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bengiyo · 2 months

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Hi, i'm a newish bl drama watcher from thailand that just started watching thai bls. i'm a bit ashamed to say that for a long time as a gay man living here i've been avoiding bl shows like the plague cuz of both the fandom reputation and of misconception from my yaoi era which i leave far behind. i'm just want to ask how did you got into watching thai bls and what were you preconception before you got into it.

Welcome to the Tumblr side of BL fandom. I'd actually like to also hear more of your experience with yaoi and BL as a gay person growing up in Thailand if you're willing to share.

For me, I'm a Black American from the Gulf Coast (the South). I grew up in a Catholic city and spent my entire adolescence in the closet. Despite having a sense of who I was as early as 8 years old, I kept most of that to myself. Because I didn't talk about it much with people, I found out most information about queer media and queerness from the internet.

I entered BL via queer cinema. I think the first explicitly gay character that I remember from TV was Marco from Degrassi: The Next Generation. There were probably others, and definitely more subtle expressions, but when I think about the oldest gay character I remember and connect to, it's Marco. I don't like counting things like shipping Shawn and Corey on Boy Meets World or Tai and Matt on Digimon for oldest gay characters. Sailor Moon can't even count because we got a censored version of it in America.

I got access to satellite television away from observing eyes around age 16 and started watching content on Logo back when they aired gay content regularly. I watched basically whatever I could late at night. It's how I saw movies like Get Real (1998), Beautiful Thing (1996), and Bent (1997). It's also how I saw Queer as Folk (2000-2005) Noah's Arc (2005-06).

After hitting adulthood I mostly got lost in video games and standard American TV for a while, but I did basically show up to any Gay Event in TV. I appreciate that Stef and Lena from The Fosters (2013-2018) were some of the only TV lesbians to survive the horror of 2016.

I watched a bunch of movies in this time, many of which appear on the Queer Cinema Syllabus I made for a hypothetical Westerner new to BL and queer cinema, which @wen-kexing-apologist has decided to try to complete.

I got into Thai BL in 2018 accidentally. I started seeing gifsets of Kongpob telling Arthit he'll make him his wife passing around Tumblr and was basically like, "Right, what's all this then?"

I had watched a few Thai gay films, mostly notably Love of Siam (2007), Bangkok Love Story (2007), How to Win at Checkers Every Time (2015), and The Blue Hour (2015), but this was the first time I was seeing a long series made available so easily from any Asian country.

From there I got into Make It Right (2016-17) and Love Sick the series (2014). Once I realized that yaoi had moved beyond manga and a few anime adaptations, I went looking for a lot more. I basically haven't left since I started in about 2016 with SOTUS.

There's my basic entry into the genre. I don't think I was as worried about fandom and worries at the time because so much of being a fan of queer cinema was a mostly-private experience for me for so long. I didn't realize that BL fans active in the space would predominantly be women or queers figuring themselves out. It took a while to adjust to that, and also to adjust my expectations of the kinds of queer stories BL distributors were willing to fund.

That being said, I tend to agree with @absolutebl that BL has a useful role in normalization for non-queer audiences who encounter it. I like cheering BL when it does things I think work really well, and also deriding it when I think it does things that are offensive to help nudge the genre and offer my perspective as a gay man.

I like the place we're at right now where there's way too much to watch for any person with other hobbies and responsibilities because it means that people can pick and choose what's to their tastes.

More often than not, I'm probably most-invested in something airing from Japan because of my melancholy nature, but there's so much variety these days that it's okay if you don't like everything. I certainly don't!

I'm glad you joined us on Tumblr and look forward to your thoughts!

#answered #thai bl #fandom life #about me

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notyourmajesty · 8 months

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"I Can't Believe I Was So Wrong About You": Parallels between the Love Scene and Alex and Henry's First Meeting.

CW: I talk about a part of the love scene in a bit of detail here.

So thanks to this amazing post and reblog by @sylvidra and @manic-pixie-fever-dream, I've been thinking more and more about the Paris Love Scene. Particularly the shots that precede this moment:

Gif by @gay-bucky-barnes

When I first saw this scene I thought of this dialogue as more a general, romantic observation Alex makes of Henry - a result of months and months of being with him and seeing him in a way that very few do. It was only on rewatches that I was able to recognise why he says it in this exact moment.

We know, from the way Henry uses his hand to gently press the small of his back, that he is guiding Alex. But the extent to which Henry guides him, aware that it's his first time with a man, comes from small gestures that are easy to miss because a lot of it is out of frame.

Gifs (from the same gifset as above) by @gay-bucky-barnes

These two moments follow the shot where Henry presses down on Alex's back. In the second shot here, if you look closely enough, you will notice Henry's thumb below his knee, leveraging his thigh to make access for Alex easier. In the first, you see his other arm slightly raised, carefully guiding Alex inside.

Not physically easy to work both your hands when you're so overwhelmed yourself by the sensory and emotional impact of what's happening, but Henry is determined to make Alex's first time an unforgettable one.

At the very beginning of this scene, Alex tries hard to "play it cool" the moment Henry requests they make love - first by simply agreeing (with a catch in his voice), then by breaking into a joke. It's only as they kiss - signifying the start of the lovemaking Henry's proposing - that he admits that he has never had sex with a man before. Alex is nervous and insecure and afraid to show it, but trusts Henry enough to confide in him.

When Henry comforts him and lets him know that he is in good hands, this - this gentle, loving guidance that will not scoff at their partner's inexperience, that is patient and will ease him into the process - is what he means.

That Henry will care for and help him. That it is okay for Alex to ask when he doesn't know. That Alex doesn't have to feel scared, or feel insecure or inadequate. Not with him.

The more I think about that, the more it brings me back to the first time they had met. Not the royal wedding, but the Melbourne Climate Conference that happened years before (according to the film - in the book it was the Rio Olympics).

Gifs by @chiefnooniensingh

Alex is - in his own words - a formerly anonymous working class kid whose mother became President. Someone who always fears putting the wrong foot forward, who feels the weight and responsibility of the platform and position he has, who moves around all these elite spaces feeling a little out of place.

At the very beginning of the film he grimaces when the British press calls him "The American Prince Henry", admitting to Nora that unlike Henry, he wasn't born into this life and "...if I use the wrong fork at dinner, they'll just...eat me alive". Nora is shown helping him with his anxiety just before they enter the palace, reminding him that "you're handsome and charming and everybody loves you". It's pretty clear that a lot of Alex's bravado and humour hide his very deep-seated fears that he won't be good enough, and he's had those fears for a long time.

So when a guy his age - who was born into literal royalty, and who he clearly looked up to - looked at him like he "had head lice" and seemed to not even want to be in the same room as him, you get why he held on to his resentment of Henry that long.

Henry understands this the moment Alex admits the truth, and even offers his perspective of that night so Alex will know that it wasn't him - it was the pain and stress of having to pretend everything was normal, while he was still grieving his father's death. (There is also the fact that he possibly fell for Alex that same night...but of course Alex doesn't get to know that until the State Dinner)

And from this point on, Henry makes sure that whenever Alex reveals his insecurities and self-doubt to him without the varnish of humour, he is there to help him.

Sometimes it's in the form of his letters - reassuring a worried Alex who thinks he's letting his mother down, by telling him about Imposter Syndrome and reminding him of the incredible work he has done so far.

Sometimes it's in holding Alex's hand even when he's shit scared himself, and telling his grandfather and King that he loves the man next to him, deeply, and they are committed to each, deeply.

