#list of anime and manga fanfic ideas

[thatfanficauthor107]

Random AU’s for you fic writers!

Firefighter x Arsonist

Author x will never ever set foot in a library ever (bonus points if they can’t read)

Academic rivals but they compete for last place

Siren (who seduces then drowns people) x lifeguard

Hates children x teacher

Highschool dropout x prodigy

scientist x guinea pig (as in human they test on not the animal sickos)

fallen angel x redeemed demon

doctor x serial killer

priest x demon

Tag/credit me if you use them!

i take reqs for promps + stuff!

[candycandy00]

Come join our X Reader Lovers Community!

Currently seeking members! We’re a community for all enjoyers of X Reader fanfiction (from Anime/Manga fandoms, though we also accept video game fandoms that are anime style).

Readers and Writers wanted! Even if you’ve never written a fanfic in your life, if you enjoy reading X Reader stories, we want you!

The community is a place for writers to promote our fanfics, share ideas, discuss the writing process, and get inspired. We have fun (completely optional) activities such as a bi-monthly Author Spotlight and Weekly Challenges! Plus more activities to come.

For readers, it’s a place to find great new fanfics to read, get to know your favorite authors, tell us what you’d like to read, and suggest prompts for the Weekly Challenge.

Overall, it’s just a fun and friendly place to interact with fellow fans of something you love.

If you’d like to check out the community, let me know and I’ll send you an invite. No pressure! You can look it over and see if you’d like to join. No hard feelings if you decide not to. I will take Likes of this post as indication of interest!

You must be an adult and have your age listed in a visible spot on your blog!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to reblog to spread the word!

Banner made by @doumadono!

[spinarakiweek]

Prompts 4 Spinaraki Week 4

(Art credit and our tremendous thanks go to poodlewool!)

Hello, all! We're here at last with prompts and dates for the fourth Spinaraki Week! It will be held in the very last week of August, from Sunday the 25th to Saturday the 31st!

As with last time, you can find a text version of the prompts and the full rules beneath the cut below, but first, a few general upkeep notes!

Re: event week tags: Following previous patterns, the tags for the week will be #spinarakiweek, #spinarakiweek2024, #spinarakiweek4, and #spinarakiweeknsfw.

Re: spoiler tags: Going by the results of the poll we ran about spoilers we ran, the vast majority of respondents are up on current events/don't care about spoilers. However, there are a small number of people who are avoiding spoilers. In recognition of that breakdown, and the fact that the manga will be over by the time the event is held, we will not be asking participants to spoiler tag their work on their own blogs, but will make our best efforts to tag for manga spoilers (#bnha manga spoilers) as we reblog to the main blog.

We have no current plans to tag for anime spoilers, as none of the mods follow the anime particularly closely, but please do contact us if you would like us to tag for spoilers for the anime episodes that will be airing immediately around the event (barring any breaks in the airing schedule, these should be Episodes 15 and 16 of the current season, Episodes 153 and 154 overall).

Re: AU fills: We got a number of requests on the survey for AU-type prompts: mermaids, supernatural creatures, heroes, pro-gamers, and so on. While we've dabbled with fanfic tropes as prompts in past years, this year we wanted to keep things relatively open. Just as a reminder, though, we heartily welcome AU content, so anyone is welcome to do AUs at any time and for any prompt they can make fit for it! You could do Mermaid AU fills for every day of the week and we'll happily reblog it, so long as they fit some aspect of one of the prompts of the day. Please, go absolutely nuts!

Re: our tumblr subpages: Firstly, our rules are the same as always, and can be found in the Rules section at the top of the page if that's visible to you, or beneath the cut below if not. The (new!) Graphics section, as the name suggests, contains every previous graphic we've used in prior weeks; these or the Tagged Works section can be used to scope out prompts from past weeks if anyone would like some inspiration or ideas for our traditional Free Day or to incorporate with other prompts this week! If the subpages don't work for you, you can also go back through the mod post tag (as at the bottom of this post!) to find previous housekeeping posts, which should get you back to previous prompt lists and the likes relatively quickly.

That's it! Rules and text prompts below the jump! We can't wait to do this thing with you all!

Text Prompts

Sunday 25th: Dedication  ~  History  ~  Game Over

Monday 26th: Monster  ~  Enough  ~  Load

Tuesday 27th: Horror  ~  Horizon  ~  Inventory

Wednesday 28th: Cracks  ~  Dream  ~  Home

Thursday 29th: Last Words  ~  Climb  ~  Cut Scene

Friday 30th: Reputation  ~  Crossover  ~  Save

Saturday 31st: Write  ~  Inheritance  ~  Continue?  +  FREE DAY

Rules & Policies

1)  We will accept and reblog any fan-made work—fanfiction, fanart, meta, playlists, etc.—so long as it focuses primarily on Shigaraki and Spinner’s relationship and fits an appropriate daily prompt.  The work must be newly published for the week, though if you wish to also use it as a fill for some other concurrent event, you’re welcome to do so.           You can work with any of the daily prompts you like, singly or in combination.  We try to keep them fairly broad, so feel free to get as creative as you like!  We welcome any fill that satisfies some aspect of the chosen prompt(s). 

2)  We’re celebrating the relationship between Shigaraki and Spinner as it’s been, as it may be, and even as it could have been.  Shippy-fic or gen-fic, canon-compliant or AU, romantic or platonic or any complicated place in between; we’re good with all of it.  Polyshipping/OT3s are allowed, but the focus must remain on Shigaraki and Spinner.

3)  Regarding content, we’re not placing hard limits on what we’re accepting.  Shigaraki and Spinner are villains in a canon that goes to some shockingly dark places, so we consider exploration of that darkness fair game for fanwork.  Likewise, given that this is a week focused on a relationship, we welcome NSFW content.  We do, however, ask that all content be responsibly and appropriately tagged for any content you have reason to expect could be upsetting to others. 

4)  We’ll be checking the tags for spinarakiweek2024, spinarakiweek4, spinarakiweek, and spinarakiweeknsfw.  As stated above, please tag also for any work that requires content warnings.  We’re only operating on tumblr, so if your work is hosted elsewhere, feel free to post a link to it and use one of our tags, though if you do so, you may also wish to message us about it, given tumblr’s notorious grouchiness about off-platform links.           Feel free to message us if it seems like we’ve missed a fill of yours!  Late entries are allowed and enthusiastically welcome.  

5)  No hating on other ships or characters—we’re here to celebrate and enjoy Spinaraki, so if there’s a character you can’t include without bashing them disproportionately to the canon, just don’t include them.  Likewise, please be respectful of other participants and their work, whether or not it’s to your particular taste.

6)  We reserve the right to exercise moderator discretion in the case of borderline rule violations or unforeseen issues.

[lunewell]

🍉Fanfic Requests For Gaza (:!🍉

As part of the lovely effort organised by the people over at @ficsforgaza, and to try and raise some more money for Palestinian individuals and families who desperately need it, I will be participating in the fics for Gaza initiative!

If you're a fellow fanfic writer or a fanfic reader wanting more in-depth information about this/wanting to find other readers/maybe looking to participate yourself, I heavily recommend checking out this masterpost and the @ficsforgaza blog in general.

For everyone else...

How do I request a fic?

If you're interested in requesting a fic, all you have to do is message me your actual fic request, be it a detailed outline or something vague like tone or ship or tropes, and then after I've confirmed I can do it donate to one of these vetted fundraisers for individuals and families, or one of these vetted fundraisers, then send me an ask or message with a screenshot of your donation (with any sensitive or personal information blocked out of course)!

The word count of the fic will be based on how much you donate, with a rate of 1$ for roughly every 100 words (for example, if you donate 5$ to a fundraiser, you'll get a fic that's roughly 500 words, and if you donate 10$, you'll get roughly 1000 words.). I'm not going to cut off a fic early if it goes a bit over, but the fic will be about however many 100 words you donate.

Please let me know what type of fic you want before you donate. This allows me to talk to you about your ideas, allows us to agree on a rough word count, and allows me to check my availability so I don't get overloaded with work. If I can't take a request due to my own lack of time, or a fic idea needs a minimum length to work, I'd much much rather figure that out before you spend any money.

What kinds of fics can I request?

Obviously don't request anything intentionally bigoted or hateful, but aside from that, anything goes! I'm a very open-minded person, and as a lover of all things horror and all things erotica there are no subjects too kinky or macabre for me to write about. I'll happily write everything from the most tooth-rotting fluff, to hurt no comfort, to PWP; just let me know what you'd like in advance (:

FANDOM LIST UNDER THE CUT

Anime/Manga (A-Z)

Assassination Classroom (anime)

Beastars (anime and manga)

Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji (anime and manga)

Blue Exorcist/Ao no Exorcist (anime)

Code Geass

Cowboy Bebop

Death Note

Fullmetal Alchemist (anime and manga)

Noragami (anime and manga)

Ouran High School Host Club (anime and manga)

Games (A-Z)

Cyberpunk 2077

Disco Elysium

Doki Doki Literature Club!

Fallout 4

Most Legend of Zelda games (I'm also familiar with Linked Universe)!

Life is Strange (every game but True Colours)

Night in the Woods

Pokémon

Stardew Valley

Witcher

If there's a more niche game not on this list that you're wondering if I've played, feel free to ask!

Note: @ficsforgaza is currently only doing fandoms within anime/manga and video games. If there's a fandom outside of these categories you're intrested in, please feel free to message me and ask if I can write a fic in x fandom. These fics and the donation for them are NOT affiliated with fics for Gaza, and will not count towards the total money earned tally that @ficsforgaza is currently keeping track of.

Still, the most important thing about all of this is raising money for various important fundraisers, so if you want a specific fandom not on the list and want to donate, ask me about it, and if I know it, I will happily still write it for you (:! I'll keep track of these donations on my own.

(banners from the game Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley)

[chrismerle]

Elsa's 'A Bitch Is Broke' Writing Commissions

Hey, hi, hello! I'm Elsa and my usual freelancing contracts are being flaky assholes, so I'm extending branches in other directions!

I’ve been informed that I’m a fairly good writer, and I’ve done writing commissions in the past, so I figure I may as well see if it helps! You can check my writeblr tag, my (very tiny) ghostwriting portfolio, or my AO3 account for examples of my writing.

PRICING:

$0.03 per word.

So, 500 words would be $15.

You give me a ballpark of the length you want. So, if you’re willing to spend between $20 and $25, the story will be between 666 and 833 words.

I’ll round down to the nearest $0.10. So if the finished product is 526 words, I’ll report it as being $15.70, rather than $15.78.

I take payments through Paypal or Venmo.

GUIDELINES:

500-word minimum

You don’t need to supply a full outline, but you do need to have some idea of what you want to happen in the story. The longer the story, the more detail I’ll need. If you just want, like, 500 words, then 'X and Y cuddling’ will suffice, but if you want 5,000 words, I’ll need more to go off of than that.

I will write about your OCs, as long as you can provide info on them.

I will write fanfic, as long as I know the source material well enough (list provided below).

I will write smut, just double-check any kinks you want first. (I won’t write any involving bodily fluids, poop, vore, or feet, sorry.)

If I’m super uncomfy with the subject matter, I’ll turn down the commission, if only because it would be a really badly written end product.

