, Count Zero

Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Liu, The Three Body Problem

Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife

Niven and Pournelle, Footfall

North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Powers, The Anubis Gates

Wilson, Spin.

All of the above by @squareallworthy

Pratchett, Discworld books (going postal, thud!, unseen academicals, or the wee free men recommended by @acertainaccountofevents, Wyrd Sisters rec’d by @squareallworthy)

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon & D.O.D.O.

Ted Chiang, Story of Your Life and anything else by him

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (also suggesting this review)

 C.J. Cherryh – The Faded Sun Trilogy.

Honestly not sure there’s anything groundbreaking or unique about it but a solid scifi tale with aliens and politics and it really fleshed out and made me empathize with all the opposing and strikingly different factions.

Taiyao Fujii – Orbital Cloud

A space-related technothriller, quite fun! If you liked the first 2/3rds of Seveneves you’ll probably like this.

Gwynneth Jones – Life.

Story of a woman trying to be the best biologist she can despite a lot of setbacks, bascially. Barely counts as science fiction, really, but I just really like Anna and Spence as characters and their relationship. This a very feminist book, at times quite preachy–but personally it came across as characters being preachy not the author, and therefore much less annoying, but ymmv.

Katherine Addison – The Goblin Emperor.

Fantasy high politics but nice? Like also pretty level headed but not grimdark like fantasy high politics usually is. Also love the worldbuilding, the linguistics, and my precious cinnamon role Maia who deserves good things.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

the most tumblr print book I have ever read. TBH the cover blurb is better than the book but it’s a quick read and enjoyable.

Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl.

Ian MacDonald – The Dervish House.

The twenty-minutes-into-the-future setting has aged weirdly since it was written back when Turkey was trying to join the EU, but I reread it recently and the plot and characters are still compelling.

All of the above by @businesstiramisu

"James S. A. Corey", The Expanse series (rec by @justjohn-jj)

Mariam Petrosyan’s The Grey House

kids and minders in a boarding school for the disabled, their relationships and their setting. Mostly a coming-of-age thing but with a lot of weirdness and some fantastic elements. Extremely readable

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky:

Hard to be a God

Inhabited Island

Roadside Picnic

Stanisław Lem:

Fiasco

Cyberiad

Karim Berrouka’s Fées, Weed & Guillotines

what it says on the tin. Pretty fun. I would suspect his other fantasy mystery novel comedies are good too.

The Invisible Planets anthology

extremely hit or miss, but definitely has its hits.

Bernard Weber’s Les Fourmis

All of the above by @napoleonchingon

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

Sarcastic cyborg tries to avoid humans and watch entertainment media all day and perpetually ends up saving some. With all the snark.

rec by @rhetoricandlogic

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North

Guy is born in 1910s, dies at 80 or so… and is born again in the 1910s, and so on. Also the world is ending.

The End and Afterwards, Andy Cooke

A probe to Alpha Centauri, an idealist Nigerian biotechnician, a humdrum English family – and then the world ends.

Against Peace and Freedom, Mark Rosenfelder

50th century interstellar humanity is mostly doing okay. But socionomics doesn’t cover crises, such as the dictatorship that’s taken over Okura, or the unscrupulous tycoon who’s plotting something over on New Bharat. For that we have Diplomatic Agents. Like you.

all of the above by @jackhkeynes

Meta-recommendations:

worldswithoutend.com, their list of lists, and in particular, defining science fiction books of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

@squareallworthy

Jo Walton’s Revisiting the Hugos series. (by @businesstiramisu)

[lwcina]

homestuck diaspora is maybe the funniest phrase ive ever heard

[activatingaggro]

2 - WORLD&NPC META

An important part of doing prompts is.. posting them? Sounds fake!

Anyway, I’ve been on a Dalai-Uud kick for the first three days of this! Sunday shifts gears back to more familiar territory, but first off, for Friday’s “WORLD/CHARA META/NPC PROFILES”, I’m digging into the question of:

What is Dalai-Uud?

