#therefore we suffer

[dotcircledot]

just small thoughts on how i think their established relationship would be like

[glassblossomsthunderstorm]

"Honestly, I don't really care why she lost. I care why he won."

- Desi Lydic

[sarafangirlart]

Internet ppl: Ares is the protector of women and the least problematic god 🥰

Meanwhile Ares:

[bi4demibuddie]

Buck: *distressed, screaming, wailing, hurting, suffering*

Buck stans: He looks SO pretty 😍😍😍. Make him suffer MORE💦. Put him through the HORRORS 💀😈. It's enrichment for him ❤💙. Look at his sad face awwwww 🥰. MAKE HIM BLEED 🩸🩸🤩🤩.

[andragoras-in-vanity]

i think im about to get to watch my government shut off the americans power and like....this whole situation is stupid and dangerous but its also just so fucking funny.

put tariff on us? okay we'll stop selling american beer and also new york and Pennsylvania can deal with the dark

[serpentface]

Two questions regarding the Wardi religion:

In addition to the bull and the lioness, what are the seven faces of god/sacrificial animals?

Given that white animals seem to be sacred, does that influence how albino humans/other sophents are treated by society?

The seven faces of God are as follows:

-the lunar, horned, or 'wild ox' face of God, which presides over the moons, and the fertility of the land, animals, and people. In pre-imperial times, this was functionally the most central face of God (replaced by the lion face/odomache). The most ideal sacrifice is a wild ox (especially white or albino) that has never been bred. -the ‘ox’ face of God, presides over agriculture and labor, as well as the domestic sphere. The most ideal sacrifice is a healthy plow oxen or khait who has never been yoked or bred (if the sacrifice is towards Ox-Face as the domestic sphere, this should be a heifer). -the lion face of God, presides over sovereignty, statehood, military might, and is most associated with the health and continuing existence of the imperial entity. The most ideal sacrifice is a maned lioness (functionally white, though this is a trait of the captive population). -the ocean or skimmer face of God, presides over the seas, winds, as well as fortune and mercantilism. The ideal sacrifice is the skimmer gull or an albatross, especially one taken from one of the sacred rocks in the 'mouth' of the Viper sea. -the serpent face of God, presides over the cosmos and divine Mysteries, associated with funerary rites and death. Also has a wildly disparate association with royalty (which is derived from entirely separate traditions and has not yet fully been reconciled into the faith). The ideal sacrifice is a two headed or melanistic snake, especially a venomous one (both would be MOST ideal, but this is rare beyond any practicality) -The solar face of God, presides over the sun, stars, and fire, also heavily associated with khait and mounted warriors. (this is a VERY direct import from the chief solar god in the Burri pantheon (who rides and/or is a khait with the sun between its horns), hence the seemingly random khait association). The ideal sacrifice is a healthy riding khait (especially with a white spotted coat), or alternatively a golden eagle. -The river face of God, presides over fresh water, seasonal flooding, and the rains. The ideal sacrifice is the migratory reed duck (which arrives at the onset of the wet season) or a freshwater hesperornis (ideally taken from one of the sacred waters). An-Nechoi are also occasionally given.

Though the core religion is monotheistic, each face of God is functionally a syncretic fusion of older ethnic Wardi beliefs, the Burri pantheon, and other regionally native traditions, which have not all been fully reconciled (the process of fusion is more or less still ongoing). Each face in of itself has dozens or more epithets with distinct features. For example, the river face has a specific epithet for each major riverway, each venerated as a distinct aspect of the Godhead. Functionally, common practice of the Wardi faith is pretty indistinguishable from polytheism, and most of the religious authority does not care as long as required orthopraxy is maintained (the central dogma of the religion does not care How you believe, but that the correct practices are enacted).

Also for reference, these are the specific animals taken on the pilgrimage in the story (transporting seven rare animals cross country can be fraught, so each had at least a few backups):

A pure white aurochs calf, found naturally born in a wild herd.

A massive, unbred and unyoked bull draft khait (dies en route, replaced by a less physically impressive backup with the same qualities)

A lioness with a full mane, from the white captive stock

A skimmer gull taken from a nest on the sacred rock in the waters of Od-Koto.

A baby two headed cobra (which dies en-route and is replaced with its backup, a melanistic viper)

A beautiful speckled riding khait mare whose horns form a near perfect circle (which is stolen en-route and replaced with its sister)

A rare wild hesperornis (haven't come up with an in-universe name yet) taken from the reeds of the Brilla river delta.

