be like the rocky promontory

Osiris (they/them) | adult | fandom, memes & shenanigans, politics, aesthetics, and whatever else my wretched little brain latches onto

[duckprintspress]

Buy Queer Creations, Support Queer Causes: 2026 Story and Art Bundles for Charity!

HAPPY PRIDE! It’s time for our fourth-annual Pride Bundle charity drive! We’ve got three bundles this year: a general imprint bundle with 25 titles totaling 381 pages; an explicit bundle of 15 stories, 237 pages; and an art bundle with 10 artworks, 250 mb of digital artwork! In the first three years of this initiative, we’ve raised over $725 for the charities we’ve selected, and we’re delighted to be back, this time in an effort to raise money for the Queer Liberation Library ( @queerliblib ) and the Transgender Law Center.

The General Imprint Bundle costs $25 USD (60% off normal!). 40% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

The Explicit Imprint Bundle costs $15 USD (60% off normal!). 44% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

The Art Bundle costs $10 USD (66% off normal!). 24% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

How This Works

You buy one or both bundles between now and June 30th, 2026.

We tally up all the proceeds earned and do some math-e-magic to figure out how much we’re donating!

Before the end of July, we divide our total raised amount in half and donate equal amounts to the Queer Liberation Library and the Transgender Law Center.

We post the proof that we’ve made the donation (you can see past proof here, here, and here.)

You get fantastic stories!

We all get that happy, glowy feeling of knowing that money has been well-spent on fantastic causes!

About the Press

Duck Prints Press is a queer-owned indie press, founded to publish original works by fancreators. We’ve been in operation for over 5.5 years, and in that time we’ve worked with well over 150 creators to publish ten anthologies and over 200 other stories, from shorts to novels, and we’ve got more on the works (five anthologies in progress, multiple novels slated for the later half of 2026, an art project, and more). The vast majority of our creators and their creations are queer/LGTBQIA+ (maybe even all, but we don’t out anyone and we don’t ask demography because, frankly, it’s none of our business).

About Our Selected Charities

Note: These charities are not affiliated with the Press, do not know we’re doing this fundraiser, have not endorsed this in anyway and are, as such, utterly uninvolved in this beyond being the beneficiaries of our efforts! Text is from their webpages.

The Queer Liberation Library: “Queer Liberation Library (QLL) is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community.”

The Transgender Law Center: “Transgender Law Center is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people. Since 2002 we’ve been organizing, assisting, informing and empowering thousands of individual community members towards a long-term, national, trans-led movement for liberation.”

About the Bundles

We are offering three bundles: general imprint stories, with 25 works; explicit imprint stories, with 15 works; and art, with 10 works. The shop listings include details about and excerpts from all the stories and previews of all the art. Purchasing book bundles gets you access to the e-book (in ePub and PDF formats) of each title included in the bundle. Purchasing the art bundle gets you access to high-quality print-ready images, sized to print clearly at 8.5 in x 11 in (21.6 cm x 27.9 cm) (FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!). Here’s what you’ll get!

Works in the General Imprint Charity Bundle:

Farm to Table by Andi Rigby

The Problem with Wishes by Annabeth Lynch

Of Loops and Weaves by Catherine E. Green

Starstruck, Adrift by Cedar D. McCafferty-Svec

Let the Solstice Come by D. V. Morse

Red Ink, Black Water by Dei Walker

Old Books, New Friends by Genevieve Maxwell

A Galaxy Run in 30 Minutes or Less by J. D. Harlock

Seal Island by K. B. Vimes

Quintessentially You by Len Amin

Sonic Boom of My Heart by Linnea Peterson

Night Birds by Max Jason Peterson

Snow Day Memories by Merlin Grey

Sarisa by N. C. Farrell

Wolven Dance by Neo Scarlett

It’s Witchcraft! by Nicola Kapron

Living Room Beauty Shop by O. E. Hendrickson

One Moon at a Time by R. L. Houck

a name to call by Rascal Hartley

Nycticorax by S. J. Ralston

Bubble, Bubble by Sage Mooreland

The Wayward Timekeeper by Terra P. Waters

To Fill My Cup by Violet J. Hayes

Tincture of Clarity by Willa Blythe

Chrysopoeia by Zel Howland

25 stories. 381 pages. 130,140 words of fiction! Price: $25.00 USD

GET THE GENERAL IMPRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 40% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Works in the Explicit Imprint Charity Bundle:

Snowbound and Love Sick by A. L. Heard

Heart’s Scaffold by Alec J. Marsh

Heated Desperation by Aria L. Deair

A Safe Place to Land by boneturtle

Can’t Let Go by Dei Walker

Like it Sharp by E. V. Dean

then, too, at sea by ilgaksu

Sinking by Lyn Weaver

We the Hunters by Lyonel Loy

Goals by R. L. Houck

Easier Than Expected by Samantha M. Piper

Worlds Apart (but Still Close)by Sanne Burg

Taken at Sea by Shea Sullivan

Warm Anything You Want by Tris Lawrence

Allay the Burning Fever in My Blood by YF Ollwell

15 stories. 237 pages. 80,768 words of fiction! Price: $15.00 USD

GET THE EXPLICIT IMPRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 44% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Works in the Art Charity Bundle:

Devour by Aaron Kotze

Warm by Aceriee

Aurora by æonswinter

Forever Halloween by Max Jason Peterson

Demi Dragon by May Barros

Bar on the outskirts. by MizuShiba

old truths, new patches by radicalhoodie

The Riddle by Shea Sullivan

[untitled] by swev.art

Another Spring by Zel Howland

10 artworks. 247 mb of art! Price: $10.00 USD

GET THE ART PRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 24% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Check out our bundles for charity now, and help us help others!!

Can’t support right now? Signal boosts help too!!

[queerliblib]

queer books! queer authors! queer publishers! queer libraries!

all of the above!!

[duckbunny]

your twenties are not "late" to start hrt. that is a normal time to start hrt. your thirties are also a normal time to start hrt. your seventies are pretty late to start hrt, but not too late. like, statistically, that's at the end of the curve. but if you are not dead, it is not too late for hrt.

[wordsintimeandspace]

A small pamphlet bind of "the tenderness of spring" by @smallhorizons! It felt appropriate to bind some trans fic this month ✨ This is my first time making my own bookcloth and I'm delighted with how well it turned out!

[shmooseee]

carl…(foggy)

[chucktaylorupset]

watching project hail mary while nodding the whole time to show that i agree with eva stratt shooting ryland grace into space

[ahhhdownwego]

I really tried to tip the scales in your favor

[dr-cassie-mckay]

Here I am, a rabbit-hearted girl Frozen in the headlights It seems I've made the final sacrifice

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) - Florence + the Machine

[blonsh]

[lttrsfrmlnrrgby]

What about the ways Grace betrayed Stratt?

Thinking about book!Stratt and her impassioned attempt to make Grace understand when he says no, and thinking of Sandra Hüller's amazing acting during the chase scene and how she shows her sense of disappointment and betrayal in these beautiful, minute expressions. Thinking of the ways in which Grace betrayed her in so many ways despite the ways in which Grace had time and space to comprehend his unique skills and integrality to the running of the whole project. Thinking of the ways in which Grace's cowardice includes the refusal to face facts and think through not just what came next, but what came After the launch-- thinking through how badly Grace betrayed Eva Stratt, and not the reverse;

Eva Stratt, who took on an impossible burden, willing to go into it all on her own because no one else was willing to shoulder the skies

Eva Stratt, who sought out every possible scientist and engineer and resource able to think big about potential alien life and everything else they would need to combat the threat

Eva Stratt, who makes sure well in advance that she has permission and resources for world-saving work

Eva Stratt, whose selection of a fringe microbiologist with a genius for explaining dense terminology to lay people yields quicker, more productive decisions and avenues for research than any hidebound academic

Eva Stratt, whose microbiologist-teacher-translator understands how to administer too many projects and too many demands on his time and still carves out time to do more because that's what teachers do

Eva Stratt, whose right-hand man has answered, advised, and absolved her as they made horrible decisions that were the most likely to succeed toward the largest and best end of them all

Eva Stratt, who shared almost all of her plans and projects with her fringe microbiologist, teacher, second in command, project partner, her friend

Eva Stratt, who could trust her friend to make sound, difficult, scientifically valid, potential-maximizing decisions on the world's behalf because he loved it as much as she does

Eva Stratt (movie), who cannot be seen to falter or yield if any of this is going to work, takes a long moment of softness to try to offer some kind of assurance, camaraderie that they are all in their separate tasks still all in it together

Eva Stratt, who finds out at the last minute, on the precipice of deadly delay or potentially world-saving success, that her friend is a naive fool and a coward who never understood her or the mission and what was at stake after all

Eva Stratt, who'd hoped she wasn't alone in the willingness to do anything to save as much as they could

Eva Stratt, who found herself alone in making the world's hardest decisions, whose once-co-lead refused to help her make the awful, desperate, necessary decision together

Eva Stratt, whose friend betrayed her by never thinking all of it through. Betrayed by her right-hand, trusted project co-lead, translator of science bullshit, radical innovator and methodical scientist, who refused to follow the facts all the way to the proof he should have seen long before. Betrayed by her once-friend, now just Crew Member Number Three.

