#csa 2016

[mortalityplays]

there is something going on with my post about the porn ban, where terfs, swerfs and hardcore christians will reblog it saying "um actually before the porn ban I was seeing csa material on my dashboard CONSTANTLY" and I'm like. okay well first of all I'm not an idiot, you are very obviously lying to serve your weird conservative agenda, but even if you weren't. you uh. you curate your dashboard. there was no 'for you' page in 2016. what are you uhhh what are you telling me here exactly.

[hylemorph]

(These observations are only based on my reading of the two available scripts, since I’ve been sick recently and don’t want to be one of Orlok’s plague rats, so I’m avoiding movie theaters for the time being.)

I 100% see where the CSA/Abuse interpretation is coming from, but I feel that I’ve seen many comments from that perspective flat out deny any part of the film deals with female repression, which, based on the scripts, just isn’t true.

Mainly I’m thinking of Friedrich, the loving father of two daughters (who nonetheless repeatedly manifests for his unborn child to finally be a son, named after him), two daughters (little girls Ellen is seen playing with repeatedly—in the 2016 script she plays with them at the beach before talking to Anna) who repeatedly mention a ‘monster’ that their doting parents laugh off as childish play—a monster that is very real, to Ellen, who is initially not treated seriously either until the arrival of Von Franz. She also scandalizes Friedrich when she says she would confront Knock herself, and in general he seems bothered by her more “forward” behavior which is at odds with how ladies “should” behave.

There is also a moment from Anna in the shooting script (not sure if it’s in the film) that stuck out to me: after Ellen says “He says I am promised to him!” (something to that effect) Anna cuts in to insist “She means her husband!” No, she’s obviously talking about Orlok—so why would it have been important to write Anna saying that, if female sexuality and its suppression is not intended as a clear theme?

Also, something else that stuck out to me from the scripts is a clear written attraction to Orlok/Death/the “other side” etc. that I feel also gets explained away by that crowd as only being a product of his abuse of her, but I don’t think that’s quite correct either; I think it’s an important element of the film for her to have, at least once, felt genuine (not trauma based) attraction towards Orlok—alongside her deep love and attraction for her husband, Thomas.

These are great points, I completely agree that looking at Friedrich and Anna's behaviour is key to understanding Ellen's battle with her "gifts" and how acceptance is very conditional for her, even among her closest friends who want to help her.

I don't think that "I am promised to him" part did make it to the finished film, I'm very interested in the context surrounding that - was it when Ellen was explaining her dreams/trances to Von Franz?

I totally agree that Ellen's attraction to Orlok is real, and I don't think it's based on victimhood or a feeling that she can never escape the urge to subject herself to repeated trauma, even though Orlok represents her trauma, among many other complex feelings in her psyche. I think that sexual desire for Orlok represents a deep, primal desire to claim her own darkness and power and everything that freaks her friends out. The tagline of all the promotional material is "succumb to the darkness" and that's really the whole deal, lots of people just immediately assume that darkness is evil and pain and powerlessness.

[i-was-huntertale]

Hello,

If in 2016-2017-2018 you were in the Undertale AU fandom and followed me, this post is for the people who have been asking questions or wondering about me.

Back then, I left and deleted everything in a second and disapeared, and doing so I ghosted, hurt and worried a lot of people, followers, friends, also people who paid for commission and never got them.

For those people, I still have a list with your usernames, refs, and the amount paid, if somehow you stumble on this post, don't hesitate to contact me, I wish to pay you back. I'm really sorry.

I don't remember what I said when I left, I only remembered the panic I was in. Probably said a lot of stupid shit. Anyway.

I don't have any excuses.

I used to be an angry jerk, now I know that. I guess it started as a funny personna, it got to far at some points. There are a lot of things I wish I did or said differently. If I ever hurt you, I'm sorry.

I tried to forget all about this short era, I was terrified of it, of people finding me, of seeing those old drawings, or even read about the game and the AUs, it was exhausting, but it did last almost ten years, so, now I'm here. Probably more for my own closure. So even if nobody end up finding this, I'll still write for myself like a time capsule sort of thing I guess.

When I left I deleted everything, and only used internet for chatting with friends and streaming shows. That's it. I saw the entire internet as a hostile place that wanted to chew me out. I don't exactly remember why though. But that's why people couldn't reached out to me, I changed my discord too. I became a hermit, had one friend left, pushed all the other ones away, moved back in my parent's house, did nothing but smoked w**d morning to night. For 5 years.

Those who rumored that I died, you were kinda right then. I was a shitty messed up bastard, a real cruel pessimist. I used to think I wasted those years, but know I see I needed them to realize a lot of things.

