#unnecessary. cruel and inhumane. what was the point of doing that its weird and you people are insane

[makedamnsvre]

:/

[haileymorelikestupid]

PLEASE talk about how everybody looks concerned for Scho in that scene!

ask and you shall receive, my dear! and thank you for asking, i love talking about this film so much i risk insanity and annoyance from those who read these lmao. i hope you don’t regret asking after reading this whole novel i wrote

okay, so first we gotta look at the events directly preceding them getting back in the truck. from the moment scho first got in, none of the men paid him much mind, at least that we could see. the only exceptions really are a) when he first got in and they all looked at him before smith told them to move, b) rossi taking his rifle to help him in, and c) rossi’s comment of “welcome aboard the night bus to fuck knows where”. once they’re all seated, they don’t talk to him or even look at him. i think this was its own form of compassion, that this random soldier looked like he’d been through a lot and didn’t seem to want to talk so they figured they’d let him alone. it may have also been that he was a stranger to them and they didn’t feel the need to talk to him, but i don’t think that’s fully the case.

the first time they fully acknowledge him that we can see as the audience is when he gets hit by what i think is a canteen aimed at cooke. he flinches (and oof that flinch kinda breaks my heart a bit) and looks at his watch. they’d probably been aware of him and what he was doing (or, really, not doing) the whole time, but this is when they look at him in some form of expectation. then butler asks if he’s got somewhere to be, marking only the second thing said to him, and we don’t know if he would have even answered because then the truck gets stuck.

then, this poor guy seems out of his mind as he frantically tries to get the truck out of the mud. we can sympathize with him because we know what happened and what his mission is, but to the convoy, he’s this random lance corporal who has been silent up until now, and he seems almost crazed. he yells at the driver with desperation, he insists there’s no time to get wood to put under the wheels, he begs for help to push the truck, and he screams with the effort of doing so. the only thing they can even be is concerned for the man at this point. he falls in the mud and does not care as he just urges the men to get back in, and the air with which he says it indicates he’s still hurried.

so, as they get settled again, they all look at him. at this point, they can’t ignore him anymore (not that they were being ignorant before, they just weren’t acknowledging him directly or forcing scho to acknowledge them). they don’t even know this dude’s name, but they can gather that something is dreadfully serious concerning how this man ended up with them.

given that, we know they’re concerned. there’s really not much else they can be, and they’re all good enough men that they wouldn’t be concerned.

but, how do they show it, and how do we see it? first of all, they all look at him, expecting, waiting, just as they did when butler asked if he had somewhere to be. cooke and jondalar most noticeably hold their gazes for the longest time, while rossi looks out the back, butler looks down, and with malky it’s hard to tell. then jondalar asks where he’s going, not unkindly, and they all look straight at him. if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t bother looking and waiting for his response. i mean for rossi it might be strange to avoid looking at him since they’re face to face, but he could just continue looking out the back if he didn’t care.

besides eye contact, all five that are in frame with scho say something. jondalar asks the first two questions, then malky pitches in, then cooke, then butler, then rossi. and yeah, it’s a film and they’re all in camera for a reason, specifically to speak, but eh whatever imma give this as much meaning as i want lol. the point is, they all care about what scho has to say, and he’s too unfamiliar to them for it to just be because they consider him so much as even an acquaintance at this point. they want to know why he’s acting the way he is, why he ended up in the back of the truck with him, and they wouldn’t care if they weren’t concerned for and about him.

then, it’s their responses and what they choose to say. when he says it’s to save 1600 men, they’re all pretty taken aback because of the sheer number of men and the weight of what that means. in that moment, they have some understanding of why it is so important that they did everything in a timely manner and why he was so stressed about doing so. when he says, “there were two of us,” they all understand the heaviness of that statement. literally, in the script, after that line, it says, “a beat. the men understand what this means.” and that is so heartbreaking, that with one small answer they become privy to this man’s grief, even if they don’t know the depth of it. it’s their concern that stops someone from asking something like, “what happened to the other one?” they see this man now and understand that his actions and attitude are clearly warranted in his circumstance.

