My apartment complex's asphalt work is doing an interesting game of rotating affected parking spots but keeping them closed for longer than other spots reopen, meaning that I and all my neighbors are having the opportunity to meet each other in unexpected vehicular ways.

For any #FF14 Bozja / Beastmaster fans, please feast yourself on this absolutely incredible Lyon Helsos comm by @wicksandwheat.bsky.social! Wick graciously took on my request to feature Lyon in an affectionate moment with Dawon and other creatures in his care, and I'm in love with how it turned out.

me: lists out my next top three priorities for wips also me: randomly picks up the draft of Hythlodaeus being salty at Hades for 10k+ words

I'm seeing FF13 trending today, which is a great time to also talk about another representation in its game, ie Fang, who was not only as explicitly lesbian as SE would get back in 2009, but also the first female physical Tank in a major SE title, who additionally outshone her male counterpart.

I know the 'Crystal Exarch is photosynthetic' angle has likely been written a million times by now, but what's one more cake on the pile (also with the added discussion of how it can be hard to feel attractive with a prolonged medical condition): archiveofourown.org/works/89199036

Bit of a hectic week, moreso than anticipated, but hoping to get back on track today with posting the Raha fic and doing other catchup while remaining politely enraged by humanity.

Ethical Romantasy: where the main character and their love interest(s) spend 90% of the book in reforestation efforts, and the remaining 10% cleaning up their camp footprint.

I saw this reported elsewhere and it didn't get any air. I hope people pay attention to this story and understand the consequences. #AcademicSky

Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 2w ago

New from 404 Media: a company is selling tons of old books specifically to AI companies and says they have a strong NDA to never reveal which AI company bought all of the books. They don't want headlines of 'we scanned and destroyed millions of books for AI' www.404media.co/ai-companies...

also glanced sidelong at the lyon rarepair that's been simmering at 14k for a long while and is still wonderfully solid; I should get some words into that too since it'll likely be at least double that length.

Raha short finally has all its words, now it needs to get cleaned up and polished; it took this long because I've been working on the Dabog fic in parallel and they have some similar elements, so I wanted to make sure to explore different aspects in each one.

Incredible work

"young kids these days have no..." me: raid discipline.

Had to brave the Ikea today, but it was all worth it to get to see two older butches shopping for a bed together, absolutely heart-warming.

The creator of Roger Rabbit (who is 85 years old by the way) is a good sort Crossposted with @openvibe.social

Spoiler: a few things have changed.

“it’s leg day,” i say to the confused guy behind the counter as i waltz into the gym with three body bags to collect all the legs

Realizing I'm writing another round of 'older person gets a chance to explore their bisexuality because it would have been even less tolerated 25+ years ago,' and while this may mean that I'm rehashing the same ground, it's important ground because of how those opportunities should be given IRL too.

On a brighter note, a positive manga rec that I almost passed over is Ichi the Witch, which I thought was a typical 'world is full of powerful women, but a single man shows up and is innately more powerful/special because of his ~maleness~' but nicely subverts this, at least in the first 3 volumes!

Really tasteless game advertisement put me in mind again about the saying re: poor character design that male characters *do* things, while female characters *are* things / have things done to them, which is still widespread and treated as somehow empowering to the latter.

Had a good conversation today about queer flagging for safety vs. representation, and how deeply integrated the safety part is with some people's lives to the point of normalization (including mine), where everything about flagging isn't centered around joyful presence, but a reminder of risk.

Also grabbed the demo for Moonlight Peaks since it's getting raved about everywhere I look, but my backlog is weeping blood at me.

The speed between entering a new series and landing hard on a rarepair (I assume rare, at least) remains unchanged for me, I see.

That's Just What The Inaka Is Like.

Fist of the Nice Star@hokutonokenburns.bsky.social · 4w ago

my best friend is one of those people who explore rural Japan looking for abandoned properties and he recently found these signs out in the country

'make good decisions sweetheart' i gently coax my cat, as if he has ever made a wise decision in his life.

Thinking about how Igor's kit hinges upon being in a team with his kids, so a natural extension of power creep to keep him competitive would involve him adopting everyone else in the Suitcase, and possibly the entire world. #Reverse1999

Play Against the Storm for FREE on Steam this weekend and build settlements in a roguelite city builder ravaged by apocalyptic storms ⛈️ Free Weekend ends Monday, July 13. You can also save 70% when you buy the game. 🔁 Reshare and help us spread the word!

After about 3 years of daily paired tumblr reblogs (related themes, or call and response dialogue between morning and afternoon posts) I think I'm going to take a brief hiatus; not that it isn't fun, but my queue is 800+ deep from saving tidbits to match up with the perfect opportunity later.

Against the Storm and its delightful roguelite city cycle + worldbuilding flavor got me through so much -- particularly in 2024 and 2025 -- and I'm so glad that it's still getting updates even now.

Against the Storm@againstthestorm.bsky.social · 4w ago

Overhauled haulers at your service! 📦 Update 1.10 is out on PC, and it brings: • 3 new World Map Modifiers • Hauler system overhaul • Option to play with 4 species in Training Expeditions • Fishing Hut panel improvements • And more! store.steampowered.com/news/app/133...

A Green Heron goes into maximum neck mode to grab a tadpole and then resets into minimum neck mode after the snack was acquired.

Reading about phantom domain squatting as an attack vector for folks who blindly trust AI to point them to legit websites, and rather than the advice being 'train your own personal ability to research and analyze,' it's all 'build better AIs so you can continue to blindly trust them.'