#600 years of beef

[bee-arts]

i am once again asking for fruk in-universe memes

Ask and you shall receive!

I drew inspiration from some memes made by @netherzon for this. The Wikipedia ones were too funny to ignore.

[ssbuwaifus-icorrectqs]

Stop using those horrible blandass Fire Emblem characters and Bayonetta!! Such terrible disgraces to society! And you’re reinforcing them! Stop using them or be banned from all video games.

Sweetheart, you should just not follow what you don't like

Learn this early, and life will be easier

Focus on doing your thing/own blog, cuz I won't stop to post about the games I like any time soon

Hope we can be friends, xoxo

[fully-stressed-without-a-smile]

I actually don’t care how bad it gets I am NOT going to fkn San Francisco never ever ever LMAOOOOOO

[yotaasuke]

Why have I only just found out that Hadrian’s wall isn’t the Scottish English border anymore

[iamthepulta]

@joemomrgneissguy SPACE MINING. HO BOY.

So when mining comes into a conversation, there are several 'laws' of mining and processing that I like to consider that people tend to forget:

Location and rarity of commodity

Location and rarity of extraction techniques/reagents

What is necessary for this operation to work?

Where does the finished product go?

Some of these are extraneous. Theoretically, we don't have to care that iron is common on earth and might be present on the moon, so it changes the conversation from "why?" to "how would we?". Same with extraction and reagents. If you don't care how expensive it is to ship- for example: water and carbon dioxide to the moon because you want to process He-3, nothing can stop you.

However, what will stop planning, is processing. Blowing up a rock is easy. Collecting the rock and breaking it into a usable form is not. If there isn't a plan for exactly what commodity is being mined and how to separate it and all the equipment that needs to be made to get it into a usable form, and a plan to get that equipment into space. God help the poor bastard.

And fundamentally, no matter HOW you turn it, people use the finished product. If there are no people where you are mining the Thing, you need to have a way for the Thing to get back to the people who need it. WHY are you mining the Thing? What is economic about the Thing being made? and Is it worth the money?

[angry geologist rant under the cut]

So the thing about space and asteroids is metals come in native form a lot of the time because there's nothing to oxidize them; it makes processing simpler and the density increases profit. This is usually what people talk about when they go off about space mining: Ohh, if we just reach this asteroid 400 years away there's so much Gold and Platinum! Ohh, if we just crashed a FUCKING ASTEROID INTO EARTH OR MARS we could be so rich!

However this is a LIE for two reasons: It's actually harder to process straight sulfides or straight metal because they aren't brittle. Instead of breaking into smaller pieces you can separate and process, they jam the crusher. Universities with mining departments often have huge chunks of impressive high-grade sitting around that were donated by companies when they jammed their fucking system. If you can't break it down, it's a useless fucking clump of rock.

Secondly, even if you have native metals clumped together like an iron-nickel asteroid, unless you want an iron-nickel product, you have to separate them. Since it's not brittle, you would have to pour a bunch of hydrochloric on it and wait for the reaction to dissolve the outer surface.

And all this is assuming the metals are on Earth. If not, you have to figure out how to do this in space. How much HCl will you need? How are you going to fly it up there? How are you going to break it down? How are you going to replace parts when they inevitably break?

The big "commodity" on the moon is Helium-3, which is extremely rare on Earth. (So yes, we have a need, and yes, there's substantial reason to mine it in a place where it's more accessible.) The logic starts breaking down around "getting it back" and "how does the operation work": In moon quantities (up to 15 parts per billion (ppb)), you have to mine about 150 tons to extract 1g of He-3. That's not unreasonable, to be honest, since economic gold hovers around 7-12 ppb. And technically you'd only have to heat the rock to 600-700 C. However, things do melt at those temperatures. Then you have to get it back to earth. Either a SpaceX-style return and come back, or a drop shipments- It's just insane to me though that we would use SO MANY RESOURCES to rip up the fucking moon, even with an automated system, when if you look at He-3 we already produce what equals 11 pounds of He-3 yearly from Oil and Gas deposits, it's just not collected.

I have more beef with planets that are theoretically resource-rich, but people just- don't care about getting them back to Earth? Venus has significant metal-Sulfides and Tellurides in its atmosphere, which is why people joke about the "floating oxygen colonies" on Venus. But congratulations! You've colonized a planet that is inaccessible to human technology because anything we've ever designed will dissolve. Same with Europa. To design something that works on Venus - not to mention extracts things in the proper form to be used in human conditions - and/or get them back to Earth means redesigning how we think of the properties of the periodic table.

