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peacefulheartfarm · 4 years ago

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What is a Freemartin Heifer?

What is a freemartin heifer? That’s today’s topic. It is related to one of our cows having twins. Stay tuned for those details. In other news, “is that a skunk?” That’s what I thought yesterday when I was walking out to get the cows. You never know what you are going to run into on the homestead. And the dogwood trees are in bloom what a treat. It’s different for us out here in the country. Driving along the highway, there are lots of dogwood trees in everybody’s yard. These are well-trimmed and very round trees. They are quite lovely. The dogwood trees here on the homestead are sprinkled through the woods. It looks like it is snowing in patches everywhere. I love this time of year.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. What would I do without You? I have no idea. I’m so glad you are here. I’m so excited to share with you are the various stuff going on at the farm this week. There is a lot of it.

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates

This time of year, everything is kicked into high gear. It seems like one thing is happening right on top of another. And when you have the odd thing pop up – like your windshield getting a ding by a flying rock on the highway that quickly expanded to a lengthy crack requiring a windshield replacement, it makes it that much busier. To top off that cute little story, you never question how much it is going to cost for those great auto-driving gadgets if something breaks. The windshield has a camera right behind the rear-view mirror that required recalibration after the glass was replaced. That lovely service cost one and half times the cost of the windshield replacement itself.

A day later I find out that the automatic headlight features are no longer working. I have to make a second trip to town for some codes to get cleared out. That fixed the problem but it took another three hours out of my day. Do you guys have days like that? You have so much to do and you end up doing something completely unrelated to anything on your “to-do” list. I still have a pending “to-do” regarding that windshield replacement. In Virginia, every county has an annual inspection that requires a sticker to be displayed on the windshield. Yup! You guessed it. That little feature didn’t survive the procedure. I got it back in pieces with an apology and a reminder that I would need to get that inspection sticker replaced. When am I going to get that done? Geesh. It has been one of those weeks. On to the homestead happenings in and around these minor annoyances.

Gardens and Orchard

The strawberries are doing really well. I can’t wait for them to start blooming. Speaking of blooming, the blueberries are busting out all over. Keep the second week of June in mind. That’s likely when we will have blueberries available at the farmer’s markets. I’ll be making lots of blueberry jam again this year. At least I hope I will be.

If you’ve been around the podcast a while, you might remember that we have had some trouble with racoons in the past. These are really cute creatures and I’m willing to share a little of our abundance with them. However, when they start eating the entire crop of blueberries, that’s where I draw the line. We put up an electric fence two years ago. It worked beautifully. In fact, it worked so well that we didn’t even have it working last year and we still got all the berries. I guess the experience the previous year was so “shocking” that these little guys decided not to even try last year. I wonder if that caution will hold up for another year. Naw, let’s not test it. That electric fence needs to be reinstated in the coming weeks to ensure that we are successful in harvesting our wonderful blueberries.

The blackberries are growing lots of leaves but have not started blooming quite yet. It is a wonderful time of year when the blackberries bloom. A related plant, the wild rose, also blooms about the same time. Between these two plants, the fragrance in the air is heavenly. The goats have cleared out most of the wild rose and wild blackberries so we may have to rely solely on the domestic blackberries for our perfumed air this season. We shall see.

The green peas are jumping up out of the ground. Scott built a wonderful trellis for these lovelies. We have two 70-ft long beds with six rows of peas in each that are coming up. Peas love the cool weather. It’s a good thing they do. The temps are going to drop into the low 30’s tonight. But I expect the peas to be fine. There might be a very light frost, but we should be okay with that.

The early blooming fruit trees are done and will be setting fruit at this point. That is a greater concern. If it gets too cold, the cherries, peaches, and plums could lose their fruit. I was looking at the peach trees yesterday and I didn’t see any small fruit. Perhaps it will be all right. We shall see.

What was I doing out in the orchard yesterday? I was chasing a small quail.

Quail

While I was testing the automatic waterers, one of the younger girls slipped by me and jumped to the ground. I chased her and chased her and chased her. She got into the orchard and the grass is about 8 inches tall in there. I saw exactly where she landed but when I got there, she was gone. I walked outward in a spiral, expanding larger and larger, but I never saw her. I guess she’s gone for good. Sigh! I hope she has a great life out there on her own. Hopefully, she will be able to fend for herself. It’s hard to tell though. She has always had her food presented in an easily consumable form with no effort on her part. Out there on her own, she will need to scratch around a lot to find bugs and worms and such. Quail are very carnivorous and require lots and lots of protein. I wish her the best. Who knows? She may turn up in a day or so and I will be able to catch her. We had that experience a couple of years ago. Scott lost two hens that time and we eventually caught both of them and returned them to their cages. So, there is hope.

The rest of the quail are doing very, very well. Twice a year Scott gives the quail hutches a thorough cleaning. He finished that job just as the new babies went out into the grow out cages. They are doing really well. We have 36 of them at this time. Figuring out how to work the automatic waterers is always a challenge, but they mastered it in no time.

Just this morning 72 more eggs went into the incubator. The second cycle of baby quail has started.

Sheep and Lambs

We are done with the lambing season. The last ewe delivered twins a few days ago. Girls!! Yay!! They are doing very well. We ended up with three girls and three boys. Six healthy lambs. Susie Q is still getting her bottle twice a day, but she has been turned loose with the rest of the sheep and lambs. I’m thinking she doesn’t like this very much, but she is getting used to it. Because she was so attached to Scott and myself and literally never left our side, it was important for her to start spending her time with other animals. After all, she isn’t a human and she needs to make friends with the other animals.

