Stick Figure Fairy Tales

Hello, I'm Stick! On the older side of tumblr, she/her pronouns. An avid fan of Ace Attorney, cute animals, writing, and hilarity.

[theprofessional-amateur]

link to bluesky post

[theprofessional-amateur]

In addition to how to turn various things, it includes:

Other useful AI Removal/Detection links

How to spot AI Hallucinations like a Reference Librarian (originally on Substack)

Library Freedom Project has a lot of handouts about AI on their Resources page

[azherwind-art]

it's been too long I don't know how to draw Miles anymore

[n1-adora-fan]

The gang gets birthday presents for Bat Child

[bioloyg]

Darkness Man and Bat Child fighting the gumberoo

[captain-price-returns]

The State Department Really Doesn’t Want to Talk About the Office of Remigration — WIRED

The office was created a year ago and seemingly named for a far right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations.

[thewantingmind]

“The State Department doesn’t seem to want anyone to know that it has an Office of Remigration.

There’s no mention on the department’s social media feeds or even on the official website. There aren’t many details about when it was established, who is running the office, or what work it is carrying out. When WIRED reached out to ask if the office exists, the State Department wouldn’t share specific details about the office and its work.

But the office, created a year ago and seemingly named for a racist far right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations, does exist. The office’s main purpose, according to one source familiar with the work, is to process payments possibly worth tens of millions of dollars to facilitate the deportations of immigrants to countries they may not even be from. All of this is happening, the source says, with little to no oversight.

The Office of Remigration is at the heart of the Trump administration’s dramatically expanded efforts to urge other governments, many with track records of public corruption, human rights abuses, and human trafficking, into accepting immigrants sent from the US, who are not their own citizens. This is a key part of the administration’s broader mass deportation efforts, which have repeatedly even seen US citizens deported to other countries.

“Who's to know where the money goes because there's no real monitoring, or any kind of accountability attached to these payments,” the source familiar with the work at the Office of Remigration tells WIRED. “In fact, it was made pretty explicit to us by our leadership that they weren't interested in applying the same levels of accountability as we had traditionally applied to any kind of federal funding that we were responsible for managing to international organizations or NGOs.”

In response to specific questions from WIRED, the State Department provided the following statement: “President Trump promised to reverse the Biden-era invasion of illegal aliens and once again make America a country for Americans. Remigration puts these words into action," the State Department wrote in an emailed statement not attributed to a named spokesperson. “The Office of Remigration directly addresses the top priorities of the National Security Strategy: reinstating border security as the primary element of national security and ending mass migration.”

Got a Tip?

Are you an government worker with insight into what's happening? We’d like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact David Gilbert at [email protected] or securely on Signal on DavidGilbert.01.

Remigration is an extremist idea that has taken hold among far right groups in many European countries in recent years. It falsely posits that Western countries can regain their former glory by deporting all immigrants, including citizens who have failed to assimilate to western values.

For critics, the term is synonymous with ethnic cleansing. “The Trump Administration’s so-called ‘remigration’ efforts are part of an inhumane and coercive agenda, one that targets undocumented immigrants, most of whom have no criminal record, and coerces other countries to accept deportees through threats of tariffs, visa restrictions, and cuts to health and economic assistance,” says congresswoman Lois Frankel, a ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on national security, Department of State, and related programs. “Migrants are being sent to these countries where they have no local ties and often do not speak the language.”

President Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, one of his key immigration advisers, both used the term in social media posts ahead of the 2024 election. “THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION,” Miller wrote on X in September 2024, sharing a screenshot of a Trump Truth Social post that mentions the term.

While Trump did not use the word again in the early days of his second term in office, in May 2025, a congressional notification from the State Department revealed that the Trump administration was planning to create an Office of Remigration within the department’s Bureau of Population, Migration, and Refugees.

The congressional notification said that the Office of Remigration would be initially staffed by personnel reassigned from the bureau’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs. “Those of us in the Office of Western Hemisphere didn't know what that language meant for us, and despite all of our questions, our leadership would not or could not clarify that for us,” says the source, who worked in the State Department for years. “We didn't know what was going to happen.”

The decision was praised by far right groups and leaders in the US and Europe. Martin Sellner, an Austrian activist and former member of a neo-Nazi group, told WIRED at the time that Trump’s policy “ticks many of the boxes” when asked if he believes remigration was already in action in the US.

In June and July, Trump mentioned the term remigration three times on his Truth Social platform, linking it to the work ICE was doing in relation to mass deportations. “It’s called “REMIGRATION” and, it will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote in a July 4 post on Truth Social.

