#like in my ideal she talks it over with laios

[possamble]

"someone posted a fic about her dealing with how she'd end up outliving laios and i was like oh god fucking dammit that's so sad"

Oh jeez that fic sounds absolutely gut-wrenching. (can i has link to it? i wanna suffer [affectionate])

here you go sldfvnjsdfv

[toxycodone]

what if i made laios a magic pocket pussy so when he’s horny in the dungeon he can fuck it but since it’s magic it connects to my real pussy and we’re long distance fucking. literally any other character too

- rib anon

What would it be made out of? re-hydrated slime parts? Maybe some sort of magic portal (kinda like teleportation magic....?)

Anyways. That line of thinking had me researching medieval fleshlights. And I found that stuffed leather would be an ideal sex toy.

So, anyways. Laios spends SO much time learning about teleportation magic. Marcille is a little confused why, but honestly she's not gonna question Laios learning some sort of magic that doesn't have to do with monsters (finally) so she's encouraging and guiding him through the process.

And eventually, Laios has this perfect creation. A little leather pouch with magic incantations embroidered on the sides.

It doesn't look like much. But when he opens it, the embroidery glows slightly as your entrance is revealed to him. (You wear a special kind of embroidered underwear to help with the spell. <3 and when you wear it you always know he's gonna be fucking you whenever he gets the chance.)

And you know when he's activating it because you'll feel his breath against your slit. He's always eager with this thing, the first thing he does is spit on it and go to town fucking you on his tongue. You have to smack a hand over your mouth if you're talking to someone, buckle your knees to keep yourself from toppling over. Laios can never just tease, he's lapping at you and eating you out like a man starved. And now that he can do it from anywhere? God. You're in trouble.

I think when he does get more experimental (and finds himself with a little self restraint...), He likes to finger you when he gets bored. His advising meetings suck, he zones out most of the time anyways, and he knows Kabru will give him the run down of it all afterwards...so why not have a little fun? Fingering you is so easy now. All he has to do is place two fingers in his pocket and trail them over the edges of the pouch before you let out a little gasp--interrupting the boring droning of some foreign leader complaining about land rights.

Anyways. Laios would get so much use out of this. And your poor hole is now his stim toy <3

[fumifooms]

Dungeon lord Chilchuck

What would his wish as a dungeon lord be? What would he be like? Headcanons & speculation post for fun. But I’ll start with analytic lead up because that’s always fun for me, though feel free to skip and skim.

When it comes to what Chilchuck’s dungeon lord desires could/would be like we have mainly 3 hints: His nightmare, his succubus and what the winged lion says to him.

Why: — From what we see nightmares are based on the person’s worst fears and insecurities, both Laios’ and Marcille’s nightmare were closely tied to their dungeon lord wishes (Laios’ dream monster being summoned to crush the ghosts of relationships that represented the pressure to fit in and belong, Marcille seeking control over death and aging through magic to avoid loss), the fuel behind their desire/goal if you will. Fear and deep-seated desires are seemingly closely tied, something also supported by Thistle and Mithrun’s reigns as dungeon lords (Thistle proving his worth through fulfilling his given duty + protecting his loved ones, being listened to instead of having to listen, Mithrun escaping rigid two-faced elven society and living in a wonderland where he has no enemies and he’s loved, free from everyone he knew yet propped up by the person symbolizing his brother being chosen over him, the bastard child).

— I’ve talked about the significance I assign to the succubi often by now, but rundown: What we see of each character is all very telling if you care to listen, it shows not only someone’s "ideal form" but what they want from it. Izutsumi’s is familial, offering a hug and comfort, Marcille’s is romantic with a character she knows and loves, offering a kiss on a hand and a connection regardless of how distant it actually is, and Laios’ is platonic, arguable at first but then Laios’ fear of judgement is placated and he is offered the picture perfect friend group that accepts his interest (if you want my full look at Laios’ succubus go here). They take on the most alluring form, most ideal person of their victim, even uncovering deep subconscious desires, so precisely and effectively to the point it leaves victims physically frozen before the object of their desire. Succubi and the demon are themselves tied in lore and it’s easy to see how similar their core skill are. Succubi don’t give a good idea of what a character would wish for on their own but they certainly give hints on what they crave, regardless of how you want to read it.

— Last bit is self-explanatory. To placate Chilchuck and win his compliance over, the monster that reads your soul like an open book offers to give him something specific. But! It’s also important to remember that the lion isn’t offering to fulfill Chilchuck’s dream world wish here, it’s a second prize, because his goal with what he promised Laios is that they’d stay in this world, away from everyone and everything else. Chilchuck wants to get away but is kept back, and it’s here the lion placates him with "hey it’s okay! You can’t do that but I can still give you this! This is enough right? It’ll make everything easier on you".

What each bit says: — Long version in another post. Tldlr: His daughters and family are obviously important to him, and this reinforces that he takes on the role of protector a lot, he’s constantly worried for his party members’ lives and implicitly his family’s. Safety and stability, both economical and otherwise, are his core values and goals, and he berates both others and himself if someone fails on those fronts. Here, there’s the fear of not being enough, of not having been able to protect, and of course of loss.

— Chil’s succubi are obviously sexual, and not only that but agressively and straightforwardly so. It’s not like Marcille’s where there’s personality involved, all they do is give him sultry looks and pretty smiles before jumping on him. His succubi aren’t like Izutsumi’s, always the same exact person and appearance, so it’s not someone but an appealing general idea. The idea of a sexual being he can regard as simply a gorgeous piece of meat and a good time no strings attached. In my interpretation, especially with my reading of Laios’ succubus where even with deep-seated desires negative emotions can be too intense to effectively freeze a victim, I think this doesn’t contradict his character. Relationships have been painful to him in the past, in the succubus scene when his wife gets mentioned his immediate reaction is to yell "Don’t bring her up now!", like with his habit of drinking and as a tallman liking his senses feeling dulled, it’s about not having to feel emotions with how difficult they are to deal with sometimes and just feeling good, or at least not having to think, for a while. If a succubus showcases someone’s ideal connection with an ideal person, then Chilchuck’s is with a pretty person that doesn’t stir any negative memory or drama, someone low stakes and low maintenance that doesn’t require him to manage or talk out feelings because there’s none involved in the first place.

— Once more, wife and family are important! He does long for his family, not only his wife but his daughters, and vice versa. This suggests not only that he wants good relationships with them but that he wants them to be with him, a family life. Far from the cut communication they all more of less have during canon, and perhaps far from their life pre-canon when he worked away from home a significant amount of time. We’ve seen recreations of people by the winged lion before with doppelgangers and monsters (naga), and though he claims he can make satisfying imitations, what we’ve seen is that they base themselves on the best memories of that person, like with Marcille’s dad, or twist behavior to be more pleasant, like Mithrun’s lover (and possibly twist appearances depending on the person’s view of them, but that’s Mithrun analysis). The line does suggest Chilchuck would want his family members as they are in reality and not idealized versions, but the circumstances are chaotic and urgent enough in the scene (and again the lion isn’t fulfilling Chilchuck’s wish but trying to make him content for Laios’) that it could just be the winged lion saying what he needs to to convince him the fastest possible, and like we see with Laios that can crumble to give way to deeper or more complex desires.

On top of that we just have general info on Chil. How does Chilchuck deal w his issues? What does he like to do? He likes alcohol and ignoring his problems. We have to remember there is a split between what someone would consciously wish for and what their soul uncontrollably irrationally craves. As always with Dunmeshi, there’s a narrative of irrational deep-seated desires vs active wants, what you crave vs what you strive for, what you dream of vs what’s actually good for you, the animal vs the human inside you, heart vs mind. Chilchuck craving a harem of hot babes in his fantasies but wanting his family life & wife back again is not mutually exclusive. You may crave becoming a monster and tasting what humans are like a little but still want to save the world & your friends more.

Btw can we adress the irony of him terrified of being the last one alive, of being left by his daughters and wife, of having left and coming back home one day to see everything gone or rampaged, yet not caring about dying of liver failure himself, knowing every time that he enters a dungeon there’s a real risk he may not come out. Die somewhere I can’t see you. I prefer leaving you than being left behind. He’s selfish and shortsighted like that… Chilchuck is selfless in many ways of course, but perhaps also due to his own relationship with his parents, he often undermines the effects he has on others in his relationships, both the good and the bad (he talks himself down about being cowardly and greedy yes, but never hints at his bad health habits, alcoholism and starving himself, may have affected his loved ones, doesn’t question his wife falling into a bad mood the night before she left, and talks about the possibility of dying here and there very casually, though obviously he tries his best to stay alive when it doesn’t concern his health).

