#this world is not yours

[teanderthalrex]

Alien: Romulus Book Recommendations

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes - A woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended.

This World is Not Yours By Kemi Ashing-Giwa. Three friends on a new colony planet. There’s more than one way to be eaten alive.

Salvation Day by Kali Wallace. A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller.

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on.

Contagion by Erin Bowman. After receiving a distress call from a drill team on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is sent into deep space to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission.

Authors like Mur Lafferty, Tim Pratt, Peter Watts, J.S. Dewes, Caitling Starling, Sue Burton, and R.E. Stearns may have books that fit this theme that I just haven't read.

[bajoop-sheeb]

Councilwoman Margaret, Amara, and Jesse from This World Is Not Yours

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: LGBTQ Horror Novellas

This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling  

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 4/5

Book Blurb: This World is Not Yours by USA Today bestseller Kemi Ashing-Giwa is the perfect blend of S.A. Barnes' space horror and Cassandra Khaw's beautiful but macabre worlds. An action-packed, inventive novella about a toxic polycule consumed by jealousy and their attempts to survive on a hostile planet. After fleeing her controlling and murderous family with her fiancée Vinh, Amara embarks on a colonization project, New Belaforme, along with her childhood friend, Jesse.

The planet, beautiful and lethal, produces the Gray, a “self-cleaning” mechanism that New Belaforme’s scientists are certain only attacks invasive organisms, consuming them. Humans have been careful to do nothing to call attention to themselves until a rival colony wakes the Gray.

As Amara, Vinh, and Jesse work to carve out a new life together, each is haunted by past betrayals that surface, expounded by the need to survive the rival colony and the planet itself.

There’s more than one way to be eaten alive.

Review:

Space horror, toxic polycule, and a hostile planet that will kill them? Lets gooooo. Vinh and Amara are wives who have moved together on a colonization project, new Belaforme, along with their childhood friend, Jesse. The planet is beautiful and dangerous, having produced something known as "the Gray" a mechanism that attacks invasive organisms and consumes them.... yet something is awakening within the Gay. That's not the only danger in this planet, the council has enforced individuals to enter into arranged marriages in order to produce new heirs... and despite the fact that Vinh and Amara are married to one another they are both forced to take up partners... and thus jealousy and dark feelings emerge in their own relationship. Vinh, Jesse, and Amara are all connected... but the planet and their own relationships with one another will test them to the brink of their survival... and sometimes the only thing to do is be eaten alive. This was such an interesting read and I loved getting to know the relationship dynamics between the three individuals and the dark feelings within each of them. While battling their own survival on a deadly planet they are navigating complex relationships and betrayals. I had fun reading this and would absolutely recommend it!

*Thanks Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Nightfire for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[scuttlebatt]

I Have Found A Solution!

So, obviously classic wizard robes aren’t wheelchair friendly. (Alright, admittedly this isn’t common knowledge and also this definitely isn’t a problem for most but listen, this is a problem for me and I’m pleased to present a solution for it nonetheless.)

The issue is in the sleeves and the length of the robes. The traditional trumpet style allows them to get snagged, dirty, and caught in the wheels.

This is distinctly not an issue with other mobility aids such as canes and crutches, these wizards are fine to carry on with their trumpet sleeves simply rolled up if needed.

Now, one solution might simply to shorten the sleeves and hem to be out of the way, but that looks rather silly so I won’t do that. Instead I propose the more elegant design of a hanging sleeve to maintain that flowy magical feel while allowing for better range of motion.

Honestly I just love the look of hanging sleeves in general and think more people should appreciate them, wheelchair user or not.

In conclusion…

[dial-p-for-placey]

A little late to the party but after seeing so many Mikus in other cultures decided to do one from my own and well I’m from Pittsburgh and let me tell you our culture is road rage

[stil-lindigo]

lead balloon (the tumblr post that saved me)

if this comic resonated with you, it would mean the world to me if you donated to this palestinian family's escape fund.

--

no creative notes because this isn't that kind of comic.

I know I don’t owe any of you anything but I still felt compelled to write about my long term absence. And I feel far enough away from the dangerous spot I was in to be able to make this comic. I have a therapist now, and she agreed that making this could be a very cathartic gesture, and the start of properly leaving these thoughts behind me. I am still, at seemingly random times, blindsided by fleeting desires to kill myself. They’re always passing urges, but it’s disarming, and uncomfortable. I worry sometimes that my brain’s spent so long thinking only about suicide that it’s forgotten how to think about anything else. Like, now that I've opened that door for myself, I'll never be able to fully shut it again. But I’m trying my best to encourage my mind in other directions. We'll see how that goes.

I am still donating all proceeds from my store to Palestinian causes. So far, I've donated over $15K, not including donations coming from my own pocket or the fundraising streams which jointly raised around $10K. In the time since I made my initial post about where this money would be going, the focus has shifted from aid organisations to directly donating to escape funds.

If you'd like to do the same, you can look at Operation Olive Branch, which hosts hundreds of Palestinian escape funds or donate to Safebow, which has helped facilitate the safe crossing and securing of important medical procedures for over 150 at-risk palestinians since the beginning of the genocide.

[reality-detective]

Old Lighters 🤔

[cozylittleartblog]

cant tell you how bad it feels to constantly tell other artists to come to tumblr, because its the last good website that isn't fucked up by spoonfeeding algorithms and AI bullshit and isn't based around meaningless likes

just to watch that all fall apart in the last year or so and especially the last two weeks

there's nowhere good to go anymore for artists.

edit - a lot of people are saying the tags are important so actually, you'll look at my tags.