TW this part is gonna talk about trauma if you don't want or don't care you can skip.

In those years I realized I was traumatized, not from the last thing that happen, but by a lot of things I never had realised before, like I needed to hurt this bad to open my eyes. I used to say I didn't know what I was fucked up, that I've never been hurt, that my only guess is that I was a spoiled child and everything was a tantrum.

So turns out, I have c-ptsd from CSA, SA, abandonment, childhood negligence and abuse, insest, and grooming.

I'm borderline and autistic and if I listen to my friends, I'm a system too.

So this is not an excuse, more like an explanation, although I'd understand many people would be mad I even mention those things. I really wanna be better, I think I am now.

I got out after 5years, saved by my last friend and people who didn't even knew me but allowed me to take refuge in their home anyway.Helped us find an apartment and ways to make money. It's not a figure of speech when I say I'd be dead if I didn't leave that day.

But enough self loathing, I live better now. Moved, got a job, treatment, therapy, met new friends, even got engaged. I'm broke as hell and fat and I still get triggered hard as fuck some days it feels like dying again, but it's so much better.

So, I guess that's the news. Got tired of running away from these things and honestly having sans the skeleton as a trigger was pathetic to me, it was time I worked on that.

I still look at all the fanarts I got sometimes, and all the fics that have been written, for an AU with only a few drawings and only one freaking chapter........ Despite everything I'm so thankful for those and I miss the fun I had with many of my old followers and friends. I don't think I'll have that ever again. I don't really draw anymore.

That's it. I'm alive, I'm sorry, and I'm thankful. Hit me up if I owe you money.

[snowberriesromanoff]

Oh my god can you please share your reading recs for Rose? 🙇🙇🙇 Ideally if it's possible i'd love to see your thoughts on:

-your personal favourite arcs/stories, what you consider essential readings

-if there's a mini/short arc you think characterizes her great and is a good standalone (i.e. for fic writers who want to do her right but don't have time to read a whole rec list)

-some rose meta if you got it? Your own or someone else or you can just yap about her rn i'm curious and invested!

Also I'm curious if there's any fan artist on tumblr who does a great Rose you wanna give a shout-out to?

Sorry for the tall order, feel free to ignore me/just answer whichever you want!

Rose!!! She is my favorite of favorites I would love to answer this

If you're looking for a comic that does her justice to give you an idea of everything she has going on, you want Knight Terrors Ravager. It's just two issues, it's focused on her dynamic with her father and a projection of her childhood self, it's beautifully done and for a current event tie-in comic it has a lot of surprising deep cut references to her canon.

That said. Content warning for *very heavily implied* CSA and on-page abuse in her comics, including Knight Terrors, which means I'm going to be treating both as canon when I talk about her and is why the rest of this is under a read more

Rose suffers from a lot of her core appearances being in Geoff John's Teen Titans run, which is...not good comics but it is the point where she went from "background daughter of Slade who is also Lian Harper's nanny" to having her own storylines. @/roseworth has a more complete breakdown of this era

Ravager origin (Teen Titans 7-12): Rose is manipulated by Slade into taking up the Ravager mantle, drugged by him, they fight the Titans, and she ultimately stabs her own eye out trying to win his approval, there's another short arc where she and her father are working together but they're not the main focus.

After the One Year Later Timeskip, Rose ends up as a core member of the team. She forges a deep friendship with Eddie Bloomberg (Kid Devil), a rivalry with Cassie Sandsmark that gets very catty because it's Johns writing, and wrestles with both the team's distrust of her and her distrust of herself. I hate her writing in most of this. It's all very hypersexual trauma victim by way of a writer who's not remotely equipped to tell that story.

Noteworthy Rose arcs

Note that all these arcs are after Johns left the book and mostly written by McKeever, with Winnick and Wolfman involved in the Deathtrap crossover

The Teen Titans Deathtrap Crossover: Rose and Joey crossover arc that starts in issue 69 of Teen Titans and continues into Titans and Vigilante. Joey is going through an evil phase here.

Ravager Fresh Hell (72-82, with a brief pause for a blackest night tie-in that's also worth reading): this is essentially a Rose solo series focusing on who she is when she's alone, what she fights for, and her inner demons

Rose & Mia friendship arc (99-100): they have a lot of great interactions in these issues, they also interact at Lian's funeral in Rise of Arsenal but I only recommend that issue if you're desperate for Rosemia content

Nightwing 112-117 (Renegade arc, Devin Grayson): this is the 'Rose leaves her father with Dick's help' arc - it's essentially the connective tissue between Villain Era Rose and the Rose we get after OYL

Post reboot

Deathstroke 2016: I recommend at least trying the first arc which has Rose and Slade interacting. This book is messy but it does fascinating things with Rose, her trauma, and her parallels with Tara and Joey. CW for very heavy CSA themes.

