#zeph answers questions about media/characters/ships

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mutsurie for the ship bingo

Ooh Mutsurie… I like them a lot as they are but, if I were to modify their narrative to make it more compelling to to my tastes...

despite how I actually enjoy the “Mutuki goes apeshit” arc because I think trans people deserve to do a little atrocity, (the intrinsic transphobia annoys me of course but it is present in almost every single facet of Mutsuki's character so whatever. Thank you Sui Ishida,) it is actually the thing that unfortunately lessens the interest for me. I still like them don't get me wrong but I think Urie could afford to be weirder about Mutsuki. Urie cares about how he's doing so much that it inhibits his ability to talk but can't ask outright? Alright show it further. When Mutsuki declares that he's in love with Haise and plans to find him, Urie doesn't do anything other than verbally protest, which Mutsuki is far too gone to listen to. And even if you argue that Urie's too traumatized to recognize the glaring signs of an unhealthy attachment (which is fair and almost certainly part of it) Mutsuki's still directly committing a mild crime against the ccg and could very well get in trouble for it thereby harming his well being. To have Urie promise he'll still be there, or show that he's been following Mutsuki's missions could help a lot in making the scene where the Quinx hug him and tell Mutsuki that they still love him a bit more impactful instead of feeling a bit like they just remembered that I suppose? You can only fit so many simultaneous narrative strings into a manga I guess and neither of them are good at feelings, but I just want them to indicate the tasty potential of caring about someone past their lowest points more. Mutsuki still dislikes himself and keeps himself at a distance from his friends at the end of the manga. Having Urie so determined to see this green thing happy that Mutsuki slowly learns to forgive himself for what he's done and grow more comfortable in his masculinity would be cool, and in turn Urie can heal from the Black Reaper's attack on his character and psychological effects of The Everything by being tender with someone for the first time in years.

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IF YOU HAD TO ASIGN ANIMALS TO TG CHARACTERS WHAT WOULD YOU PICK? (ANY CHARACTERS) 💕

"Any characters"

If you say so, sweet anon.

Haise is a White Crested Black Polish Chicken

I will no longer be offering commentary.

(this is uta, and yes that is a real creature.)

I hit the image limit. "Why are they all birds" you wouldn't understand.

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Tooru for the blorbo ask game???

A blorbo in the truest sense!

Ranting under the cut!

(For the record I mark the "just like you fr" square because we share a lot of physical similarities and a couple other details, I don't share most of his personality traits.)

He's like a weird comfort character thing to me? And yet I'm not nearly confident in my own interpretation.

I've seen it said he's badly written past shirazu's demise and I can't say I entirely disagree, but at the same time his history and trans-ness is so important to me that I can't really fathom changing him at this point. He's kind of in the same basket as Takizawa? Introduced as a nice friendly guy, (albeit flawed but in a human way that can be improved upon) who then gets bucketloads of trauma dumped on his head and becomes a seemingly unsavable villain only to kind of get redeemed?... and ultimately written off and moved far far away from Kaneki's happily ever after in the epilogue with no true resolution of their own. Why does that always happen to my favorites also they're both transmasc I will continue to spread my trans Seidou agenda until the end of time. Would definitely shift the narrative to respect his identity more if I could, but simultaneously his self-doubt is another comfort. I WISH I could make it so that no one would ever again point to his use of pronouns and femininity as a form of self-deprecation in his lowest moments, and go "See! He sees himself as a girl! When he calls himself a woman that's a good thing and a sign that he's healing from the evil trans disease, don't worry about how it's happening at the same time as he breaks down-"

I couldn't fix him and he isn't fixing me but he is VERY cathartic. One of those characters that I like to read fics about and draw going through the ringer when I'm feeling down.

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Do you feel like Kuki had a point in not liking Sasaki, at least from his career-oriented standpoint? Him saying "fucking Sasaki" as his Kagune goes wild revealed some resentment. I think Sasaki treated the Quinx as "playing house" like Furuta puts it; they really only progressed after he wasn't in charge of them. In my head, I don't think he ever really ends up getting along with Sasaki/Kaneki: he just tolerates him because the Quinx likes him and he ended up getting attached to the Quinx.

