He was only Toast

“Has anyone ever told you you look an awful lot like Wylan Van Eck?”

fanart of sharpshooter's back, baby! by maudealise on ao3

oooh fun, thanks for the ask :)

Matthias: have you ever been the only sober person in a room with several drunk friends who are all complimenting you as if you offered to pay off all of their debts? 'i love you so much im so glad i met you youre the best ever youre so cool youre my best friend' type of thing? so i think matthias would be like that but instead of complimenting people he's talking about how awesome wolves are and how they're the best ever and how they're his favourite animals etc. etc. I think wylan is the only crow who participates in conversation about wolves with him.

Wylan: honestly don't think he'd get drunk because of trauma from the tonics when he was younger BUT if he would. I think he'd be quieter, just generally sitting back and watching the group's conversations and try to absorb everything. He'd be unbelievably self-conscious about "acting drunk" so his entire train of thought is how to seem as normal as possible. It doesn't really work, because it just looks like he's glaring at the table or panicking about looking at the table. (If he were alone with Jesper I think it'd be different. They'd get even more affectionate somehow and one of them would end up lying on top of the other while giggling about something random.)

Jesper: similarly to Wylan, I think he'd change depending on who he's with. With all the crows he'd be what you expect, a little rowdier, confident as ever, etc. If he's just home alone drinking with Wylan though I think he'd be even sappier than usual and would probably blush at anything and everything Wylan does because he's so down bad and also Wylan is being even more affectionate than usual at the same time. he cant handle it.

Inej: i'm struggling with this one actually. it's hard to picture inej drunk, but i think she'd probably end up reminiscing with jesper and kaz about stuff that happened when they were younger. i like to think she's a storyteller type of drunk and the others (particularly matthias and wylan, who are quietly taking everything in) enjoy listening to her random, sometimes concerning stories.

Nina: louder, making a lot of jokes, trying to bring Wylan and Matthias out of their quiet bubbles with varying levels of success. She's probably the person drinking the most and yet she'll be telling everyone else to drink water and take paracetamol for the morning etc etc as if she's not the one who's going to have the worst hangover (and I don't think she'd listen to her own advice.)

Wylan's red curls. The same ones as Marya.

Hey everyone, here’s the latest chapter! This month’s chapter had little dialogue, thus I was able to manage it with the help of of lovely @ryota-kunstranslations​ who made the translation quick while I handled the rest. This chapter was awesome because we got to see Mahiru and Kuro using a new power and there’s still more that we need to find out about Touma! Also, new reference that I have written a little about. Enjoy!

Pandora opened the box twice. The first time, she did it out of curiosity and accidentally unleashed human evil into the world. She did close it before hope could escape. After she realized her mistake, she cried and her husband came to ask her what happened. Pandora opened the box again to show him that it was empty. That was when hope was released into the world.

The myth of Pandora’s box teaches you not to be curious. There’s also a lesson there about opening up to someone else who supports you after you fucked up (because that’s when hope entered the world.)

“Some may say, a medicine has been planted to make long-suffering mortals forget their troubles, to save their lives.” -From Nonnus Dionysiaca, where “medicine is hope”

Mahiru is now that hope at the bottom of the locked box that is Touma’s heart.

I also want to talk about Elpis herself. She’s the spirit of hope and she’s associated with Pistis (trust), Sophrosyne (restraint) and the Kharites (grace, beauty, etc). While the other “Spirits of Good” flew back to Olympus when the box was opened, Elpis was the only spirit that stayed behind to comfort humans left behind in misery. I always interpreted that Elpis did this because she could sympathize with the humans after being in the box. 

Mahiru, my kind sunshine son, always finds a way to sympathize with other characters (Kuro, Tsurugi, etc). That’s why he’s always reaching out to others and helping them.

“When the lid was put back on the jar, Elpis was kept inside. That is why Elpis alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away.” -From Aesop’s Fables

Elpis is also said to be the counterpoint to Moros (the spirit of doom) much like how the Eves act as the “Truth”/opposite of their Servamp’s sin. It is important to note that the Seven Deadly Sins or Heavenly Virtues does not appear in Greek Mythology so that’s not the best parallel.

Was rereading some of the stuff from Parallel Summer event (which you can find a translation of the full event here! Please give Ryota’s hard work some love and appreciation💕)

And Kuro’s route kills me because… How much does Kuro love Mahiru, you ask? (spoilers for Kuro’s route under the cut!)

