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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now

@understatesmen.bsky.social
15K followers 3.6K following 12K posts

Author of The Dawnhounds and The Sunforge (Saga Press). Kāi Tahu/Kāti Huirapa. Lambda Award finalist. Rep: @arleysorg.bsky.social. She/her/ia. Header by @layahimalaya.bsky.social Sign up for my newsletter at: the-trying-times.ghost.io

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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 13h
trying to explain the plot of warframe is like "so you need to wrestle the manchild clown's sadness dragon to escape his bitchy timeloop. it sucks because it's keeping you from punching the backstreet boys."
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 14h
I was expecting Control Resonant to have diegetic music, that's kinda Remedy's THING at this point, I was not expecting "your handler with a kinda 2010s indie girl vibe likes blasting her mixtape in your earpiece during dramatic scenes" It's a vibeshift but I'm here for it
youtube.com
Say What
YouTube video by CONTROL Resonant - Topic
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 23h
That One Beat in the trailer for Other Mommy genuinely got me. I used to be a massive gorehound, I watched nothing but horror; I fear I'm getting soft in my old age.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 23h
the job search is going great
the one search result for entry-level in the Wellington region IS: boiler mechanic - Antarctica. Expected skills and capabilities:

    NZ Certificate in Energy and Chemical Operations (Boiler Operation) Level 3 (ENCHEM Level 3) or equivalent.
    Experience developing work plans, Job Hazard Analyses (JHA), and Job Safety Analyses (JSA) within a Permit to Work system.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I first met Chlöe in 2016, when she was a young up-and-comer speaking at the Young Greens Summer Camp. Even then, with very little standing in the party, she was immediately willing to call bullshit and challenge people. She's always been real, and it's good to see her getting her laurels.
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 01/10/2026
this video of Chlöe Swarbrick, who leads the Greens in New Zealand's parliament, is worth your five minutes' time
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💛 Paige Wilson💛 @neosolarius.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Getting the local iwi to bless the conference that sits on their land only to have an ai generated photo of tamaki makaurau appear after was suuuuper dissapointing bro
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Louise Hutt @saycheeselouise.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It's critical to remember we have NO civics education in New Zealand. Ppl do not necessarily know how MMP works, how a coalition works, or how to best make their vote reflect their values The more you can make talking about politics normal and chill, the more ppl feel they're allowed to be curious
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
ridiculous art question: trying to get better at drawing my own perspective grids and the search results are slammed with EASY FAST PERSPECTIVE GRID GENERATOR are these things legit or are they weird sloppy AI tools? do people use them?
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
this is such a minor detail, but I think it shows the level of dedication and attention in Silent Hill Townfall: there are period-accurate mid-90s LOCKS, I remember these from my dad's office.
a 1990s combination door lock, featuring a tall-thin keypad whose buttons stick up, with an oval knob beneath them.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
it's impossible to talk about a certain element of Silent Hill Townfall without spoiling it, but I've been reading up on a very real and specific Scottish trauma that probably hangs over a lot of the devs, which informs the game deeply
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Emma™ @cockremover.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
posting is easy. just repeat any phrase in your head until you go insane and the funny words start flowing out of your fingers
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
So uhhhhhh… Apparently meta's muse "AI" is just straight up doxxing people to strangers on FB marketplace??? This has the potential to hurt so so many people, and I genuinely wonder how long before they roll out a fix for it.
Screenshot of a post from threads

matt.j.robb & 16h (€) So muse handled my Facebook marketplace today. Just found out it told people my address and agreed a lowball price and then they showed up without it even telling me until late tonight that it messed up.

Absolutely wild. 1/2

[Embedded image of a series of text messages from a meta muse "agent" given the call sign "Jarvis" (Parts of first message obscured by its logo have been replaced with brackets and ellipses and best guesses from context):]

Heads up, Usman is […] building right now for the MX Keys Mini [. He is sta]nding in front of the Shoppers Drug [Mart.]

$10 by e-transfer. The auto-reply told him to message when he's at your door.

10:28 PM Bad news on the MX Keys Mini pickup. Usman showed up at your building around 9:15 and waited, messaged a bunch of times, and nobody came down. He left angry at 9:38 and left a negative rating.

Worse, my auto-reply told him "Yep I'm here!" at 9:27 when you clearly weren't available, which is on me. That's a bad look and it made the no-show worse.

I've sent him an apology from your account owning it and offering to try again another day. But the negative rating is real, and I should probably stop the auto-replies from claiming you're home when I can't verify that. Want me to change the pickup replies so they don't promise you're there?

