#well a half-baked one

[meiko3323]

Father in her character demo be like:

ok im not by any means a lore theorizer, my brain is much too smooth for that, but every now and then, like a bouncing DVD logo touching a corner, i have a coherent thought. and Arlecchinos demo sparked some which id like to put forth. making it as a text post cuz archons know, i get real wordsy ^^'

spoilers obv if youre not far enough in story.

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now. upon several rewatches of the original and reactions, the first non-Arle voiceline jumped out at me:

"A spark cannot shatter all shadows until it sets all ablaze or else to the other end of light lie still bleak shades"

this made me think back to was it Childes or Wanderers voiceline? where they say that given the chance, the Knave would betray the Harbingers if it suited her. so what if, hear me out, in her quest of retribution she seeks to somehow go against the Fatui/ Harbingers/ Tsaritsa? retribution that is, for the myriad suffering theyve caused to innocent ppl around teyvat. idk abt full on taking them down, as the top 3 harbs are said to have power that rivals archons, but mb put a sizeable dent in their forces, or otherwise impede their plans. she also heavily implied a wish to collaborate w us, the Traveller, in the future at several occasions during the Fontaine AQ. mb she wants to enlist our help in her goal. circling back to that line, i think the spark is obv Father, and the shadows she wishes to shatter i strongly believe are the Fatui/ Harbingers. and unlike me, the line after is confidently saying "set ALL ablaze" = complete eradication of that organization.

my next thought was actually aided by a yt comment under one of the recent vids w her (idr if teaser, demo, or short, likely short) that said sth along the lines of "shes not a wolf in sheeps clothing, shes a sheep in wolfs clothing, forced to blend in w the wolves that took her in". this comment popped into my mind as i watched the scene where she is walking in mb some type of dream or mind world, w numerous children running around, playing and singing. and she has such a soft look on her face as she gazes at them. but then she collects herself w her signature 🤫 to flip the switch to ig we can call it her wolf side, and the scene changes to her against the red eclipse moon thing (crimson moon?). where was i going w this?.. i think the fact that her "natural" or innermost state is her sheep side where she just wishes to run the orphanage in peace and be a good mother Father to the children and she has to actively suppress that and channel her wolf side in order to carry out her version of justice, and ofc keep blending in w her adoptive wolves (harbingers) until the time is right.

finally, her last voiceline of the demo struck me as very crucial:

"I hear that the children love to play by the fireplace, so let us continue to use the name, "House of the Hearth". Still... its flame is no longer needed for you have the strength to defend yourselves"

from what i can unpack, this is obv talking abt her leaving her position as orphanage director and passing that torch (heh) to Lyney. which btw goes in line w a theory proposed by ABD Illustrates on yt regarding pyro characters (and jumping off to predict plot of Natlan). ill link it btw, go give it a watch, its very insightful:

anyway. she wants the orphanage to keep its name after her retirement. she feels that the children no longer need her (its flame) as under Lyneys leadership they can fend for themselves. a sad look comes across her face as she says this. i believe shes not as unfeeling/ uncaring and is more attached to the children than she dares to admit, and is pained to leave them behind in pursuit of her greater goals.

oh and going back to the 4.6 patch trailer, the boss battle bw her and her main trio of children - despite her thinking Lyney is fit to take over, she wants to give him one final test ig to reaffirm her decision, and to give him the confidence boost to take up that post. cuz he is very unsure of himself, and is always anxious of disappointing Father and not living up to w/e expectations he believes she has for him.

omg that was a lot. this was prob a solid hour of pure stream of consciousness. hopefully theres some coherent nuggets in there. most of it isnt horribly deep, honestly prob surface level stuff that might be painfully obv to others. but i wanted to write it out nonetheless

i invite anyone that bothered to read these long-winded ramblings to respectfully share their thoughts/ theories in the comments and/ or reblogs. was there anything i missed or forgor?

thank you for your time ^^

ps: the trailer was phenomenal btw OMG - the cinematography, the music?! i cant wait for tnbee to make an epic remix of it. and ofc for real lore theorists to dig in and drop their videos on it o3o

[sp0o0kylights]

Steve Harrington was wearing a Hellfire t-shirt.

