#Dimmadome Estate
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coolmika745 · 3 months ago
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Dimmadollars and the Cliff-Side Estate
These is a topic from the Fairly Oddparents episode Engine Blocked I don't think has been discussed, which is that Doug Dimmadome has a currency with his face on it, which could symbolize how much of an significant figure he is to the fictional Fairly Oddparents USA.
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Also I want to discuss that Engine Blocked was the only episode that we saw Doug Dimmadome's Estate which is called Precariously Perched Cliff-side Estate.
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Here is the side view of it.
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Have you noticed that the curtains are gone in the picture where Doug Dimmadome is standing in front of his mansion because the writers may have forgotten to animate it.
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In the next scene we see the curtains are back and yes your eyes don't deceive you. Doug Dimmadome invited his son's kidnapper to his residence but the writers didn't take that into consideration at that moment.
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I was wondering how this will be revisited in the new series.
In FOPANW, Dimmadelphia and Dimmsdale are two different places according to this sign.
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nalooksthrough · 5 months ago
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Dale Dimmadome Analysis (with screenshots)
Dale is one of my favourite characters on the show. He's a funny evil man, that amuses me with his antics and his role as a child slave/kidnap victim in the original series leaves a lot to be explored.
This analysis will be talking about his attachment to money which trust me is a lot more interesting than it sounds. This will be quite a long post. I'll put a cut under this paragraph, so that the people who aren't interested don't have to scroll through the whole post.
Going to assume that since you decided to keep reading, that your interested in what I have to say. This analysis will only be covering "Stanky Danky" and "Lost and Founder's Day" with a brief mention of "Operation Birthday Takeback". I think those two episodes are more than sufficient enough to convey my point.
When we first meet Dale in "Stanky Danky" he's seen coming down from a helicopter, onto a big stage to sell products to people. He appears to be level headed with confidence oozing out of him. But this changes the moment he realises that people aren't going to buy anything.
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He almost immediately starts to panic.
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He starts shuttering as he calls out to the crowd to buy more things.
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His panic becomes anger. Briefly switching back to panic before fully settling into anger. His anger then becomes targeted at the person whose telling these people not to buy from him. He questions who this girl is, what's her name.
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Once he's learnt her name. He starts thinking up a way he can stop her and get the customer's interest back.
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And once he's found it he strikes.
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Going as far as to kidnap Danky and emotionally manipulate him just so he can get what he wants.
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Leaving the monster in an isolated area of his estate when he's not of any current use to him. I mean talk about becoming your abuser.
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And when Hazel and Danky leave he rushes out calling out to the trash monster, saying that he was "like a son" to him. Trying to appeal to Danky's emotions, desperately trying to get him back. All so he doesn't lose that source of profit.
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And when he starts losing all his profits at the end of the episode he falls to his knees, wailing in a fit of despair. He's obsessed with money, he needs it and he's willing to do anything to get it. This obsession of his is best shown in "Lost and Founder's Day"
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He spends the first portion of the episode happily monologing as he explains how his Dim Watches "tickle" a child's brain to indicate when they want something. Everything is going exactly as he planned.
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Until it isn't.
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The moment he spots someone not buying anything he starts getting angry. Ranting at the screen.
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His anger only growing more when he realises that this "anomaly" is stopping other people from buying things too.
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And when Dev points out that stuff is still getting sold and they are still earning money. He shuts him down.
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Stating that while yes people are still buying things. The profit he's making from the festival in going down. And he is not happy about it.
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In fact he's so enraged by this that he starts to send drones and his son after it so that he can "learn it's secrets". He can't handle the idea that someone doesn't want to buy anything from him.
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And when that doesn't work, he activates the statues. Putting the whole festival on lock down until he can track down the "anomaly".
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And when a drone points out how counter productive terrorising the festival attendees is to earning money and making a profit. He quite literally shuts it down.
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And at the end of the episode, when the statues are put to a stop and everyone leaves.
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He's back in that pit of despair. A literal stream of tears flowing out of his eyes. And he so affected by this that he spent literal months studying this "anomaly" figuring out why it didn't seem interested in buying anything during the festival. And the thing is. If he had just left it alone. The festival would have gone on without much of a hitch. But he just couldn't, because it was never about the money. Not really. It was about him.
It's clear that he puts a lot of value onto money. More than most. With money being tied directly to his identity and sense of security. The more money he makes, the better he feels about himself and when he starts to lose money, he takes it as a direct attack on him. He knows what it's like to have nothing and he doesn't ever want to be in that state again. So he obsessively tries to earn more and more in order feel secure in himself. But it's never enough. And when someone threatens that security he goes on the defence. Even at the cost of the losing other potential sales.
And when he loses all his profits and is no longer generating money, he breaks. And for a brief moment, he's no longer Dale Dimmadome owner of Dimmadome G0bal.
He's Dale. A frighten young boy working in a factory underneath a lemonade stand, whose only wish is for his father to come and rescue him.
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fountainpenguin · 3 months ago
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Dimmsdale Rich Families Analysis
Misc. musings that haunt me daily...
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I love Dimmsdale's rich families... You've got the Dimmadomes who are all about real estate, fancy buildings, hosting city events, and (Thanks to Dale) they got into tech and shipping.
Contrast that with the "old-fashioned pencil and paper" vibes of the Leadlys, plus the Buxaplentys running the trains... It's a triangle of supporting each other's businesses (and thus, the rich get richer).
This post written under the assumption we're treating these episodes as canon, though I cherrypick "Country Clubbed" in my worldbuilding and I use Dimmsdale's founding year from Season 3 over the one given in Season 9.
General Background
Several flashback episodes imply the FOP world exists in a timeline where the English settled at least part of the west coast in 1665 (as opposed to the Spanish).
- Presumably, this is one of the unique things a universe-hopper like Jimmy Neutron would identify this world by. - On that note, people are heavily implied to "stand differently" in the FOP world, which is why visitors from other dimensions react with surprise when they see their bodies (and fall over before they get their footing):
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Just some fun "alt reality" vibes. Enjoy your visit; sea legs required.
Notably, this is also a universe where trains existed on the west long before they existed in ours, but we'll get to that.
Today I'm discussing the Dimmadomes, Leadlys, and Buxaplentys, but for anyone who's interested in learning more about rich families, Season 9's "Country Clubbed" namedrops a bunch.
Dimmadome Family
We know the Dimmadomes for their impact in the modern world- they're always innovating, hopping from one thing to the next. Dale does seem to have consistency in the businesses he owns (though I am DYING to question what his plans are for that indoor amusement park).
Doug doesn't seem able to commit to anything for long, though we know he's very proud of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome. He hosts many events throughout the series, from music shows to wrestling to demolition derbies.
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Dimmsdale was founded in 1665, named after Dale Dimm (following him throwing Alden Bitterroot the witch down a well). It's possible Dale Dimm is an ancestor of the Dimmadomes, given what we know about:
- Dimmadomes having their hand in things (including the founding of Dimmadelphia). - One Dimmadome ancestor using the surname Dimm ("Lost and Founder's Day"). - Dale Dimm's very tall, barefoot figure is a hilarious ancestor choice for Doug "tall hat" and Dale "boot obsessed" descendants when you think about it.
While it's heavily implied Dale was born into generational wealth, we can't confirm whether that was (or wasn't) true for Doug. It's possible his family helped him get his start, but he seems to have kicked off his own success story by mining for gold (Presumably at a young age given that was back in 1953 and the main FOP series kicks off in 2001).
I like to think Doug (prior Dale's birth) changed his family's surname to Dimmadome to move away from the negative connotation of Dimm and commit himself fully to his big and shiny brand image.
Doug's a pretty interesting character! He's not afraid to get involved in his projects and work hard personally, as opposed to outsourcing- a trait he and his son Dale seem to share.
Doug also seems pained to surrender a check to Timmy in "Odd Ball" (even asking for a minute to say good-bye to his money), which isn't far off from Dale's attitude towards stocks.
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He was even down to move to Alaska to follow the Ballhogs basketball team. He loves throwing all his chips on the table and doesn't back out easily. He also goes all-in with promotional outfits, like the parka above or his chicken costume in "Chicken Poofs."
That said, he might have some "sunk cost fallacy" views towards some of the stuff he buys. While the basketball team cheered they'd won the game by a close shave, Doug's first remark was that now he'd have to figure out what to do with all the stuff he bought in prep for their move to Alaska. He immediately started eating the Blubber Nuggets he would no longer be able to sell.
In "Chicken Poofs," when Doug sees the town inside his restaurant's chicken-dunking cages, his first thought isn't "Oh my gosh, I have to save these people." It's "These people stole my chickens- I'm ruined!" However (at Timmy's advice), he comes back from the loss of his chickens by selling the eggs they left behind. He wasn't about to go home empty-handed.
I'm obsessed with Doug's chicken-dipping machinery having labels so the thing one step up from Deep Fry is The Sun, and the step up from Sun is Lava. When would he ever need a dial that goes that high?
A "waste not, want not" attitude is fascinating in contrast to Dale being so incredibly wasteful, he brought two single-use helicopters on his trip to the park in "Stanky Danky." Is Dale rebelling against Doug's "We have to make the most of everything" parenting style? I think that plays really well into my vision of Dale being the first born into excessive wealth, while Doug possibly worked his way up after striking gold in 1953. Dale is wasteful, Doug more practical.
Doug is also over-the-top ridiculous and would sooner work around his love for tall hats than stop wearing them.
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He owns a boot-shaped phone and a laptop with an armadillo logo, apparently. I'm not sure what they were going for with the armadillo - it's probably just random or meant to represent high security - but I looked it up and in Mayan folklore, armadillos are perceived as cunning critters that outwit people and dodge consequences thanks to their shells, which... Yeah, I think that sums the Dimmadomes up pretty well. Fun fact, but armadillos are one of the only things Fairy magic can't affect ("Teacher's Pet") because magic bounces off their shells. My Anti-Fairy biology incorporates pink fairy armadillo biology because we know Anti-Fairies are also immune to most Fairy magic. Just kind of a "Hm" implication, especially since "Crock Talk"' here and "Teacher's Pet" are both Season 7 episodes. I guess the other horrifying option is that Doug eats armadillos the way you eat apples, but...
I'm also of the opinion that Doug torched things in the Learnatorium, given what we know about the Learnatorium's interior ("Totally Spaced Out") and this scene of Doug "destroying childhood memories" in "Odd, Odd West"
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In fact, it's not even a reach to say Doug takes pride in destroying people's cherished childhood memories. He seems to "look down on wasteful, childish things" and seems to value anything that is more useful in performing a task or turning a profit. Again, that's big "Everything must be useful and we can't waste space" energy (and presumably reflects on his offscreen parenting).
Where my fanworks are concerned, I love the idea that Doug paid for personal tutors to help Dale adjust to society and/or some basic schooling. Say... maybe an elementary teacher to start with? I don't think it would be unreasonable to theorize Crocker was involved with that, at least at first, as it helps justify the money he would've needed to expand the Crocker cave in the early days. -> We know from S4's "Genie Meanie Miney Mo" that Mr. Birkenbake states he can't afford a garage because he "doesn't make Crocker money," implying resentment... which is pretty interesting when you consider that Crocker also doesn't have his own place because he moved back in with his mom after university, and not even to his old room (Instead to a room above the garage). -> We know from S6's "Wishology Pt. 2" that Crocker stole the money intended for "the school's new science wing" and used that to pay for some of his tech, like his rocket. Both these episodes come well after S2's "Nectar of the Odds," so it's interesting to consider Crocker getting money earlier to support his tech pursuits in Seasons 2 and 3.
Dale seems to feel strongly about his dad- If it's not love, it's obsession and Grade-A Daddy Issues. His tent is shaped like his dad's head - despite Doug not being present at the event as far as we know - and even his house features statues of his dad.
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Considering the nervous, over-the-top, aggressively money-chasing person Dale turned out to be, it's no surprise we can see a lot of Dale in Doug. While Vicky did a number on Dale's psyche, there's definitely some Doug influence in his behavior too.
Fun Fact: The Dimmadome gives off Roman Colosseum vibes, so it's fitting that one of the ancestors we saw in "Lost and Founder's Day" is an ancient Roman!
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I would also be remiss not to look at the Dimmadome fortune, glance at the sheer number of businesses Doug is constantly opening... and question if there's some money laundering going on there. Seems kinda sus, ngl...
I'm just saying, Doug with a ton of "disposable income" (gold) because he ended up with a lot of it very quickly seems like a "great" way to get into gambling. Shout-out to the Dimmadomes and their obsessions that hint at addictive personalities. Actually, that makes Dev's game addiction so much darker and now I'm horrified. He could get into trouble so easily...
Also, in "Engine Blocked," Doug literally tries to pay Vicky with a bunch of [I assume fake] money with his face on it, so that's questionable...
One last interesting note is that the Dimmadrones (called such in "Stanky Danky" when chasing Cosmo, Wanda, and Hazel) are clearly based on the early model of Amazon delivery drones.
I think the obvious assumption is that Dale* built them for Dimmazon, but repurposed a few of them for Dev's caretaking (as opposed to them being built for Dev in the first place).
* It's possible the robots were built by a team, but knowing Dale programmed the statues in "Lost and Founder's Day" & Dale's seeming preference to do things himself rather than outsourcing, I'm going with the "Dale built them" theory.
This repurposing might be backed up by Dev referring to the ones that hang out with him as au pairs - a phrase meaning "caretaker" - and even claiming his au pairs are Au Pair #1 and Au Pair #2. While that might just be convenient shorthand since those are the two he interacts with, maybe those are a different type of Dimmadrone that was designed (or tweaked) specifically for Dev's care.
In a previous post, I discussed my headcanon of Dev having hypoglycemia and referenced the au pairs having the ability to "alert on him," or at least use both visuals and noise to signal him, as in this screenshot from "28 Puddings Later" showcasing a glowing exclamation point:
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We also know Dev has specific food needs (Lactose intolerance), that he's very picky with his food (Even a treat like cupcakes that you would expect a 9-year-old to enjoy regardless), and that the au pairs are capable of food preparation (since Dev tells Hazel in "A New Dev-elopment" they can make sushi).
The au pairs are probably the most advanced, expensive, time-consuming models (compared to the ones that simply need to be mass produced for package pick-up and put-down).
I do like the thought that - for all his faults I didn't touch on here - Dale does care enough about Dev that he took the time to design two robots that could look after Dev in his absence... and specifically, took the time to think of what a child actually needs.
Dale probably thinks "I spent 7 years struggling... I would've loved the comfort of knowing my base needs like food were taken care of."
In my hypoglycemia post, I said the au pairs seem to know what hugs are and can recognize when Dev wants comfort. That implies Dale put a lot of thought into the design of the au pair and its ability to assess Dev's needs. Dale's not oblivious to what a child needs, like safety, appropriate food, and physical affection... He just lets the au pairs handle Dev.
Dale definitely gives the impression of someone who's making a genuine effort to parent, considering he missed out on healthy role models for at least 7 years of his life (Not to mention Doug is a wild character and probably fell short of being an excellent parent himself).
Along with designing the au pairs to look after him, Dale involves Dev in his projects, greets Dev, and answers his questions, and that's so interesting when you compare him with people like:
- Remy's parents (after the shipwreck in "Fairy Fairy Quite Contrary"'s closing scene) opting to count their surviving money and open a luxury hotel while still dressed in rags, forcing Remy to forage for his and their survival - Vicky and Tootie's parents opting to stay with perceived cannibals rather than disobey Vicky ("Timmy's 2D House of Horror"); they consistently let Vicky run the show and beg her forgiveness when they upset her. You could 100% make an argument that Vicky is Tootie's actual caregiver. - The "Fairy Idol" alt version of Bucky (Chester's dad) who lost his house and went off to party instead of securing food or shelter for his son. Also, Regular Bucky canonically feeds Chester animals he stole from the zoo or aquarium ("Who's Your Daddy?") and I think we should talk about that. - A.J.'s parents are fantastic in many ways, but there's something incredibly dark about the way they don't like A.J. going outside where there are germs ("Who's Your Daddy?"), they have a laser set up in front of their house to vaporize visitors ("The Big Scoop"), and A.J. seems to believe they dislike Chester (given his long silence after Chester asks why A.J.'s parents' security system got more aggressive after finding out he was Chester). - Later-season neglectful Timmy's parents (though I acknowledge I don't love that flanderized aspect of their character unless viewed from the 'got burned out after 50 extra years of parenting' lens, personally). - Clark and Connie who walked out on their daughter having an anxiety attack (and sent Chloe into a dissociative episode 3 times in the first episode they appeared). - A distracted adult Timmy ("Channel Chasers") leaving his kids with a robot Vicky babysitter despite the sight of weapons and his children begging.
Dale IS an antagonist and a neglectful parent. This post is not meant to take away from that or excuse it, but I think it's interesting that within the bounds of FOP characterization... He is pretty consistently in line with how parents in this show behave, and he does have many positives alongside his flaws. I totally understand why child protective services have not taken Dev from him.
Disclaimer: All characters are morally gray and this list is for amusing discussion purposes. I'm not calling these characters "bad parents" so much as highlighting interesting behaviors for consideration.
FOP's characterization leans into adults being foolish and neglectful - Dimmsdale is named after the idea that the adults are dim, after all - and I think it's worth evaluating all the FOP parents within that framework.
Related Dimmadome Posts:
- This post where I had the thought that Doug might have ADHD/OCD comorbidity (Hilariously, something I'd already decided to do with Dale and Dev...)
- This post comparing Doug and Dale body language
Leadly Family
S9's "Dog Gone" is a bonkers episode, and I love it so much. Notably, it's the episode that confirms Leadly is personally rich- Not just Pencil Nexus as a company, which has multiple branches in other states and can afford a jet.
In fact, Leadly is so rich, he offers to buy Sparky from the Turners for 17 million dollars, just because Sparky gave him the Heimlich maneuver and Leadly thought it was neat.
My personal headcanon for Leadly is that he's somewhat aware of magical beings and is actively seeking them.
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The Leadly mansion is pencil-themed, of course.
The Dimmadomes and Buxaplentys are both confirmed to have generational wealth. We have no proof one way or the other for Leadly. It's likely his is too, but it's not impossible he founded Pencil Nexus and committed to its branding because he's proud of what he does.
Leadly doesn't have many appearances, but we know some very important things about him:
- He's convinced he's being haunted by a hot tub ghost, reason being that Cosmo likes to use his hot tub at night (whether Leadly's in it or not). Sparky also claims that he had an accident on Leadly's lawn (Crashing his car), but that Leadly blamed the hot tub ghost.
- He's super buff.
- His company is literally the only thing keeping a [presumably magical] forest from overtaking Dimmsdale, considering that when Pencil Nexus reduces their tree chopping in "The Boss of Me," the forest overtakes the city within a couple hours.
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Did some godkid out there just wish for renewable trees and now Dimmsdale is cursed and suffering??
