#also now i know how photosets work

[idyllcy]

pov ur therapy is doom shopping - tim drake x reader (pretty bird countdown #1)

The world stops for no one.

You drum your fingers against the marble of your kitchen island, browsing through online shops while you're supposed to be working on your paper, humming to yourself as the rain outside your window drums erratically against the glass. It's far too late for you to be awake, but you're also waiting for someone to get home. You wonder why he had picked such an early patrol time for once. It wasn't common for him to be back before two.

"The rain is terrible." Tim sighs, window opening as he slides in, unclasping his boots and cape, locking the window as he turns on the tint. "You alright?"

You hum at him, continuing with your shopping. 

"Whatcha looking at?" He peels off his suit, dropping it down the chute as it lands with a thud, wrapping his arms around your shoulders as he stares at your screen.

"Doom shopping?"

"The day's been slow."

"I figured." He hums. "It's why I took an early shift."

"You seem to know me a little too well." You mumble, no real malice behind your words, clicking add to cart. 

"Isn't it nice?"

"I suppose." You scroll through your cart, blinking twice before closing your laptop. "How was patrol?"

"You don't need to fill in the silence, you know?" He squeezes you, carrying you in his arms as he tells you about patrol anyway. You need time off from your mind, and he's more than willing to help you out. You'd have a higher chance of being better in the morning than anything else. "So? What did you do while I was out?"

"I put the dishes in the dishwasher." You hum. "Not to dry. To wash. I think we officially have enough dishes to use the dishwasher instead of handwashing."

"Mhm?"

"And I also made some steamed egg." You shift slightly in his arms as he reaches to open the bedroom door. 

"Did you save me some?"

"Yeah." You yawn. "Middle section of the upper fridge. If you want anything else, there's quite a couple of things in the freezer. I think we need to eat the costco mac n cheese soon."

Tim laughs. "Yeah?"

"Mhm. Also, I was looking through my photos that I got before my gramps passed..."

"Were you thinking about him?"

"I was." You close your eyes as he sets you down on the bed. "I think that's why I'm so down right now."

"Yeah. I feel that." He mumbles. "I'll shower and then we can get to bed, alright? Feel free to keep browsing. The tablet is charged."

"Alright." 

Tim finds that taking care of you is no big deal no matter how tired he is. It's as easy to take care of you as it is to breathe, and even with the ring on your ear and the band on your finger, he finds that it has only gotten easier to be your other half. He's sure you would say the same, your ring never leaving your finger even while resting — never gone even when he's bloody from the worse days of patrol. The dirt and grime slide down his body as he washes, bathroom door opening as you move to sit in the tub to be by him.

"You alright?"

The lack of response and comfortable silence tells Tim all he needs to know.

"Did you see the new video from Bernard?"

"The one detailing Nightwing as a vampire?"

"Yeah."

"I did." You hum.

"Thoughts?"

"Found it funny. He used one of my photosets from April Fools years back as evidence and I thought I was going to lose my mind." You hum. "Do you think the study could fit a couple more blind boxes?"

"I'm sure it can... somehow. We can always layer the figures." Tim reaches for face wash. "Oh, right. I saw your serum was low. Do you need more?"

"I went over my spending limit for the month, so next month." You mumble. "What do you think about a custom figure?"

"You'd have to be filthy rich for that, no?" He pauses. "Wait. Pretty bird. Why do you have a limit if my credit card never maxes out—"

"Well, aren't you filthy rich?" You raise a brow. "What if you divorce me one day?"

"I am." Tim agrees, closing his mouth to wash his face. "That's not happening. Shoo. You'll put me in my grave before I let you get away from me."

"Then, we can afford it." You hum. "Well, might as well spend the money. Considering that we don't want kids and all." You choose to ignore his words.

"I can't believe your mom is still pestering me to change your mind." Tim sighs. "What gene do they want to continue down the bloodline? Your brain?"

"Your brain, birdie." You chuckle. "You're rich, smart, and other than..."

"Hey, don't bring my height into this!" Tim gasps. "Rude." 

"Hey, I didn't say shit." You grumble. "You know damn well your family has a tall gene."

"I might kill you." 

"That'd align perfectly with my interests." You blow a raspberry at him through the glass.

"Regardless, I told her she's getting no grandchildren. Told her I'm sterile."

You cough, laugh stuck in your chest as you gasp for air, wheezing in the process.

"You alright, pretty bird?"

"I just lost it, sorry." You cough, trying to get the words out. "You are NOT sterile."

"That vasectomy says otherwise."

"That makes you infertile!"

"Yeah, but if I tell her I'm infertile, she might tell me that we could always do IVF."

"Evil..." You mumble.

"I know." Tim grumbles. "Well, regardless," he turns the water off, "might as well spend money on the things that matter?"

"Which is?"

"My wife's retail therapy." Tim grins, robe wrapped around his body as he opens his arms for you. "Hm?"

"I don't know, birdie." You pretend to think. "Sounds like a lot of money you're spending there."

"Well, it's all worth it. Happy wife, happy life. happy spouse, happy house." He hums. "As long as you're smiling, then it made all of that nonsensical pining I went through when I first met you in person worth it."

"Yeah?"

"Positive." He grins.

"You've become real sappy, you know?"

"And you don't like it?"

"Mm..." You pinch his cheek as he reaches over you to shut the lights. "No. I do."

"I know you do." He pinches your cheek back. "It's why you married me."

"Maybe I married you for your bank account."

Tim pretends to gasp in offense, jaw dropped. "You couldn't have."

You go quiet, Tim reaching over to pinch your cheek again as you bite his fingers.

"Hey!"

You stick your tongue out at him with a 'blegh' and he huffs. 

"Nighty night, pretty bird."

"Love you too, birdie."

[world-of-aus]

Live Now

Pairing: Camboy!Bucky x Camgirl!Reader

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI (Male masturbation)

Authors Note: I am so sorry for the delay on this one, but this past week was my return to work with inservices, meetings, and a staff workday Friday. I hope this chapter is up to everyone expectations, as always happy readings Buns.

“Siren, sweetheart when I imagined you making things hard for me I was imagining something different.”

You bite down on the grin that threatens to kiss your lips, schooling your features as you take in the man on the screen. There’s almost too much of him for that all to tiny screen of yours, you can’t place where your eyes want to land next. What part of him you want to drink in next.

“Fully clothed and I already have you looking dazed, can you imagine the day I have you under me?” your eyes snap to his grainy ones, narrowing as you give him an unamused look. “Someone’s cocky, I could just boot you, you know.”

The low chuckle that resonates from your laptop’s speaker has you clenching your thighs together. You’d never been more glad that they weren’t visible to the brunette. “You could, but would you want to?”

You raise a brow, “you think I won’t?”

You suck down a breath watching as he takes purchase on his thighs, biceps flexing as he leans in, “I know for a fact you won’t, now you under me what do you say?”

You mirror his posture, “I say, next time ask me nicer B.” He doesn’t have time to question your words before your booting him from the chat, his image leaving with a soft whoosh. Your phone goes off next to you, a notification from your website.

You unlock your phone your laughter bubbling up into the air of your room.

You’re being bratty tonight siren.

🤷‍♀️

You could have just been a good girl and used your words. Do you not want to be under me?

He’s right, you are feeling bratty, have been bratty since the night he confronted you about your set with Pietro. That night had also been the beginning of a back and forth friendship of sorts, you loved and hated it all the same.

As much as I would LOVE to run my mouth all over that body of yours I fear I’m not going to be able to handle you 🥲

Laugh it up sweetheart I’ll have tears running down your face in due time.

You bite your lip, thumbs running over your words.

You promise?

You leave him with that jumping over to the notifications that sit in your inbox from your sets. Many of the comments were wondering the same as the man in your messages. When were you going to collaborate with buckmeup.

You knew the questions would be flooding your notifications the night you had released the set with Pietro, many of buckmeups fan’s in your live that evening to see what type of thank you, you had for them. They didn’t sign off that night disappointed, if anything you had fueled their desire to see you with the male cammer further.Your live and sets that evening had reached buckmeup as well, his name popping up in your inbox an hour after your live had ended. He had been sincere with you from the first message that night, immediately apologizing for his previous comment making you feel some type of way.

I’ve gotta apologize sweetheart, for my comment, thought I was being playful but I can see where it might have been misconstrued, just didn’t want to get tangled with you when I already had previous commitment with someone else. I wanted to be entirely free to you when the time came, you deserve that.

You remember the sheer panic that encompassed you when he liked your photoset, but it didn’t compare to when his message came in. You had tried to play it off, even going as far as to throw in a teasing line about him not sending his fans to you.

Maybe you should have left the comment about his live out.

You watched my live?

You had laughed the comment off sayin;

And what if I did? You telling me you never watched another cammer before?

His answer was an obvious yes, it’s how he chose the female cammers to collaborate with. It’s how he found you.

His comment that followed after surprised you,

Awe shit sweetheart that must have stung, me making my comment then you seeing that.

You had been taken back to say the least, you weren’t expecting anything from him, much less this, an apology. You didn’t know what to say. So he spoke for you.

Let me make it up to you.

Please.

Since that night you had come to learn that B as you had taken to calling him these past weeks could beg you real nice when he wanted, it was a surprise you had lasted this long. He was making it very hard recently inviting you to private chat rooms to speak with you and you alone. No wandering eyes hiding behind the screen of a laptop, no comments popping up wanting more.

You had never met a man more resilient and charming like B, then again how many men had you come across that did sex work as their job?

The answer?

None.

A chime from your laptop is bringing you too, your eyes flicking over to message notification. You can’t help but laugh, ‘speak of the devil,’ you murmur clicking on your direct messages with buckmeup. It opens, a link to a private chat waiting for you, your brows furrow but you don’t hesitate to press the link.

A black screen takes over, a baited breath passes and he’s filling up your screen. An amused smile pulls at your lips, “you didn’t invite me just to boot me did you?”

“Now why would I do that?” he grins.

You raise a brow, “what do you want?” He laughs huskily, “why do you assume I want anything?”

You examine him for a moment, a chime goes off realization hitting, “are you?” the rest of your question freezes along your tongue. This is the first time you think you see guilt flash across his features.

He rubs at the stubble along his chin, “was gonna ask for help this evening but you booted me before I could ask, thought we could start slow, give you just enough to have you wanting more, what do you say?” It falls silent between the two of you, but neither looks away, the soft chime ringing in the background the only noise coming from your speakers.

Maybe your time had finally run out. You couldn’t avoid it forever, and this was your chance to build your following.

You bite.

You catch the wolfish grin that pulls at his lips when you get yourself comfortable. “You going to make my time worth my while? You know what I’m capable of.”

He chuckles leaning back onto his pillows, the hand you’ve imagined many nights wrapped around your throat coming into view. He trails it down to the lining of your favorite grey joggers on him, “something tells me you’ve seen just how good I can be sweetheart, not even going to think twice of clicking out." His gaze flickers off to the side, "Don’t worry guys, she’s not going anywhere.”

