#(i've been thinking about this gifset for over a year and never got around to it til now)

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

Blog Birthday Exchange ✤ @the-witching-ash

Richie Gilmore & Kirsty Gilmore (mine)

Tag List: @airwolf92– want to be added?

[amuseoffyre]

I've been rolling around in Good Omens thoughts again and a gifset made something jump out at me.

This is where the Metatron is going to come undone. He's got the same binary thinking as Heaven. Good or bad. Heaven or hell. Coffee or death. So predictable.

It reminded me of the scene in S1 when Aziraphale is confronted by the angels and they tell him "it's time to choose a side" and this is where it gets chewy and delicious.

Aziraphale points out "there obviously has to be two sides. That's the whole point, so people can make choices. That's what being human means - choices, but that's for them. Our job as angels should be to keep all this working so they can make choices".

He's already arguing for humanity all the way through S1, which is a problem, but it's something he's done consistently. Not questioning. Very much, not questioning. Just... offering suggestions. So this isn't news. He's even made these kind of suggestions to the Metatron before, so not new.

At the end of S1, Crowley points out that he thinks the real 'big one' is coming "Heaven and Hell against humanity". Aziraphale has been sitting with that knowledge for years. He and Crowley have been dancing on the edge of disaster with Heaven and Hell turning up whenever they wanted, invading their space, demanding their time and compliance even though they are seen as rogue agents.

Everything in S2 is Aziraphale trying to maintain the veneer of everything is fine while still dealing with the terror of it all falling apart. The "or death" has been hanging over them the whole time. He saw the attempted execution. He's been told by Heaven that Crowley is under threat.

But the thing about Aziraphale is that he never ever does the predictable thing. Yes, he agreed to go back to Heaven. Yes, the Metatron leveraged Crowley's safety against him to guarantee it. The statement of "I don't want to go back to Heaven" turning around as soon as Crowley's safety is brought into it. Yes, he'll be the Archangel.

But this is the angel who gave away his flaming sword and lied to God's face. This is the angel who interfered in a bet between God and Satan to save the lives of three children. This is the angel who collaborated with a demon so they could have more down time. This is the angel who was swayed towards saving the world because he loves his life there and all his favourite foods and music and indulgences. This is the angel who flipped the bird and dive-bombed out of Heaven to possess a medium and fly a scooter to the end of the world.

Whatever the Metatron thinks he's done by separating Crowley and Aziraphale, he has no idea what he's unleashed. Crowley's bee metaphor comes to mind here. Angels are fiercely protective of Heaven but once you're inside? Well, that's another story. Aziraphale may look like a bee, but he hasn't been a bee for a long, long time. They knew it at his trial.

And Aziraphale can't say he didn't warn them:

"So you're probably thinking if he can do this, I wonder what else he can do and very, very soon, you're all going to get the chance to find out"

Heaven's got a big storm coming and they let it right in through the front door.

[paleoleigh]

I don't think I can take much more of this. The constant hate for Taika. The constant hate for us. The constant hate for OFMD. None of which is justified or even based on anything! I just keep wanting to cry. I hate this. I'm not even on Twitter or reddit or anything but here. I barely follow anyone at all. I don't go near the tags. And I still see it! One of the few I do follow, who I've followed for years, just reblogged an absolutely vile post full of misinfo about us and Taika and the show and now I'm ready to cry even more. All I want to do is look at meta and gifsets and bask in how much love and joy this awesome little show brought us all and I keep seeing all this horrible stuff. I hate it and I don't know what to do anymore.

Hi Anon - I wish I knew what to say to make things better. I understand completely where you're coming from though. I've been on this cursed site since at least 2012 and got anon hate for the first time this week solely because of OFMD.

There seems to be a trend lately - not just here but everywhere - to virtue signal by dunking on something "cringe", and people feel the need to justify their actions by clamoring for why it's actually morally right for them to be against it. It really fucking sucks.

But so many people have said this show has saved their lives or given them so much. We've raised over $10k for Palestine and $10k for other charities. We bought food and water for the actors striking this past year. We know the good we're capable of, and it hurts to see others take that in bad faith.

And as for Taika...dude just gets shit on constantly for literally nothing. Misinformation is absolutely rampant about him. My advice for all of this is to use the block button liberally and never go in the main tags. That's how I've avoided seeing a lot of the vile shit floating around here. And as always, my DMs are open if you need to chat. Take care of yourself friend 💜

[bettsfic]

(Love on Display is the series name for ASE and its sequel)

okay so for this commentary i went through my ASE tag to read the asks i'd gotten about it because i can't really remember the whole process, and found this response i'd written:

you know how like when you read or watch something, you kind of look for the character you relate to most? when i was rereading the hunger games last month i was thinking, i don’t relate to a single one of you bitches. and then annie shows up like “nope nope nope i can handle exactly 0% of this bullshit” and i was just, ah there i am

looking back on my mental health issues, the irony is that i was writing about madness in a time i was actually pretty stable, despite the pandemic being in full swing. i remember writing ASE throughout summer, sitting on my grandma's porch swing and admiring her garden, going inside only when it got dark enough for the fireflies to come out. at the time, i was approaching my third year of rejections on the original fiction front; i'd been querying agents for over a year and submitting short stories, and i felt like i wasn't getting anywhere. i was also about to start a phd program, which i was apprehensive about, to say the least. i wish i'd listened to that "i have a bad feeling about this" instinct.

tbosas had just come out (to almost no attention or acclaim; even now with the film coming out in a couple weeks, the gifsets i've been reblogging don't get a lot of traffic and the tag only has 250 fics in it) and so i read it, loved it, and immediately re-read the hunger games with the new lens of snow's origin story.

