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captainfantasticalright · 1 year ago

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In 1985, one of the only persons interested in an interview with a “new” writer called Terry Pratchett, after his publication of the Colour of Magic, was one Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman was writing for Space Voyager at the time. "The Colour of Pratchett" was the name given here:

It ran exactly one page inside the June/July issue of that year. The interview took place in a Chinese restaurant in London.

Here is Neil many years later holding that issue. You can see it here if you want. Warning: extremely emotional video.

Neil arrived wearing a grey homburg hat. “Sort of like the ones Humphrey Bogart wears in movies” he later wrote. (Before saying that in fact he did not look like him, but like someone wearing a grown-up’s hat). Terry Pratchett, photo courtesy of one @neil-gaiman, was in a Lenin-style leather cap and a harlequin-patterned pullover. At this point, Terry was already a hat person, although not that hat.

Terry offered Neil this : "An interview needn't last more than 15 minutes. A good quote for the beginning, a good quote for the end, and the rest you make up back at the office"*. (Terry Pratchett had worked many years in journalism by this point ).

But the meeting went terribly well. The two of them realized they had "the same sort of brains". So well indeed, that in 1985, Neil had shown Terry a file containing 5282 words, exploring a scenario in which Richmal Crompton's William Brown had somehow become the Antichrist. Was a collaboration in the cards as of that moment? Not really. But Terry found in Neil someone to whom he could send disks of work in progress and to whom he could pick up the phone sometimes when he hit a brick in the road of his writing.

Terry loved it and the concept stayed in his mind. A couple of years later, he rang Neil to ask him if he had done any more work on it. Neil had been busy with The Sandman, he had not really given it another thought. Terry said, "Well I know what happens next, so either you sell me the idea or we can write it together". **

On collaborating together:

Here is a video of Sir Terry saying why he chose to collaborate with Neil, another video talking about the technical difficulties of writing a book when the two of them where miles apart ,and some pages from Interzone Magazine Issue 207 published December 2006:

An Interview with Sir Terry Pratchett and his works- and Neil Gaiman, where he shortly addresses the process of writing Good Omens.

Terry shortly mentions,

“Neil doesn't rule out another book with me and he was good to write with...yep, it could happen. With anyone else? I don't know, but probably not.?”

Neil says,

"Terry took that initial 5,000 words of mine and ran it through the computer (because I’d lost the files in a computer crash) and made it the first 10,000 words, and it was definitely Good Omens at that point. Neither one thing nor the other, but a third thing.”

"I think Terry could do a very good impersonation of me if he needed to, and I could do a very good impersonation of him; so we knew the area of the Venn diagram in which we were working. But mostly the book found its own voice very quickly. It helped that we were both scarred by the William books when we were kids...”

And as you know, unless you’ve been living in Alpha Centauri, the rest is history. That was the beginning of what would become William the Antichrist and later would get the name Good Omens:The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. (Title provided by Neil Gaiman and subtitle by Terry Pratchett).

More about the writing process:

Terry took the first 5,000 words and typed them into his word processor, and by the time he had finished they were the first 10,000 words. Terry had borrowed all the things about me that he thought were amusing, like my tendency back then to wear sunglasses even when it wasn't sunny, and given them, along with a vintage Bentley, to Crawleigh, who had now become Crowley. The Satanic Nurses were Satanic Nuns.

The book was under way.

We wrote the first draft in about nine weeks. Nine weeks of gloriously long phone calls, in which we would read each other what we'd written, and try to make the other one laugh. We'd plot, delightedly, and then hurry off the phone, determined to get to the next good bit before the other one could. We'd rewrite each other, footnote each other's pages, sometimes even footnote each other's footnotes. We would throw characters in, hand them off when we got stuck. We finished the book and decided we would only tell people a little about the writing process - we would tell them that Agnes Nutter was Terry's, and the Four Horsemen (and the Other Four Motorcyclists) were mine.

From the introduction to William the Antichrist:

“In the summer of 1987 several odd ideas came together: (..)I found myself imagining a book called William the Antichrist, in which a hapless demon was going to be responsible for swapping the wrong baby over, and the son of the US Ambassador would be completely undemonic, while William Brown would grow up to be the Antichrist, and the demon would need to stop him ending the world. The unfortunate demon, whom I called Crawleigh, because Crawley was a nearby town with an unfortunate name, would have to sort it all out as best he could.

It felt like a story with legs.

Terry took the 5,000 words, and rewrote them, calling me to tell me what he was doing and what he was planning to do. The biggest thing he was going to do, he told me, was split the hapless demon into two characters – a would-be-cool demon in dark glasses (which was, I think, Terry’s way of making fun of me, a never-actually- cool journalist in dark glasses) who had renamed himself Crowley, and a rare-book dealer and angel called Aziraphale, who would embody all the English awkwardness that either of us could conceive.”

William the Antichrist being a direct inspiration of the 1976 film The Omen. If the baby swap had just been a little bit messier and the kid had gone off somewhere else he would have grown up as somebody else. “And then there was a beat and I thought, I should write it, it will be called William the Antichrist” says Neil. ***

“The first draft of Good Omens was a William-book. It was absolutely in every way it could be a William book. It had Violet Elizabeth Bott, it had William and the Outlaws, it had Mr. Brown”.

Over time they realized that they would have more creative freedom if they in their own words filed off the serial numbers. William and the Outlaws becoming Adam and the Them.

But the spirit of Just William was never far away.

The joy for Neil was to construct “perfectly William sentences”. The one when Anathema tells Adam that she has lost the Book, and he tells her that he has written a book about a pirate who became a famous detective and it is 8 pages long… that’s “a William sentence”.

If you want to read more details about William The Antichrist, here are some slides I made.

Good Omens was also inspired by a particularly antisemitic moment in The Jew of Malta and John le Carre's spy novels. (Neil’s ask)

Then I was reading The Jew of Malta by Kit Marlowe, and it has a bit where the three (cartoonishly evil) Jews compare notes on all the well-poisoning and suchlike they’d done that day, and as a Jew who never quite gets his act together, it occurred to me that if I were the third Jew I’d just be apologizing for having failed to poison a well… And suddenly I had the opening of a book. It would be called William the Antichrist. And it would begin with three Demons in a graveyard… (x).

“When we finished the book we estimated that the words were 60% Terry’s and 40% mine, and the plot, such as it was, was entirely ours.” -Neil Gaiman

"Neil and I had known each other since early 1985. Doing it was our idea, not a publisher's deal." "I think this is an honest account of the process of writing Good Omens. It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent discs to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of Good Omens. However, we were on the phone to each other every day, at least once. If you have an idea during a brainstorming session with another guy, whose idea is it? One guy goes and writes 2,000 words after thirty minutes on the phone, what exactly is the process that's happening? I did most of the physical writing because: 1) I had to. Neil had to keep Sandman going -- I could take time off from the DW; 2) One person has to be overall editor, and do all the stitching and filling and slicing and, as I've said before, it was me by agreement -- if it had been a graphic novel, it would have been Neil taking the chair for exactly the same reasons it was me for a novel; 3) I'm a selfish bastard and tried to write ahead to get to the good bits before Neil. Initially, I did most of Adam and the Them and Neil did most of the Four Horsemen, and everything else kind of got done by whoever -- by the end, large sections were being done by a composite creature called Terryandneil, whoever was actually hitting the keys. By agreement, I am allowed to say that Agnes Nutter, her life and death, was completely and utterly mine. And Neil proudly claims responsibility for the maggots. Neil's had a major influence on the opening scenes, me on the ending. In the end, it was this book done by two guys, who shared the money equally and did it for fun and wouldn't do it again for a big clock." "Yes, the maggot reversal was by me, with a gun to Neil's head (although he understood the reasons, it's just that he likes maggots). There couldn't be blood on Adam's hands, even blood spilled by third parties. No-one should die because he was alive." -("Terry Pratchett : His World”)

(Here are some slides of mine where I go into some other details concerning the origins of Good Omens).

Another wonderful insight with Rob Wilkins in "The Worlds of Terry Pratchett".

*Quote: from Terry Pratchett A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins, but said by Terry of course.

** All the quotes, facts listed here : see above.

***all other quotes by Neil Gaiman from various interviews and asks I’ll link.

#good omens #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #good omens fun facts #the colour of magic #the colour of pratchett #space voyager magazine

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retrosabers · 6 months ago

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𝐰𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐝.

