iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Haven't been around much but kind of just dropping in to say that I'm taking an indefinite hiatus for personal reasons. The stuff I've had the pleasure of seeing has been of insane quality and I hope, fervently, that you all continue to create. Take care <3

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

The Mechsplo corruption spreads ever outwards

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Stake jacket comes in clutch yet again

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Coral 🪸🐶 @coral.dog · 20/05/2026

Self-insert Warhound fanart

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Glory to the sacred thermodynamics of toxic yuri

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Using a transfer from "Chainbreaker" for Genetor is darkly hilarious

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

to "need" it in a manner that goes beyond a textbook understanding of addiction. The extent to which she can freely consent to anything is questionable at best, and the question of what Sartha even is now is a long-running one. I think you'll get a lot out of the newer stories

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Ah yes! There's definitely a lot of really intricate and interesting pieces that play around with warped perceptions of dominance and submission. Sartha's need for dehumanisation is treated much like a substance abuse problem but it has this extra edge because of how she's been fundamentally changed

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I imagine you covered this in your live read but I'm interested. Could elaborate a little more on the critiques on queer/kink culture you picked up on? I think that's something that passed me by

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

A glimpse into a terrible future

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

I hope this roughly helps explain my thoughts in greater detail and why I think (just this once) we can actually take Handler roughly at her word Also please don't apologise for swooping in to critique my reading! I love talking about this series and your thoughts here were insightful and well-said

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

I definitely don't wish to pass off Sartha's obvious weariness as being an injury inflicted on her purely by the negligence of rebels. Or suggest that being tired is a moral failing. Each of Handler's pawns is a victim, with Sartha being by far the least complicated one.

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

As such, I find the idea that Handler (after torturing Sartha for months) found that point of weakness to be Sartha's weariness over the pressure and obligation of her role as a rebel hero to be the most convincing option on the table.

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

With Kione it was her love for Sartha as a person, pushing her to embrace the role of handler that she was being groomed for.

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Handler is someone who repeatedly finds the flaw in the armour of whoever she's currently up against and then fashions a tailor-made scheme to exploit that point of weakness. With Leinth that was her complicated relationship with the image of Sartha.

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

"How much truth is she telling here?" is a question posed by both the reader AND Kione and Leinth at various points. However, I think there is still a degree of certainty we can pin on what she tells Leinth.

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

You are definitely right to call into question the reliability of what Handler tells Leinth. After all, to blindly trust what Handler says is to be misled exactly as the other characters are.

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Came across this yt short a while ago and went "yeah, there's WARHOUND meme potential here"

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

All of this is exemplified in Sartha Thrace. Rebel hero. Unwilling traitor. Instrument of her own torture. I just really want to give her a hug, honestly. She deserves so much more than what she's got. 19/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Dehumanisation is one of the key themes of WARHOUND in general. How people become icons. How people can feel forced into becoming pyres to warm their fellows. How it can be an escape from pressure and obligation. Of the atrocities you can beckon in by believing someone to no longer be human 18/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

And once you have the formula to perfectly replicate something, what use do you have for the original? I have yet to read HELLHOUND, but it seems unlikely that this new story will spell anything good for our beloved hero/hound/template. 17/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

With HELLHOUND teasers going on it seems like the shape of that future is truly horrific. "Sartha Thrace" has become commodified, the name and personhood of an individual reduced to a pattern of military machine to be replicated and iterated on. It's the ultimate extreme of dehumanisation. 16/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

She went through hell and had conversations with fragments of her own psyche face-to-face. The one comfort she had was to just stop thinking - submit, let it wash over her and then receive the fleeting carnal rewards handler offered after. That's not an option anymore. 15/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Even after being nearly fully compliant with the horrible demands on Handler, Sartha has only ever lost (and kept losing). With the end of SHOWHOUND Sartha is now more aware of this than ever. Of the fact that she's truly trapped, and she's now no longer able to forget that. 14/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

