#is just plain cruel

[wastedchancesofalife]

I started watching Kingdom-legendary war, yes i know i am years late to the party, but thats not the point. The point is pHOW COULD ANYONE CHOOSE BETWEEN THESE GROUPS

[serpentface]

Hibrides and Brakul having the world’s saddest booze-fueled girl’s night, probably a few months before the start of the story.

Anyway here's an extensive rundown of their shared history.

Hibrides Uryashta was the eldest daughter of a chancellor of the imperial city-state of Erubinnos (his lordship Erub Uryashta). She was brought up with great privilege and security, but (like most daughters of noblemen) was destined to be used as a bargaining chip in a political marriage arrangement. She was taken from her friends and family and moved to the city of Wardin at the age of 16 to complete her pledged marriage with Janeys Haidamane, the failson of the trade magnate Haidamane family. Janeys spent about a week poorly attempting to behave like a husband, and then took the first excuse to flee and engage in a petty military campaign against raiders on the Yellowtail trade route. She found herself left alone in his villa for three years with only hired servants for company. She made a few attempts to break into the city's elite social scene, but was quite shy and failed to make any headway.

Brakul had just spent a year and a half in a bit of a whirlwind. He was brought into a skirmish at the behest of an allied clan, who had been raiding the Yellowtail route and now was under attack by combined forces of an enemy clan and Imperial Wardi mercenaries. He killed one of the mercenary commanders and was captured as a prisoner of war, but was spared at Janeys' behest (who fucking hated that guy thought it was awesome that he got killed with a rock) and was ultimately recruited into the group. He had a chance to go back home, but actively chose to deadbeat dad out on his wife and child to be with his newfound lovequest, Janeys. He spent a year and a half as a mercenary, bonded closely with Janeys and swore brotherhood with him, and was eventually brought home to the city of Wardin with him. He found himself in the odd position of being simultaneously scorned as a foreigner and 'heathen', and the legal kin of one of the richest families in the city (and effectively the secret male concubine of their only male heir).

It was in this context that the two of them met, with Hibrides now being 19 and Brakul turning 27.

The two were initially wary of each other (Hibrides was particularly put off by his 'heathen' status) but bonded very quickly, partly due to their mutual states of being unmoored from their old lives, but in large part being just a natural chemistry. They had a lot of common interests and enjoyed learning from each other. Hibrides introduced him to traditional verse poetry (of which she was very fond). Brakul taught her how to ride khait, and even gave her a gelding from his own collection as a gift. They became very close friends over the next couple of years and spent much of their free time together.

A big part of the dynamic was that both of them are gay in a cultural context where there is no concept of Being gay, marriages are usually arranged and always between a man and a woman, and having children is a societal expectation. Each of them began to see the other as an ideal husband/wife, ie "if I had to marry why couldn't it have been him/her?". For Hibrides' part, Brakul had all the traits she would want in a husband: he was a pretty good friend and easy to get along with, he seemed like he'd do an excellent job of fulfilling expected roles as a husband and father (she didn't know about the wife and kid for a while), he treated her as an equal, and, most of all, had no interest whatsoever in fucking her. They were both in a sort of platonic emotional affair, and grew to love each other deeply.

Hibrides was pretty quick to catch on that something was going on between Brakul and Janeys, and found it strange and offputting but ultimately none of her concern. Her husband only being interested in his sworn brother and leaving her to her own devices suited Hibrides just fine, and Brakul always just kinda being There meant she was living with what had become her closest friend.

The stable state of this Feelings Triangle began to change in the wake of the brilliant plan to get Janeys (gay) (probably infertile) children he could pass off as legitimate via a Brakul/Hibrides pregnancy. It was something all three agreed to as a necessity; it was already drawing scrutiny that Janeys and Hibrides had been married for several years without a pregnancy, and producing heirs is a societal expectation and a central point of an arranged marriage between wealthy elites.

It was especially critical in this case, given Janeys was his family's only male child and only hope of continuing the family line, given both his golden-child sister Faiza and black sheep half sister Couya were Odonii, and thus sworn virgins and would never marry. (There's also a level to this that Janeys was regarded as a complete disappointment by his parents, and his mother made damn sure he knew that his only value at this point was to produce a better male heir to inherit the business. So this was a big fucking deal to him, and to Brakul by extension).

This was also not a route any of them wanted to take on any personal level, least of all Hibrides. She consented to the pregnancy and everything it entailed, but it was inevitably a painful and distressing experience all around. She had never wanted to be a mother to begin with (though had long accepted it as an inevitability), and now found herself with an infant daughter, which only meant it would have to happen again (they needed a male heir after all). And it would be utter social suicide and a profound shame upon her if the child's illegitimacy was discovered, which only added to the stress.

