iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Is it just me, or is this David Mazouz guy Miles?

Image of David Mazouz, a young actor with dark, slightly curled hair and dark, serious eyes staring into the camera with a very slight smile. He's wearing a houndstooth v-neck vest over a light pink shirt.

Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I have an exciting announcement for y'all! I'm part of a brand new podcast, coming out SOON! Listen to me, @saraezzat.bsky.social, and @renthebarbarian.bsky.social discuss and compare DS9 and Babylon 5, episode by episode on @9to5scifipod.bsky.social.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

The way I gasped when this list of classic Moon Tweets™️ did not include the best one.

Tweet from Fuck the Moon: Fly me to the moon, and let me kick its fucking ass; let me show it what I learned, in my moon jujitsu class. Reply from Fuck the Moon: Wow this blew up. Wish the moon would.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Hitpoints & History is this Saturday! I'll be all over it- my talk is at 2 EST.

The schedule for Hitpoints & History, a conference on Saturday, January 31. For full schedule and details, go to www.hitpointscon.com.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Sure, these are entertaining, why not.

Get to know me! 1 like = 1 answer.
1. Do you have any nicknames?
2. What is a compliment you've never forgotten?
3. Is there something you want to tell someone, but won't?
4. Do you believe in soulmates? Why or why not?
5. Biggest turn on?
6. What was your first job?
7. What was the last song you sang?
8. What is one of your most treasured memories?
9. What has overwhelmed you recently?
10. Someone gave you $100- what are you spending it on?
11. What makes you feel appreciated?
12. Do you have trust issues?
13. Best concert you've ever been to?
14. Do you care what other people think of you?
15. What are your main hobbies?
16. Describe your dream home.
17. What is your strongest held belief?
18. If you could get on a plane tomorrow, where would you go?
19. What is your most attractive feature?
20. Do you believe in aliens?
21. Biggest turn off?
22. What has made you laugh the most lately?
23. Favorite animal?
24. What lyrics are currently stuck in your head?
25. Is there someone you wish you could forgive?
26. Name 3-5 ways to win your heart.
27. Favorite comfort show?
28. Name one thing that always makes you angry.
29. Favorite type of weather?
30. What are you currently looking forward to?

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Hey hey, starting today, @tirrrb.bsky.social is starting another 7th Generation Rising stream for mutual aid in Saskatoon! Come see your favorite creators (and me!) and donate to an Indigenous, Black, and queer-led org doing real work on the streets. www.youtube.com/@Tirrrbstreams

Poster image for 7th Generation Rising Fundraiser Stream, November 16th-23rd, 24/7. Includes images and names of Tirrrb, Jessie Gender, Foreign Man, Elliot Sang, and John the Duncan.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

You're definitely not the first to ask this question (Madeline Miller has a whole blog post about it, IIRC). I.... think?... I see it? If you zoom in on a single petal, the outline is kiiiind of an A and the line in the middle could be an I.

Close up of a hyacinth flower with the mid-lines in petals extra visible.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Hitpoints & History starts today! I'll be hopping on to a live play of Baldur's Gate 3 with @alexvandewalle.bsky.social and @richardcole.bsky.social at 2 p.m. EDT to see what we can talk about in terms of historical analysis. My talk on history in Stardew Valley and Roots of Pacha will be tomorrow!

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

In better news, you can come listen to me talk this weekend at Hitpoints & History! It looks like an awesome lineup.

Does It Belong in a
Museum?: A Case
Study on Stardew
Valley and Roots of
Pacha
With Julie Levy
Sundav April 27. 11:15 am US Central Time
A popular genre of gaming that doesn't get a lot of
attention is the cozy/farming life sim, but almost all of
them rely on archaeology and historical revelation for
part of their story. Stardew Valley, perhaps the most
notable modern entry in the genre, has the player
unearthing artifacts and housing them in a local
museum, albeit haphazardly- a familiar Western idea of
interacting with pieces of the past. I want to compare
this to Roots of Pacha, an Indigenous-inspired game,
where unearthing the ruins of a previous civilization
leads to storytelling and sitting with those remains in
situ instead.

Love history and video games? Check out Hitpoints & History: An Archaeogaming Conference, Saturday April 26 and Sunday April 27. Tickets on sale now at hitpointscon.com.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Texas friends and family, please, I'm begging you to get active. If you're not safe, I will do my best to help you get there.

A blue stripe with a white star, then a white stripe with black text saying, "Don't mess with Trans Texans!", and then a red stripe with white text saying, "Withdraw Texas HB 3399! Bill's author: Rep. Brent Money, 512-463-0880, brent.money@house.texas.gov, district2.Money@house.texas.gov, PO Box 2910, Austin, TX, 78768".

