#whistl don't read this

[mxmasters]

what’s up with you and penelope?

haha oh that's a loaded question isn't it. uhhh we've got a quid pro quo going on? she tricked me, or I tricked her... and then she helped me solve my biggest fuckup, so I owe her. Big-time. She hasn't called in those favors yet, but i know it's gonna be some janitor shit. Not gonna tell her anything important about GAW, and I'm not gonna help toss anyone in a cell, but fair is fair and a deal is a deal. We'll figure it out.

And personally?

...hm?

You're talking quid pro quo. Professional stuff. But "what's up with you and Penelope", personally?

well, "personally", I think she's sort of weird. Obviously wound very tight IRL, but pretty chill in the chats. Talks like a substitute teacher, but she's got those internet brainworms, so sometimes she spouts off random gibberish. Dead memes, webcomic gags, super specific anime cuts. Seems genuinely into Sailor Moon. It's cute.

One thing that bugs me: I can't tell how much of this "I want to help people" schtick is an act. She's a janitor and janitors lie. But she also checked in with Doreen (alwaysbpositive) after the whole dice fiasco, just to make sure she was okay. That was... nice. Cool move. Big factor in my decision to send her that second tape and ask for help directly. Paid off, too! Otherwise I'd be rotting in a white box rn instead of talking to y'all.

You know what they're actually asking, Wren.

alright FINE it's under the cut

I have a TYPE, okay?! I admit it. I find lots of people very attractive. I'm pan. I'm polyamorous. Most of my partners have been femme, but the real throughline, the real point of consistency? Everyone I've dated or crushed on could probably turn me inside-out if they wanted to. Yes, including Tanya (twilight_tone)! Never cross a Dreamer, fr.

Anyway. All this to say that when whistl slugged me in the face, I started looking at her a little differently.

[oneshotgremlin]

Fake Peppino Speech Headcanons (that nobody asked for):

Hc that Fake Peppino thinks "forwards", Pizzahead just messed up their brain to mouth connection during creation so they speak backwards:

(I find the ciphers some peeps use for Fake's speech very cool, one that comes to mind being atbash [where in a way he's speaking backwards, just alphabetically]. Personally tho I can't really see anyone naturally speaking in ciphers unless it's like Stanford Pines lmao)

Since only their speaking is backwards, they can reverse their speech forwards w/ effort or assistance:

(Their tone still goes forwards! Hence why they can still get across that they're questioning something even though the words itself are backwards)

Not all "assistance" is helpful, however:

(Did I really commit to a whole ass headcanon just for the sake of this dumb joke? Of course I did who do you take me for)

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, ed. by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

This has a bunch of authors I already love in it (Stephen Graham Jones, Darcie Little Badger, Waubgeshig Rice, and Rebecca Roanhorse!!), and several authors I've been meaning to try (like Tommy Orange, Nick Medina, and Kelli Jo Ford, to name a few), so I'm really hyped for them all to be together in one volume! Plus dark fiction is very much my jam (especially when it comes in a bright and colorful package).

[babsbabbles]

what if I became violently anti-political

[whistleclangen]

Moon 3, Part 1.5

Flarepaw and Rainpaw make their way cautiously across Whistleclan territory towards where the old Whistleclan camp is located. Neither of them wants to be headed in this direction. It’s been three moons since disaster struck Whistleclan, but none of the three remaining members have any desire to return to the place where they watched their clanmates die. Luckily, they shouldn’t have to, they’re just… passing closer to that part of their territory than they have in a while.

They are making the journey to the Glowing Tides, Whistleclan’s Starclan meetingplace, for Rainpaw’s healer apprentice ceremony. Rainpaw is supposed to commune with Starclan and seek their guidance on how to move forward as a healer apprentice without a mentor. And Flarepaw… well Flarepaw is just tagging along for moral support and protection from the many potential threats that lurk in this area of the territory. 

It’s early evening, the sun setting low over the top of the cliffs above the beach that makes up most of Whistleclan territory. The ceremony has to happen when it’s fully dark out, but Flarepaw would rather travel at night as little as possible. He is supposed to be keeping Rainpaw safe after all. 

Their walk has been silent so far, but now they’ve reached the abandoned twoleg nest, marking the start of the easiest path up the cliffs. Flarepaw gestures with his head and Rainpaw follows him up the slope. They pass the waterfall and start moving into the forest. Rainpaw looks around in awe at this part of the territory, and Flarepaw remembers that she’s never actually been here before. Their flight from the old camp had been along the beach, not the top of the cliffs. This is the first time Rainpaw has seen this many trees at once.