the hunger games is one of the few things that i think is completely worth the hype. it's a beautifully written series and i really admire it. tbosas i thought was even better, because it felt like suzanne collins had full creative control. it's not easy writing a villain origin story and i think she really managed to thread the needle with coriolanus as a POV character who is really the antagonist of two protagonists whose POVs we don't have access to.

anyway as soon as i finished re-reading the hunger games, i went back to read the one thg fic i'd written after the film series concluded, the baker's son. it wasn't as bad as i remembered it, because 2015-16 were the years i was really starting to figure out how to write, so everything from that time in my memory is hand-wavy at best. but i remember thinking, this could have been really good if i'd just taken my time with it.

back then, i never took my time with anything. i had so many ideas that i had to churn through them in order to get to the next one. when you're just starting out writing, you haven't followed through on enough ideas to know how to sort through them properly and find the ones that have legs. so i was still learning how to control my attention.

and so ASE marked a huge change in the way i viewed my own work and the reception thereof. i was getting nowhere in publishing, i was no longer in one single fandom and so i didn't really have a community, and i finally realized the only guarantee i would ever have is my own joy. that changed everything.

i know i'll always love the hunger games, because i genuinely believe it's good. it's engaging and entertaining and meaningful. before, i'd written for canons i actually didn't like, because communities had formed around them and i was inspired by what i felt was unmet potential in canon. but i know i'll never rewatch supernatural or the 100. in fact i didn't finish either of them. with big fandoms, sure, i get more traffic and comments. but i'd stopped writing for traffic and comments. i wrote ASE because it was fun, and i knew in 10 years i'd read the hunger games again, and i would want my perfect fixit fic. and i would want it to be long, and well thought out, and something i could be proud of.

i've kept that "i'm writing for my 40 year old self" mentality for all my writing. at 40, i want to look back at what i wrote at 30 and know it was time well spent because it made me happy during a hard time in human history. it's a lot easier to make creative decisions when you're writing for an audience of your future self.

with tbosas coming out soon, i'm hoping to finish the coriojanus fic i started in 2020 (i think it's 7k?). and looking back through my ASE tag i also saw how many ideas i had for finnick POV and i could see myself fiddling around with a few of those prompts eventually.

[gingersnapwolves]

have you watched the Mysterious Lotus Casebook yet, because it's so up your alley

a child prodigy, li xiangyi, took over the martial world at 18, got tricked into a mega battle where both he and his opponent, di feisheng, were thought dead for 10 years, but he's been roaming around being a "quack" miracle doctor, li lianhua and solving crimes whilst looking for the body of his shixiong and slowly dying of the most potent poison known to man

when he is found by a puppy dog disciple, fang doubling, who is unaware that's he godlike and wants to be just like who he was, and together with di feisheng and a dog called huli jing they solve agatha christie style mysteries

did i mention that the mysterious lotus is the name of the portable house that li lianhua lives in [sometimes with one or both]

it's a delight, cleverly written, pretty boys who are so queer coded they might as well - never mind, I'm pretty sure the book was a danmei [although they're not supposed to make those anymore]

and almost all of the actors were in dmbj at some point - but not together

I think you'll find it a treat, and I highly recommend it

I've seen some gifsets about it and that does sound very cool! Though I don't know what dmbj is lol. I will put it on the list!

[austim]

this ask is on your side dw!! i am just complaining. i think it's annoying when people are like "i don't think people should get credit for just running a video through a gif converter" as if that's what all of us are doing. me personally i make all my gifs in photoshop and have had to spend a lot of time learning how to balance quality with optimization for use, color correcting without overcorrecting, etc etc.

some people use ezgif, like you, and spend time doing those same corrections, balancing optimization and quality, etc.

and either way, gif makers are making gifs so you don't have to! if you don't want to put in the time finding footage and making gifs, that's the service gif makers provide! without them, if you're not doing them yourself, the whole gif-based community falls apart. so maybe put a little respect on that... idk :c it just sucks all around 👎

Literally there's been less and less gifmakers over the years BECAUSE people do not respect gifmakers. I remember when the second a movie came out there'd be multiple gifsets of it before most people even have a chance to see it in a theater; that's how much people cared about and loved to make gifs. Nowadays a movie can be out for months and I'll only see an old gifset or two made from the trailer and nothing else (ofc this depends on the movie, but I remember almost every new release got this treatment, not anymore).

There are still plenty of movie gifmakers, but not nearly as much as there used to be. I think the same can be said for stim gifmakers; there are far more abandoned ones than active ones, and gif theft and general disrespect is one of the biggest reasons why. We're definitely the most vocal about this issue from what I've seen, and I think that's one of many reasons why the stim gif-making community is still going strong. I've thought of no longer making gifs after feeling exhausted seeing them stolen or miscredited so often, but I don't think I could stop for long; I love making gifs too much. I think many of us feel the same way.

I think the people who don't respect us either genuinely have no idea what it takes to make a nice gif and have never tried, or know they're in the wrong but are too ashamed to admit it so they double down.

