#tanaka/vincent

[plague-of-insomnia]

Synchronize, Ch 5: Light in the Darkness

↱ Read on AO3 ↰

↑ click to see cool art by @/zombiemouth ! ↑

Pairing: Sebagni, some Bard/Agni, Tanaka/Vincent, etc.

Words: ~40K total

Chapter Summary: Sebastian begins to trust Agni more. He finally meets Sieglinde, but a crisis interrupts their visit. We learn about how Tanaka first met the twins and their father, Vincent.

TW: This chapter does feature emesis, though it is not explicit/graphic.

~#~

Fic Summary: Agni, a home-care nurse, has had his share of difficult patients, but now he's up for his biggest challenge yet. Sebastian is young, seriously ill, and angry, but Agni is determined to help him anyway. Will the two be able to synchronize and move forward, or will Sebastian forever let his bitterness over his past trauma hold him back?

~#~

Reblogs appreciated, as always! 🥰

You'll get to see Sieglinde again and meet Vincent (in a flashback) this chapter. I hope you enjoy it and it was worth the wait.

[amethystroselily]

Black Butler text post memes 3

1 2 4 5

[sujimdipity]

Artbook 3 Additional Scans

Artbook Scans 1-7 Artbook 2 Pt. 1   Artbook 2 Pt. 2 

Artbook 3 Artbook 4 Manga Back Panel Scans

[bihastuff]

I need to know how Vincent won I hope if we get a bonus chapter with the Blu-Ray it will be about the blue miracle

[pxndragvns]

▪ ───── His Butler ⚔ Scheming ───── ▪

[getonite]

KURO SATURDAYYYYY ( EP 6 )

fine ahh man ( he is a certified asshole though, id punch him then and there )

CUTIE!! HE PROBABLY CHEATED!!!

...i think we know where ciel got his scheming from lmao

WHERE DID YALL COME FROM??? HELLO??? ITS NICE TO SEE ( i js got major deja vu ) YOU BUT WHERE DID YALL COME FROM???

"CERTIFIED LOVERBOY, CERTIFIED PEDOPHILE WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP, DOT, FUCK ’EM UP WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP, I’MA DO MY STUFF, WHY YOU TOLLIN’ LIKE A BITCH? AIN'T YOU TIRED? TRINA STRIKE A CHORD AND IT’S PROBABLY A MINORRRRRRR"

just sighed the biggest sigh ever known to man

no words can describe how much i love these two so fucking much.

GET IT SEXY, GET IT SEXY, GET IT SEXY 🗣🗣🗣

CAME. I WANT IT ALLLLL OVER ME. FUCK ME PLS

bro saw the head master and said 'it's time to work.' red eyes out and everything omg. look at me like that maybe???

no lube, no protection, all night, all day, from the kitchen floor to the toilet seat, from the dining table to the bedroom, from the bathroom sink to the shower, from the front porch to the balcony, vertically, horizontally, quadratic, exponent al, logarithmic, while i gasp for air, scream and see the light, missionary, cowgirl, reverse cow girl, doggy, backwards, forwards, sideways, upside down, on the floor, in the bed, on the couch— ( he keeps throwing off his clothing like that, nigga somebody gon find u out u keep doin that shit 😭 )

bonus: he looks so damn mad lol 😭

[midnight-in-town]

Frances Midford : The Mentor, a summary

To follow with my post about fighting against misinformation, here’s a first topic. 

Ciel’s remaining aunt is often viewed by the fandom as a mean lady who doesn’t care, because of a) all the mysteries around the family that Ciel doesn’t know about and b) the use of comic relief in Kuroshitsuji often used to hide some relevant clues, as previously demonstrated in this post. This is actually far from what her character really is about and I intend to demonstrate it now with a (long) recap post. 

I have talked about Frances a lot in the past, about her caring about our!Ciel and about her possibly knowing, like Tanaka, that he was lying about his identity. While the former is undeniably true, the latter is still up for debate. [X][X][X][X] However, with the upcoming adaptation of the Weston arc (probably) in 2024, I don’t want the old discourse to come back, so without further ado...

