#otp: tallahassee

[ljf613]

SwanFire for your ship game 👉🏻👈🏻🥹

Haven't answered a Swanfire ask in a while, this should be fun.

Just off the top of my head, I'd have to say...

Neal’s the werewolf and Emma’s the hunter

Emma’s the mermaid and Neal’s the fisherman

Emma’s the witch and Neal’s the familiar

Neal’s the barista and Emma’s the coffee addict

Neal’s the professor and Emma’s the TA

Neal’s the knight and Emma’s the princess

Neal’s the teacher and Emma’s the single parent

Neal’s the writer and Emma’s the editor

Ask me about my ships!

[elizabethbennets]

“I don’t meant to upset you, Emma, but I think we make quite the team.”

OKAY SAY LESS

[mccallhero]

favourite otp meme: captain swan

[1/4] episodes: tallahassee (2x06)

[fearforthestorm]

How is 'no children' misrepresented and what is it actually about? <- genuinely curious and likes people ranting about things like this (and only really knows about the 'hand in unlovable hand' line though maybe that's part of the problem(?))

oh god okay so. how much tmg lore do you want because if we want to get into no children we're gonna get into the alpha couple and they've literally been present in the music since the very first tape ever released under the name the mountain goats over 30 years ago. actually yknow what it's 2am I don't want to mess things up I'll just give you this:

that's the backstory that's what no children is about. the song is so named because (paraphrasing a quote) "if there's one thing I know about this couple it's that the world will be better for it if they never have children". and here's the thing is that no children is a REALLY cathartic song I don't fault people for enjoying it and god knows that it's fun to belt at concerts but it is NOT a love song. it is not a song about a relationship that is in any way good or stable or healthy. it is about a couple that are bad for eachother and for everyone around them and should get divorced but are never going to because filing those papers is a few hundred bucks and you can buy a lot of alcohol with that money. please understand that: they aren't a tragic mutually doomed couple who despite that love each other. they are actively dragging the both of them to their graves because they're too far in to turn around now. they've been drinking for decades like it'll fix their problems and it never will and things only ever get angrier and louder and more destructive and worse so they just keep fucking digging the graves they've been digging since the beginning. first rule of holes is stop digging second rule is that once you do you're still in a hole but they're never even gonna get the first one and they sure as hell aren't ever going to acknowledge that they're in a deep deep hole much less would they try to get out. no children is about wanting the worst for yourself and your better half because it's the only way you can see any of it ending. no children is slinging insults across the living room several drinks deep into the evening at the person you married and realising that you fucking mean it when you say you hope it all goes to shit and takes the both of you down with it.

no children isn't the tragic otp. no children says "I hope I lie and tell everyone you were a good wife" and "I hope when you think of me years down the line you can't find one good thing to say / and I hope that if I found the strength to walk out you'd stay the hell out of my way" and it means every goddamn word when it says them. and I know people like "hand in unloveable hand / and I hope you die / I hope we both die" but they ALWAYS use that quote in a "it doesn't matter if we're unloveable because we're hand in hand" kind of way and that's just completely fucking wrong. if you're going to use no children for your blorbos fucking commit to it, they better be a couple that is genuinely entirely going to bury each other alive for the sheer goddamn fact that they would rather die than try to stop digging.

anyway. go listen to Tallahassee (album) because it is genuinely extremely fucking good and no children probably isn't even in my top three songs from that album.

[ljf613]

“Be careful with that one, love He will do what it takes to survive.”

You have torn it all apart, I’m watching it burn…

requested by anonymous

[heretolurkandnothingmore]

tag game time! 5 current favourite songs.

big thank you to 3 of my wonderful mutuals and treasured friends, (@cottonraincoat @willameena and @kingdomvel) for tagging me! you guys rock.

picking just five was a riddle and a half, so i elected to leave out the musicals and anything that's in russian. just let me know if you want the other (russian) list :D

i extend the invitation to @yourfavoritefridge, @piecesofeden11, @palfriendpatine66, @virahaus and @dreaminghour. have fun, dear ones)

now, in no particular order:

1. the oh hellos - soap. here representing the folk part of my playlist, filling in for the crane wives and of monsters and men. this song is a comfort. it's a midday drive on a long empty road with the windows open. it's dandelions breaking through the pavement in spring. basically, if you want a song telling you you're loved, look no further.

choice lyric: "all the things we've broken can be puzzled again and again."

2. mother mother - until it doesn't hurt. hello fellow shut-ins! did you just discover you haven't seen the light of day for three days? me too! and this song is just the thing to make us feel better about it. careful, side effects may include: feeling like you're in a kick-ass movie about revenge, getting goosebumps from the chorus, being inspired to write a new character. ok, that last one may just be me. but the song is still pretty good.

choice lyric: "i wanna fight, i wanna bite, i wanna swallow all the light"

3. the mountain goats - sax rohmer 1, here representing the lo-fi end of the spectrum. i have recommended tallahassee the album on this blog twice already, so today we're picking heretic pride. as a wise youtube comment once said, "the affection of no creature is left unrepresented in their songs" - this one is for those of us gritting their teeth through every day of all of this.

choice lyric: "all roads lead toward the same blocked intersection"

