#that is not a human. that is not an animal. that is a machine and it hates.

[genderqueerdykes]

I don’t feel like a human… but I don’t know what else I’d be either? Any advice? Thanks!! Love ur blog btw <33

i can give some general non/alterhuman questioning advice!

are there any species of animals, aliens, fictional species or characters, machines, objects, plants/flora, vampires, or mythological creatures you've found yourself feeling drawn toward in a way that isn't attraction, but rather feels like a very deep personal connection?

take it slow and examine why it is you don't feel human. maybe you don't like the body you're in. maybe you don't understand how humans think and feel. maybe you feel like you belong in another time, place, or setting. maybe you feel as though you're not from this planet. maybe you feel as though you belong in nature. maybe you feel you've lived another person's life before.

are there any body parts you're specifically dysphoric about having or not having? have you ever felt like you should have a tail, paws, ears, claws, scales, wings, horns, fangs, a muzzle, different eyes, different legs, should be walking on all fours, and so on? have you ever found yourself really wishing you could change certain features of your body that aren't necessarily related to gender?

do you feel any particularly strong connections to nature, space, fictional or mythological settings? if so, why do you feel connected and how does that relate to you?

do you have any animalistic or nonhuman gestures that you find yourself frequently making? perhaps you like to walk on all fours, perhaps you like to bark, meow, growl, hiss, moo, oink, snort, whinny, or make other nonhuman sounds. maybe you like to pretend l like you're wandering around behaving like a nonhuman animal. maybe you eat food in a certain way that reminds you of how an animal or other creature eats.

do you feel as though you have spiritual connections to any other species or fictional individuals but don't know how to explain it? instead of appropriating spirit animals if you are not indigenous, you may be otherkin, therian, nonhuman, or alterhuman instead

do you find yourself gravitating towards videos, books, shows, movies, or other media about a specific type of animal, creature, or person?

do you find yourself collecting items or making art about specific species, creatures, and so on? do you find you have a lot of items or collect a lot of art of a specific animal, creature, or fictional character? do you find that you're instantly drawn to specific nonhuman animals when you're out in the world? do you notice certain animals more than others? do you find yourself wanting to interact with specific animals more than others?

you can also take the time to learn more about animals, nature, fictional settings, space, the ocean, or whatever else it is you'd like to look into for your possible identity! just learning about nonhuman creatures and animals can be very fun, and may expose you to new species and creatures you've never heard of before. sometimes it takes process of elimination before one figures it out

some people suggest meditation in order to figure it out, but this will vary from person to person. not every person benefits from meditation, and not every meditation session is going to help you understand that part of yourself. it can be a very affective tool, but i'm gonna say this one, people's mileage varies wildly. you can also make assumptions about something you've uncovered during a meditation session and make an incorrect call by something that showed up just briefly in your mind while meditating

this is not a comprehensive list by any means, but i hope it helps somewhat! feel free to ask any specific questions you may have about being nonhuman or alterhuman! i'm always happy to talk about this! take care for now, good luck sorting things out!

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon zero dawn (remastered) | dismantling a watcher

[whitewolfcreature]

“Humans are the best!”

- Humans

Well, I say shut your snout-less face and face the reality of nature. Every living thing matters. No one species is more valuable than another. The bugs hiding in my apartment are just as important as the deer in the forest. The vultures in the sky are just as valuable as the dolphins in the ocean. The worms in the dirt are just as vital as the trees above them. It is all connected. Because that is the definition of a biosphere.

Humans might be intelligent, but there are plenty of things that other animals can do that humans cannot. Humans need to use machines to fly. A beetle needs no such technology. Humans use scuba gear to breathe underwater; sharks do not need that. Ants can lift more than fifty times their own weight. Squirrels can leap from tree to tree with ease. Every species has something that others lack.

Why is everyone always like “humans are the smartest” and “humans are the strongest, we’re the top animal” like, you’re a bunch of primates who learned how to use tools and fire and now you’ve irrevocably messed up the environment. Great job /sar

[catherine-sketches]

For the people saying that Jayce had no motivation to shot Viktor…

Did you not see the fucked up shit that Jayce is seeing?