You laugh, “for now," you lean back agains the wooden frame of your bed, "you going to show me a good time B?"

You shouldn’t have been surprised, true to his word you hadn’t thought of exiting once since he began. You were in trance, and you were wet, thighs clenched aching for some kind of friction, anything to aide with the heat coursing through you due to the sight before you.

You had never wanted your lips wrapped around a cock more than you did now.

“Whats wrong siren?” he coos breathlessly, “that pretty pussy of yours aching for a touch?” You want to smack the grin off his plush lips, “touch yourself baby, fuck yourself on your fingers for me.”

Your hand comes into his view fingers swaying, “wouldn't feel as good as yours,” you pout, “I wanna feel full.”

He throws his head back in a low groan, fist going over his cock a little quicker now, “let me in siren,” he grunts fucking up into his fist, “I’ll fill you up just like you need, all you’ve got to do is let me in.”

You find the thought laughable because he was already in, you agreeing to this was that wall finally crumbling down.

He watches your hand fall onto your clothed chest, fingers dancing down your torso, "that's it baby, keep going," he breathes. Your teeth catch on your lower lip, fingers drawing closer to the tops of your silk bottoms. "Touch your pussy for me."

The walls crumbles to ash your teeth sink lower into your lip, your fingers dipping beneath the waistband till they're going over the curls covering your mound parting your slick folds. The hold your teeth have loosens, your lip dropping on a silent gasp, “that's my girl,” he husks, eyes locked on you.

Your touch is feather light, a low whine bubbling in your chest as you test the waters. "Don't be shy, touch yourself, make yourself feel good." Listening to his words your eyes leave his darkened ones trailing down his exposed stomach to where his hand is wrapped around his hardened length low grunts spilling from his lips as he works himself over. 

You dip your fingers a little further collecting slick as you drag back up to circle your clit, finding the spot that makes jolts of pleasure course through you. Pressing a little harder, working your finger a little quicker, your breath catches in your throat.

A breathy moan is sounding from your laptops speakers, in the form of your screen name, the sinful things you would do to hear that again.

"Feels so good B," you breathe, your body trembling as you work your fingers faster trying to match his pace.

“Fuck siren, being so good for me, a good girl aren't you?” he groans as he watches you pleasure yourself, his hands gripping himself a little tighter, pumping a little harder to what he imagines is the swivel of your finger beneath your silky night shorts. Your eyes slip shut, head thunking against your wooden headboard as you let the sound of him consume you. You’re close to the edge, the broken moans, and low grunts of your screen name have your head reeling, fingers circling faster. It’s not enough, the need to feel him growing strong, your hand itching to wrap around his hardened length. 

“Talk to me Siren, tell me what you need?" he grunts. 

“I need you” you moan, “want you here with me, want you to fill me up, want to be so full of you.” you whine. 

His mouth is dipped open in a low moan, eyes hooded over in lust, and you can’t bring yourself to look away. “I know sweetheart, I know, but you're being so good for me Siren, you're such a good girl.” he murmurs.

Your fingers match the rhythm in which he pumps at his cock, "I'd be so good, such a good girl for you," you moan, biting back the 'only girl'.

"I know baby I know, now why don't you let me see just how good it can be, let go for me."

You’re right on the edge, toes over the cliff and the thing to send you over is the growl of your name falling from his lips, his warmth coating his abdomen, spilling over his fist.  The first wave hits, your orgasm washing over you as your toes curl, finger stilling over your clit, a low moan spills from your lips, “That's it sweet girl, ride it out for me.”

You groan as you come down from the pleasure, a giggle slipping past your lips as you pull your fingers from your shorts. You slip lower into your sheets watching as Bucky shifts around on the screen cleaning himself up. He slips up his jogger composing himself before he begins his signoff. It goes like it does every night, with a promise to see them tomorrow. He signs off with a final wave, a swish sounding before his attention is focused solely on you, and you alone.

He gets comfortable against his headboard, "you feeling alright there Siren?"

You chuckle, "a little dissatisfied, but nothing my little vibe can't fix later tonight."

"A free show for a free show." he teases.

He's drawing another laugh from you, "I'll make sure to invite you to a private chat tomorrow, give you a free show and get my coin."

He chuckles the sound going throw you, "thank you for tonight by the way, I'm sure it wasn't ideal me throwing it on you like this - but I was running out of choices."

"Told you, you just needed to ask me nicely, I would have eventually said yes."

Your eyes track the way he runs his tongue over his lower lip, teeth catching, "thank you for giving me a chance."

"You keep it up and you'll be making due on your promises in no time B."

He grins, "I look forward to is Siren." The two of you bid one another a farewell, a promise on your lips to see him tomorrow before he's signing off, your screen going back to your website.

You go through some of the new notifications that popped in, setting up your new sets to upload before you're signing off for the night, laptop snapping shut as you push it off to the side. Slipping from your bed you grab your phone, night robe, and night ware intent on a warm shower before you call it a night. Making your way into you bathroom you set your things down on the counter picking up your phone to set some music.

Your search for music comes to a pause, a notification from cashapp vibrating across your screen. Brows furrowed you click the notification.

'Bucky Barnes' has sent you $500.

For a second you worry that someone has mistakenly sent you a large amount of money but as your gaze drifts further down the message that follows has your heart swooping in your chest.

"Thank you again for tonight Siren, hope you didn't think I was the only one making coin tonight, this is for you - buckmeup"

[aceofwhump]

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog!

I decided to make a new pinned post with all the information that is available on my desktop site but that will be more accessible for mobile users. Plus a few extras 😉

So an introduction.

I'm Ace. I started this blog back in February 2018 after seeing a post that referenced the whump community. I had no idea there was such a large community here on tumblr! As soon as I saw that making a whump blog was an option I immediately made one. And I haven't regretted it since. I love this blog, I love this community, and I'm thrilled to be here three years later! 

Here on this blog you'll see lots of gifsets both reblogged from wonderful creators and gifs made by yours truly. I also write fanfics on occasion. You can check out my work on AO3 under the name "aceofwhump" or you can look under my tag "ace writes stuff". That tag will have some stuff not on AO3 too. I also do whump lists for certain characters, trope lists, video clips of good whump, and fanfic recs.

Click on the read more for even more information and important links to things like gifmaking tutorials, my trope tag list, my show/movie tag list, my fanfic masterlist, and more!!!

My favorite tropes are:

Emotional: panic attacks, nightmares, insecurities, feeling inadequate, fear, grief, flashbacks, flinching, emotional breakdowns full of sobbing, emotional outbursts, scar reveals, anxiety, self hatred

Environmental: accidents, natural disasters like earthquakes or storms, hit by a car, collapsed building, falling through ice, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, falls, burns, infected wounds from lack of medical equipment, sickness, being unable to breathe, drowning

Small moments: limping, feeling weak and seeking support, breathing through the pain, moving wrong in a way that aggravates the pain, and the sudden seizing of his body, shaking hands, pressing the heel of his hand against his temple because of a headache, taking a moment to close his eyes because he’s light headed/exhausted/has such a bad headache

Sci-fi: space illness, oxygen deprivation, isolation, being locked in the brig, hull of the ship getting damaged, alien attacks

Injuries: broken bones, gunshot wounds, hidden injuries, bruises, beaten, concussions, collapsed lung, slings, casts, crutches, knocked unconscious, blood loss

Torture/Captivity: Being strung up by their wrists from the ceiling, drugged, chained up, caged, tied to a chair, handcuffed to a pole, interrogated

Comfort/Caretaking: hugging, “Are you okay?”, “You’re safe now”, “I’ve got you”, hand holding, helping to walk, ice packs, covering someone with a blanket, a cool cloth on their forehead to help with a fever, a fever check, touching their face to offer comfort

Magic: magical healing that causes pain, draining of powers, powers that are painful to use, curses

Stoic or defiant whumpees

Team whump

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Long detailed look at how I make my gifs

Gifmaking tutorials:

Gifmaking for Begginers: my ginormous all you need to know tutorial

Another look at how I make a gif

Tips for beginners

Tips on brightening dark scenes

How to get into gifmaking

Photoset dimensions

How to make a layout gifset

Gif speeds

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Links from my desktop blog for mobile users:

My gifs

My whump videos

Ace writes stuff

My Writing Masterlist

Trope tag list

Show list

My Whumptober Masterlists

Fanfic Rec Lists

Blog Archive

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Introducing…

ACEOFWHUMP’S FANFIC MASTERLIST!!

This has been a massive, ongoing project of mine for a while now in which I am endeavoring to catalog and categorize every fanfiction I’ve ever bookmarked. I fear this project will never be complete as I'm always reading and bookmarking new fics but I’m going to share it anyway.

Inside, you will find links and summaries to the fanfictions I’ve read over the years on both AO3 and FF.net. Each fic is sorted by the specific whumpee that they center on. So there’s a page for Danny Williams, for Mike Warren, for Lucifer Morningstar, and many many more. The fics are 90% whump with a touch of fluffy ones thrown in too. This list is based on the fics I’ve read and bookmarked so it leans heavily on my favorite whumpees and my favorite tropes. 

I’ve been working on categorizing every fic by its tropes (so theoretically you could search for say seizure fics or sick fics) but that’s taking me a loooong time because I have to reread every fic in order to determine what kind of categories to make and to look for the specific tropes. So for now you’ll have to make do with the fic summaries and using the search function. When it’s done, each whumpee will have their specific trope categories so you won’t necessarily find the same tropes in each category but it should help narrow down the fics better once I’m done. This is an ongoing project for me.

The list gets updated all the time so check back in every now and then. There might be something new.

I do take suggestions of fics to add to this masterlist but please keep in mind that it may not end up on the list. It's nothing personal I promise. I just can't add every single fic in the world.

Here's the link (note that it opens best on desktop browser because it is large):

[linane-art]

GF's AUpocalypse 2024 - Cinderella AU

Bonus fullsize Fili

MY OTHER EDITS

There's also a bit of a story to go with this one, some 5.2k of it. I've been sitting on it since April 2017.

However, before you read it, you should know that it's not great, in fact, I consider it to be sub-standard writing for me, and will not be publishing it on my AO3 or anywhere else. It's also unfinished and will not be getting finished - you should also know that.

Fundamentally, I wrote as much as I did and had a major disagrement with the concept of 'love at first sight'. You see, to my mind, it doesn't work for FiKi as a pairing (or possibly it just doesn't work, full stop). What my heart wants is about 80k-100k of a slow burn, covering the span of about 6 decades where they get to know each other, heaps of mutual pining, construct proper personalities for both Fili and Kili, unpack the blatant inequality of power between them etc. etc. I want to flesh out and develop plot-lines for Dis, Thorin and the Ri-brothers, and figure out how the magic works in this universe.

