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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 · 12h
I am once again tapping the sign: lithub.com/winning-the-...
There is not a word out of place. Each sentence passes quality assurance: The above sentences are certified, not wrong. The writing of the pose is, first and foremost, about being correct, both in terms of style and content. Its foremost goal is not to make any mistakes. Its foremost gesture is erasure and its foremost subject is social anxiety and self-presentation. One never loses oneself in the writing. Rather, one admires, at a slight remove, the precision of the undertaking.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 12h
if you're afraid to mean something, you shouldn't be making art.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 12h
I've said it before, but snark is insecure and defensive. "I'm worried you're going to laugh at me, so I'm doing it first. Aren't I silly? Haha because I'm in on the joke it hurts less." fuck that, be earnest, be real, let yourself matter
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Keter-Class Kobold @koboldred.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
bringing this back around
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Space Witches, Esq. @popelizbet.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I am so fucked #UrgentNeed I returned my phone on a warranty repair but my roommate who dropped it off and grabbed the receipt is out of town, T-Mobile claims i didn't send it back and my whole $1400 paycheck is gone. paypal.me/popelizbet or cashapp $popelizbet
paypal.me
Pay Elizabeth McClellan using PayPal.Me
Go to paypal.me/popelizbet and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 14h
it's annoying how many face references online are like ... generically pretty woman in full makeup, in a studio, staring right at the camera. I want difficult angles, interesting lighting, distinctive features.
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Haus of Decline @hausofdecline.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A football player says "glad you're here in the USA for football season, Junji Ito. Let me show you how to throw a perfect spiral." The football plater throws the ball. Ito is mesmerized. Spirals appear in his eyes and he sweats profusely. We zoom in on his face in an extreme closeup as the intensity of his terror increases.
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 16h
Reviewer 3 reading my paper
The faces of Chlöe Swarbrick in parliament
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Reposted by Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now
Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
it’s what the People WANT
3 panel comic

Panel 1 is titled “AI Bros:”
An Ai Bro is standing in front of a TV wearing his default expression (SMUG)

Behind him on the TV is the axe scene from American Psycho where Patrick Bateman is wearing the transparent raincoat and standing next to his ridiculous stereo. Except in this image Christian Bale has been replaced by the AI Bro.

AI bro annoyingly says “People want to put themselves in movies”

Panel 2 and 3 are titled “People:”

Panel 2: 
A Blue Guy holds his phone up to a Yellow Guy and says “Hey! I’ve got a little video from that party”

Panel 3:
Yellow Guy sees himself on the phone screen and almost cringes himself into a singularity. He is blushing and squeals “Ohh my Goddd. My FACE and VOICE”
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Garrett Gilchrist @garrettgilchrist.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Repost this if Trans people should have Samus Arm Cannons
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The only group more insufferable than tech people is anti-tech bluesky users, who have been coming back to X in droves the last few weeks.

And they’re just discovering that the entire world got rich over the last two years while they were busy arguing with each other about politics and AI.

And they’re very, very angry.Most people who make fun of NFTs
- Own zero NFTs
- Have never minted an NFT
- Have never participated in a community
- Have never staked their NFT
- Haven’t built on-top of an NFT project
- Have never earned an NFT playing a game
- Missed out on BAYC, Punks, Cool Cats etc.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
you've got your religious trauma, you've got your horrors of girlhood, they just made her mum a sovereign citizen 'only jesus will save us from the deep state' type who quietly seethes before exploding, rather than exploding right away. she's a pressure cooker. she's terrifying.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
okay yeah new carrie is good. Margaret is still a monster who locks her in the closet. Carrie still faces horrific bullying. She's earnest and eager in the way of a very sheltered kid finally entering the world, and the world torments her to breaking. It is very much in the original spirit.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
more faces. actually feel pretty okay about this one
a sketch of a middle-aged woman looking slightly downwards. she has a ponytail. her left shoulder is slightly raised. she looks deep in concentration
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I keep trying to think of any historical example where a given technology's PROMOTERS AND TRUE BELIEVERS were like 'we are absolutely going to ruin your fucking life so be prepared like it's the end of the world'
Andrew Curran: Axios is reporting that the top labs are wargaming scenarios for the aftermath of a catastrophic event in the next 6 - 12 months, that some executives now see as being inevitable.

Axios: Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAl and other Al companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event.
Why it matters: These officials anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack, that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water.

Edouard Harris: This is our view as well. Relatedly, average people will want to increase their level of personal resilience and preparedness as their resources allow. We will be publishing about this soon.

Nick Farina: Best ways to be prepared? Generators, water, books and DVDs?

Edouard Harris: Power, water, food, sanitation for most part. Parts of this depend on your geo latitude - solar vs propane for eg.

