#gives me some thoughts not of him but of Barbs 🤔

[earl-grey-love]

I've been playing RnScpe again and I have such brainrot for the lore. I need to absolutely devour the quests.

Since I kind of plateud in terms of interest on my old account from 2015, I made a new one last year. This one on hardcore mode. It's been so much fun to replay quests I haven't done for the good sum of a decade. Its amazing to see how long plots have been brewing. Like how we saw the stone of Jas and time hopping elven scouts in a quest from 2008. Story threads that weren't brought to fruition til over a decade later.

Anyway this game I'm playing as a character named Casiana Elme who grew up in Seers Village. Except she isn't a Seer herself. She is, however, a massive history nerd and that is what compels her adventures. She wants to know everything there is to know about everything. I kind of want to go with the narrative that eventually she grows to know too much, and that warps who she is. It's my interpretation of canon for the wrld guard..ian anyway. Like at what point do they stop being strictly human? Is it when the Gods mark them as special? Or is it even before that? Is it at the ritual site? Who knows.

[ghoulphile]

here, queer, a lil stoned, and with ghoul rot q/a

do you lean more towards the ghoul be fuckin head cannon or the 200 years of celibacy head cannon? personally i like both but in my opinion post war coop is low key a slut.

if the tv show ever ends up with a season in the commonwealth/goodnieghbor do you think we'd get a live action John Hancock? who's your dream hancock actor? (if you have one)

fav ghoul/coop headcannon?

ps im glad you and your wifey are ok! i really hope yall were able to still enjoy the long weekend!

──★ ˙🍓 ̟

do you lean more towards the ghoul be fuckin head cannon or the 200 years of celibacy head cannon? personally i like both but in my opinion post war coop is low key a slut.

i like both and i def see the thoughts of celibacy (man was in a hole in the ground for some odd years lol) but i do lean more towards him fuckin.

now there's no tender kisses or sweet nothings. just a quick and dirty tumble that leaves you soaked in sweat (maybeeee some regret) as he satisfies urges and nothing more. it would take a whole lot more than that to get him to open up.

if the tv show ever ends up with a season in the commonwealth/goodnieghbor do you think we'd get a live action John Hancock? who's your dream hancock actor? (if you have one)

as much as i would love-love-love to see a live action hancock!!!! i don't know if we will :/

i remember reading somewhere that bethesda has been approached many times to make a live-action fallout and they were never satisfied with the ideas pitched to them.

what made this time around different is that it was a fresh idea set in the same universe which tells me they prefer to have an original story opposed to a re-hash of one that's already been told.

that said, i think it would be amazing to have cameos from the games and i think a lot of people would love it too so i hope they consider throwing us a bone lol.

you know i've never thought about it before, but off the top of my head, i think tom hardy, sam reid or jacob anderson (do not look @ me rn i am going thru it with interview with the vampire ok?!? but they are both fantastic actors), boyd holbrook, james mcavoy or oscar isaac.

there are some others but i cannot for the life of me think of their names rn 💀

any faves for you??

fav ghoul/coop headcannon?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 🤔

there’s a lot but ig one of my personal coop hcs (that kind of relates to barb) is that he’s more in love with barb than she is him — not that she doesn’t love him or rather didn’t at one point in time!! but more so she fell out of love with him while he was away at war and by the time he came home, she had already mourned him and moved on. (i.e. the convo where she talks about how she waited every night for news on whether he was alive or not, how she always seems startled by him touching her, how she hesitates to kiss him back etc etc)

and as fallout is based off the 50s divorce was a big no no, so have a baby bc that’ll make everything better (it doesn’t).

another hc attached to that is coop was injured at the battle of anchorage (his talks with bud about the power armor etc also i think i read somewhere that he was honorably discharged too but idk if that’s canon-canon) and was possibly even MIA for a bit which forced her to mourn him and their relationship. only to then be faced with him coming back home very much alive… and she’s not in love with him anymore but can’t leave so she has to make do.

