🌱Artsy fartsy geeky nerdy 🥭OG hipster🎨 Same name on Ao3🍸 I'd walk so far just to take the injury of finally knowin' you🎵How did you turn your heart to stone? I don't want him back, but I can't let go.
My brain is running with Kermit flail in 17 different directions and so list
FIC: finished
Kay Nicté: Nashuri AU, no powers, porn with plot & feels & family dynamics; Shuri doesn't want to go to a resort on spring break; she has way too much critical, life-or-death work to do in the lab. Ch'ah Toh doesn't want to go back home to his cousin's resort on spring break; he has way too much respect for his culture to sell it out to tourists. One mezcal tasting flight later, they can't seem to keep their hands off each other. Or any of their other body parts either. <5000 words
The Pearl That I Carry in My Heart: Nashuri, Attoye, big damn post-canon fic, world building. The Elder's brows furrowed. "Am I understanding you correctly, Princess? That your suggestion for strengthening our alliance is arranged marriages between our available tribal leaders and theirs?"
Shuri smiled, a forced twisted thing. "Not quite, Elder. My suggestion for strengthening this alliance is an arranged marriage between K’uk’ulkan and me." >100,000 words
FIC: in progress
Thistles and Arrows and Apples are Blooming: Mohabbot, post-Hell Day, idiots in love, medium burn if you count sex dreams, slow burn if you don't, attachment issues, he fell first she fell harder. Samira knows she has delayed reaction for almost anything that affects her emotionally. She has no idea why (a) her Hell Day crashout seems to be happening two weeks after the fact and (b) Dr Abbot triggers her flight and fight reflex as well. 10% finished.
Beautifully Created: Attoye, canon divergence AU, kidfic, world building, what do you call it when you start with smut and end with smut but the whole wide middle is angst and politics? Wakanda already knew about Talokan when Namor made his ultimatum thanks to information from Okoye. Attuma would like to know how she got that information and why the queen & princess seem to hate his guts when he's never met them before. 50% finished; REWRITES for major squiggly plot point that I had to remove which then affects everything in the second half --read on ao3--
Kiss Me by the Fence Rails: Nashuri, AU modern day. Shuri is a brilliant engineer who just Does Not Get dating. She wants to get better at it and at sex in order to finally shoot her shot with her high school crush. She asks Namor, an equally brilliant architect, to help her out with all of that. He's her brother's business partner so he won't try anything shady, he's dated lots, and deep inside under that cranky exterior he's a good guy. Simple and easy, right? <5% finished --read on ao3--
FIC: planned (in no particular order)
When It Rains, Leave Me Alone: Attoye, companion piece to The Pearl, angst with eventual HEA but first make them hurt: Okoye, daughter of the Border, former general of the Dora Milaje, Midnight Angel, Head of Security of the Kingdom of Wakanda. She has reached the highest heights as well as the lowest lows possible in her career. W'Kabi, who she had once thought of as the other half of her heart, has chosen exile over their marriage and admission of treason. Her undeniable attraction to General Attuma could add further fractures in the already tenuous Talokan-Wakanda summit. All the while, she also needs to protect Wakanda's people, especially Princess Shuri, who seems to be determined to break her own heart.
Watery Sun & Three Moons: Bucky/Sarah Wilson - The Martian AU. Botanist, Specialist (and space pirate!) Sarah Wilson is trapped on Mars but she'll be damned if she dies there. Mission Physician James "Bucky" Barnes talks her through her trek to Schiaparelli Crater.
Transcendence to Endure: Nashuri, prequel within a sequel to The Pearl, mildly angsty babyfic for all, history of Talokan world building, TW: pregnancy/delivery trauma. Péepen Xail Almehen of Xel-há and Yzniquanto of the Iréchikwa Tzintzuntzani navigate a world slowly burning from the invasion of the Conquistadores. Shuri kaRamonda, Black Panther of Wakanda, and Ch'ah Toh Almehen, K'uk'ulkan of Talokan, navigate eleven years of marriage.
Wholly, Thoroughly, Completely, Drowning: Nashuri, Attoye, AU Canon divergence. Talokan & Wakanda have always known about each other. When T'Challa got sick, Shuri asks for Namor's help. In return, he wants her to stay in Talokan for a year and help undo the damage he perceives T'Challa made when he opened up Wakanda.
