#present day timeline

[museswithinx]

“why do you have that look on your face?” (Alice for Ronnie, at any point in time)

more random dialogue prompts

After nearly a year of careful planning and talking about it, her and Eric finally just went for it. Ronnie was expecting their first child and when the official announcement was made to their friends and family, it was pretty much guaranteed there would be a big celebration.

In true Seph fashion, the party was going to be wonderfully over-the-top. Even more perfect was the fact that everyone was in attendance. Including the Rolland's who were back on a visit from their worldly travels. This might be her and Eric's party but that didn't mean Ronnie couldn't make a little magic happen for the sake of certain other people's happiness.

"Seph needs someone to be a helping hand with some lights around the pool," she told her big brother with an air of casualness. As if she had no clue his hands would be helping Gray with that particular matter. She wasn't sure if Deacon was quite ready for the relationship leap just yet but that didn't mean she couldn't keep pushing the friendship between them. It was the best foundation for more after all.

If Deacon was suspicious, he didn't show it so she assumed that she had been subtle enough. At least until he figured out who he would be hanging lights with.

Smiling to herself as her brother went off on his assignment, Ronnie was figuring out how she could get Alice and Quinn alone together. Maybe she could arrange for them to pick up the food. Texting her plan to Seph as she went looking for Alice, her phone chimed a few minutes later that she had Quinn on it.

"Hey Alice," Ronnie greets perhaps too cheerfully when she finds her, "We need someone to go help pick up and carry food. Do you mind going along?" It was the perfect setting: Alone in a car together for 40-ish minutes. There was plenty they could talk about. Like maybe the fact that they were so obviously in love with each other and had been for as long as she knew both.

Still smiling at her a tad too cheerfully, Alice appeared to pick up on it.

“why do you have that look on your face?”

Uh oh. She definitely hadn't been subtle enough this time. "What? There's definitely not a look. What do you mean?" She asks innocently. "I'm just... Helping Seph is all. If you don't want to pick up food, we could put you," And Quinn, "On drinks or something." She was overselling the innocence now. She could tell by how suspiciously Alice was looking at her but it kept coming out like word vomit now.

"I just thought maybe food pick up would be easier." She continues. "It's a nice relaxing drive... Breezy, quiet... Good company." Oops. Was that a dead give away? "I think you'd enjoy it."

[galaxygermdraws]

So uh. I began replaying SMRPG again. Ya this is for you Geno enjoyers.

(reblogs with tags/comments are appreciated. Thankyu)

[canisalbus]

Building up on both of does anon posts, Machete and Vasco being historical figures that make waves every so often on tumblr feels very canon and not too far from actual tumblr's favourite historical figures.

And also, I feel that Machete shouldn't go that unnoticed by scholars. Being this powerful member of the clergy that escaped many assassination attempts before being killed and had a personal relationship with the pope. Like this man was a deathly and important part of the inquisition, but also left behind rumours of a same-sex relationship with a married politician.

I can definitely see him becoming a point of interest for some historians, especially does who studied the inquisition or the clergy. That's probably how Vasco's paintings of him got discovered and documented and how their relationship stopping being considered a rumour started by his now-death enemies, but an actual theory with some weight behind it.

Idk why but I'm becoming very invested in the ways history would treat and remember them, way too many scandals and drama for them to be forgotten in time.

You do make a very convincing point.

People are getting so invested in their hypothetical in-universe reputation and are clearly putting some serious thought into it and it's getting me hyped up as well ;_;

[theghostofashton]

seven sentence sunday

thank you @heartstringsduet @welcometololaland for the tags <3

“Sometimes I kinda feel like you don’t even have a roommate,” Mateo says. “Like you made him up.�� “Mateo!” Marjan chides. “What?” He asks. “I don’t think I’ve seen the guy once.” “Yes, you have,” Marjan says. “He was at the last mandatory floor meeting. He’s been at every mandatory floor meeting.” “What’s he look like?” “Curly brown hair. And uh…” she trails off, as she thinks about it. “He wears glasses, right TK?” “Yeah,” TK replies. “Sometimes.” He wore them to the last floor meeting. TK knows because he spent most of the half hour trying not to stare.  “And he’s taller than you, right?” “Not by much,” TK mutters, a wave of indignance washing over him. He didn’t think anyone noticed those couple inches. Carlos is barely taller than him.

tagging @paperstorm @sanjuwrites @strandnreyes @reyesstrand @carlos-in-glasses @carlossreaders @tellmegoodbye @alrightbuckaroo @henrygrass @nisbanisba @bonheur-cafe and anyone else who wants to share!

[sircolinmorgan]

how am I going to cope when this show airs and colin morgan looks like THAT

[mala--draws]

''you'll stay?" not forever. maybe not for very long at all. for now though, he will.

melting into a big sad puddle what

(fic excerpt from tiptoes - thirdgleam on ao3 & thedayforgives on tumblr, recommend!)

