Reposted by Vincent Victoria Saix
Also known as: Every shy sub's personal nightmare.
... ... unless?... ¬//¬'
Found this old question in my backlog, and since we were already on the topic of bitchsuits, I thought now would be the perfect time to answer it! :3c
![Fair Warning: Discussing Rape as Mutual Survivors
Capital rapes by design; girls talk to stay alive after the "main event," rape something to prevent by discussing our abuse with each other (and the world, if we're able). Charlotte and I are both rape survivors* using Metroid as a means to codify and analyze rape prevention, doing so through that story and its heroine; i.e., as rape survivors, speaking through the Gothic hyphenation of virgin/whore. Trauma recognizes trauma, but I'm telling you (the reader) upfront to be transparent. Moreover, rape is something to revisit in ways we might control, often through games that skirt around rape in coded forms; i.e., as Metroid—a neoliberal Gothic tale repletion with penetrative moments tied to xenophobia-yet-nebulous threats of alien invasion—most certainly does: holding down victims and taking their life, dignity and/or data by force. Unless you've been there or know someone who has, you probably won't know what you're looking at; or for fascist audiences, will conflate bullying (which rape is) with strength, raping different things for the ruling class then calling it "rebellion." Fascist doesn't just make you stupid; it turns you into a rapist, doing so in different ways (e.g., TERFs, post-Radcliffe*).
*I say "post" because Radcliffe—a woman of relative middle-class privilege, in 18th-century Great Britain—wrote her novels (through a pen name) to reify and navigate rape mid-fakery: in consumable forms akin to Metroidvania, but specifically a text for those with more privilege (though still not the ruling class) to indulge in calculated risk (re: "Pieces of the Camp Map" and "Radcliffe's Tricky Tools," 2023); i.e., through material disputes, ghosts of rape used by the pirates in her stories to fleece the locals (which Scooby Doo [1969] would later capitalize on; re: "Radcliffe's Refrain," 2024): [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreibkovbtdcea2z422xcz5xs5lptp4gbruiqmfllofkonzss5pqbqwq)
![Another Brick in the Wall: On Not Passing and Trying Myself into Knots (dedicated to Dolly Parton and Tim Curry)
August 29th, 2026
Bay Ryan, my husband and co-writer, likes to show me things—to "nerd snipe" me (re: "Who's Fredrick Brennan?" 2026). This time, he showed me a term I'd never heard before: "brick," or someone who doesn't pass (often trans women explains Mercury Stardust; i.e., while reclaiming the slur, below).
CW: bikini-style pinups and cropped/censored nudity (with fig leaves)
(artist, left: Mercury Stardust, 2026; right: Persephone van der Waard, 2013)
I'd like to quickly unpack that, thus talk about vis-à-vis my own work (dating back years, above); i.e., as a trans sex worker/educator tying myself into knots when trying to share my work with the public (my book series Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Work under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art [2023] commonly censored online). This means combating state predation (thus rape) through my art and body alongside my friends (e.g., Eva Android, below),](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreicztl24v4yuk6ymflx7umyzxnj2zyyxjc2apn5enx7dkqey6rasfy)
![below),
(artist: Eva Android; source: "Hailing Hellions: An Interview with Eva Android," 2026)
but also peers I haven't worked with (re: Mercury Stardust but also Tim Curry and Dolly Patron, below): where power is, and something to cryptonymically reverse abjection with, "on the Aegis" (classically Athena's mirror shield, one decorated with the corpses of dead monsters—including heroic ones painted as villains, in different virgin/whore ways, and seeing Creed's monstrous-feminine "walking the tightrope," cryptonymy-and-abjection (to show/conceal power in alien-fetish ways). Refer to my latest book volume and "State Vampirism" aka "Anarcho-Communism vs Marxist-Leninism" [2026] to unpack such ideas).
