#this will eventually make it into a gifset I just haven't the time at the moment

[mydaylight]

They are in robber baron mode in this scene but the only thing that truly registers to me is how excited Bertha appears to be that's she's helping George with his business

[olderthannetfic]

Tumblr seems to be sliding in a downward spiral, and it feels like the start of the end of a fandoming era for me. I've been through it before; platforms are born then die, and life fandom finds a way. I'm just not looking forward to floundering for a bit, and dreading what the next hub will look like.

AO3 isn't really a place geared or meant for the same thing, and that's fine. My only fandom-related activity took place on AO3 only for a few years between my leaving LJ and joining Tumblr, and I lived ;-) But during that time, I was my own little island in fandom. Reading, leaving a few comments, not being super active. It's only when I found a community again that I was back to being really active in fandom once more.

And it's not that I actually use Tumblr to post about myself, but I do use it to read and reblog cool things - art, gifsets, science stuff, discovering new fandoms, and the like. I'm not sure where else I could find my people, with sameish purposes. The other sites I've tried didn't fill that niche in a way that suited me, in part because of how they look and work, in part because of who and what is(n't) there.

I have DW & PF accounts just to be safe, but I'm not very fond of group chats Discord-style - and without Tumblr, IDK how I'd even hear of new communities where I might pop in once in a while, loins girdled and everything. The micro-blogging platforms are not what I'm looking for either. Sure, I can follow a few DW comms and blogs; I already occasionally do and I will be more consistent about it if I must.

But one of my greatest fear is that the next platform will be phone-based, app-only, or some such BS - and that is something I just won't be able to deal with. Phones are tiny, it's uncomfortable to write anything, I don't like touch screen and much, much prefer a proper keyboard and a mouse (copy-pasting on a screen? (x_x) << it me), art/pics are too small to properly appreciate, a phone isn't comfy to hold for a long time for me, and the app system means you have no control over anything as a user… and that anything there must be Apple Approved, dick-free, blood-free, and tasteless. And I say this as someone who's pretty much uninterested in sex IRL or in my entertainment ;-) I still support and want the tits, the gore, the everything, and as long as I have the tools to curate - oh, wait. Curate things myself? That's not something that's popular these days, is it? It's not going to generate money, if I'm happy ;-)

So… I guess I'll play some more on Neocities, and see if anyone wants to have webrings again? (it would be fun and nostalgic, but not really viable on a large scale; people who haven't known those would just laugh and point and go on the InstaTok of the time).

So here is my little cane-waving rant of the day! I know things evolve and change and that in ten years I'll be rolling my eyes at my moping. It's only that I feel tired of moving from one shitty platform to another, of fearing I won't adapt (or more accurately won't want to adapt given the annoyance/benefit ratio) to whichever new place things will move in a few years. It's saying goodbye to a former home, moving, and hoping you'll make another home elsewhere kind of sniffles today!

--

We already know the next platform. It has been Discord for a few years now.

If you want the one after Discord, I think you're looking at waiting things out for quite a few years (or until Discord makes a major misstep as a company).

True, real time chat is not for everyone, but small discords with well-chosen channels can operate more asynchronously. Just like a lot of people who hated the look of Tumblr early on eventually capitulated, a lot of chat haters have jumped ship to Discord already.

Realistically, 90% of fandom always goes where the action is, no matter how much they claim the features make that space impossible, and 10% disappears.

We might get the 10% back on the next platform or they might leave fandom for good. There were LJ-haters who resurfaced post LJ era.

But as for where you'll find out where people are... probably AO3 author's notes.

[theheightofdishonor]

I have a couple more shows on my watchlist and once that's done i think i'll be taking a (probably brief) break from asian dramas to focus on some of the other dozen watchlists i have (anime maybe? i might skip jojo and try daiya no ace again- we'll see though)

I'm hitting the 300 dramas mark soon (that's 300 completed mind you, not counting movies, and not counting things i've dropped) so i'll probably write something later in the year too reflecting on both the shows that've come out this year and the ones i've watched

For now i thought i'd jot down a couple notes about the currently airing shows i'm keeping up with since i haven't had time to do that in a while. I'll be doing this in the order I watch them in.

Middleman's Love- ngl I'm solely watching this for King and Uea. I know some of you like this show but the main couple just don't work for me and the side couple are only mildly more interesting. I'll keep watching it to the end but it's a skim watch.

Twins- A great example of how silly is fine when it's enjoyable. I fucking adore this show right now. This has volleyball in it and I'm a haikyuu!! fan before i'm a person so of course i was going to watch this show no matter how dumb it is but it's great. I'm having a blast. I like the family dynamics, I like Sprite, I like how they're committing to the 'slow' part of 'slow burn', I like all the stupid hijinks, I like that I can watch this show and be like "oh he's a Setter, like Kageyama!", I just like it. Poor First though, doing all this work of unlearning his hatred for Zee for no damn good reason.

My Dear Gangster Oppa- This one used to be first on my list but after the dumb breakup last week, it's dropped down. I hate the noble idiocy trope as @lurkingshan calls it. It's stupid, it's annoying and I don't think this week's episode made up for it. Shame really, I was quite enjoying this show at first. The chemistry's good and cliches are fine when they're enjoyable. If it wasn't ending next week, I would drop it.