It seems to be going well. I always feel sorry for these lambs that have no mother caring for them. But they seem to do very well in spite of their orphan status in the flock. Lambert is our flock ram. He was a bottle-baby last year. Look how far he has been elevated in status. I’ll probably keep Susie Q as a flock ewe also. The bottle babies are somewhat like pets. Not exactly, but definitely more special than the others.

Cows and Calves

Violet is the only animal we have left who has yet to deliver. She is not due until the first week of June. It’s always a relief when we make it through this delicate time for all of our female creatures. Scott briefly talked about having a second set of lambs in the fall. I am not in favor of this as it is quite stressful for me when our ladies are nearly term. I’d rather keep it to just a couple of months in the spring. My nerves need a rest for the remainder of the year.

Butter produced a very big surprise for us. If you haven’t seen and heard Scott’s video on our Facebook page, you have to get over there and find it. It was posted on Thursday, April 15th. He is filming the results of him helping Butter deliver this cute little girl when all of a sudden, he sees another set of hooves. Here’s a link to that post. It’s hilarious. Watch to the end.

The twin calves are really cute. However, there is a problem when twins are one boy and one girl. The heifer calf, the girl, is most likely what is called a “freemartin”. That’s the topic that I want to dive into with more detail.

Butter’s Surprise

I had Butter pegged for delivery in late May, not mid-April. I’m not sure how I got so far off on those calculations. I think I was planning ahead on my spreadsheet, estimating where the dates would fall with various scenarios and neglected to put the dates back to their original settings. About three or four days before she gave birth, it became obvious that my calculations were off. Her udder swelled up and she was just huge. And it was the day before she gave birth that I had the very strong thought that she might have twins. She was really huge. It really is hard to tell though. When they fill their belly up with hay and grass, it can get really big even when they are not pregnant. Add pregnancy and they all look really huge just before they give birth. I just had that very strong thought and then she did, in fact, have twins.

There is no problem when the twins are both girls or both boys. But when one is a boy and the other a girl, there are definite issues. Nothing like they will die or anything like that. No, they will be quite healthy. It’s the freemartin phenomenon to which I am referring. What? You don’t know what that means? Neither did I.

We had actually purchased a calf that was a likely freemartin heifer when we purchased our first milk cows, Claire and Buttercup. We purchased Beta because the price was right and we wanted one additional cow strictly for beef. So, what is a freemartin heifer anyway? Here is the low-down.

Freemartin Heifer

The term freemartin refers to an infertile female mammal with masculinized behavior and non-functioning ovaries. The animal originates as a female with the double X chromosome, but during gestation acquires the male, XY chromosome. This can only happen with a male/female twin gestation. As I said, as long as there are two girls or two boys, there is no problem. This occurs in all cattle species that have been studied, and it can also happen occasionally in other mammals including sheep, goats and pigs. We have never seen this in our sheep and they deliver mixed male/female twins all the time. So, I have to think it is quite rare in sheep. Sheep and goats deliver twins and even triplets all the time. However, natural twins in cows only happens about .5% of the time. About one in every 200 births. A large cattle herd of 200 or more cows would see twins regularly in any given calving season.

With the male/female twin calf set, they not only share the uterus but they also share the placental membranes. That’s where the problem arises. The joining of the placental membranes occurs at about the fortieth day of gestation. After that happens, the fluids of the two fetuses can easily mix. There is an exchange of blood and antigens that carry unique characteristics of bulls and heifers. In the end, both will have some characteristics of the other sex.

The male is only affected by reduced fertility. In the female, over 90% of them are completely infertile. That makes her a freemartin. One who is genetically female but has characteristics of a male. Ovaries generally do not develop correctly and are small. There can be other structural anomalies as well. In the end, freemartinism cannot be prevented. And it really is rare. Even with any set of twins, there is a 50%-50% chance of same sex calves. If I do the math correctly, that means that 1 in 200 births would produce twins and at least half of the time, those twins would be fine – twins of the same sex.

Anyway, that’s the story of our twin calves. They are cute beyond measure, but likely we have two steers. I don’t know about the Hansel. Oh, I forgot to mention we call them Hansel and Gretel. So, I don’t know if Hansel will make a decent bull or not. But we can be pretty sure that Gretel will never produce a calf. What do you think we should do with these two calves? We currently are bottle feeding both of them. They could be sold as bottle babies. We could raise them as steers. We could try to breed Gretel when she is old enough. We could raise Hansel as a bull. He is 50% registered Normande and 50% registered Jersey. If he is fertile, he would make a fine bull for somebody.

Let us know what you think.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for this podcast. It’s a great time of the year here on the homestead. I’m so glad to be nearly finished with birthing. As I mentioned it is quite stressful for me. I just never know what to expect. We have beautiful lambs and beautiful calves. We are truly blessed. The joy of watching all of the plants and animals grow will fill our lives for the next several months.

I hope you all are having a wonderful spring season as well.

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eyedelater · 7 years ago

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notes (translation and otherwise) on chapters 100.12 and 100.13

basically i typed these up the day of translation for the respective chapters but never published them because i was feeling weird about them but i figured i’d put them out there anyway

translation notes marked with a * at the front so you can read only those if you want. overall this is pretty long and kind of nonsensical

for 100.12

*the "brother you can earnestly compete with" is the same phrase that i translated last chapter as "serious conflict," as in "there's never been a serious conflict between us," and i can't decide whether i translated it too strongly and then too weakly or vice versa but basically the meaning of the phrase (honki de butsukariau) is like, “seriously clash.” yeah, clash is the best word, isn’t it. it’s got all the right connotations, like bouncing off each other and general conflict but not necessarily a destructive fight and also not necessarily a friendly competition. yeah i should’ve said clash both times, huh. do you ever have regrets

