closed starter || @thelatekuijames
Kui + Gia
at The Gazebo in Town Green (pairing event)
All of her life, Gia had been fascinated by stories. History, gossip, and fictions alike. This love found its most profound muse in archeology, uncovering from the earth all that time had stolen. After the loss of a once, cherished friend, Georgiana begun keeping track of the pixie's history, too. Slaughtered by hunters not once but twice. A tragedy she promised herself she would do everything she could to prevent from happening again. For herself and her old friend; Odie Kariuki.
tw: mentions of blood, death, and slaughter, but nothing too graphic. also, cursing and caps. multiple mentions of heartbreak.
reintroducing a bunch of characters + more depth to a character
15 years old…
Leana’s hands shook as she examined a dagger with the blood of an unknown human.
She had been mourning the loss of the human in the bathroom, where nearly no one could barge in on her.
Was all the slaughter worth it? Does everyone else even feel remorse?
She asked herself that question each time she managed to get herself alone.
Her family knew their profession was wrong. Why did they keep doing it? Was it to keep her safe? Was it to save themselves?
Just then, the door barged open, making her jump. The dagger, miraculously, managed to land on the ground beside her toes.
The door barger turned out to be her girlfriend of one month, Lissa. She had a handful of colorful pills, but she tossed them aside when she saw Leana’s state.
Lissa sat next to her on the floor and hugged her.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” she said softly. “Was it another mission? Was it me? Darling, what happened? Please don’t-”
“Don’t what? Cry?” Leana sobbed into her shoulder.
Lissa stroked her back.
“That’s not what I was going to say. Don’t play with a bloody dagger. You could get tetanus.”
Leana managed to smile for a second but continued sobbing.
“Do- do you ever feel guilty about our jobs?”
“What do you mean?”
“W-we kill people daily. Gisela says that i-it’s for the better, but-” she hiccuped and the sobbing intensified.
Lissa noticed the change in her mood, so she adjusted her position in a way that allowed her to sit sideways on Leana’s lap.
“Hey, hey,” she cupped her face. “It’s alright. We’ll work through this together. Just cry for now.”
They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, but Leana had finally managed to tell the story through bits and pieces and Lissa had, somehow, pieced them all together in a way that made sense.
Leana felt worse that Lissa had to endure her suffering, but she didn’t seem to mind. She just stroked her head and whispered to her until she eventually fell asleep.
9 months later…
She’d just turned 16 when she heard what her family was planning.
They gave her a day to say goodbye.
On the chosen day, Leana could barely blink the tears out of her eyes as she broke the news to Lissa. Naturally, she looked away.
“My family is changing their allegiance. I… wanted to tell you before we change our identities.”
Lissa dropped her hand, making her heart feel even more broken.
“Since when?”
“We’ve wanted to since I was born. I’m sorry I had to tell you like this.”
She avoided Lissa’s heartbroken glance and fought to keep her voice and face neutral.
“You can’t be serious?”
“I’m sorry.”
She finally looked at her girlfriend and felt her heart finally collapse from the cracks in it.
“No. Not- not again…” Lissa trailed off as tears spilled from her eyes.
“I- I love you,” she managed to stutter out.
She pulled Lissa in for their first and (possibly) last kiss before pulling away and hiding.
Leana knew that this wouldn’t be the last time she saw her ex (?) girlfriend, but she didn’t like the possibilities that the future held now that they were on opposing sides.
7 months and a half later…
Leana hated to admit it, but she was starting to get used to the way things went in the Lost Cities.
She missed everything about Lissa, but life wasn’t so bad when she had multiple things to distract her from her.
She was in the middle of doing Foxfire homework when the doorbell rang. Normally, she’d call her parents, but they weren’t home and neither were any of her siblings.
Leana rolled her eyes and levitated herself out of the kitchen to open the door.
When the door was open, she nearly collapsed out of shock because standing there was the male duplicate of Lissa.
The coily black hair, lightly bronzed skin, freckles, and blue-green eyes were unmistakably identical to Lissa’s. The only thing distinguishable was that he had his hair chopped short and had a septum piercing.
If she hadn’t had Lissa as her gay awakening, she was sure that the guy would’ve been her straight one.
The guy cleared his throat and Leana remembered where she was.
“Hi, uh, do you need any-”
“Are you Leana?”
She froze up and her hand moved to where a dagger was hidden.
“Why do you ask?”
“Before you can stab me, you’ve probably noticed I look like my sister. I know you have a history with her.”
“What sister?”
“Don’t play dumb. You know what sister.”