(source, left and right: Reddit, 1981 and 1982—the latter for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)
Note: This piece appears in the promotion series for my latest book volume, Intersectionality (2026). It also dedicates to Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, two queer icons whose own iconoclastic work tracks with mine; i.e., with my own anti-fascist, anti-racist and eco-Socialist work: merging sex work with non-sex work in visibly Gothic language (as my latest volume explores). Everyone loves the whore, openly or not, hypocritically* or not—someone alien, sexy and dark who stands out/sits on the precipice of exploitation, there to further or reverse state predation† (which requires abjection to flow power up or down). Dolly and Tim used that aesthetic to vamp it up (as Gothic sex symbols reifying poetically to make forceful arguments in different ways, below). In doing so, they also gave minorities a powerful voice (often drag queens, but also BIPOC and/or trans people; e.g., Bay loved both of them, as did myself and many others)! They chose to stand out, a Satanic sword and shield for the less fortunate, a temple to worship at (read: however straight and/or ace they were, offstage)! Rest in power, Majesties! —Perse [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreieiy4lthnxft4kykf4churbzw2lpgedyqmmuvki7m4rjtt752baie)
!["Mind the Gap; or, Bridging Activism and Academia: An Interview with John Duncan" (2026): An interview with queer PhD, research fellow and YouTuber/self-described "Disco Socialist" (or just "Communist," in the interview) John the Duncan (above)—one discussing his work alongside mine, bridging the gap between academia and activism but also academics and non-academics (and sex workers/non-sex-workers). Currently, we have a spoken interview on Google Docs (which I'll upload onto YouTube when my suspension lifts)—one that speaks more survey-style on a raft of different topics, including feminism, intersectionality, sex work and the Gothic. It's more conversational; i.e., to the extent that intellectuals "converse" about things, both survey and surgical when discussing special-interest topics from different vantage points: introducing ideas as accessibly as possible, yet challenging each other and finding ways to inject humanity and humor into the fold; e.g. (all above), John's mentioning George Michael's "Outside" (1998) when discussing activism and sex work out in the open (a phenomenon in Britain he called "cottaging"), me feeling somewhat shy/worried about alienation when reaching out arbitrarily to John (as Jules Verne hypothetically does with Poe), and John spilling the tea regarding Jason Moore* and the death of Jason Arday vs Nathan Cofnas (source: Gavin Blackburn's "Ghent University Suspends US Academic," 2026). However, a longer written interview is also planned between us, in the coming weeks! Stay tuned!
*The co-author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things (2017), who, in a now-deleted tweet, wrote: "This is absolutely horrendous. As interpreted by Ghent against Cofnas, any and every faculty member there could almost certainly be charged with a code violation" (above, bottom-right). In our interview, John expressed increasing disappointment with Moore (though he said Raj Patel is a perfectly nice person) [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreiagqmr5k2i7h5gwl56nupvxteqfjhio76t7s7pi2zodrcjkylxqra)
![Sex work review: While it probably won't shock anyone to learn how Amanita caught me—hook, line and sinker—with her pumpkin-sized boobs and butt, her boundless charms don't stop there! Equally enchanting was her activist work and sweet, nurturing demeanor. Before her physical beauty stole my heart, I saw and read her zine promotion: "Do you support sex work? Censorship is stripping us of resources and income. We are seeing our communities be erased [...] All support for this project goes back into my community—please read and consider pledging ❤️" (source skeet: msdaukta, 6/24/2026). This came with various promotional material, including this image on her zine Bsky account:
A woman after my own heart! I love witches but also sex worker rights, subversive art, and really hot humans (as I should, having written ten books on those topics)! Intrigued, I reached out; Amanita replied. Down to collaborate, she proved incredibly sweet—her heart and brains as big as her physical charms, their heady combination making me feel instantly at home. Sex-wise, Amanita straight-up slays in bed—both quick to communicate and someone who loves an active partner into dark mommies. Music to my puppygirl ears, I felt like a Gothic heroine having met her long-lost match/double. Faced with Amanita's dark comforts and disarming sweetness, her easy charm and feral-yet-comforting energies only increased once in bed (and between her thighs). In fact, she reminds me of another muse/friend of mine, Maddie Minx: "It's not everyday you get to meet someone who embodies your life's work, let alone see naked and play with accordingly. For me, that's Maddie—standing in for Medusa, my chosen sigil for Gothic Communism" (source). The same idea applies to Amanita—someone imposingly awesome like Hecate (the Greek goddess of witchcraft, crossroads and the moon) but comforting amid said power in ways that quickly helped me relax. [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreihczuvwetnsgtprflq4v7id3m6t5uumfp34fgcopxx5dix55l5ene)
![As a rape survivor/activist who fights rape culture through Gothic media, I feel like FD's a bit out of his depth with this one. Long story short, you can rape* someone regardless of intent; i.e., "without realizing it." And the abuse Bear commits starts with the spell as taking Nicky's ability to consent away—in short, he rapes her mind, and then takes advantage.
