Plural Possessed Nouns

Children of Fate, an interquel to Superdome in the Shadeshifter Chronicles, is now available on Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, Lulu, and Nook!

How far are you willing to go to save your new home?

What if your home is full of murderous villains? Would you entangle its fate with your own, or would you cut ties and run? The Sotiropoulos sisters are powerful enough to be goddesses among men, even among Superheroes: a Memory Manipulator with no moral compass, a Precog without limits on her powers, and a Teleporting assassin who can be in many places at once.

As much as they might prefer to watch the world crumble around them, they need a plan to bring sustainable order to the Dome. The plan will span decades. It’s unforgivable. They don’t care. It’s a numbers game, as Leandra would say. Destroy one man to save millions? It’s a no-brainer.  

What they don’t realize is the price they will pay for their machinations.

We beta read for the author, and Casca produces some really great stuff when it comes to representing MOGAI, neuroatypical people, people with physical disabilities, and people in unconventional relationships. All their books pass the Bechdel Test and the Mako Mori test with flying colors, and a majority of their major characters (so far) have been female and nonbinary genders. The author themself is nonbinary, bisexual, polyamorous, and neuroatypical. In summary, this is an author most of you can probably feel pretty good about supporting.

Here’s a thing I’ve had around in my head for a while!

Okay, so I’m pretty sure that by now everyone at least is aware of Steampunk, with it’s completely awesome Victorian sci-fi aesthetic. But what I want to see is Solarpunk – a plausible near-future sci-fi genre, which I like to imagine as based on updated Art Nouveau, Victorian, and Edwardian aesthetics, combined with a green and renewable energy movement to create a world in which children grow up being taught about building electronic tech as well as food gardening and other skills, and people have come back around to appreciating artisans and craftspeople, from stonemasons and smithies, to dress makers and jewelers, and everyone in between. A balance of sustainable energy-powered tech, environmental cities, and wicked cool aesthetics. 

A lot of people seem to share a vision of futuristic tech and architecture that looks a lot like an ipod – smooth and geometrical and white. Which imo is a little boring and sterile, which is why I picked out an Art Nouveau aesthetic for this.

With energy costs at a low, I like to imagine people being more inclined to focus their expendable income on the arts!

Aesthetically my vision of solarpunk is very similar to steampunk, but with electronic technology, and an Art Nouveau veneer.

So here are some buzz words~

Natural colors! Art Nouveau! Handcrafted wares! Tailors and dressmakers! Streetcars! Airships! Stained glass window solar panels!!! Education in tech and food growing! Less corporate capitalism, and more small businesses! Solar rooftops and roadways! Communal greenhouses on top of apartments! Electric cars with old-fashioned looks! No-cars-allowed walkways lined with independent shops! Renewable energy-powered Art Nouveau-styled tech life!

Can you imagine how pretty it would be to have stained glass windows everywhere that are actually solar panels? The tech is already headed in that direction!  Or how about wide-brim hats, or parasols that are topped with discreet solar panel tech incorporated into the design, with ports you can stick your phone charger in to?

Two scientists walk into a bar:

"I’ll have an H2O."

"I’ll have an H2O, too."

But think about this:

a witch who does knot magic braiding spells into her hair

or tying it into his tie or shoelaces

a witch who does technomagic putting a reminder on their phone that contains a good luck charm

a kitchen witch making a memory spell in pancakes to help their kids learn and retain stuff from school

an enchanter/ress putting anti-bullying pins on their childs’ backpack

Pay attention to which news stations spin Ferguson coverage in ways which favour the police or strive to incriminate the victims.

'commander the scan of this shelter reveals three primary lifeforms'

'excellent. elaborate please'

'all mammals. two quadrupeds, one feline and one canine, as well as one biped sapien. they appear to be… relaxing and eating in a shared space'

How this works:

1. Find a location that is indoors or outside the immediate protest zone, but where you will be able to see any police or other authorities approaching from outside the area they would be containing. If you're a little far away from everything, you can use binoculars from inside a car or house. You can also record video from a safe distance, if you choose.

2. Stay in constant text or twitter communication with several members of the group, especially if they spread out over a fairly large area. Have the whole group send directly to you, and you can then collect that information and make larger, info-dense social media posts of anything they report back to you. You can also relay to your friends any supportive messages being sent in from other places. Since you personally are outside the immediate protest and danger zone, even if one of your friends stops corresponding, you can still keep updating the outside world using information from the others, and the individual protesters don't have to be distracted by the need to keep up a constant and fast rate of live-tweeting and -streaming. 

