#also i think most seasonal events are free for everyone too

[anxiously-sidequesting]

REBLOGGING FOR THIS WONDERFUL ADDITION

[sabertoothwalrus]

so I’ve been gaining a lot of insight into the animation industry recently, especially in regards to pitching & the creation of new shows. There’s a few ways to go about it.

First, there’s pitching to a studio. When you pitch, it has to be SHORT and CONCISE. You may write a lovingly detailed pitch bible that perfectly breaks down episodes and characterizations, and it might barely even get read. First impressions, first impressions, first impressions!

Most peoples’ first projects don’t get picked up. I’ve heard a few stories from directors that said they tried pitching a story they’d had for years, which got rejected, to then spend a week or even several hours in their car coming up with a new idea, only for that to get greenlit.

But that’s not the end of it. Just because a show gets greenlit, doesn’t mean it will ever get finished. There’s lots of things that can happen. Sometimes, unexpected major world events (like… a global pandemic) can cause projects to get chopped. Sometimes, a CEO change or studio merge means a single person can decide a project “no longer fits with the company’s brand.�� Sometimes, the one producer that was rooting for your project gets laid off, and no one else cares enough, so it gets shelved. Sometimes, a streaming service decides to create an animation department, and then they decide they don’t want it anymore. Sometimes, the studio will be simultaneously be developing another project that was too similar to yours and they just didn’t think to tell you until they decide yours is the one with less potential.

On top of that, almost everyone in the industry is saying that “studios just don’t pick up original content anymore.” Studios want something they can franchise, something that will bring in money. New content is risky. Established fanbases are safer.

However! Studios can still be a very good thing. They can be unionized. They can provide better benefits and resources. They can have connections and infrastructure and a larger volume of workers. At a studio, you can divide the labor and produce more in less time. Longer episodes, longer seasons, more consistency in quality.

But this comes with all of the disadvantages of having more in the kitchen.

The alternative is indie animation.

With indie animation, you have total freedom. Full artistic control. It doesn’t even matter if your idea sucks ass, because there’s no one to tell you you can’t make it. You could make it anyway, and you can make it whatever you wanted.

The thing is, making animation is hard. In my production class last semester, the average maximum animation one person could make in that timeframe was 30-60 seconds, and that’s not even counting background design, sound design, or cleanup/color. To make a 5 minute animated short, you should probably have at least 5 people.

And it is CRUCIAL you have a production manager. Ideally someone who’s not already doing art for the project. Most projects without a production manager will fall apart pretty quickly. Once the adrenaline and impulse-fueled motivation wears off, you need someone to hold you accountable and enforce deadlines and proper time management.

Speaking of time, that’s also hard to get. The more people you have, the more likely schedules won’t line up. Most people will have school, or other jobs.

And it costs MONEY!!!!!! You either have everyone work for free and volunteer their time & energy, or you establish a business as a proper indie studio, with people who may or may not have experience on how to handle paying someone else’s salary. And the money has to come from somewhere, so you have to rely on crowdfunding like patreon or kickstarter. (This, by the way, is why I could never fault an indie animation for releasing merch with their pilot.)

And like, maybe you wanna do a series, and all your friends agree to volunteer their labor and time to make the first episode, but it was unanimously not sustainable. Deciding not to produce a second episode until you can raise enough money is not being suddenly greedy, it’s attempting to compensate people rather than expecting them to be continuously taken advantage of.

You have to consider your output as well. There are some outliers like Worthikids, who afaik does all his animation himself, and afaik can work on it full-time thanks to his patreon subscribers. And he still has only produced a total of 30 minutes of animation (for Big Top Burger specifically) in the past 4 years. This is an IMPRESSIVE feat and this is with using a lot of 3D as part of his pipeline!!

Indie animation also has the complication of being more accessible for fandoms. When you’re posting your Official Canon Content on youtube, it doesn’t look a lot different than the fandom-created video essay in the sidebar next to it. What’s canon vs what’s fanon becomes less distinguishable. The boundaries are blurrier. When the creator is just some guy you follow on twitter, it’s easier to prod them for info regarding ships and theories and word-of-god confirmation. They don’t have a PR team or entire international tv networks to appeal to. And this is when creators get frustrated that their fans snowball and turn their creation into something they don’t recognize (and no longer enjoy) anymore.

So it’s tricky.

Thankfully, the threshold to learn animation is fairly low nowadays!! There are TONS of resources online to learn it on your own without forking over a couple hundred thousand to a private art college. There are conventions and discord servers and events where you can network, if you know where to look.

I know it can seem discouraging in the face of capitalism, but I think that’s all the more reason why it’s so important to BE DETERMINED about animation!! We’re already starting to see the beginning of an indie animation boom, and I think it’s a testament to humanity’s desire to tell stories and create art. Even if there’s no financial gain, we do whatever it takes to tell our stories anyway.

[elytra404]

okay okay so yk magical mystery cure? heres my idea of a rewrite.

i think there are better cutie mark swaps for them, so here we go. Also new story.

Rainbow Dash - Apple Jacks Cutie Mark

Cutie Mark Redesign - 3 Zap Apples

Fastest harvester around. But has to slow down so the basket holders can keep up. Loves Zap apple season for the adrenaline, but the traditions and tasks make it boring to her with us endlessly frustrating. adores harvesting and watching them tho. She isn't allowed around cider season after stealing some of it and being distracted by her love for it. She's good at it. But having to slow down for the farm work makes her feel useless.

Rainbow tends to put her hair into high ponytails for harvesting season. She wears a yoke around the farm most of the time.

Fluttershy - Raritys Cutie Mark

Cutie Mark Redesign - 3 pink rounded gems

She is a wonderful designer but running it as a business takes away from her freedom and time to do it as more than a job. She has to be social and model to support her business, which is terrifying for her.

Fluttershy tends to keep her mane and tail up in a braided bun to keep it out her way. She's considered cutting it shorter but doesn't want to limit her modeling options. She wears pastel green horseshoes after one to many times stepping on needles. They cover her hoofs, the bottoms being gold and the rest being designed like leaves wrapped around her hooves. Her wings are very thin as she rarely uses them for actual flight.

Pinkie Pie - Fluttershys Cutie Mark

Cutie Mark Redesign - Balloon animal butterflys

Pinkie does enjoy taking care of the animals. Shes very good at organizing them, and finding the perfect owners for those who want to be pets! However she struggles with volume control quite often, and that tends to scare the smaller animals away. She's not the best at being gentle, preferring to rough house with bears. She's doing her best but every time she scares a creature she feels horrible about it.

Pinkie's hair never got its curls. She wears it in box braids, letting it grow quite long. She tends to wear a reinforced jean jacket Flutters made her to protect herself from the larger animals claws.

Apple Jack - Pinkie Pies Cutie Mark

Cutie Mark Redesign - Lasso and Apple themed Balloons

She's a rodeo gal! Lasso a bull and stay on it for record times, tricks and jumps. She loves it. Mostly. She has to move around a lot for rodeos, and rarely gets to stay in one place for long. She hasn't been able to help her family in a harvest in years because it tends to line up with rodeo season.

AJ keeps her hair at around a bob so it stays out the way for rodeo work. She wears her dad's hat in her free time but doesn't during actual rodeo work to keep it safe. She started dying streaks of red and green into her hair as a kid to be more recognizable to judges and continues to too this day.

Rarity - Rainbow Dashs Cutie Mark

Cutie Mark Redesign - Rainbow waterfall

Rarity designs the weather for events! Making sure the sun shines brightest on the stage, and beautiful rainbows for filly's birthdays. She knows how to make it practical as well as beautiful. One of her favorite things is designing snowflakes. However, weather designing isn't a hobby. It affects everyone in the vicinity not just her. So in her free time, Rarity feels a bit lost. She mostly goes to the spa, but that doesn't really change her feelings of uselessness.

With her free time Rarity has let her hair grow out, curling it into ringlets. She also tends to wear a shawl that Flutters made her, a lavender knitted one that is pretty light weight and clasps in the front with an opal.

Twilight

Twilight looks and acts the same, with one different. She has gained silvery marks on each side of her back, where wings would be if she had them. When she first comes too, her hair is tied back like Moondancers. She undoes that almost immediately tho.

What happened/What happens

The spell Twi accidentally cast not only swapped her friend's destinies, but in the process undid the rainboom.

Because of this, Rainbow ended up crashing when she attempted it into sweet apple acres. In her attempts to fly away she runs into a few trees, harvesting them and earning her cutie mark. Granny smith ends up taking her in in return for her work.

Due to this, AJ never seens the rainbow leading her home. She stays with her aunt, joining in a junior rodeo contest for fun a few weeks later and gaining her cutie mark. She visits ponyville every chance she gets.

Pinkie never sees the rainbow on her farm. She continues to farm until one day birds form a nest on Holders Boulder, and she ends up bringing the birds down and relocating them, gaining her cutie mark. Eventually she finds her cutie mark has no real place on her farm, so she moves to ponyville.

Fluttershy stays up in cloudsdale until she is tasked with helping to sew weather factory uniforms as her first job since she cant fly very well. This gains her cutie mark. She eventually moves to Ponyville to continue her special talent without the need for flight.

Rarity grows up in ponyville and is a late bloomer until she is given the chance to work on making extra snow flakes when not enough are made one winter. This is how she gains her cutie mark. She stays in Ponyville, leading winter wrap up every year in Ponyville after.

All of them end up being friends, but not very close. AJ see's Rainbow as a distanced sister or cousin, Flutter's makes AJ rodeo clothes and anything Pinkie needs for her animals, and Rarity met both AJ and Flutters separately for events. Once they were all in town and ended up running into each other. Since then they meet up when they can, which is rare.

Twilight never hatches Spike, but still gets into Celestia's school. (Going on the idea that the dragon egg was a test of handling failure.) She gets her cutie mark just the same. Without Spike she is even less social in school, and doesn't end up as Celestia's prize pupil. She stays in Canterlot, eventually moving out of her parent's place to stay closer to the castle, where Shining Armor works.

The day after she casts the spell, Twilight wakes up in this work with all her memories of the past one. I imagine this would be an entire season of the show. When it gets tough, she thinks of Spike and keeps going for him. She spends about an episode with each person getting close to them again. Including some filler to get to know this new world and dynamic. Including a probably 2 part finale type thing, she gathers them all, shows them they can be happy, and reverses the spell. the issue isn't that their bad at their talents, its that they aren't happy.

However not in a show like format, my perfect au (aka my focus), its slightly different. Same beats over a longer span of time. It takes Twi longer to figure out that there is a big issue with her friends. She's caught up in grief over Spike for most of it. She is basically Spike's mum, a teen mum at that. She has to learn to function without him, both emotionally and literally. And she has to learn to change her motivation for fixing everything. Her original motivation is just for spike. But as she gets to know her friends again she learns she has to do it for their happiness as well.

All of this would happen over about a year.

By the end, she has

- Pinkie who fully believes her and has become her confidante and right hoof mare,

- AppleJack who has suspicions that Twi's hiding something but assumes its grief over a lost child (not entirely untrue) and nothing else,

- Flutters who considers Twi the first person to truly believe in her,

- Rainbow who has gained a change of pace with Twi and is loving it,

-Rarity who also fully believes Twi and is the only other than Pinkie who knows everything and has found a purpose in this.

It takes all of them to preform the spell, friendship is magic after all, to return the world to its right place. Twilight has to make herself an Alicorn during this spell to have the power to complete it.

Also to clear up some other plot holes-

Luna does come back, but Celestia isnt relying on Twi this time and so is able to send her back to the moon again. Luna is still in the moon and Celestia is still alone.

Discord isn't set free because the Cutie Mark Crusaders never form, since Rarity doesn't settle in ponyville as her main residence, Sweetie Belle doesn't go to schools with Scoot and Apple Bloom. They end up meeting only after Twi realizes how unhappy they are apart and sets them up to meet.

Chrysalis never attacks because Cadence and Shining Armor never fall in-love. Twi never moves to Ponyville so Shining Armor is focused on making sure Twi's okay, not love. Twi sets them up too.

I'm gonna post stuff about this au at #magicalmysteryyearau sooo follow that if you wanna see more

[o-uncle-newt]

OK I've talked here, I think, about my strong belief that we need a Miss Climpson's Cattery TV show to jump on the mystery period drama bandwagon- and I've been thinking about what it might look like and have some ideas

Please feel free to add some in comments or reblogs!

The overall cast structure is basically like Call the Midwife S1 (or, more accurately, S2-3)- we have a POV "new to the crew" character who is purportedly the main character (but significantly lower-drama than Jenny lol) but it's functionally an ensemble. Miss Climpson is the Sister Julienne character, aka the on-the-ground boss, and then there are a bunch of other operatives, who all show up at SOME point in most episodes but only a few of them take center stage each episode in a particular case or two. There are also the support staff/actual typists, who are fun side characters.

