TIL that "Tokay" is a specific Lyra's World transliteration, not the one used in our world:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaj
Can't find a specific 19th-century "La Primavera" that Grandpa D would've been into. It's just the name of a bunch of different bakeries in Spanish-speaking countries/communities.
Oh, sweet, those are the specific roses on the cover art for this (original release) volume!
heirloomroses.com/products/bar...
"Tokaj" is familiar from HDM, it's the source of several plot-relevant wine bottles.
--favorite treat, La Primvell's strawberry-covered chocolate cake.
SS: Crimson Baron Girod de L'Ain roses, which bloomed with the morning dew. Red wine from the Tokaj region, of this century's best vintage. And, of course, his grandfather's favorite strawberry and chocolate cake from La Primavera...
The return of definitely-not-a-vampire rose-petal guy...now bearing gifts to woo D away from Leon! SS team once again winning in the "researching specific terms" department:
TP: The finest vintage red wine of this century, scented like the sweetest red rose covered in morning dew...And his--
(Hey, chat, you know the "not just a cute mascot animal" reveal we're eventually going to get with Q-chan? Do we think Akino had actually planned that from the start? Because I'm suspicious.)
(SS)
D (sparkling): Are you here to protect me then, Detective? All day and *alllll* night?
Leon (._.): Nah. I'm goin' home.
D follows this up with a "nyeh!" gesture, Only SS translates the sound effect of Q-chan doing the same "nyeh!" gesture.
Too cute in both versions:
(TP)
D (sparkling): I wonder, Detective Orcot, if you will be so good as to stay and protect me *forever?* Or perhaps at least overnight?
Leon (making a ._. face): I'm going home.
(SS)
Leon: Not like any of this is new territory for you! [Heh heh heh] You've had some real freaks after you. Like that cannibal.
T-chan's caption: Who're you calling a freak?!
Yesss, good. The original didn't make it clear that Leon was *personally* negging T-chan.
Poor Leon is gonna get some kind of complex, at this rate.
Leon explains about the "vampire" serial killer, and we get this exchange:
(TP)
Leon: Considering the sort of company you keep...[untranslated sfx] You probably know him.
T-chan tries to chomp him, captioned: What does that mean?!
Speaking of weird kinks, this chapter marks Leon's *second* experience of "bursting in to find D pinned on a couch, being sexily menaced, by a beautiful man who wants to eat him." This time, D dramatically throws himself into Leon's arms, so the intruder leaves in a swirl of rose petals.
...Okay, all the D relatives look much younger than their ageless selves, but "early-thirties human" is a much more believable lookalike than "17-year-old human." This manga is happy to lean into plenty of weird kinks, but "D being jailbait" isn't actually one of them!
Chapter 17: Dracula:
With the main character going by "Count D", you knew there had to be a "-racula" chapter.
Chief describes victims of a mysterious killer:
TP: The guy only kills Asian men, usually in their twenties or early thirties.
SS: The victims are all Asian men aged seventeen to twenty.
(I know the fandom never had a notable het contingent, but the TP translation includes asides about Leon thinking D is mad because he's jealous -- you could get plenty of mileage out of that!)
Props to SS for having D outright call Leon a "bumblebee."
From the way it's drawn, seems like the hot flower gals just dump pollen all over him and then immediately disappear. But there's got to be a full-on R-rated AU about this somewhere.
I don't remember how I took this on first reading, but the accidental foreshadowing of "D has a sister?!" must have made waves in the fandom...
TP has a moment of D lamenting "If my sister finds out...!"
SS just has him grumbling about the flower. Guess there was a word that could be translated as "her"/"woman" or "sister" depending on context? Or it was supposed to be the *flower* who has a sister?
TP: Detective, she's not interested in your name. Can I make this any clearer for you?
SS: I implore you to accept her love.
Slang usually works better with Leon. Formal tends to work better with D, but in this case I'm not sure it does justice to his not-at-all-hidden irritation with Leon.
A rare scene where SS has the slangier translation, Leon reacts to meeting the first flower:
TP: You're..beautiful!
SS: Whoa. Hottie!
Back to SS being more-formal, when D tries to explain the situation:
Leon shows up while D is distracted by pet shenanigans, and:
TP: I'm sorry, Detective, but could you please take care of feeding T-chan and Pon-chan?
SS: I'm sorry, but could you please supervise T-chan while Pon-chan eats?
T-chan thrown under the bus by the SS translators, aww.
#PetShopOfHorros reread continues! Comparing the original TP translation with the flashy new SS re-release.
"Chapter 16" is the second Flowers and a/the Detective mini bonus. Last time, Leon only actually saw a plant. This time, the flowers are hot ladies! Oh no.
Works roundup, 4/22 (Marvel, Cosmic Princess Kaguya, webcomics)
Leif & ThornLamb to Lion (wallpaper | Liana | worksafe)Good night boop (art | Leif/Thorn, Tiernan | worksafe)Three men and a Baby in White (art | Leif/Thorn/Kale, Mulberry | worksafe)Hunters Violet and Rowan (art | Violet, Rowan |…
I'm surprised anyone is calling this an "edgy take", instead of a completely average one.
(I say this as one of the introverts who *was* fine with lockdown! That doesn't mean I somehow missed that lots of people hated it.)
You can't trust LLMs to get summaries right, either!
amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-e...
www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
www.ign.com/articles/eve...
erinptah.dreamwidth.org/2025/09/17/l...
(And, really, pro business ticketing software doesn't just...come with a search function?)
Leif & Thorn news tidbits
Leif & Thorn Volume 8 reward packages are arriving for backers. (If you're one of them, sharing photos like this and tagging me is encouraged.) I'm also doing another backlist shipping special for Volumes 1-8, to get them in the mail before the latest Trump-induced price…
Can I get a billion-dollar investment if I redefine every piece of software I use making #LeifAndThorn as "an AI-assisted art tool"?
Yesterday I saved hours on manually redrawing a layer by using the high-tech "ctrl+C" and "ctrl+V". Truck of VC cash, please
That tracks.
My web host put in a GPT-based support bot. Every time I've had to use it, it wastes my time by telling to change a setting that doesn't exist, or fix something that wasn't the problem. Every time! It's exhausting.
It is still your moral duty to vote against Republicans.
The leopards will keep eating faces, for everyone, until "we support leopards eating your face!" stops being a platform they can win elections with.
"I won't say anything bad about conservatives, but I will brag about how I'm so much kinder and more sensitive than liberals"
Dirty (for some reason this is their branding for cream soda flavor): They went way too hard on the flavor, oof. If I'm in the mood for this taste, I'd rather just buy regular orange cream soda
Baja Blast (tropical lime): Meh. Finished what I bought, but won't buy more
Mountain Dew flavor ratings
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
My local stores have only stocked these 4 so far. Others TBA maybe:
Code Red (cherry): Really good. Definitely buying more
Voltage (blue raspberry): About the same as the original. Might switch between them just for the variety