It was far too tight on him, the name of the club stretched wide over his chest. The sleeves dug into his biceps, making them pop even more than they usually did, and that was before he crossed his arms. 

Worse?

It was short.

Which meant the damn shirt was constantly riding up to give everyone a nice show of the smattering of hair that trailed down past the band of Harrington's jeans. 

The same hair that Eddie was determinedly not looking at. 

“Henderson, a moment?” He crooked a finger, a smile on his face that was more feral than welcoming. 

Rather than cower or even acknowledge that Eddie was two seconds away from murder, Dustin just gave him a gummy grin, all too pleased with himself and his scheme. 

“Sure Eddie. Steve, don't just stand there, go help set the booth up!” Dustin gestured to Hellfire’s sad little table, crammed all the way in the back of the gym. 

Jeff and Gareth both reacted to the suggestion like a rabid squirrel had been set upon them, nervously inching towards the other side of the booth as Harrington sighed and--shockingly--did as he was told.

‘What,’ Eddie thought angrily, ‘in the everloving fuck.’

“Do you guys mind if I set this down on the table?” Eddie heard Harrington ask as he stormed away, Dustin on his heel. 

They wandered just around the corner, out of sight and hopefully, out of the fallen king’s hearing range.

Eddie wasn't sure if Harrington would try and white knight the very much deserved dressing down he was about to give. 

Didn’t want to chance it, considering the downright weird relationship he had with Hellfire's freshmen.

(While he’d heard many a tale at his table regarding King Steve since the newest recruits had joined Hellfire, most of them dissolved into arguments without ever really going anywhere.

 Best anyone could figure out was that Dustin and Lucas had a bad case of hero worship, while Mike owned a begrudging amount of respect that hailed from a series of misadventures. 

The very same misadventures that, despite all protests to the contrary, was clearly some sort of babysitting gig for Harrington.) 

Either way, plenty of the King’s court would have loved to take this opportunity to fuck with Hellfire.

Given that Henderson was absolutely too old to require a babysitter at fourteen, Eddie would bet his lunch money that was what Steve was here to do.

Something the club couldn’t afford since they were forever and always two seconds away from being stripped of club status and banned from school grounds. 

“I would love to know what went through that all A’s brain of yours when I said,” Eddie whirled on Dustin when they were firmly in the clear, voice low and furious.  “no Henderson, do not invite King Steve to help, he is an invading force and would ruin our peaceful kingdom!?”

He clasped his hands behind his back before leaning into Dustin’s face. “Because clearly whatever you heard wasn’t that.” 

To Eddie’s continued frustration and confusion, Dustin did not treat this like the threat it was. 

None of the freshmen had ever truly treated Eddie like a threat--had somehow skipped that part of the usual onboarding ritual entirely.

Eddie, town freak and drug dealer, who had cultivated his looks and craziness to such a degree that most everyone steered clear, wasn’t used to it. 

Everyone had been afraid of him at some point in this shitty school. Jeff, Gareth, hell even half the staff--and that the dorky trio of fourteen year old's clearly thought this all was play-acting made his eye twitch.

Even if it was--maybe, sometimes--welcome. 

“I know what you said, but I’m telling you I’m right.” Dustin argued immediately, and oh God, he was using that tone again. 

A hand went up into the space between them and Eddie groaned aloud, knowing what was coming.

“First,” Dustin ticked a finger up, “Hellfire really needs the money. Even thirty dollars would get us new figures, but more than that, if we don’t fundraise, we can’t go to Gen Con!” 