Chilchuck king of "Let me just avoid and ignore my problems surely they’ll go away, things might work out and if they don’t well tough luck I’ll survive and I probably deserve it anyways". If I don’t look at it it will dissapear <3 Why care when you can simply not think about it.

You might not understand Mister "my love will stay strong through months of work travel and also 4 years of separation" and Mister "well idk my siblings and me are kinda strangers and my dad is dead but that’s kinda whatever", but typically relationships need some form of maintenance and emotional availability…

The actual headcanons finally

I kinda have 2 routes in mind for dunlord Chil and both of them are centered on "I care too much, i wish things were easy", so first is a lot like his succubi, it’s full on indulging in his guilty pleasures like alcohol and bodies and it’s to keep him in a constant state of thrill and euphoria and distracted, unfeeling about stuff that really matters. "Nothing matters except that I’m enjoying the moment!" vibe. He gets to live a life worthy of Dionysus, with alcohol and women and debauchery and like— never having to think again, never having to feel anything but pleasure again, never have to feel guilty or shitty or angry or sad. He has a harem and gets everything on a silver platter.

Breaking news demon magic-induced rush of euphoria and power still not enough to cure this man of his self-hatred nor his capacity for thought!! But in his case a state of euphoria is what he seeks I think, to kinda mask or replace the Everything Else.

The other is what I think closer to what canon suggests, with what WL implied too with "I’ll make you a new wife and kids like the originals!! 😊", it’s a (spoilers) Wandavision type thing where it’s a slice of life where he’s never at work and always at home and the family eats lunches at the dinner table together and everything and everyone at any moment is just. Happy. No issues. It was all a dream, this is real and everything is fine and your family is perfect and happy. I like to think the timeline would be wonky, his daughters would fluctuate in age, but he’d want to be there for what he missed, would want them to still rely on him and look up to him like when they were young, would like to forget that they’re now independent adults and the distance that grew between Chilchuck and his siblings is happening between them as well. Chil would want doppelgangers of his family imo, at its core just a general wish for a peaceful happy family life with no drama, no need to compromise, a little paradise of unconditional love and no consequences. It’s for sure straightforward, but Chilchuck is a man with straightforward desires…

But see Chilchuck is a greedy man, and he wants it both ways without having to sacrifice anything or expanding any efforts himself. He wants to have his cake and eat it too. I think playing with these two opposite directions and mixing and matching is most fun. Him leading a life where he indulges in all his worst habits while still having everything he wants… Him getting to have BOTH his wife and any woman he can imagine up, his life like two sides of a coin he can flip at any moment where he’s partying then he’s at home enjoying the quiet and his toddler daughters playing with toys on the carpet. Christ when you remember it’s all an illusion that’s terrifying, the doppelgangers and succubi from the winged lion playing chilchuck ping pong.

A safe little haven both security-stability wise and emotionally. Gets to have both the relaxing and the thrilling in any dose he wants, mixed or separatedly. What I’d argue he had pre-canon too: Can live it up in taverns away from home, stays away from home for long periods of time, and can come back to home aka the symbol of relaxation and safety whenever he decides to. Something he can leave and come back to at will, an anchor he can trust in (until it’s taken from him and his wife leaves. Or in his worse nightmare people rush in and kill his daughters). The ideal of a house and family to a working man, perhaps…

I think it’s fun to think on wether or not these desires would be interesting at all to the winged lion… In canon he seeks out "rare/complex desires", common simple things like I imagine riches, sex, substances and pleasure would be are boring to him, he’s eaten those so many times already. So perhaps he wouldn’t last long as a dunlord, the WL would want to eat him fully quick, can’t keep him interested or waiting long for a meager meal, too much effort raising the cattle and too low quality meat. By making it more twisted or layered Chil’s desire would become more desirable to the demon, it’s part of what’s fun with the third option to me. But whatever. Has he ever eaten a guy with this much repression and self-sabotage... Like trying to get the meat out of a walnut, enrichment…

Other dunlord Chil takes I’ve seen that are fun and good:

@feelo-fick and @pluvio-floret have a dunlord Chilchuck AU project dubbed "tragedy AU" where Chilchuck is said to be "on vacation", in a weird delirious state, only half-there half of the time… From which he doesn’t want to wake up </3 Quoting Feelo, this is why the vacation thing is only a half-joke cause he is 1) letting all his responsibilities go 2) indulging in himself and 3) "spending time with his family" <- lie but you get what i mean. Additional comments that have me vigorously nodding: because changing is hard why cant things just be okay right now without the effort !!! Life is hard he’s so so tired he just wants to feel good… he just wants life to feel nice and easy for a sec while he can learn to breathe again and lose the stress and trauma he’s accumulated…….. spoiler alert yes !!! in fact a depressed person can suck themselves into their job and lock out the world who wouldve thought !!!

And then Cabinette I know posted about his dunlord take once but I don’t have the link, in which Chil has a lot of nosebleeds because of mana overload which is fun and interesting to think about imo~

In dunmeshi, where characters get underground pockets of the world as their playground disconnected from everything outside and the rest of the world, it’s important to remember to face reality even if it has conflict and people with different views and stances from you, it’s something Chilchuck and Marcille and everyone needed to learn, and the thing with a dungeon lord AU is that you imagine a timeline where he fails to <3

A timeline where his dungeon lord wish is to desire nothing bc hope and want has only ever hurt him would also go so hard. Very universal thing though I suppose.

… And this is why a Chilchuck-centric Coraline AU is really really interesting and fitting and topical— Ok that’ll go in a separate reblog/post at @Fumiku I need to let this end

[scoobysfriend]

This is my ideal scooby gang. Explanation and scooby doo character analysis under the cut

I think Scooby Doo is a character driven show actually. Every time there is a mystery, and everytime we aren't always interested in what the mystery is but how the characters investigate it. Most scooby doo episodes and movies aren't about the mysteries themselves but are about the character shenanigans the gang get up to while solving that mystery.

The best way to possibly ever write fred is make him laios but with an ascot and for traps instead of food. You don't even have to change the monster part! A heart of gold and a specialized skill set. Can fred make a phone call? no. Can fred turn all the wheels on the mystery machine into suction cups so it can go up a wall to chase a tentacled bird demon? yes. He must also be kind, all the scooby characters must be, but fred most especially. Plus trap making is such a niche hobby, and mystery incorporated explored this a little bit, but doing that even more is great. Funny enough I also really loved mystery incorporated's stance on fred's family life. Being raised by someone who doesn't understand who you are fundamentally and wants you to change, poetic cinema. I also want Red Herring to be Fred's childhood friend turned nemesis turned weird I know you better than I know myself thing, my password is your birthday and yet we don't talk there's this distance. Like when kids are young and they bring their friends over to their house, and that friend never really leaves cause they aren't getting parented at home? That's red herring bringing fred to his house, and make his mom a mechanic and suddenly so much stuff fits. It also explains his mechanic skill. Traps and cars are different things. Fred is a crazy inventor who emotionally bonded to the mystery machine and learned mechanics from someone who was the closest thing he ever got to a parent. Fred is a crazy smart inventor. He makes traps and contraptions and rube goldberg machines for the thrill of it. We call a man boring who probably has twelve bear traps in his bedroom and he's so confused on why people don't want to live this way so more for him he guesses, but that also means he always wants to share it with his friends!!!!!!! He's a huge gentle soul that loves his people and his mysteries and his traps. In that order.

i think daphne should get to have a character arc actually?? There's been enough iterations of all the scooby doo characters that if you just mix and match them you have character development. She should start as danger prone daphne always getting in trouble. Then she should decide she doesn't want to be the one getting saved all the time. She starts learning skills to get her out of danger first lockpicking cause whats new scooby doo was my scooby growing up, then learning martial skills to the point where instead of getting rescued she is the one running into danger to rescue others. Someone who protects and never shies away from trouble. I also think it would be cute to make it so she's really into fashion from the 1960s, so that you could modernize the world but keep the old designs cause the gang wants to go matchy matchy with daphne. She does love fashion and knows about it, but just saying "loves fashion" is very 2 dimensional. Saying Daphne loves vintage clothes and using those clothes in the modern era especially clothes from the 60s opens a lot of opportunities to explain why the whole gang is going to this super duper spooky estate sale, Daphne heard this woman had an extensive collection. It also lets the gang have cool outfits and character models. On top of that by having the gang match Daphne, shows that she loves them enough tom share this part of herself with them and that they love her enough to be a part of it with her. Daphne also is almost always the backbone of the gang. Fred, shaggy, and scooby would give a stranger the shirt off their backs, velma and fred don't always recognize what is socially expected so can take advantage of because they are trying to fit in an uncomfortable social situation, but Daphne? Daphne is a fiery redhead who loves her friends more than breathing, no you can't have fred fix that for you, no you can't say that to shaggy and no velma won't do your homework. We are also bringing scooby in with us, if you don't like it that sucks. This combination of traits is stuff she already had, in one iteration or another, and gives a solid character. Also making her the youngest daughter of like twelve in a wealthy family slaps.

