#rtmo

[nazuna-tunnel-vision]

I saw your tags and I wanna say RitsuMao (I think that's the ship?) is the perfect ship for hanahaki in the way which you described.

Also, interestingly enough, I have written a hanahaki fic from the person who is on the receiving end of the crush, in a frustrated "why can't I return the feeling???" And not wanting to lose the friendship way.

So anyway I think that's a great angle to pursue and it's very big brain of you.

YESS thank you for the validation, this AU has been eating at my brains for a year but i'm just not very good at writing actual stories rather than just analysis so. it stayed in my brain.

yeah it is ritsumao and oh boy ritsumao with the flower actually removed would be a riot. they're childhood friends and so much of their identities are rooted in the relationship, so losing the relationship would destabilise the both of them so much.

to Make Things Worse ☺️✌️ in my AU, i made the surgery remove memories related to the person altogether rather than just feelings (although tbh it's also bc i never quite understood how you can "remove feelings" without fundamentally making the memory stop making sense. aren't memories a key way in which people make sense of the world and remember things?)

and this makes the story veer into exploring how one's memories and relationships with others kind of. makes you who you are. which a lot of hanahaki stories don't really explore.

that means ritsu just Forgets about mao and loses years worth of accumulated memories and self-narratives about how he became who he was. how did he manage rei's broken promise, who did he cling to? apart from chasing after rei, who made him want to 'enter the sunlight'? post-surgery ritsu would be a very different and a very confused person.

and considering how so much of their relationship was Just The Two Of Them (thanks ritsu), mao would have no one who shares so many of his memories. they'll probably find random trinkets all over their houses that either only mao or neither of them remembers the significance of. some matching keychains they got from an event. a pen with one of those plastic jewels that's the colour of mao's eyes, which ritsu used to like a lot but now just throws it away bc it's out of ink. maybe some random thing of mao's that ritsu stole when he was 6 because of some convoluted reasoning and jealousy, and which he never returned. and when they rediscover it mao is like "wtf i've been trying to find it for YEARS, why do you have this," and ritsu can only reply with "i dunno."

mao also can no longer use ritsu for the. to give himself self-esteem in his role as someone ritsu needs, or whatever codependent shit they have going on. he'll just have that pretty important aspect of the maintenance of his identity and self-image ripped from him because the flower is arophobic.

i just think ritsumao with the hanahaki surgery would just be rly tragic bc rtmo are the kind of friends who would want more than anything and who would do everything they can to ensure the other stays in their lives. or rather, they've been with each other for so long that they also don't actually need to bend over backwards to maintain their relationship. even when something does happen, i think they generally understand each other and value the other enough to resolve things sooner rather than later.

i think the both of them would choose not to have the hanahaki development in the first place if it meant that they could continue as they have always been. ritsu would never want to guilt trip mao with hanahaki (!! era at least, and not to make mao actually feel like shit for longer than a few hours at most). and mao would want to give ritsu what he wants as is usual but be unable to. so they're both absolutely miserable! falls face flat on ground.

anyway i can't believe i rambled this much but. after writing all that out i read that fic you wrote and. slams fist on wall and cries, you get it!!!!!! i don't know a thing about these two but oughhhhh. !!!!!!

(for anyone else who has somehow read to this point and who also has brainworms for Best Friend with Hanahaki, read it here before i spoil it below with my quoting)

the way Hak's first reaction is to do everything he can to solve things and his fear of losing 12 years of friendship. 12 years of memories. Their entire lives together. That was the price of getting it removed. while Soowon goes “But what if you find someone you have feelings for?” Soowon asked, “it’s not really fair for you to be bound to me this way.” and “Love” was too heavy a word to impose upon his friend

ohhhh my god. oh my god. It frustrated Hak, every time Soowon coughed up another flower and he couldn’t do anything about it. He couldn’t make it stop. Why couldn’t he make it stop?

it's the mutual love and care for the other!!!! screaming.

