Aubrey Wood is Truly Terrible.

SFF writer. Biracial, mostly female, foul mouthed.

[thememedaddy]

[mckitterick]

[ ID: tweet by MightySigurd: "I am so tired of living like it's the 1600s. Can I afford eggs at the market? Are my friends gonna die in the plague? Puritans coming for my sinful lifestyle. I want some modern problems. Modern Problems" /ID ]

[cheddar-baby]

*eating a ploughmans lunch* so, how long until it kicks in?

[deeps-repus]

These pickled onions ain't shit

Me 5 minutes later:

[twistcmyk]

HELP

[unfollowryanross-blog]

if you ever feel bad about yourself, just remember this one time in my english class, we were writing horror stories and one of the girls wrote “it was friday the 13th, the night before halloween” for her opening sentence

[lowercasebreezy]

Solaris to publish queer cyberpunk novel by debut author Aubrey Wood | Rebellion Publishing

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood, said to “combine the attitude of Gideon the Ninth with the noir pastiche of Archer Dreamland”, for publication in 2023. Bang Bang Bodhisattva is author Aubrey Wood’s debut novel and follows a trans woman hacker-for-hire who, in an attempt to make […]

Hey, if any of you are hanging around here and don’t follow my twitter, I want to let you know the publisher bought my novel. Thanks for keeping an eye on me all these years; here’s to phase 2. 

[anarchopuppy]

Last week, the free pantry outside the Birmingham Free Store was smashed and all of its contents destroyed. We don’t want to say it was the cops, but everyone’s pretty sure it was the cops - they had been spotted eyeing the store and taking pictures multiple times leading up to this, likely pissed off by the banner we had put up in support of George Floyd + all of the anti-cop and openly anarchist literature we distribute

Within 24 hours we had received a new, even bigger pantry and more donations than we knew what to do with so we could stock it back up. We’re showing them that we’re not intimidated and we’re not going anywhere. We have the community on our side

If you want to support queer-affirming mutual aid and reproductive justice in a historically poor and Black neighborhood in Alabama, donate to the Free Store!!! We’re on both patreon and venmo at @bhamfreestore - the patreon covers supplies and running costs, and the venmo is a virtual tip jar that compensates the volunteers who keep it running

[gonegrill]

I always thought my life was a tragedy, but now I realize it’s a cringe compilation.

[autijacen]

Hamlet.

[gonegrill]

how dare you make my post funnier

[akron-squirrel]

Gain

[frottinq]

We can't get rid of slavery, the economy will collapse!

We can't get rid of child labor, the economy will collapse!

We can't have 8 hour work days, the economy will collapse.

What? The workers want TWO days off a week? Don't they know the economy will collapse?

[frottinq]

basically if a capitalist says the economy will collapse because of a reform that will help workers, you don't need to believe them, also it's gonna collapse anyway, that's what it does under capitalism.

[brunhiddensmusings]

[vendata-remaking-deactivated202]

“benrey” this, “benry” that. how many of y’all have benreading a damn book lately 😐

[glumshoe]

The great thing about poodles is that if you take your eyes off them for one second, they transform into this:

[a-naf]

I’ve been neglecting my tumblr, but I’m so bored I’m posting here again.

[jaubaius]

Cat tries to get off of a piano.

[blueandbluer]

Oh no baby 

[kittykat8311]

play that funky music jazz man

[homunculus-argument]

 Hey btw, another worldbuilding thing: You can, and actually should have weird and impractical cultural things. They’re not inherently unrealistic, for as long as you address the realistic consequences as well.

 Let’s say you’ve got a city where there’s tame white doves everywhere. They’re not pests, they’re regarded as sacred, holy protectors of the city, and the whole city cares for them and feeds them like they’re pets. They’re so tame because it’s a social taboo to hurt or scare one. Nice pretty doves :)

 Then someone points out that even if they’re not seen as pests, doesn’t having a completely unchecked feral pigeon population - that not only isn’t being culled, but actively fed and cared for - mean that there would be bird shit absolutely all over the place?

 A part of you wants to say no, because these are your nice, pretty doves. To explain that there’s a reason why they’re not shitting all over the place, maybe they’re super-intelligent and specifically bred and trained to not shit all over the place. The logistics of how, exactly, could anyone breed and train a flock of feral birds go unaddressed.

