#i hope he never gets caught

[diivineray]

I love that this guy who shot the CEO is being praised and people are cheering ! People are making fanart and the memes are crazzzy

[clownsuu]

Small detour of what I usually post, but I absolutely wish (other) clown the best of luck during these confusing and almost hopeless times- nobody knows how to deal with such amount of attention in such short amount of time- a blessing and a curse to behold

[blueskittlesart]

do you have any thoughts on zelda not staying as a dragon? me personally I like it and am very cool with it mostly because I think zelda should get to be happy forever (and because I'm smart enough to know she changed back because of recall and not some ambiguous power of love lmao) but a lot of people seem to dislike that it made the draconification inconsequential?

i think there's like. some valid concerns surrounding inconsequentiality/"curing" the physical problems characters have as a way of giving them a "happy ending" but I think those concerns don't necessarily apply to totk in the way people seem to be applying them, especially irt zelda's draconification and link's arm.

most of the time when the criticism of this "magic cure" trope is applied to media, it's because the trope is used as a cure-all to erase a character's suffering or trauma and make them "normal" again, and often ignores the character development or themes of the story in favor of giving the character a happy ending. I don't think that applies to totk, though, because the "curing" link and zelda experience is both within the realm of possibility given the worldbuilding present in the game (recall could easily have done it, as you mentioned) AND thematically consistent with the rest of the game. One of if not the most important central themes of totk is the idea of failure and second chances. we see a hyrule that has been given a second chance after link's initial failure with the calamity brought it to the brink of destruction. we see characters who were deeply unhappy and entrenched in the shame of their precalamity mistakes like purah and zelda become active, beloved members of their communities. we see the people of lurelin village take back and rebuild their destroyed home. we watch this kingdom and its people make an unprecedented comeback after a century of struggle and ruin.

Similarly, totk's gameplay is LINK's second chance, his comeback from the initial mistake of losing zelda, of specifically being unable to reach her with his injured hand when they fell. The consequences of that--the master sword's corruption, the loss of his arm, and zelda's draconification, are all supposed to SEEM irreversible, because that's how LINK initially sees them. he believes that he doomed both himself and zelda all because of that SINGLE moment in which he wasn't enough, a viewpoint which is obviously left over from the pressure he experienced to perform to an impossible standard of perfection pre-calamity. The story of totk is about deconstructing that belief and proving it wrong. the mistake he made caused harm, but it's never too late to repair things. he can fix the regional phenomena ganondorf causes and rebuild those communities. he can revitalize the master sword. he can GET ZELDA BACK, with his own arm, uninjured and able to reach her this time. no matter how impossible those things may initially seem, no matter the perceived finality of his mistakes and their consequences, there is always hope. there is always a second chance. no one person's single mistake can doom an entire kingdom for eternity. the fate of hyrule was NEVER resting on link's shoulders alone. he was never their final hope. there was always going to be an after. the whole POINT of the draconification and the loss of link's arm is that they AREN'T final. they ARE inconsequential, because they were born of one mistake and ONE MISTAKE IS NOT THE END ALL.

[shannonsketches]

he's so important to me

[faithandfairies]

It's interesting how in Interview with The Vampire everyone is an apex predator and yet there are nuances to that. A kind of hierarchy.

It's interesting how I'm inclined to think Louis got Claudia killed.

But if I'm honest, the entire narrative conspired to kill her. She kept journals she was not told she was not allowed to keep. Journals in which she incriminated herself. Madeleine suggested they go back one last time because Louis loved her and would want to see her. Lestat watched as Claudia died and did nothing. Louis kept secrets and refused to believe her.

When Claudia told Louis Armand threatened her my first thought to Louis was "Take the girl and run". They could have done that. Armand and his coven weren't the type to follow them. Not like Lestat. But maybe Louis couldn't have known that for sure.

But Louis was arrogant to think he was the one who was in control. Because instead he thought he could genuinely semi-take over a coven run for centuries by a centuries old vampire who was supposedly in love with him.

I wonder how he rationalized it. Did he tell himself he was doing it for Claudia? Taking over the coven she loved so much and wanted to belong in?

I call bullshit on all of it.

Because the way to control Louis is by making him believe he is the one in control.

Armand never loved Louis and Louis never loved Armand. Armand got played by Lestat. For a week or a month Lestat said and did all the right things to get Armand to teach him what he wanted to learn about vampirism. And then Lestat ran. Lestat was the one that got away. The one he couldn't keep under his control.

And then here comes this 30 year old vampire that actually managed to keep Lestat around for 30 years. Lestat actually mated him, actually treated him most of the time like he loved him and in his need to control Louis by letting him think he was the one in control Lestat actually gave up control. Not only that, even after that Lestat didn't want it to end and Louis actually had to (try and) kill Lestat in order to be free of him. Louis achieved with Lestat what Armand literally dreamed of when he first laid eyes on Lestat. Of course Armand had to have Louis.

He held on to Louis so that Lestat couldn't have him. Did Lestat try to find him and back off when he realized Louis was with a vampire that outranked him in age and power? Knowing Louis most likely would not come with him easily so talking him away from Armand before Armand found out was also out of the question?

Louis never loved Armand either. He didn't even consider Armand a companion. He tells Armand this. Lestat took the time to learn Louis. He knew Louis' history, everything about everything that mattered to him and could read him like a book. Armand couldn't even remember his mother's name. He didn't care to, because it was never about Louis. It was about holding onto what Lestat considered the love of his life.

Maybe the huge difference was that Louis did love Lestat. Against his better judgment he did. Even though he never verbally revealed it to Lestat himself, he did. Then again Antoinette loved Lestat too and Lestat couldn't really care less. Louis fell in love with Lestat when Lestat first courted him with the intent to mate him. And by the time Lestat revealed that he was a vampire, Louis could not undo that he loved him. That revelation was not enough to undo it. And it horrified Louis.

Louis knew Armand didn't love him though. I think he preferred it that way. Because look what happened when someone considered themselves in love with him. Armand did not care enough about him as an individual and never actually gave up control. Just made Louis think he did. I'm not sure Louis ever realized that Armand was more dangerous than Lestat. Just because as far as we know Armand never physically hurt him does not mean he was the safer choice.

Lestat knew this. But Armand also immediately showed Lestat who he really was. I wager that Lestat was terrified of Armand and saw him for what he was. And wanted to get as far away from him as possible so as not to become collateral damage to whatever Armand had going on. This is a man who brought in a stranger to take apart his entire coven he had run for centuries. People committed suicide. And he did it twice.

Interview with the Vampire, the title as in his original interview with Daniel Molloy, is literally Louis pulling a Lestat. When Louis said that the original interview is an admitted performance he meant it. Doing an interview that is almost exclusively about Lestat but in a way that is clearly a bold-faced lie meant to try to get a rise out of him.

You know Louis had a fever dream that Lestat would come find him on account of that book, not because he was appalled as being revealed to be a vampire, but appalled at the way Louis sketched their relationship and Lestat himself.

The way Lestat made Louis a song that involved Antoinette singing on it knowing that if anything would get a rise out of him enough for Louis to come find him, that would be it.

[mx-mix-lurker]

I AM BACK FROM FINALS!!!!

Fellas, is it wrong to consider DS! Dream to be similar to Batman? Just a very, very, VERY murderous and unforgiving to criminals version of Batman who acts like an emotional constipated boy scout?

Not outwardly though. I'm pretty sure DS! Dream seems to be an emotionally available (specifically not emotionally vulnerable) kind of person to most. But it's canon that DS! Dream keeps people at a distance. And like, DS! Dream has a reputation to uphold and he is not about to be seen fumbling after his many, many efforts despite his anxiety. But man is in denial to the.. bad parts, of his extreme ideology that I'm pretty he has all those "negative/doubts" at the back burner of his mind and isn't about to confront what killing DS! Mare will end up like for him. What killing all criminals—instead of rehabilitating the few—would mean. Pretty sure that'll lead to a very meltdown, existential crisis, shutting down or possibly frantic acts of extreme redemptions. DS! Dream is a responsible kind of guy, so he'll definitely try to upheave the system (that he made) first to fix it first. Do a "leave no stones unturned" kind of thing.

But my point is that DS! Dream is like Batman who has Bruce Wayne's reputation (not being a playboy but a philanthropist) and Justice Reigns is like Wayne Enterprise.

[sonic-adventure-3]

WAIT LOL JOHNNY SUING SEGA FOR USING LIVE & LEARN??? HE OWNS IT??? oh my god

this is kind of hilarious honestly

[jewish-microwave-laser]

once again, "i think it's bad when someone dies" is a hot take

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Comte Election Story, 6th Anniversary Event (JPN 2023)

I managed to get Comte's collection story during the 6th year anniversary event in the JPN version of the game. As usual, my translation skills are rudimentary at best, so this is just a rough/general sense of the contents. Rest of the translation is below the cut:

Sweet and lovely, our everyday life is irreplaceable. After becoming a vampire, I’ve lived with him forever like this. I seek out more and more of the man I love than anyone else--

Comte: Good morning, MC. You’re up very early today.

I went down to the dining room a few hours before dawn--only to find Comte nursing a teacup gracefully at one end of the table.

MC: Good morning. I managed to wake up somehow…how about you?

Comte: Actually, I just got back.

When I asked, he told me that the host of the party started talking to him all night, and they didn’t part ways until after midnight.

Comte: I was going to finish this cup of tea to unwind, and then try to rest til noon.

He runs a hand through his freshly washed hair and brings the cup to his mouth in a series of elegant gestures that makes me fall in love with him all over again. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been up all night, but my heart readily starts beating faster.

Even Comte seems to notice my reaction…

Comte: …looking at me like that, are you seducing me?

Comte's eyes narrowed mischievously and he left his cup behind to approach me. A beautiful beast gazed at me as if to take aim at his prey, and he drew me in with supple hands.

MC: I didn’t intend it that way but…it’s true that I'm captivated. Your damp hair and lovely gestures are so sexy that I’m at a loss…

Comte: Saying such a thing…you’re a naughty woman, MC. Even though I tried to quell my ardor with a cold shower and hot tea...I’m glad to hear it, even though I’m far from calm.

When I raised my head--having looked down in bashful embarrassment--I can see burgeoning in Comte’s eyes an indisputable, feverish desire…

MC: Ah, mm…

His soft lips playfully brushed against the nape of my neck.

Comte: No one else would be awake at this hour…though we could be interrupted any moment. Make sure to keep your voice down.

He chuckled a little before a hot sigh caressed my skin, dropping kisses one after another. He circled around the usual place he’d sink his fangs into me, and every brush of his lips made heat gather low in my body…

MC: So impatient…Abel…

Comte: …I’ve been waiting for you to give it to me

The corners of his lips lifted a little, before he buried his fangs into my neck.

MC: Mn, ah…aaaahh…

Comte: I love you so much...and whenever we aren't together, I’m starved of you. We were miles apart all night yesterday. I’ll show you just how much I missed you.

His voice--half-intoxicated with the ecstasy of my blood--was sweet and husky with his desire.

Comte: Before you, I’m always a love-starved beast.

As I gaze into those eyes burning with emotion, an electric sensation tingles down my spine. 

(Ah, I’m just the same. It’s not only my heart, my body is always seeking you out too.)

MC: Me too…all day and night, I’m always thinking about you…

Comte: --Come here. Take as much of me as you want

At his encouragement and incitement, I sink my fangs into him.

MC: ah, ha…

Pleasure washes over me in an endless cascade, every sensation in my body heightened and sharp. I clenched my hands tighter through his wet hair, and dug my fangs into him greedily to devour that wellspring of ecstasy. 

Comte: I'm happy to be able to share love with you like this, as a vampire.

Like drops of water moistening desiccated earth, every crimson drop fills us to the brim--

[depoteka]

why is it always when i'm really sleepy early in the morning that tourists ask me for help in english

[hauntingblue]

making a collection

making another collection with a threatening aura

[xxplastic-cubexx]

hello!! i just want to tell you that your art is so goddamn scrumptious, you are literally feeding my xmen brainrot and I find myself smiling when i see your art come across my feed. I love how you draw charles, pretty privilege and post (lets be fr he's serving every time)

i hope you always have fantastic brainrot and id kiss your blessed hands for giving us the gift of cherik and charles xavier, you are literally an icon

hope you have a great day ahead of you and more!! you deserve it !!

well i'ma absolutely have a wonderful mornin after readin this AWWWW thank you so so much !!!! i haven't been postin xmen long, so it's been really heartwarmin seein the warm reception to my work in the wonderful tags people have been leavin on my posts- and especially gettin to answer the lovely asks y'all've been sendin in (❁´ ▽ `❁) !! im glad people also like my goofy text posts and esp quotes from my brother he really has no right being so funny at the most random times

i hope to be xmen posting a while: ive got at least 60 years worth of stuff to look through and ongoing, so i dont imagine my interest'll wane anytime soon :]] !!

[sonysakura]

nice

[dazais-guardian-angel]

alright I've thought about it for a while, and I'm fairly confident that is in fact Bram, and that Aya isn't hallucinating/seeing an illusion.

The biggest thing casting doubt, aside from the obvious different outfit, is the fact that the chapter ends on this reveal, suggesting it could be a cliffhanger bait. However, BSD's cliffhangers always involve something terrible happening that gets rectified in the next chapter(s), to scare us before giving us back hope; there's never been a case of the other way around, where something good happens to get our hopes up, only to have the rug pulled out from us at the start of next chapter to show that we were foolish for hoping. Asagiri is never that cruel. He loves his death baits and his dangerous situation baits before letting us know that everything is okay, and he'd never suggest that it was wrong for the audience or the characters to have hope, when BSD is quite literally about having hope even in the most absurd situations.

But more specifically, just.... what would a fakeout like this accomplish? The only way I could maybe see it was if this is Fyodor, and we think Aya is safe but she's actually not, but there's no way it's him, because we see him with the singularity and Kunikida/Tanizaki at the same time as this, he's wearing Bram's outfit and not the one this person has, and we've established that he wants to protect Aya, not hurt her. Granted, he obviously doesn't care enough about protecting her since he let her escape and get hurt all on her own lmao, so that's exactly why I ask what would be the point of him suddenly showing up just to save her from the rubble, only to then just hurt her anyway? None of that is logical.

And then, if it's Akutagawa, then that means we had our emotions played with for a twist that is just.... mildly disappointing but also not outright bad for the characters? Disappointing because Bram isn't back after all, but also not a net negative because Aya is still being rescued by someone we know and trust. If that were to happen, Aya hallucinating Aku as Bram, I just can't see it happening as a chapter cliffhanger fakeout at all; it would just feel cheap and cruel, playing with our feelings (not to mention Aya's feelings!) regarding a character we want to come back, for a reveal that isn't really worth it and doesn't change the status quo (because she's still safe regardless if it's Bram or Aku).

Aside from the lack of narrative justification, I also believe that if Aya were to hallucinate Bram, she would see him exactly as she knew him back when he regained his body — I mean, she basically does see him like that when she's remembering his last moments with her in this chapter and in the previous one when she's yelling at Fyodor; sure they're just repeated panels as flashbacks, but they're still her memories of how she sees him. I was unsure for a while about the figure's identity, but it was seeing it pointed out that Bram no longer has his nails that was really the final nail in the coffin haha get it, it's a multilayered joke, please laugh- for me: why would Aya hallucinate Bram not only not in his own outfit, but with his body altered from how she knows it? There'd be no reason why she would, and no way she could. She's never seen him in a different outfit, with different nails. Note that every other instance we've gotten of characters hallucinating significant figures in their lives (Atsushi, Mushitarou, Dazai), they're always wearing the clothes they're most known for and what the person knows them to wear. There's no reason to assume this would be different for Aya, and that she'd imagine him wearing a completely random outfit from the one she associates with him, and randomly without his signature long black nails.

This closeup panel of Bram's collar right when he first begins speaking pretty much proves my point. It's inconsistent with the new outfit (Aku's outfit) we see him wearing on the last page, but with the framing of this, with him being entirely in shadow in the rightmost panel when he first appears, it's clear to me that Aya can't see him clearly yet, so she's imagining him the way she remembers him. And then he gets closer/lifts the beam higher so that the shadow starts receding from him, and his feet and hands and different outfit become visible. The tone of this moment and the way it plays out is exactly as I've seen in numerous other visual media, where a character thinks they're on the brink of death and has lost all hope and is ready to accept it, before the slow, grand reveal of the person they thought they'd lost rescuing them, often with them posing a philosophical question to challenge their current despair or their belief that their loved one couldn't possibly still be alive, just as Bram does here. If you've seen enough movies and TV, you can probably imagine exactly the kind of scene I mean, and exactly how this moment would play out if it were animated I say "would" because it's never a given that Bones will adapt it with the right tone like I imagine.

This is framed as a triumphant, hopeful scene, of a knight coming to rescue his princess after he was thought to be dead. Aya has hurt her leg here, she's trapped, she's realizing she's about to die, and she's at last fully convinced herself that everything she so staunchly believed in was wrong and that everything she fought for all that time was for nothing; firstly, why would she suddenly hallucinate Bram if she had already lost all hope, but most importantly, why would the narrative have Bram defy death and return to her and challenge the idea that all her ideals and actions were meaningless, only for it to turn out that it isn't really him, when she misses him so bad? That just.... wouldn't be right at all, that's not the feeling this scene gives at all. This is their moment, Bram has to be the one to say these things to Aya with their history together, not anyone else, and I can't imagine Akutagawa saying something like what Bram says to her here, about royalty carrying out their pledge to protect someone without fail, even if he has inherited Bram's protectiveness towards Aya like Fyodor has. No, I'm 90% certain that is indeed Bram. It can't possibly be anyone else.

...And so, all that to say that yeah, I believe that Bram has Fyodor'd himself into Akutagawa's body, since he's wearing his outfit. We don't really know the extent of Bram's powers, but it's looking likely that he can bodysnatch any of his vampires for himself if something ever happens to him, or perhaps Aku might be special since he was the first vampire Bram created at the start of all this. Needless to say I'm not at all worried about Aku though; this is probably the beginning of why he ends up with that suit of armor later on, since Bram has his clothes... I just have no idea how we get to that point. But Aku will be fine, I'm sure; this may even be the only way he can come back from being a vampire.

[beachyserasims]

Geneva Island Legacy┃Chapter four┃Enjoy Your Stay

~ Transcript ~

I have to give a shout out to @cinamun and @therichantsim because they simspired me to build my own secret underground lab from this post.

Beginning / Previous / Next

[childrenofthesun77]

I remember someone saying that they suspect akira must have had (bad) ulterior motives when she got into her relationship with touma because touma would never pursue a relationship with a goody two shoes, but I'm not sure that's true.

Of course not because of genuine interest in her, but because touma is an extremely petty, jealous and manipulative person.

I can see him trying to get with a girl/woman someone he was jealous of was interested in back when he was a young man and then to forget about her once he had slept with her.