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Leadly just flexes like this and has massive muscles, but his aren't as big as the people affected by the Everleadys.
The episode makes it explicitly clear that people's massive muscles are magic and aren't going away (Hence the lawsuits and decision to remove Everleady pencils from the world), but Leadly's muscles do fade when he stops flexing. His are natural.
Despite the jokes that he flies the company jet around to goof off, it's not unreasonable to think he's out there personally chopping trees and I respect him for it.
Y'know, I did wonder how on earth selling pencils made him rich enough that he can afford to spontaneously buy things for 17 million dollars (and keep a pet snow leopard that he apparently rides, considering it was tame enough for Timmy's Dad to ride it home from work and he parked it outside his house and it just stayed there).
Did he fight the snow leopard? Did he raise it? I'm afraid of him.
Conclusion: Ed Leadly has a monopoly on an infinitely replenishing wood source. His company can never take a break or the city will be overtaken by magic plants. Big "curse of Midas" vibes.
I can't stop thinking about how in "T.U.F.F. Puppy," it's implied that Petropolis exists in the same general location as Dimmsdale... Los Angeles county:
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- Los Angeles' population in the 2010 census was 3,792,621. Dimmsdale's hillside letters parallel the Hollywood sign. - 91502 is the Burbank area code, where the Nickelodeon studio is - Jorgen claims in "Meet the OddParents" that the power he has to do that was vested in him by both Fairy World and Whittier, California. This seems to match the city borders seen in "Fairy Idol" while he's zooming in on Chester to assign Norm as his godparent.
This implies parallel universe vibes, though in my lore, I have all four Hartman shows blended into one continuity.
See my 2019 post, "A T.U.F.F. Timeline" or the shorter "How Hartman Shows Co-Exist" post if you want details on that
Here's the thing... In "T.U.F.F.," it's implied the forest near the city has been allowed to spread and evolve. Its bizarre flora and fauna certainly give a "non-natural evolution" vibe, so it's not implausible magic could be at play.
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It's made very clear in "T.U.F.F. Puppy" that this show is still set on Earth, yet "Flower Power" refers to the Petropolis Rainforest. That implies this forest exists around the city. In fact, we know it's separate from the Amazon, which is referenced in "To Bee or Not to Bee").
Interestingly, the episode "Til Doom Do Us Part" depicts Petropolis being overrun by brightly colored flowers once weddings are mass canceled-
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- which implies the florists are keeping the creep of nature back from Petropolis.
I feel like this is especially cursed in my lore where "T.U.F.F." exists in a post-FOP future... Leadly, your woods!! Oh no, he can't hear us... He's been gone for 2,000 years...
Shout-out to Pencil Nexus keeping Dimmsdale safe, one pencil at a time. And shout-out to Leadly's unique body language of gripping the sides of his coat, because he does it a lot and it makes me smile every time. He is just some background guy with a pencil-themed gimmick, but he has a special body language quirk and I love it.
Related Leadly Things:
- If you haven't watched S9's "Dog Gone," I recommend it. It's silly. There are some late-series episodes that give secondhand embarrassment vibes, but for some reason "Dog Gone"'s bizarre energy is so charming to me.
- Leadly appeared in these one-shots of mine, if you're interested in my portrayal of him hunting down magical creatures (and just generally being entitled and getting in the way): "Opportunity" & "Trying Too Hard"
Buxaplenty Family
The Buxaplentys have been running the railroads ever since Dimmsdale's early days, with Orville Buxaplenty the first to do so. Timmy's distant grandfather (Ebeneezer) mocks trains by claiming they're "just a fad" and there's no future in them- Thus, he chooses not to involve himself with trains and leaves Orville to do so alone.
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This establishes the Buxaplenty wealth as being generational through these trains. Presumably, Dimmsdale has a large train station, as this seems to be where the Buxaplentys have set up shop.
If the Dimmadomes have businesses spanning Los Angeles to Dimmadelphia, it's very likely the trains play a key role. Assuming we take the 1665 founding date of Dimmsdale as canon ("Which Witch is Which?"), the trains may have been essential at moving resources from Dimmsdale to later found Dimmadelphia. -> See also, respawning magic woods (?) Rich people crossover of the centuries??
Notably, their family takes some heavy hits in "Country Clubbed" when Mr. Buxaplenty is forced to watch the destruction of the club, his mansion, yacht, and limo in quick succession.
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The surname Buxaplenty is clearly a play on the phrase "bucks aplenty" (and I want to shout-out a 'fic I read many years ago - but unfortunately do not remember - that had a whole thing about Remy's surname actually being Buxley and everyone just calling them Buxaplentys in a derogatory way, because that's hilarious).
A neat detail about Remy is that in the Spanish version of Fairly OddParents, his surname is Cajallena, which (to my understanding) translates as "full cash register."
In my lore, I made Cajallena the maiden name of Remy's mom.
I did some poking around. Apparently, Remy is based on comic/cartoon character Richie Rich, popular from the 60s to the 90s or so (and who still shows up in modern reboots of things today).
I'm not familiar with this series, but both are blond, the only child in their family, and wear big red bows. After brief research, I get the impression Richie was at least a little associated with trains... even owning a toy trainset that costs 1 million dollars (and paying 8 million to buy the factory that makes a part of his set that broke).
I want to highlight this comparison:
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From the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, I believe, and it looks like Richie owned other gold vehicles like a boat as well.
As for Remy himself, I believe I read a few years ago that he's designed around the concept of "green-eyed envy," so he has literal green eyes. I think envious is a very good way to describe his character, considering that his immediate reaction to learning Timmy has fairies was "If he has fairies, he could wish himself richer than me; I wish his fairies were gone."
This is a minor detail, but I rewatched some Remy scenes (especially the lunch scene in "Remy Rides Again" and the breakfast scene in "Stupid Cupid") because I could've sworn Remy said at some point that he likes caviar. That might be true - I didn't find it in my hasty rewatch - but I definitely laughed when I checked and saw that instead of eating caviar for lunch like I'd remembered, he ate steak. Kid knows what he wants.
We also know Remy enjoys Crimson Chin and Crash Nebula. Specifically, we know that he's a fan of Cleft the Boy Chin Wonder, but that when Remy ventures inside the comic world, he made the character more relatable to him by making Cleft rich... in addition to minor costume changes, such as slapping the Buxaplenty logo on him in place of Cleft's usual C.
Remy sees something in Cleft that connects with him, but that extra "I want Cleft to feel like me" bit is interesting. Admiring Cleft isn't enough. He needs to be "I am Cleft's secret identity. I, Remy Buxaplenty, have this alt life." The Crimson Chin can't seem to tell the difference between Timmy and Remy as Cleft - unsurprising since he's a comic character playing his role - but Remy saving the Chin from falling is one of the only acts of kindness we see him engage in. That implies Remy does value the Chin and/or feeling like a hero in some way... or if nothing else, he values the praise the Chin gives him.
As parents, the Buxaplentys are pretty interesting. Even by "dim FOP parents" standards, they're exceptionally bad at being loving - or even effective - parents.
- Remy's dad is so awkward, he's not even sure how to address Remy when we see them in "Fairy Fairy Quite Contrary." It's his wife that suggests he try "Son." Also, Remy's parents time themselves so they spend no more than 2 minutes per day with him, which they tell him openly.
- Remy's dad calls him "Liam" later, which isn't close to his name... but Remy's grateful to be acknowledged anyway, which has interesting implications. Remy takes anything he can get; putting up with what little scraps they offer to avoid the risk of turning them off the idea of reaching out to him.
- At the end of the episode, Timmy wishes Remy could spend more time with his parents. We can assume Cosmo and Wanda didn't want to hurt the Buxaplentys on purpose - especially given what we know (from episodes like "Boys In a Band" & "Go Young, West Man") about Da Rules preventing godkids from harming others directly.
So that begs the question... Was shipwrecking the Buxaplentys the only option to get them to pay attention to their son? That's kinda dark... Angela will turn down a book pitch to care for sick Hazel, but "Remy gets sick and a parent tends to him" was seemingly not on the table. Which does make sense in-universe- After all, there are plenty of butlers and staff who wait on Remy.
Remy even tells us that his parents stopped paying attention to him after about 3 seconds despite being stranded with him on a desert island, which is pretty bad... but it gets worse when you realize Remy was stranded between Seasons 2 and 5.
When he returns in "Remy Rides Again," he asks Timmy to "guess where he's been," and informs him he "just got back from an uncharted island."
Combining that with Remy's claim that his parents only paid attention to him for 3 seconds - and looking at the scenes of Remy foraging for food while he wears rags and his parents get involved with business despite being stranded - That's..... just awful.
That's a long time for Remy to be without the comforts of home or the comforts of Juandissimo while struggling to survive (and keep his parents alive along with him). Depending on where you personally place Timmy's time freeze, it can get way worse.
And Remy was just happy he had time with his parents... Happy to forage for food... Happy to get a headpat... and for what? They don't deserve you, kid.
For all his greediness and schemes, he is pretty grateful for what little he has. In addition to looking forward to spending time with his parents, when Remy is venting to Timmy at the end of "Remy Rides Again," not once does he mention "And I didn't have my nice things." He says "I didn't have my fairy, Juandissimo, to comfort me."
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Remy's parents don't even take care of themselves, let alone pay attention to his needs. They chose not to leave the deserted island - and apparently took their sweet time calling for clothes to be delivered - and Remy seems to be the one in charge of food.
Also, the implication here is that Juandissimo gave some part of his physical form up so Remy could eat, which is horrifying?? Did that happen multiple times, considering these scenes take place immediately after the shipwreck and later after Remy's mom opens her luxury resort, so definitely different days? Did... did Remy reach the point where he was struggling to find food - or the more awful option, struggling to find food for himself because he was giving it to his parents first - and Juandissimo said "F that" ??? ... help.
On top of all this, the official canon is that Juandissimo couldn't hold a job after being separated from Remy because he was so hung up on Remy's situation (and his own shame that he failed), he couldn't stop crying, so he bounced from job to job.
It's the thing I love most about Juandissimo, because when he's introduced in FFQC, he's a huge lapdog for Da Rules, even going off about how not following them would lead to madness. But we learn one very, very important thing about Juandissimo in "Remy Rides Again"... which is that Juandissimo openly broke Da Rules to return Remy's memories.
He's very clear about this: "I decided to help you no matter what Da Rules say, so I gave you back your memories." Because he loved him... and he knew Remy's situation wouldn't get any better if he sat and did nothing. The godparenting program and Jorgen weren't going to help, so Juandissimo - who LOVES Da Rules - broke them.
We know Juandissimo returned those memories while Remy was on the island. That suggests Remy's parents had no intention to return to Dimmsdale... and presumably, they also didn't care Remy was missing school.
We know Remy got real clothes again at some point on the island, and we can assume he had food and a bed because his mom opened a luxury resort, but there's more a child needs... Schooling, medical care, social interaction with peers... everything about that situation just screams neglect. Serious neglect. "We literally do not care" levels of neglect.
Even when Remy's parents do return to Dimmsdale and care about his schooling again, they send him to a military school full of older kids and adults. And that seems at least a little reasonable on the surface - After all, Remy's been a brat, so of course they'd send him to a school for ne'er-do-wells - but that begs the question...
... What has he ever done to upset his parents?
Remy's envy leads him to be rude, sure. And he's presumably committing some kind of fraud or deception crimes in the background due to the implication in "The Big Bash" that he bribes people with checks, but puts stops on them later so they don't go through. These are things that happened when he was doing magical stuff away from home.
But all signs point to him being extremely respectful towards his parents even when they're very dismissive of him... even when he's been placed in terrible, scary situations like being shipwrecked on an uncharted island, not knowing if they'll survive. Remy is polite, does what he's told, never talks back, and volunteers to find food.
It's almost worse that his dad acknowledged Remy finding food was a good idea and still didn't lend a hand in that. The Buxaplentys are such concerning people, and that's just my recap of things that happened in Season 2 and Season 5.
According to Season 9's "Country Clubbed," Remy's dad hits "classless saps" with his limo on purpose every month - which sounds horrible even without the next part - and he does that so he has an excuse to invite them to the Fancy Schmancy Country Club and he and his friends can mock them (under the guise of allowing them access to the club in exchange for them not suing). He heavily implies he'd like to hit Timmy later since he didn't get him while hitting his parents.
That's really messed up... WHAT is going on in the Buxaplenty parents' heads?
The only slightly relieving thing from that statement is that presumably, they don't run over Remy because we can assume Remy isn't a "classless sap," but I don't think "choosing not to run your son over because he shares your wealth" is a real point in their favor.
I make no claims that Dale is a fantastic parent, but the weird thing is... I don't think Dale is outside the range of how other subpar parents in the FOP universe act. Except the Buxaplentys- They're pretty much the lowest of the low.
There are so many concerning things going on in the Dimmadome house, like terrible safety rails, and Dale does cut his son off, dehumanize him, and make him feel unwanted. This is all true.
But at least Dale knows Dev's name and calls him that. It's very possible he's aware of Dev's lactose intolerance (seeing as Dev had to get his allergy card from somewhere). At least Dale provided the au pairs to look after Dev and gave them the ability to cook and recognize when he wants a hug. Even if Dale doesn't go out of his way to hug Dev, he seems to like him enough that he's happy to clap a hand to his shoulder and talk to him. At least he seems interested in talking to him and hearing about his day.
Dale even tries to get Dev outside, but didn't snap at Dev when Dev lay down to play his game instead in "Stanky Danky." That was their father-son thing, though it would've been easy to leave Dev at home.
Dale arguably took charge of Dev's care during that event, seeing as the au pairs don't hover around Dev. idk if Dale made his 9-year-old walk home himself across a very busy road while he chased after Danky, but that's not the point.
The implication is that Dev tags along on Dale's walks to Signal Hill - and has done so many times - because Dev knows Dale's calls drop up there. It's implied Dev plays on that hill when his dad is on a call because Dev knows the grass makes you itchy if you roll down it. He'd probably played there recently since that was the first place to come to mind during the treasure hunt with Hazel, and he remembered the itchiness of the grass.
Dale even makes donations to Dev's school, which is more than the Buxaplentys ever did (See also, Remy likely missing school while shipwrecked).
Remy could die and his parents probably wouldn't spend a cent on his funeral... or get his name right in a eulogy without a lot of note-checking and effort. In fact, it wouldn't shock me if they hid his death so no one found out, because a dead son would be bad press.
Actually... It's very sad to imagine them putting more effort into hiding Remy's death than into caring for his life.
Shout-out to Chapter 10 of the 'fic "Buy Me Love" by DeliverUsFromEvie where Remy addresses two mansion employees by name, but they're confused to find out their boss has a kid and that said kid has been in the house this whole time. I think about it constantly. hey. what on earth.
This 'fic has one of the most brutal interpretations of Remy I've ever seen, and Evie has this and several other awesome works, so consider checking them out!
All of this said, there's something else that's interesting here, so let's talk "Turner Back Time."
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I can't stop thinking about how when Timmy wished his ancestor (Ebeneezer) had decided to work with trains rather than dismissing them, that led to a timeline where the following things happened:
- Timmy's Dad still married his beloved Timmy's Mom (lol). Yeah, you're not prying him away from the love of his life for anything.
- Dimmsdale fell to ruin because Timmy's Dad wouldn't play the Rich People game right (Supporting the city's growth) and instead opted to drive trains off the tracks and crash them through buildings.
- The Turners lived in a mansion, but Timmy's bedroom is exactly the same, presumably because in the timeline where his family's rich, he needed a safe space untouched by his parents' branding.
- Despite Timmy's effort to become miserable, Dad kept showering him with affection and toys, so Timmy didn't qualify for fairies until he was tied to railroad tracks with a train hurtling towards him.
- The first thing Timmy did in his attempt to become miserable enough to qualify for fairies was decide not to eat... Same energy as when he felt guilty and refused to sleep in Season 1 ("Dream Goat").
There is something here about Timmy's Dad ignoring the train system, but being attentive to his son, while the Buxaplentys ignore their son, but Dimmsdale isn't in ruins.
I'll say 1 and only 1 positive thing about the Buxaplentys: At least their trains are on the tracks instead of careening through hospital walls. Honestly, the bar is so low, it is below the floor.
Timmy's Dad became a greedy person in that timeline, but he still chose to marry someone of lower social status, have a son, and be kind to his son- He's happy to greet him, encourages him to enjoy their wealth, and gifts Timmy lots of nice things. In that timeline, it's the Turners who have generational wealth. Dad was raised by generations of Turners and he still makes time for Timmy. Come on, Buxaplentys... Is it THAT hard to speak to your son like you're happy he exists?
Closing Thoughts
The Buxaplentys are definitely an old money family while the Dimmadomes and Ed Leadly give off new money energy (to me).
Neither Doug nor Ed was seen at the Fancy Schmancy Country Club in S9's "Country Clubbed." All the people who were there have names that play on wealth. They also dress in a much more "upper class" way than Leadly with his flashy yellow suit or Doug with his Southern/Western theme.
The Dimmadomes represent business-related wealth and big company vibes, and I'd call them eccentric. Compare Doug's precariously perched cliffside estate (S3's "Engine Blocked") to Remy's telescope-
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I really hope he decorates that hat for the holidays
The energy I get from this is "Doug doing whatever he wants just because he can"... which is also the impression I get from the "Crock Talk" scene that shows his hat stretching through the limo roof. Doug does business things and hosts events, but keeps to himself unless he's doing business things.
Comparatively, Leadly is all-in on his pencil branding, and the Buxaplentys flaunt their wealth in everyday life. As in, they buy the most expensive version of anything they want and like to showcase their wealth.
But while Doug and Dale have "Do what I want" energy, the Buxaplentys seem more restricted by social expectation.
That is, the Buxaplentys dress very nice and dine with fancy people- even their 11-year-old wears a tux, bowtie, and cummerbund. Buxaplentys are very "Flaunt wealth & do what people expect of us." They don't go out of their way to do "silly, eccentric" things like putting a hat on their mansion, but they sure will buy golden, diamond-studded things.
Well, that wraps up my analysis on Dimmsdale's wealthy families, who each intrigue and frighten me in their own unique ways... whether that be money laundering, holding back a magical forest, or being absolutely awful parents.
Thanks for reading!
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riddledeep · 2 months ago
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Dale's Full Character Profile
🍋 Chronically stressed owner of Dimmadome Global, Dimmazon, Dimm-'N-Out Burgers, and the Dome Zone Indoor Amusement Park (Coming soon)
🍋 Son of real estate tycoon Doug Dimmadome (Owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome)
🍋 Husband of energetic slice-of-life travel vlogger Hadley Harrington... and father of Dev, I guess
🍋 Billionaire non-philanthropist
🍋 Late Daddy's not-pride and not-joy (It's fine; he's fine)
Notable Riddleverse ‘fic spoilers. Your mileage may vary.
