iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 30/07/2026

Growing up in Scotland, the word has completsly different connotations.

Google Maps view of the Scottish seaside town of Troon. The Royal Troon Golf Club is also marked.

Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 30/03/2026

There's a link to opt out of the service in the email they sent put this morning, but I'd recommend checking your accounts in the app just in case. You have to opt-out by the 30th of April or your details will be sent to Visa without confirmation.

If you don't want us to provide the Click to Pay service on your Bank of Scotland debit card(s), you can opt out below. If you haven’t opted out by 30 April 2026, we’ll take this as your request that we provide Click to Pay on your debit card(s).
Opt out

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 30/03/2026

Do I need to explain why not requiring specific account info is a terrible idea for security? Less than three weeks ago the banks were showing people transactions that were on other people's accounts. And do you really want Visa, VISA, to be able to track everything you do via email alone?

How Click to Pay works
1 Enter your email at the online checkout, and you'll receive a one-time passcode.
2 Select your card and follow the instructions to complete your purchase.
3 Your card details are securely stored and encrypted by Visa, and will never be shared with retailers.

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 30/03/2026

ACTION REQUIRED!! Scots wha hae a debit account wae Bank of Scotland And anyone with an account with any of the banks below Check your emails and account for details on Click to Pay. The banks will share your email with Visa so they can verify payments by email instead of card info. IT'S AUTOMATIC

"Proud to be part of the same family"
Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland

What this means for you
• We’ll share your mobile number, email, address and card details with Visa, which allows them to recognise you when you shop online. There's more information about this here.
• We’re only adding your Bank of Scotland debit card(s) to Click to Pay.
• You can manage Click to Pay in our app. Tap 'Cards', then select Click to Pay.
• When you checkout online, use the email address we have for you.

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 31/01/2026

Greatest yuri has arrived! Thank you @mrmk.bsky.social for your incredible work and stories! Always happy to have more of your art in my life! 💙

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 02/11/2025

I just had the honour of watching the UK premiere of Shiori's Labyrinth #迷宮のしおり at Scotland Loves Anime @lovesanimation.bsky.social. Hands down the most fun movie of the weekend. Multiple rounds of applause from the audience throughout. When it's available in your area, you MUST go see it!!

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 27/10/2025

I'm doing a two-week solo Game Jam starting Monday the 3rd of November! I'll be streaming my progress every day on my Twitch and new YouTube channel, links below! Also, the completed(?) game will be listed free on itch.io on the 16th of November!! Come watch me slowly descend further into madness! 🤣

I'm undertaking a two-week solo Game Jam starting Monday the 3rd of November!
I'll be streaming my progress every day on my Twitch and new YouTube channel!
I'll be posting the complete(?) game free on itch.io, and having a post-launch party talking about the process and final product with friends on Sunday the 16th of November!
Come watch me slowly descend further into madness!

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 23/07/2025

I READ THE QUEER UTOPIAN ISEKAI STORY FROM 1909. Ten out of ten, no notes. Recommended reading for everyone with a love for yuri and adventure. Also it's public domain and recently back in print, so go get it!!

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 19/06/2025

"...we almost invariably didn't have gender affirming care before puberty and we are loved and beautiful and happy."

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 21/05/2025

My MP in his email does recognise that trans and LGBT people deserve dignity and respect, and protection from discrimination and harassment. He is aware of his constituents' concerns, and I welcome his assurance the Government will seek a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban.

From the email:
"They deserve protection from discrimination and harassment, and they deserve access to high-quality healthcare services. That’s why the Government will continue to ensure trans people retain protection from discrimination and harassment in law and will legislate in favour of a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban."

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 21/05/2025

A promise to apply "common sense" to the ruling is not legally or intellectually rigorous, leaving enforcement of this "guidance" up to the interpreter. A GC's "common sense" and a trans person's are fundamentally incompatible.

From the email:
"We will look at the guidance and make sure we bring some common sense to the decision, and I hope the EHRC will too. This will not be without difficulty because whilst we now have clarity over the Equality Act, we don’t we don’t have clarity about what those who have lived as a trans person for decades, or those with a GRC, do in terms of accessing public services."

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 21/05/2025

The only practical advice offered is to complete the consultation opened to shape the new ECHR guidance to be published this summer. This is painfully insufficient. The ruling and interim guidance can and are being used as a cudgel by organisations and individuals, and are causing real harm NOW.

From the email:
"I know Ministers in both the UK and Scottish Governments will want to carefully consider the ruling in detail. I understand the Equality and Human Rights Commission has advised it hopes to have a new statutory code of practice ready by Summer and they have issued interim guidance to implement the law.