My man went into the hexcore and saw horrors beyond his comprehension. He called hextech, HIS DREAM, a curse

When he looks at the people on the commune he sees hollow vessels with people faces and the marks of Viktor’s fingers

Jayce caved Viktor’s chest in because he KNEW that the pretty colors and the art deco architecture was a facade. That whatever Viktor is doing is stripping people from their true selves and leaving behind puppets that play a game called community where no one reacts like a normal person because no matter how good you life in your community is

NO ONE WOULD JUST STAND AND LOOK WHILE THE MAD HAMMER MAN NEARLY DISINTEGRATES WHAT LOOKS LIKE A CHILD TO ASHE

These are Zaunites. They would have curb stomped Jayce to the ground

But they didn’t

They stood there

Because their Machine Herald told them to “Suffer no more”

And what is fear, what is love, if not a form of suffering

[urlocalwhumper]

living weapon whumpee who's never known anything but pain and violence.

their existence hurts. they were made to be effective, not happy, and their masters decided that keeping them in constant pain provided better results. they're wilder, more unpredictable, and the pain keeps them from thinking straight enough to question anything.

they're only given painkillers, only allowed a respite from their seemingly endless suffering, after a successful mission. it keeps them loyal, and most importantly, teaches their brain to associate acts of violence with relief and rewards.

everyone they've ever met has treated them as a tool, a monster, or both. they don't know how to be anything else.

that is until they're rampaging through a village, destroying, killing, whatever their masters demand of them. whatever will give them a few blissful hours of numbness.

one of the villagers steps out of a ruined building and looks them straight in the eyes. whumpee expects fear, hatred, disgust, the things they see in the faces of every person who's ever crossed their path. but they see something completely different.

compassion.

whumpee is so stunned, they don't think to move or do anything at all as the villager steps closer, gently reaching out a hand to cup whumpee's face.

"oh, poor thing." they murmur, taking in the creature in front of them - part human, part animal, part machine. "they've done a number on you, huh?"

whumpee blinks at them. pain continues to course through their body, but the gentle hand on their cheek distracts them, even if just a little. all the indistinct noise in their foggy, addled mind finally goes quiet.

caretaker had stepped out in front of the being destroying their home with the intention to get through to it or die trying, and the expectation to absolutely die trying.

they did not at all expect the seemingly feral mishmash of metal, fur, and flesh to lean so heavily into their touch that they nearly collapsed into caretaker's arms.

[prolibytherium]

Would kill to read animal POV fiction that has the animal POV’s interaction with humans be like, semi realistic to the level of caution most predators take with large prey and/or competitors (including humans).

Like instead of the usual - “the human is such a weak, pathetic creature... so slow, no claws, blunt teeth… completely helpless without its 'Fire Sticks'. how is it the master of the earth?” type crap it’s like, the bear protagonist or whatever approaches some dude who spreads their arms and yells and the bear is like “FUUUUUUUUCK THAT THING JUST GOT HUGE. IT'S LARGE AND MAKING NOISES. HOLY FUCK.”

[lore-of-mobius]

The following is a good read. But I also want to expand upon this.

So they talk about anti colonialist themes in the Sonic Colors as Eggman is colonizing several planets and destroying the plant life and harming the the Wisps. But here is the interesting thing, Eggman has had basically colonizer themes since the beginning.

So first off it is established in TailsTube #1 (feat. Sonic) Sonic ands friends live on an alternate version of Earth with more fantastical elements like the Little Planet. But as I discussed in a previous post we learn humans inhabit the mainland while anthropomorphic animals like Sonic inhabit the islands. This actually makes Eggman, a human coming from the mainland to these islands the trying to takeover these islands and oppress it's inhabitants. While Eggman does have dreams of world domination and can deal with the Guardian Unit Of Nations, it is noteworthy is main target to basic pick on is the inhabitants of these islands.

This is further seen in how Eggman plays the role of a tomb raider in several games. Note, I am not trying to say you can or cannot enjoy games like Tomb Raider. So in Sonic The Hedgehog 1's Japanese manual and the Encyclo-speed-ia Eggman is at South Island tearing it up looking for the Chaos Emeralds. "Huh. I'll make sure to find the Chaos Emeralds, even if I'll have to dig up the whole island.' Doctor Eggman built a huge fortress on one corner of the island and embarked on his plan." He is coming in and destroying the ruins of places like Labyrinth Zone just to snag the Chaos Emeralds. Or when he was after the Treasure Of Babylon.