Para Siempre: Attoye, AU modern day, no powers. Megapop star, Okoye, is burnt out from back to back to back touring plus a very public divorce from hip-hop star, W'Kabi. One of her longtime security personnel, Attuma, suggests decompressing at his family's little hotel-resort in the Yucatan during the off-season. Please stop, I don't have time for all this help
Untitled Bridgerton-style Black Panther AU: Attoye, Nashuri, AU no-colonisation alternate history, alternate powers. In an alternate history 1800-ish, Princess Shuri of Wakanda, of the Transafrican Alliance travels to Talokan of the League of the Mayapan in order to cement their alliance against the European powers encroaching on both their lands. For protection, she and some of her entourage disguise themselves as shipmates and servants while General Okoye and some of the kingsguards dress as tribal leaders. K'uk'ulkan, halach uinik of Talokan and de facto leader of the League, asks his highest ranking nobles to look for possible spouses among the visiting Wakandans to tie their kingdoms by blood as well as treaty. Lord Attuma, nacom and favoured cousin of the K'uk'ulkan, agrees to court Princess Shuri. But the woman he escorts off the pier is not the princess. And the real princess has her own agenda on this diplomatic visit that promises to wreck all the Feathered Serpent's plans.
Untitled Bucky/Sarah: Something something feral Winter!Bucky finds Sarah somewhere between CATAWS and Civil War
Untitled Single Dad Namor + Dr Shuri: based on a fanart by @milkfromcats, Nashuri, AU X-Men style mutants, TW: refugee experience. Namor has lost almost everything in Mutant Purges and the trek to get safely to Wakanda. The most important thing in his life now is taking care of his sisters' children, Namora and Attuma. But he has no idea what to do with kids, nevermind traumatised orphans. Shuri is a brilliant doctor and privileged to have the funds to volunteer her time with the influx of newcomers to Wakanda. Every one of them is wonderful but she has a soft spot for Attuma and Namora, who often visit with lopsided braids and sugar-stained tops, tugging their exhausted father along. His love for them tempers the tragedy etched in his face and she can't stop wanting to ease his exhaustion.
Untitled Sequel to Beautifully Created: But I can't explain it yet because spoilers.
Untitled Nakia Time Travel Fic: At the moment Talokan overwhelms the Sea Leopard, with the outcome of the battle between Shuri and Namor to be determined, Nakia finds herself thrown overboard. But instead of drowning, she wakes up several weeks in the past, to the morning Queen Ramonda asks her to find her only living child, kidnapped by an unknown hostile force.
Untitled Shuri character study: Gonna riff off a plot point from @pilesofpillows (with permission obvs) absolutely gorgeous fic "Like Real People Do" but I can't explain it yet because spoilers.
don't understand why anyone would gloss over shane's other hookups or claim ilya never really enjoyed sleeping around. isn't it more delicious to think about how they had other people, went into those experiences with the full intent of deriving pleasure from them, did derive pleasure from them, and knew it still paled in comparison to having each other? everything is relative! I find it far less compelling to imagine them, from the beginning, cosmically engineered to have super unsatisfying sex with other people just because they're going to end up with each other in the end. like yes the very point is that no one does it for them like each other. but I'm only going to know to find that hot if other people did do it for them, to a DEGREE....... that is far lesser than their very special soulmate-level degree.
I believe the factoid about "roads are the width they are because we've overlaying Roman roads with our own for thousands of years" has been disproven (I'd need to check) but it does amuse me to imagine that our roads are actually the width they are because that's the width a squid needed to traverse the sea floor.
If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.
1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.
2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.
3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.
4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.
5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.
Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.
Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.
I follow Mirya Holman's advice: citations are political, and assholes don't deserve citations, and 99% of the time you can find a non-asshole to cite for the same thing.
[images: two tweets by MayaIsFiya, transcribed below:]
never dating an academic again cause i am sitting here shaking and crying while citing my ex's research
(through gritted teeth) he collected some meaningful and relevant data
.
tags by kevytmaitohorsma: #but! how about the chance to drag their research paper through the mud when you notice a mistake they've made! #nobody would even question your attitude because academics just are like that #you could get really personal and everybody else would be just like “ha! they've got a point”
You are a devout Paladin trying to prevent the resurrection of a dark goddess. Ultimately you fail. When the goddess awakens, she claims that she doesn’t know who she is or what has happened. After a few days you’re struggling to determine if she actually has amnesia or if she is just lying.
I had expected…. Oh… the usual things. Clouds of smoke, maniacal laughter, some monstrous being… they were always monstrous, whether fair or foul of face.
Not this. Not an egg.