Wimsey is a side character, and is played by a non-super-famous actor. He only appears in a few episodes at most in each season, usually as someone who is giving work to the operatives. While he can bring in operatives to help him on his cases, he is never allowed to solve any agency cases.

Harriet is a one or two episode max character. She meets Miss Climpson and possibly Miss Murchison but nobody else (as discussed in Gaudy Night). Honestly, if they don't show her that's fine too. At most she's brought in to provide help/insight on a literary world case.

The show starts right after the events of Strong Poison, and it's discussed as a recent case among the team. That said, unless it can be fit canonically into a Sayers story without undue bother, the episodes do NOT circle around existing Sayers plots.

Miss Murchison is a significant character, and has a love interest to whom she gets married sometime toward the third/fourth year of show canon (as we know that canonically she gets married sometime before the events of Gaudy Night). It is a cute older-nerd romance and everyone ships it. There is no "drama," just sweetness.

This is optional, but it is POSSIBLE that Wimsey brings Miss Meteyard into the firm, likely not permanently but possibly on a one-case basis for her advertising world expertise. She is initially snobbish about it but soon grows out of it.

As I've alluded to above, the main rule is- Sayers canon can never be violated. There is SO much space for great story and characterization that falls totally in line.

Everything else... is totally up to whoever! And I'm absolutely up for other ideas! These are just the main things I've thought of and I may come back and make additions/edits but here we go for now.

Though... casting idea- I'm not usually very good at this but I really feel like, speaking of Call the Midwife, Georgie Glen (Miss Higgins) could be an interesting Miss Climpson. Quite different than the excellent one in the Petherbridge/Walter adaptation of Strong Poison, but still good. I'm completely open to other suggestions though, as well as casting suggestions for other characters (including just actors who you think would be good for random currently-nonexistent/hypothesized ones- it's just so open ended, there are so many choices!).

[sflow-er]

Fandom New Year's resolutions...

I found myself thinking quite a lot about this fandom and my place in it over the holidays. It was already on my mind due to Faves Fest, and the hate anon I got on Christmas Eve and the general discussion on the confessions blog on whether shipping Wille/Felice was "allowed" made sure it remained there.

I've summarised some of my thoughts as resolutions concerning my presence in the fandom in 2025.

Keep writing and posting my "diabolical" and "deranged" thoughts here when I feel like it, and especially "dying on the hill of Henry and Walter's entirely made up relationship" on ao3. Sorry not sorry, anon. That's the corner of the YR sandbox that I have enjoyed playing in since August 2021, and I will keep playing until l run out of things to say or stories to write. .

Keep reblogging my friends' posts and posts by others interested in the non-Wilmon aspects of the show (when I come across them). Including gifsets etc! I'm not naturally great at paying attention to those because I'm more of a text post person, but they still deserve to be seen by as many people as possible. .

Spend less time scrolling tumblr as a whole. It takes far too much energy and headache-free time away from fic writing and keeping up with my friends. .

Make a safe and comfortable space for my more personal posts. Frankly, the haters scrolling my blog feels similar to that one time when someone broke into our basement storage and tried on some of my old jackets, leaving them in a bundle on the floor with the sleeves turned inside out. I washed them, but they all went to goodwill because I didn't feel comfortable wearing them anymore. In the same spirit, I've taken all personal posts except my intro off this blog and reblogged them to a new one that is currently set to private. When it's ready, I will make a separate post asking if anyone wants to follow me there. .

No longer allow anons. I have wanted to keep them on in the past to provide a forum for thoughts that people might be too shy to express on their own blog, such as the Stedrika debate a while back and some past anons about August's ED and accountability, but I'm done risking hate for it. If you want to discuss something with me, you are always welcome to do so in your own name. Whether in agreement or mutually respectful disagreement! .

Radically accept the state of the fandom at large: interest in our corner of the sandbox is what it is. My friend and I had made some plans to liven things up, but after recent events, I'm backing out. I don't want to spend my remaining time in the fandom feeling demoralised; I want to focus on what I enjoy. At the risk of sounding like an obnoxious brag, I can look back on my past contributions to the non-Wilmon corner with pride. Countless people have told me it was my longfic that got them interested and invested in Henry as a character, and it also started the Walty ship that has since become a fandom staple! (Receipts: my fic was the first one from Henry's POV, I added the Henry/Walter tag on ao3, and my readers coined the ship name. The fic was quite popular in its heyday, with 700 to 1,200 reads per chapter. It's still the fourth-most commented fic in the fandom, the most kudo'ed fic with a non-Wilmon focus [although Wilmon do feature prominently as side characters], and the 116th most kudo'ed out of the total 5,880 YR fics on ao3.) But the time for that has been over for a while now. Interest in non-Wilmon aspects and characters, which was always remarkably low, has waned as the people in the fandom have changed and new seasons have been added to the canon. Which is perfectly fine; everyone enjoys the show in their own way! Live and let live. Except... Even that seems to be a controversial opinion nowadays. The sad fact is that weirdly puritanical, fundamentalist sentiment has gained more and more ground in this fandom as time has gone by. There are people who feel the need to police others' shipping, opinions, and interpretations of canon. People who see all characters who either stand in Wilmon's way or represent the establishment that Wille is meant to break free from as rotten and unworthy of further exploration, and by extension, the fans who still want to explore them as morally dubious. People who see themselves as righteous warriors and anonymous hate mail to their "fandom adversaries" as a force for good. I never thought back when I was posting my longfic that I would one day be sent hate on Christmas Eve for making an analysis post about Henry and Simon's dynamic for an event that was meant to be about celebrating your fandom faves. Or that I would dread to publish said hate anon, because I was afraid people would either agree with it or more likely ignore it. But here we are. To reiterate, I'm not going anywhere. I'm just going to focus on enjoying my corner rather than trying to wave people over. .

Thanks for reading!

[jumpingjoltiks]

On my hands and knees begging for some more sugar daddy submas please

(I really love your writing style and I really like how you give attention to the smaller actions. Thank you for being a wonderful writer!)

omg thank you!! It really means the world to get feedback like this. <3 Thanks for sticking with me, anon!

Also, wow, I can’t believe Christmas is less than one week away! Have some Holiday thoughts on the Sugar Daddy Twins!

Warnings: None. Just fluff :)

Oh, you are getting SO spoiled

They have been tallying. Planning. Waiting to drop the best presents they can think of.

Think of this like… an advent calendar. Between gifts, outings, and special occasions, the twins have something planned for you nearly every day.

Over the course of the month, you receive the nicest winter coat you’ve ever worn, with a pair of matching gloves and an altaria wool scarf to follow, a selection of luxury balls, pokemon treats, and toys for your team, a beautiful set of crystal ornaments, a gift certificate for an all day experience at a luxury spa, a few special clothing pieces that you plan to wear on dates, and a bag of deluxe roasted komala coffee beans imported from Alola (Emmet) with a box of your favorite sweets imported from Kalos (Ingo), among other things. Each gift is delivered early in the morning, wrapped meticulously and presented with a bow.

They’ll be taking you to the best winter experiences that Unova has to offer.

Nacrene has a new set of museum exhibits that have been curated for the season. You three stroll hand in hand through the fascinating history of the region. Afterwords, they’ll take you to a cozy café that has the best live music you’ve ever heard.

Ice skating and nature walks near Icirrus City is a delight. The skates they’ve bought for you fit perfectly.

If you don’t know how to skate, you’re in good company. Emmet isn’t too great either, but you spend enough time laughing with each other that the falls don’t seem so bad! He’ll also kiss any sore spots better if you ask nicely.

If you’re having a really tough time with it, feel free to hold on to Ingo’s arm as you go. He’s pretty good at this, and he’ll be sure to keep you steady.

Castelia has a few interesting events throughout the month, most notably the lighting of their tree. Ingo and Emmet take you to see it, as well as a light-show that takes place yearly at Liberty Garden.

And of course, there’s Nimbasa. No one does Holidays like Nimbasa. There are special performances in all of the theaters, every street is decorated in the most incredible twinkling lights, there are carolers on every corner, and the carnival has exciting events daily that only ever happen during this time of year. If you should choose to visit them while at work, you’ll even find that Gear Station has been decked out for the holidays.

Christmas itself is a different story.

The twins typically spend Christmas with their family, with everyone meeting in the afternoon for gifts and dinner together. If you’ve been together for some time, they’ll invite you along. Expect to have a wonderful afternoon of games and gifts with Iris, Drayden, Elesa, and Skyla.

And if, at some point in the evening, you should end up with Ingo or Emmet under a carefully pinned sprig of mistletoe hanging near the front door, well, I’m sure you can guess what might happen next.

[wttcsms]

wttcsms wags blind bag, one shot collection ;

about poking fun at blind items & wanting to explore wag culture (and also looking for any reason to write about hot anime athletes), this fic collection's theme is inspired by/based off of... well, blind items about wags!

you're what i wanna love on, shugo meian

at the height of peak stardom, you're not just japan's pop princess — you're everyone's. with it comes controversy; your infamously short dresses, the late night parties you attend after every concert, your outrageously expensive concert tickets and merch, your racy performances that have concerned mothers going on social media saying you're a bad influence. adding to your list of typical pop star transgressions, you also have a hot, successful, wildly successful and just barely controversially older boyfriend!

but it would've been fun (if you could've been the one), tooru oikawa

from high school rivals to long-distance college sweethearts to perhaps the couple that got eloped way too early, it's no surprise that you and oikawa end up divorcing soon after getting married. while in your case it seems like love might be a losing game, you and oikawa both only play to win. when the olympics brings you two together once more, there's a good chance you two can reconcile and get your relationship back and better than it was before — or, go down with this sinking ship. with either outcome, at least you two are doing it together.

something to lose, shoyo hinata

heartbroken, jaded, and convinced that all men are garbage, you don't plan on anything happening when you're invited to an after party for a profession volleyball team in order to boost said team's publicity. you don't plan on making any friends or meaningful connections, and you certainly don't plan on getting the number of one of their star player's, shoyo hinata. then again, a lot of things don't go as planned when he's involved, and you don't expect yourself to be happy about these turns of event, but for once you are; happy, that is. and it's all his fault.

easy like sunday morning, wakatoshi ushijima

wakatoshi ushijima is notorious for his devotion to two things: volleyball and his family. during his post-game interview where he's been away from home for nearly two months, interviewers are asking him if he's excited to attend the rowdy after party to celebrate. ushijima's answer? he's taking a flight directly after this interview to head back home. he plans on celebrating the only way he knows how to: by finally being able to tuck in his sweet kids to bed, and then show his beloved wife how much he's missed her.

it's the same damn thing that made my heart surrender, koutarou bokuto

before he gets scouted by the msby black jackals and becomes one of japan's most famous athletes of all time, he's a struggling athlete trying his hardest to get a contract. during the off-season for recruiting, he decides to make some extra cash by using his looks and charms to become a contestant on a reality dating show, where he meets you: beautiful, intelligent, ambitious you, who is so clearly out of the league for anyone. you adore him, and you two have the strongest connection out of everyone on the show, so when he ends up picking someone who's not you, you're shocked. you don't know that he thinks he's doing you a favor because he believes he'll only ever hold you back. when the show invites you two for a reunion episode special, bokuto can only hope your feelings haven't changed.

burn out season, michael kaiser

what do you do when suffer a potential career-ending injury? hopefully not get diagnosed with depression, find out that because you devoted your whole life to your sport, you now have no sense of what to do without it, and then realize the only person who really Gets You is the only person who can irritate you like no one else does. hopefully you don't start to spend your newfound free time with him, and hopefully, you don't start to experience all the fun firsts in your life because of him and with him. or, maybe hopefully you do.

life could be a dream, yoichi isagi

getting together was no easy feat, and yoichi wants to show you how happy he is that you're his. he showers you with presents, shows you off at any given chance, always has a hand on the small of your back or around your waist. his possessive streak only grows when he finally slips that expensive engagement ring on your finger, and he shows you just how good married life is going to be for you.

i was supposed to sweat you out, michael beckenbauer

michael beckenbauer doesn't give a shit about japan, or the other subpar racers who have the nerve to get behind the wheel of the cars just to lose by a wide margin to him, or about how he's perceived by the media. he just wants to finish out this season, return home, and maybe find some worthy competition. he doesn't care if it's your job to try to brighten up his image; he never asked for a publicist, and in typical michael fashion, he's going to go out of his way to get you to quit. he has a bad tendency to underestimate his opponents, though, and off the track, you just might be his worthiest competition yet.

[actual-changeling]

We need to talk about the Archangel Michael.

No, seriously we NEED to talk about Michael because I think she's going to be way more important than we currently think.

