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Verati

@verati404.bsky.social

1.9K followers 890 following 4.9K posts

Friend of spiders. Raccoon at heart. Spends too much time down research rabbit holes. Bad at hydrating & sitting in a chair. Writer and artist. T4T He/They 🏳️‍⚧️ #EchoSight #VeratiArt #SingularityHiccup Find Me Elsewhere! https://linktr.ee/verati

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · May 16

And it's LIVE on ITCH-IO! DOWNLOAD IT HERE FOR $4.99!
verati404.itch.io/echo-sight

A disabled shapeshifter tries to save a city with the one person who could undo their whole life...or free it.

#lgbt #lgbtqa+ #QueerWriters #books #💙📚 #💙🪐 #💙🌶 #booksky #EchoSight #fantasy #mystery #WritingCommunity

The cover of my novel, Echo Sight. The main character is wearing a feather cloak and holds a flame in their keft hand and a chain weapon in their right. They float above an underground lake with memories rippling in the water. Behind them, mostly obscured in the dark behind the stalagmites, is a dragon with bright, glowing eyes, watching them.

On top of this cover are blue word bubbles with what you'll find within the book: Adult main character, wise-ass funny narrator, disability and mental health rep, 400 plus page count, LGBT romance, found family, themes of environmentalism, justice, and intersectionalism, shapeshifters, fungal monsters, a near-future tech world, magical realism, and "there was only one bed."

A modern map of the alien continent where my novel takes place. It is scribbled on in red ink, with such hits as a travel checklist and some guy's phone number, a badly-proportioned spider, and the entire Sporelands scribbled out with the word "No," in all caps. The focus of the map is a circled city named Akert near the Gulf of Afredal's coast

The opening to Echo Sight:
Chapter 1 - The Senka Problem

Blood never clings to phoenix feathers. Symbolic, I guess, though mostly just convenient for me at the time. The guy at my feet was super dead.

The feather quills of my cloak dragged the concrete, so I held its hem close as I crouched beside the body. Raindrops hissed as each one pelted the exposed skin on my face and hands. In the bleak, stormy night, my halo did basically nothing that the bright harbor lights didn't.

"Fucking great," said the big man standing over me.

A dark-haired man commanding ocean waves with the movements of his hands. His expression is stern in concentration. He wears a pair of large earrings and a necklace vial containing liquid within. His black formal shirt is soaked through, and underneath him is the words "Echo Sight," the title of the novel he's from.

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Tisha Mark @tishamark.com · 1h

Somewhere peaceful to rest your eyes and your mind.

Tisha Mark ©2022, Tide Pools VI, oil on canvas, 12"x12"

Original is available:
tishamark.com/product/tide...

#art #painting #TraditionalArt #bsnm

Original seascape oil painting by Tisha Mark, "Tide Pools VI" 12"x12" oil on canvas (2022). A soft, abstract-leaning seascape painting inspired by tide pools of wintertime. Painted in a soothing palette of light blues, whites, and soft browns.

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 3h

And it makes more logical sense. Let people leave, you have more room to get on after.

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Temple Drake @templedrake.bsky.social · 4h

Do not use AI

Luke Steuber @lukesteuber.com · 7h

No notes

Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda Williams, also recently slammed people who are making Al-generated videos of her late father, calling the clips "gross." She added, "To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to 'this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that's enough, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop pup-peteering them is maddening. You're not making art, you're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else's throat hoping they'll give you a little thumbs up and like it."

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 6h

Oh nooooooo

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Cat Kimbriel @catkimbriel.bsky.social · 6h

Thanks to the team at The Tonight Show, we have the latest report from the Frog Resistance in Portland, and the emergency Nekkid Biking Brigade. 🧊 had no frogs responding.

The leader of the Frog Resistance has a comment. 😂842,000+ views in one day.

youtu.be/bw5zxdSObso?...

A Message From The Frog Resistance

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

youtu.be

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 7h

These are so lovely! Thank you for sharing!

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Helen Whistberry @whistberry.bsky.social · 9h

Happy #Invertober day 15!

Queen Alexandra's Birdwing
(Ornithoptera alexandrae)

Was a challenge finding consistent references for this one. I think it is a rare butterfly and interestingly, the male and female have different appearances but here's my best guess at the male.

#SciArt #Invertober2025

Digital painting of a colorful butterfly perched on the petals of a yellow flower which is mostly out of view on the right hand side of the image. The butterfly is black on its upper body and yellow on its lower body. Its wings have shades of light blue, light green, and yellow set off by striking black borders, veins and larger patches.

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Eryn McCee @erynmccee.bsky.social · 10h

Is it Wednesday? It's Wednesday. #HorrorWritersChat

Horror Writers Chat

Happening today... at the usual time 7pm BST, 2pm EST

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

Ah, yes, because fuck people who have abnormal facial expressions, or those that laugh when in pain, or don't emote very much at all. gdi.

