#primary and made this gifset

[bylrndgm]

the more we know the less we show.

@bylerween2023 | day iii | october, 28th ↳ prompt: will's possession ⨠ concept: primary by the cure [insp]

[hbowartournament]

Poll Stealing

how it works:

Fic Writers:

Post a fic (or piece of fic) of at least 100 words to ao3. The pairing of your choice must be the primary relationship tag (romantic or platonic).

Link your fic here, tag it #hbowarsteal, and dm me. If your piece is part of a larger, previously published fic, please include the word count of the new chapter.

Earn .1% for every 100 words, rounding to the nearest hundredth

Fan Artists:

Post your fan art to tumblr, tag it #hbowarsteal, and dm me

Earn .5% for a sketch, 1% for linework, and 3% for a fully rendered piece

Earn 3% per page of a comic + an additional .5% per figure

AMV/Fanvid editors:

Post your video to tumblr, tag it #hbowarsteal, and dm me

Earn .3% per 10 seconds

Photo/Gifset Editors:

Post your photoset/gifset to tumblr, tag it #hbowarsteal, and dm me

Earn .1% per edited photo and .5% per gif/collage. Only unique base screenshots/gifs will be counted within a single post.

Fanmixers:

Post a link to your new spotify or apple music playlist, tag it #hbowarsteal, and dm me

Earn .1% per five songs and an additional .3% if you design the cover or tracklist

Web Weavers

Post your web weave to tumblr, tag it #hbowarsteal, and dm me

Earn .3% plus .1% for every screencap included and .5% for every gif made for the weave

These rules will be linked on every poll so they're easy to find. Submissions close at midnight one week from the end of tumblr polls.

Have fun! 💕

[secretmellowblog]

Another spicy hot take nobody wants to hear: tumblr is dying partially because Gifs are a terrible file format, and short mp4 videos are objectively superior. TikTok users scrolling through short videos are not all that different from tumblr users scrolling through posts of gifsets. The “TikTok sludge” content where multiple videos play at once in one post is very similar to the “tumblr stimboards” where multiple gifs loop in one post. Despite being a dedicated tumblr user and TikTok hater I acknowledge facts.

But as someone who has made lots of animated gifs and mp4 videos: Gifs are TERRIBLE to work with. They require more technical know-how to create, and the end result is a poorly optimized format that produces overly large un-post-able files with a high tendency to destroy either the image quality or the speed of motion. The color compression is horrible; especially if (like me) you are trying to post animated artwork with many colors. Trying to post a gif to tumblr is a big frustrating repetitive ordeal of managing file sizes vs annoying drops in quality. Meanwhile, the video player on tumblr isn’t really up to the same quality as other sites, because gifs are meant to be the primary form of short looping autoplaying videos that you encounter.

The only way to get around the strict limitations of the gif format is by learning some random Gif Secrets, which someone might try to tell me in the replies. But that’s exactly the problem— gif making has a higher barrier to entry, while literally everyone knows how to trim down a video using their phone or a default video editing program on any computer. I don’t have to carefully learn compression or dithering techniques from random tumblr users to make an mp4 video look the way it does in my preview window— it just looks the way it’s supposed to. It’s easy and painless.

But, Tumblr is made to be As It Is, and that is what it is. I just am solemnly sworn to tell the truth always

[mapofyourstars]

after thirty days, it's time to finally wrap up house of dadneto month! thank you so much to @house-of-dadneto for curating this month. very happy to have participated to share the love of erik and his babies.

below the cut, you will find the works and gifsets I created for the house of dadneto prompts in one place. you can also find the original posts at this tag here. additionally, if you like what you see, you can check out all my written works here as well as all my gifsets here.

primary dadneto work on ao3: takes a strong hand and a sound mind.

Edie Lehnsherr survives, and not burdened by the death of his mother, Erik's life diverges to a path still full of activism and hasty decisions but one with his babies alive and well. Though some days are harder than others, Erik learns how to teach, father, and soften, all the while his life is made that much brighter with his children by his side.

one. bonding

chapter 1: Erik’s grateful for every moment he can share with his babies, but that’s especially true when they share breakfast together.

two. time loop

chapter 2: Life picks on Erik, and he tries to pick back.

three. apology

chapter 3: Lorna practices her ability, and Erik accidentally breaks.

four. redemption

gifset: erik tasted redemption after the birth of his daughter.

five. resemblance

chapter 4: The kids find an old photo of Erik. They compare notes.

six. presumed dead

chapter 5: On a quiet morning walk, Erik, Wanda, and Lorna discover something among the brush.

seven. admiration

gifset: erik tried to keep his cool guy composure (and also not be sick), but he couldn’t hide his admiration for peter’s ability.

eight. mutation

gifset: erik and his children’s mutations

nine. forced to fight

gifset: nina forced to fight to protect her father.

ten. sanctuary

chapter 6: When the hum in her mind quiets, Lorna is reminded that she's her father's daughter.

eleven. missing scene

chapter 7: Pietro gets a taste of his own ability.

