#and thus ends my twig-induced week or two entirely without alecposting....it's like returning home

[lakesbian]

ok listen i have a pathological obsession with alec and have spent an almost absurd amount of time studying him like im going to be paid for it. so i feel highly qualified to say that your cosplay mannerisms were awesome and fun and felt true to the character and even if there is room for improvement you should still give yourself a hand for how good it was !!

i will say re alec mannerisms. he by default comes off like you said, as a sloppy disaffected teenage boy. little overly lax, at times way more casual looking than many people would be when geared up for a fight in costume. but he also Is textually fairly feminine when he's being regent. he's fairly regularly described as feminine, and at one point during behemoth fight a ward decides he's feminine enough to make a homophobic insult at. and the main contributing factor to people in 2011 deciding that a certain teenage boy Seems Gay is, aside from his poofy shirt and tights, probably going to be his general mannerisms and the way he carries himself as regent. he can be theatric and silly, and he repeatedly demonstrates a complete lack of concern with achieving any masculinity whatsoever. so in interpreting him i Would actually suggest being fine with or incorporating femininity, and id also keep in mind that if he does grace it's often going to be as a gag or a role he's briefly playing up before going back to lazyboy mode. there's my 2 cents if you want them

i would also say that. not wanting to fall or step onto protruding nails is a pretty good excuse for being stiff. it's method acting in that alec would also not want to step or fall on protruding nails 👍

and re your hypothesis yes it's precisely that :) there's several angles for interpreting his power but the most like. Fundamental, core level of it. is that it's the power of a boy who grew up with a childhood so terrible his primary coping mechanism was to need to get the fuck out of his own body. he gets more present once aisha shows up and he's got a friend to engage with, but pretty much every time taylor narrates that alec seems weirdly disaffected, disinterested, or lazy, it's because he's depressed or dissociating. his default mode is disengaging from himself, especially for anything stressful, because doing it is how he survived his childhood. it's how he manages to Stay So Sillay in situations where everyone else is horrified

@lakesbian I wanted to convey the laxity, sloppy movements, and, at the same time, grace without going into femininity. But so far, I have not managed to do this mix as I intended. Some of the movements are too stiff. Part of the problem was the need to balance in a mask with limited visibility on a burnt fallen beam with protruding nails, with the possibility of falling on the same ones lying nearby. But is this an excuse? I need to practice more.

In my opinion, Alec and Taylor have the most difficult movement patterns to display of all the Undersiders. At the same time, their manner of movement is complex in different ways.

Taylor's movements are angular, strange, and look a little inhuman at certain moments (as the author describes it). At the same time, you have to very carefully balance on the edge and not slide into complete creepiness.

So it is difficult (difficult in different ways) to show the manner Regent and Skitter movement, but also very interesting.

P.S. About cigarettes

This is a direct illustration of a line from the song: "I like the look of a cigarette, but I hate the way it tastes." This is very much in Regent's spirit: a kind of posing, without real enjoyment of what you are doing.

I think there's a lot about this song ("Drama" by Spencer Sutherland) that suits Alec:

"I strike a pose, and when it glows, my cue to give it away.

Woke up with an attitude, paint a smile on my face

Win or lose, you get to choose, when all the world’s a stage"

"Fakin' my own funeral just to see who cries

Then I walk in like I’m born again, ‘cause I love a good surprisе"

And of course, the chorus:

"Doin' it for the drama (Dra-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma)

Drama

Baby you know that you wanna

How it feels good in the middle

What’s life without a little drama?"

I see it as an attempt to feel something inside himself. I suspect that Alec may have dissociation (also possibly derealization/depersonalization) due to traumatic events since childhood, and the nature of his superpower further raises the possibility of this hypothesis.