#just to become Dad somehow

[socksandbuttons]

Alright i wanna see the new boi

If theyre gonna give us More robot than yes

Please

[sunderwight]

Thinking about Black Widow Luo Binghe.

Hear me out -- so just like in canon, Shen Qingqiu self-destructs to save Luo Binghe, dies, and Luo Binghe steals his body to put on ice while he looks for methods to resurrect him. But unlike in canon, staving off decomposition is simply not that doable for a matter of years, even with cultivation and Luo Binghe pouring qi into the process. The qi costs are still high, so is Xin Mo, and now Binghe also needs a special artifact that can actually preserve Shen Qingqiu, but that runs on blood sacrifices.

To get the thing working, Luo Binghe feeds it a bunch of prisoners from the Water Prison. Then he starts kidnapping cultivators to drain for his own qi reserves, but that's difficult, controversial, and he can't use the same victims for the blood sacrifice afterwards. Frankly, between one thing and another it would be easier to satisfy Xin Mo with dual cultivation, and focus on finding victims for Shizun's Snow White style glass preservation coffin without having to choose between using targets for one or the other. Especially given that, if he finesses it, Luo Binghe can extend the use of his sacrifices and get more out of them with fewer deaths that way.

He's pretty sure that Shizun would want fewer deaths.

Of course, he is not a fan of the logistics of the plan itself, but he'd do worse things to one day be reunited. He consoles himself that he's building up bedroom experience for one day being with Shen Qingqiu, and that it doesn't really count because his heart's not really in it, and also if Shizun got to spend all that time in brothels then it's only fitting that Luo Binghe be his equal in this as well. It still doesn't make it pleasant for him, but it makes him able to tolerate the necessity of it.

So Luo Binghe ends up marrying a string of rich and powerful figures -- mostly the villainous single fathers and mothers and evil uncles of harem members from PIDW, rather than their daughters -- and coming up with creative ways of making all their deaths a few months into the process look like accidents. After the third one people are undeniably wary of marrying him, but there's always someone with a big enough ego to think they'll be an exception, or stupid enough to believe that it really has just been so much bad luck up to that point. It helps that the universe is predisposed to let him hit it.

When SY wakes up in the shroom body and hears about Luo Binghe's succession of marriages, he's not surprised. What he is surprised by is the bisexual graveyard of toxic dilfs and milfs that has replaced the harem.

What did he do to cause that?!

And what does Luo Binghe mean that he wants to marry his own shizun now? Is this his new method of revenge??? Binghe, you don't have to marry someone to kill them!

[riacte]

so hey guys i finished dungeon meshi yesterday and i'm still thinking about it

[pyechmushy]

[heteromerous-rhyming]

also the disney promotion just left a bad taste in my mouth. let's be so honest, annabeth's reaction to disney world (esp bc in the show she canonically has not watched a single movie apparently) would probably be confusion and disgust. she strikes me as the type of person to dislike large crowds and none of the attractions would make proper sense to her. disney world is also so heavily commercial and she's lived half her like in camp half-blood, which is a place pretty much untouched by capitalism.

they're not going to do this of course but. if they do mention disney world next season, the only way (imo) they could do it in character is to have annabeth vent about the park. like go, yeah my dad thought i'd love it but he clearly doesn't know my interests. we decided to go home early and ended up talking about architecture during post-wwii reconstruction.

[hershelwidget]

A collection of things I’ve screamed into the void with mild hope that the void would scream back (it did. on several of these)

I am so sorry but every single word uttered here is canon to YLS’s already insane lore. yes even the one about Jack Skellington. yes even the one about Dimentio. yes even the one that ties into MSM/TBoCI. yes ESPECIALLY the one about Captain Barnacles.

[compacflt]

While I was reading your slider oneshot for the third time (sooooo good btw, i cant say enough how much i love your writing), I kept thinking about Ice and Sliders conversation about Carole-[“Me and Carole?” Ice said, thinking it over. He smiled his bitter, bashful smile— “Yeah, we might’ve worked out, once. I won’t get into the details. We tried it out. But I don’t think the timing was right.”]-What is Ice referencing here?? Is he referring to when Carole kissed him? Or did I miss something (entirely possible tbh)? I really felt like Mav when I read that scene ["What do Admiral Kazansky and Carole Bradshaw get up to when he doesn’t know about it?"]

The parallel of Mav being [redacted] with Goose and Carole liking/loving/pining for Ice. Wow! So deliciously complex. What an interesting little love square they have going on. Bradley and his four parents.

