#s2 hiatus hell

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

TOO MANY THINGS ARE HAPPENING RIGHT NOW I CANT KEEP UP

EDIT: all 4 gifs, blurry recording of a teaser, official trailer tomorrow, e6-7 advance screening

EDIT 2: ANOTHER FUCKING TV SPOT???

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

brb throwing myself out a window ✌️

theres gonna be so much happening 

[moonyinpisces]

i want all meta writers and/or people with s3 predictions to please. pretty please. write the fic. otherwise SO MUCH is being lost in translation in your explanations and your 15k theories with screenshots and sources in a format that would rival my grad school essays. like have you heard “shakespeare must be performed not read”? that’s the exact same principle with s3 predictions. all the academic writing and web weaving posts in the world won’t accurately depict what you’re seeing in your head, it HAS to be experienced in practice both on the writing end and the reading end. JUST WRITE THE FIC!

[lemongogo]

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

me 🤝 stede bonnet

only recently met ed and only had him in our lives for a short period of time and now we both spend every second of every day missing him and wanting him back

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ALRIGHT CLOWNS LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO

The official Max account just posted this and the OFMD account responded! 👀

[ladyluscinia]

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

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

But.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[consultingcompanion94]

Once Upon an Eternity

Chapter 1

Months after Aziraphale left for Heaven, Crowley finds himself waking up back in the bookshop after months of coping with his broken heart. But… is it the first time he’s been back? Why does it seem like there’s something he’s missing? When he’s reunited with the new Archangel for the first time since that day, he can’t stop the overwhelming dread that something is very, very wrong… AU of my interpretation of S3 as inspired by the show Once Upon a Time. If you’ve seen it, no spoilers for anyone who hasn’t!!! If you have, hope you enjoy my little mash-up!!!

Notes:

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first fic in the GO fandom! I fell in love with the show after binging the whole thing just in time to dive right into S2 when it aired (and experience all the devastation that brought us all). I was finally inspired enough to dive back into fanfic after a very long hiatus by the show and by Rebecca Flutter’s amazing GO podfics on Youtube (seriously, do yourself a favor and check them out!) I couldn’t stop picturing certain scenes from another one of my favorite shows, Once Upon a Time, with Crowley and Aziraphale, and this is the result! Hope you enjoy, and let’s get on with the show!

The storm must have been what finally caused Crowley to come to. Lighting lit the sky as rain beat against the windows, thunder crashing just far enough away to not be an immediate concern. 

Speaking of immediate concerns…

Now that Crowley was slowly regaining awareness, he shot to his feet from his current position on the floor. Not his floor, mind you, his flat strewn with bottles as it had been for months. Not even the floor of one of the hotels of questionable quality he vaguely recalled bolting to the numerous times he couldn’t bear being anywhere near Soho since…

Since he’d last been here in the bookshop.

Tensed and alert, Crowley fled from the back room. He was fully set on outrunning the memories ready and waiting to spring like arrows notched and ready to fly, before freezing at the sight of another figure slumped near the register.

“What the…” the flash of panic and concern that struck Crowley seemed out of place (at least in its intensity), considering how comparatively little he’d had to do with the small Scrivener to warrant such a reaction on their behalf. “Muriel?”

Apparently his words did what the storm had not, Muriel shifting weakly as Crowley crossed the room and bent to help lift them from the ground.

“M-Mister Crowley?” Muriel groaned, eyes still unfocused and leaning against Crowley for support. “W-when did you come back? I- I thought you’d driven off after Archangel Az-”

“How many times have I gotta tell you to drop the Mister? I’m ancient, not old,” Crowley cut them off with a huff, and where the Heaven did that come from? As if it was a long standing argument? He very pointedly shoved aside acknowledging that his interruption also served to prevent Murial from saying his name (He included himself in the list of people he was very good at lying to.)

Frowning Muriel questioned again, “When did you get here? How did you get here?”

Having no answers, Crowley could only shrug noncommittally. His eyes darted around the room, taking in every inch as he’d done when assessing the bookshop after the Armageddon that wasn’t. He failed to find even the smallest of changes this time around, but that didn’t stop his hands from twitching uneasily as he felt the air faintly stir with an energy he could only describe as wrong.