[bnjmin]

fandom discourse surrounding canon ben: well obviously ppl would try to romanticize everything around his drug habits (i do too but im allowed to bc i'm his stepmother). so much bobby discourse that i simply cannot IMAGINE and many, many au's where bobby is alive (once again, same). everyone mistaking ben's tendency toward cynicism and apathy for Toxic Male Dominant Energy when in reality he's just a curly haired little guy who needs a hug and to not be treated like he's an infant and incapable of being independent. he's very capable. trying to dissect the steele family dynamic wayyy too hard. objectifying his bubble butt (as they should). copious amount of gifsets of him looking grumpy when ppl are talking. i could go on forever and will some other time, tysm for coming 2 my ted talk

ben's stepmother just know that i owe you my life and i'm sorry for what you're about to witness under the cut

oh the drug stuff would be so bad it would be horrid (as he's my ip i would never let this happen but in the case of him being in Other Hands i just know they would show him using and being fucked up but never actually the conseqences of it. there are plenty: he has to cope with the fact that there is about two years of his life that he just doesn't remember, his family is so important to him and it takes years after the fact to repair that relationship, he does stupid shit irt bobby/his memory (like wanting his parents to throw out all of bobby's shit, getting viscerally angry when they talk about him/have pictures of him, it's generally very ugly)) he develops a heart condition, he still and will forever struggle with addiction just at things that have a lesser (?) side effect, like caffeine and nicotine and his alcohol use persists until he's able to be completely sober in his late thirties/early forties which is also trial and error for like five years before it really sticks. i almost want to tag this as a spoiler LMAO but he's either going to die from heart condition complications (think mid-late fifties) or a relapse (late-fourties/early fifties) and that shit isn't cute or fun is it

god, the bobby discourse. i have bobby discourse with myself because on the one hand, bobby was kind of a piece of shit while he was struggling with his addiction (which is when most of ben's really formative memories are with him) and he technically never gets to redeem himself because he dies. bobby as a person, regardless of addictive tendencies, is really very selfish. and not in the way that ben is - where ben will just remove himself from situations that he doesn't want to be in with no warning or care - but in the way that he will weigh the options of fucking someone over and getting what he wants and he will choose to get what he wants. i think if he did live and got his act together, he could pay some penance for what he did to not only ben but again the entire family during his addiction (i imagine he stole a lot of things from them for drug money which is...well) but he still would always be the big brother than ben kind of has to babysit and take care of and that's...not fair to ben. ben loves him regardless, a little blindly and reverently, but as a third party observer obviously that is not great.

ben's first introductions of him being snappy and moody and everyone diagnosing him with toxic masculinity (which he's not completely innocent of it, just look at how he feels regarding his height/weight gain after stopping coke) and typical manhood when really he's the most submissive man you've probably ever met. he does have some pleasant qualities! and i resent the fact that there have been people that have tried to push him into this mold of generic and bland mysterious man when it's like. no. he's not cool enough for that and you need to recognize what a loser he is. and you're so RIGHT about not being treated like and infant/giving him independence i've never thought about that but i'm sure that's such a big part of why it takes such a long time for the family dynamics to go back to normal when he starts getting clean. everyone is handling him with kid gloves like one small incident is going to make him fall headfirst into a line, but that kind of distrust in a way makes it harder for him to stay sober.

steele family dynamic is a fucking. it's a mess but it's a loving mess but it's also a messy mess. steele family dynamics needs its own post probably.

objectification: good. the objectification that would lead to him likely being shipped with a poorly written character that everyone can just project themselves onto: bad.

gifset with 4k notes: ben making The Facetm

[fereldanwench]

got in A Mood and decided to browse my edits tag

a few thoughts/observations/rambles:

i've had this specific blog since 2016 and i've been doing various screenshots, gifs, moodboards, etc since i made it almost exactly 7 years ago. i have 109 pages in my mine: edits tag: - 54 of those pages are from 2016-2021 and encompass about half a dozen or so fandoms. - the other 55 pages? run from july 2021 until now and are almost exclusively cyberpunk (and more specifically, almost exclusively valerie and/or goro). the amount of ~*content*~ i made over the course of 5 years for 6-10 fandoms is almost the exact same amount of ~*content*~ for one game in the span of about a year in a half? like damn. if that doesn't just perfectly capture the brainrot.

it was very heartwarming and enlightening looking at some of my OCs/ships that i consider more or less "retired" at this point, like my ryder and jaal or my inquisitor and cullen. it was nice looking through all those sets again and having some warm fuzzies and seeing how they influenced later OCs/ships but also being content to be like yeah, that's it. we had good times, but we moved on just like we needed to.

on the flipside, it was also interesting going through some of them and seeing the OCs/ships that I'd like to revisit at some point. or possibly rework into cyberpunk. i think i could see some themes i had wanted to explore with my sole survivor acting as a foundation to really develop valerie's mother, whomst i haven't talked much about here but i have a lot of thoughts on. (although audrey (sole) and ava (valerie's mother) are kind of the antithesis of each other in that audrey never wanted a kid and wanted to pursue a career but ended up living the opposite whereas ava wanted a kid and felt pushed into the corporate world BUT ANYWAY I DIGRESS)

it was also kind of cool for me to see how my screenshot/vp style developed over the years. i wasn't even familiar with the term "virtual photography" until cyberpunk--i just thought of it as fucking around with a flycam and taking screenshots. the 'photography' element didn't even really click with me. but i can see where some of the stuff i was doing 6-7 years ago, even with moodboards, definitely influenced how i approach vp in cyberpunk.

and number/performance-talk, because even if i make stuff for me, i still think it's interesting to take note of trends and whatnot: - i definitely experienced a pretty noticeable drop off in notes post-2018 and the great tiddy purge. that shit really hit hard, damn - i remember in past fandoms i often felt like stillshots didn't get nearly as much love as gifsets (especially gaming scenery gifsets), and based on my own stuff, that does seem to track. i think the two big exceptions for me there were mass effect andromeda and now cyberpunk. which are very pretty games with very pretty characters and compatible with decent cinematic tools so idk, maybe they just work better in that format than, like, muddy potato-y dragon age origins, lmao.

anywhoooooo i also filled my queue up with some old posts so get ready for some vintage wench content over the next few days uwu

[peppered-imps]

For the fandom ask game E & J?

hello friend! this will probably be a longer one, so everything is under the cut!

