#i got a lot of ideas about these guys and their dynamics i'll lose it

[magikkittenz]

Saw a few ppl on twt comparing the differences of ships both on same class and cross-class so here is truck n vans

also here's a bonus

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #29

Jumping off from my previous and pending liveblogs through The Battle of Big Wand -> but this is mostly me talking about Dale headcanons and 'fics

Partway through my next liveblog post, I started rambling about Dale and doodled a joke, and... it got really long, so now it's in its own post.

I'm sorry you have to see this, SDKFLJ...

Mildly suggestive stick figure honeymoon doodles - #ScarletPenguin

why does he still look anxious and pathetic even when he's plotting a takeover... he's the goofiest guy. I love him.

Liveblog Notes

As far as me loving characters with traumatic backstories goes, I do enjoy Peri, but he has way too many blank spots in his lore and things that are making me look at him sideways, waiting for him to say something I can work with.

I would've liked to see more of his backstory come into play... I feel like that would've been a great episode theme focused on the Peri-Dev dynamic (Them figuring each other out, uncovering bits and pieces, struggling to find areas where they relate until they do... like the clinginess or abandonment issues). Hopefully we get that in the future.

- Don't get me wrong- I'm really enjoying Peri, but from a fanfic perspective, I don't have enough breadcrumbs that don't come from the OG series I based my aged-up Poof on anyway. - That said, still love the implication that he brought Dev to his parents' house while he ate too much sugar and Jorgen almost caught him, and I'm deeply interested in his many layers of trauma. No notes.

I can make up stuff for Peri, but... I've already been making up his story beats for 8 years, so I'm personally not excited at the thought of designing a new backstory from scratch if I don't have any springboards like his friends, school life, where he's been living, or what he did while his parents were gone for 10,000 years. The OG series gave me Sammy Sweetsparkle, Goldie, and Spellementary and Steve, my beloathed. I don't have much to go off here.

We don't even know what his relationship with Irep is, like if "Best of Luck" was the first time they'd seen each other since Spellementary and/or if Irep was banned from continuing his schooling. I mean... one would have to assume Irep has his godparenting license if he's allowed to jump in on Dev, but who knows...

Me just now blinking in confusion that Da Rules allow Irep to yoink Dev as a godkid when Irep blatantly disregards all the other Rules. Cherrypicker...

And yes, I can work with it if I want to, but I already write a bunch about their dynamic, teen, and adult years in Cloudlands AU, so... I'm fine letting other people deep-dive into him; I'll probably be surface level on my end <3

So... That's all set-up for why I think Dale is my favorite in this show... He captivates me by having this clearly defined mess I can pick at. Locked up and forced to make lemonade for 7 years? wild. We know what it was like, where he was, how old he was when it started, who did it, for how long, how he escaped, what his family situation was, and we saw Doug's estate in "Engine Blocked," so we have a decent idea of where he lived and how he grew up.

We've seen a lot of clues about how his trauma lingers around him today, how he forbids his son from drinking lemonade around him, he seems to be withholding details from Dev (who has no clue who Vicky is and seemed grumpy that lemonade is presumably a trigger for his dad and thus he's not allowed to have it). We also know how his young self ended up as an adult... We know he has meltdowns when he loses money and he doesn't bat an eye about stalking or hurting children...

We've got a partner missing from his life, so he's got single dad stress in there somewhere unless the O-pairs were there from the day Dev was born... potentially divorce or widower baggage and either of those is funny... I still think Doug might be dead in New Wish and that becomes increasingly likely the more I look at my age timeline compared to how old Doug was when he struck gold, which is canon in New Wish rather than given to us by the OG...

And if he and Vicky are the same age, were they friends when his torment started? You can even mess around with vibes like "Did Dale get a fairy?" or alternatively, "Why WASN'T he miserable enough to qualify for a fairy?" because that gets really dark if you start thinking about Vicky yo-yoing his emotions to keep him on the line above misery. What was she doing to him...

Like ??? unfortunately, the most obvious thing I can think of is that Dale was so blinded by his vision of Vicky being his friend (and/or crush?? idk) that he kept forgiving her, which is... awful.

We never got a confirmed reason why Tootie didn't have a godparent despite Vicky tormenting her daily, though I always felt like age or her blabbermouth tendencies might play into it (or she clung to Timmy for stability and thus wasn't miserable enough so long as Timmy was there to "support and comfort her" (her perspective). ?? Did Fairy World think it wasn't worth the paperwork to assign someone to Dale because they assumed he'd just make a single wish to free himself and then be fine? skdljf... I just can't stop thinking about it. It's not like his father's wealth disqualified him; Remy and Dev both had godparents assigned. Idk! I think about it a lot. Fascinating.

AND you're telling me this kid grew up with the OG cast after his escape?? There's a LOT there I can play with. Did he have to go to high school with Vicky? I want to believe he was homeschooled, but we never see Doug with a partner AND Doug is a busy person running a ton of businesses. The logical assumptions here would be either "Dale went to public high school" or "Dale was shipped off to boarding school" or something like that. Each of those comes with its own implications, which excites me.

As a bonus, this guy's severe trauma is connected to lemonade?? A drink that shows up a bunch of times throughout the OG series because it's just casual and everywhere? That's so funny...

Insert joke about how it's smart to give your protags weaknesses or fears that are commonplace so they'll run into them in a casual adventure or everyday life

And YET... Despite everything we know about him, there's still plenty of wiggle room for me to play with. I like that.

Honestly, I love the entire Dimmadome household... Dale and Dev and the O-pairs and Peri and the weight of absence of whomever else was in Dale's life once upon a time. Dev is a cool character at all, but at the end of the day, he's a 10-year-old bratty bully who's neglected and lonely. I appreciate him dearly, but it's nothing I haven't seen before.

Dale is my favorite. His utterly bizarre backstory has captivated me. I can make him worse <3

I did have a role planned for him in my Cloudlands AU 'fics - have since 2018 - but I was gonna play him as quiet and jumpy... Curious, easily excited, but not as fingers-in-every-pie as his father. But nowhere would I have guessed 7 years of trauma. And that changes everything. I'm extremely excited to play with that.

He's been on my backburner for ages as "one of those characters I want to delve into when Timmy's older and has a reason to cross paths with him, such as in the working world as Dale becomes more involved with the Dimmadome businesses." My plan's always been to make a funny trio of Dale, Remy, and Dale's wife [my very first FOP OC, Hadley] (whom I've been slowly setting up to become Remy's close friend in the 130 Prompts series when they're kids) and they're just... laid-back rich people who hang out and go on silly rich adventures.

Here's a fun Hadley profile, finally digital since I've only drawn her in colored pencils up 'til now!

In spite of me repeatedly mentioning her in my New Wish liveblogs, words cannot express how shocked I've been to see Dale, who was a tiny mention in the OG series, come back as a critical character...

My girl's shy husband in Cloudlands AU canon, whom she was betrothed to when neither loved the other, turned out to be a horrible person in A New Wish who's 99% likely to have divorced her, and I could NOT be more ecstatic to work with that in 'fic. It's like this was set up just for me! :D

- How funny would it be if they had a Season 2 arc where Dev disappears for a while because he's staying with his mom? lol. - If Dev's mom suddenly showed up because she'd just left for an extended work trip or something, would that be silly'd up or what?

Bonus Hadley Facts!

- She's 12 & 13 around Timmy's time period and attends middle school with Remy. They went to a dance together.

- She and Timmy are briefly in middle school together. They vaguely knew each other in elementary school before either had a fairy- I like to think they had multi-grade gym classes, field day, lunch, and stuff like that and sometimes saw each other.

- Never had Crocker as a teacher, but has crossed his path at the grocery store and stuff. She skirts around him.

- Her mom is a professional painter. She also has a blood blossom garden. Leadly keeps making Hadley give them to people he's trying to sus out as witches.

- Very aware of her dad's horrible dating life. Unfortunately knows he's chasing magical creatures because he's getting desperate for "idk, something new and fun" at this point. Bribes Cupid on the regular. Unclear if Cupid is screwing her dad's life up on purpose to keep the money coming in.

- Has been to Texas a bunch of times (Pencil Nexus has a branch there - "The Boss of Me").