FICMAS DAY 5 - UNWRAPPING

A RETROSABERS X PANDAPETALS DOUBLE FEATURE

old man logan x fem!reader

summary: logan didn’t believe in exchanging christmas presents. so, you offer him something you know he can’t refuse. a night where’s he’s free to have you all to himself.

contains: 18+ content below the cut. MINORS DNI. making out, some dry humping if you squint, oral (fem receiving), implied age gap, a dash of angst, swearing

word count: 2.6k

a/n: you thought i’d let a whole season pass without a little taste of some festive smut? absolutely hilarious. this is my first time writing for old man logan, and i think i did pretty alright considering i have yet to watch the movie (i’m terrified of the pain it will bring)

any feedback is always greatly appreciated!

also, don’t be confused by the fact that this says day 5 when i still haven’t posted day 4, i’m writing these bad boys out of order

and finally, a huge shoutout & thanks to the wildly talented @pandapetals for agreeing to do a little collaboration! please go check out her blog and all of her amazing work! <3

FIND HER PART HERE

!! divider by @estrelinha-s !!

FICMAS MASTERLIST

“are you sure your eyes are closed?”

logan grunts. “they’re closed, darlin’. promise.”

he’s been sitting here for almost fifteen minutes now, waiting for you to bring out this so-called “surprise.” from the ambient lighting and freshly washed bed sheets, the man thinks he’s got a general idea of what it is, but you’ve been fiddling in the bathroom too long for him to be certain.

still, he appeases you, and waits patiently at the foot of your bed. even if it’s a little bit uncomfortable on his knees.

meanwhile you’re fussing over every little detail of your appearance in the groggy bathroom mirror.

this was your solution to getting around logan’s “i don’t need anything for christmas” rule. you always begrudgingly abided by it, save for the box of cigars that always mysteriously turnt up in his nightstand on christmas eve. you knew he could never turn it down, no matter how much he tried.

logan could never say no to a smoke break with a nice pack of cubans. and he most certainly couldn’t say no to you.

that's how you decided upon this whole scheme. dolling yourself up and donning a new set of lingerie themed to the occasion, knowing logan had no leg to stand on. because technically, you didn’t buy anything for him. you bought this for you. he just so happened to be the person who was going to help take it off.

or rip it off, knowing your man’s track record of impatience and eagerness.

you share the exact same sentiment, though your tendency to be anile overpowers all else. you know it doesn’t matter if you have a hair or two out of place, or if your lips are slightly over lined. perfection never mattered to logan, but it still didn’t stop you from doing everything in your power to be pretty damn close to it tonight.

even if it meant making him wait a few extra minutes.

you pay your reflection one final glance before sauntering out into the bedroom.

he smells you before he hears you.

your scent wafting into the room captures his attention more than anything else. logan’s senses may not be as keen as they once were, but the fragrance of you was something utterly unmistakable. a sweet yet sultry aroma that he ached to have on his skin, his clothes, anywhere, to keep him grounded. to remind himself that you were real and you were his. it only adds to the anticipation building inside, the mere seconds he has to wait dragging on like hours in his mind.

a wave of lust overtakes you as logan comes into view. somehow just the sight of him is enough to send a bout of arousal down to your core.

that crisp white dress shirt he always wears is unbuttoned at the top, sleeves rolled up to reveal those chiseled forearms you love to have wrapped around you. the soft glow of the lamp on the bedside table illuminates the weathered curves of his face so beautifully. a contrast to the ruggedness of his position; legs lazily spread wide and long, thick fingers tapping mindlessly against his thigh.

the picture of a real man. and he’s all yours for the taking.

the sound of your footsteps padding against the floor grows louder. obediently, logan’s eyes stay shut, despite the fact that the other aroma you carry is hot and heavy in his nostrils. his upper lip twitches with a knowing smirk.

so this is exactly what he had in mind.

on instinct, his thighs spread even further when he senses your approach, hands itching to find their place on you somehow. when your own stay glued to your sides, he takes that as his cue to do the same.

logan really hates to admit it, but there’s something about this little bit of mystery that’s got him going before you’ve even begun.

“you ready?” your voice comes out breathy, and if logan didn’t know any better he’d think you’re nervous. and truth be told, you were. not that logan wouldn’t get his kicks, you were certain of that. more so that you’d be unable to walk come tomorrow morning.

though neither of you would consider it a bad thing

“yes ma’am,” he grumbles in response, knowing exactly the effect it has on you. the cockiness on his face is inevitable when he hears your breath hitch.

tease. if that’s how he wants to play, you’re in for a long night.

with a quiet sigh, you splay your fingers over the expanse of his broad shoulders. the man takes it as permission, calloused palms wrapping around your calves and not daring to travel any further. he knows he’ll lose any remaining self control if he gets so much as an inch closer to the apex of your thighs.

“okay.” you murmur. “you can open your eyes.”

slowly, those dark irises begin to drink you in. his grip on you tightens as soon as he gets the whole picture, a visible tent forming in his dress slacks almost immediately.

logan thought you were the most beautiful women he’s ever seen under any conditions. didn’t matter if you were sick, if you were bare faced, none of that changed how otherworldly you looked in his eyes. but nothing, and i mean nothing, compared to the sight of you before him right now.

you look like something out of a dream. hair styled in a way that drives him particularly crazy, makeup done to highlight your features so elegantly in the dim light. the best, and quite possibly logan’s favorite part, however, is that your lips are painted a shade of red to perfectly match the ensemble adorning your body. it sparks a slideshow of rather lewd images in his brain, wanting the color scattered across his cheek, his chest, his cock. anywhere you’re willing to brand him.

he’s committed every inch of you to memory by now. countless nights of exploring, mapping out your curves with hand and tongue. and still, everytime he sees you like this, practically offering yourself on a silver platter, he can’t help but stare back as though this is the very first time.

especially when that crimson silk is accentuating your figure so nicely.

“do you like it?” you ask coyly, bottom lip tucked between your teeth like you’re not fully aware of the power you have over him.

logan scoffs out a laugh, dragging his hands higher and higher until they tug at your hips, pulling you to straddle his lap in one swift motion. you squeak at the sudden display of strength, forgetting that despite his age, he was still infinitely stronger than any man you’ve ever met.

even beneath the layers of fabric between you, the sheer size of him was impossible to ignore. fuck, and he wasn’t even fully hard. you bite back a moan at the outline of his length pressed between your legs.

“that answer your question?” he quips back lowly, smirking smugly.

you hum in content, pressing your hands further into his shoulders as you experimentally grind your hips. the pair of you preen at the contact, desperate for any form of relief after being pent up and waiting.

��careful,” logan grits out in warning. “gonna cum in my pants like a fuckin’ teenager if you keep that up.”

you tsk in response, cocking your head with faux concern. “can’t have that, now can we?”

logan shakes his head at your antics, eyes wandering back over your body once more. before tonight, his favorite set of lingerie you owned was a black lacy number. simple and classic. but the more time he spends inspecting what’s currently adorning your frame, the more he thinks that red might be his new favorite color.

something warm spills over him when he glances at your chest again. something different than what he normally experiences every time he catches a glimpse of your cleavage, anyways.

“is that a bow?” he questions, a little bit amused.

you let out a soft giggle, nodding in reply.

“wanted you to be able to unwrap your present.”

you can count the amount of times logan has laughed, really truly laughed, on one hand. and as much as it sounds like music to your ears, you’re rather confused as to why he’s laughing right now.

“what’s so funny?” you huff, brows knit together and bottom lip jutted in a near pout.

logan averts your inquiry, burying his face in your neck so you can’t see him grinning like an idiot. instead, he busies himself with dragging his lips up and down the column of your throat, reveling in the breathy moans spilling from your lips with each and every press against your skin.

from the moment you met logan howlett, you fantasized about that salt and pepper beard. longed to feel the delicious sting of scruff against every part of you. as addicting as it is, the sensation isn’t enough to keep you completely distracted.

“logan,” you whine, titling your head back to grant him more access. “m’serious.”

he doesn’t halt his ministrations, too consumed with making sure your neck is painted every shade of lavender under the sun. he only stops when you rake your fingers in his hair and physically pull him off, much to both your dismays.

you give him a look. that pursed lips, narrow eyed “what aren’t you saying to me” look that signals he’s going to have to fess up to whatever’s on his mind, or else the evening would be coming to an end right here and now. from the way he’s about to burst through the zipper on his dress slacks, you know he’s not considering weighing options.

logan sighs heavily. if you didn’t know all the variations of the sound, you’d think he was upset with you. but that was far from how the older man felt. he begins to examine your face, observing everything from the slopes of your bone structure, to the color of your irises. he studies your features like an artisan in a gallery, content on not missing a single detail.

after a moment, the corners of his mouth turn up a hair. eyes almost dopey; filled with a lovesickness he never thought could be possible.

