#would probably kms

[johnny-but-emo]

Imagine being 13-14 years old and finding out that the manifestation of your soul is a rabid monster that kills anything it touches.

[thedykeparade]

[avadaniels]

i dont know if the activities in the rooms are just indiscriminate torture but starting with the dentist was extra freaky to me because we know from orphan black that the significance of teeth is that they're close to the brain

[serpentface]

What’s the Janeys/Brakul death scenario?

So like upon review I mostly just was going to kill them off for Couya + Faiza + Hibrides’ character development (#FEMINIST WIN!!!!!!!).

The background situation of their death scenario is something that will happen either way:

Throughout the story, the pilgrimage requests tribute from the towns it passes through (mainly food and other supplies). This is a common practice for pilgrimages and the travels of royalty, and Imperial Wardi civilians are used to the concept (just not so much during a famine). Some people give fully willingly (a lot of people believe in the pilgrimage's goals/and or the necessity to keep its high status participants fed), most are at least partly coerced (usually not via direct threats, but the pilgrimage contains a couple hundred soldiers, the Usoma, and Odonii leadership. The threat is implied), some are Fully coerced via threats.

In the latter third of the story things are not going well. There’s been a lot of internal struggles among the soldiers and dissatisfaction with pilgrimage leadership (mostly Stavis), men are starting to defect and a large body are getting outright mutinous. The group has also lost much of their food supplies and things are getting desperate (they've been starting to eat their own pack khait and oxen)

With this going on, the pilgrimage sends three soldiers to exact tribute from a farming village in the province Lobera. They meet a group of men acting as representatives for the village, who flat out refuse to give tribute. Things escalate into an outright fight, the soldiers are better armed but few in number and are killed.

One of the village elders finds out that this happens and panics, knowing that the men who killed three of the Usoma’s soldiers (one of which is her son) have signed their own death sentences, and possibly that of others. She attempts to persuade the families to preemptively flee, and then takes the village's one remaining skinny old plow ox to carry the bodies of the dead soldiers back to where the pilgrimage is camped. She supplicates herself before Stavis Amanti and begs for mercy, saying they don't even have enough food stored to feed themselves, much less to give, and that the men thus considered the killings righteous self defense. She shows that she’s returned the bodies for rites as an act of goodwill, and offers the ox in tribute, the most valuable thing she can provide. She begs that the Usoma accepts this as tribute and spares the men's lives, and that the pilgrimage moves on without taking anything else.

Stavis bids her safe passage away from the camp (without confirming or denying that he's accepted her plea), and the heads of pilgrimage confer on what to do. The killing of the soldiers is a violation punishable by death, but this would be like, a notably bad PR move. Meanwhile a contingent of soldiers (including some major side characters I haven’t introduced) break off and lead a raid on the village to avenge their fallen brothers and loot supplies. Others get drawn into the fighting, and it devolves into a full on massacre.

A couple families had fled at the elder’s suggestion, but most refused to leave their homes. Some of the villagers believed they would be left unharmed if the killers were given up, others had been preparing for a reprisal and armed themselves with everything available. But they have few actual weapons and none are trained combatants. All of the remaining men and adolescent boys get killed, one woman manages to take out a soldier using a shovel but is killed, most of the other women and girls are spared murder but several are assaulted. The village is looted for supplies and kindling for funeral pyres.

Stavis Amanti has no fucking idea what to do. The soldiers defied orders and killed Imperial Wardi civilians, but the current climate amid the pilgrimage would make it EXTREMELY Bad for him if he demanded their punishment (but also potentially very bad if he didn't- not all the soldiers participated in the massacre and many were horrified). Faiza encourages him to exert authority in a measured response by having the ringleader of the mutineers killed but sparing the rest, and offers to publicly back him in hopes of avoiding full on mutiny.

The raid reveals that the villagers had been hiding more grain than they claimed they had (as in like, enough to feed their people on starvation level rations for a few weeks). Stavis takes this as an opportunity to justify not punishing the mutineers (as the villagers DID technically have something to give, and execution IS technically the punishment for refusing the order of tribute (though not execution of the entire community)), but insists that their Galenii bless the village dead and their men build pyres for the civilians as is honorable conduct. (This attempt to make amends is not particularly appreciated by the survivors.)

The pilgrimage holds a funeral for their own dead soldiers. The village ox that was given in tribute is killed and butchered for the funerary feast.

----

In the Bury Your Gays route, Brakul is one of the three that gets killed during the tribute extraction. Janeys loses his fucking mind when his body is brought back, and tries to slit his own throat on the spot. Couya stops him by wrestling him to the ground while Janeys screams threats at her and the old woman in a very pathetic public spectacle. He is deprived of all sharp objects.