Eva Stratt, who loves the world enough to give up someone who has made her life and her work bearable, even as her once-friend proves his love is not the awful, all encompassing love that both she and the world need

Eva Stratt, who shoots her once-friend and still brilliant and innovative scientist into space anyway, because she has no other choice and now neither does he

Eva Stratt, who stands alone after the launch, and who'd hoped (in the quiet of her carefully cordoned off heart) that Grace would be by her side-- shouldering the heavens, pushing that boulder, stealing fire over and over until the sun brightened again or they'd wrung out every last gasp

Eva Stratt, who was right in thinking she'd stand alone at the end

I need a thousand fics from the in-canon Eva Stratt Was Right fanclub posthaste.

[eldritchbauble]

Watchers

[drizzly-bear]

even more phm + textposts with stratt (and grace)

[spokelseskladden]

uuh idk man, since it's my au and i do whatever i want they get together in season 3 now. because it's fun

[theotherpacman]

not all ships are For wanting them to be in a happy healthy relationship together. sometimes shipping two characters means you want them to be erotically obsessed with each other and become entwined in a mutually toxic love affair for a few months and then horrifically break each other's hearts and never speak again. sometimes you want them to be codependent best friends with enough repression to explode a submarine who only make out/have sex when they're at their worst. sometimes you want them to pine after each other for years, never say anything, and then die. sometimes you want them to kill each other. this, too, is shipping

[spokelseskladden]

soooo i heard you guys liked the AU :) these are mainly just stupid doodles but i had fun with them

[patricia-taxxon]

ive found that partially treated mental illness can sometimes look to uninvolved onlookers like faked mental illness.

[patricia-taxxon]

"someone who really has pOCD would be disgusted and horrified at their intrusive thoughts" or maybe i'm in therapy & am going by the books, being radically ambivalent to my intrusive thoughts instead of wasting energy mentally washing my paws of sin. i'm not going to perform my rock bottom for you for the sake of being believed.

[elamimax]

"I won't perform my rock bottom for you for the sake of being believed" is going straight into my permanent storage holy shit

[avi-mation]

Earth’s Scapegoat and her Sacrificial Lamb

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I'm very curious to hear your take on Zuko as a disabled character? All of your analyses of disability in fiction have been very interesting to read so far, thank you for sharing your thoughts/expertise.

Thank you!  Follow-on from this post about Toph.

What I mean by saying Zuko is a disabled character: the social model of disability basically states that disability is any bodily difference that gets problematized and/or treated as abnormal by society.  This definition includes facial differences, AKA any scarring, skin marking, and so on that leads to staring by nondisabled society or other forms of stigma based on the person’s appearance.  Part of the reason for this inclusion is about complicating the disabled-nondisabled dichotomy; facial difference and facial scarring are identities within that framework.  Part of the reason comes from the U.S.’s history of Ugly Laws, which literally made it illegal for people with facial differences to appear in public in some cities as late as 1974.  Part of it is the huge overlap between ableism (giving more privileges to the nondisabled) and lookism (giving more privileges to the normatively beautiful).

Avatar: The Last Airbender has some high-quality anti-ableism in showing Zuko’s story, including how other characters respond to Zuko and how Zuko’s appearance informs but does not define his characterization.

One of the ways this comes out is by turning nondisabled characters’ gaze back on them:

In “The Serpent’s Pass,” Jet says to Zuko “You know, as soon as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were…” and then goes on to describe his almost hilariously wrong conclusion that Zuko’s a Freedom Fighter waiting to happen because Zuko’s village was presumably also destroyed by the Fire Nation.  We get to see Zuko’s moment of terror that he actually has been recognized turn into incredulity as he then gets invited to join a guerrilla force opposing everything he (currently) stands for.  Jet looks stupid for jumping to conclusions based on appearances.

In both “Zuko Alone” and “The Cave of Two Lovers,” that same jumping-to-conclusions works in Zuko’s favor, because both Song’s mother and Li’s parents assume that anyone with a burn scar must be a veteran of the fight against the Fire Nation.  Again, the emphasis is on the fact that the people judging Zuko based on his appearance are wrong.