3. Additionally, since you'll be in a position to see any approaching authorities, you can warn your friends in advance if you spot them carrying riot equipment, teargas cannisters, etc. You can tell them how fast the authorities are moving and from what direction. You can tell if there are any ambulances with them, or only police vehicles, and you can tell if they are blocking civilian access to local streets.

In short, you can be a logistical coordinator and information relay point for your friends, relieving the burden on each of them individually for up-to-date information, so that they can focus on their protest... and you will be a source of solid documentation, since police won't be able to relieve you of your phone, camera, computer, or other equipment if you aren't near the protest itself. 

Another option, if police intervention doesn't look like it's going to be an issue:

You can provide snacks, drinks, and other refreshments, keeping a table stocked with those things throughout the course of the protest. When protestors get hot and thirsty, they can send a runner from their group to pick up bottles of water. If somebody has low blood sugar, they can get a granola bar or an apple from your stand. If you're willing to do it free of charge, then you are compensating with both your time and money for your inability to physically be present at the place of most noise and risk, and you can be absolutely sure that your contribution will be appreciated by every person who has shouted themselves hoarse and needs that drink to get back on their game. If you provide a few types of fresh fruit as the main thing to eat, you also considerately avoid problems involving most food allergies and religious or ethical dietary proscriptions. 

In general, think of a large protest the way you would think of a marathon, a bike race, or any other event where an unusually large number of people are present in a small geographic space: all the same logistical concerns apply; all the same security concerns apply. Having one extra person keeping their eyes open, documenting and reporting events, and/or providing a dependable and safe source of food and water is always a good thing for everybody present, including emergency services, because it diminishes the overall likelihood of medical emergencies relating to dehydration, and because police are significantly less likely to resort to violence if they know that non-protesting civilians in the neighbourhood are all paying close attention to the action.

Now, it’s an understandable problem - our socialization instantly encourages us to see this rugged, sleek, military animal as a male. Three-legged hero dog with military decorations and stern-appearing eyes? TOTALLY A DUDE DOG, JUST LOOK AT HIM. It’s a programmed response, and nothing to be ashamed of - let’s just be accurate and note that Layka’s a female.

I’ve highlighted all the reblogs above where Layka is described as a hero, an old man, with male pronouns - rather than the fierce, charming heroine she is. It’s kind of a teachable moment: how does an image of an animal, displaying absolutely no secondary sex characteristics, instantly give us these fictional headcanons about its gender and gender performance? It’s an impressive demonstration of our ability to translate body language.

The photographer who took this compelling shot noted that Layka’s playful, bouncy energy made it nearly impossible for him to get a shot with her mouth closed! He ended up having to stop using the tennis ball he was using to get her attention, because it made her too excited and smiley. Based on the photos below, I think she’d have quite a sense of humor about the “where’s the tennis ball?” game!

Of course, the photographer did end up connecting with a fundamental aspect of Layka’s nature in the cover photo; her serious, soldier side. But that’s not all the animal is. Does the dog in the unused shots still resemble an “old man?” Is the dog in the unused shots male or female? Is it still a hero with its tongue out? Is it still admirable without a “face like stone?”

Scott Woods (X)

he motherfucking dropped the truth.

(via mesmerisme)

THAT’S THE PRICE YOU PAY FOR OWNING EVERYTHING

(via queerfabulousmermaid)

this is a super important explanation to think about whenever you feel like telling someone that something isn’t racist because you don’t hate x person.

They're greedy, though, and they have short attention spans, and they aren't very good at counting... so the cat forgets that she already maxed out her inventory of lives, and she continues to accumulate tiny ghosts, until she's all full up with them, and they peek their little ghosty faces out at the world through her feet. We can only see them when the ghosts look at us through pieces of glass.

It's okay for the ghosts, though; we like to think that they like looking at the universe through noctural living eyes, and they share their little ghosty magics with the cat: a squirrel shares half his climbing skill (enough to get up a tree, but not back down it without help!); a moth shares the silence of his wings. House plants share their ability to sit still and meditative and appreciate a sunbeam. The goldfish never lose their love of water, but songbirds never lose their apprehension of it, so the cat is always paradoxically curious about water but unwilling to be touched by it. Fireflies lend their lights to cats' eyes, and crickets lend a chirpy music which cats translate into purring.