#for the record - it’s not the incest and horror I have an issue with

[the-curious-curer]

Random rant: English fandoms especially is a weird place, on one hand you have people cheering for series romanticizing serial killers (Dahmer) and incest (House of Dragon) but on the other, people shipping gay teenage boys from anime get called out for “misogyny” and “ped0philia” and so on.

[ncji]

Saiko Denshin

Rating: Explicit

Pairing(s): HiaHiza (Hiashi/Hizashi), HizaNeji (Fantasy), InoichiNeji (Fantasy)

WARNING(S): Incest, obviously. Dl;dr.

Summary: Ibiki wants to recruit a certain Hyuuga prodigy into T&I, but he needs to make sure he's psychologically sound first. There's one particular issue he wants his colleague to look into for him...

"Ibiki is very thorough. You can understand why."

In his short eighteen years, Neji had learned that people only insisted he understood something when they wanted to shame him into silent acceptance, but, in this case, he could understand why anyone seeking to join the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force would have to be thoroughly vetted. The division likely attracted sadists and psychopaths. He was neither, though, so he was confident he would pass whatever inspection Inoichi had in store for him.

"We'll need some privacy for this." The Yamanaka passed two open doors before he settled on a specific room. Like any person, he was a creature of superstition in its simplest form. His best inspections had happened in the small room, so he brought his favorite candidates there to hopefully raise their chances of passing.

After ushering Neji into the room, he closed the door behind them, leaving them in the quiet of the cozy little space. There, he guided him to sit on one of a set of cushions in the center of the room while he sat before him. "I will, of course, need your consent." Uncharacteristic of him, Inoichi cupped the edge of the teenager's jaw. "You can trust me. I have probed every mind in this facility, and there isn't a person here who wouldn't let me in again."

Neji wondered if his face was as red as it was hot. Flustered, all he could think to do was nod his head.

"Good." Resting his hand atop the Hyuuga's head, Inoichi closed his eyes and prepared for the probe. "Now, let's see where you stored that memory of me, huh?"

Eyes wide in horror, Neji almost withdrew his consent, but his consciousness slipped away and into Inoichi's capable hands.

"The attraction to parental figures is one of the most easily exploitable weaknesses a person can have. They exploit it over at T&I," Inoichi explained as he swam through the young man's mind. There were no traps, thankfully, though he hadn't expected any. The Hyuuga clan was secretive, but not paranoid. "Ibiki wanted yours explored. 'Said it stood out like a sore thumb. I have to agree."

"Sometimes, the attraction to older men is just an attraction to older men." Neji's disembodied voice countered. While he couldn't see Inoichi, he could hear his voice, which was seriously jarring. Like anyone else, he had memories of voices, of songs, of sounds, but they were all limited to a certain range, like a poor recording. Having a clear voice speak in his unconscious mind was giving him mental tinnitus. "I like maturity."

"Yeah, and I'm the hokage." Drifting through a door that opened so willingly for him, he entered a private part of Neji's mind. It was the most active part of any teenager's mind. There was an official term for it, but Inoichi had hear a different term from Nara Shikaku one too many times to use any other word. "Ah, the spank bank."

"What!?" In his mind's eye, he watched as the memory of Inoichi played out, from his request for Neji's "consent" to the hand that had rested so gently upon his head. And he was humiliated. "Get out of there."

"It's right where I thought it would be, at the front of the line. Of course, that's by design. The latest interest takes priority over the classics, and memories take priority over..." He waved the memory aside, making way for something he couldn't have predicted more accurately had his life depended on it. In the mind's little theater, Inoichi's hand brushed down along Neji's neck and over his chest, hooking beneath the overlapping flap of his shirt. "...fantasies. I'm flattered. You made me look like a model."

Fantasy Inoichi unclasped his shirt, almost purred out the words, "Since I have your consent," and Neji wanted to die. All he did, though, was groan inwardly, which resonated throughout the space Inoichi occupied.

"Don't be embarrassed. No one will know about this, and I've seen much worse in a person's mind." Before his fantasy likeness could kiss a man one year his daughter's senior, he slid the thought aside for the next, and he saw why Ibiki had pegged the boy for a daddy's boy. There was Morino Ibiki, gloved hand on Neji's shoulder. A single touch and a declaration of desire to have Neji join his division had earned him Neji's interest. "Ibiki?"

Neji didn't answer. If Inoichi was going to continue to humiliate him, he wasn't going to get the satisfaction of his reaction. Besides, if he didn't understand the appeal of an intimidating torture expert, he wasn't going to understand.

"I don't know if I'm flattered anymore." A peek behind the memory revealed a little too much leather for his tastes, so he swiped them both aside at once. Unfortunately, Neji's interest in Ibiki had started days ago, and Neji was a teenager, so Inoichi had to suffer through fantasy after fantasy, though he was surprised by the content of more than one. "All it takes is a little praise and emotional support, huh? That's...kind of wholesome." The lighter side of the otherwise unhealthy fixation on father replacements he supposed.

When the Ibiki saga ended, another began. Shiranui Genma. A fixation that had likely started at the Chuunin Exams--Yes, Inoichi had done his research--with an interaction that had not been at all interpretable as sexual. There had been no touch, no innuendo, even for the most creative mind to find, just some advice. Somehow, that had resonated with Neji, on a sexual level.

Past Genma was a worse sexual interest, a line most never crossed.

Inoichi's eyes narrowed, a certain suspicion taking hold. With a hand seal, he was able to maneuver the memories and fantasies outward, spread them out like security monitors, and, to his absolute disbelief, he found a wall of men that were completely inappropriate for Neji to think of in that manner. It didn't take long to find one that he just knew had a part to play in his corrupted sexuality. As his eyes settled on the particular fantasy, Inoichi felt some resistance, hard resistance.

"I withdraw my consent. Leave," Neji stated firmly. Like he was in the middle of a nightmare, he fought to open his eyes.

Inoichi was stronger, though. Two hand seals was all it took to draw Neji deeper into unconsciousness. Understandably, he felt the turmoil of betrayal and distrust. "I'm sorry, Neji, but, to be frank, Ibiki wants you. That means I need to find the source of what I just saw." Hopefully, if he could confront the source of it, Neji could begin the healing process and find the stability within himself that was required of T&I. "Did he--?"

"Shut up," Neji warned.

Those words came out with a lethal snap that caused his physical body to flinch. Inoichi could see why Ibiki wanted him. "That's not normal. You know that, don't you?" He didn't know what the silence meant, either that Neji was fuming or he hadn't known. The latter possibility was heartbreaking.

Backing out of the erotic fantasies, he closed the door behind himself, an unnecessary but polite gesture. "We'll get through this together, alright? You're not facing this alone."

"I don't want to face it at all." Some things weren't meant to be confronted. Sometimes, it was easier to just accept them.

"Do you know where it comes from?" the blond asked, maneuvering through an increasingly rough current.

"No."

Despite his insistence, the question had forced him to give it a vague thought, albeit briefly, and Inoichi had felt the pull of his thoughts in that direction. Memories. Specifically, the most pivotal of memories, both precious and traumatic. Whatever had broken Neji had only been a brief occurrence, just a glimpse into his life. 'How tragic...'

Another door manifested, and Inoichi was swept inside on the hurried steps of a mere toddler, riding the memory from Neji's point of view. With a growing warmth in his heart, he observed through the boy's eyes as his father swept him up and brought him to his chest in a tight hug. In that moment, he felt safe, he felt loved, and he felt...whole.

There was no doubt about it. It was the precious memories of others that made Inoichi love his job. Like most shinobi, his life hadn't been perfect, but it got a little closer with each precious memory he secretly collected.

"Can you wait in your room for me, Neji? I need to talk to your mother for a minute, alright?"

Strong arms carried him to a room lit by a small lantern, where Inoichi noted he felt isolated and uneasy. The door was cracked, but not shut. Then, he was startled by a shout.

"That's what I mean, Hizashi! You can't spend more than a minute with me! You love him more than you love me!"

Peeking through the cracked door, he could see the face of a woman. She might have been beautiful had her vitriol not made her so monstrously ugly. 'His mother,' he realized, his heart breaking for the toddler, whose tiny hands were braced on the edge of the door, ready to sweep it open so he could run out and protect his father if he needed to. His own mother, a monster Neji had seen as a threat to his beloved protector.

"That's how you should feel, Mio...That's how parents feel about their children. They love them..." Hizashi reasoned with a desperation buried under the weight of fatigue. It was clear he had been trying to convince his wife to love her own son for a long time, probably the child's whole life.

"I never should have had him for you."

"He is the best gift you have ever given me. He's the reason I still love you...even after seeing this side of you..."

"I was the best gift I've ever given you!" she screamed, causing her rejected son to quake and stumble back into the darkness of his room. Imagined monsters of the shadows seemed safer than his own mother. "You should remember that."

A door slammed, and a tense moment passed, before little legs carried Inoichi to a broken father, an expression Inoichi recognized as hopelessness on his face. When he registered that his son was there, though, that expression brightened, like the rising of the sun, and the boy was lifted into his father's arms once more. "Titi?" the toddler questioned, his hands balled up in his father's shirt in an attempt at a hug. 'Chichi,' Inoichi mused.

"Are you afraid I'm sad? I'm not sad." To Inoichi's surprise, Hizashi sounded genuine. He was either the best actor he had ever witnessed or a man that could be lifted out of his darkest moments by the mere presence of his child. The latter moved the Yamanaka. "How can I be sad when I have you?"

As the memory ended, Inoichi was left standing in the middle of a long hallway, another memory. When? He couldn't tell. It couldn't have been too far away from the last, though, because he was still so close to the ground. With a jolt of excitement, a squeal erupted from his vocal cords as he was lifted into the air.

"I've got you!"

The voice, though it sounded the same to Inoichi, did not elicit the same love in Neji. There was still an abundance of love, just not the same kind of love. When he was turned in the man's arms, he could see why. 'Hiashi?' It seemed wrong to see him so carefree and, dare he even think it, loving. A fitting attack on a toddler, the uncharacteristically adorable Hiashi kissed his nephew's belly several times.

Giggles mixed with his squeals, and Neji's hands grabbed at the clan head's nose to capture him. "Didi!" Inoichi chuckled inwardly at the name because, from Neji's thoughts, he knew he was trying to call him jiji of all things.

"Hiashi-sama," Hiashi corrected with a playfully high-pitched voice.

It only made his baby nephew laugh while he tugged on his nose. "Didi!"

In a genius strategy, Hiashi threatened to eat the little hand with a few bites of the air beneath it. When tiny fingers released him, he rewarded the boy with a kiss to his forehead. "Neji~," he cooed.

The Yamanaka behind the toddler's eyes melted. He would never look at Hiashi the same again.

"Ah, there's my twin, and Hiashi-sama."

"Titi!" Neji called, flailing a bit in his uncle's hands. He was saved from his own excitement by Hizashi, who wrapped him in a secure embrace. Neji, in return, nuzzled his face into his father's chest. The scent, Inoichi would never forget, because it triggered a calm in Neji that was so blissful.

"That was cute until you weaponized it," Hiashi told his brother, tone even, even though he was clearly bothered by it. Inoichi could see the pain on his face.

"Until I realized it, you mean," Hizashi shot back. Like his brother, he maintained an unnatural calm to keep his son from realizing he was angry.

"I am your twin, Hizashi, even when you hate me."

"You lost your soul when you gained our clan, Hiashi-sama. My twin's soul is in Neji. Look at him, he looks just like me~." Despite his harsh words to his brother, he smiled at his child, who was peering up at him curiously, and kissed the tip of his nose.

That was when Hiashi's voice cracked. "I never lost my soul, Hizashi. You're still here. If you think mine is gone, it's you who has lost his soul."

Neji's eyes lingered on Hiashi's face, and Inoichi knew he understood only vaguely what he was seeing, not just sadness, but heartbreak. Inoichi could never understand the bond of twins, as he had never had one, but he imagined losing a twin, even if just part of that bond, felt like losing a crucial part of one's own body. The soul claim seemed fitting.

The twins faded into the environment, and Neji's small frame drifted safely to the floor, where he rolled onto his back. The hands that raised into the air, just so he could see them, were smaller, the thoughts were simpler, and his perception was far more limited. A tickle against the sole of his foot made the baby push outward with his leg, and his foot collided with something warm and flat. He couldn't lift his head to see what it was, but Inoichi knew his foot had been caught by an adult's hand.

A gasp overhead focused curious eyes on a familiar face. His pristine forehead caught Inoichi by surprise. He hadn't expected to see Hiashi again. "What was that? What was that, Neji? Was it the tickle monster?"

Off to a side Neji's eyes couldn't see, Hizashi chuckled. "You can't come up with your own material?"

"Of course I can. I just don't want to confuse him," Hiashi laughed.

There was no comprehension in Neji's underdeveloped mind, but he did feel. When his father leaned over the bassinet, the top of his head pressed to his brother's, and smiled down at Neji, that was when the baby felt safe. With their faces staring down at him with so much love and adoration, that was when he felt happy.

"He looks just like you," Hiashi told his twin softly. "He's your little twin."

That made Hizashi laugh, a sound that excited Neji and made him push his foot harder against the palm, likely Hiashi's. "You're my twin."