This becomes more apparent in the third game when he uses his drills to tear up Labyrinth Zone and eventually steals the Master Emerald from the last echidna, Knuckles. And as future games have established, the Knuckles Clan are heavily coded to represent certain things. With that context Eggman is just straight up stealing this object that doesn't belong to him while destroying the ruins.

He continues on so many islands such as the Northstar Island and is called Carnival Island(I wonder why). He does the same to the Little Planet, and while the Zeti were evil Eggman did invade the Lost Hex and disturb them for his own evil plans.

There is also the fact that he torments the small animals for no other reason than to get under Sonic's skin. "But this time, oh my… Something's not right. 'You see, Sonic?! This time it's different. I've turned all the animals on the island into robots.' 'Y-You guys!' 'They'll all do what I tell them to. In other words, the whole island is your enemy. Hahahahaha… cough cough. This time, the whole world will be mine.'" He doesn't need to power his machines with Flickies and whatnot as evident by several robots like Metal Sonic and Hey Ho, and the fact is Egg Walker is powered by Chaos Drives. He just does for the torment of the animals and Sonic.

Speaking of which in The Murder Of Sonic The Hedgehog we get the implication Eggman lends his tech and Badniks out to others as a source of income, alongside the creation of casinos to get money as well. This is further backed up in Sonic Twitter Takeover #5 - All Answers at 11:53 when he mentions he is rich and gets money to build what he builds from several sources of income.

Speaking of theme of Sonic Colors and the destruction Eggman brough to the Wisps, there is Sweet Mountain and we learn about it in said interview at 4:45. Eggman created the sweets that make up Sweet Mountain and they are made from preservatives that come from Chemical Plant Zone. Not trying to play off of chemophobia, but this does indeed play into the themes nature vs industrialism in the games. As the sweets are made from chemicals from one of the most obvious pollution sites in the Sonic franchise. Also, we can't forget Oil Ocean Zone's existence. Heck this side of Eggman is seen in the concept art with Eggman Industries.

Also, more on the Solar Punk themes it is noteworthy that Sonic games do take inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki's work, which is most obvious through the existence of Angel Island. And do I really really need to explain how Miyazaki's work ties into solarpunk?

But also the solarpunk themes can be best seen in how the inhabitants of the islands like Sonic and his friends choose to live. We get to see places like Amy's house being out in nature for example, and Tails while he love technology still keeps nature around him as well unlike Eggman. On top of that the cities like Sunset City are depicted to have nature interwoven into the cities and towns the inhabitants of these islands live in.

Solarpunk Ideals and Aesthetics in Sonic Colors

--according to one Solarpunk Sonic fan specifically but dude trust me on this.

This post is the sequel/follow up to my previous post on Sonic the Hedgehog (the character) and Solarpunk Ideals, feel free to give that a read for some context! But for a basic run-down--Sonic the Hedgehog (the Dude) embodies several core Solarpunk tenants in his personality, Dr. Eggman is the antithesis to Solarpunk both in personality and in resulting actions, and I'm such a big nerd I had to split this post into 2 parts and they're still long as hell.

Special reminder: I am a Sonic nerd, have been for 10+ years now. I also have Write Too Much disease. I am going to talk. A lot. Prepare yourselves.

Special reminder part 2: Sonic the Hedgehog is not a perfect franchise, and it's owned by a corporation in the capitalistic hellscape we call life and I promise you I am aware of that. I'm not saying SEGA is Solarpunk, I am saying that parts of their franchise have Solarpunk elements. If I post this and someone skips this paragraph to instead rant at me about some unrelated shit that SEGA the Corporation Guys did That One Time Months/Years Ago I may snap. You have been warned.

Shout out to @modern-solarpunk for being a beta reader for this! Thank you for making sure I was actually being legible and coherent with this.

Let's dive right in.

