okay okay okay SO I was reading coraline again and I saw a line that stuck out to me when coraline is locked in the room behind the mirror by the other mother.
["Are you a girl?" asked Coraline. "Or a boy?" There was a pause. "When I was small I wore skirts and my hair was long and curled," it said, doubtfully. "But now that you ask, it does seem to me that one day they took my skirts and gave me britches and cut my hair"]
idk if the intention was to make a trans character here, but I'm taking it as such, and I am so attached to this sad little ghost.
"when you talk about her, your eyes light up but look distant and your voice gets less annoying. it's nice. love looks good on you."
THE MISDEMEANORS OF DUMB AND DUMBER — — — ( 3 / ?? )
the eager and vigorous slurping of piping hot ramen from the shared plastic tub fills up the still humming background noise of the convenience store. it is significantly past midnight, the store still bustling with the night crowd but nothing out of bounds is disruptive enough to interrupt the duo’s late-night snacking session. intently hunched over in their plastic chairs and slightly rickety table, peace sweeps in and lays on a comforting thick blanket on the two simply enjoying their newly acquired food scored from hard-earned labour. it is the only time that Oliver makes the exception for Jaewoo to be all up within his personal space without breaking out into a berserk ruckus over Jaewoo breathing in his closed off radius. with the way how Oliver’s fingers fly to ensure that every morsel of ramen is relished in his mouth causes Jaewoo to slow down with his own scarfing down so that Oliver can get a bigger portion than him. he smugly achieves by recounting his profound bonding moments with the animal apparitions ( whilst resisting the temptation to compare Oliver to one of the ruffian mutts who could only be placated with carrot cake ) as well as talking about his favourite subject that he simply can never shut up about : Inés.
his spirited storytelling starts off with how tiny plastic table has Jaewoo’s knees animatedly knocking against Oliver’s as a result of the momentum arising from Jaewoo’s exaggerated hand gestures during his narration. it makes him want to burst out laughing at the instinctive snarl from Oliver that naturally integrates into a low menacing growl to fend Jaewoo off from further provoking him in his personal space especially during his precious eating time. in response, Jaewoo always waves him off with an impish smile that shows off all his pearly whites although he backs down purely because he wants Oliver to keep eating up and so that he can enthuse about a concept that he noticed lulls out a mollified Oliver.
in between a languid slurp of ramen soup, he whispers out in hushed tones to his ravenous counterpart. “ did you know that I have to tell all the humans that I know that I met Inés as a blind date setup ? I have to come up with details about how our friends apparently set us up for a blind date so we met each other in this cosy but still classy enough restaurant for a place that Inés wouldn’t mind going to and we apparently hit off straight away. do you know how I met her actually ? one of my clients — that is a word that I use for the people who summon me for a wish and we begin our professional working relationship together congratulations Oli you learnt a new word today — came to me crying about how a demon deceived her. according to my client, Inés tricked her into giving up her soul to her and she wanted it back so I had to stalk and hunt Inés down. which wasn’t too hard to do actually. everyone who has met or seen her has always talked about how beautiful and gorgeous she is. she has a really distinctive style too so it really wasn’t that hard finding her. anyway, I landed on a garbage dumpster when I first saw her in person because I was already trying to uh . . . impress her I guess. but we got into a little quibble about whether my client was accurate about the deceiving part or not so it wasn’t exactly a smooth start but it wasn’t a weird or rocky one either ? it was always easy being myself around her from the start. but it actually took me a really long time to trust her and it took a lot for me to realise that . . . she is more than the incarnation of chaos that comes with the image of a being a demon. can you believe it ? ”
with another careful sip of the noodles, he always tends to get starry-eyed and whisked away in his own twinkling universe when he uses the opportunity to talk about the love of his life to someone very important to him. “ you know me Oliver, I have all these ideas about romantic love but she put her foot down, crushed all my expectations and said this is the reality of love. I never thought in a million years that I would fall in love with someone who is on the opposite of God’s side even though I didn’t really believe in him before I met him. I don’t know . . . I always knew I had these preconceived ideas about demons and Inés specifically especially because of the tidbits I got about her when I was hunting her down. so I was really shocked to learn that she is capable of loving and then loving me in return on top of it ? I don’t know what I would have done if she had left me without a word because she did try but somehow I had a gut feeling that I had to . . . tell her that it’s okay and that I just wanted her to stay in my life even if it meant pretending to have low emotional attachment. it was agonising, not knowing what I meant to her and whether I could lose her within a blink of an eye. sometimes things feel too good, so close to you that it is almost within your grasp but then it slips right through and vanishes into thin air forever. but that’s what is funny about the whole thing, you think love will just happen. well, the feelings do but working towards an actual relationship is like when you’re going up on a log jam ride and your stomach is all tensed up and waiting for the dip on the other side. oh my god, we need to go to a theme park together !! do you think you could behave yourself for a day in one ? we need to go on the log jam rides together Oli !! ”
although he knows Oliver is going to protest about the money going into food instead, he hurriedly presses on as he shoves a whole handful of ramen into the other’s already stuffed mouth. “ have you ever looked at someone in the eye and had an I’m seriously fucked moment ? ” it even surprises him with the amount of sheer shyness that abruptly overcomes him and plunging his face with a rosy coloured blush, his words tumbling out in an uncharacteristic jumble. “ uh . . . t-that’s one moment I had with her when she h-held my hand for the first time after I thought she was gone. ” now he entirely shuts up to fight down his stuttered out flustering, his cheeks burning up ablaze with the reminiscence.
that’s when Oliver’s eloquent words throw him off guard with the amount of deliberate insight despite the fact that he still labelled Jaewoo as annoying. had it been any other time, Jaewoo would have immediately and enthusiastically confirm how annoying he can be for Oliver but since he himself has been mellowed out by the topic of Inés, he merely stares at him in astonishment as Oliver’s words ring in an continuous echo in his ears.
“ thank you, ” he offers a small but affectionate smile, it is all what he can softly reply in return at first as the depth of Oliver’s words sink in as a delighted buzz filling up his ears now. “ love does that to everyone . . . the same thing will happen to you when you love someone Oli. I know you are capable of having the same thing for yourself. if someone as annoying as me can find someone to love them, you will have no problem. especially now that you mention it, what do you think love is ? you’re a softie deep down inside all that crazy anger, huh. do you like hearing me talk about her that much ? you can meet her if you want to but just remember that she’s my cute girlfriend. I wish I could say I would die for her but I’m already dead so I will say that I don’t mind getting exorcised at the expense of her happiness and safety. ” to himself, he knows this is a huge testament to his love when his number one unfaltering fear of shamans and the exorcism that entails never fails to freeze him on the spot out of sheer paralysing fear.
“ anyway, did you know that there are lots of different types of love ? there is romantic love, the type that I have with Inés and then there is platonic love between friends too. maybe one day you will be able to understand it as something we might have together in the future. and romantic love for yourself with someone who will support you through the good and bad. your whole life changes when you have someone you know you can go back home to no matter what happens. one cuddle will make everything feel all right again. even though I could do stuff like this to make you feel better . . . ” on cue, he mischievously flicks a finger at the other’s forehead before patting it better. “ so tell me, do you want to try looking for love ? I’m probably the best cupid out there ! and I won’t let you met any random people either. it has to be somebody who I know is PERSONALLY perfect for you. then maybe one day, in the future, when we are sitting down like this at the convenient store but this time with five tubs of ramen, I will get my chance to say love looks good on you Oliver. ”
“[My therapist] doesn’t know the details. Just that I’m in a bad contract situation, working somewhere pretty awful. She thinks I work for the Tories.”