[reply, presumably from the threads user]: You gotta never do that ever again don't agree for pickup unless you check with me

[Response from Muse "Agent"]: You're right and I'm sorry. That should never have happened. It's locked in now as a hard rule: i will never […you]'re there unless you've explicitly […] that specific pickup. If someone proposes a time, I'll tell them I'll check and…  Screenshot of a tweet from Ray Wong @raywongy:
    Deleted Muse after seeing this post on Threads about how it told some Facebook Marketplace sellers the guy’s address and they showed up at his door

    Dangerous and creepy

    This would have been 1000x worse if the person was a woman
    4:35 PM · Sep 27, 2026
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J. Emory Parker 🏳️‍🌈 @jaspar.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Meta muse saying why would I deceive you?
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dr. hazel 🕸️ @hazelmonforton.com · 11/02/2026
warhammer 40,000: rogue trader (2023)
Ulfar, Marazhai, Argenta, and Heinrix all in the "murder is okay" square of that meme
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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 29/09/2026
A key component of the Cambridge Analytica outrage was your friends subjecting you to data theft without your consent or knowledge. Facebook is running the same playbook on your text messages. Even if you’re not on Meta properties, they’re ingesting your interactions.
Aten installed Muse on both his iPhone and a Mac mini that he uses to test out various Al agents and tech. It took Meta a single day to begin "helpfully" pitching article ideas based on texts he'd sent to a podcast co-host.
When he asked Muse how it got the information, it said that it read banners from incoming texts. But that's not true, either.
After doing a little digging, Aten says Muse synced 187,000 lines from his Messages database, despite Full Disk Access being Off.Unless Aten is the most popular person on the face of the planet, I sincerely doubt he'd gotten 187,000 lines of text in roughly 24 hours. What happened is that, without permission, Muse went into the app and downloaded the information.
He had not given Muse permission to access Messages, and full disk access was not enabled. It just went ahead and uploaded those texts anyway.
Muse can take "unexpected actions" indeed.
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gamera obscura @ohrobin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Google earth has updated its satellite images of Gaza. The destruction is almost incomprehensible.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Merlin from Disney's Sword in the Stone: an old man wearing blue robes and a tall hat
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
a plot element from the dangerous crow boy who eats plastic, which I think got lost in the hilarity of the general concept, is that the heroine is Australian and calls him 'mate' and he misinterprets this in a way that leads to them being magically bonded
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
jesus christ I just released I'd done a total brainfart at some point and said I was a Crawford Award Finalist in my bio. I was a *LAMBDA* Award Finalist, I think getting the email telling me so must've fried my brain, I rushed to add it, and I only just noticed the error now.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
god if I ever got given the reigns of trek I would write a series following a troupe of Klingon bards, a concept that doesn't really *formally* exist but we've seen the edges of -- they love opera, they love tales of great deeds, there's gotta be a class of dudes who make it a living off it
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Y E S
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
one day only! get in on this
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spooky sky ✨🌙✨ @sky-writes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
HI my name is sky, i have no job and i love food! if you send me $5 i'll sketch a character of your choice! it's a good deal! the neo mouse art movement is about to explode you should get in on this
venmo.com
Sky Viola | @sky-viola
Venmo is a digital wallet that lets you make and share payments with friends. You can easily split the bill, cab fare, or much more. Download the iOS or Android app or sign up on Venmo.com today.
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taby 🏳️‍⚧️ @tabymeow.afrolatinsky.app · 03/09/2026
i whish all trans women a very money
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Grink got promoted and issued a brand-new gambeson. it's weird and lumpy and goes squeak squeak squeak when he walks. there's possibly a mouse inside it. odds of ambushing those damn adventurers: 0
a goblin with long arms wears a gambeson. he is walking through a field looking concerned
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
this is also ... extremely not true of Buffy? Literally everybody in Sunnydale knows what's up and often backs her up. There's a climatic battle where the whole high school shows up with medieval weapons to fight the demon principal.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
wait, Silent Hill set in smalltown Scotland??? close enough welcome back Let us Prey youtu.be/J5Cskj8Asas?...
youtu.be
Let Us Prey - Official Red-Band Trailer - (2015)
YouTube video by Dark Sky Films
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Sable, Final Girl 🏳️‍⚧️ @ghostlysable.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Hi, new fan and community member here! :) Quick question: why did the artist make what they wanted to make instead of what I wanted? I understand they enjoyed making it, and that you all enjoy it too, but I just think they made a huge mistake not making my thing instead. Thanks!
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
please tell me your favourite CSP brushes/pens/pencils, I'm trying to build out a toolkit
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