Sometimes it's in the simple act of wearing a tie that represents Alex's home state, and showing it when Alex feels nervous and scared and regretful, wondering if he is responsible for the (possible) failure of his mother's campaign.

And sometimes it's like this - reassuring a nervous Alex, letting him feel safe both sexually and emotionally, putting Alex's needs first, making him feel safe.

Making sure that when Alex asks for his help, he doesn't regret it.

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #alex claremont diaz #henry fox #henry fox mountchristen windsor #henry george edward james hanover stuart fox #rwrb movie #firstprince #taylor zakhar perez #nicholas galitzine #rwrb thoughts #rwrb meta

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wannab-urs · 4 months

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Gin's 2023 sappy post

It's hard for me to believe that at the beginning of this year, I didn't know a single one of my best friends in the world existed. But it's true!

How we got here

I'm not quite sure exactly when I started looking up Pedro Pascal on Tumblr, but it was sometime after February. I'd watched Game of Thrones and Oberyn was my favorite character, but I was in one of my periods of not being on Tumblr (I've had this account for about 10 years, but it's seen many fandoms and I haven't always been active).

I watched the first few episodes of The Last of Us that had come out - I was 3 episodes behind I think - and immediately looked up Joel Miller on Tumblr. How could I not? Anyway, give me ten minutes on this hellsite and a middle aged man with a huge imdb and watch me develop a hyperfixation.

So then I looked up interviews. I watched basically every interview this man ever did, but I remember that the Lie Detector interview and his appearance on the Talk Easy podcast are really what did me in. I went from admiring this man as an actor and thinking he's pretty to basically being in love with him.

Anyways....

I didn't mean to start reading fanfic? I come from the world of Destiel on AO3. I never wrote it, I just read copious amounts of it. I'd never read reader insert, much less straight reader insert, and I'd never written a word of anything even resembling a fanfiction.

But I found @prolix-yuy, @frannyzooey, @joelscruff, @fuckyeahdindjarin, and @ezrasbirdie (check the spreadsheet, y'all are at the very top!) and I was hooked.

Then I read Psychomanteum by @whatsnewalycat and Celestial Navigation by @write-and-buried and was inspired to parade my trauma around in a Dieter shaped trench coat: AGOY was born.

@beskarandblasters is the first person I really talked to on here. In fact, Kel is the one who introduced me to most of my friends on here. And we've been harassing each other on the daily since. I hope to 🦵 her in real life someday soon ❤️. I love you, bitch. You mean the world to me.

I could never ever ever list all of my dear friends I've made on here. Seriously, there are so many of you that mean the world to me. But I'm gonna list a few.

My cannibal crew @pr0ximamidnight and @atinylittlepain, without whom Love as Violence Dave (starving season), Head up his Ass Javi (in the a.m.), and the later editions of loser druggie Dieter (AGOY) would not exist - or at least they wouldn't be as good as they are.

My darling soup snake, the loml, my spider twin, my forever partner in making bitches cry (it's us, we're bitches, making each other cry in an endless loop) @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin. #1 AGOY stan forever, you may love my own magnum opus more than I love it. Thanks for listening to me scream about every pedro boy on the planet and thanks for screaming right back at me. I love you.

The random college student I found by accident, decided to take under my wing, and then was subsequently taken under their wing bc it turns out they have more fandom experience and life advice than I can ever hope to have @idolatrybarbie. Bea, my darling, thanks for always letting me bitch, for showing me fics I never thought I'd be into (The Santa Claus AU Frankie Morales Free Use Kink, anyone) but that I often was into, for encouraging my writing, and for being fucking real with me.

The pedrostories crew, but especially @pedrorascal - I love screaming about Pedro with you at... 2:30 in the morning my time (we love time zones!). Thanks for letting me be a terrible mod for your fic archive blog and never getting mad at me for not doing my job. And for being a wonderful, kind, amazing person all the fucking time.

I'm being so serious when I say I could list at least 20 more people. People who brightened my day with a reblog or a message. Or who wrote a fic I still think about at least once a week. Or who made a gifset that is permanently etched into my brain. People I talked to in discords and most likely trauma dumped on and they listened and they cared and they let me hold their trauma in return. I love you guys so fucking much.

Conclusion

I never could have imagined I'd be a writer and run a fic rec blog at 24. Especially not for Pedro Pascal Characters. But here we are -- and I can honestly say it has been the highlight of my year. And I bought a house this year.

I have so many new friends and a new hobby (I never wrote at all before this) just because I wanted to Fuck That Old Man. Incredible.

#gin is being sappy #i love y'all

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uselesstimetraveler · 2 months

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Man, I love ncis. I think the shows I was first ever obsessed about were csi and ncis. I've loved this show for ages now. Annnd with being an og ncis fan comes the adventure that was following Tiva's story upclose for all those years they were on screen. If I'm being honest, truly honest, even though I always name another couple (that also gave me so much) when asked which is my favorite otp, the real answer has always been Tiva. The way just the thought of those two makes my heart vibrate is... otherworldly.

And I've been active here on tumblr for so many fandoms but never for ncis/tiva. And I don't know why???

I started watching ncis when I was a child and I'm almost 30 now. I'm not an American and I didn't have any friends who liked it when I was a teenager, not even my fandom friends on the bird app, I was literally the only one watching it, dying over tiny Tiva moments alone... so I never posted anything about it. Sometimes I write fanfiction, but my only Tiva fic I wrote just a couple years ago, and I also love to make gifsets but I don't think I've ever made anything ncis related. That frustrates me now, because I just noticed the amount of people here I could've been interacting with.

How come I never thought of checking out the ncis and tiva tags in here??? I remember it being so SO lonely watching and suffering through Ziva's departure alone 'cause there was nobody to talk about it with. A couple seasons after that I dropped ncis for a while, but couldn't stay away for too long and went back to watching it.

I'm still as in love with it as the first day. All other shows that last this long tend to lose intensity and/or quality, but ncis just keeps on giving me life. These days I've been missing Tiva way too much, my heart hurts. I started rewatching the show and wanna be making some tiva content.

(btw, what are all these rumors about them coming back, I'm about to have a heart attack just thinking about it)

Well, I just wanted to kinda introduce myself on here to make up for lost time haha

#tiva #ziva david #tony dinozzo #ncis #ncis fandom #tiva fandom #tiva fanfiction #tiva gifs #ncis gifs #cote de pablo #michael weatherly

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mdverse · 4 months

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md's fun silly little top 10(ish) arts of the 2023!*

*pretend there's a fun cute doodled banner here (i was going to make one earlier and then i forgor)

doing a lil recap of my top 10 15 (it was supposed to be 10 and i could not narrow it down oops) best(? this is subjective as fuck i guess it's more like my personal faves) drawings of the year! *the crowd cheers* (it’s me I’m the crowd)

15: paradise by the dashboard light! i hate to rank her so low bc i spent ages on her but it seems i don't love the result that much anymore so :/ a for effort for me tho this was ambitious

14: cheer girl loml <33 not my best art technically by far but i went way out of my comfort zone for the background and the art style (for no good reason really) (i just wanted to do a comic book thing bc superhero vibes or whatever) (it did not come out the way i was hoping it would bc i think i got too frustrated) and we simply must acknowledge that. atog did things to me that i cannot explain

13: barbie meme brittana! not my best britt but truly sooo fun to work on. there's nothing quite like finding a fun rendering process and then never using it again (i don't even remember how i coloured this but i like it)

12: cowboy barbie brittana <3 they look good, they're about to kiss, cute outfits, pretty sunset, probably went overboard with the rim lighting, what's not to love? a banger, i think

