Aria of Scarlet

“cis people have no idea how expensive it is to be trans, a decent fightstick is still like $150” Aria - She/Her - Screenwriter, Animator, Audio Designer

[ariaofscarlet]

"In another life" I really wanted to do a study of the storch unit poster and this was the result

[segamascott]

[notatzimisce]

I will never shy away from the word goon. goon is the only way to describe a particular type of henchman, lackey, or thug. look at these guys. they're goons.

[memewhore]

[ryan-sometimes]

I love how Zohran Mamdani is wearing a suit everywhere. And if he has anything else he puts it ON TOP of the suit. A basketball jersey. A high-vis vest. All worn over the suit. He’s like the mayor character in a cartoon who’s always dressed as The Mayor. If I didn’t know who he was and he biked past me in NYC I’d be like holy shit was that the mayor

[mankillercalledbunny]

Not to bring the serious to a very fun post, but this reaction is exactly what Mamdani is working for with his image, because in a very real way the most effective way for him to be The Mayor is if he looks like The Mayor.

This is a man who is VIOLENTLY aware that when it comes to conservatives, he is a Muslim first, a Brown Man second, an Immigrant third, a Socialist fourth, and a human a very distant fifth, if considered at all. He was also a young adult during the Obama Years and will have seen Republicans rip Obama to shreds for wearing a tan suit instead of a dark one and use literally ANY excuse they could to try and degrade his image.

Despite the fact that a mayor who wears a T-shirt and jeans might "seem more approachable" in the eyes of the average American, Zohran Mamdani knows that someone with his profile fundamentally cannot get away with that the way his White colleagues can. He has instead put in the effort to look professional and BE approachable, because not only does it make it easier for him to reach and represent his constituents, it forces everyone, including both his opponents and establishment Democrats, to engage with the work he is doing instead of judging his image. The fact that he is always seen in a suit and is recognisably The Mayor is, while also something he has fun with, a deliberate choice to ensure he is as inarguably A Professional Politician To Be Taken Seriously. The added humour of e.g. the hi-vis is a bonus, only achievable because he works so hard to Look Like The Mayor.

[mankillercalledbunny]

Adding these tags from @haunted-stranger-garden bc they illustrate this brilliantly

[draconym]

[charaznablescanontoyota]

May I humbly ask, why so many lemonade?

on sunday july 5th my roommates and i are going to taste test and rank as many lemonades as we can find! mostly for fun but also we will be putting a little of each bottle into a drink dispenser to create a sort of frankenstein jungle juice that you will be able to give $20 to my podcasting/streaming network's ko-fi to make us do a shot of.

literally that's it that's the stream. welcome to jackass

[comicaurora]

I had to read a Heinlein book for a literature class on sci-fi and it was HORRIBLE and the only thing that got me though it was thinking "it's time for more Deep Thoughts With Heinlein(tm)" what a strange man this author was...

my working theory is that the most foundational works of literature in a given genre are the ones that inspire the most concepts and tropes that are carried forward in the genre and this inspiring property is frequently because there is, to simplify, something deeply wrong with them

[comicaurora]

nothing is more inspiring than an incredibly cool worldbuilding concept being continually squandered by an author who's much more interested in the precise convolutions of an all-heterosexual polycule and/or time-traveling to have sex with your mom before she stopped being hot

[ariaofscarlet]

When I was a kid my grandpa got me into scifi and I had somehow pop culture osmosised that “Heinlein is one of the classics of the genre, I should read that one” and at like 15ish read SiaSL and finished it like… a week before your video on it came out

“Deep thoughts with Heinlein” was all I could think of as I unknowingly finished that book and picked up my next book, stepping directly onto a rake, “Battlefield Earth” by L. Ron Hubbard and got to experience completely blind “Its time for Deep thoughts with Hubbard”

Such deep thoughts as “wouldnt it be sick as fuck to blow up the moon” and “What if we made the most sexless sex cult.”

