#again am being so so calm about this

[most-devious-bastard-in-nyc]

This article is gonna make me so absolutely insufferable

[itskaist]

Hi Kaist and welcome to the fandom! 🤍 Glad to see I'm not the only one with a massive collection of stuff, like stats, lore and other tidbits. I can hear my excel spreadsheets crying in the corner lol. Anyway, I really liked the song you shared and would love to know more about Josiha if you are willing to share. What kind of villain are they and what name do they go by? Are they into monologuing? Do they tend to spare civilians?

HELLO FELLOW EXCEL SPREADSHEET FREAK! (affectionate)

Thank you so much for asking & so glad you liked the song!!

Answers under the cut for those interested :)

Josiah's villain persona is Replica (it used to be Reflection for the longest time and I've only changed it quite recently, actually).

His suit has the mysterious look and I've leaned into the mirrored helmet for how he approaches building up his reputation: alongside the mirrored helmet, he also employs programmable voice distorters which can copy the voice of his opponents. In fights, he will often imitate the style and tactics of whoever he's fighting - so with Argent, he will be more aggresive and in-the-moment; with Steel, more cautious and working with his environment; with Ortega, he'll be chatty and try to distract.

All of that works both to conceal his actual abilities and thus true identity, as well as leans into the theme of 'being your own worst enemy' - he's the fear path anarchist. By studying his opponents (be they heroes or the establishment), he can exploit their worst flaws and make them work against themselves. Herald cares so much about civilians? Let's threaten the bystanders to get him to let his guard down. The government is a web of corruption mutually held hostage? Strike at the weakest link, and let them turn on each other. Show the world exactly why the current status quo is not working, show how it is built on fear, greed, and complacency.

There is a personal touch to his persona as well, of course there is. Your typical Regene anxieties over not being truly human, over being simply a copy (a replica, if you will - a simulacrum of humanity but never the real thing, at least in his eyes). Copying his opponents' styles because that is what he has always done, not just in fighting but throughout his free life in general: speedrunning learning how to be a person by observing other people, how they act, how they speak, how they present, and recreating those lessons for himself. As well as that mind-bending identity recursion of Replica being an incarnation of Sidestep - being an incarnation of a Regene - being an incarnation of the original gene donor; copy of a copy of a copy, sharpened down to a piercing focus but losing parts of itself along the way (again, in his eyes only). Not feeling whole, not feeling like his life has been a one continuous path but rather been reset and started over from square one many times over.

Civilians he doesn't really concern himself with, but neither would he go out of his way to harm them; his fight is against the heroes and the powers that be. He is not above causing injury, be it mental or physical; however he hasn't killed yet… yet. He thinks he is ready to kill and would do it if necessary, it simply hasn't been so far - but that's just one of the lies he's telling himself :)

In fact, he is scared of death; not really his own but more death as a very concept. I imagine that at the Farm, death would have been very clinical, clean - the rebellious or faulty being disposed of efficiently, no goodbyes, no bodies, no mourning. Someone will just be gone one day and eventually, if they have been gone long enough, it will be assumed they were likely recycled. But Regenes would not be familiarized with death, not allowed to ritualize it. Therefore, death wasn't really something that Josiah has had much direct experience with before running away, he doesn't know it, he doesn't understand it, and it scares him. He doesn't like seeing dead bodies, feeling this uncanny valley of his mind scrambling for hold over nothing. But all of that is very subconcious and not something he ever gave much thought to - he sees himself as cold, driven and efficient, so while he thinks that he could kill if he had to, well… we shall see, especially if-when he is finally confronted more directly with his past at the Farm; THAT might get horribly bloody, and I am looking forward to him having a breakdown over it :)) We love to see a character's self-perception being shattered, haha.

I think that about covers what you asked about, I could of course ramble on forever about my favourite squeaky toy but this already got long enough, hah. Adieu!

[phoenixcatch7]

Everyone keeps pairing Danny up with the bat kids and I'm not even a shipper, but.

Pair him up with Steph,

Cowards.

