you're grabbing lunch with a nice man and he gives you that strange grimace-smile that's popular right now; an almost sardonic "twist" of his mouth while he looks literally down on you. it looks like he practiced the move as he leans back, arms folded. he just finished reciting the details of NFTs to you and explaining Oppenheimer even though he only watched a youtube about it and hasn't actually seen it. you are at the bottom of your wine glass.
you ask the man across from you if he has siblings, desperately looking for a topic. literally anything else.
he says i don't like small talk. and then he smiles again, watching you.
a few years ago, you probably would have said you're above celebrity gossip, but honestly, you've been kind of enjoying the dumb shit of it these days. with the rest of the earth burning, there's something familiar and banal about dragging ariana grande through the mud. you think about jeanette mccurdy, who has often times gently warned the world she's not as nice as she appears. you liked i'm glad my mom died but it made you cry a lot.
he doesn't like small talk, figure out something to say.
you want to talk about responsibility, and how ariana grande is only like 6 days older than you are - which means she just turned 30 and still dresses and acts like a 13 year old, but like sexy. there's something in there about the whole thing - about insecurity, and never growing up, and being sexualized from a young age.
people have been saying that gay people are groomers. like, that's something that's come back into the public. you have even said yourself that it's just ... easier to date men sometimes. you would identify as whatever the opposite of "heteroflexible" is, but here you are again, across from a man. you like every woman, and 3 people on tv. and not this guy. but you're trying. your mother is worried about you. she thinks it's not okay you're single. and honestly this guy was better before you met, back when you were just texting.
wait, shit. are you doing the same thing as ariana grande? are you looking for male validation in order to appease some internalized promise of heteronormativity? do you conform to the idea that your happiness must result in heterosexuality? do you believe that you can resolve your internal loneliness by being accepted into the patriarchy? is there a reason dating men is easier? why are you so scared of fucking it up with women? why don't you reach out to more of them? you have a good sense of humor and a big ol' brain, you could have done a better job at online dating.
also. jesus christ. why can't you just get a drink with somebody without your internal feminism meter pinging. although - in your favor (and judgement aside) in the case of your ariana grande deposition: you have been in enough therapy you probably wouldn't date anyone who had just broken up with their wife of many years (and who has a young child). you'd be like - maybe take some personal time before you begin this journey. like, grande has been on broadway, you'd think she would have heard of the plot of hamlet.
he leans forward and taps two fingers to the table. "i'm not, like an andrew tate guy," he's saying, "but i do think partnership is about two people knowing their place. i like order."
you knew it was going to be hard. being non-straight in any particular way is like, always hard. these days you kind of like answering the question what's your sexuality? with a shrug and a smile - it's fine - is your most common response. like they asked you how your life is going and not to reveal your identity. you like not being straight. you like kissing girls. some days you know you're into men, and sometimes you're sitting across from a man, and you're thinking about the power of compulsory heterosexuality. are you into men, or are you just into the safety that comes from being seen with them? after all, everyone knows you're failing in life unless you have a husband. it almost feels like a gradebook - people see "straight married" as being "all A's", and anything else even vaguely noncompliant as being ... like you dropped out of the school system. you cannot just ignore years of that kind of conditioning, of course you like attention from men.
"so let's talk boundaries." he orders more wine for you, gesturing with one hand like he's rousing an orchestra. sir, this is a fucking chain restaurant. "I am not gonna date someone who still has male friends. also, i don't care about your little friends, i care about me. whatever stupid girls night things - those are lower priority. if i want you there, you're there."
he wasn't like this over text, right? you wouldn't have been even in the building if he was like this. you squint at him. in another version of yourself, you'd be running. you'd just get up and go. that's what happens on the internet - people get annoyed, and they just leave. you are locked in place, almost frozen. you need to go to the bathroom and text someone to call you so you have an excuse, like it's rude to just-leave. like he already kind of owns you. rudeness implies a power paradigm, though. see, even your social anxiety allows the patriarchy to get to you.
you take a sip of the new glass of wine. maybe this will be a funny story. maybe you can write about it on your blog. maybe you can meet ariana grande and ask her if she just maybe needs to take some time to sit and think about her happiness and how she measures her own success.
is this settling down? is this all that's left in your dating pool? just accepting that someone will eventually love you, and you have to stop being picky about who "makes" you a wife?
you look down to your hand, clutching the knife.
3K notes
·
View notes
Something i really like about yohaji is its distinction between relationships with peers amd relationships with superiors.
One thing i thought was kinda silly at the begining was that haruaki was always hanging out with his students lile during breaks and shit (felt most strongly when they get scolded for breaking a window while playimg baseball) and i reason well hes the main character of course hes hanging out with the principal cast and i would have been fine with that.
But no not only does tanaka-sensei provide a in character reason (haru had a terrible school life) they come at me with 'haruaki is jealous of people friends' and what i think is really interesting about that initial chapter is that typically it would end with an 'oohhh but they ARE you're friends' but no it ends with 'even if you didn't make friends as a child you can still make adult friends' with miki and izuna becoming his friends.
This is echoed in the arc where haruaki is a student WITH sano and with his students and he has so much fun but finally he says 'im not your friend im your teacher' the relationships you have with your teachers and adults and vice versa in your life arent without value but theyre not the same as ones you make with your peers and should not be treated as such
22 notes
·
View notes
Spoilers ahead for the latest parts of Chapter 7! Speed-wrote this with only Twitter live-tweeting threads for context. Might not be accurate to canon but who cares about that when the tragedy is impeccable?
What happens if you die within a dream?
Silver thinks he should know the answer to that — or more precisely, the answer in normal circumstances. If things were not as dire as they are now, if he and everyone else were not locked away in the throes of a dream they cannot wake up from, he knows what would happen. He would wake up easily, jolting upright as panic grips his heart, panting as his mind struggles to calm itself from the weight of a nightmare he cannot remember.
But things are not normal, and Silver is scared.
He is scared and in pain, sprawled out against the forest floor. His weapon has been tossed carelessly to the side, disarmed by the person pressing his weapon against his throat, and for some reason, perhaps because he is incapacitated and hurting, energy sapped from a battle he had not wanted to fight, he is unable to jump dreams again.
(And, to be honest, he doesn’t want to leave, to find another person’s dream and take refuge there, if only for a little while. This is Lilia’s dream, his father’s dream, and Silver refuses to leave without him by his side.)
And, as Silver presses himself as closely against the bloodstained grass as he can, pushing away from the sharp weapon the best he can, all he can think is, Ah. I finally understand.
He has heard stories all throughout his life — about his father’s might as the revered General Vanrouge of Briar Valley. His name is admired for a reason, respected far and wide across the valley. And though Lilia did not take down Silver immediately in their battle, the reflexes honed from years of training from the very man now fighting him, eventually, he succeeded.
Silver is young, only seventeen. What chance did he face, going up against his father in a fight like this, when the Lilia he sees is in the height of his prime? When he is holding absolutely nothing back?
He feels the sharp tip of his father’s weapon press closer against the thin skin of his neck, but the only thing that crosses his pain-muddled mind is that the blade in his father’s hands is the very same one he would give to Silver whenever he sent his son off to chop some firewood. Silver thinks that he’s speaking too, can see his mouth move, having pushed his mask aside at some point, but the only thing that he hears is a muddled warble of nothing that sounds real.
His head is spinning. Every limb in his body is aching.
Silver can feel the sticky slickness of his own blood matting the grass beneath him.
What will happen to him, now that he has failed? He will not die permanently; he knows that much. But the alternatives that swim through his muddled brain do not bring him comfort in any form. Perhaps Silver will simply wake up back within the confines of his own dream — but that, in itself, would be a problem, because Silver knows that Malleus is after them, ready to lull him into an impenetrable slumber with the flick of a wrist.
And if Silver loses himself to the throes of this neverending dream… then what? What will become of Sebek and Grim and Yuu? He can see them out of the corner of their eyes; no matter how hard Sebek yells, he is not getting through the other soldiers, least of all his grandfather, as much in his prime as Silver’s father. They have been apprehended, outnumbered and outpowered, and Silver gets the sinking feeling that very soon, they will meet the same fate that he is steadily barreling towards.
He is the hero of this twisted story they have found themselves in, no matter how odd it feels to think of himself this way. His unique magic, as useless as he has believed it to be, has its own purposes now. It is the only thing that may stand between Malleus, overblotted as he is, unable to cope with the weight of abandonment, and his desires of a thousand years of blissful dreams.
So if Silver dies, to the blade of his own father, who stares down at him like a stranger, with not a single trace of recognition in those red eyes—
Then what?
79 notes
·
View notes