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what

so many. too many. but really just in the obianidala discord, which you are privy to. however, I will defer to one of my favourites, inspired by @chaoticdumbassrogue's au in which OWK era Obi-Wan, Leia, and Tala get sent back to the Clone Wars era and Leia assumes the identity of Obi-Wan's daughter. Now I won't assert that that idea is crack (i'll leave the classifications to the author), however my creations inspired by it definitely are. And so...  my ✨memes✨

Obi-Wan: We must be discreet, Leia. Careful. Subtle. Leia: Got it!! Leia, as soon as she gets captured by enemy forces:

as well as a take on the very classic "let me see what you have?"//"a knife!!!!"//"NO!!"

I'm quite proud of them. they are a source of endless delight for me.

--

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

Oh there's several I know but many escape me. Some I'd never heard of until tumblr and others I started exploring more due to tumblr. So The Americans is kinda one of those. I'd heard hype about it but it wasn't until I started seeing gifsets and stuff that I started paying any attention to it. I still haven't actually watched it but I've consumed a lot of the fandom media here, which has been really interesting. it's quite an intriguing show, and the dynamic between elizabeth/phillip is kinda mesmerizing, even if I don't know all the ins and outs of it yet. perhaps I'll actually get to watching it someday. and honestly tumblr is probably partly responsible for renewing my star wars obsession lol. after years of not caring about it, I'd see a post or two floating around that had me 👀. and that led to another post and another, which just fueled the eventual brainrot lol

thanks for asking!! 💙

[minhyukie]

good morning, happy monday! first of all wanted to say hi, I'm jade I'm your ☃️ secret santa :)))) it's been such a pleasure getting to know you and about your love for minhyuk! I just posted what I made for you <3

also wanted to say it's so exciting about the kitten!! I got a kitten not too long ago, it's such a happy time :) also my favorite christmas movies are elf and the grinch! I also normally rewatch lord of the rings around this time of year

I really hope that you enjoy what I made 😊😊 it was fun getting to go through all of the mvs and choose which ones to use. he's got so many wonderful parts!! I'm glad that I can finally follow you I've been wanting to do it since the start but didn't want to clue you in 😭 anyways I hope you have a really good day!

HI JADE!! i loved your gifset thank you so much!!! it was so fun looking back on older videos lately because it's definitely been a while since i've rewatched anything and it's so interesting seeing how minhyuk has changed over the years!! like he's the same.. but not.... he's matured into himself!! versus he is so just so cute and excited during trespassfkdsf

omg i think i've seen your kitty pictures before!! i've never spent this much time with a cat this young before and it's so fun because everything they do is sooo cute and they have so much energy. i present to you some silly pics

i had a great time during secret santa!! i'm glad we're mutuals now, hope you've had a great day as well and have a great end of the year!! :D

[mushroomwriter]

(pt 1) "Atleast we can suffer together!" lol true! Gosh, that line (and tbh that whole scene with Sergio and Martín murders me of FEELS)... it's just so angsty cause it's not even the fact Andrés died, but he was also sick and Sergio knew that and he still never truly considered the possibility of his brother dying :(

BTW, what headcanon for the hermanos backstory do you subscribe to? I'm not sure when you first started the show, but I watched the show back when s3 was just released and in those days everyone subbed to the hc that they were half brothers, and there was this interview where Alvaro mentioned even more headcanons abt the bros (they shared a father, who abandoned Andrés for Sergio & his mom, then after he died Andrés appears on the scene and tells Sergio he is his brother, took care of him for medical treatment etc)... of course, 2 years later s5 seemingly retconned all that and just made them normal full(?) brothers growing up in the same household with both parents which I didn't appreciate very much lol. Anyway, just asking you that because some of my thoughts about the hermanos are influenced by my thoughts about their childhood - especially if Andrés raised Sergio as a kid, it makes everything so much more WORSE and heartbreaking cause of course he'd have grown up thinking his older brother is invincible almost, right? Interested to know what you think!!