*As I use it, rape means (from my definition as rape survivor and activist fighting rape culture) "to disempower someone or somewhere—a person, culture, or place—in order to harm them, generally through fetishizing and alienizing acts or circumstances/socio-material conditions that target the mind, body and/or spirit) […] Rape can be of the mind, spirit, body and/or culture—the land or things tied to it during genocide, etc; it can be individual and/or on a mass scale" (source: "Psychosexual Martyrdom," 2024). It can be camped during ludo-Gothic BDSM as I coined it (re: "Concerning Rape Play," 2025); i.e., "'rape' placed in quotes, mid-Gothic—much of which concerns rape and alien, imposturous things to play 'rape' out with, during calculated risk—to ironically undermine canonical norms/reduce means of actual harm, on a systemic level: that, when meaningfully unaddressed by widespread unawareness and unintelligence, further systemic abuse during unequal arrangements of power and status" (source: "Raising Awareness," 2025). We play "rape" out in quotes to prevent it on a systemic level, achieving the whore's revenge: In essence, capital/the state rape by design, which unpaid labor prevents by breaking Capitalist Realism mid-abjection; i.e., reversing abjection during ludo-Gothic BDSM (rape play) when having the whore's revenge (which "State Vampirism" explores at length): "to break the profit [and productivity] motive by making a world for which it (and rape) are no longer possible using these methods; i.e., by using the same demonic and slutty language capital does, but at cross purposes" [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreignfukdpcfkvjulodl2ytnd757bgryq7dmvwzzjzbegduk4odqb44)
![Sex work review: "She walks in beauty like the night." Lilith—a lady of the night—looks and acts the part. They have, as they put it, "a big butt"—one that is both pale, and whose neighboring parts are pierced on a petit bod. A bangin' bod, in fact, and one they use to weave a polity of awesome spells: "Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart," C.S. Lewis wrote of Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring (1954), which again leaps to mind here; i.e., with a heartbreaker baddie like Lilith (who appears in my latest essay—a polemic excoriating J.K. Rowling and TERFs, and one that cites Lewis and Tolkien a fair bit [while throwing shade their ways, too]: "Dead on Arrival; or, Rowling's Autopsy," 2026). To that, Lilith lives up to their namesake: queen of the night, of sin, and all manner of things they reclaim from pimp-like forces to use, instead, for good. They certainly look wicked, naughty and bad (from a Puritanical perspective, anyways), but like Margaret Hamilton, are actually a good witch thumpin' harmful attitudes—a protector, a teacher, a fucking black belt(!); they'll fuck you up and fuck your brains out! [...] I found Lilith to be busy but professional. Even so, they were communicative upfront, giving all the information I needed to make a deal with them; and in doing so, they set to work, making what we agreed to at the appointing time, at the appointed hour (the witching hour). To that, I have no regrets—indeed, was completely blown away by Lilith's final product. That, and they were nothing but sweet, the entire time. Fuckable and sweet (with an ass that don't quit and a black-and-red look that straight up slays), Lilith remained clear about their boundaries and time, thus allowing us to negotiate accordingly (to dispense with the pleasantries and get down to business). I didn't simply like the cut of their jib (or their vampire cape, more like); I fucking adored it!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreid2mgo4dzm3ysyawwbjbdngj55tqnhvbbib3fl7l5mvtkqmhe4bqi)