Answered this under the cut!

From a career-oriented standpoint oh sure, Haise isn't all that much of an effective mentor when it comes to specifically sharpening skills and he deserved criticism, he's just the golden boy's favorite little creature who got assigned to a project so they could keep him alive. However, what he is decent at is keeping up morale, and they they also all fall into various states of mental despair once he leaves, which effects their performances even if they improve physically, because their job and existences are astoundingly bleak, (remember they are literally owned by the company and can be killed without repercussion if they're deemed dangerous and what they get in return is just being a decently effective living weapon and decent pay), they're all barely adults, and really what they could probably have used would be a more proper mentor figure who still holds the capacity for compassion. Akira or someone would've done well in the role of Quix guide but, since Haise is a half-ghoul, it's easy to put him in charge of the basically-half-ghouls and use that as a reason to keep him from the chopping block. Because the Quinx's success is not the priority to the one pulling the strings.

However Kuki likes to deny he needs connection anyways so in short: yes probably, but it's less Sasaki's fault and more Arima's, as usual. That said I do think he gets somewhat attached to Sasaki by sheer factor of having no one but him and the other quinxes to grow particularly bonded to, even if he resents that and his connection is obviously more strained than the rest, ESPECIALLY after that "it's your fault your friend died not mine" talk.

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Can you do one of the Aogiri people for the blorbo thingy?

I was going to do eto originally, but I think I’ve divulged my thoughts on her pretty thoroughly as-is. He's funny! We're about the same height, though I think I'm marginally taller.

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Shuu for the blorbo thing!!

Can’t attest much to the accuracy of this, but I do love my original Tokyo Ghoul blorbo.

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I'd like to hear your thoughts on Furuta for the blorbo form?

I'm pretty sure every other fan of his I know disagrees with my takes but at this point I just keep going out of spite. Anyone who would mark "Aspirational Character" is going on some kind of watchlist. I love the anime's decision to give him the radioactively fuchsia eyes, I feel like they should always either be searing or completely lightless, soulless and slightly uncomfortable to look at regardless. Despite what the chart says, definitely a harbinger of bad luck.

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For the violence ask game 🗡

2, 17 and 22!

Thanks for the ask! These were fun.

2. A compelling argument for why your fav would never top or bottom

(I know it said compelling but for the record this is 90% me joking just because I try to keep this blog relatively sfw in terms of this)

An attempt at either act would remind Koori of Hairu and the resulting spiral would kill the mood. Furuta couldn't do it with a guy because he's homophobic and everyone else is off the table because he's gay.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

I said cannibalism last time, and I stand by that because it's an immensely powerful symbolic thing, but this time I'll say AU stuff! I love seeing people's TG AU's they're always crafted with so much love and thought. But really I love all art and fics that are created for this fandom, there aren't many of us but all of you are wonderful!

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I love the restaurants as a concept I love that there’s probably one or two per ward I love the connections and questions they bring about ghoul high society and yet I feel like they’re only ever acknowledged and explored in regards to Juuzou and occasionally the restaurant arc itself. The whole fighting ring-esq “let’s throw three humans in a pit and have the deprived, ravenous and broken one we keep as a pet hit them with sticks” thing? Absolutely insane. I love it. I hate the rich but I like observing them like insects in a jar. I wish we had another character from it who was slightly more centric and eaten by Kaneki just so I could write a fic about the terror of realizing they could not be saved by any of their wealth or power in those final moments.

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H, J, and P?

