#the out side: trans & nonbinary comics

[transbookoftheday]

The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics by The Kao, David Daneman and Min Christensen

In this vibrant and affirming comics anthology, 29 trans & nonbinary comic artists share their personal journeys of self-discovery and acceptance.

Featuring the work of Sage Coffey, Kyla Aiko, and Coco Ouwerkerk, The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics includes 29 creators' tales of self-love and affirmation and detailing their experiences with gender and identity. Originally published as a successful Kickstarter campaign, this expanded edition includes comics by Dana Simpson (bestselling author of Phoebe and Her Unicorn), Aidyn Huynh (Snailords), Wren Chavers, and more.

Equal parts encouraging, comforting, and life-affirming, The Out Side is a love letter to the trans and nonbinary community, designed to inspire anyone who may be struggling with their own identity and to help educate those who seek greater understanding. As artist Julia Kaye writes in the book's introduction: "I’m so glad this book exists. It’s a loud proclamation of our existence in the face of a culture that has for too long ignored our experiences."

[redsnerdden]

The Out Side: Trans and Non-Binary Comics

The Out Side: Trans & Non-Binary Comics Review- One Of The Best Books to Combat Hate.

#LGBTQIA #GraphicNovels #TheOutSideTransNonbinaryComics

A Special Thanks To Andrews McMeel Publishing and Net Galley For The Opportunity To Review This Title.

We’re taking a brief break from the usual reviews for a collection of stories about real-life heroes, ones that want to be their true selves and dare to pursue their dreams in the face of adversity and in the wake of policies made to exclude them from society or make them feel like an outcast.…

[juney-blues]

June Egbert is, and always has been incredibly fascinating to me because of just, how many factors have conspired to make Homestuck fans show their collective transmisogynistic asses.

The main character of Homestuck transitioning is a planned future plot point for the official continuation of homestuck, that was spoiled in advance by a fan making a joke about finding some toblerones Andrew Hussie the author of homestuck hid in a cave.

The current main writers of Homestuck: Beyond Canon have went on record in an AMA confirming that this was indeed always the plan, even before they took up the project.

In spite of these facts, the general consensus among certain homestuck fans seems to be that "June Egbert" is purely a headcanon for the original comic that was "made canon" by a "Toblerone Wish" (a concept that didn't even exist at the time)

For a variety of reasons, the "canonicity" of the postcanon official continuations of homestuck is a mattter of much debate, (though a debate that most homestuck fans seem to err on a side of "it's not canon at all in the slightest," something the writers have feelings on I'm sure.)

All of these factors combined leave the concept of "June Egbert" in a very nebulous place. It's assumed by most to just be an "ascended headcanon" that was shoehorned in, it's a spoiler so it hasn't happened yet in any official media, and the official media it will eventually happen in is regarded by some to be nothing more than glorified fanfic.

If someone is talking about June Egbert, and you don't like the concept of June Egbert, you have your pick of a million different excuses for why she's fake and gay and not worth discussing and bad writing and just the authors doing a gay dumbledore*, paying lip service to representation while actually doing nothing.

And of course, lots of people *don't* like June Egbert! Rather than being introduced as transfem from the start, she's in this nebulous position of discovery where people have to truly reckon with the idea of a "Pre-transition Trans Woman."

You can try to write off *some* of the backlash as transphobia, because obviously not everyone in this fandom is gonna be cool about trans people.

But there's no shortage of fans just dying to tell you about how much they like reading her as transmasc, or the idea of her being nonbinary or genderqueer or genderfluid, or literally anything besides a trans woman. And since they're fine with all those other interpretations, there's obviously no implicit biases driving their distaste for the concept! (if you want to try explaining the concept of "transmisogyny" to people like this you're braver than I.)

you can trust them when they say it's *just* a problem with whether or not it makes sense with the writing, or it just doesn't feel right somehow, or any of the thousands of excuses that this writing situation gives them to just Not Like It.

It's just, so interesting to me. There's not a lot of characters out there that get a trans arc in this way, that leaves room for open denialism and insistence that we have our trans cake and eat it too... Because Homestuck is a timeline spanning multiverse story, lots of people seem to want it to be an alternate timeline thing. Assuring us we can have this character share space with a non-transitioning version of herself and it won't be weird or imply gross things about trans people.

If you ask me it feels like a plotline that'd be really good for exploring some gender horror though, finding your true self and then being demoted to a footnote, an alternate version, because everyone around you likes your pre-transition self more....

Anyway I have no broader point beyond "hey look at this isn't this kinda weird. You don't get this kinda stuff often!"

*side note: it's a little ghoulish I think to compare "a future trans plot point that hasn't been given the chance to even happen yet, in an already famously queer piece of media, from a nonbinary author" to "some stupid shit done by the literal most famous transphobe of all time" but that's perhaps a discussion for later.

[tirfpikachu]

it's okay to call out a dysphoric person being comically out of touch, not realizing how gender conforming their lives are irl and how they benefit from it�� but you can't assume that the person is inherently suffering less from dysphoria internally. dysphoria is a disorder. and like any other disorder, the ableist rhetoric - both for mental and physical disorders - that you can easily tell how much someone is suffering merely by their appearance actually can cause harm to people invisibly suffering. and that includes dysphoric people.

the very stereotypical visibly gnc trans person might face more gncphobia and overt transphobia yet suffer less from dysphoria, or not at all. yet a more gender conforming trans person might be suffering like crazy internally and be extremely debilitated, even housebound from dysphoria. both people need support and need to be good allies to one another. both people can be out of touch and say batshit crazy things about experiences they don't understand.

people who don't face overt gncphobia & transphobia have privilege from it and need to be aware of it and acknowledge it.

people who suffer less or not at all from dysphoria need to uplift more dysphoric voices, even if those dysphoric voices are conforming irl.

