#untransmitable

[jomeimei421]

Hello I finished ORV two days ago and it’s… a lot to digest… but I remember that I saw a long time ago the theory that YJH had written the epilogue, I didn’t even know orv then but it kind of stuck with me. Do you know this theory and what do you think about it? I need analysis of that novel 😵‍💫

All your art is lovely but the post-epilogue scene with yhk brought me back to life, thx so much for sharing those!!!!

Congrats! Or I’m sorry that happened 💔

Incidentally, I made reread guide for ORV if you’re interested! KDJ’s mother told him that the story changes even if the words don’t, so he should learn to “read again,” and fittingly, ORV completely transforms on second read. It will blow your fucking mind how much went right over your head the first time around

[major ORV spoilers below]

I think it’s pretty clear canonically that HSY wrote all of ORV and the epilogues, with the exception of possibly chapter 551.

Her plan to write ORV took place after the museum fight, and she intended to write everything up until the present as closely as possible and then tack on a fabricated ending where the Oldest Dream fragments imagine KDJ back to life.

The Star Stream system ends up failing with only that fabricated ending untransmitted, so YJH has a choice to either write it himself or not.

I think there’s a definite possibility that 551 was written by YJH, but you could also argue that 551 was written by Sing Shong, or that 551 was somehow written by HSY and altered by YJH, or HSY wrote it and sent it out later…

Ultimately ORV has a catch-all loophole to explain this kind of stuff which is that ORV only needs to operate by the laws and themes of the story. As long as it can hold your suspension of disbelief/convince you that something happened, then it happened. That’s how the time paradox existed in the first place, and how being the Oldest Dream works!

TL;DR, HSY wrote all of ORV except arguably 551. But honestly the logistics of the last chapter are kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and don’t matter as much as what it was trying to convey

[arsenicandfinelace]

I think my favourite detail of Glass Onion is the mystery substance Miles’s shady assistant gave everyone to make COVID not a problem on their trip.

In this universe there’s a magic potion that can ... cure? make COVID untransmitable?

And the billionaire is using it to party with his fancy friends consequence-free instead of sharing it with the world. That tracks.

[neverneverland]

The truth never shines forth, as the saying goes, because the only truth is that which is known to no one and which remains untransmitted, that which is not translated into words or images, that which remains concealed and unverified, which is perhaps why we do recount so much or even everything, to make sure that nothing has ever really happened, not once it's been told.

― Javier Marías

[grinningsnapples]

oops, i may have lied...uhhh

GRINERTIA CHAPTER 7 + EPILOUGE IS COMPLETED! PLEASE ENJOY THE CONCLUSION, OR DONT!

afterword in progress ;) publishing maybe too, chugga chugga woo woo

BIG BIG BIG thank you to the early/beta readers and the people who have joined me along the way with writing this! You know who you are!

- keep smiling, snap

[mariocki]

Lochinvar (1968, untransmitted)

"I've never seen a saddle like that before, where's that come from?"

"From the Americas."

"The colonies, so that's where you're from is it?"

"That's right."

"A sailor was telling us they're having some sort of a trouble out there, a kind of a rebellion."

"Rebellion? We call it a war of independence."

[soupboy9000]

Hey I don't know if folks knew this, I sure didn't until very recently, but the risk of HIV transmission is not equal for both participants in an act!

The bottom or receiver is far more likely to contract HIV than the top or giver. The likelihood for condomless anal is about 138 in 10,000 and that's also with a visible viral load. The risk from oral and sharing toys is also negligible which means that when this data was collected there was not a single case reported to the researchers that could be confirmed to be from oral or toy sharing. Also! HIV lives in: blood, pre-cum, semen, vaginal and anal fluids, and breast milk. Any other bodily fluids you may be into are not going to transmit HIV.

HIV is no joke and there are many places where you cannot easily access PrEP and PEP so please don't take your safety and the safety of your partners lightly, prevention is key. I'm just saying that it's less likely than fearmongers may lead you to believe, and also that we've come a long way in understanding and treating it.

