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shanaqui.bsky.social
Nicky
@shanaqui.bsky.social
130 followers 49 following 1.3K posts
36-year-old reader, gamer, self-employed worker, frequent student. Ace, enby, Welsh, reluctant collector of anxiety disorders. They/them.

I do work for Beeminder, Postcrossing and Taskratchet, but this is a personal account.
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shanaqui.bsky.social
The author A.C. Harper has an account on here which replies to stuff tagged with the #booksky tag in a weird LLMish way which often doesn't make sense, most recently to shill his books in a reply to my review of a manga that bears no similarity to them. Spammy and annoying; I recommend a block.
A screenshot showing A.C. Harper's reply to one of my posts. My post is a review of The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter vol 5, while his reply seems like a prompted LLM coming up with some reply in order to shill his books. The text of my post: "Review - The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga), vol 5: another fun instalment; not a lot of Aresh in this volume, but there's still a step forward in his relationship with Seiichirou. Rating: 4/5 ("really liked it"). Full review: [link]" A screenshot showing A.C. Harper's reply to another of my posts. My post is about "What are you reading Wednesday" and mentions two totally unrelated books. The text of my post: "WWW Wednesday: The usual weekly check-in, discussing The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy, The Genetic Lottery, and what I might read next. [link]" Harper's reply: "Love this lineup 📚 Enemies to lovers plus The Genetic Lottery is a fun combo. Which one is grabbing you most this week?" For context, the first book is an enemies-to-lovers romantasy, the second is a non-fiction book about genetic inequality.
November 7, 2025 at 12:04 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
It made my halloween to meet another Hua Cheng cosplayer in Limsa. 💖

#FFXIV #TGCF
A female elezen character stands beside a female hyur. Both are dressed in red with silver vambraces, white trousers, and black boots. Both have black hair and butterflies flying around them. Both wear an eyepatch over their right eyes. A female elezen character stands beside a female hyur. Both are dressed in red with silver vambraces, white trousers, and black boots. Both have black hair and both wear an eyepatch over their right eyes. Both are carrying red parasols.
October 31, 2025 at 9:17 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
He also once drove down to my uni with six giant Ikea hippos a la this one (though this is a picture from online, not one of mine, they're all sleeping at this hour, naturally) all strapped in the back seat, stood up on end, with (IIRC) several with sunglasses somehow affixed to their faces.
A long hippo stuffie, with orange face and legs, yellow soles-of-the-feet, and a red body with pink spots on it. Also a green tail. Subtlety and these creatures haven't met, but I hear they make great draft excluders. (Mine generally act as padding between me and a cold wall.)
August 18, 2025 at 10:32 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Folks can also set them as the preferred bookshop and buy any books they like (doesn't have to be from a curated list).

And! If you do it this weekend, you'll be entered into a draw to win a £250 gift card.

Screenshots for guidance, or just visit the link and it'll be selected automatically.
Bookshop.org front page, with a red arrow and underline pointing out where to click to "Choose a bookshop" Screenshot of the dropdown where you can type in "One Tree" and select One Tree Books
July 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
The exhilaration at perfectly completing the fight against the Chromatic Abbest was out of this world, especially as someone who is not great at dodging etc.

#expedition33
A victory screen from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It shows a no-damage win, and in the bottom corner, a Steam pop-up showing I got the "Professional" achievement: "Defeat a boss without taking any damage." My party was Lune, Maelle and Sciel.
June 22, 2025 at 5:00 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
The person in question has chosen to counter-accuse me of harrassment for my comment yesterday.