Dustin's eyes bored into Eddie’s, full of fire and conviction

“Yes,” Eddie said through gritted teeth, “but--”

“Second!” Dustin cut him off, and God the little shit even threw him a look while he did it, like Eddie was the one being ridiculous here!

“We had to fight just to get our table! Principal Higgins was in algebra today practically begging the mathletes to show up, but then tried to tell us we couldn't be here? That’s messed up!” 

As if denying them a spot to fundraise was the worst thing that asshole had ever done.

Eddie sighed, breath blasting out of his mouth like a dragon’s. 

“Because people think we’re freaks and satanists, Henderson. You don’t typically invite freaks and satanists to the school’s annual Holiday Bazaar. Especially not when all the local moms are paying to hawk their bullshit crafts and tupperware!” 

It was more than that of course. The Hawkins High Holiday Bazaar was a tradition spanning several years now. Starting in the gym and spilling clear into the parking lot, everyone from local artists to even some local shops came to host a small table for the day, thus growing the event from a small school fundraiser to a Hawkins' “must-do.” 

Half the fucking town was here to sell, and the other half was here to shop, which meant Principle Higgins had wanted Hellfire banned from the fucking premise. 

Eddie had been forced to pull out one of his trump cards he’d been saving--blackmail on Higgins that related to the man’s not--so--legal addiction to Percocet that he relied on Reefer Rick for. 

(And bless Rick, that hadn’t been the only tidbit he’d shared with Eddie about Higgins. That information, however, Eddie needed just so the asshat wouldn’t give him the boot from school entirely.) 

The only reason Eddie had pulled it out to secure their rightful spot, was because of Gen Con. 

It was Hellfire's White Whale, their grand adventure, and this was going to be his year to take his friends on one last epic quest to make memories of a lifetime surrounded by people who understood them.

Come hell or high water, Eddie was going to Gen Con--but being able to fundraise by selling wares and baked goods at the stupid Holiday Bazaar would go a long way to help.

Even if he had to listen to the band repeatedly play ear-bleeding renditions of Christmas songs.

“All the clubs get to have a table, and we’re a club!” Dustin continued, like it was that simple. “But you know, I get it. We look scary.” 

He gestured down to his own Hellfire shirt, before gesturing towards Eddie’s entire outfit.

Like Eddie didn't know what he looked like, let alone that he'd made this outfit specifically to scare people away from him.

(And maybe add some rockstar flair to this dinky little hick town.)

“You know who doesn’t look scary?”

Dustin held out his hands and swiveled his body like he was presenting a prize instead of gesturing in the vague direction of; 

“Steve!”

Eddie’s left eye twitched.

‘You can't kill him, you need his character for the campaign.’ He told himself firmly, even if he envisioned strangling Dustin like a chicken.

Cartoon squawking and all. 

“The King isn’t going to help us fundraise, Dustin.” Eddie said, in an effort to break down why Harrington couldn't be here. “He's just going to cause us problems that we can’t afford to have.” 

So many problems, half of which Eddie couldn't think of because if he did, he'd start spiraling.

“Really? Because as you keep saying, Steve used to be the King. People love him, Eddie! Mom’s love him.”

Eddie had pulled himself back up to his proper height a while ago, and now rocked back on his heels while he ran a hand down his face.

There was no getting through to Henderson when he was like this. 

Not unless Eddie really lost it, and it was practically club lore that he only lost it when someone missed an important game. 

One cannot keep a herd of sheep if their flock is terrified of them, after all. 

(“Perhaps you’re just a giant fucking softie.” Tiff, one of Hellfire’s graduating members, told him once. “Honestly dude, I bet you throw up stuffing.”

“Shut up Tiffany, your choker is on backwards again.” He'd spat back, completely offended and not at all trying to distract from how true that was.) 

“We can’t be satanic if Steve’s the one selling cookies!” Dustin finished doggedly. 

“We’re not even selling cookies--that’s not the point!”” Eddie shook his head, hair flying. He was not going to be sidetracked, he wasn’t!

