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Whammy ponys

This image is so funny for no reason 💀💀💀😭😭😭 I can't stop laughing help me😭😭💀💀💀💀💀💀

okay, so, i decided to make a 2024 wrapped after all. i constrained myself to works which are complete, and which i wrote on my own. i also tried to avoid including fics that are part of a wider series, and focused on standalone stories, though there is one exception.

2024 was a wild year for me! i posted / updated 53 works, and wrote 158k words. yesterday (12/25) was two years since i posted my first fic for mello/near. in those two years— and especially throughout 2024— the death note fan community has come to mean more to me than i could have ever predicted. i'm excited to keep writing and sharing my work with you all in 2025 (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠❤

a world transformed

near POV; no kira, wammy's era

F/F | rated T | 1,700 words

In which a gift transforms the way Near understands the world.

the frost

mello POV; post-explosion kira investigation

M/M | rated T | 1,620 words

“So?” Mello shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Brushes his wrist against the handle of his gun, just to remind himself that it’s there. “What the hell do you want?” Near smirks. “Who said I wanted anything but your company?” He twirls a strand of hair around his finger. The gesture is so familiar that it makes Mello’s chest ache. “Perhaps I wished to spend time with an old friend. It’s been a long while, hasn’t it?” Mello scoffs. “Oh, is that what we are?” A tilt of Near’s head. His smile skews, bafflingly, a bit more genuine. Bizarre little bastard. “Isn’t it?”

THE END IS NEAR

near POV; post-explosion kira investigation

M/M | rated T | 1,725 words

So here they are now, in the middle of the bible belt with a disposable camera and an unspoken agreement to ignore the elephant in the room. Or— elephants, plural, because there are a whole host of things they aren’t discussing. The Kira case is one, and maybe the biggest, but they also haven’t talked about Mello’s photo or the words on the back of it, and Near hasn’t dared to voice the question that he keeps asking himself:  Why am I here?

august 18, 2010 (two-hundred days)

near POV; post-kira, mello lives

M/M | rated M | 1,650 words

Near is sitting in his office. He is sitting at his desk in his office, which is also Mello’s office, because they share one, now. Mello is under two meters away from him, sitting at his own desk and glaring at his backlit monitor like he wants to kill it. This has been their status quo for about seven months. Near knows the exact figure— two-hundred days— but he usually avoids acknowledging that he knows it, even in his own mind. Having this information on hand feels slightly illicit, because he knows the only reason he recalls the duration of their professional partnership with this degree of precision is because of what happened immediately before it began.

starving

mello POV; post-kira, mello lives

M/M | rated M | 2,720 words

Near is hungry. No— not hungry. Near is famished. He’s starving. Mello can see it in the pronounced pallor of his face, the dullness of his eyes. In life, he could go for a day and a half without eating and barely notice. It wasn’t good for him, but he could do it without issue. In undeath, he is not so resilient.

to have & to hurt

near POV; wammy's era to post-kira

M/M | rated E | 7,000 words

Five times Mello is harsh with Near, and one time he is very tender.

compromised

near POV; pre-explosion kira investigation

M/M | rated E | 2,850 words

The door has only just shut behind them when Mello slams him against it, forcing the air from Near’s lungs in a painful wheeze. Hands fisted in white fabric, he gets right up in Near’s face. It is meant to be frightening, menacing, but more than anything Near finds it nostalgic, really. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Mello hisses. Near blinks, feigning innocence. “Visiting.” — In which Near finds both Mello’s base and a suitable compromise.

good boy

near POV; post-kira, mello lives

M/M | rated E | 5,350 words

Mello’s stare is warm and constant, and the comforting exhilaration of it builds and builds within Near until he feels like he may burst. There is something he wants to say to Mello, but he doesn’t know what it is. Before he can ever say anything at all, though, Mello stands to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says. Before he goes, he gives Near two lists. One for the night. One for the next morning. Near always follows them to the letter. — In which Mello and Near form a dom-sub relationship centered entirely around shared meals and to-do lists.

one in the same

near POV; post-kira, mello lives

M/M | rated E | 3,500 words

“Fuck,” Mello whispers. His hands shake against Near’s chest. “Good boy,” Near repeats, experimental, smiling as he watches Mello’s eyes flutter shut again. “The very best.” A small frown tugs at Mello’s lips. Near tries to kiss it away, but it lingers. He still has work to do.

we'll pretend it ends tomorrow

mello POV; no kira, post-wammy's

M/M | rated E | 5,775 words

“What’s happening?” Near asks. “I’m not sure,” Mello says. “I think we might’ve been kidnapped.” Near makes a soft sound of disapproval. Mello bristles at this, because it sounds like Near is mad at him over their abduction, even though it’s obviously not Mello’s fault. Shutting his eyes for a moment, he reminds himself that Near is probably feeling super-scared and vulnerable, and that, considering the situation, he may not be thinking through the potential implications of the sounds he’s making. He probably didn’t mean for it to seem accusatory. -- A dire situation tests Mello and Near’s ability to work together, bringing out the good, the bad, and the intensely sexual.

ughhhhhh… new hyperfixation ,,,,

Lance? Why Lance?

