how many, where and in what moon phase, do I have to sacrifice to make you consider cooking up another Patty&Dante post?
Patty has spent her whole life wondering if Dante hated her. And she's never content with what ifs.
He's back home, still recovering... not that he was injured, but he always kind of struggled once getting back. Lost weight. Long hair and scruffy beard. Mostly just getting through the day. The weird thing was how he worked, though, there wasn't that bright jubilation and laughter. It was uncharacteristically serious and mellow. But even if he wasn't able to work, Patty would pay for everything. Anything. Just for a little attention.
One day as it's cloudy, a little rainy, Nero, Nico, Kyrie, and Patty were helping out Dante get his place living-ready again. It's been getting rough and dusty. Dante kept trying to get up to help, but Patty shoved him down. Kyrie tucked a blanket over his shoulders. They'd ask him if he wanted this thing, or that thing, but otherwise he mostly just sat there. Nico even left to come back with some of his favorites, giving him a friendly side-hug.
As it's getting late, Nero watches the sky, saying they should all get headed home. Patty says that she wants to finish up, so they can go home, and she'll get a taxi.
Dante says nothing, but he spots the bag she brought. A backpack. Clearly stuffed a bit full, tight and barely able to hold itself shut with a strained zipper.
When the rain turns into a thundrous storm where going outside, much less driving, was horribly discouraged, he put together she absolutely planned this. But with a smile on her face, she brought treats and snacks.
"Let's make it a sleepover!" She cheers, and Dante just laughs. The couch is turned into a pillow fort, and Patty is wearing a two-piece pajama outfit, long and silky with pant legs that drag on the floor. Like a little kid again, Dante thinks fondly, when Nina would bring her over to visit, and Patty would fall asleep with one of his jackets, and he'd crack, just letting her take it, even if it didn't fit in the slightest.
Popcorn, candy, soda, all sorts of things, as a movie is playing.
It's nothing crazy, but Patty's smiles fade. Dante quietly questions what's wrong. She stares at him for a moment,
"Why don't you like me?"
Dante freezes, his mouth dry- how the fuck do you answer something like that?
"I do like you," He corrects, "What's wrong?"
"But you never want me around." She argued, melancholy replaced with anger, "I always reach out but you never want anything to do with me, I... I'm always trying, but you never let me do anything. You just shoo me away with everyone else. You spend time with Nero, but... I've known you ten years longer. Doesn't that matter for anything?" She insists, "Is it because you're not my real dad? Because you are. You are my dad. You've always been my dad, even if you don't want to me. And you always will be, even when my mom gets remarried, and- and when you get married, and-"
"Hey, hey, hey," Dante soothes her spiralling demeanor, "I... It's not a blood thing, no." He consoles, "And... It's not like I'm out and about with Nero all the time. Even after I met him, I... mostly just kept an eye on a distance. I'm not good at being up-close and personal with people."
"Then be bad at it," Patty sobs, "Be bad at it, but just be here. I miss you. I'm talking to you but I still miss you."
Dante's heart hurts, "Pumpkin, I'm just... trying to keep you safe,"
"I don't want to be safe. I'm not a baby. I can fight. I learned to fight, even when you wouldn't teach me. Nero taught me! And Nico taught me to shoot!" She insisted. "Just let me be around you. Just let me stay. You don't need to like me, just pretend you do."
"No, nono, I do like you, I..." Dante is quiet.
Really quiet, as she stares him, anger, hurt, sorrow, waiting.
"... I'm a bit of a coward, Pat." He confessed. "I've tried so hard not to hurt you- but let me finish," He said quickly, knowing she might interrupt, "... I guess i fucked that up, too. You're big. You've grown. But it still feels like I'm watching a little eight year old running around with demons." He laughs. Stops. Frowns. "I never meant to make you think I didn't love you."
"... It's okay. You're you. I just... I don't want to keep missing you all the time. I just want my dad back."
With a soft whoosh of breath, he nodded.
"... I've gone through hell and back. A piece of me stayed in hell. And... Let's just say it was the dumb part of me, okay?" He said, grabbing her hand. Squeezing it just a little. "... I don't know if I'll succeed, but I'll try better."
Patty sniffles, and lurches forward, grabbing him in a hug. He sighs, holding her close. Rubbing her back.