But the original Cinderella fairytale doesn't allow me the space for all of that. It's all: ball > marriage > happily ever after. Which to me, frankly, is utter nonsense. *Shrug*

But it fitted perfectly with the photoset I came up with and I'm glad to see it aired out and of my Writing Folder, so here goes nothing:

---------------------

Prince Fili’s Third Coming of Age Ceremony took place at a tender age of 65.

It was early perhaps, but then these were perilous times: the Prince was not only battle-ready, he’d had some practical experience of it, having taken part in a number of skirmishes with orcs around the kingdom’s borders. He was a fierce warrior, a cunning diplomat and a hot-headed idiot in turns, which in the common folk was met with a mix of disgruntled admiration and exasperation. But he was liked well-enough and easily acknowledged as King Thorin’s heir both within the kingdom’s borders and outside of them. He’d inherited the position; but he made it truly his own with charm, charisma and hard work.

Had he fully understood what the Ceremony entailed, Fili himself would have perhaps resisted, but he was young and confident and used to getting his own way. Besides, the Third Coming of Age meant far greater freedom and independence from the Crown and, like any young dwarf, Fili pounced at the opportunity of having a longer leash.

The celebrations were planned to befit the grandeur of the House of Durin: there was to be a great ball of course, guests from the four corners of the world, tables laid full to the brim with good food and drink, music and entertainment, and even a firework display at midnight.

Once again, Fili graciously agreed, happy enough to share his own joy with others and delighted to have some merriment within the walls of a usually restrained palace.

The trouble started when Thorin let slip that he’d be looking for a bride for Fili during the ball. It was important that Fili was married as soon as possible and would be better yet if he had a bairn on the way not long after. Succession was paramount to kingdom’s stability and Thorin was nothing if not determined to have not only an heir, but also a spare.

There was a meticulously planned and researched list of eligible princesses, all lined up to be whisked away onto the ballroom floor, in appropriate order of course, sized up as potential brides, and romanced just enough to become an enthusiastic fiancée or an un-problematic rejection. The ball was now less than a month away and all invitations had been sent, with folk pouring into the mountain day and night, all excited to boot at this excellent opportunity to get utterly plastered at someone else’s expense.

In short: it was too late now to back out.

Luckily, Prince Fili, who at that point had 65 years’ worth of experience in dealing with his King and uncle, kept his cool.

“Yes uncle,” he agreed with a grin just wide enough to suggest to an ardent observant that mischief was brewing in that clever head of his.

Luckily, King Thorin, was not the most ardent of observants.

Fili bowed with just a touch too much charisma and left the Council chambers to the respectfully low murmur of voices.

And then he did what any young dwarf would have done in his place: he hatched a plan.

---

Kili gave a triumphant little grunt, as he finally managed to remove a particularly stubborn patch of soot from the inside of the fireplace. He’d been scrubbing at it for the past 20 minutes and had to admit that it felt good to be finally getting somewhere.

“You’ve missed a spot,” Dori supplied behind him helpfully, pointing to the opposite corner with a poker.

Kili sighed and crawled in that direction. When it came to cleanliness, Dori was a tyrant.

He started scrubbing anew.

It wouldn’t be fair to say that Dori was being mean per se. He himself had been polishing all the wooden furniture just feet behind Kili, which might have been a cleaner job, but no less labour intensive. It was simply that Dori had really high standards when it came to cleanliness of a respectable dwarven homestead. Higher even than Kili’s own mother and that was saying something.

Still, could be worse, Kili supposed: Ori had been relegated to cleaning the outhouse.

He sighed and attacked the stonework again. At least Nori was nowhere to be found, which meant that Kili couldn’t get into trouble. For now.

---

It took Prince Fili a while to weasel the right info out of the right people. It was important though that he got this right, and Fili took his time. He only had one shot at this.

It was only a week before the party when he finally managed to get away from the Palace for long enough to make the trip.

He pulled his hood tighter around his annoyingly-recognisable golden head, before stepping confidently into the light.

“Are you the one they call the Fairy Godmother?” he addressed the dwarrowdam by a cart, who was overseeing it being loaded with some heavy-looking casks by three burly characters.

She turned away from the wagon slowly, giving him a measured once-over. The scrutiny chafed somewhat, when directed at the royal heir without an ounce of respectful deference, but Fili stood his ground and offered what he hoped was a friendly smile.

“That depends on who’s asking,” she said and tilted her head curiously. Behind her, three sets of hands produced an array of heavy and sharp objects indicating that there was a correct answer to this question.

Fili held out his empty hands, hoping that the pommels of his daggers weren’t showing. “A simple, unarmed traveller, who has use of your… services and will pay for them handsomely.”

He produced a heavy purse of coins and offered it on his outstretched palm.

She arched an eyebrow at him, as if to say ‘that’s what you’re going with?! Really?!’, but took the coin and gestured for the other three to stand down and get back to loading the barrels.

Fili attempted his best friendly smile once more.

“And what is it that you want from the Fairy Godmother? Fame? Fortune? Both?” her voice was dripping with sarcasm.  

Fili took a deep breath. “I wish to marry the one person in all my life that I will truly love,” he demanded. “And soon. Like… in the next week or so.”

The woman snorted. “Honestly, lad, in your position that’s hardly a sensible wish. Fame and fortune would have been easier.”

“Sensible or not, is it possible? Men in taverns all the way from the Mountain to the very ends of our lands swear by your name, so I understand you have the power equal almost to that of the wizards. Unless this simple wish is beyond you?”

Flattery, sprinkled liberally with a hefty dose of goading. He’d honed that particular technique on the Elven delegations.

“Son, I sell spirits,” the dwarrowdam deadpanned. “Spirits happen to be exactly what men in the taverns wish for more than anything. Sometimes they call me the Fairy Godmother for it. That is all.”

It was an unfamiliar feeling, as if he had lost his footing all of a sudden, but Fili recovered quickly. “Fine spirits too, as I see. Is that blue absinthe seal that my eyes see on those barrels already loaded?”

“What’s it to you?” the sorceress’ eyes narrowed and, as if by some unspoken command, the sharp implements behind her manifested themselves once again.

“Nothing,” Fili took a step back in a minor tactical retreat. “Only if I am to have my heart shattered, I should very much like to purchase one of those. You know, to soothe the pain.”

“They are not for sale. Already paid for and going to the Ceremony,” she gave him a Look that was more of a threat than the blunt tools she indirectly controlled.

Contrary to the popular belief Fili did have a self-preservation instinct. He just wasn’t very good at consulting it.

“Oh, I see! Only, I happen to know that the royal requisitioners are out of the invoice forms for these,” he said. “Something to do with the printing presses and a mucky contingent of ink, I believe. So that would make this little operation of yours technically… um, black market.”

The sorceress glared and Fili had to admit that the glare was rather impressive.

Still not completely sure he had the upper hand, he gave her his best dimpled smile, the one that made people drop things sometimes.

Finally the Fairy Godmother sighed, rolled her eyes, unceremoniously grabbed Fili by the elbow and pulled him away from the others. “There may be a way, but it doesn’t work well on young, hot-headed fools,” she hissed ominously once they were out of the earshot.

Fili nodded seriously, reassured that he was at least eligible. “Excellent.”

“The Spell of True Love. It will work regardless of whether you agree with your heart’s choice or not. People often overlook that last point.”

Fili nodded again.

“There is a price to pay.”

“I was expecting that.”

“For every moment you spend with your love when you first meet them, you will spend years and decades apart before you can finally be together.”

“… Years or decades?”

“A long time!  It’s not exact science!”

“Right, right. And how long do you consider to be a moment?”

“Seriously?!”

“This is quite important,” Fili protested.

The sorcerers spun on her heel and made to walk away.

“No, wait! I accept!” he decided on the spot.

The dwarrowdam stopped.

Turned.

Looked him up and down.

Fili, once more, withstood the scrutiny.

“Alright then,” she said finally and the Prince breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, truly. Now what do you need for your spell?  Some of my blood? A lock of hair? A black chicken to sacrifice at midnight?”

She stared at him again. It was getting unnerving. “Your heart is young yet, but kind and likeable enough for someone who might find that cockiness of yours charming somehow,” the sorceress said finally, making him feel strangely flattered. “But you’re also an idiot,” she finished.

“Er…” Fili was not used to this kind of treatment. “Thanks. Mostly. Now, about the contract –“.

“No contract,” she threw over her shoulder, now almost back to her wagon.

“No contract?!” Dwarves felt strangely unnerved when they didn’t have a piece of parchment in their hand which clearly defined each party’s roles and responsibilities. “But then how will I know?!”

“You just will.”

“But when?!”

“Soon.”

“How soon?! It would have to be at the ball at the latest, otherwise I fear even your magic won’t be able to make my uncle change his mind.”

Fairy Godmother calmly climbed to the seat of her cart full of contraband booze. “You’re going to have to trust me,” she told him by the way of goodbye and clicked on her ponies to walk on.

---

Dis got back home later than she expected.

By then the house was mostly asleep, including Kili, who had somehow slotted himself, legs and all, into an armchair in front of the fire. He’d clearly been waiting for her.

She paused to watch her son for a moment. He had a smudge of soot on his cheek and dark stains, probably of the same nature over the knees of his trousers. He looked exhausted and his knuckles were scuffed.

She sat heavily on the sofa opposite from him and stared into the fire for a moment.

This was not a life she had envisaged for her son. When she and Myori fell in love, both of them widows – she, once, Myori staggering three times – it looked as if life had finally slotted itself onto the right tracks.

They both had families of their own of course, but with all four boys between them grown and close to leaving home, it seemed like they could make it work. Dis finally took over her father’s brewery full time and Myori dived head-first into her fledgling alterations business.

It felt like they were living once again and there was laughter in the house even if every now and then teenage boys sparked into some new drama.

Little did she know that they only had three short years together ahead of them. Illness took her love and there was nothing Dis could do about it. It was then that she promised herself never to dabble in love magic again.

Love – she couldn’t remember any more why people craved to be loved so much. 

And now she was the only mother the four of them had left.

There was no backing out though, not when they all depended on her, not to mention all the families the brewery employed.

She wasn’t spending nearly enough time with Kili, and if she was honest with herself, that was the one thing that was eating at her the most.

He must have felt like an orphan at times, but he smiled for her all the same and did his best to be useful around the house. She knew he worked hard, perhaps harder than he should have, if Dori was involved. Dori, who was a perfectionist and had his own home for a time, but returned now to help her look after his two younger brothers.

Kili deserved better; they all did.

Dis sighed and licked her thumb so she could try and wipe the soot off Kili’s cheek.

“Wha -?” he blinked at her owlishly and stirred in his seat.

“Hey, there, Grasshopper. You should be in bed,” she smiled at him.

“Cooked you dinner. S’ on the stove,” he mumbled and returned the smile when she kissed the top of his head.

