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[starcurtain]

Teyvat's "Most Down Bad" Award Goes to Alhaitham for a Second Year Running

Seeing everyone making fun of Alhaitham for his "stalkerish" tendencies in this event is funny, because I feel like a lot of people missed that "Be literally everywhere Kaveh is" has been Alhaitham's MO from the day Kaveh appeared in the game.

From only grabbing his house keys after Kaveh returned from the desert (he couldn't have had both sets of keys at the end of the Archon Quest unless he went home and got Kaveh's copy) to ditching conversations to get back to his house only after Kaveh came home, to showing up without any warning or explanation in Kaveh's hangout with some ridiculous excuse about hearing his voice through noise-cancelling headphones... Refusing to offer any help in the Temple of Silence story quest other than staying in the library with Kaveh...

Since when does Alhaitham willingly cover anyone else's duties?

But this trend of "Be everywhere Kaveh is" didn't start when they were adults. It was already in place when they were still Akademiya students--and it's a trend that didn't end even when they had their fight.

Even when they weren't speaking, Alhaitham dogged Kaveh's every step through published responses to Kaveh's research articles in academic journals. He insisted on keeping a line of communication between himself and Kaveh open, even if the only way to do that was through very public ideological clashes. Pulling Kaveh's pigtails to get his attention lolol. It's implied that, for at least the few years between their fight and Kaveh moving in, this was the only communication between them--Alhaitham's refusal to allow their connection to entirely fade away. (And the fact that this is revealed in Kaveh's character stories--through his precious journal that records the moments of his life that had the most impact on him--shows just how deeply he values the fact that Alhaitham didn't give up.)

Another relevant side note: Alhaitham never asked Kaveh to give up his half of their house. Knowing half of it belonged to Kaveh, knowing that Kaveh may one day want to reclaim his part of it, knowing that it was listed as theirs, Alhaitham moved into the house and made zero effort to change its ownership. He was completely fine with living in "his and Kaveh's house." The stories suggest it was only months later (or even longer) that Kaveh even noticed he had the house, and he transferred away ownership of his portion without Alhaitham ever asking him (or even seemingly wanting him) to do so.

Please, let that sink in. Alhaitham actively left his grandmother's (presumably comfortable) house to move into "his and Kaveh's house," with no apparent explanation for why, and after doing so, he made no attempt to change that "his and Kaveh's" label. He moved into the house with no promise that Kaveh wouldn't show up on the doorstep the very next day and move in too. It almost feels like another deliberate provocation--I've moved into our house, are you going to come stop me? LBR, if Alhaitham had had his way, Kaveh would have been living there with him from Day 1...

There's also the fact that Kaveh literally can't write on a single message board anywhere in the entire nation of Sumeru without Alhaitham hunting his messages down and responding to them (which absolutely no one else does, by the way).

"NUH-UH!" "UH-HUH." "NUH-UH!"

Alhaitham's own character stories tell us explicitly that one of Alhaitham's defining character traits is "He is never where you need him to be," yet somehow...

Shot, and chaser:

Any time Kaveh is in the slightest bit of need or danger or just wants Alhaitham near, Alhaitham is "coincidentally" exactly where Kaveh needs him to be, whenever Kaveh needs him to be there.

Alhaitham didn't just "happen" to run into Kaveh in Port Ormos, an entirely different city from where he was supposed to be working. He didn't just "happen" to read the same terrible book as Kaveh when we know he otherwise would not waste a moment of his time on poorly-written literature...

He didn't just "happen" to appear when Kaveh was upset and needed a distraction in the House of Daena during Kaveh's hangout. He didn't just "happen" to be sitting around waiting when Kaveh needed answers after the Archon Quest. He didn't just "happen" to find Kaveh's academic publications and every single message board posting and respond to them at length and in public.

Which is exactly what Kaveh's mother told Kaveh he needed.

What level of down bad is "Abusing your powers as an Akademiya employee to keep tabs on your crush's library loans"? Just asking for a friend.

The only person for whom Alhaitham just "happens" to be available is Kaveh, over and over and over again--because he is very deliberately making himself a constant presence in Kaveh's life.

(Like, out of all things, I think people really underestimate the devs deliberately paralleling the romantic relationship between Kaveh's mother and father with Kaveh and Alhaitham's relationship. If you want to point to one thing that says "These two characters are intentionally queer-coded," it doesn't get any more obvious than this.)

Alhaitham, are you not embarrassed to be this transparent??? 🫣

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

Hochdeutsch is an artificial language, and I will fucking die on this hill.

I've been living in Germany for 10+ years, visited Austria, hung out with germanophone Swiss people--none of them speak it naturally. They can, when asked or forced to, in most cases, but all I've seen it used for is reporting the news, use as a lingua franca when English is not an option, teaching the concepts of German to native and non-native speakers alike, and, oddly, mocking the fact that regiolects/dialects/evolution and changes in language exist.

And don't give me "but written language!"

1. Norwegians used Danish as a written language for ages. I don't care about 19th century Denmark's hopes and dreams, it did not kill Norwegian as a language, nor did it make Norwegian a dialect of Danish.

2. I have seen actual German be written down in published works that were not academic textbooks. It's possible, it's just not popular.