"That's all I've ever wanted, dad..."
"... I know. I'll... try. For you, pumpkin."
There's a lingering silence, as Patty calms down, still leaning against him. Comforted as he finds the remote, finding something else to put on, idly speaking,
"But, just between you and me, don't be too cuddly around Nero. He'll get jealous."
@prototypelq ok i have to move this to its own post bc it REALLY got away from me but re: re: (this) and (this) and john "maker of mistakes" doe and arthur choosing again and again to trust him despite it all:
GOD. YEAH. i really think that this is like, one downside of john having such a limited perspective/experience with humanity, is that i think he's like... genuinely unaware, or at least was for a long time, just how much arthur cares about him and his companionship. i mean john like, knows when he's overstepped (bc arthur makes it Very Clear, lol), and is aware that the forgiveness he gets is something above & beyond the norm that he shouldn't expect, but he... doesn't have the points of comparison to like, interpret that forgiveness?
bc like, john's frame of reference here is
being worshipped as a wrathful god of madness
uhhhhhh
so he has a hard time like, guessing at arthur's limits, i think, as another person on relatively equal footing with him. like in s4. sure they were able to get over x y and z in the past, but he's carrying around all this guilt about the dark world, and he's lying to arthur about the order and going behind his back to do kayne's bidding even though he knows how arthur feels about being manipulated and used, so what if this is the limit? the thing he finally can't forgive, that destroys their relationship permanently?
which is a feeling that probably just builds and builds the more "small" mistakes he makes in nyc. until it all finally comes out in the worst possible way, with kayne basically rubbing it in arthur's face that he got played, and john not really being offered even a moment to talk about it in private, so he panics and tries to take the memory loss deal. bc surely arthur will hate him for this, he'll be angry and john doesn't want him to be angry, he wants time and space to be able to phrase things the Right Way to not make him any more upset, to make it okay—but kayne pulls the rug, obviously. so he has in fact succeeded only in making the betrayal Even Worse.
...and then after he gets done being Really Fucking Mad, the very next thing arthur wants to communicate to him is:
ARTHUR: [...] Look. Look. Given all we’ve been through… (John sighs.) A-All… All we’ve experienced together… (A slow piano melody begins.) Given everything we’ve accomplished and survived… it’s… completely expected that you might be a little jumpy. (He chuckles. More seriously.) We’ve weathered some truly horrific storms, John. Both of us. Together. And now…
[...]
ARTHUR: Look, when you’re ready. I’m not going to push you into anything, but I need you to know… (He sighs.) I would’ve forgiven you, John. Easily. Taking that deal from Kayne… clearly, it was the right call, I… I would’ve understood.
john keeps lying and running and hiding and biting back the second he feels pressured and all arthur has ever asked of him is honesty and some attempt at growth. that's it!
it's so fucking symmetric they make me sick actually. arthur at least understands what love is supposed to look like. john is so unfamiliar with All Of This that he doesn't get that all arthur wants is for him to be here. as long as arthur believes that he's trying and genuinely cares he'll put up with fucking anything, bc he refuses to lose him.
like whatever happened in the dark world i don't think any of it was Nice or Friendly. john's understanding of relationships is the transactional god-and-worshipper or predator-prey or animal-rival. and then he's getting thrown straight into arthur's unconditional, selfish, desperate devotion?
of course he doesn't get it. nobody's ever loved him before.
HAPPY (early?) BIRTHDAY!!! DMC Fandom wouldn't be the same without your fanart, you make us all feel so much delicious pain, thank you and wish you some SSS-quality pizza and ice cream
AAAA THANK U!! I'm gonna have me some pizza today as a little treat <3
Your Inatut avatar and blog name made me smile. It's a shame we haven't seen anything new about him in HFW. Thank you and have a good day!
