#this isn't like a real gifset that I want notes on

[nidstiniens]

hey sorry I just need to talk about this for a hot second because I’m working on the rough outline for a fic and I can’t get this moment out of my head. this is the moment where, after the eons of plotting, watching his comrades fail over and over, watching every single plan he’s come up with get thwarted time and time again — at the end of all things, emet-selch, so overwrought with grief that he reconstructs amaurot, so desperate for an end to the insanity of it all takes the tiniest, smallest, briefest of moments to put a hand to the mortal wound you’ve given him before he fades away. it’s the “oh” moment, the moment of reprieve, of relief; the moment he realizes it’s over and he can finally rest after what doesn’t just feel like but has been thousands and thousands of years. at the end of everything, he’s not upset you won, he’s relieved his fight is finally over, and all he wants is for you to remember him. to remember amaurot. to remember his people and all that he fought for. just remember that it wasn’t all for nothing, that he wasn’t a villain for the cruelty of it, that it all meant something to him — and when you nod your head, he just smiles and then fades away. I will never be okay.

[ravensmadreads]

Unhinged totally unasked for thots about Riding Pedro Boys

Authors Note: So this came from me chugging entirely too many energy drinks and then projectile vomiting in Taylors inbox. I'd like to warn you that: English isn't my first language, I have never written smut before, I'm not a real writer, and also I'm trash goblin levels of unhinged about this. That being said; Enjoy and uhh. Forgive me Fandom

JAVIER PEÑA

Javier Pena doesn't let you do it.

Don't @ me LISTEN! (YES I STARTED OFF WITH A CONTROVERSIAL THOT FUCKING BITE ME.)

That man does not have the time, or the patience, or the good sense (the sense is at the other end) to let you ride. He needs the control okay? And sometimes it's not even about the control ! It's the frustration. It piles and piles and piles until he snaps. He needs to do. He will bend you over and work his frustration away until he has had enough and you let him because he needs it. (And lets be real he makes it worth your while every single time)

BUT. When he finally fucking retires, and gets a ranch, and breaths air not tinged with the smells of death, cigarettes and guns for the first time in however many years, and maybe drinks some fucking water, he takes you out on a date. He fumbles through the entire thing, panics because he thinks he blew it, still manages to get you home, gets ridden for the first time in like 6 years, and can't walk straight for an entire day and stammers every time someone asks him why.

JAVIER GUTIERREZ

Javi G loves it. He loves watching you. Gets all puppy dog wide eyed (remember the pool scene face??? Thats it.) and you have to really focus because his look of straight up wonder and awe and bright eyed eagerness makes you want to cry. He's panting like he's running a marathon, running his big hands EVERYWHERE he can reach. He makes you feel worshipped and adored and so very very loved. Thanks you after. For being so amazing, and so wonderful to him, and thanks the universe that he found you. Cause he's sap. You definitely cry after.

JOEL MILLER

(Watch me be controversial again) Joel is fucking tired okay? He has old man bones and creaky joints and his back is achy. Patrol was agony, Jesse wouldn't shut up the entire time, and Tommy was giving him shit, and he has no energy to drill anyone into the mattress (as much as we all want him to). He's just plain tired. He likes you on top. Likes it slow (like a roast chicken on a sunday slow). Enjoys the gradual build up, likes to lean back, watch with half open eyes as you take your time. Wants to indulge in something beautiful at the end of the world, and that something is you. He makes sexy grunting noises, mutters a whole lot of praise ~and filth~ and just y'know. Savours it. 🫠🫠🫠 savours you. 🫠

DIETER BRAVO

Dieter is a maniac. (Leave him alone he has adhd!!) He can't still still for the life of him so you best believe he changes positions 6 times and the only way you're getting to ride is if you're also putting some weight elsewhere. To hold him down! You squeeze his neck once and he MELTS. INSTANTLY. Loses all sense. Starts babbling and whimpering and making extremely pathetic noises. Will definitely buck up and whine. PRAISES YOU. BEGGING. LOUD NOISES.

MAX PHILLIPS

Max is a heathen. He just likes watching you bounce. That's it. That's the post :p

MARCUS PIKE

Marcus P is a romantic. He will be doing the whole "lean forward and try to get kisses in between" while also "moaning and maintaining eye contact" and he's holding you so tight , squeezing your sides and also muttering declarations of love. About how he wants a life with you, and a family, and a home, and a future. How he's going to "make you so happy baby, I promise I will, I swear to you". Doesn't let you off for from on top of him for atleast a half hour after; kissing all over your face and rubbing your back and petting your hair "I meant all of it sweetheart. I want all of you." shsbzgwgsvsg ilovehimsomuch and I've only ever seen gifsets of this man what is wrong with me

MARCUS MORENO

Marcus M is A MENACE. He wears his stupid glasses, and has his stupid shirt off, while he does stupid taxes/meeting plans in bed. You keep throwing side glances and getting increasingly wound up and he just has this gentle smirk but he's mostly ignoring you. You sidle up to him and maybe start kissing his jaw, laying gentle pecks down his neck, and he's still fukcungh working "Baby. I need to finish this. I'm sorry, you need to wait." But that smirk is still there and it's driving you crazy and maybe you keep kissing until you reach his *coughs* and then you're working on getting him interested. You can still hear the fucking pen scratching though and so you go deeper, and he raises an eyebrow. "be good now honey" You're settling in his lap and he has you sitting there until he has finished his paperwork with you whimpering and trying not to squirm because you want to be good you really do and you know he'll make it so much better but he feels so good and when he's finally finally done you get to move but you're so wound up you can't pull yourself together enough to find a rhythm and you're nearly in tears and he has to grip your sides and murmur instructions in your ear and help you until you're satisfied and just when you think he's done, and about to flip you over, he adjusts his grip and starts moving from underneath you until you're crying and he's finished ~which doesnt happen until you've come 2 more times~

DAVE YORK

Dave. Oh my gosh Dave. Dave is a strict dom if ever there was one. With him it's a punishment. He'll tell you to hold off until he's done which is freaking impossible with how deep he gets, and how he likes to warm up his hands on your butt while you're trying desperately to hold onto that last thread of control. He is muttering absolute filth, holding your arms behind your back with one hand while the other is either laying smack after smack or rubbing you furiously all the while he's got the smuggest look. "Don't you dare baby. Be a good girl now. Listen and obey for once". But you can't because he's not fair and he knows it. And when you do finally fall apart he's clenching his teeth trying to hold back himself and his hands are holding you up as you gasp his name like it's the only word you know. He's running his hands down your back and kissing you softly and helping you catch your breath and when you finally get your heart to stop pounding and look up at him, he's watching you with this dangerously soft smile and he goes "oh you're in for it now aren't you honey?" and kisses your forehead while you try not to whimper.