(quick side note: I will be jumping between pronouns for everyone involved because I go by vibes and also bc I'm trans and I like doing it. Hopefully it won't be too confusing, but I'll try to make it clear who I am talking about.)

So! Welcome back to Alex's unhinged meta corner. In accordance with the usual essay rules, let's begin with my hypothesis before we go down a long, probably very unhinged spiral.

I completely underestimated how thorough I was going to be, so to not overwhelm everyone with a miles long post, I will be dividing this meta into parts and will post them as I finish them.

A lot of small details have been fluttering around my mind over the last few weeks, and I think I am finally starting to put all the pieces together—and there are a LOT.

Part 1: Season One and Michael's Rank

We know them as one of the three (four—but that's another post) Archangels next to Gabriel and Uriel. While Gabriel's title was that of the Supreme Archangel, Michael's is explicitly stated in episode one of season two as 'duty officer', which, broadly speaking, makes them the Watcher, the one in charge in the case of Gabriel's absence for whatever reason, taking command where he can't; usually that probably meant him simply being busy and not him being unemployed and naked.

Their position is further signified by their ring, which resembles the Ophanim, the many-eyed angel wheels.

They are the one to keep a literal eye on things—they find pictures of Aziraphale and Crowley in S1 in the Observation Files, they watch over the heavenly hosts, they oversee plans, everything.

Michael even takes it a step further and (presumably created) the grapevine with hell, having direct contact to higher ranking demons such as Ligur, most likely also Dagon, and Beelzebub.

This is where we get to my theory: Michael is actively working with demons against both heaven and hell. It doesn't mean that they care about preserving earth, though they might later on, but that whatever plans heaven currently has are to be stopped.

I'm going to take this one step further and say that Michael also knew about Gabriel and Beelzebub, and helped him escape.

Now to the fun part: the evidence!

In season one, they are interested in stopping Crowley and Aziraphale from preventing the apocalypse, but that does not mean that they agree with the plans heaven has for said event—only that they need it to happen so their own agenda can stay on track. She has information she technically shouldn't, like, well, literally all the details about how, when, and what is going to go down

This is due to heaven and hell's general cooperation, which is its own post, but all of that runs through them.

That 'apparently' is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, it's the basic and plausible deniability that's required for them to not be in trouble. She is also in charge of ORGANIZING the troops, fulfilling her role as a navigator.

On top of that, the way she talks to Ligur highly mirrors the way two covert operatives might talk to one another, using phrases like 'our man' and 'working for you'. The mere assumption Michael makes here, that Aziraphale could be a spy, implies that there ARE already spies and angels working for hell.

Consorting with the enemy is allowed as long as it is done within a very specific framework, so Michael and Ligur are free to do so, while Aziraphale and Crowley are working outside of it, which gives heaven & hell the basis to punish them for it.

I think the phrasing of this sentence is also quite interesting.

Not "time to come back to heaven" or anything along the lines that takes Aziraphale's ethereal status into account, no, she simply says he needs to 'choose sides'—and who is to say that he needs to choose heaven or that heaven and hell are the only sides one can choose? Additionally, Michael is the one to bring the holy water to hell while they send one of the Erics, and while the trial as a whole holds a certain tension, there does not seem to be any open animosity between him and the dukes of hell.

In short, Michael is working with hell behind the scenes, likely pursuing their own goals, and standing in opposition to heaven.

Moving on to season two, and here it gets REALLY fun.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

(hopefully it will just be five. it was supposed to be two. then three. but here we are)

[pixydustworld]

The marriage law was announced at 2pm on a Tuesday.

By 2:15 Hermione had already drafted a motion to dismiss the law entirely. It was a good motion, too. If she’d sent a copy to Ron, he would’ve replied with: wow! lots of words! good stuff!

At 2:17 her motion was denied.

“It’s best to just accept defeat.” Malfoy said from his side of the office, bookshelves neat, papers all stacked in order. “You won’t win this one.”

“I’m not in the habit of giving up.” Hermione snapped. Her side of the office was cluttered, less pristine. Her bookshelf had a nasty habit of overflowing all over the floor, stacks of books balancing precariously on every surface. “A fire hazard.” Malfoy had sneered at her once, “Breaking several codes.”

“Hm.” Malfoy said, “I hadn’t noticed.” He was smiling softly, like he’d just told the funniest joke in the world. Waiting, almost patiently for her to smile. Stupid man with his stupid grin, Hermione wanted to throw a book at his head.

“This is archaic.” Hermione hissed. “The Ministry has gone too far. They can't force us to marry anyone.”

Even as she spoke, a squirming feeling of doubt was beginning to take root in her chest — being friends with Harry came with many things. Companionship and love, but it also came with a healthy distrust of the government (like a free gift basket! but terrible one).

Malfoy ignored her complaints. "Marriage Acts aren't as mid-evil as you're making them out to be." He said, with that annoying voice he used when he knew he was right about something, "They serve a purpose."

"A purpose?" Hermione could practically feel the beginnings of an aneurysm. A fitting death, slumped over her desk, surrounded by unfinished documents and discovered by Draco Malfoy, "Are you actually defending this?"

She would have to find a new partner. A new office, one where he wasn't constantly surrounding her, swimming on the edge of her peripheral vision. Maybe Dean Thomas would let her set up a current workplace in his records closet, he was always bragging about how it was big enough for him to take naps in during work —

"No." Malfoy said, somehow even more amused now, "I don't support it."

"Oh." Hermione said, very eloquently, "That's good."

"But," Malfoy continued, still distinctly unruffled while Hermione was very ruffled, "Most people will be unfazed. It's a Pure-Blood tradition. My parents have always planned to arrange a marriage contract.” Malfoy shrugged, “It’s not absolutely unheard of.”

“Well," Hermione said, out of breath from all the pacing she was doing, "Your parents are terrible.”

“Of course.” Malfoy said, like it was obvious. “They would never allow me the opportunity to sully the Malfoy name. Producing the correct heir is the only thing I’ll ever be good at.”

Hermione frowned. “Hearing about your family isn’t good for our working relationship. It makes me feel bad for you.”

“We can’t have that.” Malfoy said.

“No,” she agreed with a sigh, “we can’t have that.”

“So, tell me Granger. What is your plan?” His grin became less self indulgent, more fake. “You’ll have to marry someone. It'll undoubtably be the event of the season — have a fiancé you’ve been hiding from me?”

Hermione narrowed her eyes. “Do you think I could hide anything from you?”

Malfoy knew when she changed the scent of her shampoo, when she switched up her coffee order — he even knew if she was sleeping less than usual. It was impossibly annoying to be around someone so observant, someone so intent on cataloguing her every move.

"If I had a secret fiancé, which I don't, I'm confident that you're competent enough to have sniffed him out by now."

Malfoy responding grin was slow and syrupy. "You think I'm competent?"

“Piss off, Malfoy.”

“Is he shorter than me? Is that it? Didn’t want to introduce us because you knew he’d feel bad?”

“You’re taller than everyone.” Hermione said, annoyed, again, “You would obviously be taller than my imaginary fiancé. You’re like an angelic giraffe.”

“You think I’m angelic?”

“No.”

"Two compliments on top of each other, are you feeling alright, Granger?"

"Shut up."

At 2:20, Hermione began to clean her side of the office, desperate for an excuse not to talk to Malfoy.

At 2:22, Harry slammed through her door, completely demolishing the (very little) progress Hermione had made in cleaning up her side of the office.

“I’ll marry you.” Harry said, slightly out of breath, like he’d sprinted all the way to her office, “Do you think we can kiss without making a face? We’ll have to practice.”

“I’m not marrying you.” Hermione said from the floor behind her desk, “You are engaged to Theo.” She was laying on her back with a book covering her face, feeling rightfully sorry for herself.

“Theo won’t mind.” Harry said in the voice he reserved for whenever he wanted people to listen to him (i am harry potter! and i did not spill mustard on the couch! you have to believe me, i saved the world!) “It will be quick. I can get us rings before the day is over.”

"No." Hermione said, still on the floor, "I've gone along with enough of your stupid ideas. This is too much."

Because, despite it all, Harry would do this. Without hesitation, blind loyalty and unwavering determination — Harry would marry her and be pleased with his choices. He was lovely, but at times, Harry could be a misguided idiot.

"This is where you draw the line?" Malfoy hummed, "Interesting to catch a glimpse into the inner workings of your mind."

Finally scrambling to her feet (after a few more seconds of wallowing) Hermione was horrified to find a familiar look on Harry's face — one that promised something stupid.

"I'll figure it out. " Harry said, with a shrug that reminded Hermione of their childhood (occidentally, the stress headache she was feeling also reminded her of their childhood). He pointed a stoic finger at her. "Don't make a face when I kiss you."

Then, he left.

“Theo wouldn’t mind,” Malfoy said in a helpful voice, “He’d probably marry you as well. Would it be Granger-Potter-Nott? Or Granger-Nott-Potter? Better figure that out soon. Potter seems eager to find those rings.”

Hermione threw a book at his head.

Malfoy caught it with ease, his stupid Quidditch hands.

“I have an idea,” Malfoy said after a moment.

Hermione ignored him. “There has to be a way out of this.” She was pacing again, sensible shoes kicked off to the corner (where she’d undoubtedly forget them) “I could write another motion? A longer one this time. With more quotes.”

“Marry me instead.”

Hermione stopped pacing. “Excuse me?”

“I’m your best option.”

“I have many options —

“Weasley already tricked someone into marrying him and Potter is engaged to my only friend.” He frowned, in a mocking sort of way. “Did I leave anyone out?”

“No.” Hermione said flatly. “You didn’t.”

“Alright then. Marry me.”

“Hah.” She said, “Hah. I take back everything I’ve ever said about you. Malfoy, you are funny.”

“I’m being serious.” He said, looking annoyed. Fantastic, they were both annoyed. Like they always were.

“We can get married before the law passes and then you can do what you do best.” Malfoy continued, like that was a totally normal thing to say.

“Which is?” Without her shoes, the height difference was unbearably noticeable. She had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. At some point he'd stopped being a willowy wraith of a person and began the unfortunate process of filling out.

He didn’t look away. “Destroy everyone’s expectations and free the downtrodden.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “What would you get out of this arrangement?”

Malfoy shrugged, too practiced to be nonchalant. “I’d be married to a war hero. It would do wonders for my reputation.”

“And you would be married to me.” Hermione said, beginning to feel like this was getting too real, “We both know that would never happen.”

“Never?”

“Never.” She agreed.

He wasn’t smiling that lazy smile from before, this one was different. Sharper. “I don’t think that’s true.”

“Besides,” Hermione continued on loudly, “you’re no gentleman. No need to pretend. I don’t need saving, I’ll figure this out myself.”

“You don’t need to.” Malfoy said, “I will help. I want to fuck over the Ministry for many reasons, but mainly because they declined your motion.”

He was on her side of the office now, leaning casually against her desk, inches away from where she stood. He was too pretty up close, like staring at the sun.

“It was very good.” Hermione breathed.

Malfoy nodded, almost too good at pretending to be sincere.

“I’m sure it was good. You touched it. Everything you touch is golden.”

“You truly want to help me?”

“I’ve only offered several times.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes. “All to fuck over the Ministry? No other reason?”

“Maybe I want you all to myself.”

Hermione's eye twitched.

"Don't tease me." She managed to hiss. "Not about this."

She saw when he realized, a flicker of excitement in his eyes — when he noticed her apparent misery at how completely and helplessly she was drawn to him.

"I'd never dream of it." Malfoy said warmly, "You could kill me with ease, only an idiot would be careless around you."

She thought of all the long nights they spent together, crammed in their tiny little office. How she looked forward to her day, if only to see his stupidly pointy face. How she tried to date, but couldn’t. Because it wasn’t right — her dates were too kind, too short.

Not him.

How, through everything, he was the first person she thought of in the morning, the person she thought of in the darkness of the night, when no one could see her wandering hands — the person she looked at for a challenge, for relief and support.

Despite her best attempts, Hermione Granger had fallen in love with Draco Malfoy and now, here he was, seeming to share in her suffering.

“We’d have to consummate the marriage.” She said, giving him one last out. “You’d have to see me naked.”

“I’m sure I’ll survive.”

“I’m very bossy,” she said, “and I work all the time.”

“Good thing we share an office.”

“I’m not easy to love.”

Malfoy scoffed. “It’s been easy enough for me.”

He was close enough to touch, so uncharacteristically open. Looking down at her with fondness she didn’t know he possessed.

“I’m selfish.” Malfoy warned, “Do not forget that. I will help you destroy this law and anything else you want. Burn it all down if you want to. But I won’t be letting you go. Not now, after I've gotten you."

“I suppose that’s fine.” Hermione said softly, watching as his hand moved to touch her face, warm against her skin. "It'll be bearable to be around you, I suppose."