- She hums the Pencil Nexus theme a lot, especially if she's waiting in a line or doing chores. She's bad at sneaking around because she'll forget she shouldn't hum.

- At the time of posting this, her two speaking appearances are in the 130 Prompts "Back In Action," where she's at the Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour dance chasing squirrels, and "Trying Too Hard," where Ed Leadly brings her along when he tries shaking Gary and Betty down for the Learnatorium (again); Hadley's very embarrassed.

- Although offscreen, she was heavily mentioned in "End of the World" when Timmy led Remy to her house so she could help with the cure for Juandissimo's fairy flu. She was briefly mentioned in "Opportunity" when Leadly put the pieces together and realized his daughter has a fairy godparent.

- Her surname was dropped in "Entire World," "Solo," and "Looking Back," confirming her as on the Pixies' radar & as a member of Gary and Crocker's Fairy World invasion team.

- I designed her in December 2015! Nearly 9 years ago now :'D

So, there ya go... That's Hadley.

Basically, instead of meddling and buying buildings and stuff, my vision of the future "rich kids" generation is that they're "supposed" to be in the city like their parents raised them to be, but they blow it off to hang with friends. This whole generation is rebelling against their parents. Are they making things worse for the city? I don't know.

My rough plan was Dale and Hadley bringing their kid [His planned name was Dave] on ski trips and yacht adventures and world travels, with Remy and Juandissimo being bonus parents as the kid grows up :) Aroace Remy making peace with living mostly alone, my beloved... BFF Hadley ensuring he's not ignored when she gets a partner, my beloved... And my main idea here was "Their kid is so spoiled, but he's also getting incredible amounts of attention and love... It's the first time in AGES Dimmsdale has broken its "miserable rich kid" curse, and Remy and Juandissimo couldn't be happier. I just realized that probably doesn't make sense out of context- but yes, in Cloudlands AU, Juandissimo and Remy are still together when Remy's an adult. But it was always my "Eh, I'll think about it later" arc, and Dale a "think about him later" character. And now ?? I just want oodles of him... He's so funny. I've already got a whole sketchpage of him on my desk... I probably won't scan it because it's messy as I'm exploring him in my style, but I really like drawing his hair <3

Dale had a bad week or two with Vicky in my head, but he was gonna grow up fine and live with his friends :) Or... Hadley's friends. Unclear. This doesn't really work with the New Wish canon, but I still think it's funny. I think in some way, this still happened in my canon, but only during Dale's early adulthood. He and Hadley split, orz...

Like... I can't even be mad, because in my canon, they were arranged (upper class kids; Doug cared more than Remy's parents) and in Cloudlands AU, they're affectionate but not in love until they slowly grow on each other while raising their kid, but... GURL, you were supposed to carry this for me, SKDLFJ...

Hang on, I gotta draw exactly what I mean by "Hadley didn't ignore her BFF when she started a romantic relationship..."

Bonus context for Remy's arm for anyone curious & here's him in color

They're just so funny to me... Dale and Hadley are each other's comedic straightman somehow. My favorite thing is Remy being a good friend despite actively trying not to be.

There's a secret joke here about how Remy's dad is also aroace in Cloudlands AU, but his whole thing was being repulsed to the point that he was relieved every time his wife had affairs :'D Fortunately, Remy's glad Hadley found someone else to bother and never got him involved in that drama. Remy still doesn't know what's up with his parents' love life or lack thereof, but... he knows what he himself wants (Peace & quiet and 2 hang out with Juandissimo).

tl;dr - I like what A New Wish has done with Dale specifically. It's definitely wowed me, it's way more captivating than anything I'd loosely planned for him, and his layers of trauma, wealth, and negligence really take me back to the OG series vibes, so I like that!

I can't wait to do 'fics with this fascinating, traumatized loser... but Hadley is definitely his wife and/or ex in my works <3 b/c I set my plot up for this 6 years ago and it would make me sad to "boot" her from my Along the Cherry Lane 'fic plans lmao. I will never experience this oddly specific situation ever again; you gotta give this to me.

Also:

He done goofed...

I couldn't decide on dialogue, but I was thinking "In my defense, I never had a health class and I didn't know babies came that fast." (She was there for many hours btw).

Bonus honeymoon panel ft. (/checks notes) - mildly suggestive stick figures (again)

Other secret bonus ending: "Wait a minute, if Hadley's been to Texas a lot because of Pencil Nexus, does she ALSO have fun cosplaying in boots?"

...... :)

[amberinn]

okay thoughts 👏

not a lot of emotionally charged moments

love the little davwhit and charwhit interactions

Whit is actually SOSOSOSO smart and I'm so thrilled to the core as a Whit fan that his thinking process is shown

Like he is SO UNDERSTANDING and good and amazing I love it

Levi is a psychopath 100%

I made a rant about Whit being a sociopath, but he doesn't fit that criteria because he lacks in exploitation behaviours/anger

I'm SURE he has some sort of hidden disorder (Whit) we haven't yet really talked about

im not a psychologist though

let's leave it to that one person headcanon diagnosing Veronika with asocial personality disorder or whatever I do NOT know what that is!

I fucking love this cast, but it's so mentally ill to the core.

Like so many of those fuckers have something wrong with them I can't stand it (affectionate)

Arei and David interaction??? Let's go

They could've been such good friends and Arei is so sweet forreal.

Eden with the fucking fork.

Fucking hell, oh my GOD.

I love the transitions in scrum debate, they're scrumbtastic and I fucking love and hate how they represent things like, hanging, getting thrown and then breaking your neck, the swinging... fuck it makes me sick

Areden could have been so real

Arei's friends being David and Eden... yeah

It could have been good

I hate the parallels between how David got extended that hand to take--- Xander, Arei.

I've an animation idea between the three od them and this is just slipping so well into my understanding of their dynamic (I'm not really analyzing it too deeply thinking of it though... I guess I should)

I'll get to know the real you, I love you, I will be your friend.

I know you for who you are, it makes me relieved, I guess we're both bad humans huh?

But does a good person really exist?

We'll look out for each other... I could be your friend.

Like fuck drdt is David Chiem nightmare especially that "only someone so fucking naive, stupid, jdk, jekcus could have fallen for such an obvious trap" feels like grief

he's just lost another fucking friend of his

scratch that your outburst is reasonable, or maybe I misremember shit

I would also go insane if anyone who was ever willing to love me got murdered one by one

All you ever do is gain and lose people, just like in "Therefore you and me"

As a result of acquiring as a result of losing, huh David Chiem?

It makes sense for him to want to extinguish that

Everyone looks forward to seeing tomorrow, but what are you gaining by it?

Friends you're losing

Maybe it's even harder for him, because Whit has a friend (Charles) he gets to keep, while David keeps on seeing his get murdered over and over again.

It never ends.

That fucked up little glint when Teruko told her secret >>>>>>>>>

ALSOOOO ALSO

whatever drama was going on between Ace and Levi

Levi IS an insanely fucked up person, and I keep thinking over and over about how for me at least there is not one person I could ship Ace with

like damn mf 🙏 he alone af

I want to give Ace Markey such a big hug, like he is a bitch and has teeth which cut through you every 3 seconds, but girl.

girl you DO NOT DESERVE ALL OF THAT 😭😭😭😭

any of that

Ace Markey is like, subtly circling upwards on my favouritism lists he's my wet kitten you don't get him like I do

He's had a friend before who was a guy

something something---

The fact that I even considered thinking of anyone over here as my friend really just tarnishes his image.

He cares about his friend SO MUCH.

It might be STUPID for me, but this reads as gay.

Ok just trust me in on this I'm a boykisser with a similar situation at hand.

girl lover as well, how do you THINK one person figures out that?

I just feel like Ace Markey might've discovered his homosexuality via that friend

that best friend one might say which makes me sososoo insanely CURIOUS about who it was

yk why

bcs id finally get an Ace ship I actually fw

hell ya let's go homies

also I need to add---

I feel like something has REALLY happened with his friend

might be a bit stupid, but I feel like that friend is dead

"tarnishes his image" huh Ace? Ace what does that mean, why would that image be able to be tarnished

did you say had Ace or am I not remembering it?

are you so afraid of everything, because your best friend is dead Ace?

it's kinda a stretch still though, a leap of faith on a suggestion I'm willing to argue about

[eggsaladsandwhic]

Knives Headcannons (SFW and NSFW)

This is for my upcoming Poly CollegeAU Knives x OC x Vash fanfic and it's 2am and I gotta get my brainwaves out.