“I’m sorry, but-”
“Lissa. I’m talking about Lissa. Unless the scarce information I obtained is wrong, you used to be best friends?”
Leana blinked and sighed.
“What did she do at 7 that gave her stage fright?”
“She fell off the stage.”
“Ambition?”
“Literature professor.”
They stood there, questioning each other until the guy frustratingly stomped his foot.
“I just want to know something about her. Can I come in?”
“No.”
He exhaled loudly and crossed his arms.
“I hate to flex this, but I’m a Black Swan member.”
She thought for a while, then begrudgingly let him into her home.
They settled down in the living room and she offered him a glass of lushberry juice.
“Cut the shit and tell me why you’re actually here.”
The guy looked down at his hands.
“As you know, I’m her brother-”
“Conrad, if I remember correctly.”
“Darnoc now. Conrad is what my parents wanted.”
“I see,” she inspected him skeptically. “Well, then, Darnoc, why are you here again?”
“I want to know more about my sister. What’s become of her?”
Leana froze, feeling her heart break again.
She closed her eyes and set her drink down.
“I believe you want to find her?”
“Yes.”
“She won’t budge. I’ve tried and failed. Turn back while you still can; it’s a foolish path.”
“What do you mean about that?”
“We’ve talked about it multiple times. If she wanted to come, she would’nt’ve stayed.”
“You talk like you were close. What happened?”
Her eyes flew open and she glared at him. He cowered, realizing that he hit a sensitive topic.
“If you were planning to mock me, then you’ll be here for a long time. You’d rather she were dead.”
“That’s not my intention! I just want to learn how she’s been!”
“She’s fucking fine. If you really cared, then you could have bothered yourself to look after her.”
“Why do you care so much?”
“She spoke of you highly and I want to see if her heartbreak was worth you. Anything else?”
“Is she dating-”
Leana snorted at the irony.
“She did. That relationship was broken off some time ago.”
“Well, is she doing okay?”
“No. She was crying when I left.”
Her tone was light, but her expression was stormy.
“Why did you put it like that? It-”
“BECAUSE I LOVED HER!” she yelled, losing her patience. “I LOVED HER AT THE COST OF FORCEFULLY LEAVING HER! DO YOU THINK I WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN?! I LOVED HER TO THE POINT WHERE I HAD TO LEAVE SO THAT I COULD HAVE A SHOT AT MAKING GAYS UNPREJUDICED.”
Leana felt tears run down her cheeks, but she ignored them and angrily breathed.
Darnoc had frozen at what the younger girl had said.
When he thawed, he smiled.
“Unless you’re interested in watching your body parts torn off, then-”
“Wait. Wait a minute,” he started to laugh. “You’re telling me that Lissa’s gay?”
“Yeah, piss off, you homophobe-”
At that point, Darnoc was wheezing.
“Oh, my stars. I’m sorry for laughing. It’s just that I find it ironic that we’re both gay and the thing that kicked me out of my family is why my future sister-in-law left my sister.”
Leana blinked and wiped away her tears, surprised at how the mood had changed drastically.
“But, I broke her heart. How can you expect me to marry her?”
Darnoc smiled down at her amusedly.
“I can tell. You’ll thank me one day. Now, can we discuss Lissa at a better time in a better place?”
1 month later…
It had been late when Darnoc called her.
“Get up, lazy ass. I’ve got news about my sister.”
You could bet safe money that Leana shot up to grab her Imparter.
“This better not be a false alarm or I’m hunting you and your boyfriend down.”
“He’s not my- whatever. I’ve gotten info that she’s left the Neverseen.”
The "not boyfriend," in question, was Darnoc's roommate. They'd been roommates since the Elite levels, but the unresolved tension between them was so thick it was visible.
12 hours later…
Leana looked at Darnoc to confirm if he was ready to see Lissa again.
“I’m ready. Stop acting like I’m the one who’ll be an emotional bomb when we see her.”
She hit him on the shoulder and rang the doorbell.
To their surprise, both of them recognized the human song, but the door opened and a guy (?) who radiated enby energy emerged behind it.
“What do you want?”
“Is Lissa here?”
They tensed up and tu=ightened their grip on the door.
“N-”
In the end, they were let in and sat down in the living room.
For the next few minutes, the fact that she was seeing Lissa, of all people, didn’t seem to settle well with her.
She was having a gay panic, except it was a mix of ‘oh no, the ex I still love is here,’ ‘my future wife is coming here,’ and ‘fuck, what do I do?’