FANDOM LIST:

Kingdom Hearts (not Back Cover or Union)

Final Fantasy VII (original Compilation or Remake)

Final Fantasy XV

Persona 5, vanilla or Royal

Persona 4, vanilla only

Dragon Age (games only)

Mass Effect

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

Avatar: The Last Airbender (original series only)

Good Omens (book or show)

Five Nights at Freddy’s (games only)

Who Killed Markiplier? and related series

The Legend of Zelda (OoT, MM, TP, SS, or BotW only)

Star Wars (movies only)

Power Rangers, Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder

Yuri! On Ice

Fullmetal Alchemist, original anime or Brotherhood

Black Butler, anime or manga

Transformers, cartoons, anime, and live action movies

Critical Role campaign 2

Subnautica

The Sandman (Netflix series only)

Sonic the Hedgehog (recent movies only)

Howl’s Moving Castle (Ghibli movie only)

[yesitsmaddy]

PROMPT SUGGESTIONS

So I recently just started writing fanfic after YEARS of being an active reader. What kicked this sudden burst of inspiration off? The AMAZING movie Saltburn. So far I am loving the process of writing, and I have been able to come up with ideas on my own. However, I know a good way to get inspiration and ideas is to turn to my fellow netizens and see what you all are yearning too read. I have compiled a list of Fandoms I am very familiar with, as well as a few I have SOME experience with, but not a lot. Please comment even your deepest and darkest requests, I am willing to write pretty much anything.

List of Fandoms I am VERY Familiar with:

Saltburn (2023)

Good Omens

Harry Potter (all properties)

Big Bang Theory/Young Sheldon

Hunger Games (original and prequel)

Game of Thrones (original series NOT HoD)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (first series)

Rick and Morty

The Flash (up until like season 5)

Squid Game

Cyberpunk (both the game and the anime)

Tokyo Ghoul (the anime and a little bit of the manga)

Breaking Bad

The Walking Dead (VIDEO GAME series)

Futurama

Stranger Things

Shameless

IZombie

What We do in the Shadows (TV show)

Our Flag Means Death

The Last of Us (the first game and the TV show)

Avatar (the movies)

List of Fandoms I am SOMEWHAT Familiar with:

The Walking Dead (TV Show)

Twilight (movies)

Doctor Who (VERY familiar with the 10th and 11th Doctors, slightly familiar with the 9th)

MCU (Mostly things before Phase 5)

Chainsaw Man (anime only)

Im sure there are ones I'm missing, but this should be a pretty good start. Please feel free to request any pairing, angst, fluff, smut, etc... Thanks in advance!

[archer3-13]

i find myself drifting over naruto fanfics every once and a while, but recently I was reminded about an observation @agoddamn pointed out to me on the nature of one particular element of narutos "power system". namely seals and sealing, and what the fandom often calls a 'storage seal' and how it actually functions [and how its kinda disappointing in reality compared to the physics bending coding its often portrayed as in fanfiction]. namely that you write the seal, your write the kanji of what you want to store on the seal, and then you seal that object specified by the kanji.

and i kinda put it out of my mind after that, but its reared its head again after reading fics where sealing is presented in ways that the author is trying to subvert cannon ideas on what sealing is. portraying it as poetry, or fluid networks stuff like that. So i decided to take a look again as to what cannon actually describes sealing as.

so imagine my suprise to find out that the common fanon idea of storage seals and explosion seals/tags... aren't actually distinct sealing things.

as far as i remember, having looked into it again, sealing scrolls, as in the unique idea of a scroll that has a specific arrangement of sealing jutsu for sealing things in like a hammer space pocket dimension thats very common in fannon, aren't ever actually mentioned in the manga as a thing. and in fact, in terms of source listing the wiki gives here the name of "enclosing jutsu", is unique to the anime apparently.

regardless though it is admittedly not too much of a leap of logic. as seen above with things like sasukes wrist seals being applied directly to his skin with the kanji within the seal being a component of whats sealed within, the enclosing jutsu becomes a far more almost disappointingly mundane thing then as its often made out as in fannon material. it isnt a 'sealing scroll' with a complex array to create a hammer space written on it [and thus the domain of dedicated specialists/artisans], rather its a scroll with a basic sealing jutsu slapped on top of it that even genin can learn [which makes a lot more sense for tenten, a BUKIJUTSU expert as a recently graduated genin to know even if the anime apparently threw in a thing about her having a talent for fuinjutsu]. it also makes the whole thing more economically viable instead of special inks or complicated production manners, but thats a whole different discussion.

then i was reminded that the enclosing jutsu can also work on... ninjutsu

well this also further demonstrates that the enclosing jutsu is just kinda a common thing for shinobi to learn, enough so anyways that kisame a shinobi that well more intelligent then he seems is also a shinobi that prides himself as a physical fighter kinda type would pick up and use. but thats not the important thing here, what is important is what this tells us about exploding tags.

namely, exploding tags aren't unique sealing arrays to create explosions as again fanon would have you believe/often portrays as. rather an exploding tag, is just an enclosing jutsu used on an explosion.

which ya know, makes a lot more sense when you actually look at an exploding tag and its visual depiction and compare it to an enclosing seal and notice that like an enclosing seal, it has the kanji for what its storing inside it centred at the heart of the seal. literally baku or 'explode'.

heres tenten in the anime storing things in her scrolls for comparisons sake and you can notice that each seal has the kanji for whats stored in it at the centre. truly fanfiction has made fools of us all.

that isn't to say theres no complexity to things, its just things you never really see talked about or expanded upon in fanfiction. which partly speaks to how messy internal continuity often is within naruto as a narrative, but also not the main point.

firstly, fuinjutsu or sealing jutsu seems to be a lot more literal then what people make it out to be in fanfiction. specifically that it is a jutsu for sealing things into other things. in fanfiction for instance people will often have things such as privacy seals as catchall privacy bubbles or barrier seals that erect barriers. as far as the manga alone is concerned these aren't things you can do with sealing jutsu, rather they would likely fall under the category of 'barrier jutsu' which, as we see with kisame sealing ninjutsu into an enclosing seal, can be stored in a seal as seen with the barrier tags but could likely not be created by a sealing jutsu alone

for an example of what barrier ninjutsu can do incidentally, consider the barrier that the sound four erected around orochimaru and hiruzens fight

this brings us to the next important factor which is the squiggly lines seen in relation to all fuinjutsu. one would think these are, if we accept that these aren't just squiggles kishimoto threw on to make the seals look cool, unique to the function of fuinjutsu. they aren't however, because we also see these squiggly lines used in relation to other jutsu. the summoning technique for instance which is, officially, not classified as fuinjutsu but rather ninjutsu

we also see these squiggly lines used in relation to medical jutsu, importantly in my opinion when neji is getting surgery post sasuke retrieval mission and when tsunade is using long distance healing on people with katsuya during peins invasion of konoha

this i think suggests that the squiggly lines themselves are not what constitutes or helps constitute what sealing jutsu is. certainly i would say its an important factor, but it seems to be applicable in other branches of jutsu as well. therefore that suggests that these 'chakra arrays' as it were are not applications of fuinjutsu but rather fuinjutsu is a specific application of these chakra arrays, with the arrays themselves being techniques to control and apply chakra in specific ways. tsunades long range healing array sending the chakra outwards like a radio signal for instance, moulding it into what it needs to do and where it needs to go.

so what is essential to fuinjutsu outside of 'it seals something within another thing'. at first i was tempted to say kanji but then i nejis surgery and another thing ill mention came to mind, but then i remembered that an important aspect of fuinjutsu seems to be how it can interact with other jutsu such as storing ninjutsu. and nejis surgery is suppose to be a complicated risky one so combining different jutsu to achieve the desired effect seems reasonable. and kanji seemed the most likely culprit as to what was essential to sealing, despite not all seals looking initially like kanji, because

a] seals often change shape especially the more powerful or complicated ones. considering seals mainly function in the literal sense of sealing things within other things, i think it makes sense that you can seal seals within seals or the full complexity of a seal within itself.

and also b] one of the most distinctive seals we see actually being applied in real time is the five elements unseal, which is still fuinjutsu cause its about unsealing things from within other things, and what features prominently in the fire elements unseal?

kanji for the five elements. so were done right? seals are about applying kanji with chakra arrays to seal things within other things? only were not because we also have to acknowledge danzo and the unique seals he uses.

these dont look anything like any other seal we see in naruto. at most the second 'self cursing seal' share similarities with orochimarus curse marks [which apparently aren't officially classified as seals, but i feel would atleast in part fall under a fuinjutsu classification], but even then as i noted seals seem to store parts of themselves internally all the time before expanding [including hypothetically whatever kanji is being used to fuel the seal].

but the naruto wiki provided an interesting alternative. chinese hexagrammic symbols. i wont claim to be an expert on them, but the important factor to know is that hexagrams are formed by combining the eight trigrams [the bars that ya sometimes see combined with the yin yang symbol as part of the ba gua which represents physical reality, and which mean their own individual things] to create new symbology and meanings as part of a taoist belief system. the important thing being how each hexagram can represent both a number and a word. meaning in essence, danzos unique sealing method [outside of being cryptic as hexagrams are intentionally designed to be cryptic] is also still rooted in language just a more chinese influenced spin on things. even danzos final deadman seal the reverse four symbol seal seems to be based on that same principle only instead of hexagrams it uses the si xiang which are also derived from yin and yang and part of the ba gua. only instead of the trigrams 3 bars the si xiang only use two bars.

and as already noted, seals especially complicated ones seem to store parts of themselves within themselves. so overall, what seems to be essential to sealing is combining language with the universally applicable array lines to derive functions. language being the most important point in this matter when it comes to sealing itself.

also as a side note, narutos own seal is also named after the eight trigrams but visually does not use the trigrams and instead uses the standard for naruto chakra arrays and symbols.

and for some bonus information on sealing

the concept of even and odd seals, and how those apparently dont mix causing interference with each others function. what exactly it means by even and odd never really gets expanded on as this is more a quick fix moment, but given the seal interrupting narutos EIGHT trigrams seal is a rough FIVE elements seal, would suggest that seals not only can but should [atleast at a complex level] have distinct points or parts in their constructions.

[eleni-cherie]

among thieves ✨ || bts • pjm [COMPLETED] masterlist

"what even am I to you? your rival, your lover, an obstacle or am I supposed to be your coffin?"

about two thieves who can't live with nor without each other.

and a joint past that comes back to threaten them.

© 2023 | eleni_cherie

[prequel a thief's origin ✨ || bts • kth + sequel a thief's end ✨ || bts • myg - can be read independently!!]

»»»

list of all chapters:

prologue | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 |  1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | epilogue

— word count: 49k (note: I plan to edit and add more details to some chapters, after finishing tae's story, so word count will go up)

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, very flirty jimin, sexual tensiON, slowburning, mutual pining, friends/rivals/exes to lovers (it's complicated, ok?!) f2l e2l ex2l

I don't wanna spoil too much, but all members play a role in this story!

— song recommendations/inspirations:

lana del rey - serial killer

jimin - like crazy

arctic monkeys - arabella

marina - primadonna

the last shadow puppets - pattern

zayn - dusk till dawn (ft. sia) + borderz

»»»

COPYRIGHT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

IDEA/STORY VERY LOOSELY INSPIRED BY MY LOVE FOR UNCHARTED 4, GANGSTER COMEDY FILMS AND MY FAVOURITE ANIME OTP.

PROTAGONISTS:

PARK JIMIN AS HIMSELF; CHEEKY MASTER THIEF / LADIES' MAN

KAT MCNAMARA AS ARABELLA VALENTINE; FEISTY THIEF & SPY / LOVER OF JEWELS

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

NOT FREE FROM LINGUISTIC ERRORS - ENGLISH IS NOT MY NATIVE LANGUAGE.

DON’T BE A GHOST READER. LIKE & SHARE THIS STORY IF YOU LIKE IT :))

DEDICATED TO EVERYONE WHO’S READING THIS FANFIC.