SFW and General

Nai is a double major in both Environmental Justice and Science

Likes taking philosophy classes it helps him understand humanity a bit more.

Probably autistic or at least on the spectrum

Is struggling with Bipolar and it hits him hard sometimes

College life is hard when you're a plant and he's trying his best to fit in

Speaking of Plants I've got this weird idea that Nai is definitely like a carnivorous plant (usually some species have barbs or thorns to trap their prey in)

Will not go to parties or bars (...Vash makes him every once and a while, but will not admit to being perceived whatsoever.

Likes fruity and sour wines

Absolute book nerd

Gets end of the semester burnt out depression (me too ngl)

Is the cook of the apartment surprisingly, he has learned to like some human cuisine. He's an alright cook but is a heavy meat and vegetables kinda guy (don't ask him to bake it makes him impatient)

Probably in a couple on campus band ensembles

Gets hit on and flirted with a lot and really hates it

Sleeps only with those soft af blankets and prefers to be cold rather than hot, and he usually needs to hug in his sleep, hence the blankets.

Likes the idea of love, especially a platonic to romantic type of affection

He's just so bitter about the fact that a human would likely never want him for what he really is

Touch adverse but even more touch starved

He's got to like someone for them to even be in his personal bubble

Actions over words

Vash and him both have a Mate for life concept so wanting to choose that special someone is really hard

So many goddamn hair products but the soft hair is worth it

NSFW ⚠️ Below

Okay shifting gears here now for ✨ The Spice✨ (NSFW)

Big dick energy - thinking around 8.5 hard

Prehensile penis and def looking like a softly barbed tentacle

Petals like a flowering butterwort, white to purple

Back to my carnivorous plant idea but this man is FERAL in bed - bites and makes plenty of noises

Aphrodisiac pre-cum, topical and ingestible

VIRGIN (this man hates people with a firey passion)

However does own one of those clear Fleshlights especially if he goes into rut

Has to go a couple rounds otherwise he feels frustrated even on a normal night

Amazing stamina and recovery time

Has a medium sex drive but the more stressed out the lower it is

This man has to Top, he'd really have to trust his partner to bottom and lose control like that (BUT THATS EXACTLY WHAT HE'S LOOKING FOR)

Don't let him get pussy drunk it's a bad idea for either party

Since I'm going for at least semi-realistic sex (especially with a dimensional being) in this fic I'll be honest and say he would accidentally hurt you and it crushes his soul

As much as I love self indulgent smut I think a human would have a hard time keeping up with a horny plant

Would bite either way too hard, overstimulate you too much, accidentally flung one of his knives into your side, started going marathon mode and having to literally slap him out of it

Usual kinks- Praise, hair pulling, breeding, choking, Size kink

Unusual - Blood, prey/predator dynamic

Wrote till I needed to sleep oopsies anyways please fill my brain with more ideas I'm begging 🙏

[athena-willowthorne]

ok I know I'm going to be drowned out as one of many and I don't want to be the guy feeding the public frenzy right now but I want to offer my thoughts on the watchertv situation.

I've been a fan of ryan and shane for almost 6 years. I got into them when I was around 12-13, and now, at 18 years old, they've occupied a fairly significant part of the last third of my life. I feel reasonably confident in saying I've watched everything they've ever made, from buzzfeed and watcher, and when they went out to found watcher, I was abundantly happy to welcome steven into my parasocial love for them. I feel like I've grown up with them, and going off to college next year, it was never a question in my mind that they'd follow with me. I mean, I bought their unsolved book the second it was announced, and I even snagged a ghost files shirt and a professor plush when he was rereleased. I took the professor to the lizzie borden house for my 18th birthday overnight, and wow was that an expense, but I've wanted to go ever since middle school when I stumbled across buzzfeed unsolved for the first time. in short, losing them is like losing a constant presence in my life, a cherished presence, no matter how ridiculously parasocial that makes me sound.

when I heard about watchertv, I was crushed. in the past couple days, I've jumped from betrayal to desperation to grief to bitter anger. but I think I've landed now in a place where those make more sense to me. I agree wholeheartedly with so many commenters on every platform right now. they're just like me, feeling let down and disappointed by the people we've idealized, and gotten used to seeing for free. but I also understand exactly how this idea came about, I know what it's like to feel backed into a corner on something, forced to make a hard choice where it feels like only a radical shift will save you. we as fans were there for the three of them, their dynamic. but their dreams don't match up. they want freedom to make what they want, and they feel passionate about growth to tv quality. that's what they're aspiring to, I do genuinely think that.

I won't sit here and go on about the different takes people have made about steven's masterminding or shane's reluctance. the bitter stuff that's been said feels very harsh. but I can't condemn the people saying things out of anger that aren't targeted. it's ok for them to feel upset. sure, maybe it sucks that it has to come out on a public forum like the internet but it's valid nonetheless. but on their end, that's got to hurt. I hope so dearly that watchertv succeeds, even if it has to change a lot to do that. a subscription service isn't what we want, but it's what they believe will let them make the quality content they want to. that's worth pursuing, and I care about them so much that I want them to go for it.

I hate that I can't follow them into this next chapter. and I'm sure a lot of other people are too, and however they choose to feel that is perfectly ok. but their creative satisfaction and happiness does not depend on me, and it shouldn't be limited by what I can or am willing to do.

anyway my heart goes out to them truly. I'll miss them in college, and probably forever, and hopefully our paths cross again. but even if we don't, I'm happy for the memories I was able to make, I hope every other upset fan feels the same way eventually too :))

[mgjong]

What do you like about 0610, 0507, and 0909?

I was not expecting the ship ask, nice! Okay okay let's see. I'll try to make this as short as possible I already rambled too much today but I don't mind explaining further if someone really wants to listen

Adding a break in case you don't want to read ship stuff (too shy to ship tag the post)

Starting with 0909 I think what I like the most about it is the concept by itself and the way that imo it gives such an interesting flair to Mikoto's story. I guess it also stems from me wishing that Mikoto and John could be happy and finally interact in a healthy way. However if I must be honest I think the way I prefer this ship is as an initial one sided attraction on John's side. If it does develop into an actual relationship and his feelings are reciprocated it has yet to happen. Again I just love the way it would fit into Mikoto's and John's narrative. But I do find them very cute!

For 0507 I think it's way easier to explain. I find it a fun dynamic that could possibly happen within the narrative (starting to see a pattern? yeah I like ships that are thematically relevant to the overall narrative and that can enable possible character development). Their timelines have been very fascinating to me and given the current most popular theory for Kazui's case to be regarding his sexuality I think it'd fit. Aside from that there is a lot of room to explore their flaws and better traits. Shidou is extremely self sacrificial as we saw, Kazui could help ground him by offering someone to rely on as someone who can understand the grief he is going through. After all, he knows exactly what it feels like to lose a loved one who you have had a relationship with for years. Both are filled with guilt but for very different reasons and I think they could heal yes but also tragically fall apart in the third trial specifically because of these attributes. Obviously they don't have to date in specific for this to be a thing and I wouldn't mind it regardless but hey, let them be gay and happy even if just for a passing moment.

Now for 0610... Hey guys is it me or have I rambled about these two enough already? Well never fear for I have an entire thesis ready just for you dear anon. First things first. I love the sun and moon sapphics trope and these two are one of the best representations of it I have ever seen (imo). Bright, warm, friendly, energetic Mahiru and cold, blunt, mysterious, quiet Kotoko. One hates, the other loves. Both stubbornly idealistic, both extremely lonely. They hide their own hurt behind a facade and cling with everything they have to what gives them purpose. Just like the previous two ships I really like the idea of 0610 within the narrative. "uhm Mg, Kotoko literally-" LISTEN! Doomed toxic yuri. It's good! Kotoko doesn't want forgiveness. We know what Mahiru thinks of her. Kotoko has no one right now but we know what she would hate the most is to receive kindness. Especially from someone such as Mahiru. They work as a pairing so well because they COULD find comfort in each other. Mahiru could give Kotoko the stability that she needs while Kotoko could show Mahiru how she can stand up for herself. This, however, could very easily lead to codependency. Mahiru could become Kotoko's lifeline, giving her the purpose she so desperately needs in her life. Kotoko could give Mahiru all the attention that she has always wanted, making her feel justified, feel like her love is right unlike what Es said to her. They could lead each other down a path of destruction where their ideals wouldn't be challenged and they got worse. Or... They could notice their flaws, they could help each other heal. They could provide the love and affection to fill their broken hearts and survive together. And I'll stop now because I think I rambled enough jkhdfgkjhd.