in my post about cooke, i talked about how he showed his concern in that face he made after scho responded to his, “you’ll never make it,” with “yes, i will.” rossi also shows compassion in his own ways, from his helping scho get in the truck the first time to his welcoming comment to just his gentle demeanor. here, it’s no different as he offers scho some of his whisky, no questions asked. i feel like so many things are said in that one gesture – it’s a sign of comfort, it’s for luck, it’s some liquid courage, etc. etc. also, whether it’s rations or something rossi traded for, it’s not like it’s in large supply, but it’s something he can offer to scho. that’s how rossi shows he cares.

butler doesn’t do or say much, but that little lasting gaze, even when scho has his back to him, says to me that he’s still concerned. it’s almost like he’s analyzing him or thinking over what he’s said and what he must do. he shows compassion in his quiet and slightly grumpy way.

when they look out the back at the field full of dead cows, it seems to me to be a timely subject change so that scho can take a breath and have the attention off him, and a way of showing their own version of grief for scho. that sounds weird, but what i mean is they obviously realize that this war is inhumane and cruel and uncaring and even unnecessary, and it’s like they’re sharing with scho that they are upset for him, that he lost whoever was sent with him on the mission, that the weight of 1600 men rests on his weary shoulders. and, we know that for scho, it’s message received, that he’s not zoning out while they talk. he gets a moment to himself to take a drink and put the letter in his tin, but he is very much still listening and responding to the conversation. we can tell that much by the way he looks at them as they speak and nods along at moments.

and i think jondalar’s denial of cooke’s statement that they’ve “got them on the ropes” is, in itself, caring. schofield just told them that he’s stopping the attack to save the devons from a trap, and i think jondalar read between the lines on that one. this is another way we can tell scho is actively listening, since his gaze snaps straight to jondalar and he nods in agreement.

and then, of course, the goodbyes are caring and concerned as well. “keep some of that luck for yourself, pal. think you’ll be needing it.” that about says it all, really. they all wish him good luck, and you know they mean it, that they want him to succeed, for his sake and for the sake of 1600 men. “i hope you get there,” and we know the rest agree.

i hope this does it justice. thank you again for asking, and for wanting to hear what i have to say. it really means a lot to me <3

[fluffandlove]

Sadistic Anniversaries

Author’s note: Misaki x Usagi with 18. “I’m not sadistic, I just like making you suffer!” Thank you so much for the prompt, anon! I’ve never written these two before and had a lot of fun writing this!

Summary: Misaki’s worked very hard on their four year anniversary dinner and Usami, the so-called sadist, thanks him in his own way. 

Word count: 2,2k whoop whoop!

“Gah!”

Today had been so stressful. Four years ago on this very day they had officially become a couple and every time the thought came to mind, Misaki would go bright red and had to cover his face to calm down. He couldn’t believe he’d been in this relationship for four years and that they were still going strong. They still kissed every day, cuddled before bed, watched movies and series together, held hands and just basically everything a couple in their honeymoon phase would do.

After coming home from a long day at work, Misaki was already beyond exhausted, but he really wanted to put every ounce of energy he had into making this dinner. Fortunately for him, Usami had several meetings planned, which meant that he still had a good three or so hours to prepare the biggest dinner ever.

He couldn’t get a head start this morning because Usami was right there on the couch, sipping his coffee like any other day. Misaki was somewhat scared that he’d forgotten all about their special day, but he did get five goodbye kisses instead of the usual three, so…?

Eh. Usami had definitely been in a good mood, so that was good enough. And if he’d forgotten about their fucking four year anniversary, Misaki would hit him with the frying pan he had just dropped.

Crazy. That was the label Misaki was looking for. It was nuts that he was making dinner for his boyfriend, wearing a pink apron and hairclips and that he had dropped one of their best pans because his head was still up in the clouds, wishfully thinking that Usami would do that cute thing where he pressed their foreheads together and looked him in the eye, mumbling, “I love you,” over and over again after he got home.

The tips of his ears burned. So did his neck and stomach. He didn’t need a mirror to know that he looked like the tomato he was about to cut in half.

Maybe ridiculous would be a better word to use because Misaki dropped the pan again right after he had picked it up and let out another yelp.

It took way longer than he had anticipated. Partly because he’d managed to cut himself twice and partly because he had overcooked the rice and had to start all over again. The trashcan was filled with a huge amount of wasted food, bloody paper towels and his pride, but at least he got everything done on time.

The table was set with a nice, red table cloth, two chique plates and bowls for the soup and sake. Misaki had strategically left the food in the oven to keep it warm, since he wasn’t sure when Usami was going to come back home. 