I've enjoyed a lot of her post-2016 appearances as well including Brave and the Bold/Wildstorm, Robin/Shadow War, and Man Who Stopped Laughing.

Honorable mention to DCeased, Future State, and the Primer comic as they're Elseworlds but interesting nonetheless.

For backstory completionist purposes

Deathstroke vol 1 issues 0, annual 4, 15, 42-55: scattered early Rose appearances throughout her father's first solo, hard to get through but this is the most Lillian and Rose mother-daughter content we get and I love Lillian Worth.

Titans 26-39: pre-Ravager Rose living with Roy Harper, babysitting Lian, billed as 'a master of the martial arts'

There's a lot of art and meta in my 'rose rav' tag.

My thoughts:

Rose is interesting because the narrative spends a lot of time telling people she's unstable and aligned with her father and a killer -- and for that matter, that she's sexy/horny -- but if you look at what's actually on the page the character's "villain arc" is mostly contained in early issues of Teen Titans 2003, the Renegade arc of Nightwing, two issues of Cass Batgirl (and some not great nu52 arcs). What's actually on page is Rose as a member of the Titans (or currently Stormwatch); a fairly reliable ally to various Bat characters (Jason, Damian, Dick, Cass - I got another ask about her dynamic with the Bats and I'm going to put further thoughts and reading lists for those relationships there because this got long); and a person with an exceedingly complex relationship with her family including her half-brothers (Joey/Jericho and Respawn), dead mother, and shitty dad who she deeply wants to believe in but who keeps letting her down in genuinely horrifying ways.

Rose and sexuality: Rose spends a lot of time flirting and throwing out innuendo, but (a) the people she flirts with don't usually take her up on it and (b) in Deathstroke Rebirth it's repeatedly stated that Rose *isn't actually interested in changing that* (she calls it owning her sexuality and Slade mocks her for it); in Gotham War Red Hood when she tells Jason she'll "lick his wounds" she isn't upset when he says no but instead says she expected he wouldn't. I read her as using hypersexuality as a defense mechanism to prevent people from looking deeper.

There's a really good web weave I reblogged recently that pulls together the panels where Slade is talking about her as his daughter compared to the panels about Tara Markov (whom he canonically groomed in canon when she was 15) and Cass (who he canonically drugged and abused) and the frankly disturbing amount of parallels. If you add Tanya Spears (Power Girl II) and Amy Allen (Bombshell) to the list you get at least 5 on-page situations involving Slade Wilson and teenage girls in canon (I believe there's a 6th with a character named Pop Rocket but I haven't read that run). DC struggles with acknowledging this because they go through periods where they want Slade to be a Noble Mercenary Dad but being an abuser has been part of his character since the beginning, and that's core to understanding his dynamic with Rose, Rose's visible trauma responses, and why it genuinely upsets me how quick various characters in-universe are to dismiss her as "like her father" or "a bad girl who can't be trusted." She's one of the Bad Victims of DC, caught in the constant cycle of looping back to her father (all the way from Teen Titans to Dark Crisis) and then being held responsible/distrusted for it. She's a good girl now, as she says in her OYL first appearance as a Titan, but no one -- not the heroes, not her, not DC itself -- seems to be fully able to take her at her word.

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss and Helen J Shen To Star In MAYBE HAPPY ENDING On Broadway This Fall

From Skid Row to 44th Street! This morning it was announced that Darren Criss and Helen J Shen will star in the Broadway premiere of the new romantic musical comedy Maybe Happy Ending, with music by Will Aronson, lyrics by Hue Park and a book by both Aronson and Park. Michael Arden is set to direct the new musical which will begin previews Wednesday September 18, 2024 ahead of an opening night on Thursday, October 17, 2024 at the Belasco Theatre.

Dez Duron will make his Broadway debut along with Shen with the production. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Inside a one-room apartment in the heart of Seoul, Oliver (Criss) lives a happily quiet life listening to jazz records and caring for his favorite plant. But what else is there to do when you’re a Helper-Bot 3, a robot that has long been retired and considered obsolete? When his fellow Helperbot neighbor Claire (Shen) asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure, and maybe even...love? Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, Maybe Happy Ending is the offbeat and captivating story of two outcasts near the end of their warranty who discover that even robots can be swept off their feet. Maybe Happy Ending is a fresh, original musical about the small things that make any life worth living.