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

For the last day of February, my #AncientDEI spotlight on #AncientBluesky is... ordinary people. We have so much evidence that ancient Greeks and Romans lived in a world where light-skinned W. Europeans, Black Africans, Near Eastern Semitic peoples all mingled in the highest and lowest classes.

A Greek pottery jug in the shape of a Greek woman's face on one side and a Black African woman's face on the other. The inscription reads, beauty. c. 520 BCE

The Dying Gaul, a Roman marble c. 230 BCE, depicting a man with a Western European phenotype and a Celtic torque bleeding from a side wound. Capitoline Museums, Rome.

The Fayum mummy portraits: A collection of painted portraits of Semitic or North African men and women in Roman garb, painted onto wood panels. c. 1st century CE-3rd century CE.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Oh shoot, almost missed the window for today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky! Today, let's talk about Dido, an African (Carthaginian) queen of Semitic (Phoenician) origin. She was so powerful and clever that she built her country out of refugees on a foreign shore. Dux femina facti!

A manuscript illustration of Dido, a dark-skinned woman, llying on a pyre, surrounded by mourners. Aeneid, Book IV, Death of Dido. From the Vergilius Vaticanus (Vatican Library, Cod. Vat. lat. 3225).

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky highlight is Elagabalus, the trans woman* who was Emperor of Rome! *Modern categories can only be applied loosely to other cultures and times, and reports on Elagabalus in particular are fraught with posthumous distortion. But we think so.

A Roman marble bust of Emperor Elagabalus, an effeminate young person with curly hair and a light mustache. Capitoline Museums, Rome.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky is Callisto. She was a devotee of Artemis, one of her dearest companions... How dear? Well, Zeus got her pregnant by impersonating Artemis, so, pretty close I'd say! Artemis turned her into a bear, but both Callisto and her cub rule the north sky.

Drawing of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor as bears over the stars of their constellations. Image from the University of Louisville Cosmic Explorer images, https://louisville.edu/planetarium/images/kid-program-images/cosmic-explorer-images/ursa-major-and-ursa-minor/view

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky is another gender-bender of a deity, Dionysus! He's usually male, but the god of boundary-crossing has no respect for your gender binary. Break women out of their roles, break crossdressing taboo, and incorporate foreign customs, too!

Red-figure vase of nude Dionysus with a feminine hairstyle embracing a female follower while a satyr provides service. Photograph by Maria Daniels, courtesy of the Tampa Museum of Art, October 1991

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Let's have another #AncientDEI for #AncientBluesky: Hippolytus! My sex-repulsed ace boi, son of an Amazon and a Greek, devotee of Artemis. His fool of a father Theseus called down Poseidon's curse on him for the suicide of Theseus' far-too-young wife, Phaedra, who had fallen in love with Hippolytus.

Black and white photo of a red-figure Greek vase showing Hippolytus in his four-horse chariot with the bull emerging from the sea to frighten them. Photo from the British Museum.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

In honor of my streaming game, today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky is Inari, the genderfluid fox god of Shinto! Inari is one of the principle kami, ruling over such varied realms as fertility, sword-smithing, and rice. Inari is both male and female, and their foxy kin are shapeshifters!

Ukiyo-e print by Ogata Gekko, held in the Gallery Dutta in Geneva. Inari in masculine form helping a swordsmith forge a powerful weapon.

Painting by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1798 - 1861. Inari shows herself as a beautiful woman to a samurai warrior.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Oh right, time for more #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky! Ever hear of the great blind seer of the heroic age, Tiresias? Did you know that he spent years and bore children as a woman? Genderfluid? Detransitioned? Who knows, but apparently you can transition by smacking a pair of mating snakes!

Tiresias strikes two snakes with a stick, and is transformed into a woman by Hera. Engraving by Johann Ulrich Kraus c. 1690. Taken from Die Verwandlungen des Ovidii (The Metamorphoses of Ovid).

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Another day, another #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky! Today's entry is a long-time fave of mine, Medea. She was a princess of Colchis, modern-day Georgia. To the Greeks, she was dangerously foreign, from a land almost beyond imagining. And she was a powerful sorceress!

Red-figure vase painting of Medea bringing a whole sheep out of a cauldron to demonstrate her magical prowess. c. 480 BCE. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky is Andromeda, princess of Ethiopia. Her mother bragged she was more beautiful than a goddess, and the Greek gods couldn't be having that. Her skin is often depicted as white, but don't be fooled- that's kinky hair and an Ethiopian hat on this vase painting.