But man...Carole really is such a tragic figure in both canon and your fic. But I really really love the depth of emotion that you give her in the glimpses that we get. Her relationships with both Mav and Ice are so interesting and layered. They just feel very real. I really really loved the gimpse of her point of view you gave us in the Dad!Ice fic (the half empty box of cigarettes!! I still think about that)

this is such a sweet ask. thank you. yes he was referring to her kissing him (not really “trying it out,” to be fair, but he’s also trying to “prove” to slider that he’s still interested in women, so he’s using even the most tangential of evidence and holding it up like “see? See? not gonna give you all the details but Trust Me bro we tried it out😎”)

& also here’s from my notes in my printed-out copy of my fics from last OCTOBER (whoa). Referring to the scene in the hospital when Carole gives ice & maverick the instructions to pull Bradley’s USNA app & suggests she & ice have discussed it previously (they haven’t).

Carole is pretty much the only person who is around both Ice & mav enough to know the truth of who they are. (Slider also recognizes this— “ice let Carole Bradshaw see his happiness but not slider… :( que cruel”. And the whole “she is literally the only camera capturing icemav’s happiness on film for the historical record” section of slider

.) And Carole therefore is the only person to whom ice quite literally cannot deny that he & maverick are together, because she… has eyes. And is their best friend. and they’re raising her kid with her. So that sets her up as like a confessional character, in that ice HAS to be truthful with her in a way he isn’t with anyone else, including… his literal boyfriend maverick. so it’s a pretty easy leap for Maverick to be like, It’s a given that ice does not honestly want to be with me, a man -> but he is honest about his feelings with Carole, a woman who has expressed interest in him, behind my back (“what do admiral Kazansky & Carole Bradshaw get up to when he doesn’t know about it?”) -> Omg they’re having a heterosexual emotional affair. Which, like, they totally might be? which is why i keep going back to the *possibility* that they might have worked out once, had it not been for the simultaneous timing of ice falling in love with maverick, since ice is also Bradley’s no. 1 dad figure in my story. Which slider points out.

From a heterosexual family planning perspective, ice & Carole together just kinda makes sense. In a way that everyone in the story recognizes, for better or worse.

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

i have to think about chilchuck and laios forever

[moongothic]

Crocodile having such an explosive debut in his early 20s and such deep trust issues could also point to him having an even EARLIER start a la Shanks as an apprentice or something to an older pirate and their crew as a child/teenager — doubling down on the humiliation factor from facing off whitebeard as also a failure to “come of age” and broader sense of betrayal in watching eager encouragement fickly turn to “what did you THINK would happen”s like the kid who gets egged on by their peers into doing something dangerous and then immediately abandoned when they hurt themselves

Can't say if he did have like an early start for sure, since we really don't know anything about Crocodile's early childhood

But simply considdering how Oda typically layers backstories, I absolutely agree, I do think it's more than likely he has somekind of pre-Whitebeard trauma, be it either unrelated childhood trauma or early-pirating-life trauma (or something else)

Like the way Oda structures backstories, although we always remember like The Big Life-Changing Tragedy that happens at the end of the flashback, more often than not the flashback already begins with something horrible to indicate the character's already had a rough life

Robin was already alone, abused and rejected by most of Ohara even before the Buster Call Incident (followed by a life of running in fear for decades)

Franky had already been abandoned by his family before he lost Tom and got ran over by a train

Law had already lost his entire family before Doffy killed Rosi

Etc etc. Like not all the flashbacks are entirely like this, especially the East Blue-saga ones, but the backstories have been growing in complexity and structure, adding layers to the tragedies (like 🧅 onions 🧅) as the story has gone on

And with Kuma, his backstory doesn't end at two layers of tragedy. Like there's the early childhood tragedy of slavery, then there's the tragedy of losing his loved one in the most cruel, inhumane way possible, and we know there's at least one more gut-punch of a tragedy coming in the next two chapters to finish it all off

So with Crocodile especially I feel like... Like yes, possibly getting betrayed once in his life and having his dreams crushed by Whitebeard could break the man's psyche. But considdering just how seemingly broken his psyche might be, I do absolutely believe there's more layers here. Like his trust must've been broken more than once for him to end up the way he has.