Two AUs
Dale's profile aligns with both Cloudlands AU and City Lights AU. While the AUs are not canon-compliant with each other, in 2018 I set my OC Hadley up to marry Dale... a character I never expected to see in official media again :'D
As of September 2024, Dale's fate in Cloudlands AU has been tweaked to better mimic his A New Wish Season 1 lore. The original plan was for the couple to be betrothed - and married - young without romantic feelings for one another, but they'd grow closer as they raised their son (Dave) and took him around the world on adventures. And, well... Close enough! I'll take it.
As far as Cloudlands and City Lights canons are concerned, Hadley is Dale's wife and Dev's mom, and Dave's been replaced with Dev. My initial personality for adult Dale (Self-conscious and avoidant) still lurks under the surface, but he comes across as the same ol' confident jerk we know and love. The info below reads correct for both AUs!
OVERVIEW
Full Name: Daedalus Dallas Peddler "Dale" Dimmadome
Preferred Form of Address: Dale Dimmadome, Owner of Dimmadome Global Alternate Forms of Address: Doug's Son / Twerp / Mr. Dimmadome / Maverick / Dad His dad called him Daedalus or Peddler in his youth, but that phased out as he got older. Nowadays, only his wife calls him Daedalus (only when she REALLY needs to get through to him) Aspiration: Maintain his wealthy lifestyle and create his own legacy... in a hopeless attempt to "win his late dad's love."
Born: Spring of the Echoing Peaks
Zodiac: Soil Birthday: May 5th, 1986 Hometown: Dimmsdale -> Dimmadelphia, California; USA Age During Frozen Timestream: 16 - Turned this in both 2002 and every year for the 50 years retroactively condensed into 2003. Turned 17 in 2004. Age When Married: 24 Age at Dev's Birth: 26 (Nearly 27) Age During A New Wish Season 1: 36 (37 in May)
Species: Human
Ethnicity: Mostly English through the Dimm line with some Scottish, German, and Italian mixed in. Pretty familiar with his family history- He could kick your butt at Dimmadome trivia any day. Nationality: American (Texas proud!) (This is untrue)
Mindset: Extremely hardworking and devoted to a fault... to the things he chooses to put his time and care in. Not accurately described as "nervous and jumpy" so much as "paranoid and defensive."
Complex PTSD: Many layers of severe trauma related to his 7-year streak of abuse at Vicky's hands (on top of his parents not being... great). As an adult, Dale can push through a lot of things, but there's a lot of flickering between what he was able to handle as a kid (when he was used to being around such things) and stuff that's more triggering now that he's an adult who's kept his distance.
Notable triggers include lemon scent, loud voices, small spaces, the dark, hunger, rodents, toothaches, stomach pains, going too long without proper hygiene, and being barefoot (among other things). Some days he can handle his triggers fine, other days he can't... Just depends how haunted and jumpy he is.
Ex: Some days he mixes drinks and eats limes, some days limes are not distinct enough and touching the rinds upsets him. Sometimes he can touch dirt, other times he'll avoid it. If he made the decision to gulp down lemonade, he could do so - He grew up with it and is familiar with the smell and texture - but on a day he's not in the mood, it's very upsetting for him. Some days he's fine seeing citrus designs on clothing, other times he leaves the room to be annoyed in private. Notably, few people know about Dale's trauma as his dad was very insistent on keeping it quiet. Dale doesn't trust that information to others lightly.
Struggles with survivor's guilt and other complicated feelings about his trauma (often blaming himself for not being a good friend to Vicky and therefore pushing her to become rough with him). Struggles to connect with people and tends to keep his walls up. Lots of trust issues.
He sleeps with a nightlight and/or phone light on. Avoids things that remind him of cellars and trapdoors... Escape rooms and submarines would really affect him, but he does okay in helicopters. Mostly. I don't know why I'm saying this; he sends them crashing to the ground instead of landing properly.
If you ever tell Dale you sent your kid to bed without food, he will remember that and chalk you up as an unsafe person. What if you take his food? He will not come to your house, follow you, or be alone with you. You're scary.
Hypervigilance: Tendency to spiral, follow extreme trains of thought, and believe things that aren't true (Ex: "Hazel is going to ruin me, she wants to see me fail, she's part of a larger scheme, who does she work for, she wants to tear Dimmazon to the ground, she wants me to lose everything, she wants me on the streets, she and whoever she's working for are scheming to rob and hurt me).
Although not always obvious to Dev, Dale gets very anxious around mealtimes- Dev has hypoglycemia and Dale's the one who insisted to the school that the au pairs are medical devices to help monitor that. When Dev started school, Dale was absolutely the nervous parent who called multiple time to ask if he ate. He's grown more lax over the years due to his faith in the au pairs, but if he had his way, Dev would never be more than 10 feet from an au pair, ever. Too many bad things could happen. Terrifying.
Dissociation: During his stressed-out spirals, Dale sometimes loses his sense of being grounded to reality. Everything feels ambiguous and like it's trickling through his fingers. Sometimes he might still feel like he can function, but feels like his body's on auto-pilot and he's floating outside it. He might jolt "back to reality," check a clock, and realize an hour passed and he has no memory of it.
- Very common experience when studying falling stock charts, lying awake at night, thinking too much about his dad, riding in a vehicle, typing up data, fixing robots, cleaning things, in long meetings, showering, or during flirty bedroom moments. - Dale and Chloe are two sides of the same coin: Children struggling under grand expectations who go into anxiety attacks and dissociative episodes when criticized. - Adult Dale uses this as a shield for justifying his neglectful parenting ("You don't understand what I've been through / I can't be better than this because I have X and Y"). But if he ever said that to Chloe, her mouth would drop open for 5 seconds before she socked him in the jaw. Say good-bye to that last tooth, bud.
The boots, au pairs, beeping wristwatches, phone alarms, and physical touch from his wife or son help... a little.
OCD: Prefers routine- Hates going to bed without knowing what the plan is for the next day (or week, or month, or quarter... The list goes on). Doesn't love when things don't go as planned (and definitely doesn't like someone inviting him to go somewhere if he hasn't been warned in advance).
You will not get him to close his eyes and follow you for "a surprise." Repeatedly checks to ensure he left the doors unlocked so he doesn't get stuck inside (See also, open entrance to his tent in "Lost and Founder's Day").
Constantly checking his schedule out of paranoia he'll forget a meeting (Ex: Struggles to get through dinner without being plagued by thoughts that he was supposed to be doing something else). Tries to eat at a consistent time- Gets frustrated when Dev has other plans.
Lots of unwanted thoughts and impulses, especially in regards to pleasing his parents or Vicky. Sometimes lies awake wondering if his wife or business partners are manipulating him and he just can't see it yet (He's not great with criticism- See also, switching off the au pair that asked why he was hurting people).
Does not do well with his wife's hoarding OCD- Lots of boxes remind him of crates full of lemons and cramped conditions. Puts up with it because he has to, but he and Hadley have separate bathrooms, and he and the au pairs do their utmost to maintain Dale's bedroom spacious, clean, and uncrowded by her stuff. Hadley has her own bedroom, but it's so full of stuff that she seeks out his bed anyway.
Tends to scratch and pick at skin (in addition to pulling out hair). Mutters repetitive phrases sometimes.
Likes things laid out around him, easy to see, especially in a consistent color theme. Doesn't like when things don't match (Ex: If given the choice, he'd rather build an entire fleet of Version 2.0 au pairs rather than 1 or 2 new models alongside old versions... He'd just throw them all out). Has very specific layouts he prefers for buttons, switches, and knobs.
Often prefers symmetry (Ex: hedges and string lights on both sides), but he also likes alternating up-and-down patterns (Ex: Likes the levers in his control room to be up-down-up patterns. Tends to set them like that without thinking through the consequences of flipping things). Horrendous habit of walking into someone else's space and flipping THEIR levers without asking what they do.
Contamination OCD, especially regarding water (He does not like dirt in it) or food given to him by others (What if it's drugged or poisoned? This stuff could make him sick. Actually, we will sit here at the fancy dinner table not eating until everyone else does, and sometimes not even then. It's fine.) If you hand him a box of food, the first thing he'll do is check the expiration date. If it's too close, he'll throw it out.
Feels much safer with the au pairs cooking for him than a hired human chef. That's how people get murdered, Sally. "But what if his robots glitch-" Did I stutter. This man has never heard of "Too many cooks in the kitchen" and he always has several au pairs on the same meal at once. If the day comes where there is a glitch he can't fix, he will cook for himself instead of hiring someone. Do not touch his plate unless you're his wife or son, and even then... he might not eat it. But he also hates going without food, so you can imagine the internal conflict. Thankfully, he is actually married to someone who grew up cooking and who taught Dev to cook for videos. Unfortunately, Hadley is a hoarder and will keep food past its expiration date or when it's moldy. She is not allowed in the kitchen without Dale, Dev, and/or an au pair. Dale loses his mind if she goes in there unsupervised. You do not mess with his food anxiety. It's the thing they argue about most, mostly because Dale knows Hadley will just eat moldy things (or offer them to Dev) rather than throw them out. Thank goodness for au pairs that can cook and discard expired food; they are holding this family together. If you gave Dale the choice between eating something Hadley made or Dev made, he'd choose Dev's every time. He honestly likes his wife's cooking because she's dang good at it, but the picky eater is way more likely to throw things out if they're bad. -> Dale often compares his son to a machine, but in this case, it's a compliment. Dale would stake his life on Dev's ability to put his foot down to Hadley about expired food. He actually has had to do this when ingredients are separated from their labels; it's a huge relief that Dev also thinks her food hoarding habits are unsafe, because Dale finally has someone who Lives In This House and Gets It...
Misophonia: - Hypersensitive to sound; gets very snappy very fast when a sound upsets him. Often unclear what sets him off vs. what doesn't, but screams, squelches, splashes, and rodent squeaks are fairly consistent "Hell no"s. Less bothered by chewing food, but doesn't like whistling or random mouth noises for the sake of noise.
Likes beeps and boops, but prefers when he's in control of them (or they're in musical patterns)- Presumably, he likes when keys he presses make noise, as it draws him in and helps him block out sounds he doesn't like. Easily annoyed by random background sounds.
Very sensitive to the noises his au pairs make. Can instantly tell if one nearby is flying in the wrong direction, which tends to stress him out (What if his security's been compromised? What if someone snuck in? Must check immediately.)
Inattentive ADHD: Does much better with a to-do list or schedule in his hand than he does without (and does better when his list is typed on his phone or tablet instead of a piece of paper he's at risk of putting down).
Easily distracted when things don't snag his attention. Loses interest in meetings that stray from the topic of money and electronics. Although his wife's an influencer and puts out frequent videos, he doesn't watch them (unless something with robots or piles of money catches his eye). Mind glazes over when Dev shows him memes.
When something snags his thoughts, he has a difficult time shifting away from it (See also, unable to focus on the festival or his business in general while plagued by thoughts of Project H, which devolved into "all he talked about" for months). Doesn't switch gears easily when he's in the zone. Hates interruptions and has a hard time switching back if someone - mainly Dev - breaks his concentration.
See also, "only his wife calls him Daedalus and only when she really needs to get through to him." Dale snaps to attention when he hears his full name, but gets quite anxious as he assumes the worst.
Dale's not the best at organizing his thoughts in a coherent to-do list, but he's really good at sticking to a schedule once it's in hand. Maybe too good (and inflexible). He's picked up some of Hadley's list-making tactics over the years (and learned a lot from job shadowing his dad). He's getting better at prioritizing (and learning how to say No to pushy people), but the au pairs are a big help.
Sometimes gets sidetracked and changes course - see also, pursuing Danky in "Stanky Danky"; did Dev go home by himself? - and gets very sucked into what he's doing (Leading to rapid turnaround of his Danky Days marketing). Dale does have humans working in his company - and can turn to the au pairs for assistance - but he'll often do things himself since he feels he can do the work better and faster. He has a vision...
He talks a lot, tends to fidget, and interrupts people. Not very patient with those struggling to get their words out (his wife included). Still has outbursts and doesn't often apologize for cutting people off.
When his wife is stuck on a word, he'll usually fill it in for her and sometimes continue the sentence with his assumption of what she meant- often followed by the classic cartoon vibe of "Excellent idea! I'm glad I thought of it."
In the early years after his Vicky trauma, he was fairly quiet (Lots of racing thoughts inside his head), but even more fidgety than he is now. These days he might just bounce his leg, shift in his chair, or rub his thumb on the table while trying not to make noise that offends his misophonia. As a teen, he'd avoid eye contact, play with his sleeves, pick at stitches in his clothes, bite his nails, scratch his skin, and so on. Skin picking or pulling his hair is definitely one of his go-to behaviors since it's quiet.
Dale is less fidgety during meetings when eyes are on him, but he moves a lot when he's alone (See also, walking in the park while on the phone during "Lost and Founder's Day," taking work calls on Signal Hill more than once, and dancing in his control room).
Stats:
Power:  Average Endurance:  Above Average Wisdom:  Below Average Adaptability:  Below Average Charisma: Average Openness:  Below Average Conscientiousness:  Below Average Neuroticism:  Above Average
Residence: 1 Silver Spoon Hill, Dimmsdale -> 1 Dimmadome Way, Dimmadelphia
Occupation: Inventor (Robotics), owner of multiple businesses (Listed in first bullet point at top), Hadley's partner / assistant in her business affairs.
Heading Dimmadome Funds: 2014 - Present day Heir: Dev Dimmadome Previous Employment: Intern / assistant of Doug Dimmadome. We don't talk about the lemonade stand
BACKGROUND
Self-Perception: Went through hell for a best friend who didn't deserve his love and loyalty, but got up and made something of himself- Something his dad is sure to be proud of. No one in his family will ever be scrabbling for food again... and he's a lot more careful with his trust now than he was back then.
Alignment: Neutral Evil MBTI: ISTJ (Turbulent) Deadly Sin: Greed Heavenly Virtue: Diligence Love Language: Words of Affirmation Reinforcers: Security; making money; well-deserved vacation days
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History: Born and raised in Dimmsdale, California- Specifically, in his father's precariously perched cliffside estate (S3's "Engine Blocked").
This extremely questionable environment to raise a child left him overly cautious of where he put his feet and whether people were walking towards him. He learned pretty fast that toys that go over the edge aren't coming back... at least, unless you pull up your big boy pants and take the long walk down to retrieve them from the beach.
See Dimmsdale Map - Dale grew up in the northwest (Through the woods, down a long and windy road, up on a cliff).
Dale didn't have many kids over to play during his youth - or throughout his teen years at that - as watching more than one kid would've really split his parents' attention. -> Adult Dale let Dev wander Dimmadelphia from a young age in part due to this warped idea he has of a child's ability to recognize danger (But mostly because he trusts the au pairs to grab him if he runs into the street).
You wouldn't know it looking at him now, but Dale was a very playful and curious child. He didn't have siblings and his parents' attention towards him was hit-or-miss. He kept himself entertained by exploring the beaches and cliffs around his home (along with any other location Doug brought him, such as Dimmsdale Farms and Dimmadelphia).
He poked through a lot of driftwood and garbage washing up on shore, taught himself to fix broken toys that went over the edge (like toy cars that popped their wheels out of place, or inflatable things that needed a patch).
Despite his mother (Pearl) living the stay-at-home-mom life, Dale preferred spending time with his father. Pearl came from generational wealth (as opposed to Doug's self-made wealth accrued from striking gold and using it wisely as he built up a larger fortune)- It was very important to her that Dale would grow up to be her vision of elegant and proper-mannered.
Pearl had very high expectations, especially in regards to what Dale ate. She struggled with an eating disorder in her teens and never quite let go of it, even though she recovered a lot. She cooked healthy meals and hated if Dale dragged his feet about it. Junk food was banned in the house, and if they attended an event with desserts, Dale was forbidden from eating them (She'd smack his hands if he tried). She commented frequently on his weight, as Doug's family is heavier than hers (especially since anxiety and eating disorders sprinkle her ancestry).
- When they were kids, Vicky snuck Dale sweets and snacks. What a good friend! - If you'd asked young Dale, he'd politely tell you he loves his mother, but as an adult, the question would be met with a pause. He has a lot of conflicting feelings about her... and we've only scratched the surface.
Doug went along with a lot of what Pearl said (Very "Doug is in charge of businesses and Pearl is in charge of the home life" vibes), so he never complained about the fresh-made meals even when Dale struggled with them.
Dale has some good memories with his mom - like playing Dimmanopoly and other board games - but he preferred the company of his relaxed father. Doug may have been too relaxed in some areas, leading to inconsistent parenting (with Pearl trying to set a standard that Doug ignored when she wasn't around and encouraged Dale to flaunt too with a wink and smile).
Dale loves his dad very much, having grown up with Doug as the epicenter of positive things in his life: Dad let him goof off, didn't control what he ate, took him to events (especially those hosted at the Dimmadome), and could do everything. He's so smart and fun!
Dale spent a lot of time following his dad around, being his very curious and eager-to-learn self. He happily volunteered for farm chores and found a system for cleaning and organizing; he'd get a head pat and words of affirmation from his dad, and has been neat and tidy ever since. Even as a very young child, Dale spent many afternoons happily scrubbing his dad's office desk, windows, or floor while Doug talked on the phone.
Dale's preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade years were marked with people who seemingly only took an interest in him because he came from wealth... or alternatively, kids who were children of wealthy families themselves. Dale attended many fancy social events growing up and became familiar with the rich kids his age range. Still, he reached the point where he began introducing himself outside the wealthy social circle as Dale Donovan... which is the name Vicky committed to memory (and never questioned).
Dale wasn't a kid who threw money around (See Remy Buxaplenty doing things like renting out an entire theater just for him and bags of money). He also wasn't "popular" per se- Not like Trixie, Tad, and Chad are in Timmy's era. In fact, Dale had no real money of his own and was pretty get-your-hands-dirty, down-to-earth. He was definitely provided for, but wasn't spoiled to the degree that Dev is. Dale was pretty content as a kid and didn't ask for much- He kept himself entertained, he liked exploring, and he liked cleaning. He lost some toys and balls over the edge of the cliff, but he learned to retrieve and repair them rather than throwing a fit and demanding a new one. Very "It's much faster if I do this myself" energy. - He'd ask for comic books (and maybe a few toys), but he received enough attention and friendship that he was simply happy with his life. It's possible he would've become more restless and spoiled if he hadn't befriended Vicky, or if the Lemonade Drama hadn't happened. -> All of this plays into Dale seeing himself as someone who worked for what he has. Yes, he inherited some generational wealth, but he doesn't consider himself a child who grew up with lots of liquid cash. He sees himself as a child who was grateful, worked hard, and achieved success. -> Dale gets frustrated with Dev and sees his outbursts as evidence he's a spoiled brat, hence Dev's bed being labeled S.S. Spoiled [in French]. Dale doesn't get why Dev "can't just be grateful he has a nice life." -> That said, he's also not the kind of dad who would tell Dev to stop hanging out with Hazel, even though Dale was frustrated with her during his Project H arc. Dale had a friend growing up- He figures Dev has several friends too (and is fine with Dev exploring the city... If only that dang kid would digitally mark when he's eaten!!)
