#Eunuch Archive

[coochiequeens]

Another freak In the trans community and the people in his community are doing nothing to distance themselves from him.

Content Notice: This article contains graphic descriptions of human torture some readers may find upsetting. Reader discretion is appreciated.

A former Presbyterian minister and Boy Scout leader convicted for the possession of child sexual abuse materials was a member of an online community lauded by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) in the organization’s most recent Standards of Care.

Jack Wayne Rogers, who is currently incarcerated at the Federal Corrections Institute in Miami, first came to the attention of the FBI in 2002 during a pedophile sting known as “Operation Candyman,” named after a Yahoo e-group where child sexual abuse content was being traded. Rogers was initially detained for the possession and distribution of explicit child abuse materials, but was later identified as a suspect in the disappearance of Branson Kayne Perry, a 20 year-old in Skidmore, Missouri, who went missing in April of 2001.

Evidence gathered by law enforcement included Internet chat logs in which Rogers, using the screen names “BuggerButt,” “ohailsatan,” and “extremebodymods,” discussed various methods of torturing and mutilating children and swapped child abuse materials and snuff content with Michael Adam Davidson, a third-year medical student at the University of South Alabama.

On one occasion, Rogers bragged to Davidson in a chat that he had acted on his desires. Rogers boasted of having abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered a blonde-haired young man from Skidmore, Missouri, while describing the mutilation and murder in horrific detail. In April of 2003, Rogers was arrested on child pornography charges and became a suspect in the investigation of Perry’s disappearance.

While Rogers denied having committed the killing, he had been recounting the torture and slaying of an individual who matched Perry’s description at length.

“You can do it willingly by telling it you are going to let it go if it does what you want. Hope springs eternal until you smash it,” Rogers wrote, referring to the victim as “it” in his narrative.

“When it begs me to kill it—it doesn’t always happen—but when it does I know it is broken. Each mind is different and learning that mind is the real game to tearing down barriers. Destroying hopes. Building false ones.”

Rogers went on to say that he made the ordeal “an 18-hour experience” before disposing of the body by first removing the internal organs and sinking the corpse in a river.

He would never be convicted for the crime due to a lack of evidence, and Perry’s disappearance remains unsolved. One item connected Rogers to Perry: a turtle claw necklace that was believed to have belonged to the young man was retrieved from Rogers’ property.

However, during a search of Rogers’ home and devices, investigators uncovered at least 860 images of child pornography that included sexually explicit content involving prepubescent children. Rogers was found to have been sharing, via e-mail attachments, materials “showing male children engaged in sexually explicit content, including photographs of children chained and bound by ropes,” according to court records.

But upon further examination, investigators discovered numerous additional photographs of Rogers “posing with severed male genitals, wearing them on his head, placing them in his mouth and apparently chewing them, placing them in a coffee cup or on a plate, and attaching severed penises together.”

Surgical equipment, items used in bondage and torture, and a manual describing “how one could perform gender nullification” were found by authorities in Rogers’ home, office, and van. Officials also came upon a room Rogers had converted into an area for the practice of BDSM.

Photographs and other evidence led investigators to identify one of Rogers’ surgical ‘patients’ as Michael Abercrombie, a man who claimed to be transgender and used the feminine name Madison.

Rogers admitted to performing the makeshift “gender reassignment surgery” on Abercrombie in a hotel room. The two had met online, and Abercrombie paid $750 for the four-hour procedure wherein Rogers surgically removed his penis, scrotum, and testicles using only local anesthetics.

Rogers claimed to have performed over 100 similar procedures. He then took the severed organs and documented himself consuming them. Court records refer to the surgery as “nullification,” a term applied to the removal of male sex organs for fetishistic purposes among practitioners of BDSM. Abercrombie is referred to with feminine pronouns, with documents describing the removal of “her penis” and “her genitals.”

In addition to a 30-year sentence for child pornography and obscenity charges, Rogers was handed 17 years for first-degree assault and seven years for practicing medicine without a license.

According to Diane Fanning, a writer and researcher in the true crime genre, an employee who worked with Rogers recalled having seen him using office equipment to print copies of stories featuring acts of sadomasochism and mutilation with homosexual themes that he had written under the pseudonyms Jolly Rogers and BuggerButt. She told Fanning that he mailed these stories to prison inmates.

In July 2014, an alleged victim of Rogers came forward to accuse the would-be genital surgeon of sexually abusing him when he was a child, in 2000.

Kristopher Schondelmeyer claimed that the First Presbyterian Church of Fulton, where Rogers had worked with children as a pastor, knew that Rogers had previously been convicted on child pornography charges in 1992, and had put youth at risk “by placing Rogers in direct authority over minor children” and failing to provide supervision.

According to the lawsuit filed by Schondelmeyer, the alleged abuse took place during the Connection 2000 Youth Conference in Maryland, for which Rogers acted as a chaperone for Schondelmeyer and several other teenagers from Fulton.

Notably, Rogers’ digital footprint can be found in the early logs of the Eunuch Archive forum, interacting with academics who have contributed to research published and cited by WPATH, one of the world’s more powerful transgender lobby groups. WPATH has set medical guidelines which includes recommending protocols for the medical “transitioning” of children.

As previously reported by Reduxx, the Eunuch Archive is an online community of men who have a sexual interest in castration. Of the approximately 10,000 stories hosted in the site’s fiction archive, over 3,000 are tagged with the search term “minor.” These erotic stories depict the violent castration of young boys by surgical and chemical means. Many involve sadistic and pedophilic sexual acts, and some incorporate the concept of Nazi doctors experimenting on children.

The Eunuch Archive began in the late 1990s in collaboration with Body Modification E-zine (BME), which was founded by Shannon Larratt. The pornographic fiction stories were initially hosted on the same site. BME operated as a community for those with body modification fetishes and featured extreme sadomasochistic content, including of amputations and genital mutilation.

In the newsgroup alt.eunuchs.questions, members shared castration fantasies, offered services, traded castration photos and videos, sought to connect with young men to “feminize,” asked for advice on chemical castration, and recommended doctors willing to perform surgeries without psychiatric evaluations. 

At least three academics who have been in leading roles within the Eunuch Archive for over twenty years have ties to WPATH. Surveys conducted with members of the Eunuch Archive have been published in The International Journal of Transgenderism, distributed by WPATH, and academics who gathered the anonymous responses regarding forum members’ sexual motivations for genital mutilation have spoken at conferences hosted by the transgender advocacy organization.

Thomas W. Johnson, a WPATH member and professor emeritus at California State University in Chico (CSUC), is also a formative member of the body modification fetish site, having joined in 2001. Johnson uses the name “Jesus” when interacting online, and has posted videos of genital surgery for other participants to use as pornography.

In one audio file obtained by Reduxx recorded in approximately 2007, Johnson can be heard joking about Viagra and eating testicles. “Smoked, barbecued, stewed, in a casserole … or pureed,” Johnson says in the recording.

Richard J. Wassersug has for over 20 years used the alias “Eunuchunique” on the forum. Wassersug was an honorary professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at the University of British Columbia, but has also been affiliated with Dalhousie and La Trobe Universities.

Krister H. Willette, who has been active in the community since 1998 and uses the screen name “Kristoff,” previously posted to the group’s Usenet community requesting “assistance in performing my castration by Burdizzo.”

Johnson, Wassersug, and Willette presented research they co-authored together at a 2009 conference in Oslo held by WPATH.

In May 2010, the contents of the Oslo presentation were published in The International Journal of Transgenderism, an academic journal issued by WPATH.

Wassersug, Willette, and Johnson were again invited to speak at a 2011 WPATH conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was during this conference that the decision was made to declassify Gender Identity Disorder as a psychological condition. In its place, Gender Dysphoria would become the recommended terminology.

Johnson also spoke again at a WPATH conference in Quebec last year, where he presented on the topic of “choosing castration.” An academic paper published in 2015 that incorporated the views of Eunuch Archive forum members disclosed that among the most popular story themes on the site were children being forcibly castrated.

It was within the Eunuch Archive’s Usenet community that Jack Wayne Rogers can be seen interacting with multiple administrators and founding site members in a thread from 2000 discussing a snuff penectomy video, in which a man dies after undergoing genital mutilation.

The video, uploaded by a user who drafted the community’s original FAQ document in collaboration with Larratt, caused some controversy within the group. Rogers, as well as WPATH-sourced “researcher” Willette, interjected to defend the horrific content.

“If you don’t like it, don’t download it. Let’s stop giving sh*t to someone for posting what he believed was interesting. There were adequate warnings of the content. This is a free and open system,” Rogers wrote.

In response to one site member who objected to the obscene content, Willette responded, “Take your own advice and stop sh*tting on our group. None more sinful than the righteous.”

Eunuch Archive founding administrator Shannon Larratt also spoke up in defense of the snuff flick, saying, “Oh, who cares. At least it’s not the spam that 99% of the posts are. There is no clear place to post a penectomy video. Maybe he didn’t pick the perfect newsgroup, but we could argue endlessly about which one would be better.”

[arcticdementor]

A Professor Emeritus at California State University who has given academic talks on “expanding the transgender umbrella” has for over two decades participated in a fetish forum that hosts and produces extreme sadomasochistic written pornography involving the castration and torture of children.

Thomas W. Johnson, a retired Professor at California State University in Chico (CSUC), is a formative member of the body modification fetish site The Eunuch Archives, which was the subject of a months-long investigation by Reduxx released on May 17. At the time, Johnson’s identity had not yet been confirmed as an anonymous user who goes by the handle “Jesus.”

But according to posts made to the forum in March and April, Johnson let his identity slip and invited site members to partake in an academic survey on “childhood experiences, castration desire and sexual history,” as well as watch him give a talk at CSUC via Zoom.

…

In addition to Johnson, the identities of two other leading site members have also been determined by Reduxx as similarly prominent academics.

Richard J. Wassersug has for over 20 years used the alias “Eunuchunique” on the forum, while Krister H. Willette, who has been active in the community since 1998, uses the screen name “Kristoff.” Both men, along with Johnson, presented research they co-authored together at a 2009 conference in Oslo held by WPATH. Wassersug was an Honorary professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at the University of British Columbia, but has also been affiliated with Dalhousie and La Trobe Universities.

In May 2010, the contents of the Oslo presentation were published in The International Journal of Transgenderism, an academic journal issued by WPATH.

Wassersug, Willette, and Johnson were again invited to speak at a 2011 WPATH conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was during this conference that the decision was made to de-classify Gender Identity Disorder as a psychological condition. In its place, Gender Dysphoria would become the recommended terminology.

Johnson claims to have been influential in editing the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM), which is published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The DSM is regarded as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders in the United States, but is also referenced internationally.

“The draft for the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM-5) suggests ‘Gender Incongruence,’ which I much prefer,” Johnson wrote in 2010. “The body and mind are out of sync, with no mental illness implied!”

…

In 2016, Johnson claimed to have been specifically chosen to rewrite a portion of the Standards of Care by former WPATH president Eli Coleman, who “pointed at me and announced that I was expected to provide input on eunuchs for the revision. Now is our opportunity to help devise the standards of care that will be most helpful.”

…

Johnson and Wassersug have previously released academic research justifying the pedophilic fantasies amongst castration fetishists. In a 2015 paper titled “The Sexual Side of Castration Narratives,” fictional child sexual abuse material was called “therapeutic” and helpful for those with eunuch ideations.

On May 13, research by Johnson and Wassersug titled “Castration for Pleasure: Exploring Extreme Castration Ideations in Fiction” was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

“The most popular [Eunuch Archive] stories link sexual gratification and romantic partnership with genital abuse. They are characterized by the absence of consent for genital ablations and multiple [sadomasochism]-related paraphilias,” note Johnson and Wassersug. “Many stories feature attraction to, and ablation of, the genitals of pubescent or adolescent males.”

According to a 2007 CSUC newsletter issued by the Anthropology Department, Johnson was noted as being the long-time president of the Children’s Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society.

Reduxx reached out to the Anthropology Department at CSUC for comment on Johnson’s association with a forum hosting child sexual abuse fantasies, but did not receive a response in time for publication. This article may be updated in the event they respond.