Sonic Colors Let's Go Let's Go

Sonic Colors came out on the Nintendo Wii in 2010, with an alternate version made for the Nintendo DS. I’ve only played the Wii version, so we’re going to talk about the Wii version. We later got an 11 minute 2D animated short about the game, to celebrate the release of Sonic Colors: Ultimate (which was basically a remake for the Switch). Basic plot synopsis below.

Dr. Eggman claims that he’s turned over a new leaf and has created the Egg Planet Park to make up for his past deeds. Sonic is inherently suspicious, so he and Tails sneak in and start busting up Eggman’s latest evil plot--tying down planets and kidnapping alien creatures called Wisps and harnessing their powers to charge up a mind control ray and make Earth the star attraction of his space theme park. Sonic and Tails promptly set about stopping him, destroying the Eggman robots on each planet and freeing as many wisps as they can while they do so. Feel free to check out this video to see all the cutscenes.

“Ani, what’s Solarpunk about that? A space theme park made by chaining down planets is already pretty unrealistic--” let me get there.

First off, the storyline has resistance and anti-industrialization baked into it. In a sense, we’ve got anti-colonialism too (though by all means DO NOT take this as me comparing the immeasurable harms done to colonized peoples by their oppressors to little fictional alien dudes getting their juices sucked out. But Eggman literally is colonizing several planets). Since Sonic is fighting a villain who’s trying to turn all of space into his robotic wonderland, we are too--and we see this guy as the villain, since he is, which can make people think about how these themes play into other aspects of life. Or at least I did in the fifth grade. Bear with me here.

If you don’t wanna watch 50+ minutes of cutscenes originating from 2010s-era script writing, let’s look at a quote that I feel boils the solarpunk-adjacent parts of the storyline to its bare essentials.

In the 11 minute animated short, Rise of the Wisps, there’s a bit more. First off, we see the aliens resisting a bit more--in fact, there’s a group of little Wisp freedom fighters working to save other wisps before they’re… harvested, I guess is the word for it.

Do they have names? No. But in Sonic Colors we don’t even really see any Wisps with characterizing traits aside from Yacker, so I think having the next few be a band of freedom fighters is pretty cool.

Asides from admiring the visual style of this short (because man Sonic in 2D animation just feels right to me), there’s a quote that I feel fits the Solarpunk outlook on community and problem solving.

“When the problem seems too big to solve on your own, you do what you can. And maybe ask for a little help from your friends. Right?”

Like if I put that in the middle of any other Solarpunk post no one would bat an eye but I’m literally quoting Sonic the Hedgehog here.

The series as a whole, especially Sonic Colors in my eyes, is imbued with hope and standing strong in the face of difficult challenges--leaning on your friends for help when you need to accomplish bigger and better things than you can do on your own. In Sonic, that means defeating giant mech bots or mutated lizards trying to crash land on Earth or purify the world of an out of control zombot virus. For us? That can be restoring a native landscape, vouching for clean energy, starting a community garden, and fighting for what we believe in.

Now let’s talk aesthetics

The Aesthetics of Sonic Color

So we’ve got 5 planets (Sweet Mountain, Starlight Carnival, Planet Wisp, Aquarium Park, and Asteroid Coaster) and two parts of the main park (Tropical Resort and Terminal Velocity) that are playable zones in Sonic Colors. But what’s the most Solarpunky area to me?

Planet Wisp

Planet Wisp is described in the fandom wiki as “a beautiful natural planet full of vegetation and tall trees. The Area takes place during daytime, though stars can also be seen in the sky.” Another page on Planet Wisp says “when seen from space, it heavily resembles Earth,” but its not very big--described as “tiny” in the game. However, it has a wealth of “untouched, unspoiled and unmatched natural beauty”, full of blue-gray rocky canyons and mountains with valleys and fields, rock pillars, etc. covered by plants. The trees are extremely tall, with platform-tops and no other main branches. There’s also lakes and creeks. There’s a minimal level of urbanized civilization--mostly tree slides made from branches and roots and platforms and such. Overall, simplistic stuff--”its untouched nature being largely preserved by the Wisps’ harmonious way of living in nature.” which sounds great! Except this is before interference by Doctor Eggman. Afterwards, “Planet Wisp has large amounts of factories under construction, tearing apart the original plant life and rock and replacing it with red metal.” Eggman Empire-style structures like towers, half-pipes, and roads are clustered around the landscape, and there’s an unknown purple liquid polluting several bodies of water. So! Not all that great! 