[ariaofscarlet]

A friend bought it for me at a convention he was at cause he “knew I was a big sci-fi fan” and knew it “had a reputation.”

He didnt tell me that reputation was that the author was the scientology guy and that half way through the book you can feel his brain short out and he starts to drink the kool-aid.

That was quite the summer reading one two punch of going “maybe ‘classic’ science fiction is bad actually.” (Its not. I still love Sci-fi those two just suck)

[comicaurora]

I had to read a Heinlein book for a literature class on sci-fi and it was HORRIBLE and the only thing that got me though it was thinking "it's time for more Deep Thoughts With Heinlein(tm)" what a strange man this author was...

my working theory is that the most foundational works of literature in a given genre are the ones that inspire the most concepts and tropes that are carried forward in the genre and this inspiring property is frequently because there is, to simplify, something deeply wrong with them

[comicaurora]

nothing is more inspiring than an incredibly cool worldbuilding concept being continually squandered by an author who's much more interested in the precise convolutions of an all-heterosexual polycule and/or time-traveling to have sex with your mom before she stopped being hot

[ariaofscarlet]

When I was a kid my grandpa got me into scifi and I had somehow pop culture osmosised that “Heinlein is one of the classics of the genre, I should read that one” and at like 15ish read SiaSL and finished it like… a week before your video on it came out

“Deep thoughts with Heinlein” was all I could think of as I unknowingly finished that book and picked up my next book, stepping directly onto a rake, “Battlefield Earth” by L. Ron Hubbard and got to experience completely blind “Its time for Deep thoughts with Hubbard”

Such deep thoughts as “wouldnt it be sick as fuck to blow up the moon” and “What if we made the most sexless sex cult.”

[agayworthfightingfor]

On Dentists

So I can’t brush my teeth. Like, it’s the worst kind of hell. I went to the dentist for a cleaning today and I told the hygienist this, and she was wonderfully helpful.

There are some incredibly soft toothbrushes available- namely, post-surgical brushes. Running them under hot water makes them even softer.

She told me that you don’t really need to use toothpaste- it’s mostly marketing. The foam gets to me, so that is really reassuring.

She gave me two particularly soft brushes and some xylitol gum. Trident is a market brand of xylitol gum, which helps with your teeth and can make your breath smell better.

The whole purpose of brushing is to disrupt plaque buildup. You don’t need to brush twice a day, every day with toothpaste if you brush correctly- little circles, focusing on near the gums (where most plaque builds up). So if you’re having a bad sensory day and can’t brush at all, it’s not the end of the world.

Hell, you don’t even need a toothbrush if even the post-surgical ones are too harsh. Going over your teeth with the same motions using a washcloth is enough.

She wants to find a fluoride rinse that has a taste I can stand (peppermint is the only mint I can stand) but she’s not particularly worried about it.

I go to Dr. Barr in Chicago. If you can get to the State St. Macy’s, his office is nearby. He’s very kind and patient and really understanding of my needs as an autistic person. The hygienist, I don’t know her name, announced everything she was going to do before she did it, and stopped frequently to see how I was doing.

This is really the only positive dentist I’ve ever had- past dentists have been too rough and not bothered to help find ways I can actually brush.

Basically this is a glowing recommendation for Dr. Barr’s office if you’re autistic, afraid of dentists, or have sensory needs. This is a recommendation even if you don’t have any of those things.

[huhnerkopf]

Im actually crying i feel like this post was reblogged for me oh my god oh my god oh my lord thank you

[lascapigliata]

You can also dilute your mouthwash and use it to swish around if it burns. My dentist does this so consider it dentally approved

[spoonie-living]

If you were feeling guilty about your brushing habits, either due to sensory issues, pain, allergies, executive dysfunction, or just plain fatigue, here’s what you need to know about what is and isn’t necessary if your dental care!

