🍂Violet Vanguard🍂

@violetvanguard

Late 30s she/her. Enthusiastic about sci-fi/fantasy/horror/steampunk stuff especially if 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Will horde books. Hydropneumatic fanatic. A fan of Cricket Chronicles, Discworld, D&D, Mass Effect & DA (amongst others).

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🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· 1d

I managed to find the book I was after for less so I now have two Point Horrors to relive! I can’t express how much I loved these as a kid.

Two Point Horror Books, The Babysiyter III, and Beach House, both by R L Stine.

Babysitter had a front cover showing an open door with a shadow on it, looking into a room with a Moses basket.

Beach house shows a weird swirly cover of a wave merging into the sky. There is a beach house just visible towards the right edge, more accurately a deck. There are some sunglasses partially submerged in the sand

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· 11d

Your last saved meme is now your moral philosophy Hmmm........

The Mitchum Brothers (two white middle aged American men wearing grey suits with white shirts and ties) from Twin Peaks. One of them is holding a revolver, one of them is saying “People are under a lot of stress, Bradley.”

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jun 5

I’m trying to build back up to regular running/normal running for me as I’ve been knocked back by a lil sparkling anaemia. Anyway that’s enough SPORTS

A white bloke in a blue button up shirt and a green flat cap with his mouth open in a roar. It’s from the old powerthirst video

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jun 4

This morning I am struggling to human. Scratch that. This afternoon I am continuing to struggle to be human. But I have a damn fine cup of coffee and have locked myself into editing so productivity is happening. Hope you’re all having a good one and treating yourselves with kindness

A white woman’s hand holding a white coffee cup with black stylistic bats on it. The inside of the cup is black and has a cortado in it. Behind an old think pad t430 is visible with a matrix code screen saver running green symbols on a black screen.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· May 6

Five years of HRT today. It’s weird that for one of the most important days of my life there is so little celebration, it feels like it should be a national holiday, international even. So fuck it, made a cake, there should always be cake. Not my finest work but done quickly in dinner break.

A chocolate cake on a wooden board (there’s a set of metal red and brass kitchen scales in the background along with a set of knives on a magnet strip along the white brick tiled wall on a grey worktop). The cake is covered with a chocolate buttercream which ist very neat (but is tasty)

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Feb 24

The first coffee after descaling always has me convinced that I’m going to poison myself. Has the machine been flushed? Extremely. But still 😐 Anyway, the coffee is 10/10 despite my lips insisting that they are tingling (they aren’t) and my brain telling me I can definitely taste descaler (I can’t).

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Dec 12

These are peak healthcare setting vibes. This is the one waiting room I don’t mind spending time in. Time to catch up on @ryannfletcher.bsky.social’s Books and Bloodlust whilst I wait!

A progress pride flag hanging in a transgender health clinic waiting room. To the left is a banner with the name of the health centre on (Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health, it features the pride flag and the non binary flag (though this one has a black band top and bottom and I’ve only seen them at the bottom before, looks good, balanced) and an art piece by Kezkon, depicting a turquoise coloured fabric torso with flowers snaking around it in various shades of pink

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Dec 2

I can’t find Discworld figures in 1:76 for the railway under the Xmas tree (gutted) but I have found a Paddington Bear to go along with the TARDIS from last year so it’s not all bad. There’s also the skeleton gay couple and dog from the Funnybones books/tv programme but can’t stretch that this year.

A 1:76 scale model of Paddington Bear wearing his signature blue coat and red hat. He is sat on a suitcase eating a sandwich (marmalade of course)

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Oct 30

It’s a shame that when people (Terry Pratchett in this example) were voicing concerns as far back as 1995, that they were dismissed. Imagine if they’d been taken seriously and we didn’t have the general shit show that is our current political situation.

Screen shot from Wikipedia

In a 1995 interview with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Pratchett expressed concern about the potential spread of misinformation online. He felt that there was a "kind of parity of esteem of information" on the internet, and gave the example of Holocaust denial being presented on the same terms as peer-reviewed research, with no easy way to gauge reliability. Gates disagreed, saying that online authorities would index and check facts and sources in a much more sophisticated way than in print. The interview was rediscovered in 2019, and seen by Pratchett's biographer as prescient of fake news.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Oct 19

“How are the Missy figures coming along?” “We’ve run out of money to design a new head.” “Just stick Captain Jack’s head on but change the hair so it isn’t obvious, no one will notice.” It’s not just me right?

A boxed collectible figure of Missy from Doctor Who, although the face looks like that of Jack Harkness

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Sep 25

What are quotes from older games that you still use? For me GTA Vice City was very quotable (still my fave of the series) and “…you are now … to AMERICA!” (from the Rambo parody adverts) gets declared frequent. There’s also “More work?” Which was one of the human peasant lines from WC3

A photo of a peasant (human) from Warcraft 3. A cartoonish art style leaning into a fantasy medieval style. The peasant is white with dark hair and beard, holding a pickaxe (possibly a mattock but hard to tell from the photo) in a countryside setting with text saying “more work?”

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Aug 24

A successful quest with @snipethesorrow.bsky.social to find the Discworld reference I'd heard of in World of Warcraft. 500 gold a shirt and that's cutting her own throat! Or skinning her own coat as the case may be. I need to find more DW references.