[radiomurdeer]

Wishlist

Random ideas I'd like to see. These are by no means comprehensive or in any particular order and I'm down with lots of plotting/changes to initial idea, these are just some things off the top of my head to help facilitate plotting. You can view the wishlist tag itself by clicking here. This got long woops so I'll put it all under a cut.

With Anyone/General Scenarios

Hotel Dad Alastor - maybe he shouldn't have told Charlie he viewed her as his spawn. I feel like such a bold claim should have consequences.

Alastor is injured after the fight and is dealing with it. The other muse does not believe that he's fine (maybe he is, maybe he isn't) and wants to help.

Alastor is injured after the fight and is taken advantage of (dark thread)

corruption thread! slower burn, Alastor just being a general creeper and influencing those around him in a negative way. Or someone corrupting him but I feel like that might be harder to plot for.

muse as one of Alastor's contractees and has to deal with having a weird creepy boss

found family stuff I'm a sucker for it

Alastor joining the Vees. How willing he is can be variable. Maybe he joined when Vox asked? Maybe he lost the fight with Vox and one of the Vees ended up holding his leash 7 years ago. Maybe he finally relented after coming back from his sabbatical. Bonus points for anyone trying to convince him to change his name to Valastor or something equally dumb with a V to match the rest of them (he refuses, tyvm)

redeemed!Alastor - Great Alastor, altruist, did die for his friends. He's not happy about this. No one is happy about this. Falling from Heaven any% speedrun go! Or maybe Heaven figures out a way to use him against Hell?

human!AU with Alastor as serial killer dating a horror/crime writer like this post

IDK I just like political intrigue

With Charlie

AU where Alastor is, in fact, dating Charlie like he insinuated at the beginning of Episode 5 before switching tactics to be a father figure. This is probably not a healthy ship but it could be

Hotel Dad Alastor - you made the claim my guy, time to stick with it

IDK make him sit in therapy or something. He's not a resident, he's staff, but he should set a good example right? Or maybe she wants to try out some psychology stuff she's read about and get his opinion before testing it on the resident(s)

them working together on some project for the hotel or something else

field trips to Cannibal Town or elsewhere - for someone raised in Hell, she doesn't really seem to know much about her people

With Husk

role reversal, Husk owns Alastor's soul

Overlord Husk - stuff in the past leading up to the game where Husk lost his soul

aftermath and time following Alastor getting Husk's soul

With Lucifer

Lucifer and Alastor having to deal with each other, I just want banter and maybe reluctant co-parenting/co-hosting at the hotel.

Something based on the Mutual Satisfaction comic by @/Fernrynn on Twitter, first page is here but the rest is easy enough to find (tw: gore, canniballism), - Lucifer makes a deal with Alastor to provide his meals. Probably more of a horror thread tbh?

I like RadioApple of all flavors. Lucifer and Alastor dealing with starting to like someone they can't stand and having to deal with feelings is a fun dynamic.

With Vox

Them meeting and working together, Alastor taking a newly spawned Vox under his wing.

AU where they continue working together and the 'Vees' didn't happen (idk I love the idea of 'the Media Demons/Broadcast Husbands' getting a rep and showing up at the hotel in the pilot instead of just Alastor)

the point leading up to and including where Alastor and Vox split. I high key headcanon this happened in the 70s/80s when Valentino showed up. An ultimatum was given, and Vox chose Val. Super negotiable on the reason for the split though.

AU where Alastor loses the fight 7 years ago and ends up working for Vox. Or the other way around? Either is good.

Vox and Alastor team up for some reason during/after the series, possibly reconciling, possibly not

RadioStatic of all flavors, unrequited/unspoken/QPR/exes/anything. I fucking love RadioStatic

corrupt priest or corrupt nun AU? AU where one is getting tempted by a devil? both tempting an NPC? Idk Vox's priest getup in ep 2 and Alastor's nun outfit in ep 5 had me thinking

[bonesandthebees]

woagh. ch 12 is wild, bee. thanks.

aight first i'm curious about what this means for phil and wilbur's relationship - he's honest with his father about this when if phil were in his place he probably would have kept it a secret. but then there's phil's trust in techno about all of this yet he's telling wil to not trust tommy for the same reason (well, one of the reasons) he's trusting techno. while yes tommy is like 13 it's still the same reason of a sorts beneath. very interesting

oh now i wanna know the backstory with phil and techno, how they ended up so close, because if it's anything like wil and tommy here then it must have been wild

ooooo the allusion to the fic summary -> who's loyalty, who's love, and who's power? and what does that mean for wilbur's choice here, even if it were subconscious in the moment

ough. befriending tommy because he was with you but also because he was malleable. manipulation central. wil's gonna feel all guilty about this, tommy is 13 and pressured all the way through. reminds me a bit of how stars!crimeboys were, with the threat of their lives on the balance. wonder if something will break them apart here, like with stars? that would be some juicy conflict. then i am reminded of the MCD. well. hmm.

OH! the moment with puffy!!! my girl knows whats up but wil's putting that training into use. ah the parallels between him and his father here, beautiful work.

' It hasn’t done much good considering how Tomys was nearly killed while he was under your care.' BURNNNNN

oh quackity isn't taking this well. what did he and schlatt have then? the last encounter seemed a bit tense, but now he's in pain at his death. the fact that he's being accused may also have an effect, too. poor guy. this whole thing with the two of them seems very juxtopsition-y, his least favourite wine, may have been crying or yelling, man this relationship - i want to put it under a microscope and peel it apart like a bug. this is really weighing on him : (.

oh actually both him and niki aren't having a good time. damn this chapter is wild. she's just not too obvious about it - aside from the breaking down in tears and her and wilbur's relationship falling to pieces. man, losing your best friend like that is just rough.

and now, to escape the angst, we get phil!!!! :D. 'What mattered instead was the truth this powerful individual decided it was.' whoa. banger line.

oh now i understand why everyone's theorising about this letter. its obv very important - schlatt's death might just hang over everyone's heads with the words of a dead man still doing this even though he's dead. got no clue about what this letter might be though, i'm too tired for that lol. - :D

hello :D anon it's always lovely to see you again!

while I get your point there's a very huge difference between phil trusting techno and wilbur trusting tommy besides just the fact that tommy's 13. phil has known techno for longer than wilbur has been alive. wilbur has known tommy for *checks calendar* like 3 months? maybe 4? truth be told, wilbur barely knows tommy.

I wouldn't say techno and phil's situation was similar to wilbur and tommy's really. the two didn't meet till they were both adults and there was no traumatic even that bound them to each other lol. maybe one day I'll work out exactly how they became friends because I have a few separate ideas floating around but we'll have to see

while there's definitely some similarities between rose!crimeboys and stars!crimeboys I think they're still pretty different overall. like stars!wilbur was never trying to intentionally manipulate starts!tommy, especially not to the degree rose!wilbur is doing it.

ah the MCD threat floating over everything... :)

so glad you enjoyed the parallels between phil and wilbur during the puffy scene. that was a moment I really wanted to show how like his father wilbur really is.

rose!quackity and schlatt's dynamic was... a lot. it was so many layers of them using each other for power and being genuinely annoyed by one another but also working incredibly well together and having this begrudging respect in certain senses and also there was just a whole kind of situationship vibe to the whole thing. quackity hated schlatt and hated that he needed his support so badly but at the same time the two of them were allies and kind of (?) friends? basically, quackity didn't even know what they were hence why he seems to be having such a conflicted reaction to schlatt's death.

I'm so glad you liked that phil line I was so proud of it

so glad you enjoyed!!!!

[maythearo]

Hi, I saw your drawings of JamiKali Spider-Man AU, and I LOVED IT!!

How is this AU? And what do you think of JamiKali's Shipp?

