All i wish for 2024 is every creator to start that project they’ve been thinking about, write those fics they have been planning, make messy art, and to have as little burnout as possible.

I love caves as a horror theme but I HATE when there are things in the caves. Horror writers utterly ruin cave stories by not realizing that the cave itself is the monster.

It’s fine when caves are a gateway that something is coming through, or the cave is somehow alive and malicious, or if the only monster is what the narrator brings in with themself, but I hate hate hate when writers expect me to be creeped out by spelunkers being menaced by creatures that live inside the cave.

my beloved mutual, I agree that every labyrinth needs its minotaur

but the horror of a labyrinth from the perspective of Theseus is nothing like the horror of a labyrinth from the perspective of the Minotaur… a cave is horrifying because the Earth built it to contain you

“A cave is horrifying because the Earth built it to contain you”

So I was fully on board with both sentiments, cave as the horror sounds cool and monster in the cave is cool, and then comes that line and holy shit that is a new horrifying thought.

I think I’ll put it in a story somewhere

It’s a thought I always have while caving. Looking into a naturally-formed chamber or hallway that has never seen the light of day is eerie—there’s a reason specific chambers end up with architectural names, like “the ballroom” or “the great hall”. The resemblance to human habitation and artefact is uncanny… sprawling, incomprehensible structures in crude mockery of buildings and cathedrals and dungeons, as though designed by some awful alien intelligence that had only dreamt of human needs. Inhospitable doll-houses, lightless, windowless, with oubliettes and dungeons and poison winds and air that robs the breath from your lungs. We refer to our ancient ancestors as “cavemen” but they were no more adapted to the labyrinthine darkness than we are today—we did not spring from caves but from the treetops and savannas with the sun and stars above us. A cave is a mouth, a throat, a digestive system. It is just tempting enough to draw us in—cool and sheltered and beautiful, but it has no real will to sustain us. Green things do not grow in caves. Even the other predatory creatures that shared our caves fell victim to them, when they slipped or strayed or wandered too deep.

@vague-magnus-archives

No you don’t understand this is the first new Daniel pic in 3 months god I’ve missed you

The tug-of-war is sending me

no matter how terrible my day is. i can always end my day in bed imagining fictional characters making out sloppy style and fucking raw. and that's beautiful. there's some good in this world mister frodo and it's worth fighting for

Change a single letter and change the word game

I want to play a game with you all.

You have to make a new word by changing only one letter of the last word.

Dirt

Dire

Dare

Bare

Bard

Card

Care

Mare

Male

Made

Mode

Code

Cone

Core

Cord

Lord

Lore

Lyre

Pyre

Pare

part

Fart

farm

Fare

Fore

Sore

Sort

Soft

Sift

silt!

silk

Milk

Mill

Mull

Mule

Male

Rale

Rule

Rile

Vile

Tile

Time

Lime

Like

Hike

Bike

Bake

Cake

Lake

Like

Bike

Bile

File

Tile

Tilt

Wilt

Lilt

Kilt

Kill

Bill

Jill

Dill

Doll

Dole

pole

Hole

sole

sold

cold

mold

meld

mend

Mind

Hind

Kind

Bind

Rind

Rend

Rent

Lent

Lint

Mint

Tint

Tins

Tons

Cons

Cans

Cane

Sane

Bane

Bone

tone

tome

Pierre Fouché. 1994.77 or Lebenslänglichen Explosionsglück, 2020.

Rayon chords from a World War II parachute.

PBY Blister Gunner, Rescue at Rabaul, 1944, photo by Horace Bristol

I hope every writer who sees this writes LOADS the next few months. Like freetime opens up, no writers block, the ability to focus, etc etc you're able to write loads & make lots of progress <3

Bidders: get in touch with your creators if you haven't already!

High bidders: if you haven't yet replied to your creator, now is the time to do so! Even if you don't have a prompt for them just yet, please get in touch.

Creators: if you still haven't heard from your high bidders by tomorrow, please drop us an email and let us know so we can nudge them for you. (If you've already emailed us on the subject, please do so again!)

It’s Calvinism.

I keep telling people this, but SO much of American culture and particularly the ‘Protestant work ethic’ is derived from Calvin’s view that everything in life is predestined by God - that winners and losers are already chosen.

Those Puritan pilgrims who came here seeking ‘religious liberty?’ Hardcore Calvinists who were so obnoxious they were kicked out of their home countries.

And they use this belief to excuse the worst behaviors in American history: Racism, colonialism, genocide, segregation, patriarchy, prejudice against minorities, slavery, economic disparity, low wages, no public healthcare, systems that punish the poor and disabled while rewarding the already wealthy; attempts to impose theocracy and infiltrate democratic institutions to wreck them from within; the constant stream of made-up moral panics; the parochialism and fear of outsiders.

The belief, common among many conservatives, that humans are inherently evil, is why they distrust anything from government that advances the common good and instead praise church-based charity.

I could go on, but just read this.

i was literally about to say this. this shit isn’t new by any means

Of course that's their perspective they're eugenicists.

there are still people in the notes of that thread failing to grasp that this isn't a hypothetical for me. I know trans people up here who had their front door covered with 'I ❤️ JKR' and 'adult human female' stickers. there are active terf groups who harrass queer cafés and bookshops and use her name as an in-group identifier on signs and t-shirts at protests and at pride. she actually personally funded a trans exclusionary women's crisis centre in edinburgh, after her followers hounded and harrassed an inclusive service into shutting down. she is a tangible threat to trans people here.

she's pouring money into Supreme court cases relating to amending gender definitions (ie. with the intention getting trans women punted out of 'female only spaces') set out in law. her arguments against trans healthcare for kids are echoed in the horrendous Cass Report, which is only getting the traction it is because she won't stop being a vicious harpy while still claiming to not be transphobic.

she's emboldened an entire toxic cesspit of people to harass, torment and genuinely endanger trans people. we have had flocks of the weirdos turning up at places where trans people (mostly trans women, especially) work and cause problems on purpose then claim to be the innocent victims of Woke Culture when they're kicked out for being abusive and horrible. she's their figurehead and if you still support her, get the hell away from me.

Fascism sells a synthetic nostalgia.

As good a time as any to remind folks of the 14 properties of "ur-fascism" (described by Umberto Eco, who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, in his 1995 essay Ur-Fascism). Not all need be present for single regime to be fascist, but a Venn diagram of all fascist regimes will cover them all.

One should always have at least 2 craft projects going. That way, when one of them is messed up and misbehaving, you can switch to another, and let the first one sit there and think about what it's done.

On April 13, 1985, Danuta Danielsson - a Jewish-Polish woman whose mother was taken to a concentration camp in WWII - hit a local neonazi with her handbag in Växjö, Sweden.

Update: The neonazis were subsequently expelled from the city, and a statue was erected in her honor.

This week 34 years ago, Danuta Danielsson demonstrated how much respect fascists deserve.

Well played, Danuta Danielsson.

And good aim.

She hit them so hard they were banished from that land forever. Iconic

Happy 40th Annual Hit a Nazi with a Handbag Day

How dare you leave out that the Swedish government was against the statue, out of concern that it could promote violence, and the people added handbags to statues across the country out of protest!