‘Ani why do you find that Solarpunk?’ two reasons

A: We the player are literally here to defy the people building the factories so the planet can continue to be full of vegetation and home to its native creatures.

B: it’s pretty, okay? It’s fukin cool.

This map is so cool it was also featured in Sonic Generations (2011) and Team Sonic Racing (2019), so let’s find some pics!

But most of all, the music, you guys.

And here are some other versions of these tracks from subsequent games (Sonic Generations, Sonic Colors Ultimate) and tracks inspired by the Planet Wisp location (Team Sonic Racing)

These tracks. Especially the original ones, but oh my god these tracks. I cannot emphasize enough I feel like. These tracks feel like you uncorked a bottle labeled ‘hope, positivity, relief’ and put it to your ear. And what is Solarpunk about if not hope.

Speaking of Solarpunk and being about hope, let’s talk about the main theme for the Sonic Colors game--Reach for the Stars. If you couldn’t tell by the title alone, this song is also the embodiment of hope--in more of an upbeat, ‘we’ve got this together!’ kind of vibe, but it’s still important to me and also feels Solarpunky (at least Solarpunk-adjacent) so let’s talk about it!

(I ran out of audios I can add so we're getting Youtube Videos instead)

“I’m gonna reach for the stars, although they look pretty far! I’m gonna find my own way, and take a chance on today!” - as Solarpunks, we are reaching for the stars (the sun in particular I suppose) to find hope in a brighter future and share it with others. We’ve all got our own way of doing it, with solutions varying based on individual situations as well as what community efforts can yield, but even still we are daring to dream of a brighter future than the one most often visualized in popular culture. No matter what, we’re gonna keep striving to make changes and create a brighter world for ourselves and those who come after us.

“Just take a chance, we’ll do it right again (we’re gonna reach for the stars!) Just take my hand, we’ll take a chance tonight, reach for the stars, tonight!”

You know what else Solarpunks go crazy about? Community building! You know what else Sonic Colors covers musically? Community building! Or, more so, being open to other people’s viewpoints and communicating to resolve problems, but still!

Now keep in mind, this song is literally based around Sonic and Tails trying to communicate with an alien via a translator, but my point still stands let’s look at some lyrics.

“I’ve been here before, and I know that we must stand up tall! I’m not scared to ask when I’m not sure; we can overcome it all!” - what is community if not being able to lean on other people? Community support, mutual aid, working together to solve problems big and small, Solarpunks have got it!

“If you could tell me how to lend a hand, I would try to understand! No words could say how much I care! Together we can take a stand!” 

And let us not forget the refrain! “Speaking from nowhere else except your heart, you’ll never know if you don’t try! Listen and see the voice I carry with me: ‘Speak with your heart! Speak with your heart!’” In my humble Solarpunk opinion, this feels pretty solarpunk. One of the main things about being Solarpunk--at least, in my experience--is unabashed enthusiasm about our ideas and the colorful sustainable future we’re envisioning! Encouragement from others is what brought me to this space and what draws others to join and stay in Solarpunk spaces! From our art to our writings to our technological concepts and even our arguments all come from sincerity and passion about what we’re doing and the future we want! 

And keep in mind, these are the opening and ending themes of the game! These are the songs where the writers are trying to bottle up the essential vibes of the game into a few minutes of funky tunes! You open up the game for the first time, you hear Reach for the Stars! And after a wonderful story and the satisfaction of finishing a game, you hear Speak With Your Heart! Even the titles alone wouldn’t feel out of place in a discussion about Solarpunk ideals!

Final Words

The Sonic franchise has its flaws, but it sure does speak on hope and resistance. Is Sonic Solarpunk? Maybe not entirely, but I feel it’s got some core elements that are Solarpunk-aligned, even when it’s not always front and center like it is here. I’m not going to pretend that Sonic the hedgehog as a franchise is the pinnacle of a Solarpunk story/game--but it’s got some nice elements that could inspire other stories, and uses those elements in a way that makes people feel like they can and should take action against darker industrializing forces in their life.

