#flow and control

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

At rest, your lungs wish to deflate, and your ribcage expands outwards.

[mxtxfanatic]

The Most Un-Lan-Like Lan (Junior) vs. The Most Un-Lan-Like Lan (Married-In Senior)

Lan Jingyi is such an interesting character. He is very opinionated and often speaks his mind without considering how his words will come across. He is cowardly about the supernatural despite being a cultivator but brave against those in positions of power despite being a child, always willing to stand up for what he thinks is right. Lan Jingyi starts off the story with a low opinion of "Mo Xuanyu," usually acting rude, hostile, or dismissive:

When he turned his head, he saw the Lan juniors tailing him. “Children!” he shouted. Lan Jingyi said, “Who are you calling children? Don’t you know which clan we’re from? Just because you’ve washed your face, you get to act like our senior?”

—Chapt. 9: Pride IV, fanyiyi

Wei Wuxian went to the youngsters. “Am I seeing things right? Each of you is a disciple of a prominent clan. Haven’t your moms, dads, and uncles taught you that the dead can’t receive the paper money you’re burning? They’re dead, what do they need money for? They won’t be able to collect it. Plus, you’re burning the money right at someone’s door—“ Lan Jingyi waved his hand dismissively. “Move aside, move aside, you’re blocking the wind. The fire will burn out at this rate. Anyway, it’s not like you’ve ever died—how do you know whether the dead can collect the money?" ... Lan Jingyi knifed him in the heart again. “Even if you’ve been dead before and didn’t get any, it has to be because no one burned any for you.”

—Chapt. 42: Flora X, fanyiyi

It doesn't help that Wei Wuxian, playing into his "gay lunatic" persona, is intentionally trying to put everyone off:

Lan Jingyi said, “Why are you crying? You’re the one who said you like Hanguang Jun! Now he even brought you home. So what are you howling for?” Wei Wuxian’s eyebrows were wrinkled, his lips frowned, and his face was the perfect picture of misery.

—Chapt. 11: Elegance I, fanyiyi

Wei Wuxian took out the apple from the breakfast they had given him and offered it to the donkey. As expected, as soon as the animal bit in, it stopped braying, and began smacking its lips and crunching the fruit with its teeth instead. Wei Wuxian touched the back of its neck and thought about the jade passage tokens the juniors carried while pointing at the round, white rabbits covering the ground. “I’m really not allowed to cook them? So if I cooked them, I’d be chased off the mountain?” As though facing a major enemy, Lan Jingyi opened his arms and stepped in front of him immediately. “These are Hanguang Jun’s rabbits. We just help watch them once in a while. Don’t you dare cook them!”

...

“I can’t get up,” he said sincerely. “Uh, what’s happened to you now?” Lan Sizhui said. “What’s happened to me? Your clan’s Hanguang Jun ravished me!” Lan Jingyi piped up louder and fiercer. “If you keep spouting nonsense, we’re not going to let it go. Come out!”

—Chapt. 19: Sunshine I, fanyiyi

Yet despite all this, once Wei Wuxian sheds his "Mo Xuanyu" cover and begins to seriously lean into his mentorship role, Lan Jingyi becomes one of his most vocal followers amongst the juniors, seeing the man as both a steady pillar to rely on—on par with his idol, Hanguang-jun—and someone whose safety he is concerned with, so much so that he can even cast aside his fear of the supernatural to volunteer himself as bait in Wei Wuxian's stead:

Wei WuXian said to them, “When the second group of fierce corpses rushes in, I will lure them towards the Pool of Blood, and HanGuang-Jun will be in charge of slaying them. With this target here,” He patted himself, “They won’t bother you. Don’t be tempted by battle, just run.” For once, Lan SiZhui’s raised his voice, “No! We can’t do that. There’s no way!” Sect Leader OuYang had given up trying to hold his son still. OuYang ZiZhen, “Senior-Wei, we will slay the corpses too! I can slay a hundred more!” Meanwhile, Lan JingYi had already started to undress, “I’ll draw a flag on myself too!”

—Chapt. 81: Core Part 3, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

OuYang ZiZhen, “HanGuang-Jun, why did Senior-Wei collapse?” Lan WangJi, “Tired.” Lan JingYi was astonished, “I thought that Senior-Wei would never tire!”