“Thank you. Now scamper off to bed.”

“No. I’ll sit with you.”

“Kili.”

Her son sighed dramatically in that peculiar way all teenage dwarves seemed to have, but obediently padded towards the stairs.

“Night, mum.”

“Good night, Kili.”

Dis didn’t move immediately. Instead she sat back for a moment longer and pondered the dubious problems of a princely life.

And then she blinked, as a terrifying thought gained momentum in her mind like a fully loaded cart with no breaks on.

---

Prince Fili made it back to his chambers just as the steps sounded on the corridor outside his door. Thankfully, this was hardly his first time sneaking out, so Fili kept a cool head: he kicked off his boots, ran his fingers through his hair and in one smooth move rolled under the covers.

“Fili?” his uncle peered into the room before approaching his bed.

Fili performed his best snore and tried to slow down his breathing.

Bed next to him dipped a little as his uncle and king sat on the edge of the mattress and moved to stroke Fili’s soft, golden hair away from his face.

“You must be exhausted from all the preparations,” his uncle’s low voice sounded in the spacious chambers. “Don’t you worry, sister-son. We will find you a worthy bride, I have taken all the right steps. In your position there will be times when she’ll be your only source of solace, so we’ll be sure to get it right,” he whispered, then tugged Fili’s fur-lined covers up to tuck his shoulder in.

Fili supposed that it must have been difficult, not having a child of your own, or a consort to share your life with. Thorin had had plenty of offers back in his time, but he’d always put the affairs of the kingdom first, until eventually the offers stopped coming. Fili was going to do it all in reverse: consort first, affairs of the kingdom second. Not because he was selfish, but because he thought that a good consort made for a brilliant king.

Blue eyes opened just as the door closed once again. “I have taken steps too, uncle,” Fili informed his chambers, before setting about pulling the rest of his clothes off and making himself comfortable.

---

Dis cast her runes.

She squinted, peering at the answer they formed.

“No,” she huffed, gathered them once more and cast them again.

Yes, the runes insisted.

Dis rolled her eyes and lit another candle. “Give me another option,” she demanded and cast again.

This time all of the runes bounced straight off the table, landing in a complete gibberish on the floor.

“Absolutely not,” Dis insisted with emphasis, focussing all her energy and causing the six candles around her to burn blue for a while. “Tell me.”

The runes, perhaps fed up with the stubbornness of dwarves, bypassed the subtle hints and suggestions and simply lined themselves into neat, straight lines of a name:

KILI

---

A lazy Saturday morning, some 6 days later found Kili fighting with his tunic.

“This is way too fancy, mum!” he whined, when his hair caught in the elaborate lacing around the neck.

“Nonsense, you have to look your best. It’s the Royal Palace, Mahal’s sake!” she snapped and helped him find the edge of the collar only to reveal the desperate state of his hair.

“Fancy clothes or not, I’ll be standing out like a sore thumb,” Kili huffed, but finally managed to fit all his various limbs into the right holes. “I don’t belong there! They probably won’t even let me in.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! The posters clearly invited everyone who wished to attend ‘with good will in their hearts and best wishes for the Prince’.”

The rest of the household was still asleep when Dis slipped into her son’s room with a little parcel in her hands – which was just as well, since they only had the one set.

The clothes had been made by Myori, as one of her most lucrative orders ever, and then returned for some petty reason or another. The tunic was a beautiful navy blue shade, embroidered in real silver thread, free-flowing from the waist down. The trousers were made out of fine, dark fabric and had a flattering cut.

Thank Mahal, although Myori would have wanted to alter it here and there, for the most part the clothes suited Kili great.

“But why do I have to go?!” Kili whined for the umpteenth time and attempted to sort out his hair, which only made everything worse.

Dis huffed and took a brush to it yet again. “It’s fate,” she told him once more, matter-of-factly, like the previous five times. “Besides, there will be free food and drink for all. All the high society, the great and powerful of our kingdom. Who knows, you might even find the love of your life there!”

“Amad…” he gently caught her wrist and half-turned to look her in the eye.

“You’re going, and that’s final,” she told him sternly, ushering him out into the corridor. “Come on, your carriage awaits!”

“My carriage?!”

“You’re taking the cart.”

“I can’t take the cart to a Royal Coming of Age Ceremony!! I’d rather walk!”

“Which I would approve of normally, if we had about 2 days to spare. But since we don’t, you’re taking the cart,” she practically shoved him up onto it. “Now then. Mind your language and manners, always remember who you are and – oh. You must return the cart by sunrise. My other orders do not stop just for a fancy dress party.”

“By – sunrise?! But that’s -”

“You’ll need to leave at midnight at the latest.”

“Mother!”

“Don’t you ‘mother’ me, young man!” She gave him a look, which seemed just a tiny bit too harsh to be believable. “Now off with you.”

After that she slapped the pony’s rear and suddenly Kili went from naught to twenty in no time at all.

It wasn’t until he made it to the next town over that Kili realised that with all the ushering, grooming and cajoling, he was still wearing his comfortable, worn house slippers.

---

Prince Fili was certain that his legs were going to fall off any minute now.

He’d danced twenty dances straight. A lesser dwarf would have thrown in the towel by now, grabbed the nearest fair-bearded, highly-accomplished, delightfully charming, brilliantly-intelligent, exquisitely-well-connected beauty and called it a day.

But not Fili.

Fili could, and would out-stubborn Thorin, who was widely regarded as the most stubborn dwarf in the land. It was a point of personal pride, honed over long decades of his childhood. So instead he stomped towards the ale station and poured himself an entire tankard of whatever happened to be on the tap.

He’d chugged down about half of it in one go, which deprived him of a view of one excellently-dressed, yet utterly befuddled dark-haired youth stumbling in through the main entrance.

Fili licked his moustache and threw a desperate glance at a hall heaving with excellent opportunities.

Then blinked.

His heart beat faster and if Fili believed in such nonsense, he’d swear that the room fell silent in that moment, the candles twinkled around them a little warmer, the air smelled sweeter and –

The lad, with an unerring instinct of his young and thirsty dwarven blood, zeroed in on the drinks station and strutted purposefully towards it, with every intention of drinking the house down.

He was coming towards Fili. For Fili. To save him from a love-less life.

The lad reached for an empty tankard, and Fili, like a seasoned battle commander that he was, made his move.

“Would you do me the honour of a dance?”

The dark-haired dwarf jumped and turned to look behind himself. Then to the sides. “What, me?!”

“Yes, you.” Fili cringed and then slapped himself mentally. “Forgive me, I’m being rude. I would have addressed you by your name, but I’m afraid I’ve missed it upon your arrival.”

“It’s Kili, actually,” the lad replied, head cocked to one side curiously. “And you are –“

“Prince Fili of the House Durin –“

Kili dropped his tankard.

“Excellent, now you have free hands!” Fili decided for both of them, practically threw his own tankard at the nearest servant and swept Kili right onto the dance floor.

---

“Oh, hell no!” Dis groaned, watching as a delicate silk ribbon, which up until a moment ago peacefully occupied one of the drawers of her dresser, now tied itself into a perfect, triple bow.

She yanked at one end, but it held. Beside her a candle flame turned blue.

Dis narrowed her eyes and breathed deeply. She supposed if she got her son this far, she’d have to get him the rest of the way too.

---

“You… look uncomfortable,” amused, but not unkind blue eyes watched him as they sailed across the sea of swirling couples.

“I wasn’t exactly planning on dancing with a Prince.”

Fili arched an eyebrow at him and Kili wondered if he’d said the wrong thing. “Would you have danced with any other dwarf?”

“Depends on the dwarf.”

That got him an incredulous smile and Kili stared at the dimples which peeked from behind a neat, honey-coloured beard.

He wasn’t prepared for the easy charm, strength and intelligence he saw. Something else underneath it all, quiet, but hopeful. He wasn’t prepared for the normality of it all. It didn’t feel like he met a Prince; it didn’t feel like he met any other dwarf either.

It felt like he met someone special, someone who might have been a friend if they had enough time together.

Kili swallowed, torn about what he should do next. He didn’t want to joke and flirt and try too hard to keep their conversation casual, when it simply wasn’t. Equally, he couldn’t very well plunge into any meaningful conversation, when they only likely had a few moments together.

“You look like you have questions,” Fili guided him gently, the same way he guided the movements of his body. “You should ask, even if only a couple. Otherwise you’ll forever wish you had.”

---

Thorin did a double-take.

Fili’s partner was beautiful and dressed in a way that spoke of pedigree, wealth and class. She was grace and poise itself, as they glided across the dance floor like they belonged together. They were also deep in conversation, real conversation, which was more than could have been said for any of Fili’s previous partners.

His nephew had been nothing if not courteous to all of the various assorted princesses and duchesses and ladies of appropriate breeding, and he’d danced with all of them in the pre-prescribed order, until Thorin was beginning to feel kind of guilty about the whole affair.

He knew Fili and he knew when he was being polite, but not invested. If he was honest, Thorin was expecting much more of a rebellion, so when Fili continued on his best behaviour, Thorin started to wait for the other shoe to drop.  

But now… now the whole thing was beginning to look like it had been worth it.

He watched as one song came to an end with Fili swirling his partner in a wide arc, which landed her in his arms, with her rich, dark brown hair sweeping around his neck like a shawl.

Their eyes locked for a moment, their chests heaving as they held on.

And then Fili disregarded his next ticket and guided the mysterious lady into another dance.

Thorin allowed himself a single smug grin and then ordered another shot of the excellent blue absinthe they were serving.

---

“I saw a fire moon once. It rose over the pass near Dunland. Huge! Red and gold it was, it filled the sky.”

Fili was drowning in expressive brown eyes. Right in that moment he wanted to see the fire moon too, with Kili. He could have listened to him for days, describing the smallest and biggest of adventures.

Then the clock chimed midnight and the magical tales stopped abruptly.

“Oh shoot, I have to go!”

“What, now?!” Fili whirled them to gentle stop around the edge of the dance floor.

“Yes, right now! Mum will kill me if I don’t return with the – ah, carriage – on time!”

“The – what?!” Fili blinked. That sentence didn’t make any sense.

“I’m sorry!” Kili threw him a pleading look and took off back towards the entrance, promptly disappearing in the throng of other guests.

“Kili!” Fili tried to follow, but was hampered by all those who spotted that he was finally free to engage once more. By the time he’d made his excuses and got outside, all he could see was Kili at the very bottom of the staircase –

- Tripping over his own feet and very nearly face-planting into the gravel of the front drive.

Kili waved his arms about and, through sheer witchcraft it seemed, managed to find his balance once again. Something flew off his person and he stopped to search for it briefly, but whatever it was, from his position Fili saw that it wedged itself high in a nearby hedge and got stuck there.  

He tried to run down to help, but he was too far away.

