#mics complications

[laniidae-passerine]

don’t get how you can watch iwtv and be a sincere diehard lestat hater. like the world’s biggest lestat hater is louis and that man can’t even commit to it for more than five minutes before literally hallucinating lestat wearing a wedding ring and talking pretty to him. this show is about louis and every road leads back to lestat for that man

[lavernius]

Locus and Lopez vs. dehumanization and seeing your own humanity through someone else

AKA 1.5k words worth of me trying to justify a random pairing I've been trying to sell people on for 5 years. Feat. a lot of my own introspection on both characters, CW for mentions of abuse.

It's kind of easy to assume that Locpez as a ship only exists because Locus is one of the few people who understands Lopez and one of even fewer who has had an actual (off-screen) conversation with him with full mutual fluency, especially since they interact directly, like, twice in canon (Objects In Space and the "Holy shit he's bilingual" scene from The Federal Army of Chorus). To be honest, that was my initial reason for shoving them together whenever I got into RVB and there was literally no content for them because no one was really considering them together in any capacity but a brief, funny passing interaction.

I do think language is an inherent motivator in their relationship with each other. It's a catalyst. Spanish, of course, is perhaps the most obvious thing they share--Locus being a Latino man and Lopez being the same in a convoluted and meta-racist metaphor. Beggars, choosers: anyone who knows how I operate knows I lean into reclaiming their depictions for my own brown person machinations. For Lopez it's the beauty of meeting someone who not only understands him, but isn't going to belittle him for the language he speaks or imply it'd be easier if he learned English. Locus will just listen to him talk and respond without commenting on the language barrier; Lopez isn't exotic or abnormal or "broken" for it, he just speaks Spanish, big deal, Locus speaks it too.

For Locus, it leans more toward reminding him of who he used to be when he was a simpler and kinder person. His culture seems like a forgone part of himself in many ways, but even if only because he's so distant from his humanity that he doesn't remember HOW to embrace his culture, or what the point of cultural pride even is. Lopez is like, reverse culture shock for him, where Locus is very familiar with Spanish as a language--grew up with it, learned it young, whatever, he canonically understands it and given he's Latino it's easy to assume it could be his native language--but has divorced himself from it so much to be malleable to his abusers that hearing someone speak it so unabashedly feels new. It's the lack of it that makes it so foreign, but it's so ingrained into him that it's easy for him to just slip back into it.

And Lopez being so stubbornly proud of what he is plays into that language dynamic, yes--now that there's someone who will listen and not judge, he has room to be adamant and own his monolingualism, and having someone as aggressively, straightforwardly prideful as Lopez forces Locus to recognize the beauty in the language too--but it applies on a grander scale, which is what I suppose the point of this post is: Locus and Lopez don't just share Spanish, but also histories of abuse and dehumanization, of being overlooked as living, thinking things in favor of taking advantage of their skills. And the results of this abuse manifest differently in both of them, but they're alike in just enough ways that their differences stimulate each other into bettering themselves and reflecting on what makes them, dramatic pause, human.

Some of Lopez and Locus's defining personality traits to me are their shared low empathy (forcibly learned on both of their parts) and the way they feel so alien in any group they're a part of. They're people with a lot of potential who don't care how others see them (at their worst, especially in Locus's case), but are limited by someone who only sees them for their usefulness (Sarge, Felix) and doesn't truly see them as a person. Lopez may be a Red, but they don't really care about anything he says, so he's just a wrench to them. Locus has Felix, but he doesn't recognize that Felix has one-sided power over him and is keeping him on a short leash; he's a shield and a weapon. They're tools, they don't have feelings, and if they realize as much it's a fault in their programming, they can and have to be steered back into place.

They're reflective of each other in this way. However, they're not identical in disposition: Locus resigns very easily to what he's told to be. He had more hope once, made attempts to be humanitarian, but was swiftly taught that kindness is suicide and that the point is to survive, no matter the cost. It was easy for Felix to take advantage of him by saying they needed each other when Locus was at his worst, because having kindness ripped out of him gave Locus little else to rely on but his hands. Locus has no room for questions, because a rulebook is absolute. It takes a reminder of what he used to be to make him falter, but even when Santa is showing him one of the inciting incidents of his "soldier" mindset, Locus can't stop himself from resigning to the mindlessness that Felix and the UNSC have already taught him.

