#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.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

this cliff took more lives than i could on my own im losing it

[shershayariaayi]

In another timeline, I confessed to you. Whether you would’ve reciprocated or not, I’ll leave that up to you.

But in another universe I would have gathered the courage to tell you that for me you have hung the stars and planets in the sky. You are the sunrise I would not mind giving up my sleep for.

That loving you has become easier than breathing. That I imagined you whenever the poets and songs sung about worshiping someone to the level that everything yours automatically changes its ownership to your name.

That I am not ashamed or embarrassed to fall in love with my best friend. That I am not afraid to change myself for the better if it means I have the honour to communicate with you for however short or long time.

In another life, I would’ve professed to the one person it mattered the most: you.

- z.t. (Extract from a story I’ll never finish)

taglist: @curseofaphrodite

[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

[sweetvoice-emporium]

Happy Gnome's End !

[bg3screenshotdump]

ooooooh durge outfit DURGE OUTFIT

[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

[shershayariaayi]

I see you jumping out of the window and landing onto the streets elegantly as if you are just stepping out of a car. You look around to make sure no one is seeing you seek out. You look at the night sky in awe and admiration. Compared to you, the night sky has started to look more dull and unimportant. The moon knows what to do next. As you dance gracefully and breathtakingly on the streets minding your own business, the moonlight surrounds you, illuminating every step, turn and movement of yours. The moonlight moves with your body, following it however it moves, thus enchanting anyone who so much as glances at you.

To you, the streets have always been your stage where you can be free and alive without having to feel the excessive pressure or have people watch you critically. You, however, are not aware of how the moon, stars and i are bewitched by your little carefree adventures. While the moon and stars have boldly made their appreciation known every night, I have chosen to stay in the darkness of night and merely admire you frpoeom afar.

I have chosen such a wonderful fate because watching you dance with no care is medicine to all diseases. I feel my stresses and my heart melt away and my soul being fully satisfied by just merely gaining a glance of yours. While I know I will gain more happiness if I converse with you, I do not want your happiness to be taken away simply to pass time with me. We are busy as a bee in the day therefore night is the only time wherein we can unfold and unwind our happenings of the day in peace and quietness.

Hence, I will not take away anything which makes you comfortable, happy and at peace. I will, however, watch you while you are in your heaven. That sight is my heaven, it is my comfort arena, it is my treasure and it is the reason i live. Therefore, please do not take this away from me. Please remain to be the moonlight in my darkest times without knowing. Please don’t ever hate to love dance or yourself; for the moon will never rise again and darkness will never leave me again.

- z.t. (Extract from a story I’ll never finish)

taglist: @curseofaphrodite

[little-songbird-sings]

horrible when all your millions of years of evolved responses to danger are telling you to run run get away get safe get away from this but youre like. well i cant run away from this shit when it's how i fucking eat!! i cant run away from fucking,,,, capitalism!!! im sorry im sorry im sorry i want to keep you safe i want everything to be safe and okay but i cant make it safe i just cant we will always be in danger and i cant fix that i only have one disabled body i cant fix anything i can only try to make it less bad where we are but even that i can only do so so very little about the world is not kind to us im sorry the world doesnt even really hate us the world just doesn't care and im sorry that that will kill us all the same

[dear-rose-days]

Memo ‘24

I’ve been reading your past notes to your self.

Gosh, darling. A whole year has swept by without a whisper to you. I’m sitting on that mountain of solitude again. This time with a mirror. A hard truth, learnings and more prayers to send up to the heavens for more stars needed to light my way forward. It’s okay, I’ve got you, cloaked you in sweet, caring words. I’ll help you grow and carve out that next step upwards to your truer self. It’s hard and painful and the blood wells in my thoughts but I can water my gardens and grow bountiful joy - soon to blossom.

Are you coming back? To me. To my dreams. To my hopes. To my thoughts. I am a fountain of love and I’ll become stronger and wiser and my wings will bring me back up. Each feather a piece of wisdom I’ve gathered in my long and winding journey back to me.

I hope you can hear this, years into the future, just like I’ve been sitting here alone gazing back into the past. At your words. At your teachings. At you.

[5piecechickendinner]

home freakin run