Chloe rather be an enigma that no one understands so no one will try to understand and help.
Also, it’s nice you’re getting this out there, Pepper, but I feel like you’re making it more about you than the one you’re comforting. Give her space to collect her thoughts!
like, it feels almost misleading in a way. on some level sure he’s trying to see her, sure, but his sight is just as much aimed on getting her perspective on Claire so he has a better idea on what he’s dealing with.
but for Chloe it feels like more therapy dog routine, and it seems to her like she’s being seen not for the person but the baggage attached? hard to simply *be,* when you feel like you’re constantly being talked to about what needs fixing. hard to *self-actualize* maybe?
I know you do care about Chloe, but you’re also scared about Clair and what she might be capable off. I’m sure you are trying to do the right thing and not just trying to get the info out of Chloe! :pepper-1:
Yeah I feel like too often the comments forget that this guy just had an existential crisis a couple days ago and has like a million reasons to be suspicious of clair
Unfortunately hon, you /are/ being figured out. And it scares you so, so much. Someone seeing right through you in /any/ way terrifies you. It’s easier for things to just be the same… for chloe to harass clair, and for everything to keep repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating. It’s predictable. It’s comfortable. It’s safe.
Indeed. It feels like classic avoidance from what I’m seeing. But nothing can change until Chloe confronts it all willingly…or if there comes an agent of change strong enough that she can no longer run from it.
It makes me wonder if there had ever been a change as powerful as the ones we are witnessing unfold now, or if Clair’s influence was great enough to repress all those times ‘change’ tried to make Chloe remember.
:clair-sad: Ya really feel for both of them in this current moment because on one hand, you understand that Chloe just needs someone to emotionally support her in the current moment now instead of psychoanalyze.
And meanwhile, Pepper legitimately wants to help and be there, but doesn’t know how to de-escalate or comfort unless he prods for answers because he’s literally wired to attempt to decipher the peculiar behaviors of HH inhabitants (and the place itself)
It’s messy, but its also kinda needed cause no one ever says that emotional navigation is an easy ride, and none of them really do it enough to be ‘clean’ about it.
God, they’re hitting the wall of “you do need to be understood to be comforted”, which… is sadly just fucking factual. Pepper’s digging for solutions at a bad time, but unless Chloe wants to get hurt even worse than today, refusing clarity is just a quick way to relapse.
I think we’re gonna see Chloe’s Actual flaws pretty soon, maybe she’s extremely anti-recovery and all about those Short Dopamine Hits? Pure speculation but it might be what’s under the mask
Either way, poor both of them
this is so incredibly sad on both ends… neither of them really have anyone else to turn to for support, but they’ll tear eachother apart like this. the conversation pit is like a black hole. I can’t help but to notice the way it’s framed in some of these shots… 🔶️🔶️🔶️
Pepper, my boy, I love ya, but now is REALLY not the time for this. At least let the woman recover a little bit before you start prying. It’s quite obvious your mind is in other places and that is NOT helping.
i think it’s not so much that he wants to figure out chloe but rather figure out *clair*, so he can determine exactly how worried he should be about knowing things he shouldn’t…..
Chloe’s tears were a tiny trickle before now they’re a Clair-esque flood. Poor babygirl :chloe-sit:
I have more sympathy for Pepper here than the last time he pissed off Chloe. It’s pretty obvious now that he’s just barely holding it together. :pepper-onedge:
I’ve been thinking, eyes being visible is an indication of mental vulnerability. All the open-eyed residents are offering you a pretty straightforward view into their world at all times. Chloe and Clair habitually keep one closed because of the particular parts of their memory they refuse to accept, but otherwise they’re very forward with the personality they want to express. Pepper is the only exception, he’s constantly watching his words and thinking things through, and he never lets you know what he’s really thinking. He’s slipping up here because of the exhaustion, stress, and fear. Even in #85 when he peels his hair back, it’s something of a conscious gesture — in the moment he was more intrigued by the comment than he cared to conceal his interest.
Yooo you’re right, Achilles the honest little guy who it even hurts to lie has glasses :achilles-wonder: , I can’t help but think this is a deliberate theme
Boss and MogFrog said this already basically, but chloe might be the biggest obstacle to solving or changing the halo head pattern.
if the theory is that chloe and clair are the same person. figuring out halo head (the place or the person) IS figuring out chloe. it is BOTH of their defense mechanisms after all. chloe might not be able to help pepper here. although I’m still curious about pepper mentioning the stairs to her.
chloe seems like she wants to remember, but it’s like her guardedness against others in general. if she’s approached from the outside, she’s got her guard up. she has to want it and seek it herself.
yeah, it’s no coincidence his eye appeared all eagle-eyed in the second panel when he was asking if chloe was scared clair would *do something. he’s genuinely terrified for his life and hers and achilles. (fuck knows I’ve been in a position where I have to dance around the topic of my own safety compared to a caaretaker)
It’s curious that he has the diamonds on when he’s doing the questioning, even though that’s obviously not helpful to Chloe. IIRC someone described the diamonds as symbolizing “subverting Claire”, and I think that’s exactly what it is: Pepper is subverting Claire by trying to figure out reality. I bet if Chloe gets him to stop, he’ll go back to being square.