“you’re somethin’ else, y’know that?” he murmurs into the air, rough fingertips tracing back and forth across your spine.

you speak the language of logan fluently, knowing exactly what the underlying message of his words were. in reality, he was saying, “what did i do in this life to deserve you? will you ever know how much i love you? i hope you’ll be mine for as long as you’ll have me.”

suddenly his round of laughter from before rings brighter in your ears.

instead of saying another word, you guide his face to yours, connecting your lips in a silent understanding.

logan always kisses you like a man starved, devouring you whole as though every kiss may be the last. there was nothing tame, or tender about the man they once called the wolverine, but you managed to slip between the cracks of his stony disposition, and bring forth all the parts of himself he swore he lost decades ago.

your hands encircle around the back of his neck, logan’s squeezing at the flesh of your hips. he pulls you impossibly closer, pressing the swell of your chest against his own. the feeling of your nipples pebbling through velvet fabric reminds him of the true nature of your current situation.

tonight was for him. his pleasure, his enjoyment. he knew you’d be heavily dissatisfied if he didn’t indulge in what you were offering.

and what kind of man would logan be, if he disappointed his sweet girl?

you’re not expecting him to be so gentle when he turns and flips you over, mouth never once leaving yours. a large hand spread across your back as he lowers you down onto the mattress with a care reserved for you and only you. a fact that adds to your current state of arousal. your legs open like second nature, and logan slots himself between them as though that’s where he was always meant to be.

the whine that leaves you when he pulls away would be embarrassing if it weren’t for the hunger in his stare. those normally hazel pupils now a brownish black that overshadowed bright white. he sits back on his haunches, glazing over your pretty little lingerie with a newfound appreciation.

he reaches to toy with the end of the bow tied snugly between your breasts, a teasing invitation that he graciously accepts.

at a tantalizing pace, he begins to unwrap his present, watching with lustful eyes as more and more skin becomes exposed. you arch your back the slightest bit to get the job done faster, the shoe of impatience now snug on your foot instead of his.

normally, logan would scold, spit something about “being a good girl and waiting.” but he’s just as riled up and eager as you are, and he gives the velvet one final tug that has your breasts springing free.

god you were absolute perfection.

he can’t resist running a thumb over your erect nipples, reveling in the way you squirm over such a small touch. your color coated lips swollen and shiny from his kisses. body already relaxed and pliant, willing to do whatever he so pleases.

a few minutes ago, he would’ve torn your outfit off without second thought and shown no mercy. let the shitty week he was having take control, guide him through the motions of achieving pleasure. but something inside logan urges him to be a little sentimental; take his sweet time on the off chance that he wakes up and discovers this was all a dream.

so he decides that’s exactly what he’s going to do.

the path down to your core was a familiar one, a route he knew like the back of his hand. sloppy, wet kisses trail down your stomach, a small crack in logan’s otherwise composed exterior. by the time he reaches the hem of your panties, tongue teasing beneath the waistband, you’re bursting at the seams with desire, unable to stop yourself from whimpering and bucking your hips upward.

“i gotcha honey,” he whispers against the inside of your thigh, rubbing soft circles with his thumb. “m’gonna take real good care of ya.”

logan knew you were soaked the second you walked into the room. didn’t need to see or feel it to know. still, he indulges his ego and stares proudly at the dark patch in the center of your underwear. knowing it was all his doing, that he was the only one who could get you like this.

when he pulls the fabric to the side and is met with your glistening folds, he can’t help the groan that rumbles in his chest.

“merry fuckin’ christmas to me,” he all but growls before diving right in.

it’s in moments like these where he wishes that photographic memory was his mutation, though he doubts he’ll ever forget this. his perfect girl, laid out so delicately beneath him, basking in the pale moonlight that seeped in between the curtains. his own personal utopia, paradise within the four walls of this rickety building you called home.

logan wonders if maybe he’s finally succumbed to the poison in his bones. because this sure does feel like heaven.

at the very least, it most definitely feels like christmas.

because having the privilege of watching you come undone was the gift that kept on giving all year round.

thanks for reading! <3

taglist: @alastor-simp @j4desblurbs @pandapetals @hextech-bros

!! if you would like to be tagged in the rest of the ficmas blurbs, please send me an inbox message or leave a comment !!

#retrosabers #sid writes shit #logan howlett x reader #logan howlett smut #old man logan #old man logan x reader #old man logan smut #logan howlett #xmen #logan #hugh jackman

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fernsnailz · 1 year ago

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my comic from the @neverturnbackzine! truly one of my favorite zines i've been a part of :]

some extra insight/fun facts about the process of this piece below the cut 💥💥💥

posting pieces from collaborative zines is always something i struggle with because i look back and think of how i would do things differently now, but i learned a lot working on this comic and even developed some style techniques that i still use!

Fun Fact 1: the panel where shadow Fucking Disintegrates That Guy is technically traditionally drawn! i couldn't get it right in clip studio so i just started frantically scribbling in a notebook and got it eventually lol

highly highly recommend scribbling stuff out in a notebook, scanning it on your phone, and then dropping it into a canvas to edit later if you ever have trouble sketching something.

Fun Fact 2: a lot of the overlay/background effects were made in Kid Pix Deluxe 3D. i created a whole collection of various textures/abstract effects for this comic that i've been using in my art since last year. you can even find them scattered through my team dark zine lol. here's a few of them:

similarly, the background at the bottom of page 2 is actually a warped photo i took of a bunch of headphone wires. this is the original:

Fun Fact 3: i made this comic during a very busy and wild period of time last year so this is what the final panel looked like for a while before i fully finished it LMAO

ok yay thanks for reading bye

#ah yes the comic that i kept showing to my friends for notes and asking “hey guys is this even REMOTELY comprehensible”#very fun to work on! learned a lot :] for context i finished this in july of last year #fern's sketchbook #eyestrain #sth #shadow the hedgehog

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asgardian--angels · 1 month ago

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**URGENT** HELP SAVE THE USGS BEE LAB!

PLEASE circulate this as widely as possible, as soon as possible.

Hi all, you may not know me but I am a native bee researcher in the eastern US. People like me work to study and protect the 3600 species of native bees in North America, many of which are in severe decline.

We just received devastating news, that unfortunately was not surprising. The Trump administration's proposed 2026 budget is set to defund most of the ecological research happening at the USGS, and that includes zeroing out the budget for the USGS Native Bee Inventory & Monitoring Lab.

Don't know them? Maybe you've seen stunning photos like this:

These gorgeous and evocative focus-stacked photos of native bees on black backgrounds - all of which are public domain - come from the USGS Bee Lab (here's their Flickr). Through these, they've helped bring the beauty and importance of native bees to the public's attention. Hundreds if not thousands of news articles, videos, and publications use these photos.

But that is just one tiny slice of what the USGS Bee Lab does for pollinator conservation. Its primary role is much bigger; they provide technical support, research collaborations, and financial & grant partnerships to federal and state agencies, academic institutions and researchers, and much more, so we can study, manage, and protect North America's wild pollinators. They conduct research of their own that has led to species rediscoveries, and produce invaluable resources that have greatly advanced our understanding of wild bees and our approaches to studying and conserving them. They also provide the essential and irreplaceable service of bee identification. For those who don't know, identifying bees is hard. Sometimes Really Hard. And this lab is one of just a handful of places in the entire country who can identify some of the toughest groups of bees, and who sit on the forefront of breakthroughs on taxonomy and identification that the rest of us in this field rely on. Without this service, agencies and researchers trying to survey and monitor bees in order to track population declines, manage land, and get policy changed are stuck with a lot of nameless bees, severely limiting the usefulness of that data.

Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of bee specimens pass through this lab annually, plus the thousands in permanent storage, from long-term monitoring efforts by state and federal agencies, and researchers like myself. They operate at a greater capacity than basically any other institution doing this kind of work. Few if any bee researchers in the eastern US, or even the country, have not benefitted from this lab's work, and those benefits are passed on to you through being able to protect pollinators and the services they provide both in agriculture and ecosystems.

This lab is headed up by scientist Sam Droege, who has dedicated decades of his life to this cause, and whom I consider not just a research partner but, humbly, a friend. I am utterly indebted to him for helping me get my start in this field, and for the support and kindness he has shown me and every other young professional who is passionate about pollinators. The Lab operates with an insanely small budget already, and a very limited staff, yet the impact they have is exponentially outsized. Losing the USGS Bee Lab would be a devastating blow to pollinator conservation in this country, at a time when native bee species are sitting on the precipice, and sustainable agriculture is non-negotiable for our future.

You can read more about the Bee Lab here. The Lab is not well-publicized, but it's a lifeline for the many dedicated people who work to try and protect pollinators and the environment at large.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Sam Droege has sent out a request for help, and has encouraged us to post on social media. This is what he wants you to do to help us save the Bee Lab.