CHECK OUT MY OTHER STORIES AS WELL: HERE

-Elenixx

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Trying to organize my ask notebook better since I've run out of space under general fandom asks and I would like to know what fandoms you are in so I can ask the correct people about the correct fandoms.

I think my main ones are Bagginshield/The Hobbit, Sherlock/Johnlock, Dragon Age Inquisition, {Pippin/Faramir Merry/Eowyn}/The Lord of the Rings and I dip my toes in a few that I currently can't remember but ones I don't engage in canon at all are Good Omens but only for Crowley/Azirapheal ship, Stranger Things but only for Steve/Eddie ship, The Witcher but only for Geralt/Jaskier things and Ladybug and Cat Noir but only for Adrinette .

Also do you like getting asks that are or include story ideas or snippets?

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer within a certain amount of time or at all.

Hi Lovely!!!

OH GOSH OH GOSH OKAY, I'm actually part of a lot of fandoms!!! I'm not very active in a lot of them these days but I LOVE asks about them. My main active ones I either participate in or lurk in currently (with my preferred ship in the brackets):

BBC Sherlock (Johnlock)

Good Omens (Ineffable Husbands)

Moon Knight (Layla / The Moon System)

Loki Series (Mobius / Loki)

Red Dwarf (Lister / Rimmer)

Detroit: Become Human (Hank / Connor)

Here are the other ones I still adore and visit frequently, and was a big part of the fandoms:

Darkwing Duck (Drake / Morgana)

Sonic SatAM (Sonic / Sally and Bunnie/Antoine)

TMNT 2005 and TMNT 2012 (Casey/April in '05, none in the other. Leo is my fave character in both series. He always has the best character developments and stories)

And here are some other fandoms I check out and love and adore:

Kingdom Hearts Series (Sora / Kairi, but my fave character is Roxas)

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Katara / Zuko. I'm STILL SALTY that it was literally RIGHT THERE and the much better ship and they still went with the boringest one)

Assassin's Creed Series, more the modern era RPG games but I love pretty much all of them. My fave one is Black Flag, though. I loved it so much.

Our Flag Means Death (Stede/Ed)

And some other random fandom things:

Stitch is my favourite Disney character of all time, and Maleficent is my favourite Disney Villain.

My oldest fandom is the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom. There was a time I had to play every Sonic game ever made, until they got bad for awhile. I participated in the fandom when I was in my teens and early 20s, and wrote a fairly popular fanfic series based on the Sat AM series (which I argue is still the best Sonic TV show ever, and it's Sonic/Sally forever for me, I don't like Amy Rose at all). My fave character from the games is Shadow though, followed by Knuckles and then Sonic LOL.

Kingdom Hearts Series is my fave video game series of all time, followed by Skyrim, then Assassin's Creed. I AM that idiot who will buy all the games of these series Day One. I love the worldbuilding in all three of these series and they're ripe for AUs.

I Love the MCU, despite its flaws. I usually see every single Marvel movie or show when they come out. Aside from the MCU fandoms listed above, my other faves are Antman 1 and 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 1, Avengers Endgame, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Fruits Basket (Kyo / Tohru). I actually love the revamped 2019 series, as it follows the manga and it was completed.

Ranma 1/2 (Ryoga / Akane) is my fave anime though. The manga is really good, I read the whole thing in one night on one of those translation sites.

I also love Dragon Age: Inquisition!! Not super familiar with much of the lore since I've only played it once, but I loved it. The world was so interesting and I want to play The Vielguard, though I might wait until it goes on sale since it's not a must-play at the moment for me.

There's SO MANY MORE I could add, HONESTLY, but I'll be here forever listing shows and nostalgia that still makes me SO happy. I LOVE talking about fandoms so I love getting these kind of asks! I can write more if you'd like LOL.

AND to answer your final question, YES, LOVE THEM. I add them to my 'writing prompts' tag for my or others' reference if a spark of something comes to me, AND I love getting story snippets because even if they aren't, they feel like little gifts for me, you know? Because someone took time out to share them with me, you know?? AHHH, so yes, if you or anyone else has them, please share them!!

Thank you for this ask, I love talking about my other fandoms!! Please feel free to ask me more about fandoms, all!!

[kamiversee]

KAMI I'M LOSIGN MY MIND HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP

oh my god. this is already better than i imagined. i'm quakin in my boots rn. i had to take SO MANY BREAKS while reading this to just calm myself down omfg KAMIIIIII

ALSO THE PHONE CALL???? I WAS SHITTING MYSELFFFFFF PLS THIS WAS SUCH A PERFECT SET UP! but wait, did Choso just assume that since Satoru called us out of the blue, that we slept with him before? or is this hinting towards Choso possibly knowing about the list and who's on it? omfg my brain is everywhere lmao i'm prob overthinking it

also the interactions they've been having since Gojo got in the house had me melting omfg. the constant back-and-forth? the piggybacking off of each other's comments? THE TAG TEAMING. THEY BETTER TAG TEAM US FOR THE NEXT TWO PARTS AAAAAA KAMI PLEEEEEEAAAAAAASE

my nosey ass wants to know wtf they were talking about when Choso locked the door on us 😭😭😭 like i know that it was most probably Choso giving Gojo his address and really confirming that he wants this BUT STILL. lowkey i feel like the sexual tension between Choso and Gojo is THICK here. i need more of it 😭

“Is it any more wrong than the things I’ve had you do before?” He whispers lowly to you, low enough for Choso to miss what he uttered.

I'M LOSING ITTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! idc if this is noncanon, i'm using this What If as my closure for TFL IDC IDC OMG

🐶nonnie was right we need that poly ending expeditiously 😭😭😭😭😭😭 i've gone full delulu omfg Kami you fucking broke me

the way Choso's so sassy and chatty omfg HELPPPPPPPPP THE WAY I FEEL LIKE HE'D BE SUCH A BRAT AND "TEACH" GOJO HOW TO MAKE US SQUIRT JUST TO MESS WITH US AAAAAA I NEED THESE MEN SO FUCKING BAD

i have no idea how you have so much self control spacing out the parts like this. my instant gratification ass would have posted EVERYTHIIIIIING. what's the total word count of all 3 parts?

-☃️

Ugh ur messages always make me giggle & smile

In chapter 52 of TFL (or whichever is titled; The Resolve) the reader asks Choso abt Gojo & planned on getting info out of Cho abt the list (kinda like how she questioned Nanami previously) but she doesn’t get to ask him about that bc Choso quickly puts two and two together and asks her if Gojo is the guy who he’s been competing with all this time.

Their convo goes unanswered tho bc Choso says what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him but deep down, he knew— hence why in this whatif he asked if Gojo used to fuck her ^.^

ALSO, I’m thinkin of doing a lil side blurb for their phone call just cause. Plus, I don’t see Choso & Gojo interacting in the manga/anime or even in people’s fanfics tht often so this is very fun for me to do honestly (:

Annnywho, gladd you’re enjoying it so far! The word count for all three parts is… long. (I haven’t written the second or third part yet but my minimum is usually 3k so expect all three parts to be at least 9k words in total or so… maybe longer tho bc I have a writing problem😭)

[bcbdrums]

Event Horizon

A Soul Eater fanfic. Read on: AO3 | FFn

A/N: Monthly OTP prompt fills from this list for Spirit and Stein, because I cannot stop writing about them. I’m happy to hear recommendations each month for which prompt to write next. February’s chosen prompt is: 2. Fear Gas I had ideas for most of February's prompts in my head, but, this one grabbed my attention the most after chatting with some people and mulling over ideas. I took some extreme liberties on how it's interpreted, but gotta follow the muse. And, this fic is late because the muse has been drained. Too much has happened in the last month for me. But! Writing this story is seeming to revive me, so, we shall see what the future holds. Sometimes...the OTP goes through some...tough times... Spirit is 18 years old. Stein is 15. Maka is not yet one. Manga or anime canon, leaning heavily into my headcanons regardless. Also, this lovely art is referenced. And lastly, this is a gift for @cannibal-nightmares, whose art, kindness, and cleverness inspire me...constantly. Do check out their art! Uh...sorry for this one? I guess. Enjoy.

Event Horizon

Spirit stopped short as the book atop the stack in his arms began to slide away. He lifted his shoulder to adjust the balance of the stack, using gravity to shift the heavy volume back into position.

"Hurry up, Death Scythe."

"Y-Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir," Spirit said as he hefted the stack higher and hurried after Lord Death. He realized he probably could have checked out fewer books—especially with his propensity to speed through them—but every topic had him practically salivating with curiosity. From the history of demon weapon kind to the very first death scythe, Spirit's mind was alight with thoughts of battle and honing his skills.

They left the library and turned the first corner, Spirit still trailing a few paces behind as he bore the burden of too many books. But as academy students passed in the other direction Spirit held his head higher. He still felt a swelling of pride each time people paused to stare or whisper about him, the newest personal weapon of the Grim Reaper.

To that end, a couple of younger girls caught his attention by their giggling, and he wished he had a hand free to wave or make some other gesture of acknowledgement besides his million-dollar smile. But it wasn't needed as the two took a few hesitant steps in his direction, hands shyly lifted to wave.

"Hi Mr. Death Scythe!" one said too-loudly, and Spirit felt a flush of pride rise under his collar.

It would be too much to toss his hair, not to mention the risk in dropping the books, which would negate any air of prestige he was trying to effect. He merely met their eyes in response, held their gaze as he maintained his smile while he passed, and another thrill rose from somewhere in the pit of his belly as he listened to their giggles all the way around the corner.

"Spirit Albarn."

Spirit startled at Lord Death's address; he'd only called him by his title ever since becoming his weapon.

The reaper had stopped and turned slightly, and Spirit hurried to catch up. Lord Death didn't move again until Spirit had reached his side and then matched his pace as they continued down the hall. He felt rather than saw Lord Death's slight turn, the white mask looking down at him in a way that dampened Spirit's former rush of pride.

"You're a married man."

The last of the pride shriveled up until his throat felt tight, and his cheeks were flushing in embarrassment now. The reaper's discreet reprimand had been unexpected and brought every thought in Spirit's mind to a halt as he mechanically followed his newest meister through the twists and turns of the academy's halls.

He hadn't been thinking of his wife...which, was apparently the problem. He hadn't really been flirting with those girls...students...had he?

Spirit frowned as a gloom started to sink over him while he trailed after the reaper, through another set of heavy doors and down some stairs. Those girls were students. He was their superior. And he'd been thinking of them like classmates.

He was Death Scythe. He needed to get the real meaning of that into his oblivious skull, and not be worried about the attention he might get from girls.

That had been the start of his problems in the first place.

"Death Scythe, are you listening?"

"Wha? Oh... Sorry, Sir."

Spirit blinked into sudden awareness as he realized they had left the brightly painted academy halls and descended into a place more broad, dark, and foreboding. Lord Death had stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and Spirit continued his descent more slowly as he took better stock of his surroundings.

A chill in the air told him they had gone underground, and the architecture was similar to that above but looked as if it had been constructed in a past age. There was also stonework among the wood, and an eerie painting of an inverted trio of eyes on the floor at Lord Death's feet. The gloom he had been feeling turned to a sickness as he arrived at the landing and looked up to the black holes in the white mask that were studying him.

"Oh well. I suppose you can read about it in all of those books and then ask me questions later," the Grim Reaper stated, and shifted his gaze toward a door ahead of them.