—Chapt. 84: Core Part 6, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

Soon, he began again, “Speaking of it, why didn’t I see SiZhui and the squad this time back?” In the past, these juniors would’ve crowded around them and begun chirping all the way from the entrance of the mountain. Hearing him mention SiZhui and the juniors, Lan WangJi’s brows relaxed somewhat, “I can take you to see them.” After he led Wei WuXian to find Lan SiZhui, Lan JingYi, and the others, the juniors didn’t do anything apart from calling out in delight.

—Chapt. 114: Banquet Extra, exr

With such a fierce and impressionable personality, it's no wonder he's one of the few juniors whose name Wei Wuxian can remember 😂

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Ok, I think I have a pretty good idea of why a lot of Akechi's dialogue is... like that.

So, even before his confidant truly started, I noticed that he has a real knack for directing the flow of a conversation. This is very fitting for someone who is both a detective and skilled at interviews - when there is a topic and a goal, Akechi is in his element.

All this to say, he's actually kind of controlling when it comes to conversational flow. He probes for information, or turns the conversation around to a particular topic, usually the Phantom Thieves. He manages to take a few of Joker's dialogue options and spin them so they sound mildly incriminating in the context he's placed them in - the only way to truly get around this is to pick answers that feign indifference, and even then, that's more than a bit telling. He's clearly very good at this kind of thing.

But then, we get conversations where either Joker does something he didn't expect, or else he doesn't have a particular goal in mind - and the conversation stutters. In the first instance, Joker does something (a particularly egregious example is putting his glasses on him and fluffing his hair in rank 3) which both leaves him wrong-footed and no longer in perfect control of the situation. He just kind of... freezes, for awhile. It's hilarious. He has no idea how to respond.

He picks up control again in the phone call afterwards, having chosen to play into it, turning this "fooling the crowds" into a kind of game or secret between them. Nice save.

But in instances where there isn't an obvious topic and the goal is somewhat nebulous, for instance, that one Leblanc scene, it becomes pretty apparent that Akechi doesn't have the right "script" to go off of. Again, it's particularly notable in that scene, because I'm fairly sure he didn't have any specific reason to be at Leblanc, other than him looking for a quiet spot now that public opinion has turned on him. And because there isn't anything specific he's digging for, he kind of just ends up throwing things at the wall to see what will stick. Probing for any kind of recognizable reaction that he can jump on and work with, and that just doesn't really happen in this scene.

He references Sae, a woman in a respectable position, to Sojiro, but instead of that netting a welcome, it earns his ire, given Sae's recent actions against him. He then tries to greet Joker, his... rival? friend? enemy? person who at least seems to somewhat enjoy spending time with him? But Joker's responses are somewhat short, and Akechi practically wilts. He tries to commiserate by oversharing. He tries to involve Futaba and reaches out for the only topic of interest he can think of around "young people". He compliments the coffee. He compliments Joker. He tries to invoke that connection between them. None of it is really sticking, nor does it serve as a jumping off point for him to steer the conversation, or even really start one.

So, he basically just ends up having a one-sided chat with himself and then leaves. Hilarious. Also a little sad, if I'm being honest. It's really giving "guy with no friends who only knows how to speak to adults" energy. If there's no specific purpose to the exchange, or he is not in control of its direction, he seems to be kind of out of his depth. He succeeds only in being a little awkward and confusing, more than anything.

[kindred-spirit-93]

me: *got studying to do and cant afford needless distractions* my brain: draw penelope in her wedding dress >:) me: shit youre right >:)

look at my girl marrying the love of her life:

asdfghjkl i love her so much

[deiaiko]

#21 - Wall

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[spaceistheplaceart]

another hlvrai fusion redesign! this time tommy and gordon :) I think they can be stable for a little while like Opal but quickly fall apart when making decisions

Original

[laventadorn]

i am trying a thing where i just write stuff and don't worry too much about it. i tend to fiddle with something to death, which is one reason why i'm (checks calendar) 12 years and counting on a single story ahahaaaa. "everything has to sound Exactly Right!" says the little foreman of perfectionism in my head. can i fire that guy? or give him a different job?