dysphoria is an often debilitating disorder. just like any mental disorder, they need the same amount of reasonable accommodations as we would give any other dysphoric person. just because this person is a they/them female person who identifies as a nonbinary woman doesn't mean she internally suffers any less than a more stereotypical trans guy. at my very worst dysphoria-wise, i sometimes looked outwardly more conforming than in my healthier days. this is also because i had worked hard on unlearning internalized sexism and teaching myself that men can be feminine and women can be masculine, and that trying to wear more masculine things wouldn't make me any closer to being male bc clothes say nothing about one's sex. i know other trans people who did a lot of that inner work, and now are told they must be fake, they must not be dysphoric any longer for being transmasc femboys or transfem tomboys etc. if we want the trans community to fight its sexism problem, we need to welcome those who no longer associate clothes with sex yet still have dysphoria. we need to welcome the transmascs who are more feminine yet still have top/bottom dysphoria, and the transfems who are more masculine yet still yearn from hrt & surgeries. if we are to treat dysphoria as a disorder, and want it to be properly treated, and heal the dysphoria that can be healed to prevent detransitions, we need to apply the same logic that disabled activists & mental health activists advocate for and dispell the myth that invisibly disordered folks inherently suffer less. i may be in a wheelchair but someone else might have worse pain and worse struggles than me in many areas; i may have more serious sounding disorders mentally but the person with generalized anxiety might suffer a trillion times more than i do on a day-to-day basis.

we radfems on the more tirfy side, or simply radfems who care deeply about dysphoric people - a big amt of us having a history of dysphoria ourselves or dysphoric friends - need to work on creating a stable balance between calling out the comically out-of-touch takes trans people who don't face gncphobia irl often say, and being aware of our own kneejerk ableist reactions to someone not looking "dysphoric enough" who talks about their own personal struggles.

[thekao]

Check out The Out Side! A comics anthology featuring 29 Trans & Nonbinary artists who share their personal stories of self-discovery and acceptance!

Physical copies will be available in bookstores nationwide on September 26.

But you can pre-order now HERE. Artists include:

@sagecoffey @ashi-cookie @jooliefiveash @tacobusart @lakefama @aikosmith @teuthix @theniftyfoxcomics

and much more!

[mueritos]

I was a contributing artist for The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics By The Kao, David Daneman, Min Christensen , which you can pre-order NOW! I drew a short comic about being Mexican, trans, and language barriers. Pre-ordering helps not just me, but ALL of the awesome and cool trans/nonbinary artists who worked on this book, but also shows bookstores that this book is in high demand!!! please check it out and consider pre-ordering!

patreon

[hollow-keys]

One of the things I'm- well, not disappointed by it's to be expected- annoyed by is X-Men '97's portrayal of Morph as a queer character. Morph is an AMAB nonbinary person who likes men (AMAB being important here because liking men will be interpreted as gay regardless of how Morph sees their gender). We were explicitly told before the show aired that they're nonbinary, but the only proof we get of that in series is two blink and you'll miss it, easily ignored and brushed off scenes where Cyclops and Rogue respectively refer to Morph with they/them in two episodes.

And to be honest, it feels like baiting when we get nothing else. It's Loki all over again where the creators say "you're gonna get representation!!!" in interviews that only more dedicated fans will see but resign actual canonical confirmation to something easily missed.

The justification for this is, of course, that the show is set in 1997, of course they aren't more explicit because of the social circumstances! But nonbinary people existed back then and there were people who were aware they were nonbinary and made communities to talk with each other. There were activists who were openly genderqueer. There's even at least one case I know of of a nonbinary character being in 90's comics. Though not positive representation, in Ghost Rider 2099 #10 [pub. 1994], Ghost Rider refers to a side character with ze/hir pronouns.

And it's not like Morph doesn't know they're queer. They're out! Why else would Rogue and Cyclops refer to them as they openly and in public? And how? If they're not more explicitly queer because "It's the 90's" then what's with the period atypical acceptance from their teammates?

Even if they went with the "Morph doesn't know" route, people who don't know they're nonbinary or have the words to describe themselves still have trans experiences like dysphoria and a feeling of wrongness about their gender which can be explored even if your character is an egg (not a literal egg ☠️, a trans person who hasn't realised they're trans).

For example: Morph primarily goes by their codename to the point where their civilian name isn't even mentioned. There could have been a scene where someone called them their male civvie name and they get uncomfortable and say they prefer Morph, their gender neutral hero name. And when asked why, they could just be confused and defensive because they wouldn't have the words to describe dysphoria.

They could even set up a realisation arc with Morph experiencing dysphoria, but not knowing what it is or why they feel that way, and then meeting nonbinary people next season when the X-Men are time travelling and going "Oh. That's me."

But we get none of that! We don't get out and proud, no/low transphobia representation or subtle, historically accurate representation of a closeted trans person in an even less accepting time. We get the historical inaccuracy of option A and the understatedness of option B for the most minimal attempt at rep possible, which boils down to just two headscratchingly anachronistic uses of they/them pronouns. Truly the worst of both worlds.

And on their feelings for Logan, that wasn't said before the show aired afaik and was just part of the narrative, so it wasn't baiting, but it was relegated to subtext that could also be interpreted as non-queer. So much so that it had to be confirmed by the writer on twitter when it should have been clear cut in the show.

Why didn't we get more content about that? If they can fit an entire love triangle around Rogue, Remy and Magneto, why couldn't we get more about Morph's feelings for Logan? Why didn't we get them pining for a friend who'll probably never return their affection, them worrying over how he'd react if he found out? That kinda thing. There was an entire plot point where characters were faced with their fears, would that not have been a good opportunity for Morph to be faced with theirs over being realised as queer?

Honestly there were shows and comics actually made in the 90's that were bolder with queer rep. I don't know the behind the scenes situation or how much the showrunners had to fight for this, but regardless of who made the decisions, it's still cowardly and frankly not enough in 2024.

[tomyo]

Nimona and a Decade of the Queer Experience

To me one of the most anticipated aspects of the Nimona adaptation was to see how they changed the a lot of the queer themes from the original comic. Nimona was created in a time where it was still taboo to represent same sex relationships in anything trying to be marketable into an era where it is so commonplace that Nimona would have seemed regressive if it stayed true to the material.