It is already hatching, a jagged opening showing in the greyish, mottled shell. Even as I watch, small pale hands show, gripping the edge and breaking another piece of it away.
When I approach the egg and look down into it, I see a child. I would have guessed her at eight or nine, if I wasn’t seeing her hatching before my eyes. If I didn’t know she was Rek’na reborn.
When she sees me she lifts her little arms to me, like a toddler wanting to be picked up. “Help… pl’s…” she says pitifully, her voice wavering and uncertain. Are they her first words? They must be. Even though I know what she is, they pull at my heart. This is a child. I have never harmed a child, even one that might grow to be the darkest of goddesses. When she looks up at me, I know I can’t do it now.
I open the egg a little further, so the sharp edges won’t scrape her soft skin. When I lift her out with gauntleted hands, I try to be gentle. There were preparations made for her hatching, I can see… lengths of silk cloth to wrap her in, dishes of raw meat and bowls of what might be wine or blood. The priests and priestesses had their plans.
But they are dead or fled, and I wrap the child in my cloak and cradle her against one shoulder. She wraps her small arms around my neck trustingly, and I carry her out of the hidden temple to where I hid my horses. There I dress her in a spare shirt – four of her would fit inside it, for I am big and she is very small – and feed her her first meal. I don’t have fresh meat, and am not sure it would be wise to give it to her if I did, but I feed her bean porridge with salted meat, and a round of dry journey-bread, and she eats it eagerly.
Then the drawing in ClipStudio Paint before slapping a noise filter on and chromatic aberration. Apparently you gotta turn on CSP's record option before you start drawing, but here's the progress via my layers lol
Hey, wanna make music? Yeah? Got a buncha money? No? Well that's perfectly fine, check this free stuff out:
Vital - A powerful wavetable synth, my personal favorite VST synth, very easy to figure out creating new synth sounds, with the help of the plenty of tutorials that are out there for the plug-in. (There are paid versions but they are completely unnecessary to get 99% of the features of the plug-in.)
Synth1 - A classic piece of synthesizer software.
Pendulate - An interesting, chaotic synth that you can make weird little sounds with.
Native Instruments' free plug-ins - Various cool VSTs, including the Komplete Start pack.
The Free Orchestra - A set of orchestral instruments for Kontakt Player (see previous link).
BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover - More orchestral stuff! This one has its own player so you don't have to download a separate VST to use it if you don't want to.
Magical 8bit Plug - A chiptune plug-in, intended for producing sounds like that of 8-bit systems like the NES and Master System.
Genny - A synth VST made to emulate the soundchip of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.
MT Power Drum Kit - A nice rock n' roll style drum kit plug-in.
This guy's weird VST collection - 6.4 gigabytes of weird VSTs, including some you might know, like Delay Lama and MeowSynth!
sforzando - A free player for soundfont files.
Musical Artifacts - A resource I mainly use to find soundfonts, on which you can find other various things as well.
Kilohearts Essentials - 30 effect VSTs including reverb, delay, compression, pitch shifting, transient shaping, ring modulation, phase distortion, and more.
Xfer's freeware VSTs - Exactly what it says on the tin, including the one and only OTT compressor.
Illformed - The good ol' dblue Glitch 1.3, Crusher, Stretch, and TapeStop.
Hysteresis and Fracture - Two interesting glitch effects, one being a delay and the other being a buffer.
Codec - A cool digital audio degradation effect.
Le Phonk - A slick distortion plug-in.
MAIM - An effect that mimics the sound of MP3 compression.
Soundly Shape it and Place it - One is simply an equalizer VST, the other is an effect that emulates a speaker (ex: a radio) and a space (ex: a cave).
Fresh Air - An effect that adds high end information to your sounds, to provide brightness.
ValhallaSupermassive - A combo reverb and delay plug-in that sounds quite big.
UnplugRed - A collection of various interesting VSTs, most of which have free versions.
Chowdhury DSP - I can't personally speak for all of these but their tape model effect is great for some lo-fi style effects.
TAL-Chorus-LX - A thick sounding chorus, good for "retro" sounds too.
Polyverse Wider - A great effect for widening sounds up, really simple too with only two controls.
Freesound - A good audio file resource, mainly for foley recordings.
Cymbatics Dubstep Starter Pack - A little sample pack with some good drum and synth samples.
fishmonger drum kit - A pack of samples from the album 'fishmonger' by Underscores!