![Sex work review: While it probably won't shock anyone to learn how Amanita caught me—hook, line and sinker—with her pumpkin-sized boobs and butt, her boundless charms don't stop there! Equally enchanting was her activist work and sweet, nurturing demeanor. [...] Down to collaborate, she proved incredibly sweet—her heart and brains as big as her physical charms, their heady combination making me feel instantly at home. Sex-wise, Amanita straight-up slays in bed—both quick to communicate and someone who loves an active partner into dark mommies. Music to my puppygirl ears, I felt like a Gothic heroine having met her long-lost match/double. Faced with Amanita's dark comforts and disarming sweetness, her easy charm and feral-yet-comforting energies only increased once in bed (and between her thighs). In fact, she reminds me of another muse/friend of mine, Maddie Minx: "It's not everyday you get to meet someone who embodies your life's work, let alone see naked and play with accordingly. For me, that's Maddie—standing in for Medusa, my chosen sigil for Gothic Communism" (source). The same idea applies to Amanita—someone imposingly awesome like Hecate (the Greek goddess of witchcraft, crossroads and the moon) but comforting amid said power in ways that quickly helped me relax. Can you blame me? Scottish, busty and pale, she reminds me of a character I made, years ago: Ileana the Queen of the Night, whose own giant tits, pale curves, and hairy pussy (and love for parlor magic, despite commanding more formidable spells) leapt instantly to mind:
Similar to Ileana, Amanita struck me as honestly into her craft; i.e., there to make me feel good while loving it, too. It was hard not to admire someone so beautiful and genuine. [...] Built like a dream, her glorious structure yields curves-for-days in which to lose oneself: a fortress of pleasure and power stamped with castled enchantments...](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreicczgx4gsbiinqk2emku6cs2hsu6wzjxa2ka4nmkmto56pytnswh4)
![About the model: Allie's Bluesky bio reads: "28 🌱 princess 🌸 bookworm 📖 rpg gamer 👾 sugar, spice, & everything nice 🔥NSFW model 🔞 menu pinned📝 ⁀➷⁀➷⁀➷⁀➷⁀➷⁀➷ linktr.ee/alliereadsxs..."
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Sex work review: Like the girl next door (or nerd at the library giving you bedroom eyes), I found Allie both instantly alluring and incredibly hot. Super friendly up front, she's comfortable with herself and her boundaries (often happy to read a good book) but just as eager to learn someone else's (reading them like a book, as it were). I loved her whole aesthetic and outfits, at first blush—the whites and pinks, glasses and horns (the ears are so cute), but also plants and other things around her room (of one's one). Keats might write, "Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat [...] Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane / In some untrodden region of my mind" (source: "Ode to Psyche," 1819). Whatever poet waxing Sublime, it's a real devil's workshop—of cute things and forbidden knowledge, Allie the fawn front-and-center as "stacked": the beauty and the brains with a touch of "beast," the small-but-hungry forest animal with an ass that doesn't quit; it arches, her tight little pussy (and bespectacled smirk) inviting you inside her own fen of dreams!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreiduebckskwupt266rxkluaos4dwrpazeigbypjco4zwgt3xzm3vi4)
![My Patreon, in 2026: Videos and Voice Work [source: https://www.patreon.com/vanderwaardart/posts/my-patreon-in-161355421]
As of June 2026, my book series is predominantly written. I've decided, since then, to lean into videos and voice work.
I'm doing so to continue supporting myself and my friends, whose drawings of I'll continue making elsewhere (focusing on trans, sex worker and other minority rights). Again, I'm still doing illustrations—you can even commission me on here, if you really want to—but shall predominantly feature my artwork elsewhere. It's simply easier me to do, at this stage, and devote my art to those I help (sex workers) on a case-by-case basis accordingly—meaning in places where I actually have more control (my old blog and website).
Here on Patreon, I'll be focusing on regular daily/weekly videos that feature my voice, first and foremost; i.e., that I sample on YouTube, but release fully on here; e.g., video essays, book readings, react videos, and more. By supporting me on here, you'll gain access to uncensored and raw, full-size videos that, on YouTube, only appear in smaller sample sizes (~5-10 mins, usually). Furthermore, this is the only place you'll be able to access them; these videos and voice works don't appear anywhere else, including on my blog or website.
