HAPPY LATE BIRTH LUCY MAUD MONTEOGMERY BUNGO STRAY DOGS ILY I AM SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVINE ME

remembered this line from Beast and now I have to kill myself

I′ve grown a mouth so sharp and cruel/It's all that I can give to you, my dear/And when you come in quick to steal a kiss/My teeth will only cut your lips, my dear

And I know that you mean so well/But I am not a vessel for your good intent

I will only break your pretty things/I will only wring you dry of everything/But if you′re fine with that/You can be mine like that

Abandon all your stupid dreams/About the girl I could have been, my dear/'Cause, in the night, I know you burn with feelings/I cannot return, my dear/Oh, my dear

You gotta know that this won't last/Desperation will erase the fact/I′m keeping all

Of the answers in my cigarette box/Yeah, the answer′s in the second before the other shoe drops/And if you're blind to that/I am fine with that

Oh, I will ruin you/Oh, I will ruin you

It′s a habit, I can't help it 💔

Sometimes self care is putting your silly little clown in silly little outfits

more old chibis

thinking about imu as the antithesis of luffy and what he wants to be. imu might be the most powerful person in the world, and yet they must have very little freedom. they could control most of the world, but only from the shadows. their very power is dependent on the world thinking they—the sole ruler of the entire world—don't exist. and to keep something so big a secret must come with a lot of restrictions on what they can and can't do. what imu has is exactly what luffy doesn't want: power at the cost of freedom.

Elise is a child despite having existed for decades because she looks like a child, thinks like a child and acts like a child.

Sigma is an adult despite having existed for three years because he looks like an adult, thinks like an adult and acts like an adult

I did quickly go through the manga, with the help of the fanwiki, to see how much that "Atsushi's orphanage headmaster visions have been caused by Q" twist holds up (as sometimes, new plans come up as you write, especially if your series is over 10 years old)

In the first chapter, Atsushi has a flashback of the orphanage staff kicking him out, but they do not have individual identities. The first apparition of the headmaster as himself is when Atsushi is under the influence of Dogra Magra, in chapter 25, "Q":

His next apparition is in chapter 28, when Atsushi is being held in the Moby Dick, right before Lucy comes in and chooses to help him (note: that scene also compares Atsushi's abuse is to another person's, Lucy's.)

After that, there's chapter 39, "Portrait of a Father", where Atsushi doesn't hallucinate him, but we learn about who the man was to Atsushi, and witness his funeral.

His next hallucination is in chapter 52, at the very end of the Cannibalism arc. He explains to Akutagawa that the headmaster has been been haunting him less since (the final fight on) the Moby Dick, but has been silent since the funeral.

There are a few more mentions of the headmaster that I haven't mentioned, but a very notable one is that Atsushi saw becoming stronger and his upcoming fight against Akutagawa as a way to free himself from the headmaster's influence, much like Akutagawa saw it as a way to gain Dazai's approval.

I don't think we see Atsushi hallucinating the headmaster after this until chapter 122, but the Dazai hallucinations start showing up in chapter 63, so really not that long after the previous one. The next Dazai ones I could find were in chapters 78, 105 and 121.

The conclusion is therefore that Atsushi hallucinating the headmaster has been a very active and purposeful part of his journey as a character since very early on. It started manifesting after Atsushi's breakdown while under the influence of Q's ability, and it's taken various approaches as Atsushi faced different struggles, but it's always been there.

While wearing Dazai's face, the hallucination was given more credit in Atsushi's eyes, but its words were barely less sharp and hurtful. However, they did tend to push Atsushi into acting, rather than cowering and giving up.

We're seeing Atsushi heal in real time, no matter how messy it is, and I'm so proud of him.

OMG JUST UNCOVERED: SHORT SEGMENT OF THE ANIMATION MEME I THOUGHT I HAD LOST FOREVER T O T!!!

the most beautiful ending was for sukuna (and uraume) because not only did we get a good afterlife scene of him going north for and with uraume but gege also showed in the epilogue how he was always destined to go north because he was always a chill guy and had depth, despite keeping an aloof demeanor. He took uraume and raised them like he was always meant to be an amazing father. What he did was a reaction to how he was treated but at the very core he always carried light. Ending the manga with "how did YOU not grow cold with me uraume?" to uraume's first "how are you not cold next to me sukuna-sama?" was the most beautiful way to describe their relationship, they both might have seemed cold to others but they were a source of warmth for each other, both of them kept the other intact in some way. Ride and die for eternity.

It reminds me of the quote, "when is a monster not a monster? Oh when you love it"