#vnc 57

[grelleswife]

Chibi Vanoe: A compilation

Plus, Vanitas successfully distracting his boyfriend from pressing questions about the Archiviste clan with the irresistible allure of tarte tatin.

[mygemseye]

I know everyone is freaking out about this character.

But all I can think about is if they were looking for Noé.

That face makes me think she’s saying “found you” or “there you are”. Anyway this seems to be Noés arc and I think Vanitas knows more than he is letting on.

[neversetyoufree]

What's your review on the last chapter of vanitas

It's interesting!

It wasn't exactly the most Earth-shattering or exciting chapter, but there's a couple things in it that I'm very curious about. I'm obviously looking forward to seeing what's up with the new Archiviste, but besides that, there are some odd details that stand out to me quite a lot.

First of all, the moment where Noé first considers the possibility of other Archivistes is. odd. Unless I'm forgetting something, I think this is the first time we've ever seen him think about his original family, and this is not at all how I expected this to go.

We've known that Noé has some baggage about his own Archiviste-ness, and he doesn't seem to like revealing his name or making use of his abilities, but that can be pretty well explained by his history of being made to feel creepy/deviant for looking into people's memories. What can't be explained that way, though, are these panels:

This does not look like the happy kind of shock.

Noé, generally speaking, is enthusiasm personified, and unless he's reacting to somebody else being harmed, he tends to interpret everything in the best, most optimistic possible light. So what the hell is up with him here??

Everything about these panels, from the black text to the framing and shading to Noé's expression feels ominous, but why on Earth would he be filled with shock and dread at the thought that he may have some living family? Either his discomfort with his powers extends so far as to make him feel disgusted by even the thought of others with his ability, or something else happened in his past to make the thought of encountering his family feel instinctively horrifying.

Given the new Archiviste's sinister vibes and my suspicion that this arc will finally be digging into Noé's unspoken and unrealized trauma, my money is on the latter.

(That "do I want to know?" line in particular is giving me many thoughts about the direction that Noé's arc is going to take next 👀👀).

I'm also quite interested in how Noé seems to run out and see the new Archiviste completely at random. He's just walking along with Vanitas, then he stops to think for a moment, and then he goes sprinting, apparently unprompted.

But I don't think it's actually random! Given how he reacts when he gets outside, calling for Jean-Jacques and then lifting his head just in time to meet the eyes of the new Archiviste, I'm pretty sure he's meant to have somehow sensed her out there.

He felt a presence and went running instinctively, but confused the presence he felt for Jean-Jacques since he'd just seen him. And that's interesting!! Even if vampires genarally do have heightened senses and/or a bit of intuition, this doesn't seem quite like something standard. Noé's not exactly the most perceptive man in the world, and yet he sensed the new girl from all the way inside. It makes me wonder if he has some inherent sense of the presence of another Archiviste, which is super interesting!!

Also, though this is just a fun tidbit rather than a curiosity, I'm very pleased at the inclusion of this little interaction:

I did a lot of posting a while back about how Noé's inability to process his own traumas as traumas is deeply unhealthy, and how the only reason his over-optimism in the face of abuse doesn't read as more unsettling is his status as our pov character. And now his friends are taking notice of his problem. That's validation babey!!

This is yet another thing redoubling my certainty that the upcoming arc is going to deal with unpacking Noé's thus-far unexamined trauma and backstory, and I couldn't be more curious to see what's lurking in his head underneath all the willful ignorance.

[noes-pillow]

Hey Noé...

...does that answer your question?

[qiaolingz]

[kin-ofthebluemoon]

omg noe and jean-jacques in the new chapter <33

[neversetyoufree]

Ooh boy, but I doubt Vani's gonna be happy about a new Archiviste on the scene.

He might be okay with Noé because he knows and trusts him, but having a complete stranger around that could try to take his memories at any point is. bad news for him

[grelleswife]

Let’s shake on it: Parallels between Mémoire 29 and Mémoire 57