#I know there are a few gifsets about the bts moment out there

[billy-hargrooves]

ANTHONY BOYLE, CALLUM TURNER and AUSTIN BUTLER bts promoting MASTERS OF THE AIR

[xcziel]

.

[kayluh1915]

psssst, disclaimer…

@swiftllama: *texts me with no context* EVERY BTS THEY GET GAYER AND GAYER

Me after watching said BTS:

It's Ianthony moment breakdown time, BBY!

I know I've been gone for a while but I've really been going through it, y'all. I want to post more from here on out, but I can't make any promises. Executive disfunction and ADHD paralysis sssuuuccckkkkssss.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled screamings!

Also, this is from a members only video. If you can, please support Ian and Anthony directly. I do not share content outside of small Ianthony moments like these.

The noise that came out of my mouth was not human in anyway, shape, or form! Anthony has carried Ian like this before, but it was before his departure. Back then they were really stiff and awkward with each other since their friendship was strained, as they have mentioned several times. Now they're super close and don't give a flying fuck and MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT!

Sam has been keeping me up to date with everything and I just can't believe the timeline we're in. Everything else might be shit, but at least Ian and Anthony are back together and give us moments like these on the weekly! 😭They keep me sane.

ANYWAYS, I made some gifs of the moment because AHHHH and I'm going to break down the little moments that made my fandom heart flutter

Let's get to it!

Right off the bat, Ian very minorly freaks out when Anthony picks him up and immediately grips Anthony's arm. Logically, I know that anyone would grab onto the closest thing on instinct in this situation... but my Ianthony brain is screaming: "AWWW! ANTHONY MAKES HIM FEEL SAFE!!!!!!!"

Okay, my logic brain is calming down now because this gif just confirmed that Ian not only trusts Anthony whole heartedly but also FEELS SAFE! As soon as Anthony reassures him that he won't let him fall Ian relaxes and starts to let go of the death grip he has on Anthony's arm near the end of the gif.

Another demonstration of how much Ian trusts Anthony. He doesn't even flinch when he lifts him up and even has that face he makes that screams: "yeah yeah, we know Mr. Buff." after Anthony comments on how easy it is for him to hold Ian.

DUDE! The way Ian just goes limp after Anthony once again lets him know that he's got him. IT'S SO FUCKING CUTE and, again, is proof of how much he trusts him. He knows Anthony won't drop him and just decides to relax for a second, putting his full weight on Anthony's shoulders. I CANNOT! It's so intimate!!! Ian probably also took notes from Rhett's "I'm Dead" move he pulls on Link which I find hilarious.

Okay, this is my favorite one of this whole gifset. The way Anthony looks back at Ian to make sure he's still comfortable and then smiling to someone about it!?!? BRING AMBERLAMPS! MY HEART HAS STOPPED!

Damn, I needed these two in my life so badly right now. The fact that they pulled THIS SHIT just makes it so much better. I know they've said and done things more damning within the past few months, but I enjoy more intimate moments like these. Yeah, it's for a bit, but it shows just how much Anthony cares for Ian and how much Ian trusts him.

Lord have mercy, I need a nap after all of that. 😮‍💨

[ladyluscinia]

I know my last experience with a season ending on a note everyone hated and unanimously tore to fucking shreds for destroying the story on every level was... atypical. Lockdown. 6 month mass hysteria at minimum. Conspiracy theories that were, like, real things we had on camera. There was a Twitter wedding. Creative fervor that broke 100k fics on AO3.

Like. I know this is not a rational point of comparison and I'm not going to expect anything in my lifetime to match it 🤣

But.

If that was the highest high of post-season fandom engagement built on a cocktail of tasting everything you ever wanted AND the absolutely lethal levels of spite and swearing to eat showrunners' hearts in the marketplace, then whatever the fuck is going on after OFMD S2 is the opposite of that.

OFMD S1 was a huge fandom explosion. One silly little streaming show that had a gay kiss and then it skyrocketed. Fic numbers were soaring, high activity fic and meta engagement lasted for at least four months, it was constantly trending and flooding the dash... Like, fucking hell, over a year and a half after the immediate finale fervor it beat Stucky in the top ships bracket?!? To the point I was willing to give it what felt like due credit toward its potential as a future juggernaut ship. Not guaranteed, of course, but the potential was there.

In that context, new content should be a blow out party. Which it kinda was pulling off as it was airing, but looking back now? Not even quite a month later?

The effect of S2 on the fandom is like... a blip. Possibly over already.

New fic numbers started dropping off the moment the finale aired and have returned to deep hiatus levels. It's dropped off trending and streaming leaderboards... I'm very curious to see the first tumblr Week in Review since the finale, though we're still waiting due to the holiday.

Like, I've even popped on to scroll a few Izzy hater blogs that I know loved the finale out of morbid curiosity what they were up to, and I'm telling you... if I hadn't just watched the new season I'd think they were still over a year into hiatus. Saw some standard bitching about the izcourse / Edward takes (aka the one thing that kept them going all hiatus), they're currently passing around posts mocking one specific long OFMD version of TJLC I'm just hearing of, the same BTS gifsets everyone else is thrilled by... But barely any new meta or discussions. There's like 2 people posting actual analysis of S2 that's getting reblogged and they aren't even names I recognize from the hiatus. Nor is it particularly interesting to read. 🤷‍♀️

In July of 2022 I could pop onto a random OFMD blog and scroll through a dozen enthusiastic Stede or BlackBonnet metas about jacket colors or that moth from 1x07 or lighthouse symbolism or whatever. Now the new stuff has the same energy as posts from June 2023. It's borderline dead. And this is what it's like when there's an active campaign to engage fandom and Renew as a Crew?

(I will say fanartists are bringing some energy and there's some lovely pieces being passed around, which I do think the Renew as a Crew campaign is helping to boost?)

Even the hundreds of people saying it was a beautiful season and they loved it so much don't seem to be finding it a very engaging or inspiring season.

It's such a turn, like, what the fuck.

[gaijin-fujin-resonance]

How Buck-Tick Found Me: A Fan Origin Story

I though I had written this all out before, but probably on a more ephemeral format.

Buck-Tick discovered me by accident in early 2022. I don't even known how many near-misses I must have had. The only time I had ever previously heard them was Aphex Twin's remix of In The Glitter on 26 Mixes For Cash in 2003. (Why, oh why didn't B-T release Shapeless in the UK in 1994, when I was into many of the artists on it!?!?) But despite having many friends who were into the noisier end of J-Rock (and tried force-feeding me bORIS or Boredoms), not once did anyone suggest B-T. I'm still mad about that!

On 25th February 2022, I was idly reading an interview with a K-Pop producer on The Guardian, who mentioned his teenage obsession with Visual Kei. The picture (of Versailles) on that linked article intrigued me. So I went straight to Spotify and looked up "Old School Visual Kei". The fourth song in grabbed my attention to the point where I looked up the artist - the combination of trip-hop beats; ethereal, shoegazey guitars; and deep, breathy, slightly gothic vocals immediately sucked me in. Yes, like most western fans, my introduction to B-T was ドレス.

