#and they were pretty much all my friends

[butterflysonnets]

yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.

to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!

i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.

also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.

they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.

they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.

i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.

#eve text #elmike #stranger things #byler #only tagging byler because i feel like yall will like this take lol #tagging tagging tagging WHAT ARE EVERYONE ELSE'S THOUGHTS #god i can't believe i'm making a post about stranger things. this feels like poking a bear #i'm not particularly anti m*leven but like... they'd have to do something pretty special at this point for me to feel like it's viable #i'm seeing the bts of s5 and it's got me Having Thoughts #elmike friendship is something i am so passionate about #even before i ever liked byler (didn't ship at all until s4 even though i knew it was a thing before) i've felt this way about elmike #i always believed they were close friends at heart and needed to break up #the romance part of them felt very distinctly young and very much “he was a boy she was a girl” to me #and it hasn't deepened into anything more mature and i don't see how it could based on the current state of the writing... #the fact that lumax exists — a young relationship that is actively maturing and is healthy — makes that clear to me #and the “love confession” in s4 and how disingenuous and miserable it felt was just the nail in the coffin #also the fact that will (who is IN LOVE with mike) was instrumental in making it happen? ... uh... okay... interesting choice… #fucked up and reductive if they make it another queer unrequited love sacrifice for the sake of pushing the heterosexual agenda YUCK #so i really hope the speculation about a m*leven breakup is real!! i think it just makes sense for their characters but who knows #i don't believe in the notion of love at first sight or one true love and i think the writers don't too??? #love to me is an accumulation of experiences and we inevitably choose it at some point rather than fall into it... but idk #tv is so fixated on keeping couples together... sometimes it's just not reality guys especially with young people... LET IT GO... #like i said though i'm not 100% sold that they're going to give up their “golden couple” LMAO #stranger things hasn't historically subverted too many tropes if i'm being honest #anyway i seriously need this season to come out quickly... i'm so bored and getting my master's is crushing my soul #i need frivolity #ALSO btw i won't respond to hateful messages about this so please don't bother. it's not that serious. this is a netflix show

[seaglassdinosaur]

I know we collectively agree that Hiccup isn’t romantically inclined, and his getting married and having kids didn’t make sense in the epilogue, but consider: Hiccup getting married for political reasons.

It’s a marriage of alliance, which is recognized both by him and his partner, and they enter it without expectations of romantic involvement. Since they’re now married, they live in the same castle, spend time together, and Hiccup finds he really likes his spouse. They’re funny, get along with his friends, and has the same interests and values. They both probably speak multiple languages. She understands why Hiccup is so dedicated to making the Wilderwest better, and holds similar views. She’s a good politician (her job after all, was to be an ambassador). Hiccup likes spending time with them, and the feeling is mutual. They’re not in love, they have their own lives, but they’re dedicated to each other and eventually decide to raise children. They teach their kids how to train hawks and hunt with dragons, riding, history, the Languages, and all the necessary skills of their world. They’re not in love and they’re happy together.

#pushing the aromantic hiccup agenda and also the queerplatonic agenda #as much as the idea of hiccup getting married was always a little off to me it was more the romantic angle #which I why I like the idea of a marriage of alliance and a partner who understands that #and then of course the montage of them being a good team and getting along #and going ‘yeah I like this person. I think this is the person I want to spend my life with.’ #also a) a lot of arranged political marriages did have the foreign spouse function as an ambassador #b) polyglot hiccup is canon and I think it would be neat if his spouse was as well. it is a marriage alliance after all. #she isn’t from the small area of berm #(actually give all the Vikings regional accents. I think it’s neat) #c) she/they because I didn’t feel firmly about the partner’s gender and the nords were pretty gender diverse #anyway I think the partner would probably be fond of the library and admire hiccup got it open way back when #get along with Fishlegs and camicazi well enough #and enjoy dramatic stories of their adventures. maybe have some of her own #also: normalize people having their own lives outside their partners. hiccup and they are happy together but also have their own friends #oh and you know hiccup would be a great dad. he loves Stoick but he would so much be the dad he wished he had growing up #are the kids bio related? are they adopted (cast off and No Names)? who knows! #I could build in my head what hiccup’s spouse is like but I’ll leave it here #they exist as we construct them #httyd #httyd books #my post #book!hiccup #hiccup the third #hiccup horrendous haddock iii #book hiccup

[local-limebug]

jason todd has so many underrated canon love interests. essence, isabel, artemis, and rose are all characters i love with him. like those are good ships. why is everyone ignoring them?

