thechaoscryptid

Alex | He/They

[slutterboxd]

in the blood sea. straight up "ironing it" and by "it", haha, well. let's justr say. My lung

[neatbay]

the molly redskirts swag of this piece by the illustrator haisoo for the novel "poisson d'or" 😪

[manhasetardis]

“My beloved is mine and I am his. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth – for his love is more delightful than wine. Let him lead me to the banquet hall and let his banner over me be love. Let my beloved come into his precious garden and taste his choicest fruit. I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste. And at the door are all manner of precious fruits new and old that I have laid up for him. I would give him spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates. I am my beloved’s and he is mine.” - Song of Songs

[gremlinnddraws]

🧡🧡

Posting this TWO days late coz my internet has been so ASS my god. Anyways Happy Pride lovelies, stay beautiful, healthy, and super sexy - ily🫶🏻🧡🫶🏻🧡

[asablehart]

My story "It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand" (aka bird story) is in this month's issue of Lightspeed Magazine!

I'm so excited to finally be able to share bird story. Whenever I write sci-fi, I spend way too long on the speculative biology, and this is no exception. The gastor birds are one of my favorite creations, where I challenged myself to design an animal capable of traveling between planets. I hope you enjoy reading their story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Parts one and two will be available for free to read online on the 6th and 13th, but if you want to read it now, consider purchasing the issue or subscribing to the magazine :)

[asablehart]

"It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand" is on the Locus Recommended Reading list for 2025!

[asablehart]

It's also on the list of Notable Stories for this year's volume of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy!

[molabuddy]

3 hours of sleep = i hate people who laugh

0 ours of sleep = waouw 🌼🌼🌼🌼🐎

[ariesrin]

I love characters who would die for each other but will not, under any circumstances, communicate a single honest feeling.

[argumate]

the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy is presents a romance-style female-focused fantasy adventure, which is rare for blockbuster movies.

[argumate]

 - you are Keira Knightley, the high-spirited and ever so slightly spoiled child of a doting father who happens to be the governor

 - every man in the world is crazy about you, from the dashing naval officer who asks for your hand in marriage to the handsome young blacksmith’s apprentice who you met as a child and feel a strong bond with to the devilish pirate lord who saves your life and flirts with you shamelessly and you make out with him once but it’s for a good cause

 - you have two weddings, one where you femme it up and then it turns all emo when it rains on your wedding day and the groom is dragged off in chains by another guy who secretly has the hots for you and then you have a second wedding where you dress as a man because you’re the pirate king now and you exchange custom vows and witty banter during a sword fight with zombies

 - you are Keira Knightley

[empanadazul]

- all three of your potential love interests end up on the same ship at one point they have a lot of tension between them but they don’t fight because you told them not to

- a random pirate you knew for half an hour names you his heir and now you command one of the biggest and most important fleets in the sea

- not only that but you became the Queen of all pirates who now obey you and are at your command. You use your powers to destroy the fleet of the East India Company

- there’s a kraken

[kereeachan]

I’m sorry, KING of all Pirates, please.

[cadaverpilled]

"i asked chatgpt—" well i went to the river bubble and asked palamedes sextus and he told me to read his erotic fanfiction.

[lovelyblep]

No shame in using the safeword (quitting a fic that doesnt do it)

[nondelphic]

writing is just sitting in front of a computer and making up problems for imaginary people while ignoring your own. fun and casual hobby.

[penny-anna]

Another literary magazine gripe: Dear God don't oblige people to give you their pronouns

[penny-anna]

Like say 'feel free to include your pronouns in your cover letter' sure! 'your cover letter must include your pronouns' 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️ friend you have not thought this through.

[penny-anna]

It is a similar issue to when they ask for a photo up front I think. Like no matter how well intentioned you are there's an obvious opening for discrimination. & You don't have to be consciously prejudiced to discriminate.

[penny-anna]

Also like with photos I do get it bcos obviously they want to publish author photographs in the magazine and don't want to be chasing them down (many magazines ask for your bio up front for this reason) but with pronouns it's like what do you need them for so badly?

[lookingforcactus]

Also literally what is stopping them from taking the way better, way easier, and more effective route of asking for data that could open them up to a discrimination lawsuit after they have made their hiring decisions?????

