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sleepymarmot · 10 months

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I haven’t giffed for a while, so making the previous post was a bit of an adventure.

I started this gifset in February 2021. Back then I ripped every frame and the gifs were too big for tumblr, so I had to delete every other frame by hand. It looked so choppy that I put the post on ice, and it got buried under other drafts. Evidently I found the post again months later but didn’t fix it and left it to rot again.

I found the post again this week and almost published in that state, but thought it’d be too embarrassing to post a gifset with every second frame in 2023. I then tried to remake it in proper quality. I discovered that I had one of the gifs ripped with every second frame, and had to re-rip it again (and remember how to crop them). For some reason, the new screenshots were brighter, so I had to use a different coloring for them. I also had to split that gif into two, but that’s easy.

The gifs were still way past the Tumblr limit, and I was on the brink of losing hope and shelving the post again when I realized that I can just reduce the number of colors. This is b/w! There are 64 and even 32 colors per gif in that post and it all looks perfectly fine. So my big problem from two years ago was finally solved. (Too bad this solution would not work with normal color gifs.)

The original version was also awfully slow. For the new one I started experimenting with frame delays since I’m unfamiliar with giffing every frame. At first I tried to abandon frame animation altogether and set the FPS on the timeline the same as original video, but that didn’t work (in two different ways). Then I realized that gif exporting ruins frame delays anyway, rounding them up/down to either 0.03 or 0.07. 0.03 looked perfect in my desktop image viewer but too fast on Tumblr in the browser. 0.05 looked too slow. Then it finally occurred to me to do the math, and 1 second / 23.976 fps indeed equals 0.04 (rounded). So I adjusted the gifs to have 0.04 as frame delay and it still looks wrong somehow, even though objectively it should be the best option.

By the way, I had to carefully replace gifs one by one in the original post buried like fifty pages deep within my drafts, and not just because I didn’t want to make a new one: that draft is in the legacy photo post format, and I don’t have access to it for new posts anymore.

After finishing and uploading all that, I realized that I never cropped out the black border, and it’s quite visible at the edges of the gifs. But I already wasted way too much time to go through every gif again.

In the end, the only thing I had to redo from scratch was the final gif (now split in two). For all the others, I used the same psd, adjusted the export settings, then redid the frame delay of the exported gifs. The real time-consuming part was not the editing process itself, but figuring out what I needed to do.

All this was for an extremely simple gifset, by the way. The kind that requires no actual creativity or hard work, only a bit of technical know-how. If you know what you’re doing, and not blindly poking at the settings you’re not used to, it should take no time to make. I just want to share how much I’m overthinking everything. (And also to journal for my own sake, because this has been An Experience.)

#photoshop woes #blah blah blah

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marshmallowgoop · 2 years

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Hey Goop! Do you have any favorite Detective Conan episodes? I'd love to hear your recommendations.

You know, I've actually just been thinking about editing some GIFsets of my recommended/favorite episodes for each season! It's information I wanted to include in a series of seasonal write-ups for the show, but since I was feeling like I'd never complete those, I thought the GIFs might be a nice alternative.

Not sure if either the write-ups or the GIFs will ever really happen, but I'd love to share a few standouts now, thank you! I'll just note that there's a lot I haven't seen yet; I'm only on Season 14 right now and have watched very little beyond that point. So, most anything I can recommend will be pretty limited to the earlier half of the show.

Also, I wouldn't particularly consider myself a mystery fan! If you're looking for cases with especially clever tricks or phenomenal detective writing, I wouldn't be able to tell you. This list is more about charming character interactions, main plot development, and emotional resonance.

All that said, here are some of my favorites, in chronological order:

🔎 The first 12 or so episodes. I think these are generally all pretty solid, even the ones that aren't at all relevant to the overarching story (like Episode 8, "The Murder of the Art Museum Owner") and the literal anime-only filler that is Episode 6, "The Valentine Murder Case." In many ways, Detective Conan isn't my type of show in the slightest, but every one of these stories exemplifies why I like it so much anyway. The interactions between characters are fun, the scenarios can get so ridiculous that they make me laugh, but I also genuinely feel an emotional connection to the events that are occurring, too. I don't know if I'd single out any one of these episodes as an absolute fave per se, but they are all classics that I like to revisit.

🔎 Episode 36, "The Monday, 7:30 P.M. Murder Case." I feel obligated to list this one because, well, I wrote a 4,000-word essay about it. Yes, my longest essay for this show is really about an anime-only filler. But I like the central conflict here and the questions it raises. It's an episode I've clearly thought about a lot.

🔎 Episodes 48-49, "The Diplomat Murder Case." Heiji Hattori's first appearance, as well as the first case Shinichi solves as himself since Episode 1. Need I say more?

🔎 Episode 54, "The Game Company Murder Case." Just a solid story dealing with the main plot. I admittedly get a little (or maybe a lot) lost in the actual case, but I love the sense of tension here, and the ending scene is one of the most affecting moments of the series for me.

🔎 Episodes 57-58, "The Holmes Freak Murder Case." Heiji's second appearance. I love his dynamic and interactions with Conan (even, and perhaps especially, before he realizes that Conan is Shinichi), and the case itself does well in keeping my interest, particularly with FUNimation's English dub. While the script or performances regretfully don't do anything to localize Heiji's Kansai accent (which is maybe odd, given that there is an effort to localize Tequila's Kansai accent in the aforementioned Episode 54, making it into a Boston/New York accent), I get a real kick out of the fortuneteller's lines being riddled with references to "sensing" things and premonitions:

[Image descriptions: Screenshots from Episode 57 of Detective Conan/Case Closed. Several characters, including the fortuneteller Maria Toda and Ran and Kogoro Mori, look towards an offscreen window. Maria says, in FUNimation's English dub, "I'm sensing that this rain will go on for some time," and Kogoro adds, "I'm sensing that I'm tired. And hungry, too." End image descriptions.]

This is definitely one of my most rewatched cases. Silly, fun, and I love to see Heiji and Shinichi vibing.

🔎 Episode 118, "The Naniwa Serial Murder Case." Probably my favorite episode so far. Yes, I am definitely biased towards Heiji. But I again love his dynamic and interactions with Conan here—he's so unabashed in how much he cares for his friend, and Conan also clearly cherishes having Heiji as a friend, too. You can't tell me that there isn't something genuine behind his fit when they're separated.

I'm a sap. It gets to me.

But beyond that, I also feel invested in this case, and I like how it calls back to past episodes.

🔎 Episodes 138-139, "The Final Screening Murder Case." Admittedly, this one might be on here simply for the mirror scene. Which I adore. But also, while you could totally skip this case and not miss much, I do really like the character interactions here with Conan and Ai and the Detective Boys. Just super cute and charming. I'd definitely recommend not skipping it, even if it's not on Xerblade's important episode list.

🔎 Episode 174, "The Twenty-Year-Old Murderous Intent: The Symphony Serial Murder Case." My biases are showing, I know, but I got a lot of love for this Heiji case. How much Shinichi values his detective friend is depicted in heartbreaking clarity, the actual case is one of the more emotionally affecting, and there's just some stunning and memorable shots. Would really love to see this one remastered one day.

🔎 Episodes 176-178, "Reunion with the Black Organization." It's probably an unpopular opinion, but I think I would actually rank these episodes above "The Desperate Revival." I love the exploration into Conan and Ai's thought processes—into the contrast of her jaded worldview and hopelessness and his childish impulsivity and recklessness. There's a great sense of tension, tons of heartwarming scenes, and unlike in "The Desperate Revival," I find Shinichi's immaturity here to be charming rather than irritating. Just stellar episodes all around.

🔎 Episodes 188-193, "The Desperate Revival." But, of course, I'm not leaving "The Desperate Revival" off of this list! It's definitely still a favorite, though it's probably also an unpopular opinion that I'm most fond of the first two episodes, 188 and 189. I'm a sucker for the drama and love to see the Detective Boys taking on a more active, productive role. But there are great emotional moments across all the episodes, lots of fun twists, and a heartwrenching conclusion. Absolute classic Conan. No recommended list would be complete without these.

🔎 Episode 196, "The Invisible Weapon, Ran's First Investigation." An anime-only filler, but I feel it's worth mentioning because I was so... let down? by the first canon case in which Ran gets to be the detective (Episodes 343-344, "The Convenience Store Trap"). She's a lot more proactive here, there's so much less repetition, and it even references "The Desperate Revival," so it has a sense of continuity!

Season 8 was kind of a huge slog for me, with tons of dull, subpar fillers, but I like this one a lot. If nothing else, I think it's at least nice to look at, with some great shots:

[Image descriptions: Screenshots from Episode 196 of Detective Conan. In the first image, Ran and Sonoko sit on opposite ends of a table as the sun sets. They both have glasses filled with a dark liquid and a straw in front of them, but neither is drinking; they are instead looking intently at each other. The second image depicts Kogoro's office. Ran stands at one end of Kogoro's desk with her head bowed, while Kogoro sits in a chair on the other side. It's mostly dark, with a small bit of light coming in through the window behind Kogoro. End image descriptions.]

🔎 Episode 225, "The Secret of the High Sales." An absolutely hilarious anime-only filler. I can understand having problems with it because Shinichi's character development arguably goes backwards here, but personally, it's just so dang funny that I can't find it in me to be bothered. DetCo is such a formulaic series, so episodes that break the formula like this one are a breath of fresh air.

Plus, "Koi wa Thrill, Shock, Suspense" is such a bop of an OP.

[Image description: A GIF from the eighth Detective Conan opening animation. Conan dances against a green rectangle, a serious expression on his face. Behind him, a shadowed figure mirrors his movements against a yellow rectangle. End image description.]

🔎 Episodes 277-278, "English Teacher vs. Great Western Detective." Probably no surprise that I'm recommending another Heiji case! But it's a rare case with him that's very main plot relevant, with so many great moments. I think I summed it up all right in the tags for a GIFset I made from 277:

#anyway anyway just felt a great need to gif this after posting about it the other day! this two parter is one of my faves #doesn't quite top 118 for me (not nearly as interested in the case here) but it has so many gems #like heiji and conan going into jodie's bathroom together to steal her gamergirl bathwater lol #(no that's not what really happens but okay it totally kind of looks like that omg) #and it's also got plot!! #great eps would recommend

🔎 Episode 304, "The Trembling Police Headquarters: 12 Million Hostages." Okay, I'm a sap, and lots of things make me cry, and, yes, of the handful of DetCo episodes that have brought me to tears, this is one of them. This is an incredibly emotional special, full of fantastic character interactions and edge-of-your-seat action. I laughed, I cried, it's good classic Cone.

Just wish there was some closure for Jam-chan.

🔎 Episodes 309-311, "Contact with the Black Organization." I'm a big fan of the main plot, and I love the intensity of these episodes. The ending bit of 311 is the most anxious and edge-of-my-seat I might have ever gotten from this series thus far.

It's a shame that my OCR'd softsubs are a total mess, though...

[Image description: A screenshot from Episode 309 of Detective Conan. Conan sits by the computer, a shocked expression on his face as he stares at Ai, whose hair is still wet from the shower and who looks entirely unamused. Dr. Agasa smiles nervously as he talks to her. The English subtitles, riddled with errors, read, "of weste :n novels: you see I Mm hooked eon this internet series." End image description.]

I started editing a nicer softsub file made for the remastered version to fit with my DVD (as the remastered version of the case cuts out a significant amount of content), but it's a long process. Still, I'm so fond of these episodes that I really want to get some proper subs on them! But maybe Crunchyroll could start adding some more episodes and save me the trouble...?

🔎 Episode 345, "Head-to-Head Match with the Black Organization: A Dual Mystery on a Full Moon Night." I feel like this one is often cited as absolute peak Cone, so it's probably no surprise to see it on my list. I do think the first half is a little weak myself, so I wouldn't personally put this at the very top of my recommended episodes, but this is most definitely a fun ride. The way that things introduced literally over a hundred episodes before finally get paid off in the most outlandish and ridiculous ways is incredible and addicting and exactly the kind of nonsense that I love this show for. You get intensity and hilarity and the wildest reveals here, and it is such a treat. I absolutely adore the ending bits of this one.

🔎 Episode 356, "Kaitou Kid's Miraculous Midair Walk." Probably my favorite Kid episode so far. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out his trick, and there's a really fantastic interaction between him and Conan at the end. This is just a good time.

🔎 Episodes 521-523-ish, "Murderer, Shinichi Kudo." I've obviously just skipped to this one, so I'm definitely missing a lot of the build up, but I'm still really fond of it. I do have to say I'm disappointed that it teases a plotline that it ultimately doesn't go through with, but there are so many good moments with Ran, Heiji, Kazuha, and Shinichi. Plus, it's one of the rare times that Heiji and Ai actually interact, so that's fun. The case is cheesy and dramatic (and I say this affectionately), and the displays of love and friendship get me so good. I'm excited to go through it again when I have watched everything leading up to it.

