The Wreckers - The First Job

Okay heads up for all Americans eligible to vote:

The Supreme Court just issues a ruling allowing Ohio and other states to purge voters from their election registration rolls due to their failure to cast a ballot in previous elections.

This is a major victory for the Trump administration and the GOP, and a direct consequence of the Supreme Court being stacked with more conservative judges (the votes were 5-4). This is also a huge part of what Trump/the GOP were counting on to save them in the 2018 midterm elections, which is where Democrats have been hoping to take back a majority in the House, giving them more power to combat Trump’s abuses of power and Republican legislation.

What this means is YOU CAN NOT ASSUME THAT YOU ARE REGISTERED for the 2018 elections, just because you SHOULD be. Thanks to this decision, red states can purge voters’ registration based on their not having cast a ballot in even just previous federal elections, NOT just the national Presidential elections. Effectively, if you haven’t voted in previous senate races or for congressional representatives in the past few years, that’s all they need now to say you’re no longer registered and need to register again.

They’re deliberately counting on people assuming they’re still registered and so not checking until after registration deadlines have passed, or showing up to vote this November and only then finding out they’re no longer registered, when its too late to do a damn thing about it.

And this is absolutely targeted at marginalized communities, low income voters, disabled voters, and basically anyone who simply can’t always AFFORD to keep on top of every federal election and show up to vote in every senate race, etc. Which not so coincidentally happen to be all the communities and voters who have the most to gain from Democratic victories in the 2018 midterms and are the least likely to cast votes for GOP candidates at this point.

This was absolutely a calculated effort aimed specifically at keeping the GOP in power with a majority control of the government come November, and unfortunately, it has a DAMN good chance of accomplishing just that if it goes by unacknowledged. I’m not looking to alarm or panic anyone, simply to say:

If you are a registered voter in a red state at this point, please please please do not take your registered status as assumed. Check on your registration status, look up all relevant voter registration deadlines for your state and district, CIRCLE THAT SHIT ON YOUR CALENDAR, and check your registration status AGAIN right before those deadlines pass, so you can be sure of it before its too late to do anything about it til the next voting cycle.

my artist brain wants to describe colors in fancy words like carmine and vermilion, but my author brain isn’t completely sold that my protagonist understands what those words mean

Queen Hatshepsut of Ancient Egypt. She has a lovely smile for someone who’s been dead for thousands of years.

By popular demand, three Insecta Geometrica series 1 pins are making a comeback! The praying mantis, bumblebee, and cicada were all so well-loved, folks just kept asking me to restock - so we’re doing it! The mantis and bumblebee designs are the same as the originals, while the cicada has received a few very minor tweaks. All three can be preordered now in the shop! They’re expected in late September to early October and will ship as soon as they arrive.

🐝 Praying Mantis | Bumblebee | Cicada 🦗

These and more original pins, stickers, charms, bandanas, and artwork only at MaryCapaldi.com/shop! Spread the word!! 🐛

The Sound Of Silence really does exist, and it’s the lingering echoes of the Big Bang. Without warning, those echoes finally fade and stop… and you can hear what true silence sounds like for the first time…

Magical Dangers

In this world, magical creatures exist alongside human beings. They have been helping us in small ways, more as appeasement than some sort of benevolence.

...

The room bustled with the shifting of chairs and the scribbling of notes. The company had brought in one of the top instructors in the field of magic theory to explain things to the industry leaders. The slides had been packed with information with the audience in different stages of understanding.

"Are there any questions so far?" The instructor said, levitating a glass of water to drift to his hand. He took a sip before adding, "Let's continue."

"Excuse me," an executive said, raising his hand, "So, why is it that humans are not allowed to use magic?"

The instructor turned from his presentation to look at the executive, seated among peers who had already shifted slightly away from him.

"Hmm, a good question. Are you prepared for the answer?" The instructor said. The executive nodded.

"Alright. Then let me begin by asking you a question. Why were you late to this meeting?"