WangleLine's sample packs - Free samples put out by my awesome mutual WangleLine!
aaand I might as well include this set of drums I made awhile back :P
As for DAWs, it's been a long while since I've used anything other than FL Studio (not counting Audacity, which I still occasionally use for specific purposes), which, while being the only one I can directly recommend, is paid. However, I've heard good things about Reaper which has a "free trial" that you can technically use forever, akin to WinRAR. Additionally, I've also heard some good things about Waveform Free.
New Gatekeeping Rule: You are not allowed to read or discuss Superboy 1994 -and especially Tana Moon- unless you've read the entirety of From A Native Daughter by Haunani-Kay Trask. There's an audiobook online, no excuses.
These are separate essays not from A Native Daughter, but ones I felt were relevant to these Superboy pages. The SB fandom loves wielding "think of victims" to dismiss discussions of orientalism in Superboy's original run, but never extend that empathy towards indigenous people. If you want to talk about real harm, but turn away when the narrative is a deeply misogynist neo-colonialist project, then you're just looking for a reason to moralize hating a fictional female character.
I'm fully aware that most people in this fandom are just teens who got attached to a fictional white boy superhero with fancy hair, sunglasses and a leather jacket. But you're also really racist young people who take pride in your unchecked anti-indigenous and anti-Black misogynoir. There's no cute white boy to keep your attention when reading Haunani's writing, so good luck.
Computers are so scary what if I accidentally hit F12 in a steam game and it takes a screenshot. What if I press shift + F12 while in word and accidentally save my document 😖
If you had to learn what the F keys on your computer do through me reblogging this post, then I'm glad you did. Computer literacy is not a skill that gets taught anymore, and it is absolutely one that needs to be taught in order to be learned. Don't ever feel bad for not knowing something, but ☝️ don't ever stop learning learning about your environment, the tools you use, and especially the people around you
australia was colonised according to the myth of terra nullius (or empty land). ever since the very early days of colonialism, the land has been framed as something untameable and unliveable. this has justified acts of violence against the first peoples here, in that they are seen as non-people. it has justified the destruction of sacred land in the goal of making australia look more european. (an example: our capital city contains a man-made lake that is now nothing better than a fetid carp pond. it’s disgusting and unnatural). basically, the idea of “taming australia’ has justified endless harm
“everything in australia is weird and dangerous” is not just some silly meme phrase, it is something that arcs back to the very beginning of white settlers laying claim to ‘australia’. and personally I am very sick of seeing it thrown around like it means nothing
Yeah and like... I think there is space to talk about the ways Australia is relatively unique or at least different to other places: our snakes and spiders are more dangerous than anyone else's, but our native bees and 'bears' are safer. You might die of sunstroke but you won't die in a blizzard, earthquake, or tornado.
Australia is not especially dangerous, or unfriendly, it's just 'different', but then the question is different to what. Why should deadly earthquakes and forests full of murderous bears be seen as more normal? Why is a desert any more weird or scary than a bog or tundra? Why are cold damp places seen as the only form of natural beauty, why do people see warm dry places as dead when they are full of life, and see warm damp places as full of TOO MUCH life somehow? Why, even in Australia, do we use the aesthetics of red October leaves and Christmas snow, and not celebrations of the beautiful seasonal changes we actually see all around us? Why are white Australians so actively hostile to engaging and connecting with the local cultures that have been celebrating and working with the place we live for thousands of years, and even after hundreds of years still see our home as Strange?
Historians are looking into the possibility that the first Australians practised forms of agriculture and aquaculture, writes Cathy Pryor.
Yes, let's definitely have a conversation about why the European colonists were invested in the belief that the indigenous people didn't cultivate the land.
YEAH, THAT TOO. It's important to remember that the way Indigenous Australians were and are treated would be just as unjustified if they were all hunter gatherers. But they were not, and that lie has been spread for a reason.
Also I read through the replies and people point out that exactly the same sort of exotification into a Dangerous Alien Landscape Which Must Be Tamed happens with Africa, Asia, The Middle East etc. Even like... Scotland and Italy, back in the day. And for similar reasons. And this kind of imagery is everywhere, like play any video game with multiple biomes or cultures etc (real or fictional) and see which ones are treated as Normal and which ones are Weird and Scary/Exotic.
