#nate a

[etriva]

from The Memory Palace, by Nate DiMeo

[ggblasts]

With my party coming to an end, I'm here to give you my last judgements for these outfits!

JJ Maybank - EXCUSE ME?! This dark prince aesthetic is absolutely STUNNING! That dramatic red cape with the gothic military detailing? The intricate chains and cross motifs? JJ said "I'm serving dark fantasy royalty" and DELIVERED. This is giving vampire lord meets romantic goth prince and I am LIVING for it. The complete 180 from casual to haute couture fantasy! 9.5/10 - breathtaking transformation! @tfjjmaybank

Esmeralda Ortiz - Now THIS is how you do enchanted elegance! That rose-embroidered fairy dress is giving me major woodland nymph princess energy. The cascading tulle in those dreamy pastels? Chef's kiss The floral heels are the perfect whimsical touch. She understood the assignment and then some. This is what magic looks like when it gets dressed up. 9/10 - absolute perfection. @tfesmereldaortiz

Nate Archibald - Sweet mother of fashion, that burgundy velvet masterpiece! The ornate brocade cape, the perfectly tailored silhouette, the rich jewel tones - this is what I call understated opulence. He's channeling Victorian aristocrat meets modern sophistication and it's absolutely divine. The attention to detail is impeccable. 8.5/10 - refined elegance at its finest! @nathanielxarchibald

John B Routledge - Now THIS is how you do regal! That pristine white military-inspired ensemble with the red sash and cape is giving me major fairytale prince vibes. The knee-high lace-up boots? The ceremonial details? He looks like he stepped straight out of a storybook coronation. Elegant, commanding, and absolutely appropriate for magical royalty. 9/10 - princely perfection! @johnnxbooker

Vanessa Hernandez - That ethereal fairy dress with the iridescent wings? STUNNING. She's serving full fantasy realness and I am HERE for it. The delicate details and flowing silhouette are absolutely magical. This is how you make an entrance at a mythical soirée. 8.5/10 - fairy godmother approved! @vanessaxhernandez

XOXO, your fashion correspondent 💋

[nateconnolly]

40,000 years ago, early humans painted hands on the wall of a cave. This morning, my baby cousin began finger painting. All of recorded history happened between these two paintings of human hands. The Nazca Lines and the Mona Lisa. The first TransAtlantic flight and the first voyage to the Moon. Humanity invented the wheel, the telescope, and the nuclear bomb. We eradicated wild poliovirus types 2 and 3. We discovered radio waves, dinosaurs, and the laws of thermodynamics. Freedom Riders crossed the South. Hippies burned their draft cards. Countless genocides, scientific advancements, migrations, and rebellions. More than a hundred billion humans lived and died between these two paintings—one on a sheet of paper, and one on the inside of a cave. At the dawn of time, ancient humans stretched out their hands. And this morning, a child reached back. 

[specialagentartemis]

My feelings about queernormative worlds in SFF is that I can often enjoy it, but I rarely believe it.

Almost everything surrounding gender, sex, and sexuality, and all the different social norms and expectations that different cultures build up around them, derive ultimately from the various realities of sexual activity and pregnancy: who can have it, who can’t, for how long, who does have it, who doesn’t, and what that means for society. I’m not being bioessentialist here, because human bodies are all quite different and different cultures develop different ways to react to that, and rates of and reactions to fertility can be different, and what different sexual and gender roles mean in different cultures and who can and can’t embody them can get extremely different. (Hell, how pregnancy itself even works can be different depending on where you live, what your lifestyle is like, and what your diet consists of!) But like, the reason gender even matters, historically, has been because of reproduction. And the reason reproduction matters, in agricultural societies anyway, has very often been because of property ownership and the need to work on farms.

So I’m totally here for queernormative worlds. But to interest me you have to answer the questions of: okay, but how does your culture work though, and how is kinship structured, and how is reproduction seen, and how is property inheritance understood, and how does gender fit into all this, for me to feel like you’ve actually tried. (And don’t say that there ARE no norms, so no one falls outside of them. There’s no culture where that’s true.)

Sci-fi worlds can get away with this easier than fantasy worlds, imo. Partially because they can posit that it is our future but we’ve gone through all of the Social Justice Struggles already and solved them, but also because technology can really alter all of these topics. The Vorkosigan Saga, for instance, makes it clear that Beta Colony is as gender-egalitarian and free-love as it is because of contraception and uterine replicators, which FULLY decouple “the ability to have children” from “the need for anyone to be pregnant.” This is huge, and the Vorkosigan Saga treats it as appropriately so! Ancillary Justice is another one that thinks a lot about how the genderless culture that decenters romance as a core social organizing principle works. But I read so many low-ish-tech fantasy worlds that are happily queernormative and gender doesn’t matter and they just feel shallow. I don’t believe this world. I don’t dislike it, exactly, I just don’t believe it, I don’t believe people would be like this because you’ve put no effort into imagining a world that works like this makes any sense.