twelve. restrained

chapter 8: Wanda's abilities scare her, and Erik learns his beliefs are not always shared by others.

thirteen. vacation

chapter 9: Erik travels to Germany with his children to see his mama.

fourteen. heirloom

gifset: “What’s happened to them? Your parents?” “They were taken from me when I was a little boy.”

fifteen. sacrifice

chapter 10: A day out on the town doesn't go quite as planned.

sixteen. embrace

chapter 11: Hugs: Like snowflakes, no two are the same.

seventeen. confession

chapter 12: Pietro wants to wear a dress to the school dance.

eighteen. broken

gifset: erik loses nina

nineteen. infant

chapter 13: Found a baby and need help taking care of it? Give Erik Lehnsherr a call.

twenty. alternate universe

gifset: an alternate universe where wanda is in apocalypse

twenty one. bedrest

chapter 14: Erik couldn't possibly be sick. He never gets sick. It's just a scratchy throat. (It isn't.)

twenty two. music

chapter 15: Pietro learns that his father isn't as boring as he thought.

twenty three. five + one

gifset: the five people that needed erik and the one person that erik needed.

twenty four. head injury

chapter 16: Erik has had enough, and he doesn't care how silly he looks - it's practical.

twenty five. outsider point of view

gifset: outsider pov with peter and his mother

twenty six. asteroid m

gifset: set in the universe of takes a strong hand and a sound mind, erik tells his children a bedtime story growing up of a safe haven for mutants of all kinds, where their people can live without fear of oppression or conviction. at the suggestion of his little one, mutants choose to live on an asteroid, an idea that tickles his children and lights up even his imagination. little does erik know that, in an alternate timeline, this story is a reality featuring a man quite different from him but somehow altogether the same.

twenty seven. branding

gifset: in the universe in takes a strong hand and a sound mind, erik’s kids rank his branding choices over the years… under the read more.

twenty eight. peace

gifset: peter implores erik to choose peace.

twenty nine. memories

gifset: peter’s mother hints at some bad memories she had with magneto.

thirty. suffocating

chapter 17: Erik's eldest baby leaves the nest. He doesn't take it well.

[tmbswhodunit]

TMBS Who Dunnit 2 Electraboogaloo (2025)

Hello again everyone!

Here is the tentative primary list for all actively participating members of this years TMBS Whodunnit Challenge! If for some reason you can't find your name on here, or if you know a friend whose name is supposed to be on here, please let me know.

Nothing is set in stone, and the list may change before the final reveal.

@oflightningandstars

@sophieswundergarten

@defloress

@ocean-lilac

@heyitsthatonesmolgay

@moonlarkandpinetree

@mvshortcut

@acollectionofcuriousreblogs

@lizardwoman-from-earths-core-2

@lotsofsq

@ae-jurumi

@pumpkinthistle

@nobodysdaydreams

@fandom-queen-13

@mycatisholdingmehostage398

@mashpotatoequeen

@threedaycharter

@rosy-cozy-radio

@mysteriouseggsbenedict

SOME REMINDERS

All works must be submitted to the AO3 collection by July 28

You can make any sort of fanwork, be that art, a gifset, fanfic, etc.

Fanfics should be at least a rough 500 words.

Even if you're not making something, you can still participate by trying to guess who made what!

Have fun, be respectful, and let me know if you have any questions. Follow this blog for reminders or update posts!

Thanks everyone for making this fandom so fun to be a part of!

[selkiefinalist]

I am thinking about getting into hockey fandom, which is a little scary/intimidating and I feel like I remember from your 1D days that you convinced a bunch of people to migrate with you? Any pointers for how to make that happen?

i'm sorry anon i was definitely one of the carried and not one of the carriers when i made that migration myself, many blessings to @ticklefighthockey and @workingforitallthetime for being the primary hand-holders as i jumped off that cliff many years ago - but i think sharing anything that you really love about a particular fandom (gifsets, primers, fan art, fic if you are so inclined) with your friends and followers, even if it's not currently the focus of your blog, will certainly at least intrigue them. and sometimes you have to work the long game to land the most elusive fish (looking at you @silveredsticks). hockey fandom is so big it can be kind of lonely at times imo BUT i'd also recommend participating in your team(s) lb, which is a little scary at first especially if you're on the shyer side, but a good way to meet people who want to scream about the same things you do. and i think there are a lot of hockey-related discord servers if you're so inclined, too - i get too intimidated by most servers BUT i might be able to crowdsource some for you in the comments if others are so inclined

[shovson]

🎨 (i’m thinking about starting to make gifs again and i need validation)

GIO KYLEKIRKWOODS!!!! YOU HAVE RETURNED AFTER A LONG SLUMBER HELLO!!!! how's everything been? busy? (～￣▽￣)～ very crazy in your world i bet! gonna try and hope i don't pick repeats of anything from previous times!