[randomnameless]

I find it so fucking funny how they managed to make Naga a better mother than Sothis. Hell, a bunch of people were convinced that Naga was an evil abusive parent. And Sothis just comes in and takes that title.

TBF it's hard to best Sothis at the "worst parent" title, even if, as some people pointed out, we're stuck with gremlin!Sothis and not "complete!Sothis" who would supposedly give more fucks about her kids than the gremlin...

And yet, gremlin!Sothis is the one the Fodlan devs included in their games, hell, Heroes can come up with young!gotoh, kid!azura and Nils' lizard form, and yet, they can't bend the canon to give Sothis an alt where she'd give a fuck about her living children!

Sure, there's the duo alt that was released this year, but it's a far cry from what Naga expresses for Tiki in this current banner, that is purely speculation because, hell, in their base games, Naga is already dead and Tiki doesn't specifically mention how she and her mom used to be close (at least, afair?).

-> FEH can cook an AU where young!Naga and bby!Tiki hang out together, hell where Duma'n'Naga participate in Dragon!Ween with Naga, but even the FEH devs can't cook an alt or an AU where Sothis gives actual fucks about her children !

Special mention to Fallen!Billy's video, where they tried to cook some "Sothis is pissed because her children were massacred" that is, as far as we know, not the canon reason why she was pissed in Nopes, but bar that? Nothing.

-> The devs choose to write Sothis as a mom who dgaf about her kids - or gives minimal fucks in the duo unit - in FEH aka a game where characters reunite with their loved ones and spend time together when they couldn't in their respective canon universes.

Sure, Naga caring about Tiki in this situation is not canon because it's FEH and this banner is pure "AU" verse, so in a way, you could make a point that this may be a retcon, but painting Naga as the most abusive or toxic parent when Sothis exists is something lol

[bitchfendi]

no one takes advantage of professor layton's wack ass timeline and set dressing enough. not even level 5.

[whatshehassaid]

Two part playlist.

1. Daniel, the Devils Minion

2. Armand, the Minion’s Devil

[itzr4v3n]

Main AU (aka Present Timeline)

When I refer to my Main AU, I usually mean the time space between Volume 2 and 3. Vol 3 characters appear, but events from the previous have already happened. Although, I usually have both Crimsons featured unless I'm trying to be fully canonical. Of course, spoilers ahead

uhhh I guess this post is going to be a mix of fact dump, history lesson and lore?

Oh, for reference, I made a timeline at some point, accuracy is debatable

Let’s start with history/lore from the past/character backstories

Jimothy Red was born in Drakonia and grew up there until his early teens. He had an okay relationship with his parents, they weren’t great, but he loved them enough to be pretty upset when they were killed on Halloween (reason why he stopped liking it in the future), along with other kids in the area cuz “no witnesses”. So he reported the situation to the Iron Tsar as manslaughter, just to be hit with “Yeah so, your parents were against me and I didn’t like that so I hired people to kill them.” Jimmy was rightfully pissed, because he himself was okay with the Tsar, but that crossed the line. There was no reasoning with the death of his parents, but when Red brought up the dead kids, the Tsar was like “okay hold on, slow down. They killed others too? That was not my order. Right, here’s the deal. I’ll punish them, but don’t get it twisted, it’s only because they went against my orders” and sent Red away. The next day the two assassins were publicly hanged. Jimmy himself was sent into foster care and ended up overseas to go to a new family, aka in the US.

The family already had two other sons, there used to be a third, the eldest, but he ran away because of pressure and expectations. The parents knew this, so they lowered expectations for the younger two and Red. Unfortunately, Red was a perfectionist and though he knew it was from a kind heart, he didn’t want to be praised for doing a “good job”, he wanted a “great job”. Basically in short: He works better under pressure.

The relationship to the youngest son was a bit shaky, he would piss Red off on purpose and it would result in Red locking himself in his room. A good few talks between them and the mother eventually settled it, and Red got adopted into the family, making him Jimothy Red-Kobayashi (he wanted to keep his old name).

Fast forward about 20-30 or something years, Red goes back to Drakonia because he was still holding a grudge. Broke into the Tsar’s palace and of course he got captured. Decided it was a good idea to mock dear Vladislav. This is how it went: “Why don’t you throw me in jail then? Oh right, you hang every criminal no matter how small.” “You’re asking to be killed, aren’t you?” “Maybe.” “Well I’m not going to do it just to spite you. But since genius me never thought of setting up jails, I’ll just have to keep you here. Probably goes against the entire point of punishing you, but I’m just doing this to spite your probably suicidal self because seriously, that aside are you okay bro? Why would you even consider-” I’m derailing from the topic.