[flowerboycaleb]

it kinda felt like april was a less busy month than usual, but i also feel like i ended up writing way more than i usually do. there were quite a few great albums this month, one that has a strong case for being my album of the year!! there were a few bad and/or disappointing ones though and u can hear me rant and rave about them in this post!!! to check out my thoughts on some of the songs that dropped this month click here!!! also feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter <3

Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend

🥇 BEST ALBUM OF THE MONTH

◇ genres: indie rock, chamber pop

Vampire Weekend is one of my favorite bands of all time. As a loser Pitchfork reader throughout high school, this band spoke to me in ways few could. In my eyes, at the time, they had the worldliness I craved desperately. They were city boys, connected to some great world that was beyond me as a gay kid who felt trapped in the southern countryside. The influences from African music and the lyrical references to things like kefir and keffiyehs, it was all new to me. I now know what kefir and keffiyehs are and since then I’ve taken the agency to connect with the world outside of my own without the help of these New York Ivy League kids, but I can’t deny that they helped open a door for me that seemed unopenable up to that point. Hindsight has recontextualized the band’s catalog for me. I still enjoy, even love, their older albums in a lot of the same ways I did back then, but I don’t take them at their word. I’m a lot more critical of the aesthetics of the band, especially given some potential allegations against Ezra Koenig. That easy-going, intellectual, soft vibe has proven to be a red herring many times now in the music world. With all of that being said, I was still very excited for Only God Was Above Us. The singles were excellent and they saw the band tackling new sounds with more mature lyricism. This record has the band meditating on generational problems both interpersonally and intrapersonally. About history, love, art, and the earth itself. The band doesn’t, nor are they in any position, to offer some sort of solution to these problems, but it captures the density of the topic extremely well. Despite some of my trepidations, this album is excellent. One of the best I’ve heard in a long time.

It sounds like the perfect culmination of everything they’ve done up to this. It’s both forward-thinking and introspective. It could very well be their peak or it could be a new beginning. This album was recorded with all three members of the band, as opposed to Father of the Bride, which was practically a Koenig solo album and this was definitely the direction they needed to go. They incorporate subtle musical callbacks to their past material to great effect, it feels like the band is also using this record to reflect on their journey up to this point. The opener “Ice Cream Piano” is playful, but also serious in the right ways and sets up the themes of the album very well. It also introduces the sounds of this album very well. A little jagged, psychedelic, and very layered. The lyric, “We're all the sons and daughters of vampires who drained the old world's necks,” could maybe only be pulled off right in a Vampire Weekend song. They’ve always had this playful edge to them despite being labeled as staunch Ivy League elitists throughout their careers, whether that criticism was warranted or not. “Classical” and “Capricorn” were two of the singles, both are absolutely excellent. The former growing on me so much in the context of the record that it’s now one of my favorite songs of theirs. It’s one of Koenig’s most incredibly well-written songs as it has him ruminating on what would remain after a supposed revolution. What would become classical? Massive shoutout to the saxophone part, it rules. The latter was one of my favorite singles from the get-go and it showed the band getting a little folky with it to great effect. It feels like something that would fit on their last album, Father of the Bride, but it sounds so much more organic than the bulk of that record.

“Connect” is one of their more robotic songs, but it’s also one of their most touching. The little drum parts throughout, reminiscent of “Mansard Roof,” add so much. So does that beautiful sprawling piano.“Prep-School Gangsters” sort of flew under my radar on my first few listens, but it’s one of my favorites now. That weird violin-infused breakdown at the end works so well. “The Surfer” and “Gen-X Cops” are also some of the band’s best. Both cuts are like extremely fuzzy surf music and it’s so cool. The line in the latter’s chorus, “Each generation makes its own apology” is also poignant and greatly summarizes the album’s themes. “Mary Boone” is another incredible track. A sparse ballad that eventually blooms into something baggy, not unlike what you might hear on a George Clanton record. I never expected to hear something like this from them, but I’m so glad I did. “Pravda” is probably the most like their older material, but it’s a nice addition. It has the band utilizing a lot of the soukous elements that were present on their debut album. This track also has one of the best choruses here on a record filled with amazing choruses. “Hope” is an anthemic closer, a song that was made to be played live. It’s such an optimistic way to end the album too and while the sentiment can potentially fall flat, I still enjoy it. I imagine the feeling this song gives me is the same feeling rednecks get when they listen to Uncle Kracker. I’m just enamored by the instrumentation of the record. The entire album sounds fuzzy and a bit rough around the edges, especially for them, but the instrumentation is simultaneously so dense and layered. Tackling new sounds, paying homage to the old ones. It sort of sounds like the album art. It’s an incredible experience. This is without a doubt their most mature album to date and it makes a strong case for being their best. I don’t know if it overtakes Modern Vampires of the City for me, but it certainly stands right alongside it. Time will tell if my opinion changes though.

As a longtime fan of Vampire Weekend, this album hit me pretty hard. It’s everything I could’ve wanted from the band at this stage musically. I’ve grown since I first became a fan and it seems like they have too. I believe Only God Was Above Us is one of the strongest indie rock records of the decade thus far. Every time I revisit this record, I find something new about it that I hadn’t noticed on previous listens, which is another testament to how they’ve progressed artistically, but also annoying when you’re trying to write an analysis of it. There are still some reservations I have surrounding the band, but I can’t deny that the music scratches an itch that only Vampire Weekend can do for me. I’m not as uncritical as I once was, but this album is really brilliant. 

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All Born Screaming - St. Vincent

◇ genres: art rock, neo-psychedelia

I’ve enjoyed St. Vincent’s albums over the years, but most of them haven’t earned the “I really love this” distinction. Strange Mercy is probably the only exception. Granted, most of her stuff is well overdue for a relisten, but I digress. The singles leading up to this album had me very intrigued. They were sharp, industrial, and kind of funky in the case of “Big Time Nothing.” It was the most exciting she had sounded in years. My expectations for All Born Screaming were high and the album ended up exceeding them greatly. This might be Annie Clark’s strongest record to date, it’s my favorite at least. It’s an incredibly well-crafted, immersive experience with some of the strongest songwriting of her career. 

Many people, myself included, expected this album to be full-blown industrial noise rock, but that isn’t the case. Some songs fully embrace it like “Big Time Nothing” and “Flea” to an extent, but that industrial-ness mainly acts as a backdrop to this sonically diverse record. Some might view this as one of the album’s weaknesses. An indication that Clark might be restraining herself, but I disagree. As a creative, she’s on fire here. Her melodies and vocal style here are like watching someone paint an intricate, very dynamic painting on a massive easel. Her vocals complement the vivid lyricism of the album as well. She embodies every word she sings. From the bittersweet loss of “Reckless” to the sinister, almost hedonistic nature of “Flea,” Clark explores every nook and cranny of these songs.

Musically, this album also shines. Clark enlists many notable guest musicians like Dave Grohl and Cate le Bon to help flesh this album’s sound out. Grohl’s drumming on “Broken Man” and “Flea” helps crank things up to another level, giving the songs a bit of an extra bite. Cate le Bon plays bass on my favorite song on the whole album, and maybe my favorite song of Clark’s period, “The Power’s Out.” That thunderous basslines towards the end were what sealed the deal for me, just an overwhelmingly amazing experience. “Violent Times” is another one of the best tracks here and has one of my favorite arrangements on the record with those guitar flares and horns which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Julee Cruise album. I also get very heavy Bowie vibes from it. The weirdest detours here are “Big Time Nothing” and “Sweetest Fruit” which are considerably quirker than the rest of the material here. The latter features a poorly executed, very parasocial tribute to the late SOPHIE which does kind of detract from the otherwise fun song. One of the rare misfires on the record, despite her good intentions. The album ends with the heavy title track which feels like such a colossal final statement. The vocals and the ascending instrumentation are just so striking, a great way to bring this album to a close.

All Born Screaming is perhaps the most well-crafted and fully realized album of Clark’s career thus far. There are very few missteps and I find myself loving it more after each listen. It also makes me want to go back and give her other albums another shot. This is one of my favorites of the year so far, don’t let this slip past you.

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Silence Is Loud - Nia Archives

◇ genres: liquid drum and bass, jungle

Nia Archives wasn’t on my radar at all, but I saw this record getting hyped up on Twitter so I decided to give it a shot. I was blown away. This is an amazing debut album from one of Britain’s most talented producers. She utilizes the jungle/drum and bass sound throughout this project to incredible results. Usually, I find myself getting tired of those skittering beats after a while, but I was fully engaged throughout the album’s 35-minute runtime. A lot of that is a testament to her strengths as a producer, but her energy as a performer and songwriter on this record is a very important part of what makes Silence Is Loud so great. 

The title track kicks off the record in explosive fashion. It sounds so mesmerizing, it creates such a distinct vibe. The melody is also just infectious. The kind of track that’s firing on all cylinders. A great way to open your debut. “Cards On The Table” calms things down a bit, but not at the expense of the record’s energy. She blends in some folktronica into the jungle sound and it works so well. Another very strong chorus on this track too. There’s very rarely a dull moment throughout the first half. Just an onslaught of amazing R&B-infused drum and bass cuts that are so easy to get lost in. Much of this album’s lyrical content isn’t as dance-worthy or carefree as the music would lead you to believe. There’s longing, heartbreak, and frustration. “Tell Me What It’s Like?” is one of the few tracks here that adds some darker elements into the mix to fit the underlying meaning of the song. I do enjoy that juxtaposition of frantic, party-like beats and more melancholy lyricism, but the way that track sort of embraced it instead of running from it was so well done. It’s yet another great example of her abilities as a producer. The album’s closer, “So Tell Me…,” also does this. It sounds like a breath of fresh air, it helps you decompress from the journey the album has taken you on without killing the vibe completely. Such a great track. Silence Is Loud is an incredibly impressive debut album. This record is packed with memorable hooks and melodies to go alongside the great production. There’s such a heart to this album that makes it stick out among other drum and bass stuff I’ve heard. Nia Archives is definitely, firmly on my radar now and I can’t wait to hear whatever she does next.

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Triple Digits (112) - RiTchie

◇ genres: experimental hip hop, abstract hip hop

This was one of my most anticipated projects of the year. Ever since Injury Reserve disbanded officially last July, I’ve been patiently awaiting what both RiTchie and Parker Corey would do next. The final Injury Reserve album, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, still stands as one of the most harrowing releases of the decade. Full of great writing and production with plenty of emotion behind it to take it to the next level. I figured the first post-Injury Reserve project would come from By Storm, the new duo formed by RiTchie and Corey, but that wasn’t the case. RiTchie began dropping some incredible singles recently and Triple Digits (112), his first solo album, wasn’t too far behind. 

This is a great debut for RiTchie. It strikes a nice balance between the humorous and the surreal. He branches out and works with a plethora of different producers throughout the album, even Corey on the last two tracks, and it rarely ever feels too disjointed. “WYTD?!?!” and the lead single “RiTchie Valens” are some playful, boastful moments early on in the album. They have an underlying concern to them though, like on the latter with the subtle “I’m worried about you Ritchie” lines at the start and finish, but it’s juxtaposed with this almost delusionally optimistic delivery from RiTchie. Those lines appear throughout the album too and it gives the album so much more depth than it initially lets on. The title track gets a little glitchy with it and I love it. “Dizzy” and “Looping” were my favorite singles and being placed one after the other is really interesting. It’s a drastic tonal shift, “Dizzy” is a quirky banger that has an incredible hook, and “Looping” is this atmospheric somber cut. Bold move, but it pays off very well. As I said earlier, the last two tracks have Corey on production duties and they have an undeniable chemistry. Things get dark and almost ambient. Closes the album on a much different note than it began. The posturing is over and he just gets real with the listener. Triple Digits (112) is a very impressive debut. Not every track is a hit, but the majority of the material here is pretty great. It feels like the project he needed to make in a lot of ways. Despite the somber tone at the end of the project, the future looks bright for RiTchie as an artist. I feel like he’s destined to make even more great albums whether they be solo or with By Storm or whoever.

