#doodler acolyte!Lark

[unseeleigh]

Something changed in Lark when he sat on that Throne...

[y2ksnowglobe]

It's totally my own head canon, but I love the idea that acolytes have an impaired reaction to the start of combat when Lark is involved because they assume he's on their side. They somehow sense that he's the one who released the doodler and kinda assume he's on their side, so when he starts moving to take them out it catches them off guard.

[nat-without-a-g]

The acolytes of the Doodler were not bad people, they’re consumed by their obsessions. They all think that they’re helping the people they hurt, too— minus that one incel with the trumpet he’s just an incel. The only thing that really defines an acolyte of the Doodler is their obsession with something, and in some way coming to utilize power from the Doodler to achieve these goals, intertwining their obsession with their understanding of the Doodler.

Let’s talk about Normal Oak-Swallows-Garcia!!!

We know that the school is on an especially vulnerable point between the worlds after the kiddads become stuck on Earth, with three separate incursions happening within the building in the span of a month. Additionally, all the kids have something they’ve defined their lives around, but Normal is the only one who built his identity around it since childhood and defined himself by it. I don’t want to refer to his love of mascots as an obsession, it’s more like a hyperfixation and one he had before Teen High, but his ‘school spirit’ act is somewhat obsessive. Underneath his love for his school is his desire to be the center of attention, his desperation for recognition, and the underlying feeling that he deserves it. I’m getting that last part from his experience on the Pride floor. Normal is a good kid! He’s a character with nuance! I’m just saying he is susceptible.

Like, incredibly susceptible. As much as I’m not a fan of how Lark and Sparrow handled him being excited about an interest (we remember Sparrow saying he’s not proud of Normal, but Lark in episode one really went ‘does your kid have a friend yet?’ In front of Normal), it Is possible to read some of what they say as concerns that he’s going to wind up Doodlerized. Especially with their innate familial connection to it, and the fact that I also think specifically Lark would incredibly susceptible as well (obsessed with trying to Destroy the Doodler, but hate and love can be easily muddled) were it not for his closeness with Sparrow. I think that’s why both siblings seem to have gone out of their way to interact with Normal in ways that didn’t involve his interests but would still be fun and pleasant (like going to the zoo or the park, Lark taking him out for pizza). Trying to keep him grounded with experiences that are not all connected to one thing, that way it’s harder to pull him off of his supports.

That being said, in spite of Lark’s ‘do not involve the children’ line, I’m pretty sure Normal would have gone down the path of a Doodler acolyte had he not had D.A.D.D.I.E.S. And the teens. Not JUST because Normal is already vulnerable to his obsession with popularity, and his family’s innate tie to the doodler, and a CHUNK of his wobbly support structure has gone completely missing and he is aware of it and nobody will believe him. But also because his obsession is rooted in the school itself. The school that is about to have not one but Three Incursions. Back-to-Back. Plus the mayor is friendly with his mom, meaning she has a direct influence on him. And Hermie’s attempted betrayal would only prove to him that he was right that the mascot— and therefore himself— was something worth protecting without the goal of going to the goof realm to keep him focused. It would just reaffirm the belief. He might even overtake the mayor as the main spokesperson of the doodler because, as we see when he sits on the throne, he Empathizes with it.

If Hero was approached to manage D.A.D.D.I.E.S., which she likely would have been had Hills not assumed that Normal had access to Daddy magic too, she would probably have to confront her brother at some point.

[cartoonchaos]

guys. guys.

think about the doodler’s acolytes that we saw before episode 13. children being put through life at alarmingly fast rates. a boy willing to do anything no matter how immoral for attention from female classmates. an authority figure pushing societal romantic expectations on children. the vague concept of a corrupt uncaring politician. a direct reflection of yourself.

the doodler was a child when lark saw it. the doodler is a teenager now, and it’s acting just like one.

[kaseyskat]

(#4 - a kiss where it hurts- requested by @cookies-over-yonder) 

For as long as they have been fighting incursions and battling off the acolytes of the Doodler, Nicky’s gained his fair share of cuts and bruises. As one of few healers in the group, he’s used to brushing off any minor scrapes– they weren’t worth his healing spells, not when Lark and Grant both were very adept at getting themselves into sticky situations that required more than one application of cure wounds. 

Because of that, he hardly notices when Sparrow pulls him aside after a mission, frowning at his face. “You’re bleeding.” 

“Oh.” Nicky brushes a hand against his cheek– it comes back red and sticky, blood staining his fingertips. “Huh.” 