The way Hizashi smiled as he looked up at his brother made Neji feel the beginnings of what Inoichi imagined was love, a love for his family. Inoichi felt something else, though, an uneasiness. What made it worse was the look in Hiashi's eyes when he returned the smile.

"What's a twin?" The voice of a slightly older Neji, a child rather than a baby or toddler, rang throughout the young man's mind, and a current pulled Inoichi back into that long hallway.

There, he sat, still too small to take many steps on his own, and watched as the twins horsed around.

Hizashi was trying to wrestle his brother to the ground, his arms around his waist and body pulling in one direction, but Hiashi had a grip on the frame of a bedroom door. Both men were trying to restrain their laughter, but each failed at different times. After a few good attempts, Hizashi relented and gave his twin's core a pat to forfeit their impromptu match. A bad decision, it seemed, as Hiashi threw his weight into Hizashi, sending them both to the floor.

Momentarily, Inoichi was distracted by the attempted clapping of little hands in front of his face. As a father, he couldn't help but admire the gesture as a very good attempt! They were little pats at best, and, at the end, he lazily allowed one hand to ball up, but Neji would definitely get it right the next time he tried!

Then, the hands lowered, and the twins came back into focus just in time for Neji to witness their lips parting from a kiss that made Inoichi's breath catch in his throat. There was such love in Hiashi's eyes as he stared down at his twin, love beyond a brother's love. A hand lifted to his flushed cheek, cupping it tenderly, and he leaned down for another warm kiss.

"What's a twin?" the voice repeated behind a layer of memories.

His stomach was in his throat when Inoichi was lifted onto somewhat steadier legs. Neji turned around, and the lighting changed, from midday to the cool wash of evening.

There was a thud in a nearby room, which the tiny boy cautiously toddled up to. Peeking into the cracked door, he saw something he couldn't have possibly comprehended at his age.

"Stop," Neji's voice cut through the memory. He was a helpless observer of memories long forgotten, memories he didn't want to confront.

Inoichi ignored the plea, though, and watched in stunned silence as Hizashi pulled Hiashi's head towards him to connect their mouths with passion. Hiashi had his twin pinned against an old armoire with his body, and the arm nearest to the door was trapped in the space between the brothers, suspiciously low, moving in an all too familiar rhythm. When their lips parted, Hiashi maintained contact with his forehead resting comfortably against Hizashi's. The look that Hiashi bore into his twin's eyes rose to an intensity that Inoichi wasn't sure he had ever seen before, let alone felt.

It was overwhelming for the adult inside of the toddler's mind, but the child himself felt a warmth Inoichi recognized as the security a child felt when their parents showed love and affection in front of them. His mother had always been absent, but his uncle--

There was a gasp, and the movement of Hiashi's hand between their bodies sped up. The older twin brought his younger half to the peak and sent him sailing over it, swallowing his moans in a muffling kiss along the way. When Hizashi came down from the high of orgasm and his body relaxed, he stroked his twin's hair and whispered his love for him, which Hiashi somehow heard through his captivated adoration.

"I love you...I'll always love you..."

It was disgusting. It was wrong. It was...somehow beautiful...

No wonder Neji was so confused. If his father could have a sexual relationship with his own twin, where did he believe the line should be drawn? From his fantasies, Inoichi knew there was no line.

"What's a twin?"

Following the echo to what he hoped would finally bring Neji clarity, Inoichi forced his way out of the child's perspective and through the barrier of memories.

He broke past Hiashi's yelling from behind closed doors. "I'm your twin, Hizashi! I am! Stop this! You can't live without me, just as I can't live without you!"

He stumbled and fell through a late night visit from Hiashi, a kiss the twins shared while Neji was tucked into Hizashi's side.

He shoved aside Hizashi's hushed sobs on the other side of Neji's bedroom wall.

Finally, he saw Neji, standing strong on his own two feet. The child looked to be about three or four and blissfully unaware of the trauma he would soon face. "What's a twin?"

"You don't know?" his father asked from his spot on the edge of the porch. Clearly, he had thought otherwise.

Feeling a little embarrassed about his ignorance, Neji lowered his head before he shook it. It was a word he had heard his whole short life, but he had never asked for the meaning of it.

Hizashi hummed thoughtfully, then pat the sturdy boards beside him. When his son was at his side, legs swinging idly, he started with the basic definition. "A twin is the person you're born with...They come into the world with you." That must not have satisfied the twin who had loved his own twin so deeply, though, since he carried on. "A twin shares your soul. They're part of you, like your heart is part of you. They can feel what you feel, and you can feel what they feel. When they hurt, you hurt. When you laugh, they laugh...A twin is..." Lost in memories of what Inoichi suspected was a love lost, Hizashi closed his eyes and sighed out, "your love."

Neji's face contorted with confusion, then relaxed with what he thought was understanding. "So you're my love."

'Ah,' Inoichi thought. 'There it is.'

The conclusion stunned Hizashi, but realization made him chuckle. Amusement dancing in his eyes, he pulled his child into his lap to cuddle him. "Yes, Neji. You're my twin after all."

Outside of the mental space, soft sniffling and the slight gasps of sobs could be heard, Neji's body reacting to the singular moment that had confused him and skewed his sense of love and sexuality.

"Sorry, kid..." It was his least favorite part of the job, exploring traumas.

"Please..." that little boy's future begged Inoichi.

The memory crumbled around him, collapsed into fine fragments that were carried away by the current. The Yamanaka reached out to a form he materialized with one simple hand seal and an intense focus, finally giving the disembodied voice a body.

Neji's sobs were unbroken by his new state of being, and they did not stop when he took the offered hand.

"You're not alone. I'm right here with you, alright? We'll face this together," he assured the teenager. The crying was a good sign, though, a healthy reaction to trauma. It made him hopeful.

When all he received was a single weak nod, he delayed no further. It was a short journey back to the cache of fantasies, even though the current had died down to a sticky stagnation, a sign of depression. Inside, Inoichi found what had sent him on his investigation and presented it to Neji. He needed to face it, to see what his mind had subconsciously done.

The fantasy was a copy of a certain memory, Neji offering a love from his eyes that was so rare, something any man would envy, something his lover would treasure. His forehead was pressed to the branded flesh of his own father, who was calming his breaths, implied to have climaxed recently. They were leaning against that same armoire, in that same room, in that same house. And Hizashi was whispering his love to Neji. "I love you...I'll always love you..."

Hiashi had dubbed Neji Hizashi's twin, an innocent little remark at the time, then both twins had twisted and perverted the meaning of the word through their actions and words. It had been no different than if Neji had grown up being called his father's lover. All during a time when Hizashi had rejected his real twin, as if he had left him for his new twin, his soul, his love...

Weakly, Neji sobbed, his voice carrying on the current and echoing throughout his mind. In the physical world, his body collapsed against Inoichi.

And Inoichi was there for him, arms encircling him as his eyes fluttered open. "Welcome back," he greeted, but Neji only withdrew into his own thoughts, eyes distant. The Hyuuga was understandably exhausted, probably still processing, so Inoichi held him for the next few minutes, stroking his hair. "You can start to heal now..."

After sucking up the snot from his recent release of emotion, Neji looked into the Yamanaka's jade eyes and disappointed him, "I choose to heal through acceptance..."

"What?"

"I accept my love for my father was based on a misunderstanding and...witnessing his relationship with Hiashi...but I still love him. I still love him and won't accept anything less than the standard he set for me in a partner."

Inoichi just stared in disbelief at that innocent child's future, so acclimated to incest that he was willing to just accept it.

That night, he wrote the Hyuuga a recommendation fit for a prodigy, complete with a note about Ibiki's specific concern.

**Prominent sexual attraction to paternal figures. Unexploitable. Not influenced by his sexuality in any meaningful way and has impossibly high standards for a romantic interest.

[militantinremission]

Is Roe vs Wade Just The Beginning?

I wanted to watch the effect of SCOTUS' reversal of Roe vs Wade before adding My 2 Cents to the Pool of Thought. For The Record, I FULLY SUPPORT a Woman's Right of Expression. The 14th Amendment guarantees the Right to Life, Liberty, & Due Process- protecting the Right to Privacy for ALL American Citizens. Last time I checked, that includes Women. I personally believe that overturning Roe vs Wade is a 4th Dimensional Chess Move, more than a watershed moment in Conservative Politics. The reverberation is too multifaceted.

Mainstream Media is running w/ the narrative of SCOTUS infringing on the Right of Women to choose what is best for them individually. 14 States have already moved forward w/ a Ban on All Abortions. People are pointing to a 10Yr Rape Victim in Ohio, that was forced to travel to Indiana for an Abortion. 10 is NOT a childbearing age, so why would States like Ohio force young girls to carry potentially dangerous pregnancies to Term? Meanwhile, Women have taken to The Streets Nationwide in protest of SCOTUS' decision.

As bad as the overturn of Roe vs Wade is, the LGBTQ... Community is concerned about Justice Clarence Thomas' comments; they're waiting for The Other Shoe to drop... Joe Biden's Executive Order should counter Justice Thomas' thoughts about 'Abortion Pills' & the legality of sending them across State Lines, but the subject of Gay Marriage may be revisited. I find myself pondering what else will be jeopardized by the overturn of Roe vs Wade? Right now, it feels like this was just the 1st domino.

As an Indigenous Black American, I have issues w/ Abortion. While I understand & support a Woman's Right to Choose what's best for her, I also understand that Abortion is a Weapon of Genocide in My Community. 'Planned Parenthood's' connection to Margaret Sanger CANNOT be ignored. This Woman was a staunch Anti- Black Racist & Eugenicist, that inspired Nazi Germany. For some reason, Planned Parenthood locations are more plentiful in Black Communities than White Communities; despite the Black Population being roughly 25% of the White Population Nationwide.

For the sake of convenience, I use the term 'Planned Parenthood' generically to represent Abortion Clinics in general. The Truth is, any OB-GYN can perform an abortion, & many of these 'doctors' have done cruel & irreparable harm to Black Women over the decades. I have heard my share of Horror Stories over the Years, about Black Women going in for an Abortion, & coming out Sterile, or worse. This is not to say that Women of other ethnicities don't have similar experiences; i'm just pointing out that No Other Group has been targeted to the degree that Black Women have.

When looking @ the History of Western Society, Abortion has been a tool of empowerment for Western Women. Before Roe vs Wade, Pregnancy for Women in America was a life changing experience. Many were required to give up their professional dreams, in exchange for Motherhood. More than a few of Us have Mothers that went back to School later in life; some joined their children in College. Legalized Abortion gave Women choices. Men that weren't responsible enough to use contraceptives don't really have a say in what a Woman feels, or thinks is best for her when she gets pregnant.

The whole issue of Abortion is something of a 'Grey Area' for me. I can understand & support a Woman's decision to abort. Some may not be in a position to bring a Child into The World. Some may be victims of Rape, Incest, or Molestation. The (Pro Life) notion of Adoption or Foster Care doesn't resonate as much as it did in The Past. We live in Dangerous Times, & a pregnant Woman still has The Right to decide if She wants to blindly give her Child away to a Stranger. On the flip side of this argument, Abortion IS NOT Birth Control. If Young Men & Women want to be sexually active, or even promiscuous, they should also be responsible.

Abortion should be a Health Care issue between a Woman, the potential Father, & her Doctor. The Politics of Abortion can be somewhat confusing; Pro Lifers made their choice, why can't these Women have a Right to Choose?. What is gained from harassing Women outside Clinics on possibly the Worse Day of their lives? Isn't this a form of Bullyism? During their Confirmation Hearings, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, & Amy Coney Barrett ALL said that They respect Roe vs Wade as Legal Precedent or The Law of The Land. These same 3 Justices were the deciding votes in the overturn of Roe vs Wade- were all 3 Justices lying in front of The Committee?

The overturn of Roe vs Wade feels like the beginning of a bigger narrative. America is moving more & more towards Authoritarianism. Voter Restriction/ Gerrymandering, Bail Reform, Gun Control, & now Abortion, are all Hot Button Issues. The Masses are Angry, & taking to The Streets. Is this by design? It all feels like a convenient excuse for Authorities to double down on (current) Policing Protocols, as They prepare for those 'Angry Mobs'... It's pretty surreal to think that Government (Federal, State, & Local) believe that They can scare The Masses into choosing Security over Freedom of Expression. I assume that They're looking for support outside of 'The Hood'.

Even more absurd, is the Talking Point being pushed by Democratic Operatives. The notion that the only way to fight for Abortion, is to Vote Democrat in the next Election. Really? The Democratic Party is sitting in the 'Catbird Seat', & has only achieved moderate success. There are issues like Voter Repression, that can be easily handled by pointing out the language of the Voting Rights Law, but Dems have been silent. Why should we expect anything different if more Democrats were put into Office? Black America is collectively losing faith in the Democratic Party. Abortion Rights aren't enough to secure The Black Vote. We have more interest in Reparations, than Abortion.

From a Black Perspective, Abortion is not as big a deal in Our Community, as it is in White Communities. I do find it curious how (Indigenous) Black Women are depicted as 'Welfare Recipients' that make babies for a larger check; but @ the same time, Black Babies represent the largest proportion of aborted pregnancies. In fact, of the roughly 44 Million Legal Abortions performed between 1973- 2022, over 19 Million were Black Babies... This looks like genocide to me.

