#sandi reads

[poisindonottouch]

Queer reads: Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells

In honor of Pride Month, and the fact that this is technically a book blog, I bring you 31 queer books I like. Today, 7 of 31. (Listen, it took me till day 4 or something to remember that June actually only has 30 days, but day 31 will be a bonus day.)

The Murderbot Diaries are a collection of novellas (and a short story, and a novel) that follow a human-robot hybrid called a Security Unit, that has hacked its own governor module so it can watch telanovelas all day.

Some people describe Murderbot as being agender and asexual, and if that representation resonates with you, awesome. I’m all here for it. But I’d like to add that in addition to Murderbot, basically every other character is also queer, and the main premise that holds this whole series together is found family, which is basically the queerest thing there is.

So, if you like amoral asexual agender assholes, fun sci fi escapades, and awesome found family, pick up these books. They’re a blast.

#sandi reads #happy pride 🌈 #queer books #murderbot diaries #martha wells

[sofiaruelle]

Oh? A Customer?

#doodle #stardew valley #stardew valley sandy #stardew valley emily #sdv emily x sandy #sdv sandy x emily #i read a headcanon somewhere a while back that Sandy was a witch just like the Wizard #and I totally believe that #I also like to think she and emily are in the same coven and they have cute dreamscape dates #i got lazy drawing the suckers on the tentacles #imagine niya na lng nan dyan sila

[lycorisketch]

The Great Dalmuti (LMK Edition)

For a college assignment I was tasked with resdesigning and adding new mechanics to any multi-player facecard game, so I chose the fun game of "The Great Dalmuti". For this redesign I themed it completely after Lego Monkie Kid!

If anyone wants to see the narrative and new mechanics for this version, feel free to dm ans I will send over the google doc!

#lycori draws 🌸🖍 #lego monkie kid #lmk fanart #lmk macaque #lmk mk #lmk wukong #lmk azure lion #lmk pif #lmk dbk #lmk nezha #lmk sandy #lmk lady bone demon #lmk red son #lmk mei #lmk tang #lmk pigsy #lmk #harbinger of chaos #please dont read all these tags theres no reason #lego monkie kid mk #lego monkie kid wukong #the great dalmuti redesign

[spineless-lobster]

He likes dancing guys, do you get it?! HAVERS LIKE DANCING!!! AND HE DANCES WITH THE CAPTAIN WHEN EVERYONE IS GONE!!!

HE LIKES DANCING!!!!!

#since I read that fucking interview my brain just whispers to myself ‘he likes dancing’ and then I start sobbing uncontrollably #peter sandys clarke you have done unimaginable damage to my psyche #I’m getting my lawyers #bbc ghosts #lieutenant havers #capvers

[bignostalgias]

moments from chapter 7 of @alkalinefrog ’s fic The Lights of Avalon that make me grin at my phone like a dork

(design ref from Alka’s Astriana piece and Hiccup’s disguise from @the-bubbles-tm ’s fantastic post here)

+ bonus Astrid being wlw because what’s new

#I LOVE DRAWING TOOTH #obsessed with Astrid scrambling to find teeth to show off to her crush actually #fic: tloa #mine #frostcup #rotbtd #httyd #hiccup httyd #jack frost #hijack #rotg #astrid httyd #toothiana #sandy rotg #astriana #<3 #another favorite moment was hiccup reading the message Sandy wrote him ‘thank you for being jacks only friend’ DJSJDJSJSJSJ

[autisticgayplushie]

all nine of the stretch goal designs for this campaign - I am not sure how many goals we will be able to reach but there will come a point where I won't be able to do any more goals unless I get fulfillment help, so we'll see if it gets to that point and if I can get help! below the cut are the names, info, and artist statements for each plushie! I may end up changing the names as I am still not sure about ash, sandy, kelly, and luca, but let me know if you like them!

Tristan The Depression Raccoon: Tristan’s plushie will come with a removable hoodie accessory! He loves cozy video games like animal crossing and stardew valley. There are not many widely used symbols for depression that I could find, so I chose Tristan's colors based on how my depression makes me feel, bruised and cold.

Ash the Anxiety Bunny Moth: Ash’s plushie will have fluffy moth antennae and removable magnetic wings similar to Bug’s plush! They love to visit the home depot lights section when their friends are with them! I chose gray and yellow for the main body colors because my anxiety personally deals with uncertainty and things out of my control. The green comes from one of the anxiety flags created by Beyond MOGAI. To add moth features was a suggestion I got that I thought fit very well!! 