In “The Chase,” Azula becomes the only person we ever see mock Zuko for his appearance, when she covers her own left eye to draw out the “family resemblance” for Aang.  The moment gets a horrified reaction out of Aang — Zuko’s his enemy, but Aang also realizes that this is a nasty thing to do — and helps to establish Azula as not just a villain, but a sadistic one.

In “The Beach,” Zuko blows up at Ty Lee for commenting that stress can cause breakouts.  His response is unnecessarily mean-spirited, but it also draws attention to the relative level of privilege (the biggest skin problem she has to worry about is acne) that informed her careless comment.

In “Crossroads of Destiny,” Zuko assumes that, when Katara calls him “the face of the enemy,” it’s a way of calling him frightening to look at — and it’s Katara who looks like a jerk for implying it, even accidentally.

The other big way that this comes out is clapping back at the implied treatment of disability as demanding explanation, or the “But why are you like this?” form of ableism:

The show makes it clear that Zuko does not owe anyone — not Song, not Li, not Jet, not his crew, not his friends — an explanation for why he looks the way he does.  None of the Gaang ever ask Zuko what happened, and the few characters who do (Li, Song, Lieutenant Jee) don’t end up looking good when they do so.

“The Cave of Two Lovers” clearly underlines the show’s theme of “my body, my business” in the scene where Song tries to touch Zuko’s face.  The tone (including literal musical tones) signals that Song is being inappropriate and invasive.  It’s understandable that she wants to make a connection, but it’s also emphatically not okay to touch body parts of strangers one has not received permission to touch.

To be clear, taking people’s ostrich-horses is also not okay, Zuko, but Baby’s First Grand Theft Auto helps drive home just how thoroughly Song has let her curiosity and rudeness sour a budding connection.  It also shows that, while she’s right that she and Zuko have some things in common, she has privileges he lacks because she doesn’t have to disclose her scars if she doesn’t feel like it.  Plus, that moment contrasts to Katara and Mai both touching Zuko’s cheek — Katara just after they’ve shared a moment of vulnerability, Mai just before they start smooching — because they’re both doing so in a way that’s respectful to Zuko himself.

When he wakes up from a dream of turning into Aang, the first thing Zuko does is touch his left eye to make sure he’s still himself.  It’s part of his identity, and the only time we see adolescent Zuko without it (earlier in the dream sequence) it’s a way of showing that Zuko isn’t truly himself.

Zuko grapples with the fact that he’s always going to bear evidence of having survived abuse, and a big part of his character journey is concluding that he’s free to make whatever meaning he chooses of that scar, regardless of what Ozai might’ve intended.

There are other elements of Zuko’s story the Avatar writers do well.  He bears a superficial resemblance to the thousands of villains (especially in SF) who become villainous because they incur facial scarring, but of course his story is infinitely more humanized and nuanced than “skin bleached in a vat of acid, might as well go rob banks now.”  His appearance incurs very different reactions depending on his current wealth and political power, emphasizing the intersections of disability and imperialism.  He discusses the possibility of a cure with Katara, but also goes on to live a long and fulfilling life without one.

Maybe there’s no clearer evidence that Zuko counts as disabled in the sense of “society treats your body as a problem that needs to be solved” than the way that adaptations of AtLA treat the scar.  They tend to minimize, hide, or otherwise avoid it.

[Image description: Sepia-toned image of the Gaang from a Legend of Korra promotional that appeared on the Nickelodeon website.  Zuko has his head turned and his hair swept forward in such a way that none of the left side of his face is visible.]

[Image description: Screenshot of Zuko from the 2010 adaptation The Last Airbender.  Dev Patel has a very subtle amount of makeup meant to convey minimal scarring around his left eye.]

Like I said: facial difference counts as a disability because society treats it like one.  In the social model, that’s what counts rather than, for instance, how much peripheral vision Zuko does or doesn’t have.

I’m not linking to any of many works of fan art that depict Zuko tilted to the right, occasionally even when other characters are presented facing directly ahead.  Nor am I going to link to any of the equally-plentiful works of fan fiction that keep most other elements of canon the same but specify that Zuko’s face is unscarred.  (A similar number, it’s worth noting, also make Toph sighted.)  This isn’t a callout.  It’s an explanation of how Avatar does an effective job of showing how Zuko’s facial difference informs his identity without making that difference the sum total of his identity.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

So I got another rash of notes on this post like “And don’t forget, Zuko’s definitely disabled if he’s partially blind!” And I wanted to clarify again: the social model of disability isn’t about how much quantifiable ability you (don’t) have. It’s about how other people treat your body. And under the social model, facial difference counts as a disability in its own right. Zuko could have 20-20 vision and count as disabled, because of ableism.