(pt 2) Yeah all but one of my exams are done with... meh I've been pretty miserable but thank you for all your kind wishes! You're so right, if Andrés just mentioning Sergio makes us feel things, I can't even imagine what a whole scene with them together again would do!! I miss Sergio too 🥲 Once again, feel free to take your time and wait for the inspo, I actually came across an angsty quote that might fit the Scene that shall not be Named and since you love pain, I will tell you. "I wanted to fall down right there but I knew you wouldn't catch me because you're dead." - Richard Siken. Don't think about how as Andrés fell, Sergio was also falling in Helsinki's arms. (Also please don't feel like I'm forcing you to make a gifset with the quote or anything, I'm sorry if it comes across that way I just wanted to share for the #hermanos angst) I have no words for your next para but just. yes. I agree with everything you said. I will never get over the fact he literally tried to run back into the (idk how many metres long) tunnel himself despite knowing the police were on the other side and it would almost definitely lead to capture but Sergio was willing to risk all that just to get his brother to safety :( (pt 3) "When they're together, they're a big brother and a little brother" I knowww 🥺🥺 it makes me so SOFT. I'm with Andrés, how can you possibly eat breakfast when the world's most precious hermanito is not there yet? That scene when he wakes up Sergio is so sweet, Sergio looks so adorable and just the fond amusement Andrés has when he picks up the book "did you stay up late studying again" and how gentle he is when waking him up, Sergio also does not startle in the slightest, in that small moment you can see how familiar they are, how much they both love and trust each other, your honour I LOVE THEM!! Ah the Toledo house always makes me think how they spent those 5 months pretending to be strangers, I mean you can't tell me that Sergio was also not taking every excuse he can to spend more time with his brother (it's DEFINITELY to discuss important plans with the heist Captain!) but I like to imagine Sergio also took care of Andrés in secret, helping him with the meds and stuff... despite everything, Andrés did have a clock running out and they both knew it :( On another sidenote, I've been wanting to write a oneshot of the bros in Toledo since like 2020 but I never got around to it LOL so thank you once again for letting me ramble abt the heist brothers to you Oh god yes, those lyrics truly come straight for the heart and make Sergio's grief infinitely worse! Awww I'm glad you enjoy my thoughts (and I hope you haven't regretted your invitation yet) Haha, you should probably put this one under a cut too, how do these things always get so long??? Truly the hermanos live rent free in my head... but you're right it's great the Range of thoughts they give us from sheer tragedy to happy little childhood memories asdfjsk. YES IT'S THE CUTEST EVER and Alvaro plays it so well :') Comfort scene of all time to me <3 No, thank you for your patience and just being so lovely!! As always, it gives me so much serotonin to talk with you abt the heist bros ❤ Have a great day/week whenever you see this!! (also I hope you got all 3 parts, my wifi is being so weird rn 😭 I can't imagine how confusing it would be to get only 1 half or someth, anyway. pls ask me to resend if tumblr did in fact disappear an ask)

So true (that scene really leaves me on the floor suffering!!)... he knew and yet... at the very least he was convinced they were going to have time after the heist (the scene where he's giving instructions to the other band members about where they'll live etc. always gets me because he was supposed to go somewhere with Andrés...)

About the hermanos' childhood, I feel like I'm an outlier there 😅 because I learned of that headcanon later, I don't remember exactly when, for sure after watching season 3, and season 3 gave me the impression they were full brothers, because I think we get scenes where Andrés refers to their mother and to their father in a way that made me go, okay, so they share both parents. You know, the scene where he tells Sergio he's got mom's disease and the scene where he asks him where did dad go wrong when he robbed the bank... So when after that I saw that interview I didn't really embrace (? I don't know how to say that lol) the half-brothers headcanon because the show had already given me another impression. On the other hand, I immediately accepted the idea of Andrés bringing Sergio to Russia where he got the cures he needed (also because lol that's a point they never clarified in the show, right? How he ended up healing). That said, I really like the potential and implications of the half-brothers headcanon too... like, for example, as you said, Andrés basically raising Sergio. I think you can kinda work that into the full-brothers scenario as well, though maybe not quite at the same level, because if their parents already had trouble with medical expenses for Sergio when they both were there, once their mother was alone I imagine she really had to bury herself into work, which left Andrés in a position to really have to take care of Sergio... also as I mentioned I believe he was the one who found that hospital in Russia where Sergio could be cured, and found a (probably not very legal) way to take him there and so on... and at this point I like to play with both options and confront them and see like, okay, in half-brothers scenario Andrés probably resented their mother for abandoning him while in full-brothers scenario he ended up resenting her because she couldn't take proper care of them and (probably especially) because she failed to come up with a way to save Sergio's life, Andrés had to take matters into his own hands. And I think it's super interesting that he doesn't end up resenting Sergio (which I think he could have easily done in both scenarios! Like, in half-brothers scenario because he was abandoned for him, and in full-brothers scenario I have to imagine his unhealthy little brother received a lot more attentions!) One thing I think we get more intensely in the half-brothers scenario is that taking care of Sergio is really a Choice, like he really didn't have to and still!

Oh, and regardless of scenarios, I really love the idea of Andrés being the one who ultimately saved Sergio's life, it's possible that at some point doctors in their hometown were a bit resigned about him not making it but Andrés was like NO. And he did save him! I bet he's ferociously proud of that, and maybe it's another think that makes him feel especially protective of his hermanito (and makes Sergio feel like Andrés can do ANYTHING).

I see, at least you're almost done... ugh, I'm so sorry, I get it... I hope once you get rid of that last one too you'll feel a bit better... Gosh, I would probably never ever stop screaming if we get a new hermanos scene! And HOLY HELL, that quote fits the whole thing so well, I feel sick! Literally literally Sergio falling but he's not falling in his brother's arms, his brother isn't there anymore... no, absolutely, don't worry, it goes without saying that I appreciate the #hermanos angst, and suggestions about quotes that could fit them are always welcomed (I mean, as of right now I wouldn't know how to make a gifset with it but maybe by turning it over and over in my head I'll get an idea...)!! Also, I actually got inspiration for a gifset about them, finally!!! from another Richard Siken's quote, no less (he was really writing about them lmao), like I'm still not completely sure of which scenes to use, but I do have an idea, I hope it'll work :D

Oh god that's true. Oh man he really tried to run into that tunnel, no matter how crazy that was... I cry!!

