iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Book 2: Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand. Loved the concept bc I’m always up for found footage/storytelling-through-artifacts. The audiobook is excellent. I think another 2-3 chapters would have made this a favorite for me. I had to look at some reviews to figure out what all the clues meant.

The cover of Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Book 1: Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir, translated by Mary Robinette Kowal. Enjoyed this one a lot. Immersive narrative voice and got very attached to both characters (and cats). I also appreciated how thoughtfully the novella handled the violence.

The cover of Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir; translated by Mary Robinette Kowal. A peachy solid background and a white statue head at the center, clearly broken off from a larger statue.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My memories on that other social media site reminded me of one of my favorite things I’ve ever learned about American queer history. The peak comedy of American bureaucracy trying to discriminate and backfiring spectacularly.

“Still others had never heard the clinical term homosexual before and guessed that it didn't apply to them. 'Going into the service, the word "homosexual" was used,' recalled Raymond Mailloux who in July 1943 was drafted into the Army in Fall River, Massachusetts, at the age of eighteen. " 'And like everyone else, of course, I said no. Because I truly did not know what "homosexual" meant.'"

—from Allan Bérubé’s Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Book 11/🏴‍☠️8: Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell. Loved the concept of call and response, as in songs or sermons, for the collection’s structure. There is ultimately so much joy, which characters find as a way to spite the difficult worlds around them. Plus, look how pretty it is:

Product image from Neon Hemlock’s website of Call and Response, which shows off the pretty sprayed edges.

https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/call-and-response

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Also applicable and I’ve still got the CD-ROM:

The cover for the educational computer game, The Yukon Trail.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

qtp with a game that made you a gamer in your childhood (I just learned the original creator will be making it available on Steam soon!)

Character creation screen for Castle of the Winds (1993) video game

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Book 10/🏴‍☠️7: Dead Boys in Space by Sara Youngblood Gregory. Stunning poetry collection that explores the AIDS crisis and its legacy, as well as grief and anger, through a blend of science fiction, alternate history, and Crip Theory. Read it in one sitting.

The cover of Dead Boys in Space by Sara Youngblood Gregory

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Book 9/🏴‍☠️6: Fruit Fly by Josh Silver, narrated by Will M Watt and Fiona Mitchell. Everyone should read this book. Absolute masterclass in sharp satire that doesn’t sacrifice sympathizing with the characters. I kept wondering how this book could end in a way that was satisfying—and it delivered.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

A long, wearing day for me that doesn’t merit description, and instead, I want to talk about the stranger in the grocery store parking lot who made sure I saw the rainbow “after a day like today.”

A very light rainbow over the trees and against some receding storm clouds.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The Sleeping Sisters by Jennifer Givhan! Really enjoying the blend of mystery and legend reimagining.

The cover of The Sleeping Sisters: A Novel by Jennifer Givhan.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

My girlfriend and I do this “excuse me” from a Make Some Noise sketch back and forth.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Book 8/🏴‍☠️5: A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett w/excellent audiobook narration by Andrew Fallaize. Fantastic addition to the Ana and Din mysteries, and this one had a cold fury underneath the narrative, which made it all the more engaging. (Make sure not to skip the author’s note at the end.)

The cover of A Trade of Blood: An Ana and Din Mystery by Robert Jackson Bennett

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

This is what I find most baffling as a queer academic myself. Isn’t the goal of rediscovering these histories that the folks who come after us DON’T have to justify the story they want to tell? What a gift to see such immediate impact. (In academia terms, 12 years is immediate.)

WITCHCRAFT FOR CYBORGS

As Deutsch indicated, Cleves's purpose of proving that Charity and Sylvia were in a marital relationship was simply not relevant to Walden's book. The gift that Walden took from Cleves wasn't her story, but freedom from having to prove anything at all.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

An excellent mail day, thanks to @twolinespress.com. Especially loved this part of the included letter: “This book is exactly the kind of work that we love producing and the kind of work that makes us proud to lose our NEA funding.” Hell yeah.

A photo of a sticker that reads, “READ TRANS POETS”; a copy of Splendor: Trans Poets (translated from various languages); and a letter that reads:

Dear reader,

We could not be more pleased to share our newest book in the Calico series, Splendor: Trans Poets.