I listened to a couple more Visual Kei songs, but none of them did for me what that one Buck-Tick track did. I went back and hit play on their Spotify profile, and ended up listening to them for the rest of the night, until way past my bedtime. I listened to nothing else for the rest of the week, absolutely captivated by everything I heard. It was like someone had taken every single genre of music I had ever cared about from the age of 15 - positive punk, new wave, goth, techno, industrial, cyberpunk, shoegaze, electro, spacerock, drone - and just simmered them in a crockpot with distinctive Japanese flavouring.

This seems crazy to admit now, but I listened to B-T for over a year without ever even knowing what they looked like. I was vaguely aware that they were still going (the latest release at that point was Go-Go B-T Train - I love trains with all my middle-aged British heart so that was a winner for me.) But the singles from Izora started popping up on my Release Radar. Every time one came on, I would find myself sitting upright, paying attention and going to check who it was by. Oh, wow, that old Japanese band has got a new album out? Cool!

I started following the tags on Tumblr. I liked the look of the singer; he reminded me of a cross between Blixa Bargeld and Brett Anderson. In May 2023, shortly after the release of Izora, a gifset wandered across my feed. No source, no tag of what video or song or even album it was. Just the most AESTHETIC images I had ever seen.

The singer was beautiful, but it wasn't the singer that captured me, it was the visual world that this video hinted at.

I spent the next two months chasing down every B-T video on YouTube, trying to find the source of this snippet. Annoyingly, it wasn't in the official videos on their channel. I went on a Deep Dive, until I found it was Love Me, in a fan-assembled playlist of all their early videos. Honestly, whoever compiled this thing: you CHANGED MY LIFE. I wish I could pinpoint the moment that I switched from "wow, I really like this band" to "OH MY GOD THE NEW HYPERFIXATION THAT WILL CONSUME ME FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS" - maybe it was somewhere between Love Letter and Heroine on this playlist?

I honestly thought I was going to fall in love with the handsome singer, like everyone else on earth. I started devouring Cayce's blog and BT Zone, looking for clues. I read the Japanese Wikipedia entry through Google Translate back when the EngliIh language version was little more than a stub. (Honestly, there was more information about the band on TV Tropes when i started researching.) But the more I read, the more I watched, the more I listened, the more I found myself drawn to the little blond guitarist. Interviews and fact sheets revealed we had a huge number of random, coincidental commonalities. But when he whipped out a theremin during SSL (inbetween commanding said singer to lick his boots) I was lost. You don't choose your Honmei, your Honmei chooses you. He chose hard. I can remember my oldest friend, around her birthday in August, laughing at me, saying "this Imai person has eaten your brain, huh?"

So I guess I had about a year and a half of liking the music, and about 3 or 4 months of being in the fandom before Atsushi collapsed onstage, and everything changed.

...

So although I'm no longer a New Fan, I feel like I have more in common with that experience. I wish I had decades of Deep History with the band - listening to their albums in order, I can hear all of the places in their long history where their taste and aesthetic aligned perfectly with whatever music I was listening to at the time. I do have that Deep History with many of their influences, enough that I feel I have secondhand familiarity with what they were doing.

I certainly understand why fans with a 30+ year history with the band might feel unsettled about the future and trepidation about B-T Mk II. (Except... among the people I follow, it doesn't seem like it's the long-haul fans who have already weathered so many changes, who are having the most trouble with it? The 30+ year fans seem to be the most loyal to the whole group as a concept, with or without Atsushi's corporeal presence.) But that's not where I am.

I had a 35 year history thrown at me to absorb in a few months. I've had 20 months of B-T with Atsushi, and 13 months of B-T without. Change is inevitable. So I feel like I am completely open to a second chapter of my fandom which is different from the first?

Note: Your Mileage May Vary. The way I do fandom is not the only way of doing fandom. All approaches to fandom are valid. You do you, and allow me to do me.

[39oa]

Talk Hockey To Me

tagged by beloved @txstars T__T <3 thank uuu as always

1. The thing that got you hooked on hockey

it's hard to pinpoint one moment because i honestly genuinely believe that it's the best sport in the world just in terms of pure mechanics and objective viewing enjoyment and live crowd atmosphere so it's easy to get hooked once you actually watch it... i've been on and off with hockey fandom itself and took a few years away from tumblr until recently but i'd say it was a mix of just watching games + discovering fandom spaces on tumblr/reading fic on ao3 + having a decent home team at the time + canadian tax etc.

2. Your first ever fandom friend

ngl i think most of the people i first met in hockey fandom eventually moved onto bts (or k-pop in general) lmfaooo but i met @regularseason when i was in 11th grade making connor mcdavid gifsets and now i am somehow 25 years old. we have seen so much on this vast internet together ❤️ 

3. The jersey you would most like to own

MOOTERUS BROS RISE UP ☝️🐮  absolutely my favorite jersey of all time i genuinely don't think any other design comes close. i also really love the stars rr 2.0 but i finally bit the bullet and bought it so that's out... another top contender would be sabres goathead 🐐 and maybe mighty ducks era pkariya, also i think the sharks rr 2.0 with the spin on the seals logo is sooo cute and i love the og sharks logo designed by terry smith as well... specifically the classic late 90s teal jersey. and my fav regular home jersey of current teams is the kraken :')

i have way too many opinions on jerseys honestly. if i could pick some from my warmup jersey database then i lovelovelove the habs 2023 bhm and pride designs (i have apparel for both of these...), the leafs indigenous celebration design, and the kraken women in hockey design. gorgeous girls!!!!!

4. YOUR player (you only get ONE so choose wisely)

:saluting_face: there is only one guy for me... jr21! (real talk like a big part of why i got into the stars and came back to sports tumblr was because of him despite having 0 geographical ties to texas LOL. admittedly there was some superficiality involved at first in seeing an asian guy achieve top-line star status against the restrictive pains of bones hockey but then i was like oh your game is actually efficient and understated as hell? and it kind of spiraled out from there. my favorite deceptively abnormal "boring" guy!!!)

5. A pairing that deserves more fic

i will echo 2124 💚 but i am part of the problem for having 4 partial aus in one doc and not actually writing anything of substance for them... otherwise there are a ton of rarepairs i could argue in favor of but i feel like i'd sound insane. where is the otter/woll boston goaliefic... where is mitch/nrob with robo being vaguely horrified but trying to be supportive of his brother's poor decision making skills. where is my sabresfic and kidsline shenanigans in general......... also if we're going back to the stars then 2141 honestly have so much untapped potential wrt Why Are You Both So Weird Can You Please [Redacted] About It. but you get the gist i'm sure!!!