sergio "checo" perez edit -> gah GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. i usually don't like picking edits made for me but this one is probably one of my favourite edits ever. it is SO SO CLEAN. the fun primaries are such a good selection for him (i know its the red bull colours but the palette choices are awesome. that warm yellowy orange to a somewhat desaturated midtone blue and a vibrant pink. i mean wow!) and i love the layering in terms of textures too. it's really cohesive (and i can't believe i missed how the halftone texturing in the text mirrors the ones around the piece). everything is so perfect. i love the images. everything. seriously such a good edit.

lion of singapore seb -> i think part of the reason why i like this edit so much is because it reminds me of that time we hung out in parallel play and saw u work on the center part of this edit. BUT its such a good edit even if i didn't have those memories tied to it. love the colour hold/selective colour on this! it's such a beautiful red and i love the effect of colours that the text/lion image make underneath. and i love the type on this.....good font selection

this sewis edit -> ouugugghghghhhh. i saw a britcedes edit that had the same vibe (but i think ive talked about that one?). so i'll talk about this one! i love the pinkish-red you always gravitate towards! it's so vibrant and romantic. god....i love repetition. drives me so crazy. the movie scratchlines are so good and i love the clips you chose. it's really like a sweet cute romance story i get to stare at.

Send me a 🎨 and I’ll tell you my favourite gifset/edit/art/fic of yours!

[tongaris]

YOOO i finished stampede last night so here are my rambling thoughts bc i just woke up:

first of all the opening theme is a bop. kudos to whoever fought for that color scheme during the beginning titles. it reminds me of the children of dune miniseries from the early 00s (all the orange), early 90s orange/teal/purple and like, taco bell. sick. good font choices, sand blowing away to reveal lettering always goes hard. windmill and things sinking into the sand, awesome.

i don't know how kids are straight up rawdogging stampede without reading the manga first though!! the manga is the backbone of trigun, it is the Primary Source document of trigun!! no question. in stampede, there is so much crammed in this short frame of time, there is like so much happening, I DO NOT MIND THIS THOUGH bc i'm well acquainted. but i feel like someone with no prior trigun exposure might have difficulty keeping up with all of it? at the same time, i get the vibe that stampede was made primarily for people who already HAVE decades of massive trigun brainrot, who know how plants work, etc. it's cool that stampede's ushered new fans into this universe. someone on crunchyroll was saying how they hit you with all the lore and secrets up front, there's no buildup. but like imo it's understood you KNOW the backstory and stampede is just this fresh re-imagining of it. stampede's just a really pretty, lovingly-wrought cherry on the sundae of your existing trigun fandom. it is like, a gift to all of us??

it started out and i'm like okay this is literally Tremors, now it's The Wolfwood Show, i loved how they did the badlads even though no BDN (BDN my beloved), lots of character design diversity, not alot of "sameface" which i respect, great voice acting. i have never been a huge fan of cgi in anime but zamn they made it work SO well like the cell shading was just phenomenal. glad that they didn't shy away from blood. well utilized gore, not gratuitous. the final battle with vash and knives was gorgeous. SO WELL ANIMATED MY GODD. love how knives has this classically "good" angelic color scheme and vash is all chthonic black and dark purples?? this is my initial reaction after powering through it once, i'll rewatch soon for stuff i missed.

someone do a gifset of meryl kicking ww in the shin and making him shiver like a traumatized shiba inu PLEASE bc i haven't seen that on here yet lmao. also love how wolfwood would say some tough edgy shit to appear callous/indifferent but you can immediately tell by his eyes/actions that he truly feels otherwise. boy we see right thru you.

[markantonys]

I’ve never watched wheel of time but I will say that I think something to be said for the debate about costuming is that the game of thrones costumes were INSANE when it came to quality and detail. At least in the first few seasons they were hand-sewn, hand-embroidered, etc. There was a big coffee table type book about them that broke down a lot of the choices the costume designers and department made and the quality of that department still blows me away!!! They were gorgeous and complex and took so much of the worldbuilding and politics into account!

And from what I’ve seen, it seems like the Wheel of Time costumes do the same, it’s just that they draw from very different references and eras!! Maybe there will be some kind of bts/special feature breakdown of what they referenced and the different ideas they drew from for the costuming for WOT. That seems like it would be a good time. It’s really annoying and really unfortunate that a lot of people refuse to see past their own preconceptions of what fantasy means. I’m sorry that so many people are making assumptions about fantasy costuming in your notes, especially. It’s a genre that spans much wider than lotr and game of thrones! Perhaps more people should. Idk. Engage with it more and find that out. Maybe that would fix them.

yeah!! haha it really was just 2 complaints in my notes on a gifset that otherwise had universal gushing about how much people loved the costumes, so thankfully most people are enjoying the WOT costumes (and not being annoying in my notes) and i was definitely being dramatic in my complaints about the complaints! still, there's something to be said about how ingrained ideas of "this is what fantasy costumes are Supposed to look like" are in us, when fantasy as a genre MEANS there's no set definition of what ANYTHING is "supposed" to be.