This thread on their blog is hidden so no one else can see my comments, so I can't make a Wayback Machine record of it.
shanaqui posts: "You keep missing or deliberately ignoring my polite requests in response to comments left on my blog, so I’ve come to your blog to once more ask you to stop contacting me. I am non-binary, and you have openly stated that you believe that to be delusional, etc, etc. I think it is unlikely that we will ever see eye to eye, and I think we will both be more comfortable if we avoid each other. To that end, please stop commenting on my blog, as I have asked you on three separate occasions now. This is beginning to feel like harrassment, but I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps you have not seen my requests. Thank you." Snapdragon replies: "So you purposely come on to my blog looking for something you do not like (giving vague detail as to what it is) then go on to your own to demand that I reply to your comments and dismiss them as “harassment”. 1 I did not have my notification on and two I was gone for the last week and half to a place with little cell serve. Then come on to my blog to make accusations. This feel like harassment towards me." shanaqui replies: "I have been asking you to stop commenting on my blog since 6th March 2024, after following a link back from one of your comments on my Stacking the Shelves/Sunday Post and reading your comments about Blue Delliquanti’s Across a Field of Starlight. At that point I stopped visiting your blog and kept asking you to stop commenting on mine, but you continue to do so. I have politely asked that you stop, and I came to your blog to ask again as a last resort when it became clear that you weren’t going to stop, and may not have seen my replies. I hope this clarifies the situation and we can agree to leave each other alone going forward. Thank you for your acknowledgement."
May 29, 2025 at 8:39 AM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Just in case the harrassing transphobe kept commenting on my blog because they never saw my replies, I left a comment on THEIR blog.

I know they've seen it, because it was removed this morning.

Here's a screenshot I made of the comment. There's a Wayback Machine archived page showing it, too.
A comment on a Wordpress blog. A user called shanaqui says: "You keep missing or deliberately ignoring my polite requests in response to comments left on my blog, so I've come to your blog to once more ask you to stop contacting me. I am non-binary, and you have openly stated that you believe that to be delusional, etc, etc. I think it is unlikely that we will ever see eye to eye, and I think we will both be more comfortable if we avoid each other. To that end, please stop commenting on my blog, as I have asked you on three separate occasions now. This is beginning to feel like harrassment, but I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps you have not seen my requests. Thank you."
May 28, 2025 at 9:51 AM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Best Star Trek crew, wrong answers only
The Scions of the Seventh Dawn from Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker promotional artwork. From top to bottom, left to right: Tataru, Alisaie, Y'shtola, G'raha, Urianger, Estinien, Thancred, Meteor (player character stand-in), Alphinaud, Krile.
May 25, 2025 at 2:21 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Take the fictional characters quiz and post the first four you know:

openpsychometrics.org/tests/charac...

I never watched Buffy or House, but I recognise them, and you have to go a loooong way down the list after Daniel Jackson and Jimmy Palmer for characters I actually *know*.
Willow from Buffy Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG1 Jimmy Palmer from NCIS James Wilson from House
May 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Blessings to the person working for the British Library shop who read my sad "my free bookmark with this month's British Library Crime Classic subscription book was bent... can I pay you to ship me a spare? I collect them" and sent me... this many.

I love you, whoever you are. You made my day.
A picture of a bunch of bookmarks spread out on a bit of carpet. They replicate the covers of various British Library Crime Classic reissues, such as Christianna Brand's London Particular, Francis Iles' Before the Fact and John Dickson Carr's The Ten Teacups. There are eleven in total.
April 15, 2025 at 8:32 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
How me and my co-tank in #FFXIV think we look vs how we actually look:
A stick-figure drawing made in Microsoft Paint. On the left, a slightly smaller figure with cat ears is wielding what is generously intended to be an axe. On the right, a slightly taller figure with a ponytail and bangs is holding a shield. They are holding hands. On the left, a chararacter in a green jacket with white trim and white pants, with ankle boots, with a very large war axe strapped to his back; he has cat-ears, facial markings and a beard, and is wearing sunglasses. Beside him, a character dressed in a black trenchcoat that has armoured arms/shoulders, black thighboots and a black tiara, has hair in a high ponytail, carries a shield on their back and a sword strapped to their side. Both of them have neutral expressions. Neither of them look particularly apropos to the setting, a disco.
April 4, 2025 at 8:57 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Mostly posting this so I can link someone to it... gave Eirian a new hairstyle today in #FFXIV.
An FFXIV character with white/grey hair, in profile. Their hair is in a high ponytail, with braids on one side and a fringe on the other. In this screenshot, their facial tattoo is visible, and the fact that they're wearing a bomb earring. They're dressed in red and black, and carrying a rapier. An FFXIV character with white/grey hair, in profile. Their hair is in a high ponytail, with bangs. They're dressed in red and black, wearing a blindfold and carrying a rapier.
March 23, 2025 at 11:10 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
I had a quick search online and I'm seeing easily £60k for a year's rent for a *smaller* space.

