#🌑 ECLIPSE COMETH. ( ooc. )

[balemouns]

lord arlecchino.

or: is 'he/him lesbian' in arle's doss a joke? not really!

prior to her reveal/appearance in a winter night's lazzo, eng localization referred to arlecchino with masculine formal pronouns when she was mentioned in world quests involving children from the house of the hearth, particularly in the very special fortune slip world quests in inazuma. but rejecting the localization fix that followed winter night's lazzo, I think it actually makes a lot of sense for arlecchino to prefer some masculine pronouns. this would include more formal pronouns such as sir, lord, and of course the big canon one, father.

considering what else we know about her ( manner of dress, depth in her voice across different dubs, mannerisms ), what we can study from her character model ( the unique gait she has for the tall female skeleton, for instance ) it should be pretty reasonable to think arlecchino's pronoun use ( not necessarily gender identity ) is a little complicated. so, while my writing will usually use she/her as her primary informal pronoun ( though he/him is fine ), she does prefer to be addressed with more masculine titles over feminine ones such as lady, ma'am, and so on. one exception aside from using she/her while describing her is probably mr. vs. ms., where ms. would probably be the default she'd use. your character isn't expected to know this if they don't know her well, and she likely won't correct it until she knows your character better if that's the case.

to be clear, he/him lesbianism ( or in arlecchino's case, more like she/him lesbianism ) is a legit form of pronoun nonconformity that can apply to certain wlw that does not invalidate or contradict their lesbianism. these are people who see themselves as women, but use he/him to some degree as their preferred pronouns.

and as for the lesbianism: please...........,,,, just........ listen to the difference in her voicelines in terms of how she talks about like 90% of her female canon relations versus her male canon relations ( outside of her kids ofc ) and tell me this isn't like. the butchest woman in teyvat. i dare you. most ladies? has interesting thoughts or almost sounds fond. almost all the men? either strictly professional, don't give a shit, or would rather kill them (but won't, for now).

[balemouns]

bloom missions.

hey y'all! I'm super excited to get things going with arlecchino. though I'm still working on and parsing through lots of things with her ( man. her lore alone? man... ) but I'd like to hop in with a few ideas for the bloom missions.

mondstadt is a fatui hotbed. it's very easy for her to show up there unannounced! if you're interested in running into her while helping out at angel's share, well... she's not much of one for helping out, but might have taken an interest in the discounted drinks.

as a cursed teyvater who kinda has a vibe that she's not really supposed to be here, she may be especially well-suited to unexpectedly appear in some of the sea of quanta missions. perhaps belobog or penacony? why not? she may not have a good explanation for how she got here, but........ you don't need to know that, now do you.

fontaine gang rise up? I'd love to do some plotting with her canon relations and maybe a few threads unrelated to the missions too. if you'd like me to roll over to you to figure out some directions we can go in, just reply to this post and i'll dm you.

[balemouns]

          affiliated arlecchino, 4th of the fatui harbingers. written by mel.

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updates!

new dialogue color: #873333 plot ideas for aug 2024.

[balemouns]

extremely low effort wanted plots for the event post

hey y'all, as I just mentioned in the tags of the ask prompts, I'll primarily be focusing on asks and the longer server event for the solstice event. I do want to lob two ideas at you though:

ghost stories? no. true stories. when the spirits of those you've killed kinda follow you around, you probably have more than a few bone-chilling tales to tell. if you'd like to include arlecchino in your story circle, reply to this post and I'll send you a DM on here or discord to figure out some logistics.

if you encounter arlecchino anytime during this event, you won't find her in her normal formal and fitted attire. fontainians ( even those who are not fontainian by blood ) are nothing without their sense of fashion, right? while at the beach, she'd much rather wear a loose printed shirt, slacks, sandals, and sunglasses ( thanks navia for popularizing that last one ). imagine something more like this or look up the style of magnum pi.