Naturally the way Blackheart and Goldenloin are portrayed has greatly changed but also has a lot of the message from the original. Nimona is now about the trans experience.

This isn't to say transness was never at the core of Nimona but I don't think even baby nonbinary me would have been able to connect it directly to that.

Nimona the comic, to me, deals with similar but different issues from Nimona the movie. The comic was a story of trying to upheave an untrustworthy militarized state through the initially goofy lens of a budding father daughter relationship that ultimately fails.

Blackheart at the start of the comic already is trying to defy the government and Nimona seeks him out because he's actually playing the role of the villain already. She herself felt like this mix of female and queer rage. It made believe somewhat in the idea that the little girl by the end of the story was truly her who had once tried to do better for her home and was rejected for becoming something *different*. Overall you can feel more presently that deafening dread that Blackheart and Goldenloin love each other and acknowledging that would ruin both of their lives. This is moreso due to that whole conflict of their ideologies and sides they are on interfering but the metaphor is there. We could read this easily as Blackheart being out of the closet and at odds with society where Goldenloin on in the closet and working on the name of oppression. By showing Blackheart looking visibly like a villain it harkens back to the queer coding of Disney villains and a feeling a lot of queer people had to experience at that time, being an enemy to the public simply for existing. Coming back to Nimona, she's the perfect example of a trans masc egg experience; punk in a way that isn't fully certain in embracing or trashing anything feminine. Not fully androgynous but butchy and an unfocused anger at everything around them. I can never speak for the entirety of the trans experience but I know the feeling being born in an afab body and violently hating the society that I want badly to accept me, the way we insist that we intend to fully express our being while also creating this weird mix of unconvincing conformity. Again I laugh so much at her design elements; shaved head, tomboyish in chainmail but with curves, and short dresses, and impractical belts. Her actions also read as someone who's greatest sore point is loss of her bodily autonomy which ultimately she's subjected to during the climax. The monster/power of Nimona to me tends to ultimately mirror more of an emotional state rather than transness itself. Both version of Nimona have people see it as something Nimona is inflicted with rather than a part of her existence as she reveals at the end. Even Blackheart believe he can cure her of it with the equivalence of a procedure or medication but it's because he only perceives Nimona as the little girl and not the little girl as a part of the whole that is the dragon. I think there is a lot of things we can read into the dragon being and even at the idea that queerness is something people seek to cure that doesn't need one in the first place. And ultimately that's why the story ends on the somber tone it does, the biggest focus of the story was how Blackheart became the parent to Nimona and misguidedly tried to 'fix' her. And like a lot of people, especially for the time period, Nimona had to leave behind the family and society that couldn't accept her as her.

And so we move forward through the years.

Media is not made in a vacuum, Nimona the comic is a critique of early 2010s ideologies and maybe doesn't even worry about them as serious in a pre 2016 world. Nimona 2023 however exists on the other side of that threshold. Like I said, I don't think the original comic was consciously trans mostly because the zeitgeist wasn't conscious of transness. 2012-2014 (the comic's creation period) encapsulated me personally going from no aware knowledge of gender to confusion at learning my friend's pronouns to fully identifying as nonbinary in a world few people knew what that meant. But not long after that we had Korra's ending, the reveal of Ruby and Sapphire, Kaitlynn Jenner, Menanists, and then the nightmare of the 2016 election and all that came with it. The truth is a contradiction occurred; queerness became a part of the in group so long as it followed the rules of heteronormativity. I think it is fair to say a lot of queer people became more eeeh conservative for lack of better terms. For once we finally had a chance to be out and so long as we followed the conditions set out, exist well. We can live comfortably, why rock the boat? In other words, respectability politics. We are then at odds with those who believe we should keep complacent for fear of being rejected.

That brings us to Nimona the movie.

Blackheart no longer is the guerilla activist he once was, we now are introduced to him as a part of the system; specifically the model minority. Movies only have so much time for you to build understanding of it's world themes and ideas and so it tends to need to be more punchy with getting the point across otherwise become less coherent. So rather on the nose "Knighting a non noble is against god" as very flatly stated in the begging. Since the time of the comic, being gay has been normalized and we now see Blackheart and Goldenloin start out as a couple (to be frank I couldn't fully tell if they were official or not but they were all but in writing together) and by in universe logic, Goldenloin is the golden child pastor's son with divisively accepted boyfriend. Blackheart is an inspiration for his common men while his noble classmates are disgusted at the idea of him being allowed the same rights as them, essentially being allowed to be an policeman. It's his role as the model minority that he still believes the system is right when he is framed for murder; it is the one bad actor who's at fault despite a whole society shunning him with little reasoning needed.

Nimona in the other hand is a bit more in control of the relationship. Nimona of the comic latched onto a spurned man who was more methodical than she was in her work but Nimona of the movie is pretty much what pushes Blackheart into the image of a villain. Movie Nimona's goal is more or less to find community and for reasons we will get to only believes she can find it with other cast aside from society. She is jaded enough to know that Blackheart will continue to be labeled as the way they do to her. This time the shape shifting is explicitly trans; Nimona now is no longer worried about experimentation or trying to be cured but of being called a monster, the fear of her, and eradication; words I feel like I've heard too much in lgbt spaces lately. She talks about wanting her own demise with her heard turned down and eyes somber in moments that hit too close to home. She is a worn down warrior for her own existence. On safer grounds with Blackheart she more wittingly challenges his transphobia. Blackheart cannot perceive her out of the binary that she is default a girl and her transformations are something else, he asks if her transitions hurt, and he tries to convince her to blend in with others for his own comfort. As he spends more time with her, he's able to view the world he was taught differently and doesn't view the less pretty sides of Nimona as scary. However, programming is hard to free yourself out of.