With extraction, we play a lot with oxidation states, and one of the rules is to stay within Earth's aqueous conditions. If you oxidize anything too much, your solution will want to vaporize to oxygen. Reduce anything too much, and your solution will want to vaporize to hydrogen gas.

So, if you design anything on Earth designed for conditions on Venus, it will be unstable. If you design anything on Venus meant for Earth, it will be unstable.

Which is kind of the end of my rant, I guess. Don't crash something into Earth unless you can process it. If you can process it in space, can you get it back? Who's responsible when the thing breaks? Why the fuck is money being spent when 9 times out of 10 we have it here on earth with the conditions we're familiar with?

If we've somehow depleted Earth enough that we need resources from other planets, which would insinuate we have not figured out how to recycle our own metals, which is untrue, and likewise we have no business in space anyway- Where did all our resources go? Are we leaving for those other planets? Do we have faster-than-light travel to collect the new resources in a timely manner?

There isn't even water in space half the time and if you do have a colony on Mars and tech bros are going to process all the hematite to build their shitty underground Martian city, are they shipping water from the north and south poles to do this? Have they figured out how to renew the carbon filters that are going to be needed to get all the waste and organics out of it once it's used?

In my opinion, it's all just fucking stupid. Space mining tries to answer a question that doesn't need to be asked with people who don't know how mineral processing works who haven't thought what the logistics require and don't care that entropy demands even minerals in stasis don't last forever. But it's ~new~ and the dollar signs on metallic asteroids gleam in their eyes and I want to take out Elon Musk's kneecaps.

[not-sure-what-im-feeling]

Honestly I think Poseidon’s whole thing with Odysseus is kinda funny

Like

Imagine your brother just has massive beef with a mouse. And this mouse and his 600 mouse friends are trying to get home to their mouse families. And your brother kills like 558 of these mice but leaves that mouse who’s in charge alive??? And that mouse has a little thing where he gets into your house to talk to a mouse ghost to ask how to get home but that’s not important to this right now. Anyway that leader mouse’s right hand mouse kills your cousin(?)’s cow and your other brother shows up and kills every other mouse BUT that leader mouse.

And then that leader mouse gets stuck on an island of some immortal mouse(?) for a long time (must be like 7 years in mouse years) until your niece gets your brother (the one who killed the mouse’s friends the second time) to get the now alone mouse off that island.

So now the mouse is finally on his way home to his mouse wife and mouse son who he hasn’t seen in around 20 mouse years and then that first brother of yours shows up to bully him and try to kill him. But the mouse is fucking done with your brother’s bullshit and he’s so close to his mouse family so he fights your brother and FUCKING WINS. But to win he had to use a bag of wind that caused a storm that won’t let him back home to his mouse family. So what does this little mouse do? He TORTURES your brother until your brother calls off the storm.

Anyway now I wanna see mouse Odysseus

[cconfusedkat]

Hi! I exert too much time and energy into very unnecessary things, and So this happens to be One of those things,

This post will cover the following; the ancestors/the six sheep of sanheim, paloma & mystic seller, and an abrupt timeline summary :> here is my bishop refs post

Year -1000, a Rise of Meliora and early beginnings of Columbidae

These people we are looking at are considered Archangelic Lambs, Six Sheep of Sanheim, or simply just Archangelo. They all try to compliment one another regarding each individual God's personality.

Archangelo, God of Courage & Freedom, they/them. Algerian sheep

Balam, God of Cunning & Past/Present, she/they. Braunes Bergschaf sheep

Callicantzaros, God of Feast & Festival, they/them. Valais Blackneck goat

Decarabia, Demigod of Singing & Drinking, he/they. Bizet sheep

Gaap, God of Love/Hatred & Tides, she/her. Bergamasca sheep

Zagan, God of Witt, they/them. Askanian sheep

Lastly, they're all inspired off of demons from demonology :-) hence the repeating number of 6 and the name "Archangelo" in reference to Satan before being damned (since he was an archangel)

Year -600, the death of two beloved rulers, yet the rise of a new one

Paloma, who took over her kingdom after her parents died to old age, was a God of Tranquil & Grain (or vice versa). Columbidae is an independent nation, unlike Meliora who is ruled by walking Gods

Though, in rough times, Paloma couldn't cope properly with the loss of her parents. Archangelo and Paloma stumbled across each other in -600, the lamb being there for the dove for as long as possible.