To make things worse, her first pregnancy shifted the entire dynamic with her husband and brother-in-law/best friend. Janeys changed from completely indifferent to actively spiteful and hostile towards her, and things had become extremely uncomfortable between Hibrides and Brakul. It only got worse with Brakul (the only one of them who actually WANTS kids) (kind of haunted by skipping out on his first child) finding it unbearable to be so close to HIS daughter and having to keep up an act that she was not his own, having no direct role in the kids life. He desperately wanted to be a father.

Hibrides, who was going through a fucking lot, started to become vindictive towards him for his role in things. She resented him more than Janeys, because Brakul insisted he cared about her and would desperately try to pretend things were normal, while consistently siding with Janeys against her wishes, including in preventing her from getting a divorce. (His excuse is that the children's legitimacy would be interrogated in a legal setting, which Is likely and Would be absolute social suicide with very real consequences. But the real reason on his part is that if she got out of the marriage, he might never see her or the children again). Hibrides began to do everything in her power to prevent him from having any relationship with his bastard children, even in secret or under the guise of a relative. Sort of an “if I have to suffer to keep up this facade so should you” thing.

They had two children in a span of three years, two girls (ruh roh!) named Erubi and Livya. By this point, Hibrides and Brakul were both experiencing what we would now call Clinical Depression and Alcohol Use Disorder (especially in the latter's case). Hibrides started to have affairs with both men and women, which she was sure to be very obvious about to insult Janeys and Brakul, but was mostly out of loneliness. Brakul turned his complete focus to Janeys and started avoiding Hibrides entirely, in hopes that she would become desperate enough to be willing to make amends (shockingly, this did not happen, and the rift only deepened).

In the present, their relationship status is: fucked. Both of them do still love each other on some level, but this is probably beyond repair. What little time they've spent with each other in the past year is sitting around being miserable and getting plastered. And now Hibrides, Janeys, and Brakul are all forced into the public eye on the pilgrimage together, and with a third child on the way. So that's probably going to be everyone's problem.

[luxraydyne]

idk it's such a very small thing but "maybe you killed her with renju." "don't be ridiculous!" is very cool very epic i think. credit to both voice actors bc i believe that, their whole past and future entanglements aside, hitomi just fucking despised date for a second there to be honest

[just-another-random-cloud]

Mu, deeply traumatized by the Mafia so much she can barely tell right from wrong:

Mafia Boss: I didn't teach her that!

[uncanny-tranny]

A really sinister aspect into how people view children and parents is the idea of children being a replaceable commodity.

I've seen this in the way people talk about parents who have lost children but have surviving children... "Oh, at least you have other children," as though a child is just an interchangeable tool, a machine that dispenses what you want from it without it being sentient, whole, and feeling. The fact that people say that in order to comfort somebody shows, to me, how deep this mindset is engraved in people's brains: children are interchangeable items, and they do not fundamentally matter.

[thevioletcaptain]

y'all get that screenshotting fic to publicly make fun of it is straight up bully behavior, right? like. it doesn't matter if you redact the author's name. this is no different to a kid taking someone else's art off the wall in a classroom, walking out into the playground, and holding it up to say "haha look how shit this is"

[maekarlargenaturals]

someone once said modern targs would be trailer park kings and queens, and the idea of redneck ass targs hasn't left my head since. Thus, save a horse, ride a Maegor?

[espectres]

Ppl don't understand how Toichiro is so interesting how he doesn't gaf if anything legitimately harmful happens to Shou ( due to Shou's own actions or even by Toichiro's own hands at the point of wda ) but the second anyone else is like ?? literally after his son's life ?? good old oyaji goes bonkers

[bonefall]

so im curious, is ashfur in the dark forest (pre-the broken code)? does he still have the weird little control-possession powers over df cats? is he still possessing bramble, doing wacky shit in thunderclan?

also mildly unrelated. but what does mapleshade think of ashfur

Ashfur is no longer in the Dark Forest! But... I had to get rid of something that I love a lot to justify it; he no longer plots with Hawkfrost to kill Firestar. As a Hawkash lover it pained me but, it was for the best.

Ashfur is still a jealous, possessive ball of spite like in canon, but significantly more honorable. Enough to legitimately trick StarClan. Gooood-BYE "He Only Loved Too Much," you are NOT missed.

Bonefall Po3 (Specifically Cruel Season)

At the end of Bonefall Po3, he attacks the Three half out of jealousy, and half out of fear. He catches wind of the two prophecies; Fire and Tiger from TNP, and Kin of your Kin revealed near the end of Po3. He attacks Squirrelflight, telling her that if they had been his, they wouldn't have to die now.