Kili threw a few choice words in the general direction of the staircase, which would have impressed the Mountain’s mining community, turned on his heel and stomped away, somewhat unevenly.

Around Fili, who was only half way down the grand stairs at that point, a thousand brilliant fireworks exploded, making him duck automatically and try to take cover.

And somehow in that moment Fili just knew.

But Kili was gone. For several dreadful heartbeats Fili felt horribly alone, left with an array of princesses, all of them completely disqualified by the lack of the right laughing brown eyes.

And then he remembered that he had had a plan. A brilliant plan, which so far had been executed flawlessly.

Fili moved. He had a shoe to find.

---

Thorin rolled out of the grand banqueting hall as soon as he realised that he couldn’t see Fili and his lady dancing anywhere.

This proved to be a bit of a challenge, since the floor decided to resist him, what with the copious amounts of blue absinthe he had ingested during the course of the evening.

Thorin snarled. He was the King, damn it; he had people for just such things! He called for Dwalin and together with his best friend and a loyal companion of many other such battles, they defeated the evil forces of gravity just enough to make it outside after his nephew.

---

Fili sat on the stairs and stared.

The shoe was – there was really no other way to put it – a worn, falling-apart, slipper. It was stretched, discoloured and if he was honest with himself, it didn’t smell too good either.

He held it cautiously at arm’s length and debated his options.

In all fairness, Fili wasn’t paying enough attention to Kili’s feet to be able to identify if it was the same sort of footwear as he had been wearing right from the start. He was certain however, that the brunet left sans one of his shoes and the slipper happened to be the only shoe available.

Perhaps it held some sort of sentimental value, like a treasured family heirloom, to be worn only on special occasions, Fili tried to reason with himself, when his uncle and the Head of is Personal Guard both barrelled down the stairs towards him in a slightly life-threatening manner.

“Well, where’d she go?!” Fili’s King and uncle demanded.

“She?!” Granted, Kli’s beard hadn’t grown in properly yet, leaving him with an adorable stubble, which made Fili want to run his fingers all over it, but that was an uncalled for remark.

“Oh, don’t play coy with me now, it doesn’t suit you. Your lady! Dark blue dress with silver bits. Dark hair – we are taking that one, I hope you agree. Now, what was her name? We shall send for her within the week.”

Fili hesitated. He wasn’t sure he wanted anyone being sent for on his account. Perhaps Kili didn’t want life in the palace at all. Perhaps he preferred his fire moons and the freedom that came with them.

“I don’t know. I didn’t catch it when she first arrived, and it seemed silly to ask for it later, when we danced” he lied smoothly, without batting an eyelid.

Thorin gaped.

Fili stood his ground, metaphorically. If he was going to marry the person he loved, he was going to do it because they loved him back and not on the orders of a King, damn it. Somehow. This was going to happen. He just needed to… aid his spell a little.

Thorin sat down heavily next to him on the stairs. “Do not fret, nephew. We will find her. At least we have this –“

He took the slipper from Fili’s hands and stared, mesmerised, at an exquisite, petite crystal pump which seemed to fracture the moonlight like a diamond.

Fili stared too, at a shoe which changed between one glance and another, and silently kicked himself for not having insisted on a proper contract when he’d had the chance. With a Sorceress no less!

He had no idea what the terms and conditions of this romance were.

---

Dis’ son arrived with the first rays of sunshine and missing one shoe. He looked exhausted.

“Well, how was it? Did you get to meet the Prince?” she issued a quick-fire round of questions.

Kili threw her a Look and in the warm, golden rays hitting his face at a low angle, he looked like nothing less than a King himself.

“Like I left a piece of me behind,” her son told her and slipped heavily off the wagon, throwing her the reins.

---

[gatheringfiki]

PSA: GatheringFiKi is back!

Hello, my favourite people!

If you've been with us for some time, following the mis-adventures of this little, but mighty fandom, or perhaps even taking part in them from time to time, you'll be delighted to hear that we are now in a position to resume normal service.

If you're joining us just now and wondering what on earth is going on - welcome! We are a small community focussed around the Fili/Kili pairing (and other fictional pairings fortrayed by Dean and Aidan), which has always traditionally ran frequent events to generate new content and encourage fan interactions.

Our activity was kinda suspended a year ago when our admin, @linane-art scampered off to travel the world for a year.

I have no idea why I'm writing this in 3rd person. Ahem, anyway - I'm back. And here's what I'd like to do with GatheringFiKi:

Firstly, I'd like to figure out how many content creators we actually have at the moment, since these folks are my audience. So if you are currently actively writing / creating artwork or edits in the Fili/Kili fandom, or plan on doing so in the near future, please REPLY TO THIS POST. Please also feel free to forward it to anyone who might want to respond.

Whatever else happens, there will be a 12 Days of Christmas event happening in 2023! I have no idea how many photosets I will actually be able to make before mid-November, but I'm aiming for at least a couple. It's such a highlight of every Christmas for me, I can't wait!

There may or may not also be some little prompts posted for Halloween this year. This would be about a week before the 31st, a very informal little event.

Whatever else happens, from now on, I would like to see GF becaome an amplifier for any and all new Fili/Kili content. Updates to your existing fics, new fics, artwork, edits, photosets, and not just the things 'worthy of recs'. ANY new Fili/Kili content - please submit or send us a link and we will re-blog, so it reaches more folks.

If we still have a decent number of creators, we will go back to running events. The plan would be to run a survery before the end of 2023 for you to pick your favourite events and run 3-4 of those accross 2024.

If we don't have creators, I will focus on delivering only the 12 Days of Christmas event annually and promoting any new FiKi content as above, based on the assumption that we're all reverting to focussing on our own works and posting them unprompted.

If you have any ideas, comments, or concerns about how this community could/should be ran - please let us know!

It's lovely to be back!

~linane-art

[hongtiddiez]

(please bear with me this is the most convoluted question known to man, but whenever you post for asks I can't help but want to scratch my weird lore theory itch, sorry not sorry)

So, like, the chomer's got fancy magic powers, right? And there were those photoshoots back during Treasure where each member had some kind of prop, right? And we've seen a couple kind of appear in other mv's like the telescope showing up in Answer, or Mingi's lines all coming through the radio in Fireworks when he was the one who had the ham radio as a prop. And, arguably, the candelabra Seonghwa has in the photoset and then the lantern he has in Wonderland. (I personally like to think that there are a couple other magic pirate artifacts already in play and its just that whatever they do hasn't been relevant to mention in the diary lore or the point of the timeline we're currently at yet).

I was just kind of idly thinking about how Hongjoong had a wand in that photoset, which hasn't specifically shown up anywhere again in that exact same form, (and quite frankly how in the heck they would ever work a wand into an mv)

and then I was like 'a wand is basically just a long stick, how would you adapt-... wait a minute'

a cane is also basically just a long stick. That he has in Guerrilla and Don't Stop, (and I know Don't Stop is not part of main canon and its own thing, but I love how they just spin slightly different AU flavours of their own lore as it suits them, and the cane in Don't Stop is.... kind of significant in the mv soooooo)

This was my crazily-roundabout way of asking if you had any thoughts/theories etc about Hongjoong and wands/sticks/canes, normal, magical, or otherwise and the lore

AAH LORE ANON YESS thank you for gracing my inbox its always a treat

so i kind of have weird theories on this? my friend [@pop-off-nabokov] and i were doing some Cromer Silvia conspiracy board theories one night and we realized something really interesting about trends in ATEEZ MVs and their themes in general.

so the captains symbol looks A LOT like like The Wheel tarot, a card that essentially breaks down the alchemical symbols of life (with EIGHT in the outer ring)

and then you have their entire last album theme The World

the wands could either be a reference to a 'of wands' tarot or the wand-like objects shown here in The World

and one of the big themes i noticed throughout Halazia is Hongjoong and Seonghwa play off each other in a theme of 'as above, so below' - Seonghwa is bathed in light and on the surface and we meet Hongjoong as Wooyoung gestures down and the camera pans downwards where Hongjoong, dressed in dark colors, seems to be a figurehead of a different gathering.

as for the lantern in Wonderland, well, i've got something for that too

The Hermit also depicts a lantern!

we also have...

Judgement

and...

The Fool - okay this one is a bit of a stretch but the pose is pretty spot on and the meaning of The Fool feels very lore!San (and really, all of the boys entering their journey in the Z World)

so i don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that ATEEZ features a lot of nods to tarot and perhaps some of the artifacts may be related to them in some way. now if they're magic like the Cromer or not? who is to say. i certainly would love to find out the looking glass allows you to see through the dimensions or something similar, or that the staff/wand has the same abilities as the breakers or who knows.

and if we want to be extra ridiculous about it, well, i hope this is at least good for a laugh

please always come to my inbox with any thoughts or questions. i hope my answers are always at least a little fun to think about.

[clonerightsagenda]

It is Wolf 359 day (also known as Christmas for some) and since I saw a stoat photoset on my dash I feel compelled to post about daemon hcs.

Eiffel - Word of God is raccoon, and it fits. The poor thing probably looks like she has mange during the season 2/3 timeskip, since there's no way astronauts are stuffing their daemons in spacesuits - they must have to go through some kind of pre-mission training to lengthen their range. They are not trained to get blasted lightyears apart though, rip. That's gotta hurt. Once he's recovered from his ordeal though I'm sure he takes advantage of their massively extended range to cause problems. There's no way I stole those donuts from the Urania's stores, commander! I was here in the comms room the whole time.

Minkowski - white-tailed eagle. This bird is found in Poland, and some versions of the Polish flag have a white eagle. It's also similar to but not exactly like a bald eagle - showing how Minkowski aspires to assimilate into Americanness but can't completely abandon her Polish heritage. Plus pilot = bird, it tracks.

Hilbert - rosencrantz-draws-things did a series of daemon paintings for the characters and while I don't agree with all their choices, I did like chameleon for him. He changes roles and faces when he needs to, whatever helps him survive.

Lovelace - The painting series I referenced gives her lioness, which I don't hate, although the logistics are a bit messy for a space station environment. Given the backstory I've envisioned for her I kind of want to spend more time reading about Puerto Rican fauna and get back to you on this one. How does the daemon situation work with her being a surrogate? Unclear but it sure keeps her up at night!

Maxwell - Ferret! The wonder twins have mustelid vibes to me, and I am always charmed by the story of the ferret who cleaned out the tubing of a particle accelerator.

Jacobi - Stoat to match Maxwell. They are the mustelid twins now. It just feels right.

Kepler - idk I don't care about him.

Pryce - Coconut octopus. Something a little bit unusual and unexpected, requires specialized care and upkeep, and octopi are extremely intelligent, with this species actively modifying its situation via tool use. She can carry him around in his own special tank.

Cutter - I never settled (lol) on anything for him, but given I like the idea of him bodyhopping (this has been thoroughly debunked by Word of God but oh well) I imagine that he keeps around the old body's severed daemon as a smokescreen. This leads to a very animated, lively guy with a strangely inert, unfocused daemon which makes him even more unsettling to everyone. He's impossible to read.