🔎 Episodes 853-854, "Memories From Sakura Class." A flashback case about how Shinichi and Ran first met that's unbelievably cute. I was smiling like the whole dang time because they're so adorable.

Also... I've never related to Shinichi more than when he tries to impress Ran and get her to like him but only insults her instead. Big mood.

🔎 Episodes 927-928, "The Scarlet School Trip." Just... cute. I don't think I really have much more to say about it than that.

And I think I'll leave it there! There are a lot more episodes and cases that I'm fond of, but these are probably the ones that stand out the most to me now. Thank you for asking!!

#detective conan #case closed #anonymous #replies #long post #really long post...#gifs i made #i probably went overboard here but i hope this is helpful ^^;

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justalittlebluetiefling · 4 years

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After tonight, how do you think Jester's feeling? Honestly, I wasn't so sure before, but after their conversation, I'm again very certain Fjord is the one she has feelings for

All right, anon. This is a fun question for me, because we talk about Fjord’s feelings a lot, but not Jester’s. I’m going to say a few things that I never thought I’d say in this ask. For example: Fjord’s feelings have been much more obvious in the last 60 episodes than Jester’s have been. If you had told me I would say that 100 episodes ago, I would have laughed so hard. But here we are.

TLDR? Jester’s in love with Fjord and has been for a while. I’ve been going off about this occasionally since her second playlist was released. But that is what really convinced me that she had moved from ‘crush’ into ‘love’. And episode 117 helped me be even more confident in saying that.

I also wanted to put some episode 117 receipts in here, but tags in Tumblr are tricky sometimes, so I just made a companion gifset instead. (If this link messes with the tags, I’ll take it out and put it in a reblog.)

Anyway. Let’s get a cut in here so I can get carried away with the why. 2436 words of carried away.

So, like I mentioned above, Fjord’s feelings have been much more obvious than Jester’s lately. For a while, I guess. Pardon me while I just quote Laura from Talks for second. And that’s mostly because Jester backed off when she thought her advances were unappreciated. It was all part of Jester realizing that smut novels aren’t what real relationships are like. A very integral part of her development and how she’s more than her crush(es).

The funny thing about all this... I think about this sometimes... is how Fjord didn’t actually not appreciate it. He’s just got low wisdom and didn’t realize that it meant that she like-likes him. He thought they were just goofing off. Because. Sorry, I’m briefly hopping into Fjord meta and then I’ll hop right back, I promise. But yeah. He thought they were just goofing off and I’m realizing as I type this paragraph that it never occurred to him, because “You know when someone makes you feel a way that you don't think you have any right to feel or you never thought that you might?”. Yeah. So, it wasn’t just his low wisdom. It just didn’t occur to him, because he didn’t think that he deserved to feel that way about anyone or have anyone feel that way about him. Okay. Hopping back now.

The other hilarious thing about this is that things between them weren’t awkward until she backed off and stopped overtly flirting. Which also correlates with the end of the pirate arc and how Beau, during that arc, pointed out to Fjord that Jester was jealous of Avantika.

But yeah. Jester backed off, which really threw their relationship into a whole new dynamic. I have a lot more complicated and layered feelings on the pirate arc that require a rewatch for me to properly articulate, but we know that Jester was scared during this time. She was a little scared that she didn’t really know Fjord (Re: Somebody Else being on her first playlist). But that was only temporary. That whole time made Jester start to question her feelings for Fjord. Which in turn made most of the fandom start to question them as well. But I do think that she eventually landed on “my friendship with him is more important to me than a potential relationship and if I keep acting like this, I’m going to lose him”. This is partially her realizing that life isn’t a romance novel, but I think it is also a direct result of her realizing how uncomfortable he was with the idea of being used as bait to distract Avantika. He did it, but he was not comfortable the whole time they talked about it.

But also, Fjord was her first real friend outside of Artagan. He trusted her right away with things he didn’t tell anyone else in their group for months. She knew he was hiding his accent. She knew what happened on the Tide’s Breath. He told her before he told anyone else about how he lost his powers. They promised to protect each other and help each other on their way to their individual goals and they’re still holding up that promise every day.

ANYWAY I’M GETTING DISTRACTED I’M SORRY.

Okay, where are her feelings now. Now. She’s in love with him. When she backed off from the flirting and started focusing on just being there as a friend, it deepened their relationship. I mean, to be fair, it was already pretty deep. I promise I’m not getting off track this time, but he really did tell her things he told no one else. Sometimes it takes him longer to get around to it, because of the group, but he always ends up telling Jester everything. And that opens the door for Jester to be open with him, too, in a way that she isn’t with anyone else.

I mean, okay. Gosh. How do I even word this?

Jester doesn’t actively seek anyone out to talk about her feelings. There are two times I can think of off the top of my head that she’s broached the subject first. One: when she was looking for Beau and ended up talking to Veth about how she felt about the kiss that wasn’t a kiss. And Two: the Jellyfish talk, when she asked Fjord if he ever gets sad. But Jester keeps everything buried pretty deeply. So, the fact that Fjord is constantly going out of his way to ask her if she’s okay and the fact that he pulled her aside to tell her that if she ever needs to talk, she can talk to him. That’s a huge deal. And I think she’s still scared to take him up on it, because on top of all these things is that layer of awkwardness. Fjord and Jester are just awkward with each other right now. And their feelings for each other are what makes it awkward.

If the awkwardness was one-sided and only coming from Fjord, I’d say that her feelings had gone away. But it’s not. It’s always two-sided. There’s so much tension in all of their conversations, because while they talk about everything else, there’s one thing they haven’t talked about. Or... I guess it’s a couple things at this point. But they’ve never talked about the kiss that wasn’t a kiss. That’s what I mean specifically at this point. It’s just never been brought up. Which is so weird, because the other times (I think it’s two? Maybe it’s one. I’m doubting myself.) that Fjord’s saved Jester’s life with a potion, she brought it up. She made a production about it. But the kiss was different, because she didn’t know if it was a real kiss. I think she’s come around to it not being a real kiss, but it’s got to still bug her.

But that’s planted this seed of awkwardness in all their solo interactions that hasn’t gone away. Jester’s been pushing her feelings for Fjord aside. Or trying to. But he keeps doing things that make her have hope again and it’s getting to a point that she can’t ignore that feeling. Like... He wanted her to be the one to go with him into the wreckage of the Tide’s Breath. The whole day after the blue dragon encounter, he was hovering. He wanted her to have a potion so that she could be safe and he said that he wasn’t being awkward he was disarming her. He dove off the side of a tree when she fell to save her. He tells her how much her help has meant to him in Kravaraad. He makes sure they go visit her dad. He runs after her to go rescue her mama and then he tells her that he’ll wear a stupid hat if she wants him to and that she looks lovely while implying that he’d like to look at her in that dress all the time. And then he asks her if she’d like to get dinner with him instead of go look for their friends. AND THEN he tells her that he likes it when she’s feeling his stomach looking for the orb. He was constantly checking in with her during Travlercon to make sure she was safe and comfortable. He launched himself into the air over an active volcano and begged her to let go and stay with them. AND TO MAKE MATTERS MORE CONFUSING FOR HER. He hugged her twice and then he willingly danced with her even though he didn’t know how AND THEN he gave her this tiny unicorn statue, because he knows how much she loves things like that. And now he’s given her the necklace that was meant to protect him, because he’s more concerned about her safety than his own. He told her that he’s having a hard time focusing on his future, because his past keeps getting in the way and he wants to deal with that before........ AND THEN HE SAYS he’s going to be thinking about how she helped him all night.

LIKE.

I got a little carried away again, sorry.

Here’s the deal.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. There has been nothing in canon to make me think that Jester’s feelings have gone away. Everything I can see implies that they’ve deepened. But she’s scared. She’s never really been in love before. It is absolutely terrifying (or it is for me) to admit when you’re in love. Especially when you don’t know if your feelings are reciprocated. Or if you think they’re unwanted. And she thought hers were unwanted. But she’s still been doing little things this whole time. She’s still shown signs of jealousy. She still thirsts over him, just not as openly as she did before. She gets super shy whenever they have one-on-ones and that makes her get awkward in the cutest way. Jester started to be careful with how she was around Fjord, but he’s been making it pretty clear that he doesn’t want her to be careful with him and I think she’s starting to realize that. It’s giving her hope that maybe her feelings are wanted.

Also, the fact that there’s no in-between for these two? They’re either incredibly emotional when they talk to each other or incredibly awkward or BOTH. They are radiating “in love with your best friend” energy. The difference is that Fjord isn’t afraid of ruining the friendship and Jester is. Or... well... yeah. Actually, that’s what I mean. I think Jester’s coming around to not being afraid. She’s got hope again that they might be something more. And I think that hope is starting to be fun for her again instead of scary.

OKAY I’m almost done. I want to very briefly talk about that gifset that I made, because I made receipts for a reason, damn it. Let’s talk ONLY about the conversation in 117.

Gif 1: This one is right after this exchange. Jester: I mean... it's worth a try. He's met all of us, so he could potentially scry on anyone, I guess, now. But maybe it'll keep me from being seen if I scry on him. I don't know how it all works. // Fjord: I guess we'd find out the next time we did it. // Jester: Yeah. Like, she looks down at the necklace and just smiles, because Fjord has literally just told her that his safety doesn’t matter as much as hers. Fjord went out of his way to do this thing for her and she just looks so touched.

Gifs 2 and 3: These are both just Jester laughing over Fjord talking about her face when she’s scrying. They’re goofing off and being silly. And gif 3 in particular is just... again. She’s having fun! With Fjord! And she likes that.

Gif 4: Jester just asked Fjord “how are you?” and he started up with that big, goofy grin. And she can’t even get through calling her question stupid without smiling. Like, she’s reacting to his smile. And it’s kind of funny, because I think she doesn’t understand why he’s smiling so much in that moment, but she still can’t help but smile back.

Gif 5: I feel like I need to close all of that before.... That’s such an interesting reaction and SO TELLING. Like, that small smile and then she kind of takes a breath and then she still can’t not smile over it. SHE KNOWS. She really hopes that it means what she wants it to mean. And she wants it to mean something.

Gif 6: She’s once again reacting to a Fjord smile. You can see the way the corners of her mouth keep trying to smile. Because Fjord is just touched and telling her that yeah, she should send a message to Kotho. And then it’s the things she’s doing with her hand there, too. She’s all nervous energy and can’t really hold still. There’s that hope again.

Gif 7: She’s SO HAPPY because she’s helping him. SO HAPPY. And again with the hands! So much nervous energy.

Gif 8: It's just a spell! It's easy to do. Again with the hands!!! I mean, okay. Speculation and projection. I’m aware. This is just something I do and I see it in Jester a lot. Where, she’s got to do something with her hands so they don’t do what she really wants them to. I mean, SERIOUSLY. And the way she smiles at him at the end of it. There’s a lot for her to process about this exchange and I think it’s starting to hit her. How much this means. What this might mean. And she’s happy. She’s excited.

Gif 9: I will think about that all night. Still the nervous energy. I won’t repeat that paragraph. But like. Fuck. Fjord told her that he was going to think about that all night. I kind of want to yell right now. In a good way. My heart just hurts in a good way over this moment. I can’t even speculate on her emotions here because that’s like... huge. There was so much tension here. Jester hasn’t had anyone say anything like this to her before. She doesn’t know how to react. And Fjord is also holding himself back. Uh, this is Fjord HOLDING HIMSELF BACK. What the fuck. I mean. Okay I have to move on. I have nothing productive to say here.

Gif 10: I guess I was wrong. This isn’t only about the conversation, but also about the moment later. Where he thinks she’s going to scry when she’s going to send and she realizes that he was going to do what she asked him to before. She is just so pleased that he intended to follow through. I choose to believe this is 100% what Jester’s face actually did in the moment. And I love this because it’s only awkward on Fjord’s end this time. Jester is just happy.

I’ve gotta end this thing, guys. Why are you even still listening to me ramble???

I guess what I ultimately want this whole answer to be: Jester’s in love with Fjord. Fjord makes her so happy. And she is starting to let herself hope that he’s in love with her, too. She can see the possibility of a future with him again and finally letting herself believe that it might happen. So, yeah. That’s where I think Jester’s feelings are.

Hope you enjoyed my mini breakdown over Jester and how much Fjord’s support has meant to her!

#fjorester #jester lavorre #critical role #the mighty nein #cr spoilers #dudes i'm sorry #this got so long #i just couldn't stop once i got started #and i kept getting distracted #anonymous #erin answers things

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mrsluthordanvers · 3 years

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This may seem like a really random question but has writing and reading femslash helped you come into your sexual and/or gender identities? I've been in the Supergirl fandom and other primarily f/f fandoms for quite some time and this is something that I've been wondering about recently.

Yes!!

This got really long, and really rambly, and probably tells more about my experience with fandom then you needed to know to answer this question. But here it is lol

I grew up in a relatively conservative and catholic family with limited access to media both bc of this and bc my family was low income. I remember as a little kid we only had a couple channels and when we did get cable when I was older, my parents would stop pay for it during summer months because they wanted us to go outside.