6. Your favourite on-ice moment

my memory does NOT go that far back. whatever is the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened to some guy i hate is good enough for me

THEN

link someone else's art/fic/etc that you love & think everyone should check out

immediately the first thing that came to mind is that i still think zoe's 2129 primer is one of the most fantastic and comprehensive labors of love this fandom has ever seen... truly one of the major backbones of starsblr. honestly despite hockey fandom not being quite what it used to be on here i think there are sooo so many great creators making stars content and i am immensely grateful to all the gifmakers + artists + writers who constantly feed me no matter what time of year it is!!! i'm kind of shy but you know who you are... TT__TT

AND

link something you made & are proud of & want people to see

\o/ i desperately do not like any of the things i make and i am already grateful to the people who have looked at my measly creations before so thank you!

tagging @regularseason @iamidentical @pupuhintz @slagkovsky @supersoftsports... apologies if you've already been tagged and no pressure as always but pls feel free to if you'd like ❤️

[justfor2am]

it is midnight i have been on n off asleep since like 7 .anyways perspective flip, bts, for want of a nail, + a thousand words of the unusual fic asks? for whatever fics u want as usual 🫡

doing these ones out of order because brain said so, anyways— BTS: I’ll write a DVD commentary about my personal favorite passage from: [7th Sense] (Chapter 9: he's picking a lock he doesn't go into)

The final scene of that chapter, with grian and mumbo, is probably my favorite part of this fic so far, mostly because i'm getting to explore a different side of depression than I often see written in fics.

usually, you get the sadness, the shaking, the no talking/no eating, the limp, wilted flower who needs to be saved. and yes, depression is that sometimes, but it can be, and often is, so much messier than that.

it's anger. it's misplaced frustrations because the truth is too scary to confront, it's knowing you need to shower/brush your teeth/get dressed and being unable to do it anyways. it's not doing those things on purpose because you think you don't deserve them. it's quiet lethargy, it's restless nights that turn into a room ripped apart because you just can't fucking sleep so you're making it someone else's problem.

it's the lashing out at someone who means the world to you, because maybe this time they're take the hint and leave forever. it's knowing deep down that you're too scared to ask for help, and that you didn't mean to help them.

grian isn't magically better by the end of the chapter. his room's still a mess, he still hasn't eaten or gotten cleaned up, and he half asses his way through an apology to mumbo.

but he asks mumbo to open the window. and they both know the deeper meaning in that gesture, knowing that it was that very window that scar escaped into the night. that it's been firmly shut since then. it's progress, like it or not. _________ For Want of a Nail: If Scar had died giving Grian his life force in: [though i've closed my eyes, i know who you pretend i am] the ending, i'm sure you can imagine, is much more depressing. Eleri, the elven queen, would be without an heir to her bloodline, and the grief of losing her only son, the last blood family she had, would cause her magic to lash out, and cast the kingdom into a century of darkness. somewhere in that time, the heartbreak would kill her.

in the mad scramble to find someone to take over, gem would accept the offered kingdom, but feel immense regret over the situation, partially blaming herself for scar's death. if she had kept quiet and agreed to marry him in the first place, would he still be alive?

mumbo, now without a ward, would pledge himself to grian's aid, who very much does not want mumbo's help. grian is the most guilt-stricken of them all, half of scar's life force now pounding in his chest, keeping grian alive. that coupled with newfound avian instincts, and no mate to help ease him through the new magic in his blood, grian would be an complete mess, unwillingly relying on mumbo to keep his instincts at bay. it would be a few decades until, eventually, grian would isolate himself in the nearby mountain range, somewhere far too cold for a vampire like mumbo to follow.

grian would live out the rest of his days more animal than man, a self-inflicted penance for costing his lover his life.

good thing that didn't happen, right? _________ A Thousand Words: I’ll create a photoset/gifset that, IMO, sums up the main themes/concepts I intended for [the blood i'm owed is all yours] (trying to motivate myself to update the damn thing lmao)

compromise, i'm doing a playlist instead because this post is long enough as is. no particular listening order, put this bitch on shuffle king

_________ Perspective Flip: I’ll write a scene from [Why Do I (Even Try?)] from another character’s point-of-view (Chapter 18: just count to ten, and try to breathe)

(italics are original text, i wrote this stream-of-conscious style literally this moment so sorry if it's not super cohesive)

Grian hid behind his wine glass, the ruby drink only brightening his blush. "Rule two, no letting the public find out. I've got a lick of sense about me, and I know that we would be immediately framed as me being the pity points, some kinda mangy boyfriend, and I'd like to pass on that part of the publicity train, thank you very much."

"I think you would make an incredibly handsome boyfriend, but continue."

It was too easy to rile Grian up, Scar genuinely wondered if it was worth taunting him this early into their evening. It was cute, watching him try to gloss over Scar's attacks, deflecting with his own pointed silence. The game was fun, but half the joy was in the end result.

"Most importantly, rule number three." Grian set down his glass, purely for dramatic effect. "No falling in love with one another."

This one caught Scar off guard. He hoped Grian couldn't tell in his face, quickly clearing his throat to fix his soured expression. Right. Of course. This was transactional at best: Scar would receive Grian's company in the form of sex, meaningless hook ups between co-workers. At least, that's how Grian was presenting the idea.

Scar didn't want that. He wasn't after only the physical, as much of a nice bonus as it could be. He wanted to know Grian, really know him, reach the parts that the man kept hidden from the world and fall into his mind; Scar wanted all of Grian, not just the surface level.

Even so, he knew that for Grian, sex was so much more than surface level. It was a serious gesture of trust, and not one Scar was willing to betray. But that didn't mean Scar would give up his love so easy, and let himself be heartbroken in favor of physical intimacy.

Some way, some how, Scar would make a space for himself in Grian's heart. He owed it to himself to try, at the very least.

Scar grinned, and lifted his wine glass in toast. "Challenge accepted."

[addictedtostorytelling]

Hey there! Been enjoying your ep-by-ep reboot gifsets! Since it looks like you might be rewatching the reboot (or at least combing it for footage) I'm curious: have you noticed anything new? I know when I rewatch a movie or show that means a lot to me (even, or maybe especially, one I've seen a million times) I tend to always notice or focus on something different. Salt welcome! But the neutral/positive/miscellaneous is as well!

hi, @clintbeifong!

thank you for your kind words! i'm glad you've been enjoying the gif series.

so, uh—

confession: i have rewatched very little of the reboot even doing this latest project. 

a lot of the gifs are ones that i made previously and am now just recycling into the new sets, and even of the ones i’ve made new, entirely "from scratch" (complete with freshly clipped video from the show to work from), i've only really rewatched the individual scenes themselves and nothing much around them.

the truth is, since gsr was the only part of csi: vegas i actually enjoyed, and, even then, i was infinitely less interested in their work on the hodges case than just their interactions with each other, i haven't really been able to bring myself to revisit the reboot at large just yet.

i’m in it for the cute middle-aged marrieds™, and that’s about it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

that so, there’s not much i can speak to in terms of new observations.

like.

i’ve noticed a few little visual parallels between the reboot and the original series here and there, but nothing especially significant or revelatory.

certainly nothing related to narrative.

of course—and here’s the salt—i suspect that even if i were to actually sit down and rewatch each episode in sequence, taking good notes, there might not be a lot there to notice, as, frankly, the story itself is underwritten/sparse. there’s just not much going on with it, either in the macro sense, with the hodges case overall, OR the micro sense, with the individual characters. everything is so superficial and one-note that there just aren’t “hidden depths” to plumb or subtexts to be read into or character developments to analyze. it’s pretty much a “what you see is what you get” kind of deal.

that said, with what very minimal, "just the gsr interactions" rewatching i actually have done, my main takeaway is just how impressed i am with the texture billy and jorja managed to give grissom and sara’s marriage—which is something i’d appreciated before, too, but which now seems even more impressive to me, the more that i think about it.