Dale saw Vicky as "his only friend who cares about me for me, not my dad's money" and latched onto her. While he was still polite to other kids, Vicky knew him better than anyone (and he probably knew her better than most people, too... Arguably, he still knows her really well, which is uncomfortable for both of them).
See also, "50 Words of Dale and Vicky" (Age 6 to 9).
Dale always saw Vicky as clever, fun, and a good leader. He trusted her deeply and clung to threads even when she turned cruel towards him. Dale is very aware that "bad things happened" and "he felt hurt and scared for a long time," but he's uncomfortable when he thinks about Vicky as a person.
In his mind, the change was so extreme that he had thoughts like "This can't be who Vicky is- She's definitely under extreme distress. Something else is causing her to be lash out. I'm her best friend and I love her. She doesn't hate me; she's just upset. I forgive her, because that's what friends do. This is probably my fault; I'm not a good friend. I'm upsetting her. If I was better, she wouldn't yell at me."
He had a VERY difficult adjustment period after leaving Vicky. It was not easy for him to unlearn his attachment to her and it is consistently ambiguous to everyone (including himself) how he feels about her. He definitely hung out with her during his recovery period more than he should have.
Dale spent several years working through trauma- He reunited with his family, got doted on, was held to certain expectations, attended social events, played some basketball, played a lot of Sims, learned some languages, and gradually returned to school. Reunited with his mom - Lots of tension there - and was pretty clingy towards his dad.
See the Recovery & Time Freeze section of Dale's education details below.
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When Dale was 19, his dad and Ed Leadly arranged a betrothal to Leadly's middle daughter. Since Hadley was someone Dale actually knew from rich people social gatherings, Dale was relieved for the chance to marry someone he knew rather than a stranger from out of state or something (and curious about getting set up with someone his dad liked).
Not much changed for them early on, but they made more of an effort to talk to each other at social events. They went on some walks, ate some treats, and got to know each other. Dale was still in recovery, Hadley more interested in school and friends, and that was expected. They didn't go out of their way to meet each other outside fancy social events.
With the betrothal in play, Dale continued his gap years and personal study; this set his university years up to overlap Hadley's. They lived apart for the first 2.5 years, gradually moving from "vaguely betrothed couple" to "pair who go on actual dates." Dale spent this time working up the courage to hold hands and touch another person (i.e. putting arm behind Hadley while watching a movie).
They married the January Hadley was 21 (and Dale 24), moved in together, and continued their schooling. Doug grew increasingly ill during this time. Despite his wife's excitement for kids, Dale was reluctant to go through with that part of maintaining the Dimmadome family line. Nonetheless, he is nothing if not everything his father wanted him to be; Hadley conceived Dev the summer she was 22 (~1.5 years after the wedding).
Doug passed just before Dev was born. Dale still beats himself up over "not just gritting his teeth and having the kid sooner so Dad could've seen him."
Since Hadley had graduated, she kept herself entertained by filming vlogs of her pregnancy and Dev's early years while Dale continued university studies (and working on the au pairs when he could find time). Dale wasn't often left the primary caretaker of Dev, but he sometimes was when Hadley wasn't available. Dev's hypoglycemia stressed him out very early, and Dale was relieved when the au pairs could monitor Dev's blood sugar levels.
When Dev was 6 and the au pairs were functional enough to handle some basic care (Like holding Dev back from playing in traffic), Hadley took to traveling the world. Ever since, Dale and the au pairs have split Dev's caretaking (with Hadley returning now and then before taking off on her next adventure).
Father-Son Relationships Note: Dale received plentiful physical affection from his father growing up, but as he grew older and more bitter, he resented his dad for giving him "just pats" without expressing his thoughts through words and engagement. He's since twisted his past into believing that Doug's care for him boils down to "needed an heir," that Doug has never been proud of him, and that his dad barely paid attention to him.
As an adult, Dale doesn't recognize how meaningful physical touch was to him. Because he always had it - and even got hugs from Vicky as a kid - he didn't know its absence and fails to process how desperate Dev is for physical affection.
Clarification: Dale lacked physical affection in the lemon pit, but had a lot of other things going on that made "not getting hugs" low priority.
Despite Dale's love for boots (and his fixation on the past, his trauma, and his dad) taking priority in his thoughts, he actually is a decent* parent when he's not working. Dale struggles to take breaks largely because he feels he doesn't deserve to (and/or believes he had to sacrifice work-life balance for success), but there are some situations that let him justify relaxing the reins.
Dale relaxes more during holidays. Yes, there's a lot of business-related things he can still be doing, but let's take Christmas as an example: It's a federal holiday... and it's a day where people open packages they received as gifts, which were possibly ordered through Dimmazon. He helped people find good gifts and have a happy Christmas. Thus, he deserves to relax... It's a holiday! Christmas and similar days Dale has decided are worthy of breaks are the moments Dev waits all year for: the time when his dad addresses him happily, keeps away from his phone and office, picks him up, plays games... or just crashes for a nap.
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* "Decent Parent" Notes: Dale IS an inattentive parent and that should not be overlooked, but he brings Dev to city events, lets him hang out in his command tent, and responds to Dev's business-related questions in "Lost and Founder's Day." He greets him - even asking how he's doing this afternoon - when Dev returns home for lunch in "A New Dev-elopment." The au pairs were designed with the ability to cook and recognize when Dev wants a hug. Dale's not always there emotionally, but he sure can keep that kid alive. Dale's relationship with Dev is much more "job shadow me because this will be you soon" while the Buxaplenty's plan for Remy is that they will simply not die until they're very old. Who's Liam and why does it matter if he has enough skills to survive when they're gone? ... Remy. I meant Remy.
⭐ Dale is just "good dad" enough that Dev clings to that, believing "If Dad didn't have to work so much, he'd give me love and attention." Also, Hadley tends to see Dale either in his middle or positive states of being a dad and misses a lot of Dale's questionable moments... The "downs" are more likely to happen when Dale is the sole parent.
The only thing worse than a cluelessly neglectful parent is a try-hard who keeps leading you on. Come on, Dev- He's your father! When he's there, you have everything you've ever wanted... Don't you know how hard things are for him? He's doing his best; he had an abusive childhood and he works so hard. Of course he loves you. He'll come back around if you're patient; just keep on trucking. Smile wide. Work hard. Be a good boy. Give him another chance......
These breaks spent with family are the ones Dale internalizes as "This is who I am as a person; I've given my son everything and here he is. I made him. My kid's a brat, but I can't even blame him- I'm just glad he's safe. And honestly, no DNA test necessary- I get it, buddy. He's mine. I have a wife. I have a kid. I enjoy my family and life."
Despite the way Dale brushes Dev off a lot when he's in business mode, he's a good person. Why wouldn't he be? He's a real man's man- He makes the big bucks and provides for his wife and son! What more can you want? You're asking a lot. Geez... Dale was abused as a kid, you know. Cut him some slack :/
See also, the note on Dale's relationship with fundamental attribution error (Emoji star after the Personality section).
Personality: Dale's always been curious, but his bright mind and love for exploring new things is overshadowed by the trauma of his youth, which pushed him to fight for survival. In fact, he'll fistfight you if you push him into it- or even wrestle you to the ground. He craves security- His dad, boots, money, and straightforward instructions embody that for him. So does Vicky, but we don't have to go there.
Dale's a hard worker, very clever, and willing to fight for what he wants. He gets sucked into projects for weeks or months at a time, but he gets results. Fear, rage, and jealousy boil beneath the surface, but he's better at holding his temper than you'd think. Doesn't often snap at people- More likely to gripe and mutter. Not afraid to get his hands dirty- Always the first to leap into action when he needs something done. No one's as fast or committed as him- Why rely on other people when you can do everything yourself? Day after day after day...
Trust no one. Pay for nothing you don't trust. Make it yourself.
Beneath his "pulled myself up by the bootstraps" persona, Dale is anxious, awkward, and aware of it... The quiet and fidgety kid he was still lurks beneath the louder and more pompous exterior. He looked to Doug and Vicky for so long, he still struggles to be the prime decision-maker (apart from his impulsive adventures).
Dale exhausts himself with his day job, where he's a CEO of multiple companies and juggling tasks (A recent notable one being "overseeing the construction of an indoor amusement park"). In his personal life, he'd rather do low-brainpower things like take a nap- He has little energy for Dev after work. However, he'd find food for both of them if the au pairs glitched out. Their core purposes is to keep Dev from going into a seizure, passing out, or dying, and that's not an "I'll fix it later" problem. If we eat cupcakes in the Wall-2-Wall Mart parking lot at 2 AM, so be it.
After work hours, Dale wants to do the least-brainpower things he can, so he'll crash and sleep... or look to Hadley for instruction (when she's around). Sometimes Dev shows him videos while Dale is sprawled on the couch, but his dad does not understand what he's looking at 90% of the time.
Unless he's in a very stubborn mood, Dale tends to do what people tell him to do. He won't if it's in direct conflict with his money-making goals, but if you ask him to be an extra pair of hands while bringing in party decorations from your car, he'll do it. Beyond his egotistical attitude and hatred for recycling, he's a surprisingly good neighbor & husband (which is probably why people don't realize how neglectful he is to Dev). If you find him in the supermarket and ask if he knows where the spaghetti sauce is, he'll point you towards it. His default response is to be friendly... It's just something that was heavily beaten out of him by Vicky's cruelty, his dad's "Don't talk about your trauma" attitude, and the cutthroat business world. See also, ignoring Hazel's name when he saw her in "A New Dev-elopment," but still greeting her and Dev and asking how their afternoon was in the first place.
Dale is curious, likes learning, and will follow the lead of anyone he deems interesting, relevant, and knowledgeable:
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From this post about Dale and Kevin Crocker going out to dinner
Somewhere underneath his poor parenting, Dale wants to be a decent family man... After all, he can't disappoint Daddy there either. But he didn't have good role models for that and putting in the work is hard. Someday... someday when he's not so busy...
⭐ Dale is a textbook case for "guy who doesn't fall into fundamental attribution error easily." In other words, Dale takes circumstances into account when judging people's actions (not just attributing things to personality)... Perhaps to a critically unhealthy degree.
- Dad loves him very much. He's just really busy... Dale already has his father's love; what he needs is something he unquestionably deserves because he worked for it: Daddy's pride in him. - Vicky can't be a horrifically cruel person because no one is actually like that. Vicky is just stressed and scared. She's doing her best and doesn't understand the effect she has on people. - Conversely, Dale has a very hard time recognizing the effects of his neglect on Dev. Of course he cares about Dev- Would he provide for him or spend time with him if he didn't? -> Dale doesn't see himself as "a bad person" or "a terrible dad" or "someone who would hurt a child." He sees himself as "a guy trying to grow and make money in ways that some people look down on or consider amoral, but everyone defines morals in their own way and you can't please everyone, so he's going to chase success regardless of what others think."
At his core, Dale is haunted not just by the abuse Vicky inflicted on him, but by the lack of praise and support he received from his dad growing up. But it's okay. Dad was just busy. He's over it. It's fine.
Education: Dale was a very enthusiastic student. He loved learning and would raise his hand for almost every question. He consistently landed top scores, was deemed "the smart kid," a suck-up, and a little too "goody-two-shoes perfect" for his own good.
Although restless and a little forgetful - ADHD be like that - Doug and Pearl kept him on track, and he did a mostly good job at turning in his homework.
Dale was very much the type to stand up to bullies. He got into several fights growing up, even as a 1st grader (Even with Vicky, who forgave his stupid acts, because she is a good person).
Elementary School: Dale attended preschool and kindergarten at a private school, but asked to be put in the same class as Vicky for 1st grade. Doug shrugged and did so, glad his son had a friend. Thus, Dale moved to Dimmsdale Elementary (with his dad's personal assistant dropping him off, as he was outside the school bus range... See also, lived beyond the woods up on a cliff).
Dale disappeared at the end of his 3rd grade year. He missed several years of school, including his entire middle school period.
- Despite several kids aware of Dale's family name, Vicky believed his surname was Donovan. Why would he lie about that? - If you asked Vicky directly, she'd say something like "Well, I found out his real last name at some point, but he always told me it was Donovan, so I kept calling him that. I thought he came from a family of successful farmers." Whether any of that is true is anyone's guess.
Recovery & Time Freeze: After leaving Vicky's lemonade factory, Dale spent some time "crashing"... mostly curled up in bed, struggling through a lot of feelings, and remembering how to live in a house (Preparing food, adjusting to bright lights, people coming and going, getting dressed every day, and so on).
Generally, Dale got pushed into things (like social interaction and independence) by his dad before he was ready. This may have been beneficial in the long term (seeing as Dale wanted to lay in bed for weeks or months, or maybe on the couch if he was daring), but he wasn't happy about it at the time.
Dale played a lot of PC games (Mostly Sims) and slowly caught up on his schooling... or at least the parts Doug cared about.
Notably, this is how Dale spent the 50 years time was frozen. He also picked up new skills like languages (for fun because he found them interesting), but like everyone else, he was under "It's uncommon to advance through school years because of time manipulation" rules, so... he looped through recovery, personal study, and a small amount of academia- Not a full year of schooling like other kids his age.
Dale also looped through job shadows with his dad. He became very knowledgeable about meticulous business workings and the stock market, farm-related expertise, and social events.
He also became incredibly good at card games (like Blackjack and Texas Hold'em), which surprised everyone including himself. He could consistently clean out his dad's gambling buddies after several loops at age 16, which they found adorable. They were very excited to take him to Vegas when he turned 21.
"Is that legal even if it happened in their own home?" -> We don't have to talk about that. Unrelated, but the Dimmadomes sure own a lot of business fronts and buy weird art pieces, huh?
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Since businesses, product releases, and tech advancements continued changing as the years went by, Dale was exposed to many new things and was arguably more prepared for adulthood thanks to the time freeze than any other noteworthy character in the Cloudlands or City Lights AUs (except perhaps A.J.)
Like everyone else, he thinks he gained all his knowledge during 2003- Not during repeated 2002 years.
High School: Dale enrolled in a private school, his learning supplemented with private tutors - namely Denzel Crocker - but that didn't stop him from loitering around Dimmsdale High in search of Vicky. He had several run-ins with her, Justin Jake Ashton (Mark Chang), and other kids their age.
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From this post about Dale (and Happy Peppy Gary) spying on Vicky & Justin
Further Education: Took several gap years before attending Archimedes University in Dimmadelphia. He took his courses slowly, just a few credits at a time, and his schooling was stretched out over a long period. He studied robotics and business (and later got a master's).
During this time, Doug passed on, Dev was born, and Dale inherited the Dimmadome fortune.
Favorite School Subject: Science -> Physics -> Robotics. He also enjoyed math, art, and marketing.
Least Favorite Subject: Biology
Clubs: Robotics, of course! (Nerd)
Friend Group: Jeremy and Watson- Upper class folks such as Remy, Trixie, Tad, Chad, Veronica, and Hadley. Also Mikey Munroe (Security expert like his parents), but who's asking?
Notable Likes:
- Boots - Robotics - Naps - Getting into a flow state without distractions (Especially noise) - Boots again - Drawing (Especially with colored pens or markers) - Dancing - Rodeos (plus state fairs, farms, cows, and horses) - Big buildings - Sims games and any card or board game that lets him accrue many pieces and cards. Worst Uno player you've ever met. - Snappy turnaround on his projects- He lives by an "It's faster if I do it myself" attitude - Feeling like he deserves rest (Like that ever happens) - When his wife is away and he gets the bed to himself - When his wife is home so the hypervigilance doesn't hit as hard - His wife :( - Following lists and meticulously organizing things - Cleaning products that don't smell like citrus - Puffy jackets with chunky zippers - People commenting he's gained weight - Sunlight (but no, he won't open the bedroom windows) - Rain and snow - Paloma cocktails - Boat rides - Gambling - Basketball - Animal print - Hunting - His wife in THOSE boots
Had Fairy Godparent: ... This page seems kinda smudged.
Favorite Wish: Hm. I don't think the archives ever wrote that down...
Goals:
- Build generational wealth to pass to his descendants - Stop overthinking things at night; go to bed satisfied - Accrue a lot of knowledge and learn many skills - Teach Dev things about business so he'll be more prepared to take over the Dimmadome fortune than Dale was - Reduce the number of prototypes it takes to land a great robot - Unwind... Rest... Take more guilt-free naps - Be a good family man (??)
Beliefs:
- Hard work will be rewarded - Security and stability are everything - Good branding doesn't guarantee success, but it sure makes things easier - Don't separate a traumatized person from their comforts. Or most people from those things. But Dev shouldn't have screen time too close to bed- Taking his tablet is good for him. - No one is truly evil; everyone is a good person with reasons for what they do. Knowing why people act the way they do is the key to negotiation and communication - Anything can be learned. Anything - and any person - can be improved with hard work, time, and dedication - Robots are helpful and improve quality of life... Good robots that people who know what they're doing built, at least. - Being left unsupervised as a child probably messed him up. Thank goodness Dev has au pair guardians - The ends justify the means
Fears:
- Disappointing his dad - Being abandoned by everyone (Vicky, his dad, his wife...) - Losing everything he's built up - He and/or his family getting kidnapped (and tormented) - Ed Leadly (Father-in-law) - Waking up in the lemonade factory (It was all a dream...) - Vicky Incorrect. Vicky is his friend. She would never hurt him.
Upsets:
- Losing money - Faulty au pairs - Random background noises - Animals (especially furry ones; very unhygienic) - Dev talking back to him, fidgeting during social events, or refusing to eat at a nice restaurant - Lemonade - Hadley dragging her trash into his space (or gifting him things that don't fit his organization system... but she's forgiven) - Loose seashells or stones lying around - Being separated from his boots - Unlabeled items that might contain lactose or mold - Dev not marking on his digital checklist that he's eaten around mealtimes. Boy, don't play these games... - People sneaking near his house
Comforts:
- His lucky boots - The Dimmsdale Dimmadome - Clothes that ease body dysphoria (Like puffy jackets that don't cling to his thin frame) - Things neatly put away (and his stuff still in the same place he left it), especially in his closet, office, bedroom, car, and bathroom - Having enough light to see - Clean water, abundant food, plenty of cash... The basics - Words of affirmation - Decorations and branding that remind him of his dad (Even if he's not a big fan of his dad's hats personally)
Indulgences: Cartoons from his childhood... but he doesn't watch often. When he does, it's probably with headphones on (and the sound low) with the door extra locked.
Sometimes he splurges on Crimson Chin comics since they can go for a high price (and he can afford it). Splurging often sucks him in, leading to binge scrolling and bulk memorabilia purchases.
