#I've finally convinced my brain to sit down and watch the anime

[anormaladn]

I coud make a medieval fantasy vers of Husha... and throw em in Dungeon Meshi....

[kiirschtein-archive]

⋆ 「 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭. 」 ⋆

jean has a difficult day, returning home to you feeling exhausted and distant. maybe being held like a big, angry baby will fix him.

pairing. — jean kirschtein x gn!reader

word count. — 899

content. — sfw, jean is angsty but reader won’t let him be for long (so mild angst but it turns to fluff i swear), cuddling, physical affection, established relationship.

notes. — *waves nervously* hello all! so... after years i've finally caught up on aot and i have the brainrot pretty hardcore rn. not me lowkey returning to my anime era. anyways, i've never written for the fandom before but jean is my husband and this just popped into my brain the other day, so here we are. enjoy!

The front door opens and closes with a familiar set of noises that reflexively rouse you, but the air that settles in the room quickly thereafter is less routine.

“Hey!” you call out in greeting with a light smile, watching as Jean shuffles forward and removes his boots and coat afterward, draping it over the first available surface that will hold it. His burdened body language and lack of response is enough to tell you that his return home is not pleasant in spirit. Your deduction is only further proven by the way he slumps opposite you on the couch, elbows on knees with a long sigh and deadened eyes. Naturally, you want to offer support, but there’s another part of you that is almost afraid to poke the bear.

But it’s Jean. His bark is often far worse than his bite, and in this state it doesn’t look as though he’s well-equipped to do either.

Sitting up a bit after a moment of silence, you softly ask, “What’s the matter, Jeanbo?”

There’s the slightest hint of a cringe at the name but he seems content to let it go for the moment. “Nothing. I’m just tired.”

You wonder what compels him to withhold the truth when you are often oh so good at extracting it from him, or at the very least able to tell when he’s lying in the first place. But looking at his evident exhaustion and lack of regular spirit, you also wonder if it's even worth it to pry.

However, you find it challenging to simply do nothing. “Baby…” you start, poking your toes just underneath where his thigh meets the seat cushion, probing for his full attention. “Don’t fib.”

There’s a flavor of attitude in the scoff he gives, gaze still fixed on the floor instead of on you.

Oh. So he really is in a mood—likely one that’s not going to be so easy to shake. But to date, you can’t recall a time that he’s ever given up on you, so how could you even think of doing such a thing to him? To leave him in his quiet, solitary misery would plague your conscience with guilt. Perhaps powering forward with a positive disposition will help pull him back to the light.

“Would a kiss make it better?” you ask with a lighthearted grin, hoping to entice him with your playfully offered affection.

Jean huffs and grunts but makes no effort to move away from you. “I’m not a baby, y’know.” His tone is still uncooperative, but there’s something about it that doesn’t entirely convince you. In all the time you’ve spent together, he’s never really truly given you the cold shoulder no matter how tough things managed to get. There’s no reason for you to believe that he would do it now.

You squint your eyes in displeasure, staring him down for a moment before deciding to take action. If he wants to be indignant, you’ll simply have to take a somewhat different approach.

“Oh? Is that so?” you say, brows raising in faux inquisition. “Come here.” You sit up now, reaching out to grab him beneath the arms as best as you can at your angle, and drag him backwards with all your might. He might be quite the large specimen, but that does nothing to deter your efforts.

“Hey–” he starts, surprised by your sudden incursion. Though rigid at first, he eventually becomes compliant and allows himself to be re-positioned between your legs, back against your torso and head against your chest. You wrap your arms around him to pull him closer, letting the weight of his body rest against your own. It isn’t long before you feel his muscles relax into this new position, releasing any tension they had previously clung to. Success.

Jean lets out a longer, far more relaxed sigh this time as your fingers gently toy with his hair, causing his eyes to close shortly after. “‘M sorry,” he mumbles and takes another deep breath. He’s almost in disbelief that he could attempt to deny himself of this, despite knowing how efficiently you are able to soothe him. He feels foolish for being so standoffish. “I love you.” His eyes are open now and he cranes his head back against your chest to look up at you as best as he can.

