Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Happy Halloween! 🎃
Julienne got a little more daring this year, submitting himself to the middle/high school spray-on hair dye rite of passage he missed out on.
#snJulienne #webcomic

October 31, 2025 at 12:01 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

A short Julienne amv in color! ✨
Always looking for voice headcanons for people, and Julienne's is maddeningly elusive, but that short lip sync part in the middle is the closest I've found so far.
#snJulienne

October 17, 2025 at 12:11 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

A new Julienne Q&A is up on Webtoon, Tapas, and Patreon! I get into the weeds about hydrophin self-harmonizing.
linktr.ee/snutter
+++
#snJulienne #webcomic

October 10, 2025 at 8:18 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

(2/2)

PANEL 1: A lizard stands with their little pitchfork, confused. "Lizard brain hijackers to watch out for: 1. Absolute statements ('All snakes do crimes.') 2. Attempts to illicit strong negative emotion ('You're stupid if you like snakes.') 3. Fearmongering or 'us vs them' language ('The snakes are coming to get you!') 4. Misinformation/disinformation ('I saw this study that proves snakes are evil!' No source, or the study was on one single evil snake.') 5. Constant onslaught of information to reinforce beliefs ('Snakes are evil. Snakes are evil! SNAKES ARE EVIL!') 6. Black-and-white statements ('If you sympathize with snakes at all, then you're evil too.') 7. Claims to have all the answers ('This guy will solve all the snake problems.')
PANEL 2: "What can we do? Take good care of your nervous system. Clarity is your best friend." On one side of the panel stands a tree, the other a ladder down into a mud pit. The panel is split into 3 zones. The upper zone, a person clings to a high up branch in the tree, unable to get down. In the lower zone, a person's feet are stuck in the mud. In the middle, colors are normal, things are calm. The middle zone is the "window of tolerance: the zone of stressor types and levels where the nervous system can process and return to calm successfully. Like the amount a rubber band can stretch without breaking". The upper zone is "Hyperarousal: examples of this state are rage, panic anxiety", the lower zone is "Hypoarousal: examples of this state are freeze, shutdown, despression, numbness". Additional information: "Take breaks. Social media is not good for brains. Try to stay inside your window of tolerance as much as you can. (Window of Tolerance is not the same thing as your comfort zone.)

PANEL 1: "Honestly, removing the stressor is also a big part of things, but we have a lot of THIS going on, and it's not leaving any time soon." The arrow points at the derpy lion int the thundercloud. "Instead of 'Try to be calm,' may I offer some more practical advice:"
PANEL 2: One person hugs another, who's tired and crying. "Notice how things affect you, and identify what you need for support (this takes practice). Examples: 1. stillness or meditation 2. hobbies 3. a walk (bilateral stimulation!--low frequency music that does this is nice too. 4. Emotional or physical support from a safe person 5. Talking about it/journaling 6. Therapy 7. EFT tapping (a nervous system support thing)
PANEL 3: "Signal to your body that it's safe in the moment via physical support strategies such as: 1. breathing exercises (I still struggle with this one) 2. Exercise or muscle clenching (this one helps me when I'm in "fight"). This can offload the reaction energy and signal to your body that you ran from or fought the danger. 3. Co-regulation: a hug from a safe person 4. Acupuncture can also help kickstart stuck stress cycles to start processing properly. (I've had really good luck with this one!)" Image, a person runs as hard as they can, thinking of the lion.
PANEL 4: The thundercloud lion swipes at a person, but another person has grabbed their hand, trying to pull them to safety. Behind the second person, a third person has their other hand, pulling them. "Safety, agency, and connection DO exist in this world. We create it for ourselves. We create it for each other."

PANEL 1: A person has their hands to their chest, exhaling long and slow with their eyes closed. "Chronic, high stress as a baseline has been normalized in many cultures. It's so destructive to our health, relationships, and communities, and in many ways, systems that keep us busy and exhausted out of our minds are set up that way by design. We feel the weight of it: anxiety, depression, loneliness, physical symptoms...But these very important warning signs are dismissed as shameful, irrelevant, or unrelated. If given even a little space and support, your body knows how to heal. With healing comes clarity, perspective, courage, and the ability to connect with others."
PANEL 2: A person's head breaks the surface of water, and they gasp in a breath. "It's something we'll have to fight for, but if we can give our nervous systems the space to come up for air, even just a little bit,"
PANEL 3: Reverse, the person in the water is facing the shore, where people are assembling a picnic. The sky is clear, birds fly in the air. It looks peaceful, safe. "We'll find we're never as alone or powerless as we previously thought."