Maybe Happy Ending was written in both Korean and English-language versions. The Korean-language version opened in December of 2016 at DaeMyung Culture Factory in Seoul and subsequently won six Korean Musical Awards including Best Musical. The English-language version was awarded the 2017 Richard Rodgers Production Award and had its U.S. premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in the 2019-2020 season.

“I am so very happy to be joining the enchanting world of Maybe Happy Ending,” said Darren Criss. “It’s already such a special piece, but all the more exciting for me to get to build it for Broadway with people I admire - namely my ol’ pal Michael Arden, a visionary I’ve been wanting to work with for longer than I care to admit, as well as the very talented Will Aronson and Hue Park. Their inventive book and music, combined with Michael’s direction, is exactly the kind of alchemy that gets me most excited about what musical theater can be. I can’t wait for audiences to take part in this wonderfully original theatrical experience, and behold a story from a future that explores one of the most ancient questions of humanity- why love?”

Dane Laffrey will design the Set and Additional Video, while Costume Design is by Clint Ramos, Lighting Design is by Tony Award-nominee Ben Stanton, Sound Design is by Peter Hylenski, Video Design by George Reeve, Deborah Abramson is the Music Supervisor and John Yun will be the Music Director. Casting is by Telsey & Co, Craig Burns, CSA and Justin Scribner is the Production Stage Manager.

For more information please visit: www.maybehappyending.com

[dustbunnylair]

Killing Stalking and How Media Has Affected The Manhwa (SPOILERS FOR KILLING STALKING!!)

TW: Mentions of r*pe, m*rder, CSA, SA, being m0lested, incest, homophobia, fetishization of gay people, romanticization/glorification of abusive relationships, Stockholm syndrome

If you are going in on this without knowing what Killing Stalking is, then let me explain. Killing Stalking is a psychological horror and thriller manhwa from South Korea written by author Koogi, it ran from March 3rd, 2016 to March 22nd, 2019. The Manhwa is about two men, Yoon Bum, is described as a frail, feminine gay young man with a round or baby face, with dark circles under his eyes, implied to be eyebags, when reading the story, even if it’s simply the first chapter, you will find out that Yoon Bum is the “stalking” in Killing Stalking. Then Oh Sangwoo, is described as a handsome, charismatic, straight young man, he resembles the “killing” in Killing Stalking. The manhwa has been quite popular since it came out, but it became popular on social media, such as TikTok, in 2019-2021. Unfortunately, this manhwa wasn’t getting popular for being a well-written psychological horror but instead was being watered down to a Yaoi. If I were to go over the entire Manhwa, we’d be here all day, so if you do want to look into it, go ahead.

The two main characters of Killing Stalking have mental illness representation, which plays a key part in the series. Yoon Bum struggles with hypersexuality, Stockholm syndrome, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and derealization. Sangwoo is a sociopath/has Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) and a narcissist.

Both Yoon Bum and Sangwoo had very traumatic lives as kids, Yoon Bum’s parents died when he was young so his grandma and uncle took care of him. His uncle would beat him with a belt, starve him and even eventually rape him. 

Sangwoo’s dad was neglectful, and meanwhile, his mother took care of him, what was seemingly an innocent and wholesome mother-son relationship, would take a dark turn for the worst. His mother killed his dad when Sangwoo was a teenager and helped her hide the body, she ended up gaslighting him into believing that Sangwoo killed his own father, not her. He and his mother got closer, she would call him “babe” which she would call her husband, Sangwoo was obviously uncomfortable with it but never directly told her, yet he did confront her, asking “You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?”. His mother tried to kill him just like she did to her husband. He ended up passed out, waking up tied up in a basement. This basement led to his SA by his mother when he woke up. Sangwoo ended up breaking free in which his mother would sob and say she was sorry, it is implied that she killed herself, stabbing a knife into her neck. Sangwoo’s trauma played a huge part not only in the Manhwa but also in the fandom. 

Moving onto the romanticization and glorification of the relationship between Sangwoo and Yoon Bum, and how the reasoning behind their relationship is foreshadowed. Sangwoo says in one of the last chapters that he should’ve killed Yoon Bum from the start and he regrets not doing so. The reason Sangwoo kept Yoon Bum alive is for sexual pleasure and the fact that Yoon Bum resembled Sangwoo’s mother, Eunseo. This is foreshadowed multiple times within the series, as shown below.

If you don’t believe it because of the foreshadowing, then maybe the final Q&A of Killing Stalking will give you an answer, screenshots shown below.

