#dream daddyblogging

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okay

#dream daddy #main tag gets it bc i am on a need to know basis #silver jelly #brian harding #damien bloodmarch #joseph christiansen #mat sella #robert small #hugo vega #craig cahn #dream daddyblogging

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okay so i thought it would be interesting to compile what we know about the dads' (and mary's) interpersonal relationships based on canon happenings. template by @markmaker36 (thank you sooooo much for this omg) soooo here's the key, feel free to ask for any clarification;;;

House: canonically grew up in maple bay (also they hang out once a week) Spade: there is some Complex Shit going on Red heart: BESTIES Pink heart: knows each other Well Green heart: hangs out once a week (by the end) Blue heart: hangs out more than once a week Yellow heart: canonically doesn't know each other very well

i want to update this once i've redone a few routes/dates, and possibly even again once i read the comic book, but i thought this would be interesting info all the same (and if anyone has anything to add that isn't just from comics, i'm super super happy to update! i wanna try comics on my own first <3)

#dream daddy #mwahhhh #dream daddyblogging #the christiansen mess #<- deserves this tag lmao

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i've been going back and forth on properly reading them soooo

feel free to reblog and put what you enjoy about them in the tags !! (or if you haven't read them but have a firm opinion; what it is & why)

#dream daddyblogging #dream daddy #ddadds #i'm not sure how i feel about it myself so i'm really curious <3

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(by recreationally i mean he pours himself a glass of milk, not mixed with anything except like chocolate syrup)

#fuck it we ball (main tags) #joseph christiansen #dream daddy #ddadds #dream daddyblogging #mwahhh #i personally think he's a strawberry milk enjoyer for the aesthetic.

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oh yeah i'm playing Thee ddadds Cult Ending tonight mwahh can't wait for my man to try and kill me 🥰🥰🥰🥰

#dream daddyblogging #cw cult ending #i'm already hc'ing that hes not wearing anything under his cassock btw mwahhhh

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does robert get Mad if you order a tropical drink on the first date????

#dream daddyblogging

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joseph's color scheme is just soooooooooooo [chef's kiss] okay thanks

#thinking about that goy boy on hannukkah sorry god : ') /j #dream daddy #joseph christiansen #dream daddyblogging #pics from canva pro except the billie lyric edit which i did real quick and the joseph sprite #i still don't have a moodboard tag jafkikfjb god #silver jelly #one day i will go back and collect all my visual things and get em together but tonight is not that night <3 #it'd be fun to do a Dark Version for cult ending as like a sexxxxii side by side contrast ahhh maybe someday :' )

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i'm going to talk ad nauseam about my joseph backstory hc's, ready, go;;;;

might be maybe projecting here but im having Thoughts about joseph picking out his career bc of some familial conversation about needing to take his life more seriously, that ended his time of traveling. i see his parents as clergy, in my fic joseph describes them as "old school fire and brimstone types" [EDIT: he actually does canonically describe his dad as "fire and brimstone" in the 3rd date which i'd forgotten!!] and i think it scares him into coming back (and i think he left because Something Happened at age 16/17.) it's not his first choice but he's knowledgeable because of his upbringing, and hes charming enough to be GOOD at it.

he studies and he works whatever positions the church will give him, which are plenty, because they know his family and that he's good people and he gets the hang of everything really quickly. it's not the life he would have chosen for himself--i see him having majored in philosophy while trying to figure out a ship captain path--but hes grateful to be doing something he doesn't totally hate.

he meets mary in the beginning, details TBD though that story is very important, and he's enamored pretty instantly. they date and they're not too serious even though both sets of parents are telling them that they shouldn't bother with each other if they don't see a life together. they want to do it on their own terms, though, and their long romance and longer engagement feels like a victory. joseph finally feels like he's secured a life that he's chosen and it makes him feel empowered to make his job his own too.

and it doesn't take long for christopher to be conceived ;; he's a surprise but not an unwelcome one and for a long while everything really is perfect!! there's a lot of honest love between them and they really did go into this seeing a life together!! i think even through the twins being brought into the picture things are still good and happy and nice.

i don't think their rift happens overnight and it takes both of them a long time to realize just how unhappy they are. mary would claim that joseph himself still doesn't even know, but it's important to note that he very much does, even if he appears to be in denial about it. it's just hard for him to fathom giving up a life that he had to fight for, and it feels like everyone's depending on him so he leans on the escapism in a maybe-not-so-healthy-way. there's a really long while where he can convince himself that it's just a rough patch, that their best friend robert's life is falling apart and they're feeling grief too, that 3 kids is a lot to keep up with and they're not as spry as they used to be and i think mary for the most part does as well. joseph throws himself into his work even harder (laying the groundwork for and then eventually achieving maple bay's #1 youth minister for 5 years running) and mary does as well.

even through all of this, dare i say, the love is still there because they do definitely remember the people that they used to be, and that's enough of a reason to try another day.