It's trueee, that scene where Andrés wakes Sergio up OVERFLOWS with familiarity, it's so clear it's not the first time he had to wake his little brother up after he stayed up late to study and had to pick up some book Sergio left lying around... he's so fondly amused!! Please and now I'm smiling so much at the idea of Sergio coming up with Very Important Topics He Needs to Discuss with The Heist Captain... and I wonder how many times they were the last ones left in a room (a mere coincidence, of course!)... and yeah, I bet Sergio also played the Finding Many Small Ways To Take Care Of You game, this is making me emotional! Hehe I'm happy I gave you the chance to talk about these things, if you ever get around to write that please let me know (if you want to of course)

I definitely don't regret my invitation, when I saw your new messages I was like yessss! Oh right, at this point the ability to put things under a cut is my friend sjsjsjsk but I feel you, I can't get them out of my head!!

Don't mention it!! Talking with you about the hermanos is such a serotonine boost, and honestly I very much needed that, the last few weeks have been pretty tiring! Thank you, I hope you do too, despite that accursed exam! Please take care! (Also as you can see all three parts made it safely to my inbox, thankfully!)

[ambivartence]

Hi! Secret Santa again! I can only imagine how hard ur speed paints are to make gifs with how much you have to shrink them for tumblrs terrible limits and even remembering to record the timelapse, I always say I’m going to record myself making things so people can see the process, but I never think about it until I’m at least halfway done lol.  

Oml the all in Lino in the cop/detective look is SO amazing,  he really seems to be able to pull off any concept and not make them seem over the top or silly. When he’s in all pastels and wearing a beret it doesn’t feel like someone forced him into a “cute” outfit, and when he’s doing the almost costume outfits like cops, or vampires they also just seem to suit him completely. He’s really one of those people that because he is so confident in himself nothing feels silly or out of place. 

Thunderous has definitely been my favorite era for Minho specifically. I think the  modernized more traditional outfits really work well with him, and having changbin shout his name before his part every stage felt really special. Over all I think thunderous, backdoor, and maniac have been my favorite eras. I feel like ever since gods menu that the boys have become a lot more confident and their stage presence and just how they act on skz talkers and things has felt more comfortable. Those concepts also just have felt like they really suited all of the members to me, plus im just a big fan of their more “noise” title tracks they seem to have more fun when performing really signature sounding skz songs. But I also don’t think there’s an era I haven’t really enjoyed, like some part of every comeback has at least been something I’ve really enjoyed. Especially when like with thunderous they promote a b-side that is so different from the title track, I feel like it really shows their colors well.

I also see that you’re into a few other groups other than nct like tbz and ateez! I love both of them so much, it made watching kingdom extra fun, getting to see how they both interacted with skz, and seeing that they were all friends! I know I got into tbz right after they debuted but it took me a few months to really come around to liking ateez (though now I don’t know whyyyy lmao) how did u get into them and nct?

-🎄

Yes!!!! their noise music is really chefs kiss for me too hahaha also i do love how they promoted thunderous and the view together that was a really fun contrast <3

I've been super multi these days! every time i get into a new group that was in kingdom or road to kingdom i go back and rewatch their clips and interactions hehe. I got into nct first thru superm (which I got into bc of baekhyun), and i think i kinda realized that it's really fun to stan a LOT of people, so i began getting into other groups like skz. i found atz bc of mutuals on my dash during kingdom but got into them more only recently after seeing them at kcon in august and then on tour in november!! so kinda like u, it took a bit to really get into them properly^^; and for tbz i was convinced by @chanstopher and @lonelystreetlight aka two partners in crime to check them out earlier this year, so i started from their predebut show boyz flower snack and then rewatched all their rtk and kingdom stages and then the rest was history LOL

sometimes i feel bad that since i follow so many groups that i don't follow skz's content as closely anymore as i used to. but on the flipside, i like how content creators on here make it easier for me to see all the best parts of their stuff, whether it's gifsets of stages or funny moments in skz code or just good looks in skz talker <3 also being multi means it's extra fun when the kidz have fun interactions with their besties in other groups like the darlingz friend group skz changbin + atz wooyoung + txt yeonjun + tbz haknyeon + crvt serim + gncd tag etc etc (the fact that i stan all these groups 💀) or also chan is just friends with everyone in the industry haha (i love his interactions w ab6ix during isac this year 🥺)

[spikedru]

hey i wanted to ask! bc i remember you saying how you felt about spuffy but you hadn't rewatched s7 yet. did that affect how you saw them at all? also if you're okay answering, what do you think of seeing red? I've recently begun to think of it as. kind of out of character. like i know spuffy was downward spiraling but it kind of felt like seeing red was "what should we have happen so that things get super bad and spike goes and gets a soul" and not actually something that spike would. have really done? idk. I'm not a spuffy fan but i do think things about that episode

i still havent actually rewatched s7 lol i had been rewatching s6 back in march last year but stopped right before riley showed up again and didnt get around to picking it back up haha. ill probably think about doing a full series rewatch and liveblog after i graduate college (so sometime during the summer) and actually try to get through to the end

that being said i have not actually sat down and rewatched seeing red since the first time i watched the series. so. almost a decade ? at this point ? if thats any indication of how i feel about that episode. it has been a while. its on par with the body in terms of episodes that i never really want to rewatch (though for completely different reasons, obviously) more thoughts below

the way i tend to view seeing red is that of poorly thought through shock value writing. i agree with you in that it feels like a writers decision to have the worst thing happen in order to motivate spike to seek his soul, and not something that feels correct to the character. already by that point you have spike reflecting on their tryst and realizing the way things were was not making either of them truly happy, so it would not take that much prodding for him to realize something had to change. there are other ways to get spike to his breaking point without having to subject buffy to sexual violence. even though their relationship was volatile and played with gray areas of consent, i never got the impression that spike would truly violate buffy's consent. i think writing in an attempted rape affects the way the audience views them on a much deeper level than the writers were expecting. because, a lot of the trauma that buffy endures through the show, while very real to her, has a fantasy element that places a layer of separation from the audience. most people cannot understand the despair of having to send your boyfriend to actual Hell, or the betrayal of being ripped from actual Heaven by your friends. but there are members of the audience who do know the terror and betrayal of sexual violence by their partner. so i think that aspect wasnt taken into serious enough account when deciding to have your main characters love interest and general audience favorite do something so realistically deplorable. thats why i think it was mainly a shock value decision rather than based in any way the character would actually act. not even to mention the fact like. most everyone else in the production hating having to film it and james marsters has said because of SR he will never do a scene like that ever again he hated it that much.

