#deadbeat talks.

[demuredeadbeat]

Personal but also fagposting. Don't like don't read, I write for myself.

Getting on CoD, being ass at it, leveling up slowly but mostly hanging out with my bro is weirdly affirming. Loser gamer guy forcemasc lmao. Getting to play all the mainstream ass 'boy games' and sucking at them like everyone else. Yelling, laughing, swearing at the screen even when it's fully fucking my fault for being the slowest to turn around.

Just. Stolen moments of boyhood ig.

[sunsetcurveauto]

and i LOVE how they showed little percy hesitant to want to learn how to swim. not only is it such a natural kid thing to do but it also highlights even more how much he trusts sally and how distant his relationship to poseidon really is

[babyslutbuck]

i'm sorry. i have more to say about abby. she's so fucking funny. all she wanted was to fuck a hot 26 year old. bc her mom was dying and she didn't feel like a person outside of that. and he reshaped himself in the image of something she could love. and then she didn't love him. and then she left. "i could fix him" "i could make him worse" well abby could fix him and make him worse in one fell swoop.

[yesokayiknow]

kamala: i am in love with you

carol: ugh fine. i'll be your dad

kamala: no that's not what

carol: let's go toss a football around and then watch a pg-13 movie

kamala: ......i'd like that yes

[expectiations]

I still find it funny that people call eleven a "deadbeat husband" and their marriage "toxic" but twelve is the "perfect husband" and their marriage "wedded bliss" all because of the few moments we'd seen between 11 and River were them being "toxic". yes of course! let's ignore how the minisodes show how that description isn't true and even how little moments in the episodes themselves – "what? that's it?" (why haven't you kissed me goodbye? are you being sly on purpose so I'd kiss you first?) and "they wouldn't bury my wife out here" and the music room is the heart of the home and it's not a ghost story, it's a love story – show 11 cared and put in the work and yes, they're going to have disagreements like the ones in TATM because duh who doesn't but it does not mean it is the entirety of their relationship but people have taken it and made it the entirety of their relationship.

[keii]

JJK (Toji & Mahito) x I Saw the Devil (K-Movie) Crossover

[possamble]

What are your headcanons about Marcille's mom if you have any? It's interesting that what drew Donato to her was cause she lived the history he studied, or that was said somewhere at least. She must've had an interesting life.

so this was going to be just a normal answer but then I realized I have a Lot of Things To Say. so here goes, a compilation of what we know for a fact from the canon, what I've extrapolated from the visual cues and details, and my theories based on all of that.

Things we know for a fact about Marcille's mother because they were explicitly stated in the manga and supplemental materials:

She was a court mage for a Tall-man kingdom at the southern part of the Northern Continent

Donato, a court historian, fell in love with her because she had lived through the history he was studying, and he courted her for 17 years (age 15 to 32) before getting married

She was a cheerful person who rarely showed extreme emotion and took things as they came

She always cooked a huge meal for Marcille on her birthdays

She remarried a gnome after Donato's death and a short distance away from Marcille's childhood home

Pipi, Marcille's pet bird, was actually older than Marcille and originally belonged to her mother (bird died at 62)

She was extremely heartbroken when Donato died and ultimately ended up instilling a deep fear of mortality in Marcille with her words

the only time she showed extreme emotion in front of her family was when Donato could no longer eat his favourite dish near the end of his life.

She scolded Marcille for being cruel to ants (implying she can have a stern side when needed)

Things that are explicitly shown but mostly through visual cues

She has a very distinctive style of dress always involving a ribbon choker (mirroring Marcille's habit of always wearing a matching choker with any of her outfits that don't cover her neck)

She was almost stereotypically good at housekeeping and traditionally "wifely" things (very frequently depicted wearing an apron or doing some domestic chore when not at work, seems to have been an avid cook).

She knits? (also, note the affectionate smile as she's looking at Donato and Marcille reading a book together in the full panel)

She was as excited for Marcille's milestones as Donato was.

She didn't tell Marcille much about elven food

(there are a couple things that this panel in particular implies:

She lived a good deal of her life (if not being born and raised) in a mainly elven country in the West, implied by her knowing enough of an elven region's cuisine to prefer Tall-man food over it

seems to have a pretty carefree and casual demeanour overall, if this is how she replied to Marcille asking her about it (sounds like she never gave her culinary preferences that much thought to begin with)

slightly related to number 2, it seems like she and Marcille had a fairly casual parent-child dynamic (especially in comparison to the Toudens' memory of their father)

(local elf tastes Italian food once and never goes back))

However, she seems a lot more... serious in most of the other times we see her? Almost like the very stereotypical archetype of a graceful elf.

Subsequent conclusions about her personality:

Usually pretty carefree and cheerful at home, has been a loving and attentive parent throughout Marcille's childhood (while not being so doting that she didn't discipline Marcille).

Slightly more conjectural theories on her personality:

Had a much more graceful and professional personality at work, which would explain the more serious portraits we see of her.

Given that both she and Donato had positions at the royal court, it seems a little odd that she'd go out of her way to do all the housework herself, so maybe she just enjoyed doing it?