Spirit looked at the door where the inverted eyes were painted again, just visible on the dark wood framed by a square of red stone. Two gray statues stood on each side the door, oddly shapen and with their arms raised as if holding up the ceiling. They each had one large eye, oriented properly this time, taking up the whole of their misshapen heads.

As Spirit stared at the strange artwork, he felt a sudden pressing of darkness against his soul. The sick feeling rose from his stomach up to his mind and swirled into fear that froze him in place as solidly as if he had fallen helpless in his weapon form. Blackness filled his vision, and with it came a sudden onslaught of thoughts, all crashing over his mind at once and twisting and overlapping and confusing him such that he was barely aware of his feet on the ground.

Who was this old deity telling him what to do anyway? He had never seen the masked figure so much as leave Death City let alone fight, so why should he feel guilt for whatever he might do that displeases him?

And why shouldn't he flirt with those girls, or anyone he wanted to? He was Death Scythe after all and could do anything he wanted. It wasn't like his wife ever stayed home at nights when he finally clocked out anyway.

They were supposed to be a happy family but she never acted like it. He should teach her a lesson for her taking off at every opportunity when they had a daughter to raise. Leaving him all alone to deal with bottle feeding and diapers and the crying and what had he wanted that baby for anyway?

Spirit gasped.

Shuddering breaths racked his frame as his eyes pierced the darkness swirling through his mind, fixing on the door in front of him as he tried to will away the sickness that had his legs shaking.

Was he standing still? Or was he moving? He couldn't tell for the way the room seemed to rise and fall on waves and his body with it. He was certain he would fall at any moment and that if he did he would never be able to get up again.

"Spirit."

A great hand, heavy on his shoulder, was turning him around carefully to face the stairs again. Spirit blinked repeatedly as the spinning of the room slowly began to subside. The darkness started to move away, touching only the corners of his eyes.

He sucked in air and fell to his hands and knees, and the impact of an elbow on stone stairs jarred him further into the present and out of the evil place his mind had been fast going.

"Spirit," Lord Death repeated gently, and the young weapon let the familiarity of the voice be an anchor, hearing it again and again in his mind until the darkness had faded from his vision and before his eyes was only dust-covered stone.

"M-Maka..."

He shivered as tears fell from his eyes and mingled with the dust.

He didn't mean it. He would never mean anything like that. Maka was the most important person in his life. He didn't want to breathe if her perfect face wasn't the first thing he saw each morning and the last thing he saw each night. He would do anything and everything for his daughter.

So where had that horrid thought come from?

He shivered again, more from the anxiety than the chill around him, and slowly started to right himself. Never-mind the books scattered on the floor behind him. He needed to get home to his daughter.

"Spirit?"

"Maka..." he repeated, his breaths quick.

He felt the hand squeeze his shoulder and he looked up. Worry exuded from the Grim Reaper, and it was a further anchor to reality bringing Spirit back from... From...?

"What...what was that?" he asked, his voice sounding small to his ears. As if Lord Death could somehow know what had happened that caused his mind to flood with more disturbing thoughts and feelings than he had ever experienced in his life.

"That...was the kishin's madness," Lord Death said gravely.

Spirit's eyes widened and he whirled around to face the door again. The trio of inverted eyes, a mere painting, seemed to stare through him, and he felt a fresh wave of fear penetrate him like daggers.

"Asura?"

Lord Death bent down to gather the dropped books.

"Yes. Through those doors is the path to where the kishin is imprisoned."

Spirit shuddered again as the sensations lingered in his mind and left his wavelength feeling ill and out of balance. Lord Death offered him the stack of books, and Spirit swallowed nervously as he took them, and then turned to follow the reaper back up the stairs.

"After you read about it in detail, we'll talk," Lord Death said.

Spirit looked down, and it took several attempts before his eyes would focus on the title of the book at the top of the stack. Kishin it read simply, with no author listed like a great many of the books on the fourth level of the library, and Spirit wondered if Lord Death himself had penned it.

"Ah... Lord Death, Sir?" Spirit ventured cautiously as they reached the landing.

"Yes?"

"Can...can I go home?"

Lord Death paused, but Spirit slowly released the breath he'd been holding as he felt the understanding and almost-warmth coming off of his new meister.

"Yes."

Spirit felt unsteady on his feet again despite the relief in his soul as he strode forward with single-minded purpose, hefting the books higher in his arms. He knew any fear was irrational, but he couldn't rest until he saw for himself that Maka was okay.

"See you tomorrow, Death Scythe," Lord Death called after him, and Spirit paused to turn and nod acknowledgement even as he sighed silently. He would make sure Maka was fine, but...he still had his new job to do.

---------------

Spirit opened his eyes to a blinding light that obscured his surroundings. When he tried to lift his hand to block it out, it wouldn't move, and testing each limb one at a time revealed the same immobility for each. His head felt as heavy as lead when he peered down to try to find the source of whatever was restricting him, but he was only able to move just enough to see a gray strap tight on his wrist, restraining him where he lie.

"Awake, I see," a familiar voice intoned flatly, and a shock of fear ran across Spirit's nervous system like electricity.

"S...Stein?" he said weakly, his mouth sluggish in response to his brain's command to speak. "What's...happening?"

"It's time for your punishment," the voice said from a distance. Spirit tried to look around for its source, but he was still being blinded by the overhead light.

"Punishment? Stein, what... What are you talking about? Where are we?"

Spirit pulled against the strap at one wrist, but it had no give whatsoever. He lifted his head to look around again and discovered he was without his shirt, wherever he was, and a large gray strap was around his waist as well as his ankles and wrists.

"For entertaining madness. It's the ultimate crime."

"What? But I... I didn't—"

"Evil desires entered your mind. And you...a death weapon. There's no coming back from that."

Stein's voice was growing nearer, but Spirit still couldn't see the teen. Cold fear swept him at the harsh edge of judgment in his former meister's voice, and he pulled at his wrists and ankles again but found the effort as futile as before.

"It wasn't my fault! I would never...I wouldn't act on those things!"

"But you've already flirted with other women," Stein reminded him.

Spirit choked, his next protest dying on his lips. It was true... And that had been before the encounter with the madness below the academy.

"But I... I didn't mean..."

"What you intended doesn't matter. Idle thoughts and mindless errors are as criminal as deliberate intent."

Spirit shook his head violently as finally, the familiar form of Stein appeared above him, blocking out some of the light.

"But that's not true! You don't believe that anymore than...than Lord Death does!"

Spirit ceased his useless thrashing when Stein didn't respond, and he blinked the dark silhouette above him into focus. The young eyes, so familiar to him, were now distant—sad and cold as he gazed down at the weapon with his mouth fixed into a frown.

"What matters is that you believe it," Stein said.

Something prickled at the back of Spirit's mind as he turned over the strange words. He had never believed any such thing. Stein had to know that. And why was he looking at him that way?

"So, it's time to cut out your soul."

A hoarse cry left Spirit's throat as Stein slowly lifted a massive cleaver, its sharp edge gleaming in the bright light.

"What!? No, what are you thinking!? Stein, stop!"

"Goodbye, Senpai."

The blade came down.

---------------

"Stein!"

Spirit sat up so fast his vision swam, the nightmare still vivid in his mind as the brightness of the laboratory contrasted the dark of his bedroom. He blinked repeatedly until the texture of the blanket came into focus in front of him, the way it sagged between his knees as he struggled to catch his breath.

Finally, he groaned and fell back against sweat-stained sheets, letting the blanket fall away. He could hear the rapid pounding of his heart in the silence of his bedroom as he let the cool night air tend to the moisture on his chest, slowly wicking it away and soothing the tension that had coiled in his body.

After a moment he let his arm stretch out and feel in the empty space at his side, the sheets dry and crisp for their lack of any recent occupancy.

Spirit sighed through his nose and shifted to squint at his alarm clock. Nearly two-thirty in the morning and his wife wasn't home.

She'd not been home that afternoon either when he'd arrived back early from work. Finding his home empty had only increased his residual horror from the experience underground, and he was grateful that his first call to the academy had located his daughter, safe in their daycare. What had surprised Spirit was to learn that she had been there all day, and was there most days.

This had been the catalyst for the argument when his wife had arrived home that evening, already spitting fire due to Spirit's discovery of her ongoing deception. It wasn't fair, she had seethed, that she stayed at home all day every day with dirty diapers as her only company, unable to live her life, while he lived out his dream.

Spirit only grew more bewildered at these claims, as his dream was two honey-haired girls in the cheap apartment they shared together.

Perhaps due to the terrifying experience he'd had that afternoon he wasn't as discerning or eloquent in his choice of words as he could have been. Fear was speaking for him when he ordered his wife to stay at home where she belonged, caring for their daughter and not leaving her in the hands of academy students while she went gallivanting off to Death knows where.

Her response had been another departure. But at least this time...Spirit had Maka.

He slowly turned his silver wedding ring around his finger as he rolled over in the bed to face the crib. He could see Maka's sleeping form within, still snuggled beneath her blanket and with her stuffed puppy tucked in next to her.

He wanted to get up, gather her in his arms and hold her until every memory of madness left him. But it wouldn't be right to disturb her precious sleep. So instead he simply watched her. How her tiny, delicate eyelashes rested upon her face. How her impossibly soft hair fell over her forehead and atop her ears. How even at less than a year of age, she was starting to look like his wife.

He turned the ring one last time before moving his hand up under his pillow to be more comfortable. The day had taken a greater toll on him than he realized, for the way his eyes kept dropping closed. His breathing had calmed, and the fear of the nightmare had faded. But the images returned as he let himself attempt to return to sleep, and his brow pinched together as he tried to analyze them.

The bright light, the restraints, and even the cleaver were no doubt due to the horrors his wife had verbally painted for him so many months ago with the discovery of an unremembered scar as they lie in bed. But the look in Stein's eyes... That sadness wasn't anything Spirit ever remembered seeing from the meister in their five years as partners.

And, why had he dreamed of Stein at all?

Spirit's eyes opened as he tried to recall the last time he'd spoken with Stein, and he could feel an ache with the further creasing of his brow when he couldn't place a date.

He slowly sat back up as realization struck... When had he last seen Stein?

Between the busy hours of learning the ropes as Lord Death's personal weapon, the sleepless nights when Maka wouldn't keep a schedule, and the growing number of unresolved arguments with his wife... He simply hadn't had time.

In fact, the last time he could remember seeing Stein, the meister had come there to his apartment, and he'd fallen asleep with Maka on his chest after a round of complaints about his life. He couldn't remember what, if anything, the two of them had talked about. And Stein had been gone when he'd woken up.

Spirit rose from the bed and glanced in the crib once more before moving to his closet. Despite his wife's protests, next to his blazer hung a long white coat that had been cut apart and reassembled with stitches to match an aesthetic that Stein had started adopting heavily in their last year as partners.

That day when Spirit had woken with the sunset in his eyes and Stein gone, the coat remained, draped over he and Maka to keep them warm while they slept.

Spirit pulled the coat from the hanger that had been its home for months, remembering the repeated insistence to his wife that he was just keeping it for Stein and would give it back the next time he saw him.

That had been months ago.

Whether it was residual madness or something else, a sudden urgency had Spirit pulling his clothes from the day back over his limbs, moving quickly but quietly lest Maka wake.

He had been Stein's weapon partner for five years. Even after his sins caught up to him and his life started to shift drastically off the course the two of them had planned, they had still been inseparable.

How could he go months without speaking to him and not realize it?

Once his shoes were tied, he folded the white coat carefully and then stepped up to the large standing mirror on his wife's side of the bed, and with his finger, drew the familiar number into the glass.

"Death Scythe," was Lord Death's unsurprised greeting, but absent his usual flurry of cheerful pleasantries. "Any residual effects of the kishin's madness?"

