#royal liver building

[wolfephoto]

The Liver building by night by John Wolfe Via Flickr: Liverpool, UK

[belovedmemoryblvd]

The Liver Building looking sad!

Taken with Panasonic Lumix DMC - ZS100/TZ100

[vox-anglosphere]

The Port of Liverpool was once Britain's gateway to the New World

Princes Dock, Liverpool

[desos-records]

Lockwood & Co AU where Lockwood's parents are just Evie and Rick O'Connell from The Mummy

Lockwood inexplicably knows a lot of extremely specific things about Ancient Egypt and he never elaborates and it infuriates George to no end

Lockwood: Well, it can't be a real canopic jar. The jackal protects the stomach, not the liver. George, who has never seen Lockwood read anything other than trashy tabloids and pulp detective novels: How could you possibly know that???

They discover while fighting off relicmen that Lockwood is insanely capable with guns and he flat out refuses to acknowledge any line of questioning about it, but it does explain the crate of old shotguns in the basement

He also apparently knows how to build, operate, and diffuse a range of explosive devices, which they discover during the Siege of Portland Row

Clearly, he has a talent for leaving buildings in partial to complete ruin everywhere he goes

He viciously despises the British Museum, a fact they discover after getting hired to clear out a particularly nasty poltergeist from one of their exhibit halls and Lockwood turns them down flat

On top of ghost relics, Portland Row is also home to various Ancient Egyptian decor--small statues, modern recreations of khopeshes, photographs of temple interiors. Some of the artifacts are the real thing and he does not see the hypocrisy in this

Along with the iron line outside, the lintel of the front door has the Eye of Horus carved into it as an additional protective measure

During rare nights off, the gang sometimes plays board games together and Lockwood is visibly surprised that no one else knows how to play Senet

He speaks Arabic and, if given enough time and motivation, can translate hieroglyphics

Sometimes when they're stumped in a particularly dangerous case, Lockwood will call on a 'family friend' who happens to have the relevant connections or expertise

Ardeth visits on Christmas every year without fail or warning. Everyone is in utter shock the first time except Lockwood, who is royally embarrassed by all the baby stories his godfather keeps telling people. Ardeth is just happy to know that Lockwood has formed his own family

The uncle he stayed with in the country was Jonathan

He has dual citizenship in the United States and, when Kipps learns this, he teases him mercilessly about it

[mydaddywiki]

Pat Patterson

Physique: Husky Build Height: 6'1" (1.85 m)

Pat Patterson (born Pierre Clermont; January 19, 1941 – December 2, 2020; aged 79) was a Canadian-American professional wrestler and producer, widely known for his long tenure in the professional wrestling promotion WWE, first as a wrestler, then as a creative consultant and producer ("booker"). He is recognized by the company as their first Intercontinental Champion and creator of the Royal Rumble match. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the class of 1996.

I first became aware of Patterson when he and Gerald Brisco became onscreen stooges of Vince McMahon in 97. He had peeked my interest a little, then after his match with the Mean Street Posse where he took off his sweat shirt and started parodying Hulk Hogan’s flexing routine. I started putting my dick in a sleeper hold to the thought of him. It wasn’t until a few years later that I found out he was gay.

A native of Quebec, Patterson came to the U.S. in 1962 to wrestle, though he didn’t speak any English. He wrestled for regional promotions before joining WWE in 1979 as a wrestler, referee, and commentator. After his wrestling career, he worked for WWE in many capacities, including as a referee and in promotions. He was described as McMahon's right-hand man and played a crucial role in the company's massive growth. Patterson was touted as the inaugural Intercontinental Champion, credited as the Royal Rumble creator, and often described as the first openly gay wrestler.

Patterson came out as gay in the 1970s and acknowledged it on a WWE reality show in 2014. Patterson's longtime partner was Louie Dondero. Patterson said on WWE Legends' House he and Dondero were together for 40 years. Dondero died of a heart attack on June 28, 1998, the same night as King of the Ring. Patterson died of liver failure caused by a blood clot at a Miami, Florida, hospital on December 2, 2020.

Damn… The stories about this guy from WWE Ringboy scandal of 1992 to accusations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault with employees. Now all that is wrong, but If I was offered the 'push' from Patterson, I'd be world known. Just saying.

[justforbooks]

Carl Bloch’s lost masterpiece Prometheus Unbound finds fame again in Athens

Work that made its creator a superstar then mysteriously disappeared is mesmerising art lovers once more

It was commissioned in 1864, by King George I of Greece, made its creator a superstar and in his native Denmark attracted crowds like no other painting before. Then it mysteriously disappeared.

Now, nearly nine decades after it was last seen gracing the stairwell of the royal palace that would become the Athens parliament, Carl Bloch’s masterpiece, Prometheus Unbound, has found fame again in Greece.

“Its appeal has been astounding,” said Nikolas Papadimitriou, the director of the Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum beneath the Acropolis. “People stand before it transfixed. They’re completely mesmerised.”

On public display for the first time in the country, the painting has for months been attracting visitors who are spurred as much by the prospect of seeing a long-lost cultural treasure as hunger, perhaps, for a glimpse of freedom’s victory over oppression.

The painting’s popularity has been such that plans are now afoot to exhibit it elsewhere in Greece before the culture ministry, which has declared the work a protected monument, puts it on permanent display at the newly restored palace of Tatoi, north of the capital, later this year.

“At the age of 87 I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it,” said Dimitris Mavrikas, a retired merchant who had travelled from Agrinio in central Greece to see the work. “For me it’s all about the battle of human existence, the battle we wage to survive from the moment we are born.”

In an increasingly insecure world, it was, he said, a battle freighted with significance. “Who can dispute the fact that people have always been fighting for their liberty?” he said. “I’d heard so much about this painting and it hasn’t let me down. It provokes awe.”

At four meters high and three meters wide, the magisterial piece depicts the moment Prometheus breaks free from the chains that have bound him to a rock, the punishment Zeus has bestowed on the titan for daring to gift mankind the power of fire.

Condemned to have his liver pecked by an eagle in perpetuity – with the king god ensuring the organ is constantly renewed for the bird to feast on – Bloch evokes the drama of Prometheus’s liberation after Heracles’ unexpected intervention. He looks on incredulously as his tormentor falls from his body.

Papadimitriou said the painting’s allure could also be attributed to “its sheer size, in a country where we’ve never had big buildings to hang such pieces”.

Schoolchildren have visited the museum to take in the floor-to-ceiling treasure “and the reaction was always the same”, he said. “They stood there in silence, in total amazement.”

Known for his depictions of mythological heroes, Bloch was commissioned in 1864 by the young Danish-born king George I, who had assumed Greece’s throne the year before. Ensconced in his studio in Rome as revolutionary fervour spread, the artist worked furiously to finish the painting. When it was first exhibited in Copenhagen in 1865, Prometheus Unbound was hailed as groundbreaking and an unprecedented success.

“It would be right to say that it would be difficult to find its equal anywhere since the very beginnings of Danish art,” one critic opined.

But, for many, the power of the painting also lies in its extraordinary history. Its chance rediscovery in 2012 not only ended decades of speculation but resolved a thriller that had long haunted the art world.

Culture ministry officials in Greece were stunned when they came across the canvas rolled up in a tube while recording thousands of objects amassed in Tatoi from estates that had once belonged to the nation’s deposed royal family.

Last seen publicly at an exhibition in Copenhagen in 1932, historians surmised it had either been lost as it was transported by ship back to Greece or had fallen victim to fire. That looters had failed to spot the treasure – the royal estates had been frequently targeted by thieves – only added to the astonishment.

“It needed work,” said Melina Fotopoulou, the Greek culture ministry conservationist who oversaw its restoration. “In places there was mould, cracks and colour detachment that required restoration and as it had been rolled up for so long in the cylinder, the canvas was quite loose.”

The painstaking conservation work was made harder because of the painting’s size. “It was impossible to restore mounted on a frame and so was laid out on the ground where we worked on it intensely,” Fotopoulou said, adding there had been “quite a bit of nervousness” before the masterpiece was rehung. “We weren’t at all sure what it would look like framed but of course it is so impressive; it’s wonderful.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[transgenderer]

The liver bird (/ˈlaɪvərbɜːrd/LY-vər-burd) is a mythical creature that is the symbol of the English city of Liverpool. It is normally represented as a cormorant, and appears as such on the city's arms, in which it bears a branch of laver seaweed in its beak as a further pun on the name "Liverpool".[1]

King John founded the borough of Liverpool by royal charter in 1207. The borough's second charter, granted by Henry III in 1229, gave the townspeople the right to form a guild with the privileges this came with, including the right to use a common seal.[2] Liverpool's ancient seal probably dated from this time, though the earliest surviving impression (kept in the British Museum) is from 1352.[2] The seal depicted a generic bird with a plant sprig in its beak, together with a scroll inscribed (in shaky letters) "JOHIS" - an abbreviation for Johannis, Latin for "John's".[2] The bird was almost certainly intended to be an eagle, the symbol of John the Evangelist, who was both the namesake and the patron saint of King John.[2] The plant sprig is interpreted as broom (planta genista in Latin), a badge of the Plantagenet dynasty.[3] Also visible on the seal is a star and crescent, one of King John's personal badges.[4]

The shoddy draughtsmanship of the seal has given rise to other theories. Richard Brooke, a 19th-century Liverpudlian antiquary, surmised that the bird was a dove with an olive branch, and that the scroll read "NOBIS" or "VOBIS".[5]

By the 17th century the bird's real identity had been forgotten: it began to be interpreted either as a cormorant, a common bird in the area, or as a "lever". In 1611 the municipal records describe the mayor receiving a plate "marked with the Cormorant, the Townes Armes", while in 1668 the Earl of Derby gifted the town a silver-gilt mace engraved with a "leaver".[2] In his 1688 work The Academie of Armorie, Randle Holme records the arms of Liverpool as a blue "lever" upon a silver field. Holme takes this word to be an adaptation of the German loffler or Dutch lepler/lefler, both referring to the spoonbill.[6] It is possible that these continental words were adopted for the bird in Liverpool's arms as they made a fitting allusion to the name "Liverpool".[2] Around the same time the broom sprig in the bird's beak was reinterpreted as a branch of laver, also on account of the similarity of the word to the city's name.

In August 1796 Mayor Clayton Tarleton wrote to the College of Arms to request an official grant of arms to the city. His letter called the bird "a lever or sea cormorant".[5] Arms were duly granted on 22 March 1797 by Sir Isaac Heard, Garter King of Arms, and George Harrison, Norroy King of Arms; however the grant described the bird only as a "cormorant".[7]

The modern popularity of the symbol largely dates to 1911, when the Liver Building was built. This prominent display of two liver birds rekindled the idea that the liver was a mythical bird that once haunted the local shoreline. According to popular legend, they are a male and female pair: the female looking out to sea, watching for the seamen to return safely home, and the male looking in to the city, watching over the seamen's families (or "making sure the pubs are open", as a jocular version has it). Local legend also holds that the birds face away from each other, for if they were to mate and fly away, the city would cease to exist

it took them less than 400 years to invent a bird called the "lever" (not even liver...?) to explain a shitty drawing of an eagle

also bonus:

An all female rock group from Liverpool called The Liverbirds was active in the '60s. They moved to Hamburg in 1964, where they were billed as die weiblichen Beatles (the female Beatles).

[alectoperdita]

Oh hell, I am all about them drugged confessions. If/whenever you’re up for it. 💕

From Put That Guy in a Situation(TM) Ask Game

Jumped this one ahead in the queue since it's someone's birthday. 💜💜💜 Enjoy, my friend! I hope this has enough of the stuff you dig about them.

13. Drunken/drugged/sleepy confessions

content warnings: referenced non-consensual drug use and mildly spicy because Seto is thirsty

---

The city lights stabbed into Seto's eyes. The city's heartbeat—a frantic cacophony of bumper-to-bumper traffic, music spilling out of late-night shops and restaurants, and an overwhelming pulse of humanity—pulsed against the back of his head like a second migraine.

He lifted his heavy head and tried to get a better look at his surroundings. Not an easy feat when the world wouldn't stop spinning. Seto could feel the planet's rotational force itself.

In the sky, a bloated, sickly yellow moon hung on the black canvas, a dim bulb when compared to the Oriental Pearl Tower's neon blue and magenta on the opposite riverbank. The phalanx of lit skyscrapers behind the landmark formed a blinding wall that threatened to lighten the night sky.

No wonder they were sitting at a standstill in traffic. He was in the Bund. Shanghai. He was in Shanghai. Not for the first or second time, but the city's nightlife never failed to overwhelm.

It came back to him in bits and pieces. The Pan-Asia Duel Monsters Championship was in China this year, which KC was a sponsor of, along with a dozen international and domestic corporations. Seto wasn't here to compete, though. He was here to do business and build guanxi.

Which meant night after night of hard drinking and tedious back slapping as Seto endured their patronizing compliments about his passable Mandarin. Endless rounds of maotai until his blood must be 90% alcohol. That was the preferred poison of the old-school elites, the ones who built their wealth on the backs of a rapidly booming economy that outpaced everyone's wildest imagination. Not even Japan had sustained that kind of boom in the post-war years.

Potential liver failure was the price of doing business in this country.

That was last night, though. Seto was sure of that much, even if the passage of time seemed theoretical at best. Tonight, he'd been swept into a gaggle of their children, mainly the sons of the previous night's party officials and business moguls.

The fuerdai. His "peers."

Ha! Gozaburo had handed him nothing. Everything Seto owned, everything he accomplished, was through his own sweat and blood.

Seto will give them one thing: their tastes were decidedly less provincial. While their fathers drank baijiu like fish drinking water, they preferred cocktails, or at least pitchers of iced green tea mixed with Crown Royal.

Maybe that was his first mistake. Maybe he shouldn't have underestimated how fucked up he could get on such a simple mixture.

That was the last thing he could remember. He drew a yawning gap between the afterparty at the club and this taxi cab.

Seto sank into the seat and squeezed his eyes shut. His stomach lurched. Perhaps it was a good thing that they were stuck in traffic. He might not be able to keep it down in stop-and-go traffic.

An abrasive—a familiar abrasive voice—encroached from the fringes, though. An equally combative voice shot back in a different language.

Seto's head lolled to the side, away from the window and toward the other passenger in the backseat. Reluctantly, he pried his heavy eyelids open. God, why was he so tired? It felt like he'd pulled several all-nighters in a row.

His fellow passenger was Jounouchi, locked in a heated conversation/argument with the cab driver.

Right. Jounouchi was also in Shanghai this week. Except he was here to compete in the tournament. And unlike Seto, he didn't speak a lick of Chinese.

Not that his laughable grasp of English fared any better.

"Fuck, I'm telling ya, it's the other Marriott!" Jounouchi groaned in Japanese, running a frustrated hand through his bird's nest hair. It looked softer than it had any right to be, though. The strands ought to be bleached to hell and back after this many years.

But Jounouchi had been updating his wardrobe and his deck in recent years. Every victory advanced his look and style, and even netted him some media training like someone deserving of media notice, which was why he was playing in the Pan-Asian championship. Seto couldn't ignore him like he once did, like he still tried to in vain sometimes.

(And sometimes, he very much didn't want to ignore Jounouchi, wondering if he could catch the other man's attention in return...)

None of that explained why they were in the same cab, though.

Jounouchi tried again to communicate. It hurt to listen to him butcher English to that extent. The cab driver appeared to grow even more irate, threatening to eject them entirely.

Giggles spilled uncontrollably out of him. Of course! Of course, Jounouchi's incompetence got them stranded on the opposite end of the city from their hotel.

Fortunately, he was a snack to look at, even if his brains were nothing to write home about.

Seto's words croaked out of him, repeating in Mandarin what Jounouchi had been trying to convey. God, why did it hurt so much to speak? But even his drunken slur sufficed, earning a grousing retort from the driver that Seto should've just said so sooner while shooting a death glare at his other passenger through the rearview mirror.

At the sound of Seto's voice, Jounouchi jolted in shock, releasing the driver's headrest he had been clinging to. After several awkward moments of staring, he inched closer to Seto, stopping short of touching him. But the proximity and the tight enclosure made Seto's skin crawl. Not in an unpleasant way, though. His body tingled and felt a touch flushed.

How would Jounouchi's skin feel against his?

"You alright there, Kaiba?" asked Jounouchi, seemingly floating closer. He waved a hesitant hand in Seto's face.

Base urges welled up in him. He wanted to grab Jounouchi's hand and bite it, no better than a dog, as he once mocked the other man for being. Better yet, he could drag his tongue across the rough palm and lap at his knuckles. Suck his thick fingers into his mouth and learn contentment from how they could fill his mouth.

Seto was never drinking green tea mixed with whisky ever again.

He managed a small noise of confirmation before he twisted away, curling as best as he could around the seatbelt. Something like a whimper pushed at the back of his throat, but he refused to release it. He wouldn't humiliate himself any further. Just as he wouldn't crawl across the middle seat and cuddle into Jounouchi's lap.

But god, he wanted that so much it hurt.

A warm hand landed on his back, and he nearly surrendered as Jounouchi rubbed soothing circles between his shoulder blades.

"It's okay." Jounouchi spoke softly, but somehow it rang louder than the many decibels of Shanghai traffic. "We'll be back at the hotel in time. Just hang in there."

Seto spent the rest of the journey folded into himself, wedged firmly against the side of the taxi, trying and failing not to tremble under Jounouchi's caring touch. With a hushed tone, Jounouchi explained what had happened. It was pure coincidence that he ran into Seto and his "party" at that particular club. (Coincidence is giving chance too much credit. There were only so many high-end nightclubs in the city.) Jounouchi had wandered over to say hi before rejoining his own group. But out of the corner of his eyes, he'd noticed that Kaiba was acting unlike himself. In fact, the entire group seemed a bit off.

Seto was coming to his own conclusion before Jounouchi shared his.

Seto had been drugged. And since he knew better than to take random shit handed to him by strangers, it must've been slipped into his drink. Or maybe it was in the communal cocktail pitcher to begin with.

"They were trying to drag you off to someplace else. Don't ask me where. But you didn't look like you wanted to go, so I stepped in," Jounouchi trailed off. He'd yet to remove his hand, but it sat unmoving, a steadying weight on Seto's back helping to ground him to reality.

"I can't imagine they were happy," Seto muttered.

Jounouchi chuckled. "Not one bit. Acted like I was trying to kill the party. One chick threatened me with her stiletto heel."

"My knight in shining armor." Seto found himself laughing, then regretted it when his head throbbed.

"Don't worry, I didn't hit any of 'em. Mighty tempting, though. I just kinda threw you over my shoulder and high-tailed it outta there. That was how I knew you were really outta it. You barely cursed me out."

Heat associated with both shame and arousal rushed through him. It turned out those biceps he secretly admired weren't just for show.

"Finally, we're here!" exclaimed Jounouchi. His hand also regrettably retreated.

Seto watched blearily as Jounouchi overpaid the driver and leaped out the door. He didn't go far, though. He jogged around the vehicle to Seto's side and yanked open the door. As he leaned in and over Seto to undo the seatbelt buckle, the woody scent of Jounouchi's cologne flooded Seto's nostrils. And his strength was plainly evident as he braced his arms around Seto's shoulders and hip.

"Alright, up we go," urged Jounouchi.

Under any sober circumstance, Seto would've never allowed this to happen. To let Jounouchi touch him, especially as a caretaker. But Seto was the farthest thing from sober, fucked up on whatever combination of alcohol and party drugs he had been unwittingly fed. He didn't have the strength to stand on his own two feet.

So he relied on Jounouchi and his strength. Clung to the man's sweat-slicked neck.

The doorman didn't give them a second glance. Why should he? Seto was simply the latest in an endless stream of drunken guests stumbling back into the five-star hotel.

A lobby concierge approached and tried to help, though. Both Jounouchi and Seto waved him off. Jounouchi likely because he didn't want another stressful not-conversation, and Seto didn't want anyone but Jounouchi touching him right now.

"Hey, what floor?" Jounouchi asked after propping him against the wall of the elevator carriage.

Seto patted down his pockets and was relieved to find his wallet. He didn't expect the fuerdai to rob him blind like a common mugger, but you never knew. He tossed the leather wallet to Jounouchi and croaked, "Key card."

The tournament competitors were provided with single-bed guest rooms. Seto, on the other hand, occupied the Vice Presidential Suite for the week. Their elevator shot toward the top floors, bypassing the dozens of floors between the ground and the suites.

As they ascended, Seto snuck covert glances at the other hand. Despite the air conditioning running at full blast, Jounouchi was still huffing and sweating. Who could blame him? Summer in Shanghai could be blistering.

"Can you walk?" asked Jounouchi when the elevator doors finally parted.

Struck muted, Seto shook his head. His heart raced as Jounouchi wrapped a burly arm around his waist, and together, they hobbled down the hall to the suite's door.

The lights flicked on automatically as they entered, drawing an impressed whistle from Jounouchi as he took in the room.

"Yeah, guess I should've known. You wouldn't be caught dead living like us commoners. Where's the bed in this joint?"

The mention of bed caused something hot and heavy to coil in Seto's navel. Without meaning to, his arm tightened around Jounouchi's neck, which only prompted the other man to grip him tighter, mistaking the action as a plea for more support.

"Bedroom," he moaned, knocking his head against the side of Jounouchi's. He might be imagining it, but he swore Jounouchi shivered and pink flooded down to his neck.

Seconds later, they stumbled into the adjoined bedroom. The spacious room apparently didn't warrant any comments, because Jounouchi deposited Seto on the bed and disappeared from sight.

To say Seto was disappointed was an understatement.

It may be a blessing in disguise. Jounouchi had already done the "decent" thing: extracted him from a dicey situation and brought him to safety. Seto didn't need to embarrass himself in front of the other man any further.

He jumped when a hand grabbed his shoulder, kicking a leg out blindly.

"Relax, it's me."

Silly though it was, Seto did relax as soon as he registered Jounouchi's voice. His firm but careful touch.

"Here. I got you water from the minibar and a cool towel. It's unopened. I promise."

Seto stared helplessly at the two items being offered to him. Jounouchi made no moves, either. They were at a stalemate. At least until the other man sighed and pressed the moist towel to Seto's sweat-dampened forehead. His eyes fluttered closed, and he unleashed a faint moan at how good and chilly it felt.

"C'mon, you gotta drink the water, too. The whole bottle, then I promise to leave you alone."

Panic spiked through Seto's system. Being alone, something he never minded before, suddenly sounded unbearable. He didn't want Jounouchi to leave.

He reached out. Not to take the proffered bottle, as refreshing as its content may be, but to grab Jounouchi's forearm. Jounouchi froze under his clutch.

"You can't leave. I won't let you," said Seto before he could stop himself.

Jounouchi's breath hitched. As he stared at Seto's face, his eyes darkened with something unspeakable. He licked his lips. "Okay, not leaving. Not tonight. Guess someone's gotta keep an eye on you and make sure things don't take a turn for the worse. But you gotta at least let go of my arm. I'll take the couch outside."

Seto slid closer. "I want you—"

Jounouchi gasped. Seto could kiss him at that instant, but his head spun.

He wanted Jounouchi in every conceivable way. Wanted to feel his naked skin against his skin. Wanted to feel his weight pressing down on him as his cock pushed into Seto's hole. Wanted to shatter apart and then let Jounouchi piece him back together in the afterglow, warm and content.

He thought Jounouchi might grant him those things. If only he'd ask for them. But the words remained stubbornly lodged in his throat as sobriety started to creep in on the edges.

"I want you to stay with me," he whispered, holding Jounouchi's shell-shocked gaze.

Tonight and tomorrow. Maybe even for the rest of their lives. One day, Seto would give voice to the whole truth.

Read other prompt fill ficlets here

[missinconsistent]

The Selen situation is so much worse than I could have ever expected. I'm just gonna rant...

I could understand if she had been difficult in the past with getting the permissions that led to her termination. But the absolute audacity to blame her for their bad reputation when she was considered one of the best and most well-respected talents under them is just a slap in the face. More than any talent, Selen has probably accomplished the most passionate and collaborative experiences NijiEN had to offer- her HoloNiji Apex tournament, Wrestlesanji, her birthday concert, Niji Express and Obsydia Crossing in VR, and the list goes on. A lot of the big projects she has done were out of her own wallet with little in return. The termination statement couldn't show any ounce of appreciation for any of the hard work she's done. Selen was even intending on just graduating quietly and leaving it at that, but Niji terminated her out of the blue so they could delete all her content in the blink of an eye.

Did they think they'd have the upper hand if they had Selen leave the company on THEIR terms instead of her own? Couldn't they have at least just said "she was terminated for breaching contract" instead of a 3-page document about what they didn't like about her? And what's more is that they imply that some of the other Nijisanji livers have been harassing Selen?? Why did they shoot themselves in the foot and lead angry fans to witch hunt other livers??? People are pointing fingers now because Nijisanji is throwing ALL of their livers under the bus, rather than taking any crumb of responsibility for the toxic work environment within THEIR company that all the livers just work under!!

All the other livers are gonna be attacked because Niji completely fed into "the clique" rumours. Millie has been bombarded with hate because she was the only liver to reply to Selen when her Last Cup of Coffee cover got taken down. Or fans don't wanna show support for niji whatsoever, even if they are fans of the livers. And it sucks bc I know most of them were in Japan a few months ago working on some big things. Noctyx has their Level Up series that they've all worked extremely hard for. Krisis and TTT are still building their audience, and any new wave after this is just royally screwed. And there's probably gonna be more damning graduations after this, when Pomu and Kyo's graduation already left a bad start to the new year.

Why the fuck did they have to announce the termination on Vanta's birthday. And during Kyo's last two weeks before his graduation. And after they still promoted voice packs and merchandise with Selen still included in them. Why did they announce a termination at all when Selen was working towards a mutual end with them. Just what the fuck. I'm so mad about all this.

[artofgaryyeung]

It was my first time visiting Liverpool! Great city with beautiful architecture and my visit would not be complete without sketching one of the iconic buildings, Royal Liver Building!

IG artofgaryyeung

FB artofgaryyeung

[ama979302]

The Royal Liver Building - Liverpool

[wolfephoto]

The Liver building by night by John Wolfe Via Flickr: Liverpool, UK

[ginandoldlace]

Liverpool from left to right The Royal Liver Building The Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building

[cookie-nameless]

So today I feel like talking about my favorite family in and cookie around the family that I wrote multiple fanfictions for that I love so much that I've been renting to my friends in the DMs but haven't really gotten a chance to talk about them that much the starter family plus Rye

I think more people should see them as family like they are literally the main characters and they only have each other triplets born alone a thief who had no choice and a royal who was abandoned coming together to build a place where every cookie can liver everyone can be happy and also adding another parent to their family a cookie who chose to be there that's a family that loves each other that they should love each other even if they have their own flaws and they're not the perfect family they're going to try their damn hardest and that's what makes this family so perfect

Now I'm going to talk about the individual head canons of the family their role and how they connect to others because these have been in my brain for so long and I need to tell somebody that that I haven't told and I haven't made new friends on here so let's go

Rye the one who feels kind of disconnected from the family because she joined in later when they had already become a full family unit she's more of a stepmother and she still has complicated relationship with her feelings towards chili even though now she knows why chili did it but she likes the kids and she's going to try her damn best

Chili basically the mother of the family although you expect her to change after assuming the role and she did she's still the same cookie just now she has cookies that she has cookies that she cares about again and now she has slightly become more responsible and a better person overall she's not perfect but she's trying her damn best

Custard the youngest of children of course he's the one who deals least with the kingdom affairs although he tries to help a lot everybody loves and wants to protect him for him to not to see the darkness of the world but he knows at least a little bit but he is still a kid and he's going to stay as a kid until he can't

Wizard the one that feels the most disconnected from the family everybody still loves him and he loves them but he's still rude to them and acts like he's the greatest wizard ever deep down inside he knows that he isn't that he's just a teenager but he's going to try his best to be an adult because he's already seen a lot of adults can't handle

Strawberry the quiet older sister who knows everybody struggles because she listens unintentionally of course but still she has known all of these cookies for the majority of her life she knows when something is different she knows that something is different than her too and she will find a source and fix it for her family

And brave the oldest child at least in the way that they act they tried to be reliable Brave help everyone save everyone and push away they're negative feelings because she is the most Brave cookie the one who's saving everyone the one who escaped the heaven even if they barely can sleep because of the nightmares they cannot let their family worry because everything is going to be fine they're going to defeat dark enchantress and everything is going to be okay

I love this little traumatized f***** up family I love all of them so much they deserve so much more than what they are getting please comment your own thoughts about them also read the fanfictions I think they're pretty cool

https://archiveofourown.org/series/3020472

[11crowsinatrenchcoat]

My DnD characters backstory :D

For context I'm currently playing an Ealdrin bard named Ellis, and as the top line would suggest the following backstory is his own. I also made a Spotify playlist for him so here is that: https://spotify.link/aTdRgNDNtDb

If you are uncomfortable with the topics of a character being caused physical harm, please do not read this. I don't go into detail, but I know it bothers people.

Ellis was raised in the fae wild alongside other Ealdrin aristocrat children. As is expected, he was quite the little shit, but mostly just insulted other children. As he grew older, he studied architecture for a little bit, designed some pretty famous buildings for the kingdom he lived in, and then went to bard college.

After he graduated, he flew up the ranks pretty fast and through a string of encounters I didn't bother to come up with, ended up as the king's advisor. Now, the king did not like Ellis very much, purely just because they didn't mix well, but he couldn't exactly do anything about it. Unfortunately for Ellis, over the span of 20 years, he began to develop feelings for the king. And near the end of those 20 years, he truly loved the king and did everything to ensure the king's comfort.

Things did not stay mundane for long, however. One night, the king and his newly wedded wife were killed. Naturally, this brought forth a lot of panic. Due to the customs of this particular kingdom, if there was no direct heir to the throne, the royal advisor would take control. Seeing as the king had no living relatives that could take the throne, Ellis would have been the next king. This naturally brought a lot of speculation that Ellis killed the king since he always seemed to be around him and, well, this had happened before. The dead king's father had been killed by his advisor.

Ellis was promptly charged with murder with basically no evidence, and the sentence given was an exile. During his exile, Ellis wanted nothing more to explain his innocence. This became a bit of an obsession, so by the time he figured out how to summon the spirit of the dead king from a mage he had met, he was already a little bonkers.

Once the ghost of the dead king was summoned, he was immediately furious at the man be seen before him. He never saw the culprit, so he too assumed Ellis had murdered him. Ellis tried to explain, then tearfully confessed his love to the king. I couldn't tell you what drove the king to do what I am about to detail. Be it the fury he marinated in for over 50 years, thinking the innocent man before him had committed such an act, or the fury brought on by his most disliked person confessing his love to the king. Nevertheless, the king was still strong as a spirit. Strong enough to reach for a knife and stab Ellis directly in the heart.

Now Ellis wouldn't be able to tell you what happened next, most certainly because he was already dead, but I certainly can. Ellis was stabbed 8 times in the heart, 3 in the gut, and ruthlessly disembowled. Hell, by the time the mage who had given Ellis the spell to summon the king's spirit, his arm was just about gone.

Through a process too complicated to write out on a sheet of paper, the mage reconstructed Ellis' body as well as he could. Being able to salvage the heart somehow, but doing away with much of the digestive track. The damaged organs I will list are as follows: liver, stomach, left kidney (the right had to be removed) and heart. Since you do not need part of your liver, that took care of itself. The kidney was also easily repaired. The heart needed an incredibly complicated rune to keep it from stopping (though Ellis still has heart palpitations on the regular), and the stomach needed a rune of similar complexity to be able to digest nutrients without the intestines. Being unable to eat properly, he requires a feeding tube. Water and pills can be taken orally, and some pretty easy to digest foods can also be taken as such, but he mainly relies on said feeding tube to get his nutrients. Because of this he also has trained a ferret to respond to his heart issues, and it can detect whenever it's keeper needs help.

Ellis now swears to destroy the fae realms aristocratic circles, and to cause as much harm as he can doing do. He's quite well tampered to others, but his disdain for his kingdom is strong.

[tsukiyadori]

Reading Log 2023.12-2024.01 - December-January

Previous: Reading (+Watching) Log 2023.09-11 - September to November

Reading languages: German, English, Japanese, not listing which was what

Titles are as I’ve read them either first or most and thus remember it for that title mostly

Not going to bother putting in the original titles of translated reads

Cursive titles have been completed

——————————————————————————

DECEMBER

Managed zero anime again...

Hovered before Jeweler Richard and bolted out from reading again for health reasons and upholding certain deadlines...

Novels:

The Old Man in the Corner

Light Novel:

86: Eighty-Six v12 Anime Supremacy v1 Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki v7-V8

Manga:

100-nengo ni Tenseishita Watashi ch14.1-2 A Couple of Cockoos V7 A Side Character's Love Story Ch15-25 After God Ch40-39 Ano Ko no Kodomo v1-v2ch8 Ano Natsu ga Houwa suru. ch13-14 BL Game no Shujinkou no Otouto de aru Koto ni Ki ga Tsukimashita ch18 Boku no Diamond Star ch14 Brutal Ch8.2-14 Buta no Liver wa Kanetsushiro ch32.1-2 Daijuukou to Unicornis no Otome ch12-13.2 Dein Verlangen gehört mir v2-4ch33 Dein böser Blick v1-2ch7 Delinquent Daddy & Tender Teacher v2 Der Duft der Apfelblüte v1-v2 Dienerin des verfluchten Kindes Ch39.1-46.1 Fall in the Night with You Ch46-45 Fuck Buddy Girl Crush ch58-59 Harebare Biyori ch22 Hari to Hitsuji no Fune bangaihen Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meguri ch17.2-18.4 I don't want to work anymore Ch12-19.51 Inked: Unter deiner Haut Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch15 Kakan no Oukoku no Hanagirai Hime ch8.4-9.4 Kakegurui Ch104-105.2 Kemono to Waltz ch19 Killer in Love Ch31-39 Knitter's High bangaihen1-2 Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch75-76 Kono Koi wo Hoshi ni wa Negawanai ch10 Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa ch28 Love you till you die v1-5ch24 Mehr als Tausend Worte Meine Wiedergeburt als Schleim in einer anderen Welt V12 Midnight Secret Sex Minikui Yuukaku no Ko ch1-13 Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch3.1-16.3 Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode ch22.3-23.2 Oshi no Ko ch133-135 Phantom Seer V4 Requiem of the Rose King V9.half Sakura Saku v1 Scroll of the White Silk Cloud ch24-58 Shangri-La Frontier v1-v3ch25 She is also cute today Ch48-51 Shinde Miro to Iwareta no de Shinimashita. ch6-8 Shuumatsu Touring ch33-34.2 Sonna Kazoku nara Sutechaeba? ch59preview, ch60-63 Sweet & Tart Boyfriend Ch6-9 Taberare Usa ch80-83 Tales of Reincarnation in Maydare: This World's Worst Witch Ch1-2.2 Taste of Desire The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Ch1-11.3 The Mermaid Wears a Dress Ch26-37 The Saint's Magic Power is Omipotent bangaihen5, ch38.1-2 To be Winner Ch49.1-71 To the Abadoned Sacred Beasts v10ch52 Together Forever Ch17-28 Und jeden Tag liebe ich dich mehr Unnamed Memory ch33 Watashi wo Tabetai kaimaku1-2 Yomei Ichinen to Senkokusareta Boku ga ch9.1-2 Yuna aus dem Reich Ryukyu V7-8

Webtoons:

A Royal Princess with Black Hair Ch50-59 AoT no Requiem ch1-3 Beauty as the Beast Ch16-35 Breed my Dear Enemy Ch44-76 Can the Grand Duke and the Marquis be Friends? Ch1-12 Corridor of Mirs Ch20-55 Marry my Enemy Ch1-7 Spirit of Peach Blossom Ch28-47 The Giantess wants Love Ch61-72

Notes:

86: Eighty-Six 12: It feels a bit like a sort of extra quest, but it weaves itself very nicely into the world building.

Anime Supremacy: 2/3 in, I'm already liking it ten times more than I ever did Shirobako. There is less pathos, more just passion and sincerity. .... And a strange view that not even takes the working conditions cynically, but rather as a matter of a fact.

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki: V7 has been an excellent read. At beginning, I was once more crying hell, that I did not want to see a Tomozaki-Aoi ship sailing as an endgame, because really Aoi is everything anti-cheese there is so far. But everything is littered up for this to happen, but if it manages to either make a twist with that or make it organically happen, I suppose that'll be fine, too. Anyway, as for this book's main plot, it was quite beautiful with all its allegories that transported across all the characters. What I found most mesmerizing was how this certain mid-term ship sailed. I say mid-term, because I can't really see it as anything else. Fuka even says as much, while both the female characters in the play loved the guy, he was the only one the one who wins her love in the play, which was Hinami not herself. Tomozaki breaks that, but he's also bringing up how they started at opposite ends and are now meeting halfway. They are definitely a good match, they vibed from the start, but somehow there is also a sort of time-limited beauty to it, and it's not entirely normatively (and me tooth-crunchingly thinking Aoi so much looks like the set-up endgame). It's like they will live their lives and in the future will diverge again, simply because their lives will move away from each other. But just now it matches, and it doesn't make the time any less precious, and certainly it will be a valuable experience to build on for anything that comes after and a treasure memory to look back into. This somehow reminds me a lot of the charm the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button postulates with the "meeting in the middle of their lives" notion, but didn't really pull off even half as beautifully for me. But the other motifs are very high up there, too. The allegory of firelings and the outlook of 'finding your own', the internet as one chance for that and just this whole pointing to a sense of 'the world is vast, much bigger than this one little place (school)' is quite a nice and healthy one. Actually, the biggest plot contrivance may not that Tomozaki gets to have an Aoi in his life. It's everyone else getting to have an improved Tomozaki in their life. If Aoi is a sort of catalyst trigger, Tomozaki is in many ways a sort of enabler. Characters like these are rather exceedingly rare in both fiction and reality, imo.

A Royal Princess with Black Hair - I caught up ._. But the titular princess is a kinda cool. The hazardous-sort of cool and the two definitely have a nice chemestry of bantering. (Also Tsundere-in-denials features.)

After God - The plot is a bit… ok, I guess, and the characters bar maybe one across the board awful (even the bunny-moonface one), but then after some 40+ pages some strings come together and they make a few of the characters into far more complex creatures. There is also the whole absurdity of things (gummy bears, really?). The art has always been the thing that drew in with its mixture of macabre, morbid contrasted with and just really astonishing amounts of details. The chapters in Vollof's moon castle however, definitely had art that was positive stunning to look at. The sheer amount of surrealism, from classic paintings and contemporary things of civilization or nature, even just mundane little things just mixed in like that, it's pretty great….. It's just kinda missing actually interesting characters for me. But at least the plot finally started to have a real air of mystique about it that made me want to read more. And then that is when it's caught up on the latest chapters on Comikey. The Irony.

Ano Ko no Kodomo - Very educative and treats the emotions pretty sensibly. Although of course also obviously very Japanese, so now I kinda know more about getting a child in Japan than I do elsewhere...

Delinquent Daddy & Tender Teacher v2 - So v2 is actually a spin off bonus, while being a sequel in the timeline and I think you can really see that fanservice-y air about it. It doesn't have too much of a plot, the spice levels have gone up and otherwise it's mostly compf and cute. Looks like from the next volume on it was greenlit to be an ongoing series, so probably may get more cohesive after that. The series quite stands out for having an ongoing relationship as a couple after coming together (and a child at that), which is very rare. Other than that "gentle" is probably what fits its air best.

Dienerin des verfluchten Kindes Ch39.1-46.1 - How to read v1-6 in German print vols, go up to the penultimate chapter on comikey and going "oh I'll just skip to the last volume", you get the latest of those German print volumes and that one (v8) turns out to be the penultimate one, too. The stupidity… Anyway. Kinda nice drawings, but just so, so, so much pathos. Anyway, think i'll just consider it closed now even with half a chapter missing.

Girl Crush ch58-59 - Aftermath of the last climax in a new little climax, and it's just so good.

Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch15 - yes of course. OF COURSE. Oh, but that twist is for the better, because now we're not in a problem of a triangle after all. Also, somebody license this already. :<

Killer in Love - Finished. Uh. Well. Erm. Last time I thought it was kinda like Azure and Claude that author (Sugaru)'s style of they are gonna be doomed, totally gonna be doomed, just in edgy. But Sugaru's style has a penchant is more like 'everything is gloom, but we desperately try to hold onto something to keep going, and maybe in the eyes of the world we failed, but we've found at least a little measure of happiness for ourselves'. So it's like very predictable gloom, but with a silver lining. This one is just them failing, and they had absolutely nothing. The end doesn't really leave much open, but I prefer to guess it was axed or some such. The message it tries to phone otherwise is kinda hard to swallow otherwise.

Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch75-76 - We have moved on from the sorta Aishiteru Game-arc to a competition arc? And next it's school theater arc? It sure moved on quick, but it does so quite neatly without any of these bits getting too long and old.

Oshi no Ko ch133-135 Arimaaaaaaaaaaaa

Shangri-La Frontier v1-v3 - I think the gaming aspect actually works against its adventuring aspect for me. Now ok, fine, it's cool, that it's not yet another Isekai'ed-into-game plot, but also, with it just being a game the stakes also are… just a game. There are no real stakes in there beyond a sense of pride in what they themselves call "bizarre taste" and a stubbornness of conquest. If that was an actual fantasy world defeating the monsters would be meaningful for the safety of the residents in it, but with the gaming aspect it's literally just a game. And as somebody who doesn't game at all, it kinda stopped being interesting. Despite an actual bunny MC there…

Shinde Miro to Iwareta no de Shinimashita - Good heavens, it took its sweet time with the explanation arc and finally turning the asshole romance interest into not so assy-just-misguided poor fellow.

Taberare Usa - I do not know what this is anymore, but it still has buns. Some at least, right now.

(break because of tumblr complaining about max character limits per block)

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Ch1-11.3 - Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!! This is fluff paradise. At least for now. The series clearly is romance, and it's gonna go there, but the way it is right now in the beginning, that doesn't really have exactly something to do with just romance. They are drawn to each other, but it's expressly not because of the romance factor, they are attraction factors all over the place from every other realm and while there are romance sparks there, it's almost never just romantic/sexual attraction at play alone (and much less is it the driving factor). And even those, they are still very far and in between, but everyone else is already going grinny-grinny that they surely are dating. This is such a mood and if we remove a few of the more spefici sparks, it's almost a bit like my teenage dream incarnate, as in this is how I assumed a friendship looked like, if it was one that has any right to call itself an actual friendship. (Yes, my idea of that concept was a bit nuts at the time…) Now I am wanting both more, while I half dread that once it moves on to be just any classic romance and it is gonna move on for sure, but this is already perfect endgame mood for me. T_T

Original ramblings for the record: The two kinda vibe quite nicely, it didn't start with the sparks and feels, but really just how they complement each their needs. She in terms of all the practical things of cooking, cleaning and he at being introvert-style observant and emphatically being able to guess her needs without having to even think about it. All framed into how it expressly defies gender stereotypes (he doesn't expect much less asks for her cooking and she does it because she likes cooking and enjoys trying some out and serving it to someone happily chomping it down who is neither a glutton that is happy about anything or unable to do a culinary evaluation as to how things taste good) and just at its core it's about a safe space of just being free to be. There's already titbits of the bog standard cheese, but all those blushes of surges of happiness also overlap with something else at the same time, just simple embarrassment over unusual situations (she stumbling) or suddenly close distance (the back carrying), which just doesn't entirely scream cheese for the sake of narrative, but just also being unused to it, because they're introverts. His letting his chopsticks fall at her being happy after seeing him so happy about her food may be a breathtaking thing, but it may also be simply being awed by the sheer prettiness of happiness itself. It also goes an extra mile at how to distinguish that not any other girl/guy would do - the other guys just swoon over her, and he's too overwhelmed by the too extrovert girls - while it's also not it has to be her/him because of crush. It's also just funny how the prospect of a girlfriend gives him headaches thinking about how to explain a certain neighbour angel's presence rather then to go for the most "obvious solution" of just making her his girlfriend herself. Which isn't rooted in just denseness, it's rooted in respect for her boundaries. (And she gives the same air for him, altho obviously if badly made this can turn into a misunderstanding trope.) Some which he often questions just to be sure they are on the same page. (And then there's some delish soft tsundere.) And it's just, neither are going in there with any romantic ambition whatsoever, it just organically develops. and slow burn as it it is and with overlaps to it's also some other thing, this also just reminds me extremely of what was originally my idea of just friendship. (Just remove some of those physiological blushes.) Now I do have an urge to bury my head in my hands, because the idea was so wildly extremely off, but just right now, at this slow burn that probably is (obviously has to be) cheese, this is perfectly an amount that is… fluff. But I surmise it won't stay that way, eventually it'll have to move or any other average reader will just get mad at no development. This atm however to me almost feels like near-perfect endgame vibes. It… doesn't need much of anything more.

Und jeden Tag liebe ich dich mehr (a.k.a. Everyday, Love Me More in English) - What I expected: Dumpster Cheese. What I got when I read some preview of chapter 1 or parts of it a long while ago: Cheese train departing at full speed ahead What it was:

still cheese, but the cheese is, while entirely predictable, actually also surprisingly buyable.

MC has a friend who is touchy-intimate, and it's just a friendship like that with absolute no airs about it

has a fairly weird misunderstanding trope, but they were children nicely placed back into the plot to denote a change development manages to have some comedic situation comedy even in serious moments

the climax/penultimate chapter already feels like what would have been the ending of any other bog standard BL volume. (I totally was expecting the cursed spice extra chapter for checking of the genre checklist.)

turns out after that there is an actual last chapter, with a time skip, which is a a whole arc in at out itself, in any other bog standard volume this would have been an entire sequel volume. has some pretty sensible and mature approach to getting the spice woven into the actual relationship. (Just the mentions of of course you'd want to do such things can die already, at least as a justification of having such desires at all.)

there even is even an cursed extra chapter of spice, with yet some more time skip, which is to say, the reader gets to see them at three stages of their ongoing relationship (plus their childhood precursor one) IN ONE VOLUME. huh. How did this manage to be so compact. There's even plenty of side elements. Some homo jokes getting trashed in a badass-hilarious way, morphing from some childhood scar healing nostalgia to something else, some family drama, entrance exams, slight doubts about one's orientation or how to categorize it, but also it never becoming a focal point or identify crisis drama. Also nice, it has a whole self expression-honesty drama subplot but nothing about it has anything to do with the queer aspect of it all. Just why does this have to have such a damnable cover (that really only makes sense after reading and then is still just… not very eye-caching) and cheese ass title.

——————————————————————————

JANUARY

Managed zero anime again... Bar some zapping

Jeweler Richard v6 came out in English, I went to some favorite places and the translation of those places is a little bit errrr? And then it got stalled (next to having to put it aside for deadlines and I'm still not reading v13 for health reasons, despite the deadline now over...)

Anime:

Sailor Moon Cosmos (quick tapping and watching 1/3-half)

Light Novels:

Anime Supremacy v1 Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki V8, v8.5, v9

Manga:

100-nengo ni Tenseishita Watashi, Zense no Juukishi ni Kyuukonsaremashita: Heika wa Watashi ga Moto Oujo da to Okizukidenai you desu ch14.3-4 A Side Character's Love Story Ch26-35.1 After God Ch51-52 Blank Canvas v3-5 Boruto: Two Blue Vortex ch4-5 Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki Manga Ch1-7 Dance Dance Danseur v1-2 Girl Crush Ch61, ch79 Isekai de Ane ni Namae wo Ubawaremashita ch16-17.1 Kakegurui Ch105.5 Koisuru (Otome) no Tsukurikata ch78 Liebe in Zeiten der Taisho-Ära v2 Loop 7-kaime no Akuyaku Reijou wa, Moto Tekikoku de Jiyuu Kimama na Hanayome Seikatsu wo Mankitsusuru ch29 Love you till you die ch34 Mine est Asexuel v1 Miryou no Otome to Katabutsu Hittou Majutsushi no Hatsukoi Kiroku ch16.4-17.4 Mr. Mallow Blue ch28 My Summer of You v3 My Ultramarine Sky v1 Noragami ch109 Okazari Ouhi ni Nattanode, Kossori Hataraki ni deru koto ni Shimashita ~Usagi ga Iru node Hitorine mo Sabishiku Arimasen!~ ch23.2-24.1 Oshi no Ko ch136-138 Parasyte v7-8 Queen's Quality v18ch81 Reincarnated as the Daughter of the Legendary Hero and the Queen of Spirits Ch1-19.3 Sakura Saku v2 Sweet & Tart Boyfriend Ch10-30 Taberare Usa ch84-88 The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Ch11-13.2 The Giantess wants Love Ch73-97 The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl Ch1-11 The Moon On a Rainy Night ch1 The Witch and the Beast v2-3 Together Forever Ch29-36.1 Und jeden Tag liebe ich dich mehr v1

Webtoons:

Breed my Dear Enemy Ch76-91 Fall in the Night with You Ch65-68 Ice Lamp: The Chronicles of Kira Ch1-7 To be Winner Ch72-76 Westwood Vibrato v4

Notes:

Sailor Moon Cosmos - Galaxia is bdass cool to look at, and Cosmos is also cool and just like most of everyone is darn cool, but as a fairly faithful adaption (that actually looks good) it just has the same issues as the manga as in, it's very, very Usagi-centric and everyone else is downgraded to almost just being cameos (although that moment with Rei and Minako still rocks). There's minimally more Galaxia flesh outs in her flashback, and it's a welcome addition to imply, she originally probably had died, that's how ultimately she wasn't so different to all her underlings who were at the mercy of needing the bracelets to survice. And so she gets killed the moment she's purified. Misguided, probably manupulated and cruel as she is, I still think she is a really great villain. She comes from a place of despair seeking nothing more than a home, but nowhere in the whole universe can she find it, so she sets out to just create it. But also knows how powerless she actually is, despite the vast amounts of it she does have in comparison in face of a true enemy. So then you have somebody who really just wants a glimmer of actual hope struggling hard (and in a few wrong ways), but also while at it, uses not just vast overwhelming powers but also psychological tactics. The old anime always had her sit on her throne, while the underlings did their monster of the week, but this incarnation, she's on the frontline right from the beginning. And she doesn't reply on those underlings, they are just an optional nice to have extra she doesn't care about and remains true to them. They fail and they don't deserve anything but disgust. Also she she is just so darn badass, like whoever other villain literally walks up in her (technically) negligle dress to the battlefield and then she just rocks the place so hard. ..... Sailor Moon the manga is flawed in so many ways, but like, how come we've never seen any other so badass female characters that transcend frills of justice, since? And I'm not even asking for an assembly like this franchise has but like just one would be could that comes even close the the epitome of elegant badassness. (The closest is probably dark Homura in Madoka Magica Rebellion and upcoming Walpurgis Night.)

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki V8 - If v7 was beautiful, this was more of a low point for me. But also has probably the nicest Tomozaki-Hinami moment in there. It's back to focusing on games, which I accept is part of this serie's DNA and not neglecting it is fine, but it's just also the least interesting bit of it. Rena otherwise can go screw herself. As for Fuka and Tomozaki I'm kind of surprised just how quick it moves on to start having things fall apart again. But yeah, it's distastefully teenage-romance-waffling, that just doesn't do anything for me....

Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki Manga - i was a bit turned off about the artwork, turns out the insides look better than the key illustrations in color. I think it is worth mentioning how much effort it tries to make it visually entertaining for a series that is just really lots and lots more of talking. It just sometimes feels like it's overdoing it a bit...

Dance Dance Danseur - This is a very good series. But also like every single ingredient in there is one that impulsively makes me want to run. Ouf.

Girl Crush - I found out there's some other place than geolocked line where the JP chapters show up, so can read those now. It's gooood. But chapters are always so short. ;_;

Mine est Asexuel - I bought this in Japanese a good while ago and then dragged my feet around reading it forever. Which is funny, because I have read reviews etc about it, so I perfectly knew what it was about and how it ended and it's basically the manifestation of one of my worst nightwares. (That IRL I never allowed to happen at least.) Now the JP doujin book kinda just went MIA in my piles and Irodori's French translation was on sale, so, duh, let's just get over it. And like. It's just really really exactly that: A personal nightmare.

Original Ramblings for the record: He starts with suggesting, that she may be better off with somebody else, but at the same time she is kinda deperate, so if yourefuse you are causing heartbreak. If you don't you know fully well that she'd surely have certain expectations that you aren't going to be able to fullfill like that. He then proceed to explain what he is like, what consequences that is to inform her of what she'd be getting into. She says she gets it, but she actually doesn't (like hell that scene where she worries about her underwear....) although she respects it. Which is already very grand, but ultimately just inevitably raises false hopes. But as she says to her friend which he accidentially eavesdrop (which he probably didn't even need to, you'd pick that up anyway), it is to her just so very lonely. And there's nothing he can do to alleviate that. Like even if he engaged in all those acts, it would come from a different place of motivation, which isn't what she wants, as long as she knows it and if she didn't he'd be lying which is also nothing he'd like. And they got along with everything else, it mostly failed on this one bit, but it was crucial. It's a try as you may do, it was bound to go wrong and there was no way to prevent that beyond not letting himself into a relationship to begin with, but that still would mean causing heartbreak and on top it's not like he's not liking her either - the JP title says nonsexual, so for a change this meaning asexual actually a correct translation and he's ace not aro - so no matter what he would have done, it would have always being a pain.

"I don't think I can give you a day as you wish for". That whole admission of hoping for something that just was impossible and also why?. Nobody's fault but tragic all the same. Those are the worst cases, because there is nothing you can do to fix it. And yeah that whole thing about her condition to breaking up. While she thinks hell refuse and she'd still get stay at his side. And the whole air about that. How that that even sound to him? It's just looks like from all the things to connect one another to her this was the most paramount important thing, something he can't and everything else she shared (which was a good amount), has the weight of less than smoke. And to her it's just like how serious he really was all along with what he said and probably that is the first time it actually sunk into her what this even means. That he'd be so desperate to get out of her expectations that he'd do what he hates so much just once. And also the final line, this experience lingers, and while it isn't exactly a trauma given how they moved on and apparently found what they needed and not all of it was bad, but at least to her it's established that it has left a mark on her heart forever. Over something like that. This is not a way I want to be remembered at all. (Especially not, as I probably am anyway over some other traits of mine already.) And well, some other to-be-expected comments, like what that friend of her says or the author depicts in the afterword. All a can of worms.

Which is to say

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten GIVE ME MORE FLUFF. This manga runs at a snail's pace. I wanna more like it, in this exactly bracket why this is fluff perfection, but I just can't find any. ;_; Just one chapter a month is cruel, but I am suckering up like nothing. I mean. Just look at this FLUUUUUUUFFFFF!!!!

My Summer of You - I had to chuckle how there was a scene, that's basically the same as in I hear the Sunspot Limit v1, except here they go for it whereas Sunspot went "it's not wrestling", lol. I still marvel at how the character templates look so incredibly similar in both series. Overall I think Sunpot has more to offer, but that includes a lot of thorns that make it into a heavy read at places. This one's more softer in that regard.

My Ultramarine Sky - Good heavens, this is I became an Omega today levels of there would be absolutely no plot, if they actually talked. Except it coems around to have a very grounded, buyable and sensible depiction of why now that is anchored in teenage confusion x internalised homophobia. As in the internalised taboo sort, rather than actual external pressures happening. Those friends of them they actually see like pretty good, supportive guys, and the whole BL joke makes for a nice contrast that not everything is active oppression. It's also jokes like these that may hurt that have no malicious intent behind it at all. They just don't know and nobody's told them. Original ramblings for the record: It's like The Two Lions, but each with way less personality and character, absolutely no side plots and the characters aged down. In terms of cheese it's kinda structured almost the same way, except that since it has really nothing else going on there's a lot of sentimental cheese waffling filling in. While a case could be made that it's just teenage confusion and anguish and just lotsa cheese angst, to me that just felt super like Today I became an Omega since you already know the obligatory ending anyway so is rather patience wrecking. In terms of actual cheese dosing it's not all that heavy tho so no cheese deaths happened It attempts some allegories with the ultramarine sky, but I think that one failed pretty much. It shows up fairly at the end, suddenly out of nowhere (or if it was there previously, it was so irrelevant it dried up from memory immediately.) There's some more attempts at allegories with shogi, but I think that didn't work out all that great either, as the shogi never is never really firmly part of the setting (more like a btw. happenstance) and much less does it establish what shogi lingo there is, so that last page so feels kinda errrrrr. …. sounds probably more negative than it should be… Think that bit about "It's not funny at all" was well hit, and the whole air of internalised or passive homophobia despite no active external pressure feels well grounded and kinda also comtemporary with the BL tropes jokes. And the cheese waffling is probably decent, if you have anything to resonate with it, but as we previously already established, puberty probably just flew over my head at the time together with the cheese instincts. Feel like it does hide a lot behind that confusing age era thingy. Conversely it just reminded me of the Lions even more by contrast, because that one didn't have any of that ready as an excuse and didn't even allow it and like it entirely doesn't help that this pair and that pair look rather very similar, both in visual setup and character (minus Leo's angry face, outspokenness and fighting skills). But well, I guess, it is an earlier work, so probably a sorta prototype Think also at this point the following Nagisa Furuya Bingo can be made: Blond hair vs. dark haired, bad with booze, drunk mumblings, one has a few self-control dilemmas, one of them has a need to run away, the other one comes chasing, talking is important!!!! but they have to learn that the hard way-patience wreck, low cheese calories, innocent Zzzs, sleeve/hem tugs, wrist grabs My summer of you also still feels a whole lotsa lot like a I hear the Sunpot, but without the disability plot and Taichi having a need to be obnoxiously loud (which he has in that plot, because that's why Kouhei always hears him) and extra denseness (where one may or may argue ace-vibes) to combat Kouhei's everlasting gloom-tendency. A deal more toothless, but also a deal more even in exchange.