October 8, 2025 at 12:31 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

(1/2) I made a cheat sheet! What I REALLY wish everyone had a working knowledge of in their toolbox right now (but which took me 5-10 years and lots of research and therapy to learn myself).
Don't let the fascists chew you up. Keep your feet under you, friends. 💛 #stress #authoritarianism #trauma

PANEL 1: "Let's Talk About Stress! (And the authoritarian playbook)" Between the words, a derpy lion floats blissfully in space
PANEL 2: A lion (labeled "Danger!": borrowing a metaphor from "Burnout" by Emily and Amelia Nagoski) braces in front of a person in the foreground. "When we come across a dangerous or stressful situation, our nervous system has a few strategies:"
PANEL 3: "FIGHT" a person squares up, fists ready
PANEL 4: "FLIGHT" a person twists away to run
PANEL 5: "FREEZE" a person freezes up, playing dead while the derpy lion looks up at them, confused
PANEL 6: "FAWN" a person offers a flower to the lion

PANEL 1: "Our nervous systems are largely designed to run a certain course." Flow chart: DANGER! (lion) > ESCAPE! (person runs away) > TELL YOUR FRIENDS! (person sits around a fire with their friends recounting the tale (connection!))
PANEL 2: "It's a physiological cycle that mobilizes every organ system, and requires what your body recognizes as a resolution." A cyclical graph around the central word "Stress": 1. Danger! 2. Defense 3. Physical safety 4. emotional safety/processing 5. Resolution
PANEL 3: "It becomes trauma when your nervous system gets too overwhelmed to deal with an event or stressor. The stress response system can get stuck, looping in states of stress, fear, and overwhelm, unable to complete and return to calm." Arrow points to "TOO MUCH, TOO SOON, TOO OFTEN". Next to this is an alternate version of the stress cycle diagram, where DANGER > Defense failed > Can't escape > Isolation > feeds back into STRESS, which is now on fire.
PANEL 4: "In modern society, we can't often deal with the things our bodies register as dangerous or stressful. In the ways we were naturally programmed to, either." The lion is in business attire, saying "I'm your boss now!" A person stands beside them smiling, with their hand on the lion's anthropomorphic shoulder, while the person in the foreground is sweating.

PANEL 1: "This is because while you're at a high enough level of fight/flight/freeze/fawn, your logic and empathy are turned off. It's just how our brains are wired." A lizard sits atop a brain, its claws controlling levers ("the lizard brain") "I'm just making sure we survive!" the lizard says.
PANEL 2: "But it can be very dangerous when manipulated by people who know how to use this against us. (Like politicians, narcissists, and cult leaders!)" The lizard has a pitchfork, hissing.
PANEL 3: A tornado tears through a house. "In politics especially, these types of people can (and will) try to provoke others into mob behavior, which is extremely dangerous. Mob behavior literally kills people. It doesn't matter how smart or kind you are. Anyone can get sucked in if they get too comfy with the ragebait. It's just in us, unfortunately. That's why it's important to know what you're looking at."

October 8, 2025 at 12:31 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Tried some drawing the other day with Feelings(TM).
#snJulienne #comics #webcomics #mermaid

A big serpentine mermaid hugs his smaller human friend into his chest, his tail curled around them both. Usually he is the one his friend comforts, but in a rare moment, she is letting him comfort her.

September 29, 2025 at 9:06 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

A new group of Julienne prose extras are up! 🐠✨

All prose excerpts are available to my $5/month patrons, but you can also buy access to these specifically as a one-time purchase.
(Avoid app store fees please. Purchase outside the app.)

www.patreon.com/c/snutter/shop

A list of Julienne prose excerpt extras 11-15: "A library revelation," "Quiye's childhood," "A daily prison visitor," "Graveyard reunion from Julienne's point of view," "Julienne's first night free from Opal's point of view."

September 9, 2025 at 1:08 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

There are a couple of new pages out this week though.
www.juliennecomic.com?view=pages&p...
#snJulienne #webcomic #mermaid #cptsd

Semi-terrestrial mermaids on skates and their human friend enter an impressive showroom of wheelchairs.