Remember that Undetectable = Untransmitable. You CANNOT get HIV from someone with an undetectable viral load. There is life after a reactive test, it's possible.

Also while we're on the topic, proper condom usage! Condoms are made for about 20 minutes of activity max. If you're still going after 20 minutes switch it out. Also switch it between acts and make sure it's the right size. Some people are too big for standard condoms. They make bigger ones!

(the information I have comes from North America and I should also note that in a lot of places here injection drug use is overtaking sexual acts as the number one cause of HIV transmission so please don't share needles 💜)

[sci-fiworlds]

A Sci-Fi Worlds Interview with Scott Burditt, Webmaster of Doomwatch.org

Created by Cybermen co-creators Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doomwatch is a largely forgotten cult hit that deserves better. The series centred around a scientific government agency (Doomwatch) responsible for investigating and combating new ecological and technological hazards to mankind. The groups' leader, Doctor Spencer Quist, riddled with guilt for his part in the Manhattan Project and the creation of the Atomic Bomb.

Richard Thomas: First things first, thank you so much for giving the BoA readers the time to answer these questions. I'm a big fan of Doomwatch and I'm sure that, after reading this, many of our readers will be too, so it's really appreciated.

I first heard of Doomwatch because of its connection to Doctor Who and a few years ago I was lucky enough to win a pirate DVD box set on eBay with all the existing episodes. What most impressed me about the series was that it wasn't so much Science Fiction as Science Fact: raising legitimate concerns about the dangers posed by unregulated developments in technology. With the advent of the internet, genetic engineering and stem cell research are problems that have only gotten more dangerous since the series went off the air.

How did you first become a fan of Doomwatch and why do you think the series is still so fondly remembered today, despite the fact that the BBC haven't released all the surviving episodes on DVD yet and there haven't been any reruns in years?

Scott Burditt: I first became a fan of the series in 2004. A friend of mine at the time had VHS copies of a series he thought I might like. I watched The Plastic Eaters and The Red Sky episodes over a couple of bottles of red wine and loved them (and the wine as well!). Always a good way to introduce someone to the series, I think. From that point onwards, I was hooked. I am lucky enough to have the UK Gold repeats of the programme and I even have the infamous untransmitted episode Sex and Violence. The show only ran for three series in the early 70's, so I am not surprised if people ask, "Doomwatch, what's that?" Those that did see it the first time round, never really forgot it. It achieved impressive ratings for it's first season as it really captured the public's imagination, capturing the fears of potential scientific disasters in the face of progress. It's a fascinating series and is fondly remembered for it's opening episode where a plastic eating virus causes a plane to melt in mid-flight and crash, shortly followed by another potentially fatal flight for Doomwatch's new recruit Toby Wren (played by the frighteningly young Robert Powell) who introduces us to the world of Doomwatch perfectly.

Richard Thomas: There are very few Doomwatch sites on the web and the few there are seem to be in a state of decay, so it was a pleasure to find yours. How did the website first come about and is there anything you're particularly proud of?

Scott Burditt: I set up the website for two reasons: the first was my shared frustration with yourself that there didn't seem to be an up to date website and the second is that I felt that a central location for discovering the series while being able to share views and opinions with others was long overdue. The BBC's Doctor Who is quite rightly well served on the internet and I felt something similar to the sites that fans have built for that series should also be done for this classic BBC TV series. Doomwatch.org is my first ever website and I was determined to build a new community for such an important series. I am most proud of the support I have received since the site was built. A lot of good people have come forward and helped me make this happen and hopefully new people will discover the series and also inquire as to why the BBC have not released it as yet on DVD.

Richard Thomas: Looking back on it, I think my personal favourite episode has to be In The Dark starring Patrick Troughton (the second Doctor) as a man trying to cheat death forever using technology. Sadly, though, he gradually loses his humanity, piece by piece, as he becomes more and more machine, becoming little more than a human head on top of a box of tricks. What is your favourite episode or moment from the series and why? Also do you have a favourite actor from the series?