“Whoaa, I didn’t know we had a whole forest on our territory!” Rainpaw breaks the silence between them.

“Well, Thicketclan has most of it on their territory, but yes we do have a section of forest allocated to us.”

“How come you never told me? I was so worried about having to gather herbs out on the beach. I don’t even know what kinds of herbs grow on the beach!” After a pause, she adds more quietly, “I guess I don’t really know what kinds of herbs grow in the forest either… That’s why I’m going to need to learn!”

Flarepaw is charmed and reassured by the younger apprentice’s enthusiasm. He’d been worried that she’d be more, well, worried at the prospect of learning to be a healer without a proper mentor. But he knows she has the guidance of Starclan on her side, and from watching her grow up, he knows that she can do anything she puts her mind to.

“We’re almost there,” Flarepaw lets Rainpaw know. “We just need to cross the river again up ahead.” Flarepaw catches a whiff of the Thicketclan border and reminds himself that this is the first time that Rainpaw will smell the other clans’ scents. He glances over to see her wrinkle her nose.

“What in Starclan’s name is that smell?” She asks Flarepaw, affronted by the assault on her senses. 

“That would be Thicketclan scent mostly, mixed with a bit of Heatherclan and Bluffclan too. We’re about to enter neutral territory, which means all the clans’ scents will intermingle.”

“Wow, I know you sometimes joke about how bad the other clans smell, but I didn’t realize you meant it so… literally.”

Finally, after crossing the river once more, the two apprentices reach the mouth of a yawning tunnel into the ground, the entrance to the Echocave where the clans conduct their full moon Gatherings. Flarepaw had only been to one gathering before the fall of Whistleclan, but still, it feels weird to see the Echocave so empty. He leads Rainpaw down into the earth and after a pause, she follows. The cave isn’t all that dark really, despite the late hour. The hole in the cave ceiling lets in enough starlight to see by, although the moon is closer to waning than waxing. It’s certainly no darker than the caves the call home. And then, they reach the mouth of the cave where the Glowing Tides can be reached. 

Flarepaw pads to a stop near the entrance and gestures at it with his plume of a tail. “Well, there it is. Briarstar said that no one is supposed to go in there except for healers and clan leaders, so I don’t think I should go in with you, but, well, good luck in there. I’ll be out here if you need anything…” Flarepaw trails off a little awkwardly, not sure what to say to someone who is most likely about to see the ghosts of their dead clanmates.

“Thank you for coming with me,” Rainpaw says quietly, leaning her head against Flarepaw for a moment. “I always feel safer with you around.” She smiles up at him–and since when is she almost at eye level with him, when did she grow up that much. 

Rainpaw turns to pad down the tunnel towards the Glowing Tides, but before she leaves the Echocave, Flarepaw calls, “Wait! Uh, if you see, well. If you see, y’know. Just.” He can’t find the words. “Just, say hi from me, ok?”

Rainkit feels tears beginning to well in her eyes, but she smiles at him again, sadder this time, and says, “Of course I will.”

[chipped-chimera]

Well fuck you too Windows. Wonder why they're pushing this-

Ah. That's why.

Anyone got some good Linux resources for someone who hasn't touched that shit in their entire life? My big concern is whether I can even move my huge game library over + software or if it's just going to be a massive headache.

Otherwise the only thing stopping my PC from actually working with Windows 11 is installing a chip onto the mobo.

[terpia]

I've never seen a cough transcribed in this way, but I suppose it works??

[beware-thecrow]

I'LL FIGHT GOD FOR HIM I SWEAR

[busket]

garden variety conservative transphobia is going to get worse but radical feminism is also going to get worse. if youre a cis women terfs are going to try to recruit you and make you believe that the reason your rights are at stake is because of trans people. they're going to tell you that all men are your violent oppressors and they're going to include trans women in that category. they're gonna tell you about women who are gender traitors and joined the enemy and they're going to point to trans men. don't believe them. trans people are not your enemy, we have no power over you, and we desperately need your support and your solidarity.

be aware of radfem pipelines and dog whistles too. be skeptical of anyone that talks about the divine feminine or correlates birthing, menstruating, or female reproductive organs with womanhood. be especially skeptical of people who use those biological things as reasons to why women are more spiritual, or more in tune with nature, or just that they're better than men (read: anyone they decide is a man)

radical feminism is an expected reactionary outcome from cis women who are being oppressed by conservatives, especially when all they practice is ciscentric, liberal, white feminism. they feel the need to be radicalized but don't have the experience and information to pinpoint the true source of their suffering. trans people are not your enemy, AMAB people are not your enemy, anyone who identifies as a man is not your enemy. we're all being crushed under the same stone

[neverendingford]

.