During his stay to a confined space he somehow managed to pull Vladislav. How? Apparently he has a thing for bossy men, while Vlad finds his stubbornness weirdly admirable. So uh, they got together (should I remind y'all Vlad is 80+ and Red is still in his late thirties at that point?) The Tsar thought “maybe he’s not that bad. I should probably let him free” and that he did, Red went to the Deduction College, led the reenactment club while occasionally visiting Vlad during holidays, before going back to Drakonia and what did he do?

Started a revolution against the very man he claimed he loved. Oops.

Vladislav escaped, my butler OC Eros fought Red back until he got stabbed in the stomach, to which in response he cut off Red’s hand, and then got his neck broken by the dude.

Fun fact: This used to be a separate AU, until (me): “and then revolution happened” (friend): “I thought it was an AU girl, why😭” (Me): “it was, buuuuuuut >:)”

That’s how it became part of my main timeline.

Fun fact: His name actually used to be Red Kobayashi, so his “last name” was his first name, until I forgot and added Jimothy in front. Also makes more sense that way, given colours are usually their surnames.

Oh also, he has war ptsd. A single gunshot is fine, but rapid firing is what sends him back.

Anyways, I think it’s fair I talk about Vladislav himself.

Born royalty, obviously, strict parents, was given a personal butler and arranged friend Eros when they were both teens, Vlad 13 and Eros 15 to be exact. And he pretty much remained Vladislav’s only real friend, given commoners were “not ideal” and the prince was mistrustful towards overly nice nobles, thinking they were going to use him for money or brag about being friends with a royal. And of course, he was swamped with studies and everything, leading to sleepless nights just to do well enough for his parents to be proud of him. Eros tried reasoning with the royal couple, but the Tsarina was like “you do not give us orders. Now shut up before we fire you” and added a slap on top of that.

Vladislav was gifted in the artistic direction, but he never really got the chance to work on it, mainly because his parents (especially his mom) weren't in favour of him "doing some silly drawings" (he wanted to show them a painting he worked months on, but they didn't even look :c)

So he gave up drawing entirely and focused on the future, as he planned to make Drakonia great and break the cycle of "gaining respect through fear".

As much as he didn't want to admit it, he failed and became an almost exact copy of his parents, maybe even worse. Eros tried giving him gentle nudges to the other direction, but it simply wouldn't work with a mistrustful folk. Red had asked him in the future "why don't you treat your people nicely?" "If I want to keep my title, then it's necessary that they fear me. You will understand one day"

The entire "feared ruler of Drakonia, the Iron Tsar" gig kind of became his entire personality in the end.

Also funnily enough, Major Red had a similar idea during the revolution. Free the kingdom from the monarch's iron fist and become the new ruler who would have the folk's support and love. Yeah, when he actually got the throne for a while, it was an "I told you so" moment because he pretty soon realized "okay. Maybe this wasn't as easy as I thought"

That's pretty much the whole gig with them all the way into the present.

I want to add one small thing though. So we know Red was captured by the winning party in the second Civil War at the end of Volume 2, right? In volume 3 it was revealed he escaped and I did a little something with that.

The son who ran away joined White's military army and was the guard to Red's cell. He knew they were of the same family name and said "I don't know you, but I know you're my brother and I feel like it's my duty to help you, so I'm letting you out"

He covered up the plan pretty well and made it seem like Red was some escape master.

Logico family time

Ink (short for Inquiry) D. Logico, formerly Ink Hernandez before marriage, was a serial killer in her late teens/early adulthood, her victims consisted of people who wronged her in any way (as Murdle logic goes). When she wasn't going on her rounds, she worked as a barista and studied economics at the local college, where she also met Petrov D. Logico, who studied interior designing and was also a self taught mechanic, sometimes doing occasional repairs for his neighbours for a good dime. They hooked up and eventually started dating. Petrov was a real chill dude, open and kind, almost never got pissed even if he was wronged, just mildly annoyed. Ink found herself to be attracted to that and usually let off steam by ranting to him and Petrov was always like “you’re so valid for that. I honestly would be pissed too”.

Fast forward, they got married, Ink has completely stopped her murderous sprees. Petrov started working as a butler, Ink continued her job but full time. Eventually they had Falsone and Ximena, a pair of twins. Ink is of Spanish heritage, while Petrov is of Italian, it was only fair they each gave the kids a name from that language (they also grew up trilingual). Falsone found his sense of fashion pretty early and could put together at least 30 outfits with just 5 items. Ximena took a little longer to find her calling, trying this and that but nothing ever really stuck besides her liking for jigsaw puzzles, and options were limited due to the financial situation the town was in and therefore the family. She eventually came out as trans at around 14 and became Sandro, the Logico we know today. Sandro would have been his birth name if he was born a guy :p. Both Falsone and Sandro kept their hair long because why not, Falsone often helped his brother with creating outfits fitting his style of the time, emo. Falsone himself had more of a rebel-nerd style.