i didn't watch GOT but i've seen plenty of gifs etc over the years, of course, and the costumes are absolutely beautiful and very detailed! and from what i understand, the books were going for a medieval europe type of vibe for the main kingdoms and so in that respect the show's costumes definitely understood the assignment (tho ofc with their own added Fantasy Flavor). the downside is that they were so influential that it's made a lot of people subconsciously think that that is THE fantasy aesthetic (along with LOTR), and thus anything too different looks out of place to them.

there have been a couple WOT costume bts features that i've seen, and the designers did indeed do similar things where they showed how much stuff was handmade and how detailed everything is, and they talked about taking inspiration from many different real-world cultures & time periods as well! a lot of which is based on the way the author described clothes in the books and the real-world fashion influences he was using. i remember in a season 1 bts the costume designer had a map of WOT's world color-coded according to which real-world cultures are the primary inspirations for the dress of each region of WOTworld (although i think it's a different costume designer for season 2 so i don't know if they adhered 100% to the s1 designer's notes).

to conclude, here are some caps from a scene in s1 that features a large international gathering (same color=same wizard faction, but within each faction are women of many different cultures, so you can see for example that our 4 blue ladies are wearing 4 very different styles). i wouldn't say these are the best costumes in the show because season 2 really took it up a notch (hello, higher budget!), but this particular scene is a great quick illustration of the wide variety of styles going on in the vast continent of WOTworld and of how much detail goes into costumes even for nameless background characters. and most of them do feature the sort of clean lines/angularity that makes our brains go "modern", and most of them do look quite different from the GOT & LOTR aesthetics!

[malka-lisitsa]

random question because i saw a gifset:

what was katherine's intention when she kissed damon at the end of season 1? why did she do it?

To make an incredibly easy answer even more easy-

She missed him.

I mean of course she also wanted to cause discourse between Damon and Stefan and Elena so she could work towards getting Stefan back- no one is denying she also had underhanded motivations there... but that was more a bonus than a primary.

She kissed him because she missed him.

She loved Damon, he was in her plan to turn him and live forever as the three of them happy and in love. Katherine kept an eye on Damon too. She lied straight through her teeth when she told him that she hadn't ever loved him and anyone with any kind of brain (lmfao not damon apparently) could tell she was lying.

But standing on that porch, was the first time she had been that close to one of her boys in 145 years where she wasn't hidden. It was the first contact she'd made with one of her Salvatores in over a century and so she kissed him (Or rather let him kiss her) because she missed him, and wanted to feel his lips on hers again for the first time in 145 years.

[hwanghyunjinenthusiast]

hello hi good evening<3

i just remembered these exist and now i wanna climb pretty expensive inexperienced richboy vernon like a fucking tree<3 that is all<3

Sorry for taking 85 years to answer this ask. Also, your ask sent in twice so, I hope it's okay that I am answering this one instead.

Thoughts about this under the cut because I have a few of them and, I took some liberties lol.

Okay, I know you sent this in about just Vernon but, hear me out. I saw that gifset you made of him and Josh and it got me thinking.

You, Joshua and Vernon have known each other since you were in diapers. Your parents all being friends for decades and, electing to involve each other in their lives. Vernon has always been more reserved, more shy than you and Joshua. At times, you both wonder why he even hangs out with the two of you when he always looks like he'd much rather be holed up in his room fiddling with his music setup that costs more than your car.

During one of these hang outs, where Joshua had raided his parents' stock for the finest wine and whiskey they had to offer, Vernon shyly let's it slip that he's only been with one person when the topic of sex inevitably comes up. That catches you and Joshua by surprise. You both know Vernon is a handsome guy. People have been fawning over him since primary school. He must take your stunned silence as a negative reaction because before you can blink he's stumbling onto his feet in an attempt to rush out of Joshua's bedroom.

Fortunately, Josh is quicker because he grabs the younger man's hand at lightning speed. Assuring him that you weren't judging him, the two of you were just surprised. Josh shoots you a look. A look that you recognise all too well and you hop up join the two men, causing Vernon to blink at you both in confusion.

Josh offers to help him gain more experience if he'd like to, his large hand drifting from holding Vernon's to dragging a thumb along his cheek. You give him a look that you hope is equal parts reassuring and encouraging while you lace your fingers with his own, peppering kisses along his unoccupied jaw.

Fortunately, it doesn't take much for Vernon's resolve to crumble.

He moans into you, prompting you to tug on his hair and arch further into his mouth. His eager tongue lapping up all of the wetness you have to offer, surprisingly strong hands keeping your thighs spread for him while he continues to lick and slurp to his heart's content.

"You're doing so well. Isn't he such a good boy?" Joshua asks you, curling two of lube slicked his thick fingers inside of Vernon. You do feel for Vernon. You know first hand how much of a stretch Joshua's fingers provide and, how ruthless he can be. However, based on the way he swears into your pussy, you're starting to think he likes it. Or maybe he likes being treated like an object for the two of you to use to get off.

"Such a good boy," you breathe, your eyes fluttering when he latches onto your clit, his moans vibrating against you and tightening that knot in the pit of your gut again.

"You should see yourselves. Both of you," Joshua groans, his eyes dropping from you momentarily to watch the way his fingers spread Vernon open, "Already so fucked out and we've barely even started."