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Connla's Well - Maruja

◇ genres: post-punk, post-rock, art-punk

Maruja’s Knockarea EP from last year took online music communities by storm. It was an exhilarating EP that showed off this band’s talents and potential extremely well. They’ve been dropping some great singles in the time since that continues to show the band’s promise. Those singles, along with some new cuts, are featured on this new EP Connla’s Well. The UK band’s saxophone-infused post-punk/post-rock gains new layers here. The songs I was familiar with going into the EP sound even better here. “The Invisible Man” is a great showcase of the band’s storytelling capabilities both lyrically and musically. The frantic drumming, the crazy saxophone parts, the underlying bass, and the sinister guitar flourishes. It’s one of the most fully realized tracks in the band’s catalog thus far. Still wows me even having heard it long before the EP was announced. Likewise with “Zeitgeist” which has the band leaning further into the art-punk of their last EP. The two new tracks here are instrumentals which might be disappointing to some, but they’re both pretty great. Especially the closer, “Resisting Resistance.” It’s very atmospheric, very post-rock. Every band member shines here and the track leaves room for everything to breathe. Excellent stuff. I have to say, I really hope we get a debut studio album from Maruja soon. Connla’s Well is wonderful, but they’re ready to take that next step. They have all the tools necessary to do so.

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This Could Be Texas - English Teacher

◇ genres: indie rock, art rock

The UK Windmill scene has birthed plenty of exciting new artists over the last few years. Bands like Black Country, New Road, Squid, black midi, and Maruja all have ties to the scene. So do English Teacher and with this debut album, I think they are going to be mentioned alongside those other exciting bands in due time. This Could Be Texas is one of those debut albums that perfectly sets the stage for the band to reach even greater heights. The musicianship here is great, some of the most eclectic and rhythmic instrumentation from the scene. From the dreamy sound of the opener “Albatross,” to the lush vibrant guitars of “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab,” and to the chamber folk of “Mastermind Specialism,” this album is full of surprises and shows off the band’s range very well. They have an exciting, young, and hungry energy to their sound that just gets you into it even through some of the weaker cuts.

The instrumentation is consistently great here, but the glue that holds this record together is Lily Fontaine. She provides the lead vocals and some of the guitars (maybe synths too) throughout the record and she absolutely nails it. The band’s vivid lyricism is fully realized through her performance. A great example of this is on “R&B” where Fontaine sings that she’s been writing sweet R&B songs for someone despite knowing that she should be writing songs for herself instead. It all explodes during the outro where the instrumentation and her vocals intensify as she continues to try to settle that inner conflict. It’s a great moment that showcases the band’s chemistry very well. This song segues nicely into “Nearly Daffodils” which has this pulsating rhythm underneath it that drives the song. It keeps you hanging on until the song’s more explosive moments. “Sideboob” is another one of my favorite tracks here. It provides a synth-heavy and welcome change of pace to the record. There’s no shortage of great songs here, but there are some weaker cuts in both the first and last half. This Could Be Texas is not without its flaws, but it’s an exciting and promising debut for an energetic new band that deserves your full attention. I expect nothing but great things from them!

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Harbour Century - Eunuchs

◇ genres: symphonic prog, avant-prog

There’s a lot to love about Australian avant-prog band Eunuchs’ sophomore album. Harbour Century is an ambitious and dense record filled with masterful instrumentation and rich, world-building lyricism that can’t be unwound on a single listen. They’re delivered through the manic, unpredictable vocals of Linus Hilton who does a great job commanding the record. Acting as some kind of twisted captain of a dingy ship or aloof storyteller in a dimly lit bar. Not to play the comparison game, but many similarities can be drawn between this album’s sound and that of black midi, although Eunuchs are significantly more symphonic. Despite all of these wonderful qualities, the record is hampered by one crucial flaw in particular—the mixing.

These songs are intense, but that intensity is lessened significantly across multiple cuts because it just isn’t loud enough, the vocals in particular. Take the opener, “Magic Death Sea Nemesis,” a layered, chaotic piece with a dynamic vocal performance. The vocals are fighting for your attention alongside the horns and the drums throughout the first portion of the song. It sort of takes me out of it because it feels like a massive oversight or an ill-advised intentional choice. Pretty much every song here, no matter how great it is, has an asterisk beside it noting that the mixing could be way better. It’s frustrating because the songs here are generally pretty great! I love the intense lyricism on “Pat a Dragon,” the uncomfortable elegance of “Gnome and Fortune,” and the subversive song structure of “Hierophant.” They show a band that has something special to them. My favorite track here is the almost 18-minute closer, “The Heroin King.” It actually benefits from the mixing in certain ways, it makes it a bit more mysterious.   Harbour Century is a great record and an impressive sophomore release with limited potential due to the mixing choices. Eunuchs sound neutered here. If this album got a remix, I would sing its praises to the high heavens. I still encourage everyone to give it a shot though. Eunuchs are definitely a band that deserves your attention.

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Kabutomushi - Mei Semones

◇ genres: jazz pop, chamber pop

Similarly to the Nia Archives album from this month, I saw this EP getting some buzz on Twitter so I gave it a listen. I’m so glad I did! Jazz pop artist Mei Semones has crafted a nice, concise EP with high replay value. Kabutomushi is filled with tasteful jazzy instrumentation and really strong hooks. Semones’ guitar playing is a massive highlight here in particular. It’s so light and breezy, but so skillful. Displayed perfectly on “Wakare No Kotoba” where her guitar just dances alongside her vocals. The strings across this album are also a great touch. My favorite track here is “Inaka” which is a song for the real yearners out there. The chorus is just so bittersweet and earnest, I love it so much. Also showcases the musicianship on this record perfectly. One of my favorite tracks of the year so far. This EP is only five tracks and that’s a damn shame. By the time it was over, I wanted so much more. I plan on going through her previous EPs soon, but I can’t wait for a full project from her. I also highly recommend watching her show at Brooklyn’s Public Records, it’s such a nice performance.

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If I don't make it, I love u - Still House Plants

◇ genres: experimental rock, post-rock, math rock

Everything on If I don’t make it, I love u feels a bit off. It’s an album that’s impossible to get comfortable with. There is no groove you can settle into and no expectations to carry you through the album besides, I guess, expect that discomfort. All of that is by design though. The sound of this album consists of only guitar, drums, and vocals. It’s just a raw rhythm section with likewise raw vocals ringing out alongside it. “Experimental” is a broad descriptor, but I would say this album fits the bill pretty well. The band says that they rehearsed this album “relentlessly” which makes sense with how confident they sound. Each member’s contributions certainly stand out and they all elevate each other in unorthodox ways. The best representation of the band’s sound comes with the opening track “M M M.” The dissonant instrumentation paired with the drawn-out vocals from Jess Hickie-Kallenbach make for such a unique pairing. It’s uncomfortable and even anxiety-inducing on a first listen, but you just get swallowed in it. It’s an uncompromising record on the whole, at times for better and others for worse, but there is a lot to love here if you’re willing to be patient with it.

The dissonance ramps up even further on “Pant” where David Kennedy’s drums feel like little splashes of water, like there’s a circle of people aggressively spraying water from those mist spray bottles at you. Finlay Clark’s guitar sounds like it’s on fire too, it sounds out of this world. “MORE BOY” has a bit of a slower pace to start, but it’s one of the best-paced tracks here. When the band does ramp things up, it hits so hard. Speaking of pacing, that is one of the album’s weak points. The band’s utilization of all things unconventional wears a bit thin on the ears, at least for me, after a certain point. I can’t really say the band falters because there’s no shortage of interesting ideas in the later stages of the record, this is most certainly just a me thing. I do love the skittering drum beats and the noisy guitar on “Silver Grit Passes Thru My Teeth,” one of the most exhilarating moments here. “No Sleep Deep Risk” has the band diving into slowcore territory and it yields some great results, showing the band in a bit of a different light. Again, lots of highlights despite me feeling a bit exhausted by the end.

This is a really interesting record and I can see how it could prove to be polarizing for some, but it’s definitely worth a listen. I think I would’ve loved the record more if it was trimmed down just a bit, but it’s clear the band was brimming with inspiration so who am I to try to edit them down? 

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Twice Around the Sun - Ugly

◇ genres: art rock, indie rock

Twice Around the Sun is an EP that showcases an up-and-coming band with a ton of potential. The musicianship here is absolutely incredible and there are a ton of standout tracks, but also a few missteps that I feel will be ironed out by the band on future projects. There is a heavy choir influence on the vocals throughout the project. “The Wheel” opens the EP with some acapella verses and, I’ll be honest, it doesn’t do much for me. It’s very well done, but it wears thin for me pretty quickly. Things pick up though with the second half of the song which adds some instrumentation to it all. Samuel Goater’s vocals throughout sort of remind me of Jon Anderson from Yes, except this time the prog-rock feels more renaissance faire than cosmic and otherworldly. “Sha” is a massive step up from the opener and has lead vocal duties passed on to Jasmine Miller-Sauchella. It has this sort of alt-country feel to it. Probably my favorite track here. “Icy Windy Sky” is a bit of a step down in comparison and again, I find some of the vocals a little grating, but the fingerpicking guitar work really shines across this cut. I also love the big breakdown towards the end.

The final three tracks are a great run and really make this EP worth checking out. “Shepherd’s Carol” has some of the coolest instrumentation I’ve heard so far this year and the vocals are very tasteful. “Hands of Man” is considerably more somber than the rest of the project, but it works so well. Each twist and turn the music takes just hits so hard. It also has the most clever lyricism on the project, a lot of personality here. “I’m Happy You’re Here” closes the album on a very high note. It continues that more melancholic sound set by the previous track, but it has this grandiosity to it that makes for an interesting listen. I didn’t absolutely adore this EP like I was hoping I would, but Ugly are certainly on my radar now. Can’t wait to hear what they do next!

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Don't Forget Me - Maggie Rogers

◇ genres: pop rock, singer-songwriter, country pop

Maggie Rogers is an artist I’ve always wanted to like more than I do. I tried giving Heard It in a Past Life a chance around the time it came out, but it didn’t grab my interest so I never got around to listening to the whole thing. I gave her last album, Surrender, a shot and while I did finish that one, I wasn’t exactly blown away by it. She certainly has a few good tracks, but she often fails to make a consistently great record. Don’t Forget Me is no exception, unfortunately, but this is probably my favorite release of hers thus far. This album has Rogers shifting away from a lot of the alternative aspects of her sound in favor of some country-tinged singer-songwriter and this style really suits her.

“Drunk” feels like a slightly stripped-back country hit from the mid-2000s. This is one of Rogers’ vocal performances that just hits for me. It has one of those roll the window down while cruising down the road on a warm summer day choruses. The next track “So Sick of Dreaming” expands the instrumentation and it’s also one of her best. This album is at its strongest when it leans heavily into that country sound. “The Kill” is another favorite, but at this point, you run into one of the biggest problems with the album. The structure of pretty much every song here is so unadventurous. By the midpoint of the album, you can largely predict where a song is going to go. Sometimes the instrumentation may shake things up a bit. Like the sparse piano ballad “I Still Do” and the funky rhythms of “On & On & On,” but they just don’t offer many surprises beyond that. I did really enjoy the title track though. This is probably Rogers’ finest moment as a writer. There’s so much character and personality to her writing here, I believe every word she says. Overall, Don’t Forget Me is Rogers’ strongest album to date and I think it sets her on the right track, but it still has a decent amount of underwhelming cuts.

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Found Heaven - Conan Gray

◇ genres: synthpop, pop rock, new wave

Conan Gray’s last two albums didn’t do much for me in the slightest, especially Superache. I listened to one single leading up to this album, “Alley Rose,” and wasn’t a big fan of that either. Something is suffocating about Gray’s music at least in how it’s produced. It restricts the emotion that I know is present in these songs from bursting out. I figured this album would just be indicative of the single and I would be wasting my time, but I had some free time so I decided to give it a listen. Shockingly, I found a lot to enjoy in this record, but it still has a lot of the shortcomings present throughout his previous work. Gray teams up with all-star producers like Max Martin and Shawn Everett for this album and incorporates a lot of synthpop and new wave elements into his sound as well. The best moments on Found Heaven are the ones that fully embrace the glam and the danceability and move away from the sad, balladeering he made a name for himself on.   The title track is one of his best, which I understand isn’t a high bar to cross, but still. Fully embracing this sound in every aspect. It sounds like a spruced-up 80s new wave hit with lyrics about queer acceptance. It’s certainly one of Gray’s strongest moments as a lyricist. “Never Ending Song” is a sleek synthpop cut that plays into his strengths very well. It’s probably also the most I’ve been impressed with a Max Martin song in a while. “The Final Fight” veers a bit too close to adult contemporary, but if you just tell yourself it’s sophisti-pop instead you can have a good time with it. The first half of this album is pretty good, but by the halfway point you can tell a lot of these ideas have unfortunately been exhausted. The hooks get weaker, the production gets more tired, the lyricism falls flat more often than not, and we get a few more of those ballads. This would’ve been a very solid EP if it consisted of just the first half or so. Nothing revolutionary, but still his finest project to date. As it stands, Found Heaven is still Gray’s best, but it’s hampered by too many cliche and boring ideas. This is a step in the right direction, I just wish Gray would stop playing it so safe musically.