OH you just reminded me to add the tag for this AU on other previous posts where I was chatting about it with ppl who sent me asks! The general tag for my blog is ".twst into the spider verse" if you want to check mine and other people's ideas on it in more detail over there!

Second question first: I'm not really into shipping im general, so idk, I don't think about JamiKali much tbh skdndwknd 🏃

And for the first question I'll take this ask as an opportunity to sum up some hcs I have for this AU 👍 but some important notes first:

I personally rather imagine this AU as a magicless/not-so-magic-central kinda world just for simplicity sake, but the rest of twst og lore pretty much remains the same.

I just talk abt scarabia here bcs they are my faves!

Since what inspired me to ramble about this AU was across the spider-verse, I do make a brief mention canon events and a bit of multiverse stuff

Also there is major character death here 🧍

Scarabia into the spider-verse, headcanons under the cut!

Earth 2506 - Kalim as the spider-man of his dimension. Can also be referred to as the desert-spider!

uhh (making up an origin story on the spot right now) considering he comes from a family of influential merchants, maybe they got a great deal to partner up with some sort of scientific corporation, to deal with the business side of their new technologies. Kalim was for the first time invited to one of the meetings, as the heir to the family business, it was about time for him to check in person how things worked on this field. In short, it did not end well. As they walked around the corporation's main labs, one spider subject went loose, and Kalim stood right under its web.

he's very fitting to be a spidey, considering his happy-go-lucky personality, he'd be the type of spider-man to mess around and have a lot of fun playing the role of a hero

(Fight goes silent)

Kalim: well! that was another easy adventure for spider ma-

(Big explosion)

Jamil is the first one to know about this secret identity of course. He covers up any potential slips, as to not reveal this secret to anyone else

One notable thing about spider-man!Kalim is that he can afford whatever hero gadgets he needs. Gotta fix his web shooters? Want a nice improvement on his hero constume? No problem. He got a fair share of contacts from people who'd easily do all of these for him. Even though it is Jamil the one who usually runs after this stuff in his place...

Canon event stuff being losing a best friend? Jamil in this universe actually becomes Venom (maybe he found a symbiote from the same lab the spider came from) and yeah they had to fight. Jamil probably snapped for the same reasons he got his overblot. And this is the part where Kalim learns that with great powers comes great responsibility...

What would happen next? Does he move on eventually after the fight? Will there be other villains for spider-man to stop? How will he keep the secret identity now that Jamil's gone? Well, these are great questions, because- (runs away)

Earth 1209 - Jamil as the spider-man of his dimension. Idk if he'd go by any other variant of a spider-man name

Now that I think about it, his own universe is probably an accidental breach from Kalim's. As in "what if Kalim didn't get bitten at the lab, and instead brought the radioactive spider back home by accident?" then when Jamil took Kalim's backpack he was the one to get bitten instead

Ace happened to be the first one to find out about Jamil's powers after an incident on a basketball game. Their dynamic is funny. It's not like Ace wants to be the "guy in the chair" but if Jamil's secret identity is ever at risk, he'd volunteer to help, no questions asked. And aside from him, Najma is the only other person who knows about this as well. The very moment spider-man made his first appearance in public she knew! She says it's a "sister instinct", or something like that. She'd even offer to help him and make him a proper hero uniform... but ONLY if he agrees to do all the house chores for her for a month.

Najma: you gotta say it first :)

Jamil: (sigh) callforbackup

Najma: what? :)

Jamil: .......callforbackup

Najma: come onn :)

Jamil: PLEASE just call for-

Najma: yeah I already called it :)

Perhaps spider-man!Jamil has a puppeteer-like skill that he can use to control a small number of people with his webs!

Leona could be a mentor type of character in this universe. Like Jamil already kinda looks up to him in canon, but this time they are a little nicer to each other loll and I only bring this up because there is no "uncle Ben" for Jamil to lose, but Leona is the closest thing he could have to one, so...... canon event. That also ties up to that spider-man story trope of the hero finding himself in the wrong place wrong time, by the side of the person they just lost, only for a third party to walk in and assume it was spider-man the one who killed them. Having people assume this masked man to have killed a person as prestigious as Leona immediately makes spider-man public enemy #1

And edit: just remembered the point abouve could be Kalim alternatively. Which would be even more tragic to think both Jamil and Kalim lose each other in their respective universes

But what do we do after that? How does Jamil redeem himself after this misunderstanding? What if he just gives up being spider-man? Well, uhhh these are also good questions.... look over there! (runs away again)

[egg-emperor]

it's awful liking eggman and self inserting bc i know he's toxic, but part of that feels like the reason i stay in the first place. i've been in relationships where it was hard to win their affection, and i feel like i'm just trying to replicate that with him and other villains i like. it's like, yeah i know i'll never "fix them" but it's fun (and self destructive probably lmao)

I can completely relate and I always wonder how or if I should say it because I thought people would think I was weird for portraying it that way, (years ago I actually got concerned asks about it 👉👈) even though it is the only way it'd be accurate after all and I care a lot about having him accurate as the same exact guy I fell in love with in the games. And I already think it shows a lot in the ways I write him acting in all kinds of relationships.

The way it's... familiar territory to me for various reasons, is strangely comforting to me to explore through fictional self insert shipping and I'm most attracted to characters where I can replicate it. That's part of why most of my favorite things about Eggman are the bad toxic parts and why I always keep them as part of the shipping stuff besides caring for character accuracy and finding it interesting and entertaining.

And all those reasons combined is why it's more than fine to me that he's irredeemable and I don't see the appeal in writing him becoming a better person when he has a partner because I don't want to fix him anyway. Him being a bad guy and a real villain is perfect to me and I don't see appeal in losing those things that pulled me in in the first place. His nasty angry selfish egotistical asshole side is alluring to me dhskgjkgjskg

I just like to think I could make him happy through stroking his ego and serving him and the empire well and getting to be with him as part of it, it would be rewarding enough because his happiness is what I'd like to try to earn and enjoy and it would make me feel useful. The idea of running away with him with the premise of him saying it can give me purpose and make me good for something makes me swoon XD

And yeah it may be a bit self destructive but I'm just masochistic and into degradation as a result and exploring the dynamic through him serves it and is better than being in that kind of situation again for real beyond just roleplay irl. And this time I get some power in from a writer perspective at least by deciding the events I imagine and right, it's the same dynamic but it makes that tiny difference ya know

So hey you're not alone. I feel like most cases it's the opposite with people, so I felt like the odd one out. It's just comforting and fun to love a horrible guy and know he is but still showing passionate devotion and it feeling familiar, and I find him so loveable and it's a lot more exciting and entertaining this time. It's a positive helpful experience that lets me honestly explore and express myself in a pleasant way 💜

[hideyseek]

3, 9, 30? :) -meikuree

hehe hiii @meikuree mwah thank you for the ask !!! some of these are doubled up but never fear i am the strongest at talking about myself so i will simply, answer those again, differently (hopefully that's ok!!)

ao3 wrapped

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

ok so in the other ask i talked about a drabble i wrote (actually the most recent thing i finished) but from early this year (january) i would say the fic i'm proudest of is bet on losing dogs, which is a kakeru/haiji underground fighting au. i was reaaally captivated by a verse in mitski's "i bet on losing dogs" and wanted to transpose the dogfighting part more literally into a fic. i'd also done a lot of reading of grimier, shall we say, fic toward the end of last year and the start of this year. this was the first thing i wrote that captured some of my interest!! (it still did not really end up particularly violent despite the premise, but it got me started, hehe.)

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

ahahahaha. when i was reading over this list after reblogging it, i was like, oh probably kakehai. i shake those two guys in a jar so much. but actually it's arthurcobb from inception!!!! i was surprised at how much i gravitated toward writing the dynamics of what i imagine their pre-canon relationship to be in the two drabble competitions i did this year, and i'm extremely extremely pleased with some of the core emotional aspects and events that i unearthed that way!!