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?: It really depends on what I’ve heard, but typically I prefer to read the manga if I really care about the story/want to get through it faster! However there are some cases like Land of the Lustrous or Jujutsu Kaisen where the animation is so good that I start with what’s out of the anime, then go back and read it to ensure I don’t miss any details. Or alternatively, I go to the anime if I just want it as a background story while I draw. I’ve been doing that with Attack on Titan recently, it was a lot better than I anticipated so I presume the general negative opinion I’ve heard derived from its overpopularity not the quality itself? Or maybe it gets really problematic or something, haven’t finished it yet. As for Movies Vs. Books it’s a similar situation, but I prefer books more generally.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until tumblr: Honestly, I’ve been introduced to a good portion of my recent fandoms by a friend of mine first, and then convinced to actually start them by tumblr art/my mutuals (mostly Quinn) so if I had to think of something that was genuinely introduced to me here… Good Omens? Haven’t watched it but I see them on my dash constantly. Oh also Witch Hat Atelier!

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas): Tokyo Ghoul obviously,

maybe an AU where all the folks pulling strings and playing king (Arima, Kaneki, Furuta, Eto) somehow end up in a very uneasy alliance to take down V for good. They argue over the ultimate goal constantly, they all hate at least two of the others, nothing’s really going well but they do get stuff done… somewhat, but they hate each other’s methods and tend to end up fighting after ever decision, and very rarely consulting each other before. The only thing keeping them united is a common goal and wanting to die.

AU where Haise is sent with the Quinx to deal with Noro instead of capturing Shuu on the roof. Shirazu doesn’t die, neither does Kanae (unless Eto decides to dispose of them?) but also, Haise never stops dreaming. But, a King is needed anyways and thus he ends up tentatively playing the role despite shironeki continuing to insist he be let out. I thought this one up right now and I haven’t considered consequences to this yet, but I like it as a concept.

Don’t think I’m inventing this but, AU where someone, legitimately anyone, comes to rescue Kaneki in time, hopefully helping him steer away from the mindset of “No one is able to help me”

AU where Juuzou and Hanbee are a little too effective and end up actually killing Kaneki (or injuring him to the point where he’s unable to dragon-ify even after taking a bite out of Hajime, leaving him only with the strength to flee) effectively throwing a wrench in everyone’s plans.

Not an AU but do you ever think about the fact that every single crucial event in Tokyo Ghoul wouldn’t have happened if Tsuneyoshi was just actually a good dad.

AU where everyone has actually decent parents (This one’s a joke but I actually cannot conceive of it.)

AU were Hide, Kimi, or someone else is the person to get Ghoul’d instead of Kaneki and the consequences thereof.

Very self-indulgent AU where Koori gets kidnapped by Aogiri instead of/in addition to Amon or Takizawa (mostly just writing this here because I’d like to draw it maybe, thematically I’m not really even sure it would work for him to begin with, but I like drawing theoretical ghouls.)

Also not really inventing this but I’d also like to draw a Pokémon AU some time.

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9, 13, and 20 for Furutui?

Procrastinated on this forever but hey I'll fill it out now I guess!

9. What annoys each member of your otp about the other? Do they tell them? Do they compromise/work it out? 

A lot, absolutely, and sort of. Furuta is just fundamentally an irritating person to work with, with full intention. He's painfully blunt when it's inconvenient but also shrewd as all hell when transparency approaches anything that could reveal something about himself, shifting like a cup of water to best fit whatever container he occupies and then making a mess of it anyways. Koori's good at seeing through the bullshit but it's bullshit nevertheless! They both dislike any genuine feeling to this, but Furuta especially is repulsed by the concept of having grown genuinely attached, so Koori's ability to poke through his papier-mâché layers, however slightly, disconcerts him greatly. Koori will bluntly tell Furuta to stop his nonsense, (to varying degrees of effect) whereas Furuta will try to goad him back into the usual patterns of unfeelingly passing the time with him. (also to varying degrees of effect.)

13. If your otp moved in together, what would their home look like? What would be each member's touch? Would they argue over it?

Oh! I like to imagine that the houses Koori's family owns are all one of those modern-architecture-rich-people-houses-that-borders-on-white-torture. Furuta sees it for the first time and while he's somewhat incapable of being truly appalled, he does have a "Damn you live like this?" moment. But he's not exactly accustomed to having a room that doesn't look like a cell either.