*i was right about the sound effect at the end of 100.11 being a flash, sort of..? it was a precursor to this first panel's sound effect, which is "PIGIIIIN" which is an unusual sound effect, or at least, one i haven't really seen before. i mean it's entirely possible to just invent a one-off sound effect for any particular situation, you know? but in this case the sound effect appears to describe the phenomenon of ritsu being utterly immobilized by ???% in an instant

i was wrong about the percentage meter being mob's :0

raise your hand if you lost your shit after doing a double- or triple-take between the omake title and the omake itself and finally realizing what it was

i still need to sort out exactly how ritsu's interpretation of ???% and my ???% hypothesis work out, but i've been too busy playing psychonauts... plus i'm sure we will continue to better understand the nature of ???% as this chapter progresses. [[edit: psychonauts was good, and i’m probably going to reserve judgment on ???% until we get the full story, since there’s no point in speculating when your speculations will be addressed a week later]]

for 100.13:

*well, i had a lot of decisions to make in this chapter... which i guess actually just means i was slightly confused/ambivalent a lot. it comes with the territory of not actually being that good at japanese. i've said this before, right? it's on my about page. so don't let it come as a surprise to anyone that i'm not that good at japanese. i mean i'm not terrible, i have a solid handle on it. it's just that my approach to translation is more like decrypting a cipher as accurately as possible and then phrasing it in a way that captures both the meaning and the feeling. i try really hard, but i know i couldn’t be a professional translator without further education. that’s why i never claimed/aimed to be the best or only translator of this series. but i do still believe my work is accurate.

*anyway, starting on the first page. ritsu says "wakatta... wakatta yo..." and wakatta just means "understood" and the "yo" adds emphasis, but we don't quite have any emphasis-adding particle in english, so i changed the latter to "i get it" to make it sound more insistent. even though i really try not to translate the same phrase two different ways, especially not in direct sequence like that. but at first i translated it as "i get it... / i get it, okay..." and that sounded way too whiny, so i thought the better way to phrase it would be to do what i did. i think ritsu feels bad about causing distress to ???% and is saying, like, "i know it feels bad, but i had to do it." (<< interpretation, not a translation)

*when ritsu says "right...?" i was thinking about translating that as "don't you think...?" (what he actually says is just "nee...?" which is just a call for confirmation basically) and while i do think "don't you think...?" would've been the cuter translation, i went with "right...?" because it has the same number of syllables as the raw line and maintaining brevity is important to me sometimes.

*thanks again to femoralynn for hand-drawing the "STOP!!!" on the third page~ i think it makes a big difference. in the raws it was also hand-drawn and it said "TOMAREEE" which means... "STOP," but in english there's no good way to add more letters to "stop" to indicate you're stretching out the pronunciation, so i added three exclamation points in order to convey the intensity and desperation of the line. even though i usually try my best to stick with the punctuation offered in canon without adding or removing any.

*translating newscasters is an ordeal because they use hella kanji but i think i got the majority of it down... the only bit i'm not very confident on is the speech bubble to the right of tsubomi's face, but like, i don't think it will have a huge bearing on the story, and i'm pretty sure it's close enough. i've said before that i'm not going for archive quality, and i'm not going to go back and fix little mistakes unless they're really annoying or really important to understanding the story (like the mistakes i fixed last week).

*i hope it's clear in the "the government has claimed that no official agencies are involved in this matter" line that they're saying that no official agencies are responsible for causing this disaster, and what they're NOT saying is that there's no government agency investigating it. because like. surely there is. like, joseph works for the government, and he dropped touichirou on it, so the government is doing Something.

*yes, ???% uses "boku" pronouns. an established fact, but just a reminder to the curious who forgot or didn’t know in the first place.

*oh, i might've mentioned this in previous translation notes, but whenever i put "power" in quotes like that, it's because it's in quotes in the raws. whenever it's Not in quotes (like in ritsu's "innermost power" line), i don't put it in quotes. i'm not yet sure about the significance of this, because although mob seems to use "power" in quotes consistently, he's not the only one who does it, and yet, not everyone does it. hmm.

i guess i’ve unconsciously switched to using “he” pronouns for ???% sometimes in my meta. this is probably exactly what ???% wants...!

*now about the confusion that led me to post the chapter an hour late. on page 8 of the chapter (labeled page 149 in the bottom right corner), you'll notice that the four speech bubbles in the last two panels have no tails to indicate the speaker. tailless speech bubbles are my mortal enemy, as both a translator and a comics reader in general, and if you're someone who makes comics or ever will, i strongly urge you to add tails to your speech bubbles no matter what (and if the speaker is offscreen, do the thing where you make an inverse tail in the speech bub by taking out a wedge). so basically, i rely heavily on context and got confused about who is speaking in the last two lines of this page. of course, i was also confused by the grammar to a degree, otherwise i wouldn't have had to rely on context in this case. anyway, at first, i thought it was ???% saying, "if you do that, you'll disappear. i live freely." the first line makes sense in a way, telling mob that he'd disappear if ???% disappeared, but the second line seems like a non sequitur, and i couldn't really make sense of it. then i thought, oh, it's mob talking from offscreen, and he's saying, "if only you would disappear. then i could live freely." that's a very reasonable sentiment for mob to express, and it would make sense as mob elaborating on the line that came directly before those two lines... but then, on the next page, it seemed strange for mob to be saying his fifth line in a row. it seemed like it should be more of a back and forth than just mob talking at ???%. and note that i had poor femoralynn typeset all these confused iterations as i thought of them at like 11:25 this morning. sorry again for that. but anyway i finally realized that ???% really IS the one talking in those last two lines (no thanks to the tailless speech bubbles, again), and he's responding to mob's request to go away by suggesting that mob should be the one to go away, since he's the fake one. and finally that makes perfect sense with the lines surrounding it. i don't know why it took me so long to understand that... but the speech bubbles definitely had something to do with it. remember, kids, if you put dialogue in your comics but don't indicate who is speaking, the reader doesn't know either! unless they're the only one on the page, like when mob was yelling into the void inside his own head.

