#I wonder how it holds up

[lairn]

Ask game: 1, 2, 3, 4, 20:D

:D

Your top 5 reads of 2023 Answered this one, but I'll elaborate a little: Hikaru no Go: I'm a sucker for sports/game stories when they keep the game play relatively grounded and focus on realistic efforts people take to improve. All the character work is very solid too, and the story arc about grief and loss makes me cry. Inside Mari: I was uneasy to read this one because of its subject matter, but I thought it handled things in a successful way. I'm always in love with this author's art style (see question 3) and even though I thought some of the ending was weak, the story was still good. Dungeon Meshi: I did not like the beginning much, but as the characters fleshed out and the world grew, I became much more impressed. I like the art style and I like the comedy. I haven't quite finished it yet. Blue Period: This comic does a good job capturing what it's like to engage with art through academics and the tension between art as expression and everything else art can be. I like the diverse character designs. Chainsaw Man: The anime dragged me back in to the comic. I reread part 1 last year and have been sticking with the updates to part 2 fairly regularly. There's just something compelling and sad about the protagonists. And a little action and silliness is fun too.

2. A series you'll keep up with next year Chainsaw Man, Kekkaishi, The Summer Hikaru Died, Kaiju No. 8 (maybe)

3. Your author of the year Shuzo Oshimi. I read Inside Mari, Blood on the Tracks, and reread Happiness. This author always deals with dark, sad subjects, but often pulls out uplifting aspects of humanity even as he is breaking people down. I love his art. Every time he stops using midtones I get so excited, haha.

4. An underrated gem This is tough. I feel like I read some underrated gems last year (anything by Taiyo Matsumoto). The one I'm picking isn't really a gem, just more of a manga I haven't mentioned yet: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. The art is okay and the story is okay. But the protagonist is sweet. I haven't looked at it in months, but I could still see picking it up again when I want something cheerful that scratches a specific itch. I think what I like about it is that in a world of demons, the human Iruma has a power-creep trajectory that still feels attached to him being a human.

20. Drop your 2024 reading list 💗 Ones I've paused that I mean to finish: Goodnight Punpun, Dungeon Meshi, The Land of the Lustrous (if I can tough out the despair), Dorohedoro, To Your Eternity (if I can get through without crying every 10 chapters)

Ones I want to reread: Our Dreams at Dusk, Ajin, A Silent Voice, Mob Psycho 100 (waiting for all the books to publish in English), Homunculus

New Reads: Flowers of Evil, Tomie (and other Ito works), Sunny, The Book of Human Insects, Solanin

Always open to recommendations!

[chloesimaginationthings]

I love the idea that Michael is always gloomy and low-energy with a bit of snark but the mere IDEA of Foxy turns him into the most easily excitable person on the planet

YES, but I also extent that to every animatronic he really likes!!

[twinstxrs]

so much happened in this whole episode but i’m still on fig infiltrating ruben’s dream, making it look like the place where his friend was murdered, and then disguising herself as kipperlilly & repeatedly saying different variants of “somebody needs to take the fall for this, and it’s not going to be me. it’s going to be you.” while adaine as the elven oracle shows up next to her. can you imagine waking up from that, the idea of a horrible truth being pinned on you by your friend to save her own skin while the personification of fate and destiny stands there, almost as a promise that this is GOING to happen to you. we don’t even know if this kid is guilty. my god.

[sysig]

Ah, childhood memories (Patreon)

[kawaiichibiart]

Hello, yes, I need more cards where the characters interact with their younger selves.

I want more of this please:

[spielzeugkaiser]

I truly believe if Geralt got to be around baby Milek he would be such a giant worrywart like he's so fragile! and tiny!! Jaskier just laughing at him in the bg as Geralt is both enamored and fretting

Haha, you are absolutely right!! Geralt can't deal and Jaskiers heart is ready to burst, even if he has to laugh.

