I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.
It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).
We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.
I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.
And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.
Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.
It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise
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Okay okay I know the shippers are grieving KaiShin right now BUT
May I offer you platonic/familial KaiShin?
Just think. They may not know it in canon yet, but Shinichi is technically Kaito's only relative who hasn't fucked off and abandoned him
Like at this point Shinichi/Conan probably gives more shits about Kaito/KID than both of Kaito's parents
Imagine the fanfic potential
Them finding out they're related
Kaito half glad and half weirded out that he has another relative who's actually here
Shinichi being baffled at Kaito's fucked family situation
Maybe even Shinichi going off on his dad for seemingly letting Toichi's son believe he's dead
Maybe even Kaito going off on his dad for, well, everything at this point
The drama
Imagine
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cherik dump bc cherik supremacy:
erik: i can explain.
charles: can you?
erik: if you give me thirty seconds to think of a lie.
erik: whaddya call a fish with no eye?
charles, not looking up: myxine circifrons
erik:
erik: fsh
charles: what the fuck is wrong with you?!
erik: wow, you could start with a 'good morning'.
charles: good morning. what the fuck is wrong with you?!
erik: you're the love of my life and my best friend, i would do anything for you.
charles: i want you to eat three meals a day and have a decent sleep schedule.
erik: absolutely not.
erik: someone will die.
charles: of fun!
charles: this is such a bad idea.
erik: then why are you coming along?
charles: one of us need to be able to talk the cops out of arresting us when this inevitably goes wrong.
erik: am I going too far?
charles: no, no, no. you went too far about seven hours ago. now you're going to prison.
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moggettt asked: Hey!! For art suggestions, possibly a Mike Chilton? Love that burner boi;; (I've been listening to Underdog by Kasabian and it has big motorcity vibes 🔥)
Yes!!!! Ah! My boy!!!!!! I saw a clip from Motorcity again the other day and it was Mike just cheerfully hopping backwards out of a window many stories up apparently just on the cheerful assurance that he'd figure something out on the way down, and. I love this fucking doofus. What a good main character lmao
Bonus: wet >>>>:(
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Very lazy but I think the final idea for monsterifying my avatar
Z-643 is a previously assumed humanoid figure obscured by a viscous substance resembling oil. The consistency of the fluids it produces is that of blood and is incredibly toxic when come into contact with, causing fatigue and vertigo. Long term exposure, be more than a minute within contact, can create nausea, loss of balance, and even stronger effects of dizziness, eventually leading to affected individuals to fall unconscious and quickly perish. Autopsy reports show that the blood of these victims is entirely changed into the same substance Z-643 produces, although translucent and lacking any of the more dangerous side effects. Further testing shows that Z-643’s blood also causes intense brain activity similar to that of REM sleep even if the individual is fully conscious, causing them to see vivid hallucinations.
If Z-643 is cornered in any way, it’ll feel threatened and let out a infrasonic scream that gradually becomes audible to any listeners as it rapidly destroys the eardrums and promptly kills them. Interaction with Z-643 must be careful and predictable as it’s sight is incredibly sharp, almost seeming like it can anticipate things before they happen. It will rarely move when observed directly as it assumes anything is a threat until proven otherwise. When not directly observed, Z-643 feels safe enough to slowly trudge its containment cell, stopping to stare at anything that piques its interest.
Z-643 can detect eye contact much more keenly when it is on the move. If it detects it’s being observed while it’s moving, it’ll quickly search for a place to hide, preferably where it has a good view of the area that it’s in. Observation through any other means such as cameras do not stir Z-643.
GRAND ENCOUNTER - “ red light green light “
As the player opens the door to the Fallen Angel encounter, they will hear a ringing and be briefly disoriented
The room is a long heavy containment hallway with scratches and puddles of Z-643’s blood as well as various furniture strewn about
There are marks on the ceiling where Z-643 climbed into its position, causing its blood to drip down and possibly hit (and hurt) the player
Z-643 is in a tired state and thus occasionally will close its eyes, player has to move between these periods and stop when it opens its eyes again
Hazards in the room urge the player to keep moving even when Z-643 is observing, this encounter is a test of nerve and patience
Because of the room’s damaged state, lights will flicker and occasionally go out completely, but because any light sources will alert Z-643 of your presence you are forced to navigate without them
When you reach the end of the encounter, Z-643 will retract away from the doorway but continue to monitor you (it won’t aggro at this point)
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