She reveals the secret to throw him off guard; That her kittens with Brambleclaw are already dead (miscarriage) and the three are not his.

Also then she kicks him into the tree and knocks it over so the Three can escape the fire because it's my rewrite and I get to decide the anime battle choreography bullshit

Hollyleaf then kills him later, having already lost her mentor Brackenfur to the Eclipse battle and abandoning peace as an option. If she had not killed him, he would have been exiled for his attempted murder. Or, he may even still end up being exiled, and Hollyleaf does not think it's punishment enough. Still undecided.

Either way, this marks the beginning of the end of Bonefall Po3, which was relaxed and slice-of-life before this point. In my head I'm calling this "Plot Thickening" period 'Cruel Season', the name for the last book of canon Po3 that was cut by the publisher.

Bonefall TBC

Yep, he is still the Impostor... and he is brutal. Worse than canon. He actually cares about both possessing Squirrelflight AND legitimately enforcing the code.

Bristlefrost dies twice in this redux. Once during a horrific public execution to kick the arc off in earnest, and again to kill him for good. I initially planned for her to drown in a similar way to canon, but then I had a really cool idea that instead of drowning, this time she body checks him out of heaven.

So she burns up with him like a shooting star. Idk wouldn't it be fucking awesome if like once a year you could see Bristlefrost's Comet, or there was actually an impact crater somewhere on the map from this point on?

But anyway. Ashfur will have some control over ghosts, but I'm hoping to make it less than canon. I don't like how he was able to conjure up nameless rogues so you don't feel bad about the Warriors murdering random people :/

He won't be able to manipulate feelings that aren't already there. Hidden resentment, anger, despair, so on. Love being the antidote in ALITM was excellent you will pry Love and Friendship from my cold dead hands

Though I am also unironically considering giving Ashfur a Boss Form. I know it is silly. But multi-eyed, winged angel Ashfur would be cool man idk i like it when i get to smash my action figures against big monster

[lilacs-and-lavenders]

Love Destroyed Me

[handweavers]

to be fair it's not like you can get heavy opiates over the counter in msia either but you can get some low dose narcotics without a prescription and doctors will prescribe pain medication more easily here than in canada, generally speaking. which isn't hard to say because trying to get any kind of opiate in canada is nearly impossible, or at least it feels that way lol

[theflyingfeeling]

...🌧️

[kiwibirb1]

Nothing quite like walking past your childhood playground and seeing it ringed with fences, all the structures torn down, not a single woodchuck to be found. The plaque is still up. The garden has thankfully been spared. It's going to be another year minimum until they finish. For all of that time, our town has been deprived of an area that matters a lot to the community. It's where we hold events, where kids play when they get out of the school right across the street, where parents take their littlest ones, the ones who aren't old enough for school yet, and take them to play on the swings and slides and just have fun.

[solarismp3]

omfgggg one of the girls who terrorized me and drove me to near suisoide in Paris lives in the same building as me

[vitamiiiiins]

One of the worst things people decided to do is act as if lesbians simply describing the experience of not being attracted to men is something bad, something mean, exclusionary, or negative, that should be hidden away and not talked about.

Comments like “why would you define yourself around who you don’t love instead of who you do that’s so miserable”. Simply stating that lesbians aren’t attracted to men is not definining ourselves around that, it’s just acknowledging that this is a part of our experiences. It’s a simple, factual description. We don’t experience attraction to men, which affects & is relevant to our experience of identity, attraction, sexuality, our lives, and is therefore worth talking about. Stop assigning moral judgement and criticism to what is simply a factual description of something we experience.

You must realise that acting like lesbians not being attracted to men is bad and something we should not talk about or mention is literally just plain old homophobia/lesbophobia, right? surely?

Are aroace people not experiencing attraction bad or exclusionary for “defining themselves around who they aren’t attracted to”? No. It’s literally just a factual description of themselves and their experience with attraction (or lackthereof, it’s all relevant, that’s the point). It’s not negative, it’s not bad. It is what it is. And the exact same goes for lesbians saying we are not attracted to men.

We’re allowed to talk about that aspect of our lives and attraction the same as everyone else is.

[britneyshakespeare]

i have a very peculiar life where i've often, due to chronic illness and the resulting reclusive tendencies from said illness, just plain not associated with people of my own age on a regular basis for months or years at a time. but when i do go out, i'm, like, not an unattractive or socially unsuccessful person. well i'm not necessarily socially successful but i'm not unattractive. and i'll look back on like a certain period sometimes and realize that i had a lot of people trying to pursue me romantically, and i'm like "hey what happened to that? its been such a long while since anybody asked me out........."

"oh yeah i dont leave the house"