This appears after he finishes using Elpis (Proof of Hope) on Touma

QED, Quad Erat Demonstrandum

“Used at the end of a mathematical or logical proof, it means ‘what was to be shown’

another way to write it that makes it more obvious what’s trying to be said is “thus it is proven”

The “proof” in “proof of hope” stands for both literal proof that hope exists inside the target, and for a mathematical proof (which are a pain in the ass, my god)

But why that? Why give that to Mahiru? Easy. The same reason Sakuya’s favorite subject is math.

It’s simple. There is only ever one logical, correct answer. And for Mahiru? The only correct answer is that hope, invariably, without a doubt, exists.

Sometimes I remember that there are people out there who think Mahiru is boring, annoying, etc, and… I get so confused, because are we reading the same series? Watching the same show? Mahiru’s not boring at all! Like every single other character in the series, on the surface level he appears to be a one dimensional amalgamation of tropes and cliches, but then you dig a little deeper, look a bit more closely at how he acts, and it’s obvious he’s so much more

He’s a kid who’s terrified of being abandoned, so he makes himself as useful to the people around him as possible so they’ll always need him. He’s lonely, and even in the very beginning, he never wanted to show his negative feelings to his friends because he was scared that they’d get tired of him. Even now, he can’t bring himself to cry in front of others, instead hiding away or waiting until he thinks he’s alone to let his tears fall, such as when Kuro was stuck in the ball or at Gear and Youtarou’s flat.

He’s a perfect foil to Tsubaki because instead of letting his melancholy emotions consume him and shutting everyone out under the assumption, the fabricated falsehood, that no one will ever understand the pain he is feeling, he overcame and transformed them, accepting those feelings for what they are and moving forward even when it’s hard, using the sorrow he has felt to relate to and help others because even if it’s impossible to completely understand, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

But, the thing that makes him such an important character not just in the series, but to me, personally… Is that he doesn’t just want to be that “someone” who helps others when they have nowhere else to turn, he is that someone. He doesn’t just stand around waiting for someone else, someone else, oh won’t someone else do something.

His nagging isn’t nagging, it’s care, because have you seen this cast? Nothing would ever get done without him around to keep everyone on task!

He is a representation of everyone that has ever held a hand out to those who are hurting, a normal, everyday person with his normal, everyday fears and hurts. A normal, everyday hero.

Saint Alban was a Roman patrician who lived in Roman Britain in approximately the 300s. A Christian priest by the name of Amphibalus took refuge in his home and inspired him to convert to Christianity. When the authorities came for Amphibalus, Alban offered to be executed in his place. Servamp begins with Mahiru giving shelter to a stranger, a stranger that gets him involved in a very different way of life. Mahiru’s whole schtick is taking on things because no one else will do it up until dying for it. After speaking with Gear, Mahiru thought that he could save Kuro and everyone else by dying. 

Another connection between Kuro and Amphibalus is that the root of Amphibalus’ name is the word for “cloak”. Human Kuro wore a cloak on the day of his death. When Mahiru enters Kuro’s mindscape or uses Elpis, he wears the cloak Kuro wore to his execution.

The story goes that Saint Alban crossed the River Thames on the way to his execution. Before hearing that he needed to die to save everyone, Mahiru fell into a river after being transported from Japan by the Tsukimitsu siblings. Which river was that again?

More name connections: Saint Alban was killed in a field covered in wildflowers and as a patrician he was probably some kind of aristocrat. Mahiru’s surname Shirota means “castle in a field”.

One more thing: The town where Saint Alban lived and died was called Verulamium, which was probably from the Brittonic Uerulamion meaning “tribe of the broad hand”.  

one of the main narrative involving sloth pair is pointing out that both of them have a habit of uselessly sacrificing themselves

starting with kuro who took the blame for the other villagers to save them, only for those villagers to be sacrificed to revive him. then he volunteered to take on the responsibility to kill st germain even though he hates killing, which ended up making his relationships and mental health fell apart and in the end theres still a chance for st germain to be revived

with mahiru you already mentioned that he took on jobs nobody else wanted to do, which stems from his fear of being alone. if he’s useful nobody will leave him behind right? except him overworking himself has never been the prerequisite for him to not be alone. because he’s loved for the person that he is, not what he can do