Hera - I saved her for last because she's a special case. When AI reach sentience a block of code just pops up in their programming, and that's their daemon. They're not physical in the same way humans are - why would their soul be? However, product testing indicated humans preferred to see something daemonlike, so customer-facing AIs get holographic projections of cute, non-threatening animals like puppies or songbirds. Hera has a bird until Hilbert takes her offline. When she comes back, she has control over the projection and can make it look however she wants. It's not actually her daemon but she can use it to express herself in a similar way, including projecting her humansona, which scares the crap out of people the first few times they see a random stranger on board.

Daemons in microgravity would be their own headache. I imagine crewmembers get velcro pouches on their uniforms or toolbelts sized for their daemons to keep them from floating away. Smaller daemons are preferable in the same way that there's a height range for astronauts - this is why I'm conflicted about Lovelace. Also, you know I am a #hater of 'daemon touching = sex' in AU settings and believe there are multiple kinds of intimacy, and spaceflight involves everyone getting real cool about a lot of stuff real quickly, so I think by season 3 Minkowski and Eiffel at least are hanging on to each other's daemons when they're out on spacewalks both for convenience and emotional support. (Eiffel is still stressed out about it but more because he is really bad at holding a raptor and scared of getting slashed by talons.) Hera occasionally perches her projection on their shoulders which again doesn't mean the same thing to her but gets the message across. If Jacobi is working on something fiddly Maxwell will be wearing both their daemons around her neck, and vice versa.

Bob does not appear with a daemon while wearing his Eiffel suit. The alternative would probably be more upsetting.

[accio-victuuri]

there are clowning materials/potential candies that i wanna look into and talk about no matter how improbable they are. then there are those where i’m just — do i even want to do this? lol. only because there is not much to go on and fueled solely by speculation. anyway, this is about the alleged camera gifted to xz ( by wang yibis babie ) and how he took it to milan with him.

i’m making this so i can refer to it if anything comes up in the future. the thing is, if you look at the vlogs/photos — ZZ is using his phone to take pictures and videos. there is nothing wrong that, most people use their phones and he has his team that will take the “content” who brought the equipment. but i just find it hard to believe that GG, a photographer, will not bring a camera? this is a dude who brings it for drama shoots ( for example ace troops ) and that’s at home. so what more for a trip like this. in milan. there are a couple of fan-photos/videos of him roaming around and we don’t see him holding a proper camera. surely there will be other content from that trip and let’s see if we find the cam but right now it seems like it’s non- existent.

this talk started with a made-up 🍉…

i’m saying made-up because all melons that read like this are. especially those that say “xx and xx have a good relationship” or “xx exercise alot”. if this was from a fake rumor house, i would be more inclined to have a positive take on it but it’s not. as i also said before, i don’t endorse this particular account cause they clearly post reliable work-related melons, anti posts and random stuff to get attention. point is, melon accounts are not friends.

anyway, this made some turtles think about last october when some where noticing the appearance of cameras in their promo pics/ videos. and comments came up of maybe it’s a clue that they are giving us. remember XZ didn’t do his usual birthday post last year, same with Bobo.

so now we’re like, why not look into it?

XZS posted very few photos of GG ( 2021-2022 ) with a camera and i can’t really tell what he’s using for p1 and p2. but i think this is the same one he takes with him @ drama shoots.

for the vlogs i found this, but they covered the brand. lol. and well the occasional polaroid cameras are also spotted in his vlogs.

i don’t see any concrete timeline of what cameras he has, i only remember his pd101 guesting and how fans were saying the camera he used is his own. it just never really came up, how many cameras do you have? hahahahahahaha!

In terms of MFW,

the main camera his team was using for photos and vlogs was Canon EOS body and of course the important thing are the lenses which they switch out. I think this was not the “gifted” one and more of something his assistant/photographer owns. 📷

my eye is on the camera he used for the tod’s photoset when he landed in Milan. It was still posted under XZS and they tagged Tod’s, but it’s not exactly a “business photoshoot” that will be released as a proper Ad. It is still work-related, but given the freedom to add his personal touch. popular guess is it’s a sony zv-1, which is a known compact vlogging camera that is good quality. it is a thoughtful gift for someone you know who loves to shoot his day-to-day life. it’s not too heavy or so expensive that you will be afraid to use it casually.

some are saying it might be provided by tod’s for him to shoot but i find that unlikely. they know he has his team. if they need to capture photos/videos of him, they will send their own. knowing how cared for he was by the tod’s team during his trip. and the important thing for a tod’s “ad post” is really the product. the clothes, bags and shoes. so why was this camera featured twice? is he showing it off? for what?

i checked the review and it sounds promising that i almost wanna buy one for myself 😂😂😂

it could be his own and he bought it himself. it is possible too ( by turtle logic ) that it’s “gifted” by wyb. who knows. as with all other candies, we can’t say for sure or confirm things. but for this one, i think we need more evidence and time. 💕

reference sources: one & two

[simlit]

5, 10, 13, 23 for you know, the usual two suspects!

How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want?

I'll answer for both at once since it's a similar answer. This comes as maybe no surprise in Taryn's case, but Yehl, I think, is just as equally driven, given the right circumstances. Once Yehl has the power not to take no for an answer, whether it be through his influence over Taryn, his eventual power as Celaedian, or his own growing self-confidence, he steadily starts to stand up for himself more and more. I think once he reaches full adulthood, one would be pretty foolish to try and stand in his way. To protect or keep what they love, these two would lie, steal, cheat or kill (depending on who needed killing), hands down lmao.

What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

I've had this idea in my head for years now, but never the time to even kind of conceivably work on it, it's called Last Train Out. A pseudo-30s/40s AU based on this old photoset I did wherein Yehl is a successful jazz singer and Taryn is a seasoned soldier about to be shipped off to war and they have this sort of dreamlike whirlwind romance before the separation. I do also have some early drafts of their modern AU, which more closely resembles the actual events of AoA, called Forevermore, and actually have some sets built and plans to post that one (maybe someday). But LTO I'm sure will never see the light of day so we can be sentimental about the might have beens ;)

If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

LOL. I'd love to say I'd get along with both of them, but given their high standards, I don' think they'd get along with me. At least they can both bond over their superiority complexes.

What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

Taryn - Empathy. Love being a close second, but I think he manages to bridge that gap as best he can. His "love" for Yehl might always be slightly different than your conventional idea of love, but is just as, if not more intense. Empathy, however, is not something he ever learns. He rarely feels remorse for others, though does feel guilt for the things he's done in the past that have directly caused pain or trouble for his own kin. But that comes more with his burden of responsibility as king, and if he was anyone else and not born to fill a role, I doubt he'd feel the same. He only outwardly protects the elves on Yehl's command, and later spares mankind out of sheer civility. Even with Yehl, he struggles to feel sympathy for his struggle, oftentimes using this knowledge as a means for manipulation, but he does have a fondness for Yehl's brokenness. Again, I don't think any of that is particularly healthy, but he is still a dragon and very much falls back into animalistic behaviors as a baseline nature. Yehl - Ah, this is so much harder. I'm going to say... isolation. Which is... he's not unaccustomed to loneliness, but he fears being entirely abandoned. This is a sentiment that expands rapidly upon meeting Taryn, but even when he was younger, he's always has someone to rely on. First his mother, then Nuuriel, Judine, and eventually Taryn himself. But because of what Taryn is, Yehl is constantly put in a position where he feels sort of... left out to dry, for lack of a better term. Taryn can only meet him halfway, and for most of act one, he doesn't even allow him that much. Ironic, considering I can safely say Taryn fell in love first, it's just that Yehl's emotions manifested faster and in a way Taryn couldn't understand or reciprocate. This breakdown in communication and behavioral differences causes them so much strife, and a lot of pain, mostly on Yehl's side. Just because he's literally standing next to the person he loves most and feels a thousand miles away.

[wolfchans]

your gifs are so nice! would you be willing to share your sharpening? and if it's not too much trouble do a quick rundown of your coloring process?

hi anon! it's no trouble at all, if it helps i'm happy to share <3

first i'd like to say that the size and speed of your gifs is key for the sharpen to look good! an incorrectly sized gif will look wonky on desktop (mobile is not very noticeable but desktop is where your gifs can potentially look bad if you size incorrectly) and same for slow-ish gifs, the slower your gif is the more the imperfections show so a correct speed hides the ugly parts lol

these are the standard tumblr photoset sizes

now with that out of the way i'm going to put everything under the cut bc it's probs going to be very long lol if you have any questions after reading all of this, do not hesitate to come back and i'll try to explain better!

okay! first i’d like to point out that i use an older photoshop, simply bc i like how they work lol i work on photoshop cs6 so to enable the same options i’m going to show you here you’ll have to have enabled the legacy option in the smart sharpen filters. 

my sharpen varies depending on my source material tbh here are some examples:

source material: music videos

i actually use mvs downloaded from vimeo but these take longer to be up bc the directors don't usually upload at the same time the video is coming out unlike youtube mv, so if i'm working with something from youtube i like to get the biggest format available, so 4k and if it's not available then 1080p will do

i like to do big gifs for mvs so thats 540px width, these are my crop settings (putting it like that i don’t have to manually resize to 540px after cropping bc it’s going to be already the correct size)

and my sharpen for these is this

and then i lower the opacity of it to 75/80%, double clicking here

this is the result: 

and my gif speed for mvs in particular is this 

looks very crispy and ready to color away!

source material: stage videos in .ts format 

for stages i like to work with .ts files since they are very high quality recordings of the stages and generally the gifs come out nicer. for stages that are from youtube the next part of this will probs help but this part will be focused on .ts files. 

i get my files from kpop24hrs which is invite only right now and invites are a bitch to get a hold of but if you have access it’ll make your life so easy when giffing stages, there’s also twitter to look up files! for stray kids the fastest .ts uploader on twitter is @/STEii_e but if you look up the date + stray kids + .ts the tweets will show! anyway, back to the important thing

for .ts files i work with AviSynth! my computer hates vapoursynth so i use it’s older sibling lol it does the work just fine for what i use it imo bc i usually end up sharpening on photoshop. if you’d like an avisynth tutorial, this is what i used to learn about it and if you’d like to try vapoursynth there’s tons of tutorials from tumblr if you google, the most complete one is from user realstraykids

i modified my avisynth processor for it to have a denoiser (which is a feature from vapoursynth) to have my gifs look a little more smooth but that effect can also be achieved using topaz tbh

these are the output settings i get on the resizer

like i said i modified some things to have a denoiser so it won’t look like this on a regular avisynth

using debilinear usually makes my gif already look a bit sharp, so if i see it’s good i don’t use a sharpen, if i see it need a little push i’ll use a smart sharpen of 500% radius and 0.3px amount, and i’ll use a gaussian blur filter set to 0,3 and i lower it’s opacity to 75/80%

results:

and my gif speed for .ts stages

now it’s all ready to color!