Both beings jolted at the sound of the front door’s bell ringing, Maggie and Nina stumbling their way into the shop looking as if they were in a similar state of disorientation.

“What the hell have you gotten us into this time?” Nina snapped, marching up to Crowley and crossing her arms with a pointed glare.

“Does it look like I have any clue what’s going on here?” Crowley retaliated, only stopped from advancing on Nina when he saw Maggie place a calming but firmly restraining arm on Nina’s arm.

“She’s just tense and jumping to conclusions. Can’t blame her really. Both of us woke up in Nina’s shop with no idea how we got there, on top of it being the first time in months we’ve seen your car hanging around rather than just passing through…” Maggie paused her explanation, brows furrowing before she continued questioningly, “It.. it is the first time you’ve been back… right?”

“Course it is, what kind of question…” Crowley trailed off, matching Maggie’s state of confusion. 

Now that he paid attention, he had that feeling of an unexplainably increased sense of familiarity, eerily identical to what he’d felt with Muriel and equally as uncountable. Not only that, but how was he so much more unaffected than he should have been by being back in the place he’d had his heart obliterated? He hadn’t expected his first time back (assuming he ever did come back), to feel anything less than agonizing, yet here he stood, heart still unmistakably raw and scarred over far more than he expected but not actively bleeding out.

“See, not as far of a stretch to link you to whatever's going on as you thought, wouldn’t be the first time you’ve meddled in something and caused a right mess,” Nina grumbled, still visibly on edge but less openly hostile.

“Excuse you, but if you recall, you know very well the main meddler last time was…” Crowley swallowed, flinching at coming even close to mentioning him.

“What’s that lovely human expression? Oh yes- guilty as charged,” a posh voice replied from the shadows near the front door as they all whirled to face the intruder. Crowley shivered at the familiar cadence he’d know anywhere, though not from pain as would be assumed, but from the unfamiliar iciness he’d never heard from that voice.

“Aziraphale?” Crowley breathed, frozen to the spot as he took in the figure walking into the dim lighting the storm had brought on. 

“Speak of the devil as they say,” Aziraphale smirked, stopping just shy of the group clustered in the middle of the shop. The sterile white of the new suit was less surprising than the harsh, sharp angles of the design that contrasted so severely with the soft lines and curves of the Angels usual ensemble. It was nowhere near what Crowley would have imagined from the new Archangel, had he been in any state of mind to ponder such things, anymore than the flecks of dark gray mixed in with the halo of blond curls that had never changed until now.

Unsettling as all of that was, what caused Crowley's blood to freeze in his corporation was when he finally met Aziraphale’s eyes. Gone was the ocean blue Crowley had gotten lost in far more times than his sunglasses would have allowed anyone to know. 

The gaze that met his eyes now was not the lavender he wasn’t sure if he would have recoiled from due to its association with a certain former Archangel, or embraced despite everything because it still would have been his Angel gazing back regardless of the hue of his irises.

What Crowley saw now was a twisted shadow of that same flowers vibrant shade, if left uncared for to grow dark, decayed, and withered, long since abandoned to rot. 

“W-what are you doing here?” Crowley stammered, breathing erratic as Aziraphale slowly continued his progress towards the group, “You’ve been plenty content to piss off to Heaven without a backward glance until now, don’t let trivial little connections like ours hold you back now Archangel,” Crowley spat, doing his best not to shrink away every step closer Aziraphale advanced.

Chuckling darkly, Aziraphale lifted his hand to caress Crowley’s cheek, smirking at the shiver his touch was able to cause in the Demon even now. 

“Ah, you see, therein lies the problem. I admit that you were right in one respect. My newly appointed position wasn’t exactly as I expected. Some… Changes were required,” Aziraphale paused with a curl of his lips. “However, I suppose you could say that leaves us even, considering I was also right.”

“In what way?” Crowley barely managed to choke out, stomach dropping as the Archangel snickered sinisterly.