[mxmasters]

you can fix her wren I believe in you

lmao god. I know I owe her a favor, but is any favor that big?

joking. I'm a big believer in self-improvement, but that only works if the person really wants to change. It's like the Matrix. "I can only show you the door; you're the one that has to walk through it."

when she asks for help, I'll answer. I dunno about "fix", but I can definitely make her worse >:)

[amillixnvoices]

tag drop

[brightsuzaku]

i am attempting to switch to firefox in earnest from the chromium-based vivaldi and i am just

having a time of it

Vivaldi is EXTREMELY customizable with the ability to customize appearance, colors, the roundedness of tab edges, interface zoom, etc, etc, as well as natively having the ability to group tabs together

ON ONE HAND, Vivaldi is chromium and may eventually get screwed over by Google's bullshit, but on the other hand... I switched from Firefox to Vivaldi because of all of its features for fine-tuning my browsing experience and UI, and also because Firefox was getting kinda bloaty on my previous desktop build.

on the other hand, maybe with the power of extensions I can get back to some kind of similar functionality, I'm just going to miss having Nice Things out of the box without needing extensions.

I swapped out from Firefox for accessibility and customizability purposes, and now it keeps sounding like the Big G won't let me have Nice Things. I'll keep Vivaldi around just in case they do something with the browser to help combat that, but I'm loading my open tabs and versions of my extensions on Vivaldi over to Firefox as a safety net.

(I really don't want to switch from Vivaldi and I just feel so extremely gloomy when another one of those scary reblogs about Chrome come back up, because it's not Chrome per se, but Big G could just make everything worse.)

[corvidayays]

let us see her flip them off. cowards.

[whistleclangen]

Moon 0, Part One - Calm Before the Storm: Addendum

Once during every moon, there is a night where the sky is nearly pitch black, without even a sliver to betray the moon’s location against the map of stars that make up Silverpelt high above. On this night, the Moonless Night, Whistleclan gathers around the Tidepool and takes turns telling stories to each other, perched atop the Tidetree at one end. During the Telling of the Tales, one can tell any story they like: their favorite classic story to hear from the elders when they were a kit, an anecdote from a patrol they went on once, or even an interesting dream they had a few nights ago. Some even like to come up with a story on the spot, but Flarepaw is far too nervous for that.

Flarepaw hadn’t really felt like speaking this moon, but for Rainkit’s first Tales, he relented, and decided to tell an old favorite of his, The Kittypet and the Warrior. The creatively named story follows the lives of a kittypet and a cat from a far away clan, as they fall in love and eventually run off together. In other versions of the story, the warrior shuns his kittypet lover and stays in his clan, eventually becoming leader while the kittypet moves on, and even others have the warrior killing the kittypet in a case of mistaken identity—that’s Daisypaw’s favorite version, he thinks. But Flarepaw prefers the one where both of them get a happy ending, walking off into the sunset with tails entwined. Maybe he’s a bit of a romantic, who’s to say. In any case, the clan seemed to have enjoyed his tale, and he pads back to his spot by Rainkit and Shadowstreak, feeling contented and accomplished. 

Daisypaw ruins that nice feeling moments later when she prances up to the Tidetree and recounts a brutal battle, despite having never been in one herself. She goes into great detail describing the exact number of claw marks each cat received, and the death toll on both sides, and Flarepaw feels the urge to cover Rainkit’s ears with his paws. 

As the youngest, Rainkit had told the clan her story last, after a significant amount of coaxing from Shadowstreak and Flarepaw. She didn’t need to speak, of course—participation in the Tales is strictly voluntary—but she’d wanted to overcome her fears, and in the end, she’d regaled the clan with a somewhat quiet description of the time she chased a butterfly around camp, and the Clan had cheered for her loud as ever when she finally trailed off, smiling down at her paws. 

After the Telling of the Tales is finished, the cats of Whistleclan begin to make their ways to their dens, yawning and murmuring amongst themselves. Flarepaw bids Rainkit a good night, briefly pressing his head against hers before turning and making his way across camp. 