#please dont delete your accounts because of the AI crap. your art deserves more than being lost like that #if you have a good PC please glaze or nightshade it. if you dont or it doesnt work with your style (like mine) please start watermarking #use a plain-ish font. make it your username. if people can't google what your watermark says and find ur account its not a good watermark #it needs to be central in the image - NOT on the canvas edges - and put it in multiple places if you are compelled #please dont stop posting your art because of this shit. we just have to hope regulations will come slamming down on these shitheads#in the next year or two and you want to have accounts to come back to. the world Needs real art #if we all leave that just makes more room for these scam artists to fill in with their soulless recycled garbage #improvise adapt overcome. it sucks but it is what it is for the moment. safeguard yourself as best you can without making #years of art from thousands of artists lost media. the digital world and art is too temporary to hastily click a Delete button out of spite

[shitpostingkats]

We need less "shy, anxious, always second guessing" Apollo in fanworks, and approximately 400% more of whatever the hell this is.

[bajoop-sheeb]

Relationships!

Enitan and Menkhet, from The Splinter in the Sky (top left)

Amara and Vinh, from This World Is Not Yours (middle left)

Jesse and the planet, also from This World Is Not Yours (bottom left)

Fen and Alekhai, from The King Must Die (top right)

Tosan and Vaylra, from Star Drama [working title] (middle right)

[clarisimart]

you haven't seen your ex in years and you want to show him how over him you are, but oh no, he went from a nerdy out-of-his-depth twunk to action hero GILF (grunkle i'd like to *REDACTED*)

commission info here

[lgbtlunaverse]

I've seen a good number of people ask a question along the lines of "why do characters like Falin and hate Laios when they're so similar?" and i've also seen good analysis on the differences in how the touden siblings carry themselves that would, despite their shared traits, make a person gravitate to one more than the other.

But i feel like we've overseen one very central thing here.

People don't like Falin

Like... the average person in dungeon meshi doesn't like Falin. She was deeply ostrasized by her home village, in magic school she had zero friends before Marcille and the others generally saw her as strange and a bit offputting.

Characters like Namari and Chilchuck like her well enough but not necessarily more than any other member of their party, including Laios. Neither Kabru nor his party think much of her. The canaries don't give a fuck about her. Toshiro's retainers don't see her as anything else than the weird foreign girl their boss has a crush on.

The reason we think everyone loves Falin is because, despite all the indifferent side characters, the 2 most important and central characters of the story are Laios and Marcille. Who are NOT representative of the average attitudes to Falin! But necromancy georg number 1 and 2 are our main eyes into the story and they love Falin so much that it colours our perspective of the whole world.

The only side character who qualifies as liking Falin and not Laios is Toshiro (at least at first, as he ends the story on much better terms with Laios) and that says a lot about his character, with him drifting to the quiet Falin precisely because of her oddness but being both uncomfortable with and deeply jealous of Laios' much more open expression of that oddness. Because he's a repressed guy from a culture where etiquette is incredibly important.

But like I said, that's a specific aspect of him, not to the world at large.

Because there's also people that click more with laios than with Falin.

Kabru, for one, who is initially distrustful of laios but clearly also deeply fascinated by him and drawn to him.

Minor spoilers, and you don't have to read too deeply into this, because I don't think Kabru particularly dislikes Falin or anything. But it's interesting that when he talks about his distrust of the toudens in ch.32 he's talking about them both. But his big friendship declaration in chapter 76 is aimed squarely at Laios, he doesn't say "you and your sister" he says "you"

And Senshi!! He instantly clicks with Laios, well before he does so with anyone else in the party– who he also becomes friends with, it just takes a bit longer– specifically because they bond over their shared special interest in monsters!! Senshi is kind towards Falin and cares for her wellbeing, but he also... doesn't know her. The reason he is even here, helping to save her, is because he and Laios bonded over monsters and he wants to help his new friends out!

Of course, the theme of neurodivergent isolation is very present in Laios' story. I'm not denying that. He does turn people off, without meaning to and unable to fully understand why! But so does Falin. And just like there are people who like her despite of or even because of those traits, there are people who do the same with him.

In conclusion: "Average person loves Falin and hates Laios" factoid actually statistical error. Average person is neutral on both Falin and Laios. Georcille, Laiorg and Geoshiro, who live in the dungeon and think over 10,000 Falin-loving thoughts a day, are statistical outliers adn should not have been counted.

[fantastic-nonsense]

[meanbossart]

A reasonable one

[teanderthalrex]

This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa is honestly so fucking weird. What did I just read? The plot is this: Three besties, Vinh and Amara, who are married (and gay), and Jesse (ace), are part of a colony on a world with a built-in self-defense system: the gray. The gray doesn't see humans as a threat. At least not yet. I'm fully recommending this to anyone who loves messy protagonists, complicated relationships, and the kind of horror that simmers in the background. It's a short novella and I'm still thinking about it. 4/5

***SPOILERS***

They really said why have a toxic codependent relationship when you can be a hivemind, huh?

Jesse is the definition of queerplatonic with his friends. Everything was honestly looking like it was all going to be relationship drama in the beginning, but when the other colony on the planet kills some local deer-thing for sport, and the planet decides to purge all the humans, Jesse, who has been casually bathing in (and maybe getting high with) the gray, is just like, "Fuck all these other people honestly. I mean except me (barely human at this point) and my two besties. We get to mind meld with the planet and live forever!"

Amara and Vinh have an incredibly toxic relationship. That codependence, obsession, and lack of communication could only have been saved by scifi bullshit. I loved how messy they all were. Jesse's weird erotic relationship with a whole planet via grey goo was... well, it was something for sure.

This is one of the more original stories I've read in a while. I really like it partly bc I'm still thinking about it and partly because it reminds me of older scifi short stories from by bygone eras. Definitely recommended.