“That you had no idea what I was offering you,”  Aziraphale sneered. One of his hands fisted into Crowley’s lapels as the other rested on his face, a lovers embrace that should have been warm and tender but was instead forceful and possessive. Breaths mingling for only a moment, Aziraphale hissed quietly enough only Crowley could have heard it, “And I’m going to ensure you regret turning me down, that you beg me for another chance. And don’t worry, when you’re ready, I’ll be waiting.”

Breaking the embrace, there was a flash of blinding light, and the Archangel was gone.

Thank you all for reading! If you want to read more now, here’s the link to what I have up so far on AO3. See you all in the next chapter!

Next Chapter

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

HILARIOUS post from april 2nd of last year

[writing-for-life]

Sandman Master Post and Intro

(I’m on a brief hiatus, but the queue is fed. Replies might take a bit longer right now.)

Hi, I’m so glad you’re here! This started out as a small blog but has developed a horrifying (^jk) life of its own over the past two years, so it was about time I organised the links and tags to all my Sandman stuff for you to make it easier to find your way around.

I love getting asks [they will go back on when I’m back], about analysis, about my fics, prompts or generally just to chat, so see this as an encouragement to slide into my inbox…

[For quick reference:]

[The Ultimate Sandman Character Tag Library]

[The Women of the Sandman Tag Library]

[Sandman Comics: Original Artists Library]

[Sandman Reread (Comics)]

[Sandman Rewatch (Netflix)]

[Sandman S2 News, Casting and Speculation]

[Sandman Reference: How to Collect the Comics, Companion Books, Annotations/Reference Literature etc]

[In Light of Recent Allegations]

Ordered by topics (recommended):

Sandman Meta-Analysis (general "sandman meta"-tag, also contains contributions to other people's posts. My analyses are grouped into literary/conceptual/psychological, musical and art, and I definitely recommend perusing both links and the main tag)

The Sandman Book Club Community: Just follow the link if you’d like to join

Sandman Fics (m/f and f/f, both OC and canon pairings) & Poems

I’m also Dream’s Therapist. I think we all agree he needs one

Sandman Art (general tag that contains all art posts. I have also grouped them into my own art and art of others). Separate tag for official Sandman artists

Sandman March Mania was an event we specifically ran for the comics art lovers, so check it out

Sparkle Content Curation (a not-quite-serious collection of Dream/Morpheus thirst-trap fan-art and unhinged posts). Please also peruse the tags #contraceptive sparkles, #glitter herpes and #murphy and his cool hat (yes, I am sort of responsible for the #muhulhu tag on here) if this hell-site has left you in a state of being desperate for laughs

A Little Intro…

…and why this blog will keep on existing

Once there was a girl with so many words, so many images, so many songs in her head that had no place to go. So she decided some of them will just go here…

Well, that sounds a bit contrived, but it’s not entirely untrue. Apart from the “girl”-part, because I’m at the younger end of Gen X. Or the “no place to go”-part, because some of my work actually *did* go places. Just not the stuff I decided to put on here…

Which is mostly Sandman stuff right now, let’s be honest (I fell in love with it when I was 16, and it still has a tight grip on me three decades later). And the fact that my blog a wild mix between my metas, my fanfic and a bit of my doodling already shows the pull in different directions I have experienced for most of my life:

I’ve worked in science/academia, creative/performing arts and mental health. I guess I’m just a multi-hyphenate who can’t make up her mind what she wants to do with her life, so she tries to do it all and ends up burned out half of the time.

Somewhere along the way, I managed to publish a few novels under a pen name, and only a select few people know about it. And I intend to keep it that way.

I used to draw much more (mostly pencil and ink), but between working and having a family, something had to give, and if I have to choose, writing always comes first. But I doodle and experiment a lot in Procreate, and it usually helps me when I procrastinate on my writing. I drop the odd drawing in here (like my profile pic), but I don’t see myself as a fine artist, and I’m in perpetual awe of the talent I see on here.

This is just an account for unapologetically being me, with all my hyperfixations—and undoubtedly some pointless shitposts just for fun…

In light of recent happenings, I explained my personal stance and, by extension, why this blog will keep on existing.