Some of this stuff ends up in Dev's hands or Hadley's hoard. Dale will hold things in his own room briefly (i.e. while actively using them), but if he doesn't have a consistent storage space, he'll give them to a family member, sell them, or throw them out when he's done.
I am lying. You don't throw things out in Hadley's household!
EXTERNAL
Verbal Notes: Loves to talk; gets big and loud about it. Likes adjectives. Comes across as quite cheery (Was scolded post-lemonade factory for being quiet and fidgety, which was "weak and shameful"- He learned to "shape up" and mask a lot of what he felt).
Loves talking about himself, his businesses, and his dad's accomplishments.
Picked up old slang terms from his dad (and Dad's gambling buddies... who were also Dale's gambling buddies). "Tough titties, kitties" is one of his go-tos, though he censors it as "tough tittles" around Dev.
Other favorites are "Nifty!" (Cool), "Swanky" (Looks great; elegant), "Ah, applesauce!" (Dang it!), "Get a wiggle on" (Let's go; get moving), "Dry up" (Shut up and get lost), and "Bank's closed" (No making out tonight). I wish I was making that last one up. Dev finds these embarrassing and rolls his eyes, but at least he has something to throw back at his dad if Dale ever grumbles about Dev's preferred slang. Also, Dale would rather say "folks" than "everyone" or "guys." He sees people as customers, clients, or walking wallets, but will correct himself to more socially acceptable words (like "lovely people," "other students," "persons," or "kids your age").
Not afraid to share his thought process even if it's a little amoral (See also, "tends to assume others experience emotions the way he does"). When he sets rules and expectations, he'll explain why (Ex: "You can't go out alone; the au pairs are on the fritz" or "Finish your homework before dinner; we're going out tonight"). Dale likes knowing what to expect, so that's how he talks to other people.
Example from canon: "Devin, turn down that game. I can hear the incessant beeping and booping and tapping all the way in my office. I have an important project I'm working on for Founder's Day." -> As opposed to "Turn that off; it's loud." Dev picked this up from him- It's in the way he tells Hazel he's no longer interested in the treasure hunt because "It's silly to jump through hoops." Then he IS interested and explains why he snapped at her. He expresses frustration with Hazel's lack of frustration when he cheated in Rock, Paper, Scissors, etc. Say one thing about those Dimmadomes... They're not always on the same page, but they sure explain what they're thinking. I guess you don't get to be a great business negotiator without communication skills.
Dale's instinct isn't to be complimentary. During business meetings, he'll grit his teeth and fake enthusiasm, but he's definitely had moments where he wants to insult everything around him. He's sweeter with his wife than with most people, but focuses on topics like financial success and elegance.
Ex: "Way to rake it in, Hadley! The stocks are up this month" & "Now that's a classy look" as opposed to "You're such a hard worker" or "You look beautiful tonight". It's just his brain's go-to.
Since he didn't care for Doug's physical affection like pats and hugs but craved praise, Dale mirrors that towards Dev. He expresses pride (i.e. "Keep up the good work and you'll be running with your old man in no time") when he feels Dev "achieved success"... which usually means Hadley's Dev-themed videos are doing well, Dev won money from a tournament, or Dev scored all A's at the end of the year.
Big "Great; that's what I expect. You're a sharp kid; a real chip off the old block- you just need to apply yourself more" vibes.
He tends to overlook or diminish Dev's accomplishments. Are all A's that impressive if you weren't the best in class? Dev gets praised, but it feels hollow... He is never good enough.
In other words, Dale's compliments sound backhanded despite them not technically being rude... He just focuses on "things that help our success and status" more than the people he's addressing.
Dale uses tag questions like "Innit?", "Wouldya?", or "Do I?" Many sentences end with upward inflection. [ Think ~, ?, !, or :) ]
He has a great memory for names. Or rather, the importance of knowing names was drilled into him early on. He'll address people by name if the situation calls for it (even if they're a trash monster). And don't you dare insult the trash monster. That's his friend now. Very good at greeting people that he cares about when he sees them, especially in business situations.
Almost always calls his son Devin. Occasionally calls him Dev or a special nickname like "Kiddo," "Bud," "Son," or "Junior." Dev's full forename is Development, but that's reserved for special moments... Like pride, but never in scolding. Dev doesn't jump in alarm at the sound of his full name the way Dale does- Dale calls "Devin!" if he's mad. For all his emotional distance and dehumanization tendencies, Dale genuinely views Dev as his son. He refers to him as such and doesn't cut ties for the sake of professionalism... which is more than I can say for some people...
Language: Speaks fluent English; can pull off business talks in Mandarin and Japanese.
Better at Japanese since his wife's a big fan and has been learning the language since she was a kid, but Hadley speaks it with "an anime accent" and Dale speaks it with a more professional one.
Languages were one of the things Dale kept himself entertained with during his mental recovery years... Played a lot of video games with different language settings, listened to a lot of audiobooks. He knows all the Simlish words that actually are consistent words.
Physical Notes: Very expressive with his body language, but if you compare him with other people, you'll detect a certain stiffness or reservation in some movements (Ex: Tries to stop himself from flinching. If he does, he'll snap upright and square up... General sense that he doesn't let himself feel certain emotions. Compare with Mikey Munroe, who bends his entire body backwards and curls up when startled).
Tends to lean, often cocking one hand on his hip. Usually has a device in his other hand. Often walks while scrolling through his phone or tablet, or while talking on the phone. Prone to fidgeting (Ex: bouncing his leg) or dancing, especially when he's in the zone. He's dramatic even in his office- kicking himself across the room on his swivel chair or acting out mental images. Walks around a lot while listening to music, pretending he's in a dramatic scene.
Doesn't pocket his hands as much as Dev does and is more likely to pocket one than both. Blinks infrequently. Stares a lot (especially at screens). Often avoids eye contact.
Not afraid to pump his arms, throw his hands in the air, dance, stomp, hop, finger gun, flash peace signs, or whatever it takes to get people's eyes on him while he's trying to sell stuff.
In his teen years, Dale slouched a lot, fidgeted - especially by rubbing his cheeks since his mouth hurt - and struggled to look at people. His dad really pushed him to stand straight, shake hands, and talk more.
Does not often touch people - combo of OCD and trust issues - but he'll lean on them if he's in the zone and talking big (Ex: thumping his elbow on top of Danky while baby-talking him).
Has an easier time touching people with a clothed arm than making skin to skin contact.
Doesn't reach for people absentmindedly. Way more likely to hold his hands close to his chest than take his wife's hand. But sometimes he does, especially in front of cameras (You can't be the Dimmadome power couple if you don't convince everyone you're a couple). He'll clap a hand to Dev's shoulder when talking to or bragging about him.
He does this a lot at bustling social events because if he takes his hand off that child, he will probably lose him within 10 seconds.
Break Dale's trust forever by grabbing his extended hand and yanking him forward (or squeezing way too tight). Like an elephant, he will never forget and will keep an extra step away from you at all times. Do not grab or push him. He will go on guard around you.
Handedness: Right Body Language: Often stiff with a tendency to stare, though he does a lot of leaning. Becomes expressive when he's talking up a storm. Doesn't blink much. Usually holding a phone or tablet. Hair: Thin, often splitting at the ends, and comes out in clumps. Has some pomp and fluff to it, but he's pulled out a lot of that over the years. His front loop is a natural curl that will spring out again even if he clips that bit off. Specifically, it grew in as he got older and his front puff reduced in size. I don't always, but I like to draw the two stray hairs in the back like lowercase Ds (hanging on from their bottoms). Teeth: Had his missing teeth replaced with gold. Back when they were missing, Dale avoided smiling or talking much. Mouth hurt a lot for years. Scars: Physically, not as many as you'd think. But emotionally? Imagine the toil. Tattoos: None... to his wife's disappointment. Hadley would love for him to get a little cherry blossom with a cute branch wrapped around his ring finger to compensate for the sensory issues his wedding ring gives him, but being stabbed repeatedly with a sharp object does not factor into his life goals. When he goes out of town for business meetings, Hadley will often video call and ask to see the ring and/or ask him to write her name on his chest or stomach. She is THAT paranoid... but y'know, we can make small allowances for her. She's his friend wife!
Style: Has a funky, modern, sleek, and not necessarily professional style (See also, chunky zippers and sequin pants). Gives off huge "new money" vibes that make people in his social circle glance at him funny, but no one says anything because he's a billionaire.
Wears his puffer jacket even in the California summer because it makes him look less scrawny. It's a recent addition to his wardrobe, but it tremendously improved his confidence and self-perceived attractiveness. He loves it and is very proud that he found it himself. This man is also a tech geek who does not really understand fashion. He dresses how he wants.
Notably, Dale is very neat and doesn't like items that don't fit his closet organization. He'll humor his wife when she brings him new clothes, but they both know he'll discard it if it's inconsistent with what he already has and likes.
Dev owns a lot of oversized shirts because they were passed down from Dale; Dev wears them to bed sometimes.
Regular Clothing: Big puffer jacket and sequin pants, really leaning into that funky modern geek vibe. Casual Clothing: Anything baggy that doesn't cling to his scrawny figure, but it has to be something with a tight enough collar that it won't hang off his shoulders. Besides white and gold, he also likes purple... It's safe... Nightwear: Animal print boxer shorts. Sometimes leopard, sometimes zebra, sometimes cow... You never know! Hadley gives him pajamas for her holiday videos, so he'll wear those until he doesn't want to. He tends to like his things, but he also likes new and fun things. Formal Clothing: White suits with black and gold accents, as Dimmadomes are wont to do. Other: Cannot emphasize enough how much this man likes animal print. He will wear anything you give him, but cow patterns are a favorite (Probably because he grew up around them). Being barefoot is a huge trigger for lemonade pit memories (specifically, having dirt and grime underfoot). Dale has a stockpile of identical boots because they bring back memories of a safe childhood, his dad's affection, and his recovery process... but he'll still cling to one pair until it's absolutely falling apart. -> Mostly, he only takes the boots off only when getting dressed (They won't fit, but he'll leave them on if he's putting on something with wide leg holes) or in the shower (He cares a lot about scrubbing his feet to get off grime since that's the point of wearing them). -> If he gets separated from his boots, he'll keep his feet off the ground and call for someone... but everyone in his household knows not to touch them, so he's rarely without. Yes, the boots stay on in the bedroom. All the time. Not a big fan of hats... Specifically, his dad's style of hat. He would never, ever tell his father that.
Height: 6′4″
Hygiene: High risk of neglecting hygiene due to hyperfixating on his projects. The au pairs give him reminders, but it's not unusual for him to brush those off. He tries to take care of his remaining tooth.
Dale takes long showers due to mild contamination OCD (especially regarding his feet)- the shower is the only place he likes taking off his boots, and he cares a lot about scrubbing his feet. The feel of dirt or crumbs on his feet is a big trigger, and he wears the boots to take the edge off that.
Sometimes he dissociates, so he ends up in the bathroom longer than he needs to. He might jump on a phone call with Hadley to keep grounded, but strictly no one else- No business talks, no extended family. Wife only.
This is Dale's personal self-care-slash-check-in-with-wife time and he gets snappy if Dev interrupts him. Keep conversation to dinner, kid. If you want to talk to your mother, hop on call in the other room.
Morning Schedule: Brief morning shower (super quick rinse), hair care, check Dev marked himself as "Ate breakfast" on his digital daily checklist, start work.
Typical Day Schedule: Work- Lots of reviewing reports, contacting people, giving presentations, and sitting in meetings. Juggling multiple businesses. Check Dev ate lunch.
If he didn't mark it, stress out. Call school nurse; get assured he's fine. Pace around stressing over Dev until he finally gets the indication he's eaten. Stare blankly at screens, trying to get back in the zone. The usual.
Evening Schedule: Shower. Dinner with Dev (sometimes with fancy people). Stress out if Dev is late.
Dinner is when Dale and Dev talk the most. It's at that time that Dev will talk about his day at school (Ex: If he scored well on a test). Dale doesn't have much to say to Dev because the au pairs and/or Dev's daily checklist keep him on track with chores, homework, hygiene, and "No screen time an hour before bedtime" reminders. That said, if Dale makes plans that involve Dev, he'll tell him (Ex: "Tomorrow we're going out for dinner, so be ready to go by 5:30" or "I need you to pass Dimmlets out to your class." Not great at expressing interest for Dev's life, but he sure tells you his plans. Also, general father-son conversations like Dev getting permission to host a sleepover ("The Wellsington Hotellsington").
After dinner, Dale handles personal life money-related things, like bills, checking stocks, or donating money to Dev's school ("28 Puddings Later"). He'll handle communications with friends and family during this time if applicable (Ex: If his in-laws text to ask about family reunions).
Also does repairs or upgrades to the au pairs (and focused on Project H for a while). He's often on the phone with his wife while doing this since she gets lonely when she doesn't hear from him. Sometimes he's on the phone with other people, including for business reasons (Thus cutting down Dev's ability to engage with him).
Dale can easily get sucked into his projects, but the au pairs will get him when it's bedtime and that helps. He'll tidy up, do some night hygiene things, and try to sleep.
Dale is pretty repetitive with his schedule; he likes it to run smoothly. Very frustrating when things unexpectedly go awry (Ex: Dev was late getting home for dinner). That's a sure way to land him in a bad mood and he's more likely to be snappy about things that annoy him (See also, misophonia).
Dev does his best to appease his dad, but he feels awful if he slips up and his dad gets very grumpy about it. He will absolutely get home on time (and will probably be sitting at the table early) if he wants to ask permission for something. And if he was late, he'll be as quiet and non-needy as possible.
Hadley's often away from home, and Dale's often exhausted by the time he heads to bed. Maybe some light flirting, but sleepy cuddles are much more likely than sex. Their fantasies are a little elaborate... Tired owners of multiple businesses gotta sleep sometime.
Weekend Schedule
Slower to get dressed and up on weekends. It's not uncommon to work from bed, checking up on things and sending emails (Maybe with au pairs bringing him breakfast). Hadley sleeps late, but thrashes less in the early morning hours than she does in the night, so there's that.
Weekends are really their only option for married life intimacy, and only if Hadley's home. Despite Dale's general performance anxiety, he enjoys the cosplay and roleplay aspects, which can get pretty fancy. Work hard during the week, play hard on your half-day off.
He's not always into the things his wife's into, but he likes being told what to do, so take that as you will.
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Don't worry- he's very good at pushing his own wants too.
There's plenty of general house stuff to do too, like fixing au pairs and making sure everything's running with the bills and garden.
Dale is mildly more attentive to Dev's personal life on weekends (especially Sundays and/or when Hadley isn't there), offering the hope of a relationship that keeps Dev going between holidays. Still, Dev doesn't see his dad as much as he wants to. It's fine.
Sleep Schedule: Does not sleep well. Even when his wife isn't thrashing around in bed, he's a light sleeper and tends to jolt awake. Very sensitive to sounds; struggles to feel safe at night. Often crashes into naps.
That said, having Hadley around does have its perks, like reducing anxiety that someone will sneak in and kidnap him.
Dale and the au pairs have made multiple attempts to clean Hadley's room so she'll sleep in hers instead of his, but it never works. She'll cuddle up to him despite Dale's annoyance with her thrashing around in her sleep. He tolerates it because... Let's be honest- He's aware he's A Lot, so he can put up with the fact that he's a married man and it's common for couples to share a bed. And while they're both awake, the cuddles aren't bad, so there's that.
Often struggles to drift off and then jerks awake, hypervigilance kicking in (and flooding him with adrenalin). He'll slip out of bed and make the rounds (Checking on Dev himself rather than sending flashy, beeping au pairs... It's easier to find the source of strange sounds when you're not trying to listen over the sound of whirring fan blades).
Sometimes gets up to work in the middle of the night to get a head start on projects. Often looks for food. Sometimes Dev comes down in the early morning to find his dad on the kitchen floor surrounded by boxes, often with a huge pile of opened things that are now "at risk foods" that clearly need to be thrown out. Food anxiety is rough.
Dale actually does like cuddling... Hadley's just not good at staying still. He likes holding Dev more than you'd think- After all, "Someone might kidnap my son" or "My son might die if he doesn't eat" are thoughts that keep him up at night, so it's easier to fall asleep when Dev's on the couch with him (or at least in the room).
Dev might seek him on occasion (i.e. holiday naptime, Mom's away and Dev's spooked by something, or camping), but Dale never asks for this (because... he's not going to ask his son to sleep in bed with him). He does request Dev or the au pairs to knock on his door if he came home late, but that's it. And Dale gets frustrated when Dev's not home for dinner, so sometimes he'll grump and grill him on what kept him out so long and if the reasons help him network. Dev usually avoids approaching his dad, not wanting to upset him (especially if he's ill or feels dumb for being spooked by loud noises). It's a balancing act, but whatcha gonna do?
PERSONAL
Dale's Family Tree: HERE
Disclaimer: If future New Wish seasons give us relatives for Dale, this family tree (and Dale's history section) may change. It also might not. We'll see!
Relationship Status: Married to Hadley Harrington (Ed Leadly's middle daughter). Dale loves her dearly, as far as he has love for a fellow person. Don't quote me on that; it's possibly untrue.
Wedding Anniversary: January 21st, 2012 - A few months before he turned 25
Dale reunited with Hadley at age 15 (after escaping Vicky) as she was part of the social circle he was re-introduced to after many years away. Since he's 3 years older, she was quite young when he went off the radar, but he's technically known her all her life.
Hadley's older sister (Harper) is Dale's age. For a while, he knew her better- He used to play with her as a kid. Harper's the one he (presumably) would've been betrothed to if she didn't fight her dad on the idea of betrothals in general. Hadley didn't mind marrying a man she might not love, so the offer fell to her. Dale still considers Harper a friend and enjoys seeing her at family reunions, but Harper and Hadley don't get along well. Not that Dale notices.
Since he's known her for years, Dale grew familiar with Hadley; she's easily the person he's closest with. He trusts her with his life in almost all situations... but he will still ritually check the expiration dates on every ingredient she cooks with (and will sometimes make a loop to check on things that make him nervous even if she already did it). And yes, he still loves his boots and will say so. See? You don't need to hoard to be happy! Just hyperfixate for life!!
It's almost hilarious that Dale has extreme trust in Hadley while she's paranoid he'll cheat on or divorce her. Hadley asks a lot of questions about where he's been and who he's with, but when she returns from a trip, he'll smile and adopt an attitude of "Hey! You're back!"
Exception being if she interrupts him to tell him she's home. He doesn't love when something breaks his concentration and will be snappy and fussy for the rest of the evening... but if he wraps up his work and then leaves his room to find she's home, he'll throw his arms in the air with a smile and acknowledge she's back. Wife :)
He will not be there emotionally, but he definitely knows when there's someone in his house.
Hadley has an outside entrance to her storage rooms so she can unpack while he works on late-night projects... They realized pretty fast that Dale doesn't handle unexpected door squeaks and footsteps very well.
