#the game really feels like joseph damien and mary were the characters they put the most thought into

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

Finished dream daddy and I have . . . Thoughts

[coelasquid]

Someone raised the challenge to take the idea of the cult ending that was assembled from non-canon datamined content but figure out a way to reassemble it into something that’s both tonally in-line with the rest of the game and a satisfying cap to the story so I rose to the challenge because bouncing from springboards like this and connecting plot points is basically what I do for a living.

Also tried to find a way to include all the dads because these “bigger picture” stories are more fun like that.

Putting it under a cut for length and hella spoilers, but here’s my response to the question of “well how would YOU handle the cult end”

You’re out on the boat with Joseph and it shuts down, Joseph comments the weather is getting bad and it’s probably not safe to be out so instead of looking for wine, the two of you are trying to find the spare gas (get the chance to look at all the stuff in the lounge on the ship while he’s digging elsewhere)

Joseph finds gas but it’s not enough to get back to shore so you need to figure something else out

Joseph sees you checking out the little map fragment framed in the lounge on the wall, reminisces about how Mary drew it back before things got weird with Robert, they used to go on his cryptid hunts with him because it was a fun excuse to get out and get some fresh air. Robert was fixated on the island, but they figured it was one of his Robert-stories and it turned into a running joke between them

Joseph says there’s probably enough gas to get to the island and wait out the storm until you can try to get the radio running later when it’s safe

You get to the island, maybe it has a dock or somewhere to leave the yacht? I don’t make up the rules for Creepy Mystery Island. Or I do. It has somewhere to leave the yacht while you head into like, a cave on the island because MC is very concerned the boat is going to get struck by lightning

cave is very unsettling, formations that seem too deliberate to be naturally occurring. Joseph starts acting weird, seems way too knowledgeable of the area compared to how he was acting before on the boat, tells you to follow him to a part of the cave he insists is safe and dry, leads to through the pitch black until you hear what sounds like a heavy door closing behind you. Joseph hasn’t said anything for a while, you fumble for something to light the way (maybe you kept one of the flashlights from the yacht?) and whoa surprise Joseph has turned into some kind of horrible monster slenderman Joseph that looks like Robert’s Dover Ghost story.

You scream and bolt out of there, the scene cuts to black

It cuts to the next morning back at your house on dry land, you realize you’re playing as Amanda now.

Brian shows up looking for your dad for something, wants to give him the pole-saw he lost in the fishing bet, maybe? Amanda realizes she hasn’t seen her dad since he left for the yacht, reasons he might have gotten home after she went to bed and got up early to go jog with Craig.

Go find Craig at the park, he hasn’t seen your dad but thinks he may have gotten there after him and tried to catch up, so they backtrack the usual circuit

they find Joseph’s twins out at the spot they play in out in the woods, but they seem really distressed, you calm them down enough to find out they’re worried about their dad, he’s been calling every night since he moved out to read them bedtime stories over the phone and say goodnight, but he didn’t call last night and they don’t know why

Robert overhears everything because he was creeping around the woods doing his cryptid-hunting thing and interjects into the conversation. He says as much as he thinks Joseph is a shitty person at least he’s a good dad, so something must have gone wrong. If no one’s seen him or the MC since the day before when he chewed the MC out on the dock, they must have been stranded out at sea through the storm. He’s got a sinking feeling about this, but he wants to call a neighbourhood meeting to figure out what to do.

Everyone from the cul-de-sac gets together at Mat’s cafe and Robert lays out the situation as he sees it, he tells everyone about his theories that the unusually high amount of cryptid activity in the area and noted Dover ghost sightings have something to do with the misfortune everyone’s families have experienced.

Mary is very exasperated, rolls her eyes like “oh not this again” and tells you that Robert’s obsessed with this idea that the Dover Ghost is cursing people and breaking up families and feeding on misfortune and all that. She tells you that she and Joseph thought it was cute and fun when he was leaving them little “protective totems” but when he got the symbol tattooed on his hand she knew he’d taken it too far (RE: the clock in Mary & Joseph’s living room and the cross in Joseph’s office that have the same symbol that Robert has tattooed on his hand)

Robert is very upset that Mary doesn’t believe him and ends up spilling the beans that this is something he’s been obsessed with for years. When his wife died he couldn’t accept that it was random chance and went looking for a “Grand Design” reason to explain it all. He found all the local folklore about the Dover Ghost and became obsessed because it all lined up with things he’d observed. It drove the wedge between him and his daughter because it felt like reopening the wound for her every time he went on one of his “Dover Ghost rants”

Everyone is starting to question Robert’s grip on reality, but Damien interjects to say that he believes Robert. He’s pretty sure he had a run-in with the Dover Ghost when he was younger, and says trying to make sense of it was a big part of what got him so interested in the macabre (also why he’s so skittish about horror movies)

Robert insists that he’s almost certain that Joseph and the MC must have ended up on an island he’s determined from his ghost-hunting to be the epicentre of the paranormal activity

That green-haired kid who works at Mat’s shop overhears and interjects like “Woah are you guys talking about [Creepy Cryptid Island]? My dad’s in the FBI, he’s been working the [Creepy Cryptid Island] case for years! It’s why he’s never around! If your friends are stuck there I’ll call him, he’ll be able to get them back!” and runs off to try to get in touch with someone in the department of Researching Creepy Cryptids.