The only gay media I remember ever seeing growing up in my parents house was Imagine Me & You. I caught it once on TV and I have vivid memories of realizing what I was watching and sitting on the edge of the couch paranoid that my parents would come downstairs and catch me watching it. I remember setting up the remote so that when I hit the quick back button it would take me back to some cartoon channel. And glee. Which I was surprisingly actually allowed to watch. I was always waiting for it to get turned off but it never was.

Both my parents were very big on encouraging reading. When we asked for books, it was almost the only time I don’t remember being told no. I remember I spent tons of time in libraries as a kid and it was one of the only places I was allowed to go after school by myself when I was in junior high. And I loved to write, my mom was always asking her to tell me stories and I was always writing in journals.

Basically what I’m saying is that I really did Not have exposure to the gay community. And looking back it seems really natural that I started reading and writing femslash.

It took me a long time to get into though, and to seek out. Instead I was sneaking Nora Roberts books out of the library at grade 7 because they had sex in them. Sex, I thought, that was safe/healthy/whatever because these were the books my sister was reading. Plus my mom said they were too mature for me, and what’s a better motivator then being told no. I didn’t find famslash until very late into high school bc it never even occur to me that I could be reading cheesy romances that were f/f instead.

My first experience actually reading femslash was Rizzles fics on ff.net. I honestly have no idea how I found it bc at the time I couldn’t have told you what fandom was, or that tumblr existed. The only thing I remember knowing about fanfic was that if you said you read fanfic people assumed you were reading about weird sex about characters and would laugh at you. Honestly I might have only found fanfics bc glee was really big at the same time and I was probably hearing people talk about ships and fanfic even if I don’t remember it now. Either way I found it lol. And I read A Lot of rizzoli and isles fics.

And it helped. Towards the end of high school was when it really started to dawn on me that I might like girls and I didn’t have words for it, I didn’t know there was a community, and there certainly wasn’t people I was willing to ask.

Reading femslash was like opening a door. Suddenly I was being introduced to the same kind of cheesy romance writing I was already reading. I was being introduced to the idea of two women going on dates. Having healthy relationships. Having unhealthy relationships. Soft sex. Rough sex. Falling in love. Getting married. Having kids. And it really started to solidify that I liked women.

Up until that point the idea of being gay scared the fuck out of me bc what I knew was so limited, to me being gay = being alone. It meant I wasn’t allowed to have any of those things and I really resisted that.

Reading femslash was a big part of changing that perspective. It made me comfortable enough to tell a girl at 19 I had a crush on her. It helped me feel like it was okay to tell people I wasn’t straight when I went to university. It prompted me to search out more gay media when I went to university. I started to watch glee again. I watched DEBS, and Imagine Me and You, and Saving Face, and Gray Matters, and Bloomington, and Kissing Jessica Stein, and Loving Annabelle. Basically I went through the LGBT section of Netflix in a year.

A friend introduced me to tumblr and told me there was a big gay community. I followed some cool people and aesthetic blogs but honestly I still wasn’t quite finding it.

Then I watched The 100 while it was in season 2 in my last year of university. Completely unaware of Clarke and Lexa. I became obsessed lol. They kissed on screen and it was like a switch went off. I don’t know why it was that show instead of anything else I had been watching that spurred me on. But it did. I started looking up accounts on tumblr and following people and reading so so so much fanfic. I had started to find that vast community on tumblr my friend mentioned and started sending people asks and saw people actually answering asks, and posting their art and their writing. It encouraged me to try writing again, and ask a couple people if they would read stuff I posted.

And then supergirl came out and I was soooo excited for it that I started to try mimicking accounts I saw in the clexa fandom. I figured out how to make gifsets, and I liveblogged, and my friend told me to make a side fandom blog or she’d unfollow me lmao. Which I also didn’t know people did. I started this blog just before season 2 happened and it made for the perfect storm. I already had a small following, I was making content (even if it wasn’t great), and Lena got introduced. And suddenly I REALLY discovered how vast the gay community is bc it was suddenly knocking at my door. It was also a big BIG learning curve.

I was reading people’s fanfics and looking at their fanart. I was seeing depictions of different sexualities. And how two characters can be interpreted in such vastly different ways. I was being shown perspectives I hadn’t seen before, some that made me stop and go. Oh. It helped me identify my first label, and then also taught me labels can change, and mine did. I wasn’t just reading fics about two women in a relationship, I was opening fics and seeing me. I saw a piece of fanart of Butch Kara and thought, she looks like me. And then I started to see people writing about butch Kara and commenting about butch Kara and it wasn’t just, she looks like me. It became she looks like me, and that is desirable. And that gave me confidence. I stopped shaving, my wardrobe has started to change, I started buying things I wanted to wear not that I thought I should wear. I learned I wanted people to see me and think I was handsome or attractive before they thought I pretty or cute lol

Writing femslash has a different kind of self reflection. I like to think I have started to notice when I project things on to characters, and think about why those things are important to me. Or why I get defensive over certain headcanons. All things that have made me step back and look at my own sexuality and gender identity. Which honestly I’m still figuring out and is still changing, but I’ve learned that’s okay too (fanfic has also normalized that for me lol)

Art is meant to make you feel things, think about things. I don’t think fanfic or fanart is any different. Sometimes it is just meant to make you feel you horny and sometimes it makes you reflect on whether or not you might be butch. Personally I think it’s very cool that it’s so powerful

#no clue what to tag this #y'all getting a big dose of me today #this took me forever to wrangle up in my head and write #but short answer #yes femslash has definitely helped me navigate my sexuality and gender #answered #Anonymous

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becomewings · 4 years

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Kindred : Loss

pt.3

“I smoothed down the piano keys with my fingers, dust covering my fingertips. I pressed the keys more strongly, but I couldn’t make them sound like YoonGi did. It’d been two weeks since YoonGi stopped coming to school. … I pressed the keys and tried to mimic the tune he’d played that day. Will he really be expelled? Will he ever come back? He said he was used to being hit and kicked by teachers. If I weren’t there, would he still have turned against the teacher? If I weren’t there, would he still be playing the piano here?”

— JungKook, 25 June Year 20. The Notes 1.

꩜

“‘If you’re going to run away again, don’t ever come back.’ HoSeok’s voice rang in my ears. … ‘Why didn’t you go see JungKook? Don’t you know what you mean to him?’ Of course I knew. Maybe that was why I couldn’t go into his room. I was distorted and thorny. Anyone who tried to come near me was bound to get hurt. … I’d inflicted pain on others as I suffered greater pain. I looked away from their wounds. I didn’t want to take any responsibility. I didn’t want to get involved. That was who I was.”

— YoonGi, 25 July Year 22. The Notes 1.

pt.1 : JM/JH ꩜ pt.2 : TH/NJ

→ Kindred : Comfort

Commentary under the cut.

This concludes the Kindred series’ Loss subset, a companion and inversion of the Comfort subset. I’ve actually had the general idea for these two contrasting sets since the very beginning of the blog, and I even made a first pass at the Comfort posts with still images. But I held off on Loss until I had the tools to make gifs because I knew there were many moments that could not be captured as effectively with screenshots alone. I felt this way about Rift, too, a set that serves as a kind of bridge between Comfort and Loss.

Comfort focused on the companionship between the “main pairs” of BU characters and was straightforward to depict: I highlighted shots that featured both members of each pair. My initial plan for Loss was less clear cut. After gathering some preliminary images, I realized that the best way to capture the feeling of absence was to use only solo shots, in direct contrast to Comfort. While experimenting with different arrangements, it also occurred to me that their separation could be further emphasized by assigning each character to their own column, rather than allowing them to intermingle.

For a moment, this posed a dilemma to me: when organizing sets, I try to pay attention to the overall composition, not just in terms of narrative progression and color but also direction. You may be familiar with the idea that even still art contains a sense of motion—the natural path our eyes follow when observing a piece. Very generally speaking, strong compositions draw the gaze inward. On the other hand, they may be weakened if certain lines or gestures pull the gaze too far outward, essentially “falling off” the artwork. When planning, I treat the whole gifset as a kind of canvas. I try not to arrange gifs with very directional motion in places that would draw the viewer’s attention away from the rest. But this was a problem I immediately faced when I decided to divide the characters into strict columns. For example, I would not normally choose to place that second gif of YoonGi reaching across the bed on the right side of the set because the motion is also toward the right. If it helps, think of an arrow pointing: →

Ultimately, I decided to stick with the columns and accept the consequences. I was reassured by the thought that, in the context of these Loss sets, the motion of the characters directed away from each other (← → : such as in gifs 3 and 4 here or the last 2 gifs of the TaeHyung/NamJoon set) was just as meaningful as one character “reaching” inward toward the other (for a quite literal example, see JiMin reaching toward the empty hospital bed in the JiMin/HoSeok set). In their times of separation, the characters turn away from each other just as often as they look back, finding a void in their external lives as well as within their hearts. My exception for the “solo shot” goal was also, very deliberately, the inclusion of at least one girl from each pair (or the girl, in the case of JiMin/HoSeok) because the presence of each girl reinforces the absence of each boy’s closest friend. But more on that in a future post!

This was kind of an untraditional commentary compared to the rest, but I wanted to do a little retrospective on my process for the Comfort and Loss miniseries. I put a lot of thought into arranging the sets, just as I do with choosing which clips and quotes to bring together, so I hope that this may help you find a little more meaning in my posts. :)

This is not the end yet for the Kindred series. There are some other key relationships that I would like to look at under this “kindred” umbrella in the future. Thank you for joining me on the journey so far through the main BU pairings! ♡

꩜

Wings Short Film #1 Begin I Need U (Original Ver.) Run Run (Japanese Ver.) I Need U (Japanese Ver.) Wings Short Film #4 First Love Love Yourself Highlight Reel '起承轉結' Fake Love (Extended Ver.)

#networkbangtan #bangtanarmynet #armysource #dailybangtan #btsgif #bts universe #hyyh #bangtan universe #bts the notes #yoonkook #jungkook #yoongi #kindred #loss #hyyh era #wings era #love yourself era #bts fake love #flashing

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actualbird · 4 years

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nobody asked but here i analysed polygon’s “unraveled” and bon appetit test kitchen’s “gourmet makes” and i think they are similar and use three key story elements to their success | a 1.9k word long analysis by an unhinged creative writing fresh grad trying desperately to use their degree to connect two dots

If you asked me who my favorite internet celebrities are, I would not hesitate for a second to answer. Brian David Gilbert from Polygon and Claire Saffitz from Bon Appetit Test Kitchen. They’re awesome! They both host popular YouTube webshows about video games and cooking respectively, two things I am terrible at and don’t do very often. And yet I am enraptured by every episode of their shows. Why? How?

My thesis is this: Polygon’s “Unraveled” and Bon Appetit Test Kitchen’s “Gourmet Makes”, while wildly different shows on many levels, are extremely similar in how they use three key story elements very, very, well.

These three story elements are 1) Plot, 2) Character, and 3) FAWWIEOT (it’s an acronym, I’ll explain it later, I promise)

Let me start with the first and most basic story element these two shows wield amazingly: Plot.

Plot is, in simplest terms, what “happens” in a thing. This is what you’ll find on a movie’s Wikipedia page summary, the details of what went down, the events that took place, the things that occurred. There are many different types of plots because there are many different types of stories, but one of the most basic kinds of plots is very clearly illustrated by something called Freytag’s Pyramid.

Freytag’s Pyramid is a very simple plot that is moved forward by a non-negotiable in many, many stories: conflict. All is well, the line is straight, then a challenge arises and things start to escalate. At the climax, a decision or a group of decisions are made that leads to a de-escalation of the conflict, bringing things down until we are back at a flat line and the conflict has been resolved.

Every single episode of Gourmet Makes can be plotted onto Freytag’s Pyramid

Nearly every single episode of Unraveled can be plotted onto Freytag’s Pyramid too (with the exception of some, like a number of the categorization episodes, the Kojima name generator)

I know what you’re thinking. “So what if Gourmet Makes and Unraveled fit on some funky pyramid? What does that mean?” Well, dear reader, it reveals to us just one of three reasons why these shows are so enjoyable.

Freytag’s Pyramid is basic as shit, and yet it is one of the first plot structures taught to fictionists because people, up to this day, like it. Why? Because Freytag’s Pyramid fulfills two very important desires that we, as humans, love. 1) The desire for there to be a problem and 2) the desire for that problem to be resolved. It scratches our eternal itch to want to watch shit go down but doesn’t leave us up on a cliffhanger, it gives us our catharsis.

Gourmet Makes gives you the entertainment of watching Claire struggle with her task. Then Gourmet Makes shows you Claire slowly and surely rising above the challenge (notable in literally every episode of Gourmet Makes). Unraveled makes you watch BDG work himself up into a frenzy trying to do something stupid, but then Unraveled shows the payoff of...of watching BDG do something stupid, but this time towards some kind of resolution (very notable in the latest Unraveled “How to increase your stamina with terrible video game tactics”).