This is verbatim:

What is Happening: · The USGS Bee Lab is at risk of being permanently closed due to cuts in the 2026 Federal Budget and looming federal RIF’s · Specifically, the Ecosystem Mission Area (EMA) budget, which funds the USGS Bee Lab and the Eastern Ecological Science center has been zeroed out · Thousands of layoffs to hit Interior, National Parks imminently - Government Executive What you can do · Write to your representatives, the White House, and the Department of the Interior that they should restore the funding for the USGS Bee Lab · Send digital or physical letters, write emails, post to social media What you should be highlighting: · Personal anecdotes about how the Bee Lab has impacted you or your organization · How important the research the Bee Lab is conducting is to your state Contact Information: 1. Representatives: Find Your Representative | house.gov 2. Senators: U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators 3. White House: Contact Us – The White House 4. Interior: [email protected] Send a copy of the letter to [email protected] Pass this email around. Post your response to social media

IT'S OK if you are not a scientist and have not directly interacted with the Bee Lab. Have you seen the lab's photos? Are you concerned about native pollinator declines? Are you aware of any pollinator conservation initiatives or policies in your own state - those almost certainly have drawn, directly or indirectly, from work the Lab has done. Speak about American food production and agriculture, how the Lab's research and collaborations are essential to safeguarding pollination services (this might help reach across the aisle).

Sam urges that these letters, emails, phone calls, etc, must happen quickly - within the next couple days. This information went out on May 8th and that is the day I am posting this. So please, don't wait.

If 'save the bees' has ever meant anything to you, this is the agency that is playing one of the biggest roles in this country in making that happen. Please, contact your representatives, and pass this call to action along however you can. Thank you.

#bees #native bees #pollinators #native pollinators #save the bees #usgs bee lab #usgs native bee inventory and monitoring lab #yes sam put his email out there so i'm going to post it as is #i just visited the lab in person a couple weeks ago and they're scrambling to get bee specimens in storage and out the door #i had that sinking feeling that i had to get my bees identified as soon as possible or i might not get the chance and here we are #i told him I'd help him in whatever way I can and so for his sake and mine please help us.#if you're a science blog and follow me PLEASE spread this around #time is of the essence. post on other platforms.#want something specific to mention? they rediscovered the chestnut mining bee. there's a smithsonian article that just came out #all about that. so you know. that was KIND OF A BIG DEAL #they also literally developed THE standardized protocol for bee monitoring. used by federal agencies and researchers alike.#THEY ARE THE BEE PEOPLE. THE BEEPLE. THE GOAT. THE OG

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amaranthineghost · 8 months ago

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—23 GOING ON 33 oscar posts a couple of tiktoks which leads to the entirety of internet making fun of him for his millennial behavior

oscarpiastri has posted a tiktok!

[caption: come on then, give us your best #askoscar]

user what's your favorite type of bread

user hey oscar, why do you have a millennial pause even though you're technically gen z

user when is the carlos diss track?

ynusername why do you have a millennial pause, i thought you were better than this 😓

user how is your relationship with drs going??

user oscar do you perhaps know what a millennial pause is

user would you ever consider becoming a full time tiktok influencer

user do you think alex is pookie

logansargeant mate im older than you and i don't even have a millenial pause

⤷ logansargeant but when's the diss track

user how do you maintain the swirl in your hair?

user he's so millennial with that pause

user im not even surprised

user someone please teach him

oscarpiastri has posted a tiktok!

[caption: reply to @/randomuserdontask]

ynusername oscar sweetie i thought we talked about this

⤷ logansargeant the training we taught him got him no where! he's still acting like he was born 10 years before he actually was!

⤷ ynusername a true tragedy we must save him

user yn and logan plotting against oscar in the comments 😭

⤷ user he needs to be stopped

user the millennial pause is killing me

user he keeps avoiding the carlos diss track questions

⤷ user well ofc! he's got to keep it a secret for when it comes out

⤷ user TRUE

user i bet oscar is collaborating with lewis considering he took his seat at ferrari

user oscar, please take some advice the millennial pause is funny BUT PLEASE

user someone save him

⤷ ynusername 🤫🤫🤫

⤷ user GIRL PLEASE WORK YOUR MAGIC

⤷ ynusername IM TRYING HE DOESN"T LISTEN VERY WELL (this is the same man that was a car furry for the first few years of his life so)

oscarpiastri

liked by ynusername and 406,703 others

oscarpiastri photo dump

view all 1,092 comments

ynusername oh dear

⤷ ynusername okay but wait this is actually hilarious, i think i might stop breathing

⤷ oscarpiastri please breath

user when oscar posts a photo dump that's literally just the same pictures repeating in no specific order

logansargeant a tragedy that not even william shakespeare could write

⤷ user DIABOLICAL

user oscar buddy we have devolved instead of evolving from the millennial pause

⤷ user the teachings ain't working

⤷ ynusername IM TRYING MY BEST

⤷ ynusername but also millennial oscar is pretty funny

⤷ user we dont blame you yn! 🙌🏼

ynusername

liked by oscarpiastri and 10,498 others

ynusername this is how you post a photo dump

view all 57 comments

user yes please teach him how its done

oscarpiastri maybe its all part of my master plan

⤷ ynusername oscar lets be fr, you can't come up with any master plans

⤷ oscarpiastri you never know

⤷ ynusername i mean i never knew you were capable of a millennial pause

⤷ oscarpiastri ouch

oscarpiastri

liked by ynusername and 724,294 others

oscarpiastri thanks for the help pretty ☀️

comments have been disabled

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jawusa · 6 days ago

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[4t2] Sixam - Secret Alien World for TS2 ^^

Remember my 4t2 Sixam project I started 2 years ago? Which I almost scrapped but revisited sometime last year? ... well, I've got good news for you then. It's finally out now! ^^

Welcome to Sixam!

Sixam Academy is a prestigious intergalactic university on the planet of Sixam that provides special training for aspiring students to become Birth Queens, Colony Drones, or even the latest innovation in alien technology: Pollination Technicians. The academy offers hands-on experiences, collaborative research, and cultural exploration, alongside interstellar expeditions, nurturing a community focused on curiosity, inclusivity, and innovation.

Yes, I recreated the secret alien world from TS4 for TS2 as a custom university subhood! Why as a university subhood you may ask? Well, I tried to keep the original vibes of Sixam of it being an "unlockable"/visitable place your sims can explore rather than a regular neighborhood your sims can live in!

Well, even after graduation, your sims can actually stay and live in the university subhood using Lamare's YAs can enjoy maternity (and all that) mod, as well as Lamare's Pets at University mod!

While technically it's a university, it could easily also be just a downtown or a main hood, as it includes quite a few urban city-style residential & community lots that a main hood/downtown would also otherwise have… just all in sci-fi/alien theme, of course! ;)

Download: MTS | Simblr.cc | SFS

More info under the cut...

Neighborhood Info:

Requires only Uni/NL/OFB EP and no CC were used to build the lots - I made this without Apartment Life EP, so TS2 Super Collection users can also use it, but in the future, I might also make an alternative version as an actual downtown with apartment lots!

No camera mod is needed, yet, still recommended for easier gameplay, especially since some lots were built on skyscrapers and can be hard to view with just the vanilla camera.

Number of Sims: 90 (10 playable sims in 4 playable families, 31 townies, 44 NPCs, 5 dead sims)

Number of Lots: 35 (7 residential lots, 2 Greek houses, 5 dorms, 1 secret society, 20 community lots, where 8 of which are owned businesses)

Gameplay Info:

Speaking of lots, I made lecture halls for every major, which you could use with beestew's Active Classes mod! These are community lots, featuring skill-building equipment and study spaces, with NPC professors (as lot owners) available for tutoring whenever your sims visit.

I also made an optional custom skybox and custom lighting file for Sixam that will make it always nighttime (Yes, you heard right! The sun never shines here on Sixam!) with subtle seasonal color changes - reddish in Autumn, bluish in Winter, and greenish in Spring.

While the empty version should be CC-free, the inhabited version requires the 3 alien skintones (blue/turquoise/violet) from my [4t2] aliens set to keep the TS4 alien characters like Aileen Rauvu authentic. As giving all these colorful aliens the default green skin instead felt as bad as white-washing, say, giving black characters like Olive Specter a lighter skintone for me. An alternative CC-free version with no CC skintones is also available for players who prefer to not have any CC skintones in their games, though.