Last Twilight- Saving the best for last because a) it's a heavier show with more to think about than any of the above and b) youtube's interface annoys me.Tbh I only started watching this in the hopes that it might rewrite my current reflex of wincing everytime I see Jimmy's face in a gifset but it's such an excellent show. Aof's directing and storytelling is excellent as usual and he really does deserve credit for how handles his actors. Watching JimmySea in this and then vv is like whiplash.

ps. Pit Babe- i'm not invested in keeping up with this show and my desire to do so depends on factors such as the amount of free time I have and how reluctant I am to use youtube to watch Last Twilight. It seems to have inklings of an interesting plot + obviously it's fandom history cuz of the a/b/o but the way they only half lean into the omegaverse aspects of it without explaining anything makes me wonder what people who aren't familiar with the concept of omegaverse think about this show and how they understand it. Like it has to be confusing without context, right? Mostly, i'm just watching for Nut Supanut and Nut Supanut only though it remains to be seen whether my affection for him will eventually be worn down by how annoying his character is. I swear, if it were played by anyone else or if I cared about the main characters to any extent, I'd find Way insufferable. But so far, i'm supporting all his wrongs. Especially when he looks so damn pretty doing it.

[such-a-barbarian]

Thanks @callivich for some fun questions! and thanks to @jrooc and @zutaralesbian for the extra push to actually sit down and think about these! haha

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once?

Oh man, the better question might be is there a fic I've only read once. haha. If we are talking about fics I've reread the most then probably Cooperative Gameplay and Like Real People Do by Grayola, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace by Shamelessquestions, The Only Fans series by GallavichGeek13 and every single fic on this soulmate AU recommendation list. I am a chronic rereader - it's a problem. lol

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog?

Dock scene. Always the dock scene.

What’s a fanart you love looking at?

@darthvaders-wife's Kinktober collection is insane. I'm not ok about it.

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration?

I really loved the movie Nimona and have thought a lot about a Gallavich Goldenheart crossover. If you have not seen Nimona yet 1) I highly recommend it and 2) this probably won't make a lot of sense, but... Like does it take place during their training years? Sure. Are Mickey and Ballister childhood best friends from the wrong bloodlines to be knights? Probably. Has Ian been forced into knighthood because of his bloodline? Also probably. Do Mickey and Ian somehow meet through Ballister and Ambrosius and immediately hate each other?! For sure. Do they fall madly in love when they realize they have more in common than they originally thought?!?! Obviously!

Anyway, I am not a writer so this will just stay a lovely little idea in my head.

What’s something you’ve discovered since entering this fandom? A new trope you love? A different analysis of the show? Something else? I had only ever dabbled in fandom before this, so I had no idea soulmate AUs were a thing. And oh boy do I LOVE soulmate AUs!

What’s an underrated trope or concept you’d like to see more of?

I haven't really gone out of my way to look for any, so maybe there are a ton and I just don't know about them, but I'd love to see more historical AUs! I'm also open to recs even though I already have 20+ fics on my "to read later" list. What's one (or ten) more!

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship? "It had flaws, but what does that matter when it comes to matters of the heart? We love what we love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways, unwise love is the truest love. Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect." From A Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale?

They will eventually become parents and you will never convince me otherwise. I also think Ian will eventually get out of their business and go back to school to become some type of mental health counselor or advocate or I don't know, but he needs to help people.

The original questions are here if you feel so inclined! @lupeloto, @krystallouwho, @sgtmickeyslaughter, @francesrose3, @juliakayyy, @catluvver118, @transmickey, @tanktopgallavich or anyone else!

[faejilly]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @shadoedseptmbr ages and ages ago

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

1: How many works do you have on AO3?

178 fics, since this is a fic writer meme.

2: What's your total AO3 wordcount?

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

3. What fandoms do you write for?

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

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

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

two are halves of one

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

i cannot touch because they are too near

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

with an if in its soul

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

i am for you

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

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

if broken hearts were whole

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everything Else! (Almost)

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

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

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

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

9. Do you write smut?

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

10. Do you write crossovers?

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

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

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

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

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

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

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

Batty_Blue translated several of my Shadowhunters fics into Russian:

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

And Pomyluna translated 'First Choice' into Polish

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes!

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

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

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

Me & Sleep

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

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

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

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

16. What’s your writing strengths?

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

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

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

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

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

19. First fandom you wrote for?

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

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

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

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I CAN'T CHOSE JUST ONE WTF

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

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

[astaraels]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[aangarchy]

Tbh it's just Tumblr tag culture to tag all sorts of spoilers? Because we can't just assume everyone had the previlege and luxury to have had access to the internet and to consume fiction media as it came out..... Like my case may be extreme but my family was literally too busy squatting and living as ~illegals~ so we could never have an internet or cable connection for like 8 years. So I've got A LOT of catching up to do on pop culture etc and maybe one of my followers was in the same or a similar situation? Anyway that's how Tumblr works, we just tag spoilers because it doesn't cost anything and it doesn't ruin the experience of people who were too living too unstably, people who lived in rehabilitation centers, people who weren't allowed to consume certain media because of their parents, people who've put off watching a show because of a particular trauma or squick but who still want to watch it eventually etc

Okay now you're just being fucking annoying. Why are you tying your personal sobstory/trauma to something as stupid as TAGGING A POST. It's not even a tw tag either (bc if it was then i would understand) it's literally just my POV on when spoiler tags should and shouldn't be used.