You offer a gentle smile and a small chuckle, feeling a deep sense of love and accomplishment. “S’okay, loverboy.” Your fingers brush at his bangs with adoration, and you give him a small peck on the cheek with your lips. Afterwards, your mouth stops just below his ear, and there you whisper, “I love you more.”

“Not possible,” he retorts, closing his eyes once again and shuffling against you for comfort. “No one beats me at anything.”

You roll your eyes as he lazily matches your smile and goes lax. “If you say so.” Arguing with him is the last thing you feel compelled to do now that he has been calmed, essentially using you as a pillow, and is surely about to drift off into a much-needed slumber. You’ll overcome the ordeal of figuring out how to move him later–for now, you’re happy just to watch him sleep undisturbed with the face of an angel, knowing that you’ve done your part in helping ease his burdens if only just for tonight.

[rosesocietyy]

Brilliant people have said everything that needs to be said about this much much better and I don't got anything substantial to add but I just have to get this off my chest cause y'all I'm still in disbelief

like this is a grown ass person btw oh I simply have to laugh😭

this perfectly exemplifies literally everything cringe af and wrong with these "assigned welcomers". this is just my scapegoat but there are way worse I've seen

First of all, get a job. how, at your fossil age, do you have time to spend all day scrolling through every single iwtv related post and arguing with people who say anything even slightly damning about lestat (which mind you, is literally just objective facts about things he did). I'll dm you a McDonald's application hell I'll even put in a referral for you out of the goodness of my heart.

Second, Lestat is not a real person. he's fake, a made up character, the figment of someone's imagine, non-existent, people hating him will not affect your life in anyway shape or form. He didn't assign you as his PR agent I promise you'll live. "They'll never accept him" ok and?!?

Question, and I'm genuinely asking, is this their first time in a fandom? why is someone having a different opinion about a character they love enough to send them into hysterics like?? 13 year olds on anime twitter have a better grasp on reality that y'all do get a grip!

And like the above posts have talked extensively about, I most definitely noticed whose posts a specific bunch of them love to go under to share their dog shit "explanation" that nobody asked for. When a black person sees Louis being brutalized by his white lover what do you expect their reaction to be? oaur wow this white french slut is so pussy cunt slay period queen? "but louis is flawed too" do you hear yourself? do you listen to yourself when you speak? can you activate the barest hint of brain activity to understand why we would react differently to what we're watching than you would and that knowledge of the source material has nothing to do with it? Just because you read those shitty books and posses no empathy for black people in media doesn't mean you gain some higher understanding of "gothic romance ".

"No but the thing is you don't understand this is a gothic romance and they're supposed to be monsters and lestat has suffered saur much and he's also the real main character so you must love him" so now how exactly does that negate their point about him being an abuser? quickly! sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up when black people are sharing their thoughts on the show cause who the fuck are you fr and what convinced you that you have the right to argue with them about THEIR experiences. that tweet that said white people act like God left them in charge, yeah.

Funny enough, half the people that are so gung ho about him now didn't even fw him at all when they only read the first book. wow it's almost like you were allowed to sort out your feelings about him on your own without insects disguised as people in your mentions calling you slow for not licking his feet.

I despise so much in this fandom. From the bottom of my heart I really truly do. I don't know what I was expecting, I guess more common sense and maturity because the average age in the fandom is quite high compared to other fandoms I've been in but nah, just mfs screaming and crying bc ppl don't jump up and down and scream yipee! everytime their white fav commits abhorrent, disgusting crimes.

I was so caught up in the euphoria of an anne rice property finally being given to skilled creators who'll pick it apart and say something poignant with it that for a moment, I forgot I lived in a world where majority of its audience would sadly be the anne rice crowd.