I also recreated some characters from TS4, especially all the characters from the The Sims 4 Get to Work: Sul Sul trailer. Every character comes with a complete set of ancestors (at least parents) and customized memories, even townies and NPCs! Some also come with interesting lore! Even though, they're just... townies! Oh, and everyone has genetic infant faces! Yayy! XD

Speaking of characters, scripted events don't work in subhoods, but I wrote a text in each family description that somewhat mimic the scripted event notifications anyway. I think this is a brilliant and fun way of introducing new characters, even in university subhoods. All households should also have a complete set of family album pictures that show their lore a bit. ^^

Recommended Mods:

All notownieregen/antiredudancy/nodormiespawn/nossrespawn mods. All university townies/NPCs in Sixam are aliens.. or at least have a very good reason why they're there, but this can easily be ruined if you don't have these mods installed, lol.

bloodredtoe's Mannequin babies can be born mod. To have more variety, I used the mannequin skintone for some of the alien sims. While this mod isn't required, it's recommended to prevent crashes, especially when these aliens have offspring, as there's a chance they could inherit the mannequin skintone.

Squinge's No Townie Memory Loss. Again, townies and NPCs in this neighborhood are highly customized and I recommend getting no townie amnesia mods to prevent their lore from getting wiped out! As there are a few clues in the bios of some of the townies... including long lost twins!

lingeringwillx's Restore Default Names for Sims in Subneighbohoods . This is especially helpful, not only because the townies/NPCs are related to the playable sims, but also, it will help to maintain the alien atmosphere of Sixam with names like Pollination Technicians, Colony Drones or Birth Queens, etc. instead of having EA's default townie/NPC names.

Install Instructions:

This download consists of 3 parts:

Neighborhood itself:

Place the USXM folder into your PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 University/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate folder

Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/University Life/EP1/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate

Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/EP1/TSData/Res/NeighborhoodTemplate

2. OPTIONAL: Custom skybox (& 3 new alien skintones):

Place the Sixam CC folder into your DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads folder

Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Downloads

Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's DOCUMENTS/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/Downloads

3. OPTIONAL: Custom lighting (for enabling 24/7 nights):

Place the sixam_lot.txt file into your PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff/TSData/Res/Lights folder

Note: If you have TS2 UC, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection/Fun with Pets/SP9/TSData/Res/Lights

Note: If you have TS2 Legacy, it's PROGRAM FILES/EA Games/The Sims 2 Legacy/EP9/TSData/Res/Lights

Credits:

To EA for creating Sixam in the first place, even though it was originally created for the wrong game ;)

Makers of SimPE (especially with the newest version, allowing creation of customized NPCs!)

Mootilda for all her amazing tools, especially LotCompressor, LotAdjustor, HoodChecker, and her tutorial on how to create a custom subhood template.

Numenor for his AnyGameStarter, allowing for the creation of a Uni/NL/OFB only environment.

@lowedeus for his original skybox, which I recolored and modified to make the skybox season-friendly, as well as @criquette-was-here for the tutorial on how to make nhood objects glow at night.

Gwenke for the original ocean surface nhood deco, which I also recolored and modified to make it glow at night.

@catherinetcjd for all her inspring builds and also for being such an amazing friend. I recommend her Isosceles Apartments, Experiment 4.2, The Colony as well as her Pyramid Commune No. 9 Live, specifically as optional additional lots for this neighborhood. I learned a lot from you in the past few years of neighborhood and lot building!

Creusa Sims for her support and love while I was creating this neighborhood. It was fun discussing some of the lore in this neighborhood with you. XD

@lordcrumps for also being such an amazing friend! It was you who kept pushing me to actually redo the skybox when I wasn't happy with the draft version, lol! And also for your helpful inputs very early on. ^^

@lamare-sims for being such a talented modder and her amazing mods that make living in university subhoods possible in the first place! This concept wouldn't have otherwise made sense.

That's it for now I guess? I hope you have as much fun with this neighborhood as I had building it! <3

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realsocialskills · 4 months ago

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Disability-affirming growth mindset

Children are often taught to think “I can’t do that *yet*” as a form of encouraging growth mindset. That’s a really useful strategy when it’s applicable, and it also needs some nuance in order to be more disability-affirming.

Growth mindset has to be grounded in reality.

Growth means that I am always learning new things and developing new skills and getting better at things. It doesn’t mean doubling down on pursuing impossible dreams; it means doing real things.

Sometimes growth mindset means thinking “I can’t do that *yet*,” and continuing to try until I can.

Sometimes it’s more like, “This isn’t working. Maybe I need to do it another way.”

Or: “This isn’t working, and maybe it’s not going to work. What else can I do?”

Or: “I can’t do *that*, but I can do the important part a different way.”

Or: “I can do that with help.” and/or “Let’s figure out what supports would make it possible to do that.”

Or: “We can do that collaboratively, together.”

Or: “I could do that with appropriate assistive technology. Let’s figure out if some exists and/or if there’s something we could invent.”

In those instances, realizing that something isn’t going to work is part of how we find out what *can* work.

There are also cases in which growth mindset means realizing that something may not be a good use of our time and effort and resources. A skill that is broadly useful to nondisabled people might not be worth it to me, even if I’m technically capable of doing it. (For instance, handwriting is a useful skill for most people, but it’s always been so hard for me that it’s not really worth it. Losing the ability to handwrite more than a few words at a time has freed up my abilities to do other things, like focus on typing words.)

There’s something powerful about seeing your body as it really is and working with it rather than against it. Sometimes figuring out what isn’t possible or what’s not worth the cost in time and effort is how we find areas where we can grow and flourish.

Growth mindset means that I *don't sabotage my growth* by wasting time and effort pursuing impossible things. I don’t stand on a chair or a roof and expect believing in myself to make it possible to use my arms as wings and fly. If I want to fly, I need an airplane, and that’s ok.

At the same time, I think that claiming the power of “yet” is really important for disabled people, and especially for people with developmental disabilities.

Sometimes there can be a lot of pressure to see ourselves as incapable of doing things every time disability makes it harder or means we need to do things differently or it’s not obvious whether or how we could do the thing.

Sometimes we get pressure not to try things unless there’s some certainty that we will be able to do them. (And for something as complex and poorly understood as developmental disabilities, there’s rarely much certainty. Having other people’s doubts limit what we’re allowed to try makes the world very, very small.)

Sometimes disability-affirming growth mindset means saying “I can’t do that, let’s do something else,” and sometimes it means saying, “I might be able to do that, and I’d like to try.” Sometimes it means saying, “I want to keep trying even though it’s harder for me and I’m not catching on as quickly and no one seems to know how to teach me.” or “I don’t know if this is going to work but I think it could, and at this point, I’d like to keep trying.” Or, “I know most people learn this by the time they’re four, and I know I’m much older than that, but I’d like to try to learn this too.”

Sometimes it means an adult claiming the right to learn how to read, or finding a dance studio where they’re willing to slow down enough for them to learn. Sometimes it means practicing a new skill in private while you’re figuring out if it’s something that makes sense for you. Sometimes it means asking around to other disabled people to see what their strategies have been. Sometimes it means demanding your right to accessibility and accommodations even when others don’t think you belong and don’t see you as capable of doing things in the space you want to be in.

#developmental disability #growth mindset #education #actuallyautistic #living in reality

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valeisaslut · 2 months ago

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ᖭི༏ᖫྀ ₊˚┊the fireflies' album.ᐟ

moodboard .ᐟ

LOUDER THAN FATE

Spotify playlist – Click to hear .ᐟ

ıllı1 PHYSCO

.lılı2 HEART-SHAPED BOX

.ılıı3 HYSTERIA

ıllı4 HAYLOFT

.lılı5 ANEURYSM

.ılıı6 R U MINE?

ıllı7 WHY GO?

.lılı8 CRYING LIGHTNING

.ılıı9 MY OWN SUMMER (SHOVE IT)

ıllı10 FOR YOUR LOVE

.lılı11 THIS IS WHY

.ılıı12 FIGURE IT OUT

ıllı13 I BET THAT YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR

.ılıı14 FELL IN LOVE WITH A GIRL

.lılı15 KILLING IN THE NAME

ıllı16 ABOUT A GIRL

.ılıı17 SEE YOU SOON

(click on each song to hear it)

The Fireflies' Louder Than Fate Just Gave Rock Its Pulse Back

By Philip Norman

In a musical landscape shaped by fleeting trends and algorithmic formulas, The Fireflies have done something radical: they made an album that demands to be felt. Louder Than Fate, their third studio release, didn’t just make noise—it reshaped the conversation.

At this year’s Grammys, the record swept Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock Song for the explosive, unrelenting Why Go?—a song that has already cemented itself as a modern rock staple. But more than the accolades, Louder Than Fate is a statement: rock isn’t dead, and The Fireflies are here to make damn sure no one forgets it.