Honestly, I feel like someone will tell me that no one has ever shipped Yoon Bum and Sangwoo, nor has anyone liked Sangwoo or labeled the Manhwa as a Yaoi/Bl, but I do in fact have evidence:

Killing Stalking, in my opinion, is genuinely well-written for a psychological horror. I hate to see it be watered down to a Yaoi, even when the author said it wasn’t. Not to mention that Killing Stalking claims to have a live adaptation someday. To be honest, as a “fan” of Killing Stalking, I really don’t want it to have a drama made about it. It will just make the fandom rise again and I personally feel that any time a K-drama, anime, Donghua, etc. gets popular, especially among Western countries like America, it gets overly popular in a bad way. Take Squid Games, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and many more shows as examples of that. Not to mention that in Korea it is extremely hard to get lgbtq+ characters on-screen let alone get r*ped, have intercourse, or touch each other in any sexual or romantic way.

I’d also like to make it clear that I am NOT upset that it’s a gay ship, I am upset that it is an abusive/toxic relationship. Popular ships in shows (specifically in Asian media) are a topic for another time, thank you if you read this far throughout my yapping. Have a good day, and do not live in delusion like Yoon Bum and Sangwoo shippers lol

Where I got my information:

https://killing-stalking.fandom.com/wiki/Oh_Sangwoo

https://killing-stalking.fandom.com/wiki/Yoon_Bum

https://killing-stalking.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Stalking_Wiki

+ Killing Stalking the Manhwa itself, you can read on Lezhin Comics or Mangago

[geryone]

hannah <3 i recently started following you (again. i'm an old mutual with a new blog) and i'm dying to know: which book/poetry collection do you think is on armand's nightstand?

Hello beloved!!! I was just thinking about how you hadn’t posted on your other blog in months & that I missed you!!

This question is sooooooo difficult for me to answer. I haven’t gotten too far into the books so I think I have a fairly shallow understanding of his character outside of what I’ve read in The Vampire Lestat and been exposed to online & from the show.

If I was taking a real swing at things I think he might read or be compelled by I would say:

1. The Body in Pain by Elaine Scarry

It’s a dense and sometimes hard to tap into treatise on pain & suffering. I think Armand would be compelled by the areas in which Scarry talks about how isolating pain can be as there’s no way for language to accurately depict what it feels like to experience pain in the body. There’s a really interesting section about torture and the relationship between a victim and the person torturing them. I think there would be a lot philosophically for him to dive into

2. Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016 by Frank Bidart

I just think he would vibe with Bidart’s poetry!! Themes of desire, shame, guilt, & trauma.

3. The Renunciations by Donika Kelly

This poetry collection is a wildcard & I would will him to read it. It’s about the trauma of csa and living in the aftermath of that trauma. Very good but very hard to read

[sugdendingle]

I feel like no one talks enough about what a piece of trash Liv's mom was. She knew at least to some extent what Gordon did to Aaron and never tried to help him. Some people might be able to argue that she was afraid of Gordon and stayed quiet for her and her daughter's safety but she did nothing for years. And even when she knew the truth was out she actually argued against Aaron and was poisoning Liv's mind with lies.

I'm glad she did eventually help with Aaron's case but it was like the very bear minimum that she could have done. Speaking as someone who is also a survivor of CSA (by my male babysitter) if I knew that someone was aware of what happened and kept it a secret or didn't try to help it would only make my trauma worse.

Even though Aaron wasn't Sandra's bio kid and even though I'm sure he was difficult to parent at times Sandra was still partially responsible for him and she failed him. Honestly I think she felt like if Gordon was focusing on Aaron he wouldn't turn on her and Liv which is exactly why she moved out when Aaron did.

Personally I think that Sandra should have had to face some kind of punishment along with Gordon not as harsh but something. Unfortunately even abusers don't usually get the punishments they should so people who cover up the abuse certainly don't.

I'm just glad that Liv got some semblance of a good family with Aaron and Rob before she died because both of her bio parents were spectacularly awful. Rewatching the 2016 eps Liv annoys me a lot but I try and remember that the reason she acted out so much is because of the environment she came from.

[sketchbook-of-shadows]

As a slasher girlie and analogue horror girlie, I can tell you with certainty that urbanSPOOK's "The Painter" is not very slasher-inspired in the tiniest despite what they say. Don't get me wrong, the artwork in itself is good but uh, for the things I'm gonna talk about a bit I'm gonna put a warning for the mention of CSA, SA/Animal related SA topics, I'm not going into much detail for these but I understand it's a very sensitive topic for some people

I'm not exactly keen on taking someone's excuses for their lazy work (aka making an analogue shock horror horror series just to sell merch of their artwork and also financially benefitting [merch and YouTube ad revenue] from really obvious implications of csa & sa/animal related sa in their work & on their merchandise while not even implementing it respectfully and using it only for shock value) by someone who still uses 2016 edgelord insults like 'autistic furry' in response to any amount of criticism because of said disrespect and distastefulness towards that topic.