[balemouns]

"those who parade their own virtues often do the most evil. we are not like them."

or: how is mel interpreting what happened in arlecchino's story quest? obvious heavy 4.6 spoilers follow.

have you played arlecchino's story quest and come away with the impression that she's a goodish, surprisingly benevolent harbinger who would never actually harm the children in her organization?

good. that was the judgement you were supposed to leave with.

everything about her story quest, with a few small exceptions, was carefully planned by her to weave a narrative for you and the more loyal children: the anticipation of clervie's interference growing to be disruptive enough to turn a small group against her, the move to poisson to make monitoring this group easier, when to make a point of meeting with neuvilette to request social supports for children who have consumed bottled flames, extending a duel to make children feel they've worked for and earned their mercy, and ultimately making a show of offering it with many witnesses.

there were two wildcards in this that she didn't plan for: the traveler and horrer. both actually wound up being advantageous for weaving together the narrative she wanted her loyal children ( most prominently ) and also the traveler ( conveniently ) to leave with. it's why she never suggests the traveler and paimon leave, even as the conflict within the family grows increasingly dire and undermining of her authority -- having someone your children trust take away the same conclusions they did actually can't hurt.

horrer is an interesting case. he's clearly someone who's consumed bottled flames -- and one of the few "executions" who had someone on the outside that'd likely be willing to catch him and help him build a new life after all his memories were gone ( his love interest ).

but he's the only one we see: all the other people we have seen in the list had vaguer reasons on why they left, and no idea how they are doing now, especially considering arlecchino has just now asked neuvilette and the palais to provide a safety net for former house children with memory loss. would a responsible father just let you leave with no plan, no skills, no identity, no one to catch you?

most likely, prior executions -- all the ones that were all handled privately, individually -- those would've been figured out on a case-by-case basis. children who wanted to leave purely out of resentment to the house and with no one outside to support them may not have been as lucky -- turning those children loose with nothing would've been quite irresponsible.

but you're not supposed to think that. not with an entire group confronting her in the ruins of the old arena, not with her proposal to neuvilette now in place, not with this show of enforcing the rules through loopholes ending with convenient mercy, not with devout house members standing next to those who want to leave and have taken the words of a confused, sentient shadow to justify that sentiment. being confronted by a group in this manner is something arlecchino has planned for over a long period of time with the bottled flames being developed some time ago, something she's always seen as a possibility; this outcome was clearly the first case of extensive use, with heloir just now learning what those dangerous potions were for.

think of the metaphor she provided for neuvilette: water has tension to it, tends to hold together. to cut out the impurities but conserve as much of the clean water as you can, you don't want to disturb it with a violent splash.

which makes this grand gesture of mercy all a show of virtues for a specific purpose: to reinforce the trust that exists with the children who are loyal, to strengthen those bonds and loyalties. sure, everyone knows there's now a way out, but... are these children who'd want to leave by erasing everything about themselves anyway, their skills, their bonds, their memories, their sense of self?

that answer will probably always be no. but the illusion of choice makes people happier with what they have. arlecchino likes it when people have the wrong impression of her: that we can undoubtedly believe.

[balemouns]

vaporize wanted plots.

heyo! I'd like to try and get a few more commission posts in my rotation. a few of these could actually work well for arle. as always, if you'd like to plot more than just offering to take one of these and deciding who posts first, please let me know so I can DM you here or on discord.

otters. taken.

arlecchino is no stranger to long walks along the shores of fontaine; she may not necessarily stop and show interest in a panicked otter of her own volition ( and honestly, anything wild animal other than spiders and bugs not getting a bad vibe from her is probably unlikely ) but coming across someone ( stranger or familiar ) who seems to be trying to talk to one could be... fascinating. what exactly do you hope to accomplish, hm?

origami. taken.

house of the hearth business can take her anywhere at any time. maybe she's stopped by this competition out of simple curiosity -- and gotten around to working with surprisingly nimble fingers ( and sharp nails ) on a few interesting paper creations. more likely than not, however, she's looking for someone who's supposed to be here... and the right opportunity to do something about that individual.

simulated universe.

i'm always "???" on how she'll end up in sea of quanta missions ( arle vc guess I glitched here somehow? huh ) but man I really love the idea of ending up in the simulated universe and finding a mcfucking doppelganger. this will likely require some plotting to figure out and I'd like for a honkai character to be involved.

[balemouns]

solstice tracker.

ask: furina goose ask: lyney water balloon ask: lynette photobooth thread prompt: ghost stories

subtotal: 4 flotsam

requiem participation (3 flotsam)

week 1 thread (+1 talent point) week 2 thread (+1 talent point) week 3 thread (+1 talent point)

total flotsam: 7 subtotal talent points: +3

claiming: wavebreaker's fin +1 talent point (total +4 talent points) lavawalker's resolution