#i need ppl to see the vision.

[jennycalendar]

back to btvs blogging to fix my brain a little i wanna talk about why jenny/ethan would function like calendiles except more insane and probably worse.

first off -- @ethanrayne was the one who fully converted me to how excellent the notion of bisexual ethan is, simply because ethan sharing the same desires and inclinations as giles and pivoting to the exact opposite end of the spectrum creates this excellently absurd warped mirror where they're both somehow overcompensating. trying to distance themselves from something and furious at this person who is able to inhabit this aspect of themselves that they themselves find abhorrent. giles could date men but he doesn't and won't because it's wrong so OBVIOUSLY he is going to live in a constant state of rigorous self-flagellation and boxed-in misery. ethan could date women but he doesn't and won't because then he's living within the confines of the system so CLEARLY the only path forward is to embrace selfish reckless hedonism. see what i'm saying here???

moving towards jenny/ethan with that in mind: i think ethan overlaps in key ways with both jenny and giles enough that he and jenny would get along OUTRAGEOUSLY well under particularly specific sets of circumstances. jenny and ethan both have a thirst for adventure (it's why giles likes them!) which means that they would both very likely have a hell of a lot of fun doing all the crazy party things that giles inevitably draws the line at. (the man does have limits.) they're both playful, flirtatious, sarcastic, and absolute unmitigated disasters who think they're cooler and more capable than they actually are. on that level alone they would get along really well.

BUT ALSO: ethan and giles are super similar in that they are so so mired in a decision they made in their early twenties and so resistant to change! despite ethan talking all the big talk about being freer than giles and more honest than giles, he is playing a very specific role just the same as giles is. he refuses to ever be there or be real. he would, i think, so easily see jenny as ripper's tiresome attempt at heterosexuality, as that's what fits most easily into his extremely limited concept of who giles is, and then actually meeting her and seeing her with giles and realizing that this is someone gorgeous, smart, funny, & completely in the loop re: giles's sordid history -- choosing to be with him not Because Of ripper or In Spite Of ripper but because she loves the whole complete man -- ethan would try and play mind games with jenny and she'd decimate him with her pinky finger and he would have that same moment as giles where it's like. i underestimated you SO thoroughly. i am at your mercy.

& ethan and giles are ALSO super similar in that we see them both in a romantic connection (giles with jenny, ethan with giles) where they are basically begging to be kicked around. jenny likes kicking people around. there is a very clear thing that could happen here.

[dogfestivals]

ohhhhh boy u fucked up

[rojekte]

seeing people's takes about the whole watcher situation is just a bit.... mind-boggling.

i think the apology they posted was good in the sense that they admitted to fucking up and walked back on their decision, and i think the model they've settled on now is a lot more reasonable (having content be released earlier for those who choose to subscribe), but like.... that doesn't mean that no one should've ever been mad at them in the first place???

like seriously, why does it seem like people are looking at a "good" apology and thinking "huh! they sure did apologize well! i guess that means that it was ridiculous for people to be mad in the first place! no one should have ever complained!!". if no one complained, they wouldnt have walked back their decision! they would've kept going with their dumb completely paywalled option!

and thats not even getting into the fact that their financial woes seem to come from completely mismanaging their money - hiring people when they can not afford to and spending more money on "high quality productions" when they cant afford to.... these are core issues that im not sure will be completely fixed by this? but idk.

also, this situation i think has really helped my own self come to terms with the fact that i do not enjoy many aspects of their content. i sorta already knew that considering i can not remember the last ghost files video i watched because i find that shit incredibly boring and overproduced, and even things like too many spirits have become a chore to watch bc they decided to extend the Not That Funny drink making portion when i just wanna hear some funny spooky stories.

anyway i guess my ultimate point here is: im glad they acknowledged they fucked up, but i also am not sure how interested i am in their content anymore in the first place. oh well

[nocturnebby]

pavithri my fav ship *heart eyes*

hobie is just there for the ride

translation- tharkee means horny, chapri means cringe

[stardustdiiving]

How evil is arlecchino and what is she cooking

As of 4.2, I’m really curious what they’re planning with Arlecchino as a character, especially as a villain/antagonist/morally dubious character, and how far/which direction they may go with that

Intuitively my impression is we’ll see her do something way more “villainous” than she presents herself as being for majority of Fontaine’s AQ in front of us right—(which isn’t a surprise given that, you know, Arlecchino nor the House of Hearth have never been presented as 110% ethical LOL) but I find myself not being in complete agreement with most analysis or speculation threads I see about Arlecchino’s morality and the like, level of sinister people seem to ascribe to her.