 “Harrington is going to end up siding with all the moms about how we’re all wasting time with D&D, if he even spends the whole time at the table. Is that what you want?” 

He stuck out a ringed finger, poking at Dustin’s chest.

“Every single person who comes by our table has to be convinced D&D is a writing and math based game. Good for the mind and souls of growing, impressionable children. A game that got a bad rep because of  a few silly images.” 

A pitch he and Tiff had come up with during the third or fourth time they had to convince an adult that no, just because their shirts had a dragon on it, didn’t mean they were summoning demons in the drama room. 

“Harrington can’t do that because Harrington doesn’t even know how to play!” 

This Eddie punctuated by throwing his hands in the air. 

Given the startled look of the mother-daughter duo passing him by, clearly was louder than he’d intended--but screw it!

He was right!

Hellfire was in a precarious position to both fundraise and do a little damage control among the slightly smarter members of this shithole small town, and Harrington rolling his eyes and gossiping about how stupid it was would hinder that.

“Okay, first of all, Steve’s played D&D with me and he didn’t even kill his character.” Dustin said it like he was unveiling a smoking gun and not lying through his ass--which Eddie would absolutely be calling him on the second he was done talking. 

Because King Steve? Play D&D?

'Ha!'

“And he’s not gonna say shit because we--me, and Lucas and even Mike!--asked him to help, and he helps when its serious. I know you have some weird grudge with him, but I’m telling you Eddie he’s our golden ticket to Gen Con!” 

“You’re killing me. You are standing here, acting as a friend, when you are bringing a-- a dark force into the midst our of mission--” Eddie hissed, because he was losing the fucking fight and he knew it.

Dustin Henderson was not a man easily swayed. 

Had never been, even when the odds were stacked against him (and Grant and Gareth were howling in his ear.) 

The set of his shoulders and the glint of the little shithead’s eye meant Eddie wouldn’t be able to use him to oust Harrington--if he even could get him out without the dick causing a massive scene anyway. 

As always when outgunned, Eddie flipped to dramatics.

“Betrayed! By my own chosen heir no less!” He moaned, pressing the back of his hand over his eyes as Dustin scoffed.

"Don’t be so dramatic! Steve will help, I promise! Just don’t be a dick to him.” 

 Conversation apparently over, Dustin turned around to head back to the table

Snidely, he added over his shoulder: “Plus we’ve all caught on to the heir thing Eddie. You tell everyone that so they do what you want.” 

The dick.

“You’re too fucking smart for your own good. I’m gonna start feeding you paint chips to bring that IQ down.” Eddie muttered angrily as Dustin went back to their little table.

He gave himself a moment to get his shit together and stomp a foot like a child when Dustin was around the corner and thus couldn’t witness it, before following his wayward sheep back.

Could only pray to any deity listening that Henderson’s meddling didn’t blow up in Hellfire’s face.

[cartarg]

various stream doodles

[bloomingbluebell]

since playing twilight princess again i cannot get behind the lu fandom characterization of twilight and wild i'm sorry. like i think twilight would be an overprotective big brother figure towards wild, absolutely. but wild doesn't take that sitting down. he doesn't like being coddled, and it's pretty clear (side note: i do really appreciate the analysis posts about wars and how hard he's been on wild potentially pushing wild closer and closer to a rather big memory. you can sort of see how twilight is not happy with how warriors is acting, but he's not saying anything right now. probably because it's not his place to, and also probably because wild wouldn't want him to right now).

i think that twilight and wild have a very different relationship to what most of the lu fandom thinks. they're close - that much is obvious from how they react when the other is hurt, and how twilight pushed through the rest to get to wild during the memories comic. but i think that a lot of the time, it feels like wild only exists around twilight, or he can't be left without twi otherwise he'll "do something stupid" or whatever. wild doesn't exactly appreciate twi's protectiveness or his advice all of the time, but he still looks up to twilight. despite whatever went down when they first met, wild worked to gain twi's trust in order for them to be so close. they're equals - just like the rest of the chain are equals. and yes, wild does a fair amount of dumb things and he's impulsive about it, but i would like to argue that twilight also does a fair amount of dumb things (in game and in comic)