However, a Particular shadow-being didn't like the closeness of their relationship, of whom we talk of;

Mystic Seller, who once was known as Mystique, a shadow who ran away from their old home (Mystici) to pursue being a disciple under Paloma.

Mystic had been Paloma's disciple ever since -1000. When they saw Archangelo and Paloma get closer and closer to their almost engagement, Mystic had a major issue with it.

And so, they would do anything to prevent them getting engaged ,,, which did cause the butterfly effect of the lamb genocide 😭😭 lamdalcjskc i like how im srs with everything else and then here Its Just. Yeah the development of paloma and archangelo uniting nations as both lambs & doves lead to an eventual lamb genocide- yep- Yeah Man,

Soooo Essentially for a better summary of timelines rather than my excessive yapping, here's a little something I've gathered over their history: (of course other major events happened but Still)

-1000 ； Beginning of Lamb (Archangelo) and that's mainly the true species for some time

-900 ； Thriving country of Meliora, Mystici's (the country Mystic is from/shadow being's lurk) begins to form due to the Gods Boundary Line of there needing to be other species

-800 ； Rise of Columbidae's Empire which eventually is a nation lead by doves and a couple of other leading land animals

-700 ； War breaks out for a couple of years between Columbidae, The Lands of the Old Faith (which are a five state colony), and Archangelo trying to make peace

-600 ； Monarch and Queen of Columbidae, now leaving the entire nation of Columbidae under Monarch Paloma. She had yet to ascend to Godhood, and she still didn't know how to continue running her parents cult after they pass away from old age. Archangelo offers his hand to working with Paloma and combining their countries as well as cults ++ religions, thus Paloma ascends to Godhood as a former Bishop.

(The Lands of the Old Faith are still beefing with both Meliora and Columbidae. The colonies chose to leave Mystici alone)

-500 ；Everything in society is about to collapse. The Betrayal happens (where Narinder gives his siblings his injuries and gets sent to Below), Mystic killed all the Archangelics and saved Archangelo for last (ripping off their horns), and Paloma falls into another deep depression.

-500 — -20 ； Lamb Genocide. Each and every Lamb is now almost gone, leaving Allure and Zainab to be the only lambs left, who ran away for so long.

Year 0 ； Allure and Zainab are captured by the colonies. Zainab gets executed first, Allure gets executed a day after, but the twist is of course Allure being able to bare the Red Crown with the help of TOWW/Narinder. Year 0 is the beginning of- get ready- Cult of the Lamb YEAHHHHHHHH🗣🗣🗣 or also their cult is called Alluring/Allureable Lamb lmaoxaldjdkm

And with that, Mystic had already set everything into place. They outright planned the lamb genocide, they told Shamura about Narinder betraying them, they got Paloma killed by Shamura, and now all they had to do was visit the little lamb five years into their cult. Not even Ratau knew about Mystic's existence.

Mystic Pursuit!! An eventful AU that is all under Mystic's control of a silly little butterfly effect !!!! Yayyyy

Next post will be Allure lore with a liiiitttle animatic and their own refs again C:<< I have yet to cover the three witnesses (i still havent drawn them) but they have loads of lore as well :-]

[vangoghsflowerchild]

In recent news of Matt Gaetz I always feel the need to remind people of the pure ignorance he has towards the entire topic of diabetes

I feel like everyone has their own beef with Matt Gaetz but as a type 1 diabetic this is my personal beef with him. No I can’t just get rid of my diabetes. I didn’t choose this for myself, my pancreas literally decided to off itself when I was 9 years old.

I also feel the need to mention that I am very fortunate to have insurance, but there are a lot of people who are not in my position who are literally rationing their insulin or choosing between food and insulin after they see pharmaceutical companies are charging $600+ for a LIFE SAVING medication. And you might be thinking “oh it must be very difficult to manufacture insulin??” No. It literally costs less than $10 to manufacture a bottle of insulin.

For reference, with insurance I am currently paying $400 a year for my medications and without insurance I would be paying $5,240 a year. And that’s just for insulin ALONE. Thats not even counting my needles, test trips, glucose monitors and my medication if I have a seizure.

To sum it up, FUCK YOU MATT GAETZ, and I hope you jump off a bridge.