because that man is in love with her so much it’s sickening!!! heart eyes!!! touch is his love language!!! he’s willing and ready to drop everything as soon as he sees her. whereas the first time i was introduced to them as a couple in that scene by the crafts table, and it was revealed that they were married i went oh, he’s into her more than she is him. here he is loving on her and she kind of pauses, hesitates as she decides what to do before ultimately leaning in to give him a quick peck back. and from there on out he’s the one initiating the intimacy. reaching out. and she always seems so thrown off by it when he CLEARLY loves her. idk i’m rambling sorry this got so long lmao.

anywayyyy thank you!! she ended up pinching a nerve in her lower back while riding her motorcycle and couldn’t walk 💀 but the er got her sorted so we were able to relax today 🥰

[misc-obeyme]

BARBATOS COOKING COMPETITION!! YES!! Also I’m glad you reminded me of his gardening! Maybe he also gives you access to increasingly rare crops? He’ll send those seeds to the store for them to sell! Like once you get the money for beehouses and they get built, you unlock flowers and fruit trees, so you can harvest Fancy Honeys.

That, and you know in farm sims there sometimes tend to be little sprites or fairies? Like the one example I can think of are the Junimos in Stardew Valley. Little D’s?? MC, Sol, and Babbs are the only ones who can see them. It’d make sense for Solomon to see them, but Barbatos could potentially be a bit supernatural too. Like how some SoS/HM games feature a Goddess too and the fairies/sprites are her aides, maybe Barb chose this particular city’s farm plot for Dia’s vision bc it’s his home and it could use some touching up while his true Eldritch Fae God Form heals? Maybe BABBS is the Dessie that lived in the pond! Idk lmao I tend to get too deep into plot aspects.

Another thing I thought of thanks to your response is maybe, under some supervision, Luke sets up a little “Lemonade Stand” on weekends, or once a month/season (depending on the game’s time mechanics), and he sells super special items, like SUPER HEALING treats, bouquets (which could be a dating prerequisite for your chosen bachelor/ette), and perfumes (A special animal friendship thing/monster repellant?) Asmo would DEFINITELY be there as sort of just a place for him to be, like how villagers/datatables in farm sims have schedules. Perfume is one of Asmo’s fave gifts so it’d make sense!

SPEAKING OF! What kinds of things do you think would be considered fave gifts? Like certainly Beel would love meals, but I feel like you’d need to upgrade MC’s little personal shack with a kitchen in order to make your own meals instead of spending the little money you make on the random meals from the cafe, making gifting Beel meals an actual challenge And there’s obvious other gift things others would like. Lucifer would love coffee (or maybe a variety of coffee beans you can grow), Simeon loves honey, and Solomon would love things that could be considered potion ingredients, among other obvious gifts we already know from the og game. But what Farm Life things would you gift the less farm-inclined characters like Levi and Mammon? Definitely ore and gems for Mammon, but that’s the only thing I can think of to gift him. And maybe… Uh… Boiled Egg. For Levi. Bc he snake… >->;

On another note, what would the “Marriage Token” of this world be? 🤔

(I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS!!! Festivals, competitions, town map, game mechanics… I think too much HNDVEHNUSRKHD)

Oh my gosh I LOVE the idea of Barbatos as the Goddess who lives in the pond and the Lil Ds as his attendants!!! And in some games, the Goddess is a secret marriage option, so you could still marry Barb lkasdflksdf. I love the idea of him just pretending to be a butler so he can get his strength back by living on the land that is his home! And he gets stronger the more the town is revived, as MC fixes things up and unlocks areas and what not!

YES to a seasonal Luke Lemonade Stand that is so cute!! Like you gotta get what you can while it's open otherwise you'll have to wait a whole year in game to get that perfect seasonal bouquet for your true love!! Of course Asmo would be all about the perfume, he's straight up there to shop lol.