(i think it also kinda feeds in to how wild is sort of infantilized by the fanbase. he's already not exactly trusted by the rest of the chain (legend especially, for some reason), and i think i'd like to explore that and how his relationship with legend formed. they seem to think he's sort of a loose cannon, especially after the previous arcs. wild hasn't seemed to realize it yet, but i do think something is coming, especially with him and warriors)

[museaway]

what would you take from my room?

I was tagged by @rosemirmir, tysm!! This is adorable. I'm in my kitchen right now so the items are from that room.

tagging anyone who sees this & would like to play!

[quinn-pop]

shoutout to that one mtdd confession comic i drew last year that i never posted because uhh

it was unscripted so the ideas were pretty disjointed and it showed a lot. anyway:

[captainofthetidesbreath]

With the end of 3.07: Tempest directly saying that Weepe isn't who he says he is, I've been wondering... does Imelda actually know? And has she known this entire time?

Bear in mind I'm on the public release schedule, so I don't know what happens or is learned in 3.09: Baron, which I suspect is a Weepe and Kozma episode given the icon and title.

It isn't the first time that Weepe is suggested not to really be "Moc Weepe". The appendices for 1.12: Coda (the episode where he kills Atticus) has a prescription for the use of Weepe's medical kit addressed to a redacted name.

Imelda knows more than she should about Weepe's Fold condition and what his daily treatment is. There's plenty of ways she could have known it—especially under the consideration that the Trust has a rather strict panopticon vibe going on—but it occurs to me that one of those ways is if she... somehow read his full unredacted medical file. The Mothers maintain a strict Mother-patient confidentiality (2.12: Lazaretto), but I don't know how secure the lazaretto actually is or how difficult it actually would be to illicitly acquire a file.

I also think about how often it's brought up in 2.13: Inside that Imelda doesn't know who or what she's dealing with here, how she knows something that she shouldn't, and how certain she is about what are absolutely unknowns to Spahr, who is working with direct observation.

There are a bunch of other suspicious comments, but I don't really have anything to contextualize them with in the moment, they've just got a Suspicious Vibe that I can't really articulate what's wrong, so I'm going to have to hold off on talking about those for now. But I'm looking at all of this stuff from Inside and just thinking about how OFTEN it is said that Imelda doesn't know who she's dealing with and, now, it makes me ask.... what if she does? What if she knows EXACTLY who she's dealing with here?

[ciphers-fr]

intrigued by new ancient but also confused in light of ✨literally everything else✨

[vulpixhoney]

why does Rick Riordan hate the original myths so bad 💀

the Asphodel stuff?? regret? where is that coming from? you fully just made that shit up? out of his ass fr. the fields of Asphodel are specifically an area of neutrality, where the pretty much all mortals go when they die. it's for anyone who lived a normal life, who isn't a hero or a literal monster. it's specifically a neutral zone for people to exist once they die, it has nothing to do with ~your regrets in life~. it's like, a peaceful field of flowers where all your life's troubles are left behind on the surface.

the closest things to that is the fields of mourning/sorrow, but that's specifically for unrequited romantic love and also not called the fields of Asphodel (and also I'd bet money that rr doesn't know what that is) (and also only in Virgil's The Aeneid and not the Odyssey with the rest of what we know of the underworld)

[theloveinc]

i think Kirishima would get addicted to Subway, like that boy loves a footlong with a bag of chips.

absolutely gives you the other half of his sandwich always, only eats it if you say no to it.

He is just like me!! I love a good ol' subway AND need a bag of chips or a soup with my sammy or the meal isn't complete.