As if on cue, his phone rang. 

“Hello?” Misaki was trying really hard not to pant and make it sound too obvious that he was in the middle of changing his shirt.  

“Misaki, I’m almost home and was wondering if you need anything from the convenience store.”

Wham. Misaki’s leg hit the bed as he did a little hop to pull his pants up. “Ow! Damn it!”

“… Misaki?”

“No, I don’t need anything!” he quickly replied and held his knee while shutting his eyes. “Sorry, my leg hit the bed.”

“Klutz. Are you five years old, or something?”

“Oi!”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Try not to break your arm, okay?”

“Usagi—

“Love you. Bye.”

Well, that instantly shut him up. Misaki clamped a hand over his mouth to keep himself from making any unnecessary noises to embarrass himself even more than he already had, but Usami hung up right after he had said that. Probably to make a statement.

That ass.

Misaki finished dressing up, clumsily went back downstairs, his knee still throbbing a little, and sat at the table, trying to keep a straight face and failing miserably. There was a permanent red hue on his cheeks and nose, his lips were tightly pressed together and his hands were clammy, as if he was going on a first date, or something, but he just really, really hoped his boyfriend would like his dinner.

Right when he was about to grab his phone to call Usami, said person entered the apartment and his eyes instantly fell on the fancy looking table.

“…” his lips parted but no sound came out and Misaki prayed that that was a good thing since the Usami Akihiko was never speechless. He awkwardly smiled up at him and held out his arms in a silent, “Tadaa!”

“Happy um, happy anniversary!” he added when Usami continued to gape at the table like it was some kind of alien that had barged its way into his home. “I made us dinner!”

Their eyes met and Misaki felt his stomach drop. Usami dropped his bag and jacket and marched over to the table like a soldier before he pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. Poor Misaki screeched in response and tried to breathe and not to fall off the chair at the same time because good ol’ Usami wasn’t thinking straight and threw in his entire body weight.

“Usagi-san-can’t-breathe…!” Misaki managed to choke out and sighed in relief when Usami finally let go and held his jaw with both hands. “W-what?”

“I love you.”

“You already said that,” Misaki retorted in a small voice.

“You made us dinner.”

Misaki shut his eyes, unable to maintain eye-contact for a second and tried his best to flail around, but Usami grabbed his wrist to keep him in place. Usami was doing that thing with his voice that made him want to melt into a puddle on the floor so he would cease to exist. The universe was always so cruel to him, even though he was a good person and hadn’t done anything to deserve this.

However, the universe wasn’t done yet. Usami, still holding his wrists, leaned down and started kissing him all over his face, not missing one single spot and playfully nibbled on his ear as well. Misaki was having trouble breathing at this point, unable to respond like a human to the huge amount of affection he was receiving, and just continued to sit there. Their fingers were intertwined, making him even more immobile than he already was, and Misaki was pulled to the couch, which was when he found his voice again.

“Usagi-san, dinner’s still in the oven, you know!”

“Good.”

The kissing continued and was taken to the next level when Usami hugged him like a body pillow, burying his face in Misaki’s neck while kissing his pulse point. Misaki was this close to losing his shit.

“You’re suffocating me!” he blurted out and tried to curl up, but Usami was having none of that and simply held him even tighter, to which Misaki replied with a quiet, “I swear, you’re sadistic.”

“I’m not sadistic, I just like making you suffer,” Usami said and Misaki could fucking hear the smirk in his voice. "But if we’re talking sadistic, then...”

Two very sneaky hands made their way down to his sides and started drawing small and slow circles there. Misaki’s eyes nearly popped out of his head and any bystander probably would’ve thought a cat was being thrown off the balcony. 

“No, no, no! Usagi-san, I fucking swear, don’t tickle meeeeeeeeee!”

The universe had spoken once again.

“But it’s so cute,” Usami said matter-of-factly and decided to step up his game by pinching right above his hipbones, making the other literally scream with laughter. “See?”

No, Misaki wanted to throw back, but all he could throw back was his head and bury it in the pillow of the couch. He was stuck in this weird position where Usami was sort of laying on top of him, half-hugging and half-tickling him to death. His sides were being full on attacked by his larger hands, squeezing up and down his waist.

He tried so hard to grab those annoying hands, but Usami, being very experienced, simply tickled him all over his torso and legs, which made Misaki lose his mind and unable to grab them. The quick and unpredictable tickles made his laughter go up an entire octave because his body was driven to the very edge, losing complete control.