Even after watching videos from people such as Hey Peter, Pastra & Wendigoon, I agree that the series has some moments where it showed potential but unfortunately the creator seems to be too lazy to implement a decent/cohesive storyline and resorts to shock value for their horror aspect. It's not horror, it's just nasty, disgusting and not well or respectfully implemented. At one point I couldn't tell if this was a horror story that they had passion for or if it were just some fucked up fetish they were putting out on the internet.

I don't recommend it, go watch Greylock, Vita Carnis or Gemini Home Entertainment and save yourself the displeasure.

[griefpotion]

tw for csa

i was SA'ed around 3 or 4 and only recently have told my parents (mom has known since around 2016, dad learned last year) and a common thing as i process this is them being upset i never said anything but now i'm like, i know i showed signs of being abused as a child (eg inappropriately and excessively touching myself in public after it happened) and they just never did anything. my therapist has been helping me see that's part of the neglect

my best friend has a 2.5 yr old and she knows my trauma and has been thinking heavily of her daughter and fearing that could happen. we've been discussing signs of it just in case of worst case scenario since you literally never know. and like seeing those signs and seeing them in me at 3, 4, etc and just never having been protected is really eating me up rn

[ansicred]

TANGLED UP IN YOUR SUMS

Hidden under their bed, Nesta comforts Ben through his PTSD and helps him realise that he can get better if he allows himself the grace to do so. Relationship Dynamics; Starts Angsty; Fluffy; Mental Hurt-Comfort. SETTING: In Ben & Nesta's house in the Whitechapel Supernatural District, London | Sometime in 2016. CHARACTER(S) INVOLVED: Ben, Nesta WARNING(S): cw: implication of CSA , implied discussion of CSA (in Ben's past at the Puppy Pen)

[keepmeinmind-01]

fantastic beasts fic updates

just a summary of what i've done over the last two weeks! click on the titles if you'd like to check any of them out.

i have finished planning the next arc of 'keep me in mind'. i am going to post the next chapter this week. sorry about the delay; sorting out the plot threads took a while, haha.

morning bell

[Newt/Tina, Newt & Theseus, Newt's children]

“Um, well, it might not be fair,” Newt said, his cheeks flushing even as he refused to look at Theseus, “but they’re not my niblings. They’re my children. Fine—maybe sometimes we do end up in situations where we have to choose between our brother and our children. And sometimes, we do make the wrong choice.”

Then, Newt buried his face in his hands.

“It's my fault,” he mumbled. “For thinking I could have a normal life—a family.”

or: Newt's family are targeted by a group with malicious, deadly intentions. They have certain beliefs about what makes an acceptable family, and Newt has to fight tooth and nail to keep the entire Scamander-Goldstein clan safe.

no shade in the shadow of the cross

[Newt/Tina, MCD (Theseus), Newt & Theseus (past)]

Tina kissed her fingertips and pressed them to Newt’s forehead. They both tried to laugh. Newt choked.

“He’s still here,” she said, her voice tight and small. Her hot, familiar, alive hand moved to Newt’s chest, touching the fraying green wool speckled with clumps of sand. “He’s still in there. You’ll remember. Even if the world won’t, you’ll always remember.”

or: On a cold night in 2016, Newt and Tina begin walking the beach at Dorset, and find themselves in Devon. Now, more than ever, Newt misses his brother.

like a crow for a boy

[Newt/Leta, Theseus/Leta (referenced)]

“I know.” Leta tilted her head, studying the way Newt’s pupils had dilated, his suspended hand. “Would you kiss me?”

The rawness in her voice surprised them both. This wasn't a game anymore. If it was, it was the kind that left scars.

or: Leta and Newt are old friends, forgotten to one another, forever remembered, strangers, and something more.

sleeping with the lights on

[major CWs - underage sex, rape/noncon, references to CSA]

“You were brave when you were little, too. In many ways, you were braver than me.” Theseus closed his eyes. "But I keep seeing you. As a child. In the woods with—with her. And I can't reach you. I can't stop it."

"Maybe because part of me," Newt whispered, "is still there."

or:

The truth about the abuse Newt experienced as a child comes to light. But healing old wounds requires as much work as burying them, and while all anyone wants is for Newt to feel safe again, all Newt's allies, friends, and family have to fight for it.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Lost sulfur in the universe may reside in salt on dust and pebbles

An international team led by astronomers at Leiden University has shown in laboratory experiments that sulfur can bind with ammonium under icy cosmic conditions and form a salt that sticks to dust and pebbles. The resulting sulfur salt not only helps to explain the mystery of the missing sulfur gas, but also a puzzling peak in data from the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument and other telescopes.

