illusionremember

Illusion, remember? People see what they want to see...

Tayber (ze/zem/zir, she/her, he/him) 35+ Queer AF
Whatever you think I am, you're probably incorrect.
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I talk about stories a lot. Doing what I can to help.
Censorship is Bad. Write Whatever You Want Forever.
multimedia, multifandom, multi-interpretations, and multishipping
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See pinned post for details on general content, main tags & fandoms, and other online haunts.

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💫✨Tay’s Blog Directory✨💫

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What This Blog is All About:

Hi, I’m Tayber! Writer, editor, and fandom old-ish. I value kindness, effort, nuance, good faith takes, and taking opportunities for growth.

I spend a lot of time examining writing, queerness, storytelling, censorship, purity culture, the closet, community-building, and fandom. I’m deeply interested in the way that these things intersect, and the role that censorship and morality policing play in oppression.

You can expect to see me reveling in a wide range of film, art, books, video games, poetry, meta, fanfiction, and fanart. I love all forms of storytelling & expression, across all mediums and genres. I don’t just read things — I like to read into them.

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Other Haunts: Ao3DreamwidthInsaneJournal

@this-is-bad-narrating — KKBB sideblog. My main is multifandom and I like it that way, but I wanted a place where KKBB fans could gather together because it’s so niche I felt like we kept missing each other entirely. I sometimes host fandom events there.

@schoolofpracticalskills — sideblog on sustainability, community building, unpacking bigotry, and learning essential life skills (cooking, cleaning, mending, DIY, critical thinking, sex ed, job skills, etc).

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Quick Links to my Main Tags:


📖🎨🎬Favorite Art, Stories, & Fandoms🎮✍️🎶

Favorite Genres:
fantasy, gothic, romance, horror, adventure, and classics. Elements of mystery & historical fiction. I love heavy metaphor & symbolism, and dramatic, thematic aesthetics.

Favorite Subjects & Themes:
redemption arcs, complicated morality, flawed characters trying to do the right thing, queerness, hauntings, magic, love, community, hope, sex, whump, hurt/comfort, rescues, aftermath & recovery, transformation, architecture & settings, ruins of bygone eras, and exploration of the unknown.

Fandom & Favorites Tags:

Favorite Films | Favorite Games | Favorite Books | Favorite Shows

Supernatural & Destiel, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lord of the Rings, Fright Night (2011), Sky: Children of the Light, LOST, Ted Lasso, The Magicians, Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy IX, Fullmetal Alchemist, Sense8, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Sherlock Holmes

Art, Poetry, Music, Gothic Love, The Art of Protest, Queer Stories, Queer Art, Queer Poetry, Stories About the Closet, Queercoding

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☠️☠️ I don’t believe in DNIs but I will block you if I don’t want you here. Be aware that I am an adult and this is an adult’s space. Read and follow at your own discretion.

🏳️‍🌈⚧️This is a Queer 2SLGBTQIA+ space and is all-inclusive. Queer solidarity, now and forever. I will not tolerate bigotry of any kind on my blog, and I will block you, no questions asked.

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lvtvr

okay just got done typing up a Long Ass Comment for a fic that i love and bc writers Live™ for comments but a lot of ppl seem to find it difficult/scary to write them, here are some tips from me, who has been on both sides of the fence:

  • we will nut over literally any context for how u read our fics, nothing is too specific or embarrassing
    • i once received a long ass essay about the exact circumstances under which someone read the new chapter including action and dialogue and i still treasure that comment to this day
  • if u read the fic a few days ago and are still thinking about it, open that bitch up and tell the author “i read this fic a few days ago and i’m still thinking about it”
    • THAT SHIT KILLS US I SWEAR
  • do not worry about being annoying!!!!! oh my god i can’t overstate this enough you are NEVER being annoying by leaving comments. examples of situations in which comments are Not Annoying:
    • commenting on every chapter
      • this is honestly our fav thing, those regular commenters are the real MVPs and i’d die for them. it doesn’t seem thirsty or obnoxious to us it’s our lifeblood i pr omi s e u
        • also this is guaranteed the #1 best way to get senpai to notice u, if that’s what ur after
    • adding an extra comment w a thought/detail u missed
    • adding an extra comment w a thought/detail u remembered from 4 chapters ago
    • commenting during a reread (this is only ever flattering!!!)
    • commenting an 800-word essay that takes several solid minutes to read
      • this seriously never comes across as irritating, time-consuming, or trying too hard; the author is the one who wrote thousands upon thousands of words in the first place and we eat that shit up
    • (ok i lied, there is one exception to this. the one thing that is annoying is demanding updates, especially if u do it on the same day as an update was published. this makes us sad, avoid this :c)
    • but aside from that: comments, great, always!!!
  • acknowledge how hard writers work. every time someone tips their hat to me for the effort i put in, it’s like the 12 hour binges, inability to think about anything else even while sleeping, longggg inspiration walks, and constant self doubt become worth it!!!!
  • let us know u talk about our fics w ur friends…. this is like, the ultimate compliment……… i’m still lowkey waiting for the day someone pastes an excerpt from a chat log they’ve had about one of my fics because i Know it has happened and i wanna see it……………i wanna know what has been yelled……………..
  • just say thank u!!! a simple thank you means so much more bc it shows us we have actual readers and not just numbers on a screen sfjdgslksg
in-lokis-army