[mosstrades]

im someone who stuggles not to let his curiosity and drive sometimes (often) cross over into an overwhelming and maladaptive need for answers, for explanation, for certainty. someone who, historically, sees making art as a primarily intellectual exercise. this is not inherently a bad thing, we all have our temperaments and this kind of attention can be a strength. but, you know that artist who makes a painting, and then only wants to show it while explaining it to you? thats me, sometimes, more often than i like. every story i used to write had another hundred page document behind it, explicating every single choice -- often i would simply read that, instead of ever actually write the story itself. the explanation precedes everything. the answers alone are the experience.

david lynch's work and philosphy has been and is a vital foothold in my efforts to learn to love the questions as our breath. learn to appreciate intuition and dreams, trust them instead of fear them. learn to see that the world has so much confusing, uncertain, strange beauty, that can be terrifying but turns sublime when you cease rejecting it from fear. when you embrace the unknown and dont try to immediately & anxiously explicate it all away, a whole new world opens up to you. that you need the darkness in order to dream, and you need dreams in order to live fully immersed in what the world has to offer. a foothold in learning to be okay with abstraction, with imperfect subjectivity, with uncertainty. to know it is not anthitetical to truth and meaning. know that to skillfully make ideas come alive into a work *is* to rationally pin them down, but that you cannot lose sight of the intuition they were born as.

his artistic intuition reminds me of what i need to have -- the trust and humility for experiencing the inexplicable and understanding that to be enough. a devotion to ideas and their realisation. a balancing force, for my endless inquiry -- to not forget to live the question in my the search for an answer. to allow some thing to go without clear or universal explanation, allow for some things to remain unresolved, allow for others to have that be their resolution. it's why his work equal parts captivates me and disturbs me -- i am very bad at this. but feel in my heart a need to get better at it. to be a better artist, a better thinker, a better searcher, a better person. you need to feel it, intuitively, quiet your endless noisy need for an answer and simply let it fill you up, let it resonate intuitively, and find in that how life makes sense to you and you alone. mediation, mindfulness, humility to sit with abstraction without trying to pin it down. more and more i try to understand this. some things don't need to make perfect sense. some things dont need answers, or their answers are not the point. some things dont need anything but to be experienced as they enter you -- like dreams do. that can lead you to the answer, and that can also be enough in itself. that can be just an intrinsic value in being alive to experience it. and so often, it is all in conversation with the search for joy. it's why he feels so captivating, so unique, so tremendously alive. why people use the word "visionary" when talking about him. because he knew how to use his medium in all the potential he could see, so that it let you live in the strangeness and questions. he understood them as sublime, he understood them as enough, he understood them as a joy. he understood them as beautiful. and his memory will remind me to do the same; always to seek the space to dream.

[starbuck]

me: hey, so i feel like you maybe disregarded my saying that caretaking on top of work and school and pre-planned travel is a lot for me right now and i’m not comfortable with all of that pressure being on me alone when i wanna make sure you guys have everything you need when i’m not around…

my family: of COURSE we heard you, that’s why we started doing a bunch of things by ourselves at great cost to our physical well-being instead of asking you for help!!!!!!

me:

[cranberrymoons]

.

[maybege]

btw i am still alive now that i have recovered from swiftkirchen and i hope you are all doing super well this summer! i am FLYING through my reading list atm which is amazing and i am feeling more and more inspired for things (footballer!paz anyone? roommate!paz as well maybe?) so hmu in the inbox it is TIME TO THIRST

[hopecomesbacktolife]

classical music rant ahead~

I’m not gonna reblog the post itself because people can’t be normal in the notes* but oh my god that “if it sounds like X, it’s Y composer” post is the most infuriatingly, wildly inaccurate thing. “mansplaining” for Wagner?!? REALLY?!? Saying Bach sounds “like a vampire” what does that even meANNNN. don’t get me started on the Beethoven (!!) and Shostakovich ones or I will turn into an incoherent seething mess. it’s worse than just being inaccurate even, it’s insulting to their music and range how inaccurate that user’s descriptions are.

like. there’s so many ways to make FUNNY posts about classical music!!! throwback to my prof bringing in shot glasses and grape juice when we covered Tristan and Isolde! Throwback to my cinnaminim meme!! Throwback to the [redacted] symphony members MEME GROUP where we EXCLUSIVELY SHARED CLASSICAL MUSIC MEMES. throwback to my Bach shirt with CHICKENS ON IT. Composer memes. Symphony memes. Translation memes. Oboi. drunk sugar plum fairy. old twoset skits. like.