The findings appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

For the past two decades, astrochemists and astronomers have been puzzled by two seemingly inexplicable mysteries. The first was that the amount of volatile sulfur in dense clouds and star-forming regions is much lower than in the more tenuous regions between stars. The sulfur seemed to be disappearing. The second was that the spectrum of infrared light from star-forming regions contains a striking but unexplained peak.

The team led by researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands proposes a solution to both mysteries at once: ammonium hydrosulfide salt. The researchers support their solution with laboratory experiments that simulate cosmic conditions. These involve extremely cold conditions in which dust, ice and pebbles are present, and relatively few molecules can react.

The experiments showed that volatile NH3 (ammonia, well-known from detergents) and volatile H2S (hydrogen sulfide, the smell of rotten eggs) react rapidly to form NH4SH (ammonium hydrosulfide salt) when they join in ices around dust particles. This suggests that in dense star-forming regions, some of the volatile sulfur is trapped in dust and pebbles. As a result, the sulfur seems to have disappeared.

In addition, the experiments showed that the ammonium hydrosulfide salt produces a peak at the exact location of the previously unexplained peak in data from—among others—the MIRI instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. This peak allowed the astronomers to calculate that up to approximately 20% of the missing sulfur could be in the form of this sulfur salt in dust and pebbles.

Two birds with one stone

"I think it is great that we are finally unraveling both mysteries," says Katie Slavicinska. She is a Ph.D. student at Leiden University and the first author of the scientific paper. "With our research, we are killing two birds with one stone."

The research was triggered by results from ESA's Rosetta mission. During this mission, a spacecraft orbited comet 67P between 2014 and 2016. Analyses published in late 2022 showed that the comet's dust particles contained unexpectedly high levels of ammonium hydrosulfide.

Slavicinska explains, "And since we suspect that comets contain a lot of pristine icy material from the early days of our solar system, looking for ammonium hydrosulfide in the ice of star-forming regions was the logical next step."

Second author Adwin Boogert, a Dutch scientist working at the University of Hawaii at Manoa says, "It's exciting to see how we can increasingly follow chemical traces back from our current solar system to the origin of new solar systems."

In the future, the researchers plan to make more observations with the MIRI instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm the theory of the infrared peak. They also hope to find the remaining eighty percent of the missing sulfur. Previous research suggests that metallic sulfides and sulfur allotropes could play a role.

IMAGE: Composite image of a star-forming region (left) and Comet 67P (right). In the center is the ammonium hydrosulfide salt (NH4SH) that both appear to have in common, and which explains, among other things, why there is less volatile sulfur in star-forming regions than expected. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM; K. Slavicinska

[mortimer]

Im not ever going to post this publicly bc 1) its not very good and 2) I dont really care to expose myself to annoying angry internet pedophiles (especially since i havent been active in fandom since like, 2016-18 and as an adult i find the way that those communities frame & interact with media deeply insufferable anyway) but in uni i literally wrote a research paper on the potential irl impacts of media that doesn't handle themes like sexual assault, incest, csa, etc with tact. and that's the thing i have never once advocated for NOT exploring those things in writing or art - *i* write about those things, fairly frequently. To be frank, that's why I wrote the paper, because I actually care about the ethics of art and I give half a shit about other potential victims. Which I feel like is the absolute bare minimum for being a half decent artist/writer. I might publish the bibliography at some point if not rewrite it in its entirety bc i feel like the research i did was good even if the paper was not, but this one quote from bell hooks really stuck in my brain regarding the topic:

It's scary to me now, because, particularly in issues around erotica and sexual violence, people want to deny the direct link between representations and how we live our lives. I think that it's possible to embrace the knowledge that there's a direct link between representations and choices we make in our lives that does not make that link absolute, that does not say, "oh, if I look at a movie in which a woman is fucked to death," than I will go out and think I should let myself be fucked to death by any man who wants to fuck me. I think that's an absurd sense of a direct link, but that is not to say, that if I watched enough of those images I might not come away thinking that certain forms of unacceptable male violence in coercion in relationship to my female body are acceptable.

bell hooks, “Bell Hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation.” directed by Sut Jhally (1997), documentary film. (Transcript)

[nicomrade]

i didnt read nearly as much this year (2023) compared to last, i mostly re-read my faves that ill maybe post about one day and i read non-fiction from libraries. I am a Communist by Park Kun-Woong and Ichi-F by Kazuto Tatsuta are the two that id say stood out the most in that regard, but i kinda wanna keep these retrospective posts to fiction only so lets go for my actual 6 picks naow