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Hyperdrama - Justice

◇ genres: french electro, synthwave

I’ve been covering the singles leading up to French electro duo Justice’s new album for the last few months now. I’ve enjoyed them, but I rarely ever found myself going back to them. They were fine, just not interesting enough to keep me coming back for more. Despite that, I still wanted to give Hyperdrama a shot. I was hoping that as a full album, these songs would fully click with me and I would have a great time with it, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Most of the singles somehow got worse in the context of the album. There’s such a lifeless energy to these songs that makes this a tough album to get through. Nothing here is atrociously bad, but it’s just such a tiring experience. 

This is a frustrating album to write about because these songs don’t leave me with much to say. I can’t say they’re bad, but there are very few things I can rave about. Some exceptions are “Generator” which actually has some bite to it and “The End” featuring Thundercat which has a pretty good melody. The collaborations with Tame Impala are fine too, but they’re lacking the punch that would elevate them way further. “Incognito,” and a good portion of the tracks here, have all the right tools, but they don’t really come together to make something compelling. I guess Justice just wanted to have an album out in time for festival season and maybe these songs will come alive there, but as an album, Hyperdrama left me pretty cold. The only other Justice album I’d heard before this was † so I don’t know how this album ranks among their discography. I’ve heard Justice fans say this is a step in the right direction, but if that’s the case they need to take quite a few more steps in said direction. Maybe a leap.

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THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY - Taylor Swift

◇ genres: alt-pop, synthpop, singer-songwriter

The Tortured Poets Department is the sound of an artist exhausted. An artist spread far too thin, yet still receiving unadulterated praise and adoration despite it all. As soon as midnight struck on April 19th, the red carpet rolled out. Rolling Stone gave this album a perfect score, lauding it as an “instant classic” as they did with her previous studio effort. Music publications, of the nonserious variety, and of which there are many, did a deep dive into sycophancy and they will do it again the next time the megastar releases a new record. Taylor Swift has become too big to fail. There’s no time to process the art in any way. It’s immediately an “instant classic.” An important, seminal work whether it deserves that distinction or not. Let me make it clear, I don’t hate Taylor Swift. I enjoy a decent amount of her music and I’ll defend her from wrongful criticism like the kind she faced throughout the 2010s for crimes such as simply being a woman and writing break-up songs. However, this complete 180 at the turn of the decade where Swift instantly became an untouchable, revolutionary artist in the eyes of many just feels so forced. I liked folklore and evermore. I respect her for re-recording her old albums so she can fully profit off of her work, every artist deserves that (even though she is a billionaire and is running promotional ad campaigns with Spotify who are anti-art to their very core and want musicians to live off table scraps for the foreseeable future). 

This distinction is uncomfortable and it seems as though, at points in the album, Swift feels the same way. She’s drowning in her own fame, losing her individuality, yet she simultaneously keeps feeding into it. This is an album less about pushing her artistry forward and instead building her own mythos, her own lore if you will, so her stans can have a field day and pick it apart until the next one comes out. This album’s central focus is Swift’s “tortured poetry” and that becomes glaringly apparent as the album rolls on. The musical ideas here are so by the numbers for her, hardly any surprises to be found. The arrangements and production are all competent, but it stays far too within a comfort zone that just makes the album feel so sterile. So is Swift’s writing here good? Not particularly, there are a few clever lines, but it’s trying way too hard to be just that. You can definitely tell she’s been spending time around Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, but she adds her own millennial charm to it. Simply put, this album is not for someone who isn’t deeply ingrained in the Swift Extended Universe, which seems like a dwindling number of people.

Getting through the first half of this surprise double album wasn’t very enjoyable. “Guilty as Sin?” and “Clara Bow” were my favorite tracks from the first “disc,” the latter actually revealing some interesting depth to her writing that wasn’t present before, but besides that, I was predominantly either apathetic or actively disliking a lot of it. The second half is largely produced with The National’s Aaron Dessner and it’s a very welcome change of pace. It is significantly better, that or maybe I’m having a case of Stockholm syndrome. One of my favorites is “The Albatross” which is pretty well-written and the arrangement is so much more tangible than anything in the first half. Her lyricism on this half still isn’t perfect and it even makes me laugh at certain points, but I would say it’s stronger overall. “I Hate It Here” is rough though. The second verse has Swift singing “My friends used to play a game where / We would pick a decade / We wished we could live in instead of this /I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists / And getting married off for the highest bid.” There are a handful of embarrassing lyrics across this album that I decided not to cover, but I couldn’t ignore that one. Swift pining for the Jacksonian Era.

Neither The Tortured Poets Department, nor the extended THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY, are going to convert any Swift haters, but it will certainly keep the Swift enjoyers happy until the next Taylor’s Version. As for those with relative Swift fatigue, like myself, this didn’t do much for me either. I find it overall to be musically unadventurous with lyrics that often insist upon themselves, but there are a few decent songs here. Regardless, you might as well buckle up because this album will be inescapable.

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I'M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! - girl in red

◇ genres: pop rock, indie pop

I haven’t been the biggest fan of girl in red over the years. Her songwriting is mediocre and uninteresting on pretty much every level, at least to my ears. Despite that, I still decided to give I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! a fair shot, maybe she would wow me this time! That was not the case. If anything, this record is somehow a step further down from her already middling previous material. She dives pretty heavily into this overly confident pop rock and this sound shows off her weaknesses more than her bedroom pop stuff. There are some bad moments on the record for sure, one being the opener “I’m Back” which falls flat on its face despite the earnestness and the melody sounds like it’s ripped from Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” but most of the album is just painfully uninteresting. She brings the confidence throughout the album, but it’s like a child showing off the crayon drawing they did at school.

“DOING IT AGAIN BABY” sounds like it would fit perfectly in an Old Navy commercial. The lyrics in the chorus are triumphant, but it just feels so disingenuous almost like an obligation. “Phantom Pain” is pretty enjoyable, but I couldn’t see myself going back to it regularly at all. It’s a perfect filler alternative radio track. On the flip side, “Ugly Side” is the kind of alternative radio track that would make me change the station immediately. Something about those bouncy choruses in a lot of the modern alt. hits really just rubs me the wrong way. “​​★★★★★” closes the album on a weird note and it has this weird glitchy alt-pop sound that clashes strangely with the lyrics about being at the Chelsea Hotel studying music history and the struggles of working in the music “biz.” Strangely, as rough as this track is, I want her to go in this direction more. Please get weird with it, shake things up, and set yourself apart. The final track in a lot of ways delegitimizes a lot of this record talking about “making magnificent trash” and “writing hits at the factory.” I don’t know, it’s an interesting juxtaposition I guess, but it doesn’t save this record from being largely unworthy of your attention.

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Might Delete Later - J. Cole

◇ genres: trap, southern hip hop

I think the concept of a “big 3” of 2010s rap is very silly, especially because of how vast the genre was during that decade and beyond, but few artists are as undeserving of being included in that conversation as J. Cole. Chart success, sure, I guess. However, Cole has consistently been a feckless writer. A sheep in wolf’s clothing. He parades himself as an intellectual, but his pen game doesn’t display that at all. His music is for people who crave the aesthetics of something intelligent but don’t actually hold any meaningful beliefs. Kendrick Lamar made a quick snipe at J. Cole in a diss that was largely about Drake in his feature on “Like That” from the Future & Metro Boomin album from last month. Seemingly in response, Cole drops Might Delete Later, an embarrassing mixtape that in a perfect world should disqualify him from being mentioned alongside his much greater contemporaries. 

This tape is full of embarrassing bars and uneventful production. In Cole’s first verse on the first track, “Pricey,” he makes a reference to Rick & Morty and in his second he shouts out Louis Farrakhan which is just so groan-inducing. He proclaims he’s “hungrier than all the newcomers” on the second track “Crocodile Tearz” and I guess confidence is key, but even he has to know that’s not true. He’s sleepwalking his way through this thing. “Pi” has Jermaine delving into transphobia for a cheap punchline and a dig at cancel culture and “tough guys” on the internet. It’s just humiliating. It exposes him as a hack. The only other track worth mentioning is “7 Minute Drill” which is THE Kendrick diss track. How does he fire back at him? He tells him he has great albums, classics even. He tries to insinuate that he’s boring and like ok? He closes out the tape by teasing his next album right after he says that he “can drop two classics right now.” Yeah, sure man. This is a fucking mess. To make matters worse, a few days after the tape’s release Cole apologized for the diss track and says they’re working on removing it from streaming services. Might Delete Later is a hilariously appropriate title. He should delete this now.

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Fireworks & Rollerblades - Benson Boone

◇ genres: adult contemporary, pop rock

My introduction to Benson Boone was through his big TikTok hit “Beautiful Things” which has one of the most horrible pre-choruses in music history. I thought surely this is someone doing a cover of a terrible early 2000s Aerosmith song, but no this is a Boone original! Not long after I was exposed to that song, I learned he had an album on the way. Oh, joy! I’ll be honest, I did a hate listen. I’m the kind of guy who isn’t going to hate on an artist or a project without giving it a fair listen. This one tested me. It was tough to get through. Every boring or wrong decision that could be made in music history is made here. This dude is a little under a year older than me and he’s already stuck making boring adult contemporary, pop-rock schlock. Music for church youth groups. It reeks of label decisions, no artistic freedom to be found. Not saying Boone has any worthwhile ideas, he sounds like a total bore, but this feels like Walmart exclusive colored vinyl pressing bait. “Slow It Down” is one of the worst offenders here. It feels like music written to fit a specific mood rather than music born about genuine emotion. A lot of the album has that feel. “Forever and a Day” is music made for a photo compilation of the bride and groom at a wedding. The lyrics don’t matter, it’s just the feeling. The royalty-free arrangements do nothing to help either. This is just abysmal, my worst nightmare.

The music is so apathetic that it actually made me angry. 49 minutes of some of the most grueling, agonizing music I’ve ever heard. After trudging through this album I felt like I needed to listen to some really abrasive harsh noise to cleanse my palette. Horrible experience. Also baffled at how someone could be a little under a year older than me and decide to make music like this. Have you no ambition whatsoever?

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[thestoriesthatweweave]

The second (and last) chapter of my Ouyang/Xu Da bandits au is up! Containing Ouyang's A+ coping mechanisms, a certain monk (briefly) and more bed-sharing, even less platonic this time around.

“You, monk,” Ouyang said, “what’s your name? “Xu Da,” the monk said. His voice sounded off, as though he was only half present. He looked at Ouyang with wide, unfocused eyes that sharpened only slowly. “I know you,” he said. “Lord Esen’s eunuch.” The words brought a spasm of pain to Ouyang’s breast. In an instant, he was transported back to that ger, with the copper stink of blood thick in his nostrils, its bitter taste filling his mouth, Esen’s heaving body held in his arms, feeling his own fate unspool like a ruined tapestry. “Lord Esen is dead,” he said. He’d died a senseless death, and once the funeral rites had been performed, Chaghan had punished his son’s eunuch with fifty blows of the heavy rod for failing to protect him and thrown him out to starve in the streets.

[sroloc--elbisivni]

Rating the Nonsense* I found doing queer historiography research

back in 2020 I was doing a project on queer historiography prior to the queer liberation movement. Since I needed a bunch of sources, my four criteria were:

had to be accessible online (early days of the pandemic)

had to be in English

had to have been identified by another researcher or archive as queer (because i didn't have time to make arguments for every single piece of evidence)

had to be from before 1969

so, as you can imagine, I found some wild stuff. I put this together for a powerpoint party last year and now I am sharing it with the world. enjoy. includes some nsfw text.