Or rather, I am pleased that you, our members, could share this with all of us. This book is exactly the kind of work that we love producing and the kind of work that makes us proud to lose our NEA funding. Thank you for allowing us to continue our work.

Splendor is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to give a select group of authors the space to showcase the breadth of their work. To give authors a chance to truly speak. Thank you for making this space.

ill nippashi
Marketing Manager

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

According to his substack, this is the premise JMS is operating from. He says that AI can’t create good art because AI can’t think, but then repeatedly refers to LLMs as a research tool that can compare and contrast a London that doesn’t exist. Herman Melville was an American.

Let me be unequivocal: not a single Al system has produced, or ever will produce, a work of writing, art, or music that rises above the mediocre. As noted in my original article, art comes through passion, through feeling and life-experience, of which Al has none. It is, at best, an analytical tool ("compare and contrast the themes of Moby Dick with the sociological condition of Melville's London") or a crutch for those eager to somehow shortcut the artistic process and the years of training it requires.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

A side note: it’s pretty light on the WTNV. The general concept and framing are WTNV (campground rules), but the story seems more Hendrix. (Probably also Harrison but I haven’t read her work yet.) I think a closer comparison would be The Magnus Archives.

About The Book

A campy, cozy horror novel about a manager of a haunted campground just trying to get through the season, perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix, Rachel Harrison, and Welcome to Night Vale.

I am a campground manager. I don’t have a list of rules because I’m trying to ruin your fun…I’m trying to keep you from doing small, simple things that could result in your horrific and most agonizing demise.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

7/🏴‍☠️4: The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn. Overall, I enjoyed it. I felt like the chapters were a bit disjointed but once I realized it started as r/nosleep posts, that made a lot more sense, and I felt like I could better settle into the narrative. Looking forward to reading the next one!

How to Survive Camping: The Man With No Shadow
Book #1 of How to Survive Camping
By Bonnie Quinn

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Had an excellent time at Gen Con, especially at the @goodmangames.bsky.social booth where Bob helped me track down some Golden Age and New Wave of Science Fiction favorites from their selection. That Ace Double of Margaret St. Clair and Philip K. Dick is a real treasure.

A photograph of several paperbacks from 1950s-1970s.

Top row, left to right:

Analog Science Fact and Fiction, June 1961
edited by John W. Campbell
Featured contributors: L. Sprague de Camp and Clifford Simak

Harpist in the Wind by Patricia A. McKillip

Hestia by C. J. Cherryh

Bottom row has two Ace Doubles, left to right:

Agent of the Unknown by Margaret St. Clair
So Bright the Vision by Clifford D. Simak

The revers of previous two Ace Doubles paperbacks, left to right:

The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick (reverse of Margaret St. Clair)
The Man Who Saw Tomorrow by Jeff Sutton (reverse of Clifford D. Simak)

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I’m enjoying The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn, in spite of S&S setting much different expectations. I know publishers famously chase trends to the detriment of their authors, but this is some Sailor Moon Says levels of shoehorning into “cozy.”

Simon & Schuster

About The Book

A campy, cozy horror novel about a manager of a haunted campground just trying to get through the season, perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix, Rachel Harrison, and Welcome to Night Vale.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Something tells me I am not the target audience for this game.

A screenshot of the game Tiny Bookshop in which an NPC customer is disappointed with your recommendation of The Crucible, saying, “Are you sure? Where's the exploration of the world's hardships and the personal growth?!”

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Book 6/book 3 for @piratereadingclub.bsky.social: a reread of Platform Decay by Martha Wells. Murderbot never fails to break a reading slump.

The cover of Platform Decay by Martha Wells

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

“The story you don’t [know]”: Scrooge better smother the ghost of Christmas Past with a candle snuffer

In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which the Ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head.

The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he could not hide the light: which streamed from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I’m in a bit of a reading slump—let’s see if we can kickstart it again!

book asks:

1. book you've reread the most times?
2. top 5 books of all time?
3. what is your favourite genre?
4. what sections of a bookstore do you browse?
5. where do you buy books?
6. what books have you read in the last month?
7. is there a series/book that got you into reading?
8. what is the first book you remember reading yourself?
9. when do you tend to read most?
10. do you have a guilty fav?
11. what non-fiction books do you like if any?
12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?
13. do you have a goodreads?
14. do you ever mark/dog ear books you own?
15. recommend and review a book.
16. how many books have you read this year?
17. top 5 children's books?
18. do you like historical books? which time period?
19. most disliked popular books?
20. what are things you look for in a book?