Spirit blinked in surprise at the reaper's cutting right to the chase, but he supposed he shouldn't have. He knew that he had only been touched by the mere edge of that wavelength, but the impact it had had was profound. He was certain it was the ultimate cause of his nightmare too, even if the subject had been a surprise.

"Ah...about that. I was wondering if...you could send someone to watch Maka for me? For just...just an hour, maybe less. I need to do something."

"Shouldn't your wife watch her?"

Spirit looked down at the coat in his hands, tightened his fists into the fabric.

"I...don't know where she is right now."

Spirit was still looking down when he felt a sudden wave of power and then his bedroom was filled with the imposing presence of the Grim Reaper.

"L-Lord Death! Sir!" he stammered as he moved back until his legs hit the bed, and he fell back to sit on the pile of tangled blankets.

"I'll watch her for you," Lord Death said, and Spirit's eyes widened as the imposing form of the reaper glided over to the crib and reached a huge hand down inside. Spirit's breath caught as one massive fingertip that dwarfed Maka's tiny body tickled lightly at her shoulder. "Oochie-coochie coo!"

"Uhh..."

Lord Death turned back to peer at him through the dark of the room. "It's the least I can do, after exposing you to that. Although, you would have been more prepared had you been listening."

Spirit blushed, and then quickly rose to his feet and tried to throw the bed into a semblance of order. He was glad there was no dirty laundry lying around and that he had taken out the trash bag of dirty diapers earlier that evening.

"Madness is nothing to take lightly," Lord Death continued. Spirit finished arranging the blankets and looked up to see Lord Death nod at the folded white coat. "Just consider your former partner."

Spirit swallowed slowly as he picked up the coat again. He thought of the fear he'd felt, the invasion of thoughts not his own and yet that had seemed to come from someplace within his soul.

Was that what Stein struggled with every day?

He considered the times he had touched the madness in Stein's wavelength when they resonated, the fear and violent desires that while objectively worse than what he had experienced, hadn't remotely carried the terror or dark lust that the wavelength underground had momentarily instilled in him.

Stein had been shielding him all along, he realized, even when he couldn't hold it back entirely. He hadn't wanted Spirit to know the depths of what he battled against. Who would, after all?

And...this was what Stein went through all the time?

Spirit's heart had begun racing again. He clutched the white coat tight to his chest as he began backing toward the door.

"Thank you, Sir, for watching Maka. I, ah... I shouldn't be gone long. The apartment is close. And..."

"Spirit."

Spirit stopped mid-step and looked up at the impassive mask of the Grim Reaper.

"He isn't at your old apartment anymore."

"...What?"

---------------

Spirit's pace had been hurried the entire journey to the city's outskirts, but he slowed when he approached the old, abandoned warehouse that he had passed so many times before without taking any notice. It was the same as always from the outside, but knowing his former meister was within made it feel different somehow; no longer part of the scenery, but something living. And yet for some reason, Spirit felt a heavy foreboding as he approached.

Stein had asked for and been given the building as a home months ago, according to Lord Death, and had hardly been heard from since except to request and take missions. He only showed his face in classes to take tests, which he passed, and would then vanish again.

When Spirit asked why Lord Death had accommodated these eccentricities, the Grim Reaper had been silent. He also hadn't answered any of Spirit's questions about the missions Stein took, except to say that he had recently taken their friend Marie Mjolnir as his new weapon.

Spirit had bristled at the designation, even though he knew he shouldn't. He had left Stein, after all. How could the meister be expected to continue his studies without a weapon partner? And yet for some reason, Spirit had never conceived of Stein working with anyone but him.

This and other thoughts had his head swimming as he propelled his feet down the sidewalk toward the warehouse, his heart rate seeming to increase with each step. He clutched the folded coat tightly to his chest and tried to will away the strange dread that had arrested his mind ever since the realization he'd not seen Stein in months.

He tried to tell himself it was just a product of the residual madness, or something brought on by the bizarre nightmare. It would all go away once he saw Stein again. He would knock on the door, and Stein would answer because the younger teen kept atypical hours. Spirit would apologize for not having seen him in so long and plan a day, maybe two, for them to catch up very soon. Then everything could go back to the strange, evolving normal his life had become ever since the day he'd learned of the pregnancy.

He held his breath when he knocked on the large double doors and then fidgeted with the fabric of the folded coat as he waited. Stein would be glad to see him, surely? But, Spirit suddenly wondered... Why hadn't he come around in months?

Spirit knocked a second time, louder. Perhaps Stein really was asleep, if he was even there.

Spirit counted the seconds until another two minutes had passed, and then with a shaky breath fit his hand to the doorknob. It turned without resistance, and he paused. Perhaps he could just quietly leave the coat and a note for Stein to stop by or perhaps call him when he could.

He pushed the door open slowly, wincing at the way it creaked on its hinges, and stepped into a broad, dark hallway. The walls on either side of him were gray and nondescript, just like the building's exterior, and all was silent as he cautiously started forward.

His brow rose when he heard what sounded like a voice muttering somewhere ahead of him, beyond another set of doors. He strained to listen and soon felt the tension drain from his body when he recognized the voice. Stein was awake after all, probably busy with some experiment, and simply hadn't heard his knock.

A smile was on Spirit's face when he pulled open the next door and passed into a large room lit dimly from a single standing lamp and the light of a computer monitor. Then, he saw Stein. And his expression dropped into horror.

Stein was seated on a rolling chair pushed back from the computer desk, and the whole of his shirt that Spirit could see was stained with layered drippings of what could only be blood. On the desk on either side of the computer were two large mirrors, propped against stacks of books and angled to the forty-five, and atop the monitor was a cracked mirror that appeared to have been bolted to the monitor's plastic frame.

All around Stein on the desk and floor were scattered papers and open books, and the computer screen was displaying some lines of text too small for Spirit to read. But his attention was fixed on the blood, his gaze rising up past where it clung to Stein's neck and soaked his silver hair. Both of Stein's hands were raised and fidgeting with something just as bloody at the sides of his head, fingers slick with the bright red substance, and the cuffs of his sleeves were stained as well.

Spirit's eyes narrowed as he continued to stare, unable to process the sight before him. And that's when he saw the screw.

"S...Stein!?" Spirit gasped in disbelief, his voice shrill. He looked past what Stein was fidgeting with to his countenance reflected darkly in the mirrors. His pupils were mere pinpricks in his wide eyes, and his skin was paler than usual under the streams of blood that ran down his face, even over his lips and staining his teeth where he was smiling broadly between incoherent mutters and soft, manic laughter.

"Stein!" Spirit repeated, taking an instinctive step forward. The folded coat fell from shaking hands as he looked around, searching for some enemy or any explanation for the horror that sat before him other than his ex-partner's own nimble hands.

The second cry seemed to get the teen's attention, and his laughter halted abruptly as he looked in one angled mirror first, seeming to stare in confusion at something in the corner of the room before shifting his eyes to the mirror atop the monitor until his gaze rested upon Spirit.

"Spirit."

Spirit glanced at the corner that Stein had focused on and found it bare, and then took another hesitant step forward. The blood dripping from Stein's stilled hands had his heart racing in a panic, but not more than the long object with which Stein appeared to have just impaled his skull.

"Stein, what... What... What's going on? What are you doing!?"

Stein slowly spun around in the chair and stared blankly at Spirit until his brow knitted very slightly.

"Hm. There's not usually two of you. Are you going to play the angel on my other shoulder?"

"I... I don't... Stein," Spirit stammered breathlessly. His heart was pounding hard in his chest, harder than it even had when he and his wife had battled the witch.

The faint look of scorn slowly left Stein's face to be replaced by the glassy-eyed expression and toothy smile he'd worn when Spirit first entered. His bloody hands had fallen to his lap when he turned, but he slowly raised one again to left side of his head where the larger end of the object protruded from Stein's head just above his ear.

Spirit's initial, instinctive assessment of the object as a screw seemed to be confirmed as Stein set his fingers around the flat, round end of it, gripped firmly, and twisted it backwards. A ratcheting sound came from the object and Spirit flinched away at the same time he took another step forward, the desire to stop Stein, to help him, and to just understand what was happening at war with the horror that had him nearly paralyzed.

"Stop!" he cried. "What...what is that? What did you do!?"

Stein adjusted his grip and turned the object again rapidly. His face contorted in pain as the ratcheting sound echoed through the large room, and the young meister began to laugh. The sound started low in his chest and then rose higher than the usual timbre of his voice as he doubled over and turned the screw a third time.

Spirit didn't know when he'd started crying, but tears streamed down his face as he forced himself forward on legs that felt as stable as jelly. He fell to his knees in front of Stein and reached up, set trembling hands on his shoulders and gripped the blood-soaked shirt.

"Stein."

The action arrested Stein's attention, his laughter ending as suddenly as if a switch had been flipped. He looked down at Spirit as if seeing him for the first time, hand frozen on the screw. Then he looked over to the corner that had stolen his focus before. Spirit glanced over his shoulder; the corner was still bare.

"I don't know if it's working."

It was the closest to sane Stein had sounded since Spirit had entered, but the meister's eyes were still glazed and didn't seem to see him. Spirit watched his face as he continued staring at the corner, could almost see the calculations working behind his eyes.

"This... Stein... Can you fix this?" Spirit said desperately, finally daring to look at the screw that Stein still held onto almost protectively. He leaned left to peer at where the smaller end of the object was protruding above Stein's other ear. He couldn't tell if it was truly impaled through his friend's head, or if some other mechanism was at work; it was impossible to tell through the matted, bloody hair that fell over the dark metal.

Stein blinked, and Spirit's breath caught as the meister's gaze suddenly narrowed on him.

"Don't you see? I am. Fixing this," he hissed cruelly.

Spirit shook his head. "Stein."

"If this doesn't work..."

Spirit listened to the frightened words, low and hoarse as Stein adjusted his grip, turned his hand, and the ratcheting sound echoed through the room again.

"Why would you do this?" Spirit pleaded, still not believing what he was seeing. If it wasn't for his fingers digging tight into Stein's shoulders he would think it was another delusion of madness.

Suddenly, Stein's eyes truly focused on his for the first time, and his face fell into a terrifying frown. It was just enough warning, and Spirit was able to lean back fractionally as Stein's free arm swept up harshly into both of his, knocking him away and barely missing hitting his face.

Spirit fell back onto his rear, caught himself harshly on his already-sore elbow, and gazed up at Stein in disbelief. The action seemed to startle the meister as well, his anger fading as rapidly as it had come. He stared at Spirit with something of confusion, and then looked up at the corner again. A sound of surprise fell from his lips, and Spirit watched as his eyes darted around the room rapidly as if searching for something, until finally settling on Spirit with another frown.

Spirit was frozen by the bitter look of betrayal that suddenly filled his friends eyes, and all he could do was watch as Stein started to shift his hand upward again. But then, apparently catching sight of the blood on his hand, the meister refocused his attention and a placid smile replaced everything else that had been twisting his features into something beyond recognition.

Spirit's tears fell freely as he stared at his friend and the massive object protruding from his head, blood still dripping down the sides of his neck. His thoughts were finally catching up to his horror, and he knew he should probably call someone for help, get Stein medical attention before he lost too much blood, and see if anything could be done about the metal rod that was apparently set straight through his brain. It shouldn't even be possible, Spirit thought, as he felt he would choke for how his heart pounded in his throat. That he had found Stein alive after his self-mutilation was nothing short of miraculous.

"Stein," he began carefully, his voice broken apart for his fear. "You... We need to..."