THREE CRITERIA RATING SCALE:

"Just Saying Shit" aka wow you didn't have to cite your sources at all did you "Sure?" aka I'll go ahead and integrate that into my belief system "Creativity" aka this FUCKS

*all of this nonsense is from the non-fiction. we're not getting into the Victorian 'girdle of cunts' gangbang erotica.

EXHIBIT 1: "The Chimp," ONE Magazine, 1954. Part of a series of cartoons satirizing gay bar attendees. Ink cartoon of a chimpanzee wearing glasses sitting on a chair, martini glass held by prehensile toes. One hand is holding a cigarette and the other hand is gesturing. Caption reads "For instance, in ancient Greece, it was considered the highest form of..."

Just Saying Shit: 2/10 I fully believe the artist absolutely knew a bunch of people like this, try harder. We are just getting started. Sure?: 2/10 they just don't make 'em like this anymore Creativity: 8/10 haha fursonas in the 50s

EXHIBIT 2: Gordon Rattray Taylor, part 1. Book quote reading "According to some accounts, the Devil is equipped with a forked penis so that he can commit both buggery and fornication at the same time."

there was a book about ‘the multiple roots of homosexuality’ and if I did the whole thing we’d be here all day. This guy wrote a chapter. 

Just Saying Shit: 4/10, he’s quoting other sources but props for making it sound like it’s a factual thing about the Devil as a real person who exists. An extra point for not actually citing these sources. Sure?: 7/10 I hear hemipenes are a kink according to the scalies Creativity: 1/10 for Rattray Taylor who was quoting this but 9/10 for the original postulators.

EXHIBIT 3: Gordon Rattray Taylor, part 2. Book quote reading "As I have sought to show elsewhere (Rattray Taylor, 1954; Rattray Taylor, 1958), in societies that conceive of their deities as mother-figures, incest is regarded as the overwhelming danger and is hedged with taboos, whereas homosexuality has little importance. Conversely, in societies that conceive of their deities as father-figures, homosexuality is regarded as the overwhelming danger and is surrounded with taboos and condemnation; incest may also be tabooed but it falls far behind homosexuality in importance. I have proposed the terms matrist and patrist for those too patterns. (I do not regard "matriarchy" and "patriarchy" as satisfactory, for reasons that need not concern us here.)

Just Saying Shit: 8/10 now THAT’S what I’m talking about!! Hit me with your nonsense theories. Classic anthropology right here. Sure?: 3/10 I will regurgitate this occasionally but only because it’s kind of funny Creativity: 2/10 you did it! You broke gender essentialism down to its bare essentials and added gods!

EXHIBIT 4: Gordon Rattray Taylor, part 3. Book quote reading "The Acta Sanctorum includes accounts of "Brother Marinos," whom the other monks supposed to be a eunuch from his voice and beardlessness, who was even accused of seducing a local girl, and who turned out at death to be female; of frater Pelagius monachus et eunuchus, also a girl; of Marina, Margarita, and others. Other Instances noted by Delcourt (1961) include Athanasia of Antioch, Eugenia of Alexandria, Apollinaria, Papula of Gaul, and Hildegonde of Neuss."

Honestly i just put this one in here because it’s neat. Trans* rights.

Just Saying Shit: 0/10 you have actually clearly named your sources for once Sure?: 10/10 hey can we talk about ‘eunuch’ as not only a codified transgressive gender role but also as the rare gender&sexuality thing we can clearly translate across multiple societies– Creativity: 5/10 for not just stopping with Joan of Arc like 90% of ‘cross-dressing in the church!’ stuff

EXAMPLE 5: Edward Prime-Stevenson, part 1. Book quote reading "Of a prevalence of female similisexualism we have no historic record, but its existence is beyond doubt. Earliest legislation took little or no control of the similisexual impulses and habits. In Egypt there seems to have been no period when men were not accustomed to give free course, as by natural right, to the passion. In all dynasties, in all classes, in the army, the priesthood, in civil life, it was well-known."

Love this bastard. He wrote a 600 page book all by his damn self in 1911 and cited absolutely nothing.

Just Saying Shit: 9/10 THIS is what we’re here for. All of Egypt was gay Because I Say So Sure?: 8/10 I will believe this as a treat for me Creativity: 4/10 this fucks but points off for using it to argue the Torah is homophobic

EXAMPLE 6: Edward Prime-Stevenson, part 2. Book quote reading "The "Sexual Germ" in Friendships. Meantime, however displeasing to the reader, let it be affirmed that all real friendships between men have a sexual germ."

BEHOLD MY MOST ABSOLUTE FAVORITE QUOTE I PUT IN MY THESIS

Just Saying Shit: 12/10 absolute madlad fucking love it Sure?: 5/10 torn between ‘I want to believe’ and ‘dude i think that might just be you’ Creativity: 7/10 because I love it. The shippers were right.

EXAMPLE 7: Edward Prime-Stevenson, part 3. Book quote reading "Socrates was similsexual. Not readily can we dismiss the idea that Christ was such--and saints may have been Uranians."

Just Saying Shit: 9/10. Look at him go. Elaborate on that??? (P-S: no.) (that’s a lie he goes on other places to explain his ship manifesto for Christ and John the Baptist) (CATHOLICS IN THE AUDIENCE DO NOT @ ME I KNOW THEY'RE COUSINS. ARGUE WITH THE DEAD GUY.) Sure?: 9/10 we’ve all seen Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) Creativity: 3/10 again. we’ve all seen Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

EXAMPLE 8: Edward Prime-Stevenson, part 4. Book quote reading "The Instant Hostility of the Roman Church; and of Mariolatry. This was not all. For the sentiment hostile to similisexual love, bent on making it the most depraved of instincts, increased just as the Catholic Church exaggerated its respect for the humble mother of the Redeemer. The new Faith made the worship of the Feminine-Abstract, the Blessed Lady the Immaculate Version, a mysterious, strenuous cult; even to displacing by it the just adoration of Christ. Woman, as typified by the Virgin, was held up as the ideal of the world-heart. Mariolatry, the fine flower of feminine concepts became the special policy of the Roman Church, in shrewd concession to human, aesthetic impulses, and in a perpetual combat of male sexualism. Just as Christianity had darkened existence with the gloom and gore of the cross, so the sentiment of Mary worship was to effeminize the social and sexual life of the male."

Was I just supposed to leave out him calling the entire Roman Catholic Church emasculated. 

Just Saying Shit: 7/10 because he thinks he’s making a reasonable argument here Sure?: 4/10 my dude did you try to seduce a guy only for him to wax eloquent about the Virgin Mary Creativity: 2/10 I feel like this is just misogyny. Sorry people aren’t making religious statues of who you find hot

EXAMPLE 9: Walt Whitman's Anomaly--WC Rivers. Book quote reading "What really attracted him about manual labour was the picturesque male images it called up. "To be lean'd and to lean on," is quite an unfatiguing use of the seven-pound felling axe. Then there is his robust aspect. President Lincoln's exclamation on first seeing him-- "Well, he looks like a MAN!" --is much quoted by biographers."

Love this pamphlet. Just a dude in the 1910s going ‘I think Whitman was gay!’ with genuine delight and surprise. He a little confused but he got the spirit.

Just Saying Shit: 4/10 this is a very well documented quote but what a way to use it Sure?: 12/10 HEY ABE?? HEY ABE LINCOLN?? THIS IS UP THERE AS ONE OF THE GAYEST THINGS YOU EVER SAID Creativity: 7/10 for the circumstances in which this quote was employed namely in a chapter about possible objections to Whitman being gay 

FINAL TALLY

-God I love history

-why can’t I Just Say Shit

-Go read Shel Silverstein’s Fire Island Playboy cartoons

[saintmeghanmarkle]

an incredible interview &amp; psycholological insight with Eunuch Scobie - he is as much a narcissistic psychopathic as Table 12 by u/ElectricalAd9212

an incredible interview & psycholological insight with Eunuch Scobie - he is as much a narcissistic psychopathic as Table 12 “I’m very aware that I’m quite disliked in Britain. The way anything about me is said is as if I’m just the absolute worst person,” he tells me later. ( link archived )She gathers around her Icky Creeps as psychologically deranged as she is.He needs to be monitored by authorities because he's obsessed and demented and creepy as hell.Martyr narcissist psychopath victimhood loon and mouthpiece for MarkleBut the interviewer fact checks him, shows he's a liar, shifty, a creep, delusional, and seriously unhinged with a colossal victim complex. In other words, just like his master, Meghan Markle.The psychological derangement of the couple exists in their minion.He's absolutely exposed himself as the mad loon he is.And very creepy and stalkerish and deranged.Markle, Harry and all their friends have self destructed and they expose themselves as having souls and minds splattered with repulsivenessApart from the cult worship of the deranged duo, the rest of it is wishful thinking about the Monarchy. Really stupid, fantasist stuff about it being in jeopardy, and lots of 'woke' nonsense straight out of the lunatic deranged of twitter who support the Vampire of UvaldeIt is just full of bile about Catherine and William, which proves its nothing but mantras of hate directly from Table 12 and This One.Its like a disgusting person has puked on the floor and is pointing to it expecting everyone to applaud, but everyone just looks in disgust at the vile trio. Table 12, Harry and their minion Eunuch are finished. The end of their year of triumph is a descent into the abyss for them.​ post link: https://ift.tt/wK5pH1S author: ElectricalAd9212 submitted: November 25, 2023 at 10:39PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[sasaranomiya]

Koukyuu no Karasu Volume 3 Chapter 3 - The Hand Pulling the Sleeve (Part 1)

A shorter chapter that’s mostly focused on backstory...also shellphone

Translation Notes

1. The word used here is  志怪 which translates to “tales of the miraculous/strange.” They deal with the supernatural, and gods, ghosts and spirits

2. Zensen incense is an incense made from fragrant wood. There is one on display at the Shoso-in.

Previous || Index || Next

There were several archives within the imperial palace that collected books. The Koutou Palace Library was one of them, and it had a particularly valuable collection of books. Some of the books were written for scholars on foreign laws and history, while others were elaborately bound manuscripts and rare editions of strange tale collections. (1)

“Have you ever been to the Western Territory?”

Koushun asked that question to Shiki in a room at Koutou Academy. This country, separated down the center by a mountain range, had long been divided into the Eastern and Western Territory. The capital was located in the Eastern Territory, and Rouko, home to Ishiha’s Hatan tribe, was located in the west.

“I have been in Dou Province and Gei Province. I served as the western chief military secretary in Dou Province and an assistant inspector in Gei Province.”

Even the gentle-faced Shiki’s low voice was mellow and smooth. And just like the shadows on his face, his voice was tinged with a touch of sadness.

“Dou Province, huh. You must have had a difficult time there.”

There was an island of exiles. There were also several other small islands, which were quite difficult to manage and govern. Koushun heard that the waves were rough and the weather was harsh there.

“The winter cold was hard to withstand,” Shiki answered, nodding.

“Crops don’t grow well there because the winds are too strong. Because of that, iron manufacture and crafts flourish there. Since many of the woodturners and foot bellows operators were roughnecks, so bookish government bureaucrats are no match for them. However, it isn’t enough for warriors to simply suppress them with force.”

“Is the regional military governor handling things well?”

“The governor who summoned me at that time was a well-educated military officer. I have heard from others that the current governor is also a man of good reputation.”

“I see,” Koushun nodded. It was he who had appointed the regional military governor. “Rouko is in Gei Province. The Hatan tribe lives there. I have several eunuchs from there around me.”

“That land…isn’t very bountiful,” Shiki dropped his gaze somberly. “They can’t feed their children, so they give them away. But then there will be fewer workers. Their poverty doesn’t go away. It’s a vicious cycle. It isn’t very pleasant to see brokers coming to buy boys to make them into eunuchs.”

After he said that, he looked up, seeming to remember that he was talking to Koushun. “I apologize for going on a tangent.”

“No…”

Koushun recalled Ishiha’s face. He was still a young child, about ten or so. Ei Sei had also been around that age when he entered the inner palace.