Every study I've seen has shown that the number one easiest most effective way to avoid racial discrimination in hiring is to blank out the candidate's names on their resume

If literary magazines actually want to fix racism or transphobia in publishing or the literary scene, they need to not require people give them information that will blatantly and unavoidably force many, many job candidates to reveal themselves as part of legally protected classes!!!

(aka: it's harder to reject a submission because someone is Black if you are given no information that could indicate their race besides the contents of their submission. every study shows you can't just Decide to Not Be Racist, that's not how prejudice works, as a great many people of color can tell you. whyyyyyyyy would we want to ask for more identity / physical appearance information as part of the hiring process we're trying to make LESS racist. etc. other bigotries. WHY)

[penny-anna]

I imagine the issue is that they don't want to have authors taking their money and then ghosting them when asked to provide an author bio & photo to go with their work, so from their perspective it's easier to just get everything they might be going to publish at once.

However: they just gotta suck it up and deal with it!!

Some points of information on this:

Alas name on manuscript remains the industry standard so while not ideal it is professional. Photos or pronouns upfront is not a professional standard so no excuse.

It's common to ask for a third person bio up front but other than your name (which you are giving anyway) there's no mandatory information in a bio. This is primarily a space for talking about your writing. Some people do opt to disclose protected characteristics but you absolutely don't have to.

Paid markets do need your legal name so they can pay you but the publication contract should stipulate what name you're to be published under and they should never ever be publicising anyone's legal name without permission.*

*(This did actually happen to me once but fortunately on a document I got to review before publication)

[penny-anna]

#frankly I dont think author photos are necessary at all#I don’t want an author photo on anything I publish#why is my face relevant.

yeah im not a huge fan of them either. if magazines really wanna have them i think they should explicitly allow you to submit whatever picture you want to represent yourself provided you have the rights to let them publish it.

[thechaoscryptid]

I slept for SIXTEEN HOURS last night so now I have energy to endure the "but (dead name)! You can't wear a crop top!!" when I go out with people who haven't seen me in over a decade. Everyone say good luck Alex 🫶

[wibblyrlin]

Emma D'arcy for Flaunt Magazine (2026)

[itsalwaysdark]

you have to be careful reading too many things that are good/smart/well-written bc then you encounter something that isnt and you get confused like ? why didnt they just make this good ? were they stupid

[storm-of-the-swarm]

Having a really long-term hyperfixation that has since faded is terrifying yes but it's also so embarrassing. Hi I used to think about Scrimblo Splungus 25/7. Yeah, for 2 years straight. Nah, I don't think about them anymore except for with a vague sense of melancholy as I recall how they used to make me feel. Anyways this new one, Blimpkins McGee? I'm gonna think about them forever and the cycle will NOT repeat in 2 years. Trust me guys.

[scramratz]

I think most people, even within the queer community, fail to recognize trans men as an entity in itself. You're either trans or a man.

The idea that someone can be fully and wholly a man and still not be afforded the privileges given to cis men is foreign to most. The identity of "man" is synonymous with privilege and power, so when trans men say "hey I'm not as privileged as you think I am, there's more to it" that's unbelievable to most. They think we're purposely misgendering ourselves to gain imaginary oppression points. They compare us to cis men who refuse to acknowledge the privileges they do have because there's no such thing as a man that isn't privileged.

Its upsetting because it puts us in a bind. Either we suck it up and take the very real oppression we face head on and keep it to ourselves, or we advocate for ourselves and face ridicule for implying we aren't privileged or we're outright misgendered.

[hellofmychoice]

People truly do have a difficult time conceptualizing trans men. That's why other groups of marginalized men or intra-group male privilege are always brought up in these conversations. Not that those conversations are irrelevant, but it does mean they often get used as stand-ins instead of engaging with trans men directly.

Unlike other marginalized men, trans men are in fact marginalized specifically for being men. Because our existence disrupts the assumption that masculinity is natural, exclusive, or biologically assigned. The hostility directed at trans men is often rooted in the belief that we are “betraying” womanhood, aspiring to something we supposedly should not be allowed to become. That is gendered oppression.

Saying "men don't experience misogyny" or "men aren't marginalized for their gender" or "nobody is trying to stop you from being a man" is no different than saying "men can't get pregnant." Trans men aren't misgendering themselves, you just don't actually understand or respect trans people.

Perhaps people think they're being radically accepting of trans people but they're actually working from an incredibly cis-centric framework based on oppositional sexism.