Funny how people have been saying that Steve is the big brother Max deserves, but when Max dies he has literally no reaction. He just stands there and listens to the clock chime, along with Nancy and Robin. As if he doesn’t even care. Max sacrificed herself for them and died and they express no grief at all, and I’m pretty sure it’s Nancy who says anything. Yet when Billy thought Max might be in danger at the Byers, he got so protective of her that he was willing to fight someone he wanted to be friends with. He spent the last week complimenting Steve and showing off in front of him, but he didn’t hesitate to beat his ass for putting his sister in harm's way. Who really deserves to be her brother?
Even once Max is in the hospital and they’ve had a little time to process what happened to her and visit, Steve is even more uncaring. He’s somewhere else smiling and playing matchmaker as if the kid he babysat for three years isn’t across the room bawling his eyes out because someone close to him died in his arms. Do you really think Steve still gives two shits about Max in this scene when he can’t even bother with Dustin?
Meanwhile Billy was so torn up that Max hated him (and started mirroring his abusive father) that he spent at least a month trying to figure out how to talk to her. Before the snowball he looks so sad because he knows he fucked up their relationship, and not even on purpose. And then, according to Dacre, between s2 and s3 he’s really trying to be the best brother to her he can and be a better person in general. And their relationship was improving! If Max died you bet your ass Billy wouldn’t just forget about her. He was her brother, not some random older guy she hardly knew who had a hero complex and saved her just to ease his own worries and then moved on with his life. I don’t agree with that characterization of Steve but that’s what the Duffers gave us.
Out of the two, who really cared about Max? That would be her real brother, thank you.
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hiihiii i love the way u write shidou smmmm so if ur requests r still open id like something with shidou + lies <3
Hellooo thank you!! Shidou zoomed his way into my favorites and I really enjoy writing him, haha! Here's a bit of him hanging with the smoking group T1
The problem with lying, Shidou had found, is that you end up fooling everyone involved. If you spend time trying to deceive someone, the people close to you will also believe it. If you continue, it will affect all those in proximity. And, if you do it for long enough, you’ll start to deceive yourself.
Shidou had certainly lost track of his lies for a while. Right before it had all come crashing down around him, he’d almost believed all the beautiful tales of hope and health he’d been spreading. He’d almost seen the world as the place he’d been describing.
And then the truth hit him; it crushed him. Seeing all the blood on his hands, he’d tried to swear the whole thing off in what little time he had left in this life. But, like his other habits, it was a difficult one to break.
He exhaled smoke into the room, listening to Mikoto go on about the busy days of his office job. Shidou was concerned how he still spoke about everything as if he’d be heading right back after all this.
He wanted nothing more than to sit him down for an examination. There were several reasons he may not remember his crime -- it was most likely the emotional shock, but Shidou couldn’t rule out the possibility of a head injury, an illness, a seizure, a stroke, or even it being a side effect of whatever drugs Milgram must have given the prisoners when bringing them here. It took everything in him to let Mikoto be. After all, no one was going to request help from a “killer doctor,” and he didn’t have any of his usual equipment.
So he just stood and smoked in silence.
“What about you?” Kazui asked. “My line of work definitely stressed me out, too. But I don’t think I’ve seen you bat an eye at anything since coming here.” He nudged Shidou. “Are you just as cool under pressure as those movie doctors?”
Shidou’s lips angled to a smile. “I suppose so. Though, I believe they look calm because they’re meant to appear perfectly competent. I’m calm so that patients don’t realize I am imperfect.”
Was that all he was, when he killed those people? Just ‘imperfect’?
Seeing the way Mikoto’s eyebrows shot up, he clarified, “I’m very competent, mind you. But no doctor is perfect. Many patients will panic if you show even the slightest sign of doubt.”
He teased, “so you just lie to everyone all day? Damn, remind me to watch out the next time I go in for a checkup.”
“No, it isn’t like that.” Wasn’t it?
The other two continued the conversation, but Shidou grew quiet. Was that something else he’d started to believe? Another thing he’d convinced himself was normal when, in fact, it was very, very wrong?
“I get that. Confidence is really important when dealing with dangerous situations.”
“Heh, I’ve definitely put up a bit of an act around here for some of the younger prisoners. I think it’s been helping, they seem calmer from when this all started.”
That’s right -- his goal was always to help, to calm. He watched Mikoto rub his temple absently, and knew another headache was approaching and knew what to do for it. He’d helped Haruka get over a cold the past week. He and Kotoko had discussed nutrition tips the other day. He was still doing good. The smile that he put up for the others was still doing good.
“Well, I’m glad we’ve got a professional around here.” Kazui gestured his cigarette to Shidou, snapping him away from his thoughts. “Nothing against the guard, but it’s nice to have someone like you who can help me look out for everyone.”
“Yeah, feel better about being here already!” Mikoto slung an arm around him. The boy's expression showed he was trying to appear in on some joke. “So, doc, you think that all of us are getting out of this crazy place in one piece?”
Shidou wanted to warn him the situation was more serious than he knew. Milgram was not a big joke. He was not a man to be trusted. He was not a man to be forgiven.
But old habits die hard.
“Oh, I'm sure of it.”
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Can you keep a secret? Luffy asks him one of the first nights they’re out at sea, just the two of them and their aimless wandering toward the Grand Line and a crew that doesn’t yet exist beyond the two of them. Zoro rolls his head from where it rests on his arms, wrist and knuckles digging into the wood beneath them. Luffy blinks back at him in the dark, straw hat pillowed on his chest and no longer awaiting a response. It’s okay, sometimes I can’t either.
Depends on what it is, I guess, Zoro says, If it’s not my business I don’t want any part in it. But it’s also not my secret to tell.
He shrugs, about to turn away again, but there’s a hesitation in breaking Luffy’s gaze, something powerful in it that leaves him feeling as if he’s been exposed down to his very core, and all Luffy does is blink at him and yawn.
‘M not a very good liar, Luffy tells him after he’s rolled back away from him to watch the night sky spread out above them like spilt ink. Would you ever lie to me?
Zoro’s tongue is heavy with copper and salt before he swallows. Depends, again, he thinks, could you lie to me? He doesn’t lie, doesn’t have any reason to, has never favored nor respected it to begin with. And yet, he says, Would it keep you safe?
Luffy turns to face him, nails scratching along the straw and says, Does it ever?
He thinks, it could, thinks, I don’t know, thinks, let’s hope we never find out.
Can you keep a secret? and a ghost whispers into the shell of his ear and says you must.
And Zoro says, no, I don’t think so.
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bashir’s “mistook a preganglionic fiber for a postganglionic nerve on the final exam and thus became the salutatorian rather than the valedictorian of my class at starfleet medical” story is hands down one of my favorites of his, particularly as one he delivers so early on in the show, and because, medically and anatomically speaking... it... doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
any student in so much as an introductory anatomy and physiology course could make the distinction between them. no individual who has trained for years to become a medical doctor is going to confuse the two--its a basic differentiation, and not one that can be waved away as a mistake. there’s just no doing it. their functions and histologies are so vastly different that there’s no similarity between them beyond sounding similar (which, in the case of this being a television show, and having a story that rolls off the tongue with a little fluidity, makes sense, but putting that doyalist analysis aside for a moment..)
hearing this, someone with even a little (human) anatomical knowledge under their belt perks up an ear...
now, considering the implication that bashir made this mistake deliberately--being “genetically enhanced” with his perfect memory to boot, there’s no way that he might have forgotten their classifications--and that the question was missed so he could maintain his high class rank without raising suspicion (as the assumption would be that any genetically enhanced individual would be at the top of their class, should the question of his intellectual abilities ever come up), a question is begged as to what his intentions are in spouting the story off so freely, obviously without worry that someone will see through the charade.
then, consider: a) the fact that humans are (relatively) new to bajoran space, so it can be assumed that the knowledge about human anatomy among bajorans is limited--thus, there is an expectation that few species within bajoran space would find any issue with his story, and b) as bashir is the chief medical officer aboard deep space nine, his medical knowledge is (generally) assumed to be the most complete and thorough bank on the station. he may imagine (in all his season one overconfidence) that no one (including his human/starfleet medical staff) would pick up on the puzzling fact of his “accidentally” confusing the two
by repeating his story (and framing it as a trying, intellectual ordeal), he is attempting to establish himself as a source of (generally) infallible medical brilliance. but what is particularly remarkable to me is that he’s choosing a story where he (from the point of view of his audience) makes a rather unremarkable blunder that dethroned him swiftly and suredly from the top of his class. though of course, in actuality, this was a choice he made to protect himself from watchful, suspicious eyes.
and what we arrive at is a strange dichotomy in bashir himself. by exposing that (albeit, fabricated) vulnerability, he’s amassing sympathy from his audience while humanizing himself--he’s aware, at this point, that he can come off as disconnected and haughty, and wants to communicate as best as he can, that he is both capable of error, aware that he can make mistakes, and that he has the drive and motivation to correct them.
tempering his presentation of the story with the knowledge that he’d been genetically enhanced adds another layer of meaning on top of it. for the first time in his life, bashir finds himself in a place where his species is so unfamiliar that he’s not looked at as an oddity, regardless of his abilities. any trait he demonstrates could very well be indicative of his species or may be a reflection of himself--to those unfamiliar with humans, there’s no knowing what’s universal and what’s individual. and for someone like bashir, who has spent so much of his life isolated and in fear that others will find him anomalous, this is freedom.
i think, in (small) part, that must be what he meant in comparing bajor to the “frontier”. though he mistakenly implied bajor was simple and uncivilized (a core takeaway from that encounter--but not to be unpacked in this post), what he also may have been suggesting was that this was a place to establish himself without restraint or fear, and in the end bajor, for bashir, would serve as new territory upon which to build his life, to inform his developing ethical standards, and to change his anthropocentric outlook on life.
what i mean is this--despite the fact that bashir is the cmo, and despite the fact that his species is unfamiliar in the region, and that both of these fact suggest that no one would find his story suspicious--bashir practically shouting it from the rooftops is an interesting choice. by talking about it, he’s ultimately saying: 1. ‘i am not perfect, and i don’t believe i am’ and, 2. ‘look a little closer’. the remarkable thing about the whole narrative is that it comes off as a supplication. he seems to be saying--ask about it--ask why, ask how it was possible. he’s desperate for someone to be interested, and (though perhaps more reservedly) for someone to find him out. he’s spent his whole life shying away from the limelight, and is finally able to be the wunderkind he’s become--but only at the edge of federation space, only 52 light years from earth. he’s isolated, but is finding it rich and wonderful rather than lonely. for the first time in his life, he wonders if perhaps it is safe, or acceptable, to be himself, openly. if he can get someone to be interested enough to pry.
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I’m curious not only about what has changed between showings, but what has remained the same. like evidently there’s been a lot of differences between shows over the last month or w/e in the previews, and yeah sure that’s by virtue of them being previews, but. the nature of the show means it thrives in that amorphous “unfinished” state. and it makes me curious if there’s anything vitally important that has remained unchanged since the first showing, and if it’s something that might remain the same in the frozen show, or then be changed
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I’m purposefully being vague bc potential spoilers for Truth of the Divine, but I find myself agreeing more now with the take that what happened in the end was on Cora. Kaveh very clearly did not want to be there, he only went with Cora to look out for her even though his plans went into the complete opposite direction
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