“Generally, the western territories are poorer than the eastern territories. I hear the fish used to be so plentiful in the west that a palace could be built just with fishing.”

“Ah, yes. Ishiha also said that the elders used to be nostalgic for that time…”

“I…? Is he from the Hatan tribe?”

It appeared that he could tell from the sound of the name.

“He’s a eunuch from the Hatan tribe. He worked at Gyoukou Hall for a while. He currently works at Yamei Palace.”

“Yamei Palace…”

Shiki, who had just arrived in the imperial palace, might not know anything about the inner palace. Koushun was about to add an explanation, but before he could, Shiki said, “They say that the Raven Consort lives there.”

“You knew that already?”

“No, I learned about it after I came here. When I was in the provinces, I didn’t even know about the existence of the Raven Consort. Is it true that she undertakes everything from searching for lost items to curse killings?”

“Oh, well…”

He had never seen Jusetsu cast a curse, and he didn’t think she would.

“Um—” Just as Shiki was about to say something after careful consideration, Ei Sei came to inform them. “Dajia, the Duck Consort has arrived.”

“Oh, right. Was it today?”

He had given Kajou, who wanted to borrow books, permission to come here.

Kajou entered the room, accompanied by several attendants and eunuchs. She was a refreshing sight in her pale blue robes tinged with light grey. The dangling ornaments of her hairpins clinked together coolly.

“Did you want to borrow the classical poetry book, Kajou?”

“Yes, I have already borrowed it. There is a copy of a Kakami picture scroll in this room, I believe. I would like to borrow it.”

I want to look at it together with the Raven Consort, she said. Kajou was extremely fond of Jusetsu.

“A Kakami picture scroll?” Koushun looked at the lined-up shelves. “It must be somewhere around here.”

“I shall bring it,” Shiki quickly moved. It seemed that he already knew where everything was.

Kajou thanked him, who returned with several picture scrolls. “My, thank you very much. Are you a scholar? It’s my first time seeing you.”

Kajou often visited the academy, so she was familiar with the scholars’ faces.

“I was appointed here as a scholar recently. My name is Reiko Shiki,” Shiki bowed courteously.

“Oh, is that so? Where are you from?”

Koushun, with a start, said, “He’s from Ga Province.”

“I used to be a deputy inspector in Ga Province. I was born in Hosui in Reki Province.”

Kajou’s smile stiffened for just a moment at Shiki’s answer.

“I see. –I shall look at the contents and choose which one I wish to borrow,” Saying that with a smile, Kajou moved to the long table in the back. The eunuchs holding the picture scrolls and attendants followed. Watching them, Shiki asked Koushun, “Should I not have mentioned Reki Province?”

“Yes. …She lost someone she knew there.”

That was all Koushun said, and he glanced at Shiki. He was shrewder than he thought he would be, showing off his competence in front of a consort and promoting his name.

“——Putting that aside, weren’t you about to say something earlier?”

“Yes…” Shiki lowered his eyes. “Um, will the Raven Consort accept a request from someone like me? Or does she only listen to requests from those in the inner palace?”

“Do you have a request for her?”

Koushun was a little surprised. Somehow, Shiki didn’t look like someone who would rely on such things.

Yes, Shiki answered and rubbed his arms. His expression was dark, a shadow cast over it.

“…I’ll try asking her. By the way, what sort of request do you have for her?”

Shiki moved his gaze as if in hesitation.

“I’m sure you’ll think me a fool, but…” After saying that, Shiki lifted his eyes.

“I can see a hand pulling on my sleeve.”

Jusetsu sat down in a chair and looked at the man kneeling before her. His name was Reiko Shiki. At first glance, he didn’t look like a government official. Jusetsu hadn’t seen that many government officials to the extent that she could conclude that, but he looked very different from the officials she had seen so far. Bureaucrats were generally somewhat cold. It wasn’t that they were cold-hearted. It was an intellectual coldness, like they were sharpening their reason with knowledge.

However, this man named Shiki had no such coldness. His gaze was gentle, and there was a sense of cleanliness radiating from his ruddy skin and dress. He had an affable appearance. But, for some reason, Jusetsu could sense a shadow from him. Like the shade of early spring, there was a sudden chill and loneliness.

Why is this man in the imperial palace?

He didn’t seem to possess the spirit to work for his country or the ambition to make a name for himself. He simply looked terribly lonely.

Men like him are dangerous.

A eunuch offered a bowl of lychees to the frowning Jusetsu. The red skin was peeled in half and placed in a glass bowl for easy eating. Picking up the skin, Jusetsu put the white fruit flesh in her mouth. The sweet juices overflowed.

Jusetsu directed her gaze diagonally. Koushun was sitting there. With an expressionless face, he was leaning slightly against the armrest and sitting calmly. Nobody was saying anything. The rain was so loud that they couldn’t hear each other when they spoke.

This was the Tourin in the imperial palace, the emperor’s villa. It had a garden, a pond, and a beautiful pagoda. Under normal circumstances, she would have enjoyed the view, but the shower that suddenly started made that impossible. It felt as though this gazebo was about to be submerged.

Well, it would probably stop before that happens…

They couldn’t do anything with this kind of rain, so they could only wait for the time to pass. Jusetsu came to Tourin at Koushun’s request to meet with a scholar who had a request for her. That was why she was observing Shiki.

A hand pulling on his sleeve, huh…

She glanced at it and thought, indeed.

There was a white hand holding Shiki’s sleeve. It was a thin, pale woman’s hand. It was neither pulling hard nor gripping it. It was pinching the sleeve between its fingers forlornly. Only a glimpse of a pale yellow sleeve printed with a tiny flower pattern could be seen, and there was nothing beyond that. There was only a hand.

The rain finally let up and showed signs of stopping. Koushun opened his mouth.

“This person says that he can see a hand pulling on his sleeve…”

Jusetsu nodded. “It’s most likely a woman’s hand. She’s wearing a light-yellow upper garment with a pattern of small flowers.”

Shiki suddenly flinched. “You can see it?”

“Even now, it’s pulling on your sleeve. Reservedly.”

Shiki let out a breath. “I can only see it once in a while. It didn’t seem like anyone else could see it…”

He said that he thought that there was something wrong with his eyes because no one else could see it when he asked to confirm it.

“There are those I can see immediately, and those I can’t see no matter what. One might call it compatibility.”

She glanced at Shiki’s sleeve.

“The owner of that hand seems to be very worried about you. If that’s the case, then you must know this person. Someone close to you. And you know why they are worried about you, don’t you? I don’t believe there is much for me to do here.”

Shiki’s eyes widened. “You…can tell that much?”

“I can reveal the ghost with my arts, but is that necessary?”

No, Shiki shook his head. “That person’s sleeve and hand are both familiar to me. In particular, the hand…it is unmistakable. It’s Shoumei. She was my adopted younger sister.”

Adopted sister, Koushun murmured as though in confirmation.

“I only call her my sister, but we are not actually related by blood. I believe that you know that I was an orphan, and so was Shoumei. Orphans like us lived together. We wouldn’t have been able to survive otherwise.”

Shoumei was three years younger than Shiki, and was a helpless child in everything she did, so he took care of her and helped her as if she was his little sister.

“Shoumei also called me ‘Big Brother’ and loved me. In the town where we were born and raised, there was an old teacher who gathered the orphans and taught them how to read and write, and he was partial to me because I did well. Because of that, I was taken in by the current Reiko family. At that time, I asked if they would adopt Shoumei as well. It seemed that the couple wanted a daughter as well as an heir, so they decided to adopt us together.”

“You have good parents,” Koushun said, and Shiki smiled faintly. It was a nostalgic smile filled with affection. That alone made it clear how he thought of his adoptive parents.

“Yes, they are wonderful people. They weren’t well-off, but they said that it would be too pitiful if we were separated from each other. I can never repay my debt to them. And yet…I made them feel sorrow about Shoumei.”

Shiki’s eyes darkened.

“Shoumei married into a family in the neighboring town. There was a wealthy landowning family there, and both the husband and parents were very kind, so we were all overjoyed with such a good match. …It wasn’t until a few years later that something went wrong in the husband’s family. Perhaps their good nature was taken advantage of. They began to believe in the Moon Truth Sect, which was popular at the time. Only Shoumei rejected it. Apparently, they donated a lot of money to the sect… I heard that she reprimanded them many times, but her husband and in-laws didn’t listen to her. My sister would occasionally write to me, asking what should she do, but I was working in another province at the time and couldn’t return right away. I regret not leaving behind everything and going back home back then.”

Shiki furrowed his brows and seemed to be in great pain to say any more.

“…If it’s too painful to talk about, then you don’t have to talk about everything. Just a general outline will do.”

When Jusetsu said this, Shiki nodded slightly. After a moment of silence, he exhaled and continued.

“I still don’t know why her husband and his parents, who were so kind and good-natured, did such a thing. Is that what faith is? One day, Shoumei was encouraged by some men to join the Moon Truth Sect. It had happened many times before, but Shoumei refused each time. However, that wasn’t the only thing that happened that day. There was a quarrel, and eventually they became violent…in the end, Shoumei was beaten to death with sticks by them. I was later told that the men were yelling that by beating Shoumei with sticks, they were going to eradicate the evil things inside her. The men were quickly arrested and executed. By the time I returned, Shoumei was in a coffin, awaiting burial. They were waiting to bury her for my sake. Although it was difficult to tell because of the makeup applied to the dead, her body was covered in wounds. Her face too… That was months before the Moon Truth Sect was destroyed by riots.”

Shiki lowered his head.

“…It was about half a year after Shoumei died that I noticed this hand. The robe with the flower pattern was one I bought for her long ago, and it was her favorite. It wasn’t tailor-made from new materials, but secondhand, so it wasn’t anything much… But even if she wasn’t wearing that robe, I would recognize her immediately. When we were children, Shoumei would always hold onto my sleeve anxiously and follow me. Her way of gently and shyly holding onto my sleeve hadn’t changed at all. It’s like she’s alive, and there are times when I just wanted to grab her hand.”

Shiki smiled sadly.

“But, even though she was helpless and unreliable, Shoumei always seemed to be somewhat worried about me. I used to tell her to worry about herself before she worried about others, but…I guess she had that kind of temperament.”

“…So, are you saying that is why she is still pulling on your sleeve?”

Jusetsu asked, and Shiki lowered his head slightly.

“I suppose so,” he said, nodding as if trying to tell himself that. Jusetsu silently stared at his face.

“I wish to ask if it is possible to send Shoumei to paradise. If things remain this way, it would be too pitiful for Shoumei.”

“If Shoumei’s worries disappeared, she would soon be able to cross over to paradise without me having to do anything. You are the reason why Shoumei is kept here.”

And Shiki probably knows that reason.

Shiki didn’t want to talk about it, so Jusetsu didn’t know what it was.

Shiki hung his head and remained silent. Jusetsu glanced at his waist. There was an ornament hanging from his sash. It had been on her mind ever since they first met here. It was a white coral ornament.

The symbol of the Eight Truths Sect.

“…You said that you were the deputy inspector in Ga Province. Are you an Eight Truths believer?”

“No,” Shiki bluntly denied.

“Then why are you wearing that ornament? It’s the proof that you are a believer of the Eight Truths Sect.”

“This is—” Shiki touched the white coral ornament. “This is something I wear in order to investigate the Eight Truths and the Saname clan.”

“Shiki was poisoned while investigating the relationship between the Eight Truths and the Sanames in Ga Province,” Koushun cut in. Jusetsu glanced at him.

“There’s a possibility that I’m being let go on purpose. There are believers in the imperial palace as well. This is to deceive their eyes.”

There was an unpleasant feeling there, a sizzling sensation like skin being smoked. It was his wariness against the Eight Truths. Hakumyoushi was said to be the Great Sea Turtle God. Was this the same god that was worshipped in ancient times?

Gou-no-Kami is summoning me once more…

They had to be the same. Power had returned to an ancient god… And the Eight Truths, who worshipped that god.

She had a bad feeling about this.

“…You’re still investigating even now?”

“Pardon?”

“Even now, you’re still investigating the Eight Truths and the Saname clan?”