Idk how to put it, especially in regards to her children I do agree they are not a wholesome found family, that Arlecchino is not above pulling strings or using them for her own ulterior motives, but I kind of hesitate on the idea she only cares about the Hearth children as a means to the end/things she can control and there’s nothing else going on with her characterization wise there. I’m not saying that impression seems remotely unreasonable or unfounded, but just that it feels there’s something intentionally missing in how we are supposed to conceptualize her as a person

My main reasoning for this hunch is the fact they have not elaborated on Arlecchino and the previous Knave—who Arlecchino is stated to have taken over the position from by force. The extra tidbits I think about are that 1) Arlecchino was previously an orphan in the Hearth 2) the previous Knave is described as way, way crueler to the children of than Heart than Arlecchino was from when she took control of the House

Often, people’s major indicators that the House of the Hearth is kind of super fucked up are the NPCs we meet in world quests who are part of it and clearly suffering. But one thing I haven’t ever seen people mention w this that i think is a very interesting detail is, in The Very Special Fortune Slip Inazuma worldquest, where we stop this House of Hearth guy (Efim Snezhevich) from manufacturing tension between Watasumi/the Shogunate to restart the war with his other Hearth subordinates, at the end of the quest we get this dialogue that reveals he had been acting under the previous Knave’s directives:

It’s also mentioned he’s employing this plan in an attempt to “rebuild the prestige of the Knave” following Signora’s death, iirc? Now, see, the dialogue itself says that this is “assuming our captive is telling the truth” so who knows what’s really going on, but I find this a really odd/interesting thing to highlight. I’m a bit fuzzy on other world quests with Hearth members, and am not saying none of them were acting and subsequently being treated poorly by our Arlecchino, but like, this gives me a lot of questions especially when paired with implications this previous Knave seemed to be way worse

Like, what drove Arlecchino to take over? How unexpected and controversial was this within the House? Assuming the above information is all true it definitely says something this guy went rogue and acted on what the previous Knave would want and didn’t think our Arlecchino would greenlight it, which does feel consistent with the previous Knave being described as basically worse & crueler than our Arlecchino. It also makes me question how much house of hearth things we’ve seen outside the main story are the work of our Arlecchino or if there’s a bigger divide of loyalty. Heck, I could be wrong but it doesn’t even seem like we know if the previous Knave is dead or not

This isn’t me saying Arlecchino couldn’t possibly be treating hearth children worse than she wants us to know, especially ones who aren’t her “favorites” the way the fontaine trio seem to be, but I really don’t feel sure about making a solid conclusion of her exact level of malice the way ppl r generally understanding it rn when it feels there’s going to be more about her. Just the idea of she, as a Hearth child, clashed with the previous leader who was known for being cruel, overtook their position and took on less harsh methods of leading that made at least some members with more power/possible closer proximity to the previous Knave go rogue and try to commit atrocities in the previous Knave’s name…I feel this leaves a lot of room to suggest there’s more going on with how Arlecchino is as a person

I don’t mind if she’s just very evil and deceptive bc if she totally had me fall for thinking she was less evil than she actually was that’s fun tbh. But I feel people suggest that’s all her character could be with no degree of like, “sympatheticness” or deep grey morality and that if her character did go there it would be automatically poor writing and genshin walking back on making a truly evil woman when IDK. I feel you can claim at this point they have left it open ended and it’s never been completely confirmed she’s pure evil. Also sometimes I just get a hunch and feel cautiously confident in Genshin executing certain characters well. Not all characters, just certain ones. Especially given Fontaine’s character writing being very good and a character like Lyney feeling very solid to me when any development with Arlecchino would likely involve him and his siblings as well, I honestly feel open to the idea of Arlecchino being satisfyingly written to be both villainous/morally dubious but “sympathetic/likable as a person” in ways outside of just her ruthlessness if that makes sense

If I’m wrong/they drop the ball with it more than I anticipate I’ll eat my hat but I am pretty excited about her character and which way they decide to go with it. I will say the only potential impression I have of where they’ll go with her has been wondering if it will go in a “cycles of abuse” direction—I’d be surprised if they ever elaborated on Arlecchino’s character especially in how she feels about things and her also growing up as an exploited child of the hearth wasn’t relevant

[mewnikisses]

So frustrating not having the energy to draw selfship stuff and not being a writer even though I have a bunch of ideas... I wish I could just manifest what I see in my head bc I think about Brad and Star in particular sooo much and have so many great ideas for them but just no energy so for the past like month or so I have just been like (screaming in my head)

[hehebread]

yes deku is a freak, an absolute madman, a little bit fucked up and a LOT insane when it comes to his loved ones (kacchan esp) but he’s also kind and compassionate and in touch with his emotions. he’s literally the gentlest soul in the series and yet the most lethal mfer out there

[soldier-poet-king]

wild manic energy bc i finished old job and am starting new one tmrw, was listening to the witness for the dead on the bus again

GUESS WHO JUST SPENT AN HOUR AND A HALF WORKING ON THAT WEB WEAVE ON DIVINE SILENCE

[cherrywhite]

So I was going to write this whole thing about Faulkner and how a lot of his character is, at least to me, built on this despairing loneliness and isolation. That part of it stems from having been abandoned by his father and brother (a father that never looked him in the eye, a brother that never came back like he promised). That that loneliness feeds into his desire for a place to belong, to no longer be alone, but its since been twisted into this want for prestige (because there's that rationalization: if he were special, if he had the title and accolades then he'd have had to have made his place somewhere right? Make a home somewhere?). And that's why it was so easy to betray Carpenter the way he did, to weigh it in his hands....