When We turn back The Clock to the 1970s & 1980s, We see the effect of Benign Neglect on Our Community. In the past, pregnant Black Women had Family support. By the 1980s, Black Communities were transformed into Ghettos & Slums, where Families struggled to provide for their Own Children. Abortion became an option. Planned Parenthood locations literally popped up in Black Communities, just in time for The Crack Experiment. Our Community hasn't been the same since.

Along w/ Benign Neglect & Crack Cocaine came the images of Black Women as 'Playthings'- to be used, abused, & discarded. Record Executives like Jerry Heller, Lyor Cohen, & Jimmy Iovine produced & promoted music & videos that were disrespectful of Black Womanhood & Femininity. White Television & Movie Producers depicted Black Women as unsophisticated, materialistic, & promiscuous. It started w/ referring to Black Women as 'Bitches', but overall, the language used towards Black Women warped into the THOT Culture that We see today. It didn't happen overnight. It may also explain how a traditionally conservative group, like (Indigenous) Black American Women can be associated w/ a 43% Abortion Rate.

Abortion, from a White Supremacist perspective, is a deadly serious matter. The European Population is shrinking. White Genetic Survival, is the Prime Motivation of any White Supremacist. From that angle, overturning Roe vs Wade makes sense. White Supremacists thrive on oppressing Soft Targets, & White Women have been the nearest, easiest, & softest Target for them to oppress. Overturning Abortion Rights offers these sadistic Men the opportunity to force their Women to carry pregnancies to birth; whether they want to, or not... They get to live like their Grandfathers.

-But today's Women aren't their Grandmothers.

[doomednarrative]

Devilman Lady Review:

Alright. I suffered through all 17 volumes of Devilman Lady and I intend to give it a proper review the same way I did the original manga. I can’t tell if the fact that I actually went and read the entire thing is a cry for help or if I’m just this insane, but either way, I certainly have Things To Say about it. I’m going to put this review under a read more however because of how much triggering content comes up in this manga that I intend to discuss as part of my review.

(Trigger warnings ahead for: talk about sexual assault/violence, incest and homophobia.)

With that out of the way, let’s get into my thoughts:

Right off the bat, I can say 100% without a shadow of a doubt that I will never read this manga again. Whereas I will absolutely read the original Devilman many times in the future no doubt, this is a manga I do not ever want to touch again, and for very good reason.

Now for the record, folks warned me going in that DML was bad right off the bat, and I did believe them on that. But I severely underestimated just How bad it really was. In all, I was met with:

The first seven volumes, and parts of the other volumes, being filled back to back to fucking back with rape scenes and sexual assault writing that's very clearly poorly hidden fetish stuff from Nagai’s en. (It gets worse because of how often this happens to underage characters as well.)

Jun having her agency and choice in the matter of being Devilman Lady completely taken from her, instead being forced upon her in the worst and most traumatic way possible

Lesbians, but portrayed in one of the most offensive ways I’ve ever seen. I’m not even a lesbian and I felt massively uncomfortable about it

SURPRISE INCEST THAT TURNS INTO SELFCEST 16 VOLUMES IN, AND THIS IS NOT SEEN AS A BAD THING. THE INCEST IS JUST FINE IN THE NARRITIVE AND BOTH JUN AND RAN ARE FINE WITH IT

This stuff isn't even the half of what’s wrong with the story, but it’s the biggest offenders by far. Devilman Lady reads the whole way thru, save for most of Akira’s time in the spotlight, as an excuse to draw some of the worst fetish material poorly disguised as a monster of the week turned into long con demon war story. It hits a lot of very similar plot beats to the original manga but in much worse ways, adding in unnecessarily shitty details or just downright triggering content of the worst degree. The parts of the story that aren’t gross are just fucking boring most of the time, and I think that makes it even worse because you feel like youre suffering through this story for absolutely no reason for like half of it until Akira shows back up.

I think, besides all the obviously offensive factors I’ve listed already, what makes me frusterated about the manga is that there are actual moments in it where I thought “Gee, there is actual potential here that I could see being made into a well thought out and engaging story, if only the fucking author actually cared about those things at all instead of just writing gross shock horror and rape scenes for fun.” Like there’s a comment at one point in the very beginning of the story talking about how the devil beast phenomenon disproportionately affects the lower class and poor/homeless folks, and in a better timeline, I could absolutely see the narrative of DML playing out to be a social commentary on why something like that is the case, and giving an actual sensitive look at the topic. Jun would still work great as the protaganist in that kind of story too, if the good traits about her writing were put into full focus, she would be perfect for that kind of story while still keeping some of the same parameters that DML already sets for her.

DML is also so fucking frusterating because besides the bits where Akira takes front stage and talks about his own story with Ryo/Satan, it just falls fucking flat. Whenever it brings up similar issues that Nagai wrote about in the original manga, they leave absolutely no deeper impact on the reader. Whereas the original is such a poignant story about the horrors of war and human evil and things like that, DML holds absolutely no water and has no hard hitting emotional impact. They discuss some similar things like political strife and biological warfare and nuclear weaponry and social disruption, but in the end it amounts to nothing. The end of the story isnt even about those things. It ends with Akira and Ryo making up and deciding to fight this new demon war on the same side against God, and while I do love that don’t get me wrong, it means the rest of the story just gets lost in the end. There’s nothing truly memorable about it like there is with the original. (At least in a good way, that is.)

AND SPEAKING OF RYO AND AKIRA...

We got canon Ryokira but AT WHAT FUCKING COST-

I could have handled it if it was just the selfcest. Selfcest is still weird, but I could have handled it if Ran and Jun were Just like some cosmic soulmate kinda thing where they’re two halves of a whole. That would have been acceptable on my weirdness scale. But MAKING THEM BIOLOGICAL SISTERS AND THEN TURNING IT INTO SELFCEST WAS. CERTAINLY A FUCKING CHOICE, AND NOT ONE I ENJOYED.

Just...god there were so many hours spent reading this manga I will never get back, and the only parts of it that I genuinely enjoyed were when Akira was in the main focus with his emotional musings and internal conflicts. And that’s not even Jun or Ran’s fault, because I went into this wanting to like them more than I ended up doing. They do have potential, but Nagai refuses to let them live up to it, and in the end well. We see where that went. As parts of Ryo/Satan they have some potential and there are things I could discuss there, but as their own characters? They don’t live up to what they could be, and neither does the rest of the story, and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth in the end.

All in all, Devilman Lady was both horribly gross and weird at its worst, and just plain disappointing at it’s best, and I do not ever plan to read it again.

[pashminalamb]

|| 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 : 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 - 𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. || ˖ ࣪ ‹ Rules for reading and interacting with me :

⊹ Do not copy, repost, edit, translate, record or plagiarize any of my works. ⊹ Do not ask for part 2 to anything unless you are a mutual, reblog or like my work. Doers of such will be blocked on sight. ⊹ Rudeness or hate will not be tolerated on my blog. This is space for me to write / post fan fiction, not discuss politics or religion. If such messages / asks are found in my askbox, there will be humiliation first followed by deletion of said ask. ⊹ There will be no virgin or slut shaming on my blog, including monster fucking. ｡   一 FOR OTHER WRITERS : I know a rip off when i see one. Providing reasons for stealing my ideas isn't going to mask that you tried to replicate what is mine. I hardly visit the tags but I know a work when I read it, despite you not interacting with my blog. Try being original and not steal my idea? And if I do find it; be prepared to be publicly humiliated because I won’t be taking any more of this. Do not copy the way I write either; it took me ages to find a style I’m comfortable as well as innovative with; and I’m sure you can do the same or you wouldn’t have signed up to be a writer on this platform. ⊹ My works at the moment are meant for fem! or afab readers, there are no mentions of the reader's physical features unless specifically mentioned. ⊹ I do not take or write requests, I'm open to the idea of brainrots and thirst asks. I enjoy reading rants and analysis of my works. ⊹ I firmly believe in tones and being polite or formal when talking to someone new. Use words such as 'please' and 'thank you' while interacting with me as someone new. Stay away from my blog if you :

don't have a flexible mind

uncomfortable with dark content

against aging of characters

pro - shipper (i only write x reader inserts)

a toxic gatekeeper (be it a reader or another author)

TAGS :

⊹ belle.☏ : asks

⊹ belle.txt : talking / character analysis about manhwas, webtoons or manga panels. (includes spoilers) ⊹ alt.dlt. : do not reblog / to be deleted soon.

ABOUT MY WORK :

⊹ All characters I write will be 18+.

⊹ Most of my work will be anime x reader editions.

⊹ I do not write character x character shippings (which includes poly relationships as well); death of the reader (unless the plot calls for it).

⊹ My content consists writings for femdoms, switches and submissive fems.

⊹ I write and interact with dark content that includes violence, weapons, dubious content, psychological themes (mindbreak), mental health issues among several other topics ; tags will be added accordingly.

⊹ If the content I write triggers you in any kind of way, why are you sticking around and exposing yourself to it? I'm not here to babysit and I won't take responsibility for your mental well being.

I write for all kinks except :

Watersport (piss play), scat, incest, vore, feederism, gore, vomit, armpit licking, body horror.

The list will be updated. Then again, I am not kink shaming anyone. It's just a matter of what I am comfortable working with and not as well as my knowledge on these topics. FANDOMS :

⊹ Blue lock

⊹ Jujutsu Kaisen

⊹ Obey me

⊹ Haikyuu REQUESTS :

⊹ I don't take requests as I create my own content. However, my ask box is always open for thirst posts, asks about my fics as well as discussions regarding any character I write for.

Now that we have that clear, welcome to my blog !! :)

[brightbeautifulthings]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

"'What if sometimes there is no choice about what to love? What if the temple comes to Mohammed? What if you just love? without deciding? You just do: you see her and in that instant are lost to sober account-keeping and cannot choose but to love?'"

Year Read: 2014, 2020

Rating: 5/5

Context: It's hard to know where to begin writing a review for this book. I read it for the first time in graduate school in about five weeks (alongside everything else I had to do in grad school, so I don't recommend that), and it basically blew my mind. At the same time, it's hard to imagine tackling it any other way for the first time. Despite its difficulty, there are things obsessive and immersive and, appropriately, even addictive about it. Full immersion might be the only way to read it for the first time, and I obsessed about it for months afterward. Since I'm not on any deadlines, I took it more slowly this time (21 weeks) so I could enjoy the writing and the nuances without the pressure to finish. For my less coherent weekly updates in real time, see my blog posts. Trigger warnings: Everything, everything. Death (on-page), child death, animal death, suicide, suicidal ideation, rape, pedophilia, possible incest, child abuse/abusive households, graphic violence/gore, eye horror, severe injury, drug use, addiction, alcoholism, mental illness, depression, OCD, grief, racism, ableism, transphobia, sexism, inexplicable hostility toward Canadians.

About: If it's difficult to know how to write a review, it's equally hard to describe what Infinite Jest is about. It's about so many things, tennis, addiction, communication (failures), and entertainment among them, but I'll do my best. Beneath all the numerous characters, timelines, and subplots, the main plot is about a film so entertaining that it kills anyone who watches it, robs them of all desire to do anything but watch it until they die, and what a faction of Canadian assassins will do to possess it. The auteur is James Incandenza, a suicide whose son, Hal, is a prodigy at Enfield Tennis Academy. Next door to E.T.A. is Ennet House, a drug rehabilitation center where Don Gately, former thief and Demerol addict, is taking it day by day to stay sober. Though they don't know it, Hal and Gately are connected, and the deadly Entertainment and those who seek it draw their paths closer and closer together.

Thoughts: It's rare to find a book that is actually as smart as it claims to be, but IJ is--certainly much smarter than I am, despite all my attempts to make sense of it. It starts off strong and doesn't let up for several hundred pages, which is a huge achievement all by itself. Wallace excels at writing extremely polished sections that could almost function alone as short stories, and the first chapter is one of my favorites in all fiction. It's reassuring, I think, to start the book off on a strong note, in case we worried we were in for a thousand pages of tedious slog. It can be both, but it's often heartfelt, insightful, and funny as well, and the payoff is well worth the effort. I don’t know how Wallace manages to pack every page with so much meaning. Anybody can put tedious lists in their books or make reading purposely difficult (and I have attitude about writers who do this for no reason), but there’s nothing haphazard about this book, despite its size and varied focus. Everything seems utterly intentional. The conversations are really top-tier; Wallace has a great ear for how people talk, and it's a fascinating look at how communication works and doesn't work.

Thematically, I think the book succeeds on more than any other level, including plot or structure. If we could say this book is "about" anything, we would almost certainly start with the themes and not the plot, which is often secondary to whatever point Wallace is trying to make at the moment. It takes an in-depth looks at things like addiction, depression, loneliness, failed communication, sincerity v. irony, critiques of postmodernism and metafiction (while being very meta itself, at times), and the very specific selfishness of an American culture that insists on freedom even to the point of self-destruction. At times, it feels a little heavy-handed or like it was yanked right out of an intro to philosophy course, but I suppose something in a thousand pages has to be obvious if we're ever going to pick up on it. A lot of these themes resurface in his other work, from "This is Water" and "E Unibus Pluram" to Orin Incandenza's Brief Interview style Q and A (and he would be a perfectly fitting character in that book).