His legs did a poor job at kicking Usami in the back. Instead of being useful, they just kicked the air out of reflex, his muscles spasming too much to actually function properly. Misaki gave up trying to stop him and decided to cover his face, not wanting Usami to see the redness and forced goofy grin.

“Stop-tickling-me, ack!”

A few fingers had managed to crawl under his shirt and were now scribbling all over his quivering stomach. Misaki did another attempt at stopping him but Usami bent down and blew a very loud and very stupid raspberry right on his navel.

Misaki’s voice actually broke then, his laughter so very high-pitched that he was lowkey worried about hurting Usami’s ears. Then again, that asshole was responsible for making him produce such inhuman sounds, so he shouldn’t feel sorry at all.

“I didn’t think you could go that high,” Usami grinned down at him, appearing to be fascinated and oh, how Misaki wanted to smack that grin off his face. “Duly noted.”

“Shut uhup!” Misaki barked out more bouts of laughter and actually guffawed when his ribs got their own turn, very impressed with himself that he was still alive. Usami had switched to scratching lightly at his upper ribs, sometimes going even higher right to his underarms, which were impossible to protect even when he clamped down his arms because Usami simply tickled around that spot until he would flail and expose them.  

This was far from righteous. He’d made dinner and now Usagi tickling him so softly and gently that he might as well have died a thousand deaths right there and then, but he got a random burst of energy and managed to roll over.

“Where’re you going?” Usami snickered and simply continued to torment his underarms until Misaki rolled all the way to the edge of the couch and yeah, ended up falling off.

Not in a very gracious way, in fact, half of his body hadn’t even made it to the floor. His lower half was still trapped under Usami’s body and maybe this was one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever made in his life because now he was completely exposed. Gravity pulled is shirt down and his arms were in this really weird angle, making it hard to protect himself.

“Away from you!” Misaki yelled and still tried to crawl away, but his legs were forever stuck.

Usami took this opportunity to run his fingers over his thighs and knees, resulting in Misaki’s upper body jerking around and his arms grabbing at thin air. “You’re still here, though.”

“Pfff, quit it!”

“You called me a sadist, remember?”

He’d dug his own grave. Even more helpless than before, Misaki could only lay there and jump around, laughing and shrieking like he was being assaulted, which was only half true. And of course, Usami’s hands slid down to his bare torso, which made him buck so wildly that Usami lost his balance.

Both of them yelped in unison, totally caught off guard. Misaki was kind of able to break his fall, but got the air knocked out of him because of it and burst out laughing. “Not what I had in mind for our anniversary, but okay.”

Usami pushed himself up and looked down at him, worried. “Shit, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”  

Misaki blew his bangs out of his face, still quite red in the face from all the laughter, but smiled nonetheless. “I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

Humming in response, Usami leaned down and gently placed his forehead against Misaki’s. “Okay, that’s good to hear. You still love me, right?”

“Hm,” Misaki half responded, only able to look up at him through his eyelashes, feeling his face heating up from their proximity. “After what you just did to me… Not so sure.”

A chuckle. “I only do it because I love you. You made me dinner because you love me. It’s the same thing.”

Oh, boy. Misaki snorted and looked away. “I made you dinner because I love you and you tickled me because you love— How does that even make sense?”

And then he’d realized what he’d said and instantly sputtered and kicked his legs, anything to try to get away, but Usami held his cheeks and kissed him once again. Those previously annoying hands slipped back under his shirt for now completely different reasons and softly kneaded his hip, thumb caressing the protruding bone.

“I love touching you,” Usami uttered against his lips before he went back to kissing them again. “Love touching you and making you laugh.” Another kiss and squeeze. “It makes me happy.”

Misaki grew drowsy, slowly but surely melting on the spot as Usami continued to kiss and touch him so very tenderly.

“Chicken is kinda chewy.”

“Uhuh.”

“Rice is overcooked.”

“Yep.”

“The onions—”

“You know what, that’s not my fault. I told you I left everything in the oven to keep it warm, but no, you still had to drag me to the couch and torment the hell out of me.”

“Maybe we should hire a cook for our next anniversary.”

“…”

“Who’re you calling?”

“Yes, hello, Nii-chan. I’ve decided that I wanna move out.”