#Camel sign

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Only one person feels a need for an umbrella in this festive Times Square crowd, 1948.

Photo: Louis Faurer via Capsule Auctions

[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.

[lesbiansanemi]

Currently trying not to vomit over the fact that I essentially just lost almost a thousand dollars brb

[kamileonik]

life update?

[punkrock-bottom]

My followers love to dine and dash. Sitting for the appetisers (funny posts) and running when the main course (annoying personality) comes out. They don’t even stay for dessert (still annoying but in a sexy pathetic way)

[perfecttragedyflower]

My trust sticky note fell off today. It's been attached to my stroller since my 3-year-old had a Dr's appointment at 3 months old. I was having trouble keeping track of things, so it helped me to use sticky notes. It held on through rain and snow, tons of heat and wind. Like a mailman, the sticky note held on. And I held on.

I've been through so much since my 3-year-old was 3 months old. I've completed a handful of therapies, I completed parenting courses, I participated in counseling, and I had a baby. Tried listening to the universe, the voice inside, and tried studying the scriptures. Honestly, I've been in an almost constant state of prayer.

And I had a thought this morning,

"I will hold on like this sticky note"

As I tucked my bus ticket underneath it.

While I was waiting for the bus, the wind blew my trusted sticky note off. I caught it and took this photo.

I realized maybe it's best for me to let go of some of the things I've been holding onto. Taking this as a little sign from the universe, as much as it's important to hold on and stay strong, it's also important to let go of things that weigh you down.

Now I know for sure I have changed and grown as a person. The old me would have broken down and read the sticky notes glue letting go today as a sign to give into the pressures of my life. The straw that breaks the camels back, an excuse to break down and lay in bed avoiding responsibilities. Especially after making that statement to myself about being as strong as the sticky note just this morning.

[tyrantwombat]

LET YOUR DEAF CHARACTERS USE SIGN LANGUAGE YOU FUCKING. COWARDS.

[echoinginthevastscosmos]

I honestly would prefer this over the 1.20 update.

what if whales in minecraft!

[thebookworm0001]

church talk under the cut

among the things that I really, really like about the episcopal church I went to on Sunday, the little pamphlet that walked me through the entire service?

pretty damn up there

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Always Camels, 1921.

Photo: Ralph Steiner via Invaluable Auctions

[calico-kiwi]

someone save me helllpppppp

[paulpingminho]

[bluelizardlives]

Riding a camel in the Great American Desert Cairo, NE

[impossibleprincess35]

Mar🐪 is an absolute fucking gem.

Whenever he does or says anything, I'm reminded of why he and Carrie Fisher were the BEST casting for these two dysfunctional twins.

Mark Hamill, aka Captain of the Reylo ship

[official-linguistics-post]

is there a reason for the letter c? what does it do and why was it made

<C> is an extremely old sign!!

the orthographic origin is phoenician, possibly representing a camel or staff sling, and the same sign developed into semitic <𐤂>, greek <Γ>, latin <G>, and latin <Ȝ>. there was a lot of orthographic borrowing going on around the mediterranean.

it has typically represented a velar plosive – definitely /k/ and also /g/ before the letter <G> was differentiated – and only later came to be associated with other sounds like /tʃ/, /ts/, or /s/ as sound changes occurred in the various languages that were written with that alphabet.

[helps-the-writing-brain-go]

Dad-Coded Billy

Consider, if Billy had been dad-coded even before he'd gotten his powers.

He's the eldest (he's 12) of the street kids.

He ends up gathering the Shazamily over time, either abandoned, lost or having run from home and he keeps them safe and out of CPS hands.

Eldest child syndrome (i.e. parentification) except he's done it to himself.

He tries so hard to keep them fed and clothed and with some semblance of a roof over their heads.

He buys clothes from the thrift store in bulk, gets coats sized for adults so they can bundle up more, steals leftovers and has them take turns at the local fridge to get them canned foods, fights off bullies and other people for the right to live in condemned buildings for them all.

The older kids had a couple years of school and he teaches them to read. They frequent the library a lot and use public toilets to wash up.

It isn't perfect, but they've survived this long.

The one that nearly broke the camel's back was Darla, a toddler (about 2ish?) who got really sick. Billy debating so hard on whether to willingly bring them to CPS if only to get her help because winter is closing in and he's SO scared she'll die.

But he PROMISED.

He ends up getting his powers when he ran into the subway after stealing from the local pharmacy.

Honestly he nearly refused because this kid has been in survival mode for so long and his entire focus is on keeping his family alive and possibly giving them a better life.

And then the Wizard promises him magic and spells to help them if he accepts the duty and like a man signing up for the army Billy agrees for their sake.

He's a little more closed off to the JL maybe? He has more regular hours compared to his Canon counterpart bc his focus is still on his family.

They call him big brother, but after he'd gotten even bigger, they accept the truth they'd always had subconsciously, that they actually consider Billy their dad.