A Band That Plays Like They Bleed for It

Seattle-bred and forged in the kind of friendship that outlasts fame, Ellie Williams (vocals, guitar), Dina Woodward (bass), and Jesse Kim (drums) have been making music together since high school. That bond is the core of Louder Than Fate—a record that feels both reckless and intentional, like it might combust at any moment but refuses to fall apart.

Unlike so much of what clutters today’s charts, Louder Than Fate isn’t designed to be consumed in pieces. It’s an album in the truest sense—17 tracks that pull you under and don’t let go. From the feverish intensity of Physco to the aching restraint of See You Soon, from the firestorm of Killing In The Name to the soul-baring wreckage of My Own Summer, each track feels like a different vein of the same open wound.

“We weren’t trying to make something polished,” says Woodward, whose basslines serve as the album’s steady, smoldering core. “We wanted something real. Something messy. Something that hits like a memory you can’t shake.”

And it does. Louder Than Fate isn’t a collection of songs—it’s a body of work that lives and breathes, roars and fractures. It’s loud, it’s raw, it’s deeply personal. And above all else, it refuses to be ignored.

Ellie Williams: A Legacy Rewritten

Of course, rock is in Ellie Williams’ blood. The daughter of legendary outlaw rocker Joel Miller, Williams grew up in the shadow of a man whose name still echoes through the industry like folklore. But she’s not just living up to that legacy—she’s rewriting it.

Her guitar work is as vicious as her voice, solidifying her as one of the most formidable guitarists of her generation. Her solos blaze through Louder Than Fate like wildfire—calculated but untamed, technical but full of heart. The way she wields her instrument while delivering gut-wrenching vocals is a rare, electrifying talent, one that separates good from legendary.

“Ellie doesn’t just play—she makes you feel every note,” says Dina Woodward, who’s spent years watching her best friend command the stage. “There’s this rawness to the way she moves between riffs, like she’s pulling it straight from her fucking soul.”

Her voice is a weapon, serrated with conviction, sorrow, and the kind of rage that feels earned. It cuts through walls of distortion, wielding melody like a blade. She doesn’t just sing—she demands to be heard.

“We wanted this album to feel alive,” Williams told Rolling Stone backstage at the Grammys. “Not just alive—but unpredictable. Uncontrolled. Like it could break apart—or break you—at any moment.”

And that volatility—that undeniable force—is exactly what makes this album feel so seismic.

The Pen Is Hers Too

While The Fireflies are a fiercely collaborative force on stage and in the studio, some of their most piercing songs share one key signature: Ellie Williams’ alone.

Tracks like For Your Love, I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Fell in Love With a Girl, See You Soon, and R U Mine? all feature Williams as the sole credited songwriter—a distinction that hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans or critics. These aren’t just bangers; they’re emotionally charged, finely crafted statements, wired with obsession, yearning, and the kind of lust that lingers long after the last chord fades.

Each song offers a different vantage point into that inner world: the slow-burn ache of For Your Love, the breathless bravado of Dancefloor, the sugar-rush crash of Fell in Love, the nostalgic haze of See You Soon, and the seductive, manic tension of R U Mine? Together, they form a canon within the band’s discography—Ellie at her most unfiltered, raw, and narratively sharp.

Unsurprisingly, there’s no shortage of speculation about who those songs might be about.

The name on the everyone’s lips? Y/N.

Though neither artist has ever confirmed it outright, the timeline—and the intensity—have only fueled the theories. Especially with the release of She, a standalone duet between the two that set the internet ablaze and gave fans a little less to guess about.

Whether autobiographical or simply evocative fiction, there’s no denying that Ellie writes like someone who’s lived every word. And when the guitars wail and the crowd screams the lyrics back at her, it’s clear: this isn’t just storytelling. It’s exorcism. It’s worship. It’s truth, distorted through a Fender and a fuzz pedal.

A Tour That Shook the World

If the album was the spark, the Louder Than Fate World Tour was the explosion. Spanning 20 countries and selling out in minutes, the tour has become the stuff of legend: no gimmicks, no elaborate stage theatrics—just three musicians, their instruments, and a crowd that sings back every lyric like gospel.

“There’s nothing like that moment when you hear thousands of voices scream your words back at you,” says Kim, who drives every track with a drumming style that is both surgical and primal. “It reminds you why you started. Why you fought for this.”

The Fireflies didn’t just fill arenas—they set them on fire. The shows were chaotic, sweat-soaked, and deeply intimate, proving that rock music doesn’t need to be nostalgic or diluted to sell out stadiums. It just needs to be true.

Louder Than Fate: A New Standard

Rock has had its supposed resurrections before. But this? This feels different. The Fireflies aren’t just rockstars. They aren’t just the future of the genre.

They’re the present.

They came, they played, they bled for it. And now? Now, rock’s last great hope has a name—The Fireflies.

And they just proved they’re louder than fate itself.

taglist (tysm for supporting, hope you enjoy <333): @st0nerlesb0 @willurms @vahnilla @mancyw1214 @rxreaqia @laceyxrenee @antobooh @annoyingpersonxoxo @haithone @lofied @sunflowerwinds @xojunebugxo @reidairie @piscesthepoet @elliewilliamskisser2000 @pariiissssssss @mxquelo @elliesbabygirl @xx2849 @kiiramiz @mikellie @brooks-lin @lovely-wisteria @marscardigan @elliesanqel @lovelaymedown @gold-dustwomxn @ilovewomenfr @seraphicsentences @mascspleasegetmepregnant @raindroprose23 @creepyswag @jujueilish @elliesgffrfr @kirammanss @liztreez @catrapplesauces @livvietalks @furtherrawayy @thatchosen1 @kanadadryer @littlerosiesthings @eriiwaiii2 @firefly-ace @redlightellie @elliepoems @sabrinathewitchh982 @shady-lemur @jubileexoxo @l0velylace @look-me @adoringanakin @daughterofthemoons-stuff @st4r-b3rries @liasxeatt @desiretolive @rios-st4rs @miajooz @hotpinkskitties

see ya'll soon, stay tuned ;)

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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The majority of censorship is self-censorship

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT in SAN DIEGO (Feb 22, Mysterious Galaxy). After that, it's LA (Saturday night, with Adam Conover), Seattle (Monday, with Neal Stephenson), then Portland, Phoenix and more!

I know a lot of polymaths, but Ada Palmer takes the cake: brilliant science fiction writer, brilliant historian, brilliant librettist, brilliant singer, and then some:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/10/monopoly-begets-monopoly/#terra-ignota

Palmer is a friend and a colleague. In 2018, she, Adrian Johns and I collaborated on "Censorship, Information Control, & Information Revolutions from Printing Press to Internet," a series of grad seminars at the U Chicago History department (where Ada is a tenured prof, specializing in the Inquisition and Renaissance forbidden knowledge):

https://ifk.uchicago.edu/research/faculty-fellow-projects/censorship-information-control-information-revolutions-from-printing-press/

The project had its origins in a party game that Ada and I used to play at SF conventions: Ada would describe a way that the Inquisitions' censors attacked the printing press, and I'd find an extremely parallel maneuver from governments, the entertainment industry or other entities from the much more recent history of internet censorship battles.

With the seminars, we took it to the next level. Each 3h long session featured a roster of speakers from many disciplines, explaining everything from how encryption works to how white nationalists who were radicalized in Vietnam formed an armored-car robbery gang to finance modems and Apple ][+s to link up neo-Nazis across the USA.

We borrowed the structure of these sessions from science fiction conventions, home to a very specific kind of panel that doesn't always work, but when it does, it's fantastic. It was a natural choice: after all, Ada and I know each other through science fiction.

Even if you're not an sf person, you've probably heard of the Hugo Awards, the most prestigious awards in the field, voted on each year by attendees of the annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). And even if you're not an sf fan, you might have heard about a scandal involving the Hugo Awards, which were held last year in China, a first:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/science-fiction-authors-excluded-hugo-awards-china-rcna139134

A little background: each year's Worldcon is run by a committee of volunteers. These volunteers put together bids to host the Worldcon, and canvass Worldcon attendees to vote in favor of their bid. For many years, a group of Chinese fans attempted to field a successful bid to host a Worldcon, and, eventually, they won.

At the time, there were many concerns: about traveling to a country with a poor human rights record and a reputation for censorship, and about the logistics of customary Worldcon attendees getting visas. During this debate, many international fans pointed to the poor human rights record in the USA (which has hosted the vast majority of Worldcons since their inception), and the absolute ghastly rigmarole the US government subjects many foreign visitors to when they seek visas to come to the US for conventions.

Whatever side of this debate you came down on, it couldn't be denied that the Chinese Worldcon rang a lot of alarm-bells. Communications were spotty, and then the con was unceremoniously rescheduled for months after the original scheduled date, without any good explanation. Rumors swirled of Chinese petty officials muscling their way into the con's administration.