Stein stared at him with an unsettling calm, and Spirit's mind recalled every time he had had seen that expression before—all the times he'd had to hold Stein back, either physically or mentally, from some terrible desire borne of madness.

Spirit bit down on his words as he felt bile begin to rise in his throat. He shifted to sit upright, but his muscles felt useless under the weight of guilt that was suddenly bearing down on him as heavily as had the darkness underground.

Who had Stein had, to help him fight his madness...in all those months Spirit had forgotten him?

"Stein..." he tried again. He reached up to his eyes, closed them as he wiped away tears that kept flowing. Stein lifted an eyebrow, and Spirit realized his face was likely now streaked with Stein's blood from his fingertips. "Please, I... I should have... I don't... Stein, why?"

He blinked in attempt to clear his vision, gazed pleadingly up at the meister who sat so calmly, as if half his body wasn't stained in red and the air around them didn't taste of iron.

"Senpai," Stein said, his voice finally something familiar. Spirit watched his friend's hand slowly fall, rest limply upon his knee. But the calm ended once more as a wild, toothy smile bisected the meister's face, and something like the distant sadness from the nightmare filled his eyes. "You know better than anyone that I have a screw loose."

Spirit choked on a sob, shook his head as Stein began to laugh. It started low as it had before, but rapidly rose into uncontrolled shrieks that tore from his throat and racked Stein's body in the chair, rolling it back and forth through the drippings of blood on the cement beneath.

Spirit wept.

It was his fault. If only he hadn't forgotten Stein... No, if he hadn't left him to begin with. Then he wouldn't be seated at his friend's feet, watching him possibly bleed to death and collapse fully into the madness he'd fought so hard for years to protect him from.

He let his tears fall freely as memories raced across his mind, questions and possibilities and denials he had replayed countless times before, and conclusions drawn from the voice he had chosen to believe. It was too much happening too fast, all over again. And as over a year's worth of confusion and fear joined with the present and tangled into an unsalvageable mess in his mind, two words slowly formed and found their way to Spirit's tongue.

"I'm sorry."

It was time to rise out of his denial. He needed to ask Stein... To hear everything from his lips, find out what was true and what wasn't... Learn his side of the story. And no matter what, Spirit realized he didn't care; that in his soul the decision had already been made, and all that was left was to come back. To offer to fix what he had broken. It was all his fault, and couldn't they just erase the past, and please...wouldn't Stein forgive him?

"Stein, I... I..."

The shifting of plastic wheels on the floor stopped, and the laughter faded to hiccuped chuckling. Spirit wiped his tears again with the sides of his thumbs, brushed his hair from his face, and looked up.

Stein appeared frozen above him, grin still manic and eyes not quite seeing him even as he stared straight at him.

Stein's shoes pushed on the floor and the chair slowly rolled back and hit the edge of the desk. His gaze remained on Spirit, unblinking. A bloody hand reached back, felt blindly on the desk and knocked a few previously unseen surgical instruments to the floor. And then Stein's hand returned, rose up between them, his fingers delicately holding a scalpel.

"It's about time I gave you some new parts as well."

Spirit's breath hitched. Stein's shoes pushed down, and the chair started rolling forward.

Spirit let out an involuntary cry as instinct had him roll backward and away, far out of Stein's reach, and then he was on his feet and backing toward the door.

"No! Stein, no, listen to me!"

"Hm, but Senpai... Don't you think you could do with a new liver? I have one in my freezer," Stein said, jerking his head toward another door that Spirit hadn't noticed.

The simple movement of his head seemed to cause him pain, and Spirit watched as Stein winced, his fingers tightening on the scalpel even as both his hands quickly raised to grip the ends of the screw.

"Stein, I... Don't... Stay here. I'm going to get help. I'll get..." he stammered as he continued backing toward the door.

Stein's face settled back into the mad grin, the hand holding the scalpel lowering as the other turned the screw.

Spirit flinched at the sound it made, at the tiny laughs that seemed to slip involuntarily from his friend's lips. He shook his head in terrified disbelief as he felt behind him blindly until he found the doorknob.

"I'll get help. Stay here! I... I'm so sorry, Stein."

Spirit turned, away from the horror and the sight and scent of blood, and the echoing crank of metal mixed with laughter as he fled the warehouse and ran as fast as he could ever remember moving. Maybe...maybe if only he could reach some help...there was still time.

--------------

In the warehouse, Stein blinked at the metal door until it drifted shut, closing into position with a soft click. Then, all was quiet.

He blinked, slowly turning and glancing all around the room, into every corner and next to every haphazard stack of books, seeking any movement or sign of life.

"Spirit?"

Stein waited. But silence was the only reply he received.

He slowly turned back toward the computer, the feeling of moving his feet foreign as if he hadn't walked in an age. He was going to attempt to analyze that sensation, and why his body suddenly felt as though it wasn't his, when he caught sight of his reflection in the mirrors.

He took a few steps forward, not quite believing he was looking at himself. He noted the blood, both the dried and the wet still seeping from his flesh. And then he studied the screw, tilting his head slowly to each side and evaluating its appearance and placement.

Then he glanced around the room again.

"Huh. I guess it works."

Stein reached up to the screw, turned it once. Hissed at the excruciating pain it caused. And then he laughed.

---------------

Spirit was breathless and his limbs ached as he sprinted down the sidewalk to his first-floor apartment. He was so panicked and intent on his goal that he didn't notice his wife approaching the door at the same time until he nearly crashed into her.

"Spirit?" she said in surprise. He stopped, doubled over to his knees for a moment, and then stood again as his entire frame shook from exertion. His wife had looked confused and deeply annoyed at first, but she must have noted the blood on his face, he realized, as her expression dropped to fear. "What's going on? Where's Maka? Where have you been?"

Spirit ignored her questions as he wrenched the doorknob open and darted through the familiar halls to his bedroom.

"Lord Death!" he gasped upon entering, and the Grim Reaper turned from his faithful vigil next to Maka's sleeping form and tilted his great, curious masked expression down to the weapon and took in his appearance.

"Oh, my. What's happened?"

Spirit sucked in air and looked over his shoulder as his wife followed him into the room. She looked properly shocked by the presence of the Grim Reaper in her home and quickly schooled her appearance into something of respect as she dropped her purse on the dresser, glanced at Maka in the crib, and then turned her wide eyes to Spirit and waited.

Spirit took a few more breaths, looked back to Lord Death, and wiped his eyes again. He forced his tears into compliance before launching into a hurried explanation of what he'd found at the warehouse—of the screw, of Stein's mad behavior, and of the supposed threat at the last when he'd made to leave. He stole glances at his wife throughout, noted her astonishment, suspicion, and ultimately, anger.

"Oh, my," Lord Death repeated when Spirit had finished, his words slow and grave. "You stay here and look after yourself. I'll see to Stein."

"Yes... Yes, Sir," Spirit breathed, his lungs still aching in pain for the sprint back through town.

With that, the reaper vanished, using his mirror as a portal in the same way he had entered, and left Spirit alone with Maka and his wife.

With the promise of the best help for his meister possible, Spirit collapsed. He sank heavily to the floor between the bed and crib and let his head fall back against the edge of the mattress, his eyes fluttering closed as he tried to slow his breathing and bring his body back to some semblance of normalcy. But unbeckoned, the horrors from the warehouse flooded his vision behind his eyelids, and he blinked repeatedly to banish the experience worse than any nightmare he had ever had.

He lifted a shaking hand and tried to wipe the salt from his cheeks, feeling the flaky, dried residue of the blood that he knew he would need to wash before Maka woke up. And then he suddenly realized how overheated and sticky with sweat he was from the run, and achingly peeled himself out of his jacket.

"You...went to see Stein?" his wife's voice broke through his thoughts.

He rolled his head sideways on the edge of the mattress until her scowling face filled his vision.

"After everything he did to you!? I thought you were smarter than this!"

Spirit's brow furrowed. "I don't think—"

"You told Lord Death yourself, he threatened to cut you up again tonight! And he's gone totally mad! How could you do this to me? To Maka?"

Spirit shifted, started to push himself to his knees. "Angel, I—"

"Don't 'angel' me anything! What if he'd killed you? Your stupidity would have left me a widow and Maka fatherless!"

Spirit stared dumbly up into his wife's furious face. He wanted to argue that she'd hardly been a mother or wife, with her lying almost every day about where she was and leaving Maka in daycare, and then heading off again at nights when Spirit got home. But he was too exhausted, too overwhelmed by the horrors he'd experienced, and too worried about Stein to even begin to put any of those thoughts into useful words.

"He's my meister," was what finally escaped Spirit's lips, though he knew the argument was already lost. Even when he held the higher position, somehow with his wife, he always wrong.

Her eyes widened. "What?" she seethed.

Spirit realized his error as her face reddened further in anger, even though technically she couldn't claim to be his meister anymore either. Lord Death was the only one who would wield him now.

He was expecting an explosion, like usual. Words of censure and revulsion, to remind him that he was a dreadful husband and only Death's weapon because of her, and what thanks did she ever get for it?

But none of that came, as her feet padded softly between he and the crib, and then Spirit stumbled to his feet as he heard Maka's soft whimpers of distress as she was lifted out of her bed and into her mother's arms.

"What are you doing?" he said anxiously, a panic that was becoming too familiar racing across his nervous system.

"I'm going to Azusa's. Have your head on straight by tomorrow night, Death Scythe," she fairly spat, tucking Maka against her chest as she turned on her heel to leave.

"But... Kami!" he cried, stepping after her. But the door had already slammed shut.

He stumbled back against the bed, fell seated to the mattress as he heard Maka begin to cry from the sudden and startling sound. He listened to the second slam of the front door and Maka's cries growing distant as she was carried away from him, away from the home that suddenly didn't feel like it deserved the name.

Spirit's bloodied fingers found his wedding ring and twisted it slowly around his finger.

How, in just one day, had everything fallen apart so completely?

Spirit took a few breaths and then pushed himself to his feet. He walked on shaking legs into the bathroom, turned on the light and blinked against its harshness. His stomach turned as he stared at the red streaks on his face and that had matted some of his hair. He felt the prickling of tears in his eyes again, but with effort he swallowed them down.

His wife was right about at least one thing. He was Death Scythe. And he needed to be prepared for whatever he may need to face.

Maka would be fine, if they were going to be at Azusa's. Marie was still her roommate, unless something had changed, and often all the young weapon would talk about was the day she too had the privilege of being a wife and a mother. Maka was in good hands. And tomorrow, after some rest, he would deal with the issue of his wife's deception and leaving their daughter at daycare all the time.

That left the more urgent issue of Stein.

Spirit wanted to go back. He wanted to find out just what Lord Death would do to help his friend, to see for himself that Stein was going to survive the horrible self-mutilation, and could it even be undone? And, what of his madness?

Spirit thought again of what he'd experienced underground, the terror of those invasive thoughts, and how real and demanding they had been. Was that truly what it was like in Stein's mind? All those years that Spirit had felt the bristling, violent edge of his thoughts whenever he and Stein resonated... How Stein must have been holding it back, protecting him from the worst of it...preventing him from seeing the true depths of the madness.

Spirit took a slow, deep breath to hold the tears at bay again.

How could he have believed his wife? When she insisted Stein had been conducting illicit experiments on him, convinced him that the younger teen couldn't be trusted. Stein's refusal to offer either affirmation or denial was all the proof she had needed, and it had seemed the easiest way to ease hostilities to simply accept her word.

To abandon his partner.

And now, Stein may die because of him.

What kind of death weapon was he?