it doesn’t help that in japanese, they often leave the subject (and sometimes the object) out of the sentence entirely and leave it to me to interpret who is doing a verb to what/whom. because in english, you can’t just leave the subject out of a sentence. (e.g. “korosu” is just the verb “to kill” but if you say “korosu” to someone, you’re essentially saying “i’ll kill you.” notice how i had to add the subject [i] and the object [you] even though the literal translation would be nothing but the verb “kill.” so if i see a speech bubble that says “korosu” and it doesn’t have a tail to indicate who is saying it, i Literally Cannot Know who is threatening to kill whom or what, except by using context to make an educated guess. you see why this is a problem? and naturally they do this with tons of verbs completely unrelated to killing, i just thought of “korosu” first because bakugou katsuki says it all the time)

(ONE-sensei is usually very good about tailing his speech bubbles. i wonder if the lack of tails was intentional here, meant to further reflect the fact that mob is arguing with himself and that they’re kind of both technically the same speaker. still confusing though)

(oh and for the curious, the raws for the last 3 lines on that page, page 149, were as follows: 「僕の中からいなくなってくれ。」「だったらキミが消えてくれ。」「僕は自由に生きる。」 yeah the "kure" in that second line really threw me off bc i'm a fool and also i translated that same "kure" as "please" for mob but i didn't put "please" in ???%'s line because i couldn't figure out how to put it in there concisely and also it's clear that ???% is being a dick even if he kinda said please. and also because i don't know shit)

(and fuck, if i'm being honest, that "please" probably teleported up to ritsu's "so please... come home..." line, because he didn't actually say please in that line. should i correct it? i feel like a fraud. i just thought the "please" helped convey the sentiment of the line, but in retrospect i could've translated it more accurately without losing the feeling of it.......... what ritsu really says in that line is "dakara... kaettekite ne..." which, if you've watched the one punch man anime, you can only hear as the lyrics to the extremely sappy ending credits song, so maybe that impression of extreme sappiness sapped through into my translation and made me make it sappier than it really was...............)

about how ???% is like "ritsu is my little brother. he was saying that i'm his older brother." i might be wrong in my interpretation (not translation, which is more or less literal, but the interpretation i'm about to give), but i took this to mean something along the lines of "just now, ritsu kept addressing me as his brother. i think that means i am his brother. today i learned that i am ritsu's brother." as opposed to meaning something more like "i'm the one he called 'nii-san,' so i'm his brother and you're not." (plus ???% did not literally say, “he called me nii-san.” i translated that line accurately.) although either way, it seems to indicate that ???% only just recently started noticing (or being able to notice) whom ritsu is addressing as "nii-san;" otherwise, ???% would have known that the other million times ritsu has called someone "nii-san" in his life, it has been directed at mob, not ???%. so even if ???% is suggesting that he is ritsu's only True nii-san, his claim is only based on the last few minutes of ritsu addressing him directly, which would back up my claim that ???% only learned/decided just now that ritsu is his little brother... if any of this makes any sense.

i love how serizawa is like "let's get out of here i'm sure kageyama-kun is fine" and reigen's like "...he's in the tornado isn't he" and seri's like "..........maybe"

and serizawa's new umbrella, which he must have picked out and bought himself specifically to use as his preferred vessel of psychic power, is transparent. is that... a bubble umbrella...?

#mob psycho 100 spoilers #MOB BLOG MOB LOG #very late but oh well

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magnoliasrotting · 8 years ago

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The Three Heads of Rulership

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts about the Starks and the North post the War of Dawn. Thoughts of who will rule and who should? How will it be ruled? What will it look like after the War? The more I began to think about it, the more I began to think that Sansa, Arya, and Bran could rule as a triad or together. I know it may seem very cliché and cheesy but we have already seen a trio rule within Westeros.

“The three heads were Aegon and his sisters.“

"Visenya and Rhaenys,” she recalled.

Aegon and his sister-wives once conquered and ruled all of Westeros. There is canon example of a triad ruling together. Now, I’m not saying that Bran or Arya or Sansa will get married, far from it but all of these characters have shown a potential to rule. Sansa, Arya’s and Bran’s storylines are rife with kingly and queenly motifs and symbolism.

Sansa was meant to be queen and currently is acting as the de facto lady of the Eyrie and let’s not even begin to delve into her connections with Ned who was never meant to rule but ended up taking his brother’s place as lord. Arya has shown numerous times that she can lead, Nymeria is leading a huge pack of wolves and named her wolf after the Queen that established the Dornish people and Bran was the lord of Winterfell.

All of these characters have shown examples of rulership. However, it is not only that, it is also how they all imitate Ned the man who was never meant to rule. Just like Ned, none of these kids were meant to be in a place of leadership. Sansa less so than the others, but she was never meant to rule over Winterfell, to the point where there are two attempts to remove her from the line of inheritance.

A king must have an heir. If I should die in my next battle, the kingdom must not die with me. By law Sansa is next in line of succession, so Winterfell and the north would pass to her.“ His mouth tightened. "To her, and her lord husband. Tyrion Lannister. I cannot allow that. I will not allow that. That dwarf must never have the north.”

“By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa."

”Lady Lannister, you mean? Are you so eager to see the Imp perched on your father’s seat? I promise you, that will not happen whilst I live, Lord Snow.“

Just like Ned, Winterfell was never meant for them and just like Ned, they have responsibilities thrust upon them at a young age. It is more than that though, all of them adopt some aspect of Ned’s leadership style, knowingly or unknowingly.