The Director is by definition, conservative. She believes is a religious like text that society should not change unless it all falls a part. Her belief in this runs so deep that she easily is willing to kill pseudo religious figures as her personal code of morals override any actual logic in faith(anyone remember how magas talk about Trump as being sent by God while also disavowing him for encouraging vaccinations?). Her rhetoric that non nobles with be a societal slip eminates classism and racism (commoner is somewhat of a race allegory). She denies her own words to hold power, criticizes Nimona of whispering deceipt into blackhearts ear while actually being the one doing so to Goldenloin, and justifies her actions through holy scripts. She holds a stern belief in cleansing the society of it's demons down to intending to kill a large part of her society to rid it of the tran metaphor Nimona is. She is the quintessential conservative power so bent on it staying that way that she will destroy everything in spite of any logic to why it's right. Goldenloin, as the champion of the institution, a head cop if you will, looks upon the chaos learning the director's intent to kill thousands and says "what are we doing here?" A lot of institutions (aah there's the naming for you) in our country are like this. I think to some like, there are people who entered religion or became a police officer because they wanted to do good. But the rhetoric in these spaces can skew that perspective exponentially. Some with better access out may find that point of "What are we doing her" The moment the logic of the system no longer makes sense. I would love to talk more a lot this an the comic institution at a later point.

Back to Nimona and the queer identity.

Nimona was searching for a group to accept her, changing her appearance to fit in. She thinks she has it with Gloreth until Gloreth is taught that Nimona's existence was monstrous and rejects her as well. The scene of the villagers attacking her is poinient as well; they endanger and threaten her with violence (which would likely have been more explicit if not for kids) and she first turns to something weaker to escape but they refuse and so she is forced to turn to something bigger ane vicious in order to live but it only sets up the narrative that there is a reason to fear her when she didnt attack first, she simply had to protect herself. Nimona in the present is ready for her death, the narrative so out of control that it breaks her.

Blackheart is able to bring her back from the brink by doing the important thing of truly apologizing, have humility for his mistrust and bigotry, and offer her support on equal terms. Nimona this time does not flee her friend that failed her but sacrifice herself for the hope of a better future beyond the walls.

The final part to mention; the walls. The walls are mad out as a big deal in this. No one leaves beyond them and the one small town of Gloreth fills to a big capitalist tech dystopia that markets dragons as both cute mascots and something to eradicate to as young as children. Society is a small shoebox not allowed to even see beyond the walls; see a new potential of this world. Simply put, the beyond is the beyond of heteronormative society. Even as society has become more accepting of LGBT identities, it has only liked to consume it in an easily interpreted manor. There are a lot of even just fringe identities that used to get lambasted for being weird simply for existing, trying to apply those same rules within their spaces as they've become socially acceptable. For every push forward we make, there is still presentation and identity that will get ostracized for being out of the box. We create these walls and only build them out further every so often rather than knocking them down. If there is anything to take from Nimona it's to embrace the beyond.

Morning edit; Hiii thank you for reading all of this. I kinda furiously typed this after watching the movie last night and there are certainly some flaws for it. Towards the end you can see a lot of typos because I was literally falling asleep and there are definitely some concepts I would've liked to flesh out better but kinda glossed over to focus on what the stories were saying about Nimona specifically. I think if anything, I'd want to reexamine Blackheart in both stories because I honestly forgot a lot of his actions in the comic, same with the institution because it took a while to even remember about the Director being a character from the comic. To be real, there's some really specific events on where Nimona was made that tend to hit me pretty hard so I rushed through the comic when I read it last year. I might try to take me time now because Nimona is so meaningful. I even want to talk about how it made sense Disney tried to shut it down (I'm certain there's a lot of business reasons but I don't think it was compatible with the Disney brand). For all the ways we have queer stories, I don't think we see a lot of trans stories yet. I'm hoping the series like Dead End Paranormal Park and Nimona are the start of a new era that focally represent that.

[ask-the-sagents]

Ask the Agents Masterpost

This is gonna be the post for pretty much everything about the universe and the characters. It'll be updated on occasion and will remain pinned on my profile - more under the cut:

Edit: I've made a lot of changes so consider this an AU

Edit: (also check out the tags. Usually, I'll add in additional info (: )

Discord Server

Most recent update on this post: 10/24/24

Character Pages

What is Sanitization?

Start Reading Here!

Askblog Stuff

The idols will be available for questions sometimes, but not all the time. I'll make a post and update the askbox with whoever is available for questions currently.

Magic Anons are allowed!

Posts will be posted as they are completed and will be a mix of answering questions and random comics!

If a main character (3,4,5,8)is unavailable, you can still ask them questions, but they won't answer it til after they get back

If a character is available but spotty, it just means they won't answer filler questions for the time being

World Info

The Idols:

Marie - Age: 30 - she/her - bisexual

Pearl - Age: 27 - they/she - Lesbian, nonbinary

Callie - Age: 30 - she/they - pansexual, trans

Acht - Age: 27 - they/them - lesbian, nonbinary

Marina - Age: 26 - she/her - lesbian

Deep Cut - Coming soon!

General World Info:

In the beginning, it takes place a few months after the events of Octo Expansion. Currently (as of 8/8/24) it has been a little less than a year

Spawn points don't exist outside of Turf Wars/Ranked battles, etc.

Octavio has been captured and currently resides in a high security prison. He is never getting out.

Octavio had used sanitization and hypnosis as a tool for control and punishment during his reign. He never had any intention on liberating his citizens.

There is only one hospital on the surface that handles Sanitization cases atm. This is due to it being rarely seen on the surface during octavios time, so not many people were researching it.

Squidjumping within city limits is illegal unless if it's an emergency

Instead of sewers, there are tunnels connecting the surface and the underground.

NSS:

Their current goal is to find out where all of the sanitization infections are coming from, helping to acclimate octolings to the surface, and helping to establish a working government/system to the citizens below the surface who are too afraid to leave (works alongside other agencies) Sometimes, they help around the community as well.

To their knowledge, there are no more hypnotized octolings.

Although small, NSS is a publicly known and important government organization

Captain Cuttlefish is deceased, NSS is run by Marie and Callie currently, although marie takes on a bigger chunk of the responsibilities.