The executive looked taken aback, then cleared his throat, "Uh, sorry about that. Had some trouble finding the meeting room."

The instructor nodded thoughtfully. Then he said, "You are lying."

The executive choked out a laugh and shrugged, "Right. Magic."

"No, not magic," The instructor said. He patted his terminal desktop, "Security cameras. The contents of which I will keep secure." He added to the panicked executive. "I apologize for scaring you, but this leads into my point. Humans can lie."

There came a murmur through the audience. Fae in the crowd gave uneasy glances to human coworkers. For their part, some gave apologetic nods and others gave indignant grumbles, and some stayed perfectly still and silent.

Another member of the audience raised their hand, a Fae woman. The instructor sipped his water again before acknowledging her.

"Does being able to lie make you unable to use magic?" She asked.

The instructor set down his cup and sighed. "Quite the opposite, my child." He turned to his terminal and tapped on the screen to open a new projection.

"Humans and Fae are not terribly different, you see." He clicked through the slides, each a colorful, albeit somewhat childish, depiction of humans and Fae.

"Among the most notable differences will be our lifespan," A new slide showed the young elf and the ghost of a human, "and our Oum," It showed the outline of an elf and a person with something glowing in their bodies. "Which has been loosely translated to the 'soul'."

The elf had a blue color while the human's was red.

A few members of the audience were taking notes, others had checked out and were scrolling through their devices. Still others, mostly humans, were watching and already forming the chip which grows on one's shoulder when they are told they are fundamentally incapable of something.

A young man in the front row wearing a rather irritated look on his face spoke up, "I don't see how being able to lie means we can't use magic."

The instructor became visibly irritated at the interruption.

"Again, it's not that you can't, it is that you are not allowed." The screen clicked off as he faced the audience. "Because it isn't the lies you tell others that makes you dangerous," He gestured to the audience, "It's the lies you tell yourself!"

The room darkened and speckled with flickers of lights, the air became a dazzling display of the night sky.

"Humans try to fathom the impossible. The infinite of space and time and you have made marvelous progress. But how much can you hope to comprehend? You live for barely a century and half of that is spent in diapers!" The lights in the room began to hum and float around, circling the instructor.

"You are like bees. Industrious and fascinating, but dangerous in your numbers. If a single bee were to come to you and ask for the method to nuclear energy, not only would you doubt she would understand, but if she did even by mistake figure it out, you could scarcely trust that she would be responsible with it! It's just not in the nature of these tiny beings to handle things so far beyond their ken." The instructor tapped one of the motes of buzzing light. It turned red and began to spin around faster and faster. "And if just ONE of these little, marvelous beings manages to seduce the secrets from you and the rotten history of your kind repeats itself--" He trailed off as the red buzzing light flickered and exploded, causing a wave of heat and a shower of sparks, and left the room empty of light. The instructor held up his hand, where the manacle on his wrist hummed with a red light, "Well, you have to bear the weight of your decision forever." He dropped his hand. The room was silent.

Eventually, he lifted his head, the light returning to the room.

"May I continue?" He asked. He nodded to the following silence. "Very well." He clicked back to the original presentation and continued.

if you are 13 and there is a 17/18 year old showing interest in you: please run away and never look back. i understand that you feel special; that older person will tell you how mature you are and make you feel special. but please. run away from that person. stay away from them. they do not love you. an 18 year old should not have ANY interest in a 13 year old. please. please be safe. please do not let them manipulate you. they are dangerous. stay away from them

I think the worst kind of writers block is when you aren’t blocked in the conventional sense, like you know what you want to write and how to write it, you just cant put words on the page because of a crippling sense of what’s the point? 

Don't get cooked, use your specials in Round 3!

Opinion: I take too many Spammin’ Run shifts. ( Profresh 700 was my highest at a point, aiming for 999 one day!) Have a draw of my feels towards these coworker squiddos.

Happiness Will Come To You.