#Volume 1

[steddielations]

steve: *takes off his shirt*

eddie, immediately:

[pancake-breakfast]

This panel stuck out to me when it showed up in TriMax Chapter 3, but honestly, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at the time. Or, rather, I wasn't sure where Nightow might be going with it.

Meryl is trying to defend her time with Vash as not being a that bad, but then her coworker (amazingly named Karen) calls her out, telling her that, as a woman, there's no way Meryl could have been happy having her life constantly threatened while running around with Vash.

My first instinct is to defend Meryl, to shoot back at Karen that what defines Karen's life may not define Meryl's, and Meryl might be the more adventurous type who genuinely doesn't mind the danger. And besides, having one's life constantly under threat is psychologically wearing on anyone regardless of gender. So shouldn't she just shut her yap?

But then these words come up again later in the chapter. For (what I think is) the first time in the series, Meryl finds herself with an actual loaded gun leveled directly at her head by a person who fully intends to pull the trigger. She has no known help in sight, and the gunman calling her foolish makes her remember what Karen said.

And Meryl just... closes her eyes, and she thinks about all the danger she's been in with everyone from Gosef to E.G. Mine. She thinks about the Fifth Moon Incident. And she thinks about Vash.

But she doesn't think of gunman Vash. She doesn't think of Vash in a panic telling her to run away from danger, of Vash fleeing for his life over and over and over again.

She thinks of him smiling.

Not only is he smiling, but compared to the darkness and chaos of the other panels, he's a beacon of light in those memories. (You can almost hear the tense, dark music that's been flowing through the scene break into something lighter at his appearance.) And that image of him smiling kindly, still striving for love and peace, grows to dominate her mindscape.

It would be easy to write this off as her growing crush on Vash, or as her seeing him telling her that it's alright and dealing with things like being hunted and having your life regularly threatened aren't actually that bad, that perhaps these things appeal to a sense of adventure and/or what makes life worth living. After all, we've seen similar messages come up in similar fashions in so many other anime and manga series.

But that's not what Meryl concludes from it. Instead, she thinks about Vash's smiling face and concludes her coworker is right. There isn't a way for she, Meryl, to truly be happy when she's constantly getting thrown into these situations.

Her conclusion doesn't end there, though. She doesn't look at the situation and go, "Well, I guess it's time for me, a girl, to throw in the towel so I can pursue a happier existence."

Instead, she concludes that she has to keep doing this sort of thing anyway regardless of any danger or fulfillment.

She realizes that what she dealt with for the time she followed Vash around was crazy and terrifying and, yes, life-threatening. And she realizes that this is how Vash lives all the time. Unlike her, it's not something he has the option to just tap out of when the mood suits. As we were shown in the previous two chapters, Vash genuinely can't just make a new life or career choice or whatever and just... hunt for his own happiness instead. Chaos is going to follow him unbidden wherever he goes.

But he keeps going. And he doesn't just keep going, but through it all he keeps smiling kindly at others, offers them encouragement, and despite all he's seen and been through, keeps trying harder to work for a world with more love and peace. Not because it's safe or happy or appeals to a sense of adventure. It's none of those things. He continues on this path because it's the right thing to do.

Meryl realizes the same thing is true for her. Accepting another assignment from the company to follow Vash around isn't going to bring her the kind of life Karen suggested was ideal. In fact, it's more likely that following in Vash's footsteps (whether figuratively or literally) is going to end up with Meryl in additional stressful situations with her life on the line far more than is truly reasonable for anyone (regardless of gender). It isn't necessarily going to bring her happiness. It certainly isn't going to bring her peace.

But it's the right thing to do, which makes it the only path forward for her, and so she'll embrace it despite all the struggles it brings.

[hello-vampire-kitty]

Servamp 4koma translation (volume 1)

[shyjusticewarrior]

[everynart]

[piyoandpome]

Volumes 1-9 Covers

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

The Occult, An Encyclopedia of the Supernatural, Vol. 1, Orbis House, 1975

[crimswnred]

LOVE ISLAND THE GAME TEMPTING FATE: thoughts and mostly prayers

for the first time in a long time we are the hottest character in the cast LET'S GOOOOOOO

here's my girl

oh ok, Jin is the funny boy of the season™ and also the Asian guy™

and Theo and Claudia are the day one couple ughh I'm sensing hate being thrown to my girl as we speak

Claudia what are you doing here it's carnaval 😭

Oakley hates Emel wtf 😭😭😭😭

I, for one, love Emel, she'll be my best frenemie

"gonna rule myself out" SHUT UP

me and Jin hit it off y'all I don't know what to tell you he told a joke I laughed we fuck that's how it goes for me every season

Theo isn't like Ozzy because Ozzy had no shame and would just blatantly flirt with us, Theo is more like Noah or Kobi

Jin is gonna be my boy but I'm eyeing Oakley up

Jack can fuck off I guess

Jesus Christ that was a loooong episode, EPISODE TWO HERE WE GO

Theo and Claudia? oh I'm breaking this couple but not the way y'all think 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

first date with Theo: potentially a great friends to lovers dynamics

homeland MENTIONED

well, Theo, I'm really close with my family in Brazil too

first date with Jack: he's cute, I won't lie... and what's that that I heard? HE HAS TWO MUMS LET'S GO LESBIANS

first date with Jin: if he didn't tell me every 5 seconds he's a model, I would never guess.

he's so silly 😭 yeah guys he's ticking my boxes

LIKE the prank? it wasn't the best prank ever but it was kind of funny

last but not least, first date with Oakley: okay local hero vibes. he's kinda serious, I really like him

"I perform better when Oakley is watching" JIN SHUT UP

okayyyy little kissy kiss

Luna didn't like me at all, did she? 😭 I don't blame her, like, I did kiss her man twice already... and I like how she came and talked to me to clear things out but it's obvious fusebox is gonna make her hate me no matter what

I can't deal with Emel's style 💀

me saying I hate cheaters as if cheating hasn't been my game for like, 5 out of 7 seasons 😭😭

okayyy so apparently we are not the first bombshell, cool. so why are we picking who we want to couple up???

Jin is kind of a player oh noooooo

me: I hate cheaters!! also me: sneaks out to meet Jin in the daybeds

Jin: we should always be honest!! also Jin: tells Luna we were just drinking water.

the girl will be DUMPED? alright........

okay, now, where's the Tempting Fate part?

conclusion: it just feels a lot like season 4, except none of the girls acted bitchy towards us like Lexi did. Am I dying of excitement? not even close. but I like Jin so far and also Oakley, so let's see how it goes

[beyondmistland]

In your opinion, would Princess Viserra's fate have changed if she had been promised to Lord Manderly's heir, and not to him?

That is to say, if marriage to the Manderlys were necessary to formalize a pact with the North, perhaps a handsome husband of the same age who would make her Lady of White Harbor would be more interesting to the young princess.

I won't hold back. NOTHING about Viserra's storyline makes any sense short of all the characters having a stroke.

Perceptive and compassionate Alysanne, who previously demonstrated considerable matchmaking skills, suddenly becomes very bad at it. (Don't get me started on Elio Garcia's attempt to defend Alysanne's OOC behavior as her being jealous of her own daughter's beauty.)

Jaehaerys suddenly becomes an absentee father from the 1950s rather than, you know, a medieval king for whom his daughter's marriage is of the utmost political importance.

Septon Barth? Grand Maester Elysar? Both MIA.

Theomore Manderly? If he was truly canny, he would have seen the offer for what it was and declined it.

Its true, the best way to tie the North closer to the south (and more specifically the Iron Throne) short of House Stark is House Manderly. However, marrying Viserra, a princess (and the prettiest one at that) to Theomore entirely defeats that purpose. One, a fat man old enough to be your grandfather is hardly appealing on a personal level, especially to a teen princess who knows just how attractive she is. Two, any children Viserra had would come behind four wives' worth of stepchildren, practically guaranteeing that the future Lords of White Harbor won't share any direct blood ties to House Targaryen, which brings me to my third point. Marrying Viserra to Theomore more or less dooms Viserra's line to obscurity and she herself to a life of dependency on the charity of her stepson.

What, then, would have made way more sense? Marrying her to Desmond, who, as Theomore's great-grandson, would probably be fairly close in age to her, not to mention higher in the succession.

Now, to answer your question, yes I absolutely do believe Viserra might have lived a longer (and perhaps even fulfilling) life if her parents had picked someone other than Theomore Manderly to be her husband. Remember, the whole reason she was even out and about the night of her death was because she wanted to have fun one last time before resigning herself to her fate. If she had instead been looking forward to her wedding she wouldn't have had any incentive to sneak out, which makes the chances of her suffering a tragic accident the way she did in OTL astronomically lower.

Thanks for the question, @diegoedil

[deansraspberrypie]

Cutie Jensen 🙄❤😍

🍰 Tag list: @avanatural @undisputedchick2 @jranutter @fortheloveof-jackles @kazsrm67 @muchamusedaboutnothing @breath-of-snow-and-ashes @bluedragonflylady @mrsjenniferwinchester @unabashed-lover-of-fictional-men 🥧

[2001hz]

Batman Detective Comics vol.1 Cover Artwork Illustrated By: Yoshitaka Amano (2012)

[pancake-breakfast]

I love the haircut scene with Vash and Lina. It's this amazing moment of platonic intimacy, a simple act of care that could have been handed off to anyone, but that Lina wanted to do herself, and that Vash agreed to.

And when she's done, she takes the cloth that was tied around his neck, pulls it off of him, and buries herself in it.

It's as if she could bury herself in his essence and keep him there with her. It's as if she could somehow hide from the fact that he, like so many before in her life, is leaving her, and may not ever return.

It's a bit of a childish thing to do, but Lina is only 12, and Vash has had such an impact on her life. Not simply by saving her in the last chapter, but just by being there. Just by being a friend and companion, a bit of a guardian who looked after her best interest, a bit of a brother who needed her care.

Vash sees her action for what it is, and he does his absolute best to acknowledge her feelings.

This man has been alive for around 150 years. Two years is barely a blip on the map for him, especially considering how young he still appears to be. But even in that relatively short duration, she and her grandma made such an impact on Vash that it's unlikely he'll ever forget it.

If he could stay there forever with them, long enough to watch Lina grow up and grow old, he probably would. It would be a small thanks compared to all she's done for him. But that's not in the cards for him. Not now, maybe not ever.

But just because it's ending, and not in the way either of them wanted, doesn't mean it wasn't worthwhile. Maybe those memories will fade in time for both of them, but for now, those memories are everything.

[shyjusticewarrior]

The way Jason and Damian have canonical nightmares of Dick being disappointed in them.

[everynart]

[iustusvk]

I forgot to post the finished ver here LMAO

alt ver (no scars)

[piyoandpome]

From Volume #1

Happy Birthday Haruhi!