It is clear to me that Gourmet Makes and Unraveled both use plot in a way that gives viewers satisfaction. But what keeps them coming back for more?

Well that leads us to the second story element: Character.

People love Claire Saffitz and BDG.

Don’t believe me? Look through the tags of literally any gifset of either of them. Here, I did it for you. Here’s some tags for Claire:

And here’s some tags for BDG:

It’s pretty obvious to see that these two are well loved, but why? It’s not just because they’re both good looking, it’s because Claire Saffitz and BDG, with how they are presented in their shows, are good characters.

Claire Saffitz in Gourmet Makes isn’t scripted. She brings her own human frustration, determined hard work, and joyous glee to the show and it makes watching the show all the more enjoyable. BDG in Unraveled, however, is scripted, but he brings to the table his chaotic performance and ‘off the shits’ lecturer energy that brings the viewers in. Regardless of their differences, Gourmet Makes and Unraveled are similar when it comes to character because of one thing: they actually have characters.

What am I talking about? Well, for a period of time on the internet, people in the cooking media sphere and the video game media sphere settled for video content that was divorced from who was presenting the information. Videos like the ones from Tasty where everything was filmed top down and you only saw two hands perfectly putting ingredients into a bowl. Videos like the myriad of video game walkthroughs or video essays that are presented only by a disembodied voice who also seems allergic to actually having fun. This is content that hinges on the fact that people like seeing cooking or video games and that the presenter will mostly just be a background thing.

Bon Appetit Test Kitchen and Polygon both did not want to succumb to this style of presenting information. They both made the decision to bring their presenters into their video content, highlighting their respective presenters’ personalities, quirks, and styles. This is evident in all of Bon Appetit Test Kitchen and Polygon’s video content, not just Gourmet Makes and Unraveled. Do I watch Bon Appetit's show It's Alive because I want to actually make foccacia? No, it's because I love how Brad Leone mispronounces words and makes me laugh. Did I watch "Fixing Anthem’s boring mech’s with ballsy design" because I actually give a shit about video games? No it's because I love how Pat Gill jokes about fake testicles and also I think he's hot.

The fact that there are actually characters for us on screen to see, makes Gourmet Makes and Unraveled good shit. We’ve got a plot with clear conflict, but that means nothing if there are no personas for us to root for. Gourmet Makes and Unraveled gives us these personas. They give us Claire Saffitz whom we want so desperately to see smile and succeed. They give us Brian David Gilbert whom we want so desperately to see go a little bit crazy. They give us people to connect to, and that often bridges the gap to viewers who honestly don’t give a shit about cooking or video games. Viewers like me who just keep coming back to Gourmet Makes and Unraveled because of the fact that these are characters I care about, these are characters who I want to see smile after finally nailing the recipe or slowly take off their suit as they tell me shit about Zelda I don’t understand.

Gourmet Makes and Unraveled utilize plot in a way that makes these webshows satisfying, and they use character in a way that makes these webshows accessible and keeps people invested.

But they go further.

This brings us to our last story element, not exactly a common or rudimentary one, but an important one nonetheless: Fucking Around With What Is Expected Of Them.

(I know there’s probably a legitimate literary term for this, but sue me, quarantine has kept me stuck in my house since March, so I may have forgotten the exact words I learned in class. FAWWIEOT will have to suffice.)

The gist of FAWWIEOT is that stories have been around for fuckin ever, and because of that, there are clear patterns and tropes that stories follow. FAWWIEOT is the recognition of those patterns and tropes, using them, but finding a different outcome or flair to make themselves special, to make themselves stick out. Kinda like when you’ve got a fic on AO3 tagged with ‘friends to lovers’ but also tagged with like, I dunno, something completely random like ‘character is also a dragon’. Use the tropes, but do something different. Give the audience something they already know, then throw in something new to make them remember your content specifically.

Gourmet Makes and Unraveled FAWWIEOT (I’m using the acronym like a verb now, this is my post, I’m allowed to) very purposefully using an important technique: Flaws.

The standard trope of a cooking show is the chef easily talking to the camera as they perfectly put the ingredients together. All the food comes out perfect on the first try and everything is heavenly and wonderful. Classic cooking shows like Barefoot Contessa (hosted by Ina Garten) and Everyday Italian (hosted by Giada de Laurentiis) followed this pattern, and it made for good television.

But who fucking watches television these days? Everything is online now, and the internet is vicious. If you aren’t interesting, the internet will throw you out to the gutter. So how did Gourmet Makes set themselves apart?

By showing you that things aren’t perfect after all. Gourmet Makes shows you every trial that Claire tries, they show you her successes, but also her failures. They show you when she gets tired and hopeless, they show you when she bounces back and tries again. Gourmet Makes made a cooking show that was flawed, and people loved it.

And what about Unraveled? The design of Unraveled, from BDG’s suit and mug to his presenting style, key us in to the fact that we are watching some sort of lecture. Some kind of educational performance. Personally, this makes me think that Unraveled is FAWWIEOT-ing academia and basically any other media where an “expert” talks at you.

The standard pattern of experts talking to you are basically like TedTalks. You have somebody very well versed in the topic trying to explain to you something, showing you their hypothesis, their process, and their findings.

Unraveled FAWWIEOTs expertise by making BDG research the most crazy shit like OSHA regulations or the Geneva Convention, make the wildest hypotheses like ‘Monster Energy in the morning will be a good idea’ or ‘Sonic is blasphemous’, and then, ultimately, completely unravel himself. The expert in Unraveled isn’t an all knowing being who is always right, he is flawed (and loses his marbles, more often than not.) And we love it.

FAWWIEOT-ing is key because of how it gives us a pattern we know, and then does something new. Novelty is important on the internet, and Gourmet Makes and Unraveled have made a name for themselves on the unique way they Fucked Around With What Was Expected Of Them.

Gourmet Makes and Unraveled are two of my favorite webshows on the internet as of now, and there are many reasons why, many reasons I didn’t include in this post. What I wanted to do here is to highlight how these shows use story elements to be good content because at the core of these videos, even if they aren’t literary fiction, they are good stories. Good stories with a plot that satisfies us, with characters we can see and love, with new twists that keep us on the edge of our seats.

Good stories make for good content, and Bon Appetit Test Kitchen and Polygon have me as a subscriber for as long as they continue on this road.

Thanks for reading!

(Read my other Polygon-adjacent analysis essays at actualbird.tumblr.com/tagged/nobody-asked-but

If you have any suggestions or ideas for more Polygon-adjacent analysis essays I can write, send me an ask!)

#polygon #batk #bdg #unraveled #nobody asked but

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twolonesomestars · 4 years

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I feel sad that yibo stop wearing the ox necklace i know that you all see him wearing it in the last post from street dance but this was filmed weeks ago it not recent one lately he keep wearing new necklace star & sun or sunflower I don't know what it is exactly he even wear it when he go filming ddup latest ep and he wear it today to the airport some people say it was birthday gift from xz I don't know if it's true what do you think and also what you think about the ring necklace xz wearing

I’m going to go ahead and put this under the cut because I did get into a few theories and speculations (mostly my own) on the new necklaces.

Also! I’ve gotten several asks about my thoughts on the ox-head necklace: here is my post on it from a while back (along with a few additions)! You can also go through my “ox-head necklace” tag.

Warning: Everything below is fake. These are just my random thoughts. Don’t take them too seriously.

You’re on point with the timings, anon.

I believe the most recent appearance of the ox-head necklace was a week ago (in his Qixi festival Douyin update). We don’t know when that video was actually taken though. Do correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the last time we saw the ox-head necklace in person was before his birthday. He, for sure, wore it when he filmed Happy Camp on 200802:

So, I actually went ahead and looked into the website and all for this necklace because it’s looking to be pretty meaningful.

Before I get into that, some dates to note:

The first time we ever saw the daisy & star necklace was on 200817 (at rehersal for the 818 Festival):

It was clearer when we saw it out on 200819 (filming for the DDU episode released on 200830):

From then on, he’s pretty much been wearing it everywhere (major flashbacks to when I wrote about the ox-head necklace haha!)... to and from airports, during filming, etc.

The most recent sighting was 200829:

Okay, now to theories:

I’ve heard about the daisy & star necklace being his birthday present from XZ... and I will say: the timing fits. We only saw WYB with this daisy & star necklace after his birthday this year. That also seems to be around the time he stopped wearing the ox-head necklace in favor of wearing this one.

Since it might be a birthday present, both pendants most likely represent WYB. When I first saw that there were two, my mind immediately considered the possibility that each pendant represents half of the pair, but thinking about it again, I think that makes more sense for an anniversary gift, not a birthday gift (it’s not off the list though).

I haven’t really heard many theories about the daisy, but the star piece could represent WYB being named “lonely star” by XZ. (A quick explanation on this “lonely star” business: here.)

As for the theory that WYB bought the necklace for himself... based on everything we’ve seen and know about him, it’s not really his style, is it? I don’t think it’s something he’d choose for himself, even if he thought the pendants represented him. (But then again, we don’t know everything about him, so it’s still a possibility.)

That’s pretty much it for the theories, for now.

The following are things I noticed when I was looking through the store:

Important to note: Neither XZ or WYB are ambassadors for this company. WYB is not wearing this necklace with the intention to promote the company. Neither would have been given these pieces of jewelry because they were associated with them. (AKA the pieces were most likely bought out of their own pocket.)

First: Multiple pendants on a chain is the norm from the store, so having two pendants isn’t that much of a surprise. However, most of the promoted multiple-pendant necklaces contain three pendants, not two. The necklaces promoted with two pendants are usually of the same size, whereas the three pendant necklaces have two smaller pendants on either side of a large pendant. (Of course there are some exceptions, but the styling below is the most common):

Second: The daisy & star pendant combination is nowhere in the promotion pictures; it’s a very odd pairing. This adds to the idea that someone deliberately chose these two pendants for WYB, and that there is some meaning behind each pendant.

In the end, I don’t have any solid pieces of evidence backing up this daisy & star necklace like I do for the ox-head one... but if we compare how he uses the ox-head necklace and how he’s starting to use this daisy & star one... it’s nothing, if not meaningful.

As for potential future evidence, I don’t know if we’ll get any:

Knowing how they are, I wouldn’t be too shocked if they hint at something at some point... perhaps one of them will talk about the meaning behind a star (again) or if they’re really pushing it, the meaning behind a daisy (a 0.0001% chance lol)

However, considering the drama (explained here) that occurred because of the ox-head necklace, I'm leaning towards them not hinting anything so that it doesn’t cause any issues. After a long year of hiding his other necklace, WYB’s finally able to wear this one out freely.

I won’t tell you to not be sad, anon, but I will say, don’t be too worried about the switch (and this is coming from an avid ox-head necklace lover). We have a lot of evidence and analyses backing up our ox-head necklace theory, so it’s a bit disconcerting to see him not wear it as much right now. BUT, I’d be more wary if he stopped consistently wearing some sort of necklace or piece of jewelry. Once again, he rarely wears jewelry when he’s out traveling between places and to various variety show filmings, including DDU; he only starting doing so with the ox-head necklace.

I’m currently just glad he’s able to fully show off his necklace without the fear of backlash from his solo fans. I’d rather him change the necklace to one we don’t have much information on than have him continue to hide his ox-head necklace. (We’ve seen how much he loved showing it off.) Besides, him continuing to use the daisy & star necklace like this only adds to how much it means to him; it’s /becoming/ comparable only to the ox-head necklace... and, well, we know who’s probably behind that one. So, even though we don’t have much solid proof for this one, the implications and similarities between how he uses the two necklaces is more than enough for me.

As for XZ’s ring necklace, I’m not too sure what that’s all about. The main rumor connecting his to WYB’s is that the chains look similar, but it’s difficult to tell and it’s not much to go off of. Also, people are somewhat confused about why he decided to hide the necklace instead of showing it. If it was from a brand he’s an ambassador for, he would show it, especially since he’s already wearing a Gucci shirt.

For this one, we’ll have to wait and see if he wears it again (and whether he hides it or shows it). If his necklace is from the same company as WYB’s, I highly doubt he’ll show it. The brand similarity when they’re both not affiliated with it could cause too much of an uproar in the fandoms, and especially when you know how WYB uses his.

The company does sell rings... (gifset that shows XZ’s necklace containing a ring-shaped pendant). But, once again, if that’s what it is, I highly doubt XZ will reveal it to the public. If it is actually a ring on a necklace and not a circular pendant, it’ll be a whole other type of commotion... and if it’s from the same company... lol

If we say that it’s not from the same company, I still don’t think he’ll wear it as consistently as WYB wears his, even if it’s just for the sake of throwing people of their tracks; I don’t know if he’ll even wear it more than once. It wouldn’t be good if they both wore one necklace for every outing. (But, they’ve done bolder things. And, XZ already wears his red-threaded bracelet consistently, so consistency wouldn’t be too out of character for him. However, the bracelet is from his mom, so if he does start to wear another piece of jewelry like that, it’ll most probably be from someone as high on his list as his parents.)