Let me simplify this One more time. Tagging for spoilers on tumblr only works if everyone collectively does it. That way people can block said spoiler tag for a set amount of time, so everything tagged with #(content) spoilers will not show up on their TL. Example: new season of sex education dropped. People are tagging their posts about S4 with #sex education s4 spoilers, or just #sex education s4 because most people who don't want to get spoiled will have those tags blocked. That's how the tag system works. Everyone needs to do it, otherwise spoilers will still show up. People especially did this when avengers infinity war and endgame dropped respectively, bc those fandoms are very serious abt spoilers.

For atla there is NO USE in tagging spoilers because NOBODY DOES IT ANYMORE. This show is older than a lot of you on this fucking app. If you decide to go through the atla tag on tumblr, or follow atla blogs, you WILL get spoiled even if you have the spoiler tag blocked because i can't think of a single atla blog i follow that tags their fucking spoilers nowadays.

I'm not saying you're not allowed to tag spoilers. In fact i have never once said the words "don't tag atla spoilers". What i am saying, is that it's redundant to do so and it kind of makes you look stupid because, again, fucking DUH!

Once again you people are pretending like the internet needs to follow YOUR rules. "Oh people might not watch now bc of a trauma and might still want to enjoy the show later" ok and? Don't go following or reblogging atla blogs before you've even watched then, bc you WILL GET SPOILED. You're responsible for creating your own internet experience. I haven't watched sex ed s4 yet so i blocked the spoiler tags and for good measure i'm not scrolling the main tag either, because i don't rely on other internet users to do the work for me (even though i don't rlly care that much abt spoilers for that show). When heartstopper s2 came out i couldn't watch for two days bc of work, so i avoided everything to do with that show until i watched. That way i didn't accidentally get spoiled by someone who forgot to tag or just doesn't tag.

(Like i said this is different for tw tags, like tw flashing or tw gore or tw sexual assault. Those are things everyone absolutely must tag for the safety of everyone online. I would not want to be responsible for someone having a seizure bc i didn't tag a gifset with tw flashing)

This is my opinion on spoiler tags. It leans into my opinion on spoiler culture as a whole tbh but i digress. Once again: you can tag whatever you want. I just personally find it redundant and i'm allowed to make fun of it. I'm not making fun of YOU, i'm making fun of the concept of tagging spoilers for something that's nearly 20 yrs old. Hence the star wars spoiler joke i made, or when someone in the tags said someone got mad for spoiling fucking titanic (which is hilarious bc that's a historical event lmao).

This is the last i'll say about it bc honestly you're just pissing me off now. I'm allowed to enjoy posting about my show without having to pay mind to people who haven't watched yet but might in the future.

[ssaalexblake]

Out of curiosity, do you think anything in particular will cause people to come around on 13, or it’ll just be that their perspectives kinda soften with time?

Hm. I don't really think there will be a particular event that'll cause people to suddenly change their perspective, the only way I see any kind of ~catalyst to changing opinions on 13 in a dramatic way is if RTD really does Whedon himself, and to be fair even thought I said i doubt there will be a catalyst, I genuinely think there's at least a chance he will actually do this because fandom is a fickle beast that will turn on people as if a bird on the wind. The fatal mix of hero worship and nostalgia, the time gap where fandom has had More than enough time to become attached to their own view of things were back in the day even if that view doesn't entirely mesh with what actually transpired. The passage of time leaving viewers nowadays far less forgiving of the type of things rife in his work that can be written off on 'product of its time' for 2006 but will not be if they show up again in 2023. The expectations being So high. People only have So much ability to write things off before the straw breaks the camel's back.

I have seen this pattern in fandom before, and yeah it might not happen, but this is also potentially whedon after the first avengers movie being everybody's best buddy straight to being their most disdained after aou.

Generally speaking, when shit like that happens, people tend to reassess preconceived notions. a 'why did we think that one was ever bad?' as a result of the above eventuality is the only way i see some kind of Thing happening that softens people on 13.

But, also, those tags was me kind of responding to the op's tags on their gifset, because despite the fact that the people on the internet have been sipping the nmd's misogynistic koolaid light without even realising it for years, the vast majority of viewers Not being chronically online haven't been doing that and were fine with her era. Judging her popularity only from the people obsessed with the show on the internet is absurd, and i include my positive views in that. I am not the average viewer lol, neither are the weirdos being hateful, no matter How much it benefits them to make people think Everybody hates it and that they're peddling the Bestest Opinion and that it's not cool to like the girl doctor.

So with the caveat that I do not think she's actually unpopular (radiotimes favourite doctor poll my beloved. 10 & 13 coming in highest with 21% of the vote each. Over 50,000 votes in total and he received only abt 90 more than her. There was no way to victimise anybody on this poll with strategic voting, no amount of block voting to support one doctor could dent her total and she came second out of all the doctors by a few measly votes. The general public Like Her.)

In time, it will soften. The misogynists will stop spending all their time talking about how uncool it is to like her to peer pressure people and the ones who don't eventually stop will be marked as losers obsessed with insulting her not worth listening to, so people will just watch it with no one sitting on their shoulder telling them it's bad. People will rewatch it with an open mind instead. I literally have had (multiple times) people in my activity page saying once they stopped listening to people saying how bad 13's era was and went back to it with an open mind it was good! This was a few different people! This has already happened and will continue to.

The nmd squad, quite successfully, were allowed to make it uncool to like her. They were open that their reasoning was misogynistic and even if they didn't use the word, anybody who knows what that means knows they are, but it was not called out as such and it poisoned the well because it gave them legitimacy they did not deserve. It won't stay that way forever, though. People will watch it and judge it Fairly without their influence. Let it have flaws without using them as an excuse to express hatred they already felt for no reason. Let it shine where it shines. Discuss its issues analytically instead of as a gotcha. Talk about themes. Discuss the characters.