The characters are some of my favorites in literary fiction as well, particularly the Incandenza family and Don Gately, and to a lesser extent Joelle Van Dyne (although Wallace typically doesn’t write female characters very well, and she comes with some issues). Hal and Gately couldn't be more different; Hal excels at everything he's ever done, and Gately has a record that includes accidental homicide on it. Hal is the hero of non-action, since little that happens in the book is engineered by him, while Gately is closer to the more typical hero of action, who defends the undeserving at great cost to himself. Yet their struggles with addiction are similar, and they both manage to be incredibly sympathetic characters. In my opinion, the book is always at its best when we’re with Hal or Gately, but I’m strongly driven by good characters. Despite being dead, James Incandenza's presence is also felt all over the book, from the Entertainment he created to his haunting ETA and sticking beds to the ceiling (probably the weirdest ghost I've ever seen in fiction). He's a tragic character in a book full of tragic characters. The others are too numerous to name, from the other tennis players at ETA and recovering addicts at Enfield, to the various bystanders populating Boston. We get brief glimpses into almost all of them, and while they may not all feel relevant at the time, most are memorable or heart-wrenching or slapstick funny, or all three. It's a book that contains multitudes.

That's not to say it's always on point though, and it isn't. There are a number of very serious problems with representation in this novel, and they're as bad as its detractors claim. A lot of the 90s humor aged very poorly, but that's not an excuse for some of the unabashedly racist depictions of African Americans, the uncharitable descriptions of Steeply's and Poor Tony's cross-dressing, or--however much I love him as a character--the fact that Mario Incandenza’s descriptions are ableist in just about every possible way. Wallace thinks he's capturing "voice" when he's really encouraging harmful stereotypes. The humor of the novel often doesn’t depend at all on these stereotypes and would in fact, be a lot more funny if I wasn’t spending so much energy cringing at it. So many of the little racist and ableist asides could have easily been edited out of the entire novel to make it less offensive. There are also sections where he seems at pains to be as gross as possible for its own sake. There are plenty of things grim or uncomfortable or flat out distasteful about this book, but sometimes the graphic violence kind of jumps out and stabs you in the eye, say, with a railroad spike.

If there are times when I was totally absorbed in the little tragedies of the Incandenza family or Gately's struggles, there are plenty more where it's like pushing something heavy up a hill. No lie, some of it is slogging through tedious minutiae and various experimental writing styles (some more successful and less offensive than others). Wallace has a gift for purposeful tedium; it’s at its peak in The Pale King, but he gives it a nice warm-up round here. The novel is difficult and meant to be, since Wallace maintained that some of the best pleasures are the ones we have to work for, and he's not totally off base. There's something very satisfying about living, for a time, in a book that spans a thousand pages, that demands focus and perseverance, and manages to give back (almost) as much as it takes. The book is always structurally interesting, but it starts to get more complicated toward the end as various characters and plots begin to almost slide into one another. I forgot how frustrating it was to near the end and realize--again--that it wasn't going to wrap up with any kind of satisfaction; the various plots slide, but they don’t meet. I thought if I paid closer attention on a second read that I would pick up more of the plot things I’d missed on my first, but I think the problem is that those answers simply aren’t to be found in the actual text. Of course, they can point us toward various conclusions, and the novel certainly encourages us to speculate and make connections, but I don’t think the actual answers are there.

That brings me to some of my final thoughts, for now. There's no doubt that this is a hugely successful book, and I believe it accomplished exactly what Wallace meant it to do. He jokingly referred to it as a failed entertainment, much the way Jim considered his lethal Entertainment a failure, but I have the sense that Wallace, unlike Jim, failed on purpose. The book purposely pays more attention to structure and theme than it does to plot or character, yet the plot and characters are hugely compelling for what we see of them. Imagine the book it could have been if he had paid equal attention to all of them. Wallace attempted to create a book that people wouldn't want to stop reading. Reaching the end certainly encourages us to begin again, as the first chapter is actually the last in chronology, but that trick only works the first time. By my second read, I realized that starting over wouldn't help me fill in any of those blanks or answer any of my questions, and I was content to let it go. On the one hand, IJ depends upon its structure to tell the story it's telling. On the other, think of the book it could have been if it spent more time telling a story and developing its characters and less time belaboring a point. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and the tragedy is that I think it could have been even better.

[raoul--daae]

full offense but that is incest?? ur good with incest?????

(Warning for fanwank ahead)

Fictional depictions of aberrant, illegal, or immoral acts do not encourage or cause people to engage in that behavior. There is a difference between a piece of fictionn which depicts incest or vigilantism as part of its narrative and a piece of fiction which is a screed making the political point that someone should engage in that behavior. Something like Flowers in the Attic is not an infomercial for incest in the same way that something like Birth of a Nation or The Turner Diaries are explicit racist calls to action.

I write plenty of works depicting things that I would never do or endorse, and that I personally find disgusting. I write stories that feature characters who self-harm, even though I’m happily recovered now. As a horror writer, a great deal of my work involves violence, sometimes extreme, and in real life I like to think that I'm a quite compassionate person, who is opposed to violence in almost all cases.

To say that a piece of written pornography or other media depicting incest will encourage people to go out and commit that act is ridiculous. No one will read a story on the internet and do a 180 on possibly the strongest taboo across all cultures. Incestuous themes in pornography, written, filmed, drawn and everything in between, have existed for centuries, are widespread, and yet the taboo is still ironclad. Many, many normal, law-abiding people have fantasies around taboo acts which they would never in the world act on. (I recommend checking out Nancy Friday's work on sexual fantasies, like My Secret Garden, for some examples of this).

And, before we start in on the "won't someone think of the children!" argument, Tumblr is a website for people thirteen and over. My nsfw posts are all tagged as such along with specific content warnings, so that people who don't want to or don't think that they're mature enough too see them aren't forced to. I can't absolutely guarantee that no young children will lie about their age or seek out things that they aren't mature enough to be comfortable with, but the fact is that it's reasonable for there to be content for mature audience on the internet, and there are only so many measures that can be taken to keep out young children. We can't eliminate every discussion or depiction of taboo subjects because there's a possibility a child might find it. We can only take reasonable steps to delineate between mature content and that suitable for all ages.

I don't want this to become too much of a thing, partly because I'm a relative fandom old (been in this nonsense for like fifteen years) and this conversation has been had and resolved a thousand times.

This is a Your Kink is Not My Kink and That's Okay blog. That's the approach to fandom that has been most healthy and comfortable to me. If that's a space that isn't comfortable for you, then by all means do whatever you want to avoid it. That's meant sincerely: everyone is allowed to and should curate their fandom experience.

To sum up: depiction is not endorsement; people don't have a monkey-see, monkey-do relationship with fiction; fantasies of taboo subjects are widespread and virtually always harmless; the Helen Lovejoy argument doesn't hold water; someone consuming fiction other people don't like, unless they are forced to consume it as well, doesn't hurt those people.

I know that this is a long post and for many of us is probably old, old news, but I wanted to address the issue as fully as I could. Because, as I indicated, I really don't want to fill this blog with fanwank. It's okay if it's yours, but it's just not my scene.

And, for the record, I didn't take any offense. Have a lovely whatever time of the day it is for you.

[sammy8d257]

Masterlist For Object Head Media

LAST UPDATED: April 1st, 2020

Google Doc: HERE

Welcome! Ever wanted to find out if there’s any types of media that feature Object Head characters that aren’t just one-off or background characters?

Well you’ve come to the right place!

Here I hope to create a comprehensible list of all types of media that contain Object Headed characters!

But I’m only one person who doesn’t know every piece of Object Head media out there

SO IF YOU have a suggestion for a piece of media that would fit on this list

Send me a message through my Tumblr @sammy8d257 ​  

or on Twitter under the same name

With your help, I hope this list becomes very long with all sorts of amazing Object Head media!

Other than that, have fun exploring to your heart's content!

- Sammy

(List under “Keep Reading”)

Comics/Webcomics:

Saga - written by Brian Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples

Gene: Space/fantasy

Rating: M+

Language: English

Status: 54 issues, On Hiatus (as of 4/1/2020)

Read On: Physical Comic

Description: Saga is an epic science-fiction/fantasy drama about two lovers from long-warring extraterrestrial races, Alana and Marko, fleeing from authorities from both sides of a galactic war as they struggle to care for their daughter, Hazel.

Object Heads: TV Heads, in Saga there is a whole race known as Robots Kingdom that are made entirely TV Headed characters.

Character Status: The object head characters turns from side to supporting character in the main cast

Warnings: Nudity, Sex, Death, Violence, its a war setting, blood, drugs, etc.

MyStereoBot - by bioatomic

Gene: Sci-fi, Romance, Comedy

Rating: M

Language: English

Status: 537 pages + 24 page Epilogue, Completed on 6/6/2017

Read On: Smackjeeves or Tapas

Description: Infinity, a stereo head robot, finds himself conflicted with his worth as a person, as a partner, and as a friend. Having trouble with feeling at home on Planet Ribbon and finding happiness, his boyfriend, Cloudburn, and his cousin, Ohm, do the best they can to help him feel worthy. Things seem to go downhill when Quence, a new friend, worries Cloudburn about Infinity’s motives towards him. That is, until an outer-worldly encounter changes all of their lives, for better or for worse, and may just show Infinity what home really is.

Object Heads: Stereo heads, radio heads, tv heads, box heads, etc. There's a lot of different Object heads in this comic

Character Status: Main characters and other side characters are object heads

Warnings: Swearing, partial nudity, drugs

Notes: You can find more information on Tumblr - @mystereobot

Sebastian - by Amanda Heard

Gene: Slice-of-Life, Romantic, Comedy

Rating: pg-13 to M

Language: English

Status: On-going, 80+ pages (as of 4/1/2020), Updates Tuesdays and Thursdays

Read On: http://www.sebastiancomic.com/, Tumblr: https://sebastiancomic.tumblr.com/ or @sebastiancomic

Description: Sebastian is about a pessimistic thief and a happy-go-lucky dork finding each other through unexpected circumstances and learning about forgiveness, love, and loss. Also CRIME!

Object Heads: Pumpkin Heads

Character Status: Main characters are object heads

Warnings: Swearing

Notes: Created by @batberryboo on Tumblr

The Property of Hate - by Sarah Jolley

Gene: Fantasy/Adventure

Rating: Pg 13

Language: English, translations in French, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Japanese, Norwegian, Dutch, Portuguese, Breton, Brazilian, Tagalog, German, Chinese, Swedish, Spanish, Esperanto, Latin, Korean, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, Czech

Status: On-going, 400+ pages(as of 4/1/2020), Updates Sundays

Read On: http://jolleycomics.com/, Smackjeeves

Description: When offered a chance to be a hero by a strange figure with a TV for a head, a young girl is whisked away to a whimsical land in desperate need of a hero. This journey will take them across the lands where emotions manifest into physical forms and the inanimate becomes animate.

Object Heads: Tv Head, Radio Head, etc.

Character Status: One of the main characters and a few secondary characters are object heads

Warnings: None

Notes: Created by @modmad ​ on Tumblr

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn - by Tri Vuong

Gene: Fantasy, slight horror

Rating: PG 13

Language: English

Status: 100 Chapters, Completed on 5/21/2019(maybe on Hiatus?)(as of 4/1/2020)

Read On: Webtoons

Description: Follow the journey of the world's greatest paranormal investigator - Oscar Zahn. Friend to lost souls, enemy of evil, he may lack a body but that doesn't mean he's missing a heart!

Object Heads: Skull Head

Character Status: Main character is an object head

Warnings: Some disturbing imagery

Robot Dream - by Robot Dream, written down by Paulie Godbout, illustrated by Sandra Grygier

Gene: Action, Drama

Rating: PG 13

Language: English

Status: On-Going, 70+ pages (as of 4/1/2020) No Solid Update schedule

Read On: https://www.robotdream.com/mystory (up until page 73), Tapas (up until page 70)

Description: When a lonely human-robot-hybrid refuses to live a life of seclusion, he discovers a community of outcasts in the world of electronic music. But, when he begins creating his own remixes, and discovers they somehow have the power to heal broken hearts and minds, he must learn that revealing who you truly are comes at a price before he is captured by the people who “created” him.

Object Heads: TV Head

Character Status: Main Character

Warnings: References to manipulation and abuse

Notes: You can also read it on Webtoon under the same name but it is only up to page 32

Third Shift Society - by Meredith Moriarty

Gene: Supernatural, Adventure

Rating: PG 13

Language: English

Status: 24 Episodes, On Hiatus(as of 4/1/2020)

Read On: Webtoon

Description: Life’s funny. One minute you're jobless, deep in debt and on the verge of eviction; the next you’re in a fight with a monster and getting a job working for a Paranormal Detective with the head of a Jack-o-Lantern. It’s an age-old story. Now the financially-challenged Ellie (who’s just discovered she has strong psychic powers) and her Pumpkin-headed boss Ichabod have to team up and fight the things that go bump in the night.

Object Heads: Pumpkin Head

Character Status: Secondary Main Character

Warnings: None

Notes: Created by @meredithmoriarty ​ on Tumblr

Rice Boy - by Evan Dahm

Gene: Surreal fantasy, Adventure

Rating: PG 13

Language: English

Status: 439 pages, Completed as of 2008,

Read On: http://www.rice-boy.com/see/, or on Soft/Hardcover Graphic Novels,

Description: Rice Boy is a simple creature torn from his mundane life by an immortal “machine man” called The One Electronic, who suspects that Rice Boy may fulfill an ancient prophecy. Now tasked with trying to fulfill a prophecy he did not choose, Rice Boy must explore the vast, fantastical, and surreal world of Overside and encounter the dangers that it hides.