Velma, oh velma, JelloApocalypse put it best "A bad Velma is the worst thing that happened to Scooby-doo". Velma often suffers from being the workhorse of the narrative. Donatello of the tmnt often suffer similarly. Velma I feel like, even in character, should reflect this. Velma is the smartest person in the room, and due to her knowing this, she often feels responsible for doing something with that knowledge. The gang takes a lot of that pressure off. Velma is not a master of every single science, but she is one of the most gifted researchers alive. Yet, she is also compassionate, she feels responsible, because when seeing something go wrong and be awful, she believes that she could change it. She, maybe the most, benefits from having the scooby gang all together, because they give her permission to have fun. Velma will see a bad guy and already be twelve steps down in her thought process on how this will affect the carnival's income, while shaggy yells that they need to "Run, Man!". Velma is one of those characters where you could imagine her being very successful in dusty stacks for the rest of her life, but she gets color added to it, and first hand knowledge, by going out with the gang. She's curious to a fault, and wants to know about everything, and often thinks she can just find out from books and the internet, and is often right! But is just as often wrong! Velma will be twelve review articles deep trying to find the best place to eat and shaggy will say I know a guy and they'll be eating out of an illegal taco boat moored in the middle of the harbor. Or velma will be trying to make what is objectively the best decision in a given situation when Dpahne will come in and ask "Why are you in this situation in the first place, let's leave" or velma will be curious about the reproductive cycle of the three toed sugar cane frog and fred will show up with a cooler, night vision goggles and two plane tickets. The gang give velma the freedom to make choices without worrying about which one is the "right" one. This also extends to mysteries, because velma wants to prove that ghosts and aliens and werewolves and everything exist, she wants to prove it so so so badly, but she's been told intellectually her whole life that it's a load of hogwash, but with the gang, they all go get to prove if it's hogwash or not together and have fun doing it! Even when it's all fake, it's a puzzle, it's so much fun! And this is what makes Marcie Fleach such a good foil. Marcie is also gifted, beyond gifted, in robotics, but she doesn't have anyone to get her out of her own head. So Marcie is stuck in her own dark thoughts trying to make it work while velma is trying a sandwich that scooby made that has circus peanuts in it. There can be no knowledge without experience and that is what velma really proves. Her research skills provide such a strong base for the gang, and her observational skills are second to none, she might not always know what to do with those observations but that's what she can talk to the gang for. This responsibility she feels to the world and the people living in it and even just the ideals of the truth, all form this core facet of her personality that she gets to explore and uphold in a fun way through the solving of mysteries. She has a book for everything and a try anything thrice while documenting the results for science kind of attitude. Plus this pull between what she has been told it right, what she thinks academically is right and what she feels is right, all fighting in her head for dominance makes for great character motivation. Like in where's my mummy she dresses up as the bad guy because she thinks it's the right thing to do, and she's shown by the narrative to be right! Also velma should get to, and be required to, get up to as many goofy shenanigans as the other members of the scooby gang. They all take turns being the straight man and on particullarly goofy days, it's scooby.

SHAGGY IS A GODDAMN ANTHROPOLOGY MAJOR. And a wizard, but we have known that one. Shaggy is a nice witty guy, who likes helping people, but even more than that he likes learning about people. Like, he's the kinda guy who ten minutes after meeting him you bring him home to your family and they adopt and feed him. He's charming and snarky and a good listener. He's often a coward, but he's brave for scooby. Scooby will be scared out of his mind and so will shaggy, but shaggy will crack a joke so scooby will laugh and scooby will dance so shaggy will laugh. They are best friends. Shaggy also loves old horror flicks, the cheesier the better and video games that people don't think are very good. Shaggy as a character is like a celebration of things everyone trashes put into a lovable package. Shaggy is a coward who runs away and eats too much and loves b grade horror flicks and trashiest video games ever produced. Shaggy is the one who wants to go to the puppet museum or accordion camp or the world's most giant ball of yarn. There's this love and wonder toward everything in the world that many of the iterations of scooby doo miss. Shaggy wants to go and solve the mystery as much as any of the gang, because he loves every part of it. If shaggy is not scared, he is smiling and laughing and engaging with the locals and going dumb skits and reading comic books. Shaggy will work as a stage hand or carnival ring master or manager of a famous doll customizer's youtube channel for a summer because he likes hanging out with folks and likes the food. And people notice this trait about him and respond in kind. There's this curiosity that all the gang needs to share, that always gets surgically removed from shaggy and I don't know why. It's just that shaggy's curiosity is more about fun happy things. Like even in ghoul school, there were monsters and he was scared, but he realized they were people and immediately tried to be friend to them. Maybe it's my own bias, but if shaggy went to college he'd be an anthropology major, because wanting to know everything about people and eat their food and hang out with folks eternally, that is applied cultural anthropology lmao.

(Also i could do a whole thing on how the members of the scooby gang each represent a different branch of applied anthropology. Scooby as primatology, Fred as biological anthropology/Forensics, Velma as archeology, Daphne as linguistics, Shaggy as cultural anthropology, another day, another day.)

Finally last and certainly not least. Scooby Dooby Doo. The dog, the myth, the legend. It's really interesting to talk about scooby and the way he evolved, originally scooby didn't have that many words. He was like a parrot, had a certain number of set phrases but had to pantomime the rest. I like scooby talking, I like knowing his thoughts, but that pantomime. I'm so irrationally obsessed with it. I really think we need to bring it back. So much of his slapstick comedy and personality is removed when you removed that. Scooby isn't making quips, scooby is dressing as a cancan dancer while shaggy's thar barman and making the evil chicken ghost blush so much it bends over backward to buy them a drink that he throws in it's face so they can run again. Scooby has so much emotional intelligence and cares so deeply for the gang, to reduce him to a shaggy clone is a crime. Scooby has that classic dog mentality, Shaggy is his boy. His best friend and his everything, if scooby could go everywhere with shaggy he would and wait he does! Scooby wants to go on adventures, and go with his people, and for scooby an adventure could be a trip to the dog park or bowling alley or solving a why ghost pirates are attacking their cruise ship. And of course scooby's scared! He's a scaredy cat! He'll jump and yipe and be afraid, but he'll stick by his people even if he is afraid. He provides such tension relief and emotional solace, he is an emotional support animal. Anytime the gang is stressed or worried or sad or anything there is scooby doo! Either feeling it right along side you or comforting you through it, like that one scene in little miss sunshine when the kid has a breakdown cause he's colorblind and won't be able to fly and then gets comforted by that little girl. Scooby is that little girl. I really cannot emphasize enough how loyal scooby is, and there is no better illustration of that than scrappy. Scrappy was just a puppy but he thought his uncle scooby was the bravest dog in the whole world, and that's the thing scrappy never saw any different!! Scrappy would picka fight with a monster or someone bigger than him and everytime, without fail, there scooby would be to pull him out of it. Scooby is a loyal beyond all other things, even beyond his fear, and has an emotional breadth that can only come from not only being the heart of the show but the heart of his little family too! And shaggy is his best friend!!!!!!!! They do everything together and he loves him so much!!!! And sure he's clumsy, but so is daphne, and sure he can get jealous, but so can velma, and sure he's a coward but so is shaggy! Scooby does this thing where whenever he is there, everything is a little better, the sun a little brighter, the avocado toast a little more scrumptious, and he's smiling and cheering and so then is everyone else. I also thought of a hilarious bit, where since scooby is a dog and they like eating all the time they keep running into stuff that is poison for dogs so shaggy can't share it with scooby and he begs with the biggest possible eyes, and rests his head on shaggy's lap and shaggy feels so bad that he gets three scooby snacks and the bacon from fred's plate.

Really though. These are all goofball young folks who like solving mysteries together and traveling together and bonding over random activities. They love each other, they are all best friends, and it would be relatively easy to give them all character arcs based upon things that previously happened to them.

Fred as this guy, getting recognized for his achievements and hobbies even if they aren't what is considered normal. All his friends hyping up his most complicated trap or cheering when he makes the mystery machine a boat or being willing to tell his automatic breakfast machine. That transition from hiding everything about yourself to showing a little bit and then a little more and the relief each time from being accepted fully!