4. fall out boy - headfirst slide into cooperstown on a bad bet. time for a little guilty pleasure! i was torn between this and the killers or panic at the disco. the battle has been won by this beautiful earworm. perfect fit for when you need the music to just wash over you and drown out the rest.

choice lyric: "i don't just want to be a footnote in someone else's happiness"

5. daughter - run. and the final one, here for all the other sad songs, having won over placebo, amigo the devil and florence of florence and the machine. i dare you to imagine your otp to this one - it's hard not to!)) good pick for those evenings when you need a singer to cry with you.

choice lyric: "i won't tell my mother, it's better she don't know. and he won't tell his folks, 'cause they're already ghosts"

[ljf613]

Swanfire Week Day 1: Parallels

"Mike, what do you remember about my dad?" At Neal's apparent non sequitur, the mechanic blinked. "Because what I remember is sneaking out of my room at night to sit at the top of the stairs and watch him sew." "Sew?"  Michael scratched his head. "Look, Neal-" "Dad spent hours at the shop every day, working his rear off," Neal said, ignoring the interruption. "He had a lot of debt, and the only way he could afford to pay it off was to work every free moment he had. But he never opened the shop until after I'd gone to school, and he was always closed by the time I got home. When I was there, so was he. And if that meant working late into the night after I was already in bed to make up the difference, that's what he did." "That's very nice, but-" "Michael, my dad wasn't perfect," said Neal, shaking his head. "He was stubborn, and old-fashioned, and much stricter than any kid would have liked. But at the end of the day, none of that mattered. What mattered was that he was there."

- Excerpt from “Not My Homeland Anymore”, Chapter 8: “Though I Can't Recall Your Face”

After an earthquake shakes things up, Neal (and Henry) try to help two lost kids find their dad.

A belated entry for @mysteryandnonstopfun's Swanfire Week. (As always, this one's for @swanfireprincessmydear-- this story would not be anywhere with out you.)

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2]

[sassyandclassy94]

Another commission of young SwanFire this time from Erica Buckmaster. I love them so much!!!

[ljf613]

No words appear before me in the aftermath Salt streams out my eyes and into my ears Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea

what could've been, would've been you

[totalmadncss]

Once Upon A Time Discovers Social Media + SwanFire

[ljf613]

are you ever finishing your swanfire fic? it's one of my favorites.

Absolutely! In fact, I just updated it!

[fatimagic]

if i had a nickel for every time my otp were two outcasts who fell in love under criminal circumstances and then planned their happy ending by running away together only for person a to abandon person b at the last minute because someone told person a that person b would be better off without them and person a was so terrified and insecure that they believed them only for said otps to have an inevitably emotional reunion after their forced time apart

i'd have two nickels but it's insane that something that specific happened twice

[ljf613]

In the middle of the night, in my dreams I know I'm gonna be with you

knew I was a robber first time that he saw me…

[sassyandclassy94]

SwanFire Appreciation Week Day 6: Actors AU or Social Media AU

[punkpirateprose]

emma: *yanks hook by the hair and holds a knife to his throat*

my head: 🎶i think it must be true love, true love🎶

[emmaandneal]

It’s been 8 years since Tallahassee aired.

Emma and Neal mean so, so much to me, and are such an important part of my life. They literally changed my life, and I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for Swanfire. I started watching OUAT when I was 12, and it was my first introduction into a fandom. I found OUAT at a time when I needed it most; I was feeling lost and lonely and like I didn’t belong, and I loved OUAT from the first episode - it was a show about the lost being found, of family and finding home - but when Neal was introduced, it truly became magical. I shipped Swanfire from the moment I watched Tallahassee, back when it was still only Swan Thief. Swanfire was my first ship and my first heartbreak. My entire world revolved around them for 2 years, and they were literally all I would think about. I remember watching Tallahassee for the first time and realising how much they were meant to be together. I remember the wait to Manhattan and seeing their reunion and Neal meeting Henry. I remember watching Second Star to the Right and crying over their declarations of love for each other, then seeing Neal fall through the portal. I remember how hard Neal fought to get back to Emma and Henry (multiple times), and all the sacrifices that he made to get there. 

After Neal died, I stopped watching OUAT. In fact, I stopped interacting with it all together. I stopped reading fanfiction, I stopped watching fanvids on YouTube, I stopped looking at edits, I stopped scrolling through the tags on tumblr. I felt like my world had ended. I felt sad all the time; I cried everyday for two months because I was so upset over not only Neal’s death, but the death of the thing that had bought me so much comfort when I needed it most. It sounds dramatic, but I was 14 and had devoted my life to this show and this couple for almost 2 years; I literally thought about them pretty much every second of everyday since November 4, 2012. I didn’t look at Swanfire/OUAT content for years after that. It hurt too much. It wasn’t until this year that I rekindled my love for them. It had always been there, but I needed to fuel it. I rewatched the first two seasons and felt so nostalgic. It bought back all those old memories, and reminded me what the show once was: a story about family and home, of well-developed characters and good writing and plot lines that made sense. I realised that I could enjoy OUAT for what it once was, and I realised that there were so many other people who were angry at the wasted potential of both Swanfire and the show. It made me feel less alone. 

To the two lost children who found a home with each other, who were kindred spirits, who were poetic and tragically beautiful and who were destined to be together - you mean so much to me, and you will always be in my heart. Thank you, for everything.