[amtrak12]

Recently, I realized grief is my primary theme in my Lucifer fics and ideas. More than the theme even, grief is the entire plot of a one-shot I'm editing and the sequel to my current epic WIP. But I'm firmly in my mid-thirties now, so I figured that's just where my head is at in recent years. You go through cycles in life and I'm simply in my 'grief era' as some might say.

Except that's not actually true. I am successfully writing complete stories centered around grief right now, yes, but I've actually been trying to write about grief for a full decade.

Not in my Doctor Who fics, though grief is embedded in the plots.

Not in my Ghostbusters fics either. Those were written out of a mix of spite and love and explore… well I don't really know what they explored. shrug

No, my focus on grief got started back around 2014 (or 2013??) with a Bering and Wells AU that (honest to Jo) was inspired by an innocent Casper gifset @itcameuponamidnightqueer reblogged. I spent YEARS trying to write that AU. I had a ton of worldbuilding and plot elements, but I just could never find the story. There was a clear beginning (er mostly clear) but no obvious middle or end. The concept was just too big and amorphous for me to wrangle at the time. But damn if there isn't something still haunting in it.

When I remembered this, it made me want to put all the story elements together in one place again. Now, I certainly talked about this AU idea before on Tumblr. You can dig back into my 2014-2015 archives, possibly even 2013, and find messy rambles about it. And I haven't actively worked on the idea since Ghostbusters 2016 was released so some of the details are fuzzy now. But in case anyone can spot the story this was trying to be or if anyone's simply curious, here's what I had for this Bering and Wells ghost AU:

Like I said it was a Casper gifset that sparked the inspiration. Specifically, the 'Can I keep you' scene if I remember correctly. With it being late 2013, I was obviously utterly drowning in WH13/B&W feels, and we were all writing and brainstorming full-fledged alternate settings AUs. So of course, my immediate thought was 'ghost Bering and Wells AU' -- except I thought 'what if Myka's the ghost?' Because HG is the obvious candidate, being the historical figure, but I wanted to put a twist on it and then got really obsessed with the idea of ghost!Myka… and it all spiraled from there.

I decided on a modern setting, 2014, and then went college aged -- possibly because I was only a few years removed from my own college years at the time, but also Myka's relationship with her father/family as a whole ended up playing a huge factor in the world-building so that could've influenced the ages. I don't even know where to begin here because again, I never had a real plot, so let's just dive in I guess.

Helena Wells, age 20, an engineering (? of sorts?) student who Caturanga took on as an intern for his work. Now, Caturanga is effectively studying ghosts, though he dresses it up in fancier terms. I can't remember what his research goals were, but identification and communication were certainly the first two steps.

Usually when I age HG down, I make Christina a baby sister who she either lost or is estranged from to keep that aspect of her backstory. This time I decided to center her grief on her father who I made up for this story as also someone sciencey and someone Helena really admired and was close to. But he died in a car accident a few years ago (technically he might have been hit by a car while crossing the street but I can't confirm that). So Helena is interested in Caturanga's research because she would love to at least talk to her father again and refuses to believe he's fully gone. Resurrecting him is not currently her goal, though could easily come up given later events.

Caturanga isn't looking for the flashy haunted locations. He's looking for the mundane and preferably newer ghosts because they would be closer to the living and thus easier to talk to. He hears about a house in Colorado Springs in the US that can't keep a resident longer than two years so he chooses to study it. He and Helena rent it with plans on staying for a year.

Obviously this is Myka's childhood home and she is the ghost haunting the house. So what happened to Myka?

It's 1994 and Myka Bering is 19 years old. Her father still owns a bookstore, though they live in a separate house rather than an apartment above it. She still has her sister Tracy who I believe I made 15, so four years younger. Myka had been enrolled in college at the University of Colorado - Denver, but when she decided to switch majors from pre-med to pre-law at the end of her freshman year, her father complained about her indecisiveness and wasting money and pulled her out of school. He said, she could return to college when she had saved up enough money to pay for it herself.

Myka was gutted because she wanted to finish her degree so badly. She also hated leaving the friends she had made and tried to visit them as much as possible once school started back up that fall. One night when she drove up to visit her friends and boyfriend (Sam, of course), she lingered too long and arrived back home after curfew. Her father locked her out of the house as punishment, leaving her to sleep in the car in the garage where she left the overhead light on. There was an electrical fire that night. Myka didn't wake up in time to get out and she died.

Okay here's one of the rabbit holes I got super distracted by while trying to plot this out: Tracy's reaction. Because this whole thing is supposed to be a Bering and Wells AU, so clearly Helena and Myka are the main characters, right? But the more I obsessed over this story, the more prominent Tracy's role became. This was a tale of two sisters, dual POVs, each grappling with their rough childhoods in different ways. Except, there's also still the plot of Helena finding Myka, befriending her, and ultimately resurrecting her (more on this later), so how the hell were these things supposed to be balanced and woven into one coherent plot?? It was beyond my skill level. :S

In my head, Tracy had managed to skate under their dad's strict thumb throughout her childhood, largely because she just didn't care what her dad said and always opted to do her own thing. Myka did care what their father thought and tried to follow the rules which made the times when she didn't seem like more of an offense. Oldest child syndrome was also definitely at play where the youngest just gets away with more. So when Myka got pulled out of school, Tracy was less sympathetic and more 'you brought that on yourself.' I mean, it's not like Myka even needed to admit she changed majors. Colleges don't send report cards to your parents. She could've kept her mouth shut and stayed in school.