The GoFundMe description makes it seem that they're seeking funds to cover not just the next rent period, but to help ensure it's not just living quarter-to-quarter.

So it seems fairly reasonable...
If we do not meet our target, we will see what is possible with the funds raised. If it is enough for us to continue operations for another few months, we may be able to stay while looking for longer-term funding. If we exceed our target, we could enter a growth phase. We are currently operating with the smallest possible budget and the smallest possible team who work hard to bring you world-class exhibitions, events and engagement.
March 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
I'm hoping to finish up reading Heather Fawcett's Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, over the weekend.

But for this evening, I'm working on my reread of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation, a manga that claims not to be queer.

...

...

Uhhuh.
A manga illustration, showing a man with dark hair standing over the bed of a sleeping man with fair hair, looking down at him. Manga illustration to be reading right-to-left, showing a one hand just letting go from gripping another's wrist, and then just holding hands with fingers intertwined. A panel of a manga in which a light-haired man looks a little surprised as a dark-haired man intensely tells him: "It doesn't matter if you're F-ranked or S-ranked, or the king of the country or a criminal. I'll always be here."
March 8, 2025 at 12:34 AM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Here she is with me at my MA graduation. I'm so glad I gave my family ticket to her. She was so proud.
A photo of an elderly lady with grey hair in a pale dress with flowers and leaves on it, beside a female-bodied person in a brown dress, covered by an academic gown with a blue hood. They have brown hair and are wearing a mortarboard.
March 5, 2025 at 1:35 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The Lego daffodil kit I got my wife came in handy, this year when we have no daffs. @ehlyah.bsky.social gave me daffs in time after all, despite the broken ankle!
A set of Lego daffodils, two yellow and two white, held up against a blurry background of random house stuff.
March 1, 2025 at 12:48 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
What the fuck is happening in this game? I'm not hating it!

#WALvIRE
The "is this a butterfly?" meme, but with the WRU logo and a rugby ball
February 22, 2025 at 3:11 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Got me my Skyruin mount at last. 💙

#FFXIV
A blond-haired character in a red and black outfit (thighboots, shorts, one sleeved sports-ish jacket that shows midriff, black blindfold, black fingerless gloves) flies high against a blue sky, with silver, red and gold wings and phoenix-like tail spread behind them
January 19, 2025 at 9:01 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Digital Devil Saga. And the sequel. I LONG to replay these games.
Cover of the PS2 game Digital Devil Saga, which is in a very cool colour palette, greys and blues and the title in green. A silver-haired man looks to the viewer, his arm transforming into that of a monster. Behind him, the full monster.
January 15, 2025 at 9:55 AM
shanaqui.bsky.social
#bookishcheckpoint: the TBR🍵

