ᴰᵁᴸᴬᴾᴱᴱᴾ.ᴹᴾ⁴

show boy i fancy a dodgy old mill = must look back at boy i fancy to see if he thinks i'm cool

pretty boy throws a small rock

i must throw a bigger rock!

hope this rock will impress him

HUAGH!

right on the money!

wonder if pretty boy's impressed

ohh yeah, yep, pretty boy liked that one

monster ultra

2 australian men

make them kiss!!!!!

it's 10 am and my eyes are fighting to stay open but i need to post this and then i'm going to perform osmosis with my bed

below the cut is the separate frames for the gif, and the song i listened to while making it:

like . ryan is palming naim through his jeans all of 2 seconds after their first kiss unabashedly eager, but then naim catches their reflection, panics and pulls away, and ryan is left painfully confused. bc naim was very into it at first (whimpering and moaning into ryan's mouth just from a kiss levels of into it), and even though he stopped before they went further he wasnt mad because they were bantering afterwards?? ryan knows naim is definitely attracted to him at least, but does he like him back?

so he brings naim to the mill the second time, lights a joint to loosen him up, and asks him in the bravest way he can manage. so there's nothing you like about this place? and though it leads into another kiss (and maybe more that we didn't get to see), naim kind of never properly answers the question. in fact, his playful avoidance could've even thrown ryan off further. nah, he says. nothing. clearly from the way naim leans in and kisses him again he's full of shit, but does he just like what they're doing because ryan is a boy? or because it's ryan?

a lot of people take ryan hooking up with hunter as a marker of ryan not caring for naim or placing little value on their relationship but i think it's actually the total opposite. to me, ryan is the one thinking he's placing way too much value on his budding relationship with naim and he's horrifically insecure bc he believes naim isn't doing the same. though we as the audience experience this from naim's pov and thus our knee-jerk reaction is to interpret it as naim does—ryan "cheating" on him and therefore not being serious abt him—im growing more convinced that from ryan's pov, he feels that naim is the one just having fun. again this is only my interpretation but i feel like there's SO much that points to ryan yearning so fucking hard and feeling like naim does not return his feelings with the same intensity. but since he's too caught up in his masculine performance and the Being A Teenager of it all he refuses to be vulnerable and just ask. So he's left feeling lost about whether or not the intensity of his feelings are returned. ++ the fact that what he has with naim is so different than what he's ever had with anyone before—a gentle and tender intimacy he never believed he was deserving of, he's extra terrified of it being one sided, because where would that leave him? what if for naim, ryan is just fun fooling around? what if by asking for more ryan scares him off? so when hunter, violently familiar, comes knocking and wants to pick up where they left off, of course he lets it happen.

then the ritual. ryan locking eyes with naim as he's twitching vomiting choking on the floor only to later encounter entity naim without knowing it's entity naim and quietly accepting naim's sudden uncharacteristic violence bc if means he can still have even a shadow of the tenderness they had before then he'd let naim do whatever he wanted to him. but forgive me i cannot sink my teeth into all of That right now or this post will be a million fucking words so allow me to jump to post jessica convo. they're in the bus digesting the fact that they'll probably have to deal with this thing for the rest of their lives. ryan is listening to naim immediately jump to well, guess ill leave town, and ryan is trying and failing not to let that cut deep bc how can naim be so quick to drop everything and leave bandee behind? so quick to wipe his hands clean of this town and everything in it, of him? ryan can't help it. "don't go" he says, feeling naim slipping through his fingers, mortified by how that is what terrifies him more than anything else. but then naim responds: "i hate that shit hole anyway". and obviously he's not trying to be unkind but how is that supposed to make ryan feel?? how is he not supposed to take that as him not meaning as much to naim as naim does to him?

even with the confirmation that naim's entity looking like him which means his feelings are a least slightly returned, ryan can't help but feel hurt and a little bitter that naim is so quickly scared away from what they have. he doesn't fault him for this of course, but how else is he supposed to feel when even though naim clearly feels something for him, he's not willing to fight for it? because ryan likes naim so fucking much!! he's just learnt that this thing following him might never leave him be, that for the rest of his life he will be on guard, but the craziest thing about all of it is that he doesn't fucking care!! all he wants is for naim to stay by his side and like him back. he gets a bit of relief through naim responding to his advances on the bus and obviously enjoying it, but then later, when ryan cheekily invites him into the bathroom, he doesn't realise until the blood is pouring down his neck that the kiss he'd just received was a lie and naim let his fear get in the way again.

the iconic "i don't want it to look like some other dickhead, i want it to look like you." is ryan's final desperate plea. this is him finally laying it all out, and taking the leap. and god what a scene!!! the fact he bitterly stormed off after naim tells him he's given up and is planning to leave, but turns back around bc he can't let him go. that even though naim is turned away he can't bring himself to look at his back, keeps his eyes on the ground, hands in his pockets, voice pitched high and on the verge of breaking. for ryan this isn't just about being openly gay, it's about being with naim. i like you, ryan is telling him. if i have to live with this thing, i wouldn't want it to have the face of anybody else. if i have to live with the oppression and hate that come being who i am, i want to do it with you, naim. you and no one else.