Object Heads: Circular TV Head

Character Status: Secondary Main Character

Warnings: Chapter 19 contains one page of suggestive incest, Slightly disturbing imagery, violence, drug use

Notes: Dahm also runs a Rerun blog of Rice Boy where he does commentary on the pages as he posts them on Tumblr: @riceboycomic ​

Film/Shows/Anime:

FLCL (also known as Fooly Cooly) - written by Yōji Enokido, directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki

Studio: Gainax

Gene: Comedy, drama

Style: 2D Animation

Rating: PG 13

Language: Japanese, with an English sub and Dub

Status: 1 season(6 episodes), Completed as of 2001

Description:  A boy's humdrum life turns upside-down when he encounters a maniacal girl who causes strange things to grow out of his forehead and draws him into conflict with a mysterious, otherworldly organization.

Object Heads: TV Head Robot

Character Status: Side Main Character

Warnings: Sexual innuendos

Notes: There are 2 more seasons of FLCL known as FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative, I haven’t watched them but I don’t believe there are any object head robots in them

The Amazing World of Gumball - created by Ben Bocquelet

Premiered on: Cartoon Network

Gene: slice of life, comedy

Style: Mixed Media Animation

Rating: PG

Language: English,

Status: 6 seasons(240 episodes) + a 6 episode miniseries, Completed as of December 2019

Description: The series revolves around the misadventures of blue cat Gumball Watterson and his adopted goldfish brother and best friend, Darwin. Together they spread mischief across the weird and wacky city of Elmore.

Object Heads: Bomb Head, Boombox head, whatever rob was

Character Status: Secondary and background characters

Warnings: None

Notes: This one really shouldn’t be on the list but I added it because I literally could not think of another show or film that has Object Head characters

Video Games:

Cuphead by StudioMDHR

Gene: Classic Run and Gun

Style: 2D Handpainted Visuals

Rating: E

Language: English

Released: 9/29/2017, DLC (coming soon 2020)

Playable On: Steam, Xbox, Windows 10, Mac, Nintendo Switch

Price: $19.99

Description: Cuphead is a classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the same techniques of the era, i.e. traditional hand-drawn cel animation, watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz recordings.

Play as Cuphead or Mugman (in single player or local co-op) as you traverse strange worlds, acquire new weapons, learn powerful super moves, and discover hidden secrets while you try to pay your debt back to the devil!

Object Heads: Cup Heads, Apple Head, Dice Head, Fork Head, etc.

Character Status: Playable Main Characters, some secondary characters, and some of the Bosses

Warnings: Cartoony violence

BattleBlock Theater by The Behemoth

Gene: Platforming, comedy

Style: 2D Graphics

Rating: E

Language: English

Released: Xbox Live-4/3/2013, Steam- 5/15/2014,

Playable On: Steam, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Macintosh operating system

Price: $14.99

Description: Shipwrecked. Captured. Betrayed. Forced to perform for an audience of cats? Yes, all that and more when you unlock BattleBlock Theater! There’s no turning back once you've started on your quest to free over 300 of your imprisoned friends from evil technological cats. Immerse yourself in this mind bending tale of treachery as you use your arsenal of weapon-tools to battle your way through hundreds of levels in order to discover the puzzling truth behind BattleBlock Theater.

If solo acts aren't your style, go online or bring a buddy couch-side to play a thoroughly co-optimized quest or enter the arenas. The game also includes a level editor so you can craft your own mind bending trials!

Object Heads: Heads are customizable but the main game gives you many heads to choose from. Block heads, Shape Heads

Character Status: Playable Characters

Warnings: Cartoony violence, crude humor

Pumpkin Noir by PumpkinNoirDev

Gene: RPG Adventure

Style: Pixel Graphics, RPGMaker

Rating: E

Language: English

Status: Demo as of 6/19/2017

Play On: PC, demo link - https://rpgmaker.net/games/9817/

Price: Not available

Description: Stop, Drop, Noir!

Perched on the precipice of endless void-- a single seedy city. Detectives “Smoke & Fire” Rem and Wednesday face a puzzling situation as the curtain lifts on Halloween night. Go broke, or investigate a rollickingly risky mafia mystery? The answer is clear.

Search for the void’s greatest criminal minds, uncover the shocking secrets of the underworld!

Object Heads: Pumpkin Head

Character Status: Main Character

Warnings: None

Notes: This game is still under development, for more information visit the dev’s blog- https://pumpkin-noir.tumblr.com/ or @pumpkin-noir ​

Other:

Object Head Zine - hosted by @potentialforart on Tumblr

Style: Mostly 2D Illustrations and short comics

Gene: Genes differ per year

Rating: PG-PG 13

Language: English

Status: On-Going Project, This zine is a yearly thing

Read On: Tumblr- https://objectheadzine.tumblr.com/ or @objectheadzine, Buy Physical/Digital Copies here - https://gumroad.com/objectheadzine

Price: Prices Vary

Description: The Object Head Zine is a collection of artwork from different artists coming together for a common love of object heads. The Object Head Zine is a yearly project with a new theme chosen for each year. Such themes include Forks and Utensils, Spooky, Flora and Fungi, Superstitions, and Science and Technology.

Object Heads: Yes

Character Status: Main Focus

Warnings: None

And if you have any more suggestions for this list, please let me know!!

[artistic-fuss]

Commission Me So I Can Change My Name And Gender

This might get a little lengthy, stick with me here.

Short story; I need money to be able to change my name and gender on all my government IDs and records.

Long story: I need a new birth certificate, as my parents have thus far been unwilling to give me my old one for me to change both my gender marker and name. Along with that, I will need to pay for the name and gender marker change, and likely a second birth certificate with my updated information on it. Once I have that, then I will have to change my marker and name on all my government-issued ID. A count marks that up to three IDs, two debit cards, a birth certificate, high school records and college records. 

My current estimate of cost for replacing everything is $200CAD. It would be a great help if you could share this commission sheet even if you cannot commission me yourself.

Types of writing I will do include: short fics, scene descriptions, character descriptions, snippets, drabbles (I am willing to write SFW and NSFW fics so I will be splitting this sheet into SFW and NSFW sections. {For this separation SFW includes gore and horror and NSFW is only for sexual themes})

PRICES

$10 CAD = 1000 words $20 CAD = 2000 words $30 CAD = 3000 words $40 CAD = 4000 words +$5 CAD for NSFW

All payments will be made in $CAD and through Paypal

RULES

I require at least half payment upfront (I will keep this percentage if I write you at least half of your commission before cancelling)

You will be sent 1 WIP and snippets of the story throughout, this single WIP is your chance to ask for any changes (total overhauls or major changes cost +$5 CAD)

I reserve the right to any original content you commission from me

I reserve the right to add to or expand on the idea of a commission after it is complete

Unless otherwise requested, your commission will be publicly posted with your handle attached (Please supply which handle you want to be tagged on Tumblr and your AO3 handle)

I reserve the right to stop any commission at any point for any reason

I reserve the right to call a commission finished within 150 words of the goal word count

SFW - I WILL WRITE

Romance/fluff

Hurt/comfort/recovery

Themes of drug use/drug addiction

Themes of death/murder

Creepy/spooky/horror themes

Enemies to friends/ lover, friends to lovers

Found Family

Themes of overcoming abuse/ moving on from an abusive party

Themes focusing on a character’s depression or anxiety

Your OCs (if you can supply me with sufficient character information)

Aus (supply good descriptions)

SFW - I WILL NOT WRITE

Abuse of animals or people (where it is the plot and focus, includes manipulation and possessiveness)

Themes focusing on mental illnesses as something wrong with a person

Themes focusing on mental or physical illnesses I have little knowledge of

Fatphobia, xenophobia, misogyny, racism, anything focused on hate

Dialogue focused works

Incest between blood or adopted family (I will exclude Loki and Thor from this list)

Focus on farting, vomit, other body fluids

Hanahaki AUs

Characters or fandoms I am not familiar with, or IRL people (Ask, I may have forgotten to list it) (If you do not see your theme on either of these lists, shoot me a message!)

NSFW, +18 TO CONTINUE

NSFW - I WILL WRITE

Bondage

Consensual non-consent

Drunk/high sex

Solo scenes or multiple person scenes

Use of animal dildos

Monster, alien, robot sex (ask about what monsters I will do)

Anonymous sex

Groping

Somophila

Blow jobs/ eating out

Vaginal/Anal/External only

Humiliation/feminization

Stepping on

Water Sports

Creampies

Public sex

Double penetration

NSFW - I WILL NOT WRITE

Farting/ Queefing/scat play/vomit/diapers

“Corrective“ sex (outside of role-playing)

Underage

Any form of sex that involves not being able to consent or use a safe word/ motion

Sounding/urethra play

Feet/ass/boob worship

Torture porn/pain play

Incest (blood or adopted, not including found family)

Characters or fandoms I am not familiar with, IRL people, or child-orientated shows (Ask, I may have forgotten to list it) (If you do not see your idea on either list, contact me!)

[curemoonliite]

The Amane Twins—An Analysis

(A bit of background here—I was an English major in college, and sometimes I come across a piece of media that really makes me want to scratch my “overanalyze everything” itch. This time, it just happens to be a gacha game.)

Magia Record, the Madoka Magica mobile game, greatly expands the universe by creating magical girls that fulfill standard anime tropes, but with their own flair. Yachiyo is the aloof and troubled magical girl, Ria is the lovable narcissist, Momoko is the tomboyish older sister type, and so on. But what has really piqued my interest throughout my gameplay is the way this formula works with Tsukuyo and Tsukasa Amane, whom even the game itself refers to collectively as “the Amane twins” or “the Amane sisters” more often than not.

These two are members of the Wings of the Magius, a quasi-cult-like organization, and tend to fulfill the role of “creepy cultist twins.” Compared to the other Magius members, they’re not particularly competent, but the way they’re characterized is nevertheless striking. The twins’ closeness is inspired in equal parts by horror movies and by incest-themed anime. The game often makes a point of teasing a ship between them, from mechanics (the buffs the two give to each other) to story (one is rarely seen without the other). But is this just pandering to a certain crowd, or does it, as many things do in PMMM, serve a darker narrative purpose?

Here’s my take on it: Tsukuyo and Tsukasa are in love. And that’s the worst thing that could have possibly happened to either of them.

Before the Magius

The only real details we get of the Amane sisters before they joined the Wings of the Magius comes from their in-game side stories. Consistent with their characterization throughout the game, the twins’ stories are practically interchangeable—each come from a different end of town (richer/poorer), each are overworked and abused by their single parents, and each are told, above all, to never investigate the other side of their family. The other side is a disgrace, the rich and the poor can never coexist, so the status quo should be upheld at all costs. Then they meet by chance at a shrine, and everything changes.

We can tell that Tsukuyo is the Ojou in these stories, and Tsukasa is more on the genki end, but their reactions to the other’s existence remain much the same. Both believe the other is a supernatural doppelgänger and refuse to believe at first that they have a twin. Through these stories, we also get to see the friends each has outside of the Magius—Mifuyu in Tsukuyo’s case and Kanagi in Tsukasa’s. Both end up going back to their friends initially once the class conflict becomes too much.

Narratively, there is a lot to unpack about Tsukuyo and Tsukasa’s class conflict. When they go through it, they act in ways that the Main Story never really shows. This is the first time we see them as fundamentally different rather than interchangeable. Rather than being able to complete each other’s sentences, they actually disagree. But instead of realizing that this is a healthy sisterly dynamic, the Amanes come to the mutual decision that acting this way will only tear them apart again. In their eyes, it’s now them against the world—so silly personality differences and the squabbles that come with them are no longer to be tolerated.

So sure enough, by the time Kyubey comes, their wish is the same. And that’s when their real codependency starts.

After the Magius

Cults, by their very nature, are isolating. Anyone who possesses beliefs outside the cult’s line of thought is labeled as dangerous, someone a member should no longer interact with. It should then come as no surprise that immediately after joining the Magius, Tsukasa severs all contact with Kanagi, the only real friend she seems to have. We don’t really get to see the impact this has on Tsukasa’s psyche, but chances are, it wasn’t good.

Tsukuyo and Tsukasa continually struggle to make friends within the Magius organization. Even though Tsukuyo’s friend Mifuyu is also Magius-aligned, she outranks both of them and cannot have the same relationship with Tsukuyo as she had before. Alina has nothing but bored curiosity towards them in the best of times, and outright murderous rage at the worst. Sure enough, the other is now the only one each other has—this time, for real.

If we are to read Tsukuyo and Tsukasa’s relationship as romantic—as the in-game narrative often encourages us to do—we are to read it as an absolute obsession, similar to how many read MadoHomu after Rebellion. But even in that case, the obsession is largely one-sided—as a goddess, Madoka is made to care about everyone, while Homura is almost exclusively single-minded towards Madoka. What makes Tsukuyo and Tsukasa worse—and would still make them worse even if they weren’t related—is that it is mutual.

Tsukuyo and Tsukasa are one. They cannot live without the other, no matter how hard they’ve tried in the past. Their deepest wish, as manifested in their Doppels, is to be the only two people left on Earth.