from the refresher ive seen of s7 (from people gifsets and spuffy scenes and meta about spike, the soul, and buffy etc) i wish we had got more of a buildup to a true spuffy reconciliation. there is so much happening in s7. so much that a lot tends to get lost or not as much time focused on in order to get to the very end. i do really think that buffy was incredibly moved and touched by spikes decision to get his soul back. personally i think the choice to get the soul is more impactful than the soul itself, as it demonstrates how remorseful spike is over the AR and his willingness to atone for it without expecting anything in return. and how buffy recognizes that and thats why shes able to forgive him and let him back into her life. but because there are only 22 episodes to fit plot into the reconciliation happens just. a little too quick. i had wished that. idk. it happened over 2ish seasons? so we see spike struggling to reconcile with his soul just a lil bit longer and him settling with it and buffy seeing that struggle while still wanting him around. idk. a lot of my problems with s7 come from pacing issues. while i have my problems with s7 as a whole, i do generally like the spuffy progression in it, even if i wanted it to take a lil longer. in all of buffys past relationships, there are things that happened that make her believe that she is somehow responsible for her partners turning bad, or thinking she is somehow lesser for being with them. but learning that spike got his soul back for her, something she views as essential and good, it shocks her that she could inspire someone to change that much for the betterment of themselves. and because of that she can truly trust him enough to love him completely.

so like long story short i hate that seeing red involved sexual violence and i wish there had been some other way to get to the point of spike realizing he needs to change, but considering the way s7 went i dont think it changes my perspective on their relationship that much. i think spike and buffy are one of the most interesting relationships on the show just by how much they change themselves and each other by being in their lives, and thats why im so invested in them

[helianskies]

my end of year review

thank you @needcake for tagging me, what a lovely opportunity to reflect! ☺

What fandoms did you create for?

Hetalia and Hetalia only. fight me!

How many works did you make this year? Fics (posted on ao3 or tumblr or wherever), edits, gifsets, moodboards, playlists, fanart, vids, meta?

this was fun to count! i added 38 works to my ao3 bringing it to 51, plus i think an additional 3 drabbles dotted around here on my blog, lost to my inability to tag well! :)

What are you most proud of?

my biggest achievement this year, i consider to be finishing Alter Ego. not only is it the first multi-chap i ever actually finished, but it is bigger than i ever expected it to be, both in word count and readership! i can't believe i finished the project in just over a year! and i'll always refer back to this little note i left at the bottom of chapter one whenever i start to doubt my writing:

and i did it, and i couldn't be more proud of myself for it! if i can pull off such a complex work as that, i know i can do anything my heart desires!

Any stats you wanna tell us about?

well, my wordcount on ao3 for 2021 alone is a whopping 488171 which astonishes me, honestly. right now is the first time i've checked the years individually, and i'm just... wow.

What inspired you this year? Any specific works or creators?

the biggest one? well, they who they are. i won't tag 'em, but i will send lots of love their way - an inspiration for years, but especially now more than ever!

[edit: the b tagged me in hers so she gets it back @maivalkov love ya bubs! thanks for sharing in the rambles this year, and here's to a million more to come! 💖🥂🥳]

beyond that, my biggest inspiration would be the readers i've been blessed to talk to this year, and the other content creators who light up my feed each day. whether writers, artists, or fellow consumers, you're all such amazing people! <33

What’s a piece you didn’t expect to make? Why?

i have two things actually!

Bound! it started of with Time & Patience, which i intended to be a one-shot. and i got carried away. very, very carried away. 116k words and counting ;)

all of my horror works! it was a genre i never thought i'd explore - i didn't really know how - but i've grown to love it, and hope to really delve into this in 2022!

What are you excited to work on next year?

so many things! Bound is barely underway, the same goes for my horror works, and really... i'm just excited to write! anything and everything that comes to mind! but what i really want for 2022 is to share more ideas and engage with more content creators. you're all so fab :')

Tag some people!

well, as far as i know everyone i sorta know has already been tagged once and i hate to be a bother to mutuals/creators i follow who don't really know me so... tag, you're it!

happy new year to you, and here's to a perfectly uneventful 2022 (besides the writing ;)) 🥂

[ethanhes]

I'm not gonna make a gifset for his birthday because I'm insecure about giffing him. But I've got to post something, its a special day!

A few days ago I had the most important conversation with my mom, I told her everything I've been going through ever since I was a kid. (suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, anxiety). she was really supportive and during this conversation I told her the truth about harry, I explained why I love him that much. When I was younger I barely left my house, I didn't had a lot of friends and I only saw them at school. I was too scared to tell my family what I was going through so I used to have really dark and horrible thoughts and feelings and it was just awful, I locked myself in my room to kill myself so many times, but for some reason when I met harry I realized his voice calmed me down, so when this kind of nights/days were rough I listened to one directions songs and Harry - only harry - helped me to get over this. Last year was the worst, I knew what I was doing, I stayed up all night crying and thinking about what I was going to do in the morning, but then I grabbed my phone and saw the posters he put all around the world, out of nowhere, "DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE? /Tpwk", And I had the worst breakdown ever. I cried and cried and cried thinking about who I am. and well...I'm still here.