Lopez feels trapped and is hyper-aware of it. He'll listen, but only because there's nothing else in the world for him. He's subservient but not in the same way Locus is, because he's angry about his situation: he knows it's not fair, but what can he fucking do about it? He was made to be Red Team's mechanic, and every word he says falls on deaf ears. He carries this self-awareness like a shield, like a threat: he could do something, but there's no point because his nature as a robot defines him. All he has is a sharp tongue and his hands, and the Reds only need one of those things from him. He revels in being able to complain and reminds himself that he's meant for something greater, but he's so fatalistic that he won't take action.

The balance comes from this anger. They're so alike in how they see the world and how much life has mistreated them, but they don't fully understand each other despite it. Locus sees Lopez as privileged for having a team because Locus has never had people to belong with, but he doesn't understand that Red Team isn't a safe place for Lopez. Lopez thinks Locus is misguided for letting himself believe he could ever be reduced to a mindless weapon, because Lopez has only ever been an object and Locus can't comprehend what that's really like. They see each other for their imperfections first and foremost and it frustrates them mutually: "You could've fixed this sooner, you could've escaped the grief, why didn't you try?"

It's this back-and-forth that they both need in order to reflect on themselves. They're harsh people who don't want to be coddled and admonished, but they're not making forward motion on their own because they're both stubborn and tend to decathect before they even recognize they CAN feel. They refuse to see themselves as human, but they can only see the humanity in each other, and they're both so alike that it could make them hypocrites. For a robot, Lopez's anger is so potent that it's alive: Locus sees more feeling in him than he's ever felt in his own life. Locus wants to be a weapon so bad, but he doesn't realize an object doesn't have heart the way he does, doesn't mourn the years it spent under someone's thumb, doesn't want to fix itself.

They're both brutally honest and they both need brutal honesty. They get along WELL by nature of being as similar as they are, but they argue so much because they want to understand each other and don't realize they already do. They're mapping details of their reflections. It's great: Locus is so hurt that he can only see the damage he causes, Lopez is difficult to hurt and notoriously good at fixing things. Lopez wants true accountability and retribution and Locus has cultivated complicity and guilt to perfection.

After Felix, Locus needs room to command his own life and put others in place when they overstep his boundaries, but he's scared of becoming Felix, so he also needs an anchor to keep him grounded in reality and reasonable. Lopez has never had real control over his own life before and would kill to have the power to make small choices and do as he wants, but he's a very private person who also needs a lot of space to work. They balance each other out and know the other's limits so well that they can easily go "You're hurting yourself and I'm not going to let you get away with it."

It's about understanding yourself through someone else and vice versa. Realizing that you share so much that if they deserve good, you do too. Reclaiming pain, experiencing freedom, finding support. They will deconstruct each other to the metal and muscles and rebuild one another over and over again, and they'll never get it perfectly right, but they're both going to learn more and more as they go. Flawless navigation of a road you've driven a million times, forward and back, potholes and all.

[pandora15]

okay but have y'all considered

obi-wan kenobi

[delusions-of-glamour]

Remember when the “am I allowed to cry?” lyric appeared on TTPD promotional material and Swifties lost their fucking minds like omfg I HATE JOE ALWYN he was so wrapped up in his problems she didn’t even feel entitled to HER OWN FEELINGS!! She had to ASK HIM if it was ok for HER to be SAD!??

And then the song was about being so bored and horny it’s ruining your life

[chaosmayhemgem]

ive been playing spirit tracks recently, and apparently my cat does NOT like me aggressively blowing into my 3DS microphone to play the spirit flute

(he attacked me)

[kankuroplease]

A fanart of sakura in this outfit and making this face is all I want to see😭😭 [btw this beauty is jang wonyoung from ive ^^] Also if you have to pick one ONLY one ship from entire naruto to draw for your whole life which one will you pic?

✨ Tada ✨

To answer your question; I’m a multishipper. So that’s a hard question to answer… but I can’t give up drawing Kakashi my whole life. I can’t lol. And my top ship for him is kkir, so Kkir FQs 🖤

[sunnydayaoe]

[tehb3stsk4t3revr]

Oh yeah he sounds like UTAU Teto to me btw

[lovesickeros]

can we get some tsaritsa headcanons of yours? specifically appearance wise because i gen don't know how to picture her in my head.