Robert is insisting they can’t wait for that, they’ve gotta go now or it’ll be too late. Mary’s getting sincerely worried now too, she’s decided if Robert cares this much they’re going

Fortunately Hugo’s made so many friends down at the auto shop after he won all those trivia night gift cards he knows a guy with a boat he can hook you up with

After that it cuts from the coffee shop and back to the island where MC is running for his life from Dover!Joseph

Maybe as he’s running around he’s finding evidence of the previous victims of the Dover Ghost? Like trinkets related to the dead/missing spouses it kept to feed off negative energy from? Either way MC is running through Dover Ghost’s lair trying to escape Dover!Joseph, realizing he’s stuck in the lair of the Cryptid Robert was warning everyone about

Robert and Mary to the rescue! They show up just in the nick of time to save your character from a tight spot. Robert comes out here on daytime tourist ferry rides or something to try to explore the cave and find spooky ghost proof or whatever, so he knows all sorts of routes through these caves

Robert’s sharing his Dover Ghost intel while you escape, saying that people in compromised emotional states are vulnerable to being possessed. Mary’s making sarcastic biting digs about how Joseph can’t be that upset about finally leaving her after the cheating.

You realize from the way she’s talking that Mary isn’t actually aware the person Joseph cheated on her WITH was Robert. MC says something tactlessly ignorant like “what? But I thought Joseph and Robert-” Mary freezes up because she did NOT realize this and refuses to budge until Robert explains.

Robert tries to explain that being so close to Joseph and Mary was one of the only good things he had going on back then. After things went down with Joseph and Joseph backpedaled it ruined all that, he just wanted to try to bury the whole thing, pretend it didn’t happen, didn’t want to talk about it. Robert talks about how genuinely happy he was when the three of them were friends and spending time together

Dover!Joseph catches up to you while Mary and Robert are trying to sort this out and starts twisting the knife like “Oh poor Robert, you know he didn’t tell Mary because he wanted you to be able to count on each other if you were going to kick him out of the little trio? Too bad all the two of you do is cheer each other on while you drink yourselves to death!”

So now everything is out on the table and your MC has gotta tactfully talk these three through their emotional problem, but if you say the wrong thing they’ll get even more worked up and become vulnerable to the ghost too, then your MC is staring down three Dover!Neighbours and it’s game over. If you sort it out right you find out the initial rift started between Mary and Joseph because both of them were falling for Robert.

Mary admits she started avoiding Joseph because she's a Bad Bitch Who Doesn't Talk About Feelingz and didn't want him to know she had a thing for Robert, Joseph comes clean to feeling isolated and abandoned with Mary going AWOL all the time and that led to making Bad Decisions with Robert when he went to him for support.

You find out that's where it went downhill for all three of them. Mary knew Joseph cheated on her even if she didn't know with who so she got more distant and resentful, Joseph felt like shit for betraying her and making Robert feel used so he walls himself off, Robert lost his emotional support so he got even more self destructive and threw himself into his cryptids to cope.

So if you successfully managed to sort out all the hurt feelings and get the OT3 back together, the Dover Ghost can’t possess Joseph anymore and you force it out in the  open. MC can take the opportunity to jump at it with the knife Robert gave him, forcing it to retreat, wounded, back into the tunnels

Hunky FBI dude finally shows up with his crew to take care of the situation and get all the civilians off [Creepy Cryptid Island]. Joseph, Robert, and Mary are getting cuddly with each other on the way back now that they’ve aired out their drama and survived a run-in with the horrible supernatural abomination Robert was warning everyone about the whole time. Hunky FBI guy notices you’re feeling a bit awkward being the third... fourth... wheel here and winks that you should give him a call sometime.

Anyway, that was what I managed to come up with on the spot when someone asked how I’d handle that storyline differently, if it’s of interest to anyone.