When I told my mom these things she said "God gave you this boy for a reason, he's your angel." And she was right. Harry Styles is my angel, he was my best friend when I was alone. He made me laugh when I wanted to die. He keeps me sane when I'm about to do something stupid. I'll never love someone as much as I love him.

And today I just hope he's having fun, I hope he's showing his beautiful smile to everyone. I hope he's feeling loved because it's what he deserves. Happy birthday my angel! Thank you for everything.

ps. I wanted a harry tattoo, my favorite song is esny and mmith, but I choose sweet creature because it reminds me of ethan. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Houndsditch Heroes AU (AKA, I Make An AU For A Show I've Never Watched)

. . . @dont-offend-the-bees, I hope you know this is all your fault.

If you're wondering what on earth I'm going on about, said friend has gotten into the Netflix adaptation of The Umbrella Academy, meaning I've been seeing a lot of posts and gifsets and the like about it on my dash. If I were anyone else, I would simply be happy my friend had found a new show to enjoy and go about my day.

Since I'm me, I've instead come up with an AU idea based on the information I've picked up from the posts and a look on TV Tropes. *deep sigh* I don't know why I'm like this, seriously. Anyway, just to get it out of my brain, the pertinent points of what I'm calling the Houndsditch Heroes AU:

-->It's set in the modern day, in a world where super-powered people are just born randomly instead of being the result of a strange mass pregnancy/birth -- mostly because I want to stick with the canon/highly accepted fanon ages for the team, and that puts them in a range between 17 and 20

-->Bumby has the Sir Reginald Hargreeves role, having rounded up a team of super-powered kids and raised them to become the titular Houndsditch Heroes; as you might imagine, he is just as bad a father as Reginald was, but fortunately his children are dysfunctional in a way that still lets them work together

-->The Heroes include:

Marty McFly -- I'm still deciding if his power is being able to mind-control people through his music, or using sound to manipulate his environment psychokinetically; either way he's never without his guitar as a result

Emmett "Doc" Brown -- obviously we're using the teenage model from Telltale's The Game, though given he has Five's role, he's much older underneath. He's got the ability to teleport and time travel -- the latter having flung him into a post-apocalyptic future before the events of the story

Victoria Everglot -- unsure what her power is yet -- I'm tempted to make it something related to sewing. Maybe she can manipulate cloth? Or I could give her a variation on Allison’s power, only the trigger phrase is “Please, may I/you/they” since she’s quiet, polite type

Emily Cartwell -- I'm also figuring out her power, though "control over butterflies" amuses me. She's died shortly before the events of the story, having been tricked into running away with Barkis in a combination "He's my true love/I want to get away from my asshole adoptive father" move

Alice Liddell -- everyone thinks she's the "normal" of the group, and as a consequence she has developed her melee combat skills with knives and improvised weapons to keep up with her powered siblings. In truth, she's capable of creating fully visual, audible, and tactile illusions. Bumby has been suppressing her powers through a combination of medication and hypnosis sessions for YEARS

-->Victor Van Dort is an outsider to the group, who also believes he's normal -- his parents have got him on the same medication Alice is on to suppress his powers. Reason being, said powers are he can see ghosts and bring them into the real world in a corporeal, if rather zombie-like form, and he freaked them out by trying to adopt a skeletal dog when he was younger

-->The plot is kicked off when Emmett, after years spent in the post-apocalyptic future, time-ports back to the present in the Van Dort backyard, and ends up dragging Victor into his attempts to stop the apocalypse with his siblings

-->Emmett thinks Bumby is somehow the cause of the apocalypse he saw; however, it's actually Alice, discovering the truth about herself and Bumby's crimes against her and her family (he still raped Lizzie and killed her and the elder Liddells in this world; he covered it up and took Alice in to control her) and manifesting her rage as the Queen of Hearts to kill him. Unfortunately, the Queen refuses to be dismissed after she's served her purpose, and she ends up killing Alice's original personality and using her body to wreak havoc

-->Victor, upon getting his own powers back (he starts missing doses of the meds while on the adventure, and everyone realizes he can see the dead when he sees Emily hanging around the group), becomes the lynchpin to stopping the Queen's rampage by bringing back Lizzie, Arthur, and Lorina to cool Alice's rage and make the Queen weak enough to be defeated

-->The time cops trying to keep the apocalypse on-schedule because reasons are still a thing, and I've just had the thought that the Commission should instead be Aperture from Portal (run by Cave Johnson, of course), and the two tracking Emmett personally are GLaDOS and Wheatley -- but Wheatley, who has been having second thoughts about this whole business, ends up falling in love with bakery owner Chell and defects to the good guys' side

-->Victor suffers a fatal injury from the time cops during the final showdown and ends up in an entirely self-indulgent scene where he meets God -- aka me. I tell him everything's going to be okay and his powers actually include automatic resurrection from anything that isn't natural death from old age and send him back

-->I'm still contemplating whether Bumby should still be involved in the child trade like he was in A:MR; if he literally kidnapped some/ALL of the Heroes and has been using his hypnosis techniques to make them all forget; and if he's specifically given the power-suppressing medication to the Van Dorts and hypnotized Victor in the past because he realized someone with the power to talk to the dead could rat him out if he ever found the Liddells' spirits

*facepalm* We good now, brain? Can I go back to the AUs I'm SUPPOSED to be working on now?