FRANKIE MORALES

Frankie is a soft boy. He loves it. Craves it. He loves giving up control. Wants you to tie him up and have your way until he has no thoughts left in that pretty little head. He is swearing like an absolute sailor the entire time, calling you ma'am, begging to be released so he can kiss you and touch you, absolutely nearly breaks the head board once he was so desperate. Wants to be edged but also is the biggest WIMP about it. Will pout and swear and beg and plead but then want you to deny him again. Will definitely be mumbling absolute nonsense once you're done. Needs all the aftercare. Blushes pink when he gets it. Wraps himself around you like a HUGE koala bear after. ~and returns the edging favour 3 times over when he gets in his Captain Francisco Morales Mood~

JACK DANIELS

BONUS TWO I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT and tumblr won't let me put gifs for:

Jack makes every single cowboy joke known to man. You have to put your hand on his mouth to get him to shut the hell up. His eyes get all glassy when you do. He puts his hat on top of your head and busies himself in your neck (dual benefits: A. He shuts up and B. HICKIES) will definitely drag you on top of him in his Bronco (he likes to show off) will pull up on the side of the road almost 70% of the times you drive together. Bites you over your clothes. Loves the way you grab desperately at this leather jacket. Definitely makes you bend over and 'clean up the mess sugar' before driving like the hounds of hell are after him all the way back home and doing it all over again because "we gotta make you a mama now love"

PERO TOVAR

Pero got married after he came back and retired as a sell sword. His wife is a soft but sassy thing who's a little (read: not at all, she returns his snark twice over) intimidated by him but also thinks he's a good man because he saved her village from raiders. She has seen him grumble and snark at but then also share his food with the orphans who works at the village inn. She's inexperienced (let me live my victorian life) and he doesn't really think he deserves her but also he's not so much an idiot to say no to someone like her. She's the village "healer" and he met her when he got stabbed by one of the raiders (arm wound: not serious.) He has to teach her. She gets shy and flustered, which is a total 180 from her sassy self, and Pero loves it. She makes the most amazing sounds that have him thinking that maybe he did something right in his life to end up in her arms. She wants to please her new husband and asks her married friends for advice and they tell her about this new position. So she asks him, stuttering and tripping over words, if she could try something she heard about? From a friend? She straddles him and Pero loses his mind. He's closing his eyes and clenching his jaw so hard and she's whimpering in the most DELICIOUS way and he's trying so hard to hold back and let her take her pace and she's so worried "am I not doing it right?" Pero has to take 3 deep breaths before he's centred enough to answer and then he helps her. Puts his hands on her hips to guide her. Puts one of her hands on his shoulder "steady now pequenita" and puts the other low on her belly and presses in so she can feel him. Loves the way she cries out. Bends forward to leave little marks everywhere he can reach. She's scrambling at his chest, leaving nail marks he loves, and finally grabbing his hair and pulling until he groans. And when they're both done and sated and sweaty he kisses her, looks her in the eye and winks. "I'm going to have to go thank your friend now, mi esposa."

DIN DJARIN

Din and you dont have time. The razor crest is finally in hyperspace, you got shot at for the 50th time in 2 weeks, (because Murphys Law seems to be the only law Mando never breaks), you're exhausted, sweaty, and the giggly green monster of chaos only made you chase him down from the top of a weapons cabinet twice before he finally decided to take a nap. You're frustrated, and in desperate need of a shower, and a nap, but also you can't get the image of Mando fighting out of your head. Before you know it, the hormones have taken over and you're attacking him in the pilot seat. The bucket is off (I refuse to look at my own reflection in the tin cans helmet while we do the do), he's got you arching into him, your shirt is half torn from the top because Din refuses to wait for "so many fucking buttons Meshla" the gloved hand is squeezing the back of your neck, his mouth is on your chest, his other hand (you only managed to get one glove off) is splayed out on your back. You're riding him like you're trying to break him and his thigh holster? thing (do i look like i can figure out what they're called?) is digging marks into your skin but you're too turned on to care. It's frantic, it's messy, you're PRAYING the tiny green menace stays asleep as you do your best to muffle your sounds. The refresher isn't big enough for a round two, (you still do your best), and your legs feel like jelly, when you finally pass out; curled up on top of the human space heater while he hums Mando'a in your ear.

*****

TAGGING: @chronically-ghosted (you are a menace but ily)

@fuckyeahdindjarin (here I go trying that writing thing again, stop me pls)

[mulderscully]

Other anon embarrasing themselves and speaking as they just joined tumblr.

This site it is dying. You may see gisfets with thousands of notes, but its not as often as a few years ago even, not even talking pre 2014-16 (also theyre mostly from ppl with thousands of followers and owners of blogs like bbelcher and such).

Gifmakers stopped making gifs cause people stopped reblogging, simple as that. I myself stopped making gifs cause i was frustrated, spending entire afternoons on gifsets for them to get 500 notes. Now dont get me wrong, i was grateful for those, but having been here for literally 11 years, i know what real engagement looks like, ive seen gifsets, some of mine included, get 20k notes in hours.

So, yeah anon, this site is slowly dying whether you see it or not.

exactly, thank you.

like it's not even that 500 notes is bad it's that if you were a gifmaker here when the site wasn't dying you know that a set doing WELL at 500 is awful because what does it say about everything else? the only way to get thousands of notes now is to gif something IMMEDIATELY after it drops. and then after like two weeks people stop caring. i giffed red white & royal blue the first two weeks after it came out and some of those sets have 5-8k, now i make sets of the movie and sit at around 500 because people don't want to engage with things long term. and it's fine! but gifmaking takes time and work and this website has aged. a lot of us have jobs or kids and to sit there and spend time on something takes effort and at a certain point you start to wonder what the point even is, esp when you know that someone is probably reposting the stuff you made onto other platforms and stealing your ideas and getting all the engagement. there just isn't the same sense of community there once was and that's the saddest part.

but i try to encourage my fellow gifmakers, you know WHY? because i like reblogging beautiful sets and if people feel like their work is for nothing then what the hell am i gonna reblog? nothing bc ppl will quit and then how can i put things in my digital scrapbook? the creator and reblogger relationship is a two way street.

[forcebookish]

a lot of intimate details of topmew's relationship were strangely out of frame. like, when top touches mew's thigh in episode one:

and you can hear mew touch top's thigh here:

i do think it lends to the realism of their relationship, because it doesn't have a lot of those "om G they did something GAY" moments that you see in a lot of BLs. they just act like a couple (or flirting, in the case for episode one), and we're all just witness to that. and maybe that's why they don't sit well with a lot of BL veterans and BNFs, because so little of their relationship is played up for the camera.

like a lot of the show, their love scenes are mostly shot hand-held (both steady and shaky cam), and this scene

is shot from behind a wall, at a distance, and it has this voyeuristic quality to it - but not in a sinister way, because they're at a party. in this scene, it's as if we're partygoers who happen to come across this quiet moment of raw intimacy.

it all tells us that these are stolen moments of something real.

