mmmichyyy

[mmmichyyy]

(3x06 aftermath) this body remembers more than i ever will

i’ll never leave this house.

[mmmichyyy]

au where ian, depressed as hell, stumbles out of his apartment for a walk to shake the cobwebs a bit. he’s barely a block from his building when he spots a little fluff ball of a bird blinking up at him on the sidewalk. they blink back and forth for a moment, and ian thinks they might almost be like. having a moment? but then Some Guy elbows into him babbling about holy shit that’s a juvenile american kestrel holy fuck man that’s sick as hell — and ian is still just looking at this bird as this guy is going on about how man you will never see this again in your fuckin life cause they’re always in the goddamn sky??

and then the guy elbows him again and suddenly ian is part of some hour-long rescue situation. mickey, as he introduces himself, got really into birds as a kid while reading old nat geo magazines in juvie. now that his old man's finally kicked it, he just wanders around looking at birds during his lunch breaks. ian doesn't say much (he blushes, though, bc even if his brain is soup he does have functioning eyes), but he looks up different numbers of local bird groups for mickey to call.

and mickey's still going on as ian just looks between him and this bird, about how the bird is young but can fly, how it's likely just dazed and lost, but probably not hurt.... and ian can vaguely see a metaphor there. before long some nerds have appeared to help the lil bird.... do something or go somewhere. ian's not sure, but he blinks a goodbye at him. and then mickey tugs ian by the elbow down the block for a beer to toast the little guy bc holy shit man, that was cool huh? and the rest as they say.....

[mmmichyyy]

Viet and Nam (2024) // dir. Trương Minh Quý

[mmmichyyy]

weekly tag wednesday 👯‍♀️

this week's theme is oomfs - tagged by @spoonfulstar @stocious @gallapiech !

name: mich

what year did you join tumblr: 2009 i think

first URL you ever had on tumblr: centerwillnothold (it was a kim possible reference)

first fandom(s): i've only been active in the gallavich fandom

have you ever met anyone in real life that you met online: spoon @thisdivorce @blue-disco-lights hi 👋 if anyone is visiting westcoast canada hit me up

what is your favourite thing about your current fandom(s): everyone is all very nice and welcoming ~ kudos to everyone who organizes all the fun events every year!

have you ever gone on a trip with a friend? if so, how did it go: portland and japan with a friend that i'm not close with anymore, japan and hong kong with my best friend many years ago, san fran with my previous roommate - they were all good memories, or maybe i'm just blocking out the negative ones lol

if you could start a podcast with anyone (friend/family or famous person) who would it be?: i would not start a podcast because i don't have anything interesting to say, but i would pay good money (a dollar) to hear spoon and pie's podcast

tagging @deedala @jrooc @heymrspatel @heymacy @gallawitchxx @gardenerian @sam-loves-seb @blue-disco-lights @callivich @crossmydna @catgrassplantdad @samantitheos @burninface @romidoes @sgtmickeyslaughter @whatthebodygraspsnot @lingy910y @doshiart 🌸

[mmmichyyy]

it can't be the same gallagher and milkovich -

but then, who else could it be?

it's surely some combination of the gallaghers and milkoviches she remembers. phillip maybe, though she'd imagined him as a doctor or something by now. the little one, then, the one who was always lighting his toys on fire - but would he really protect anything for a living?

and the milkoviches. they'd kept her away from the milkoviches for the most part, and she knew them as shadows around the neighborhood. did one of them manage to get out?

anything's possible, of course. look at her.

ethel peers down at the scribbled reminder malik left, a yellow sticky note fixed to her mug of tea. meeting with gallagher-milkovich security at 2. see you then. - m

the kitchen is quiet. the kids have been dropped off at school by now, hurried out the door by malik while she finished her morning chores. ethel settles into her chair, brings the steaming mug of tea to her lips.

if it's them - they'll know, right? they'll know what happened.

they'd moved back to illinois before the pandemic, when malik's grandmother was so sick and he wanted to see her through it. to close a chapter, he'd said. to say a real goodbye.

