#to clarify they're also bisexual (obvs)

[once-in-a-blue-moon-rising]

So you know the 457 bisexual lighting image/speculation/glee that's going around?

I actually have an alternative interpretation of it (and I say this as a VERY enthusiastic deckhand on this ship).

Everyone on the show gets lit a little bit like this because of the blue/red neon in the floor (and the fact that Squid Game's red skews pink most of the time), but it is true that these two really do get lit like this - with this really bright, gorgeous, intentional mix of the two colours - more than the rest of the cast. The others tend to just light up the colour of the button they just pressed.

And the reason for this, I think...... is to demonstrate their internal struggle, and the fact that both of them could still swing either way (hehe, bisexual) in the choice they're making between, essentially, the status quo, and taking a huge, huge gamble for positive change.

(To be totally clear, I think blue / O = a level of cynicism about the world and about humanity that is so entrenched that one can only work within the parameters of the games/society if one wants to make any kind of change - and, obviously, because of that, the impact of that change would be really limited - but it's safer, and it's known. Meanwhile red / X = faith in humanity, forgiveness, idealism, hope - the belief that the games/society can be dismantled, must be dismantled, and that something better is possible. It offers something radically better, but it's also much more uncertain - it's a risk.)

If you look at the show and at the characters of Gi-hun and In-ho on a surface level, it's easy to say that In-ho represents the former, and Gi-hun, the latter. But this lighting (and the development of both characters) tells us something different. It's a visual indicator that the worldviews they express and live by (that were formed by very similar life experiences, let us not forget) are not as set as we thought. Gi-hun, who has witnessed cruelty and horror time and time again, wavers, sometimes, could yet be defeated by the games and fall into that cynicism. And In-ho, who has watched Gi-hun's relentless belief in humanity through two game cycles now, despite everything, could yet be swayed by his kindness and forgiveness.

I've not had a chance to rewatch again since I came up with this, but I would be willing to BET that neither of them are lit this way, so strikingly pink/purple/blue, until after they meet and start to talk (start to influence one another more seriously).

Essentially, it's symbolic of the fact that our protagonist and antagonist are two sides of the same coin, that they are both struggling with the same conflict, and that neither of them has really come down strongly on either side, not yet.

[carbootsoul]

oh i wanted to clarify that i do really love your stories on ao3 (i use this blog as a spam bc my main writing one is were I'm shy on), and i was mainly on a kaebedo fic searching today and loved the way you played into diluc's dynamic with kaeya. i don't usually read for diluc because kaeya's always been my main interest but the small moments of intimacy you place between the two warm my heart yk! like how kaeya could have just ended the job and mondstatd's sign of hope but how his sheer love for a younger brother blinds the task. i also found the "i want you (you want me baby)" fic so entertaining it had me floored. i really like it when authors take albedo's perspective bc he is hard to write for. he's someone who won't interpret love the same way as someone else, someone who needs pushes to finally accept his own humanity. i think it's sweet how your fics focus on the idea of want? kaeya wanting diluc to live and for them to finally be happy? albedo wanting to fall in love and be fragile enough to be human? it kind of reminds me the dynamic of Orpheus and Eurydice in hades town :)

ALSO i forgot to mention this but your implementation of beauty fascinated me. i love your way of having it flow together? attraction to kaeya is beauty, and how albedo continues to find or depict the beauty in things through wishing to capture it with art. i can't provide the best explanations for your works but i think there's so much character you bring.

additionally, i really like the aspect of initial attraction between the two? ik a lot of people think they're a slow burn, but i think it fits them as people to be fast paced yet slow in realizing their love for one another. they talk about matters that seem important, albedo can look past all the mindless speech and will hammer down on the topics that really mean for the real kaeya to appear. i think i can't properly describe the emotions at the moment bc my head is in sheer shock of it all, but i just thought "wow they have layers". like the scene in church, how kaeya most likely has religious trauma, and how albedo notices the stain glass---maybe it's me who grew up as a forced into church, but it's how simple little depictions like the dislike of worship in both characters that make them seem so human.

hope you're doing well love :)

oh my god this is so nice thank u so much <3 <3 i feel almost the exact same way about diluc (i mean he's fun but i won't usually search out content abt him because kaeya is more interesting) BUT if i think abt him for more than a few seconds i get the most insane brainrot ever. i've got a fic abt his bisexuality that's been open on my computer for months and it's embarrassingly long bc this guy just makes me have so many thoughts if i dwell on him. bc yeah he and kaeya are siblings and yeah they are both so alone even when they aren't. insane.

i really like writing for albedo but yeah it is a little different than writing for a lot of characters!! its a fun experiment imo and i don't think i've quite got it down but it's a weird balance between "this guy is just living a normal life hes just a dude" and "this guy is essentially a god and he was created for one reason and that is Destruction" thats fun to mess w. hehe i'm glad u thought the want theme was fun!! it was on my mind bc i think it's a queer thing that isn't explored v much- the transition that happens when u discover that attraction and wanting things is fun and not a chore or something to be scared of is a rly exciting one! and so of course i needed to project onto albedo my favorite man. also the idea that queer love/attraction is something beautiful, not something dirty of embarrassing was something i was messing with :) also i think part of albedo embracing the fact that he is alive is really connected to the fact that he loves things that are alive? things that are alive are beautiful -> albedo is in love -> being in love is beautiful -> albedo is beautiful -> albedo is alive

NO YEAH obv kaebedo is fun as a slow burn (part of the initial reason this isn't slow burn is only bc im incapable of writing slow burn) and i think maybe in my actual perception of the canon timeline they are a slow burn- obviously the initial interest in one another is there from the very beginning but i think it takes a while for anything to go past the superficial. however these two are both so starved for anything resembling understanding (albedo dumps his problems on a random 17 year old in canon like five days after their first meeting, this guy is dying for someone he feels can hold his confessions) that i also think them taking that potential for connection and running with it is totally plausible too.

oh man i've got so many thoughts abt the church of barbatos & also kaeya's specific relationship w the church. to get out of the way: beyond the obvious aesthetic influence/internal structure, i don't think the mondstadt church has much in common w modern christianity. since the existence of barbatos isn't disputable (the archons exist and no one debates this fact) and barbatos doesn't punish people who don't go to church, going to church isn't a "do this to escape eternal damnation/prove that you believe in god" thing but a "do this to celebrate/find community" thing. obviously there r still a lot of social pressures surrounding it but i don't think the core of the church is as harmful as christianity can be. anyway

i think the church a complete nonissue for albedo: rhinedottir obviously wouldn't have raised him religious and i'm sure he's not a fan of the seven, but i think he's too detached and rational to hold anything against the church for something the gods did. the church of barbatos especially is so far removed from the actual god, the only thing about it that would stand out to albedo would be the stained glass (this thing of beauty, which interests him unlike the rest of the church). but kaeya.. "mr i have complex relationships with everything in the world" i mean in canon his best friend is a nun, i'm sure he went to church regularly as a child/teenager, etc etc but at the same time he is from khaenri'ah in a very raw way & he wasn't able to approach the church from the adult perspective albedo has, since he's been going since he was six or something. i do think the church of barbatos is/was an important part of his life but i also think it's a very hard thing for him to reckon with, especially after master crepus's death. idr what exactly i said in the church but honestly i bet he still goes to church for the social aspects.

anyway thank you so much for these asks, they absolutely made my day <3 i hope you're doing well too and i'm so glad you liked my writing :)