I totally agree with all that and also.. yeah

Toto's character is kinda blank in some aspects and it has a lot of "empty spaces". And I think that is why he is so popular in fandom. He is not only the "eyes" of the reader, he is also a great headcanon material. Like you can imagine him smoking weed or killing ppl before and that wouldn't change the canon at all.

As for his improvement in deduction and etc.. I don't think that he would reach Ron's or Kawasemi level and I really believe that he shouldn't. He obviously gets better but his main goal is to help people and protect them and he doesn't need to be a genius to do so (and also Ron can do it now which means that Toto kinda fulfilled his mission👀)

Anywaaay I still haven't read the latest chapters of the manga so I'm probably not the one to speak😅

When I first read new chapter, I was glad that Toto's character has a development and now not afraid to look at corpses like Ron. Plus I thought he become smarter.

However, once I re-read the chapter, I realized something. Toto hasn't grown at all as a character.

His observation skills for important details have really improved, no doubt about it. But the ability to solve riddles and deduction haven't improved at all. Toto couldn’t do it and still can’t do it. After running around with Ron for over a year, I expected to see at least some kind of thought process.

And that's Toto's problem as a character in the story. He's just... boring.

No matter how much I love Toto, (he is the best in my heart) as a character he is NOT interesting to watch. He is not growing, he is as he was in the beginning “for everything good and fluffy. I value every human life” he remained that way. And it's not a bad thing i think, but compared to others it's boring.

Maybe I'm wrong but tell me how Toto has changed throughout history? And no, there’s no mention of self-confidence here because he still has self-destructive tendencies.

Now let's take others.Ron has obviously changed a lot and that's a good thing. Kawasemi changed and stopped being so strict. Chiori stopped being so a rabid fan of detective. Even Spitz and Amamiya changed somehow. I can't say anything about Toto.

No matter how paradoxical it may sound, the only thing that makes Toto stand out from the rest is his lack of personality and mysteries around him. He literally feels like a piece of cardboard but not as living person.

Most of his actions are literally told but not shown. It's like Toto himself was left out of the picture.

So yea , I think Toto is the character who suffers most at the hands of the author in manga

Heya! Thank you for waiting.

I thought about this long and hard. Like you, I love Toto, seeing that I am a Watsonian first of all. And at times, biased.

It is not easy to give you answers, bc I might change my opinion in the coming days. But for now, I can say that your concerns are valid, that Toto as a character remains somehow stagnant. On the other hand, if you change him, just a little bit, like he has reached Ron’s level in deduction we would lose him as a stand-in for the audience. Seeing that the titular character isn’t Toto, his role is more like Jiminy Cricket. He gives advices, scolds Ron, he can’t arse finding out the solution bc he isn’t the genius character. This is Ron’s place.

Once Akira changes him to something like equal to Ron then in the grand scheme of her storytelling, his role as the receiver of wonderful deduction would be gone.

And in all honesty, it is a bit mind-boggling how will Akira direct Toto’s characterisation in a new direction without involving him as someone who is part of the antagonists or giving us hints of his familial background, if she considers him as a deuteragonist of the story. Bc so far, like any Watson-esque character, he’s become a character in the background, it is the downside of having a genius and eccentric friend.

True, it is frustrating sometimes, and he’s maybe boring bc of it. In truth we applaud him when he shows signs of improvement. But I don’t think he’ll reach Kawasemi’s excellence nor Ron’s genius bc he’s none of these things. Kawasemi changed emotionally and has become a disciple of Toto.

And yet, and yet, Akira seems to be content in status quo.

He is changing but gradually. Maybe, the moment Ron will receive his license is the moment we’ll see Toto can hold his own. Cross my fingers.

PS: that’s why i am counting on the anime crew hoping that they can remedy some issues on Toto’s characterisation, which they did during the first season.

The executioner

whatever this is

Noé jumped out of a moving airship to hold Vanitas' hand and Vanitas jumped through the barrier between worlds because he felt someone wanted to separate them both, all this on their first date, and you really want to convince me the secret is to show less interest?

With more moments where Toto has a blank face, especially during the Ferris wheel arc, I can't help but feel like Toto is just pretending to be happy and kind. And most likely this was not done out of malicious intent (although who knows, the theory that Toto is a villain remains valid) it is still an interesting point.

This would explain the rather strange explanation of how Toto found a safe place so quickly (sorry but it really looks like it was made up) and how he could get away from his stalker.

As long as we are NOT SHOWN how he does it, nothing prevents him from lying that he was being pursued or something like that. Although this is unlikely.

Anyway, Toto again leaves me with more questions than answers. It seems like the he is the main character of the detective story, but he has biggest mysteries.

(I was also shocked that he has a cousin)

Oh god.

Can you imagine if Ron had invented another person to cope with his misery? Meaning every single character that we have met through Toto never existed. The cases. The incidents with the Auberge, the Dolphin ship, everything were only ideas on Ron’s mind.

That would be a lonely place.

Hmmm… interesting idea. Toto has become Ron’s biggest mystery.