Daphne as the spoiled youngest daughter of a wealthy family to damsel in distress to danger prone Daphne to being the emotional backbone of the time to as many skills as a bard to having enough skills to protect herself to throwing herself into danger with these skills she's acquired to help other people.

Velma as this cloistered researcher always trying to make the 'right' decision and having her open up about her desires and fears, and what she wants to research and investigate, where she starts investigating and having fun and experiencing all these things till she is this well of knowledge and uses that well of knowledge to have fun and help people

Shaggy who drifts from group of people to group of people, finally having a group to call his own. Getting to stay with people, and have them really learn him and really express himself. Building up confidence, and if you believe the wizard shaggy theory like I do, using magic as a metaphor for that and having him come into his own as a powerful wizard. Or even just having him come into his own as a masterful people person or as an excellent chef or as a world class detective or all of the above. Letting shaggy acknowledge his skills and his growth in them and letting him be proud.

Scooby would also reflect shaggy. Scooby with his trust issues, opening up to someone who wasn't just shaggy. Being supported by others and supporting them in turn. Being understood and listened to. Having someone tell the hotel front desk, no scooby is coming inside, no you do not get an opinion and if you do we can take our business elsewhere. This relationship with other people making him braver, and happier, and bouncier, and sillier. Having fun with everyone you love always!

You fools! The whole time Scooby doo was about love and hanging out with your friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And how no matter how evil or weird or scary everything is, you can figure it out together!!!!!!!!!

[fumiku]

Coraline marchil AU(s)

Would Chilchuck willingly sew the button eyes on himself?

First of first, look at this coraline au art by Sanqiaori!!

Depressed divorcee with empty nest syndrome moves into an isolated house in an isolated town, and finds a hidden tunnel… On the other side is his Other Wife. His ideal type, blonde, young and pretty, bright and accommodating, though she can become black haired, cold and calm if that is what he desires. She materialized his daughters so perfectly after all, even from when they were still only happy children. She made them such a perfect routine, a perfect house, a perfect world. Like a better, more vivid, less marred reflection of the deserted home and dull life waiting for him before the looking glass, empty. 

Marchil server was cooking coraline AUs (shoutouts to Sushi_monster and Chau) so I’ll just be listing off a handful of collectively brainstormed versions of the same premise: Coraline AU where Chilchuck is the protagonist and Marcille is the demon, starting with the more straightforward ones then moving to the ones with twists and plots. It helps of course to have seen the movie or knowledge of it on an analytical level since the lore is rather mysterious otherwise. I discussed "what would Chilchuck’s perfect dungeon lord world look like and why?" in a post here, which is topical because there I talk about his avoidant tendencies in canon & in the same context as this AU more deeply, but in this post we’ll be focusing on AU brainstorming not analysis~

A Coraline AU starring Chilchuck is already fun without being marchil, the demon can be only fake Chilwife and similarly offer him the perfect family life, but I think adding a third separate distinct factor/character makes the plot & themes a lot more rich and interesting. You can have something that works with, well, the demon from Dunmeshi as the demon from Coraline, but shifting the demon into a more ambiguously antagonistic figure, with more of an identity…

A lot of Dunmeshi is about accepting reality over your ideal fantasies and coping mechanisms. And Chilchuck’s arc (paralleled by Marcille’s and their relationship together) to me is more about accepting loss and it still being worth experiencing for the risk of love & connection, rather than building upon the wrong you’ve done and regaining what you’ve lost, so Coraline feels very thematic for the two of them. It’s not about going back to how things were and never experiencing the setbacks of relationships but how to overcome loss and keep going and form new bonds, to accept reality even if flawed, like both their arcs in canon~ 👀 

A sad ending where Chilchuck stays in the other world is him failing at that lesson, and if the Demon dies it’s because Marcille refused to learn that same one and gripped too tightly onto her ways despite her second chances, and if they both have a good ending... Well. That’s hard to have that in the true sense because of the whole -gestures- situation, but not impossible… Learning to move on from relationships Chil vs learning to connect with people healthily demon Marcille……. Dual arcs my beloved.

This is also fun to do with them because out of everyone (besides Milsiril and Kabru), Marcille and Chilchuck have some plush imagery. With Chilchuck who regularly sews and fixes his clothes, the plushes at his home representing his history with his daughters, the past when they were young & when he still had a family life. With Marcille, plushes bring comfort, and even represent others like Falin in her nightmare. … Plus her habit of thinking she knows better than others and wanting to decide things for them, or thoughtlessly cutifying Chilchuck and infantilizing Falin etc etc- the whole dunlord thing where she wants to dictate the length of their lives and imprison them in her treehouse, Laios’ forcefeeding speech etc. Chilchuck mends plushes and Marcille treats people like them, changes people into them. Comfort teddies or dolls to manage that she still feels distanced from bc of her half-elfness and secrets. Does this not fit the themes!! Does this not fit a Coraline demon imagery!!! The whole Coraline opening oughhh.

Okok enough yapping!! Gimme actual deets actual plot!!

Marcille, the demon

So. What if the demon had more selfless goals than in Coraline, in a twisted way?

A lonely eldritch being in a cage-world of her own making, who gives people she takes an interest in everything they want, everyone they want at their most perfect pliant self, but doesn’t involve herself in that fantasy, only positions herself as a giver… Because she doesn’t think anyone would take an interest in her back, because that’s too unstable and risky, because that’s too new, because she prefers being a voyeur into others’ happiness……

This is what Ajo’s Coraline AU art, what sparked this whole marchil community horror and coraline AU craze all those months back haha, made me think of first. An Other Marcille, like herself as a dungeon lord, terrifying in its powers and in thinking it knows what’s best for you more than you do, yet innocently well-meaning though selfishly motivated by loneliness. Not unlike the demon in Dunmeshi, Other Marcille genuinely believes her relationship with her humans are a win-win, a mutually parasitic relationship. She’s making everyone happy after all, isn’t she? And if she’s slowly eating his soul, well, it’s the best death he could possibly have had, in the best world made specially for him, after she’s centered all her attention and life and fixation on him. And if she’s slowly eating his soul well, maybe she’ll feel like her pocket dimension’s a little less empty, if someone’s become part of her, someone that can never leave her behind not even through death.

She thinks she’s content with that, but… This is where the story can diverge. Is this only a tragedy? Is Chilchuck seduced by the life he’s shown and seduced to stay, or does it turn thriller because Other Marcille gets attached and he needs to get out and flee? Is Chilchuck only using her & it to cope, or does he catch genuine feelings? Does she only use him to cope or does she catch feelings?

I’m a monster x human romance enjoyer listen I’m all for any of these options— They could have a weird toxic-ish slow burn that gradually turns more and more healthy and genuine slowly over dinner table conversations and bugs in the matrix of the roleplay. Marcille would lose herself in the wife roleplay, playing the role of a wife and mother that she could never get to have any other way as a demon, something that was never meant to be hers but that he’s giving her in a warped way….. Get attached to the guy even if she sees him as "awww a human… Aww my food" in that classic holier-than-thou but still affectionate way that then may or may not turn into genuine respect. Very… Isolated romance you are literally 2 alone in the world in the same setting, the same made-up house for however many days as time blurs together and there’s only you and you and more of it for more of time. Other Marcille falling in love with Chilchuck, or thinking she does in that classic sort of twisted Marcille way, because she wants to romanticize any emotion and attachment she gets even if it’s born from desperation and misunderstood unhealthy attachment… And going "Why not me? Do mi ti" is so heartbreaking to me, bc yeah I’ve been obsessed with this Washing Machine Heart Coraline amv…

Cynical Chilchuck’s will to resist against the messed up supernatural situation crumbling like Laios with his succubus… It’d be fun seeing Chilchuck the straightman gradually rationalizing the situation more and more, because he wants it even if it’s obvious it’s an unwise decision to stay any second more. Yet seconds turn into minutes into hours into days into weeks. How long will they last? The Other World is neverending bliss and peace, joy and contentedness and pleasure, how could he give up on that? It’s Chilchuck Tims I bet he could do it but. He can be a weak man of earthly desires sometimes so! Flip a coin & gamble. Think depressed divorcee who moved into an isolated house, found a hidden tunnel and met this creepy but cute blonde witch, who created his children for him. Chil really could choose to stay on the other side. He’d go back to his life, his work, his alcohol, empty mailbox, no calls from his family and feel like he really has nothing left for him and stay on the other side. 