While the pilgrimage leaders are conferring, he hovers miserably around Hibrides (who is also not feeling so great about all this). He's suddenly very interested in her pregnancy for the first time ever, asks to feel the baby (which has been just starting to kick). She's like "fuck off", but he strongly implies he's planning to commit suicide asap and she concedes and then is like Okay I Let You Feel The Goddamn Baby Now Leave Me Alone Holy FUCK.

Janeys turns his attention to fucking murdering anyone tangentially involved in this happening. He’s among the initial raid party, plays a major hand in it turning from its ostensible 'find and execute the ones responsible, subdue the rest, steal their food' directive to a full massacre by directing his men to immediately attack the first man he sees. He and his group capture three young men as prisoners and demand that they be slain at the soldier's funerals as is wartime custom (this isn't wartime). Janeys additionally demands that he should get to do it, as the only kin of any of the dead men. Once that's done he immediately cuts his own throat and bleeds out. They wind up getting cremated at the same time so things work out how Janeys wanted it.

At one point I realized that this is kind of just The Iliad?

----

So like obviously whether they die here or not has little impact on THESE events, but a lot of the endgame revolves around Couya Faiza and Hibrides and these deaths would be very significant to THEM in varying capacities. It affects the trajectory of the final stretch of their arcs and adds a lot of layers to the ultimate Couya/Faiza conflict. I also liked their deaths being kind of random and shitty and meaningless because that in of itself is kinda ~thematically resonant~ with the story. (A lot of tension between the lack of intrinsic meaning to events and the profound levels of meaning ascribed to them).

I'm almost definitely not going with this version of events though. Janeys and Brakul don't have much active involvement in the endgame and don't Really need to be alive for it as it stands, but I think the version where every main character (except Faiza she's doomed) survives to see What Has Been Wrought and living to experience the fallout ultimately works better.

[s--strawberry]

i really appreciate the way jean's brain works. he be having very heavy suicidal thoughts or remembering traumatic shit and then he suddenly goes. hold on. big thighs ? sexy women in bikinis ?? a water drop going down a naked back ? pretty boy is now blond ??? why is everyone so short ? pretty boy GAY ????

its so relatable. i feel so seen,

[shadows-aflame]

not be tmi but can they stop inventing PMS symptoms that interfere with my daily life and wellbeing

[lovvecherrymotion]

buying a concert ticket tomorrow please manifest i can get a ticket for any of the dates this is so important to me

[vomits0cutely]

Hermione: I wanna be a main character so bad

Ron: Is that why you read on rainy days by the window?

Harry: [ignoring Ron] me too

Hermione: …

Ron: …

Hermione: you already are..

Harry: no, I wanna be the smart, pretty main character that’s whole story is getting the partner at the end, not the main character loses everyone ‘for the plot’

Neville: nah dw Harry I get ya

[jungkoode]

I almost deleted my masterlist post. My asscheeks clenched. 😨

[palikaraki]

unironically. going to a trades college would be very interesting. these guys make good money

[mummer]

i have a new default conversation starter which is kind of reddit but always gets heated and it’s: You are dropped 200 ish years into the past (you can choose any year in the 18th or 19th century, as well as location) with your current knowledge. all you have with you is whatever you have on your body right now. how do you survive/make the most of your foreknowledge (limited to what you know at this very moment). also you cant kill yourself. Let me know your most optimized/fun solution just in case this actually happens to me

[hedgehog-troops]

me watching my bsf who im falling literally describe how much she finds some specific women (not me) hot. their long hair (not me), their small waist (not me), their curves (not me), them being women (not me) and then shes like, but not in a gay way, in an appreciative way.

like okay

and then today when were on call shes like yk you look like a man rn (she always says this when she sees me with my hair open and home clothes). and then goes on to say, damn you wouldve been a really nice man. previously she has also said, yk sometimes you see people and you think they were born the wrong gender? i think thats you. (okay girl, love your selective trans activism) AND THEN AND THEN TODAY SHE SAYS IF YOU WERE A MAN ID DO YOU LIKE GIRL PLEASE DONT DO THIS TO ME ILL CRY.