Okay okay so the gifts is an interesting thing to consider! Usually there's at least one meal preference for each character and then after that it kinda varies depending on interest. So as you said, for Beel it might be that his all time favorite gift is some fancy meal. Like if it was a cheeseburger, you'd have to be able to get all of the ingredients which could be a lot. Whereas coffee for Lucifer would just be coffee beans and maybe milk. But usually they also have other options that give you a little less friendship, but are easier to make/obtain. So I would think Beel would be okay with being given stuff like crops that haven't been cooked into anything, too. Then when you've got a kitchen and so on, you can cook things that'll increase friendship more.

I think it's kinda like some marriage options are meant to be more difficult, so their gifts are harder to obtain?

But I think you're right for Mammon - definitely ore and gems. Shiny stuff lol! His only food option is ramen, of course. In some games, you can find old coins from mining, so if you ever get one of those, I think he'd like that, too. He also likes clothes and such, so maybe fabric?

Levi feels impossible lol. You can't exactly gift him manga. I like the boiled egg option. Maybe he also likes fish? Shells and stuff you can find on the beach?

Asmo would like flowers and perfume. I think Belphie would like things like wool and fabric, but also milk 'cause ya know cows. But I'm having a little trouble with Satan. I mean you can't just give him an entire cat. And I don't think you'd be able to give him books, either. Then again, Satan is known for liking animals in general not just cats. So maybe you could give him any animal byproduct and that'd work?

Ohhh the marriage token... hmm. Well I've seen the blue feather, a ring, a pendant, and a comb as options before... so like my first thought is a black feather. But then there's also the Ring of Light though that's kinda Lucifer specific. I think it would be interesting to involve pacts somehow, but that will only work for demon characters. It could just be a standard ring situation or a feather, but the color changes depending on the character. I'm not sure though!

Ahhh now I wanna play this game so bad lol!

[dreamcrow]

have you done a “how I would fix that movie” meta post? I’m also interested in your stricklake manifesto or something about guillermo del toro’s horror sensibilities and toa

send me a meta prompt (currently closed); thank you for the ask!

how did you know exactly what prompted this lol

stricklake manifesto is...tentatively forthcoming. possibly. probably. stay tuned. while i know i've certainly thought about how i'd fix the movie (and not even purely for niche side blorbo reasons), but i'm not sure how compelling (or coherent) that end product actually is. 🤔

unfortunately my fixit of the movie starts roughly thirty seconds after bellroc vaporizes that poor pigeon in chicago (or wherever metrocity is) and diverges wildly from there. tldr: someone on team trollhunter remembers they're in a gdt show, and asks just why are they all blindly following merlin, anyway. is it barb? god, i want it to be barb. obviously blinky is like "because he's the esteemèd merlin ambrosius, duh" while all three changelings just look directly into the camera. merlin blusters. barb backs off. 

then, once merlin wanders out of earshot, she asks again.

i do think that would be probably the biggest single change. i'm very self-conscious when i sit down in my lil sandbox that i don't want to give barb another job; she has enough already, and she gets mommed by the fandom in a way i don't always think is malicious but which nevertheless generally rubs me wrong. but truly: who else is doing it like her? okay, sure, there's jim: until the last four episodes of trollhunters, his actual, textual superpower is his humanity. he then gets browbeaten into discarding it—the quality that has, until now, been his unique and cited qualification—because the guy who made an amulet out of his student's severed hand acted like he had some kind of moral high ground.  

barb, meanwhile, is also an extraordinarily human human. she's the normie! she's the clueless mundane, a single mother dragged into the supernatural by her only son.  and while she does freak out—rightly! understandably!—when the supernatural puts her and her loved ones in danger, she never speaks against it just for being different. obviously stricklander is the example i've thought about most here: she's mad when he comes back (again, rightly), but her objections are because you lied to and endangered and my son, not because you're a dirty changeling. she's mad (and hurt) when jim lies about fighting off goblins, but because she's scared for him! once the masquerade is broken, she's immediately on his side. she's also the only character to even try to make merlin answer for trollifying jim, even if it's presented humorously. best girl.