What Yana has said about Frances’ character

Besides our!Ciel, Frances is the last remaining Phantomhive (not counting real!Ciel as a BD). She’s Vincent’s younger sister, they both have the same parents (that is to say Claudia P and Cedric K. Ros) and she married out of the family (implying that maybe the Phantomhives have distant relatives still alive), becoming Lady Midford. 

According to Yana, Frances takes after their dad while Vincent takes after their mom and the same is true for her kids, meaning Ed takes after her (thus takes after his maternal grandfather) while Liz takes after Alexis. 

As far as her relationship with our!Ciel is concerned, here’s what Yana said in the guidebook : “Frances' strength of character is why Sebastian chose her as a role model Ciel should follow”. Since her relationship with Lizzie is sometimes also viewed negatively, I’d like to add that both in the guidebook and on twitter, Yana said that “Liz thinks her mom is kind and strong so she looks up to her mom as a role model she aspires to become”, hence the similar hair style.

TL;DR Yana’s overall description of Frances is that a) she’s kind and strong which is why b) she’s Lizzie’s role model, as well as the role model Sebastian thinks our!Ciel should follow.

Now that this is established, here’s what the canon story gives us, to illustrate Yana’s words. Spoilers for the entire manga series and long read below the cut.

Frances’ introduction

Frances is introduced in ch14 and, boy, what a generally misunderstood chapter by some parts of the fandom. xDD

Contextually, ch14 is Ciel’s birthday, meaning it is also the anniversary of the massacre of the previous household and Madam Red just died, after trying to kill him. For those who might wonder, the guidebook confirmed that our!Ciel was quite saddened by Ann’s death (obviously), so really, what a fun 13th birthday in perspective. Cue Liz and Frances. 

The comments on her strength aside, Frances’ introduction is otherwise often misread as her nagging being inappropriate but I beg to differ. As mentioned by @akumadeenglish​ and @chibimyumi​, Yana is Japanese author who likes to explore writing tropes in depth. Though it’s also important to remember that, before the curry arc, Yana didn’t know how long the series would run so everything had less intent, because the story was initially supposed to end quickly.

In other words, Frances’ introduction really is initially to be read as the severe mother-in-law (based on Japanese comical stereotypes) coming to check on how he handles his household, which is why Seb is so stressed out when everything goes bonkers. But that’s only the surface. 

Most importantly though, Frances showed up because it is Ciel’s birthday and, as said above, there’s a lot of negative and dreadful memories associated with this day. So...

...let’s change his mind, shall we? 

Phantomhives love games and Frances is a Phantomhive too, the last one besides our!Ciel, so she knows her nephew and chooses an activity she knew he wouldn’t be able to resist. 

Ch14 also introduces two important facts that are still relevant as plot points, especially as far as the Blue Revenge arc is concerned. The first one is that our!Ciel protected Lizzie from that bear, so Frances said she owes him. 

Secondly, as stated by Frances herself, she knows the ropes of the “game” (aka acting as the Watchdog) better than our!Ciel (”you’ve still got a decade to go before you can even think of winning against me”). 

In fact, like our!Ciel with real!Ciel, Frances was probably raised as Vincent’s spare [X][X], but compared to our!Ciel who knew next to nothing about his father’s real job until 3 years ago (at the time of ch14), Frances is an experienced veteran...

And that’s why Seb chose her as a role model for our!Ciel.

Therefore it is my opinion that ch14, despite being written back when Sensei didn’t know how long the series would be published, is still relevant as heck when it comes to Frances’ role in the series, aka acting as a mentor for our!Ciel (and for Lizzie, as Yana also stated). Kuroshitsuji is a slow story though, with a lot of build up and it’s why some fans still fail to see how significant Frances is to the plot and to our!Ciel’s development. 

Campania arc

Liz is the one who comes to ask our!Ciel to come with her whole family (thus introducing Alexis and Edward) on a cruise, but it’s also very important to note that she conveyed that Frances thought that our!Ciel should take time off of work:

This led some of us fans to theorize that maybe Tanaka used to send updates to Frances about our!Ciel’s wellbeing and how he fared as the Watchdog: the timing of the cruise works well with Frances’ remark, considering that the Queen just sent Charles Grey as a merry punishment for Ciel’s deeds during the Circus arc. 

This arc mostly highlights Frances’ bravery and strength : she didn’t hesitate to fight for countless of passengers unrelated to her (something that UT said isn’t very typical of Phantomhives, during Weston)...

More importantly, we finally get into Lizzie’s personal motivations and we indeed have the confirmation that...

...Frances is a big key to Lizzie’s strength, confirming the role model/mentor position that she holds in Lizzie’s eyes. I’d like to also point out that Frances completely trusts in her daughter’s abilities, which highlights a very positive mother/daughter dynamic.

Lizzie’s flashback gives us this very important bit...

...a part that’s unfortunately often overlooked by the fans complaining that Frances is too severe with our!Ciel and Lizzie. This scene however makes way more sense once we find out, after the Weston arc, that Frances lost her mother Claudia (the Watchdog before Vincent) when she was probably about 12 or 13 years old (Vincent being 15 years old then). 

To me, this is a big explanation as to why Frances is as serious about training as she is:

Indeed, she lost at least her mom (and later her brother) so, since her daughter is betrothed to the future Watchdog, she wants Liz to be strong enough to survive. All I see in the former panel is a mother saddened by the burden on her child’s shoulder and desperate to imagine that she will be exposed to a lot of danger as an adult. 

Side point there, but it’s likely there’s a very relevant reason Frances’ only daughter was betrothed to Vincent’s heir when they were young kids. We’ll dive into it later, but I believe the answer is tied to the Phantomhive lineage introduced in ch103. 

Lastly, our!Ciel’s flashback also gave us another important bit to explore...

...which is that our!Ciel directly applies what Frances once told him to his current path for revenge: 

Also note the allusion again to Vincent “losing the game”, creating a parallel with Frances telling our!Ciel in ch14 that “he still has a decade to go before he can even think of winning against her”, because he has a lot to learn from her, especially since even he admits that he knows next to nothing about his own family.

The previous spare teaching the spare. How fitting. :D

Weston arc

Even if Frances only appears in this arc during the cricket game, I think there is a lot to be deduced from it. First, I’ve said it long ago and I’ll say it again: I strongly believe Frances played a part into Vincent’s victory during the first blue miracle.

Mind you, Tanaka basically confirmed that Vincent cheated to win (since he knew what Seb and Ciel were up to) and I could totally see Vincent asking his strong little sister to crossdress in order to destroy the Green team. xDD Besides, she certainly seems uneasy whenever the topic is brought up and she also wasn’t fooled by Ciel’s act when he won, haha!

This is silly, but this shows (imo) that Frances and Vincent had a good sibling dynamic, with Frances supporting her brother as the Watchdog as much as she could, which is heartwarming because this means Frances would have no reason not to support her brother’s sons after his death. 

Tanaka (who, according to Yana, was already in the household taking care of Vincent and Frances as children) and Frances happily dancing together at the end of the tournament also confirms this. Vincent and Frances having a strong sibling bond would also explain why, despite Claudia’s death, Frances would agree to the betrothal between Lizzie and Vincent’s heir (and would keep it that way, even after Vincent’s death).

All that to say, I’m sure the cricket game confirmed to Frances how similar our!Ciel is to Vincent on some aspects (the second blue miracle attests to that), which probably makes him somewhat predictable (and reassuring?) to her.

One thing that I also believe is important is Ed’s mini flashback during the game. On this topic, Yana has said that she couldn’t draw his backstory in detail, so she’ll probably expand on that in the future, which makes me think that there is some foreshadowing in there. 

TBH I think it’s ironic that Ed would consider himself as “ordinary”, considering the whole lineage thing introduced one arc later. xDD But also, if we consider that the tale of Vincent’s first blue miracle is supposed to hint that Vincent and Frances were close as siblings, it’s nice that Ed, who takes after his mom the most, would also have his own flashback about loving and looking up to his sister a lot, despite his small inferiority complex. Considering that Liz sees their mom as her role model though, I guess that means Ed also sees his mom as a role model (though the Campania arc already made that pretty clear). 

During the Weston arc, Frances also managed to surprise Sebastian, both by recognizing him (lol) and by stopping him despite his intent to leave, which is, according to the demon himself, no small feat: 

Like the usual nagging she does towards Seb though, it’s played for laugh, but as introduced in this post, I believe overused comic relief is a way to foreshadow some hints and we’ll dive into it with the next arc. 

Last but not least, during this arc UT commented that our!Ciel was different from his ancestors when he willingly put himself in danger to save Joanne...

...but as presented during the Campania arc, it seems it’s a trait he shares at least with his aunt, furthering the parallels between them and the fact that she would definitely make a good mentor for our!Ciel, because they’re quite alike and can probably understand each other. 

Green Witch arc

The only relevant part of this arc with Frances’ character is the introduction of a special lineage in the Phantomhive family by German Shinigamis...

...something that might explain why our!Ciel was able to notice them, when even Seb didn’t. So this begs the question: who else in his family shares this lineage? And obviously, Frances and her kids might !

My personal opinion is that the lineage thing is old and is probably why the Phantomhive family became the Watchdogs, many generations ago. But also, if our!Ciel can notice Shinigamis thanks to it, could it explain why Frances was able to detect and catch Seb during opening ceremony before the cricket game at Weston? And why she always nags him about his appearance (both hair and face)? That remains to be confirmed, but...

...at the very least Bravat in the recent arc confirmed that some gifted people like himself can “sense” that demons are different. Just like animals [x][x], apparently. Bravat is irrelevant besides being a small scale villain though, so I take it as a hint for a more plot significant character, such as Frances, whose nagging behavior towards Seb is way too overused as comic relief anyway. 

The lineage thing is yet one more family topic on which Frances probably has answers to give to our!Ciel (the only other people who might know about it being Tanaka and UT). 

Bonus : if what Vincent said below about strong-willed women in the family line (from a side story “With Father”) is a hint towards the lineage thing...

...then it’s probably why Vincent wanted Lizzie to be betrothed to his heir in the first place and why Frances agreed. 

Blue sect & blue revenge arcs

I already mentioned that Bravat’s innate ability to recognize Seb as a demon was a hint that other characters, like Frances, might be able to guess that Seb is a demon as well, so moving on to ch151 :

This chapter confirms that UT has known Frances since she was very young (which is a hint to the UT = Cedric theory of course), which also explains why, knowing about her strength, UT went on with the whole BD massacre on the Campania despite the presence of our!Ciel and the Midfords on board. 

Also, while this chapter neither confirms nor denies if Frances knew about our!Ciel lying about his identity (like Tanaka and UT did), she didn’t show anger nor disbelief about the situation, just her incomprehension.  

More than anything, this chapter strongly hints that our!Ciel will at some point seek his aunt for a talk before the final confrontation with UT and real!Ciel, because both are seeking answers to their different questions (our!Ciel needs to find out about UT & his grandmother and the lineage thing, while Frances will want to know what’s the deal between the twins). Speaking of which, a talk between Lizzie and Frances is probably also in order, before Lizzie can choose our!Ciel’s side again.

Lastly, ch151 hinted that Frances doesn’t fully believe that real!Ciel’s return is “natural”...

...and, i mean, why would she? She faced the Bizarre Dolls on the Campania and, for all we know, Edward told her how the Weston arc ended so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ considering that UT has been involved every time, the Midfords probably aren’t far from connecting the dots about real!Ciel being already dead. 

To sum up !

Outside of the narrative, Yana said that Frances was Lizzie’s role model and that Seb also wanted her to be the model our!Ciel should follow. And, in my opinion, the entire series so far (as I tried to present in this post) is slowly building up to that because :

our!Ciel and Frances are very similar: both the spares & both survived their parents’ and brothers’ death 

both saved folks unrelated to them despite being Phantomhives, meaning that they are a bit alike and can understand each other

our!Ciel literally built his path of revenge following the advice Frances told him about how to counterattack an opponent

Again, to understand who targeted his family, our!Ciel needs to find out about his grandmother, about the lineage and about why his dad had to be killed amongst other things. The only people who can answer him are UT, Tanaka and Frances. 

I believe UT and Tanaka are more connected to Claudia, but also both are by real!Ciel’s side for now, making them less accessible for a talk. This leaves Frances for the time being and, as Vincent’s sister and Claudia’s daughter, it seems appropriate that answers would be coming from her. 

Also, in shonen series, usually the hero(es) have a mentor figure who will help them “unlock their potential” through training. Kuroshitsuji is not your usual shonen and I doubt our!Ciel can become better at fighting lmao, but Frances can certainly help him better appreciate the massive scale he’s bound to face when seeking his revenge. Especially if it all goes back to events from 3 generations ago and a worldbuilding full of supernatural elements, as well as a world war he doesn’t entirely comprehend yet. 

Frances acting as a mentor/role model for her own kids also foreshadows that they’ll follow our!Ciel on his journey and, like him, they’ll definitely need her wisdom/knowledge to be able to reach the necessary level for survival by his side.

As to when all that is going to happen, well, I’d say Frances will probably take on a more active role in the plot when, to quote Seb in ch14, "[our!Ciel] will overconfidently believe that he cannot lose and that it will be necessary for him to carry himself with humility while striving for his goal". Because by then, "an adult who will be firm with him is what he'll need". 

If that doesn’t foreshadow the current conflict between the twins, I don’t know what does. xD

Thanks for reading!! As always, let me know if I’ve forgotten anything !

[so-bitya]

predecessor gang time!

in modern time, who would have been the worst driver in the group? I'm talking like they pick you up in a beat up sedan. like they are not allowed to pick up the twins & lizzy from daycare ever again. their glove box is stuffed with driver tickets.

(Alexis isn't here, be honest, he would be the most responsible driver there).

[bezierballad]

I know it’s been kind of a while since I posted about my Black Butler Dadbastian Maleficent AU (damn that’s a fucking mouthful lmao) so I’ve been brainstorming a little narrative that sets up the story events.

Here’s what I came up with (as I always say when making shit like this, bear with me lmao)

Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom (or some shit) there was a young peasant.

Vincent was a very poor young fellow, living alone in very poor conditions, spending what little money he has just to buy barely enough food for himself.

One fateful day however, he made a contract with a demon.

The demon called himself Sebastian (or maybe Vincent named him that idfk) and he made the offer of whatever Vincent wanted in exchange for his soul.

Vincent told him that he wanted a wealthy life where he’d have a high level of status and power.

It was established in the contract that when Vincent was at the peak of wealth and power, Sebastian would take his soul.

And so time passes, and eventually Vincent is king, with a castle and a wife and loyal servants and subjects

Now here’s where things kinda get shaky (both in-universe and out, like I’m kinda struggling to think how this story would play out properly)

Sebastian shows up looking for the soul Vincent promised.

Vincent is freaking out like, “No wait please let’s discuss this further” cause like he doesn’t wanna die, not now-

Sebastian’s like “Fine. You wanna live? I’ll give you an alternative” and he makes an offer.

Either Vincent let him have his soul now, or he offers the soul of his then-infant son, Ciel.

It would be stated that once Ciel turns thirteen, his soul would descend into Hell.

Vincent, not knowing what else to do, very hesitantly agrees to the latter.

Sebastian’s like “Very well, I look forward to that day” and disappears into nothingness (if anything he’s pissed off that he has to wait thirteen more fucking years to get a damn soul)

Vincent’s like “oh shit oh shit I fucked up BAD what do I do”

So goes to this fairy (or fairies I dunno) like “please help me”

So uh

You know how in the original Disney sleeping beauty film

The curse was originally “Aurora will die if she pricked her finger on the spinning wheel”

But one of the fairies sort of “waters down” the curse so Aurora would fall into a deep sleep instead of dying? (And she’d be awakened with true love’s kiss and shit)

A similar thing is happening here:

So like the fairy (let’s pretend that Tanaka’s in this role because why the fuck not) he’s like “Okay here’s what I can do”

Instead of descending into Hell, Ciel’s soul would only leave his body and maybe enter a state of limbo or something. (Ciel himself would enter a state of some sort of “suspended animation” one would say.)

As for how to fix it? “True love.”

(Audience note that he doesn’t say “True Love’s Kiss” just true love. Just a bit of foreshadowing that he's not actually talking about romantic love like the characters think)

Idk how logic would play into this shit just

It’s a fairytale world just go with it okay

So just like the film, Ciel is sent off with these three... fairies? Servants?

Okay I know I said the Phantomhive servants (Finny, Mey-Rin, and Baldroy) would play the role of the fairies and they still do

I just don’t know whether they’d be fairies or just Vincent’s castle servants that he trusted with his child

So the rest of the Maleficent plot plays out (Ciel grows up in the woods, Sebastian forms a father-son bond with him) I’d get into more of it but that’s for another time

Oh and uh btw I decided

Agni will be the role of Diaval (aka the crow character who turns human in the Maleficent movie)

We love us some Sebagni

Alright I think that’s about it okaybye-

[letmesleepforeverpls]

Idk I got bored

Poorly edited bald bahdhfh

[evil-quartett]

a bunch of chibis 5/23

[plague-of-insomnia]

Synchronize, Ch 4: “Fever & Forgiveness”

↱ Read on AO3 ↰

↑ click to see cool art by @luci-on-the-moon ! ↑

Pairing: Sebagni, some Bard/Agni, Tanaka/Vincent, etc

Words: ~32K total

Chapter Summary: While Sebastian battles a potentially life-threatening fever, Agni wrestles with a ghost from his past.

~#~

Fic Summary: Agni, a home-care nurse, has had his share of difficult patients, but now he's up for his biggest challenge yet. Sebastian is young, seriously ill, and angry, but Agni is determined to help him anyway. Will the two be able to synchronize and move forward, or will Sebastian forever let his bitterness over his past trauma hold him back?

~#~

Reblogs appreciated, as always 🥰!

This chapter is a bit longer and took an extra week or so to get finished, but I think it was worth it. You also get to meet two new characters. Enjoy!

[bapydemonprincess]

Can we talk about the fact that maybe Vincent was at Weston for the same exact type of reason as his son now is. Not as a normal full student... but only for the sake of looking into some trouble at Weston.

I mean, he is a noble and, like o!ciel, was probably taught just as well at home! And thus a few things also makes sense...

[agoraphobic-artist]

Welcome to Project: Bitter

Since I have overspent this month on Bitter Rabbit plushies and been banned from buying any more I've decided to make up for it for drawing new ones that haven't been made yet :)

Spoiler for the next two I'm working on:

[tothelasthoursofmylife]

No one but Alexis could have been Ciel's legal guardian, but I liked that Yana confirmed it.

This makes me wonder though who Vincent and Francis' guardian was after their parents died, and I really hope Yana tells us that too.

Cloudia, obviously, could not have had a brother (at least not one who survived their father) but I wonder if she had a younger sister (or even sisters)? Either the potential sister or, if she was married, her husband could have been their guardian then. Or if Cedric really isn't Undertaker, maybe their guardian was a Ros-?

(If Cloudia's hypothetical sister married and had children too... I wonder if those more distant Phantomhive relatives will eventually show up, if they're still alive?? The unnamed female Aristocrat of Evil maybe; not the scarred man, he looks so much like Alexis. What a family business XD)

[abybweisse]

The thing I really want to see in the manga is tanaka and frances intracting, also tanka and undertaker،because these 3 are only ones in the manga so far that have seen the previous generations( claudia and vincent) And they know all the secrets...

Knowing interactions

So far, the only interaction I've seen between Francis/Frances and Tanaka has been pretty sweet and wholesome, supporting the idea that she largely sees Tanaka as a father figure. That was at the dance at Weston.

Haven't really seen Tanaka and Undertaker interacting. They've been in the same scene together but not speaking directly to each other. It's suspicious, honestly.

I love seeing Francis/Frances interact with Undertaker. She's obviously flustered, while he's amused.

Um, but let's not forget about Nina Hopkins, Mr. Pitt, Chlaus, and Diedrich. And numerous people barely mentioned, like Earl Burton. They might have never met Claudia/Cloudia, but they definitely knew Vincent, and they'd all know interesting things about him.

I'm trying to think who else, besides the three you mention, is still around who recalls Claudia/Couldia well enough. Well... Queen Victoria. 🤔