Sandy the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Kitty: Sandy is an artist and loves to draw and paint landscapes! Her wings will be attached via magnet, similar to Bug’s wings. The colors of her design are based on the OCD flag created by lucellion, with spirals in her paws to represent repetitive thought processes.

Melon the Sensory Processing Disorder Opossum: Melon is a silly opossum who has bat wings! Melon’s wings will be attached via magnet, similar to Bug’s wings. Melon’s colors are inspired by the SPD pride flag created by Beyond MOGAI.

Jazz the Borderline Personality Disorder Kitty: Jazz is a tortoiseshell kitty that loves to read!! Jazz’s plush will come with a pvc charm of the hand of Eris symbol for you to put on xer collar if you choose! The colors are loosely based on the BPD flag created with community input by ptsdsafe on tumblr.

Kelly the Schizospec Axolotl: kelly is an axolotl who is studying chemistry and loves science! kelly’s design is inspired by the Schizospec flag, created with community input and organized by schizosupport on tumblr. They will have a collar tag once again made of PVC featuring the associated double sided arrow symbol.

Em the Bipolar Disorder Chimera: Em is a chimera kitty who has dragon wings and a snake tail! One side of the snake tail is smiling, the other frowning. This takes inspiration from the :): symbol often associated with Bipolar disorder.

Cy the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Otter: Cy is a happy little otter griffin! They love to sculpt and craft and sew! Cy’s color pallet is based on the assortment of medications I take for my own IBS symptoms.

Luca the Dyslexia Fox: Luca is a dancer and loves to perform! Their design and colors are loosely based on the infinity heart+ moon and star symbol that is often found on dyslexia flags. they will have L and R embroidered on their paws, which was a suggestion I was given.

#tristan the depression racoon #audhd creatures #ash the anxiety moth bunny #sandy the ocd kitty #melon the spd opossum bat #Jazz the BPD kitty #kelly the schizospec axolotl #em the bipolar disorder chimera #cy the IBS otter griffin #luca the dyslexia fox #part of my concern with naming is that when it comes to a collection in order to make fulfillment easier on myself I like to choose names #that mostly have different letters to start. because. I will read the first letter of a name and then go off of that which has led to #many people getting sprinkles instead of scarlet or beau instead of beans ToT #so we have ash - bug - critter - cy (the one repeat) - dash - em - jazz - kelly - luca - melon - tristan #cy i think is different enough from critter because it is only two letters so if I confuse cy for critter. that's. well. i hope i won't

[alchely]

I wish at least one of Mickey's older brothers had been a more prominent character for a single (silly) reason.

Imagine Fiona hearing about all the "fucking fantastic" sex the Milkoviches are having with her brothers and later on with her sister (she's still there when it happens,shut up,this is an au) and she just decides to "try them out" for herself once. Idk it's probably a throwaway one-night stand or something,but there's a scene of her stumbling away from the encounter dazed as hell from how good it was lol.

And it's just...the Milkovich and the Gallaghers are really compatible ok?

#gallavich #shameless us #shameless #mickey milkovich #ian gallagher #fiona gallagher #lip gallagher #mandy milkovich #debbie gallagher #sandy milkovich #or maybe it's not just a one night stand and something comes out of it #idk there's something to be said about Milkoviches transforming into white knights when it comes to the Gallaghers #but maybe going about it the wrong way #there was this fic i read where Iggy is the one that threatenes Carls gang to back off and it was such a good scene and made so much sense #don't mind me this is just me imagining an au of shameless where its just a story about the Gallaghers and the Milkoviches in a feud #my post

[whorascope]

ok but what are our thoughts on dressing like the protag of a shoujo manga serialized in 2004

#anime and manga #shoujo manga #josei manga #fashion #moodboard #trend forecasting #sailor moon #nana #paradise kiss #shojo beat #simone rocha #sandy liang #ok but we SHOULD be dressing like an ai yazawa character out here #recently I read akiko higashimura's autobiographical series 'bblank canvas' and it did infact make me cry

[ukiyoebirds]

Therapy with Sandy getting a bit heated.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #lmk sun wukong #lmk macaque #lmk sandy #lmk swk #they both have problems and poor communication someone help these idiots #that someone seems to usually be either sandy or mk #have been reading some good hurt/comfort fics lately and somehow this is the result #references are life #That feeling when you have a grievance against someone and they shoot back five more at you when you voice it....