[hermitw]

I think at this point that Sukuna (and Uraume, and likely all of the other reincarnated sorcerers) were under a pact to protect (or at least not harm) kenjaku.

Sukuna and Uraume were both uncomfortable with Yorozu (all 4 of Sukuna's eyes looked dead inside, dissociating in different directions, like a freeze response), and they both attacked her - during the Heian era when she had a high social status and there could be consequences. They didn't tolerate the disrespect of personal boundaries.

On that note, Sukuna wore a mask (Megkuna) in order to face her a thousand years later (I think he preferred that form not just bc he fit into the way everything is built physically, but bc it was like dying your hair to feel like a different person, a reflection less connected to your past memories). It feels intentional that Sukuna had to relive his own trauma in order to repress Megumi - continuing the cycle of abuse.

Kashimo Hajime wanted to fight Sukuna - but never seemed to consider Kenjaku as an opponent. Kashimo only agreed to Kenjaku's plan in order to reach Sukuna, since he was born 600 years too late.

Uro definitely had beef with Kenjaku, but she never sought after him. Like she would have preferred to forget that he exists - but Uro really seems like someone who would attack him if she could.

In ch. 239 (right before takaba vs. Kenjaku), a sorcerer who very much resembles Uro is raging about the way he gave them a second life just to take it away, that's cruel, what does he even want? And he kills them.

Then there's the other guy who wants to attack kenjaku, but was hoping for Gojo to come take his side after defeating Sukuna. And kenjaku is just laying on the ground, unbothered, as he does.

In the month that Kenjaku spent with Sukuna for protection from Gojo - it's clear that they didn't want him around. But they didn't have the power to even kick him out.

And... Yeah this post is bc I was thinking about the time sukuna killed Nanako and Mimiko. That no one else's head exploded like that. It felt personal, despite all their submission and fear.

The common interpretation is that Sukuna didn't like to feel manipulated or told what to do, but over the location of a finger? That's too petty, I think.

I think what really set him off was Kenjaku's manipulation, his chains, that Sukuna wasn't free enough to lash out at the one who put him in the cage in the first place. That hurt - but he also couldn't show that vulnerability. So he had to cover it up with his edgelord "I'm so evil I kill bc I feel like it" narrative.

Then he distracted himself with Jogo, who might have given him more fingers but didn't bow as low... I always thought it was weird that Sukuna offered his service to someone who didn't respect him so much.

But I don't think he was really putting himself in that position - or, like all the binding vows, it was a way to relive his trauma on his own terms. With a curse that could entertain him, but not overpower.

[kittehbiscuits]

please tell me about your keatlejuice thoughts i am desperate for an analysis of him that isn’t just Evil

EDIT BC APPARENTLY PUTTING IT ALL OVER THE TAGS WASN'T ENOUGH: BEETLEBABES DNI!!!! HOLY SHIT DAWG PLEASE I'M BEGGING 🙏 😭

Omg haiiiii hiiii taps mic is this on yess hellow *shuffles with notes*

warning this will probably be a LONG post

enjoy :3

Ok. So. Keatlejuice. Movie Beetlejuice. 600 year old man. Alive during the 1300s AKA the black death in Europe (proved by the second movie). In the original script for the movie he is described as "vaguely middle-eastern" which is probably racist BUT I have decided to interpret that as a potential ancestry for him.

In the musical he is heavily implied to be Jewish so I was thinkinggg maybe his family is a Jewish family that originated in the Middle East and migrated to Europe.

Every time I've tried to find how he died (pre-sequel) I find the same result but NO source for it. EVEN ON THE WIKI THERE ISN'T A SOURCE

ANYWAY this kind of paints a picture on his life when he was alive, the movie says he was a grave robber so obviously a peasant scraping by to survive. Betelgeuse is not someone who I can imagine surviving in any society based on. social skills. he's kind of a goofy silly guy I don't think he can relate to most of the people around him especially with disease rampant I don't think he has many people in his life. With this need for survival I think he's adopted quite the antisocial personality.

People around you die, you go through their pockets for cash, thus is life. Definitely not a pleasant person to be around and so I don't think he ever tries to be, even long after his death. He knows something is fundamentally wrong with him and he embraces that for the sake of survival.

I'm gonna be so honest I cast him with the MOMMY ISSUES BEAM GRAHHHH I'm sure his mother passed during his life due to disease or tons of other mideival shit. (I will bring this up later just put a pin in it) Betelgeuse is suuuuper silly goofy in the brain (depression and BPD possibly) and I personally imagine him as surprisingly. Calm. As a human. Not kind, but not exactly the manic personality he embraces in the movies.