[curtisgrahamcracker]

✨My opinion so far/Theory to get to Level 18 on Dream daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator!✨

I’ll put this under read more just to be safe but If you do decide to read up, just know this contains spoilers! 💕

I’m defenetly down to talk about DDADDS with anyone, just not about things I haven’t touched on in the post! I’m still trying to figure everything out on my own ((If you want to talk about Level 18 PLEASE don’t call it something else aside from Level 18 since other names for it are spoilers on their own))))

Alright, so far I think everyone around me is well aware at how much time I’ve spent in the past days playing this game. I really didn’t expect to like it as much as I do! The graphics are really nice, the story is well written and the dad puns made me laugh so much. Of course no games is perfect and DDADDS isn’t an exeption but I don’t have a lot of “complaits” which, in my book, makes for a great game! I think the only thing I’d change is how cartoony the Main Character is drawn creates a disconect from how pretty and soft all the characters look. It’s not a super big deal but it’s still something that I wished was different. 

I love all the dads (with a preference to Craig, Damien and Robert). I think the only dad I’m not super in love with might be Brian just because I consider myself to be Humble and he brags just a little to much for me (he is a great dad non-the-less tho.) As far as my playthrough goes right now,This is my progress Brian Ending achieved: Good ending Went on Dates: 1, 2 and 3 Joseph Ending achieved: Neutral and Good (working to figure out level 18) Went on Dates: 1, 2 and 3 Hugo  Ending achieved:  Good ending Went on Dates: 1, 2 and 3 Mat Ending achieved: Good ending Went on Dates: 1, 2 and 3 Damien Ending achieved: Good ending Went on Dates: 1, 2 and 3 Robert Ending achieved: Bad ending and Good ending (I have no clue if he has a neutral one I didn’t try yet) Went on Dates: 1, 2 and 3 Craig Ending achieved: Neutral ending and Good ending Went on Dates: 1, 2 and 3 About Mary: I know that you can meet with mary at the bar twice. The first time she ask you to bring her home. right there and then you can either choose to bring her home yourself or call a cab. The second time this happen everything is the same except this time she’s mad. she basically go on to insinuate that it isn’t Joseph’s first time cheating on her (which wOW JOSEPH YOU FUCK). To my knowlege there’s no way she leaves the bar not Mad at you. you can try it all she’s always mad when she leaves. So far I know that if you don’t go meet Robert and Mary before the BBQ this won’t happen. (you’ll also more likely get it before your second date with Joseph.) Also You do get to learn about her a little bit more on Damian’s 3rd date which is really nice! I’m also thinking that Damien and Mary are related. They just look very alike? also wouldn’t it be funny that Mary’s last name would be Bloodmarch (maiden name? maybe a wink to Bloody Mary??)

                                     About secrets and Level 18

I “accidentally” died on Joseph’s date trying to get bad/low rankings thinking It might give me the bad ending. Surprisingly enough you can have A’s and bellow and you’re still going to get the neutral ending. I’m aware that you can Die on other dates and I did achieve them (on Craig and Brian’s last dates)

Another thing I’m eager to get to is Level 18. I mildly saw some tiny spoilers going around and I did my own investigating in my steam files. The text is there in the “configuration” file, the pictures are probably in there too which means that technically this is still something that can be played. (Again I didn’t read much in the file I found because I’d rather play it if it’s achievable.) I’m so curious to see how that route goes. I know it’s the bad ending but I feel like It might actually be more interesting.

From what I did saw There needs to be a knife and I know that Robert gives you a knife on your second date. So I’m thinking that If you manage to play your cards right you can probably get mary to steal it from you (unless she alredy has one). Plus I saw a screen cap of Robert that told the main character that he didn’t trust Joseph ((I have 0 clue on how they got there but I’m sure it’s because they were on the right track to level 18!))

This is all specualtion on my part but at this point I think this is requiered to achieve this ending. ((If anyone has the for sure way to achieve it plese DM me))

Again, I’m defenetly down to talk about DDADDS with anyone who wants to ASIDE from it’s anything I haven’t touched on yet! I’m still trying to figure everything out on my own ((IF you REALLY want to talk about Level 18 don’t call it something else, it’s a spoiler in itself so please. refer to it as Level 18)))) Thank you for reading this mess It was fun to writte! Good luck with your own dream dads!! :) <3

[workingonthevices]

The following is a list—well, paragraphs, actually—summarizing what we know about Robert in the game, with minimal editorializing from me. (There’s some. I tried to keep it down.) Just a list I want to keep handy, and it might be useful for those who haven’t played the game. To be updated as I remember things.

Robert is characterized as an aloof and emotionally distant person. He’s gruff, he hates small talk and prefers silence, and is generally off-putting. He’s described by many characters as very difficult to read, a closed book, and is described as often pretending he doesn’t have feelings. He discloses very little personal information about himself. He’s described as a “quiet man” and is not at all a talkative person. 