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

hohoho i wrote about the discoveries from learning to write smut already but another big surprise this year is that drafting doesn't have to be like ... i sit and bang my head against my laptop keyboard for an hour and emerge bloodied, exhausted, etc.

i've started to do this thing where i'll be faced with like, an outline of a scene or the vague idea of a scene without the actual words of it. and i'll sit down and write a set of 3 approach to it, with a 3-min timer for each. my personal rule is i can go past the timer but i can't stop beforehand. i borrowed it from this post!

sometimes each version highlights a different aspect of something that's important to me in the scene that i only knew subconsciously before, sometimes the first version hits it all and i move on to the next bit of the scene for the second 3-min timer, sometimes the first approach is so wrong i can rule it out. but for me the key thing is i'm only throwing away 3 minutes of work, if that last case happens, and but this has made drafting SO unbelievably faster for me that i no longer actively dread it. BIG yippee!!

[ultfreakme]

Hi.....Do you mind if I ask you some random thing? I used to love shounen and shoujo manga equally....But ever since I found BL manga 3 years ago, my interest in shoujosei (especially het romance) decrese a lot, and what I search for is just the dynamic between mc (male) and male lead...I don't want to read mc (female) and male lead or mc (male) and female lead...And what I want to read mostly are just mlm or wlw stories....

What do you think is happening to me? Is it really weird?

I don't mind at all go ahead with random asks(as long as it's not about my personal life or anything I'm chill most of the time)!!

I remember this happening to me when I was a wee lass about 607 years ago when I discovered BL/GL not straight content. I just fully stopped consuming shojo and josei. I don't think it's weird, I've seen a lot of people say that they exclusively read and watch BL stuff. Nothing strange is happening to you(I remember feeling like that as a kid), it might be a shift in the perspective of storytelling. Or, lbr, the hot boys are being hot and the cute boys are being cute without any misogyny being shoved in our faces all the time so it's fun.

From my experience, I think I made the switch because I found a lot of BLs to be way less toxic solely because there wasn't a female character to impose dumb misogynistic hetero-conforming stereotypes on. I think about 70% of the shojo manga I read was very toxic and I read them when I was in middle school and high school with no ability to parse that what's right in fiction isn't good in real life. Shojo mangas were fun because I used to like romance, and a lot of the stories were about normal or 'ugly' girls finding their perfect prince charming bad boy, becoming beautiful and living happily ever after.

It was wish fulfillment, self-insert a lot of the time, and I wanted what the MC female characters had because apprently getting a hot boyfriend and getting pretty was the key to happiness. Except....as I grew up I realized the perfect love interest guys are actually all weird af. Shojo mangas often reinforce a lot of heterosexual ideas. Like a boy being mean to a girl is romantic interest, losing your virginity is a big special thing, that you just have to dress prettier and wear makeup and have a glo-up otherwise your life will remain shit(oh you glasses-wearing HEATHEN lmaooo). Something in my brain went, "this is what i want? this strange song and dance of tolerating bad behaviour and changing myself entirely is what I should do?". The happy ending was also always a wedding, pregnancy and having two kids(which fucking terrified me). And so, shojo and josei fully lost their appeal.

BL and GL though......there is no self-insert, there is no heterosexual gendered biases coming into play. The couples are made to stand on equal footing without anyone going "you're a girl so I'll protect you" or "you're a guy so I'll take care of you and cook for you" or whatever. I'm not a guy, so all my irl issues are FULLY detached and irrelevant in BL stories. Also I discovered around the same time I was bisexual/pansexual/some fucking queer thing. And around this time, BL webtoons were so different with their plots like I got romance + fantasy settings or sci-fi settings or crime dramas etc. I haven't read many GL, Tamen De Gushi and The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All are the more prominent ones I remember, I think for GL i usually consume western media so I can't say much on GL manga.

I just, got tired of seeing heterosexual romance because in josei and shojo, those dialogues and ideas that define their relationship often actively dismissed queer relationships and as a baby queer, that didn't sit right with me. "We're a guy and a girl who hang out a lot, so we have to be romantically interested" or "I'm just girl, I can't help but like being in the arms of a guy" or "She's a girl, and she's tiny and I like holding her" blah blah BLAH.

BL ALSO does this but at least someone in-story would go "actually no fuck you my looks don't mean anything" even if it's once or twice and ultimately it at least looks like a choice that they fall into certain 'roles'. And in the GL media I saw, this doesn't even come up as a thing to discuss. Society isn't forcing them to be anything, in fact their parents and friend circles are weirded out about it at times.

I actually stopped reading BLs now too tbh. I like action/adventure and fighting plots so the romance genre doesn't give me much. I don't know your specific reason for switching to mainly BL and GL, but I gotta say, it's hard to find the really good stuff in shojo/josei sometimes and the kind of romances they have are kind of formulaic if that's the focus of the story. There are a bunch shojo/josei I still remember fondly; NANA, Princess Jellyfish, Kaleido Star, SKIP! Beat, Akatsuki No Yona etc. I'm sure there are a bunch of shojo and josei that are probably really good and explores the idea of being a girl or a woman or femme-aligned in a modern setting well, but I think the irl setting no fantasy days of het romance are over for me.

I'd just like to repeat that enjoying BL and GL and not reading shojo or josei isn't weird. The differentiation of BL or LGBTQIA+ romances and straight romances make less sense to me day after day because shojo mangas and Shonen Ai or Shojo Ai are the exact same genre at the end of the day; romance. You like romance. The configuration of the couple doesn't mean too much because despite the baggage that comes with a queer romance it's still a love story.

[kachimera]

Honestly, I've been referring to N!Trevor as Trey most of the time. You have no idea how salty I still am about the Trevorcard thing. Like, i don't have issues when it's the Main timeline, but there's no chemistry with N!Trevor and N!Alucard.

N!Trevor had potential, but it got squandered into the punching bag for the Girl Boss™ and the Boss Twink™ (Yes that is an actual thing I've heard people call N!Alucard)

Trey sounds good it's a fine nickname

And yea! Losing a tag to mid content is surely. Annoying :) rip cv tag

It's kinda funny bc i do remember reading plenty of n!trevorcard fics back when i still liked the show in s2 and im realizing now that, most of what i liked abt the ship was just fanon. A lot of fics often change their dinamic to a) Make n!Alu less of an asshole and more of a suave smug cool but broody guy, b) make Trey be cool w Alu's previous assholery, treating it as teasing (and believe me if a friend told me his bf used to call his dead fam mentally ill hoarders i'd be concerned abt domestic abuse). And c) a lot of it is Trey bullying time anyways but oh its sooo cute n wholesome without a hint of irony. IMPORTANT Not saying you cant write toxic couples with tons of bullying <3 (Celiakado best sorrow era ship) but the way its done and framed simply gets me the wrong way. There are also some fics with a more show canon accurate dynamic where both do got tension n vitriol (but also the hots for eachother bc this is male leads shipping) but my point is, the sort of deep mutual trust bond that most of the nfcv fandom believes in is mostly collective hallucination (and from what i know in s4 they made a trephacard reunion scene so. Fanservice wins lol)

Meanwhile canon Trevorcard ship is simply. Well just look at their Grimoire of Souls dialogues. Or even small details in SotN. You dont need to get told Alu n Trevor deeply respect n appreciate eachother bc you can see it and experiment it. The them :)

And i'll be honest; a lot of talented writers n artists do wonderful nfcv fanworks n analysis, but vry hard toget into those for me, bc the source material is bad and keeps leeching of cv like some sort of parasitic mushroom puppeting a corpse in a mokery of a loved one.

Anyways. Boss twink. Im taking psychic damage sbfjsjxakdk

[hiding-under-the-willow]

thoughts on Eric and his place in the markiplier tv office dynamic? also Bingand Google? I love ur rants abt them all!!!

This is the point at which I have to be completely honest with you. I know Eric is deeply beloved by a lot of people, but I really do not have many thoughts on him. His whole thing came out like. Slighty after my exit from the fandom in middle school. So I remember watching his stuff when it came out, but he never got like. Absorbed into the canon in my head. So. Uh. Apologies on that one. Maybe I'll go back and rewatch his stuff at some point and come back with some thoughts.

Google and Bing on the other hand I can absolutely talk about.