Arya sense of justice and her Stark values and sense of family are established on Ned’s teachings as short as they may be. Her desire for vengeance is not so much a desire for justice and her doing the kills, reflects Ned also adopting the mantle of both judge and executioner.

Sansa similarly also adopts Ned’s characteristics.

A lady’s armor is courtesy, that was it. She donned her armor and said, "I’m sorry my lady mother took you captive, my lord.”

He had taken off Father’s face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell.

Throughout the text, Sansa is shown to continuously remind herself to don this armour on and wear it. Bran as well has shown signs of adopting Ned’s characteristics and leadership styles. His introduction into power most overtly echoes Ned’s own entrance into power. Both being the second youngest sons and therefore being the most unlikely to rule.

However, there are more connections. There are links between the original three heads, Aegon, Viseneya and Rhaenys and the youngest Starks.

The first example is Viseneya, the oldest of Aegon’s wives. She was the reason behind the founding of the Kingsguard, going as far as to choose the men herself. Sansa’s connections with knighthood and the Kingsguard is something that has been continuously reiterated. She is currently even trying to recreate a Kingsguard for Sweetrobin in TWOW.

Four-and-sixty knights had been invited to vie for places amongst Lord Robert Arryn’s new Brotherhood of Winged Knights, and four and-sixty knights had come to tilt for the right to wear falcon’s wings upon their warhelms and guard their lord.

Just like Viseneya once did, she is trying to create a group of knights protect her cousin. However, it is more than that, Viseneya was for the most part in charge of the construction of Kingslanding and running the place. Sansa’s storyline is very much connected to politics. She is currently learning from a man who is not only a master of politics but also incredible with money and gathering it.

Arya bears a lot of similarities to Rhaenys. She is the youngest of the two and is also the only Stark to have numerous friendships with the smallfolk. It is Mycah’s death that begins Arya’s desire for justice. Her list is begun because she sees so many who are people hurt and harmed and yet receive no justice and this sense of justice is heavily connected to the smallfolk.

Later they passed through a burned village, threading their way carefully between the shells of blackened hovels and past the bones of a dozen dead men hanging from a row of apple trees. When Hot Pie saw them he began to pray, a thin whispered plea for the Mother’s mercy, repeated over and over. Arya looked up at the fleshless dead in their wet rotting clothes and said her own prayer. Ser Gregor, it went, Dunsen, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling. The Tickler and the Hound. Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei.

Arya’s list and prayer doesn’t begin because of the harm done to her, but rather because of the harm done other people. These connections go even further with further with Rhaenys most notable stories being associated with giving justice and women. It was Rhaenys who pushed for it to be made illegal for the ironborns to just kidnap women. She was integral to some of the protections put in place for women. While Arya hasn’t anything notable or similar as of yet, she has been shown to befriend women of all kinds and most likely, just like Rhaenys, believes that the woman is important too.

Rhaenys was shown to be the one who loved her dragon the most and was known to always ride it and while you can compare this to Arya’s love of horses and riding, there is a more notable comparison.

This time the monsters did not frighten her. They seemed almost old friends. Arya held the candle over her head. With each step she took, the shadows moved against the walls, as if they were turning to watch her pass. “Dragons."

The dragon heads don’t scare or frighten her, rather they give her comfort and make her feel less alone. While Arya has no dragons of her own, she recognises them as friendly, similarly to Rhaenys who loved her dragon most of all.

These similarities exist between Bran and Aegon as well. Aegon not only ruled from afar but also built up his new home from afar as well. It has been shown that Bran is needed to replace the three-eyed crow and therefore at some point in his life will once more have to live away from Winterfell. The rebuilding imagery, similar to Sansa, is also particularly potent in Bran’s storyline. Aegon the Conqueror’s relationship with religion is also similar and clear in both men’s histories. Aegon building a huge sept to placate the Seven and Bran being embroiled in the religion of the Old Gods.

All three of the Starks mirror in one way or the other the original three heads. However, it is the examples of rulerships that makes me think this rulership is likely.

We have seen time after time how toxic, how isolating and hard and tiring it is to rule alone. We’ve seen this with Robert and Ned and Jon and Dany and Robb. We’ve seen how toxic the existence of the Iron Throne as a central point of power is. We have seen how dangerous power belonging to one person is with both Joffrey and Aerys misusing it and no one being able to stop them. Cental points of power are not only hard but in the wrong hands, dangerous.

Sansa, Arya and Bran all bring something to the table, whether that is politics, or justice or magic. They are three separate figures who have all been pulled in separate directions, learning things completely unrelated to the other. They are the three that become one.

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radne-le-roman-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Is there such thing as a May onward resolution?

No clue. Not in the slightest. It now exists, because this probably should’ve been a New Year’s one, over on Randythewriter. But, I created this one because it’s a joke that @poppyredrose560 made (my name - Radne), so I could let some shit out without dude getting in the way, until I fucked up and reblogged something using this account. So now I need to think of a new username. (Cough, cough) Poppy, you come up with genius names and even Death ROW that I would’ve never gotten, make me a new nickname please. (cough cough).

Only joking, Pop. I’ma sorry I pissed you off last night, I won’t pretend I was in the right, I only thought you meant it be me included with ‘men, positions’, so I left because I identify as a male cyborg. I’m sorry. I just wanted to be a guard. And fight Ironforge.

Is there such thing as a male cyborg, or is it just a cyborg? I’m off topic.

Like I said seventy tribillion years ago or something, I don’t delete things like this and just type without editing, minus spelling mistakes.

So, hi.

Hi, if you don’t know me, you’re about to either click off, or scroll down to some depressing shit about Death Row, and myself, with the lil eld Riley O. Warren, n Oscar, n Belina, n Andrew all having some dark few moments. Riley and I especially.