Vices, self-destructive tendencies, and other issues

Alcoholic, spends much of his time at the bar, particularly Jim and Kim’s. He has a long list of other vices and self-destructive tendencies, including smoking, using casual sex as a coping mechanism, minor infractions of the law including trespassing (sneaking into movie theaters) and vandalism (throwing rocks at things). He seems generally self-aware about his self-destructive tendencies and about how he’s losing the daily battle against them.

Struggles to perform many activities of daily living. It’s considered noteworthy if he took a shower, shaved, combed his hair, found properly cleaned clothes, ironed any of his clothes. His house is an absolute mess, littered with empty alcohol containers, cigarettes, clothes, and take-out containers. His truck is similar. In the middle of the game, Robert once disappeared for a week and contacted nobody because he had “been in a way”. Generally, this reads a lot like classic depression.

It is indicated that he attempted to get better before, and he failed to achieve any lasting progress. He suffers from a lot of self-loathing (more on that in the biography section), and he now believes that any attempt he makes to improve will be doomed to fail: “I know I’m just gonna fuck it up like I always do. I’m broken.” He seems to believe that he deserves the loneliness and suffering that comes his way.

In his good ending, he understands the depth of his issues and he chooses to put self-improvement over romantic relationships: “I have some stuff I need to work on... uh, emotionally... before I can get into anything romantic with you. You deserve better than who I am right now. I need to be on my own for a bit. Figure some things out.”

If you take the casual sex and booty call route, he tells you that he sees those relationships as one built on mutual objectification: “You were an object to me the same way I thought I was an object to you.”

Hobbies, interests, Betsy, and other positive miscellaneous things

Avid film lover. His says his favorite genre is Italian neorealism, and he likes Michael Powell and Samuel Fuller. He insists that one has to watch good cinema. He owns an extensive DVD collection.

Despite the fact that he derides mainstream cinema as drivel, he enjoys watching them, and he enjoys watching shows unanimously describes as trash; this indicates some sort of appreciation for media that isn’t the best quality and perhaps an acknowledgment that it has its place, while maintaining that it oughtn’t be one’s entire media diet. Sidebar, he really doesn’t want the season finale of Long Haul Paranormal Ice Truckers spoiled for him.

While he calls himself a skeptic, he believes in the existence of many cryptids and is often out at night hunting for them. He made up the story of the Dover Ghost, but after that scare on the overlook, he seems to have convinced himself it’s real.

Sense of humor largely relies on telling long, dramatic, often false bits about himself. Though, he often calls his own bluff after. Despite this, he seems to be truthful when talking about deeply personal and emotional information—on the rare occasions he feels pushed to talk about it at all.

Has a lot of places he likes to go to think, including the overlook outside of town and a particular spot a little ways into the woods. He jokes that he’s got a brooding quota.

He enjoys whittling, and he says that his hands are scarred from small accidents while whittling. He defends it as a long and time-honored tradition. When the MC is learning to whittle, Robert makes a comment that it’s alright to not know what one has whittled, with the implication that its the process and action itself that is.

He likes Santana and Tom Waits. He claims he carries at least four knives at all times. Prefers pineapple on pizza.

His drink of choice appears to be whiskey, but he doesn’t seem picky. He does like white zinfadel, which he describes as “fruity and refreshing” and asks the MC not judge him for it.

He owns a Boston terrier named Betsy, whom he lets pull him along when they go out for a walk. He cares enough about her diet to advise Damien and the MC against feeding her cheese as a snack. How and when he got Betsy is dubious; he says he simply picked her up and that she isn’t really “his”, but it’s likely a bit.

He drives a red pickup truck, “arguably the oldest pickup truck that can be legally driven”. He keeps a well-stocked first aid kit in it at all times.

He lives between the Christiansens and Damien, and his house is described by the MC as “amazing” and having “sleek, modern appliances throughout the [living] room”. 

Biography and family

Lived in Brooklyn, which he refers to as “back home”, presumably indicating that he was born and raised there.

He developed the drinking problem while he was living in New York. Moved to Maple Bay, Massachusetts with his wife, Marilyn. They had hoped a change in lifestyle would help Robert do better: “Marilyn and I moved out here to settle down—we thought it would help to get away from all the distractions, all the money... the drinking.” While Robert says he tried to “be better” he was unable to resist the temptation and failed.

The quote also implies that the Small family had money, and the lifestyle associated with at least some wealth served as a distraction to Robert.

Marilyn died in an accident, undisclosed but presumably a car accident. Robert believes that Marilyn died hating him.