It's not notable large, but it has enough space that they can go without seeing each other if so desired. Eventually Furuta starts brings random stuff in that catches his eye like a cat dragging back small animals, which does actually help a bit with the "this place looks like it was built with the intent of being as square and colorless as possible" aspect. It's mostly paraphernalia with no practical purpose and a lot of tackiness, so Koori goes through it occasionally and gets rid of what he really hates. It's sort of constant silent disagreement but at least it looks more like a place people actually live in now. Neither of them know how to decorate but for drastically different reasons, Koori's tastes in furniture have been demolished by a family home that looks like it was built in minecraft, Furuta lived in the garden, a school, and then the CCG and none of those care much about fineries. (Also I don't know anything about interior decorating or houses myself so apologies for the vagueness.)

20. How tolerant is your otp of each member's ex(es)? Do they care? Do they get jealous when the topic comes up? If they're still in touch with their ex(es), how does the other feel about that?

Well for one they're in denial that this is dating to begin with, but regardless, Koori doesn't really care at all other than being annoyed by how Furuta talks about them. They hold the concept of "romantic" partnership in highly different regard, and Furuta is a far cry from chivalrous. Koori isn't jealous, he thinks they deserve more respect.

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L, R and S please? 💫

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.):

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED PROMPT SPECIFICATIONS, I WILL GIVE MYSELF AN ANEURYSM. It's not exactly a secret I get really uncomfortable when it comes to Kanou or any of the other... folks like that, but I will gladly acknowledge that he's a crucial and interesting part of the manga and plays the role of villain very well! He's multifaceted, capable of being a genuinely well-meaning person and also capable of completely setting aside all emotion to conduct his experiments. I love mad scientists, I love elderly characters that act kind of unhinged, and if it weren't for The Thing I'd probably love him.

Additionally, Tatara and Houji are actually higher up on my list of favorite TG characters, due largely to you, but I'll happily write something about them here regardless. I love their complimentary color schemes, Tatara's devotion to serving Eto and devotion to defeating Houji, both of which slowly consume him until his demise are fascinating. Houji's twisted sympathy towards ghouls, his reluctance to kill Takizawa despite knowing full-well the consequence, both of them just scratch my brain in a certain way you see.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?: The specification of "in fandom" definitely adds another element to this... I like the way the fandom treats Hori and Tsukiyama? If Ishida wasn't a coward and Shuu's character development stuck, I think they'd be my definite favorite friendship in canon as well. I also really like Kanae and Tsukiyama.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged): I like to think Hajime was an absolute menace when the Oggai weren't actively on duty. One adolescent with little to no concept of how to behave and hundreds of barely-sentient zombie children who take orders from him? Nothing is ending well.

Also because I know I can talk about Furutui to you without feeling like I'm unnecessarily dragging my odd little pairing into a post, I've said it before but I really think it's the mundane things mixed with the horror that keep them somewhat grounded. Riding the train back to their office while half-heartedly bickering over logistics, strategizing about eliminating ghouls from another district like they're in this for any reason that's nearly noble, talking over a too-large map with so many notes stuck to it that it's functionally unreadably to anyone but each other, washing liter after liter of blood out of their clothes and hair. There's an element of Furuta trying to uproot any of the stability it provides with terrible comments and awful plans he never intends to act upon unless it serves a purpose, but eventually Koori sort of figures that out. As dramatic as their atrocious relationship-not-relationship is, I really love thinking over the smaller things. They unintentionally end up learning quite a lot about each other, by simple nature of disliking the prospect of seeking out anyone else. Because at that time, from their point of view, who's there to ask anyways? And it doesn't matter how close they get, as long as they both agree they hate each other at the end of the day. That last part's just my own delusion but I like it anyways.

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Curious to know what your rarepairs are!

The thing is that I don’t really have strong ships I'd call my own, I am an absorbent net of “ooh interesting tell me more about how this works to you.”