Rather than looking at the door nervously like Darnoc was, she put her chin on the back of her hand and looked the other way, sure that she was being subtle.
However, when she came through, rather than addressing Lissa as Darnoc did, she kept looking the other way.
Leana tried not to notice how she and Lissa kept on stealing glances at each other.
She wasn’t sure if she was ready to talk with the girl whose heart she broke, resulting in breaking the one belonging to her as well.
People I keep locked up (tell me if you want in or out. Sorry if you didn’t want to be tagged out of loyalty):
@myminddefiesreality
@gay-otlc
@even-if-in-another-time
@xanadaus
@booksscienceandmath
@hunkyhair-my-beloved
@ultralazycreatorfan
@gaslight-gaykeep-gayboss
@stellar-lune
@sophiespockets
@bookwyrminspiration
@orionalumn
@an-ungraceful-swan
@chaotic-bumblebee-agenda
@sunset-telepath
@when-wax-wings-melt
@bianavacker-is-bi-as-hell
@arcadialedger
@fintan-pyren
@aromantic-fucker
@black-swans-and-moonlarks
@lady-hunkyhair
@if-only-i-was-fictional
@stellasencen
@florida-fruity-frog
@fandomsarefriends-notfood
@the-abandoned-schoolbus
@mynamisfab
@katniss-elizabeth-chase
@winterfireice
@camelspit
@that-glasses-dog
@presidentroarie
@that-multi-fandom-mess
@arson-anarchy-death
@constant-sapphic-breakdown
@squishmallow36
@callas-pancake-tree
@rusted-phone-calls
@thebestbookshelf
@everenvacker
@axels-corner
@coldtragedytaco
@life-is-soup-i-am-fork1
@thefruitsaladlemon
@aroace-dadwinstan
@synonymroll648
@kamikothe1and0lny
@luna-maximoff-22
Go check out my main Tumblr unless you have already.
Content Warning: The section after this one is about the slaughterer position and goes into depth about the killing and butchering of animals. If this is discomforting, scroll until you see "Shepherds."
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Farming has the most subranks of the kingdoms. It's a very involved process handling animals and there are many steps and various different aspects for different parts of animal caring. Some creatures need to be skilled in slaughtering others in breeding and others still in raising the orphans.
Breeders
One of the more well known but less thought of subclasses for farmers. When only certain creatures are bred with each other, desirable traits begin to become more common. Breeders are responsible for producing docile, fast-growing prey that is somewhat protective of its young. Some breeders have recently become focused on reproducing certain coloration in prey and seeing what affects it has on them.
Bred Animals
Ducks - For feathers and meat
Chicken - Feathers, meat and eggs
Goats - Meat, Horns and sometimes milk
Sheep - Wool, meat
Rabbits - Meat, tunnel construction
Rats - Meat, Companionship, Retrievers
Note: Stoats and polecats are slowly being taught to herd and guard prey animals from various predators in exchange for regular meals. As a result, several farmers are becoming increasingly interested in and have begun breeding the most social and friendly of them together. Some kingdoms have also begun efforts towards breeding deer but no overwhelming successes have yet been reported.
Even breeders are frequently subclasses into Archivists and Handlers. The Archivists are responsible for the observation, study and analyzation of the creatures they intend to breed in order to understand what traits and behaviors they're likely to get while Handlers are the ones that arrange and supervise breeding to minimize the chances of stock killing fights.
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Slaughterer
Cats who are responsible for the killing and sectioning of prey. While not required, most cats feel badly about causing unneeded suffering to prey and as such, Slaughterers are trained in a series of acceptable killing methods.
Most frequently for chickens and ducks, this comes in the form of a sharp and suddenly snapping up their necks. In their other lifestock, it's instead in the form of a deep slit in the throat in the hopes that this kills the animal quickly enough to never really know what was happening. Smaller creatures with more fragile bones and skeletons instead have their heads chopped off though it's often hard to find something sharp enough to do the deed and a cat strong enough to use it correctly.
When it comes to poultry, the Slaughterer is usually expected to set some time aside to pluck the feathers though because this is such a time-consuming practice, It's often delegated to squires and green paws who then clean and deliver feathers to be distributed for crafting and keeping warm.
Organs are removed from the prey and are frequently given to high ranking members of the kingdoms or are kept by farmers themselves if there's a surplus of them. For larger creatures like the goats and sheep, big chunks are distributed to omnivorous livestock or trained stoats. The removal of these thicker and inedible bones is also delegated to squires and green paws - for this, they're usually allowed to keep one of the bones they remove.