as they both talked about in their bts spots leading up to the reboot, they’d really never gotten the chance to play grissom and sara as a happy, stable, committed couple with their relationship “out in the open” before, so what they were doing for the reboot was in many ways new to them.

returning to a character after years spent away would be a hard enough challenge just by itself, but bringing something new and believable to your performance—taking something that had previously been hinted at and making it explicit in a way that feels organic and substantive—to the degree that they did is just wildly impressive.

there’s just no question that the grissom and sara we see in the reboot are “old marrieds” who’ve spent just about every waking moment of the last six years on a tiny boat together.

they feel so worn into each other, so comfortable around each other.

there’s just no hesitation between them.

and it’s not like we get that sense because we get to see a preponderance of deep, emotional moments with them, because really we don’t.

their almost total lack of personal storyline denies us anything more than just the hug in episode 01x03 “under the skin,” the ring return in episode 01x08 “pipe cleaner,” the kiss in episode 01x10 “signed, sealed, delivered,” and a few other scattered comfort moments here and there.

it all just shines through in the quiet, everyday interactions between them—the little affirming glances, the subtle nonverbal communication, the way they play off of each other, how they anticipate each other’s moves.

it has almost nothing to do with what’s in the script (which is again, next to nothing); it’s all in the portrayal that billy and jorja bring and what they imply, which is just so wonderfully, classically gsr, plus that little bit of “we’ve been together forever by now” extra sauce.

anyway.

among all of the other stuff about the reboot that i don’t enjoy—including how very much the whole production feels like a “first draft” as opposed to a “finished product”—i do appreciate getting to see this incarnation of my otp, where there’s just so obviously so much history and knowing between them as a couple.

it’s very validating.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

damiano david and the voyeuristic gaze

(x)

(I started writing this quite a while ago but it turned out to be perfectly timed for @maneskinweek​ so here we go...)

One of the most interesting things to me about watching Damiano David perform is how self-aware he is about being the object of a gaze. As in, he is extremely aware of when, and how, he is being looked at, and he wants you to know that he’s aware of it.

While they obviously wouldn’t have gotten this far without a ton of musical talent and hard work, I think all the members of Måneskin are aware that their looks, style, and public image of self-confidence and comfort with their bodies and their gender expression are all part of their appeal. Simply put...they’re sexy, they know it, and they’re very comfortable and unapologetic about that being part of their public image.

They all clearly put a lot of thought into how they style and present themselves for public appearances, be it a concert or an interview. But Damiano as the lead singer is the most deliberate about constructing a particular performance of sexiness, and subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) nudging the audience into looking at him in certain ways.

In general Damiano is extremely good at catching the audience’s attention and then directing it where he wants. This video is a great breakdown of how he does that. On stage he is frequently the center of attention (although he is also very intentional about directing the audience’s attention to his other bandmates when it’s their time to shine) and he seems to quite enjoy doing things that get a reaction from the audience. They don’t even have to be big, obvious things--one of my favorite Lesser Damiano Moments is this trick he does in a few of the Il ballo della vita tour shows of blowing water into the air after taking a drink. (What is this? Is it sexy? Why is it sexy? How does one even come up with this? In any case, you paid attention to it, didn’t you?) It’s a clever way of taking something as quotidian as drinking water and turning it into a little performance.

One thing he does very frequently--in live performances, in music videos, and in unscripted BTS moments--is acknowledge the audience’s gaze. He is constantly doing things that signal: I see you seeing me, and this is a performance I'm putting on for you.

When he’s performing live, and when he’s performing live for a camera, you can frequently see him pointing, gesturing or making direct eye contact with the audience/camera. There are many examples of this but here’s one from a recent performance:

(x)

I wrote a whole other post about the band’s camera-savviness and how I think that contributed to their Eurovision win, but suffice to say that getting a moment like this just right relies on knowing where the camera is and how it’s moving, and being able to keep track of it while not losing the connection to a live audience.

In BTS footage and other unscripted moments you can frequently catch him winking or doing something raunchy, flirty or silly when he realizes the camera is on him (there are at least 4 examples in this gifset). While these interactions may be unrehearsed, BTS, making-of and slice-of-life footage is produced with the knowledge that it’s for public consumption, and thus absolutely part of the public image the band is projecting. Even the content on the band members’ personal Instagrams is made to be shown to an audience. Thus all of this is fair game for analyzing how Damiano presents himself to an audience.

All of these forms of acknowledging the audience communicate a similar message: a sort of playful, cheeky exhibitionism, signaling that Damiano knows you are looking at him and he is not only allowing it but enjoying it, and maybe about to put on a little show just for you. It draws you, the viewer, into a sort of complicity with him; it’s a way of saying, Yeah, I see you looking. It’s okay. I like it, and I know you like it too.

This sort of invitation or direction into a voyeuristic gaze at him is most obvious in the band’s music videos, where the way the band interacts with the camera has obviously been thought out in advance. My absolute favorite example is this shot from the Vent’anni video:

(x)

By looking directly into the camera he creates the sense that he is checking to see if you are watching before he sensually strokes that mic. (He is particularly, uh, handsy with the mic in general but this is one of the more blatant moments and yes you are absolutely supposed to notice it.)

The Vent’anni video is shot in a style that frequently breaks the fourth wall, and it’s therefore particularly rich with these moments. Here’s another favorite of mine:

Thomas is looking back at Damiano (as much as you can look at someone who’s directly behind you) but Damiano is looking at us, the audience.

And of course, you knew I was going to talk about this:

(x)

Watching the band’s frontman make out with his own reflection sounds like it should come off as insufferably self-absorbed, but the way this is shot and framed (and the way we have been primed to look at it by other shots earlier in the video) creates the effect of something private, intimate and a bit vulnerable being put on display for us.

In the video for Morirò da Re, the camera actually becomes the mirror in shots like this:

So now we are watching Damiano watch himself as he assesses the image he is about to show to an audience. (Specifically, the image of his gender presentation...we’ll get into that more in a bit.)

And when we see the final product later in the video, Damiano is once again watching us watch him:

All of these details really stand out to me because this kind of intense awareness of other people’s perceptions of you is, let’s just say, not the mainstream way most straight cis men are socialized to perform their sexuality. You know who is socialized to constantly be aware that people are watching them and think about the image they are presenting for others’ consumption? Women. (Cue Margaret Atwood busting through the wall with that “you are your own voyeur” quote.) Another category of people who spend a lot of time thinking about the image they present in this way? Queer and trans people. We do it for the purpose of passing--as someone you are (ie. being gendered correctly), or as someone you’re not (ie. not looking “too queer” in situations where it’s not safe). And we also do it for the purpose of signaling to other queer people, hey, I’m like you.

I think this kind of self-conscious recognition of the audience’s gaze, just as much as the makeup, high heels or corsets, is what makes so many of Damiano’s performances read as gnc and queer. Even if Damiano himself is not queer...we see something we recognize.