If helping trans workers in times of crisis means anything to you, consider supporting my work. Community support is something I rely on—both to continue making work, but also archive the past work of me and my friends: to help preserve and disseminate it, therefore us and who we are, as fascism rises world-wide. Even $1/month makes all the difference.
"We live in Gothic times."
—Persephone](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreicffqa3rg4oe6rqk7erwpdffucsezecidlrllxpdffxp7btl4jnre)
![The original cover design for Persephone van der Waard's 2023 Sex Positivity book series, next to her husband Bay Ryan* (dressed in fair clothes with dinosaurs/a gentle plaid pattern and wearing glasses, left): a redhead with horns and a black beret, panties and fishnets, but also a rainbow ponytail moons the camera while surrounded by black and red. The page is covered with yellow and orange font.
*https://bsky.app/profile/barkingonmain.bsky.social
The font reads: Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Work under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art
written and illustrated by Persephone van der Waard (with her original artwork [& art for this book] make in collaboration with fellow sex workers and artists)
edited and co-written by Bay Ryan
over 3,400 illustrations & exhibits!
contains academic/erotic & triggering materials! / for purposes of critiquing capital/organized religion; for promoting non-coercive sex education, and for providing parody/transformation of canonical works](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreidl6ay3p2hickm4dlpgd6mixq3cqi7nt56slffjjas7d5szpubyna)
![Video thumbnail: Gold font over a pink background, above my purple-and-green Gothic Communism logo (left of rightmost collage: Boris Karloff's eyes [as Frankenstein's Monster] over Peaches Braxton holding a mic): Trans Gothicist and Academic Sex Worker Weighs in on This Act We Call Mating / React #34: Natural vs Unnatural, or Sex and Pimping Nature under Cartesian Thought / Persephone, a white trans eco-Socialist (and academic whore) watches Peaches, a gay non-white woman and lover science, remind her audience that white straight weirdos dogmatizing science to control sex get the science wrong. Persephone weighs in, offering a GNC perspective but also critique of Cartesian thought using Gothic language: when dealing with abusers of the Cartesian system (and of science) in monstrous-feminine language that, however "unnatural" it sounds to bigots, can defend ourselves and all of nature from bad actors (who don't care about science; they only abuse it to pimp nature in bad faith, mid-abjection: so-called "mad science" we can camp).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreid2n6powojr7iq57shlfgy2odabhxaxcwn3f6tma7x7qwvexfle4i)
![This piece responds to Brigitte Empire's video, "How The Boys Failed at Satire" (2026), where she effectively calls satire "dead"; i.e., referring to liberal-penned stories like The Boys (2019) but not really trying to separate different kinds of satire. The world is simply "past it," now—with Brigitte throwing the baby (Jesus or otherwise) out with the bathwater. "If we're going to get out of this world-beyond-parody alive," she implores, "we're going to have to build an alternative [through action]. This is something satire cannot achieve. [...] Satire is rarely-if-ever praxis [emphasis, me]" (timestamp: 45:28). It's one for the books, and where my books (on Gothic Communism) draw a completely different conclusion—the opposite, in fact!
Our focus here is Gothic satire, operating in duality to liberate workers through performance; i.e., power is performed (re: "Notes on Power," 2023) but commonly in illusory forms that many historically discount or replace, in bad faith; e.g., Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818), which Kripke and Amazon parody as blindly as one can—taking Shelley's satirical benchmark (superhumans and Cartesian abuse/mad science) and breaking it for profit (exploitation, which Shelley's novel fought against; re: "Making Demons," 2025). The fault lies with them, not Shelley, the Gothic or satire more broadly. To say otherwise feels like surrender, Brigitte's oversimplifying of satire a massive mistake. To disabuse her of this notion, I'll draw upon my own expertise (the Promethean Quest, but also Amazons, ludology and Creed's monstrous-feminine).
