clarasghosts

[clarasghosts]

reading the conclave script is making this funnier

watching the new season of wednesday, and now i have a strong desire to write an au where vincent is an addams cousin.

it already works just with his name being vincent, the dark clothing he's wearing when we're first introduced to him. please imagine his patient and kind nature with a slightly morbid twist.

[clarasghosts]

as the us (and the world) watches what's happening in texas, keep in mind that texas has already been gerrymandered for a very long time to limit the amount of blue districts, while this current effort seeks to eliminate them altogether. and while all of this is happening, colleges and universities around the state are about to welcome students again for their fall semesters after the state senate passed a bill this summer to control these schools. this is a state that has laws in place to pretty much prevent labor unions from forming, but in their place we have faculty senates - democratically elected bodies that represent the faculty and various departments across campus. with this senate bill in place, faculty senates will no longer represent the faculty but will instead represent college administration. college/university presidents will now appoint faculty senate presidents, as well as half of the faculty senators. that means that the college/university president is the one being represented at faculty senate, dictating policy to the other 50% elected representatives. state committees are going to "recommend" and review curricula, as well as have the power to reject any curriculum that they don't ideologically agree with. we literally don't live in a democracy, we don't have representation, and free speech is a ghost we're trying to summon at seances.

[clarasghosts]

lawrence, of course, figures out pretty quickly that there's something odd?? about cardinal addams benítez. like the guy showed up in rome with barely anything, but part of that barely anything was a taxidermy moth that he placed on his nightstand. most of the other cardinals never go in vincent's room, so they don't have a clue about this. lawrence catches on enough that he politely interrupts vincent when he's saying something a little creepy or morbid, or he adds onto it so that it seems less creepy or morbid in a new context. lawrence's motive for doing this is that vincent's a genuinely nice guy and he wants him to be accepted by the others. an unforeseen consequence is that vincent's addams oddities successfully go unnoticed by the others for the entirety of the conclave, and so they elect him pope.

after the joy and relief calms down a little, lawrence realizes he's now going to spend the rest of his life dealing with vincent's oddities. he finds he's kind of excited about it.

watching the new season of wednesday, and now i have a strong desire to write an au where vincent is an addams cousin.

it already works just with his name being vincent, the dark clothing he's wearing when we're first introduced to him. please imagine his patient and kind nature with a slightly morbid twist.

[clarasghosts]

you know that scene in addams family values where wednesday and pugsley argue whether the baby will be a girl or a boy, and then gomez comes out into the waiting room and declares, "it's an addams!!" well, yeah.

watching the new season of wednesday, and now i have a strong desire to write an au where vincent is an addams cousin.

it already works just with his name being vincent, the dark clothing he's wearing when we're first introduced to him. please imagine his patient and kind nature with a slightly morbid twist.

[clarasghosts]

Wednesday + knives/swords WEDNESDAY (2022- )

[clarasghosts]

watching the new season of wednesday, and now i have a strong desire to write an au where vincent is an addams cousin.

it already works just with his name being vincent, the dark clothing he's wearing when we're first introduced to him. please imagine his patient and kind nature with a slightly morbid twist.

[clarasghosts]

boss makes a dollar i make a dime. so i browse jstor on company time

[clarasghosts]

WUNMI MOSAKU as ANNIE

[clarasghosts]

amc's interview with the vampire (2022) // sharp objects (2018) // sharp objects (2006) // we have always lived in the castle (2018) // we have always lived in the castle (1962) // stoker (2013)

[clarasghosts]

i've seen the first two episodes of the new season of wednesday now, and i'm relieved?? to report that it is actually an improvement on the first season.