When they were 16, Ink was arrested because her crimes had finally been uncovered. Sandro dug through as many old newspapers as he could find, just to find anything that will prove his mother was innocent, but all that he found was that all the clues and hints he put together confirmed the harsh truth he refused to believe. His first exposure to crime solving ended up leading up to her death, as she was given the death sentence back then. Despite that, he still went with his profession as a deductive. At least Petrov was a great dad, despite being a widow.

Sandro took up an interest in chess after playing a few rounds with classmates, but never really practiced it until college, besides the occasional after school activity.

The two brothers moved out of the old town and went down their own paths. The irony that they had a drastically different level of success (financially). Falsone opened up his own fashion brand and is practically internationally known. Ironically, he doesn’t always enjoy the fame. Yeah, he’s happy his passion became a stable income for him, but he literally can’t go anywhere without being recognised by someone. Reason why he regrets ever putting himself as the model for the front page of an magazine. Also, it’s consuming his entire life, as Sebastian, his Chief Financial Officer, would put it. His works controls his life. Falsone denies it and just claims his stress is only self induced, he just needs to manage his time better and stop overthinking. And despite modelling, being healthy and everything, he still doesn’t feel like he looks good enough and can’t figure out why.

Scrapped concept: An idea I had was that Falsone was tricked into joining the Red Army at some point and fought in the civil war in Volume 2. He saw Sandro and Irratino heading towards the zeppelin and wanted to follow, but stepped on a landmine, losing both of his legs. At least his brother noticed and he could be brought to safety and treated, albeit being permanently crippled. Red still sent him a medal later on for even taking part in the war, despite running away.

Sandro on the other hand is fine with how he looks, despite not having his ideal body shape yet (aka top surgery which he can’t afford). He also has a pretty wide vocal range, after voice training to sound more like a man and managed to get pretty deep. Sometimes when he’s annoyed or frustrated, he starts cussing to himself in Spanish. Doesn’t mean he can’t speak Italian. Irratino learnt Spanish amongst others at some point in his life, but to fuck with him, Sandro speaks Italian to make him feel stupid like “did I forget everything I learnt-?” (His Italian is very rusty). It isn’t until Logico says something like “io sento” he realizes and goes: “you motherfu- that was Italian” and Sandro reacts with “hehe, I love making you feel dumb” and the Irratino proceeds to drop something in Norwegian or some other random language.

Fun fact: Transmasc Logico came to me in a dream

Talk about him, Irratino family time

So first of all, Irratino’s full name is Evander Marco Irratino. His biological mom is the red-haired one, Isabell, the other one is called Cheyenne (totally did not steal that from Berry).

Concepts (not officially decided):

Evander’s dad was neglectful or abusive, at some point he took his son to an abandoned building, hurting him in a way it gave him a permanent limp in the future and also sparking his fear of abandoned buildings. He eventually just left forever and Isabell remarried.

His dad wasn’t bad, they loved exploring the unknown together. They entered an abandoned building once, but an accident (maybe a collapsed floor) resulted in Evander’s permanent leg injury, while his dad had a bad landing and passed away moments later.

I’m leaning towards the second option, just to not give the boy trauma upon trauma.

There isn’t all too much to say to him.

Evander actually had a feeling something was wrong when his parents departed for the expedition, but couldn’t pinpoint it and just pushed it down. One night after finding out his moms died, the angel of Belief, Ryomen, formed a bond with him under God’s command, indirectly Nemoyr, angel of deceit, as well. God then gave him a vision showing how his parents really died and you know the rest. That’s how he gained the ability to talk to spirits, God and understanding cryptic messages.

I know I’m talking about a godly bond and stuff, but Evander doesn’t follow a specific religion. He just does what he knows, what God or his angels tell him. Also, while most of us need a few seconds or minutes to unscramble words/decode a message, Evander can read it like it’s normal. Encoded messages are like a second language for him.

scrapped concept: Before knowing of his past, my original idea for his heavenly bond was that one of the butler’s was jealous and killed Evander’s main one, to take his place and be higher on the list of inheriting a portion of their money in case of sudden death or similar. Another scrapped idea was that Evander had a twin, who I called Irritano (before figuring out Irratino is actually his last name). His brother killed someone, a bully, Evander saw that amongst other crimes through his dream visions, got his bro arrested, and Irritano ended up leading a life of crime.

For the Aureolin fans out there, I got a small story for her as well

Aureolin’s husband’s name was Sir Irving, he is a gardener for hire. They had a nice relationship, quaint home, their own backyard and stuff, but unfortunately neither of them really spent time with each other. Aureolin was almost always away for her shows, and when she was at home, Irving was out and about. This has resulted in some arguments, in which they may or may not have insulted each other’s professions one or two times. Eventually Aureolin said “You want quality time? Fine, I got a show next week and I want you there. After that, I’ll go with you to whatever plant fair you planned on going to.”