Robert is estranged from his only child, Val, who still lives in Brooklyn and is a photographer for a new media digital magazine. She’s 24 or 25, Robert can’t remember, and he hasn’t seen her in four or five years. Robert says he always cared about her, but “things just... got in the way” and when she started college, she “want[ed] nothing to do with [him]”. Val similarly describes the relationship, saying that he was neglectful for decades. By the time Robert moved to Maple Bay, Marilyn was the only tie between them, and that disappeared with Marilyn’s death. Robert believes that Val hates him, and when she comes up to Massachusetts to “patch things up”, he doesn’t understand why Val would bother.

Robert describes himself as having “spent so much time chasing after things [he] thought were gonna make [him] happy that [he] ruined [his] only real chance at happiness”.

His relationship with his own father is estranged. They had a falling out, though Robert doesn’t remember what over. “All I know is that me and him, we just don’t see eye to eye. I mind my business, he minds his. I get a Christmas card from him every other year and I check in with him if a tropical storm ever hits his villa.” Robert’s father lives with his girlfriend in Florida, and Robert seems sure his father is content. Though it’s part of a long bit, there’s a possibility Robert is afraid that “history is doomed to repeat itself”, ymmv.

Other relationships

Robert describes Maple Bay as a good town with good neighbors, though he says not all of them are good people. He’s certainly referring to Joseph.

He is good friends with Mary, and the pair of them spend much of their time at the bar together. Robert appears protective of Mary to an extent: he gets annoyed when the MC is callous toward her. By the same token, he often tells Mary to soften up her sharpness around the MC, and is arguably a tempering force against her humor sometimes (ymmv). Mary is able to pick up on subtle cues indicating Robert is not feeling emotionally well, ones invisible to others like the MC, and she expresses concern for him and asks the MC look after Robert when he’s out of her sight.

Joseph had an affair on Mary with Robert. Because of his experience with Joseph, Robert describes Joseph as a bad person who will stab others in the back when called on it. Joseph says that the affair was a single day thing, “ended the same day it began”, and attributes Robert’s animosity to the “Robert politics” of casual sex. There is a photograph of Robert and Joseph on Joseph’s yacht, in which Robert is wearing Joseph’s sweater; this throws some doubt on Joseph’s version of events. Mary knows about this affair, and despite it, remains close friends with Robert.

[poketin]

My Dream Daddy Route Rankings!

Obviously, this is my personal opinion! Slight spoilers for the routes and such, honestly I wrote most of this at 4 am so please forgive any mistakes on my part.

Faves:

Mat

- He was my fave when the game was announced, and his route didn’t disappoint in the slightest! He had very real issues to work through, a very passionate guy with social anxiety is very relatable to me, and the music was especially great because of Mat being a musicman. The mini-games were some of the better ones, that piano one was really funny to me and the way it helps conclude his arc of sorts is very touching. His dates were all heartwarming as well as fun, hanging at his house with him felt incredibly real. He just felt like such a complex and deep guy.

- Pablo and Carmensita are absolutely charming, I love them so freaking much. Pablo my angel, who I see much of myself in, I hope everything goes well for you in life. May all your dreams come true.

- I only wish that so many points towards his good end didn’t come from arbitrary band stuff that a lot of people may not get, but he is the music guy so it does fit.  

Damien

- I’ve always had a thing for goths, but for some reason Damien didn’t catch my eye until I was actually immersed in the game. And boy, did I fall in love with him. I actually started on my track to Victorian love during the ‘prologue’ of sorts, abandoning any plans of other routes I had after doing Mat’s to immediately date Damien. I was so drawn to him in such a short amount of time, and played his route 2nd because I just couldn’t wait. And damn, was it good.

- He’s not only very sophisticated and Romantic, but he’s also a scaredy cat nerd who loves his son to pieces and handles their relationship extremely well despite teenage rebellion. Damien discussing the multi-facetedness of his character and his worries over people not accepting various parts of himself, leading to him hiding those parts, really spoke to me. I have been in such a position my entire life and I really just felt for the guy. I just love him wholeheartedly.

- Plus Lucien is a real cutie and a real swell dude, I love his and Damien’s relationship a ton (seriously, even though Lucien seems like a jerk sometimes, he truly cares about his dad and their mutual respect for one another was wonderful to see). Mary in this route is a bonus, but holy shit did this route make me love her to bits, she’s amazing. Plus we get to see Hugo and Ernest being great and connecting a little. Damien[s route really has everything.

- Also the gargoyle mini-game wasn’t too bad! I actually had a bit of fun with it haha Speaking of which, the entire garden section was beautiful. His entire route is beautiful. Damien is beautiful. Love and appreciate him, I beg you.

2nd Faves:

Hugo

- He also feels a need to hide his other self/a huge passion of his from everyone he knows. He’s not only a freaking adorable scholarly book-type but also has an incredibly sharp wit that leads to one of my favorite moments in the whole game. His passion for learning, life, and muscles is infectious, and a true blessing.