And they are not a fairy tale. They’re the lovers you might see in a particularly trashy YA romance—the ones who live for each other and no one else, who mope whenever the other is away, who consistently keep one another from developing as their own characters.

In the real world, we have a word for that. It’s called codependency.

So What Does This Mean?

Let me ask you, if you read a news story about a pair of underaged twins who:

were both abused by authority figures

were basically separated at birth

developed trust issues towards anyone who wasn’t them

ran away from home to join a cult

and fell in love with each other while inside the cult

How would you react? It’d be a media circus for sure. Plenty of people would be sickly fascinated with it, just as many would be disgusted by it, but for me, it’s just tragic. Not Romeo and Juliet tragic, but the type of tragic that makes you ask “where the fuck were the parents.”

And that’s a lot of the problem with the Amane sisters as people. Both are genuinely good, passionate about injustice and liberation in their own misguided ways. Neither led the other onto a dark path.

In short, Tsukuyo and Tsukasa’s relationship is the result of societal failure.

The doctor failed to tell each twin of the other’s existence. Their parents failed at creating a safe environment for them. And as a result, they failed to see their own worth.

That worth, and the trust they were never able to give, could only be found in each other’s embrace. And there’s something more fundamentally fucked up about the Amane sisters when you see them like this instead of just sisters who are a little too creepily close.

Is this what the devs intended from these interactions? It’s tough to say. For all we know, they might want us to glamorize it. But what we can say is that they’ve given us a ton of reasons not to. They’ve given us a tragedy every bit as dark as any Puella Magi’s, if we read between the lines a little.

The only way Tsukuyo and Tsukasa can ever be healthy, well-adjusted humans is if they leave the Magius and get some serious help. But unfortunately, such is not always the fate of a cult victim, or any victim of abuse.

Such is not always the case for a Magical Girl.

[crystalelemental]

Can you explain to us non-FF players what was so awful about Fates?

FE.  Very different trainwrecks.

And...probably?  I had a TON of posts about the problems in the game, but I can try to do an abridged version here.  Or at least, I’ll make an attempt.

Starting with the obvious, they took one game and split it into three, then charged us for three separate games.  It was complete horseshit from second 1.

Face-rubbing minigame.  You know Pokemon Amie?  Imagine doing that with humans.  That’s the waifu simulator they put in this game.

The creators of the game went on record early on saying that, yeah, Awakening saved the entire franchise from death with its simple but impactful storyline, but it was kinda too simple so we’re gonna make it better.  They then proceeded to make the shittiest plot I’ve ever been involved with, filled with nothing but contrivances to make anything make sense.

Characters sucked.  There are like 5 good ones, and at least three are debatable depending on who you ask.  The problem with infinite supports is that no character ever changes, so whenever one character would support, say, Oboro (the worst example of this), they’d reach A rank and she’d move on from her blatant racism, only to be right back to racist central for the next character’s C-support.  As such, no one ever grew as a character, and no one was particularly compelling, especially because both sides in the war were idiots.

Speaking of idiots, the reason for the war?  Invisible soldiers from an ancient dragon god attacked people on both sides of the border.  Rather than investigate, they both immediately accused the other and went to war.  The reason no one pointed out the soldiers or dragon god?  If you talked about them, you’d be magically transported to the dragon god’s kingdom and mind controlled into working for him!  Yeah, pure contrivance, because otherwise your entire plot would be resolved in literally two seconds as someone mentioned what was going on.

THE BABY REALM.  So, in Awakening, you could get married and have kids.  They wanted to do that mechanic again.  But Awakening had time travel, so it made sense.  Here?  Instead, they had a baby, and you throw them into an inter-dimensional rift, where they will immediately be spit out at combat-ready age.  I think like two of the kids briefly mention being sad their parents weren’t around.  Otherwise, somehow no abandonment issues at all.  Leo is a fucking asshole, though.  Forrest deserved better.

Speaking of the kids, fuck the kids.  Again, there’s like 5 that were good, and at least 3 are debateable.  But I think we can all agree that Kanna is a horrible little gremlin we should’ve kept locked away in another dimension.  FUCK YOU, YOU’LL NEVER BE MORGAN

On the topic of shipping, the main ship?  Corrin and Azura?  Yeah, you’re cousins.  So after all the debate about the main families being incest, but they totally aren’t because you’re adopted and not related to either of them, the main couple of the game that I think the game itself actively pushes, is incestuous.  Fucking great job, team.

I could bitch about the difference in female costume design between this game and the rest of the series all goddamned day so let’s just say “Camilla is just there for fanservice” and call it a day.

The final boss is literally the stone mask from JoJo and yet the game is somehow still lame.

Speaking of the final boss.  That dragon god?  We never learn his motivation.  Or rather, we do, but only in the DLC.  So after paying over $80 for this shit game they sold to you three times?  You have to pay even more to get the DLC that fucking explains anything.

Weapons came with penalties now.  So strong weapons had severe drawbacks that made them less useful, and instead forging was the way to go.  How do you forge?  By buying like 50 copies of the same weapon, and farming endlessly for arbitrary resources through other players’ My Castles (I’ll bitch about that in a minute), then spending a shitload of gold in the forge to give it slightly better stats.  Hope you like farming!

Christ, the My Castle thing...  You know what Fire Emblem really needed?  Instead of steady progression through a story, it needed to grind to a fucking halt as you farmed out all your arbitrary resources that are now required, and get all your skills through this method alone.  Most of your game won’t even be the main story, it’ll be My Castle, the fucking shitshow nightmare they added into this series for no goddamned reason.

“We finally put in gay characters!” the series said, giving you version exclusive options of (1) the reincarnation of a stalker who abused her daughter mentally and physically, or (2) a gay man whose only defined personality traits are “sadistic” and “makes a lot of uncomfortable sex jokes.”  Fucking top-tier representation.  Shame you didn’t pick sensible options, like...I dunno, Soleil?  The obvious bi girl?  But no, Tharja 2.0, that’s fine.

But on top of that?  On top of all that?  Pick your poison from the following:

The english translation was so unbelievably bad, that most characters spoke in decades-old memes, and entire support conversations were outright removed for funny ninja moments like no spoken dialogue because ninjas don’t talk.  But at least they removed the incredibly creepy face-rubbing minigame that you just know someone was jerking it to.

OR you keep the Japanese version, where one support conversation is literally your main character drugging a girl who thinks other girls are cute, without her consent, to make her see men as other women and vice versa, basically so you can fuck and marry her, in what’s basically a point-for-point re-enactment of conversion therapy.  And that’s just one of the incredibly horrific things the Japanese version had in it.  There was an entire SITE listing the problems people had with how it portrayed things.

And that’s just what I remember off the top of my head.  I know for a fact there’s more.  But imagine going from “Oh man, a new entry into this, my favorite series” to getting all of this information, bit by bit, over months, and trying to convince yourself that it’ll be okay and you should still get it.  Then you get it, and it’s somehow WORSE.  That’s what the experience of Fates was like.  Constant horror and disappointment, followed by an attempt to compromise that backfired spectacularly and resulted in, bar none, the worst game I’ve ever played, with absolutely nothing gained.  I am a lesser person for having played Fates.

[black-horror-the-sunken-place]

Candyman and Eve's Bayou

In this post, I will be discussing both the new Candyman film directed by Nia Decosta and Eve’s Bayou, starring Samuel Jackson, Meagan Good, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, and Jurnee Smollett.

In the new Candyman film, which many refer to as Candyman: REclamation, Helen’s character is extremely desensitized and her character only appears as a voice on a recording. This is a major improvement in my opinion when comparing the original to the new film, because in the original, Helen was the focus of the film and the violence, danger, and trauma of the black community was being told from her perspective, rather than the perspective of someone within the community that is being analyzed or described. Some of the themes in the new Candyman film include, gentrification, Cabrini-Green as a ghost town, Black Lives Matter/martyrs, police occupation and racism within the police force, toxic relationships, and the transformation and loss of self. I think this film was very successful in modernizing and updating the old film to include relevant issues or concerns that are present in today’s society, some being the issue of gentrification and the racism within the policing system. In regards to the aspects of the film regarding gentrification, I strongly believe the director attempted to correct the narrative that white people are the only ones that gentrify communities and/or participate in the process of gentrification. As shown in the film, this is not the case as many of the supporting lead characters self identified as “gentrifiers”, a term that describes people that partake in gentrification.

In Eve’s Bayou, a film I had never watched or heard about before being required to watch it for a class, had an interesting storyline that highlighted the life and family dynamic of an upper class black family during the historical time of segregation. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the film really well, however, after noticing and catching on to some of the negative aspects addressed during the film, I began to slowly become more and more disappointed in the actions of some of the characters. Personally, I often find in some of the black films I watch that it is one or more of the black characters that are not only the antagonist but are also painted out to be the villain of the story. In this film, it is clear that most of the horror comes from inside the house which is evident by the actions of Ciselty, Louis, and Eve. As stated in my lecture, the horror aspect of this film comes from the incest and sexual violence scene between both Cisely and her father Louis, but it also comes from the Voudou aspects that are presents throughout the film through the actions of Eve’s aunt, Mozelle, the wishes of Eve or through the character, Elzora. Some of the themes from this film are magic/ritual, secrets, betrayal, community, responsibility, curses, and the loss of innocence. I want to quickly highlight the theme of betrayal. I feel that this is one of the most important themes as it addresses the marital affair of Louis and Mrs. Mereaux, both of whom are married, but it also addresses the betrayal of Louis as a father to his daughter Cisely, when he engaged in a sexual act (a kiss) with his daughter. Regardless of who initiated the kiss, in no way should it have occurred as the father should have never let it happen or get to a point in his relationship with his daughter for her to feel comfortable engaging in an act like this.

[tripstations]

Michigan hotel offers free stays to women travelling for abortions

A hotel in Michigan is offering free stays and transport for women travelling to the state to have an abortion.

The Yale Hotel launched the offer following a spate of restrictive abortion laws that have been passed in conservative US states such as Ohio, Missouri, Georgia and Alabama, which voted for a near-total ban on terminations, including in cases of rape and incest.

The hotel’s manager Shelley O’Brian outlined its offering in a Facebook post, writing: “Dear sisters that live in Alabama, Ohio, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, or any of the other states that follow with similar laws restricting access, we cannot do anything about the way you are being treated in your home-state.

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.

From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

Subscribe now

“But, if you can make it to Michigan, we will support you with several nights lodging and transportation to and from your appointment.”

The post has since garnered more than 4,200 likes and 2,800 shares, with thousands of people praising O’Brian for the initiative.

leftCreated with Sketch. rightCreated with Sketch.

1/13 Raped during the Kosovo war, a woman’s life 20 years on

Sihana was in a house full of women and children when she was raped by a member of the Serbian paramilitary. The men took five of the younger women into separate rooms; one of them had given birth just four days before.

“They raped us until they’d had enough. The children were screaming, the old women were screaming, we were screaming,” Sihana says.

The Kosovo war ended 20 years ago, but its effects are all too present for this young nation. Approximately 20,000 women and girls were raped during the 14-month conflict; thousands of people remain missing – both Albanian and Serbian – with multiple mass graves uncovered over the last two decades.

Tom Ford

2/13 How a child bride left her abusive husband in the nation with the highest rate of underage marriage

Hadiza was walking home from school one day when people started calling out: “The young bride! The young bride!”

The 14-year-old had no idea who they were talking about, and kept on walking. She returned home to find her mother crying but when Hadiza asked her sisters why their mother was so upset, no one answered.

This would be the start of Hadiza’s new life as a child bride.

Every year 12 million girls are married before they turn 18. Niger has the highest prevalence of child brides, with 76 per cent of girls married by 18, and 28 per cent by 15 in the West African nation.

In some regions, girls as young as 10 are married, and after the age of 25, very few women remain unmarried.

Tom Ford

3/13 How women get into the sex industry – and how they get out of it

Rachel Lloyd was forced to leave her school in England after her abusive, alcoholic stepfather drained her mother’s finances then left the family. As an underage teen she was raped by an adult and battled with substance abuse. After moving to Germany, her boyfriend – who was a crack addict – eventually became her pimp.

This is by no means an isolated tale. Studies show anywhere from 50 to 90 per cent of women who end up in the sex industry were sexually abused as children.

Poverty is another driving force that sees women turn to prostitution.

Although some people may choose to work in the sex industry, many are forced into it by circumstance.

Tom Ford

4/13 How one woman escaped FGM and saved thousands more from the cut

When she was eight, Nice Nailantei Leng’ete ran away to avoid being cut. Along with her elder sister, she left her home in the early hours of the morning and hid. When their uncles found the girls, they beat them.

“When I was hiding in the trees I was thinking: ‘Will they find me and force me to go through FGM? I saw death because of circumcision and I was worried that I might die, or if I did not die I would not be able to go back to school and I would be married.’”

Nice is from a Maasai community in Kilmana, Kenya, a nation where the practice has been prevalent for centuries.

Tom Ford

5/13 Displaced women in Syria are fighting for change

Seven years into a civil war that has left devastation in its wake, campaigns and aid are beginning to dry up in Syria. The suffering of those still facing untold hardships is fading from public view as the world moves on to the latest crisis.

Thousands are still displaced, living with limited access to basic necessities such as food, electricity and fuel. Unknown numbers are detained or missing.