.... but every time I tried to sit down and write coherent, concise thoughts it spiraled into something incomprehensible (see above). BUT I still want to talk about it because this podcast makes me so ill every other Thursday.

[gifti3]

i wrote a really small thing related to this post! I've been getting back into OIs so i came up with this arranged marriage scenario in a Victorian setting for Asmo and MC and have been chewing on it for the past several days lol I think I'm gonna come up with more stuff for this later but I just wanted to post this for now φ(゜▽゜*)♪

The weather was nice out today so you decided to go for a walk around the estate garden and rest in a somewhat secluded spot. Unfortunately, someone had managed to find you. How did the two of you keep running into each other in place so vast?

"Sooo….." Asmodeus leans into your space to look at the pages of you book. "What are you reading?"

"…A book."

"…Well yea, but what is the book about?"

You hold back your sigh and answer instead. "It's just about something I took interest in recently…"

Asmo stares at you for a moment. "You know, I'm starting to realize something about you."

"You are?"

"Uh huh," he nods. "At first, I thought you were a cagey person, but you're just really socially awkward you know? You kind of remind me of one of my brothers."

You close your book without making note of the page you were on. "I'm going back inside. Goodbye."

"Wait, I didn't mean it in a bad way!"

You sigh. "Are you sure? Cause you've been pretty rude to me several times before. So I'm having a hard time believing that."

Asmodeus makes a face. "It was an observation?"

"Okay. Can you just…let me read please?" The request came out harsher than you intended but maybe you were feeling a little defensive.

So what if you were "awkward". You weren't expecting to talk to anyone when you came out here.

Asmodeus huffs and leans back on his hands. But he doesn't leave…. for some reason. Maybe he was bored?

You flip through your book trying to find what page you were on.

"Page seventy six."

You look over at Asmo who has already busied himself with inspecting his nails.

"Thanks."

[actualaster]

Deeply inconvenient truth many people really, really, really do not ever want to ever acknowledge much less discuss to find solutions for:

Cars are an accessibility tool.

Public transport is not safe for a variety of people and “just adding more buses and trains and making cities revolve around PT” will not actually address that.

(But nobody likes hearing about how tiny % of the population cannot reliably and safely use PT because they don’t want to actually envision what trying to accommodate that looks like)

[the-chattering-tower]

It's going to be a long time until I return to making skins if at all, between my health, classwork, and other hobbies that also demand use of my hands (which are complainy bastards) however i do have multiple skin ideas kicking around in my brain and i'll be real with you, most of them just come back to the fact that i am Very Gay and want to present my beloved with Shiny Gifts

[cashmere-caveman]

i present to u the being human s1-3 og trio polycule thesis via shitpost ot3 alignment charts (original templates from here) feat. my awesome digital drawing skillz

[murcielagatito]

the funniest thing to me is when i saw someone refer to ava/janine as a crackship bc crackship by definition is a pairing between two characters who have never interacted in canon and ava and janine literally cannot stay out of eachothers business

[bananonbinary]

hey i saw your tags on the mental health walk post and i have major Sensory Issues that can be exacerbated by being outdoors (and am literally allergic to uv lmao), if it's not weird can i ask what flavor of spd stuff you're dealing with? i have some Techniques that may be useful if we've got overlap

hm. that's a bit of a difficult question, because i'm still sort of figuring it out? i went diagnosed for most of my life (which is insane cause it turns out its pretty severe lmao), and even now that i've been diagnosed, the doctors/therapists i've spoken to about it either have no experience in the area or are worse than useless, so i'm sort of piecing it together all on my own here.

the main obstacle for Outside is the sun. i don't LOVE all the other uncontrollable Stuff out there (wind, temperature, bugs, etc), but i can manage it okay. meanwhile i hate almost any light at all, and spend a lot of time in my room with the lights off and the curtain drawn, on my computer with a yellow light filter. i can hang out in the rest of the house without a problem as long as i can return to my dark room when i need it, but to go outside on a sunny day for more than like 10 minutes results in a full meltdown and often physical illness just in case i missed the memo that my brain Did Not Like It. i mean, i do it, because it's always worth it, but it takes like a whole week at least to claw my way back to my baseline again.

i would love to hear about your techniques even if you don't think they're very applicable, like i said i'm sort of in the dark about "normal" coping and treatment for the whole condition. my current coping techniques consist of a weighted pack i wear around my neck that my mom made (which does help a lot, i wear it every time i leave the house), and taking benedryl until it knocks me out of an overstimulation spiral and i can pass tf out for the comedown.

[petorahs]

the first few art pieces for a new interest are always the loneliest, in my experience