(side-note: i'm not comparing this with the other couples in the series. i don't care enough about them to double check if their scenes are shot similarly lmao i only remember how different the choreography was)

that being said, even in moments where the POINT was that they were holding hands, where the emphasis of the shot should have been on their hands, it's not.

which idk maybe it was something with the dp, limited time/shots, or editing. i think the above video was presented how it was intended (since it's so natural, who even knows if book was directed to do that or if it was his own choice), but in the first episode, you'd think it'd be kind of a big deal? since so much of the scene is about top hitting on mew? like, top does it when he says that he'll go to get more drinks and mew nods kinda shyly. you'd think that there would be some emphasis on the fact that he came on that strong - BEFORE he found out that mew was a virgin. maybe they never shot another angle where it was obvious what he was doing, but whether it didn't exist or was edited out, it still feels like a way that production sabotaged them as a ship lol

there was a lot of talk about only friends changing the bl industry and unfortunately i think the main takeaway is going to be that subtlety is lost on its audience 🙃

(that's not me saying that the subtle approach to the aforementioned ep1 scene was the right approach, since MOST viewers didn't notice it and the ones who did it probably took multiple watches or someone in the fandom literally pointing it out - i think i needed to have it pointed out iirc. showing top coming on to mew isn't spelling it out for the audience, it's enriching the story...)

ANYWAY, this was inspired by me wanting to make a gifset of topmew holding hands but it was really annoying because most of the shots their hands are out of frame >:(

[clairedaring]

tag game ✨

huge thank you to the lovely zey @thasorns for thinking of me. i love you too (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

1. why did you choose your url?

no one remembers her but claire dearing from jurassic world will always hold a special place in my heart.

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them.

poomphuripan - the bl sideblog that i started just because my main got deactivated for a bit but i guess for now, it's mostly uppoom and msi-focused. in december, it'll probably be torjj and spare me your mercy-focused. i think i'll probably just be using these for the ql series i have a crazy hyperfixation about.

huiyanan - a pentagon yanan/hui focus sideblog

coryjeacoma - my musical theatre sideblog for random audio bootlegs and sometimes musical gifs

ryuvachirawich - my unused (mostly lakorn) gifs blog for extra gifs i make but that doesn't make it into any main or sideblogs. at first i was trying to keep this sideblog lowkey but then i needed to tag the gifs w my gif tag anyway so i could search for them so disclosing is fine 🤣

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

2014... what do you mean it's been a decade since i started using tumblr.... time isn't real

4. do you have a queue tag?

i tried but i've given up on queue-ing in general so i don't. my tumblr is constantly in two modes: super active or going months without a single post lmaoooo.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

i wanted to be where all the gifmakers are but i have too much interests so this shall remains a multi-fandom blog or more like a "whatever media claire is consuming atm" blog 

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

dirk gently is the single most perfect holistic detective in existence. sometimes i'm too attached to my url and my icon, i don't think i can ever change them. headers i can but i haven't changed my url/icon for 3-4 years i think.

7. why did you choose your header?

i feel you linger in the air is THAT series for me. dethroned almost every other thai series on my all time fave list (i say almost because bad genius series is still holding its crown well)

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

i just checked and apparently it's my first and only merlin gifset 😅

9. how many mutuals do you have?

i have no idea but i love all my mutuals （づ￣3￣）づ╭❤️～

10. how many followers do you have?

i hit 1k recently. crazy to me because i've left this tumblr empty for months before starting being active again last october???

11. how many people do you follow?

4000+ but that's only because i'm too lazy to unfollow people. so yea i rarely see things on my dash. i just end up scrolling through my fave gifmakers tags to find things they make.

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

i don't think so????? i mean the closest is probably me saying super random things on this tag.

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

it used to be once a week... but these days it's really a daily routine lmao. although i'm pretty sure i'll leave my tumblr dusting once my stand-in ends... who knows... we'll see...

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

how can i? i'm so non-confrontational, i reblog things in private to argue with op 😭 lmao (arguments that op will never see lmao, i'm saving them and me both the trouble really). just enfp things.

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts

huh why do i never get them on my dash (⊙x⊙;)

16. do you like tag games?

sometimes i forget but i love being tagged in them because i get to know about all the great mutuals i have on here, especially music tags because i always get incredible new music recommendations

17. do you like ask games?

apparently i had my asks closed without knowing for quite some time so i haven't received asks for so long. maybe one day i'll do them but i have bad records of answering asks so ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

i'm not sure if being THE certified way apologist/way gifmaker qualifies her as tumblr famous but maybe sasa @zhouxiangs is the most famous mutual i have

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

let's call this mutuals whose editing skills i wanna steal (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

lana @sherrymagic whenever you see me reblogging lana's joe sets every week, you'll see me gushing about the consistency in her coloring and that's because that's something i'm obsessed with, especially considering my stand-in's grim/dark cinematographic coloring. also i don't know how lana chooses the perfect lines from each eps to do her recap sets because most of the times i can't even choose between which scenes to gif.

eva @alienwlw eva makes the most beautiful lyrics set and is willing to do my most niche requests and i'm always looking forward to seeing her gifs because it's always so warm and grainy and crisp and i'm just like wahhhh *heart eyes emoji* every time

20. tags?

no pressure tagging anyone today ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

[grabyoursaintsandpray]

Want to read an Elsa/Jack drabble?

Considering this is only relevant to a handful of my followers, I've thrown it and some backstory behind the cut.

Well first to explain, I've been ridiculously ill all week, some kind of flu/chest infection I'm not sure, all I know is it's wiped me out and I've been getting home from work and going straight to bed every day. I hadn't written anything in days and I think I made like one gifset this week because looking at the screen so intently hurt my eyes. So this was a pleasant surprise possible fever dream

It's like 900 words, not quite crack but possibly crack adjacent, completely unedited because I wrote it on my notes app which has no spell check or anything and why was me being ill relevant to the story? Well because my brain is mostly mush at this point, my temperature has been 39c (Standard is 36-37) so I'm just warning you that this isn't necessarily good and also probably expect errors.

But I thought I'd share (though it's not ao3 worthy) because I haven't written anything for WBN since January, honestly I was a little worried that maybe I'd lost the ability but no turns out I just need to run such a high temp that it melts the writers block right out of my brain.

Hopefully this is the kickstarter to being able to crank out an actual story at some point but for now I'm going to go back to huddling up on the sofa in my Gengar Oodie.

----🐺----

Elsa was not one for sitting idly, much preferring to have some kind of mission, some kind of goal in mind.

Maybe that's due to the life she's led, constantly on the move, never staying in one place too long. It comes with the monster hunting territory she supposes.

