the things we cherish are small indeed

Three-cueing is essentially crutches that help you get by but let you down eventually. It's very common when learning a foreign language, I misread kanji sometimes because I pattern-recognize based on context instead of really looking. The solution is to do some proper studying, but I don't wanna.

... Is absolutely terrifying in the context of all other anti-intellectualism happening right now. This guy is STILL pushing his 'observations' while denying evidence that it doesn't work.

But then. THEN. This fuckass twink descendant of my mortal enemies picks up my amulet. Takes right out of the sacred chamber. I guess it was finally a ruin now? Worse timing possible, too late to stop me going insane and right before the insanity could pay off.

Anyway I'm not going to kill him right away. Where's the satisfaction in that? He's the last descendant of my enemies (pretty sure) so of course I gotta drag it out. This is the only revenge I might ever get. I'll have to capture him. Keep him sealed away for a long time, see how he likes it. But like. In a nicer placed than that fucking chamber because unlike some long dead assholes, I have standards. Plus I'm also going to spending a lot of my time there too, menacing him and shit, so it better be nice for me.

I'm thinking summer house on an otherwise uninhabited island. I keep him there where there are no dragons or ogres or demon kings to interrupt, and I tell him all about the shitty things his ancestors did, to like. Demoralize him. So that he knows that even though I'm a scary evil creature that's going to be his ending, he doesn't get as much moral high ground as he'd probably like. I make him eat meals with me just to draw out the tension, and then I give him nightmares, making him twist and writhe in his sweat-soaked sheets while his heart hammers against his ribs and he wonders if this will finally be the night I finish him.

Maybe I'll even let them visit him in his woeful imprisonment afterwards as well. Just to really hammer the point home. They're not the worst company, at least. Not as annoying as heroes used to be. We can have them over for dinner while I lord my victory above their helplessness. Real power move to just let them come and see the guy that they are nevertheless unable to free from my dark clutches.

Those guys were supposed to be dead for centuries! And they're still ruining my life! Fucking. That fuckass other descendant managed to summon them and of course THEY are still not cool with me or my dark forces, although I'm going to be real, they weren't looking too noble and above-aboard themselves when they turned up. That was some hypocritical undead revenant bullshit.

Of course I ended up fighting them. They attacked first! Again! They were even trying to kill their own descendant! And those heinous bitches called me the monster. I've never tried to kill my own descendants. Probably because I don't have any but still. At least try and take over his body first or something!

Well actually they did try it, I think? But that hero of theirs had worn my amulet for so long that he was too corrupted for it to work. Ha!

Small victories.

I'm going to need to hang onto those.

Because now I'm sealed back in the fucking Chamber Eternal again.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKING---!!!!

Okay.

Alright.

I'm not going to lie this isn't looking good. I'm not in the amulet anymore but the seals on the chamber are strong, made with the souls of those fuckdamn ancient heroes. All my power is left with their descendant on the outside now. My plans are thwarted. I'm going to languish in this minimalist hell of a chamber until those ancient souls run out of juice, and currently they're forming a dome of spiritual energy so flush with power that the ghosts on the moon can probably see it.

I was really confused at first because, why would my sworn enemy who I've been plotting vengeance against this entire time free me from the chamber? At great effort and personal risk, no less? That fight was absolutely brutal, I'm not sure I could have even done it myself in his place, and I mean his situation without even bothering was quite good. He had all of my power. His ancestors were likewise distracted with sealing me away. He could have ascended to become the next Dark Lord or, I don't know, ran around doing his Power of Friendship bullshit for the next ten thousand years largely uncontested. Not only does he not have a further use for me but if anything, I present a massive threat to him if I can regain enough strength to take my power back.

But I think that's it! That Power of Friendship bullshit! Somehow, this guy has mistaken me for an ally.

I can work with this.

As long as he doesn't suspect that we're actually enemies, I can bide my time, restore my power, wrestle control of my armies back from his grasp, and then get him back on his knees.

I'm almost starting to wonder if he really is descended from those ancient hero fuckers, he doesn't act like them at all. The apple must have rolled into a goddamn river and been carried off to sea after it fell off that tree.

Such a strong political alliance with the ruling family will further cement my hero's power in this region. Potentially, that will make it even harder to extricate him for my own purposes later on. Of course, it's not worth the risk if I do something too extreme and it gets traced back to me, so I can't simply kill the prince.

But I didn't study medicine at my grandmother's knee just to forget all the useful bits in my dark rise to power. That idiot won't be riding out to adventure alongside his 'sworn brother' tomorrow if he has too many embarrassing rashes to get into his saddle.

Cats are one of nature's most successful predators. Properly trained, a dark familiar is an excellent spy and helper, and I am in need of every advantage I can get right now. Everyone knows the best way to ingratiate yourself to animals is to get them young. Feeding kittens is a sinister action.

The only one allowed to strip him and put him in chains is me!!! ME!!! He's mine!!! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE FIRST TO DO THAT TO HIM!!!

Bastards! Hacks!

Resign from office on the grounds that I only ran for the bants, triggering a further by-election

Today is the reveal of the cover for new edition of YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION, coming out July 16th from Tor UK and October 6th from Tor Bramble!

YIELD is a cozy M/M romantasy about doing the hard, unlovely, backbreaking work of learning to love and forgive yourself so that you can accept the love of other people which has been waiting for you all along. Tags include: One-sided enemies-to-lovers, one-sided yearning and pining, grumpy/sunshine, your honor they're idiots, busybody gods, and plant magic.