#look. i have Opinions on this matter. #i know that fandoms have incurable mlm fetishization disease which is why jayroy is so much more popular than these ships #and i like jayroy but. come on. jayrose solos. #but fr like 😭 ik we all hate whatever he had going on with babs and kori because what the fuck (i hate dc writers) #but jay/essence was a good ship!! it would have added more focus onto who jason is outside of being a vigilante but still being a warrior #because its p much canon that he has magical affinities that dc pretty much ignores now #and isabel! jay/isabel was such a good ship too for showing the more civilian view of the red hood and who jason was as a civilian #jayrose is my personal fav solely because they're one of the few duos we've seen as good friends and i just love their interactions #and rose has that anti-hero (?) potential right. i think jayrose is a good ship for who jason would be as a vigilante outside gotham #ik i'm focusing on jason more than the love interests when i talk about why these ships are so interesting but rn that's just because i'm #trying to figure out why these ships are so ignored among jason fans in favour of ships like jayroy or jaykori or jaybabs or batc*st #because imo these have so much more potential than those ones :/ #i forgot to speak on jaytemis. i love jaytemis because i think jason deserves a woman that can yeet his 6 foot brick wall body with ease- #but more than that it really would have been a very fun idea to explore the amazonians' moralities and politics more #because jay and artemis were supposed to parallel bruce and diana. i just think there was again potential there for jason to break off from #the batfamily #yk? #limebug's original posts #jason todd #rose wilson #artemis of bana mighdall #isabel ardila #essence #sorry to any jayroy shippers that might see this even tho i didnt individually tag jayroy. i'm one of you i promise i'm a multishipper #if anyone wants to discuss this my dms and askbox are OPEN

[myfairkatiecat]

not my friends being 400x less supportive about me being Christian than I am about them being atheist

#losing my mind right now #we were literally all just talking about a trip the senior class goes on #I said I didn’t want to go #cause I kinda hate the camp #and this girl responds to my message about hating camp #and goes HAHA I HATE CHURCHES #haha get it cause that’s how I feel about churches #and I’m like??? you knew what you were doing when you randomly changed the topic to that directly off of one of my messages #this is a pretty minor example too #it’s just the one that’s sending me over the edge right now #I’m so fed up with it #I’m over here treading on eggshells and trying to not mention religion too much so I can show my respect for your beliefs #and all you want to do is constantly change the topic to how much you hate my religion #but if I say I can’t be friends with someone because of that #then IM the intolerant one! #there’s no way to win. #I wish people were just not like that

[diabolicjoy]

mittens !!!! pattern X - i modified a bit because my yarn was a bit more thick, so i shortned a few rows of the colorwork & added the burnt orange details instead :)

#remember when i posted almost a month ago about a friend that commissioned some mittens #? #so yeah the one i was making initially turned out fine i suppose #i even posted the picture here #but the i noticed the sizing wasn’t right & the yarn i was using was sooo annoying to work it i just couldn’t get it right... it was also #like dyed like ombré? & the colors were a bit off. like each mitt had a different color like the weren’t even a pair... #but i was insisting too much like i undid & knitting that thing like +10 times #knitted* #so i decided so grab some yarn that i like for my mittens & that i’m already familiar with & found this pretty pattern & so!! ta-da!! #it’s so much nicer than the other one. also my friend wasn’t that specific & gave me a lot of liberty do to whatever #she gave me a general idea of the colors she liked so these are perfect #also the inspo pics she sent me all had this kinda fair isle design but at first i was a little intimidated so i barely did it on that one #first mitten that i had posted. so i’m glad i tried a diff pattern a managed to make these!!!! #anyway that’s basically what my month was all about lol worrying abt the mitts then finally finding a solution #also i got a commission from a instagram mutual to crochet a bag with that little sleepy snoopy design on it!! i’ve seen it on tumblr a few #times now & i’m excited to finish this project & finally get to it!! already bought the yarn & it’s so pretty #SO MANY TYPOS SORRY #girl knits world #knitting