- Similar in a way to Mat and band references, I wish that Hugo’s second date didn’t rely so heavily on trivia and such to get a good grade. I know you can look it up and get a perfect score, but dang it I really just want to connect to him personally during a date (which did also happen, I’m kind of just nitpicking a little). I love the Ah! Real Monsters pun that was thrown in, thank you for that.

- Ernest is really cute to me for some reason, even though he’s a jerk a lot. He does truly love his dad though, and being able to see that in this route and also Damien’s is a real treat. Also, the character designs in this game are unreal, they’re so good.

Robert

- I actually wasn’t as drawn to Robert as I thought I’d be when I first saw his bio, but just like with Damien, I really loved him when I actually played the game. His route is really emotional, while being a blast at the same time. Plus we get to see Mary being fucking amazing again. His daughter Val is incredibly hot too, holy crap. I love her so, so much, and she’s barely in the game.

- I cried a lot when I played his route. I cried during the other routes as well, especially my top 4, but probably the most and hardest with his.

- So much banter, so many good stories. And ending that was more than satisfying and made me cry. Again.  

- He’s really relatable in many harsh and sad ways, like seriously him talking about “taking and taking” and covering up how he feels with jokes and such also rings really true to my life (I’m just now thinking I have a huge bias towards the dads that I relate to the most). It’s depressing but just like him, I need to face these things, and take my time to heal and improve.

Unexpectedly Liked:

Brian

- I’m a naturally competitive person, so I simultaneously got really fired up and a little annoyed when my character would compete with him. Mostly I got aggravated at my dad just being really focused on beating this guy and kinda shoving romantic feelings to the side until the very end, but Brian’s little confession about the whole competition was really cute and the fish mini-game was also one of the better ones.

- Daisy is really adorable too and her relationship with Amanda is one of the cutest. Brian was never really on my radar so I played his second to last, but it was a really pleasant route.

- That golf mini-game was not pleasant though, you cannot line up your shots accurately because if you take too long, it just putts it with the barest strength and you lose automatically. It’s just a game that you are set up to lose (unless I am completely atrocious at it) and those are never really fun, like c’mon at least give me a chance.

Unexpectedly Not A Huge Fan Of:

Craig

- Honestly I thought Craig would be my second fave character, I loved his design (eyebrow scars are sexy as hell) and dedication to improving himself, but I was a little let down. I thought his storyline with overwork was handled well but it didn’t really grab me, and honestly the park segment for the second date annoyed me to no end, I was really frustrated with it.

- I like all the college stories a lot, it’s great to hear all about the wacky shit he and the MC got up to. Not a bad route by any means, but it just was a bit of a disappointment.

- His kids are super adorable, I wish we got to see more of the twins but I feel that way about some of the other kids too.

Neutral Leaning Toward Dislike:

Joseph

- Playing this one last while getting to know Mary through the other routes made this one extra depressing.

- Joseph never stuck out to me one way or another in the first place. His kids are kind of bland, Christie is the most in-depth one (I use in-depth loosely here) and she is adorable, plus the whole “egg them on” bit is great, but he just rubs me the wrong way. Also the juxtaposition of the yacht scene and the ending was really jarring (although it was nice to see some kind of sad and fucked up realism that hits way too close to home). I did always feel like Joseph had a pull towards the MC at the ending party that happens across all routes at the end of the game, he just looked so sad when you went after other dads, but maybe that was just my imagination. I feel bad for the whole Christiansen family. Nice family name puns though.

Final Thoughts

Overall I absolutely love this game! The music, characters, stories, and art are all phenomenal. My only gripes are the tediousness of some of the mini-games and any complaints mentioned about routes and characters above. I’d give it a 8/10 for a really fun and surprisingly emotional experience. I put about 10 hours into it, so it’s also a good length for your money!

Bonus End Picture Ranking (Best to Least Best because they’re all great):

Mat, Hugo, Damien, Robert, Craig, Brian, Joseph

[acesaru]

character #2: dream daddy Joseph!