[kagooleo]

here's a finished belated bday comm for @wyvernity of their soulsilvershipping :D!!! I was honestly really happy with the turnout for the piece so I did go a lil ham on their faves (～￣▽￣)～

i've still got 2 commission slots open on my kofi for both chibi and sketch pieces if anyone is interested :V

[zenlesszonezero]

Join Zenless Zone Zero with Tsukishiro Yanagi, the deputy leader of Hollow Special Operations Section 6! Beneath her ordinary office lady exterior lies a meticulous, emotionally intelligent big sister to the team.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I made a few new wax seal stamps out of clay (like the ones I did for my worldbuilding stuff forever ago), this time just of random symbols that I thought might look good done in the style of painting over the raised part of the wax or etc. :0c Some of them aren't carved deep enough to really show up that well, but overall they worked okay for being clay lol

[pondhue]

rick saying that he not only respects summer but see's her as his equal, then tells her directly that she reminds him of diane

[starry-bi-sky]

What would a mother not do for her child What lengths would a mother not go There's a bond that exists between mother and child With no end to how strong it can grow It's a promise for life between mother and child It begins from the moment of birth.

================

She is six years old, and standing on the porch at her Auntie Alicia’s cabin. She is six years old, and holding an old rifle in her hands, standing at the railing and pointing the nozzle at a large target a couple feet away. There’s a pair of old ear muffs covering her ears. Behind her is her daddy and her sister, and Auntie Alicia. She can’t see them. 

Danielle Martha Fenton is six years old, and her momma has her arms wrapped warmly around her, keeping the gun steady for her. It’s heavy and the butt digs into her shoulder uncomfortably, and she feels nothing but determined. And nervous. 

Her momma was teaching her and Jazzy how to shoot, and they’re down in Arkansas to visit Auntie Alicia for her second “Divorce-iversary” as Auntie calls it. She keeps a hunting rifle in her gun safe for the rabbits that like to nibble on her garden. She mostly grows rhubarb, which goes untouched. But her carrots and greens and other veggies like to be tempting snacks for the game. 

Regardless, she is six years old and learning how to shoot. Her momma and her daddy (mostly her daddy) have been banned from every shooting range outside of Amity Park in a hundred mile radius. So Auntie is the best place to learn, or so momma says. 

Danny thinks it's just an excuse to see her sister, not that she's complaining. She loves visiting Auntie.  

She’s already seen Jazzy do this, her momma told her before the muffs went on to shoot when ready. No use trying to fire when you’re not; you can’t afford to miss when shooting ghosts. 

Danny breathes out steady, just like momma taught her, and quells her trembling little fingers. She focuses down the barrel, and pulls the trigger. 

Immediately, the recoil throws her off, the side of the gun that her cheek was resting on knocks against her skin, harsh enough to bruise if it weren’t for her momma’s steady hands holding onto her. The bang of the gun startles her more than she thought it would, and her heart leaps up and runs a jackrabbit through her chest. 

The gun is carefully slipped out of her hands, and Danny lets it go easily, her cheek smarting in pain and her eyes wide and following up to momma. Momma turns the safety on, and with a gentle hand, pushes against her chest. Danny takes a few steps back, and slips the ear muffs off her head. 

Mommy is smiling big at her, something that Danny can’t help but replicate on her own face as her heart swells. “Did I get it, momma?” She asks, watching as she passes the gun off to Auntie Alicia, who steps over to take it.

“I’m going to go see, sweetie, but I think you did.” Momma coos, before planting both her hands on the porch railing and, in a single leap, vaults over the side and onto the grass. She’s dressed all comfortable for the summer heat, with her hair all tied back and in shorts and a tank top and nice boots. Danny’s ribs swell hopefully, and she stands on her tiptoes to watch her walk over.

“I’ll be hard-pressed to believe if you didn’t, Martha Mae,” Auntie tells her, grinning like a cat, “that was a damn good shot.” 

‘Martha Mae Knight’ was Danny’s granny’s name. Auntie Alicia calls her that because of her middle name — and because, by her words, she has her momma’s weird-shaped eyebrows and piercing blue eyes. The kind that could scare a hawk into singing like a robin. It was Danny’s favorite nickname ever.

Daddy laughs brightly, the sound painful on her ears but twice as nice, and despite the distance, Momma whirls her head around to shoot Auntie a glare; “Language, Alicia. Not around my girls.” She warns. Her accent always comes through when they’re around Auntie. It’s Danny’s favorite thing to listen to. 

“Do you think so, auntie?” Danny says, bright-eyed and ever-optimistic. Auntie Alicia nods fiercely as Momma finally reaches the target and searches for the bullet hole. Daddy then comes up behind her, still laughing, and claps a hand onto her shoulder so hard that it makes her knees hurt.

“Of course she did!” Dad boasts, as bright as the sun and twice as warm. He shakes Danny affectionately, wobbling her on her feet and pulling her straight into his side. She goes so willingly with a burble of giggles. “She’s got the eyes of a Fenton! And our family are darn good shots.”

Auntie eyes him up and down, her smile immediately fading off into a pressed line. “I’m sure you mean she’s got the eyes of a Knight. You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn at twenty paces, Jack Fenton.” 

Jazzy holds back giggles from where she’s standing by the door, her ear muffs in hand, and Danny watches her Daddy’s dark eyes immediately narrow. Just like Auntie’s, his smile tapers off into a frown. 

Before he can say anything, there’s a cheer from the yard, and they all turn to Momma clapping her hands in delight. 

Danny immediately pricks her ears up, and would’ve darn near rushed over to the railing if it weren’t for her Daddy’s hand on her shoulder. She yells instead, excitement thrumming like a hummingbird against her ribs, “Did I hit it, momma?!” 

Momma beams at her with all the pride in the world, “You sure did, Danny!” And she turns to press her finger against the target, right on the inside red ring of the battered old bag. “Right here, sweet girl!” 

There are cheers from all around, and Danny’s heart bursts inside her lungs with shiny, sunshine glee. She puffs her chest out big, and smiles so wide it hurts the cheek where the gun smacked her. Her Daddy shakes again, squeezing her tight against his side in a hug that Danny happily reciprocates. 

“What’d I tell you, Martha Mae?” Auntie tells with a big wink and a wide grin, the gun still gripped tight in her hands as Momma makes her way back over. “You got a Knight’s eye.” 

When Momma makes it back over the railing, she hugs Danny tight and praises her shot. Danny looks her in the eyes and chases the feeling, and asks to shoot again.

[trobeds]

i know the hunger games isnt about romance i know it isnt a love story but. theres just something so beautiful in the way peeta is the personification of what it means to heal and he /is/ the dandelion and the bread and the hope that things can be better even if they wont be fixed. even if the nightmares dont stop he will still hold her. wake her up and tell her shes alive. shes safe. and when its over and done and theres no more saving or protecting or trying their absolute hardest to die if it means keeping the other alive, the horrors dont stop. but katniss will still find that comfort in peetas arms.

[gods-perfect-idiots]

something something blood-soaked hands cradling your face something something

anyway here's the post btw

[exhuastedpigeon]

[sardonic-the-writer]

i can't imagine what it'd be like as an actual fbi agent in supernatural. oh, we've got a weird looking case down in texas? a man with all his internal organs turned to slop? sure i'll check it out. and by the time you get there, the weird deaths have stopped, and the local department is already telling you two other agents have been in town to help with the whole thing. alright cool whatever maybe we just got double assigned and these guys managed to figure it out first. nothing wrong with that. until you move on to the next case, and the same thing happens. and the next and the next and the next, until finally you ask to see some cctv footage of these mystery agents, and are those the famous winchester serial killers that died a few years ago????

[unforgivenyunjin]

It’s been 1,286 days since Azriel nearly got on his knees for Elain

[ririsasy]

Varadha touching his nose ring while looking at Deva, remembering the time when Deva himself that put it there for him with his own blood in his hand, remembering the fact that it was Deva who protected and kept his "little honor" intact.