It's near the end of his life when he believes there isn't anything left for him in life, he never grew or got better he only fell deeper into the deep pit of depravity he dug himself into. I think near the end is when he acted the most like his movie self, erratic and selfish not afraid to draw attention hoping it would make him feel better somehow.

So. I have absolutely no idea how he bagged Delores to be honest but in MY interpretation (with a mix of the sequel's lore) Delores dies, and I think that's his final straw. Either by his own hand or unrelated events losing her as the only thing of value in his shitty mideival peasant life means he's done for (he's 30-something btw). He cuts off her ring finger and hangs himself.

Of course, that isn't the end, He wakes up, still hanging, and rips and tears at the rope, shredding his nails and skin until finally it snaps dropping him to the floor. In a delirious state he looks around. A woman stands above him, slit throat wafting smoke, and tosses him a striped uniform.

Some backstory on prison uniforms:

Using this article and just some research from my memory, prison uniforms are made to identify a man as a criminal, to emasculate them and take away individuality. The stripes can even represent the bars of a prison cell, making the person wearing the uniform feel like they have no escape from their criminal identity. ANYWAYYYYY (sorry I have beef with the justice system)

Suicidees in the Neitherworld are made civil servants. It's their debt to pay for the crime of killing themselves and in the movie both Juno and Betelgeuse are among those ranks.

In my interpretation, when Betelgeuse dies Juno isn't at the rank she's at in the movie and she guides suicidees to their new job. As she rised the ranks, she employed Betelgeuse as an assistant (I don't really think he could find any other purpose for himself in this strange new afterlife, and it's not like he has a choice.)

This is where the mommy issues come in wheroeowheh soo Juno is an older woman and authority figure so I think *PLATONICALLY* Betelgeuse has sort of an attachement to her because of that, she's the only anchor he's got in the Neitherworld after all.

As he gets a better handle on things, he does what he always does, he finds shifty places to lurk and loopholes to slip through. Now that he's dead, he doesn't need to worry about his personal safety anymore (not that he did before) and being dead has given him powers he's never had before. He starts his bio-exorcism business a hundred or two years after dying. It's not really about the money, but the control it gives him and something he's *meant* to do, that he made for himself and wasn't picking from the scraps of others.

After a while he starts slacking on his civil services. So far he's ridden on Juno's coattails and found his way around the legal system easily enough so he uses it to help his guide job instead. He gets cocky, Juno is pissed because he's not doing any work after all she gave him (oughh mother thinking moment) and fires him. It goes over very poorly, Betelgeuse gets his nose broken (300 something years after death) And becomes purely a bio-exorcist.

OKAY THAT IS ALL FOR NOW honestly I could ramble forever but it's late and I must go but if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask!!!

(Also he's pansexual and genderfluid on top of all of that but he doesn't figure that out until the 90's)

[jangillman]

President Trump's Achievements

Hey!! What has Donald Trump done while he was in office (as at July, 2017)!!!

1.Supreme Court Judge Gorsuch

2.59 missiles dropped in Syria.

3.He took us out of TPP

4.Illegal immigration is now down 70%( the lowest in 17 years)

5.Consumer confidence highest since 2000 at index125.6

6.Mortgage applications for new homes rise to a 7 year high.

7.Arranged 20% Tariff on soft lumber from Canada.

8.Bids for border wall are well underway.

9.Pulled out of the lopsided Paris accord.

10.Keystone pipeline approved.

11.NATO allies boost spending by 4.3%

12.Allowing VA to terminate bad employees.

13.Allowing private healthcare choices for veterans.

14.More than 600,000. Jobs created

15. Median household income at a 7 year high.

16. The Stock Market is at the highest ever In its history.

17. China agreed to American import of beef.

18. $89 Billion saved in regulation rollbacks.

19. Rollback of A Regulation to boost coal mining.

20. MOAB for ISIS

21. Travel ban reinstated.

22. Executive order for religious freedom.

23. Jump started NASA

24. $600 million cut from UN peacekeeping budget.