The crucial difference is that in Damiano’s performances, the awareness of others’ gaze is not something hostile or dangerous. It’s welcome, consensual, playful, intimate and fun. It’s acknowledged with a saucy wink and a confident, sultry look. I think that’s a lot of what makes Måneskin, and Damiano in particular, so much fun to watch, and so sexy in the particular way that they are sexy. Even though we know it’s a performance, it’s a performance of what confident gender and sexual expression could look like without fear.

[kth1]

2021 Year in Review: kimtaehyunq

firstly and foremostly, i have been tagged --> @min-boongie​ @hobeah​ @taehyungq​ @minieggukie​ @gimbapchefs​ @jeonjcngkook​ & i think @kithtaehyung​ ?? i think that’s all? for right now? i’m sorry. thank you all for thinking of me and mentioning me among the hundreds of awesome creators out there! 

this is the Best of 2021 game // post your favorite or most popular posts from each month this year! 

unfortunately in my case, i reblog and sr far too often that i exceed a lot in each month. so seeking out “most popular” is very difficult for me and i refuse to do it. however, i managed to take the time and pick random favorites in each month to just briefly talk about them. 

one thing i noticed as i scavenged throughout my archive is that... i hadn’t realized how many works i actually have done. which is quite a lot! im surprised at myself for even committing so much time into content making, but i enjoy doing it. it’s something that currently makes me very happy even when this site sometimes makes me very frustrated. personally, i don’t think of my work as anything better than others. i just really enjoy creating. i know i offer a little bit of everything when it comes to content, and i fully appreciate all of the likes, reblogs, and follows that come because of it. i don’t think i ever expected to be here, indulging myself with bts content and giving out my own twist of things... but here i am!

i’m most grateful for just the overall community of bts, who i’ve had the honor of getting to meet and/or admire. gained friendships with mutual interests, shared works and thoughts over creating, and just the amazing support the majority of this community (and fandom) offers! it’s honestly closer than anything i have every been apart of (fan-wise) and that is quite special to me.

so enough of the chitchat, time for some works under the cut!

January

BBC GOGO Jimin Focus - 1.2k // this gifset honestly surprised me because i wasn’t able to get great quality for the frames. i really enjoy this song and i still remember how evil jimin was making a fun song into something... so deadly in the matter of his first verse. 

February

Comedy King Taehyung on BTS RUN Tennis - 1.2k // i remember how annoying coloring this gifset was because of all the greens. but the scene was hilarious -- still is imo! how did he of all people manage to get the ball stuck between the racket? please lol

March

Winter Package 2021 Taehyung looking as boyfriend as ever - 1.5k // the winter package 2021 content is filled with so many heart warming moments. this gifset hopefully captured the soft love that radiated from mr. taehyung. he’s just so fluffy here too. 

April

Black Ravens Fic - 1.1k // listen, i don’t think i need to even comment on this fic. it was an idea that has been eating at the back of my mind for some time and it eventually came out into words. to see so many supportive friends fall for this fic actually has made me so happy. i honestly never expected to have the reactions i gained from putting this fic out into the world. 

May

The Wings Tour: The Final behind the scenes Hobi - 482 // i really enjoyed this gifset and the colors. hobi has such pretty orangey hair and the arrows around him just look pretty. i wish i was able to gain more love for this gifset but it’s ok! hobi is loved by the many millions in the world! 

June

Maknae Line Airplane pt 2 gifset - 470 // this one actually sort of upset me. i’ve been vocal to a few friends about this gifset because of a certain situation in the past. i’ve moved on from it, accept the fate of it not getting the attention it deserves. but this gifset is still very pretty to me and i worked hard on it. so therefore it is my favorite post i did in june!

July

Remake One of your Old Gifsets | Tony Montana - 946 // this was actually a game where i needed to tag other giffers. i didn’t realize that it was going to blow up how it did, but im grateful for it! i really enjoy tony montana yoongi, his song and fit. when i remade this gifset i was so stunned with my growth from before to after. and even now, my giffing tactics have changed! (hopefully better)

August

Gifwar | Taekook edition - 1.2k // over time i started doing a little gifwar of taekook content with @/jeonjcngkook. it’s hilarious to do and always fun to gif a random piece of content. ofc i adore this set so much because of grammys 2020 taehyung and that blasted shirt!!! i love grammys 2020 tae so much that it’s the reason for my url to be my url! :D

September

Red Hair Taehyung - 962 // golly. i was inspired by @/jiminslight and their pink jimin gifset; so much that i made a red hair gifset of tae. i love how it came out and i started discovering that making larger gifsets are 1) quite hard but 2) very enjoyable! 

October

PTD on stage VMINKOOK - 1.5k // i just very much like this set. i think they performed wonderfully even though it was still an online concert, im sure they were missing ARMY so much. 

November

Blonde Taehyung - 992 // this was another set i had made @/kimtaegis because i felt like i failed misribly on the first gifset. i wanted to make it up to her. so as a surprise, i created this one in hopes to be better! also this was a time where i tried making the gifs a little bit more darker than i usually go and it turned out pretty imo! 

December

Boyfriend Vibes Yoongi - 1.4k // honestly, have no clue how so many people enjoyed this gifset so fast. when i saw this scenes in the behind the scenes content i was like “oh wow, i need to gif yoongi and look at him right here! he’s so cool!” and just went ahead and giffed it. i really enjoy seeing the love people have to all the members, but especially seeing the love for mr. min. <3

ok, that took a lot. And hopefully tumblr doesn’t mess up my tags or formatting... because this site is dying :( anyways. thank you all who have supported me and supported bts! i will tag a few other creators down below if they wish to participate! and if you already did this game, i apologize in advance!

tagging: @honsool​ @jung-koook​ @taeyungie​ @taee​ @amourtae​ @kkulmoon​ @y93​ @sopev​ @taeunwoo​ @sugajimin​ @suga-ssi​ @jimimn​ @rainycle​ @filmsout​ @jiminswn​ @hyunsung​ @taetheists​ @chopper​ @blooodsweatandtears​ @loverjimin​ @tcehyungs​ @scokjinkim​ 

[jung-koook]

hi sky! i know you said you've been going through stuff recently and i relate to a lot of what you said so i know it's hard and it feels awful. i wanted to say that i hope you at least had a few good moments today, if not a good day. i hope this wasn't out of line, you don't have to answer this either. but every time i see an iconic bts or jungkook look i want to ask you to gif it because your gifs always make me smile. i just hope you're doing okay!

oh my gosh, what did i do to deserve you🥺 ive had depression since i was 12 and i'm kind of used to those feelings. its just that sometimes they last longer than normal. i dont take any kind of medication so i just have to deal with it myself. i dont like talking to people about my feelings. i dont like to see people worried about me. i feel bad about it. i was really down these days and something rare happened: me talking about it here laksaksk but I didnt think people would send me sweet messages like yours. my heart gets really warm reading your sweet word. thank you so much for it, really. i'm having better days. thank you sweetheart. i'm sorry you're feeling this way too. i hope the same for you. please do only things that make you feel good ok? like for example, these days i watched so much comp of cats doing silly stuff and bangtan doing funny stuff. listen to music that makes you feel good, and watch movies that make you feel good. i hope you feel better soon! i hope you're doing well today. please take care of yourself. i hope you're having a better and good day! ♡ ps. "i want to ask you to gif it because your gifs always make me smile" please i'm going cry 😭🥺 please if you have something request please ask me it, i will love to make gifs for you. i'm always so happy to make gifs for my followers. and i'll be so happy making gifsets for someone as sweet as you. ♡

[carly-bean-blog]

Coffee | MYG

Pairing: Yoongi x Reader

Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Slice of Life, Domestic Fluff

Word Count: 559

Rating: G

Synopsis: Coffee date with your boyfriend

Warnings: Reader is written with no indication of gender but they are said to be smaller than Yoongi; hope you like salted caramel mocha

A/N: This is my first fic ever. Saw a gifset of Yoongi talking and thought about how I could listen to him talk for hours, and this happened. (It’s only briefly hinted at, but it’s my intention that Yoongi is an idol and member of BTS, however you can interpret it as you want.) Enjoy, and please let me know what you think! (Also Carlyndra is my pen name.)