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

last repost: Regardless of your feelings on AI, highly suggest reading that Wired article because it’s an excellent counter argument to claims that AI models had to be trained on stolen work and there’s no way to be environmentally conscious.

"For three years, we started from scratch and trained our own Al models, and we worked with our own data sets," Anadol says. He and his team traveled to the Amazon and other rainforests to capture raw material that would fuel the model's hallucinated versions of those environments. "We have 5 petabytes worth of raw data that we collected by ourselves," Anadol says. He's proud that Dataland made a point of sourcing this trove with the consent and participation of researchers, whereas Silicon Valley's major Al firms have faced backlash and lawsuits over what many creators say is unlicensed, extractive use of their content as training data.

Anadol adds that Google DeepMind gave Dataland access to "experimental low-energy" resources, allowing the gallery to run on Google Cloud and maintain "sustainable compute." (Anadol has collaborated with the tech giant since becoming the first person awarded the Google Artists and Machine Intelligence Artist Residency in 2016.)

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Book 5/book 2 for @piratereadingclub.bsky.social: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. I really loved this one—body horror but from the perspective of a sapphic monster, for whom body horror is survival. In turn, weaves in some compelling themes about disability and othering.

The cover of Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Today’s mail arrived with the best stack of books to stay inside with and read over the holiday weekend.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Book 4 and my first one that qualifies for @piratereadingclub.bsky.social!: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, read by Will Patton. This is one of those times when I read a book and think, I see why it’s collected awards/honors, but it’s not for me. Patton was an excellent narrator.

The cover of Train Dreams by Denis Johnson.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I’m seeing Joel Kim Booster’s recent thoughts on queer-centered stories getting passed around w/maybe 10% of the context. I encourage y’all to read the article. He has some important things to say about audience, affordability, race, & the intersection of all 3 through the lens of queerness. (1/2)

Booster performs for diverse audiences all over the country, and he’s concerned about the way the gay enclaves — Fire Island, Palm Springs, Chicago’s Boystown, and San Francisco, where he cut his teeth as a comic and still returns frequently — are being affected by the affordability crisis.

“So many gay spaces have become almost exclusively for high-earning, wealthy gay men,” he says. He sees irony in the fact that “the people who would benefit from being in these spaces the most are the people who are never going to be able to get there financially.”

https://provincetownindependent.org/arts-minds/2026/06/24/on-the-way-to-a-crossroads-joel-kim-booster-comes-to-provincetown/

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Every time I read a post about Nixon’s recent popularity

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Lots of really cool rewards left in addition to backing an awesome sf/f magazine! I snagged the last knitted rocketship tier because my Behold! the adorable from 2020’s drive needs a friend.

A beholder crocheted with multicolored blue, green, purple yarn. They lounge on a bookshelf against a collection of Tortall books by Tamora Pierce

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Book 3: We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian. Read these out of order, though they stand on their own. Had a good chuckle at seeing Mark Bailey through Nick’s eyes as essentially the Phantom Book Reviewer of the Newspaper.

The cover of We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Book 2: You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian. I just love how she thinks about characters and relationship dynamics of all types: found family, platonic, romantic, etc. Aside from the two main characters, I adored Ardolino and Price’s friendship and how everyone quietly looks after each other.

The cover of You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

The precise moment I thought, “yes, this book is exactly the sort of silliness I need right now, must tell my girlfriend about it ASAP”

The sorcerer looked away, clearly uncomfortable, which only piqued my interest. “It’s a bit saucy, isn’t it?” I pressed, giving him a smile. “Stripping me while I was laid out flat? At least let me be conscious so I can enjoy it.”

“Oh, shut up,” said the sorcerer, but he still looked ill at ease. “This doesn’t usually happen, but the command word caused your body to slacken too . . . completely.”

I cocked my head, not understanding.

“You shat yourself,” said the sorcerer.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers is a delightfully weird read, and I’m having a great time. I started it yesterday, and I’m currently at 81%.

The cover of APPARENTLY, SIR CAMERON NEEDS TO DIE by Greer Stothers.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Years ago, my then-bf was watching the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time with me. When they hand William Hartnell (played by David Bradley) this headshot of Patrick Troughton, my then-bf scoffed and said, “that doesn’t even look like him!” Reader, I assured my then-bf, “that *is* him.”