SUMMARY:

Tam Becket has hated Lord Lyford since they were boys. The fact that he’s also been sleeping with the man for the last ten years is irrelevant. When they were both nine years old, Lyford smashed Tam’s entry into the village’s vegetable competition. Nearly twenty years later, Tam hasn’t forgiven him. Now Tam has reconciled himself to the fact that love and affection are for other people, that the gods won’t answer any of his prayers (not even the one about afflicting Lyford with a case of flesh-eating spiders to chew off his privates), and that life is inherently mundane, joyless, and drab. And then, the very last straw: Tam discovers that Lyford (of all people!) bears the divine favor of Angarat, the goddess Tam feels most betrayed and abandoned by. In his hurt and anger, Tam packs up and prepares to leave the village for good. Tam soon finds himself set on a quest for the most difficult of all possible prizes: Self care, forgiveness, a second chance... and somehow the unbelievably precious knowledge that there is at least one person who loves Tam for exactly who he is—and always has.

"Alongside the sexiness and absurdity (and the sexy absurdity) in Yield Under Great Persuasion is a tender, resonant story of second and third chances and being loved when we need it most and feel we deserve it least. Evocative, emotional, and endlessly entertaining." -Jules Arbeaux, author of Lord of the Empty Isles

"A hot cup of chocolate for the soul." --Book Riot Preorders should be available now wherever you buy your books, including Bookshop.org, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

(If your first question is "Where is the best place to get it?" check the FAQ page on my website!)

This is very stupid but it’s genuinely what I think about every time I consider skipping dinner after work

If your look through my "foster kitten" tag, 99% of those were born to feral moms. 99% of kittens you find up for adoption in any shelter are going to be from feral moms.

Put out by the suggestion that the sexism implied by these patterns was real or potentially constituted a form of violence, a nineteen-year-old man at the back of the classroom asked, “What’s the difference between sharing a picture of my toaster and sharing a picture of my naked girlfriend? Either way, the picture is mine.”

The student may have been trying to be amusing, but he asked the question with a straight face. He was sitting in a scrum of men who were also eager for an explanation. “I mean, if she gives it to him,” another asked, “what does she expect?” I waited to see if anyone in the class was going to disagree.

The young man’s choice of a toaster was fascinating. He equated the woman in the photograph with an actual tool, perceiving both in terms of their instrumentality. They were inert, possessions to be used, and lacking in self-determination. A toaster, coincidentally, contains warm slits and produces consumable pleasures. If the woman, unlike a toaster, had any boundaries that should be respected, they were easily done away with in the subtle shift from subject to object. Stymied and laughing to myself, I couldn’t figure out how to answer his question in the scant few minutes left. Women and toasters are different. Did I really have to explain this? Out loud?

The other students were cavalier about the question. It was clear that they could comfortably overlook the fact that the issue didn’t hinge on the man’s possession of the woman’s picture or his use of a particular technology, but, instead, on his disregard for the woman as a person. No one brought up the woman’s potential emotional response, consent, privacy, or agency. The entire conversation centered around the man’s property rights and, as one student insisted, his “freedom of expression.”

No one seemed outraged by his carelessness and what it represented. Perhaps the women in the room did feel personally insulted and angry, but no one said anything. The slight represented by the man’s question was irrelevant to them. It certainly didn’t strike them as gendered, despite the overwhelmingly gendered nature of what he was describing. His assertion was, in a deep way, an assertion of relative status. In it, I saw threats to safety, health, physical integrity, and a whole host of other practical outcomes. Maybe, I thought, the women simply saw an asshole and felt no insult or threat. The issue of dignity didn’t come up at all. I perceived insult; others did not.

Insults are the most common provocation for anger because, whether we think about this or not, they generate social imbalances. Why weren’t the women students insulted? His question hinged on an imaginary scenario but not an uncommon one. The overwhelming majority of people harassed and abused by nonconsensual sharing of sexualized images are women or girls; in fact, the problem is so common that it goes by the popular misnomer “revenge porn.” Where, I wondered, was the indignation?

Toaster Boy, to provoke indignation, would have had to violate norms, but he didn’t; he confirmed them. The relationship between “woman” and “dignity” and “rights” is far weaker than that between “man” and “property” and “free speech.” In fact, if anyone was indignant, it was Toaster Boy, and his anger held purchase among his peers.

Being indignant is a powerful emotional response to insults and to threats against dignity. It is a specific kind of anger rooted in believing that you are being treated unfairly. A precondition for indignation is a secure sense of your worth and an equally strong sense that some valuable standard or norm has been violated. Subjecting someone to indignity involves making a person feel shame or a loss of self-respect. It’s the core of humiliation, embarrassment, and loss of face as well as pride. It is the bleeding edge of dehumanization and violence.

When your ability to gauge insult is worn away by learning to see yourself mainly in terms of usefulness to others, there is no expectation. No expectation means no violation, and no violation means no anger in response. The cycle goes round and round.

The kind of objectification the man was describing causes feelings of shame and anger in women every day, but we frequently ignore both the objectification and the feelings because even the idea of being insulted or demanding dignified treatment is difficult to reconcile with certain types of femininity. Indeed, indignity can often feel immanent in femininity.”]

New York became the first state to pause all construction of massive new data centers after Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced a one-year moratorium on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The state-wide ban applies to data centers using 50 megawatts or more, officials told Reuters, and it won’t be lifted until the state figures out what “consistent standards” for responsible data center development in New York should look like.

I’m really hoping she does sign the bill. Even if it doesn’t extend the moratorium by very long, an Executive Order isn’t locked in. It can be rescinded any time. Signing the bill means no backsies, she can’t just change her mind.

🐱 British Longhair

📸 Dreamland Cattery

Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky

Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*

You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.