ZZTRaider
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zztraider.bsky.social
ZZTRaider
@zztraider.bsky.social
76 followers 560 following 80 posts
Trans woman, video game programmer, leftist.
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verati404.bsky.social
Just a reminder: my urban mystery/action-sci-fantasy 5-star-on-Goodreads novel is 60% OFF ($1.99!) on Itch-io as my Anti-Prime Day #sale continues 'til the 11th! Don't miss out on a helluva good time w/ shapeshifter Enaka as they try to stop xenomorphic fungi from destroying Akert City.

#💙📚 #🪐📚 #🌈📚
Echo Sight by Cian Verati
Adult SFF/Mystery. Action/Adventure. LGBTQA+ romance. Shapeshifters.
verati404.itch.io
July 9, 2025 at 11:43 PM
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verati404.bsky.social
I also struggle with this same question. Apparently the numbers for others say to spam, so:

I've only sold one copy of #EchoSight this month. Tell your friends about this deceptively-good genre-bent urban #mystery starring natural enemies: #phoenix #shapeshifters & killer xeno-fungi!

#🌈📚#🪐📚#⚡️📚#💙📚
July 8, 2025 at 3:03 AM
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darktwinge.bsky.social
Local graffiti on point:
Decorative graffiti on the side of an abandoned roadside building reading "ABOLISH ICE"
July 4, 2025 at 1:25 AM
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katie.bzky.team
an older trans woman i've been talking to has been stealth for most of her life and was off estrogen for nearly a decade, essentially given herself menopause, and it is of unfortunately zero surprise that menopausal hrt care is JUST AS BAD as care for people who are outwardly trans.
May 20, 2025 at 4:56 PM
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verati404.bsky.social
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.
May 16, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by ZZTRaider
verati404.bsky.social
TOMORROW.

You'll love this genre-bent #fantasy #mystery about finding your voice, about fighting for justice & your people against the odds. Join Enaka as they confront monsters inside and out to save a city its own leaders refuse to lift a finger for.

#💙📚 #💙🪐 #💙🌶 #booksky #EchoSight
verati404.bsky.social Verati @verati404.bsky.social · May 9
#💙📚 #BookSky #WritingCommunity #QueerWriters #fantasy #SFF #FantasyBookSky

PREORDERS ARE HERE! Check out #EchoSight at verati404.itch.io/echo-sight if you're looking for a page-turner of a read!
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 that is various selling points listed. They are: Adult main character, wiseass funny narrator, disability and mental health rep, LGBTQIA+, dragons, phoenixes, and spirits, oh my! Themes of justice, enviromentalism, intersectionalism, there was only one bed, shapeshifters, fungal monsters, near-future tech world, and magical realism. 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
May 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
zztraider.bsky.social
I had the joy of reading an advanced copy of Echo Sight. I've known Verati for ages and we've played D&D plenty, including in this setting, so I knew it'd be great. Y'all, I still *significantly* underestimated how much fun I'd have reading it. Calling it a well-written page-turner undersells it.
verati404.bsky.social Verati @verati404.bsky.social · May 9
#💙📚 #BookSky #WritingCommunity #QueerWriters #fantasy #SFF #FantasyBookSky

PREORDERS ARE HERE! Check out #EchoSight at verati404.itch.io/echo-sight if you're looking for a page-turner of a read!
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 that is various selling points listed. They are: Adult main character, wiseass funny narrator, disability and mental health rep, LGBTQIA+, dragons, phoenixes, and spirits, oh my! Themes of justice, enviromentalism, intersectionalism, there was only one bed, shapeshifters, fungal monsters, near-future tech world, and magical realism. 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
May 10, 2025 at 12:27 AM
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katie.bzky.team
i regularly think about how all of my political and philosophical opinions are ultimately extensions of an axiom that every person should be given the resources to grow, learn, and thrive over their lifetime, yet somehow this makes me a radical. such a bleak state of affairs at times.
May 8, 2025 at 9:27 AM
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mel.bzky.team
it's about finding the new good words to describe that old, now-passed misery, and by doing so to banish it forever to the margins. you were never broken like you believed. you were dysphoric; call the demon by its name and its power wanes, the infinitely large reduced to a few letters on a page
May 1, 2025 at 1:47 AM
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verati404.bsky.social
Echo Sight: a disabled shapeshifter/monster hunter tasked w/tracking down a smuggler before the fungal monsters surge in 4 days across Akert City, & a man from an opposing government claims to know Enaka from a past life.