[charismat1c-megafauna]

Post-covid, I got really horrible shit going on with my gag reflex where for some reason the mint flavor of toothpaste (and only toothpaste) would make me gag so hard that I’d throw up. Then I found a kids toothpaste that’s like strawberry flavored or something, but it has the proper adult amount of flouride, so it works for me and I don’t gag much anymore. Here’s an article with some options if you’re like me lol

Best Non-Mint Toothpaste For Adults — Dr. Gemma Wheeler

Dr. Gemma Wheeler lists best non-mint toothpaste options for adults. The list includes those that are truly non mint, without oils or aromas

Also for the people who can’t stand foam, the ingredient you’re looking to avoid is called SLS.

[bisexualbaker]

I share this frequently, but I had a very difficult time making myself floss because I hated the way that standard floss digs into my fingers when I use it. I switched to floss picks, and boom: A hated activity instantly became entirely neutral. Much easier to convince myself to do! If you have the same problem with standard floss, this might be worth a try.

Also, my most recent trip to the dentist, I was told that xylitol is a very effective treatment for dry mouth! And also that dry mouth is bad for your teeth, because it can disrupt the PH balance in your mouth, making your teeth more susceptible to cavities. While you want to be very careful to keep any xylitol products away from dogs in particular and probably pets in general, if you have dry mouth, you can try checking for products with xylitol in them.

[bisexualbaker]

Of note: My brother endorses the OraNusre brand of flavorless toothpaste; he says it “tastes like toothbrush”. My mom, meanwhile, is a fan of the Hello brand, which comes in different fruity and sweet flavors. Both of these are listed at the non-mint toothpaste link above.

If you prefer a toothpaste or a mouthwash for dry mouth, I use Biotène; it’s not cheap, but brushing once a day with it, a tube of Biotène toothpaste lasts me around four to five months. As far as I’m aware, it’s only in mint flavor.

[lyraeon]

who taught you that suffering in silence was noble, and how would you shutting up have benefited them?

[lyraeon]

this also counts for all those times you kept your mouth shut and didn't complain because you were being polite, and people would gladly have changed things if you had just asked. your suffering was not noble. you do not get a cookie for it, you do not get a tally mark next to your soul's score for grinning and bearing it. your suffering serves no purpose. break free of it. you deserve comfort.

[lyraeon]

the people who care about you do not want you to be miserable and would be sad to find out you are sacrificing for them when you don't have to be.

the people who expect you to keep quiet and never complain do not respect you or your feelings.

[cuteblkgrl]

♡Black Melee Peach!♡

[papirussian]

Thought I'd do some sketches of a cool new potential series on YouTube: "It's Bunlith: The Witch Upstairs"

"It's Bunlith: The Witch Upstairs" was Created by Lilith Walther and Phobia Hansen

I'm excited to watch more of this show

[technofeudalism]

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

[technofeudalism]

since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.

anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.

Games

A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.

corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.

Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.

Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.

Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.

sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.

Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.

Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.

The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.

Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.

The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.

Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.

Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.

The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)

Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.

Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.

EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.

You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.

The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)

Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.

Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.

ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.

PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.

Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.

FarmRPG - simple, mobile-friendly, text-based farming RPG.

Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.

PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike

Tools

Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)

Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.

Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)

Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.

PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.

Non-Games

Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.

Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.

17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.

Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.

The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)

Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)

Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)

If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.

r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.

r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.

thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.

[youhavethewrong]

Sorry if this is disappointing to some of you, but HRT won't make you look like your mom. It'll turn you into a robot catgirl. Your head will be a big CRT monitor with cat ears on top. Yeah and your face will be low rez emoticons like :3 and >_<. And your tail? You better believe it'll be an electrical cord.

Sorry if my being brutally honest is disheartening, but those going into HRT should keep their expectations realistic.

[y0urnewhyperfixation]

life is never too busy for more whiterose barf

[jsketch12]

alright that's it *turns the male-only protagonist into a butch*