The main ones I sort of thought up and then delightedly realized there were a couple others already shipping them would be Furutui, followed by Kokugiyuu but that’s kny, and then as for ones I was indoctrinated into those consist of kanaemutsu, one-sided Kaiko and Kuzen (it was funny alright), Shuuhide, Houtata sort of but at this point it's one of the most prevelent ships in our shell of a fandom, Etori, (Hori Chie and Eto) and then Hairu and Matsumae. But really I like anything that anyone proposes to me as long as I can see it! And my bar for that is low.

I Haven’t been into JJK or anything else actively enough to gain a lot of rarepairs for those yet but I want to, I suppose Yuki and Shoko could count but I think they’re funniest as exes. I’ve got two from Trigun, Zaziemeryl and Legato with Livio.

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I really like the way that Ui says "Furuta" during the ceremony where he gets promoted to bureau chief. Love the way he spits it out with so much outrage and resignation at the same time 😤. One of the reasons why I ship them tbh 😳. I don't remember if Ui's speech style was that formal with honorifics, but I liked how severely uncaring he was with politeness in front the near entirety of the CCG in that scene (but to be fair, it's hard to overshadow Furuta with lack of decorum during that whole event).

Okay first of all I routinely forget emojis are usable on this website and every time I see them it resets my cognitive settings. Onwards!

I'm going to derail your silly little ask so far that the train dismantles.

"It's a party." This entire scene very much sets the tone for their relationship I think! Absurd actions, leads to question, leads to answers unsatisfactory and confusing yet technically true in ways Koori will only understand later. This chapter generally has some great lines and does a good job of establishing the mentality of the CCG, and also how Furuta gains trust! He tore down the security of the CCG with the clowns, tricking them into killing their own and then turned himself into the very model of security by promising the total elimination of their greatest threat. It's a sort of larger scale version of his scheme with Koori, except this time the chain of events is manually instigated, instead of just convenient coincidence resulting from letting all witnesses to his actions die.

I really like the title of this chapter, I think it's translated officially as "Good Speech" but I actually prefer the reading of "Good Story" because it really emphasizes the whole fabricated element, the disconnect. Furuta isn't really here to lead, he's here to perform and end the tale of the Washuu. He's here to make a show of the fall of Ken Kaneki. He's here to party! Or vaguely pretend to not in order to pretend to do so.

Vaguely trailing back to the shipping aspect.

"That the CCG was finished"

(not screenshotting a really tall and boring panel that'll make this hard to read)

Further delightful relationship establishing! Koori sees through what this is from the start and yet has no protest. Because Furuta is his only prospect of salvation, because he doesn't care if Hairu's not here, because what could he do against this anyways? Very interesting. Also you're very right about the whole informality thing, I think everyone was a bit too distracted by the whole "The new Bureau Chief is wearing groucho glasses and declaring plans for total ghoul genocide" thing to care much about how he was being addressed. Conclusion: They are terrible for eachother, they should kiss.

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12, 13, 23 for violence ask

12. The unpopular character that you actually like, and why more people should like them.

Hachikawa I suppose, he's got an interesting design and provides neat perspective on the relationships between ghoul investigators. Hogi carries his philosophies on far past his death, some for better and many for worse. Unfortunately neither of them get much time to be fleshed out so to many he's just "creepy face man". At least hate him for normal reasons like his civilian endangerment and cruelty instead of his facial deformity.

13. Worst blorboficiation.

Everyone knows it's Kaneki. But I'm sick of thinking about him so, Ayato too actually. I think he had a similar issue to the aforementioned fellow in the sense that the anime made him seem all cool and put-together and unimaginably violent but not in any way that's treated as harmful as it really is.

23. Ship you've unwillingly come around to

I guess Touken? Still don't really get it in canon but a certain mutual has swayed me to neutrality and I feel like if it were rewritten by better hands it could've been a really good pairing. I like them as a QPP just because I read a nice fic once.

