-shrug emoji-

[ Link to survey ]

The 12th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 30th August 2025.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

If you can't wait for survey numbers, you can click here for a public spreadsheet of non-secret info with graphs as it comes in, updated manually a few times per day.

Thank you so much!

"Have you finished drawing yet?" Art by Gray-Skull

I will express my personal opinion about the design of the Sisters of Battle armor. The problem is, it's not just steel plate armor, it's power armor. Under the layer of armor (even if it's thin) is a frame (on which the armor plates are attached) and artificial muscles that set the armor in motion and give the wearer superhuman strength. In other words, it should look like a Crysis nano-suit with armor on top of it. Therefore, the power armor of Sisters of Battle cannot be thin and tight to the body like a latex dominatrix suit with high heels. But in most cases, it is portrayed as such, because it's canon of GW.

If we talk about chest armor - it's all about preferences. Personally, it seems to me that the option with a single chest protrusion is more acceptable than the division into chest # 1 and chest # 2. More space for frame and artificial muscles.

It doesn't matter, the lore is silly and not to be paid attention to; and

The cheesecake outfits are the lore, and that lore is too important and sacred to change for... other lore

Truly what is most baffling about this is, even if we disregard the point made about the Callidus Assassin, and the numerous other opportunities for sexiness in the setting: the old imagery to which Schrodinger's Lore Advocates cling to is well imbued in popular culture and pewter figurines.

Which means we can obtain all the fan art and comedy value of it without having to perpetuate as a serious product.

Truly an amazing time to be alive.

Outlets are now reporting that itch.io has targeted safe-for-work queer games for deindexing. It started with a Trans Network News article that quoted one developer saying their SFW games were targeted. This claim was amplified by Ana Valens on Bluesky [1], and soon after, other outlets repeated it (1, 2). But let's look at the original statement...

Game developer krispycat, also known as ButterflyLatte, reports that her NSFW game demo, known as “The Seventh Bride,” was deindexed, and is only shown when specifically searched for. It wasn’t just this game, either. “On a whim, I tried to search up my SFW games as well - Wendy, warm, Like Seafoam. These games are fairly innocent and wholesome; 'warm' and 'Wendy' star children. However, they don't appear in the suggestions either - I suspect it's because they're yuri games,” she recounted, describing a genre of fiction which depicts romance between two female characters and has no inherent sexual elements.

Itch responded to this claim saying that actually, the noted SFW games are indexed―and subsequently people, including self-proclaimed journalists, called them liars for that. However, I haven't seen anyone present proof that these games were ever not indexed. The problem may have been that the dev was expecting to see the games show up as auto-suggestions; it may have been that two of the three games have single-word titles, which Itch has specifically said can make games "difficult or impossible to search for".

So to sum up: the claim that Itch is targeting lesbian SFW games is solely based on a single quote from a single dev that was not backed up by any proof that the noted games were ever actually deindexed. I'm begging journalists to do better. I think it's entirely possible to talk about the effects this has had and is having on creators―because it is undeniably having effects―without spreading misinformation at the same time.

As we all know, UK OSA recently came to play for UK residents. Which means itch.io had to comply to the new rules (read more about here).

Essentially, until itch finds an acceptable way of complying with the "Check people's ID" rules from the new regulations, they are geo-blocking any NSFW page. This includes (afaik):

Project pages

Profile pages displaying geo-blocked projects!!!*

*right now I don't know if it's just listing games widget-style, collections are affected, or if having basic links towards NSFW projects in your profile description counts too.

If you are a UK resident landing on a creator page with NSFW content, you probably will end up with a screenshot like this:

If you are a creator looking to see if your project(s) is affected by this, you can find whether a project is geo-blocked by:

Going to the Distribute tab of your project

Click Geo restrictions

You can also appeal the decision by contacting itch.io support.

This was also shared by itch in their update post:

Connect with local advocacy groups working on digital rights issues

Review and consider signing this petition opposing the OSA’s implementation: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

Commissions? In this economy? It's more likely than you think.

To make a long story short -- the job market really sucks, and it costs money to live. I'd like to be able to take care of day to day costs while I continue on the job hunt.

I'm opening commissions from now until October 15th, with 5 slots open at a time.

Transcribed for handwriting/image quality:

Style 1:

Thigh-up, full color, basic render

Simple background

One character, +50% for each additional character

45 USD

Style 2:

Full body, full color, flat (+10 USD for render)

No background (+5 USD for simple background)

Also available as outfit/party lineup (contact for rate)

One character, +50% for each additional character

60 USD

Style 3:

Full body, full color, painterly/textured render

No background (+5 USD for simple background)

One character, +50% for each additional character

Experimental style, allow more time for completion.