As he held her face in his hands, Hermione watched as his grin transform into something different, something new — a smile she'd only seen glimpses of, one only for her. "I'll work very hard to make our marriage a tolerable one." He said.

"Good," Hermione breathed, stretching up to kiss him, to finally press her lips against his, "I can't wait."

Hermione was married at 3pm on a Tuesday.

It was a small ceremony.

Harry, although he'd never publicly admit it, was relieved.

Despite his best attempts, he would've made a face when Hermione had kissed him.

[sillybillyguysyall]

I genuinely love Irene, from the little we know about her it paints such an interesting story.

Irene knows no love, and I love that about her.

Love has so far damned her, she was in love with Shad and in turn Shad was in love with her. Despite that, there was no peace for they always fought, Shad being the antithesis to Irene. She tried everything, but nothing worked to stop destruction. Then you had Kul’zak and Esmund who were also in love with, but presumably she didn’t love them back. That probably destroyed her from the inside out. Irene doesn’t love because love is the reason why everything went wrong. Irene most likely genuinely wants to help everyone, that’s what she set out to do in the beginning. Though the care that she displayed is exact reason of her down fall.

The same exact thing is happening with Aphmau in MCD. Aphmau may or may not be in love with Garroth and/or Laurance in the beginning. That isn’t important, what is that this loved caused most of later events of season one to happen. Laurance likely wouldn’t have become a shadow knight ( probably debatable.) Garroth most likely wouldn’t have given into Zane. There is also an argument to be made that he might’ve not stayed behind, but I think he would’ve since he is “the Protector.” Then in season two love costed Aaron’s life, leaving Aphmau alone with their child. Love is costing Aphmau people, and it’s a really just a ticking time bomb until she breaks.

Her conversation with Alexis about love is really telling (I don’t remember the episode, but it’s season two near the beginning.) Its about people loving them, but not knowing what to do. Alexis expresses her feelings and how she fell out of liking Malachi and Levin romantically. Though a reason for this is it becoming too much. This parallels Garroth and Laurance, Aphmau expressing a similar sentiment. Aphmau is overwhelmed with love and it shows. She doesn’t know what to do with it, and lets it run it’s course ( feel free to disagree with me on this, I might’ve missed a lot.)

If season three was finished I like to be believe that it would end with Aphmau losing her ability to love just like Irene did. After killing or possibly reincarnating Shad she would lock herself back in the Irene dimension. Explains why she disappeared after awhile as her daughter Aline explained.

All this to say is that I believe that Irene has put herself in a constant loop of falling in and out of love. Then eventually losing all of her emotions in the process. Irene’s origins are already murky to begin with, and I’d like to believe that she had a past before Irene. Perhaps she even had more, which all ended the same way. Everyone around her loving her, but this love causing destruction. It’s a constant cycle as Irene tries to find a time where she can love and it won’t cause destruction. It’s tragic and that’s why I love it, Irene as much as she cannot feel, she desires to.

That’s my silly little interpretation of Irene :) I probably missed a lot of things since it’s been like 3 years since I’ve watched the series, but binge watching will be great. Oh and I also might be wrong on a lot of this. Also second disclaimer I did not watch MyStreet in full.

[yjzine2024]

Yellowjackets Zine - Applications Open!

You might have seen the poll going around for interest, and well, it convinced me enough to start this up. A zine for Yellowjackets! Yeah!

The plan is to make this a relatively small but hopefully exciting project to cross the current lack of things between seasons. Think you have a good idea? Submit it!

You can apply for the zine via this form

So far I'm thinking of keeping it at max 30 participants, but this mostly comes down to a first-come-first-serve basis. Fear not, I may include you if you have a really cool idea for a submission.

Guidelines for applying are copied below but will also be in the form.

Cheers!

What is a zine? "Zine" is short for magazine. What a Yellowjackets zine would entail is a small, digital booklet with artworks, writing, collages, lists, etc. related to the show that it's all connected to. There are zines that have a print run alongside digital versions, but to keep it all running smoothly, I'd like to keep this digital only. So I can't offer compensation in financial means. This is first and foremost a passion project, and also things would get tricky on a legal front if there were to be any money involved.

So if I want to contribute, it can be anything? Basicallly! But there are some hard rules I would like to be followed for it to stay coherent.

Canon Compliant. Writing or art, hard AUs aren't really something for this zine. It's a little celebration of the show that is there, and tonally there might be too much dissonance if AUs are included in this. Guesses at the yet to be seen months in the Wilderness, or in the present day are very much welcome!

Self-contained works. Putting chapter 1 of your fic in a zine isn't really ideal. For art this is easier to accomplish, but written submissions should be completed within the pages they are on.

Not just shipping. Yes, I know, shipping is big. But like I put in the first point, I would like to keep things more generally on events, plot, characters, and a neat discussion of it. There's of course degrees to how much you can ship within canon in a show like this. It's totally cool if you put something in that is (Basically) Canon (f.e. TaiVan but also JackieShauna) or Has Strong Potential (f.e. LottieLee, MistyNat). Don't come to me with something like Shauna/Walter. Explorations of characters and relationships are of course okay! But don't make it a smut fest.

Nothing too NSFW. This is Cannibalism Show (TM) we're talking about, so there is some leniency. But let's say if you would rate it as E on Ao3, then maybe try to get it a bit lower in rating or think of something different.

(Previously) Unpublished works. This may be a given, but a zine is the most fun when it's full of original content. You are of course free to publish what you made on your own accounts/profiles once the zine is online.

Other than that, it's pretty free to fill in for yourself! What can be published should be able to go in a hypothetically printed magazine, but if you would write fic, and essay, compile a mixtape list, make some meta newspaper article on the events, graphics, collages, a poster design, or banger fanart, it's all up to you as long as it gets you excited to work on it!

I'm splitting them up in written and graphic types of contributions, but there's room to give a pitch for your specific idea.

Practical stuff!

Max wordcount for written contributions should be about 2500 words. I'm not going to be too strict, but keep any overflow within reason.

Graphic works should be able to be displayed well on a 2100x3000px canvas on. This is the size of page I'm using at the moment.

How much time would there be to prep? For now I'm thinking of putting the final deadline on November 30 so hopefully everyone will have time to work on their submission (from scratch). I also gotta get the hang of a publishing design program lol.

[iridescentxstars]

｡˚ ꕥ 𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐱𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬' 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 '𝟐𝟒

Kinky season is coming and I thought I'd get a head start. From today until the end of September, I'll be taking kinktober requests while also working on some other fics that I hope to have done and ready soon (yes, the wolf fic is at the top of the list) This event is split into two different types: typical NSFW and dark, spooky NSFW because as someone kept making a point of, it's kinkTOBER and lines up with spooky season and I should have fun with that.

Idols allowed: Jongin, Bangchan, Minho, San, Seonghwa, Juyeon, Sangyeon and Irene

RULES:

Must have all qualifying factors to the prompt otherwise it will be deleted.

Drabbles made that are on the darker side will be tagged and properly trigger warned. Do not read them if you are uncomfortable. Every post will state everything used.

Always take care of yourself and be aware of what you read. This is all for fun and is not designed to upset anyone. Nothing written is believed to be how someone may behave and is all fictional.

Try to be original and fun. If a kink/prompt has been picked too many times, I will not do it

If you don't like a particular prompt/kink, feel free to ignore it, do not send snarky remarks to belittle what someone may enjoy

Some will very clearly work well together, some will not, while I do like a challenge, please be mindful about how it would work as I only have around 500 words to make it make sense

Please do not make the prompt too restrictive. These are meant to be drabbles and there needs to be creative freedom

Format: Must contain the following: Idol, AU, trope/dialogue/prompt, kink

You can have a trope OR a dialogue OR a prompt OR all of it. Mix and match. Requests that spark inspiration might get a longer piece written. You can choose up to 3 kinks but only 1-2 AU, tropes and prompts/dialogue to keep it easy!

All these prompts have been either thought about or found on other accounts because sometimes it's hard to remember or think about different ideas. The darker/spooky choices are coloured red to separate them from the safer choices.

Note: They can be interchangeable in the right circumstances. Mafia can be considered dark or maybe having a werewolf boyfriend is softer than we think.

AU: (some found here)

Roommates!AU

Mafia!AU

Werewolf!AU

Vampire!AU

College!AU

Angel!AU

Demon!AU

Hunter!AU

Co-Workers!AU

Friends With Benefits!AU

Superhero/Villain!AU

Yandere!AU

Monster!AU (specify what kind)

Killer!AU

Circus!AU

Stalker!AU

Mythology!AU (specify what kind/who)

Hybrid!AU

CEO!AU

Alien!AU

You Choose (will allow 3 max of this)

Tropes: (found here)

Enemies to lovers

Fake Dating/Marriage

Only one bed

Love potion

Kissing as a distraction

Jealousy

Blind Date

Taking care of them

Forbidden Love

Confessions

You Choose (will allow 3 max of this)

Dialogue/Prompt: (some found here)

“Don’t act innocent when we both know where your mouth was two minutes ago.”

“I could make you feel better.”

“My tongue still remembers the way you taste.”

“Come on, you have to work for it.”

“We won’t be missed for a couple hours, we should take advantage of that.”

“Hmm, is that a threat or a promise?”

“Let’s commit some sins.”

“Jealousy is not a word I’m familiar with.

“This is your work place, leave the boyfriend at home next time.”

“This seems like such a bad decision, but I just can’t help it.”

"You'll scream? Oh, baby, I really hope you do~."

You've been hearing noises for a while now, shuffling under your bed in the wee hours of the night. Most people would be scared to check whether it's their cat or not but you? You decide to lure the monster out by having a little fun.

There are no such things as monsters in your closet, that's what's always been told to you but how do they explain the eyes that watch you as you touch yourself? Or why you can't seem to stop doing it?

Everyone has a pet, a cute kitty cat or a puppy dog but you? Well, you have something that can't be found in a pet store... or... on this earth, actually.

A new haunted house has opened up and everyone is dying to go! You are scared, you won't deny that but what do you find scarier? The house and all its horror or the fact that being chased turns you on?

They told you that they would kill for you but you didn't think that they were serious... or did you?

You always joked with your extremely hot best friend that you would flirt and fuck your kidnapper because you read a lot of dark romance. So, they decided to make that dream a reality. Oh no, whatever will you do to gain your freedom?

Two words: Masked Men

You go to a party with your friends on Halloween and spot a handsome guy, walking around, shirtless, covered in fake blood with a mask on. Little did you know that it isn't quite a costume...

The dare was to enter the creepy, abandoned, possibly haunted asylum... not make out in it.

You Choose (will allow 3 max of this)

Kinks:

Oral

Toys

Knotting

Primal Play/Predator/Prey

Bondage

Praise/Worship

Degradation

Orgasm Control/Edging

Roleplay

Breeding/Creampie

Knife play

Blood play

Fear play

Dom/Sub

Impact Play

Overstimulation

Public

Dacryphilia

Free use (established/consensual)

Breath Play/Choking

Somnophilia

Owner/Pet

Voyeurism/Exbitionism

Photo/Video

Sensory Deprivation

Size Difference

Age Gap

You Choose (will allow 3 max of this)

I won't be putting the pressure on myself to do one a day as I do also work and everything else BUT I will try to do them every few days so there is no limit on what can be sent in as I'll go through and post like 1-5 at a time when I'm online and writing!

[pissterdaniel]

Thank you so so much for the ask @fern-foxx, I would love nothing more than to info dump <3.

PREPARE FOR 6130 WORDS THAT WILL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER ASKING ME TO DO THIS!

First things first, I have spent the last 4 hours formatting a response to your ask, only for tumblr to turn around and shit itself, and not let me post it. So I am restarting and trying it in the form of a proper post.

I think I had too many photos and links. So have put all my links in a linktree for your and tumblr's convenience (otherwise this post couldn't happen). Will just do a number coding system.

I have only gotten into figure skating recently. It started when some friends got me to watch Yuri on Ice and it's all been downhill since then.

The competition series I've been watching is the Grand Prix. This is on from October to December and is an elite level competition.

There are 2 programs that each skater competes, and I will go more in-depth later. But basically, there is the short program which is first - this is 2:40 +/- 10sec and the free program which is 4:00 +/- 10sec.

There are 6 qualifying events across the world, and skaters will be assigned either 1 or 2 competitions depending on how well they did at World's in March as well as some other criteria.

The competitions and when/where they were held this year:

Skate America - Oct 18-20 (Allen, TX)

Skate Canada - Oct 25-27 (Halifax, NS)

Grand Prix de France - Nov 1-3 (Angers)

NHK Trophy - Nov 8 -10 (Tokyo)

Finlandia Trophy - Nov 15-17 (Helsinki)

Cup of China - Nov 22-24 (Chonqing)

These are held in the same country every year (in 2022 Finlandia replaced the Rostelecom Cup in Russia for obvious reasons). The Junior Grand Prix has 7 qualifying competitions held between August and October and the locations of these change every year.