How I feel about this character:

/quietly screaming

I HAVE. MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS MAN. He’s a man stuck in a terrible marriage, who cares deeply about his children and his relationship with God... but not enough that he doesn’t make extremely shitty decisions and actively hurt the people around him. He’s stuck in a life he desperately wants to pretend is ideal but is SO far from it. And everyone knows it. It’s not a secret. And yet he would rather continue to try and live the lie than do the hard thing and break the illusion for something real and healthy for himself, his wife, and his kids. Though it’s not as if he’s a victim. These are choices he makes for himself and continues to make, even knowing the consequences. He’s a surprisingly complicated character and I really love him for that.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Dadsona obviously ;) I ship him with Robert too. If we discount the cult ending as non-canon (as it should be considered until further notice tbh), my headcanon is that they still do have a long history together. Maybe they were together when they were younger, promises were made, bad decisions decided on; then everything fell apart. Within the canon of the game I don’t think they’ve been together for a long while.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Joseph/Jesus, because

boy needs to not be making infidelity his lifestyle ok listen to Jesus

I like the idea of him and Damien discussing their very different interests. The chat they had at the BBQ about interior design was great. Their interactions would probably be really awkward though, which makes it better tbh

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I think that, in a lot of ways, he’s a good person. He gets demonized by the fandom a lot, and understandably so. He’s cheating on his wife! He dumps MC after a one-night stand and a promise for an actual relationship! He does terrible things in canon and I don’t excuse that.

But he’s not the only toxic element of his marriage. Mary also has her own share of things to answer for (the way she treats their kids, holy fuck). Not knowing more about their relationship, I don’t assign blame to one of them more than the other. There’s also the context of Joseph obviously being very religious and the sort of pressure that puts on him as a closeted gay man. The fact that he sees infidelity as a better solution to the problem than divorce and publicly being out as a man who loves men is telling.

Long story short, he’s not entirely good. But he’s also not the devil incarnate either. (At least until the cult-ending is confirmed, if that ever does happen)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I WISH HE WOULD END HIS TOXIC MARRIAGE AND LET BOTH HIM AND MARY FIND REAL HAPPINESS WITH SOMEONE THEY ACTUALLY LOVE

[plinys]

dear yuletide author (2017)

hello and welcome to my letter!

i am so happy to have you reading this letter and going to be writing a fic for me! why? because you dear writer are an amazing and wonderful person, deserving of all the kudos in the world!

please remember as you look at these prompts, that if something in my likes inspires you more than any of my specific prompts, totally feel free and run with that, and know that i will enjoy any fic that is gifted to me!!

ao3/lj handle: plinys

now lets get down to business:

the fandoms i’ve requested this year are: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator,  Galavant (TV),   Legion (TV),  Powerless (TV 2017),  Star Trek: Discovery,  Young & Hungry

but before that, my likes/kinks/dislikes/triggers:

likes: alternate universes, characters that are in character, lady-centric fics, angst, fandom cliches, dysfunctional relationships, friendships, friends/enemies to lovers, soul mates, road trips,  hanukkah fics, jewish characters, bisexual characters, poly relationships, character studies, origin stories, ambiguous endings, meta fic, slow build, fics that incorporate social media, crack treated seriously, drunk confessions, miscommunication, 

kinks: threesomes, competence kink, phone sex, masturbation, crying during sex, hate sex, shower sex, praise kink, guys going down on girls, rough sex, first time, spanking, daddy kink, sex in front of mirrors, voyeurism, make up sex

dislikes: pwp, main character death (unless it really makes sense/happens in canon), character bashing, non-con, mpreg, a/b/o, 1st person.

my triggers (please no matter what do not include these): school shootings, cancer, terminal illness, riots, child abuse.

and now to the fun stuff -

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

requested characters:  mary christiansen, joseph christiansen, crish christiansen

where to find: it’s a video game on steam, you can purchase for about $15, otherwise there’s plenty of walkthroughs of people playing it on youtube. recommended routes: joseph, robert, and damien to get the full christiansen story family backstory. 

anyways first play through i did josephs route and he broke my heart, and i was like wow mary deserves better and then after playing robert and damien i was like no wow mary deserves the world, so as long as your gift doesn’t include mary bashing im happy

would love any backstory on this family (featuring robert in any way is totally welcome), whether its weird family stuff, crack fic, the cult stuff. like im pretty open on this one

specific prompts:

cult backstory, give me that hidden cult ending. give me them joining the cult together when they were young. give me them scheming together or scheming separately. or give me mary realizing she’s married a gay demon only after the fact and its too late to get out. like honestly give me anything cult

the mystery of crish? i can’t believe he’s in the character list and now i want someone to explain why we’ve never met him? does he really exist? this can (and probably should be total crack)

remember how i mentioned robert was an option, feel free to mix in his connections with the family, the affair that clearly happened. being part of their cult. mary just bonding with her best friend and being drunk together? joseph fucking robert while mary is aware of what is going on. how they even became friends with all that happened?

honestly, there’s just so much not explained about the christiansen family, so anything about them is 100% up my alley. 