Spirit splashed water on his face and ran it through his hair, scrubbed at the blood until his skin felt raw and his scalp ached. Fresh tears mingled hot on his cheeks with the cool of the water, and when the only red left on his cheeks was the flush he felt from humiliation, he turned off the light and stumbled back into the bedroom.

He was no one anybody should be looking up to, or offering flirty waves in the academy's halls. He was an idiot and a failure, and everything his wife always accused him of being. He was probably a bad father, too.

He sniffled as his gaze locked onto the empty crib while he stumbled across the carpet, hoping that his wife would bring Maka back to him soon the next day. So focused was he, that his foot caught on something just under the bed and he tripped, falling so that his knee grazed the hard item when he hit the floor, and he hissed against the pain.

He felt in the dark for the offending object and soon pulled out a small, forgotten lock-box. His eyes widened on the sight, and familiar warnings rose in the back of his mind with too many words to form into coherent thought as he looked at the small, combination lock, the number sequence easily called into memory.

His thumb began turning the dials.

He had promised to stop drinking the day he found out about the pregnancy, and he had been true to his word. The box of expensive liquors was just for very special occasions, like the night after he and his wife had defeated the witch, and the day that Maka was born. And just a single shot those times, he had insisted, because it wasn't worth the risk to have more. Not when he was Death Scythe. Not when he was a father.

Stein's expression had been bittersweet when he told Spirit he was proud of him. Spirit had never understood that look.

He flipped the lid of the box open and lifted out one of the bottles, and his brow furrowed in confusion. It was nearly empty.

He considered for a moment, and then his eyes widened in understanding.

So, his wife had other secrets she had been keeping from him besides her daily excursions.

Spirit slowly turned the bottle over in his hand. He felt the warnings prickling all the way up his spine. He heard the echoes of his promises. He heard Stein's kind but melancholy praise.

And then he thought of his wife's lies. And the blood dripping down the sides of his friend's head. And the mad, defeated laughter as Stein had looked at him like he was a stranger.

Spirit replaced the nearly empty bottle, and then lifted a full one out of the box. He took a long, slow breath as he leaned back against the side of the bed. Felt every one of his nerve endings tingle in fierce opposition. And then he twisted open the cap.

He could keep some secrets, too.

[belladonna-and-the-sweetpeas]

List 10 comfort shows and tag 10 people

I was tagged by @twig-tea (thank you!). This is really difficult because I don't tend to re-watch shows. When I'm obsessed I read fanfic, find FMV's on youtube, and search the tag on Tumblr for gifs and meta lol. I tend to go to books and music for comfort in preference to other media. That being said, here are a few shows that have brought me comfort, that I have re-watched at least once, and that made me cry when I needed that catharsis.

Bad Buddy. Nobody needs me to do a shout out for this show, but I knew I was going to love it from the first teaser trailer, I watched it live from episode one, and I re-watched all episodes released before each new episode dropped. It is also the first BL that I ever shared with an IRL person. It's the perfect mix of fantasy, romance, reality, and comedy.

Until We Meet Again. The heartbreak, the healing, the pain, the inevitability, the love. It gets me every time. I'm a sucker for anything that rips my heart out and then shoves it back in.

Triage. Time loops and time travel and changing ones fate because of love and friendship and light in the darkness and nobody being perfect, but also being able to change and how our lives are made of connections and past circumstances and our choices are influenced by the opportunities we have and what support we get.

It's OK to not be OK. There's a theme here, I know hahaha. Intergenerational trauma and healing, how damaged people can help each other, and the importance of family. I binged this show and there are many scenes that I go back to watch when I'm feeling a certain way. I think this show reminds me a lot of one of my all time favourite stories ever. If you love intergenerational trauma and healing and feeling like a monster and grief and love and family, then please, I beg you, go and find and read Fruits Basket.

Bromance. One of the first Taiwanese dramas I ever watched. I know it can be controversial, but I've enjoyed stories that deal with gender identity since I was a teenager. I've never felt particularly connected to societal expectations for the presentation of my own femininity and I have always felt that gender is unimportant for my personal attraction to people. Having people in stories who are unashamedly loved for themselves, no matter the gender people think they are, or the expectations placed on them because of their gender or gender presentation feel so comforting to me. I really love Coffee Prince for the same reasons. There are also several books and manga that I revisit regularly that have this theme.

Eien no kinou. Yes, it is heartbreaking, but it is so soft and gentle about it. The idea that the universe would conspire to give you time to say goodbye to someone you love is so beautiful.

Old Fashion Cupcake. The unknown influences we have on people, the romance of learning to live not merely exist after losing that for ourselves, people who aren't teenager or young adults having a beautiful love story and finding happiness with each other. It's just very comforting to me.

Leverage. The found family, and making the world a little bit better, and how evil people hurt others not because they care, but because they don't care, how grief colours everything. I think this show is a masterpiece and the way that the episodes mostly follow a heist of the week is also very comforting because I can watch just one episode and not feel like I have to keep watching.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Oh would you look at that, more trauma! But for all the pain, there is love, and laughter, and healing, and "That's rough, buddy".

Full Metal Alchemist. Yes, Brotherhood is objectively better, but I watched the original anime with my best friends in high school and it has been on my list of forever faves since then. Nothing has ever hit the same emotional devastation as the reveal of what happens to Nina (iykyk). But the love and devotion in this story always wraps me up like a warm hug.

I did not realise I had that much to say about TV shows or how many themes my favourite media have in common XD

If you haven't been tagged and want to do this, please jump in and take this as your invite! I'm not sure who has done this, so I'm going to tag a few people, but no pressure if you don't want to or already have :) @axolola, @chalkrevelations, @fatgumsurpremacy-remastered, @vera9, @neoncoloredglasses, @theflagscene, @omarandjohnny

[duhragonball]

I am not sure why you decided to cover Evangelion all of a sudden, but I am hella old like you and haven't watched it for whatever reason either. (which was strange because it was all the rage back at school thousands of years ago)

Not sure why this series eluded you also, but anyway I just want to thank you for this opportunity as I have decided to watch along. Looking forward to seeing more of your analysis.

Do you have any other bucket list 90s anime series that you have some interest in covering? I recently got around to Martian Successor Nabisco myself because the theme song is amazing

PS: You're a chemist right? Please make some crazy chemical that will make oldness go away for your sake and mine, it's 2024 I can't believe we haven't invented immortality yet

Thank you for reading.

I don't remember exactly when I first heard of NGE, but I'm pretty sure it was in the late 90s, probably in the Diamond Previews or Wizard Magazine. As I got deeper into comic book collecting, I bought both of those publications, and as anime started to gain a foothold in North American nerd culture, I started to see more and more anime/manga products referenced or advertised in Wizard and Previews.

I pretty much despised anime in the early 90s, mostly thanks to poor localizations of shows like Superbook and Speed Racer, which made the whole genre look like a bad joke. I remember those ads for "Japanimation" that tried so hard to make it sound badass and cool, but the ads were so corny that they ended up making the stuff look even dumber. By 1997 or so I had kind of learned to tolerate it as a concept, although I still had no interest in it. Sailor Moon was on Toonami, but it seemed like they only put it in the block to add a certain variety to the show. Vintage superhero fare, Thundercats, Sailor Moon, and that Johnny Quest show with CGI. Then they added an obscure show called Dragon Ball Z to the lineup, and that slowly won me over.

By 2000 I was tuning into Toonami mainly for Batman and Superman TAS, and getting hooked on DBZ and Tenchi Muyo! at the same time. I refer to these as the "Four Horsemen of Toonami" for that reason. In 2001 I started writing a Superman/Tenchi crossover, which basically cemented my status as a huge weeb. (Luffa is just a continuation of my effort to do fanfics of the Four Horsemen block of Toonami.*)

Anyway, somewhere in this period I probably started seeing merch for Rei and Asuka in their plugsuits or whatever they're called. I might have seen the Evas but let's be real, a mech wouldn't have stood out much in a genre full of giant robots. I'd see ads for things like Eva and Revolutionary Girl Utena and wonder just what the hell these things were about, but I also just shrugged and accepted that I would probably never find out, since anime was expensive and difficult to find, and I wasn't going to go out of my way just to satisfy idle curiosity. Back in those days, anime was an investment, and I wasn't going to pay thirty bucks for three episodes of something unless I knew it would be good. I tried a few things like Noir and Excel Saga, but only because I had a fairly decent idea what I was getting into.

By 2016, I had more disposable income, and this blog was pretty well established as a way to spend my free time, so I started looking for new things to watch. I checked out Hellsing Ultimate mostly so I'd be able to understand the jokes in Hellsing Ultimate Abridged. I checked out JJBA because it was red hot at the time, and everyone was talking about who their favorite Jojo was, and I wanted to know what that meant. I checked out Utena because I got a tip that it was available for free on YouTube, and I watched the first season of Sailor Moon. I didn't do all of that in 2016. It probably took me until 2018 to get all that watched.

So it was probably somewhere in there that I gave serious thought to tracking down Neon Genesis Evangelion, because it's one of those that I always wondered about, and now I had the means to actually find it and watch it, and I had enough anime experience that I felt reasonably confident that I could appreciate it. I suspect that I could have screened it between 1997 and 2010 I just would have been confused. But I've seen people talk about it for a lot of years, and probably a lot of that's been on tumblr, and it's just one of those things that's been on the fringes of my pop culture awareness.

I think NGE finally became available on Netflix in 2020 or something? But there were fans complaining about the dubs and the subs, so I thought I should hold off for a while. In 2021 I finally just said "fuck it" and bought a used copy of the "Perfect Collection" on DVD. My thing was, if I was going to watch this, I wanted to get it right the first time. I've savored Dragon Ball for decades by watching the dub, then the subs, but if I'm going to try out new stuff I don't want to have to keep going back to get the "true" experience.

I'm doing it now mainly because I hadn't had time before. I've been caught up in other things, and 2024 looked wide open, so I started thinking about things I've been putting off that I really wanted to do, and this was one of the first things I thought of. I just want to scratch that itch, and even if this show turns out to be awful, at least I can have the satisfaction of knowing I finally saw for myself.

As far as other old anime titles, I don't have any immediate plans. I still need to watch the Akira movie, but I read the manga so that sort of damped my interest in checking out the movie version. Galaxy Express 999 is on my bucket list, kind of for the same reasons as Evangelion and Utena, where I used to see ads for it and wondered what it was about. Fist of the North Star also interests me, because it has a kickass theme song, and I'm pretty sure it had a profound influence on the early years of JJBA. But I probably won't get around to them for a while.

Ultimately, there's only so much I can do with the time I have on this planet. There is no elixir of life, and unless they let you watch anime in heaven, I have to set priorities. One gripe with anime that I still retain from my youth is that it's pretty damn impenetrable. What I mean by that is that you can't even remotely judge a title by its cover, and so much of this stuff runs together that it's impossible to tell what would appeal to me and what isn't worth my time. I think that's why I've let popular culture and memes guide me in recent years. Stuff like JoJo Fridays and "Bitch, I Drink People" are tips that these shows had lasting appeal, and you don't make an impression like that without having a solid story. They can put a bunch of boobs on a DVD cover, but they can't draw a picture of the stuff that counts.

[festivalofthe12]

No but it really is starting to settle on me just how much MORE popular Yuki/Kakeru is since the new anime came out.

Like: I recently regained access to my old livejournal from the late 00s!!!! And unfortunately I made that after the height of my Fruits Basket phase, but I still did make some mention of Yuki/Kakeru... And, well.