[plague-stricken-marionette]

So! I feel like rambling and gushing about everything I love about this comic which means... y'all know what time it is

Below the cut is my passionate ramble which is stupid long (and took three hours to write according to my drafts if you were curious). You have been warned before you open that

I got to The Dummy's Dummy pretty late all things considered because I came in after Season 2 wrapped up (at the time of writing this, there is no Season 3 yet so I will be exclusively gushing about everything that was shown up to the Season 2 finale). I found out about it because a close friend convinced me to start checking out some Webtoons they love and started going through their rec list

I've really enjoyed all the ones I've read so far and have a lot of thoughts about them too (maybe I'll dump those in a different blog one day), but THIS ONE- This one has just completely gripped my brain with the force of a vise grip. I'm in love with everything about it to the artwork, the plot, the character design, and of course the characters themselves

I love Paris and Yumi and Lily. I really do. I love all three as individual characters but I love them even more when they're all together because I love their dynamics together and how it progresses over the course of the comic

Lily is absolutely hilarious at times and such a freaking mood too which makes her super fun to watch- And she's so good with Yumi too from keeping an eye on her to backing her (and Paris!) up when crap hits the fan

Yumi is adorable in a lot of scenes, but she also gets up to a lot of cool stuff too. And scary stuff! Poor kid is eleven years old (at least according to the old canvas/tapas version of the comic) and basically has the weight of the world sitting on her shoulders right now because she also happens to be a psychic who gets premonitions of people that might get hurt soon or die

And then there's Paris. The damn puppet that's consuming most of my free braincells

I'd be lying if I said Paris isn't my blatant favorite character, but make no mistake that I still love the rest of the cast too. Paris is so... His design aside, he's just fun to listen to because of the way his dialogue is written and he's- an extremely complex character that has a lot of layers to him. He's not a good person (or at least not a perfect paragon of good/a selfless hero), he even says so himself during the comic, but he's not evil either. He's so perfectly morally gray imo and he's- well- he's learning

A lot of his behavior is hardcoded into him by virtue of how Ivan's curse works and how it animated Paris (though even then, even more of his personality was shown to be influenced by his past experiences), but you can see that he can do kind things and he grows even kinder and perhaps a tiny bit softer over the course of the comic as he comes to care about Yumi and Lily and they start to break down a lot of the walls he's built up around himself

And I think that's beautiful. I love a character that isn't the perfect embodiment of good or evil. It ironically makes him very human and I think the storytelling is great because of that on an individual character arc level

That's not to say the overarching plot isn't good though because, make no mistake, it's incredible too. Yumi went seemingly her entire life seeing things that terrify her but when she meets Paris, she realizes that she can use those powers of hers to save people

And that's a lot of what the plot is. A lot of the early plot is them dealing with the things she has premonitions about until the big bad is introduced. BUT EVEN THEN- There's just so- So much going on and it's scary and it's terrifying and that's why Paris and Lily's dynamics with Yumi is fun

Paris and Yumi sort of settle into this big brother-big sister relationship and it's just... God it's so sweet. It's everything to me. Yumi trusts Paris completely and she worries so much about his wellbeing and wants him to be okay. And she calls him her hero!! HER HERO!

And Paris is just... He worries about her too. He admits with his full chest that he was just using Yumi for her psychic abilities earlier on, but by the time he admits that in the comic? He follows it up with the fact that he now cares about her so much to the point where he'd rather be destroyed than see her hurt or let her get hurt. He cares SO MUCH even if he's struggling with and/or refusing to admit that

And that's so... So... It plays into the last time he really cared about a human (his creator) and everything that came out of it. ESPECIALLY given how things ended with Ivan by the time Paris was put into that trunk for 80 years and left to be found and freed all that time later by Yumi

That's all just gushing about Yumi and Paris too. That's just touching on the two characters we see the most of. There's so many more unique and colorful characters in this comic I haven't even touched on yet- Like Lily!