Dale finds it very attractive that Hadley's always been friendly to him, including when he was fresh out of the lemonade pit, emotionally raw, and didn't look or act appealing. They bicker on occasion, but she's never threatened to hit him. In fact, she's pretty patient when he takes his time working up to things. Hadley came from a very wealthy family (thus cutting down the risk of her being a gold digger), yet is also a hard worker very devoted to her self-made career: making videos and selling a wide variety of products (especially things that don't fit his expertise, such as travel supplies and workout gear). Dale places a lot of value in work and independence, so he's very fond and supportive of his wife. She's a good, safe person. He genuinely doesn't mind when she's away traveling... She's there just enough to be comforting without being around so often that she's super annoying. Dev would benefit from having more parental attention, but Dale does just fine, so clearly his son is fine too.
Despite the conflicts that crop up in their marriage (such as Hadley being a hoarder while Dale is neat and tidy), Dale has a lot of positive feelings towards Hadley. If a positive thought about her comes to mind while she's in the room, he'll just say it. Surprisingly, that's gotten him far in life.
If you get him started, he can gush on about how much he likes his wife, who is very cool and hot...... He'd just also be able to walk away from this relationship without being too bothered that it ended. They might be a little TOO independent...
The vibe here is definitely "Enjoy what you have while you have it." Neither of these people likes letting go of things, so they continue enjoying what they have.
Dale has an interesting quirk of referring to Hadley by name rather than labels like "my wife" due to her extreme determination to make a name for herself; she'll jump in to say her name if she's around when he does use a label like that. Sometimes he'll say "your mother" to Dev (in the same vein he told Dev to "listen to his business partner" in canon), but he's broken most of the "my wife" habit.
Dale is significantly more touchy-feely with Hadley in front of crowds or cameras than he is when they're at home. That is, he'll sit with her at a dining table, hold her hand, or even frog-jump right over her to chase something that caught his eye.
He isn't the most complimentary, he's not great at sharing the spotlight, and he doesn't always sing her due praises despite listing off the many businesses he owns, but he'll smile at, finger gun, throw his arm around, or openly flirt with her.
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... If you can call it flirting.
Dale is not big on being lovey-dovey, but he'll play up the flirting when people are watching (Ex: Bragging during a press conference, pulling her right up against him at a party while telling someone she's cool, leaning on her, handing her the microphone with no warning, and dropping comments like "Aw, ain't she a doll?") I mean... that's what people on TV do, right? He also texts her photos of him scoring business deals and/or covering himself in money. Sometimes he just stares at her from afar. Wow... wife...
He tends to talk over Hadley in public- She often stutters and isn't as loud and dramatic as he is, so he'll swoop into her conversations (Sometimes throwing his elbow on her head or shoulder, leaning a lot of his weight on her). He has an equally bad habit of getting distracted and wandering away during events, leaving her to wrap up what she was doing and then look around in confusion for him.
They are sickeningly cute in matching pajamas, which is most likely to happen when Hadley's pulled the family together for a game night, video, or vacation. Dale will probably be on the couch scrolling through his phone, but he lets Hadley sit near him. Maybe even lay her head on him. Even Dev can wriggle up to him when he's in vacation mode... Dale is definitely more at ease when Hadley's taking charge and telling him what to say and do.
Again, Dale is chronically unable to convince himself he deserves rest. When Hadley's in charge and "makes him rest" as a family bonding activity, he's actually okay with that. He'll let Dev climb in his lap and snuggle. Dale's not incredibly affectionate even during holidays, but when you're Dev, you take what you can get.
Dale is prone to both hyperfixations and dissociation; sometimes he feels like seconds or minutes passed when really, it was hours. The au pairs keep him grounded enough to eat, but if he's left alone without them, Dale will completely zone out and neglect all his needs (from hunger to bathroom to hygiene... not to mention Dev in general).
Criticize him for Dev's impersonal, drone-related upbringing all you want, but the cursed alternative is "Dale fails to feed his hypoglycemic little boy, who has a seizure and no one's there." The au pairs are holding this family together... Lost chargers, power outages, and long road trips without electricity cause genuine anxiety in the Dimmadome household. A family of 3 who all have ADHD/OCD comorbidity can get by together, but the worst part about the au pairs is how reliant you end up on them...
Dale considers himself to be an attentive parent "when not working" and fails to recognize the impact his devotion to business-y things has on Dev's daily life.
Cross-reference with H.P., who avoids admitting family relations, actively pushes his offspring away when they touch him, will stay awake until everyone else in the room is asleep, and is always micromanaging. H.P. has a "Not ever; that's unprofessional" approach to touch and family attitudes while Dale's energy is along the lines of "Not now; I'm busy" and "I loved my dad, so Devin loves me" and /takes his son's arm and points at him- "I made this."
Dale wants to be a good dad... he just has skewed memories of what his own dad was like, he's bad at talking to children, and doesn't care if he secures money (i.e. safety) in immoral ways. There's a lot going on inside his head, and frankly... He's not going to listen to your critique. You don't know what he's dealing with. He's raising this kid his way. Money is safety. Safety is everything. Dev is doing fine.
Dale and Hadley are also that couple who, if you put them in a room with a bunch of other people to play games, will always team up. They didn't come here to make new friends... They don't trust like that. Partner with someone else?? You're asking a lot.
Dimmadelphia's ruthless power couple, everyone.
Often takes off his wedding ring for sensory reasons and forgets where he put it (Don't tell his wife) (Oh no, she's onto him).
Due to the triple combo of Dale not wearing his ring, walking around separately at events, and not calling her "my wife" in conversation, there are a lot of people who don't know he's married... Including every teacher Dev's ever had until they get the jumpscare of Hadley showing up for parent-teacher conferences. Many people consider Hadley Dale's personal assistant and don't connect the dots that she's Dev's mom. Yes, they're uncomfortable if Dale hints he's slept with her. Every now and then, Dale attends a social event where some widower or divorcee asks if he'd be interested in joining a singles support group (to his bafflement, and he always turns them down because they're clearly trying to scam him out of money). He's been asked out multiple times... and since he's not great at reading signals, he's inadvertently gone on many dates he thought were business meetings. Sometimes he brings Dev with him "so the kid can get some business experience." Dev can instantly clock when the vibes are flirty and will try to subtly get his dad's attention or cut in with a comment about his mom, but he's often ignored. Comedy of errors...
Betrothed to Hadley at age 19. They'd run in the same social circle all their life, so they were certainly aware of each other despite not being romantic. Well, Dale missed 7 years, but other than that...
Specifically, their dads worked this out as an option in their youth, pitched it to them individually, and they both accepted. Dale was relieved to marry someone from Dimmsdale. Doug definitely had some options from elsewhere in the country and Dale was nervous to meet new people and explain all his trauma. Hadley actually saw him during recovery, so he never had to get into detail, and she's pretty accommodating. They get along great.
Clarifying note: They weren't married until they were older, but the betrothal was locked in at that time since by age 19, it was time for Dale and Doug to nail down a plan. Since the Leadlys are multimillionaires rich enough for Leadly to drop 17 million on a spontaneous purchase ("Dog Gone"), one of his daughters was the ideal place to start asking.
Simple courtship. Mostly, Dale and Hadley continued seeing each other at the usual social gatherings, but slowly moved towards deeper talks about their future. Lots of showy gifts exchanged in the way you'd expect upper class kids to privately flirt.
Dale definitely took his time working up to, y'know... talking to people. Neither Dale nor Hadley trusts easily, both having come from families that raised them to be wary of someone taking advantage of them for wealth. However, their shared backgrounds and planned betrothal helped grow their trust in each other, leading to them both feeling very safe in the other's presence.
Ideal Relationship: Back in the day, Dale would've had a hard time putting into words what he wanted- He was just glad to have his life back. Hadley fits snugly in his life and is a lot of things he never would've thought to ask for.
Besides the obvious - i.e. non-abusive - she's pretty lax, likes to schedule, openly communicates, enjoys her personal space, and has done her utmost to make a name for herself without relying on her dad or husband. She has the right amount of "Likes things done her way" energy to parallel Dale's "After work, I don't want to think, so just tell me what to do" energy. Hadley's been to Texas many times (since Pencil Nexus has a branch there). She also loves hunting, which Dale (child of Doug he is) enjoys too. They share a lot of interests. She also indulges his boot-related fantasies, which he likes. Wouldn't trade her for anyone. He might leave her to live alone, but he wouldn't trade her.
The areas they clash most are Hadley's hoarding OCD - very frustrating for him since her stuff gets everywhere - her paranoia that Dale will cheat on her, and Dale not being emotionally there when Hadley wants a vacation.
Although Dale was a curious child who likes exploring, he lost a lot of that during his trauma. Hadley is much more adventurous than Dale is (both in terms of travel and their bedroom life). Dale does not budge easily from his comfort zone and he wouldn't mind if she slackened the reins.
Hadley would've loved to have more kids. On some level, Dale does equate more kids to being more successful and would enjoy having more of them in that regard (especially since he, his dad, his mom, and his grandparents were all only children- Dale has no cousins, uncles, or aunts and doesn't know how to talk to such people).
That said, Dale doesn't feel a specific desire for more kids. He's very hesitant to stray outside his safe zone, especially while his life is currently in balance. He'd definitely be the type to assume more kids will "fix things."
- He would've preferred waiting until he was older to have a kid if it weren't for the crushing weight of Daddy's Expectations looming in the background... Doug always found it weird that Hadley wanted to do business things (like run her own company) and not exclusively be a stay-at-home mom like his wife was. - Dale still tosses and turns over the fact that Doug never got to meet Dev... Daddy never got to see him "succeed at continuing the Dimmadome line"... He will never know if he's proud. It's fine. He's fine. He's actually over it, haha.
Sexuality: Unclear and generally unimportant- 7 years of trauma did a number on his ability to identify emotions or trust other people, and now he's married, so who cares? Not the best at reading the room. Or himself, for that matter.
Grew up in the '90s and 2000s, missed a bunch of school (health class included), wasn't raised in a home that discussed many options beyond growing up to marry a nice woman so he could continue the Dimmadome line... and frankly, if he thought about it and realized there's a chance he may not have ended up with a woman and had a kid, he'd probably have an anxiety attack. We Do Not Disappoint Daddy In This Household.
All this said, Dale is aware of some Pride symbols - mostly rainbows - due to the Pride rodeos held at the Dimmsdale Dimmadome every year he was growing up (They were quite popular in Los Angeles Dimmsdale throughout the 90s). He attended several in the early 2000s, including the 50 years of frozen time. -> Dale has very positive memories of attending rodeos and similar events with his dad, and was none too pleased when they were banned from Los Angeles Dimmsdale in December 2023. See also, "Dirty Roads and Sterile Hearts." Dale also played a lot of Sims games... Up to Sims 9 or 10, in fact, given how products kept coming out during the 50 years of frozen time. He's not oblivious to sexualities, but it's not something he likes thinking about in relation to himself. He'll sell rainbow things for money and be done with it. He's definitely in the camp of assuming everyone experiences attraction (and most emotions for that matter) the way he does... which is to say, very little on the attraction front. Romance plots in media are baffling to him. He's glimpsed some anime and manga through his wife and son, but he's not invested in Kennueth's romance arc (despite Dev thinking it's heart-wrenching and fun).
Dale tends to ask people to lunch or dinner if he finds them intriguing - maybe at a nice restaurant, maybe at his house... maybe at Dimm-'N-Out Burgers - but if you asked him if he was attracted to any of these people, he would say "Of course not- I'm married" or "That would be unprofessional."
The more he wants to impress and befriend you, the more anxious he feels. He definitely has a squish on Kevin Crocker. Dale doesn't care about most people, but when you have a mouth full of implants and you've built your own line of robots, the dentist-slash-fellow robotics expert from Archimedes U is high on the Cool People list.
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From this post about Dale and Kevin going out to dinner
It's very possible that Kevin (who's happily married and monogamous with Chloe) is Dale's type, but who knows if Dale's that self-aware.
If he did, it probably wouldn't change how badly he wants to talk to Kevin about robots. Even in a universe where they did date (and subsequently break-up), Dale would follow him around asking robotics questions. Given his struggles of letting go of Vicky, you can bet he'd be equally fascinated by Kevin. Geek to geek communication; romance optional.
No one ever knows how Dale feels about people or where he hopes things will go... Not even Dale.
Intimate History: Sexually intimate with only one partner (His wife, Hadley).
Cherry lemon ship masterpost
Didn't date anyone while in post-trauma recovery, and by the time he was ready to think about his intimate future, his dad already had betrothal options in mind. Dale accepted, never dated anyone, and never looked back.
Despite his unintended not-business dates, some odd workplace conversations, a few awkward doorstep encounters, aggressively flirtatious Amanda Killman, and people who are genuinely trying to seduce him just for money, he is completely faithful to his wife. Why wouldn't he be? He distrusts everyone equally and was probably backing away even before he realized they were flirting.
If you think this man is going to follow someone he doesn't trust with his life to a private location, think again... You have no choice but to flirt with him in front of his employees, weird drones who could probably fling you into the distance, his wife, or his son. You're dang right the office door is staying open.
No, you're not sharing the bed on this business trip. You can have it and he'll find another hotel. He will pry you off with a crowbar or drag you to the front desk before he ends up in a room with you alone. Don't test the man.
Turn-Ons: Prefers knowing what to expect- Giving him a schedule or explanation note in advance is practically a must. If you try to surprise him with spontaneity, he'll be fidgety and anxious the whole time. Feels most comfortable being told exactly what to do.
Dale: We should have a 24/7 total power exchange dynamic. Hadley: We're not doing that. Dale: Welp, not arguing with a bossy lady. Whatever you say...
Loves animal print and ranch-themed cosplay... It's really hot when his wife shoots a gun while wearing denim, cowgirl fringes, and rhinestone-coated boots tbh. Actually, can we keep the boots in the room? You... you can just put them on top of him. Please do that. Hadley, come back-
Very into recording videos of himself and/or Hadley covered in money, but has absolutely stopped Dev from browsing that au pair's collection in the nick of time. Dale is bad at many things, but his uncanny ability to cross paths with Dev .4 seconds before disaster is unparalleled.
Children: Dev Dimmadome
Dev gets most of his looks from Dale, though he has some of Hadley's tufts and curls (plus her body type).
... Sorry? Did you say someone on the family tree seems to be missing? That doesn't sound familiar.
Notable Grandchildren: I've heard Dale's obsessed with finding "the lost Dimmadome heir," whatever that means... I think Dev's profile might have more info for you there.
Father: Doug Dimmadome
Grandfather: Duncan "Development" Dimm Grandmother: Griselda "Penny" Dimm (née Huber) Notable Ancestors: Dale Dimm, Francis Macdome Dimm, Dimmalonius
Mother: Pearl Dimmadome (née Doe)
Pearl disappeared around the same time Dale went missing, leading many (including Doug) to wonder if she'd taken her young son and run off.
Grandfather: Cassias "Cash" Doe Grandmother: Aurelia "Goldie" Doe (née Astor) NOTE - No relation to John and Jane Doe from A New Wish at this time (Hazel's landlord & landlady; parents of the twins). The surname Doe is a play on "dough" being a word for money, which fits the name scheme of old money families we know. If we don't get a Season 2, I'll likely connect them (since John's hair gives me Buxaplenty vibes anyway and I think it would be interesting to play with that), but there's a chance they're aliens or something. No known relation, but this could change (and possibly land Dale with cousins) in a future update to this profile.
Fairy Godfather: [REDACTED]
Hmm... I think he was green?
Pixie Godfather: Fergus Whimsifinado (H.P.)
Met at some point. Memories are fuzzy...
Wife: Hadley Harrington (née Leadly)
- Met in early childhood. Grew up in the same social circle and saw each other at fancy parties. - Hadley used the surname Leadly in her early years, only taking her mother's name after the divorce
Celebrity Crushes: Why would he crush on someone when he's richer and better than all of them?
Current Love Interest: ........ Still Hadley? Unclear.
Other Important Relationships: 
Vicky Aingeal - Dale's childhood best friend since he was 6. They spent a few years playing together (and doing school projects) before The Incident that spiraled into a cover-up... and the lemon drama.
Related Works: "50 Words of Dale and Vicky," Lemonade and Papercuts, "You Deserve It."
Despite years of abuse beneath Vicky's hand, Dale had a very hard time adjusting to life without her. During recovery, he met up with her a few times in a desperate attempt to convince himself she felt bad for what she did and didn't mean to hurt her best friend. Because... she did. She... can't NOT regret what she put him through...
Dale cared deeply for Vicky and doesn't think of himself as someone who would betray his BFF... An emotion that's side by side with the desire to scream and hurt her just to give her a taste of what she put him through. His trauma haunted him for years (and still haunts him as an adult) as he's very broken up about what happened to him. -> He often blames himself. Ex: "She cares about me. She was only mean because I put her in a bad situation. If I'd been a better friend, she wouldn't have gotten upset with me." As he's gotten older, Dale's stopped clinging to those rose-colored glasses as much as he used to. He still feels awful and conflicted about what happened (and is quicker to find fault with his actions than Vicky's). Since his father's dead and Dale still feels like he never lived up to Daddy's expectations, there's a part of Dale that desperately wants Vicky to apologize and rekindle their friendship... She was his friend. He's supposed to hate her. He'd be reluctant to trust, but would probably hear her out if she asked him too. An apology would likely bring him to his knees, spitting and sobbing and screaming at the overwhelming emotions slamming over him... That's rough, buddy. -> See also, this comic I drew of City Lights Dale and Vicky hanging out at a party after A New Wish Season 1.
Ed Leadly - His father-in-law! ... Dale is overly showy and trips-over-his-feet-attentive to Hadley when her dad is around. Do you have any idea how many trees that man cuts down for pencils? Dimmsdale's [presumably magical] forest is literally kept in check because of Pencil Nexus ("The Boss of Me").
Yeah, we don't pick fights with the CEO of axe-wielding. Leadly is not afraid to hunt, chop wood, hunt, gut animals, or otherwise get his hands dirty and Dale is very afraid of him.
Remy Buxaplenty - A frequent contact. They do a lot of shipping-related business together (Remy with trains, Dale with drones).
Remy's also a long-time friend of Hadley's, so he's one of Dale's most common associates in personal life as well.
Timmy Turner - Not close in Timmy's youth, but once Timmy turned 18 (and forgot the magic parts of his childhood), he got into hunting with Sparky. Dale and Hadley were also hunters and let him join their trips several times. They consider each other buddies.
Dale doesn't hold Timmy up on a pedestal- As far as he's concerned, he got himself out of the lemon pit- Timmy's just the guy who let him eat and wash up while waiting for his dad to drive over. But they do know each other and crossed paths on occasion. Timmy knows Dale better due to Timmy living a double life as the mysterious benefactor who throws Septimberfest every year ("Momnipresent").