And if you do know me, whether that be from years ago, or you don’t like me anymore, or anything, unless you’re Pop or another unnamed person, don’t knot your knickers - I do actually have friends, and don’t wear knickers, or really care anymore, you won’t know me. Probably.

I don’t know how long the onward part of this will be, maybe three weeks until I come back on Radne, maybe a few months, maybe six odd years, or never. But, Randythewriter is dead, and he ain’t coming back. I feel like, deactivating the account is disrespectful, so I just cut all things unrelated on Randy, and then left it. I’m not cutting things here.

So, Radne will join him, and Idk, Ra the Kettle Roman will join the world fresh and new. (shrug) Not happening.

I know it’d be easy to find me. But this isn’t for you, whoever reads this. It’s for me.

-The-random-writer- died months ago, and now my current tumblrs are too, and while I’m not giving up the site, or the internet, which to be honest, I probably should have considering everything - guess the word strong somewhat applies to me, I’m giving up the things known.

Writing, eh, maybe in June, Pop.

SV was nice while it lasted in my mind, and yeah, I guess I’m beginning to structure it for myself, I guess it all changes when there’s no mate for Kettle-Kurt to lean on. But no, Aaron won’t go. But a lot will.

PG, Toby, dude, you’re dead as fuck, go back to your grave and do not try this hologram shit. And do not kill me, when I have a piece of paper in my hand saying ‘traitor’, I’ll get that on my wrist at some point, give me a break, I’ll get tattoos for your and Aarurt later on.. at some point. (Gravestone: Randy Roman, ‘97-2047, never kept his promises on tattoos. Because. Asshole.).

But, I’m dropping this account, if it wasn’t obvious. Oh, wait. I want another.

Death Row, or DR if we go with the trends of others, you mark my new, Riley, my man, you stick in there, and Andrew (apparently my actual name could be Randy, Randy is short for Andrew, weird fact from Randy), you keep investigating, you utter nutter. And Belina, have a heart, here, take mine, it was kinda stabbed in the front though.

What am I doing? Jake, you corrupted my fucking soul.

I’ve only said fuck twice - three times now, I’m doing good.

This is what three day weekends do to me, thank you bank holidays.

Oscar, be there for Riley, he’s a mess, just like yerself, quit parrot teaching, quit the repartes that break both yer hearts, and cuddle, ffs.

I’m the creator and telling them what to do instead of fixing them... Right...

JD, die. You little shit, die.

That’s over now.

So, I thought I’d do that, because I haven’t used wattpad in over a month, and even then, all I did was chat with an old friend, with no notifications for months.

I’ll probably still occasionally drop in on it.

WoW, bitch, you’ve been with me for two years, I think, I cannot quit you, my level 64 bastard who gets stupid tasks~. Randyroman, you have such a creative name and I love you. You’re just on a dead server. And Louis hates me for that one.

To the point. I’m done with this account, and being battered from both sides, mine and yours for feelings. *cough* yes, fucking hypocritical, yes, no caring in the world right now. Your biggest fighting method is something that happened once or twice, that I actually do not really remember, nor care, because in my eyes, I’m fairly glad it was sent to you, even if I hate myself so much for everything I’ve done, at least I finally came out of the ‘toxic’ arms that everyone told me you have. And that may be so, but I’m uncaring for opinions.

I smiled. Today, I’ve smiled and laughed and had a lot of fun. I haven’t felt it that much, to be honest. Poppy is a great laugh, but I’ve not really done too much of it until today. And that’s what’s opened my eyes a lot. From scribbling lyrics with Jake, or swinging on swings with Ellisha sitting on me, Adam and Jake either side of me, and an empty seat she could easily fucking sit on, to just eating breakfast and cheering when we found out Jake has his entire GCSEs correct and will begin them in a month or so, I’ve laughed and smiled.

I was happy. Actually happy. Even with HU in the background, the occasional stab in the front, and then MatPat raging, Caitlin crying in delight (we got cat today, lil kitten kute, or as Poppy will get - yes we actually did this, because, for some reason, I was allowed to choose the name - Kore le Kute, I’m spending so much more time here just for lil Kore, every weekend I want to be here), to just taking a nap, and not dreaming about terror, death, or you. I was happy.

Recently, I’ve had some lyrics coming left right and centre, so, I thought, I’d add some in the end.

But, this is probably goodbye from me today. And maybe awhile. Maybe, I’ll come back in June. I don’t know. There will probably be a tag with ‘q’ if I find anything I want to post for after this. And when there’s not, I’m probably back, from Ra the kettle Roman.

So, I want to be dehumanized, yes, and I’m not consuming enough food, seeking the help I need, or doing things I should be, but I’m doing this. Because maybe I want this pain, but maybe I want independence.

So, take your Randy shit, and seize this opportunity to post anything. I’m not crying tonight. I haven’t been crying for awhile. But my May onward resolution, is to not cry from you. For as long as possible.

I have about twenty thousand songs, but let’s try this.

“ I don't believe in all your demons anymore

It's hard to see with any reason from before

I lie awake and face these shadows in the night

I see the truth through crimson eyes”

“ Got my cards lined up in a row

Up in flames and away we go

Lost my name but it's etched in stone

Take me home when the cold wind blows.

Ain't no grave gonna hold me down

Wide awake so don't make a sound

Ain't no way you can break me down

No one sings, no escaping now”

“ Let go, oh

Love isn't good enough

Let go, oh

Love isn't good enough

And the waves in the sea

They slip away just like me

So let go, oh

You weren't good enough”

“Dark hearts don’t break, they bruise.”