I mentioned Lily already but I need to deep dive on her for a minute too because she deserves it as much as Paris and Yumi do. Lily is Yumi's babysitter which is how she winds up as involved with the other two as she is (besides the fact that they had to rescue her from a scary situation too)

And because she's her babysitter... That means we get a lot of big sister Lily vibes in there too because she's absolutely ready to kick ass on Yumi's behalf and protect her from creepy things. She routinely voices the fact that she's creeped out and scared by all of this weird creepy stuff and ghosts and possessed toys and all of that but she keeps putting herself out there anyway because she won't let Yumi go it alone

That extends to Paris too! Lily and Paris definitely have a rivalry in the beginning and Lily absolutely does not trust Paris at first when it comes to things with Yumi. But she comes to care about the guy too because she rushes straight into danger on Yumi's behalf to save Paris' life later on

And that's not even counting the way she immediately jumps to Paris' defense when everyone is talking after an encounter with the big bad and Paris is telling his backstory. Without even hesitating, she jumps right in to his defense to tell him that he's not broken for having the choice to act how he wants to act. That he's not broken for being a person with thoughts and feelings

I just- I can't with these three. They all work so well together and their friendship is something to behold. I need so much fanart and fanfic of these guys together and doing stuff as a team

AND THAT'S JUST THE THREE MAIN CHARACTERS- All of that rambling and gushing is literally just for the main characters. Even the freaking side characters have a lot going on with them or have a lot of depth to their characters

Let's take Darla and Dorothy there as an example. The Darling Dolls. Dorothy in particular has a lot of interaction with Paris and proposed a major character defining moment/question to Paris in the past, but we see some of Darla too and what we do see of her is just...

They both got mixed up with the big bad, right? Our introduction to them is that they're mixed up with the big bad. Dorothy is helping the big bad because he threatened Darla. Darla, her sister, who outright told Dorothy to run and bought her time because she didn't want Dorothy to get hurt too

So there's some big character stuff right there. And while we're on the topic of the big bad...

Even he's got a lot of depth behind him and his motives if you start to read between the lines and think about some things based on other plot clues we get. He's horrifying and he very much does pose a threat to our main characters as well as everybody else around him, but...

He's not pure evil either. First of all, he's dealing with an absolutely terrifying situation of his own (that I'm not sure if he even fully understands what's happening to him) which does drive the villainy he's getting up to, but that's the thing. He's being driven to do what he does because he is- Uh- He's not doing great actually!

And second of all- The big bad was made by the same guy that made Paris and the rest so in a way... The big bad is as much of a victim as some of the others in the sense of Ivan's curse took him and twisted his mind and made him turn out the way he did

Because the kicker is that the big bad guy thinks or at least thought he was doing good and bringing justice to people. He says he was designed and specially created to be a hero, so anything standing against him has to be evil, right?

That makes for... a really complicated villain of the story if you sit there and put all of these things together (and interpret them the way I am, at least). Just like how Paris isn't the picture perfect of good, this guy isn't the picture perfect of "evil villain without a cause" either

Personally, I don't think Ivan helped either. It's clear that he wanted to stop his wayward creations from hurting people (read: other humans) which is why he created Paris. But... I think in his doing that... He managed to hurt people like Paris and our big bad by failing to see them as the complicated and complex people they are too

And that gets into even more morally gray stuff because Ivan wants these toys rounded up before they can kill humans... but his insistence and way of going about it kind of bulldozed the people he created and was using to get the job done. You can absolutely draw connections between present Paris' behavior and cageyness to his experiences with Ivan in the past once the backstory reveal comes up

It's just an absolute mess. The whole backstory with Ivan and Paris and our big bad is just... It's just a mess and I don't mean that in a bad storytelling kind of way. I mean that in a good storytelling kind of way because it's so freaking emotionally complicated and hard to pin the blame on any one person.