[rayjayoo]

no ones awake QUICK time to post no context( and perhaps slightly angsty )sandy and wukong doodle

#ray art #lego monkie kid fanart #lego monkie kid #lmk #monkie kid #lmk wukong #lmk sandy #if you read the tags from last post just know that the context for this is #1) its for the upcoming comic and #2) [coughs]ITSBASEDONACERTAINTHEORY/HC[coughs] #ANYWAYS enjoy this small doodle! ^-^

[poisindonottouch]

Queer books: The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

As we wrap up the sci-fi portion of this list of recs, (did you notice these were all sci-fi recs? Next up, queer fantasy books) I bring you my very favorite author.

The main character of most of the Vorkosigan Saga is Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, who is straight. Poor kid. But he is the son of my favorite chaotic bisexual in fiction, Aral Vorkosigan. Not only is Aral the epitome of masculinity on a planet very concerned with gender roles and social roles and class roles, he’s also canonically bisexual from the first time we meet him in Shards of Honor. I like how the occasional character brings it up to his wife, Cordelia, like she’ll be scandalized by his bisexuality, but she knows about it and doesn’t care. Later in the series (like, way later. The last book.) We learn some interesting things about Aral’s life after he dies. Is it spoilers if the book came out in 2015?

Anyway, Aral Vorkosigan, the most manly chaotic bisexual known to scifi.

#sandi reads #happy pride 🌈 #vorkosigan saga #aral vorkosigan #shards of honor #cordelia's honor #barrayar #gentleman jole and the red queen #Lois McMaster Bujold

[booksrockmyface]

I'm making a small bookcase tp display the books I read this year. Made a tiny version of Words of Radiance to make sure I got the shelves in the right place.

#hobby #tiny things #books #reading #words of radiance #brandon sanderson #brando sando #our boy sandy

[tailoringtay]

@xkuja and the mysterious lifeform

#xkuja #~ design ~ (art) #when I read bread loaf my mind immediately jumped to a large loaf and a moogster that ate so much sand it became massive #I loved the mental image so here it is xD #do you think the name should be Sandy or Stupid #Update: it is now named Sandwich

[gatheringbones]

[“For years, Stone related, trans people advised one another on how to navigate gender clinics’ strict requirements: study the manual of transsexuality that the doctors themselves used to assess patients’ likelihood to succeed in society as feminine women—Dr. Harry Benjamin’s 1966 The Transsexual Phenomenon—and perform the type, down to a T. Clinic staff were so eager to codify transsexuality as a new mental health disorder defined by identical characteristics that their own needs for objective, reproducible, standardized criteria made them highly gullible. It took the surgeons and psychiatrists years to figure out that they’d been had.

For Stone, the clinics offered a fascinating example of how gender is constructed in real time. Dr. Benjamin identified “born in the wrong body” as the defining self-understanding of transsexuality. Since his manual was the clinics’ manual, patients repeated this refrain year after year in order to access transition care. Even after physicians realized that their patients, too, read Benjamin, they continued to pose questions that screened out any ambiguity, as Stone herself had experienced. Through these rote scripts, performed by doctor and patient alike, transsexuality solidified into the state of passing from one side of the sex binary to its alleged opposite, a transformation that demolishes any body or experience that came before. In physicians’ hands, transsexuality reinforced, rather than broke down, the gender binary.

The “wrong body” narrative solidified into orthodoxy. In the 1970s, Stone shared, clinics even instructed transsexual women to invent a “plausible history” of their earlier lives. They were to fabricate new childhoods as if they had always been female. In the medical discourse, to transition was not only to erase one’s own past—it was to masquerade as an imaginary person.

“But it is difficult to generate a counterdiscourse if one is programmed to disappear,” Stone objected. Universal, unrelenting passing is not the goal, she urged. Never-ending passing is a form of assimilation—an acquiescence to the status quo. Passing internalizes, rather than resists, the harmful structure of binary gender that delineates masculinity and femininity, man and woman, as fundamentally at odds. She argued that to pass perpetually, in all circumstances and interactions, forecloses the center of a person’s individual power, the complexities, ambiguities, and nuances of actual life experience. And while passing admits one to the realm of gendered respectability, it means being forced to found relationships on lies, instead of on the truths that transsexuality exposes: that all bodies are malleable texts inscribed by power.