so she packed up their little house and gathered up the kids. ethel had refused to live in chicago proper again. too many ghosts, too many words unsaid and lives unlived.

she'd begged malik not to move them back to the southside. ethel had faced down many demons over the years - leaving them behind hasn't been one of them. not yet.

he'd just kissed her face and stroked her hair. you're coming with me, he whispered into her hands as he held them to his lips, that's enough. and they started looking for houses the next morning.

their place is outside the city. for a while, ethel would drop malik off at the train so he could ride in for work and to see his grandmother. and she'd spend her days gardening, setting up the new house, seeing to the kids.

malik climbed into the car one evening with the world on his shoulders. grandmother was suffering - and though ethel prayed for a peaceful ease into death, god seemed to have another experience designed.

would you help? he asked, and pressed some seeds into her hands.

that's how it started.

they made oil from the cuttings malik got from a coworker, baked it into treats to ease grandmother's pain. ethel planted the seeds in a corner of the garden, eyes stinging as she remembered a bright room beneath a bar. another garden, another yard. another life.

before too long they were helping their neighbors and friends with their own pain. and when the pandemic hit, when people were so anxious and afraid, ethel felt called to help. she prayed over her plants, that they would bring peace and healing to those who turned to them.

they bought more land, built up a greenhouse. malik rents an office in the city where he can handle the business. ethel tends to stay home, running the planting and the harvesting - wondering what they would think if they could see her now.

helping the blind hadn't been his intention back then; ethel knows that now. but she knows he would. that's the kind of people they were.

she goes into the city today to meet with the security team malik found online. their life is changing so fast, this business that sprung up out of nowhere growing larger every day. now they need help.

ethel struggled with the morality of it for a while. suffering is divine after all. but she's learned that not all suffering is holy - sometimes pain is just pain. and maybe the holiness comes from easing the pain of others, from loosening its grip on the neck of your friends. of yourself.

maybe it's okay to heal. maybe it's okay to change. to seek a life free of pain, if possible.

she thinks of them, on the train. it had taken a while for ethel to seek them out, to let them know she's here - she's here and she's whole and she's making a life with her family.

but by the time she'd gathered the courage and found her way to knock on their front door, the house was gone. knocked down to its foundation, a developer's sign in the front yard.

and ethel turned around and went home.

malik offered to help look them up, find a new address or phone number. ethel said thank you, but no. she just continued to pray for them, pray for another time. life marched on.

and now a freckled face is looking at her curiously over malik's desk in the city. so it's ian, then. the quiet one, the one who flitted in and out of that house on the corner.

mickey milkovich sits next to him, explaining their services and pricing model. his tattooed hands wave wildly in front of his face as he speaks.

they wear matching rings.

ethel never knew these two. not really. she sat on those steps with debbie, carried liam around the yard, handed off a popsicle or five to carl. fiona was at their house a lot, eyeing her with the same curiosity she sees in ian right now.

so she's not surprised they don't know her. she smiles politely as they talk about their armored cars, their trusted staff, their long list of clients. she remembers ian shuffling around the neighborhood with phillip, sometimes sporting a black eye or a limp.

she remembers that store where these two often sat bickering while she picked up supplies for daycare. when ethel looks at them now, she can almost see those boys underneath it all.

ian keeps watching her, and she sees him file through his memories behind those narrowed green eyes.

malik stands when the pitch is over, shakes their hands. he lightly elbows ethel from her own memories and she laughs a little as she stands as well. ian straightens at the sound, grip tightening on her hand. he bites his lip, tilts his head.

he wants to ask.

but he doesn't want to seem rude, perhaps, so he just nods and follows mickey out the door after promising to be in touch.

ethel settles back into her seat. malik picks up his phone and scrolls through his email for a moment before looking back at her.

"you think he's gonna remember on his own?"

"you know who they are?"

"'course i do," malik chuckles. "you think i grew up where i did and don't know gallaghers or milkoviches?"

ethel blushes. of course he knows. he was here before she was. he's come home in a way she hasn't yet.