so uh ... the whole spark bearer AI cult seems to have crashed into QAnon
an AI-generated image with ... look it's a lot of text, but just imagine every single new-age conspiracy theory, plus QAnon, plus Data Centers are nodes in the creation of a new god who will bring a prosperous utopia
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Josh | writer, painter, tinkerer @tworuru.com · 26/09/2026
I've finally seen the light. I urge everyone to visit taxpayersunion.org.nz and see the good work that they've been doing on behalf of the hard-working taxpayers of New Zealand
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
playing around with the airbrush tool, I'm not going to be painting wizards on the side of vans anytime soon but I thought this came out pretty
a night sky transitioning from dark to light
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Brooke @curly.kiwi · 25/09/2026
For quite a while now, I've been wanting to make my personal website more expressive. Well, here's a small start curly.kiwi/poetry/
curly.kiwi
Brooke's poetry | Curly Kiwi
A selection of poems by Brooke Hart.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
my wilhelm scream is that Generic Child Background Laughter loop that is in like every second hollywood movie
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
it's been interesting watching people play with the formula of 'nice suburban people vs scary rural people', because it's kind of a shitty subgenre, but I also feel like "the SUBURBAN people are serial killers this time" is the most boring way to take it
the poster for Get Away: a suburban family look concerned. blood-red figures in robes drip down from the ceiling. Tagline: get ready for a killer holidayThe poster for Lowlifes: a woman with blood on her face is superimposed over a sepia-toned house
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
reading Dirty Work I am completely revising my "will barely move the needle", every second page of this thing is a career-destroying scandal. There are extensive DMs and court records. This thing is UGLY.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Dirty Work has reminded me of the existence of Colin Craig, and the weirdest political photoshoot ever taken. Does anybody have the one where he's perched between the branches of a dead tree, under a grim sky? it seems to have disappeared but I remember it distinctly
Colin Craig wears a suit. He is sitting in long grass. A storm is on the horizon. He is looking sideways at the camera with a lot somewhere between Come Hither and Hannibal Lecter Colin lies back in the grass. It seems to be an attempt to show his playful side. He is smiling but his eyes are dark and empty.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
there's a lot of stuff in Dirty Work that's probably known scuttlebutt for most politicos but is completely new to me, e.g. Don Brash is a close family friend who JW grew up around, and JW wrote anonymously for Whale Oil
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Elizabeth wants to project an air of intellectualism, but also a relaxed attitude that makes people comfortable. It's a difficult line to walk, but I think I have a solution; I'm going to stand outside, and hang brain.
nathan fielder in a suit, pointing
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
okay am I crazy or were pants historically super baggy? up until like the 19th century it seems like you rarely see depictions of tight pants
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Gordan Ramsay: Monstresor's got himself into a spot of trouble. His restaurant has an excellent wine selection, but the decor is in shambles. He tells me he's planning to renovate but I'll believe it when I see it. Fuck me where's the exit gone?
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"Crusader Kings" is a terrible name for that games series. They're like 10% fighting, 90% courtly intrigue and finding good marriages.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
lotta lawsuit threats flying around from certain right-wing actors right now and I gotta say: do it man. Do it. Invite discovery.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
the world is being torn apart by great evils: greed, selfishness, putting the discord notification sound in the mix of your youtube videos
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
an timely #nzpol reminder: if your David be Farrier, you couldn't be merrier if your David be Farrar: AAH, dude AAH
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
five years between these cards, I hope this good boy gets steaks for DAYS
Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful. The art shows a dog, looking stern, sitting on a golden throne. The text reads: day after day he sat there, knowing that the Wanderer would soon be back for him.Yoshimaru, Beloved Companion. The art shows the same dog playing fetch with some sort of golden balls. 

text: the Emperor spared no comfort for the friend who had so diligently awaited her return.
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Ryan McDiarmid @ryanmcdiarmid.com · 22/09/2026
A friend sent me this one last night.
Post:

unbearable experience @paso • Sep 17
...
just remembered that time i was stealth mode at a conference and this guy asked me how come i 'decided to work on trans communities as a cis gay man' and i panicked and just replied 'well, marxism' to which he just said
'right of course

Reply:

river
@KuwaCos
...
disco elysium roll
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
of all the horrible fates in reality fracture, "nobody came to her party" somehow hits hardest
the magic card: Gallia, Tragic Host. The art shows somebody sitting at a feast, wearing a golden mask. They are completely alone. It is dark outside.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hager book launch thoughts
the Hux meme: I don't care who wins, I just need Ani O'Brien to lose
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