Puschelin

- a pair of military officers who try to be bullies and fail spectacularly because Camilla is just too awesome

- twins who probably aren't fucking each other but you can't say for sure. and also Babs is there too i guess but who even cares about Babs

- two actual children

- a charming diplomat and a kickass historian who get murdered for being too good at history

- a brilliant necromancer and scholar and a badass swordswoman who love each other more than life itself

- a myriad-old super necromancer who's coaplaying as said scholar's former situationship and her walking corpse

- a guy whose main character trait is "hates the protagonists because basically racism" whose magic speciality is soul siphoning and his nephew who was expressly born and trained to have his soul repeatedly stolen

- a three apples tall, stick-thin war crime who definitely has only the most platonic of feelings for her cavalier and a masc lesbian who just learned that girls can be nice to her and also has only the most platonic of feelings for her necromancer

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

This is the Veil Nebula, which Hubble saw on July 1, 2020.

Have you ever looked up what our Hubble Space Telescope saw on your birthday? (Or your anniversary, or your pet's adoption day, or...)

We've given our popular interactive page a new look — and, just as importantly, it now shows you five different cosmic sights Hubble was checking out on the day that you picked.

Star requested "For your requests: older (40+ years) CaitVi having a cup of tea 🩷"

This one might be my favorite so far, besides koala Caitlyn.

POV: You wake up married to the hot butch you met last night.

Anon requested "CaitVi slow dancing late at night"

The robe is making another appearance 🫣

Anon requested "Vi carrying Cait, who worked until late, to bed while Cait nuzzles Vi"

She's giving her neck kisses <3

I tried the #5colorswithflowers challenge a week after the actual challenge, and finished it last week :’)  I don’t like everything about these but it was fun to work with my markers and ocs again.

I have not managed to find anyone who thinks that in the wild, but it is so damn funny.

something something dykes on bikes 🏍️🌈💨 (because it's not pride without some l e a t h e r)

sometimes I’m reminded that there are still people who don’t know ao3 was literally created by incest shippers — and the site’s sole purpose is to 1. be completely against censorship and 2. host all kinds of dark, taboo fics that are banned on other platforms — and the first ever fic that was posted on ao3 was a fic about an incest ship from supernatural.

you are in the house that was created by freaks. for freaks (affectionate). every disgusting thing you can think of is rightfully allowed and welcomed on ao3, because they are exactly the reasons why ao3 was created in the first place.

ao3 was created because its creators got tired of censorship, they got tired of dark and taboo fics getting banned on pro-censorship platforms, and they wanted a place that was safe for ALL FICS THAT WERE DARK AND TABOO.

ao3’s main principle is being against censorship and being proship / profic.

there are some things in fiction that make me uncomfortable, but instead of shaming people who are just minding their own business and not harming anyone in real life, I choose to curate my own internet experience by blocking/muting what I don’t want to see. ao3 has excellent tagging system, so instead of being a bitch, use their tagging system properly and you won’t see the things you don’t want to see.

it’s your job to curate what you see. it’s not other people’s jobs or responsibilities to censor themselves for your personal comfort. the world does not revolve around you.

also you cannot censor “only the things you personally hate” without expecting everything else, that isn’t of conservative beliefs, to be censored too. because censorship is a slippery slope and a fascist tool. I promise you there are people who think “why do tags for queer love even exist on ao3? they’re grooming children”.

if you allow the things that you hate to be censored — because someone with enough power gets to control what other people can and cannot create/consume, it will not stop at the things that you hate.

I just wrapped up a second fanart inspired by my fic… which was actually inspired by a fanart to begin with 🥴

I chose to illustrate a particularly blazing-hot tango scene from Chapter 6, "Two to Tango". While working on it, I realized it could actually mirror the very first piece that started this whole story.

The first one has colder tones, while this one is all warmth and fire. Blending them together felt like the perfect way to symbolize the changing "temperature" between Cait and Vi throughout the whole slow-burn journey.

So… I’ll leave you with the new piece, the original artwork as it was first created, the reworked one so it matches with the new one’s rendering, and the blended version with the title in the center, which could honestly work as the cover for the entire fic I think 🙃

I really enjoy coming back to my old sketchy style. I think it feels more like me. Not so polished, a bit chaotic… but honest and raw.

I think it’s also the way my neurodivergent brain works. I get inspired by so many incredible artists that I constantly want to experiment, learn new techniques, and try completely different styles. It’s almost like if I don’t, I’ll eventually get bored and stop creating altogether. I need to keep things exciting.

But no matter how much I experiment, I always seem to find my way back to my roots. The style that comes from years of painting semi-abstract pieces with acrylics, charcoal, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on.

So yeah… I feel good about this. It feels like coming home ❤️

You can read the whole story of Evidence of You here

A few close-ups 👇