Which alone gives Crocodad a bit more plausibility in my mind, because being rejected by the person you loved and trusted the most would most certainly break your heart (even if it was understandable why). And that really would make for a fine Final Nail on the Coffin for Crocodile's ability to have faith in others

But to really get that broken trust to be an on-going theme in his life that just happens again and again.... yeah it needs to start earlier

Personally, I think some kind of early childhood trauma would make the most sense, at least to me, not just because it could help Crocodile get started "on the wrong foot", but also because Rough Childhoods is just. A General Theme in One Piece lmao. Of course, it wouldn't be The Key Life-Changing Tragedy (I think Dragon would be that), just a "bad start"

[meownotgood]

the post earlier about dad aki🥺!!! dad aki is the type of dad to be real patient with his kids whilst doing homework and teaching them how to read! and omg he wears that baby sling thing when you’re grocery shopping together, you catch him in the corner of your eye pretending to bite your baby’s hand and blowing raspberries and kisses into their palm! and he also has an incredibly soft voice with them 🥺

dad aki you are so precious to me....

he's the most compassionate father, he never raises his voice, he's always patient with his child and tells them how proud he is when they finally figure out something he's been teaching them.

and he's the most prepared dad, he keeps everything he needs for his baby in his car, and that means absolutely everything. his backseat is littered with a strapped-in carseat, extra pairs of clothes, packets of diapers and wipes. he takes the baby sling everywhere with him, but he's also got a basket and a stroller in the trunk. he keeps an extra pacifier in his glove box and never forgets to bring their baby blanket. sometimes, he gets some interesting looks from his coworkers whenever they ask him to give them a ride, just because yeah, he has a ring on his finger, but aki never really struck them as a family sort of man.

and with his coworkers, he's known to speak somewhat coldly, to always maintain a super serious serious sort of tone... that's why it comes as a bit of a shock for anyone to see the way he talks to his baby. his voice instantly gets so much softer, more high-pitched. he's laughing and smiling as he kisses their forehead and squeezes their tiny hands.

[ask-ursa-tonypeter]

[fic: double-blind] Question for extremis!Tony: so Peter clearly prefers the version of you before/without the extremis, to the point of doing everything he can to bring that person back. How does that make you feel? Hurt, angry, jealous? Or do you just think it's Peter being silly/mistaken and it doesn't bother you at all?

There is no person to bring back. He can't see it right now; he's... confused. But when I make things up to him, he'll realize I've been the same dad he's always known the whole time.

[corvidaedream]

in my quest to maybe move back to providence after 20 years, im looking at jobs down there and damn i think i might be better off financially pivoting to carpentry/construction work for a while

[skrunksthatwunk]

household enemy to the yyh watchthrough number one is the olympics. it's taken us a week to get two episodes into the gamemaster fight

[jangmo-othewarrior]

Playable Patty Concept? Playable Patty Concept!

Truth be told, this has been stirring in between my ears for a while now. Patty is always fun to brainstorm about, and I've seen some posts discussing her playstyle, so I've decided to put my hat in the ring.

First things first, what makes Patty unique?

Every single character in DMC has their own unique quailty to their gameplay that differentiates them from each other. Lady primarily uses guns, Vergil has the motivation gauge, which encourages precise and accurate gameplay, Dante has a revolving door of weapons and guns, you get the picture.

So, what about Patty?

Patty is the descendent of a demon summoner, and thus has the ability to summon recreations of powerful demons she has already defeated (bosses). She utilizes these alongside her rapier and her twin pistols to mow down demon hordes like a freshly cut lawn.

In a way, this style would be somewhat similar to Nero; one melee weapon and one gun weapon with a revolving door of one more thing. However, the demon summons themselves would be more similar to Dante's weapon switching, with some differences. Which leads us too...

How does Patty's weapons work in gameplay?

Similarly to Nero, Patty has her pistols and her rapier. The pistols are somewhat similar to Ebony and Ivory, but they are much more equal, both technically being interchangeable for the other rather than having specfic purposes. These pistols, whose names are Fuchsia and Magenta (she was ten and wanted to have cool, rhyming guns like Dante), are special in their ability to link up with her demon summons for combos, but we'll get into that soon.

Patty's rapier, affectionately nicknamed Harmonia after the Greek godess of unity (Vergil approved), is unique in DMC weapons in its swordplay style. Instead of slashing like the DSD or Red Queen, Homonia is designed for stabbing and disarming. Patty's sword style is much more reliant on dodging and finding openings for stab attacks than just brute force. This works in tandem with Patty more squishy nature compared to the Demon Bois. Harmonia also links up with demon summons for combos, just like Magenta and Fuchsia.

So, how do Patty's demon summons work?

Similarly to Dante and Vergil, Patty has a rotating door of different summons collected from the remnants of her bosses throughout this hypothetical game. She can switch between them just like how Dante switches his weapons, and she can summon them with a click of a button, just like V. They can also be dismissed at the click of a button as well.

Unlike V's familiars, however, these summons are autonomous and attack enemies with basic attacks with no input from Patty. She can, however, run up to a summon and link up with them to access their combos. Each summon is upgradable, and they are all unique. I don't currently have concepts for these summons specifically, but at least one should be a demon from the Anime for funsies.