To take on a cuter role, he knows it’s not his real wife, of course he does, so he ends up saying let me see the real you, and she thinks he’ll run away but he’s like holy shit she’s hot. Lmao. Chilchuck: I love my 16th century creepy witch gf. Marcille is astounded that someone actually likes her for herself and doesn’t have to impersonate anyone when that’s all she knew how to love… Marcille sees his ex wife and thinks taking on her appearance is the best way to get to him… But for once what Chil craves isn’t an illusionary shell of the best but true actual companionship so he starts talking with other marcille and trying to push her to be more authentic and vulnerable. Since it’s literally another world, dreamlike, he feels like he can be vulnerable himself more easily too.

Another take could be that Chilchuck takes the role of Coraline’s father (just more dead eyed, drunk, and miserable rip) and Marcille sees how good he is with his ex-wife and kids and wants him for herself. Starts making a fake family for him and replaces his other wife with her. Dunno how that’d fit into the timeline ehhh 🤔 Definitely a more thriller horror take where you have this eldritch entity obsessed with you trying to veer your life the way they want to so you fall into their hands. Good god

Lore wise, I like the thought of being the demon is like being a dungeon lord, where these pocket dimensions are like dungeons that you get trapped in once you make a contract by the demon. Like maybe it’s a relay race thing where you can get the limitless powers you’re seeking but for it you have to take its place trapped in the dimension. Then becoming demons themselves… Gradually forgetting who they are and just succumbing to instincts and cravings as they lure in and hunt their prey each in their own way.

There are so many ways to handle her appppearance too. Did she always just loook like Marcille, or was it his wife (blonde or not), mayybe even an inbetween with herself as a half-foot like her bicorn theorizing. I like to think it’s a slow transformation, from his older black—haired wife to a younger blonde half-foot woman to a talllady with pointy ears dressed in black... Spider other mother transformation style pretty much.

It’s a premise that’s fun to think of as deeply or as shallowly as you want for daydreams… Like if nothingggg else the imagery is cool. 

Marcille, the neighbor

Coraline AU where Marcille is both the demon and Chilchuck’s perky overly nosy and friendly neighbor. Together they will defeat the Other Marcille! Her parents, whom she lost in a mysterious freak accident, were the original owner of the house, and she’ll be damned if she just let this mystery rest. She lives in the knowledge anyone who lives there might disappear at any moment, worried. She wants to save anyone who moves into it and that’s why she moved to the very next house, befriending every new neighbor, eventually trying to convince them to move away, but Chilchuck isn’t only a stubborn ass, he spits in the face of superstitions.

Her parents being the previous owners of the house who mysteriously disappeared, and then Marcille moved out of the house but could never really move on, and watches the new people going to live in that house to see if it’ll happen again…. Marcille trying to prevent tragedy from happening again, obsessing. Good reason tp obsess over someone all in all.

So then, Chilchuck does get targeted by the demon and sucked in, and when he comes back the investigations truly begin and he can’t brush her off anymore. She breaks into his house when he’s away in the other world at one point I feel. Interrogating him after like "There wasn’t one peep or move coming from your house for days, what were you up to?" "Umm I was hungover mind your business." Maybe he tries to hide it from her at first to keep living his blissful parttime demonic forbidden fruit fantasy or maybe he asks for her help straight away because he’s wayyy out of his depths.

People might ask: "why Other *Marcille* why does the demon take her form?" and I think, the parents being the previous victims of the demon... Other Marcille has that look (and name?) because her parents were the last people she got to, so she stuck with that appearance, the last appearance she took on from her victims’ memories, her parents baited by visions of her daughter forever happy, never experiencing pain or hardship or loss or loneliness.  That and/or down bad lonely Chil took one look at his cute neighbor and the Other demon said yep I can tempt him with this, lmao. Chilchuck, seeing Other Marcille for the first time: (am I really that sex deprived?) OTL

Alternatively, a happy ending (or at least one that doesn’t question if you can achieve happiness in an isolated world of makebelieve with 2 people one being eldritchly powerful and immortal 😰 I guess souls exist so maybe he could be too hm) would be he defeats the Other Marcille with the help of Marcille, his cute blonde neighbor. Maybe right as he’s about to give up and go to the other side, she starts visiting him. Notices he’s lonely and become obsessed with him and his personal life haha like how she behaves in canon. She inserts herself into his life and makes him hesitate on his decision to stay in the other side. Then maybe after enough visits she can learn about the tunnel or the other marcille and second half of the plot kicks up…

And this is where we thought of the next step: Her parents being the previous owners of the house who mysteriously disappeared, and then Marcille moved out of the house but could never really move on, and now watches the new people going to live in that house to see if it’ll happen again…. Marcille trying to prevent tragedy from happening again, obsessing. Good reason to obsess over someone all in all.

The unhelpful cat is Izutsumi lol. Enough said.  Chilchuck and izutsumi fighting each other: Other marcille:  Chilchuck: what the fuckkkkk is going on help meee (　ﾟдﾟ) Izutsumi: Izutsumi (walks away) Coraline Izutsumi being the one link between reality and the Other World bc she’s the cat, kinda fitting since she has a connection to both Chil and Marcille if that makes sense… Between humans and monsters too. In Coraline the cat is more of an antagonist to the demon so it’s interesting the different ways that can play out in an AU

Closing thoughts

Chilchuck moving into an isolated house in an isolated town after the divorce™️ expecting things to be boring, perfect for his currrent mood, but instead he gets thrown into a v scary yet enthralling magic world with a v scary yet v pretty witch-woman-thing and a digestive hallway and oh god. Also an unhelpful talking cat Izutsumi (Izutsumi).

I like to think about a Chilchuck Peter Pan motif sometimes and it feels topical for this a little bit… Guy who doesn’t want to grow up and acknowledge relationships take effort. Ok I need to pull myself together

But you know. If eyes are the windows to the soul then, it can be that they need to sew buttons on their eyes as in ‘closing their eyes’ on something and living in denial because ignorance is bliss, no need to self-reflect or see yourself in others’ eyes like they’re mirrors. Her black buttons are matte, without shine, there is no stray reflection of light that could ever give him a distraught glance of himself…

So yes yes that’s it that’s it. For now. We really do need fics of this au badly omg

Would Chilchuck willingly sew the button eyes on himself?

Opposite actually. Marcille would rip out her eyes to be with him.

[dungeon-meshi-tournament]

Hey its the person who said about Marcille x Toudens (and also spelled their last name wrong bc it was 1 am and I was half asleep)

I know Im very late to the contest but heres some of my thoughts on why this is a valid ship anyway cuz I really want to share my thoughts:

Laios and Falin are very simmilar in personality. While they have their differences Im talking about how they are autistic on a simmilar wavelength. Also as revealed in I think one of the dream hours they look almost exactly the same except hair. So in abscence of Falin I believe its plausible to say Marcille couldve seen some Falin in Laios and become attracted to him.

Meanwhile Laios when meeting a succubus saw specifically monstorised version of Marcilleas his ideal partner. Not some random person that dont exist like Marcille saw but specifically Marcille.

I dont believe I need to explain why Marcille and Falin make sense its like literally spelled out in manga.

From succubus encouner (again) we know that Marcille is also into men so theres no problem in that department.

Anyway I believe that over the course of the journey Marcille and Laios form close enough of a bond to along with previous statements to consider that its plausible they have romantic feelings for each other to some degree. Laios deeply cares for and respects Marcille as shown repeatedly when he saves her multiple times risking his own life and trust her to pull through when he was sure he will be killed by Rabbits and she will revive him. Meanwhile till the end believed that Laios had a plan when in Winged lion 5 and 6 having a lot of trust in Laios.

I mean if that didnt convince you yet, ask yourself: doesnt Marcille deserve pulling 2 autistic bitches?

I rest my case your honour. (Altho Im sure if you were looking for more evidence for this ship you could dig up a lot)

No need to convince me XD I don't ship it myself, but any ship that people ship and doesn't involve real people is welcome in my tournament. Had you suggested it before the tournament started, I would've put it in.

(Also, please do not reignite the succubus gender debate. I'm kind of sick of it)

[fumifooms]

Marcille & Chilchuck contrasts & similarities

Yesterday in the Dunmeshi Discord we talked about narrative foils and I ended up writing a lot about my fave duo so. Informal character analysis time. I give some in-depth interpretations on aspects of Chilchuck’s character near the end as well, not just analyzing their characters in how they contrast each other

Marcille and Chil are so foils to me. "Has experienced loss through death and now clings onto the people around her and is overly interested in engaging in social gossip" vs "has experienced loss through rejection and now refuses to open up to anyone until socially starved", both are responding to their experience with loss in fully different ways, socializing and trying to learn all she can for the short time she has with others but trying to keep digestible enough that she’s not too attached if she loses them, vs refusing to socialize so the problem stops before it begins but eventually unable to resist the pull that comes with being a social creature. Like I guess what I’m trying to say is that Marcille engaging with social gossip could be a shallow way for her to vicariously experience social relationships if she feels like forming deep bonds is unsafe. Family is a core motivation and value for them but in different ways. Both want to keep the status quo but in different ways.