It's different now, life is different now. She has a home, somewhere real and permanent that she can return to. She also has more of a purpose, the Bloodstone that is currently conspicuously absent from around her neck seeing to that.

She slides her eyes over to the man beside her, who is practically buzzing with glee because there's one last difference, a big one and his name is Jack.

If there was one thing that had completely turned her life upside down, it was him.

Not that she minds of course, most of the time anyway. In fact normally she's eternally grateful for him quite literally stumbling into her path and changing the direction she had been heading in.

Today though, well today she was not grateful because in all his questionable wisdom, Jack had decided that she was due for some R and R.

Yeah, in theory? Sounded great. Maybe they take a weekend off from monster hunting, rent a little place somewhere the two of them can be alone and reconnect with each other.

Unfortunately, she wasn't being whisked away to a cabin in the middle of nowhere or a quiet island with a private beach.

No, she was checking them both into a spa.

"Do you like it?" Jack had asked as they pulled into the car park and as she turned, seeing those beautiful eyes, wide with excitement and nerves, she found her irritation crumbling.

"It's great" She promised him, mouth tilted in a half smile. He practically slumped in relief and she withheld the sigh wanting to escape her lips.

It was fine, she could get through this. It was hanging around a bunch of people and trying to relax, not torture. She'd laugh about it in a bit.

----

She wasn't laughing. Two hours later and she's slowly losing the will to live.

They'd been in the jacuzzi, great except for the four other people there with them. Steam room, same deal and honestly it felt like sitting in a bloody volcano anyway. Who enjoys that kind of shit?

She begged off going into the swimming pool. Jack, it turns out wasn't too keen on swimming either, which did at least amuse her slightly. She thought all dogs were born with the ability to swim, or was that some kind of strange myth she'd picked up over the years?

With all the various wet things fortunately out of the way and Jack unfortunately out of his swimming trunks and back into his regular clothes. They headed into the relaxation room before their massages.

Her arse was numb from lying on what was truly some kind of instrument of torture masquerading as a bed. For a thing supposed to promote comfort and relaxation, they sure chose a bizarre style in which to do it.

It was solid for starters, no soft fabric to sink into and rest your head on, in fact she painfully banged hers with a loudly echoing thump the second she tried to lay down.

She understood the tile which it was made of was to keep it heated easily but that still didn't stop her from feeling like she was lying on the bathroom floor.

The bizarre hazy purple hue to the room had also left her feeling mildly disoriented and she worried for the sake of her eyesight once she stepped back into the sun.

Not to mention the music being piped in, some hideous repetitive... plinky plonky sounds that barely classified as actual noises, let alone music. There was a wonderful change-up an undetermined amount of time later with seagull sounds being added in, that truly made her contemplate jumping through the nearest window.

She turned her head, neck cracking at the stiff position it had been kept in, to check on Jack. Surely he must be bored by now? If she finds it hard to sit still normally then he is usually like a kid hopped up on sugar.

It really shouldn't surprise her to see that he is completely knocked out. His chest softly rising and falling soothingly.

She lets out a quiet whisper of his name, nothing.

A spiteful part of her wants to yell it, watch him startle so hard he falls onto the probably much softer floor. She stops herself, she's a bitch sure but she has some decorum.

Plus he deserves this much more than she does. They've hunted nonstop for the last few months with the last one being a close call that she truly doesn't like to think about.

She hadn't been paying attention and it nearly cost her life. Worse, it nearly cost his life because of course he spotted the incoming danger and threw himself in front of her, taking the brunt of the damage to a terrifying degree.

She knows that's the reason he's booked this spa for them. It had shaken them both to their core and he just wanted some sense of normality, of just being a couple without all the death and destruction inherent in their line of work.

So she'd give him this, she would let him sleep and soon she would endure being prodded by a stranger and at the end of the day she'd tell him how great it felt and how relaxed she now was and they'd go home, feeling that little bit closer. If she gripped him a little tighter at night, if she woke him up screaming his name in terror then they'd both gracefully ignore it but he'd tuck her closer and whisper sweet nothing's into her ear in Spanish until she drifted back off, the same way he always does.

It was a fair trade and honestly, she'd laugh about this tomorrow, she's sure.

[tarnishedxknight]

Headcanons: Noah's Amber Eyes In the Greater Context of His Nethicite Poisoning

{out of dalmasca} I wanted to jot down some notes about the appearance of Noah/Gabranth's eyes, since my use of faceclaims without the right eye color I feel sometimes makes these details get lost. Inspired by a gif in the bottom left in this gifset, I wanted to describe what his eyes look like, why they are that way, and why they are different from Basch's eyes. Although it is canon that his eyes are an orange/yellow/amber-ish color in the game, it isn't really discussed, so much of this information will be my own headcanons to develop this aspect of him.

As seen above, Noah's eyes are typically described as "amber-colored," but the irises are not a normal flat or even banded color as some people's eyes are. They are actually a rather unnatural, lightly glowing, sometimes even swirling or smoldering sort of color. So it is not only their color which makes them unique, but the magical "fire" contained within them. (View the gifset and zoom in on that particular gif to see the dynamic nature of the color in his eyes.) Depending on his mood, his level of fatigue/injury, and/or if he is preparing to cast a spell, you can actually see the golden glow of Mist moving in the irises of his eyes.

The reason Noah's eyes are this way is because of the Mist his body absorbed in his youth while living through the Archadian conquering of the Republic of Landis. Noah remained in Landis after it was destroyed by nethicite with his mother and other survivors long enough to become dangerously poisoned.

When nethicite explodes, there is an intense amount of magical energy, electromagnetic energy, light, and thermal energy in the form of heat that is emitted from the central point and out across the blast radius. What isn't destroyed physically or degraded chemically by the force of the blast or the dangerous particulates that are cast into the air becomes bathed in Mist. Mist is a visual, physical manifestation of the magical residue that results from nethicite explosion. Simply put, it's a magical fog cloud that, when dense enough, becomes visible to the naked eye even to those without any magical ability or sixth sense for detecting it. It manifests in the form of a shimmering, glowing, golden orange cloud that lingers until something drains the Mist from the area or absorbs the Mist's power into itself.

While in Landis following the devastating nethicite explosion, Noah's body became permeated by Mist. Because of the thermochemical properties of Mist, it is extremely toxic to biological organisms such as plants, animals, and most sentient races. The best comparison in the real world is radioactivity. The longer your exposure, the more health detriments you will incur. Stay in it long enough, and it becomes fatal. Mist is much the same, especially when it is very dense. Through breathing and even just being inside the large cloud of Mist that engulfed Landis, Noah's internal organs became permeated with the magical substance, resulting in chronic poisoning and disease.