Instead, Stone urged, “in the transsexual’s erased history we can find a story disruptive to the accepted discourses of gender… which can make common cause” with other oppressed groups. She called this new identity the “posttranssexual”—the monstrous body reclaimed, in all its complexity. Closing her manifesto with a thrilling turn, Stone wrote collectively to other academic transsexuals—an audience she had to dream into being in 1991. Stone asked “us” to write our complex realities into history instead of being scripted as monolithic caricatures by physicians, feminists like Raymond, and even ourselves. Refusing assimilation is radical politics, “begun by reappropriating difference and reclaiming the power of the refigured” body—turning transsexuality into a site of resistance and alliance. She called for “solidarity” with queers and people of color—not individual, stealth access to the status quo through the edifice of binary sex. “Although individual change is the foundation of all things,” she concluded, “it is not the end of all things.”

Trans lives, for Stone, became a jumping-off point for interrogating gender—the social dimensions of sex—and forging collective resistance to racism, capitalism, and colonialism. By contrast, trans-exclusionary feminism honed its project into one goal alone: liberating women from the oppression of men.

The singular identity “women,” removed from the reality of all other social forces besides biological sex, became a mythic category that actually obscured, rather than pried open, the workings of power. But gender—a term many TERFs and “gender critical” feminists today deem tainted by transsexuality—usefully exposed the process through which the identities of man and woman are assigned meaning. The concept of gender provided an angle onto the way social institutions shape personal identity and experience.”]

Kyla Schuller, The Trouble With White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism

#kyla schuller #sandy stone #history stuff #currently reading #gender stuff

[avidabsurdist]

Every time a new Brandon Sanderson book is released everyone updates their suggested reading order but all you need is the patience to be uninformed and enjoy the book!

But depending on your preference the best story to start with will be different.

If you want a crash course on the basics of The Cosmere's magic physics (Aka Investiture) so you can hypothesize on how other magic works I suggest the short story "The Emperor's Soul" as a starting point, it gives a solid overview of Realmic theory and covers Identity (a rather difficult idea to communicate) very effectively. (this is the start of the PhD route)

If you want something that's more like a traditional fairy tale as an intro I suggest Tress Of the Emerald Sea, which doesn't require a PhD in the shattering to understand. (though if you're going the PhD route I suggest reading this one later because if you're questioning the magic it's a far more confusing one)

Warbreaker is a good middle ground, if you're going the PhD route I suggest this second (it covers Intention which "The Emperor's Soul" doesn't), It's not a bad starting place either, it was my first book in The Cosmere and it's up for free on The Sand-Man's website. It's also all-around an excellent book.

I'm going to be (a tad) controversial and say I enjoy Elantris, it's certainly not Brando-Sando's best work but it was his first, and it's not a bad book to start with! just keep in mind that many of the issues in the book are things he improves on in later books.

Mistborn is two (soon to be 3) series, we distinguish them by 'Era' and they should be read in order if you want to make sense of what's going on.

Mistborn Era 1 (3 books) is also an excellent place to start, it's a YA-style series so you follow a teenager in a Post-(more like perpetual)-Apocalypse, but it's also an Epic high fantasy so if you like those and don't mind romance It's a good one.

"Mistborn Secret History": read this after Mistborn Era 1 if you're going the PHD route read anytime before The Lost Metal (Era 2 Book 4) for everyone else. (PhD track: if you want the most out of it I suggest also reading White Sand first)

Mistborn Era 2 (4 books) is a high fantasy Western set in the same world much later in time, 10/10 no notes, it's excellent.

The Stormlight Archive, TheBigOne™ It is planned to be a 10-book series with accompanying Novellas. I suggest reading in chronological order including the short stories, published so far that would be:

The Way of Kings

Words of Radiance

"Edgedancer" (novella)

Oathbringer

"Dawnshard" (novella)

Rhythm of War

Start with this series if you thirst for sprawling high-fantasy novels with page counts that would make grown men weep (the Audiobook for RoW was like 48 hours long)

The entirety of Arcanum Unbounded is not required reading, (unless you're on the PhD track) but it contains both "The Emperor's Soul" and "Edgedancer", you should probably read Elantris, Mistborn Era 1, Alloy Of Law (MB Era 2 Book 1), and Stormlight (up to Words of Radiance). If you enjoy Graphic Novels and dislike spoilers/rereading stuff when you haven't finished it yet I suggest skipping the White Sand excerpt.

