#extract from my life

[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.

[sweetvoice-emporium]

Happy Gnome's End !

[adorablegorilla]

You can will one into existence, choose: A Girls' Last Tour movie finished up the last few chapters or a single cour of a Shimeji Simulation anime.

I can act like this is a hard choice and go over it in my head again and again but at the end of the day it was always gonna be the single cour of Shimeji Simulation Anime

[ricksanchezbignaturals]

after telling my dad that johnny silverhand was honestly most of the reason im playing cyberpunk he told me i should watch johnny mnemonic. i heard of it before but it came out like 7 years before i was born so i didn't see it or know like literally anything about it. so i watched the trailer and wow

[wheucto]

with that new revelation in ii2 e16, i feel like there's... a lot less to know about the world of ii. at least, not to know for sure.

because, before then, you could extract some information from passing comments. remember the french or whatever pizza delivery guy who tried to pass as italian, but spoke spanish instead? from that, you could determine that 1. france, spain, and italy are places that exist and 2. if those countries exist, why not all the countries in the world?

but. but, according to what cobs said at least, mephone4 seems to have made everything. he made the weird looking grass. if he made that, then why not anything else? did that guy exist before he came onto the show? probably not! and if he was made that day, was the concept of "france," "spain," and "italy" made that day too?

there's no way for us to know what the normal world of ii looks like. do they have parallel countries to us? well, we know their continents aren't parallel. it follows that their countries wouldn't be, either. who knows what their history is like? how the normal objects are like? will we know?

[ramblingsfromthytruly]

extract from my journal #??

I think if [my parents] had another child, that child would've had a better relationship with them. I think my parents would've learned from the mistakes they made with me, and I think that hypothetical sibling of mine would grow up looking at me and know what not to be. I think if I was my own older sister I would look at myself and see exactly what not to be.

[keyrousse]

[purplecelestial-buddy]

You known when you have a thought but it's not well developed enough to put out there in a post? Mutuals I'm suffering of hrkg brain rot (AGAIN??!?!!) so if I end at any of your dm's bear with me because I need peer review before sharing said thought.

[licorishh]

Replayed Modern Warfare 3 2011 on Veteran tonight and goooooooood night. Blood Brothers never gets any easier to watch no matter how many times you've done it and the ending really never misses huh

I apologize for the amount of yapping in the tags I reread it all on mobile and started giggling because it went on for so long but eh. Blessed are those who won't shut the freak up and all that

[5piecechickendinner]

home freakin run

[spilledinkandtears]

I hated biscuits. Could never stand them. But then one day I bought some to get change for the washing machine and you thought I liked them. So you kept on buying them for me, and I grew to love biscuits. (Via @spilledinkandtears )

He is my love

[nomairuins]

ughhh the stupid fucking tooth is rly stressing me out. i never shouldve moved to fucking washington i wish i could go back in time and hit 18 year old me in the head with a hammer .

[vyllaynark]

i always end up defaulting to just a couple brushes and characters, but since i made this blog specifically for experimentation. here. a tree made with a bunch of Awez's incredible krita brush bundles. (seriously check them out)

does it make any sense? no! and i don't give a shit! because i'm the vyllayn here and i do what i want!!!!11!

[ramblingsfromthytruly]

i have always said that i would never have kids but i was a kid myself and a lot of kids do say that because they can't fathom the thought. i'm 15 now and yes i'm still a kid but i definitely do not ever want to be pregnant nor do i particularly crave kids, but i think if i do i'll adopt. maybe someone around the age of 10 or older because the older the kid the less likely they'll be adopted unfortunately. my mind may change in the future but one thing i know is if i ever do decide to adopt a kid, it won't be out of loneliness or because i'm "supposed to" but rather because i want to nurture a child into an adult and try to give them the means to succeed in life. if i ever adopt, it'll probably be a tad "later" in life than people usually expect. i want do something related to psychology and research. i'll probably end up getting a doctorate or something. if i adopt it'll probably happen during the last years, or after, my education. my parents certainly aren't the worst parents and i know they love me but they have made so many mistakes i know not to make. but they've also showed me a few traits i know creates a better parent. i don't think i will ever end up in a romantic relationship for the rest of my life. i'm not aro-spec (maybe demi idk) but i just don't see myself as the person who will end up with a typical happily ever after with a wife or so. but i still want romance, i know i don't need it though. maybe i'll end up in found family situation, that sounds appealing. the idea of marriage makes me uneasy, not the idea of a long-term romantic relationship but the legalities and the ceremonies and whatnot. maybe my mind will change as i grow and see more examples of married couples that aren't strictly stereotypical heteronormative indian parents. idk what i'm rambling about now but i remember not even a few months ago i couldn't even fathom the idea of being a mother. i am growing and learning more about myself and so my views change. not having kids or having kids, no decision is "better" than the other as long as it's true to your desires and wants and your capabilities. there is nothing i detest more than parents who had children they didn't want to have or didn't have the means to raise. people shouldn't be pressurised to have kids to check this imaginary box of an imaginary list of things that apparently constitute making your life "complete". there was no structure to this but oh well i'm most honest in these kinds of rambles.

[daz4i]

every single tarot (+ other cards i fiddle with online sometimes) reading i do: listen. man. you are literally on the right track. you're doing great and working hard. you're being too hard on yourself and needlessly worry all the time. go easy on yourself, trust yourself, you're gonna be okay

me, every single time: hmm. surely this could mean anything. good thing i'm not spiritual or else this would've given me a needless sense of confidence!

[fionnaskyborn]

THE IPOD IS WORKING

I REPEAT

THE IPOD

IS WORKING