 An even worse solution would be to not have those birds, editing them out of the world. No, they spark joy, you can’t just toss them out!

 Now, consider: Yes, yes they would, but the city also has an extensive public sanitation service that’s occupied 90% of the time by cleaning bird shit off of everything. One of the most common last names in the area actually translates to “one who scrapes off dove shit”, and it’s a highly respected occupation. And thanks to the sheer necessity of constantly regularly cleaning everything, the city enjoys a much higher standard of cleanliness, and less public health issues caused by poor public sanitation.

 The doves do protect the city. By shitting fucking everywhere.

[moonybyte]

While I absolutely love your idea, I just want to say that you can easily reduce public bird shitting from Pigeons by offering them comfortable lodgings where they can sleep and feed. Sure, you need to clean THOSE, but the pigeons shit a lot less all over town.

The Augsburg concept has one big pigeon house every 500m in which wild pigeons are fed, protected from weather and have nesting opportunities. Cities doing that have WAY less uncontrolled populations (since they can take out eggs if they feel they need reduce the population), way less shit AND a healthy population since it’s easier for veterinarians to notice and get to sick animals.

So I’d say one can of course still keep your general idea……but there’s also those MASSIVE palace-like pidgeon houses and only the most worthy are allowed to enter and directly interact with the pigeons (feed them, heal them, clean their lodgings). One big entrance for the human servants (priests??) and millions of small holes for the pigeons.

In fact, one could potentially turn your idea around IN THE PIDGEONS FAVOR. So your world is like ours and most major cities have a big feral pigeon population. And most of those cities HATE the pigeons and try to fight them and stuff. And they think that pigeon worshipper town is frigging cuckoo. BUT when comparing, then pigeon worshipper town is ridiculously clean and beautiful. No bird shit everywhere, no ruined house facades and statues from erosion through bird poop. Pigeon haters go “how tf are you so clean, you have birds EVERYWHERE???” and the worshippers shrug and show their little bird temples spread around town that keep their precious birdies AND their town pretty.

[plucky-passerine]

I think this is a really good example of how research can greatly improve your worldbuilding! You don’t have to be perfectly accurate - it is fantasy after all - but the real world is so much more clever and beautiful than any of us know

[lowercasebreezy]

I never posted this here! I’m getting another one on my other hand this week.

[glumshoe]

Quick question, am I the only one that thinks the developing a palate for alcohol, nicotine, and coffee is kinda pretentious? Like i don't care if it's a whiskey, vodka, or tequila, alcohol is alcohol. Not touching nicotine but I'm sure cigarettes and cigars don't have that much of a difference. And all coffee tastes the same. Super for y'all if you have preferences, but seriously give the palate shit a rest already.

Well, they are all literal drugs, so the reason people consume them is ultimately “for the mind/body-altering effects”. Everything else is extra.

I hate the flavor of regular black coffee, but I always add cream, sugar, and enough spices to kill half the samples in a pathology lab. The coffee itself is merely a carrier for the psychoactive properties of caffeine (surprisingly useful for mitigating ADHD) and complimenting the flavors of cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove. I’ll forgive a milk base if I’m drinking Turkish coffee, which is genuinely delicious when unadulterated (I add sugar). Coffee is also appealing just because there is comfort in ritual, and carrying around a hot mug that you drink from gives your hands something to do.

Alcohol... I think people would drink alcohol even if it always tasted like nightmares. I can barely stand the stuff and usually avoid it, since I find the particular psychoactive effects to be objectionable or dangerous 99% of the time, but there are certainly some forms that taste better than others. I think people decrying “girl drinks” and forcing themselves to enjoy Things That Are Bad is definitely pretentious and rooted in some weird machismo complex. On the rare occasions that I do drink, I prefer gin and tonics, but I’m particular about them; I enjoy that they taste clean. Like the last moments of an English colonist dying of malaria in British-occupied India.

I can’t speak to tobacco products. I find the smell of cigarettes choking and sour and disgusting, but cigars and pipe tobacco just smell like burning plants to me, and I don’t mind the scent of them when they linger.

I will say, too, that humans are wired for a touch of masochism. Black coffee and neat alcohol may taste absolutely terrible, but certain kinds of suffering have their own appeal. Like a Tangerine Altoid (hallowed be thy name) or a spoonful of Marmite. Sometimes you’ve just got to stick a fork in the neural outlet.

[ladyzolstice]