11: i say a little prayer! i think the background is. questionable at best. but this is still really fun! i think i got possessed when i got to the uniforms bc goddamn they look good

10: klaine?? on this blog???? almost unheard of lmao i truly did not think i would like this one as much as i did. i'd consider ranking it higher if i wasn't constantly Unwell over brittana but again, i'm biased, and no one here should be surprised about that

9: pre-wedding kiss my beloved! with how insane i've been over this kiss it could perhaps be higher. i am gnawing on my desk as we speak i'm not even sitting at a desk rn

8: rutherchang x black swan!! ohhh u guys i don't talk about this one enough i think it's so pretty i don't even remember how i did the colours for it but rhgfdkngd?? love her, love pushing the glee x bts agenda, if any of u gifmakers are interested in making a mike chang x black swan lyric gifset i will love u forever

7: colour wheel challenge! busted my whole tiddies and ass for this one fellas. labour of love etc etc i think staring at the bright colours for so long made my eyesight worse and i'm ok with that

6: mistletoe brittana <33 easily the best instalment of this series by a long shot! recency bias (and also just. regular bias) made me rank her much higher originally but technically she is not the most intricate piece so she must sit down here

5: prom queen kurt! dare i say a girlslay on my behalf? i think i dare. every time i see it i think i should do more glosters (glee posters) and then i don't. i could tho they would be really cool (source: dude trust me)

4: churro kiss redraw!!! genuinely Not Sane over this! never have been, never will be! redraws are like crack to me and so is this kiss

3: furtana!! i neglected them for far too long this year but if neglecting them results in art like this i may have to do it again

2: heart kiss <3 if we're being really honest and vulnerable in the chat tonight i think this is technically my best of the brittana kiss screencap redraw things i've done this year? which i did not see coming but i guess practice means refining the process etc etc so. it makes sense ig. mwah to them <3

1: black or white gcv animation <3 it's not what i would call my best drawing (bc it's, yknow, not just one drawing) but it is what i would call the product of a very obsessive thought and some frantic art sessions. objectively it's the coolest thing i've done this year so it deserves the top spot. i'm proud of it i hope to glanimate more next year. also this isn't art but it's a relevant post that i still stand by months later

#md rambles #idk what this is kdfghk i'm so sorry it's 5am and i've spent the past hour ranking these and just saying shit #if i were more awake i would be more specific about actual art things i'm proud of. but i am not. so #sth sth made a lot of bangers this year i think sth sth vv proud of myself sth sth fun list bc i feel like it

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avidbeader · 24 days

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So, I've been doing the Great Sheith Reblog for a while now, gradually reblogging almost everything I shared before that was tagged as Sheith. Lots of art, gifsets, fics and recs, old merch posts, and meta to go around with the occasional dash of salt because lord, dumbness about shipping brings out the salt sometimes. But most of the time it's a lovely nostalgia hit and a reminder of why I still love this ship with all my fandom heart. It's bittersweet sometimes, seeing the usernames that left with Tumblr's worst decision ever, the fellow fans who have moved on to other things, and yes, the hopes and dreams we had before Season 8.

Long blathering under the cut: musings about the persistence of anti-shippers and what queerbaiting actually means.

But occasionally what both amuses and frustrates me is how things line up because it's 2024 and we still have klantis/antis over on the former Twitter spreading the same lies about Shiro and Keith - about their ages, about how they met, about what their relationship is. Right now over there, arguing is happening again because someone put up a clout-chasing poll about which mlm ship was the most influential and included KL but not Sheith (KL beat Johnlock and then lost to Hualian, so I'm happy twice over). Side note - I think if we take "influence" as a completely neutral term, then yeah, KL has been a huge negative influence on fandoms as it was one of the places that allowed puriteen attitudes and anti behavior to grow unchecked for so long. That helped turn some ship fandoms into cults, in which you had to believe with utter certainty that your ship would be canon or you weren't a "true" fan of the ship. That put more emphasis on opposing a rival ship through wank and harassment instead of focusing on the joy and fun of creating for the ship you supposedly love.

And that poll prodded someone to create a Google Form for soliciting answers as to what the biggest examples of queerbaiting are in media. And of course people are saying KL and Adam/Shiro, among other things that are not at all queerbait. These are examples of people guessing wrong and getting mad about it. Queerbait requires that the producers/writers/etc. say outright that a ship is going to happen and then it doesn't, without any influences from the powers above them making changes. Not received fan "wisdom". Not marketing doing things without consulting the producers.

And I just reblogged someone's ask in which they said they felt queerbaited by Sheith solely because of the "brother" line in "The Black Paladins". The answer is excellent and worth a ready if you haven't seen it on my blog already.

Breaking it down:

KL is not queerbait. KL was never planned as a potential ship and LM/JDS said so multiple times. They said it never occurred to them as a possibility and by the time KL's popularity took off they were too far along in the writing to try and go back and make changes, because animators need time to draw. LM flat-out said she was surprised that it became a thing. If the producers are telling you over and over in no uncertain terms that a ship had never been on the table and couldn't be added to the table now, that's not a case of queerbait. And they spoke of Lance's love interests as female every single time. JDS/LM never said anything that would lead fans into thinking KL was a possibility without the deliberate and willful misinterpreting of their words.

Adam/Shiro is not queerbait. Adam is a minor character in a series with a large cast. He has two functions: to be evidence of Shiro's status as a queer man and to be a "face" for all the pilots that died in the first wave of Sendak's invasion. Some people try to claim that LM and JDS queerbaited with their answers at SDCC 2018, but they're wrong. The only thing LM said was that we would see more of Adam in S7. And we did. She did not promise we'd see more of him with Shiro. That was people inserting what they wanted to hear, just like them trying to elevate Adam's status to a fiancé when again, LM clearly stated that they were serious and considering getting engaged. Not engaged. Not married. Just a couple that was serious about each other but broke up.

I don't consider Sheith to be true queerbait. It might fall under the cryptoqueer situation explained at the end of the post linked above, but JDS and LM were mostly very careful to talk of Sheith in terms of deep friendship and devotion to one another, after the initial wave of support for fan content during S1, prior to the klanti movement taking off. The only thing that skirts the line for me is a quote, I think from JDS, saying that if Shiro had a new love interest it would be someone he has known a long time. Or maybe that was about the romances in general being developed over seasons and not Shiro-specific - I would need to research. (Yet more proof that the endcard "wedding" was not planned since we didn't see the unnamed groom until S7 and they never interacted.) And that was said before studio execs started meddling and caused the trainwreck of S8.

I do think we were supposed to have an open ending for Sheith. Klantis like to point out a storyboard artist claiming that "no one wins" this ship war as evidence that KL was supposed to happen and got changed, but that statement applies if Sheith is left open-ended and Allurance happens, even without the endcards.

When I have a chance, I'll try and dig up the links for the various quotes I mention above. Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

#voltron #sheith #why K/L and A/S are not actually queerbait despite anti claims

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faejilly · 1 month

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20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @shadoedseptmbr ages and ages ago

tagging uh... i have no fucking clue. anyone who writes! no pressure! please blame me! @fancytrinkets @la-muerta @leahazel @jadesabre301 & ?!?!?

1: How many works do you have on AO3?

178 fics, since this is a fic writer meme.

2: What's your total AO3 wordcount?

