This is a place for both my art and thoughts about the pairing of Clive Dove x Dimitri Allen from Professor Layton and the Unwound/Lost Future
The original name for this ship is Climitri, but I may also call it Rosedove or use the 🥀🕊️ or 🕊️🥀 emoji combo. I will not use main tags such as character names or official titles on most of my posts
Personally, I view their relationship as a toxic situationship, so please be warned that topics such as: manipulation, unhealthy coping mechanisms, etc. will be drawn or talked about, so follow at your own risk
Also, this blog will be full of Unwound Future spoilers !
📋 More info under the cut ⤵︎
✉️ ⇨ Asks are open!
You can ask about pretty much anything! But please don't send any r18 (s*x**l) questions and please don't send anything to do with ship drama / not liking Climitri / not liking other pl ships
📄❕ ⇨ Post / Art Usage Rules:
☑️ (OK) ⇨ Using my art for icons / headers / banners / wallpapers etc. with credit (where applicable)
🚫 (Not OK) ⇨ Reuploading, Training (both posts and art), Editing (in any way), Profiting from / Selling my art, Claiming my art or posts as your own
Alt texts should be available for every image I post. In the chance I forget I'll update it ASAP
Also, this blog is ran by merq, hi
📂 ⤵︎ Tag Directory (unfinished)
#climitri / #rosedove = Any post that's Clive x Dimitri related
#🕊️🥀 = Climitri where Clive is more dominant
#🥀🕊️ = Climitri where Dimitri is more dominant
#🕊️🥀 / 🥀🕊️ = Both could be dominant / Undecided dynamic
#secondhandroses art = Artwork I've posted
#secondhandroses wips = For anything of mine that's unfinished
#secondhandroses reblogs = Reblogs of others' posts
#secondhandroses miscellaneous = Just me talking, not ship focused
#❕🏷️: mature = Posts of mine I consider mature
A snippet of a new (teen rated) fic I've been writing:
“We went there every Sunday, my parents and I…”
“It's a sentimental dish then, I can understand that. A preservation of the past…”
“Just like the eels.”
They sat in silence for a moment, both lost in the past.
“I wonder…” Filled with a fresh energy from his noodle soup, Dimitri held his chin and leaned forward ever so slightly as a familiar spark of scientific curiosity ignited within his chest. “If a living eel were preserved—completely unprepared aside from a gelatin coating and refrigeration, of course—could it be released into the Thames years later, with both its brain and flesh the same as it were prior to preservation…”
The scientist's eyes bore into Clive’s, as if he could fish the answers he sought straight out of his patron’s mind.
“And, if that were the case, could the emotions held by the creature also be preserved…?
“Say, if it were angry—or even violent—before preservation… once awoken, would it bite?”
I think the root of my issue with the belief that Dimitri and Clive shouldn't be shipped because they pretend to be future versions of Layton and Luke is that to me, that's like saying two actors can't enter a relationship with each other in real life because they played siblings in a movie
I think with Clive, he's into the perceived stability of older men.
In Clive's mind, because they're older, that surely means they're more stable, and since Clive is very unstable himself, he likes the idea of being with someone older who, because of this perceived stability, can both ground and protect him.
....And I think part of the reason he has one-sided beef with Dimitri is that because they (probably) spend so much time together, Clive has come to notice all the little ways Dimitri doesn't fit into this idealised fantasy of an older man he'd constructed, and it pisses him off.
I think deep down he knows that being older does not necessarily equal being more stable, but because he's held onto this fantasy for so long, he wants it to be true, and doesn't like being proven wrong.
Ok so. I've had to put chapter 2 of my Climitri fic "Quit." on hold because writing it has become really detrimental to my mental health, but I still want to share the second half of it since that part is fully written, and I'd feel bad keeping it to myself
I'm putting it under the cut. There may be some grammar / spelling issues that I didn't catch, sorry about that
📄 Info: 1509 words
❕ Warnings / Triggers:
mentions of past character death
sexual tension (a little bit I suppose)
suicidal ideation
ptsd
ptsd flashback
clive triggers dimitri's ptsd
manipulative clive
emotional manipulation
fawn response
grief
survivor’s guilt
This is a very long post BTW!!!!