The Mist has long since dissipated from his skin and outer body layers, but it still saturates his internal organs, has left him almost sterile, and has had lasting health effects. These health effects range from lung disease to bouts of fatigue, as well as mental effects like decreased impulse control and damaged emotional regulation.

The only reason he has not died of his chronic nethicite poisoning is because of his link to Basch as his twin. They share a soul, and so Basch, who left Landis quickly following its destruction, passively helped to mitigate some of the effects of Noah's poisoning. As Noah's health declined, so did Basch's, but as Basch began to manifest symptoms of nethicite poisoning, Noah's stabilized. Almost like balancing scales, the two twins shared this condition, even across incredible distance and for over two decades, through the bond their shared soul allows.

Over the years, Basch has become stricken with symptoms of nethicite poisoning and was healed by Ashelia, who possesses the ability to weild a rare form of Dynast magic capable of curing nethicite poisoning. As Noah's poisoning continues, the Mist in his body slowly grows in amount and power as it accumulates magical energy from his surrounding environment. This would have caused his health to fail and him to die, if not for Ashelia healing Basch. In so doing, she inadvertantly also partially healed Noah as well. This has allowed him to remain in a kind of balanced dynamic with the Mist in his body.

This sustained chronic poisoning without the finality of the usual fatal outcome for which it is unfortunately known does come with some benefits. The Mist inside his body is perhaps just short of sentient. It isn't truly, but it does want to accumulate itself and to consolidate its power. When Noah sustains injuries in battle or from the illnesses the Mist causes, it will also ironically begin to slowly heal him. This is not typical healing magic, but rather a physical patching of his body by Mist particles that gravitate towards preserving themselves. Put more simply, the Mist in Noah's body "recognizes" him as a vessel for itself, and therefore seeks to preserve him. This means he is able to survive greater numbers of injuries and more dire injuries than humans who have not been touched by Mist.

Other benefits center around his eyes, the only exterior parts of his body that reflect his nethicite poisoning. It is unknown why Mist collects in certain parts of the body more so than others, but it is known that the eyes are one such area that it does tend to pool. It is this pooling of Mist in parts of the eyes that results in the dynamically changing amber glow. Mist specifically accumulates in the irises and retinas, conferring some abilities that normal humans do not have. Noah is able to sense and even sometimes see magical auras around him, because they are all Mist-based. He can also see very well in the dark without the aid of light sources. Finally, he can see Mist in very low amounts, below the detection limits of normal humans.

Basch and Noah naturally have very vivid blue eyes. Because Basch was not poisoned by the nethicite to nearly the same degree that Noah was, he recovered enough from it for his eyes to return to their natural blue. Noah's have been amber since he was sixteen and in Landis. However, as Basch became more affected by the Mist through his bond with Noah, his eyes began to change to amber as well, and he began suffering other adverse physical and mental side effects. Each time he was cured of this poisoning by Ashelia, Basch's eyes returned to blue... and so did Noah's. The difference was that Noah's would return to blue for only a few hours and then revert back, or one eye would change but then quickly change back.

Because the Mist in Noah's body was the source of both twins' poisoning, healing Basch could only do so much. Were Noah to ever accept the help of one with Dynast magic like Ashelia's to permanently cure his nethicite poisoning, his health would improve, he would regain full fertility, and his eyes would permanently revert back to the same vivid blue as Basch's.

The Mist in Noah's body has become one with him, in a sense. It affects his mentally, most notably with emotional regulation, impulse control, and if it is allowed to progress to this level, eventually his sanity as well. Because of this, the intensity of the amber glow of Mist in Noah's irises will wax and wane with the intensity of his emotions. His eyes tend to glow more brightly when he is angry, riled up, afraid to the point of aggression, or feeling otherwise aggressive. Volatile emotions cause his eyes to glow more and the Mist in them to swirl around, like fire moving ethereally glowing embers within coals.

Conversely, if he is exhausted, badly wounded, sad, afraid to the point of cowering back, or some other sedate or weak emotional and/or physical state, his eyes may still be amber, but they may lose much of their glow. This is because Mist throughout his body is being reallocated towards necessary healing and repair of his mind and body.

That's all I can think of right now, but if I think of more, I'll add to this post. Feel free to comment on any of this or to include information in this post in threads/starters as you like. =)

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Reacting to Contemporary Comics (Without Context) 4/?

What's up it's cold as shit here, my bosses said stay the fuck home, so let's read another comic book.

Back at it again at the Thor: First Thunder

I don't like this cover

Spoilers for all of First Thunder now.

My boi living his best life. Out of the tree, took a shower, had a spa day, thriving

I hate Blake's idea of flirting, but I love that Thor had to endure his alter ego carrying around a little statue of the brother he hates for 2+ days

No one in this is likable

Why is Odin punishing Thor? It can't be because he's a violent, angry, destructive little fucker. That would make Odin a hypocrite. Wait. That's absolutely why. Fuck Odin as usual.

Listen, if MCU Loki needed someone to weep over him to get out of the tree like in the comics, he'd be free several times over by now just by me. Fuck, I just saw a gifset of Tom spinning in the cape and tearing up over the crown, and I cried real multiple tears twice on that post.

Loki if you're trying to blend in, dressing like the Riddler is not going to do it

I wasn't gonna comment on how ugly the art is, but god he looks like green Heat Miser. He looks like a ventriloquist's dummy.

Can't believe the Loki show stole his God of Stories outfit from Thor: First Thunder when he's bullying Blake while pretending to be a fortune teller at Coney Island.

Supposedly the fucking fortune teller is "working" (loosely) for Loki but isn't actually Loki himself

Loki taking on a mortal minion (and convincing him he's super mega powerful) is coming back to haunt him

TONY!!!

Odin is such a motherfucking hypocrite and I hate him

Thor, why are you staring at his ass enough to make that observation?!

Thor will never go for it, but god I want them to fuck with Odin.

...I was very very wrong.

Odin really just fuckin went: "Blake, you fix it. I don't wanna. I'm too busy hanging out in the cosmos being inexplicably huuuuuge."

I feel like whenever Odin does these monologues for Thor: "You're my son and you're worthy and I've loved you all along" he means it. Like he's still a dick, but he means it. But when he does them for Loki it's because he's panicking, because Loki outsmarted him again and it's his last-ditch effort to survive before Loki fucking murders him for being a shit father. It's just this moment of Odin giving Loki what he knows he's always craved, love and acceptance, in order to just try to save himself from his lifetime of fuck-ups. And the tragic thing is that Loki buys it every time.

On a different note, do y'all think "Thou art Odin's first thunder" sounds like Thor's conception was the first time Odin came? [I'm very aware this is canonically inaccurate.]

OH MY GOD what in the Christian iconography is this nonsense?! He looks ready for crucifixion and everything.

