IT'S BUNNY TIME EVERYBODY

(feat. Dilla)

(bugle accompaniment by Yuu)

alternative reasons to avoid bringing your brother in law into a conspiracy or a conversation between caesar and cassius

this scene is set sometime after Brutus and Cassius have switched over to Caesar's side during the Pompey-Caesar conflict.

in a different comic, I wrote about about how cassius isn't a dog that needs to be tamed, but that depends on which side of the playing field you're on. if you're Caesar, Cassius is someone you need to leash down immediately, and the complicated social web of debt is one way to do it!

Cassius is inescapably tied to Brutus: the sandbox bond of childhood best friends, brothers-in-law with Servilia bringing Cassius into the family, and a third time with Brutus asking for Cassius' life. if you're going to bring a man who clawed his way out of a horrific defeat that killed your patron and later joined up with your rival in a civil war (twice aligned with the other two heads of the three headed monster you were a part of!) under your heel, reminding him of the only bond that could hope to rival with his family ancestry is one way to do it!

Cic. Phil. 2.26

Brutus, Plutarch (trans. Scott-Kilvert)

The Defeat of Rome: Crassus, Carrhae and the Invasion of the East, Gareth C. Sampson

Civil Wars, Caesar, III. 101 (trans. A. G. Peskett)

Servilia and Her Family, Susan Treggiari

Caesar and the Dangers of Forgiveness, Barry Strauss

tbh, there's probably an additional subtext (there is, I was thinking about it) on how Crassus used 'softer' means than force to bind people to him (again, the politics of debt and patronage) and how Caesar takes after him in some ways here. it didn't last, tho. in 45 BCE Cassius voted against giving Caesar honors. (Cass. Dio 44.8.1)

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on this day sixty years ago.

The very same day that C. S. Lewis died.

Looks like poor old Jack (as Tolkien nicknamed him) got upstaged. Even in death.

And the very day after it happened was the broadcast of the first episode of Doctor Who. An Unearthly Child.

one reason peter was so excited to have miles finally at the society is because jess and gwen dominate spider trivia night on sociopolitics (jess) and music and soft sciences (gwen) and peter desperately needs a new partner to balance out his stem knowledge with the arts and youth culture. the one time he tried playing with miguel he picked a fight with the proctor about a genetics question that lasted half an hour, not counting follow up fact-checking and arguments over three discord servers that lasted for weeks

little does peter know miles will also start fights against poorly phrased trivia questions about art history, current slang, basketball stats, comics canon, and musician feuds, but peter doesn’t know enough any of that so he just nods and goes along with whatever miles says when he rambles about something. meanwhile gwen is sitting across the aisle wondering if jess would be willing to put her annoyance with peter aside and be open to a four-person team because seeing miles argue about the correct order for naming the teenage mutant ninja turtles has just made her crush on him even harder

TFW your ex’s shitty dad tries to inaccurately mansplain his backstory to you.

“Yes, I know all about your bastard son whom you acknowledged yesterday for clout. :) I also know about the subtle insult of a courtesy name that you gave him. :) He lived at my house for several years after you bowled him down the stairs :) and I’m still processing our acrimonious divorce so I truly cannot believe :) that you are trying this right now. :)” 

always felt like the idea of being a king or authority or of any higher status was antithetical to ichigo as a person. he never cared for titles, everyone is on his playing field with the same level of respect. his bosses? old men old hags. godlike people are just the average guy to him. no ones above him no ones below him. he was always about the little guys, the outsiders than he does with the status quo

my most self-indulgent au concept is the one where the council of the wise men rigs the election in order to have a desirable (read: controllable) candidate to end up on the throne (the candidate is probably emilia because i find the potential interesting) and felt and reinhard decide to organise the revolution and overthrow a queen (the queen is secretly in cahoots with them and kind of severely disappointed in the whole being queen thing)

cannot overstate how good hanging out with people older than you can be for assauging fears about aging + generally putting things into perspective. my trivia group is collectively 15+ years older than me and my church is mostly made up of people old enough to be my parents, and spending time with them keeps me from being trapped in my own head about my own personal timetable bc that's been at the root of a lot of my spirals, doubly so as someone who only got to start living in their thirties and has internalized a lot of misogynistic messaging about what aging is going to mean for me.

idk, personally, I feel like sometimes you need a fifty something lady to listen to you agonizing over what'll happen when you get old and go 'you're thinking way too far ahead'. yeah. you're right, actually. we're playing trivia in the world's most mediocre restaurant and for now, that's what matters.