[silusvesuius]

some guys (crunchy)

not crunchy

[stagefoureddiediaz]

So I have been musing all night on a variety of things and one of those things is that Helena Diaz is going to have a stroke and it will be the thing that leads to her redemption!

Hear me out. I don’t think Helena deserves redemption for her behaviour, but ultimately she’s going to get it because that is what this show does with the parents of our mains. The reason they all get redemption is because the things they need redeeming for are aspects of their children’s journeys on the show - so they are mirrors and allegories for the things our mains need to figure out and work on about themselves.

I could write a whole meta about this concept but I don’t really have the capacity right now.

But I will talk about the Diaz’s. Ramon and his heart issues, his triple bypass, was all about Eddie’s own heart issues. Ramon got his redemption because Eddie was able to resolve at least a good chunk of his heart issues. The Ramon aspect isn’t yet fully resolved - we were shown improvements (Eddie talking to him via video call etc) but it’s flared back up again with Helena and Ramon coming to take Chris back to Texas.

So Ramon is the metaphor for Eddie’s heart.

Helena will get her redemption because she is a representation of Eddie’s head - of his mind and ultimately Eddie will figure out his mind and that will mean redemption for Helena.

And that is why I think her having a stroke is where we’re headed. A stroke is an interruption of blood flow to the brain and it can impact any aspect of a person - speech, mental capacity, mobility etc etc. It stems from the heart and the impact on a person can be massively reduced by early medical intervention - the earlier the intervention the better the chances of its effects being very limited.

If all things heart related were resolved and fixed, Ramon would’ve stood up for Eddie and pushed for Chris to only go to Texas for a few weeks at most, for Chris and Eddie to talk - to go to therapy etc together to resolve things. But he didn’t and that is the flow of blood from the heart to the brain being interrupted.

A stroke is the head being affected by the heart. Eddie having done some work on his heart allowed him to get to where he is, but he’s still not resolved all his heart issues - in much the same way that things are not There are still some aspects he needs to work on, and that is what is leading to

That is so representative of where Eddie is at in his journey - he is at this turning point - on his own and having to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. But the longer it takes him to figure that out the greater the chances of lasting and damaging impact.

If he doesn’t figure things out - he runs the risk of never being able to repair things with Chris. If he doesn’t resolve the Shannon and divorce etc aspect of things, he’s running the risk of never being able to embrace love and relationships etc.

He’s at the point where he can still intervene early - there will be some damage (there already is) but he can limit that damage and recover.

So yeah Helena stroke as a metaphor for Eddie sorting out all the mental stuff he needs to sort out and how it would play into the heart metaphor and Ramon as part of that is where I’m at!!

[carpethedamndiemdejavu]

[direpunk]

this dude has been girlbossed by at least 10 women, children, and dolls multiple times. i like him a completely normal amount and do not spend a lot of time analyzing his character and rant about how much he means to me

[maskofgabriel]

Warden of Time Ame

[a-flappy-bat]

Meager doodles from the past week

[wilson-is-a-slut]

I had the first house dream (that I remember having) last night and it was super fucking weird

house and wilson were sitting at a table talking and wilson was talking about leaving house/ppth with amber (I think all the talk about leaving was because I watched the right stuff last night) anyways, I don’t remember the exact dialogue because this was over 12 hours ago now (I know I remembered it when I woke up though) but the only thing I fully remember was that house and wilson were sitting across from each other in the cafeteria and there was a sign to the right of wilson facing house, that said, and I quote, “I have four golf balls up my ass”

the sign was white with black lettering and it was basically a poster board being held up on a stand

now back to the quote. the quote was for house, he was the one with four golf balls up his ass. WHY did he have four golf balls up his ass?? the world will never know. the sign was never addressed and house never told wilson.

the dream ended with wilson leaving the cafeteria and then we cut to house in a bathroom and the balls, just, fell out. I am so sorry I have no better way to explain it than that

[superchat]

dick or no dick, sitting down to pee is better than standing. you will not catch me at a urinal unless im in a rush

[mara-and-its-the-same]

I know no one follows me for watcher things, obviously, but good god i just have to say that while i do think the whole streaming thing is absolutely ridiculous, acting like these are the rich we’re meant to eat is absolutely deranged. 3 men owning a company with a grand total of 25 employees is so far from the exploitative rich in question.