Tracy 1000% blamed their dad for Myka's death though. The electrical fire was an accident and no one was to blame, but he locked the door and didn't let Myka sleep inside that night. Therefore it's his fault. Myka was right about him this entire time. He's not just an annoying or strict dad, he's abusive. (Something Myka never said and will later disagree with though her own feelings towards their dad are certainly complicated.) Tracy's grief becomes anger and even hatred and builds until she emancipates herself from her parents and leaves home at 16. She spirals for a while (partying, reckless sex) before pulling herself out and finding some help to deal with her grief. She puts herself through school and becomes a social worker. By 2014, she's married and has two very young kids, one of which I'm 99% certain I named Micah after his aunt that he never got to meet. Tracy periodically takes them to visit Myka's grave, and did I write one of those visits in my multiple drafts? Yes, yes I did.

Making her a social worker both seemed fitting for her arc in this setting and is a helpful connection to ghosts when a certain little 10-12 year old (can't remember the exact age I made Claudia but it might have skewed towards 10) continually gets flagged in foster care because she insists she's talking to her brother's ghost.

On that note, let's jump back to the actual ghost plot. So in this universe, ghosts exist as amorphous blobs that can't be seen or touched by the living. At best, you can talk to them. Claudia can talk easily with Joshua because he's only been dead for a few years and immediately began following his little sister around. He's never been isolated. Other ghosts often are. It can take up to a couple of years for a ghost to become aware of their surroundings and new existence and if their loved ones are no longer in the same place, they might forget about their previous life.

This is what happened to Myka. Her family left the house immediately after the fire. Her room was empty when she regained awareness after her death and so her memories slipped away. After twenty-years of isolation, Myka doesn't remember ever having a physical body and doesn't even remember her name.

But she reads still. She remembers books and has stolen many from whoever was currently living in the house. She stashes them all away in the closet of her old bedroom and when these stashes are found and thrown out/reclaimed, she just starts again. Sometimes she only had one book to read over and over and over again. Other times, she had many. The reports of moved/missing books is what flagged this house as haunted.

Now, I said the living couldn't touch ghosts and that's because ghosts can't really interact with objects. It involves remembering being alive and corporeal well enough to remember what touching something like a doorknob feels like. Most ghosts can't do this without a lot of interaction with living people to jog their memories. Myka being able to touch books (only books but still) is rare and a huge discovery.

Helena finds Myka first. (Well, she finds the open book on the floor with pages moving on their own.) Communication is slow because Myka isn't used to speaking, so Helena has to figure out who this ghost is on her own with some good old fashioned cross-checking property records against obituaries. It's a bit of a gut punch to learn the quiet, book-obsessed ghost is a girl around her age.

(By book-obsessed, I don't mean just reading them. Ghost!Myka is very, very territorial and protective of her books because they're the only things she's owned since she's died.)

Helena and Caturanga's research involves a lot of equipment to try and sense a ghost. They manage to fine-tune a scanner to see the invisible ghost. This is when they learn ghosts are really just blobs and not a full-fledged body like the stories. Though, over the course of their tests, they do see Myka form pseudo-hands to carry and read her books which brings up all kinds of new questions for them to pursue.

I remember Myka never went through walls either. She could pass right through solid objects and would whenever a door was unexpectedly closed on her. But it always pinged her mind as Wrong so she would skirt under doors and around objects to get around the house. She never left the house -- though again, experiments with Helena later prove she can leave. It's a mental block. This is her house, even if she can't remember living there.

Helena works hard to get to know Myka and slowly befriends her as Myka re-learns how to talk to someone. The more she talks, the more Helena asks her questions, the more her memories return. Some of them return easily. The more painful ones, she fights and tries to forget again. She never looks out the kitchen door at the side of the house where the garage once stood. She doesn't want to talk about it.

Eventually, as Myka's learning how to grasp other objects and open doors herself and Helena's getting more and more attached to her (and feeling more and more outraged that Myka died so young), we hit a tipping point where Helena tries to take Myka's hand. Or more accurately, she asks Myka to try and take her hand since she still can't see Myka. The time Myka finally manages to touch her is when she suddenly returns with a physical body, alive once again. Apparently, a living person touching a ghost leads to resurrection.