Divorcee who avoids love wether it be in the people around him or thinking about his own (past?) romance vs hopeless romantic that idealizes love without herself having been in a relationship or even in love herself as far as we know. Middle child vs only child. Emotional constipation vs emotional intelligence. Streets savvy vs prestigious academic, field experience vs book smarts. Crass vs prim. Overbearingly social vs private to a fault. Never externalizes his feelings and to a degree represses them vs wears her heart on her sleeve and her feelings on her face. They start out underestimating each other in different ways, one by assuming his age and the other by undermining her skills, experience and willpower. Both seeing each other’s motives as somewhat skewed (money and research of shady magic respectively) but growing to respect them.

They also both seek approval and validation from others, unlike Senshi and even Laios who don’t seem to care about outside perception as much, Marcille worries early on that she’s not helpful enough and slowing the party down meanwhile Chilchuck is almost always trying to prove a point early on that he’s capable and mature. Coincidentally enough, Chilchuck’s approval was both the catalyst and the key to resolving her arc about it in the mandrake chapter, meanwhile besides Senshi Marcille is the one whose perception of Chilchuck gets the most changed over the course of the whole manga. Something else notable is how they deal differently with their races being judged, while Chilchuck reaffirms himself as a proud half-foot, Marcille hides her half-elf nature and is embarrassed of it when it’s revealed. Something subtle yet interesting is also how they both are shown to prefer lying in a way that makes them look bad rather than admitting ignorance on something. Chilchuck says that he cheated on his wife and that’s why she left rather than just saying that he doesn’t know why she did. Marcille in the mandrake chapter says that she has used a dog to harvest mandrakes (thus killing it) before while in truth she never has, and everyone including herself is like "That’s horrible… The poor dog!"

Their dad dies. Chil is like "Hm. Cool. Anyways he died doing smth he loved right so haha lemme drink myself into an early death bed too yolo 🔥🤟" vs "He died and it shattered my world and I must devote all my life to wiping death out of existence".

"I am going to knowingly shorten my lifestyle through unhealthy habits actually."

Problem solving approaches

One thing I love about them is how they have complete opposite approaches to problem solving. Besides striving for workers’ rights and job stability for halflings with an union, he’s very "laissez-faire". He won’t do the righteous thing just because it’s the right thing if he doesn’t have an incentive or a safety net, like going to save Falin. He doesn’t chase after his wife to talk it out and make amends, he gives her space and either hopes she’ll talk when she’s ready or figures that he shouldn’t try to do anything about it. He doesn’t mention the mimic he noticed to the others to not make a big deal out of it and hopefully it won’t come up again. He’s a "if the glass is half-full that’s fine enough for me, I don’t need things to be as good as they could be" type, a "leave it alone until it figures itself out" type.

Marcille? Marcille is idealistic and in-your-face. If there is an issue you better believe Marcille will address it and try her hardest to fix it, will talk it out and attempt to understand & strive to make things as best possible for everyone involved. She will FORCE you to talk about your FEELINGS wether you like it or NOT. Leaving it alone? Keeping things as just okay when they could be great instead? No no no no no, that’s not right, she’s going to try and fix it now. She will make you stand up and fight for the best that your life could be, to be honest when something bothers you and do something about it, will make you stop suppressing yourself because you’re scared of things getting worse.

Which, you know, both methods certainly have their pros and cons, but they’re very complimentary in that way. He grounds her into a more down to earth mindset and teaches by example that it’s okay if things don’t necessarily work out and moving on is possible and not necessarily miserable, while she encourages him to not give up so fast or stay quiet on things that bother so much. He soothes and she emboldens 🔥 Funny, because you could have thought it would’ve been the contrary, which is not untrue either, but he’s the "has experienced the harshness of life and has settled for something comfortable but modest" while she’s the "wants to make the world better and goes to great lengths to change it while still trying to find herself & uncomfortable with some aspects of life like loss".

One overly focuses on dealing with issues by changing things around her while the other overly focuses on only changing himself.

——

Chilchuck leaves things alone if he thinks they’re best left unaddressed or thinks they’ll work itself out. Like the mimic he didn’t tell the group about but it backfired later. Like how he didn’t chase after his wife or seemingly tried to contact her at all. Like how he prefers not to dig into people’s personal issues in parties and be left alone to deal with his stuff on his own as well.

Meanwhile Marcille is overbearingly in-your-face and loud and "if there’s a problem we’re dishing it out right here right now. Your wife left you?? And you didn’t try to get her back?? I am going to write out a script and a plan for you to apologize and please bring these piles of presents."

She’s secretive about her fair share of things as well but she’s very proactive. While she seeks to research something that’s a core motivation and life goal to her + save someone she deeply cares for Chil is there for his job and to get money and "hey if something happens I’ll have done my part. I took you guys here now you guys figure out the rest and fight the monsters or something". They both like to have a say in the strategy, Chilchuck moreso as time goes on, but Marcille involves herself much more into almost everything.

Espescially early on, they’re always sticking by each other judging Senshi & Laios together and being like "Am I seeing this shit right. They’re crazy right? Tell me I’m not the only one here with common sense" and forming a 🤝 relationship over it and considering that, it sometimes feel… Contradicting? How they also have a lot of conflict together over time about how different they truly are. But it’s interesting and nice to see how even though they do have arguments it always gets resolved pretty promptly, like they’re truly hashing it out as equals and then when that’s done they’re back to being on the same wavelength. The exception would be Marcille taking a long time to come around on Chil being old, but arguments and debates like the one on dark magic and if it’s okay or wrong to use it, which was pretty serious and not just banter? They came to find a middle ground or at least understanding, and it didn’t seem to lower the respect they hold for another afterwards.

Chilchuck’s repressing habit

I do think Chilchuck has a repressed thing where he doesn’t WANT to think about it about his feelings sometimes, like with his wife- and maybe with his father? But the way he was so casual and nonchalant about his father dying has always struck me. I’m not sure if this is a "my feelings on my father were mixed and complicated at best" thing or a "I just don’t want to spend time thinking about it" thing or something else, but it gives food for thought.

When it comes to alcohol there’s this saying where an alcoholic parent will have 2 kids and one will grow to be alcoholic too while the other will never even touch a drop of alcohol and both when asked why will say "I watched my father". Chilchuck is def the first I think. He gives the vibe of "An alcoholic parent puts a strain on familial relationships?? Pshh, my father was and look at me! I turned out great!" Which is something I’ve heard irl lol which always makes you go like 👀 yes indeed you’re perfectly well-adjusted and haven’t been affected by your father’s alcoholism at all it’s clear as day. On that topic, Chilchuck’s family, both currently and when he was a kid, are very interesting topics to theorize about with the hints and cues we have, how his wife truly felt and what happened for her to feel unappreciated enough to leave, how distant is he from his daughters if they haven’t seen each other in the same year either and Flertom was the only one to send him a letter? But that’s a topic for another day

Chilchuck probably has such a complex…. Of like not being… Like allowed to take space I guess? And he does wish to affirm that right, he takes space and asks for it so very overtly, he formed a half-foot guild to demand better working conditions as one of the biggest examples of that. He grew up poor and undermined but he knows that he’s capable and someone worthy of respect and demands it, and takes every opportunity to prove himself. But on the other end, he doesn’t seem to want to keep his hopes up in general, like asking for something to be better is bound to fail, that it’d be too good to be true. He tries to keep out of where his job doesn’t need him, from a sense of efficiency that cuts down on unnecessary stops but also because he just thinks it isn’t his place to do so. It strikes me that it’s hinted that like… He doesn’t even really consider the possibility of going to his wife and trying to mend the relationship. Like it’s either she’ll decide to take him back on her own or he’ll be left out in the cold waiting, never knowing just where he’s truly at with her and if things are over for good. Like… Shooting his shot and making his case doesn’t even register as an option? Like he’s not worth fighting for, like whatever he did wouldn’t change her opinion anyways?