There's a temporary housing area set up for octolings new to the surface not far from the clinic. They stay there until homes are found for them, which usually takes just a couple of weeks. They work with social services to help them beyond that as well.

Marina and Pearl are agents 6 and 7, however their role is much smaller and mainly help on the side of helping misplaced citizens find homes.

There is a single clinic near octo canyon as of this point that the NSS helped to establish with Inkopolis Memorial (due to a large chunk of sanitizations being found in that area) It's fairly small and typically only has one person working at a time, usually Agent 5 or another doctor from one of the local hospitals.

Inkling/Octoling Stuff:

They take more after the human side

They bleed actual blood instead of ink

They have claws that they can use for defense - ink will fill the tip of the claws.

Everybody has a limiter, which is a chip installed in their arm. Without this, they could use up too much ink when battling and possibly die due to their bodies not being able to keep up with production. When low on ink, their tentacles will become extremely dull and lose almost all color. They'll become extremely weak and lethargic until their hearts finally stop.

They have more flexible bones, but they can still break

They have 3 hearts

Inklings and Octolings gain their squid/octo form around puberty - they are in human form up until then.

Development of a person's squid/octo form can be stunted during puberty if they have health issues

They are able to swim in any water

It expends energy to change from an ink color that's not the natural one so typically they will dye their ink if they want it changed for longer

Ink burns are rare but can happen. It's caused by consistent exposure to enemy ink in a single area or an extremely strong shot. They can be painful, but they will heal and fade over time - they turn blue in color despite the color of the enemy ink.

When a cephalopod feels intense feelings of romantic love for another, their ink color will subconsciously change to match their partner's. They don't technically need to be together for this to happen.

They cannot fall asleep while in squid/octo form; if they do, they will change back automatically.

They have to use special shears to cut their tentacles or else it would be painful and cause possible damage.

Octolings only have some control over their tentacles, and usually, their tentacles can give hints to their mood. Typically, the older they get, the more control they have, but this isn't always the case. The amount of control changes depending on the person.

Inklings and octolings reach full maturity in their 20s-30s. This is where they develop a secondary color at the tip of their tentacles, and octolings will also have their fingers matching their ink color. Typically, octolings reach this earlier than inklings, but everyone is different.

They can get grey/white ink streaks due to age or extreme stress or anxiety

this will be updated as more information becomes available or as things change!

Updated hylian Font chart

Hylian Font chart (old, ignore this one!)

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🏳️‍⚧️ Trans Rights Readathon (March 22nd - March 29th)

🩵 Let's promote trans books, authors, and voices. Find books by trans authors and/or featuring trans main characters below!

🩵 She Who Became the Sun 🩷 From a Shadow Grave 🤍 The Unbroken 🩵 Detransition, Baby 🩷 Meanwhile, Elsewhere 🤍 Finna 🩵 Unwieldy Creatures 🩷 Upright Women Wanted 🤍 Eat the Rich 🩵 Lost Boi 🩷 A Dream of a Woman 🤍 I Kissed Shara Wheeler

🩵 The Sunbearer Trials 🩷 This Day Changes Everything 🤍 I Shall Never Fall in Love 🩵 Godly Heathens 🩷 Hell Followed With Us 🤍 Most Ardently 🩵 Venom & Vow 🩷 Self-Made Boys 🤍 The Companion 🩵 Mistakes Were Made 🩷 Wherever is Your Heart 🤍 Manhunt

🩵 Felix Ever After 🩷 Always the Almost 🤍 The Summer Love Strategy 🩵 Infinity Alchemist 🩷 Across a Field of Starlight 🤍 Her Majesty's Royal Coven 🩵 A Lesson in Vengeance 🩷 A Dark and Hollow Star 🤍 Once & Future 🩵 The Never Tilting World 🩷 The All-Consuming World 🤍 Light From Uncommon Stars

🩵 The Passing Playbook 🩷 The Out Side: Trans and Nonbinary Comics 🤍 The Lost Coast 🩵 The Heartbreak Bakery 🩷 The Prospects 🤍 The Honeys 🩵 May the Best Man Win 🩷 A Lady for a Duke 🤍 Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic 🩵 The Avant-Guards 🩷 Nectar 🤍 One Last Stop

🩵 Iron Widow 🩷 Horse Barbie 🤍 The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard 🩵 Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms 🩷 Cemetery Boys 🤍 Love & Other Disasters 🩵 The Diablo's Curse 🩷 Not Your Sidekick 🤍 Out of Salem 🩵 Chef's Kiss 🩷 Dreadnought: Nemesis 🤍 The Witch King

🩵🩷🤍 ** Though I double-checked the books on this list, I haven't read most of them. I apologize for any mistakes.

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics edited by The Kao, David Daneman and Min Christensen

goodreads

In this vibrant and affirming comics anthology, 29 trans & nonbinary comic artists share their personal journeys of self-discovery and acceptance. Featuring the work of Sage Coffey, Kyla Aiko, and Coco Ouwerkerk, The Out Trans & Nonbinary Comics includes 29 creators' tales of self-love and affirmation and detailing their experiences with gender and identity. Originally published as a successful Kickstarter campaign, this expanded edition includes comics by Dana Simpson (bestselling author of Phoebe and Her Unicorn ), Aidyn Huynh (Snailords), Wren Chavers, and more. Equal parts encouraging, comforting, and life-affirming, The Out Side is a love letter to the trans and nonbinary community, designed to inspire anyone who may be struggling with their own identity and to help educate those who seek greater understanding. As artist Julia Kaye writes in the book's "I’m so glad this book exists. It’s a loud proclamation of our existence in the face of a culture that has for too long ignored our experiences."

Mod opinion: I haven't heard of this anthology before, but it sounds interesting.