Now taping all the evidence together and toeing the line between analysis and fanfiction:

It's clear that she loved Donato very much and was utterly devastated by losing him. But there's one thing that really stuck out to me in what little we see of her:

Doesn't she seem... angry? The way she's gritting her teeth, clutching the tablecloth, and how this is the first and only time we see her eyes opened that wide. In the following panel, you see her being quiet and dejected after her initial outburst. She's still crying very intensely, but her brows are furrowed, and she's not really responding to Donato's affection in her body language.

We're not told the details of how she felt about losing Donato other than that it upset her. But this, to me, implies that she was angry and resented that he was aging, that the end of his life was approaching. An "it's not fair" type of preemptive grief. And if this was the first and last time she cried like this in front of her family, she was either very good at coping in private... or very bad at letting herself feel unpleasant emotions until they become unavoidable and end up overwhelming her.

It's not too remarkable a detail on the surface. It's even reminiscent of what the audience has seen of Marcille. But... when it comes to the big picture, you'd think an elf who voluntarily chose to marry a tall-man and have a half-elf child would have been better prepared for this.

It kind of recontextualizes her cheerfulness to me.

"I'm sure everything's gonna be okay!" (or some variation thereof, depending on what translation you have).

And this is stated to contrast her extreme grief when finally confronting Donato's failing body and eventual death. But I'm wondering if... maybe this optimism was why she was so upset. What if she went into all of it thinking "everything's gonna be okay"? What if she was a little young by elven standards, and just followed her heart thinking that her own resilience would get her through anything?

Of course, only to get completely overwhelmed when she actually loses Donato. She turns into a completely different person. And that's heartbreaking on its own-- but what the audience sees is the effect it had on Marcille. Can you imagine being her, watching your invincible and upbeat mother suddenly lose all the light in her eyes in one go?

I've already made a huge post about how I think Marcille models her "work persona" off her mother, but another thing that stuck with me as I was looking for more details in the manga was this:

copy pasting from the other post i made about it lmao it's like... the second she resigns herself to lifelong pain and terror, there's another portrait of her mother facing her like this. with their heads bowed, in mirrored body language of resignation and despair and sorrow. Except it's posed like Marcille is still looking at her mother but her mother is looking away.

It took me a second to realize, but I think that it's a visual metaphor for the fact that Marcille's mother was the only long-lived role model she had-- and she failed to model healthy grief for her daughter. I don't say this as an accusation or to disparage her as a character, but just as a matter of fact. In her, Marcille was seeing herself older and losing a short-lived spouse or loved one of her own, and all she saw was hopelessness.

But her mother didn't mean to instill hopelessness and terror in her. She wasn't really thinking of how it would truly affect Marcille at all (at least, that's how I'm interpreting her looking down and away from Marcille in the metaphor), she was just sad. And she, in her own way, was trying to protect her daughter and help her prepare for future losses.

What she meant was "loss is inevitable, and you have to learn how to be in pain but live on anyway." What Marcille heard was "loss is inevitable, and you will be scared and hurt for the rest of your life."

Again. Marcille's mother doesn't feature explicitly in the story the way her father does -- but in so many ways, her shadow, her silhouette, her reflection is always hanging over Marcille.

All that to say... headcanon-wise (everything from here on is 100% without evidence lmao), I'd like to think that she matured and realized that she failed Marcille. I imagine her being regretful about it, wanting a chance to fix it but never finding a way to insert herself back into Marcille's life when Marcille is so so so busy becoming the most accomplished mage possible. I imagine her being herself again, now, so many years after her loss and after remarrying -- but with her cheerfulness tempered with a lot more wisdom and the pain of having gone through loss like that. I think the second Marcille actually tells her what happened in the dungeon, she'd want to go running to her daughter again -- if Marcille tells her the full truth instead of just being embarrassed she let things get that far. (oh, the tragedy of her wanting to be more like her mother and an accomplished adult who doesn't need to be babied... being embarrassed to actually tell her mother how much she fucked up...)

There's also the tension of her having remarried -- I know that there's at least a little bit of resentment that Marcille harbours about that, because she's childish like that at heart even if she makes an effort not to externalize it. I think that her mother would be aware of that, potentially adding to her sense of guilt and apprehension at trying to reappear/intrude on Marcille's life. I honestly don't think Marcille has met her stepfather -- or even considers him a stepfather rather than "mama's new husband" and kind of a total stranger. I think she and her mother actively don't talk about it in their correspondence, like an elephant in the room.

but, ultimately, I think her mother is on her side no matter what. Ancient magic? Dark necromancy? Sure, she'll feel guilty and like she was partially responsible for setting Marcille down such a painful path, but she wouldn't care. that's her daughter!! she would've moved back west and been petitioning for her at the court, buying a house right next to the Canaries barracks and visiting her every day that she wasn't on a mission. And if her husband had opinions on Marcille becoming a "dark arts user," he either gets over it or it's divorce with him. Yes, she might have had her optimism completely humbled by losing Donato like that -- but she's still headstrong and self-assured and she doesn't care what people think of her. It's her way or the highway and she's always going to be in Marcille's corner.