Read the first three chapters for free here!

www.patreon.com/posts/127447...
An original redheaded character with falcon-like markings under their eyes leans toward the audience out of smoke and flames, their eyes glowing. Feathers cover their chest and forearm, and claws can be seen on their fingertips. Below them, the name of the novel, "Echo Sight," along with the tagline, "Singular mind, singular purpose," is displayed. A map of the Cateronian continent where the novel takes place. Akert City is circled by the main character in red, and other notes are made for other parts of the map. In the bottom corner is their travel checklist. A dark-haired man in a white suit. His tie, belt, and large round earrings are dark green. His shirt is black. He walks forward, eyes locking with the audience. He's tugging off his tie with one hand while his other hand is shoved in his pocket. The background is a white to blue gradient with pink petals floating around him. The cover of Echo Sight. Enaka, the redheaded main character, floats above an underground lake while holding a chain in one hand and fire in the other. In the water where they're looking are memories rippling across the surface. Behind Enaka is a dragon hidden in the dark, its eyes bright blue and yellow.
April 30, 2025 at 4:37 AM
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impossiblephd.bsky.social
I've been thinking today, and there's this thing in Clair Obscur that's been really hitting and I wanna talk about it.

You see, the heroes of this game don't think they're going to win. Their plan is to die useful deaths.

And they say it over and over again in the game: "for those who come after."
April 28, 2025 at 11:31 PM
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verati404.bsky.social
#EchoSight #Booksky #Patreon

🐦‍🔥✨️ - Phoenix shapeshifters
🔥⚔️ - Great action
🍄😈 - Fungal demons
🦿🏳️‍⚧️ - Disabled & queer rep
🧑‍🤝‍🧑❤️ - "Only one bed."
😂💀 - You'll have a great time.

Things are bad, but y'know what isn't? My book of gremlins doing their BEST through horrors.
www.patreon.com/posts/127447...
A sticker set of three characters from the novel Echo Sight. One is a redhead with their face in their hands with the blue words, "Makr's fucking ashes." The middle is of a white-haired boy with a medical bracelet with the yellow word "Fuck" underneath in all caps. The bottom is of a black-haired man in a white Jodhpuri-style suit with the green words, "For Sam's sake," on his shoulders. All of them look comically despairing. A dark-haired man in a white suit. His tie, belt, and large round earrings are dark green. His shirt is black. He walks forward, eyes locking with the audience. He's tugging off his tie with one hand while his other hand is shoved in his pocket. The background is a white to blue gradient with pink petals floating around him. A map of the western half of the Cateroph continent in a modern style. The main water portion in the middle is the Gulf of Afredal, and the brownish area in the top right is labeled as the Sporelands, though it has red ink from the main character scribbling it out with the word "NO" on it. The red circle just above the Gulf is where the novel takes place, a city named Akert. The cover for the novel Echo Sight. The redhead from the sticker set hovers above an underground lake with ripples of memories in the water. Behind them, a dragon blending into the background watches them with bright, blue-green eyes.
April 27, 2025 at 3:55 PM
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pairofclaws.bsky.social
It is actually okay for us to expect self-proclaimed allies to cut their hateful friends and family members out of their lives. You don't get to be like, "I am against all bigotry except for from my friend Susan who is just Like That!"
April 26, 2025 at 11:40 PM
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mel.bzky.team
trans people are an incredibly small minority that is also disenfranchised politically and economically and is too scattered to be a local majority anywhere so we hold no influence. i am therefore calling for a moratorium on any cis people trying to convince any trans people of literally anything
April 27, 2025 at 12:02 AM
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verati404.bsky.social
#Booksky #EchoSight #Writesky #QueerWriters #WritingCommunity #fantasy #scifi