A World of Warcraft S.E.L.F.I.E. showing my Vulpera character (A fox like creature with fiery-red fur, with cream-white patches around the muzzle and on the top of the head, and darker blue-grey stripes here and there. Heterochromatic eyes, right blue, amber left), behind her is a trader, a similar Vulpera, named Skin-Me-Own-Coat Dibblefur <t-shirt scalper>

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Aug 23

I’m going to have it’s legs off. It might take all day with my devastating 10 DPS but I’ll get there

A screenshot from World of Warcraft showing a lil vulpera warrior hacking at some fel creature’s leg

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jul 13

Burning through Clocktower Elegy by Ryann Fletcher (the sequel to the award winning novel Rhapsody in Flames). I’ve been looking forward to this since first finishing Rhapsody and in short, I love it.

The front cover of Ryann Fletcher’s novel, Clocktower Elegy. The cover has art deco style elements in the fonts used and display of authors name and features a building with Clocktower in the middle flanked by trees

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jun 19

A momentous occasion! Started the day in the tens of thousands, now officially in the 100s! There should be cake.

A photo of a speedo on a Citroën C5 MKII (X7) there’s a dial type speedo on the outside with a red stubby needle that moves around the outer rim to indicate speed. In the middle is a digital display (it can be used for everything from sat nav, compass, fuel consumption/trip computers, etc) which in this photo is showing the speed, currently 0 mph. The bottom left of this digital display shows 099991 miles.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jun 14

Dugga Doo pride pin has arrived! Thank you @jamiebgall.co.uk 🫶

A pin badge of Dugga Doo from Doctor Who. An orange furred creature with a yellow horn (classic trumpet car horn style) like beak with a visible cute lil tooth at front. Has a long neck (this one with pride rainbow stripes), kangaroo looking tail and legs (no front legs or arms) and orange Mohawk, two forward facing black eyes, two yellow ears (vaguely triangular to the sides), and two little antennae which are black with yellow balls on the end.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jun 1

Love to see it!

A pride flag flys from the keep of a castle (Bolsover Castle, England) the sky behind is cloudy and blue. An orange marquee (gazebo? Unsure of the difference) stands in the foreground.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· May 14

Getting in the bath for a wash? She is nothing if not hygienic.

A black cat, with orange collar complete with bow and silver bell, sits in a white bath tub (empty of water) at the drain end. She’s washing herself.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· May 3

Things are a bit grim so here’s Sappho having a wash and showing off some toe beans

Sappho the black cat sat on a plastic tarp covered greenhouse. She’s having a wash and her charcoal coloured paw pads are visible as she licks herself.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Apr 30

“How do they rise up?” Bloomed early this year but will hopefully flower through to the glorious 25th of May

Photo of a lilac against a red brick wall. The flowers are pink/purple with white edges

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Mar 20

I do not find larger than entire continents, VERY hungry (and he hungers for souls) caterpillar to be a comforting idea/sight

A bag for life with a stylised print of the children’s book character The Very Hungry Character, crawling around the planet Earth. The caterpillar takes up approximately a fifth of the visible surface of the planet.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jan 28

Starting the day being hit with a poorly Sappho and a £130 vet bill (Sapph will be fine, just a UTI). It’s time we had a NAHS (National Animal Health Service) joking aside…. Here is Sappho in her cat carrier not making any fuss unlike our last cat who was too free spirited to ever accept a cage.

A black cat looking through the grid bar structure of the front gate of a white top, red bottom cat carrier. Her silver bell is also visible

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jan 27

Have some Sappho beans.

A black cat sleeping, covering her eyes with her foreleg, charcoal coloured toe beans and paw pads are visible. On a fleece blanket

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Jan 1

A story in two parts: enemies to lovers. Sappho goes nuts attacking the tinsel like it stole her last pack of dreamies. Sappho loves the tinsel and will not be moved from it

A black cat, wide eyed, “hunting” pink tinsel on the floor.

A black cat snuggled up with pink tinsel, asleep

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Dec 31

Copied (with permission) from a discworld group I’m in if anyone can help even if it’s just a share

Hogfather million to one chance search

Hi everyone, this is a huge longshot but wondering if any of you lovely folk might be able to help. My partner just told me that her dad (who sadly died more than 20 years ago) gave her a hardback copy of Hogfather, but it got lost in one of her moves not long after he died.

I doubt we'd ever find it, but it would be an amazing New Year miracle if we could discover it and I could buy it back if it's still out there. It's signed in the front cover "To Anthea" and probably says from Dad or similar.

Like I say, it's a million to one chance...

Thanks for reading.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Dec 16

I’ve been after Sim Kern’s The Free People’s Village but have weirdly not been able to get it. Most recently I had it preordered at Waterstones where the release date came and went (by a number of weeks) so I ended up importing it. Can’t read it yet though, it’s time for my annual read: Hogfather

A book. Fluorescent orange (ish? Maybe a hint of pink to the colour?) background with a pinky person smashing a police robot dog. It’s The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern

A book. Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather. An archway forms the shape of a skull with baubles from the ceiling suggesting eyes and a Bose. In the foreground candles suggest a mouth. There are various pork pies, sausages, holly leaves, presents etc in the foreground.

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Dec 16

I just watched Five Nights at Freddy’s for the first time and what I did not expect was that a fleeting glance of a 1970s fisher price aeroplane would hit me like a freight train. I had one, it was a favourite toy and I forgot about it from the age of about four until I saw this 33 years later.

A scene from five nights at Freddy’s showing a girl (child) holding an orange toy aeroplane

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Dec 13

Comparison of the two other locos I have, I’m not sure if it’s obvious in the video but it’s (the minty posted above with the new motor) the quietest one even when compared to the new (as of last year) Hornby tank engine which has a modern tin can style motor. 1/2

🍂Violet Vanguard🍂@violetvanguard· Dec 13

And fully dressed