White Sand is also not a terrible intro, it covers a theme in B-Sandy's work that isn't directly related to the cosmere but will give you a good insight into whether you'll like his work or not: the idea that skill is developed, not just inherent. if you're like me and dislike graphic novels GraphicAudio™ (actually a company not a joke) Has an Audio rendition that has some narrative differences from the Graphic novels (iirc at least one character is a different gender) But the Graphic novels also have a random boombox on a planet with no electricity so either should be fine.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is in a similar situation to Tress of The Emerald Sea except instead of a classic European Folktale Vibe it's got a Western Interpretation of Anime Vibe, ofc it's high fantasy like all Sandon Branderson's work so it's world is inspired by Japanese culture rather than just being Japanese.

The Sunlit Man read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (Arcanum Unbounded), and at least Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive 3) before this one, unless you like being thrown into the deep end, Mistborn Era 1 & 2 would also help.

There are other routes than Ph.D., there's also the Galactic Politics route, The Secret Society route, The Worldhopper Watcher route, The Ancient History route (Aka The Shattering route) ect

if you want specific reading route recs just tell me what you're looking for I can help!

#brandon sanderson #cosmere #reading order #cosmere reading order #technically I'd call this spoiler free #unless you consider overarching themes spoilers #which is dumb you shouldn't do that #stormlight #mistborn #sixth of dusk #tress of the emerald sea #yumi and the nightmare painter #elantris #B-sandy

[imminent-danger-came]

Between

2x08 S: "As long as I'm doing something to help out a friend, I don't mind what it is! I just want to be there for 'em when they need me. Because at the end of the day, helping my friends is more important than anything in the world!"

3x03 Mei: "So wait, how did you get your gold vision back again?" MK: "I don't know! The same way I got them in the first place I guess. Every time I learned a new ability, it was because there was something I NEEDED to do, when there was no other way. Against the gold fish guy I NEEDED to do something to save my friends!" P: "Yeah, friends that YOU put in danger on purpose!"

3x10 MK: "NO! Mei is my best friend, I’d never abandon her when she needs me. We’re heroes! It’s what we do!",

3x14 MK: "A perfect world is what you make it. So as long as I have my friends by my side...this world! Is! Perfect!”

4x01 MK: "Honestly? I’m kinda liking the world as it is, right now. So...if it could just stay like this, forever? That would be awesome." SWK: "Yeah well...forever’s a long time bud...trust me."

4x02 AL: "It’s too late to save them! We can’t risk unleashing the curse into the world." MK: “You don’t know! We’d risk it for sure! I won’t abandon them when they need us."

4x07 IMK: "You can see it, can't you? This is your fate. Your friends will turn on you, seeing you for the monster you will become. They will destroy you, harbinger of chaos."

4x11 MK: "We have to try, he'd do the same—for any of us." and

4x14 YT: "I know full well what would happen should Azure fail. But- but he is my brother. I owe him my life." S: "We get it! I'd do anything to help my friends. But at the cost of the world?" P: "I'm sorry pal, but NOTHING worth that price!"

I'm like, really worried scoob.

#''Oh haha tdp may get into the life of one person VS the life of the world and CHET may definitely happen but at least I'm safe in LMK-'' #''-what do you mean one friend isn't worth the cost of the world. WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE WON'T ABANDON THEM WHEN THEY NEED HIM.'' #MK IS LITERALLY GOING TO TRADE THE WORLD FOR HIS FRIEND'S LIVES. FUCK ME. I CAN'T ESCAPE ANYTHING #Actually no. NO NO WAIT IT COULD BE WORSE. #It might legitimately come down to destroying MK or destroying the world. Or a choice that seems like those are the only two outcomes #''They will destroy you harbinger of chaos'' OH MAN. WE'RE SO FUCKED. #Nothing is off the table anymore. Azure died painfully on screen. s4 was the worst thing ever. IT'S OVER #Good thing s4 was all about false dichotomies right hahahahahaha #This comes down to: would pigsy sandy and tang really not pay that price for someone they care about. #This isn't about Mei I know SHE would. She'd do literally anything for her friends. BUT THE OTHER THREE. #SANDY CONTRADICTS HIMSELF IN 2x08 AND 4x14. I'M SCARED SCOOB #WHY MUST EXCHANGE AS A THEME BE IN EVERYTHING I LOVE #sorry if this is hard to read/incomprehensible lol #I am just like. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #lmk #lmk rant #lmk parallels #lego monkie kid #monkie kid