And then there’s the final:

Grand Prix Final - Dec 5th-8th (Grenoble, France)

The final is held in a different location each year and hosts both the seniors and juniors.

There are 12 skaters in each competition, and they'll get points based of how they place. At the end of the 6 competitions, the top 6 with the most points will go to the final.

The points:

1st - 15pts   2nd - 13pts   3rd - 11pts and so on... until 7th which is 4pts and 8th - 3pts.

There are various tie brakers in place, the first 2 are highest placement and if that ties -> highest total score (the list really keeps on going there are so many in the event all the tie brakers are tied).

Okay, now you understand how the Grand Prix works, we can go a little more in depth.

The Assignments

I said that these are based off of their placements in World's of the last season. The top 12 are guaranteed 2 assignments, the top 6 of these are called "seeded skaters." These are carefully assigned so that #1, #2, and #3 don't face each other at an assignment, and #4, #5, and #6 don't face each other. You can imagine that it would be unfair to have all the top skaters at 1 competition.

I made this helpful table to show who the top 6 at World's were in the men’s category:

The first number was their total score, second their short program, 3rd their free program, and then it has their 2 assignments. Shoma Uno placed 4th but retired that season so it bumped everyone up and the free spot went to Deniss Vasilijev. I won't share my women's table cause it is a total mess with several dropping out last minute.

The top 24 on the ISU (International Skating Union) world standings and season's best list also get 1 spot. Once all of those spots are filled, there is this sketchy ‘Host Pick’ rule. The host country of a competition gets to pick 3 of its own skaters to be at its competition. This could be giving someone with 1 slot an extra assignment or giving it to a local skater to draw in crowds. But the thing is, host picks don't have to meet the minimum score requirement?!?!? More on that later...

Other things that will put you in the pool for assignment consideration - are if you medal at the junior grand prix and are moving into the senior division. Or if you are a previous seeded skater who didn't participate in the last season due to heath/injury. After that, they look at the top 75 season's best list who meet that minimum score requirement.

The minimum score requirement is different for every division and changes every year. It is calculated by taking ⅗ of top score at the previous World's. In my table you can see that Ilia Malinin won with a total score of 333.76, so the minimum score for men in the 2024 Grand Prix is 200.26. (This year it was 133.77 for women). This minimum score also must have been achieved at an official ISU event (world championships, grand prix series, challenger series).

It is also worth noting that there is a limit of 3 skaters representing the same country at an assignment. Though there can be more than 3 if they make it to the final. See this year's final being 5 Japanese Women + Amber Glenn from the USA.

Now I want to tell you about the program requirements (for single, senior skating).

The Short Program

duration: 2:40 +/- 10 seconds

jump elements: 3

spin sequences: 3

1 step sequence

Both men and women must perform a double or triple axel, and a jump combination with 2 jumps. In addition to this, men must perform any triple or quadruple solo jump, and women any triple. The solo jump has to be different from the ones in combination. Because of their body shape, men can generally make more rotations in jumps than women, barely any senior women do quads after their body changes.

Both men and women must do 1 spin with a flying entry (any position), 1 combination spin with at least 2 different types of spins (camel, sit or layback). For the 3rd spin - spin in one position, men do either a camel or sit spin with 1 change of foot, and women can do any position but no change of foot. The position has to be different from their flying spin. As for rotations, for it to count you need a minimum of 8 rotations if you are not changing your spinning foot, and 6 if you are doing a change of foot.

The step sequence is a showcase of difficult steps and turns across a large surface of the ice, usually lasts at least 30 seconds.

Spins and step sequences get a level between 1 and 4 based off how complex and well executed they are. With 4 being the best and the standard for high level competitors.

The Free Skate

duration: 4:00 +/- 10 seconds

jump elements: 7

spin sequences: 3

1 step sequence

1 choreograph sequence

Both men and women must do 1 axel at any point. There is a maximum of 3 jump combinations allowed, with 4 other solo jumps. Most of them will do a jump sequence, which is when the second or third jump in a combination is an axel. Only 1 combination is allowed to have 3 jumps, the rest can only have 2.

Only 2 triples or quads can be repeated twice, of that, you can only repeat 1 quad (but can repeat 2 triples). This is to stop people from just doing their most high scoring jump over and over, this rule is colloquially known as the Zayaking rule. Elaine Zayak did 4 triple toe loops at World's in 1982 and it was changed after then.

As for spins, for both men and women it's 1 spin combo, 1 spin with flying entry, 1 spin with only one position. Change of foot and flying entry are optional extras for all spins, there are no restrictions like with the short program. 6 rotations must be achieved in the fly spin and spin in one position, and 10 rotations in the combination.

Step sequence same as above.

The choreograph sequence needs at least 2 artistic skating movements such as the spiral, spread eagle, or my personal favourite -  The INA BAUER.

The Ina Bauer

Amber Glenn (USA) Cup of China free skate 2024, my gif

You can see the blades are parallel, the leading foot faces where you're going, and the knee is bent. The other leg is straight out behind you, slightly staggered. Most of your weight is on the front foot, and it requires really good turnout in your hips. It is named after Ina Bauer (b.1941 d.2014) a German skater who invented it. Did you know that this Friday the 13th is the 10 year anniversary of her death? Catch me at the rink doing as many Ina Bauers possible. Anyways, there are 3 different types of Ina Bauer, the easiest being inside Ina Bauer meaning you are on the inside edge of your blade and go in a circle like this:

^ This is my very beginner level Ina Bauer, I don't quite have the strength/balance/flexibility to move up the Ina Bauer food chain yet, but I have only been skating for a few months and will master it one day.

There's also an Ina Bauer on a straight line. Then there’s the hardest which is on the outside edge, this is a very good example:

Cha Jun-hwan (KOR) 2023 ISU World Team Trophy free skate (1)

See his Ina Bauer goes along the outside of an invisible circle, and mine faces inside? And a straight Ina Bauer is just a straight Ina Bauer, like the one Amber Glenn is doing in that first gif. You don't have to do it in a layback position, you can just have a straight back for it to count. It's not about back flexibility but rather hip flexibility. RAAAAGH INA BAUERS, I live for them.

One of my favourite moments from this year's Grand Prix is when Kevin Aymoz of France does an Ina Bauer into a triple axel in his free program!!!! How cool is that?!?!

Kevin Aymoz (FRA) Grand Prix Final 2024 free skate, my gif

Skaters get more points on jumps if they include a difficult entry/exit, so this boosted his grade of execution (more on that later!) It's also a good example of an Ina Bauer with the straight back. Kevin Aymoz is one of my favourite skaters, he's a bit of a gay icon.

Now I will tell you about...

JUMPS

There are 6 types of jumps you'll see in professional skating. Most of them will be triples, except for the women's axels where doubles are more common. Men will do some quad jumps but very few will do the harder ones like the flip, lutz, and axel. Then there's Ilia Malinin of the USA who can do all the quads and make it look effortless. There’s also the occasional double as the second/third jump in combination or as a solo jump if something has gone really wrong. (Solo doubles aren't even allowed in a senior short program)

All jumps look the same in the air, and land on the same foot backwards with an outside edge. What makes them different is the way you take off. There are toe jumps that use the toe picks, and edge jumps which use your edges.

Diagram (2)

You can see that the figure skating blade is not flat but rather curved in a sort of arch shape. If you are leaning inwards, you'll be on your inside edge and outwards on your outside edge. The toe pick be spiky so you can stab it into the ice to launch you far and into the air. Consequently, if you lean too far forward on your skates you can trip over your toe pick and fling forward (I have done this many a time). You are also supposed to land on the bottom part of your toe pick and then place your foot down. But if you land too far forward on your toe pick you also fly forward (I couldn't walk after I fell like this on Saturday lmao).

Most skaters will jump and spin anticlockwise, so the following information applies to them. But for the few that go clockwise, reverse the lefts and rights.

The 6 jumps, separated by type are -

Toe jumps:

Toe Loop (T): Right outside take off. Entered from turn. Left leg extends back, toe pick strikes ice.

Flip (F): Left inside take off. Entered from turn. Right leg extends back, toe pick strikes ice.

Lutz (Lz): Left outside take off. Entered from a long straight 1 foot glide. Right leg extends back, toe pick strikes ice.

Edge jumps:

Salchow (S): Left inside take off. Entered from turn. Legs sweep to form / \ shape.

Loop (Lo): Right outside take off. Left leg crosses over right, X shape.

Axel (A): Left outside take off. Only jump that takes off forward. Entered from back outside edge, left leg steps forward, right legs swings through to launch you.

For counterclockwise jumpers, all jumps land on a back right outside edge. Which means for jump combinations (where your landing edge has to be your take off edge) there are only 2 jumps that can be used as the second/third in combination. These being the toe loop and loop because they take off from that right outside edge.

This is unless a Euler jump is performed. This is a single jump used in combination to connect 2 jumps as it will take you from the right outside edge to the left. Interestingly, from the 2026-27 season onwards, Eulers will no longer be allowed in the short program, only the free. They will also no longer count as a listed jump nor add any base value to jumps (currently worth 0.5).

I've mentioned jump sequences in the free program requirements, but to expand on them. They are when your take off edge is different from your landing edge. I.e a small step is done so long as it doesn't disrupt the flow. Though since the 2018-19 season, only axel jumps are allowed as the second/third in a sequence. Also prior to 2022-23 sequences would only get 80% of the total base value for the jumps, but now it's full value.

It was also only in the 2018-19 season when the number of jump elements in a men's free skate went down from 8 to 7 (women's was already 7), and from 2026-27 onwards both disciplines will be going down to 6. That same season in 2018-19 the men's free skate went down from 4½ minutes to 4.

I should have mentioned this before, but figure skating seasons are from the 1st of July to the 30th of June so they span 2 years (not really, but that’s why I am using '2018-19' etc). The season starts with the Junior Grand Prix qualifiers in August - October, then the senior Grand Prix qualifiers in October - November with the final in December. December to January is when most countries hold their nationals. January is also the European championship. February has the 4 Continents (which is everyone BUT Europe), and March is the World Championships. When the Olympics are on in Februarys the 4 Continents are moved to January.

There's also The Challenger Series which is a step below Grand Prix. These competitions are required to take place between August 1st and December 15th. There are several competitions worldwide, but they don’t have a final. Sometimes Grand Prix skaters will compete in them to boost their rankings as they count towards the season's best list and can be where you get your ISU minimum score requirement that we talked about earlier.

Redirecting this back to jumps, here is a table of base values. You can see them ordered from lowest to highest to give you a sense of what’s easier vs harder.

Speaking of base values, I think it's about time I introduced you to...

The ISU Judging System

Now this can be EXTREMELY confusing at first, but in time it will make sense, and I hope I explain it well enough.

Both the short and free scores are broken into 2 sections. You have your Technical Score (TES) and your Program Component Score (PCS).

Technical Score - every element you perform has a base value (BV) that is added to your score. This is the easy part. Now where it gets complicated is with the Grade of Execution (GOE). Each judge (there's usually 7 - 9 in big comps) assigns a number between -5 and 5 based off how well it is executed.

Now bear with me here...

The highest and lowest GOEs from the judges are discarded, and the rest are averaged. The GOE average is then multiplied by 10% of the BV. This is your final GOE for a skill, this number is then added to the original BV to give a final FINAL score for a skill.

EXAMPLE:

The quad lutz had a base value of 11.5.

The 1 and 3 are discarded. (Highest and lowest)

(2+2+3+2+2+2+2) /7 = 2.14 - the average GOE

11.5 x 0.1 = 1.15 - 10% of the BV

2.14 x 1.15 = 2.46 - total GOE

11.5 + 2.46 = 13.96 - final skill score

Personally, I love how much maths is involved!! It's fun to just calculate these things even if the score sheets give you the final skill score anyways. It is really exciting once you understand how all of this works!! (yes, I am autistic if you haven't guessed already)

I would also like to note, that the current +/- 5 GOE system used to be +/- 3 but was changed in the 2018-19 season to make improper technique and falls have a bigger impact on scores.

Now the program component score (PCS). There are 3 categories: Composition, Presentation, and Skating Skills. A brief definition of all of them: Composition is the connection of your skills, use of the ice, and understanding of how the music relates to your program.

The standout example of this that I have to show you is from Kaori Sakamoto's free skate, I just LOVE how her jump take offs are on beat to the music!

Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) Grand Prix Final 2024 free skate

She actually got the highest PCS score out of the women in the Grand Prix Final!! It's easy to see why.

