oof. owie. ouch.

“This magic potion turned the emperor into an alligator” -> “huh i guess magic potions do exist.”

Simple. Straightforward. Comprehensible. Least amount of cognitive leaps to take. Occam’s razor slices through so cleanly and neatly.

“Some random peasant becomes emperor eight years after QSH’s death, after winning a contentious (haha) civil war, and beating out some of the most celebrated military men in history. Despite being a crude, backstabbing scoundrel who pissed in people’s hats, he also managed to lay the groundwork for a moderate and (relatively) humanist Han dynasty, which lasted 400 years and became china’s first golden age. He stands as a paragon of benevolence (relative) to the draconian Qin rule*. His legacy is so enduring that into the modern day, chinese people still call themselves the Han people, and the language the Han language, while his predecessor QSH (who envisioned himself as the progenitor to an unending dynasty) only managed to create a dynasty that lasted 15 years, and has nothing but crumbling walls and unopened mausoleums that stand as a monument to human exploitation” <- it this was a work of fiction i’d decry it for being heavy handed and painfully unrealistic.

"No." Says the tuna, "Do you?"

"I have never seen it." Says the whale, "but deep in my body, I remember it."

"Why do you care," says the tuna, "if you will never see it."

"There are bones in my body built to walk through the forests and the mountains." Says the whale.

"They will disappear." Says the tuna, "one day, your body will forget the forests and the mountains."

"Maybe I don't want to forget," Says the whale, "The forests were once my home."

"I have seen the forests." Whispers the salmon, almost to itself.

"Tell me what you have seen," says the whale.

"The forests spawned me." Says the salmon. "They sent me to the ocean to grow. When I am fat with the bounty of the ocean, I will bring it home."

"Why would the forests seek the bounty of the oceans?" Asks the whale. "They have bounty of their own."

Last year I finally had an excuse to illustrate this simple little Tumblr story I've had bookmarked forever for class.

tuna yaka wawa "wik. mayka?"

"wik na nanich iliʔi, bət na kəmtəks q̓aləp kʰapa na iɬwəli."

"pus-ikta ma tiki pus iliʔi pus wik na nanich?"

"na t̓uʔan bon kʰapa na iɬwəli pus ɬatwa kʰapa lipʰyi kʰapa stik-iliʔi pi lamətay."

"aɬqi hilu uk. ixt san, aɬqi ma iɬwəli uk kʰəpit-kəmtəks stik-iliʔi pi lamətay."

"alaxti wik na tiki kʰəpit-kəmtəks. anqati na miɬayt kʰapa na hom kʰapa stik-iliʔi."

k̓aʔ kwənat yaka wawa, alaxti kʰapa kʰəltəs ya. "na nanich stik-iliʔi."

k̓ʰanish ya wawa "ma wawa na kʰapa ma nanich."

"stik-iliʔi ɬas munk-tənas nayka. ɬaska munk-ɬatwa nayka kʰapa saltsəqw. yakwa na chaku-hayash. saltsəqw munk-hayash na kʰapa ɬush klis. qʰənchi hayash nayka, aɬqi na lulu ɬush klis kʰapa na hom."

"pus-ikta stik-iliʔi ɬas tiki ɬush klis kʰapa saltsəqw? ɬas t̓uʔan ɬas klis."

August has arrived, and with it comes the All Spirits' Night zine submission period!

Rumor has it that we're looking for your ghost stories and art, no matter your skill level... so if you're interested, send in your creations here! We have a limited number of submissions we can accept, and we'd hate for you to miss the spooky fun.

For more details on the zine, including piece guidelines, check out our info doc, and keep an eye on our tag #AllSpiritsNight2026 for future updates! If we reach the maximum amount of 50 contributors before the end of the submission period, we will announce it under this tag.

i did portraits for a bunch of games including keeping the summer (timeloop style strategy vn?), love-colored memories (tokimemo style dating sim), and onigiri for my oomukade (cooking vn) as well as the cover art for sweetsdigger (a real gameboy game!), and some more background art for this....idk what genre this is tbh

...oh and i also did the banner for the entire event, while i was in a cave!...with a box of scraps on the 15 hour airplane ride. perhaps contributed to the two! mokeine game submissions this year

back then i made a bunch of these but by now i lost the pic and dont know how to find the original post anymore

so anyway here is the diagram for anyone else who is interested!!

this requires pretty big carboard pieces, if you have a really big box or something you can make it from one piece, but if you don't, you can also just make each of the pieces individually and then tape them together

and then in the end you put it together like this!!

and then when you make a bunch you can put them all next to each other and stack your books like crazy

1 note: I quit being a sheriff

10 notes: I start a rebellion

100 notes: I take over the dynasty

1,000 notes: I start the first golden age of China

"The Emptiness Machine"

Some notes:

1. There's a hidden reference to a sci-fi movie

2. I'm still not sure if I like the designs, so they'll probably change in the future

Little one I made. The cloak is sparkly! :D