I just. keep classical music accessible, yes. criticize it, yes! love it, yes! meme on it, yes!! remix it in sillygoofy ways! yes! Be silly and unserious or serious and yearning about it! Or both/all/more all at once! by all means!!! just. don’t make a joke that’s unfunny because it’s wildly inaccurate, then get mad at me for not laughing. 😐 like. lemme just call you the scarecrow because of this wild strawman fallacy logic you’re exhibiting.

*apparently some tumblr users can’t understand the concept of “this joke isn’t funny and it’s probably because the ‘joke’ isn’t really very accurate to the subject matter itself” because any time someone in the notes says that, people accuse them of being “elitist about classical music” like bro what. that is just. false equivalence. saying a joke isn’t funny because it’s inaccurate isn’t elitism it’s just the truth

[orcelito]

Part of me is like 'I've been a student for so long, how am I gonna handle being Not A Student..!??!' In terms of like. Self perception, I guess.

I think my psyche is already raring for it tho. Here I am daydreaming looking at house listings and writing a damned baby au bc my brain has decided I kinda want one of those, too.

I'll still always be a mega nerd. But fuck dude. I guess I'm an adult, too.

[girlivealwaysbean]

okay ventpost time im bored and my period is late

[cxpperhead]

Copperhead takes time to warm up to people. In his experience, most people cannot see past his appearance and treat him differently, be it with thinking he's creepy or worse, thinking him an animal due to his serpentine looks. Copperhead is okay with the latter; people who assume his intelligence is low or that he doesn't 'experience feelings' like a human only makes it all the easier to take them by surprise when they underestimate him so badly.

[danidoesathing]

hey bestie. wanna trade infodumps again. whats your favorite theory about lord huron, doesnt have to necessarily be the most correct it can also just be the funniest

YES ABSOLUTELY

ive talked about the lonesome dreams time loop theory already so. in honor of it being vide noir day ive got. a theory

i think Buck did actually die from getting blackbrained. he injested a lot of vide noir and like. it probably should've killed him. it probably did him, but god knows the dead dont tend to stay in this universe, so it aint out of the question that the lyrics in back from the edge were more. literal than we thought. i have no idea if this makes him one of the undead or inhuman or if he's just got some insane cosmic luck but he was dead for a couple of minutes at least.

and you know. thanks to dying on vide noir, you know, a drug that notoriously break space and time, it had. repercussions. that echoed out in all directions. jumps in space time entirely unrelated to him but still places and moments that actually occurred (ie the whole frozen pines moment). awareness of certain things he probably shouldn't be aware of (how the fuck does he know about the balancer's eye hello. how and when the fuck does he find out that exists). general sensitivity/draw towards the supernatural (found three separate supernatural beings in one night by complete accident. sure)

and like. the whole "being able to see ghosts thing" might come from the fact he died and came back thanks to the fucked up space goo. he doesn't really seem. bothered by the fact that he's talking to dead people so i assume he's been doing this a while. then theres his fucked up relationship with death in general. his indifference towards life. consistently using death as a metaphor and having repeatedly writing stories/songs where he dies. and he's just got weird perspectives on life and death in general. soooo

i have no proof and no real reason to believe this. its more likely his cosmic bullshit luck saved his ass and he lived through the overdose but you know. you asked for my stupid theories you get them. you can't prove me wrong either way

[elytrafemme]

feelin anxious nd not like a person. i need to sleep before 2 am these days more but whenever i get stressed i want to resolve it and i should probably realize that this isn't going to happen and my anxiety is maybe bad again. or something

[notorioushiphopcrew]

also i sent an email i kind of regretted. but also feeling that a large part of that was formed by the very intense emotional state i was in where i was experiencing crazy anxiety and doubts and shame about the way i acted and i felt like everything i wrote in that email was so terrible and also i felt so emotional and so ashamed of it and so sure everyone who knew it woild judge me and know how irrational i am and i could tell logically it probably wouldnt be a big deal but couldnt feel it and like. i feel a bit awkward now but ive fully calmed down and honestly? it was kind of fine actually. its just been a while since ive been UP THERE in that kind of state and i guess it kind of does give you perspective on how your emotional state really affects you so deeply and your perception of things. and like yeah i might retract a few things or be like "eh not mt best move" on some things but realising overall it doesnt matter and i can FEEL that. it is really crazy how many problems exist in your head and you can understand logically its not rational but you just have to bear it for a bit

[jvzebel-x]

🦋

[dteamain]

ever make yourself cry over a hypothetical situation for no reason