75 USD

More information under the cut! Specific questions? Contact via DM!

A few weeks ago, I was at a flea market selling my book and some pins/stickers I’d made. Event went fine enough despite trying to sell a book with a pair of lesbian MCs in deep red Ohio.

Early in the day, an older lady came up to me and told me that my pro-choice stickers I was selling were “just the least Christian stickers ever”. Having been raised in an evangelical household, I resisted the urge to quote scripture at her, as I wanted invited back to the flea market next month.

But she gave me an idea…

I made the least Christian sticker ever. Granted, I made a mistake and ordered the wrong size in the first batch. But people seem to like them and are buying them already.

And hey. They’re print on rainbow paper just to make them a little extra gay.

If you want one, they’re only $1.50 because tiny sticker. Selling them will help me publish my next book

California Mammals. Illustrated by Hans J. Peeters. 1988.

It’s the first item on the damn list! 

To this house. Not a contemporary house, and the pentagons of those two windows on the left are a little unusual, but not particularly notable.

The sides of the steps to the front entrances are painted purple. That’s a little interesting.

Oh?

OHHHH YEEEESSSSSSS

POUR THAT PURPLE CARPET ON ME BABY (also that fireplace FUCKS)

You thought you’d bring your own furniture to this house? No. Only built-in seating covered with orange-pattered carpet in the purple living room.

This is where things start to get a little surreal to me. This house was built in 1975. But look how bright and new that carpet looks! It still matches the light fixture! And it’s in the kitchen! It looks like it was never used (weird), or that it was REPLACED recently (WEIRDER BY FAR).

This is actually a lovely bright dining space, if you can ignore the purple carpet of the living room running up against the blue carpet of the kitchen. As sometimes happens in a house.

That’s a new toilet. And that’s purple carpet in the bathroom. And a pink sink where the material reminds me of tiny independent movie theaters or hole-in the wall restaurants.

The only way to move between the three floors of this house, friends and foes. I have one drink and I’m sleeping on the orange built-in seating for my safety.

And now…pink. (And some sliding doors which I hope open onto a balcony but I don’t SEE anything like a balcony railing.)

Stepping back, I’m still having trouble interpreting this room. My best guess is that it’s the main bedroom, with a semi-public area at the top of the stairs and then this is the more private area where the bed would go. But it’s not actually walled off. The decorative light switch cover shaped like a regular house is a nice touch.

Friends…

This is a lot. I genuinely now start to think that this house was inhabited by beings that DID NOT USE BATHROOMS nor did they UNDERSTAND what bathrooms were used for. That carpet is so bright! So fluffy! It shouldn’t look that way if it’s original, and WHO WOULD HAVE MADE THIS DECISION MORE THAN ONCE??? And it. It doesn’t even match the shade of pink around the tub. And the blue tile in the tub doesn’t match anything. Th…the shower head. Is there. But there is no place to hang a curtain around the tub. IN A CARPETED BATHROOM. There are so many signs of remodeling, and yet…the bathroom is still…this. 

Non-Euclidian closet. First non-carpeted room we have seen.

I run from the non-Euclidean closet to face the stairs, which I fall down headfirst, dying instantly.

Ah, the lower level. There’s another sink in another carpeted area, but at least the built-in furniture isn’t carpeted. It’s fine.

IT’S FINE

This bedroom makes me think of dorm rooms, but from a bad alternate timeline.

This bedroom doesn’t have carpet, but rather a portal to a different alternate universe.

Your best chance for normality in this house.

At least the children’s toilet room isn’t carpeted? I’ve gotta count this as a win at this point. I’m blocking the sink and counter from my mind. I do not see it.

It’s fine. Oh THERE’S the balcony. …it has no railing. Friends and foes, I really think I’d need my balcony to have railings in this house. But I guess if you’re an incorporeal being from another dimension who loves carpet, it wouldn’t really matter.

Thank you for journeying with me. 

Ted, short for Haunted

Levi, short for Leviathan

Sue, short for Suture

Babs, short for Babylon

Nic, short for Funicular

Roy, short for Corduroy

Maggie, short for Magnet

Sassy, short for Assassin

Ward, short for Windward

Fisher, short for Kingfisher

Cal, short for Calligraphy

Vera, short for Veracity

Ava, short for Avalanche

Gil, short for Gilded

Tim, short for Timber

Bob, short for Bobbin

Rob, short for Robbery

Lyn, short for Lintel

Steve, short for Stevedore

Tom, short for Atom