Trudging back to his nest in the apprentices’ den, Flarepaw can’t help but feel a little disappointed that his mother Berrybloom hadn’t stayed for the Tales this time. He knows she doesn’t like them, finds them tedious and frankly boring, but Flarepaw had hoped she’d be there for Rainkit’s first one. Ah well, he sighs internally, maybe she’ll stay for the next one.

He’s still not sure where she disappeared to either. She and Buzzardneedle had slunk out of camp soon after Briarstar had commenced the Tales, and he still hadn’t noticed them return. He’s pretty sure Quailfreckle assigned Berrybloom to the dawn patrol, so he hopes she gets back to camp in time to sleep for a while at least. 

“Well I think they’re a waste of time, and I don’t know why you care so much about them!” Flarepaw hears Faithpaw’s shrill voice echo out from the mouth of the apprentices’ den and he winces a bit. He wishes the other apprentice would sleep in the medicine den like a normal healer, but nooo, he can’t be separated from his sister for more than a few seconds or he’ll die! Flarepaw pads into the den and settles into his nest, hoping to stay out of the brewing argument.

“For the last time, Faithpaw,” Daisypaw growls at him in a half whisper, more mindful of the time of night, “the Tales are Whistleclan’s oldest tradition! They’re what sets us apart from the rest of the Clans, they’re how we sharpen our minds and our tongues and how we keep the memories of generations past alive!”

“Yeah, yeah, and who cares about the cats of the past, huh? As one of the cats of now, I could’ve been asleep in my nest so much earlier tonight if we all just gave it a rest. Shadowstreak has me out herb gathering tomorrow morning, before the Dawn patrol even goes out!”

“Well you can always skip like Berrybloom if you really don’t want to be there,” Daisypaw reasons, ignoring the fact that she herself would tear him a new one if she caught Faithpaw skipping the Tales. Flarepaw locks eyes with Thornpaw, the other apprentice of Whistleclan, from across the den, and she rolls her eyes theatrically. Flarepaw stifles a snort of laughter. He’s never really gotten along with Thornpaw, he finds her a bit too stuck up, and she sucks up to her mentor and to Briarstar constantly, but she can be pretty funny when she remembers to let loose a little. 

“...and what else would you have us do on those long, cold, moonless nights in the dead of Leafbare? Our stories are the fire that keeps us warm and lights up the nights when no moon shines in the sky–”

“I’m just saying–”

“I don’t want to hear what you have to say anymore tonight.” Daisypaw has finally had enough, it seems. “Go sleep in the medicine den. Shadowstreak made up a nest for you and everything, if you ever want to be a real healer someday, you’re going to have to sleep there sometime.”

Faithpaw looks like he wants to argue, but he thinks better of it, and slinks out of the entrance to the den, head bowed. The first smart call he’s made all night, Flarepaw thinks. The longer you argue with Daisypaw, the more likely you are to end up with a scratched nose or bleeding ear. Flarepaw knows from experience. 

Daisypaw glares around the den, daring Flarepaw and Thornpaw to comment on the exchange, and Flarepaw instantly lays his head down on the soft moss of his nest, curling away from the other two. He hears Daisypaw collapse into her own nest behind him with an overblown sigh.

Flarepaw closes his eyes, and sleep rises up from the depths to drag him into its embrace. 

[the-aila-test]

do you have any recs for horror by Indigenous authors?

Do I ever!

Never Whistle At Night is a collection of short stories that will chill you to the bone. A wonderful collection that includes several Indigenous women authors.

Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline was definitely a fun choice to bring on a camping trip last year. The ending had me feeling all kinds of conflicting emotions.

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott is a WILD ride. More Thriller than Horror and I feel that Native readers and Non-Native/White readers will have very different experiences reading it. I don't want to give too much away because figuring out what's going on as you're reading it is definitely part of the appeal.

Mexican Gothic is exactly what it sounds like. A scary remote village in Mexico? A big scary mansion run by a rich colonizer family? A badass Meso-Indigenous main character trying to figure out a mystery? It's all here. The build up is slow but as soon as shit starts getting WEIRD it's nothing but thrills and fun.

Anoka by Shane Hawk is another collection of short stories. It's a short read but each story is as fun and creepy as the next. Read at night <3

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth is for all the urban NDNs out there. The main character is a certified badass. I love the NDN/Punk rock feel of it combined with the horror of the supernatural.

Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories. Terrifying. Scary. Dreadful. Cannot recommend it enough. Read it alone or at night when all is quiet to get the most of this experience. You'll have nightmares. lol