#(Oct. chapter)

[on-friday-afternoon]

𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝙸 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔.

[abybweisse]

Ch205 (p1), Cover and title pages

Like I said in spoiler posts, we aren't going into their flashbacks, just yet, but we are getting really good setups for it eventually happening.

[kingdomoftyto]

Hi, happy spooky month, I have a ✨manga rec✨!! And in the spirit of the season, it's a horror story! >:3c

I want to spoil as little as possible because I went into this manga essentially COMPLETELY blind and, honestly, imho, I imagine it's the ideal way to experience the story. I literally first heard about it from a random youtube comment on a video about an entirely different manga--one which, mind you, had VERY different themes, which colored my preconceptions and added to the surprises for me later on!

ANYWAY, what I mean by all that is I'm going to start with the simplest possible summary of the premise, and if that's intriguing enough for you to give it a shot, then I recommend diving right in!! But, if you still need more of an in-depth, slightly spoilery rec? Then I'll gush a bit more under a cut to see if I can hook your attention.

With all that out of the way,

The Summer Hikaru Died is a horror/supernatural story about a high school boy named Yoshiki whose best friend (Hikaru) went missing in the mountains outside of town. What comes back is... something else. It looks, acts, and talks like Hikaru, but it's not him, and Yoshiki is the only one who seems to notice.

The only other thing I knew going in was that the commenter made a brief mention of the "Hikaru"-thing protecting Yoshiki, which seemed odd but intriguing alongside the rest of the premise.

So if that's enough for you (plus the fact that I'm telling you I haven't stopped thinking about this story since I read it two weeks ago), then please check it out! There are only 5 volumes so far!! Suffer through the wait for the rest with meeeeee ಥωಥ

More spoilery extended rec below the cut:

📣THESE MOTHERFUCKERS GAY*!!!📣

📣GOOD📣FOR📣THEM!!!📣

I know what you're thinking, and YES, it appears to be BL between the TIMID HIGH SCHOOL BOY and the ELDRITCH HORROR WEARING THE SKIN OF HIS BEST FRIEND.

And it's SO GOOD.

No SERIOUSLY, for real though, I had NO inkling going into this that it was even in the realm of possibility that it would involve romance

Let alone a nuanced, slow burn, VERY QUEER romance layered with ruminations on grief and identity and one's relationship to society

(ON THIS NOTE, I must advise up front that I DO NOT KNOW if this story will end in tragedy... It's still ongoing, after all! BUT, I think either way it will be an amazing story and... maybe I'm just delusional, and though this may be considered spoilery in itself, the most recent chapters have me optimistic that we might indeed be on track for some sort of happy ending... eventually.)

Anyway, I cannot express enough how incredible it was to uncover this aspect of the story organically without knowing about it beforehand. Born and raised in a rural village, Yoshiki is deep in the closet, and that's reflected in how subtle the hints are at the beginning. Over time, it starts to become clearer and clearer, but always with a layer of plausible deniability, at least if you're not expecting it to take such a queer turn. ("Hikaru" literally makes a ton of "no homo" style jokes early on, which... god don't get me started--)

As you might guess, Yoshiki had feelings for the real Hikaru before his disappearance, and ooh boy does that affect how much the grief and guilt and fear play into things. It's delightfully fucked up.

So yeah. I 100% expected the plot of this manga to revolve around the intrigue of the monster finding out Yoshiki knew its secret, the fear of not knowing when the monster would strike next, etc, but NO! That particular "reveal" happens within the first 10 pages, and then the entity just kind of... lives the life of a high school kid! He's kind of a little shit, but for the most part, he's a nice boy! Yoshiki is the only one who knows who "Hikaru" really is, but much of the tension comes from him having to come to terms with that, rather than the fear itself.

...and also the OTHER horrors and mysteries. There's tension there too, considering it's where the actual plot lies, lmAO. Just because "Hikaru" isn't a totally evil monster doesn't mean there aren't a lot of grotesque and scary things in here. Most of this manga I would classify more in the "supernatural" genre than "horror", but in those moments it DOES delve into horror, it goes pretty damn hard. I remember more than one moment where I felt sharp regret about reading it in the dark at 2 a.m. 💀

Still, if you dare, it's worth the read. I can't recommend it enough.

P.S. I wouldn't say it's a "funny" manga but it does nonetheless have an amazing sense of humor. There are a handful of actual jokes and gags that did have me rolling, but more importantly there's an unspoken, implicit acknowledgement of how absurd this all is, in that way only good self-aware horror can achieve. Take the main character Yoshiki for example. The image I used of him up above? The unsettling camera angle, the haunted look in his eyes? That's just how he always looks. The panel after that one shows that all he's looking at on his phone is a text from his sister reminding him to pick up wasabi flakes.

P.P.S. There's apparently an anime adaptation coming out sometime? I'll probably watch it, but I expect something will be lost in translation. We'll see, I suppose.

*- To be precise: Yoshiki is gay. The creature that takes Hikaru's place has a more nuanced (and alien) perspective on sexuality, and... I'll leave it at that.

[juustozzi]

day 4: switch from sket dance

[frary-us]

Love this birthday greeting from Toby Regbo's brother, Louis!🎉🎂🥊🥰😂

[nerdanel01]

🥐

[lifblogs]

Sabezra fans, get ready for day 4 of AI-less Whumptober!

[shyspider]

10 DAYS TO GO!!!

Can't wait!!!

You know what?

Fuck it. I'm posting this Sunday. I'm officially off hiatus. I'm getting back in the ring.

[glitchinginthegarden]

Help! I'm Alive

V was just like anyone else in Night City. Scraping eddies between every job, finding silver-linings anywhere they glimmered.

Just getting by. Until the gig that was gonna change it all for the better went to Hell in a hand basket.

From the start it had been too good to be true; trying to fly too close to the sun. No one ever climbs to the top in Night City. Not without burning up along the way.

Pairing: Original Fem V (Vaye Durand)/Johnny Silverhand

Rating: Mature/Explicit (down the line)

Themes: enemies to friends to lovers, fix-it, canon-divergence on a canon timeline, canon-typical CBP2077 themes, death & rebirth, like mold on fruit, heed the usual content warnings for cyberpunk 2077

Chapter 1: The Crossroads

Chapter 2: Just Dropped In

Chapter 3: Deep End

Chapter 4: Might Get Strange

Chapter 5: Soda

Chapter 6: Who Needs Friends

Chapter 7: Satin In A Coffin

Chapter 8: Trigger Finger

Chapter 9: The View

Chapter 10: Thank God I'm Not You

Chapter 11: When It Lands

Chapter 12: Bury Me Face Down

Playlists:

Click [HERE] for the "OST" -> a WIP playlist of the chapter titles. Click [HERE] for the full vibes playlist -> encompassing the entire fic.

[deus-ex-mona]

chapter 6 on november 30, huh~~~~~

[on-friday-afternoon]

𝚈𝙾𝚄'𝚁𝙴 𝚂𝙾 𝙵𝚄𝙲𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙲𝙸𝙰𝙻 𝙸 𝚆𝙸𝚂𝙷 𝙸 𝚆𝙰𝚂 𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙲𝙸𝙰𝙻

[rinzydings]

girl help Astral Orbit's finale is so intimidating lmao

[abybweisse]

Ch205 (p3), I'd become a monster

The head matron is not the sort to hold a gun and just posture with it.

Finny shoves Theo out of the way and takes the shot in his left arm. Quickly, he grabs the jars from Theo and Artie and throws them at the staff ladies, despite being shot. It definitely hurts for him to do that, though.

He tells everyone to run, and they quickly obey.

Oliver and Mabel are still holding jars when they run, so if nothing else, we can say they have a bit of "ammo" left.

Doll grabs a large shard of glass from one of the tossed jars, and she somehow has enough energy to run and leap over them, to block their path. I guess she's had enough blood transfused to help a little.

She intends to kill them all, or let the staff do it, now that they know the truth. And Snake starts talking for himself again, even though Emily is still on his shoulder. Doll admits that she'd lied to Snake about her condition earlier.

She didn't want Snake to know she'd become a "monster".

She finally admits that she had died at Kelvin's manor. More specifically, that she was killed.

Notice that the glass is cutting her hand as she holds it so tightly. Does this matter? It reminds me of Layla/Al still running and fighting, despite having been shot.

[rosyredlipstick]

FAR GALAXIES (7/9)

She didn’t answer. Instead, she pulled out her PADD from her coat, slow enough that Nico only slightly twitched. Jason’s transmission was loaded up on the screen—at the bottom, their signature tag was spelled out.

“Guardians of the Galaxy. That supposed to be a joke?”

“More like an aspiration,” Jason said.

-

Space, the final frontier. Or whatever.

-

solangelo, 36k

ao3

[orphiclovers]

Just remembered I actually read orv for the first time in October 2021, right up to the chapter with the name changes, after which I couldn't force myself through it anymore and dropped it.

And then in the intervening years I managed to forget every single plot and character and also the fact I had read it before, until I picked it up again a couple months ago. Funny how that works.

In retrospect it makes sense why I had such a weird sense of déjà vu reading it...

[frary-us]

Toby Regbo

Nowallslive with Toby Regbo, James Northcote and Claire Lim on Twitch Part 2 – July 31, 2024

The livestream reaches its end and Toby signs off to the fans watching: "Byyyyeeee!!!"😊👍✌️👋

PS: Happy 33rd Birthday, Toby! October 18, 2024 🥳🎂🎉🎈🙌