[pansyfemme]

thinking about an ask i got when i was 14 that has stuck with me forever because it was like. accusing me of lying about having bi4bi parents. why would that be anything even remotely interesting enough to lie about

#its cool and it made me rlly open to queerness at an early age bc even tho i didn't know my parents were bi- #anyone old enough to understand that they had lives before they got married and had kids would be able to read them pretty easily. #they had a lot of queer and trans friends too so i grew up knowing about everything #i was just a kid and didn't rlly.. think about the fact my parents had had other partners before eachother much and it never really totally #came up what the genders of those partners were. it wasn't a secret it just never rlly came up #my parents are now both of the mindset of the fact that they both still identify as bi but they don't feel the need to bring it up a lot #because theyve been married for 23 years. its not all that important anymore in their day to day lives

[ihopeucomehomesoon]

i won’t hold people to the same standards i have on myself in terms of friendship bc everyone shows they care in different ways

#this is a part affirmation and part intro to a rant i need to unleash #but i’ll leave it in the tags here bc it feels safer lol #it’s abt my housemate the other day when we had our last class which is online but our previous classes were in person so as a class we #usually just pull it up on the main computer and broadcast the zoom in the classroom #but on this day the class before this zoom class got out early so lots of people went home early to just watch it on their own zoom or wtvr #so the row i sit in was pretty empty except for me my housemate and our two friends #and usually my housemate sits on my right but she got up and moved to sit on the other side next to our other friend and said nothing #and i didn’t want to say anything bc i was kinda sad/offended even though #her moving seats probably has nothing to do with me and much rather her personal preference i can’t help but think negatively abt myself #also one morning we were both off she went to the smoothie shop and coffee shop and just went to pick up her orders and i felt the same #reaction of like sad/offended bc she didn’t consider me at al like what if i wanted a smoothie too! TF #or coffee even though i don’t drink coffee anymore wtvr #my thoughts on her and my friendship are kinda rocky bc we feel so out of sync #i feel like she’s always in her own world and it’s hard to get through to her and become real friends #it’s whatever not all friendships can be deep and meaningful

[oceandiagonale]

hey all it's been a busy semester but a good one btw do you think volo's hat does that deerstalker hat thin g with the flaps and the snappy top

#oceandi speaks #volo #poll #small life update it's getting close to the end of the semester and it looks like I might actually pass this final class this time lmaooo #I have pretty much all of the arrrc pages sketched I just got uhhhh erally distracted from doing the LINE art because my brain decided #to latch on HARD to the pieces au. to the point of making a dnd oneshot of it for a small group of friends that I'll run later #volo is a fucken delight in that au. charm turned up to 20 because he has nothing to lose and just wants some whimsy. #gene's trying really really hard to be an edgy lone wolf but unfortunately he's still gene which means he's bad at that #even in the postapocalypse he's like. 'hey I know you were just fighting me but do you want to. talk a bit 🥺 no im NOT lonely 😤'

[sakebytheriver]

Here's the thing about Oct. 7th

Any analysis of the situation that does not acknowledge that the IOF itself is responsible for most of the casualties is incomplete and pretty close to straight up propaganda

I have no love in my heart for Hamas, I agree that it is an extreme fundamentalist religious movement founded on the most radical platform the Palestinian revolution could have had and even as the secularists have taken positions and done work to move the ideology in a less radical direction as they saw that with only Hamas in power they only had one option but to try and change the organization from the inside, that doesn't mean they don't still have extreme views or tactics and nor does it mean that they are not also mistreating the Palestinians in Gaza as any ruling government party mistreats their citizens, remember they only received 44.5% of the vote and then promptly ended free elections there after, not even to mention how many Gazans were under the voting age when that election was held. Their extreme views and tactics for liberation are quite literally why Netenyahu himself funneled money into their operation to ensure that they were the international face of Palestine to make it so that public international opinion would be against them and further destabilize Palestinian liberation attempts

