Tess "Read my complete draft of The Egg Prime Directive!" Tanen
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mothmother.com
Tess "Read my complete draft of The Egg Prime Directive!" Tanen
@mothmother.com
2.7K followers 2K following 2.9K posts
Neurospicy disabled anarchist trans lady, making music, stories, poetry, and trouble. Recovering academic.

Patreon: patreon.com/MothMotherTess
Moth Mother Studios: MothMother.com/
Consulting: TessTanen.com
Everything Else: linktr.ee/MothMother
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Tess "Read my complete draft of The Egg Prime Directive!" Tanen @mothmother.com · Jun 17
New Introduction post! I'm Tess! I'm a disabled, queer, trans, neurospicy, musician, producer, game maker & poet! I run Moth Mother studios: an 800 sq/ft. music production studio in Central Illinois.

Currently making audiodrama, audiobooks & trouble & always looking for gigs & collaborators.
A picture of Tess: a curly haired trans woman in glasses wearing a black T-shirt with the Warboys logo from Mad Max Fury Road on it. A long shot of Moth Mother Studios - a large vaulted ceiling space with acoustic paneling on the walls and hung from the beams around a computer desk with two monitors. Two chandeliers hang from the ceiling. To the right is an electric drum kit with large speakers, to the left a small vocal recording set-up and some drawers and shelves of audio gear. Red curtains line the space and two large paintings are mounted on the far wall. A woman in a gray and black knit dress stands in the middle of moth mother studios, holding a dark blue electric guitar. The top of her head is cut off by the frame. Behind her, guitars line the walls, and there's a mixing station with MIDI controllers, and audio gear. A bottle of the handmade black walnut ink that I make.
mothmother.com
I'm almost 10 years older than this dude & chronically ill.
There's something to be said for the health benefits of making your life about creating art & beauty, spreading joy & caring for the people & communities you love. It's certainly treating me better than hoarding wealth is treating this guy!
A middle aged woman with shoulder length dark curly hair. She wears black suede heeled boots, gray knee high socks, over a gray pair of jeggings. She's leading towards the camera. She wears a light gray sweater as well.
November 14, 2025 at 3:37 AM
mothmother.com
So very excited that one of my last remaining PhD students, Mikael Sebag, successfully defended his dissertation—titled "The Magic Systems of Modern Games"—today! I'm so proud of him and so thrilled that people are finally going to get to read this work!
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE The Magic System in Modern Games DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Informatics by Mikael D. Sebag Dissertation Committee: Professor Aaron Trammell, Chair Professor Katie Salen Tekinbaş Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum 2025 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Magic System in Modern Games by Mikael D. Sebag Doctor of Philosophy in Informatics University of California, Irvine, 2025 Professor Aaron Tramell, Chair Magic systems are the subsystems of fantasy games that regulate the player’s ability to cast spells. These systems set the rules for what magical feats are mechanically and diegetically possible in the gameworld, how often they can be performed, at what cost, and by whom. While magic systems are often central to how players experience fantasy games, the values encoded within the design and behaviors of these systems have gone critically unexamined. Using Pinch and Bijker’s theory of the social construction of technology, this dissertation traces a history of the magic system as a sociotechnical artifact across three distinct periods of its development. In this narrative, the dominant relevant social group of each period—fantasy novelists, tabletop roleplaying game designers, and early computer game programmers—progessively rationalized the idea of magic in order to address problems they each encountered in representing magic within their respective mediums. Through historical method and the close reading of systems-as-texts, this dissertation analyzes short stories, novels, printed rulebooks, and early computer roleplaying games between the years 1932 and 1986 to argue that modern magic systems have rationalized magic not solely in games but through them—a process that I have termed ludic disenchantment.
November 14, 2025 at 2:27 AM
mothmother.com
I'm Tess! I write cozy queer & trans stories with a side of magical girl fantasy & plenty of neurodivergence, yearning, trauma, gender euphoria & ethical non-monogamy for sauce!

My #firstdraftfall story is drafted & I'm editing it now while I query agents!

