Friday Fics Fix - A Blanket Cocoon

'Dave was probably never going to get answers out of Klaus, but for right now, he was the designated ‘Coax Hargreeves out for Meals’ guy, so he was going to do his job.'

In some ways, fanfolks are just gluttons for punishment - and I'm no different, really. I love me some angst!

Part of that is because I am an emo child to the end of eternity, and the gothicky and/or angsty stuff is always going to appeal to my sense of Drama.

But another part is that actually it's emotionally healthy to give yourself some space to explore your darker and more angsty feelings in a safe environment - such as through media.

(...I don't know whether that last sentence was really smart or really b*llsh**, but I'ma go with it!

And this is where I remind you that I'm not a mental health professional! Just a chick with personal experience of Depression and Anxiety.)

And what better way to explore your emo feelings than with a Queer Queen created by the Emo Queen of Sass?

(That's Klaus Hargreeves and Gerard Way, respectively.)

See? Told you I was one of the emo children. 

I gave Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, marched in the Black Parade and raised my open filthy palms like tiny daggers up to heaven (and made some noise, of course.) ...I still do, come to think of it. 😉

Via Giphy

Yes, you guessed it! This week's fic is based around the Netflix Umbrella Academy series.

There's season 2 coming up at the end of the month (squee!) but this fic has SPOILERS for season 1, so consider this your SPOILER warning.

This fic sees Klaus in Vietnam - and is from boyfriend Dave's point-of-view (POV.)

I think using Dave's POV here was an impressively smart idea - because it looks at Klaus' breakdown from the outside. 

And Klaus is such an awesome-sauce force of nature that it can be easy (for yours truly, anyhow,) to forget just how odd he must seem to 'normal' people.

It also adds a level of mystique and ambiguity here - in the TV show, we can literally see the things, the ghosts, that only Klaus can see. 

We get a much more intimate POV than even the majority of the comics provide.

So, to everyone else, he's someone who talks to thin air, looks at things that don't seem to be there, and flinches at noises no-one else can hear.

Which, when you add mental health problems and trauma to the mix... you start to understand just how strange Klaus may seem to everyone else.

Via Giphy

This fic is based around a bad mental health episode for poor Klaus. 

But because we have Dave's POV here, we don't know how much of it is a reaction to internal struggle, and which of it is provoked by external stimulus. 

'Cos even where Dave's stood, there's enough traumatic stimulus - and he can't even see all the stuff Klaus can.

I do love that Dave is compassionate throughout here, even though he doesn't - can't - understand totally what Klaus' going through.

I like to think that's at least partially because we all, at some point in our lives, can empathise with the urge to bury ourselves in a blanket cocoon. 😅

Due to the angsty-ness though, there's a bunch of content warnings for this one:

- trauma (past and current)

- references to child abuse and child soldiers

- active war and military service

- death

- eating problems

- mental distress and withdrawing from interaction

- sleep problems

- horror elements

- passive suicidal thoughts

- family problems (b/c Umbrella Academy)

This week's fic, then, is:

Listening by Tinybelieverbug

Angsty fics - yay or nay?

How many of you actually understood the MCR refs? 😅

Are you looking forward to series 2 of The Umbrella Academy?

Talk to me! 😉💬

You can follow me on Twitter @CeeDoraReads, on Pinterest, and on Dora Reads @ BlogLovin. For more ways to support me, check out the Support Me page

Related Reading:

• Friday Fics Fix - The Self-Care Fanfic Rec-List

• Friday Fics Fix - Cops and Ghosties

• Friday Fics Fix - Haunted

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