#thoughts? feelings?#xz's necklace is a waiting game for now #ox-head necklace #daisy & star necklace #yizhan #bjyx #ask

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bookwyrminspiration · 3 years

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Hi!! Its heathen!! I think I found the book that your title is referencing at my local bookstore, and it actually looks pretty interesting! 'Here, there be dragons' by James A. Owen, right?

It was kinda funny to go in there and see some books that I liked (The wheel of time series, I deifnitly reccomend it) and then see a book and was internally like 'Oh!! Quil!! I know someone who I could possibly call a dragon if they would like!!'

heathen! hello! I actually didn't know there was a book series with that title! Though I do completely understand why you would make that connection, as I have been very vocal about my love of dragons for a while! I mean I love monsters in general, but dragons are a kind of monster and I adore them!

the quote "because here there be dragons" is actually centuries old, and the myth is that old mapmakers would write this phrase (specifically "here be dragons") on parts of maps that were uncharted. I don't think any map has actually been found with this phrase (I think a globe was, though!), but it's really intriguing and cool to conceptualize. Kind of like how they would draw the Kraken and other monsters in the ocean for a similar reason to indicate danger! I am not an expert so don't quote me on all this btw, I just think it's fun and have a casual knowledge (partially form my dad who was a sailor in the coast guard).

however, while the quote in relation to maps and danger is really cool, that's not actually why I chose it! I first heard the quote (well, not the first time, but the first time I heard it and it really stuck with me) was in the last season of Black Sails, which is my favorite show of all time (I'm really picky about shows). One of the main characters, Captain Flint, says the line in a really emotion scene in the last season and I remember watching it and just going oh shit, and I haven't been able to forget it since. Here's a link to a gifset of the scene, and it's not the exact same as I have it in my bio but I seriously cannot recommend Black Sails enough. For so many reasons. The plot, the queer characters, the fact that the story literally wouldn't exist if it weren't for queer love, the politics, the way there's so many main characters and everything they do contradicts each others and is so true to themselves. Nothing will ever top it for me and all other shows have been ruined for me since because nothing will ever life up to the chokehold Black Sails had on me. It is a complex and darker story, so be cautious with it! But oh fuck I have never loved a show more.

Before I get completely distracted I will return to your point! It's so cool that you saw a book and thought of me! it didn't even occur to me that I exist to you guys outside of when we interact on tumblr, despite me mentioning several people I've talked to online when speaking to people irl. Also you saying you'd call me a dragon if I like reminds me of a specific interaction Meg and I had where they told me I was like the fandom librarian because I answered so many questions!! (here's the link!) I mentioned having a little dragon in my library, but I'd love to be the dragon too! I'd seriously leave behind this humanoid form if given the chance, and dragons are excellent!

maybe I'll check out that book though, just to see what it's about considering it's stolen my blog title! I say as though I was capable of complex thought in 2006.

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eddiemunsonssoulmate · 4 years

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Make love, not war: The anti- OBX drama edition

Okay kids, listen up.

I’m too old for all of this drama and I’ve been on this hellsite for way too long to just keep watching it in silence so this is gonna be my only, long ass post about this mess that has occured/is occuring. I’m trying to get my thoughts out and and maybe talk some sense into the last three braincells some people have left.

These are my thoughts. My opinion. It’s totally fine if you disagree but if you feel strongly offended or called out by this, you might be part of the problem.

I’ve been watching the drama for a while now and normally I’m just someone who’s on the quiet side, grabbing a box of popcorn and watching how y’all tear each other to pieces but seriously?

Some of you really need to get a life.

Fandom life isn’t always easy, fandom life can be messy, some people are not what they seem, yadda yadda.

But seriously, did you lose all the respect you had when you’ve signed up on this website or social media in general?

First: The Rudy “drama”

Someone, a really sweet and nice to everyone person, stated a theory based on an anon ask who based their ask on a social media website. A theory. A worst case scenario of what might have happened. They wanted to be nice and answer to every anon they’re getting but guys.

Guys.

It was a theory. A mere idea of what might have happened because someone asked, nothing else. It was not facts, there was no evidence and the ask that caused all of this was not based on facts either. It can totally be fun to speculate about things. You’re allowed to believe what you want. Rudy’s a dick, Rudy’s a sweet angel, Rudy is a blue alien in disguise, everyone is allowed to have an opinion on something but oh my god.

Don’t make facts out of theories.

Don’t look at three emotes and be like “oh my god they have to be dating!”

Don’t make a drama out of two actors not liking each other’s posts on Instagram like what the heck.

When did Social Media take over your life so much that you interpret everything in those little things? There’s a real life out there, ya know?

We don’t know anything for a fact so let it go. Wait until someone says something official which probably won’t happen.

More importantly, stay out of actors' private lives as much as you can. Seriously. You’re welcome to state your opinion about them, make theories, stuff like that but tbh, it’s better to stay out of it because at the end of your day, it’s none of our business. Celebrity stalking is not and never will be cool. Don’t waste your time and energy of trying to figure something out they clearly don’t want you to see. Best example for this are like, baby news.

I know it can be exciting to figure stuff out. I know you can be totally curious because you like that person and want to find things about their life but don’t blow it out of proportion.

Actors are humans. Actors are not their characters. They have their own private life and if they want to share, that’s cool. If not, then that’s also cool. And tbh, the OBX cast is feeding us a lot more way more than other actors from other shows/movies, god bless them.

But who the fuck do you think you are that you’re sending them, the actors or the people talking about it, hate based on a simple theory on a website that has a life on it’s own and things that happen on here should stay on here? That’s not cool, it’s a shame for other people in the fandom. Why would you want to make a person feel bad because I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t like to feel this way either.

They’re grown ups, they can do what they want. You don’t have to like it but for the love of god:

Have some respect for a human being.

Second: The Chase Thing aka #chasestokespartyisover

That last sentence totally applies here too.

Have respect for a human being.

Boy made a tweet over ten years ago where he said something that was problematic. Was that cool? No. Did he apologize? Yes. Is it time to let it go? Totally. Was his hacking excuse true or not? WE DON’T KNOW.

You know what’s not cool tho? Some people taking their time to scroll down TEN YEARS AND MORE on a timeline to get some tea on them that you can use and complain about.

I know quarantine can get boring but jfc guys. There are more things to life than obsessing over an actor, ya know.

We all said shit in our youth, that’s a fact but people change. They grow. Don’t compare a teenage boy with a grown ass man.

You know what’s also totally 100% not acceptable? People photoshopping fake screenshots to show what a big mean white boi Chase is, trying to fuel the fire of hate. What the fuck is wrong in those minds?

Cancel Culture is a toxic phenomenon that should be the only thing getting canceled. You can’t cancel people, ya know. It’s fucking toxic to say something like that and just...don’t, man. I barely have any words left to describe this stupid thing.

Make love, not war. Spread love, not hate.

Fandom is not a place to rip each other to pieces. Not everything in this world is about race, sex/gender or problematic things. Just because someone doesn’t reblog a lot about Madison it’s mostly not because of racism or because she’s queer. Sure, that’s probably the case for some people but you know, those people aren’t worth it then.

Fandom is not a place that should spread hate around, especially not on anon, sending people asks filled with hate. There’s a bunch of younger kids on here, especially in the OBX fandom from what I’ve seen so far and it’s not okay to tell a 15 year old girl to tell her to go kill herself because she likes Rudy more than JD or shit like that. It’s never okay to something like that but it hits the younger ones even harder. Maybe it’s their first fandom and people ruin that experience on the spot, feeling powerful while on anon.

Fandom should be a place where we come together and have fun. Make friends and share things. Gifset, fanfics, theories about the new season, things like that. It should be a place to freak out over new teasers, new pictures from the set, the cast sharing stuff on their platform of choice and just things we enjoy.

There are different ways to block and blacklist on Tumblr, especially if you’re using it in a browser on your laptop/pc. Use that to block toxic people, tags you don’t wanna see and create your own little bubble where you’re happy in. Do this in case you feel uncomfortable with some people around here, so you only see what makes you happy.

Please remind yourself about the fact that behind all those blogs, there are real people. People who all have their own lives, own opinions, own ideas. Same goes for actors. They’re not there for your personal entertainment, they don’t have to share their complete private life with you. They’re human, just like you and me and it’s unacceptable to send them hate, no matter what they’ve done. You don’t have to like them but keep it to yourself or talk about it with friends, I don’t give a shit but leave it out of their sight.

Please remind yourself that we want to have a good time here and especially during times like these where we spend more time on here than we probably should *laughs*

If you made it to the end, thank you for your attention and taking your time and remember:

Be nice to each other, the world is cruel enough.

-Captain out.

#outer banks #obx #obx netflix #rudy pankow #chase stokes #madison bailey #jonathan daviss #madelyn cline #drew starkey #obx cast #this is just a massive brain dumb with lots of swearing lmao

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elejah-wonderland · 4 years

Text

Hellbound

Fanfiction

Prologue

This a tvd+to fanfiction story. Totally AU.

Premise:

The Mikaelsons helped the Mystic Falls Scoobies fight a clan of ancient werewolves called the Hundings. Klaus and Caroline paid the ultimate price, as well as Damon. But as it is the case in the magical world of the Mystic Falls vampires, death is not the end.

There is also a new adventure looming for the Mystic Falls Scoobies and their now friends, the Original vampires, as everything is somehow always conected to them. And so, they are Hellbound...

Main pairings_ Elijah MIkaelson x Elena Gilbert,

Rebekah Mikaelson x Stefan Salvatore

Kol Mikaelson x Bonnie Bennett

Damon Salvatore x Katherine Pierce

tag_ @teachingpanda

@elejahforever

thanks for reading, and for requesting a tvd/to story. This has sprung out from this gifset

https://elejah-wonderland.tumblr.com/post/624551723582816256/elijahwhat-are-you-saying-elenaesther-has

In Mystic Falls

Elijah finished his account of the battle against the Hundings for Sophie's Grimoire. Then he opened his diary. He had been doing some writing for days. This entry was of a more personal nature.

‘It is assumed that happiness is hard to capture. And how can one feel happy having lost so many dear people close to one's heart. Having existed now for more than a millenia, I can say with certainty that love is the driving force for all. The scars of the soul are mended with it, making it possible to look to another day, and I am witness to it. We are ruled by our fears and disbelief and it clouds our minds. Love is not a weakness but the ultimative strength.What would we be without love. I have allowed myself to believe in it. I have searched long enough for it. And it has been bestowed on me when I have least expected it. I have read a long time ago that one would know one's true love by the look in his or her eyes as they are the windows to one's soul. Maybe she is the one I was looking for all my life.'

He closed the diary as Elena came into the library.

"Hey" the doppelganger said joining the Original at the table.

"How are you? I saw Antoinette leave."

"I am fine. You?" Elijah replied.

"Went to the Wickery Bridge with Matt."

"You did?!" Elijah was somewhat surprised.

"Kind of needed closure. I don't know. My life changed twice there." "And did you get closure?"

Elena nodded a little. "I had dreams, thoughts about how my life would be. Whether to go to Whitmore or even New York, if I was going to move away after college. I wanted to study medicine like my- father. And then -you know-things first changed when my parents died."

"And second time when you were told you were a doppelganger?! Your life was never going to be completely your own?!" Elijah concluded.

"No-but I made peace with it. It was especially weird talking about with Katherine! Both of us didn't really have a choice in the matter. You know, I get her." Elena said.

"Well, only you can say that." Elijah remarked.

"Klaus killed her parents as punishment for turning and disabling him from breaking the curse." "I know, Elena." Elijah sighed a little.

Flashback

At the Plantation house, near New Orleans

Elijah found Katherine at Damon's grave planting flowers. She got up as she saw him standing there.

"Hello" Elijah said.

"I thought we said all there is to say?!" Katherine said looking at him in a serious manner.

"Yes. But there is one thing I need to say. It's about Klaus."

Katherine sighed a little. "What about him?!"

"It's about me as well."

The doppelganger looked at him calmly.

Elijah flashed back for a second to a moment 500 years ago when he had a conversation with her.

"What is it?" she now urged the Original to speak.

"There are no words that would lessen what we had done to you. But I want you to know that I recognize the pain we had caused you." Elijah said.

Katherine now turned the look onto Damon's grave and then to Elijah. "For more than 520 years I had one thing on my mind and that was finding a way to kill Klaus for having murdered my family. I have lied, cheated, manipulated, killed... all to survive and find a way to end him." Kathrine said, pausing for a moment.

She drew a deep breath and looked at Elijah poignantly, "We all have graves to visit now!"

Walking passed the Original vampire the brunette went her way to the house.

"I am sorry Katerina Petrova" Elijah muttered as he looked at her walking away.

"I'm sorry. This was not easy" Elena said.

They agreed that they would all continue with a clean slate and leave the past behind.

"It's all right. You don't have to feel bad for bringing it up." Elijah said. "You also didn't have much choice- you didn't ask to be turned." Elena reminded the vampire of his disposition.

"Still, we had the choice of seeking humanity within us. We were not completely souless monsters."

"Choices- yep!" Elena uttered.