Meanwhile, employees were apparently trying to get the new office name changed.

“Our office leadership told us they had asked to have this terminology changed many, many, many times, and that they were repeatedly told no,” says the source familiar with the office’s work. “At the time there was a thought of whether this a mistake, do they know what they're talking about, do they even understand what remigration means. But clearly they did.”

By the end of 2025, staff began processing government-to-government payments for deals negotiated by the Trump administration. The money was meant to be used to ensure deportees were housed in conditions that meet basic humanitarian needs, but, according to the source, there was no oversight or transparency about how that money was used after it was sent.

While the Office of Remigration is not mentioned on the State Department’s website, a document published in January shed further light on the agency’s mission.

“Remigration and border security are central to our diplomatic engagements, especially to those in our hemisphere,” the State Department wrote in a strategic planning document published in January and covering 2026 to 2030. “That includes ensuring foreign countries facilitate the repatriation of their nationals who have no right to remain in the United States; negotiating arrangements with other countries to accept the transfer of asylum claimants and illegal aliens removed from American communities; and working with DHS to support voluntary remigration.”

In February, the Democrat minority on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee published a report that outlined the dramatic expansion of the use of third party deportations and their cost. “The total costs of the Trump Administration’s third country deportations through January 2026 are unknown but are likely upward of $40 million,” the report states. “Much of the funds were provided as lump sum payments, often before any third country nationals arrived.”

"Remigration, touted by neo-Nazis, and now our own government, is nothing more than an ethnic cleansing plan to remove migrants and people of color from the US, with no oversight and no concern for human rights,” Wendy Via, cofounder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, tells WIRED.

WIRED’s source said they originally joined the State Department to help refugees. But now, they were being forced to do the opposite. Many employees have left the office in recent months. Tarrajna Dorsey had worked at the State Department for nearly seven years and left the new Office of Remigration this spring.

“I spent many years aspiring to join and contribute to [the bureau of population, refugees, and migration’s] humanitarian mission to save lives, ease suffering, and offer protection to the most vulnerable among us as a key piece of U.S. foreign policy,” Dorsey wrote in an April LinkedIn post. “As much as I will miss serving alongside such passionate, resilient, and hardworking colleagues, I do not see the current work of the Office of Remigration as aligned with that mission.”

Last month, Frankel introduced an amendment to the National Security and Department of State Appropriations bill to stop the use of federal funds to be used for third-country deportations. The amendment was defeated along party lines.

And in recent weeks, the Trump administration has once again begun promoting the idea of remigration. On May 11, the State Department released a statement about the administration’s refusal to sign up to the UN’s Global Compact on Migration, which included the line, “Our goal is not to ‘manage’ migration, but to foster remigration.”

The next day, the official X account of the White House shared a picture of Trump with the words ‘replacement migration’ crossed out and substituted with the word ‘remigration.’”—Wired

Death to paywalls

[stickfigurefairytales]

No major spoilers for the Gladlands finale (although this will be basically incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t watched it), but this was the part that made me laugh until my stomach hurt:

[Captions: “The Spinch actually never ate anyone. That’s not the Spinch lore. This absolute buffoon.”]

These lines are the internal thoughts of Ally’s character Quinn here, which made it EVEN FUNNIER to me. Just silently judging this dude for being wrong about the Spinch lore.

[inkedkoi]

say it, parrot guy. you won't.

[effiesketch]

me too, archie. me too

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

Hot take maybe but I think Bertie would be FAR more likely to survive the first two months of Dracula than Jeeves would be. Bertie has a healthy sense of self-preservation. Jeeves consistently underestimates how dangerous a situation might get (Steeple Bumpleigh, the club book) because he’s overconfident about his level of control over any given situation. He'd handle Dracula masterfully if they faced off in England, but on Dracula's home turf? Much more doubtful.

I realize this might be a tough sell, so I will explain further (or it's not a tough sell, and I'm going to explain further because I want to). (criteria taken from @canyourfavesurvivecastledracula) Without further ado.

Would Jeeves and Wooster survive Castle Dracula?

Jeeves

Jeeves' survival will depend on how long Dracula finds him more entertaining than irritating. On that basis, I don't think he's long for this world. On the one hand, he has a huge wealth of knowledge about English society and culture that he can recite perfectly from memory. That should buy him at least a little time with noted teaboo Dracula.