Galavant (TV)

requested characters:  madalena (galavant), gareth (galavant)

where to find: both season are on netflix!

so im biased because i was convinced to watch this show because of my mallory jansen, so madalena is of course my favorite character. and then this ship hit me out of nowhere, so now here i am

im either looking for madalena centric fic, or shippy fic with the both of them

specific prompts:

the end of s2 left so many openings that weren’t explored because we never got a s3 but give me madalena learning to do the d’dew, and getting to finally be the evil queen that she deserves wow

also feel free to give me that shippy stuff with gareth going to save her, and then realizing how much they love each other (as they should have wow)

alternatively a fix-it for the finale where madalena chooses gareth over the d’dew and they figure out where they can go from there. rebuild that trust, just be happy together though still sorting things out because now they do’t have a kingdom

smut? this ship is built for smut? madalena literally has a body built for sin, give me that sin

alternatively, give me fluffy, them finally getting to be “happy” together, madalena learning to have emotions and to love

also for non shippy plot any future fic for madalena or character study set during season 2/post season 2 would be the dream

Legion (TV)

requested characters:  cary loudermilk, kerry loudermilk

where to find: honestly i have no clue? fx? pirating sites? i watched this one live when it was airing. 

this show hit me with so much backstory and explanation not given and like that’s the aesthetic of the show, but i was specifically drawn to these two and their unique set of powers and i just ?? need more??

while i’m mostly into gen for these two, if you want to do weird stuff, like, i’m curious and not opposed (does it count as incest if they’re technically the same person?)

specific prompts:

BACKSTORY, any thing with their backstory, build on what canon told us and give me more, like what is it like for cary to keep aging on while kerry stays younger, what are the limits of their powers, how much can they feel

that hurt comfort after the stuff that happened towards the end of the season, like these two need to bond and recover after all the trauma 

5 times they were overly protective of each other

just man their dynamic is so weird and i need that to be explored, feel free to ship them with any of the other characters or ?? with each other if youre into that?? just like give me more of these two

actually, does it count as incest if their the same person is now a prompt, like maybe someone asks that? idk man just discuss

Powerless (TV 2017)

requested characters:  beatriz da costa | green fury (powerless), emily locke

where to find: this is another i have no clue situation im sorry

this show got canceled because it was like bad dc sitcom airing the same night as arrow but before it did it gave me this hint of femslash potential and tbh this is why im most offended that it was canceled

specific prompts: 

so if the show had lasted longer i am convinced that beatriz and emily would have been gay together, so give these ladies the show they deserved and tell the story of them falling in love

the news already thinks their dating so what about super villains, how many times does emily get kidnapped for being the green fury’s girlfriend before they actually art (or before she realizes she actually is)

how does dating a superhero effect her work life

also just emily loves superheroes, so she’s probably so pumped to be dating one like “wow babe can you believe im dating a superhero” and beatriz like “we were just making out obviously youre dating a superhero”

give me cute gay girls honestly 

Star Trek: Discovery

requested characters:  michael burnham (star trek: discovery), saru (star trek: discovery)

where to find: cbs all access! its ongoing, as i write this letter on its second episode!

okay since this show is ongoing these prompts might get joss’d but it’s too late to go back because two episodes in got me interested in the dynamic between these two

this can be gen (and feature other ships if you want) or can be shippy for these two. im pretty open since this show is so new. 

specific prompts: 

so they were together on the shenzhou for 7 years according to canon so lets get some back story between these two, how did they get to where they were. was there rivalry between the two of them from the very beginning? how does saru feel about someone who has never been to the academy out ranking him? bridge disagreement shenanigans? their captain locking them in a room until their sort out their issues

like, do you want to write alien sex? because a part of me wants to receive alien sex so like? this is an option?

what about them now both on the discovery together, that distrust because of what happen on the shenzhou? building up into something  new? better than before? building into feeling that may have been hidden all along?

on the discovery, forced to work together to save the team and putting their issues asside for the good of everyone else

honestly i just feel like they were supposed to be the spock/bones dynamic of the shenzhou before things went bad and like ??? i want that ?? 

Young & Hungry

requested characters:  caroline huntington 

where to find: it’s all on netflix (though caroline only appears in season one)

yet another show i watched because of mallory jansen, and her character is only in the first season and really all i cared about on this show so guess who i want backstory for

specific prompts:

caroline character study? i mean, she’s written as the rich bitch girlfriend rival in the show but let’s just say she deserves better, flush her out and give her life for me

she definitely deserves better than josh, and i like femslash so pair her with one of the girls in the tag set if you want

just more on her and the horse from young & pregnant this is mostly crack but like also

consider for a second that instead of the plot being gabi sleeps with josh on the first day and starts all of the show drama. what if instead she sleeps with caroline, and we get the aftermath of “oh hey i slept with my new boss’s finace, this isnt awkward at all” rewrite of season 1 with 95% more femslash 

just give me more caroline

ANYWAYS, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY LETTER AND I’LL LOVE WHATEVER YOU DECIDE TO WRITE ME!