#i'm feeling confident enough to put this in the main tag let's go let's goooooooooooo #dream daddy #joseph christiansen #the christiansen mess #meta #dream daddyblogging #obviously all of this is conjecture and hc whatever you want that makes you happy blah blah these are just my hc's #i'm trying to work out why he started traveling and how he and mary got together and when exactly the robert stuff happened but #there is only so much my brain can do and i'm baked as is soooo

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okay so i need to talk about the yacht. let's talk about the yacht.

the name st. peter comes from joseph's father, the previous owner who joseph simply describes as a "fire and brimstone" type. it's interesting to me that this is the only time any of the dads talk about their parents in any capacity (as far as i remember???) but. back to the yacht.

st. peter is the leader of the 12 apostles and represents absolution and excommunication, "often represented holding the keys to heaven and hell" as stated by google. he was a boatman, but i think the name holds a higher significance given that joseph directly referenced, uh, hell and didn't just say "pete was all about that boating 😌" joseph doesn't talk about hell very often (which is probably good since he's dealing with youth) so it feels....weighty, for him to say this.

as i've learned since diving headfirst into processing my religion-related adolescent trauma for lack of a better word; absolution is forgiveness (specifically from a priest??) and excommunication is the act of excluding someone from participating in the sacraments of the church. and obviously these concepts are tied to heaven and hell.

there are parallels to be drawn from that. joseph's good ending is the one in which he has been forgiven (presumably) by mary. joseph's bad ending is the one which implies that you don't see one another anymore in any capacity, leaving both joseph and dadsona "excommunicated" in their own ways.

the heaven/hell dichotomy is also central when it comes to joseph's character motivations. i have another post drafted dissecting what he says in the bad ending about not being able to divorce because of the community--i choose to believe that he's not bullshitting and he is actually terrified. and i think the reconciliation ending is also telling of a similar thing; joseph being caught between what he wants and what he thinks is right and ultimately trying to make the "Good" (capital-G) or "Right" or "Just" call. it's fitting that joseph being "excommunicated" both by having to live on the boat AND by the boat running out of gas away from civilization is when he's not making the virtuous choice. and it's fitting that once he returns from that--once he is "absolved"--he focuses more deeply on continuing to do what's right. even in the bad ending, he's trying to have it both ways and make everyone happy, his idea of right is just a little fucked up.

but there's also the fact of the yacht itself--by being st. peter, it's a bit of a liminal space between that dichotomy. joseph alludes to being the relationship-equivalent of excommunicated from his home. dadsona comes into this attracted to joseph--a man that they know they should NOT be into--but joseph's assuring that he wants this too, which is a forgiveness. this is the 2nd time we see liminal space with him: joseph in date 2 appears to have a penchant for escapism but ultimately his happy place--his margarita zone--isn't a grand altar to joy, it's a Liminal Space Happy Place to not think about anything, including the joys of life. (and honestly, margaritaville as described in the song is fucking bleak at best. like slightly worse than purgatory.)

sigh. god this is so fucking sad. onward.

joseph's father naming the yacht st. peter narrows down the question of his upbringing a bit. i still don't think joseph's catholic, but i think there's a decent chance that his parents were (i do need to do more research on this; religious research is so fucking difficult unless you know Exactly what you're looking for, so bear with me.)

there's also the matter of joseph's ownership of the yacht. i feel like the presence of said yacht makes people think that he's from a ton of money (trust fund-esque type thing, i was fooled too) BUT--he got this yacht from his dad and it's from at least the 60s lmao!! and it only appears to be one-room below deck and then most of what we see on the upper deck?? not exactly something you'd see on dynasty.

we don't know if joseph's parents are still alive; i have this distinct feeling that joseph inherited the yacht, or his father is so old he can't use it anymore (which i'm sure would only add to joseph's stress) so it was given to him. either way, it's a yacht that he didn't pay for.

this is another instance of joseph valuing appearances, which we see firsthand somehow in almost every interaction we have with him, but it's corroborated by mary (the "he's good at pretending to be happy" comment at the bake sale) and robert (him telling dadsona that joseph isn't the man he seems right before getting on the yacht.) i don't think ultimately this is a bad thing, especially since being a community pillar is like 50% appearances and that's his livelihood. the yacht is a manifestation of this, as from the outside it's big and impressive but on the inside it's full of broken pieces (the radio), mess (joseph's room), vices (the detective novels, the wine), and it's running on empty.

#i feel like that's it i feel like i've said what i need to say. good morning!! #the christiansen mess #dream daddy #joseph christiansen #dream daddyblogging

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oh baby i'll gladly accept your cargo short granola ;)

#dream daddyblogging

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[THROUGH GRITTED TEETH] i couldn't tell <3

#dream daddyblogging #i promise this will be the last mean post about him i swear i swear #i finished his date 2 and i need to date another Dad (possibly brian idk i haven't decided) and Then joseph's route

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"good neighbors. Well, some of them" fuck offffffff robert lmao

#dream daddyblogging #its so real housewives i swear !!!

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i still don't know how i feel about cult leader joseph but the dick game's probably insane i mean,, ,,,,,

#joseph christiansen #dream daddy #cw cult ending #cult leader joseph #dream daddyblogging #can i handle that. can my dadsona physically handle that dick. idk #i mean i do know and the answer is Yes but also ahdkshddhdh

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i did think it was silly that damien was like "I'm not goth bc I work IT for a realty company and I like bruce springsteen and looking at storage solutions and i volunteer at an animal shelter" like come on, all of those things are arguably goth :\ !!!

#dream daddyblogging

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i'm working on something that's going to REvolutionize the way we think of the ddadds ships (i'm filling in a template)

#silver jelly #dream daddyblogging #i'm hacking their relationships i'm doing it !!!

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something that i think is interesting is like. aside from the other christiansens, who else is In this cult lmao??? i know robert was implied to be but obviously that's over, and even as far as his family goes: the kids are merely vessels and joseph thinks so low of mary, i doubt he sees her as having any sort of power ("alcoholic wife whose life i destroyed.") it's really just him and cthulhu or whatever????? why the outfit, why the Dramatics if he's got no one to show off to?????? who is this FOR??????

#cw cult ending #dream daddyblogging #i can't fix him but i can fuck the daylights out of him and then maybe he'd calm down. #like okay Maybe he just enjoys the thrill of human sacrifice SO MUCH that all of this is for his little victim (me) but ....... ??? don't #cults have to have like. People???? to sustain themselves????? i'm doing research on that now tho