Anyway the sacrifices listed above are considered the absolute IDEALS when working with a specific face, but a great variety of animals will be sacrificed to various ends. There’s some very specific cultural/religious components to which animals are most valued, but in practice the value of a sacrifice is pretty close to 1:1 with the animal’s monetary value, at an intersection of utility and rarity.

So a young, healthy bull plow oxen who has never been bred or yoked is a more valued sacrifice than an old, experienced plow ox who has already sired offspring. You are giving up an extremely valuable animal and all its unused potential in a very practical sense, which makes the sacrifice more potent and valued. The 'virginal' status of the animal is key when the rite is SPECIFICALLY related to fertility, in the sense that the animal itself is sacrificing its unused fertility, allowing for the sacrifice-rebirth cycle to perpetuate. (Animals which Have been bred may be preferred in certain cases and rituals).

An animal with a rare coloration is usually going to be more valuable than one with more common genetics. This is the core root of why albino animals are of high value. It's less that white animals themselves are valued, just that rare genetics such as albinism = valuable sacrifice.

There are some specific exceptions where the color itself is significant (rather than just an extension of its rarity). God is specifically supposed to have taken the form of a white aurochs (itself emerged from the foam of the sea) during creation, so white oxen and wild oxen SPECIFICALLY have especially high value. Melanism or black scales are valued to the serpent face of God, which is associated with the cosmos and void behind the stars. (this stems from much, MUCH older beliefs in a cosmic serpent god in the region).

Animal sacrifice is a very significant part of the religious framework and involved in most rituals and prayers intended to affect significant change and transformation. (This is due in part to a deeply ingrained belief in the world being perpetually sustained in a cycle of sacrifice and rebirth, and in God Itself being the physical mechanism of rebirth and requiring sacrifice to be sustained). While blood itself is seen as potent, the nature of sacrifice isn't just 'spill blood and make thing happen', it's got a self contained value system and is very calculated and intentional in nature. You aren’t going to just grab a random rat and bleed it and pray, there needs to be a perceived ‘loss’. Sacrifice via killing is also not the only form, the most common day to day sacrifice is in (very minor) bloodletting and offerings of food and drink- the key is allowing a personal loss to sustain a greater cycle.

That being said, there is a HUGE trade system built up around the breeding and selling of animals solely for sacrifice. The industry revolves mostly around birds (doves are the cheapest, but also poultry, waterfowl, some birds of prey, a few select songbirds and ornamental birds), goats, sheep, and horses (the small, premodern kind). Cattle and camelids are a higher tier, and khait are among the highest of common sacrifices due to their great value.

Other animals that have no direct utility but are sacred are also bred or captured for sacrifice (hesperornis, lacetor, gulls and albatrosses, several kinds of snake, a bunch of wild ungulates, nechoi, etc). Some '''‘exotic’''' animals are imported specifically for this purpose, mostly as a means of displaying the wealth and reach of the state, with their sacrificial value rooted in the difficulty of acquisition. Animals taken from sacred sites are also prime candidates (ie cattle bred and grazed on the foothills of the Sons of Creation are VERY valuable).

---

So all that being said the importance of albino animals has come off a little overstated on my part, and doesn't have any particular impact on how albinism in people is regarded. It’s valued mainly for its rarity in the context of animal sacrifice, which would not have direct translations to how it’s perceived in people.

Albinism in people doesn’t have a super well defined significance in broader Imperial Wardi culture, but perspectives mostly skew negative and towards seeing it as a sign of ill fortune (physical differences in people tend to be seen as a result of being cursed in the womb). Imperial Wardin is culturally diverse (united mostly by a identity based in shared religion), so exact nuances would vary and this statement should not be taken as a universal.

Imperial Wardi population is mostly human (with its citizen population being MAYBE 5% elowey, 2% qilik, and a decimal point of caelin). Overall sentiment towards other sophonts by the human majority is not outright hostile, but is human-centric and tinged with xenophobia (as most qilik and elowey in the region are immigrants, with the only elowey ethnic group historically inhabiting the region (the Jazait) being regarded as 'heathens'). Albino elowey or qilik might be similarly seen as products of a curse, or may be given a 'wow how beautiful' treatment (in a heavily patronizing capacity) and seen as a curiosity, or otherwise just subject to varying perspectives on albinism in the region.