"You miss Jeremy?!" "I do, but I have to respect his choices." Elena said with a little sigh and got up.

Suddenly they heard familiar voices coming from the disance. It was Rebekah arguing with Kol about him taking her supply of blood.

"Lable it then Rebekah's blood bag and maybe I won't touch it. Anyway, I hate cold blood!" Kol shot back at his sister.

"Why should I lable it- you should learn not to drink everything up and only think about number one-Kol!! Ugh, I wish I had that white oak ash dagger at times."

"And hello to you!" Elijah said as he opened the door for them.

"What brings you here?"

"May we not call on our brother?!" Rebekah said eyes still blazing angrily at Kol. "Of course you may. Still, has it occured to you that it might be best that you two get separate accomodation!" Elijah suggested.

"That is one reason why I came to see you," Rebekah said, "Stefan and I decided to leave MF! And I am hosting a farewell dinner-party! You are invited."

"Where are you going?" Elena enquired surprised to hear it as Stefan hadn't mentioned anything to her when they spoke earlier.

"England. We liked it there." Rebekah explained. "And you two are staying here for a guess?"

"For a little while longer." Elijah replied. Elena just added that she hadn’t decided what to do.

It's time to dump this place!" Kol concluded.

"And where are you again?" Elena asked.

"Sophie's in New York. I will try to win her precious heart back"

"Good luck with that!" Elena remarked.

"She says she can't be with a vampire, but her goodbye kiss told me something entirely different!" Kol said.

"Keep telling yourself that" Rebekah turned to her brother still furious about the empty fridge she had encountered as she got up that morning.

To sway them from more bickering, Elijah changed the subject to the dinner party.

Elena's phone rang and she answered it. Bonnie wanted to meet her. "I will see you later." Elena said to them and left.

🍀

At the Grill

"Matt left, ha?!" Bonnie said.

"Everyone's leaving." Elena then told her about Stefan, Rebekah and Kol, as well as the dinner party.

"Dinner-party with the Original family?!" Bonnie then said still not being able to process the great gap of a year she had missed being locked away in the spirit world by the Hunding witches.

"It will be fine. They are already back on with the bickering and I left Elijah to deal with them." Elena said.

"I will need loads of time to get used to it all.” Bonnie cocked an eyebrow and then got a chart out of her bag. “I found it among her Gram's books as I was trying to declutter. Read this!"

"Nova Scotia?!" Elena said as she took the map her witch friend handed it to her.

"Yes. Look at the name." Bonnie urged her friend to read on.

"Gwyn Mikaelson!" Elena read in the name written in runes and then looked at Bonnie amazed."This is weird. I don't get it?! There is another Mikaelson?!"

"I don't know what it is, but I guess one battle done, another mystery on horizon!" Bonnie said.

"One thing is for sure. It is never ends with the Mikaelson mysteries!" Elena said."can I take this?!"

"Be my guest. One thing is for sure, there is always something going on with the Mikaelsons!"

"Oh, yeah! New adventure here we come!" Elena exclaimed softly. Packing up the map and the books in the bags, they got up.

As the doppelganger got into the car, she pressed Elijah's speedial number.

❤

Hours later

Elijah, Kol and Rebekah, together with Elena, Stefan and Bonnie examined the map. They had Sophie Deveraux on loudspeaker.

"Gwyn Mikaelson," Rebekah said, 'tell me that she actually didn't die of plague and that this family has even darker secret in its closet!?"

Kol held the map in the hand. "There was nothing else in the Grimoire?" the Orignal said and looked at Bonnie. "Nothing. Just this map put in it randomly." the witch replied.

"Well, how about we channel the Bennet witch line and try and dig some information out of them?" Sophie inserted.

"Let's."Bonnie said.

"So, when are you arriving in Mystic Falls?" Kol asked and everyone looked at him as the question was directed to Sophie.

"Not just yet. My witchy instincts are telling me I will see you in Nova Scotia?! Ok, you guys, I have to go now, but keep me posted." Sophie said and hung up.

Everyone could see that Kol was slightly hurt and peeved off and now moved away from the table. He tried to keep his emotions in check and not let disappointment burst into anger. Rebekah wanted to follow him, but Elijah suggested she let him be.

"So, that's it for now?!" Elena said getting up from the round table."or shall we get packing like Sophie suggested."

"I would pack, "Stefan said looking at Rebekah "I guess we are going to postpone England?!"

"Right. And I just hope it doesn't involve digging old witches up and some weird werewolves.

How come Eilif didn't say anything about Gwyn?" Rebekah turned to her brother Elijah.

"I find it strange, too," Elijah said pensively,"but she left and it was a goodbye."

"I don't believe in goodbyes in this family. Something always comes up. Anyway, what secret do witches keep regarding our sister?!" Rebekah said taking the map in her hands,"secrets, secrets."

Bonnie now got up."Whatever it was it wasn't good. Ok, I am going to try and channel Grams and see if we can get any answers. See you later."

The witch took her books and went out of the room.

"You don't remember anything about anybody called Gwyn?" Elena directed the question to Elijah.

"Nothing that I can recall.” the Original replied.

"Mother did once say that there was a cousin born out of wedlock," Rebekah said.

”There is another Mikaelson out there - but - father had no brothers. I don’t understand. This does not make any sense.”

"I know."Rebekah uttered.

Elena looked at Elijah somewhat worried, but with great positivity in her voice "We will figure it out"

Elijah smiled a little. Her enthusiasm and optimism was always like the warm sun giving one strength to go on.

Flashback for readers

Nova Scotia, 995 AD

Three witches sat down around the small bonfire. They threw three rings into the fire chanting a spell.

"Always and forever" all three witches said in one voice.

Each of them then smeared their blood with sage, rosmary and thyme and threw it into the fire.

"The trinity of the sun, the moon and the earth is now sealed." one of the witches said.

As the fire subsided sometime after. They took the three rings from the ashes and put it on a young woman's body.

"Farewell, dear girl." they said crying, as they put the three herbs entwined on her head as a crown.

******

In New Orleans

"Jeremy...wake up!" Caroline said to poking Jeremy a bit with her finger.

"Ha...what?" the hunter murmured as he woke up looking at the blonde standing beside his bed.

"I told him to let you sleep." Klaus said sitting in one of the chairs by the window.

Jeremy rubbed his face and then his eyes.

"Tell me this is a nightmare...how...aren't you supposed to be locked away in some weird witchy void spirit world?!" Jeremy said referring to Klaus as he sat up.

"He kinda got released due to good behaviour. And I had something to do with it being a heroine for killing a weird-looking werewolf. Anyway, get up. you need to get to Elena and the others. Something weird is happening again. You have to tell them that they need to try and find Sigrid Mikaelson. That's all we know." Caroline said in her ghostly form.

"I thought it was too good to be true that I will have a life and not have to do any of the vampire-ghost relaying messages thing!!"Jeremy moaned.

"We have to go" Klaus said to Caroline.

"I want to stay here a little while longer" Caroline said to the Original hybrid.

"We have to go, love" Klaus came up to the blonde.

Suddenly Jeremy could feel the surge of magic break.

"Caroline!" he called out, but the pair were gone.

"Great!" Jeremy said taking his phone dialing Elena's number, which went directly to voice mail.

Hours later, on the plane to Nova Scotia

Elena opnened her diary and wrote down, "I don't know what date it is anymore. Who cares. Here we are on the plane to Nova Scotia. Only a few months ago we fought off the Hunding werewolf clan, who tried to take over and kill the Original family.

I will not write about Elijah today. Because if I do, it will take pages and pages. It’s so complicated. Idk why. But it is. It’s like - we are friends, and then we are not. Idk what we are. Ugh I got to stop, cuz as I said it would be pages and pages and pages about me and Elijah - I just know that I - want to be with him. But he still has issues with stuff - like Tatia, Antoinette. Etc.

Oh....seems like there is a lot of ohs coming.

There was a lot going on in the last few months. Nothing is the same. And it is ok.

Now we are going to try to figure out if the mysterious map with the name of Gwyn Mikaelson really makes sense and if she is somewhere out there.

It's a new adventure. I must say that I am partly excited. Elijah, Rebekah and Kol are sort of anxious, although they would never admit it. The ancient Original thing being cool and all. We haven't got a clue what we will find, if anything. I just hope we don't dig something that will haunt us. But then again, I think we will. Like Bonnie said- ever since the Originals came into our lives, it is not boring.

I am glad Bonnie is with us, but it is still strange not having Caroline around. I miss her so much. And if there is any truth about her ghost being with Klaus' ghost, then it makes a bit easier to go on.

I don't want to think of my nightmare.

I will keep you up to date, dear diary.

Elena."

#elena gilbert #elijah mikaelson #rebekah mikaelson #kol mikaelson #klaus mikaelson #bonnie bennett #caroline forbes #tvd fanfiction #fanfiction

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everlastingfable · 3 years

Text

I was tagged by @gayspiderman (thank you so much!!)

rules: answer the questions and then tag 10+ other creators to answer the questions!

(also I’m assuming these are about the stuff I’ve made this year so that’s all I mention, and except for the first one I’m gonna keep to the gifsets made on this blog)

first creation and most recent creation of 2020: the first gifset I’ve ever made was this rotg one (whoa seven years ago whattt) and my most recent one was the gifset of steve

one of your favourite creations from 2020: the gifset about the color symbolism in toa because first, the aesthetic of the gifset is beautiful, but also that has to be one of my favorite things about wizards

a creation you’re really proud of: moppet appreciation post <3 though unfortunately I forgot the flashback scene existed until like a week after I posted that

a new style you tried this year and a gifset that uses it: see, I’ve been making gifs for like 7+ years now, there aren’t many new styles that I haven’t done already. But, this gifset (and the moppet one from above) used this way of combining gifs that never occurred to me before I saw someone else do it. I hope that counts?

your favourite colouring: pink douxie!!

a creation that took you forever: omg this 3D gif it was an absolute pain I lowkey hated it. I think I spent 3-4 straight hours working on it?

your creation from 2020 that received the most notes: this douxie gifset with 1.5k notes

a creation you think deserved more notes: hmm I don’t think I have any particular one? tbh once a gifset hits 100+ notes I got “oh wow it did really well!” then ignore it. And like 99% of the time my gifsets do get more than that and honestly I’m surprised about how many notes they do end up getting

a creation with a favorite scene/quote: I used to make a lot of angsty gifs with quotes and honestly I think I should make more, because this one was amazing

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it: all my creations this year were for toa lol which I only just joined this year, so here’s the very first toa gifset I made

a creation you made that breaks your heart: oh this one made me sad while making it

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love: hmm I think most of my gifsets are “simple” so that doesn’t really narrow it down much. This gif was really nice though. The coloring came out really well and the scene was so crispy

a creation that was inspired by another one: oh there have been so many. The layout and colors for this jlaire gifset was one though

a favourite creation created by someone else: I really love the coloring on this gifset

some of your favourite content creators from the year: @lillpon, @gayspiderman, @jimlake

and for good measure, another couple more creations of yours that you love: 1, 2, 3, 4

I’m too lazy to tag, but if you want to do this please feel free!

#tagged #long post

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fymagnificentwomcn · 4 years

Text

Hello, we all liked Handan here. I suppose Halime turned out to be simply the more interesting character for more people & it’s not surprising because she seems more to be the type to gather bigger fanbases, while I suppose in real life most people would prefer to be friends with Handan. I have to say I actually liked how they bounced each off, and how Handan was the sinnammon roll to Halime’s cinnamon roll as our dearly missed Ksenia showed in gifset here.

Handan truly just wanted her son to be safe and sound first and foremost. Of course, she enjoyed being Valide and wanted to enjoy privileges connected with her new station, but you could see Ahmed was most important for her, she truly just wanted to be loved and have her family safe and sound.

However, you could also see that she pretty much had anxiety problems & was usually reacting to stuff very emotionally, more so than even other “emotional” women on show.

I think her gentler constitution made living in this system a constant stress and frustration for her, she couldn’t adapt.

And it’s actually interesting to see this sort of woman on show – I cannot believe each and everyone of these women functioned pretty normally… like Mahidevran could be emotional for example but she still managed pretty well.

Handan didn’t get much in life – she wasn’t important to Mehmed, she was sidelined by both Safiye and Halime, and while she was lucky to have a son, it was clearly also very stressful for her as she stated multiple times how hard it was to be a mother in that palace; the whole situation truly gave her more anxiety than thinking about any ambitions. Her son wasn’t the eldest and Mahmud was very popular, and after Mahmud’s death she was scared Mehmed III might kill Ahmed.

Dervis’ love was truly the only thing she had left after Ahmed distanced himself from her.

And she was not only grieving Derviş, but scared that Ahmed might reject her even more when he learns about their forbidden love.

Even look at Ahmed’s reaction to what Dilruba told him – he immediately went “so my mum had to help me with killing my father!!!!!” and we know she didn’t & didn’t even know Derviş’ secret until after Ahmed’s accession to throne.

Ahmed was truly the only thing that kept Handan standing in that palace for all these years.