This bullshit shall pass, basically.

idk how long we'll have to wait, but i'm willing. I got through being in the fandom and open about my love for it when it aired, and i sure as hell am not missing the moment when people stop being weird and can just be normal about it. I earned that sense of peace through suffering and i intend to collect. I'm not letting it go though. Being an active fan Really Really Sucked.

(shout out to my man colin baker who told the misogynists to get over it from points A to Z. Had everybody had the balls to do what he did they'd never have gotten a foothold and would have been booed out of the room as they should have been.)

[set-phasers-to-whump]

after

prompt: aftermath of failure (alt no.2)

whumpee: sonny carisi

fandom: law and order svu

here's a fandom i haven't written in a hot sec! was really grappling for what to write and suddenly the idea hit me like a. well. i'm not going to say. this is set during episode 19x19 sunk cost fallacy and presumes a basic familiarity with the events (you can find a gifset of it here). hope you enjoy!

Sonny is sitting on the back bumper of an open ambulance with a shock blanket draped over his shoulders and he can barely breathe. There is blood dripping down his face from a gash on his temple, but he’s not aware of it. His clothes and hands are stained red with blood that is not his. The front of the car is a mangled wreck and red and blue lights flash continuously into his eyes. Radios are chattering endlessly. Everything is light and noise and he doesn’t - he doesn’t know what to do. 

And then Liv is there, and that’s at least something. She walks towards him, says his name, quiet, worried  - “Carisi” - and he stutters out an explanation, gasping for breath between the words. 

“I couldn’t - I couldn’t stop the blood, I tried, he just blew through the stop sign.” 

Liv speaks over him, low, calm words that he barely even hears. “Okay, alright, take it easy, take it easy.” Then she asks, “Who did?” 

Her hand is on his back, steady like the metal he’s sitting on. He looks away from Liv, panting, and Amanda interjects from next to him: “He’s in the wind.”

“Hey, did you see him?” 

He had. He nods, slightly, forces himself to remember, images flashing through his head faster than he can catalogue them. “He had, um, a ba- a baseball cap, and I - I tr- I tried to, uh…I - I couldn’t, I co- I couldn’t, I couldn’t stop the bleeding.” 

This is what it all comes back to. The blood. Too much of it. All over the car, her skin, the ground. His hands, desperate, trying, but too much blood. He couldn’t. 

Liv nods, almost inaudibly whispers, “I know, I know.” Amanda touches his shoulder, then gets up, follows Liv over to the scene. And then he is alone. He still cannot breathe properly. He does not know what he is supposed to do. 

A paramedic comes over to check on him, and he sits motionless while she looks him over. She says something about the hospital, and he shakes his head. He can’t - he’s not the one who should be in the hospital, Jules should be, she should be alive and getting cared for but he couldn’t - he hadn’t been able to stop the bleeding, too much blood, soaking into his clothes and his skin as it continually forced its way out of her body despite everything he had done to try and make it stop. 

It’s his fault - if he had driven slower, or faster, if he hadn’t hit that intersection at that exact time, if he’d been paying more attention, if he’d been quicker to react, to jerk the steering wheel, if he’d been able, somehow, to stop the bleeding, if, if, if - 

“Hey, hey, whoa, breathe.” This is Amanda, sitting next to him again, hand on his leg. “Deep breaths.”

He tries to do as she says. But he can’t stop thinking, spiraling, what ifs and should haves tumbling through his brain on loop. Jules is dead because of me, he thinks, and he feels like he is going to explode with the guilt, the grief. 

“It’s my fault,” he says, between breaths that don’t give him much air at all. “It’s - I should’ve - I couldn’t -”

“You did all you could.”

It wasn’t enough. 

“Come on,” Amanda says, quietly, after a few minutes of silence. “Let me take you home.”

The car ride passes in a blur. Every time a car comes at them from a different direction, he flinches, eventually opting to simply close his eyes the entire time. 

He wishes he had never learned how to drive. Wishes it had been anyone else driving, because then maybe Jules would still be alive. Maybe someone else wouldn’t have been hit in the first place. Maybe someone else would’ve been able to stop the blood. 

They’re in his bathroom and he sees himself in the mirror for the first time. His face and shirt and hands are covered in blood. He can scarcely believe that the image reflected in the glass is him. 

He stares at his reflection for a long time. Vaguely, he hears the shower turn on, feels the room steam up. And then Amanda’s reflection joins his, and she looks so much like herself that it momentarily jolts him into reality. 

“C’mere,” she says, and he momentarily turns away from the bloodied, guilty version of himself. 

She unbuttons his shirt and tosses it into the hamper, though there is no chance the blood will ever come out. He glances down at his chest and discovers that some of the blood has soaked through the fabric and into his skin. 

He strips off the rest of his clothes on autopilot, too out of it to be anything more than vaguely aware of the fact that he is not alone. 

He steps under the water and it is so hot it feels like he is burning, but he does not adjust the temperature. He scrubs at his skin until the red tinge of Jules’ blood turns into an angry but clean pink. 

He remains in the shower until the water starts to turn cold, until he starts to shiver. He gets out and discovers a towel and clothes that hadn’t been there before. His bloody, ruined clothes are nowhere to be seen. Amanda has similarly disappeared. 