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i am giving you just a title: "follow me down"

(The original ask prompt thing)

The possibilities are limitless, I’m going to have fun with this one.

Houtata fic, post their mutual demise they reflect on the cycle of vengeance that led them to this place. It’s mostly angsty regret for what they did, what they lost and who they hurt along the way (cough cough Takizawa) but there’s a hint of optimism at the end in knowing that at last it’s over and they can reunite with those they took away from each other.

One of those slow meandering, yet short fics exploring an AU where Kaneki just gives up and lets Rize drag him into the metaphorical/literal ocean of blood they’ve created. Grant him the catharsis of punishment. I’m not going to talk any more on this because the actual Kaneki fans will correct me six ways from Sunday if I try and touch the feelings without extensive research that I’m not doing for a theoretical. The idea is simply that the weight of lives lost breaks him. I don’t think that’s too out of character, maybe he gets out of it eventually but whatever. I’d write it from Rize’s POV because viewing Kaneki as an outsider seems more interesting in this scenario and because I don’t know how to write for him, though I suppose technically it’s not Rize it’s Kaneki’s idea of Rize.

Quick non-TG section!

I’ve been getting through JJK recently so, (not shipping) maybe an examination of how the freshly-formed curse Mahito develops his own twisted view of the world and consequentially, leads Junpei right down after him. In many ways as it’s said Mahito is a child learning and growing himself, he’s just doing it Very Wrong and I think it would be fun to write something exploring the way Junpei trails after that path. Bad influences, man.

Mellodramattic (but honestly I’d probably write it ambiguously romantic or platonic) fic depicting the day Mello leaves the orphanage and Matt follows. They’re so unhealthy for each other I feel like that’s not explored enough, but I’m leaning for a cheerier tone towards the end, because as bad as they are, they cannot get worse than Wammy’s house itself

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C, E, J and Z for the ask game? :>

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will: Good question, I'm usually pretty flexible and I can't think of anything that isn't sort of a given from Tokyo Ghoul, but when it comes to JJK I just don't really like Nobara and Itadori. As friends? Absolutely. As a QPR? I could be convinced with a short explanation. Explicitly dating in an allo way? Eh. Given, I haven't caught up with the manga so there's always a chance!

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?: I don't know about hilarious, but certainly cracky. This Post which resulted in Shuu does top surgery which is even less plausible than the initially proposed Kanou, but wildly amusing. Then there's the old men chronicles which I would've had more fun with at the time if I wasn't fully aware that I'd lose a mutual over it. In retrospect it's nice though! Also, I think almost everything I've shipped here is very cracky.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over: Tumblr has recently become very convinced I need to see everything related to Moomin Valley so, that I suppose.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.) Sometimes I get really scared to talk about all the reasons I like characters because I don't want to unintentionally reduce their personality to stereotypes. Thus, counterproductively I end up describing everyone with short, vague sentences out of fear of overusing reductive phrases. So today I rant free!

Hairu is absolutely fascinating to me as a character, I feel like she's a wonderful example of Ishida's special tactic of writing a character with a couple vague core ideals and points of history that hint to something far more complex in such a way that leaves you wondering if he's actually a brilliant writer or if he just left you so much space that you can fill it in with headcanons to your heart's content. Anyways, I just love how she's consumed by an unobtainable goal, (being recognized by Arima again) and her method of slaughtering as many ghouls as she can to achieve it just takes her further and further away, while also distancing her from the actual achievable reality of a closeness with Koori. It's so sad and I ADORE HER SUBTLE COMPLEXITY, it always disappoints me a little to see people to describe her as nothing but a dreamy airhead or just another murderous cog in the machine of the CCG. I do actually really like her and Koori as a pairing because they'll take so terribly long to communicate, I just also really like making Koori suffer hell. Anyways, nearly 80% of what swayed me was a fic where Koori and Hairu swapped uniforms on the first day of being partners because Hairu hated the new female one, and Koori discovered the skirt was actually very comfy. It was sweet, kind of a crackfic, and very enjoyable to read.