[topcatofficial]

my ideal modern day top cat reboot (not just tc and/or the gang serving as side characters in an ensemble cast in a hanna-barbera crossover cartoon) would be like,

tc and benny are the same as they always are (selfish hedonistic get-rich-quick schemer and his naive childhood bff enabler)

dibble is a private investigator (like he's always wanted to be) who is tc's other childhood friend (boyfriend) whose investigations somehow always end up intersecting with tc's schemes even when he's not actively investigating tc. i cant decide if i want him to stay human or not tho (dog dibble au my beloved miss u baby)

trans lesbian choo choo my beloved. weird and emotional, and constantly talks about her girlfriend lola glamour (theyre so t4t)

non-committal flirty serial monogamist gold digger fancy fancy, based on a mix of his cartoon personality and comic personality. like if fujiko mine were a catboy, who will sometimes betray the gang but they barely really hold it against him. tc doesnt, anyway

oblivious math wiz brain who is probably nonbinary but he's got finances to go over so he doesnt really care about that right now.

former-hellcat butch biker lesbian spook *giggles* i cant decide whether i want spook to be a she/her lesbian or a he/him lesbian, but very top cat begins/comic based characterization

roxy from the scrapped reboot finally gets to join the gang :) she can have jellystone brain's personality since he's not using it. she also has something extremely gay going on with spook

then side characters would be like,

myra and sheldon live in the city and periodically get involved in tc shenanigans! myra is very much so a neurotic worrywart who is constantly freaking out over the ways her twin brother's schemes can backfire. sheldon didnt really have a solid characterization in his book so maybe he can have jellystone fancy's personality?

kitty glitter from top cat and the beverly hills cats can be recurring because i like her <3 to me shes so lupin-iii-sadgirl coded

lola glamour gets to appear now and then and gets to be so annoyingly sappy pda with choo choo. has a lot of mentions and cameos though cuz shes still a star and shes dating choo choo who adores her childhood best friend turned lover <3 <3 <3

dibbles ex-wife periodically shows up and tc hates her soooooo much which is ironic because theyre kind of parallels. foils. the same but different. i would emphasize them being so similar and in fact that she reminded him of tc is why he married her and she does not like that one bit. self indulgent but i really dont care <3

i think they should have two kids (fred and daniel, based on comic dibble's names) just because i think it'd be funny as fuck. am i making him even more like zenigata? sure but my justification is dibble is a little league coach and camp counselor which is stereotypically things dads do to connect with their kids :P

jazz and beau can be recurring antagonists with their own gang that being dark parallels to tc's gang. teehee.

trixie from the first movie can be a recurring character too but only if shes an irredeemable antagonist in jazz's gang. the rest of jazz's gang consists of pantera from top cat begins, rocky from the comics, and skratch gets to exist separate from spook.

i guess griswald could be recurring since he had two eps and in the comics there was a recurring antagonist who was a bulldog but i dont care enough about griswald to expand on that idea

- oh wait he can be the actual cop since dibble is a PI now. duh. he literally became a police dog in one ep so it works.

cop cat from the comics can be griswald's partner although i think he needs a better name than "cop cat" ... maybe fuse him with officer prowler so he gets a cooler name. idk

[mudaship39]

Info about me and my WIPS art and projects as a as a disabled and queer/trans native of color writer artist and creator

Native intro for social media.

BYI check out my bio and pinned post

Hello.

My Indigenous Pasifika preferred name is No’eau Aitonui Hoata/Heiani Mareva Hoata

If you are Indigenous or Indigenous Pasifika please refer to me by that name

My Vietnamese Kinh name is Ngoc Hien/Xuan Dinh Nguyen

If you are a non native person of color please refer to me by that name

My English/French name is Christian/Jeanne Nguyen

If you are a non native white person you can only refer to me by this name.

Im a Southeast Asian Vietnamese or Kinh Indigenous, European French, East Asian Chinese Hoa, & Polynesian Tahitian Indigenous Pasifika. 🇫🇷🇻🇳🇨🇳 🇵🇫 I’m an Asian Native Pasifika. 🐚 🌺 🏝️ 🪝 🌋

I’m a disabled native of color. I’m autistic, neurodivergent, chronically ill spoonie disabled, & mentally ill disabled. ♿️

Im a disabled gamer/streamer. My Playstation tag is warpdriveplanet39. My Xbox tag is Mudaship39. Twitch is mudaship39. I play and stream PS3, PS4, & PS5 games. I play and stream Xbox 360, Xbox One games. I plan to play Xbox Series X games in the future. 🎮

I’m a QTIPOC or queer and trans Indigenous person of color. Nonbinary bigender or genderfluid pansexual or omnisexual. Polyam or polyamorous. Maohi/raerae in the middle indigenous third gender. Any and all pronouns. Including neopronouns and indigenous third gender pronons. He/him. She/her. They/them. Xer/xers. Native third gender neutral oña. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈⚧

Im a writer, creator, & artist. Im an author, comic book writer, screenwriter, spoken word poet, & songwriter.

I’m a Indigenous language keeper, culture keeper, & storykeeper.

I write about racial, sex, cultural identity, sexual orientation, & gender identity in music and poetry.

I write about Black, poc, Indigenous, disabled, and or lgbt characters in disabled, bipoc, and qtipoc futurism.

Im the writer and creator of the precontact and post land back Bipoc and qtipoc futurism project. It’s a hybrid science fiction cyberpunk and magical high fantasy comic books and graphic novels series Chronicles of War.

Basic info is the pinned post of my tumblr. More information is on a google doc on my google drive.

Im the performing artist spoken word poet of the spoken word poetry book Heart of Fire Dragon, Soul of Flame Pheonix, & Sea Fairy Ocean Blood that is about being a disabled native, an Asian Native, a displaced disconnected diaspora, & QTIPOC.

The cut and censored version of it is linked in the pinned tweet on my twitter mudaship39. Uncut and uncensored version is on a google doc on my google drive.

If anyone wants to pay me for the poetry book and or the futurism project as a disabled writer, artist, and creator. Be sure to dm or pm me. There is a specific way to do so as a disabled writer artist and creator.

Be sure to check out my carrd in my bio. It has info on how to contact me for my projects. Info on how to pay me for my art. Info on my other social media accounts if mutuals want to follow me on other social media.