They went through with the plan, except Aureolin killed him during her show by sawing him in half. Oopsies

Uhh at some point she got together with Obsidian, but now they’re exes.

Grayscale because of course

His dad went to get the milk, so it was just him and his mom.

Jamie Grayscale has always been a kid with little emotions/expression. That was the reason why he never really had friends who stuck, he was too uninteresting for them with his monotonous voice. There’s no excitement in anything he says. His only real friend growing up was his mom, and that has definitely been used as an insult before, but he usually responds with “I love my mom, so I don’t really care”.

Dated every now and then, but it never lasted very long because it really was only out of pity, so he eventually stopped trying and lived contently as a single numbers man. Oh also, his poodle’s name is Phoebe and she’s 2 years old ^-^

and concerning the dog attempted murder in Volume 2, I assumed some other dog tried to attack Phoebe and Grayscale held it back by those leashes that tighten themselves, hence why he nearly choked the other dog.

Shipping time

Since we’re already talking about Grayscale, I might as well talk about a ship of mine with him :)

If you’re new, i ship him with Eminence, usually tagged Viscount CPA. It started with the emotionless x perpetually angry as a trope and I kind of went from there.

They met shortly after the civil war in volume 2, while Grayscale was heading home from work. Eminence was on the run, soaked from rain and homeless because he doesn’t have a permanent residence in the US. Took a bit of convincing, but Eminence eventually agreed to stay temporarily with Jamie.

He kind of never left because they got used to living together. They got closer, became friends “partners in crime” stuff, and then fell for each other. Grayscale was first to confess through a poem he left before going to work and Eminence responded with chocolates during his break.

What about the age gap? Yeah that was their worry too, but eventually Grayscale “We’re both consensual adults, not young ones either, it doesn’t matter anymore” and eased out of it. They had some ups and downs, but it was only a problem of communication, which they fixed

Another ship of mine is Red x Gunmetal, aka RedGun. Work colleagues to lovers. Sounds innocent, and they do love each other, but the thing that makes Viscount CPA work is missing between them. Gunmetal often jokes around, often purposely pissing Red off, and the latter reacts either aggressively or violently. So it’s uhh not going too well for them.

I stole the ship Amaranth x Blackstone from Berry, lol. Don’t really have a backstory for them though, same with Mauve x Slate

Adopted Saffron x Aureolin from the fandom

I also ship Rulean x Silverton x Dr. Crimson, only because two daily Murdles implied Silverton liked both of them. Also Rulean and Crimson kind of have an unspoken rivalry or sorts? You can find a short vid I made on my account

Usually I go by canon, but the dailies sometimes give little extras, like Red and Lapis being childhood friends, so I try to incorporate those too

Also I recently found out Grayscale actually has a crush on Turquoise so uh. I’ll just pretend I didn’t see that, besides using it as a trope for a Hanahaki AU (friend’s suggestion) :^

Radical Crimson x Aubergine originated from my Infection AU fic I still need to continue. Crazy x crazier stuff

And of course the oxymorons. Like, how can you not ship them?

Other headcanons

Logico has a cat he adopted after finding it as a stray. He calls her Muffin, she’s a ragamuffin who was abandoned as a kitten. He also fosters and later on adopts a boy called Leo, whose single dad was murdered. Logico’s colour, besides black, is dark blue. He’s 35

Irratino’s colour is green/dark green for me, although I know for the majority of the fandom it’s purple. He’s 37 and hates going into abandoned houses. I think I’m the odd one out for not seeing Irratino as someone who would wear dresses or skirts for the sake of wearing them. In my hc, he would wear them for a dare or challenge, but not as everyday clothing

As already implied, Red doesn’t like Halloween and has a bionic left hand. Also he’s a demiboy, 55

Smoky is the youngest adult at 18

Gunmetal has bionic arms. Yes, both of them, I haven’t decided why or how yet, he just does. He’s 51

Indigo is a cross dresser and is proud of it. I used to absolutely loathe him, but I lowkey like asshole personalities, although for me it leans more towards sassy aunt who’s kind of passive aggressive. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, he still cared for Olivia, even if she was always second behind his job. Like, she could ask him for help with a project, Indigo finishes whatever he was doing before and goes to help her as soon as he can.

Fun fact: I used to hate Copper, because of my general animosity towards cops who abuse their power, but now I’ll tolerate her.