As a fanfic writer, I feel this in my soul.

expectogladiolus

^^ Yes. My soul is resonating with this post. 

captofthesswolfstar

THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS. I have screen shots of some of my favorite comments that I look at when I’m feeling bad about myself 😂🙌🏻

billyrussoapologist

Rewatching LOST, and I gotta say, I don’t think this show gets enough credit for how socially aware it is (in some ways, and considering the time it was created!) Take Sayid for example. Sayid is a man originally from Iraq, who served in the Republican Guard. LOST started in 2004, just a few years after 9/11, and, considering it’s a show about a plane crash, it was bold for LOST to tackle the discrimination that anyone of middle eastern descent might face in the U.S.A. The majority of the survivors are white people with English as their native language. Some of them are wary initially about Sayid after learning about his time in the Republican Guard. Sawyer even accuses him of being a terrorist, and cites how Sayid was pulled aside by TSA (his intention is to use this as evidence to back up his claim, but he’s really just proving the discrimination against people from the Middle East). However, Sayid proves to be one of the most caring, patient, and genuine characters on the show. Like many citizens of any nation who join any military force, Sayid had good intentions, and got more and more tangled in the complicated, morally questionable (to say the least) web of war. He escaped, and felt immense guilt for his involvement in both sides of the war (he ended up also helping the Americans, after they convinced his to interrogate and torture his own commanding officer). During his time on the island, he is generally a helpful, benevolent man. Ultimately, his past doesn’t matter - and neither does anyone else’s. They’re all on the same team once they crash on the island. And then there’s the other bold choice - to have him romantically involved with a blonde, white woman (Shannon). Having an Iraqi man and a white, American woman as a couple on TV in 2004 was groundbreaking. I don’t think Sayid as a character, or Naveen Andrews as an actor, gets enough credit.

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illusionremember

Staring at the ceiling cause i was thinking about how Dean and Cas both have this core belief that they don't deserve good things and how Cas recognized this in Dean from the get-go saying "whats the matter? You don't think you deserve to be saved" and from that moment on to his dying breath fought to make Dean understand that he did in fact deserve to be saved while still believing he himself was not worth saving - how self-sacrifice but also self-doubt, self-blame, and self-hatred are therefore the basis for heroism - the righteous man, and the Angel who would give up everything including his own morals if it means saving others

AND THEN

motherfucking CROWLEY popping into my head with "I DESERVE TO BE LOVED! I just want to be loved" and how insane is that, that they give this line to Crowley? Who is portrayed as, at his core, utterly self-serving and always looking out for himself and at his most vulnerable is revealed as craving, DEMANDING love, as believing wholeheartedly, that he deserves it in spite of all the harm he has caused, and how this line is given to an antagonist, a villain, a demon, the literal King of Hell

So believing you don't deserve to be saved is the core of good, as heroism, as altruistic and morally pure

and believing that you in fact inherently just deserve love and kindness is the core of evil, as selfishness, cruelty, ambition, and greed

libraford

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How Many Canaries, Mixed Media- 2026

I have written a poem about the current situation.

Not just ICE, but all of it. Months ago, a thinkpiece referred to the dissipation of Trans rights as the 'canary in the coal mine' for American Fascism. And then again, and again, and again... another issue, another issue, another issue.

The canary and the coal miner share a special kinship: they're both trapped in the mine.

babychaostimemachine

This is a beautiful meditation on the horrific situation a lot of us are living through right now, and the hopelessness of feeling born to die, or helpless to fix anything, or often both.

I hope it's okay if I add something to the post that you inspired me to reflect on, OP. Though I normally lurk, I was a historian once upon a time, and one of my most emotional discoveries was learning about the machine invented to resuscitate canaries, which held its own oxygen tank in hopes of preventing the bird's death if it was exposed to toxic gas.

There's something to that, I think - how natural it is for humans to care, how connected and protective we are, how easily we pack-bond with things that are different than us because at our core it is our most honest state to be empathetic, cooperative, and caretaking.

I say all this to not to diminish the horror that is happening now - but to instead focus the lens on how much constant *work* a cruel and broken few must employ to propagandize us against our natures. The terror is the point. The hopelessness is the point. Maybe there's a reason that we all learn the phrase "canary in a coal mine" as a sacrificial entity allowed by an apathetic overseer to die and be discarded, the truth of their importance as a warning only recognized in hindsight.
Maybe there's a very specific reason we never learn about the device invented to save them, and the miners that loved them enough to use them, no matter how heavy the added equipment was to carry, which endangered them too down there.

