opalescent quartz

call me opal*, feel free to come chat! my pronouns are they/them and ze/hir. icon by me. go to /nav before following please; this is a personal blog. (i am white and an adult) *(tho i also used to go by ciaran, mispronouced see-are-an)

[thegempage]

hello this is a pinned post bcus i realized it'd be nice to have a little overview type thing

my name is opal, i use they/them and ze/hir pronouns, i alternate between the two when talking about myself but feel free to use one or the other more if that's easier. i'm a nonbinary butch lesbian, and if you'd like to know more specifics i have an about page here

this is a personal blog so i just kind of post about whatever comes to mind. my queue is Very long so things will probably come around as a "really, this late?" somewhat often lmao

i do a handful of creative things! i do digital and ink painting, writing, and occasionally voice/audiobook work, all of which you can find under this tag! i also have commissions open which are here. i run a youtube channel that i post on whenever i have the energy to do so, and a twitch channel that i want to get back to streaming semi-regularly on (~1-3 times a week)

i pretty much always have writing going on in the background of my life, so if you want to keep up with it, you can find my ao3 here or see it whenever i randomly post writing to tumblr

my current icon was drawn by me, and is a portrait of a pathfinder character named little mouse! her character tag is cat who's mouse, if you're interested in its vibes.

anyway thanks for checking out my blog and i hope you have a good day <3

[updated 3/23/2026]

[danielhowell]

what does eating pineapple, a personal bidet and a butt massage have in common?

Testing Products That Promise to “Change Your Life”

[leaves-and-inks]

[ID: Digital Illustration of a deinonychus in an unnatural pose floating on top of a deep red rectangle on an off-white background. It faces right, its mouth open. Its neck is coiled back, one arm reaching forward while the other is tucked at its side. one leg is more forward than the other, kicking in tandem with the outstretched arm. Its tail is bent underneath it, eventually parallel with its curved back. Its feathering and coloration is based off the bearded vulture, having a tuft underneath its jaw and along its brow. Irs tail is darker at the end and has faint striping. In the bottom left corner is a watermark reading: “LEAVES AND INKS” /end ID]

Deinonychus

If there are 10,000 dromaeosaur fans i am one of them. if there are 1,000 dromaeosaur fans i am one of them. if there is 1 dromaeosaur fan that is me. If there’s no dromaeosaur fans I have been fossilized

[mammalianmammals]

Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena), family Hyaenidae, Pune, India

Photograph by Himanshu Athalye

[vulpinesaint]

saying "question mark?" and "however comma," out loud are game changers. punctuation on the go. and it's always the funniest thing that anyone around you has ever heard

[clevermanka]

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts

Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.

Among the centuries’ worth of eggshells, prey remains, and natural nesting material, researchers identified 226 objects that were either made or altered by humans. These included weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot.  Using carbon dating, the team determined that the items also had a huge age range. For example, a shoe made from twigs and grass is around 675-years-old, while a basket is estimated to have been woven about 150 years ago. Beyond the manufactured relics of our species’ past, archaeologists also catalogued 2,117 bones, 86 hooves, and 43 eggshells. They even located 11 hair remains among the nesting layers. More analysis will provide a look into the surrounding area’s past environment, as well as its various flora and fauna.

[honeybeeofficial]

everyone say thank you ancient central and south american agricultural heroes for beans

[honeybeeofficial]

everyone say thank you ancient south american agricultural heroes for potato

[kawuli]

everyone say thank you ancient mesoamerican agricultural heroes for maize

[dragongirlteeth]

Also tomato

[snakes-of-the-undercity]

Not to be repetitive but genuinely sex positivity and sexual liberation only work if everyone realizes that sex isn’t that much of a fucking deal. It is not the be all end all of anything. It isn’t the crux of every coming of age story or the pinnacle of every relationship. It’s literally just a thing some folks do.