August 30, 2025 at 3:07 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Followup to my earlier post, I've decided to pause making new Julienne pages for a bit. My anxiety about deadlines and work performance got unmanageable, so I'm needing to take a step back and regroup.
I'm still posting prose excerpts and BTS extras over on patreon.com/snutter in the meantime. 💛

August 30, 2025 at 3:04 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Julienne updated! 🐠✨
www.juliennecomic.com?view=pages&p...
+++
#snJulienne #mermaid #webcomic #cptsd

August 22, 2025 at 7:41 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Go play kids! (Julienne updated 🐠✨)
www.juliennecomic.com?view=pages&p...
+++
#snJulienne #webcomic #mermaid

August 9, 2025 at 12:02 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Hostile corporate takeover.
#snJulienne

PANEL 1: Three stressed business executives gather around the end of a conference table. Exec 1 stands, addressing the group, Exec 2 sits at the table, slumped over, his face in his hands, Exec 3 stands on the other side of the table, worried with arms crossed.
Exec 1, throws his arm out, gesturing toward the door: "Someone bought out the whole company! Struck a partnership with the state government, jettisoned the whole thing into the public sector! They're talking about overhauling everything. Imposing new regulations, extending service all the way down the coast.
PANEL 2: Exec 1: "Taking detours into hydrophin villages and not charging any fare!
Exec 2, full of dread: "The company's not going to survive that!
PANEL 3: Exec 1: "They're cutting our salaries by over half to compensate.
Exec 2 lifts his face from his hands in dismay: "They can't do that!"
Exec 1: "They can! It's already happening."
PANEL 4: Exec 3, angry: "Who the hell is the new owner? Who would be stupid enough--"
PANEL 5: He's interrupted by the opening of the conference room door. All three men fall silent, waiting to see who this hostile new owner of the company is.
PANEL 6: A couple of hydrophin enter the room (a species of serpentine, semi-terrestrial mermaid). One (Quiye) has blue-white scales and black hair, smiling, the light glinting off their round glasses obscuring their eyes. They have a baby carrier on their chest, in which nestle two tiny sleeping hydrophin babies. The second (Gehenna), has dark skin, red scales, and wears gold jewelry around her neck and intricately coiled hair. Her posture is erect, confident, her expression smug as she addresses the humans in the room. As she speaks, her low, melodic voice harmonizes in two tones, an effect produced by the double voice box hydrophin possess: "Afternoon, gentlemen..."
PANEL 7: All three men stare at them, angry, thwarted, scared.
Exec 3, arms crossed, his expression falls to deadpan as he recognizes her: "...Fuck."

Synopsis: When he was thirteen, Julienne accidentally killed his best friend's father in self-defense. Fueled by the stigma surrounding his siren-like species, the courts imprisoned him until, many years later, his estranged best friend has managed to negotiate his acquittal. Greatly changed by their lives apart, she invites him into a world outside the small-town terrors of their adolescence, where even a hydrophin raised in self-loathing may learn to be free. But Julienne wonders, isn't it too late to start over?
"Julienne" is a story of first days, of learning to let go of the narratives that bind us, and of healing as the sum of a thousand small things.
"Julienne" is free to read at juliennecomic.com, also at Webtoons and Tapas! More content available at patreon.com/snutter

August 1, 2025 at 10:59 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Healing my trauma one baby hydrophin drawing at a time. (Julienne updated! 🐠✨)
www.juliennecomic.com?view=pages&p...
+++
#snJulienne #webcomic #mermaid #cptsd

July 18, 2025 at 10:19 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Q&A Round 1 is up on Webtoons/Tapas/Patreon! 🐠✨
#snJulienne #behindthescenes #webcomic

July 14, 2025 at 12:53 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

It's my birthday! 🍰✨ Read my books ✨
🐠: juliennecomic.com
🤖: thebioroboticist.com

July 7, 2025 at 10:21 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Post-therapy vibes. Emotional support plushies are a must.😭
#snJulienne

A serpentine mermaid with long brown hair and blue-green scales with a scar through his right eyebrow wears a cozy sweatshirt and lies on top of an enormous whale shark plushie. He hugs it with his arms as well as has his tail wrapped around it for emotional support. His eyes are closed, his expression tired, with small tears at his cheeks.

July 1, 2025 at 9:10 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

"Julienne" updated! Trying new things with new friends!
www.juliennecomic.com?view=pages&p...
+++
#snJulienne #webcomic #mermaid

A couple mermaids swim in a water canal, in a lane zoned off by small buoys for safety. Higher up, on the street above the canal, another of their species (they're semi-terrestrial) looks on, traveling with his human friend. This world is all new to him.