“That’s enough,” Clive, with an authoritative tone, quietly demanded from behind as he plucked the yet-to-be-lit cigarette out of Dimitri’s mouth, accidentally tapping his client’s lips with the tip of his finger in the process. “You need to smoke less.”
“Wha—Oh, very funny, but I’ve got work to do,” he gestured toward the desk before him where equation papers and diagrams scattered its surface alongside a freshly brewed mug of tea. “You know, guiding the Hamanier particles and tinkering with the Soolha coil and whatnot—under your watch, of course. I don’t have time for whatever game it is you want to play. Now hand it over and let’s continue where we left off yesterday,” Dimitri responded casually without looking back. He then picked up one of the papers, a hand drawn Hamanier particle diagram, from the desk with his left hand and opened the other in an expectation that his friend would give up the game and return the cigarette, but Clive had no intention of playing the role of a teacher’s pet today, let alone a friend.
With a few slow but intentional movements, Clive leaned forward and, right above the mug in front of Dimitri, crushed then drowned the cigarette’s remnants in the drink, intentionally concocting an unsalvageable mixture of tobacco and tea.
“Oh—Clive!” Dimitri exclaimed. “Come on, you can’t! That was the last—”
Clive leaned back, his lips almost brushing against his client’s ear.
“I mean it. Quit.”
A silence as thick as the already lingering smoke enclosed the two. While Clive could be a pushy man, Dimitri had found comfort in him, and he never expected such a comforting presence to make such unattainable demands; Claire never did.
His eyes fixed on the newly brewed tobacco/tea monstrosity, watching the tobacco float aimlessly in the brew before he finally found a retort.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Clive. You know I need them to focus,” he trailed off in a whisper as his thumb toyed the edges of the paper. “You know it helps my nerves…”
“It has to stop,” Clive doubled down on his demand, his voice cold and clinical. “Your productivity is down 37%. Your addiction is a clear distraction from your work.”
“...Is that what this was all about? An inspection? You weren’t actually interested in understanding the science of polydimensionality—?”
Clive draped his arms over Dimitri’s shoulders, caging his client from behind. “Oh, no, I was interested. I am interested, as your student. But, as your patron, I must make sure you’re always performing your best, lest I have to cut your funds entirely.” His voice deepened. “You’ve been slacking, and I need to find a fix, so let’s make this quick for the both of us."
Perhaps he really is only my boss, Dimitri thought, but chose to verbalise a different hypothesis.
"There’s a flaw in your conclusion, Clive. If anything, it’s you that’s–”
He paused.
Sure, he could tell Clive to cruise the faux-Thames in his little speedboat, to gamble his life’s funds away at the casino he so loved. To go to the surface—to the real London—to the park which they had frequented and stop attending these little lessons where he humoured both his scientific theories and banter, proposing the most impossible solutions that were apparently supposed to be honest attempts at problem solving, and belting at his quote-un-quote ‘moth-eaten’ jokes with those sun-bright smiles of his that reignited the cinders of hope in his heart that before all of this, before all the lessons and the proximity and the laughter, were so deep and dormant that until now he believed only Claire could ignite.
Claire… Her blurred face floated listlessly in his mind’s eye, bloating like the steam from the mug before him to which his eyes were still locked—unable to break free from—until she eventually became one with the room's stale mixture of air and smoke, and the ink from the diagram smudged under his trembling thumb.
It was his goal—his duty—to save her. To correct the mistake of the past that, like the smoke, loomed over every waking hour of his life; a life of which he did not believe for a single second he deserved—a thought he dissected daily, diligently scraping away at the lesion with his scalpel of logic, but in being a man of physics, he was no surgeon. And the cigarettes—they were the anaesthetic, yes, but so was his new friend, his new star that had pulled the lonely rogue planet that was him into orbit. He realised now he needed the light of another—those rays of light which both humoured and, most importantly, saw him. Claire had once been that light, Claire had once inhibited the shadows of his doubts, but now Clive, his only friend, had taken her role. Clive was now his star, and Dimitri was at perihelion. The scientist knew now he could never allow himself to experiment with the dark and unforgiving void of isolation again.