This is where I got lost down another big rabbit hole. I was absolutely obsessed with Myka's struggles to adapt back to the world of the living. Think about it, right. She's existed without physical sensations for twenty years. Now suddenly, she has a body again. Everything's too loud, too bright, too much. Clothes hurt. Having to use energy to walk, hurts. Food???? A sensory nightmare. And when I was brainstorming this and noodling around with google, I learned about sensory processing disorder and OH MY GOD did that just send me deeper into the rabbit hole. I was so, so distracted by this topic and wanted to spend forever exploring Myka's initial months alive again. Do you understand why I could never find the plot? I was way too lost in the details to find the tent poles of this story.

Once Myka has learned to take care of herself again and has some coping mechanisms in place to help with the constant 'too much' struggle of being alive, her first desire is to return to college. Not see her family. It's been twenty years and that's still too much to tackle. But she'd been desperate to return to college when she died so that's the first thing she wants to do now that she's been resurrected.

This is when Pete and Mrs Frederick come into the picture -- though technically Mrs Frederick has been in play the whole time. Let's start with her. See, I thought a warehouse equivalent organization that was fully aware of ghosts and trying to help them would be handy for this story. But I was convinced at the time that a government funded agency didn't make much sense. Every secret organization in TV shows and movies are always government funded -- but the US government hates funding anything that isn't corporations or the military.

… So why wouldn't the secret organization actually be disguised as a for profit company instead? Insert Mrs Frederick as CEO of a long-running and ever-evolving company that currently brags about being at the cutting edge of smart home devices and appliances. Except the smart home technology serves a secondary purpose of finding new ways to communicate with incorporeal ghosts who are slowly being lost to time. The company (I'm sure I had a name for it but I can't remember it anymore) gains its funding through product sales and government tax cuts/hand outs to pursue its true goal of locating these lost ghosts and reconnecting them back to their loved ones or at least reconnecting them with community. They want to re-socialize them, help them find purpose and meaning. No one knows how to help ghosts move on or if they even should move on, though if ghost decides to try, they certainly don't stop them. They also had never found a way to resurrect a ghost. Some ghosts had asked if it was possible, so the company is researching it. But they're researching in laboratory settings and with Myka's resurrection, it becomes clear that there needs to be a personal connection between the ghost and living person to successfully resurrect them. (Hence, Claudia and Joshua being the second ones to successfully manage a resurrection.)

I'm losing steam and this wasn't super thought out in detailed back in the day anyway -- but Mrs Frederick helps Myka enroll in college in Colorado Springs and her living expenses are all funded by Mrs Frederick's company. Caturanga's research was also being funded by Mrs. Frederick, though Helena wasn't fully aware of how big this operation was until after Myka's resurrection.

Myka meets Pete at college and they become fast friends. Mostly because Pete's too chatty to care about Myka's silences and easy-going enough to roll with her quirks and continued struggles with being alive. At some point, he finds out she had died and been resurrected, but I don't remember if I ever fleshed out that reveal.

I did flesh out the sister reunion. In my head, Tracy would get pulled into the ghost aspect because Claudia is one of her cases. But she wouldn't learn about Myka until Myka decides she's ready to see her. That takes about a year (or even longer) and happens after Myka's started attending college. Tracy is shocked to learn her sister is alive again, obviously, but also happy. Myka is happy to reunite with her too but also feels awkward because Tracy is all grown up with kids and she's still 19 (well now 20). Sometimes, it seemed like their reunion should be the end point. But then there's also still so much story to explore after their reunion too. Their father has died by 2014. Warren died of a heart attack several years earlier. Tracy has no regrets over never reconciling with him. Myka does regret that he died before she came back to life. They have different opinions and feelings about their shared childhood and it creates friction between them. Their mother is still alive though, and I played through Myka reuniting with her too. That's awkward in a different way than reuniting with Tracy. The 20 year time gap still plays a role of course, but mostly it's sits strangely with Myka because her mother keeps telling her how much her father regretted that night and how much he missed her and wished he could apologize. And while Myka doesn't blame him for her death like Tracy does, there's a lot of other hurt she does still blame him for and hearing that he's sorry from Mom instead of getting to talk to him herself -- it doesn't solve anything. It doesn't make anything better.

Not to add it like an after thought, but Sam has died too. He still grew up to join the Secret Service and was still killed on duty. It hits Myka hard when she finds out. She hates that he died too soon too. It's not fair.

And… I think… that's everything I ever came up with for this AU concept? I spent most of my time on Helena and Myka pre-resurrection, Myka immediately after the resurrection, and Tracy always. I had a pretty fleshed out world and a ton of pieces that could count as plot -- but I never had the throughline that turned it into a proper narrative.