Their mission is finished. Nobody was seriously injured, but Nicky is exhausted, his stamina depleted after a tough battle. He doesn’t know how Sparrow does it– he manages combative magic with healing magic with weapons with ease and then still has the energy to take care of them all back at HQ alongside his dad. 

Sparrow’s brows are all knitted together. He reaches his own hand up to gently caress Nicky’s cheek, and Nicky winces under the touch; the cut stings far more than he had expected, now that the adrenaline is wearing off. 

“I’m fine,” he promises, even as Sparrow pulls his hand away. “It’s just a little cut. Nothing I can’t handle.” To punctuate this, he gives a warm, reassuring smile that’s only half fake. 

Sparrow takes a glance behind them. They’re alone– Grant and Lark both prefer to be alone after meetings, and Terry is always analyzing their data and figuring out where they need to go next, so it’s just Nicky and Sparrow left alone here with nobody to disturb them or wonder what they might be doing. 

“You shouldn’t walk around with an open cut, it’ll get infected,” Sparrow says, and he smiles gently. “Let me?” 

“You really shouldn’t waste your spells,” Nicky protests half-heartedly, but Sparrow shoots him a look and he closes his mouth before he can finish the thought. “Okay. Yes ma’am.” 

Sparrow snorts, and he leans up on his tiptoes, one hand curling around Nicky’s chin to hold him steady while he presses a kiss to Nicky’s cheek where the cut is. His lips tingle, and then warmth spreads through Nicky’s cheek and down to his stomach. Sparrow’s magic feels like the first patches of sunlight after a stormy day, washing over him like a brook bubbling over a waterfall, and he can only sigh in relief as the cut stops stinging. 

As Sparrow pulls away, smugly satisfied, Nicky catches his hand and drags him back, kissing him in earnest. “Thanks,” he murmurs against Sparrow’s lips, letting the words be caught between them. 

“Mhm. Anytime, if this is the reward,” Sparrow whispers with an amused purr, and Nicky laughs, kissing him again. 

(send me a number and a ship and i'll write you a kiss)

[alix-is-o-a-k]

Yeah! I finally finished the thing I was working on in order to procrastinate!

Nark, 939 words.

Summary: Nick helping Lark after a fight

tw: blood, guns, canon-typical violence.

Lark coughed and touched his fingers to the side of his face. They came away red, the blood dripping from the open wound and staining the ground. The fence  behind him had splatters of the same blood, too much of it for him to not be light headed.

In front of him stood a creature, an acolyte of the doodler, that he had stumbled across while on a morning run. They hadn’t learned of an incursion point anywhere near the area, but Lark seemed to have unwittingly opened one earlier than expected.

He fumbled for the gun at his side and aimed it at the acolyte’s chest. His hands shook from lack of blood as he pressed a finger down on the trigger and heard the gun click.

“Fuck,” he whispered, throwing the gun down and using the fence to push his way to standing as the creature approached. He grabbed his last weapon (a knife tucked into his boot) and lunged toward the creature, attempting to stab into its heart. But with his weakened reflexes, the acolyte shoved the knife out of his hand and he collapsed to the ground.

In his pocket, his phone began to ring.

He punched the side of his earbud to turn it on and growled into it “not a good time, Nick.”

The voice on the other side was panicked as he said, “LARK! What the fuck? I’m at DADDIES, your vitals are all over the place! What’s going on???”

“Fucking acolyte surprised me and I’m out of weapons.”

“Shit! I’ll-“

The line went silent and Lark cursed again as the acolyte stomped down on his phone, shutting the contact off. The acolyte lifted its hand and shot a bolt of fire at Lark, who shut his eyes and prepared for the flame to hit him.

But it didn’t.

Instead, he carefully opened his eyes to find that a portal had appeared in front of him, transporting the acolyte’s bolt of fire into hell, where it disappeared among the other flames. Nick stood in front of the portal, his hand just returning the katana to it’s sheath as the acolyte died in front of him.

“Show off,” Lark muttered as he tried to stand up. His head swam and he ended up falling back to the floor, temples pounding.

“Shut up songbird, I just saved your life,” Nick didn’t seem to have noticed Lark’s injuries as he approached, handing him the empty gun and offering his hand to help him up.

“Fuck- I don’t think I can stand,” Lark said after a failed attempt at standing with Nick’s help.

Nick knitted his eyebrows and looked Lark over, “what happened?”

“It’s my head. That thing threw me into the fence.”

Nick crouched to look at Lark’s wound, and the blood rushed out of his face as he moved Lark’s hair from the injury.

“Fuck, Lark! This is bad,” Nick ripped off a strip of fabric from his shirt and pressed it to Lark’s head, “this is really bad. We need to get you somewhere else.”