Crash Test Apricot is the younger brother of Actuary Apricot

Taupe is a gentle giant

Mauve is the closest to being the same as Indigo, without the whole “yeah so I’m gonna force you into the VR world whether you like it or not” thing

Gunmetal and Logico joke about being father and son solely because they look similar

Grayscale is into literary and can play the piano

Eminence rediscovered his love for art and is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe and similar style authors

Names all listed again: President Alexander Midnight, Louise Midnight iii, Benjamin Midnight, Dr. Addison Crimson, Rae “Radical” Crimson, Nayra Aubergine, Vladislav Eminence, Jamie Grayscale, Jimothy Red, Sandro D. Logico, Evander Marco Irratino

Random facts or lore fragments

Logico and Irratino end up having a kid, who has their DNA, but isn’t born. Some people managed to get their genes somehow and created a baby in a lab, who was then dropped off in front of their doorstep stork style. This kid ended up being adopted and named Potino, though the two of them never figured out where he came from

I used to joke my persona Lynn dropped off the kid, but I eventually settled for a more in-universe explanation

Red and Gunmetal actually ended up getting relationship advice from Eminence and Grayscale and it did help getting them back on track

I have exactly two self inserts, besides other OCs. One is Estella who met Logico at a murder scene and kind of just stuck around, because she had evidence photos and has since worked with him as a mini job. 5'6, left-handed, Pisces

The other one is based off of my username in the Detective Club discord sever, Amazing Aureolin’s Apprentice (AAA). Her name is Hemani Globe, reference to hemoglobin. As the username already implied, she’s Aureolin’s apprentice and may or may not have helped with a murder or two.

Another OC is Hawk “little bee” Keppel, first featured in my Infection Au fic. Enthusiastic workaholic, pretty soft-spoken but will fuck you up if he has to, does get easily anxious. Uhhh oh, and Misc Cider, non-binary forensic detective. No nonsense attitude, pretty strict but caring nonetheless. 6'1, ambidextrous, Gemini

uhhhhhhhhh

fun fact: out of all the three books, I remember volume 3 the worst. Idk why, I just can't remember shit well enough from that book

No I have not read Murdle Jr, so there can very much be something that goes against everything I've said

I think that’s all so far

Future AU post is next

[fumifooms]

Don't really reblog or leave comments all that often, but I've been reading your Delicious in Dungeon deep analysis posts for a few days now and honestly I can't wait for that Kabru (& Mickbell) party rundown. They're a fine set of adventurers, if in dire need of people more capable of handling monsters.

Speaking of Mickbell's relationship with Kuro in particular – I think it does generally tend to be perceived from Mickbell's side, whether positively or negatively (which makes sense to some degree, since Kuro's perspective wasn't presented in full until the World Guide), as if Kuro isn't himself a maladjusted adult who spent an unspecified amount of time starving in a cage, his family situation unclear beyond "permanently out of contact", and is yet as overprotective of Mick as Mick is of him. I do recall a panel where he furrows his brows at the sight of Mick sitting on Inutade's shoulders, but other than that he is less aggressively isolating and self-insistent and more... coddling, I'd say, or overtly abiding. Kabru should have found Mickbell some books on kobold language tbh.

This is not intended as a criticism of the earlier webweaving post so I apologize if it does have shades of passive-aggressiveness – it's an incredibly on-point assessment of Mickbell's relationship with Kuro and his reasoning. Thank goodness Mickbell isn't a master magician, or else he'd make for a rather tasty dungeon lord (and Kuro would probably end up in a cage again, if not worse).

[context: ask sent on april 14th, soon after I posted my Canines web weaving]

Don’t worry, I loved getting your ask and didn’t read in any hostility! I didn’t want to reply before finishing my party masterpost-analysis (🤡 man it’s been too many months) but Kuro fans are begging for scraps and clamoring for Kuro meta and content everywhere I look including my askbox and man. Man yeah I should throw a bone you guys’ way at least in the meantime. The thing though you see is, one does not simply talk about Kuro without trying to cover every ground and every single piece of info we get. I’ll end up repeating myself a lot on this in my longer upcoming post but that’s just how analysis tends to be, so flash Kuro segment focusing on the Mickbell-Kuro dynamic

In a way I talk less about Kuro because compared to Mickbell his situation feels more straightforward to me somehow, the abused is usually the one who gets empathized with and liked more over the abuser so I don’t feel the same need to explore and explain. But… Kuro is not only generally hard to read but has so many layers. Kuro is both a self-effacing follower who’s communicative but polite & behaved and somewhat stoic, making it hard to gauge how much he’s voicing himself or even repressing, and functionally devoid of the ability to speak most of the time. He emotes in doglike ways but mostly because, lacking words universal body langue and cues like growling are the only way he can emote and communicate, not unlike how tone of voice is what’s important when talking to say, a pet dog. Kuro’s extra where he talks with Kabru is truly the Kuro bible, without it we’d have a much kess clear vision of how he lives his situation with Mickbell. And… It’s whiplash inducing and disconcerting when we see then that Kuro has everything rationalized, that Mickbell is still an angel in his mind and this is normal, just a guy who’s a little insecure that he must bend every which way for if needed.