But he could never confess all of this to his friend, so ultimately he decided to keep his mouth shut.
Eventually though, the claws of withdrawal hooked deep into his skin and allowed him to force out a feeble plea.
“Please, just… let me smoke.”
Clive then, in one aggressive motion, spun Dimitri’s chair around, the force from which caused the diagram to slip out of the scientist’s grasp.
Suddenly they were face to face, and it became immediately apparent to the patron that he’d pushed his client further than he originally planned; that’s what the scientist's slight sheen of sweat and darting gaze told him anyway.
But it was of no concern to Clive, he understood that once he succeeded in his persuasion the air would clear and the fragrances which were once the vital tools of his manipulation would be able to bloom once more, and so he allowed himself to tug at the soft spot the scientist wore so earnestly on his chest.
“You’re quite the romantic, aren’t you? Always wearing this rose…” he forcefully changed the subject as he plucked the flower from the scientist's lab coat.
Dimitri stayed silent, his mind slipping away as time seemed to slow. He clung to his friend’s shoulders.
Clive ignored him and twirled the stem in his fingers, inspecting every petal as the flower pirouetted between them. The thing was dry to a crisp; falling apart at even the mere suggestion of movement.
Carefully, he brought it up to his nose and sniffed. Even this reeks of smoke he thought to himself. A pity.
Without showing even the slightest hint of disgust, he carried on, “and you wear it every day…” His eyes bored into Dimitri’s. “A motif of something, perhaps?”
No response.
“Look, I see what you're getting at,” Clive responded to the scientist's unfinished statement, disregarding his last plea. “To you, I’m the cause of your productivity decline. The lessons I requested, in your opinion, are robbing you of vital time. So you’d rather me… leave you alone… so that you’ll be able to get back on track, and save Claire… correct?”
No response.
“It’s quite logical. I must admit I’m impressed.”
“So then,” Clive continued, “the solution to that problem would be for me to leave you alone and let you smoke… since, according to you, it's my company that's distracting you, not the cigarettes.”
He paused, then allowed himself to go all-in.
“But, If I left, wouldn't those nightmares return? You know, the ones where there's the windows shattering and the alarms blaring…”
“No.” Dimitri clung tighter to the man.
That’s it.
“The ones where there’s a cadaver… all lifeless and—”
He brought the dried flower up to the scientist, forcing him to take in nothing but the tainted scent.
“The ones where—”
He then took the rose away from Dimitri, and, as their eyes locked, heartlessly ground the petals in his palm, and the crumbled flakes from which scattered lifelessly onto the scientist’s chest and lap.
Dimitri could see her clearly now—on the floor, right there—It was too early; he was too late.
“...If you can’t save her, will the nightmares ever stop?”
Clive pulled away from the scientist, acutely aware he had put down a winning hand.
He then caressed Dimitri’s cheek, allowing his thumb to trail the line of his lips, and lingered on them. They were as thin and dry as the petals of the rose he had crushed just a moment ago.
“Quit. That’s my only demand.”
“...O–Ok.” The scientist folded. “I’ll quit.”
Clive grinned. Jackpot.
Wordlessly, the patron pulled the other chair toward the desk and sat down with ease next to his client, his scientist, his teacher, looking pitifully at the man who had been crumpled like one of the many hundreds of papers that littered the floor, amongst which lay the diagram Dimitri had dropped. Clive picked it up.
“Don’t worry,” he said reassuringly, tapping the left lapel of his blazer with a steady rhythm. “I'll get you a new one.”
Your blog made me remember I used to really ship them a few years ago lol it's nice to see it got a few more followers. It got good angst potential.
If you're still doing those, 2 and 11 for the ask game?
Thank you for asking!
I hope it's ok to say, but I love your drawings of them, I think you capture the two so well!
And you're so right about Climitri having good angst potential - the fact that Clive used Dimitri as a pawn, lied to him, and betrayed him… it's so angsty!!
Ship Ask Game 📝
🎬 2: Favourite canon scene between them?