But it has literally been reported by Israel's own media and journalists that the IOF are the ones who shelled Israeli homes which led to those horrific burning deaths of Israeli babies Ben Shapiro won't let the internet forget about, it was reported by the Israeli media itself that the IOF fired at their own citizens fleeing from the music festival, it was reported by Israeli media that the IOF shot and killed hostages with their hands tied behind their backs, and it has been confirmed by Israeli citizens who were taken hostage by Hamas insurgents that the insurgent's main goal seemed to be to keep them alive and relatively safe in order to be taken hostage as leverage for the Palestinian hostages Israel has locked in their prisons while the IOF soldiers and the people who gave them their marching orders were indiscriminate in who they killed, driving tanks through residential areas, shooting citizens, and bombing houses with families, the elderly, and infants inside

This is not to say that Hamas didn't kill anyone, I'm sure they did, but from Israel's own media and their own citizen's reports who were taken hostage we have been told the number of casualties were so high on Oct. 7th because the IOF had absolutely no qualms killing their own people

And nor is this to say that Hamas is some kind of humanitarian freedom fighting militia that will always treat Israelis nice and respectfully, the reason why they've been so nice to their hostages is because they are playing the optics game that Israel won't

They are doing the wartime optics game correctly right now while Israel has all but abandoned it, they are keeping the hostages safe and well looked after so that when held up next to the cruelty and the indiscriminate violence of the Apartheid state (which has over 10,000 Palestinians held hostage in their prisons as of now) they look better in comparison to the international eye, that is the whole point of fighting an asymmetrical war, you have to use asymmetrical tactics, especially in an age where public opinion can mean the difference between life or death

Ultimately, my point here is that the idea that Hamas are the ones who are soley responsible for the massacre of over a thousand Israeli citizens is just false, and that is confirmed by the Israeli media itself. It was the IOF response to the attack that killed so many, Hamas does not have the technology available to them to be able to shell someone's house, the people who crossed the Gazan border were only armed with the guns they could carry in their hands, that doesn't lead to the kind of damage done in these Israeli neighborhoods that we have seen reported on (just check NPR's ig page it's full of videos of the Israeli neighborhoods destroyed after Oct. 7th) but a tank driven by an IOF soldier who has been given the greenlight by his superiors to kill as many Israelis as he deems necessary in the hopes of killing any single Hamas insurgent they can get, definitely will

Innocents died on Oct. 7th, I will never deny that, but most of them didn't meet their end by a Hamas insurgent. They met their end by an Israeli soldier who was supposed to be sent there to protect them and if you don't acknowledge that fact, if you simply say that it was the attack by Hamas that killed so many people then you have not done any research into what actually happened that day and you don't get to use it as some kind of gotcha against the people who support Palestine

#ignore me #free palestine #israel #palestine #saw someone who called themselves an israeli leftist reblogging inflamatory posts about oct 7 from accounts that #were very much NOT israeli leftists and in fact very hardline zionists #so yeah. #im all for calling out antisemitism but you guys sure do like to conflate antisemitism with antizionism a lot #and you know a lot of diaspora jews have suffered because of your conflation of those two things #also unrelated but like the way this one israeli was crying about how a work friend reached out to ask how they were but didnt respond when #their answer was full of them being like well my family is going to be fighting with idf pretty soon and ive been feeling sad because peopl #are yelling at me for supporting a genocide #and they conflated this with antisemitism as if it wasnt some aquaintance trying to be nice #and then backing off when they found out you were a genocidal fuck

[waitineedaname]

for some reason the intro to phonology and syntax classes for grad students are also the advanced phonology and syntax classes for undergrads, which means the professors are spouting off dense syntactical theory to undergrads who have already taken the intro class with them, meanwhile there's six of us grad students sitting to the side staring at each other like this