Many of those left behind are women doing what they can to support their families, often mourning the loss of loved ones. Even though there are fewer battlefields, fighting continues, leaving civilians in mortal danger. The message from women in Syria rings clear: “I want you to feel our suffering.”

Tom Ford

6/13 A woman’s tale of gun violence and domestic abuse

Gun violence in the United States has become so destructive and all-encompassing, Amnesty International have branded it a human rights crisis.

Despite 80 per cent of all gun deaths in the world taking place in America and 30,000 adults and children dying every year in the nation, Congress has done little in recent years. With gun control a divisive issue that some fear to touch due to voter backlash and the right to bear arms enshrined in the second amendment, the government has been quiet. Zero gun control laws have been passed in Congress in the last three years.

Tom Ford

7/13 The sisters fighting religious extremism in Pakistan

Saba Ismail woke up in her Brooklyn home to a voicemail from her sister, Gulalai. She was calling to say she had been apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad after a flight from London. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told Gulalai she had been put on an exit control list (ECL) and was going to be immediately detained.

“The space is shrinking and closing out spaces for civic voices, voices who are raising for peace,” Gulalai says in the message recorded as she was being detained.

Illustration by Tom Ford

8/13 The terrifying crisis of North America’s murdered and missing indigenous women

It is North America’s dark, open secret that native women are far more likely to be raped, and far more likely to be murdered.

No justice. That is the constant cry from friends and families of victims as countless cases are left unresolved and ignored.

Marita Growing Thunder, a 19-year-old Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) activist from Montana, has experienced this lack of justice – five times.

Tom Ford

9/13 Why violence in Zimbabwe is more than just political

As with so many other countries, women and girls are constant targets for violence in Zimbabwe.

Data from Zimbabwe National Statistics Office indicates sexual assault is on the rise. From 2010 to 2016 there was a 42 per cent increase in rape cases, with at least 21 people raped every day. Taking into account the fact that many don’t report sexual violence, this figure is likely higher.

Womankind Worldwide

10/13 How Rwanda rose to the top of the world for women’s representation

The only one of 14 siblings to survive, with four children of her own as well as nieces to look after, Vestine survived the Rwandan genocide.

Unique conditions grew from the horror, leading Rwanda to become a female-led African nation.

As Vestine says, “Our genocide is not something that can be easily forgotten but we try to live with them and work with fellow citizens for the development of our nation. I can say that Rwanda has tremendously tried to rebuild itself. We remember our loved ones who perished during 1994 genocide against Tutsi as we rebuild ourselves. We have enough security in our nation and we are all working together to rebuild our nation. Specifically, women are rebuilding.”

With male bias dominating so many nations, Rwanda shows that not only can a country thrive and grow with proper gender representation, but that it can help a nation heal from the unimaginable.

Illustrations by Tom Ford

11/13 Why women in South Africa are carrying the burden of HIV

South Africa has the biggest HIV epidemic in the world, with 7.1 million people living with the virus.

There is a huge gender disparity in infection rates, with nearly four times the number of young women infected than men their age.

Not only are women disproportionately infected, but there is another burden tying them to this life-changing illness – childbirth.

Many women have been unknowingly infected with HIV, then unknowingly passed it on to their children.

Tom Ford

12/13 One Syrian mother’s remarkable journey to find her son

More than 500,000 people have died since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.

With thousands of men imprisoned or killed at the hands of Isis and the Syrian army, many women are left behind fighting for survival, without even the solace of knowing whether their husbands and sons are dead or alive.

Tom Ford

13/13 The fight against brutal land grabs in Uganda

A 30-year-old mother with six children, Patience is doing everything she can to rebuild her life.

Her husband, Isaac, died four years ago in a Ugandan land grab, which saw her family forcefully evicted so a sugar factory could be built on the land.

“One day, we were at home and we heard screams. There was so much violence. Guns, teargas and machetes. If you delayed they burned down your house. I heard screams everywhere and I started running. They took our goats, cows, chickens and our whole home.”

WomanKind Worldwide

1/13 Raped during the Kosovo war, a woman’s life 20 years on

Sihana was in a house full of women and children when she was raped by a member of the Serbian paramilitary. The men took five of the younger women into separate rooms; one of them had given birth just four days before.

“They raped us until they’d had enough. The children were screaming, the old women were screaming, we were screaming,” Sihana says.

The Kosovo war ended 20 years ago, but its effects are all too present for this young nation. Approximately 20,000 women and girls were raped during the 14-month conflict; thousands of people remain missing – both Albanian and Serbian – with multiple mass graves uncovered over the last two decades.

Tom Ford

2/13 How a child bride left her abusive husband in the nation with the highest rate of underage marriage

Hadiza was walking home from school one day when people started calling out: “The young bride! The young bride!”

The 14-year-old had no idea who they were talking about, and kept on walking. She returned home to find her mother crying but when Hadiza asked her sisters why their mother was so upset, no one answered.

This would be the start of Hadiza’s new life as a child bride.

Every year 12 million girls are married before they turn 18. Niger has the highest prevalence of child brides, with 76 per cent of girls married by 18, and 28 per cent by 15 in the West African nation.

In some regions, girls as young as 10 are married, and after the age of 25, very few women remain unmarried.

Tom Ford

3/13 How women get into the sex industry – and how they get out of it

Rachel Lloyd was forced to leave her school in England after her abusive, alcoholic stepfather drained her mother’s finances then left the family. As an underage teen she was raped by an adult and battled with substance abuse. After moving to Germany, her boyfriend – who was a crack addict – eventually became her pimp.

This is by no means an isolated tale. Studies show anywhere from 50 to 90 per cent of women who end up in the sex industry were sexually abused as children.

Poverty is another driving force that sees women turn to prostitution.

Although some people may choose to work in the sex industry, many are forced into it by circumstance.

Tom Ford

4/13 How one woman escaped FGM and saved thousands more from the cut

When she was eight, Nice Nailantei Leng’ete ran away to avoid being cut. Along with her elder sister, she left her home in the early hours of the morning and hid. When their uncles found the girls, they beat them.

“When I was hiding in the trees I was thinking: ‘Will they find me and force me to go through FGM? I saw death because of circumcision and I was worried that I might die, or if I did not die I would not be able to go back to school and I would be married.’”

Nice is from a Maasai community in Kilmana, Kenya, a nation where the practice has been prevalent for centuries.

Tom Ford

5/13 Displaced women in Syria are fighting for change

Seven years into a civil war that has left devastation in its wake, campaigns and aid are beginning to dry up in Syria. The suffering of those still facing untold hardships is fading from public view as the world moves on to the latest crisis.

Thousands are still displaced, living with limited access to basic necessities such as food, electricity and fuel. Unknown numbers are detained or missing.

Many of those left behind are women doing what they can to support their families, often mourning the loss of loved ones. Even though there are fewer battlefields, fighting continues, leaving civilians in mortal danger. The message from women in Syria rings clear: “I want you to feel our suffering.”

Tom Ford

6/13 A woman’s tale of gun violence and domestic abuse

Gun violence in the United States has become so destructive and all-encompassing, Amnesty International have branded it a human rights crisis.

Despite 80 per cent of all gun deaths in the world taking place in America and 30,000 adults and children dying every year in the nation, Congress has done little in recent years. With gun control a divisive issue that some fear to touch due to voter backlash and the right to bear arms enshrined in the second amendment, the government has been quiet. Zero gun control laws have been passed in Congress in the last three years.

Tom Ford

7/13 The sisters fighting religious extremism in Pakistan

Saba Ismail woke up in her Brooklyn home to a voicemail from her sister, Gulalai. She was calling to say she had been apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad after a flight from London. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told Gulalai she had been put on an exit control list (ECL) and was going to be immediately detained.

“The space is shrinking and closing out spaces for civic voices, voices who are raising for peace,” Gulalai says in the message recorded as she was being detained.

Illustration by Tom Ford

8/13 The terrifying crisis of North America’s murdered and missing indigenous women

It is North America’s dark, open secret that native women are far more likely to be raped, and far more likely to be murdered.

No justice. That is the constant cry from friends and families of victims as countless cases are left unresolved and ignored.

Marita Growing Thunder, a 19-year-old Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) activist from Montana, has experienced this lack of justice – five times.

Tom Ford

9/13 Why violence in Zimbabwe is more than just political

As with so many other countries, women and girls are constant targets for violence in Zimbabwe.

Data from Zimbabwe National Statistics Office indicates sexual assault is on the rise. From 2010 to 2016 there was a 42 per cent increase in rape cases, with at least 21 people raped every day. Taking into account the fact that many don’t report sexual violence, this figure is likely higher.

Womankind Worldwide

10/13 How Rwanda rose to the top of the world for women’s representation

The only one of 14 siblings to survive, with four children of her own as well as nieces to look after, Vestine survived the Rwandan genocide.

Unique conditions grew from the horror, leading Rwanda to become a female-led African nation.

As Vestine says, “Our genocide is not something that can be easily forgotten but we try to live with them and work with fellow citizens for the development of our nation. I can say that Rwanda has tremendously tried to rebuild itself. We remember our loved ones who perished during 1994 genocide against Tutsi as we rebuild ourselves. We have enough security in our nation and we are all working together to rebuild our nation. Specifically, women are rebuilding.”

With male bias dominating so many nations, Rwanda shows that not only can a country thrive and grow with proper gender representation, but that it can help a nation heal from the unimaginable.

Illustrations by Tom Ford

11/13 Why women in South Africa are carrying the burden of HIV

South Africa has the biggest HIV epidemic in the world, with 7.1 million people living with the virus.

There is a huge gender disparity in infection rates, with nearly four times the number of young women infected than men their age.

Not only are women disproportionately infected, but there is another burden tying them to this life-changing illness – childbirth.

Many women have been unknowingly infected with HIV, then unknowingly passed it on to their children.

Tom Ford

12/13 One Syrian mother’s remarkable journey to find her son

More than 500,000 people have died since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.

With thousands of men imprisoned or killed at the hands of Isis and the Syrian army, many women are left behind fighting for survival, without even the solace of knowing whether their husbands and sons are dead or alive.

Tom Ford

13/13 The fight against brutal land grabs in Uganda

A 30-year-old mother with six children, Patience is doing everything she can to rebuild her life.

Her husband, Isaac, died four years ago in a Ugandan land grab, which saw her family forcefully evicted so a sugar factory could be built on the land.

“One day, we were at home and we heard screams. There was so much violence. Guns, teargas and machetes. If you delayed they burned down your house. I heard screams everywhere and I started running. They took our goats, cows, chickens and our whole home.”

WomanKind Worldwide

“Thank you for being brave enough to support a woman’s right to choose,” commented one person.

Another added: “Thank you for supporting women everywhere in such a strong, bold way!”

O’Brian also responded to anti-abortion activists who criticised her for the offer.

To one person, she wrote: “I cannot turn my back on my sisters who are struggling. I appreciate your contribution.

“If I had my way, abortion wouldn’t be necessary … but for as long as it is, I will stand with my sisters.”

O’Brian reiterated her views in a statement to CNN, saying: “Women should have autonomy over their own bodies. If we do not have control over our own bodies, then this is not a free world.”

The hotel manager added that a woman has yet to take her up on the offer, but she has a room ready and waiting for when they do.

The post Michigan hotel offers free stays to women travelling for abortions appeared first on Tripstations.

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[biofunmy]

Female lawmakers speak about rapes as abortion bills advance

For more than two decades, Nancy Mace did not speak publicly about her rape. In April, when she finally broke her silence, she chose the most public of forums — before her colleagues in South Carolina’s legislature.

A bill was being debated that would ban all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected; Mace, a Republican lawmaker, wanted to add an exception for rape and incest. When some of her colleagues in the House dismissed her amendment — some women invent rapes to justify seeking an abortion, they claimed — she could not restrain herself.

“For some of us who have been raped, it can take 25 years to get up the courage and talk about being a victim of rape,” Mace said, gripping the lectern so hard she thought she might pull it up from the floor. “My mother and my best friend in high school were the only two people who knew.”

As one Republican legislature after another has pressed ahead with restrictive abortion bills in recent months, they have been confronted with raw and emotional testimony about the consequences of such laws. Female lawmakers and other women have stepped forward to tell searing, personal stories — in some cases speaking about attacks for the first time to anyone but a loved one or their closest friend.

Mace is against abortion in most cases and supported the fetal heartbeat bill as long as it contained the exception for rape and incest. She said her decision to reveal an attack that has haunted her for so long was intended to help male lawmakers understand the experience of those victims.

“It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you are on, there are so many of us who share this trauma and this experience,” Mace said in an interview. “Rape and incest are not partisan issues.”

Personal horror stories have done little to slow passage of bills in Georgia, where a lawmaker told about having an abortion after being raped, or Alabama, where the governor this week signed a law that bans all abortions unless they are necessary to save the life of the mother.

In Ohio, a fetal heartbeat bill passed even after three lawmakers spoke out on the floor about their rapes — among them State Rep. Lisa Sobecki, who argued for a rape exemption by recounting her own assault and subsequent abortion.

It was gut-wrenching, the Navy veteran said, but her decision to speak out was validated the next day when she was approached in the grocery store by a man in his 70s, whose wife of 41 years had read of her account that morning in the local newspaper. The story prompted his wife to tell him for the first time that she also had been raped.