Dreams really do come true I'm going to get to meet my crush Alone at a café right on Valentine's Day

Your interpretation of Martin is honestly one of the best things I have ever seen, and I'm honestly so glad to see someone draw him in a way that understand he is big and HOT and deserves all the goddamn love. Also your near feral rage at skinny!Martin people is amazing and I wish you all the best in life because someone had to say it

THANK YOUUUU skinny Martin just really drives me nuts 😂 I gotta defend his honor!! 😤 He is big and fat and hot and the OGs know it 👏👏👏 Although I admit I've gotten a lil TOO grumpy and posted some unnecessarily harsh things about it a few times LOL I stand by what I said but just like........ privately in DMs with my girlfriend where no one will send me hate for it hahaha

hiii meow 🔥

i am going to give u a guy that would be obscure even if volfoss was popular bc people hate old man cunt serve or whatever

this is frokiston and he has every disease. i havent seen a ton of him yet (so this will not be long which i think is for the best. but he has a lot of the ummm. features that aki and from what i understand of astarion have which is why i think you'll like him). hes basically the leader of Ikuaipe (which. quick pause to get into politics before i continue. because unfortunately its important and the politics do tie into him due to his position in society). the map is there to well. hopefully help it be easier to understand the politics im so sorry (and also because his head is kind of cut off like this. jumpscare of old man face)

so. volfoss politics 101: three big countries: ikuaipe, asdenia, and caldealand. asdenia and ikuaipe are at war by the time you hit act 2 over the fact that asdenia basically stopped exporting rare metals that ikuaipe used for drugs (for like. no reason rly but its been VERY shitty for ikuaipe bc they either have to smuggle it over or experience very bad withdrawal symptoms) and depending on what route you take (there are 5: asdenia, caldealand, ikuaipe, good, and bad), the war itself is properly started/furthered due to differing events (a monster in one, frokiston's seeming kidnapping in other. we will circle back to that). one of the really nice things abt volfoss is how even when you take one of the country's sides, you'll still see the other country (and in a sympathetic light too. like theres nuance there basically). the political structure of each nation is different (so like. with caldealand, theres a prime minister, king and queen; asdenia has weird shit going on where its like? the arch priest seems to kind of be leading or somewhat. its weird man idk. and ikuaipe has frokiston as the king, gust as like his evil inventor or whatever and veycer under him as the lead of the military. this is all important im so fucking sorry. there will not be a quiz at the end)

you have made it OUT of the politics section and now i can talk about him as a character. he's very interesting to me due to his self sacrificing natures (which is why i immediately thought of him when you sent an ask in). the two most prominent examples is in the ikuaipe route, when the war starts (or is about to), he puts himself in risk to go talk to Tiece (who's the archpriest of asdenia) (this journey is like. the entire length of the world. ill toss a map in above to help keep all this straight and also to show for reference why this man is making a VERY dangerous sacrifice), all because he just doesn't want the war to start. literally EVERYONE is like hey. this is a really dumb idea. dont do this. and he just is insistent bc its for the good of the country. i kind of hesitate to be like oh found family moment bc thats not really the case, but he's very much a figure that veycer can look up to and someone who veycer turns to before he leaves, because NEITHER of them want this war really. but frokiston is level headed but is there for veycer as he's coming to terms with the fact that the war may be necessary in order to get the rare metals in order to help their citizens. and then um well. he gets kidnapped/disappears shortly after this (on this route at least. idk about the 3 routes i havent done/the rest of this route) and that is enough for veycer to basically kickstart the war into high gear, as he assumes asdenia did SOMETHING to him and would do anything to get him back. and i think um well if you think about the tragedies and all w aki. that the parallels are there.

we are onto part TWO of the self sacrificing natures. when on the asdenia route, he's the final boss. also he has had body modifications here. unclear as to what they are but it could be really anything. tossing that light hearted fact in before i hit you with the horrors. into the horrors now though :3 so all through the asdenian route, you see veycer kind of butting heads with frokiston on this because frokiston does NOT want this war. he will do anything for peace but eventually it gets to the point where he realizes it has to happen. and hes very upset about this bc its painted as veycer is a bit more supportive of the war happening, and frokiston just kind of like. being there and being kind of miserable about it for a bit because he really can't do anything (as we see in the ikuaipe route, its not really safe for him to leave the capital, so he's just stuck there).

but the self sacrificing point comes after you beat him. he pretty much says that ikuaipe has no future now, and shows gratitude towards shalvas for being a good fight at the end of his life. and here is when we start to see the self sacrificing tendencies RAMP up. directly from my summary bc well. "He pleads with Shalvas to finish him off and then he will show his body to everyone. His plan is that if they do that, Veycer and the others will stop fighting. Frokiston wants no more lives to be sacrificed." He literally fully believes that showing his body will stop everyone because the fact that their leader was defeated would make everyone just. stop. Sheala (who's one of the Ikuaipe army commanders. she's great you'd love her) is also there, and he is SO relieved to see her because it does genuinely seem like he cares about them (veycer and sheala are siblings) a lot and worries about them. one of the higher up people in ikuaipe (turi-marrya. sorry there are a million names. shes important and u would love her ok. i promise) is the only one who can really persuade him that he shouldn't throw his life away for this, and sheala has to basically persuade him that he's the only one who can stop gylor (leader of the asdenia military) and veycer from continuing to fight. Turi has to pretty much beg Frokiston to live, and again from my notes:

"Frokiston pauses to think for a very long time, before finally saying “...I… Maybe I was trying to escape from death by embellishing my words beautifully. Should I make amends? It is very sensible to think of it that way.” Turi says his name and he finally comes to a decision, saying that they need to go to Veycer right away, and that after that, both he and Veycer will formally declare their surrender. Turi replies, “Bless your courage, Your Excellency Frokiston.” He rejects that, believing that if he looks brave, it is because of Turi. Frokiston feels encouraged due to the lack of doubt in Turi’s words."

but i think his interactions w veycer and sheala are so interesting, and especially turi. like shes a very blunt person and cannot hide her emotions well, and that being reassuring for him, that she knows for sure that he can help. its very interesting to me (read: typing this up made me get 5 million times worse about the characters)

he's also just kind of like. a silly guy at times. he goes to the tournament earlier in the game, and Gust has invented some like. super fast powered transporter. and is sure using frokiston as a test dummy for it (objectively funny of gust like. hes like well um ^-^ it functions but this was the test run) and hes just like completely ok with it and thought it was fun. i do not know all of his deals and issues yet but i think the position hes in and his diseases would appeal to you :3 and SOMEONE needs to fuck that old man (or something idk.)

from the pov of someone who works in medicine—hospitals do have blood banks and as far as I know family members are never asked to donate blood instead of just using the compatible blood in the bank. Especially in NYC someone who’s severely injured would be taken to a big hospital with plenty of blood in storage even if they needed a ridiculous number of transfused units (feel free to ignore this though haha)

I wholeheartedly believe you, and I think on some level I know that, what I think happened in the show is that chip wiskers somehow had a bad reaction to the banked blood, so they needed a donor who was a relative to reduce that risk

but THAT being said, don't put any more faith in me to be more medically accurate than GG, so who knows that whole plot point could be a mess -- it's really just my selfish wish of twisting what the writers did (aka resurrect bart bass so he can give his garbage son a life-saving transfusion), and twisting it back to the least toxic father-son dynamic in the show. (humphreys beat basses everytime)

and, it's also a callback to s4, when Rufus catches Georgina's paternity lie because he clocks Milo's blood type on his medical bracelet from when he was born, and he throws in some line about banking blood when Dan had an appendectomy when he was younger.

and all THAT being said, I am...intentionally writing from points of view in these next couple hospital chapters from characters who aren't trained in medicine, mainly because I'm not either and I'm sort of covering my own ass in regards to accuracy, because if the character I'm writing understands the information a certain way, that doesn't mean that they're correct. especially in the case of Nate, who is going through a trauma of his own in the course of this chapter.

and, there are many ends to this mean beyond Rufus donating blood specifically for Dan. In my head, I can Rufus asking to do this simply because his child is in mortal danger and he feels he has to Do Something about it, even though logically he can't. and, a hospital staffer might encourage a guy like Rufus to donate because it keeps him from roaming around the hospital trying to find his son or keeps him from shouting at personnel to get information.

I appreciate you sharing this with me! and I am a chronic overthinker, so there are reasons for why this fic is taking shape in the way it does, I just....I am not sure. how well that may or not come across, because I am flexing a lot of writing muscles that I haven't flexed before, so I am very fragile and nervous about sharing it, but I appreciate you reaching out and being kind in the ask box. <333

tldr: I know I'm probably wrong, but I have reasons why!

i like how whenever i see my mutuals amassing an encyclopedic knowledge about their Guys im always like aw i wish i had enough brain capacity to have an encyclopedic knowledge about MY guys :( <- has every significant moment in george harrisons life memorised down to the time of day it happened

Though I mean in terms of insane religiosity it's not like Cromwell stood out that much compared to the other factions in the ECW/Revolution/War of Three Kingdoms.

Or I mean it's been long enough since I took a class on it that I'm probably messing up some details but IIRC one of Royalists more popular aspects was that since all their rivals were more rigorous sorts of Protestants they were the only ones without a theological objection to Christmas/celebrating and fun in general.

(and of course the Rule of the Major Generals only lasted two years because Cromwell was on some level a pragmatist about these things. The constituency was absolutely there to keep it going if he'd had the conviction, instead of the whole back and forth about the Protectorate's actual governing constitution and awkward ambiguity about how it was legitimized that lasted for the rest of his reign)

And hey, at least he wasn't a Covenantor

@wheeling​ || starter

“Mike. It can either be fun or it can be trivia night. Not both.”

Two kinds of website misdesign, a trivial excerpt from me checking sources in an internet argument.

Idaho GOP:

Party platform link points to https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.226/c4b.2cd.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-Updated-Idaho-GOP-Platform.pdf .

Idaho DEM:

Frontpage tweets are ranting about the other guys' platform, but it's not obvious where their own is. I reverse-engineer it by domain-googling their site and finding that the party platform is under Committee Resources.

A pox on both your websites.