Kösem, who was back then a raising star with padisah’s love and high position for favourite/gözde, just completely didn’t understand her mother-in-law (I mentioned it a bit in post here).

It was only later that she understood Handan, even despite the fact that she was stronger person and far more powerful. It’s that while they were different people in various aspects, Kösem and Handan also had some similarities, which shows how multi-faceted Nurgül!Kösem was.

I’m actually happy they kinda subverted our expectations in MYK S2 & didn’t pull standard MY/K melodrama with Kösem&Kemankeş despite all the stressing about how Haci was worried she might end up like Handan & Kösem going on how she wouldn’t survivie Kemankeş’ death multiple times & being all stressed out and worried when something could be happening to him (they couldn’t have her commit suicide of course, but they could go with some spiritual death or final breaking point, for which nota bene Ibrahim’s death served better, it would have been even too early) & instead she saved her man from her sons’ wrath two times because yes she’s more powerful than Handan & is lucky to have more options than to watch and cry, feeling powerless ☹ It was truly something fresh and while it was totally historically false because truly Kemankeş got executed then and it’s hard to imagine any other scenario, especially since in the show he later walked everywhere with Kösem and lived in palace (so let’s be real it wasn’t a secret he survived later on show-wise) but I don’t mind it here. Much better than another teary melodrama with woman being powerless and just having to watch her loved one die.

Putting history aside, it was also meaningful ending for them from narrative perspective – they used the trope of forbidden lovers dying together and thus being finally able to be together in death – making Kösem lose will to live after seeing dead Kemankes & stop fighting for her life even once they stopped holding her thinking she was dead was a new twist on the formula (and to answer one of my recent asks - I love K&K, they are my OTP for MYK and IMO the most epic and well-written love story of the show 😊, but I will elaborate later, since you all know I usually try to wrtie exhaustive answers and as such can be slow in replying, as the asker of this question on Handan may surely ascertain lmao)

And maybe some bit of trivia about historical Handan, who actually wasn’t such an innocent angel (and frankly, she wasn’t one in the show as well, even though she wasn’t as cruel as some people around her, like Safiye or Halime, and it was mentioned she and Safiye had some understanding when the Mahmud matter was happening). There are some indications that Handan helped Safiye against Halime to remove Prince Mahmud. Quotes under the cut are taken from Günhan Borekçi’s Factions and Favourites at the Court of Sultan Ahmed I and his Immediate Predecessors.

Against this backdrop, Halime Sultan tried to persuade her husband to single out their eldest son Mahmud as his heir and send him to a province, just as Mahmud himself had wished. Clearly, the favorite concubine and her son had their supporters among the viziers and soldiers. Meanwhile, Handan Sultan, as the mother of the only other viable candidate for the throne, must have been alarmed by Halime’s actions and would have sided with Queen Mother Safiye Sultan in order to protect her own son, Prince Ahmed, if not to promote him for the throne instead of his elder brother. Handan may well have been the source of the rumor about Prince Mahmud’s infertility, since she had every reason to undermine him before the sultan decided on a successor. Mehmed III’s response to these machinations remains unclear.

And:

It was indeed a clash between Safiye Sultan and Halime Sultan that led to execution of Prince Mahmud, but this conflict also drew in Halime’s rival Handan Sultan, the mother of Prince Ahmed. Furthermore, it occurred in the absence of Gazanfer Agha, the powerful chief eunuch of the palace. The conflict among the three royal women was not unrelated to the soldiery revolts described earlier.

And:

Indeed, the English ambassador Lello and the Venetian bailo Contarini both indicate that Safiye Sultan was the mastermind behind the execution of Prince Mahmud, a solution which she apparently put forward in order not only to relieve the sultan of deposition anxiety but also to eliminate Halime Sultan, ofwhom she was reportedly “very jealous” (read threatened). According to Contarini, the queen mother had the open support of Handan Sultan in this scheme.

Gazanfer Agha’s execution not only altered the balance of power at the rebellion-weary imperial center but also changed the factional equation within the royal family. In the absence of Gazanfer Agha’s balancing authority, the rivalry between the party of Safiye Sultan and Handan Sultan, and that of Halime Sultan, spun out of control, resulting in the execution of the eldest prince of the dynastic family in mid-June 1603.

- Joanna

#magnificent century kosem #muhtesem yuzyil kosem #handan sultan #kosem sultan #muhteşem yüzyıl kösem #answered #mods opinions #reposting as I promised #I see that it might take a long time for tumblr to be fully okay again #(like it ever was tho lol)#so time to be back anyway :).

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ncisjes · 4 years

Text

I’d find you in every lifetime

Based off this beautiful gifset by @everythingismadefromdreams and this drabble by @mcgeekle where Ziva is prosecuting a case the team worked. Kudos to them both for creating this amazing AU I am having so much fun writing in. Also a huge thank you to @mcgeekle for letting me continue this.

@benditlikepress @rareshbones

Read on AO3//FF

Take Your Time

Sipping her second drink of the night, she sits at the bar alone watching what feels like the same old news on ZNN. Being stood up was a rare occurrence for her, but this time she really could not fault the man. In the past two weeks they had agreed to get drinks after work on three separate occasions, and all three times she had bailed to work late.

The Simmons case was moving along on schedule, but it was still too early to tell how the jury was leaning. Her opening argument was flawless, but the expert witnesses had not fared as well as she had hoped under the scrutiny of the defendants defense team. Their one hundred thousand dollar an hour retainer was clearly paying off for their client.

Regardless of whatever lead the defense had, she was still determined as ever to win this case. Being new to DC, she needed to establish herself as a capable prosecutor. Her track record here had a much slower start than in New York, but that was mostly suffering through learning the quirks of the system and the judges preferences. She always knew the legal field was cutthroat, but D.C. gave New York a run for its money.

Luckily for her, the jury had yet to hear from the investigators whose findings built her entire case. She had planned to call Leroy Jethro Gibbs as her first witness, but as life would have it an emergency case had popped up keeping him and his team from attending the hearing.

Though it had been a month since she had seen him, she had to admit she found herself thinking about Special Agent DiNozzo quite a lot lately. While his delivery could have been better, his charm was what intrigued her to invite him back to her office to try his luck again at asking her out once the hearing had concluded. There was just something about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Wondering what he would be doing on a Friday night like tonight, she imagined him sweet talking his way into some unsuspecting co-ed’s bed for the night.

Taking a long slow sip of her drink, she scans the room in hopes of finding someone to take home herself. Her eyes begin sizing up each prospect, noting their features and what she would like to do with them. Her gaze locks on a brunette that is all legs with grayish brown eyes which jogs her memory of a night a few months back. She cannot remember the woman’s name, but the curl of her tongue is still very vivid in Ziva’s mind. Seeing her arm wrapped around the blonde sitting next to her, Ziva continues to scour the room in hopes of repeating the ecstasy her mind just recalled.

Her search comes up empty as everyone in the bar has seemingly paired off. She’s about to signal for her tab and call it a night when she spots him out of the corner of her eye. He’s leaning over the bar talking to the blonde bartender who’s name always escapes Ziva. She laughs and leans over the counter, not only matching Tony’s stance but giving him a much better view down her shirt, Ziva is sure. Her fingers play with the condensation on her glass as she waits for him to notice her. He doesn’t disappoint, leaving the bartender without a second glance a few moments later and hastily making his way to her.

“Ziva David. Fancy finding you here.” Tony leans on the stool next to her.

“Hello Special Agent DiNozzo.”

“I see you’ve forgotten my name all ready.” He fakes offense.

“It is a lawyer thing. We have to be proper in court and it transcends into our personal lives.”

“Deflecting really doesn’t help your case here counselor.”

“I have not forgotten your name, Tony, and I see you have not forgotten your charm.”

“So you do find me charming.”

“I would not go that far.” She smirks.

“So what’s a girl like you doing here alone on a Friday night?”

“Who says I am alone?”

“This seat is pushed too far in for someone to have just gone to the bathroom. Unless of course you’re waiting for someone, but judging by your empty drink and the condensation collecting on it you’ve been waiting for quite a while. Our hot shot lawyer from New York couldn’t have been stood up, now could she?” Returning the victorious smirk she had given him moments before.

“Putting your investigative skills to use on your off time?”

“Only if it means I can sit down here.”

“I do not think that is a good idea.” She cautions him, her eyes going from playful to serious.

“Ah come on, who is going to see us? There’s none of you legal types in here. Plus I’m not your witness. Gibbs is.”

“But you are still a part of his team which makes-”

He waves his hand to shush her, causing her to balk at him.

“One drink.” He holds up his pointer finger as if to make it concrete that they’re only going to have a single cocktail. Somehow she finds herself relenting.

Taking his seat, Tony waves to the bartender he just abandoned to call her over. Arms crossed over her chest she stares back at him, not moving a muscle. He winks and makes the come hither motion with his finger, hoping that all can be forgotten with a really good tip on his tab. She scoffs, throwing the towel she is holding to the ground and walks through the swinging door to the back.

“Guess we won’t be served by her any time soon.” Tony comments, shifting his body towards Ziva. Before she can respond the other bartender approaches.

“Hey, sorry about that. Heidi can take things a little too personal sometimes. I’m Jack. What can I get you?”

“Scotch on the rocks for me and for-”

“I will have another mojito, Jack, thank you.” Ziva answers, effectively cutting Tony off.

“Sure thing.” Jack smiles and winks at her as he saunters off, causing Tony’s jealousy to spike for some unknown reason.

“So, you come here often?” Tony asks, drawing Ziva’s attention back to him.

“Is that what you really wanted to ask me? Generic pick up lines usually work to get girls to take you home with them?”

“I didn’t know that offer was on the table.” He leers at her, grabbing an ice cube from her drink and popping it into his mouth.

“No I do not come here often, and no it is not on the table.” She glares at him.

Jack arrives with their drinks, breaking the small amount of tension that had built up. Tony pays in cash and raises his glass to Ziva.

“To future offers. May they be successful and enjoyable for us both.” He gives her a big toothy grin before touching his glass to hers and taking a swig; his eyes never leaving hers.

Ziva is the first one to break and look away, muttering something under her breath in Hebrew but still finding herself smiling before taking a long drink.

“So tell me, how does the rising star of Mossad find herself practicing law in America?”

“I see you have done your research.”

“It is what I do for a living.”

“Not well enough clearly or you would know the answer. How did one make the jump from Baltimore P.D. to N.C.I.S. with such subpar skills?”

“Answering my question with a question? Deflecting won’t work with me. I use the same tactic all the time on the job. Nice to know you’re doing your own research on me too though.” He winks at her as he takes another sip of his drink.

“For the case-”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night. Now my question?”

Their gazes lock and the power struggle begins between them, sizing the the other up, their pupils dilating and contracting with each breath. Finally giving in, Ziva breaks away to look at the bar door closing before her eyes settle on the ice in her drink, her hand fidgeting with the straw.

“After serving in the Israeli army I joined Mossad at my own volition. I advanced quickly through the ranks, earning awards for my exemplary skills and talents. I had just become a handler when I decided to leave and come to America.”

“What made you do that?”

“My brother.”

Tony stares at her intently but does not push the subject. He can sense she is having difficulty discussing this. She takes a long swig of her drink before continuing.

“He cautioned me about promoting any higher, said I did not know what I was getting myself into or who I was really working for. As a handler, I was given more access and told more secrets, but I still had some plausible deniability in the big picture of how Mossad operates. It was not until he was killed three months later that I realized he was right.”

Tony’s eyes study her body language as she tells him the bits and pieces of what seems like a much longer and much more painful story than what she is letting on. He doesn’t push the subject, instead letting the silence fall comfortably between them.

“You did not ask me.” She comments after a few moments pass and the drinks lessen in their glasses.

“What's that?”

“The one question everyone wants to know; how he died.”

He doesn’t meet her eyes as he finishes his drink.

“I figured if you wanted to share you would.”

She twirls the last of her mojito in her glass, watching the clear liquid dance through the crystal ice cubes. Pausing as if she is really considering divulging the information.

“He killed a member of the secret service, Special Agent Caitlyn Todd. He was killed shortly after by what was reported as a terrorist bombing but really was Mossad cleaning up their mess.”

Tony’s whole body tenses, not only because he knew Special Agent Todd but because he remembered the bombing that occurred following her death. The reports played for days on ZNN of the horrific injuries people had suffered caused by excessive shrapnel intended to inflict the most pain. The death toll seemed to climb by the second.

“After his death I was obsessed with getting revenge. I had already lost a sister to a Hamas bombing and to have my brother taken from me the same way… I was determined to bring whoever took him from me forward. When I found out it was ordered by my own director… I could no longer remain loyal to an organization that operated that way.”

Grabbing her glass, she drains the last of her drink before slamming it back on the bar nearly causing it to shatter.

“I decided to come to America to bring justice for those who could not get justice for themselves.”

Her eyes are downcast as her fingers play with the condensation on her glass once again. Tony takes a moment to collect himself before tentatively reaching to touch her shoulder.