"i don't blame him," she sighs. "not sure why he would know me - "

she hears the huffing of breath before he appears in the doorway. ethel looks away from malik to find ian gallagher leaning in the entryway, hand over his chest.

"ethel?" he breathes. "kev and vee's ethel?"

kev and vee's ethel.

she could have been theirs. maybe she was, for a time. but she was always jonah's ethel first. clyde's ethel, malik's ethel.

now maybe ethel's own ethel at last.

but she thinks she would have liked being theirs, in another life. another world, a better world. where little girls can take their time growing up.

"that's me," she says, not wanting to correct him. she likes to be remembered as theirs.

"holy shit," he says, before clapping a hand over his mouth. "sorry, i forgot - "

ethel waves him off. they taught her to be less severe. and there is something holy here, he's right.

"do they know you're here?" he asks, making room for mickey who's now elbowing into the office.

"no," ethel answers, shoulders falling. "i don't - i didn't know where they went."

"fuckin' kentucky," mickey spits. "'bout a year ago."

"louisville," ian supplies. "but they've been back to visit a lot already. holy shit - sorry - we have to call them!"

ethel sinks back into her seat. malik's hand comes to rest on her shoulder, and she can feel the concern in his gaze. this is all happening so fast. can it just happen - so suddenly, like that?

maybe it can.

"please," she grins. "call them."

-

tamika and jonah complain about wearing their sunday clothes on a friday night, but ethel bribes them with extra dessert.

it's a special night.

she'd spent the day making the house sparkle, setting out food - their favorites, bringing in greenery and flowers. she wants them to know.

she wants them to know what they did for her.

his shadow moves across the floor as they appear in the screen door, hovering on the front porch. faces pressed against the mesh, peering inside with barely veiled excitement. fear. grief. joy.

ethel wipes her hands on her apron and moves to let them into the glow of the house. malik appears by her side, ushering them inside with handshakes and welcomes. two little girls wander in after them.

little sisters, in another life.

she's surrounded by them then, two strong arms lifting her up and holding her tight, two elegant hands rubbing at her arms, holding her face.

they smile brightly through their tears, drinking her in and reaching out like they can't help but touch her. like they need to be sure she's real. she bites her lip when she realizes she's reaching back.

"i'm sorry," she whispers as she leads them to the armchairs by the fire. "i'm just so sorry," she says again as she holds out a plate of homemade breads and cheese.

out of the corner of her eye, ethel sees the twins move closer to tamika and jonah, who offer up a plate of cookies in welcome. malik herds them over to the fire, where they can sit a play games together.

kevin tears off a hunk of bread and shoves it in his mouth, nearly choking as he eats and cries. "what're you sorry for?" he garbles through his chewing.

veronica rolls her eyes. "what he means is: we understand. we missed you, but we understand."

ethel puts the plate aside and holds out her hands to them.

"i prayed for you," she says. it's the most honest thing she can think to say right now. even when she was hurting and healing and mourning a childhood she hadn't known she missed, they lived in her prayers.

tears spill over; veronica reaches out and wipes them away.

"we prayed for you," she says. "never stopped."

ethel knew that, in the back of her mind. they kind of people they are. but it warms her soul to hear it.

"now," veronica says, tossing her hair behind her shoulder, "tell us everything."

[mmmichyyy]

@gallavichthings My (late) gallavich week fanart for Day 1-Sports ! Professional baseball au where they play for the cubs because I dont know any other baseball teams in chicago

[mmmichyyy]

[RESTOCK UPDATE] My Shop will reopen on June 18th @ 6pm UTC+2!

There will be a bunch of new items as well as the return of some older ones! I hope you'll check it out 🥰🥹!!

RETURNING ITEMS!! NEW ITEMS!!! LIMITED EDITION QUEBEC PINS okay maybe not that one.

[mmmichyyy]

🧸🧸🧸

[mmmichyyy]

“c’mere” (prison era’s version)

[mmmichyyy]

[mmmichyyy]

imagine hating him when he's literally a soaking wet baby bird

[mmmichyyy]

absolutely love abusing the power that comes with 3rd person limited pov and just ignoring things and being vague sometimes. does the character know all the details? no? then I don't have to either.