First, we'll give the gist, followed by a setup half and demo half; "Setup" states my intent and goals as clearly possible, while "Demo" hopefully demonstrates everything in a fun and educational manner, "when in Rome" (re: Amazons and the Promethean Quest, but also butts, below). "Are ya ready, kids?" We're playing with power!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreif4hgnm6fw75ygc5kgxosiljcwic326sdti7j53jxf6twz5sn6c24)
![Commonality and Respecting Brigitte's Work while Dealing with Gothic Doubles
First, common ground. Why critique Brigitte—someone I clearly respect—when we obviously have so much in common (e.g., Amazons, ludology and Gothic, below)? In fact, we're practically doubles:
(exhibit 1: Artist, top-left and mid-top-left: Brigitte Empire; far-bottom-left and right: Persephone van der Waard. Brigitte's YouTube page reads, "Tongue-in-cheek video essays by Britain's least fake columnist" sounds both truthful and highly sarcastic [as Matthew Lewis once did, followed by Wilde, Price, myself and others]. In my case, and borrowing from older Gothic auteurs, I'm literally a Gothic ludologist specializing in Metroidvania, BDSM and Amazonomachia [re: "From Masters to PhD," 2025]. Fakery is something to play with to perform power [all ideas we'll touch on, deeper in]—something both Brigitte and I are guilty of when playing with the same stuff to achieve similar goals [the same goal, I would argue: liberation from inside empire]. The Gothic is holistic and allows for this, in duality. For one, sex is the most controlled thing in the world—the very thing the ruling class demand to survive, and which they tokenize through Amazons [quite successfully] to police state territories; i.e., whores policing whores in deeply TERF-y ways, their Neo-Gothic revival in the 1800s [under bourgeois nuclear models] seeing Ancient-Athenian propaganda brought back to life [which The Boys very much is: "Girls get it done!"].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreidazdnk7bmgqb7yemxvrxv3ysf64omnlmpldfphd2po6qri5bqg6e)
![Sex work review: It's not everyday you get to meet someone who embodies your life's work, let alone see naked and play with accordingly. For me, that's Maddie—standing in for Medusa, my chosen sigil for Gothic Communism (re: "Always a Victim," 2024). Beyond their frankly awesome tattoos—and combined with Maddie's being both incredibly friendly and hot, but also capable—they boast a stellar work ethic, bangin' bod, caring personality and worldly sense of camaraderie. Maddie is the Gorgon; i.e., as I see it—both seeking and "finding Medusa" while standing among similar cuties' "terrifying powers," having the whore's revenge (escaping the pimp while still enjoying sex work as the vector of escape/material gain; re: "Rape Reprise," 2024). But few emblematize Her Majesty—the Big Whore and her intimidating aura —quite so keenly as Maddie. It's not just an otherwordly aesthetic, but ability to command power in paradoxical ways both strict and gentle, light and dark, etc; i.e., like Medusa, whose "shadow" (simulacrum) Maddie nails with aplomb. It's "to meet someone where they are," my husband explains—appearing fierce but actually a sign of respect (as the Maori phrase it), one made seemingly to ask, "Are you here for peace or war? The land welcomes you and you it" through various profound exchanges crossing boundaries; i.e., building a rapport between host and visitor(s) from tapu to noa (a ritual of sacred restriction* to ordinary/safe, moving energy in warrior-like ways).
*"The ātea (space outside)," Bay explains, "is considered the domain of the God of War (Tūmatauenga), while the wharenui (meeting house) is the domain of the God of Peace (Rongo). The ceremony moves visitors from the domain of war to peace." It's very Gothic!
(source: Gymeagary's "Tamaki Wharenui within the Clan Marae," 2015)
[...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreieaxhp2acbvbh63vfvzl2cyfkyftwrjypiq5lp7d6psmfhl3c363m)
![Are beards evil? Photos (top-left to bottom-right: Marx, Norm Finkelstein, The Kavernacle aka Flaccid Kav [who defends Nazis], Persephone van der Waard, and Bad Empanada [a fash])](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreihsxwhf7zzg64hngvlc5s74j7l4gbqtri6g74nlug4r35t6vlrp2a)
![My logo (for Gothic [gay-anarcho] Communism) next to Squid Tips. Mine is the transgender symbol as a skeleton key spouting green flame, holding a purple pentacle and bisexual-colored an-Com symbol, and backed by purple slime, Squid's is a brown motorcycle helmet spouting rainbow tentacles on one side and trans on the other.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreiguf5qmr7uhwkxx44wpjruplkvtzm4hf2ghhhx3zf5tqxnmmfpp4q)
![Part one of Scylla's review:
Sex work review: "Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a bell that summons thee to Heaven or to Hell." In this case, Scyllacybi is that bell.
