Khantalas

also hi I’m back on Bluesky and doing a postdoc in Exeter, UK! My family and I finally managed to move to a place where we could expect to be treated with dignity

just in time for Labour to cut down on PIPs, refuse to actively defend trans rights, and become anti-immigrant

am i cursed or what

for some reason my brain immediately goes to “deviancies” for subclasses, as in something that differs from the norm for the category (of the larger kink)

No idea if the word is sufficiently reclaimed to be safe for use though, even with the best of intentions

We Can Make an Impact. Protect Legal Migrants: Oppose 10-Year ILR Proposal and Exempt Existing Residents

I have been off Bluesky for a while now but maybe my outrage at Labour as an immigrant might be the impetus for me to return

change.org rarely achieves anything worthwhile but still

((the thumbnail looks awfully AI-ass but I didn’t choose it so apologies if it is AI))

Exploring Regulatory Roles of Transposable Elements in EMT and MET through Data-Driven Analysis: Insights from regulaTER Gene expression is regulated at the transcriptional and translational levels and a plethora of epigenetic mechanisms. Regulation of gene expression by…

In science news, this piece of science I have been working on since 2019 has finally been published, so if you are a transposable element or gene regulation freak like me, it’s free to read and download until 31 Jan of 2025! Give it a read even if you have no idea what transposable elements are!

Bliss Stage: Interim Stage - These Are Our Games | DriveThruRPG Right now, right this moment, right as you read these words, humanity is struck down by an alien force from beyond the limits of our understanding. It is the first blow of a terrible war.Seven years l...

It's impossible to talk about Bliss Stage without mentioning "teen soldiers have sex to upgrade their psychic mecha to fight aliens" is a core component of the game, but it's to the game's credit that its gameplay loop is so sublime that I will always admire it no matter how fucked up the premise.

Exalted is the game I talk about the most, especially EX3, because its chassis-engine integration is beyond most games of a similar scope, to the point that regardless of how much people hate its bloat, finding another, simpler engine to emulate it nearly always falls flat (sorry ExEss)

gotta start with Mythender, my favorite niche game about rolling a million dice to end gods using your obscene amounts of power, available for free

it taught me more than basically anything else about how to look at and design games, about the importance of feeling and vibes, and of course, metal

1 like = 1 TTRPG in my library

(And quote this, #ttrpysky / #ttrpgsky ! I want to know what's in your TTRPG library too!)

"She wrapped her arms around his waist, and squeezed him as tight as she could. 'I love you, Alfie, but if you act like a dick to anyone I will hurt you like a motherfucker. That, you should remember.'"

for context this is from one god to her brother, also a god

text saying: “get to know my writing / for every like, I will post one quote”

hey wanna know more about my writing

Sources for quotes will be indiscriminate: they might be from fiction, science stuff, RPGs, or even essays

yeah but consider this: the greek gods never even heard of Hero Forge, they were too busy working with actual heroes and actual forges separately

STOP

open a blank doc/notebook

write down every single indulgent, melodramatic, cliché, "I will buy a book with this thing every time" trope that you're a sucker for

guess what

if you can do it well

you can do it

WRITE what YOU want to READ, friends

eat your damn dessert

Earnest post, but: a thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism.

We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive

That said, if the US can hold on to its sheer luck that it often confuses for destined exceptionalism for just two years, and stem the tide of elected authoritarianism the GOP openly advertised as its goal with minimal casualties, the executive branch may be as ineffective as if a Dem is the POTUS.

When you remove so many career government employees and bureaucrats who made it their life’s duty to know how or why the government does or does not do things the way they are or aren’t done, and replace them with cronies who only how know to please the boss, doesn’t matter who runs the parliament.

I don’t want to suggest that this is really relevant to anyone right now, let alone if it happens, because it is far easier to hollow out the institutional memory of a democratic government than built it back up again, and that institutional memory is where most of the actual work takes place.

While it is not a source of comfort by any stretch of the imagination, and should only drive us to fight harder against the incoming US presidency, precedent suggests that the GOP will likely lose both chambers of Congress in the next midterms over just their sheer incompetence, let alone malice.

Here are 2 things you should know if you're new to Bluesky.

1- Trans users helped build this site and kept it alive when a lot of other people were willing to help Elon Musk in exchange for clout.

2- We use alt text here for folks who need it. I put Easter eggs in my alt text for the real heads.

the important question isn’t “did Harris lose because the left is too woke?” it’s “why isn’t Donald Trump in federal prison?” We’re being subjected to lectures about politics by the people who held all of the power and let this dipshit slip through their grasp.

Hey new folks on Bluesky, please remember that artists and writers are still getting established here, and promoting them in your feed to others is a big part of the participation here. Never hesitate to push someone else’s post about their work!

Cis men truly need to understand the power of saying “that’s fucked up bro why would you say that” to another cis man

the world owes us far more than we owe it for the anguish it causes us and our deaths, be they single stroke or by a thousand cuts

Now more than ever is the time to stop clutching your pearls over queer art and fiction that you find "uncomfortable". You can, will, and have contributed to the mindset that queer art deserves censorship.

Let people be freaks. DEFEND your freaks. Embrace the freak you've been hiding inside.

shout out to my fellow queers, who might get blamed by many centrist liberals for driving the supposed “moderate right” to vote for Trump by “not toning down” who they are and for the nominal support the Dems offered you

You don’t owe the world anything. Continue to be brilliant and magnificent.

also if you want to make a neurodiverse queer enby writer a little happier in these awful times, maybe give this a read, and if you genuinely (even if only slightly) enjoy it, maybe share it and message me that you liked it

I don’t make any money from this, I just like being read

Like, of course don’t give into despair and continue to live and fight as best you can, because you owe it to yourself to adapt to the horrors, but don’t pretend anything about this is normal

This is not *normal*.

combat is still the second best in the series, after Dragon Age 2, one of your companions is a badass brown-skinned disabled woman, you can smooch Scout Harding, and it feels about as Dragon Age as Mass Effect 2 feels Mass Effect compared to the first game

but none of that is why I love it, so