Like, I have a cousin with ptosis. It’s a minor condition that causes his eyes not to open fully, but doesn’t affect his vision — he doesn’t need glasses. However. He carries a card in his wallet that explains the condition, to show to cops at traffic stops. He’s had many elective surgeries, the first one before he turned 10, to make his appearance more normative. He got sent to multiple offices by multiple teachers convinced he was on drugs. He gets rude questions about his appearance. He’s disabled according to the social model of disability, because society thinks his appearance is “wrong” and reacts accordingly.

The medical model of disability is all about what disabled folks can’t do, and how much they suffer. It’s about quantifying with tests one’s level of impairment. It would say facial difference doesn’t count as a disability, because it isn’t painful and isn’t removing “normal” ability. The social model says, instead, that disability is all about what we consider average or correct, and what it means to be outside of those conditions. It says that a person with a large birthmark or scar on their face is likely disabled, because disability (and beauty) are social constructs that differ across cultures.

[obaewankenope]

@bookmancer-legendarium your tags:

#interesting points here #i feel like it’s worth account for more than just the social model of disability #because going by that people with invisible illnesses don’t count? #and society feels owed an explanation for why they get certain accommodations? #but that’s my own experience coloring this i do love the explanation of the social model and Zuko’s nuanced experience with it

There are many models of disability beyond the social model that account for invisible illnesses, thankfully. They take into account, or expand upon the social model, but enable the inclusion of invisible illnesses.

The social model originated in the UK and was more centred on physical disability because of those who brought about its creation mainly being physically impaired. There are different versions of social models that different from the UK model (e.g., Legal Rights Model centres on protecting individual rights rather than ensuring treatment for conditions; Minority Group Model sees disability as a individual and institutional discrimination like racial discrimination; Affirmation Model sees disability not as a negative thing but positive and centres on viewing disability as a cultural community for supporting others with impairments and disabilities). [source]

Other models include;

Functional Model of Disability — which focuses on impairments and deficits similar to the medical model but sees disability as the way those impairments affect the person: so you’re not disabled just because you may be blind in one eye but because of how that affects your ability to function like depth-perception etc

Biopsychosocial Model of Disability — that combines the medical model with the social model and accounts for psychology in regard to disability and impairment. It considers the physical aspect of disability, e.g., a broken spine, alongside the psychological aspect, e.g., depression from being unable to walk, with the social, e.g., not being able to hike anymore or access a building because there’s no wheelchair access. In theory it should work great. In reality, I’ve seen a lot of discrimination and rejection of individuals being disabled because they don’t have a clearly defined physical disability. Fuck the UK government, okay.

Nordic Social Relative Model of Disability — in this model, people are assessed by how they interact with society and the environment (and vice versa) as well as the aspects of their impairments that affect the individual themselves. So not only is a person with chronic fatigue seen as disabled in this model because they may live somewhere that is not easy to traverse because they grow tired easily (like hiking up and down hills all the time), they’re also disabled because the fatigue makes it difficult for them to focus from brain fog, they may struggle to socialise because of the exhaustion, they may experience isolation because they can’t go far etc. Disability, then, is a continuum that shifts from functional to environmemtal/social depending on the person and situation in question. Disability and impairment are not separate, they are intertwined and affect each other.

I personally like the Nordic Model because it’s one that can account for the more difficult to categorise disabilities and impairments, like chronic fatigue or chronic pain.

You can use this model too to look at Zuko because, if he does experience any issues from his scar then the Nordic Model allows for that because it does not separate disability and impairment. In this case, previous mentions by @thejakeformerlyknownasprince of times when Zuko experiences ableism be cause of assumptions made by others, can be accounted for as well as any prospective problems centring around his scar and eye. In the comments @i-am-mildly-insane mentioned that Zuko sleeps on his side and this changes depending on who he is around. He will sleep on his non-scarred side with those he trusts, and his scarred side with those he does not. This may infer a degree of impairment to his sight or possibly his hearing from the injury which the Nordic Model would account for because it can recognise that Zuko is also disabled by this in a way he would not be otherwise. The personal functionality of his senses affects him and thus the Nordic Model would recognise him as disabled even if he was not treated as he was in the narrative.