He dresses slowly, examines the gash in his forehead in the mirror. It’s stopped bleeding, which is good. The thought of having to go get stitches makes him feel sick. 

He leaves the bathroom in search of Amanda, and finds her in his kitchen, in front of the microwave. She turns around when he enters the room, and looks at him with something like relief in her eyes. 

“I’m heating up some leftovers I found in the fridge. Hope you don’t mind.”

He’s not at all hungry, but he doesn’t mind, anyway. He shakes his head. The microwave beeps, and Amanda retrieves a steaming tupperware. 

It’s the pasta he’d brought home from a family dinner last weekend. The pasta he’s eaten his entire life. It tastes like childhood, like home. It’s probably the only thing in the world he can stomach right now.

She divides it onto two plates, and they eat in comfortable silence.

thanks for reading! i haven't really written these two before so i hope it was alright <3

[aceofwhump]

Question is the legacy editor any good? I've never used it because I'm paranoid about it messing my posts up lmao but I'm curious

The short answer is yes. Legacy editor, the older way tumblr did posting, is in my opinion, the superior editor. I love the legacy editor. A lot. It is definitely superior and I'm sad staff has decided to slowly get rid of it.

However! With that said I've been pretty much exclusively using the beta post editor for the last like year when staff announced that they'd be eliminating the legacy editor eventually so I thought it'd be a good idea to get used to the beta editor. Which I suppose I did. I've gotten used to it and don't use legacy much at all anymore. I also wanted to use it because I got really tired of not being able to edit in mobile the posts I made on web using the legacy editor. With the beta editor you can edit across platforms which is soooo nice. (although it appears that in one of the apps many updates I can now edit a gifset I made today via legacy editor but not the posts I've made in the past using the legacy editor so who knows what's going with that).

But there's a lot of annoying things about the new beta editor that make it inferior to the legacy editor and I'm praying that staff will improve it. For starters, and probably my biggest complaint, is how awful it is to upload and rearrange images. It's so much easier in legacy editor to move images around. In beta the page moves when you start to move the image and it drives me CRAZY!!! I always end up putting the image in the wrong place because the page won't stop moving! Legacy is wonderful to arrange images. I do think the upload is slightly better in beta purely because it uploads multiple images in the order I select them where the legacy just puts them in whatever order it wants to and I have to remember what order I wanted my gifs in.

Legacy is also better because it actually differentiates between an image post and a text post. With the beta editor everything is technically a test post. So my gifsets are not considered an "image post". Some people have noted that the beta, since it's not an image post, it resizes the images a little and sometimes decreases the quality of the gif by doing that. I haven't really noticed that myself with my own gifs but doesn't mean it isnt happening.

The legacy editor also allows me to upload my gifs without stupid errors for no reason. Lately any time I upload more than 6 gifs at once I get an error message and have to upload them one by one. Its not because of size because they're always under 7mbs so I don't know why I can't upload them all at once. I hate it actually. And sometimes my gif will be under 10mbs (like 9.7mbs) and it'll tell me that the gif is too big. Excuse me tumblr but 9.7 is smaller than 10! I never had this problem in legacy.

The legacy editor is also better when it comes to using html, inserting links as text and not the stupid thing beta does where you paste the link and it becomes that stupid post preview thing that I hate, and oh my god is it awful for text blocks! When it first came out you couldnt select multiple texts blocks at all. You can now but it isn't the easiest. And it like expands when you do and makes it weird. Idk it's hard to describe. In legacy you can just...select all the text with no problems. Text blocks are treated like individual sections in the beta and make editing a major pain in the ass.

I also don't like thst apparently new xkit won't work in beta and you have to use xkit rewritten because fuck I don't want to learn how to use that one when I've been using new xkit for years but I guess I'm gonna have to now. I haven't been having any problems with xkit yet but who knows....

So yeah I think overall legacy is better. Beta Post Editor has some good things (I like the increased image upload limit, the editing tags is good) about it but there's so many problems. Unfortunately we're stuck with it so I've been sticking to using it exclusively to make the transition easier on myself. I do suggest becoming used to how it works and to just continue to provide feedback to staff about features we dislike or bugs we come across. Hopefully they'll listen and improve it.

[kaasknot]

Please take this as an offense but I am absolutely fascinated by your current obsession with Buster Keaton and went back through your account to figure out what rabbit hole led to this but couldn't figure it out. If you're okay with sharing can you tell me the rabbit hole that led to this?

OFFENS TAKEN no but okay it's really kind of dumb. this past january someone reblogged a buster keaton post, i assume a stunts gifset because those get numbers, and i hit up his tag on a whim to see what was what.

now, at the time i was writing an OC character for star wars. and while i knew just about everything else important about this character, i didn't have a clear idea of what he looked like. but i was scrolling through pics of this old-timey comedian and it slowly dawned on me: my character looks kind of like buster keaton. official facecast made.

and honestly, that's why i came back to the tag a second time. if it hadn't been for that association, i probably would have forgotten about buster and moved on. but, once a month or so i'd jump back in the buster keaton tag, refresh my memory on my OC's face situation, and then jump back out.

till eventually i guess it hit critical mass, and all of a sudden in late may i'm hitting up the buster tag… because i'm thirsty for buster. i pretty clearly remember a series of gifsets around The General that made me go "…damn, son."

gonna wax rhapsodic here for a bit. let's get the most obvious point out of the way: buster keaton is pretty. he's got cheekbones and big eyes and a profile to die for. and he's ripped, because he's a goddamn acrobat. like, his vastus medialis continually makes me go "that can't be real." also, he's a short king. a small little guy. 5'5", and perfectly willing to make jokes about it—and that kind of security is hotter than the surface of the sun.