The name should clue you in: "Scylla" + "psilocybin." The latter is a drug-like compound existing in many mushrooms, letting the eater "trip" once consumed (and for no set purpose). The former is a famous female monster with animalistic qualities (similar to Medusa); i.e., one that, when poetically "eaten," may subversively comment on women's role as vaso vagal sex object, in monomyth stories: men stab monsters, stealing the hellish power said beings contain vampirically for themselves once "slain" (the so-called "death of the Gorgon" an unkillable myth, but one not true for individual care and sex workers, aka "women's work). This cuts both ways, cryptonymy-and-abjection. In ancient myth, Scylla is a water monster opposite Charybdis—a primordial "maneater" framing nature as monstrous-feminine, and classically authored by men for men (from cops to the ruling class): to immediately fear and "heroically" poach under patriarchal models, and all while consumed in drug-like ways exploiting and "taming" nature into the future. Such well-trod routes of conquest (and ritual violence) categorically uphold the state's nuclear model—one to dominate nature offstage as "homewrecker" while going hypocritically "to Queen Maeb," onstage (as Shakespeare's Mercutio put it, in Romeo and Juliet). But in the hands of any recieving such abuse, the canonically baneful qualities of such stories (and their functionally "fuzzy" metaphors) can become a balm; i.e., for crafty "animal women" like Scylla to camp the original myth into something less harmful, yet remaining fearsome in different poetic ways (often public nudism, its weapons-and-armor nudity granting "deathly" sexual-to-asexual commentaries on penetrative violence, above). [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreihxm5zamprx3vngctp7v3elqftucvkjsxwxi2dm2njxjsjng3rgsu)
![Like a mushroom, Scylla's "potion" is herself—meaning both small and delicate but also darkly delicious; i.e., seemingly dangerous but paradoxically safe and fun when used responsibly (and respectfully). Thus she treads "dangerous" waters during ludo-Gothic BDSM, and whose calculated risk pulls players into spaces never fully safe or removed from harm (especially these days)—all to deliver Stygian delights that "torture" the hero and "throw wide the doors of Hell." Doing so chaotically opens the mind to "more things between Heaven and Earth": a campier and more empowering-if-liminal kind of monstrous-feminine—not to unironically summon, kettle and destroy in monomyth scapegoat language (a given pursuer "slaying the dragon" or beheading Medusa, burning the witch, caging the unicorn, etc), but position in liminal Promethean spheres that open dark portals for uncanny (and repeat) exploration. So do liberation and exploitation share the same stages, costumes and bodies. So does Scylla, from Shakespeare to us, present the human condition as already alien and reprobate; i.e., "when in Rome" for the usual suspects hunted and killed by state actors in bad faith (cops), and whose dehumanizingly abject, cops-and-robbers qualities paradoxically become our key to salvation when reclaimed through exposure. It's the Numinous "mystery" to solve, meaning from Radcliffe to Velma (above) to Scylla—playing such fantasies out in deeply palliative ways, and advertising their notably confounding effects, accordingly! Revelation opens the doors to a perpetual inquiry. There, confusion and knowledge walk Gothically arm-in-arm. The same goes for rebellion as Gothic (which Communism historically is, fought over by different parties; re: "State Vampirism," 2025). Cryptonymically showing and hiding this-or-that behind different invisible buffers, whatever transpires typically happens "in Hell," stripping mid-persecution to get "down and dirty." [...]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d2545ppta4lpznhyjvs4tl6p/bafkreiguyr5pyevwqe5y67h3255vgvh5igbbqv5wakedxsffw72hdd4rdm)