25. Targeting of MS13 gangs

26. Deporting violent illegal immigrants.

27. Signed 41 bills to date

28. Created a commission on child trafficking

29. Created a commission on voter fraud

30. Created a commission for opioids addiction.

31. Giving power to states to drug test unemployment recipients.

32. Unemployment lowest since may 2007.

33. Historic Black College University initiative

34. Women In Entrepreneurship Act

35. Created an office or illegal immigrant crime victims.

36. Reversed Dodd-Frank

37. Repealed DOT ruling which would have taken power away from local governments for infrastructure planning

38. Order to stop crime against law enforcement.

39. End of DAPA program.

40. Stopped companies from moving out of America.

41. Promoted businesses to create American Jobs.

42. Encouraged country to once again

43. 'Buy American and hire American

44. Cutting regulations 2 for every one created.

45. Review of all trade agreements to make sure they are America first.

46. Apprentice program

47. Highest manufacturing surge in 3 years.

48 $78 Billion promised reinvestment from major businesses like Exxon, Bayer, Apple, SoftBank, Toyota...

49. Denied FBI a new building.

50. $700 million saved with F-35 renegotiation.

51. Saves $22 million by reducing white house payroll.

52. Dept of treasury reports a $182 billion surplus for April 2017

(2nd largest in history.

53. Negotiated the release of 6 US humanitarian workers held captive in egypt.

54. Gas prices lowest in more than 12 years.

55. Signed An Executive Order To Promote Energy Independence And Economic Growth

56. Has already accomplished more to stop government interference into people's lives than any President in the history of America.

57. President Trump has worked with Congress to pass more legislation in his first 100 days than any President since Truman.

58. Has given head executive of each branches 6 month time Frame dated march 15 2017, to trim the fat. restructure and improve efficacy of their branch.

Observe the pushback the leaks the lies as entrenched POWER refuses to go silently into that good night!

I hope each and every one of you copy and paste this everywhere, every time you hear some dim wit say Trump hadn't done a thing!

THANK YOU!!!

Oh, yeah, and there's this..........

[bee-arts]

*posh voice* The adventures in the unions of Sir Arthur Kirkland and Francis Bonnefoy continue. All American Cooking edition.

I love Al and Matt. I literally live for them, so of course I have to make it about them.

[tobiasdrake]

Man, revisiting Dragon Age: Origins 15 years later is a trip. I've recreated Fighter and started into the Human Noble origin, and Ferelden is certainly a curious nation.

The Landsmeet

Ferelden is really more of a federation than a kingdom, despite the existence of a monarchy. The "noble houses" are Alamarri tribes with centuries long relationships and grudges and conflicts between one another.

The monarchy has been around for four hundred years, and not unbroken.

The Landsmeet, where the tribes meet annually to workshop politics between them, has been around for three thousand years.

It's not hard to see why the Landsmeet has higher authority than the monarchy. Which is itself a weird feature of the Ferelden monarchy. The national identity of being Ferelden is weaker than the tribal identities of being Cousland or Howe or Guerrin.

The Alamarri tribes who would become Ferelden's "houses" have been hammering out their beefs with one another at the Landsmeet since before the Tevinter Imperium was founded. Of course it's more powerful than the monarchy. This kingdom is barely a blip on the map of Ferelden history.

The monarchy exists because of King Calenhad, who "united the tribes". Read: Conquered his way to forcing the tribes to bend the knee.

Teyrn Talk

In "Politics of Ferelden", it's noted that there used to be many Teyrns across Ferelden, great warlords whose military prowess unified multiple territories under them. But Calenhad's rise to power whittled the Teyrns down to a mere two: Gwaren and Highever. Under Calenhad, these two remaining Teyrns became noble ranks beneath the King but above the middle-rank Arls and lesser Banns.

This is why Loghain and Howe conspire to destroy Castle Cousland in the days leading up to the Battle of Ostagar. The Human Noble's father is the other Teyrn. Following the death of King Cailan, Teyrn Cousland is the only person in Ferelden's hierarchy that would be equal in rank to Loghain. By getting rid of Cousland, Queen Anora and Teyrn Loghain are the only authority figures left in the shaky alliance higher than an arl.

Anora is Loghain's daughter, but Cousland could push back against Loghain's misaimed plans for Ferelden's defense against the Blight impending Orlesian invasion.

What's especially ironic about this is that the Howes were actually pro-Orlesian during the Ferelden war for independence. They only jumped ship when they saw which way the wind was blowing. To protect Ferelden from the Orlesians, Loghain jumped into bed with Orlesian Imperialists.