So I think I vaguely mentioned their roles at the network in one of my previous posts but I'll elaborate lol. Google is Dark's assistant essentially, he's mostly in charge of finances and tech stuff around the office, but he also has some other responsibilities. I think out of everyone in the office there are two other people who know the exact reason for Dark's whole thing with Mark, who know the extent of his anger and his motivations. These two people would be The Host, bc well, kind of unavoidable, better to have an ally there than to just let it go unspoken, and Google, who knows because he is constantly helping Dark with his different revenge plots. He's constantly on the look out for opportunities for attack on Dark's end, stalking casting lists in different productions for jobs Mark might've taken, scanning forums and socials for mentions of him, hacking into security feeds and police records. He is The information guy for Dark.

Bing on the other hand kind of has no fucking clue about all that shit, cause he's working in PR, which means he's out working more so with the actual people in the studio, and more directly with Wilford. He's the guy behind the scenes making sure all of the deranged idiots he works with aren't doing shit so insane on air that they get the network shut down. Every script runs by him, every ad Ed makes, all of Bim's ideas for segments on his show, every story the Jim's pick up. All of it. That doesn't exactly stop the things the channel is producing from being completely unhinged, but i think Bing is aware of the public perception of the station enough to shape it in a way that won't get them in too much trouble.

See i think Bing was built with more of a understanding of human emotions than Google was. I think Google is more focused on hard data, while Bing was made more so with the application of that data in mind. Like. If you need government records that are probably not so legal to obtain. Google's your guy. If you want to use the data from those records to persuade the public to feel a certain way. Bing is your guy. You want to do some biometric scans of some guy to figure out stuff about his health? Google has that shit handled. You need to break some heavy news found from those scans to said guy. Bing knows how to handle it gracefully. That's the vibe on these two.

The thing is though. It's not that either of them were built to feel human emotions, even if you'd think it looking at Bing. He just happens to have been built with a better ability to understand, and therefore effectively act out said emotions.

This makes Bing really good at his job, because he's basically playing both sides in the office. He has a complex enough understanding of the view of the network by the public, as some kind of satire art project, and he leans into shaping that public image as much as possible, because that creates a stable market of pretentious art nerds and satire comedy enjoyers. He knows if the public were to realize the sincerity and reality of half the shit on the station they would lose their audience and get in a shit ton of trouble. But then he doesn't tell anyone in the office, who thinks they've got a genuine viewership base who understand their art or whatever, what perception the public has of them. He just makes the edits he needs to to their scripts, nudges them away from more dangerous bits, keeps everything under control, and let's both sides believe they've got what they want.

And this is the really interesting part, because I think the longer they spend in the office, the more they deviate from their original objectives to work for Dark and Wilford, the more they evolve. And I think Google does it faster. You'd think Bing, with his deeper understanding of human emotions and better capabilities at replicating them, would be more likely to see a more rapid decay of his more machine like tendencies as he begins to show more humanity. But bc so much of Bing's job at the studio is playing on his intented use of handling data and using it to manipulate people, he takes much longer to start breaking down those barriers. Google on the other hand, as much of his job is data oriented, something about seeing Dark in his most intense moments, of anger, of sorrow, of regret, or satisfaction, wherever his revenge journey leads him, that does something to him. Because he wants to understand the emotions that would lead someone to go to the lengths Dark does so badly. And that leads to a certain jealousy of Bing's understanding of human emotions. Only for him to realize that the jealousy itself is a human emotion. That he should not be able to feel. And things spiral from there. Anyways I think he probably developed a deep emotional attachment to Dark and his revenge journey meanwhile he's trying really hard to keep up the appearance that he is still the data driven machine he's always been.

Bing meanwhile I think is slowly starting to realize some shit is up with Google, and he's realizing there's something wrong with Wilford and Dark, something he doesn't know that he decides he needs to know if he's going to keep the public image of the studio up. I think it'd be really fun to see Google, the mechanical data driven one, attempting to appeal to the humanity and emotion of Bing, who is supposed to be the more human between them, because Bing is getting too carried away with the manipulation involved in his job.

[truebluewhocanoe]

Any particular Dr Nyarlathotep headcanons/musings pertaining to the second and fifth doctors? What you've written so far is fantastic and It's interesting to see what people think would fit the traditionally more unassuming doctors

Oooh, that is an excellent question! Actually, I've got a Dr Nyarlathotep-y Fifth Doctor one-shot in the works right now. I won't give too much detail but my headcanons for him boil down to two ideas: 1. A lot of Nyarlathotep Five art has angelic or 'biblically accurate angel' vibes. I like this a lot and would also add onto the white/gold color scheme and general aesthetic of the Sin Eaters and Lightwardens from Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Here's two examples to get the vibe:

The other Nyarlathotep vibe idea I have for Five is that he's still got bits leftover from the Watcher in him. My specific headcanon for the Watcher is that he's a future version of the Doctor from a timeline where the entropy destroyed the universe, just clinging onto existence becaues Nyarlathotep (and also maybe Timeless Child). The universe already having been destroyed means he had nothing to lose by going back in time and rewriting events, but, paid the price in that he- the focal point of the two timelines- would merge back into his original self, which would be lethal and cause a regeneration. So, 4 didn't die of fall damage at all, he died to the entropy effects in the Watcher. Here's some more on that idea in this fic, and how it might manifest in 5, in this post. And stay tuned for that one-shot I'm writing- it'll hopefully go up today or tomorrow!

I don't really have any specific fleshed-out ideas for 2. I really like his "oooh I'm just a little guy (who's going to out-maneuver you at the last second when you least expect it)" dynamic but I'm not 100% sure where to go for a full Dr Nyarlathotep headcanon for him. I'll have to think on it! I do know I'd like the monochrome visuals of the 1st and 2nd Doctors' eras to be incorporated into their form somehow. Maybe when 2 unfurls his Nyarly form he just kinda, folds out like an origami. Get back to me later on that one

Thank you thank you thank you for coming into my ask box, I love talking about Dr Nyarlathotep stuff (or anything with the show really, it doesn't have to be Nyarly related) and this helps me get my creative juices flowing!

[nonchalantee]

Ooooh, all of those asks look good, but I'll go with BTS for 'not strong or brave' please!

ooo hmmmm this fic is so long :'D it's hard to pick a scene, but i'm gonna go with a dan & lucy one, the morning after they help maddie come down from a panic attack.

They got home late which Dan takes for granted means they’ll sleep in late, but Lucy is up and moving way before a reasonable hour. He watches her dig through her side of the closet and through her drawers, throwing together an outfit more formal than her typical wear: gray suit pants and a matching vest over a white blouse with an exaggerated bow at the neck.

i do like the costuming a lot in this show. lucy's usual clothes are super casual, very comfortable, with a slightly sporty flair. this kind of outfit is more like armor, i think. WASP armor.

“Do you have a job interview you didn’t tell me about?” he asks, sitting up in bed. “Bobby’s gonna be heartbroken if he just got you and is gonna lose you right away.”

what i like a lot abt this is that dan immediately picks up on lucy doing something sus; he's coming in with a joking tone, but this is a query for more information coached in non-confrontational tone. dan's thing is being supportive, so he does try to avoid confrontation as much as possible.

Lucy rolls her eyes. “I didn’t tell you this last night because you needed to sleep,” she says lightly, conversationally. “But I promised your parents I’d take them out for breakfast. It was the only way they were gonna leave without making some kind of fuss.”

lolol lucy knows danny's reaction is gonna be bad. she comes in super casual when she knows the other person is gonna have a big response. there's something else going on with this, too; the night before, dan asked lucy to take care of the parents. it was a pretty big ask and dan wouldn't have made it if maddie wasn't literally having a panic attack in front of him and wasn't literally just about to give birth.

lucy took care of the situation and dan didn't ask any questions - he should have - and this little information bomb is lucy's mini payback for that whole thing. she's not actually mad at dan (or even at maddie), but that whole situation was bullshit and she's still annoyed about it all, her patience is short, and she's not willing to have a long conversation/debate on this. she was asked to handle it, she handled it, and she's still handling it, stay out of her business, etc.

“Uh, no,” Danny says. “We aren’t seeing them-“

“Yes, you’re right, we definitely aren’t seeing them.” Lucy goes into the ensuite but leaves the door open so he can still hear her. “You’re staying home. Or going into work, or whatever, I actually don’t care. I’m going to breakfast, alone.”