But the real alarm bells started clanging after the Hugo Award ceremony. Normally, after the Hugos are given out, attendees are given paper handouts tallying the nominations and votes, and those numbers are also simultaneously published online. Technically, the Hugo committee has a grace period of some weeks before this data must be published, but at every Worldcon I've attended over the past 30+ years, I left the Hugos with a data-sheet in my hand.

Then, in early December, at the very last moment, the Hugo committee released its data – and all hell broke loose. Numerous, acclaimed works had been unilaterally "disqualified" from the ballot. Many of these were written by writers from the Chinese diaspora, but some works – like an episode of Neil Gaiman's Sandman – were seemingly unconnected to any national considerations.

Readers and writers erupted in outrage, demanding to know what had happened. The Hugo administrators – Americans and Canadians who'd volunteered in those roles for many years and were widely viewed as being members in good standing of the community – were either silent or responded with rude and insulting remarks. One thing they didn't do was explain themselves.

The absence of facts left a void that rumors and speculation rushed in to fill. Stories of Chinese official censorship swirled online, and along with them, a kind of I-told-you-so: China should never have been home to a Worldcon, the country's authoritarian national politics are fundamentally incompatible with a literary festival.

As the outrage mounted and the scandal breached from the confines of science fiction fans and writers to the wider world, more details kept emerging. A damning set of internal leaks revealed that it was those long-serving American and Canadian volunteers who decided to censor the ballot. They did so out of a vague sense that the Chinese state would visit some unspecified sanction on the con if politically unpalatable works appeared on the Hugo ballot. Incredibly, they even compiled clumsy dossiers on nominees, disqualifying one nominee out of a mistaken belief that he had once visited Tibet (it was actually Nepal).

There's no evidence that the Chinese state asked these people to do this. Likewise, it wasn't pressure from the Chinese state that caused them to throw out hundreds of ballots cast by Chinese fans, whom they believed were voting for a "slate" of works (it's not clear if this is the case, but slate voting is permitted under Hugo rules).

All this has raised many questions about the future of the Hugo Awards, and the status of the awards that were given in China. There's widespread concern that Chinese fans involved with the con may face state retaliation due to the negative press that these shenanigans stirred up.

But there's also a lot of questions about censorship, and the nature of both state and private censorship, and the relationship between the two. These are questions that Ada is extremely well-poised to answer; indeed, they're the subject of her book-in-progress, entitled Why We Censor: from the Inquisition to the Internet.

In a magisterial essay for Reactor, Palmer stakes out her central thesis: "The majority of censorship is self-censorship, but the majority of self-censorship is intentionally cultivated by an outside power":

https://reactormag.com/tools-for-thinking-about-censorship/

States – even very powerful states – that wish to censor lack the resources to accomplish totalizing censorship of the sort depicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four. They can't go from house to house, searching every nook and cranny for copies of forbidden literature. The only way to kill an idea is to stop people from expressing it in the first place. Convincing people to censor themselves is, "dollar for dollar and man-hour for man-hour, much cheaper and more impactful than anything else a censorious regime can do."

Ada invokes examples modern and ancient, including from her own area of specialty, the Inquisition and its treatment of Gailileo. The Inquistions didn't set out to silence Galileo. If that had been its objective, it could have just assassinated him. This was cheap, easy and reliable! Instead, the Inquisition persecuted Galileo, in a very high-profile manner, making him and his ideas far more famous.

But this isn't some early example of Inquisitorial Streisand Effect. The point of persecuting Galileo was to convince Descartes to self-censor, which he did. He took his manuscript back from the publisher and cut the sections the Inquisition was likely to find offensive. It wasn't just Descartes: "thousands of other major thinkers of the time wrote differently, spoke differently, chose different projects, and passed different ideas on to the next century because they self-censored after the Galileo trial."

This is direct self-censorship, where people are frightened into silencing themselves. But there's another form of censorship, which Ada calls "middlemen censorship." That's when someone other than the government censors a work because they fear what the government would do if they didn't. Think of Scholastic's cowardly decision to pull inclusive, LGBTQ books out of its book fair selections even though no one had ordered them to do so:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/books/scholastic-book-racism-maggie-tokuda-hall.html

This is a form of censorship outsourcing, and it "multiplies the manpower of a censorship system by the number of individuals within its power." The censoring body doesn't need to hire people to search everyone's houses for offensive books – it can frighten editors, publishers, distributors, booksellers and librarians into suppressing the books in the first place.

This outsourcing blurs the line between state and private surveillance. Think about comics. After a series of high-profile Congressional hearings about the supposed danger of comics to impressionable young minds, the comics industry undertook a regime of self-censorship, through which the private Comics Code Authority would vet comings for "dangerous" content before allowing its seal of approval to appear on the comics' covers. Distributors and retailers refused to carry books without a CCA stamp, so publishers refused to publish books unless they could get a CCA stamp.

The CCA was unaccountable, capricious – and racist. By the 60s and 70s, it became clear that comic about Black characters were subjected to much tighter scrutiny than comics featuring white heroes. The CCA would reject "a drop of sweat on the forehead of a Black astronaut as 'too graphic' since it 'could be mistaken for blood.'" Every comic that got sent back by the CCA meant long, brutal reworkings by writers and illustrators to get them past the censors.

The US government never censored heroes like Black Panther, but the chain of events that created the CCA "middleman censors" made sure that Black Panther appeared in far fewer comics starring Marvel's most prominent Black character. An analysis of censorship that tries to draw a line between private and public censorship would say that the government played no role in Black Panther's banishment to obscurity – but without Congressional action, Black Panther would never have faced censorship.

This is why attempts to cleanly divide public and private censorship always break down. Many people will tell you that when Twitter or Facebook blocks content they disagree with, that's not censorship, since censorship is government action, and these are private actors. What they mean is that Twitter and Facebook censorship doesn't violate the First Amendment, but it's perfectly possible to infringe on free speech without violating the US Constitution. What's more, if the government fails to prevent monopolization of our speech forums – like social media – and also declines to offer its own public speech forums that are bound to respect the First Amendment, we can end up with government choices that produce an environment in which some ideas are suppressed wherever they might find an audience – all without violating the Constitution:

https://locusmag.com/2020/01/cory-doctorow-inaction-is-a-form-of-action/

The great censorious regimes of the past – the USSR, the Inquisition – left behind vast troves of bureaucratic records, and these records are full of complaints about the censors' lack of resources. They didn't have the manpower, the office space, the money or the power to erase the ideas they were ordered to suppress. As Ada notes, "In the period that Spain’s Inquisition was wildly out of Rome’s control, the Roman Inquisition even printed manuals to guide its Inquisitors on how to bluff their way through pretending they were on top of what Spain was doing!"

Censors have always done – and still do – their work not by wielding power, but by projecting it. Even the most powerful state actors are not powerful enough to truly censor, in the sense of confiscating every work expressing an idea and punishing everyone who creates such a work. Instead, when they rely on self-censorship, both by individuals and by intermediaries. When censors act to block one work and not another, or when they punish one transgressor while another is free to speak, it's tempting to think that they are following some arcane ruleset that defines when enforcement is strict and when it's weak. But the truth is, they censor erratically because they are too weak to censor comprehensively.

Spectacular acts of censorship and punishment are a performance, "to change the way people act and think." Censors "seek out actions that can cause the maximum number of people to notice and feel their presence, with a minimum of expense and manpower."

The censor can only succeed by convincing us to do their work for them. That's why drawing a line between state censorship and private censorship is such a misleading exercise. Censorship is, and always has been, a public-private partnership.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/22/self-censorship/#hugos

#pluralistic #ada palmer #worldcon #hugos #china #science fiction #fanac #publishing #censorship #systems of information control during information revolutions #scholarship

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applereid · 6 days ago

Text

— COOKIES, SPENCER REID.

“No. Sit.”

The single word cuts through the low murmur of movement in the briefing room like a command from a gavel. Everyone freezes. Agents who had just stood up to gather their go bags instinctively pause mid-motion. The sudden finality in Hotchner’s voice is unmistakable. He slams a case file down in front of Dr. Spencer Reid with a sharp thwack, the sound echoing against the walls of the conference room.

Reid blinks up at Hotch, furrowing his brows in confusion or the best version of confusion he can muster. “What’s that?” he asks, voice carefully neutral. But he knows. They all do.

The last case hadn’t ended cleanly. During a tense standoff in an abandoned textile warehouse, Reid had taken a bullet to the leg. Though the injury had been deemed non life threatening, the doctor’s orders had been unambiguous: no flying, no fieldwork, and absolutely no stress to the healing joint.