He def has a "life isn’t like a fairytale where everything goes well" philosophy where sometimes it feels like he just gives up on how things maybe could be better, especially interpersonally. Maybe it’s why he focuses on simple joys like alcohol instead of trying to keep up with relationships which can be complex and very fickle, in his own words. Something like alcohol is predictable, always there to fall back on, safe, gives him sensations without other emotional/social risks attached. Ironic for someone whose job is all about risks, but understandable

He contradicts even himself… Bro yes you’re capable, yes you’re great, yes you matter, now maybe speak about your feelings maybe??? Or do you not think your emotional issues deserve to get fixed and have closure???? Are you so used to being dismissed, overlooked and undermined that you think no one will listen even if you speak up?? And this recontextualize his "I’m not even gonna try and talk this issue out because I know (assume) that it won’t solve anything anyways" approach, doesn’t it.

"I must break my party members’ stuff or lie to them because if I just tell them my opinion and my feelings that I don’t want them to die they won’t care anyways and keep going"

In a way everyone is the glue of the party in different ways, Laios giving the group a direction and a plan, Senshi keeping them fed and grounded, Marcille making everyone more social and encouraging bonds to form, and for Chilchuck he’s the one most focused on actually keeping everyone alive I think.

Conclusion

Idk I’m not gonna repeat every point but have this as a parting contrast:

Guy with shortest lifespan possible who doesn’t mind knowingly shortening his own with an unhealthy habit, here for a good time not a long time, VS girl with longest lifespan possible who wants to lengthen everyone’s life, who focuses on how long she can keep something or someone rather than how happy her time with it has made her already. They’re both loud in their own way, and both are still insecure despite appearances. In a way, both of them focus on taking care of others while overlooking their own demons.

[fumifooms]

Marchil crumbs part 7

Part 1 - Part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6

They made bonus illustrations for the Blu-ray. Idk what to make of this

Kui don’t do this to me…….. The placement <3

1) Trigger please elaborate. Speak on that. Huh. In the other Bluray illustrations with duos the characters aren’t blushing like this…?? This sure is a choice. Very normal. No tension in the air.

2) Those were assorted fullbodies she did for advertisements for a Dunmeshi cafe event in Shibuya, that she then put in the Complete Adventurer’s Bible… They line up so well that it looks like they’re interacting together it’s so cute.

Chilchuck having torrid tension with Marcille’s crepe Do you think Chilchuck was in Marcille’s shot behind/besides her food… Is he looking at her like that because he’s being sassy about having to wait on her, or is he using his watch as an excuse to steal glances at her… Did Marcille call out to him to be like "hey get in the shot!!" and get pics of their coffeeshop date out in town…

Cooking soap together for the fate of Senshi’s beard

I could have SWORN I’ve talked about this page below in the crumbs post before but apparently not. Ok so first of all this is peak them strategizing together. They seek each other out to plan out their next move- And this is soon after she did ancient magic! It’s after Chilchuck’s most important character moment, where he admits that he cares about the party and things aren’t purely professional, so that helps him move on from keeping her at arm’s length due to the very illegal scary thing she did I think, but besides that! This still shows a very strong bond of trust and respect between the two, that he values her input even still. Also supported in this chapter by how he felt the need to keep tabs on Laios and Senshi to not get them all killed but Marcille letting it slip about what she did or anything didn’t even enter his mind as I went over in part 2.

Okok but more in depth… I’m spoiling a future analysis of mine with this too but remember this panel? And who might be the personalization itself of projecting gentlemanly, heroic good will while having hidden/manipulative intentions? I’ve never known what to make of Kabru smiling at her and more importantly her blushing at him here… Until I realized that he really fits her ideal type from what we can extrapolate: He looks rather feminine and is seemingly very gallant/gentlemanly, very charismatic, and was raised by elves so has a grasp on etiquette. And yet, she only gives his smile a passing glance before going back to strategizing with Chilchuck— Because unlike what her reputation as someone frivolous who idealizes and romanticizes anything like in her storybooks, she can put rationality above aesthetics. Because she values Chilchuck and his input much more than she ever would a pretty face alone, the aesthetic of a prince charming. Because she knows he was right, at least partly, and knows where her actual allies lie. She doesn’t waver, and she chooses Chilchuck. A part of her arc is to judge by acts more than looks, and this is very much a part of it I think, Chilchuck cares and wants to help much more than someone who might look kinder or more welcoming.

Ehem sorry for going off Now that I reread the full scene this might be one of my fave marchil moments as weird as that might be… Chilchuck seeing her hesitance and explaining to her what’s going on without being prompted, sticking together out of everyone on the battlefield, them so easily slipping into strategizing with each other without the rest of the group. I never noticed the whole comedy of corpses falling around them and them keeping talking together lol.

Ok so merch wise they’re making hair clips! And there are 4 sets of two, it’s always Marcille with a different hairstyle and a different party member (for one of the four sets the other is a walking mushroom). Here’s the Marcille & Chil one! You can now have them in your hair yippee

I never put this one in a crumbs part but it’s funny so might as well, for as much as they care for each other and Marcille’s been shown to be very worried for & careful with Chilchuck the dainty rogue™️ the second he becomes a tallman without his cute face suddenly it’s FREE GAME. Their bestieship is so strong for them to be able to brush this incident right off and strategize like they’re close knit so soon after this lol.

Love a duo that will just trip onto their face in the same page. Cringefail.

Matching frog skin fits yayyyy!! <3 (Also stop making him look at her in ads I’ll die)

STOP ITTTTT

I had always assumed in the ‘feeding liver to Marcille’ part that Laios was always the one feeding her because the hands and speech bubbles aren’t clear in the manga scene, but the anime makes it clear that everyone does it after the other. So here’s Chil’s turn. Asking after if she liked it and encouraging to eat more is cute too. There’s also obviously how panicked he is to see her in danger earlier in the ep, but idk if I already showed that manga panel in an earlier comp

And woohoo the anime made this interaction between them even more sus!! Why. Why are you looking at each other like that. Stop people could misunderstand

Protecting her from the monster food

Thank you for the food episode 10. Made me notice a healing/caing moment I’d never paid attention to before!

"Huh your hands seem okay" ARE YOU SURE… They’re so cute when they team up together oml, hassling Senshi instead of each other lmaoo. Love how they made her look at him all happy

I wish I could put the screenshots for the whole sequence here but. How to hook and reel in your Chilchuck.

In chapter 97 cover they took the seats facing each other this time again <3 Like in the golden kingdom. It’s a recurring thing. Seemingly he’s looking at Falin so involved in the same conversation at her? :> Oh it’d be cute if he was the one who made her laugh sob, he looks like he just cracked a wise joke.

Today’s healing touch

Dude you are going to die let her go

They changed the gesture Marcille did to chide Chil here, instead of having her hand on his shoulder and tapping his head she gives him an elbow nudge. Idm the change this is so cute too. Also Chil extending her his sympathies

Not a crumb tbh but the way this was his POV during the Marcille vs Thistle fight is hilarious to me. No wonder he thought she was bonkers

Not the way these quote keychains are set up… Every protagonist has their own EXCEPT Chil’s who includes Marcille, and it’s one of my fav marchil moments I looove being validated that this scene is important

And to finish it up, the manga scene of this exchange in the anime that really stole my heart. They’re so fond of each other aw. Teasing on the job is free, her expression here is so cute, rare reversal of their roles in the dynamic

More crumbs soon! Not many in here yet (edit: at the time of first posting) but I was dying to post it with the modern cutouts art (I have so much fanart planned based on it hehe) but then the bluray illustration came out and fucking one hit KOd me. I am not that strong. I am only human.

They didn’t blush here in the manga guysss

[fumifooms]

Marchil crumbs Part 4

Part 1 - Part 2 - part 3 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7

Broskis remember when while madly blushing Chilchuck said he’d introduce his family to Marcille, and she madly blushed back thinking she really really wanted to meet them. Marchil W today

Dreams do come true girl!!