1,193,590, with the caveat that that includes a collab fic of 190,409 words of which I was primarily writing only one of three POV characters. (And also one other shorter collab and the minimal amount of words required to describe the podfic/fanmixes.)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Shadowhunters (TV) atm, a lot of BioWare Games (especially Dragon Age 2) and then a truly random smattering of smaller games and tiny!fandom prompts back when askbox games were more common here plus Yuletide/Fic Exchange Matches On Unexpected Things. (I think I've broken 20 fandoms on AO3, depending on how one counts the various DA sub-fandoms.)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

These are all Shadowhunters and Malec fics. The first three are complete, the last two are WIPs.

two are halves of one

My only posted 5+1 fic, a series of outsider perspectives on Alec & Magnus & their very long day of denied cuddles/alone time. 😅

i cannot touch because they are too near

Parabatai Feels & Magic Lore! I wrote this for a Season 3B countdown event, and it's Magnus Being A Nerd and trying to figure out how this parabatai thing works. I snuck Jace and Michael Wayland feels in there kind of sideways too. I do think it's one of the most self-indulgent things I've ever written (epistolary! melancholy comfort! No Plot!) with many thanks to @rutherinahobbit because she helped me land the ending.

with an if in its soul

So I killed Alec off-screen right before the fic starts, and proceeded to keep poor Magnus very upset about it for the following 22k words. (It gets better! I promise! No one stays dead!) I got many angry and wailing comments, I have never been so proud. (This one suffered from very dramatic scope creep while I was trying to write it, which amused tumblr a lot, and this time I have to thank @poemsfromthealley for helping to make it work. And also the blurb, because I just could not figure out how to post it for ages.)

i am for you

Epistolary!Fluff Fic that was supposed to be a bit of a missed connection thing for @pameluke but Alec instead proposed to Magnus on first sight and I just kind of went with that instead. /I am not in charge of the voices in my head

It is the first fic I ever had really break containment and get a lot of engagement/comments/subs/etc. It has been out-kudosed now, obviously as it's #4 on this list, but that's only because I killed the momentum and never finished it. 😅😅😅 ISTFG I am going to finish it some day though!

if broken hearts were whole

From a soulmates/massage combined prompt meme thing ALSO for @pameluke. I got stuck on this one largely because I had three different prequel/s1 retellings in my head at the same time and I kind of tangled them all up too much to get any of them done. I will eventually figure this one out too, but I may have to finish one of the other things to sort of clean my brain out, and I haven't managed that either.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

In theory? I got hung up on a comment from an FTH bidder the year I failed to finish my FTH fic, and didn't want to reply to their comment 'til I wrote their fic?

which doesn't make much sense, but brains are weird, so there we are

someday I'll answer the backlong. it's only like two or three years at this point? 😅😭🤣

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

so about uh... five years ago? there was a really popular gifset format from an Elizabeth Hewer poem called in one timeline and I haven't the faintest idea how to gifset so I wrote a fic for Malec instead. [ao3]

I have written other things which Have Angst, but for me I tend to ease the ending... this is one of the few where I didn't.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Everything Else! (Almost)

I think, as an exercise in the true form of Happily Ever After, I'd have to go with Fine Feathers, which is an epilogue to a Georgette Heyer Regency Romance novel I did for Yuletide 2016.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

Not usually. I don't even get people yelling at me to update on my WIPs, which may be hateful but isn't the same thing 😅

/and I'm certainly not complaining about either of these things, but I wish I knew how I avoided The Discourse™️so I could do it on purpose

9. Do you write smut?

I used to pretty regularly. I was even known as a smut!fic writer when Dragon Age Fandom and I were mutually more active together. Not so much (on either the writing quantity or the requests for more smut) for Shadowhunters.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Mostly no? I did two very short ficlets for Bingo Squares. I do still believe that Leverage is the Fix-It Fandom that fits everywhere and thus only kind-of counts as a crossover, plus I wrote a Shadowhunters / Inception bit with Ariadne as a Warlock.

I do also enjoy a good fusion fic, aka using a different canon as an AU setting, rather than combining characters from two settings.

For example: Shadowhunters Characters as BAU Agents from Criminal Minds!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of? I've seen it happen to co-authors though, and other friends

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I am still stunned and amazed and delighted by this!

Batty_Blue translated several of my Shadowhunters fics into Russian:

a flower of always i cannot touch because they are too near trust your heart ashes of angels / ashes of roses

And Pomyluna translated 'First Choice' into Polish

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes!

Only once successfully (aka one and done and finished and posted), and that was entirely thanks to my co-author Raph. 😅 (Against All Odds for @galedekarios back when I knew her as Chignon on an actual forum prior to tumblr. She's who got me onto tumblr, so if you met me here? That's her fault. 🥰)

I have started things with people a few times that never got posted, and there's a massive Mass Effect retelling on potentially permanent hiatus, though all three of us do hold out hope that someday our lives will align again. (Persephone Rising)

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

Me & Sleep

(Sorry, can't do it, can't choose. Beware My Armada. With a couple ancient ship leviathans which can raise themselves from the deep with the slightest provocation.)

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Every thing I have ever posted (except for 12 Moons) is something that I do in fact hold out hope I will eventually finish.

Things I have not started posting are too numerous to count and/or list. Sometimes they come back. Sometimes they are fertilizer for other things that will be written later.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Dialogue and hopeful melancholy? I get a lot of compliments on emotion/mood, and I do feel like I am usually pleased with the, idk, vibes of most of what I write.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Plot & structure! What is? How do? What do you mean I have to have things happen rather than just reacting all the time?!?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have done it with mixed success and there are definitely ways to do it more accessibly than I did. It can add a lot, but you do have to think about the execution.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Uh. I think Lois & Clark back when I was a teen!jilly. Either that or Sailormoon when I was a slightly older teen!jilly?

In terms of posting in public, it was Bioware something, either Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Origins back around when Thing 2 was born. And he's 14 now, so... 😅

Orion's Belt, I think? I didn't originally post it on AO3, and then I deleted myself off the internet for awhile, and then I re-uploaded everything, and I'm bad at time in the best of circumstances, which that clearly was not, so it might not have been that one specifically but it was close.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I CAN'T CHOSE JUST ONE WTF

As a formative event/process, I have a certain enduring fondness for Lost for Words, which was like the first fic I really wrote while in fandom... I was social about it and posted while I was writing and finished (eventually) and it is still the longest single story I have ever written. (Tho I am for you will beat it out when I finish that.)

It's not particuarly good from the perspective of who I am as a writer some dozen years later, but it's sincerely meant cotton candy, at least. 🤣

#jilly spam #on writing #writing memery

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astaraels · 6 months

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i was tagged by the lovely @callivich for some fandom asks, let's fuckin goooo

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once? Cold Feet by aeli_kindara; In a Haze of Smoke & Fire by IanRightsOnly; please don't say I'm going alone and broad-shouldered beasts by biblionerd07; Cooperative Gameplay and Bright by grayola; to think that we could stay the same by teatrolley; love, let your hands be tender by sadwhales; to stop our hearts from drowning by enbytim; Redheaded Stepchildren by ZebraWallpaper (there's a lot, I know)

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog? anything with 5x10 i'm a slut for love and violence interplay

What’s a headcanon you can’t stop thinking about? honestly when/if ian and mickey do eventually end up with a kid (it would happen completely by accident, of course) they're the biggest girl dads ever.

What’s a fanart you love looking at? this one is g o r g e o u s

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration? well, i'm currently working on a soulmates au fic that's canon-adjacent of seasons 1-5, so that's been fun! (featuring romantic and platonic soulmates because i refuse to write only the romantic kind :p) i'm also fond of writing character study fics when the mood strikes. i haven't been motivated to write fic and post it in nearly ten years, but i'm very happy that shameless and gallavich have helped me knock some of the rust off the old writing skills.