Presentation is engagement and expression with your music, and I guess general prettiness? Skating Skills is "a good range of steps, turns, and movements with blade and body control" tbh, I don't have a good understanding of what these look like, I guess it’s just vibe based. This is like an artistry score. It is just as important to have graceful skating that tells a story, as it is to have good technical abilities. The judging system and jump base values are always changing to try and balance this, and there a few systems in place to make this possible too.

Before 2022-23 there were actually 5 PCS categories, the 2 they got rid of were transitions – “intricate footwork, positions and movements that link all elements”, and interpretation (of the music) which I don’t fully understand, how many categories do you need in order to judge if a skater understands the music lol. This also meant that the factors increased in 2022-23 as they axed 2 categories.

So, for each of the 3 PCS categories, the judges assign a number between 0.25 and 10, and it goes up in increments of 0.25. Just like with the GOE, the highest and lowest numbers are discarded, and the rest are averaged. These averages are then added together and multiplied by a factor.

This factor is different for every discipline, because it is supposed to be as equal to the TES as possible. The women's factor is lower than the men's because they generally have a lower TES. And the short program is lower than the free skate because there are less technical elements.

The factors are as follows:

Mens Short Program: 1.67

Mens Free Program: 3.33

Women's Short Program: 1.33

Women's Free Program: 2.67

(the factors for pairs are the same as women's)

Let's look at Kaori Sakamoto's GPF free skate as an example, specifically her composition score:

The 8 and 9.5 are discarded, and the average is rounded to 2 decimal places equaling 8.93. This process repeats for the other 2 categories. These numbers are then added together (8.93 + 8.82 + 8.86 = 26.61) and multiplied by the factor. In this case, the women's FP is 2.67, so 26.61 x 2.67 = 71.05.

The maximum PCS possible:

Men’s short program: 50.00

Men’s free skate: 100.00

Women’s short program: 40.00

Women’s free skate: 80.00

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of how the judging system works! There is a little more to it, I will go into more into detail now. If you look at the detailed results from a competition you may see various symbols/letters next to skills. I will tell you what they mean and what they do to a score:

q - Jumps landed a quarter rotation short, doesn't affect base value, but will give you a negative GOE. The 'q' was introduced during the 2020-21 season.

< - Jumps landed between ¼-½ rotations short. Results in only getting 80% of the BV.

<< - Jumps landed more than ½ short a rotation. The jump will get downgraded. A 3Lz with a << will only get the BV of a 2LZ.

e - Edge call on a flip or Lutz. Remember how the flip takes off from an inside edge and the lutz an outside edge? Well, if you do it from the wrong edge, you will get an edge call and only 80% of the BV.

! - Edge warning. This means there was an unclear edge take off on a flip or lutz. There is no reduced BV, but the GOE will be less than 0.

V - For a spin that does not meet requirements, like a lack of rotations or variation in position. 75% of BV.

F - A fall. -5 GOE. There is also a -1 deduction for your first and second fall, a -2 for third and fourth, and -3 for 5th fall onwards.

+REP - Used if you do more than the allowed 3 combinations or 2 combinations + 1 sequence in the free program. The first jump will get 70% BV and everything after that doesn't count. It is also used for repeated single jumps; they'll also get 70% of BV.

+COMBO - You will see this in the middle of a combination. It happens when the skater steps out after landing a jump and still takes off for the next jump. Remember the point of a jump combo is to take off from the same edge you land on. This results in the following jump having no value.

* - Invalid element, skater receives 0 points. This is for any element that breaks a rule. Like a single or double solo jump in the SP, an extra jump element done (only 3 in SP and 7 in FS allowed), repeating a certain triple/quad jump in the FS more than twice, if there is no axel done, the last jumping pass will be invalid too. Also used alongside +REP to invalidate extra jumps in combinations. Before 2016-17, an invalid jump in a combination would invalidate the entire combination. And from 2026-27 onwards, the same type of jump can't be included in the FS regardless of rotations (currently more than 3 of the same jump can be included if you do 3 triples and a double for example).

x - This is the only good symbol! It is placed after the last jump element in the SP or the last 3 jump element in the FS (provided they are in the second half of the program). It adds an extra 10% to the BV of your jumps. As the program goes on skaters will get more tired so are rewarded for doing difficult stuff at the end. Consequently, this system was heavily abused until a rule change in the 2018-19 season. It used to be that all jumps in the second half would get the extra 10%. You can then imagine people would just stack their programs to have all the jumps in the second half. This was then changed to better balance program composition.

There are also other deductions besides falls. It's -1 for every second up to 5 that your program goes overtime. -1 for costume parts falling on the ice, -1 for costumes that don't meet requirements, -1 if you take more than 30 seconds to get into your starting position after your name is called, -2 for illegal moves (back flips were recently legalised, if you want to watch programs with back flips, I recommend Adam Siao Him Fa of France).

If you do want to watch figure skating, I will quickly explain what the thing in the top left corner is. It's relatively straight forward

The squares at the top represent the 12 elements that make up the free skate (short program will have 7 squares). The green means they successfully performed an element, the red means they performed it, but it got a negative GOE. Now you also know what it takes to get a negative GOE thanks to the information above ;)! If there is a dark grey, it means it’s under review still (?). This bar will fill up as they go through the program.

It will tell you the most recent element performed, as well as the BV for it, and their GOE. This is the GOE after that multiplying the average by 10% BV nonsense. Under this you'll see the skaters TES go up throughout the program, and underneath it is the leader's TES.

AND THAT CONCLUDES THE ISU JUDGING SYSTEM, THAT WAS A LOT BUT HOPEFULLY YOU GET IT NOW!

I will also share with you a helpful table I made in preparation for watching the Gran Prix Final. It has the finalists with their assignments, how they placed with qualifying points, and their total score earned in both assignments. As well as their personal bests and age. Interestingly, the men and women have the EXACT same average age of 21⅔. Which is super interesting cause usually the women tend to be younger than the men. Though this year the minimum age for the senior division was upped to 17. Last year it was 16 and before that it was 15 for quite a while. This was to protect minors more because of how intense it got with doping etc. I think it's a great change because I don't want to see tiny children when watching seniors, its also unfair cause the younger women can go hard out and learn quads before their body changes which is dangerous.

Adam Sia Him Fa qualified in 4th but had to drop out because of injury, Mikhail Shaidorov was 7th so he got moved up to replace Adam.

I really love looking up the skater's profiles on the ISU website, because some of them have the most insane listed hobbies. Check out Camden Pulkinen. Emo ass king.

Now I want to tell you about some of my favourite skaters!

Kevin Aymoz - France

Kevin Aymoz (FRA) Grand Prix Final 2024 gala exhibition, my gif

I have talked about him before. I love how dramatic his programs are, they have a lot of flair and camp energy. He was at Skate America and Finlandia Trophy and made it to the final! Unfortunately, he fell a few times and came last. He did get bronze at the 2019 GPF though! Did you know in 2021 he was in a French documentary called Faut qu'on Parle (we need to talk). It's about 6 elite athletes who come out for the first time and share their experiences of being queer. One of his listed hobbies is "catching pokémon" okay icon.

Amber Glenn - USA

Amber Glenn (USA) Grand Prix de France 2024 gala exhibition, gif credit below

LOOK AND HOW GORGEOUS AND HOT SHE IS. First off, SHE WON THE GPF CAUSE SHE'S SO AMAZING. Her assignments were Grand Prix de France, and Cup of China. Amber is a mental health advocate who is also queer and has ADHD, I love her so much. At the end of competitions, they will sometimes hold a gala exhibition. This is a showcase that some of the competition skaters partake in. It's a chance for them to do whatever program they want without the pressure of being judged - it's truly just for fun! Amber’s gala this year was to HOTOGO! Would definitely recommend checking it out. Here are some gif sets of it here on tumblr (3 4 5). Her hobbies are Magic the Gathering, anime, and cosplay. (It's funny cause when a skater lists anime as a hobby, you just knowwww they've seen Yuri on Ice. In this case, Amber worked with the creative team on the movie before it was cancelled). She was also the second American woman to land a triple axel at World's, the first ofc being Tonya Harding. Amber is a little bit of a legend, at age 25 she's kind of come out of nowhere and is starting to skate really well consistently. It was so cute when she found out she won the GPF. There's a camera where they can see the other skaters in the back, and the Japanese women did her FS finishing pose. It was such a sweet moment of amazing sportsmanship between these women. I will put a link to the clip posted on reddit here (6).

Matteo Rizzo – Italy

Matteo Rizzo (ITA) NHK Trophy 2024, my gif

Assigned - NHK, and Cup of China. He's just a silly guy. For starters, his SP music is a song called "Two Men in Love" an extremely gay love song. But then his FS music is.... "Fix You" by Coldplay? It's the contrast that I find so funny. His hobbies are Formula 1 and "airplanes" I too love planes. All of these things combined made him stand out to me as a bit of an icon. He also kind of looks like Christophe Giacometti from YOI, he's got the eyelashes for it. The gif is from the kiss and cry after his skate when he did this super funny gesture that absolutely sent me. What can I say, the man loves cars.

Jason Brown - USA

Jason Brown (USA) NHK Trophy 2024 short program, my gif

Skate Canada and NHK. Did you know that he came out as gay on Dan's birthday in 2021? My friends and I joked that Brown was fitting name cause he was dressed like a shit for his SP in that gif. I call him JJ if he slayed, cause his energy and mannerisms + the way he addresses the audience reminds me JJ from YOI but if he were gay. Also has a super camp gala exhibition, and won the junior GPF in 2011.

I love the galas that have a gimmick. Like Mikhail Shaidorov who did a Kung Fu Panda one in a giant panda suit. He somehow managed to land a triple toe loop in that costume too! Mikhail is a really good jumper. This season he made history by becoming the first skater to land a quad as the second jump in combination with his 3A + 4T!!!

Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) Grand Prix Final 2024 exhibition gala (7)

He also has assistants come out in his gala and for the Grand Prix de France, Amber was one of them!

Amber and Mikhail Grand Prix de France 2024 exhibition gala (8)

Where you can watch the ISU stuff will depend on your country. I can watch it all for free on the ISU Skating youtube channel since I am in New Zealand and no other broadcaster covers it. The youtube videos are geo blocked in countries that have networks with a monopoly over the rights.

If you are also a fan of Yuri on Ice, I have some cosplay content recommendations too (if not, just skip this). I have fallen IN LOVE with these 2 particular cosplayers (Vehn and Svatti - yt channel: Weeb Chapel) who had a YOI skit series, here is the playlist on youtube (9). Svatti who plays Yuri also does a hilarious Chris which you can see in their Kiss Marry Kill in Character (10).

Cosplayer Svatti as Christophe Giacometti in "Yuri!!! on Ice KISS MARRY K-WORD!" youtube link in linktree, my gif

Svatti's Chris is also in the background as a voice in the Viktor and Yuri Google Questions Interview (11). Now I don't usually consume Otayuri content cause I find their age gap weird, but they have a gorgeous Otayuri CMV (cosplay music video) that I keep on watching (12). I have also started just watching all their other cosplay content. YOI is the only anime I've seen, but I really just love Svatti and Vehn (former username Mishkali) so much I'll watch anything with them. They are so attractive, and my gender envy is off the charts with everything they do, and Vehn’s Victor drives me fucking crazy in the best ways possible THE ACCENTTT. If you know of them or watch it and want to chat HIT ME UP!

My favourite CMV however is this one (13) by Rintamasuunta. The production BLOWS MY MIND DUDE. Even if you haven't seen YOI you should still watch it. The sets, costumes, choreography, ah too good. One of them is even an actual skater and you get to see them do parts of the routines in costume! I keep rewatching it time and time again.

One last Yuri on Ice thing - Joel Minas on youtube has recreated some of the programs in full. It is just so impressive to see them bought to life. Here is his playlist (14)

And there we have it folks!! There's a lot more that I could have included, I have so many more thoughts. I'm sure y'all are familiar with the feeling of being in the trenches of a hyper-fixation. You ask for an info dump; you get an info landfill that took a couple days and many MANY hours to assemble (WORTH IT!). I may or may not have taken it a bit too literally when you asked to hear what I've learnt so far WELL HERE IS EVERYTHING. Are you regretting your life choices yet? If you or anyone else has any questions or wants to discuss figure skating, CONTACT ME PLEASE I LOVE TO YAP (evidently)!!! Also, if you have managed to read all of this you are insane, and I love you.

I still spend most of my days thinking about skating. I am at the rink 2-3 times a week and have started lessons. I hope to get really good at it someday. Researching competitive figure skating is so so so fun! I just love learning about the all the rules/the technical side. I have so many pages of notes. Finally, I will link some resources I found helpful if you want to do some further reading.