Thank you so much! While it's *officially* coming out next month, I'm putting the first three chapters of Echo Sight (minus the in-character footnotes b/c formatting) on my Patreon for free!
patreon.com/VeratiArt?ut...
April 26, 2025 at 9:43 PM
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verati404.bsky.social
#EchoSight #art #CoverReveal #Booksky #OC

A book that is 100% made by me, including the cover. And I'm a better writer than I am an artist, lol.

If you like fluid action choreography, science-based monsters, detective fantasy, and queer romance, you'll like all of this.

Chap 1-3 free on Patreon!
The book cover for Echo Sight. In the center, a nonbinary main character floats above a glassy, underground lake, looking down at reflected memories. They hold fire in one hand and a chain weapon in the other. Behind them, lurking in the background, is the head of a concealed dragon, their eyes glowing brightly in the gloom. Both the book and cover are by Cian Verati as part of the Tainted Faculties series.
April 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
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impossiblephd.bsky.social
Public service announcement:

If you're on estrogen and you take a multivitamin or if you take biotin to make your hair and nails healthier, it's ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL that you stop all of that stuff for at least 3, and preferably 4, days before you get your blood levels checked.
April 19, 2025 at 5:48 PM
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socksandpuppets.com
A portrait drawing of a goblin, she is wearing a choker and a dress in the colours of the lesbian pride flag, and her hair is dyed in all the colours of the progress pride flag. A caption says "be proud of who you are."
March 31, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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verati404.bsky.social
My favorite sign from today.

We can do hard things. We can take action. We can wrench our future from the abyss together, and no one gets left behind.
A paint and cardboard sign that reads, "Last time Boston had a king, we threw his tea in the harbor!" The tea in that sign is just the Tesla T symbol.
February 18, 2025 at 1:33 AM
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verati404.bsky.social
This is giving me so many feelings. Look how beautiful our #SolarSystem is!

#science #space #nature #venus #planets
jwstfeed.bsky.social Jwst Feed @jwstfeed.bsky.social · Feb 16
This is the clearest photo ever taken of Venus.
🔭 🧪
This is a cropped, close-up image of the planet Venus, taken by the Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument. The image shows a crescent Venus against the black backdrop of space, with the edge of the planetary limb clearly defined. The crescent is illuminated by sunlight, transitioning from a bright, almost white glow at the top right edge to a subtle, golden yellow that dominates the majority of the illuminated area, before fading into the darkness of the planet's night side at the bottom left. The distinct variations in brightness and texture across the crescent suggest cloud formations or atmospheric layers. A bright, flaring light source is visible at the top right corner, likely the Sun, which contributes to the illumination of the crescent. The overall composition emphasizes the stark contrast between the luminous crescent and the surrounding darkness, highlighting the curvature and celestial context of Venus.
February 16, 2025 at 5:50 PM
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mel.bzky.team
if you're trans your job isn't actually to overthrow the government rn. focus your efforts on making sure you and your siblings survive until rising malcontent makes them collapse on their own

they're bound to crash and burn. make sure you're still around when they do
February 15, 2025 at 7:23 PM
zztraider.bsky.social
Probably screaming into the void here, but damn everything feels so exhausting these days. How am I supposed to do the whole executive functioning thing, even for the things I really want to do, with all this shit going around?
February 15, 2025 at 10:26 AM
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nicbennett.bsky.social
the check-in text, the how-are-you-call...these are important in these times

love on each other
February 13, 2025 at 1:27 PM
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nicbennett.bsky.social
my loves--please don't let the first time you reach out to your trans/nonbinary colleague be to be "more inclusionary" in your work--build relationships with us first

we can tell when you are tokenizing us

let's be relational, not transactional, my loves
February 11, 2025 at 5:57 PM