Thank you to @ppersonna​​ and @chimoona​​ for convincing me that this isn’t trash and that I should post it, I love you ❤

---

Warm golden sunlight streams in through the windows. The coffee shop is small, quaint. Cozy.

“One salted caramel mocha for the lovely customer at table C,” a deep voice says playfully.

You smile up at your boyfriend as he places your drink down before sitting himself across from you. You wrap your hands around the hot drink, feeling the warmth underneath your fingers. “Thanks, Yoongi.”

A small hint of his side smile flits across his lips, disappearing as quickly as it had come. “Of course.”

Still the same quiet, introverted man. He’s wearing a simple black long sleeve shirt and his classic black baseball cap. Somewhat shy, at times avoiding your gaze. You can’t help but think of how effortlessly handsome he looks as he fiddles with getting his straw into his drink.

The two of you hadn’t been dating long; less than a year. It was nice that you were able to find a fairly secluded place where you could be out in public while maintaining some sort of privacy. Either the staff and the few patrons that came through here didn’t recognize Yoongi as an idol, or they didn’t care enough to tell the world.

“You’re not drinking... Did I get the wrong type?” His innocent question makes you realize that you had been staring at him, sitting frozen as you studied his soft features.

“Oh, no, it’s the right one,” you begin to stammer, “I was just, um--”

“You were too busy looking at me?” Yoongi chuckles softly.

You’re taken aback. The modest man before you was rarely so forthright.

“Yeah…” you quietly breathe out, averting your eyes to stare at the whipped cream swirled atop your beverage.

“Hey,” his voice is gentle. Yoongi reaches his hand across the table, slightly chilled from holding his iced drink, and takes your smaller one in his. The gesture causes you to look up to meet his eyes. They’re warm and sweet, like the mocha you enjoy so much.

“I like it. Besides, I’m your boyfriend, you’re allowed to stare all you want. But,” his lips curved up into an impish grin as he gives your hand a gentle squeeze, “I get to gawk at you just as much. Deal?”

Your cheeks flush slightly, and you squeeze his hand back. “Deal.”

Yoongi’s smile turns tender as he nods in acceptance of your answer.

Taking a sip of your drink, you return his smile, the two of you enjoying the quiet moment of mutual adoration.

“So,” you begin, “Tell me about this new project you’ve been working on.”

His eyes light up slightly. You listen with great interest as he passionately begins speaking about his latest undertaking. Honestly, you could sit here and listen to him talk about whatever the hell he wanted all day, sun up to sun down, and you would still be ready for more.

The two of you sit chatting until long after your cups are empty. As you exit the small shop, hands entwined, you sneak a glance up at him only to catch him right as he’s peeking down at you. When your eyes lock, he smiles lovingly; a smile big enough that crinkles form at the corners of his eyes. You mirror his expression, heart full, as the two of you plan your next coffee date.

The next date of many, many more.

---

©Carlyndra of carly-bean-blog, 2020 | Please do not edit, translate, or repost.

[97-liners]

adding you to the list of my tumblr moms ♡ love that!! i graduated highschool a year ago! i’m in first year uni right now ♡

DWC truly made half the people carats ♡ dwc queen. my knees ache just by looking at them dance 😭 omg oldie kpop stan ,, love that. Shinee the original kings oof.

i got into kpop at the same time i got into svt, 2019. i did listen to a few bts songs before but i didn’t pull me into kpop. my best friend is a kpop stan and a carat and she got me into svt,, we were in dance room (i don’t dance) and she played dreams come true by hao and i was hooked and then checked out svt and then they dropped the gold album an ode and i never got out of svt ♡

AD GENIUS IS A GENIUS EP ISTG I LOVE IT SM I LAUGHED SM IN IT. they’re humour is broken and funny i love it ♡ best friends is a fun one omg. mine are prolly all TTT and insomnia zero and best friends ♡

q: what do u look for in a perfect gifset ?

- cd

still a young spring chicken :’) so youthful! how is uni? what’s your major? i was a mechanical engineering major in undergrad and i love love love to talk about it!

also omg 2019…. you were like, a sophomore/junior in high school? in 2012 when i was still getting into kpop i remember my friend telling me to watch shinee’s hello baby to learn more abojt the members, and her showing me two moons by exo (i still can’t believe they named a song two moons LMFAO)…. i remember staying up all night for exo’s first comeback…. i remember when someone leaked the wolf demo and it was the wildest fucking song i had ever heard…… truly,,,, senior citizen hours here

insomnia zero is so good 😭 going PDs are literally geniuses for that concept, and i think about wonwoo “t a s t y” all the time

a: hmmmmm probably content? i know it’s a vague answer but i love gif sets of funny or [redacted] moments in videos bc i’m like…. yes! somebody else noticed!!!

[strvwberryblcnde]

👫 teddy/lana

send a 👫 and I’ll write four headcanons i have about our muses’ relationship.

ok so. lana has a habit of sharing food as one of her many love languages i think. she jst likes.... giving ppl things even if it means she’ll have less. she’d let a wolf make a meal out of her n eat every last piece if she loved him n she knew he’d feel full. bt of everyone i feel like teddy hs always been the one she does this w most.... like even when they first met in the cafeteria she gave him spoonfuls of her greek yogurt n honey. whenever she’s eating fruit (which is a lot she’s obsessed w strawberries n peaches n grapes n tangerines n oranges) she’ll ALWAYS give him half whether tht’s segmenting up pieces or dividing bites evenly between them n Without Fail it’ll always b half tht she gives him whereas she might give other ppl like.... a bite or a piece or two bt......... it’s rly specific each time tht she gives teddy half. it isn’t even intentional it’s jst like a subconscious thing bt if we were to slide on spectacles n analyse this in an english class fr it’s Meaning then. looks at u then looks away. i think this represents the way tht teddy hs always felt like another half of her. they’re one in the same. in a lot of ways they’re very similar mayb even................ TOO similar n that’s why it’s been sch a fking.... bastard of trying to work things out ever bc they very much hv the same rampant commitment issues n bad timing n fears of never being gd enough. i feel like in the past a guy she ws dating (noncommittally as lana tended to do these things) wld have even noticed this n it would have bugged him a lot just like... how close she was w teddy in general............. n he would’ve one day brought it up in the middle of a fight he’d picked jst cutting away from what they were talking abt to be like. u only ever give me one bite but u would give teddy all of it if he asked u to. tell me i’m wrong. n she’d scoff out a laugh in disbelief looking around like omg...... all this over a fruit...... what are u even sa-- n he’d cut her off n be like. literally tell me i’m wrong lana. n she wouldn’t even b able to after going quiet n rly realising what it was he was actually Saying. he’d storm out. relationship over. icons of always being a little bit in love w each other n not even noticing it until someone else points it out <3