The one other thing I have established in this vein is that the semi-mythological hero Janise (sworn brother of other semi-mythological founder hero Erub) is said to have been albino. While he is positively regarded, he is supposed to have died young of a snakebite (assumed to be the product of a curse from his enemies) and this would not improve perceptions of albinism being related to ill fortune.

[bookwyrminspiration]

chat should I do the 50k words in a month this november, as per usual, or since we're ditching the site due to shitty management should I break free of the ill-timing and do the challenge in like. june.

[loserboyfriendrjl]

thinking about sirius and walburga, and about how they’re so similar; for this very reason they tear at each other, because “i can’t love myself, so i will not be able love you either, but i will try to show you the little i have and that is through blood and spit and tears”, and how they used to be a mother and a son, and he used to hold her hand, and she used to kiss his temple and hold him in her arms, the skirt of her dress an aura around them, and how they grew to be strangers, and about how how walburga was chained to the destiny sirius was supposed to have too, but sirius had always been so, so stubborn, more so than her, even, and he was not tied to a family that he did not want to have. because the thing is, walburga was a mother. she was supposed to stay, to love, to care for, but how could she, when not even her own mother had loved her? when all she carried with herself was bitterness and resentment? how was she supposed to love the boy who had her eyes, her mouth, her temper, her undying devotion, flesh from her flesh and blood from her blood, the boy of her tears and joy and anger? besides, he wasn’t her son anymore, he was euphemia’s, because even though he has walburga’s mouth, he smiles like euphemia, and even though he has walburga’s eyes, his eyes crinkle the same way as euphemia’s do. maybe he just wasn’t meant to be her son, and that hurt more than anything else ever hurt her. she knows he’s happy, he saw him at the station when he boarded to hogwarts, his eyes bright and his smile wide, and although she held resentment toward him because he got away, she was happy that at least he did not have to live the life she had to. and sirius is a star, bound to burn until there’s nothing really left of him, and she is a saint, chained to a life she did not want to have, a martyr of some sort.

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

@ Franco, someone please give him a seat for next year I beg!

[hadleysmis]

Montparnasse finds Gavroche

... In Hadley's AU, that is

May contain sensitive topics

Setting: The Northern island of Japan formally known as Ainu Mosir now adorns the name Hokkaidou after its official annexation. It is the 1930s and the engine of war does not pause in its acceleration.

There's two things I would like to establish happens in my AU: 1) Jean Valjean takes care of Cosette ever since she was a baby unlike in the book where she is a child ; 2) Cosette represents that no one can be a perfect victim.

With my Ainu storyline headed by Éponine largely in the prior sections and by Gavroche in the latter, I handle how I can insert Jean Valjean and Cosette's bucket scene with Montparnasse and Gavroche; and I also will handle the theme about the violent, ultimately justified minority.

Long post.

Some time ago, I wrote about my AU's Éponine being lynched in one of my posts.

After Gavroche grieved for her, the family decides to bury her before any authority got a hold of her. As M. Thénardier used to be paid to dig up bodies and earn money off from handing over skulls and buried accessories, he was scared in what they would do to his daughter.

After they had buried her, they notified the Police that she had simply gone missing, and that there were no known suspicious, potential perpatrators.

After the initial grieving days pass by, Gavroche finds his parents to continue living in Hakodate and not consider travelling 'back home'.

As Gavroche was too young to remember the time he had spent in Asahikawa (more up north than the southern-located Hakodate which was also the family's hometown), his constant pleas were ignored.

Because he was a child, and none of his siblings were born during the mass starvation tactic for assimilation of the Ainus, he did not know how harsh the situation was in Asahikawa.

Paralleling one of the great mistakes from Jean Valjean when caring for Cosette wherein he refused to correct and her and educate her on the reality of the past due to the desire of not reliving the trauma, the Thénardiers also pay the price for the miseducation of their later generation with Éponine and Gavroche.

Azelma, closer to her mother and therefore know more about her mother's life than Gavroche, makes her conclusion at the current age of sixteen to stay in Hakodate with her parents.

They argue, and Azelma argues that she wants to be Japanese.

"Even after all that the Wajin have done to us?" Gavroche almost screams in defence. In shock and horror from the dissonance from his sister, he holds himself back and instead speaks in bursts, much like a scared young dog barking.

After the multitude of attempts in maintaining an act, the walls of water in her eyes well up, and she speaks in a low, harsh whisper which echoes through the house. "What other choice do we have?"