[clarasghosts]

This is the anon again and I’d like to say thanks for such a thoughtful response. I routinely teach the rhetorical situation, so I am familiar with constantly teaching ppl the different facets of a text—one of which is the fact that someone like the artist I mentioned has a platform/audience. This would be different if the person had no following and had no “power” so to speak on influencing how others see the character. I see this artist specifically within the ship of Vincent/Giulio employing “sexual dimorphism” characteristics if that makes sense—making Sabbadin super tall and bulky while making a Vincent petite and cute and in line with a different “sex” than male. Not that men can’t have long hair etc etc.The art just appears to fall in line with that trope, and for someone with such an audience, that can influence how others depict the character. I have seen people post about how nothing we do has any impact on others online, and I think something ppl fail to consider within the theoretical situation is that element of power. Thanks again for your response. I really appreciate the conversation.

putting it in the context of that direct visual contrast between characters and "sexual dimorphism" type concept does make sense! a contrast like that probably even clarifies the argument more than if it were about vincent on his own. i just looked up the artist again and they are big enough to have their own fanlore page?? wild. i'm now thinking the reason i'm not familiar with them is that i'm pretty firmly in the vincent/thomas realm if i focus my attention on a ship, rather than just on the character of vincent himself.

i really appreciate you reaching out and giving this kind of detailed response! if anything, i think having these kinds of conversations in this fandom (though not just in this fandom) is important.

[clarasghosts]

Hey I was the anon that you commented on my conclave post. I didn’t call out a specific person because I think that’s technically against the rules of the blog. There are some of yosb’s drawings of Vincent that just him look like a coy demure girl. There is one in particular with him and Sabbadin that I keep at front of mind. How we depict intersex people (especially when we might not know intersex people in the physical space) whether through art or fiction influences how we think about real people. I am not of the camp that fiction does not affect how we see the world. My academic focus is social psychology, so I am drawing from that background. It’s frustrating to see people deny the reality of something like stereotyping and prejudice when that’s why I’ve devoted my life to trying to teach about.

i won't tag this since i don't want to cause any issues or anything, but i'm glad you reached out! i actually did see someone else specifically name yosb in a different confession ask, interestingly enough, though they were complaining about that person depicting vincent as being particularly thin, when their depiction of the other characters was truer to their film appearance. i wasn't familiar with this artist at all, and had to look up their account after the fact, which is probably also why i wasn't aware of what you were referring to in that ask.

like i said in my response, i wasn't coming at it from a fiction vs reality perspective like much of the ongoing conversation had been about. funny enough, i am also involved in academia! but as an english professor. so my own background requires me to approach all writing with nuance, knowing that every text we create is informed by innumerable personal and cultural experiences, and so there isn't one exact way to pin something down. as i don't follow the artists in this fandom all that much and am far more familiar with the fic that has been written, i may not know specifically about the art that you're referring to, though i will agree that how we depict an intersex character matters. in fact, i tend to have pretty strong feelings about binary constructs of sex and gender in general, and had previously posted on tumblr about my disappointment with how people seem determined to force vincent into a binary at all, when his character expressly rejects binary definition in his own dialogue.

(to get into that topic, vincent says at least three things that are specifically about how he views himself: 1) "i am what god made me", 2) "i know what it's like to exist between the world's certainties", 3) "some would say my chromosomes would define me as being a woman, and yet, I am also as you see me." all three of these things are so interesting, but that last one is so carefully worded. he doesn't follow it up with "a man," even though it feels like there's space in the dialogue for him to do so. he also uses the word "also," implying that he is not actually fully rejecting the concept of womanhood, while also not fully embracing it. because this part of him that some would use to define him as a woman is part of him, and that part of him matters to him, however one might define it, in this perhaps indefinable, ineffable sort of way. and then the very fact that the final line of dialogue in the entire film is "i know what it's like to exist between the world's certainties" gives that line a whole hell of a lot of weight in the narrative. the point is to find hope, meaning, the divine in uncertainty and a lack of binaries. so all that to say that i am not disagreeing with you here, at least as far as your being less vague. i think the reason you and i both seem to run into this issue on opposite ends is that people generally - within this fandom and without - don't really have any idea how to deal with a lack of binary definition. the very notion of it makes them uncomfortable, and so they try to define vincent's character in terms they understand, whether by presenting him as more feminine in line with what they, i suppose, see as his "biological" reality - which like, the whole concept of that is such fucking bullshit, that's literally the point. that chromosomes and genitalia don't define a person - or having him more directly express alignment with his masculine outward appearance.)