If you see the narrative in this mixed soup or if you see something in here that inspires you -- please! By all means, run with it and write your own fic for it! Do not feel like you need to ask my permission, because I guarantee you, I will never turn this into a real story. But it was nice to revisit and maybe you can still get some enjoyment out of what is here. :)

[echthr0s]

gif theft is like a Big Deal nowadays but I have so many gifs in my lovely organised collection of reactions folders, a collection goin back to like 2011 at this point, that were just yoinked from gifsets because that's just what you did when you needed reaction images (believe it or not those used to be like. the primary form of tone indication on this website. we should have never stopped tbh and I'll die on that hill)

I made that last post and was like "man wouldn't it be fucked up if someone tried to call me out for being a reposter or some shit when I'm actually just using them as reaction/expression images"

[airborneinfantry]

hello!! i was wondering what software you use for making gifs/your process is, because HOT DIGGITY DAMN i just saw your bull gifset and it is soooooo crisp and clean and clear and gorgeous??? i am in love i am in awe im insane for them, thank you for gifting us with those beauties ❤️❤️

hi friend! thank you so much for your kind words, i really appreciate it!!! and i would love to share my giffing process! i'll put it under the cut bc i went a bit crazy:

before i get into my own process, i would really recommend looking at tutorials. a lot of really wonderful people on this site made detailed, comprehensive, and easy-to-understand tutorials for people to use.

some great gif making tutorials:

1

2

3

@/usergif is also great resource for various gif tutorials!

SCREENCAPPING

1. i only gif from 1080p video files, which i get from various t*rrent sites. in my experience, a high quality file makes all the difference when making gifs!

one con here is higher quality means bigger file size (my bob file is about ~90GB and each episode is between 7-13GB; my tp file is ~60GB and each episode is between 5-6GB).

2. i use potplayer to screencap —

i used vlc for a long time but it does not have an easy to use continuous frame capture and i finally got tired of manually taking screencaps. potplayer has a good frame capture tool and it's given me very few problems.

3. my gifs are usually between 50-70 frames.

i capture every single frame of the scene i'm screencapping to avoid any choppiness in the gif. i also make sure that there are no duplicate or missing frames.

most gifs over 50 frames tend to be larger than tumblr's 10MB limit, but i'll get into that later.

MAKING GIFS

4. i use photoshop to make my gifs —

if you don't already have ps, i've heard of some universities who provide an adobe subscription to its students or you can obtain it Completely Legally in other ways! (check out @/iniziareold, but please do your own research before making a decision)

5. the first tutorial in the bulleted list goes into various methods of loading frames into ps: loading frames into stack, loading them as dicom files, or video extraction. i personally load all of my frames into stack — it's the way i learned and i've never tried the other methods.

6. i crop my gif with the appropriate tumblr dimensions. here are the dimensions.

7. i use ps actions for tedious tasks such as animating frames. here's a tutorial on actions (that includes helpful actions you can download)!

one thing i want to add here is i always make sure my gif is timed at 0.05 seconds!

8. once the gif is made, sharpening is next. i sharpen before i do any coloring. i do two passes of smart sharpen:

COLORING

9. coloring is a WHOLE other beast. if you (or anyone else reading this) wants a coloring tutorial from me, please let me know and i think i might be able to whip something up! i can't get into it here or else this post would be monstrously long.

here's a really good coloring tutorial!

10. the primary adjustments i add are exposure, levels, color balance, curves (i usually add about two layers of curves)

11. sometimes i'll add selective color and/or hue/saturation adjustments as well.

my number one piece of advice is to PRACTICE. find out what looks good to you and keep working at it!

EXPORTING

12. once i've made my gif, sharpened it, and colored it, then it's time to export it —

i usually keep my gifs at 256 colors, but i've gotten away with 128 colors before. it really just depends on the coloring of the gif/the quality of the source file.

13. these are my export settings:

sometimes i'll use selective color instead of adaptive— it just depends on the coloring.

14. if my gif is larger than 10MB, lossy compression is my best friend!

10-15% lossy usually works for me. i never use more than 20%!

15. if lossy is not working, then it becomes a matter of deleting frames, reducing the amount of colors in the export page, or coloring the gif a different way.

16. once the gif is timed correctly, colored to my liking, and exported, then it's time to post it! (or let it sit in my drafts for months...)

CLOSING

i hope this was helpful! thank you again for your kind words <3 please feel free send me an ask or dm me if you have any more questions!

[lengthofropes]

gifmaker review: 3 / 13 / 20

heyyy! thank you Sabrina <3

3. what fandom(s) did you gif for this year?

- primary 911 I guess! also for all my old fandoms)

13. What gifset was the most satisfying to finish? (link)

- I can't pick just one, so I'm gonna go with this bucktommy AU + this 'daddy issues' Tommy set cause it's just too fun! + this Eddie Munson playlist cause it's 90% of my personality + this 118 firefam

set cause it's the first set I made using both Photoshop and After Effects and that was a step forward for me)

20. What’s something you are expecting to gif in the upcoming year?

- Stranger things 5 of course!!! and bucktommy reunion ;)

ask me

[ikjun]

top 5 gifsets you've made and/or top 5 songs you're listening on repeat these days? 💗

why not both! so recent fave gifsets:

a killer paradox x get him back (it's my pinned post for a reason)

favourite lee dong-wook roles

bloodhounds x how long

tune in for love set

jang han-seo in vincenzo

songs on repeat these days:

kevin oh & primary - higher (acoustic version, d.p. ost)

yook sungjae - be somebody

gracie abrams - risk

meego & primary - tell a lie (d.p. ost)

tyla - truth or dare

ask me my top 5 anything!