god. sighs dramatically at the idea i jst had. i cn imagine in la verse lana being rly drunk getting bk from a date one time n inevitably it was just some random loser since she’s back to dating Trash in this era bc she just truly cbas trying after her breakup w dom n............. it would be like a parallel to tht one time they’d fallen out over him sleeping w imogen when she ws upset w him bt crawled into his bed drunk at a party just to lie w him for a little while despite everything...... she wld have gone to his instead of hers on some drunken automatic pilot n somehow got into his room n..... she’d clamber in n flop nxt to him n maybe it wld be funny at first if he woke up n was like lana what the fk...... are u doing here.... so disorientated n confused.......... n she’d just be joking initially bt very clearly drunk like making fun of her date talking abt how he kept complimenting his own hair n calling himself a tesla in a sea of prius’ n checking himself out in every window they passed n then the laughter wld slowly trickle off n she’d go kind of quiet fr a moment n maybe teddy wld assume she ws passing out bc she’d drank sm bt after a short silence she’d perk up with a mumble out of nowhere n, barely conscious of what she’s saying, b like “why didn’t u wait for me like u said u would”. n if he was like.............. huh? she’d have her eyes shut n just b murmuring half awake then open them sleepily to look at him n rly quietly be like........ “u promised”. mayb she’d even reach out to gingerly trace his face bt then her wrist wld go slack bc she was rly tired n she’d just wriggle closer n tuck her head to get comfy n be like “warm” then promptly fall asleep. JSGSFKGHFHGKHGSFKH. literally jst jolting him awake w this rarely serious n genuine conversation then passing out. jst the worst fk teddy’s life bet he lay there staring at the ceiling fr so long after tht one <3 lana wouldn’t remember this in the morning either she’d wake up like why am i here........ did we meet up last night............ teddy jst like >_> u crashed here it was nbd.

i picture the first week they moved to LA lana wldn’t have admitted it bt she wld be feeling rly homesick............ radcliffe was very much like the first place she truly felt was her home n she’d miss all of the ppl there n just the general area A Lot............. one night i can see her jst wanting to spend with teddy to have like a sense of familiarity in an unfamiliar city (even if she’s spent a decent amt of time there over the yrs bc of jameson records hving studios etc bt still) n i’m imagining them like. breaking into an indoor swimming complex that her n her friends in high skl used to break into in the summers when they vacationed yrs ago.... maybe lana still has a key cut tht works from a connection she made bk then idk <3 it doesn’t matter <3 n they’d inevitably be drunk n just messing around n splashing each other n doing handstand competitions n all the typical..... fun frivolous childish antics lana n teddy tend to get into whenever they’re around each other.... truly jst transformed into big kids whenever they’re in the other’s company..... inspired a little by this gifset jst in terms of the playing around underwater vibe. anyway. mayb they mostly dry off bt they end up climbing up onto the rooftop after n it’s a baking summer night anyway so it isn’t like they’ll catch a cold being damp bt they share a big fluffy towel n bottle of rum between them huddled overlooking the lights of the city. n maybe somehow it gets onto lana admitting how much she misses home n how it’s kind of weird being here especially bc she’s further from caleb. she’s never been this far from him since he was away in the army n we all kno hw tht turned out. mayb she’d go a bit quiet after saying this bt then i think she’d take his hand w their fingers laced together n she’d rest her head on his shoulder n be like. at least i’ll always have u. it’s like i took a piece of home w me. we’ve always had each other like that. then she’d perk up n lift her head n be like let’s make a deal. i’ll be ur home if u’ll be mine. ok? n make him pinky promise. i dnt think she’d quite consider the sentimentality in tht bt 😔 she nvr rly does she jst says what feels natural without attention paid to the deeper meaning tht motivated it n.... sighs. looks at u then looks away....

this is inspired by tht scene in don’t trust the b in apartment 23 where she’s like “look. that video of me getting rawed by my best friend means the world to me.” KJGFGJKSFHKGHKSFGHKFSHKGSHGK god. inevitably in lana n teddy’s prime when they were literally hooking up 24/7 in earlier college yrs they made.............. a few videos. i mean it’s jst realistic. it’s jst common sense. probably even a feature length film at one point. n i had this idea where bc teddy’s trying to get into acting etc mayb if he gets an agent his agent is like.... do u have any dirt u need to take care of? loose ends to tie up? incriminating files to delete? sex tapes? n if he was like... ya..... mayb his agent wld have asked him to delete them if he still had them on his computer or w.e i mean i kno lana wld n wouldn’t have deleted them she wld have been proud of their work of art...... bt maybe he told lana abt this just laughing abt it n the atmosphere ws lighthearted at first bc she’d find it rly funny too like ommmmggggggg i’m a skeleton in ur closet tht is so fun if u get famous i cld be blasted all over perez hilton that’s kind of sexy..... bt............... mayb she’d as a joke be like. mayb we shld watch it one last time before u delete it. kind of like a funeral service. a goodbye party. sailing out the flaming viking raft n paying our respects u know??? n they were joking bk n forth bt then she’d be like. seriously tho mayb we should? growing more accustomed to the idea actually being a genuine one even tho tht is fking. the WORST idea i have EVER heard in the world like i do NOT know how lana wld think she has the self control to do that bt in her head she’s like. teddy n i are jst best friends now... it’s fine........... we’re open w each other it’s just a bit of fun.......... n then i can imagine if he went along w this it’s like a game of chicken they’re playing w each other where they’re both like fking hell shd we do this.... dnt wna seem like I’M the one tht thinks i can’t handle it........ n it’s some back n forth like nick n jess in new girl where they’re daring each other to have the threeway w the landlord. bt then like not even.... a minute into watching it as they’re both silently holding their breath n crunching popcorn they mde for the occasion (insisting on acting like it ws just a normal movie night) lana wld literally have to be like. slams laptop shut. UMMMM i forgot.... i....... have a very important meeting......... n teddy’s just like. meeting? u don’t have a job... what are u ta-- n she’s like A MEETING A VERY IMPORTANT MEETING...... very blatantly squirming around as she slowly gets up n tries to head fr the door... n teddy’s like.... taking the excuse without much question too like... ya i have to run lines actually i jst remembered gt an audition coming up..... n they’re both like ya haha... maybe some other time.... or maybe just delete it it’s whatever.... anyway we gtg haha... bye.... ttyl...... lana wld literally hv to SPRINT out of there to go home n. deal w how flustered this made her i won’t lie. she bumps into parker n is all flushed in the face n is just like CAN’T TALK BYE n takes off sprinting again like some kind of freak. it’d b a train wreck. i jst think that’d b rly funny tho n dare i say it? it’s canon. 