he's also ridiculously funny. he made his career on that, you'd kind of hope he would be; but specifically it's funny to me. his sense of humor matches mine perfectly: wry, ironic, a touch of the absurd/surrealistic, leaning to black humor, and with minimal use of sticky substances or stupidity. i have so much trouble with modern comedy because 90% of the time it's just so dumb. buster keaton movies are not dumb. his hero is a clever little shithead—if somewhat naive and literal-minded—with abysmal luck, who gets into awkward situations and does his clever best to get himself back out. i vibe with it.

and then obvs his stunts. the more of his movies i watch the more i mutter "how did he not die?" and "is he made of rubber bands and cotton balls??" his physicality is so satisfying to watch, and not just in a prurient way (tho i am definitely also watching in a prurient way). this is a man with supreme control over his body and a thorough understanding of physical comedy. he was pulling out pratfalls well into his 60s, yo.

and the more of his movies i watch (especially in comparison to roscoe arbuckle's movies), the more i appreciate how good of a filmmaker he was. he let the story do the talking, rather than clutter up the screen with intertitles. his precise use of camera angles, the astonishingly good cinematography, the use of the camera itself to sell a gag (i.e. the dream sequence in Sherlock, Jr.). i saw a letterboxd review call The General "mad max fury railroad" and i haven't been able to get that out of my head, because y e a h, his editing was as precise as margaret sixel's. i watched "One Week" after watching all of the arbuckle shorts he was in, and lemme tell you, my third eye was blown wide open. "oh," i said to myself. "i get why people call him a genius."

and from a frothing fangirl perspective, he has built in artificial scarcity. his smile is rare, his voice is rare, shirtless scenes are rare. (in reality, none of these things are particularly hard to find in his films, but like i say to everyone who sits still long enough for me to yammer at them, their perceived scarcity makes them so much more compelling. when you hear him say "pass" in Sunset Boulevard you quiver like you're catching sight of ankles in the 1800s). it encourages thirsting.

the more i learn about him the more obsessed i get.

[lacomandante]

🧶 — any non-writing hobbies/interests?

munday asks!

Yes! I have quite a few, actually. I like to think I'm a jack of all trades. I do historical sewing, and atm I'm currently working on a pair of regency stays. It's a little annoying because I've been working on multiple dresses, only to have to stop because I don't have the correct undergarments to accurately measure if the dress fits or not. So I had to stop what I was doing and make these mockups...I'll get there eventually lol. I also make dolls! Which I never posted photos of when complete, I'll need to do that. Unfortunately I'm very easily fatigued, and sewing is easily one of the most exhausting hobbies I have physically and mentally, which means a lot of these projects take months or years.

Reading, but I feel like that's a given for most people in the rpc. I feel like it's very important to read in order to grow your own ability to write. Currently rereading the Witcher series, alongside Sharpe's Gold and Company. I've also been reading a lot of English accounts of travels through Spain, detailing the landscapes, customs, manners, etc. I think since January I've read over 8 books detailing these things...probably over 2,000 pages combined? I'm endlessly fascinated with historical accounts and I honestly can't get enough of them. Currently reading Letters written during a journey in Spain, and a short residence in Portugal published in 1808. There's a huge gap in the history of Spain during this period so it's been very helpful (although biased) filling in the blanks.

I also do drawing and painting, but this hobby has kinda fallen on the wayside this year. I find myself impatient, but I need to get back into groove of things, as I do really want to improve more.

I would say I do gardening, but...this year my plants almost instantly fried in the California heat, and every time I look into my backyard I just see their decayed husks so. Maybe attempted gardener is best...I have more houseplants than anything, and I struggle to keep my pothos alive, which are pretty easy to take care of....I think I have more of a hobby of buying plants...

Oh! I also do a lot of penpal writing. I joined a Jane Austen FB group and joined a pen pal group in there. I'm more of a casual fan and not really obsessed with her works, but I do enjoy them. I've got three pen pals so far, and they're all older women in England (one I was luckily enough to find that also writes/speaks Spanish so I get to practice!). Two of them are in Kent, and one is in Yorkshire. They're all very sweet and kind and nothing makes me happier than getting their handwritten letters in the mail. I also adore making fancy designs for the envelopes and stuffing them full of stickers and pretty things. Here's a few samples of things I've made (steadily improving lmao) - two for my penpals, and one for Sam :)

I suppose archival work also falls into this? I know how to pirate, burn and rip dvds and blurays, how to convert and preserve files, and I'm currently learning how to preserve and convert VHS. It's really fascinating to me, and I've even learned a little bit of coding and programming on the side for it.

Oh! I also like to make gifsets and photo manips- 10 years of being in the rpc with photoshop skills helps a lot with this. I LOVE making manips of Teresa in other Sharpe films, or in different scenes. I actually have quite a few but haven't posted many of them. Mostly for au's and rp's/fics Sam and I have written and explored.

I also play the guitar, but I say this very lightly. More like I can read tabs, and play some songs, but honestly I'm self taught and would say I'm very much a beginner at best. I really enjoy it but haven't had much time, nor the means to learn more sadly. But I enjoy plucking and learning chords to my favorite songs.