I went back and read the Yellow Wallpaper because Peoper’s yellow word bubbles surrounding Chloe made me think there might be an intentional reflection of the relationship between the narrator of the story being forced to remain in the room with the yellow wallpaper by her husband (John), and Pepper hemming Chloe in with his yellow words, forcing her to remain in a confrontation of the things she wants to forget. On a reread however, I think that both Pepper and Chloe are more like the narrator! Pepper is stuck in his own brain, anxious and unsleeping, following the tracks of his own paranoia round and round until he makes himself insane. I think the reason Clair doesn’t want Chloe to have the book is that there is a painful reflection of her and a Chloe’s relationship in the story: John doesn’t want the narrator to think about her illness AT ALL, and he thinks that distraction and rest will heal her all on its own. Unfortunately, rest in his eyes is just doing what he wants the narrator to do all the time over her own complaints and frustrations. The Yellow Wallpaper is about female repression, but it’s also about being Oppressed by a person who “means well” but is just using your pain to assert their control over every aspect of your life. People have probably made this connection before but it’s the first time I’m putting together that they’re both caught in similar loops, which is probably why they bond so well. Also Pepper’s wallpaper is yellow and he’s afraid to go in his attic :batty-bloody:
Chloe rather be an enigma that no one understands so no one will try to understand and help.
Also, it’s nice you’re getting this out there, Pepper, but I feel like you’re making it more about you than the one you’re comforting. Give her space to collect her thoughts!
the illustrious return of Pepper’s eye!
like, it feels almost misleading in a way. on some level sure he’s trying to see her, sure, but his sight is just as much aimed on getting her perspective on Claire so he has a better idea on what he’s dealing with.
but for Chloe it feels like more therapy dog routine, and it seems to her like she’s being seen not for the person but the baggage attached? hard to simply *be,* when you feel like you’re constantly being talked to about what needs fixing. hard to *self-actualize* maybe?
YOU PUT THAT EYE AWAY PEPPER THATS NOT YOUR PLACE TO DIG
Diamonds on the hair with the Clair eye open… sinister…
worried if clair can like. spy on people through others…..??
I’ll defend you till the end, Pepper
I know you do care about Chloe, but you’re also scared about Clair and what she might be capable off. I’m sure you are trying to do the right thing and not just trying to get the info out of Chloe! :pepper-1:
Yeah I feel like too often the comments forget that this guy just had an existential crisis a couple days ago and has like a million reasons to be suspicious of clair
💔
the second panel is making me go feral. god the colors. fuck
Poor Pepper just needs someone to talk to. “Please, I really need your help to figure this out,” really is what he means. He needs someone’s help.
Unfortunately hon, you /are/ being figured out. And it scares you so, so much. Someone seeing right through you in /any/ way terrifies you. It’s easier for things to just be the same… for chloe to harass clair, and for everything to keep repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating. It’s predictable. It’s comfortable. It’s safe.
Indeed. It feels like classic avoidance from what I’m seeing. But nothing can change until Chloe confronts it all willingly…or if there comes an agent of change strong enough that she can no longer run from it.
It makes me wonder if there had ever been a change as powerful as the ones we are witnessing unfold now, or if Clair’s influence was great enough to repress all those times ‘change’ tried to make Chloe remember.
:clair-sad: Ya really feel for both of them in this current moment because on one hand, you understand that Chloe just needs someone to emotionally support her in the current moment now instead of psychoanalyze.
And meanwhile, Pepper legitimately wants to help and be there, but doesn’t know how to de-escalate or comfort unless he prods for answers because he’s literally wired to attempt to decipher the peculiar behaviors of HH inhabitants (and the place itself)
It’s messy, but its also kinda needed cause no one ever says that emotional navigation is an easy ride, and none of them really do it enough to be ‘clean’ about it.
just a bloodhound with a one track mind :clair-sad:
The Yellow Wallpaper being in frame as Pepper talks about how Clair isn’t very straight with anyone is a great detail
especially with pepper looking right at it. he:s well aware of the parallels
God, they’re hitting the wall of “you do need to be understood to be comforted”, which… is sadly just fucking factual. Pepper’s digging for solutions at a bad time, but unless Chloe wants to get hurt even worse than today, refusing clarity is just a quick way to relapse.