Amanda Killman (Sigh) - Another wealthy individual in the tech field. Amanda blatantly finds Dale attractive and has no shame in admitting it (or coming onto him). Dale thinks she's a creep and avoids her whenever possible. Hadley distrusts her and is paranoid her husband will cheat on a business trip someday.
Mikey Munroe (& Bunsen) - Met him a few times while his parents were installing security systems; Mikey followed in his parents' footsteps with Bunsen right behind him. Dale does not like either of them, but that doesn't stop Mikey from talking his ear off or trying to "fix" everything in his house. He does think Mikey's parents' drones are neat, though.
Dale can't deliver products to Beast World directly because there are no Beast portals in California, but Mikey orders things on their behalf and sends them through Muckledunk's portals.
Mikey and Bunsen have been trying to hang out with Dale for ages. They bounce around him when they visit (usually to install security or show him broken robots) and have a long history of sending Waffle House coupons in the mail. Every week. For 22 years. There are no Waffle Houses in California. Where do they even get these? Say one thing for Dale, though- He's better than many big companies at acknowledging the existence of the Beasts living both under and aboveground. Beast World is still a largely untapped market and he incorporates them into his campaign plans (and presumably, that's what he thought Danky was). Fun timeline note: Mikey didn't know Bunsen during the 50 years of repeating time, as Bunsen only met him after meeting Cosmo at Creature Con. Beasts were driven underground during the 2nd Creature War (See The Fae Wars) and have only been allowed aboveground for ~21 years as of A New Wish. Many places still don't trust or cater to them, but Dale will chase whatever makes him money. His old money friends are horrified, but he's pretty pleased with himself. Every now and then, someone tells Dale to "go to Hell" to which he responds "I'm already there and I'm making a killing."
TRIVIA
- Dale's MBTI is ISTJ while Hadley's is ESTJ. They're very similar people, though Hadley's definitely the more outgoing.
- I'm not yet consistent with my Dale design, but my vision is that the younger he is, the more front hair puffs he has (i.e. losing them slowly over time, not all at once). He pulls his hair a lot, but it grows back.
- I based his signature off an image I found of Steve Jobs' signature, which was all lowercase letters with a big dot on the j.
- Read his fair share of Crash Nebula and Crimson Chin comics as a kid. His collection was mostly tossed during his lemonade factory absence.
- Grew up around cows, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle dogs; went to the state fair with his dad every year growing up. The Dimmsdale Dimmadome hosted many rodeos over the decades.
- Walks on tiptoe more than you might think. It's a habit from his old days of exploring and trying not to get too dirty.
- No cousins. Has distant extended family he may refer to as uncle, aunt, or cousin colloquially, but they're not close.
- Dale will eat just about anything (Preferably lactose-free, though he's been desperate enough to eat that too), but he especially likes charcuterie boards, chips and salsa, carrots and ranch... Really, anything he can dip to feel "luxurious." Big fan of chocolate fountains- He gets really into carefully coating things. Dev has a lot of good memories of chocolate-coated marshmallows with Dad.
- Greatly enjoys beef and steak. Ate a lot of it thanks to Dimmadome Farms... In fact, he might like hamburgers a little too much (and even founded his own burger chain).
- He's lactose intolerant (and passed the gene to Dev).
- Often eats with his hands when alone (Ex: Spaghetti)- a leftover habit from not having silverware underground.
- Doesn't like the color green (Vicky's shirt). It's not a trigger- He just thinks the color's unpleasant.
- He's a card counter. It's a skill he picked up very fast, and the real trick is slipping under the radar. ADHD/OCD comorbidity + aggressive business instinct + 50 years of frozen time go brrrr...
- Has a weird relationship with holidays. Dislikes Halloween and April Fools Day - Neither is great for relaxing - but he does enjoy Christmas and Valentine's Day. While he's not the best at being emotionally present, he can follow the script for getting gifts. He's a lot more likely to be with family around Christmas, lured in by his wife's holiday video requests and the socially acceptable time of year to take a break.
Valentine's Day is a breeze- He has few qualms about spending money on expensive chocolates and big flower displays and they don't even need to be tailored to Hadley's personality. She both enjoys it personally and makes videos about his gifts. Black Friday weekend (Up through Cyber Monday) is a very busy time of year. Founder's Day also hits that time of year, so there's a lot to think about. Fortunately, no Dimmadomes have birthdays or anniversaries around then.
- Makes schedules he's bad at sticking to. Tends to go off-script, but at least the act of making them gives comfort in the moment.
- Constantly berating himself for not being "clever enough" or "productive enough" to be "more successful."
- Has a bad habit of running out in rain or snow without dressing for cold weather. He went without for so long...
- Scary in a fight. Although his build is thin, he's tall, broad-shouldered, and isn't afraid to listen to his survival instinct. He'll slam his elbows on you, bite, twist your arms, go for your face... Whatever it takes. Not a sleeping bear you want to poke.
- Tends to bite his nails, scratch or pick his skin, and pull out his hair. Tends to nibble on his hair, but gelling it back really helps.
- Has mild claustrophobia, though not as bad as it once was. He does fine in elevators, but tunnels and the underground make him uneasy. He sleeps with a nightlight, but doesn't mind dim light as long as he can see. However, he hates sleeping near windows.
- Contrary to everyone's belief, he actually does know his son's birthday and all his dietary needs. In fact, Dale is VERY paranoid that Dev will go into a seizure or die due to his hypoglycemia (and that was a big reason to build the au pairs in the first place).
- Owns a pair of similar-looking boots without spurs for safety in crowds, but good luck getting him to wear them.
- Simultaneously loves and loathes hunting... Misophonia be like that, but he wasn't gonna tell his dad it's hard for him.
- Has his anniversary date engraved on the inside of his ring.
- Running gag of Dale being a better parent when he's multitasking: Reaching over to seatbelt Dev while talking on the phone, catching Dev by the back of the collar before he can run into the street, covering Dev's eyes whenever they walk past a scantily clad advertisement even if his eyes were downcast the whole scene, picking him up to carry him across a dangerous or sopping wet part of the hiking trail even if he's checking stocks, or sensing Dev's about to eat something with lactose before Dev does. Parental instinct finds a way...
- If he's not on a call, he plays music to block out noises that trigger his misophonia. If he's in a bad enough mood, he'll be upset those songs bother him too.
- Dale and Hadley both like wearing cowboy hats and boots, especially when they visit Texas. A lot of their promotional images (as well as digital wallpapers) depict them in such clothes.
While Dale doesn't have a family photo as his phone background, he does have one on a laptop he only uses for family-related things (e.g. Scheduling vacations, checking on Hadley's businesses, making donations to Dev's school). It's... everyone sitting on a bench in boots, and the boots are the centered part. Close enough.
APPEARANCES
Main Blog Tag: #Dale Dimmadome owner of Dimmadome Global
Sideblog Tag: #RD Dale
AO3 Tag - #Dale Dimmadome
Dale makes most of his appearances in City Lights AU, with minor appearances in Cloudlands AU's Along the Cherry Lane and 130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash.
His most notable appearance in the latter series is "You Deserve It," where he's the POV character, talks with Timmy, reunites with family, and attends his first fancy social gathering after escaping Vicky.
He's the protagonist of Lemonade and Papercuts and the antagonist of Dev's life... just in general.
Sideblog Masterpost
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fanimplaytion · 1 month ago
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I'm Dev Dimmadome, son of tech mogul and owner of the Dimmadome Globadome, Dale Dimmadome
aaaaaannnd grandson of real estate mogul and owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome, Doug Dimmadome. Someday I'M gonna own a company and a sports arena too!
Haven't decided which oonnne or whereee
but it's in my blood
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passionmaterial · 3 months ago
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First | Prev | Next
If Doug Dimmadome was in A New Wish!
I see no point in making a design for doug Dimmadome. He's just the same as ever. And a Very Loving Grandfather to Dev. He's out living his retirement on his precariously perched estate, and comes to Dimmadelphia for a visit, which Dev is Very Happy about.
Dale and Him have a very..strained relationship. Nevertheless, Doug loves his son as much as he always has. He is quite distraught to find out about Dale's Treatment of Dev and lectures him about it, serving as a wake-up call to Dale.
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chapelseed · 4 months ago
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The Owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome?
Man's pretty spry for real estate tycoon
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…so this ended up snowballing a little bit
Peri’s type is 🚩🚩🚩
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Dracula: May 5
Chapter I
Jonathan Harker discovers shish kebabs and crappy homemade wine
"I'll have to ask Count Dracula if he knows anything about this whole 'vam-pire' superstition nonsense."
"Don't get out of the carriage or the dogs will get you, but I'm sure you'll learn that the hard way later..."
"We've arrived at your destination early, but no one's here to greet you yet. Oh well, no sense in waiting around. Guess we'll have to go back to town. You can try again in a few days. We need to get the FUCK out of here RIGHT NOW! Nevermind, here's your driver."
The driver has glowing red eyes, long sharp teeth, and four pitch black horses. "Seems like a nice guy to me."
"We seem to be driving around in circles because I keep seeing the same landmarks over and over and over. I wonder what's up with that?"
The red-eyed driver is also translucent. "I'm sure that's just my eyes playing tricks on me."
The driver abandons the carriage apropos of nothing, and it is immediately encircled by ravenous wolves. "Hey driver guy, come back, there's like wolves and shit. We should probably keep going." And then he comes back and shoos them away like piegons.
Welcome to the Creepy Decrepit Castle Dracula, with no lights.
Chapter II
The driver has an iron grip, could crush a man's hand if he so desired. "I respect a man with a firm handshake."
Left alone at an abandoned castle, in a foreign country, in the middle of the night, miles away from civilization. "Just another day in the life of an English real estate agent." (He's not an intern anymore; he passed his exam!)
Count Dracula: goth Doug Dimmadome (big white handlebar mustache, full black outfit)
"The count's handshake was cold and rigid, more like a dead man's hand than a live one. Reminds me of the driver. Nice guy."
"Welcome to my house, Mr. Harker." He keeps calling it a house. Such humility!
"I haven't eaten all day, I'm starving! Let me just make a hasty toilet real quick and I'll meet you for supper!"
Jon's boss sent Dracula a letter: "sorry I couldn't see you myself, for I've got the gout. You know how it is. I'm in no condition to travel like this, so here's my apprentice instead, the lucky goutless bastard."
"Count Dracula has pointed ears, sharp teeth, claws, hairy palms (gross), he doesn't eat or drink or smoke, he's pallid as a ghost, his breath REEKS, and I can't help but shudder when he touches me. God help me. Well, time for bed! G'night Drac, thanks for the food!"
I read somewhere that Dracula is really funny when you realize that none of the characters know they're in Dracula. We take for granted the entire vampire mythos, we know what's going on by title alone, but Jonathan Harker is like an excited puppy who doesn't pick up on any of the red flags because he's just SO excited to meet new people!
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goosebumpsbookclub · 4 years ago
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Welcome to Dead House
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Good evening! Tonight we delve into the first book in the original Goosebumps series: Welcome to Dead House. You may be asking yourself how this house came to be dead. The answer is that Dead House is a stupid name and the house is called that because everyone who lives there eventually dies (this is the case with houses in general). 
When our story opens, Amanda Benson is about to become the newest resident of this old as balls house in Dark Falls (get it?). She is possessed of two heterosexual parents, a whiny little brother named Josh, and a dog whose days are numbered. The move was orchestrated by a handsome young real estate agent named Compton Dawes who, in the funniest instance of vampire foreshadowing I’ve ever read, wears a giant black cowboy hat because it “keeps the sun away.” Everyone else in this vampire town wears baseball caps, which seem to work perfectly fine, but this dude made a conscious decision to become Goth Doug Dimmadome. You have to respect his complete and utter lack of subtlety.
Speaking of the rest of the town: There are approximately one million creepy children and seemingly no adults besides Compton. The kids do things like form a threatening circle around Amanda and Josh and say “I used to live in your house” repeatedly. In response, Amanda never asks anything like “why are you being so scary at me right now?” or “what the hell does that mean?” In her defense, there are trillions of things twelve-year-olds find confusing; if they asked questions about everything they didn’t understand, we as a society would never get anything done.
An interlude: The vampire children have a BASEBALL SCENE. R.L. Stein should sue Stephanie Meyer for everything she’s worth.
Meanwhile, weird things are happening in the house. Amanda sees figures in her window and has nightmares about her whole family turning into skeletons. This gives her parents an opportunity to gaslight her, which they promptly take, as any good Goosebumps parent would. I’m going to be honest here and admit that I really wanted to read some queerness into this because hauntings lend themselves so well to queer readings (see: The Haunting of Hill House, which is a gay book for gays). But Stein’s use of tropes is so straightforward and earnest that I couldn’t really come up with anything. I don’t know, maybe there’s something about puberty there? Of being a tween girl just beginning realize that she’s not safe even in her own home, confronted for the first time with the body’s tremendous potential as a site of horror, her experiences discounted by everyone around her? Sure, okay. Let’s go with that. (I have a masters.)
The climax of the book occurs when Petey the dog, who’s been freaked out by the house since day one, disappears. Josh goes to the graveyard in the middle of the goddamn night to look for him and is followed by Amanda and their definitely not evil friend Ray. They do find Petey in the graveyard—which is actually a cemetery, technically—rookie mistake, R.L.—but he’s dead as hell now and also a zombie or something like it. This sucks, objectively. I was sure they’d find a way to bring Petey back to life by the end of the book, but they don’t. Petey is a terrible messed up little creature for the rest of eternity.
Once Amanda and Josh realize that Ray is undead by way of stumbling upon his gravestone, Ray explains that the vampires always kill the new family’s dog first because dogs can, like, sense vampires? Seems like a bad plan when the Bensons weren’t actually alarmed by Petey’s behavior and seemed perfectly willing to chalk it up to normal dog stupidity, but whatever. Another bad move: Ray says it was his job to keep an eye on Amanda and Josh and keep them from getting suspicious. Hey, Ray? Maybe you and your friends should stop being so supremely ominous, then? Just a thought. Anyway, then Josh shines his flashlight on him and melts his goddamn face off.
After a little back and forth between the graveyard-cemetery and the house (their parents are at a party or something, conveniently), Amanda and Josh confront single dad Compton. Compton explains that a gas leak at a nearby factory killed the entire population of Dark Falls and also made them vampire-adjacent things. Once a year the town lures a new family into the Dead House and drinks their blood. This is a metaphor for the corrupting force of capitalism, or something, and also for the way small suburban towns bleed you dry and force you to assimilate into their soulless cultures. Source: I grew up in a small suburban town.
Josh ends this conversation by throwing his now broken flashlight at Compton’s head. This leaves a cut so deep that you can see part of the guy’s skull. I’d like to register a complaint with R.L. Stine and Scholastic and also God because what the hell? Amanda should just set her eleven-year-old brother on the vampires and let him tear them limb from limb. When he was introduced at the beginning of the book, Amanda described him as “the most important kid in the world.” I read this as a joke; I realize now that it was prophecy.
Even though Amanda is in possession of a weapon of mass destruction in the form of her kid brother’s primal rage, she opts instead to run away like the coward she is. She and Josh find their parents tied up in an outdoor theater where the entire town has gathered. They push over a whole-ass tree that’s shading the area (another testament to Josh’s freakish strength) and lo! the sun! it is risen! Down stream those righteous golden ribbons of light into the clearing, melting the flesh from the bones of all the wicked suburban housewives! We are saved! Praise be to the Sun God Josh!
The Bensons are overall pretty non-traumatized considering they just heard the tormented screams of an entire town’s population as it burned to death (“I guess it’s lucky after all that we couldn’t sell the old place,” Dad comments, chipper), and no one sheds a tear for poor Petey. All’s well that ends well… or is it? As they start to drive away, Amanda is gripped by the nonsensical urge to jump out and run back to the house and gaze at it dramatically. As she does so, a new family pulls up and is like gee wilikers, we’re so excited to move into this old as balls house! And who’s that on the porch? Is it… no… it couldn’t be…
Petey?!?
Just kidding. It’s obviously Compton. Having watched a lot of the TV show, I know that Goosebumps is very into twist endings. This one’s pretty weak, to be honest, but I’d love to delve into Compton’s new life as the grieving father of 10000 dead vampire children.
So ends my first foray into the literary world of Goosebumps. It was both mostly what I expected and creepier than I thought it’d be. I can confirm that my parents were probably right to ban me from reading this series when I was a sensitive little seven-year-old.
Have some ratings:
Cover: Simple and sweet. Lacks the visceral grossness of Tim Jacobus’ later cover art. If I saw this in the library from a reasonable distance in 2002 it would not scare me very much. However, a closer look reveals a spooky figure that would probably give me nightmares. 3/5.
Scare factor: I don’t have any other Goosebumps books to compare it to yet, but this was surprisingly scary! Faces melting off left and right, a zombie dog that you never quite see clearly, the weird “I used to live in your house” refrain. This would have scared the piss out of me as a kid. 4/5.
Hat content: 5/5, no explanation needed.
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medea10 · 5 years ago
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How about another Pokemon Sword/Shield $#@% Post?
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Yeah, as if I didn’t have shit-else to do...
Let’s rant on the latest Sword/Shield PV (or at least have some fun on it).
Well, I guess Pokemon is going to continue with enhancing older pokemon and give them their own special look to this region. So here we go with Galarian Form Pokemon.
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Oh good fuck!
Where do I begin with you? First things first...
POKEMON, WE HAVE A CLIMATE CRISIS! WE DON’T NEED THIS POKEMON TO DO MORE DAMAGE...
“It emits purified air from the tops of its heads”
Oh, I stand corrected. Welcome aboard, new Weezing!
Now then, could we please get James of Team Rocket to catch one of these?
Secondly, I know those are meant to look like smoke chimneys, but it friggin looks like a bong or the hat of Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome.
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I don’t know whether to smoke with Cypress Hill or accept new real estate on Dimmadome Acres.
Anything else I should yell about new Weezing?
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Shitballs, it’s part Fairy Type!
What else?
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Awww, look at the punk Zigzagoon!
And I betcha you’re going to evolve into a punk Linoone!
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Yep, there it is!
“It’s popular among unhappy and angry youths”
Well...that makes sense...I guess! What’s next?
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WHAT THE HOLY SNOT? LINOONE EVOLVES?
WHAT?
WHAT?!
But old Linoone stays Linoone. What could you possibly evolve in...?!
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It evolves into Gene Simmons?
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There simply are no words for this except...
...if Probopass doesn’t get a Galarian form where it gets a Freddie Mercury mustache, there’s no God.
Oh, new pokemon alert!
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DID PIKACHU FUCK HAMTARO?!
Jesus Tap Dancing Christ! How many Pikaclones are we at now? I stopped counting after “Enough Already”, which was probably Pachirisu. So that just means we’re at “Are you fucking kidding me? Another fucking one?”
Full Belly Mode?
What happens when this little shit is at hunger level?