Do you want to read a spoken word poetry anthology book I wrote as an Asian native Pasifika artist who’s a songwriter and spoken word poet? Its called Heart of Fire Dragon Soul of Flame Phoenix and Sea Fairy Ocean Blood. It’s about being a disabled native (autistic, neurodivergent, chronically ill, & mentally ill disabled), a displaced disconnected state side diaspora, being an Asian Native (as a Vietnamese Kinh, French, Chinese Hoa, & Polynesian Tahitian Indigenous Pasifika person of color), & about being a QTIPOC (queer and trans third gender Indigenous person of color). I have been working on it for a long time as a storykeeper, language keeper, and culture keeper. It includes a personal foreword and personal afterword to Indigenous people specifically Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian audiences. The cut and censored version of it is linked in my pinned tweet of my Twitter mudaship39 if you are interested in reading something like this. The uncut and uncensored version of it is on a google doc on my google drive. Need email for google doc invite link. Let me know which version you prefer to read if you're interested in reading something like this. Be sure to like and reblog my pinned post to boost my art to other native of color mutuals.

For the cut and censored version. Go to the pinned tweet. Like and retweet the pined tweet. This is to boost info about my wips art and project to your native of color followers. The cut and censored spoken word poetry book is linked in my pinned post thread. Like retweet and quote any line of the cut and censored version of the spoken word poetry book. Quote tweet it with your thoughts. Use any Indigenous and poc hashtags if you know any. This is so it gets out to others in the poc community and Indigenous community especially those indigenous to turtle island or Indigenous to Pasifika Oceania or Moana. It’s also so I can find poc or Indigenous producers and publishers to actually make it into a spoken word poetry book. For the uncut and uncensored version post comments into the google doc itself and leave a review at the end. Let me know if you know anyone else interested in reading something like this. Let me know if know any poc and Indigenous artists especially indigenous to turtle island or Indigenous to Pasifika Oceania or Moana who are willing to draw art for this poetry book.

Im also a writer and creator who writes bipoc, disabled, and qtipoc futurism. I write magical high fantasy and science fiction books, comics, and graphic novels. My bipoc, disabled, and qtipoc futurism project called Chronicles of War. It is a cyberpunk science fiction and magical high fantasy hybrid comic book or graphic novel series. It is precontact and post land back. That is about several disabled, bipoc (or Black Indigenous and or person of color) characters, and qtipoc (or queer and trans indigenous people of color) main characters. One is an Afro Asian pasifika/Afro latine native demigod metahuman and alien hybrid superhuman superhero in a cyberpunk world in the near and far future. The other is an Afro Asian native coded magical human with fae elvish, hobgoblin goblinoid, & giant kin ancestry who’s a spellcaster, swordfighter, and gunslinger adventurer in a magical high fantasy world. Both of them are qtipoc disabled and bipoc. There are other bipoc and qtipoc main characters in other worlds pre contact and post land back. Such as a lesbian of color and butch of color Asian and Indigenous Asian coded half human and half avian humanoid monk. Such as a Sami Indigenous and European Scandinavian coded third gender god/goddess Jotunn Loki. Such as a third gender Afro Indigenous Chickasaw Native Freedman were lion and were leopard hybrid character and her friend a Afro Latine South American Native were jaguar and were cheetah werecat hybrid character. Both of them living in a town of Afro Indigenous Freedman and hybrid humanoid communities. Such as a Central and South American summoners of kaiju or titans based on Nahuatl Quechua and Maya Indigenous mythology. Such as a female Asian and Asian Native half human half firebird and lighting bird monk fighter. Such as a Indigenous Pasifika sea pirate. It has Black, Native, poc, queer, trans, & disabled representation. It has Indigenous and indigenous pasifika representation too actually. If that’s something you are into. Need email for google doc invite link also if you are also into this.

If you want to look up excerpt blog posts of my poetry book or futurism project. Be sure to search my blog with my tags of native, indigenous, trans, disabled, and or queer: artist, writer, representation, character, and or creator. Be sure to like and reblog to boost my art wips and projects to native of color, disabled, & or lgbt mutuals.

If anyone wants to pay me for the poetry book and or the futurism project as a disabled writer artist and creator. Be sure to dm or pm me. There is a specific way to do so as a disabled writer artist and creator.

Cover art of the Spoken Word Poetry Book: Heart of Fire Dragon Soul of Flame Phoenix and Sea Fairy Ocean Blood:

Upcoming project once i find cast crew and a studio and network to green light it: Modern take movie about Medusa and her blind lesbian love interest. With more diverse characters since modern take with disabled, queer trans, and bipoc representation like my other wips and projects.

Polynesian Micronesian and Melanesian sports anime or cartoon. Each season being about different Pasifika sport. Volleyball football ruby rowing or canoeing sailing. Each season with different main characters. Characters from past seasons returning in cameos. Gay volleyball with a vahine femme main character about a pasifika girl in varsity hs volleyball. Hawaiian or Tahitian and her partner is Tongan or Samoan.

Wishlist:

I play old current and next gen console games PlayStation 3, 4, and 5 games and Xbox 360 and Xbox one games. Still trying to get a gaming computer and an Xbox series x for other current and next gen games

Games I am playing currently is in my Xbox and PlayStation account. Games I want to play but am waiting for as a disabled gamer, gamer of color, & gaymer is on my wishlist on both accounts.

You can also send me PlayStation store or Xbox store gift cards amount from 25 to 100 $ so I can buy the games I want to play and stream as a gamer of color, gaymer, disabled gamer, & variety streamer

I use an old laptop for my writing gaming streaming and art. Still trying to get a windows 11 laptop and a Samsung or iPad tablet for writing art and creating art and projects. Also still trying to get a microphone, camera, and headset for steaming, gaming, and podcasting

[capslock3284]

Lizard Thoughts on Goodbye Volcano High

Beware of unmarked spoilers!!!

Goodbye Volcano High is a furry visual novel with rhythm game elements released last year in 2023, nearly to the day. The game has a modern era dinosaurs setting, with the player as a nonbinary pterodactyl named Fang, who is hoping to make it big in the indie rock scene after graduating from their senior year.