What’s an underrated trope or concept you’d like to see more of? SHOTGUNNING. where are all the shotgunning fics. also nurse!mickey (I read a fic with this once and it's a crying shame there's no emt!ian/nurse!mickey fic--at least none that i've ever seen...)

What’s your favourite season? And has this changed after multiple rewatches of the show? i've only watched the show through once but honestly s4/5 are my favorites, but i have a special place in my heart for s1 and s10.

What’s a plot hole you wish had been answered or resolved? I mean the fact that they managed to convict mickey of attempted murder and debbie of statutory rape is insane. (the age of consent is 17 in illinois! and it's literally sammi's word against mickey's AND debbie's! but it's fine, just fine, everything's fine...)

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship? these two are the most siken-coded ship since dean/cas. in particular: little beast, saying your names, you are jeff, and wishbone. I even named my gallavich playlist on spotify after a siken poem, and half the chapter titles in my long fic will end up being from his works as well....

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale? i think things are gonna go okay for them! i think that they may make their way back to the south side, but in a house of their own not too far from the other gallaghers. i like the idea of them ending up with a little girl of their own but i can also see them just being cat dads and being the best uncles to ian's siblings' kids. i would love for them to reunite with svet and yev later down the road, as well. there's endless possibilities <3

#gallavich #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #shameless #tag game

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thegeminisage · 3 months

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it IS tng update time. saturday we watched "relics" and "schisms" and last night* we did "true q" and "rascals."

*times altered bc as usual im typing this up late at night

relics:

oh boy. ohhh my god

so like, i'd like to preface this with: i am not a scotty stan or anything. don't get me wrong i love the guy and i'm fascinated by the way he tricked me into thinking he had all ten fingers. like he's v fun and all. but im not like Extremely Emotionally Invested In Scotty. all right. that said

I CRIED. LIKE A BABY. no one was more shocked than i was. actually i'm sure catherine was not shocked at all

i didn't cry when he first showed up which is what i suaully do when i see spock. no, no, no, no. it was when he went to the holodeck and created the fucking BRIDGE OF THE ENTERPRISE. and they played the main theme!!! the sound effects were even the same!!!!!!! and like all his friends are dead now except spock and bones and bones frankly has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel!!!!!!!! I'VE NEVER BEEN SO UPSET IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.

chronologically, this is also the last time we'll ever see a tos cast member coming back to reprise their role except for aos spock and um. an appearance which i do not wish to discuss now or ever. anyway it's definitely the last time in tng proper. and like yeah we have aos and snw and everything but those guys arent the OGs. AUGH.

also wah him saying the doctors are prettier on this enterprise. thats SO MEAN TO BONES………………….i miss him so bad and he's WAY prettier than beverly sorry beverly

i definitely wanted to kill geordi for yelling at scotty when he tried to tell his old man stories. im glad they hung out for the rest of the episode and that geordi treated him really niceys but it still felt a teensy bit patronizing of him at first like he was just doing it because picard told him to make scotty feel useful

THAT SAID. for once, i am pro picard, because picard is a giant nerd and he wanted to listen to scotty's old man stories as much as i did. not that i got to enjoy them while being blinded by tears. i'm actually genuinely tearing up right now while typing this just thinking about it. i think it was genuinely compassionate for picard to want to give scotty something he could genuinely help with in a way that WASN'T patronizing. like old people are just regular people you know. we all get old one day if we're lucky

spotted scotty's missing finger twice, which is two more times than i spotted it in my original watch of tos.

he remembered how to hide the missing finger (mostly) but forgot how to do his fake scottish accent. in his defense it's been ages and he was old but it was still funny

synthehol is wack. it's just another way in which there's no work-life boundary in tng. you're always on call, so you can never get drunk. you will NEVER have personal time aboard this ship. they can call you in your son's parent-teacher meeting. they can call you during birthday parties. you cannot raise your children here. but they do. anyway.

IT'S GREEN!!! i remember seeing a gifset of data floating around saying that to somebody, and then later i saw a gifset of scotty saying it in tos, but i didn't realize data was talking TO SOCTTY i thought it was just a reference!!!!!!! there were actually sooo many tos references in this episode, i was so pleased to hav caught them all <3

looooooved the dyson sphere. that was genuinely so fucking fascinating and it was the b plot!!!!! why can't it be the a plot!!!! it was so cool looking

i thot for a sec they were gonna kill scotty at the end and got REALLY worried but they didn't and he decided not to retire after all and good for him <3

anyway. that cry felt like a full-body workout. horrific.

schisms:

OFF GOES RIKER TO THE COFFEE SHOP

i waited so long to see the episode that gifset is from and it did NOT disappoint

my one sour note re: this ep was the beginning with data's poetry. can we please be nice to him and not loudly fall asleep in the front row. i know the circumstances are highly extenuating. i of all people understand sleep deprivation, which i am currently experiencing even as i type. but that was just rude!!! could he not have simply explained he was unwell and unable to attend!!!!!!! the crowd being restless was terrible. if you simply tell him that he has to have a limit on his poems he would understand. i'm glad geordi was an honest critic when data asked later but i would have liked to see data's results after incorporating his feedback. ok anyway

firstly, i loved when a little guy is sleep deprived. it was great when sam winchester did it and also great when riker does it

SECONDLY, that whole sequence with the table was fucking insane. everything getting darker and darker both literally and metaphorically and deanna starting to look uneasy near the end and riker's eyes being ABSOLUTELY HAUNTED and that table was basically like a chair, anyway

when they were like "yeah the aliens cut off your arm and reattached it" READER I HOLLERED. you can't just put a guy on a chair and tear his arm off and then make him forget stuff. please. it's been nearly 10 years.

when he's like theyre gonna take me again whether i want them to or not. yeah man they sure are. this isn't quite riker roulette but it is definitely adjacent

i think the best cure for insomnia is to be absolutely terrified of going to bed because you're still in uniform and have a tracking device on you because you are about to get abducted by fucking aliens. who could resist sleep after that.

i did wonder why he laid on the table so long before attempting his escape when time was precious but i doubt i could have done any better in his shoes. i sure did love the way that knife thing hung right above his neck though. i'm pretty sure we spent that entire scene hollering DISMEMBER HIM. TRAUMATIZE HIM!! and then they didn't <3 but i'm not even mad about it

anyway. 10/10 episode they need more space horror in star trek bc it's always fun. i remember reading that tos was originally meant to be space horror-y, but i found the pacing of those earliest episodes waaaay too slow. i want a star trek show with more dismemberment though.

true q:

mistakenly thot this episode was named qpid (got it mixed up) and was hoping for more of q wanting to fuck picard to so bad it makes him look stupid but all we got was one little arm around his shoulder. which was REALLLY funny because picard instantly made a face like he'd eaten sour lemon but we deserved more. to reiterate i do NOT want them to fuck i think the dynamic of q wanting to fuck and picard preferring to die first is the funniest possible set of circumstances

instead, q constantly displays predatory body language towards this EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL. he leans really close to her and whispers in her ear and all that stuff and i did Not like it

i kept waiting for this girl to secretly be his child, or for her parents to have once been friends with him, but they literally were just randos to each other. disappointing, especially after he vanished while she was having her emotional moment on seeing their faces

where do the puppies go when she vanishes them? do they cease to exist?? did she just kill 12 puppies on screen???? too horrible to contemplate. i wish i could make kittens out of thin air though. actually that would be a terrible power the world is overpopulated with kittens as it is but STILL.

i want to know more about the weather altering net. we could have an entire episode about that alone. you just...got rid of tornadoes? and forest fires? did you fix climate change??

riker almost being killed by an empty barrel sent me into fits. they didn't strap them down after what happened to worf? this spaceship gets jostled horrifically EVERY EPISODE. what are they thinking!!!!!!!!!