But also: set aside a computer that is not (and ideally has never been) connected to the internet. Buy faraday pouches and tape. Print out essential docs on paper.
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My Bloody Valentine @chekhovsgundam.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I don't want books written by AI, I want bizarre worlds written by weirdos who are working through some gender stuff and will change pronouns after publishing
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
week 8 of learning to draw: sketched a nice old aussie bloke I thought had an interesting face and somehow made him look like an evil sheriff
a sketch of a man in a suit and a cowboy hat giving a little side-eye
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
the BIG thing they change is ... oh it's Doctor Sleep, they stole Rose the Hat from Doctor Sleep, made her crew less Irish Traveler coded (which WAS weird), and cast Cassandra Naud, who imo does need more work, highly underrated scream queen
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
it's not perfect, I think the framing device is a bit hamfisted, but I'd kept hearing it made her mum nice and it's like ... you first meet Carrie locked inside the closet. A direct line of Margaret's dialogue from episode 1 is "one hour in the prayer chasm".
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
in fact, hot take: it makes her an actual abusive mother and not a Stephen King Evil Monster Woman
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
was worried about what I was hearing about the new Carrie but having watched it, I do need to say: they don't make Margaret nice. She's more human but she's still extremely abusive and controlling. The fact she's maladaptively grieving doesn't make her nice.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
the desire to do cool character art vs the miserable need to get good at drawing faces
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
love mech art where the pilot's perched on it somewhere. don't stand in front of it with your arms crossed, get up there, sit on its shoulders grinning menacingly
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
lowkey conspiracy theory I am convinced of: those YOU'VE USED YOUR LAST FREE ARTICLE paywalls don't come with a free article, you didn't use your last free article, they're lying, there was never a free article
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Manisha Krishnan @manishakrishnan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
NEW: Staff at HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette told @adamm0rgan.bsky.social AI is infiltrating their workplaces, from generating cover art and back cover copy, to publicity materials, to rejection emails, as execs tell junior staff to "champion" the tech. www.wired.com/story/book-p...
wired.com
Book Publishers Are Quietly Using More AI. Staff Are Revolting
Workers at three major publishing houses tell WIRED that LLMs are being used for publicity, cover art, back cover copy, and emails, as some execs push junior staff to champion the tech.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
keeping coming back to the old fundamental writing tip: if a dog barks and a character jumps, that tells us nothing about them; everybody does that. if the character smiles and steps closer, *that* tells us about them. because AI can only do the expected, it can never write good characters
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I never in my life would've dreamed up Clair Obscur, it would not appear in my preferences, and it's one of my favourite games of the last few years. There's so much joy in finding something beyond yourself.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
thecivilian.co.nz/2026/10/08/g...
thecivilian.co.nz
Green Party promises to nationalise the Kiwibank sheep
In perhaps its boldest policy proclamation of the campaign, the Green Party has pledged to nationalise Buck, the Kiwibank sheep, effectively putting it in the public domain. The promise comes on th…
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
no NO, eat the two dollar pie WITHOUT tomato sauce mister bevan. let the crust scrape your throat unadorned, naked. such suffering is divine.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
imagined an Australian cenobite and now it won't leave my head. "you understand that a good cunt and a bad cunt are two sides of the same coin, dear Bevvo. But have you considered ... the divine ecstasy of the sick cunt."
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
you gotta make efficient use of your freak, fam. it's a creative imperative.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
dan stevens was built by god to flick his tongue in and out like a lizard while maintaining too-intense eye contact then say something like "you would so love mother's dollies", his singular divine purpose is to play nasty freaks, how do you fail to use him like this
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
also you hired Dan Stevens to be a freaky little pervert man then barely use him, instead we follow a completely separate freaky little pervert man, who isn't Dan Stevens and is thus much less interesting, and also adds nothing to the film
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
just how much time does the camera spend following Cyrus, a character whose entire role in the movie is "get flogged, receive exposition"
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
there's setting up dominoes then there's ruining your own life covering your entire house in dominoes and half of them do nothing but loop de loop in circles for ten minutes
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
man I wanna like Onslaught, "Adan Wingard and Dan Stevens team up with A24 to do a big silly 80s action homage" is a batshit concept but a compelling one but it takes over an hour to get to that action, because first we need two separate domme scenes and SO much ominous driving.
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Kenna Alexander @kennaalexander.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Indigenous artists! Help us make a cool game. Let them know I sent you. Share where you can! Wado! www.montecookgames.com/call-for-ind...
montecookgames.com
Call for Indigenous Artists for Between Earth & Sky: the Roleplaying Game! - Monte Cook Games
Celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic. Dreamwalking, sea-singing, and crow communication. Dangerous gods, difficult choices, and sweet romances. This […]
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Reposted by Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now
Jennifer @jennifilm.nz · 08/10/2026
Perfect response from Chlöe Swarbrick and the @greens.org.nz.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It's that time of year again! Don't forget to turn off your Discord novelty notification sounds
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
That scene from community about not sexualizing Annie except Jeff is Kiwibank, saing: Buck's pretty, we try to sexualize her
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
the nation is experiencing a polychrises
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
NZ election update: after winning a leadership challenge against Chris, Chris has gone on to debate Chris on the important issues: Chris
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
losing it over these graphics. Well actually Chris, CHRIS, just LOOK Chris www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
top words during the New Zealand Election leaders' debate: 

Chris #1: Well Actually Chris, think know got can, get, just look. 

Chris #2: going yes government get can? make people need new zealand. got. hey many times keywords or catchphrases were used

Chris: 37. 
the second highest is 'challenge' with 10
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
and in our darkest hour, a champion emerged
a woman in a red/orange jersey making an expression like OH SHIT, DAMN, WOW
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Tze Ming Mok 莫志明 @tzemingdynasty.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Dan beat me to it but it's actually a reaction to this moment... Luxon: [rules out Opportunity because 'no new taxes'] Hipkins: But you're happy to work with racists.
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
also behold: the most babyfaced Liam Hemsworth, in his second film role ever
Liam Hemsworth, 19 years old, wearing a sleeveless flannel vest
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Triangle (2009) is really good but also for the love of god why did this Australian movie starring half the cast of Home & Away decide to make all the characters American? once you notice one accent slip you start to notice them *all*
the poster for triangle: a woman stands on the deck of a cruise ship, holding an axe. there is blood on the ground, and her reflection wears a bizarre mask
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
coming up on the end of month 2 of learning to draw, I present: a broke wizard's shitty tower
a ramshackle tower that's like two stories tall, barely held together by spars of wood
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
is there a better word for this, do you think? perhaps race ... est? it's on the tip of my tongue
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
refuse to believe anybody is seriously arguing that the gender-flipped harry potter meme with the incel name is positive for trans people. if you're not an op you gotta kill the op inside your head
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