Scott Burditt: Yes, In the Dark shows a frightening potential future in which people could end up, basically, as Cybermen. My favourite episode is The Web of Fear. The episodes opens with two minister's sweating in a sauna, how's that for a shocking start! The episode follows the outbreak of Yellow fever, spread by hundreds of blue coloured spiders carrying the disease. The scene where Ridge produces a feather duster to clear away cobwebs and the spiders in order to affect a rescue attempt of a fellow scientist is sheer class. Simon Oates (Doctor John Ridge) is on top form in this story. Ridge is definitely my favourite character in the series and it is so sad that he died earlier this year. His humour and personality, not forgetting his eye for the ladies proves to lighten the tone in the episodes he features in.

Richard Thomas: Sadly, like the black and white episodes of Doctor Who, most of Doomwatch was lost during the infamous BBC tape purges of the 1960s and 1970s. However, all is not lost as missing episodes of Doctor Who turn up from time to time. If you could pick one lost episode from each of the three seasons of Doomwatch to be found, which would they be and why?

Scott Burditt: From Season One, I think many Doomwatch fans would agree that the return of Survival Code would be most welcome! Mainly to fully appreciate the final episode of the season and the somewhat explosive departure of Robert Powell. Season Two is thankfully complete but a UK 625 line version of The Web of Fear would be nice, as good as NTSC to PAL conversion is you can't hope to match the original format. Season Three is a tough one, but I would choose Cause of Death, as this is potentially one of the most touching episodes of the much maligned Season 3, featuring the death of Ridge's father.

Richard Thomas: The creators of Doomwatch Kit Pedlar and Gerry Davis were, of course, also the original creators of the iconic Cybermen of Doctor Who. Personally, I'm a little concerned by what is called 'Transhumanism,' a growing movement advocating upgrading the human race via genetic engineering and similar advances in technology.

It's still a very long way off but I think there needs to be some kind of international law banning the creation of a Trans or Post-human (basically a Cyberman) as well as strong laws limiting the use of the technologies involved. What do you think Doctor Quist's thoughts on the matter would be?

Scott Burditt: This is a fascinating subject. I think, as a scientist, Quist would be fascinated with the concept, but he would be appalled with any execution of it. I am sure he would argue that nature and evolution should ultimately be allowed to decide man's future development. For a start, where do you draw the line? Would only the rich be the benefactors from this? Human's would effectively would make themselves extinct as a species. Kit Pedler thought up the Cybermen, one Summer, when he was out relaxing in the garden and I am sure no one would want to foresee a future where we live as cold unfeeling machines.

Richard Thomas: 'Transhumanism' might be a good topic for a revived series. Back in 1999, Channel Five tried to revive Doomwatch with a TV movie. Why do you think they failed and, if you were writing the pilot for a new series, what would you do different?

Scott Burditt: I think the Channel 5 TV Movie was a missed opportunity. The central plot concerning a man-made black hole was never going to connect with the audience in the same way that stories about drugs, surveillance technology or subliminal messaging did (and still do today). Although exploring the potential dangers in providing an alternative cheap source of power is very Doomwatch. Despite its decent production values and effective and eery music the story is quite frustratingly muddled and never really bothers to introduce the characters properly, so you end up not caring about them. You never get the sense that they are working as a team either. Some aspects, such as the talking super computer with Angels on strings completely jar with the viewer. I am currently working on a new story for the fanzine with our new writer Grant Foxon, where I have devised a new fan fiction story called The Plastic Rain, which is a direct sequel to Doomwatch's premier story, The Plastic Eaters. In it we see Adam (Our fictional son) of Spencer Quist following his father's footsteps despite a rocky start to his life and eventually the reformation of Doomwatch following the use of the Plastic Eating Virus by eco-terrorists. The story and contents are subject to change, but this is the main premise. Hopefully lots of scenes of melting aircraft, cars and bank cards will feature prominently as the virus accidentally affects members of the public during one of the attacks on government and corporate greed.