Obviously some folks will put significance on their own, personal experiences, or consider it to be like the highest form of intimacy/romance/etc, but also some folks think cooking together is the height of intimacy/romance/connection, some people put that insane amount of significance onto Hollidays or wacky traditions.

Nobody should be pressured to have/not have sex, nobody should be expected to put significant meaning on sex, the only sex folks should be worried about is their own (if they choose to have it) and if someone’s in a legitimate dangerous situation.

TLDR: sex can personally be a big deal for someone, but collectively everyone needs to stop giving a fuck because folks deciding to smoosh booties or deciding not to do that really is not that big a deal and literally doesn’t affect the general population in any meaningful way.

[recapitulation]

what's your favorite of these sword-related actions/plot devices... 🎤

gifting someone a sword (especially as significant gesture e.g. betrothal gift)

drawing someone else's sword from the scabbard suddenly and without permission

using someone else's sword as a way to remember them after they've passed

you're not worthy of me drawing my sword/it's almost always left in the scabbard

sword with some measure of sentience e.g. ability to jostle/laugh/purr

emotionally significant "may I please borrow your sword" moment

plot-significant sword name change

Remaining time: 4 days 12 hours

there are of course one william possibilities and im sure ive left some good ones off... feel free to tell me abt some other good ones and their associated stories 👀

[recapitulation]

ohhhhh really really good ones from prev:

grabbing a blade with your bare hand to stop it

pushing yourself deeper onto a sword

mutual stabbing 🥰

[thatswhatsushesaid]

listen

Post by @sable-pigeon · 1 video

💬 0  🔁 33  ❤️ 68 · ._. (x)

ok that’s all

[mousidy]

we need free the nipple back and we need to lead with trans women this time

[pirateprincessjess]

Friendly reminder as we get closer to the launch of the ModRetro M64. ModRetro is owned by Palmer Lucky, a self described “Radical Zionist” who fundraises for Donald Trump.

Palmer Lucky also has another company, called Anduril Industries, that manufactures and sells AI powered weapons and surveillance systems. ModRetro even sells Anduril branded gameboys that were made from the same metal that they use to manufacture attack drones.

Don’t buy this thing. A 200 dollar Nintendo 64 clone is not worth your soul.

[pirateprincessjess]

The reason I’m bringing this up now is because there seems to be a new marketing push happening for this device. It’s all over my feed on TT and IG right now.

They seem to be pushing the fact that there are new Nintendo64 games being made for the M64. This is very misleading because any game that runs on the M64 will run on a real Nintendo 64.

There’s also been new games coming out for the Nintendo 64 for years. ModRetro didn’t make this happen. They’re just publishing a few games. The Nintendo 64 Homebrew scene has been thriving on its own.

[femboy-c-cups]

[femboy-c-cups]

Worthy

[communist-hatsunemiku]

Reference sheet for #FreeformMiku - l33oh

[orcboxer]

happy pride I'm glad I'm gay I'm glad you're gay I'm glad we're both gay and alive

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Like if the field of psychiatry was in any way apolitical and objective the gender/race discrepancies in who gets diagnosed with what definitely wouldn't look like they do

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

It is not a coincidence when the white boy is more likely to get diagnosed with autism or ADHD and the white girl is more likely to get diagnosed with anxiety and BPD and the black kids are more likely to get diagnosed with ODD and schizophrenia and it definitely isn't harmless objective science...

[otiksimr]

Poorly drawn Meowth line [redo]

[rebellum]

Kinda wild how the concept of emotional labour changed from

"people have to hide their emotions to perform specific types of labour where their apparent emotions influence another person's. Eg. Flight attendants have to be cheerful all the time, so that passengers feel welcome and safe. This suppression and masking of emotion can cause a sense of disconnect within the individual where they dont know what their true feelings are. This is part of the Marxist idea of alienation from labour and from the self."

To

"If you ask me to care about you or listen to your problems, youre being toxic."