Truly having Flambert enemies with benefits thoughts BUT. AFTER The first night they see each other. At Crypto.
Mecha Man? Doesn't make time for indulgences. Even if calling it that feels like a cop out.
Because if he had to be honest, he'd say something dangerous. Like it’s arranged, and not a dooming coincidence from an universe that didn’t care for anybody, but especially not them.
One time? Sure. That's just bad luck.
A week later? A new bar? Hero, villain, not important? That's something made.
They were supposed to fight, is the thing. That's the only reason Flambae even tracked him down. But he has requests.
“Mecha Dick — this isn't fight club. I can't be on the news and have my dispatcher see me if I flame up! We gotta find a different place.”
“Or you can just... Not fight me. That's also an option.”
“And I won't. Well, after this.I can't stop thinking about you, when my teeth hurt, and it's annoying. So just this one time.”
And it should've been fair. No powers. No suit. Just an abandoned warehouse, Flambae’s clumsy form, and retribution with teeth marks on it.
But Robert doesn’t think it's fair.
He doesn't think it's fair. How they both end up on the floor, — him, surprisingly, with significantly fewer bruises. How Flambae tried to kick him, tripped, and made Robert laugh.
He doesn't think its fair when he jokes about kissing Flambae’s bruised lip, and Flambae smiles about it, gaped tooth and all. He never does it in the office. “Pucker up, then.”
He shouldn't. Extend indulgences.
He does for Flambae. At least for a night.
Except it's not a night.
It's once a week. In warehouses, in bar bathrooms, in hotel rooms where Flambae complains the mattress is lumpy.
Yet, he spends the night. Laid on his back. Breathing a bit easier, a bit lighter. Until they're nose to nose. Damage to damage.
“…I know what you're doing.”
“Yeah,” Flambae grins at him like sunshine shattered on his mouth. He kisses Robert — Mecha Man— on the nose, fingers dancing on where mask ends and nose starts. “It’s working, too. “
If ‘working’ means Robert sleeping well for the first time in years? Then yeah. It does.
i’m here to spread my aromantic “love me, normally” will wood propaganda cause i NEED this to be an aromantic theme song. CAUSE IT MAKES SENSE.
first of all. the song itself called “love me, normally” because the normal white picket fence way of love is romantic love. settle down with someone love them for all your life yk that stuff. the idea that through out the whole song the narrator is trying to get himself to love someone “normally” rings true with a lot of aromantic people. and within the same chorus he talks about how he wants to keep the relationship informal, now my takeaway from this line is that he wants to keep the relationship on the down low, he doesn’t want it to be a big formal wedding or even a very public relationship because (if the narrator were aromantic) HE DOESNT WANT THIS RELATIONSHIP!! and then obv the rest of the chorus like “to pretend to be normal… i guess that’s the least that i owe ya” like very aromantic very guilt ridden in the fact that he can’t fully love this other person like yah you get the chorus
you can find aromantic symbolism everywhere but specifically in the bridge and the last verse i wanna talk about
the bridge is talking ALL about how normal romance has failed for the narrator. the first part of the bridge is him talking about love in this like rose tinted glasses kind of way, but it’s so positive it’s menacing. then the second half of the bridge turns around and the narrator starts ranting about his past relationships through saying “hey, at least your relationship isn’t like being in a relationship with me!!”
and it ENDS with the line “but rather you love them exactly the way that everybody else is” REALLY driving home that he’s different from everyone else, and that he won’t be able to have that dream like amazing romance ever.
and then. my FAVOURITE. the third verse.
the first line is a theme common in the song but just hasn’t been too prevalent to this persuasive text, the narrator often questions why he was born, and the next line follow that up with “i’ll be nothing again, so what am i between now and then?”. romance offers a true comfort and meaning to life, when asked about the meaning of life most people say happiness, and a big part of happiness is finding “the one”. here, the narrator talks about his life seeming meaningless because of his lack of romance. that might seem like a stretch, but i think it’s pretty confirmed in the final line with “to god who made me this mad, you better have one hell of a plan”. again, without romance it’s hard to find a purpose to life. god is supposed to have a plan for everyone, so the narrator is questioning why he was born this way because it’s so inconvenient and literally makes nothing better ever.
some extra stuff:
-the narrator talking about how he drinks himself to death and then at the after party he’s rolling in his grave
i think the actual party is very symbolic of your late teens to young adult years of life, when everyone’s very sexually and romantically driven, hoping in and out of relationships but nothings serious, and the afterparty represents adulthood where most people are settling down or trying to find a serious relationship. you can see the narrator “drink (himself) to death to be the after life of the party”, to me, this excessive drinking and becoming the AFTERlife of the party is because he’s trying to avoid the romance part of early adulthood, where everyone’s going to parties and hooking up he’s drinking himself to death, so that when the afterparty (late adulthood) comes he’s already dead.
-i think the lyric “and besides i don’t wanna get old” is very. real. again THROUGH AN AROMANTIC LENS, this tells me that the narrator would rather stay in his youth, where being aromantic is just an inconvenience, rather than being old and aromantic, where you start to question your entire existence because the number one meaning for life in this amatonormative society is LOVE. ROMANTIC LOVE.
-I also think the reoccurring theme of feeling guilt about your current partner is important to mention. sometimes, before knowing they were aromantic, aro people will get into relationships, and maybe i’m projecting but i feel like it has to be a common thing where you feel guilty that someone has to love you because you can’t love them back the same.
-also like. this is so much more relatable to me because i’m neurodivergent AND aromantic and this song is speculated to be about neurodivergency but until someone writes a better aro anthem (which would be difficult. this encapsulates a lot of aro related feelings.) i’m just. sticking with this!!