RIKER ROULETTE STRIKES AGAIN. her bringing him to the alternate dimension and trying to lay on the moves was bad enough but using her powers to MAKE HIM START KISSING HER? HELLO???? i'm still mad they wrote an episode about rape and just used it for deanna fetish fuel instead of actually discussing what this poor guy goes through. why is it somehow ok/not noteworthy when it's men. come on now

it was kind of silly to have this girl go "no way im a human forever" and then immediately solve climate change on this other planet because her lil crush (/VICTIM???) was down there. like that was so rushed and weird

ultimately not a very good episode. i only like one thing about q and they did NOT deliver. he was also a misogynist to beverly once...like, die

rascals:

this got a 1 on letswatchstartrek.com and i simply disagree. i would have given it a 2 or mmmaybe 3. well no probably a 2 but STILL. first of all, tng's children are ALWAYS charming, and these guys were no exception, save possibly the kid who was playing picard, who was fine until the tantrum scene/riker's son bit, at which point i wanted to die

i never want to hear riker say daddy again.

i HAAAATE the ferengi theyre racist theyre misogynist i HATE THEM.

i felt like there was a missed opportunity with obrien and keiko to have him be cool about it, instead of awkward like everyone else. like i obviously dont think they should be canoodling or anything, gross, but there's nothing wrong with a little platonic compassion. he got there in the end ig but idk it would've made a nice contrast

how old is their fucking baby??? i just looked it up and she was born at the beginning of season 5...her ass is NOT old enough to be talking yet let alone full complete clear sentences??????

anyway speaking of compassion............GUINAN AND RO

i actually unironically loved ro's little arc here. anyone who had a shitty childhood will tell you they'd cut off their arm before going back, but she had to go back anyway, and guinan neither pitied her nor minimized anything she'd gone through. instead she got to occupy that space in a totally harmless way and receive a little closure. while the rest of this episode was okay-ish to maybe less than okayish (i NEVER want to hear riker say daddy EVER again) ro's little bit was so so so good.

re: ro...i love that we don't constantly bring her past and situation up as if it's the only thing about her but nor do we shy away from it and how it's shaped her and the narrative has never once suggested she's too harsh or too angry or whatever. of course with a season and a half left there's still time to ruin it but so far her whole thing has been one of the very few instances where tng is doing everything wonderfully.

NEXT TIME: "a fistful of datas" (noooo it's a holodeck episode) and "the quality of life."

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb #i hope im not at work when this posts but u never know.

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almost-a-class-act · 4 months

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Get to know me game

Thanks for the tag, @blood-mocha-latte, @fayestardust, and @ep6bastogne. it's Friday morning and you know what that means: I just did some housework in a frenzy and now I'm putting off doing real work!

name: Sam

pronouns: she/her but in the least I'll-die-on-this-hill way possible, if that makes sense. It's not a preference so much as an "I need to have these to be referred to in English".

star sign: Sagittarius, baby.

number of siblings and fun facts about them: One, he's younger and within two years we'll both be CPAs. He got his first, because he's obnoxious like that.

number of pets and their names: None, but I saw a cat at the shelter named Yam and all of a sudden I was consumed by the urge to be Sam and Yam. Yam got adopted but I think I've got the cat bug.

fandoms: HBOWar, Justified, Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows, the Sandman

favorite color: Green

favorite song: I always waffle over this question because I'm like, do you mean ever or the one I've listened to a thousand times this week? Ever is probably All the Small Things by Blink-182. I was the right age for it to lodge firmly in the ol' melon I guess.

favorite author (books, fanfics, zines, webtoons, etc.): god, is it Robert Leckie? He's the only author I've actively sought out in the last couple of years. I sort of have a lifelong yen for Lewis Carroll and Dianna Wynne Jones also. I bought my nephew the two Alice books for Christmas.

favorite fic type: Angst with a happy ending, probably.

favorite holiday: Halloween

do you have a partner (romantic, qpr, etc.)? Nope. Cue Whoopi "I don't want anybody in my house!"

hobbies: hiking, camping, baseball, golf, fitness, craft beer, WWII. I'm like every cis man red flag on a dating profile.

fun facts about you: I've seen One Direction in concert four times, which is less surprising if you've been following me since I was feverishly reblogging ziam gifsets at all hours of the night. I also have my personal trainer cert (which I've let lapse and am no longer insured on, but I had it for... almost five years) and I like to say that in fandom because people are always like, gross you came here from sports?

I'm pretty sure everyone on god's green and most extremely verdant acre has been tagged at this point so please consider yourself tagged if you haven't been, and here's a few more from the recent notifs, hi come yell into the void with me if u would love to: @vintagelavenderskies @terresdebrume @offbeatpaikea23 @buthappysoverrated @mutantmanifesto @missmelewis

#tag games

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the-force-awakens · 3 months

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Saw a gif set of Poe sticking up for Holdo, and now I'm thinking about how Poe is first to notice not one, yet TWO self sacrifices in tlj

Oh yeah, I think about that a lot. So much so, that I made a gifset about it once. It's something that I think goes over people's heads, by and large, just judging from how they talk about Poe in that movie -- but the sheer fact is, the movie opens with Poe doing the exact thing that Luke does. He goes out, one man against an army to give the Resistance more time to evacuate, by offering himself up as bait.

Poe recognizes a self-sacrifice, because...he's tried it. We see him do the same thing, it just largely gets overlooked because what happens is that it doesn't work. That's the horrifying fact for Poe: he's convinced that the most he can offer the Resistance is his own noble sacrifice, and if in the meantime, he can take down a fleet killer that could kill them all later? That's even better. But instead, Poe survives - Poe survives, again, let us not forget that he's also the only one, save the First Order and BB-8, that night in the village - and instead he has to reckon with the fact that people under his command have died again, while he hasn't.

"Dead heroes, no leaders" in my perspective, tlj is by and large Poe being forced to reckon with the fact that there's more to him and more to this fight than just dying for the cause. One thing I'm noticing throughout my chronological reread of stuff that's about/features Poe heavily, is that there is this desperate need for purpose that guides him, and that purpose seems to truly be to be a soldier, a hero that can pull of last minute miracles, and if he happens to die for the right reasons at least it'll be for the right reasons, and if he gets a little adventure in between, that's even better. That elusive search for that purpose pushes him off Yavin in Free Fall, and he's still struggling to find it when he's with the Defense Fleet in Age of Resistance.

So, Poe's spent majority of his life wanting to be a soldier like his parents. In some ways, he thinks that's what he's best at. When Leia implies that she can see more in him after L'ulo's funeral in the comics, Poe is confused - he can't see that potential in himself. And then even after he understands what she's trying to tell him, in the Enshado arc, he mentions to Snap that he prefers being a pilot, and not have to make the hard calls or moral decisions that command has to - for Poe, he's more than happy to be t he person to jump into the fire and do what's necessary, even if it costs him his own life. He doesn't fear death, he doesn't even fear it in Free Fall when he's just sixteen/seventeen years old, and it's clear that he still doesn't really by the time the movies roll around.

And TFA, he was originally supposed to be the martyred hero. And he still almost is - but that sacrifice is aborted, and suddenly Poe is the survivor of that mission to Jakku. And the First Order is so much larger than any of them could have ever imagined - so he offers himself as bait, to give the Resistance some time. He could have easily died, during that initial run. He strapped experimental tech that hadn't even been tested to his X-Wing, just to give him an edge, so the Resistance could finish evacuating. He was ready and willing to die for them.