so. back to this theoretical fixit: i think barb would be the most natural choice to start the questioning, here. blinky would still push back a little, but with merlin elsewhere, nomura and stricklander don't have to worry about being nice; maybe aaarrrgghh would even chime in on their side (what exactly do the gumm-gumms think of emrys, anyway?). it's not an easy conversation. it's also not the last one. but it starts. for a series that is otherwise unusually arthurian, arthur in trollhunters is conspicuous by his absence. but you have merlin. you have morgana. you also—pace wizards' giant slimy monster, who was cute, but completely overlooked preexisting developments—have the lady of the goddamn lake: legendary enchantress, giver of excalibur, single mother of the best of knights. 

and, most importantly, the one who seals merlin in a fucking tree.

u see where i'm going with this.

once barb starts that question—well. i make no claims that this is recognizable, but you did ask how i would do it, lol. from this i can't help but feel it would cascade pretty dramatically. if stricklander and nomura united behind her, i think jim would follow. claire and toby after him. once the humans (and adjacent) are convinced, i don't think blinky could hold out any longer; maybe the smarter version of him other people keep seeing could be brought around to some kind of "trust, but verify." soft and stupid as i am about wretched wizard blorbos, obviously the order are still being assholes. we don't want them to actually burn it all down. but is that what they're actually trying to do? or is this just another received merlinian dictum? 

god—and if they got to talk to nari about it! once again, one of the biggest failures of wizards (and rott) was how utterly it sidelined its characters in favor of punchy punchy bang bang. this i know have written about somewhere: jim's reduction to a vicarious highschool bully fantasy, how bellroc was flattened into cartoonish, beautifully rendered cardboard-cutout evil, while somehow still staying the most consistent character in the room. stricklander—whose entire character arc in trollhunters was built on 1.) the infinite possibility of an individual for change and 2.) being the smartest bastard in the room—took the first step into his new life by marrying barb and then immediately paid for it with the stupidest death possible. (see a longer and much keener essay about this here, from @millennialmoviereviews.) i cannot overemphasize how frustrated i am—still, yes, i know, about a children's cartoon—about how that movie treated its characters, even ones (the tarrons! douxie! steve!) i don't normally have any investment in.

...but what if that changed? what if we took what used to be the gdt hallmark—sympathy for monsters, without excuse—and committed to the goddamn bit? jim reached out to bular back in trollhunters. yes, what you're doing is wrong; you're hurting people i mean to protect; but i understand you're hurting too, and why, and how we might not be so different. you don't have to do this.

then barb sends merlin to treeby deeby, and bellroc and skrael fucking kiss.

(and then go about actually protecting/repairing the balance of the world or whatever, but i know what i'm about.)

postscript. i admit i pick a lot on merlin. don't get it twisted: i think my own evil wizard blorbos were also complete dumbasses here. but i think part of the reason i am so invested in merlin experiencing a goddamn consequence is pretty closely related to the original reason i was so drawn to gdt's stuff in the first place, namely: decoupling "good" and "evil" from "normal" and "monster," respectively. i don't think this is too much to expect of a kids show, especially one for toa's age group. trollhunters does a great job of doing this—of allowing nuance, of showing how it's possible to think outside the frameworks you know, while still remaining accessible to children—and 3below kind of? tries to keep it up. i think. but wizards...doesn't. even for all it does (inadvertently or otherwise) end up pointing out how merlin and arthur, founts of the same authority, massively screwed up. i've also had many people point out that wizards was pretty much set up to fail: executive meddling, rushed production, etc. etc. which i do sympathize with. 

but it's still. tremendously bitter. to see six seasons' worth of such a unique message get discarded so easily. especially when this was done with such breathtakingly little love for the material.