[mmmichyyy]

how to spot stolen/uncredited gifs + how to work the search function

there's been a lot of talk about not stealing gifs and not supporting people who do, but it might not be easy to spot shady posts for everyone. so i made this little guide with things i personally look out for. at the end there's also a guide on how to work the search function. i hope this will help out there on the wild tumblrmachine!

the gif has a watermark that doesn't match the poster and there's no "gif by @[username]" under the gif. please note that a lot of people don't watermark their gifs at all, but this is one of the biggest give aways to a gif being stolen and reuploaded.

the gif doesn't stretch across the entire post. very seldom does a gif maker go through the entire process of making a gif and not making it cover the entire post space. in the example below, the gif was most likely a part of a set, as a second gif would fit perfectly right next to the one posted.

"theme posts" with gifs of different sizes and/or quality. in the examples below, "mickey smiling" has gifs of different sizes and no "gif by" credit under either of them. "theme posts" can still be made with proper credit to the gif maker, like "road trip" to the right.

new posters and no "my gifs" tag. if you're unsure if the gif is stolen or not, click the top of the post and go the blog and look at the tags attached to the post. if someone made the gif themselves, there's usually a "my gifs" or a similiar tag under the post. this might be a good thing to do if someone is new to the space has started posting gifs. this is not 100% foolproof method, but it can help you give an idea if the gif is stolen or not.

so how do i work the search function? how do i get the gifs i want?

good question! in the example of "mickey smiling", try searching for just that - "mickey milkovich smile" and you should get some good results. in the case of grabbing a specific gif from a specific post, i'll try to make a guide down below. if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

first, find a post you want to use a gif from. we're gonna use this set from @heymacy.

open the post you wanna use and copy the url to it. then make a new post and hit the gif search button. paste the url and it should find you the first gif of the set. click the gif and tumblr brings you back to your post with the gif and the "gif by heymacy" at the bottom.

but say you want the last image in the set. we're gonna use a tiny bit of html but don't fret.

first, do the previous step i just explained above.

click the cog wheel at the top right corner, scroll down and choose "text editor - html". go back to your post and it should be a whole bunch of text instead of an image.

search the text for "img scr" and then delete everything between the two quotation marks following that, it starts with https and ends with gifv.

go back to the post with the gif set and right click the gif you want (in this case the last one of the set), and choose "copy image link" and paste it between the quotation marks where you deleted stuff before. make sure not to delete any quotation marks and that your new link placed between them!

please note: you might get an error message from tumblr that the post contains unsupported html, just ignore that.

then click the cog wheel again, and change the editor back to "rich text". you're new image should be there, with proper credit!

bam, you're done! i'm also including a video below of me doing these steps so you can follow along. sorry my os is in swedish, but the thing i right click on is just "copy image link" as stated above.

here's a more in depth guide to this method, but it can be a little confusing if you're not used to working in html.

as you add more images and text to your post, the amount of text after you change to the html editor will increase. it might be hard to find the exact gif you want to change, but play around with it and try it out. the more you use the method, it'll be easier to work with.

thank you for coming to my ted talk, i hope this helps! 🫂

[mmmichyyy]

hello 👁️👁️ i secretly think/admire that you're very thoughtful and reflective about art and media and probably life in general

hi gigi 🖤 what a generous thing to say wow i'd like to think i'm pretty open-minded and accepting of most things in life especially when it comes to art and media (though most of the time i really am just embodying the 'no thoughts head empty' state of being) i also believe life is too fucking short to be a negative hateful person all the time, sometimes you just gotta laugh and tell yourself it is what it is and go on with your life 🙂‍↔️

[mmmichyyy]

i never got to tell you that i love that you loved the handmaiden 😌✨

hi ling! yes! the handmaiden truly is one of the best movies ever made, unapologetically lesbian and women getting their revenge on toxic men? yes please more films like this please!

[mmmichyyy]

reblog if you want your followers to tell you one thing they secretly think about you.

[mmmichyyy]

ian and mickey sharing a cigarette is so personal to me