[bronx-bomber87]

Just a quick little thank you for your episode reviews. I'm only a couple of weeks into this show and fandom, mostly just for Lucy and Chenford, but it's so nice to be able to read into other people's insights for the episodes I've caught up with. I've seen all Chenford scenes and some major episodes and I know all the upcoming plotlines, but I'm now watching the show through properly (mid S2 as of now but getting sidetracked every 5 seconds by the need to analyse every single Chenford scene) and it's just nice to have someone to watch along with. Even if review you is in the past <3

Hello there @isca-tide :) Thank you for sending this wonderful message. ❤️ You’re so welcome! They were my pleasure to do. I had this need to do something last hiatus. (Especially since we had the strike extending it) I’m not a fic writer but knew I wanted to do a rewatch with my insights on stuff. Never expected them to take off like they did. This fandom is wonderfully accepting of new forms of Chenford love. This was my contribution. So this means so much to me you’re enjoying them.

Welcome to the fandom! It’s a great time to join. Our show is hitting new heights and popularity. It’s exciting to watch unfold. I’ve been with this show since it got green lit. So to see where it is now makes my heart so happy. I love the show as a whole so it’s great to watch it take off like it has the last couple seasons. Chenford are the heart of it no doubt and the reason it’s skyrocketed the way it has.

Makes me so happy you can use my reviews as a guide as you watch the show as a whole. That was always one of my goals. ❤️😊 I’ve had a hell of a week so this message making it all better thank you for reaching out. Very glad you have past me to watch with haha I’m doing S6 starting next week so I’ll be adding those to the master post as we go along in that rewatch. So hope to see you there when you catch up. :)

[gizkasparadise]

gizka 2023 wrapped

cdrama edition

kdrama edition

webtoon edition

currently watching

Kaos

Lost you forever s2

hard to find (cdrama)

dropout (misc shows)

fallout

in blossom (cdrama, ep2)

legend of shen li (cdrama)

west out of yumen (cdrama)

strangers from hell (kdrama)

the double (cdrama)

the princess royal

my lady jane

the apothecary diaries

yona of the dawn

currently reading (webtoons)

olgami/trapped (reread while i wait for the epilogue)

dreaming freedom (ch 130, might drop)

purple hyacinth (series on hiatus, caught up)

maybe meant to be (series on hiatus, caught up)

when jasy whistles

love song for illusion

muse on fame

betrayal of dignity

i failed to abandon the villain (ep107)

i've become a true villainness

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

this is so tragic

[dyed-red]

not for nothing but i still think dean dying as a result of the writer’s strike is still one of the best things to ever happen to the narrative.

you’ve got this guy who sold his soul and you know he’s gonna be saved somehow. that’s how tv works, that’s how this story works. sam was just dead and then resurrected, dean’s had so many near-misses already, so of course the next season they’re gonna save him. that’s how this goes.

you’ve got s2 ending on sam saying there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for him, on “guess i’ve got to save your ass for a change”

and then he doesn’t.

and then. he.

doesn’t.

the descent storyline primed and ready to launch because, to reiterate, there is nothing sam would not do for dean (even make himself monstrous and into all that which dean hates).

and then - dean dies anyway. and sam turns monstrous anyway. not to save dean. to avenge him. to fruitlessly grasp at the remains of what they had. to have tried and hated himself for failing and hate himself for not descending sooner and hate himself for doing it now when it serves no true purpose except revenge.

i’ve said it before but i’ll say it again -- watching those seasons as they aired, and being almost disappointed watching in real time that the end of s3 was clearly going to involve saving dean, that that conclusion was already foregone so the stakes didn’t feel as high, and then the complete and utter shock when there is no 11th hour deus ex machina that swooped in and saved him. when dean died -- torn to shreds like the deal with the demon ultimately promised but i never once expected to deliver. stomach through the floor, yelling at the screen because there’s no way - there’s no way, how can this show continue without dean? oh god is he dead for real? oh god he’s dead for real.

and then that split second clip of him in hell, yelling for his brother, and the entire season break/hiatus wondering if s4 is going to be trying to rescue him, if it’s going to be him as a demon, what to expect.

it was exceptional. it was exquisitely painful. it was completely unexpected, in a way that subverted tv norms in a good way because narratives so seldom deliver on what they promise in the case of a character death that’s been foretold like this. 

yeah that episode scrambled my brain for all of time, huh

[alicepao13]

S06E10

For a golf episode, okay. For a filler, also okay. Not that much going on.