YES because i've thought about it extensively and revised it like 20 times. um. don't expect a full descriptor though i run on Vibes tm

the core of tsaritsa to me is a careful dichotomy of archon of cryo + goddess of love. creating the ideal symbol of love and also frigid and emotionless. of a warrior as much as a leader. Childe speaks of this especially (describing her as a true warrior, arrogant and cold in Childe's delusion story, again with Childe but in his "about Tsaritsa" voice line describing her as gentle, "too gentle"). this is the base of her design, to me.

originally i leaned towards "very tall but very lean" at first but i've kind of leaned in the opposite direction lately. still view her as very tall (inhumanely, even), but i've taken a lot of inspiration from marble statues (and sometimes paintings) as a reference (notably and obviously, aphordite) in terms of body structure with the only exception being i view her with broader shoulders then typically painted/sculpted. facial structure is a different matter, but the general view i have is "angular and sharp" (prominent cheekbones, defined jawline, etc).

to be more specific as well, i tend to make the tsaritsa very colorless. the most color she gets is the occasional shades of blue, but most colors i associate with her are very monochrome in nature. i also use this to create a less "human" appearance for her as a personal hc of mine that the archons are all vaguely Off and not quite human in some manner. i portray this specifically in a few ways (extremely pale skin (to the point it makes her veins a lot more visible), white iris, etc) and a few other things i haven't quite settled on. i've considered the idea of her fingers having a black gradient (similar to arlecchino, in a manner) in reference to severe frostbite.

not quite as necessary to the design but i also just give all the Archons big teef on principle. nothing more intimidating then someone you thought was a funeral consultant flashing a set of teeth that can rip out your jugular with no effort!! +1 to unnerving factor. don't piss off the local mondstadt bard, either. it's a bit unnerving to see them when he's laughing like a madman.

speaking of unnerving, i usually write and view the tsaritsa as very stone faced. like, it could put arlecchino to shame. not a single emotion to be seen. you won't even see her face twitch if she's angry. if she smiles you've royally fucked up and you have roughly 0.2 seconds to live. g-dspeed.

another feature i usually add is claw jewelry because it just Fits. in silver, obviously. and she keeps those things sharp. don't get mistaken by the name she can maim a man with those.

i keep clothing very vague because im not familiar with traditional clothing (ill create a mock-up of a design some day. probably) but one of the core parts of it is the veil. don't think wedding veil, though. even if it's white i imagine it's design more as a mourning veil because it fits more with her character (while weddings are associated with "love", the mourning veil suits her better i think in this regard. delusional made up lore things babey!!!!).

[real-life-cloud]

U know I'm deciding rn. If I'm still single at 30 then I am just Having a goddamn baby

[guidingthulite]

the fun part about me finally watching yokai gakuen is that when i watched the movie like 3 years ago i joked about jinpei having comphet but guys. i don't think it's a joke anymore

[petorahs]

Hello! Just wanted to say I'm a huge fan of the way you draw Wrioney, so very tender and cute 🥺 Your artstyle is overall quite nice to look at as well!

Also, seeing how the dynamic you set up for them in your art is somewhat different to how they interact canonically, I was curious if you could share how you felt ab them after 4.1? Did their "bickering" discourage or inspire you with new, fresh ideas?

hey there! thanks so much for liking my art of them :") it means a lot! and also thanks for wanting to know my opinion of the ship itself and not just the art, too! warms my heart.

short answer: the 4.1 archon quest did leave a bad taste in my mouth, yes, but i got over it and realized wow. i love wrioney so much and i would rather have this than any other cookie cutter "perfect/wholesome" dynamic

long answer/explanation under cut!

first off, pre-4.1 wrioney's setup was just too good for me to pass up and hit all my fav points. cat (chat noir) + dog (cerberus) dynamic??? criminal x prison warden???? wriothesley's tareme eyes to lyney's upturned ones? cute! not to mention i liked how their color palette matched more than the other popular ships. they seemed like they were made for eachother. we also had 0 crumbs for wrio's personality at that point so i assumed he'd be the serious to lyn's playful flirt.

shipping in this game to me has always been a bit on the shallower side, and thats fine! some of these characters never get to "grow" with dynamic character arcs really and remain "static" to have their profiles make sense when you pull for them. they can never be directly antagonistic to the player and have to be "redeemed" in some way. 76++ characters and not all of them get time in the spotlight, either. thats fine too.