Highever and Cousland/Howe Politics

Speaking of Highever, the Cousland rise to power actually mirrors Loghain's own. Originally, Highever was presided over by the Elstan family, cousins to the Howe family.

About 500-600 years ago (so, pre-monarchy), the Elstan ruler Conobar was murdered by "his wife Flemeth". Yes, that Flemeth. Morrigan has more to share on that topic. Conobar had no heirs or siblings and so Flemeth's slaying of him ended the Elstan bloodline and left Highever with no successor.

In the wake of the power vacuum Flemeth created, the captain of the guard stepped up and took control of Highever. Sarim Cousland rose from a high-ranking commoner soldier to ascended nobility, just like Loghain.

Cousland then broke off ties with the Howes of Amaranthine and declared Highever as an independent state. (Again, pre-monarchy.) Amaranthine and Highever went to war with one another for thirty years. And would remain in bitter conflict with one another all the way up to the Ferelden War for Independence, when the Howes stood with Orlais and the Couslands with Ferelden.

Until Loghain and Howe destroyed their bloodline in a truly ironic conspiracy to eliminate the political rivals to Loghain's coup and return Highever to the treacherous Howe lineage.

Post-Occupation Ferelden is a Political Shitshow

As of the time of Origins, it's been 30 years since King Maric and Loghain drove out the 76-year Orlesian annexation of Ferelden. And only 10 years since Orlais officially signed a peace treaty with Ferelden and said "War's done, no takebacksies." And Ferelden's not in good shape, politically.

Ferelden was already a struggling federation with pretenses of monarchy before Orlais. A region of warring clans barely held together with spit and duct tape by the idea of a mutual kingship, but who kinda hate each other's guts.

The war with Orlais brought an end to many of these families and left Ferelden's regions politically devastated, as well as divided. Loyalist clans hated Imperialist clans, Imperialist clans hated Loyalist clans, and everybody hated the new clans that arose to replace the dead lineages. The only thing keeping the alliance together was respect for independence war hero King Maric.

And now Maric's dead. Succeeded only by his son Cailan, and his two Teryns Loghain and Bryce. Until.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: Wrap-Up.

Hello world!! I read sixty-three (63) books in 2024, and here they are! The pages-out books are stand-ins for library books and other borrowed books (which were ADHD for Smartass Women, When Among Crows, Ghost Station, and The Killing Floor). Mostly these are shelved in the order I read them, save for the stack at the end (Ordinary Monsters is Too Tall to fit on my current shelf arrangement, and the borrowed books are out of order).

I posted individual photos (and sometimes reviews!) of everything pictured here, which you can find tagged with their titles or authors, or you can see all of them if you peruse my "books of 2024" tag. Now, for the Highlight Reel, in order of when I read them:

FIVE FAVES

The City We Became by NK Jemisin ★★★★★ Always love Jemisin, but this duology had me laughing more than I remembered for her other books, which I definitely needed! Excellent cast (your honor I love Paolo so much and also literally all of the boroughs), I tore through this by staying up past my bedtime too many nights in a row.

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed ★★★★★ Perfect tiny little gutpunch of a book MADE FOR ME, I loved it so damn much. Everyone please go read this immediately.

The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan ★★★★★ I was not expecting this to rewire my brain, but it DID, over and over and over again. Very dense chewy book, which I read hoping to get inside an actor character's head better, but honestly I think anyone who does any kind of art or creative endeavor should read this, because OOF was it insightful. (I have ordered his second book that came out this year, but it's hugely on backorder apparently.)(Go figure: The first one was SO GOOD.)

Leech by Hiron Ennes ★★★★★ This was a reread for me, and I'm so glad I revisited it--it holds up even better than the first time through, because so much of it falls into place once you know what's really going on. Masterclass in POV, very gothic, very fucked up, very Deep Winter book, I very much think anyone who was An Animorphs Kid would enjoy the hell out of this (but mind the content warnings, of which there are Many).

Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka ★★★★½ This one also hit my perfect trifecta of weird-and-funny-and-fucked-up exactly right, which I wasn't expecting? Pleasant surprise there at the end of the year. Come for the family heart crimes, stay for the unhinged overseas texts to your husband about an art heist, what a blast.

TWO TWOS

turns out i didn't actually read any 1-star books this year, so here's the bottom of the barrel, and yes i DID write lengthy salty reviews about both of these, if you're interested in the particulars of My Beef

Ordinary Monsters by JM Miro ★★ This was too damn long and ~Messy™~, and all of that just to end on a cliffhanger because it's a trilogy. Why did I bother with this 600+ page brick (oh, right: because it sounded promising)(it was Not, or at least not Enough).