Richard Thomas: The original series certainly didn't suffer from a lack of original ideas: plastic eating viruses that can reduce an aeroplane to liquid muck, genetically modified rats that can outsmart a human being, and a plague carrying spiders with Yellow fever venom. What scenarios do you think could most effectively be reused for any revived series and do you have any ideas of your own for possible new ones?

Scott Burditt: There are simply loads, open up any newspaper, they are all there in the open, ready to use! Doomwatch lives on in print and on the internet. The news in general loves downbeat doom and disaster stories, so obviously the public must do too!

Scott Burditt: I think a new Doomwatch night on BBC4 would be fantastic. An updated documentary would be welcome and, even if they couldn't, stretch to a new episode of Doomwatch. I believe they could make a new story from the memories and recollections of Dr. Fay Chantry (featuring Jean Trend), possibly telling Adam Quist (our fictional son of Doctor Spencer Quist) of his fathers exploits and heroism, which would feature sections of the series seen as flashbacks. I will ask BBC4, but I suspect the answer will be no. The DVD release of the series has been mooted since 2006 and it still hasn't been scheduled. Apparently some research work has been done for a potential DVD release, but there are still some issues holding up a release.

Richard Thomas: Whatever the BBC plans are, I know you're planning to celebrate Doomwatch's 40th in style. How is work on the fanzine going and what are some of the things you have planned already?

Scott Burditt: As I mentioned before, "The Plastic Rain" will feature heavily. I am a great believer in fresh new content. As far as I know there has never been a fanzine produced for the series and I hope to provide a high quality glossy product that will also be available to order from the website. I will add interviews and stories as they are fed to me. It's quite exciting stuff!

Richard Thomas: Thanks again Scott. Tell our readers where they can find your website and get your forthcoming fanzine? It might be a good idea to let any potential writers for the fanzine know how to contact you too.

Scott Burditt: The website can be found at www.doomwatch.org If anyone would like to contribute to the fanzine or the website, you can contact me directly at info@doomwatch.org or personally at snhbuk@googlemail.com I will post up the information on the fanzine nearing it's completion date (should be ready for February 2010 in time for the 40th Anniversary) I hope people enjoy finding out about this fascinating series.

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMNS FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA

[lyrics365]

전하지 못한 마음 (An untransmitted heart) (New Age)

전하지 못한 마음 (An untransmitted heart) (New Age)

No available lyric yet

[bayouinfused]

#Undetectable = #Untransmitable #U=U #Legal RightsReignSupreme ‪#BlackGayBigBrother‬ ‪#BayouInfusedBlackMarket‬ ‪#LevelThePlayingField‬ ‪#DarkBeauty‬ ‪#BayouInfused‬ ‪#Houston‬ ‪#BlackDrStrange‬ (at Seattle, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1vlw-5BtFX/?igshid=rawxu5azcggc

[mostlysignssomeportents]

SCOTUS to wrongfully accused terrorists: "drop dead"

When people call the US Supreme Court “corporate-friendly,” it’s often hard to know what that means in concrete terms. But here’s an example of what it means when the highest court in the land is in the tank for big business.

Transunion is a giant credit reporting bureau. These companies have their origin in a company called “Retail Credit” (now Equifax). RC paid people to spy on their neighbors and kept secret files on who was a “race mixer,” a homosexual, or a political radical.

These files were sold to employers, financial institutions and landlords to help them discriminate against people for their political, sexual or racial views.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

Today, these companies continue to maintain massive, nonconsensual, wildly inaccurate databases detailing your finances, your employment, your living arrangements, your run-ins with the criminal justice system and more.

These are sold — again, without your consent — to lenders, employers, landlords, and other entities, who use them to make decisions that affect where you live and work, whether you can adopt, and more.