This comic was... insane. The art was weird, the Christian themes were uncomfortable (and I'm Episcopalian), the issue on China did not feel entirely unproblematic, and Loki was an ass (this was pre-JiM I think, so this is not a criticism to the authors I'm just sad about it). And the scene on the cover never even canonically happened! They just wanted a hyperrealistic rendering of Thor beating Loki to shit. Because they hate Loki and love upsetting me.

[sophsun1]

contrary to the other anons opinion, i think you should make MORE qaf gifs!!!

but on the real, i’m one of those people who didn’t watch qaf until this year and it’s been such a treat to be able to come to your blog every day and see new qaf content so thank you!

Hey anon!

Aww, thank you I really appreciate you saying that and I'm glad you enjoy the content. It's why I do it, so me and other fans can see it and to spread a tiny bit of escapism happiness 💕

To be honest I wouldn't have even acknowledged that anon because the best way to deal with hate is to straight up block and delete. Don't even give them your energy as the issue is with them and not you. But what triggered me was the blatant entitlement and rudeness that they had a right to tell me what to post on MY blog. As far as I'm aware I do not have a gun to their head or anyone's asking them to follow me if they don't like what I post. I would rather you unfollow and go enjoy the things you want to see, why make yourself upset over something that is so avoidable and trivial in the grand scheme of things.

You are in charge of what you see on here, unfollow, block, filter the tag are all options available to you so the idiocy of going to the blog owner and demanding they tailor their content to suit you is ridiculous.

Plus I came onto tumblr posting qaf and have been doing so for TWO YEARS. My icon is qaf and so is my header and if you ask my mutuals/followers what is Soph known for? they'll say oh she's the one posting qaf! It's not like it's not obvious I post about it. I didn't know my two whole gifsets a day was overkill, and what made me laugh was I do post gifs about other shows, my top posts reflect that and are all non qaf related! My other show interests are on hiatus so I can't exactly magic up content to gif. I make a lot of gifs for fandoms that don't even have active gif makers anymore so yk.

There's enough unkindness in the world as it is, and I use tumblr and gif making as a creative escape as do the majority of content creators on here, whether it's answering asks, writing fic, writing meta, funny posts etc whatever. It's my tiny safe space to be silly and post with and for my followers. I go through enough shit in real life I don't welcome it here.

The major reason why I love posting gifs in general for qaf is because I only discovered the show two years ago and when I came on here there was zero content. So I took it upon myself to learn gif making and I'm 100% self taught, no one has shown me how to do anything I've had to go search it myself. I'm really fucking proud of how far I've come with making them, from my grainy and uncoloured ones which I still smile at because I made them with love to the ones that I create now. It takes literal hours and the process isn't easy. So now to be the one posting stuff for old fans, new fans to discover is me coming tumblr full circle!

There's many gif makers like me that create for "dead fandoms" or forgotten shows, and sometimes it might be that if we didn't post then there would be nothing for people to enjoy like it was for me. I've had people who followed me from day one and my first ever britin gifset who still pop up in my notes now and people who have discovered the show from my gifs, and ones like you who come to the tag and see my unhinged self all over it.

So in conclusion my point is first off think twice before you hit that anon button with hate, because there's a real life person behind that icon who is causing you no harm so have the decency to do the same in return. Imagine someone did become self conscious after getting that ask and stopped posting something they like. Let people enjoy what they want and it's first world problems to be complaining about, I don't take stuff on here seriously when it's fandom stuff but I don't care for nastiness towards anyone.

I wish more people did make qaf gifs so I would have stuff to reblog myself and could take a break lmao it's lonely out here. It doesn't even have to be gifs, it can be meta, mood boards, screenshots, fic anything. So qaf fans get to it pls...

Keep creating what you like, for me it doesn't have to be the best quality gifs or greatest technical gifset. What makes me smile and I love seeing is people post stuff because they wanna have fun, they took the time and effort to create and post because it came from the heart. So fuck anyone else as we're all losers on tumblr together!

[tenelkadjowrites]

(my signal is acting up, so i'm not sure if you recieved my message, if you got it twice ignore one of them 😅)

thanks for your long answer!

first of all, i got into atz thanks to hongjoong, then had a brief san moment, but hwa was the one who truly captured my heart eventually and he won't let me go lolol, so i relate! i saw atz on their first tour and didn't pay much attention to seonghwa (even tho he was killing it so wtf what was on 🤡), but then wonderland happened and i was gooooooone. he's a fascinating specimen and very very inspiring too

second of all, despite everything i really liked we ransacked the city and re-read it a few times, so you clearly did something right! i do understand you may feel unsatisfied it didn't turn out the way you wanted. for me it's a good one tho!

relatable on the attraction part, i'm ace and probably aro as well, i generally find people visually pleasing, but it's mostly non-men 😅 there are many attractive male idols, but no one hits as hard as hwa, he's really my ideal gender presentation too 😭 a real chameleon and it's insanely appealing to me

i hope people aren't too rude to you or send stupid shit, cause i know it happened to one person who was strictly writing for one svt member. people complained because they wanted her to write about their biases as well, called her a solo stan and whatnot - just overall bullshit.

i agree, i also enjoy your seonghwas a lot! there's something special about the way you write him

hi hi! it isn't your signal, i got the message - i was just traveling all day yesterday and didn't get home until close to midnight so i didn't have any time to sit down and answer anything especially in the manner i prefer to!

atz is the only group where i switched my bias...and i've switched three times. i got into the group the week of debut cuz i saw a gifset of wooyoung, then hongjoong became my bias from say my name era and onward (idk if newer atiny are aware of how much hate and negativity hj originally got for his mullet but it was nonstop almost the entire time he had it on instagram comments etc. i loved how he stuck with the hairstyle for so long because he loved having it and that really leapt out at me and made me appreciate him more.) and then i switched to hwa during fireworks...but hwa has really hit me HARD on a way the only other idol i feel so unhinged over is probably taemin. (most likely because he plays with gender like a toy and i love that so much, both hwa and taemin are probably the most "ideal type" of idol to me. as you said, so many idols are gorgeous and i can appreciate how stunning they are but hwa and taemin are...just beyond for me.)

it's so cool that you got to see them at their first tour. i was unable to because 1. money to travel since they didn't visit my state and 2. personal reasons involving my dipshit now ex boyfriend. i'm always envious of anyone who got to see them so early lol.

i'm glad that you enjoyed we ransacked the city, another person said it was their favourite story of mine. i know a lot of ppl who love it. as the writer, of course you notice things about your own work that no one else will, and i just didn't think i nailed the gossip girl vibe i was trying to obtain there. i also wanted the city to feel like its own character which i believe i failed at. (and i attempted this again with arrow in the dark which i think i achieved more successfully this time around.) but i can look at any of my stories and note things i believe i "failed" at.

i do feel a mild pressure at times to write for other members of ateez but i like to believe that anyone who has messaged me, or read my asks, or even ppl i've befriended thru running this blog knows what ateez means to me. when it comes to groups, they are my ults. i am into a lot of kpop groups but they are my main loves.

i've never gotten any outright hate messages about it. i love every single member of ateez and believe every single one of the members are crucial to the dynamic of the group that makes it so successful. when mingi was on hiatus it was like smiling with a missing front tooth - you could feel the absence without him there. i love each member for different reasons, i just write about hwa 99 percent of the time because he's like...my writing muse and i'm as smitten with him as one can be when it comes to an idol. but nothing gives me greater joy than the group as a whole and i like to believe? hope? that anyone who follows this blog and reads my stuff knows that.