Or at least it did for me, as a fifth grader. Maybe that’s not a lot. But if it can help open the eyes of a handful of kids and teens and make them feel hope? Make them feel like they could maybe find the courage to do something? Maybe that’s all we need from it.

[digibash]

not a regular digibash, BUT I made these graphics last month and wanted to share them far and wide. They are available in various sizes and you can post them, print them, use them as banners, wallpapers, whatever! just don’t steal and sell them please. no credit required! but it’s cool if you do

all images are here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WHpfVem5SM1qGrsBEYqbSPa7dIPy2c6W?usp=sharing

happy pride month

[covertblizzard]

jaykyle au where they're theatre kids in the same school but they're not the actors jason's the scriptwriter/director and kyle is the prop manager (i don't know the official terms sorry) and they'd probably do an amazing job on the backstage setting if they could stop arguing for 5 whole seconds about their artistic visions and ideas and how "this would obviously work better this way"

[thechaotichorselord]

WIP that i hope to finish

i just wanna post what i got so far because i’m proud of it :3

song is QUEEN- english cover by trickle

Black belongs to @blackkatdraws

[starlaru]

Dear friends,

I am sharing with you, honestly, that our campaign is going through a difficult phase, and donations have been nearly nonexistent 😔💔

We are facing significant challenges in securing our basic needs and continuing my children's education, especially with my wife's ongoing health issues 😥

I kindly ask for your support and donations to help us during these tough times 🙏🏻🇵🇸

Your help means a lot to us and gives us a chance to move forward and overcome this difficult phase.🥺

🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

https://gofund.me/abbc2759

🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Thank you to everyone considering helping us.❤️❤️

.

[gynandromorph]

regardless of my or your opinion on AI art, saying that artists also make their art by simply viewing a lot of art and then regurgitating a mixture of statistically probable pixels implies that humans learn like machines do, and this isn't even remotely accurate. ignoring the phenomenological and social components of human learning really only stands to dovetail into viewing humans as material goods on the same level as a server farm. psychology has actually been sliding into viewing the brain as computers, and computers as equivalents to the human brain, and it's caused a lot of harm. we can't talk about some psychological phenomena without using Computer Terms to do it because that's the language that was given to them. viewing humans and computers as functionally equal with enough bits to replicate neurons won't humanize robots, it will dehumanize humans. it is advanced as an ideology for that purpose. in the end i see humans viewing art and integrating it into their own ideas for art as valuable because i think that humans don't exist to create a profit for some guy in silicon valley and i think that enriching human lives is good. humans don't "learn" art in order to produce replicas; the art is a byproduct.

[doomdoomofdoom]

any trans person should get HRT for free (no insurance required) and in exchange they should participate in the occasional study/survey.

research into sex hormones and their effects is so scarce and you have a whole ass population group who's willing to not only switch up their hormones but keep it up for very long periods of time. you could run some incredible long term studies with participants across all sorts of demographics.

while it's impossible to conduct any blind studies on this due to observable change in appearance, there's still so so so much data we're giving up on because we'd rather...

lemme check my notes. that cant be right.

...because we'd rather deny trans people health care and let them die. huh.

[l0ve-letter-4-u]

dumping AM thoughts in tags

[quantumleper]

Whether you love or hate Dragon Ball GT, you can't deny that this shot of Hell Fighter 17 is fucking diabolical

[sinistersinita]

Being both a Transformers fan and other mecha media fan is like. So tiring lmao. The discourse about "Transformers ≠ Mecha" on Twitter is just painfully headache inducing.

Transformers is Mecha. Super Robot genre, to be exact. It falls under the same category as the Brave/Yuusha series of sentient robots. And no. Not all Braves were human-made. In the same way, in some canon, Cybertronian were created, not born.

Take Death Drives from Bravern, for example. They are fully sentient, they do not require a pilot, they are an alien lifeforms that evolved over millions of years AND have an after life. They are still considered Mecha because they are mechanical life forms.

Mecha as a genre is very important and very influential. Transformers being considered a mecha series is not a bad thing. It can be alongside other mecha series as the inspirations for many things yet to come. And that is a beautiful thing.