"The Australian landscape is alien and mysterious and will kill you" has been a trope since the very first white people looked at this continent, and it's tiring.
frodo getting criticized for decades for not doing much / not being a hero compared to sam is fitting when you consider mental health and strength is often trivialized. frodo carried the most dangerous and insidious item in middle earth for YEARS. ancient beings (elves, gandalf, etc) were taunted and tempted by it. boromir was corrupted within weeks without even touching it. men and hobbits turned against their brethren for it. killed for it. and frodo, with a wound from a morgul knife, bore it’s weight when no one else could. had it been anyone else, middle earth would have fallen.
no, he couldn’t have done it without his samwise. but isn’t that a lesson in itself?
this is going to be a very difficult post for me to make because the guilt is intense but i'm kind of in a difficult spot so, i guess i gotta swallow my pride or whatever it is.
but i am going to hide it under a cut, lol. don't look at me.
this thursday i had to take my cat to the vet because he was having issues going to the litter box. if you know anything about cats i'm sure you know how common urinary tract issues are especially in older male cats. he was diagnosed with cystitis and is already on the mend, so i'm relieved for that, it definitely could have been worse
but the insurance i'd bought for him when i had more money didn't actually pay for anything, what they would cover just went to my deductible. which i could afford when, again, i bought it and had more savings, but that's no longer true, so now i have more credit card debt (i was working on getting some down already, but the universe hates that i guess) and it's a lot for me to deal with right now. i'm on a very limited income, i'm working an unpredictable gig economy job, and i'm already struggling each month to get my stuff paid for.
so, bleh. i set up a ko-fi. i know lots of people are struggling, and i don't expect anything from anyone at all. just if anyone feels like donating a dollar or something to me, anything would help.
i understand i'm in a better position than a whole lot of people all over the world, i know this. like i said, i don't expect anyone to do anything. it's fine. just as an attempt to get a little help, this is something i'm trying. i'm having to force myself not to continue apologizing here. instead, a couple of pictures.
the patient in question and in mood lighting
the bill, just as proof.
alright. if you read all that, thanks. also sorry. here's the link: https://ko-fi.com/sindirimba
thank you if you can give anything, and thank you if you can't just for reading 🖤
this is going to be a very difficult post for me to make because the guilt is intense but i'm kind of in a difficult spot so, i guess i gotta swallow my pride or whatever it is.
but i am going to hide it under a cut, lol. don't look at me.
this thursday i had to take my cat to the vet because he was having issues going to the litter box. if you know anything about cats i'm sure you know how common urinary tract issues are especially in older male cats. he was diagnosed with cystitis and is already on the mend, so i'm relieved for that, it definitely could have been worse
but the insurance i'd bought for him when i had more money didn't actually pay for anything, what they would cover just went to my deductible. which i could afford when, again, i bought it and had more savings, but that's no longer true, so now i have more credit card debt (i was working on getting some down already, but the universe hates that i guess) and it's a lot for me to deal with right now. i'm on a very limited income, i'm working an unpredictable gig economy job, and i'm already struggling each month to get my stuff paid for.
so, bleh. i set up a ko-fi. i know lots of people are struggling, and i don't expect anything from anyone at all. just if anyone feels like donating a dollar or something to me, anything would help.
i understand i'm in a better position than a whole lot of people all over the world, i know this. like i said, i don't expect anyone to do anything. it's fine. just as an attempt to get a little help, this is something i'm trying. i'm having to force myself not to continue apologizing here. instead, a couple of pictures.
the patient in question and in mood lighting
the bill, just as proof.
alright. if you read all that, thanks. also sorry. here's the link: https://ko-fi.com/sindirimba
thank you if you can give anything, and thank you if you can't just for reading 🖤
The new Odyssey adaptation has inevitably gotten people talking about a Muppet version of it, and they’re frequently suggesting Kermit as Odysseus, Miss Piggy as Penelope.
I’m sorry but that’s thinking way too small, hear me out:
We need to have Miss Piggy as Odysseus, and Kermit as Penelope.
Think about it… who’s the more fickle, prideful, warlike one in that relationship? Who is absolutely ready to go ham, at a moment’s notice?
But who is the single human cast member in this tale? Who gets to put in an Oscar-worthy performance alongside the Muppets and what role are they to play?
There’s no single human, everyone is a Muppet except for one scene. Circe, played by Janice, turns Odysseus’s crew into humans who still behave animalistic and are all played by Academy Award winning actors.
--oh man does this mean the whole crew is the pigs in space crew? like yes you want all the main muppets to have roles but why not all of them in the challenger/antagonist roles. there's lots
also Kermie back home makes me think duh, Robin is Telemachus.
Nonsensical Babblings @xenokattz - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