[agameoftragedy]

I suspect GRRM's frustration with HOTD as opposed to GOT has a lot to do with the 'when'. GOT ended 5 years ago now, and the later seasons were even earlier. To be frank, I suspect that 5-8 years ago, GRRM was less likely to be enraged at changes because he felt like he could still finish the last two novels. At some point, most of GOT was completely new material, so he probably couldn't complain that much since he didn't know what would happen and I suspect they stuck to a general outline. I could easily see him saying "it sucks fans hate this, but I can finish the books and that'll go over much better." But now, it's 5 years past GOT and Winds of Winter still isn't done and god knows about the final novel. Fans have discussed how GRRM is becoming more concerned with his legacy - as he probably is right to do. He is...getting older. And now he's looking at a real possibility that the books might never be finished and what will be left of his legacy is S8 GOT, HOTD, and whatever else HBO decides to adapt. And lord knows no one wants GOT S8 to be what fans have left of the story. That puts much more pressure on HOTD to be the perfect adaptation, so that he feels like his series goes out on a high note if he never finishes the novels.

I guess so. It was just kinda weird how much he focuses on how amazing and emotional Bitterbridge was though because I did read the Princess and the Queen, Fire and Blood (and the world book may have had some about the Dance I think?) and... maybe it's just been too many years but I don't recall that much detail about it so it's just like. George does all of that stuff only really exist in your head rn beyond just stated facts vs like an actual storytelling of how it all went down. Because like. I get attachment to your ideas but if they haven't been externally committed (in detail) it's a lot harder to appreciate and follow.

And although ASOIAF isn't finished I'm less forgiving of GOT because a) they didn't even follow what does exist to that point, and b) they completely threw shit out of the window to do what they thought would be cool with characters/actors they personally did or did not like. Themes are for 5th grade book reports or whatever. It was shit.

Whereas I haven't been able to watch much HOTD because no HBO and I struggle to watch stuff with my disabilities nowadays anyway, but I see a lot of discussion and gifsets and I am theoretically fine with basically everything I've heard so far? Would be a bit bothered if they cut Nettles because Nettles is cool and demonstrative of things, but like. As soon as they changed Alicent and Rhaenyra's ages it was clear it couldn't be 100% faithful but I don't think that matters so much because the source material is... meh. Like ultimately what are the themes and messages of the dance? War is bad and tears everyone apart? The innocents suffer most? Nobody wins? Royalty/feudalism sucks? Like I think all of those things are possible to be the conclusions of HOTD, I don't see it ever being such a betrayal as the end of GOT except maybe in GRRM's mind where the events are perhaps an ASOIAF-level story, but for the rest of us it's. Really Not.

Tbh if this is how he feels I'm more surprised he didn't kick off at earlier changes in HOTD 🤔 but as you say, maybe his mindset has changed lately

[violetsystems]

Went to bed with some severe light sensitivity that's ebbed a bit since I've had coffee. Still kind of been a shitty month over all but I'm glad it's almost over. Some weird movements on the job front including a lot of bogus offers and some strange updates on some other positions I applied for. Some reconnections with some people from my old place of employment on LinkedIn. I hope that helps my narrative a bit since I volunteered for a satellite community center for about a year on the deep west side for at risk urban youth. It wasn't part of my job description but I built out and provided tech support for a lot of urban workshops out there. Once I lwas let go that disappeared. So I think there was a hesitation to reconnect with me in terms of professional networks. Can't tell if there's bot activity flagging stuff I posted on here instead of reblogging it from source. It isn't really my intention to use my Tumblr as anything as a private place to communicate to friends. I get that people make memes and want ownership over things. If Tumblr treated it more like GIPHY where it flagged the original owner instead of making it personal. I reblog things from people sometimes because that's my way of staying in contact. There's blogs on here that explicitly ask in the tags that you don't follow them for whatever reason and that's something I respect. But acting like your content gets seen on my blog when it has absolutely zero notes is understandable. But I'm on a level of shadowban that doesn't even register in the real world. I cast no shadow in the real world. So I just delete the content and move on. I'm not making any money here. But I understand your point. If I don't reblog something from the source it's because I want to stay anonymous. I watched Kamikaze 89 last night on Midnight Pulp. If there's a gifset of a movie I watch and I don't know the source I treat it like reblogging an animated gif from GIPHY. I don't know the person and they aren't a mutual. But if you are stalking me on here for years to try and catch me in some cancel trap on the internet you need to take a number. I know people on here from real life that have turned my activity on here into a protest march. There's people stalking me in the neighborhood because I reblogged a saw gif about cutting off your foot. I thought that was a funny euphemism for having my entire identity destroyed by making footwork music. But somehow that translates into me being insensitive to people with foot injuries. And they arrange for those people to follow me around in the street to prove some point about surveillance I guess. If that's the way we're headed? Just remember people like me come from the darkness. It's nothing new to me. Shadowban country visa is somewhere on my passport. See page 27.

[tgifridaysisdaycare]

(Read this in the tone of a teacher chuckling along to the kids' jokes but asking them to get on with their work)

On a more serious note, I do think it's important to try and keep NSFW stuff out of general fandom spaces. Especially when it's about real people. If you wanna post about how much you want (x celebrity) to fuck you on your blog? Go ahead, it's your blog! That's your space to shitpost whatever the hell you want! But it's important to remember that people scrolling through general fandom tags dont necessarily want to be exposed to it. Not only sex-averse asexuals, but also minors who use the site who shouldn't be seeing that kind of stuff, and people who get intrusive thoughts about NSFW topics. The whole point of tags is to share your stuff with like-minded people, but not everyone who peruses the tag for (x celebrity) wants to see NSFW stuff about that person. You shouldn't have to scroll past smut to get to the cute gifsets you like! The internet isn't a safe place, but its important to try and make it as safe as you can. Now, go on, get on with your algebra.

Disclaimer

I think it's important to note that when I say NSFW I usually mean like smutfics and that kinda thing that havent been hidden under the little barrier doodad that I forgot the name of. If you click on something NSFW that has been covered, to uncover it with the intention of reading it- that's on you. Not the person who wrote it.

(Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk)

[tempobrucera]

Hi, I don't want to sound rude but I have a question...What's wrong with Damiano? Do you have something personal against him? Or people on Tumblr have something against him? What have him done? Cause I see so much love for Ethan everywhere on Tumblr (That's great, he is cute) but I have the feeling that people here hate Damiano and I want to know why?

Cleaning my askbox and my drafts and likes and everything.

This ask is still ridiculous to me for a few different reasons.

1. What makes you say that and why are you coming to me with this? Like especially me? And apparently only me. And did you in reverse also go to people who only post about Damiano and ask them if they somehow have something against the other ones? Or only Ethan? Or only Vic?

2. You mention love for Ethan which is really strong for him on tumblr. Which is true and it's how it should be. Like did you consider that Damiano isn't the only one who is people's favourite? But also... Ethan was literally the person of the band I reblogged the least last year on my main or mentioned anywhere. I'm primarily a Thomas' girl here and on my main and when I write. And when I gif. But for most stuff I still put the work in and gifed all of them or even gave all of them their own gifset, including Damiano? I can't say that about some other people who ignore certain people of the band for real most of the time.

3. Everyone has their favourites and maybe you should think about it in a way that that isn't particularly a bad thing?

4. Please tell me why you ask me why tumblr hates Damiano? Like I don't hate Damiano and don't know where you have that from. Not at all. I complained one time that I'm annoyed of the note ratio when I post more sets (because you know how that looks like when Damiano, Ethan and Vic gifsets have over 100 notes and the Thomas one I made has barely 30? Yeah, exactly). And if people can please stop saying they are excited to see Damiano in concert under a gifset of Thomas & Damiano. Like do you want to know why that was frustrating? Because I saw that over 10 times from different people that day under that gifset. And because you're seeing a band and that band wouldn't be the same if any of them wouldn't be there. Like Damiano wouldn't shine without the rest of them and vice versa. And in case tumblr does (which I don't feel is like true) I couldn't tell you why because I can't speak for all of Maneskin tumblr. Tbh most of my mutuals, the blogs I follow and most of the content on my main blog isn't even Maneskin related or has anything to do with it, so I feel really not comfortable having a conversation on their behalf.

5. Most ridiculous ask i got last year (when I don't count hate anons I just deleted I don't have time for that or have to give them a voice, and the antisemitism clowns)

[swanqiu]

‘cause you brought out the best of me, a part of me i’d never seen

// some bittersweet eric x cho for @ericbrandonrp

[everglow-ing]

Hi!! Can you please tell me what you added to your jaws gifset? Like any filters or anything added at all?

Hi! I didn't add any special filter like colorings, just basic curves, levels, and exposure- but I did do my sharpening differently than normal as the file size I have of the movie isn't bigger than 3GB and it's an older movie. So let's call this

TIPS ON HOW TO SHARPEN YOUR GIF WHEN YOUR ORIGINAL FILE IS A BIT meh.

more under the cut ↓↓

Okay, I'm going to jump right in.

When I have everything on the timeline, resized, and ready to go, I start off by adding grain. (Ruis) My program is in dutch as I am dutch so I'm not going to explain all the technical stuff, as it will get lost in translation, but I'll just do a quick rundown of what I did with this set. (I use Photoshop2022) I'm not an expert whatsoever, I studied art/media design but that was 4+ years ago and while photoshop was used heavily, gif making is not something that ever came up lol.

Add the grain. Filter tab -> grain -> grain. 0,6 or 0,7 will do. Tick Gaussian and Monochromatic. Next, sharpening. Filter tab -> sharpen -> smart sharpen. I use this filter twice with two different settings as follows:

These are basic sharpening settings a lot of other creators use, so nothing special there. Next, to make it even sharper, I add high pass. You can find this under the filter tab above, at the bottom of the list. Filter tab -> other -> high pass.

Select it.

Keep it at 4,0. You can play around with this, but I like to keep it at 4,0. Now it looks a little weird so we have to make some changes. Go to the blending option of the filter you just applied (the high pass) and change it to 'soft light' on 70%.

Again, you can play around with this. I also use high pass on gifs that are darker. I used it in this set to let our babe Ryan stand a bit more out.

Okay to really show the difference between not adding the grain + sharpening + high pass vs grain + sharpening + high pass, here you go:

I remade this one real quick, as I didn't have the psd anymore but you can see the difference better than the one with the shark illustration gif. I didn't add any other filters, only the grain + sharpening + high pass. When you add the filters and increase the lightning/contrast, it will look even sharper. Sadly I don't have the file anymore, so I can't exactly recreate it, but I just used the filters mentioned; curves, levels, and exposure.

Funny thing is, not all the shots in my copy were grainy. It's just a few that have unruly pixels because the file has been compressed. Like our dear Hooper here, that part of the movie was just a little blegh. And not everyone has the space or the money or other resources to get the deluxe Bluray whatever, so you gotta do what you've gotta do I guess. Of course you want your file to be HD, preferably 1080 or above, but well, shit happens. With the grain added, it just looks better in my opinion. The grain fills in the annoying pixels. You can also add grain after sharpening, but it just looks better, again my opinion, when you add it before sharpening. Plus I found out my gifs looked better on mobile if I added grain before sharpening rather than after. If this is something you worry about, I would add the grain before sharpening.

Do note though, adding grain increases the file size of your gif!

Okay, next up, the other filters I've applied. I added curves. The numbers at Input (Invoer) and Output (Uitvoer) are for the two dots in the middle.

Lower dot: input 15 and output 11

Higher dot: input 27 and output 25

Not much, just a little tick. The next filter I used is levels.

The only thing I changed is the Outputlevels (Uitvoerniveaus) to 2. This is something I do with all my gifs, sometimes a bit more at 4 or 6. I just like how it looks I guess haha. Next I added exposure.

exposure: +0,56. offset: 0,0000. gamma correction: 0,72.

And we're done with Photoshop! Because my MacBook is really old and kind of past its time, I just save the file as a gif without cutting any frames and open it again in Ezgif. It all runs smoothly until I have to convert a gif multiple times and this just saves me a lot of time. Ezgif is a free website where you can make and edit gifs. I use it to cut the frames, add some contrast if necessary and decrease file size (another tip!) so it's under 10mb and tumblr will accept it.

Gif before adding all the filters:

Gif after grain + sharpening + high pass + the other filters:

Gif after running it through Ezgif and adding some contrast (5) to decrease the size of the file:

I hope this answers your question! If you're really stuck on something, you can always send me a private message! I didn't do much, just the grain and the sharpening and the high pass. I think it adds a little edge to the gifs as well. Thank you for the ask and have a nice day!! 💜 💜 

Edit: the brightening filter is called EXPOSURE, not brightening. I re-checked it but as I thought, I made a little mistake during translating. Here you can find a whole list of filters translated from Dutch to English.