Do people deserve blame and should they take blame for how some things turned out or what some of their actions were? Oh absolutely. But it's more complex than just "this guy was bad and only ever bad"

That whole stretch of backstory episodes is just... exhausting to read in a good way. At least if you're the type that really sinks into a story and empathizes with the characters like I do. It is draining and it hurts and it is beautiful in its tragedy

And that's all just what we see in the first and second season. I don't know what's going to happen next in the comic but that's everything I've seen thus far

I may think of more thoughts to add to this later or make a second post to ramble in, but I think I got it all out for now. This comic is just... It's gripped me in a very strong way and I want to talk endlessly about it and make a lot of fan content for it

Anyway ahem yes this is basically my long winded way of saying you should go read The Dummy's Dummy if you haven't already. It's 100% free to read and costs nothing but your time to read it

[catwings-writes-things]

For the ao3 wrapped: 3, 6, 16, 29

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

Surprising no one, I'm gonna have to say A World of His Own. Before this year I'd never written anything (I do mean anything--no fanfic, original fiction, essays, nothing) longer than around 15,000 words. Now I have an in-progress fic with a single coherent storyline that's over 100,000 words long and nowhere near done. Some of the chapters are longer than 15,000 words. And not only that, but I'm really proud of the writing and the characterization. The Jailbreak Squad have taken over my brain and I have no objections whatsoever.

6. Favorite title you used?

De Humani Corporis Fabrica--Latin for "On the Fabric of the Human Body"--is the title of the best-known anatomy text by Andreas Vesalius, a Rennaissance anatomist and pioneer of human dissection, which at the time was considered taboo. As such, most anatomical knowledge came from dissections of animals, inspection of traumatic injuries, and conventional wisdom from earlier anatomists who had largely been working under the same restrictions. Vesalius was both sufficiently dedicated to his pursuit of accurate anatomical knowledge and sufficiently unbothered by other people's opinions as to cut bodies down from the gallows after public executions (sometimes having to fight stray dogs for them) and take them home to study, even allowing them to decompose in his living space to get at the bones once he'd learned all he could from the soft tissue. (He was also my first historical friend-crush, which probably tells you quite a bit about me, although perhaps not much to which my fic wouldn't tip you off.) De Humani Corporis Fabrica is his masterwork, illustrating what he'd learned with intricate drawings of bodies in various lifelike poses and states of dissection.

Needless to say, Andreas Vesalius was a Flesh avatar if ever there was one, not to mention probably autistic AF, and De Humani Corporis Fabrica seems as good a candidate as any for a Leitner. So when I set out to write a fic featuring late human-era Mike Crew nearly working himself to death in an extended burst of autistic hyperfocus and Angela the Flesh avatar trying to both help him deal with the immediate fallout and convince him that bodies have limits and he needs to treat his with more respect if it's going to last long enough to get him wherever he's going, using "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" as the title seemed pretty damn perfect.

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

Families of Choice, which is the canonical tag on AO3 for the concept I've mostly heard referred to as "found family." It's specifically tagged on three of the seven fics I've posted this year (that number is misleading, due to my aforementioned longfic), but it could or should have been tagged on six of them. ("Fix-It," "Temporary Character Death," "Complicated Relationships," and "Twisted and Fluffy Feelings" appear on two fics apiece, which probably also gives some relevant information. Especially that last one.)

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Honestly, I can't decide. I've been proud of so many things I've written this year that I really can't narrow it down--which is a good problem to have! If it helps, after I post chapter ten, I think I'm going to make a "pick your favorite bit of out-of-context A World of His Own dialog" poll--each option a line spoken by a different character.

Okay, never mind. I found a favorite. From Chapter 2 of A World of His Own:

“I can't... sit and watch television with you,” Helen finally said, almost a snap. “It won’t work.” She gestured at herself, head to feet. “This isn't even a real body. It's more of a... concept.” “Well,” said Harriet mildly. “Sit the concept of your butt down and let us introduce you to The Twilight Zone.”