They’ll be in the linktree (sorry it had to be like this, tumblr just couldn’t take it) https://linktr.ee/pissterdaniel

Resources

15 Brilliant youtube video that breaks down the 6 jumps with examples to help you identify them

16 The soyouwanttowatchfs website has a lot of guides for people getting into figure skating

17 ISU Technical Panel Handbook 2024-25

18 ISU Technical Rule Book 2024 (160 pages of goodness)

19 Table of base values (a couple of seasons old as still has 5 PCS categories listed, but should (?) still be valid, it has +/- 5 GOE so is after 2018 but before 2022. I feel like one of those people who works out the date a globe is from, which honestly, I’d be into because I love geography (it’s the darn autism again isn’t it)).

20 Extremely detailed table of base values 2024

21 Short program outline

22 Free skate outline

23 The ISU website in general, good for detailed scores and skater profiles

Lmk if there are any issues with the links OR IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, I'VE SAID IT BEFORE AND I’LL SAY IT AGAIN PLEASE CONTACT ME

Okay that is it, I just want to get this out there now, getting this from my word document to a successful tumblr post has taken 7 hours dear lord.

Hope this is a sufficient info dump @fern-foxx, it’s 6130 words. Thank you for your ask xxx

[poorlemons]

HI!!! I absolutely adore your art (it's so beautiful. It's so fluid. It's having a long lasting impact on my brain. Everytime I close my eyes theres just lemons art and darkness.) and I think far too much about your Clear Image AU, I fear I may have to start making slideshows about it.

But also curious about what happens to Michael during the rest of the timeline, like post season 3 times. Does she stay in the archives or move on with her life? And then what happens to her after the Eyepocalypse, is she okay (can she be okay please I'll cry)?

thank you so much that is so sweet of you!! im glad you enjoy my evil machinations. also i apologize if any of this has weird grammar or anything, i just woke up and am eating breakfast as i write this. also grammar is hard and im jsut a silly little guy, have mercy on me and post season 3 timeline... well as I see it, theres a couple ways it could go, and I think I will ponder them all. why get 1 ending when i can show you the good and the bad and let you sit with it! :3 ok so i need to establish somethings first. 1) the way I explain michael shelley herself still existing after becoming the distortions vessel is her tether to the Eye. If she had not been so connected to Beholding through the archives contract, and by how long she worked down there (in my michael timeline she's been there since the like, 80s. she's the michael mentioned by eric or whatever, i like that version of events). So it has its claws in her deep, even as she's kept ignorant. She wants to know, she wants to dig... she's just also prevented from doing it. and 2) Yeah that contract is still in place. how? because its funnier if it is, and also she never did *die*. Michael Shelley was missing, but never really reported, and she never died while she was being used as a vessel. So michael only has a few options if she wants to be free of the archives. In no timeline does Michael die! She's OK-ish. also none of these are 100% planned out so itll mostly be sparknotes So the first option for her to take is stabbing out her eyes to get that contract broken right there. But heres the issue: who would Michael get help from? Suddenly becoming blind is not really a hurdle you can jump alone, at least not easily. And she has no home, really no physical ties to anything because everything she had is most likely gone/thrown out by now. It would leave her blind and homeless, i fear. Because the archive people are her friends sorta, but like... theyre still caught up in the archives, they're busy and stressed all the time. Plus, the eye stabby thing is only found out some while into season 4. so she's probably not taking that route

the second one is she stays at the archives (good timeline): Heres when I reveal CIau as a fix-it. In this timeline a few things are true (Tim is alive, Jon didn't get comaed, Martin doesn't go with Peter, tensions are generally lower, Daisy did get coffined, though. the Unknowing did happen it just went... Better). This obviously frustrates Elias greatly, but Michael is a powerhouse of pure spite and determination to thwart that son of a bitch. He *knew* what Gertrude did to assistants, and he didn't *care*. Getting him out of power is the closest thing Michael could get to revenge. And oh how she wants that, never forget she is angry at what was done to her- its a low, dormant anger, but it is anger. So they go about Season 4, but less loneliness sand misery. Michael is determined to live her life to the fullest and she's pulling everyone into it as well. Its a little awkward in the Archives, and nobody can fully heal while they're trapped but relationships are improving. Melanie's bullet is removed consentually, everything is "great" (jon probably still gets stabbed though, i think thats funny). Tim is even less... sad miserable tim. And really a lot of it is different because... well season 4 hinged on that loneliness and misery. So in between mandatory get-out-of-the-archvies days and shit like that, theyre trying to figure out how to get rid of the contracts. Maybe they burn it or something, maybe they throw elias into Helen and carve out his eyes- that'd be fun. But they get free, yippee, and so Michael can go about getting new papers n shit and everyone can heal. I'd like to think she gets like, a nice calm job. She and Jon definitively volunteer at an animal shelter on the weekends. Her, martin, and anyone else who wants to tag along have little tea hangouts. Her and Tim sit in amicable silence or go out on some sort of hike, depends on how they feel (Michael's back does not appreciate it sometimes but she tries her best to keep up with her friend). Her, Basira, Jon, and Georgie have a book club. Georgie is chill too!! She gets a cat named Private Pea (name courtesy of Jon) and all is vibing.

Now time for bad timeline: A few things are the same, a few are different (Tim is alive, Jon gets comaed (this one was more of an accident that deliberate of Tim, Tim feels bad about it), Daisy is coffined, Martin is pulled in with Peter though its much more of a struggle for Peter to *keep* him, tensions are lower for most of them (Melanie has a bullet in her leg so shes still angry), and Georgie is wary but they manage to communicate the situation to her better so she doesn't fully cut contact with Jon.) Things are rough for a while, since Jon is out for the count, but everyone makes do as they can. Tim feels Bad about what happened, but Michael makes sure to help Tim out and try to make him feel better. They're friends, your honor. Yadi yada Jon comes back, Melanie gets her bullet taken out, everyone misses Martin. The events here are much more in line with canon season 4. They're still trying to find a way to break contract, but with the concerns about Martin and Daisy- and Jon's whole humanity- they're lagging behind about that. Michael does cry when she hears Eric's tape, Jon makes sure to let her listen to it. Melanie stabs out her eyes, daisy is retrieved from the coffin (Jon still loses a few ribs bc he's... Jon and of course he'd do that still), etc. Helen's relationship with the main crew is a little odd, since Michael is around, but maybe they're at a tentative truce. Maybe they paint each other's nails as a peace offering. The final peter-elias confrontation happens, shit hits the fan in the archives with the hunters 'n everything. Helen shelters Michael and Tim (michael is more or less safe from the distortion's effects and just hold onto Tim really hard) but Daisy still goes Hunt mode etc. Martin is saved, he and Jon get sent off to the safehouse and all is quiet for a little while. Michael and Tim do their best to just exist, Basira is off looking for Daisy, Melanie and Georgie are at home, the stage is set. Maybe Tim and Michael were out of town on a little trip when the eyepocalypse starts. OK. so. Eyepocalypse. Michael is trapped in a spiral-esc domain. I think her position is fairly unique. Not an avatar but so heavily marked by the Spiral that even the domain is confused on whether or not she's in charge. Its torment either way, she feels as if she's back in that hell of being Michael. Tim's probably also stuck in a domain, probably stranger, and maybe a bit of desolation, though i don't know how that'd look. I think Tim is 100% afraid of losing everything he has again, of burning those bridges for good. and also clowns. I think when Jon makes it to that domain, it takes a moment for him to realize who's statement he's taking. And then Martin and Jon try to hunt her down a pull her out. They do! She doesn't even really need the "ceaseless watcher make this person into your little bitch" or whatever, because her existence is just that muddled. She just... gets pulled out and her position shifts from watched to watcher. They go hunt down Tim, and idk maybe with the help of Helen and Michael they manage to fish him out without him becoming an avatar was well. Maybe he does have to get ceaseless watchered, no idea. Then theyre back on track through the domains, now Jon, Martin, Michael, Tim, and a Helen sometimes. They make it to London, they meet up with the others, everything is generally the same. But instead of that jon-stabbing kurfuffle, they kill jonah and everything falls apart and boom its ok the world is normal. Maybe most of the world doesn't remember but its alright, Theyre free. and thusly it sorta picks up from there like how it did in the better timeline. But maybe with a lot more issues to work around and heal from. so um. yeah something like that. I dunno

[carpehistoryandthepens]

Legacy (what is a legacy?) Part eighteen

It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me

Hamilton, the world was wide enough. LMM.

one, two, three, four, Five, six seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen

Summary: Mike is 13. Born May 2009. Sid didn’t know he had a son. All Mike had was hope and a prayer for his and his half-sister’s safety.

(Sid is a dad of a teen he didn’t know about AU) Sidgeno.

Warnings: (for the total story) post-child abuse (all off-screen but it affects things and is spoken about often), learning how to parent, panic attacks, anxiety, based on the 22-23 season, that said last season when i wrote these tags originally, but hey, it takes me a LONG time to write, so now its no longer last season, OCs?, the realization about sexuality. Post breakups. Desperate lack of in-depth research for CPS in both PA/CA, melodrama?, kidfic, angst, slowburn, playing fast and loose with the law for drama/storytelling purposes.

-

Sid was not paying much attention to the conversation that PO and Kappy were having with several other guys about Instagram and TikTok trends. He was too busy getting changed for one of the last media events they had to do before the start of the season. Everyone was yelling around the locker room and chirping about whether or not someone had seen the latest meme.

Once they had all finished with Jen's team, he could finally be free to get to the ice for one of the last practices of the preseason and skate some of the nervous energy away. Sid tuned them out with ease of long practice, the background noise of the team helping to settle. He had other things on his mind, making him twitchy.

The feeling of his chest pads settling down was calming but not enough. The routine of getting his gear on was second nature and allowed Sid's mind to wander - which was not helping the whole nervous energy thing. He needed to get on the ice. He needed to think.

Mike and Marisol were up in one of the offices with a balcony overlooking the rink, waiting to watch practice. Mike had asked to use Sid's home gym after they left the practice. It was the first time Mike had asked for anything personal, and Sid would do his best to make sure Mike was accommodated.

(Asking not to be sent away just after a panic attack didn't count as asking for something personal. Mike was scared then, but when asked that morning, he didn't look afraid or unsure. He looked determined; Mike looked like Sid did when he was about to take a face-off.  

Geno and Sid had exchanged a surprised and pleased look at the question. The question was unexpected, but this was something they wanted to encourage. Geno gave Sid a nod to go ahead. Sid trusted Geno's parenting skills.)

At first, Mike asked to use the gym at the rink, but Geno had spoken up. He pointed out that Marisol and the equipment at the official team gym would not be a good mix. Mike had paled and asked if they could use the home gym. There had been no question if Marisol would be at the gym, too. (He also needed to remember to bring some of her toys into the gym; he didn't want Marisol climbing on the equipment.) Working at the home gym was better anyway; if Mike was serious about hockey (and with how he skated a few days ago, he was), then he would need some off-ice training, and Sid needed to better understand what skills Mike already had.  

So, Sid had made the arragmenets to do his second, lighter workout of the day in his home gym with Mike. Geno bowed out, saying that Nikita had a meeting with his new soccer team; something about paperwork and sign-ups.  

Then maybe once Geno and Nikita go home, they would watch a movie with Marisol – a Spanish one? Sid would have to ask Mike.

Loud laughter brought Sid out of his reprieve.  Most of the team filed out to the various locker rooms and offices they had been directed to. Sid took his seat in a hallway, waiting for his turn before his attention was captured by PO. The guys clapped as PO demonstrated a complicated dance, apparently for a TikTok. Kappy and Pety joined him, causing a large amount of chirping from the rest of the team.  

Sid pieced together that PO and Kappy were planning out when they could teach a dance together. Sid had a vague impression that it was for the Pen's TikTok, but it might have been for PO's own. Sid managed to avoid being dragged into the planning session by the skin of his teeth. Jen's new social media manager was hovering and taking photos on his phone. The kid (and God, he looked like a kid. When did this happen?!) had a glint in his eyes that sid was wary of. He had to avoid whatever the kid's brilliant idea was going to be - Sid had enough of the social media from NHL media days.

Sid missed most social media by keeping a very low profile on Instagram – or a nonexistent one like TikTok. Jen's team kept his official name and handles underlock, but he never wanted to deal with it. Sid was thankful the organization let him; it seemed more trouble than it was worth. Still, Kappy and PO reminded him it had been some time since he checked Instagram.

Ignoring the social media manager and avoiding the guys trying to get him to dance with ease of long practice, Sid scrolled through Instagram and liked a few things from his teammates and family.