And he knows, first hand, more than anyone else in the Resistance, just how big the First Order is. He puts himself between them and the ship he was just held captive and tortured aboard for days - and decides that if nothing else, the dreadnought has to go because it's a fleet killer.

(And sure, no one in that battle went into it for the "right" reasons. Every Resistance officer in that fight wanted a fight. They've lost people, just lost their home, lost their only support - and I've no doubt that's also going through Poe's head.)

But then...Poe isn't the one to make the sacrifice. It's everyone else, and it's on his command. And he knows it was the right call to make, because the Resistance can't be killed by a fleet killer later (good thing, too, since the first order ambushes them) but...he still lost people under his command, and he has to deal with the worst weight of leadership: being the one to survive.

And then he straight up gets grounded. Like, his X-Wing is destroyed. Poe cannot be the kind of hero that he believed he was anymore - that soldier/rebel pilot to run headfirst into things. Now, he's pushed into the role that Leia normally is: the one to stay behind, and trusting an important mission to someone else. Being the person that everyone tries to come back to.

And it results in Poe becoming what Leia knew he could be all along: someone people could trust and be inspired by to follow, to fight for. When the Resistance feels that it can't trust Holdo, they trust Poe. And under the threat of total obliteration, and the knowledge that they're officially the last line of defense between the galaxy and the First Order, and almost dying several times and losing so many people he was friends with and almost losing Leia - I really do think Poe realizes he doesn't want to die, he wants to live for the Resistance, for the galaxy, and not just die for them. He knows, now, that there's more to him than a noble sacrifice, and he sure as hell doesn't want the people who died while he got to live's deaths are in vein (we see that lampshaded explicitly in tros).

Poe recognizes a self sacrifice when he sees one, because it used to be the first thing he'd think to do. But by tros, we see that he cares less about a noble sacrifice, and more about surviving -- which is the biggest hurtle he's maybe overcome, considering how little he's always feared death.

This is already a touch incoherent and rambly because I'm tired, but I think - I think the slightly tragic thing about Poe is that he wanted to be a soldier like his parents. But he got so good at it, that he ended up flying straight into being a leader - and that terrified him, because that meant that Poe had outgrown the purpose he's been seeking his entire life, and it also means that he has to carry a lot more burdens, including the burdens of when his plans go wrong. He can't be the person to die with his squadron, he gets to be the one to survive and carry their sacrifice with him.

#ask box #userorb #this got so incoherent i'm so sorry but i. am tired #sui ideation cw #just in case #my meta

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valyrfia · 10 months

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I really like some of the takes and overall people sharing their opinions in a safe sort of way/space.

I also love how I can trace your point of view not only on lestappen topic but on shipping in general and rpf specifically.

I think sometimes people forget (maybe due to their age or inexperience) that Max and Charles are real life human beings with high stress level jobs and who are public personas as well. If people think about themselves as nuanced individuals they should think the same way about these two too.

Like don’t get me wrong I enjoy analyzing their interactions, I do read fanfiction and always reblog a good gifset or post but I also realize that what I spent my time on is not a true reflection of reality.

Thus I don’t expect them to be publicly smooching every race weekend on camera.

They are just guys doing their job, they seem to have some type of feelings towards each other and they might as well be aware of it but even if it is so we are not gonna know about it probably. Not while they are active F1 drivers at least. And honestly? We are not supposed to know about it. It’s called private life for a reason.

So yeah I’m kinda glad to know that there are other tumblr users with similar opinions on sexuality, personal stuff and shipping and I hope the majority of the fanbase is sharing them.

First of all let me just say this is one of the kindest asks I've gotten, thank you so much <3 I love that you feel I'm curating a safe space for everyone involved

But yeah, I'm an old hat at rpf so I'm pretty good at the cognitive dissonance required to distinguish between the Max and Charles the super famous F1 drivers and the Max and Charles that we cackle about here, which is why I'm pretty straightforward about the fact that I don't like talking about their irl partners or speculating on their sexualities. It does take practice, but I think it's a really vital skill to have if we're going to talk about them. I've been involved with 3 or 4 rpf ships in my time and they get sour quickly unless we explicitly set some boundaries for ourselves.

Also let me play devil's advocate for a moment, let's say either of them are anything not straight. Imagine how absolutely terrifying that is, in an extremely high-stress sport that's had no high-profile non-straight people that competes in countries where being gay can get you killed by law. A grand majority of the fans would change the way they see you, probably some of the higher ups would too. Tabloids would hound you relentlessly and it's likely some people or their families in your circle would shun you. There is no way you would even think about the possibility of being openly queer in an environment like that. Whatever their sexualities are is their own private business, which is why I explicitly refuse to speculate. It's important to distinguish feelings from sexuality here. You can speculate on someone's feelings without speculating on their sexuality or how they identify.

That being said, fic plays by different rules (apart from the partners bit). I think fic can use these characters of Max and Charles to explore some really interesting theses on sexuality and how it would fit into the sport. It's still important to keep in mind that these aren't the Max and Charles that exist here in the real world though, they're characters based off of them.

#i'm not going to get into the age old 'is rpf actually morally wrong' discourse everyone has their own opinions #but what we can and should do is set some good boundaries #lestappen #anon #also this ask genuinely made me smile to receive thank you anon

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lightbluetown · 4 months

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happy new years eve everyone! here's an overly-personal post of me reflecting on 2023 ✨

have i ever told you guys that i had no idea ofmd was a queer show when i first started watching it? i really didn't know the first thing about it-- i'd never even seen a picture of stede in my life. it took me almost three weeks to veeery gradually get through the first three episodes. i enjoyed them, but only felt like tuning in during dinner on weekends. i've been around fandom spheres for twelve years but i've never been part of a big fandom myself (or of any fandom that wasn't related to video games or, well, anime). certainly didn't think that would change anytime soon. yet suddenly, a mere three weeks before the start of season 2, i heard the words "you wear fine things well" and all the circuits in my brain were reset

2023 had definitely been a suboptimal year for me until then-- devastating natural disasters, personal losses, deep political problems, the uszh. not to mention the terrible injustices and wars happening around the world. i tend to protect myself from negative thoughts and fear by letting hyperfixations consume me (as i'm sure many people can relate) and boy did ofmd do the job! especially with the excitement of s2... i didn't even realize when october came to an end, it just flew by! i excitedly watched every episode as soon as they came out, made some silly posts on this blog that i'd randomly decided to make... yes, the fandom has its fair share of problems, and i see annoying takes in my twitter fyp basically every day, but eh, i've seen (and been in) worse communities. my experience has been lovely! i love all the beautiful fan art, gifsets and meta posts here. people are so passionate, which only makes my passion grow stronger. i really appreciate it.

unsurprisingly, i've consumed basically everything you can possibly consume that features rhys/the new zealand gang (i've become a diehard fotc fan too). sorry for the sudden dark turn but a really close friend of mine tragically passed away the day after my birthday in november. i don't think i would've moved on with my life if it wasn't for the very welcome distraction provided by these series. especially ofmd of course

ofmd isn't just a silly fun comedy show, it isn't just a love story, at least not to me. it's the story of a man who's spent his life feeling lost, left out, left behind, unwanted, unloved, unneeded. a middle-aged gay man stuck in aristocracy who, for some reason, i can deeply relate to as a young queer person stuck in the middle east. it's the story of people like me freely and unapologetically being themselves, fighting to live their lives filled with joy and love, even in less-than-ideal conditions. it's given me a lot of strength and hope when i needed it. i would've had a much worse memory of 2023 in my mind if it hadn't been for ofmd

so yeah. 2023? not a huge fan! glad it's over! but i'm really glad ofmd was part of it!! i'll remember the past four months fondly, i'll keep loving the series for many months to come and i'll hopefully enjoy a third season with other fans. i'm excited! i hope 2024 will be better for everyone

thank you all!!