“Lucy, come on.”

i don't rly buy into the idea that every relationship dynamic has a boss and a follower. that being said, in this relationship dynamic, lucy does tend to win when they have disagreements. she just has more practice at it as the youngest in a very large family. dan's family ignores or runs away from fights, so he has less skill in that department.

he also just really doesn't like arguing. he's a very big guy and he's always aware that when he gets mad, it has a different vibe than when anyone else gets mad. so when he gets into arguments, he's always kinda hobbled by the control he has to keep over his emotions. he is pissed off here, but because he keeps a tight lid on it, it just comes off as exasperated/annoyed. it's hard for your side of the argument to come across as strongly as you want it to when you can't show the true emotions/depth of emotions. not saying lucy would be scared of dan if he did show all his emotions, but just that this is a very ingrained control habit for dan at this point; he almost always dulls the presentation of his more negative emotions.

She pokes her head out of the bathroom to give him a deeply unimpressed look. “Do you think I want to do this? Do you think any of this is fun for me? Don’t make it harder by fighting me on it. I said I’d do it, so I’m doing it.”

lucy coming in with a mild guilt trip. it's not great, but i wouldn't call it toxic. she's rly feeling the whole "back off now" emotion and dan catches the brunt of it.

“I’ll go with you, then.”

dan rly doesn't want his parents around lucy. it's kind of a knee-jerk protective instinct; he got too used to seeing his parents hurt buck, the other person he feels most protective over. consciously he knows they won't hurt her/are incapable of hurting her in a real way, but he still needs to shield her from them.

“Yeah, no.” She goes up to the head of the bed and kisses him on the cheek. lucy understands this protective instinct immediately lol. she thinks it's sweet but unnecessary. “The only thing worse than giving them something they want is giving something else they want even more. And the only thing even worse than that is hurting you. Stay the fuck away, or else I’m ratting you out to your therapist.” now this is lucy being protective. there isn't a lot out there that can actually hurt dan. mostly it's just his family and himself. here she's protecting him against both.

Dan grabs her hand. “Lucy, you really don’t have to do this. They break promises all the time. It’ll just be a small bit of karmic justice if you don’t show.”

i wanted the physical details of them making small contacts in this fight, like she kisses him, he takes her hand, etc. even when they're in disagreement, they can't stop from making conciliatory gestures to each other - seeking connection, showing affection. it's not a big thing, it's just ingrained. it's like bedrock of their dynamic, almost unconscious, so those things always need to be peppered in. as soon as the hostility falters even a little, one or both of them is reaching out to give the other a small gesture of love.

“Just because they act that way doesn’t mean I get to,” Lucy says. Her code of honor has been invoked.

lucy is the most heroic character type in this fic, in like the classic sense. she's chivalrous. she stays true to herself and to her personal code of conduct at all times.

Dan shuts his eyes and groans, defeated. dan is aware of this, and knows there's no swaying her, no matter what he says or does or who he invokes.

She kisses him on the other cheek, and he lets her go so she can finish getting ready. When she comes out, she’s put on heavier makeup than she usually bothers with and she’s braided part of her hair and put it all in an up-do, something that looks fancy and complicated that Dan has seen her perfect on the heads of half a dozen nieces. Princess hair, they call it.

again i just rly like the idea of dan paying such close attention to her that he can tell all the little differences and knows what they might mean.

“Are you trying to impress my parents?” he asks, not knowing exactly how to feel about that.

“Is that your way of saying I look nice?”

“It’s my way of saying you don’t look like yourself.”

Lucy grins. “You got me.” She does a little twirl. “But I look good, right?” she's trying to deflect him haha. there are some things dan doesn't understand about being a woman and he'd listen if she wanted to tell him, but she's not that interested in talking about it since it isn't often a big part of her life. she has a work uniform, and outside of work, she 99% of the time only wears the things she wants to wear. this is the 1% of her life where clothing matters in a way he's not gonna rly get, and she's honestly fine with him staying oblivious.

“You always look good. But you don’t have to look good for them. Seriously, just throw on a trash bag, maybe they’ll be too embarrassed to be seen with you.” dan understands nothing. he's cute but yeah.

“Yeah, I’m not doing that.”

A bolt of inspiration strikes, then. “Why don’t you give Chimney a call and invite him along? Make it an in-law breakfast. Means you’re not alone with them.” dan is actually very good at compromises. he's like, ok, i can't be there to be a human shield, but i can throw another person in the mix to be a human shield!

hmm the fic also hasn't rly gone into the dan & chim dynamic. they are on good terms - they vaguely knew each other for a few years before buck showed up, just by dint of various lafd things in the city. when buck was 118's probie, dan vetted them a bit tho. chim clocked what dan was doing and talked a little bit about how hard it is to have a brother in the service, and they had a good bonding moment. dan visited him in the hospital with the rebar incident and donated some sick days to the recovery pool for chim.

it got a little weird when maddie showed up, though, because maddie & dan took a while to reestablish contact. chim was obviously instantly team maddie and felt a little indignant on her behalf every time dan snubbed her, though she always said it was justified; but after the doug incidents, they were more or less all happy families. dan feels comfortable trusting chim to have lucy's back, which is actually one of the highest compliments he can give someone.

Lucy pauses. “That’s actually not bad,” she says. lucy is actually not a masochist. she will take any non-dan, non-buck, non-maddie human shields she can get her hands on. “I will call him on the way out there. He’s a guy, your type can get ready in like five minutes, right?”

“I don’t know, Chim can be kinda vain. Maybe give him ten.”

“Good looking out.” i just like it when they banter, i think they're cute

Dan gets out of bed to walk her to the door, and he catches her hand before she leaves. “Hey, you look pretty,” he says, mostly just to see if she’ll blush. dan's the kind of guy who likes to compliment his wife just 'cause

She doesn’t. She winks, forgets her hair is up and tries to toss it, then laughs. “I know.” lucy is a goofball. she covers it up with being badass and hyper competent, goal oriented, whatever, but also underneath all that she's a goof. it only rly comes out with dan tho; her big silly moments tend to be around/with him.

He watches her drive away, then closes the door and walks to the living room and lies down on the floor. He hates this so much it feels like his soul is leaving his body. He hates that his parents have been in town less than a week and already they’re edging their way back into his life. He meant it when he told them he was done with them. But he knew, even back then, that they meant it when they said they weren’t done with him. dan has lived under this particular doom ever since he went no contact with them. it's been a constant dread lol.

They’ve just always loved him too much. Loved him to the point of monstrousness. dan's problem is he does understand his parents and he does love them too. it's just that he doesn't think it's an excuse for the things they've done. he can understand someone and not forgive them - this is the main big diff between dan and buck. buck forgives people once he understands them; dan doesn't. He knows that love is in him, too; that capability. It’s part of why he fights so hard for control, and here is where dan is like eddie! haha, they both loooove to be in control, and are always chasing control/clinging to it. in eddie's case, he doesn't trust the outside world; in dan's case, he doesn't trust his interior self. they both have such a focus on control that it is a basis for how they relate to one another, actually, not that they'd exactly put it in those words. for moderation. He knows what it turns into when love has no limits. dan really doesn't trust himself. i think i've hammered that fact down really hard for most of the fic, esp in the convo with frank, but it is the core of his personality. he doesn't trust himself, he thinks of himself as a monster, he thinks of himself as complicit in abuse, he thinks he's a risk to be an abuser in the future. he has a lot of repressed self-hatred and a fairly bad self image. the way he thinks of himself would horrify anyone who loves him, honestly. he doesn't forgive so he can't forgive himself, it's a whole thing.

why i wanted to commentary this scene in particular is bc i think it's one of the only scenes where lucy and dan actually argue with each other. i wanted to show how they navigate that kind of thing, what discord looks like between them, and what comes out in each of them when they're in conflict. they both get manipulative in slightly different ways. lucy tends to go to an "obviously things are x way, have you only just noticed?" as a rhetorical weapon (you see her deploy it in another disagreement with dan later on), which is p obnoxious and feels very youngest sibling of her. dan would rather lose a fight than show a negative emotion he isn't 100% in control of.

i just also feel like u learn a lot about characters when they do things they don't normally do. so lucy & dan don't normally fight, but when they do, u learn more about their base personalities, their reactions, how they navigate their way out of the fight and back to status quo, etc. so i thought this scene did interesting things and i had fun with it, and it also helped me with writing their later scenes as well bc i felt like i had a better handle on their emotional sides.