❥ last book added to your TBR: A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation, v10
❥ a book added for its cover: We Could Be Heroes
❥ next anticipated read: The Apothecary Diaries vol 2
❥ a book everyone should add to their TBR: A Gentle Noble's Vacation recommendation, v1
The cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation, vol 10, showing a gentle-looking man with blond hair tied back, reading a book. Cover of We Could Be Heroes by PJ Ellis, which features a guy in a superhero outfit bridal-carrying a guy who is dressed casually in a masculine outfit but with red high heels. Cover of The Apothecary Diaries vol 2 (light novel), by Natsu Hyuuga, featuring a young Chinese girl sitting with her arms wrapped around her knee, holding a blue flower. She doesn't seem happy. The cover of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 1, by Misaki, Momochi and Sando, foregrounding a sandy-haired guy looking over this shoulder at the viewer carrying books and, in the background, a grumpier looking guy in black armed with a sword, hand on his hip.
January 14, 2025 at 7:37 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Comfort-reading volume eight of A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation, and it continues to be definitely, tooootally not gay. Not gay at all. "Nibbling my best bro's fingers platonically because we're not gay" apparently a thing.

(Dialogue isn't important, just the character interactions.)

💙📚
A page of a comic. The important thing to note in this context is that as Lizel is speaking, Eleven has sat down at his feet and seems to be getting his hair stroked and cheek scritched. A page of a comic. The important thing to note is that one character (Eleven) is sat at the feet of another character (Lizel), and starts nibbling his finger for attention. (This is showing more trust than you'd know without context, because his fangs can secrete poison; Lizel is very chill about it, showing he trusts Eleven entirely.) Eleven responds with puppyish excitement to the promise of a walk.
January 13, 2025 at 11:23 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
I want to say A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation vol 10, which came out yesterday, but despite scenes like THIS, everyone insists the series is not queer.

(COME ON though. Surely at LEAST these two have hopped into bed with Lizel. Judge and Studd's crushes seem canonical to me, too.)
Read right to left. The first panel is just text, not in a speech bubble. "I don't have a goal, and this isn't an instinctual thing. It's not as if I'm just looking to have fun. ...Ah." In the next panel, a blond-haired guy (Lizel) asks "To be...?" of a darker-haired guy (Eleven) with a long ponytail. The next panel is a closeup of Lizel's eyes, looking gentle. Eleven's thoughts continue: "So that's it. It's too late now." On the next page, he reaches across the carriage to stroke Lizel's cheek, watched by a guy with dark hair (Gil) who is sitting up straight beside Lizel, not intervening. Eleven says, "I want to be by your side. Let me." Lizel laughs a little in reply, eyes half-closed, and says: "I even gave you an out." In the final panel, Eleven laughs too, sitting back and waving his hands. "You're such a bully!" he says.
January 11, 2025 at 1:52 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
I am reminded that I never posted pics of the no-sew crochet project from hell I made for my sister.

A rare species approaches...
A crocheted creature which has the rough body shape of a diplodocus-ish dinosaur, but is also a banana, with a banana-like tail, yellow body, peels around the neck, and then the white inside of the banana forms a head. A box mocked up as a packing crate with stickers saying "Fragile, do not drop", "this way up!" and "stuffie cargo". The cardboard-box-cum-packing-crate from another angle, showing a neat row of air holes punched into the side. You can also glimpse "fragile do not drop" and "stuffie cargo" stickers on the top. The same box now wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper which has rather abstract leaf and star patterns on it in green, red and orange. The stickers from the box are repeated: "this way up!" on the side, and "fragile do not drop" and "stuffie cargo" on the top.
December 28, 2024 at 11:00 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
Finally got the mount in M4S! #FFXIV
A blond character in black sits astride something that's a bit like a flying motorbike, shaped like a wheel, with neon purple and blue detailing. They're flying through a stormy sky.
December 11, 2024 at 9:16 PM
shanaqui.bsky.social
You and your FFXIV character:
Person with short brown hair, slightly curly, wearing glasses. They're smiling widely. They're wearing a flowery top (actually a dress), with a bee necklace. A blond-haired FFXIV character, with bangs. They're wearing a black eyepatch. There's a black tattoo just visible on the side of their face. They're wearing a red crop-top with a black denim jacket, black fingerless gloves, and black leather trousers with silver details. They're holding a weapon made of two swords joined together at the ends of the hilts (like a Darth Maul lightsaber).
November 26, 2024 at 8:33 PM