final source material: your regular youtube/twitter/vlive video

anyone that ever worked with a lq-ish video know how they just look ugly no matter how your try to sharpen, specially vlives and now channie’s rooms on youtube (*shaking fist in the air* damn you 720p videos!!) so i found a way to make them look decent, in this case i oversharpen using a 500% 0.4px smart shapen and then i slap a gaussian blur of 0,3 (lowered to 50% opacity) on top of it to smooth things out, more often than not it works very well but some videos are just plain bad (looking at you twitter) so this will work if you tweak the gaussian blur to your liking. i also recommend to work with small gifs if your video is not 1080p bc they’ll look better, but if you like pain like me and love big gifs this is what i do:

my results:

and my gif speed for these kind of videos

that’s about it for my sharpen tricks! 

for coloring i like to do vibrant gifs, i adapted my latest method from this and this, and another tutorial that i can’t find rn, but  for my base what i do is two curves layers, a levels layer to bring up darks, then i do a hue/sat to fix up colors, then i do vibrance and finally i selective color to fix things up. i’m going to show you on this binnie and minho gifs

first we use a curves layer and we set it on automatic (no worries if it gets too bright, we’ll be fixing as we go)

now we do a second curves layer, for this one we’ll use the black color picker from the curves layer and pick the darkest point on our gif

now we fix the darks and we bring some brightness with a levels layer

now we do a hue/saturation layer, here i fix up the reds and yellows, sometimes i skip it if the gif already looks good after the first 3 layers if that’s the case i go directly to the next step which is vibrance, in this case i only did minho in this step bc i felt like binnie’s was okay after the first 3 layers

now it’s the vibrance layer, for making the colors pop out more

and now the final layer: selective color! here we fix again red and yellows

that was my base coloring! sometimes i put in a gradient map in between the curves layers and the levels but only sometimes. after this if i want to mess around with colors i mostly go with another hue/sat layer or just use selective color, hue/sat is great for color manipulation. anyway, this is the finished result and my saving settings!

that was really long lmao, i hope it helps somehow? like i said if anything isn’t clear pls come back and we’ll go around it again <3

[eossa]

How I'd Make Tumblr More Profitable

Yes, this is going to be controversial, since I know nothing about the behind-the-scenes spending, economics, and all that jazz. But I've been on Tumblr for long enough to have a rough idea of the userbase wants - which is what positions Tumblr in a niche other sites don't really utilize. Most of the points I list here are about improving the experience of existing users, as keeping users might be harder for tumblr than attracting new ones.

Please note that this posts reflects my personal opinions and some stuff I've seen people complain about it. Do not attack me over anything I've written here, it's not worth my time and I will resort to blocking if I'm being bothered. Constructive criticism is fine and encouraged!

[under the cut because this got quite long] [last updated 20th July 2023]

Features to Add

Block posts. Xkit has/had this feature, it was great. Sometimes I just don't want to see a specific post, and others probably agree with that.

Send asks and replies from sideblogs. Would literally make a lot of things easier and better.

Delete individual reblog additions from a post. Sometimes, you have a post where there is one"relevant" addition, multiple "irrelevant" additions ("yes!", "[repeated phrase in bold]", "this is a must reblog"), before there is a "relevant" addition again. But right now, you can only remove all reblog additions, not just individual ones. I feel like this would be a neat feature.

Direct blocking of anon hate which also tracks the IP and blocks the associated account(s). No rights for cowards, that's all I'll say.

Features to Bring Back

Reblog chains. Prev tags are the backbone of lots of interactions on here. If I click on someone's username in a reblog chain, I want to see that post on their blog, not their blog starting from the newest post. The loss of this feature is one of the things people constantly complain about in the replies of @changes.

Several text formatting options. As a theme maker, it would be nice to have proper preformatted text again - it makes code so much more legible. Other formatting options I miss are marked/highlighted text and text lines, which are really helpful to visually break apart passages of text.

Features to Ditch

Tumblr Live. There I've said it. If I want to see stuff like that, I have TikTok, IG Reels, Pinterest Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Twitter also has something like this. It's oversaturated, and aparently there are still enough cyber security concerns that it's not even accessible outside of the US and Canada.

Ads in lightboxes. Especially on mobile, there are already more than enough ads on the feed, no need to add more nested inside other elements.

Features that Make Money

Pay for NSFW. If this site allowed full nudity etc. again but hid it behind a paywall, we'd kill two birds with one stone: The site would probably still be allowed on the App Store, and the money influx would be huge. The userbase would also increase again.

(If Tumblr Live is kept.) Pay to snooze Tumblr Live permanently. It's the most complained about thing in changes' replies, so I feel like people would pay on a subscription base just to not see TL anymore.

Pay to increase limits. 250 posts per day is the maximum that can be posted - and there are people hitting those limits. If there was an option to buy a higher limit (500p/d, 750p/d, etc.), people might generally use it. Like those add-on charges for mobile data. Same goes for posts in the queue, posts in drafts, images in a photoset and so on.

Pay to pin posts at the top of a tag or search result. Ebay Kleinanzeigen has this neat feature where you can push your small ads to the top of a search query so that more people can see it. This could be a cool feature to try, as it would work in a more content-aware way than Blaze does.

Pay to buy inactive URLs. There are some really cool usernames on here that are taken by blogs that haven't updated for 5+ years and only have one post (or none at all), and I feel like it would be neat to be able to buy one of these cool usernames attached to an empty account. To make sure that usernames attached to redirect or something else don't get bought, tumblr should send an e-mail to the username owner - if the user doesn't react to that for 3 months, the usernames changed owners. [added 13th July 2023]

Existing Features to Improve

NPF posts. I feel like a combination of legacy and NPF would be neat. Think selecting a main element like in the legacy editor (e.g. video, image, audio) and then adding a caption that can add different content types like NPF does. Or at least create a better overview over NPF variables and release the full base code with documentation to make things easier for the web designers on here. There are more issues with the NPF format but I won't list everything people dislike about it here.

Block people. The block feature should make sure that the person being blocked doesn't see any posts made by the person they were blocked by, even if those posts were reblogged by another user. Also, like IG does, there should be an option to block either just a specific blog or the IP address attached to block side-blogs and other accounts of that user.

Color palettes. The color palette options for the dashboard are generally a nice idea but I think it would be better if there was a dropdown menu to choose a palette from rather than having to click through all the different options. For example, if I want to go from Cement (light mode) to Dark mode, I have to click through 10 options until I reach Dark again. There has to be an easier way. [added 20th July 2023]

Other Improvements Needed

Nuke spam bots. Users are reporting all the spam bots, yet, it doesn't seem like they are dwindling in numbers. Also - at least this is how it's being perceived by the userbase - tumblr isn't doing enough on their end to reduce spam bots. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed.

End hateful and criminal activities. It's the year 2023, yet there are still outright N*zis, violent tr*nsphobes, literal p*dophiles, and other people committing to the daily bit of hate speech and other illegal activities (fraud too considering all those fake GoFundMe sites) on this website. I'm not saying free speech should be banned but there is a bright red line between what is free spech and what is hate speech (or should get you jailed considering fraud and p*dophilia).

A through-out, perhaps even interactive, beginner tutorial. "The site is too complicated to use for new users!" – then explain how it works in easy terms, with examples, images, and videos. Every other application or web app has walk-throughs, just do the same here.

Improved ad relevancy. The ads I see on tumblr are usually so out-of touch with the userbase, and many of them feel like the sort of stuff you see on a spam-ridden torrenting site. I feel like increasing the relevancy of ads to what the users usually blog about would cause a higher click-rate and turn-over-rate than the current ads do.

Summary

There is probably more I could add, but that's it for now. Should I make any later additions directly to this post, I will mention it to prevent misunderstandings. If you have any ideas or constructive criticism, let me hear about it in the replies or reblogs of this post.

[gayseyjones]

You guys don't fucking understand how painful it is for me when you use this image because I used to be hyperfixated on the Minecraft roleplay YouTube series it's from and the history behind it is fucking wild. it was produced by a company named blujay studios owned by the yter aphmau (who also goes by Jess) and her husband Jason. The main characters of this Minecraft roleplay, aphmau and aaron, are their self inserts. Aaron is the guy in this photoset. Jess and Jason's marriage was in fucking jeopardy because Jason decided to base the seasons villain off Jess' real life abusive ex and have him abuse her self insert aphmau. One day over half of the blujay studios staff was fired and no one knows why. One of the employees later said they got PTSD from working for them. from working on a Minecraft roleplay. mithzan max, a minecraft youtuber who worked with jess before he quit, tried speaking publicly about his bad experiences but couldn't because he was approached by her lawyer. also aphmau and aaron started dating in this series when aphmau was a freshman and aaron was a senior. jess and jason have stated multiple times their love story is also based off their real life love story so some people think jason might've groomed jess. I actively watched all of this happen and now I'm fucking haunted by it every time you guys use this image and it's hilarious

[effervescentdragon]

Unusual Fic-Specific Asks for Authors

All To Another Heart | A Thousand Words

In The Reflection | Time After Time | 2030

Gravitational Currents | BTS

love how i literally had to google every one of these to see which fic it is xD love you <3 !!!

Main concepts in a photoset for All To Another Heart (aka girl!Charles/TP!Seb)

---

Timestamp - 2030 (ish) for In The Reflection (aka engineer!Charles)

"How you still don't know to tie your tie properly, mi amor, I will never know. It has been over ten years since you started wearing suits."

Charles raised his head from where he was fumbling with the tie and met Carlos' eyes in the mirror.

"That is why I keep you around," he replied, lines around his eyes making him somehow even more handsome than he was when Carlos first saw him, decades ago, wet in that pool in Singapore. "Now will you..."

"Yes, sí, of course," Carlos said and stepped closer, winding his arms around Charles' shoulders to help fix his tie. "I cannot have people say I don't take care of you, letting you go with a crooked on stage tonight when you receive the trophy."

Charles' cheeks reddened in the same way they always did, but the happiness radiating from him was all too evident.

"I may not even go to the stage," he tried to say, but Carlos just huffed incredulously, making quick and steady work of Charles' tie.

"You are responsible for the Championship-winning car, mi amor," Carlos said, leaning close to Charles' ear and enjoying the was it made Charles half-close his eyes. "You are definitely going on stage." He paused. "Besides, if you don't, I'm sure Arthur will just pull you up with him."

Charles' laughter was still Carlos' favourite thing in the world, second only to the feel of Charles' kisses. He counted himself the luckiest man on Earth, to have both in the span of seconds right there and then, as Charles turned around to face him, beautiful and happy and Carlos'.