The full double page spread has the rest of the Laios party at the table too but i think having the whole picture distracts from the one just this section tells. Marcille is so happy to finally meet them!! Flushing with joy and awe! And chilchuck flushing right back with self-consciousness!!! Desperately trying to keep it casual. Tsundere man probably going "Ok so... This is Marcille my ex-coworker, and here are my daughters... She was really looking forward to meeting you guys but don’t read too much into it girls". The daughters being all dressed up and Puckpatti even bringing flowers and correcting Meijack hehe <3 I know it's because they're at the castle but omg, meeting the extended family energy. You knowww Marcille is gonna ask them so many questions, and try and get to know them…

Also I have remembered TODAY that Marcille has a stepdad… She prob has so many thoughts on being a stepmom then. Leaving it open as to what that could mean for marchil. She certainly acts enthusiastic about families and kids so doesn’t seem like there’s a complex there at least~

How it all started… Not very shippy I just think it’s funny and easy to miss. Her curiosity is PIQUED and what she thought she knew about Chilchuck is shattered. The bicorn chapter is really not long after this one so she must have thought so hard about how his home dynamic was like if she cooked up that ‘if I was Chilchuck’s wife’ rp so soon after & so effortlessly

Hm, you know how snooping into ppl’s personal lives is Marcille’s thing?? Isn’t that like… Not that true outside of Chilchuck though? Like, she never asked about Senshi’s backstory or really asked much of Laios either. We do see her asking their types in romance for example, but from remembrance that’s sort of where it ends. So she concentrates her focus on the nut toughest to crack, the most private and mysterious party member huh (no not Senshi obviously, Chilchuck!!)… Little ‘puzzle to crack’ guy, ‘resistant to being known deeper’ guy. I’m not over how she was salty that he opened up to Senshi more than with her lol

I think I’ve talked about it in the previous crumbs part but I think the bircorn chapter truly is the marchil chapter, and I wanna point out how Chilchuck reallyyyy fell from her esteem because "he cheated on his wife", leading to her being snippy with him during the chapter, BUT when push comes to shove she still hurried to his aid and worried for him and all. This might sound surprising, but I really like this! I think it’s great that Marcille wouldn’t coddle him if he fucked up and showed him a taste of consequences™️, but also not dropping him fully y’know, sticking through thick and thin even if she would not let shit fly. Seems like a healthy sort of devotion or companionship to me! Also her arc through the manga with Chilchuck is warping who he really is with idealization or preconceived notions mostly with his age and whatnot, so this feels like an important turning point of assessing him coldly as an adult who is not innocent at all… Before going right back to seeing him favorably and idealizing him as a great virtuous husband heh. It’s ok he’s harsh on himself he needs at least one person that believes in him hardcore let’s go <3 I’m going into really debatable grounds about morality and healthy vs unhealthy behavior lmao but yeah!! He recovered in her esteem, but she will not just give up on and leave behind this cringefail ass of a man even if he digs his hole so deep and so hard. He already got divorced once his partner would need some… Strong determination~ More on that right away

Which, what is this "I don’t want to look incompetent and I’ll even claim I’ve done things that make me look terrible to avoid it" because uuuuh, they both do it

Let's finally dig into the shapeshifters chapter! Lots of fun stuff to observe in there. Let's start with Marcille's side. There’s how, of course, Chilchuck's shapeshifter of her has her with sparkly hair with detailled shading, and how the reason she got eleminated was because of the spells in her spellbook don't match at all; Which means that personality wise, she was pretty convincing! We don't see just how well Chilchuck's vision of her match though since it didn't get much far. As we see with Laios’ shapeshifter clones, having an accurate shapeshifter is harder than one could think!

Easier to miss and more interesting though!! "It seems like Marcille B has awfully weak determination hmmm" implying Chilchuck thinks Marcille has a strong will. I think it’s especially telling when hand in hand with Chilchuck in an early chapter going "Oops not good I missed [that taking dead Kabru’s party’s wet food wasn’t the best moral decision], that’s Marcille for you." and such, where it seems like Chil sees her as someone who has strong convictions and admires/relies on her for it in some ways.

Funnily enough Chilchuck’s not the only one being flattering about the other's hair, because Marcille's shapeshifter of him's hair is... Fluffier? Throughout the whole chapter too so not just a one-off or a coincidence. Tempting to pat and carress perhaps? It's confirmed to be her shapeshifter of him with the page about it in the adventurer's bible, and it's the one that gets the furthest in the elimination! The lockpicking tools are, surprisingly, convincing enough, and the attitude is also convincing if not for the true Chilchuck being "nastier" lmao. It's idealization due to the fact she has a hard time stopping thinking of him as young, but in a way she both knows him well enough to be very convincing and idealizes him as being nicer than he actually is, not the worst I’ll take it. "Our Chilchuck is a lot nicer! 🥰" help

Have some more of Marcille praising Chilchuck

Defending her honor part 2

Ok now look at the Nightmares extra… Chilchuck would watch her series with her!! He enjoys her type of stories!! They’re on the same page even about plot points and the emotions each scenes inspire!! They would chat during watch parties!! Also this is something Marcille conjured up in her dreams so like, tbh very impressive. Chilchuck enjoying Marcille’s dream fiction isn’t something I ever expected but it sure happened

This is what a movie date would look like

I now declare lasagna the marchil dish. Seriously though I’m so curious as to what else Chilchuck’s pastas could be here. She’s fantasy italian it works out

What is that look Chilchuck… Is this life advice, love advice or what. Like it’s not just me he’s being a little suggestive right, he’s drawing a comparison to womanizers right- Okok so you, Chilchuck, say exactly what reward you want, so that makes you trustworthy ok got it. Lesson learned and she respects his professional boundaries & reassures him so he doesn’t feel as self-conscious/judged from then on.

Being on the same page and acting in perfect synchrony part 566

Looking out for the other part 307, featuring them panicking out of their minds lol (Chil is better at stress management it seems)

& Keeping the other in check part 255

I truly love how casually they treat dungeon lord Marcille. You may be under mind corruption magic and a boundless beacon of destruction at your whims right not but you’re still our cringefail Marcille and we need to look after you

Look at his smug-ass face at having successfully comforted and soothed her in the team effort

What’chu looking at loverboy. What’s up, is her face too close to you for your comfort?

Alright part 5 presumably NOT coming soon, i finally ran out of stuff to put on these hehe. Maybe the anime is gonna change that though

… And then the anime arrived and I already have stuff for a part 5. See you soon!!

part 5 is here broskis

[fumifooms]

do you think the succubus chilchuck sees is his wife, but blonde? he seems so upset when its dead

I think it’s a very strained theory. There are two layers to this: Chilchuck’s expression, and the succubi’s appearances. And notice the plural of appearances.

Chilchuck’s expression here is meant as comedic, we can assume because of the lashes and sparkle in his eyes, it gives shojo energy (which is intentional and heavily present at the very least with Marcille in the same chapter). It’s a type of dramatic sorrowful expression that I think Marcille with Hareus and Laios with scylla Marcille would have had the same, the type that Laios had when Marcille crushed the cool dragon familiar he made the type of face you make when a unicorn is killed in front of you. Chilchuck would have this face regardless of this being his wife, because regardless of it being his wife or not the succubi are still Chilchuck’s ideal form. It’s like having the blorbo you fantasize about brutally mauled inches away from your face, or a painting you love stained. Chilchuck wants the sirens to come for his life and is sad he lost the opportunity for it lol. But most importantly imo, if that was his wife, he would have had a face much more like genuine terror or horror (which would have been still both funny and understandable so it was a deliberate choice to pick this expression instead), like in his nightmare with his dead daughters.

Ok now onto appearances: Here are all of Chilchuck’s succubi we see.

The biggest thing against this theory for me is that yes, these are different women who are visibly different. There’s no denying he has a type, long wavy blonde hair, deepset light-colored eyes and sultry mouths, faces with a mature quality to them, but different women no less. It would be interesting to analyze what it would mean for Chilchuck to have only one of his succubi in a sea of succubi be his wife, but it would defeat the purpose of it I think. We see waves of women succubi throw themselves at him, and I think the intent is just that; for them to just be women, his ideal type materialized but sort of identity-less, a mass of them that isn’t really meant to be differentiated or individualized. If you believe that the nameless black-haired half-foot woman portrait is his wife, that shortens the conversation, but there are also arguments beyond it for why yes his wife would have black hair, and why she’d have deepset eyes and a face like this (because it’s a solid argument that his type would be at least influenced by her yes. I go into this topic in this post). If we go with the portrait chilwife theory, then it’s pretty straightforward that none of them truly closely look like her. If we go with another theory then we’re truly walking in the dark for how she looks like. How close is close enough to "be" ‘her except blonde’, anyways? It’s the sort of thing you can believe if you want to, but it creates more questions than answers, which albeit isn’t always bad. My interpretation of Chilchuck’s succubi makes me biased though of course, because it’s closely intertwined with my overall interpretation of Chilchuck and whatnot. I’ve talked about succubi in dungeon meshi and them in relation to Chilchuck a lot over time. I think them being faceless and varied rather than one single model of perfection is because he craves pleasure with no ties, something to feel good for a while and forget all his troubles, including his separation. I think that when Chilchuck reacts like that below, it’s because he feels some amount of guilt at it not being her, and again not wanting to think about painful things, but it could be interpreted to be "can you not, when you just blew her up" I suppose. I go into it here and here as well.

I don’t know Kui’s brain so like, this is just my thoughts, like you asked for, but yeah I don’t think that first succubus literally had his wife’s appearance.