A woman in a combination of ancient Greek and North African garb tied to a stake or rock. Detail of Andromeda on a 340 B.C. vase at the MArTA in Taranto, red-figure style with white accents.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky is Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. He was a Black man born in what is now Libya, and climbed the political ladder in the customary way under the steady hand of Marcus Aurelius.

A round portrait of Septimius Severus and his family, showing Septimius' dark skin clearly. The Severan Tondo, c. 199, Severus, Julia Domna, Caracalla and Geta, whose face is erased (Antikensammlung Berlin).

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Today's #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky is cinnamon roll Caeneus! Well, he is in Kaos, which was sadly cancelled. Caeneus was a trans man. Thankfully, Kaos left out the part where he was able to transition only because he was granted a boon by Poseidon after the latter raped him.

a black and white frame from the tv show Kaos showing Caeneus, the shade of a trans man, sitting in a studio apartment.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Day three of #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky, and my pick is Memnon, King of Ethiopia and son of the dawn goddess, Eos, and her lover, Tithonos. He joined the Trojans in defense against the Greeks, and was counted a hero the equal of Herakles, as you can see here with them depicted together.

Detail of a black figure vase where Herakles, a warrior in Greek armor, stands in front of Memnon, whose hair and garb are clearly more African, between two horses.

Attributed to the Three Line Group, Greek, Attic, Neck-Amphora Featuring Herakles and King Memnon (detail), 530—520 BCE, terracotta, black-figure, H. 16 ½ — Diam. 12 ¼ in., North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Entry no 2 in my #AncientDEI on #AncientBluesky, Hermaphroditos. That's right, the child of Hermes (associated with phallus-themed boundary statues) and Aphrodite (the goddess of love, lust, and female beauty) was born intersex, in many ways the best of both worlds!

Pierre-Yves Beaudouin's photo of Sleeping Hermpaphroditus, a beautiful figure turned so that you can see both breasts and a phallus while they lie on a sumptuous mattress.

Sleeping Hermaphroditus. Hermaphroditus: Greek marble, Roman copy of the 2nd century CE after a Hellenistic original of the 2nd century BC, restored in 1619 by David Larique; mattress: Carrara marble, made by Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1619 on Cardinal Borghese's request.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Atalanta. Greek woman warrior and hero, so aro-ace that she would rather kill her suitors than get married, when she finally did marry, married a Black man (probably). Didn't give up her warrior life for it.

A marble statue of Atalanta, a woman posed mid-run wearing a hunter's tunic and holding a broken-off weapon. Credit: Atalanta. Marble, 1703–1705. Copy by Pierre Lepautre of a Roman work after a Hellenistic original.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

1. My cat, Freyja! I love her so much. My sweet little old lady.

Maine coon tabby cat sitting in the sun on a blue couch

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Now that Hunt is officially over, I can show you the Art I committed for it. They asked us to fingerpaint (specifically) an alternate history for the Shadow Diamond (the macguffin), and they liked mine so much they hung it up in HQ.

A finger painting of Sonic the Hedgehog holding a Chaos Emerald being disturbed at a smirking Shadow the Hedgehog holding the Shadow Diamond. Painting is hung up on a prop designed to look like an open bar

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

This may have been intentional on my part.

Panel from El Goonish Shive webcomic by Dan Shive.
Panel 1: Diane leans into frame shouting, "And no rewriting history!" at Nanase and Ellen, who are poised to sing.
Panel 2: Rhea asks, "Magic power, or Ducktales?" And Nanase and Ellen respond, in unison, "Ducktales. Woo ooh."

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Look. People with disabilities. Are still people. Okay? Okay. I'm so angry I had to go scream into this cat. She was not best pleased, either.

Maine coon tabby cat curled in a fluffy little ball on a dark blue couch

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

If you this post, do it 🫡 Pronouns: she/they Heigh: 5' 4" Shoe: Fluevogs Zodiac: Cat Smoke: no Tattoos: no Fav drink: iced chai

Zylla selfie, their blue-purple curls down to one side, black, low-cut shirt, in front of a red wall

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

The Washington Post is putting articles about appeasing/complying with fascism on its email front page. I urge you to stop giving them money, but also to consider what this means about the state we are in.

Screen shot of a headline from the Washington Post reading "Trump 'Resistance' didn't work. What will?"

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

Breaking news! Cats are awesome! ...okay, nothing new about that, but I thought you'd want to know.

Maine coon tabby cat with her face mooshed into a purple couch, snoozing

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 02/10/2024

L'shana tova. May the new year bring sweet news.

Cultivated apple trees bursting with reddish fruit in a serendipitous ring shape along the supports.

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Zylla Black @zyllable.bsky.social · 14/07/2024

Reskeet with a banger picture of your cat

Maine coon tabby cat perched atop a blue couch and looking rather like a model with the light hitting her face just so

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