To preserve the meat, Slaughterers with sometimes leave the meat in a saltwater for long periods of time - sometimes for several days - and add honey to it to combat the salty taste. More commonly, salt is gotten from dried salt water (or from large salt rocks) and rubbed all over the meat and left in dark areas during hot days.
---
Herders
Much of kingdom territory is dedicated to the livestock that must be escorted throughout the large amounts of space. In order for territory to remain usable and flourishing, herders move the livestock between the Far Pens and the Near Pens rotating through the seasons. For the most part, the Near Pens are used in the winter as they're better sheltered and easily accessed.
The Far Pens have much more space and room for grazing so they're used in the summer - this is particularly important during kidding season when newborn creatures come about and need the space and time to grow.
Herders are responsible for the well-being of entire sectors of livestock and usually come in pairs or trios. They're one of the few civilian classes taught extensive battle techniques and defensive maneuvers as they're expected to face off against predators who may want to take their livestocks for themselves. In recent times, herders have started being accompanied by polecats that are trained to keep lone livestock from wandering off
I'm gonna give you some Patrochilles asks instead:
Had Achilles chosen a long live instead of glory, do you think he ever could have been content with his decision?
We all know Achilles wished to take Troy with just Patroclus by his side, everyone else be damned. Do you think that if the chance had presented itself, Patroclus would have agreed to it, or would his empathy have held him back?
Damn.... you pulled the golden uno reverse card and skewered me apart with these questions.... I shall try my best to answer with my honest opinion!
Had Achilles chosen a long live instead of glory, do you think he ever could have been content with his decision?
If we take into account of what Achilles had said in the Odyssey, when his ghost came to Odysseus and he complained about death being dull, I'd think either way he would have been regretful. Achilles from how I see it is, he's doomed to regret both situations cause if he didn't go, no one would remember him. It would be like death to a demigod.
so no... I don't think Achilles would have been content with his decision to remain on Scyros.
We all know Achilles wished to take Troy with just Patroclus by his side, everyone else be damned. Do you think that if the chance had presented itself, Patroclus would have agreed to it, or would his empathy have held him back?
I don't think Achilles would have been able to do it since it was just wishful thinking. The only one who ever came close to conquering Troy by oneself was Patroclus and that was because he "wore Achilles armor and in doing so, harnessed the spirit of Achilles' warriorhood". Which massively deducts points from Patroclus' own valor.
Now take this with a grain of salt but.... I don't think Patroclus had that much empathy the fandom likes to grace him with. I mean, if Apollo wasn't there and he actually managed to hop over the wall of Troy, what do you think was going to come next?
What did the Greeks do to the entire population of Troy(minus Aeneas) that was so catastrophically terrible that the queen of Troy flung herself off the cliff for?
He would have slaughtered everyone both women and children alike. It wasn't Paris keeping Helen, it was Troy keeping Helen.... She wanted to go back but didn't.
So... YES! I think Patroclus would have agreed to taking Troy with just himself and Achilles if that meant getting Achilles off his ass and everyone finally going home. Even if that means slaughtering an entire city. Do I think they would have succeeded? No.
did you ever get my slaughterhouse ask? about the animals moving during slaughter,
I did, honestly I deleted it as I thought it wasn’t genuine. I get an ask here and there which seems to be just graphic descriptions of animal slaughter disguised as questions because anons want me to post these descriptions, for their own weird gratification I suppose. I mistook yours for one of those, so apologies for that.
Sometimes on a slaughter line what we are seeing is a live conscious animal moving, this is a known issue. Mis-stunning is a regular occurrence and because of how fast processing speeds are, animals alive and seemingly conscious on the proceeding line has been documented many times by undercover investigators. Stopping the line costs time and money, so they often just let the line run.
That said, movement and twitches after death are common in all animals, as muscles contract when the wider vascular system shuts down, and the nervous system can continue functioning for hours even after the brain has died. That could be what you’re seeing, but it’s hard to make generalisations.
Busy week last week. A coworker gifted me a pig skull. It's sawed into 4 pieces due to his grandparents making stew from it. I love it to bits tho
The place I am interning at finally deccited to slaughter the bull they had. The bull tried so attack me on numerous occasions.. It low-key hated everyone. Because they commuted the slaughter in house they kept me the skull <3. ((It's going to be a Christmas present. )) normally obtaining a bovine skull is hard in my area. Due to mad cow disease they are usually destroyed in the slaughterhouse for savety. The bull was healthy though. He was just an ass...
