#// had to make a new post so we'd be able to trim

[fantastic-wizards]

continued from xoxo

:｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆ || @fallencrowns

His back remained to Professor Corvinus while a lengthy silence ensued between them. Albus had no idea what Corvinus was truly thinking about the situation, but if Hogwart's newest heartthrob doubted the squeaky clean image Albus presented unto him that fateful night in the lounge then Albus couldn't --- wouldn't be able to blame him at all. It seemed that the more time passed, the less 'clean' Albus appeared, especially now that the leading man for the new Minister of Magic position was in cuffs for who knows how long. Perception was everything to the naive mind and by tomorrow, many would likely be bombarding Hogwarts with letters asking for comments or writing their own columns in the Prophet speculating as to why the Head of Magical Law Enforcement saw fit to cuff Grindelwald's only equal. He knew the written works wouldn't be all bad, but young journalists out to make a name for themselves would spin juicey tales that Albus was in no position to dispute much either way. It was, for lack of a better term, a three ring circus and he had somehow become apart of the main act.

The former defense teacher hadn't realized Corvinus was standing next to him until he felt the other's warmth gently tapping the top of his clenched hand. Albus looked to him momentarily before looking away again, letting fingers slowly uncurl to reveal palms marred by nails. He had dug deep --- deep enough to tear through once untainted flesh, but it was nothing Poppy couldn't heal later. Right now, he couldn't be bothered. Hands may as well remain scarred as they wouldn't be worth anything for quite some time. If Travers had his way, Albus wouldn't be conjuring any spells until long after Gellert was defeated ( and that was provided Albus could find a way to break the troth ).

Albus nearly let out an audible groan, but instead he managed a shaky breath to save face. He was glad to hear that Corvinus was not so easily swayed by the Ministry's theatrics, but he had no idea about the others they worked alongside. Save for Minerva, it could go either way really. He would not dare say such things out loud right now, but just having a potential 'ally' or even 'friend' within these walls was giving him a very small sense of relief --- just a little. It wasn't from who he expected, but perhaps he wouldn't have it any other way. Regardless, it was nice knowing some people used their head before buying into every scene unfolding in the world.

Albus would only meet Corvinus' gaze again briefly before forcing himself to tear eyes away. He was far too afraid of what lay behind his own blue eyes that could be read by someone as astute as Professor Corvinus. His eyes felt fragile; as if the faintest thought or look could send him, but remaining upright and together was an absolute must. What even would Corvinus think if one of the wizarding world's most powerful men fell to his knees in despair? He would sniff weakness and Albus could not allow that. Not with him --- not with anyone.

Eyes remained downcast as he studied the magical cuffs. Even a hint of wandless magic made the cuffs pulse against his flesh. How cruel of them he thought. To put him in this position The urge to make palms bleed kicked in again but he managed against it. Oddly enough, Corvinus' voice seemed to be helping --- like a voice of reason of sorts. Albus knew that any other time, having someone here watching him this closely would have made him unravel even more quickly. This was a rare exception and while he didn't know how to feel about it, it beat losing his mind over this.

"Oh...I... Thank you, but..." Albus shook his head. "I wouldn't trouble yourself, professor. People are going to talk either way and the Prophet will spin its tales as well. The masses are far more likely to believe what's written in black and white as opposed to anything else. It's... fine. I suppose it was only a matter of time before they forced my hand. I just... haven't found a solution yet."

And it wasn't as if he wasn't working on it. By Merlin he spent EVERY WAKING MOMENT outside of class pondering ways to best Gellert. The Ministry wanted results, but this situation was far too complicated for anyone with half a brain to expect quick results. Even IF they had bothered listening a few hours ago, Albus had a feeling they wouldn't have cared at all. They expected him to fall on his own sword if it meant killing Gellert, but Albus couldn't. It was impossible. He has tried...

Corvinus offered to listen. Albus probably should have disregarded that offer and in truth, some part of him wanted to. But then his mind wandered back to the last time they were alone together. It was New Year's Eve and much was revealed between them, but mostly concerning a secret of Corvinus'. The man was only pretending to be married which, in truth, probably wasn't as big of a secret in comparison to Albus' own issues. However, to build trust, bread crumbs must be given in small doses. How was he to truly know if Corvinus was the man he appeared to be if he never once let him in on any of his secrets?

So after a while Albus moved away from the window, back to Corvinus as he seemingly hugged his himself. It was better than scarring his hands even more and so after a long, tense silence, Albus finally broke it. "I WANT to end Gellert's nonsense, but I CAN'T." And it was heavy stress on the word 'can't'. "I keep telling them that but 'can't' is translating to 'won't' in their mind and that... that isn't it at all."

Albus slowly turned and faced Corvinus, undoing a few buttons of his shirt. The necklace was now in plain sight and began to turn a bright red. The chain coiled around his neck while the troth shook violently. Albus tugged at the chain as it wrapped tighter and tighter around his neck, gasping for air as he tugged. The tip of the troth moved quickly, pointing towards Albus' heart. It made to pierce his chest but Albus eventually stopped struggling, letting his thoughts drift to happier times. The troth's glow faded and the chain laxed some. Albus took a moment to collect himself, trembling as he stood before the other man.

"I can't draw my wand against Gellert nor can he turn his own at me. And now you see why." And he hoped Corvinus was smart enough to put the pieces together because that was all the explanation he could give right now. At least regarding that matter. Shoulders slumped in shame and feeling defeated, Albus turned eyes towards the window again, wishing he could hide from the world --- at least for a little while.