Dalai-Uud is a district in the northern half of Carnac, the continent that Reba and I have shoved all of our planetbound fantroll lore. It’s more in line with the default setting of Homestuck: other areas have more laws and regulations, are more urbanised and diverse, but Dalai-Uud is akin to the area in which Aradia, Tavros or Terezi lived. It’s a big region, filled with plains and cliffs in the coast and core, and then mountains along its borders. In terms of population, it’s one of the most sparsely occupied districts: trolls are rare, their numbers spread thin, and population centers don’t exist to the same extent they do elsewhere.

It’s a sharp contrast to heavily crowded areas like Hanhai or Sanxing, where you sneeze and hit four trolls underfoot. It’s stark even compared to the less crowded districts, like Terquia or Vigenere. In Alternian history, trolls have repeatedly tried to colonise the majority of Dalai-Uud - it’s simply never worked well.

And the reason behind it is because it’s filled with giant fucking kaiju.

Life for the handful of residents in Dalai-Uud is largely focused around staying away from the massive herds of musclebeasts and other megafauna that occupy the district. The entire area is seen, on a legal standpoint, as a sort of game reserve - it’s the only place where these population of giant fucking animals have the food, the environment, and the sheer fucking space to maintain their size, and for as long as musclebeast hunting remains a thrill, so they will remain in the area.

As a result, Dalai-Uud residents - or Gaters, as they’re frequently referred to, a reference towards the meaning of their district name - are always on the move. During the summer, the musclebeasts head in-land, and the trolls head to the coast. During the winter, the musclebeasts head to the coasts, and the trolls flee to the mountains. Making it to adulthood and the point of joining the Fleet is fairly rare for Gaters, and they’re not commonly found in the Fleet. The majority of their cohorts each sweep end up simply leaving the area for safer districts, lowering the populations, and as a result, lowering the survival rate of the trolls who remain.

While megafauna reign over the whole district, and many of them do possess the lusus fluke that would allow them to become guardians over a troll, it’s relatively rare for a pupa to actually be chosen by any of the districts’ megafauna. The most docile and tame of the Dalai-Uud guardian lusii, as the megafauna are called, were taken from the district millenia back by the population of trolls that would eventually become the Rickshaw diaspora. The remaining species that can play host to the lusus fluke tend to be poor parents: aggressive, neglectful, fast-tempered, and generally poor at keeping their small, easily forgotten charges alive.

One of the only exceptions to this are the citylusii. These are large, armoured lusii that were deliberately cultivated by early Gaters to serve as population centers, in the far-off nights before the districts’ population had begun dispersing. Turtles are the most common of the species, but armadillos and pangolins, hitting over sixty feet in length, are not entirely unknown. The city lusus generally have one charge, usually of the same bloodline, guaranteed to hatch out in a routine cycle from the local caverns. This charge will serve more as a guardian to their lusus than they will a ward of, because city lusii aren’t just one trolls responsibility: historically, the major institutions of Dalai-Uud have literally been built upon their backs, and even long after Imperial unification, those structures remain.

The city lusii generally have one or two buildings built atop or within them, and the rest of their bodies tend to be covered in a scattershot of tents. They live in a symbiotic relationship with the trolls who live astride them: the trolls feed them, protect them, and care for them, and in exchange, the lusus is a deterrent and protective agent against the megafauna that roam the continent. A city of trolls is easy prey, but it becomes harder when reaching them necessitates coming well within biting range of the snapping turtle they live upon.

The city lusii have very specific names and jobs: one hosts the head of bank centralisation, another hosts legal and social libraries, another holds a seed-bank, another serves as the main method through which each cohort of trolls gains schoolfeeds. However, the decentralisation of the Dalai-Uud population means this doesn’t always work outside of theory. When almost every troll lives on their own, miles and miles away from their peers, the sight of a massive lusus in the distance isn’t one that draws them in - for those who have not, through the internet, or books, or their peers, realised the history of their district, the sight of rogue megafauna is just a sign they need to retreat underground and wait for the threat to pass.

As a result, Dalai-Uud trolls are generally a little more uneducated than their peers, and for the rare few that actually survive and make it to reaching the Fleet, kind of complete fucking hayseeds. Schoolfeeds? History? Culture? They learned to make guns and process their fields, and they’re pretty sure that’s all anyone actually needs.