Webcomic about friendship, mermaids, and life after trauma! Free to read at juliennecomic.com, also at Webtoons and Tapas. Prose excerpts and more content available at patreon.com/snutter

June 7, 2025 at 12:21 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Got something to share with the class, Professor?
(Been pondering on Quiye's childhood. Let's just say it was a little spooky.)
+++
#snJulienne #webcomic #mermaids

Panel 1: Julienne (a serpent-like, semi-terrestrial mermaid called a hydrophin--long brown hair, glasses, blue-green scales) sits on the back porch with his human friend (Opal--brown skin, black wavy hair pulled into a high ponytail), who is working on a laptop at the low patio table. In the background, another hydrophin ("Quiye", mid-seventies, round glasses, gray hair and white/blue scales) approaches the door with a tray of mugs.
JULIENNE (pensive): I know it's just grief...but it's comforting to think that maybe my mom's still looking out for me somehow.
Panel 2: Quiye sets the tray down on the table. QUIYE: Of course she is.

Panel 1: Quiye picks up their mug from the tray and turns to go. QUIYE (nonchalant, but what they say is completely serious): She visits the house all the time.
Panel 2: Julienne twists back to look at them as they leave. JULIENNE: What?
Panel 3: JULIENNE (braces his hands on the table, short-circuiting): WHAT?!, OPAL (resting her hand on her chin, frustrated): QUIYE--You can't say stuff like that and then just leave.

This is just a little extra bonus comic. The synopsis for the webcomic it belongs to can be found at https://www.juliennecomic.com/?view=about

May 26, 2025 at 9:07 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Julienne updated! He's livin' in the future now. 🐠✨
www.juliennecomic.com?view=pages&p...
+++
#snJulienne #webcomic #mermaid

May 23, 2025 at 7:19 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

The creature will accept your food, but not your critique.
+++
(Excerpt is from my science fiction novel about identity, belonging, and biotech cults called "The Bioroboticist"! Currently free to read at thebioroboticist.com)
#thebioroboticist #comics #sciencefiction

PANEL 1: Engineers gather in a small kitchen-like break room during lunch hour. One in particular (James)--a thin young man with long features-- sits at the central table, currently alone, hunched dully over his lunch, lost in thought. PANEL 2: One of his coworkers (Chelo)--short and stocky with a heart-shaped face and fluffy black hair--drops into the chair across from him with her own lunch, rolling a mandarin orange to him. Chelo: Ey, quit brooding. PANEL 3: James regards the orange like a foreign substance as he picks it up. James: I'm not brooding. Chelo: You getting enough sleep? PANEL 4: James shrugs and starts to peel the orange. PANEL 5: Chelo (wary): That's a "No?" PANEL 6: JAMES (nonchalant, continuing to peel): I just have something I'm working out.

PANEL 1: Chelo (resting her chin on a hand): Okay~. Well, get at least one eight hour night this week, alright? Rest is a part of work. James (raising an orange slice to his mouth): U-huh. PANEL 2: Chelo (earnestly): I mean it. Sleep deficit begets brain poison. PANEL 3: James (defensive, finally looking her in the eye): I KNOW, Chelo. I'm an adult. I can manage my own brain poison. PANEL 4: James (glances aside, arrogantly evasive): I'm sure you were pulling all-nighters at my age too. PANEL 5: Chelo (with a wry smile): He admits it... PANEL 6: James gets up, annoyed and far too sleep-deprived for this. PANEL 7: Chelo sighs as he leaves, thinking to herself "Dang self-destructive kids..." The young intern (Heather) has entered the panel too with her lunchbox, watching James leave. He's keeping this thing he's been working on after hours a secret, and the intern really wants to know what it is.

Story synopsis can be found at https://thebioroboticist.com/about/

May 14, 2025 at 8:48 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Julienne Updated! Our boy discovers ✨trains✨
www.juliennecomic.com?view=pages&p...
+++
#snJulienne #mermaid #cptsd #webcomic #comics

A human and a hydrophin (a large, serpent-like semi-terrestrial mermaid) are on a light rail train headed into the city. The human has rollerskates with her and the hydrophin is socially anxious but very curious. He's never seen or experienced most of the things he'll be exploring today.

Synopsis for the webcomic can be found at https://www.juliennecomic.com/?view=about

May 9, 2025 at 7:49 AM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

A lil sketchbook comic about a recent healing project. (My ongoing prayer of revolution.)
#comics #cptsd

May 5, 2025 at 8:47 PM

Sara N

@sarathedragonfly.bsky.social

Hi! Did you know I write extra Julienne scenes in prose??
My $5 patrons get them as I write them, but 2 collections are up in my Patreon shop for anyone to purchase access. ✨

If interested, **🔥PLEASE🔥** purchase in a --web browser--, the app adds 50% extra in fees! 🥲 www.patreon.com/c/snutter/shop