But Reid, stubborn as ever and fiercely unwilling to be benched, had ignored the medical directives. Worse, he had lied about them directly to his unit chief.

Unfortunately for Reid, Aaron Hotchner had resources. More specifically, he had you one of the FBI’s most capable technical analysts. Brilliant, meticulous, and irritatingly thorough, you didn’t miss a thing. When Hotch had asked for the official clearance files, cross-checked against internal systems, it hadn’t taken long for you to confirm that Reid’s fit-to-fly report had been altered. By Reid himself.

“You’re staying here,” Hotch says firmly, his gaze steady on Reid. “Thanks for lying to me about your flight clearance, by the way.”

There’s a beat of awkward silence as the rest of the team makes a quick exit, some offering a half hearted shrug or sympathetic glance, clearly eager to avoid becoming collateral damage in the exchange. Reid doesn’t say anything. He just exhales sharply through his nose and leans back in his chair, the tension settling in his shoulders.

“So what am I supposed to do while I’m here?” he finally asks, voice laced with reluctant defeat.

Hotch doesn’t miss a beat. “You’ll be working with y/n in the tech room. Assist where needed. Help with behavioral analysis from here.”

Reid blinks. “I’m what?”

But Hotch is already gone, the click of his shoes disappearing down the hall.

With a resigned huff, Reid retrieves his crutches and slowly makes his way down to the tech division, every step punctuated by the quiet thud of rubber against tile. When he reaches your door, he knocks once then, opting for flair, kicks it open with his good leg.

“Guess who’s your new co-analyst until further notice?” he says with a lopsided smile, stepping in as the door swings shut behind him.

You glance up from your monitors, a smile painting your face as you watch Spencer pull out a chair for himself, leaning the crutches against the wall as he sits. “Someone who… falsifies medical records and lies to his boss?”

“Touché,” Spencer murmurs, folding his arms casually across his lap as his gaze shifts to the overwhelming number of tabs and open case files displayed across your multiple screens.

“So, what’s your plan for me? Since I don’t really know how any of this works.” He chuckles, wheeling his chair a bit closer to yours. “Gonna drown me in spreadsheets?”

“Not exactly,” you reply, opening a live surveillance feed on your second monitor. “You’re here to watch for anyone who matches the unsub’s description.. white male, late thirties to early forties, curly brown hair, mustache. Think of yourself as my second set of eyes while I handle the technical work.”

He doesn’t look thrilled at the idea of being reduced to a lookout, but he leans in anyway, eyes fixed on the screen. If nothing else, he’s engaged.

In the days that follow, a quiet routine begins to form between you and Spencer. What starts as him sitting idly beside you becomes something more collaborative. He starts picking up on patterns in your workflow, asking questions, and gradually learning pieces of your process. You find yourself explaining things, at first out of necessity, but eventually because he genuinely wants to understand.

Still, there are unmistakable “Spencer” moments. Like when he pulls out a deck of cards to kill time during lulls only to lose repeatedly and insist he’s just “warming up.” Or when he critiques your coffee making skills with dramatic flair, claiming you never use enough sugar. And, of course, the times he interrupts your deep concentration with some completely unrelated observation, earning a weary sigh every time.

Yet beneath the sighs and dry remarks is something else. Mutual respect. A slow but steady bond taking shape between two colleagues who hadn’t worked this closely before. Over time, the friction turns to familiarity, the eye rolls to inside jokes.

What began as an inconvenient pairing becomes something more.. a quiet, genuine camaraderie.

You walked into the BAU one morning, the familiar weight of your bag slung over your shoulder, already mentally reviewing the mountain of reports waiting on your desk. But when you reached your office, you paused. The door was already ajar, light spilling out into the hallway. That alone was enough to raise an eyebrow.. your mornings usually started in solitude.

Curious, you pushed the door open fully and peered inside.

Spencer Reid sat at your desk, carefully placing a round Tupperware container right in the center as if its positioning were a matter of national security. His lips moved in quiet concentration, muttering something under his breath.

“Spencer?” you said softly, stepping inside with a bemused smile, gently closing the door behind you. “You’re here early.”

He startled slightly but recovered quickly, swiveling in your chair to face you. His cane, now replacing the crutches he’d used last week, leaned against the wall beside him.

“Hi. Yeah I, uh, good morning,” he added, offering a small smile. His gaze lingered on you a moment longer than necessary, his eyes warm and wide, the corners crinkling as if he couldn’t believe you were real.

You walked over to your seat, dropping your bag and setting your coffee down. “What’s this?” you asked, gesturing to the container.

Inside were perfectly golden-brown chocolate chip cookies, still slightly soft in the center. You looked over at him with raised brows, half-expecting a note or some explanation. This wasn’t exactly typical behavior for Spencer Reid, not that you minded.

“Me and my mom made them,” he admitted, chuckling shyly as he scratched behind his ear. “They’re for you.”

Your expression softened, surprised. “Really?” You picked one up and took a bite, and your eyes widened. “Spencer, these are actually— really good. I didn’t know you could bake.”

“I can’t,” he said quickly, chuckling. “That’s why I had to call in some reinforcements. My mom helped. I just… I wanted to thank you. For putting up with me basically living in your office last week. I know it probably wasn’t convenient for you.”

“It really wasn’t a big deal,” you said, smiling. “Honestly, I kind of liked having you around. It’s nice to not be alone for once.”

The room fell into a warm silence for a moment as the air shifted between you. Something tender passing unspoken. His eyes found yours again, a little more boldly this time, like he was ready to say something he’d rehearsed in his head a hundred times. He opened his mouth to speak before freezing, watching you.

You reached across the desk, brushing your fingers over his hand where it rested on the tabletop. His hand turned slightly, his fingertips grazing yours, and it was so soft, so deliberate, that you almost forgot to breathe.

“I really liked having you around, Spencer,” you said quietly interrupting him.

He only nods at first, clearly overwhelmed, his brain struggling to catch up with the feeling of your hand in his.

“I— yeah. Me too,” he stammers, breath hitching. “I really enjoyed being here. With you. That’s…what I meant.” His eyes flicker down to your intertwined fingers, as if trying to ground himself.

You lean in slightly, your voice soft but laced with amusement. “Spencer.” His gaze returns to yours. “You were going to say something a minute ago. What was it?”

For a moment, he doesn’t respond, his mind drifting somewhere else.

He’s back in the kitchen, mixing cookie dough while his mother’s face glows from the screen of his laptop, propped up by a stack of books. She watches him closely, warmth and gentle curiosity in her expression.

“You said you liked this woman, right?” she asks with a knowing look. “Ask her out, Spence. Don’t just bring her cookies and then disappear.”

He sighs, muttering, “Easier said than done,” as he shapes the dough in his hands.

“She’s really pretty,” his mother continues.

He glances up, brow furrowed. “I haven’t even shown you a picture of her, Mom.”

But then he follows her line of sight, over his shoulder, to a photo displayed on the kitchen shelf. It’s the one he always keeps close: the two of you in your office, him seated on your lap with his arms thrown around you, your face mid-laugh, somewhere between amusement and surprise.

He quickly steps in front of the frame, embarrassed, and returns his focus to the tray of cookies. “Yeah… whatever.”

Now, standing in front of you, he exhales slowly, summoning the courage from that memory. There’s a flicker of something more certain in his eyes.

“I really, really enjoyed being in here with you,” he says, smiling. “Honestly, if it meant I got to stay in here a little longer, I’d get shot in the other leg, too.”

Your eyes widen in disbelief, and then in barely contained laughter.

“And I know we’re technically not supposed to date coworkers,” he continues, more serious now, “but let’s be honest.. that rule hasn’t stopped anyone else around here. I don’t think Hotch would mind that much. So… if you’re up for it, I’d really like to take you out. On a real date.”

A soft smile spreads across your face, and you nod, your voice gentle. “Yeah… I’d like that too.”

“Great.” He lets out a small chuckle, brushing a lock of hair behind his ear before standing. “I’ll, uh… take you out after work then.”

“Looking forward to it, Spencer,” you say, still seated, your expression glowing.

With a slightly awkward yet confident huff, he leans down and presses a quick kiss to your cheek. There’s a nervous smile, a tiny bow, and then he’s gone, stepping out of your office with a newfound lightness in his stride.

You turn back to the box of cookies he brought and spot a small sticky note tucked between them. Curious, you pull it out and read the quick, scribbled message:

“— See you tonight ;D”

#༦ applereids 📝 work ㅤ۫#spencer reid #spencer reid x you #spencer reid blurb #spencer reid moodboard #spencer reid prompt #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fanfiction #criminal minds x you #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds

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