[like-rain-or-confetti]

could you write more about riddler and scarecrow daughter? It's really cute! I wonder what the batfamily thinks of her, maybe scared of the type of person she'll become considering who her dads are lol

I will give thee Batfam and some bonus characters!

Batman: He understands why Abby was afraid of him. Towering man with massive muscles, dressed as a bat and more often than not having to beat her parents and those around her to a pulp. He often tries to think of a way to show her she has nothing to fear but understands that's very much like the scary monster in the closet trying to reach out. It would just make it worse. He often keeps a distance but looks out for any signs of abuse. Thankfully, it seems both rogues seem to have put their best foot forward. Batman does have a concern that one day both will abandon Abigail for a selfish reason given their records.

Nightwing: He doesn't really know her well as she's not around when her fathers start trouble. However, he's aware of the little girl's existence and her fear of Batman. Naturally, he assumes she'd be afraid of him too by association. However before she knew he was with Batman, she found his acrobatic skills rather entertaining. That's when he found out she really is just the typical little girl. He'll give the Riddler and Scarecrow that much, they've done a good job raising the girl so far. Now he hopes they don't fuck it up.

Robin: So he'd heard rumours of the Riddler and Scarecrow sharing a kid. That threw him into a rabbit hole, wondering if the two rogues were a couple. Not that he was judging! Of course he wasn't! It was just...he didn't see it. Even when he squinted- and believe me he tried. Barbara has to slap him upside the head to snap him out of it when he dared suggested asking Abigail if her dads were a couple. He just didn't know what they had in common beyond the scrawny and nerdy characters. So he didn't actually have any thoughts for the girl but had lots of questions for the two rogues🤔 "But Barb! What's that custody like!? I can't be the only one-OW!"

Jason: Only became aware of her existence when he was working with Scarecrow as the Arkham Knight. He even saw her for himself once or twice but didn't have any desire to meet the girl. She was the typical ordinary girl with a large imagination. She was a little shy and definitely isolated. After all, she didn't have any friends, especially kids her age. He pitied her for that. Seemed like a cruelty in itself to be brought into the world so lonely. Yet she didn't seem to know what she's missing. He keeps an eye on her when she's around. As far as he was concerned, she was innocent and there was still a piece of him that wanted to protect that. No matter how much he tried to ignore the girl and swallow that protective urge back.

Barbara: She thinks Abby might be a future criminal, simply because she noted how Abigail was removed from public school for a very brief time and had been home schooled since. She'd met her once or twice when their respective fathers were in the GCPD. She kept the little girl company a few times. Abigail was surprisingly bright, cheery but quick-witted. She definitely sounded like the Riddler at times when it came to confidence but for her, it was actually cute. For the Riddler...not so much.

Alfred: Never actually met her obviously but from what he hears from the others, he reckons she's a lovely little girl, much to his surprise. He only hopes she doesn't follow in her fathers footsteps and go into a life of crime. Although given her company, it seemed it wouldn't be anything different.

Jim Gordon: He feels bad for the girl. Legally, she's Riddler and Scarecrow's. The certificate was revealed but how they got her or that certificate is very suspicious. But it's so air tight that he literally can't investigate it because there's not cause. He fears the worst for Abigail deeming it only a matter of time before she follows the wrong path like her fathers and is looking for any hints of mistreatment. He doesn't trust the rogues to look after her at all.

As for writing more for Abigail, I encourage everyone to send anything they'd like that they haven't. I have a few in the works and a few on my list, so you will get more 🥰

[lindszeppelin]

Hey I like your blog, and I think ur making some valid points about the A/K relationship. But maybe I'm jus a little uneducated about PR romances in Hollywood, but I was a little confused when that other Anon asked you what would make you think that they're not PR, and you said, them mentioning each other to the media. 🥴

No offense but umm wouldn't them mentioning each other in the media be more like PR?? 🤔 I just feel like fans would then say that they must definitely be PR cuz look @ them trying to flaunt and promote their relationship in the media! 👀

Imo the fact that they don't flaunt their relationship and try to be private makes me think they're more real than not.