Nick snapped his fingers and the portal changed, showing the inside of an apartment building now. He picked up Lark, (who was too tired to do anything but mumble some half-hearted disagreements) and carried him to the portal, shutting it once he’d stepped through.

Lark came to a few minutes later. He was seated on Nick’s couch, a first aid kit and some empty healing potions at his feet. Nick had almost finished wrapping his head in gauze when he stirred, and he stopped bandaging him for a moment to let him wake up.

“Lark? Hey babe,” Nick whispered, brushing some of the hair out of Lark’s face, “how do you feel?”

“Mhhh,” Lark groaned. His head pounded as he tried to sit up, stopped by Nick placing a hand on his chest to hold him down.

“Don’t sit up yet. Hold on, I’ll get you a glass of water,” Nick jumped to his feet and came back a few moments later with the  water, holding it against Lark’s lips to let him swallow it.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Nick finished wrapping his head and tucked the gauze in, “feel better?”

“A bit.”

“Good. Want me to leave you alone for a while?”

Lark tried to shake his head, but it just ended up making his head hurt more, “no. Stay.”

“Sure,” Nick said, putting his arm around Lark and letting him rest his head on his shoulder.

“How long was I out?” Lark asked, mumbling the words into Nick’s neck.

“Not long. A few minutes, at most,” Nick took Lark’s face in one of his hands and raised it to meet his, “Lark, I was really scared. Don’t do that again.”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

“I know. But- just call me next time? I don’t like seeing you like,” he gestured to Lark’s head, “this.”

Lark put his head back on Nick’s shoulder  and Nick felt his body begin to shake. It only took him a moment to realize what was happening, as his shirt began to get wet.

“Lark?”

“Nicky, I thought I was going to die.”

“Songbird,”  Nick began to card his hands through Lark’s hair, minding the bandages, “I’d never let you die.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“You don’t have to ask.”

Nick leaned down and pressed his lips to Lark’s. Lark smiled weakly into the kiss as Nick wiped the tears from his eyes. After a few moments, Lark pulled away to rest his head  on Nick’s chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat.

“Hey songbird?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“You to.”

[inkedintothepaper]

Okay I gotta sleep but consider: Doodler acolyte Lark au but he’s evil and magic and like a king.

I think it’s be really cool and dramatic and also doodler crown and Lark on the throne watching the others adventure to get to the church and just kagsjsakgsskfsksfs

[farbeyondtheflames]

The Nark agenda is spreading around tumblr and I've been obsessed over them for a while so I finally wrote a fic

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationships: Nicolas Close/Lark Oak

Characters: Lark Oak, Nicolas Close

Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Lark angst, Hurt/Comfort, as in physical hurt, The other s2 dads are mentioned, Mentions of physical injury, Lark gets hurt and Nick takes care of him, thats all you need to know

Summary:

Lark sighed and set his shoulders, readying his pistol in his hand as he caught his brother's eye. Sparrow was grim-faced, his expression mirroring Lark's own as they stared up at the doodler acolyte growing to unnatural sizes in front of them. From his other side, Lark could see Nick unsheathing his katana. Flames began to crawl up the blade as Nicky rolled his shoulders and extended his wings, his horns growing out from his forehead and the tips of his hair catching fire. Nick caught Lark’s eye and grinned at him, light glinting off of his teeth—teeth too sharp to be entirely human. Lark felt a blush growing on his face as he angrily pushed the distracting thoughts out of his mind. This was not the time.

Or: Lark and the other D.A.D.D.I.E.S face off a doodler acolyte that's stronger than they expected. Lark gets knocked out, and when he wakes up, Nick's there

[a-leery-sky]

So I have to get this Dndaddies S2 hc theory out of my head.

So what if, Rebecca Swallows knew about the Oak family stuff from the get go? Like she was the friend of both Sparrow and Lark after the doodler was unleashed when they were kids.

Eventually Rebecca and Sparrow get together and decide to have Hero because I feel like some doodler acolyte mentioned that the Doodler was afraid of the Oak lineage and as Nick said they hoped a “chosen one” would defeat the Doodler and had Hero.

Of course Lark being a secret sad boy who most def loved Rebecca has a straight up FF7 Cloud/Tifa unrequited 🌶️ night and 🤰 with baby Normal. Sparrow is SO worried about being caught up in all the heavy stuff of the family, so naming him Normal is almost a wish to try to be free from all the drama. . .?

Idk maybe needs some work but I think it’s funny that Normal being the absolute bleeding heart that his dad[in my theory] Lark is afraid to be. And Hero is a rough and tough confident person that’s the opposite of adult Sparrow.