“Yes,” Shiki nodded as though it was natural. “The Eight Truths is something that must not be left alone. They would surely cause a disaster in the future. They must be destroyed.”

His voice felt dim and seemed to echo from the shadows. I see, so that’s where this man’s heart is, Jusetsu thought.

“Do you hate the Eight Truths?”

Shiki stared directly into her eyes. Dark flames dwelled in them.

“I heard that the Eight Truths Sect was derived from the Moon Truth Sect.”

She had heard that from Koushun. “Yes,” Shiki answered.

“…The person who recommended that Shoumei’s husband and in-laws join the Moom Truth Sect is currently the leader of Eight Truths. He is a man named Hakurai,” Shiki spat out the words, his expression unbefitting of his face. “He was the man who taught that people who are possessed with evil spirits can be cured by beating them with sticks.”

He despises that man.

Jusetsu averted her eyes from Shiki and stared at the white hand that was pulling on his sleeve. I think this is what Shoumei is worried about, she thought. She was worried about this hatred. She was worried about his burning hatred intensifying and turning into the beast called revenge and running wild.

Unless Shiki gave up his revenge and let go of his hatred, Shoumei couldn’t cross over to paradise. She couldn’t leave Shiki’s side. She continued to grab his sleeve and tried to hold him back.

Jusetsu looked at Koushun. He was expressionless as ever, and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“In any case, there is nothing I can do. I can forcibly tear Shoumei away from you, but that is not the same as sending her to paradise. If you want her to go to Kakurenomiya and turn her into a soul that traverses the river of stars, then you will have to remove her worries.”

The souls of the dead were led to Kakurenomiya in the far eastern end of the sea. After a long time, the souls were swept away on the river that flowed from Kakurenomiya. The river was in the night sky. For the people of the sea, the sky wasn’t what laid above, but something stretched out in the sea. The river was a corridor that connected the sea of beyond to the sea. Souls turned into twinkling stars after flowing from there, and their lights fell onto the earth and became new lives. No one knew if a star would become a fish in the sea, a plant growing from the earth, or a human being.

Every time a star’s light falls to the ground, a life is born.

That was why people feared, respected, and yearned for starlight.

“The wind that blows from the distant sea sounds the flower whistle, and the starlight reminds us of the deceased. If you wish to quietly mourn her, then put Shoumei at ease.”

Shiki bit his lip and bowed his head. Then, slowly, he shook his head.

“I’m sorry. It seems…that I still can’t send Shoumei to paradise.”

Jusetsu frowned slightly. She looked at Koushun and saw him staring out the latticed window. The rain had stopped. Droplets of water were dripping from the leaves one by one outside the window.

Ei Sei made tea for Koushun, who had returned to the inner court. As steam rose from the kettle and the scent of tea filled the room, Koushun felt the tension from his shoulders to his back slowly loosening up. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

Ei Sei scooped the boiled tea with a spoon and poured it into a cup. When Koushun accepted it, the scent of fragrant and refreshing tea wafted from the cup even more strongly. He took a sip and found that it was faintly sweet.

“Where did this tea come from?”

“Bu Province.”

“I see. It’s delicious. Your tea is the best, as always.”

“Thank you very much,” Ei Sei smiled a faint, proud smile.

Koushun asked while drinking tea, “How is the tracking of Hou Ichigyou coming along?”

“It doesn’t seem like he left the capital. We are continuing the search for him.”

Koushun nodded at Ei Sei’s reply. Hou Ichigyou was the person who brought Shougetsu to the capital and introduced him to Gyoei. His identity had come to light. He used to serve the previous dynasty as a sorcerer, and was also Ran Hyougetsu’s master. What kind of intentions did such a person have in sending Shougetsu to the inner palace? There were many things they needed to question him about. He must be taken into custody as soon as possible.

Koushun threw another question at him.

“Sei, what do you think of Shiki?”

It was common for the two of them to ask each other questions out of context. That was how it went with Ei Sei.

Ei Sei lowered his long, glossy eyelashes. “He seems dangerous,” he immediately replied.

“Is that so?”

“Dajia…you shouldn’t trust him too much.”

“Does it look like I trust him?”

Ei Sei closed his mouth, and Koushun peered at his expression. He stroked the rim of the teacup, which was painted with flowers and birds.

“…I am wondering what Chouyou is thinking.”

“The Saname…”

“I’ve only met that man three times, but he’s completely unreadable to me. If the Sanames are involved with the Eight Truths, and if they are plotting something no good, he wouldn’t do anything that would arouse suspicion. That’s an absolute fact. He wouldn’t fail to kill Shiki or let him slip through his hands. If Shiki was able to escape from Ga Province, that was because of Chouyou’s will.”

“——Does that mean Shiki is Saname’s pawn?”

No, Koushun put the cup back on the table. “I am not sure about that. Did he only let Shiki go, or did he send him here? Is there a connection between Chouyou and Shiki? What is the relationship between Chouyou and the Eight Truths…?”

Don’t rush. You’ll let him get away.

Koushun folded his hands in front of his body and closed his eyes slightly.

Saname Chouyou…

The head of the Saname clan whose real name was unknown. He wondered where his intentions laid.

“I’m concerned about the Ga Province silk merchants who have been coming and going from the Un estate lately.”

Koushun nodded slightly at Ei Sei’s words.

Tutor Un, don’t pretend to be stupid.

Everything is falling away from between my fingers… In the end, there is nothing left.

He couldn’t get those thoughts out of his mind.

Ei Sei burned incense for Koushun, who had closed his eyes. Clove incense, pipe vine incense, zensen incense (2)…there had always been a variety of incense used here, but recently he had been preferring to burn agarwood incense. That was the incense Jusetsu often used.

As the gentle fragrance filled the air, he felt as if he was in Yamei Palace. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled.

Jusetsu had told him that the deity worshipped by the Eight Truths was the ancient Sea Turtle God. He had sensed that something was stirring and reaching out to them. He wanted to know just what it was.

“What’s the matter?”

Koushun heard footsteps and opened his eyes. Standing beside Ei Sei was a serving eunuch with a tray in his hands. Ei Sei took the tray and placed it on the table.

“This is a gift from Gei Province that arrived the other day.”

“Ah…the large rare conch snell, was it?”

Ei Sei lifted the cloth over the tray. It held a conch shell as big as Koushun’s face. It had a deep, dark color that sparkled in rainbow colors depending on the angle one viewed it from. It was named the “Brilliant Raven Shell. It was believed that large conch snails were the messengers of the gods who created the Peripheral Mirages—the fog at the ends of the sea. What was more, this was a rare raven shell that sparkled in many colors. Because of this, it was presented to the emperor as a symbol of good omens. Apparently, it was picked up a local fisherman after it had washed up on the beach.

“It was a beach in Rouko, right? That’s Ishiha’s hometown. I heard all sorts of things are washed up there.”

Did even corpses wash up there?

He suddenly recalled the myth that this land was created from the corpse of a god who was chopped into pieces. It was said to be a god who was exiled from Kakurenomiya.

“A country born from death. Is ruling it as an emperor the same as turning a corpse into a throne?”

Koushun, who had the shell in his hand and was admiring its iridescent luster, suddenly felt that he heard a faint voice and looked around.

“Is something the matter?”

“Can’t you hear that voice?”

Ei Sei stopped his movements to listen carefully. “No, I don’t hear anything.”

Koushun gestured to the bewildered Ei Sei to stop talking. He could still hear it.

What was this? It was like a whisper, but it wasn’t a distant voice. It sounded from nearby. And yet it was far away.

“Summer King.”

Koushun startled. It was a familiar voice.

A voice that was neither low nor high. A sound like intense waves. This was…

“Shougetsu…no, the Owl?”

Koushun looked down at the shell in his hand. The voice is coming from here. Impossible.

“Summer King—would it better if I called you emperor? Your names are quite complicated.”

“What’s happening? Where are you talking from?”

“Dajia?” Ei Sei was flustered. “What’s wrong?”

“Can’t you hear him?”

Astonished, Koushun looked between Ei Sei and the shell.

“My voice can only be heard by those who wear my mark.”

“Your mark?”

“I injured you. That must have left a bruise.”

Koushun’s hand went to his arm. The scar he had received from the Owl had already disappeared, but the faint bruise that had appeared still remained. It was a brown bruise, shaped like an owl’s feather.

“I can’t move. I can’t even make tsukaibe anymore. All I can do now is send my voice elsewhere.” There was a sound like a sigh. “I’m in prison. I’m completely powerless here.”

“Prison?”

“I told you that interference was forbidden. Didn’t I say that? I don’t know. Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ve been punished and sent to the goal. That’s why I had this large conch snail act as my messenger.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t make tsukaibe.”

“This isn’t a tsukaibe. Conch snails can only perform simple things. Right now, it’s conveying my voice. The shell is in your hands, and the snail itself is drifting in the sea, relaying my voice. The trouble is that whether or not it reaches you depends on the tides.”

Koushun stared at the shell and frowned.

“Why exactly are you doing this? You can’t kill the Raven Consort with just your voice.”

The Owl’s goal was to kill the Raven Consort—and consequently, the Raven.

“Yes, I can’t kill her. But, once I get involved, I can’t stand just watching. I want to help the Raven.”

The Owl’s tone was aloof, but his desire sounded earnest.

“…But, you can’t do anything anymore, can you?”

“I can’t. That’s why I’m asking you.”

“What?” Koushun was astonished. “Are you telling me to kill the Raven Consort?”

“I’m not. I want you to help the Raven.”

“So, what—”

“You don’t want to kill the Raven Consort. I want to save the Raven. Even I don’t want to kill an innocent maiden. Didn’t I say that before as well? If that’s the case, think about it.”

“…About what?”

“A way to save the Raven without killing the Raven Consort.”

Koushun stared at the shell. The jet-black shell was glossy, and the rainbow sheen was like moonlight shimmering on the surface of a lake.

“There must be a way to save the Raven Consort as well. You want to help her, don’t you?”

He caught his breath faintly. Yes, he wanted to save Jusetsu from her suffering. That was what he wanted to do.

“…But, that…”

Wouldn’t that mean losing the Winter King?

The Raven was imprisoned within the Raven Consort, who was concealed within the inner palace, and that was how the Summer and Winter Kings were just barely kept in existence. If we free the Raven—what will happen? The Raven would probably not be who she used to be. This dynasty wasn’t an era where the Winter and Summer Kings stood side by side.

Chaos is inevitable.

Chaos caused war. Koushun closed his eyes and drooped his head, as though he could see visions of the war-torn land. There’s no way I could make such a choice.

The Owl continued to speak, not minding Koushun’s silence.

“You and I don’t have conflicting wishes. So think about it. Find a way to help both of them.”

“You can’t just…” Koushun pressed his hand against his forehead. “What can I think of and do about it that a god can’t?”

He heard a snort.

“God this, god that—you mortals were the ones who worship us as that on your own, but I don’t understand that concept. We may be able to do some of the things that you cannot do, but you can also do what we cannot. It’s not a bad thing to fear and respect those of a different race, but it’s a problem if you think they can do anything.”

“I didn’t think you could do anything, but…”

Koushun didn’t think they were talking about a mere difference in race.

“Can you mortals match the claws of a bear? Can you fight against the fangs of a wolf? I doubt you can. But, you have wisdom. That’s why you make tools to fight against beasts. That’s the difference between you and us. We have wisdom too, but it’s probably different from yours. After all, we never even dreamed that Koushou would do such a foolish act. Something that benefitted no one—no, it only benefitted one person: Ran Yuu. I don’t understand how you people think.”

Koushou. The first Raven Consort. She was the one who imprisoned the Raven within the Raven Consort.

“But that is precisely why you lot might be able to think of something. And the way to save the Raven is also…”

Was there such a way? If there was——

The Owl’s voice became distant. There was a faint sound like the tides receding. The voice cut off at that point. Silence returned to the room.

Koushun resisted the urge to throw the shell and placed it on the tray instead. He let out a deep sigh.

“…Dajia, is everything okay?”

Ei Sei, who had been holding his breath until then, asked him nervously.

“Ah…”

His body, which had been lightened by Ei Sei’s tea, became heavy again.

“Sorry, but could you give me another cup of tea? Lukewarm is fine.”

“Understood.”