“Hey, I’m sorry for your loss, and I’m glad you’re here.”

She gives him a shy smile, leaning into his touch. They stare at each other for a few moments before Tony breaks the contact.

“Worked a case with Kate Todd. She was a good Agent.”

Ziva’s eyes widen in shock, not only because he knew her but that they both were affected by the same event.

“I am sorry for your loss.”

“No, I’m sorry to end your night on such a downer. Didn’t mean to bring up such painful memories.”

“It is alright. I did not mind spending it with you.”

The words fall out of her mouth before she realizes what she’s said. Luckily she is saved by a man interrupting them.

“Hey, Tony, sorry to bother you.” He leans on the bar beside him.

“No worries McInterruptus. Ziva David, this is Timothy McGee, the other and less attractive member of Team Gibbs.”

Ziva smiles at the glare he gives Tony before extending her hand.

“It is nice to put a face to the name. I read your report in the Simmons case on how the device’s design was flawed and ultimately caused his death. I was amazed by the immense detail you used and then I found out you have a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins and a degree in Computer Forensics from MIT. Very impressive.”

“Oh, you’re the prosecutor Tony wouldn’t shut up about and the boss wished he would have sent me to check up on instead.”

Ziva laughs as Tony strikes McGee across the chest.

“Quiet McTattletale.”

“One in the same.” Ziva adds, still laughing.

“Well it’s very nice to meet you Ziva. Tony I hate to steal you away but Abby had too much to drink and is in the bathroom puking. Jardine is in there with her but she’s probably cleaning every surface. We’re probably going to have to carry her out.”

“I told you to watch her Probie.”

“Yeah, you try taking her drink away when she’s ranting about people who say they’re vegetarians but eat chicken.”

“Good point.”

Tony stands to leave, pushing in the chair as he does. He stops to turn to Ziva before walking away.

“Don’t move, I’ll walk you out.”

She doesn’t understand why she listens.

A few moments later Tony and McGee emerge from the back of the bar with Abby between them, each of her arms slung over their shoulders. Ziva sees a woman exit quickly from behind them, clutching her bag tightly to her as if not to touch anything. The group stops in front of her as Abby begins to babble.

“Who’s this? Tony, she's pretty. You’re very pretty.”

“Not now, Abs.”

Tony motions for Ziva to follow them and she grabs her briefcase from the bottom of the bar before walking behind them.

There is a cab waiting outside and McGee drops Abby’s arm to open the door before getting in on the opposite side. Tony struggles to keep Abby upright as she goes limp in his arms. Ziva comes up from behind to grab her other side and help get her into the car. She settles in the backseat with her head in McGee’s lap.

“Tony did you get her number? Get her number!” Abby calls out as Tony moves to close the door.

“We have her number Abby.”

“It was nice meeting you!” McGee yells out to Ziva.

Tony finally shuts the door, letting out a loud breath, his hand wiping over his face.

“Sorry about that.”

“It is quite alright. It is nice to see people taking care of other people.”

“Do you want to share a cab?”

“No, I actually live right down there.” She points to a grey building a little ways down the street.

“Oh so you do come here often.”

They both laugh at the implication.

“Well I guess this is goodnight then.”

“Yes, goodnight Tony.”

“Goodnight.”

He extends his hand and she meets him in the middle. The touch lingers for a little while too long, sparking electricity in them both. After several moments, Ziva finally breaks away, turning on her heel to walk away. He watches her walk until she makes it to her building, his eyes enjoying the way her legs strut in her tight pencil skirt. She pauses to wave to him before unlocking the door and going in. Tony turns to heads home, feeling excited for the first time in his career to attend court.

#TIVA #TIVA fanfic #Ziva David #Tony DiNozzo #AU #yes this will be continued #my wiritng #SCREAMING BECAUSE THIS IS FINALLY DONE

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tfw-needs-baby · 4 years

Text

sam winchester | internet personas

based on my own experience.

read on ao3?

Sam Winchester and his brother stumbled upon fanfiction and the fandom a while ago. He swore to himself that he would never, ever go back and visit the crazy people that existed there.

Well, sitting in his room in the bunker, he was bored and had nothing much to do because the supernatural had been pretty quiet for the past month or so and he was scrolling aimlessly through new articles and finding nothing. He doesn’t know how or why the idea popped into his head, but it came and he was curious at the time, so why not?

‘Best places to’ Nope, delete that.

‘Where to join a fandom’ Delete that too. That just sounded stupid.

‘Fandom friendly sites.’ Yeah, that sounded about right. He clicked onto the first link, and it immediately brought him to a site called ‘Fandom.’

How ironic. Although it didn’t exactly help him much, it was just an explanation guide to their platform and what it had to offer. The rest of the links weren’t much help either, and he sighed. Alright, how to find the fans...wasn’t there something called livejournal?

According to a couple of articles, old and inactive journals had been purged, but were still doing pretty well. And then, the Winchester searched up ‘best places to read fanfiction.’

A couple of suggestions appeared underneath ‘Popular on the web.’

‘Wattpad - tumblr - kindle words - deviantart - archive of our own - asianfanfics’

Huh. Visiting a couple of sites, Wattpad and Fanfiction.net and Archive Of Our Own popped up frequently, so he decided to visit Wattpad first. He went to browse works and choose fanfiction, and it brought him to a selection of hot and trendy stories with millions of views on them. Woah. It ranged from k-pop to a selection of animes to CBS shows and weird crossovers. The ‘x reader’ tag seemed very popular and he shivered, reminding him of Becky.

Signing up wasn’t hard either. It had only taken him a couple of minutes. But when he was reading a selected few from the hot section, they didn’t exactly grab his attention. A lot of them seemed to be written by younger ten to fifteen year olds. They did have a large amount of potential and amazing storylines, he’ll give them that.

Then he wandered over to Fanfiction.net. The sign up process was easy, but the site was a bit more historical and a bit more him. There were multiple forums, and he scrolled down and viewed a couple of them. Oh. They were similar to roleplay, but just - more building along a storyline with it, if that made any sense. The sign up was pretty easy here too, and he smiled as two notifications popped up in his gmail for both sites.

Backtracking now, he went off to ‘archive of our own,’ nicknamed ‘ao3’ for short and a paragraph popped up and he skimmed through it quickly. It was just a warning that everything could be viewed by whoever and whatnot. The writing here definitely seems way more advanced, way more complex and interesting, with canon divergences going all out and unheard au’s. And the cliche plots we’re simply adorable.

He went over to sign up, and raised an eyebrow when it stated that you needed to get an invitation, and all you had to do was enter in an email. And wait a day for an invitation.

Hopping onto tumblr, he made an account quickly and started scrolling through it, and everything seemed different somehow. Like, more modern day than the last time he came to the page. The fandom had definitely become smaller due to a ‘nsfw ban’ and he couldn’t decide whether that was a good or bad thing. They had gifsets of memories that had happened about three years ago, with their final stand against Chuck, and he smiled as he went through year’s old blogs that never updated anymore, reblogging everything ‘Supernatural’ underneath the username ‘babytrenchcoatnougat’ and he started to tear up when he stumbled upon a post where they had created a small art of playing the rainbow slinky with Dean based on a gifset of a memory. He still remembers how happy Dean had been when he got it just for him, he played with it for the next week.

A couple of week’s later, Sam want’s to do more than reblog and comment on content. Sam does have artistic potential, and he could definitely look into that. Although, writing seems easier at the moment, and he scrolls through an endless amount of fanfiction on archive of our own - ranging from major character death to general fanfiction - from his brother and best friend sleeping together to him turning into the boyking to high school universes to Apocalyptic worlds where they have failed.

He wants to write his own world, where they’re all happy and care-free and able to actually live happily, where no one he’s loved has died. Making a post on tumblr he states: By any chance, is there anyone on this platform that can help me with a non-romantic general Supernatural fanfiction?

He places a couple of normal tags that fit into the category, then presses post. About an hour later, he gets a reblog from someone called @ misha-moose-dean-burger-lover [and wow, that sounds like a handful] offering to help.

I’m available if you need me to, @ babytrenchcoatnougat ; what’s the plot? We can discuss more in DM’s if you’d like! Besides, I’m free for the week, but if you need a beta reader I can offer a couple of people that I know.

Sam sends her a message.

babytrenchcoatnougat: can you give me some advice or writing tips if you have any? i'm not looking to make any implied romantic pairings in the fic

misha-moose-dean-burger-lover: well, that depends, what’s the fic going to be about?

babytrenchcoatnougat: i don't know yet, maybe team free will 2.0 just taking a roadtrip to nowhere without a destination in sight after defeating chuck?

misha-moose-dean-burger-lover: eeeeee

misha-moose-dean-burger-lover: that sounds like a awesome idea misha-moose-dean-burger-lover: you're definitely going to want to have specific destinations in mind, and only a hint of angst, and what they’re going to do at these locations

misha-moose-dean-burger-lover: use transition words and make sure it doesn’t repeat often, descriptive details but don’t use it in every scene, and make sure there are frequent movements in the characters so they don’t sound so stiff, and make sure to slowly transition into the next scene, as time skipping to every scene will make the story seem boring. misha-moose-dean-burger-lover: make sure the characters aren’t ooc either!

And so, Sam writes. He writes until his eyes hurt and he definitely needs some sleep, so he sends a quick message to a beta to read it over for him and they do, gushing about how the plot was wonderful and badly needed after all the terrible angst that occurred this season. He smiles, giving his thanks before uploading the first chapter out of 15, 13k words, onto ao3.

[He checks over the grammar and tags over fifteen times.]

He can hardly contain his excitement, jumping around happily all day, even baking Dean a pie which makes him get sprayed with holy water and go through every test just to make sure he isn’t some supernatural creature.

Later that afternoon, he checks his ao3 underneath the same username and finds out it’s gotten about 150 hits, and 38 kudos, which makes his heart swell. He’s also gotten a comment, and he presses comments eagerly.

‘Kill yourself, psycho virgin fag.’

He re-reads the comment a couple of times, eyes tearing up and dropping his phone onto the kitchen table recklessly. What the fuck. Was his story really that bad? Did those people who didn’t leave a kudo really hate his story that much? Did the fans think his story was too child-like? Badly written? OOC? Do they really hate him that bad that he actually should commit-

Sam breaks down right then and there, pushing his computer aside, placing his head down and crying softly. Castiel and Dean don’t find him until an hour later, and he’s still softly crying. They rush over to him, Dean quickly sitting to the right while Castiel sits to the left. “Sammy? What happened?” Dean asks, and the younger Winchester shakes his head.

“N’thing.” He mumbles, and the older Winchester sighs. He’s just being stubborn, when he doesn’t want other people to worry about him, afraid that he’ll give them his problems. “Sam, please, if you talk to us, then we may fix the problem together. Remember, we made that promise two years ago, to be more open with each other.” The former-angel now archangel says, pushing Sam’s hair out of his face. Sam takes a shaky breath, pushing himself off the desk and grabs the laptop, opening it up to the recent fanfiction he had written, and Castiel and Dean both skim through it before Dean snatches the laptop. “Is this a fanfiction?” He looks at him as if he’s crazy, and Sam slowly shakes his head in agreement. Castiel walks over to Dean, both of them reading the first chapter silently, and everytime he glances over to see their reactions it seems unchanged. His brother probably thinks he’s weird, and Castiel is going to find him crazy-

“Damn, Sammy, you’ve got talent.” Dean says, and he actually sounds impressed. “W- what?”

“That is incredibly written and a wonderful idea, I think we should go on a roadtrip ourselves,” Dean nodded in agreement. “Is this why you’re crying? I think this is perfect.”

“Wait - you two do find it weird or anything?”

Castiel and Dean look confused. “Why would you think that Sammy? I like it.”

“You should uh - read the comment.” He says, and it takes the angel and older hunter a moment to find the comment section at the bottom, Castiel pointing at the button. Their faces turn into pure fury.

“I’m going to smite them.” Castiel all but growls out, and Dean shuts the laptop closed. “Don’t listen to ‘em, this is fucking amazing, got it? I want the second chapter. Don’t listen to what anyone else says, they're probably jealous that we’ve got a New York bestseller writer and all they can do is write the abc’s.” Dean hugs his brother, Castiel immediately joining right in and Sam sighs happily. They stay there for a bit, muttering out a ‘thank you’ before jumping up slightly, seeing that he’s gotten two more comments on his fanfiction, and nervously opens up the comment section to see that a user called ‘quicksilvermalec’ writing on how much they enjoyed the fic and can’t wait to read the second chapter while an anonymous user has attacked the one that insulted him, throwing a whole truckload of insults and Castiel smiles. “They got what they deserved.” The archangel says, and Dean shouts ‘damn straight’ joyfully. “Would the two of you want to write fanfiction with me, then?” Sam asks while writing the second chapter about an hour later, and the unison ‘yes’ gives him a warm feeling in his chest.

#sam winchester #dean winchester #castiel #jack kline #archangel!castiel #ficlet #gen fic #genfic #supernatural #fluff #representation week

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