and the way Soowon just slowly fades away and Hak's heart breaks watching it happen. The way Hak finally says "I love you" and the way Soowon says "I know" and yet it doesn't do a thing because the flower is stupid and only cares about romantic love.

euggg this dynamic of hanahaki is really so interesting and real. i'm so glad you brought up your fic bc i have been trying for so long to find a hanahaki story like this. i get that the hanahaki haver's POV of keeping the illness and their feelings is dramatic and heartwrenching and all, but at the end of the day it's more or less just a more dramatised version of their already existing pining. the perspective of the one being loved, and of two friends trying and failing to save their relationship, is so unexplored in comparison. like these stories would require some very healthy, open communication, and yet somehow that is still not enough and that otherwise perfect relationship gets destroyed

[knightzp]

ritsu napping in the student council room waiting for mao to go back home together 🥺

[sodademon]

fan of the new wave of outfits. if it do say so myself

[heatwa-ves]

TIA TIA TIA HAVE YOU SEEN RITSUMAO + SAKUMA SIBLINGS LOOKBACK IS REAL IS HAPPENING WE ARE SO BACKKKK

oh hell yeah we won 💖 these r so cutes

[daily-mao-isara]

Day 282 : Mao in the office!

" Phew maybe I'll rest a bit"

[buddyfunnyspendtime]

I think we need to do an in depth microscope investigation on alkakureiPs and their opinions on the sakumas because some of them r making me scratch my head (most of u guys r okay btw some of u r just a little Questionable)

also one of them brought up how akira rehashes rtmo drama and I'm just like. WHERE R U FINDING THE RTMO DRAMA THEY HAVEN'T HAD ANY SINCE LIKE HORROR NIGHT HALLOWEEN AND BAND ASSEMBLE 😭😭 THE MOST RTMO DRAMA IN !! ERA IS THAT ONE ANGST TIKTOK ENSTARRIE WHERE MAOS DEAD IN LIKE MOST OF THEM it's justso funny to me im sorry

!! era (applies to ! era too but !! era is primarily focused around this) rtmos development is them breaking away from their codependency and them acknowledging they're still important to each other despite them not being physically around each as much as they used to be There's like no drama at all u only have to read that one ritsu idol story with mao I promise 😭

[neolxzr]

im glad the character specific ship polls are only a thing on twitter for the moment bc every time i see one im just like boo. your guys' tastes suck. and yes thats very mean of me but like i cant help it

[yume-fanfare]

if they were going to do a random non-zodiac scout it could've been tori so i had something to put in the silly section of the list

[mayoiayasep]

futaba and kaoruko are like. really ritsumao coded like damn i never really noticed

[acemarkey]

ritsumao 😢

[paperconsumption]

🔥enstars ship🔥

oohhh enstars ship,,umm ritsumao is kinda boring. it has some really interesting stuff in canon but in fanon all that gets totally ignored. ill check the ritsu tag and see fics for them and the characterization is so off its like people dont like/know anything about the characters and just ship it bc a lot of other people ship it too, and they just default to uwaah childhood friends,,,,,one of them is pining,,,,one of them is oblivious,,, and ive had enough!! be interesting about my favorite character and the other character i like a bit less 🔫

[knightzp]

Mikiiii hello hi

^picture of us

TIAAAA HELLO HIII THIS IS US FR <333

[heca-tia]

I don't really like ! era rtmo, but they can be sweet sometimes. Ritsu having some self awareness is kind of a relief tbh.

Oomfie told me rtmo made her uncomfortable back in the day, and now that I've read more ! era stories, I get it.💀

[nazuna-tunnel-vision]

context for sweets shooter ritsu is that mao is showing niki a ritsu video, completely unprompted

Mod comment:

PhoneFight 2023

[buddyfunnyspendtime]

wait I Just gotnmyfirst ever like on a post here. ON THE POST WITH THE #IF RITSU HAD A KINLIST KAORUKO WOULD BE ON IT KOL BUDDYFUNNYSPENDTIME OUT OF NUGUDOM SOON.....

[ryuseifloating]

rtmo