that all changed when fontaine came out. and even more when 4.1 did.

wriothesley's personality was a joy. i love morally dubious and fun characters like him, the kinds that dont really fit into a "box" or trope!! genshin's good at making characters like that, just as they are good at the tropey ones. i also didnt mind that he canonically isnt above torturing, too. heck, i mean i love kamisato ayato who is basically what the game sets up as the male version of arlecchino + diluc burning an abyss mage and kazuha's tongue branding comment were one of my favorite moments. i thought wrio being cruel was very much in line for a prison warden. it made sense. what didn't make sense was the way the game needed to show this.

i loved lyney the moment i saw him in the travail trailer. his thing with his family another one of the best things to come out of genshin. fucked up orphans and found family who are villains? actually so good. but because they are what the game wants us to see as "unequivocable villains", they also get... disrespected in the story a lot?

the way i saw it, the game wanted us to see wrio as the "cool/badass hero!!!! wow your grace you're actually so kind for not killing them!!! see guys he just looks cruel and antagonistic but he's actually so morally good!!!also here's like 3 cutscenes of wrio looking cool ^_^" while lyney's treated like an "overemotional kid" really rubbed me off the wrong way. everything else was fine. i just got tired of the game insisting that the fatui are so bad no matter what and the rest are ""good"" when their whole thing in fontaine was doing away with the black and white morality. the devs seek to promote greyness but they cant even write that right?

what wrio did to them truly probably wasnt even the worst lyney and his siblings have been through, i know this for a fact. honestly wrio could have killed freminet and it'd have been like. reasonable for him. but he's a big softie who has a thing for lyney i think which is why he thought a lot about them not coming to physical harm.

but after once again accepting that midhoyo just wastes a lot of potential and reconciling the dynamic of past wrioney i had in mind (also uh. writing a fic of them for closure when i've never done anything of the sort before)... i realized theyre the best thing ever actually

enemies to lovers isnt always my cup of tea, but for context i shipped shuake before this so i feel like that primed me for this genshin ship in a way LMAO.. i actually must thank wrio for showing this new side of lyney, the viciously overprotective of his family side that i thought would never be shown, only alluded to. its mesmerizing.

and the thought that lyney, mr. masks and fake-smiles-that-dont-reach-his-eyes wouldnt bother to keep up pretenses with wriothesley anymore since he coaxed that darker side of him effortlessly? really nice.

even traveler who lyney notoriously charms and flirts with gets the mask immediately after the confrontation at the duke's office, the second lyney recharges with his siblings by his side. the beautiful thing about lyney's character is that he is always fake.

but with the duke? i wouldn't be so sure. maybe his real side, claws and bared teeth, comes to light with him and him only.

and that... goes back to the "character going through dynamic arcs" thing i mentioned in the beginning that genshin lacked. now i may be reaching for crumbs here, but i'm pretty sure this ship is the closest thing we'd get for lyney ever going through a character arc. wrio too. when i say they were "made for eachother" i think i realized that it's because they both have parallel backstories. i wont spoil too much for wrio's stories and voicelines, but it's safe to say wrio also has trouble with trusting others easily. something him and lyney can relate on lol. not to mention the orphan thing... ok i wont say more.

i love that their personalities clash so catastrophically. i love that i can never predict what genshin will do next with them. this all makes shipping them so fun. i have literally never had as much fun with shipping for this game since.... ever! really. as the game evolves, the character writing and by extension their interactions with eachother do too. and i'd say it's an improvement. i'm hopeful for the future :]

@untildarknesscomes

[here2bbtstrash]

hey hi hello i am here to get ur opinions as i figure out what the hell i'm doing here on the internet dot com so let's talk aboutttt......

[maydaymadier]

"We've hooked up Bella to this doll"

Why though?

[mochapanda]

its been a pain in the ass but i finally figured out how to connect my sony headphones to my pc and phone at the same time WITH the microphone

[lunaticamic]

for so many years i didn’t like this beautiful place because it is my father’s flowers shop. i projected my avoidance behaviour towards my dad to his shop. his aunts owned it and left it to him. and it holds so many memories of amazing hardworking women that are no longer here. i’m so glad i’m healing my relationship with my dad, and can enjoy my family shop