A black and white photograph of Patrick Troughton, probably in his early to mid 30s, reading from a script into a BBC radio microphone.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Can’t wait to wear my new t-shirt and find all the Millennials and Gen-X’ers who grew up in Chicagoland.

A photograph of a grey t-shirt with an eagle head on it. The text on the shirt reads “I’VE GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU.”

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

I (happily) will never get used to how beautiful Pissarro roses are.

A photograph of a Pissarro rose, a multicolored yellow and dark pink rose. Petals are striped either in thick lines or scattered thin lines that look like paint splatter. There’s also a tiny bee butt sticking out of this rose.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Don’t worry, both bird parents have been very attentive. (Sound up for cranky parent grumbling and FEED ME peeps)

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

They proceeded to fly into and bounce off of my parked car at least three times. Then would stare up at it as if this were the only barrier between them and flight.

A very small blue jay fledgling sitting next to a car wheel.

Another picture of the fledgling blue jay, this time staring up at the wheel well. Bird and tire are to the far right of the composition as if to show the scale of VERY TINY BIRD WITH NO SELF PRESERVATION vs the world

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

It’s nesting season so you know what that means: BIRD DRAMA Early this afternoon I noticed this little fella had taken up a perch on some plant shelves I had been cleaning in my backyard.

A blue jay fledgling perched on a white iron shelf.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

A hilariously eerie moment in which I’m listening to Naomi Novik’s LEAGUE OF DRAGONS and deciding on an unknowingly fitting snack of tinned fish.

Screenshot of an article from America’s Test Kitchen by Andrea Geary
Published on April 2, 2024

Text reads:

Some foods are practical and pantry-friendly, and some make you feel like you're treating yourself to a refined delicacy, but it's the rare food that can do both. Enter tinned fish.
Invented in the early 1800s as a protein source for Napoleon's armies, this type of preserved fish has been valued for generations.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I love this fact! One of my favorites: for the Sherlock Holmes score, Hans Zimmer initially had his piano detuned so it would sound more like something you’d hear in a pub. It didn’t work, so they found another piano and beat it up in 20th Century Fox’s underground car park.

I was looking for a pub piano sound, something that had that lived-in quality, but there are no pubs in Los Angeles. At first I got someone to detune my piano but it just sounded out of tune so I asked my assistant to go onto Craigslist and find me a broken piano. Actually the broken piano became a bigger thing because then I thought, rather than use big drums what would a piano sound like if you dropped it down a flight of stairs?”

And did you do it?

“Yeah. We rented 20th Century Fox’s underground car park one Sunday and did hideous things to a piano. Actually, that was the second broken piano we bought. The first one I had every intention of destroying but when it arrived you could tell that someone had loved and cared for it all their life — it was so sweet. My reaction was, ‘We can’t break this. Find me an abused piano.’”

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

🫂💚 Saw this on Threads. Big time Izzy vibes.

Screenshot from Threads, post by dearthair.ii

My friend was in her yard weedwhacking, when a truck pulled up and stopped.

She immediately went on her guard because... men... and kind of got suspicious when the window rolled down.

The driver just yelled "FUCK" and threw a pair of safety glasses at her.

And then he drove away.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Also, Murderbot’s Dr. Leonard H. McCoy moment in Exit Strategy forever delights me.

Gurathin knelt beside an open maintenance floor panel next to the gate, tools scattered around, and Ratthi held a light for him. The panel was painted with an emergency feed marker label that in a selection of different languages read Manual Release. I didn’t even know they had those in ports. I’m a SecUnit, not an engineer.

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Cap ✨ Polly Cocktail @gentleranium.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Happy April to everyone turning the page in their @yearofbelonging.bsky.social calendar! I picked April because it’s my birth month and only later realized how fitting that on April 1st, everyone would be greeted by my shitpost sampler.

A photograph of several items on a wood board. At the center, an Our Flag Means Death inspired cross-stitch. The cross-stitch depicts two unicorns crossing horns. Below the unicorns is a gold heart, then the quote “well and truly docked” surrounded by roses and a vining floral motif. Surrounding the cross-stitch clockwise is a unfurled black tie, a ring with a green stone, an inkwell and nibs, and a feather quill

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