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*snorts*
Pokemon, you seriously used the word “Hangry”.
Might as well just change something around...hang on a sec!
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There we go.
Okay, what’s next?
RIVALS! FUCK YEAH! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!
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I don’t know who you are or where you came from. I just know one thing is for certain.
I feel like I’m going to bitch-slap your face eight ways from Sunday.
I am going to trounce you in a pokemon battle and make you lick boot.
Just to wipe that smug-fuckface look off your fuckface!
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Ohmygawd. I think I found a new waifu.
Also...I think I should cosplay as this little lady.
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Oh dear God! Where do I begin with this?
Okay, first of all, if these tossers end up in the anime (God willing) please give them some real first-class accents.
Secondly, the words “Wanker”, “Fat Bastard”, and “Cheeky” MUST be in the Pokemon vocabulary like NOW.
And...
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Oh...this feels ewwey to me.
Don’t lewd Marnie, mate!
Well, this has been a fun update. And watch everyone piss all over how the National Dex still ain’t happening.
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onelastfic · 1 year ago
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You wouldn’t guess by his beat up cowboy boots and the old pick up he drives, but Dallas (and by extension Dolly) ain’t broke at all. They’re quite well off, Old Southern Money types that would run in the same high society circles as the Graham de Vanily/Bourgeois. The Dimmadome Company is a major conglomerate and with hands in a lot of pies. They got oil, construction, real estate, textiles, tv networks, sports teams/players, paper, etc.
While Dolly is the official heiress to the vast Dimmadome fortune, that doesn’t mean Dallas is left out. Though Dallas is a simple man and doesn’t really care much for money or luxury (he leaves that to Dolly). He doesn’t need much as long as he’s got his dog, a gun to shoot with, and a porch to sit on. So Dallas ain’t broke, but definitely doesn’t show off his wealth either. If I had to rate it, I’d say from a financial/business perspective, the Dimmadome Company is on equal footing with the Graham de Vanily Corporation. One doing business in America while latter does business in Europe. Which probably just pisses Helmut off to no end, considering how much he hates Dallas.
Who do you think qualifies as the poorest member of the Citiesville Knights? They've got three rich kids and three poor kids, so it's gotta be between Rico, tonyy, or Chris
I don't know how broke Dallas actually is, so I'm gonna say it's probably Rico. His father runs a small time little repair shop (fixes appliances and other stuff like that) so they don't have a lot of money. You've never know it by how laid back he is but he's kinda broke.
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nerdy-sessions · 2 years ago
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Pokémon of the Week! #110-A: Galarian Weezing!
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Welcome, nerds, to Pokémon of the Week!
Where I, Sesh, generate a random Pokémon to highlight each week!
Last week, we covered the Pokemon universe's floating stink-mine, Weezing! Find that post below:
This week, we have something I've been looking forward to ALLLLLLLL WEEK: The Doug Dimmadome, Owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome Weezing! (aka: Weezing's variant from the Galar region!)
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Mmmmm...yes, of COURSE it's British, top-hat Weezing! Wot wot, n' all that!
Does Galarian Weezing smell as bad as it's vanilla counterpart? Thankfully not.
~ORIGINS~
Galarian Weezing debuted in 2019's Sword & Shield versions for the Nintendo Switch. Thus far, Weezing's Galarian variant has only appeared in those games.
With normal Weezing being a pure Poison-type, Galarian Weezing has a Fairy-type added.
GAH! THE DREADED FAE-FOLK HAVE FINALLY MADE IT TO MY TUMBLR!
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#PTSD
At the time of writing, Galarian Weezing is the ONLY Pokémon to have a Poison/Fairy-type combination. It's a unique typing because Fairy-types are weak to Poison-types, so adding the Fairy-type to a Poison-type like makes for some unique play strategies.
Galarian Weezing's appearance denotes a couple of things. Firstly, when Galarian Weezing was announced, the Internet did what it does best and related it's appearance to an obscure early 2000's cartoon reference (thus explaining the title art of this post). In Nickelodeon's The Fairly-Odd Parents, a background character named Doug Dimmadome (a rich real-estate and business tycoon in the town of Dimmsdale) would always been seen sporting a comically tall cowboy hat. It was SO TALL we could never see the top of it.
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HA! HAHAHA! Classic...
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I LOVED The Fairly-Odd Parents as a kid, as Galarian Weezing being compared to Dimmadome is one of my favorite things that the Internet has ever done.
In all seriousness though, Galarian Weezing's "hat" appendages seem to be an inspiration of Victorian-era British chimney hats British gentlemen wouldn't be caught dead without. Would make sense, considered Sword & Shield's Galar region is based on the U.K.
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Time to flex my history-teacher muscles here, nerds.
The Industrial Revolution that mechanized the modern world took off in Britain during the Victorian Era. As such, factories (and their tall chimneys) were a common sight in big cities in Britain. Galarian Weezing's hat-like appendages also appear to make a reference to those factory chimneys and the pollution they shot into the air.
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Seems like a suitable habitat for a vanilla Weezing, right? We learned last week that Weezing loved gross places like this.
But here's the kicker about Galarian Weezing.
That smog you see coming out of it's hat things?
Clean air.
WUT
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According to the Sword Pokedex entry regarding our Galarian friend, it says Galarian Weezing "consumes particles that contaminate the air" and "[i]nstead of leaving droppings, it expels clean air."
Clean. Air.
So our Galarian friend is the exact opposite of our sentient fart-cloud from last week! This thing cleans the air instead of stinking it up!
So how did Weezings in Galar go from stinking to cleaning???
Evolution, I guess? (And not the instant Pokemon kind of evolution. The real-life kind that takes years.)
Shield's Pokedex entry states that "during a time when droves of factories fouled the air with pollution, Weezing changed into this form for some reason."
It's just one of those things that not even the Pokémon professors and their Pokedex can't answer for sure. My guess? The air in Galar got too stinky for even Weezing, so Weezing adapted to clean the air as opposed to fouling it. Just like how animals in real-life adapt to live in and even help their environments.
Sounds like we could use some Galarian Weezings in the real world when we have thick air pollution in bigger cities. They'd clean it right up.
What a cool 180 the designers made when designing this variant.
~DESIGN~
Here's Galarian Weezing's official artwork:
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Quoted from Galarian Weezing's biology section on Bulbapedia:
In the Galar region, its appearance has changed due to absorbing polluted air from factories. It has a gray body with the skull, crossbones, and ring changed to the color yellow. Both heads have a hat-like tube located on top of them that constantly releases purified air. Five puffs of green poison gas clouds can be seen floating around it. The gas clouds also partly cover its faces: the larger head has a mustache-like cloud on its upper lip, while the smaller head has clouds on its face in the shape of eyebrows and a beard.
Galarian Weezing consumes particles from the polluted air, and expels clean air instead of droppings. The toxins within Weezing's body are accumulated into poison gas clouds that leaks and drifts around it. The gas is Weezing's best weapon in battle, being potent enough to stun and immobilize an opponent with just a whiff. Galarian Weezing preys on Trubbish for the fumes it produces.
~ADVANTAGES~
With it's added Fairy-typing, Galarian Weezing is highly resistant to lots of different types of attacks, including Dragon, Fighting, and Dark-types.
As one of the deadly fae-folk, it it now a DRAGON SLAYER.
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Like it's vanilla counterpart, it is possible for Galarian Weezing to have the "Levitate" ability, making it immune to Ground-type attacks (which it is weak to). Also like normal Weezing, it could also have the "Neutralizing Gas" ability, which nullifies the abilities of all Pokémon on the field when it is first sent out.
It's hidden ability "Misty Surge" generates a Misty Terrain battlefield type upon entering battle. What does this even do, you ask? It halves the power of Dragon-type moves while it is in effect, in addition to transforming some moves into Fairy-type moves. It can even cure non-volatile status conditions of some Pokémon, like a Burn or Poison.
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It's base stats are the same as vanilla Weezing's. As such, it's base Defense is the highest stats. This makes Galarian Weezing a wall to try and take down with it's natural type resistances.
It is the only known Pokémon capable of learning the Fairy-type move "Strange Steam." As such, it is Galarian Weezing's "signature" move. It has a chance of confusing the target in addition to dealing damage. Great move!
~DISADVANTAGES~
Though it's added Fairy-typing is mostly an advantageous thing, it makes Galarian Weezing the only Fairy-type weak to Psychic-type moves. It's OG Poison-typing didn't go away, and trainers need to be cautious of that.
It is also now weak to Steel-type moves as a Fairy-type.
It has the same offensive problems as vanilla Weezing. It's base Attack stat isn't very high, and trainers using Galarian Weezing should focus on moves that whittle down the opponent's HP instead of hard-hitting attacks.
It's HP stat is also very low, like Kantonian Weezing.
~HOW TO OBTAIN~
As stated above, Sword & Shield are currently the only games where Galarian Weezing can be obtained. Here's how to do it:
Catch a Koffing in the Galar region and evolve it by leveling it up to level 35. (NOTE: If you level up a Weezing traded from a previous generation, it will evolve into normal Weezing. The Koffing needs to be caught in the wild in Sword & Shield to get a Galarian Weezing).
If you don't want to go the evolution route, wild Galarian Weezing can be found in the Wild Area in East lake Axewell and the Lake of Outrage. They can also be found in the Slumbering Weald later in the game.
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It is also possible to battle and catch a Dynamax Galarian Weezing in a Max Raid Battle in the following locations: East Lake Axewell, Giant's Cap, Hammerlocke Hills, Motostoke Riverbank, and North Lake Miloch.
~COOL GALARIAN WEEZING FANART~
Let's see if our air-friendly Weezing has some epic art like it's smelly counterpart...
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Cleanin' the air while lookin' down at me wasting my life on Tumblr...
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Some cool pixelated art of Galarian Weezing that makes it look like it's fouling the air instead of cleaning it...interesting.
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Styled like it's an enemy in the Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker game. Love it.
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A What If...? design of a potential Gigantimax form for Galarian Weezing.
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HE'S WITH A CHIMNEY SWEEP! Oi Bruv, that's kinda cute, in'it?
~CONCLUSION~
I've always thought Galarian Weezing's design was fun and interesting, and the lore behind it is pretty cool, too. I'm just...not a big fan of Poison-types usage-wise, ya know? I'm more of a had-hitting battler. I still like it, though!
Any of you use Galarian Weezing in your playthroughs of Sword & Shield? Let me know!
Join me next week for our FIRST LEGENDARY on Pokemon of the Week! One of the Swords of Justice, Virizion!
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knowingoverseer · 3 years ago
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No, the Deviant Dimension Hopping Developer of Real Estate known as Douglas “Doug” Dimmadome is a Dangerous Dude we hoped to Detain here.
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by... sending him to me? or are yoU not the one who sent that? apologies, now i'm jUst a bit confUsed and a little more alarmed than i was previoUsly.
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fountainpenguin · 2 months ago
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ok i’ve been thinking about this for ages: what did hadley think about dale naming their son development. did she really just roll with it lol (…actually, considering her character profile mentions her wanting to name kids after money…how not surprised am i about it if she did agree)
I'd like to say that when Dev was born, Dale was very touched and held him tenderly and cooed over him, and Hadley was so charmed by her usually weird-about-emotions husband in that moment that she wanted him to pick Dev's name and she accepted anything.
But that would be a blatant lie, because he didn't show up for Dev's birth. lol.
When I made my Dimmadome family tree, I was trying to pick names that were equally odd for Dev's ancestors (Dale's being Peddler - a salesman - and Doug's being Skullduggery, meaning dishonest and prone to tricks or bribing). Each name I picked was a play on the name they publicly use.
When I was picking a name for Doug's dad, I opted for a Scottish one since there's a Scottish ancestor in "Lost and Founder's Day" and I thought the Scottish ancestors might be more recent in the family than the Roman ones (since we know Dimmsdale was settled by the English and Scotland is closer to England than Italy is).
The name I picked for him was Duncan- a common Scottish name that starts with D, and I liked it. I went looking for words that could play on "dun" and about fell out of my chair when I came across Bildungsroman... a literary genre for works that focus on personal growth and development. And I couldn't NOT commit to that!
Doug is a real estate tycoon. I took this into account when naming his parents- I gave his mom the maiden name Huber, which can be interpreted as "owner of land."
I like to think Duncan married into a family of landowners and turned that into real estate sales, and between that and people asking what his name meant, he somehow ended up with the nickname Development (for land development) and that's what people called him.
There are many Scottish traditions about sons sharing the names of fathers, grandfathers, or great-grandfathers. I imagine Hadley and Dale agreed that their first kid would be the Dimmadome heir and Dale could pick the name, but any kids after that would probably take their names from her family tree instead of his... Mostly because Hadley is very close to her extended family and Dale isn't.
What I'm saying is that it's very in character for Hadley to say "I've heard about this cool tradition of sons named after the dad's paternal line" and then commit to that without fact-checking (I mean, Dale's named after the Dimmsdale founder Dale Dimm, so why would she assume there are specific guidelines?)
She definitely looked at Dale's family tree and pulled out a few names she liked (Making it a little easier on Dale than leaving him to narrow down names himself, but still letting him have final say since Dev's his kid too). The one thing you need to know about Hadley is that she is pretty laid-back and big on communication & teamwork.
Being a hoarder, she probably still has the piece of paper she wrote her name ideas on, with Dale circling "Development" and adding a question mark.
I imagine Hadley met Duncan | Development when he was alive and he got along with her better than Doug did, as Doug's always been sexist towards her. She also liked the name Cassias, after Dale's maternal grandfather, so they could've called Dev "Cash," but that doesn't start with D.
Dale picked the name Development (Let's be honest, he probably also got along better with his grandfather than his dad) and they gave him Devin as a middle name so they could call him something shorter. Hadley's reaction was definitely "Say no more; I have given birth and I am tired." One of the names Hadley did want for a kid was Bill... Probably because she'd love to name a daughter Dolly (after her mom) and then they'd be Dolly and Bill. She would've been pushing for Bildungsroman with Bill as a nickname. Dale, who probably got teased for his own names growing up (because his full name is Daedalus Dallas Peddler Dimmadome) would've put his foot down on that like, "We are not letting this kid have a name anywhere close to Dung." #Bad at everything, but decent at quality of life improvements If Hadley could've picked, she would've loved 4 kids named Dolly, Bill, Buck, and Penny; she has no shame.
Dev's parents call him "Devin" most of the time, but sometimes they use "Dev." My vision is that Dev doesn't have issues with either of his names because they're often spoken to him in affection, especially by his mom.
Thus, he doesn't insist they call him Dev or resent the use of his other names (seeing as he doesn't react in canon to Dale's frequent use of Devin, isn't surprised by the one time Dale called him Dev, and didn't react to his full name being dropped in "Battle of Big Wand"). He'll respond to anything. He'd probably go by Devin if that fit on a retro high score list.
The worst part about Dale and Hadley still being together in City Lights AU is that Hadley wants more kids, so you have to wonder what cursed names any others would end up with, like Skullduggery but shortened to Skull. Maybe Dev got off easy there...
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riddledeep · 4 months ago
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Dimmadome + Leadly family tree (via GenoPro); click to enlarge
- Dimmalonius and Francis Macdome Dimm appeared as statues (and implied ancestors) in "Lost and Founder's Day." - Dale Dimm appeared in "Which Witch Is Which?" and Dimmsdale is named after him; he saved the settlement from Alden Bitterroot's rampage in 1665 (See also, Crocker Family Tree). - Dimmsdale was settled by the English despite surrounding areas being settled by the Spanish; in Riddleverse canon, it exists in place of Los Angeles. - An ancestor - likely a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent of Duncan - founded Dimmadelphia (which can't be younger than the Electric Light Ice Cream Float parade in "A Dinosaur In Dimmadelphia," which hasn't been canceled in over 115 years). - Doug is responsible for changing his family's surname to Dimmadome (circa 1965). Prior him, they were Dimms. - Doug's mom (Griselda) comes from a family with a hand in real estate. His dad (Duncan) really propelled the Dimm family to being successful business owners, earning the nickname Development. - It's only after Doug (age 15) struck gold in 1953 ("Lost and Founder's Day") that the family wealth really took off, catapulting him into landing a marriage with the upper class Pearl Doe. Dale is the first in his family to be born in excessive wealth. - Pearl disappeared right around the time Dale did, playing into Doug's belief that his wife took their son and ran. They're not divorced... but definitely separated. - Doug (age 76) died in 2014, around the time Dev was born (to Dale's devastation). Pearl is still alive in Dev's childhood, but Dale has some... issues with her. - ADHD and OCD are extremely common in the Dimmadome family line [alongside lactose intolerance]- Doug, Dale, and Dev have all 3. Unfortunately, their family doesn't really "believe in mental health," so the first two tend to go untreated. Hadley also has ADHD and OCD and is at least semi-helpful to Dale and Dev (when she's around). - Ed Leadly is the owner of Timmy's Dad's workplace (Pencil Nexus; "The Boss of Me") and was shown to be extremely wealthy in "Dog Gone." Dev gets his growth hormone deficiency and hypoglycemia through the Leadly side of his family. - Hadley is a 13-year-old godkid when Timmy is 10. She was heavily referenced in the one-shot "End of the World" and appears in "Back In Action," "Trying Too Hard," and other stories from Timmy's youth. She appeared as an adult in "50 Words of Dev and Hazel" when Dev visited her in Tokyo. - Several Dimmadomes are referenced (or appear directly) in Lemonade and Papercuts and 130 Prompt #96, "You Deserve It." - ...... Hmm. Dale, Hadley, and especially Dev's character profiles might have more info on that mystery sibling...
Click HERE for my Fairly OddParents worldbuilding masterpost
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the-hidden-village · 6 years ago
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Shrugging, he set the popped scroll in front of him. “You never know, a gem made bubble can teleport short distances after all.” He peered over her shoulder to see what was schematics for something. “A hoveboard? Well, I’ll be. I guess they weren’t as uptight as I thought after all.” It made him want to open his scroll as well, and unroll he did. Red couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at it though.
“Ten galleon hat design done by Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmadome, destroyer of cherished childhood dreams, and real estate agent.” Was this a fake name done by some gem to keep their identity a secret? Well to be fair, he’d be pretty embarrassed too if someone caught him wearing a ten galleon hat that was taller than him.
It was the big day, and Red was nervous. For the past month, they had done everything to prepare for this, and today it would all come to fruition. He took a deep breath as he stood by the alter. Deep breath big boy, deep breath. You can do this. You’ve got this. Red’s ears perked up lightly as he heard music starting to play. Go time.
In an adjacent room, Obsi was doing the final touches on her dress. It was slender, white as frozen ice, and without shoulder straps it showed a fair amount of skin, which she knew Red would like.. It looked good enough, but she was still on pins and needles. That just meant that she was just going to have to wing it. She put on her veil and as the music started she slowly walked down the aisle, seeing Red at the alter.
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