However, the tail end of chapter 1 reveals that the same asteroid in the real world that ended the Cretaceous was spotted, with the rest of the story about Fang and friends making the most of what time they have left.

Overall, I liked the story of GVH! The emotional struggles both Fang and their friend group go through feels very close to some things I've gone through this time, including issues regarding transitioning and being socially accepted. For example, multiple times in the story Fang gets deadnamed and misgendered by their parents, which is - at best - waved away as 'trying' (though they get better by the finale). While it kinda stings that there's no option to censor it, I'm also a bit grateful that there isn't because it's a real struggle a lot of trans people have to go through today and it's not right to brush that kind of thing off.

Meanwhile, the overarching plot about the asteroid feels very allegorical to Gen Z anxiety over the future - or rather, feelings of the lack thereof. While it's not literal armageddon in our world, the portrayal of it mirrors sentiment I've seen over modern climate and economical issues.

===

As a game, though... I've got mixed feelings. It's incredibly linear, and while it's presented as a standard 'your choices matter' type game all it does is unlock extra scenes with characters you side with more. Additionally, this same system encourages multiple playthroughs to see all optional scenes, flashback comics, and to 100% the photo gallery. However! You only get one save file, and there is no option to go back to a specific point in the story - you keep going or you start from the beginning.

This doesn't mention the several errors I've noticed in animation, with characters having an extremely limited set of premade poses for them to alternate through, Seth MacFarlane style - not to mention the continuity errors (the most notable one I spotted was partway through chapter 5, where the same guitar changed its model from acoustic, to electric, and back several times.) There were also several times where audio or entire scenes cut out about a half-second early - while this didn't cut out entire words, the sudden cut to the next line without any pause was jarring.

Despite all of these problems, Goodbye Volcano High works very well with its strong points, that being dialogue choices and the rhythm game portions. Even though I mentioned the game is very linear, it feels like it's by design - you're not completely controlling Fang, you're nudging them in specific directions according to how they're thinking, which is represented by different effects around dialogue boxes. Angry thoughts are burning, despair is broken in half, and intrusive thoughts are blurred out by static the moment you hover over them (incidentally, this stops you from picking it with an extra thought from Fang telling themselves to not say that.)

The soundtrack is pretty good. Don't have much to say about it, though I like how it's used diegetically with about 2/3rds of the tracks being written/performed by Fang in the story.

==============================

Overall, I'd recommend Goodbye Volcano High. However, skip it if you're a completionist due to the high number of playthroughs needed to 100% it on steam, or if you just don't like visual novels. Get it on sale, borrow it through Steam library share, or just watch a six hour no commentary playthrough if you're on the fence.

Steam store page here!

[ashi-cookie]

The extended edition is now available for pre-order! Here is also a sneak peek of my comic in this anthology :-)

Description:

Featuring the work of Sage Coffey, Kyla Aiko, and Coco Ouwerkerk, The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics includes 29 creators' tales of self-love and affirmation and detailing their experiences with gender and identity. Originally published as a successful Kickstarter campaign, this expanded edition includes comics by Dana Simpson (bestselling author of Phoebe and Her Unicorn), Aidyn Huynh (Snailords), Wren Chavers, and more.

This comic anthology will come out in September 2023, and will be available at the following places:

Andrews-McMeel

Barnes & Noble 

Amazon

Bookshop.org

Books A Million

[writingpun]

Read My Fiction Masterpost June 2023

yeehaw everybody here's some links to my published writing! there's some on @writeastorywhere as well but here's the links to the Official Shit

also as a side note I spent a couple years trying to decide what name I was using for my writing, so some of em don't say DS Oswald. Don't worry about that I prommy they're all me. also, this is just the stuff that's available online. Maybe i'll edit this with scans of my contributor copies for stuff that's not online.

SHORT FICTION

I'll Be Seeing You (2020) - mlm/wlw solidarity in the apocalypse.

[Untitled] (2021) - a trans girl has some strange dreams. this character's gonna be appearing in Dreamwalkers, my web comic, and this short story will probably be canon.

Vast and Blue (2021) - madness at sea. this was the first issue of the horror mag i co-edit, so I threw in one of my own stories to fill the thing out.

Shrine Maiden (2022) - fantasy lesbian romance between a wandering swordsman and a high priestess of the moon goddess. A novella! And it's free as an ebook and audio book! AND it just turned one year old! Go and give my girls some love.

Ghost Outside the Truck Stop Off I-95 (2022) - pov a dead armadillo starts talking to you. fun fact i had a fucking blood feud with the editors for this because they wanted to completely change one of the stylistic elements.

Suckers (2022) - a lesbian goes to visit her girlfriend's wacky family--oh, and they're all vampires. Silly goofy

What Should We Do With Your Body? (2022) - part of a collaborative murder mystery put together by @vinegarzines! Very fun. I wrote about a transmasc seeing a dead body while high on opiates.

Warmth (2022) - lesbian romance between a fire elemental and a blacksmith. You have to pay for this one but I honestly consider it one of my better 2022 stories.

ALL THE BEST ART (2023) - the first horror story I ever wrote, now published! And available for only two dollars! It's about a spooky painting. it's also about self harm so tread carefully

In. (2023) - horror flash fiction about grief. free! yeehaw!

A STRANGE NOTE RECOVERED FROM THE EFFECTS OF AN OLD MAN’S CORPSE ALONG THE BEACH IN CITY X, FLORIDA (2023) - horror story about being trans and doing murder to steal a body you'd want. hot off the presses teehee

POETRY

okay ngl. i don't like talking about my poetry and i kind of don't care if people read it as much. but i'm linking it here for those curious

Pagan steals christian imagery asmr // I watched good omens while I was dating someone and you won’t BELIEVE what the result was **NOT CLICKBAIT**

bodies are made to hold other bodies // I only ate your cat because I was angry it seemed so well-adjusted // Joke about nonbinary naming mechanisms

And a Happy New Year