[clarasghosts]

silly merricat

[clarasghosts]

And I definitely get to the point where I just want to bury myself in baking.

ig credit: tour_a_tour_.

[clarasghosts]

POOL

Samia: Tiny Desk Concert (2023)

Is it too much to ask? Is it too much to ask? Is it too much to ask? Is it too much to ask? Is it?

[clarasghosts]

WEEKLY FIC RECOMMENDATIONS

28.07.-03.08.2025

Compilation of the best fics I’ve (re)read in the past week, plus the Best Of for each week of the past month.

Man, not only is this one late but it is short as well - last week was the Pride Week, plus I went to an anime con, so I had sadly (luckily?) so much other things to do but to read fics. Either way, enjoy!

Fandoms:

Columbo, Conclave (2024), The Handmaid´s Tale (TV), The Magnus Archives, Naruto

CONCLAVE (2024)

I Want To Know What Love Is (I Want You To Show Me) by @slow-burn-sally

Explicit, 9.2k words, complete

Vincent realizes suddenly that he's fallen in love with his Secretary of State, and then, shortly afterwards, realizes that he wants to have sex with said Secretary of State. This fic came about via a fic prompt about how awkward sex between these two would be, both virginal old men with zero experience and lots of Catholic guilt and repressed sexuality. It is really very fluffy and soft.

Bumbling virgins who are not just old but catholic priests to boot. Incredibly soft, honestly their tumbles made me laugh.

wala man lang naghagis ng mga molotov by wasd

Gen, 6k words, complete

the 1970s were great days to be Church. vincent smokes, drinks orange juice, and wrestles with angels (metaphorically).

Leftist! Vinvent! With! A plan!! This fic and that one korean fanartist on twitter are the sole source of this particular type of Vincent for me and I will br forever grateful.

Undeniable by @bennyboy-tallmadge

Mature, 10k words, WIP

Thomas and Vincent are convinced that they're being absolutely discrete and professional about their relationship. The rest of the world begs to differ. Or: Five times someone suspects the Pope and his Dean are madly in love and keeps their mouth shut about it, and one time Aldo finally reaches his breaking point.

I feel so sorry for every single character that is the POV of each of the chapters. The secondhand cringe in Ray´s chapter... man. They are truly going through it, huh?

Conclave x TMA

W̴̖̋â̶̯r̵̹̿ by @sorlian

Teen, 1.6k words, complete

It followed him here. It was here.

Listen I don´t even do TMA and yet, this fic... the visuals yall, the visuals!

THE HANDMAID´S TALE (TV)

Thy Right Eye (Offends Me) by iaj

Mature, 1.5k words, complete

"Once she had it, she almost didn’t know what to do with it. This was power - a single, sharp piece of metal."

Pure indulgence fic. We probably all wished for FW to get what he deserved.

THE BEST OF THIS MONTH

The following is a selection of the best fic of each of the past month that deserves a particular shout out.

01-07.07.2025

My Eyes Adored You by zetaophiuchi / @hallo-catfish

Columbo, Mature, 18k words, complete

07.-13.07.2025

Eight Moves Ahead by @jolie-goes-rome

Conclave, Teen, 32k words, complete

14.-20.07.2025

Naruto, Gen, 10k words, complete

Time Travel Tango, or, Rasa and the Cat by @greenekangaroo

21.-27.07.2025

Memento Amoris by @clarasghosts

Conclave, Explicit, 13.8k words, complete

28.07.-03.08.2025

wala man lang naghagis ng mga molotov by wasd

Conclave, Gen, 6k words, complete

[clarasghosts]

every day british actors wake up and think to themselves fuckkkkk i HAVE to help the incredibly bigoted woman make more money so she can funnel it into killing trans people i have to do it bro if i don't do it i will die