#it's so close to exams

[tubelight-404]

me for the next 7 weeks

[whathorselegs]

I think one of my favourite character journeys in BSD has to be Kunikida learning to be better with kids because you'd expect it to be a fun wholesome character arc. Only, it ends up being heart breaking as it's immediately turned against Kunikida.

Despite the 'Dad status' that the fandom has given Kunikida, he was actually terrible with kids towards the start of the manga.

Take how he treated Atsushi in the first chapter. (Yes, Atsushi is not a little kid, but he was a starving and vulnerable orphan when they met.) When Kunikida and Dazai mention the 'man-eating tiger' Atsushi immediately freaks out and tries to run away.

What does Kunikida do? He grabs Atsushi, slams him to the floor and then threatens to break his arm for information.

It's Dazai of all people who has to reign Kunikida in reminding him "The boss himself warned you that the gathering of intelligence needn't be an interrogation". Dazai was the sweet talker and Kunikida was threat, even to a terrified, starving orphan.

Later with Kyouka, he's not much better. He attempts to intimidate her into giving the agency information. Whilst Atsushi now fulfils the role of the gentle approach. She's a mafia assassin after all, even if he knows she had no choice in it, Kunikida treats her as a threat before he treats her as a child.

Even with Aya, the interaction that gave Kunikida his 'dad status', he started off badly. But, it is here we start to see Kunikida trying to be better, trying to take a softer approach, even if he's clumsy with it.

When he realizes Aya was just handed a bomb, he snatches it from her and gets rid of it. That can't be helped it was a literal ticking time bomb, he then phones the authorities to deal with it. He was planning to leave, it's only because he caught sight of Aya sitting alone did he approach her. It wasn't his first instinct.

If he hadn't seen her in that moment, he might not have gone looking for her at all.

He asks her if she's alright and then she shocks him by wanting to hunt down the culprit. He rightfully tries to dissuade her, but again, he's not good with kids, he's blunt and argumentative with her.

Obviously, that's not going to convince a kid with a hero complex to not chase the bad guy.

However, his turning point, in my opinion, is when he realizes he has to choose between Aya and the people on the train. Now, he had already set off the stun grenade and is putting all his faith in Yosano finding them. He trusts her so he knows they are most likely going to be okay.

But Aya doesn't know that and he can't explain it all in the time they have. He sees a child who thinks she's about to die and is trying to be brave about it. And Kunikida comforts her. He needs her to know that she's not alone, that she's not going to suffer, that he is with her and he hugs her.

There was no need for him to step into that explosion with Aya except to comfort her. He chose to do that. Above his own life, he chose her needs.

And that's where this journey starts to get heartbreaking, because Kunikida hadn't always been like this. He was obviously always going to try and protect children, his ideals state as much, but he also didn't believe himself to be a hero. He doesn't see himself as someone capable or even worthy of that role.

So he built up a barrier around himself that made him harsher and more callous. He called it a professional detachment. He had to, it was to protect himself, to keep his sanity in those moment when they couldn't save everyone. Now it's breaking down and he's showing more and more how much he cares.

And it's immediately used against him.

The very scenario that got him to open up is placed in front of him again. A child with a bomb around their throat. Only this time Yosano isn't there, and this time Fyodor is orchestrating it.

And Kunikida does everything right. He tells Atsushi to leave and carry on the mission so he can stay and help the child. He gets on the child's level, makes himself small and none threatening. He reassures the child in gentle voice that everything will be okay.

And then, it's the line "How about a magic trick?" that really gets me, because he's trying so hard to present himself as someone trustworthy. And a magic trick is exactly what he pulled off with Aya, but it's what goes wrong here.

Because Fyodor planned it this time. He didn't just target children to get at Kunikida, he made a twisted mockery of what happened to Aya. Except she doesn't live this time and Kunikida can't bring this child any comfort or safety because Kunikida is the threat. This child dies alone and afraid because Kunikida was there, just like Fyodor planned.

Fyodor saw Kunikida bare his heart once and immediately reached in his chest and crushed it.

[aliquidether]

Obbligato

[enbysiriusblack]

peter pettigrew is smart, he just has exam anxiety

[paracosm-draw]

I think grieving single father exhausted nerdy out of the dating pool awkward Anakin is my favourite flavour of Anakin

Give him a self-conscious divorced Obi-Wan who thinks his young and beautiful neighbour could never be attracted to an old guy like him and I'm hooked

[idiot-mushroom]

exams are making me want to kill myself and i want to rip my skin off i hate it here

^like this

[got-the-cool-shoeshine]

in the second level you can choose whether to give them a ladder or hammers to hit each other with

[randomgirlyoudontknow]

thinking about how nezha laments “oh. but history moves in such cruel circles” right before stabbing rin in the back at the end of the dragon republic and she later answers with “oh, but history moved in such vicious circles” before forcing nezha to stab her in the heart at the end of the burning god

[skrunksthatwunk]

other half

redraw screenshots taken from this post i made a while back ignore that i forgot to actually link it for like an entire day

[towerartt]

Original here

[tubelight-404]

I'm literally so useless, all I do is romanticise and even then I can't do it right. At times I wish for a tragedy to strike me in which I will have to send letters to my lover in secret. In the letters will be bittersweet poems and notes in which I turn over every corner of my heart, completely exposed and vulnerable. I will repeat exclamations of our love and confess how my dreams are haunted with their face, my body plagued with the ghost of their touch and my entire being is encaptured by their essence. These letters are sent via our only entrusted carrier, the only person we dare tell of our forbidden love. Our messenger who will one day betray me and tell the world of my scandalous love and yet as solemn as I am I will still smile towards him and just as he is about to question my intentions, I stab myself with my favourite obsidian dagger, the same one we secretly swore upon during the rising of the sun in previous years. It is then, as he looks into my eyes watching my soul leave my body, that he will understand this life was never meant for me. And I knew it. I knew it would never last, that he would betray me and how I wasn't truly built for love. What happens next doesn't concern me as I am gone. To a next life? An afterlife? Or just an abyss? Who knows? But in the end all that matters is that moments bliss, that short connection and that fleeting instance of humanity. And for me, that is enough.

[arttsuka]

Happy pride with this Spock drawing 🏳️‍🌈

[andreawritesit]

Baela and Jace wedding, save me please 🙏

[nguyenfinity]

Last animation project of the semester! We were supposed to make a title sequence for a show/movie/game/whatever and I made one in an anime op-style of my OCs :]

[naixaie]

. 🍉😋✨

[papers-pamphlet]

Whatcha lookin at