These companies have been in the news continuously for half a decade, thanks to a series of high-profile, unimaginably massive breaches that compromised the security of virtually every adult in the US and millions abroad.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

Transunion’s secret files on you include a tickbox for “suspected terrorist.” Transunion wrongly accused 8,000 people of being terrorists. It discovered its error and violated its statutory duty to inform the people it had wronged.

The Supremes just ruled that those wronged people aren’t allowed to sue Transunion for accusing them of being terrorists and making that judgment available to its customers, including government agencies, employers and landlords.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/supreme-court-says-you-cant-sue-corporation-wrongly-marked-you-terrorist

Specifically, the court said that only the 1,800 people whose wrongful accusation was transmitted to third parties could sue Transunion. It likened the untransmitted accusations to “a letter in a drawer that is never sent.”

Writing for the majority, Kavanaugh failed to grapple with the collection, analysis and use of private data, which — per EFF’s Cindy Cohn — is “an opaque archipelago of databases are linked and used to build and deploy machine learning systems that judge and limit us.”

As Cohn points out, Kavanaugh explicitly ignored Congress’s intention in passing the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which followed from the ghastly scandals that prompted Retail Credit to hide under its new “Equifax” name.

The whole point of the act is to allow the public to seek justice when credit reporting bureaux are reckless in their dossier-compiling.

Transunion was reckless: “it marked people as potential terrorists simply because they shared the same name as people on a terrorist watch list without checking middle names, birthdays, addresses, or other information that TransUnion itself undoubtedly already had.”

This decision is a boon to any company seeking to block litigation over privacy breaches, who will cite it in a bid to force the people they victimize to prove not just that the company leaked their data, but also that someone hurt them using that leak.

This is the standard that Google and Facebook cynically advocated in their amicus briefs, and while the court explicitly recognized that privacy breaches can create “intangible harms,” that doesn’t mean that corporate lawyers won’t try to stretch this ruling.

[van-eazy]

Do you think mandatory STD testing just to get your prescription for PrEP is fair? Like even if you aren't having sex you need tested? Feels like another hoop gay people have to jump through because we're dirty.

The only thing that is mandatory is the HIV finger-prick 20-minute test.

All the other tests are voluntary. I do the bottom testing cos I take loads on the regular but I haven’t topped in years so I never have to pee in a cup.

The HIV test is necessary for PrEP because if a person on PrEP becomes HIV+ then it’s important that they are informed of their status and also important that their medication change.

And for anyone who doesn’t know, an HIV+ person these days on proper medication is undetectable and untransmitable.

@mycollectionofstuff

[dan-burraway]

World Aids Day - 2019

"Eric wondered what his life would be like if he had not been robbed of a generation of mentors, of poets, of friends and, perhaps even lovers."

- The Inheritance

Today is World Aids Day. It's important that we take time to reflect on the effect and impact that HIV/AIDS has and had on the community.

The final room of the Keith Harring exhibition at Tate Liverpool dealt with his response to the crisis. It was so intense, just being in a room full of people treating documentation of how not that many years ago they™ were actively trying to kill us, like a tourist attraction was too much.

We should all commit to challenge stigma where we find it. We should all remember and repeat that Undetectable = Untransmitable. I think Gareth said it the best, that whatever your status, we’re all living with HIV.

Images:

- The Vigil at Manchester Pride 2018

- Keith Haring - Silence = Death 1989

[grinningsnapples]

Dear Tumblr:

want a whole in-progress series? something at least a bit original? a slow-progressing horror/thriller with a whole ass college setting?

you want a cool trio of main characters with descriptions as follows?

- Some random guy with some genetic thing called smiley wiley but closed who looks like a stoner and rebel but he's actually a goofy dude with humor that wants to be a whole ass doctor

- Rich freshman in the film and advertising industry who isnt actually a bitch, shes very nice and silly. she has romantic tension with open smiley wiley girl.