🤞😬😅

www.scribblehub.com/series/17665...
November 14, 2025 at 2:05 AM
mothmother.com
It keeps getting prettier!
Gorgeous red and green Aurora Borealis! Gorgeous red, blue, and green Aurora Borealis Gorgeous red and green Aurora Borealis Gorgeous red and green Aurora Borealis
November 12, 2025 at 4:53 AM
mothmother.com
First time seeing the Aurora Borealis! Right out my front door! Absolutely giddy at how beautiful it is! (These pictures are much more dramatic than what I can see with my naked eye... can't believe what I can do with a mobile phone camera sometimes!)
A picture of a night sky with pink northern lights in it. A picture of the northern lights in pink, red, and green in the sky with trees and a house silhouetted against them. A picture of the northern lights in pink, red, and green in the sky with trees and a house silhouetted against them. A picture of the northern lights in pink, red, and green in the sky with trees and a house silhouetted against them.
November 12, 2025 at 3:58 AM
mothmother.com
Generally feeling like crap tonight and wishing I didn't have to spend another two weeks in this splint. I know it will be worth it to have less nerve pain in the long term, but in the moment I have things I want to be doing and am feeling very limited. My brain doesn't do well with idleness.
Tess with her arm in a splint looking tired.
November 12, 2025 at 2:25 AM
mothmother.com
Realized that now that I have given them the original, that I can share this painting that I did for @tincanaudio.co.uk. It's an Amber Phantom butterfly to celebrate their name change!

Made with my black walnut ink and watercolors.
And ink and watercolor painting of a butterfly, with translucent amber wings, and coloration reflecting the non-binary flag in the lower wing hemispheres. A close-up of the writing on the painting, spelling out Hetera Pera, the scientific name for the Amber Phantom.
November 12, 2025 at 1:36 AM
mothmother.com
Did a little bit of clean up and refinement on this piece today as well. Specifically, I added a tail, which I can't believe I forgot originally!

What kind of self-respecting cat girl forgets the fucking tail?!
An ink drawing of the Egyptian goddess Bastet
November 12, 2025 at 12:29 AM
mothmother.com
Continuing explorations with homemade Black Walnut Ink. Really enjoying discovering all the different things this medium is capable of, and continuing to grow as an illustrator!
An ink drawing of a woman in profile with a tree growing out of her head, and large spirals of hair trailing behind her. There is a sun and several other circular embellishments that are in metallic gold foil, and the trunk and branches of the tree are in metallic silver.
November 12, 2025 at 12:20 AM
mothmother.com
Burn it to the ground!
50501movement.bsky.social 50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 6d
Spotify is crashing HARD because of the boycott. Their stock dropped 11% in value over the last month. Let’s keep this going!

Tell everyone you know to boycott Spotify. There are plenty of alternatives that don’t run ICE advertisements and screw over artists.

We made it easy at boycottspotify.com.
Stock of Spotify over last month showing sharp decline, from near $700 in value to $615.
November 10, 2025 at 10:21 AM
mothmother.com
@tallrowlet.bsky.social wrote an extended reflection on their experience reading The Egg Prime Directive and it's humbling to see how intensely my story has impacted them! 😭❤️‍🔥🫂
November 10, 2025 at 10:03 AM
mothmother.com
Hey new followers! I need to update my intro thread, but for now you should check out my cozy trans romance novel that's still up for free on Scribblehub through the end of the month! It's filled with queer joy, and adorable/magical girls!

www.scribblehub.com/series/17665...
The Egg Prime Directive
The Egg Prime Directive Alternate 'Light Novel' style titles: 'Transformed into a girl by a conference trickster, I must learn the ways of her pervert tribe!' or ''I was (lovingly) forcefemmed at a co...
www.scribblehub.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Tess "Read my complete draft of The Egg Prime Directive!" Tanen
catblackard.bsky.social
I'm at North Carolina Comicon this weekend! If you're in the area come by and say hi💕. I'm repping Lightning Dog, an all-ages action series born from my love of 80s and 90s sci-fi and animation, mutants and dope furry media 😼✌️
lightningdogs.bsky.social Lightning Dogs @lightningdogs.bsky.social · 5d
Find us at NC Comicon! @catblackard.bsky.social and Tony are here sharing secrets for what's coming soon on our canine crusade.
Cat and Tony at the Lightning Dogs booth at North Carolina Comicon.
November 8, 2025 at 7:33 PM
mothmother.com
This is the way. Not saying "wait till I'm in office for me to help you" but instead seeing a need and stepping up.

Ultimately it's going to take all of us collectively doing things like this in all aspects of our lives to begin patching the holes in our society left by our derelict government.
katmabu.bsky.social Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 5d
Until the end of the government shutdown, our campaign will be donating $2,500 a month to a food pantry in the Ninth District.

And to my fellow candidates, I challenge you to do the same:
November 8, 2025 at 10:05 PM
mothmother.com
This is a #mood!