Ei Sei, not looking bothered in the least, happily prepared the tea again. It must be a hassle. He started the fire, boiled the water, and boiled the tea. Koushun felt at ease as he watched him.

Even though the tea leaves were already roasted and ground, it took some skill to get just the right amount of boiled water and extract the flavor. Ei Sei had always been good at getting the hang of things no matter what. He was a clever person.

If he hadn’t been a eunuch, he would have made a good government official.

He had thoughts like that from time to time, but he never said it aloud. That was because it would only be nothing but degrading to Ei Sei to talk about something that was already beyond help.

“…You’ve improved so quickly in both tea and calligraphy as soon as you were taught.”

“Thank you very much. I truly enjoyed learning from you.”

“Is that so?”

“Until you rescued me, Dajia, I had nothing to hope for in my life,” The sound of boiling water resounded in the room. Ei Sei took salt from the salt rack and added it to the kettle. “I have no regrets about becoming a eunuch, because I would have been in a far worser situation if I had stayed where I was born.”

Ei Sei spoke as though he understood Koushun’s feelings. He was smiling. It was a beautiful smile.

“…”

Koushun, who knew what Ei Sei, who was more beautiful than anyone, had gone through after becoming a new eunuch chi’er, remained silent. It was difficult to imagine a far worser situation than that.

I heard he was born in the entertainment district.

He had never pried. That was because Ei Sei didn’t seem to want to be asked about it.

If I remember correctly, Jusetsu was also born in the entertainment district.

He heard snatches of her story some time ago. She had lived there before becoming a house slave, and her mother was a prostitute as well.

Koushun gazed at Ei Sei’s face as he sipped his tea. Although her features were different from his, Jusetsu was also beautiful. Her face somewhat gave off the same air as Ei Sei’s. They possessed beautiful faces, but also an air of coldness and indifference.

“…I have a feeling that you and Jusetsu will get along very well.”

Ei Sei nearly spilled the tea.

“S-Sometimes, Dajia, you remain silent for a long time, and then you suddenly say something out of the ordinary.”

Ei Sei looked as though he wanted to say, “Get along well? Absolutely not.” It was so funny that Koushun let out a laugh and thought to himself, I’ll say the same thing to Jusetsu next time.

Previous || Index || Next

[fragilelovelythings]

I’m finally postiiiiing <3  Roman Roy is a tiny little baby and lives rent-free in my brain. 

Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Succession (TV 2018) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jeryd Mencken & Roman Roy, Jeryd Mencken/Roman Roy, Tabitha Hayes & Roman Roy, Gerri Kellman & Roman Roy, Tabitha Hayes/Naomi Pierce Characters: Roman Roy, Tabitha Hayes, Jeryd Mencken, Logan Roy, Naomi Pierce, Gerri Kellman Additional Tags: Character Study, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Sexual Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Canon Compliant, Daddy Kink, Daddy Issues, Family Issues, Family Dynamics, Episode: s03e06 What It Takes, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sibling Rivalry, Friendship, Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Eating Disorders, Symbolism, Masturbation Interruptus, Masturbation, Self-Denial, Dream Sex, Wet Dream, Platonic Cuddling, Lucid Dreaming, Private Investigators, POV Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Frottage, Food Kink, Food Porn, Roman Roy Needs a Hug, Roman Roy Has an Orgasm, Roman Roy Has Issues, Roman Roy - Freeform, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Light Dom/sub, Blow Jobs, Mutual Masturbation, Mutual Pining, Anal Fingering, Fingerfucking, Finger Sucking, Nipple Licking, Nipple Play, Dubiously Consensual Blow Jobs Summary:  

"You were fucking right. Sent at 14:13

Good, has my pythoness era arrived? Sent at 14:22

He checked it and used two fingers to hide his grin.You betcha Sent at 14:24

Soon he was settled in his father’s quarters where everyone was moving in all directions. He barely paid attention to Frank and Gerri discussing some minor details on the DOJ nor paid attention to his father observing him. He knew what to say: just sexting Tabs dad, I’m good at multitasking.

Was I? So? how was our favourite nazi’s dick? Sent at 14:30

He looked at the new message and thought that this is what people must feel when sharing a secret with a friend with no catch in between.It was heartwarming.

Or whatever."

[littlegaybitchass1569]

On this day 89 years ago, activist, revolutionary and council communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, the man who on 1933 set fire to the Reichstag, was executed by the German authorities and with the pretext of the burning started the repression of communists all around Germany.

Lubbe's actions were criticized by many, but there hasn't been a figure so slandered by Stalinists and Fascists alike, he is accused of homosexuality, terrorism and anti working class actions by both sides; stalinists go far as saying he was a NSDAP agent, the truth lies that Lubbe's actions where mistaken, but he was the only man in Germany who entered the parliament with honest intentions, he tried rallying the working class behind the burning of the Reichstag, something heavily criticized by revolutionary and member of the KAPD, Anton Pannekoek in this text: https://www.marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1933/individual.htm

Marinus van der Lubbe memory still lives on as a fighter and a revolutionary, who, furious with the reformist movement speerheaded by the eunuch of the third international, the KPD, helped and secured Nazi reign by selling the working class to be subornidate by leaders and trade unions.

Rest in Peace.

[fourgods-nobrakes]

I have a lot of deadlines coming up so I wrote fic about my fave having a good night instead. Horus/Lorgar ~35 years pre-heresy, in which sacred eunuch Lorgar offers himself to one who will be Chosen and then enjoys it much more than he expected to.

[thestoriesthatweweave]

Chapter 1 of my Ouyang/Xu Da bandit AU is up. Contains: flirting over sword-fighting lessons, Esen's ghost haunting the narrative and bed-sharing

“You, monk,” Ouyang said, “what’s your name? “Xu Da,” the monk said. His voice sounded off, as though he was only half present. He looked at Ouyang with wide, unfocused eyes that sharpened only slowly. “I know you,” he said. “Lord Esen’s eunuch.” The words brought a spasm of pain to Ouyang’s breast. In an instant, he was transported back to that ger, with the copper stink of blood thick in his nostrils, its bitter taste filling his mouth, Esen’s heaving body held in his arms, feeling his own fate unspool like a ruined tapestry. “Lord Esen is dead,” he said. He’d died a senseless death, and once the funeral rites had been performed, Chaghan had punished his son’s eunuch with fifty blows of the heavy rod for failing to protect him and thrown him out to starve in the streets.

[guiltypleasurefandomface]

Thank you so much for the ‘Brian discovers Roger is a reader’ fic, it was exactly what I wanted! Love the description of Roger’s room full of books. Now I’m dying to know what Roger made of The Female Eunuch :) I hope you put this on Ao3, it deserves more permanence than a tumblr post!

Oh i'm so glad you liked it! <3

Do you know, I wasn't going to because it didn't feel long enough, but you're right, it would be a shame if tumblr ate it on me and I wasn't able to find it in the search in the future.

So I have put it up on Ao3 and you can find it here. And if you have an Ao3 account, let me know your username if you'd like it gifted to you!

[wuxiaphoenix]

Plotbunny: The Xi-Files

Sometimes my brain just goes odd places....

The rule of a righteous emperor suppresses demons! ...So of course any records of such attacks would be hushed up, or buried in administrative files, to preserve the stability of the empire. And yet, a truly righteous emperor (or at least some of his more far-sighted and practical minions) would see things need to be handled.

Enter Coroner Su Kuli and Investigator Mu Du (called Du’er by some). In their adventures they encounter:

The Lone Archers, three would-be scholars who’ve failed the imperial examinations due to their impious and frankly weird answers, who’ve turned to street performances, storytelling, and managing a messenger pigeon network to get by. They’ve got access to some hidden library troves, and lots of other info....

The Pipe-Smoking Man, a mysterious figure who may or may not be an imperial eunuch, but definitely has Connections in various armies and shady places.

Monsters, monsters galore. Just check out the Record of Things Strange for inspiration. Also recall that historically China got pirates and merchants from Japan, Korea, and just about anywhere else, so if it’s a case related to a port town anything might turn up. And I do mean anything. You could easily replicate one of the X-Files’ “monstrous infections of almost everyone in X place” with one penanggalan cooking stew....

The episode format doesn’t have to change a bit. Mu Du’er drags something out of the archives or the Lone Archers’ pigeon messages, the pair of them hare off to the nearest mess, everyone else swears it’s regular kidnappings, people getting eaten by tigers, or bandit attacks....

(Cue a scene of bandits attacking some helpless traveler - only to find they’ve Mugged the Monster. Or they kill some of their victims only to have the Monster show up to eat ALL of them.)

Of course, in this setting Su Kuli must be a much better rider, to take advantage of the fastest travel available. She’s also likely an excellent archer. (Mu Du’er, not so much.)

It’s a tossup if you want to make the aliens/black ooze just more monsters (if weirder than normal) or some kind of foreign influence from a frozen, barbaric land. The Himalayans could hold all kinds of horrible secrets; the Siberian tundra, likewise.

Not sure how you’d want to model someone always losing their cell phone. Unless their messenger pigeons regularly fall prey to hawks and cats.

...I would be so amused if someone wrote the story using the imagery of brush-strokes appearing at the bottom of the screen to label the latest time and location.

Oh, and in a setting where who wears what robes and color combinations is often prescribed by law, Du’er’s colorblindness should get him in serious trouble. It’s even possible he got an assistant to keep him out of horrible color choices first, and coroner experience later....

[fragilelovelythings]

My baby is out <3 

Chapters: 4/? Fandom: Succession (TV 2018) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jeryd Mencken & Roman Roy, Jeryd Mencken/Roman Roy, Tabitha Hayes & Roman Roy, Gerri Kellman & Roman Roy, Tabitha Hayes/Naomi Pierce Characters: Roman Roy, Tabitha Hayes, Jeryd Mencken, Logan Roy, Naomi Pierce Additional Tags: Character Study, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Sexual Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Canon Compliant, Daddy Kink, Daddy Issues, Family Issues, Family Dynamics, Episode: s03e06 What It Takes, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sibling Rivalry, Friendship, Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Eating Disorders, Symbolism, Masturbation Interruptus, Masturbation, Self-Denial, Dream Sex, Wet Dream, Platonic Cuddling, Lucid Dreaming, Private Investigators, POV Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Frottage, Food Kink, Food Porn, Roman Roy Needs a Hug, Roman Roy Has an Orgasm, Roman Roy Has Issues, Roman Roy - Freeform Summary:

Self-loathing came as easy as being delusional. As if it was just the same package for any deranged soul without any conceivable chance to bargain with the offer. That and of course, sex defiance. Somebody had to carry the cross, why not him? Why not subconsciously transform every possible instance in a sex debauchery scenario without really fucking anybody? It was brilliant. Just brilliant. Deeply disturbed and Roy-like. To feel the need and desire crawling from your bones and project it whenever possible, but tainted, tainted, and feasible to deny any glimpse of honesty or human need. To make sure nobody would be really able to pet his head and quiet him, tenderly lull him and make him feel sure again.

[enbyzombies2]

its really a shame they scrubbed eunuch maker videos off the web and we seem to only have clips of them shared between specific peoples emails. I think they should be available for the layman, for archival purposes.

[khunspikesficrecs]

Title: A Part of A Whole

Author: 99_9

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Porsche Kittisawat/Pete Saengtham, Vegas Theerapanyakul/Porsche Kittisawat/Pete Saengtham, Kinn Theerapanyakul/Pete Saengtham

Summary:

Pete hums a little as he wraps up what he’s doing and gets ready to head out.  Porsche and Vegas have plans tonight.  They offered to write him a role, but they're both big nerds and Pete is taking a pass on costumes and a script for sex. His phone buzzes, Porsche asking if he has a second before he leaves.  Sure, Pete writes back, and heads upstairs. Porsche is in a good mood too.  He grins up at Pete when he lets himself into Porsche's office.  "Hey," he says to Pete, and closes his laptop.  "I know you said that we were ridiculous and you weren't dressing up as a eunuch…" "I did say that," Pete agrees, and smiles.  “And you’re not talking me into it.” "Wasn't gonna try," Porsche says.  "Kinn would kill me, he's excited to see you.  No, he gave me a present to give to you.  If you want." Or: after everything, things are good, actually.