---

Director's commentary for Gravitational Currents (aka TMDF sequel)

okay so. my favourite passage in this one has to be the inner monologue charles has about seb and pierre and ferrari and red bull. it's a huge italicised passage and i just remember writing it in one go, and pourin all the frustration and most of my own thoughts into it, because some things are just bigger than words, bigger than can be explained. charles is the definiton of unreliable narrator, always, and the world, through his eyes, looks much different than we would expect it to look. everything he does comes back to racing, and its so profoundly connected to ferrari that it's impossible to extract one from the other. on the other hand, we have his love for pierre, and it shows how he can separate certain things in his head, but only if it comes to outside interference. he needed seb, but he let pierre have him as someone to turn to, because he recognized that there are some things he doesn't, and will never be able to understand. his hurts are different, and he needs to seek someone who understands, but he also feels like nobody can truly understand him. for pierre, though; he went through a different path, and charles doesn't know what it's like, to be red bull. he'll never understand the ruthlessness you need to develop to survive in their young drivers' programme, and how much it takes from you, but he recognizes it in pierre and recognizes it in seb, and knows he has nothing to compare it to, so he lets them be, no matter how much he would wish to be there and to help. his pain is blood red, ferrari, and it was never anything else. he doesn't see the blue of the red bull as anything other than external, and he can't relate. so he stepped away, and it hurt him, but that hurt, he internalized, and muddled, and can now deal with, like everything else - by painting it over and making it his, in a very fucked in the head, unreliable way. idk if that makes sense :)

[chipped-chimera]

Okay since I'm actually awake now, (proper) HAIR UPDATE! ❤️🖤❤️

I wanted to add this onto my post from last night but tumblr hates reblog photosets. Anyways I was very aware that posting my V in the darkest corner of an apartment with black hair wasn't really ... showing anything - but it was very much her vibe and that's been the point of this entire project, buckling down and learning Blender from nothing, reverse-engineering mods and systems I was only NEW to about a month or so ago so I could figure out how to bring 'back' her hair, but like ... even more how I wished it was.

And it's finally done (well ... structurally).

More development rambles beloooow ~

I'm not releasing this (yet) as I'd now put myself in 'polish' phase, where I'll be tweaking some physics and other stuff like the vertex painting which influences the shine - brighter hair colours look a bit too blown out at the moment, and I'm not sure if this is because it's too shiny or because of my custom normals (may have to tone them down a bit, idk). You can see what I mean below -

Shadows are also behaving oddly at certain angles, and I wasn't sure if it was a harsh lighting situation but upon changing the lighting up ... no. Something weird is going on. So that'll need troubleshooting (for lighter colours at least). Also some textures just are acting weird on certain parts when I don't think they should look that way so yeah ... more ... troubleshooting ahead. :V

I'm also going to look into if there's something I can do for the 'efficiency' of this mesh because I noticed some pretty severe frame slowdowns taking close up shots - though only sometimes?? Not sure what that was about at all. I'm assuming it's my gpu being pushed harder as I get closer to the hair, but upon changing the hair in the character creator to another and then back it just went away again? So no idea what the hell was going on there. It felt a bit almost like a memory leak, but I didn't do a check to see what my system was doing so I'll have another look if it happens again.

Possible (hypothetical) causes:

Could be texture size, these hair cards have 2k textures apart from the alpha (4k) which is double vanilla textures so that is also a possibility as a fix (though I'd be loathe to do it).

Double rigs. I noticed last night when in my rigging phase with UUH4V that reducing it from three meshes and rigs to TWO meshes and two rigs significantly improved framerate lag (I mean it was minor but noticeable enough) in the character creation screen, so it could hypothetically be something to do with calculations of running two rigs at the same time. If that is the case, I could probably just rig this to the Alt hair rig. Currently I'm using Alt's for the back and left side of the hair, whereas the fringe at the front and the curl over the shoulder is rigged to Old Rogue. I'll probably still keep using UUH4V just … one rig only.

Last in the list? Hair cards. There are a lot. Maybe too many. They're also of a higher poly than last time. That said I've looked at other mods with heavier polycounts than mine (what gave me the courage to push further in the first place after my very low poly attempt 1.0) that caused more obvious frame slowdown in just the character creator alone. I feel there is still a minor slowdown currently but it's on the edge of noticeable (like, 30fps vs 60fps). As it goes though, this is still pretty insanely efficient (thank YOU Hair Tools for Blender).

BONUS: Mods. Other mods. The thing I use to hook in a DLL for pose control. Could always be that?

So uh, guess that's what I'll be working on. I don't know how much time I should be spending on getting this 'frame efficient' considering anyone using this would be primarily be for screenshots, and given the specs I'm currently running (AMD Ryzen 5 CPU and an RTX 2060) are being re-classed as the 'bare minimum' with Phantom Liberty coming out, and I am planning on upgrades to my PC anyway.

We'll see? (Though in my heart of hearts, I have have had potato PCs for years and I want to support the lowest specs I possibly can). I dunno let me know what you think about that one as a possible mod user (and someone who actually reads these, wow).

Anyways all that matters is jesus christ I finally did this. I taught myself hair. From scratch.

Promised tutorial ... soon. After I maybe do nothing for a few days lol.

[gatheringfiki]

The following ficlet was written by @i-am-still-bb​ based on this photoset.

Fili/Kili, Teen

You might also be able to read this story on AO3.

If you’ve enjoyed this story, please leave a comment either in replies or on AO3. :)

The House at the End of the World

—

Darkness came with the first falling of snow. 

Here, in the cabin at the end of the world, the darkness did not leave and neither did the snow once they fell. Both were His constant companions until the first glow of sunlight peeked over the southern horizon in a few months’ time. The dark quiet of the world was beautiful and harsh in equal measures just like He was. 

He welcomed the light and warmth of the sun because it meant rest,  but he did not relish what else it brought.

When the first rays of sunlight appeared in the sky the white streaks of light that fell from the heavens and shook with His footsteps disappeared. When He left He took all the souls of the dead and departed that had gathered in the months of darkness with Him. The earth trembled when they left and awaited their return over the long months of abundance and life.

But gathering those spirits who lingered did not occupy all of His time. He oft wandered the woods and homes of the living to pass the time until found one who caught His gaze. After that when His work was done He would seek out the cabin by the stream with its bright warmth and its white washed walls. And there He would pass His time with the man who had halted His steps. Together they lingered long in the bed of white linen and endless time, fingers playing on hair, tracing the edges of His wings, sliding over smooth skin.

They did other things as well. The man brought traditions with him and together they sought out an evergreen tree and brought it inside and covered it in decorations that shimmered white and silver in the firelight. It reminded Him of snow gracing the branches of pine trees in the forest as He went about His work. 

There was the year that the small white cat joined them. How the kitten had survived and made it into the depths of the deep northern forests He would never know. But now the cat, Senka, as the man had named her, traveled to the cabin each year in a basket lined with furs in the back of the man’s wagon. Once there she received treats, head rubs, and ear scratches from them both.

That wagon changed over the years. First it was drawn by oxen, then horses, then no animals at all. Now it was a shiny silver car with stars emblazoned on the front. Right now it was tucked beneath the wide boughs of a pine next to the cabin. Time passed, but neither of them remarked upon it. The man developed a silver streak in his hair, but age did not touch him in any other way; His hair paled from a bright gold to something more tame. And so time passed for them both. They never spoke about how it was His job to keep lives short and what He did when he left that cozy cabin His face grim and his jaw set. 

Those were nights where he had to carry out His tasks. He took a mighty sword in hand; His eyes glowed blue; He spread his wings and went in search of those who resisted the call of their eternal sleep. He found them in all kinds of places; the dark northern woods, the warm cities of the south, the streets of cloud covered islands. When He found them He reached out His hand, skin turning dark and bones glowing through His epidermis. Some would cower, some thanked Him, and then there were those that resisted. Those He had to strike down to protect the order of the world and keep the wheel turning. 

They all left the world in the same way, a flash of light—white, green, or blue. And then they waited for the rising of the sun when they would be ferried into the next world when He left this one until the darkness returned once more. Then He would set his eyes on Home and the love waiting there for Him. 

When the warmth on the southern horizon became more than just a sliver they started saying their goodbyes. Neither of them used the words, but touches lingered, kisses were more urgent, neither wanted to be the first to get up in the morning or the last to go to bed. They never said goodbye in so many words, because it wasn’t really goodbye. The man would watch the sunlight increase and then fall again with the anticipation of going back to the cabin to wait for the end of the world when they would never be parted again.

[tavina-writes]

Intro?

Hi! I'm Tav! (known to some of you more commonly as Leaf). Also for clarity, I've been Tav for the past ten years, so I was here first or something. I'm a part time plant on the internet, who is currently doing a PhD in Plant Biology. My educational training is in the agricultural sciences so I occasionally reblog stuff about that as well. The agricultural training is why I'm a plant btw. My plantsona is a Golden Barrel Cactus bc I Commit To The Bit. If you ask me how I can type on the internet I will tell you its magic!

I occasionally write fic on ao3 here and mostly reblog whatever I come across that's grabbed my attention. You can find what I'm writing/working on by checking out my writing which should be relatively up to date.

I also do multifandom exchange which is really cool! Feel free to send asks re: multifandom exchange related stuff!

Right now my fandom of interest is CQL/MDZS. This is a Nie Brothers stan blog which is probably how most of you (who don't know me from other places already) found me? I think? If that's not the case WELCOME. Here we love and support NHS (blorbo) and NMJ (Da-ge).

Edit: as of about 6/5/24, loch posting without end due to the imminent drop for Legend of Heroes

HOWEVER while I don't always Naruto on main, I am a plant who has been writing Naruto fic for like, 6+ years now so occasionally there's Naruto on main. That's how it is here.

A list of relevant tags that I keep for blog organization:

art by friends - when I originally started reblogging art to this blog ages ago, this was mostly populated by reblogging the art of friends, which is why my general art tag is now "art by friends" even if I don't know the artist bc it FEELS WEIRD to have a "art by friends" and "art by strangers I don't know on the internet"

writer memes - where I keep my collection of pain inducing memes about writers that I relate to. Other writer related stuff can be found in: writer stuff, writer woes, or fandom stuff.

laugh rule - not necessarily memes, just stuff I laughed at that I can be counted on to have a good time looking at again.

tav watches cdrama - my running list of gifsets/cdrama rambling from dramas that I have watched/am currently watching!

meta and my meta will have related things that are meta that I either want to engage with or that I wrote. Some of it probably doesn't actively belong in meta but it became too serious a shitpost for me to like, not put it there.

I will occasionally reblog hanfu under a variety of tags! Your best bet is probably to search my blog for hanfu, women's hanfu, hanfu accessories, or aesthetics to find photographs of people posing in GREAT clothing. Aesthetics also includes photosets of cool places that I like.

I have a large running list of relationship tags that are simply too numerous to keep a list of so I won't edit this post to include them bc it's too hard sorry.