Yiddish and Gothic are both oddball Germanic languages occupying unique places in the tree that get erroneously conflated with modern Hochdeutsch because of racism. Idk what to do with this observation but it feels interesting.

[antimony-medusa]

do we have to go over the au ideas you maybe don't put in streamer's TTS again. maybe keep that one for the group chat. maybe not while streamer is at work. i'm begging you.

[jkvjimin]

#2 rap line enthusiast | for @raplinenthusiasts (part 1) cr. namuspromised

[shalom-iamcominghome]

[stuck-in-jelly]

Honestly it’s pretty funny to think about Soren and Hat in about 7-12 years because Soren has greatly miscalculated the consequences of training and encouraging a glow toad to sit on his head

[everwalldigan]

Only those who have seen the light know that Bruce Wayne is absolutely the type of annoying father who asks for his adult children for grandkids EVERY chance possible. This is the same man who immediately put in his two weeks notice from batman-ing the MINUTE he discovered he had a granddaughter.

Bruce, materialising in bludhaven: when are you and Barbara getting married

Dick: NO.

Bruce: *sad GRANDCHILDLESS noises*

Bruce, materialising in crime alley: when you are going to settle down with a nice girl or guy and give me a-

Jason: *starts shooting*

Bruce, materialising in the clocktower:

Babs: don’t even fucking think about it

Bruce: *dematerialises away sadly*

Finally, at the annual family dinner, Bruce: whoever is the first to bring me a grandchild will be banned from ever having to take over batman

[royalarchivist]

Richarlyson: OH TRUE TIO PHIL did you ever saw I have arms now? but apparently I have arms but I shriken got smaller

Phil: ...What? [Gasps] What the fck– you shrunk?! Wait, you are smaller– what! Wait...

[Chayanne and Richarlyson stand side by side wearing the same hat to compare heights]

Phil: Look at you! That's cute– [Richarlyson punches him] Ow! I wonder if the honey stunted your growth. [Laughs]

Richarlyson: [Hits Phil repeatedly]

Chayanne: i am taller!!! let's gooo

Richarlyson: STOP

Phil: [Loses it]

[deliciousnecks]

wwdits II 5.09

[wordfather]

learning how to be a better writer is really all about having the confidence to be shit at it!!! let yourself suck and have fun with it!!!! give yourself the permission to write the worst story in existence and then write it slightly better!!! a snail may be slow but he's still crossing that sidewalk and he's doing great and i love him

[notquitedeadpod]

DO YOU

gay

vampires

how vampirism would work?

fear AND sexy

bite

listen to Not Quite Dead, it's where podcasts

[arihi]

Feeling unsafe is not the same as being unsafe and people are unable to distinguish between the two - you always have a right to be safe, but you do not necessarily have the right to always feel safe. This is an underlying theme in a lot of issues, like judging others' kinks, queerness, race, media analysis, and more; what the real heart of the problem is is unfamiliarity, things that people do not know and thus shrink away from in fear or disgust or discomfort. It can be a basic instinct to approach change and unfamiliarity with caution, but it needs to be an intentional act to challenge that fear/world view. It is something that we owe to the people around us, and that we owe to ourselves.

[chainmail-butch]

Not to be the chick with a leather kink, but nearly every article of clothing is superior when made of leather.

I started buying leather stuff (shoes, boots, jackets, belts, hats, chaps, harnesses etc) when I got well and truly sick of my shoes falling apart after a year of hard use.

My leather boots have lasted a DECADE. That's all you should need to know.

Sexy, functional, empowering. Buy leather today.

[dont-tell-my-mom-im-here]

I swear every episode with Ten and Rose is just her going: "Hi, I'm Rose Tyler. Did you know that you have rights? Constitution says you do!" And the aliens are just like: "Lady this is Fijebsisbdhakkakdbfhu, we don't have a constitution."

[calypsolemon]

actually this drives me so crazy. can we think about what it means for a second that Lloyd is actually pretty damn hesitant to say he wants to see his father again? In comparison to Harumi, who enthusiastically declares that she'd do anything to see her parents again. I don't think thats a lie on her part - after all, this whole enterprise is essentially so she can resurrect someone she sees as a suitable parental figure. And later on, she's incredibly confident that one of her main similarities to Lloyd is that Lloyd is desperate to see his father again

Like she's not just referring to the love thing here, she's referring to the fact that she just stated literally 1 episode ago that she desperately desires to see her lost family again.

But Lloyd just doesn't really express that same confidence in desiring to see him again. And like, while you can take his response to Harumi's original question as mostly agreeing, to me it reads more like a measured non-answer. He talks about the relationship being unusual. He talks about missing him. He talks about being scared of what the SOG will bring back if they succeed.

Nothing in there is an affirmative that he actually WANTS to see his dad again, or that he would bring back his dad back himself if he had the chance. Food for thought.

[hyperfixationsgoweeeee]

With Valentine's Day being tomorrow (When posting this) I have one reminder.

It is a scam made by Allos and companies to make people spend their money on chalky ass candy hearts, paper, chocolate that is hit or miss, flowers that won't last the end of the month, and stuffed bears with hearts on them.

Don't be fooled

Give your money to aroace people. Such as me