Thank you! I'm glad to see another Inatut lover out there in the wild! I was hoping they might add dlc characters from zero dawn into dlc for forbidden west, but it's seeming less likely now :( Forbidden west seemed to avoid talking about frozen wilds as much as it could, which made me kinda sad. I get that you don't necessarily want to alienate people who didn't play the dlc, but imo if it's so lore heavy, throw them to the wolves! The only name dropped character was CYAN, and considering the volcanic activity in burning shores I have my fingers crossed for at least a crumb of content towards her. It kind of hurt when she alluded to Ourea but didn't say her name. It doesn't seem likely we'll go back east after being so far west, so sadly I don't think we'll be seeing Inatut again 😔
I'm seeing only the most cute and sweet fanart of the sparda idiots on your blog it's great fun thank u)))
Aww, thank you~ And same about yours! I definitely haven't scrolled yours more than a few times...
But yea, they deserve a soft epilogue. Though I'm never one to shy away from making them suffer for it a little more. They're my all time favorites, how can I not? Might just be the hurt/comfort enjoyer in me though.
Either way, they've more than earned the right to be gentle even if they have a hard time seeing that, ya know?
Hi again! Yes, I would love to hear your thoughts on Hades 2 situation and discuss them with you
So, my main problem with Hades is that, if you look closely, you can see how much the development hell it went through shines. Not only is the voice acting messy, with Zagreus being abysmal and everyone else being poorly directed to the point of many actors repeating previous acting delivery, but you can see that this was meant to be a budget game. Also, the reusage of Pyre's sound effects and how the artstyle of Hades is incredibly similar to Pyre's in opposition of how it was when it was Minos or how the other games do not look similar.
If you have played Transistor you will notice that Hades is... an "evolution" (lateral exploration if I need to be specific) of the ideas presented in Transistor and this is where a flaw is presented for me. Transistor presented itself as not a rogue-like but if you played it you will notice the similarities, even more with how the campaign repeats onto itself. So, what is my issue? Transistor twisted the genres it belongs to. Transistor did something new and this is what brings me to Pyre and Bastion cuz they also did the same! Those two games also presented new concepts and twisted their genres, now this is my issue with Hades. How many things does it do that truly and honestly separates itself to other of its genre, even more when you put it next to it's other siblings.
Now, I like playing Hades. It is an enjoyable mechanical cohesive game... but the story is trash, it is trash without the fact that you have played Pyre, Transistor and/or Bastion and it is even more trashy if you have played them.
So, Bastion, Transistor and Pyre were all build from zero story wise, everything is original. The characters are original, the world is original, the story is original... everything on those games is original, they made worlds and stories that captivated one... Hades on the other hand? See, I have issues with the whole Olympic shit cuz... they made stuff like Bastion, they made stories like that!
And the story... man, the story... so, the story is told splendidly well, you get farther in the story if you reach Persephone which makes every encounter more emotional and it feels earned but then you think about it... Zagreus rejected his family for what? He rejected Nyx as his mother, he rejected Thanatos, Charon and Hypnos as his brothers... for what, exactly? The story begins to crumble little by little here but let me start with my main ire... Hades himself. Hades has been nothing but abusive to Zagreus and he never actually finds into himself to be better to him, he only finds it in himself when Persephone does and what does this entail? Zagreus just wanting his family back? Persephone and Hades, somehow, still being in love with each other? For what? I seriously ask... for what? Zagreus wanted out, he wanted to find his place outside of the Underworld but... he found his place on the system he rejected... the system that pushed him out is completed when he goes back to it and fixes his blood family... and the song says so, it's in the blood... and you might now why this angers me... after playing Bastion and Pyre, why would they write this? Why would they write this type of: "Man, you have to forgive your shitty blood family. They are your family and not the people that fucking raised you."
And... I was fine with Hades, I was fine with Supergiant Games selling out. Pyre had flopped, so... they made a mass appeal game. They made rogue like, when they were THAT popular, they basically introduced indie structure of modification of difficulty to a lot of people that had not experienced it, Greek mythology sells in opposition of making your original works, they just slapped some hot looking characters the names of mythology and made a story that would pull the strings of people that would not analyze properly the themes that were presented... it made money, the money that they had lost making their most original game in Pyre... and for what? So they can make a sequel with the same unispired design?
See, this is where my anger comes from. Hades is whatever but Hades 2? Hades 2 is my nightmare, it is Supergiant Games doing what they had never done... a sequel to their most successful game... instead of making a new game, with new mechanics, a new world and original story... we have this and it scares me to see that after s trilogy of groundbreaking games we have the safest option ever... after they had the money of reputation to do whatever...