"On this, the EHRC have just opened a consultation which they will use to shape the new guidance. I strongly urge you to contribute to this. The link below will show the options on how you can contribute: "

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 21/05/2025

The argument "the Government must respect the court's interpretation of the law" is flawed, in that the Government and Parliament can write, pass, and change laws to explicitly correct harmful legal interpretations.

From the email:
"However, it is unclear about how this will operate given the judgement. This court ruling has brought clarity to the definition of sex within the Equality Act, but much complexity when it comes to the practical implications.
 
"The calls from some groups that ‘The Government must reject the courts’ is flawed. The court has given its verdict and we must enforce the law as it has been interpretated. We aren’t, and no government is, above the law and whether we agree with the judgement or not is immaterial to what we must now do.

"We’ve got to find solutions for the LGBT+ community and show respect for everyone."

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 21/05/2025

So I actually got a response from my email to my MP about the Supreme Court ruling. Following the pattern we've come to expect, the "guidance" offered is severely flawed and fails to recognise the real challenges we are facing. Big rant/🧵 #transgender #ECHR #UKSupremeCourt

From the email:
"Thank you for contacting me about the Supreme Court ruling on the appeal brought by For Women Scotland. 

"In its judgment, the Supreme Court announced it had reached a unanimous decision that the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex. It ruled that a Gender Recognition Certificate does not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act."

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 19/05/2025

Overheard in Glasgow: "How are you feeling?" "Better with that sun away!"

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 18/05/2025

So I rolled an interesting bunch. "Living in my own world" feels like a charitable way of putting it! Take the quiz and post the top four you know. openpsychometrics.org/tests/charac...

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 16/04/2025

I will beat Balatro Gold Stake tomorrow if I have to dissolve my internal organs to do so! Come watch me suffer on Thursday at 1800 UTC+0! twitch.tv/melaniebellch

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 07/02/2025

Locked myself out of my flat the night before moving to the new one! (Both of them, technically!) I BROKE BACK IN WITH THISSS! AMA

Image of a small, cut, bent, and dented sheet of plastic. The label indicates its origin as the lid for a tub of laundry pods.

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 07/02/2025

I HAVE ATTAINED A POWERFUL NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me over the last few years, in any capacity! 💙

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 01/02/2025

What's wrong, babe? You haven't touched your breakfast glizzy.

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 19/12/2024

Took me all afternoon, but I did it! This turned out to be more of a manifesto than I expected - I'm looking forward to flicking through the PDF of my responses later on! 😅 Stricter copyright protection for creators! No recognition for genAI! Faster entry of works into the public domain-what?

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 14/12/2024

Genuinely surprised I got such a big curd yield from semi-skimmed milk! Though maybe I shouldn't be, really. In really need to find something better to do with the whey than pouring it down the drain. Maybe the local gym will take it? 🤣 Will be interesting to compare flavour and texture to full fat!

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 26/11/2024

In the wake of the recent mass exodus from social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the platform is now offering its premium membership at a 40% discount. From this it is possible to extrapolate how much the company's financial black hole has widened from reduced engagement. In this essay I will-

A screenshot of the left-hand menu bar from failing social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Premium membership has a badge indicating it is being offered at a 40% discount.

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 22/11/2024

Search "AI disturbance overlay" for some filters, then add it as an image layer over the top of the video capture layer at something over 30% opacity. You could even set it up as a slideshow to add some variety. No guarantee on effectiveness, I'd need to research more. Based on image attached:

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 18/11/2024

I'm doing a lot more writing in the near future, so have an edgy poem I wrote in September that I never shared that I'd completely forgotten about until now.

I open up, you pour me out.
Without my vessel being filled, wonder that I don't stand beside you.
I see your body's every scar in the clinical light you cast as you carve new wounds into me.
Vase shards cast myriad spectra as bloody feet crush them to sand.
I know I am my own flower.

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 03/11/2024

The movie of Look Back broke me. It's been two hours and I keep bursting into tears. I just ordered the manga version because clearly I haven't suffered enough. Best movie of the weekend.

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Melanie Bell 🏳️‍⚧️🛰️🔭 Indie VTuber @melanie.melbell.uk · 24/10/2024

I am Melanie! I do science, I am eccentric, these things occasionally overlap! As is customary I mostly work on programming and computer science stuff, but also queer fiction, pixel art, and game design. I stream creative stuff, strategy games, roguelikes, and rpgs at twitch.tv/melaniebellch

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