(She also needs a name lol. I went with Juno, just to be cute about "Marcille"s closest real life equivalent being Marcella, which is the female version of Marcellus, which in turn is a diminutive of Marcus, which was derived from Mars. Absolutely in love with Marcille potentially being named after Ares/Mars the fucking god of war btw)

[kennytheworkingclasshero]

I hate it when people characterise Kenny as a deadbeat person who takes advantage of other people. You literally know nothing about my son, leave him alone.

[diamondsunbursts-and-marblehalls]

I love the way that Grover wouldn't even have been able to protect Percy the way he did when they met in school if Percy wasn't the kind of person to befriend and look after someone who he thought couldn't do that themselves.

I love that it didn't occur to Grover that Percy was protecting him because it's not humans Grover is scared of. He's bullied but he just brushes it off because he's never had experience with the kind of monsters that humans can become, Percy didn't let it get to that point.

I love the way it didn't occur to Percy that Grover was protecting him because Percy isn't worried about monsters or gods, Grover protected him from that, but Percy knows people. He's lived with Gabe for years, and that's the kind of monster he's had experience with.

A huge reason that Percy has always been so fearless facing the gods, and continued to be able to protect people the way that he always did, is because of his experience with both kinds of monsters.

He doesn't hesitate to fight Ares on the beach because he recognizes that kind of monster. An arrogant and cruel man who preys on anyone who he thinks can't protect themselves. He's fighting Ares, but he sees who he's been fighting his whole life: Gabe.

Percy never had an issue putting the gods in their place because he was never the type of kid to lay down when someone was walking all over him, and never the type to let anyone else do that. The gods acting the way they did closed the gap between the type of monsters he was used to and the type of monster that came with the job description as a demigod. Everything he went through with Gabe gave him the power he needed to start the fight, and the force he gained as a demigod gave him the power he needed to finish it.

He grew up with someone like Gabe, and instead of following in his footsteps, Percy became the exact opposite of him. Not only that, he became the type of person who won't stand for anyone to be treated the way Gabe treated him and Sally.

He's a force to be reckoned with not only because of his abnormally strong powers as a child of the big three but also because of his worldly experience and understanding that hydras, furies, chimeras and minotaurs aren't the only monsters and that any monster can be beaten.

[doublel27]

@lurkingshan I loved your tags. Hope you don’t mind me stealing them to use here because

Mostly because, Yak gave the biggest younger sibling energy here and I was reminded why, as the oldest, I nearly always vibe harder with the elder sibling. I’m not even mad or disappointed. Younger sibling fails to see the sacrifices that have been made on their behalf or how they’ve been protected from the worst of their family, or worse is mad about it:

Like, the whole fight that Yak and Yei are having is about Yei not involving Yak and treating him like a baby and here is Yak failing to see anything from Yei’s perspective because he’s been sheltered. (This is not all younger siblings but it’s not uncommon)

Dad is only the enemy if you both see him as the enemy and as Yei has been largely shouldering his burdens alone that his parents have left him with, I don’t think Yak ever viewed Dad as the enemy we all did. Yak seemed genuinely pleased that their dad showed up in the boxing gym a few eps ago even if it was to mostly yell at Yak for failing. He seemed upset when Yei cut the conversation short and made him come practice instead of continuing to engage with their dad. As an audience we all got it but, Yak didn’t realize how much Yei had on his plate and what he was struggling with. Some of that is on Yei, but most of it is on their parents (including mom who was like it’s up to you now to take care of your brother) rather than tasking her husband with that, and Dad for just dipping. Some of that is that Yak honestly has never actually thought about it because Yei and Cher take care of everything.

But it’s also easier to make Yei the villain and be mad at Yei because Yei isn’t going to go anywhere. Yei is the most stable adult in Yak’s life (after Cher of course). Yei will take the punches and keep showing up because that’s who he is.

Dad on the other hand is wet paper who cant take a punch and Yak still wants something from him, approval, a second chance at goodbye…which is common amongst the younger siblings.

Yak won’t come around for real until Dad survives cancer and dips on them again. Because that’s how that usually works. Or you know, asks for the deed back or suggests that the boxing gym is part theirs now because his wife helped. 🫠

Anyway, team Yei should stay mad at dad and everyone should have backed him. My bluest boy remains the best and deserves the whole world.

[nashvillethotchicken]

Matter fact. If I was a vampire and I paid an old friend to interview me before he died and he talked to me and my current husband and talked about my DEAD child and ex husband the way Daniel do? Im doing more than making fun of him, I'm knocking him in his bulbous forehead like he's a beluga fuckin whale

[demuredeadbeat]

I'll Make A Man Out Of You from Mulan was the og forcemasc.

[waitineedaname]

the funny thing about tianlang-jun is that mxtx writes terrible fathers and incredible uncles, and tianlang-jun manages to be both

[sciderman]

spectacular spider-man #122

[antimony-medusa]

What is in the WATER lately.

[chjroptera]

if anyone cares i’ve been thinking abt that one comic with ctub and micheal that i made abt smoking id like to imagine crb took micheal in the divorce and ct just lets himself go and buys those box cartons that he runs thru in like a month