[sheliesshattered]

It's been about a week since I last posted about my current sewing project: adding some details to a jacket of Jack's for our upcoming Batuu Bounding trip to Disneyland, for my birthday about a month from now. This time last week, I had just started box pleating two 104" strips down to about 36" each, using half inch pleats. I got into a good rhythm with it over the weekend, and got all 208" marked, ironed, pinned and sewn down.

After that, I made some matching piping with 2mm cotton macrame cord, then sewed the raw edges of the piping and the raw edges of the pleating together, and trimmed all but the outermost layer of the seam allowance down to just under a quarter inch, so that I can flat-fell the raw edges to the underside:

First I whip-stitch the ~1/4" trimmed edge down, then fold the untrimmed seam allowance down over top of it and whip-stitch it into place as well. I've been careful to only catch the edge of the underside of each box pleat as I've been going, so none of the stitches show on the outside at all. It results in a nice finished look on the right side, about 2" wide overall.

Currently I have one 36" strip completely done, and the other just past halfway done:

It was slow-going at first, especially until I realized I could kind of pull on the piping to get it to curl outwards and lay flat, rather than trying to iron it into submission. I've gotten into a much faster rhythm with the handsewing just in the last day or so, and figure I'll be able to finish this step sometime today.

The side of the fabric we've designated as the 'right' side (lower strip in the above image) is slightly darker and more matte than the 'wrong' side. It's photographing as slightly more brown than it is in real life, because of the afternoon sunlight coming in through the yellow curtains near my sewing table, but in reality it's a nice dark olive green with a twill type weave.

The (real) color is just slightly darker, but close in color, to the jacket that it'll get applied to in the next step of this process:

Quite a few jackets in the Star Wars universe have this sort of pleated trim on the shoulders and sleeves -- everything from the one Luke wears in the throne room scene at the end of A New Hope, to Poe and Finn's jacket in The Force Awakens, to a whole bunch of outwear in the Disney+ Andor show. Most of them have a single, more shingle-style pleat, but there are a few examples of box pleats too. Some of the screen-used jackets look like the pleating was sewn directly into the seam during the construction of the jacket, but others have this same sort of piping detail and may have been sewn into a seam during the sleeve construction or added on top later:

Finn's in particular looks to me like it's more sitting on top of the sleeve than part of the sleeve. But regardless of how the screen-used jackets were made, I'm modifying a 5+ year old Old Navy jacket, so I'm going to add the pleating and piping on top of the original sleeve without cutting it open, lol.

I've got enough length in each of the two 36" long strips to go from the edge of the collar to the edge of the sleeve cuff, with neatly turned under edges, and probably have a little bit left over from each. Once I finish handsewing the edges of this second strip, the next step will be to pin the strips into place on the jacket (probably while Jack is wearing it initially, so we can get the placement right), and then hand-sew the edges down nice and neat, with no visible stitches or gaps or bubbling between the piping and the sleeve.

After that, Jack and I are going to decide together if there are any other additions we'd like to make to this jacket to Star Wars-ify it more, like pockets or loops for code cylinders, a pocket to slide a communication greeblie into place, or any other little bits. We may make some similar small modifications to the pants he'll be wearing (a nice mustard-y tan pair of cotton moto jeans), and the other night I took a break from handsewing the raw edges of the pleats to remove the buttons and sew up the buttonholes of the henley shirt that recently arrived. Without its buttons or buttonholes the shirt looks very much like Han Solo's shirt in A New Hope, so the whole outfit is really coming together well.

Meanwhile I've also been noodling on my outfit and some details or alterations I want to make to it. Currently it consists of the hooded wrap I sewed earlier this month, the vest from my Moment cosplay, one long-sleeve shirt or another, my Wasteland Weekend fingerless leather gloves, black leather-look leggings, my big stompy everyday-wear black Doc Marten Triumph 1914s, a brown leather belt, and my brown leather crossbody bag. It's a nice combination of brown, black, and gray, which suits both the Star Wars aesthetic and the sort of character I'm trying to portray.

I'm pretty happy with the look over all, but I've been trying to decide about the vest in particular. I love the fit of it (zipped up, unlike how I wear it as The Moment) and the layering effect with a long-sleeve shirt and the hooded wrap. Buuut the color doesn't feel quite right, it feels too clean for Star Wars in general, and the zippers are pretty prominent, especially the long one that holds it closed. I'm not sure that I want to permanently modify it at all, since I do still like to wear my Moment cosplay. It's just sort of 'fine' as it is now, and could be upgraded to 'pretty good' with the addition of a flap over at least most of the visible zipper areas.

But if I have time in the next month before our Disneyland day, I'd like to upgrade that piece of the outfit to 'excellent' if I can possibly manage it. I should still have the pattern for the original vest around here somewhere, and I've been thinking about what I'd want to change from the original if I was to just make it again from scratch -- color, a much more hidden zipper, maybe a slightly differently shaped collar, that sort of thing. Seeing if I can find that pattern, and then seeing what fabric I have on hand that would work for a scratch build, is one of the things I'm hoping to get to this weekend.

Besides that, I've also fallen into a bit of a rabbit hole when it comes to original character creation, because I think it would be fun to order this Captain's Accreditation License from Etsy, but that would mean actually deciding on all the info that would need to go onto that prop before I can order it. I think I'm nearly there -- I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos about Star Wars planets and ships and such while I've been handsewing, lol -- and those details have been making my whole character come into better focus, too.

More on all of that, character and costume and sewing projects and everything, over the next few weeks, I suspect. I haven't quite hit 'must sew faster, must sew faster', but I'm really excited about both my outfit and Jack's outfit, and the character coming together in my head, and our day on Batuu in general. So watch this space for more general flailing about Star Wars and Batuu Bounding, lol.