We help each other. We resist cruelty. We resist apathy. We invent new ways to live and keep our neighbors alive to spite the inhospitable conditions we are forced to endure. Hand in hand, we live. We outlast them. We all get out of the mine. Together.

Maybe

#I don't know tumblr etiquette #genuinely hope I'm not overstepping #this is a beautiful poem OP and it just made me Think Things #I hope we get out of this mine OP #lets survive and see the sun again

valleydean

"you guys can't give destiel a rest, huh?" no unfortunately I was sent death threats about it for many years and cons were a scary place for a while so now I have a ragebait mentality about it. i'm glad you feel so comfortable to speak on it after being in the fandom for five minutes though

drulalovescas

Nah, because they didn't even introduce Abel, THE Abel, but they created a completely new character, Colette, the love of Cain's life and then paralleled her with Cas.

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josephbrassey

Some myths that need debunking because they're being pushed by bots and it’s making me angry:

1. "He's gonna declare martial law!" Okay, so what then? This isn't something you can enforce nationwide on a country of 350 million people with a military that has a combined force of less than 3 million people, including all support and logistics staff. That doesn't equal half the population of Los Angeles. Y'all need to fucking stop acting like we're approaching a mythical point where shit gets "serious." We're already there. People are already being disappeared.

Civilians are already being killed in the streets. We're there. And you know what? They're already getting near the limits of their ability to force compliance. ICE is dedicating a double digit percentage of their manpower to Minneapolis and they're not controlling shit. People are pushing back. Your default response when the administration says "We will force you to do this" shouldn't be "Oh no they're gonna make us do this!" It should be "Fuck you. Make me."

2. "Americans are doing nothing!" I did a post about this recently, but it bears revisiting: I don't know where the hell you're getting this, because everywhere that ICE or other arms of the federal enforcement apparatus go, they are being pushed back on, humiliated, driven out of neighborhoods, and shown the door. People are fighting back on a truly awe inspiring level. Stop assuming that "doing something" looks like an armed mass of civilians storming Washington and fighting the military in a pitched battle. This is movie bullshit. The world has not looked like that since the early 20th century. What you are seeing, right now, is what "doing something" looks like. Stop it stop it stop it. We ARE doing something, in vast numbers.

3. "He's gonna cancel elections!" This one has been pushed by bots for the last year, and big name people have been picking it up, and it frustrates the hell out of me so I'm going to hold your hand and tell you bluntly: He. Cannot. Do. This. There is no mechanism. Elections are controlled by the states, and they decide when they happen. There is no federal mechanism for control of elections. What's Trump gonna do? Post soldiers at every polling place in every swing state? Do you know how many polling places there are in every district? How much manpower this would require? He doesn't have the people to do it. He doesn't have the mechanical ability to do it. There are no tools to execute this plan. Is he gonna try to make elections unfair? You bet your ass, but our elections have never been fair. Voter suppression has always existed and will continue to exist until we fix it... but a blanket ban of elections or even some ability to make them not happen? Lol. He doesn't have the manpower or the means.

But what if he did? Let's game this out: Congress--or at least the House of Representatives--is not a perpetual body. At the end of 2026 the current congress ceases to exist, and the next one isn't convened until the following year. Mike Johnson will cease to be Speaker at the end of the year and wont be Speaker again in '27 unless his party wins a sufficient majority to elect him. Remember if there are no elections then republicans will not have their seats in 2027. There will be no congress, and without congress, Trump does not have a mechanism for governance. I dunno about you, but those Republican reps like having their jobs, their staff, their salaries, and all the perks that come with office. They do not get those if there is no Congress. That is not something they want.

But he said he was gonna! And? So fucking what? He says a lot of things. He issued an executive order at the start of his second term ordering all school districts in the country to immediately cease teaching "DEI" whatever the hell that means. Do you know what most districts that weren't actively kissing his ass said? "That's nice. Make me." And then he didn't, because the states control their own education systems, not Trump. His words don't have the force of law, and are limited by what he actually has levers of power to accomplish. We are **still having elections.** Several happened last week. The States decide this. Trump doesn't.

The Midterms are gonna happen. They're gonna matter and they're gonna have consequences. And you all need to stop acting like he has power over things he doesn't just because he says he does. That's propaganda and you're falling for it.

As with all things Authoritarian, when Trump says "I'm gonna force you to do this," your response should be as I articulated above:

"Fuck you. Make me."

I love you all. Be safe. Don't comply in advance. Don't give them power they don't have just because they say they do.

normalbrothershow

love how voyeuristic early spn is filmed. shots partly obstructed by doorways, plants, crowds, furniture, shelves. filmed from high and low and angles, creeping in on characters from a distance. shot like someones hiding behind the trees or on the staircase with the characters only visible through the railing. watching in on someone through half open doors and windows

macmanx

Bandcamp’s new guidelines state that music and audio generated “wholly or in substantial part by AI” is not permitted and that it will not allow the use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles.