#YOU could've been better. *I* understand.

[reimaybe]

🎧: every breath you take — the police

for as long as he could remember, yukimiya had always been watching you. from the moment you slid into the seat beside him in class, to the countless times your laughter echoed in his ears. the way you would rest your head on his shoulder during the bus rides home, and the way you always instinctively reached for him everytime something scared you.

and now, he watched you dressed in white, a vision of perfection, with a smile so radiant it felt like it could burn him alive.

he should’ve been happy for you—he told himself he was. but the truth clawed at him, ripping him apart from the inside out. it could’ve been him. it should’ve been him. if only he had pulled you closer instead of pushing you away. if only he had stayed, but instead, he walked away. and now he stood here, holding the title of the best man when he felt like the worst.

“i’m glad you came, yuki,” you said softly, approaching him. your white-gloved hands holding two glasses of champagne. your voice holding that same gentle warmth that used to be just for him.

his breath hitched, his practiced smile faltering as he took the glass you offered.

“congrats, [name],” he said, his voice strained. his fingers brushed against yours, lingering a second too long before you pulled away.

he coughed, trying to breath through the tension. “sorry.”

you leaned back against the wall beside him, sipping on the sparkly drink, your gaze drifting to your husband across the room. he was entertaining guests with ease, his laughter rising above the chatter and music. but for yukimiya, the world faded into silence the moment you stood next to him.

“i hesitated inviting you,” you admitted, breaking the silence between you two.

yukimiya hummed, his grip tightening on the glass. “i understand.”

of course, he understood. inviting your ex-boyfriend to your wedding was weird, to say the least. but your husband had insisted. he’d been the one to reach out a hand, to ensure yukimiya felt included. that was just the kind of man he was—kind, patient, selfless.

the same man who had been there for you when yukimiya wasn’t.

“he insisted,” you said, your voice wavering as you watched your husband. “he’s so kind, yuki.”

yukimiya’s chest tightened as he heard the break in your voice.

“but it kills me,” you whispered. “it kills me to know that some part of me still longs for what we could've been.”

his breath caught. for a moment, the room blurred, and all he could see was you. the raw vulnerability in your eyes, the ache in your voice.

“i have my regrets too,” he admitted, his voice barely audible.

he let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. “but it’s too late, isn’t it? what can we do now?”

you didn’t answer. you didn’t need to. the truth hung between you, heavy and unspoken.

“live happily, [name],” he said with a half-hearted smile.

you mirror his expression, “i should go. they’re about to cut the cake.”

you turned to him fully, and you opened your arms. he stepped into your embrace, holding you tightly as if this moment could last forever.

“i love you,” you whispered against his ear, the words trembling, but true.

his heart shattered as he whispered back, “i love you too.”

when you pulled away, he caught a tear sliding down your cheek and wiped it gently with his thumb. you smiled, bittersweet and beautiful, before walking away backwards, toward your husband.

“goodbye, yuki,” you whispered.

but he knew the goodbye wasn’t meant for him. it was for the love you once shared, for the fleeting hope that it could’ve been him standing beside you at the altar.

as he watched you join your husband, yukimiya exhaled, the weight of regret pressing heavily on his chest. he wonders what would have happened if he told you the real reason as to why he broke up with you. but he knew you deserved better, so he chose to keep quiet and watch you for as long as he can, from the sidelines.

from now on, he'll be watching—that’s the only thing he can do. every breath you take, and every move you make. every bond you break, every step you take, he'll be watching. just like how it was meant to be, from afar.

“i’ll be watching you, for as long as my eyes let me.”

[candyskiez]

jon was the last human being elias ever saw. the last human being he ever talked to. the last human being he ever touched. hes been inside the heads of everyone in the world but jon was the last person he ever saw. and maybe the only person he ever truly saw. anyway hi how are you

Saros I need you to understand I made a Noise at this ask that made my cat run over to check on me. Which i think is maybe a little predictable of me.

I am also thinking about this in the context of how Jonah said that realizing his own selfishness was an awful thing to know, but also incredibly freeing. Thinking about how he again said Jons attempt, that was completely unsuccessful!!!, was nice! It was freeing! He enjoyed it!! Thinks about how Jonahs fear was of losing control, of his chance of survival and safety being taken away. He enjoys being known! He enjoys being understood by someone he thinks deserves it. He likes the idea of being known, of someone realizing that yes, he is a bad person, and seeing beauty in it. He likes the idea of it.

Thinks about how he viewed Jon as...not a companion, but as his in some way. Thinks about how he is completely sure that he understands Jon. Thinks about the way he knows about all of Jons deepest traumas and insecurities, knows exactly what to say to hurt him. Thinks about "I knew it had to be you." Thinks about, again "the freedom of it all." The freedom of it all!

Thinks about how Jonahs response to Jon saying he failed was just "Have i?" Thinks about how Jon tells him he's going to end the world and kill everyone and starving all the fears to death, he just says "That WE serve." Jon just told him he's going to undo everything he ever worked for but he refuses to let Jon think, for even a second, that they aren't the same. Because whether Jon likes it or not, Jonah is maybe the only person at the time who could possibly understand why Jon is doing this. Who could possibly understand every single reason. He already knows why Jon is doing this. He already knows everything that's led up to this point. And if jons going to do it, he knows he can't stop him. That's what scares him. But he won't let Jon pretend.

Thinks about how this is the first and last time we hear Jonah be afraid. Thinks about how Jonah is scared shitless, begging for his life against the person he happily destroyed the life of, and he knows he's fucked! But he doesn't want to die! And he sees the anger and fear and desperation and want of a man he ruined, of a man he made into something he views as beautiful, and it's the last thing he sees!!! Do you think he thought it was beautiful. Do you think he saw himself. Do you think in that moment he thinks, maybe he loves this man. Do you ever think about the fear and then acceptance, that he can't run forever. He's done. There's nothing he ever could've done. But he made something incredible, and nobody will ever be able to ignore the horrible, wonderful mark he left on the world. His last words were wishing him good luck! It's insane! Not "you're no better than me" or calling him a monster or anything. Just. Good luck. Good luck. It's insane. What the hell. I need to analyze it. What do you MEAN good luck.

Jon is the one person he could truly view as anything close to Part of what he was doing or what he wanted, and it didn't save Jon. It actively ruined his life. Do you think Jon saw Jonah gazing up at him with affection mixed in with horror as he died. Do you think it haunts him if/when he escapes somewhere else. I think it haunts him. I think he never manages to forget it. I think sometimes he looks at himself and understands why Jonah was so fond of him. I think that scares him more than he'll ever be able to explain. I think it's the one thing he'll never tell anyone he'll meet. I think Jonah ended with Jon, and Jon carried him with him for the rest of his life, and he wishes he didn't. I think Jonah would like that. I think Jon knows that, and he hates that too. (I think Jon wonders, would Jonah have even remembered him? If the roles had been reversed?) (I think he knows the answer.)

Anyways my days been great how's yours.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

rogue one posting like attention everyone who didn't like all the characters or get why they did things: i Am better than you

[evelynpr]

Might be a hot take as a bkdk and tgck truther here, but I find izuocha endlessly fascinating, beautiful, but also tearfully tragic.

I see their love for each other as something representative of their innocence and naivety when they only knew so little about who they were, and what was to come.

I think the main barrier of their relationship is that its rooted in how they see each other very idealistically, specifically that they're attached to the image of their Best Heroic Selves, and not the deeply selfish, destructive, freaky, and egotistical parts of them. To each other, they need to keep fulfilling that image or else that same person they looked up to would almost die in front of them, and that would be too cruel. Although that hero is still there, that same person they looked up to is not the same now because of...well...everything.

Izuku had barely even talked to girls when he first met her. She was Izuku's first ever real friend (Sorry Kats, everyone and him knows he was terrible), so he saved her in that entrance exam even if it was so dangerous. She gave a new meaning to his derogatory nickname just by being a friend that believed in him. After that, she saved him several more times (Blackwhip and Megaphone are the biggest samples iirc). It makes perfect sense that she is Deku's hero.

Ochako hardly knew what it meant to be a hero when she first got into UA. Just by reaching out to some kid tripping, she made a new friend who would then save her in that exam, then save him again in return. This boy then became someone who was always working so hard to save everyone in trouble, and she realized she wanted to be just like him too. "I want to save people"

But...Deku changes. The weight of One for All is on his shoulders and he needs someone to carry this burden with him. He continues to want to save other people at the expense of himself, still not letting his true selfishness and ego ever show- and it only grows more and more unbearable.

Then...Ochako fell in love with Himiko. Truly, relentlessly, selfishly and devotedly in love with a girl who then dies giving her blood to her- the greatest expression of love Himiko could ever give.

Not that they can't love each other because of this happening (and...so many other things oh god), I'm honestly not sure how to explain it- But them ending up together after losing that innocence and naivety? After Ochako will forever grieve the girl who showed her love in its most beautiful and ugly form? After Izuku changed so fundamentally as a person that the butterflies of a nice girl talking to you doesn't exist anymore? After that simple image of being a hero and being in love has completely changed for them both?

Even so, I believe they still love each other. There is no label I know of that can properly describe them though. They are each other's image of being a hero when it comes to saving people. Aside from Shoto, no one else can grasp the grief of the person you tried to save dying in your hands. They would no doubt try to cope with these losses together, and just try to get better together...but so much has changed. They've changed. The world changed. What are they now? Who are they now?

"What happened...to us?"

[spaghetticat3899]

When you absolutely despise something a lot of people like, and no matter what way you look at it you cannot see the appeal, but you know you can’t talk about it in public or else you’ll get dogpiled to hell and back, so you just kinda sit there frothing at the mouth like this

[cherry-treelane]

I find it so ironically funny when hardcore Debbie defenders use the defense that she was just a victimised teenage girl (agreed) and then proceed to slander Fiona and express their hatred for her character and lack of sympathy

as if being an adult magically absolves an individual of the horrifying trauma that precedes them and screws up their mentality and actions

funnily enough these people get mad at others for "expecting Debbie to be an innocent angel and hating on her for acting out as a result of trauma" (also agreed, debbie does deserve more sympathy, she can't be expected to grow up to be a perfect saint when she's been through so much) yet seem to hold Fiona to the same unattainable standards and put her on a pedestal as if she wasnt a child that was forced to intensely grow up while never actually being raised

like lets put this into perspective and remember that fiona grew up surrounded by corrupt morals and insanely screwed up behaviour yet still emerged as messed up, yes, but surprisingly good considering the situation she was in??? she had to navigate basic things such as morals and being a good, responsible person on her own. imagine how difficult it must be to lead a bunch of kids, including yourself, with no previous role model or good example of your own to follow. most of the time, she always tried to do what she thought was best and would have the most desirable outcome

[thebluelittlewitch2-thesequel]

I can fix him you guys i can-

[golden-stag]

God I still haven't gotten over the gut punch that was Millia saying "God, I hope not."

That ending is seared into my subconscious.

[maeamian]

When I was a young excited physics student I went down to my advisor and asked for a job in a lab. Those of you who are in the sciences may recognize this as exceedingly common, most schools with science departments will hire undergrads for their labs both to give the undergrads experience and to have someone comparatively cheap to do the least skilled labor in those labs.

For me, the lab I was sent to was one doing cool photonics projects and I was assigned to a guy who was doing the theoretical modeling for them and I got put on a side project for them to develop a method to double check their results using Monte Carlo simulations.

Put bluntly, I toiled away in the little cubicle they had me in for about half a year before I transferred to a different school without ever having produced anything of any particular value other than a Monte Carlo simulation whose temperature readings were not taking into account the existence of a heat sink and therefore got overwhelmed by thermal photons in a completely inaccurate and unhelpful way.

Ultimately, many tasks, farmed out like this in a speculative way to undergrads, fail, certainly it's not exceptional that mine did and I learned a lot about the process in the process, so it wasn't wasted time for me, but it produced absolutely nothing the lab could use to further its results.

This is where it turns from a little anecdote about my work history into a morality tale, because what I have thus far deliberately failed to tell you is that the lab I was assigned to is a provider of radar services to the US Military. Had I produced anything of any value whatsoever the work I did would have been used by the US military to help with its capacity to deliver bombs. This is, unfortunately, as those of you who are in the sciences may recognize, also exceedingly common. Luckily, and through no foresight or moral thinking of my own, simply the inexperience of youth, I produced nothing of value but view the path they tried to set me down as a grim warning of what might have been.

I'm not asking for forgiveness, the harm I might have done was not done by me, although I'm also sure was done without my help. They didn't need it to be me they just needed someone with basic calculus knowledge who wouldn't think too hard about the connection between the work and the world, and they were happy enough that particular warm body was me.

So this is my plea, if you're young and getting involved in the sciences because you're passionate about knowledge and understanding our place in the universe. When you go to get that job in that lab that's such a good stepping stone to the next thing you want to do, take a second and look into where that lab's funding is coming from. If it turns out it's the military, maybe then take another second and really deeply consider what kind of thing your work can be used to do and if you would like some of the most bloodthirsty people on the planet to be able to do that thing because of your help.

I got lucky that I didn't help, but I'm hoping that with this warning you might be able to not help on purpose which is a greater moral good than what I managed.

[luukka]

Was I supposed to know Annabeth and Rachel kissed Percy on the mouth or was I supposed to learn it after seeing a fanart of Annabeth kissing Percy based on a passage of book 2 (or 3 i forgot) on pinterest myself

[sciderman]

Sometimes i remember a comics moment i randomly came across somewhere, where Sam Wilson mentiones a musical and Steve Rodgers says he doesn't like musicals, to whitch Sam goes "Guess that means you really are straight" and even tho i don't care about Cap America or the Avengers, the moment stuck in me for that quote by Sam. And like....Sci, any ideas if straight men actually don't like musicals or is that bullshit?

actually i think i know more gay men who hate musicals than i know straight men who hate musicals. i've had a drag queen stop me point blank when i was about to sing a barbra streisand song, and i know so many gays who pointedly hate abba. so based on my experience i think the inverse is true. most of the straight men i know are kind of impartial about musicals, but gay men? hate.

my theory is that a lot of gay men don't want to fall into stereotypes, maybe. but thaaaaat's just a theory! a gay theory.

[rapidhighway]

i dooon't like the 3d cell shaded look they gave Shadow tho. i dooont like it. want the frontiers prologue back

[pvremichigan]

Whoopsie time

[aromanticannibal]

I read the epilogue chapter, and yeah, there is A LOT of misinformation and it's definitely not that bad. My biggest issues with it is that it was framed really poorly, esp on Ochako's storyline, and it's something beyond shipping.

my biggest problem with the ending as a whole has remained pacing, and the lack of some scenes we all assumed would for sure be coming. I think this chapter is overall fine and follows (more or less) the expected route, but how small the entire epilogue was make it stick out weirdly.

[victoriously-wicked]

NOVEMBER 16TH 2023

ONCE UPON A TIME APPRECIATION WEEK DAY 5

FAVOURITE PARALLELS TRIBUTE VID- REGINA’S TRUE LOVES’ DYING IN HER ARMS

Song: ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri

(Argh! For some reason, the video isn’t staying perfectly in time with the music now that I’ve uploaded it onto here. That’s annoying. But anyways, I hope you like this, I worked my ass off making it.)

This is one of the saddest parallels ever and the only reason it’s my favourite is because it’s a perfect example of how far Regina has come. We all know that her first love, Daniel, was one of the many catalysts in Regina becoming the Evil Queen (more specifically, his death was). And then having Robin, her soulmate, being brought into her life years later she not only becomes a better person, but grows to believe in the possibility of love again. It’s really a beautiful full-circle story: Daniel’s love breaks her, and she becomes the Evil Queen. But Robin’s love puts her back together again, and she becomes Regina. The Good Queen. The most heartbreaking part of this is that both men die because they love Regina. Daniel loved and died for her so that she could grow into the woman Robin fell in love with and sacrificed himself for.

[sanjarka]

emma and killian's love story deserved better writers, i mean you're gonna tell me that hook died like a HUNDRED TIMES in season five and then season six comes along and you never mention it? that's something that literally needs to get addressed again are you serious rn.