Thank you so much for the ask, anonymous friend! I hope you have a great day!

[giggly-squiggily]

Dr. Stone request: Can u do something with Chrome and Ukyo? U can pick who is Lee, who is Ler, or if they're Switches

I've gotcha, anon! It's been a hot minute since I've written for Dr. Stone! I decided to go with Lee!Ukyo for this one- lately ticklish ears have been my jam! I hope you like it!

“Hey, are you listening?” Chrome looked up from his explanation, eyes falling on the rather drowsy looking Ukyo sitting by.

“Hm? Of course I’m listening! You were saying something about…spinning wheels and…” Those bright green eyes glazed over, and he slowly blinked. “Okay, maybe I wasn’t paying attention.”

It wasn’t that Ukyo didn’t like science, most days he was all ears and eyes, watching in awe as Senku and team bring back humanity one experiment at a time. It’s just sometimes when the day’s been long and the work has been particularly draining, the former sonar technician couldn’t help but start falling asleep.

“Yes, I was telling you about our latest advances with the generator and…ah, forget it. You’re not even listening now.” Chrome rolled his eyes, trying to look annoyed at his friend. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Sorry…” Ukyo mumbled, shame coloring his voice as he looked at his lap.

“Like I said, I’ll tell you more about it later.” Chrome walked over, kneeling before his friend and studying him. “Hey, let me ask you something?” He reached out, moving Ukyo’s chin gently so he could get a better look at the other’s ears. “You’re known for your insanely good hearing. Can you hear people’s heartbeats from far away?”

Ukyo blinked, eyeing him. “What? No, not really.”

“What if someone’s talking about you? Can you hear them when you’re asleep?”

“...Senku’s been filling your head with the old stories, hasn’t he?” The smaller man twitched when Chrome leaned in, his breath tickling the shell. “My hearing is good, but not anime good-eh!”

“Eh? What’s that?” Chrome mused, his finger gently pressing along the other’s ears. He heard Senku describe this as palpation- something he taught them during their first aid class. “Wow, your ears stick out alot!”

“R-Rude! Chrome, would you stop i-ehe!” Ukyo flinched with a startled laugh, eyes widening as his brain processed the sound. Chrome also stopped, eyes just as wide. “What the heck was that?”

Ukyo knew he was screwed. Chrome had that look. That look. The look he and Senku always got when they discovered something new. That childlike curiosity that wouldn’t budge until they’ve researched every little bit of the new thing. “Chrome, no.”

“Chrome, yes!” The scientist grinned, his hand coming back up to gently wiggle behind the shell, making Ukyo scrunch up with muffled giggles. “No way, your ears are ticklish?” He blinked then. “People can have ticklish ears?” He grinned at the increasing struggles the smaller man made. “I need to learn more- hey hold still!”

“Chrohohohoohome! Geheheheht ohoohohohff!” He cried, feeling himself start to fall back from the other’s insistent yet incredibly gentle tickles. Chrome followed him down, giggling to himself as Ukyo’s voice squeaked and squealed. “Nohhohoohohhoohohohohoho!”

“Okay, okay!” Chrome laughed, finally pulling his hands back and smiling down at the flushed, giggly man beneath him. “I’m satisfied.”

“Ahehehe…hehehe…w-what the heheeell you jeheerk!” Ukyo groaned, shoving lightly at Chrome’s chest and making the other laugh. “I’m sorry! Really!” Chrome tried to sound convincing, but immediately crumbled when Ukyo glared, falling into his chest and losing himself in giggles.

“Whatever, I suppose I can forgive you…not!” Ukyo’s hands shot down to the scientist’s ribs, digging in with a vengeance. Chrome jerked with a squeal, flopping like a fish and shrieking with laughter as the older man got him back. “Uhuhuhuuhuuhhkyo I’hhihiihihihihim sahhahahhahahharry!”

“Oh sure, you will be.” Ukyo grinned, eyes twinkling.

I hope this was good!