- open smiley wiley girl who thinks shes absolutely horribly treates in life whose mood goes from miserable to abso-fucking-lutely ecstatic once she meets closed smiley wiley random guy who is apparently inspirational. oh yeah, romantic tension with rich freshman literally being a freshman herself and she was only there for like a whole ass day. Her monologue also lasts for the entire time frame of Naruto filler episodes.

- oh yeah, theres also a literal string of computer code.

if YOU ☝🤓 want something like this, yeah, read GRINERTIA.

[tenjouu]

1. small kisses littered across the other’s face (from this prompt list)

“I won’t be able to see your face for a while,” Lancelot muses quietly when the morning light falls just so over Harr’s sleeping form turned towards him, the window—bathing Harr’s skin in softened beams and glinting off of his mask.

The forest is as quiet as Red Headquarters before morning drills. But this is closer to Lancelot’s idea of world peace.

An eyelid flutters, and he reaches up, hand trembling right under the left side of Harr’s jaw, where he wants to touch but doesn’t quite dare.

“That’s all I am to you,” Harr murmurs, eye still closed. “My face.”

He was awake. Lancelot stays composed. “Your body too,” he replies calmly, his hand sliding down from Harr’s shoulder to his waist. He gives a gentle squeeze, and the aborted tensing of Harr’s abdomen is not missed. “And more. For all these years.”

Harr’s face is flushed but when he opens his eye, he’s glaring. He bats Lancelot’s hand away.

“How long?” he grumbles, pushing moderate bedhead out of his face with a languid stroke.

Lancelot blinks at him, distracted by the movement. “Maybe five,” he guesses.

“No, I meant—“ Harr’s brow furrows and his cheeks pink delightfully, “—how long is ‘a while?’”

Lancelot quiets. He knows kings exist in the law, for the people, to serve the country. But right now, more than ever, he wants to exist selfishly in the vicinity of Harr and nowhere else. This pang of untenable desire leadens his tongue and leaves him swallowing his copper pipe dreams. Any timeframe of separation lacks measure. Any while is too unbearably long.

“Count,” Lancelot whispers, and presses a chaste kiss to Harr’s nose.

“Lan—“ The corner of his mouth.

Harr halts and then trembles like a fault line in the earth, in the ruins of his own desire.

His eye shuts when Lancelot greets his cheekbone with a soft peck. One over his fluttering eyelid for good measure. One on his chin. One in the tender spot underneath his jaw, so that Harr grips his arm warningly.

The upper lip, then the lower. The seam between. His right temple. Peppering along his laugh line. Tracing the curve of his cheek. His face is warm, but Lancelot burns just touching him.

Harr resigns himself and melts under Lancelot’s mouth. Lancelot leaves longer kisses pressed to skin to weather the blow, because they’re in the thirties now, and they both know this isn’t intended in hours.

“I’m running out of places,” he breathes, fingers dancing over the bare cheek beneath the mask.

“Good,” Harr says hoarsely. “No more.”

“Last one,” Lancelot promises, a little sadly, and leaves it like a hopeless offering of love, an untransmitted promise—(a tragedy)—over the silver metal.

[sarinataylor]

Ok pls forgive me for im back on my mermaid tail john bs like... does he have to sit in the saltwater (or regular water??) bath every once in a while to hydrate himself? What would he tail look like? Does he favor the land or the water more? I NEED DETAILS HNGGH

..... sigh i had this all written out and then i accidentally refreshed. here we go again.

right so! he prefers saltwater definitely but because, well, he lives in a flat it’s not really feasible. he adds salt (not iodised obvs) occasionally but they get horrible salt deposit build ups in their pipes which are a fucking nightmare to get rid of and he feels terribly guilty about it so it’s very occasionally (also u cant tell me that john didnt realise he was stupid head over heels with roger when he came home from his last exam of the semester to a saltwater bath with actual sea water. to this day roger will not explain how he got fucking seawater in the city, just smirks and not for the last time john wishes he could just rip those fucking sunglasses off his face because he just knows that roger’s eyes would be all too expressive and tell him everything he needs to know).

