I Feel This So Much

I feel this so much

my thirst for Slavic characters in media knows no bounds. And no, I don’t mean some Russian spy or super model or mafia boss. I want normal and interesting characters from smaller Slavic countries who celebrate name days, who live by weird superstitions passed down through their families, who make gulash and sausage and bean stews for dinner. I want Slavic characters with affectionate nicknames given by their family. I want characters who grew up on German fantasy films from the 60s and weird soviet cartoons. I want the societal pressure and the religious guilt and the love for rolling green mountain ranges that remind them of home. I want to see myself in this real personal way that I have so rarely encountered in media or in real life.

Representation of real experiences is so often boiled down into big concepts rather than the small details that matter. Frequently it can feel like checking off boxes instead of communicating substantial themes or reflections of reality. It’s easy for a show to say a character’s family comes from Germany or Senegal or Russia but that’s usually where they draw the line. The more vague they are, the easier it is to turn entire countries or continents into generic set dressing that (in theory) could apply to millions. But it’s the mannerisms, the culture, the language, the folktales, all these things that shape you from the very moment you’re born. It’s the small details that help you connect, that resurrect the small child inside you who once lived in a foreign bubble, who experienced the awful alongside the great. I yearn to see what I am made of staring back at me through a screen. I yearn to connect to my foundations, to the culture that slowly slips from my memory as I continue to age entire oceans away from the place of its origin.

[ WIP ] That one image from bsd!beast, but more happy :P

Tags

art fanart bsd bungou stray dogs chuuya nakahara bsd chuuya bsd fanart bsd beast art practice

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m1t1sy

1 year ago

I need more pre-Dark Era fics that set Kunikida, honour student (probably, given that he used to be a teacher at a mere 22) with authority issues, on collision course, or for want of a nail interaction, or right-people wrong time (future partner and future partner's ex with whom to commiserate) with teen skk.

I mean, imagine: Dazai, 16. Chuuya, 16. Kunikida, in high school uniform, also 16. One on the way to school. The other two on the way back from a job.

Imagine: Kunikida reading a newspaper article about the Dragon head conflict on public transit and next to him, Dazai and Chuuya. Dazai, who can't resist poking and playing with the irony.

Kunikida: Terrible how anyone can be so irresponsible with human life.

Dazai, the picture of innocence with blood probably not yet dried under his nails: couldn't agree more, absolutely terrible.

Chuuya, very aware of all the incriminating evidence on them if someone only cared to look that Dazai was also absolutely aware of: *getting a headache*

Imagine Kunikida detailling his plan for the rest of his life in a lecturing voice as an Example Of How To Make Life Purposeful to two kids his age who seem to be skipping school/loitering around/emerging from bad parts of the city, etc. And he's talking to two career criminals who at that point probably have more money in their bank accounts than any teenager should think of posessing, a career that's processing smoothly, a growing reputation to their names, etc.

The cognitive dissonance on both sides, when those worlds meet, in whatever form, is bound to be entertaining.

Bonus points if they strike up something of a friendship. (Social experiment on Dazai's part, Normal Teenager Experience on Chuuya's part, and Dubious Acquaintance on Kunikida's part.)

Bonus, bonus points if Kunikida at 22 later remembers Dazai but still doesn't connect the dots about Dazai's criminal activity until he's explicitly told about it.

I NEED more fics that platonically play with Kunikida and the skk-ness.

319 notes View Post

m1t1sy

8 months ago

DAY 4 OF VAMPTOBER!

PROMPT: GHOST!