Poison City - Tetsuya Tsutsui (2014-2015) opening with my favorite author, poison city is about art censorship- specifically of mangas in japanese libraries- how it happens, why, by and for whom, who it affects, how it shapes the publishing industry and so on. it was written after tsutsui found out his own work (manhole) had been banned in a prefecture, without him ever being notified. its only 2 volumes but the most nuanced discussion of the topic ive seen. like all tsutsui work it is in my brain forever like a worm and if i see it IRL i get an urge to reread it right there right now. which happens often cuz french libraries (justifiably!) love it

Gekiga-Yose: Fallen Words - Tatsumi Yoshihiro (2009) i got into a little gekiga rabbithole sometime last spring that segued really nicely into a rakugo moment for me. Fallen Words is neatly at the junction of the two and maybe the best way to experience rakugo stories if you cant watch performances? its not rakugo but it tries really hard to make the original jokes work in a new medium. fascinating project that i really enjoyed and laughed outloud at while reading. it also helps other rakugo-based fiction have more context and depth for a non-rakugo liker audience

Blood on the Tracks / Chi no Wadachi - Oshimi Shuzo (2017-2023) "this is not a work that wants to teach you how to heal, how to cope, or give you catharsis, or tragedy." chi no wadachi is about parental abuse and keeps to following the protagonist for as long as his mom has influence over his life, in all of the ways that she does, and nothing more. its heavy, its hard, and its something you need to meet halfway. not the oshimi shuzo work id necessarily start with but its the one i read fully this year and also the one i got into comment fights on mangadex about lol

Billy Bat - Naoki Urasawa & Nagasaki Takashi (2008-2016) billy bat is about art and its about making art and its about what if there was a bat on the moon that gave you catharsis. its got historical fiction its got protagonist changes its got walt disney its got an insane amount of historical research put in. its got two bats. its art as an universal language, as something its artist owns but that also belongs to everyone who's ever connected with it, art as the root of humanity, as the lense through which people view and shape the world. and its about a japanese-american artist named kevin.

Bokurano: Ours - Kitoh Mohiro (2003-2009) bokurano is about kids who are roped into a mecha war for earth's survival. it questions whether you can live without harming others, the nature of remorse, childhood trauma, and so on. its dubiously a death game- i count it as one but its also explicitely interested in this very question- "is this a game?". is bullying a game? Is csa a game? Is parental abuse a game? Neglect? Sibling violence? War? Is that what a game is? anything that children do?

Undercurrent - Toyoda Tetsuya (2004-2005) its easy to say reading undercurrent feels like youre drowning because the water motif is already omnipresent but this really is a piece where the story and the artistic motif are just in symbiose. undercurrent explores one woman's life managing her bathhouse almost on her own at the same time as she's dealing with more personal issues, and my first instinct upon seeing the cover is always to hold my breath. cannot say anymore just read it

+ bonus mention to Gantz - Hiroya Oku (2000 - 2013) for ruining my whole life. i didnt start it in 2023 but i was overcome by some sort of fever in january that made me finish this fucking manga and it hasn't left me since. don't read gantz. you can watch the live action movies they cut out 95% of the manga and make it actually good also akagi's actor (kanata hongo) plays my fave character in them. but whatever you do, don't read gantz.

[latteatnight]

hey can you like not openly recc people pornography involving minors regardless of if the minors in question are fictional or not??????? that's very fucking weird and also u do realize that u are likely to attract pedos to ur blog like this right??? i'm going to in good faith assume that your intentions were not like that but there is a not zero percent chance that Actual people who are Actually attracted to minors could look at shit like that and figure that your blog is a safe space for them to be in and I'm assuming that that. Is likely not a good scenario for you

I often wonder if y'all can understand how damaging it is to victims of CSA to equate their pain to "this character is a minor!! he's been 16 since 2016!!" like please. I'm also gonna assume you're not dumb enough to think people that are actually attracted to minors (like... actually, in this thing called OUTSIDE, i don't know if you've heard of it) are gonna go and read persona 5 fanfiction...? And even if they did i mean, who would that hurt? i'm not worried about them reading a fic, i'd be worried about them harming a child! a breathing, human, real life child!

I've been in the spot before of being taken advange of from adults, it's not fun, and it's insulting how you equate that sort of thing to anime porn of characters that could be literally any age but someone decided to fill age: with 16.

and i'll repeat what i said to the other anti that was here, why are you here? why are you not going against Persona 5 itself then? yknow, the game that lets you date and fuck adult women? How did it get released even? Don't you feel so silly being so hypocritical, condeming people that are close and reachable while engaging in the same thing yourself? It just shows how performative this all is