it’s not a necessity, he doesn’t like. dry up and die without it. he can survive on land just fine, both of his forms are his natural form. he doesn’t even really have to transform if he doesn’t want to, but it feels good to stretch his tail.

also ya know what! sirens are supposed to seductive right so im giving him the prettiest fuck off tail ever, i dont care. he’s getting a betta fish tail. 

yellows and oranges look so good on him so idc. 

he favours land more, definitely. sirens haven’t really been native to the water in centuries, not since they interbred with humans to the point that their transformative abilities became the norm (the siren magic means that anyone with so much as a drop or siren blood can transform, there’s that xenophobic rhetoric going around about how "one day we’ll all be sirens” apart from, of course, as is the case with most of the supernatural creatures in this au the large percentage of the populations are sterile or, at the very least, tend to have a bitch of a time conceiving). but it’s his dream to one day be able to afford a house on the coastline. when they do their ‘cornwall tour’ he becomes completely enamoured with the area. it’s his dream for the future from then on out to live in cornwall.

also i imagine he’s like only a 2nd-3rd generation siren-human hybrid so he can also have mild facial transformations as well (esp. when threatened, so longer teeth and elongated brow. it doesn’t happen very often though.)

out of the four of them roger and john are probably the most monstrous in a way, i suppose? like freddie is powerful but it’s also very contained, he’s really the only one who can feel the power that he has and brian is genuinely.... like. normal 99% of the month, and in this au werewolves are still in control of their mental faculties when they turn so he really just tends to stay in his room for a night and then comes back out the next morning with a bin liner filled with all the fur he shed when he transformed back (it’s a painful as hell transformation, it’s meant to be. whereas john’s transformations are natural, lycanthropy is decidedly not. it’s not a curse as such, though that’s a common misconception, it’s more of a magical disease. supposedly it’s a mutation of common shapeshifting, and there’s research going into it - about fifty years or so back a scientist recognised that untransmitted/uninherited (through bites) lycanthropy was more likely to present in shapeshifter communities than not, and those who did develop untransmitted/uninherited (or ‘spontaneous’) lycanthropy outside of shapeshifter communities were likely to have some shapeshifter family history).

john, on the other hand, can pass as human generally but esp. when he was younger used to slip up and transform at random times. he’s heard enough ‘fish out of water’ jokes to last him a lifetime, and esp as an angsty overhormonal teenager his facial transformations used to happen when they perhaps shouldn’t have. also he’s very partial to sashimi. 

and roger, ofc, can kill anyone who looks in his eyes. his snakes also increase in size when he’s stressed/upset/threatened? day to day they tend to be quite small, and he can control their size to a degree? but yeah. he did attend an exam at one point with two giant fuck off snakes just casually chillin around his neck (but he did really fucking well because, well. they were there when he studied, weren’t they?). imma say roger can look in his own eyes due to the diluted nature of the curse, though. 

[the-chomsky-hash]

Mr. Watanabe: Does the fear that writing could lead to madness not announce the fundamental relationship that was going to take place between the time when writing stopped being the mere support of the word and began to exist for itself? [cont'd] Mr. Foucault [cont'd]: This vertical and almost untransmitable activity of writing [after the eighteenth century, i.e.,  - not necessarily for someone  - e.g., writing is no longer for teaching or entertaining ] is partly like madness. Madness is in a way a language [i.e. a mode of communication, wherein truths can be unknowingly revealed] which a. stands vertically [i.e. for no purpose of transmission] b. is no longer the communicable word, having lost any monetary value: either - because the discourse has lost all value and is not desired by anybody - because one hesitates to use [the discourse of madmen] as a currency, as if excessive value had been attributed to it

Michel Foucault, Madness, Literature, Society, Interview with T. Shimizu and M. Watanabe, R. Nakamura, 1970