then all the shit with izzy happens, and ryan learns the truth. and of course it hurts, of course he's angry. but if anything, he's more angry at himself because he still fucking loves him! he stops the car, waits for naim to climb in and drives him all the way home. and the entire time his eyes stay firmly on the road because he can hear naim's tears and knows if he sees them then he'll break. it won't be me. it'll never be me. he says as his last words. a promise to himself as much as it is to naim, because maybe naim was right. maybe they're only making things worse.

but then the entity comes, and the second he sees naim's sweet face and big wet eyes begging for his forgiveness, ryan folds. and he knows he's being tricked even as it's happening, but that's the point of all this isn't it? to be lured in by somebody you can't refuse? he knows it's not really him before the touch turns violent, but ryan whelan is a moth, and naim reid is the brightest, most beautiful flame.

he makes it through the night by some miracle, bloody, bruised and hollow. his eyes fix on the horizon in a thousand-yard stare, unable to burn away the image of naim's throat splitting under his folding knife, blood spilling over his fingers like water. it'd grinned at him as his knife hit bone, metal grinding against vertebrae. more blood bubbled over naim's lips, bared teeth stained with red as it laughed up at him, the sound wet and horrific. at some point it stopped trying to kill him, knowing that the worst it could do had already been done, naim's eyes going colourless as ryan pulled the knife free and staggered away covered in blood that nobody else could see.

he doesn't remember packing the bag. doesn't remember walking to the bus stop. his phone rings but he doesn't answer. he doesn't do anything but keep his eyes on the gravel and wait for the bus that will take him away from this place and the invisible blood on this hands.

and then a familiar face, one he saw cry and bleed and die the night before. he should run, but he's frozen, entranced by him just like he was the first time naim reid walked into year 11 maths what feels like years ago.

I want to talk about the "I dont want it to look like some other dickhead, I want it to look like you" scene.

You can see pain in their faces and it looks like its causing them physical pain.

Naim is breaking as he says he'll leave because, in his mind, there isn't another option. Staying together means danger. It means becoming a target. It means risking everything. So he chooses to walk away before either of them can lose even more.

Ryan wants to argue. You can actually see him arguing with himself.

But he can see Naim's point. And he hates it hates thst Naim is right on some levle and hates that he feels like this that they're being punished like this for this.

The footsteps when Ryan comes rushing back over are heavy and loud. It's just the sound of him running back, desperate, making the choice that he cannot let Naim leave without saying what he really feels. Because fuck that.

It's such a beautifully awkward confession because Ryan still can't actually say what he means.

He can't say I love you.

He can't even say I want you.

What I love is how the blocking reinforces all of this. Naim is facing away from Ryan, so Ryan is forced to say everything to his back. He doesn't get eye contact. He doesn't get reassurance. He doesn't even know if Naim is really listening.

And Ryan still can't quite look at him.

Even while he's confessing, his eyes keep dropping. He looks down. He looks away.

Naim never actually sees the pain on Ryan's face.

Because he can't look.

If he turns around too early, he'll break.

So the audience ends up seeing something neither boy fully gets to witness: they're both completely falling apart at exactly the same time.

Ryan looks like someone who's being dumped before they even got the chance to exist as a couple in public. There's this overwhelming sense of grief over something they haven't even been allowed to have yet. He wants to argue with Naim. You can see it all over his face. He wants to tell him they're wrong, that they can make it work, that they shouldn't have to hide.

But he also understands.

That's the tragedy.

Ryan hates that Naim has a point. He hates that fear has won to this extent. He hates that they're being punished simply for loving each other. And maybe, underneath all of that, he hates that some small part of him has internalised those same fears too.

That's why this scene hurts so much.

It's not just a love confession.

It's two boys trying to find words for feelings they've been taught should never exist, while simultaneously trying to protect each other from the consequences of having those feelings in the first place.

The tattoo isn't really about the tattoo.

the first time, they're both so nervous, so giddy, trying hard to play it cool even though they both want eachother so badly. the impromptu throwing contest, ryan pretending that naim had a spider on his shoulder just to shove him, the roughhousing... all with such a palpable undertone of want.

the second time when they're smoking feels much calmer, because they've established their boundaries now, since their first kiss. they know, more or less, where they stand. still, it's nervous. naim is rambling, (presumably bc he's high lol) but also because he's nervous. we see that he reacts to stress with impulse (asking jessica that invasive ass question, outing ryan & hunter, etc). and he apologises afterwards. "i shouldn't have told you that, im sorry." and ryan, obviously much more comfortable with his sexuality, says "you shouldn't be." i interpreted it as a double meaning, ryan telling naim not to be nervous around him. "your secret's safe with me." (painful, considering ryan's secret was rather unsafe with naim, lol)

“There’s nothing you like about this place?”

"it will never be me."