It seems Azelma had a call of realisation earlier than Éponine had; perhaps at the same time despite not having been together. Perhaps she had felt a shiver or a severed connection as Éponine predicted, her words jagged by the involuntarily rhythms of gasps, "They're going to wipe out every one of us."

Azelma then spoke like a bee's sting: "I mean look at us. We're not even Ainus anymore."

Her words injected into her brother's bloodstream, and like how a bee tears its bottom, separating itself from the venom, Azelma gasped in shock, her mouth open, pulling in her falling tears like a slow black hole.

In terror of her own words, and in shame for still believing in her stance, Azelma rushed into her room, and thus never seeing Gavroche again.

The young teenager then took his part, planning to run away at last. He had dreamt of it with Éponine. She was the one who could've agreed to his adventurous whims and patriotic protest; only if there had been more time to convince her.

As a last farewell, he goes to his sister's grave and finds two men chatting and laughing as they dig u her body. One speaks of how grave digging is below him as a job for his status (reference to Gribier), and another who was an anthropologist.

There is also implication of rape as Éponine is a fresh corpse and not a skeleton; the two men must want either the treasures (like accessories) buried with her, or they wanted her.

Gavroche, fuelled by anger and disgust never known to him before, attacks both, and ends up killing one with a rock. The Gribier character had ran away.

Gavroche realises that he's going to die, and that this was the end for him. And he never got to go home.

It is then here we have an unexpected reference to the book; except, it isn't the father-daughter dynamic from Jean Valjean and Young Cosette, but instead father-son dynamic from Montparnasse and Gavroche.

Rather than a bucket gently being lifted, it is the bloodied rock.

However, the moment Gavroche realises there was another strong man in the scene, he is afraid. Montparnasse is a Wajin, and Gavroche tries to flee, but due to his adrenaline and energy being all spent, along with the brutal partner of realisation of murder, Gavroche crawls away and coughs deeply like he was unwillingly summoning vomit.

Montparnasse had watched on, and he makes a statement to the young boy that there is no such thing as a perfect victim.

This branch of the story is a more clear cut message from Cosette's storyline. While Cosette sympathises with the Japanese to an extent, and believes that there may be peace in the future (much like the relationship the indigenous populations of Japan on paper have today), Montparnasse, a yakuza, believes that this engines which crushes minorities to survive will perpetuate forever.

He believes that there is no rebellion, no revolution, and no change given to the system unless there's violence. If there's passive protest, then peace may be reached with a flip of a coin long after their deaths, or never at all.

He tells Gavroche that in order to live one must fight, and therefore he reassures him that he is not going to tell on the authorities about him. In fact, he was on his side.

The bloodied rock that Gavroche didn't even realise he was still grabbing tightly onto is then lifted by the yakuza, and Gavroche feels as though much of his burdens floated away with that rock.

When Montparnasse tossed the rock away, there was malice in his mind, but no anger shown in his throw. He just tosses it near the dead man's head as though it was a mere coincidence.

Montparnasse didn't care about death anyway; he had murdered himself in order to get to the point he was in.

When Montparnasse offers his cool hand, Gavroche takes it, much like how Cosette had when Jean Valjean offered his.

Montparnasse asks where Gavroche had intended to go.

"Go where?"

"You said you were dead. And that you never got to go back home."

"I have no home."

"Then where did you mean by what you said? Isn't a home what you make of it? Where did you want to go?"

Gavroche doesn't answer.

He instead presses for Montparnasse to leave so he could bury his sister again but Montparnasse suggests they go further deep into the forest and dig a new grave elsewhere.

Even though the task was carried out completely silent save for Gavroche's sniffs and whimpers, the meaning was huge.

Gavroche and Montparnasse bury her and this takes all night and day.

Exhausted, Gavroche reveals where he believed was his home: "Asahikawa." He did not elaborate beyond that; echoing the characteristic of Éponine's speech patterns.

But Montparnasse understood, and they got on a train together and headed up north.

Some of Montparnasse's enemies were on the train, and he fearlessly kills them. Gavroche is tasked to be a lookout as Montparnasse washes up.

They chuck the corpses out of the moving train, and Gavroche realises what a dangerous man he is trusting— and feeling comfort to.

Gavroche sticks close to Montparnasse as they sit in their seats, and the latter imposes authority if anybody dared to question Gavroche.

