#mango roars

oh god. wait no oh my god. just realized that darius was both the first and last person ben sought out in jwct. choosing to drive to darius's cabin first even though he had sammy's address in writing. using what he thought his last dying breaths were to thank darius for believing him in the first place. i'm so ill it's not even funny

sometimes i think about how ben jumped into the ocean to, yes, follow his friends, but more specifically, accept darius's hand and darius's hand only. and sometimes i think about how, yes, it was the whole group that waited for ben, but more importantly, it was darius that clung to the rails, literally begged ben to come with them when he wasn't even there to hear it. and sometimes i think about the implications of that. the obvious conclusion to darius's survivor's guilt but also the insinuation that darius is ben's tether to the nublar 6. how poetic that is. the boy that thought he failed ben is the one (human person) that saves him physically, spiritually, emotionally. and sometimes i can't consider all of that without getting in my feelings about it

i do think there's something beautiful about how many benrius enjoyers headcannoned darius (and ben, for that matter) as being somewhere on the aroace spectrum long before CT ever came out. like yes they have a non-normative partnership. we know!

elon musk stoking the moral crusade against yasammy wasn't on my bingo card but what the hell. sure

y'all know that bazooka song. the one about his grandma blowing up. yeah kenji makes his own version about daniel while they're on the boat in jwct s2