God forbid he only discovers it on one of your trips home to visit family...... 'cuz he eats there literally once and is suddenly acting like he's never had a good meal before in his life AND crying when you have to leave it behind to go back to Japan. Throughout your whole trip, you catch him ordering it for delivery at absolutely random times because he both wants to get it while he still can, and... just has the appetite to eat home cooked food made by your family AND. a whole fucking submarine.

But if we pretend that Subway is the same in every country... and it's so funny to say because he's NOT stupid, but... I do think he gets caught up in the whole, "it's healthy!!!!!!!!" thing, at least he claims, and "healthier than some other places!!!" when you pester him about eating darn-near a loaf of bread.

I do have to disagree with you, tho :( ... I think he WANTS to give you half of his sandwich, and would, if it came to down it. But after the first couple times ordering and having to split everything in half, he starts needing a whole footlong to himself and just orders two every time he goes so you can have your own. LMFAOOOO. He is so ridiculous, but can we blame him? No.

(He's so... man. about it, too. Brings home his sandwich and delicately unwraps it like it's some sort of baby, and puts it on a plate, and pours his chips out very neatly on the side, and gets himself a lil side dish of raddish pickles. Who tf does he think he is, it's HILARIOUS.

He meets your? dad or brother or even just male co-worker and they literally bond over it asdjkfa;sjdk.)

[beachboysnatural]

The writers for Lovely Runner were literally like "yeah we dk how any of this works have some vague explanations that tie into the themes and get on with it" and you know what I WILL

[moe-broey]

I'm ngl I'm feeling real self-conscious of tomorrow's entry 🧍

[thats-my-passion-right-there]

I finally saw the mean girls musical (the movie one) I have so many fucking thoughts oh my god

[thecherrygod]

Does anyone have that tweet that was a guy trying to find something at the store and he was struggling, and all this when talking on the phone with his friend and he says "in having a faggot crisis here", and a woman next to him gives him a look, so he points to his septum and mouths "I'm faggot"?

[infizero]

grgrhgahahh i wanna read more pokespe but i cant do it on my phone and im not unpacking my stuff until the morning

[sincerely-sofie]

So like I was listening to the hamilton ost earlier and after hearing one specific song I was like 'wait I could make TPiaG out of this' and so here's a redoing of the lyrics meant to be set during around the midpoint ish of TPiaG? not sure where exactly idk I'm tired [and I'm not telling you what song it is and am just hoping someone else will recognize the song-] G = Grovyle T = Twig [Used to indicate who's singing what part]

G: How does Twig... An anxious, former-human, orphan, reckless, untrusting- Somehow confide in Dusknoir, his enemy, a pokemon she's despised since his betrayal- Just to keep me out of it?

I just want her to be honest with me, for her to be honest with me, for her to be honest with me I just want her to trust me with this, Just the one time...

Dear Twig... I am not one for anger, no matter what you may find as I reckon with the effects of your life on mine... I look back on what I said, and after everything I checked, I suppose it's only fair you started to deny your own pain

You may claim I'm a hypocrite, or no better than you, but whatever it is you want to claim, lie about, or to do, I want you to know That I am here for you. Singed, 'Clover'.

T: Well, Grovyle, Just because you lied isn't the reason I don't trust you. The reason is you're overprotective, and No: I won't stop being reckless just because you said I should.

And No, Ark is not the problem here, You should know that he's harmless, no matter how much you claim I'm 'not sleeping'- Like, I only had twenty-one panic attacks yesterday.

G: Sweet Arceus.

T: Listen, I may not be 'free' Only because there is just one me I'm a bit busy making sure he's better I don't want to fight,

Nor will I apologize for doing what's right. I know that you say you're here, That doesn't mean I have to trust you. Signing off, Twig.

[And yeah I'm cutting it off here since it's midnight and I'm tired]

Well now I just want to animate this.