I knoooow that a lot of this is me trying to draw lines that are probably not there but by golly let me have my conspiracy theories 😭

[nolassolace]

My internal thoughts immediately after drawing this: ooooooh but demon Nicky 👀

Then my gremlin brain grabbed the megaphone and said : OOOOOOOOOH but acolyte lark?👀

~The Herald of The Doodler

&

The Demon Savior ~

[unseeleigh]

Some thoughts on Acolyte!Lark

The moment he sits on the throne he sees and feels everything about the Doodler like canon but on top of that, because of his connection to the Doodler he ends up getting flooded with power

He screams and slumps forward on the throne and after a moment he sits back up, black ichor dripping from his eyes and a smile crawling up his face because even though he has such a strong hatred for the Doodler, this power is not something to be ignored

Instead of saying "we have to kill it" he runs. His self hatred is just as strong as usual maybe even Stronger now, and he cannot face the others. Sparrow tries to run after him but Henry stops him

This new connection to the Doodler helps Lark realize that they are indeed very similar and he starts trying to Help the Doodler, finding the anchors and moving/hiding them more and just being a nuisance for DADDIES

[y2ksnowglobe]

One thing about the deer story that I always found weird was that surely there were actual threats that Hero could have mentioned in regards to how she was trained to be able to kill. It's haunted me, honestly. It's such a weird detail, so I present the following interpretation.

It's post Code Purple. All hints of the doodler are in a different realm, but the prophecy is still the prophecy. It doesn't matter if it's on a different plane, Hero is the chosen one. So Sparrow and Lark realize that the training can't stop. They have to still train her, but there's no longer mindless zombies or acolytes that she can practice her skills on. There aren't any monsters to fight, so where is she supposed to learn how to kill, even if she's deprived of all magic and weapons? Best to find a large, skittish, and unpredictable target.

[rooolt]

The concept of lark finding out “what the doodler wants” and then shattering it before anyone else can know is sooooo fascinating to me because the way I’ve always read it the doodler doesn’t want anything. To me, the doodler was horrifying because it was not an all powerful malicious entity with goals or wants, but a faceless brainless force of nature that was so strong it’s mere presence in the world spelled destruction. Like never once in the podcast has the doodler shown any agency or intent, every action in service of it even in amod seemed entirely motivated and verbalized by its acolytes. We know from amod that the doodler thrives of the concept of randomness and to me that’s all it ever was. It was so heavily entrenched in the random and chaos that it physically could not have wants or desires for power because it would so be against its very nature. That’s why the doodler was scary to me, because it could not be manipulated or tricked like a person could, it was simple raw destructive horrifying power, and I don’t think the lark stuff disproves that. What if that is the truth, what if the doodler doesn’t want anything? If you’re lark, a person who feels crushing responsibility for this disaster and you find out that it is no different in intent than a hurricane, does that not terrify you? Does that not instill in you a fear that if anyone else found out they would feel so powerless against it that they would just give up? They’d give up and the world would end and it would be your fault. This was not the all powerful creature 11 year old you thought it was, the one he wanted to fight to prove his strength, this is pure entropy and chaos and randomness and destruction and no one else can know lest they stop fighting? Is the fighting fruitless, who even knows, but at least it fools you into thinking you’re making a difference.

[kineticallyanywhere]

I feel like it’s kind of strange that Sparrow dislikes his son’s weirdness since Henry did nothing but encourage his boys to not chain their spirits down. Perhaps it’s a result of unleashing the Doodler? Look what happened because they didn’t control that wildness?

Yeah, I think that's a part of it. But I think maybe even without Unleashing the Doodler being a consequence Sparrow could have ended up this way. Lark and Sparrow were weird kids, and I can't imagine they got any more normal when they were in high school. High schoolers are mean. If them being themselves caused them to not really have any friends and Sparrow was miserable because of it, of course he'd want differently for his son.

And especially with a family that spent like 4 generations basically cursed I can see how if he'd managed to have a #normal son he would have bragged about it to the moon and back. showed him off on the street and rambled to Doodler Acolytes about how his kid wants to be a fireman or played baseball or was learning the guitar or whatever. He's worried about his son. His dad didn't raise them to want to be #normal, and his brother ended up stabbing his dad in the back, literally, so... I can see why he wanted to course correct.

Drop that in the pot of a brain that's both drunk and actively being corrupted by The Sauce, which amplifies negative thoughts and emotions, and you get a guy saying things he's going to regret for the rest of his life.