[anxeious]

is cropping dogs' ears basically always animal cruelty? only because humans think it looks better?

simple answer: no, not necessarily! let’s talk about it!

also i know i might ruffle some feathers here but please look at this w an open mind (adding a read more i know most people prob don’t care) this is long sorry lol <3

i used to be super against cropping (ears) and docking (tails) (will abbreviate as c/d) too until i learned more about it. i also used to be super against the breeding of dogs in general and was very adopt don't shop, i have since educated myself a lot more on the topic (i support ethical preservation breeders of purebred dogs ONLY i do NAWT support backyard breeders or puppy mills who breed mixed breeds, designer dogs or poodle mixes/doodles for profit, people who mass produce dogs, or breeding outside of the standard) now that we have that clarified let's get into it

in the case of livestock guardian dogs (lgd), farm dogs, or working dogs, it actually prevents injury! in the case of a lgd who protects livestock from predators (think coyote, wolf, bear, etc) something like an ear or a tail would be a great spot for a predator to grab onto in the case of an altercation. the ears have a lot of blood vessels and would bleed a lot, having an ear ripped off in a fight with a wolf wouldn’t be very good. with farm dogs similarly, as well as docking tails so something as heavy as a cow doesn’t step on it. working dogs used for personal protection same thing, nobody could grab onto their ears/tail during a fight. also, for the work that they do the ears would hit their face and can split or a hematoma can form, when this happens once it is likely to keep happening/be a reoccurring issue. this is very very painful. as well as cropping ears it’s meant to give them a look of alertness instead of approachability, that’s the part people confuse with “just to look scarier”. while it did help them to “look scarier” it also helped deter potential attackers which in turn keeps the dog & person safer. the dog in the pic that i rb'd that ur referring to is a lgd

so ear cropping non working dogs of cropped breeds for aesthetics is a thing yes and is obviously highly controversial. i’m not gonna sit here and say it isn’t for aesthetics. some people argue it prevents ear infections which might be true but that doesn’t negate that it’s primarily for aesthetic purposes. plus basset hounds and spaniels get a lot of ear infections and are not cropped. but as long as it is done by a licensed vet under anesthesia with multiple ways to control pain (nsaid, nerve block, injectables, etc) in a sterile environment by someone experienced who knows how to do it properly while being closely monitored by professionals before, during, and after the procedure, followed up with proper aftercare, pain management, ointment, antibiotics, cleaned regularly and taped/posted (this is so the ears sit up straight, cropping is done when the puppy is weeks old so the cartilage hasn’t hardened yet) it is perfectly okay, the dogs do not notice, play like normal, it heals nicely and the dogs have little to no pain (this can be clearly observed w people who have c/d puppies) the puppies are back playing with littermates nearly as soon as they wake up. also, dogs CAN communicate when c/d. dogs like huskies have upright ears and communicate just fine, regardless, the ears/tail aren’t only way dogs communicate with one another. the issue is when people diy this procedure with no anesthesia or pain management in an unsterile environment, with no experience or knowledge on how to do it properly, and end up with a botched crop that gets infected and causes the dog a lot of pain. THIS is the issue and what so many people (myself included) should be against. when it’s done properly it is perfectly safe. dog ears heal very very quickly, and when done properly it takes around two weeks to fully heal, after that is just posting so the ears stand up. crops not done by vets are the horrific crops u might see pics of online, super botched inflamed, infected, red and swollen, very painful. that’s why it’s not ideal that a lot of countries ban the procedure in hopes of stopping it. people are going to do it regardless. banning it just prevents professionals from being able to do it safely and encourages people to do it at home with scissors thus causing puppies a lot of pain.

why crop? well, in a lot of cases it IS done to look more intimidating (i mean if u get a big scary dog for protection purposes, that’s kinda the idea, no?). also show dogs of c/d breeds are obviously c/d as showing dogs is about preserving the breed’s original purpose & breed standard. in the case of ethical breeders of cropped breeds (like a doberman) the puppies are almost always c/d BEFORE they go to their homes. breeders have a specific vet they trust (often traveling quite far) and would never make their buyers have to seek out a good vet on their own. the average person doesn’t know what to look for when it comes to finding a good vet for such a procedure nor would they pick up on an red flags, so the breeders get it done at their preferred vet before the puppies go home and kickstart the healing/taping process before pups go home. these breeds are cropped because ethical, reputable, and responsible breeders breed towards the breed standard, which for dobermans includes c/d. the breed standard is there to serve the breeds original purpose and is what ethical breeders breed towards. even in personal protection breeds who are not doing protection work, the ears are cropped in an effort of preservation. dobermans specifically were c/d because they were the first breed bred for personal protection. they were originally created to protect tax collectors many years ago as this was a dangerous job at the time. and being c/d makes it harder for people to grab onto them in the event of an altercation. so in an effort of preservation they are still cropped.

there are cases where it’s medically necessary as well, like a dog keeps getting happy tail but i figured you were talking about cropping for non medical reasons so i didn't include that here

[silversinfinity]

I got the freaky ass new memory card... There is absolutely no sneezing going on here but walk with me and play pretend for a second okay

[bonetrousledbones]

saw some fanart that reminded me so very strongly of the mishap au that it had me reminiscing over it like a long lost lover. the one that got away..................

[just-a-queer-fanboy]

Finished my rewatch of moral orel in 2 days and forgot to take my meds I feel like I snorted the suicidal cocaine