Mickbell & Kuro’s relationship is fascinating because they each have a totally different view of the relationship. Mickbell thinks he holds the reigns, he’s the employer, the master, he’s manipulating Kuro consciously to some degree and withholds things like salary or permission to talk with others from him, and he thinks this is how he gets Kuro to not leave him. Kuro has seen through the matrix and pinpointed Mickbell’s insecurities and has decided he must do everything in his power to never make him anxious or upset and be his emotional support, EXCEPT that hilariously he seems to genuinely think Mickbell is a kid. He’s 22. Like, tallman equivalent of 27. Kuro is 18. Kuro has chosen to stay consciously and keeps choosing to stay because he wants to, because he’s chosen to devote himself to Mickbell’s wellbeing. In Kuro’s eyes, before being employer and employee, Kuro is the guardian and protector of this sensitive kid that he must follow and protect at all costs. What everyone is seeing as wage slavery doesn’t even register to Kuro because he’s never really thinking about the money, he dgaf. Kuro could choose to snap Mickbell in half with his jaw at any second and is more emotionally mature than Mickbell, but otherwise the power imbalance both financially and manipulation wise and using whatever he can to keep Kuro where he wants him is 100% tipping the scale towards Mickbell.

The amount of miscommunication they have for being each other’s most important person + person they spend most time with is insane, but tbh I think part of it is that Mickbell is terrified of what would happen when Kuro becomes fluent in common. Not only because Kuro would have the whole world of opportunities open up to him then (and in Mickbell’s mind, who would pick him over the world?), but because then the relationship would inevitably shift, Mickbell would lose some of that power imbalance, he would have to do more listening and both of them would have to learn to know each other better, and rectify wrong assumptions. It’d remind Mickbell that Kuro is truly his own person with a lot of thoughts and it’d make him feel less safe in being able to keep the relationship secure…

This all is why I’m less into mickuro in general, because unless Kuro puts his foot down one day for both their sakes, the status quo would just… Keep going, on and on. Canon supports this too, since Kuro’s profile in the complete adventurer’s bible in the post-canon blurb mentions very pointedly he’s still being worked for peanuts by Mickbell. Kuro being able to speak fully would make it a bit healthier I think like I talked, but Kuro would still be complacent to Mickbell’s unhealthy obsessive needs and man… Man……. Mickbell feels safe only when taking and Kuro wants nothing more than to give, if that makes sense, and that might be a shaky decent enough way to live for them but it also is far from healthy the way it is. I also don’t think getting that house he wants would fix Mickbell. Could even be a huge breakoff point if Kuro mentions his dreams is travelling around.

So yes I definitely agree with your assessment of Kuro being coddling and overly abiding. Both of them are very protective of each other like you said, the difference being that Kuro is selfless and even self-sacrificing with it meanwhile Mickbell is more selfish and possessive. (Although his overcontrolling nature does to some degree come from a protective place. Which would especially if he sees Kuro as helpless because of his language barrier or the way they met. But moments that go towards this is him being worried for Kuro after the chimera fight, after being stung by an aquatic monster in a monster tidbit, Mickbell often mentioning being worried the union or Kabru will steal Kuro away in a borderline trafficking undertone. Beyond just the care he shows him on the regular like washing and brushing him for hours ofc. Mickbell is not uncaring, his worrying and insecurities just bring his worst instincts out of him. Ehem Mickbell tangent over, my apologies.)

I know Kuro also being possessive is a common reading, but I don’t think I really agree 🤔 The support for this is the way he frowns at Mickbell being on Inutade’s shoulders, but I think that and the other hostile over Mickbell behavior he shows fall more in live with being protective. From Kuro’s perspective, Mickbell (the kid who must be protected who might fall and break his neck at any moment or something) is now on the shoulders of this very tall stranger he just witnessed pull off a sneak attack Laios’ party with ease, not something considered particularly honorable or trustworthy, and now she’s handling Kuro’s most precious thing in the world? Yeah better watch them like a hawk. Also remember, this is on top of his language barrier meaning he hasn’t had the same opportunity as others to converse with them and understand what they’ve been saying and thus form bonds outside of "my party trusts you for now so I’ll follow their lead." He also explicitely distrusts Izutsumi. I’ll also say though, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say Kuro doesn’t know what to do with himself when he’s not looking after Mickbell, there’s the secret studies sure, but his whole life is always centered on him otherwise, so I can definitely imagine this being out of a restless feeling as well, though if that qualifies as possessiveness depends on the behavior it causes imo.