“Cause I, I think of you now and then, the memories never end, when gravity pulls you in”

“ I am a lion and I want to be free

Do you see the lion when you look inside of me

Outside the window just to watch you as you sleep

'Cause I am a lion born from things you can not be”

“ Beneath the covers while I hide behind the pain

After all only so much we can say

Words can lose their meaning once you walk away

Promise me that you'll love me, watch me as I fade

I'll give you all the things that these lions never gave

The hands on the clock and the things we cannot change

Tearin' out the pieces and take back what I made

If there's one thing I'd keep, it's you that I would save”

“ I don't know why I cut myself.

God give me a sign or help, I won't cry.

It'll be fine I'll take my last breath.

Push it out my chest till there's nothing left.”

“Have you ever met a living legend,

Just a real friend who planned his end?

And where do I begin?

You said it was pretend.

And when the bullet went through,

It took more than just you.

It took two, it was you,

It was me, and suddenly.

How can someone say they're helpless,

And then they act so selfish?

You put me through hell with this,

So fuck you let's just end this.

And what about our friendship?

What you did was senseless.

You thought you found an exit?

Like I said, let's end this!”

“ Someone left the door open

Who left me outside

I'm bent, I'm not broken

Come live in my life

All the words left unspoken

Are the pages I write

On my knees and I'm hoping

That someone holds me tonight

Hold me tonight”

“ 'Cause I

I think of you now and then

The memories never end when

Gravity pulls you in

(You in, you in, you in, you in)”

All HU, nice songs, these are some I thought you’d like. Take me home, let go, gravity, lion, circles, the loss, outside.

And then just the entirety of True Friends, which I quite enjoy.

So, goodbye.

( Now I can see your pain, I'm sorry!

GOODBYE!

I cry so hard.

Now I can see your pain, I'm sorry!

GOODBYE!

I cry tonight!) (Pain - HU)

Goodbye for now,

Hasta luego.

Good day.

And I love you.

And if you decide to delete some of our memories, that’s okay. Danny and Da kurlzz have a little something to say to you.

And so do I.

But, I’d prefer you not to, maybe you’d like to look back at times. I don’t care if there are any pending messages from me, but the ones that exist, once they get deleted, maybe they’re gone forever. And I know you’re petty enough to now go delete them and make a few more telling me to piss off.

Maybe one day you’d want to look back. Maybe if you delete them from you, it deletes from mine too. So delete them all, if you delete any. You can keep the one that says that you wouldn’t care about my status as a human, alive or dead, for all I care, that’s what begun my thoughts and nightmares of you killing me. And yet you’ve said before that… that you don’t want me to die. Shock, horror, even I was surprised to have that quoted. I won’t call bullshit, only the truth of my thoughts.

Delete the happy moments, Hunter, if that is what you wish, don’t do it out of petty spite. Delete the happy and the sad, until there is no trace of us, until there are ten posts on Randythewriter, where you cannot visit, where there is only the evil on Radne, the truth and what you did to me. If that’s what you wish.

I know you saw last nights thing. So, fly to Andromeda, and take your posts with you.

Will.

Not.

Cry.

Over.

You.

I fucking loved you.

And finally,

I’m using the right word.

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danchoujo · 6 years ago

Text

september 24th, 2018

woke up from:

an almost functioning narrative

the beginning is blurry as always but it's starts with the top few floors of an apartment building, which switches between having a few regular rooms on each floor to just one lavish room/department store on each floor. at one point I am at wu mei's apartment, which is crazy nice and goes in a circle that melds together with some sort of mall.

this goes away and I'm somewhere I don't remember. then I climb the stairs and enter a room with some kids that are supposedly my cousins, but I see unrelated people there. I help them move this heavy block that looks like a old tv. there are two of them and we put them into a small, shallow pool (10x15ft, about three feet deep but at some points it seems like four). one side of the pool has the ledges passed with pale pink pillow things. the other side is pushed against a wall with some squarish screens in it. this set up is for some weird video game (the back of my mind keeps insistent it's wii something) but instead of making the block things race within the pool jmomey and Jonathan (pearl's cousin from pshine2015) jump in and start swimming. I think that jmoney is going to win but he's several seconds behind Jonathan, who comes in at 7.1sec.

while this is happening I'm sitting to the bottom right of the pool with some girl (we are near the entrance). this girl is white but has a blue tinge to her skin sometimes. she's a bit chubby, with a wide, bulbous nose and light, wavy, greyish ash blonde hair that is falling out of a thick black silk ribbon at the back of her head. she is wearing a loose crewneck sweatshirt that is a bit frayed at the collar. her name is something like erina or alice? she seems to be around my age, maybe a little younger, and says, "I know I don't look like much, but I'm actually the god of attraction/attractiveness." I think about the people who must make fun of her looks and I feel a bit sorry for her.

it's raining hard outside and I think, in the back of my head, that I have to get back to somewhere (my grandma's place? I can't remember) downstairs. I go to the door (nearby) and see that's it's raining like crazy, so I take the umbrella that's hanging from the top off the doorway. it's light blue and ruffly with lace, so it may be a parasol, but I don't have much choice at this point.

I don't want to pull the umbrella open all the way so I attempt multiple times too walk to the stairs with the umbrella scrunched open slightly. it doesn't work. rain pours through the umbrella as if h it was full of holes (though there are none when I check). eventually I open it a bit wider and I'm fine.

the original goal was to go down one floor, but now it is to go up one floor. I have a hard time finding the stairs and one I make it up it looks somewhat like the food court area of the duty free store in thailand, but empty. I am positively dripping in rain by this point. as I walk along the circle that this is in, I remember that I still have the umbrella, which now is my grandmother's. I contemplate not returning it but decide that I have to, side it's my grandma.