[eikotheblue]

10, 14, 31

(Questions from here)

10 (Favorite Bands): uhhhhhh.... I mostly listen to soundtracks. Currently listening to a lot of Yuki Hayashi, Ben Prunty, Lena Raine; always a slut for Yoko Shimomura, Nobuo Uematsu, . Last actual band I listened to was either Linkin Park or Evanescence?

14. (Zodiac Sign) Capricorn

31. (Last Book Read) Ward, if that counts. Diaspora by Greg Egan if it doesn’t. Haven’t finished either, but Ward is ongoing so it’s ok.

[evillesbianvillainarchive]

Callout for natsubutart

cw for: racism, porn and sexualization of minors, transphobia, porn of abusive ships, incest porn

Hey @natsubutart next time you decide to screenshot someone’s art and post it just to complain about characters being dark skin how about you think first before being a pathetic racist.

I wrote a more completed callout on google drive with screenshots too in case she deletes them (so it’s pretty graphic don’t open it if you are easely triggered by these things)

the rest is under cut because it’s really long

RACISM

First I’d like to specify that Natsu is a white italian woman currently living in Japan.

Natsu screenshotted one of my drawing displaying several bnha characters drawn as mixed or having dark skin (this one) and complained about it on her private facebook.

She is Ilaria Ester Macciocca

Caption: the screen of my drawing with her two comments “MALEDIZIONE SONO GIAPPONESI” (translation: DAMN THEY ARE JAPANESE) and “tfw Japan is not a melting pot and maybe we should respect the author’s choice to make them all Japanese” -> insinuating that 1) since Japan isnt a melting pot there is absolutely no kind of diaspora in Japan 2) Mixed japanese people are NOT a thing 3) Japanese people without fair skin don’t exist 

In this she makes fun of representation agreeing with her friend there

Simona Santoro: (im directly translating it) I can understand that people do it with MLP that are horses and so you anthropomorphize them however you want, but if the characters are already humans why changing them? Why don’t you create an OC on your own? Then sorry but I find it racist that there is no redhead with fair skin like me eh RACISTS

Ilaria Ester: You are already represented enough!!!! (note: just to be sure this is sarcastic shes not telling her friend...she is actually...represented enough)

In this she replies to a comment asking why i drew even the “white” ones with black features (????)

translation -> because they are not white they are probably biracial.... from the colors I’d say probably asian/black. I totally don’t agree because we are talking about characters with a japanese heritage…… it’s not like in America where you are expecting a racial diversity like int he drawing. In Japan it’s really hard. And most important in Japanese international medias it’s not represented so why come to this? I mean I’m okay with Deku being a fucking japanese and not an italian, but it’s not okay because a japanese it “white”??

I don’t even know how to comment this, i think it talks by itself but let’s underline the important thing. 1) since japanese media doesn’t portray racial diversity we shouldn’t?? 2) you are a white italian why do you think you can disagree on a discussion about racial diversity?

(i have other screenshots if you want)

PORN ANS SEXUALIZATION OF MINORS

Netsu is 26 years old

Netsu drew (and reblogged) several drawing of minors in clear sexual situations, nsfw-ish, and sexualize minors often (bakushima - bakushima - bakushima - the tag of this one - several underage porn of homestuck characters and incest too - otayuri porn - other otayuri porn - you just really need to ckeck her nsfw tag) and even if some of this drawing are old she never apologized for it and they are still on her blog

And even if she shows - very permormative - concern for minors following her blog and commissioning porn (performative because she is clearly more worried about being caught, as an adult, while selling porn to minors)  the moment she is in front of a 17 years old following her blog she just tells them “do whatever you want” without even trying to block them

(is this really everything you can do?)

PORN OF ABUSIVE SHIPS AND INCEST PORN

She has an entire tag dedicated to incest porn where she mostly reblogs osomatsu san (x - x - x) and also homestuck incest (x). She also apparently “doesn’t really like incest” but this doesn’t seem to stop her from drawing porn of it. 

She also draws lot of (genderbent and non) porn of a very infamous abusive hs ship, vristav (x)

TRANSPHOBIA

I think Natsu is cis but I might be wrong

Back on the topic of gendebend she draws A LOT of it and showed no interest in people telling her why it’s wrong. 

On the more cringey less callout worth stuff she believes in cisphobia and think it’s offensive to call people cishet