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

Thank you! I have so many bug pictures. I feel so lucky when I catch one as cool as that.

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

Maddie, who was born on a different planet from a horrifying method btwn humans & the mantid race that *usually* kills the human (but special care was taken to prevent the ambassador from that fate), she's a rare case of a mantid hybrid being raised among humans.

She found her home w/Seryn's crew.

A loose colored sketch of a young woman with green and yellow hair wearing a choker and space suit. She wears black lipstick and red eyeshadow.

She purposefully resembles an orchid mantis in her color scheme.

The same woman as in the first puc, but this time with wings. She's pulling her arm out of her shed exoskeleton.

The mantid woman hiding in the vents of an unknown ship, staring at nothing as she curls into herself, distressed and showing more of her mantid half, her arms too long and her barbed tongue poking out absently.

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Adam Holcombe @adamholcombe.bountyink.com · 10h

Oh hey, look at the day! It's release day!

If you want an action packed, sci-fi adventure that meshes the heart of Guardians of the Galaxy with the weird of One Piece and the vast galaxy of Mass Effect wrapped into a love letter to Star Wars Legends, then look no further than Bounty Inc!

Out now!

Graphic featuring a mockup of Bounty Inc with text reading "Out Now!"

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

Enjoy your nuggets.

/end

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

than they ever will be. Any other goal is ALSO chosen. B/c if nothing matters, then anything you want does. (Shit, I just circled back to positive nihilism.)

Anyway, those aliens pissed me off sm. They could've explored the universe but they decided to be upsetti spaghetti that they solved poverty.

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

So the next time some asshole is like, "hrk! You like THIS [innocuous thing]??" with their sad-ass skin that hasn't seen real light in days & their sour misery, rest assured that you are far wiser sitting in the bath with your Dorito dust fingers crying over musicals to enjoy your finite time

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

You NEED chicken nuggets. You need to go outside and feel sunshine and grass. You need to sing in the car. You need to TALK to people, maybe, sometimes.

Otherwise, yeah. You're gonna wonder what it's all for and be sadge.

Simple pleasures are not pointless. Being a happy li'l gremlin is THE point.

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

Like the space nerds were like, "yeah we stopped caring about stuff and just kinda faded away," sure but like why would you give up your physicality? You can't enjoy a hot shower? "You can't enjoy chicken nuggets??" I almost shriek, irritated at these aliens.

Ofc you won't care abt life w/o senses!

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 8h

When I was going through the end of FF14 and was talking to the sad souls of past civilizations complain about not knowing what to do after achieving enlightenment or whatever, I (on VC with my friends) talked about my Chicken Nugget theory of life (aka hedonism ig but let's go). Small 🧵 1/?

Theo Transcendragons @theodoresnapdragon.bsky.social · 12h

The meaning of life is actually making up silly little songs in the car as you drive places

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Annie Shao Art @annieshaoart.bsky.social · 11h

#Birdtober Day 15: Ringed Kingfisher

I always draw female kingfishers because I like when the female is the more colorful one!

#Birdtober2025 is hosted by Andrea Holmes

#BirdArt #SciArt #Copic #FineArt #ArtYear #dailyartchallenge

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 10h

@verati404.bsky.social x3?

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 10h

Sorry to vaguepost about someone I just blocked, but wow: what an obnoxious piece of shit.

It's too early in the morning for that.

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 17h

So much bubble wrap. The old kind you can actually pop, not the new infuriating stuff.

Also so many weird decorative stuff from somewhere like Michael's (or a local place if you can find one) because yes I DO need a glue gun and baubles for D&D props and I will not be shamed.

doctober @docseuss.bsky.social · 1d

lets say a wizard has cursed you with a lot of money. you are going to become permanently brain damaged simply by being in possession of so much money. the only way out of it is to spend a lot of money on something ridiculous and not at all useful

what would you buy to break the curse?

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Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 17h

But anyway, legit, I don't think this convo's going to be productive. Val didn't even say in her original post that the inner self DIDN'T matter, just that it didn't matter as much as deeds, so you argued against something you agreed with then?

But this is low-stakes philosophy, anyway. Let's stop.

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 17h

I misunderstood your poorly worded argument, which did not clarify anything, actually.

And morals aren't like math. They're not independent of humanity; they're situational. Because nuance exists in the world.

This all started bc you were so worried about psychopaths faking being good. Like srsly?

Verati @verati404.bsky.social · 19h

But I never said that. I said both mattered. You were the one who started arguing about how Val's premise was wrong, and then you said what I said was wrong so I clarified. You literally said you were absolutist, lol.

But whatevs. It's fine. This isn't a good platform to argue nuance on, tbh.