We don't get to see them actually arrive at Asahikawa nor what happens in their stay. Them heading off is more of me saying goodbye to Gavroche's storyline as I think it reaches satisfaction.

There is many problems in between why Montparnasse would find Gavroche, though. He does have a connection with the Thénardiers, but why would he favour Gavroche's side?

I'm guessing he had already met with the rest of the Thénardiers when Gavroche was absent and on the run. Or maybe Montparnasse visited them when Gavroche was off in his 'high' in his acceptance of indigenous identity where he was celebrating by doing rituals and wearing traditional clothes, etc.

Montparnasse, other than being a yakuza member, is very mysterious to me. He first appears in the AU when the Great Kantou Earthquake Massacre was happening, and provides the viewpoint of the mass executions the officials were making of communists, socialists, and pro-union citizens. (Meanwhile Javert provided the viewpoint of officials encouraging the mass lynchings of Koreans, and Jean Valjean and Cosette being the viewpoints of many ethnic minorities being slaughtered by the public.)

He calls the communists and whatnot his friends, but I have not created scenes where he directly converses or associates himself with them.

As far as I have made him, he could possibly be a communist, or Korean, or any other minority that was killed within that short period of time.

This is important of a detail as it would then explain why he would take pity on the Thénardiers and even come to visit them and eventually take Gavroche in.

When it comes to this type of history and its inseparable politics, I always stood on the ground that connection and communication between minority groups are important in order to keep the majority on a leash or outright cause a change through international pressure.

I'm supposing this was my reasoning for writing this storyline— as it emphasises empathy and togetherness, with the painful string of oppression and trauma grouping them together.

Anyways, while Cosette and Marius' storyline comments on my support for better education on history, this storyline represents more of my social beliefs in how minorities should stick together.

'If one minority isn't free, we all aren't free.'

The storyline was also inspired by one of the beginnings scenes, if not the beginning scene, from the 1996 Korean adaptation of Les Misérables, the Priest Francesco (Bishop Myriel) watches an insect struggle in the snow. it seems to be a metaphor on how the underprivileged act in away that is natural to the circumstance: just as the ant flails and struggles to stay alive in the snow, we are later shown a mentally unstable man with a knife having stabbed a woman.

I just came up with this storyline, so it's a baby. Who knows how this will develop, if at all.

If you did make it down here, ahhhhh I'm so happy and grateful. You have a nice day!

[incandescent-creativity]

We did it, we won DnD last night, our DM explicitly said “I did not expect you guys to immediately start experimenting with this” *

But how could we not!

* the fae deal half of us made agreeing to get our shit psychically rocked if we disclose too many details on the job they asked us to do

[s2pdoktopus]

Me with my favorite fictional morally dubious terrorists/war criminals: Half the things they are experiencing is their own fault but they deserve better actually, for you see; if that didn't happen they wouldn't have to do these.

Me with my ocs who killed at most 10 people: EVIL! You have your reasons but that's no excuse. SUFFERRRRRRRRR!!!

[madeoftwinklingstars]

something i think is really interesting about judaism is that there are movements that simply. do not believe that the torah (the main book of judaism) was written by god. i mean in what other religion would this be widely adopted. why hasn’t similar ideas spread further? what makes judaism different from them? while orthodox claim that jews who believe this are heretical, they are still forced to engage with these arguments that the torah was simply written by people trying to make sense of the world. there are also multiple movements within orthodoxy that force them to engage with this argument as well— like the fact that there are orthodox individuals who believe in science and evolution. if the torah is wrong about adam and eve, what else could it be wrong about? it’s so just so interesting to me.

[demodraws0606]

Me looking at Tumblr : Transfems and Transmascs at each other's throats and being vile to one another.

Me an AFAB nonbinary person who doesn't plan to transition who would be eradicated if I spoke my opinion :

[thetimelordbatgirl]

How playing Pirate101 for me and @dani-luminae is going when it comes to our musketeer characters.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

I think people watch those things as punishment because they don't have the means, time, extra money, etc, to do anything meaningful to help. So at least they can acknowledge and bear witness to the horror, even if they're not able to actually help.

right but like. "at least they can do this" makes it sound like doing that is actually materially useful, and i'm not convinced it is. i think in many cases it is only increasing the number of people suffering in the world. i agree that people are doing it because they feel powerless in other regards but in the majority of cases i think it's harming more than helping