Other times where he growls or such is also defensive in nature. If anything, Kuro unlike Mickbell with him seems very alright with Mickbell making friends with the party and forming relationships outside of him. This does go in line with his "Mickbell is just a sensitive young lad I must do my best to protect until he feels safer and better, I want him to be happy and healthy" mentality. Near the end, we even see Kuro encouraging Mickbell to go towards other half-foots and implicitly join the half-foot union, the very same that Mickbell has told him would take Kuro away from Mickbell. So if it’s for Mickbell’s sake, even if Kuro might feel afraid of change or losing him to some degree (I don’t think he feels threatened bc he doesn’t think Mick would leave him), Kuro is even willing to endanger his situation/relationship/status quo with Mickbell.

Kuro is peak guardian angel……… 🥺😭

You’re also right Kuro is very maladjusted, with his past it feels very unsurprising Kuro would end up like this. Having a language barrier alone is extremely isolating: not being able to really communicate with others is his default with or without Mickbell, so it isn’t innately alarming or anormal to him, even when someone actively tries to make it harder for him. This is of course without mentioning the experience of being taken away from your homeland suddenly, and brougth against your will to a country you know nothing of and have no resources or knowledge to live in. Who knows how long he’s been in a cage— and as we see the living conditions were awful, similar to Izutsumi’s when she was part of a freak show. He was visibly starved and food was all the payment he could have wished for and that + following this guy who got him out of his chains were all the motivations he needed. And this makes sense for the overprotectiveness on both ends, Mickbell is all too aware of how particularly vulnerable kobolds are as targets and Kuro’s second interaction was mauling a guy who was trying to hurt Mickbell. Mickbell did "hire" Kuro as a bodyguard first and foremost, after all. Mickbell was scared of Kuro at first, echoing how he reminds Kuro during canon that his snarling is scary and not to do it. Even at first, the professional aspect to their relationship is a very shaky facade, it’s always been more like mutual aid that evolved into life partnership. Kuro was used to being alone, Kuro was used to having nothing and being starved and beaten, Kuro was used to having everyone dismiss him as a beast that’s not worth even trying to talk to, so of course Mickbell seems heavensent.

Man. The fandom has been so scary esp with the anime wave, Mickbell discourse is something I never expected would be so divisive 😭 Sometimes I hear things about Kuro like "he’s too smart to be abused" which is not only as a broad statement untrue but also harmful and vile. Abuse is complicated!!! You are bending over backwards to justify literal Mother Gothel behavior!!! No one is telling you you can’t sob over Mickbell and want mickbell & kuro fluff oh my god let’s just not normalize well known abuse tactics such as isolating them and controlling their finances and social circle.

Ok fun last ending note, it’s also interesting to note their dreams for the future and directly contridactory. When they have some money saved up, Mickbell wants to settle down with a house with Kuro, and Kuro wants to travel the world with Mickbell. Ohh to be a guy who’s been denied ressources all your life and has lived in constant danger who now wants nothing more than to have the ideal of a stable peaceful life, vs being a guy who’s been kidnapped and traded around and denied your freedom for so long who wants to see the world you’ve always been kept away from…. They’re each other’s world but they’re not a place they can live in, not sustainably not while thriving…….

Ahh, mickuro, mickuro, the ouroboros of codependence…

[fortune-maiden]

The more I think of what Bridon has implied about the original timeline, the more I feel like Lu Guang was not being anxious enough actually xD

[moinsbienquekaworu]

Bedtime but oh how I wish I had coherent thoughts about. Amaris.

[americanhooligans]

thinking about how tawny keeps saying we're going to see a lot of other tai and all the allusions to fire and how in the wilderness van is probably covering up that tai burned down the cabin. what if tai sets another fire? that scene with the matches was veeeery interesting...

does van ever tell tai about the cabin? do the others ever find out? do they still all think ben did it, even 25 years later? will this all come out in the current timeline? will they want revenge/justice for what they mistakenly did to ben in the wilderness?

[atricksterproblem]

I love the F/O ask games people create, but I saw one for Valentine's Day and my only thought was "Um. She's from Edo Period Japan. Valentine's Day is very much Not On Her Radar". XD

[puhpandas]

as someone who isnt super excited for sotm for certain reasons I am really glad that like. it's clear that since ruin theyve been setting up for carnival and sotm IS carnival. so now that carnival is finally coming out, afterwards theyll be moving on to other plotlines since the main villain stuff is sorted out

I'm just rlly happy to finally see a clear direction for how the story is gonna be playing out with like "okay these games were leading up to this so after this will be open possibilites" instead of like. absolutely no info about each upcoming game and being left guessing before it releases and just having to wait and see what's in it and if anything you're looking forward to will be in it

it feels like they have a plan and a solid direction for what they're trying to do and after carnival releases thatll be all that buildup coming to fruition. & we already know from the Scott interview that theres another release 'beyond sotm' that's 'super exciting' so maybe thatll be focusing on another big currently untouched (which is basically all of them) plotline, or even the big campaign game that dawko has been calling security breach 2