Just as he was about to put his phone away, Sid found one of the fitness accounts he followed. The couple who ran it were very fit and were extremely fond of doing cute couple exercises. She was a former gymnast, and he was one of the guys who showed up on American Ninja Warrior often. He and Kathy had done a few for themselves a few times. They found the couple exercises didn't fit them very well and led to a few joking but not joking arguments. While the couple exercises didn't work out for Sid and Kathy, sid liked them because they always seemed to have fun together. Also, she was hot, and they both demonstrated which muscles were used in workouts. The guy was quite fit himself.

Zucks flung himself into the seat next to Sid, jolting Sid from the video of the guy doing pull-ups shirtless in their latest video. He caught a glimpse of the video and raised an eyebrow at Sid. "Thirst trap, Sid?"

Sid blinked at him. Of course, most of the team in the hallway heard and immediately, like sharks with blood in the water, surrounded them, trying to see what was on Sid's phone. Sid kept a straight face with only long practice of weird press questions and dealing with locker room chirping.

Before Sid could even protest that it wasn't a thirst trap – not that he would; that way led to bad chirping, not fun chirping – Kappy leaned over and whistled. "That is one hell of a trap."

Even Geno - who was across the hallway at a different station - leaned over to see Sid's screen at that.

Ok. So, Sid realized he may have been admiring what was apparently a thirst trap, thinking it was a demonstration. A man's thirst trap. Rule one of surviving in a locker room: Never admit to embarrassing mistakes. Plead ignorance instead.

Sid raised an eyebrow. "Thirst trap on Instagram? I thought that was more of a TikTok thing." That got Sid some good chirping.

Frieds immediately shot back, "How would you know? Your phone can't even handle TikTok. It has a home button!"

Doc talked over him, calling Sid a grandpa. Dumo said that his grandpa had a newer phone and that maybe his kids could show Sid how to use TikTok.

Sid took the chirping with a grin; He loved his team.

Kappy grinned from across the hallway, completely forgetting the content of the video. "Sid, you would do a good thirst trap."  

Sid laughed as Reeser said, "Do you want to break the internet? That's how you break the internet. Did you even see the reaction on Twitter after that one ITR last year? When Sid was working out?"

Kappy howled with laughter, "The closest Sid would ever get to a thirst trap: Exercise videos."

Geno did the muttering under his breath, but entirely meant to be heard, which he did when he thought he was being clever. "Kappy, you seen Sid's ass? That alone break internet. Bring gown men to tears."

Sid did his best to not blush. He hadn't seen the video in the question's comments. But something in his was, as always, pleased that he would make that large of an impact on men watching Pens' videos.

Pleased?

While the team collapsed with more laughter and Jen's social team started to herd them into making their way to their assigned rooms before practice, Sid quickly realized a few things.

He… might have been watching the fitness reels for both men and women.

Sid ... may have known the videos were thirst traps.

Sid may not have been admiring the skills on display or control. He… might have been watching that one-boy cake trend from a few months ago more than just the friend's filmed reactions. Most straight men probably didn't have to ignore things in the locker room.

…. There might be some explanation for his teen years in locker rooms. Having to keep his eyes to himself consciously was a thing.

He might have been watching the videos as thirst traps.

Suddenly, a lot of things started to make sense. The ANW guy was hot. Sid watched the video as it replayed on his phone. With a blank shock, Sid realized that the workout videos he watched while strolling through reels weren't guys showing off their form.

They were showing something else off entirely. And Sid... enjoyed it. Like. alot.

How... did he miss this?

Sid was pretty sure he spent all of the next two hours in a daze. He walked through the motions as the PR team ensured his last photo shoots were good and definitely was still in space at the start of practice.  

He might not be as straight as previously thought. It's good that even if distracted, he could go hard in practice because he needed to keep his body moving as he put his thoughts in order.

Sid mentally gave himself a shake.

Once everyone was on the ice, Sully outlined the drills they were going over. Everyone broke into the lines posted in the locker room. The drills were something Sid'd done before, but that only would allow his mind to wander even more.

Since he was a teen, Sid ignored some things about himself that were coming unraveled rather quickly.

Some thoughts he had as a teen started to make sense.

Some thoughts he had last week started to make sense.

His experiences with porn started to make far more sense.

And that one threesome - which had nearly been a foursome, but the girl's (really hot guy) friend chickened out - started to make more sense. That was why Sid was disappointed about the whole thing. It was not just because pictures nearly leaked out.

He's in his thirties, for fucks sake. Why is Sid having a sexuality realization in his thirties?! Not when he was younger? He spent a lot of time in locker rooms, for goodness' sake! Wasn't this something that people kinda knew from a much younger age?

He spent a lot of time with teammates like Jack and Army. And God knows with some of the guys from Rimouski and before then….

…. Jack.

A hundred images ran through Sid's head all at once. He had a crush on Jack. As a teen.

HOW THE FUCK DID HE MISS THAT.

Sid whiffed on a puck shot to him by Rusty instead of trying to get past Jars, much to the jeers of the rest of the team watching.

That's embarrassing. And Sid wasn't talking about the missed shot.

A thousand new images and memories came through like a freight train in Sid's head.

ARMY.

Oh fuck. Army.

Sid had been leaning on his stick, waiting for his line's next run for the drill, and only by years of long practice did he not lose balance over his surprise.

Geno definitely saw, though, and sent Sid a questioning look and nearly skated over. Sid waved a hand to wave him off, laughing at himself. Geno grinned but refocused on the practice, which made Sid happy. Even distracted, Making Geno smile and not worry was the best.

The wrestling, the rooming together, the long practices—Sid was rapidly realizing that he may have been flirting as much as practicing. With Army. The straightest man Sid knew. Sid thinks. Sid would have said that about himself just this morning.  

Oh god, that's more embarrassing than Jack.

A hundred more moments in time paraded in Sid's mind that, when they happened, Sid had thought they were just guys being guys! Sid now recognized as having Massive Crushes (TM) on so many people.

Sid line launched forward, and this time, Jake sent him a puck as planned.

Oh god, oh fuck.

His type of guy is a hockey player. What the fuck.

Sid punctured the thought with a hard slapshot that whizzed past Jarry's ear. Jarry's loud "Goddamn fucker!" echoed Sid's own thought. 

-

Geno thankfully waited until they had left the rink and were outside Sid's car before cornering him.

By the end of practice, the team was no longer laughing and instead had been giving some concerning stares in Sid's direction. Sid had missed a few more shots than he usually would. (or a lot more shots. And what he did hit was a bit more serious than expected. Jarry was sending him some very wounded looks by the end of the practice.)

Geno had been giving him worried looks.

They had made plans to ride back to Sid's house together before Nikita would get home. Mike and Marisol were with Helena, going to a therapist she had gotten for them.

"Are you ok, Sid? You were distracted all practice," Geno asked in Russian, getting into the passage side. He would drive them to practice tomorrow. But today, it was Sid's turn. Figuring out logistics was much more complex with kids in tow than before – but Sid didn't mind.

Sid chewed on his thoughts as they got situated and started out of the parking lot, trying to figure out where to start. He blurted the first thought that came to his head rather than any of the others swirling around his mind.

"When you have a crush on people, does it feel different when it's not a woman?" Sid will deny to the day he dies that he didn't breathe for the whole question. He breathed. It was just. Small. He asked in English because he had no idea the word for "crush" was in Russian.

Geno blinked at him from the passenger seat, surprised. But he answered slowly, taking Sid's question seriously. "For me, yes, women hot rush – all at once, men more soft falling. But both just as intense. Kinda hard to explain. Like both feelings a lot. It is very fun. Anna says not different feeling for her."

Sid kept his eyes on the road. "Oh."

"Why?"

"Figuring something out," he said before taking a deep breath, and because it was GENO, explained.

It may have taken the whole drive for Sid to fully explain – mostly because he kept on stumbling and rambling rather than getting to the point but also because he was explaining in both Russian and English, and this was a test of his Russian vocabulary even after nearly fifteen years of near fluency – but by the time they pulled up into Sid's driveway, Sid had more or less come out to one of his closest friends. Nearly three hours later, he realized it himself.

Geno was laughing as he stepped out of the car. "Yes, Sid. that crush." He said between breaths.  "You think it was just friendship?"

"OH," Sid said, trying to keep his face from giving everything away; he was enjoying Geno's levity. He played along, asking, "So, most guys don't have issues in locker rooms?"

Geno burst out laughing again. "No, most don't feel much around the locker room. Not embarrassed with other men, just of themselves." They got into the house, and Sid was glad they were alone, even with how strange the house sounded without the kids running around.

Sid suddenly remembered sitting in locker rooms as a teen, keeping his eyes to himself. Before he got over it, he was embarrassed about his body – he'd always been weirdly shaped, but that wasn't the only reason he was looking at the floor. Sid wanted to look at the other guys in the room. He thought everyone had these urges and just ignored them. "Oh." He said, looking down. He felt kind of stupid for not realizing this sooner.

Geno wrapped an arm around Sid's shoulders, "It's ok! Many people do not know until later."

When Sid gave him a skeptical look, Geno beamed at him, "Not many people like me and know from boyhood. It's not often people are as in touch with themselves as I am!"

"Ok, Geno. Tit for tat! Tell me your realization then!" Sid demanded, mainly to see if Geno would tell him. That was one story Sid had never found out.

The deep red flush that spread across Geno's face as he dropped his arm from around Sid's shoulders said clearly that it was a story Sid had to know. It also declared that it was a story that Geno would do his best never to tell Sid.

Sid was pretty sure he would win this battle.

[sollucets]

2024 recap: most popular vs. favorite

a long time ago (like. a couple weeks?) @kantpattanawat tagged me to do this, and then @doyeons tagged me on my sideblog just lately, and so finally i am Doing It! i'm going to do both blogs, but jinjjayo didn't gif anything until august so it'll be a minute before it shows up. thanks everyone <3

warning: this post has a Lot of gifs and may lag your device

january

most popular (and favorite by virtue of no competition): 3 will be free userdramas event set

i was fairly burnt out on gifmaking in the beginning of 2024. i think i made like two sets in as many months. i do love 3 will be free and i had fun doing the neon text

february

most popular: puppy eyes lao wen

favorite: my school president rainbow anniversary set or perhaps the ye baiyi effect

as you can tell this is when i finished watching word of honor. the 23.5 pilot also aired in february so my will to gif came back to me :')

march

most popular: ramking & aylinluna side couple success formula

favorite: love for love's sake episode three

i'm kind of shocked and delighted that my event set is my most popular as i didn't think anybody still cared about my engineer and i worked very hard on it. i started doing the lfls episode sets this month and it remains some of my very best coloring work. also, 23.5 was airing & i was doing rainbow sets for that.

april

most popular: heartkillers pilot trailer

favorite(s): ugh i did a lot of good giffing this month. yeowoon's smile set, t8s anniversary set, t4t (teacher for teacher), more rainbow 23.5. but my real absolute favorites are:

lfls episode five

beyond evil event set

my best beloved wenzhou poetry set that i worked on while i was in & out of the hospital

somehow i was at my physically sickest but most productive i guess. thats life for you

may

most popular: asexual plakao

i'm glad it is, i worked hard on that coloring & kao remains dear to me

some other favorites: rainbow 23.5, myungha's smile set <33

june

most popular (and favorite by virtue of no competition): eunbi sabotage mv

the kpop gifmaking spiral begins here, but also, i am still enchanted by this mv. sorry i didnt know about masters and quality and all that yet i was just downloading in 1080p from youtube i have learned since

july

my laptop was broken during this month. :(

august

most popular: hearteyes aninpin, skz maniac forever playlist

favorites: only friends anniversary, bon bon chocolat forever playlist

i went kinda crazy in august. no for real i made 40 gifsets across both accounts all while i was figuring out kpop giffing. i was doing some insane sleep schedule shit to gif the loyal pin, too. my early forever playlist sets are all very good in my opinion

september

most popular: aninpin kisses, snsd the boys forever playlist

favorites: tlp e6 aesthetic set, eternally taejun (and my nmixx fe304 break set)

i've like Always wanted to make an eternally lyric set like that so im so glad i finally did. one of my favorite mvs of ever

october

most popular: crop top jongseob

favorite: any of the spooky season forever playlists but especially hoshi spider. warm place in my heart for swan in on my bike as well

i can barely believe i managed to do spooky forever playlist every other day for most of the month. i felt so bad for dropping it but frankly it was a lot. also, i did not gif on my main this month! kpop rabbit hole is real

november

most popular: girl rules trailer, when i'm with you / my first and last

favorite: over the moon mv, bibi derre

what a good month to love women, clearly

december

most popular: strategy jeongyeon

favorite: astro forever playlist, burn it mv

you guys did not love astro enough... that mv is Beautiful. and burn it is so so so good too i have so many thoughts and yaps to say about it

all in all i'm proud of myself for 2024 gifs. i had a weird and strange year but i'm pulling it together and ive had a lot of fun venturing into kpop gifs. thanks everyone <3333