#linguistics blogging #no joke I literally made this face in syntax earlier #the professor was describing contiguity theory and drawing syntax trees I could NOT understand #and an undergrad asked her ''what does this mean for phi-boundaries'' or something like that #and I just looked over at my friends and made this face #only to discover they were all also looking bewildered and/or miserable #I'm so glad it's not just me #because I have literally never taken a phonology or syntax class #and I am SO out of my depth #we did the BARE basics of this stuff in my minor #and definitely no theory #so I have no fucking idea what's going on #luckily out of the six of us only two have an actual linguistics degree before this #the rest of us are pretty new to the field #so we are suffering together #i hate syntax and phonology. god. #these technical fields are NOT for me #this is why I'm a sociolinguist!!!!! #I am not interested in theories about how language works from an abstract perspective #I'm much more interested in WHY language behaves the way it does socially #like. I don't care about the phonological reasons for a particular sound feature #im more interested in the social context. does this sound carry prestige? is it stigmatized? how has the perception of it changed over time #I don't care about the theory behind why certain languages have developed grammatical rules for word order #I'm more interested in what happens when a dialect forms from a community with a different L1 #and how their ideas of word order affect their L2 dialect #you know? #the social and historical stuff is where I thrive #not this theory babble #like. the theory is important work. but it's not MY work.

[non-un-topo]

Thoughts at the bar this Friday. I also started reading Pageboy, and although it sometimes hits close to home, it's giving me some good gender-affirming feelings. Elliot Page and I have a roughly 2-inch height difference.

#siggy draws #meself #i may be 5'2 but around my friends i am still 'dad'. and although being the sober one this friday was boring and isolating at times - #- it also allowed me to protect my friends and my partner. to look out for them and get them water. #to hold my partner's glasses while they moshed. to hook my friends' arms under mine and guide them away from traffic. #i had a gastroscopy in the morning so my throat and stomach were pretty sore and i couldn't sing or talk much. couldn't drink or smoke. #so i was just this sort of sweet little quiet guy and my partner and friends kept swarming me with kisses and words of affection. #''as an experiment'' i'd asked them all to refer to me as he/him for the night and they hugged me so tightly #and it didn't feel weird #my clothes are still too big. my face is still too feminine. i'm the size of a middle-schooler. but around them i'm 'dad' and 'dude' #thinking of hitting up a clothing swap because i can't afford new clothes or shoes. i'm also looking into some ftm-specific support groups #transgender #gender euphoria #genderfluid #honestly idek #trans butch maybe? i love my children (friends) but i will kill them for forever saying i'm a twink

[flammedoudoune]

Random interactions I've had in the past couple of days in Japan:

-old naked lady at the sento who did her best to explain to 3 confused french tourists who had never been to a public bathhouse how to proceed, despite us barely speaking any japanese, and her barely speaking any english. She also gave us sweets afterwards. She was lovely.

-middle aged man who stopped us in the street to tell us we were beautiful. He then said "I am crazy", smiled, gave us a thumbs up, and left.

-brazilian tourist who started talking to me in the bus and told me I should go visit Himeji.

-old japanese man who started talking to me in the train station and told me I should go visit Himeji.

#the bathhouse was truly an experience #equal parts uncomfortable and nice #my friends were stressed out about it beforehand #but i kinda assumed that we'd each have our own space to take off our clothes and wash #and we'd have our little towel to cover us #and the only time we'd be fully naked would be when we're in the water so no big deal right #seems easy enough to avoid being naked in front of friends and family members right #wrong #you are naked so much in there #we were not prepared #but the place was pretty though #and the bath itself was very relaxing #and the old lady and the other customers were all very nice and patient with us #also i was feeling a bit nervous about people seeing that i only have one tit and a half #but nobody batted an eye #people genuinely did not care at all about how the others looked like #which actually felt very nice

[random-meme-bot]

Went to se Fnaf with Friends and I brought Peppino along for the ride (he liked it).

Bonus this broken poster from the cinema

#fnaf #fnaf movie #five nights at freddy's #peppino spaghetti #pizza tower #I liked the movie well enough #Pretty B movie wasn't expecting anything more #over all liked it as much as Sonic 1 less than 2 or the Mario movie #My two friends liked it a bit more‚ one in general the other one because of the accidental comedy #Which that was another thing‚ the animatronics‚ costumes and pizzeria were really well made but the effects were uff #They were a few scenes were the entire cinema started laughing and it wasn't im the jokes... #Also Game theorist being dubbed was really weird #Over all was enjoyable liked the references to the books

[good-beanswrites]

I already brought this up, but for quicker reference:

Order of Attack: Mahiru nightmare sequence about Kotoko's attacks. Gotta round out the guilty trio.

Feel free to not prioritize this. :D

LISTEN, I CAN'T BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE ANGST THAT YOU REQUEST (<- made myself sad over Mappi and worries I may be in trouble for this one). Obligatory "I don't hate Kotoko and think she's very complex but from these character's pov I had to make her solely scary I'm sorry." And of course I was prioritizing this 👀👀👀 I really loved your nightmare sequences, I tried to make one that completed the set but was still unique!! Thank you for the request >:3

TW for referencing her bf's suicide, and descriptions of the attack injuries

“Aw, come on, you can tell me~” Yuno turned her attention away from where she’d been helping Mahiru with dinner. “Both Fuuta and Amane have had nightmares about her. Hell, I’ve had a nightmare or two about her. I won’t think you’re a mean person for admitting it.”

“I’m not lying,” Mahiru insisted. Her lips rounded into a little pout.

Yuno studied her expression. The girl had a way of really looking at someone when she wanted to. Sometimes it was a wonderful feeling – her gaze could be full of understanding, warmth. You were seen. You were heard. She saw you for all that you were. 

But in times like these, Mahiru found herself shifting under the pressure of it. Yuno was truly seeing her. She could see how Mahiru’s smile was frozen in its forced shape these past few weeks. She could see the way she flinched at loud noises, or how all the blood drained from her face when Kotoko’s voice echoed from the room next door. In waking, there was no doubt Mahiru was afraid of her. In sleep, though…

Yuno took her hands in both of hers.

“Then… what do you dream about?”

—

Mahiru was in the woods. She was running, her feet bare, her breath hitching. 

At first, she thought she was fleeing something. Danger and death loomed around her. The trees closed in. The canopy plunged her into darkness. The branches reached out to tear at her flowered dress, or snag on her hair. The trees pressed close to suffocate her. She grabbed at her throat. 

At some point, it became clear she was running towards something. A figure came into her view, just ahead. Though he didn’t appear to be running, she couldn’t catch up to him. She had to. He was in danger. She had to get to him. She had to stop him. 

He entered a clearing up ahead. Mahiru could just barely see into it. She tried to scream out, begging him to stop, but no words came out of her wheezing mouth. She could stop everything, she could stop all of this, if only –

She burst through the clearing. The figure, now a young woman, stood in the center. She faced away. 

Mahiru tried again to tell Kotoko to stop, but it didn’t matter whether or not she could speak, now; it was too late. 

On the ground below, between tree roots and scattered leaves, lay two small bodies.  

Mahiru’s hands flew to cover her mouth. Her legs grew weak with horror. There was blood everywhere, and bones bent at wrong angles. Fuuta’s limbs were twisted and limp. Amane had curled herself to cover her face, blood streaming from between her fingers.

 Kotoko, too, had red-stained hands. She surveyed her work with pride.

“What… have you done…?”

Slowly, Kotoko turned. Mahiru wanted to turn around and run before those bloodthirsty eyes could land on her. Her legs stayed frozen in place even as her heart raced in her chest. 

Kotoko met her gaze. Then, she gave a gentle smile.

“Thank you.”

Mahiru stumbled back a few steps.

“You let this happen.” 

“No…”

“You did. You could have stopped this, but you didn’t. Thank you.”

“I-I didn’t –! This isn’t – ! I thought –”

“You knew this was going to happen.” She spoke a familiar name, and Mahiru shook her head violently. “You knew what he was planning. You had plenty of chances to stop him. You didn't. You knew what I was planning. You know how to calm people down, how to bring groups together. But you didn’t speak to me once about it. You wanted this to happen.”

“I didn’t!” She said it frantically, unsure if she was trying to convince Kotoko, the two beaten prisoners, herself, or someone else. “I didn’t.” The statement was true, but it didn’t change anything that Kotoko had said.

The forest closed in. Kotoko reached a hand out, beckoning to her.

“We make a good team, don’t we?”

“No…” 

Mahiru was struck with the thought that she didn’t want to take hold of such a disgusting hand, only to glance down at her own. They were just as slick with blood. She let out a shriek.

It was Amane’s. It was Fuuta’s. It was his. 

Mahiru’s legs finally gave out on her. When she looked up, Kotoko was still smiling.

“So… who will be next?” 