(Does Normal need to be any of those things? No! I'm sensing a theme here about how maybe the truest and best version of yourself probably isn't going to be what your parents wanted you to be, and it's rough knowing you'll never receive that kind of pride from them, that's relatable as HELL. parents are people too, and they have to learn how to show pride for their kids no matter what)

[human-sweater-vest]

dndads season 2 predictions after episode 13 (what an episode omg)

1. beloved s1 characters will be making an appearance, specifically: zombie paeden, walter, erin o’neil, yeet, killa, cern, sweet matilda, doug, jodie foster, mark likely, well actually, & (I’m praying for) chekov’s snake

2. the og daddies show up at some point, either as granddaddies helping the kids (specifically looking for henry because he’s far too important to the whole doodler thing to not show up [plus I love him and miss him and think normal needs him] as well as ron because the stampler/marlowe line has been at the root of both seasons so far) OR as horrific fucked up acolytes of the doodler because I think that’s exactly the type of heartbreaking thing anthony would pull.

3. scary is gonna get a big boy corruption arc. the seeds are sown in this episode for her sympathy for willy and the fact that he’s her patron. ultimately I want her to have a moment with terry jr. where she can finally tell him how she feels and that she loves him and I feel like the power of love™️ is gonna come into play here. I feel like she might get to break off from the boys and truly be a goth punk Seeker Of Darkness here.

4. hermie the unworthy becomes a larger member of the party, perhaps taking scary’s place if she leaves. I want him to be this season’s paeden.

5. the close/foster boys are gonna fuck shit up (affectionate). think about it, they’re not in the forgotten realms or earth, they’re in the infernal realm which means they’re probably untouched by the doodler. I wanna see three generations of close/foster boys kick ass as a family along with the armies of hell.

6. not my theory but I’m in love with the idea that normal learns divine intervention and uses it to break the hostility lark feels for henry and begins the healing in the oak-swallows-garcia family.

7. the doodler and/or willy uses the moms & marco as bait for the kids

8. I will be driven to tears at least seven times by beth, five by will, three by matt, and an unfortunate amount by anthony. (freddie has yet to make me cry but maybe this is his season)

so far: 1 for beth for the “fuck, fuck” in episode 12

[thrilling-fantasm]

ok digging into the surprise appearances of some old friends: 

Theories below the cut! (spoilers for s2 e5)

i'm liking some of the theories I’ve seen in the discord so far, here’s my attempt to enumerate my takes:

Theories:

1. Why this is happening:

a- Scary's activation of the key in the obsidian door (and hearing the voices of Lark and Sparrow) indicate that their appearances might be directly related to the key activation. This may be an active link to Lark and Sparrow now: they may be able to now offer advice to Scary and the Teens, help them/give information, etc. Sidenote, the level-up could be one of several things: 1) nice reward (basically cash->exp boost progression), 2) necessary level-up to confront something created/triggered by the door activation, 3) a powerup but at an as-of-yet-undisclosed cost. [not to get too meta, but why else would Anthony buy antique keys off Etsy if they were unimportant/just visual props? even the other important objects like their badges and other keys haven’t had props for them yet. They’re definitely linked to progression or may come into play later as powerful objects]

b- Scary's activation of the key has granted her more power, but has also made the Doodler more aware of them/has loosed some kind of Doodler event upon them. This Lark and Sparrow appearance is a manifestation of that.

2. Key-unrelated doodler antics: Lark and Sparrow (the Oak line in general) are tied to the Doodler, could be that one of the new ways its chosen to manipulate and confuse the Teens is by replicating some forms that it knows well and making a fake Lark and Sparrow (either disguised acolytes, homunculi, or other magical fabrication) to mislead or distract. I like this one because it sort of explains the "next episode" line - the Doodler is all-knowing enough to know its contained within a podcast (or maybe Anthony said it cause it was a funny cliffhanger)

3. This is the real Lark and Sparrow, but under Doodler mind control (source: their overly casual demeanor) to mislead/confuse/distract the Teens. It could even be that opening the incursion portal is valuable enough that the Doodler is willing to let the Teens free Lark and Sparrow from this mind control as a distraction. They may have to make a choice later between closing the incursion portal and freeing Lark and Sparrow.

4. This is Lark and Sparrow, but they're astral projecting/in homunculi (unclear if they can be inside homunculi again? the soul thing?) to help the Teens block the incursion portal and offer more backstory. Either they found a security lapse wherever they’re imprisoned, the veil between wherever they are and the real world is weakened, or maybe Terry got just the right spell. In the case of some kind of astral projection, it could even be revealed that only the Teens can see them (because I think all "i have to pretend i can't see you so people think i'm not going nuts" comedy is funny)