Getting my ADHD diagnosis was every bit as life altering as cracking my gender egg. Both discoveries gave me the ability to decode things about myself that I'd never understood before. Both forced me to revisit a lifetime of shame and confusion with kindness and acceptance.
tamsin.reimaginedgirl.com Tamsin the Reimagined Girl™ @tamsin.reimaginedgirl.com · 5d
Remembering that time I was celebrating my formal diagnosis of ADHD and someone came tried to shame me for "glorifying a disability" and I was all MOTHERFUCKER I AM CELEBRATING THAT I FINALLY HAVE A NAME FOR WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY BRAIN CAN YOU AND YOUR MORALIZING BULLSHIT KINDLY FUCK OFF INTO THE SUN
November 8, 2025 at 9:35 PM
mothmother.com
Having only one hand, means that my writing and music are going to slow down for the next few weeks. Instead, I'm doing creative things that I only need one hand for: in this case exploring new techniques with the black walnut ink that I brew!
#Bastet #Bast #Ink
An ink drawing of the goddess Bastet.
November 8, 2025 at 8:35 PM
mothmother.com
There are so many great trans creators on this list who are worth a follow!
catgirlfingies.quest Revy @catgirlfingies.quest · 6d
Been a while since i shared my trans & non binary starter pack
Help out by reposting to give some creators and businesses a boost 💙
Trans people are doing it tough so this helps lots
go.bsky.app/4DUhFUd
November 8, 2025 at 10:42 AM
mothmother.com
Slowly realizing that getting surgery on my thumb means that now I don't get to have a thumb for a few weeks. And boy was I taking that shit for granted before!
November 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM
mothmother.com
I lived bitches!
A woman with her arm in front of her, and a sling wrapped in an ace bandage
November 7, 2025 at 3:43 PM
mothmother.com
At the hospital for an ulnar nerve release and tendonitis surgery... something I've needed for many years!

Got to have the "no I was born without a uterus conversation" with a disbelieving nurse, which is always gratifying when dressed like this on a day when not allowed to wear makeup!😅
A woman in a green hospital gown, with a blue hair bonnet and glasses.
November 7, 2025 at 12:47 PM
mothmother.com
The only reason I'm writing now is because I'm a voracious (if slow) reader! Reading the books of other trans and queer authors on BlueSky has kept me functional throughout The Horrors™️ and writing my own has been an exercise of wanting to be able to do that for other people.
benjanun.bsky.social Benjanun Sriduangkaew @benjanun.bsky.social · 7d
I continue to not really understand people who want to write books but who don't read books.
November 7, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Tess "Read my complete draft of The Egg Prime Directive!" Tanen
goblinfluencer.bsky.social
There are a lot of great trans writers out there with book recs, so how about a slightly different angle.

Are you an apparently cis guy who's maybe questioning that assumption, or maybe you've just found a bunch of cool folk on this site and want to understand the memes. Either way, go read this

🧵
mothmother.com Tess "Read my complete draft of The Egg Prime Directive!" Tanen @mothmother.com · 12d
I'm Tess & I just finished the first draft of my neurospicy transgender romance meets magical girl fantasy novel TODAY, just in time for #Bookvember! I'll be honest: it's hard for me to share my "origin story". Much of the truth sounds like fiction. This is partially due to dissociative amnesia...
🧵
November 7, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Reposted by Tess "Read my complete draft of The Egg Prime Directive!" Tanen
mothmother.com
Estrogen is powerful
A masculine presenting person with a beard, in blue jeans, and a Veronica Mars t-shirt, sitting on a driftwood chair. They have dark curly hair, and a haunted look on their face. This picture was taken in march, 2017, so they're 38 years old here. A pretty woman in a black top, and black and grey paisley leggings. the woman's curly dark hair hangs down below her shoulders, and there is a purple streak in it. She wears glasses, and has bold eyeliner wings but is otherwise neutrally made up. Perhaps most notable, in this image, is that the woman is leaning forward, and her boobs are boobin' mightilly!
November 3, 2025 at 3:58 AM
mothmother.com
Estrogen is powerful
A masculine presenting person with a beard, in blue jeans, and a Veronica Mars t-shirt, sitting on a driftwood chair. They have dark curly hair, and a haunted look on their face. This picture was taken in march, 2017, so they're 38 years old here. A pretty woman in a black top, and black and grey paisley leggings. the woman's curly dark hair hangs down below her shoulders, and there is a purple streak in it. She wears glasses, and has bold eyeliner wings but is otherwise neutrally made up. Perhaps most notable, in this image, is that the woman is leaning forward, and her boobs are boobin' mightilly!
November 3, 2025 at 3:58 AM
mothmother.com
"Your story would have cracked my egg" has me in tears this morning!

Honestly, what more could I want as a writer!?
avalily17.bsky.social Ava Lily @avalily17.bsky.social · 11d
This has been a wonderful, delightful read, hitting me at perhaps just the right time. I wish I could send it back in time to myself five or ten years ago. Maybe I wouldn't have the perspective to properly appreciate it, but I think chapter 19 would have completely exploded my egg even then.
November 2, 2025 at 4:25 PM