—

Mahiru slipped away from Yuno’s grasp. 

“Oh, don’t you worry about little old me!” She turned back to their work. She brushed her hands off on her apron, giving them an extra swipe for good measure. “I promise, Kotoko isn’t the villain in my dreams.”

#milgram #mahiru shiina #yuno kashiki #kotoko yuzuriha #i kept it in the order i got everything but i was definitely thinking of it nonstop adfsdf #im forever crazy about mahiru's murder-through-inaction theme #since all of the others were pretty direct even if accidental #i firmly believe she knew what her bf was planning and didnt stop him/actively said shed join him because she didnt know how to handle #the situation properly #and if she prides herself so much on being good with people and making friends and bringing people together i wonder if shed feel #responsible for not deescalating kotoko beforehand #plus the more immediate survivors guilt that if she was just in the other room maybe it would have been her and not fuuta/amane #at first i wanted to work in more mv symbols (birds cake carousel horses) because i love wacky and surreal dream sequences #but it got to be distracting when i was planning it out lmao so i decided to stick with the two major trauma moments #vibing on my trip rn but i had just a few lines of this one to finish so i wanted to post it when i had a few minutes... #though now i need to go and pretend im not crying over mappi 😭😭😭😭😭 #drabbles #order of attack #(to go back and make it an official tag later)

[bookofmac]

if everyone keeps going 'why arent they more gay?' about class of '07 i'm going to explode.

the show is set in 2017, the year that marriage equality was publicly debated and then eventually voted in it and it was a ROUGH year.

also, they went to CATHOLIC SCHOOL!!! I might just be speaking for myself here, but I wouldnt be getting into a relationship with any of the girls I went to school with if i was stuck on the campus with them, like a non zero amount of the student leadership were young libs (australian conservative party's youth branch).

#class of 07 #class of '07 #like i get what you all want #i also would like more queerness on aussie tv #but this is one of those things that is just accurate to the australian catholic school experiance #my hs friend group was pretty queer but the only two got together after school and one of them was a trans guy & both left before year 12 #this is so much a series about dealing with the shit that messed you up in school because you are stuck there #like saskia becomes a queen bee bitch BECAUSE she's there in that space #if they were in a hotel on a hill or something it wouldnt be the same #but also Tegan is queer she's just not in a romantic relationship with Megan #also Teresa and Sandy are gonna have a baby in the next season im sure so there's potential there imo #also i havent watched the wilds or yellowjackets or whatever so i'm looking at this from the pov of australian who like australian tv #anyway these are just my opinions

[seilon]

please don’t by k.will did more for the gays back in 2012 than any boy group can possibly do with fan service and crop tops in 2024

#do young kpoppies know about please don’t by k.will. im serious do they know #I think about it a lot #it’s impossible to replicate the feeling of being gay and watching that mv in the 2010s and just getting bodyslammed by the ending. #like he really just dropped that shit in TWENTY TWELVE #kibumblabs #to this day I think that’s the most explicitly gay mv ive seen in kpop by an established artist #(ie not holland. no shade to him but he kinda built his platform on being an openly gay artist and he’s not a big industry name or anything #which makes the impact significantly different. if that makes sense. anyway.) #like think about any other example. almost all of them can be brushed off as fan service or are at least vague enough to be #up for interpretation #please don’t’s ending is nearly fucking impossible to write off as anything but explicitly gay #no fanservice involved. no vague staring in each other’s eyes. just straight up Oh He’s Not Jealous Of His Friend He’s Jealous Of His #Friend’s Fiancé. oh #like that’s the whole point. interpreting it any other way doesn’t make sense with the impact it’s purposefully supposed to make #like seriously try to say ‘he’s just sad he’s losing his friend to marriage :(‘ or something. you have to be REAL fucking stupid or #deeply in denial to make that argument let alone believe it #anyway. I appreciate this mv a lot #k.will the OG of doomed yaoi in kpop #kill me #closest contender off the top of my head is one more day by sistar #also note I am talking about mvs here not songs in general #cause if I were talking about songs in general. key’s out there pretty much writing about gay sex at this point so I mean #k.will #kpop #only adding actual tags because I want you to watch this mv if you haven’t already