I think we’re gonna see Chloe’s Actual flaws pretty soon, maybe she’s extremely anti-recovery and all about those Short Dopamine Hits? Pure speculation but it might be what’s under the mask
Either way, poor both of them
pepper diamonds ✨✨✨ go dog
also chloe wehhh🥺🥺feels
this is so incredibly sad on both ends… neither of them really have anyone else to turn to for support, but they’ll tear eachother apart like this. the conversation pit is like a black hole. I can’t help but to notice the way it’s framed in some of these shots… 🔶️🔶️🔶️
Pepper, my boy, I love ya, but now is REALLY not the time for this. At least let the woman recover a little bit before you start prying. It’s quite obvious your mind is in other places and that is NOT helping.
i think it’s not so much that he wants to figure out chloe but rather figure out *clair*, so he can determine exactly how worried he should be about knowing things he shouldn’t…..
Chloe’s tears were a tiny trickle before now they’re a Clair-esque flood. Poor babygirl :chloe-sit:
I have more sympathy for Pepper here than the last time he pissed off Chloe. It’s pretty obvious now that he’s just barely holding it together. :pepper-onedge:
I’ve been thinking, eyes being visible is an indication of mental vulnerability. All the open-eyed residents are offering you a pretty straightforward view into their world at all times. Chloe and Clair habitually keep one closed because of the particular parts of their memory they refuse to accept, but otherwise they’re very forward with the personality they want to express. Pepper is the only exception, he’s constantly watching his words and thinking things through, and he never lets you know what he’s really thinking. He’s slipping up here because of the exhaustion, stress, and fear. Even in #85 when he peels his hair back, it’s something of a conscious gesture — in the moment he was more intrigued by the comment than he cared to conceal his interest.
Yooo you’re right, Achilles the honest little guy who it even hurts to lie has glasses :achilles-wonder: , I can’t help but think this is a deliberate theme
Boss and MogFrog said this already basically, but chloe might be the biggest obstacle to solving or changing the halo head pattern.
if the theory is that chloe and clair are the same person. figuring out halo head (the place or the person) IS figuring out chloe. it is BOTH of their defense mechanisms after all. chloe might not be able to help pepper here. although I’m still curious about pepper mentioning the stairs to her.
chloe seems like she wants to remember, but it’s like her guardedness against others in general. if she’s approached from the outside, she’s got her guard up. she has to want it and seek it herself.
also pepper joining the halo head theorycrafting
Yay, pepper diamonds! Also Pepper please just be patient with Chloe. She needs time.
“I know. I’m trying to figure CLAIR out”
yeah, it’s no coincidence his eye appeared all eagle-eyed in the second panel when he was asking if chloe was scared clair would *do something. he’s genuinely terrified for his life and hers and achilles. (fuck knows I’ve been in a position where I have to dance around the topic of my own safety compared to a caaretaker)
It’s curious that he has the diamonds on when he’s doing the questioning, even though that’s obviously not helpful to Chloe. IIRC someone described the diamonds as symbolizing “subverting Claire”, and I think that’s exactly what it is: Pepper is subverting Claire by trying to figure out reality. I bet if Chloe gets him to stop, he’ll go back to being square.
Yeah she is NOT straight with her..😐🤯:clair-cute::chloe-onice::hearts:
I went back and read the Yellow Wallpaper because Peoper’s yellow word bubbles surrounding Chloe made me think there might be an intentional reflection of the relationship between the narrator of the story being forced to remain in the room with the yellow wallpaper by her husband (John), and Pepper hemming Chloe in with his yellow words, forcing her to remain in a confrontation of the things she wants to forget. On a reread however, I think that both Pepper and Chloe are more like the narrator! Pepper is stuck in his own brain, anxious and unsleeping, following the tracks of his own paranoia round and round until he makes himself insane. I think the reason Clair doesn’t want Chloe to have the book is that there is a painful reflection of her and a Chloe’s relationship in the story: John doesn’t want the narrator to think about her illness AT ALL, and he thinks that distraction and rest will heal her all on its own. Unfortunately, rest in his eyes is just doing what he wants the narrator to do all the time over her own complaints and frustrations. The Yellow Wallpaper is about female repression, but it’s also about being Oppressed by a person who “means well” but is just using your pain to assert their control over every aspect of your life. People have probably made this connection before but it’s the first time I’m putting together that they’re both caught in similar loops, which is probably why they bond so well. Also Pepper’s wallpaper is yellow and he’s afraid to go in his attic :batty-bloody: