#which is always a good sign

[thescrapwitch]

writing the silvergifting time travel AU is way more funny than it should be because on one hand you have Celebrimbor, trying not to have a breakdown while living through First Age Nargothrond and hiding that he knows the future from everyone, including his (in disguise but still very obvious) evil-ex.

And on the other hand you have Annatar, who (not aware that Celebrimbor has also time traveled) wants to make Celebrimbor fall in love with him again and free himself from Morgoth’s service all while hiding his plans from a very suspicious Huan.

This might be the most messed up couple I have ever written, how is this now a comedy of errors + therapy + two great minds continue to make the worst decisions in regards to their love lives ever? I love it.

(it does still need a title though so if anyone has suggestions I would be very grateful)

[mermaidsirennikita]

Do you think it’s important to read Mila Finelli’s mafia series in order? I was very intrigued by your descriptions :) thanks!!

Oh yay! Everyone who is okay with mafia books should read them imo (no judgment to those who aren't--if you're open to it, though, I think they're a great intro, especially if you read historicals; for those who haven't heard yet, Mila is Joanna Shupe).

As for reading in order, the only two books you MUST read in order are Mafia Mistress and Mafia Darling. Those are Fausto and Frankie's books, and they are a duet. Mistress ends on a cliffhanger and leads directly into Darling, Fausto and Frankie are the POV characters.

Reading them in order... I am always a completionist so that's my preference, but you don't have to other than the duet, no. You will be "spoiled" obviously for things that happen. Mafia Madman follows Darling and the hero of that book is a main villain of the other two; you do get context into why he is a nutter butter based off reading the other two, but it can be read alone. (Madman is my ULTIMATE favorite, but again these really are all 5/5 reads for me, overall. Madman is just an all-timer for me. I've reread it multiple times lol. Once I have them all in paperback I'll probs reread the others and they may also enter the All-Timers Club lol.)

Mafia Target is the only book that isn't m/f; it's m/m and one of the primary heroes is Fausto's (hero of the first books) son from his first marriage. You do get spoiled about where his (Giulio's) subplot from those books goes, as well as some other stuff, but it can be read alone.

I think Mafia Virgin is probably the most separate...? Of the books. Just because there is a lot of political interplay between the heroes of the first four books, and the hero of this one is more separate (though all the heroines in the series are sisters). It can also be read as a standalone, though you do get cameos from everyone, especially book 3's couple.

So the short is: yes you can read them out of order, aside from Mistress and Darling, but I would recommend all of them.

More specific moods recs:

Mistress/Darling is very "dom daddy"/"bratty heroine", super classic, a lot about the age gap, she was originally brought over to be forcibly married to the son and ends up with the dad, she's independent but does have more of a traditional arc.

Mafia Madman is, along with Target, probably the darkest of the series, but it's a ROMP. The hero is a villain and again, a nutball; the heroine is this very defiant, very sexually liberated girl who he literally puts in a cage in the beginning, only for her to respond by doing naked yoga, knowing he's watching her on a camera. They have a VERY true enemies to lovers arc, a lot of her topping from the bottom, claims of hatred while clearly falling in love. I adore it.

Mafia Target is an assassin/target romance, a lot of cat and mouse, a lot of the two of them literally fighting before giving in to this magnetic, inevitable attraction and falling in love. It's the most "oh my god this is fucking romantic" romance of the series, imo. It has a love at first sight, fated mates vibe. They're both wacky, but they fucking LOVE each other.

Mafia Virgin is the softest, gives strong "Beauty and The Beast", "teach me how to be gentle with you" vibes, forced marriage, huuuuuge emphasis on breeding kink because they need to get her pregnant within six months. Hero is big and has been told he's stupid (he's so not), heroine is delicate but strong and super smart.

[shiteatinggrin]

fuck bro i just entered david lynch's brain for the time of one blue velvet (1986) and he really did me in im scared shitless

[sergle]

the only downside of my personal art and self portraits being semi well received (thank u by the way) is that on occasion some wah wah transphobe blog will get ahold of it and sing my praises of Wombmanhood and Femininity. which is so fucking funny, because terfs harassed me relentlessly about the fact that I pursued a breast reduction (butchering my body, reducing my femininity, being brainwashed, and so on) only to sing praises to my current body as The Natural Female Form. very, very funny. I normally do portraits of my body, for the extremely, *extremely* obvious reasons, which include but are not limited to: I have infinite reference images of my own body. but I think I would like to expand, in the future

[realbeefman]

stacy is sooo interesting because she's in love with house but knows that they will never ever be able to have a healthy, stable, sane relationship because they're too similar so. she finds house-lite instead and marries him and. essentially moves on with her life! and is successful in this because she's a moderately well-adjusted person!

wilson, in contrast, never manages to escape the inevitable, in spite of his best efforts to find a house-lite of his very own, because he's an absolute fucking freak and ends up glued to house to the bitter. bitter end

[korrasamibottles]

And with your help we can make it 60-80%

[nhyhu]

do you dream of the stars

(click for higher quality)

color sketches because i was STRUGGLING with the colors

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Is Jiang the final boss of Katara love interests?? Aye

I’m serious, can we talk about how Jiang (from “Katara and the Pirate’s Silver”) literally has:

Zuko’s facial scar

Haru’s eyes

Aang’s (lack of) hair

Jet’s skin tone

Jiang is the final boss. No I will not be taking questions at this time

[loverdude]

Youll have to click each to see them better but umm some sketch pages... Trying to get the hang of drawing them again like how I used to but hopefully improved lol... I'll probably try to digitize some of these at some point :3

Don't repost/use 4 anything 🖍 COMMISSION INFO

[museenkuss]

Things and colours to write about

I. moss and gold

II. chrome and water

III. blood and porcelain

IV. leather and ebony

V. ivory and lipstick

VI. moonlight and glass

VII. lace and bruises

VIII. marble and milk

IX. ink and petals

X. neon light and pearls

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Okay, a good amount of time has passed, and after having seen this post by @weretiger-be-my-horse , I've been turning it over and over in my brain going absolutely feral over this concept. I need to expand upon my thoughts on this idea and all the evidence there is pointing towards it, whether that be actual tangible things, or purely strong vibes I have.

First of all, full disclaimer: I did not like the season 5 finale, and how it wrapped up the DoA arc. To say that I "disliked" it is putting it extremely lightly, in fact -- I absolutely hated it, and I am still, to a degree, in disbelief that I actually even watched those 24 minutes with my own two eyes, and that it somehow wasn't a complete fever dream. While I'm not going to go in long-winded detail into all the ways that I feel like the finale almost completely bastardized all of its featured characters and destroyed any and all buildup we've had going on in this arc for 50 some chapters now, because that's not the main point of this post, I will not make any attempt to hide the fact that the theory-crafting I'm about to pose here is partly influenced and prompted by how much I hated the finale, and how much I desperately hope that it will not end up being manga canon. Therefore, if you enjoyed the finale — and that's fine! — and don't want to read any negativity about it, then I would not recommend reading any further (I mean, you've probably already left by this point, which is fair lol), While obviously it's important that I be as objective and unbiased as possible when explaining my thoughts, some of my negative feelings about the writing will be a part of this analysis, even if this isn't going to be a full-blown rant. Just know that if you proceed.

With that out of the way, let me continue.

So. In the aforementioned post, the theory presented is that the anime may be operating on an alternate timeline, and that this will become evident once we read the upcoming October chapter, wherein things will go completely differently post-chapter 110 than they do in the final episode — probably for the worse, with the s5 finale intending to lull us into a false sense of security and make us assume that everything in the manga arc finale will wrap up as smoothly and consequence-freely(? lol) as it did in the anime one. It also suggests that the Fukuchi we see at the very end that sskk are fighting came from the manga timeline, where he won, and that he used the Book to jump to a timeline where he lost, the anime one, proven by the fact that this Fukuchi is wearing a mask with the same design on it as the mask Fukuchi is wearing on the chapter 110 DoA color spread/title page.

First of all, I want to note the fact that it's not just the mask design that's the same: the entire outfit is roughly more or less the same as well. It's not completely 1-to-1, because the anime can never fully match the intricacies of Harukawa's beautiful outfit designs, and the Fukuchi in this scene has the kimono half-off because of the... super saiyan mode he's in, but most all of the main pieces of clothing are there. Any small inaccuracies could also be attributed to the fact that Harukawa probably didn't have this finalized art ready back when this episode was being made, so the animators wouldn't have had the complete design to work off of. But in general, because it's all so similar, I think we can quite confidently say that the ending episode Fukuchi is meant to be the one from this manga art.

Also, people have pointed this out, but it's worth mentioning that the mask Asagiri wore at Anime Expo in July was referencing this Fukuchi. It's not a crucial detail, but it just proves more that Asagiri is a gigantic fucking troll, and that he clearly wanted to draw attention to this Fukuchi design. It's important. He describes the mask here as made in the motif of an ellipses inside a speech bubble... could that perhaps be referencing meta aspects, like the Book?

Next, I want to talk about the even bigger elephant in the room, which to me is the most damning and undeniable piece of evidence there is of the anime operating on a completely separate timeline from the manga:

This Fucking Hand™️

As we all know, in the anime, Fyodor injures his hand when the password input device blows up, and as we all know, this does not happen in the manga. In the last episode, Dazai claims that the final nail in the coffin of his impromptu plan to kill Fyodor relied on this hand injury: because Fyodor couldn't pilot his escape helicopter himself, he would ask one of his Meursault vampires to do it for him, unaware that Bram and thus this vampire was now on the ADA's side, and said vampire could kill him while his guard was down.

Ignoring how utterly stupid and contrived this plan is when you stop and think about it for more than two seconds, the fact of the matter is that something that initially seemed like nothing more than an odd but inconsequential anime original addition ended up snowballing into being the entire reason one of the big bads was brought down. If Fyodor hadn't hurt his hand, he wouldn't have needed another pilot, and so the traitor vampire wouldn't have had an opportunity to get near him and kill him without him expecting it even though said vampire was presumably with him as they were leaving Meursault, and was probably already a traitor by then, so there was plenty opportunity for him to still die. not to mention by Chuuya's hands at literally any time he wanted to, because Chuuya was coherent the whole time. Also there's absolutely no way Dazai could have known exactly what Ranpo would do, no matter how smart he is and how much he trusts him. idk it's fucking dumb, just roll with it. Therefore, putting aside all other variables for now, we can conclude that, on the most basic level, this signifies that no hand wound = no death.

And let me tell you, this hand wound bothers me. It really, really does. Because they focus on it a LOT — they go out of their way to draw attention to it MULTIPLE TIMES, from the moment it first happens to the end of the season. Fyodor even talks about it to himself, about Dazai being able to cause him tangible, visible, bodily harm, (something that, again, as far as we've seen, has never happened in the manga). Hell, even after Fyodor's death, they're still drawing attention to it, because his right arm is all of him that survives, and Dazai picks it up and gives it to Nikolai to do his hilarious sad little gay fondling of it played completely straight even though there's nothing straight going on here at all! It's like it's a big red flashing sign at all times going "you see this injured hand? This is important. Are you picking up that it's important? Are you taking note of it?" Why is that? Obviously, it serves to give us the lore crumbs about Fyodor and "that man", but that's hardly the main, much more glaring reason, as I've already mentioned.

Fyodor doesn't hurt his hand in the manga. Fyodor won't die here in the manga. I am so dead serious by this point about this, and it's not just simply the fact that this was absolutely not at all the time for him to die, or the fact that his hand is the reason for his death in the anime in and of itself, but how much EMPHASIS they place on this, and on the hand in general. What would be the point of adding something like this, if it's not meant to alert us to the fact that it has a major impact on how the story plays out? We all know Bones: they struggle to get right and include everything that's already there in the source material; they would never go out of their way to add something this noteworthy if there wasn't a very good reason for it, if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I've seen a few people bring up the fact that Fyodor gets shot in the shoulder by Sigma and that that could lead to the same outcome in the manga, but I disagree: although he has blood on his shoulder in the manga, it seems like the bullet just grazed the top of it, because his arm and hand appears completely functional afterwards (not hanging limp by his side or anything). But that doesn't even matter, because this isn't even about the semantics/logistics of how the hand wound caused Fyodor's death because again, it's a stupid outcome, or what could serve as a substitute in the manga — thematically, this is a textbook example of the butterfly effect. Countless parallel universes exist within this series, ones where even the most minute differences lead to a majorly different outcome: this just happens to be one of them. There's no reason to think it isn't, and there's no reason to not think that the anime wants us to clue into the fact that things only went as smoothly as they did on the Meursault side because of this wound; in other words, that things will go very differently in the manga thanks to the absence of said wound. They wouldn't have added it in the first place and put such clearly deliberate emphasis on it otherwise.

Things are going to happen very differently in the manga, at least when it comes to the Meursault crew (but then, if you assume that, you then naturally assume it all will be very different). This is the only conclusion one can come to with the presentation of this anime-only wound, combined with the fact that parallel universes are a very real thing in BSD.

I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent, so bear with me. I play a lot of visual novels, and although such concepts aren't really as original now as they were a while ago, some of my favorite and some of the very best VNs out there are the ones that break the fourth wall and make the visual novel branching route format directly intertwined with the story: you know, the ones where the characters go "if only I had done things differently, maybe everything would have turned out better...!" in a wink wink nudge nudge moment, and the ones where the characters are aware of the different timelines, even, or even have the ability to gain information from their selves in said alternate timelines to influence events in their current one (I'm intentionally not naming the games I'm thinking of for the sake of spoilers, but if you know, you know lmao). It gets very meta in this regard, and this is how I started viewing BSD through the lens of ever since I first learned about Beast: like a visual novel with many branching routes, and only a few routes that feel entirely "right".

When I first read Dazai's Entrance Exam, I was struck by how unnerving the ending sequence in the abandoned hospital felt. Obviously, Kunikida's internal struggle over Sasaki's actions and motives is him still desperately clinging to his ideal world that does not exist, but the specific type of phrases he uses — "who is wrong?" "[who is] the cause of all this?" "there has to be an ideal world" "there has to be something, I'm sure of it" "There must have been something we could have done!" — and the framing of the scene in general, is eerily reminiscent of a bad ending in a visual novel, to me. There's a haunting, looming, bleak sense that a different outcome could have been achieved, if different decisions had been made, or if things outside of anyone's control had been different... and we know that this is true, because in Beast alone, Kunikida never goes through the Azure Messenger incident, because Dazai doesn't have his entrance exam. Hell, you could even consider the anime's version of the Azure Messenger arc an alternate timeline in of itself, if you really wanted to, long before we even arrive at season 5.

When it comes to Beast, this timeline has almost the opposite feeling of what I described above, that I've also encountered in visual novels: the idea of a "good route" or "good ending" that still doesn't feel quite earned, or as perfect as one would expect. Beast is presented as the "ideal" timeline purely for one sole reason: Oda is alive. It is the only timeline where he's alive, and keeping Oda alive is the ultimate goal Dazai wants to achieve, the only reason this timeline exists; therefore, disregarding all else, Beast should be the best timeline, because Oda's death is the greatest devastation in the series to date. We all want him to live, so why wouldn't the timeline where he does be the best one? And yet... of course, it isn't. Dazai is alone, and steeped in darkness and loneliness without Oda, and dies by the end of the story for Oda's continued living. Atsushi has Kyouka still, but he's suffering and more traumatized, and unable to heal while stuck in the mafia, and neither can Kyouka. Akutagawa is living a much better life in the ADA... but without his sister, and without what he has from his bond with Atsushi in canon, that isn't replicated in Beast. And Oda... Oda is alive, and he has his children and his novel, but there is a feeling that he is aimless, that something in his life is missing. He has everything he ever wanted, but all that means nothing without what he truly needs: Dazai, and his time with Dazai and Ango at the bar. In this way, things going well and us getting what we want — in this case, Oda living — goes against how it's supposed to be, the natural order, which is why it feels so hollow. In the specific visual novel I'm thinking of here as a comparison (again, shoutout if you know), there's an alternate ending that involves you inputting information you gain at the end of the game very early on in the game, wherein the protagonist now has memories of the future and is able to bypass and prevent all of the events that take place normally. This means that people who die or are hurt somehow in general are saved from that fate, and nothing bad ever occurs; everything wraps up neatly and nicely... but again, there's an undeniable, unsettling feeling of emptiness, of a victory that rings hollow, because what's the point if everything is simply handed to you easily, where's the sense of accomplishment, without any struggles to achieve said victories, or any growth along the way? How can it feel earned if one doesn't have to, in Dazai's words, "scream within the storm of uncertainty, and run with flowing blood"?

You can probably already see where I'm going with this.

This finale feels weird. Really, really weird. It feels too cheap, too simple, too unsatisfying. So much so, in fact, that for almost the entire runtime, as I was bombarded with resolution upon resolution one after another, I kept thinking "There's no way this can be real. Where's the catch? When is the "gotcha!" moment gonna happen? The "it was all a dream" reveal?". And this isn't just because I hated the writing, and that it really did feel like a fever dream watching fanfic levels of bad (actually, that's an insult to fanfic writers, tbh; they could do better) — no, it genuinely feels so incredibly fake. Even upon rewatching it and already knowing what happens, my brain still naturally keeps expecting some kinda of "sike, you THOUGHT!" moment to suddenly appear. It just.... feels "too good to be true". Dazai and Chuuya come out unscathed, and it's revealed that they were never in any real danger to begin with. Fyodor, one of our biggest threats, is dealt with supposedly for good (I say "supposedly" only because of the Jesus line, but if anything imo, I think that's just a hint that this won't be the canon ending in the manga, so in a sense he's going to "come back to life"), and Nikolai seems somewhat at peace with his death. The other biggest threat, Fukuchi, is also dealt with, and he and Fukuzawa get their final moment together of closure. Yes, Sigma is left in Meursault don't even get me started on how angry this alone makes me, and Fukuzawa loses Fukuchi, but overall, everything is portrayed in a positive light, and any negatives or losses are quickly glossed over. Everything is tied up nicely, neatly, and smoothly. ...And that is exactly what makes it feel so wrong, and hard to trust in.

I'm not sure if this will make sense, but to me, the finale is so incredibly poorly written that it almost feels.... intentional. It's so bad to the point of feeling self-aware in how bad it is, how unrealistically happy and convenient an ending it is. It had to end this neatly in order to rush to wrap up this arc for the season finale and not leave the last episode on a cliffhanger — which imo is chiefly the main reason it turned out this way, and, if this whole theory is true, Asagiri just used it to his advantage — and I'm not saying this was probably an effect Bones had in mind intentionally, I'm sure they just threw shit at the wall and went with whatever stuck, maaaaybe with some suggestions/approval from Asagiri, but the result is that you have a conclusion that contradicts so much of what was set up before and goes against so many character arcs, making some characters so out of character and even regressing in their development Dazai. I'm talking about Dazai abandoning Sigma, because he would never; hashtag #NOTMYDAZAI. Also Nikolai, Nikolai for most of that is so ooc I can't even begin to describe it oh my god. Everyone is OOC to a degree though lmao, and opens so many plot holes, to the point that it's impossible not to watch all that and get the feeling that it is subtly saying to you "did you really think it could be this easy? It feels wrong, doesn't it? It doesn't feel satisfying. It feels unearned." I find it incredibly interesting and suspicious in particular that they confirmed multiple theories people had about soukoku in Meursault: that Chuuya slowed the elevator's fall so that Dazai wouldn't die from it, that Chuuya slowed down the bullet so that it only penetrated Dazai's skin and not his skull, and that the both of them used Fyodor's camera angle to their advantage because they knew he wouldn't be able to see certain things from his view. I'm not saying that Asagiri trawled BSD twitter and tumblr after those chapters dropped for the most popular theories before the final episode was made lmao, there was no time for that (imagine though lol—), but I do think it's highly likely that he already had in mind exactly what theories would be made about these parts (I mean, the evidence for the gun scene was all there), and that Dazai rattling them off in his long monologue to Fyodor at the end is essentially him speaking to the audience and going "yeah, that's what you would predict, right? Those are the clichés, after all", much like him suggesting earlier that he can maybe bring Chuuya back to himself with a few moving words and the power of friendship, and Fyodor using the split personalities trope to fool Sigma. We expect these tropes to be true. Of course we'd fall for them, as Fyodor tells Sigma, especially if the evidence is right there. But Asagiri himself has explicitly said that he likes doing the opposite of what people expect. And so just because people predicted correctly with the three things I mentioned in this timeline... doesn't mean they'll be true in the manga's. Things happened how we wanted and expected it to, and everything turned out happily. So we can relax now, right? Everything will work out just as easily in the manga, right? Or... is the reason most of this finale feels so fake and unsettling and unsatisfying because it's meant to lull us into a false sense of security before all our heroes lose in the manga? Because deep down, we don't want an ending that's this simple, because we'd rather have a conclusion where our characters have struggled more and grown more and come out the better for it, and we know it?

After rewatching the episode a lot, and watching some other videos, and doing a lot of thinking, I am pretty confident in suspecting that the only part of this finale that is actually from manga canon, aside from Aya jumping off the building of course, is Fyodor and Nikolai's exchange after Fyodor leaves Meursault — specifically, them talking about Fyodor leaving Sigma behind, and their "new game" and Nikolai being excited at the prospect of it. This little conversation actually feels in character for them, and it's easy to tell this when contrasting it with everything that happens immediately after, wherein Fyodor is fatally stabbed, and Nikolai, completely at odds with what he was just talking about, just... stands there and watches Fyodor die while Dazai monologues lmao. I'm not sure if the helicopter is still a factor, but I would bet good money on Fyolai getting out of Meursault being manga canon, and that Dazai and Chuuya getting out as well and killing Fyodor + everything with FukuFuku, is part of the anime original ending, in order to wrap up everything positively. It makes much more sense if you think about, in reality (aka in the manga), Dazai and Chuuya still being left behind in Meursault (where they can eventually try to get Sigma), because none of it was an act and things did not go according to plan, and Fukuchi having an entirely different goal that doesn't feel so stupid and contradictory to his character, and Fukuzawa possibly dying — everyone seemingly loses, with Aya still being the last hope, perhaps by awakening her ability like we all speculated.

There's a youtuber I watch who covers BSD in-depth, despite being an anime-only (she reads the respective manga content after each season, though). Going into this finale, she knew about the fact that the anime had overtaken the manga, though she didn't know where the cutoff point was; despite that, however, she made predictions about what was from the manga so far and what was anime original, and it was almost entirely spot-on, based mostly on what she basically described as "anime original dialogue." She talked about how you can always tell when dialogue is veering into the realm of anime-original, because the sentences are very short, choppy, and slightly out of character, but generic enough to not be TOO out of character, and so that anyone can easily write said lines, even if they're not extremely familiar with the character like the original author would be. And when I heard this explanation, everything clicked — because so much of this finale has dialogue like that. The Fyolai scenes just feel peppered with it, around the lines I mentioned earlier, the Dazai dialogue does too, and ESPECIALLY shit at the end like Fukuchi and Fukuzawa exchanging the cliche death lines to end all death lines: "Are you there? I'm a little tired." "Rest up." That just isn't Bungou Stray Dogs. That isn't Asagiri. BSD is cheesy at times, yes, but it isn't like this; it's smarter. The dialogue is smarter, the explanations/plot twists are smarter, Asagiri is smarter, and the aforementioned youtuber I watched agreed. She's a pretty casual fan of the series, so if even she could pick up on these things, I think it speaks volumes.

I mentioned this briefly earlier, but this theory makes sense if you consider that this situation probably came about because of Bones wanting two seasons back-to-back when they did, and this arc being as long as it is. Season 3 aired in 2019, and I imagine Bones would have wanted season 4 in 2020, and might have then been willing to wait a bit longer for season 5 in order for more of this arc's manga chapters to come out — but then covid happened. Because of that, season 4 was delayed to 2023, creating the longest gap we've had between seasons, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if the delay made them want season 5 right together with it, after getting so far "behind", so to speak. S4 was announced in November of 2021, and roughly around that time, Asagiri was finishing up writing the plot of the DoA arc. If Bones came to him sometime in late 2021 and said they wanted two seasons now (so basically, one giant two cour season), Asagiri would know that not only of course would this arc not be finished publishing in the manga for a very long time yet, but that roughly 20ish episodes would not be enough to cover it all to the end, with this arc being longer than any arc the anime has adapted to date. Because of all this, and the arc manga chapters being nowhere near fully drawn to completion, he'd have to make a decision about what to do, and what to give Bones. Without ending season 5 on a massive cliffhanger that wouldn't be resolved for years until an eventual season 6, the only other option would be to rush towards an anime-original ending for the DoA arc.... and for Asagiri to take advantage of that, and integrate it into BSD's lore. Thereby creating a truly unique cross-media experience that utilizes the different mediums to create multiple timelines, that could make both the anime and manga interact with each other and become part of a bigger picture (not that you'd need to see both to get the full experience, mind you, just that it'd provide a little bonus if you did).... and would without a doubt be Asagiri's biggest surprise yet.

...I feel like at this point I'm starting to ramble, and my evidence become more and more incoherent and less substantial lmao, so I should probably end this post. 💀 Thank you if you've read this far, and hopefully it made some semblance of sense, despite not being structured very well; I know I promised at the start to try to be as objective as possible and curb my negative feelings, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded in that regard. If it weren't for the Fukuchi thing and the Fyodor hand thing, I probably wouldn't take how wrong and strange and bad the finale feels to me as serious evidence about it being an alternate timeline, especially since I seem to be one of the only people who actually hates all of it.... but combined with everything else, I am just so convinced of this theory being true. It started off as pure copium, but as more time has gone on, I fully, 100% believe in my bones (ha) that there is no way that finale is the same Bungou Stray Dogs I know and love, for so many reasons. It just isn't. It can't be. I know BSD better than this, I know Asagiri better than this, and I know that it's absolutely in the realm of possibility for him to cook up this whole scheme to completely blindside us with in the upcoming chapters, because that's exactly the kind of shit Mr. "Please Be Surprised!" himself would pull. If I end up being completely wrong, I guess I'm wrong, and you can laugh at me all you want then.... but I just know that ages ago people were teasing the idea of the anime operating on a different timeline from the manga, and I truly do think that only now are we finally seeing that idea come to fruition, as a setup for Asagiri going full-bore insanity with the Book in the upcoming arc(s). if I and the OP of that theory end up right, this will be the wildest time in the BSD fandom's history.

Like. I cannot even emphasize how hard they are trolling us at this point. Something is going on. Something is being cooked over there, the likes of which we've never seen before... and I don't think any of us are ready for it.

Oh yeah, and one last thing of note: both Fyodor and Nikolai here have their right arms hidden from view. Is that alluding to anything? I'm not sure. I also think that since chapter 110 was so short, next chapter will likely be 110.5 instead of 111, and if that's the case, this title spread could still technically be associated with the next chapter... wherein we might see this Fukuchi, who ends up wreaking havoc, right before he jumps to the timeline in the anime, as we see him at the end of the s5 finale.

I guess we'll find out on Tuesday.

[radicalrobotz]

my fursona blitzy!

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

one thing i realized about fandaniel's dynamic with xande that really fucks me up is, like.... there are the obvious parallels that canon draws between meteion and xande, and their roles in hermes/fandaniel's lives. and there are also the parallels between fandaniel and meteion. there's a lot to unpack.

but it hit me recently that one of hermes' deepest, most devastating regrets is having failed meteion, with abuse and hypocrisy and the project he had the authority to make her a part of.

he was painfully aware that he wasn't fit to be a father; that he'd put them in a bitch of an unsatisfactory situation with his lack of foresight; that he was currently fucking things up in ways he did not know how to understand or articulate, much less address. he knew that there was no support system for this; not just for his mental health issues in general, but to educate him and hold him accountable about how to be decent to her, because he knew no one would give a fuck. the closest thing anyone would have given him to advice would be to just kill her and start over.

he says he hopes she'll find a better parent out there in space somewhere, because he knows there is not one to be found for her anywhere on this star, including him. she was one of the most helpless, vulnerable people in their society, and there was no backup for her if he mistreated her, if he failed. and he did.

so of course his next attempt to find a meteion would be an emperor. of course he'd be at the very top of the most powerful empire in the world, at the time. of course he'd position himself as his servant, devote himself to him utterly, and value his authority above all. he wanted someone he could never hurt the way he hurt meteion again.

[softquietsteadylove]

Here is an idea.

For the human AU a new deviant appears. But it’s not that kind of deviant we know. It has some special abilities and Gil is in danger. How about some horror for this one? 👀

"Gil!"

His head whipped around. He was helping clean up some of the ruins of the outer city, since that was all he was good for, now. The moon was high, providing a good amount of light.

The others were reluctant to let him outside Babylon temple--they were reluctant to let him do anything. He had to all but sneak out to even do this much, especially without worrying Thena.

"Gilgamesh!"

That was definitely her voice, though. Gil dropped the rocks he was moving and looked around again. He couldn't sense anything, but his senses were diminished at the moment. He tried to listen for the slightest sound, but he couldn't pick up anything.

He cursed his human condition, not for the first time.

"Gil, help me!"

That was definitely Thena screaming. It was her voice, at least. Gilgamesh started walking, looking around the corners of crumbled homes and around the deep shadows of the rubble. His cautious steps turned to a light jog.

"Gil, please!"

"Thena?" he called out, but he swore it was just the open air to hear him. What was happening? He jogged closer to the edges of the walls. The wall was still technically under construction, Phastos working as fast as he could. But Gil was the main source of their work efforts, and Babylon wall was huge.

"Gil?" it sounded like a whisper, now. But it was still her voice, thin and high, as if she had been crying. He had never really heard her like that before. But it was his Thena. It was her voice.

"Thena," he repeated, whispering for her as he crept around in the dark. "Thena, if you-"

"Gilgamesh," the voice changed. This sounded less like her. He knew it was off.

He froze. He didn't have Eternal strength or senses anymore, but humans had the best survival instinct. His was screaming. Something wasn't right. It wasn't before and it really wasn't now. He crouched lower, looking around but slowing his breathing as much as he could. His heart was pounding.

"Gilgamesh, help me," the voice cooed, but it was closer. He could better hear what was wrong with it--the wiry echo trailing after it. It sounded almost mechanical, like the grind of Phastos' gears.

Gil lowered to one knee, trying to peek around one of the corners of a building's remains. He hadn't heard it at all, but he saw the massive foot come down. It was wiry, thickly muscled, a terrible colour.

"Gil, help!" it repeated, in the same tone and intonation as last time. It could only conjure so much.

He held his breath, and when he did need to breathe, he pressed his palm over his mouth and nose. This was like the one that had rendered him all but human. They were evolving, and not just new appendages or wings or even that gas. This one was luring them into a trap.

"Gilgamesh, help me!" it repeated, louder this time. It prowled around the house. It was assuring that these things still had some weaknesses to account for.

He watched as the thing rounded the corner. Its head looked like it was a bare skull in comparison to the rest of its body. Perhaps it didn't have a sense of smell, and that was why it was depending on using the sounds it was producing to lure its prey.

Its horrible maw opened again, its paws hitting the ground. "Gil, please."

He didn't like that it could make it sound so convincing. It really sounded like Thena--it sounded like her voice crying for him. How would this walking nightmare know what that sounded like? And how did it know exactly whose voice to use to lure him out here?

"Gil," the beast repeated in his sweet Thena's voice. Its teeth clicked against themselves as its jaw swayed back and forth on its head. "Gilgamesh, please."

He could hear it now. The way it chopped up the words, not sounding totally fluid. But he had to get this close to hear that? If he weren't careful, he would already be fighting this thing.

And that wasn't an option for him now. He was in no condition to fight a Deviant, let alone an evolved one. And it had lured him out here, in the dark, alone.

Fear: humans felt fear. They had incredible instincts for self-preservation, protection, survival. But every cell in his body - whatever body it was - was feeling fear. And he had never felt fear quite like this.

He could die out here.

The Deviant drew closer to him. It repeated the sounds of Thena's distress, switching to screams of terror and agony. What a terrible monster these things could be. They really were here for a reason; humans couldn't fight these things.

He couldn't fight this thing. He couldn't fight at all, anymore. Pure instinct had brought him out here--a need to protect Thena. But she was the one protecting him. She was the Fighter of them now.

He had never had to consider life without Thena. She probably hadn't considered it either. Would he be leaving her alone if he died out here? What if she fought this thing? Would it use his voice to lure her out alone like it did with him?

She could fight it. She was stronger than this thing. He was still glad that it wasn't her that had been turned human. He hated being this vulnerable--this useless. But he hated the thought of it being Thena even more.

"Gilgamesh," that thing whispered. It was right on top of him.

He breathed into his palm. He couldn't control his heart, he couldn't control his lungs. His body was crumbling under the pressure. Thousands of years of fighting and it was lost on the human adrenal system. He squeezed his eyes shut.

Maybe he could manage to see Thena one last time before he died.

"Gil!"

That time sounded different. He kept his eyes shut, although he heard footsteps somewhere in the distance. Then, nothing, then, impact.

"Run!" Thena landed with force, cratering the ground between the Deviant and him. She already had her swords ready, slashing at the thing.

It roared at her, first with her own voice, then its usual, beastly cry.

Thena stood her ground, swinging her staff around, keeping her back to him and her arms raised. "Are you hurt?"

His stomach lurched. She had come running to his aid, just like any weak, defenseless human. "N-No."

The Deviant swiped at her but she raised her shield, swiping at it in return. These evolved ones were smart, guarded, it knew she was a threat, and it wasn't pursuing her needlessly. It was watching her.

He couldn't see her face, but he saw her body locking up.

The Deviant opened its mouth again. "Thena!"

"What in all the stars?" she asked rhetorically.

"That was how it got me down here," he admitted. The thing's jaw clicked and its teeth rattled around again.

"Thena, help!"

"Celestial demons," she cursed it as she shifted her spear into a different shape. She directed the point at it, tri-tipped and wide. It was a weapon not for slicing but for inflicting an irreparable wound. The great warriors of Greece copied this very weapon. "Try it."

The beast chose not to. It gave her another half-swipe, only for show before retreating. Its long, wiry body slithered away from them and through the crumbling cracks in the wall.

Gil let out a breath as its form disappeared into the shadows. He dragged himself up the wall behind him and to his feet, not liking the state of his knees. "We gotta get that fixed."

Thena didn't say anything.

He frowned, fidgeting with his sweaty palms. "You okay?"

"You shouldn't have been out here."

He was tempted to wince at the cold tone of her voice. She was right, he shouldn't have let that thing lure him away, especially knowing he was in no condition to fight.

"What were you thinking?" she asked him. It was worse than her yelling and shouting at him, her voice was barely above a whisper. She turned to him, her powers fading into the air like sparks. Her hair picked up in the wind. "What were you thinking, Gilgamesh?"

He was feeling properly chastised now. "I-I just..."

She waited for him to finish rather than prompt him.

He sighed. "It was your voice, Thena. You were calling for my help."

She didn't argue. She didn't chastise him further, she accepted his answer. She even moved closer, wrapping her arms around him. Her cheek was cold against his warmer one. "Don't ever scare me like this again."

"Sorry," he patted her shoulder before moving his hand to the cutout of her armour that allowed him the relief of her soft waist.

She huffed at him, but her hold on him didn't loosen. "I'll have more to say about this later."

"Yes, ma'am," he chuckled despite her anger. He let out another breath, relaxing his body more. His limbs felt heavy as Thena began leading him back to the temple.

She gave him a nudge, "I should tell Sersi about this--she'll be livid."

He laughed, giving her a nudge in return.

She stumbled.

They both stared. He blinked, looking at the hand he used to nudge her arm. "Uh, s-sorry."

Thena just stared, at the hand and then at him. She had been expecting a gentle nudge--a human one. He had given her a push that an Eternal would give.

He blinked, surprised by first her kiss and then by her laughter. He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off her feet. It was easy, but it wasn't that easy--whatever it was had been a freak accident. But it was a promising sign.

[frecklystars]

I have another gig in a week and I'm so nervous 😭 I get paid hundreds of dollars for only five hours of work, but it is so nerve-racking and the work environment is so stressful, like literally every time I'm there I'm on the verge of tears or I have to take a 2 minute break before the show starts just to run to the restrooms and cry bc I get so stressed out. And then when I clock out I just cry my eyes out in my car while driving home. But hey!!! Hundreds of dollars!!! For five or six hours of my time!!! Only a few days a month!!! Hundreds!!! Of dollars!!! So it would be totally stupid to quit.

I wouldn't have been able to afford pampering myself on my last two F/O anniversaries (and currently placing an order for a rose bouquet for Six's anniversary for the 18th) if I didn't have this second job... but if it didn't pay me such a large amount of money each time, I probably would have quit by now bc it makes me so damn anxious. The show isn't even for one week and I'm sitting here stressing about it! I have one thousand other things to stress about and this job shouldn't be one of 'em 😤

I just keep trying to think about Ken hugging me while saying "Aw, sweet girl, don't be nervous! You JUST started this job, you've only worked three shows -- you think you're gonna be perfect your first try?? You're gonna be so good once you get the hang of it. Just look at me! I've been doing Beach for 62 years now, and I still don't know what my job is supposed to be... but I know I look So Cool™ 😎"

[meloartist]

Yeah, I also want to see 2 season, especially Destiny and my favorite Delirium, but I'm also curius who will play Remiel and Duma.

[i think this ask was pre-s2 announcement bc 2022 but YEAH]

i'm a HUUUUUUUUUGE duma stan you dont even KNOW