On the other hand, he would be absolutely no fun as a vampire plaything. Jeeves cannot be got. Sneaking up on him while he's shaving will yield zero reaction (though that's at least good for his short-term survival--given that, although he DID take the crucifix from the old woman out of politeness, he certainly isn't going to wear it. The rules of fashion don't go out the window just because you're in a spooky castle). Then, although managing the whims of rich jerks is not an insignificant part of a valet's job, Jeeves usually does this by bending his employers to his will. Dracula is not the sort of employer this will work on. It'll just add insult to injury when on top of being impossible to scare, NOW Jeeves is telling Dracula that his favorite cloak is several centuries out of fashion and he's not allowed to wear it anymore.

Jeeves will 100% go exploring in the areas he was told not to go-- though to be fair, he MIGHT actually get away with this, what with his superpower of appearing in rooms without being seen or heard. Said superpower might save him from the brides as well (though this is by no means guaranteed). Since I find it doubtful that Dracula would come to rescue his annoying ass, not being noticed is his best defense.

There are a couple other things working in Jeeves's favor; the question is just whether they'll be enough to save him.

He DOES know shorthand, and could try to send coded letters. He might even have the foresight to squirrel away some extra stationary where Dracula can't find it. But could he get them posted? Would it even do him any good?

He certainly has enough cultural literacy to figure out what his new boss is pretty quickly. If he didn't chuck the crucifix out the carriage window, he might start carrying it around in his pocket.

Psychology of the individual, sure, but the individual in question is a 400-year-old vampire who lives in an isolated castle in a foreign country and is regarded as a terrifying mythological figure in the surrounding villages. Jeeves has never come up against anything this alien before, he's cut off from his normal resources, and opportunities to play people against each other are limited.

He probably has enough upper body strength from all that shrimping and fishing to climb the wall, so he COULD escape if he wanted to, if he survived long enough. It's just, again, that overconfidence, and also Dracula has a vast library full of rare old books that are entirely at his disposal. He's keeping his eyes and ears alert for potential escape strategies, of course, but I don't see him being as desperate to get out as Jonathan was.

There are just a lot of "depends on"s here, and I'm not convinced that luck would shake out in Jeeves's favor, all things considered.

Bertie

Bertie is so perfect for the job of Castle Dracula Prisoner it's like it was made for him. Think about it. Being held against his will in big manor houses comes more naturally to him than breathing. He's afraid of things that are scary. A lifetime of dealing with Aunt Agatha has made him the world's preeminent expert in "curl[ing] up in a ball in the hope that a meek subservience [will] enable [him] to get off lightly." He will NEVER go exploring in places he's been warned away from if nobody is forcing him to (Rev. Aubrey Upjohn's office notwithstanding. There were biscuits in there). He's both fun to talk to and easy to toy with (and extremely English). A+ prisoner. Dracula adores him.

In my opinion, Bertie is at Castle Dracula either because Aunt Agatha got some wires seriously crossed and thinks he’s going to meet an eligible potential bride (I mean, there are certainly brides there), or because Dracula has something Aunt Dahlia wants him to steal (far less likely, given that one of Dracula’s THINGS is famously not owning anything silver). Either way, he's shown himself entirely willing and able to escape down drainpipes if a sitch gets too scaly.

He DOES take the crucifix, and DOES wear it (which is what will save him during the shaving scene, because you KNOW he's going to jump a foot and cut himself like the dickens). He's read enough supernatural goosefleshers to be genre savvy about terrified old women cryptically pushing crucifixes into one's hands. I also think his sunny disposish endeared him to the villagers, and they were particularly vehement about urging him not to go. He doesn't speak German or Romanian, but he's empathetic enough to recognize Pure Terror. So by the time he actually gets to the castle, his imagination is already running wild and he's plenty aware that he is in imminent danger.

I think the biggest risk to Bertie will be the brides; whether or not he's susceptible to trances, if he thinks they're trying to marry him, it's against the code of the Woosters to turn them down. But that only becomes an issue if he comes face to face with them, which, luckily, I think is unlikely on account of the aforementioned "won't go exploring" (and if he did, Dracula would definitely rescue him).

I'm inclined to say due to his drainpipe-escape habits that he WOULD be able to climb the wall and MAY attempt to sneak into Dracula's room to look for the keys if his desperation grows to outweigh his fear. Whether he does or not, though, he does NOT have the stomach to attempt shovel murder, and therefore won't get magic brain fever, and may very well simply walk out the front doors when the people come to take the boxes away. OR he climbs his way out like Jonathan did. Either way.