#personal #ofmd #tagging for my personal blog use #idk if anyone will even read this but i appreciate everyone following this blog #means a lot to see people in my notes!!

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exlibrisfangirl · 1 year

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So I can usually parse at least a VAGUE idea of what something's about based on out-of-context gifsets but I'm coming up totally blank on what the hell this Haven show's about. The only thing I think I've figured out about it is that I like this Duke guy's face. So uh.... what's it about? XD (and is it worth a watch?)

Is it worth a watch?

Oh. OH. Have I GOT A SHOW FOR YOU. *rubs hands together gleefully*

Intro

Based on the Stephen King novella “The Colorado Kid”, this Canadian-American Syfy series is set in the quaint, seaside town of Haven, Maine (actually filmed in Nova Scotia, so it looks the part), where many of the local residents harbor supernatural afflictions referred to by the locals as “Troubles”. The Troubles have always existed - but have a habit of coming and going throughout the ages - and the quirky, standoffish townsfolk are understandably wary of strangers.

Main Cast

Enter Audrey Parker (Emily Rose), a spunky, beautiful FBI agent with a mysterious past who visits Haven on what she believes to be a routine assignment to track down a fugitive, only to find herself in wayyy over her head. She feels drawn to this town she has most definitely never been to before in an eerie, unsettling way, and she just can't seem to leave. Hmmm. Maybe she isn't such an outsider after all? *strokes mustache*

Immediately upon her arrival, Audrey has a run in with the local law. Meet Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant), the stiff, serious, emotionally-constipated, handsome Haven PD detective with daddy issues and a rare medical condition which prevents him from feeling any (physical) sensation... neither pleasure nor pain. Can Audrey break down the walls around his carefully-guarded heart and help him feel something? Anything?

And then there's Duke. Nathan's beloved sworn enemy frenemy since childhood, Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour) is a swashbuckling smuggler and pirate (no, actually), who also has daddy issues. And mommy issues. Just... ALL the issues. He is snarky, charming, rogue-ishly good-looking... and almost always doing something super illegal sketchy, but he secretly has a heart of gold, okay? Solid, piratey gold. We like his face. We like his character development even more.

Surrounded by a cast of delightfully peculiar and endearing supporting characters, this odd throuple (BROT3? OT3? NOT3? You decide...) have to figure out exactly how they are all connected and why the universe has brought them together now, of all times.

Plot

You like a particular trope? This show's got it! There's romance. There's mystery. There's humor. There's angst. There's fluff (but a high angst-to-fluff ratio, just the way I like it). There's magic and curses. There are ghosts and monsters and shapeshifters and aliens... oh my! There's body-swapping. There are dimensional/space/time travel hijinks. There's a TARDIS in the form of an old barn. There's... reanimated taxidermy...

Anyway, it's an interesting premise with some truly stellar characters, relationship dynamics, and character development/arcs, and, as the series unfolds, there are some really good plot twists and reveals.

Caveat

(PARTIAL SPOILER ALERT: I must warn you, there is a major character death at the end of S5, and it's pretty upsetting to watch. If you can't handle main character deaths, you might not want to watch that far... or at all. Personally, I'm glad I did, even though it hurt like hell... but it will 100% haunt me forever.)

If you do decide to give it a go, please tell me, so I can squee with you!

#ratmonologue #tumblr friends #answered ask #haven syfy #audrey parker #nathan wuornos #duke crocker #brot3: so much we never could've done without you #otp: i owe you so much #tv shows #fictional characters #just! watch! this! show! please!#long post

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milfweirdal · 9 months

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Random Question: When did you first learn about Al and at what point did you fall down into the land of Weird Al hyperfixation?

hi mirrors! (I hope it's ok me calling you that lmk if there's something else you'd like me to call you instead!)

Ok so I first learned about al when I was a kid, about 8ish. I assume this age because I think it was around the time that Poodle Hat came out. My dad introduced me to his music. I don't think he was like, a fan? More of a casual enjoyer. When he showed me and my lil bro the songs eBay and Eat It and Fat and Like A Surgeon and Amish Paradise we were both entranced. My brother was more into him than I was then and when Straight Outta Lynwood came out he introduced me to Virus Alert and I'll Sue Ya and Don't Download This Song and also Hardware Store and I loved them all. I loved the way he made the songs funny and silly and wasn't afraid to be weird. I never really dug deeper into his music than that and for a long while I mostly forgot about him apart from occasionally jamming to those songs and enjoying it when my brother played his music and irritating the people around me by singing his lyrics over the original songs whenever I heard them.

Fast forward to right at the end of December last year. 2022 was a very Year for me and I was looking forward to it being over and moving into 2023 and was like. 2022 has gotta have one final curveball for me. Let's see what it ends up being. Then one of my mutuals on main reblogged the Germs weird al gnc af gifset. And I was shook to my core. The fact that he'd done a nine inch nails pastiche? One of my favourite bands, that I discovered after my weird al days? How had it never really occurred to me that he had an entire discography that I could now explore as an adult with a richer understanding and appreciation of wordplay, humour, composition and music in general? And how had I taken this long to realise how gender he was? How much of a formative influence on me was he without me realising at all? Is he the reason I love Hawaiian shirts, I even wondered?? A couple of days later the hyperfixation hit like a ton of bricks. Like it hit so hard that I didn't sleep at all that night. I was just listening to his songs and scrolling through @yankovic-lovers until like 10am. I think I made this sideblog around the middle of January when I knew that being normal about him was likely no longer going to be an option. Then a few days after that I happened to Google "weird al tour dates" because I love seeing live music and was curious as to whether he ever played live in the UK or not and whaddaya know? He was shortly going to be playing a show of the return of the vanity tour at the same venue I saw nine inch nails at last summer. Spooky. So of course I bought a ticket. And no word of a lie, that was one of the best shows I've ever been to, even with just the seated set. Seeing a full scale tour is now bucket list territory for me.

It's been just about seven months of Yankofreakin' It and shows no sign of slowing. I'm really taking my time with exploring his entire career outside of music and outside of his main studio albums cos I don't want it to end honestly :'). I really think he's going to be one of those artists who's going to become a solid favourite, who's going with me in some way for life even when this hyperfixation isn't so intense anymore. Feels weird to say but it feels like I was always meant to find my way back to being a fan of him, like it was inevitable, and I'm so happy that it finally happened. He's really helped me understand myself and appreciate myself more (queer autistic self-recognition through the sillygoofy Other is a powerful thing, it turns out), helped me cope with what has turned out to be another difficult year, and I absolutely adore the fan community on here - you're all utterly delightful and I'm really glad to have 'met'/shitposted with you all.

I don't think that mutual who reblogged that gifset actually knows it was their fault (lighthearted) like we've never talked so I've never had the opportunity to be like. YOU!! (insert photo of person grabbing cat who knocked over plantpot here)

TL;DR: liked him as a kid, mostly forgot about him after that and then at New Year's one of my mutuals reblogged a gifset of him sliding down a mic stand in a Trent Reznor costume and now I spend my days calling him a milf on Tumblr dot com.

Thank you for asking!!! This is a sideblog so consider this reply to be me also sending you an ask with precisely the same questions!!

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