[hallasimss]

🚲💋 and 🧸 for your most fav OC!

fav OC currently is split between Ha-sang and Abhi (my beloveds!!!) so i'll answer the first and last ones for Ha-sang (slightly rearranged bc uh. depending on how hot it gets in here the kiss one might need to go under the cut sksksksk) and leave the one in the middle for Abhilash—this might get long <333

🚲 : Does your OC enjoy playing the field? Or are they more monogamy-minded?

i feel like he leans slightly more towards one-to-one relationships more than anything else, although depending on the person he can be open to trying something new—monoflexible, is it? i'd say it might be the partial fear of abandonment, but this is some of the reason it usually takes him forever to get over break-ups (despite the fact that most of them have ended well) and is also why he's mainly been on and off with his uh, how should i put it, current situation. (not 'situation' as in derogatory, just 'situation' as it's way more complicated than the FWB that they started out with in the first place and we haven't figured out what we're going to do with that yet)

there's also a situation going on with his ex-boyfriend (*cough* Sun-wook *cough*) but those two have had that going on for at least five or six years by now, it's once a year, mutual and they know what they're doing—if the two of them could tell me what that is, of course, rather than filling my brain with plot rot about the much more unstable pairing on Ha-sang's end (which might be revealed. if i haven't given it away in the tags of some of my inspo reblogs yet rip), it would be much appreciated

🧸 : Into public displays of affection or are they more reserved?

Abhi is going to hold your hand. he is going to hold your f*cking hand and probably be the clingiest partner you've ever had but it's fine!!! they're holding your hand bc they need to make sure it's big enough for theirs and also the 56 different shopping bags/luggage/various containers they're going to make you carry after that mall date. you have two hands tho don't worry you should be able to handle it

he's not much of a public kisser, tho at least if he is he hasn't told me sksksksk, but he'll go for a peck on the cheek when others are around. he also bites? behind closed doors like an extremely autistic and tender cat—you'll be reading a book and they'll be lying on your lap and if your arm is anywhere near them prepare for the gnawing. chomp chomp chomp we are biting you biting you biting you @rainymoodlet i hope it's ok to tag since this is Abhi meta but Dan i hope you're taking notes

💋 : Is your OC a good kisser? How do they do it?

the amount of gifsets i have in the drafts of this man's FC just going at it istg—it's embarrassing. completely embarrassing i am being outed as simping over my own sim. (they will post. eventually, but not yet since i do not want to scandalize the viewers) the common thread in all of them is that he usually goes in first, and then pulls back to look at the other person and then it's right back in again. just. that is hot to me

and tongue!!! Ha-sang will usually ask first before he goes ahead with it since he's very gentle and reserved most of the time (and bc consent is sexy kids!) but when things get heated out comes the tongue. it's a war scene you're going to lose at least one piece of clothing that you will never get back bc it ended up under the sofa or some sh*t like that—if he kisses a line all the way up your jawline you are done for. finished. the end of Solomon Grundy as we like to say in the Caribbean. tell your driver you're not going home tonight if it's right from your collarbone up the curve of your neck i doubt you're making it to the bedroom. God forbid we get any of this started in the car tho it is highly unlikely

send me piping hot oc asks!

[septembersghost]

Lol, I didn’t know Mick Jagger did uncredited backing vocals in Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. A line made me think of the Karma music video closing scene-“I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee/Clouds in my coffee, and…"”. I wonder if CS told TS that WB was only one of the guys the song was inspired by (eventually revealed later)- or gave her the full details? Both understand the “paternity test” application their lyrics have gone through. Only the writers know full truth- we don’t.

i admittedly haven't seen the karma music video (VERY disorienting when gifsets pop up and the visuals are unfamiliar lol), but something that always makes me think of you're so vain is gold rush (it fades into the gray of my day old tea). (also funny because i read WB as william bowery before warren! 😂). i think i did know this about mick, but had forgotten! it's such an all-timer of a song. there was a story years ago that carly revealed the full inspiration to taylor. i can see why she did that, given their connection as lyricists and taylor being a spiritual successor to her in many ways. they'd absolutely be able to understand one another's songs being examined in that way.

taylor also talked about the song again last year:

this is a great interview with carly too:

Q: You once described recording “You’re So Vain” with Mick Jagger as being a transformative experience—a session where you both “became Narcissus at the mic.” Describe the type of passion that made this track such a classic.

A: There was something about the way we saw each other while we sang. At that time in our lives, we had an uncanny physical resemblance to each other—especially our faces and our lips. We stood at the same height and we were both lanky. In the waxy top of the ebony piano, there was a veneer that was just like a mirror. There was a reflection on it, which just blurred the outlines of our faces so you couldn’t tell who was who. We were looking at each other the whole time. It certainly had a heat—and a power—that keeps lasting.

Q: When you hear of artists like Taylor Swift getting criticized for her songs about relationships, do you have PTSD?

A: She’s told me that she gets raked over the coals. But anybody who’s as successful as Taylor is going to get raked over the coals for one thing or another. She could have gotten it for writing about mashed potatoes and the perfect gravy. She’s so wonderful that she was born for the job. She’s the perfect species for this time—in this century. She’s the ideal girl. Which is why they want to rake her over the coals.

i wish (as with everything from the red tour) that we had hq video of this!