When Bertie tells this story at the Drones later, Tuppy will say that no doubt it's been greatly exaggerated and all that probably happened was that he spent a couple months in an oldish house entertaining a weird loner.

[dathen]

[dduane]

(SNORTING) :)

[stickfigurefairytales]

Forget the “your one-night stand turns out to be your new boss” storylines - let’s see some “your boss turns out to be the your favorite fanfic author” scenarios.

[stickfigurefairytales]

I would read the hell out of an AU where Dracula somehow lost the ability to shift back out of his dog form and ended up getting forcibly adopted by the entire town of Whitby.

[three-magpies-in-a-trenchcoat]

Oh boy I sure hope my good friend Jonathan Harker has a much better time on his business trip this year than he did last year.

[stickfigurefairytales]

Ahhh, my good friend Jonathan Harker, I have missed you! But your period-typical racism, not so much.

[nonasuch]

here is a concept: time travel cop, fish & wildlife division

most of their job is dealing with the kinds of assholes who think black market tiger cubs are a great idea right up until someone gets mauled, except these are even bigger assholes with black market Smilodon cubs that they are even less equipped to care for

this is the most straightforward and therefore relatively headache-free part of their job, because it’s the same “put that thing back where it came from or so help me” song and dance every time

it’s also significantly less depressing than the trophy hunters who don’t even want an alive extinct animal. those are extra annoying because you have to undo the time travel that let them kill that poor Megatherium or thylacine or anklyosaur or whatever, and it’s always so much extra paperwork.

and those people suck, definitely, and have fully earned a stint in Time Jail. no question. but they still do not create anywhere near as much work as the obsessive hobbyists with their exhaustively careful best practices and worryingly good track-covering. also, weirdly, it’s almost always birds with them?

like. the guys who will flagrantly abuse Time Law to bird-nap breeding pairs just long enough to raise one clutch of eggs apiece, and return them seamlessly to their spots on the timeline. who are so determined to keep their pet (ha) projects going that no one even realizes what they’re doing until they have an entire stable breeding population of passenger pigeons up and running. who are now the reason that reps from six different zoos are about to start throwing hands right in front of you over who gets dibs.

those guys cause the most paperwork. and half the time they’re snapped up by the same zoo or wildlife preserve that gets their colony of ivory-billed woodpeckers or Carolina parakeets or — once, very memorably — giant fucking South Island moa, and they never even spend a day in Time Jail.

[figtreeandvine]

Ooh! There have been a few "surprise, not extinct!" events recently, again weirdly almost always birds, though occasionally fish. What if they really did go extinct, but someone from 2459 went back to 1900, built up a minimum breeding population in 2459, and then released them into the wild in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015? Releasing new groups every five years in our century would avoid a sudden suspicious population surge and no one would think to look for the culprit in their own century because Jerdon’s Babbler (real-world example, rediscovered in 2014) has always been there/then.

You could build a novel around the relationship between the time cop and the rogue bird lover. The time cop caught the bird lover over the passenger pigeons. They went to time jail for 10 years outside the timeline, and then were hired to manage the passenger pigeons by an accredited zoo's. The time cop suspects they're still up to something, but other than the passenger pigeons, all they appear to be doing is raising research colonies of perfectly ordinary birds. Except all the species they're working with were believed to be extinct at one point....

One thing real world zoos do now is...well...something like elven changelings if you think about it. They time the mating of a captive breeding pair to that of an isolated wild breeding pair in places where inbreeding is a serious risk. Then they swap a captive-born offspring for a wild-born--each breeding pair unknowingly raising a foster. Both zoos and the wild population get improved genetic diversity, without the risk inherent in "rewilding" a zoo-born adult. Doing that with birds and time travel would be even easier--grab an egg, take it to the future, raise and breed it, take an egg back to the original nest. The original parents raise their grandchild, not their child.

The hardest part for me would be explaining why the time cop thought this was wrong!

[nonasuch]

oh I love all of this. i think the time cop would eventually just be like “PLEASE get a license from an accredited zoo already so i can stop having to deal with you” but the accredited zoos aren’t on board with the “release into the wild 200 years ago” part of the scheme

and also our rogue bird enthusiast has a white whale and that white whale is Haast’s eagle

[klapollys]

now yall know what time it is

[azherwind-art]

Two commissions I made for @abluescarfonwaston ! Thank you SO much! These were very fun to make !  Edgeworth x Neil Marshall!

[azherwind-art]

Two commissions I made for @abluescarfonwaston ! Thank you SO much! These were very fun to make !  Edgeworth x Neil Marshall!