Okay, but what about Patty's upgrades specifically? What is her skill ceiling like?

Now this is where the fun begins.

Patty's skill ceiling comes from the player's ability to manage summons. Which one should you use when, that type of thing. However, with a simple upgrade, Patty can have multiple summons out fighting at the same time. Obviously this can become chaotic, especially when the player upgrades enough so that ALL of Patty's summons can come out at the click of a single button.

Obviously, this can can be overwhelming for the player. Four separate, autonomous entities all fighting enemies and you want a specific one for combos but you have to run up to it in the middle of the extremely chaotic fight just to use the combos you want? Seems like a hassle. Thus, there would be upgrades that let the player map specific summons to certain buttons so that Patty can have her chosen summon immediately link up with her for combos.

Essentially, Patty's gameplay is like if V's familiars were on DT AI mode the entire game except there are 4 of them and Patty can link up with them for combos as easily as Dante can style-switch. (It would even use the D-Pad just like style-switching on a controller!)

Finally, what about her Devil Trigger Gauge?

Well, looking at the only character somewhat similar to her, V, his DT summons Nightmare. So, Patty's DT would have her summon a powerful demon, easy. But which demon? Nightmare worked because of his status as one of the last bosses before Mundus in DMC 1, and his lore surrounding his power being so great that Mundus threw him into his own dimension because he didn't want to deal with him. But DMC5 Nightmare at least listened to V, so Patty's DT summon would need to at least have to listen her, which most demons, if not all, fundamentally don't. So clearly we've run out of options, right?

... Wrong. Who better to function as Patty's DT summon than the demon she has bossed around and annoyed for a decade at this point? A demon she has managed to get emotionally attached to, and who is definitely emotionally attached to her? A demon who owes her for cleaning the office he trashed in a fight again, so Dante better show up before she drags Vergil into this mess.

Dante's doppelganger features as Patty's DT, and essentially functions similarly to Nightmare. Fully autonomous, until you upgrade him. Then, Patty will jump onto his back for a demon killing piggyback ride. The doppelganger would look similar to Vergil's doppelganger, just with Dante's SDT design and red instead of blue. Also, just for fun, when DT ends Doppel!Dante can say a funny quip as he dissipates along the lines of 'We should do this more often!' or 'Don't tell your mom about this, Pattycakes!' I dunno, something fun :)

Once I had this idea in my head, it just wouldn't go away. The idea of Patty basically calling her dad and asking him to beat the shit out of whatever demons she's fighting is so fucking funny to me. True father-daughter bonding right there.

[seeminglyseph]

I know everyone hates M Knight Shyamalan's The Village, and "oooh it's modern day all along" seems like a lame twist, but consider:

A) wool cloaks fuck and that's always a cool look and I won't apologize for the fact that I definitely just wanted to wear cloaks instead of coats even though I live somewhere that experiences winters in Hardcore Mode and that was not viable

And B) the concept that your parents decided for you that you had to live in a dangerous and reductive environment and raised you on fear and punishment and secrecy because they hated the way society was developing and didn't want you to have access or choice was like. Extremely real fore as someone raised Catholic with multiple friends raised either Jehovah's Witness or Mormon. Like, obviously, it was extremely exaggerated as a 2000s horror-thriller type movie, but like.

It's no Lady in the Water. I honestly haven't seen The Village in a bit, but in concept, I think it does make sense as a cult movie. It's just that too much is like... "oooo it's a twist!" Rather than, like... "damn, the adults of this movie have a cult compound that they have used to isolate, indoctrinate, and control their children, literally creating and becoming monsters that haunt and torment them to keep them in line to maintain a way of life in line with their own moral values"

And like. If you look at it through the lens of like. The emotional impact of how much betrayal goes on within the film in the families and the cult and for the children who had no choice to be there and no information, like. That's much more impactful than simply "it was modern day all along"

It's "your parents have been lying to you all along, and all of your pain and fear has served no greater purpose. Half of these rules were not to keep you safe. They were to make you obey, and you have no way of knowing which are which. The people you trust have deeply and intentionally fractured your relationship with reality as a way to keep you contained and docile and under control. You have been betrayed on the most fundamental level by the people who were supposed to raise you and guard you and keep you safe."

And that's like. That's good horror that sticks in the back of your brain forever? Idk. Maybe my imaginary Village is better than the real Village but like. I think it's a better movie than it gets credit for.

And I want more excuses to wear wool cloaks, like damn.

[sakuraspoke]

giving this a re-listen and felt inclined to share this one particular moment. no reason. just 'cause.