When Dimitri finds out Clive betrayed him in chapter 12… it’s such a significant moment between them! And I love how many questions it leaves…
Like, it implies that Dimitri thought of Clive as someone he could trust, and that makes me wonder how exactly did Clive gain that trust? Was he overly friendly with Dimitri? Or was he purely professional, and Dimitri ended up latching onto Clive anyway because he was lonely? Or was it something in between?
Honestly I think this scene is one of the main reasons why this ship intrigues me so much!
My favourite part of this scene though has to be this little moment:
(Clip source)
Here, Dimitri wants answers from Clive, but Clive can't give him any. Instead of explaining or getting defensive, Clive keeps his mouth shut, and his expression changes into one of pity or sadness (depending on how you see it).
When I rewatched the scene yesterday I was so… captivated by this moment that I ended up going on a whole ramble about it here LOL. I think it gives a window into Clive’s possible feelings on the fact he betrayed Dimitri…. It's so interesting to me.
I really wish they had more scenes together tbh!
⛓️ 11: Who is more possessive?
Clive. Clive. 100% Clive. While they're working in Future London, Clive wants and needs Dimitri to stay under his control, so I think him being possessive over Dimitri is one way he’d go about doing so.
And in my opinion he's a jealous person:
I imagine that jealousy leads him to be possessive.
Also….. I think he really likes the idea of owning people… It makes him feel superior, and he probably craves having superiority over others after he lived through a childhood where he was a 'bump on the road to a brighter tomorrow' for Bill Hawks.
I want you to know it doesn’t matter if you think your art or your writing is bad because there will always be people who are just happy someone is making content for the thing they like, especially in a small fandom
Thanks for asking!
Sorry it took me a little longer to get to this
Shipping Emoji Game 📝
🍀 → Who steals the blankets?
Dimitri. I imagine he's someone who's cold all the time... constantly shivering, etc. He always needs a blanket to keep warm.
Overtime he ends up hoarding them without realising... until Clive storms into his room and demands to know where they've all gone LOL.
💐 → Who needs more reassurance?
Dimitri. I think he's a very anxious person, constantly worrying whether Clive likes him or not, and when he’s left alone he starts spiraling over the thought of Clive abandoning him forever, so he needs constant reassurance to calm his doubts.
That isn't to say he actually gets that constant reassurance from Clive (Clive only does so when it benefits him), but he certainly needs it.
🌸 → Who cries when they watch sad movies?
Answered previously here, but I will copy and paste it under the cut just in case the original gets deleted somehow ⤵︎
(Warning: it’s a long answer)
They both do, but I think Clive is the one who tries to hide his tears... he wipes them away before Dimitri can notice, he cries when alone in his room afterwards, etc…
In UF there's a few instances where he mentions how he's not a kid anymore, and how he doesn't let himself take interest in activities or objects he views as childish, which makes me think he also believes that showing any ‘childish’ emotions like sadness is a display of vulnerability (not saying these emotions are childish, just that he probably views them as such)... and he’d hate to show that vulnerability, and therefore, in his eyes, be seen as weak by someone he's trying to hold superiority over.
He lets his vulnerability show to Layton because he puts the professor on such a high pedestal as he thinks Layton will save him eventually. But he holds so much contempt for the scientists who worked on the time machine (including Dimitri), and therefore thinks he's better than all three of them, so he won't allow any possible opportunities for them to view him as lesser.
Dimitri on the other hand isn't someone who second guesses letting his tears fall over a movie around Clive. I imagine they probably bonded over the fact that they both were deeply affected by the explosion so, to him, crying over a movie is almost nothing compared to opening up about his darkest thoughts and struggles. I think even if he does hold a similar view to Clive, that showing sadness is displaying vulnerability, he doesn't believe it to the extent that Clive does, and even if he did I imagine he wouldn't be able to hold back his tears anyway.
I think after Claire's death he didn't really have anyone he could turn to, and he either didn't try or failed to make new connections because he feared losing someone else, which then made him turn to isolation as a protective measure. So when Clive commissioned him to rebuild the time machine he was probably so taken aback that someone both wanted to talk to him and viewed him as valuable that he ended up latching onto Clive in a clingy way