[sophsun1]

When Justin tells Brian that him cheating with Ethan was about more than sex and that Ethan loves him, you can see Brian stop dead in his tracks for a split second. Even though he has his hangups abt love, at that point it had been shown that he does love Justin (the silent admission w/ Debbie, the rules, helping Justin recover and paying his tuition) so hearing Justin basically say this guy I just met loves me more than you ever could must've hurt. And ofc instead of verbalizing his feelings (which is what Justin needed to hear in that moment) and fighting for their relationship, Brian goes into defence mode and pushes him away. Then Justin asks him would he care if he were to leave and Brian doesn't answer this directly, again giving him an ultimatum. But this eventually gets answered at the start of s3 when we're shown how much of a mess Brian is with Justin gone, and honestly any time Justin leaves. The man cannot function without him and yet he would rather sabotage his own happiness. If you can't tell I'm on their first breakup era on my rewatch so I have a ton of feelings right now lmao

Hey anon!

Yesss to everything you said!

God I love those moments and how they feed into season 3 and all it's angsty glory I absolutely live for that era. Brian freezing the moment Justin says "he loves me" and then literally grabbing his face and having the most INTENSE eye contact/forehead touch when he asks him if he cares whether he leaves or not!!!! The heart stopping tension of yelling through the screen JUST SAY YES YOU IDIOT. I'm here for it all. Not to mention the Oscar winning scene of Justin returning in the night and Brian pulling back the covers and just holding him whilst they're both having silent breakdowns and I'm sobbing over it all.

Some breakup eras you just can't watch because they're so painful or badly written but with this one I honestly love rewatching it. It probably helps that I didn't see it live but had the magic of knowing that they got back together lol and that the third wheel in this relationship ie Ethan is such a non threat. He makes me laugh and the only reason I haven't watched his and Justin's scenes is because I die of cringe sorry not sorry :))

Brian's love for Justin is so strong that even though it kills him they're not together he never tries to force him to come back or guilt trip him in any way. He actually ends up helping both him and Ethan out lol I mean hello, who would do that?!! But it's a testament to what a kind heart he actually has. To us it's as simple as just tell him you love him like Lindsey advises him to but deep down he fears that no one could actually love him like that and ultimately they'll always leave. Ugh Brian's characterisation makes me weep there's so many layers to it. Brian being the most insecure yet owardly confident person ever how I love and relate to him <3

One of my favourite things about his story arc is how every moment of change or growth from him across the show can be tied back to that iconic I don't believe in love speech from 1x02. And when he finds himself in situations where it goes against his belief of love being for fools and how it'll hurt you we see he will get it wrong or self sabotage because of his fears or not knowing how to handle it. I seriously need to make a gifset someday of those parallels.

[galactic-pirates]

Fandom, Creation and Me

With it being NaNo tomorrow I am doing update posts, and planning posts, and basically sorting everything out. It's also something I do at the end of/start of every year. It's part cleaning house, part goal setting.

This has been a funny year with moving house dominating all of it. I was just going to update my art goals, only to discover I didn't make my customary end of December post because that was during the madness. Then I remembered I didn't think I updated here either. I checked the archive and I did say I'd finally moved on September 13th but as to my fandom plans not a whisper. So I'm going to talk about it now!

Mid-April I made a post in which I said:

SO! My mission, should I choose to accept it bwahaha is to write EVERY SINGLE fanfic idea on my list (that I still want to write when I get to it) before the end of the year. Deadline December 31st. After that the slate is wiped clean. 

This started to go off the rails when I stopped writing in the summer. Some people write more when they are stressed as an escape. I wish I could say I was one of them but alas I unfortunately do my best turtle impression instead and basically very little gets done.

When I moved into my house that was a fresh start in the biggest way possible. I want - no I need - to make the most of that. I had to think about what serves me, and ultimately I decided to make my clean break then. So yeah, no more fanfic from me.

I have a few WIPs on my HD but thankfully due to my policy these days of not posting until stories are complete, that doesn't matter. I do feel... I wanted those ideas to be brought to life as I do like them, but I had to make a choice about what was best for me, and wistful thoughts about what could have been aren't going to change my mind.

So am I quitting fandom?

No.

I'm still co-mod of Saffi Prompts and I intend to help with that if it comes out of hiatus. I'm still running Saffi Bingo, in as much as I sent out the cards months ago but nothing seems to have happened. I'm helping put together the 13th anniversary event for Bering and Wells next April.

I also just signed up for a Leverage Bingo Card because you see while my fanfic days are over, my fanart days are not.

I want to get into art in a big, big way. I feel like fanfic helped me a lot with my writing journey. Fanfic helped me see projects through from beginning to end, helped me produce on a schedule, helped me keep up the practice when my mental health wouldn't permit me to write other things. I owe fanfic a lot. It's my hope that fanart might fulfil the same function in terms of getting me started.

Now I know I've promised I would do art in the past and then haven't done it. For years I have made it a goal to do 1 piece a month and I've never got close. I think the best I ever did was at the start of 2021 when I think I made it to April before I stopped.

That was before though, and the start of my writing journey was a similar tale. I went through a time when I wrote once a year - for NaNo - and didn't write at all the rest of the time. It's unthinkable now but that's how it was. So just because I didn't draw on the regular in the past, despite saying I would, doesn't mean I will always fail at that.

TLDR

No more fanfic from me. Expect fanart - eventually. I want to work through some art courses I have first before I go back to trying to draw what I imagine. Hopefully this will mean when I attempt those imagined pieces they will be better, and not as cringeworthy when I look back later as to how I ever dared post them on the internet.

P.S. What about gifsets?

Nearly forgot about that. Fandom Friday will not be returning. I don't have the time. However, I'm not ruling out making sets when/if I feel inspired to do so.