What are your thoughts on this? 🤔 Cuz I'm confused lol. I'm not trying to say ur wrong or anything I'm just confused since to me it would seem more PRish to be talking about their relationship to the media.

Also, how do you know she's never visited his family before? We never see Austin visiting his family, but we know he does.

I do think their relationship seems a lil off though, but I'm not sure why. I just know that he seems very different in this relationship than w/Vanessa.

I was gonna mention this in a post I had thought about making separately if warranted so I suppose I can throw some of that into this ask. But even genuine couples in Hollywood that are truly private will talk about their partner in the press or post about them in social. For real Hollywood couples do that all the time and they can still be private because they actually have feelings for one another.

Two examples I can give that are in Austin’s age bracket to compare are are Rob Patz with Suki Waterhouse, and Dylan Sprouse with Barbara Palvin.

Both couples are for reals private. But they allow us into their relationship in small doses, but those small doses are genuine and full of love. R Patz was chill with Suki but he has mentioned his love for her in a few public interviews,, and he has voiced his disdain on the public knowing about his private life. But yet he has made noteworthy attempts in the media in talking about her in a purely loving way one does when you love someone. Suki has talked about R Patz also on rare occasions with so much love that it’s clear they are super sweet on each other. While I’m pretty sure they haven’t posted about each other on social, they have made clear and numerous statements of expressing love for one another to the press when promoted and unprompted of their own volition. And the times we do see them out together it’s clear there is a true affection

Dylan and Barbara is another really good example. They are very private as a couple, as Dylan has made comments similarly to both Austin and R Patz about keeping things away from the public eye. But him and barb post about each other on social a good majority of the time, and you can just obviously tell the warmth they have for one another. I mean duh, they just got married.

And a clear example I keep bringing up because this involves austin directly is him with V. They were very private but they would post one another on social all the time and they would mention one another to the media when promoted and unprompted of their own volition. When comparing that real relationship to this one with Kaia it is a total 180 and it’s not natural. Fucking hell, even Kaia posted Jacob Elordi on her social and talked about him to the media all the time. You’re gonna tell me that now all of a sudden Austin and Kaia are soooo private that they refuse to talk about eachother or post one another on social? Bullshit. When you are for real in love, no matter how private you are, you still will gush about your partner and let people in with pictures or posts of sweetness and realness.

Kaia has never publicly spoke about or posted Austin. Austin has said essentially “no comment” once in an interview when asked about the relationship. That comes from a man who said Vanessa was his rock to the media, and a plethora of other comments. Now all of a sudden they’re both hush hush? Absolutely not, that’s not how real love works baby. When you love someone you can’t help but speak good about them and share things when warranted, it’s natural. To not do that at all and ONLY show affection when on the red carpet or other PR type work and public outings is depressing and an obvious red flag.

Lastly to your comment on visiting his family…clearly people like to run their mouth and we would have heard word from people on social that say he’s in phoenix with her and his family, or in South Carolina with her and his sister. Any time they go anywhere, whether false or real, we get blind items and we get people on social saying “I saw Austin butler and Kaia gerber here!”. His family wouldn’t post about any of that shit, but regular folks/fans will always run their yap on social if they see Austin anywhere. And of course Kaia’s family will always make sure to let us know Austin is with them on vacations by getting paps or other people to do their dirty work for them.

Technically we should never even know about any vacations he goes on with her family in the first place, that should be kept private. But nope, we get pap pics aplenty to make sure it’s public knowledge he’s hanging with her family. If her and her family even cared at all about him as a person and not as merely a plaything for their daughter they would respect him and not call on paps or others to take pics and videos of him on these private vacations. but hey, it's PR.