We Built This City - Singing Mansters

I had to. I have to.

I am exasperated, there needs to be more grunge content, so I had to make some

OH GOD I just realized I recommended you your own fanfic!! GOD. Okay, DOUBLE THANK YOU because that fic devastated me in a good way

Haha, it's okay! I hope it didn't devastate you too much. I wanted it to be rather hopeful, despite all the conflict and drama going on.

Kicking a dead horse with that whole 'not canon' schtick, but, in my defence, I personally have never kicked it before. I can get out with one free pass, I think.

Did you make the Fish 'n chips Tommatt comic?

No, I did not. I believe you're thinking about @uiiyru's tommatt comic. It's still on Tumblr, as far as I can see. We are not the same person.

Hello! Firstly, I'd like to thank you for making me love Grunge through your fic "So Much to Say"! I've already left comments but I had to say it again. And I love your art too! I've seen you love Tenma/Gillen as well; what do you like the most about this ship?

Hello! Thank you, I'm glad you liked my work. As for Tenma/Gillen, yes, I do like this pairing, but I haven't been actively shipping anything from Monster for a while, so it's hard for me to tell 😦 I can't really pinpoint what I like about their dynamic in particular. I have been thinking about how to answer this question for the past few days, but I've come to realize that I can't say anything definitive.

Well, I like Gillen. More than Tenma, actually. Canonically, Gillen became really devoted to Tenma. And I have this thing in my head, where if I feel like the character I like wants another character, I must make it so my favourite character gets what they want (same thing with Runge/Grimmer). So it all boils down to me thinking that Gillen wants Tenma. And I think he would be capable of treating Tenma well. The fact that Gillen got divorced three times tells me that he's better off without women, too. And if Tenma adopted Dieter (he should have had), I find it funny that Dieter would probably hate Gillen with all his heart, despite Gillen making his best effort to appease the boy. However you look at it, I find the dynamic amusing. Even in the "Doctors without borders" scenario, I think Gillen and Dieter would make amends over them both wanting to see Tenma, missing him, while the other is always away, somewhere out of the country. The dynamic should always involve Dieter, unless it's Gillen and Tenma during the time when they were both studying in the medical university.

Some sketches

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Monster (Anime & Manga) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Wolfgang Grimmer/Heinrich Lunge Characters: Wolfgang Grimmer, Heinrich Lunge, Wim Knaup, Fritz Verdemann Additional Tags: Letters, Fix-It, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Psychological Attachment, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Developing Relationship, Alcohol Summary:

Grimmer survives Ruhenheim. Inspector Runge, whose personal life and career have suffered a downfall, is determined to fulfill his promise and treat Grimmer to a "delicious, cold beer." In the end, he believes, it was time for him to draw the line and start a new life on the ruins of the old one.

Grunge

I hate saying stuff, because I always regret it in the end. But once in a blue moon my desire to say something grows so strong that I crawl from under my rock and make some sort of a statement somewhere. It's that time now.

I've already talked my friend's ear off with this crap, but it's still not enough. It also drives me up the wall that I don't see this stuff being said all the time, or at least some of the time. I guess I don't see it being said at all. So I guess I have to say it myself. 

I'm talking about this huge thing Runge canonically has for Grimmer. Not even in the romantic sense... Let me explain. In the crudest of terms, too.

By the time Runge makes it to Ruhenheim, he is already not quite the same as he was at the start. His path to Ruhenheim was the most tedious, and yet he still got there before everyone else. And Grimmer definitely catches his eye when they intersect. Again, not in the romantic sense. They just go around the town, exploring the surroundings and kinda watching each other. And they both know. They know what's going on, they know who the other person is, but they just waltz around it for quite some time. Until they finally have a proper conversation in that desolate place. And that conversation, man...

They understood each other with half-word, literally skipping a good portion of talking, because that would just be redundant. Runge is absolutely chill with the idea that Grimmer might be a murderer. The guy has a nice smile, so who cares, right? Grimmer states that Runge "smells like a detective". Is it just me, or does that sound, uhhh... extremely weird? Almost in a flirty sort of way. Because you gotta get pretty close to someone to take a good whiff of them. And hearing something like that being said about yourself, it must be pretty embarrassing, or confusing, or thrilling. What does that even mean, by the way? I thought so hard about it, and I still can't tell for sure. What do detectives smell like? Gunpowder, paperwork and cold, hard determination? Do they reek of sweat, or some special kind of cologne? I have no idea. But I guess Grimmer has, and Runge, he just stands there, looking at him like it's a given.

And after that, they just click. "Oh, hey, we're on the same page, we're after the same thing". And without any negotiation, they simply decide that they work together now. I am fully convinced that at this very moment Runge went, "This one". No context, just – "This one", about Grimmer. 

He then proceeded to entrust Grimmer with his most important evidence, the very one that led him to Ruhenheim. And then, at Versteck... Man. His "I'll buy you a beer" says so many things, just because it came from Runge. He doesn't have any friends. He doesn't even communicate with his colleagues properly. But, somehow, he is still willing to bond with Grimmer. I guess it's a "we're the same, so let's be alone together" thing. At the same time, he's just heard Grimmer stating that he cannot enjoy simple pleasures in life. That means, he wouldn't be able to enjoy this suggested after-work-beer either, right? So Runge's invitation serves as a double promise: that they'll get the job done and make it out of Ruhenheim alive, and that Grimmer will be fixed enough to finally enjoy that beer with him. 

Needless to say, Runge really, really wanted to keep Grimmer alive. And he doesn't cope with Grimmer's death well. Say what you will, but visiting someone's grave with a beer after A YEAR that they've passed, lamenting how you wish you would have known them, is pretty damn strange. And I suppose Runge might've visited Grimmer's grave prior, too, with some periodicity. The card, the plans, the beer, the hinted promise – he really wanted Grimmer to become his friend. And just because it's Runge, who refused to even engage in a casual talk with his peers and barely cared that his wife and daughter abandoned him, this thing he has for Grimmer seems to be especially large, unalloyed and special.

For the greater cause I am giving in to my corrupting impulses of drawing men in love, that cause being Grunge severely lacking in content. I would add "still", but really, nothing is changing, it's just me boiling alive in my own broth. Well, maybe something is changing, but I can't see it for now. For now, I will be the change I want to see in the world and spew whatever this is into the social media space. Sounds like a plan to me. I would've elaborated on what's going on here, but that's kinda embarrassing and I don't want to. Just take it, please. Or don't. That's also good.