I look around so see if there is anyone (at this point in mostly exploring) and wu mei pops up. apparently this mall like place is her apartment, and she's swiffering this one section of floors? I ask her to lead me out and she takes me the way I came.

but instead of getting back to the stairs, we end up entering this cramped mall like area that merges seamlessly into her home. during this short walk I have been following my wet footprints (which are not backwards like I'd think) and I become intrigued when the footprints walk closer to the stores. it walks past two or the stores and seems to enter one with red walls. when I enter, the lighting is weak; it has several rows of wooden pews pushed the same brick red color as the walls and at the other end of the store they're is a dance floor. many people are dancing, and behind them is a big screen of the music video of whatever they are dancing to. someone tells me that jungkook of bts is there and I think that I can see him, so of course I rush down between the pews to get a better look. indeed, he is there with his bright pinky red hair and a black outfit (from the lotte concert before the idol comeback, but the straps are less present). there are people dancing around him but they are giving him a wide berth, and I can see him quite clearly. I whip out my phone and take a snapchat where he syncs up with the man dancing in the music video. in the back of my head I am aware that this is too fantastical to be real and that is a dream, but I don't consciously think this. instead, I hope very hard that this snap posts properly.

it doesn't. a white guy from the right comes up next to me and shows me an app on his phone that nasa or the government or something uses. it shows a gps of the mall he zooms into the dance floor, which is outlined with orange. he says that means that this area has bad connection and that it's hard to upload things because of that. I understand this but I still feel a bit disappointed.

the music suddenly stops and. someone starts speaking into a microphone. they say to come towards the front of the pews and sit down. this isn't said in a threatening massacre way, but I get the feeling something bad is about to happen when I start moving forward. people are coming out of the pews and the walkway is getting cramped, but it is very easy for me to go forward. part of me wants to go to the very front in case this is a meet and greet with jungkook, but my wariness makes me hang back at the third row of pews, even though there are gaps between the people in front of me that would allow me to the front very easily. app nerd guy starts with me and i'm a bit wary of him because while he seems harmless he is a very obvious stranger to me and: taller and looks stronger than me. but I mostly ignore him. instead of sitting at the pews, everybody gets onto the ground in an earthquake safety position (on knees with torso hunched over and and on the ground or over head).

the person at the mic says that they (plural) will go around and greet everybody. this isn't like a meet and greet, instead it is more like a business workshop that teaches you how to greet people professionally. I get the feeling that they are testing us to see if we can do it properly, and that something horrible will happen to us if we mess up. since I'm scared, I crawl into between the second and third pews slightly. I am stopped by a black rooster. it's dark, so I can only see it's silhouette, but it's slender and sharp like the ones on weather vanes and I'm afraid that it's going to peck me so I don't go further into the pews.

I can hear the people around me get approached by the event people. from what I can hear you have to shake their hand and greet them. I have this bashing feeling that I'm going to misgender whoever I'm taking to and call them a lady, and I become more fearful and anxious as the event people get closer. I can hear app nerd guy do the greeting correctly, and then I'm next. the rooster under the pews is now a full black cat, so I crawl a bit back under to find some comfort. I make the kissing sounds I make for momo and the cat immediately shoves its face into mind. I think to myself that this cat is a lot more forward than momo, and then I must stand up to face the greeters.

I stand up (sit up?) and see a lady in a business suit and pencil skirt with jungkook, except instead of jungkook its this guy freddy from my freshman learning community two years ago. I greet the lady correctly but I reach out with my left hand when we go do the handshake. for some reason I thought that business people shook hands with their left because they had to hold stuff in their right, but obviously the lady held out her right hand and our hands bumped awkwardly.

people that did the greeting incorrectly started turning into various monsters like zombies and ghouls. I felt my own face start to twist and change. because I only messed up half of the greeting, only half of me changed. this is one of the rare dreams (only dream) where I am in first person instead of third, so I can't see my own face, but I can feel it twisting and tingling. I have the feeling that the skin " the top left side of my face is cooling and blueing.

naturally, I'm freaking out. I turn to app nerd guy since he did the greeting correctly and is still human. however, his skin has also blued and I can see his canines extending past his lips. his hair, which was dark brown and a bit curly, turns black and so does his beard (hugh jackman style). his clothes (red orange zip up hoodie) haven't changed. he looks just as terrified as I am, back against a pew and arms and legs pulled toward himself.

I'm confused because I thought he would stay human, but then I realized that everyone is turning into monsters; the people that did the greeting incorrectly just turned into monsters that had less autonomy of themselves while the people that did it correctly got turned into more model creatures like vampires, werewolves, (less decayed) zombies, etc. app nerd guy and I seem to reach this conclusion simultaneously, and I ask him what I've turned into. he balls his hands into fists and moves then near his face in the universal sign for cat. at this moment I catch a glimpse of myself. the upper left side of my face is a pale blue, and some small horns can be seen protruding from my forehead and temples where my hair is pulled back. my left ear is pointed, and I have vaguely pointed teeth. some of my hair is pulled back into a black ribbon, and my hands are boney and sharp clawed when I move them to touch my face. I guess I'm a cat demon or something? I conclude that this is partially a result of the cat I made contact with right before the greeting.

app nerd guy and I sit in panicked despair for a while, and then the lady and jungkook (who is jungkook again) walk by us. jungkook reaches out to run his hands through our hair, and im not sure why I'm compelled to but I push my head into his hand and then his hip.

as they walk away app nerd guy speaks, but the words don't seem to be coming from his mouth. "nobody can resist that guy, but that's not even his real form. apparently his real form is very plain, but he shifts into that appearance so he can attract people." (he also said something about thighs bursting out of pants but I'm not sure what the wording is. it was weird)

when he says this I am suddenly reminded of erina/alice, and I know in my heart that she is jungkook. she attracted everybody here and turned them into monsters to punish them for mocking her looks.

I wake up.

#dream log #when i recounted this dream to my friends it sounded like. almost comedic bc it's so fantastical #but during the dream it was bad :(#i went from panicked to confused to fanatical to terrified

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