“It’s not just our stories,” Sobecki said. “It’s giving voice to the voiceless, those that haven’t felt for a very long time that they could tell their stories and be heard.”

Four years ago, when a previous fetal heartbeat bill was being debated, state Sen. Teresa Fedor, then a state representative, surprised colleagues with her story of being raped while in the military and having an abortion. She felt compelled to share the story again this year when the issue resurfaced.

“It’s not something you like to focus on,” the Toledo Democrat said. “And it didn’t seem to have an impact in stopping the effort, so that’s the sad part.”

The governor signed the bill, without exceptions for rape or incest.

Ohio state Rep. Erica Crawley, a Democrat representing Columbus, said she didn’t intend to share the story of her sexual assault when floor debate on the heartbeat bill began. But she said she was motivated by a Republican colleague who alleged that witnesses at committee hearings on the bill had exaggerated or fabricated their stories.

“I wanted them to know that I’m someone you have respect for, and this has happened to me,” she said.

Crawley felt she had no choice but to speak out: “Because if I stay silent, I feel like I’m complicit.”

Kelly Dittmar, an expert on women and politics at Rutgers University, said she would not be surprised if even more female lawmakers begin to speak out about their rapes and abortions. More women feel empowered by the #MeToo movement, she said, and the record number of women who won seats in state legislatures last year gives them a greater voice.

“For some women who have healed enough in their own personal battles with this type of abuse, they might be comfortable speaking about this publicly because they see a higher purpose for it,” she said.

One such woman is Gretchen Whitmer. In 2013, she was minority leader in the Michigan state Senate when she spoke against a Republican-backed effort to require separate health insurance to cover abortion.

Seven minutes into her floor speech, a visibly upset Whitmer put down her notes and told her colleagues that she had been raped more than 20 years earlier and that the memory of the attack continued to haunt her. She thanked God that she had not become pregnant by her attacker.

In an interview this week, the Democrat said her decision to share her story was the right one. After her testimony, her office received thousands of emails from people thanking her.

“That was the thing that bolstered me the most and convinced me that I had to continue speaking out and running for office and taking action,” she said. “There are a lot of victims and survivors out there who care, who need to be heard, who need to be represented and who need the law to reflect what we want and need to see in our country.”

Earlier this week, Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature passed two bills to restrict abortions and sent them to the governor.

That governor is now Whitmer. She said she will veto both of them.

———

Cassidy reported from Atlanta.

———

Follow Julie Carr Smyth at http://www.twitter.com/jcarrsmyth and Christina Cassidy at http://twitter.com/AP—Christina

Sahred From Source link Health

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[syrupwit]

Dear Yuletide Writer Letter 2017

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you very much for writing for me! This is my first-ever year signing up for Yuletide, and -- while I’m not up on all the etiquette and may make mistakes -- I am quite excited. I’m sure I will love whatever you write.  

Although some of the sections below are longer than others, please note that I don’t have a preference between requested fandoms and would be super happy to receive work for any of them. I just write a lot sometimes. (But usually not when I need to, of course.)

-

General Likes: Many things. In convenient list format...

Gen, femslash, slash, and het

Genres: humor, horror, slice-of-life, ghost stories, romantic comedy, casefic, action/adventure, angst, crack treated seriously

Atmospheric stuff where nothing really happens but you sure get an image or a mood

Intense relationships between women, whether they’re romantic or not

Surreality and silliness

Appetizing descriptions of food

Loyalty kink, especially where a more powerful or physically stronger character is loyal to a weaker character

Characters standing up for each other

Characters who are socially disliked, awkward, or shunned but secretly really good at something

Cats

General DNW: Permanent major character death; graphic depictions of violence, torture, or gore; rape/noncon; onscreen child abuse; onscreen harm to animals. I’m also generally not a fan of stories that focus heavily on characters’ experiences with social issues or identity. 

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Fandom: Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Characters: Justine Florbelle, Daniel of Mayfair

Likes/Prompts: Amnesia became my favorite new canon this year. I’m currently on my third playthrough of The Dark Descent and have completed the Justine DLC too many times to count -- though I still haven’t managed to save the last guy, darn it. Things about these canons that I adore include the morally conflicted protagonists, atmosphere of imminent doom and lingering anxiety, Lovecraft-influenced but not strictly Lovecraftian horror themes, mechanics that balance the player character’s essential helplessness with rewards for ingenuity, and the fact that you can throw stuff. And stack stuff! I LOVE throwing and stacking stuff. I... haven’t played a lot of first-person video games.

While I am interested in stories that include both Daniel and Justine, I’d be happy with a story that only focuses on one of them.

Justine fascinates me -- the contrast between her cruelty and caprice on the one hand, and her physical (and, to an extent, social/legal and emotional) vulnerability on the other. She’s also really creepy and into some weird shit. I’m not usually interested in sociopathic villains, but something about her character just hits my buttons. 

For solo Justine scenarios, I’d enjoy anything about her escapades in polite society (the ball! the irony! Justine loves irony), interactions with Clarice (how much does she suspect?), or initial meetings with the prisoners. Also, how is her poetry received among her peers? Delving more into the history and development of the Cabinet of Perturbation would be cool too.

Daniel is likewise a fascinating character. During my second playthrough, I was impressed with the slow reveal of his descent into metaphorical and literal darkness. Fear makes people scary, or something. I was also pretty into his relationship with Alexander, all the layers of manipulation and betrayal mixed with genuine connection. (For the record, I totally ship them.)

For solo Daniel scenarios, I’d like to see more about his early days at Brennenburg, interactions with the outside world post-game, and a reunion with his sister Hazel. If you want to pair him with Alexander either romantically or platonically, that’s great. Agrippa, too. I’m honestly interested in Daniel interacting with any character, if you have an idea. 

For the combination of Daniel and Justine, I’m interested in either gen or het, set around the time of either game. I feel like they’d make a great pair, for certain values of great. The Unopened Letter found in the water dungeon in Justine also seems to hint at the possibility of a meeting between Daniel and Justine. 

As an adult, Justine is experienced at manipulating people, would easily ferret out Daniel’s fears and how to play on them, and could be intrigued by his experiences with the supernatural. Perhaps, in an AU where Monsieur Florbelle answers Daniel’s letter, a child Justine would see a kindred soul in one who’s also been in contact with the artifacts. In a universe where the letter stays unopened until Justine’s day of subterranean exercise, maybe adult Justine invites Daniel to visit with the intention of adding him to her Cabinet, or tries to court him as a momentary amusement and finds it more challenging that she expected.  

For his part, Daniel has already spent a lot of time escaping dungeons and being manipulated by Alexander -- adult Justine’s flavor of betrayal would not be that shocking. There’s also his relationship with his sister Hazel and guilt over the girl he murdered, which could soften him towards a young or orphaned Justine. If it’s after the events of The Dark Descent, what choices did Daniel make? Did he favor taking revenge on Alexander over helping Agrippa? Is he guilty, guilt-free, still racked with nightmares, sound of mind? If Weyer rewarded him for saving Agrippa, has he spent time in the other world? The age difference could even be handwaved if Weyer sort of miscalculated when he was sending Daniel back to our world by 19 years. 

Fandom-Specific DNW: Please, no romance between Daniel/Justine when she is underage.

Notes: While it is my understanding that some regard the relationship between Justine and her father to have been one where she attempted to seduce him, I do not agree with that interpretation and would prefer not to receive stories that subscribe to it. It seems much more likely to me that her father abused or at least behaved inappropriately towards her.

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Fandom: Pocket Mirror (Video Game)

Characters: Lisette (Pocket Mirror)

Likes/Prompts: What distinguished this game to me, made it stick in my mind, and kept me playing was the atmosphere. Fleta’s bright and well-ordered domain with hints of lurid nastiness underneath, Harpae’s drafty wooden corridors with their creaking floors and distant lights, Lisette’s total abandonment of any reasonable organization whatsoever: I love it. Which brings me to...

Lisette! Poor Lisette. She gets blamed for everything, doesn’t she? She’s mean and destructive because no one else will let themselves be, and hates herself for it. (Or...? I’m also interested in alternate character interpretations, if you have different ideas.) I would like to see her have a nice time.

I’m not super attached to any of the canon endings, so if you want to go an AU route, please feel free. That includes canon divergence AUs as well as AUs where they’re all sort of... I don’t know, neighbors in the real world? Except one of them lives in a mirror maze populated by her evil shadow selves, and maybe they’re all witches.

Femslash, gen, or unusually clingy/possessive/intense friendship with romantic undertones are all of interest to me for this canon. I’m particularly interested by Goldia/Lisette, Fleta/Goldia, and Harpae/Lisette.

Prompts:

Lisette receives a new dress. Who made it?

Lisette expects to be alone on Christmas, but is proven wrong.

Harpae has had enough of Lisette’s tormenting Fleta.

Goldia is in trouble in the real world and only Lisette can save her.

The girls pay visits to each others’ domains.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica AU

DNW: No explicit sexual content for this fandom, please.

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Fandom: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena

Characters: Kiryuu Nanami, Arisugawa Juri, Shinohara Wakaba, Himemiya Anthy

Likes/Prompts: I’ve been told that RGU is considered “the Evangelion of shoujo anime,” and I feel like that’s... accurate? Anyway, I love it to bits -- stock footage, surfing elephants, and all. I also love the movie and have a bunch of theories about its relation to the series, which I will spare you at this time.

For this exchange, I’ve requested fic about Nanami, Juri, Wakaba, and Anthy. I’d be happy to read about these characters all together, on their own, or in any combination. Gen, femslash, het, and slash are all welcome, as are stories set before, during, or after the series.

While there’s much to be said about the grand sweeping themes in Revolutionary Girl Utena, what won the series my heart is how goddamn weird it is. The Nanami filler episodes, for example, were among my favorite parts of the show. I’m interested in exploring more of that weirdness.

Possibly in this spirit, I’ve come up with a long and eclectic mix of prompts. These are just here in hopes they might give you an idea, if you’d like one.

Prompts:

Nanami goes to space to try to replace one of the stars with herself.

“A Christmas Carol,” starring Nanami.

Touga’s kitten survived... and now it’s back for revenge! Nanami is being blackmailed by a cat.

Nanami spends the night in a strange house, trying to convince herself it isn’t haunted. Anthy orchestrates small events to make her think that it is.

Anthy and Nanami are rivals at magic school.

Juri becomes a world-champion bowler.

Among the incoming freshman class, rumors spread that Juri is a vampire. In attempting to dispel them, she encounters some obstacles.

Juri and Wakaba have a super-torrid romance as adults.

Wakaba dreams of life as a Jeep.

Wakaba has an identity crisis and joins many different student clubs.

Wakaba and Anthy share a rare moment of understanding over their mutual difficulties with cooking.

Anthy embarks on a side career as a barista.

Anthy arranges for Utena to fight a dragon.

Between dueling cycles, Anthy is permitted one day off from being the Rose Bride. How does she choose to spend it? 

Fandom-Specific DNW:  No onscreen incest, please.

[differentviewsworld-blog]

Carless language of sexual violence

    My thoughts on this chapter is that its mind boggling how they shame the female like she brought it upon herself  to get rape and how she destroy her attacker life. I also find disturbing how people can record this type of behavior on their phone and not call authority but can upload it on social media for views and like. Overall relates to rape, the grief of the victim tends to be left out and the focus makes offender as victims but not keep in mind how that one action they made have change her life forever. The reasoning I believe it have something to do with the principle that these typed of behavior is normal behavior for a man and how they do it out of instinct. The offender is under scrutiny, but those who criticize them are often unclear. I believe if we demand that show stop speak on matter of rape just for rating and really educate us the horror that rape has on a person and not shame female on what they wear or carry themselves. This brings me to my point of unaware violation of social structure and the social stricture isn’t clear, then misconduct is suspect.

                                                          The alienable right of women

     Society doesn’t acknowledge female Connection that influence how we maneuver through the world. In the chapter the alienable right of women spoke about how we live in a society of man who is devoting their time to tell a female what we can do with our body.  Like it isn’t other situation in the world that need more attention but they continue focuses on female issue. Even in unwanted pregnancies such as rape and incest politician feel the need to tell a female what do with their body. I found a passage in the book that touch on how law maker restricted access to birth control to make some extra money and repopulate white society while on the other hand promoting contraception in the poor neighborhood. I also believe that they promote contraception in poor neighborhood for population control and make sure the undesirable race is being control. I believe that female should be able to decide if they want to carry their child no one knows the hardship a person is facing. It also bother me how they treat females like a second rate citizen and how clear the role for gender equality is in the United States.

                                    Black feminist interventions

These chapters touch on the hierarchy arrangement of race and gender in society and how female was torn in two for their moment for equality or two take a step back and allow the black males to be the face of the moment while they work behind the scene. This chapter emphasize on how race and gender have been join and intersectional problem black women. I never knew Frederick Douglass belief that black male was over black female. From what I learn in school I never seem his perspective in that way before I will like to know why the author put this in her book and why didn’t teach us this in school? It make me rethink  our history they teach us in school I use to believe that  all the black male that was standing up for our freedom want equality for all us not to keep us at a lower level than them. Reading this chapter it made me realize  our struggles more being black and also being a female a realize the restriction and boundaries that are place on us. After reading realize we came a long way but we still have a lot that needs to be done for equal right for all.