Halloween Fic: Spirit Animals

[formerdinosaur]

Gonna post this in 3 installments - the last one will be up on Halloween night!

Title: Spirit Animals
Pairing: Stan/Kyle
Rating: R
Words: ~20k; ~5,500 in this chapter
Summary: Cartman wants to film his amateur ghost hunting show at the site of the grisly McCormick massacre. Stan hates the idea but he can't stay away, because Kyle will be there.

Comments

[_confunded_]

I really really love this so far. It actually reminds me a lot (well not A LOT a lot) of your Hey Arnold Halloween fic, in which Arnold comfortably tags along to the scary/haunted place because Helga's going and he can't bear to not go because what if something happens and he's the moral one and secretly in love with Helga.

So needless to say I'm really into this already! I enjoy Halloween as a background for forcing pairings to confront their feelings, a lot. I also love the Kyman in this, because literally nothing makes me happier than Stan being inexplicably angry and uncomfortable over Cartman and Kyle touching each other's dicks. I really think there are a lot of circumstances where Cartman being the one to make the first move on Kyle would be the thing that makes Stan realize HE wants to be that person, not Cartman. But anyway...

I agree with everything Arvy said in her review. Kenny does have a living presence here despite being "dead" (though really I think he's been an alley dwelling hobo for some time and we'll find that out later along with why). AND your Stan continues to be my favorite Stan and I'm pretty sure all of my favorite fics of yours are from his POV, you really have a gift for writing him. He's such a hard character to do well, and you definitely know his voice. All of his dialogue in this is so Stan, and I love how Wendy is so frustrated with that lol.

I also love Kyle in this. I really do think he'd react to grief or any major life changes by getting kind of out of control and making self destructive decisions (like getting into an arrangement with Cartman), whereas Stan would internalize and dwell on grief in a more quiet way. You write Kyle so beautifully, you really do. You definitely capture this aura of someone who is sort of unhinged but intriguing, and especially through Stan's eyes he comes across like... idk an angry unicorn or something. And that is where I decide this review is no longer making sense so I'll leave it at that, haha.

[formerdinosaur]

Thanks! Yeah, I was definitely remembering that story when writing this one, aww. I wrote it in the library when I was miserable and avoiding homework, and it's a good memory.

I'm glad you're into this! Halloween stories are my weakness, I love them so much. And yes, I'm so into jealous Stan when Cartman is gloating, it's like, my calling in this fandom. And I totally agree that Cartman's boldness and bragging could make Stan examine his feelings for Kyle differently.

More to come about Kenny soon! I definitely think I do better with Stan's POV in some ways, yeah - I originally had this from Kyle's and it wasn't working at all, and as soon as I switched a bunch of stuff fell into place about what I wanted this story to actually be like. And I'm glad his dialogue is ringing true for you and believably frustrating Wendy!!

Absolutely agree with you that where Stan would withdraw and sink into himself grief would make Kyle a bold maniac who makes bad choices. So so happy that you like Kyle in this! I actually love the metaphor of the angry unicorn, it's pretty perfect - Stan sees Kyle as this kind of singularly important force of energy in the universe or something - he orbits Kyle, idk. Now I'm mixing metaphors - thank you so much for reading and for the comment!

[_confunded_]

No no I get what you're saying and I agree. Kyle is an emotional force of nature that has a gravitational pull for someone who is normally pretty apathetic like Stan.