Ghost Station by SA Barnes ★★ This was TOO DAMN FRUSTRATING (bad science, bad scientists, stupid characters, etc), and there was JUST ENOUGH neat promising worldbuilding in the background that Could Have Been Cool to make this otherwise mediocre experience enraging. Super bummed, because I wanted to read this author's other stuff, but now I don't trust her and therefore shan't.

Overall! Had a great reading year--those Two Twos were the only things I rated that low, and I enjoyed everything else! Looking forward to another fabulous year of books :)

[rogha]

The fact that there’s not 600 Billy Batson cartoons is a CRIME like he’s a little boy with a tragic backstory (that no one cares that much about being consistent with so you can just crank that up to 15) and he can turn into a grown man with superpowers? kids love a sad little orphan with hateful guardians like that’s the kind of cliche backstory that’s so fucking old we don’t know who the fuck made it up first and people still love it and the second thing they love is imagining what they’d do if they were grown ups and in charge. also kids love the idea of getting one over on adults. Its fun to watch peter parker lie badly to everyone around him and it would also be fun to watch Billy Batson not only lie to his regular life people but ALSO to the entire Justice League of Which He Is A Member. and it would be extremely funny to watch a bunch of adults unknowingly have interpersonal beef with a ten year old. like don’t get me wrong I liked the movie but he should have a children’s cartoon empire like spiderman or ben ten.

[thebananaiscold]

My Creeps Au General Headcanons (for Laughing Jack, Will, Frankie, Issac, and Ashley)

Laughing Jack:

Height: 9’2

Birthday: December 25th (around 250 years old)

Favorite Food: Candy (literally all candy, he prefers lollipops the most though)

Favorite Drink: Really sugary energy drinks (The pink starburst one is his favorite)

Favorite Colors: He says it’s Black, White, and Grey (he secretly likes the rainbow colors too and actually misses how he used to look)

Favorite Animals: Weasels/Ferrets and of course rats (he is the rodent king)

Favorite Holiday: Christmas (half because it’s his birthday, half because he genuinely enjoys literally everything about the holiday itself)

Smells Like: An abandoned carnival (a mix of stale popcorn, cotton candy, and a dirty musty smell)

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Will: 

Height: 5’11

Birthday:  September 16th (25 years old)

Favorite Food: Pepperoni Pizza 

Favorite Drink: Pepsi

Favorite Colors: Red, Blue, Black

Favorite Animals: Snakes, wolves, and dogs

Favorite Holiday: Probably thanksgiving (he likes the food and the fact that the week following the holiday, shit actually goes on sale so he can afford the things he wants)

Smells Like: previously like axe body spray and ass, but now he smells like green apple body wash (Ashley threatened to beat his ass with a sock filled with soap bars, if he didn’t take a shower.)

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Frankie: 

Height: 6’4

Birthday: November 13th (28 years old)

Favorite Food: Hot dogs

Favorite Drink: Coca Cola and Whiskey

Favorite Colors: Blue, Grey, and Black

Favorite Animals: Dogs (will actually cry if a small puppy licks him, but he loves older hound dogs too), cats, and Racoons (he feeds the Racoons hotdogs.) 

Favorite Holiday: Halloween

Smells Like: Cigarettes and expensive Cologne 

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Issac:

Height: 6’2

Birthday: October 25th (250 years old)

Favorite Food: Beef Stew

Favorite Drink: Everclear (the alcohol)

Favorite Colors: Sliver, Black, Midnight blue

Favorite Animals: Bears, Wolves, Spiders

Favorite Holiday: Christmas (Because he got Jack as a child then. He doesn’t miss Jack. He misses the power he had with the clown.)

Smells Like: Sage

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Ashley:

Height: 5’9

Birthday: August 6th (600 years old, stopped aging at 24 years old in human years)

Favorite Food: Chicken Pot Pie (it kind of reminds her of the meat and pastry type foods she ate growing up, but WAY better)

Favorite Drink: Hot Chocolate

Favorite Colors: Purple, Gold, Black

Favorite Animals: Birds, Cats, and Skunks (even though she hates how they smell, she loves them, especially baby skunks, she thinks they are so adorable.)

Favorite Holiday: Halloween

Smells like: A winter campfire/ toasted marshmallows