18) A pairing that is woefully unappreciated! YUKI/FRICKINGKAKERU. I swear, there's less than a PAGE of this on fanfic.net. Less than a PAGE. Geez, it's implied SO MUCH in so many scenes, even WITHOUT the whole 'I'll brake up with you' thing. Bloody fandom, don't appreciate good characters and pairings when they see them... (8/3/2008)

And as I implied in an earlier post, while I was trawling through the Ao3 tag (still on-going!!) I decided to give myself a blast from the past and re-read through the Yuki S. and Kakeru M. filter on ff.net, which I remember checking religiously. Today? Three pages.

Ao3 has 10 pages and 200 works!!!

And even then, like, lately I've been going through my old bookmarks (sadly I've only found one Yuki/Kakeru, which I'd already remembered anyway), with a current focus on Zuko/Aang. Well, even just by googling I can immediately summon up whole rec lists of livejournal snippets and fic memes and the like, so I was excited to see what I could dig out for Yukeru, since I certainly remember Fruits Basket having a big presence on that site!

Nothing. Literally, I haven't found anything yet. Save a livejournal comm with exactly three posts, long-dead.

Of course, it makes sense that the new anime brought in new fans: Kakeru famously never showed up in the old anime, so people would only have ever even met him if they read through to, what? Volume 8? Later? of the manga. And I do recall the fandom being far less... Yuki-positive, back then. Yuki/Kyou was a popular ship, of course, and Yuki/Haru was around, but those ships had Kyou and Haru fans behind them; you'd only ship Yukeru if you were really invested in Yuki himself.

But it's still just boggling me. I did find Yuki/Kakeru rec lists, but they're all from the last few years. They alone have as much fanfic as ff.net had of Yukeru total back in 2008, when Kakeru had surely existed for a good half a decade at least, even in English.

Is there something about the current fanfiction landscape that is far more amenable to Yuki/Kakeru? Probably, yeah, I think: it's a pairing very situated for queer coming-of-age found family type stories, which are much more popular now. (Not that they never existed before! But fandom was much less... consciously activist-y. Maybe I'm just betraying my age back then, but it was much more common to ship boys simply because they were ~smexy~ together, as I think I myself cringefully wrote about Yuki/Kyou in my very first livejournal post...)

And it's. Such a strange feeling. I remember when I realised that season 2 of the anime had come out, and on a whim deciding to check the Yuki/Kakeru fanfic tag on ao3. And I thought I found only a small number! And I read one, and went 'oh cool, my old ship has Plural New Works!' and moved on!!! I truly had no IDEA there were so MANY... or that they were so GOOD.

Yuki/Kakeru was one of the first ships I ever wrote. The fic was very long and I'm sure very bad, though unfortunately this is from the period of my writings lost to time, so I'll sadly never be able to check it out for my (current) self. I think it was the first lemon I ever wrote; on a Pirates of the Caribbean fic I exclaimed that this second lemon was much better than my first, and I have a sneaking suspicion Yuki/Kakeru is who my 14-or-so old self had written like that.

I made a friend on ff.net because they were one of the very few Yuki/Kakeru writers. I have a visceral memory of coming upon the 'I'll break up with you' scene while reading the manga at school during lunch, and how I immediately exclaimed it aloud in great excitement, startling a poor teacher who had been talking to one of my friends and no doubt knew me as being very quiet. I'm sure I must have drawn it in all sorts of little doodles; I saved a lot of my old high school arts, so maybe I should try going through those as well?

I don't know. I'm just feeling a great sense of awe, I guess, haha. That ship was *so important to me*, and it was *so hard* to find anyone else who felt as strongly as me! (My friends all liked Fruits Basket with me, of course, but we've always tended to have divergent ship tastes.) And right beneath my nose, it has had a renaissance! It sprouted and bloomed and then went dormant again while I twiddled my thumbs, vaguely promising myself that I'd get back to the new anime at some point or other!

God I just. REALLY wish I'd been paying attention while the anime was airing, hahaha. :') My inner child has been so thoroughly validated by this all, that this ship I cared so much about really IS as great and important and meaningful as I'd always thought it was! But how must it have been to be in the thick of it all, when the ship tags were thriving? When I could've seen the new viewer's reactions to famous scenes? When everyone else was thinking about Yukeru as much as I have been, this last month or so?

But I'm not only unhappy. i can't not be grateful that these people have come and made works which I can still now and enjoy, and that there are still certainly people around to like my silly little Yukeru posts and even maybe make new ones. Things are so much better now than they were back then.

It's just. Incredible. Why didn't any of this happen back then?! Why did this Understanding take so long to spread and percolate?!? I don't know. But I'm happy. My younger self... is so, so happy. :'DDD

[chrismerle]

Elsa's Writing Commissions

Hey, hi, hello! I'm Elsa and my usual freelancing contracts are (still) being flaky assholes, so I'm extending branches in other directions!

I’ve been informed that I’m a fairly good writer, and I’ve done writing commissions in the past, so I figure I may as well see if it helps! You can check my writeblr tag, my (very tiny) ghostwriting portfolio, or my AO3 account for examples of my writing.

PRICING:

$0.03 per word.

So, 500 words would be $15.

You give me a ballpark of the length you want. So, if you’re willing to spend between $20 and $25, the story will be between 666 and 833 words.

I’ll round down to the nearest $0.10. So if the finished product is 526 words, I’ll report it as being $15.70, rather than $15.78.

I take payments through Paypal or Venmo.

GUIDELINES:

500-word minimum

You don’t need to supply a full outline, but you do need to have some idea of what you want to happen in the story. The longer the story, the more detail I’ll need. If you just want, like, 500 words, then 'X and Y cuddling’ will suffice, but if you want 5,000 words, I’ll need more to go off of than that.

I will write about your OCs, as long as you can provide info on them.

I will write fanfic, as long as I know the source material well enough (list provided below).

I will write smut, just double-check any kinks you want first. (I won’t write any involving bodily fluids, poop, vore, or feet, sorry.)

If I’m super uncomfy with the subject matter, I’ll turn down the commission, if only because it would be a really badly written end product.

Sorry, but I won't write self-insert or reader-insert fic.

FANDOM LIST (below the cut):

Kingdom Hearts (not Back Cover or Union)

Final Fantasy VII (original Compilation or Remake)

Final Fantasy XV

Persona 5, vanilla or Royal

Persona 4, vanilla only

Dragon Age (games only)

Mass Effect

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

Avatar: The Last Airbender (original series only)

Good Omens (book or show)

Five Nights at Freddy’s (games only)

Who Killed Markiplier? and related series

The Legend of Zelda (OoT, MM, TP, SS, or BotW only)

Star Wars (movies only)

Power Rangers, Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder

Yuri! On Ice

Fullmetal Alchemist, original anime or Brotherhood

Black Butler, anime or manga

Transformers, cartoons, anime, and live action movies

Critical Role campaign 2

Subnautica

The Sandman (Netflix series only)

Sonic the Hedgehog (recent movies only)

Howl’s Moving Castle (Ghibli movie only)

[elzphine]

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ About me! ⭑.ᐟ

This post IS LONGGGG Hi I'm Ella, this page is mainly for me to rant and talk about things I like. Below is more about me as a person and my interests, I do like talking about my personal life to a degree without giving much information out just so you know. Ella isn't my real name either it's a nickname I go by on some of my socials.

Name: Ella

Age: I don't like going into specifics, but I do follow dnf's that restrict certain ages according to my actual age, just keep creepy things to yourself! <3

Just so you know I do tend to overshare on my posts, I try keeping an open mind most times, due to my personality and the way I was brought up I am relatively mean when talking about others even if I don't exactly mean to be. I don't necessarily trash talk people in specific but I tend to be overly honest with people which causes feelings to get hurt etc, etc. I speak what I perceive to be the truth so I lack friends irl..

Personality: It's changed almost every time I took the MBTI test, probably because I took it on 16p.. But I also self typed too and looked into how people who actually are the MBTI I call myself act and respond as a person and compared it with myself I so I guess it's self typing? I don't know. But INTJ is what I find most relatable to myself and how I perceive the world and interact with people. Not too sure of an enneagram I haven't found a free test for that yet.

Interests: Ani-manga, Horror genre things, JJK, PMM, Death note, tbhk, danganronpa. Drawing, Character design, Fanfic reading or writing, world building, character writing, Reality shifting, japanese folklore, I love using folklore when creating characters it is so much fun to interpret and create a design incorporating elements from history, or just irl things in general. I like hazbin hotel, don't come for me I hate the humor in it but I love the idea of the show being an interpretation of heaven and hell and the society in it. Harry potter kind of not really.. Never was much into it. give anime reccomendations pls I need more things to watch!!

Music taste: ANYTHING LITERALLY ANYTHING IM IN THE MOOD FOR I WAS ABLE TO LISTEN TO A 6 MINUTE SONG ABOUT CORNDOGS PERFECTLY FINE IDK HOW. I have bad hyperfixations when I comes to music genres so these are my tops, Emo claimed bands, female manipulator music, pop punk and some hardcore bands, I don't have any at the top of my head, but I was able to listen to black metal, death metal, parody songs the electro swing remix was fire! I can get down to taylor swift and baby shark, I can listen to drill, rap, phonk, songs in spanish or even swedish. country, folk idc. My playlists due to my recent revamp, Are more fixated on ariana grande, sabrina carpenter, mitski, lana, and very few taylor swift, I like alternative music too, I know I'm forgetting so many different genres but those were what I could list off best so keep that in mind. early 2000s-2016 music is top tier fyi. though frank Sinatra is a G oms.

Other random things: I'm all for self improvement and learning more about myself and other topics if I ever magically start liking something you know about by all means info dump, My fav seasons are fall and winter. I'm a winter baby <3 I prefer "cunty" music made by women rather than gay men or trans women (Love y'all too dw.) It just feels more authentic to me if you know what I mean, I can't properly like describe it for some reason but just trust me it's not because I hate that group of people. (I hate everyone equally !!!) I'm a medical NERD, my favorite medical dramas are HOUSE!!! HOUSE I LOVE YOU HOUSE PLS ADOPT ME AND TEACH ME EVERYTHING HE'S THE ICON PLEASE PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE. He's funny and I love his way of thinking. (I just realized we have the same personality type live laugh love that!!) My personality does kind of differ online due to the character limits on tumblr, because if it were up to me every one of these sections would have 5 different paragraphs per thing thank you. I'm an honors student idk if thats shocking to anyone but yea. This also probably will be more shitposting based just random takes from my perspective like reviews on starbucks drinks and just random events. the format is probably going to be more like, diary like idk? its just me posting my thoughts and leaving it out for you all more anonymously if ykwim? I was bullied all of my elementary years over a single unsanitary habit I had. (Picking my nose, like everyone made a point to leave me out due to this. EVERYONE collectively even when i stopped it still happened.) I'm insanely delusional not in a cute or quirky way like "omg he likes me guys" like no, I convinced myself for a month that I had schizophrenia even though I had 0 symptoms or auditory hallucinations or visual hallucinations. I did constant research and found myself on schizophrenia tiktok. Like dawg is trippin fr fr, overthinking and analyzing every little thing is my favorite hobby, so is daydreaming!! One time during a finance class I had I daydreamed that I was a single mom who lived a walking distance from the beach and I had the job i'm going for in the medical field. I loved that daydream so much, would've preferred to have a partner ngl.

Thanks so much for reading, apologies for it being so long my mind is so rampant and i have so much to say and so much input to give that it kind of gets hard to put it in simple sentences. If you're similar to me please follow and moot me or wtv yall do on tumblr I love people with similar mindsets and aspirations it makes me wanna do better in order to keep up.