[bytheangell]

Same anon as earlier and dont feel bad about canon or non canon. I wanted the whole list - i just kinda want to understand what you see in all these ships since they didn't ping to me like they did to you but i WANT to be as open and flexible and multishipper as you. So feel free to talk about literally every single possible pairing, canon or otherwise, and why they're great so i can see it through your eyes when I eventually do a rewatch and as a result hopefully ship more pairings as well

This is following up THIS POST where I go off about a few of the many ships I ship and when I started shipping them and whyYOU HAVE NO IDEA THE CAN OF WORMS YOU ARE OPENING DO YOU. I love that people have their OTP they will live and die by, but for me, especially as a writer who likes to switch up what and who I’m writing to keep things fun, I thrive off of being able to imagine the infinite ‘what-if?’ possibilities of everything we didn’t get. Sometimes it’s totally out there, sometimes it’s very canon-adjacent, and obviously everyone has their own preferences.  But Shadowhunters is a multishipper dream. 

Okay. Okay I will go more in-depth on my favorite non-Malec pairings, because all you need are eyes to see that those two are in love and soulmates and absolutely head-over-heels for one another. I feel like no one needs to be explained into Malec. Instead, we’ll start with Simon. 

So here’s the thing about Simon, and very specifically the way Alberto plays him: I feel like he just has chemistry with everyone?! Like, every single scene he’s in with another character has this very distinct energy to it, like Simon is able to work off of anything thrown at him by anyone, like he can take whatever they’re saying and just vibe with it. He can seamlessly flit from Raphael to Maia to Jace to Izzy and just exist in their space. In my mind, he’s the easiest to ship with almost anyone. He’s kind, and funny, but deeper than that he just wants to help and do right by those he loves, no matter what the personal cost, and you can see that in every friendship/relationship dynamic he has on the show. I can ship Simon with almost anyone, no issues. 

Favorite Simon ships? Saia. Jimon. Saphael. That whole ‘tough badass loves the nerdy rambler’ thing is just it for me with the first two, and Saphael. SAPHAEL. The amount of breaking his own rules that Raphael did for Simon and how Simon keeps going back to him no matter how distant Raphael tries to be just begs for there to be something more between them. 

Now, for Clizzy, I know I mentioned a bit about the whole ‘everything’s your color!’ moment, but really, just every interaction between these two has serious flirty undertones. Just take a few minutes in the Clizzy tag to look at gifsets and I mean: 

THESE SOFT LOOKS FOR EACH OTHER. JUST. ALL THE TIME. 

To a lesser extent you get that with Clary and Maia interactions as well. Obviously easy enough to read as Clary just being kind and soft and excited to have some badass female friends in her life, but it doesn’t take much to read more into these little moments if you wanted to turn them into something else. 

As far as Reyhill goes, I love them but for totally different reasons. Obviously meant to be implied canon just a little, even if they’re only hinted at a bit at the very end of the show for .5 seconds, I think the dynamic between them is such a great contrast to Malec. Here you have a warlock who was despised at the end and trying to earn his way back into people’s good graces. You have a Shadowhunter who showed clear biases against Warlocks previously who is trying to get beyond those ingrained prejudices. You have that trailblazing couple going first, and then you have Andrew and Lorenzo watching them and thinking, ‘hell, if they can, maybe I can, too’, but making their own way of it. 

So, for things with literally no show basis and just, idk, fandom things I came across and went ‘yes good i shall protect them’ over: 

Raphael/Simon/Jace. This is just a lot of what I mentioned above with Simon being ridiculously compatible with everyone, with the bonus of two stubborn, stoic, ‘oh my god why do I like you’ personas that can either bond over their similarities or use it in a butting-heads-at-every-turn start before they learn to balance each other out. 

Isabelle and Lydia started with a bts photo for me. I’m sure fic existed before I saw it and went ‘OH’ over the possibilities, but this was the beginning of the end: 

JUST THINK ABOUT IT. Neither of them take any crap from anyone. Fierce women, protective of everything they earned for themselves, protective of those they love, loyal to their families… get them together and they would be an unstoppable force. Imagine the two of them teaming up in a fight or in a battle of wits to get something they want or take out an obstacle in their way? OOF. 

There is, quite literally, something for everyone in this show. The cast of characters varies widely in personalities that can be thrown together in a seemingly infinite number of combinations. It’s a multishipper heaven if you’re open to it and I’ve seen any number of pairings tossed about in fanfic from ‘totally out there’ to ‘how did I never think of them!?’. If you’ve got an open mind to go poking around new ones, you might find something new you can really get behind! And if not, hey, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with sticking to what you know and love

[shenanigumi]

Getting to know you tag

Since I seem to be… at least… somewhat back now, I decided it was time to clean out my drafts and found this. Apparently, I was tagged by @hinalycoris​ a very long time ago! Thanks!!

Nickname: Alley.

Zodiac sign: Double Aquarius with Aries rising (cusp of Pisces). Also a Wood Boar with Snake ascendant.

Height: 5′5″.

Most recent drink: Water.

Last thing I Googled: “Nefertiti”. Since she was widely considered the most beautiful woman ever in Ancient Egyptian times, I wanted to see whether her famous bust at all resembles the current most beautiful human in the world, Kim Taehyung. (It totally does.)

Favorite video game character: Oh man, this is always so difficult. Kazama Chikage from Hakuōki, Zelos Wilder from Tales of Symphonia, and Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss are probably top of the list, but damn, Ardyn Izunia from Final Fantasy XV has come real close.

Last creative post for Tumblr was: Not sure whether the couple new headcanon posts count, so I’ll say an aesthetic gifset mashing up BTS’s “Burning Up (Fire)” and “MIC Drop” with GOT7’s “Hard Carry”. Looking at the post date, it sure has been awhile.

Other blogs: @alley-cat-sunflower​ (personal); @crystalline-lifestream​ (Final Fantasy); @thestorytellersprotege​ (writing/occult); and @i-got7-bulletproof-biases​ (K-pop, specifically BTS and GOT7).

Do I get asks: Usually only when I post things, but today I got one out of the blue, and that seems to have kickstarted something.

Following: 717.

Amount of sleep: About 8 hours a night on average. Sometimes less, since I’m both a night owl and have to be up early for my job.

Lucky number: 16.

What am I wearing: Dark blue high-waisted skinny jeans and a gray t-shirt with a print based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”.

Dream job: Author/editor.

Dream trip: Arcata on my less adventurous days, Japan on my more adventurous days. I’ll have partners for both, now.

Favorite food: At the moment, Boston cream pie sounds good.

Play any instruments: Ocarina. Of Time, specifically.

Languages: I’m only fluent in English at the moment, but I started learning Japanese a few years ago now, and I still remember a few phrases in Mandarin. I’m also increasingly more interested in Korean.

A song from current writing playlist: “MOVE” by SHInee’s Taemin.

Random fact: I’m a former trichotillomaniac (thank gods for the “former” part, seriously) and currently recovering dermatillomaniac, but it is really hard to break habits that are ingrained in your body.

A favorite memory: Playing RollerCoaster Tycoon at my friends’ house after school when I was a kid. Specifically on rainy Fridays, since that was my favorite weather combined with the weekday we were allowed to use the computer. RCT is probably still my favorite gameplay-oriented video game, to be perfectly honest.