SHOWHOUND is just horrible for Sartha in general, but it ends with the heart breaking suggestion that Handler no longer really needs Sartha anymore. She's reached a new stage of her ascendancy - one where a single novel military asset isn't the golden ticket it once was. 13/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Yet again Handler uses Sartha as a tool - this time to fashion Kione into the desired shape. One that will commit atrocities following the tantalising thread of forbidden love, but will never be able to take steps to break either of them free. 12/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

And then that possibility just disintigrates when we see the true extent of Handler's plan and it becomes clear that any fantasy of Sartha running away with Kione was doomed before it started. 11/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Kione shows some slight promise of being a less cruel master for Sartha. Yeah it's definitely not healthy, but Kione actually, genuinely loves Sartha, and wants to indulge Sartha's need for dehumanisation partially as a expression of her love, rather than purely as a method of control. 10/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Then comes RESCUE HOUND, where Sartha is again put through the wringer in order to let Handler procure another asset. Cast away from her beloved master and sent back into the company of the rebels who more or less immediately go back to quietly torturing her with their adoration. 9/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Sartha is the very tool used to bring about this new status quo where she only loses. She's now trapped in close proximity to a spectre of her old life, one who is being kept in a maze of lies about her nature to keep her hatred of the "traitor" all the purer. 8/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

And then Handler decided to bring in Leinth. As a contingency against Sartha somehow breaking through Handler's lies she sets up a horrible rivalry where two broken women are forced to fight for the attention of the person they've been made to love. 7/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Obvious, "You can be made to hump the boot" horror of her new situation non-withstanding, Sartha was free to do what she loves (simply piloting Ancyor) in a new role where nobody would make the agonising mistake of believing her a perfect idol. There was only one person whose opinion mattered. 6/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

And for a time Sartha had a semblance of happiness, because that's what Handler needed to keep her in check. Yes she's torn apart by fleeting lucidity on occasion but she now had Handler, a god above her who brought comfort and relief from the stifling obligation the rebels thrust on Sartha. 5/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

It's notable that we don't see the actual history of Sartha's life. We only see the legacy that's been left behind - the impression of that knife. And that's fitting. That pressure is what created the cracks that Handler used to break her, who in turn now wields Sartha as a her own weapon. 4/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Even before Handler, "Sartha Thrace" had already been stripped of personhood, because the rebels believed that their hero had transcended it. In their clueless selfishness they heaped burden after burden on someone they all claimed to adore. And that had huge consequences. 3/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

The thing about her that's most tragic for me is that as a result of her success, she has always been reduced to just a tool by others. The rebels deified her, held her up as a icon and then left her to slowly drown alone in that overwhelming obligation. 2/19

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

I wanted to take this opportunity to do something a little different and talk about Sartha. Specifically why I think I find the tragedy of her character so particularly awful. [thread contains a mixture of analysis and memes. Contains general WARHOUND spoilers, but no HELLHOUND spoilers] 1/19

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hightierfleet.bsky.social @hightierfleet.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN The Girl Frame Discord's Philharmonic Chorus, featuring the voices of @extremelynormalval.bsky.social, @squandrqwn.bsky.social, @muzzlesbian.bsky.social, Sykri, PUG, and myself, proudly present... WE ARE SARTHA THRACE youtu.be/8PhvUFo0YM0 #mechsploitation #WARHOUND

youtu.be

We Are Sartha Thrace

YouTube video by HighTierFleet

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hightierfleet.bsky.social @hightierfleet.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

the strongest pilots of the modern era (kione is there too i guess) #mechsploitation #AGENDAHOUND

triple domain expansion with (from left to right) leinth aritimis, kione monax, and sartha thrace

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Who are you and what did you do to the real tier

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Sikorka @sikorka5824.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Reverie's Snare - A recovering hound meets a wannabe handler. Back with a short story after a long break - got plenty of new material for A Fault Within as well, new chapters soon <3 archiveofourown.org/works/81311036

archiveofourown.org

Reverie's Snare - Sikorka5824 - Original Work [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

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13thStarling @13thstarling.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Finally got around to reading this. It's up there as possibly my favourite mechsplo short I've ever read. Stellar writing with some unexpectedly hard-hitting sections even before the end. Would say more but I don't want to spoil it.

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