Which is totally fine for people’s D&D games and cute oneshot comics and personal works and such, but when you want me to take your worldbuilding seriously, you’re going to have to convince me! And a lot of it is not convincing.

[fallloverfic]

"Scarlet Morning" by ND Stevenson - new prose novel to release September 23, 2025

ND Stevenson is releasing a new prose novel! You can order here.

Summary: "From the powerhouse creator of Nimona comes a breathtaking illustrated novel following two orphans who leave the only home they’ve ever known to sail with an eccentric crew of pirates.

Viola and Wilmur have been waiting for their parents for fifteen boring years in the colorless town of Caveat. Their lives are a drudge of salt, trash, pirate stories, and what-ifs . . . until one very stormy night, when Captain Cadence Chase breaks down their door. They cut a deal with the captain: Chase can take their most prized possession, a mysterious book, but only if she takes them, too. After all, if their parents aren’t coming, Viola and Wilmur might as well have a grand adventure to find them.

Setting sail into the treacherous and beautiful world beyond Caveat, the two inseparable friends must uncover the facts behind legend—and the key to saving all of Dickerson’s Sea from obliteration—before the truth tears them apart.

Wickedly funny, deeply emotional, and sharply incisive, Scarlet Morning is a tale of love, betrayal, and the extraordinary lengths we’d go to save a world broken beyond repair."

Nate promos: Blue Sky, Twitter, Instagram, Nate's blog

International orders

Nate's blog, Nate's tumblr

[cointelangel]

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY. Head fallout 4 “writer” Emil Pagilarulo made a tweet so iconic, so ridiculed, so important to our group chat that we knew we had to celebrate. so my boyfriend and i got a cake printed. happy birthday the event he has dubbed. NATEGATE

[venusbyline]

i can fix him (no really i can)

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"Turns out they’re just audio recordings of static. Hundreds of hours of it."

Leverage S05E03 The First Contact Job.

[aardvaark]

[jourke-rourke]

Leverage (2008) // S02xE01 // "The Beantown Bailout Job"

i like this exchange because depending on how you reverse that statement, you end up with three possible interpretations, each funnier than the last and all equally true:

solving poor people's problems

creating rich people's problems

solving problem rich people

[thecommunityoftrustworthysinks]

the funniest thing nate ford ever did was run up like twelve flights of stairs racing an elevator to press every floor button to stall sterling

[ggblasts]

Spotted: Nate Archibald and Chuck Bass taking a stroll through Central Park, looking like a page ripped straight out of a gilded memory. That unmistakable air of old money charm. It's almost like no time has passed. But in this city, even nostalgia comes with a side of curiosity.

The two were seen walking near the Bethesda Fountain, deep in conversation and occasionally laughing like it was 2009 again. No security, no headlines, just two old friends catching up like the days of St. Jude's and scandal were only yesterday. But on the Upper East Side, nothing is ever just casual.

A few keen-eared joggers say Chuck's voice dropped low at one point, and Nate responded with a quiet, "You really think that'll work?" Hmm. Business or something a little more personal? Because when it comes to Bass and Archibald, every reunion tends to come with a twist.

They eventually stopped for coffee at a discreet cart near the Boathouse, Chuck ordering black (obviously), while Nate went for oat milk and honey. Different drink orders, same dynamic: the brooding strategist and the golden boy. Only now, their games might involve boardrooms and city hall instead of bedroom betrayals.

As they disappeared down a quieter path near the Ramble, the whispers only got louder. Is Chuck plotting something behind that signature smirk? Is Nate finally stepping back into the limelight? Or maybe, just maybe. They're simply remembering what loyalty used to feel like before it had a price tag.

Whatever it is, one thing's for sure: Central Park hasn't seen this much charisma since Blair Waldorf's wedding day. And something tells us this is only the beginning.

XOXO, Gossip Girl

@chuckbbass @nathanielxarchibald

[nateconnolly]

Blackout Poem Made of Disability Benefits Applications and Denial Letters:

[Image ID: A blackout poem. The edges of the black are straight and rectilinear. I will indicate breaks in the line using the slash symbol /. Some of the excerpts include boxes where you could draw a check mark. I will indicate these by writing (box). The poem goes

Answer every question. / Please tell us if you want us to return them to you. / Select the heaviest weight lifted. / Using fingers to touch, / (Box) One hand (Box) Both hands / Using hands to seize, (Box) One hand (Box) Both hands / reduction / refusal / Termination / Penalty / You can give us more facts to add to your file. / You do not meet with the person who decides your case. / Notice of Decision — Unfavorable / Disabled worker’s name / Date given when disability began / Date of death. /end ID] 

The final three lines are from denial of benefits paperwork for workers who died before the end of the mandatory five month waiting period. How many of those deaths are connected to poverty? I don't know, but I can guess.

[damnwhattaman]

Nate Kasper / 20yo

[gnar-slabdash]

actually i need to borrow this gif because holy shit this is EPISODE THREE and Nate can just DO that. Can just. Grab Eliot Spencer while he’s holding a knife.