Let's get one thing out of the way first:

Episode title says caddy. They liked that pun, I guess. As the grammar website I checked explains it further, it's not considered a huge error.

CityTV has such a nerve to put their logo in there after all their scheduling changes and general lack of interest for this show (I have no beef with that interview man, I forgot his name, but his interview with Diesel and John Reardon before the season premiere was actually fun).

I absolutely had no idea that women's golf was so lucrative.

"All I heard is sandwich" Thank god for Sarah. I only like Sarah from now on. Not even Rex, he seems too into golf, although there are too many balls involved for a dog to stay indifferent.

Joe joined the golf club when Camilla was born? Didn't he, like, adopt her after he married her mother? Or is my recollection false?

Charlie had worked as a caddie. Well, certainly some backstory there. And of course he's like, the best of them at it even if he doesn't want to join the club.

Seriously, we can't take them anywhere. Especially Rex, whose nose doesn't take a single day off. Boom, one more day off ruined.

I tuned out in every single golf talk, which is unfortunate because it was mixed with the plot (still found the culprit as soon as they appeared on screen). It's just really hard to follow when I don't care about it at all. Since I like almost all sports, I consider those I don't like as non-sports. Mainly golf and formula car racing.

They cut the chase scene? What?

That scene where Charlie drives a golf cart and Rex runs alongside him does not deserve a cool music lmao

Charlie playing golf as he's interviewing a (at the time) person of interest. I can't decide if this is unprofessional or I just don't like golf.

Ah, please someone tell me how many shots they did for that uninterrupted shot of Charlie's short putt that went pretty close to the hole. I know that the guys actually golf in real life but this had to be close but also not go in the hole for Rex to grab it.

Amazon! How the hell can you put an ad about fast delivery in this show, when you consistently fail to deliver the actual show on time in your streaming service? Am I the only one seeing the irony here? Last season it was too early, this season too late.

Also, Jesse, don't you dare wear that. Charlie's orange jumpsuit was actually a better shade of orange than this one.

Okay, maybe there were a bunch of chase scenes in this episode so they felt they could lose one. Acceptable.

Poor Rex's head. I'd have liked more of Charlie's worry please, although it seems like we might get this in a future episode.

This might be the first time we see Rex's teeth as Charlie checks for god knows what. Come on, show, let Rex bare his teeth just once while growling at a bad guy!

*gasps* Skeletal remains! On a family show!

They shouldn't have spoiled Jesse's shirt in the end scene on their promotional pictures. Not that it's such a big thing, but they should actually stop uploading promotional pictures from the final scenes altogether, or post them after the show has aired.

I liked the teamwork in this one. I believe the golf episode had been brewing since S2, where they had to scrap the idea due to a heavy snowfall, which turned the golf field into a ski slope. There is no avoiding golf, apparently!

Promo: What the actual fuck. Charlie and Rex combined whump? Charlie thrown out of a moving truck? Rex missing? Charlie having temporary amnesia? Hospital? Is it my birthday? (Well, it's actually pretty close to my name day instead.) Please squeeze a scene in there with a worried Sarah, and I take back every single bad thing I said about this season (the show only, I don't take back anything about CityTV). Yes, even the whales.

Of course this would be the episode that they'd take a break on. Oh, well. After that terrible hiatus, I can stand to wait a few days. A day had passed already as I was looking for the episode (turns out that they knew what they were doing lol).

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

donating blood today and it would be so fucking funny if the trailer dropped while my blood pressure is dropping aka my blood is being Removed. like the combined emotional and physical effects might make me fully pass out